Lindsay's Birthday Dinner at Red Robin - "YUMmmm"

Last night we went out to Red Robin for Lindsay's birthday dinner with Scott's parents, Ken and Vicki and his grandmother, Elaine and cousin Rachel. Did you know that if you sign up for the eClub on Red Robin's website, everyone in your family will receive a free meal around their birthday every year? The e-mailed coupon expires a few weeks after your birthday so you don't have to rush there to use it. Anyway, the food was good and it was nice to visit with everyone. The waitresses came and sang Happy Birthday to Lindsay and brought her a sundae. Well Caleb enjoyed the sundae since "Miss Picky" did not like the whipped, cream and sprinkles. The waitress noticed and was nice enough to bring her another one with just ice cream and hot fudge. After a few bites, she informed us that it did not taste good either. Oh my goodness!! Caleb wanted that one too but it sat there to melt instead.

Today, we have a few last minute things to get ready for her party tonight. She is sooo excited - me, not so much! (Mom, look at the shirt Lindsay is wearing - it is really cute on her :)

Happy 11th Birthday Lindsay!

Today is Lindsay's 11th Birthday and we would like to wish her a Happy Birthday! It was kind of hard to celebrate her birthday today since there was a lot going on but we did the best that we could with some of her favorite meals. For breakfast, she requested a German Pancake, also called a Dutch Baby, or what she likes to call a "Big Pancake". For lunch, I brought Burger King to school. She really likes their chicken fries. Later on in the afternoon, there was a small celebration in her classroom. We brought chocolate chip cookies and milk to share. Lindsay is our extremely picky eater when it comes to sweets. As most of you know, she does not like cake or candy along with many other treats but she LOVES chocolate chip cookies - so tonight we will be putting a birthday candle in a cookie! And finally for dinner, she requested spaghetti, garlic bread and salad! We will be celebrating her birthday more at the end of the week. On Thursday we will be going out to dinner with her Grandparents and Great Grandma and on Friday, she is having a slumber party. (YIKES!) A tradition that we have every year is to give our kids a Birthday Minute Kiss. A kiss from us on the minute they were born. So tonight at 10:25 p.m., Lindsay will be getting a kiss from mom on one cheek and a kiss from dad on the other! We sure love you Sunshine! Enjoy your special day!

School Swimming Lessons

Each year, the third, fourth and fifth graders in all the schools in our district receive free swimming lessons during 8 days of school. They have had this program for a few years now thanks to a generous anonymous donor. Caleb's class just finished their session and Lindsay's class starts next week. The kids enjoy getting out of school for 90 minutes each day. It was nice for me to go and watch his class too. On the first day, they are tested to see what level they are in. They have lessons for the next 6 days and then on the last day, they are able to have fun going off the diving board, swinging on the rope, playing water basketball, and volleyball. Caleb had a lot of fun and enjoyed being able to have swimming lessons with his friends. The pictures that I took on the last day are a bit blurry but it was hard to capture him in the air while swinging and jumping with my camera. :)
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-Natalie

Caleb "Rode On Through The Night" At Cub Scout Lock In

(Place your curser over the pictures for a description)

Hi this is Caleb. I went to Cub Scout Lock In on Friday night. Lock In is a night where hundreds of Cub Scouts from the area come to the fairgrounds for fun activities and also to spend the night. I went with Dad and saw a lot of my friends there including Miles and Trevor. This year's theme was western. When we first got there we had to check in and then go put our overnight stuff in a box. Then we had to listen to some people talk about Lock In. They then opened up the curtains with the booths behind it. First I went to a bucket of water where I put on a scuba diving mask and put my face in the water to see what it was like to breathe underwater. Afterwards I went to a blown up event where I had to throw a baseball at a catching mitt as hard as I could. Some other events were BB guns (where I got a bull's eye), archery, painting, digging for fake gold, learning to use a lasso, bean bag toss, fishing, an egg race, and a lot of other fun activities. Then we blew up our air mattresses and laid out our sleeping bag. We got to watch movies all night long on 3 big screens. I tried to stay up as late as I could but I fell asleep at 2:00 in the morning. We had to wake up at 6:00 and had a doughnut and fruit for breakfast but I gave my fruit to Dad. We came home and I went back to bed and slept until 11:00. I had a lot of fun!

-Caleb

Staying Up Late

This happens quite often. I am tired, ready for bed but I decide to go and check e-mails or friends blogs to see if there is anything new before I go to bed. Then I get distracted ..... Tonight's excuse was me thinking that it is time to change the background and the header on our blog. I tell myself that it won't take very long - or so I think. It is now a couple hours later and it is almost 2:00 a.m. Why do I do this to myself? I know I am a night owl but in the morning it is going to be so hard to wake up. But hey - at least the new background and header are done!
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Time for bed!
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-Natalie :)

An Evening With My Brothers

Last night my brothers Wade and Neal were here. Wade and his family live in Alabama and Neal and his wife live in Tennessee. They were in Oregon on a business trip so we were glad that they were able to come over to visit. The kids were so excited to see their Uncles. They came for dinner and we spent our evening visiting with each other while Neal and the kids played the Wii. We wish they could have stayed longer - we had an enjoyable evening and it was nice to see them.

Caleb And Uncle Wade

Uncle Neal With Caleb And Lindsay

(The Ziggy shirt Lindsay has on was a gift that Neal made for me for my 16th Birthday. It says "Love Is Contagious, We Get It From Each Other". Lindsay now wears it as a night shirt.)

My Brothers And I

All Of Us

Neal is always trying to mess things up in my house because I am a little "OCD" with certain things. My linen closet is an on going battle with him. This time I thought I would be clever and have the video camera in the closet to catch him when he opened the doors. It was there for a laugh. I did not even have it turned on but Neal did not know that at first! My towels and sheets got messed up anyway (amongst a few other things!)

-Natalie

SLEDDING in the SNOW on SATURDAY

Saturday we went with our good friends, Clark, Stephanie, Melissa & Katie to a snow park to go sled riding for the day. We had an adventurous day. It took us FOREVER to get there. We had to chain up on the way since there was so much snow & ice. It should have taken us 1 1/2 hours to get there but instead we arrived 3+ hours later. It was worth it though. We decided to be "rednecks" and take the camp stove with us to make our lunch. Hot sloppy joes tasted really good on a cold afternoon. We left around 4 and again it took us 3+ hours to get home. We spent more time in the car than we did sledding. The kids were a bit sore the next day but they had so much fun. Thanks Clark, Steph, Melissa & Katie for inviting us!

Our Family

Stephanie, Katie, Clark and Melissa

Katie, Caleb and Lindsay Trying To Build A Snow Castle

Lindsay's Hat Is Practically Covering Her Eyes!

Caleb

Such Good Friends

They have played together since they were only a few months old!

Look At Their Faces!

Katie and Caleb Eating Lunch

-Natalie

Lindsay's New Ride

For Christmas, Lindsay received a new bike. She has been wanting to "upgrade" for some time now. She was telling us that she was going to start saving her birthday money for one. Every time we would go to the store, we would look at bikes and she would tell me which one she liked best. Well on Christmas morning, she looked at her bike and walked right past it. After a few minutes, we asked her what she thought of it, thinking that she did not like it since she did not have a reaction at first. She did not realize it was hers. She thought it was for her cousin Kristin! We told her it was hers and then she was excited! Her new bike is pink and purple -her favorite colors! Unfortunately, she could not ride it until a few days after Christmas. The weather was too rainy. So when we received a (small) break from the rain, she was outside riding around.

-Natalie