Monday, December 7, 2009

Happenings in Beasleyville

I have been neglecting my blog. I just realized I didn't even post a thing in November. Time has just been zipping past and I'm not doing a very good job of keeping up with it. Sigh. Anyway, I don't have time, haha, to give a complete update so it will be done mostly in pictures :)


First, Elizabeth turned 7 in October. Lucky kid got to go to our ward's trunk-or-treat right after so that is why she is dressed up. The little girl with her in the following pictures is her bestest friend ever, Jill. The two of them together are hularious and I'm so grateful for their friendship and I hope they continue it on through out the rest of their lives :)


Jill stayed the night and the next day we got to spend a few hours at Chuck E Cheese.



Nathaniel surprised us this year and announced he was trying out for the school play! He had fun doing it and has said he will try out again, just not for the next one, it's a musical :)
Nate is the 2nd from the left. Sorry I don't have more pics, they came out too dark to see anything.

Tree decorating time!! We go every year to our friend's tree farm in Yamhill. I think we picked out some pretty good trees this year :) Some friends we had over the other day were laughing as they watched Rob put on the lights. I'm very particular in how the lights go on. They need to go up and down the trunk and then from there you start moving out in very tight cirlces. Yes, it takes a LONG time and yes, lots of strings BUT the end result is a very brightly lit tree that you can't stop looking at. It's a very pretty effect especially at night with the overhead lights out. I'm pretty sure I learned this from my mom. This year he had the pleasure of doing this to two trees :) HAHA.

In the unpacking of decorations we found our Santa hat. Everyone had to put it on and get a picture :)




The tree upstairs. It's covered mostly in Hallmarks. That is our tradition, we all pick out a new ornament every year, usually from Hallmark. The idea being when the kids start to leave the house they will have their own set of ornaments to decorate their own trees :) Jonathan is collecting Spiderman, Nate-Scooby Doo, Elizabeth-the Disney Princesses and Seth we are still trying to figure out, this year it's Kung Fu Panda.

The tree downstairs, picture just doesn't do it justice. I got my own tree to decorate this year and naturally it was done in purple and silver :) I just love sitting and looking at it.

Well, I'll try harder to keep up. We have our yearly yurt trip to Winchester Bay coming up so will need to post pictures from that. Fingers are crossed the rain and snow hold off til we get back :)

Saturday, October 31, 2009

It's Halloween Time!!

It's Halloween!! Again, already. Wow, this past year has just flown by! Here are the kids all dressed up and ready for trick or treating :)





Jonathan would only be a clown if I promised to make him look evil. I think I did ok :)

My handsome little pirate!


My beautiful witch :)

And the dead prince in the family :)


We carved pumpkins last night. Latest we've ever done them, we've just been so busy. I'm glad we managed to squeeze it in cause it's always a riot to watch each of them react to how gross it is. When they ask me to help I tell them no, I'd like them to get the full effect of having carved their own pumpkins. Really I hate the feeling just as much as they do but they don't need to know that :)


Jonathan is the only one who doesn't get grossed out. He enjoys grossing the rest of us out instead!




My dad was around for the fun :)

I'm not sure what happened. Rob put Seth's arm in the pumpkin and he flipped out!! And I don't think it was because it felt gross, he played with the stuff outside of the pumpkin, but I really think he didn't like his arm disappearing inside the thing!

Elizabeth was having a hard time too. She's like me, can't stand touching the slimy stuff.

Monday, October 19, 2009

I Am The Best Mom Ever!

At least that's what I got told over and over this evening :) My brother tipped me off to one of Jonathan's favorite authors being at Powell's today for book signings. It was Jeff Kinney author of the Diary of a Whimpy Kid series. His books are silly but fun to read and the kids love them, Jonathan especially. I knew I had to take him to this.
We found out we could show up at 2 pm today to get a ticket for the book signing which would determine our order in line. My friend and I got there early enough to get into the first group. I picked up the books as Jonathan hadn't gotten any of his own copies yet. Then I went home and hid the books in my purse and waited.
Jonathan came home and the first thing he did was pull out the new book order form from school. There was the latest book Dog Days on the back and he was just going on and on about how he really wanted that book! It was all I could do to keep pretending I wasn't hiding anything from him. I asked him if he wouldn't mind going to the store with me so we could have some one-on-one time together. He relunctly agreed to it :)
We drove down to the store but took a different route through the mall parking lot. I knew Jeff Kinney's bus would be out front of the book store. I saw the bus and pointed it out to Jonathan and asked him if he wanted to get out to look at it. He was totally excited just over the bus! Then I asked him if he thought Jeff was inside and he said he wanted to go check. Of course it was total chaos in there, all those kids who love the books! They were announcing that you could only get in line if you had gotten a ticket and Jonathan looked sad as he was hoping to at least talk to him. That's when I pulled out the ticket and the books. He just about jumped out of his skin he was so excited!! I loved it! After letting it sink in it finally dawned on him what I had done. He looked at me and said "You planned this all along, didn't you?" Of course I did :) They finally got everyone organized into their groups and he got in line. It was so great to see him so excited! Jonathan could not stop smiling! He finally got his turn with Jeff and told him how cool he thought he was and all that :) Jeff signed all four books and Jonathan walked away hugging them to his chest. We topped off the adventure with some Cold Stone. During all this time he kept telling me "You are the BEST mom ever!!" He said it one more time in the car on the way home and I told him to remember that later when I had to yell at him for not getting the dishes done and he paused for a sec and then said "Well, ok, you are the best mom for NOW" HA! I told him it didn't work that way :)
For now he is totally thrilled with his new signed books and is reading the newest one as I type this.

Jonathan and Jeff Kinney.
Jonathan and his friend Brevin by the bus.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Happy Birthday, Nathaniel!!


My oldest is now 12!! I am now OLD :) haha. I was totally ok with having a 12 year old until someone pointed out to me a few weeks ago that I would have a child in the Young Mens program at church. I am the mother of a Mutual aged child. Oh... my... gosh!! I've been ok with getting older, been ok with my kids getting older. This particular birthday of Nathaniel's has been hard for me. More changes come along with 12. Not only does he enter Young Mens he gets to take on the responsibility of holding the Priesthood. In the LDS church young men receive the Aaronic Priesthood at the age of 12, when they are ordained as a Deacon. Today he received that ordination in church. Next Sunday I get to watch my "baby" pass the sacrament for the first time. I just hope I can hold it together, I get so emotional over these things :) Silly, I know.
Nathaniel is loving all this new responsibility. He is even looking for opportunities to be more independent. I think that's what is making this birthday harder. Nathaniel doesn't need me as much anymore. He has already asked that Rob not attend a scout campout, he wanted to do it without his dad around. He started asking at the beginning of the year if he could walk to school, he didn't want me to drive him. Nathaniel has gone out of his way to find out about the upcoming school play and even went and tried out for it! We are anxiously waiting to hear if he got a part, fingers are crossed. Oh my gosh, at his age I was still so painfully shy I would never have been able to do the things he is willingly doing. He's even decided to tell all his teachers and friends at school he wants to be called Nate! When was he allowed to decide if he wanted a nickname?!! haha. So, while I love seeing him grow up and learn to be independent and responsible it makes me sad too. It really won't be long before he's 19 and packing up to go on a mission. Makes me realize how short a time we have them here at home. I remember thinking 12 years ago this age was so far down the road but when I look back now it hasn't been long enough. Nathaniel is a great kid, we love him dearly. I look forward to watching him become a man but at the same time wish he could stay my little baby :)

He got to bowling with friends for his birthday.
After, we came home for pizza and brownies.
Later that night we had a small family party with the traditional ice cream cake.


Monday, October 5, 2009

A Sad Moment

Today starts with a heavy heart. I am not writing the following to gain sympathy or pity. It's just for me to unload some emotion. I often receive comments from people who think I am so strong in the things we have to handle. Most days I smile it off because it's just life, we've been dealt our cards and we are playing them the best can :) And I know there are others who deal with alot more then we do. Most days we can forget how CF has affected our lives and feel pretty normal. Today it's a little harder.

Last night we sent our children to bed, on time for once, and then proceded to get ourselves in bed early. About 9:45 there was a knock on our door and a little girl was standing there with tears in her eyes. I was in the middle of praying and stopped for just a second to listen to what she was telling Rob, sure it was just another nighmare. But then she said something that just broke my heart and I had to change my prayer real quick asking that I be able to tell her the things she needed to hear. My poor little baby had been laying in bed thinking of all her treatments and probably her recent sinus surgery which has led to more medications and the weight of it all finally got to her. She came down to let us know it was too much. Elizabeth occassionally fights us on her treatments but for the most part she is compliant and doesn't complain. To hear her tell us that it was too much and too hard was too much for me. No six year old should have to lay in bed at night stressing over these kinds of things. We both held her tight and told her how much we loved her. We told her we thought she was so brave and so amazing. She and I cried together. I told her I also wished she didn't have to do these things, that it was hard on mom and dad too. We talked to her about why she had to do all these treatments and she knew it was to keep her healthy. We told her it was ok to be sad, that sometimes life just gets too hard and it's ok to take a moment to cry over it. Rob then turned to the scriptures to show her there were others who had felt life was too much and then read Heavenly Father's response to their prayers. I know I am not one to share my religious beliefs on here and I have my own personal reasons for that but I have to share here that I am so grateful there is a Plan. I know Heavenly Father is aware of us and my daughter. I know Elizabeth would not be nearly as healthy if it weren't for answered prayers that have been offered up by loving family and dear friends. I know He has a plan for her and will do what He can to help her along. I know she is an amazing little spirit and today is one of those days where I am truly humbled that we were chosen to be her parents. I feel so unequal to the task most days and I have to tell myself constantly what we told her last night. Heavenly Father doesn't give us anymore than we can handle. And we definitley can't do it alone, we need His help.

So for now I need to learn from Elizabeth. She had a good cry with us and was able to unload all her worries and weaknesses. Today she is running around like nothing happened, happy and cheerful :) She knows she's loved by us and Heavenly Father and for now that is enough. Takes us adults a little longer to let go of the hurt I guess :) I'll totally be fine in a few hours, just had to let myself have a sad moment.

Friday, September 11, 2009

The Chinese Gardens

Elizabeth spent some time reading a story called "Chinatown". I thought it would be great to visit the Chinese Gardens in Portland to try and tie it into what she learned. It's such a pretty place and amazingly so quiet though it's surrounded by busy streets. They have a picture treasure hunt for the kids. Elizabeth had to find the things in the pictures, she had a lot of fun doing that. Got her looking around at things. We were going to find a place to eat around there but the one Chinese restraunt we had eaten at years ago was closed and a police officer had told us earlier he didn't think the others were any good. We thought that was funny. Instead we went to China Moon in Beaverton :)













Someone Please...

Tell them to stop growing up so fast!!!

Here is Nathaniel ready to head out on his first overnighter with his Scout group.I'm just glad I'm used to them being away from us overnight or I think I'd be a worrywort all night long!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

First Day



There they are! My sweet kiddos :) Summer has come to an end. Today Jonathan and Nathaniel leave for school. I'm trying to not be nervous. I'm trying to think of things Elizabeth and I can do here at home to keep my mind off of them being gone, haha. They are both so excited so that helps :) In fact, Jonathan just tried to leave way too early and without saying goodbye!! He is very anxious to meet up with his friends again. I just can't believe how much Nathaniel has grown (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually) in just the last few months. He is so ready to be off on his own and try things without me or Rob around. He just is so anxious to grow up! I'm not!! It was fun to watch him at the orientation for new students to Mt View last week. He said he was nervous but he hid it so well. He even made the effort to introduce himself to any of his new teachers that we ran into. After watching him there, I realized he's going to be fine and he's going to love being up there. He has an advantage in Humanities. As were talking with his teacher about what to expect this year I was thinking it sounded very familiar and then he looked across at the shelves and saw the exact same book he read last year. So, sucky he has to repeat information but great that he's already read it all!! Just made me laugh. Made me feel better about what we had done at home too :)
Elizabeth is going to be fun! We have decided this year to go at it totally on our own for a few months. She is AMAZING! A friend pointed me to some tests I could give her to see where the gaps were in her knowledge. This would allow me to spend extra time there and not waste time in other areas she already knew. After I got done testing her it was amazing to see what she knew, stuff we hadn't even gotten to yet. She just picks it up, makes me feel like I'm not going to be able to keep up with this kid!! Anyway, I knew for the next few months we needed to be picking and choosing topics to cover what she doesn't know and I knew Connections was in no way going to allow me to hop all over the curriculum the way I want so we withdrew her. I'm very much looking forward to not having to be bound down by a schedule, though nervous about that at the same time. As much as I didn't like it, it kept me accountable :) However, I let myself get too tied to the schedule and I felt like we never had time to go do anything fun like hang out at OMSI just because. Now we can do that and I don't have to worry about someone else's calendar. In a few months we will look at a new program, K12. I've heard a lot of good things about them. I can purchase the books and then pay a monthly fee to utilize the online planner. Basically it will work just like Connections but we would still be homeschoolers and not a part of a charter school. Anyway, I'm looking forward to our year together and getting to spend more time with just her and Seth. I'm interested to see how they do now that both of their older brothers are gone for the day :)

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Tired

Poor Elizabeth! She had a couple long days in a row and was so wiped out by last night she fell asleep while doing one of her treatments.
Got her to wake up and sit up but she fell back to sleep.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Camping

Woohoo!! I have something to post :)

I have the best husband in the world! He has several times offered to give me a night or two free, totally to myself. So far the only way he could figure doing this was get me a hotel but I won't justify the expense. Last weekend he came up with a plan. Our two oldest boys have been needing to pass some camping stuff off for scouts so he was talking to them about when they'd go camping. Elizabeth overhead the conversation and told him she wanted to go too. She developed a fondness for the outdoors while at Yosemite :) He looked at me and said he may as well take Seth too and let me have my night off!! I was a little hesitant at first as this would leave my poor husband with 4 kids one being a toddler with nothing to contain him but a tent. Then he decided to make it two nights! I was surprised he really wanted to do this. The more I thought about it the more I was really looking forward to a quiet house :)
So, last Thursday he got home early and packed up all the stuff he'd need and packed up the kids and they were off. I had a few moments of sadness with the thought of ALL of them being gone. But then remembered we were going to see each other again that night as Nate had to be back for testing at karate.
I'm sad to say my weekend got blown by too much running around and not being able to find the fabric I needed for a project I very much wanted to work on while they were gone. I did enjoy the quiet and at least I had the freedom to run all over town looking for what I wanted but if there is ever a next time I will for sure have it all ready before they even leave :)
The kids on the other hand LOVED being out with their dad. I'm so glad he took them. I'm not a camper anymore, I don't like the bugs, the dirt, sleeping on a hard ground, etc. Our yurt trip every year is as close to roughin it as I get. I guess there were some programs for kids where they stayed, LL Stub Stewart out past Vernonia. So Rob was able to let them be entertained a couple times. They found a stocked trout pond where they supply all the stuff to fish. Every child caught a fish, including Seth! In fact, he caught two, though he had stopped manning the fishing pole for the 2nd one, so technically Rob caught it :) They were able to fry up fresh trout for dinner that night!