New Glasses

I had to get glasses when I was 12 so it should not have been a surprise when Nathaniel came home a few months ago telling me he couldn't see the boards in school. I was hoping the near-sightedness gene would pass by my kids. I HATE having to wear glasses. I was thrilled when I could finally get contacts. Glasses were sooo nerdy. I said something about that to Nathaniel and he let me know that these days kids don't mind glasses, even braces. Probably because frames aren't so awful looking as they were when I was 12! Anyway, we got him in and a week later his glasses came in. He loves them :) Loves that he can see again! Just makes him look even more grownup, sigh.

Beasleyville Update

Wow, starting the year off with a bang. One blog post a month so far. Guess this one will be March's :)

I just haven't felt like there has been anything noteworthy to blog about. Figured I'd just give an update on everyone.

We did have a bit of stress over Elizabeth. Her numbers in everything went down in January, including her weight. I don't think we would have stressed so much over it except that the doctors couldn't really tell us what was going on. That was a hard week. It's this really weird kind of stress. On the surface it was all good, it's not like she was really bad off or anything, but underneath Rob and I were seriously stressed out. We've had more doctor visits in the last 8 weeks then we had in the six months before that. We had to change the way we were doing some of her treatments, new antibiotics to try out, etc. All this requires numerous check-up visits. It's amazing to me how we can go a whole year with no more than her regular clinic visits and then BAM! we are taking her in every other week. Ug. It's getting tiring. It's hard to work her schooling around it. I get pretty anal over the schedule I try and keep and all these visits were not in the schedule :) She ends up there for most of the morning so by the time she gets home neither of us is in any mood to do school. Though I have to say I'm grateful we have that flexibility. I can't imagine trying to keep her caught up with the local school.

Anyway, after several rounds of high powered antibiotics her sinuses have cleared up and she's gaining weight again. Her PFT's (breathing test) were back to where they should be at the last visit. The frustrating part is having other kids who get sick. Elizabeth has done wonderfully but now all the boys have this cold that is, of course, in their sinuses. Just praying it passes by Elizabeth, though sadly I don't hold out much hope. She was coughing again this morning. Not bad, but it's there. Fortunately she has ANOTHER visit next week with her docs so they can get a look at her before it gets any worse. But that will probably mean more antibiotics and another visit in a couple weeks out. Sigh. The really, really frustrating part is, this is her in a "healthy" state. I constantly pray we never have to see the other side of CF.

Aside from the CF part of life Elizabeth is still happy-go-lucky. She's taking karate now at the same dojo we've been with for years, haha. She's loving it! It's fun to be teaching her the kata at home or letting her practice punches and kicks :) They have such a cute group of kids in her class there. She, along with the boys, goes bowling every Saturday. Loves that too. She's going to be old enough this year to graduate on from bumpers! Woohoo!! Except that I think she likes to use them instead of trying to bowl without touching them :) I've finally got around to teaching her a bit on the piano and she's picking that up pretty fast. She still loves school and I so enjoy being home with her during that time

The boys are all doing really well, aside from this recent cold. Nathaniel and Jonathan are doing very well in school and enjoying themselves. They both are so great about their homework. I think I've had to get after them like twice to get it done. Both boys walk in, grab a snack and immediately get on their homework!! Not so surprising with Nathaniel but it is with Jonathan. This has been a good year for him and school. He's matured a lot in that area.

I had an opportunity to go on a field trip to OMSI with the 5th graders. I got a really good group of boys and we had a really fun time :) I was able to talk to Jonathan's teacher and get to know her better and I love her even more!! You always hope your child ends up with THAT teacher. You know the one who loves her/his job and loves the kids and tries so hard to make school a great experience. There are many like that at the local elementary but I think Jonathan's 5th grade teacher is extra amazing! We were able to tell her at the beginning of the year that we have high expectations for our kids and we hoped she would too. She definitely has. We will be sad to lose her when he moves on to the middle school next year.

Nathaniel has come home and told us stories of the science dissection projects and how much he LOVES that! Crazy kid. Ewwwww. Definitely was not my favorite. He was getting a kick out of grossing out the girls :) He is an amazing young man. I don't know what I'd do without him. We can trust him with anything. It's a good feeling knowing we can depend on him like that. It's great knowing we can leave him to watch his siblings and know the house won't be destroyed in our absence :) He helps a ton in the morning as our morning schedule is a bit hectic and sometimes Rob and I are gone leaving him to make sure he gets himself ready for school and keep an eye on Seth. He is also the Deacon's quorum secretary. I just sit back in wonder as I watch him take care of all his tasks that his president assigns him without any reminders from us! My fingers are crossed that he stays this way :) I'm hearing stories from my friends with teenage boys and how they change. AAAaahhhhh! Not my Nathaniel :) LOL

Seth is just Seth. He is the happy sunbeam in our family :) Even when he's getting in trouble, he's cute. He is so loving to everyone. When any of us come home after having been gone, even if it's only been 20 mins, he comes running up to the door with his arms wide begging for a hug. When we leave we have to give him kisses. When it's time for nap he starts to cry and I give him a stern look and tell him "none of that" and he actually does stop and will walk to his room and lay down in his crib. He made progress this morning, he got out of his crib by himself! I was sitting on the couch and then all of a sudden there he was with a big grin on his face. He was so proud of himself for having figured out how to climb out on his own. Sigh. I'm going to miss the "cage" and the ability to leave him just a few minutes longer while I try and get things done. However, he is the kind of child that if I tell him to not climb out he will probably stay put. I'm going to try that today and see what happens after nap. We'll see if he can resist the urge to climb out :)

Rob and I are just busy doing our thing :) Work is going well for Rob. I'm busy as always trying to keep up with schooling Elizabeth, scouts, and being a mom. I've decided to try and sell a couple baby quilts and see how well that goes. I'm almost finished with the first one. I've thought about it in the past but have never felt like my work was good enough for someone to want to buy but after looking around on the web I think I have a pretty good chance :) I don't do the fancy quliting but I make a pretty good basic baby quilt, haha. Figured it wouldn't hurt to try, who knows what will happen.

Rob and I bowl on a league on Friday nights. We started with my dad and my brother, Shane, but Shane took off for S. America in November and he's still hanging out there :) We had a friend, Joel, join our team during this last quarter though and that has been fun. I'm not very good but it's nice to get out and spend time with these guys. If anyone is ever interested they have daytime leagues, could be fun to get out of the house in the middle of the day :)

Well, that about sums things up for now. Til next month's post... :) LOL, here is a video of Seth doing "flips".

You Play Funny

Yeah, we do. Had a friend tell me this once after I explained that Rob and I like to throw punches at each other for fun and egg each other on. The kids like to rough house with Rob too and I had to get some pictures tonight. They try so hard to pin their dad but he is still too strong for all of them!

They had a good start :)

Seth after getting rolled over or something. He was not happy.

They tried so hard to keep Rob down.

EEEEWWWWW!!!!!

This is the greatest family picture ever!! No one had a clue what Jonathan was doing until we saw the picture. I really want to blow this one up and hang it on the wall :) What a nut!

Happy New Year

Saw the following quote on a friend's status on facebook, had to share it here.
It's all I have to say about New Year's :)

"New Year's day...now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual."
-Mark Twain

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 :)

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.

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.