Snapshots of a family day

We got a much needed family day recently. Ryder has been working such long hours, which can be hard on all of us. Nothing that a day spent outdoors with family can't fix. For a short time anyways. :)

We had a grand time, and once again I'm so thankful for this beautiful spot we live in. So many places to explore in the great outdoors.

River birthday

Well since I'm blogging birthdays, might as well add in my husbands. :) Here's some great pictures of us all hanging out at the rivers together. My husband loves to get a little fishing in whenever he can, and because he's been working so much this year he hardly had a chance to fish at all. So on his special day we made sure he got some fishing time in. He headed out early on his own, then came home to hang out with us, and then we all headed out to fish the river by our home. He didn't catch anything, but it was still a lovely time. :) J even came with us and I was able to get some pictures, squeal! He is not an easy one to get pictures of! Neither is Banden these days. What is it with boys as they get older… at least the boys in my life. They want nothing to do with the camera.

This family loves their time at the river. :)

Little miss

I just realized I never blogged about my baby turning five! Good Grief!!!

I can't believe how this year has flown by, it's almost the beginning of a  new year already! I feel like I haven't even been able to properly process this one yet. Totally unprepared for a new year.

So my beautiful daughter turned five… in October. Yes I'm just blogging about it now. Part of me thinks I should probably give up on this blogging thing, because my day to day life is too chaotic to allow for a regular sit down and type sessions. But I love looking back at the years of blogging and reminiscing. So I continue, sporadically. :)

Dear beautiful daughter, inside and out, you make my heart so glad. You complete our family so well, and I'm glad I listened to that still quiet voice that whispered, "One more", when in all rational and in most peoples eyes I already had quite the handful. I can not fathom our lives without you. Which is why when people make the, "You have your hands full", comment to me I respond with, "And my heart".

So we celebrate you, all five years (and nine months) of you. :)

And we thank you for being so very you.

Happy Halloween!

I'm a horrible blogger! That's old news though. ;)

I finally got a camera! My camera disappeared around the end of July, I have absolutely no idea what happened, it just vanished. It's sad because there were pictures on there from some of our summer fun that I hadn't downloaded yet. Gone forever. Anyways nothing can be done about that now, so best not to dwell. 

Well the wonderful family that I work with, I watch both of their boys now (The baby started in August, and totally helped with my baby fever! Which is nonexistent now, thank goodness.) they surprised me with an early Christmas present… a beautiful camera! They are just the sweetest, always making me feel appreciated. I feel so blessed to have their boys as my bonus children. :) Although the days are full and crazy! I've never worked with a family as amazing as theirs. Which is why I'm still doing it, even though having a full house and homeschooling is challenging to say the least.

So all that to say I was able to take pictures this Halloween, of my not so little littles. ;) So glad I didn't have to go into the holiday season without a camera!

This year Leiella was a fairy princess, Atticus was a crow again, Banden was a troll again, and Ira was a ninja. I looked at the pictures from last year and I can't believe how much they have grown. It never ceases to amaze me. 

A beautiful fairy princess with her rock star dog. We dressed the poodles up too in cute little shirts. Charlotte's said, "Rock Star" and Rosemary's said, "Princess". Very fitting. :)

We decided not to go trick or treating this year. It was rainy and my kids don't keep the candy anyways. So we had a little harvest party with some friends and then went over to some other friends house for a fun get-together that night.

I made some yummy grain free cupcakes, they were a big hit. :)

This picture cracks me up, Charlotte could totally hop this part of the fence, but she knows she's not suppose to. So she stands there and stares longingly in. 

My kids had a lot of fun at their friends house but were more disappointed than I expected that they didn't have any candy for the Great Pumpkin. They saw a bowl full of candy at the house and guilted me into grabbing a handful to leave out, because the Great Pumpkin might be sad and hungry if he comes all the way to our house and there is nothing there! Ha ha! Anyways little did they know I had a chocolate bar for each of them, as a surprise, waiting for them in the car when we left. I think they might have assumed that they weren't getting any treats at all, and the Great Pumpkin wasn't coming either, so they were starting to feel a little disappointed. The knowledge of the handful of candy for him and the chocolate surprise really raised their spirits. :) I was able to find a chocolate bar that Banden could have, despite his many food sensitivities. And Atty got his raw chocolate treats. So it was chocolate all around! That hasn't happened in a while. I was shocked to find how hard it is to find chocolate without soy or dairy in it! Finally found one, just in time for the holidays. :)

We ended the night with some silly pictures.

You can't tell in the pictures but I was a bumble bee, again. :)

I like to dress up with the kids, but I'm not the most creative. I usually stick with tried and true. With basically everything in life, ha ha!

Oh and the Great Pumpkin did not disappoint. ;) (Thank goodness I had already bought some Christmas presents, or I would have been in a pickle.)

The grand switch-a-roo!

Silly, silly kids.

This all started with Leiella dressing up her friend (not pictured) in her clothes, a dress, and putting on his clothes. They thought it was hilarious! So of course the boys needed to get in on the fun. And that of course led to a dance party. Logically. ;)

In the group pictures I told them to do their best interpretation of a girl or boy. This is the only picture I could post because apparently Leiella thinks that boys grab their crotch a lot. I just about died! Banden cracks me up in this picture, well they all do really. Such hams!

There were a lot of giggles involved. 

We went to the park after and Leiella insisted on continuing to dress, "like a boy". Her brothers found some of their clothes to share with her. At least the boys didn't insist on going to the park dressed like girls. I have a feel the one is much more acceptable than the other. :/

Thankfully we are back to three boys and a girl around here now, there is no way I'd survive three girls! ;)

A catch up birthday post.

I was going to blog about September birthdays, mainly Banden but than I realized I never blogged about Ira's birthday in June! I get an F in the bloggy world. ;) In the real world they were celebrated in style.

So here's the forgotten birthday boy turning seven. :) It was such a relief to him to finally be seven like Atty. He does not like those four months of "being younger". ;)

And here is the other more recent birthday boy turning nine!!! Nine! He got to go to the science center in Seattle with his Neenee as a birthday present. First big trip without his mommy. I did okay until they didn't get home by dark. Bus issues in Seattle made them run late. I felt such a rush of relief when he was back in my arms. I'm a bit clingy. ;) He had such a blast. He's very into all things science related, and right now he's sure he wants to be an archeologist. And a farmer. And a dad. And he wants to adopt at least 10 kids. He's still mulling over being a missionary as well. :) He's adorable.

Birthday date! For our birthdays we decided to go shopping together and go out to eat. The kids slept over at their friends house which was nice. :) 

When we got home there was a BIG surprise waiting for me! 

A kayak!

That got the tears flowing...

Apparently I had unknowingly messed up his plan to get it to the house by my birthday to surprise me. So on my birthday he didn't even have a card for me. But he did make me dinner and I just figured he took me very seriously about just going shopping together. We had a wonderful time shopping together, than ate at a great restaurant and than he still wanted to do some more shopping, which I did think was a little weird. Well still unknown to me, the person bring over the kayak while we were gone was having some trouble getting it there. My husband was just trying to buy some time. Anyways when we got home I walked in and notice something red in the playroom and when it sunk it I was so touched by his thoughtfulness! I had been telling him lately that my friend, who now lives right by a lake, had purchased two inflatable kayaks and wanted me to go out with her. I had been going on and on about it, reminiscing about the time I went out on a lake in Idaho in a kayak and enjoyed it so much. It's so peaceful. And over the years I've mentioned wanting one someday. Well todays the day. I now own a kayak! Now to figure out how to get me time so I can actually use it. ;)

Also I wanted to take back everything I had bought. Yikes! But Ryder insisted I keep it all. I never would have went shopping if I'd know what he was up to! It's really hard for me to spend money on myself, which is why Ryder always gets me the big stuff, he knows I'll never do it myself. 

Oh and don't look too closely at the playroom, I know it's a mess. It was a Friday, the end of a very long week and I wasn't about to do any more straightening up. I choose to enjoy my kid free time with my husband instead. It's weird (in a good way) to celebrate birthdays, as you get older, with a man you met when you were a teenager. We have been together longer than we've been apart. That's something to think about.

We also celebrated all the September birthdays by going to the Kangaroo farm with my mom.

She's a September baby too. :)

It was a lot of fun.

Just might have to do a separate blog post about that.

Maybe.

camping menus!

Okay here goes. Planning menus for a nine day camping trip, with all of our food restrictions was daunting. But I figured it out and I was really thankful I took the time to plan it all out so carefully. And food prep. Lots of food prep. I even figured out when we would need to stop and refuel food wise, and where to stop at. Fred Meyer of course, because I know they will have what I need. :) Some of the items on the menus only worked for certain people, and I just made changes as needed. For example, lettuce wraps instead of bread, and other grain free options. I had a back up plan for everything. ;)

Big batch of homemade grain free granola for breakfast cereal. :)

Day one:

Breakfast- Muffins (almond flour, made ahead of time) fruit

Lunch- sandwiches (lunchmeat) veggies, fruit

Dinner- hotdogs, potato salad (made ahead of time) watermelon, sparkling juice

It was the 4th of July, so we had to do it up big. ;)

All of the kids had their own refillable water bottles for the car.

All packed up for the trip. :)

Day two:

Breakfast- homemade granola with almond milk and freeze dried strawberries on top, bananas

Lunch- Boiled eggs (made ahead of time) crackers, cheese, veggies, fruit, olives

Dinner- Homemade chili (made a big batch ahead of time and froze half of it for later), toast

Day three:

Breakfast- Scrambled eggs and potatoes with toast and fruit

Lunch- Left over chili, corn chips or rice crackers, carrot sticks

Dinner- Hamburgers, melon, potato chips

Day four:

Breakfast- Homemade granola with almond milk, bananas

Lunch- Egg salad sandwiches (boiled eggs ahead of time), veggies, chips

Dinner- Baked potatoes, crumbled bacon, cheese, chives, sausage

Day five:

Breakfast- Oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon/honey (scrambled eggs for Atty and I), apple slices

Lunch- Almond butter and honey sandwiches, fruit, veggies (meat sandwiches for Ryder and I)

Dinner- Hamburgers with grilled pineapple and toppings, sautéed broccoli

Day six:

Breakfast- Scrambled eggs, toast, oranges

Lunch- Tuna sandwiches, chips, veggies

Dinner- Hotdogs, beans, carrot sticks

Roasted carrots, yum! Not on the menu, total Atty improv.

Our favorite treat. We didn't have a treat every night, but I did plan on a few spread out over the length of the trip.

Day seven:

Breakfast- Breakfast burritos- tortillas (spelt and rice), scrambled eggs, turkey sausage pieces, veggies, cheese

Lunch- Rice (pre-made and frozen to last), frozen peas, and shrimp dish, oranges

Dinner- Taco salad (cook extra ground beef for tomorrows lunch) lettuce mix, avocado, tomato, green pepper, cheese, corn chips, beef

We bought this on one of our stops, so yummy!

Day eight:

Breakfast- Homemade granola, fruit, almond milk

Lunch- Bean/meat burritos, corn chips, salsa

Dinner- Bacon wrapped chicken with pineapple and apple pieces on skewers, coleslaw

Our favorite dinner.

Day nine, our last day:

Breakfast- Big turkey sausages, panfried eggs, toast and fruit

Lunch- Meat sandwiches, chips, veggies, fruit

So there you have it. There were little adaptions along the way, but for the most part I followed the menus to a T and everything went as planned. :) That's always nice. I also packed extra snacks for in the car, and gum which is a special treat. We also stopped on the hottest day for some coconut ice-cream bars. It was a must. We did not eat out even once, and hardly made any unscheduled food stops. I did buy a tapioca/rice bread for Atty to try, because it just made things easier. He has been eating some more rice produce with success, very plain ones. But the bread was a bad idea. Too many other ingredients. He ended up having two potty accidents and his attitude went down hill. First signs for us that something is wrong. Thankfully we didn't get to the eczema flare up stage. About half way in it became glaringly obvious the bread was a no go. So much to Atty's disappointment the bread had to go. We probably ate way too many chips with our meals, but we were on vacation after all. ;)