"Anna MADE Us!"

This morning after breakfast, the kids went up-stairs to play in their dress-up tub. I heard a roar of laughter from the boys, sweet little giggles from Anna, and noisy footsteps that sounded like a stampede coming down the stairs. This is what happened next:

Ryan: "We look like Boy-Girls!"

Pouting and fake-crying.
"Anna MADE us wear these!" I love this picture! Anna is standing proudly between her two towering brothers with the biggest grin.
Anna pretending to cry like her brothers. She is so funny.

Ryan and Tyler are great brothers, they include Anna in all of their playtime and are good about letting her choose activities. They were great sports. :) After they changed out of their dresses, they came down in knight/pirate/bad guy attire..maybe just to prove that they didn't like wearing the princess dresses. :) Funny, sweet, hilarious kiddos...our days are never boring!

Beautiful Sunday

Today was a nice end to a great weekend. We had a baseball game, cleaned the entire garage, organized the towering tubs of kids clothes, got rid of most of them, and spent some fun time as a family. We ended our weekend with a dinner picnic in the backyard- yummy homemade enchiladas, fun time in the tent, and a scoop at Jem 100. I love spring time weekends like these!

My little tree climber- in our backyard.

Funny faces and tent time.

Okay, now time to smile...Tyler.

Horsey ride in the coolest tent. This tent was a birthday present to Tyler from Nana and Papa!

Sunday evening picnic in the backyard.

Enchilada toppings and apples.

'Spring'

The finished product: Organic buffalo enchiladas with cilantro and tomatoes. SO YUMMY!

A beautiful weekend with the family. Kids are snuggled in bed, drifting off into dream filled sleep, tea is on, cozy jammies are on, and now for snuggle time with Aaron...after I beat him at Yahtzee. :) Happy Spring Sunday!

Tulips

Today I went with Ryan on his field trip to the Tulip Festival in Woodburn. For one reason or another we have been sick or out of town for the last six years we've lived here, so we hadn't been yet. It was worth the wait! The fields of different colored tulips were gorgeous and every perfectionists dream to see endless rows of perfectly straight lines of beauty and color. (If only my laundry stacks and vacuum lines were the same!)

Funny that I thought my yellow-school-bus-riding days were done, little did I know that I would be riding one when I was 9 months pregnant. The smell brought back memories and it looked much smaller on the inside than I remember...maybe I grew. :) Ryan was SO excited to ride the bus for the first time, I love watching our kids take so much joy in new experiences.

We packed a lunch and stayed until 1:30, the kids had a great time and were pretty wiped out for the bus ride home...so were the parents. Sometime this week I will bring the rest of the family back to take some fun pictures. Here are some cute ones from today:

Cute Ryan

Ryan and his best friend Corban.

Ryan's class (minus three kiddos that were playing)

Go Mariners!

Tonight Ryan had his first baseball game against the Rockies, the kids were all so cute in their uniforms. The weather was beautiful and just as the game started a nice cool breeze blew in to balance the heat. Ryan was awesome, he had some great hits out of the in-field and caught several balls to make a play at first. I love that he still waves at me while he's playing and gives a sweet little thumbs up with his great smile. Anna and Tyler cheered him on the whole time!

The other day at practice, Aaron gave Tyler one of the extra team hats and told him he got to be one of the coaches. You should have seen the smile on his face- priceless. He's kept it on ever since and was ready to help out with anything at the game. He is so sweet. Anna kept sneaking into the dug out to give Ryan hugs and to say "Good job, Ryan!" she is great at encouraging.

Sweet Sissy hugs in the dugout.

Team Brown. Cute boys!

Come on out and see a game, we have them every Tuesday and Saturday through June and they are fun to watch! Go Mariners! :)

Man Weekend

This last weekend Aaron and three close friends went to Mt Hood for a couple days. They had a great time hiking, watching Band of Brothers and enjoying good conversation. I had Aaron take the camera in hopes that some pictures would be taken and he came back with some great ones. Here are a few highlights of the trip:

The guys were in charge of the camera...this is all that was left of a bird on the trail.

Fun times with great friends!

Happy 4th Birthday Spiderman!

On Tuesday (the 14th) we celebrated Tyler's 4th birthday. I can't believe he is already 4! We've decided that we will do birthday parties with friends every other year and on the alternate years, the kids can invite one friend over to spend their special day with them. So this year Tyler invited his best friend Malachi (Esther came for Anna's and Corban came for Ryan's...I think we like their family ;) over for a Spiderman birthday. We decorated the downstairs, and he got to choose what we did for the whole day.

Tyler was up at 6 am, ready to start the day. He and I snuck out to the store and he chose doughnuts, juice and bananas for breakfast. For lunch we had cheeseburgers, and dinner we had pizza followed by chocolate cake and ice cream. What a day, huh?! That only happens on birthdays. We took the kids to Safari Sam's for the first time and they loved it, Aaron loved it too. ;) He got to climb all over the place with the kids. Auntie Karyn and Zac came for dinner and dessert to end a great day celebrating Tyler Drew.

The remnants of the web from the Spiderman cake. :) I didn't take a picture of the cake I made, but it was SO yummy. :)

We love love love our sweet Tyler, he makes us laugh so much, he's a great snuggler, and he is such a great brother, always taking care of his brother and little sister. Happy 4th birthday Tyler Bear Ty Ty, we love you! xo

Baseball 2009

We have been busy over this last week and I have much to blog about and pictures to share. I'll spread them out over the next couple of days to keep you interested. :)

Ryan has started Cal Ripken baseball and is loving it. His coaches make it so much fun. (one is a youth pastor in our area and the other is none other than my man ;) Ryan is constantly telling Aaron how much he loves having his daddy coach. It is so sweet, and such a special opportunity for them both. Their team name is the Mariners (yay!) and their first game is this week, with games continuing through June.

I love the above shot, the kids were practicing their throwing form.


Ryan and Daddy after their first practice.

Tyler loves helping out and handing Aaron balls or bats, Anna stands on the side with me and says "Go Ryan! Go Tyler! Go Daddy!" and after practice she is out there throwing balls around and helping. :) It's so fun to have the whole family involved in any activity. Pictures of the first game coming soon!

Easter Celebration

"You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him." Mark 16:6

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

I am truly humbled by the sacrifice of our Savior and will not fully understand the true meaning of this sacrifice until I am reunited with my creator. Amazing love. What a special week of celebration! Our week started with Palm Sunday, we had a plate of candles that were all lit in honor of this holy week. Each night that we came closer to Christ's death and resurrection, we blew a candle out. On Good Friday, we blew all of the candles out and there was darkness. This is a very powerful visual. Today, the candles are all lit once again to celebrate the Resurrection. Another tradition we have started is the Easter Box. Each night this week, the box was filled with something that told the story of Christ's journey. (palm sunday-palm branch, temptation- snake, anointing of Jesus- small jars with oils, etc.) I think our kids will be excited to continue these traditions every year, the kids were reminding me several times a day that candles needed to be blown out or lit. It is a peaceful presence in our home having the candles all lit today.

On Friday we went to the Friendsview Manor to celebrate Easter with the residents. The kids had a great time, and I was amazed at all the planning and time that the staff had put into making the celebration fun for the kids. There was an egg hunt, story time, a puppet show, cupcake walk and decorating, coloring and much more. I love seeing the different generations together, smiling and playing, and enjoying the same activities.

On Friday evening we went to the farm store and came home with four baby chicks! No..we aren't keeping them, we get to raise them for a few weeks until my parents come up. They will take the chicks home to their farm where the chicks will be greeted by many other happy chickens. :) In the meantime, we have sweet, fuzzy, chirpy chicks sitting comfortably under a heat lamp. The kids LOVE the chicks. Watching, feeding, playing, holding. It is very sweet.




Yesterday, Aaron's parents came up to celebrate Easter and Tyler's birthday with us. I can't believe Tyler will be four on Tuesday! This morning we went to church and listened to a beautiful sermon, then had brunch when we got home. I made Welsh Rarebit and fruit salad, yum! :)

The beautiful eggs the kids collected before church.

Hidden Easter baskets found and opened.

What a beautiful family! xo

Me and my sweet girl.

Tonight for dinner we had the BEST ham I have ever tasted- free range, organic ham raised on my parents farm. It was incredible! We had mashed potatoes with Boursin and chives topped with Parmesan and then baked, asparagus with garlic, olive oil and shallots, homemade rolls, and mashed sweet potatoes. We were so full but still had chocolate covered strawberries and cranberry bread for dessert. :) Ryan kept saying "This is the greatest day!"

We had a wonderful week celebrating the sacrifice of Jesus, it is such a special holiday, but today I was reminded (by a wonderful, beautiful, wise mama) that every day should be a celebration of Christ's Resurrection, that its important to carry this thankfulness into the rest of the year, this is something that I hope to be more mindful of.

God, I give up my life to you. I don't want to try and control it any longer. Please guide me. I choose to say yes to you, and only you.