I officially declare tomorrow...Kali Faith Day!!!

Tomorrow is Kali Faith's 4th birthday!! I can't believe how blessed I am to call this little girl my daughter!! She is smart, sassy, witty, silly, and oh so darn cute!! This is a pre birthday shout out to my little monkey!!

Just a couple of shots of the cutest little brown eyed girl I know!! BED TIME!!
BATH TIME!!

PERFORMING TIME

BAKING TIME!

PRINCESS TIME!!

I don't care what you say...they don't make them much cuter then this!!

LOVE YOU KALI FAITH!!!

Hattie's Baptism

My sister and brother in law, had their 3rd daughter, Hattie Jane, in January. She is such a little sweetie! Kali loves her to pieces and keeps telling me that she wants a baby at her house. I smile sweetly and then tell her....NO WAY!! I tell her whenever she wants to hold a baby we will head over to see Hattie!! Anyways....Hattie Jane was baptised this past Sunday. There is a neat story surrounding her baptism dress. I brought it for Abbey from a store we used to have in Lynden called the New Crescent, Brett's Dad used to own that store. Now all three of his girls have worn that dress along with Abbey. The Hendricks family
What a gift and blessing these little people are to us!!

Taiji's Instrument & Invention

Shane and Taiji came up with this interesting instrument. It was basically, 'Let's scour the garage and see what we can come up with.' In this case it was a sticks in a wood frame with another stick to hit the other sticks....turned out great!!
Taiji's Invention was called the Memory Helper Helmet! Taiji was having a hard time coming up with an invention so I asked him to list some of the things he doesn't like or has a hard time doing. He immediately said learning his memory verses....hence the 'Memory Helper Helmut'.

The premise is that when you put it on it takes away all distractions and all you see and can focus on is the verse. The teacher liked it...he got an A+!!!

Jake's Invention & Instrument

The fifth grade has been a year of projects...and April in particular!!! They had an instrument they had to make, an invention with display board and the penny book!! I tell I remember this month being crazy with Truman 3 years ago...now add another kid and it all gets a bit overwhelming!! I am happy to report however, that we have survived and all the projects have been turned in...now on to the bridge building, I'm sure that will be another post!! YIKES!! Jake's musical instrument....a snazzy drum!!
Hard at work on the display board!
Introducing the 'Hands free Book Holder'. Now taking orders!! (Just kidding)

Cousins!

I didn't have the privileged of growing up with cousins. So I am soooo thankful that my kids have that opportunity. It is so fun to get together with family and especially nice when they are your age love to play and do what you do! These kids had such a good time when Mady and Corey were here! This picture here is all of the boy grand kids. In order L to R Corey, Taiji, Truman, Luuk, Erik, and Jake!

These girls just couldn't get enough of each other....hanging out, talking, baking, playing and of course.....SHOPPING!!!
Watch out Rolf and Mike....couple of heart breakers on your hands!!

Just a bunch of crazy monkeys!! Not pictured are Tessa, Josie, Hattie, Lauren and Tayah!!

So sweet...the big girls with Kali!

Luuk and Corey!

Well I think this concludes my night of posts!! I have a few more to completely catch up...but I am pleased with my progress!! Thanks for bearing with me!!

Goodnight!!

Easter Fun!

Easter is such an amazing holiday. We as Christian's are so blessed by the fact that our Heavenly Father loved us so much that he would send his son to die so that we could have eternal life with him. I really truly didn't understand the magnitude of this gift until Abbey was granted that gift of eternal life. Now it's everything to me...I love my Lord I'm glad that he loves me and I'm grateful to him that I will get to see my Abbey again!! Easter is HOPE!!! Now for a little fun...my little monkey, on a rainy Easter hunt!!
The dad's helping out!

Oh...I found one!!

Well this stinks....it is such a cute picture, just turn sideways!!

Counting the loot!!

Thanks Guela for a great Easter dinner...thanks Jesus for a great Easter promise!!

MY SISTA'S!!!

I sure love me my sisters!! In our birth order, Katherine Mae, Amy Jean, Sara Jane, Jessica Ann....aren't we cute!!

We have been thought the gamut together and with each year that passes we grow closer together....our only wish is that our Sara lived a little closer!!
One of the things that Sara and I have in common, as of late, is our newly found interest in running. We were able to get in 3 runs and couple of workouts! It was so great to have a running buddy. She pushed me to a level I didn't know I could reach....thanks Ra!! Love ya!!

Wow...mom you should be proud!!

The youngest and the oldest!!

Oh those middle children....and don't be fooled we weren't sharing a glass of wine....it was a whole bottle!!

Sara my Sara (Barb & Belinda please tell Sara to read the blog, OK!!) We sure had a great time with you here and anytime....anytime that you are able please make your way west, OK my sista!!

Party Time!!!

Every year the month of April brings to our family 3 birthdays!! Which of course means Birthday Party central!! This year we were pretty excited to have cousins in town so that made it extra special! We invited a ton of boys over and then planned nothing....they figured it out! Let's see it was baseball, basketball, wii, followed by a little more basketball then baseball and then of course some more wii! I learned my lesson last year and shortened the time so instead of having a sleepover and feeding 3 meals this year it was a couple of hours and 1 meal...followed by some cake of course!! The Motley crew!
Attempts at a birthday pyrimid!

Pretty Close!!

Boys............................

And then a little cake with icing on top!!

Happy Birthday Jake and Taiji!!

Spa Day for the Girls!!

My long lost sister (Sara) from that country up north came for a surprise visit with her oldest two kids (Mady & Corey). It was a surprise I was privy to...but it was great non the less!! It's never long enough...but we managed to squeeze in tons of stuff!! The boys were having a birthday party so the girls decided to bail and have a girls afternoon getting pedicures! They were so sweet and they brought Kali with them. She was soooo excited!! Before they left, I had to do all of their hair. Today was the day of braids!
Picking out the perfect color!!

Life is so rough for 12 and 3 year olds...thank goodness they could get this afternoon of relaxation!! Too Cute!

Kali picked out the brightest pink she could find!!

The finished product!! A bunch of very, very cute toes!!

It's about time.....right Trac!!

OK...so we've been a little busy around here. Every night I found myself wanting to blog about all of it, but I was tired....then I was soooo far behind....then I thought no one cares anyways....but then my friend Trac was persistent and even if she's the only one still reading this....it's still worth it! I'm finding that this journal of our lives is really fun to look back and read....so here I go...I'm going to catch up. It may be a little out of order and a little hurried....but I AM BACK!!!!

A Field Trip with Truman!

I'm a little behind in my posting...but we have had a few adventures over the last couple of weeks and I wanted to share some of the highlights. At the end of March Truman's class went on a field trip to Seattle. With him being 14 and a few other factors....I decided that I would go as a chaperone. This was not my first choice of things to do that day...but I ended up having a good time and I actually learned some stuff! The first stop was at the Boeing Flight Museum. It was very interesting...and I bet if you are into planes it would be pretty cool. I didn't get any pictures there...kinda forgot I had my camera. Here's Trum on the bus with his friends...acting like a dork!
The next stop after Boeing was the Seattle underground tour. This was fascinating! The short story is that they built the city on a tide pool covered in sawdust. It started to sink and the sewer system was a mess. A huge fire destroyed the whole city and they decided that would do it right this time. They used huge pilings to level everything out...but the business owners didn't want to wait around to build up the ground so they went ahead and rebuilt where they were....the city however built the roads up 10ft. So you would have to climb down a ladder to enter into the buildings. After awhile they built sidewalks on top, so now the lower sidewalks were covered. Between the bubonic plague, prohibition and other stuff the lower sidewalks were all boarded up and now they are open just for tours. Pretty interesting!! Sorry a little history lesson for ya!! The above picture is one of the bathrooms in the underground.
Here is a picture of an old saloon. You can see how the floors are all sinking.

For the most part the kids were very respectful and listened well.

The floors used to to be level with this door jam. The big thing that the kids kept freaking out about...was that there are a ton of rats down there, we didn't see a single one!

Next stop on our Field trip was Safeco Field...Home of the Mariners and now once again, Ken Griffey Jr. (Just had to add that) The Picture above is the visiting team locker room. It is nice but the guide said that it pales in to comparison of the Mariners locker room...of course we weren't allowed over there!!

In the dug, Truman and his best friends, Isaac and Levi!

What a handsome group of fellas!!

The chaperone's...Me and Judy (Isaac's mom)

We ended the tour in the area where they do the press conferences. It was really neat to see a little 0f the behind the scenes stuff and again the kids did pretty well. After this we loaded the bus for the 2 1/2 hour drive home. Did I love the trip....well love would be a strong word...but I did enjoy myself and I enjoyed watching Truman with his peers. All in all a good trip!

Happy Birthday Jake!!

Wowsers...what a day!! It started at 6am...for me anyways!! I have been training for a half marathon and found out that there was a 15k race (9.3mile) in Birch Bay which was perfect timing for my long run this week. I found a couple of friends that wanted to run and off we went. It was a beautiful day and the course was awesome!! We had a great run and exceeded our expectations!! Half Marathon here we come!! Anyways....back to April 4th!!! Happy Birthday Jake!! This day 11 years ago I became a mom for the first time!! Stephen Jacob Poag was born at 4:44pm on 4-4-1998! He was 8lbs and the most beautiful thing I had ever seen! Even to this day I can't look at him without thinking about that moment!! Jake is a great kid...he's funny...he's bright....he's handsome....and he has a great heart!! Here is a bit of the day in the life of Jake Poag turns 11!! Smore's on the patio...still a little cold, but oh so fun!!
What a handsome little kiddo!! Hard to believe he's already 11!!

Oh my Truman....a bunch of crazy monkey's!!

These boys love their baseball cards!!

How funny is this!!

Tweedle dee and Tweedle poag!!! So cute!

My crew!

Kali is always so helpful!

Again with the baseball cards!!

Fun new wii game!

We finished a great birthday with a great birthday dinner at Kyoto's!! Jake's choice! We ordered perfect and everyone left stuffed!!

A little bit of the action at our table...the table included Jake, Scooter, Taiji, Me, Kali, Shane, Grandma and Guela! Jake Poag....you are loved...Happy Birthday!!!!