Summer time fun

I know it's been a while. We've just been having too much fun this summer to take the time to post. Here's some highlights of our summer in pictures:


We've been on many camping trips, really enjoying the camper!




Playing with some friends at Prineville resevoir

Visiting the Portland zoo by Nana and Grandpa's house

The kids loved watching this seal swim by so close

Josiah's first time on a pony ride at the fair. He loved it and was waving at the end!

Joel and Hannah performed in Coppelia. Joel was a jester and Hannah a flower girl. They both did great!

Cooling off in our backyard. Yes 4 kids can still have a great time in a tiny baby pool!

Last weekend we went on an all girls backpacking trip with my sister Holly, my niece Leah, Hannah, Olivia, and I. Here the girls are before starting off on our hike, all clean!

This is Hannah the next day, enjoying being my dirty princess!

The girls enjoying the view from our campsite.

The only negative thing was that we found out that Olivia is allergic to Mosquitos and her face swelled up a ton where she got bites. Lots of benedryl and 4 days later she is back to normal.

We only have a few weeks left of summer vacation and are trying to enjoy every possible moment!

Past 1 1/2 months in review

OK, so I admit it, I am terrible at blogging. I haven't even downloaded pictures to our computer for over a month. It 's not that I've been terribly busy (as busy as any family with 4 kids!), I guess I have just been lazy.

So what have we been up to? A lot, I guess. I'll try to remember. Josiah had his cleft palate repair done on April 23rd. He had it done at the Portland Shriner's Hospital for Children. They are excellent there, and his care was wonderful. The first week home was really really rough, with a lot of regression. He was just not a happy guy and was mad about wearing the no-no's (arm restraints so he wouldn't put anything in his mouth), mad about not getting to eat what everyone else was eating (he was on a pureed food diet) and just mad about everything. Prior to his surgery, his way of self soothing was putting his right hand near his cheek/lips and lightly rubbing there. With the no-no's he couldn't do this, and this made him MAD!!! So needless to say, he spent the first week after surgery crying and screaming more than not. But it got better each week, and I am happy to say that now, 1 1/2 months after surgery, we have the happier version of Josiah back. He had really bad night terrors for the first month, but those are better now too.

Josiah with his "happy" drugs before surgery

"What did you do to me???"

Trying so hard to be brave.

My cousins, Leah and Brady, visited me while at the hospital and took me on a ride! What fun!

We only have a week left of school here for the older two, and are really looking forward to summer vacation. In my last post I said spring was finally here, but that ended a couple days after I wrote that, and just this week we are finally getting into the 60's and 70's! Yah!!

We broke down and bought a used travel trailer for camping. Up to this point, we have been tent campers, but we decided it was time to upgrade, and found a really cool hybrid type trailer, that has a hard shell in the middle and two "pop out" kind of things. It sleeps 7. Anyone think I could talk David into filling it up with another kid? Yeah, right. Doubt it!

We have tried out the trailer on a one night camping trip so far and LOVE it! We're going again this weekend, and hopefully lots more this summer.

Joel helped set up the trailer. He knows how to do more of the set up than I do!

Playing in the dirt: the best part of camping!

Oh, and can't go camping without s'mores!

Cuddle time in the morning

Passing time on some cold spring days

Wow, we have a strong Daddy!!

Spring is finally here!

Here in the high desert, Spring comes later than lots of lower elevation places around the country. Our trees in the front yard started to bloom pink this week, the grass is trying it's hardest to turn green, and finally this weekend it started to warm up. So we are making the most of it, and trying to get outside and enjoy the warm weather. Because inevitably, it will probably snow later this week!

Josiah's surgery is this Friday at Shriner's Hospital (for his first palate repair and tubes). We go on Thursday for a pre-op appointment, then Josiah and I will spend the night at the hospital cause his surgery is scheduled to start by 7:30 AM. Please pray that he stays healthy inbetween now and then, and that the surgery and recovery will be a success.

Here's a few pictures from today's hike along the Deschutes river.

Having fun throwing pine cones into the river

All the troops!

I just had to put this in - thought it was cute of Olivia. Joel's the photographer.

2 years with Olivia

Our first glimpse of Olivia on April 13, 2008
















Trying to be brave
















She clung to me like this almost the whole time we were in China


Today marks 2 years since we first met our sweet Olivia. In some ways the past two years have flown by and in other ways it seems like Olivia has been part of our family forever. I can't even imagine life without her. She is such a sweet, smart, active, cute girl. We love you, Olivia!!!

It is amazing to think about how much she has grown and changed since that first day we saw her 2 years ago. For the first few days we had her, we were even wondering if she could smile!! She was such a scared, timid, sad little girl. In a matter of days, we started seeing her true
personality come out. Now Olivia is just about as far as you can get from timid, scared, and sad. And she is SMART! Here's a story of what happened just yesterday: We go to AWANA's on Monday nights (it is a club where the kids meet friends, play games, learn about the Bible, and memorize Bible verses). On Sunday, Hannah and I were working on her verses for the next day. Olivia was playing in the same room, not really paying attention to us, or so I thought. Then on Monday, Olivia was sitting in her car seat and I hear her saying "By faith Abraham, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." That was one of the verses from Hebrews that Hannah was practicing! And Olivia said it word for word. This girl can memorize!

It also amazed me how much I learn from my children, and in this instance from Olivia. That verse really struck a chord with me. Cause that is how we are supposed to live. By faith, even if we don't know where we are going. Because God knows, and that is all that really matters.

A Typical Weekend

Olivia zip-lining at Grandma and Papa's house

Josiah Go-carting with Papa

At the top of Pilot Butte, taking a break before hiking back down.

Riding with Mommy

Joel, Hannah, and Olivia at Mt. Bachelor

Apparently an intermediate run is too easy for Joel and Hannah, so they decided to ski down backwards!

We've had some requests for more pictures, so I finally remembered the camera this weekend! We love living in the high desert, and right next to the mountains. Outdoor recreational activities abound. Here's some highlights of our weekend, starting with skiing on Saturday, and ending with hiking, go-carting, and zip lining on Sunday! The only thing we didn't do this weekend that we usually do is go for a bike ride, but we have gone on at least one bike ride each day the previous week!

Enjoying the kids

Sorry for such a long time before an update! I have noticed that I am terrible at remembering to bring the camera places, so these pictures are from the past month.

Josiah is doing better each day. His tantrums are improving, shorter in length and less frequently. He is still tempermental, but this might just be his personality. His communication is slowly improving as he learns more signs. It seems like he is starting to understand more English now too. He will have his cleft palate surgery and have tubes placed one of the last two weeks of April (still to be scheduled). We are looking forward to him having his surgery so he can start working on speech more, but dreading the actual surgery and recovery.

As you can see with the pictures, Josiah loves playing with his sisters and brother. He usually wants to be doing the same thing that the older kids are doing, so when they are working at the table, he has to be at the table too. When they are dancing or playing dress up, he does this too. I don't think I got any pictures of it, but he loves putting on the girl's princess dresses and shoes just as much as the girls do, and of course they love to dress him up! Josiah even rode on his Papa's go cart cause he saw his siblings and cousins doing it so he had to try! One of his favorite things is going to the park and going on the swings and slide. He doesn't like it when he is left behind, like when the big kids go to AWANA's, but he still enjoys the one on one time he gets with his Daddy when the others are gone.

One month with Josiah

Today marks one full month since gotcha. We've been home 2 1/2 weeks now. It took at least a full week for everyone to adjust to this time zone, and I am happy to say that Josiah is sleeping through the night nearly every night! He is in a crib in our room, and he needs someone to be in there with him while he is falling asleep, but that's OK. He is still doing good with his siblings. The hardest duo is Olivia and Josiah, probably cause they are so close in age. They fight over toys sometimes, and whenever we are doing something with Josiah, like playing a tickling game or peek a boo, she wants to be right in the middle and doing it too. Josiah's tantrums have increased in intensity. He is pretty sensitive and will throw a fit at the seemingly tiny things. We are trying to work through these and figure out how best to handle it.

Hannah lost her first tooth and turned 6. These are pretty big milestones in our family and they happened only a day apart. My girl is growing up! She got to have a huge party with all of her class invited. We only do parties like this once or twice in their lives, so it was a pretty big deal.

Olivia learned how to ski without a harness and made it all the way down the hill without help! She was so proud of herself. Now we just need to teach her how to turn and steer a little better.

Joel is enjoying being back at school and loved talking to his class about all his adventures in China.