Lindsey's First Birthday!

Lindsey turned one on Tuesday, August 21st. We celebrated on Sunday with Larry's family. We had Lindsey's favorite food- Fettucini Alfredo. I made her a castle cake with her own to tear apart (as you will see).
Lindsey was very timid about actually eating her cake, but she played with it for a while and had fun. She actually got the concept behind opening gifts, and was very interested in seeing what was under the wrapping paper. Spencer picked out some boats at the dollar store for her.

Larry picked up a last minute surprise gift- a balloon. She loves balloons. I'd have to say that her favorite toys, overall, are balls. She loves to collect them in her arms, fetch them, bounce them, and roll them around.

Our Money System

I thought some of you might find it interesting to know our new system of finances with the kids.

1. Allowance. We give Miranda and Derek $1/month for their age, once a month- so Miranda gets $6 and Derek gets $4 every month. They must pay tithing and also buy any friend Birthday presents. I think we'll start Spencer's allowance at age 4 or 5 as well.

2. Daily Chores. We have 3 wheels with pictures on them that we rotate daily (they do one chore on each wheel). Before they can watch cartoons in the morning, they must all: clean their room, make their bed, eat breakfast, get dressed, brush teeth, do hair, and do their rotated bathroom chore (sweep, clean counters and toilet, or take out the trash). The next wheel is for the afternoon (get the mail, put away the shoes, and vacuum a room). The last wheel is for the dinner chores (set the table, clear the table, and load the dishwasher). Of course, Larry and I help quite a bit, especially with Spencer. It is quite amazing how clean our house has been lately with the kids pitching in and Larry doing chores to burn calories. The reward for daily chores is a sticker chart with a goal at the end. The one they are working on now, is for ice cream bars and a bike ride at the park. I usually make the sticker chart rewards take about a week for them to finish. We've also done a trip to the dollar store, Dairy Queen, McDonald's treat, etc.

3. Money Chores. We made a little list of extra chores the kids could do to earn money- assuming their normal chores are done. For example: .50 for filling a bucket with weeds, .10 for cleaning a bathroom mirror, .25 for dusting the piano. This is how Derek earned his money for this computer game.

4. Savings. The kids have three jars each- Savings, spending, and tithing. Anything they choose to save is matched by Larry and I and put into their bank accounts.

Derek's Quirks

Here is Derek, in his typical morning routine. He loves to look at the weather and see what's going to happen in the coming week. He is an amazingly advanced reader- being 4 and still having a whole year left until Kindergarten.

Another major aspect of Derek's life is his latest acquisition- STAR WARS LEGOS! It is a computer game that Derek played at a friend's house and that has deeply impacted him ever since. He talked about it nonstop for about two months. He did extra chores every day until he earned the $17 to buy it. Since it wasn't Tuesday (our assigned day for computer games), he spent the three days before Tuesday constantly reading the manual to know which keyboard buttons to push. He also felt inclined to mention every single new discovery multiple times to me (I finally had to threaten with time outs to get him to say ANYTHING that didn't have to do with Star Wars Legos). He is still talking about it night and day, but I guess I am proud of him for earning it all by himself.

Parks and Rec Classes

Much of our summer has been spent taking Miranda and Derek to their various Parks and Rec classes. This picture is of Derek's Champs camp, where they try a different sport every day for five days. Derek really enjoyed it this year (last year he just talked to the coaches most of the time). He and Miranda have also done swim lessons, gynastics, and Miranda did a painting class.
Miranda was in a ballet class during the summer. Her performance was last week. She was so thrilled to wear makeup, do her hair up, and where her dress up clothes.

What have we been up to?

Over the past couple weeks, we've been trying to fit in some fun stuff before school starts.
The airshow had a free kid's morning, where they could see the airplanes up close (and eat donuts). They enjoyed it- the donuts, mostly.





We also went with our friends to the beach. It was exhausting, but memorable for the kids. They all had fun making a sand castle and having a picnic on the beach. We walked around Seaside, took the kids for a trainride, played games, and ate too much junk food.


Here's the evidence of our first car wreck since our marriage! Larry had the car loaded up with stuff for our ward activity and didn't see another car. He ran into their door. Luckily, no one was hurt, and only our bumper and tire were damaged. It has been weird to use only one vehicle again.

The Funny Things Kids Do

So, here are some pictures of the random things our kids do. First of all, Derek and Spencer have discovered a new game they like to play together. It's called "Tomato Chasers". They put on sunglasses, run around with guns and chase the tomatos (aka. bad guys). Why are the bad guys tomatos? I have no clue.

Spencer is a silly guy and likes to do strange things like stick grapes in both of his cheeks and ask you to "feel my cheek". He also gets great joy out of peeing standing up. He first wants me to say "Pee-pee, come out to play," before he pees. Interesting.

Lindsey discovered a new game this week. It's called, put-everything- within-reach-into-the-toilet. She is fascinated with reaching into toilets, even if someone is sitting on it. Maybe it's time to bring out the toilet lock.

Update on Larry a big loser

I forgot to put the website of the biggest loser (on week 18 of 20 weeks)
http://biggestloser.mynameistim.com/ click on leaderboard to see how its going.

Blood Pressure was really high always in high before I started 140s and 90s and has dropped every few weeks today its was in the 100s and 60s.
Which much better result than I was expecting.

What I have been doing to get get the results
Exercise
I have been running about 10-60 (4-8 at a time) miles a week, get up at 5:30 am
Playing basketball 4 times a week (always did this)
Swimming 2 times a week for about 1 mile (already was doing this did)
Abs work since this may be the only chance to see them
Extra work around house on the hunt for anything that burns calories, (ask Michelle, house is much cleaner than before, she always did (90% and I did 5%, now I do 20%)
Eating ( I still eat more than anyone at my house)
Breakfasts: wheaties with non fat milk or oatmeal
Lunch: lots of fruit, light left overs, cheese stick and almondsDinner: wife cooks good, just have not overeat like I love to, though I have my own notfat milk, kids call it the purple milk since it has the purple lid.
Snacks and candy have been cut to minimum, and cut out fast food. (did not do this before)
Use stairs always when I can (100 stairs to work) go up and down 2-3 times a day (did not do this before)
Drink lots of water (did not do this before)

Affects:I run better and jump better than I ever remember, I think about food a lot. Especially burgers such as the new Carls jr burger signs with pineapple. Drool… my almonds don’t match it. I found out I could run long distances.
I don’t watch much TV(big good change for me), or computer games (big good change for me), get up early and go to bed earlier. I hope when this is all done I can keep most the habits, I will cut back in the running, eat more and start doing some wieghts next. If I do not keep my blood pressure down its was all for nothing.

progress
August 10th 129 August 8th 131 August 3rd 132 August 1st 133 July 25th 134 July 24th 136 July 10th 138 June 27th 141 June 20th 144 June 11th 147 June 5th 148 May 31st 149 May 29th 150 May 24th 151 May 23rd 152 May 22nd 153 May 15th 153 May 7th 155 April 24th 158 April 23rd 159 April 17th 160 April 14th 165

Fun in Hillsboro

Since our trip to the beach was postponed earlier this week, I decided to have the kids invite friends over for some pool party fun. They had a blast with the black boat in the pool. They also loved playing with the sprinklers. Miranda and Derek mostly loved just playing with their friends. Spencer was so excited to have control of the hose! He filled up every possible container with water and would barely come into the house for meals. They were very sad to see the pool put away three days later.


Here we are on Saturday at the Civic Center in Hillsboro. They had a farmer's Market as well as lots of carnival type games and giveaways. We're all wearing Groucho Marx glasses as part of the effort to break the world record for the most people wearing them at one time. Miranda and Derek really had a blast with them.

TAG

Alright, so I'm ready to list my favorites (this is Michelle, by the way):

4 Jobs I've had:
1. Waitress at El Sol my senior year of high school
2. Early morning custodian (official vacuumer of the HFAC)
3. Worker in the BYU grounds greenhouse- planting, decorating for events, etc
4. Intern at Trugreen Chemlawn Plantscaping in Portland- interior plant care for businesses

4 Movies I could watch more than once (which is really saying something)
1. Pride and Prejudice- the six hour version
2. The Lord of the Rings
3. Anne of Green Gables/Anne of Avonlea
4. The Parent Trap with infamous Lindsey Lohan and Return to Me (so good)

4 Places I've lived:
1. Good old North Logan, UT
2. BYU
3. Rehovot, Israel (only for 5 weeks, though)
4. Hillsboro, OR

4 TV shows I consistently watch
1. The Office!
2. So You Think You Can Dance
3. Lost - although I'm losing interest
4. Top Design

4 of my favorite places
1. Hiking in the forests of Oregon- so beautiful!
2. On the porch of my parents home surrounded with my family and neices and nephews
3. My room- my sanctuary from the kids
4. Israel- historic sites like the Garden tomb, walking through the old city of Jerusalem

4 Favorite Foods
1. Lasagna
2. Yummy salad with lots of stuff on top
3. Reeses Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard with vanilla ice cream (a favorite during summer pregnancy)
4. Berries and fresh summer fruits

4 Websites that I check daily
1. The Blogs, of course
2. Yahoo mail
3. lds.org (weekly)
4. that's it- I don't like surfing the internet