Michelle 2010

Okay, so I guess I'm a real behind-the-scenes mom because these are about the only pictures of myself that I could even find for this whole year! I realize that most of what I do is unseen by those around me. All the cooking, cleaning, child-rearing, and most of my hobbies take place in my house or yard. But, maybe I'll share some of those with you, so that you know I'm not just sitting around all day.
To start off, I spent the first 6 months of the year with a gradually expanding belly. It was a nice pregnancy with an easy birth. Cassie was born July 5. It wasn't much of a transition at all. I just had a little less time to do stuff during the day because of nursing. Cassie is an awesome sleeper and very content baby, so life went on without too much trouble.

This summer I canned more things and more in quantity than I ever have before. I grew and canned pickled beets, and picked blueberries and raspberries to freeze. I picked strawberries for jam and freezer jam. I picked pears and peaches to can as well. Oh, and I picked some apples to make apple pie filling. I also did a couple batches of tomatoes from my garden (unfortunatly, our growing season was shorter than normal). The picture below is of us picking peaches- I'm the legs on the right. I LOVE picking fruit, but Kara's throwing of the peaches made it stressful instead of really enjoyable. Lindsey was really skilled at picking the ripest peaches.

This was my favorite year so far for gardening. With our house addition the year before, my garden got about 15 feet shorter, so we moved the whole thing out about 7 more feet to make more space. I grew peas, snap peas, beets, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, tomatoes, pumpkin, summer squash, cucumbers, onions, green beans, cilantro, red potatoes, yukon gold potatoes, and radishes. For some reason my lettuce, spinach, and carrots refused to grow this year- even after replanting a couple times. Anyway, I loved spending as much time as possible in the garden. I'm planning on growing most of the same things this coming year.

I was SO ready when Fall came! I began teaching preschool for Lindsey again this year. In this photo the kids are kneading their bread. I've enjoyed teaching, but I'm looking forward to a year break next year.
With the Fall, I also started teaching Miranda, Derek, and Spencer piano. In the last 3 months, Derek is back and a book series beyond what he previously was, and Miranda and Spencer started from scratch. Miranda is beginning her second series of books, and Spencer is getting close to finishing his second series. They have a 15 minute lesson Mon-Sat (usually). Peter also started teaching me guitar, so I've been working on that right after piano lessons. I now know about 12-15 cords and the different strums. I also got a guitar of my very own for Christmas, so that's been really neat to play.

Other than those things, I'm mostly just trying to keep the wheels turning in our family- keeping up on the laundry, dishes, meals, schoolwork, and teaching the Beehives. Life is busy, but awesome!

Larry 2010

This is what Larry's been up to during 2010. First of all, chess coaching was new and exciting last year. I think they had between 12-30 kids coming twice a week. Larry especially enjoyed being with MIranda, Derek, and Spencer, and getting to know the other kids and parents at school. In April, they had a chess party at the school. This is from a beach trip in May. I keep telling Larry that he is a kid-magnet, because pretty soon a couple other boys joined our family in building the sand castle. It seems like everywhere we go, kids flock to him.

Larry also tried out coaching T-ball.

Of course, Larry did the annual Starlight Parade Run. This year they picked a fun theme. Lindsey had some facepainting done beforehand, so she was the swimming cat.

In July, Larry became a father- the sixth time around. Cassie was born July 5. He took it in stride and barely missed any work (maybe 1 day?)

Larry helped with Shawn Lindsay's campaign as much as his time allowed. This is from the 4th of July parade (I was home extremely pregnant).

Cassandra's blessing day in August.

Summer trip to Utah. Larry drove some of the cousins around the yard.

In late August, Larry did the Hood to Coast run for the first time. A lot of the team were family and some friends. He enjoyed the adventure-the running part wasn't hard for him.

Larry pushed for the annual father/daughter campout again, which is nice, since we now have 4 daughters. I'm so glad he organizes these things- and I think friends are too, because there is always a good turnout.

In the fall, Larry coached Lindsey's soccer team. They were the Cougars.

Larry's birthday happened to be on the day of the waterpolo banquet to honor the coaches and players from the 2010 team. I made some awesome waterpolo cupcakes. My surprise was foiled, however, when it was cancelled til the following Monday because of snow! (After 3 hours of work I was pretty devastated- so I made sure to get a picture). We shared some with team-member families close by. Larry turned 36 this year! It seems like he should be acting old, but he isn't. I think he's in great shape and I've only seen a few grey hairs...

Larry is just completely amazing as a husband, friend, and father. I think that the more you know Larry, the more you realize how willing he is to sacrifice to help other people. He is a tremendous example to me. He is always looking long-term in how he treats other people and teaches our children. He is a wonderful coach and really had impacted so many people through all the things he does!

I can't wait to see what Larry does in 2011!

Derek's Getting Baptized!

For those of you who can attend, Derek is getting baptized this Saturday, January 1, 2011 (1-1-11) at the Hillsboro Stake Center. It begins at 3 pm. I think there are 3 children being baptized that day. You are all welcome to this big day in Derek's life!

More October pictures...

Derek and best bud, Kyler at Wolf Lodge... Soccer practice... kind of.

Ready for the ward trunk-or-treat. Cassie is a flower, but hated the petals around her face, so I had to pin them all to the hat- oh well.

Sisters. I really hope they become great friends in the future.

The cutest baby in the world!!!

check out the next blog, it also has more new pictures...

More October...

Another random spot for Shadow... it looks like I need to invest in more hooks soon... Spencer completed his first level of piano books. He really likes to play the piano and reads music really well. I find him "writing music" several times a week. His paper reads something like "AGGFEEEDCDEFG" instead of actually writing the notes on the staff. I think he's pretty cool.

Thanks to my friend, Rebecca, I now have more soccer pictures and some pictures from Wolf Lodge.

Here is Miranda with the wand she bought doing her adventure.

Coach Larry is leading some warmups.

October

I am so happy I have 3 cute little girls! Lindsey and Kara are finally getting along most of the time. (I think Kara has more self-control now, so she doesn't steal toys as much as she used to). They often disappear to their room and set up all the stuffed animals to play with. In this photo, Lindsey said,"Kara, would you like a frog on your shoulder?", then she gently placed it there for Kara to pet. (Lindsey is so dainty and girly, it's funny). Sherry asked for some pictures of Cassie, and this is the only one I've taken this month! Oops- I guess that's what you get for being number 6... and for having me as a mother. Maybe I should follow Lucy's advice and take a picture every Sunday to see how she grows. In this picture I caught Cassie sucking her thumb. She LOVES to suck on her fist or fingers.

Shadow has so much personality- he is hilarious. I'm not sure why, but he LOVES to burrow himself in blankets, drawers, hampers, etc. On this day, Lindsey pointed out that Shadow had found his way into a bag with some books in it. His new favorite spot is in my dirty clothes hamper.

Here is a picture from when I was teaching preschool during October. We were making bread, and I could not believe how excited the kids were! They thought it was the best thing ever. Unfortunatly, we didn't have enough time to let the bread rise enough, so it was very dense, but the kids loved making it... I enjoy teaching preschool, but it takes all my free time away for about 2 weeks. The best part is that I don't have to teach again until January!

Here is Larry with his soccer team. Lindsey and Olivia, the tall girl with the pink hairbow, would hold hands and run down the field together. I'm not sure if Lindsey ever scored, but she loved just running around with her friends in her pretty skirts.

Mohawks and Big Fat

Cassie has a semi-curly mohawk. It started out as just a patch of hair on her head, but now most of the hair is falling out except for a line across the top of her head. She's such a cutie. She's graduated to 3-6 month clothes, which is right on schedule- she will be 3 months old on Tuesday. Larry took the girls on a father/daughter campout a couple weeks ago. They had such a ball playing with their chickens, playstructure, and tree swing. Not to mention the campfire, movie, and sleeping in a tent! I got to watch Weaponizer with the boys and sleep in.

These past couple weeks have been so beautiful! It's been fun to work with the girls in the garden. I'm trying to actually winterize it this year. They had a ball looking for the potatoes as I would dig up the row. We also picked all the onions, some green beans, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, raspberries, and yellow squash. I was in heaven! I love gardening!

It's been so fun to really listen to Lindsey and Kara while the older kids are at school. (They tend to take most of the attention when they're around). On this particular day, Lindsey introduced me to her friends. From right to left- Peanutbutter Jam, Big Fat, Kate Solington, and Sprinklebella (a toy horse). Kate Solington the cat then turned to Big Fat and said, "What smells, Big Fat?" I wanted to hear more, but I was laughing too hard.