Saving up

Levi's been saving his money up for a lego car. Every time we move clothes from the washer to the dryer, we have Levi push them from the door of the dryer into the dryer itself. For this work he gets paid 1 quarter per load. He's been saving these quarters, along with some Christmas money he had, and tonight, he finally had enough to go get a lego car.

So, tonight we went to Walmart. After looking over some trailer bit and pieces, we finally arrived at the toy department. Levi looked over some of the lego selection, and after comparing a green dump truck and a blue and orange race car, he decided on the dump truck. He tucked the little plastic box under his arm, and there is safely stayed while we did the rest of our shopping.

At the cash register, we put Levi's lego box on the belt first, and soon the time came for Levi to make his first ever purchase. The girl asked Levi if he was from Washington. He is. Then, she rang it up - $5.47. She handed the box to him, and he said thank you... Something was missing. Ah, yes, money. Levi needed to pay. So, he got two dollar bills out of his sweater pocket, and pushed them in her direction.

"There you go."

But it wasn't enough, so he dug around some more, and came up with a handful of quarters. With a little help, he counted out fourteen - he even had some left to spare! Then, the cashier handed him his receipt, his change (three shiny pennies), and even put it in a bag for him.

I was so proud!

--Matt

Levi's prayer

Levi enjoys giving the blessing on our food every meal. However it's gotten to be very scripted. I have been encouraging him lately to add something else in there, like what else is he thankful for?

Here is today's prayer, the italicized part is the new addition;

Dear Jesus,
Thank you for our food.
Thank you for making jets and everything,
In Jesus name, Amen.

Crispy Cat

This morning Levi wanted me to read "The Adventures of Spot" cartoon in his new Hightlights magazine that came yesterday. So I did. The cat in the story was looking around and finding things - a bee in the flower, a toad in the pond.. etc. Well when he finds the toad, it jumps at him. Being a cat, this startles him and he puffs out all his fur. Levi commented to me "Look ma, he's all crispy!"

Ellie's 8th tooth seems to be coming up pretty fast. She has only gotten up once the past two nights.

Only one more day and then Ellie will experience her first endurance ride. I am excited. There are 9 of us going. 4 riders: myself, Ruth, Hope and Heather. My mom, Matt, Levi and Ellie, and my mom's foster girl Faith. Three rigs and three trailers (2 horse and one camper). I have multiple lists to pack, hope I don't forget something important!

More teeth

For a long time now Ellie has had three bottom teeth. It makes her look a bit askew. Well that fourth tooth (to even things out) is finally coming in. I noticed it a couple of days ago. I guess this explains why I am still getting up twice a night with her.

Guest poster

My mom had Ellie on Wednesday morning since Matt had taken Levi with him on their "grand adventure" to Idaho to get a motorcycle. At one point during the morning she checked her e-mail and wrote the following to me:

* * * *


We played, then I had granola, and she had strawberries that she loved! (I cut it into tiny pieces).

now we are reading all the new books I got in MT for her age

I will see if she wants to sleep soon. she wants to type you somthing...

ij tu9m0l-y9y6koyir7e66e6

ok that was from ellie. b :-)

You're a Baer

Ellie crawls into the bedroom.
Levi sees her and says "you're a bear."
Then, "you're a grandma Baer."
Then he breaks into a "You're a grandma Baer" song.

Grandpa Jeff's visit, pt 3 + a morning at the park

Sunday my dad came over for breakfast before heading back to Portland. He brought us goodies from Andy's market. Blueberries for the pancakes, strawberries to top them off and whipping cream. When he poured the cream into the bowl to whip it up, it came out in big globs. My dad smelled it. No odor. I told him to throw it out, we could do without it. Well whipping cream sounded really good to him by then so he made another trip to Andy's to exchange it. The second container was fresh. He added a little vanilla and powdered sugar and it sure was good! He gave the beaters to Ellie and she could not get enough of it. She enjoyed the strawberries and bits of pancake too.

* * * *

After breakfast we were invited out to a new playground with the Kyles. The kids had a great time on all the equipment. There is a new invention made of cables and Levi calls it the spider-web. It looks like something from a Survivor challenge to me.

He loves the "curly" slide too.

There was even stuff for Ellie. She LOVES the swings. I don't remember Levi ever liking the swings, but she starts laughing as soon as I put her in and give her the first push.

Today Ellie had a friend with which to share the joy! Ezra is exactly one month younger than Ellie.

Ellie enjoyed the duckie too. I rocked her back and forth but she seemed to prefer her method of wiggling it sideways.

Levi has been getting really adventurous on the equipment. He seems to have no fear. I have plenty for both of us I guess.

Up he goes!

Son! Not head first!!

What a great way to spend a morning on a glorious day!

This is the last time we saw Levi's shoelaces. He has developed a bad habit of removing them from his shoes and hiding them around the house. I guess we need to stock up on spares!

Grandpa Jeff's visit, pt 2 (a)

Sabbath morning dad came over and we listened/watched a live stream of Pastor Jerry Arnold from his church in Collegedale TN.

Afterwards Dad commented that he had heard people in his hotel at breakfast talking about a Kid's Rodeo today and did we want to go and check it out? Sounded like fun to me so we loaded up in dad's van and drove over to the Fairgrounds. There were college kids at different stations throughout the large enclosed arena. About half of it was horseback riding. There was a long line for that and Levi said he did not want to ride a horse so we skipped that. We went and stood in a short line for calf roping instead.

The college cowboy explained the basics to Levi and then helped him to throw the rope and lasso the calf.

I think he had fun at this station.

Posing with momma

Levi also agreed to sit on the pretend pony and pose for me.

My dad pushed Ellie around in the stroller while we enjoyed the activities with Levi. She tried to pull off her shoes the whole time.




Here is an overview of the activity stations.

The next thing that Levi wanted to try was the rodeo clown's padded barrel "ride." There was quite a line for this, and as we waited JJ Harrison (a real rodeo clown) came down the line passing out fliers and autographing them. Levi was really in awe of JJ. "What's that man?" "Is he a clown?" "What's his name?" He could not stop staring at him.

JJ posed for a photo with us and we couldn't pull Levi's eyes away from him to look at the camera.

When we were only two turns away from the barrel we heard an annoucement over the loudspeaker. "Time to clean up for the college rodeo" I was worried that Levi would not get his turn after standing in line all that time. The college cowboys were good sports and kept giving turns in the barrel until the line was gone. Levi's turn came up and they said hello to him, picked him up, and dropped him in the barrel.

There is a ledge around the base and they told him to keep his feet on that and to cover his eyes.

They dropped the barrel down (gently) and whirled it around a little and rocked it back and forth and then raised it back up to vertical. "Ohp, oh... no! He fell through the bottom." They were nice guys. Levi really enjoyed that one.



I had asked Levi twice during the morning if he would like to ride the bull. Both times he replied with his cheery "No thanks" My dad came over and asked him "Hey Levi, do you want to ride the bull?" Levi's response? "Uh, ok, yes!" It looked like they were still giving rides so we stood in a short line and the Levi got to ride the bull!

He did awesome, even brave enough to hold up one hand for a couple of bucks. He may become a cowboy yet.

Grandpa Jeff's visit, pt 2 (b)

My dad was feeling adventurous so he asked Matt if he knew how to get to the snow that we could see on the nearby mountains. Matt thought he could, so we loaded into the van and drove east.

We took Mill Creek Road all the way out until it ended at a gate in the Umatilla National Forest. This seemed to be a good spot to take a break.

Levi posing by the Umatilla National Forest sign.





My dad was having a lot of fun loping snowballs at us.

Matt taught Levi how to make his own snowballs

Oh man! Grandpa Jeff got him!

Levi throws one back!

Dad almost catches it...

...but No! It knocks him back, much to Levi's delight.

Levi's hands were getting cold, so I put him back in the car and covered him up with my jacket. The fun wasn't over yet though! Dad threw some more snowballs at the car.

On the drive home I spotted this herd of deer on the hillside. How many do you count?

Here's an old barn, framed beautifully by the countryside on this gorgeous day.

After we got back to the house we made a dinner of Special K loaf, baked potatoes and sauteed green beans with a side salad. A feast fit for a king! The kids had their naps while dad and I sat and talked a spell, followed by a brisk 2 mi walk. Afterwards dad accompanied me and the kids to an Adventist Horsemans Association meeting. Levi seemed to have a good time, there were snacks and some other kids to run around with. The unfortunate part of the evening was when a bigger kid slammed his finger in the door. We left soon after that and called it a night.

Grandpa Jeff visit, pt 1

This weekend my dad came for a visit. On Friday I had some errands to run so I put my poor father to work. He put up some trim in the bathroom (it is so nice to have that done!) and also fixed the double bed frame in our camp trailer (wahoo!). I felt bad asking him to work on his vacation but it was really a blessing to have him around to help out. Where was I in the meantime? Well I did some grocery shopping for the weekend, and also took Ellie in to Wal-Mart for her 10 month photos. I also took two of the dogs to the vet for their shots. It was a very busy day.

At 5 pm we regrouped and made pizza. This is a family recipe passed down to me from grandma Katie - dad's mom. It is a very easy pizza dough recipe and then some secret seasonings to make it irresistible. Tonight Levi helped Grandpa Jeff pound out the dough. My dad rolled his very thin and trimmed the edges. I made mine fit to the pan. The trimmings from dad's we turned into a mini pizza for Levi. It was neat to eat the two different kinds of crust. I liked dad's better and he said he liked mine better.

Three generations of pizza lovers.

After dinner my dad sat and told Levi some stories of when he was a boy. Levi listened with great interest.

He also told Grandpa Jeff the story of how he fell down on his face and scraped up his nose.

Ellie also enjoyed some grandpa Jeff time. She was captivated by his Blackberry phone. Not even one yet, and already trying to make calls.

After my dad left to go back to his hotel, Matt read the book about Mr Brown to Ellie. I think this is her favorite book right now. She will sit sometimes and just look at it by herself and blow raspberries. I can only imagine what's going through her head.

Ellie sounds

Matt opened a file this morning that my dad had emailed to us, and was showing it to Levi and Ellie. When a picture of a steam locomotive came up, he started making the sound of a steam locomotive chuffing for Ellie, and then moved on to the next picture. About three pictures later, suddenly Ellie starts chuffing like a steam locomotive, and she kept doing it.

The other night when I was helping Matt adjust the clutch on Ugly, I had Ellie out there with me and she grabbed a hold of the steering wheel and started making little brooooom sounds. I thought it was just a coincidence, but then later on in the house she got a hold of a toy car and did the same thing.

I am going to have to take he out to the barn to learn horse sounds before she falls to the dark side. :)

REAL Food for Ellie

We have been giving Ellie little bits of things lately and she really loves eating REAL food. Today we had pasta with red sauce and I cut it into smaller pieces for Ellie and she had a lot of fun picking them up and getting them into her mouth.







For dinner I decided to experiment with stuff on-hand, Matt baked some sweet potatoes before I got home so then I started some water and cooked some noodle pasta and sauteed some tofu. In another pan I cooked fresh broccoli and after it was steamed a little I added the sweet potatoes, and then coconut milk and peanut sauce. Added it all together and topped it off with bean sprouts and cilantro, and some fresh lime juice. It was ok. Ellie really liked the tofu.


In other news, Matt has adjusted the clutch on Ugly and we are really starting to like the ugly thing. :)