My Family....Our Story

Family Pictures!

2010-10-01T14:56:00.000-07:00

There were so many pictures that I loved I had a hard time narrowing down which ones to put up!

Franklin Falls

2010-10-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

We went on a little hike to Franklin Falls with the Chang's Labor Day weekend. It was the first time the girls didn't go in a kid carrier! They did good! I think we all enjoyed getting out in the woods!

Where did that pose of Nora's come from? The kids liked the big tree! It was huge!

We ate lunch at the falls!

First Day of School!

2010-10-01T14:15:00.000-07:00

The beginning of school means the end of summer. I am a little sad. I love summer! I had a great summer! It is finally getting easier to go places by myself with the kids so I felt like I was on summer vacation this summer! Ezra was very excited to start kindergarten! I drove him to school the first two days than I let him ride the bus. He loves riding the bus and he loves school. Vaughn started 4th grade this year. He was only excited to go back to school to see his friends! It is so hard to watch (and let) your kids grow up!

Lake Roosevelt August 2010

2010-10-01T13:51:00.000-07:00

We have decided that we really like boat-in camping at Lake Roosevelt. This might become our annual summer camping trip! We went in August for five nights with Ernie's brother Steve and our friends the Trent's (they have four kids too). It was a great time! A little cliff jumping, swimming, roasting marshmellows, riding sea doos, treats at the marina, climbing walls, exploring caves, laying in the sun, a deer swimming across the lake, collecting fire wood, wake surfing, and wakeboarding. I think that about sums it up! Check out the video Ernie made! www.vimeo.com/14370949

The kids loved swimming around.

Steve took Nora, Mila, and Kayden fishing.

This was just too cute!

Cliff Jumping!

I am so glad they have each other. Twins=Best Friends!

Exploring a cave! Who is going to go in it?!

Too Much Fun!

2010-08-08T21:08:00.000-07:00

I went down to California with the kids to visit my sister-in-law. As Vaughn would say it was "Too much fun!" My mom drove down with the kids and I so I didn't have to do the 19 and a half hour drive by myself. We left June 20th. Ernie flew down on July 2nd. My brother-in-law Jake came home on the 2nd also after being gone for 9 weeks and Ernie's sister Sheena and her husband Steven came over from Arizona at the same time. We spent the Fourth of July weekend together. We left Monday July 6th at 6:00 pm and arrived home July 7th at 3:30pm. The kids and I had a blast. The kids took swimming lesson. We went to Sea World, to the beach, celebrated Vaughn's 9th birthday, and went to the neighborhood pool almost everyday. Here is a little video Ernie made. He changed the setting so you should be able to view this one. Let me know if you can't!

http://vimeo.com/13804810

Don't you wish he was roasting your corn?!

Ezra's Preschool Activities

2010-07-09T09:28:00.000-07:00

Ezra's preschool does a big program at the end of the year. He had to dress up as a little German boy and did a little dance.

Ezra got to go on a lot of field trips. This one was at the Puyallup Fair.

Ezra went to a friend's birthday party from preschool. It was at Jim's U-fish. He caught his first fish!

MY GIRLS ARE THREE!!!

2010-07-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

We survived another year of twins! I must say life is getting much easier with twins. The girls are so much fun! They love each other so much and stick up for one another. It is a whole new expericence watching twins grow up. We love them so much! They fit our family perfectly and make it complete. We are so blessed to have them!

Random Pictures from the past 4 months!

2010-07-09T08:45:00.000-07:00

The kids decided to dress up one day!

Ezra lost his first tooth!

Nora fell asleep in the couch! (sorry not sure how the pic. got turned)

The kids all got goggles from the Easter Bunny!

Our family on Easter!

My Grandpa

Kauai

2010-03-09T13:01:00.000-08:00

We went to Kauai with the kids in February for a week. We stayed at a condo on the beach in Kapaa. We were there with my parents and aunt and uncle. Ernie made a video of the trip. You can check it out here.

http://vimeo.com/9750210

Vaughn learned how to snorkle. He got very excited when he saw his first fish.

They got a little worn out!

Happy 5th Birthday Ezra!

2010-03-09T12:38:00.000-08:00

Most people consider their last child as their baby, but for some reason I always think of Ezra as my baby. My baby is getting BIG! I'm not ready for him to grow up. He is such a good kid. He has the kindest little heart and is full of life. I love the fact that he has never really been into the popular kid stuff. He loves nature and animals.

Ernie and I took him out for his birthday. His birthday was Feb. 13th. It was just the three of us. We went to Red Robin, then Toys R Us and then Baskin Robins. He didn't want to do anything else. He wanted to go home and play with his new toys. He didn't even want to go to a movie! We had a little party at home. I asked him how he wanted his cake decorated and he wanted balloons on it! He was very adamant about the balloons!

San Francisco

2010-02-04T16:13:00.000-08:00

Ernie surprised me with a trip to San Francisco for our 11th anniversary! He told me two weeks before we went. He wasn't going to tell me until the day we were leaving, but he was afraid I was going to plan something. We got there Saturday afternoon and walked around the waterfront and down Columbus Street. On Sunday we went to Union Square and Chinatown. We did so much walking, our feet were killing us. On Sunday we rented bikes and rode to the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a fun bike ride. We came home Monday evening. We had a lot of fun exploring a new city!

Snoqualmie Pass

2010-01-10T09:17:00.000-08:00

We took the kids to play in the snow while the boys were on break. We found a little hill the kids had fun playing on. Mila's snow pants were really slick in the snow so she didn't even have to use a sled. She just slid down on her bum! She was so funny to watch! She loved it! I also got a good laugh when Ernie accidently jumped his sled!

Christmas Morning

2010-01-10T09:02:00.000-08:00

Can you tell who aren't morning people?

Nora and Mila's First Hair Cut

2010-01-10T08:56:00.000-08:00

We took the girls to get their first hair cut. I didn't want to risk messing up their hair so we took them where Ernie gets his hair cut. They did really good! A little whining at first, but that was it. They only got a little cut off in the back. We are trying to get their hair all one length.

Santa Visited!

2009-12-05T14:54:00.000-08:00

Ernie has a wonderful aunt and uncle that dress up as Santa and Mrs. Claus and come visit the kids. The kids love it! Of course at family gathering the kids are always around him because they think he is Santa. In fact some of them call him Santa even if it isn't Christmas!

One Down One to Go!

2009-12-05T14:42:00.000-08:00

We are potty training! I think Mila has got it! Nora is still having accidents. I can't wait to be done with diapers, pull-ups, and wet panties!!!!

Fall has Come and Gone!

2009-12-05T14:21:00.000-08:00

Fall flew right by! I can't believe it's almost Christmas! Here are a few pictures I took the past two months.

The kids helped me make applesause.

Ezra has his own cheering section riding his bike.

The girls' funny face!

Halloween!

I laughed

2009-11-14T14:31:00.001-08:00

So I was looking through our pictures and I saw this one. I just started laughing. Ezra looks like he's had a rough day in those pajama pants!

First Day of School

2009-11-14T14:24:00.000-08:00

Vaughn is in 3rd grade and Ezra started preschool this year. They both are enjoying school. Ezra wishes he could go to school everyday!

Family Pictures

2009-11-11T13:08:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law was brave and took our family pictures. It only took two different days to do them! It was hard to get six pairs of eyes on the camera at the same time. Of course trying to keep all the kids happy at the same time is a whole other story. Needless to say I think she did a great job. We've only had someone else take our family picture one other time. Vaughn was 15 months old then. I think we were about due for some family pictures!

New Posts

2009-09-07T20:22:00.000-07:00

Make sure and click on older posts to see all my new posts. I put too many pictures of Lake Roosevelt up so my other posts went on another page.

Lake Roosevelt Aug. 2009

2009-09-05T09:46:00.000-07:00

We went to Lake Roosevelt for our longer summer vacation. We loved it so much in June that we decided to go back when the weather was warmer. The weather was great except the third night. We had a couple of rain drops and a huge gust of wind that sounded like a train was coming. Steve, Brie, and Kason came with us. Jake and Tyrell came two days later. Our campsite was awesome. It was all sandy and we could see the kids in the water while we were sitting around.

I can't resist that cuteness!

Happy 32nd Birthday Ernie!

Nora enjoyed her pudding!

2009-09-05T09:43:00.000-07:00

Who's got dish duty?

2009-09-05T09:40:00.000-07:00

2009-09-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

2009-09-05T09:36:00.000-07:00

Ernie is always good at giving us a good laugh!

2009-09-05T09:34:00.000-07:00

Lake Roosevelt Aug. 2009

2009-09-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

Ernie and Steve rented jet skis. We all had fun riding on them including the kids!

Vaughn turns 8!

2009-09-05T09:22:00.000-07:00

Vaughn chose to got out with Ernie and I instead of a party. We went to breakfast at Burger King, saw the movie Transformers 2, and picked out a couple toys. We had brownies with the little kids! The brownies were still warm when we did the candles and they melted!

Vaughn got baptised on July 12th at Ernie's parents house in their pool.

The Adventures of Twins

2009-09-05T09:08:00.000-07:00

Nora decided to give herself a mud bath!

The girls like to take their babies for walks.

One day during nap time Nora started screaming so I went into their room and this is how I found Mila. Nora was dressed the same, stuck on top on the changing table. They got into the desitin. Just so you know desitin does not come out of carpet.

Watch out she might get you!

It's Summertime!

2009-07-01T16:32:00.000-07:00

You know it is summer when the kids are out eating raspberries. This is one reason I have a garden. Snacktime in the garden!

Lake Roosevelt

2009-07-01T16:03:00.000-07:00

We left for Lake Roosevelt at 5:30 am June 18th. We stayed three nights camping at a boat-in only campground with four other couples. We had a total of 10 adults, 14 kids, and 3 boats! It was the first time tent camping with the girls. I was a little scared they wouldn't sleep well, but they did great. We didn't even have to put up the pack n' plays. Ezra asks me almost everyday when we can go camping again. Vaughn was the real camper and slept in a tent all by himself.
Rob and Dana's boat and Dot and Ron's boat

Ernie crashing on the surf board.

Dana and I followed the surfing boat in our boat.

Nora slept like this for an hour!

I'm not sure if we have enough people in this boat. What do you think?

Caleb and Vaughn showing off their muscles!

The boys spent a lot of time playing on the surf boards.

We let the kids play on this hill until we saw two scorpions on it!

Tyler and Brian contemplating jumping.

And they jumped!

Going For a Walk

2009-07-01T15:54:00.000-07:00

Moses Lake

2009-07-01T15:31:00.000-07:00

We went to Moses Lake at the end of May. We stayed in a little cabin for three nights. We would go over to the dunes in the boat and let the kids play on the beach. That would actually entertain them for a few hours at a time! The two person table in the cabin obviously wasn't big enough for us so we would eat out on the porch.

Vaughn spent a lot of time running around in the dunes.

We couldn't keep Nora out of the water. She has to always wear her life vest because she has no fear of the water.

Mila spend a lot of time chillin' in the boat until she decided playing on the beach might be fun too.

I'm not sure if Ezra is squinting from the sun or from the reflection off of his upper arms!

Nora loves to follow her daddy around, or anyone bigger than her for that matter. She just wants to be one of the big kids.

Baseball

2009-07-01T15:29:00.000-07:00

Vaughn played coach pitch baseball this spring.

Happy 2nd Birthday Mila and Nora!

2009-07-01T15:25:00.000-07:00

The girls turned two on May 8th! We had a party with the family. They got a little retro kitchen, lots of stuff to play with in their kitchen and some clothes. They had fun opening presents!

A little bit of team work opening presents!

As you can see Nora couldn't wait to blow out her candles. I made cupcakes and put a tinkerbell and ladybug on them.

Random Pictures!

2009-05-11T15:54:00.000-07:00

I have know idea what he was trying to do!

I was working in the garden and this is what I saw when I looked over. In case you were wondering that is a ball of yarn hanging from Nora's neck.

We have hair issues!

She might seem all sweet and innocent, but looks can be deceiving. I just haven't gotten anything on camera yet!

Toddler Beds!

2009-05-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

We switched the girls to toddler beds. Nora learned how to climb out of her crib and she taught Mila how also. We thought it would be safer to have them in toddler beds. They didn't have any problems switching, although every once in a while they'll take their nap on the floor or together!

And More Easter!

2009-05-11T15:44:00.000-07:00

We couldn't get a good picture of all the kids and even the funny picture didn't turn out that well!

More Easter

2009-05-11T15:41:00.000-07:00

One of those crazy little looks!

Easter Morning!

2009-05-11T15:39:00.000-07:00

The kids had a lot of fun finding eggs. Nora didn't find very many, because she had to eat whatever was in the egg before she would look for another egg. I'm going to have to do a couple different posts for Easter because I upload my pictures through picasa and it only lets me up load four at a time. Sorry.

Ernie and I were looking at all our pictures of Nora and we noticed in most of her pictures she has crazy little faces in her pictures!

Time to Color Eggs

2009-05-11T15:29:00.000-07:00

I am a terrible mom, because I absolutely hate coloring Easter eggs. It's messy and I'm paranoid my kids are going to spill the dye! I didn't want to stress about the girls dying eggs, and I figured they wouldn't remember anyways, so I had the boys color eggs during their nap. Even though I hate it my boys love it so I do it!

Pictures Finally!

2009-05-11T15:22:00.000-07:00

Ernie finally down loaded our pictures so I can add some blogs. These are pictures we took at the end of March while the kids were outside getting some fresh air.

Vaughn got a new bike! Ernie found it at the goodwill. Vaughn loves to show it off to everyone who comes over!

I think Nora misses the snow!

Mila likes to wonder around!

Ezra likes to play on the swing set. Sometimes I even catch him talking to himself while he's playing! Maybe he is just bored and wants someone to play with!

Post Surgery

2009-03-21T15:10:00.000-07:00

Well it's been 4 1/2 weeks since my tummy tuck. Things are going great! It didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would. I'm happy with the results so far! I'm still swollen, and I was told it could take another 5 months before all the swelling is completely gone. I'm up and around. I can't do anything strenuous until I hit my 6 week mark. I just want to thank all my family and friends that have helped out with the kids, food, laundry, and cleaning. I (and Ernie) couldn't have done it without you. I'm sorry, but no after pictures, at least not yet. I am willing to show you if you are curious, because I know I was!

What will the doctor say?

2009-02-17T03:50:00.000-08:00

I'm awake because I'm stressing about whether or not I will get to have the surgery! I've had a head cold and when I went in for my pre-op appointment they told me if I got sick I would have to reschedule. I tried to call the doctor Monday but they were closed. I will be so disappointed if I can't get it done. Well I guess I only have to wait four more hours to find out! I better try and get a few more hours of sleep!

Surgery!

2009-02-16T17:04:00.000-08:00

Well as many of you know, but for those of you who don't, I am getting a tummy tuck! Tomorrow is the big day! I'm so excited and nervous and scared and everything in between. I thought I would remind everyone why I am getting a tummy tuck. This picture is of me the day I went in for my c-section to have the girls. I carried them 38 weeks and 2 days.

Ezra Turned Four!

2009-02-16T16:49:00.000-08:00

It was Ezra's birthday on the 13th. He celebrated it with family and a few friends. Ezra loves horses so I found some small horses and barn to put on his cake. I didn't make the cake. I'm not that ambitious! He of course got lots of presents and loved them all. He was a little partial to the horse stable and new horses he got! I can't believe he is four!

Woodland Park Zoo

2009-02-16T16:35:00.000-08:00

We took the kids to the Woodland Park Zoo on Tuesday. We had never been there before. We really liked it! The kids had a lot of fun looking at all the animals. It snowed the last half of our zoo adventure! There was hardly an people at the zoo. It almost seemed like we had it to ourselves.

Happy 10th Anniversary!

2009-02-16T16:02:00.000-08:00

It was our 10th Anniversary on Jan. 30th. We decided to do something just for the day. Ernie planned it all, but he wouldn't tell me what we were doing. He told me to wear comfortable clothes and to bring hiking boots, clothes that could get dirty, and a swimsuit. When we left the house he blind folded me. First he drove me to the first place we lived together which was a little studio apartment on Garfield Street. It was above the shops. We paid $350 a month which included utilities. He then told me he was taking me a little road trip of memories. Next stop was the intersection of Tacoma Mall Blvd. and 56th Street. On our first date we got in a car accident there. Neither on of us was driving by the way. Next was our first house we bought. Then we went to Paradise Bowl. That is where we went on our first date. Then we drove out to Eatonville to the High School. That is where we had our first kiss, in the parking lot. That is where the picture was taken. Then to my parents house. That confused me a little. He told me that was where we were at the first time he new he loved me. Isn't that sweet! Our last stop was in Tumwater where we spent out first night together on our honeymoon. We had one little problem. The hotel had been torn down! It is now a Costco and Fred Meyer! He wanted to suprise me with a night at a hotel so we ended up staying at the Phoenix Inn in Olympia. We had a very nice room! It had a king size bed, jacuzzi tub, two flat screen tvs, and a couch. So in case you were wondering the swimsuit was for the hotel pool and the hiking boots and clothes that could get dirty were just to throw me off. We had a great time together!

Christmas

2009-01-25T15:24:00.000-08:00

Our tree fell over at 12:30 in the morning. It scared us to death. It sounded like someone had thrown a rock through our front window! We had at least 15 broken ornaments.

Ezra got a horse. All he would tell us that he wanted for Christmas was a soft horse.

Vaughn got an automatic nerf gun!

Ernie's uncle plays Santa. He came over so we could get some Santa pictures. Mila didn't care for Santa too much!

Christmas Morning

The girls got dolls and strollers.

The kids with their stockings!

December Snow

2009-01-25T15:09:00.000-08:00

Our pond froze over.

Vaughn, Ernie, and Eric built an igloo.

The kids had fun being pulled by the quad. Nora didn't want to get off. When we told her it was time to go in the house she told us "no".

The boys built a snowman.

The girls liked the snow especially Nora!

Vaughn started a snowball fight. I wonder who's going to win?!

California

2009-01-25T11:13:00.001-08:00

We went and visited Jessica and Jake two weeks ago. It was a much needed break for me. Ernie was planning on going, and I was going to stay home with the kids. The day before he left, I came home to a ticket on the kitchen counter for me! We left early Friday morning and came home late Monday night. The weather was wonderful. In the low 80's! We spent most of our time at the beach and I even got to read a book!

Ernie and I on the pier at Huntington Beach.

Reese and I

The moon was huge that night.

Ernie and Jake surfing.

Ernie got a surfboard off of craig's list for $50!

Cute little Brody