Jake does the "Rock Lobster"

Here is a compilation of some of Jake's favorite songs. He'd sit at the computer and do this all day if we let him.

Happy December 3rd!

We drove up to Snoqualmie Falls tonight because of the record rain and flooding. It was pretty amazing.

Here is a picture of the falls normally:


Here is what we saw tonight:

Happy December 1st!

Fun way to wake up, this morning.

Perfect in every way

Another one about Ryan. Sometimes it's hard to be humble... Ryan has been "borrowing" the camera lately to take pictures of himself. He turns the little viewfinder around, and poses in various ways. To make this video, I gathered up a few of the shots he's taken over the last 6 months, and found the perfect song to go along with them. You'll need sound.

Tractor boy

We were in Friday Harbor recently, and Ryan had his first try at driving Smithy's tractor. I was amazed at how quickly he learned to "feather the clutch", and he, of course, was in heaven.

It continues the (probably Mead) tradition of learning to drive a tractor before learning to drive a car. too bad you can't start your car in fourth gear from a stop, like you can with a tractor...

Jessie's "Mean Face"

Here's a video Ryan took of Jessie showing off a bit. The chocolate powder added (by Ryan) to her bottle probably helped a bit...

Book Report

Ok, I feel very guilty for not posting in so long. Here is a very easy one to get me back in the game:

My Mom gave me two books to read while recovering from hernia surgery. "Peace Like a River", and "Playing for Pizza". Two very different books, but both page-turners and fun reads.

So, if you are so bored that you are checking our blog for activity (yikes), here are two solid book recommedations for you.

Thanks again Mom!
Toby

Stunt Man

Here's Ryan on his home-made bike jump. He's very proud of these pictures.

It's Football Season !!!

Sunday afternoon in the fall...milk, pretzels, blankie, and football...

everything a girl needs.

Endless Summer / Come Touch the Sun

Here is a compilation video from our recent trip to Iron Springs with the Smiths and Guysers - enjoy!

Trip to the Ocean

I'm going to do a little vacation catch-up. We've been out and about some this summer, but I haven't shared any pictures. We'll start with our trip to the ocean last week. We spent a few days on the Washington coast and here are some pictures:

Baby camper...camping will be easier when she's a few years older.

Contemplation and Reflection

A little more deep thinking and appreciating.

A lot of the trees over there have odd bulges in the middle - I'd like to know what they are and why there's there. Anyone know anything about this?


These next pictures are of the kids at the "Big Cedar Tree". That's what the sign on the road says to direct you to it and it is, indeed, a big cedar tree.

This is Emma inside the Big Cedar Tree.

Surfer dude...or skimmer dude.

Busy, busy.

There's that skimmer dude again.

Happy Bath-Baby !!!

Jessie took her first "happy bath" yesterday. She has liked showers with Toby but has cried through every bath before this one. So, Mom, I'll soon have a picture of Jessie in the kids' bathroom rather than an empty frame.

P.S. Notice the dark brown eyes in this baby -

the first one to have brown eyes...I mean, the only one.

Jake Turns Eight

Here's a picture of Jake on his eighth birthday, which was july 28th. The cake is Flat Stanley, a character from a book series he likes.

My Little Girl

When Emma was very little, someone said to me, "Isn't a girl so different than the boys were?" I had to say, "no, not really". I figured it was just because she was too little for the differences to be seen but I'm finding out it might just have been because she was Emma. Emma is a wonderful and fun and sweet little girl but she will probably never be girly - feminine, I'm sure, but not girly...certainly I'm not complaining - she comes by that honestly. Jessie, however, does seem different than the boys - even at this age, although I can't really pinpoint how. Here are some girly pictures from this morning.

Emma gets credit for this one - Emma does like to play with baby-dolls and I'm sure Jessie learned to like dolls from watching Emma.

Doesn't get much girlier than this - dolls and hair brushes.

But she definitely still fits in with this family.

Sunday after church Ben Paul; his wife, Eileen; and our pastor, Michael came over and Ben gave us a carving and sharpening lesson. He is a Tlingit artist and was very kind to share a bit of his knowledge with us. He showed me how to sharpen my tools and showed me the tools he uses and how he uses them. If you want to see some of his work, here's a link to where you can:

http://www.alaskanativeartists.com/ben_paul.htm

Thank you, Ben!

I'm trying to make up for lost time - two posts in two days.

These are just some pictures of Ryan and Jessie, who are becoming fast friends.

Carol's Mother's Day - Bridal Veil Falls

Our Mother's Day was a very full day with church, a Smith gathering at cousin Jake's house, and then a Posenjak/Caplinger gathering here at our house. It was a good day, full of family. Since Mother's Day was going to be so busy, thoughtful Toby made Saturday my Mother's Day and chose exactly the right present: a hike in the mountains. We went to Bridal Veil Falls near Index on Steven's Pass and it was very fun. Here are some pictures:Ryan and Jake waiting for us on the trail after running ahead.

Toby and Ryan at the waterfall. They went all the way up to it and touched it.

Toby carried Jessie most of the time - I only carried her a few minutes so Toby could carry Emma on his shoulders a little. This is our only picture of Jessie, though.

Emma by the big leaves.

Ryan and Emma under a large rock.

Girly Quote!

This quote is not funny, or witty, or clever - it's just girly. Emma often gives us quotes that make us laugh, but it's much more rare that she'll say something truly girly. She just came in with her third bouquet of flowers and said, "I just like flowers; that's why I pick so many". There you have it - isn't it wonderful?

I thought about taking a picture of her with some of her flowers to go along with this post, but she's wearing Jake's camo shorts today...

Chess lessons with Jessie

Emma was setting up for a very serious chess match with her father, when she was interrupted for a lesson by Jessie.

All better

This is the first day I'm willing to say we are really all better. Jessie's nose is still running a bit, but she's finally acting like herself - her cheerful, easy-going self. Yea! After a long few weeks, here's my summary: the boys were easy and didn't complain when they were sick; the girls were fussy and difficult. Jessie would cry all day and then Emma would cry all night.

My belief is men are generally more wimpy about being sick than women (my dad excluded - I can't think of any area in which he could be described as wimpy) but they must learn that later in life. :)

Here's what they look like now - well, three of them.

Pet Peeve's

In fourth grade, I had Ms. Bailey for English. I remember a couple things about her class, one was a list of "taboo" words that we were supposed to avoid using in writing and conversation. The hardest one for me to avoid was "got", because it seemed so formal to skip. "Do you happen to have a pencil I could borrow?" was a bit to stuffy for a fourth grader, compared to "Have you got a pencil?"

One day we had a brainstorming exercise about "pet peeve's", Ms. Bailey asked us to think of a few little things that really bug us in life, and we'd go around the class sharing them.

I racked my brain, but could not think of a single thing I would call a pet peeve. I had nothing.

Ever since, though, I realized how many I really do have, and probably once a week I think of a new one and wish I could go back to fourth grade and share it as an example. Socks with holes in them, having to backtrack on a road trip, pop that's lost it's fizz, inturruptions while rading aloud, pebble's (or anything) in shoes, dropped cell phone calls, etc, etc, etc.

So, to carry on with Carol's "questions for the blog", I invite you to contribute a few of your own pet peeves - no pressure, don't draw a blank!

Toby

Our Week

This first picture, of our kitchen counter, represents the week we’ve been having.

It started last Monday with Jake hitting the couch to rest with a fever and aches. It was the beginning of six days on the couch for him – the first three, he didn’t move at all. As you can see in the picture, though, he was handling it quite well – always keeping his cool, even when asleep with a fever.

The next morning – Tuesday – Jessie reached for something someone was cutting with scissors and got her finger caught in the scissors, losing most of her fingernail and a tiny piece of her finger. We had to bandage up her whole hand because she would have pulled off and choked on one that just covered her finger. She kept pulling off the big bandage anyway, so I spent the day wrapping and re-wrapping. If you can’t tell which finger it is that’s cut, I’ll tell you...it’s the bright red one. This is one tough girl, though – as soon as the bandage was on, she was clapping her hands and crawling around, using her hurt hand.

By Sunday morning, all four kids were sick. Ryan had already been sick for a few days and was able to get up to eat. Jessie and Emma were just coming down with it.

The girls weren’t looking quite so cool as Jake.

It’s Tuesday now - day nine - and we’re just back from the doctor where we picked up drops for two girls with pink-eye. I didn’t take pink-eye pictures. Nobody wants to see that.

It’s like a hospital around here.

Finish the Sentence

You can never have too many (or too much)...

Toby:
You can never have too many shoes.
You can never have too many flashlights.

Carol:
You can never have too many pairs of kids' boots.
You can never have too many tubes of Neosporin.

Ryan:
You can never have too much reading time.

Jake:
You can never have too many cheeseburgers.

Emma:
You can never have too much sausage.

Saint Paddy's Party

Saturday was Saint Patrick's Day and Toby was gone to a "men's dinner" with a bunch of church men. A few friends and I decided we wanted to party too so four of my friends came over with their kids and we had a green dinner of spinach fettuccini, green salad, green bread, green punch, green shamrock cookies, and green mint ice-cream. We had a great time.Here's a picture of the fourteen kids that were present...ten of them boys. What fun!

Here's Ryan showing off the green bread.

And here are three of the ladies: Michelle, Petina, and Renee. Only Betsy's missing from this picture but there's her hand on the left.