Fun Monday "Quotes"

This weeks Fun Monday is hosted by Robin at Pensieve her challenge this week is:


Perhaps it's due to the current series simmering in the ol' PENSIEVE...maybe it's because I'm inspired by the words of those much wiser than me...or I wonder if it's because I believe in the POWER of words (in keeping with my "image-bearer of God status", who also must believe in the power of words since He SPOKE the world into existence and inspired men to record His thoughts...).

Regardless of what motivated me to choose this for a theme, next week please share words that inspire and motivate you--brief or bloviatory, silly or serious, from great world leaders to last night's Comedy Central...from a Hallmark greeting card to your favorite book. Choose one, choose many; let the quotes stand on their own or tell where you first read or heard them and how they affected you. There's a lot of leeway with how this topic can be handled.

This is actually a great one for me. I love quotes and have been known to repeat them a lot in normal conversation. I will share some of my favorite with you and possibly reasons why I like certain ones. Of course I could easily go overboard on this one so watch out.

~~ In the eyes of a child there is joy, there is laughter, there is hope, there is trust, a chance to shape the future. For the lessons of love, there is no better teacher than to look in the eyes of a child. ~~


Seriously this kid teaches me stuff everyday and her eyes do say soo much...

One I've changed a little for myself. "My train of thought has left the station and I have no idea when it's coming back".

Uhm yeah I actually say this one constantly...probably getting a little old..

A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on. ~Carl Sandburg


It's an aweful sweet way anyway. Above is Connor and Kenzie as newbies..

Babies are such a nice way to start people. ~Don Herrold


Really they are! Because if people started as 11 year olds? There wouldn't be so many...

A father carries pictures where his money used to be. ~Author Unknown


I think Kelly would totally agree with this one!

A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world. ~Lois Wyse


My very bestest friend Hannah.....

Why does it take a minute to say hello and forever to say goodbye? ~Author Unknown


Same friend this summer the day before we left for Alaska...I miss her so much.

"I have always loved the beach. The smell of the salty water, the wind in my face, the gentle roar of the waves all combine to create a sense of peace and calm."
Author: unknown


Well anyone who reads my blog regularly knows I loooove the beach! This quote really puts in well.

Grow old with me! The best is yet to be. ~Robert Browning


Aww weren't we cute when we were little 18 year old newlyweds....

Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible. ~Marion C. Garretty

Also known as "Momma bear syndrome" as my children call it.

Insanity is hereditary; you get it from your children. ~Sam Levenson


My 7 year old thinks the best way to do her schoolwork is with it spread around her and on her head.....good thing she is homeschooled, right? Not so sure this would go over in public school.

Listen to the wisdom of the toothless ones. ~Fijian Proverb


I'm not sure if these teeth are going to come back in.....but seriously.

A brother shares childhood memories and grown-up dreams. ~Author Unknown


Weren't they sweet babies?

Of two sisters one is always the watcher, one the dancer. ~Louise Glück


Kenzie is definetly the watcher and Maddie the dancer!

She is your mirror, shining back at you with a world of possibilities. She is your witness, who sees you at your worst and best, and loves you anyway. She is your partner in crime, your midnight companion, someone who knows when you are smiling, even in the dark. She is your teacher, your defense attorney, your personal press agent, even your shrink. Some days, she's the reason you wish you were an only child. ~Barbara Alpert


Yep definetly sums them up already. They'll love me someday for having posted this one on my blog...

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today. ~Stacia Tauscher


Seriously I need to stop worrying about his future and focus on the right now....

You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing. What! Is it nothing to be happy? Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long? Never in his life will he be so busy again. ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762


I hope he can focus someday.....

While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about.
~Angela Schwindt

Definetly true...

A daughter is the happy memories of the past, the joyful moments of the present, and the hope and promise of the future. ~Author Unknown


She is definelty my joy in the present.

Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable. ~Plato


Yeah talk about it.....

[W]hen the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. And now when every new baby is born its first laugh becomes a fairy. ~James Matthew Barrie, Peter Pan


I love this quote! I have always told her this too. Now when we walk through the woods she points out all the fairy castles in the trees it's really sweet. I hope she never stops believing! I still do!

Yep still busy!

So yes I am still very busy and unlike last week I have 6 kids right now instead of 5. There just hasn't been much time to write here or even really to check out blogs. The kids are all very busy and driving me totally insane at the moment!

I picked up the 6th child on Friday awhile after my last post. We have 3 boys and 3 girls in the house. Except that Kenzie has decided she has had enough of having extra kids around and has been spending most of her time with her friend instead.

I thought I would share with you what we did last weekend for our Easter fun!

On Saturday we went to the "mall" (I quote it because they call it a mall but really it only has a few stores....sad really). They were doing an easter egg hunt there and some other activities. The hid eggs in shredded paper and the kids liked looking in it for the eggs.....



.....my problem was that it let up a lot of dust and probably wasn't the best idea for the kids lungs.....the picture below isn't as fuzzy as it looks but a lot of paper dust.


The kids liked it though.

After that we went to my friends house (Kenzies friend also) who has a big enough table for a lot of kids to dye eggs at. Another friend of Kenzies and her friend came over as well so we had 8 kids dying eggs! Five 9 year olds!

We split up the eggs to about 7 eggs a piece and that seemed plenty for the kids to keep them busy.





One of the things we had for dying them were there dye sticks so alot of the kids did dots on their eggs. I'll show you what Kenzie did that was a little different a few pictures down.



Here are Izzaks eggs. One of the other things we had for dying the eggs was a kit for what they called camouflage. Really you put oil in the dye mix then stir it with a spoon quickly just before putting in the eggs. It left a pretty cool design.


Here are Joshuas eggs. He did all the camouflage eggs and figured out first how to die them in regular dye first then do the camo dye so you can have multiple colors.



Here are Kenzies eggs. See how she did a little different take on using the dye sticks? Instead of just dots she made flowers and wrote her name.


And lastly Maddies eggs. She did a little bit of everything.


On Sunday after church we went to Ward Lake, which I've shown lots of pictures of before, and did another egg hunt. The hunt here was a lot more fun since it was actually in the woods and along the trails around the lake. I didn't get any pictures of them actually looking for eggs though because they were moving along so quickly I was having a hard time keeping up myself.



It was a beautiful day though. The sun popped out and you could feel the heat from it which helped the fact that it was actually pretty cold out. We haven't had a lot of nice days like this so it was really nice to get 0n a day when we were all out in it. Especially since it has snowed every day since then! Where is Spring??????



The eggs where scattered all over the grounds near the lake and of course Joshua had to jump into the lake to get an egg he saw down there. Here in the picture he, his friend Connor (our other guest) and Uncle Josh are trying to help him take of his rain boots that are filled with water! It was pretty funny.



I didn't really get any pictures of the kids in their Easter clothes since it was cold but I have been told that the girls at least have had pictures taken at church so I can show you how they looked then if I don't get them dressed up again and have pictures taken. I'm really thinking of that since we haven't done a proffesional group shot in ages.

Here is a group pic of all my kids plus Kenzies friend.



Just the girls



Just the boys.



Just mine



That was out Easter weekend anyway. I will post more soon since the extra kids leave on Sunday I will have more time but I might actually get a post up tomorrow with some other pictures but I figured I kind of did a little picture overload here today! The kids have had multiple activities pretty much everyday with my 2 in homeschool so as long as we are at those they are easily entertained. It's those times when we are not doing one of those that the kids are driving me nuts. They are just very busy!

Too busy

Okay so having so many kids around is driving me nuts! We had 5 all this week since my 4 were all home (Joshua and Kenzie are on spring break). We've done a lot though. We took the cousin into town a couple of times and visited near the docks. Got a picture of the girls standing in front of the water.


Of course they didn't stand that way long and were quickly running.



I've been taking all 5 of them to gymnastics this week. They've all loved that. Here are my girls and Joshua.



Kenzie practicing on the balance beam.



Joshua practicing on the spring board. That boy can really get some hight! This was just one jump but he got much higher.



Thursdays the homeschooling kids have a science class at the discovery center. This week were learning about plants and trees. Here is Madison looking very interested.



All the younger kids looking at their wood stump samples learning how to tell how old a tree is.



On Friday we go on a hike through the woods and learn about the local trees in the area. One of the things they were doing was learning about taking core samples of the tree to see how old it is without cutting it down. The forestry service is the one teaching this class so they were showing them all the equipment they use.

Here they are using the core tool with the forestery person.



In the photo below she is showing them the core sample.



I just like this picture...



They were also showing them how they estimate the size of a tree here. Izzak was the tallest so he got to climb into the tree.


It's been cold all week and snowing off and on but the snow isn't really sticking for to long. It lasts about a day then goes and then we get it again the next day. I sure am ready for spring right now.

Fun Monday

This weeks Fun Monday is brought to us by Nikki at My Husband thinks I'm weird.

Here is her challenge:

1.) I don't know about you, but my family is great at creating strange words that only we know the meaning. Some were created when the kids were first learning to talk, others came about when our tongues were twisted and the word came out funny. Either way, the words stuck and we still use them in our daily conversations. What created words does your family use?! Please share the story behind the word if you remember. If you don't have a made up word then tell us about the unspoken way you communicate with someone. Do you and your significant other have a look that means "This party is boring, lets split" or do you have a look that your kids know means their butt is in serious trouble? Please share!! And a picture of the look would be very entertaining!

Hmm for us most of ours funny words came from Izzak. Izzak was speach delayed and didn't have any words until he was just about 3. Nope none at all... Anyway it brings for some funny words.

Most of my regular readers will know that my favorite soda is Dr Pepper. Well my kids all knew that early on and Izzak had a word for that that we could never figure out how it came out the way it did. From then on we refered to Dr Pepper as Poc D Dupee. Yeah not sure exactly how that came out but it stuck. Another was Rhuga for Yogurt and Neaners for fingers. Those all seemed to stick and are still used all the time.


We have others like pasghetti for speghetti which started with my own family from my sister, Spork was my brother that and littering room for living room (yeah it fits better around here anyway). Also you know that the best place to check out books in at the Libary (no r after the b). Thing a ma jiggy is for anything we can't think of the name to at the time, that or da kine which came from when I was little and my family lived in Hawaii.

That's all I can think of right at the moment. I'm sure there are many more but they have become such a part of our family I don't even notice our saying them until someone gives me a weird look when I say it.

Oh I almost forgot Macaroni is Mac N Roni from Joshua and chocolate which after Joshua we now pronounce shockolit.

Visitor from Portland and snow....

Fun Monday post below this one.....


Yesterday was a busy day! First we had Joshuas baseball tryouts, I'll post about that another day. That was early in the morning till 11. At 12 I had to take the girls to sell girl scout cookies at one of the local grocery stores till 1. Then at 3 by brother in law Josh and I crossed the ferry to the airport to pick up his daughter Kayla for a visit with us for a few weeks.

Here is here plane coming in. It's a little funny because I had to take the picture through glass of course.



Here she is running to her dad, they haven't seen each other since September when he came up here.



That big first hug after 6 months!



Crossing the ferry back to Revilla Island (Ketchikan).



We stayed up kind of late last night. Yesterday was a very nice day for around here so far got up to 50 degrees. I know not really really warm but hey....

We did a barbeque for dinner and watched some movies and everyone went to bed.

This is what we woke up to this morning!



It had just started snowing this morning (has been all day now). Not quite the kind of warm temps we had yesterday when I was thinking that spring was finally coming.

The kids went outside and played with the puppies for a bit. Kodiak loves to have us kick snow in the air and she tries to catch it. Look at her jump! She definetly has the Blue Heeler in her. She is so much like her momma who does the same thing. Kiska loves the snow but doesn't jump up at it like this.



Here is the kids all together playing now in the snow themselves.

This was what it looked like at first when they cooperated.



About 5 seconds later they looked like this!



Then they started working on their snowman (Thomas) they haven't finished him yet because they made the balls so big they can't figure out how to get them on top of each other.



These were all taken this morning when it had just started to snow so we have much more coming down now. It is supposed to be in the 20's tomorrow as well so we will probably be in the snow for a few days at least.

I was so happy to finally be able to drive the car up and down the hill but now I have to get Kelly to get it down for me (I'm a chicken). Looks like the 5 kids and I will be walking up and down for a couple of days.

Next week I will be heading back to the airport to pick up another kid! My friend Kara is sending her son up here for spring break. I'm going to go insane with 6 kids all day, 3 nine year olds!

Fun Monday post below this....