Fruit Snacks & a Friend

Cozy and Olivia

"My Babysitter Rocks!"

Atticus has been using words that I am sure he picked up from other kids at school. One that I can't wait until he retires is "awesome". Monday we took a family field trip to Levenworth, a bavarian town with lots of shops and beautiful mountains, Atticus used that word ALL DAY!!
"Rocks" is another word that sometimes is used. Sometimes they are even combined...."That rocks awesome!" The photo below is with his babysitter Marci. It must be spring because Atticus insists on the no shirt policy or he really wants his back tickled?
Don't you like how he posed for this....Awesome Rocks!!

Happy Birthday ATTICUS # 6!

These are just some of my favorite photos of Atticus...
What a character we have and such a sensitive one! He will be turning 6 march 8th and wants to have a "boys only" party themed around scooby-doo and halloween!

Atticus & Butch, the cat that made the most horrid gas when happy...may he rest in peace!


Broke his arm trying to scale out of his crib at 18 months!


At 2 1/2 this is what Atticus loved to do...stack up anything. It would drive me nuts when he would clear out the fridge for "stacking projects".


I got a sister!!


One of my favorite photos of Atticus! (He dressed up as a pirate daily after preschool)

"I remember when banking was fun!"

The title of this entry may only be understood by family or those of you who have read the great classic "John R. Barnes, May He Live Forever" by Harold Gailey (my grandfather). It's kind of a fun thing that some of us do to play with the words of the book...for example," John R. Barnes, May He Eat Liver Forever.".....one of my favorites! Anyway, that's another entry for sure!
This weekend Atticus has been working on "making HIS bank." He has gone through the recycling (this isn't new) and cut holes in cereal boxes to make places to put his deposits. At one point I overheard him charging Cozy money for eating anything in the kitchen. She seemed to go along with him in giving pennies for goldfish crackers. When we went into Chelan he pointed out the "Bank of America" saying that that was the bank he was making. His intentions according to him are to make money for the African women so that they can buy food and toys for their kids. Pretty sweet! I see his entrepreneur side and that is definitely in the genes. He says, about his bank, "...if the incorporation is good, than it doesn't have to be bombed!" hmmmm...

Who's "in" for this next year?

Mmmmm...markers!!

This is one of the many times she has eaten some of Atticus' markers or crayons!

Fingerpainting

I have finished my art classes at Atticus' school. It has been a couple long months(nov-jan). At home, Atticus and I have made some masks, crayon disks, and fingerpainting. Of course Cozy is at that age where she wants to be like the big kids and we have let her do projects with us as long as she stops eating them.

Winter Blues= Playdates

We are excited for Spring though this winter has been fun to be indoors and have friends over!

What does COZY do when she can't sleep?

It's nice when your kids can enjoy some of the things you like! I appreciate the fact that both kids like to rock out to U2 in the car and can sing lyrics to Steve Miller band (though "Jungle Love" is "Chocolate Love" and means the song is all about strawberries dipped in chocolate according to Atticus). Other than eating hard boiled eggs for a snack and 100 calorie popcorn minus the diet coke, I do not subject them to ANY evening TV.
Until just recently Cozy has been our greatest sleeper. She has learned the art of fake crying and asking for a drink or she insists on seeing if Atticus is asleep. Just last night, with Benny coming home late, I let her tune into American Idol with me. Besides being tired myself, I was thinking that it may help her vocal performances in the future?! She had a great time!
Photos: COZY applauding the performances, The Judges (Paula is so sweet!), "OH no...He didn't...Simon is so mean!"

Tube'in

About 10 minutes up the mountain is a great little ski resort~ Echo Ridge. They have an awesome groomed hill for tube'in. We have been busy snow shoeing this winter and just got around to trying it out! We discovered that Cozy is a dare devil (after a couple runs she was totally into it) and we already know that Atticus has enough energy for hiking up that hill several times. I finally got the courage to try going on my stomach which is pretty scary with the snow flying in your face. We are discovering that the Chelan area has plenty of fun to offer even in the cold winter months...you just have to get out and do it! Our family motto for this month or goal for the parents is to "Tire the Kids Out!" So far, So good!!
(photos~ Top: no lap chid...everyone has to ride in there own tube for safety reasons so we had to put cozy in her own and hang on to the side of her tube.
Bottom: Me, spinning around like crazy and having a great time!)

I gave him water.....

This is a photo of my companion from my mission Tamara Copeland and The late Prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley. It was 1996 and I was in the visitors center at the Washigton D.C. temple. This was an exciting time to be there with the Christmas Festival of Lights. The prophet was always the first to be invited ahead of time as the key speaker, but this year because of trouble with visas and problems with missionaries preaching in foreign countries the prophet asked if he could come to help bridge some gaps. We were all thrilled to have him there and you could just feel the power and spirit of the type of people in the room. Many dignataries and there families came. I was asked to hand the prophet water after he had given his speech and couldn't help to snap a photo of my companion next to his side. I'm not a shy individual. I felt such a sweet spirit that day not only being able to serve the prophet in such a little way, but being a part of such a great event. I will remember it for the rest of my life.

"Mom, I've met the man I'm going to marry!"

"Mom, I've met the man I'm going to marry!" This is what I called home from florida to tell my mom at age 18. Just having graduated from high school I drove from Utah to Florida with my then 15 year old sister in the black jeep. With my sister at the wheel most of the time (she was a better driver though not licensed) and our brick looking cell phone to call my mom ever chance we got, we were ready for an adventure. I still to this day can't believe my mom let us do that!
So, the adventure continues with our little family out here in no mans land just living life and loving each other.
and so with that, Happy Valentines Day to the MAN I LOVE who....
always gets up with kids and babies in the night, rubs my feet,lets me have the remote sometimes, catches all the Atticus throw-up in his hands like a bowl everytime, finds flowers that somehow "fall off trucks", encourages me to be the "best" in all aspects of my life, laughs at my strange vocabulary "I do not think you mean what you think you mean" ~princess bride, drives an old "battre" truck and likes it, and is MY most handsome valentine cowboy doc in the valley!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO


(The photo was taken at an Indigo Girls concert in Georgia back in the day 1994...we look so tan and young! I was 18 and he was 17 at the time we meet...we will be 10 years married this march and 15 years since we first met this summer)

Icicles

I thought I smelled a bit of spring last week, but then it snowed again. Yesterday as I was doing my everyday stuff in the house I kept hearing crashing sounds like someone was on my roof (Mil, what are you doing up there?). Today Cozy and I went for a little snowshoe hike up to the mountain. The valley was so clear yet the Cascade Mountains looked scary. A huge dark cloud covered them. I could see on the way down through the orchard that all the huge icicles that lined the north side of our house were completely gone. These were icicles that were at least 8 ft and covered our view through the windows.
Now I know I smelled spring!

Packing Peanuts & Snowshoes

Happy Birthday to me....33!

One of the things I cant stand is packing peanuts! My mom sent me a huge box of it (and a few bday gifts)...thanks mom! We decided to let the kids play in it! They loved it and daddy loved cleaning it up all night!
Saturday was the last day of my "birthday week". We had friends over for cupcakes and ice cream! I had a great week filled with naps, gifts, snoeshoe adventures, birthday calls from family and friends & whole wheat blueberry pancakes !

Snowshoes!!

Snowshoes for everyone!

Benny got snowshoes for Christmas and I ended up using them when he was at work. We have a great orchard behind our house that leads up to the mountains and the lake view is just beautiful! So, until my eye surgery I was packing Cozy on my back and using Bennys new shoeshoes! Just this past week I got my own shoeshoes from Benny for my birthday! We decided instead of having Atticus follow in our deep tracks we would get some for him! We are ALL loving the fun we get to have in the snow now and the fact that it tires our kids out!