November

Cute David.

Zach earned this month's "character trait" award for his classroom: Responsibility

The 5th graders are on a big kick of learning to crochet, so Nicholas is teaching Zach and Brooke this new talent.  Zach has already made several crocheted Christmas ornaments and I foresee many crocheted Christmas gifts!

We love it when Jon Schmidt comes to perform in Hillsboro!  Usually, I take one of the boys and see him, but this time I took Mike, Nicholas, and Zach.  We also bought one of his piano books and had him sign it.

David loves to help in the kitchen - here he is mixing the pancake batter.

Nicholas earning some beads at the last Cub Scout Pack Meeting.

Terribly blurry picture, but I wanted to include Zach getting some Cub Scout beads too.

The row of Cub Scouts.

Finally cleaning up the 4-day Monopoly game!

October



Helping Brooke with the piano.

 We had a beautiful sunny day so I took Brooke and David to the Oregon Zoo.

David and Brooke getting up close and personal with a sea lion. 

We love watching the elephants!

Watching the lions through the glass.

Brooke being so daring!

Bald eagles.

 Then off to our 2nd annual trip to Great Wolf Lodge with a bunch of friends:

Brooke and David waiting for the waterslides to open in the morning.

Nicholas liked the basketball court.

Brooke did well crossing the unstable lily pads.

Zach did too.

 The kids spent a lot of time on the waterslides too, but those are hard to get pictures of.

Time to carve pumpkins!

Brooke and Nicholas wanted to carve theirs, David and Zach enjoyed painting instead.

Cute little pumpkins!
We didn't have time to go to a pumpkin patch this year, so I just picked up the pumpkins at Winco.

Pikachu (Pokemon character - Zach), Hunny Pot (David), witch (Brooke), Phantom (Nicholas)

This witch found Dorothy (Brooke's good friend, Sarya) out trick-or-treating!

Happy Halloween!

September

Mike had a Young Mens activity on my birthday, so we sent the kids to Grandma's house and I went on the hike to Punch Bowl Falls with Mike and the boys. It was a perfect day for a hike and the falls are beautiful.

Mike and I with the falls behind us:

more falls:

Here's our group next to a really tall cliff: Mike, Dillon, Jodi, Sean, Ben, Conner, Hunter, Adam, Ammon, Skyler, Spencer

The boys getting ready to jump off the 15-foot cliff:

And here I go.....!!!

Brrrrr...... FREEZING COLD! swim fast! swim fast!

On the way home we picked up a pizza, a pie, and then picked up the kids to celebrate my birthday:

(No, I'm not 35, Mike did add 3 more candles - can you tell?)

Ukrainian bag, baskets, and potholder from my parents:

AND my very own ipod! Look at all the happy smiles on the kids! They can be bribed with about anything for time on the ipod. (When I let a kid be the photographer, I get 1/2 my face cut off in the picture. Oh well.)

On Labor Day we had a picnic at a nearby park with some friends. Here is David giving his good buddy, Kai a ride:

Labor Day barbecue with Dixons, Braithwaites, Mortensons, Podwys, Noels, and Keannaainas:

First day of school! Look at Nicholas and Zach's forced excitement:

Brooke's first day of kindergarten was a couple days later:

Nicholas and Zach tried hard to share in her enthusiasm:

Brooke waiting at the bus stop with her good friend and neighbor, Elliana:

Elliana's brother, Oliver, with Nicholas and Zach:

Getting on the bus:

Brooke waving from the bus window:

Mike in his new suit that actually fits him since he lost 35 pounds:

Neighborhood buddies: David, Paige, Brooke, Dante, and Sarya:

Kai and David playing one of their favorite things- marbles on a car track:

August 2011

As soon as we got home from The Big Trip, Brooke was so happy to see her pillow pet and some of her favorite toys:
We finished up July with David turning 3 and Nicholas turning 10 one day apart from each other. David gets so happy whenever he sees his "D." He points it out to us whenever he can.

David got a new bike for his birthday!
David likes to say "I'm these manys!" while holding up 3 fingers:

Nicholas spent his birthday doing his favorite things: lounging in his pajamas and whooping his dad in a game of Monopoly with a can of Root Beer at his side:

Nicholas got to choose what we did that day: swimming at the pool with the family and his good friend, Warren, out to dinner with mom and dad at Old Country Buffet and then Dessert Bars instead of birthday cake. I also let him put as many candles as he wanted on it (15) and light them himself.

How about that mischevious grin in the background?

We decided to hike Neahkahnie Mountain one day because we heard there is a fabulous view of the beach from the top! Here's a picture of David, Mike, Brooke, and Zach at the top and we got a great view of the fog. I guess we picked a bad day for that hike.

We had great weather, though, at the Washington County Fair!

David loved the rides too:

Almost as much as Brooke did! Brooke needed an adult to ride this with her so we found an older girl in line to sit by her:

We could hardly pull her away from the crazy rides! But she and David did love riding this little roller coaster:

Zach and I went on this bigger roller coaster:

August

Zach went to Cub Scout Day Camp for the first time. He's in the green hat trying his best to beat the older kid in the obstacle course:

Zach on the far right doing archery:

And in the middle with the BB gun:

Putting together a small shelter:

Back on the obstacle course (green hat):

The firemen came and demonstrated the "jaws of life" by cutting apart a metal cart, which the boys thought was so cool. The boys in his group are Canden, Peng, Joe, Zach, Nathan, and Sean (I got to go and help out that day too.):

I decided to be brave and took the kids to the beach without Mike. It's an hour and 20 minute drive and is usually an all day affair that I don't feel comfortable doing without him, but summer would be over before he would be able to go so we took Grandma and met a couple friends there too. (OK, so I'm not brave enought to go totally alone.) And what a beautiful day!

Brooke and her good buddy, Gavin:

Intel hosts an annual summer party for their employees and families. This includes face painting (Brooke is wearing a butterfly), a clown with balloon twisting:

Sumo wrestling (Zach on the right):

Kate and Nicholas:

pony rides:

lots of food, mini-golf, electronics center (Rock Band, Wii, etc.), volleyball, train rides, HUGE waterslide, bounce houses, electric cars, basketball tournaments, swimming, rock wall climbing, and lots of prizes. We love Intel!

Here's Nicholas with his good buddies Joe and Warren (and David) being silly:

Nicholas and Joe went to a basketball camp for a week and learned some good ball handling skills. Three teenage brothers host the camp in their driveway. Here's Nicholas getting an award from one of the coaches:

Zach got baptized! He was the first child to be baptized in our new stake center:

Zach was the only child in our ward to get baptized in August and after the combined opening with the other kids in the stake, we went to the font room where Mike baptized him and then to another room where I spoke on the Holy Ghost and the bishop welcomed him into the ward. Quite simple, yet very beautiful. A few families from the ward came to support him.

Our family with Grandma:

Mike and I flew to Salt Lake City for Luke (my brother) and Jessica's wedding. Jessica received her endowments the day before in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. Mike and I, LaRene and Kent, mom and dad and some of Jessica's family were able to be there with her for her endowments:

We were all in awe how you can see 2 other temples without leaving the Oquirrh Mountain temple grounds! You just don't get that many temples so close by outside of Utah.

It was extra special to have my parents there because not only was my dad their sealer, but this was the 2nd wedding this summer my parents had to get permission from Church Headquarters to leave their mission in Ukraine to come back to the States.

Luke and Jessica had an amazing photographer:

All but 2 of my siblings were able to come to the wedding and some had to leave spouses at home.

(left to right) Rusty, Mike, Kate, mom, dad, Kent, LaRene, Ben

(bottom row) Adam, Michelle, Luke, Jessica, Lauren, Jon:

Between the wedding and reception some of us had time to go to the Kennecott Copper Mine which wasn't too far away. Here's an understatement: It was HUGE!

It's an open mine, 2nd largest copper producer in the U.S. and provides 25% of the U.S.'s copper supply. Do you see those little tiny trucks down there?

They really aren't that tiny. They are the size of a house and this is the size of one wheel:

Adam, Jon (holding Lily), Mike, Rusty, and Ben with a $25,000 tire that only lasts 9 months.

And of course Mike and Rusty having fun decorating the couple's car:

And a big thanks to the McKibbens, Podwys, and Cannons for watching our kids while we were gone!

Last 2 random pictures: sleeping kids are just so cute!

David:

Brooke: