choosy girls choose asiago

Scoochy has a discriminating palate. For instance, she prefers dijon over "regular" mustard and Chili's kids' pizzas taste like "cardboard." If there's one thing she adores, it is the combination of asiago cheese and bread. Whenever someone is going to the store and asks if anyone needs anything, Scoochy pipes up with, "Asiago bread!"

I decided to indulge her and bought her a $6 wedge of asiago and told her she could make her own bread. She did and those three lovely and absolutely delicious loaves were the product of her labors. Bravo, Scooch!

the 8th of Princess Cutie Pops

Our Princess Cutie Pops turned eight. She chose red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and poinsettia decorations. We had fun putting them together and the entire house smelled of cinnamon gum.

The hoard.

We got her ears pierced for our present and knowing this in advance, Nana and Papa got her five pairs of earrings! Now she just has to wait six weeks before she can wear them.

As usual, a great present from our friends.

Her siblings got her a pair of "real crocs" in her favorite color.

san antonio zoo time

Night of the Doughnut

8 kids + 2 types of melted chocolate + powdered sugar + sprinkles + dozens of doughnuts = one messy, fun and delicious time

When Dug was traveling, I decided (I still have no idea why) to have our friends come over and eat doughnuts with us. Don't get me wrong, it was super-duper yummy and way too much fun, but I was sweeping multicolored sprinkles off my kitchen floor for weeks!

In this picture, you'll notice Dodge has apparently become side-tracked from his job. Yashel is more nose-to-the-grindstone while still enjoying a mouthful of freshly deep-fried yumminess.

PCPops and Woozy aren't quite as careful as their siblings. I think their plan goes something like this: one finger of chocolate spread on doughnut...one for my tummy...one for the doughnut...

If Fuzzy Bee wasn't so covered in chocolate, you'd think he was posing for the children's version of GQ.

Realizing there's no prettifying a powdered-sugar-face, Scoochy fully embraces her inner doughnut monster.

Sally, my co-conspirator, enjoying the fruits of our labor. (Actually the labor part -i.e. cleanup- hasn't even started yet in this picture.)

A new addition!

It's spring and we've got new life sprouting in the Shnozberry Patch! This update is horribly late, but anyone with a newborn can understand how superfluous things like blogs and showers are pushed aside and the necessities like food and clean underwear take up the spare moments that aren't in demand by a wee bairn weighing less than a gallon of milk.

So without further ado, let me present my sweet darling, the e.m.p.:

She was born 4 April, 2009, coming in at the perfect weight of 7lbs 2 oz. She took four hours once she decided it was her time to arrive. And we have fallen irrevocably in love.

Dodge and the Board

Dodge has been working hard on his boarding. Stuff like the ever-impressive Not Falling Off and hard-to-master Riding Over Bumpy Terrain. He's even been semi-successful in a few traditionals like Ollies and Manuals. Above, we've captured a successful I-Don't-Know-If-It-Even-Has-A-Name-But-Gosh-Darn-It-I'm-Proud-Of-Him maneuver.

I just had to add this one of Scoochy. It was just too gosh darn cute.

It's the Zoo at San Antone!

Now that Nana and Poppa live so close, we get to visit them almost every time Dug goes away on a business trip. Nana and Poppa got a year pass to the zoo in which they put their grandkids on for free. (And me for a little bit extra.) Yippee! The San Antonio Zoo is now one of our go-to destinations!

Here, Tank is carefully plotting our course. He wanted the map and was very upset if anyone tried to take it from him.


For a short while PCPops got to lead the way. She studied the map very carefully and in the end, walked wherever we led.


My philosophy at the zoo (especially when we can come back whenever we want) is to let the kids set the pace and stop whenever they find something they're interested in. These parrots were Tank's favorite exhibit. When we were leaving (Well, to be honest, we were shooed out because the zoo had closed.) the parrots were no longer in their exhibit. Tank was very concerned and thought someone had stole them or they had escaped. "Where are the parrots? They're gone! What happened to them? They're gone!" We had to have a zoo official reassure him that they had just been put in their cages to sleep for the night.

We only had a few quarters but there seemed to be those "Feed The Animals" vending machines everywhere. The kids got quite adept at looking around the base of the machine for the nuggets that had been dropped. Scoochy is feeding some fish with one of the few non-scavenged handfuls we managed to provide.

One moment earlier, Tank had found the hidden frog.



This red-ruffed lemur had the most piercing eyes. Just had to let you see him.

Have statue. Will climb.
I think it is one of the stupidest things ever when people/organizations/etc put a very climb-able metal statue at kids level, leave out the fence and then post a little sign (so it won't interfere with the view of the artwork) that says, "Please don't climb on the statue." Luckily for us, the San Antonio Zoo is not stupid.

Last but not least, I managed to get a shot off of the very elusive Poppatus Vidcamerus. He seemed to follow us everywhere we went and only with very quick, highly trained movements was I able to catch him at his own game.

Turning 4!

Tank turned four in the middle of October. It was a full month for birthdays. Dug had to travel so much that he missed my, Dodge's and Tank's birthday. Luckily Nana and Poppa live only 3.5 hours away now and we got to spend my and Tank's with them.


Here's the birthday boy. He asked for a rainbow cake. I was so thankful. Not much to look at, but the little guy was happy and that is all that counts.


To make his birthday exciting (and to try to hide the fact that we didn't wrap anything) we hid all his presents around the house. Brother Dodge began the hunt with hiding his Phlat Ball present in the couch. Very quickly we realized that Tank didn't understand how to play "Hot, Cold." Dodge patiently taught him as best he could.


PCPops hid her gumball machine in the pantry. She was so excited for him to find it so Tank could "see how it worked and maybe share." When this pic was snapped, he still hadn't quite figured out what it was. Once big sis explained it, though, it was "super cool."

Scoochy and Tank are astride her present, a rather large T-Rex. When she asked if she could get it for him, I looked at what I thought was the price and said, "Sure, $9.99 is under your $10 limit." I don't know what I was looking at. When we finally had everyone's present picked out and we were running late to meet up with Poppa, I was hurrying through the check-out hoping Tank wouldn't escape Nana's "distraction techniques." The checker rang up said dinosaur and up popped $19.99!! In normal circumstances there is no way I would fork out $20 bucks for a big dino, but I was hurried, a little tired and feeling a bit pushover-y. Tank was so thankful for my fragile state. He loved his new "Bigfoot."


(Sorry mom and dad for having to post this goofy picture of you.) Tank's favorite present by far was his new bike from Nana and Poppa. How could he not love that thing? This present, above all others, pushed him from babydom to Big Boy-hood.


When we asked him what he wanted for his birthday, Tank's first answer was "a horse," in which we had to explain the difficulties and expense of such a large animal. When we realized he meant a stick horse, it all became possible. As soon as he saw his horse, he was galloping away. (Helps that a button on his ear makes a galloping noise.)

And here are the crazy four, happy. Which makes mommy happy. :-) In case you're wondering, we had cake and presents on two separate days, which would account for their wardrobe changes. Presents, of course, were on the actual birthday. Cake was suspended a day.

Bolhas, Gelado e Divertimento

(hopefully the title is portuguese for bubbles, ice cream and fun)

I know I'm so delinquent on this blog. You'll forgive me, I know.

This post should have been written the last week in July. Now that I should be showing pictures of leaves falling and pumpkin patches, you're getting an eyeful of ice cream and sunshine. Also, we're in Houston and these are in Oregon. Oh well.

At the end of July my beloved college roommate Heidi and her beautiful family came up from Brazil to visit the States. She went to Brazil for a college thing, met a handsome pastor, married the chap and now lives in the Amazon changing lives. While they were here, the kids got to play with their two children for the afternoon. We had fun goofing around and even learning a little Portuguese.

Here is Sarah. The kids were so excited when they figured out that if they were wet they could actually hold the bubbles.

Tim tries to stretch the bubble to its limits. Major difference between boys and girls. The boys were all putting the bubbles to the test. The girls were decorating themselves with them.

Scoochy and Sarah with their bubble buddies. Unfortunately, right before I snapped the picture, Sarah's buddy popped.

Concurrently with the bubble machine we had the sprinklers on. It wasn't quite warm enough for the Brazilians, but to the Oregonians, if the sun is out, it's warm enough.

Ice cream time! Tim enjoyed a cone while patiently answering the kids'questions. For instance:

Scoochy: How do you say green?
Tim: In Portuguese? (he always asked that, it made me laugh)
Scoochy: Yeah.
Tim: Verch. (yeah, I know that's not how it's spelled, I'm doing it phonetically, k?)
Scoochy: Verch?
Tim: Yeah.

Princess Cutie Pops enjoying her cone. Man, just look at that hair. It is such a pretty color.

The whole group drying out from the sprinklers, enjoying some ice cream and some warming rays in the only bit of grass that isn't wet.

Okay, I included this one because I am amazed at how handsome and old this boy is getting. Sorry, total mom-bragging but I couldn't help it. It is one of those "Wow!" pictures that you take every once in a while and they actually turn out.