108.6

Yay! Jacen got 108.6% on his country report on Sweden!

Sweden

No, we're not going to Sweden....at least right now. (We are saving up for it though!) In Jacen's history class, the students were to choose a country to complete a project on. He was to make a visual poster to orally present and also complete a written report. He chose Sweden and was very interested in finding out more information on it and learning more about where our family came from. Jan-Ove and Ingrid (our relatives over there) were kind enough to send some Swedish money to him (which will get him some extra credit). Jacen did a great job and we even made a Swedish dessert for him to sample out to his class.


Jacen is making the Swedish recipe.


Jacen made a type of a apple crumb cake with a vanilla creme sauce. It was delicious!!

Love Boden!

So, have you heard about Boden? They are an online store based out of Great Britain and have very cute clothes. I have been shopping there for a couple of years--just a couple of items here or there or when it's a great sale (and they are practically giving it away!). Mostly I buy things for Linnea because I love to relive my little girlhood through her! Too bad she won't wear half of what I buy her, but my niece gets lots of nearly or even new stuff from us! Anyway, I have exciting news about this place. The other day I got an email from them saying that eight orders placed that day would be complimentary. I had a cute sweater and beret in my online shopping basket so I went ahead and ordered it. Lo and Behold! I was one of the lucky winners! (Too bad I hadn't added those cute leather boots!) This is quite exciting stuff for me though because I am not one of those lucky people that win everything. Growing up I always thought my sister Tera was one of those lucky people. <: Below are the items that I won!

Cumpleanos Feliz!

Albert, you are getting old. Sometimes I feel like we are actually growing up!!
Okay, Albert--funny guy--lose the bunny ears!
Tera and Maila at the restaurant. Every birthday the birthday person gets to pick what restaurant they'd like to go to and Grampa treats us all. We went to El Torito on Cannery Row.
Carter (my sister,Tera's son) and Marilyn (my great-aunt) and Grampa.

We had a fun time celebrating Albert's birthday. We didn't do anything too fancy but had dinner out and Gavin helped me bake a cake. The kids had fun brainstorming and picking out presents for him. We enjoyed celebrating with Tera and Jared and Grampa and Marilyn. Happy Birthday! We love you!!

"Ahoy, me hearty!"

Did you know that today is the International Talk Like a Pirate Day??? Read up about it on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Talk_Like_a_Pirate_Day

This is a picture of the founders of this day!

My sister emailed this to me and I thought it was really funny. I had just recently talked to a friend who told me that in the next life she was going to come back as a husband (she was exhausted and he had been the one who'd gotten a nice, long nap on the Sunday afternoon). It does seem like husbands get the easier end of the deal(not better, but easier). Anyway, a bear sounds pretty nice!!

Our walk turned into another beach episode...

The kids were digging for sand crabs. I remember doing that on this same beach with my grandparents.
I should have gotten an "after" picture of them soaking wet!

Albert was over at Dong's house watching BYU football with the boys, Jacen had just returned from a camping trip and was completely ZONKED out asleep (he woke up that evening and asked, "What day is it?" <: ) so Gavin and Linnea and I were hanging out in the house until we had run out of things to do and needed to get out and get some fresh air. So we decided to go for a nice, little walk. Linnea, in her foresight (what would I do without her?) packed a lunch for us of almonds, water bottles, and apples and we set off. We walked over toward the coastline and somehow ended up at the beach. "Okay kids... we will walk along the sand but let's not get into the water, okay?" So we did. Then... "Okay kids, let's just put our feet in the water. Oh, that feels nice and cool." The kids loved looking for jelly fish and watching the dogs retrieve and watching the surfers catching waves. Then... "Okay, you can go in up to your knees, but that is it!" Pretty soon Gavin was in completely wet in his clothes and soon after Linnea was completely wet too, hair and all. I sat and watched them play for quite a while, actually until the sun started to set. It was so nice to watch them play together--they really play well together. Thank goodness for brothers and sisters! Finally I made them come out of the water and they ate some of Linnea's snack food, shivering all the while. I decided to call Albert (who was home by then) to come and pick us up so that the kids wouldn't have to shiver walking home. We had fun but is it just me that is the mother of all push-overs? We never seem to be able to just walk along the beach. The water is way too inviting. I love it though.

Tea, anyone?

Linnea and her friend that lives across the street had such a sweet tea party--I had to take a picture. All their dolls and animals were lined up around the blanket and tasted real tea with cream and sugar and everything. It's so much fun to be a little girl. Linnea has the American Girl, Felicity, from the time period of about 1774, right before the Revolutionary War. Linnea has read all of the books and has learned so much about that time. A couple of times in class, her teachers have been quite impressed with her knowledge of loyalists and patriots and knowing about the Boston Tea Party. I remember also loving the American Girl books. I feel like I am re-living my childhood through her and the American Girl books and dolls. It's so much fun.

Look what Gavin can do.....

Gavin is a two-wheelin' biker boy! He is having a blast too!! We bought him his new, cool Thomas the Train bike and put it together. We didn't want to put on the training wheels because we thought it would only take a couple of days for him to learn two wheels. I gave him one push and he was OFF! He is now riding with us every morning to take Linnea to school and back again to ride and pick her up. We are going on one to two hour bike rides every day and he is doing great! And if you are familiar with PG, we do have some hills. We have some nice pretty flat streets that we ride and when we ride the hills, he does great at that and is building his little muscles up nicely. We are so excited for Gavin.




These pictures are from yesterday. We rode bikes down to the grocery market and hardware store and passed this cute little wishing well on the way by city hall and stopped to make a wish and take a few pictures.

Farewell 'Till Next Time...

We had so much fun this weekend with a last minute visit from Grama and Grampa Sirman and Jennifer and her three children and spending time with Tera and Jared and their family as well. We walked and rode bikes along the beach, played on the beach, boogie boarded, played at the park, had a great bonfire--cooking hot dogs and smores, and just had a blast. We love our family and love to get together. It's so fun to see the cousins have so much fun together. All the little things mean so much. Albert melts every time Haley comes up to give him a big hug. Linnea was so happy that Sydney taught her a new song on the piano. Jacen enjoys being idolized by the younger children. Linnea likes playing the "big sister" role with sydney and helping Will with something he is doing. We are so grateful for our family.

Fashion Girls

Linnea's cousin, Sydney, spent a couple of nights with us visiting from southern California. We had so much fun with Sydney--she's such a special girl. The girls had a blast playing fashion show while I clicked away with the camera. Unfortunately most of my pictures are blurry. I think my camera is about to the end of its rope, sadly. But two pictures turned out and captured the excitement of the evening. I'm so glad that my kids can have cousins to play with and have so much fun with!