A day in the life at home

I've found that some days (definitely not all) can actually work out really nice and by the end of the day I feel like I did my job as a mom and my kids responded well and we all just got along nicely. (These are usually followed by a couple of days that make me question my aptitude for being a parent, so please don't think that I live a relative life of ease...)

A nice day: A couple of days ago we (me and the 2 kids) went to 5 stores on errands plus making a $ deposit at an ATM and no one freaked out (not even me...), Fern fell asleep for her nap peacefully in less than 10 minutes while Henry quietly played in his room without interrupting, made a jacket for baby penguin together with Henry telling me how he wanted it (a simple fleece cloaklike thing with a hood, button and ribbon "belt"), made dinner and everyone liked it and ate it (pizza...kind of hard to go wrong...), then Caleb put the kids to bed (this is what usually happens--very nice to have him be the bedtime person at the end of the day; even a good day!)

So glad that I have some of both days (well, not so much the frustrating ones...) so I can truly appreciate the happy times and silly memories. (I guess even the soap incident isn't so bad a couple days after...)

2 weeks worth here

So we have lot to go over here, so pay attention! Ok good!
So 9 days ago (Fri) we left Woodinville to go over to my parents house. We spent the night and the next afternoon we left to drive to Utah. I know what you are thinking "Wow! they're brave!" Well you would think either brave or foolhardy, but in the end my children did exceptionally well. While we were down there we spent time together as Bros. We have alot of fun! We saw my and sis, and cousins got to see each other and we got to see our Aunts and Uncles and My grandparents Hulse. We ran down to Provo (in the middle of a storm to see Lyn's Grandpa and parents. That was fun, Man you shoulda seen the look on her moms face when she opened the door to see us - Awesome! It was Grandpa Hulses 80th B-day so we had a celebration. The truth is that he is not doing so well in his battle against cancer and we don't think that he'll be with us much longer. I am really sad to see him like this and I will miss him. But I am thankful for the knowledge that I will see him again in the afterlife and that we can be together as a family. Any how, Monday on the way back they read and played for nearly 11 hours without any fuss. So as a reward we let them watch Disney's Fantasia on my laptop. They could have made it the whole way with out, but I thought that it would be a nice reward for them. I really don't understand why parents put in DVDs for their kids when they are going across town, or even a few hours away. Haven't they read that TV is the suspected cause of ADHD? TV really does rot the brain!
The weather here has been incredible, sunny and mid-50's for most of the week. Friday Lyn and I went to the NW Flower and Garden Show.(w/o kids, thanks to our dear friend Laura) It was downtown so we took the bus. We (I) had alot of fun seeing fresh new landscapes and cool new plants. Afterward we went to the Westin Hotel to the Coldwater Grill for a VERY fancy meal. (we had a buy 1 get 1 free coupon) It was probably THE fanciest meal we have ever had. Super classy! As we ate we realized that we had missed Valentines the week before, so this was our V-day. I proposed to Lyn 10 years ago!!!!! Wow time flies.

Yesterday we decided to go Hiking. We went over to Issaquah to a place called Poopoo Point. It was a 1.5 mile hike with a 1,500 foot elevation gain. At the top you could see for 70 miles And we had an unobstructed view of Mt Rainier. Henry hiked the whole thing by himself AND had energy to run around chasing a Frisbee afterwards. At the top is where Paragliders jump off. After we had been there for 45 min a truckload of them came up. One by one they set up their chutes and flew off. It was really cool. We had such a nice day. Today we are kinda sore, this being our first hike of the season (and I had to carry Fern on my back the whole way) I think that we will do the hike more often. I have set a goal to Summit Mt. Rainier in the summer of 2010. So I need to get in shape.
Well that's it for now. Remember to leave a comment so that you can continue to enjoy entertainment like this for free [pledge drive voice]

Fun in the sun-ish

We got to see the sun a bit this week, so we went exploring this week. On Tuesday we went to the UW Arboretum where we watched squirrels, ran around, had lunch, climbed trees, looked at pinecones, clams, dogs, saw two adult eagles and a Goshawk (according to Bird Expert Sandy Tidwell (B.E.S.T.))
On Wednesday we went to the Orca park (a water park during the summer--thank goodness the water is shut off now...) Henry liked going there. His favorite part was the giant orca that you could climb on and he wants to go back here when it is summer and the water is on.
On Saturday we went on a drive up above North Bend. Henry: "I like to go off-roading in mud and snow." Neither me (Lyn) or Henry much liked driving past the road washouts...but it was neat to see the river and how far up it got during all the flooding a couple of weeks ago. The road was quite bumpy, but Fern went right to sleep on the way up and the way back...I wouldn't call it a "gentle" rocking motion, but whatever! Naps are great.
We pulled over and spent some time throwing rocks in the river--quite a relaxing pasttime.

Henry would like to add that he likes to go to parks. We are planning to explore parks this spring/summer and go to a different one each week--there are a lot of parks up here. Hopefully it will be a nice summer this year so we can go back to the Orca park with water and not freeze :)

January wrap-up

In our New Year's resolution to update the blog weekly, we only lasted two weeks...how is that for commitment?...I think the spirit of it was just to do better, so here we are :)

January 13-20--mom and dad Tidwell came up to visit. We had many fun adventures, including going to the zoo, taking the bus and monorail to the Seattle Center, going to see Snoqualmie Falls ;) (which we didn't actually SEE, but we heard them...there was too much icy fog). It was nice for the kids to read books and play with gma and gpa--also nice to have their organizational assistance...really, they enjoy doing that kind of stuff--yea!!!

Notice Fern's wardrobe choices...SHE chose it! Also, she is trying to feed the jaguar her cheese stick. I think he may be more interested in the colorful little girl...MMmmm

You can't really see where this was taken, but it was at the butterfly house at the Pacific Science Center. Caleb was able to get off work and meet us. If anybody wants to come up and visit us, we will take you there--it is really neat! It's always warm and sunny in there...can't guarantee that Seattle as a whole will be that way...

January 20-24--mom Nelson stayed with us while dad Nelson was in the hospital. Long story short: he need to have his upper and lower jaws detached and then relocated in a better position. It took 2 surgeons 8 hours to reconstruct... He now faces 6 weeks of a liquid diet and then 6 weeks of a soft food diet, but at least he will be losing a lot of weight...kind of a rough way to do it though. Caleb and mom had a mother-son date in downtown Seattle and had a really fun time going to the market and having lunch and walking through the city.

This is just a pretty picture of Ferny playing with bubbles. I was in the other room--I don't know what I was doing, but I walked into the bathroom and see Fern with her headband and bubbles to the top of the sink...they were having so much fun and giggling. I was going to be frustrated, but they were so cute so instead I just took their picture--they will be grown up too soon anyhow.

OK, that's about all. Until next week...or month...how about "next time" :)

Short, but Sweet (ish)

This week we went out to dinner TWICE, yes I know... that's a lot but Monday when we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory, they were having a special where they had the same prices as they did 40 years ago since this is their 40th Anniversary. Friday When we went to Photai we all shared 2 meals. We went there before we went to see the Christmas lights at Bellevue Botanical Garden. They were pretty cool, But kinda one of those "ya seen 'em once, ya seen 'em..." type deals.
As for other big deals: I finally signed up on Facebook! It is pretty cool the way you can meet people that you knew in the past or share things with people that you already know. Plus It feels really cool to see that people want to be your friend! (said with a silly, self deprecating tone)
I am really getting tired of the dreary Seattle weather, it is absolutely gloomy over here. Oh well. The coming week is forecast to be partly cloudy to sunny and 50 degrees--sounds great! You can't see much of the snow left from this last month--just a couple of chunks in the street.

Here is a shot of Ferny sledding down the neighbor's driveway--both Henry and Fern loved sledding in the snow. I'm glad to have the slushy aftermath gone :)

Well I have been doing a really lousy job at blogging this last little bit (OK, 2 months!) so I will put forth an earnest effort to be more consistent with my posts. At the very least I will post a picture (because, as you know, a picture is worth a thousand words!)
First pics are of Henry's Birthday party on Dec 16th. We had a good time. Thanks to everyone for sending cards and gifts.
Next is Christmas time. We had record breaking amounts of snow here. It kept snowing day after day. At the height of it, we had more than 24 inches! I haven't worked in a months due tothe economy and the weather, so we have been sledding and building snowmen and snow tunnels. I have been playing "cooking" with Fern and cars with Henry.
We had a "black and white" Christmas: white because of the snow on the ground and black because the power was off all of Christmas day! We still had a lot of fun.
For New Years we went to my parents house in eastern WA. The pass was icy and was not a fun drive. Once we got there we had grat time andate tons and tons of great food. I Don't know why the computer is underlining everything, but I can not turn it off!! I hate computers. We went bowling with my Fam, and that was pretty fun. I think out of 7 people Henry got 3rd place!

About the new Family Picture: This is and 8x8' mural that I have been painting for the last 6 months. I felt that my dinning room wall was too blah. I have put nearly 75 hours into it. It is painted in Interoir Latex! (well I can find it in relativly large quantities for free) This painting is based on a realization that I had during the Preisthood Session confernce last spring. I had been searching for my place in the universe; how I fit in. Then I realized that I have my own universe that I fit into just fine, and that no other meaning can/will be more meaningful. I am grateful for hte Gospel and the knowledge of the eternal nature of the family. My univese will last forever.

Any way Happy New Year to everybody!