Boredom is a sign of a weak mind!

Many years ago I heard the saying "Boredom is a sign of a weak mind" and it has been a saying that I think of often when I hear someone is bored. Including my own children.  I want them to create games of their own, be adventurous and think outside the box.  They are pretty good at it, especially during the times when it is just too yucky to play outside.

So today, in effort to do something silly, Alaina walks to our bedroom closet and decides to see if she can climb to the top shelf to hide from Ariana.  At the top of the shelf were Beth's many purses she has collected over the years so Alaina had to get those out of the way, so she tossed them on the floor.  Alaina did make it to the top, but not exactly where she wanted to end up.  She decided that she was not going to make it - so she curled up like a cat!  I'll give her points for being adventurous.

Now while Alaina was being adventurous, Clarissa gets points for creativity!

She decided to take advantage of all of mommy's purses and get decked out!  Isn't she just stylish?

So the next time you are bored....visit your bedroom closet!

Ariana gets a new look!

Well it isn't a big surprise, another kiddo can't see without glasses.

She's a cutie!

Zoo Lights!

We moved to the Portland area 8 years ago and we have still yet to visit lots of places that are nearby. But one of them we can finally check off the list. Portland Zoo's "Zoolights". I love Christmas, and I love to go look at lights so I turned into a littleboy again and had a great time with my precious girls. They loved Zoo-lights and to see the pure joy and amazement on their faces definitely warmed up my heart on the 40ish degree night (and thankfully...no rain!!!)

We even treated the girls

to the train, every time we go to the zoo they want to ride the train,

but I knew I was saving it for this night.

Apparantly the train line can get quite long, cause we zoomed passed the barriers that they made for the line, and got on very quick. Well it was a fun ride and it showed us quickly what we were about to embark on, which made me even more excited.

After getting off the train we immediately set to find the one place

that was filled with lights, it was beautiful all along the way.

Here's the place we saw, that was amazing. It had animated alligators that opened their mouth, a bird that flew in and catching a fish, and elephants that sprayed colorful water out of their trunks...it was beautiful.

Now while we were in search of this particular spot, Ari kept requesting to go see the lights that looks like a tower. I had no idea what she was talking about, but kept looking up, hoping we find it. She wanted to see it so bad.

Well after nearly two hours of aweing, we knew it was time to go. Little people were, tired, hungry and some didn't wear appropriate shoes. All wereupset and crying, so we headed out, and on our

way out Ari shouted "The Tower!, We found it" I had given up and it was not at all anything I was looking for. Turns out it was the very first thing she saw from the bridge when you first enter in and overlook the park. She just wanted to see it again.

We didn't go to this little adventure alone, we invited some great friends from church

and we were glad to share the memories with them.

If you haven't gone personally to the zoolights, check them out, it was great fun!

Here are some more pictures of our awesome fun!

Check out Alaina's new look!

To no surprise, since Beth and I are super blind, Alaina is now sporting her first pair of glasses! She looks really cute in them. Don't you think?

It's official! Alaina is now on wheels!

Thanks to her super awesome Uncle Ben, and her loving grandparents, Alaina has a new bike! Ben found a super steal of a deal on a kids bike just the right size for Alaina, on Craigslist. And her cool grandparents footed the bill.

Alaina has been itching to learn how to ride her bike, but her bike was getting too small for her, and her confidence level was not that high. With a little encouraging and the excitement of getting a new bike, oh and finally a place that we feel is suitable for practicing, she is finally riding her bike on her own!

I got a text from Beth while at work with the shocking news that she finally mastered balancing the bike and pedalling at the same time. I was anxious to get home from work, and she was anxious to share her achievement with me.

When I got home she was so excited, that she mentioned to me that she cannot wait for "Take your daughter to work" day so that she can ride her bike to work with me. Very sweet! I bike to work and back, but who knows where I will be next April but Im happy she'll be riding with me on other adventures, most likely shorter ones!

Here is a video too of her riding the bike in our driveway!

Should I keep our blog updated or not?

Wow! It's been a year since an official blog! Facebook took over in my updates there, but many don't have Facebook still, so should I still update this blog? Let me know!

Easter 2009

The girls could not wait for Easter to arrive.  They woke up very, very early to look for the easter baskets.  I missed the whole thing.  I went to bed at 1:30 am that morning, otherwise I would have been up to see their excitement with camera in hand.

Here's a picture of the easter baskets, without the stash!  They loved them!

After our Easter gathering at Sherwood Community c of c, 

we went to Beth's aunt's home in Vancouver, Washington.  

Aunt Kim couldn't resist getting the girls matching bunny ears. 

Here's Alaina sporting her groovy bunny ears!  Thanks Aunt Kim!

Clarissa Joy and Mommy!

Arianna posing her new ears off too!

There were plenty of eggs at this hunt, Alaina filled up her basket twice!

Arianna did better this year.  She actually understood what was happening!  

Clarissa was on the sidelines watching!

Near the end of the evening, I wanted to get some photos of the girls in their matching dresses.

And so did everyone else.  There were flashes going off everywhere. 

It was as if they were on the red carpet.  It was fun!

The girls wanted to cuddle and hug after the papparazi finished!

Of all the pictures taken, I finally got all of them to look at me at the same time.  

I have beautiful girls!  I love them so much!