Bean Blog

Random Pictures

2010-06-14T13:00:00.001-07:00

Jason holding Joey. This is the first time he ever wanted to hold Joey. He was very proud of himself.

Joey riding a toy truck. I always thought he looked like a doll. Here Jeff's playing with him like he is.

A few months ago Jeff set up a game computer just for Jason (well, and the other kids) in the toy room so I could get on my computer some of the time. Jason was sooooo excited. He had to have puppy watch him play, so he brought in a separate chair just for puppy. He looks pretty happy here.

More to come soon. (I hope!)

Joey

2010-04-05T11:41:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a year since I've updated my blog. Being pregnant and having a new baby on top of three other kids will do that. So here I've dedicated a post to each kid. Let's start with Joey.

I think the little guy put on a ton of weight over night. Suddenly one day he was chubby (at least for one of my babies.) For the first time I have a baby in the 50th percentile. Here's some evidence.

Here's a before shot.

OK. You can't really tell anything from this before shot, but I loved it.

These were taken five days later.

And these a week after the first shot. He really doesn't look very chubby in these pictures, but if you look carefully, you can see some rolls on his legs and arms. :)

He was done with pictures by this time and kind of cranky. But I was able to get one more good shot.

He's very serious. Right after a bath and ready for a nap.

Jason

2010-04-05T11:33:00.000-07:00

Jason was in dire need of some new chuch clothes. This little outfit was on sale, so I bought it. He'll agree that he is so handsome in his new outfit.

Katie

2010-04-05T11:20:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I took Katie out to buy some new shoes and I decided to get her ears pierced while we were out. She was sooooooo excited! Here's the earrings and the shoes.

Nathan

2010-04-05T11:09:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I went to the school to pick up the kids from school. I saw Nathan coming from a distance and I wondered what was on his face. As he got closer I wondered what had happened to him. Luckily, I remembered that during school that day they had artists from all around the area come to show the kids their craft. Among the group was a face painter.

Nathan was chosen as the only boy from his class to get his face painted. He chose to become a zombie. It looked really scary from a distance. When Jeff came home from work, Nathan was on the computer and Jeff was talking to him. I asked him if he noticed anything different about Nathan. Jeff's first thought was that Nathan had gotten in a fight.

I found the whole image so disturbing that at dinner I couldn't look at him or I'd lose my appetite. I couldn't even look at the kid while I was talking to him.

He of course loved it and was not happy when I made him wash it off before bed. At least we have the picture!

Fun with the Buttars

2009-06-19T13:51:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, our really good friends the Buttars moved away. We were so excited they came back to visit us a few months back. Here are a few pictures from their trip. There will be more coming.

They came over General Conference weekend. We had some friends, the Byes, come over too. All the kids were outside playing between sessions and they congregated on the bench in our back yard. We had to take a picture. This is all the kids but the oldest two Nathan and Alex who we couldn't tear away from the Wii.

The next day we went to the arboretum at the University of Washington. All the cherry blossoms were out and it was a beautiful day. This is how the kids entertained themselves while we got everything out of the cars.

Here are some of the cherry blossom trees.

There were lots of sticks and kids love to play with sticks. Here they all have their favorites.

Katie with her best buddy Brooke Buttars

Me, Tiernae Buttars, and Heidi Bye

Jeff's Birthday

2009-06-18T15:58:00.000-07:00

I haven't been very good at updating my blog lately. I'm painfully behind on the books I've read and I may never be able to remember everything I've read. Oh well. Here's some pictures from Jeff's birthday.

Notice the 3 1/2 candles. (One is pushed half way down.) That's one for every decade.

Basketball

2009-05-26T12:32:00.000-07:00

Nathan played his first year of basketball this year. Jeff and I being the wonderful parents that we are, once again forgot to take our camera to any of the games. So instead we took pictures of him after the last game with a basketball. That's close enough to same thing don't you think?

Isn't he a good looking kid?

Christmas card?

2009-05-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

This picture was meant to be our Christmas card this year, but I never got it sent out. So for those of you that are mad at me because you didn't get a card, you can take comfort in knowing that you aren't the only ones mad at me. :)

Anyway, I thought I'd post it here for any of you who are interested. I'd hate for all that work to go in vain. Now you can print this out and have your very own Christmas card from the Beans!

Random pictures that I never posted

2009-04-21T12:26:00.000-07:00

These are quite old, but they're cute enough to put out there.

These are back from soccer season. My least favorite part about my kids in sports is what to do with the other kids while the one is playing. I want to watch the one play, but the other two usually don't cooperate. This day I took a break from watching Nathan play soccer to take Jason and Katie to the nearby playground.

Here's Jason getting some Halloween candy. He had to store his sword someplace!

As most of you know, Jason has a stuffed puppy that he must have with him at all times. He LOVES puppy! One day he brought me a blanket and told me that puppy was cold. So I wrapped up puppy and Jason held him tight to keep him warm. He takes very good care of puppy.

And finally, I found Jason like this one day watching TV. He could be the poster child for gluttony with these pictures. He loves Cheetos!

Don't miss the cheetos all over his face!

Flooding in Duvall

2009-04-10T12:39:00.000-07:00

There are basically only four roads in and out of Duvall. Duvall is kind of built in the valley of a mountain so all the snow melt and rain rushes down into our valley. That along with the rivers in the valley means that there is a potential for flooding. We have one road that is flooded every year. The reason they don't raise the roads? Salmon. Or something important like that. Anyway. Twice in the last 3 years, Duvall has become it's own island. All four roads flooded. It happened again this January. Luckily we've all been home together so it hasn't been a huge deal. I didn't get any pictures on the first day of flooding when all the roads were closed, but here are a couple pictures from the day after.

This is the main road in and out of town. It wasn't flooded anymore when I took the picture, but it was still closed because of damage from the water. That's water all around it.

These pictures are taken from my neighborhood.

Here's a picture of the damage on the road. I didn't take this one. It was emailed to me from a neighbor.

Fun With Extended Family

2009-03-23T08:41:00.000-07:00

While the whole Bean clan was here for Kirk's wedding, we went out and did some fun things. As is typical for me, I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few.

We went to a place called Jump Planet where there were lots of inflatables for the kids to play on. I think Jeff had as much fun as the kids. I took mostly video here.

We also went to the reptile zoo. Yes, that is a snake Katie is holding.

There was a lot of snow at this time, and one day I must have left my boots out, because Jason came around the corner wearing them. He cracks me up.

And finally, our yearly trip to Benihana for lunch. For some reason the only pictures I took were of Jason eating ice cream. Probably because everyone else there was taking so many pictures I didn't feel like I needed to.

You can't really tell from this picture, but his face is covered in ice cream. He sure did enjoy it!

More from the Wedding

2009-03-12T13:35:00.001-07:00

The Happy Couple!

I took at least a half a dozen pictures of the five Bean boys and none of them turned out very well. It's still hard to get them to hold still. Here's the best shot I got.

I don't remember if I've written about this, but Jason loves ties. He got his first real one for the wedding and he was so proud to wear a tie like Daddy.

Kirk's Wedding - In the Waiting Room

2009-03-05T16:23:00.000-08:00

Because of the huge amounts of snow and slush on the streets around the time of Kirk's wedding, we left our house really early to make sure we got to the temple on time. We had plenty of time to spare so we took lots of pictures in the waiting room. I'm glad we did, because we didn't take many pictures later on. Here they are.

After I took the picture of the boys, Katie insisted I take a picture of her. She will not be left out!

Katie, Jason, Nathan, and cousin Gwen

Katie with her cousins Rebekah and Gwen. Proof that Beans can produce girls.

Christmas

2009-02-26T17:17:00.001-08:00

I'm only a couple of months late, but here's some Christmas photos for your viewing pleasure.

After Santa came, before the kids got to things.

The kids modeling their new pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa Ludlow.

Jason playing with his new lego Star Wars guys. He loves little things. The littler, the better.

And the BIG gift-the Wii. I think Nathan and Katie are boxing in this picture.

The Joy of Motherhood

2009-02-17T10:52:00.000-08:00

The stomach flu has hit the Bean home! It all began the night before last when Jason woke up crying at 2:30 AM. I dragged myself out of bed slowly and finally made my way into his room. One step in and I knew it was going to be a long night. The poor kid had sullied every blanket, stuffed animal, pillow, sheet etc in his crib. This was no little thing. So I changed his clothes, put him in bed with Jeff and cleaned up his crib. That took about 20 minutes. I put him back in bed and went back to bed. Phew! Not. Sure enough, I wasn't down for long before he started throwing up again. So we started the process again. I realized that sleep was going to be a nice wish for tonight. I took Jason down to the spare room so we could both lay down together and I could easier direct his barfing. So that was our night. Every half hour or less he'd throw up some more. I'd as quickly as possible direct it into the bucket. Eventually we gave up on clothes since we had been through so many and resorted to just throwing towels over the little messes he made. He finally was too tired to stay awake around 4:00 AM. So he drifted off only to wake up heaving after 15 minutes or so. I couldn't sleep because any movement from him sent me reaching frantically for the bucket. At 5:20, he threw up again and then told me he wanted to go to his crib. I knew this wasn't over, but I obliged him anyway. I put him in bed then went back to bed myself. (That may have been a mistake. It may have been easier to just push through without sleep.) Again at 6:00 we heard him going at it again. This time I forced Jeff up because I couldn't move from exhaustion. Again, at 6:40. My turn again. Then I was done. Jeff took care of him from then on. I have vague memories of Jason being in bed with us for awhile and then both Jeff and Jason being gone.

I dragged myself out of bed around 9:30 to find out the state of the house. Nathan and Katie are out of school for Mid-Winter break which is a mixed blessing. Good because I didn't have to worry about getting them off to school, bad because I have to deal with them all day. So I woke up feeling like I was the one that had the stomach flu all night and Jason was running around playing with the kids as if nothing had happened. Is that fair???? Honestly! He probably got the same amount of sleep that I did not to mention that he had absolutely nothing in his stomach. Jeff reported that he threw up one more time after he got up, but had nothing to eat. So where was he getting this fuel to run and around and play? I think kids are made of rubber inside and out.

Eventually, he slowed down and acted sick the rest of the day. He spent a lot of time being still on the couch watching TV which is not normal behavior for my 2 year old. Eventually he said he was hungry and we tried some food. When that didn't come up, we tried some more. We were fianlly out of the woods...or so I thought. It all came up last evening while we were having family home evening. Luckily, that was the end of it and we were all able to get a good night's rest last night. Hopefully we won't see any more today.

Of course now my stomach is churning. Imagine a washing machine agitating clothes. That's what it feels like my stomach is doing to its contents. So is this sympathy stomach gurglings, or is it just because I manifest all my problems through my stomach. Or perhaps it's from lack of sleep. Anything, but please don't let it be that I'm coming down with this nasty flu.

So I'm trying to take things pretty easy today. I can't go anywhere anyway because of Jason. While I was getting ready for the day, I sent Nathan and Katie to go get dressed. I went to go check on them and found them both in Katie's room still in their pajamas. I noticed that Katie had moved all of her stuffed animals to a different side of the room and was stacking them. She was standing over them with her hand resting on the wall. "What are you guys doing?" I asked innocently. "Nothing, I'm just resting my hand." was Katie's response. Uh-oh. That means trouble. "You're lying." I said. I'm so perceptive. She uncovered a hole about the size of a penny in her wall. She and Nathan decided that they wanted a hole between their rooms so they could talk to each other while they were in their rooms. In her other hand she was hiding a pair of nail clippers. They had pulled out the fingernail file and had bored a hole into the wall.

What do you say to something like that? What do you do? Especially when you're tired and not feeling well in the first place! You blog about it to let off steam!

And that is the joy of motherhood!

A Visit from Santa

2009-02-12T12:52:00.000-08:00

Every Christmas Eve Santa stops by our house before he begins his journey and drops off a present for the kids. Here are some pictures from his visit.

Katie's reaction when she saw Santa.

Jason's reaction when he saw Santa. He wasn't quite so sure.

Poor Jason looks scared to death. He may have been, but at least Daddy was nearby. He did like the present Santa gave him.

25 Random Things

2009-02-03T13:03:00.000-08:00

Many people are doing this on facebook, and I thought I'd post my random things here also for those who aren't on Facebook. I've changed a couple of things since I've thought of some more interesting things about me since I posted this.

25 RANDOM THINGSRules: You are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about yourself.

1. There are not 25 interesting things about me, but we'll try anyway.
2. I was hit by a bus while serving a mission in Greece. Luckily, no injuries.
3. I lead the choir in my church.
4. I'm a nut for Broadway musicals.
5. I'm always reading a book.
6. I'm addicted to Hot Chocolate. I even drink it in the summertime.
7. I gained 10 pounds after having my second child, then lost 30 pounds when she was two. I've kept most of it off too. :)
8. I often get homesick for Nebraska. My whole family (but me) lives there and I miss them.
9. I graduated with a bachelor's degree in Astrophysics. There was a rumor going around here that I have a PhD. In my dreams.
10. I love all sorts of puzzles. Jigsaw, crossword, sudoku etc.
11. I think the hardest period of my life was the two years after Katie was born.
12. I think I used to be an extrovert, but I become more and more introverted as the years go by.
13. My last birthday was completely snowed out.
14. Two years ago, we were completely dislocated (living with my in-laws) on my birthday because of a week long power outage after hurricane like winds. (Feel sorry for me yet?)
15. I have married into a very fun and crazy family. There's never a lack of laughter when the 5 Bean boys get together.
16. I married my husband because of his strong belief in God and in his strong sense of humor. I'm always laughing when I'm around him.
17. My 2 year old is the cutest kid on earth. (I know everyone thinks that, but it's true for me!)18. I love to ice skate and play racquetball.
19. I love music in all forms. I love playing the piano, singing, or listening to my IPOD.
20. I believe that it is physically impossible (for me) to keep a clean house with three kids around.
21. I don't like cooking dinner every day. That gets old.
22. I went to New York last September fulfilling a big dream of mine. We saw Wicked and In the Heights on Broadway. Absolutely spectacular!
23. I love chocolate and non fruity cheesecakes.
24. My kids are obsessed with this Youtube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGYAPr6UKhs . They all have it memorized, including my 2 year old. They sing the song as loud as they can, whenever they can. I must admit I don't like the song that much anymore.
25. I married my husband on the four year anniversary of our first kiss. During those four years, we spent more than three years in different coutries from each other with our only form of communication being letters (I mean snail mail. No email yet, kids).

The end of the snowstorm

2009-02-02T12:51:00.001-08:00

I thought I'd post out final pictures from the big snowstorm.

At the deepest, this is what our back deck and back table looked like.

If you look hard, you can see the icicles. These were taken at night (obviously) outside our upstairs window.

Next up, (hopefully soon) I'll finally get to Christmas!

My Great Husband and My Not So Great 2 Year Old

2009-01-16T16:59:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week Jason decided to prove that he is a normal 2 year old. He was in the bathroom with me, when I stepped out for a few minutes to get dressed. That's all the time he needed to take my pearl necklace, grab it from both ends and pull. When I came back in the bathroom, it was in at least four pieces. I don't have much jewelry, but what I have, I'm quite fond of. I was not happy. After gathering the pieces, I realized that it could rather easily be fixed with the use of some needle nose pliers. So I put the necklace on the counter with the intention to get to it later. Well, as often happens, I didn't get back to it.

Yesterday morning, Jeff seemed to be taking a long time to get ready for the day. That's not all that unusual since he often has a hard time in the morning. I was downstairs getting the kids ready for school. He finally came and left for work.

When I went up later to take a shower for the day, this is what I found:

He had fixed the necklace and left me a message with Q-tips. It made my day. So I felt I had to brag a little about my sweet husband.

Now, I wish this story had a happy ending. Today my visiting teachers were over and the kids were downstairs playing. At least that's what I thought. Most of the kids were downstairs. It turns out that Jason had made his way back into my bathroom where he got ahold of the necklace again. The box I keep it in was empty and I could find a small piece of chain unattached to the necklace. After some diligent searching I finally found the rest of the necklace intact. So there's only one little piece of chain unattached. But, this doesn't look so easy to fix. My necklace may be done for now.

How long before he outgrows this phase? He also unloaded our toothpaste tube on the counter and the floss onto the floor. Earlier today he had pulled on our shower caddy breaking the hooks that held it up. This is all bringing back memories of Katie as a 2 year old. How will I ever survive this phase!

Update: Jeff was able to fix the necklace a second time. But, this time we have an extra piece of chain that we can't figure out how it fits in with the rest of the necklace. It obviously belongs, but we don't know where. The good news is that I can wear the necklace and no one will know!

Nathan's Birthday

2009-01-04T11:43:00.001-08:00

For Nathan's Birthday this year, he invited a couple of friends and we went roller skating. Here are some pictures. It was dark, so some of these pictures are pretty grainy and they almost all have red eye, which I couldn't get rid of. Here's the best of the bunch. Nathan's the one in red.

Nathan with his friends Jordan and Paul.

Do you think she was having fun?

I even got in on the action.

Jason really wanted to skate, but he was too young. So he got to pretend to play with the arcade games the whole time. Jeff stayed with him and took pictures of the rest of us.

At Baskin Robbins after skating for ice cream and presents. All had a good time.

Snow - One more time!

2008-12-23T16:00:00.000-08:00

I realized that I would be missing some really neat things if I didn't take some pictures of what the neighborhood looks like now, so I went out and took some pictures. Here they are.

Sad trees. :(

In the distance is the buried car I was talking about earlier.

All these pictures were taken after two days of a little thawing. Now I am done. I promise!

Winter Wonderland

2008-12-23T15:08:00.001-08:00

My last post was getting long, so I decided to start another. One thing about snow is that it is very beautiful. Here are some pictures I've taken of our Winter Wonderland.

These are from last Sunday after just an inch or so.

From Thursday:

On Friday to combat stir craziness, I took a walk to check out the roads. Here are some pictures from my trip.

At the time, I thought this car was really buried, but it's nothing compared with the way some cars look now. There's a car on our street that you can only see it's side mirrors.

I haven't taken any "pretty" pictures since then. I guess that's a good indication that I'm getting tired of seeing white. At least on the streets.

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas...too much so!

2008-12-23T13:38:00.000-08:00

Let's start at the beginning shall we. Last Sunday (12/14), we awoke to about an inch or two of snow. Not a ton of snow, but enough to leave the roads really icy. Here is a picture of the kids playing out in it that day. Now I know that doesn't look like much snow, but they don't have the equipment here to take care of the roads and all of Duvall is set on the side of a mountain. The only way to go anywhere is to brave massive hills. I slid down a hill backwards (I was trying to go up it) on Monday and that wasn't a pleasant experience. The temperatures have also been very low so the snow and ice were not melting. Now that brings us to Thursday morning. We woke up to this view on our back deck: We stuck a ruler in the snow and it had snowed 9 inches over night and it was still snowing hard. We continued to take pictures of the back porch throughout the day to see the difference in the snow levels. My favorite view is on the table behind the closest chair. Here's the deck later in the day.

Here are some views of the table taken at different times of the day.

I put my camera on the ground in the garage and took this picture of the snow outside.

Here are some pictures of Jason out playing in the 9 inches.

We kept measuring the snow throughout the day. When it stopped snowing that evening, we had 12 inches. That's beyond unheard of for around here. Here's some proof. Look for the white ruler in the snow.

So that was fun for awhile! When after 2 or 3 days, the roads still weren't passable, the snow was getting a little old. My birthday was on Saturday, and I was a bit tired of staying home. Our stake choir was having a choir practice that morning and I wanted to try to make it, but I was nervous after watching my neighbor not even able to get out of his driveway the night before without chains. Jeff and I at the last minute got a babysitter then walked down to the bottom of the hill to downtown Duvall where some friends picked us up and took us to choir practice. I'm glad I went because that was the only activity I was able to do on my birthday. We got hit with another snow storm that night. We woke up Sunday morning to another 4 1/2 inches. I went out and shoveled it up just in time for the snow to start again. We got another 5 1/2 inches after that. So if you're keeping track, that's 10 inches on Sunday plus the 12 inches from Thursday. That's 22 inches. Beyond unbelievable for Duvall. Only a handful or roads had been plowed or sanded as of yesterday. Plus no mail has been delivered for over a week. I feel like I'm living in a tiny bubble and this is the worst time of year to be stuck at home. I'm feeling rather sorry for myself. Can't you tell.

Sorry. Rant over.

Here are some pictures of the back porch on Sunday. These first two were taken Sunday morning.

These last two were taken Monday morning. I call our table Marge Simpson now.

I wanted to try to take a picture with some perspective, so the shadow is Jason. The snow really does come up to his shoulders.

Here are some pictures of me shoveling for the 5th or so time. This was shoveling the 5 1/2 inches on Monday morning. You can see the results of the previous shoveling on the side of the yard. Jason was "helping" with a little toy rake. He liked to put the snow in the garage. Not very helpful.

This is Jason on the little sidewalk that I shoveled. The snow is about half as tall as he is.

The good news is that the daytime temps have begun to reach above freezing so the snow is starting to melt. A plow came by and sanded our road for the first time this morning so maybe we'll be able to get out soon. Jeff chained up and went into work today (which is why I have computer access today :) ) and he said the roads are still very icy. And of course we're supposed to get more snow over the next two days. I'm really hoping that our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day plans won't be cancelled like everything else has that I look forward to. I love my kids and all, but it would be nice to look at someone else's face for a change.

Nathan playing soccer

2008-12-10T12:49:00.000-08:00

Here are some picture from Nathan's Soccer games.

These first two were taken while Nathan was warming up in goal.

Nathan in action!

Sour puss Nathan

Nathan's face really does say it all concerning this season. To say that his team wasn't very good is an understatement of great proportions. They not only lost every game, but they were blown away in most of them. Some games were very painful to watch. The good news, is that Nathan played really well, except when he got really discouraged. Then he played half heartedly, but still fine. We're really hoping next year will be better.

A smile for the trophy at the after season pizza party.

Halloween

2008-11-29T16:03:00.000-08:00

Now that's it's past Thanksgiving I thought it was time to post some Halloween pictures.

Jason got to wear two Halloween costumes this year. This one he wore to his music class. He loved being Batman.

Halloween night. Jason got to be a giraffe since it was a warmer costume. Nathan is Indiana Jones, and Katie...well, she's pink.

After trick or treating. Jason LOVED the chocolate!

Katie playing soccer

2008-11-20T12:55:00.001-08:00

Here are some pictures from one of Katie's soccer games with Jeff as coach. Their team was not excited to get the color of "chocolate brown" for their team colors. That was until they named themselves the Hot Fudge. We even brought a jar of hot fudge as the team's mascot to one of the games.Half time snack.

Katie in action.

Here are some pictures of Coach Jeff with the girls.

Stormin' the Castle

2008-11-13T12:57:00.000-08:00

I generally avoid all talk of politics. I have my opinions and I generally have no desire to discuss them or to hear them discussed. But I find that I can't keep the marches on our LDS temples out of my head. So for some reason, I feel that I need to post my feelings here.

I sympathize greatly with the gays and lesbians out there. I can understand how they feel they are being mistreated. Take God from the picture and I would be on their side. But, unfortunately, I can't take God from the picture. He's involved in everything I do and in every decision I make. I can't leave Him out of this.

So, whenever I don't understand something, I turn to the scriptures and to personal prayer. I've done that a lot the last couple of days. Here are my thoughts.

The Scriptures are not subtle on this issue. It is very clear from the beginning of the Bible that God does not look favorably upon homosexuality. I can't say that I understand completely why, but it is in there many times. From the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah to the writings of Paul, God's views are clear. We believe in a God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We believe in an unchanging God. He does not change His doctrines or opinions based on popular vote or belief. Therefore, the LDS church cannot either. If we did, we would either be denying the God we believe in or we would be the biggest hypocrites ever.

God performed the first marriage between Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. At that time he set the precedent for the family. Today we turn to our Prophet for answers to hard questions. He has never led us astray and he won't today. He tells us to support the family. He does not tell us to hate gays and lesbians. We can do one without doing the other. We must do one without the other.

I could say a lot more, but I think I'll leave it there. Next entry I'll go back to pictures of soccer games and birthday parties.

"In the Heights"

2008-11-11T13:43:00.000-08:00

The Statue of Liberty was my last stop on my tour because of the long lines getting to and from the Island. So I headed back to meet Jeff, grab dinner, then go to our next theater experience.

When I first found out we were going to New York, the first thing I did was figure out what shows I wanted to see. That was the one and only reason I wanted to go to New York - the shows. The rest was fun too, but the shows were what I wanted. Seeing Wicked was a no brainer for me. So the question was what other show should we see. I looked at what was on Broadway at the time and saw old favorites, and some that I've already seen that would be fun to see again. I decided that I really wanted to see something new. I wanted the experience of seeing the original cast. So I thought back to the Tony awards and remembered one musical number from one of the plays that I thought was incredibly inventive. It was called "In the Heights." I did some research on it and decided that this was the show I wanted to see. Jeff was beyond thrilled because the story is about a Latin neighborhood in New York City. All the back beats are latin in origin and Spanish is strewn throughout the music and dialogue. On top of that, rap is thrown in also. Jeff is a closet fan of old time rap so this made him happy. He was also surpised that I would be interested since I am not a rap fan. What caught my fancy was the way the music took so many different styles and was able to mix them together brilliantly. On top of that, the voices. Wow! We borrowed the CD from the library before we went to the show just to get an idea of what to expect. I tried not to listen too hard to the lyrics because I didn't want to know the plot before we went, but I was blown away by the music and by the two lead female voices. They were amazing and I was very excited to see them live.

So, Friday night, off we went to see "In the Heights." Here's a picture of the theater from the outside.

We went early hoping to walk around the theater like we did at Wicked. This theater was tiny though and you can see the lines in the bottom of the picture. There was no room inside the theater to walk around and there really wasn't anything to see. So we grabbed our seats. The theater isn't very big (although it is beautiful) so there wasn't a bad seat in the house. We had seats that were pretty darn close. Here's a picture of the set. It looks just like a typical New York street.

In this theater we really weren't supposed to take pictures, so we snapped this one as quickly as we could when no one was looking, but that's the only picture we got. But hopefully you can see how close we were. We could see the actors faces really well and a couple of time when the microphones went out, we could still hear them.

The show was amazing. Jeff and I loved it. The talent on that stage was incredible. The story is touching and heart warming. The show is full of energy and excitement. After the first number I leaned over and told Jeff that we have to see the show at least six more times to catch everything that was going on. Each actor performed their heart out and Jeff and I fell in love with the show - rap and all.

After the show, we went back to our hotel two very happy campers. We were both extremely happy with our choice of shows for the evening. Here's a self portrait of the two of us after the show in our hotel. Not a great picture but we are oh so happy!

Well that concludes my New York trip. Now you'll just have to live with the typical pictures of my adorable children doing adorable things.

Battery Park and Liberty Island

2008-10-31T18:49:00.000-07:00

My next stop on my tour was Battery Park where I'd take a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. On the way I caught sight of the bull on Wall Street. It's hard to take a picture from a moving bus, so this is the best I got.

When I first walked into Battery Park, I saw this sculpture.

I stared at it for awhile trying to figure out if it was sculpted to look smashed or if it had indeed been smashed. In the front was a plaque that explained it all. This was a sculpture in the middle of the World Trade Center and this was the damage it sustained in the fall of the towers. Because it survived, they placed it in Battery Park. Read the plaque. It's worth the time and eye strain.

Next came my least favorite part of the trip...waiting in line for two hours to get on a ferry. While in line I took these pictures.

Here was a panhandler working the line. I tried to pretend that I was taking a picture of the sculpture behind him but I'm not sure I fooled him.

Here's a sculpture representing all the immigrants that entered the country here.

And here's the Statue of Liberty. Starting at a distance and getting closer.

The view from Battery Park.

And here are some views from Liberty Island.

And here's the Jeff pleasing self portrait. Once again, a terrible picture!

Here's the huge flagpole that lives on the Island.

And finally, a picture of the whole Island.

The Brooklyn Bridge

2008-10-28T12:42:00.000-07:00

While I was visiting Ground Zero I saw a sign for the Brooklyn Bridge. I decided I had to go see that. So, I walked on the Brooklyn Bridge. I didn't go all the way across. I just walked to the first archway. It was a nice walk though. Here are some pictures of the bridge. You may notice that I was getting closer and closer as I walked.

There was a great view of New York from the bridge. I took some nice pictures. At least they would have been nice if the wires and poles weren't in alot of the pictures. Here they are anyway.

This is the Manhattan bridge as seen from the Brooklyn Bridge.

Here's some pictures of some familiar buildings.

I knew Jeff would be sad if I didn't take any pictures with me in it. So I took this self portrait. As is true with all self portraits, this is a terrible picture of me!

Ground Zero

2008-10-21T11:39:00.000-07:00

I had heard that there wasn't much to see at Ground Zero these days. I had heard that all of memorials were taken down. I wasn't really planning on going, but when the tour bus stopped there, I thought I may as well go just to say I'd been there.

At first, I agreed that there wasn't much to see. I snapped a couple of pictures of the cranes working on the big hole that you couldn't see because of walls around it. Here is what Ground Zero looks like right now.

There was a little kiosk there with a little memorial. That was about it. Here's a picture of the kiosk.

After that I headed out to see what else there was to see. I turned around a saw a cool looking church. There were a lot of people going in it, so I decided to see what was going on there.

The grounds were covered in head stones. I wondered if these were the graves of those killed in 9/11, but I noticed that they looked way too old. Sure enough the dates on them were from the 1700's.

When I went inside the church I realized that I had hit the motherlode. This church was called St. Paul's. It was where many workers and families went for food and respite after the attacks. Inside is a huge memorial to the attacks. It was also interesting because it is the oldest church in New York. Apparently it was where George Washington attended church. They had a pew that was George Washington's pew. This church is right across the street from Ground Zero. It really should have been destroyed by the falling debris. Apparently, the blast toppled a huge tree. It's branches fell over the cemetary and acted as an umbrella protecting the church and the graveyard.

Here are some pictures of inside.

Children had drawn pictures for the policemen and firemen and posted them all over the posts inside. This is a sampling of some of those pictures.

Children in Japan made these boas of origami cranes to represent peace and sent them to the church.

Here's a sampling of the posters that people had put up all over town that said "Have you seen my loved one."

This was a small memorial set up for those that were lost.

On my way out I snapped these pictures of the graves. If you look in the background you can see the cranes working on ground zero.

It was hard to leave there with dry eyes.

As I headed back on the bus I realized that I had entered the church from the back. Here's a picture of the front of it.

More buildings

2008-10-16T12:34:00.001-07:00

Here are some more pictures of buildings that I took along my tour. Some of them are famous buildings, others are just buildings that I thought were cool.

This is a Post Office! I think they said this was biggest post office in the US.

Madison Square Garden (and Elmo).

The Flatiron Building. Super cool if you ask me.

These last three pictures are of the Woolworth tower. It is truly an amazing building. These pictures don't really do it justice. There is so much intricate details all over the building.

I never did figure out what this building was, but I thought it was pretty.

On the way we passed a part of town where all the buildings were made of cast iron. Each building had its own character even though they were all attached to each other. I took way too many pictures of them. Here are some of my favorites.

And last but definitely not least, the Chrysler building.

Friday in New York

2008-10-10T10:14:00.000-07:00

Day 2 in New York. For those of you who are bored with my travelogue, now's the time to tune out, because this is where things get really touristy.

On Friday while Jeff was off learning, I caught a tour bus and traveled throughout Manhattan. The first thing I saw was the Naked Cowboy. Now, normally I wouldn't post pictures of a guy in his underwear, but when you stand on street corners panhandling in the heart of Times Square for the world to see, you're asking for it.

Now begins my fascination with buildings. New York has so many cool buildings. Even just generic apartment buildings have tons of character. I took way too many pictures for anyone to be interested in all of them. So I'll try to show restraint. I'm going to start with pictures of the Empire State Building.

This was obviously taken from the base. It's cool to see how tall the thing really is.

More later.

Wicked

2008-10-08T12:57:00.000-07:00

Here are our pictures from Wicked.

Here are some pictures of the outside of the theater.

And now the inside:

These were props from the orininal cast. Nessa'a original wheelchair and the Wizards orginal throne. I know, I know. So exciting!

These are pictures of the stage. We weren't technically supposed to take these pictures, so shh, don't tell anyone. One usher told us not to take pictures, then we watched everyone else in the theater taking pictues, some of them right next to other ushers. So, we snapped some quick photos when our usher was busy. We had to take them without a flash and since I can't keep still for anything, they are a little blurry.

For any of you who have been around me at all for the last few years know how much seeing Wicked on broadway meant to me. Seeing a broadway show at all fulfilled a huge dream of mine, but to see Wicked was soooooooo exciting! I was completely overwhelmed with emotion when I heard the first couple of notes and Glinda comes floating out on a clock pendulum. That emotion stayed with me throughout the entire show. Needless to say I loved it! I wish I could go back and see it again tomorrow.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

2008-10-05T15:30:00.001-07:00

During Jeff and my meanderings that night, we came across St. Patrick's cathedral. Let's just say it stood out. It is a gorgeous cathedral stuck right in the middle of all of these modern skyscrapers. Later we learned that it is the largest cathedral in the US. It was built in the 1870's which kind of make it a contemporary of the Salt Lake Temple.

Here's the outside view.

If you look at the people, you can see how huge those doors are.

The inside didn't photograph very well. It's really hard to express the scale and grandeur in a picture, but here a couple of our tries.

This is a stained glass window. You can't really tell that from the picture. I'm guessing that it would have been quite a sight to see it while the sun was shining through it.

We couldn't get a very good picture of this because it was up too high, but there is a gorgeous, blue stained glass window at the top and all the organ pipes underneath it. If you enlarge the picture you should be able to see them better.

This cathdral was truly awe inspiring. I really enjoyed walking through it looking at all the art and architecture. But, I couldn't help contrasting the spirit I felt inside this cathedral compared with the spirit I felt in the temple just hours before this. Inside the cathedral I felt reverence and awe for the works of man. Inside the LDS temple, I felt a feeling of peace and reverence for God. Coming out of the cathedral I thought, "that was cool." Coming out of the temple I felt very strongly that that was where I was supposed to be and that I had done the right thing by going there. It was neat to feel the contrast in the course of one day.

More from Times Square

2008-10-03T13:18:00.000-07:00

After Jeff's seminar on Thursday, we met up and walked around Times Square. We snapped a ton of pictures. Here are some of them.

We were aiming at Radio City Music Hall in this picture, but it also shows the back view of the double decker tour bus that I took on Friday to see the city.

These four pictures are dedicated to the Rock that is the home of NBC studios. The last picture shows the street view of the building I went up earlier that day. Was I really up that high???

Back to Rockefeller Center.

Now it's time for some random statues. Jeff's face says it all.

We took this one for Jason. "Jumbo Elephant! Jumbo Elephant!" Everyone sing it now!

Here are some more sites along the way.

On our way to see Wicked, we came across a UFO in the middle of Times Square. It was a restaurant called Mars 2112. We were tempted to go inside, but we didn't.

Next up: St. Patrick's Church

On the way to the Manhattan Temple

2008-09-30T16:13:00.000-07:00

After lunch with Jeff, I decided to head out and try to find the Manhattan temple. One thing I really enjoyed about New York City is that there's something to see on every corner. These are random pictures that I took on my way there.

This is a statue right in the middle of a traffic roundabout called Columbus Circle. Guess who that is on the top of the statue...

You guessed it! Christopher Columbus.

These next two pictures were taken around Columbus Circle.

I discovered on my way home that right behind this statue was an entrance to Central Park. I took a short walk there but I didn't take any pictures, so this is the closest we'll get!

As I was walking, after awhile, I realized by the addresses that I had passed the temple. I didn't know how I could miss it, usually they stand out quite a bit. So I turned around and looked up. This was what I saw.

So I back tracked and found it. I was able to go in and do initiatories. It really was quite a contrast to go from the loud, busy streets of New York City into the quiet peace of the temple. Jeff had heard that they had worked really hard on sound proofing the temple so you couldn't hear street noise. I didn't think about it while I was there, because I'm used to temples being quiet. But that night in our hotel room, while listening to the sound of traffic and sirens outside my window, the contrast became quite amazing. It's also amazing that you can enter any temple anywhere in the world and the people inside are always happy to see you. It's a place where anyone can feel at home.

On my way out, I snapped this last photo.

THE FOOD

2008-09-27T16:52:00.000-07:00

The food in Times Square restaurants were big in every way. Big in price and big in portions. I ordered a bar-b-que chicked sandwich and laughed in the waiters face when he brought it to me. We had to take pictures. Jeff's sandwich contained a pound of meat. Needless to say, we didn't finish our food.

On Friday night, we stopped in at a little pizza place where you could buy pizza by the slice. The slice size was a bit on the large size. Here's Jeff eating his.

Rockefeller Center

2008-09-26T16:04:00.001-07:00

My first morning in New York, I slept in. After all, New York is 3 hours ahead of Seattle time. When I finally got up and moving, I decided to go visit Rockefeller Center which was only a few blocks from our hotel. Here are some pictures.

This is where they have the ice skating rink in the winter time. That day they had a couple of outdoor restaurants set up.

Next I decided to visit the Top of the Rock. That's the top of Rockefeller tower. It has a great over head view of the city.

On my way up to the top, I snapped this picture of Radio City Music Hall.

Here's a great overhead picture of Central Park. This is when I realized how big it really was. It makes the skyscrapers seem small.

The Empire State Building

If you look way off into the distance, you can see a very tiny little Statue of Liberty.

The Swarovski Star. I don't know why it's significant, but they had it displayed at the Top of the Rock, and I sure thought it was pretty.

New York trip

2008-09-24T18:18:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, Jeff had a seminar in New York City last week and I went along. The company paid for his flight and for the hotel so there's no better way to travel.

I had a great time, and I took over 150 pictures. It's hard to choose which ones to post or even where to start. So I thought I'd start with our hotel room. Our hotel was right in the heart of Times Square. The view from our room was a huge ad for Wicked. Here are some pictures.This was the view from right in front of our hotel.

These were all taken from our hotel room.

And here's our room.

New Piano

2008-09-23T17:32:00.000-07:00

Alright Bean fans. The hiatus is over. I'm going to try to be better about blogging.

Here are a couple of pictures of my new piano. I absolutely love it. It sounds and feels great! Thank you Grandma. We'll never forget you!

Isn't it gorgeous!!!

Next up, my New York trip!

Last of the tulips and Katie update

2008-07-02T09:17:00.000-07:00

Here are the last pictures from the tulip fields, complete with ice cream cones to finish the day off.

Plus, I never did give an update on Katie's thyroid condition. We had a blood test done a couple of weeks ago to make sure the medication is working, and all of her numbers are back to normal. Yippee! She is doing fine and will just be on this medication for the next long while, and maybe for the rest of her life. Now, if only they can give her a pill to make her sleep through the night! There's always some battle when it comes to Katie.

More tulips

2008-06-18T16:03:00.001-07:00

Here are more pictures from the tulip festival.

Tulips part 2

2008-06-04T18:36:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pictures from the tulip festival.

Tulip Festival part 1

2008-06-02T19:56:00.000-07:00

Yay! It's the time we've all been waiting for. The pictures from the tulip festival. Let's start with these cute ones of Jason and I family shot with Papa. Jason gets excited whenever he sees this pictures. He still loves Papa. If we ever mention any Grandpa he starts calling for Papa.

Seattle Aquarium part 2

2008-05-22T13:34:00.001-07:00

Here's the remaining pictures from the aquarium.

Seattle Aquarium Part 1

2008-05-21T17:28:00.000-07:00

When my Mom and Dad were here, we took the kids to the aquarium downtown. Here are some pictures from that trip.

Baseball

2008-05-12T09:06:00.000-07:00

Here's a few shots of Nathan playing baseball. I realize from these that I need to take more, but for now, here ya go!

May 9th!

2008-05-09T12:54:00.000-07:00

Today is Jeff and my 11th wedding anniversary!!! (Yay!) It is also the 15th anniversary of our first kiss. (Ahh. How cute.) I thought I'd go back in time and post some pictures from my life-altering trip to Seattle the spring after our Freshman year of college. This was before he left on his mission. Enjoy our baby pictures.

And of course I have to include a wedding photo. Happy Anniversary Jeff!

Katie's Thyroid

2008-05-06T14:37:00.001-07:00

I'm sure many of you have heard about this, but I'm going to post it all here, so I don't have to keep trying to explain things over and over. I'm not sure I understand everything, but here it goes.

Last Monday I got a call from Jeff's Mom, Cathy saying that she had noticed a swelling in Katie's neck. I didn't think much of it, but I checked her out after school, and she did indeed have a large swelling in her neck. This picture kind of shows it.

I called the doctor as soon as I could and got her in for an appointment on Tuesday. After checking her out, they sent us to get a blood test. They told me I'd get the results the next day. Of course the next day I was going out of town to attend Women's Conference so I told them to call Jeff. So naturally, Jeff calls me on my way to the airport to tell me that the doctor had called and Katie's thyroid wasn't functioning. We had to take her in for additional tests. What a time to be leaving town!!! I didn't sleep well that night I can tell you.

While I was gone, on Thursday, Cathy took Katie to the doctor's office and for additional blood tests. There we found out that Katie's thyroid is working, but under producing. The additional blood test was to figure out why.

Here's the technical info. If you don't want to read all of this, then skip to the next paragraph. The brain secretes a Thyroid Stimulating hormone to the thyroid gland, which then secretes enough Thyroid hormone to meet the body's needs. When it is producing the proper amount of Thyroid hormone, the thyroid sends a message back to the brain saying the proper balance has been met. If the thyroid is not producing enough hormone, it sends a message back to the brain telling the brain that. The brain then sends more thyroid stimulating hormone to get the thyroid to produce more. In Katie's case, the thyroid has been under producing, so the brain has been getting that message and producing more thyroid stimulating hormone. This is causing her thyroid to grow. (Thank you Cathy for writing all this down for me since I couldn't be there.)

Today I went to an endocrinologist at Children's Hospital. They checked her out and told me that Katie has an auto immune deficiency. That's what's causing the thyroid to under produce (I don't quite understand why). She says it's most likely genetic but I don't know of anyone on either mine of Jeff's side that has these issues. Anyway. The problem is easily remedied. She is taking a pill of thyroid hormone once a day. This will send the message to the brain that the thyroid is producing more hormones, so it will stop producing the thyroid stimulating hormone. The swelling should go down after that. She should also lose the puffiness in her cheeks and some color should come back to her face.

All the doctor's seem pretty shocked that she hasn't had any other symptoms (ex. sudden weight gain or loss, fatigue, lack of concentration, shaky hands.) We were able to catch the problem early before the problem was able to cause any real mischief. We feel very blessed.

Katie will be on this medication for at least a couple of years and maybe forever. Still, that's a relief. When there's something wrong with your child, you can't help but think of the worst. So we are happy. Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers on our behalf.

Birch Bay trip

2008-05-05T15:33:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, Jeff and I left the kids with their Grandparents for a weekend and went to Birch Bay. By the end of March, we knew it wouldn't be really warm, but we were hoping for some nice weather. Well....it snowed on our way up there and rained and was cold for most of the weekend, but we had a great time anyway. We were there on a Sunday so we went to church in the morning, then I insisted we go back to the beach before going home. I was able to change out of my skirt in the car, but it wasn't so easy for Jeff, so he's in his suit.

Jeff, in his suit, on the beach. That's something you don't see every day.

I love this picture. Jeff, yes in a suit, skipping a rock. Nice action shot don't you think?

Aw. Aren't we cute. It really was a beautiful day.

And this is what we came home to.

Despite the weather, we had a great time being together. We ate out, played racquetball, walked along the beach, skipped rocks, etc. The only thing I missed was a good sunset on the beach. That's because (of course) we never saw the sun. Mostly we just enjoyed being together without the kids for awhile.

Haircut

2008-04-28T13:41:00.000-07:00

Saturday I got a haircut. I was uncertain if I liked it, but I think it's growing on me. What do y'all think?

Generic pictures

2008-04-16T14:10:00.001-07:00

Here are some of my favorite pictures.

Proof!!! They really do like each other. You'd never know it by the way they fight.

The kid train. (Below) We love to see them all play nicely together.

Jason loves to be tucked into bed with Katie. I guess he was feeling particularly patriotic that day. This is one of my all time favorite pictures.

Life with an 18 month old

2008-04-15T13:26:00.000-07:00

I've always said that one of the hardest stages for me in child rearing is 18 months through 2 year old. Jason is reminding me why. My kids are always so "curious" about the world around them. I get really tired of cleaning up after their "curiosity." Here's some pictures of Jason's handiwork.

Here he is in the plant - again!

This is what he did one day while I was in the shower.

Yes, that's toilet paper all over the floor. And no, I didn't pull everything out of the drawers, that was his job. Aren't these kids adorable.

Easter

2008-03-24T19:23:00.000-07:00

Look at me, up to date. I just downloaded a bunch of pictures dating back to Christmas. I think I'll start with the newest pictures and work my way back. Here are some pictures from our Easter Egg hunt at Jeff's parent's house.

Jason didn't quite understand the Easter Egg hunt. He figured out pretty quickly that he was supposed to pick up the eggs and put them in the basket. But soon when he couldn't find anymore eggs, he started finding rocks and putting them in the basket. I'm sure he was pretty upset when he realized that the eggs and not the rocks were full of candy.

Halloween

2008-03-12T14:22:00.000-07:00

Shall we go back in time a bit. Here's some pictures from Halloween.

In case you can't tell, Nathan is a bat, Katie is a "Spider Witch", Jason is Tigger, and Jeff, well, he's never looked so good.

All About MY Husband

2008-03-11T20:16:00.000-07:00

Here ya go Jana.

On Jana's blog she answered all these questions and asked a few of us to do the same. Here are my answers.

What is his name? Jeffrey Robert Bean

How long have you been married? 11 years in May

How long did you date? "Date" is such a vague term. We hung out for a couple of months at BYU before his mission. He says we "dated" for one week when I came to visit him in Seattle. 3 1/2 years apart on missions. We dated off and on for about 4 months after my mission. Once I figured things out we were inseparable and engaged about a month after that.

How old is he? 34

Who said "I love you first?" Him. I was way too scared to say something like that first.

Who is taller? Jeff.

Who eats more sweets? ME!!!!

Who can sing better? I guess that depends on if you want an alto or a tenor.

Who is smarter? It depends on the subject. I've got math and calculus down, but don't ask me a Statistics question. He got better grades. Does that mean anything?

Who does the laundry? Me. But, we often share in the folding duties.

Who pays the bills? Me.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Is this facing the bed or in bed? He's on the right side when you're in it.

Who mows the lawn? Both of us. It depends on if it's allergy season or not. Or how much Jeff has going on and if I get tired of waiting for him to have some time available.

Who cooks dinner? Me. 100% of the time.

Who drives? Mostly Jeff, but sometimes I'll take the wheel if we're running late. :)

Who is more stubborn? That would have to be me.

Who kissed who first? He kissed me. It was electrifying.

Who asked who out first? Technically I asked out his roommate first. We were doubling. He went with my roommate and I went with his. We ended up having a really good time together though. After that I'm not sure. Most of our dates were in groups where we'd seek each other out until we were alone together.

Who proposed? He did. I said Yes.

Who has more siblings? He does. 4 brothers.

All done. I hope you enjoy it. I certainly enjoyed the little trip down memory lane.

Jason vs. the potted plant

2008-02-06T12:34:00.000-08:00

Coming up the stairs to see what Jason was up to, we were surprised to find a mighty battle going on between Jason and our plant. I think Jason won and I lost. He's obviously very proud of himself.

Caught in the act.

Surveying the damage. The plant has a layer of moss (for decoration I guess) on top of the soil. That's what is all over the floor. Jason thinks it's a fun toy.

That's not chocolate on his face, but dirt from the plant. It's also all over his pajamas which you can see if you look closely.

video

2008-01-18T12:30:00.000-08:00

I want to try to post a video. This one is from Nathan's birthday in October.

Jason's first snow

2008-01-18T12:24:00.000-08:00

Jason's first snow. Well, at least the first snow that he got to participate in. He didn't last very long, but we were able to take these pictures before it was too late.

Jason's fall

2008-01-08T14:36:00.000-08:00

Yes, miracles never cease. I'm back.

Here are some pictures of Jason's very fat lip. In early December Jason was climbing on the piano when he fell and split open his lip in the inside and the outside. After a run to the urgent care center, we realized there was nothing we could do for him except take pictures. So this is what he looked like the next day. The inside of his mouth looked much worse, but I couldn't get a picture of that. He looks much better today. He still has marks from it and I hope they will go away someday. But, for now, here ya go.

Fun on vacation

2007-11-23T09:41:00.000-08:00

Here are some shots from some down time in Omaha.

Jason and Katie sharing a sucker.

Here's Nathan doing what he loves best. Playing video games!

A day at the beach!

2007-11-08T12:30:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from my second day boating with the family.

The two love birds. It was their anniversary after all.

Katie loved the inner tube!

Jason having fun in the water.

Henry Doorley Zoo Take 2

2007-10-31T19:21:00.001-07:00

I am sitting here on Halloween night waiting for trick or treaters while Jeff is out getting way too much candy with the kids. Now seems like a great time to add some more pictures to the blog. Here are the last from the zoo.

Whose foot is bigger? I know it's hard to tell.

Jason in the bubble.

He climbed right into the viewing spot. I had no idea they were so deep.

Jason LOVED the carousel. You just can't really tell from this picture. We took a lot of them, but this is the only one that isn't completely blurry.

Henry Doorley Zoo

2007-10-29T10:05:00.000-07:00

OK Mom. I'm doing my best here. Here's some pictures from our trip to the zoo. I'll try to get better, I promise.

Don't miss the bear in the background.

Which one's the monkey? I can't quite tell!

It was an extremely hot day that day. At least for us Seattle-ites. Nathan found a wall of water and took full advantage. It didn't take him long to dry off.

Pool leap frog

2007-10-16T11:23:00.000-07:00

So yes, I have been a huge slacker. I haven't posted in a long time. I just yesterday downloaded my Omaha pictures, so now it's time to share them. Here are the kids playing leap frog in the pool.

2007-08-16T11:52:00.001-07:00

Pizza on the picnic table
after a swim in the pool.

Jason on the computer

2007-07-18T11:54:00.000-07:00

Jason decided to add some stuff to my blog...

Father's Day

2007-07-15T10:39:00.001-07:00

This year our primary had a Father's Day activity on the day before the big day. During this activity, they decorated old ties for their Dads. Many of the dads wore these ties (all of them at the same time) to church the next day. It was a fun sight to see. Here are Jeff, the kids, and his ties. Guess which one Katie made. I'll give you a hint. It has pink on it.

Jason's First Birthday

2007-07-12T10:59:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from Jason's birthday. Below, he is getting his first ever chocolate cupcake. First is the before...

....And After. I don't know if any of it made it in his mouth, but it did go everywhere else.

Jason's First Spaghetti

2007-07-07T10:21:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of Jason's first taste of spaghetti. He really seemed to enjoy it. I'm not sure if any of it made it into his mouth, but it certainly did make it to a lot of other places.

Nathan and Katie had to get into the act too. They made quite a mess of their faces eating their spaghetti that night also.

Nathan playing baseball

2007-07-05T11:32:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of Nathan playing baseball! Enjoy!

Jason at 1 year old

2007-06-12T11:11:00.000-07:00

Seeing as today is Jason's birthday I thought I'd dedicate this post to him. These aren't pictures from his birthday party which we had last Saturday because I haven't downloaded them onto the computer yet. But, I'll post them as soon as I do that.

Jason is still just a wonderful kid. We all love having him around and he brings joy into our house. He loves to crack jokes. He'll say something in his Jason language, then start to laugh. He fully expects all of us to laugh along with him and we usually do. He loves to play with balls, and as you can tell from these pictures, he loves to be pushed around on his scooter and he loves to play in dirt. That's fortunate for him since we have molehills galore in our yard. Any one know any great tips to get rid of moles?

He's still tiny for his age. He still wears 6-9 month old sizes. I keep thinking he'll have a growth spurt and catch up, but it hasn't happened yet. He's just small and skinny. He hasn't even thought about walking yet. He's great at crawling and he's just now started thinking about standing by himself. Mostly he's just content with where he's at.

There's a little bit about Jason, now here's some pictures.

The Pinewood Derby

2007-06-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

Here is the car! We put the arrowhead on for weight. The car was very light, and Jeff's Grandpa makes arrowheads, so it seemed like a good addition to The Green Bean.

Here are all the cars.

Here's the track.

Nathan's car did really well the first run, pretty well the second run, and the third run it got stuck on the way down. Apparently one of the wheels got jammed on one of the runs. Luckily, they let us re-run that one. Nathan got 8th out of over 20 cars. Not bad for his first car ever.

Katie's Ballet Recital

2007-06-05T16:23:00.000-07:00

Here she is on stage and afterwards with her pink roses. She was a very happy girl.

Katie's Ballet Recital

2007-06-05T15:53:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of Katie in her ballet costume.

Soft Teddy

2007-06-03T13:52:00.000-07:00

I'm trying this whole blog thing out. So, here it goes.

I turned around the other day and there was Jason. We think he's cute.