One Last Postcard

She Made It, We Ate It!

Kaylee was bored this afternoon.

Kaylee: "Mom, I'm Bored."

Cindy: "Why don't you go make dinner for the family tonight?"

When I got home, the kitchen smelled VERY good - so good it was hard to wait for the official call of "Dinner's Ready!" But finally, it was ready!



Looks good, huh?

She served us BBQ'd Chicken Breast, brushed with Olive Oil and Herbs, Multi-Color Corkscrew Pasta, a Zucchini, Mushroom, Stewed Tomato and Yellow Squash dish to go with it, and fresh grated Parmesan cheese to top it all off!



Kaylee liked it...



Tyler liked it...

In fact, we all liked it! Even the chickens, who happily devoured the leftover tidbits when we were done... just the veggie bits though, no chicken for the chicks - they're already crazy enough without a case of Mad Hen Disease!!

Great job Kaylee - you should definitely get into the dinner making rotation!! We are SO proud of you!

An Early Morning Postcard

Jumpin' Baby!

As Danee approaches 9 months of age, one of her favorite activities is to JUMP!

Another Sunday, Another Postcard

Danee and Grandma

We're over in the Tri-Cities today, which meant that Daneekins got to spend some quality time with Grandma Brinkerhoff...

And tomorrow, she'll make the rounds at the Mathews Family Reunion, meeting lots of cousins, aunts, uncles and more!

We'll TRY to remember to get lots of good pictures...

Postcard from Dayes Gonne Bye

Fun for Days!

Greetings from Fircrest Fun Days!

I'll be here this evening, and all day tomorrow, preaching Quality, Local Computer Services to the masses!

And, if you're in the area, drop in, say hi, and sign up to win an Asus Eee PC Netbook!

There are a ton of cool booths and foodstuffs to check out, so head on down to Fircrest Fun Days!!

Today is a Very Important Day!

As I type this, Ellysa is sitting in my car, anxiously waiting for a driving test administrator to come and start her test...

It's been a long road from that January morning that she turned 16, but it's very likely that less than an hour from now, she will be a licensed driver!

No longer will Cindy and I need to drive her all over the countryside... It's terrifying and exciting all at once! I'm really proud of the improvements she's shown in her driving the last week or so, and I feel strangely at ease with things.

Her time slot was ten minutes ago, and nobody's gone out to her yet... I can just imagine how nervous she's getting.

Oh! It's her time! GOOD LUCK ELLYSA!!

Postcard from Polynesia

Eight Months!

Havin' a happy morning with her big Sissy...



...and sporting brand new double-piggie-tails on her head!



Happy 8 Months, Babykins!!

Melting

Today is HOT, we are HOT...

Look Out, Lance!

That's Andy after returning from the "Tour de Oregon" last week. He left Wednesday morning at the break of dawn, for a 100+ mile bike trip with his young men's group at church...

...and returned a conquering hero!

Read all about it, straight from him, here.

We are SO proud of you, buddy!!

Postcard from Biketown

Friday Funny - Lick It Up, Yum!

That's Danee after a yummy dinner of Prunes the other night. As you can probably guess, I put her right in the bath when she was done... And to minimize collateral damages, I picked her up - bumbo (chair) and all, and set her next to the tub while it was filling.

And it was there, while waiting for her bath, that Daneekins decided she wasn't quite done eating yet. Luckily there was still PLENTY of food virtually everywhere within her reach. But her choice was so hilariously awesome that I had to pull the camera back out, and in a turn of events that amazed me, she kept doing it!

How was she eating? Just Watch...



I wish the clip was longer, but the battery in the camera was so low it was having near death experiences. But yes, she was faceplanting onto her tray, and licking back and forth, slurping up the delicious, pruney leftovers... and making her daddy laugh so hard, his sides hurt!

Moments later, she was in the bath, ready for a power scrub!

Our Baby's A Little Fishie!

Day Two of our Lakeside Getaway was also our only full day... And we made the very most out of that day, including taking Little Miss Babykins down to the lake so she could splash around. She loved it from the moment she got into her suit!



The lake was the perfect temperature for swimming, and Danee seemed to agree. She loved it! She kicked and splashed and kicked some more, much to the delight of her mommy, daddy, brothers and sisters!

Postcard From The Edge... of the Lake

Lakeside Getaway

I wish I could take credit for this picture, but alas, I wasn't anywhere near the camera when Ellysa took it! Nothing like a happy surprise when going through the memory card at the end of the day!

Anyway, to make up for the complete lack of blog love this week, here's a "Baker's Dozen Plus" from our first day at the Brinkerhoff Lake House Too on beautiful Mason Lake, courtesy of Richard and Dorothy Brinkerhoff, two of our very favorite people in the universe!

The kids had a blast swimming...



That's Zoe jumping into the water. You may remember her from several Puddle Jumper posts... The day care was officially closed this week, but Zoe's such a great helper and all-around-awesome kid that she's really not impacted by such trivial things as daycare schedules... to the extent that she even came with us on our getaway!





Kaylee posing for her closeup...



Andy getting some serious air in his...



...chic pink tube...



Followed closely by Tyler...



Goofin' Off!



More Goofin'



Can't goof off too much when you're on vacation!



This is destined to be Andy's new Facebook pic...



The kids kept swimming well after our side of the lake had fallen into shadows. In fact, they kept swimming well after dark!



With a brief break for dinner...

Meanwhile, Danee got some quality snuggle time in with Grandma and Grandpa - Cindy's parents are up for a visit and couldn't refuse the offer to chill at the lake with us!



So there's your Baker's Dozen (assuming you started counting after the introduction) and here's the Plus!



Spin, Kaylee, Spin!!

Postcard from Grillsville

Happy Bouncin' - With Teeth!

Danee's adorable bottom teeth are already being joined by a pair of fangly teeth on the top, and boy is the teething making our otherwise sweet baby girl completely miserable!!

One rare moment of happiness came the other night, courtesy of her bouncy bouncer...



You can just barely make out the little teethies behind her bottom lip - you may need to click on the picture for the full size view - but they're even more visible here!



And finally, this is probably the best picture of her teeth we've gotten yet!