Our Week of Fun with Natalie

Natalie has been living up here in Oregon for the last three years going to optometry school at Pacific University. Unfortunately for us, her schooling here came to an end at the beginning of May and she moved on to her rotating internships (starting with Salt Lake City). We loved having her close by. She came over for Sunday dinner almost every week. She watched my kids countless times (one year almost every Tuesday night while I went to choir practice and Paul went to scouts!). She practiced her new skills on us. She came to hang out even when she was busy with school. We will miss her SO much.

Natalie finished her classes at the beginning of May, but she didn't need to leave right away, so she made us very happy by spending her last week in Oregon staying at our house and hanging out with us! We didn't go very many places or do anything crazy, but we had a lot of fun. I'm so glad we got to have one last week together before she started her next adventure.

Now, if I were cooler, this post would be full of awesome pictures depicting all the things we did during the week. Unfortunately, as I have mentioned multiple times before, I'm terrible at taking pictures when I should, so instead I just have a few really random ones.

We started our week with Cinco de Mayo and then a morning at the dentist. At least I took pictures of those days!

Over the rest of the week, we ate some tasty food including Regina Bunker's pancakes (of course!), half-priced "happy hour" donuts from Krispy Kreme, teriyaki meatballs (one of Natalie's favorites), mini M&M chocolate chip cookies, and homemade patty melts that I enjoyed more than anyone else.

We saved the princess over and over (that dang princess just keeps getting kidnapped! ;) ), and Natalie accomplished her goal of beating me at Dr. Mario. We watched a few hilarious episodes of Boy Meets World and a so-bad-it-became-hilarious movie.

We ran some mundane errands that were turned into fun ones simply because Natalie was there. Natalie even came to my choir practice since she won't be able to come to our concert in a couple weeks.

Natalie found out on Wednesday that week that she passed the first part of boards with flying colors. She is well on her way to officially being Dr. Natalie! It was fun to be together to celebrate. We went to Cold Stone for milkshakes. :)

At Natalie's White Coat Ceremony last year. She looks dang good in her white coat! :)

Jamie joined us on Thursday night and the three of us stayed up laughing and talking until about 3:00 in the morning. Can't remember the last time I did that! (Yes, Natalie, you have power over me. But real.)

Over the weekend, in between playing games and eating junk food, we went through Natalie's belongings and packed up her car to the brim for the long trek to Utah. Jamie, Natalie, James, and Sarah washed our cars on Saturday afternoon.

We had one last "Sunday" family dinner on Saturday night, and then they were off bright and early Sunday morning.

Sarah and James' last piggyback up the stairs for bedtime. What a fun aunt!

We'll miss you, Natalie! Good luck with your first day today!

Mother's Day

It was a pretty busy but happy Mother's Day for me.

I made 72 cupcakes for Relief Society.

Paul and the kids made fried rice for me for breakfast, and then they presented me with letters:

Translation: "Dear Mommy, Thank you for the present you gave me for my birthday. I love that you sing and that you teach me stuff. Happy Mother's Day. Love, James"

This is Sarah's first attempt at drawing people. I can't get over how cute they are. (It's me and her, of course.)

Hard to see, but those are the cutest little hands in the whole world. I may be a little biased, though. :)

James sang with the primary during sacrament meeting and then we had a wonderful (and emotional) Relief Society meeting where each of us in the presidency talked about what we have learned from our mothers.

When we came home, Paul cleaned up the whole kitchen (which was quite a mess after the cupcake project) while I got to do something really fun:

A Google Hangout with my WHOLE family! It was really fun to talk to Michael (who is currently serving his mission in Tooele, Utah). We had representation from all over the country: my mom in Colorado, my dad on a business trip in Florida, Jamie and Natalie in Tremonton, UT (they weren't all the way done with their trip yet, so they stopped at a McDonald's to use their free wifi. :) ), me in Oregon, Paula in South Jordan, UT, and Elder Michael in Tooele, UT! We had a great time talking.

After that, the Harrises came over and Jeff and Paul made tonkatsu for us for dinner and then strawberry shortcake for dessert. It was so nice! A Happy Mother's Day, indeed!

Father and Sons Campout

Last weekend Paul and James were so excited to go on the ward father and sons campout. It was James' second time, and he just couldn't wait. Every day of the week leading up to it he'd ask me how many days were left.

The two of them had a blast at the campout and even stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory before heading home. Here are a few pictures from the adventure:

James is all, "ICE CREEEEEEEAM!"

Sarah can't wait for her turn!

Root, root, root for the....Yankees?!

Last night was Paul's Opening Night! Even though it was clear across Portland and would mean quite a late bedtime for the kids, we couldn't miss it! Paul was so excited, and so were we.

It was a tad chilly after the sun went down, and James required us to make not one but THREE trips to one of the nastiest port-a-potties I have ever encountered, but all in all we had a great time cheering on Paul and the rest of the Portland *gulp* Yankees.

I'm not sure it will get easier to cheer for the Yankees! We'll keep on trying, though. Around when it would have been the 7th inning stretch (which actually ended up being the end of the game), James and Sarah and I sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame", and it was so unnatural to sing, "Root, root, root for the Yankees". It was definitely a first for me.

Paul went 1 for 2, with a single that ended up scoring the only run for their team. They ended up losing 3-1, but it was a good game!

Sarah's First Dentist Appointment

Yesterday we packed up all the kids into the back of Natalie's little Honda Civic and made a big trip to the dentist. Sarah, James, and I all had cleanings, but for Sarah it was special because it was her first time! She was so excited to have her turn in the big chair like she has seen her brother do.

And she did such a good job! On James' first visit (which you can see pictures of here), he was very timid and wouldn't let them come anywhere near him with the suction tube. Sarah let them do everything! They cleaned her teeth and put fluoride foam on them. She was a very brave little girl!

Ready to get started!

So happy to be in the big chair.

A little bit concerned...

All clean!

James did very well, too! He let them take four great x-rays (the hygienist didn't even use the pediatric sized tools), and he did his fluoride foam in a tray! What a trooper!

We won't talk about how my cleaning went. Let's just say pregnancy does a number on your teeth, and I've had three of them. Also, I hadn't had x-rays done for a year and a half (due to some unavoidable delays and being pregnant with Sam). It wasn't a pretty picture. Yikes.

A big thank you to Natalie, who sat in the waiting area the whole time and took care of Sam and the other two kids when it wasn't their turn! I am so glad you were with us!

How this (very white) family celebrates Cinco de Mayo

So, we may have absolutely no Mexican blood in our bones. And we may not even really know why the holiday exists in the first place. But we sure love Mexican food!

This is how we celebrated the day.

Cafe Rio style pulled pork taco salads:

And homemade churros!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

It's Friday!

Today is Friday, and it's currently 75 degrees outside and sunny. In my world, that is perfect weather. We walked to the park today and met up with some good friends. We ended up spending close to three hours there, and I may have stayed longer except I didn't bring lunch! I just wanted to stay outside. I could practically feel my body soaking up the Vitamin D (we're pretty deprived of it up here in the Pacific NW).

Thank goodness for days like these!

Oh, and of course I didn't take any pictures. Silly me! So, since a blog post without pictures is kinda depressing, here's a cute one of James and Sarah from a couple weeks ago:

Now I'm off to figure out how to spend the rest of this glorious day outside. :)

Sam is Six Months Old!

How this is possible, I will never know. But the calendar doesn't lie, and somehow our little Samuel Kenji has already lived for half of a year in our family! He is a sweet and easy going baby, and I can't imagine our family without him.

A few things about Sam at six months:

• He is finally sleeping in his own room, and he seems to enjoy it. Last night he slept for almost 12 hours!
• He loves to be included in the action, especially when his older siblings are involved.
• He gets super frustrated that he isn't mobile yet. A few months ago, he'd get mad whenever we put him on his tummy because he hadn't mastered rolling over. Now that he rolls all over the place, he just gets frustrated that he can't figure out how to get himself to where he wants to go!
• He is a drool machine. Hopefully the teeth he's working on growing will poke through soon so that he can get some relief in that department.
• He's quite ticklish, and we can almost always get some good laughs out of him by tickling his tummy, neck, or legs.

We love our Baby Sam!