Beans

It is official. I have finally started a bean box for my kiddos. I loved my bean box as a child and I am still loving to play in the beans. Almost as much as Daddy.

We were starting to get a little cabin fever so I thought it would be the perfect time to bring in the beans. Hannah and Carter have different measuring instruments to measure out beans and I have a few sorting and filling activities that are fun too.

Hannah Grace also loves to bring in her dishes and play kitchen with the beans.

Can you tell that Sarah Jane is wanting so badly to play??

After Hannah was done playing kitchen Carter brought in the trucks to have man time in the beans. Anyway it is a great indoor activity for the kids.

I am also using the beans as a reward. The kids earn tickets for doing their chores and when they earn five tickets they get to pick out a new bag of beans at the store, which they think is so COOL.

Middle Names

Q: what is Carter's middle name and why don't I use it?

A: Carter Peter. His middle name is my maiden name. I wanted to name him Peter, but Brian said no. So I settled for it as a middle name. The reason I don't use it is because I don't need to. When Hannah started school I found out that her names was very common so instead of being Hannah T the rest of her life I decided to have her called Hannah Grace used as just her first name. As for my little Sarah Jane... Brian wanted to name her Sarah and I wanted to name her Jane so I could call her Janie. So I was calling her Janie and Brian was calling her Sarah so I decided that I really like that she was Sarah Jane. I don't know that this makes sense, but I love my kids names and I want to use them all the time. Side note: It sounds funny when I call Carter, Carter Peter because it is still a last name to me so I think of him as a Peter instead of a Turk. So anyway I know this is a really long answer to a simple question, but I hope this helps you to understand.

Happy Valentine's Day

The Barn

We also spent a lot of time down in the barn. I actually had a blast scrubbing out buckets, making grain buckets, feeding and grooming the horses. It sure is a beautiful barn. It feels more like a home than a barn.

This is Amico who is so terrified of Sarah Jane that he didn't even want to eat his breakfast. He would rather just watch SJ to make sure she didn't move. Every time SJ would coo Amico would start to blow air out of his nose like.. 'I am so scared I don't know what to do!' It was really funny.

Reval trying to figure out what I was doing with the camera. Reval is the Stallion in the barn, but he is a sweetheart and loves treats.

Willow. This is my Mom's driving pony. She is just the sweetest thing.

My mom let me drive the buggy and it was actually really tough. I also could not believe how fast you go. A few times I just grabbed my seat and tried not to scream. It is really amazing. Although I think I will just stick to the riding. I would rather jump then drive.

Trees

I can't tell you how amazing the trees were in Oregon. I was just in awe. I kept making Stephan stop the car so I could take more pictures.

Not only were there trees, but I got to see tons of waterfalls too. It was so beautiful.

Most of the trees were also covered in this green moss. It was so pretty to see a forest of trees with no leaves, but it was still green.

Can you see how tall the trees are? Look at the normal size gate compared to these enormous trees.

Momma & Sarah Jane on a little hike.

SJ loved riding around town in her big girl seat.

Click on the photo below to view even more tree photos:

Trees

Dog Chair

Sarah Jane spent most of her time in her Dog bouncer chair that Grammy and Pappy bought. Every time you put her in the chair her little legs would start to go and she would just babble away. She loved the chair so much that I fit it in our suitcase on the way home. She is currently in the chair now just talking away. I love her little voice.

Salem's Riverfront Carousel

Friday we were up early in the barn. I had fun cleaning water and feed buckets, making horse meals, and grooming horses. It was so fun watching Stephan ride. It is like he is directing the horse to dance gracefully around the arena. It is truly breath taking. He is very gifted with the ability to communicate to the horse.

As for riding I did a little riding on Salem's Riverfront Carousel. You need to check out the link and read more about it, but it is basically a hand carved carousel. Each horse is crafted by a master craftsman and each has a story. Above each horse is their name. In the photo above Sarah Jane and I were riding Snickerdoodle. Although we really wanted to ride Sarah Jane. Yes that is right there is a horse on the Carousel named Sarah Jane. She is actually the horse that is featured on the front of their broucher. However she was out getting repainted and won't be back until next month. Even so we had a great time reading about the horses, taking pictures, and visiting with the staff. I can't wait to take all the kids on the Carousel.

Sarah Jane on Larry the Circus Pony.

Nancy on Bucky.

Click below to view all the photos.

Carousel

Molalla, OR

Sarah Jane and I arrived in Molalla, Oregon. After a long day of traveling we made it to Grammy & Pappy's house. The drive from the Portland airport was gorgeous. I must say this is one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited. The trees are AMAZING!

On the way home my Mom decided we should eat at a local Molalla resturant. So we drive into town and pull into a parking lot and drive up to a house. There are no signs, but all the locals know that this is Big Burger. Suddenly a woman sticks her head out the window and takes our order. Next, my mom puts the car in park and we just wait outside the window until they prepare the food. As we waited for the food I noticed that the parking lot was full of trucks and the people exiting were rather rough. Then, you look across the sreet at the McDonalds and see the Yuppie crowd. So of course I had a burger, but the real treat was the famous Big Burger deep fried twinkie. It was a wonderful experience the twinkie melted in your mouth. I thought of Homer saying, "Mmm twinkies."

We had a great first night. I got to meet Grand Dad for the first time. I just loved chatting with him.

Thank you for the flower. I miss you guys so much. I really wish you could be here with me. You would love it!

Sleeping Duty

Last night after a little disagreement over "man food" we went to Life Group and it was awesome. I got to know some of you much better. Others of you really challenged me, which I truly appreciate because it encourages me to dive deep into the Word.
I know you are all wondering about the "man food" comment. Well each family was to bring man food for our Life Group dinner. Brian wanted to bring Pub Mix (which is a pretzel, crunchy thing mix) and I thought that was more of a snack and thought we needed something hot like pizza. Needless to say my darling husband dropped us at Life Group and drove out to get real "man food". Thank you honey! You are such a great husband. I love you!

So after a great life group Hannah wanted Kacy to sleep over. To which Jen and I agreed it would be fine. So this was our FIRST real sleepover experience. So I was not sure what to expect, but I knew it would involve lots of giggles and squealing. After arriving home the girls ran to the playroom and put on princess dresses and played for an hour or two. They had a ball. The two girls played with the doll house most of the time. They took turns being the kid. I just love that they kept saying "Mommy" and I kept responding. You would think I learned my lesson last time.
So after lots of fun we decided it was time to get into their pajamas. The girls both had princess pajamas, but they were the same which was a catastrophe let me tell you. Although they quickly resolved it by deciding they would just buy each other new pajamas for their birthdays.

After the girls were ready for bed I let them pick a bedtime story. They wanted to read "sleeping duty" or "Cindarerra". ( I love how they talk!) We decided to read sleeping beauty. Kacy was sure to tell us what was going to happen before we turned the page. I guess she didn't want us to worry. So the girls finally fell asleep about 10pm.

They woke up at about 7:15am and started to play again. We played princess and then the girls played mermaids in the bath tub. I could NOT get those girls out of the tub. Their poor little lips were turning blue and they were shivering, but they weren't cold and they really didn't want to get out. Finally Hannah wanted to get out so Kacy decided that I should just put Carter in the tub. So funny. Finally, all the kids were dressed and ready to eat. So we made a pancake breakfast.

We finished eating and then cleaned up the playroom a little. Kacy was very obedient. Then, Jen, Sam, and Trey joined us for lunch. It was so fun to visit with Jen. Sorry it was a short visit, but we are busy moms and I will take every moment of fellowship I can. Even if it is too brief. Above the kids made lemonade for our lunch. Thanks for being such great kids. We love all of you!

Train Party

Welcome to Carter Station. I am going to attempt to create a virtual tour of the party for our friends and family that weren't able to come to Carter's 2nd Birthday party.

"Welcome to my party I'm Conductor Carter."

Carter was not so sure about wearing the overalls. As soon as he was dressed he started pulling at the straps saying, "off, off, I want off 'pease'(please)" But by the end of the day we couldn't take them off. Brain even rolled his sleeves to make him look more like a working man.

As you entered Carter Station the house was filled with tons of balloons. Carter loved running through all the balloon strings. At the end of the party Hannah and Carter made two huge balloon bunches and were chasing each other around. I just love the love and giggles they share. Carter really looks up to Hannah and Hannah really loves to tell him what to do. I just pray that their loves continues through the years.

Next, we have the train cake. I decided that I wanted to make a train cake for the party and as I surfed the net I got the idea to make an actual train out of cake and various other food items. It was a lot of hard work and took a lot of man hours. Thank you to Sue! I don't know what I would have done without her help. At one point I thought I might have to move the party till Sunday just so the cake could be completed.

Our first activity was a train craft. Thanks to all the moms for their participation. I don't know how I would have done this task alone.

Hannah worked on her train until I finally had to clean off the table for our lunch.

Beck and Anna.

Owen and Jena with their completed project. Notice the driver of the train is a picture of each of the kids. I thought it came out really cute.

Although the highlight of craft time for me was when Carter kept gluing cotton balls to his fingers. He would start yelling "Momma help, Momma help!" If I didn't respond immediately he would start to really throw a fit. Oh the stress of being two. He kept putting his finger on the glue stick and then picked up the cotton balls. I just laughed because he truly couldn't figure out what was happening.

Girlfriends. At one point Anna started to cry for her mom and Hannah said, "it's ok Anna I will hold you." They stood there hugging and then Anna went and sat on her lap. Too cute! I just love that Hannah thinks she can hold Anna.

Kiddos table.

Blowing out the candles.
Carter was really not so sure about everyone singing to him. He started to cry, but we sang through it. He did blow out the candles all by himself. I am not sure if it was the blowing or the spit that actually put out the flames. The good news is that I made another cake for us all to eat. So Carter got to eat his train. I loved watching him pick apart the details. First, was the graham cracker roof. Although truthfully it was hard to watch all of the hard work gone in minutes. I now understand the guy that makes the most beautiful cakes and then leaves before the people eat them because he can't stand to see them cut the cake.

Carter are you eating your cake?

We ended by opening gifts.

Thank you to everyone that made this such a special birthday for Carter!

Train Party

Train Crafts

Today the kids and I did lots of crafts to decorate for Carter's Train Birthday Party tomorrow. We all had such a great time. Hannah loves to do any craft, but I was really surprised how much fun Carter had.

decorating the trains

making the train tracks

Hannah worked very hard on the spacing

Here is the final craft. We still have a few more to make. If you want to see more photos click below.

Train Crafts

Thank You Hudson & Andrew

Carter loves his gifts. As you can see he was really excited about the stickers. I am so impressed. The kids and I were having craft time when I heard a knock at the door. It made me jump. It was UPS with a package. I am just so impressed that you shipped it. WOW! Thanks so much that was really a nice surprise. I figured we would just celebrate when we see you. Now you are putting the pressure on me to be on top of shipping gifts. Way to set the standard Jen.

Anyway Hannah was a little sad that the man in the brown truck didn't bring her anything, but that was okay when she found the note that Hudson made with the car sticker. She told Carter he could have the presents because Hudson drew her a picture.i just love that they love each other so much!

Little Tinker

Hannah loves to change her outfit 10 times a day. This was her favorite outfit yesterday.