It's a BEAR!

So...I think our luck has finally turned. Usually when we run into wildlife, something crazy happens like a bear breaking into our minivan or something...see here if you don't already know this story. This time, we were leaving my parents house and straight ahead of us, was a big black bear! Seriously, I had heard that there were bears in the area, but this one was so much bigger than what I thought would be around our area. I stopped the car and tried to get my camera out and have Justus call my mom to look out her window, but by the time I took a picture, it went into the brush. Then, as I was talking to my mom, she said she could hear it off her porch, so I drove down below their home. As we pulled into another driveway, THERE WAS THE BEAR!! It was just probably 15 yards from us and it looked at us and stood up on its hind legs checking us out. At that moment, I captured a picture and then it turned and went into the brush again. The kids all thought it was super cool. That is, until Justus saw a mouse run in front of the car (he said he had seen at least 4 bears in the wild now and he had never seen a mouse-arghh). Seriously, he was more excited that a field mouse ran back and forth in front of us with its tail up. I thought it was probably scared of the BEAR!

As I said, I think our luck has turned. We saw a bear, and nothing bad happened to us. I definitely feel confidence now before we embark on our road trip this summer! Wish us luck! ;)

Viking Fest!!

Awww....Viking Fest! I love you, but you always leave me tired! V-Fest is always such a fun-filled, jam-packed weekend that has us running around watching Norwegian dancing & marimba performances, parades, races, and if the kids are lucky, going on the rides. This weekend was no exception and it has taken me a full week to recover to write about it-ha! Anyway....here are some(scratch that) ALOT of our favorite moments in pictures.

....AND A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL!

Gotta Love this: SWAGGER WAGON Official Toyota Music Video

LOVE this video! Wish I would have thought of it! I could have bought a few vans with my millions....

....And What Was In It?

Well, I think I have now made you wait longer than I had to wait and although it is kind of fun-I don't want to be mean!! First off, we got another personalized letter from the President saying he was glad that we were okay and that he loved Greta's letter and he keeps it on his desk. I thought that was so fun to imagine Greta's letter on his desk; her picture and message really was cute and we had nothing to do with it.

But you are more interested about what was in the box, right? Well, there were three packages and two of them contained three different Toyota bags. One, a really nice gym bag, and the others are totes that the girls were excited about. As they opened the second package, the kids were all like, "Another bag? He said they were sending toys!" Ha ha! (BTW, before we opened it, Greta guessed incorrectly that it was a WiiFit!) Then, in the third package, there were a bunch of Toyota paraphernalia: 5 pens, 5 stuffed orange cars, a few stuffed koala bears and frogs(with a Toyota logo), a couple key chains, a flashlight, a money clip, a blanket, a travel coffee mug, a biodegradable water bottle and three Toyota hats! Woo hoo!

Was that worth the wait? Hee hee? Sorry. I swear if it were keys to a new car I would have posted right away! It really was so nice of them to send all of this stuff. The kids were SO excited to open it when they came home from school. So now, be honest, what did you really think would have been in there?

Okay, so I have been debating whether or not to post the video of the kids opening the box, but I think I will because it was so funny how bummed they were when there weren't toys, until they found the 'toys'! They started fighting over the key chains and money clip...hee hee. Easy to please, I guess! Watch if you want. (I hate my voice-do I really sound like that??)

What Is In This??

Hmmm....what is in this box??














To give you a little background, after we were in our car accident, the kids decided to write letters to Toyota thanking them for making such safe cars. A few weeks ago, Greta ended up getting a personalized letter from the USA President of Toyota replying to her letter. It was awesome!! It definitely wasn't a form letter as he addressed many of the things she wrote about in his letter to her, and he signed it. I was so amazed that he actually took the time (with everything else that is going on with Toyota right now), to respond to the kids. We were, however, a bit perplexed by part of it. It was just regular letter head in a regular envelope and he mentioned that he included some toys in the 'cubbies' for Greta to share with her siblings ??!!! Huh??? (Greta had mentioned in her letter that she loved the cubbies in the van to put her toys into) Ha!! What was he talking about though? We didn't have a van anymore! Honestly, for the next couple days, I kept looking outside to see if a new minivan was pulling up...uh...Kristin, YOU HAVE WATCHED TOO MUCH REALITY TV!!!! Btw, no minivan came. Then, I just laughed it off that they wrote the letter, but forgot to put in the little toys he mentioned, but that was no biggie, as it was already cool enough that they wrote the letter to Greta in the first place.



But---much to my surprise, I came home today from my women's Bible study group, to this box!! I can hardly contain myself with excitement to see what is inside it, but we are waiting for the kids to get home. Ughh..Definitely Daron's idea. I thought we could open it and tape it back up! What kind of toys do you think are inside? Little minivans? Toyota stickers? It really doesn't matter. I just think it is super cool of them to follow up on our letter with this-THANKS AGAIN TOYOTA!!! YOU HELPED SAVE OUR LIFE!

Baseball, Softball, and Bikes!

We had a fantastic day today going over to the Olympic Peninsula for a bike ride. We only went a short distance with our kids, (some did multiple laps around others), but it was a blast! We threw all the bikes in the back of the pickup and it was the first time in a long time that I remember having such a relaxing day.

This photo below cracks me up! Without even trying, we look like the VonTrapps, right?! We should have been singing from the Sound of Music soundtrack while we biked.

What a fun day! I highly recommend a bike ride on the Ocean after a bad couple months-it was wonderful!

The last couple of weeks have also been fun because of the baseball and softball season starting up again. Greta and Ella fortunately are on the same team (it definitely saves a lot of driving around for me) and they are having so much fun!

I don't know who Ella is pointing too, but she cracks me up!

Greta is hitting some great line drives; pretty cool to have a lefty in the family. This is the girls first year playing, so I was happy to see them really enjoy the sport.

Justus has gotten to pitch alot so far this year and he is having a great time!

And, Fia and Kwame??? What are they doing?? They are having fun playing in the dirt, climbing fences they aren't supposed to, and playing catch with the big kids. The picture below shows Kwame throwing the baseball to group of bigger boys. He was in heaven and they seemed to be having fun too!

Last, but not least, we finally found a suburban that we all liked! Yea! It has been SO nice to ride in the same car all together and I am really happy with it so far! This one doesn't have the fancy doors from the previous post, but is does have some pimped out wheels!

Pregnant?

Just in case some of you have talked to Fia lately and thought you knew a 'secret' of ours, I am here to tell you that it isn't true. I am not pregnant! And I am not having triplets named Eenie, Meenie, and MineyMoe! Ha! I guess my 5 year old doesn't quite get my humor yet, but for April Fool's Day, we kept making up 'fools' throughout the day and of course the big kids knew we were teasing. The problem though, is that I guess the little kids didn't. Since April 1, a couple people have asked if I was prego after they had been with Fia (and it is not b/c of how I looked-at least that is what I am telling myself). Today a friend called and said, 'Um, Fia said you were pregnant. I told her that maybe she shouldn't be telling me that, so I thought I better ask..." Thank you for asking...but the answer is no, I guess I fooled a little more people than I expected.

Sweet Ella

Ella and I were driving yesterday and she asked me if I had caffeine in my coffee cup. I said yes, it's my latte I made. She said mom, you aren't allowed to drink that when you are driving. Hmm?? Ella, do you mean alcohol? Oh yeah, she said. Haha. I told her that you can drink all the caffeine that you want, and she said she was happy because she didn't want me to start swerving around with my car she. I told her, that actually I better not drink anymore coffee so I don't start speeding!

btw, the pic was from our local paper this weekend. Ella was caught looking for worms in their school courtyard, among other things.... I thought it was so sweet! I love our EllaBella!

Who Wants a Ride to School?

So, ever since our Toyota 'Swagger Wagon' Sienna was totaled, we have been looking for a new car. First, we were waiting for our insurance check to come, now we are just trying to find the perfect fit for us with miles, color, etc....Today, Daron said that he found the perfect one(foolishly, I believed him)!
The kids think it's the coolest and are seriously trying to talk me into it. Especially Justus. Imagine driving up to school and letting the kids out at drop-off?!! Hilarious!

Spring Break Almost Broke Me!

Spring break almost broke me, but I will start with the positive, because we did have SOME fun over the week. We started it off by having lunch with friends that have adopted from Ghana. The next day we went on a hike with some great buddies and we all had a blast.
We also got to enjoy lounging around a little more than usual and the kids ate some Easter themed pancakes...

we joined in on an annual town Easter egg hunt...

...as well as our own Easter Basket Hunt at our home.

Oh, and Fia lost her second tooth for an even bigger adorable toothless grin!

But...it did almost break me!

Spring break is now over and I am hoping we are going back to life as usual! What is that again? Gosh, I don't want to complain, but it has been aWHILE since life seemed usual or normal. Ever since our accident on February 20th (that date is etched in my brain from signing it on numerous forms now), our life has been busier than normal.

Why? Well, each person has been to the regular doctor at least once, plus a couple extra appts. for ear infections and a new one that I will have to post about later: photosensitivity??!! Then, for many weeks we were all going to the chiropractor at least three times a week and now just last week it has dwindled a bit. Daron and I are still there three times each week, along with massage twice/week, and physical therapy 1-2times a week! In between those appts., we have both been trying to work, keep the house up inside and out, entertain, hang with the Chapman's (ha!),plan out an Easter service, and walk ALOT (we still haven't found a vehicle to replace the van, so I have been walking or borrowing cars as I refuse to drive 'Big Red'-the beast-plus it only fits 6).

Oh, and just in case we weren't about to go crazy already, a new curve ball was thrown at us a week ago when I was getting the kids ready for bed. I moved a beanbag around in the boys room and found MOLD!! Yep, nothing small of course, but a 2-3 foot area that was covered in black, fuzzy mold. I literally thought about how to best give the news to Daron for fear he may run out of the house. The next 5 nights after we put the kids to bed, Daron worked late in the room, and we moved EVERYTHING out; then he took two walls out to check for more mold and moisture. He eventually found the problem outside that made the water come up through the cement floor and the padding and carpet was really wet, so that had to go too. Luckily, there was no mold in the walls, so after everything is dry, we can get the dry wall back up and get some new carpet-ugh! Too bad the carpet wasn't even 5 years old. Oh well. Then, two nights ago, we realized the carpet in the girls closet was wet too, but we waited until after Easter(today) to do anything more. Luckily, I think it won't be a big deal in there and we just need to dry some of it out.

So, I haven't been quiet because life has been dull over here. I just haven't posted for fear of having a nervous breakdown when thinking about it anymore. Honestly, the little things are definitely adding up and bringing me down. I hate that 'things' have an effect on me, so I have really been trying to look at the positives and not dwell in all of this, but it doesn't always work. I have to say that I did form a smile when Daron came inside with the door handle from his truck. Yep. It broke off, so you might just find him climbing in and out of his window like the good 'ole Duke boys! ;)

When it all comes down to everything, I am blessed with our lives, our family, our home. I just want to add onto that our CAR!! I think it will really help when I have a car again. Just kidding. Not really. Maybe? Either way, prayer would be appreciated!