up next: aspen!

Aspen is 11. Sometimes Aspen acts like she is the eldest and the mom, but she is the second child.

She and Toby have been best friends their whole lives.

She has grown a lot the last year. She is a whole head taller than Toby! (see here)

Aspen makes friends with everyone, everywhere.

She is a great big sister. Also a great babysitter.

Aspen loves to dress up. When she was little she wore her dress ups everyday, all day. She is great at pretend. When she was little she would play with whatever was on hand. If there wasn't anything, she'd play with her fingers! She still lies in bed after lights out and plays with stuff. I find it under her pillow the next day.

Aspen is really good at crafts. I hear "Mom, are there any crafts I can do?" a lot. She comes up with a lot of ideas on her own too. She is learning to sew too. She is very creative. She shares with her friends a lot too and teaches them how to do stuff.

She likes to write. She started a writing club at school. She also got a typewriter for her birthday.

Aspen likes to sing and draw and color.

She is going to start the flute in band next year.

She likes to cook and makes great pumpkin cookies (she had a cooking club with her friends for a while.)

Aspen doesn't like to fuss with her hair much. So she grows it out and cuts it off every couple years.

Aspen likes to do things for other people and makes everyone around her happy.

Aspen is a peacemaker and stands up for the right.

here's toby

Toby is my first born. He's almost 13. Here are a few tidbits about him:

He's a good looking kid. He seems to look good in all his pictures.

When Toby was a baby, we lived in Chicago. When people would see him for the first time they called him the Gerber Baby and told me to get him into modeling. (If Toby knew that and I had actually done it, he would be very embarrassed. He doesn't like being the center of attention.) But I didn't want to deal with the time committment.

Toby loves to read. He reads quickly. He will read the same book 3 or 4 times in a row. Then if there isn't anything else to read, he'll read it again. He read all of the then available Harry Potter books(5) by the time he was 7 1/2. He loves non-fiction, spy novels, fantasy, science fiction, and, of course, anything with bodily function humor (typical of preteen boys). Actually, he will read anything available. He takes a book with him everywhere.

Toby hates to get dirty. He uses two fingers to scrub the floor or dishes. He can play outside in the dirt without getting any dirt on him. But...when we are at the beach he puts sand all over himself. He says it feels good.

Toby has two pet birds, Mango (pictured) and Banana.

Toby makes great faces. Especially in pictures.

Toby plays the french horn, the trumpet and the piano. He is good at them all. He is also very skilled in horn repair according to his teacher.


Toby loves to cook and likes most foods. (Although we've had to push on some foods, but he ends up liking them.)


Toby is a good artist. He really likes to draw dragons and mythical creatures.


He is a creative poet. I'll have to round up his poetry and post it sometime.

He likes to be scary. He dressed up as a vampire one year and went around scaring all the little kids at the ward party. Vickie couldn't keep this picture on thr front of her fridge - it scared the other grandchildren.


He is missing 4 ribs (very rare). But he never lets it stop him.


He is a good big brother.


He is very silly and loves to crack jokes, especially puns and plays on words.


He gives me loves everyday and tells me he loves me. And we love him.

Introducing...

I thought I'd take a bit and tell you a little more about my kids. Mostly it's to help me remember all the great things about them. But I'd like you to know too!

This is Isaac:
Isaac has a ton of energy. He loves:

• to dig in the sandbox
• tortilla chips and guac (a favorite for breakfast!)
• is an awesome artist
• loves math
• is good at all sports (plays baseball right now)
• doesn't like to get his picture taken, so he makes faces
• to be efficient. (For example: decided to quit taking piano lessons from his teacher so that I could teach him instead. His reason: it took too long to drive to and from his teacher's house).
• to sneak the frosting and chocolate chips out of their hiding place in the fridge (I guess it's not a good hiding place:)
• to hike with his dad
• build things
• play with his brother
• to stick his tongue out (in 75% of the pictures I have of him, his tongue is hanging out like Michael Jordan) I think it helps him concentrate.

before & after

My only criteria were that

1. I didn't want to look like a soccer mom
2. I didn't want the Victoria Beckham cut
3. I wanted to look different

Many thanks to Scott at Salon U. He is awesome!

more guinea pigs

Here's a few more...

All the pictures of the boys turned out awesomely. But I'll spare you my photo album. Maybe I'll post the ones that show their real personalities (I can't help but laugh when I look at them -- I have very goofy kids). But it is getting late...there's always tomorrow.

Thirty-five is when you finally get your head together and your body starts falling apart. ~Caryn Leschen

I've been practicing taking portraits with my family as guinea pigs. But when I went back to look at the ones of myself and Nate, those wrinkles really stood out. First gray hairs, now crow's feet.
I am about to turn 35 and I guess I'm not dealing well with gowing older.

"What are Easter baskets?"

We haven't really ever done much of the Easter bunny part of easter. Every once in a while we do an egg hunt if there is a community one or if we get together with family. We do always talk about the real meaning of Easter. I guess I just wanted to make sure that our children really understood what Easter was all about. The kids don't really care too much about the baskets and such. We eat entirely too much candy as it is. Aspen loves to get new Easter dresses, but the boys won't wear them, so I don't buy them. Although one year, we skipped eggs and all that completely. About a month later the kids realized that Easter had passed and were a little disappointed.

This year I asked the kids: "Do you guys feel bad that we don't do Easter baskets?"

Their response: "What are Easter baskets?"

Guess it hasn't scarred them for life to not have baskets.

So this year, we were invited to our friends' to participate in one of their traditions. They color eggs and have an egg smashing contest. You hold the egg and hit the other person's egg. The one to have the cracked egg turns it to the other end to try again. Kind of a double elimination thing per egg. The winner stays in the ring. Toby was the best at it. It is harder than it looks.

Then on Sunday, after wonderful lessons at church, we had a mini egg hunt in our back yard. And I mean mini. Each kid got to find 3 eggs. Then after that they wanted to hide the eggs and find them again. Even without the candy! I think they just like to treasure hunt.