Welcome to the World!

Andy went up to the mountain with his parents to help with their house this Saturday and so I took the kids over to my mom and dad's house in Walla Walla. It was the General Relief Society meeting and I was planning on going with my own stake, but then Andy said he'd be gone, so I decided to go with my mom and have my dad watch the kids. Then my dad had to work and wasn't sure he'd get done in time, so my mom mentioned this to a lady in her ward with a babysitting daughter and the daughter came over to hang out with my kids until my dad got back. I helped color some matching game pictures for humanitarian kits. My mom pulled ligaments in her wrist, so she was visiting. Their Stake Relief Society served us delicious taco salad for dinner. I think the taco shells were freshly made. My seemed warm still, but maybe it was the warm refried beans and meat. I thought the talks were wonderful and really enjoyed them. I think the Relief Society General Presidency are so interesting to listen to. I love their backgrounds and the way they speak. It was great to sit next to my mom (who blogged about it before we got home here.) during the meeting.
After the meeting, we had a cookie to-go from her stake and then went off to K-Mart to see if they had any deals for me. I love K-Mart, but the ones in Tri-Cities closed, so when I go to see my parents and it's not Sunday, I have to check them out. I was glad I did. I found two dresses (one yellow, one black- not together or I'd look like a bee:) for me and two outfits (polos and shorts) for Vincent and I only spent 11 dollars.
We went back to my parent's house and visited with my dad for a little bit before I thought of a project I want to make for the Ransom-made Design Autumn Event (click here for more information or here to see the site.) I decided that I needed to raid my mom's fabric a little to make my idea (really, my mom made this idea before, but I'm taking it too.) My mom used to work at a fabric store, so she has quite a collection of fabrics in her basement that is great for when I just need a little of certain things. Maybe this will make sense after I make my project and show you all.
We are sending out the invitations next week, so if you would like to be invited officially, you can email me at nadscrow@yahoo.com or leave a comment at the bottom. We can ship things if you'd like something too. The prices are reasonable and the quality is great.
On Friday night, I took the girls to the school for a movie night that was shown on a wall in the cafeteria. It was Race to Witch Mountain. It was pretty good. Our boys stayed home to relax because Andy didn't want to chase Vincent around during the movie or try to keep him quiet during it.
Thursday night Andy and I went to the Temple together. His cousin Becky was so great to come and babysit our kids for us and put them to bed and everything. They had a good time with her.
Wednesday Andy's sister Sara had her baby!!! Her name is Daphne Jean. She is cute and cuddly and healthy. I took the kids to meet her after school on Thursday. Andy met her on Sunday night.After we saw David and Sara and Daphne at the hospital, we went to the library to check out some new books. Elizabeth wanted to get one that would answer her question she came home with that day. A boy in her class was telling a girl in her class that when a fly lands on your skin, it's pooping on you. We checked out some books and Andy read them with the kids before bed a few nights. Yep, it's true. If they are on some gross thing, some of that gross thing can transfer to you when they land on you. Luckily, that is a great way to make kids wash their hands better.
The girls played outside after school on Tuesday. Elizabeth came in and made a "picnic" for them to eat outside. Then they piled up leaves to make a pretend fire. I'm glad they can keep themselves entertained. Vincent was finishing a late nap. (Don't worry, no matches.)
Andy and I were asked to be nursery leaders, so that's our new calling at church. We have spent plenty of time down there and know what to expect. I'm just going to miss going to Relief Society and feeling like I know what's going on. But don't worry, I'll push my way into all the activities and make sure they let me know about things. I love getting together with the ladies from church! We will get to know all the newest families in the ward with small kids and be able to welcome them into the ward and I'm excited about that. And this next weekend is General Conference, so we even have an extra week that we aren't down there, so bonus for us! The newly-released lady who was the nursery leader talked to us yesterday and let us know that she did not (with much emphasis) tell them to put us down there and that when they told her who they asked, she told them not to do that because we sub down there all the time. But, we are, and it's fine. She dropped off all the stuff this afternoon. I think she's ready to be done with it too. Our first mission is cleaning out the toys more. They are pretty organized now, but I'm getting rid of the gross play food. It's so gross!
So that's what we're up to lately. Busy, busy always. That's what makes life so fun!

Daddy Daughter Baseball Night

Andy finally got the pictures off the computer at work from his boss from "Daddy Daughter Baseball" that happened August 25, so here they are with what I think happened. Maybe Andy will update this later with what really did happen if I'm way off.
Maybe I should make stuff up to make sure he will. :)
At the beginning they asked if any of the girls wanted to be a baseball buddy and run out onto the field with a player. Elizabeth got to run out with the pitcher! I think Andy said they asked if she wanted to throw a ball too, but she didn't want to. Olivia didn't do it. She does want to next time though. Elizabeth was out there during the National Anthem too.
Looks like they got a little carried away with the plastic bats Sam gave them. Good thing the person in front of them is one of Sam's daughters (and his other two daughters at the game are poking her too.)They stayed at the game until the bottom of the sixth inning. Our team was winning and they got home before 10pm.

Autumn Event

You are invited to the "Ransom-Made design Autumn Event" on Friday, October 16th 7-9pm and Saturday, October 17th 10AM-5pm at my mother-in-law's home.
Let me know if you are interested and I'll make sure to officially invite you. :) This picture is just some of the items that my mother-in-law creates. She also does things with vinyl lettering, garment bags, purses...
A sister-in-law makes great homemade cards, scrapbooking things, headbands, photo albums, pregnancy journals, and more.
Another sister-in-law makes barrettes and purses and delicious cookies.
One more sister-in-law makes picture frames and helps with set up. Andy's aunt quilts so beautifully and also makes crayon holders that roll up.
My mother-in-law's best friend has joined our group and makes vinyl letter sayings on plates and decorative things.
I make I Spy Bags (which are great for kids), mousepads (for anyone!), dry erase/magnetic boards, magnets, and I'm thinking about another project, but I'm not sure I have time...

Ransom-Made design is a collaborative effort of six members of my family (and one close friend) who make useful and fabulous crafts.
The website has a preview of a few items that will be for sale at the event.
Gifts for everyone on your list! And not over-priced either. :)

Amusement Park Amusements

Andy here, NaDell asked me to write about our trip on Saturday, the 19th, to Silverwood, The Northwest's Largest Theme Park (according to them, anyway). This is the nearest amusement park to Tri Cities, it's in Northern Idaho, near Coeur d'Alene. The four of us had big fun. I say 'four' because Vincent didn't get to come along. He spent part of the day with some friends, and the other part of the day with my sister. So, now you know why he isn't in any of these pictures. Anyway, we left town at about 8:30 and got there a little after eleven, which was right after they open, this time of year. Immediately, we hit the rides.
This ride is called Tremors. If you look really hard at this picture, you'll see a guy in a red shirt, in the middle of the roller-coaster train, that's me. Elizabeth is sitting next to me with white knuckles.
I had to go solo on the Panic Plunge, the girls weren't tall enough. You slowly go up about a hundred feet, then it drops you. Naturally, it slows down before you get to the bottom. NaDell took this picture, but she wasn't interested in taking her turn on this ride.
Elizabeth was a bit shook up after the roller-coaster ride, so we went to some of the tamer rides for a while. Here's the Kiddie Helicopters.
Next was the Ferris Wheel, they have two, one has cars that can go upside-down, but no one wanted to go on that with me. So we settled for the regular Ferris Wheel. The weather hadn't been that bad, but it got a little windy up here. Olivia got a little nervous when the wind started rocking us.
Here's NaDell and Olivia on the Paratrooper. Olivia says she liked all these rides, but her looks show she's not quite sure about it.
Here we are on the oldest roller-coaster in the park. No safety bars are needed because it only goes five miles an hour. Although, we did get held-up by desperados who wanted money for the Wishing Star charity.
The girls wanted to sit in the very front of the train. That was fine with me, because I like trains, and it was interesting watching this old steam engine chug along. It's a 1915 narrow-gauge locomotive (which means it's built for smaller track than regular trains use). Originally it burnt coal, but it burns used motor oil, and vegetable oil now.
Olivia wanted to ride the carousel. NaDell's pictures of us riding were all blurry, these things go so fast, you know.
Elizabeth was a good sport about riding these big coasters. She was too short for some of them, but she rode everything she was tall enough to get on. She even rode the ride behind her twice.
The most impressive ride in the park is called Aftershock. NaDell didn't want to ride this, and the girls were too short, so I had to go solo again. It lifts you up and lets you go. You do a loop-de-loop through the wall of flame and then you stop and do it again, but backwards (OK, there's no wall of flame, but how fun would that be?) You can't see me in this picture because I'm at the very top, on the side away from the camera. I highly recommend this ride, but after I rode it a couple of times my head hurt. I think my brain might have rattled around a little, inside my head.
Elizabeth really wanted to go on the bumper-boats, I did not, but she went with me on the roller-coasters, and I couldn't come up good enough excuse to make me not seem like a jerk.
You hold those handles, and there's a button for each thumb. One button makes the motor go, and the other makes water squirt out. See Elizabeth squirting that kid in the upper-right? He was totally drenched from going on this ride over and over. Then he and some other kid got me in a cross-fire and let me have it. I did my best to outmaneuver them, but I think there was something wrong with my boat. It was as if it weighed 150 pounds more than theirs.
It was getting close to being time to go, but we hit a few more rides. Here we are on the old-time cars. I thought Olivia ought to have been driving. It's the least she could do, since I had to drive all the way home.

All in all, it was a fun day. No one threw up, and no one pooped their pants on the thrill-rides. Those of us who go to go to the fun-park had fun, and according to witnesses, Vincent had fun playing with his friends and cousins.

PTA

Wow! This was one busy, busy week. It's now Thursday night and I have one more day (and there's nothing written on the calendar even though I do have a couple of things going on...) before SILVERWOOD on Saturday with Andy and the girls. Vincent is going to hang out with one of my awesome friends for half the day and one of his aunts (not the one who's due to have a baby any day) for the other half. We are going to have such a fun trip.
This week has been busy with visiting teaching for church, making plans for the open house at Elizabeth's school for PTA, babysitting a little, Olivia started preschool on Wednesday. We did all the regular stuff too, like ballet, school, making lunches, phone calls, laundry, cookies, cross-stitching, and dinners.
The PTA had a wall of tables and I was in charge of the volunteer table. I came up with an idea earlier this week of a way to draw attention to the sign up sheets. We need volunteers so bad, so we don't have to try to do it all ourselves. This year I had to compete with one of our PTA Vice Presidents dressed up like a "PTA Princess" too, so I had to think of something good. Last year I remembered that the sign ups were all sitting out on the table and it was hard to figure out what things were or if I wanted to sign up because it was Elizabeth's first year there, so I wanted to stay at my table most of the night and keep it more exciting. Here's what I came up with (after an online search had no ideas at all!) A few months ago this idea was rekindled in my head by a girl from church who made one for Elizabeth while the choir was practicing.
I made a giant "fortune teller" out of red poster board (2/$1 at Dollar Tree). I just put numbers on the outside. The middle section had morning, afternoon, evening, and from home options. The end result was all of the activities that PTA does for our school that fit into those times. We had a lot of people sign up and I think it was pretty successful. So glad it worked!
Numbers on the top.Choices on the inside.List of things someone could help with from home.
We also had many parents sign up to be PTA members and about 45 shirts sold too.

Olivia has made friends with the lady who helps kids cross the road in the mornings by the school. We drive, but this lady smiles at Olivia through the window and tells me she likes this lady's pretty smiling face. This morning, the lady was telling Olivia "I love you" with hand signals. Olivia wanted to draw her a picture and we are going to meet this lady tomorrow morning with some pumpkin cookies too. (Don't worry, she helps little kids learn to read at the school. It's not just some random stranger.)

Here's a video of Vincent last night. He was watching some Looney Toons while we played games. You have to see his little dancing!

Family Pictures

In August we had a reunion with Andy's siblings and his parents hired a professional photographer to come and take pictures of all of us. The photographer gave the CD with rights to print this weekend and so here is our family picture. He switched out sad faces with smiling ones (if there was a smiling one to trade) and the not looking faces with the looking at the camera faces too. He did a good job, I think. Vincent wasn't in the mood to smile much, but since he isn't screaming or crying, this was pretty good. He's always all smiley and happy and laughing all the rest of the time, but when it's time for a nice picture, that goes out the window.

And because I want to, I'll add in the big group picture here. All of Andy's sisters and their families. Within 9 days Sara's baby Daphne will be here and this picture will be out of date already.

Patriot Day

The kids were dressed in head to toe red, white, and blue today for Elizabeth's school pride day. (I dressed that way too, but I'm not as cute as they are.) I decided that I'd take their picture next to our flag after school this morning. Good thing no one had to change....
Sorry the pictures are a little washed out. The kids were in the shade. Oops. I lightened them so you can see their smiles better.
Olivia with her plastic purse and magic wand and dress up earrings.Elizabeth really wanted to be riding her scooter instead of taking a picture.Just the girls.See? Check out those awesome dress up earrings! She has a pretty fabulous headband on too!Olivia decided that she was going to call today "Flag Day" instead. I told her that that holiday is in June, but she kept it up. That's really alright with me anyway. I explained 9/11 to Elizabeth on the way to school. Her response? "I hope no one burns down MY school." I told her that no one would let anybody do that.
Since it seems to be a good thing to do, I'll say where Andy and I were on that morning and when we found out. It happened just short of three months after we got married. We were asleep and Andy's alarm went off to the talk radio station with the news. We were both awake just like that to turn on the TV and see what was going on. We didn't think it could be real. We were still watching when the airplane ran into the second tower. Then we both had to go to work. At work, we found a TV to watch and worked while seeing all the sad news and chaos.
May I add that that day in March 2003, we were SO glad to finally see some action! This was one month after Elizabeth was born.
The song "I'm Proud to be an American" has been in my head all day. I love it. We love our country and the freedoms that we have living here. I really am proud to be an American. Way higher than that though is that I'm a daughter of God. It's amazing how much each of us are blessed by knowing this and living where we live.

Me Too! Me Too!

Elizabeth had a project to do for school to make a white piece of cardstock look like her for the wall at school. It is due tomorrow and we finally had time after school today to get out the craft supplies. It's been a busy few weeks.
I helped Olivia make one too.
Here's what we came up with:A few years ago I found these dolls on sale that can change clothes and shoes and they happened to come in just the hair I needed for my girls. They insisted on having their pictures taken with both dolls that look like them.Elizabeth wanted a skirt and then Olivia decided she needed one too. Elizabeth wanted a ribbon belt, so Olivia got one too. Buttons, if Elizabeth has them, Olivia must have them too. They were cute though and I took turns helping each of them with their dolls. They did the hair mostly on their own. And I made them color themselves without clothes first (just underwear and shoes). Olivia drew some pink ballet slippers. Elizabeth drew blue tennis shoes. I had to add the eyebrows after they finished. I didn't notice they were missing until I was going to take the pictures. I knew something looked funny!

Labor Day Weekend

Our Labor Day weekend started out with a game night at my uncle and aunt's house on Friday. Another uncle and aunt had extra hamburger patties and buns and corn to share, so we made it a dinner. My parents came up and my grandparents were there too, along with another aunt. After dinner, we visited while the kids played outside and then moved in when the mosquitoes got too close. My Aunt Diana taught the kids how to play a "Walk the Dog" game. Elizabeth lost interest pretty early, but the girl next to her won. Go Raquel! It was fun to hang out with my cousins and their kids.
Vincent played with these tiny things. He could throw them pretty well into the nets in the corners. And he didn't try to eat them either. Olivia wanted all the red color ones. That didn't work. Nice try.Then, Uncle Jed and my dad started spinning kids in a chair in the family room, so we started another game that Andy likes called "Hare and Tortoise". I like it too alright, but I almost never win, so it's not my favorite. We left last, of course, and had a lot of fun there. There are plans set for next months family game night already.
Saturday was a cleaning and resting day. I finished a few cross-stitch projects and we went to a wedding reception that night. It was a nice family day.
Sunday we switched to the 1-4pm time at church (Yeah, our stake changes in September. I like it.) So, I put Vincent to bed on Saturday at 9:30 so he would be tired enough for a nap before church. I slept in and Andy put him back into bed about 10:30, so he had a good nap. YEA! Our power was out when the kids woke up, so Andy hopped up and showered so he'd have hot water, but I just waited until I had to get up, and the power turned back on at 11, so all was good. I finally got to go to Sunday School and Relief Society. It's been a while because I've been helping in Primary and nursery. I love Relief Society! We came home, ate, and I went back to bed. Totally lazy. So, I woke up to read to the girls and put them to bed at 8pm and stayed up too late cross-stitching and watching tv and making cookies for a hike Monday morning with friends. I was planning on waking up that morning at 5:30, so a friend could pick me up to meet up with everyone else at 6am, but Vincent had other plans. He screamed from 4:30-5:30.
I didn't sleep very well, but I'm glad I slept a lot on Sunday so I wasn't too cranky Monday. He finally settled down with some Tylenol (I think he's teething again) and a cup of milk right before I left. So, before I explain the whole hiking with friends, you should know that it wasn't my idea. I'm not in very good shape, but I do like to do things with my friends and I really didn't have any idea how hard it would be either. Also, for the past few years, several friends and I have done things for each other on our birthdays. This usually begins with the friend whose birthday was Monday. A few years ago we toilet-papered each others houses, last year we went to breakfast and late night appetizers, and this year we surprised her with a hike up a local mountain. We wanted to get an early start because it gets hot and so we could do things with our families on Labor Day, so we met early. We also planned breakfast to eat at the top. I made breakfast cookies. They were good! I was the youngest on the hike, but also the most out of shape, slow person. My chest was burning and I was almost wheezing (I think I have a little of my dad's asthma), so I took it pretty slow. A few nice people stopped to take our picture for us. It was beautiful. We are still at the very bottom here.This is where we ate a picnic breakfast before heading back down. It was perfect. One of the girls isn't in this picture because she was taking it.

We were a little ways from the top, but there was a nice rock bench built into the side of the mountain in a corner of the trail that we decided to eat our picnic breakfast at instead of going to the top (it's super windy up there, I hear.) Stopping was fine with me. Six of us were on the hike and three continued on to the top, including the birthday girl, so they had fun and came back about 5 minutes later to report that the top was pretty much the same as it was where we were. In addition to my breakfast cookies, others brought juice, yogurt, bagels with cream cheese, and fresh apples, pears, and peaches. It took us hardly any time to go back down the mountain and we passed a lot of hikers on their way up.If you know where you're at in the Tri-Cities, you can easily find where your house is and other landmarks around our area. You can't see your house in Richland because of all the trees, but you ought to know where it is, especially if you can spot (I hope you can figure this out!) Home Depot, WalMart, and Target.
Another view of Tri-Cities.
I got back home at 8:30 and got ready to go to Andy's parent's place in the mountains an hour and a half away for lunch and fun (and work for Andy and his parents.) A few other families were up visiting for the day too and the kids had fun with them and I had a good time visiting too. I mostly kept an eye on Vincent and the girls played in the dirt, went on four-wheeler rides, and played with Scooter (the dog).
The kids played with the other company whose parents were helping out. They were trying to pick up Olivia who couldn't get down the steep rock edge. The boy next to her tried to pick her up, but he couldn't get down either. It was funny to watch them problem-solve through the window.
I let Elizabeth take over the picture-taking, which she loves to do, and had all kinds of pictures to go through at home. Don't worry. I didn't put them all in here. Just the best ones.
I gave Elizabeth the camera and she took a bunch of pictures. Shirley was working on caulking around windows and painting the side of the house. She's such a great do-it-yourself-er.
This one George is smiling so nice, I couldn't delete it even though it has funny reflection spots. See what a beautiful day it was?
I was looking through the pictures before we left and Olivia was sitting next to me. I saw this and asked her "What?!" She informed me that she was only pretending. Yeah. Right.
Elizabeth loves Scooter. He joined the family (not ours, George and Shirley's) not long before she did.
This nice boy kept Vincent busy the whole time we were up there. If Vincent walked around the house edge where I couldn't see him, seconds later, he'd be in his arms coming back to me. Vincent and his new best friend driving someone else's car.
Vincent and I. I'm trying to keep him out of Grandpa's truck.
A girl who was there visiting with her mom and grandparents, found seven lizards today so she let the kids hold them before releasing them back into the rocks. Even Vincent held one. Olivia did too! Of course, you already know Elizabeth would. She brings me slugs from the yard sometimes. I make her wash her hands and tell her to leave it in it's house-the yard.
This is what kept Andy busy. Figuring out where the speakers will go and wiring before the crews come to insulate and drywall.
We ended up staying there until it was time for them to pack up, so we helped with that process and went to dinner with George and Shirley and an aunt on the way home. They are so great. We got back home a little after 8pm. In time to give the kids bathes and read scriptures, have a snack, and read Elizabeth's school library book before she returns it tomorrow. Lunches are made and ready to go and Tuesday's going to be another busy, fun day.