Ad & Jen

She's Baaaaaaaaccckkk!

2012-01-17T20:44:00.000-08:00

For just a couple of days, anyway... we get to watch Tori while her brother is over in Seattle having surgery. So - it's fun to see her again, she has grown SO much! She is super BUSY, BUSY, BUSY, though! :)

Missing....

2011-07-08T17:43:00.000-07:00

A certain small little girl -

It still feels quiet around here... it has been almost a month since Tori left - and Finn is still asking about her, "Tori at visit still, Mama? She coming back now?" How do you explain foster care to a 2 year old? We are planning on going to see her soon - maybe tomorrow - her Mom said she'd be happy to let us keep her for a couple of hours!

Ah, Memories....

2011-06-14T20:39:00.001-07:00

Well - we decided to go through some things this last weekend, and I found some wonderful pictures from way back when...

Isn't she cute? This is from Kedron's 2nd Birthday party, so it must have been DoRe's 25th?

And from many, many years before that:

This was a few months before we got married - it will be 15 years this month! Wow, how time flies!

A post for Do Re'

2011-05-02T15:26:00.001-07:00

Well - I apologize to any of the rest of you (if any) that read this - but this post is just honoring a request from Do Re'....

It's been WAY too long...

2009-08-19T23:19:00.000-07:00

Okay - I'm going to try to catch up on the past 4 months! The problem is - we've done SO much since April that I've avoided updating my blog because it seems like there's TOO much to update! S0 - in a brief month-by-month rehash, here are the highlights:

APRIL

We went to visit Adrian's grandparents

(this is the Grandpa that one of Finn's middle names Leon is after!)
Grandpa & Grandma with our family

We saw a lot of the relatives - just didn't get many pictures!
I guess we'll just have to go back to remedy that!

MAY

Our Miss Anya B. turned SIX! Can you believe it? She had a roller skating party.

Adrian was 'Man of the Year' for his company! Finn loved the balloons that he got.

Finn got more new teeth - although his top ones aren't showing, he now has 4!
Our annual Van Lierops photo shoot...Kedron refused to NOT make a funny face in any picture.

JUNE

Anya graduated from Kindergarten!

She got an 'official' diploma from her teacher, even signed by the principal!

We went to MOUNT RUSHMORE!!!! I've always wanted to see it...and we finally did! My Mom & Dad came along, which was really fun!

We also went to visit the Devil's Tower in Wyoming.

JULY

We got home from our trip just in time for the 4th of July! We lit exactly 3 fireworks - 2 day parachutes and one mortar. Woohoo. You may notice that Anya lost her first tooth that day! She was not sure if she should be excited or scared, so she laughed and cried at the same time!

We spent a weekend out at my parent's property at Lake Sutherland.

AUGUST
(so far)

We went to our church convention at Milltown, WA.

We stayed in our new trailer for the weekend.

My handsome boys on Sunday morning!

Now - school is starting for me - at least teacher days next Wednesday!

How did summer fly by SO fast?

Baseball Season

2009-04-05T21:50:00.000-07:00

The kids are doing Little League this year - so far they are really enjoying it!

Anya in her uniform -- Her team is the 'Muckdogs'!

Kedron at Batting Practice - His team is the 'Pirates'!

Anya's Feet Are Stuck

2009-03-15T16:05:00.000-07:00

Poor kid...we're glad she can provide some entertainment for us though!

I always feel like....somebody's watching me~

2009-03-07T14:27:00.000-08:00

So - you know how sometimes you kind of get that feeling that somebody is looking over your shoulder - and you look around to see if somebody is actually there? Well...I got that feeling the other day, looked up - and lo and behold - there was somebody keeping an eye on me!

I never knew that fruit could take on such personality! :)

And, no - this was not placed this way on purpose by anybody! It just happened to accidentally be arranged that way when putting the fruit on it....

Just a little post...

2009-02-20T21:55:00.000-08:00

I just LOVE little baby toes! They look like a little row of pink peas!
Finn found Kedron's Winnie the Pooh bear...he thinks it's pretty neat!

Mis hijos...

2009-02-10T14:44:00.000-08:00

Well...for some reason, I guess I feel compelled to take pictures of my sons in sombreros! Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I am a Spanish teacher? In any case, after taking a picture of Finn in a sombrero the other day, I was looking through some old pictures of Kedron, and found that he, too, had been subjected to a hat bigger than he was perched on his head!

See if you can tell who is who...although it may not be too hard, considering the size of Finn's cheeks and Kedron's ears!

Here's Finn chilling with Grandpa D in their almost matching hats! If you look closely, you will see that Grandpa has a stripey blue shirt on, too!

A Prize for you? and for me!!!

2009-02-05T16:15:00.000-08:00

Well - this sounds like too fun of an idea to pass up, so instead, I too, will pass it on! Since I was one of the first 5 to leave a comment on my friend Jean's blog, she is going to make me a surprise! Yay! And now for you...

Lucky you! The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2- What I create will be just for you.

3- It'll be done this year. (might be a little while)

4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!

5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog.The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

Let the New Year ROLL on in!

2009-01-14T17:16:00.000-08:00

Finn is 4 months old now - boy how time flies!

He had his check up the other day, and he is a healthy 19 lbs. now!!!

We just had to take some pictures of his chubbiness -
He has such fat little thighs that they hang over his knees!

He is above 95th percentile for both Height & Weight - but only 90th for head...

hopefully that will even out! We don't want him to be a pinhead!

A Little Boy Waving His Arms...

2009-01-14T17:13:00.000-08:00

This is from a couple of weeks ago - I just thought it was funny
I looked out the door to see Kedron doing this - and asked him if he was making a snow angel (duh!)...he says, "No, Mom - I'm making a little boy waving his arms!"

I thought HP stood for HorsePower...

2009-01-14T16:27:00.000-08:00

Well...as many of you know, we've had trouble with our lawnmower - and although it's not mowing season yet, we thought we'd get a jump on things and have somebody come out and look at it.

He said we might need a couple of new hamster wheels under the hood...

(Seriously - this little squirrel has been sitting on our lawnmower all day - I hate to go out and look at what kind of mess he's made on the seat! I have no idea why he likes the lawnmower so much!)

Winter Pictures...

2008-12-22T14:21:00.000-08:00

Well...I guess we should join the bandwagon and post some of our wintery pictures!

Well...so we wish, anyway!

Okay - here are some real wintery pictures!

Anya and her spiffy snowsuit!

The camera shutter didn't open all the way - but I think it made a nice frame on the picture!

Kedron, Going, Going....

Gone! Oops!

Our three all bundled up! Finn wasn't that pleased about the cold air!

Some more pics...

2008-12-09T22:12:00.000-08:00

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the last couple of months!

Finn's first Jack-O-Lantern - I made it a 'self-portrait' for him.

Kedron's first time off of the diving board at swimming lessons - he was SO excited!

Our 3 kiddos!
I asked Anya to help me get Finn to smile for a picture - here was her honest interpretation...

Every year we do Christmas Wish Lists at Grandpa Dave & Grandma Pat's house...
Anya & her cheesy grin
Kedron almost done!
Finn's not really sure what to do...

Crazy Christmas

2008-12-08T23:20:00.000-08:00

Okay....this is really silly, but couldn't resist!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Halloween

2008-12-01T17:01:00.000-08:00

Well - I know this is a little belated, but Kedron turned 8 on Halloween, so wanted to share some pictures from his special day!

Kedron with all of his birthday loot! He decided to be a skeleton for his party!
All of the kids at the party!
We decided to join in the fun - can you guess what Adrian & I are supposed to represent? (Since I was a banana, Finn certainly had to be a monkey - and a very upset one, at that!)
Our little princess... in more ways than one, I suppose!

The last month...

2008-10-25T23:12:00.001-07:00

My friend Do Re gave us a zebra themed baby shower - we tried to dress for the occasion!

It was a wonderful party - Ad & Dan took the kids out to the back yard,
and all of the ladies got to eat eclairs and make flower petal dolls... Thanks, Do!

This is the beautiful diaper cake that Melanie made for the party!
Nancy made little party favor boxes with scrumptious handmade green & white mints in them, but unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of them! She also made Finn an absolutely STUNNING quilt....I am amazed at how much time she devoted to it, and adore the quilt!

I just loved this expression...

This is Finn's friend Paige - she's a month older than he is!!!

Our 3 kiddos!

We've been weighing Finn on my postage scale, just to check his weight gain - babies are supposed to gain about an ounce a day. One week, Finn gained 18 OUNCES!!! He's up to about 13 lbs. now!

Grandma Jan bought him an activity bouncy seat...he loves looking at the toys!

Catching up...

2008-09-18T09:30:00.001-07:00

Well - it's been awhile - for some obvious reasons, it seems as though there's hardly ever time to sit down and update the blog! (It's kind of difficult to do it one-handed!) However, we made a wise purchase yesterday that is allowing this update:

It's a Papasan swing....Finn seems to be content with it for the time being! He's actually staying asleep!

Here are a couple of other cute pics of him that we've taken in the last couple of days - can you believe he's 3 weeks old already? Time is flying by way too quickly! I'm desperately trying to savor every moment of newbornness that I can!

Finn & his zebra from Grandma Jan

Wow - this kid can YAWN! He usually makes himself cry!

Look, Ma, NO hand!

And in other news:

We have a little girl who just started Kindergarten last week - who just happens to be quite excited about that!

Anya & her teacher

Anya getting on the bus for the FIRST time - she was so excited she forgot to look back for her picture to be taken!

Anya literally RAN off of the bus at school - I think she was the first one off!

Big Brother Kedron is in 2nd grade now - and more than willing and eager to help his little sister around the school (so far!) I love this picture of him & Finn:

Baby Details

2008-08-28T20:34:00.000-07:00

Whew, we're FINALLY home! This has been a very interesting couple of days. But first...

So, the details....Jen's water was broken at about 8:15am, and we immediately saw that the fluid was tinged with meconium. We knew that this was a sign that baby was stressed, but we didn't know why and had no specific reason to worry yet. By 10:22 Finn was delivered, with an unpleasant surprise - his cord was wrapped tightly around his neck. Luckily, the OB had called the pediatrician and was very quick to unwrap the cord, but Finn still had a little difficulty. He had aspirated meconium, and had to have his tummy pumped. He was also immediately given oxygen (blown across his face) to ensure that his oxidation levels stayed up, and was rushed to the nursery.

Finn spent the rest of the day under observation. He only needed the oxygen for about 20 minutes afterwards, but his breathing was a bit labored and he was breathing too often: he was taking over 80 breaths per minute, when the norm was around 60. He needed to remain in the nursery, which was especially tough on Jen, who had only had a single, very short chance to hold her new baby. Meanwhile, Jen was having her share of challenges - she had to be on a couple of different medications due to her hypertension, which not only made labor more difficult but caused her initial recovery to be that much more unpleasant.

Finn really was a trooper - while his respirations stayed a little high, he otherwise did very well and we were able to send all of our visitors through the nursery to see him. Finally, Wednesday evening, the nurses gave the okay for Finn to go to Jen for feedings! He was given 45 minutes every three hours to spend time with his family outside of the nursery before returning for further monitoring.

Finally, on Thursday morning, Finn was given the okay to stay in the room with us, to our immense relief! He and Jen both recovered very well, and everyone was given the okay to come home Thursday evening. So, now we are home and all Finn has to do is adjust to our chaotic household.

Thanks to everyone who was (and is still!) helping us, we are very grateful! We'll post more pics as they come, but here are a final two for you.

It's a BOY!

2008-08-28T00:33:00.000-07:00

Finn Xavier Leon D. was born at 10:22 a.m. on Wednesday, 8/27. He weighed in at 9 lbs, 6 oz, and was 20.8 inches long!

Despite a somewhat exciting birth, mom and baby are doing just fine now. We can't upload any of our own pictures yet, but if you want a preview check out the Harrison website at http://www.harrisonhospital.org/ and click on the "See Our Babies" button at the top of the page. Use the password "public" to access the site!

We will post more as soon as we can, but right now we're very tired.

Surprise! It's a ....

2008-08-23T11:44:00.000-07:00

DOLL!

Okay...I just couldn't resist - We're all ANXIOUSLY awaiting the real arrival of our baby so we can finally meet him/her! We'll post for real when we get to meet our new little bundle! Current plan is to be induced on Wednesday, but I would love to go into labor naturally before then...keep thinking good labor thoughts for me!

Down To the Wire

2008-08-19T00:10:00.001-07:00

See this little hole here?

It wasn't enough for Jen to see our addition through it. NOOOO. She needed to experience the addition. So, what does she do? Wait for the hallway hole to be cut?

No.

My wife climbed through this little hole, just so she could take a jaunt around the addition! Truly, it was exhilarating and terrifying, all at once. Unfortunately (or fortunately, according to her), she hid the camera first, so that this event couldn't be chronicled in picture form

Afterwards, we felt that an additional picture was warranted:

Jen wishes to let everyone know that these studs are on 16" centers, so she's not as huge as you think she is.

3/4 view of baby's face looking up to the left.

So, we went to get an ultrasound last week, because of our tendency to make Large babies. This one is no exception! In fact, at 36 weeks it was measuring 39 weeks, 6 days. It is currently estimated at 9 lbs, and this fact combined with some mild hypertension means that we're planning on inducing Jen next week. So, unless plans change, our absolute outside birth date for this one will be next Wednesday. The truth is, however, that Jen could pop at any time!

We will, of course, update as soon as we can with further developments...stay tuned!

We are Expanding!

2008-07-30T23:46:00.000-07:00

I'm not just talking waistlines here.

We love our house, we really do. It's just that....well, that empty space over the garage. It's just too....empty. Time to fix that.

And Now, to fill in all of that distressing empty space.....

Whew!

Okay, so - for those who don't know, we're adding three new rooms in - a new Master Suite, a Nursery, and a Bonus Room. The existing Master will lose its door and become an open and public loft, and the master bath will become a public bath. Since I know everyone LOVES more pictures of wood, here is a quick shot of the inside:

I know what you are probably asking yourself: "Are they completely insane??" Well, yes. Yes we are. We're excited too, however - it has given Jen an enormous outlet for her nesting instinct, which has descended on us full force now. The hope is that this project will be done by the time Baby arrives, but if not then we'll figure it out.

Piano Recital

2008-06-24T20:21:00.000-07:00

Our sweet little darlings have been taking piano lessons for about 6 weeks or so - and they had their first recital last Saturday. Kedron was very nervous, Anya was very excited -- I think they both did quite well for this being their public debut!

Hopefully these videos will work!

Honey, I'm HOME!!!

2008-06-04T22:36:00.000-07:00

Isn't my husband SO sweet? He brought me this HUGE bouquet of flowers!

We have a new TOY!!!

2008-05-29T17:33:00.000-07:00

We have actually been wanting a trampoline (a BIG one!) for a long time now....however, our insurance company told us that they would drop us if we had one, unless we fenced the yard with a 6 foot locked fence!!!! (Not so feasible with 2.5 acres!) So...we decided to treat our kids to a different toy! They have really been enjoying it - every single day so far! Let's see if it maintains its coolness throughout the summer!

Of course Jordan usually just walks around it bawling because he can't sit on the top of it like Kedron...he's starting to learn that he can have some fun on the bottom row of bars!

The Baby Bump

2008-05-08T12:01:00.000-07:00

Well...a certain friend asked me to post a pic of my 'baby bump' so she could see how much it was growing! So...here it is! I am 5 months (almost 24 weeks) pregnant here! According to the Dr., I am measuring 2 weeks bigger than I should, and the ultrasound said that the baby is big for its age! (Considering Kedron was 10 lbs. and Anya 10 lbs. 14 oz. at birth, that is a very good possibility! I did dream that the baby was going to be 16 lbs at birth...I certainly hope that dream doesn't come true!)

Anya is now 5!!!

2008-05-08T11:55:00.000-07:00

Well, Wednesday was Anya's 5th Birthday! She is quite impressed - has been telling people all day that 'she's 5 now!' ... but she 'doesn't feel any older' !!! We bought her roller skates for her birthday, which she is very excited about. I'm sure there will be upcoming pictures of her adventures on them!

Spring is here...

2008-05-04T22:11:00.000-07:00

Anya had a chance to go witness a sheep shearing the other day - apparently the sheep were very docile, even allowing themselves to be turned upside down to get shorn! Anya got to hold a lamb, and was quite pleased about that! Her friend with her is McCarty, one of her "favorite friends" from preschool! (He was rubbing her back the other day when I picked her up....should I be worried? She has also learned how to spell his name!)

Our Mini-Vacation!

2008-04-08T18:32:00.000-07:00

Well....it was Spring Break last week, so we took a Mini-Vacation. We had been planning on driving across the states to Wisconsin to visit family this summer, but since Jen will be 7 1/2 months pregnant at that time, we figured it wouldn't be that great of an idea (we'll reschedule for maybe next year)! So - we decided to go visit some of our good friends in Elk, WA (near Spokane)...John, Angela, Ebony, Wyatt & Brady!

They have a new addition to their family, Brady - who is 2 months old, so we got a little taste of what's coming up for us in September!

After staying with them for a couple of days, we decided to trek on to Cottonwood, Idaho, and sleep in a DOG! (check out www.dogbarkparkinn.com!)

It was a lot of fun! The main part of the body was the 'adult' sleeping area,

then up a ladder into the head which had a loft with futons, books and games.

The nose was a little nook - the kids decided to sleep in the nose!

There was no TV or phone (cell service was minimal) - so we had a great time staying up late and playing Dog games! It was a Bed & Breakfast (continental), so we got to have some yummy homemade granola, blackberry coffee cake & rhubarb muffins in the morning. The couple who own the dog carve smaller dogs for sale, and gave each of the kids a 'second' to take home!

Is Anya taking after her Mom?

2008-04-08T18:24:00.000-07:00

So - I got home the other day, and snuck upstairs to see what Anya was silently up to in her room...and this is what I found!

Apparently she was 'teaching' her animals, and I managed to interrupt her! She got all embarrassed and hid her book behind her back!

New Kid Photo!

2008-02-04T23:50:00.000-08:00

Hey, everyone! We just wanted to share our most recent photo with everyone....we figure that everyone who takes the time to check this site out deserves to see this first!

Please tell us what you think, or if we didn't spell it out plainly enough. :-)

--Ad & Jen

Aren't mudbaths good for the skin?

2007-09-27T21:06:00.000-07:00

Well....we went out to my parent's place at Lake Sutherland over Labor Day. It had recently rained....and BOY HOWDY did the kids have fun in the mud! They spent more time in the mud then they did in the lake!

Jandi & Janelle (my nieces) also got to give my sister and me some new hair dos - what do you think?

2007-07-07T22:43:00.000-07:00

We went out to Fort Worden on Friday

with some friends....and had a great time!

Three Little Mermaids!!!

A new member to our family!

2007-06-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

Well....we have a new little boy in our household!

He'll be staying with us for awhile - he's a real cutie!

Our kids think he's great, so far....of course

he hasn't started getting into ALL of their stuff yet!

He's 20 months old....so....here we are doing diapers again!

Here are some pics of

HOW EXCITED our kids are!!!

Our Son is Falling Apart!

2007-06-13T22:35:00.001-07:00

No, really! Bits of him are just falling off....

we're getting worried!

He's all excited about it - he has this bizarre notion that someone will actually pay him MONEY - "LOTS and LOTS of money for it, like three quarters and two pennies!" Next thing we know, he'll be losing kidneys or something, and then we'll really have to shell out the big bucks.

So, in a completely unrelated vein.........anyone wanna buy a tooth?

Our funny family!

2007-06-07T13:52:00.000-07:00

Adrian

Jen

Kedron

Anya

Our good friends, the Arnalls!

2007-06-07T13:33:00.000-07:00

The Arnall family....at the show at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Wow! We're official bloggers now!!!

2007-06-06T22:49:00.000-07:00

Here we are on Thanksgiving vacation on Oahu, in Hawaii! We LOVED it...and want to go back!