16 and counting

As of this day, November 25, 2011, my wonderful, beautiful wife and I have been married for 16 years!  I planned it on the 25th so that I do not forget it, since the 24th of November is my birthday.  Every few years either my birthday or our anniversary falls on Thanksgiving.  This year it was my birthday fell on turkey day, so that means our 16th wedding anniversary is on Black Friday of all days!  This would not be of any concern for me, as I usually look to avoid doing things that involve standing in long lines for long periods of time or fighting my way through crowds of sleep deprived shoppers being kept awake with large quantities of caffeine and the joy of fighting over the last of the big sale items left in a store.  So black Friday shopping is not something I have tried or will ever even think about trying!  However, my awesome wife does enjoy these type of activities, and has several friends that enjoy it as well.  So I am writing this Thursday the 24th, to publish it tomorrow on our anniversary, after the kids have gone to bed and the crazy shopping women have all left the house.  It is now the quietest it has been in the house since getting out of bed this morning.  So our anniversary celebration will be quite laid back tomorrow, as Brooke will have had no sleep and we are not even sure at what time of day she will return tomorrow to collapse into the bed.  Over the last few years I have tried to by an anniversary gift for her following the lists of traditional and/or contemporary things to buy on certain anniversaries.  For instance last year the traditional gift for the 15th anniversary was Crystal and the modern was watches.  That is pretty easy.  But this year it is Tourmaline for traditional gifts and Silver Holloware for modern gift.  I was not even sure what either of those were.  Thankfully I have Mr. Google to help me out and after lots of careful research I was able to come up with a gift for her that I know she will love.  For our 16th wedding anniversary I am getting Brooke a.....................  I can't tell you here now, she might read this before I give it to her!  Just know that she will love it and use it often. 

Anyway, now that this blog has gone off in a completely different direction than originally planned, back to the topic at hand.

This day we celebrate 16 years of marriage and are looking forward to many more years to come.  It has not always been easy, I don't think any marriage is, and no one is perfect, especially me, but I know that I feel I have been blessed to have Brooke at my side as my wife for the last 16 years.  I thank God every day for bringing her into my life and guiding us along every step of the way.  This time of year we spend a lot of time thinking and talking about what we are thankful for and my wife is always one of the first things that comes to mind.   

So I am writing this to tell my wife,

Happy 16th anniversary!! 

I Love You!!

Numbers

What do the numbers 15340 and 2191.3 have in common?

Give up?

Here is a hint; Another number related to these numbers is 42.

Do you give up?  Okay, they are all my age. 

As of today I am 15340 days, 2191.3 weeks, or 42 years old.  Whatever way you look at it, I am starting to approach the age in which you could say I am almost old enough to be considered of the age that some would think is almost on the brink of being able to be looked at as someone who is near the maturity level of a person that may be near the time in their life that a few people might think of as being close to old.  Depending on how old you are may determine how close to that you think I am!  (if you can even understand what I just wrote!)  I do not mentally feel like I am getting older, but sometimes my body reminds me of the fact that it is a fact.  Thus far in my life, I have been greatly blessed with an awesome wife, great daughters, many great friends and a good job as well as many other things.  I could not ask for anything more than what God has given me to this point. 

Now on my birthday this year, that happens to fall on Thanksgiving, I have to say that I am thankful for all the things mentioned above and for each of the 15340 days God has given me this far and I am looking forward to the next 15340 days that are coming.

Now my one birthday wish is that all my friends would be able to come celebrate with me, but since my house is too small, all I ask is that you all have a big turkey dinner to help me celebrate all those days that I have been so blessed to have lived for.  I know it will be hard for you all to do this, but all I ask is that you try just for me! 

Thanks!

Have a happy Thanksgiving and may you have as much to be thankful for as I do.

The birthday Tea Party

So Sarah wanted to have a tea party with her friends for her birthday.  I have never been to a tea party, nor have I been part of the planning of a tea party, so planning and running the tea party was up to my wonderful loving wife.  (as most of the girls birthday parties are.)  The tea party was planned to start at 2 pm so we did some family gift giving in the morning before the tea party guests started arriving.

 Here is one of her favorite gifts.  Shoes to dress up in.  She wears them all the time now and feels like she is an important princess.  Not that we were lacking in the shoe department(check out this story), but we did not have lots of these dress up shoes.

This gift was from her sister Moriah and receive the most animated reaction for any gift she received.  Apparently she really liked the hair brush!  It may have something to do with the Disney princess on it.

Leah could not stand to be left out, so here is her picture.

 The table is set and waiting for the guests to arrive.

 All the cups and princess trinkets are in place.

 The goodies were waiting to be eaten.(they were all very good.  I had to do some quality control.)

Just waiting for all the 4-5 year old little girls to get here and start the tea party.  

Now as far as how the tea party went, I am assuming it went well.  I never heard any loud screams and crying and we were not visited by an ambulance.  I do not really know because about the time they started showing up, I made my way to the shop to work on some projects.   I am out numbered enough in this house on a daily basis and knew that a house with nine 4-5 year old girls, a 2 year old girl, several 7-10 year old girls, and a few moms, was no place for me to be!  I have since seen the pictures and it seems that fun was had by all.  And I got some woodworking in too!

Another birthday!

Sarah winning the contest for the messiest ice cream cone eater!

We seem to always be having birthday parties around here.  This time it is for #3 daughter, Sarah!  She is 4 years old today (thats 1461 days if you are counting).  Or if you ask her, "how old are you?"  Her answer will be, "Dis many!" while holding up 3 or 4 fingers depending on what she felt like doing at the time.  I seem to say this with all the girls birthdays, but it does not seem possible that she can be 4 years old.  In the last year she has grown up a lot.  She talks non-stop and loves to sing, dance, and run.  Just like her olders sisters at this age, she is in love with Disney princesses, so for her party we will be having a whole bunch of other little girls over for a fancy tea party with all of them wearing their favorite princess dress.  It should be very fun for all the people in the house under 4 feet tall.  For the rest of us, I am sure it will be entertaining and tiring. 

Sarah still likes to sniff the one corner of her blankie and loves to play with her big sisters or go places with mom and dad.  She is a constant source of funny quotes and actions as well. 

So this post is to tell our 3rd daughter, Sarah Elyzabeth Jayne, that we love her very much and hope she has a happy 4th birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!

Bored games, or Board games?

The Jayne Train children like to play board games.  Truth be told, the older 2 parts of the Jayne Train like to play board games with them also.  There have been many exciting games of things like: Life, Monopoly, Chutes and Ladders, Crainium, and various other games that we find in our game cabinet.  Lately the girls have been wanting to play Sorry a lot.  The great part about this game is that even the little girls have just as much chance of winning as the big ones!  

The latest rousing game of "Sorry"

After a tiring weekend of busyness, we decided Sunday afternoon would be a lazy day, just hanging out watching movies, napping and playing games.  After a couple movies/snoozes, the oldest 4 girls in the house (once being my lovely wife) gathered at the dining room table for a rousing game of Sorry, which ended up lasting 1.5 hours.  This game give them chance to be mean to each other without getting in trouble, so I think that is why they like it!  

My favorite part of this game though, involves #3, Sarah.  Every time someone draws a sorry card and chooses to pick on Sarah, their sarcastic "Sorry" that they tell her as they knock her piece back to start, is answered by a sweet and sincere "I forgive you" from Sarah!  She is usually just oblivious to what is going on and just happy to be able to play with the rest of them.  The next best part is the fact that Sarah usually ends up winning somehow!  Which just goes to show that you do not need to think about your moves too much in the this game.  Just draw a card and move the first piece you see!  I will have to try that next time, since all the thinking and planning I do in the game usually end up with me in last place!

Happy Birthday, Mileah Grayce!

Today is our youngest daughters birthday.  She is 2 years old today and, as I say at all my kids birthdays, it does not seem possible for her to be 2!  She seems especially younger because she is so much smaller than all her sisters were at this age.  Leah is very entertaining as well as being very cute, most of the time. She is also trying to take Sarah's nickname, "The Fed" away from her by trying to get into even more stuff than she is not supposed to than Sarah does!  But I thank God everyday for the blessings of all my children and today especially for number 4! 

So Happy Birthday Mileah!

Imagination

Kids usually have a good imagination.  I tend to help our kids along by asking them strange questions to see what they will say.  But today we had a conversation with Sarah, our almost 4 yr old, that showed us that she does not need my help with her imagination.  Here is how it went:

Sarah came running into the room and told us, "I am almost finished packing!"

To that we asked, "Where are you going?"

Sarah replied, "To the beach! I going fishing!"

"Really," we said, "How are you going to get there?

To that she simply said, "I am going to drive my boat."  with a 'duh' kind of tone to her voice!

A while later, she was sitting in the middle of the living room telling us she was in her "silly boat" on the way to the beach!

Now I do not even need to help her to get funny conversations with her!  This should be interesting and fun!
Stay tuned!

Happy Birthday, Emma!

I say this at everyone of my kids birthday, but it is especially true with Emma our first born daughter, I does not seem possible that she can be this old!  Today, she is turning 10 (that is 3652 days if you are counting!) years old!  She has been anxiously waiting to be in the double digits since last year.  She is definitely a blessing from God, as all children are, and a joy to have around.

This last year her and I have been able to go do some special things together and I have been able to watch her do things that she did not think she was capable of doing.   I am looking forward to many many more adventures with my oldest daughter in the years to come and I thank God everyday for entrusting her to me to raise for Him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
EMMA NYCOLE!  

No, I did not fall off the face of the earth!

I just recently noticed that I have not posted to my blog for quite sometime.  So this post is to tell all my loyal followers (both of them) that I did not fall off the face of the earth and disappear.  I am still around and have lots of blog posts in "draft" form right now.  I just have not had the time to finish them.  I just seems that life has gotten in the way lately and we have been very busy for a season.  Although I am just not sure what we did!  So stay tuned, my kids and a few other things are still keeping me inspired with lots of ideas for new posts.  I just need to find the time to write them.

I need to find some time!!

Daddy Daughter Dates

We love to spend time doing things with our kids.  It sometimes gets a little crazy doing things with all 4 of them.  So a while back, I started trying to do what we call Daddy Daughter Dates.  These are times when I take just one of them and do something special with them.  It is nice to get out with just one daughter so we can actually talk about stuff and not be interrupted.  We usually do something that we do not do as a family or cannot do as a family.  It does not happen as often as we would like but we really enjoy the times we do. 
Just recently I took each of the older two girls on separate trips to Borders Bookstore in Corvallis.  They each got to search through the entire store and pick out something that they want to buy.  Then we went to the coffee shop and had some hot chocolate and a cookie.  They were both very excited to go there but it was interesting to see the differences in them in picking something out.  Emma went right to a specific section and had picked out a couple books she wanted in about 5 minutes.  We looked around for a while after that, but she still just wanted those same books. Riah, on the other hand, wandered all over the store looking at everything for about and hour and a half and could not decide between a lot of stuff.  Finally she decided on an umbrella and a journal.  We all enjoyed the time together, and we got to find a few geocaches while in Corvallis as well!
One of my favorite Daddy Daughter Dates was a month or so ago with Riah.  We were able to borrow some kayaks from a friend and went kayaking on Cheadle lake here in Lebanon.  Here are some pictures from our adventure.

Here is Riah in her kayak next to the dock.  She was excited to try this, but nervous at the same time.  I helped her get into the kayak and she looked worried.  Then she asked if we had to do this.  I told her we did not have to and asked if she wanted to get out.  Still looking worried she said she would try, but would it be okay if we only went a little ways.  No problem, I told her we could stop whenever she wanted to.  So I put mine in the water and climbed in and we were off.  She decided pretty quickly that it was not only not that bad, but actually kinda fun!

 By the end, she was really enjoying paddling around the lake.

 Daddy, look at me!

 Enjoying a peaceful moment on the lake.

 Our expert paddler.

Now she has done something that her older sister has not done!

 Here she is coming back into the dock.

Her is my GPS with the track of where we went.  Of course there was some geocaches to get from the kayaks as well!  We spent about 1.5 hours on the lake then got some lunch and ice cream.  We enjoyed it so much that we want to get some kayaks of our own and do this more often!  Just cannot wait to see what kind of adventure the next Daddy Daughter Dates will bring.  (Emma wants to go kayaking too now.) 

You want how much for a maple bar?

A couple Saturdays ago, we decided to take the whole family to lunch in Eugene and see a movie.  We had some burgers at this burger place near Valley River Center that were pretty good and then went to see Gnomeo and Juliet.  Everyone enjoyed the movie.  After the movie, we decided to go try some donuts at a place we have heard about on TV that makes some interesting donuts.  There is one in Portland and another one in Eugene.  The doughnut we have heard about it the Bacon Maple bar and we really wanted to try one.  Once we found the place and went in, with our 4 daughters, we discovered that it is not a great place for kids.  There was some things on the walls for decoration that I did not really need to see.  Then we found out that it is cash only.  All we had was about $6.00.  You would think that would get you a few donuts, but they are very proud of their donuts.  The Bacon Maple Bar was $2.75 for 1 donut!  They had a Banana fritter with chocolate and peanut butter topping that was $3.99!  So we got 3 cheaper donuts just to try and left.  We will probably never go back.  Now if you do the math, there are 6 people in our family and only 3 donuts, and one of those donuts was for someone else.  Since the kids were really looking forward to having donuts we decided we would make some at home!  After all, the Bacon Maple Bar was nothing more than a Maple Bar with 2 strips of bacon on it.  We can do that!

I think Riah is doing an "I like doughnuts dance" here!

 Here the batter has been made, doughnuts cut and rising.  Just getting ready to cook them.  Next step is deep frying them.

Yumm!

Once they were cooked we had to put some sort of topping on them.  The kids had some ideas and we had some ideas so we tried a few different things.

Some of them we covered in powdered sugar.

Then we put some raspberry jelly inside a few.  One of the ideas the girls had was to fill up the hole with mini marshmallows.

You know we had to do the Bacon Maple bar!

The doughnuts are all done cooking now.  We could not put the maple frosting on when they just came out, so we were waiting for them to cool a little before finishing those.

 The girls also wanted to put Cheerios on some.

These are what I was waiting for.  The Bacon topped Maple bar.  They were really good!

Here we are torturing the kids, telling them that they could not have any until morning!  (We did actually let them have one before they went to bed. Notice the Tornado is still moving too fast to be in focus in the picture, as usual.)

Here was all the doughnuts we made.  It cost less to make all these than to buy 1 Bacon Maple bar at that other place, and our house is kid friendly!  We could start our own bakery making doughnuts to sell, but I think we would eat all our profits and it would not be good for our waists!

Pinewood derby

A couple years ago, Emma made a car for the Awanas Pinewood derby and ended up winning the speed competition.  That came after winning second place the year before for the design of her car.  So when the opportunity came for her to make another car for the Awanas Pinewood derby this year, she was all over it.  The car had to have the exact same shape as the one she won with.  She was convinced that it would be the winning shape again.  Then Riah got to build one as well.  She decided hers needed to be the same shape also.   So once we got the kits we started shaping and painting cars.  I ran the saw to cut the shape.  The only difference in the shape of the 2 cars is that Riah wanted the edges to be rounded and Emma left hers square.  Then came the paint job.  I gave them some ideas, but they each decided how they wanted their cars to look.  

Here is the first Pinewood derby car that Emma made back in 2007.

 At the Awanas in Brownsville, where she was going in 2007, they provided the weights to bring your car up to the maximum 5 oz.  That way everyone has cars that weigh same amount.  They also provided lube for the wheels which made a huge difference in how fast the cars went down the track. 

 We tried her car out first with now lube and it stopped before it got to the finish line.  Once we lubed the wheels, it did a lot better. 

 It was not a really fast car, but she won 2nd place for the design.  Mainly due to the Bible verse stickers that she decided to put all over the car.

This was her trophy for the design of the car.

In 2008, still at Awanas in Brownsville, she was able to build another car.  Here is the story of that event.

Here is what her car looked like that year.

 It seems to be missing a wheel after being played with for the last few years.  But this was one fast car.  It never lost a race and she took home the first place trophy for speed!

Obviously she was very excited to win this event.

Now we are in 2011 and both the girls got to make a car to race.  They are now attending Awanas in Lebanon, and they do the race a little bit different than in Brownsville.  Now that we know that, we will be prepared better next time.

 Here is Emmas car for 2011.

 For weights, we just screwed some washers on the top of the car.  Other people were taping coins to the bottom of their cars.

We found a little bit of graphite lube, but it did not work that well this time.  Her car crossed the finish line every time, but she did not win any races.  She still had a very good attitude and had a lot of fun participating in the event.  I think the Bible verses are a tradition now, so she will have to do them every year now.

Now here is Riahs car for this year.  (I personally like the colors!)

 She not only followed her sisters design in the shape of the car, but decided to use the Bible verse stickers as well.

 The grey stripes are in the shape of a cross if you look at the car from the top.

Here she is ready for the races to start.

We thought after the first race that Riahs car was going to be just like Emmas was the last time.  This was the end of her first race.  She won and there are 3 other cars on the track, they just have not made it to the finish line yet.  But that was also the last race she won.  The lube evidently wore off after this race.  Oh well, she had a lot of fun as well.  Then at the end, she won 2nd place for the design of her car!  She was very excited!

Now we know how it will work next year and we will be able to prepare their cars a little better.  I always love getting to do things like this with the kids and I also found out that there is a racer category for the parents.  So it looks like next year there will be 3 Jayne cars at the Awana Pinewood derby!  Should I make  a car the same shape as theirs are?  We will have to wait and see.

Here is our current fleet of Pinewood derby cars that have been retired to the display shelf in the girls room.

 I think the Tornado here is wanting to get in on this action too!