Would You Still Check Us Out?

I'm thinking of going private because I'm not sure who all is checking out my family. I look at my tracker and I'm not sure who all I know from all of these cities that I see on there. If it were a blog whose goal it was to change the world then I'd want the world to read it, but since it's mostly to document my family and allow family and friends to keep in touch, I think I'd like to keep it to family and friends. So...if you'd like to continue checking us out, please send me a Facebook message, or an e-mail, or leave a comment, and when I go private in a week or two, I will invite you into our special club!

We Have A Teenager!

OK, I am soooooo far behind in blogging, but I can't ignore the fact that my first born daughter became a teenager this last November. (Not only November, but EARLY November. That's how far behind I am!)

Breanne was born in 1997. We had decided not to find out whether she was a boy or a girl, and we were very excited to see that our first baby was a perfect, beautiful, little girl. Daddy had always hoped that his first-born would be a red-headed girl. Bre was actually born with blond hair, but after only a few weeks all of her hair fell out, and stayed that way for a LONG time! A REALLY long time! When her hair FINALLY started to grow back in, it was very red, and Daddy was so happy!

Bre was very sweet and loved to cuddle. She had gigantic eyes, and was very observant. She loved to be in a crowd, especially when she was the center of attention, which happened a lot, because she was our first, and the first grandchild/niece on my side of the family. I used to joke that Bre was going to have an identity crisis when she went to kindergarten and didn't get a standing ovation when she slid down the slide at recess. She still loves to be the center of attention.

Breanne is a wonderful, funny, loving young lady that loves her family and is a very good friend. She was my little baby, and even though she's become a teenager, is 3 inches taller than me and my feet drown in her shoes, she is now and will forever continue to be my Bunny-girl.

We love you, Breanne!

Late, But Whatever!

I know that this is a little late, but I thought that I'd better get it posted before the new year. Way back on August 31st, our kids went back to school. I still haven't posted that experience, so here goes.

I now have 2 children in Middle School! I can't believe it, and yet it's true! Both Breanne and Dallin are Middleschoolers! I don't like Middle School, I never have, but I've got to say that for the most part I am very impressed with our Middle School. I am grateful that they are a little over strict, because I much prefer that to too lenient, especially when my kids aren't troublemakers. So far, Breanne and Dallin are both doing well in their Excel Classes and with their instruments in band. This year I didn't get a group picture, because Bre and Dallin have to leave over an hour before Jerrin and Kyleen need to, so I let them sleep in on the first day.



Dallin is my early riser. He is always up before everyone else, bright-eyed, and bushy-tailed. I think that I've only had to wake him up once in the last 2 years. He's just like his dad, and can't sleep if the sun is shining! Bre, on the other hand...she's a sleeper-inner. She takes after me. =) Here they are, all ready for the first day of school.



Jerrin is in 4th grade this year, and Kyleen is in 1st. They both really enjoy school and are getting along well with their teachers and classmates. Jerrin is doing crossing guard this year and is excited for the trip to Oake's Park that they get to go on at the end of the school year. Kyleen is catching up with her reading. Last year, in an attempt to cut budget costs, the kindergarten schedule was really messed up . It put all of the kindergartners behind in reading because they weren't able to retain much information with the gappy schedule. Thankfully, Kyleen has a really wonderful first grade teacher, who understands the issue and is doing really well to help them catch up. It's fun to see her reading more and more every day. Tamsen got up with the kids on the first day of school and got ready, too. She was sad when she realized that she couldn't stay at school with the kids, but came around quickly when she got the house and the mom to herself the entire day! She's liking this only-child-at-home thing! Here are the three youngest all ready for the first day of school.



It's hard for me to believe that next year all 5 kids will be in school full-time! It's a crazy thought. I do look forward to spending a lot of time in the schools, helping in classrooms and keeping tabs on the educations of my children. It's nice, this year, volunteering in Kyleen's classroom every week. I get to take Tamsen with me, and I get the rock star treatment that all moms get when they volunteer at the school. It'll be nice to be able to help in all three Elementary School classrooms next year, and to help at the Middle School as well. I love my kids and enjoy hearing the wonderful things that the school staff has to say about them. I have been blessed with great kids, and I am so thankful!

Parting shots...Jerrin at his desk,



and Kyleen at hers.



Here's to a wonderful 2010-2011 school year!

Halloween

I'm too far behind to catch up on everything. So, I'll start with Halloween, and I'll try to post every couple of days or so to catch up instead of doing a super long post. This year Breanne decided to be Fiona from Shrek. I said, "Oh, Bre, that's perfect. You have her red, curly hair, and she has a round face and cute little round nose..." That's when she interrupted me and said, "Thanks, Mom, for telling me that I have the features of an ogre." "A pretty ogre," I responded. What else could I say? I do think that green is a very good color for Bre.



Dallin decided to wear his Bumblebee mask and carry around a nerf gun. He was going to be the #1 Transformers Fan, and wear a Transformers t-shirt, and have Jerrin's walkee talkees hanging from his belt loops, etc. but he decided to simplify. I love how you can see his eyes through the mask.



Jerrin was Jack the Pumpkin King, from The Nightmare Before Christmas. He wanted to go all out, and wanted the suit. I was trying to pinch pennies, and I found an XL Lady Gangsta (that was the official name of the costume) costume at Value Village for $10. Then I re-purposed some of the buttons with new button holes, and cut it down to his size, and then I used the shoulder pads to make his bat bow-tie. This was the finished product. Not too bad, if I do say so myself. He even wore the coat to school one day, insisting that the polyester was really warm.



Kyleen and Tamsen wanted to be fairies. So we bought them each a leotard and tights, and then I made some little skirts out of fabric I had around the house. Tamsen was a Spring Fairy, and Kyleen was a Fall Fairy. Really it was mostly about the glitter spray, hair, and make up, for these girls. They looked darling, and I'm worried about when they get to wear make up for real, because we are going to have 3 gorgeous girls!



We had a great Halloween and were glad to be able to find ways to celebrate it on Saturday so we could enjoy a nice Halloween dinner with family on the Sabbath. Here's the whole group (on Saturday).



Sorry, I have neglected my blogging lately, but I've been very busy. I am working, with Daya, as the Ticket committee for Portland Mormon Choir and Orchestra this season, and we were just moved up to be Membership Co-Chairs, which will be an exciting challenge to work on together. I've also been working really hard on getting myself back into good physical shape. It started as a challenge to myself to complete Jillian Michaels' 30-day Shred in 34 days, so I could take Sundays off. I was posting my small successes on my Facebook page, and started having friends encouraging me to keep it up and I began encouraging them, as well. Now we have the Move and Improve Support Group on Facebook, and it is 23 members strong. We report to each other when we have been physically active, and encourage each other to get our workouts done. It's a great group of friends, and we are finding success! In the last year I have lost 20 pounds! 1/2 of which has been in the last 8 weeks, since starting Shred and Move and Improve. I'm still going and will continue to work on getting to my best physical health, but here is my before and after, so far...



That's all I'll post for today, so you're not too sorry for checking out my blog. Have a great day, and I will try to post again, soon.

Frustration!

I want to update the blog with all the fun stuff we've been doing. We've celebrated Kyleen's 6th birthday, and Dallin's 11th. Bre went to girls' camp. We went camping. We had a Conklin family reunion. Fun stuff! The camera and computer, however, are not on speaking terms right now. We're trying to get them to reconcile, but in the meantime, I will post pictures from Kyleen and Dallin's birthdays last year. Then when we get the camera to work (not that we're saying it's entirely the camera's fault, I think that each party has some responsibility in this dispute) you will be able to see how much they've changed. Happy last week of summer!



Kyleen
August 6, 2009



Dallin (black shorts)
August 24, 2009

Time Flies When We're Having Fun!

Holy cow--we have been so busy! We have been enjoying our summer and I haven't done a very good job of blogging all of the fun we've been having, so...here goes-

Since our last post, we took a family trip to the Ape Caves with our cousins. It was a great time!



Then we celebrated 2 graduations. First was Dallin graduating from 5th grade as he prepares to head into Middle School. This is him with his teacher Mrs. Pivovarski.



The second graduation was Kyleen's graduation from Kindergarten. This is a picture of her with her two best buddies, Emily and Siri.



Right after school got out, Jerrin celebrated his 9th birthday! We had planned on an outside birthday and then it started raining, so we moved it inside. Then Kyleen came down with the flu and so we had to move the party to Chuck E Cheese. It was a great party!



A few days after Jerrin's birthday we decided to go on a hike. We thought it would be fun to take the kids to Angel's Rest in the Columbia Gorge and hike to the top. I should say, Brandon thought it would be fun, I had anxiety at the thought of getting all of the kids safely to the top and back down again, but tried to be a good sport and put on my hiking shoes. We got to the trailhead and there was a police officer there that said that the trail was closed because someone had fallen from the trail and we didn't want to see what had happened. That was enough for us to change our plans and take the kids hiking up to the top of Multnomah Falls instead.



We found out later that the hiker had fallen off the cliff and had died. The officer was right, we didn't want to see that, and I'm grateful that we weren't able to be up there on that trail that day, when it was a little too slippery!

Dance Festival was a great success this year! Breanne was lucky enough to be a part of this wonderful experience. She did the carwash dance with all of the other Beehives in the 7 stakes that participated and also did the Bollywood specialty dance. It was amazing to see so many youth gathered together in wholesome activities. The spirit was very strong and we enjoyed Saturday's performances much more than Friday's when Tamsen threw up on my lap right before the show began. Needless to say, we got out of there as quickly and quietly as we could and came back the next day when everyone was feeling much better!



Shortly after graduating from Kindergarten, Kyleen was finally able to join the club that alluded her all through school. She lost her first tooth! Then just a few days later she lost her second one. A few weeks shy of being able to share the exciting news with all of her school chums, it was still very exciting, and the toothfairy made the wait worth it!



Next came the 4th of July. We spent it in Longview, Washington, at the park there in town. It was a nice way to spend the holiday and they had a great fireworks show without the craziness of trying to get home from Ft. Vancouver. We were there with Grammy and Papa and our friends, the Wises. The kids had a great time waiting for the fireworks to begin.




I know, Summer should be over by now but wait, there's more! The boys had a great time at Cub Camp this year and I was lucky enough to go and be with them on the last day. I have never been before, because Brandon will normally go with them for one day, but this year he woke up with the flu the morning he was supposed to go, so I went on Friday instead. I had a lot of fun hanging out with my boys and watching them have a great time together. It was Dallin's last year as a Cub, next month he'll earn his Arrow of Light, and move on to 11-year-old scouts. I'm glad I got to go, and Jerrin got a dead center bulls eye at BB guns. I hear they're very rare. He got a special award and everything! Pretty cool!



Only a few more things, I promise...
So the boys have been having a great summer exploring this new neighborhood of ours and found a great place to go crawdad hunting. They came home with 12 crawdads, with the help of Adam Ashbaker, and so we cooked them for a side dish with dinner. Brandon was skeptical, he'd never had crawdad before and didn't know you could eat them. We used to cook them all the time when we were camping and my brothers would catch them. So here is our dinner with crawdad. Brandon, Dallin, Jerrin and Kyleen were the only ones that ate them, but they said they were delicious! They are not very filling, though. Good thing they were only a side-dish!


Brandon had never been to a professional baseball game before, and he's really gotten into following the White Sox, so when they were coming to Seattle, we couldn't resist heading up there for the game. Marla took our kids overnight, and we traveled up to Safeco field. It was a lot of fun! We had great seats and felt like we were a part of the game. We had a couple of foul balls come our way, but they were always either in the tier above us, or below us, but we still had a great time! (and the White Sox won!)



We've had a busy, and fun-packed Summer! On the days that we haven't been out and about, we've been enjoying the pool in our backyard and soaking up all of the long awaited sunshine! Walks, and bike rides, swimming, the drive-in...lots to do in just 3 short months. Next up we have Bre's first year at Girl's Camp. I don't know what I'm going to do without her for a whole week. I know she'll have fun, but I'm gonna miss her like crazy!

As a parting shot, I'm going to update you on the kitchen remodel we're doing at Mom and Dad's house. This they did all on their own, and I'm very impressed. Here is the tile countertop they're putting in. This is before the grout and backsplash, but it looks better already. Phase 2 almost completed! Next painting, and wood floors.



Sorry the post is so long! I'll try to post more often so the posts don't take the whole day to read. Have a great day and enjoy the rest of your Summer!

So Much Fun!!

We have been really enjoying some fun with family and friends. We've had such crazy weather lately, that whenever it is the tiniest bit sunny we hurry and take advantage of it. So here are some pics of us enjoying the warm weather.

A few weeks ago there was a scout camp out planned, and so Brandon took that Saturday off of work so he could go on the camp out. Then it got canceled. So we had a camp out of our own. We didn't want the expense or hassle of going to a camp ground, so we camped out in our back yard. We also invited a couple of friends from church to join us. It was a lot of fun!
Here's the view from the upper deck. Our tent is on the left, and the Wises' tent is on the right. The Loomises didn't stay the night, but they came for the BBQ and the campfire.
The kids had a blast playing on the swing set, and in the tents, and it was a beautiful camp fire.
The next morning we went together to hike around Round Lake. It was a beautiful hike that was easy enough for the kids and for us old people. The water was sparkly and
the scenery was puzzle worthy. We were there right at the end of the wild flower season and were able to see the Camas Lilies, as well as some wild orchids. It was a very nice day. The kids thought that the most interesting part was finding this little millipede.
And they thought that the best part was when we got to the end of the hike and had this playground all to ourselves!
It was a really fun weekend and I'm glad that the camp out got canceled and that we have good friends with kids that play well with ours, that like to hang out with us.
With the end of the year fast approaching, we are being bombarded with end of the school year activities. The first was a hike that Dallin got to go on with his class and his dad.
We only got one picture because then the camera died. =( This is at horsetail falls, I believe. Then right after school Jerrin had a track meet with his school and 3 other elementary schools in the district. He placed 3rd in the 200 meter race.
It happened to be Brandon's day off as well as his birthday.
Three days later I went with Tamsen to the zoo on Kyleen's kindergarten field trip. It was supposed to be pouring, and we went prepared with ponchos and warm clothes, but I think our prayers were heard, and it was a beautiful day! Next time I think I'll pray that we're the only ones there on a field trip! Can you say crowded?! It was really fun, though. Kyleen was matched up with her friend Emily (one of our back yard camp out buddies) and her mom, Nancy, was the chaperon, and so I brought their little guy, Thomas, with me, and we all hung out together at the zoo. The weather was so perfect that all of the animals came out to say hello. It was really fun! Tamsen enjoyed seeing the bears there for the first time.
All four of the kids had a great time playing jungle explorer in the wrecked Jeep by the hyena enclosure.
The best parts of the day were when we visited the otters and the sea lions. They were in performing moods, and our kids were front and center. There were a lot of kids there that day, especially with the otters because we saw them before all of the field trips were headed back to school. The sea lions were after the main crowds had left. So, sorry about how loud the video is, but there were lots of excited kiddos.


The sea lions were amazing! I can't believe how large these animals are. Tamsen was standing up by me, but Thomas was right down by the glass trying to tickle the sea lions, and Kyleen and Emily were sitting up on a log to the right. They were fascinated by these sea creatures.



Of all of these amazing creatures that we saw that day, the most intriguing was one that we found in our house after we got home that night. It was very alarming, and not something you see everyday. I knew I had to document it, because nobody would believe me without a photograph to prove that I wasn't making it up.



Elmo's a boozer! Actually...



it's just Tamsen!

I found her in her costume drinking her Henry Weinhard's Cream Soda, and it was so funny I had to take some pics.
It's been a busy and fun month, and I know that it's just going to get busier before the calm of summer; but we are having a great time, and are looking forward to the many other activities we have coming up. Cub Camp, Portland Mormon Choir Concert, Dance Festival, and Girl's Camp, just to name a few. There's sure to be lots of updates coming!