Arctic Blast

"Arctic Blast". Now there's a term I just know that we're all waiting to hear from our local weather man...er...person. Unless you're from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Canada, or some other really cold place I'm not sure if you've ever truely appreciated what that term REALLY means, I know I didn't...until now. Let's see today we were treated to a lovely temperature of 8. Yup that's right single digits people! We've had single digits for the past week, with the occasional foray up to 10 and if we're lucky 12. Not so bad you say, well then just add in some seriously strong, even colder wind on top of those lovely numbers. Then what do you get? An icicle formerly known as Leah and tumble weed in your stair well. Still not so bad? Well then you're hardier then I am.

PS. Check this out.....
Boy or Girl you ask?
We know.
Do you?

November!!!!

Do you see? Do you see? Look at the title! It says November! Woo Hoo! I'm caught up!

Okay self indulgent moment past, moving on.

November brought what Ben has been looking forward too for quite sometime. His Birthday!!!! Grandma Eucker and Auntie Lyssa came up for the occasion. Unfortunately Grandpa couldn't come, but we skyped him in. The day before Ben's birthday we took him and his cozy coupe down to "cozy coupe road", which is the foot path that runs in between Pullman and Moscow. He had so much fun driving, running and looking for worms that he made himself sick, literally. The next day, Ben's birthday, We took the poor guy up to Spokane to go to Target (his favorite store) and by the time we got there he was running a fever. It was a short trip. After a nap and some "special" applesauce (laced with drugs) he was feeling better though. But, unfortunately for Tyson Ben only took one bit of his brownie "Sodor" cake that Tyson had slaved over the night before. Sigh. Oh well.



November adventures didn't stop after birthday fun. Two days after grandma and auntie left we got snow!! We might be crazy but we like snow in our household. Despite both Ben and I still feeling a little under the weather we just couldn't past up the white goodness. At first Ben wasn't convinced that dressing up like a marshmallow was such a good idea. He got over that pretty darn fast though. There was just enough snow to go sledding! Word to the wise, baking sheets only work so well. A day and a half later the now was gone so we hightailed it to walmart to buy cheap sleds. We're prepared now!

After the snow things were pretty quiet till thanksgiving. We headed up and over the cascades to spend it with my parents. While we were there we got to spend an afternoon with the Howell cousins. This is the only picture I got of them while trying to catch bubbles, but they had a blast. Ben couldn't wait till the school bus dropped off Carver right in front of the house! Those two boys produced wind energy with their enthusiastic waving to each other. As soon as Carver's feet hit the ground he took off at flank speed toward Ben. I would provide pictures of those two playing, but you wouldn't actually be able see them through the blur.

Thanksgiving itself was an adventure. My family and a friends family had volunteered to but on a dinner for the homeless at a local church. We had done this several years in a row a while back, but it's been about six years. A dinner was very lovingly prepared for 75. Five showed up! Apparently the church had discontinued it's regular weekly meals for the homeless so the church was no longer part of the homeless routine. We got a good laugh out of it, enjoyed a good meal, and took home enough left overs for weeks!


Well folks, that's all she wrote....for now. Hope you enjoyed the ride. See you in real time. (Hooray!)

PS. Ben also said good-bye to diapers this month. Finally!

October

October will be an even slimmer post. No collages even. There was more sickness to be had. The only thing that we did that was even remotely blog worthy was carve a pumpkin or "bumpbin" as Ben calls it. (Apologizes in advance for the ridiculously poor photos. I was playing with the lighting/flash/exposure and never quite got it before the moment was gone.) No we don't even have Halloween pictures. Ben didn't dress up as anything and ending up just staring out the window at all the other kids (yes, I know...sad..) so if there were Halloween pictures they'd only be depressing. But as far as pumpkin carving I'm not sure if Ben knew what to think. I think he tried to find it interesting....

"What IS that stuff?!?!?"

"ewwwwww"

"I think I'll just watch from here thanks....

That's not it dad. It's got to be a little further to the left!"

"Hmmm....you're still not doing it right!"


"Fine just do it yourself then!"

"Hey, that didn't turn out so bad...thanks to me!"

After all was said and done, and everything was a bit cleaner Ben decided he loved "his bumpbin" and was very excited to show it everyone. As long as you could decipher what he was actually talking about.

September....

Well September came and went quickly. We checked out a local park and a near by hill at sunset. We decided the park is the best one around and the hill will be a perfect July 4th perch.



Ben and I also spent a week and a bit on the road visiting grandparents, where he got to go to the father and sons camp out with grandpa Eucker. Ben LOVED it, and that's an understatement. He got to ride in grandpa's truck, run around willy nilly in a field, throw balls, eat hot dogs, and see trains. He wasn't a big fan of not sleeping in a bed though. A few minutes after trying to go to sleep Ben told grandpa "lets go home to bed". So they did. Luckily the "camp ground" (it was a local horse farm) was close enough they could go back in the morning and not miss anything. The rest of the visit was spent at the zoo (one of our favorite places) and hanging out in the backyard. We also spent some time with the Davidson grandparents but I managed not to get a single picture of that.

The rest of September.....well.....two words:

SWINE FLU

We're Back (again)! & August

So we're back from over the cascades and some inexplicable force is compelling me to continue catching you all up from the summer before I can tell you about life now. I don't know why. Like I said inexplicable force. So lets push through and get to December! Besides I've heard from a handful of people that they actually like all the collages. Huh, who'd a thought?


August.....

In August basically two things happened. First being the 2009 Eucker Family Reunion. It was only three days, but boy did we pack it in. We started off by surprising Grandpa with a new DSLR camera for his birthday. We promptly gave him ample opportunity to use it by going to the zoo and Washington Park playground. Of course no childhood would be complete without the obligatory "naked in the bath" pictures....



We followed that eventful day up with one full of playing in another park (what can I say, kids love parks), playing wii, tie-dying shirts, playing in the backyard, and just hanging out....

Really the highlight came on the last day....family pictures....in tie-dye!

As you can see the boys were especially cooperative!

Alright now that you all think I'm insane for thinking that family pictures was the highlight. Here's the REAL highlight.....The 2009 Eucker Family Olympics!

Now that was fun. Grandma made each kid a flag from the country of their choice. Ben represented Canada, of course! The two oldest girlies even made anthems for their countries! Very cute and well written I might add. Events included an obstacle course, ball tossing, and creative driving across the yard. There was even an opening ceremony and medal ceremonies (no closing ceremony, by then attention spans had been lost). And yes the adults also did the obstacle course, but those pictures and video will only be sold to the highest bidder.

Sadly the fun had to come to an end and so did our time in Portland. The second event of this month was moving to Pullman for grad school. Moving is rarely fun, but at least Ben thought the truck was just about the darn coolest thing. He had to explore every inch of it at least a dozen times.

I didn't actually get any pictures of the moving in process. I was too busy, I don't know, moving or something. But I did get a few pictures of our first few adventures. Namely, the annual Lentil Festival Parade, (yes you read that right, lentils) exploring the local arboretum, (where the boys actually were surprisingly cooperative for mom's camera practice) sending Tyson off to his first day of school, (he once again cooperatively stood for 30 seconds for the standard first day of school shot. Too bad it turned out so dark, and small in this collage) and discovering our tub has sprouted a fungus. Oh boy, Pullman's going to be fun!

That's a wrap! (for August)

So long for now....

So bright and early tomorrow we're off to tackle the cascades. If you don't hear from us by December it means we've decided to become permanent snow people. Have a great Thanksgiving. Remember what it's all about. And it ain't about the turkey.

July

So if you thought last month had a lot of collages, well sorry to tell you, but you're wrong. This month has A LOT of collages. Remember the warning and proceed with caution.

First off on the agenda for the month of July was, or course, the 4th of July. We celebrated by spending the day at great grandma Schultz's house, watching the neighborhood parade, eating good food, and of course getting kinks in our necks in an attempt to see exploding lights. Being the excellent insightful parents that we are, Tyson and I were positive that Ben would enjoy the fireworks this year. Which I'm sure he did from under the blanket were he insisted on hiding after the first two minutes of the show. I bet he enjoyed the fireworks almost as much as he liked the little green frog that came over to visit that night.


Okay so really he hated the fireworks. In fact it took a whole week at the high end spa and resort Maison de Davidson for him to recover. His recuperation activities included...perfecting his tractor driving techniques, water aerobics with masters Jeremy and Monica, grueling endurance (for his mother) hikes, introducing Onion to the finer points of literature, cruising down the strip on a scooter, and of course giving the owners of Maison de Davidson pointers on how to improve their establishment (what can I say, he's a fan of head cutouts). He even found time to volunteered his translation skills on a phone call to Auntie Dubai! Meanwhile his mother, recognizing that besides the hike her services were not need (or indeed wanted), she took off to the far corners of King County shooting pictures with grandpa. And yes those are real dogs.


Enough with the fun stuff, on to more serious matters. Annie and Aaron's wedding. Following are the bulk of collages for this post; and since wedding photos tend to be rather self explanatory, without further ado....

The Pre-Party
(a.k.a. the relaxed "come hang out" version of rehearsal dinner)

The Prep

(a.k.a. hours and hours of digging, shoveling, chopping, shopping, cooking, sewing, planning, and primping)

The Ceremony
(a.k.a. the ceremony)
The Official Photos
(a.k.a. as official as they get when it's the sister learning on the job)
The Party
(a.k.a. the super cool, butt kickin' "reception" that included Guitar Hero, a blow up obstacle course, a beach and a samurai sword for cake cutting)

And that's the end of a great event! But not the end of the adventure. Right after the wedding, with barely a moment to breath, off we whirled to Canada (sans daddy, curses on the need to work). Now that was an adventure. This is all we jammed into that week....

...over 24 hours in the car, hiking to the horses, playing with grandma and grandpa Redd, riding with Uncle Dave, skipping rocks, catching grasshoppers, bumper boats, golf, giant maze, dancing in the rain, Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump, old Idaho mission, run away flip flop catching, an abandoned maze tour, bear watching, a cousins wedding, A&A's wedding dinner with the Redds, buffalo burgers, pizzas and cream, America's Most Interesting Museum, playing with cousins old and new..... oh and sleeping somewhere in there.


Well that covers all the major events, but just for fun here's some other random photos.

And that's July!

PS. If you click on the collages they'll actually get big enough where you can see those ity bitty pictures.

June

****WARNING: the next several posts will have a plethora of picture collages. Those who chose to continue should proceed with caution. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed with the cuteness/sillyness/greatness of the colleges stop reading immediately and come visit us!****


June. Now you all remember June. It's that month that happened awhile ago that's smack in the middle of the year. Nope not that one flip one more calendar page. There you go. That's June, and that's just how long I've been remiss with this blog. Yes I am hanging my head in shame. But moving on. This was our June........

• We moved out of our little place, into the parentals big place
• Leah went on an overnight to the beach, without any kids in sight!
• Went on a reconnaissance mission with mom and Joann to check our where we'll be spending the next 5-6 years of our lives. This is what we found...

hmmm....this will be an adventure

• Of course the most important event was attending our niece Lydia's baptism! It was a wonderful weekend trip. The whole Eucker clan drove up on Saturday morning to spend the day with Lydia and her family. The first half of the day was spent at the farmer's market, or more accurately the playground located next to the farmer's market.

Much fun was had. I mean come on. You have cousins, puddles, and an old kick ball all in the same place and fun is inevitable. Of course the best part was the baptism it's self. If was wonderful to be there and support Lydia. She looked beautiful and happy. We are so proud of her!


We tried hard to teach Ben about baptism before we went. We thought we were doing good till that night when his prayers went something like this..."thank you for going to Lydia's baptism, her sins washed away, and Ben's sins washed away...sad!" hmmm...well I guess we'll have to put a little more emphasis on the "this is a good thing" part.

This great weekend was capped off with an overnight stay with the Davidson grandparents, where we got even more playing time in and a formal introduction to the newly painted kitchen.


Nina had brought home a little jumper for Ben from her trip to France. Sunday morning Ben and Grandma had to have a serious conversation about how to avoid the embarrassment of having matching outfits.

Sunday afternoon we discovered how much Ben likes corn on the cob. He "helped" Uncle Onion shuck the corn by bringing each ear inside to grandma. Of course by the time each ear made the trip from the porch to the kitchen a Ben sized bite was missing from each and every one. We're lucky they weren't cooked yet or else he probably would have gone ahead and finished 'em all off.

All in all it was a weekend very well spent. I think Ben thought so too, maybe, I don't really know. This is all we could get out of him almost all the way home....

Well that about wraps up June. Of course there was all sorts of playing, messes, and memories besides these but that would take a novel. However, just in case you're not overwhelmed yet and stopped reading to come visit us here's one more collage from June. Hopefully that will push you over the edge.

Off the edge

I know, I know! You've all been wondering if we've fallen off the face of the planet or something. Well we haven't. At least not yet. We're hanging on by a couple fingernails....

drat...

I broke a nail.

Alright one fingernail, but we're still here. I even plan on trying to catch up on the last several months in the coming days. At least, that's the plan. In the meantime however, since I know the person you've really missed is Mr. Benjamin....

Some of you may remember this. Ben was seven months old. This is the first and only time he's ever fallen asleep other then actual nap times.

At least until a week ago....


We wondered when energizer boy would run out of steam. I guess it takes about three years or... it always seems to be at meal times. Maybe he's trying to tell me something about my cooking, or lack of....

either way, good to know.

For Aunite and Uncle Dubai

He loves them! It was the perfect thing. He spent a solid hour reading them before we pried him away for dinner. Which is definitely saying something. Even his favorite toys he'll only play with for maybe 20 minutes before moving on to something else. Thank you!

Wonderful Wedding

So I know it's been just shy of forever since I've posted anything. Someday I'll catch up, but right now I'm posting pictures of Annie and Aaron's gloriously fun wedding. I figure if I don't do it right now I won't do it till after many more adventures and thereby incure the wrath of way too many family and friends. Of course I'm on the road so all the following pictures are SOOC (straight out of camer). They'll look better after some time in the digital darkroom. Enjoy!

PS. Because of some computer issues I could only post a few. Sorry!

Seriously good giggles!

So this is kind of a long clip, but I promise it's worth it. We were visiting bop bop and gum gum one Sunday afternoon and Ben discovered a box of pop-its in the game cupboard. We couldn't resist, we had to show him. He LOVED them! It takes him a little while to really get giggling, but just wait....it's the best sound in the world.

Dude, what's with that?

So waaaaayyy back in April my family came to visit. Well my family are foodies, which we love, because we get to eat stuff other then mac and cheese when they come to town; which also means leftovers. Yum! We're usually pretty good at eating everything before it goes bad, but every once in awhile things meet the trash can. Well this was going to be the case with this tomato, but then I noticed a small hard bump just under the skin. Me being me I grabed a fork to puncture the skin and see what it was. This is it....

I don't know about you, but I've never seen a tomato sprout before. Weird.

Simple Prayers....

There is perhaps nothing sweeter than the simple prayers of children. But you know sometimes you just really have to laugh. Especially when they, with all the sincerity the little guys can muster, thank Heavenly Father for "the buttons on the piano".

Two Mothers......

I re-wrote and re-wrote and re-wrote this post, but it always came across cheesy. All I wanted to do was show my two beautiful moms and say how great they are and how much I love them. So here they are..... (I know that Ben is a little distracting, but with Ben is the only times they'll actually let me take their picture)

Aren't they beautiful!
They are great and I love them tons!

Someday

I know that someday, altogether too soon, I will miss this. I will miss rows of cars carefully lined up all over the house. I will miss calls of "mommeee" at too early o'clock in the morning. I will miss that stubborn little face staring at me in cute defiance. And I will miss miniaturized crocs found in groups in the middle of the floor. Sometimes though I have to remind myself of this and enjoy it while it lasts.

New Boxes

For those of you who were wondering where Ben's box was in the previous post. Here it is...

...or maybe this is it...

...you choose.

(Hurray for pictures back!)

Moving...

So I haven't posted the last few days because our computer has reached the "possible imminent death" stage, and I've got some pictures and video I really wanted to post so I thought I'd just wait till we could get another computer up and running and transfer all the important files (aka cute Ben's pics) over to the new beast. Well I was told that I needed to post something and I should just draw pictures. That was an excellent idea, until I realized I had no way to scan in a picture either. So here on Tyson's school laptop I pulled up good old Microsoft paint and did my best. Voila! My masterpiece (Monica I expect a post on Alberti's Window analyzing the brilliance of this piece)!

It's entitled "Moving Boxes" and is supposed to channel my paranoia of death from falling boxes. It's also basically what our humble abode looks like at the moment; stick figure and all. So if you don't hear from me in awhile send a rescue squad. I'll be under a pile of boxes!