Mexican Coca Cola

"CHEERS!"

June 4, 2008 Matt had a surprise for the kids when we got home from Scouts last night. Matt had just gotten home from work and showered up as we walked in the door.
He went to the frig and pulled out these glass bottles of Coca Cola. Matt has became good friends with the Mexican/Spanish guys that work for his shop, they introduced him to this Mexican Coca Cola that they get at the Mexican Market Store. Not quite sure how it's any different from ours, alls I know is that it has a much sweeter taste to it.
Okay, so being pretty close to bed time on a school night...maybe this wasn't such a great idea & surprise for them after all! The caffeine and apparent extra sugar that the beverage had made them so HYPER!
Of course they had fun drinking out of such a cool bottle, kind of like the Jones Soda or Root beer that we get on a very special occasion for the kids. It has been fun for Matt to get to know his Spanish Speaking Buddies at work a bit better. They tell him that he needs to take a break that he works too hard and that he's the hardest working "white guy" that they know. I guess that would be a compliment, guess that would mean that most white men would be lazy in their eyes? Funny. Anyways, I love to bake so I send goodies to work quite a bit for Matt to share with the guys and it's funny because in turn these guys do quite a bit of authentic cooking from their culture so they'll bring in different stuff for Matt to try that they'll make that they are proud of, Matt says that some of it has been really good. Sounds like they are enjoying each others company at the work environment which is always good to hear.

SUMMER-SALTS

JOSH- June 3rd, 2008

Josh likes to join in the fun when the kids dance to music. The girls taught him how to do summer-salts awhile back, at first he'd do them w/o his hands just diving right down head only to flip over (we were scared he would break his little neck) now he's learned to put his hands down to help out...at 18 months, he's doing pretty well- check it out!

He's also at that age where he loves to wear and put on everyones shoes but his own!

June Already?!

June 1, 2008

Where did May go? Can't believe that June is already here and that the kids will be out of school for summer vacation in just a few short weeks. I told Jarom that if we still lived in Idaho that they'd be out of school already, CRAZY! Each Friday as our girls are in their dance class, the boys and I will often find ourselves passing time by going to Ben Franklin (the craft store next to their dance studio in Bonney Lake.) I had been eyeing these "Nifty Knitter" sets for awhile thinking that they would be PERFECT for the girls to learn how to knit with. One of the gals that I visit teach in our ward was using one of them one day and she said they were super easy. I taught Bre how to crochet awhile back & she got really good at the single stick but she would get frustrated holding the hook w/ just the right tension and in between her fingers as she would try to go back over the single stitches to make any sort of blanket or scarf.
Let me tell you all, these nifty knitters are FANTASTIC and Friday night we (all of the girls) stayed up well past midnight knitting away.
Ellie started a blanket, then when she saw how fast my baby hat that I had made went together & how cute it was she decided to try one herself to make for one of her dolls.
The boys had their own fun evening planned as they headed off to Buck Creek for a guys camping over-nighter, guess it's way up highway 410 past Enumclaw. They had a fun night and Jarom can't stop talking about how good of a time he had. Matt says that we're going back as the whole family, they said the waterfalls, river & hiking were great. They were cold as they slept at night was the only complaint that I heard. This is Spencer exhausted from a late night after they got home laying on the pile of sleeping stuff. Notice he's pants-less...the only negative part of a camp out, all of the filthy dirty clothes that mom gets to wash after the fact! (his pants & socks were a muddy mess and as a necessity had to come off before he was allowed in the house.) Matt told us that Spencer slept with his flash light in his hands all night long.

After the campout, Matt and Jarom cleaned out the garage...it needed some major TLC. They took a car-load of junk & trash to the dumpster. They worked on the bamboo fly rods after that in a nice clean environment. Auhhh, if I can't park in the garage (since it's turned into Matts shop) at least we can have a cleared out path the walk through to get to the cars parked in the driveway. It's the worst, dodging the kids bikes & toys and shoes as you're hauling in groceries! Let's see how long it lasts.

I'm not sure exactly how many ice cream makers we've had since we were married. Matt and I were married in the summer (July) & ended up with ten for wedding presents, I kid you not...we've got it on video (the one we registered for was on sale at Target) We knew what most of them were w/o even unwrapping them just by the size and feel of the box! Well, we took 9 of them back. Since then I know we've bought a couple more, we really only break them out during the summer time and in between we'd always loose parts for some reason. So, for Matts b-day one of the presents the kids picked out for him was another ice cream/smoothie maker. Matt broke it out and made some icecream one night with the kids when I was sick in bed. So Saturday evening I decided to make some more w/ our kids and all of the neighbor kids as well. We made chocolate with chunks of snickers, it was yummy. There's nothing like home-made icecream! Only problem, the icecream maker needs to be bigger so we can make more at one time...maybe we should have kept more of the ones we got for wedding presents!

This morning we went to Matts cousin Heidis babys blessing, little Ella Rose in the Lake Holms area of Auburn. She is a cutie and looked adorable in her little white blessing dress! It was a nice blessing and afterwards we went over to their home for a luncheon which was good as well, it was nice to get a chance to see and catch up with the extended family.

Talent Show Girl

BreAnna Doing The School Talent Show

May 29th, 2008 Matt was the camera-man for the evening since I was juggling Josh our little wiggle worm. None of the pictures that we ever take in the elementary school gymnasium ever turn out (think the lighting is just too poor.) Anyways, there she is our very own little star Bre. She did a dance that her hip-hop dance class is doing for their recital in a few weeks. Her music teacher told Matt and I how he was surprised yet pleasantly pleased when Bre tried out for the talent show, guess she always puts on a quiet shy act at school for the teachers so they are always surprised to see her come out of her shell when it comes to performing. Bre wanted to do the talent show on her very own, of course the dance would have been more exciting to watch if her whole class was up there doing it since it was made for a group dance (unfortunately none of her dance class friends go to her school.) But since she was wanting to do it on her own, as parents we just supported her and went with it and she did a GREAT JOB and most importantly had a fun time doing it, made quite a few new friends she tells us and smiled through the whole performance! Way to go Bre!
This is the group on the stage after the show, I guess it's tradition that they do a group-dance off at the end the evening. The kids had fun with it!

Yes... being the busy day we had as a family, we didn't think much about dinner until after the Talent show. Bre helped make an easy no brainer dinner as breakfast for dinner and it seemed to do the job especially since the kids ended up being all ready for bed in their pjs by the time dinner was on the table.

Memorial Day Break

Memorial Day Weekend Fun!

May 2008

Enjoying some lunch at the Rain Forest Cafe. We had been wanting to take the kids here for awhile, we were waiting for just the right occasion! They had a great time with the fun thunder and lightning rain forest atmosphere!

Watch Out...Gorillas, Snakes, Crocodiles & even Elephants!

I'm not sure exactly how many of these "Frogger" pictures we have of the kids, but this was a first- all five of the kids at once! Josh was a big boy and got to ride the frogger for his very first time! Weeeeee...

JOKSTER JAROM

BREANNA BANANA HEAD

EVER-CRAZY ELLIE

SILLY SPENCER

JUMPIN JOSHUA

Riding the kitty rides!

The family fun center over-nighter was a last minute decision, it's pretty much turned into a favorite family tradition for us that we've been doing for years at least once a year! It was however, actually almost the Seattle Space Needle this time but good thing it wasn't. On the news we heard that the elevator going up to the Space Needle got stuck and people were trapped in there for 45 minutes due to electrical glitches. I couldn't imagine if we would have been in there w/ Josh, no thanks! We will have to try it next time though, it's been awhile for both Matt and myself and the kids have never been up to the top.

The Three Piggy Opera

Ellies' Kindergarten Spring Concert

May 21, 2008
The kindergarten and 1st graders put on a "Three Piggy Opera" concert at the school this evening. Ellie was a big bad wolf along with the rest of her class. They did a great job, it's funny how shy Ellie is at school though, she was so timid to do all of the hand movements and such to the songs they sang. Silly Girl.

Happy Birthday Matt!

Happy 34th Birthday Big Guy!

May 18, 2008
We Love You!!!

Special Days to Remember...

May 14, 2008

We went to the kids Art Festival at the school last night while Jarom was at Scouts.
Ellie was happy to see her art piece with a big blue ribbon on it, it came in 1st for the Kindergarten division. Bres had also came in 2nd for the 2nd graders, good job girls.
Josh wanted his picture taken next to the art work as well, he plopped right down on his bumb and said "cheese."

The kids wanted to pick out a book from the book fair that was going on at the school, it was buy one get one free (being the last book fair of the year so we gave in.)The school walls were lined with art work that all of the classes had done during school, this was one we found of Jaroms.After Scouts Jarom was happy to see the book we picked out for him was one that he had been wanting for awhile. Jarom had a busy day, I say that because the day before he spent bed-ridden because he was so sick. Dare I say it, we have been sick once again with the flu bug...I've stopped counting or maybe it's lost track of how many times we've gotten one of these bugs this year, it's quite ridiculous & unbelievable! So the kids had a half day at school getting out at 12 noon, from there Jarom went with some of his friends to see the "Speed Racer" movie for a friends b-day party, they had a whole day planned of fun things for the boys, I hear they first ate lunch, saw the movie, went out for ice cream after wards then back to the house for some games, pizza & cake & ice cream, we picked him up from the party and headed to his Scout field trip to a local nursery. He survived the day, I guess being his mom I just felt bad because I knew he still wasn't feeling 100% from being so sick before hand. On a little cute note: as we've been reading the scriptures as a family, occasionally we'll come across the other word for donkey in the scriptures (you know the three letter one starting w/ "as") and since the kids know it's not an appropriate word we'll always substitute it for the word donkey, so the kids won't have to feel uncomfortable saying it, not that it's a huge deal but that's just what we do. Well Jarom comes home from the Speed Racer movie with one concern, he goes "mom, I don't think Spencer should see that movie because they said the other word for donkey four times, only they weren't referring to a donkey. I got a chuckle, it was nice to know he was aware of the language I guess, sometimes when we are so desensitized from it we don't even notice.
Yesterday afternoon, I was making a treat for my young womens calling at church so I let the kids go to town w/ the left over sugar cookie dough. They always have a good time making their own cookies.

Mothers Day is always a fun one...if you're a mother I suppose, I love my husband & my children and it's always nice to be reminded that you're appreciated & to feel extra special for the day.This Mothers Day, we went out to Kent as Stephanie & Brodies new addition Gracie was blessed at church and for a Blessing/Mothers Day Brunch afterwards. They had a whole spread of yummy foods, including omelets, breakfast muffins, sticky buns, fruits, cakes & breads. It was a nice morning with the whole extended Jackson clan. Some of the kids fun Mothers Day Surprises.
See, what mother wouldn't feel special?!

Dave and Stacie also made an official announcement, I believe they announced it in Matts moms Mothers Day card. They are expecting a new addition in December, congrats and best wishes to their family & for a smooth pregnancy Stacie! You know now that I think about it, did I ever mention that Tracey and Jon (The Ericksons are expecting as well?) Yes, that'll be #3 for them, I just sent all of my maternity clothes home w/ my sis Tracey the other week. Now if I remember correctly they are due in August or September, I just talked to Tracey yesterday when she called for a cookie recipe and she says she's feeling better as far as the nauseousness so that's a good thing! There's no better news than a growing family...all of these pregnant mommies, too much excitement!