What did you say?

Yesterday morning, after helping Tessa use the toilet she said to me, "I very, much, quickly love you, Mom." Clearly, a lover of the adverbs.
That same day, Tessa was throwing a little fit and a few minutes after that Emory said, "I'm glad your done with your 'tantroom' Tessa." I love when she tries using vocabulary from the books she's reading; tantrum= tantroom. (I think she's up to 100+ books for the summer.)
My brother sent a me a funny e-mail last week and I wanted to share this story.

we have a german member who has been bringing his family to church and he has an insane little son who socked me right in the crotch the other sunday. he continued trying to beat me and powell up for almost 15 minutes. and we didn't know how to stop it cuz we can't restrain the little guy nor do we know any german. but eventually he tired of chasing us. just one of the pleasures of being a missionary.

He's a missionary in Finland, and is really loving it out there. I've been especially impressed over the last month or two at how on the ball he is. He sent Emory a puzzle and a chocolate bar weeks before her birthday, when some of her extended family (that actually live in the USA) didn't even acknowledge her birthday! And on top of that he sent Cory a graduation present! Hats off to Animal! He and his old companion had a really cool article written about them a couple weeks ago. It made the front page of the newspaper! No explanations needed; good to see he hasn't changed too much.

Big News . . .

Emory and Tessa are pleased to announce that they are . . . cousins! They've been patiently awaiting the arrival of this baby and she's here, Mahal. We've finally got some pictures so we could share the news. She was born about 3 weeks early, and if she'd only waited an hour or 2 more, all of Grandma Lisa's grandchildren would be born on the 10th of a month! We CANNOT wait to see her when they come visit in September. Emory almost cried when I told her she was a cousin, because she was so happy; and Tessa said, "I'm gonna squeeze her, and kiss her, and love her, and squeeze her and . . ."

Berries, Bicycles, and Trees

If I had to describe Corvallis in three words: Berries, Bikes and Trees. I guess it's good that I like all three of those things!
The Berries:
We were invited to go pick blueberries this week and the girls were so excited. When we pulled up to the fields . . . closed! Well, let's drive a few minutes down the road and pick raspberries, since we already have our picking gear. What?!? Raspberries down the road? My children have died and gone to berry heaven. The results: Glorious! Huge, delicious, red raspberries coming out our ears. Just over $1 a pound and I picked 4 pounds; that's not including the 3 pounds the girls and I ate as we were picking.Bicycles:
Portland (#2), Eugene (#5), and Salem (#19) are all in the top 20 for most bicycle friendly cities in America. They're our closest "big" cities, so I'm assuming we're included in the grouping. As a result, I got me a new bike! I still need to take it out on it's maiden voyage! It is this model and a steel-blue color.
Trees:
It's Oregon, need I say more? But the girls and I are still enthralled by it all. We live on the north side of town, and as a result, many of the members of our Ward live "in the hills." When you get driving around out there, it definitely seems more like "the mountains" to me. We saw no less than 3 dear, just grazing on peoples' front lawns yesterday evening.
Our favorite place right now is the Jackson-Fazier Wetlands or "Wetwands" as Tessa calls them. You have an awesome view of the Hospital and the scenery is lovely. The girls saw some cat-tails this morning and Tessa said, "Look at that hot-dog-on-a-stick, mom!" Super chilly on our early morning walk/run.The view to the hospital.

Oregonians . . . my new favorite word.

If you can't tell, we finally got our Internet up and going this weekend, exactly one month since our arrival in Oregon. We're really enjoying ourselves up here. It was a stressful move, but what move isn't? Nothing got damaged and our apartment is livable. The girls are slowly adjusting. Emory is just fine with change and is an adaptable little thing, but Tessa, on the other hand, is a creature of familiarity. This last week, she finally stopped asking when we are going home. The weather is, for the most part, lovely. Generally, upper 70's to mid 80's as a high and it cools down nicely at night, but we had a wicked heat wave a couple weeks ago, when it got up to 100+ degrees and was 90 most of the week. We quickly hopped in the car and took the hour long trip to the coast where is was a cool 55 degrees! When we got down on the beach, Cory said, "I can see why Bella's lips were blue after the cliff diving incident!" It was chilly, but we had a great time in the sand. The crazy thing was that 51 miles away in Corvallis it was 103! We've done a lot of adventuring, exploring the AMAZING farmer's markets, walking along to River Front, going to different parks, and getting to know some of the fun families in our Ward. We're lucky to have another PGY 1 family in our apartment building. They have 3 kids and my girls are already in love with them!The girls and I especially love Avery Park. It is HUGE, 75 acres and has a couple different playgrounds, an old train to play in, a beautiful rose garden and the "dinosaur bones" as we call them. As I studied them they look more like waves. When you drive through it, it feels like you are going for a drive up the canyon in Utah. Emory and I have this funny thing that we say to each other, whenever we're close to the woods: "Watch out for vampires."
Last but not least, in this smaller apartment, the girls seem to be a little less tolerant of each other. A lot more squabbling, and a TON more whining. But this particular day they were having fun together, so I snapped a picture and went back to the bathroom to finish getting ready. No less than 30 seconds later, Tessa comes stumbling in, bawling and with blood pouring out of her nose. I never did figure out how it happened, but Emory assures me it was definitely NOT her foot that made Tessa's nose bleed.

Emory's 5th Birthday

Super late, but nonetheless important; Emory had her first friend Birthday Party a few days before we moved. (Cory and I decided long ago that we'd only do friend parties on the big numbers - 5, 8, 12, 16 - I don't know how we decided the numbers, but there ya have it. We had an Ice Cream theme and a ton of fun. Thank you to my amazing friend Amanda for taking the pictures, as I was trying to keep the party going with some kind of organization! We started off decorating Soda Jerk hats, while we waited for everyone to arrive. Then we had a Neapolitan relay with a chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry teams. Each team had to run the relay while balancing a giant pom pom (pink for strawberry, white for vanilla, etc.) on a sugar cone. Most kids just enjoyed eating their cones, like cute cousin Ike! Next was Pin the Cherry on the Sundae. Tessa actually got very close. Then they played Ice Cream, Ice Cream, Scoop or Duck, Duck, Goose, while we got the Homemade Ice Cream in a Bag ready. This was a really good idea, but 5 year old arms were not up for the shaking required, so it was a good thing I bought a tub! The Ice Cream in a Bag is a really fun and tasty thing to do, though, and I'd totally recommend giving it a try as a science experiment for the summer. Then is was Cake and Ice Cream with all the fixings. (I totally didn't supervise the topping table, and glanced around to find kids with mountains of mini M&Ms and maybe a tablespoon of ice cream underneath.) Whatever! We miss these boys almost as much as our family! The Ice Cream Pinata was decimated by a little girl who is definitely an aspiring soft ball champ. Even Cory was impressed. Present time and then a little impromptu Ice Cream Mambo and we were done. Clearly I was more excited about the presents than Em. It was a ton on work, but she had a great time and that's all that mattered.

Emory's 5th Year

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