How to Make a Seven Year Old Boy Cry

We just finished watching Harry and the Hendersons.

Remember that movie from 1987? It starred a much younger John Lithgow as the dad who took his family camping in the Cascades just outside Seattle. On their drive home Bigfoot jumps out in front of and is struck by the wood paneled station wagon. The tale that follows is about how the Hendersons take home what is believed to be a dead sasquatch, who then comes alive and torments the family in the middle of the night. In the days that follow the family falls in love with the vegetarian creature. Bigfoot then escapes into the city of Seattle and manages to elude all the authorities and one Saquatch hunter out for the kill, all the while making himself known to unsuspecting non-believers throughout the city. Of course he is found by Mr. Henderson, who manages to bring him back to his home and works out a plan with a not so cruel Sasquatch hunter to get the big, smelly creature back to the forest, while still eluding the mean hunter who has never experienced the endearing qualities of the hairy guy now dubbed Harry.

I'll stop there, so as to not ruin the ending. However, I will mention that there was about 6 swear words scattered throughout this PG rated movie that caught me off guard, including one by the young son.

Throughout the entire movie Ben kept asking me if that was a man in a costume, or really Bigfoot. This is coming from my boy that has believes that he transforms into a superhero merely by tying a cape to his back, but has always been skeptical of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth fairy. What's a mom to say?

Towards the end of the movie, I hear a few sniffles on the couch next to me. I look over and Ben has his glasses off and is wiping his eyes. I said, "why are you crying buddy?" He says "if we find Bigfoot, can we keep him mom?"

He did it!!

My husband has graduated from college! It has been a long hard road for him and our family, but it is over! I am very proud of him. College is not easy when your young and fresh out of high school. Imagine doing it 20 years out of high school, with a wife, two kids and a full-time job! We are so thankful to have that season in our lives over and look forward to the next adventure that God has in store for our family.

Gingerbread Houses

One day after school this week we had Ben's friend Lauren over after school to decorate gingerbread houses. They had alot of fun and created quite the masterpieces. When Lauren's mom came to pick her up we decided to go grab some dinner together. Dave and Cooper were out together having dinner with another friend, so it was just Ben and I along with Lauren and her mom Vicki. We decided on Applebees, since it was close. As we were getting ready to leave, Ben asked if I could give him $20 and just drop him and Lauren off at Applebees. When I asked him what Vicki and I would eat, he said "you two could go to McDonalds".

She's gone crazy!!!

Shannon over at EightCrazy is doing a very fun giveaway. She is giving away a handmade, one of a kind bracelet made by GemsByGeorge, who happens to be her mother-in-law. So, go check out Shannon's blog, it is full of very creative ideas! Then go check out GemsByGeorge to see the beautiful work that she does and read about how she came to create these amazing pieces.

Our Disneyland Trip

The boys and I arrived home from Disneyland nearly two weeks ago. We had a great time. The trip included my mom, my nephew Caleb, Ivana (a Slovakian exchange student staying the year with my parents), my two boys, and myself. The drive (yes we drove!) was uneventful. We left Vancouver at 3:30am on Sunday morning, and drove all the way to Solvang, California that day. We stayed the night there and the next day we leisurely made our way to Anaheim, stopping along the way at Santa Claus Beach outside Santa Barbara so that Ivana could see the Pacific Ocean for the very first time!

It was very fun to experience that with her. While the kids were playing in the surf we saw a small pod of dolphins swimming about 50 feet away! After that stop we detoured through Beverly Hills and Hollywood to see some of the sites, including the famous Hollywood sign before driving to our hotel in Anaheim. Tuesday morning we enjoyed breakfast with some characters at Goofy's Kitchen. The food was very good (although definitely not low fat!) and the characters visited us right at our table. There was a chance to bang a few pots and pans with Goofy, and a little magic performed by Peter Pan. It was lots of fun and worth the expense in my opinion. With our bellies full, we headed over to Disneyland, and spent the whole day there in the park. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was the favorite ride of Grandma, Caleb and Ben. I did get Cooper on it once, but only by bribing him with the prospect of picking out a souvenir after the ride. He agreed, we got in line, he tried to change his mind, but in the end he rode it. He was a bit scared, but when it was over he agreed that it was a little fun, but refused to go again!
Wednesday was spent mostly in California Adventure and the favorite ride of the day was Grizzly River Rapids. Fortunately it was sunny and about 80 degrees, because we got wet! Thursday we drove to San Diego to go to Sea World. It was a very chilly 50 degrees that day, which allowed us to have our pick of "splash zone" seats at the Shamu show. What a great show! It really amazed me how smart those killer whales are.

Sea World was neat, but it was a little difficult to enjoy after we got wet. The highlight of that day for me was feeding the dolphins. I plunked down the ten bucks for eight tiny fish just for the once in a lifetime oppurtunity to put them into the mouth of a porpoise. It was very cool. The dolphins come right up to the wall, you pat them on their nose then toss a fish right into their mouth. It is necessary to get it right into their mouth, otherwise the scavneger birds snatch them right away.
Friday we spent the day in between Disneyland and California Adventure. That afternoon Cooper and I escaped away for a bit in search of his favorite characters. He patiently waited in line for 20 minutes for the chance to snuggle Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore. What a treat that was for me to see the joy in his face upon meeting his 100 Acre Woods friends. Later that afternoon, while my mom took Cooper and Caleb back to the hotel for dinner and a rest, Ben and I headed over to tackle the ominous Hollywood Tower of Terror. We had been over a few times to ride, but the line had been over 45 minutes each time with no FastPasses available. This time there was a 10 minute wait. So we psyched ourselves up and headed in (actually I psyched myself up and had to bribe Ben with the promise of hot cocoa after the ride). IT WAS SOOO SCARY! There is nothing that compares to the "out of your control" feeling that you experience while free falling with only a seatbelt holding you down. The ride ended and it took serious effort on my part to get my jello legs to work. We then proceeded to ride it two more times before heading off for overpriced Hot Cocoa.
Saturday it was time to pack it up and start the long journey home. We had a great week and were very blessed to have had the oppurtunity to go. Grandma (my mom) has made the trip so many times with her grandchildren (that was her 7th trip!) that she has become quite the expert. She buys each of the kids a fanny pack to carry a lunch into the park with them, and puts dinner in her crockpot each morning so that it is ready when we get back to the hotel in the evenings. It was so great to be able to save money by not having to buy the park food, and it made it possible to have little treats like the carmel apple that Coop and I shared while waiting in line to see Pooh, or the Hot Cocoa that was way overpriced. My boys and my nephew were so well behaved and I really enjoyed having the oppurtunity to steal a little time away with each of the boys seperately. Thanks for the great week mom!

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Home from Disneyland

We had a great time! I am so exhausted and have not had a chance to download my over 200 pictures. Don't worry I won't post them all!
I really need a vacation to recover from my vacation.
Busy week, preparing for graduation in THREE days! This has been a long road for my hubby, so we are celebrating!
I'll get disney pics up soon.

Tonight I colored.........

really. That's what I did. Me, a color book, and a box of crayons. It started out with Cooper asking me to color with him, so I told him that we could color for a few minutes before bed. He has a giant coloring book with the Nick Jr. characters, so he picked out a Backyardigans page for me to color and a Diego page for himself. He pulled out the giant box of crayons and markers, and I went to my secret crayon stash for my barely used, still sharp, unbroken box of 24 Crayola Crayons. You see, I am a self confessed crayon snob, just like Shannon is a self confessed tree snob. I could actually not care less about my Christmas Tree, but my crayons MUST be Crayola, and they must be new and unbroken. So I keep a stash, and when they no longer meet my standards I add them to my children's collection. I know, it's petty and superficial and shallow and wasteful and all those things, but it's who I am. Every year during the back to school sales I stock up on crayons. At 20 cents per box, I can afford to supply my habit with five boxes for the year. Then when I do sit down to color, I actually enjoy it!

The real issue here is not my affinity to a certain brand of crayons, it is that I really did not have the time to sit and color for as long as I did. You see, Cooper and I colored together for about 10 minutes, then he was done and it was time for bed. After I tucked both the boys in and prayed with them I went back to the coloring page instead of doing the so many other things that I should have done.

Like fold these............

Or decorate this.................

Instead I colored this................

And I enjoyed it!

My Baby is FOUR!

Happy Birthday Cooper! I can hardly believe that four years have gone by since you were born. Mommy had a craving for Pumpkin Pie when I was pregnant with you, but could not eat it because I had Gestational Diabetes. I wasn't sure how I was going to make it through Thanksgiving without a slice. It turned out that I didn't have to, you decided to make your appearance three weeks early on the day before Thanksgiving. What a gift you were! You spent the first week of your life in the NICU, and were a bit of a grumpy guy, but I don't blame you. All those nurses did was poke and prod at you. When we finally brought you home we knew our family was complete! You are so special to us. You are a fun little boy. You are always willing to try anything from new foods to new adventures.

Your daring spirit has kept daddy and I on the edge since you started walking. After you learned to walk, you quickly learned to climb, then took on the challenge of riding a scooter before you were two. When that became to easy you decided to learn to swim, and this summer you began jumping off the diving board into 11 feet of water. You were three and a half, and mommy was a nervous wreck.

You are daring and you are brave but what I love the most is that you are so sweet, loving and cuddly. No matter what adventure you are on you always stop to give hugs and kisses and at the end of the day you always want to snuggle and have "face". I hope we never lose those moments.

As you continue to grow, I pray that you will continue to seek new adventures in life. I also pray that you will discover a love for Jesus to carry with you on your adventures.

Happy Birthday little buddy! We love you so much.

Thanksgiving with the Rosebrook Clan

Every other year we spend Thanksgiving with my family. The great thing about it is that everyone in my family is on the same schedule, so Thanksgiving together is a HUGE deal. As in 33 people with just my immediate family. This year my parents have an exchange student from Slavakia, so there was 34 for dinner!

We left our house around 9 for the usually three and a half hour drive to my parents. It turned into five hours because of traffic and construction through Everett. Our boys are used to the drive, so they were very good. Cooper and I both took pretty long naps while Dave drove and Ben read. Dinner was supposed to be at 2, but the turkey took a little longer than expected to cook, so we weren't late, and I even had time to make the candied sweet potatoes, yum!

After dinner there was rough housing and games, and the chance to just hang out. There is 19 kids ranging in age from 17 years to 7 weeks and we managed to gather them all, except the baby, who was sick of being passed around, on the stairs for a picture! You can't see them to well, but there is Chelsea, Amanda, and Ivana (exchange student) all 17, Darian, Brandyn and Breanne all 15, Shaylene 14, Alyssa 13, Cannyn 12, Andrew 11, Brystan and Jesse both 10, Caleb 8, Benjamin 7, Libby 6, Abby 5, Cooper 4, and Jonah and Olivia both 3. The joy of it all is that for the most part the kids all get along so well! It is very fun watching them grow up.

Friday morning my sister and I ran to Fred Meyer for socks. I usually stock up for the whole year at the day after Thanksgiving sale. We got to Freddies about 10:30 and were out the door by 11! No early morning crowds and lines for us. Then we just hung around the rest of the day eating leftovers, and taking a drive out to see our othere sisters almost finished new home.

Friday evening it was time for another Rosebrook Family Quarterly Birthday Party. After the brith of all those kids we finally smartened up and started having quarterly parties. Once every three months we get together and celebrate birthdays for all the kids in that quarter. So it was time to celebrate the 4th quarter kids (Andrew, Cooper, Jonah, Olivia and now Baby Darius). We rented out a Jungle Playland all to ourselves! It was so much fun. Again, all the kids had a blast together. The big kids played right along side with the little kids, and since we had the place to ourselves there was no worry of other kids getting trampled.

Saturday morning brought the chance to sleep in for Dave and I. Cooper was up early with Grandma. I got up around 9, Ben was next at 10:30 and then Dave emerged around 11! That is such a rare thing for us. After we got up we just sat around at my mom and dads until after lunch time at which point we decided it was time to either take a nap or head home. So we packed up and got on the road.
What a great, relaxing weekend! I am so thankful for my amazing family. While we have our issues (what family doesn't?) getting together is such a great time. I cherish the chance to pass on the importance of family to my kids and I hope we have these traditions for many generations.