Smile!

We've had some awesome, spring like weather lately and I think it puts everyone in a good mood!


On Monday Mia and Holly thought it should be a create your own lunch day. So out of the cupboards came all kinds of stuff including the cookie cutters. They had more fun sitting around the table making lunch.

The picture below just cracks me up! They're all huddled around Mia's DS doing or listening to something funny.

Can you do this...

or this... (Actually, she is mid-cartwheel attempt. She's got her Mom's skills!) :)

OR THIS!!!!!!

We've moved on to homeschooling. The thought has never crossed my mind until watching these two at work. Spelling lists, math facts, Bible verses and ART all before 8:00 a.m. (and trust me, it still has not crossed my mind!) And a little side note to Uncle Dave. L, T and J feel your pain having older sisters who like to be in charge! :)


As the Californians are soaking wet we enjoyed another trip to the park. Thanks, guys, for swapping weather patterns with us. We'll take 60's in January!

A little hide and seek. I didn't do such a great job hiding as I was taking pictures.


And one more little funny! I took a picture of these monkeys messing around with Photo Booth.

It was actually a video but this is a shot of what it looked like from "the other side".

Life is good!

15 years

and 10 days is how long Eric and I have been married! We celebrated the occasion by spending a weekend on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia. We stayed in the tenthouse suites at the Rockwater Resort overlooking the ocean.

After driving through Vancouver, we hopped on the ferry. (B.C.'s ferries are WAYYYYY nicer than the sad little boats in Puget Sound and the views were spectacular, too!)

Look who we found hanging out in the Zen garden.

Actually, the Van Hulzens were needing a little break, too, so last minute they decided to join us on our little adventure. It was great fun since we don't get to see them much otherwise. (and you might all agree, Jon needs to get out a little more. :)

We spent a lot of time driving coffee and reading books.

They literally were tents. (Complete with fireplace and radiant heat floors)

Great way to celebrate the last 15 years and looking forward to 50 more!

Is January really almost half over?

This month just seems to be flying by and since I've been getting a little pressure to update I thought I'd do it today before I get any more flack! And since the "squeakiest wheel" has taken on Project Life this year (a photo-a-day) AND blogging each day I thought I'd update the ol' blog using my photos for my Project 365.  (Head on over to my Simply Enjoy site for the low down on Project Life/Project 365)    Sound good.   :)

New Years day was spent hanging out, playing Rock Band, Mario Cart and doing a little cupboard organization, too.

The next day, Saturday, Holly and Mia made it their goal to play board games ALL day. They did pretty well. Their stack on the kitchen table kept growing and growing as the day went on.

Monday was quite the crazy day. At around 3:00 Lucas was telling me about his mouth hurting. Within a few minutes I realized all 3 boys had the same tooth loose in their mouth. By bedtime both Joey's and Lucas' teeth were out. Tyler's is still holding on.

More Mario Cart...

I found this note by my desk on Wednesday night, the night before my birthday. Mia had made it as school she said and left it on my desk sometime before she headed off to bed. Love notes like these!

And yes, I did have a birthday last week (and we had our 15th anniversary, too! I'll post some pictures from our little weekend away soon!) Eric has a creative way of gift giving and "wrapping" gifts. :) I was blindfolded and the brought my gift to me. New boots I had been eyeing all winter down the street at Sole Obsession!

We went to Kyoto Steakhouse for dinner. Grandpa and Grandma VH were able to join us.

Working on their Spiderman workbooks from Grandma and Grandpa R.

Ahhh, the 6lb. 9 oz. can of pears is now back at Costco. How we've missed it! Those little cans just don't cut it over here!

Christmas Day

My family was rather spread out over Christmas so we found a time to all get online to do some video chatting and to watch Grandpa and Grandma open presents.    Not quite the same as being together but fun (and a little chaotic).

Christmas Day we headed to Grandpa and Grandma VH's for the day.  Always fun hanging out together.  
I mentioned them earlier but definitely the year of the Zhu Zhu's!
New LYNCS sweatshirts from Grandma!
The weather was so awesome (a HUGE contrast to last years white Christmas) that Dave took the convertible out for the day.
Hard to believe it's over and we're into the New Year.  Looking forward to what's in store for 2010.

Christmas Eve

Can you tell life is slowly coming back to a more "normal" pace, I'm posting 2 days in a row...woohoo!
We had an awesome Christmas Eve service at 5:00, we sang lots of Christmas carols and ended the services lighting candles and raising them high.  The amount of light all those candles illuminated was just awesome reminding us all to shine our lights high and bright!  We came home and had dinner and then opened some presents.  Uncle Dave joined in on the fun.
Mia hiding the pickle!  First one to find it opens the first present and hides it next year (Holly found it)

One of the best kept secrets.  You should have seen how Eric had this thing wrapped (or should I say his mom along with some helpful hints from him)  He even dug up an OLD picture of me with a teenie tiny fish I caught (about 18 years ago!)

This is what it looked like.  Thanks to Comcast we had a roaring fire and Christmas music playing in the background while paper was flying.  Can you tell what Mia got for Christmas?  Her face was all aglow the rest of the night.  :)  And a note of clarification, Joey did not receive a case of Corona for Christmas, it was the only box I could find to put his lamp in.
Yes, I did guy my husband a camera for Christmas. (yes, Dad, it's a Canon!)  :)  However, he did ask for one.  Every good fisherman needs a camera handy at all times.

These little guys (Zhu Zhu pets if you haven't already heard of them!)  did not disappoint.  They're awesome and worth all the hype!  (okay, maybe not worth ALL the hype, but so fun none the less, I think our real live guinea pigs may feel a little threatened.)

Lucas spent a lonnnnnng time setting up his new nightstand just the way he wanted it and was a little disappointed when we reminded him it still needed to be moved downstairs to his room. To cute!

Uncle Dave came with his wooden shoe slippers so we just had to have a picture.  :)