Lilith!!!!!!!!

For Christmas I was going to get my bestie tickets to see Circ De Soliel, but when we heard that Sarah McLachlan was going to start performing again after a way-too-long sabatical, we hands-down chose Lilith!  I had never been to Lilith so had no idea what it would be like and was a bit nervous about leaving Gabby for 12 hours since she still is an avid nurser. 

Chandra and I headed to the The Gorge (the venue hosting Lilith) around 1pm and arrived around 245pm.  Let me tell you, the Gorge Ampitheatre is breathtaking; it an 25000-seat concert venue located above the Columbia River Gorge in George, Washington.  It was a beautiful sunny day with a perfect cooling breeze.

The Gorge

There were a couple of smaller stages set up for some of the earlier performers; we paticularly enjoyed A Fine Frenzy http://www.afinefrenzy.com/, who apparently is from Seattle. 

                                                                     A Fine Frenzy

After the smaller performances were over, we went down to find our seats at the main stage and were delighted to be bumped up to the middle column, row 14.  The show was spectacular; especially Colbie Calliat and Sugarland (this performance blew me away- I will be buying tickets to see them in the future) and of course Sarah-who performance was just too short for Chandra and I (only 45min).  We danced and sang and had a great time celebrating being a woman!

Colbie Calliat- so good live!

Erykah Badu- this chick was probably a little too "political" for me, but I enjoyed dancing to her beat and her bluesy voice was awesome!

Sugarland- I LOVED this performance, she was amazing!!! (I even think Chandra, who hates country music, got into it.)

Lovin' it!

Sarah!!!!!!!!  Amazing as usual!

Nort and Westie

Nort and Westie are Northwestern Salamanders that we found in our yard this year (remember Sal and Sallie from last year?).  We decided to keep them for awhile for observation and enjoyment.  I am pretty sure they are male and female, as one of them has slightly red puffy cheeks.  They are so cool to watch; especially when they are eating earthworms!  Check it out:

Grammy Visited!

Its always a treat to have Grammy visit since she lives so far away!  She brought back Panda shirts for all the kids fom the Panda preserve in China.  We had a lot of fun hanging out with her and Uncle Zach and look forward to more fun in a couple of weeks in California.

Blue-eyed Girl

Our blue-eyed Angel

Where my kids at!

I'm here singing the same sad song, apologizing for being such a bad blogger, and promising to be better from now on...we'll just see how that works out!  So, on to some highlights:

The Girl:

I must have missed months 7 & 8 but here's month 9.  I can't get over how cute this little girl is!  Everything she does makes me smile.  I have been awful about keeping up with her baby book- which is very unfortuate since she will probably be the only one that cares to have it when she is older.  We are actually into month 10 right now so, I will post those pics soon.  Gabby is super mobile now; not quite yet walking, but she is crawling and cruising eveywhere.  She is fast at getting where she wants to go and like her brothers before her, she wants to play with exactly the things she shouldn't (like the outlets; out come all the covers!).  She loves to fake laugh and scrunch up her nose in a toothy (5 now) grin.  She likes to be thrown up in the air or flipped (sigh, I guess tht means no rest from the adrenaline junky boys).  She can say Momma and Dadda and something that seems vaguely like Bubba (brother).  She likes to eat what we are eating and luckily has outgrown her food allergies.  She still gets up twice a night for a feeding and is clinging to nursing more then her brothers did.  She loves music, she likes to "sing" and dance (sway) to music- its way cute!  Iwill post a video clip shortly.

Below are some cute pics of Gabs before we turn some time over to the boys.

Gabby and Momma

                                                              Gabby's squinty grin

 

Lovin' the Peas

Testing her boundries.

         

The boys:

Clayton finished his first year of elementary school as a kindergartener in Mr. Stevenson's afternoon class.  Clay did great in school- he loves science (just like his mommy) and math (just like his daddy).  He looks forward to all day first grade next fall where he can eat lunch at school and go to recess; I will definitely miss him at home though!  I wish they weaned us off our kids by adding an hour of school each year as they advance; instead of going from 3 to 6 hours from kindergarten to first grade.  They are out of our lives way to quickly. 

Couldn't get this to turn; but it is an excerpt from Clay's school journal- cute!

Anyways, Clay loves to swim or do anything with or in water, jump on the trampoline, watch Scooby Doo, ride his bike and play cars.  He is very helpful with his siblings and loves to be the biggest kid in the bunch so he can be the leader (I don't know who else that sounds like). 

Ephraim finished preschool with Mrs. Eberli and Mrs. Milne (same teachers Clay had) from Kids at the Creek.  He LOVED it!  He always came home smiling; handing out his varoius projects or treats to his family.  He really enjoyed making crafts; I have some real great bug and marine replicas all around the house.

                                Oyster & pearl, octopus, crab, and rainbow fish

                                                                      

                   

Top: Ant, Right: Snail, and Bottom: Sea Urchin

Ephraim is such a great helper!  He is my first kid to jump up when I need a favor.  He loves to make other people happy; especially his family.  His loves and hobbies are pretty much the same as Clay's except he loves animals and bugs.  He has caught two snakes, millions of bugs, and two salamanders (one of which we keep as a pet).  His favorite past time is "bug hunting", which consists of him turning over every solid object in our backyard in search of bugs.  He is so excited to join Clay in elementary school this Fall.

Kai is my silly kid.  He likes to do things that make people laugh or cry or shout...he is like a little actor always trying to get a huge reaction out of the people around him.  He loves to sing and dance (his fave song is "The Boys are Back" from the High School Musical 3) and pretty much has the destructive rocker role figured out.  He loves loves his mommy and daddy- he is always in one or the other's arms (even at night).  I think although Gabby is the true baby that he believes he is as well and I guess he is; the baby of the boys.  He is recently potty training- off and on for the last few months and I can tell that he wants to maintain his control; luckily I've learned (the hard way with Clay) and am just letting him do it at his pace).  He will do "mommy school" this Fall and can't wait!  He loves all the same things his brothers do including bug hunting with Eph; but , he also loves sports and seems to have inherited his Uncle's coordination and so  Mommy is hopeful!

I ♥ being a mom!