Itsjustdori&family

Geez Where Was the Leder Family in 2010?

2011-02-09T16:06:00.000-08:00

BIG Sisters were busy teaching little sisters their place......

....serving their big sisters every need... including back rubs!

There's no place like home!

2010-01-19T10:46:00.001-08:00

Sunday in DC it poured down rain, before church we went and visited the Air force Memorial & Arlington National cemetery . We got soaking wet and a little homesick...not really DC you can have the rain .

Monday morning we packed up and put on some new shoes...

...and before we knew it we were soaring over the Beautiful MT. Hood. Isn't coming home always bitter sweet?

We had learned a little more about both DC and about Von & Tana:

Washington DC is a GREAT capital city

Von & Tana make the BEST milkshakes ever!

One last photo op with Von@ 5am!

On the move again!

2010-01-16T17:27:00.000-08:00

Saturday was another day of Von's Non-stop Tour of DC....

With only one small accident....We also found that Bill is featured in the Smithsonian!

Driving away from DC....
Best Picture of the Day.

2010-01-15T19:56:00.000-08:00

.....walked all over Washington DC again today. One of our stops included the Constitution & Declaration of Independence.....

I declare We followed Von wherever he went...He has been our personal tour guide/photographer...

By 9:30am we were out the door on the Metro, crossing over the frozen Potomac River, heading toward more photo opportunities....

First photo opp for the day was in front of The Capitol Building

Then in the Rotunda of the Capital Building...

Did you know the ceiling is so tall you could store the Statue of Liberty in Here!!

We made a few more stops but grew hungry so we picked up Tana for Lunch at our new favorite place "POT BELLY's"

After lunch We walked and walked some more along the way we made a few friends at the Smithsonian

We even made friends with someone wearing enemy colors!!

"It's not easy being green...especially when I'd rather be orange!"

---until tomorrow!

What is this? HORSE HAIR?!

2010-01-15T19:26:00.000-08:00

We Love you Von!

Across the Country......What!

2010-01-14T17:28:00.000-08:00

Hey Kids...and everyone else....Wednesday Bill and I jumped on a plane and flew across the country to visit my Brother and Sister-in-law, the famous Von&Tana!! We flew over lots of clouds and lots of Snowy mountains....We landed in Chicago for about 20 minutes, jumped on another flight to DC. (and read 140 pages in Percy Jackson...officially hooked!!)

Von and Tana picked us up and took us to their great little condo in Alexandria, VA. We put our heads on the air mattress after catching up with them. In the morning We headed out, caught the metro (a train like the max but it goes a little faster and even underground) We first went to the Holocaust Museum. Very interesting, sad and unbelievable. I think Jessi and Ellie would think it was very interesting because of all the books you've read.

Next We ate lunch at a great sandwich place called Pot Belly's Ellie you would have LOVED it and all the kids would have loved the great homemade ice cream sandwiches. Tomorrow I 'm going to take a pic of my awesome sandwich so that you can see...and Make you hungry Ellie!

Next We had a tour of the Printing and Engraving building(Where they print dollar bills)...We saw over 8 stacks of $32,000,ooo....Ty How much money all together is that?

Other Things we did today were take an elevator to the top of the Washington Monument...Visited the Lincoln, Korean War & Vietnam War Monuments!

We just finished Eating dinner that Von made. I'm going to cut Uncle Von's hair in a few minutes...

Tomorrow We are going to the Smithsonium...I wish we would have watched that movie first!!!

We are TIRED..it was a lot of walking! I hope everyone back in Oregon is enjoying being with Grandma.
More pics Tomorrow night!

Mom OUT!

O what do you do..part 3

2009-08-26T09:35:00.000-07:00

O what do I do in the summer time?..At our house I fill and unload the dishwasher TWICE daily.

Only 13 days until School starts. O my. I really am going to miss the summer, mostly being able to get up at 7:00 am and all the kids are still sleeping... and unloading the diswasher in the silence. Wierd....my life revolves around the dishwasher.

Oh what do you do in the summer time...part II

2009-08-09T22:44:00.001-07:00

Do you watch the Parades Go By? (and try to get as much Candy as possible?)

Do you ride the kiddy Rides just so your short 3 yr old can Ride?

O what do you do in the summer time?

2009-08-07T09:27:00.001-07:00

Do you Play at the Beach?

Last week was a CAKE WALK!

2009-06-22T09:15:00.000-07:00

First last Friday there was baking and freezing 160 Lemon cupcakes.....

Then Thursday Frosting and decorating all 280 Lemon and vanilla cupcakes....

Next on Thursday making and frosting Sophie's 2 layer chocolate with chocolate fudge frosting Birthday cake..

Finally... Friday delivering cupcakes and frosting and delivering the 3 tiered triple chocolate with fudge filling white Wedding cake.....

"I didn't know you did Wedding cakes, Dori!?" Many people exclaimed.

"I don't."

Who put that on the list?

2009-06-15T15:48:00.000-07:00

So have you all made your "What we are going to do this summer list"?

We kicked off our summer with

1. Spend a few hours at Urgent Care getting stitches.

Macy fell off a kitchen chair, hit her head on the table...spliting open her eyelid, then processed to bleed all over. I took her to Urgent Care and they gave her 4 stitches. She didn't enjoy it at all. They put a rather large bandage on to keep her from pulling them out....Which I'm sure she would. I called home and asked the kids if they had cleaned up the blood. "We couldn't find any paper towels".

2. Buy paper towels.

Summer Scrooge

2009-06-15T09:02:00.000-07:00

As mom's across the blogosphere post their list of all the fun and adventurous things they want to do or accomplish this summer there I sat last night with a list of jobs, consequences and strict bed time schedules I was hoping to enforce...Geez Ba humbug Summer I thought...Who am I EboMOMoneezer Scrooge. Where did that one mom go that use to sit down with the kids and make a list of all the fun things we wanted to do while not having to worry about sack lunches, homework, and school night bedtimes.... Oh where o where did that fun mom go.....I'll tell you...she got busy..Lazy summer HA! We still have Cub scout and YW's and Visiting teaching assignments and shopping for clothes, groceries and Vacations to plan for, laundry to do, Walls to paint, Checkbooks to balance, Nutritious Breakfasts, lunches, snacks and dinners to make, Cubs Scouts awards to earn, Personal progress to work on, weeds to pull and a lawn to mow....Oh my!

...So With my mean list on my lap, There I sat and Visited Summers' Past....How I didn't remember all that had to be done...But only the fun.....

and so my Summer motto was Born:

Morning Jobs will be done

& then we'll have some FUN!

(And at 9:30 everyone will retire

OR Mom will Breathe Fire!)

It's over!

2009-06-09T10:44:00.000-07:00

So I kinda put myself on a blogging hiatus for the past few months....Why? I can't even remember but I'm sure it had to do with needing to let go of something that didn't really have to be done. I had no guilt while my blog sat still....very still.

Yesterday I came back... Not sure if I really have time but maybe something else will sit while I blog...maybe I'll go on a Dishes hiatus!

My Kitchen got a new color while I was gone!

visitor in the night....

2009-06-08T08:30:00.000-07:00

Last night at about 1:00 am Macy crawled into my bed got right up to my ear and whispered "I'm Thirsty". Next time she arrived she whispered "I don't like my Bed"...Then snuggled with MY pillow..MY ENTIRE Pillow...next time she came she said nothing and slipped right between Bill and I and slept..until she woke up Bill and back to her bed she went....Where she still is at 8:30 am! There's nothing I like better than sleeping children ...Wouldn't you agree?

A Little help here...

2009-02-23T17:21:00.000-08:00

In the Wake of the Economic crisis...

2009-02-20T12:04:00.000-08:00

... I had to keep the same shower curtain instead of purchasing the really expensive one I was dreaming about and decorate the masterbathroom to match it. So here's today's Before & After...

Before

During...(this is my really awesome handy man putting his face where I never want mine, ripping the toilet out and then cleaning it!)After....

Please Notice the: New floor, new toilet seat, clean toilet, new paint, painted window trim and finally new toilet bowl brush :)

Finis & Pink

2009-02-19T08:13:00.000-08:00

So At the beginning of the year when New Years Resolutions were the trend I was thinking about mine...Usually I write them in my journal...after looking at the previous years hoping that I've accomplished them...Want to know some of my past ones that I have accomplished? ...Several years it was...Have a baby...nice... so you could say at least I have accomplished 5 of the 55 I've made.
This year Instead of a list I chose a word....Finish..or if I've feeling in a Frenchy mood "Finis". We have so many projects started on our nice fixer upper house that need to be finis that it's overwhelming, discouraging and demoralizing . But NO MORE....I will finish our projects and move on from those feeling and do more important things like......laundry or the yard?

So my last FINISHED project took place Monday...Thanks to Abe & George...No School meant no schedule so we painted..

When we moved into our house I painted the little girls room "PINK?" well that's what the swatch at Home depot called it but it was more like "white with... if you squint it looks pink".

BEFORE

SO Monday WITH the kids help we repainted rearranged and now the little girls room is
"FINIs and PINK"

AFTER

p.s.I have an idea for a cute wall decoration but that might have to be next year's resolution.

P.S.S. Do you want to see more of my before& after projects?

Green Hairs & Ham

2009-02-12T20:34:00.000-08:00

If there's one thing I learned in 2008 it's always wear a mask while spray painting.....A lesson I didn't learn until after having , White,Red, BLACK ,PINK or Silver Nose hairs. Should I be proud that I've sported all those colors in my nose? This past month when I grabbed some Shelves to spray I realized I would again have Black Nose hairs...But I figured I didn't want to go out with those kind of hairs that night or find those kind of boogers in my kleenex for 3 days...So i found a handy dandy hankerchief in the dress up box and began to spray away. But what do you think the Bus driver thought when she pulled up and dropped of my kids and saw this woman fiddling around in the garage?

I can NOT go to school today....

2009-02-10T08:04:00.000-08:00

The latest pictures on my phone always tell the best story, where we have been lately and what funny things the kids have done when I didn't have the real camera...The story they tell right now is of doctor and hospital visits...

Geez....

I should just buy myself one of those old nurse uniforms and dawn that every morning checking all my children's temps and writing down their symptoms of the day...

Ellie..Stomach hurts....morning breathe

Jessi....Just too tired..nothing to wear

Ty....Fever, runny nose and a bad case of dirty socks wore more days in a row than one mom should know

Sophie.... Bronchitis...fever....funny morning hair

Macy.... cough, irritable and Spots from head to Toe!

Mom.....Almost crazy except that she doesn't mind cuddling with sick kids on the couch watching TV all Day!

Snow, Sleet & hail...

2009-01-18T19:31:00.000-08:00

Well It being MLK day and all I sat pondering about the profoundness of that. I realized we have been though so much....That is our family...Here at the Leder's house we have seen more snow than ever before, played in it, ate it, drove in it, wished it away and then sad because it was gone. We celebrated Christmas & New Years and even a baptism and a New calling. Wow so much has happened since we have last posted. But now we look ahead with great anticipation...Is Summer almost here? some have asked. Well before it does we have a video that(my kids think) might make some of you create a new winter memory....yellow snow.

Stay tuned. Ellie must edit and Mom must upload but before the day is though this MLK will be one to remember.

UPDATE: Due to techno difficulties the video is unavailable...darn my kids really wanted to show the online world what a dufus I could be.:)

New Year's Resolution....

2008-12-31T15:49:00.000-08:00

Update.... MY BLOG :)

Brrrrrr.....

2008-11-14T10:44:00.000-08:00

It's sunny, it's chilly....it's a "neck shirt" day!

Being 5 is the best

Doesn't this face make you want to snuggle up and watch Tom & Jerry with them!

Don't worry I did!

We needed it after a week of crazy moments

including.....

......one precious child missing the bus because they refused to change their underwear......geez it's hard to be a kid ;)

Eeeeekkkk!!! a mystery man, Two princesses, a fairy?, Indiana jones, and a ninja!

2008-11-03T10:28:00.000-08:00

What more could you want?

Oh, I know Candy!

Operator ... can you reconnect me?

2008-10-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

I'm so grateful for my 3 Beautiful sisters and Mother. I had the blessing to reconnect with them this past weekend!

I learned so many things from them and I hope they know how much I love them and how BEAUTIFUL they are!

Who are these great women you ask?.....Well let me introduce you...Oldest to Youngest of course.....

Toni....She's the oldest, wisest, sweetest...best listener you've ever talked to.....How sweet you ask? when she would babysit us she use to always say "Don't worry you can do that ....I'll take the blame". She is now our very own Stamping queen and always provides us with the best,cutest, crafty projects to do. We couldn't have had a better example in an oldest sister.

Tina ....Funny, Serious, Gorgeous, Spiritual. In the dictionary under the word nice is Tina. She had lots of weird boy stalker's in High School because she was nice to everyone...
She's the best muffin maker in America...When I lived downstairs from her at Ricks College I could always count on her to be awake at 1:00am to talk to...what was she doing at 1am? making muffins of course!

you know me...Dori....I'm Daughter number 3...the middle child...that alone explains a lot!

And my little sister.... Micki...The braces make her look 18 but she's really only 3 years younger than me....She's the best.... she will sew anything for anyone...except pleats...Can you believe that I once pulled her hair so hard that she threw my teddy bear (from Bill) out our second story room window.....She is my kid's favorite because she is SUPER AUNT! and she's available..so all you guys in UT that read my blog.....just call me I'll give you her number! (Oh she's going to kill me for that or throw my teddy bear out the window!)

We were so lucky to be raised by........

well we just call her.....MOM...she's was always able to make

us behave and we are so blessed for that...she's super tough and can do anything she decides she wants to...sewing, pruning, mowing,tilling, baking,cleaning,writing thankyou notes,visiting teaching,teaching, and she usually has it all done by 6 am!!

I've decided that my mom's best parenting skill was being able to live the gospel almost perfectly and let us see the joy in living the gospel.

It was nice to go back in time this weekend and share a room again wth all my SISTERS it was truly like the old days....laying in bed talking and being silly, and mom telling us to go to sleep it's late!!!

What have I been doing, done, been, seen....

2008-10-28T14:03:00.000-07:00

Geez I noticed on a friends blog roll that I haven't updated in 2 weeks.....It caused me to reflect on what had I been doing and how times goes really fast.

Well I took a day to think about that and what I should post about. But as I reflected I thought about a talk I heard once about making sure that we are doing the important things...you know the really important things...
.... I know laundry is important...to quote my sister "one more day and I'll be naked! " But there actually are more important things...

So I reflected in the past 2 weeks have I done the real important things....The things I've always meant to do everyday.

After reflecting..... this word popped into my head "discipline" It really is the key...I must discipline myself to do those things... those little things, those things I KNOW that I'm suppose to do. Everyday.

So the things that I knew I should be doing I did this morning. Wow. that took so little time but feels so good.

The words I'm done feel so much better than I'll do it tomorrow.

Monday the day...

2008-10-13T10:22:00.000-07:00

1. Your kids Hide under the bed so they won't have to go to school!

2.You try to recover from having an abcessed tooth and emergency ROOT canal on Sunday!

3. You do mounds of laundry.....

4.You try to find something to eat and all you can find is chocolate chips! Which you should make into a great afterschool snack for your kids but ....it's monday so you just eat the chocolate chips!

Dinner conversation....

2008-10-07T19:29:00.000-07:00

A friend brought whole wheat rolls for dinner....

Jessi says "Mom, I like your rolls better"

I respond "You don't like wheat? I was going to start trying to make them."

" ew yuck mom, We don't have to be that healthy...I DO P.E.!!"

One of my favorite times of the day...

2008-10-07T13:46:00.000-07:00

One of my new favorite things is.....

2008-10-06T15:21:00.001-07:00

My new Sunglasses ....and my kids saying

"Mom those are too big...Mom those are huge you shouldn't wear those.."

and yet I wear them anyway and LOVE them.

This Week...which is now over and is not really this week..

2008-09-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

We ate Lemon cake.....Why? Because we always eat Lemon cake on September 10th...Bill's Birthday!

this week I couldn't resist this place mat for Macy...because she is our

"Macy Monkey"

What's in the bowl you ask? Tomato soup noodles..or in other words homemade spaghetti O's! (It was friday night and Bill was working late) It was either that or Popcorn for dinner...what would you have choosen?

Where did everybody go?

2008-09-05T18:19:00.001-07:00

Well Macy...

Jessi & Ellie got up early and waited for the bus

And Ty waits here a little later

Then Sophie gets ready and waits here half way through the day:

and the wheels on the bus go round and round...
.

Leaving just Mom and Macy!

Happy First week of School!

One Last day!

2008-09-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

This week has been a bit of a whirlwind....but I wanted to finish my count down... I know it's a little late but don't get all riled up about it!

So the Last day of summer: Labor day! That's exactly what we did. Labored. We we went to Corvallis (Home of the Beavers!) and helped my grandparents paint their house. The kids mostly talked to Grandpa & Grandma and played with their toys. Bill helped my dad on the sprayer and I helped touch up paint. They had picked a great color for the house....

After we were done at grandma's there was one question raised...."Can you really visit Corvallis without visiting the Beavers stadium? Well the answer was obvious .....we took off to visit and what did we find? We were so lucky to watch the last few minutes of practice! and then we found an open gate!

The kids are BACK! 2 days to go!

2008-08-31T18:59:00.000-07:00

We had a great little staycation. Bill and I did lots of fun stuff, movies, dinner, temple, hike, clean garage,baseball game and our favorite...eating Tillamook Ice Cream!!

Today is Sunday and I was trying to get Ellie to help me clean up the living room...She said "Why? why should I?" So I was explaining if her friend came over what would you say? "Don't mind trippin' over all the stuff?" Which some how led Jessi and Ellie into making a song out of it....Silly girls... while I kept trying to get them to help me clean up they created this dance in their room ...I grabbed the camera and hid it under a sweatshirt and recorded their performance....O my after this performance they went on to create a few more dances named "You can't make us clean up" and something like " No way are we going to clean up".

So as you can tell in this video it really does need to be cleaned up......How many more days of summer?!!?!!

Omy Day nine! How many left?

2008-08-28T11:11:00.000-07:00

Well I had a tight schedule yesterday to be able to fit in the fun activity I had planned. Clean up rooms, pack for Aunt Toni's, go on a bike ride, visiting teaching, dinner...go to Aunt Toni's to drop of kids to spend the night. I think the kids heard , blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...go to Aunto Toni's because it took them ALLLL day to pack and they weren't happy until we threw open the door of the van and they planted their feet on Aunt Toni's property!

So we left them... yep all 5 kids at my sisters for 3 nights and 2 full days! They were so excited because as you know a cousins house is just as good as going to DisneyLand!

So you could say our little countdown is on hold... or is it? I don't think so I'm still going to be having fun.

So what am I going to do you ask?

1st: Breathe

2nd: Clean my house and watch it stay clean.

3rd: Enjoy sometime with my Bill.

Our first activity after dropping of the kids....

Day #8 6 days Left :)

2008-08-27T13:44:00.000-07:00

What could be better than having great friends. Tuesday we had friends over...Jessi and Ellie's good friends from our old town. We picked them up on the way home from Grandma's and they stayed the night. Fun for the girls... What did they do? Be girls. Up late playing games in their room, be silly, made treats, went on bike rides... Begged to watch TV... can you hear me now "No, your friends are over, do something".

Well Ty had a friend come for a little while and Sophie actually went to a friends house. Which I heard was so fun because they played "Lions". I just love little imaginations.

My Kitchen is still trying to recovery from so many cooks in the kitchen yesterday....

Monday!!! Day #7

2008-08-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

If we did nothing else all summer but the activity we did yesterday we could call it good. We packed up and were on the road to a town about 40 minutes away to visit my Grandma and the kids Great Grandma. She now lives in a semi assisted living community and the kids had not seen her since she moved. It was a great visit with Grandma. We picked her up and went to the park and ate our lunch and let the kids play.... I got to sit next to my grandma and visit with her on a park bench. What a perfect moment. I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did.

At one point while we were cleaning up our lunch I was reminded of a memory of my grandma that I shared with my kids. Do you mind if I tell you?

My mom always made homemade ketchup. I detested it. It was like putting tomato sauce on your fries. I was a kid and now knowing how kids can be itprobably wasn't so bad. I guess I made a big deal about how I didn't like it because my grandma knew of my dislike. While at a Christmas party at my Grandparents house my grandma told me she had a special present for me in the fridge and what I found was the perfect gift ever... a brown bag full of the restuarant style ketchup packets! She had been saving them for me every time she went out to eat. Which now that I think about it wasn't alot because they lived at least 20 minutes from town. For months I hoared those packets in our refrigerator as "My Ketchup" .

Soon we will visit my other set of grandparents. How I wish we were closer...but is that really an excuse for such long periods of time between visits?

Jessi, Ellie , Ty with Grandma in her amazing yard before she moved. (Did you know Jessi is named after her?)

Sunday Day #6

2008-08-26T09:49:00.000-07:00

Since Sunday is the sabbath I guess we kinda took the day off from having a fun moment...Until I actually got my little girls in bed and had a few extra mintues and thought "I should play a game with my 3 big kids" and since my thought started with I should I jumped on it. It really is my new theme instead of my "I should's" turning into I should've I try to make it happen. So I whipped my big girls in my favorite game ..... Othello.... I'm sorry there's no mercy they need to learn! :) But then I played Ty... since he's 8 I let up a little...I was so wrong to do that because of the few things I let get passed me (on purpose) I couldn't come back....He Killed me!!! It was sad but now I'm glad I have some real competition!!

As a kid we planned tons of board games and I loved to be the best and I've been a little disappointed that my kids don't have the same love of games I do. We'll guess who's fault that is? If I would've actually played with them more then they would love them too. So no longer I'm making Sunday night " Just try to beat mom night"!

What do you want your kids to love?

Saturday--Day #5

2008-08-24T23:25:00.000-07:00

We live in a great semi-small town where there are always great activities going on around us and as hopeless as this sounds we never take advantage of it. In fact it's ridiculous there are so many things....Concerts in the park, Saturday market, 3 on 3 Basketball tournament, lots of farm activities, the county fair. but we are always busy doing something...Like yard work or family events (out of town) . SO This weekend I put a stop to our madness and we went to the Largest Dahlia Show in the world! (2 minutes from our house) Well and I don't know if it was the biggest in the world but there were tons of tours buses from every retirement community in the NW! :)

The show had indoor arrangements and then you could check out the fields and fields of beautiful rows of blooming Dahlias... Don't know what Dahlias are? Well I'll show you.

There's Big ones:

And small ones:

And ones with funny names:

I told everyone to pick out there favorite things of the show (meaning flowers) but this is what Bill and Ty picked...sillies!

Day #4

2008-08-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

So when deciding what we are going to do each day I have been reaching back into my brain and reading the list of all the things I've meant to do...You know that list we all have. I should.... I should... So yesterday I took one of those I should's and took Ty to the swimming pool for a much needed swimming lesson. (I certified in College as a swimming instructor and have only used it on a few cub scouts and my own kids). That was really nice to have one and one time with Ty and help him. I think he's made some good improvements. I just have to say it does my brain such good to have a break from the house. I hope to go get in the pool more someday. Swimming is one of my favorite things to do.

While Ty and I swam the girls stayed home and watched Spiderwick Chronicles and loved it. When we got home we all decided that we needed a really really really good snack!!!! So we made banana bars! Yum yum yum yum they are definitely one of our favorite treats. If you have never had one.... oh my.

I have to say with my focus on the kids(and me) having as much fun before summer is over it has helped be more willing to do things with them, like let them help me cook...I know you know what I mean.

I wonder if they will think weeding is fun tomorrow? :)

Day#3

2008-08-22T10:32:00.000-07:00

Our fun moment started late in the afternoon. Ty, Sophie & Macy went to our friends house, which Ty loves because they have a wii and boys to play with, They also have 2 girls close to the little girls ages. They had a blast there.

Then I took Jessi & Ellie to Middle school registration (Crazy I have 2 kids in Middle School!) We went and got Ellie on a soccer team....and right next door to the house that we were dropping her registration off at was....Grandpa Leder....funny...he had broken down and needed a jump start. So you could say we had a hero moment :) Then we headed out of town to shop til we dropped. Funny we were all wearing pink shirts and had a great time. We hit Old Navy, Kohl's, Target...and the pet store where Jessi adopted a new pudgy goldfish "Noodles".

So again we were successful and had another fun summer moment...except that we were school clothes shopping and that really means summer is coming to an End.

Day #2

2008-08-21T07:03:00.000-07:00

Well Day 2 didn't go exactly as planned...My vision was a service day ...we were going to all make Banana bread together than deliver it to the neighbors and friends...all together and have a great fun moment. Well...

It was still a fun day . I made the banana bread, didn't have enough pans to make as much as I wanted. The kids were distracted by other things, good things, playing games together. Macy distroyed one of the 3 loafs we were going to give away and then we ran out of time. So at about 7pm Jessi and Ellie delivered one loaf to the neighbor... I was feeling way to ugly to go with them. :) So what are we going to do on day #3 to top that? Won't take much :)

Summer Count down!

2008-08-20T10:17:00.000-07:00

So yesterday we started our 2 week summer countdown. There are so many things I wanted to do with the kids this summer and it seems like it went so fast. So we are going to try to do a fun things everyday until summer is over...

Yesterday was Day #1

We started with a fun trip to the mall. The kids said they wanted to go to the store Claire's and ride the Escalator! So after we did that I treated the kids to their first Icee! I know are they deprived or what :)! They were in heaven!

So stay tuned for our day by day summer fun countdown!!

Metal Mouth Cutie!

2008-08-02T12:37:00.001-07:00

Jessi has been counting down the days until She got these:

But after the first night she wished she could take them off. She's had a bit of pain and it's been a little (alot)hard to eat things.... She's had a lot of liquids, which she's getting sick of. Only 24 months and counting..:)

I wish...

2008-07-08T15:08:00.000-07:00

Seminary ended and it was wonderful. I couldn't believe I actually had taught every school day for the past 9 months. I learned so much. (That's such a cliche statement isn't it!) I have wanted to write about the ending of seminary but I didn't quite know what to say.
I guess I will write about just a few ways teaching seminary changed me.

So for the past school year I have studied the Old Testament and cross referenced others scriptures I would say on average 15-19 hours a week. I now love actually studying the scriptures, not reading but studying and finding answers that Heavenly Father has put in them.
I now know all scriptures point to the meaning of our life and to Jesus Christ.

I now LOVE to teach. I am so grateful for the talents that I have been blessed with to help others understand what I learned while studying and then I love being taught by them as we discuss and find new treasures of knowledge.

I want to go on a mission. Because I know this is our duty to gather Israel.

I have learned that by understanding and learning the individual principles of the gospel we can understand more of the eternal plan of happiness.

I have been changed by reading the Old Testament. Wow! I cringed when told what I would be teaching this year....But now I am sooo glad, I wouldn't have wanted to teach anything else..and maybe some other time I will get to teach the other great scriptures. (My secrect wish)

I have gained a great respect for all Christians that study the Bible for it's truly from God but I have a greater appreciation for our modern day prophets.

I have always struggled to understand how Heavenly Father (or anyone) could love me. Heavenly Father loved me enough to trust me to do my best and teach his precious children(my students). As I finished the year this was one principle that I felt so strongly...I felt so loved because he trusted me to teach.

I wish that everyone could have this experience. But infact we all do, we all have our challenges that Heavenly Fathers gives us that if we turn to the scriptures and him we can feel his love and guidance.

I will never forget those great students I saw every morning (some just the tops of their heads) They are so strong and Heavenly Father has great things in store for them.

I only wish I could teach forever.. but I cannot. It was a difficult decision for me to come to the conclusion that I wouldn't teach next year. My family sacrificed a lot so that I could teach.

Many people ask me if I'm not teaching again because it was just too hard. I want you all to know... it was hard but "Is any thing too hard for the Lord?" (Genesis 18:14)

10 things I've done since I've last blogged....

2008-06-29T22:34:00.000-07:00

1. Finished Teaching Seminary...sigh
2. We went to the Zoo!
3. We have spent every Tuesday and Thursday at Ty and Ellie's Baseball and Softball games! So glad we are done!
4. I got a new calling at church...I"m the new Nursery leader! Hopefully I can handle the 2 year olds!
5. We got a Dog! Crazy! She's a Puggle, She's two year old.
6. Sophie had a Bubbles and Balloons Birthday party. and Turned 5! Wow!
7. Macy turned 2 (Her and the dog have a lot in common! Always getting into everything!)

8. Trying get my housework caught up after having other priorities for 9 months.
9. I'm trying to stay sane with all the kids home for the summer!
10. Went crazy atleast once a day since the kids have been home from school.... but alittle alone time and chocolate chips fixes that right Up!

I'm going to do this just because then I don't have to do what's on my list!

2008-05-20T16:55:00.001-07:00

I was tagged by Angela!Thanks:) I feel loved!

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. Mothering a 2year old and 1 year old girls
2. Managing 70 Apartments...crazy!
3. Supporting Bill while he studied for his Series 7 & 63 license...or had he already passed? I'm not sure.
4. Living Right next to my sister!!!Fun!
5. Driving our first Mini Van!

5 things on my to do list:

1. Put finishing touches on my Jonah vs. Ninevah lesson for the morning.
2. Cut Ty's hair
3. Get Jessi something to wear to the YW/YM formal dinner tomorrow night.
4. Figure out what I'm going to give my Seminary kids for graduating.
5. Shoot! I just remembered I have to vote before 8 tonight!

5 of my favorite snacks/food:
1. Chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven
2. No bake cookies..because you can make them and eat them in under 10 minutes!
3. Steak.
4. Orange juice
5. ANYTHING ANYONE Else makes!

5 things I would do if I was a billionaire:

1. Buy a Hammock
2. Buy a beautiful yard for my hammock
3. Pay for my kids college/Missions.
4. Pay for some of my Seminary kids college...they worry so much!
5. Buy Bill a new Acura!

5 Bad Habits:

1. Blog stalking:)
2. Being inconsistent
3. Not eating a good lunch
4. Not making Bill's lunch
5. Not cleaning the Bathroom.

5 Places I've lived
1.Oregon
2. Oregon
3. Oregon
4. Oregon
5. Oregon

5 People I tag....
ooops no more time..

Kidnapped!

2008-05-02T15:08:00.000-07:00

So Can you tell who kidnapped my blog for a post of his own! Bill decided to take over my blog for a moment if you haven't noticed...replacing our family picture for one of his favorite Beaver football moments...funny. Well I do have to say the comedy bits he put on here are our favorites!! even the kids can't pass hot pockets in the store without quoting him! Just for your info 19 more days of Seminary!!!

Do you love Hot Pockets??

2008-04-30T23:16:00.000-07:00

You'll never look at Hot Pockets the same way again! This is one of our favorite comedy bits.

Do you love cake?

Got Milk?

Ellie's 11 and in Heaven!

2008-04-27T23:18:00.000-07:00

Ellie had her Birthday party on Friday and asked for this Hamburger birthday cake! She loved it and had a great time with her friends. I owe a big Thank you to my friend who made the cake!(Thanks Loriel)
Happy Birthday Ellie!!

Ty Ties for First on his first Try!

2008-04-27T23:12:00.001-07:00

Dad and Ty of course made a "OSU Beavers" Pinewood derby car. I can't believe that he got first...well Tied for first! It was so fun!

Friday

2008-04-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

Oh where oh where has Dori gone oh where oh where could she be!!
The days seems to just scream by and then again I haven't posted anything. Which I just hate, because I just love to read everyone's blog and wonder where are they when they haven't posted for one day and then here I am not posting for a million years. So after I read Memory's post and she's so busy I knew that I couldn't wait any longer. Well that was 3 days ago :). But now it's Friday! I treasure Fridays so much. It's the only day I don't have to worry about what I'm teaching in the morning. I have to make my seminary lessons first priority during the day or I don't have anytime to do them and then it's just bad! I've learned so much about myself in these past 7 months teaching..At first I use to have a break down..bad breakdown..about once a week.. you know the kind "I have too much to do" cry, cry and cry somemore(how embarrassing but I know you all have them too!). About January I came to the conclusion (with my Heavenly Father help) that my family and seminary lessons where my two priorities.. nothing else.. not the kitchen floor, not laundry, not the bathroom,not babyshowers,parties..those things should never..unless the toilet was clogged...take priority. And when I did that and left it in the Lords hands to help me get everything done it some how has. Not always exactly when I would have preferred it to but it got done... usually on Fridays:).

So today has been great, the sun is shining and it's warm outside, I've cleaned my room, the kitchen, put all food back in the pantry (Longstory..I'll post a picture),cleaned the bathroom,started the laundry. It's still amazing to me how much I've changed though. My list of things to do is still a mile long for the day and I know that I will not get it done but I can some how stay calm inside and just know that someday it all might get done but if it doesn't today there's always next Friday!

Saturday night one of the kids climbed the shelves to reach a bag of chips..and it all came crashing down!

2008-03-17T18:03:00.000-07:00

Enjoy Mom's with Minivans everywhere!!

Asleep..awake..asleep..

2008-02-27T11:29:00.000-08:00

The Perfect Valentine's dinner?

2008-02-18T11:53:00.000-08:00

It is our tradition to have a nice 3 course meal on Valentine's day...including candlelight, a perfectly set table, Mom in a good mood, dessert that Martha Stewart would be proud of...but well...I was tired & completely wornout Valentine's night... So what's a mom to do... I threw on Valentine's fabric for a table cloth (which Sophie thought we should leave on forever) We had everyone's favorite Fettucine Alfredo(easy), our salad was just sliced cucumbers, I did manage to throw together some homemade garlic bread ...luckily one of Bill's clients gave him a homemade loaf of bread:)! and Dessert?....Donut holes leftover from Ellie's school Valentine's party!! Which I didn't eat because I had already eaten 15!:) At first it seemed really disappointing but I think in the end I really did learn a lesson from it....Sometimes we just need to forget our own expectation and do what we can and enjoy it because in the end the kids still thought it was awesome and really the only thing different than every other nights dinner was we had a table cloth! hee hee!

Gotta love the kid sticking food out of her mouth for the nice picture!

Ode to Valentine's day!

2008-02-14T10:27:00.001-08:00

10:00am-So I have already eaten a heart shaped cookie, 2 heart shaped brownies, 3 small candy bars and 1/2 of a huge Symphony bar and no breakfast! O it must be Valentine's day! I packed my kids lunches with lots of veggies hoping that will off set the enormous amount of candy they will eat today and forced Ellie to eat breakfast (she never wants to)! I'm such a hypocrite and eat my candy bar instead of breakfast!! ;) Well we of course have Valentine's parties today and Hopefully I will pull it all together and we will have our annual Valentine's candle light dinner!
It also feels so good because tomorrow is Friday!!!! and for me as a Seminary teacher that is HUGE!!! Happy Valentine's Day!

One year later...

2008-02-13T09:08:00.001-08:00

Macy's hair is so funny...I saw this old picture of her the other day and just had to post this !

2008-02-06T23:06:00.001-08:00

"God is anxiously waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has. But He can't if you don't pray, and He can't if you don't dream. In short, He can't if you don't believe." --- Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

In Honor..

2008-02-01T09:26:00.000-08:00

In Honor of President Hinckley who passed away Sunday night my Seminary class decided to dress up for school today. (Following the example of kids in UT) My class of Seniors spread it to all the other seminary classes, It was so humbling to see all the kids wanting to do something for "their Prophet" President Hinckley. I decided to also spread this to my kids and with very little hesitation Jessi & Ellie wore dresses to school. Sophie decided she would put on a dress this morning too...because she heard what was going on... I thought that was so cute because I never said anything to her directly.

Like so many others I too have been touched by the life and love of the Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley. He had a way of making you feel so loved by him without knowing him personally. I am so grateful for the gospel and the way it helps me live my life in the right way. I'm honored to be able to help teach it to the Lord's precious youth.

Lynette, Charlene, Heidi & Julianne !

January...

2008-01-29T12:20:00.000-08:00

According to my blog it looks like Christmas was just yesterday! but some how January is actually almost gone now!
The last two days we haven't had seminary due to weather conditions...It feels like Heavenly Father caused it to snow just for me! I needed time to catch up on studying and laundry!! I went to an all day Seminary Training meeting on Saturday and now I'm filled with great ideas and a little more hope. I was starting to get that overwhelmed feeling....Bill would say I get that way every Sunday night but this time it was worse. So the all day training was fabulous and inspiring! Yesterday I think I went to that level of craziness that only Seminary teachers do and made my own cheap version of the ark of the covenant!!

I know really cheap and small version and I didn't have any angels for the top!!!

2007-12-29T21:33:00.000-08:00

I was so looking forward to Christmas break and having a little break from preparing for Seminary...But honestly it hasn't seemed like much of a break...Christmas has been fun and busy. Bill took the entire break off from work...That has helped so much..

The fun all started with..... Saturday...

The Webster Christmas party!!

Uncle Frank, My Mom, Grandma W. Aunt Bonnie

This is the party with my mom's side of the family. We always love it because we only really see these fun folks once a year. Grandma Webster always makes a Christmas tree ornament and writes another chapter of her life history.

Most of the Webster Grand kids..soo excited to get their picture taken!

Melinda,Toni, Mom, Aunt Bonnie,Miranda

These are Rosettes my grandma has made them for every Christmas party since I can remember and I am old:) Well this past year Grandma moved into assisted living (which I'm doing as soon as I'm eligible) so she passed on all the stuff to make these including a lesson and guess what? I did it! I couldn't believe they were almost as good as Grandma's!

Right after the Webster Christmas Party we headed to:

The Extended Family Leder Christmas Party...

Which is held at the Church because there are just way too many people... Grandma Leder as 9 kids 49 Grandkids and most of them are married and have kids of their own ....I can't remember the exact number but I'm pretty sure she has over 100 great grandkids and we are all still pretty close......So here are some pics of that crazy party....

Singing Carols with Nancy

Aunt Tiffany and Sophie!

Ellie, Uncle Ethan, Uncle Nate, Gracie & Sophie

Macy loves to sit on Great Grandpa's lap...she was telling him something about her fingers

Well that's a start with those two Christmas parties Christmas had official begun...

Christmas!

2007-12-28T23:57:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited we got a new camera right before Christmas so we can actually take pictures now! Wahoo! We love Christmas bonuses! We had a great Christmas More pics and details to come!

7 Random Things.....

2007-11-03T19:01:00.000-07:00

So I got tagged...That means on someone Else's blog they tagged me to do this(Thanks Jen!)...Write Seven Random things about myself.... ummmm....

1. I really like doing laundry...sounds crazy I know...

2. I LOVE putting on freshly laundered pj's....

3. Thursday I ate more Halloween candy than my kids did....ugh..I was sick..

4. I recently got out of a speeding ticket!!!! The only time I've ever sped in my life! :)

5. When I was growing up I told all my secrets to my stuffed Curious George and hid my money in the hole in his armpit!

6. When I was a kid we would ride our bikes to Dunkin Donuts and I always got the chocolate frosting filled donuts....yum!!

7. One of my fears is driving off a bridge into a river of water...every time I go over a bridge my stomach churns.
Okay I have to do one more......

8. I always have at least a 10lb bag of chocolate chips in my cupboard!!! no joke!

2007-09-14T15:44:00.000-07:00

Gotta love the snort!

School, Seminary, Sophie....

2007-09-11T11:42:00.000-07:00

Somehow we got everyone ready for the start of school....just barely...luckily I had the camera in the van already or I would have not gotten pictures of Ellie and Ty on there first day...poor Jessi she wasn't so lucky...I totally forgot on the first day and then forgot to take the fake first day of school picture on the second day (That has happen a couple years).

So now It's week 2 of school and some how we are surviving.....Especially since seminary started yesterday. It's only been 2 mornings but it's seemed like 2 weeks! But it's going as any class would. Morning at home for Bill and the kids is going alright I think , we are expecting that it will take a week or two to really get into a good morning routine.

I am really loving all the studying it takes for my seminary class. I am lucky that this week is not super busy so that I have the time to study and figure out what I'm doing. This morning I tried to explain to Sophie about seminary:

Sophie :"Mom lets play hide & seek"
Mom: I'm going to read my lesson and then we can play
Sophie "NO, right now"
Mom (I realize she doesn't have a clue what a lesson is): "Sophie before you wake up mom goes to the church and teaches a class full of big kids about the sciptures, So I need to read them so I know what to teach"
Sophie: "Are the kids big like Jessi?"
Mom:" Bigger, they go to High School"
Sophie: "Oh, They're in High School Musical 2!?"

end of summer....

2007-08-27T16:02:00.000-07:00

Well we are into the last weeks of summer...I'm kinda sad...kinda happy...Last week and this week has been almost the only weeks of the summer that weren't crammed with activities.
This is just a few things the kids have been up to....

The kids finally convince there dad to put up the trampoline a few weeks ago.... I love it...

Ellie and Ty created a very creative "tree fort" I would call it more like littering the tree.... o well I would rather have them being "creative" than watching TV.

I found Sophie all by herself on the tramp one day playing with Jessi's bunny...They had all gone inside and gotten distracted and forgot to put the bunny away she told me "nobody's coming back" I told her they were having her babysit..... She thought that was so great.

Macy loves to snuggle with things that are white...it's so silly....she finds white article of clothes in our dirty clothes baskets and drags them all over! The other day she found in Jessi & Ellie' room a pair of ...actually clean.... panties I saw her snuggling with them, then she placed them on top her head and walked off...next time I saw her she was sitting on the couch watching cartoons with Sophie and had gotten her head through one of the leg holes and was wearing them around her neck....crack me up!!! It made me laugh so I just left them on her for hours!

2007-08-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

I'm finally cool and figured out how to upload video!

(Only because blogger made it extremely easy now:))

So I had to share our favorite video...Sophie had just turned 3..she's now 4..and I was trying to capture her on video singing BofM Stories because she was extremely good at it for only being 3!

This is what happened.....

Fighting cord clutter

2007-08-15T22:08:00.000-07:00

I loved this idea for cleaning up all those dangling cords so I just had to share it....He says it would only take 60 minutes to assemble but I'm thinking it would take me at least 3 hours. It's definitely on my list of things to do! So check out this idea and see what you think!

http://www.efetividade.net/2007/08/11/declutter-your-desktop-an-organizer-for-those-cables-and-gadgets-for-under-10/

We love Family!

2007-08-14T09:52:00.000-07:00

What a great weekend we had. After a 24 hour delay Morgan, Bill's youngest brother, got home from his mission in the Dominican Republic. He was suppose to get home on Wednesday at 6:30 but do to some unforeseen difficulties we finally welcomed him home at 11:00pm on Thursday night! How great it was to have the whole family together again (minus Josh until Friday night) Morgan got to see Grandpa & Grandma for the first time after being baptized!

It actually does say "Welcome Home Elder Leder!"

Grandpa "Babysitting"

Morgan surrounded by girls already....to bad they're your nieces!

The rest of the weekend was filled with lots of family activities including "Nacho night" Eating Nachos and watching Nacho Libre! Family pictures on Saturday morning and then Saturday night we all went to Temple...what a great thing for Bill & Pam to have all their kids in the temple at one time!! We finished up the weekend with Morgan's homecoming talk in Woodburn and then of course dinner at the Farm!!!
We are so glad that Morgan made it home safe and sound and...... that the weekend is over :)!

Momsense

2007-08-06T09:17:00.000-07:00

I wish I could memorize this song! Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlY8STkhopc

Hole in ....2!!!!!!

2007-08-03T22:35:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun tonight . The whole family went to the mall and Jessi got her ears pierced! Jessi did great even though she said it hurt this was her biggest reaction.

Her new ears look so pretty!

Humbled

2007-07-31T15:56:00.000-07:00

At a time in my life when the responsibilities of mothering five kids makes me feel like I am just treading water and not making much progress and then other times it can feel like I'm almost drowning......

I got a really weird answer to my prayers..... Lately I have been praying a lot for a way to do it all better... to be a better person, better mother, and a way to better understand my children's needs...My prayers I thought were a plea to be able to simplify and focus more on just my family....but then

....I was called (appointed) to be an early morning seminary teacher! What! ?I don't think that was exactly what I was thinking of... Do I need to rephrase my prayers?

But after much thought & prayer I know this is what I need to do at this time..What a great opportunity to teach & learn from the youth & teach & study the gospel of Jesus Christ.

If this doesn't force me to be more organized, simplified and spiritual I don't know what would.

The Lord answers our prayers...just not always in the way we expect.

WaHoo!! VONTANA!

2007-07-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

My brother Von proposed to Tana!! He asked her a week ago at Silver Creek Falls, the day after we got home from Elk Lake! We had been bugging him all week about when? when? when? I've been holding out for a picture of them with a ring but I've given up so I'm posted some of there Elk Lake shots!

They will be getting married November 17 in the Portland Temple!

We are glad that Tana said yes even after spending a week in the rough with our family!

Congratulation Von &Tana! We are soooo excited!

ELK LAKE!!!

2007-07-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

Why do we go to a place with no running water, stinky outhouses, no cell service, lots of bugs, rain.....because it's a tradition...our favorite in fact..... ELK LAKE! Why is it our favorite you ask? Here are just a few reasons!

The Lake!
.....

.The Trees!
The blueberries for my Pancake!

"Grandpa Camp"
.........The Hammock!

Homemade Ice cream & Root beer!

... Bill taking his turn cranking the Ice cream
.....Toni making the root beer...yes we had Root beer floats!

Hiking! Really only 2miles this year!

This year everyone packed a sack lunch and hiked to the end of the Lake...This is where all the logs stack up and is really fun to play on....But then it started...rain...and didn't stop for what seemed like days!...yes it dared to RAIN on our camp trip!

So Even with all the rain we had a great time... we just broke out the rain gear...

Uncle Von ready to go swimming...

Ty and Sophie trying to stay dry by the fire!

This year we had a few bonus events.....

1.We finally took care of Von's "camping hair!

2.Who's that special guy in the red shirt?I don't know but he swam out and got the island for us?
3.Leder's preformed @ skit night!

4. Von almost needing to be taken out by lifeflight after a Rock climbing incident....Remember Von...buy a helmet... (Tana was sick of waiting for him to give her a "rock"and so she threw one at him instead! ;)

5. We had LOTS of time just sitting by the fire...does Jessi, Leah,Ellie look excited or what!

6. Dori & Bill took a decent camping picture! (a miracle)

We are so glad we had almost all our family was there!

Frank,Annie & Micki drove from UT .

Von& Tana(Vontana their celebrity name)Came from D.C!

Wygants barely made it from Eugene and again we like to say the LEDERS Beat them!!!! (if only by 10 minutes!)

cousins!

Macy!

We just hope next year more than just the rain gets to play on "the island"!

Until next year!

Proposal on the Beach!

2007-07-22T16:45:00.000-07:00

Due to being in charge of our ward campout and then camping in the deep forest for a week this story has been a little delayed!

It all started on Friday July 6th...Josh took Sheri out for dinner....While they were driving around trying to find some place to eat Bevin & Angela, Bill &I ,& Bill Sr. went down to the beach and buried a bottle with a message in it....for Sheri's eyes only!

Then we all hid out of view of the unsuspecting Sheri...We waited and waited and waited and waited while they hung out on the beach(eating their DQ). When the beach was all clear Josh took Sheri on a innocent walk and just happened to see a bottle partially buried in the sand! :)
After reading the message in the bottle Josh got down on one knee and proposed!!!!

This is the view from the hole...really all 5 of us were in a hole! The guy behind them just showed up as soon as it all took place!!! We were so ticked he is in the pictures!

After giving them a few minutes we rushed them like paporazzi and made them pose for us! It was so exciting! Then from the beach we took pictures on our phones and sent them to all the rest of the siblings! Tiffany, Ethan& Mom back at the beach house, Keros in Denver and even Morgan in Dominican Republic!

They are getting Married on Sept 22!

We are so excited to have Sheri (& her sweet little girls) in our family!!!!!

BEACH or Bust!

2007-07-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

We spent 2 nights at the Beach this weekend with Bill's family. It was so fun! We rented a beach house on the bay. The real reason for going was so that his brother Josh could propose to Sheri! It was so cool...I will tell the story later when I get a picture of them on the beach.

Here they are coming home from the beach the newly engaged couple....I know the reflection off her ring makes it really hard to see them...Hee hee! :)

Here is a shot of us after Josh proposed to Sheri..Mom is looking at the pics on Angelas camera...Stayed tuned cuz you'll love the story...

This is the pier that you could see from our house....Everyone was crabing off of it

Posing right before going to the beach.... Silly Grandpa you're not wearing a swimsuit!

Abbie, Macy, Atalie, Sophie...What a bunch of cute girls!!

I was trying to get a cute sister picture but I guess this just shows how things really are!

Jessi loves the Beach!!

The kids were so cold after going in the water so Bill buried them in the warm sand....amazing they stopped whining after that....good thing or else their head would have been covered next!

Uncle Bevin& Aunt Angela

Macy took a long nap under a blanket then had sooo much fun in the sand!

Grandpa, Uncle Ethan, Bill, Uncle Josh, Uncle Bevin...talking Business on the Beach..as Ellie said "they were saying...mortgage..buy..sell..build...BORING...I just got away from them"! See all their white skin....well now it's all RED!

It was so great to get away and be with family and have so much fun. I loved it. We've already talked about doing it again next year...I think that's a great idea! Only thing I would do different was put more Sunscreen on everyone...The first coat of sunscreen only went so far...now we are all Fried! It was still all worth it though!! Thanks everyone!

HAPPY FOURTH!!!!

2007-07-04T16:34:00.001-07:00

We just love the fourth of July it's one day when we don't hold back and have as much fun as we can. Last night Bill took the big kids....Jessi, Ellie & Ty to the Rodeo and today we went to the St. Paul Parade and Carnival!!! Here are just a few of our pictures!

Ty surprised us this year by wanting to go on the "big kid" rides...It just broke my heart and his when the first one that he tried to go on he was too short for! So we settled for "The Spider"! He loved it! Go TY!!!Our last stop of the day was to check out the bulls!! Gotta love the Rodeo animals!

Macy says it's Time to go home...she was probably more full than tired ...she ate...elephant ear, snocone, Teriayki chicken, noodles, dippin dots....anything she could beg off of us!

BEAVERS BASEBALL #1

2007-06-24T21:33:00.000-07:00

Our house has been a little Beaver Nation the last few weeks with the Beavers baseball team at the World College Championships in Omaha.......Of course we were all excited but missed Dad at the Dinner table when the game was to just to good to be @ dinner :) But it all ended this afternoon....they won every single game through the championships. The Beavers baseball team seemed to be unstoppable, they played amazing baseball....Plays that are sure to go down in history..... no really! I know you never would have thought as me as a fan but who couldn't be after watching games like that! Now aren't you sad you missed them ?! Another great thing is it seems that we moved to Beaver town, it's great Canby is just filled with Beaver fans...at Ty's baseball games last week all the dads on the bleachers could talk about is how they were sacrificing watching the Beaver game to watch little league!

This was so cool...He first got the guy out at 2nd jumped to not get slammed into while throwing it to first which resulted in an out at first!

Anway...It's great to have the games over and the Beavers to be Champs!! GO BEAVS!

Its about time!

2007-06-19T10:45:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I haven't had time or didn't make the time but I'm excited to be updating our blog so many things have happened in May and June.....

1. Macy turned one! May 24th!

She had the greatest reactions to all her presents! What a kid!

2. Ellie's Softball took up half our life!

Somehow we went through a million games and never took a picture ( I really don't know how that happened!) So on the last game after I realized we had no pics I was determined to get a some....and it poured down rain! It's a shame because she looks great in her cool Canby Cougars Softball uniform!

3. Ty's Baseball took up the other half of our life!

I just had to use this picture...look really close you can see the ball!
4. We finished the pantry!... The before picture is with all the previous owner stuff in it...We sheetrocked one wall and painted etc.... I just love it! For a little over 2 months our food has been all over the floor in the Rec room AAAAA! But now it's great especially with the door on so Macy can no longer spread food all over the house!

BEFORE

AFTER

5. Sophie turned 4! ...It was Sophie's 4th Birthday and Father's day...What a party! We had Strawberry shortcake streamers and plates and she got a Strawberry Shortcake doll, SS coloring book, SS DVD....Can you tell she loves Strawberry Shortcake!

For Father's day we had G&G Taylor and G&G Leder come for Dinner and pie! So we had great desserts...Strawberry Birthday cake, Pumpkin pie and Blackberry Pie!! All I have to say is I'm so glad the leftovers stayed at my house! Yum!!

Ty decorated this wallet for Bill...It was the cutest thing! I love how proud the kids are of the things they make for their dad! Forget store bought gifts these are the real presents!

This is my Dad.

What a great Dad he is too. He taught me to work really hard and be excited about it. I have great memories of my Dad never giving up....especially on the weather! When we were camping and it would start raining he never wanted to give up and go home he always told us he could see blue sky coming....whatever...sometimes it rained for 3 days straight! But we had great fun anyways always thinking that blue sky was coming! Even if it did mean we had to take our sleeping bags to a laundry mat to dry them out for the next 3 nights of Rain!

My Dad always gets these great vision of fun projects. One of my favorite was when we were camping and he brought golf clubs and tuna cans and we built a golf course out of our camp site. That was sooo fun! Especially the hole that was across the crick. (Yes we call it the crick not a the creek!) Thanks Dad for all the memories! I love you!!

mOm! Look what they did to me!

I just had to add this last picture. This is what happens when you're the youngest of 4 other siblings...You turn into the dress up thing! The big girls put makeup, extra large socks, their own undies complete with a Belt to hold them up! The funny thing is she just walked around forever like this like nothing was different .....She is such a character and a good sport!

So now to the end of this very long post...I hope to be back soon but you just never know!!

In the 33rd Year of Dori..

2007-05-22T15:22:00.000-07:00

Today is my Birthday. My 33rd Birthday. I use to really obsess about my birthday when I was younger probably like all kids do. But now it's not the presents or cake or parties I like It's my friends that I would like to celebrate. A phone call or card or email from a friend is one of the nicest presents I could receive. But I expect no one to remember my birthday...Except Bill! So when people do remember it. It's the same feeling I get when the sun shines in the morning.

As one friend said today about her birthday "It's a start to a new year". So in this 33rd year of my life I hope for a few things.

1. I hope to just play more.

2. I hope to learn more from the scriptures

3. I hope to serve more..because that really makes me feel like I'm doing the right thing

4. I hope to be and make good friends and stay connected to precious ones.

So I'm hoping to live by this quote this year.... Start with a desire and make it happen!

That is my gift to myself today to start my 33rd year with lots of good desires and make lots of good things happen!!

(This picture is of me at the 4th of July Rodeo last year....I was actually wondering what my hair looked like and so I took a picture so I could see! heehee)

It was SUNNY!

2007-04-26T13:07:00.000-07:00

It was actually sunny one day last week. So just Macy, Sophie & Mommy went to Grandma Taylor's house in Salem. We got to play on her new park...it is only 3 houses from her house. It is a great park and it was really good to get away from my house that is a never ending house of projects!

I FOUND ONE!

2007-04-10T15:08:00.000-07:00

I found this yellow egg in a shoe... I love it.. it makes noise when I shake it and everyone claps when I show it to them..I'm not letting go of it I don't care how many more there are! I just love this egg it really make the best noise.....

Oops, I stepped on it. O my I love those little things inside. Dad! What are you doing?! those are my little yummy things! Oh well I got my egg back ....I'm really not letting go of it now...I wonder how I can get another one of those yummy things? I just love this egg! I'm never letting go! O but I love these little things inside too!

HAPPY EASTER!

Jessi's 12 & Swell!

2007-04-10T14:52:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Jessi's Twelveth Birthday on Saturday with cousins Leah & Reese (and of course Uncle Heber & Aunt Toni). We had Chicken Lo Mein for Dinner...a Jessi favorite and then Jessi's choice of White sprinkle cake with White frosting...of course decorated with Bunnies because of Jessi's favorite pet bunny but also because being the day befor Easter it is so easy to find bunny decorations!:)

Jessi's favorite gift was her new 1.8 gallon fish aquarium that her super cool parents got her! and she loves her two new littlest pet shop kitties (I'm just glad she not to big to play with toys I would feel too old then).

We are so excited for Jessi to be 12! She's now going to be going to the Young Women's program at church and also will be able to go to Girls camp this summer!!! She is soooo excited for that! Why do we love Jessi so much? Because she is so silly but so good! She is such a good babysitter and takes really good care of her Baby sister Macy! I love that Jessi loves to read and that when she wants to she is really good at cleaning her room!

We love you Jessi!! Happy Birthday!

(Did you notice the Sunroom behind her is orange. I just painted it this week and love it!)

Moving Fun...

2007-04-01T22:14:00.000-07:00

So it seems like everything we have tried to hookup...dishwasher, Frig, Washing Machine and now computer has had fun issues to work out just to use them. So my computer was hookup for maybe 2 days and then we had issues hooking up Bill's computer which is now the main computer with the wireless rotator to mine....and of course my computer was down while his ones..which of course it's still not fix and we just hookup mine where his is suppose to be. Did that make any sense at all?? I don't know it's just really frustrating.

I spent the weekend listening to conference of course! and on Saturday shopping with my sister-in-law and mother- in-law spending more money on the house! I think I'm done...until payday:)! So this is what I did to my living room.....pics above of course.

There's going to be 3 candles on that black plater but I couldn't decide on the right ones. I just love the flower pillow so I have to do a close up of that...I thought it was half price..oops it wasn't good thing I didn't know that until I totally loved it and it was rung up and in the bag..o well...

Well I don't know if the room looks as good in the picture...There's also flowers on the armoire and more little details...I just really like it .

So this week the kids start at there new schools. They are nervous, I told them it was the law everyone has to be nervous when you start a new school! I'm actually really nervous for them, new school, teacher, kids, bus..Bus! Jessi will be riding the Jr High bus how good can that be! I remember the junior high bus.... I learned a lot from that 30 minute bus ride.. that I probably didn't need to know. Speaking of Jessi she is doing just fine. She had a MRI and a EEG on Thursday and we will know if they show anything in the next week probably.

Other than unpacking and cleaning the house Life has gone back to how it always is...crazy!

We Moved!

2007-03-26T23:32:00.000-07:00

The kids are actually excited to help clean our new house we were washing windows this morning when Macy decided to help! We now have to paint the window sills and trim the windows and put on the baseboards.

Boxes, boxes, boxes! Everywhere! We finished all the painting that HAD to be done before the carpet went in and still have a little more to do but moving day still came! It seems really wierd to be in our house. I just can't help myself from spending money on it! New rug, new lamp shade, new shelves, decorations for everyroom..... it's just not like me....but I like it!

I painted the little girls room a very light pink but haven't decided what else to do with it. I will take a picture of it tomorrow and post it.

What have we got ourselves into!!!!

2007-03-21T21:59:00.000-07:00

Of course Paint gets everywhere I stepped right on the paint can lid! This Jessi and Ellie's room it turned out really bright but cute! This is Ty's room... I love the color

Monday night we started the big project of getting our house ready to move into.....What were we thinking we have until Friday to have the ENTIRE house painted, trim painted and replaced, new light fixture and clean! Monday we ripped wallpaper off the 2 walls that had it. We ripped out the carpet and torn out trim. Tuesday we painted ALL the ceilings Wednesday we finished preping all the floors for new carpet painted all the kids rooms and well Wednesday's not over yet Bill is still at the house and I think he's painting our room....So We made the decision that are main priority now is to finish all the painting, Carpet will be installed on Friday and we will move in on Saturday. And then like everyone else continue to work on our house every free minute!

Anyone want to come paint? :)

Jessi back to school!

2007-03-21T21:50:00.000-07:00

Jessi went back to school after a hard week last week. She is acting pretty normal almost like nothing happened. Last week sure made her tougher I think. She had side effects each day including a spinal headache which we took her back to the ER on Thursday afternoon to fix. With another shot in the back of her own blood to clot the hole that continue to leak that gave her a horrible headache, but within 5 minutes she was good to go!! She went to visit her class on Friday for about an hour and then went back on Tuesday after a no school day Monday. We still don't know what caused her seizure. An EEG and MRI are schedule next week and will tell if there's something serious but we may just never know and it may never happen again.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers our family really appreciates it!

Jessi....

2007-03-13T21:57:00.000-07:00

At about 2 o'clock on Monday afternoon Jessi had a seizure in her class at school. The school called 911 and paramedics came right before I got there. She seized for about 3 minutes. She was in a very drowsy state when I got there but recognized me. She rode in the ambulance to the hospital and was treated in the ER. While in the ER they did a CT scan and a spinal tap to rule out major things that could have caused her seizure. They couldn't find anything immediately wrong with her and she was released about 6 o'clock.

The event seems like a big crazy dream. I couldn't believe when I got the phone call I thought "you must have the wrong mom Jessi is perfect!" Everyone has been so great. Her Valiant leader and good friend brought a big teddy bear which caused the first smile of the day today. Jessi was not doing well this morning she has a headache that wouldn't go away, massive muscle pain from the seizure and naseau. We took her to her Doctor this morning who continued to try to figure out why she had the seizure. We have been keeping the tylenol and motrin down her and it has really helped. She was able to get a good long nap this afternoon.

Again friends have been so great and helping her feel better. Ellie brought home a big card with poems from each person in her class and a gift from a friend in class! She loved it all and it really helped her spirit. She had been a little down about how bad she was feeling. I think it must be hard for our Jessi who has never been really sick to understand about all the pain.

We are glad to see that she has been able to keep food down all afternoon and the medicine has been keeping her headache and muscle pain to a minimum and she has been able to walk around.

We will be keeping a close eye on her the rest of this week and will be scheduling a MRI and EEG in the following two weeks to see if they can pinpoint a cause.

Thank you everyone for keeping Jessi in your prayers and all the well wishes and phone calls I have been making sure she knows when anyone has called about her....She really feels loved!!
Thank you again everyone!
Dori

Weekend Fun!

2007-02-21T09:55:00.000-08:00

We had a great weekend visiting our cousins in Eugene! We first went with them to the OSU vs. UCLA Gymnastics meet...Go Beavers!! Don't worry Beavers won! Ellie caught one of the t-shirt and even though it is huge on her she wasn't going to hand it over to anyone!

We also got a new bunny for Ellie....her name is Snoball and she is sooooo soft!

We spent Friday and Saturday night at Leah & Reeses house and then went to Grandma & Grandpa's house on Sunday for dinner !

Thanks everyone for a fun weekend!

House Update...

2007-02-11T06:52:00.000-08:00

This is the kids favorite part of the house ...The loft in the garage. It's huge ! We are currently just working on all the fun financing stuff . Our closing date is March 12. We will get in and paint and replace carpet and trim after that. We will probably officially move in around or during spring break (last week in March). We are very excited and having been looking at alot of paint colors ....How fun! This field is right behind our property this is the second favorite spot for the kids. We were worried for a little while because Ellie said she was not going to move with us because her room was just not big enough for all her stuff! (It took a week to pack her room!) But now that she's getting a new bunny she's agreed to have bunk beds in her room and be on the top bunk (Jessi and Ellie both wanted the bottom) So luckily now Ellie will be moving with us :)!!

Homework!

2007-02-09T09:34:00.000-08:00

I had to document this....Everyone doing homework and being HAPPY! Uncle Keros was helping Jessi with her math and Ellie was helping Ty and then there was Macy helping herself to her stash of snacks under her chair!! Yummy!:)

Look at me.....I'm sooo cool!

2007-02-04T21:48:00.000-08:00

Macy decided to be a crawling machine this weekend . We found her all over the house, before she would just stay in one room and only crawl if she saw something she wanted. Now she's decided to hunt down things she wants! She also decide to crawl up the stairs. We couldn't believe she could do it on the first try. Ty was coaxing her up the stairs by putting goldfish cracker on each step infront of her!

2007-02-02T22:37:00.000-08:00

Did you ever think we would be moving to Canby?

2007-02-02T21:39:00.000-08:00

House Update.....We officially put an offer on this house Thursday in Canby. We really like the lot the house has what we are looking for..4 bedrooms 2 baths and living space. It is a flag lot so there is a long drive way for the kids to ride bike and skate! But of course nothing is really official yet .....As of tonight they countered our offer and we are trying to decide whether to accept or not and then there is the long paper process! We are going back and forth just because we are nervous about making such a big decision. If it all works out it would be cool to only really look for a week and find something that will be good for us....o did I mention we will be doing a lot of painting before we move in? Von when are you coming home? :)

2007-01-25T11:25:00.000-08:00

Check out Sophie's new style! Sophie loves haircuts so she sits so good infact she wanted me to cut more!!

2007-01-25T10:55:00.000-08:00

We are currently staying with our cousins and it can be crazy at times with 7 kids in the house but sometimes it's just waaaaay fun!!! One afternoon Ellie was "training" the boys to be super powerrangers ....including outfitting them with there super powerranger outifits!!

2007-01-20T12:54:00.000-08:00

Macy did not like the snow. When she touched it with her hand she would immediately pull back her hand and make a really funny face!

We are enjoying staying at Keros and Amber's house. Our search for a house is getting closer! More details when we have them!

2007-01-20T10:48:00.000-08:00

Bill has told me for a long time that I should do this ( I thought he was a little crazy!) But I have enjoyed my friends blogs so much I just had to do it too! So this is your Welcome to the new Dori and family Blog!
Our family has really enjoyed the snow this week! No School and no work! We could get use to that!