Never Make the Same Mistake Twice........

This past week, we went to Moses Lake, WA, for a site interview for Luke. We stopped to get lunch on the way out of town and offered Miriam a little taste of lemon.

Raffy has a Birthday!

On Thursday, while we were on our way to the grocery store, Jenna informed me that the next day was Raffy's 30th birthday. She also said that Raffy wanted an orange cake with brown frosting - to match Raffy's colors. She even made Raffy "talk" and ask nicely for the cake. So, I borrowed a yummy pumpkin bar recipe from a friend and slathered on the chocolate frosting. Happy "30th" Birthday, Raffy!

Jenna had a blast making Raffy his very own party hat!

Miriam didn't like the party hat that we made for her -
she kept trying to pull it off.

Family Pictures

While Luke's dad and step-mom were here, we enlisted our good friend and neighbor, Katelyn, to do some family shots. Family pictures were well overdue for us, so here are a few of the pics that she took. Check out Katelyn's photography blog here. She does an absolutely AMAZING job. Thanks so much Katelyn!

Grandpa and Grandma Prizer come to visit.......

Luke's dad and step-mom recently retired from the Air Force and we happened to be their first stop on the traveling visits list! They were here for about a week, and the girls LOVED it! Jenna still asks whether or not Grandma Terry is coming to see her each day. We got to go on a few walks and take some great pictures.

Feeding the ducks in the U of Idaho Arboretum.

Cuddle time with Grandpa.

We visited Lewiston and showed them the amazing feat of engineering that the Lewiston grade is - those of you who have traveled in the area will know what I'm talking about.

We went for a hike out at Idler's Rest. Jenna's new favorite thing for the day was balancing on all the huge fallen trees..........

.......and posing for the camera.

Jenna and Grandma Terry

1, 2, 3, FLY!

Halloween 2009

Here are the girls' costumes for Halloween this year. Jenna was Little Bo Peep and Miriam was her little lost sheep!

And She's Off!

First off, sorry to those who have anxiously been awaiting an update. Our computer broke down and it took a month for the tech support to take care of it and get it back to us. At least it was all under warranty! Secondly, I am still trying to sift through all the stuff we had to back-up from before the computer break down. So, I'll get a few pictures up as soon as I can!

In the mean time, Miriam officially took her first steps ten days before her first birthday. This video was taken three days after that. She's cruising like a pro now!

Two Cheerios and A Banana

So, this morning, Jenna came careening into the kitchen asking for a banana. I gave her one, thinking it odd that she didn't ask me to peel it for her - normally she wants it peeled and devoid of all the little strings before she eats it. A few minutes later, she came running back, this time with no banana, telling me something about "Look! It's happy!" She had decided that our exercise ball was just too glum, so she fixed the problem with two cheerios and a banana.

Pictures!

Gosh, I have cute kids! Across the street from the Health Museum in downtown Houston, there is a little garden with a really cute gazebo. We decided to get some pictures of the girls and someone happened to come along and we got a couple shots of the whole family. Here are a few that we took.

We never quite caught the smile!

The Fam!

The Girls!

Jenna loved getting her picture taken!

Children's Museum

Ok, so here are some of the pictures from the Children's Museum that we went to. It was super crowded that day so we really didn't get any pictures of the exhibits - there were too many heads in the way! So, I posted some of the activities Jenna got to participate in. There's one of the star decorations she colored, then some of the boat races in the Flow Works section of the museum, some cute and fluffy chicks and some playmates that she found in the Tot Spot.

Health Museum

Last week, Luke took the afternoon off and we headed to the museum district in downtown Houston. On Thursdays, both the Health Museum and the Children's Museum have some business hours that are free to the public. The Health Museum had a fun exhibit that made your body larger than life - literally. You start out by being "eaten" and you go into the mouth to learn about the teeth and such and then you go through the esophagus, stomach, etc. The whole exhibit was reminiscent of a Magic School Bus field trip. It was fun to see Jenna learning so much. There were a few other fun things that included predicting your life span, one that showed you where your particular organs were inside you - some sort of x-ray/ultrasound - and another predicter of your full adult height. I'll post more pictures of the children's museum later, but I'm on a time schedule - Miriam is waking up from a nap.......

Your brain.

Luke pumping blood - one side is normal, the other side has a clot.

A look inside your lungs

Up close and personal with your mouth.

This display showed all the nerves and blood vessels in your teeth. Both Jenna and Miriam were mesmerized by the flickering lights of the "nerves".

Armand Bayou Nature Center

I'm a little behind on posts, so over the next couple of days, I hope to get you all updated. A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Armand Bayou Nature Center. It is a little nature reserve a couple of miles from our apartment. It was super hot that day, but fun anyway. We got to see some real swampy areas that Jenna wanted to walk on because it didn't look like it could really be water, there was so much green moss and stuff on top of it. Luke spotted a turtle or two in the swamp, but Jenna never found it due to all the moss. There was also a reptile house complete with baby alligators and lots of snakes.

Baby Alligators

Jenna thought this was pretty clever!

This little guy was hard to keep track of for a picture!

Help!

There MUST be an easier way to edit the way your posts look other than trial and error! Please let me know what I am doing wrong! I am a horrible perfectionist when it comes to formatting - it sometimes takes me a couple hours to put together a single scrapbook page because it has to look exactly right. Does anyone have any tips on how to make formatting less of a pain for blogging?

Crabbing!

Over the weekend, we went crabbing. Definitely a first for Jenna, Miriam and I! Jenna had a ton of fun watching Dad pulling all the traps up and dumping them in the bucket. Miriam mostly hung out sitting in the the chair and being lugged around on my hip. She really wanted to reach into the bucket and grab a crab - she was extremely interested when they were wiggling around in there and splashing all over the place.

Our largest crab that we caught.













Here's Luke holding the plate so you can all see how big it was.

Jenna loved playing with the crabs after they were cooked!