Little Fingers and Little Toes

The other day, a friend of mine asked if I would help her get some snapshots of her little ones so that she could give her husband some pictures for Father's Day. Of course I would as long as she didn't expect anything professional!

We had some hot and humid weather with periodic showers, but I finally found a chunk of time that was pleasant where I could take the kids outside for some pictures.

She has four sweet kids, but they are little (a 3 1/2 year old, 2 year old twins and an almost 1 year old) so getting them to stay focused on a camera takes some work! We did all we could, but ended up just doing individual shots. Our chances of success increased exponentially once we made this decision! They are SO cute and I didn't mind snapping away at their little faces.

Afterwards we all enjoyed a semi-relaxing lunch (how relaxing can it be with six children running around, hmm?) and a sweet time of conversation.

I am hesitant to post pictures of someone else's kids on my blog, so you'll just have to trust me when I say that I think they turned out cute, but I DO have one picture that I absolutely love and I just had to share it. It seems forever ago that Marshall and Shaylen had these little, itty-bitty fingers and chubby toes. I miss it. Don't you just want to gobble them up?

Special Guests en route to Australia!

We were really excited to have friends from our college days in town to present their ministry to Australia. We were able to host them in our home for Saturday and Sunday night and they were in our church all day on Sunday.

Marshall and Shaylen enjoyed having new friends to play with. They played SO well together that we hardly saw them. They were too busy pretending and tucking themselves in Marshall's room upstairs. Taigen and I loved the time to just sit and get caught up with Dan and Amy.

Happy Twinsday!

On Mother's Day, Taigen was so great in cooking me a wonderful meal: beef tips and noodles, homemade rolls and shortbread cookies. It was all delicious. I didn't have to lift a finger the whole day! I was completely spoiled rotten.

During our dinner, Marshall and Shaylen launched into a discussion about how there is a day for Mothers and Fathers, but nothing for kids. There was no hint of whining or complaining...just them thinking out loud. Taigen and I said, "We should have a Twinsday!" We decided that we would make the first-ever Twinsday on the twins' half-birthday, June 5th. We made plans.

Well, as many of you know, plans get changed and we weren't actually able to celebrate Twinsday to its fullest on Sunday, June 5th because we had missionaries in our home (more on them later), so we celebrated on Monday, June 6th. We let them pick breakfast (chocolate chip pancakes), lunch (homemade pizza), dinner (grilled chicken caesar salad and croissants) and desserts (frosted shortbread cookies). They were thrilled...and just like Mother's Day and Father's Day, there were cards and a small gift.

It was so much fun to set the day aside to let Marshall and Shaylen know that we are thankful for them and love them so much. It is such a wonderful and special thing to have twins and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Homeschool State Fair

Last night our church homeschool group got together to do an end-of-the-year state fair. The planning for this began way back last year before summer started. We got an email from the lady who coordinates the whole thing and she let us know what the theme would be. She wanted us to be able to collect information and pictures should we choose to study a state that we were vacationing to. By this time, we knew we were going to be headed to Washington for Christmas so we immediately claimed it. It was neat to keep this in mind when we were out in Washington. I snapped up pictures left and right of things that I knew were iconic to the area.

Last week we took a couple of days to really get it done. We went to the library. Unfortunately, this proved to be only a formality for we only found two very outdated books. It was good for us though because it provided a great lesson on card catalogs (our library doesn't have a computer search engine set-up) and an impromptu lesson on how to find books within the shelves. The good news is, this is the information age and we have just about all we could ever need right at our fingertips from the comfort of our own home. (Marshall and Shaylen know the terms "Google," "Skype," "Blog," "Facebook" and "Internet" but would have no way of knowing how to navigate the world wide web.) So we sat down and "googled" away. We got it done in three days.

For the State Fair, we also needed to provide a main dish and a dessert that somehow went along with the state you were reporting on. I figured we couldn't consider Starbucks a main dish, so I decided to go with fish since that would be more widely appreciated by hungry students. I made salmon croquettes (thank you Paula Deen!). I've never made them before, and they weren't too difficult. They didn't turn out too bad either, but the smell in my kitchen sure did. Ew! For dessert I made an apple-raspberry cake. It was delish! Side note for free: Did you know that Washington is the leading producer of red raspberries in the U.S.? I had thought of Washington apples immediately, and they are the leading U.S. producer of them too, but their production is of a lesser proportion (around 58%) compared to the raspberries (90%).

Now, you all know I'm a coffee snob (trained by the best...my mother in law), so you KNOW I had to get some Starbucks in somewhere. You can't do a report on Washington and NOT have Starbucks for people to drink. So...I made a big pitcher of iced decaf mocha. I didn't make it too strong and sweetened it. I had gone to Starbucks earlier in the week and asked if we could have some of their little sample cups with the new logo on them. They did and didn't even charge me for it! (In retrospect, they should've paid ME for brainwashing young minds and providing them with future customers...but oh well.)

Even though the report is really a joint affair at this stage (me pecking away at the computer and printing off things for them to read, me searching for things at their prompting and printing off the photos they wanted/needed for their display, or me cooking and stinking up my kitchen with a fishy smell...YUCK), I am really proud of how well Marshall and Shaylen worked together and the great job they did. They worked really hard and had a wonderful, enjoyable time in the process. So proud of my two favorite little people.

Now that this state fair is over...any great ideas and volunteers to come and help M&S with next year's Science Fair? Hmmm, maybe we could come up with a Starbucks experiment of some sort...

Piano Pieces

Marshall and Shaylen are continuing to do well in piano. They love Mrs. Endean and thrive under her tutelage. They recently completed their Level 3 book and Judy is supplementing with some other Level 3 things (Classical pieces, Theory and Scales) in order to give them time on this level before moving on to Level 4 (which apparently can be more of a challenge). I wanted to post a couple of videos of them for you to hear them playing. (It's been awhile since I did this...sorry.)

Mr. & Mrs. Oriole

I know there are some of you who cannot stand posts about birds, but there are an equal amount of folks who have missed them. So, if you're the non-bird reading type, please disregard this post and wait until you see pictures of two cute munchkins accompanying the posts.

After the busy-ness of the beginning of May went away, I actually had time to fill my bird feeder and make the homemade hummingbird nectar as well.  It's as if the birds had been waiting because once I filled everything, they all "tweeted" (yes...pun intended) each other to let them know that the delinquent Jooses had finally done their job and remembered their feathered friends. Their motto is: "If you fill it, we will come."

It is always fun to see who drops by. We have our usual visitors that you have seen before: cardinals (Mr. & Mrs.), goldfinch (Mr. and Mrs.), woodpeckers, hummingbirds, blue jays, chickadees, nuthatches, grosbeaks, mourning doves, tufted titmice and even the occasional wild turkey! In the past we have had a rare appearance of an oriole, but have not had the camera handy when they have dropped by momentarily. I have never been able to really get a great picture of them. Because they so rarely come by it's always a sight to see when they do. The other day I was working in the kitchen when I noticed a vivid orange on the suet. I looked and saw Mr. Oriole! He must've been hungry because he stayed and pecked for quite a while. I snapped away with my camera. Then, to my surprise, Mrs. Oriole came too. By the time I noticed her and grabbed the camera, she had flown to a nearby branch, but I was still able to capture her portrait. They have been here a few times and hopefully will return again and again. They are so pretty and we all enjoy watching them.

HBC Ladies' Banquet: "O Taste and See"

Each year our ladies' ministries start up our monthly meetings with a brunch in September and goes through May, ending in a beautiful banquet. I try to come up with a theme for the year so that there is continuity (Our theme for the year was "God's Amazing Grace."). Each month at each meeting, we've been hearing different ladies share how God's grace has been amazing in their lives (whether through salvation or trials or both). It's been a tremendous blessing and something we don't often hear, believe it or not.

For our banquet this year, we used Psalm 34:8 as a springboard, "O taste and see that the Lord is good." I am so thankful for this year's theme because I think each one of us was able to rejoice in God's goodness to us. So, to finish out the year, we went with the theme "O Taste and See." We wanted ladies to know and hear of God's goodness.

The banquet takes so much time to plan and execute, but it is a lot of fun! If you've wondered why the blog has been so silent and sporadic lately, this is why. It's not stressful per se, just time consuming. There hasn't been a lot of free time floating around over here. It's been fun to be in on the planning for each year (2008, 2009 and 2010). I get a lot of help from my ladies so it makes it all the more enjoyable.

There was delicious food (made by one of our deacons, and served by some of the men in our church), beautiful decorations, plenty of chocolate (we HAD to work that in to play off of our turquoise and brown color scheme, plus our theme had the word '"Taste" in it), a fun questionnaire about chocolate, lots of ladies, and a wonderful testimony from our guest speaker Karen Chesebrough from Wolfeboro Bible Church. We had a wonderful, wonderful time and I left thoroughly pleased (and exhausted) with how things went. So thankful for our church ladies. Truly God is so good to me.

The party favor each lady/girl was able to take home. Shaylen was looking forward to this!

The vinyl lettering Taigen and I put up on the wall in the fellowship hall.

These flower arrangements were made by one of the ladies in the church.

Each table was beautifully set. It was elegant.

Little jars filled with turquoise and brown M&M's for our visitors.

2nd Grade Is Finished!!!

Last Monday, the twins wrapped up their final classes for 2nd grade. It was a great feeling to finally file away the last papers, mark the final grades, take the markers out of my teacher's editions and put workbooks away. Marshall and Shaylen had a wonderful 2nd grade year, and they did really well. The year seemed to fly by. How can they be done with 2nd grade already?

Tuesday we did a couple of tests from the Stanford Achievement Tests before we had to take off for piano lessons. We wrapped up those achievement tests on Wednesday and Thursday, cleaned out the desks, and put all of the school stuff away for the summer. Marshall and Shaylen were so excited and so was I! I am so proud of them and am very thankful that I get to be a part of their education.


Thursday night we celebrated by going out to Friendly's for ice cream. This has become a tradition for us at the end of each school year. Remember K-5's celebration and 1st grade's? Marshall and Shaylen look forward to picking out the biggest option and loading up with all of their favorite toppings. This year was no exception and the kids ate it all (well, Marshall gave us each a bite of his toppings).

We are so proud of all of the hard work that the kids put into all of their classes. I am happy to report that they got straight A's in every class for all four quarters, and are very much looking forward to 3rd grade...after a nice, long summer vacation, that is.

 

My Little Mommy

I couldn't pass up posting a picture of Shaylen from Mother's Day. She was all dressed up for church in a new-to-her purple dress (given to us from friends) and wanted to bring along Baby Shaylen. She had gotten her dressed in a purple dress too and I thought the two of them looked so cute. Baby Shaylen had a purse complete with sunglasses, notebook and pretend coins. I think it originally belonged to a stuffed bear (also handed down from friends), but Shaylen thought her doll would benefit more from it

For Mother's Day, I got the really-royal treatment: coffee in the morning while I got ready, a special meal made in its entirety by Taigen (beef and noodles, veggies, salad, rolls and heart-shaped shortbread cookies), and thoughtful gifts from all three. I didn't even have to lift a finger to clean up either. It was a very special day filled with my very special people. I am so thankful to be Marshall and Shaylen's mommy.

Portland Press Herald Field Trip

We were able to join some other homeschool families at the beginning of May for a field trip to the Portland Press Herald and Haven's Candies. (I've been meaning to put this on the blog for a while, but I just haven't had much time lately. Sorry.) We were able to walk in and hear, smell, and see the big presses hard at work putting together the next day's newspaper. The machine was huge and the paper seemed endless. It's always amazing to see the printed page go flying by at an enormous speed. It reminded me a lot of the big printing press at BJU Press where we get our homeschool curriculum. While this wasn't as new to me, it was to Marshall and Shaylen and they were amazed at everything. 

One of my favorite parts of the tour was seeing the robots move the giant paper rolls from storage into an area that got them ready for loading onto the press. Marshall always thought that the robots were going to come and run over him, but we were safely beside the "road" that the robot always managed to stay on.

When we finished with the Portland Press Herald, we drove over to Haven's Candies to see their little workshop and sample some of their delicious candy. You should have seen the eyes of Marshall and Shaylen when they walked in! Talk about "a kid in a candy store!" It was a wonderful day and we were thankful for the opportunity to mingle with friends old and new.

Marshall and Shaylen in front of the printing press

Where the newspaper stuffing takes place

And you thought YOUR ink cartridges were expensive!

Coupons for Sunday's paper

Rainy Day Activities

We've had some beautiful, cooler weather here in New England. It's been overcast and rainy quiet often. The kids are always disappointed that they cannot play outside, but it does give them opportunities to work on their plethora of things inside. At any given point the twins could be busy practicing or playing on the piano, playing with Legos, reading books, building forts out of the couch cushions, playing with their Playmobil stuff, drawing, lining up their stuffed animals for some imaginary activity, or listening to an audiobook. The options abound. AND...if all else fails and they say they are "bored," I have plenty of chores to fill their time with. (So now you understand why they rarely say they are bored. Ha!)

Favorite Sport?

We recently had a missionary in our home who asked the kids what their favorite sport was. For a couple of seconds you could hear the clock ticking and the crickets in their heads chirping. That one took some thought. We're not all that into sports, but Marshall and Shaylen DO enjoy swimming (with their homeschool swim class) and enjoy playing in the yard with their golf set. The other day the weather was nice enough for them to pull it all out and launch a few practice balls into the yard. Their swing is getting better each time and I'm looking forward to the day when I can send them off to the golf course with Taigen.

The Littles Invade the Joos Home

Some friends of ours at church loaned some books to Marshall and Shaylen to read. One of the collections was a series of books by John Peterson entitled The Littles. The twins have enjoyed them immensely. The other day I discovered that Marshall and Shaylen were pretending to be the Littles by stuffing part of their rubber snakes into the backs of their pants (ew!) so that they would have a tail. It struck me as extremely funny so I had to snap up a picture!

Pileggi Visit

 Last Friday and Saturday we were able to enjoy a visit from Jason and Joni & Co. Marshall and Shaylen were so eager to play with Enzo and Julia. Of course, they love Lily and new baby Gianna, but of course, Enzo and Julia are more their age. It's always so good to spend time with dear friends and this was no exception. I love the black and white picture of Lily. She has the biggest, brownest eyes and the sweetest face. She's a very good baby and I could just gobble her up. Baby Gianna was smiling and smiling at Joni so I had to snap up a few pictures before the moment was lost. She is precious and I enjoyed the time to hold and love on her

New U Dub Hats

For a while now, my mother in law has been saying that Marshall needed a new Washington Huskies hat. He loved it and wore it all the time, but it was obvious that it was too small. She finally "made" me sit down with the kids and pick out what they liked so that she could order them. Isn't that sweet? (Many of our New England friends are saying that it's a form of brainwashing, but we don't care. Ha ha ha ha!)

Marshall and Shaylen had a wonderful time shopping. I even was slightly sneaky and let Sherry know that Taigen needed a new one too. When they all arrived in the mail, I had to snap up a picture. They look SO good and have already gotten into a habit of wearing them (almost) constantly. Thank you Grandma Sherry! You're awesome! Thanks for the spoiling.