On Vacation

We are on our fifth day of our vacation at the beach and it is flying by too fast. We are having an absolute blast here and enjoying our time together. I think in the last few days the kids have had more ice cream, cotton candy, and pop than I thought humanly possible. Their teeth could very well fall out on our way home from this trip. The weather has been beautiful and we have even gotten some hot summer days. In fact earlier this week, we all got sunburned. At the coast! That is something I never thought would happen. We'll be coming home Sunday and it is approaching all too soon!

Girls Clothing

We had a super successful yard sale today and got rid of almost everything we were selling. I had one box of baby/girls clothes in my garage that I did not want to sell because I would rather give them to someone I know instead of having people pick through them - I just couldn't bring myself to do that. Call me sentimental. I have saved some of Kendle's cutest things that I really liked from when she was a baby/toddler and also a few dresses she has recently grown out of. Here is what there is:

Baby:
2 pairs infant dress shoes
White lace bonnet
Baby Gap coordinating onesies, romper, cardigan/pants set and hat
Carter's soft pink coverall/onesie set
Oshkosh fleece lined "mock snow bibs" with matching long sleeved snowflake shirt
soft yellow bumblebee pants
Flowered sleep/play romper
Antique looking cream outfit with lace around collar (great for old style looking pictures)
Adorable pink rose bud patterned "side tie" long sleeve top with matching pants and hat.
Oshkosh denim overalls
Pink, yellow, and butterfly patterned receiving blankets (not sure they were ever even used)
Pink and white checked crib sheet
Baby towels and hooded bath towel, all practically like new

Toddler/Girl
Red Gymboree cardigan with embroidered flowers (I think it has matching socks)
Pink and white striped Mariners onesie/jersey with matching pink cheerleader type skirt
Grey blue/lavender Oshkosh winter coat
Gorgeous white wedding/special occasion dress (has only been worn once when our family was sealed in the temple)
3 Christmas dresses
White summer eyelet dress
Nice flowered Easter dress
Pink striped spring dress
Pink Velvet heart dress
Children's place red plaid Christmas footie pj's
Beautiful teal and gold butterfly patterned "kimono" dress (fantastic for Halloween or pictures)
CUTE pink and grey Old Navy hounds tooth patterned beret

If anyone's interested let me know and feel free to come look and take whatever you want.

After the longest ultra sound ever......

***********************************************************************************

*After a very sleepless night-



*After an hour and a half of laying with goo on my tummy -



*After 120+ pictures taken of every possible body part-

























*After finally having it sink in that we REALLY and TRULY are having twins-



We were excited to find out we are going to be the proud parents of.................................................









TWIN BOYS!!!!!

They are fraternal twins which is what I was hoping for. We couldn't be happier and feel SO blessed to be given this opportunity to bring two more children into our family! We are looking forward to what these two little spirits will each bring with their own different traits and personalities. We are so glad everything looked good with them and that they seemed very healthy. I'm 20 weeks and definitely starting to feel much slower and bigger and wondering how much I can get accomplished in the next little while before I've got nothing left. My doctor said I am measuring around the size of a normal pregnant woman around 26 weeks or so. I seem to be carrying them very low and I am already very sore and feeling that heavy pressure when I'm walking around. From here on out I will be going to the doctor every two weeks with ultra sounds at every other appointment.


I feel like now I can take a big breath and big sigh of relief that everything is ok. This pregnancy has been such a roller coaster of a ride so far - I'm trying to be prepared for what else I could be in for, but at least for now I can start planning and shopping.


I'm envisioning years to come of dirty hand prints, pockets full of rocks, climbing and jumping (and crashing), holey jeans, sticks and swords, matchbox cars, and mischief.


I'm also envisioning two boys being close friends, playing sports together, riding bikes, watching out for each other, giving their mom warm hugs and kisses, double dating together (ha), going on missions at the same time, and adding so much fun to our family.

My heart is full.

A Poem By Kendle

Big candy. Small candy.

It doesn't matter at all.

Red candy is so sweet -

It makes everyone dance to the beat.

Green is the best because it scares away the pests.

Yellow is super bright

It is always in sight.

Brown said don't frown so...

Put a smile on your face!

One thing of the many that I love about Kendle is that she has a creative artsy side to her. She is always drawing and making little stories with pictures, almost like mini comic books. She comes up with some very funny things sometimes. This little poem she did just made me smile all day.

Ellis Reunion

On Friday afternoon we left to attend an Ellis family reunion for my mother's side of the family. My aunt and uncle that live in Welches, OR were hosting it and we stayed in a little town called Rhododendron which is about 10 miles away from Government Camp and the Timberline Ski Resort. It's a lovely area of Oregon to travel to in the summer - very green and lots of pretty forest.

Friday night we were all meeting at my aunt and uncle's house for a taco feed and lots of visiting. They have one of the coolest houses, it's out in the middle of a forest basically with a big backyard and deck and an awesome tree house complete with lights and electricity. When the kids spotted the tree house their eyes practically bugged out of their heads. My aunt wasn't kidding around when she had the dinner catered - it was a Mexican feast and we had a great time eating, visiting, chasing kids, and eating some more. It was so great to catch up with family that I normally only get to see every few years and watch all of the little cousins have fun running around playing together. Our kids had the BEST time. They played in the tree house, chased the dogs, went exploring, drank all the pop they could get their hands on, roasted marshmallows, and got as dirty as possible. Here a few shots I took of Morgan and my brothers tossing the football around:























Kendle and Morgan were beyond exhausted and when we went to shower Morgan off that night his feet were literally caked with black bark and dirt. My mom's family is really fun and my aunt and uncle are so welcoming and accommodating that we thoroughly enjoyed our night.

The next day we were scheduled to meet up at the Timberline Lodge for a tour. It has a lot of interesting history that I was not aware of and is overwhelming in its size and structure. I couldn't believe how many people were up there skiing and snowboarding this time of year, that was quite surprising to me. I also was not aware that it was the inspiration for the resort in "The Shining" and is featured in it's opening shot. It really does look like a gigantic fortress sitting up on the mountain.

As usual I took my camera with best intentions of getting lots of good pictures, however I literally ended up taking three or four pictures the whole time. Here is one of Kendle in front of one of the main fireplaces at the lodge:

After the tour we had some time to kill and hungry kids to feed so we drove back to Government Camp in search of somewhere good to eat. We ended up at a little pizzeria that had really yummy food. After lunch we still had a while until our family was meeting up for a dinner that night, so Riley and I decided to take the kids and follow my brother and his wife Molly back to their house which was about an hour away. We had to stop and get ice cream on the way per the kids requests and I think the warm weather combined with all of the yummy food was taking it's toll on us. We relaxed at Jer and Molly's for a while (the guys took naps) and the kids had fun playing.

On our drive back to Rhododendron for the dinner, there was a huge car accident and we couldn't get through. Traffic was at a standstill, so we decided to just pack it in and head home to Pasco. We flipped around and headed back towards Portland to be on our way. We had planned on going home after the dinner that night anyways, so in a way we were just getting a head start. We halfway thought we could take the other exit to Mt. Hood and still make it to the dinner, but for some reason that was backed up too with what looked like another accident. I guess it just wasn't meant to be. Just as well though, we were all worn out and the kids fell asleep for most of the way home. We stopped once in The Dalles for some dinner and that was it. I think we pulled into our driveway around 9:30 pm.

So in true Dodson fashion we successfully made another whirlwind trip that was well worth it and we all slept soundly in our beds that night.

*If you want to see what my husband unselfishly gave up to attend the reunion with me, check out this gal's blog, or this gal's blog. That's true love, especially if you know how much my husband loves soccer.

Summer Books

I've been fortunate to keep stocked up on lots of good books so far this summer. I've had quite a few that I've been waiting to read and here are the ones I would recommend:

"Sarah's Quilt" and "The Star Garden" by Nancy E. Turner
If you loved Turner's first book "These Is My Words", you will also love these two follow up books about Sarah Agnes Prine and her family in the Arizona territories. I'm fascinated by the strength and endurance the early settlers of the west had to have to overcome hardships and trying times. Though these books are fictional, the author does a wonderful job of interweaving many factual historical people, places, and events. I never tired of reading about her family's day to day survival on their hot Arizona homestead. Sarah Agnes Prine has quickly become one of my favorite literary characters. These books are filled with adventure, heartbreak, romance, and so much more. I think they would make great movies or a mini series.

"The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
This book is set in Jackson, Mississippi during the tense times of the Civil Rights movement. One of the main characters who is set on becoming a writer, decides to interview several different maids in her town and publish a book about their struggles working for white families and their many experiences good and bad - doing so forever changes their town. It was a dangerous thing for them to do, yet they wanted their stories to be told. Although this story is fictional it is also intermingled with factual events and public figures during that time. The interesting thing that drew me to this book, was that the writer herself was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi and taken care of mostly by her family's maid who was like a second mother to her. This book gave many different perspectives from these characters point of views and is spiced up with some sassy humor.

"The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" by Alan Bradley
The main character in this book is Flavia who is a feisty, witty, science loving 11 year old - but as you read the story you will soon forget she is only 11 since she has the smarts and sleuthing skills of someone much older. The writing by the author was rustic and engaging, the story is set in 1950's England. After someone is murdered in the garden at her family's decaying English mansion, Flavia sets out to solve the crime and have some unexpected adventures of her own - all the while trying to clear her father's name and find the true criminal. This was an entertaining and fun read.

"The Book Theif" by Markus Zusak
This book is narrated by death, which sounds quite confusing at first but I thought it was quite brilliant as I got farther into the story. This story centers around the life of Leisel Meminger a foster girl living outside of Munich during World War II. After learning to read and write she soon finds a love for books which keep her sane and become her most prized possessions during a tumultuous time of Nazi's, secrets, and hardships. One of the saddest parts of the story comes from the aspect that many Germans were appalled at that time of what was happening in their country and Europe but were afraid to speak out or make a difference, for those that did were punished. Leisel discovers that words are have a powerful ability to influence people for good and evil alike. I thought this was unique storytelling.

"The Forgotten Garden" by Kate Morton
I have been waiting weeks for the library to finally get this book in as it was a fairly new release. This is written in one of my favorite styles - a story, within a story, within another story. It has such an intriguing premise, I will share a snippet of the synopsis from the cover of the book:

"A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. She arrives completely alone with nothing but a small suitcase containing a few clothes and a single book — a beautiful volume of fairy tales. She is taken in by the dock master and his wife and raised as their own. On her twenty-first birthday they tell her the truth, and with her sense of self shattered and with very little to go on, "Nell" sets out on a journey to England to try to trace her story, to find her real identity. Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family. But it is not until her granddaughter, Cassandra, takes up the search after Nell's death that all the pieces of the puzzle are assembled. At Cliff Cottage, on the grounds of Blackhurst Manor, Cassandra discovers the forgotten garden of the book's title and is able to unlock the secrets of the beautiful book of fairy tales."

Not only is this book filled with the twists and turns of a good mystery, but it explores family history and relationships and the decades that separated them. It shows how one decision made by one of the main characters forever changes the futures of her descendants.


Hope you can pick up one of these books and enjoy a good read too.

19 weeks

*I hit the 19 week mark , but I seriously feel like I'm 6 or 7 months pregnant. I tried on a maternity dress for church on Sunday that I wore with Morgan when I was about 5 or 6 months pregnant and it was so tight around my rib cage I couldn't get it off and started to panic that I was going to have to cut it off.

*I feel like I have finally hit a stride where I am feeling really good with some motivation to get things done. On the flip-side of that, I am finding my patience is pretty thin these days and I have to keep reminding myself that my children will eventually grow up and become nice adults who probably don't want horrible memories of their mother yelling at them all day long. I never wanted to be a mom who yelled at her kids all of the time.

*My appetite has definitely kicked up a notch - I have to be careful with that. I feel really ravenous, but then I eat a little and feel full really fast. Not much room in the old tummy I guess. I've found myself watching the Food Network a lot more though in my spare time and am constantly telling Riley about all of these great recipes I want to try. Last night we had a "clean out the fridge" night and I made BBQ chicken sandwiches and deep fried zucchini. Yummy pregnancy meal right?

*I have to be really careful when I bend down or pick things up now. I have noticed that sometimes I get these weird pulling sensations on the sides of my stomach that are kind of painful. I don't know if I ever had those before with my other two pregnancies. It has been difficult for me to lift Morgan around and reign him in when he is looking like he is going to sprint off somewhere in public. It's amazing how much you really use your stomach muscles that you aren't aware of normally.

*I've noticed that if I'm listening to music or around loud noises I can feel lots of baby movements. I think that is interesting becuase Morgan and Kendle both did that too and they are both music lovers (and both very loud). Coincidence?

*Last night when we went to go play some soccer we were playing 2 on 1 - me and Kendle against Riley. I know Riley was probably taking it easy on us, but I have to say I schooled him a few times by stealing the ball from him and scoring. One time in particular he was thinking he was going to beat me down to his goal and I kicked the ball away from him and sent it down to Kendle at the other end so she could kick it in our goal. We had a lot of fun and I probably ran too much - I was very tired. He told me, not bad for a pregnant lady. Ha!

Can't believe I will be 20 weeks next week and we'll get to do our ultra sound. We're so excited!

Quiet Morning

I really relish having the quiet house to myself in the mornings, at least for a little while. Kendle is usually our early bird, but on mornings like today she is still asleep and it's nice to have a little me time before the chaos of the day starts. My children are not quiet, so if one is awake it's usually safe to say the other will be soon too.

We let them stay up a little later than usual last night because Riley got home from his tournament and they hadn't seen him since Friday morning. The kids were so excited and practically mobbed him at the door. I was glad too, it's hard flying solo - especially when you have a busy body like the Morgster who likes to take off running down the middle of your street and you have to do the 50 yard dash to catch up to him. Luckily for me, I'm not in that bad of shape as of yet, but a few more months and I won't be able to do that anymore.

The U-14 girls club soccer team Riley coaches won the championship at their tournament in Portland, so he was pretty excited about that. He said his girls outscored the other teams 28-1 or something like that. He enjoys the girls good attitudes and how coachable they are, he told me "it's nice to coach people that actually listen to you and do what you tell them". I had to laugh at that. The parents are all super nice and ultra supportive as well which makes a big difference. They all got medals from the tournament and he gave his to Kendle. She thought that was pretty cool. For Family night tonight we are going to go down to the fields and play some soccer and get her warmed up for her soccer season coming soon. She loves to do things like that with her dad - I hope it stays that way.

Well I had better get some breakfast going, and start getting ready for swim lessons. Or not - this weather isn't too pleasant outside for being in the cold water.

Spend, Spend, Spend

As if the news surrounding Michael Jackson's death couldn't get any stranger, it seems that his memorial service this week ended up costing the city of Los Angeles 1.4 million dollars and they are looking for help in picking up the tab. To read the rest of this bizarre news story go here. You will be amazed. Taxpayers should NOT have to foot the bill for these over the top extravaganzas. I don't know how much more the people of California can take.

Summer Vacation?

I've been working hard the last few days getting some things done that have been neglected the last couple of months and needed some tending too. I had a little spurt of energy yesterday since I am finally starting to breath better at night and getting some better rest. So in between breaking up the on-going battles between Kendle and Morgan I managed to go to the library, stop at the store, do quite a few loads of laundry (all folded and put away), went through all my maternity clothes and packed up and donated ones I will never wear again, packed up all of Morgan's clothes he's grown out of in the last six months into a storage container ready to go in the garage, cleaned out the freezer, made two batches of freezer jam, and lastly made a "real" dinner for the family ( I say real because we've been eating lots of easy food lately like salads and sandwiches). It's amazing how after doing all of that work, my house can still look like a total disaster by the end of the day. I think breaking up all of the fights and the yelling, screaming, and tantrums are almost more exhausting than the housework.

Today after swim lessons we went grocery shopping and now after feeding the kids lunch and putting groceries away I am wiped out. My reward for working hard? I am going to put the kids down for naps/quiet time, take it easy the rest of the afternoon, read one of my new books from the library, and later I will meet up with my mother for some Olive Garden and shopping.

*I'll post soon about some of the great books I've been reading this summer.

Our grand old 4th of July Weekend

Friday Riley had the day off so we got up early, I made a big yummy breakfast of eggs, sausage and pancakes to get our motors running, and we headed outside to do a bit of yard work before it got too hot. It got "too hot" around 10:30 in the morning and we all gave up and came inside. It was a scorcher of a day. We relaxed inside and tried our best to stay cool. That evening we went to a BBQ at our friends the Gourley's house and enjoyed some yummy food while the kids had a great time playing and swimming in their pool. Luckily their back yard had plenty of shade so we parents not in the water could stay cool as well, even though we got splashed plenty of times. The kids has so much fun and were really tired when we got home. We got them in their jammies and put them to bed. Riley's mother came over and sat with them while we went to the movie theater to see "The Proposal". It was my first trip to the movie theater in over three or four months and we loaded up on the pop, popcorn, and candy just to make it worth our while. I was getting some fun baby movements in my tummy for that. The movie was really funny and we had a great time.

Saturday we got packed up to go to Pasco's 4th of July parade. We knew it was going to be another scorcher (100+) so we made sure to bring a cooler full of lots of ice cold bottled waters. Usually we sit down by Memorial Pool, but this year some friends convinced us to sit where they do by the Hospital which is the very beginning of the parade. It worked out well. It was far less crowded and we got out of there in great time - not to mention the kids got more candy than they usually do. (Thanks Howard's) Morgan got into the whole grabbing for candy routine this year and enjoyed contributing to Kendle's bag they were sharing. He also loved all of the big tractors in the parade. Good thing we brought all of those waters with us, because we drank almost every last one. We started heading for the car around 10:55 or so and it was already 90 degrees or higher. Here are some pictures from that morning:

That afternoon Morgan played in the kiddie pool for a while, Kendle said she was tired of the heat and didn't want to go outside. I couldn't blame her. I was tempted to sit in the pool with Morgan. Later that evening we had my parents and Riley's mom over for dinner. Riley got his grill fixed and he had been slow cooking some ribs for most of the day, we also grilled some salmon that was delicious. For dessert Riley requested I make these apple dumplings, so after dinner and resting from our full tummy's for a while I dished out some dumplings with vanilla icecream and we all oohed and ahhed over how full we were once again. After that we cleaned up the kitchen a bit, got some chairs and blankets and then headed to the front yard to get ready for the fireworks. We had some little snaps and sparklers that my mom brought for the kids, so we entertained them with those for a little while. Kendle kept asking me what time it was, and about the 12th time the fireworks finally began. I have to say, that I never get tired of the 4th of July and all of the celebrations and fireworks shows. I turn into a kid again while I'm watching all of the pretty explosions in the sky. Morgan thought they were pretty cool as well. Last year he was so tired he fell asleep half-way through and missed most of the good ones.

About the time the fireworks were ending Kendle started to get really cranky. We chalked it up to the fact that we had two super fun busy days in a row and she was just tired. Everyone helped pack things up from the yard and we got the kids to bed. After my parents left Kendle started crying and complaining that her ear hurt and she didn't feel good. She has this really dramatic cry that she does that is really hard to listen too, so we couldn't really tell if she was just trying to get some attention or if there was really something wrong. We all had been sick and feeling pretty bad for most of the week, and I thought she had shaken most of the yucky cold off so I was puzzled as to what was going on. We gave her some childrens Tylenol and said good night. In the middle of the night she kept waking up and yelling for us and kept crying really bad so we knew there was really something wrong. We were up every few hours with her and just trying to make it until morning when we could take her to the urgent care clinic. She was screaming that her ear hurt really bad and I knew she had an ear infection. Riley took her in around 8:30 Sunday morning and sure enough she had an ear infection, a 102 fever, and junk in her lungs. When Riley brought her home and we tried to give her the medicine for her ear she threw it up. Things were not looking very promising , but eventually we got her to eat a little toast and got some more medicine in her and she slept most of the day on the couch. She was a pretty miserable little thing, I felt so bad. She was also dissapointed because she was supposed to start swim lessons this morning. Luckily today is windy and cold so it wouldn't have been much fun anyways.

That was our weekend in a nutshell - I can't believe next year for the 4th of July we will have two more little ones in tow!

Sick in July

Our whole family is sick, sick, sick. We are all coughing, hacking, sneezing, using large amounts of kleenex and basically just plain miserable. Morgan seems to be the only one starting to feel a bit better and I think he was the one who passed it on to the rest of us. Last night as I was trying to sleep, I had to breathe through my mouth and would wake myself up about every five minutes because I was snoring and trying to breathe through my nose. This must be a pretty strong cold though because usually our whole family never gets sick at the same time, especially Riley. He manages to avoid most things me and the kids get. I have been getting a pretty good dose of sleep deprivation these last few months - I don't even remember what it feels like to sleep through the night. Not being able to breathe on top of having to get up and go to the bathroom 5 times a night is just fabulous. By the time these babies get here I'll be used to getting by on a few hours of sleep. I'm hoping we can all get better by Saturday to enjoy the 4th!

Summer Craft

While being stuck home with sick kids yesterday and not feeling too hot myself, I decided to get this project done that I've been wanting to do for a while. I've seen this idea floating around different blogs and have been waiting for some spare time to sit down and do it. Here's the finished product:

It was super duper easy. I just bought the picture frames at the dollar store in varying sizes, printed out the letters in different fonts from the computer, cut out the letters and glued them on some scrap booking paper I had, and then put them in the frames. All in all it took under an hour (if I don't count all the times I had to get up and see what my super busy 2 year old was up to) and was cheap, cheap, cheap. If you already had some little frames it would cost even less. The other nice thing is that you can change out the letters and the papers for the different seasons. I put this on top of my piano (hence the glare) and it really brightens up the room. It's funny how one little thing can cheer you up every time you walk past it.