Visit with Family

We had a great visit in Central Oregon last week. We were able to visit my family and Lance's families. Here is a picture of all the Simonds' boys.

We were able to go to lunch with the House of Klaus and had a great time! Here is Boaz being a goof ball and entertaining Scarlet. But I think that she is more like wondering what he is doing.

Jacoby is now armed and dangerous. He of course thought that he was sooooo cool to have matching camo and a BB Gun to go hunting with. No little birdie is safe now! But if he is anything like his uncle Brian he will cry if he actually shoots a bird!

Xander is a year old now, and he is crawling all over the place. He isnt ready to walk yet, but before we know it he will be running!

We were also able to visit my grand parents. They have the boys trained to know exactly where their stash of happy meal toys are so they can take one home with them.

I have made a new photo album labled "Christmas" you can click on it and see all of the pictures. There are also pictures of the snowy trip over and of the Christmas play at church this last Sunday. Jacoby was a shepherd and Boaz was a lamb. They were way too cute!

Lance in the snow

POLAR PLUNGE!!!

Can you take the pain?

Jacoby took the pain, but Boaz kind of chickened out....

Taffy

What do you do when it is cold and snowy outside? Well, in our house we tried to make salt water taffy! I stress the word tried.

It mostly turned out to be hard candy. It tastes exactly like Werthers Candies. They are very delicious, but nothing like taffy!

Winter Wonderland!

We are covered in snow here. It was above freezing all day yesterday and the roads were getting pretty clear and just a little slushy. But we got majorly dumped on last night and we are covered again.

There were tracks all over this back yard yesterday and we could see a lot of grass through the snow. Schools have officially been canceled the whole week here!

WATCH OUT FOR BOAZ HE HAS THE CAMERA!

Mommy and Daddy had the cutting tourch out and Boaz wanted to capture every minunte of the action.

Isn't that a devious look behind those safety goggles?

BOAZ Put down that camera! That is not a good angle of me!

Snow in the Valley!

When we moved to Yamhill, we warned the boys that we would not be getting any snow here so they shouldnt get their hopes up to play in the snow. So now, two winters in a row we have had enough snow to sled in and make snowmen! They of course now think that this is normal.

When it started snowing the other day, Boaz threw his hands up in the air and said, "Yes, this is my first time ever of seeing snow in the middle of summer!"

We made a sleding hill on our drive way with a jump at the bottom. The boys had great fun. Then we had to upgrade to a much bigger hill! This is Boaz and a neighbor girl going down the big hill.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at home with just the four of us! It was a great time. We played games and watched movies and Lance smoked the turkey all day long. (Heidi we took a family picture so you can superimpose us in with the family portraits that you took :-)

Here is Boaz drawing a turkey.

Jacoby is buttering our bread cornucopia, it was beautiful and delicious.

They boys bought a gingerbread house to decorate. They love building things, and what better than to build with than cookies, frosting and candy! We all worked together to build it, and then after dinner the boys started eating it! After picking all of the candy off and eating it, Boaz opened his mouth wide and bit a hunk out of the roof. Then Lance karate chopped it and broke the cookies up so they could eat the cookies. I was able to sneak it away from them before they ate the whole thing! They still dont realize that it dissapeared.

Trip to California

Lance had a preaching trip to California two weeks ago, so the whole family got to go with him. Thankfully our trip to California was much warmer than our trip to the Oregon Coast (See posting below). The whole time we were there it was in the mid to upper 70's! Here we are in Antioch California near the river. They have over 360 miles of riverways in this area so we go to take the boys to see the water.









There was a public fishing peer that we went out on and some people had just caught a fish when we got there. The guy let Boaz throw the fish back in the water for him. Boaz is always up for touching something gross and fishy!

The highlight of the trip for the boys was our tour of the Jelly Belly facotry! They thought it was just as good as Disneyland. There was candy everywhere, a free tasting bar, seeing how they make candy, etc. This picture that the boys are standing in front of is fully made of Jelly Bellies! It took about 10,000 to make!

Here is another picture of Ronald Regan. Antie Heidi would have loved it here, there were pictures of Ronald Regan everywhere! I didnt realize it, but Jelly Bellies were not a very big thing until Ronald Regan was elected as president. They were his favorite candy so the Jelly Bellies were discovered by the country and their business skyrocketed since. They have alot of Regan paraphailia since they owe their success to him.

After the tour we got to taste any flavors of Jelly Bellies that we wanted. Jacoby tried "Skunk" and Boaz tried "Ear Wax". The lady that led our tour said that she doesnt recommend trying the the skunk flavor because it sticks with you for a while, but Jacoby wanted to try it and then he just said "It tastes like coffee". Boaz really didnt even react to the ear wax, he just ate it and asked for more flavors.

Burr!

You make a trip all the way to the Oregon Coast, you have to expect to be wet and cold this time of year! We just didnt expect to be this wet and cold. But we had to go to the beach anyways since we drove all that way.

This next picture is kind of hard to see, but if you look behind the kids in the water there are two seals out playing in the water. They are the black dots toward the left center of the picture. I think that they had to come in for a closer look at the crazy people who were down on the beach in such a storm!

Lance goes to Newport every monday for seminary classes so we decided to tag along last month since the Barkers were over in Waldport visiting the Smith's. Here is a picture of Abby and Elizabeth Barker with Brea Smith and Jacoby. You can tell that Brea lives in Waldport, she came to the beach with flip flops! She's used to it!

Harvest Party

Tonight was our harvest party that our church hosted for our community. It was a great time. We had great games, crafts, pizza and devotional. Here are some pictures of it. Jacoby was a three musketeer, Boaz was a cupuchin monkey and Lance and I were Abraham and Sarah from the Bible. Lance was 100 years old and I was a 90 year old pregnant woman. Everyone thougt that I looked like a pregnant Nun though!

This is Lance with Micahel Barker (The Pirate) and Shannon Monroe (Cave Man).

The Following is a video of Jacoby bobbing for donuts!

Here is a video of Boaz bobbing for donuts, it was a lot harder for him to catch his donut and bite it, especially since Michael Barker was the one holding the string and making the donut bounce all over the place.


This is a video of a more sanitary option than bobbing for apples, there were 4 gummy life savers in the bottom of each pie tin and then the life savers were covered with whipped cream, then everyone had to find the life savers only using their mouths! Very messy!

Alex's Toys

Auntie Heidi went through Alex's toys this week while he was at school and boxed up all of his starwars toys and mailed them to Jacoby and Boaz. Boy were they excited to get their cousin's toys. Especailly since they knew that Alex didnt know about it. Their favorite thing to do is to go over to Auntie Heidi's house when Alex is at school so that they can play with his toys fully un-interrupetd by bigger cousin. I think now that the video is on our blog, Alex isnt going to be too happy about it! But, Alex, you really made the boys happy, without even knowing! Tell your mom thank you for us!

Boys and Their Toys!

Do boys ever really grow up? The boys were sick this last week and we were having a lazy morning of staying in the house, so they boys all decided to get out their toys. Boaz with his Remote Control Car, Jacoby with his Electric Airplane, and Lance with his Remote Control Helecopter.
Here is how I found them all!

Projects

We have been home schooling for over a month now and we have been trying to work on fun projects each week. Grandma Simonds gave us a fun "Concoction book" that the boys like to look though and pick fun things to make. Today the boys wanted to make body paints and paint themselves all up like warriors. It was a neat paint to make because it was made with baby lotion, corn startch and food coloring. They really smell good because of the baby lotion!

I snuck up on Boaz and found him in the bathroom looking at himself in the mirror.

Last week we made a vinegar and baking soda powered rocket car. It was really fun, and it went really good!

Here is a video of it running:

Baptism

We had 3 baptisms today at the river and Jacoby was one of them, it was a wonderful bithday present for me, to have Jacoby baptized by his dad on my birthday!

Here is the video of Jacoby being baptized.

It was a very cold day compared to how the weater has been this last week. It was raining and only about 60 degrees out but it was a wonderful day to have a baptism. Jacoby started shivering the moment that he went into the water, and he was a little scared of the river, but he was very brave. What a blessing for our family and for our church!

Here are a couple of pictures also.

Huddling under a tree for the preaching before the baptisms.

Down the muddy path to the Yamhill River.

Jacoby was in a hurry to get out of the water after it was done!

Grandma Susan and Papa Al J came for the weekend to be with us for Jacoby's baptism!
Jacoby and his proud brother Boaz!

Brayden was baptized also, he came to church camp with us a few weeks ago and he was saved during camp.
Brayden's brother Zach also came to church camp and was saved during the week. Both the brothers were baptized today along with Jacoby.