Shumates

Kelsey the Soccer Player

2010-10-03T17:08:00.000-07:00

Kelsey really wanted to play soccer this year. After asking me a few times, I started to think she was serious. She wasn't old enough when she was five to play on a team because the cut off date is on her birthday, so she played Skyhawks, which is like preschool soccer. Then she hadn't really mentioned it until this year. So I consider this her first year and she is doing great. She pays attention at the practices and does her best. After practice and her games, she goes out in the backyard and practices until we make her come in. This is the teams first year playing with goalies and the coach started her off learning the goalie position. She gives it her all. Here's a few pictures from their last game.

You can't see the ball but she's got it !

This is the coach's son, Austin. He's Kelsey's buddy. He hangs out with her by the goal and gives her tips and moral support.

Here's her out on the field. Look at her go! The coach can't stop talking about how good she is getting.

And one more picture of Kelsey and Austin.

We are so proud of her and how hard she is working at this. Way to go Kelsey!!!!

Back to School 2010

2010-09-10T18:17:00.000-07:00

Here we are on the first day of another great year at McDonald Elementary.

This is Kelsey. She is a third grader who loves school - especially Math. She is very excited to have Mrs. Foster and be in class with one of her best friends.

This is Reagan. She is excited to be a fifth-grader, but already can't wait for middle school next year. She loves learning, so naturally she loves school. She's working on starting a cooking club at school this year, so I'm anxious to see if that works out.

Reagan and Kelsey are both excited that they get to have one of their recesses together. That is a first since they've been in school.

Gwyn doesn't start preschool until next week, but she was going to a friends house so I packed her a lunch. Doesn't she look cute?

Part of me was worried about not having Reagan and Kelsey home to help and play with her, but now I am really looking forward to having her home with me this year. She's my baby so I'm going to enjoy every minute I have with her. Is that wishful thinking?

Here are my 3 girls. I love them so much!!

Last day of school

2010-07-15T07:39:00.001-07:00

Here's a few pictures I took on the last day of school.

(This is typical of Gwyn to join the class on the floor when it's story time.)

After school they got to have a small party. I let them paint rocks with their friends and have a sleep over. I figured they deserved it after getting such remarkable report cards.

Father's Day

2010-06-20T19:38:00.000-07:00

Matt started Father's day snuggling next to a sick Gwyn at 12:30 in the morning. He stayed up with her most of the night.

Then Reagan, Kelsey and I made a special french toast breakfast for him.

I hope this day was as special for Matt as it was for the girls who call him Dad. I couldn't have picked a better person for the job.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

Matt Shumate Photography

2010-06-02T15:04:00.000-07:00

If you are friends with me on facebook, you probably already know about Matt's photography business. But if you don't, let me tell you a little about it.

About a year and a half ago, Matt took it upon himself to learn everything he could about one of his greatest passions: photography. He read, studied, and watched everything he could get his hands on. He got a few jobs here and there from friends, craigslist, anyone who wanted to get their picture taken. Even me. He produced amazing pictures and the jobs kept coming.

Then last summer, someone wanted Matt to photograph her wedding. He wasn't sure, but she talked him into it. After shooting her wedding, Matt realized what he was meant to do. It was like a light went on and everything made sense. His years of dj-ing weddings which makes working weddings so natural for Matt. Matt's photography teacher in college didn't understand why he didn't want to major in photography and do it professionally. Even she saw his potential way back then. His current career as a graphic designer which has allowed him to do his own advertising and web design. Finally, besides his incredible talent, his art degree which has given him the ability to produce creative composition-friendly pictures that are pleasing to the eye in more ways than one. It was amazing to watch this happen in such a short time.

Now he is heading into the 2010 wedding season with back to back wedding from the middle of May until mid-October and he can't wait. He truly loves it and it shows. Matt will tell everyone that he has the best clients, and it's true. They are the nicest people who are just as happy to have Matt photograph them as he is doing it.

Here are just a few of my favorite photos from recent shoots.

Check out the rest at mattshumate.com.

You can follow his blog all the way back to the beginning.

facebook.com/mattshumatephoto

Marini Family Pictures

2010-02-28T12:46:00.000-08:00

This is the first time in 3 years that my side of the family have been together. Chas just got home from his mission and Tim, Rachel and Wyatt came up from Utah for the week. We came over for the weekend to welcome Chas home. Sunday was the only day we were going to all be together, and the only day to get a family picture. It has been 4 years since our last family picture. Anyways, it was showing rain all weekend, so we weren't expecting to find a really great location. Just looking for something with cover that would cover all of us and Matt's lights. But Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day, so while lunch was being made, Matt and I went looking for a good location. We found a great spot that would have a beautiful blue sky backround. The clouds were nice and fluffy white and the sun was shining so Matt wasn't even going to have to set up lights. We did see, however, a black cloud to the left, but it didn't seem to be going anywhere so we just hoped it would slowly go away in another direction. So Matt and I went back to Mom's house and everyone ate lunch, then got ready to go to the location. When we got out of the car, we noticed the dark cloud moving in. It blocked out some sunlight so Matt was going to have to set up his lights. It was also super windy. This was great for Reagan, who just got a kite from Grandma for her birthday. They had a great time flying the kite! The wind kept pulling it higher and higher. This was not great for Matt. His big reflector was acting as a kite/parachute. I couldn't even hold the stand up without feeling like I was going to fly away. So, Matt put the reflector away and just used a hard light. By now the black cloud was directly over us and it was so windy! We quickly got into position, Matt set the camera, jumped in the shot and "click." that was picture # 1.

It started to sprinkle. Matt ran back, set the camera again, ran back to his spot and "click." The cloud instantly opened up and the rain came down like a bucket of water. You can even see the raindrops in the pictures. The moms and kids ran to the car while the guys helped Matt get his lights and gear into the car. Crazy! But we got 2 great pictures out of the deal. What luck!

Here's the cousin picture we took back at Mom's house later on. It's the typical picture when you have a bunch of kids and a baby. But they are all together and that's all that matters.

Our Christmas letter 2009

2009-12-24T20:17:00.000-08:00

Hello friends and family! We have had a great year in 2009. In February, Grandma Marini took us to Disneyland which was the girlsʼ first time going and we all had a blast! Recently weʼve been busy remodeling the inside of our house to put Mattʼs office and photography studio downstairs and move everything else around upstairs.

Reagan turned 9 this year and is in the 4th grade. School work and tests have increased and sheʼs doing exceptionally well with that. Sheʼs still taking piano and is thrilled to be in Marimba Club which starts in January. Reagan is a joker and is constantly making everyone crack up. With all of our remodeling, Reagan moved out of the girlsʼ room and into her own. She is very excited about that. She says, “I havenʼt had my own room since I was two!”

Kelsey is 7 and in the 2nd grade. Her teacher is constantly telling us what a wonderful student she is. She loves reading, writing, and talking (non-stop) and is friends with everyone, which isn't surprising because she excels at treating everyone so nicely. Kelsey will always take time to read Gwyn a story or do whatever Gwyn wants, which is a lot. Itʼs so sweet and very helpful. Kelsey started up piano again this year and gets excited to learn new songs.

Gwyn just turned three and was able to set the binky and bottle free—yay! It wasnʼt too difficult, but sheʼs not as eager to take naps anymore. She moved out of the toddler bed and into the “big girl” bed. She is mommyʼs little helper, especially in the kitchen. Everyday she runs to daddy with open arms, and squeals, “Daddyʼs home!” when he walks through the door. Baby G has numerous people wrapped around her little finger, which allows her to walk around her sistersʼ school like she runs the place. Like her big sisters, she spends a lot of time trying to make everyone around her laugh.

Matt takes the prize for being the busiest this year. His re-found passion for photography has taken what we thought would be a hobby to a full-on photography career. This is because he and his pictures are truly amazing. While working his day job as a graphic designer, Matt works another 30+ hours a week as a photographer, meets weekly with a group of Spokane business leaders, and is active with the Inland Northwest Photographers Assembly. 2 a.m. bedtimes are a pretty regular occurrence for him. At church he serves as the Financial Clerk. All this and he is still able to be a wonderful husband and father by taking time to be with us individually and together as a family. Weʼre sure he gets stressed out with the lack of sleep and his desire to do more, but he doesnʼt show it at all. Check out his work at mattshumate.com. Itʼs incredible. Youʼll see.

Gina keeps busy doing the usual mom stuff. Taking care of the kids, housework, yard work, making dinner, doing laundry, etc. Her part-time job working the graveyard shift takes time away from these errands as she attempts to find sleep sometime during the day. Even with that sheʼs still able to help at the school a couple days a week. Gina also teaches the 7 year old class at church, which is perfect since Kelsey loves having mom as her teacher. Most important to her, however, is being the best wife and mom she can be.

We would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year. We love keeping in touch with all our friends and family. You can find us on Facebook and Matt is pretty active on Twitter (twitter.com/mattshu). Our blog is also updated semi-regularly (in theory) at shucrew.blogspot.com.

Love always,

The Shumates

Gwyn's birthday

2009-12-01T18:56:00.000-08:00

Today our baby turned 3. I just wanted to put up a few pictures and tell about her day. She got to open her presents in the morning from all of us and her Grandmas and Grandpa. She was very excited about that.

Here's a couple of puzzles she got. She's been doing puzzles like crazy lately.

After presents she got her birthday oatmeal, which is oatmeal with sprinkles and whipped cream on top. Yum!

Next we headed over to Jump and Bounce where she got to play with a bunch of friends.

She had a blast although after about an hour she was tired and hungry and just wanted to go home. After lunch she took a good nap.

We had some friends come over after Reagan and Kelsey got home from school sing "happy birthday" to her and have some yummy cake. What a beautiful cake it was. (She picked it out the day before.) I think she had a very happy birthday.

A visit from the other Shumates

2009-07-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

Devin, Dacia, and all their kids came over for 4th of July weekend. On Friday we went to Silverwood. It was a very hot day so we spent all day at Boulder Beach. At about 5:00 pm, we were all starving so we went to this restaurant inside Silverwood. Here's a picture of all the kids while we were waiting for our seats.

After dinner we went on some rides.

Here's the kids mocking the cactus behind them.

The next day we went up to Manitou Park in the South Hill. The kids ran around and Matt took a bunch of pictures.

Here's a couple of all the Shumate cousins together.

We didn't really do much for the 4th of July except just hang out together and let the cousins play all day. It was a fun weekend!

June happenings

2009-07-09T09:45:00.000-07:00

Matt's grandfather, Bob Shumate, died, and we went to Tacoma for the funeral. Here's a few pictures from the cementary.

Here's a picture of his children.

Here's some of his grandsons.

And here's most of the grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Afterwards we went to a river and the girls played for awhile with their aunts and uncles and cousins. It was a nice, hot day.

The next day we went on a ferry with Grandma and Grandpa Shumate. It was the first time that Kelsey and Gwyn had been on one.

We also went to Fort Nisqually at Point Defiance Park and saw what it was like to live in the 1800's.

Also in June, we went to Reagan's piano recital. We were surprised to see so many people there. It's normally just a handful of students and their parents there but this year they combined it with another teacher's students and had it at a different location. This caught Reagan a little off guard but she did great, even though she messed a little more than she would have liked. We were all proud of her.

The girls have been wearing shorts these days, so we get a lot of this happening. This is just one of the many injuries between Reagan, Kelsey, and especially Gwyn. Ouch!

Finally, here's a cute picture of the girls "striking a pose" that Matt took.

May happenings

2009-07-08T13:02:00.001-07:00

May started out with a trip to Tacoma. Matt got to hang out with the fellas he grew up with. It's been a loooooooong time since they've all gotten together. They stayed in a condo by the ocean for a couple of days. If you want more details, you'll have to ask Matt. All I get is "what happens in Westport, stays in Westport." Just kidding. I was so glad that Matt got to take a couple of days off and hang out with the guys. He doesn't do that very often.

Here's a cute picture of Kelsey and Aunt Jaqui that was taken that weekend. I love this picture!

On the way to Tacoma, Matt stopped at Vantage, which is the half way mark and it where we cross the Columbia River. Here's a picture he took.

On the way home, we also stopped in Vantage, but this is on the other side of the freeway. It was soooooooo windy. You could barely keep your eyes open!

We made it back just in time for Kelsey's First Grade music program which was the next day. It was called E-I-E-I-uh-oh. Kelsey was a chick with her good friends Chloe, Ashley, and Sarah. Their costumes were pretty much thrown together, whatever we could find that would resemble a chick. It was a cute program and most importantly, Kelsey had fun.

Later in May, the girls got to be part of a children's music video for Jenks. They got to dance around and move around like different animals. We are friends with Corey Jenkins, who writes songs for kids. We have one of their CD's that the girls like a lot. You can watch the video Here. Reagan is wearing a greenish and brown shirt, Kelsey is wearing a pink shirt, and Gwyn is wearing a green shirt as shown in this picture. Watch for them in the video!

Lastly, and very sadly, we said good-bye to our good friends, the Buers. They are our friends that we spent Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve with last year. I will miss my good friend, Wendy and our kids will miss their kids. Here's Kelsey with her other BFF Hannah.

And here's Gwyn with her bud Landon. She loved playing with him.

April happenings

2009-07-08T12:21:00.000-07:00

I already posted about Easter, but here are a few other things that happened in April:

First, we were surprised to find out that Kelsey's BFF Hika was visiting from Tonga. She moved to Tonga over 2 years ago. Here's a picture of them together a couple of months before she left when they were 4 years old.

She wasn't supposed to be back until the end of the year but her mom came back to have a baby and Hika got to come visit us a few times. Here is a picture the first night she came over. They played really good together and kept playing even though it got dark outside. Hika is now back in Tonga with her family until the end of the year.

These pictures were taken one nice Sunday afternoon. We went down to the river and took a

walk. After the long winter we had, it was nice to get out and be outside together.

Also, in April, we got a visit from my mom. The girls love their Grandma so much and had a wonderful visit with her.

Lastly, here's a picture of Gwyn playing with one of her buds, Finn. He's a cute kid she calls her friend. I just like saying "Gwyn and Finn."

March - Reagan's school music program

2009-07-08T12:07:00.000-07:00

In March, we went to the 2nd Grade music program. The theme was "green." No, it was not about being "environmentally friendly." They sang a lot of cute songs about things that are green. Reagan loves to perform. She gets nervous, but it's excited nervous. Although she is normally a little shy, she is very brave when it comes to getting up in front of a lot of people and gives each performance 100%.

She got to do a dance with scarves with a few other people. She did awesome!

More of Matt's Photography

2009-04-22T21:32:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to post pictures from every photoshoot that Matt has, that's what his websites (portfolio website and blog) but I thought I'd post some from this one simply because many of you might know the model.

His model for this shoot was Lani Call and I think these photos look like they came straight out of a fashion magazine. Take a look at these and head over to matt's blog to see the rest of the photos and read about the shoot. You should bookmark his site too. He's got some cool stuff coming up.

Matt's booking dates for the near future for kids, families, seniors, glamour shots (minus the collar grab, unnaturally big hair, and trip to the mall), weddings, etc.

Like he says, he shoots people.

Easter

2009-04-15T17:27:00.000-07:00

This was our Easter weekend:

Friday it occurred to me that I hadn't yet put out the Easter decorations so the girls helped me decorate the house. Saturday evening we dyed Easter eggs. We pulled that off without making too much of a mess.

Sunday: Easter morning. At our house, the Easter Bunny hides the Easter baskets and leaves clues for the girls to find them. Kelsey found the first clue that was left by the cereal boxes. Kelsey and Reagan then followed the clues and found their baskets. They got a bunch of Easter goodies including a Hannah Montana puzzles and game book for Kelsey, the latest Magic Tree house book for Reagan, and a toy Mickey Mouse camera for Gwyn. After the girls took their showers and got dressed, they searched the house for eggs. Gwyn had been practicing the day before so she knew exactly what to do.

There's always a couple eggs that have money in them. In this picture, Kelsey and Reagan just spotted these eggs. Woo hoo!

Gwyn just couldn't get enough of the jelly beans that were inside the eggs. We finally had to take them away and this is what happened:

Here's a picture of the girls after the hunt was over. This was obviously before I did their hair. After curling all their hair with my new flat iron, which I am having way to much fun with by the way, we rushed off to church before taking any pictures. What a bummer! I even curled Gwyns hair.

After church we had a delicious ham dinner. This is the first time I have ever made a ham. I don't really care for ham but I didn't want to have just the same old thing for dinner since it was Easter. It turned out really good. Then I made some sugar cookies in the shape of Easter eggs for the girls to decorate. I usually just let the girls decorate cookies once a year for Halloween or Christmas but I thought they would love doing it this year for Easter too. Matt thought I was crazy for letting them decorate the cookies because of all the work and the mess but I kept it simple. I made the dough the day before and just had 3 colors of frosting and some sprinkles. That made the preparation and clean up much easier. Gwyn even decorated a couple of eggs. Afterwards, Reagan and Kelsey could not stop telling me thank you for letting them do this.

So, over all, we had a pretty good Easter.

Recent Photoshoots

2009-04-05T23:23:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos from a couple of Matt's recent photoshoots. Click here to see more photos and read a bit about the sessions.

Happy Birthday to me!

2009-03-30T14:17:00.001-07:00

I celebrated my birthday this year by getting my hair done. Matt set up the appointment for me. I did the whole foil, cut, style, and make-up. I thought it would be fun to have curly hair for the day. After getting all made up, Matt and I picked out some fun clothes for taking pictures in. Did I mention that Matt arranged babysitting for the girls and took the day off work so we could do this? Matt took about 400 pictures of me. It was fun spending the day with him. Here's a few of them. You can see more pictures on Matt's blog. Here's the link. http://blog.mattshumate.com/?p=78

Not bad, for a 35 year old, huh? (Just think, if he can make me look this good, what could he do for you?). After taking pictures, we picked up the girls and brought home take out from Applebees, followed by my traditional birthday ice cream cake. Matt definately makes birthdays worth looking forward to.

Matt's photography and new websites.

2009-03-16T22:21:00.000-07:00

Matt's been busy. For the past few months he's been obsessed (in a good way) with his photography. Over that time he's probably spent hundreds of hours learning anything he could to get better (I always thought he was pretty good already) and it's paid off.

He's been shooting for a few clients and those have turned into potential future clients but he needed a way to show potential clients his photography as well as put forth a professional brand. He also needed to show he's a serious photographer and not just another guy with a nice camera.

After quite a bit of work he's finally launched mattshumate.com. This is a splash page that links to his specific websites. It has the bonus of being an easy website to remember ("Hey what's matt shumate's web address? That's easy, mattshumate.com." "What about his email address? That's easy too. It's matt@mattshumate.com").

He's also launched a blog that he'll update with what he's taking pictures of, things he's designing, info about specific shoots, and other stuff too. He has as few posts up now explaining what he's been up to for the past few months and why. He's not really happy with just using a template for it, but the important thing was it had to get done fast. It's an easy website to remember too. It's blog.mattshumate.com. Remember to add it to your favorites or sign up for notifications.

Most importantly he's designed, built, and launched his photography website, photo.mattshumate.com (see, I told you he's been busy). This is a portfolio of his photography work for clients. He says it's a little thin so far, but I don't know what he expects for only a few months of serious photography.

Jump over and take a look at his work.

This is where you come in. Right now Matt wants to really make his portfolio shine so he needs models that would be willing to get their pictures taken. He says what he needs most is families, young couples, and teenagers for outside photo shoots. If you'd like some high quality, extremely creative photography in your life, taken for free, send matt an email, send him a message on his contact page, or leave a reply here. He says he'll do this until he gets his portfolio as full as he'd like to have it or he runs out of time. Also, feel free to pass this on to others you know that might fit the bill and need some great photos.

He'd love to know what you think of his new venture.

Disneyland!

2009-03-02T12:06:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago, my mom said she wanted to go to Disneyland for her birthday and she wanted to fly us out there. We didn't want to miss out on this opportunity so we accepted. Our kids have never been before so we surprised them with the news on Reagan's birthday. They were very excited! So, after what seemed like a long day of traveling, we made it to our room just in time for bed. But first we chatted with my brother Tim, his wife Rachel, and my nephew Wyatt, who was already there. The kids played around until we realized it was so late and went to bed. Tim and his family live in Utah so we don't get to see them very much but it's amazing how the cousins instantly get along. Family is good for that, I guess. We spent the first day at Disneyland. The second day we started out at Disney, then went over to California Adventure, then back to Disneyland in the evening. We didn't get back to our room until after midnight on both nights. Our feet were soar and we were tired, but it was fun! Here's all of us on the train. Tim took these pictures so he's not in them.

This is our Splash Mountain picture. I was screaming because that drop was steep! Tim and Wyatt are also on this ride but apparently Matt didn't want them in the picture. They are right behind him.
Here's just some random pictures:

My mom with Reagan and Wyatt
Thunder Mountain
Toon Town
We got to see Mickey at Mickey's house. We didn't even know he was there. Minnie was standing in front of her house and the line was huge to get to see her. We went to Mickey's house and at the end there were some people waiting in a line. We asked what the line was for and they said to see Mickey. We waited about 5 minutes and it was our turn. Gwyn was excited to see "Icky House."

Here's the 3 amigos. It was a lot of fun going to Disneyland with my mom and my brother and his family. We spent the whole time with my brother's family except a couple of hours on the last day. It made it easier to be at two places at once like someone would run to get fast passes and someone would stand in the food line or save a table or take the kids on another ride, etc, etc. It was also great to have more people watch Gwyn while some of us were in lines and stuff. Rachel, Tim, and Wyatt were very generous in letting us get the front row of every ride, since they had been before, and this was our first time. Thanks guys! You are so nice!
Reagan and Kelsey got an art lesson from Brian. He only gives out free lessons to a couple of people each day. They were really excited about that but I think Matt was jealous that he didn't get one. He was fascinated by it. That has something to do with him being an artist.
Matt was taking a lot of these close up shots. They are cute, but I had to tell him to take some pictures with the background in them so we can tell where they are.

We made it home Monday evening and were completely exhausted! Gwyn even took a four hour nap the next day! I'm so glad we went and go to spend time with our family. Thanks Mom!

Gwyn update

2009-02-19T11:46:00.001-08:00

When Gwyn was a baby, the first thing people would notice was her eyes.

Gwyn turned 2 in December and refuses to stay a baby. I had to take her high chair downstairs in the beginning of January because she would not sit in it. She insisted on sitting in the big chairs. Then she insisted on getting potty trained. She started this shortly after Christmas and it was the easiest potty training I've ever done. The hardest part was when she would wipe and flush at least 3 times everytime she went to the bathroom. Sometimes she would go every 5 minutes. We went through a lot of toilet paper. She's been completely diaper free for over a month, except at night. I bought a big pack of diapers at the end of December so we've been using those at night.

Finally, a couple of weeks ago I took down her crib. Here's a few pictures of her in her new bed. She loves it and does great at not getting out of it at bed time.

I love the way she talks now. It's so nice being able to understand what she says. One of the things I like the most is when I ask her something and she'll say, "No! I already did it." It's really cute, she says it so seriously. I just can't believe that that's my baby saying those things! The other day she kept saying "icky house" over and over. I had no idea what she meant. Then she handed me the remote control and I said, "Mickey Mouse?" and she said, "yes!" I didn't even know she knew who Mickey Mouse was. Matt had been showing her some Mickey Mouse on demand stuff to get her ready for Disneyland. I had no idea!

Updates

2009-02-19T11:34:00.000-08:00

I just realized that I never put the results of Kelsey's last blood test. Her platelet levels were at 211,000 which is totally in the normal range. So this ordeal is over. It's a one time thing, like chicken pox, and should not happen again. Yeah!

Also, I have joined the millions of people on facebook and I'm having a lot of fun catching up with old friends, and even new friends that I don't get to see very often. So, if I'm not already your facebook friend, look me up. I will get Matt to join soon, but he doesn't have the time right now.

Reagan's birthday party

2009-02-16T16:50:00.000-08:00

This year I decided to do a traditional birthday party for Reagan. We had games, pizza and cake. There were 12 girls and Reagan had a lot of fun.

The party ended with a big birthday surprise. We gathered clues from balloons and the girls read the surprise out loud to Reagan and Kelsey. They found out that they were going somewhere on a plane. To find out where we were going, they had to call their Grandma Marini because she was the one who came up with the idea and she would be going with us. Kelsey is listening in on the conversation.

Finally, the big surprise was revealed! We are going to Disneyland! They were very excited. This will be their first time going there. We can't wait!

Reagan Marley

2009-02-16T09:42:00.000-08:00

Reagan just turned nine. We love having Reagan in our family. She is a great big sister. She helps Kelsey and Gwyn do things all the time and she's the one that will give up something to keep the peace. She loves to read. She'll read anything from science and fact books to Captain Underpants books. She likes to make her own books too. She's also interested in cooking and sewing and does it as often as I let her and she is still taking piano lessons. She just enjoys learning. Here's a few pictures of her throughout the years:

3 years old

5 years old

6 years old

almost 7

7 years old

8 years old

almost 9 years old

Meet Kelsey: age 6

2009-02-16T09:29:00.000-08:00

This is our Kelsey Love. She is so sweet, helpful, obedient...

But when she gets mad...

she's got a look that could kill!

(She will probably want to kill me for posting this.)

Happy Anniversary?

2009-01-19T11:30:00.001-08:00

Well, Matt and I celebrated our 11th year anniversary but it wasn't much of a celebration. I spent the whole day puking or sleeping. Being sick is so not fun, especially when you wanted to go out and celebrate. I wanted to post some wonderful things about my husband, but for now I'll just let you watch this video that Matt made for me a few years ago. If you haven't seen it before, or even if you have, you should take a minute to watch it. It's sooooooo romantic! Just click here.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

2009-01-15T15:56:00.000-08:00

This was the 1st year we stayed in Spokane for Christmas since we moved here. Since we couldn't be with all of our family, we wanted to make it fun and memorable and maybe start some new traditions. We decided to get together with the Buers on Christmas Eve and have a fondue party. It was fun and plenty of food for everyone. We made a cheese sauce and a chocolate sauce.

Afterwards the Buers joined us in a little Christmas program. Reagan played us a couple of Christmas songs on the piano, Kelsey sang Jingle Bells, and Matt sang and played his guitar. Then we all sang some songs together.

After the Buers left, the girls got to open up their traditional one present before getting ready for bed. Brand new pajamas! Reagan and Kelsey also got new robes this year. Gwyn loved her Yo Gabba Gabba pj's, Kelsey loved her Hannah Montana pj's and Reagan loved her pj's as well.

Here's some pictures of Christmas morning. It's always just as fun for the parents as is for the kids.

And here's some pictures of the kids playing with some of their new presents. Even Maya was playing with her new toy. It was a pretty relaxing day after that.

Snow fun

2009-01-15T15:53:00.001-08:00

Here's a few pictures of all the girls playing in the snow.

Family Pictures

2008-12-24T13:48:00.000-08:00

Matt took our family pictures this fall. Check it out!

"Mt. Rainier called...

2008-12-18T20:32:00.000-08:00

...and said it wanted it's snow back!"

That was Matt's joke first thing this morning.

This is what it looked like out our backdoor:

It started snowing yesterday morning about 6 a.m. and didn't stop until this evening. Spokane hit a record of 19" during the first 24 hours. This afternoon Reagan and Kelsey played in the snow that measured 26" for about 2 hours.

Maya likes playing in the snow too. She was playing in the footprints that Reagan and Kelsey left behind. She would probably get lost if she wasn't in their trail.

Matt was dying to take a flying leap into the snow.

This is what Matt said about global warming:

"Yeah the polar bears are moving south... they're coming to Spokane!"

and

"Let's go to the park to feed the birds... they're penguins!"

He tells these jokes to get a big laugh out of Reagan. She's thinks he's just hilarious.

Luckily Gwyn was taking her nap. The snow would have gone over her head! She does like playing in the snow though. This is about 24 hours earlier. I let her play outside for 15 minutes or so yesterday. What a difference 24 hours of continuous snow can make!

Christmas Cookie decorating

2008-12-18T20:05:00.000-08:00

Every year I make holiday cookies for the girls to decorate. The last couple of years I've done Halloween cookies and this year I did Christmas cookies. I let them invite a couple of friends over to help them. They like decorating them almost as much as they like eating them.

Does anyone have a good sugar cookie recipe? Matt likes them to be soft and chewy and for some reason the ones I make are always crunchy, even if I take them out a little early.

Kelsey update

2008-12-18T13:21:00.001-08:00

Kelsey got her blood checked again and her platelets went up 40,000 in 2 weeks! It's now up to 53,000! Yay!!! I'm so glad to know it's going up on it's own and that she's out of the "danger zone." Only 100,000 or more to go.

What do you think?

2008-12-18T13:17:00.001-08:00

A friend of mine says that Matt reminds her of The Edge from U2. Matt says it must be his awesome guitar skills that makes the resemblance. Here's a picture to compare. (I'm sure I could've found a better picture but I didn't want to spend all day looking). What do you think?

Christmas Tree

2008-12-15T15:19:00.000-08:00

Here's a few pictures of us decorating the Christmas tree.

Gwyn found the stockings. What else do you do with stockings? Put them on, of course.

Kelsey got to put the angel on this year.

The best thing I like about having a Christmas tree is waking up in the morning with the Christmas lights on.

Gwyn's 2nd Birthday!

2008-12-08T11:25:00.000-08:00

Gwyn turned 2 last week. She had a "Yo Gabba Gabba" birthday. This is Yo Gabba Gabba. It's a kids show on Nick Jr. Most people I ask have never heard of it.

Gwyn is obsessed with Yo Gabba Gabba. Gwyn got lots of Yo Gabba Gabba toys and Foofa (the pink one) and Brobee (the green one) cupcakes. I thought they turned out pretty good. Gwyn knew who they were anyways.

Grandma Marini was here and we also had a few friends over to help us celebrate. Here's a few pictures of Gwyn with her presents and eating her birthday cupcake. You can tell how excited she is. I just can't believe she 2.

Kelsey update

2008-12-05T10:30:00.000-08:00

Here's an update on how Kelsey is doing. We checked her blood yesterday and it went up a whopping 1,000. What? It went from 12,000 to 13,000 in 10 days. The ultimate goal here is 150,000, so it's not moving up as quickly as we would like. However, it's not going down, so that's a good thing. Thanks for all your prayers and comments. I read them to Kelsey and she got all teary eyed. I would start reading one and she would say, "Oh no... tears." Then I would read another one and she'd say, "Oh no... tears again." It was cute.

To answer some of your questions, it hasn't been too scary of an experience so far. Kelsey feels and acts fine and her bruises don't hurt any worse than a regular bruise. Her platelets are supposed to come back on their own and she'll be back to normal. I am a little worried now that they are not coming back as fast. I'm afraid that they might have went up more and now they're coming down again. But we'll know more in a couple of weeks when we check her blood again. So thanks for all your prayers. We want her to get better soon!

First snow of the season

2008-12-03T11:40:00.000-08:00

It snowed a little on Thanksgiving Day and quite a bit the next day. I just happened to pick up a couple of snow suits for Reagan and Kelsey at Fred Meyer during their black friday sale. The snow suits they wore last year were so small that they were giving them wedgies so I knew they would be needing them. I didn't think they would need it that day! Anyways, Grandma went out and played with them. Reagan and Kelsey have this thing with their Grandma about snow. They all love snow so much that they always call each other every time it snows. They played for about an hour and a half and made a snowman and a huge snowball. It was perfect snow for that.

Gwyn wouldn't put on her snowsuit. I don't really blame her... it's so bulky. So she ran around for awhile. It was fun to watch. This year has been fun with Gwyn because it's like she's experiencing all the holidays and seasonal stuff for the first time. Even though she was around last year, she doesn't really remember stuff like Halloween, her birthday, snow, and Christmas. It's been fun experiencing these things again through the eyes of a 2 year old.

The snow was gone by the next day. I hope it takes it's time coming back.

Thanksgiving Day

2008-12-03T11:05:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to do a quick post about Thanksgiving Day. This year we stayed home so we invited our friends, the Buers, and my mom came over from Bonney Lake. The Buers brought food and my mom helped with the food I made so we had quite a feast.

Here's Reagan, Kelsey and Hannah at the big kid table, which was really the kitchen counter.

Next are Landon, Dade and Gwyn at the little kid table.

Wendy and Jason... What a cute couple.

And Grandma.

Here's me and Matt relaxing afterwards.

Over all it was an enjoyable day of good food, family and friends.

Kelsey's trip to the hospital

2008-12-01T20:14:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago I noticed some red spots all over Kelsey's legs. It didn't look like a rash but looked like broken blood vessels. She also had quite a few bruises on her knees and legs and one that was very large and swollen. I kept an eye on it and by the 2nd day I noticed it was not going away, but was getting worse. She now had broken blood vessels on her face and neck.

I took her to the doctors and they checked her blood. It turns out that she has ITP. Her platelet levels in her blood were extremely low. They were at 8,000 and normal is 150,000 - 450,000. Her other cells are normal which means that her blood is otherwise fine. The only danger to her would be if she was to start bleeding, for whatever reason, her blood would not clot like it's supposed to. Otherwise she feels and acts fine. The doctor gave us instructions to take Kelsey to Sacred Heart Children's Hospital for more testing. He said they would most likely want her to stay the night for observation. We went home to pack her a bag when the doctor called and said we didn't need to take her that night, but to come back in 2 days to recheck her blood.

During the next 2 days you couldn't even look at Kelsey without her getting a bruise. Here's a picture of one of them. You can't even see how swollen and puffy it is. She had about 4 more bruises like this on her legs.

We went back to check her blood and it had dropped down to 5,000. The doctor said it should go up on it's own and to come back in 10 days to recheck it. The next day Kelsey woke up feeling sick and she had a fever of 101. It was a Saturday so I called the doctor and he said to take her to Sacred Heart to check her out. The fever was not a concern, but she had coughed a lot the night before so they wanted to check her lungs for any internal bleeding that might have occurred since any bleeding is dangerous. I didn't really think she had blood in her lungs but I'm not a doctor and I was really worried about her platelet levels being so low so I took her in.

Reagan wanted to come to be there for Kelsey in case she got scared or anything. Reagan had been to the hospital about a year ago when she broke her foot so she knew how Kelsey was feeling. How sweet. She made sure that Kelsey had her stuffed animals by her side and when they wheeled the bed out to get the X-ray, Reagan held her hand and walked with her.

Reagan and Kelsey always grab each other's hands when they are nervous about something. I've caught a few of these moments on camera. This first picture is from a year ago at Silverwood when they were about to go on a ride together, without Mom or Dad. The second picture is when Kelsey just turned 2 and Reagan was 4. They got to sleep on the floor together and Reagan held Kelsey's hand so she wouldn't be scared. They fell asleep like that.

Anyways, Kelsey turned out to be fine and her platelet levels were up to 12,000. If her platelets had gone down any further they would have given her a platelet transfusion. So, even though 12,000 is still a really low number, it's getting better. Kelsey's bruises are finally starting to heal and she's only gotten one new bruise this week. Kelsey goes back in a couple days to check her blood again so we'll let you know how it is.

Diapers

2008-11-21T16:16:00.000-08:00

For anyone who might be interested... I just ordered diapers online at diapers.com. They deliver right to your door and shipping was free! I'm so excited to not have to make a special trip to the store to get diapers. Right now you can get $10 off your first order if you enter GINA1706 at check out.

Halloween

2008-11-02T15:44:00.000-08:00

Halloween was a busy day, as usual. After the school Halloween parties, we went went to Matt's work for some trick or treating. Reagan and Kelsey were spies. They love being sneaky. Gwyn was a kitty. Adorable, just like her.

The kids get to go around to all the offices and trick or treat for candy.

When it got dark we went to some houses on or street. Reagan and Kelsey took Gwyn up to every door. They are such good big sisters. Gwyn was probably wondering why people were giving her candy all day long, not that she minded. She just had this look on her face like this was the best day of her whole life. She even said thank you each time. What a sweety. We went up to one house and nobody was home so I told Reagan and Kelsey to go on to the next house. Gwyn wouldn't leave the door step. She didn't understand why they had to leave because they didn't get their candy yet. We got back just in time to take Reagan to the football game. (See the post about Reagan's cheer camp.)

Kelsey looses a tooth

2008-11-02T15:29:00.000-08:00

Kelsey has been anxiously waiting for a visit from the tooth fairy. She finally got a loose tooth about a week or so ago. She really needed to get it out because her new tooth was already growing in behind it. I decided the other night that it needed to come out. I tried wrapping floss around it so I could pull it out but I couldn't get it to do it. Kelsey was a good sport.

I finally gave up and told her to go to bed and keep wiggling it until it falls out. About 1/2 hour later she came out of her room with her tooth in her hand and a very bloody mouth.

Reagan had to see what was going on. She got out of bed to congratulate her sister.

Kelsey went back to bed and fell asleep just in time for the tooth fairy to come.

Reagan's cheer camp

2008-11-02T15:19:00.000-08:00

Reagan got to go to cheer camp last weekend. It was 3 hours long and they learned a dance, a few cheers, and got to practice some stunts.

All the kids at cheer camp got to perform their dance they learned at the high school football game during half time. Reagan was so excited about doing this. Here's a picture of Kelsey and Gwyn playing while Reagan was practicing their dance with the other cheerleaders.

Here's Reagan doing her dance. There was only 2 other girls in her age group that showed up. She did so good and she said it was really fun.

Pumpkin carving night

2008-11-02T14:54:00.000-08:00

We went to the October Family Fun Night at school which is a family pumpkin carving night. Before we went we had to get our pumpkins ready. Here are the kids hollowing out their pumpkins. Gwyn was not afraid to join in. Next year I probably won't put Gwyn on the counter next to the bowl with the pumpkin insides in it. As you would expect, Gwyn, accidently of course, kick the bowl off the counter, seeds went flying everywhere and pumpkin guts were all on the floor.

Reagan and Kelsey made faces on their pumpkins. This year they did it all by themselves.

What cool pumpkins!

Our trip to the Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-27T19:49:00.000-07:00

I think just about everyone went to the pumpkin patch this year and posted pictures on their blog. We also went this year. This is our first year going to one in Spokane. We went to Seimers Farm at Green Bluff. The kids had a friday off school and Devin, Dacia, Tanner, Anson, and Ella were here from Tacoma as well and Grandma and Grandpa Shumate. It was one of the coldest days of this fall so we bundled up in coats and hats and gloves.

First the kids played on the hay bales.

Then there was this boat that was fun to play on.

Next we went headed to the castle which was in the middle of a huge corn maze.

We found a gorilla cage and the kids had to check it out.

Are we there yet?

Here we are at the top of the castle.

We each got to take home a pumpkin. I had to include a picture with pumpkins since it was a pumpkin patch, after all. We also rode a tractor train, but I didn't get any pictures of that.

Here's Gwyn and Ella.

Afterwards we went out to dinner. Here's Kelsey and Tanner. They've been best buds their whole life.

Close your eyes!

2008-10-26T16:58:00.000-07:00

Gwyn doesn't know how to close her eyes on purpose, so when you tell her to close her eyes, she scrunches up her whole face. This makes for some great entertainment. She'll do it over and over again. It's pretty funny.

Conference Sunday

2008-10-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we were able to watch General Conference on TV. Matt's brother, Devin, and his family were here from Tacoma and they were able to watch the first session on Sunday with us. Did I mention this is the first time they have come to our house since we moved to Spokane? The kids played conference bingo and other quiet activities.

Then we let the kids get some fresh air since Devin and his family were going to spend the next 7-8 hours in the car. They were on their way to Utah, but would be coming back to see us the next week.

It was fun visiting with them and we couldn't wait until they returned.

Charm bracelets

2008-10-12T15:17:00.000-07:00

Reagan and Kelsey came across some of my sculpty clay and wanted to make stuff with it. Reagan said she wanted to make charms for a charm bracelet. So, I got out some tools and let them play with it for quite awhile. Then we baked them in the oven. I thought that these charms would hang around for a week or so, until I stashed them somewhere. But the next day, Reagan was ready to make her bracelet. We got out some beads and stretchy string and I let her make it. I tied it together and here's her bracelet.

Kelsey wanted to do the same. Luckily, she had holes in most of hers so we were able to make a bracelet for her too.

Good job Reagan and Kelsey for finishing a project you started.

If I could only do that...

Playpen needed

2008-10-02T14:37:00.000-07:00

I was asked if I knew anyone who had a playpen or something similar that they were wanting to get rid of. I don't know who it's for, but there is a family in need. Apparently the baby is sleeping in a drawer. Let me know if you have one or know anyone who does, and would be able to get it to me. Thanks!

Firsts and Lasts

2008-09-11T12:23:00.001-07:00

I never do these, mostly because they take too much time. This was a quick and easy one. I filled it out the other night. Here it is:

EVERYONE HAS THEIR FIRSTS:

FIRST REAL BEST FRIEND: Tami - 2nd grade till about 5th grade when we moved.

FIRST SCHOOL: Sunrise in Puyallup, WA

FIRST CELL PHONE: Christmas 1998. I got it for Matt for Christmas

FIRST FUNERAL: Grandpa Marini - I was about 13 or so.

FIRST PET: I had various cats and a dog named Sadie growing up. Matt and my first pet was a water dragon.

FIRST BIG TRIP: Probably California. I can't remember that far back, but we always went somewhere every summer.

FIRST FIGHT: I'm the oldest, so I was always fighting with my little brothers.

FIRST CELEBRITY CRUSH: Kirk Cameron - I thought he was sooooo cute!

FIRST TIME OUT OF THE COUNTRY?: Canada - family vacation as a kid

FIRST JOB: Besides babysitting, I worked at Enchanted Village as a ride operator.

FIRST MYSPACE FRIEND: Bill Simmons. I don't really do myspace, but he is the first person I know who got one.

EVERYONE HAS THEIR LASTS:

LAST PERSON YOU HUGGED: Matt

LAST CAR RIDE: To Dairy Queen - family ice cream treat

LAST TIME YOU CRIED: This got me real teary-eyed. Have you seen this? Click here. I got this off of my brother's blog.

LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED: No Reservations. It was ok.

LAST FOOD YOU ATE: Hot fudge sundae

LAST ITEM BOUGHT: Groceries

LAST SHIRT WORN: red silk screen shirt with pink cami underneath

LAST PHONE CALL: Wendy - my new friend

LAST TEXT MESSAGE: Matt wondering where I was

LAST KISS: Matt

LAST THING YOU TOUCHED: Computer Mouse.. duh, toothbrush before that

LAST FUNERAL: My dad - Nov 2006

LAST TIME AT THE MALL: Couple of weekends ago - Back to school shopping for the kids

LAST TIME YOU WERE EXCITED FOR SOMETHING: First day of school! I was so excited for my kids.

LAST PERSON YOU SAW: Matt

LAST THING YOU DRANK: water

LAST PERSON THAT BROKE YOUR HEART: Not sure - I was mostly the heartbreaker.

LAST TIME YOU WERE REALLY HONESTLY HAPPY: I have all that I ever wanted. Couldn't be happier.

Now, if you read this, consider yourself tagged. I'll be checking your blogs or my email!

First day of school

2008-09-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

I LOVE the first day of school. I love being able to relive this experience through my kids. So here's a few pictures of the kids on their first day of school. It's weird for me to see them in jeans and tennis shoes after wearing shorts and flip flops all summer long.

Reagan and Kelsey had a great day of school. When asked about school, Reagan says "I really like it." She likes being in the 3rd - 5th grade hall and playing at the other playground at recess. Kelsey was excited about having three recesses on the first day. She also loves being able to go to music and gym and lunch. Three big differences from kindergarten. Gwyn and I have been doing very well by ourselves. I think it's going to be a great year!

August update

2008-08-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

We've been keeping busy these last few weeks of summer. Here are some of the things we've been doing. We went to the new Southside pool. It was close to 100 degrees that day. Gwyn loved being on the inner tube in the lazy river. We walk around it at least 100 times. Here's a picture of Reagan and Kelsey and some friends in the lazy river. They decided to walk it after a failed attempt to fit all four of them in one inner tube.

Here's the picture of all four of them in one tube.

And one more picture of Kelsey.

Here's an update of our garden. The zucchini and pumpkin plants have taken over!

And here's what we have so far to show for our hard work. My mission is accomplished, as far as I'm concerned. Anything else we get after this is a bonus. I found a recipe on line for a chocolate zucchini chocolate chip cake so I made it with this zucchini. It was yummy!

We made it to the Mobius Children's Museum, as promised. Reagan and Kelsey read books this summer and earned a free coupon from the library. We went with our friends, the Buers. They had a lot of fun. I didn't seem to get a picture of Reagan, but she was there too.

We made it to one more Shock game this summer. This was one of the play-off games, which they won. GO SHOCK!

This is an interesting thing Matt and Gwyn did this month. Matt flew to Tacoma to see his favorite band, Radiohead, in concert. It would be highly unlikely for Matt to miss a Radiohead concert anywhere in Washington. He was only going to be gone for 2 nights and one day so he took Gwyn with him. He was staying at his parents house and they were more than happy to have a day with her. At home, Reagan, Kelsey and I brought some scrapbooking stuff up from downstairs and we watched a couple of movies and scrapbooked. It was a nice, relaxing day.

Here's all of us at the airport. This is Gwyn when she first saw us. Can't you tell she missed us?

I was trying to take a picture of them walking, but everytime I got far enough ahead of them to take the picture, Reagan was right behind me. So, this is the picture I got.

House for sale

2008-08-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

This is not our house, this is my mom's house in Bonney Lake, WA. (Click on the link) Since my dad died and my brother Chas went on his mission, there seemed to be no point for my mom to live in this house by herself. She will be downsizing, leaving this house to be filled up by another family. So, if you've ever thought about relocating, come by and take a look. They say the schools in Bonney Lake is what draws people there. It's also by the lake. My mom has also done a lot of work on the inside of the house. Both bathrooms are new, new paint and carpet on the main floor and upstairs, and more. If you don't have a realitor and you just want to look, I can call my mom and work out a good time. Pass the word along if you know anyone who might be interested. Thanks!

Our pet snake

2008-08-11T12:23:00.000-07:00

So, the kids love our new pet, Cinnamon. They can't wait until Dad gets home so they can hold her. I even have to admit it's a nice little snake. Gwyn cries because she wants to hold her. She doesn't understand "holding" very well. Holding to Gwyn is squeezing with both hands tightly. I usually hold her hands and Matt puts Cinnamon on her arms. She likes that. Matt actually let her hold it one night on her own. She did pretty good. Reagan and Kelsey like to hold her and play with her for quite a while.

This is Cinnamon after eating her weekly mouse. Yum!

No church today

2008-08-10T14:48:00.000-07:00

This is a first for most everyone I know, so I thought I would blog it, since it's so unusual. Church was cancelled today for all the wards in our stake. This is because many of the YW that went to girls camp last week got the flu. There were also two wards, not ours, that had boy scout camp last week and many of them got the same flu. They are saying it's the Norovirus that is highly contagious and people that get it are sick for a few days. Anyone exposed to this virus are somewhat quarantined to their homes and are not supposed to go anywhere for 72 hours. One girl in our ward who got sick didn't even go home after camp. She's staying with another family who are all already sick with the virus. I heard that at girls camp, they had a huge tarp and there was like 20 girls puking in buckets. Sorry, I know that's gross. Those poor girls and leaders. I hope everyone will be feeling better soon, and I hope it doesn't come to our family.

Kelsey is 6!

2008-08-08T13:09:00.000-07:00

Kelsey had her birthday last week so now she's 6. Such a beautiful 6 year old too. We love having Kelsey in our family. Reagan and her are the best of friends, and she is such a good big sister to Gwyn. She is always helping her and playing with her. She also helps Mom a lot, loves spending time with her dad, and is a good friend to all of her friends.

Just for fun, here's some pictures of Kelsey on her other birthdays.

1st and 2nd birthdays

3rd and 4th birthdays

Her 5th birthday was a surprise pajama party with a pancake breakfast! This was before spending the rest of the day at Silverwood.

For Kelsey's 6th birthday, she went to the movies with Mom, Reagan, and a few of her friends. They saw WALL-E, a really cute movie with some funny parts the kids enjoyed. Then we went to Red Robin for dinner. Dad and Gwyn joined us there. Kelsey got a surprise birthday sundae, while everyone else got a cupcake. It was a great birthday for a great kid!

Swimming lessons

2008-08-08T12:51:00.001-07:00

Reagan and Kelsey finished two weeks of swimming lessons at the Jackson's pool. It's amazing how much they improved in just two weeks. Kelsey could barely put her face in the water before, and now she can swim with her face in the water. Reagan learned how to turn her face to the side to take a breath while swimming. They can both jump off the diving board and swim to the other side. They can even do it swimming on their backs!

The teachers thought it was so cute when Reagan and Kelsey would hug each other to keep themselves warm.

Here's Reagan and Kelsey diving off the diving board. Amazing!

The last day of swimming lessons was on Kelsey's birthday so everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to Kelsey and they each got a cupcake.

Ward Camp Out

2008-08-01T20:48:00.000-07:00

We were able to go to the ward campout this year. It's been a few years since we've been camping, so it was fun. We inherited this great tent from Matt's parents. It's great because it's a nice size and it was free, but it's not as easy to assemble as the new ones.

We weren't able to have any campfires, so we had a pot luck dinner and the kids did some exploring. Kelsey was determined to find a snake, but only found a couple of snake holes. Here, Matt and the kids are looking for good skipping rocks. Matt is impressing them all with his amazing talent of rock skipping. Becca, in the blue shirt, is a friend from our ward that was hanging out with us by the river.
When it got dark, we had a little program with campfire skits and songs led by the YW and YM. This was Reagan's favorite part of the camp out. She finds the humor is those skits and songs hilarious. Gwyn was really getting into this story that was told. You had to do certain things when the narrator said certain words, like throwing your arms up and cheering, which is what Gwyn is doing here.
We weren't able to roast marshmallows and have s'mores, because there were no fires allowed, so after the program we went back to our tent and played games on our I-phones. Then Matt and Gwyn went to sleep, so Reagan, Kelsey and I played skip-bo. That was a nice, easy game to play, that they were able to catch on to it quickly and have fun without getting too frustrated.

Matt got up early to go running. A few of the campers joined him for a mile or two. The campground was in an area that Matt often runs through, so he knew a lot of the trails and roads to take. Here's Reagan and Gwyn eating breakfast cooked by the Bishopric.

After we packed up, we walked around a little bit. Here's a bridge that Matt has run over many times. Notice the big hill after the bridge with the trail going right up it. It amazes me how many long and steep hills he runs up.

This camp out was so over too quick. It makes me want to go camping again. Especially since we didn't get to have a campfire. I think I'm going to see about going again before the summer's over. Anyone want to join us?

Check it out!

2008-07-28T19:24:00.000-07:00

Reagan has had a blog for about a year and a half. Until recently, I didn't really understand the whole blogging thing. With so much stuff happening this summer, I decided to start a blog for Kelsey too, and keep them both updated on everything going on in their lives. This way I can go into more detail and in tell it in their perspective, until they are old enough to write in it themselves. I always ask them about the event before I blog it, and they tell me if I need to add anything or make any changes. And since I don't have a baby book for Gwyn, and since she's young enough, her blog will start with the day she was born. So, be sure to stop by Reagan's and Kelsey's blogs, their links are to the left, and see what they've been doing this summer.

Our Garden - a work in progress

2008-07-27T15:08:00.000-07:00

We have 3 garden plots in our back yard, and this summer I finally got one of them ready to plant a garden. This is our first garden ever so we are keeping it simple. In June I planted carrots, zucchini, pumpkin, watermelon, tomatoes, and strawberries. You can see the tomato and strawberry plants that I bought. The rest I just planted the seeds. We won't get any strawberries this year because the squirrels or birds eat them before they are even ripe. So, next year I will cover them up a wire fence or something. Hopefully we will have lots of zucchini and pumpkin to make bread, cake, muffins, pies, etc. I will be happy if the tomato plants produce any tomatoes because one less tomato I have to buy at the store, the better. The watermelon will be a bonus for the kids. As most of you know, I don't like watermelons. Next year I plan to plant in two of the garden plots. The other one still needs some work.

Here is our garden now! Once we got into the hot weather of upper eighties and nineties, the plans just took off. There are tomatoes growing already. The carrots look flimsy and sparse, so we'll see what happens with them. Feel free to leave any gardening advice. This is all a learning experience for me.

Mom's Retreat Part 2

2008-07-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

Incase you were wondering what the rest of the family did while Mom left them for a weekend, let me reassure you that they were ok. Reagan and Kelsey rode back to Tacoma a couple of days earlier with their Grandma and Grandpa Shumate. They did a lot of this -

Grandma Shumate took them swimming a couple of times and to the park and they got to play with their cousins and Aunt Jaqui and Uncle Travis. They also got to go to Grandma Marini's house and went to Shari's for dinner, saw Kung Fu Panda, and went swimming in the lake twice with their other cousins. They also went sail boating with Uncle Cory and Aunt Danielle.

Their week was full of non-stop fun, and it ended with a plane ride home. This was their first time on a plane. You can see their excitement as the plane starts to take off.

And poor Matt, was home all by himself. He managed to find something to keep him company. Meet Cinnamon, the newest member of our family. Reagan said she looked like a cinnamon roll when she curls up, so we named her Cinnamon Roll, or Cin (Sin) for short. Although I really want nothing to do with this snake, I'll have to admit, she's a very pretty snake. The girls love her and can't wait for Dad to get home so they can hold it.

Matt earned his snake. When I got home the house was spotless! He even did some yard work while I was gone. He also hooked up the girls' room by putting up shelves and getting them new reading lamps and each a new pen. What a nice surprise.

Mom's Scrapbook Retreat

2008-07-16T12:29:00.001-07:00

Before moving to Spokane, when I lived in University Place, there was a bunch of us friends that used to get together to scrapbook on a regular basis. Then I moved to Spokane, and shortly after, almost everyone else moved too. Some still live in or near U.P. while others moved on to other states. Since then we've been able to get together on little scrapbooking retreats. Last year we found a rental house in Issaquah that was perfect for our retreats. We decided to come back again this summer. Our retreat, this year, started on Thursday, the 10th, at Red Robin to celebrate Kelly's birthday. Then off to the house to set up. The first day was me, Dacia, Adrianne, Kelly, and Andrea. Then Tiffany, Sherida, Jen, and Julie joined us on Friday. Saturday morning we got in a couple more hours of scrapbooking before we had to leave. By then I was missing the kids and needed to get caught up on my sleep. I managed to complete 15 pages, which is a record for me! Whoo who!

Here's just one of the funny things we did. On friday, Andrea, Tiffany, and Adrianne left the house for a little while. Dacia, Kelly and I decided to finish the page Adrianne was working on. We added eyeballs, teeth, and a word balloon thing. As you can see by their reaction, it was hilarious!

Here's all of us on Saturday morning

Fourth of July

2008-07-09T09:42:00.001-07:00

We didn't really have any plans for the Fourth of July. Matt's dad started looking for the instructions for our play set thing we bought last year. I gladly gave it to him as well as the drill and anything else he needed. Matt and I had spent many hours on it, and it was only half way done. So Matt came out to help and everyone else just hung out in the back yard, eating otter pops and enjoying the weather. Even our cat hung out with us. Did you notice that we were dressed for the occasion? (We are all wearing red shirts.) I found this was the perfect opportunity to do some weeding in our backyard. After a few hours, the project was completed! My summer just got a whole lot better! I'm so thankful that Matt's dad help us build it. And the girls are thankful too!

Silverwood - July 3rd

2008-07-06T22:48:00.001-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa Shumate wanted to go to Silverwood with us this year. We all had so much fun! We started out with some rides at Silverwood, saw an illusion show and had some ice cream. Then we headed over to Boulder Beach because it was soooooo hot. I don't know what the temperature was but it's safe to say it was in the 90's. It was so fun to play in the water and go down a few slides. Then we watched an ice skating show, rode the train, then one last ride on the carousel before we left. We were all starving by then so Grandpa treated us all to a late dinner at Chili's. Overall, it was a great day.

When will they be here?

2008-07-06T20:17:00.000-07:00

We love living in Spokane Valley and we were excited to move here. The only bad part was leaving behind our family. Someone told me that one thing that is exciting about living away from family is the kids getting excited about going to see Grandma and Grandpa. I'm not saying that kids who live by their grandparents don't get excited to see them, because Reagan and Kelsey have always loved going to Grandma's house. But it's different when you don't get to see them all the time. The excitement is magnified! So, on July 2nd, Grandma and Grandpa Shumate were coming for a visit. After dinner and a few hundred "when will they be heres", we decided to go wait for them outside.

Finally here! We never know how long it will take Gwyn to remember who they are, but this time she knew immediately! As Grandpa walked towards us, Gwyn walked toward him with her arms up. It was so cute!

Splash Down!

2008-07-01T20:52:00.000-07:00

To get to our house, you will pass Splash Down on the freeway. You can't help but to notice it.

This is our 3rd summer in Spokane and we finally made it to the water park. I took the girls today because my brother and his family are here from Tacoma and they were going. It was a lot of fun. These pictures were taken at the little kid area because taking pictures on the big slides would have been too difficult.

Kelsey loved going down the slides. You never know how she's going to react to things that might be a little scary. She couldn't wait to do more until she got water up her nose one time and now she doesn't want anything to do with them. Hopefully she'll get over it before we go to Silverwood in a few days.

This picture came out blurry, but it's the only one I had. Reagan was so psyched to go on the slides. She could hardly stand it and of course, she loved every minute of it.
Gwyn loves slides, so slides with water was even better. She loved going down the big slides with me and didn't even cry when I accidentally dunked her at the bottom. What a champ! My sister-in-law, Ember, took Gwyn for a little while so I could go down the rides fast. I had to go slow when I went with Gwyn. I also went down the "toilet bowl" ride with Reagan. I don't know what the real name if the ride is, but it's a lot like getting flushed down a toilet, but with clean water, of course. To all my Spokane friends, you know what I'm talking about.

About 7 pm, it started raining and they closed the park because of lightning. I decided to go to Dairy Queen on the way home. While we were in the drive thru line, a bolt of lightning landed somewhere close to us. It was the loudest crackling sound I ever heard and I felt it "BOOM." My fingertips on one hand became kind of tingly and sore and my hand felt cold for a good half hour or so afterwards. Weird. Also, it set off the alarms inside the Dairy Queen and knocked out their intercom system. I got everyone a treat and even gave Gwyn a dilly bar. I didn't think it would get too messy because we were about 5 minutes from home. Well, take it from me, dilly bars are not a good idea for babies to eat in a car, especially when the baby doesn't like the outside and only eats the ice cream on the inside. I know... that's a no brainer, but I like to be optimistic.

We Got SHOCKED!

2008-06-22T09:40:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to the Spokane Shock Football Arena game. This was our first time to go. We went with our friends, the Nelsons. Some of you already know this, but a lot of you probably don't so I'll give you some background. Brady Nelson is the owner of the team. He's the one who had the idea to bring an arena football team to Spokane and started the whole thing. It's so huge in Spokane! I should have taken a picture during the game. There was about 9,000 people in attendance. The stadium was packed! The game was intense and a blast to watch. We sat in the owner's suite which was nice because our kids got to run around and play with the other kids that were there while we watched the game. After the game we went down to the field. The girls loved running around down there. They even got to meet the dance team. It was a fun night. Thanks Nelsons and everyone else for letting us hang out with you!

More S2N pictures

2008-06-20T22:25:00.001-07:00

Here's a few more pictures of this year's Sound to Narrows race. It was a lot of fun.

Happy Father's Day, Dad

2008-06-17T11:34:00.001-07:00

I know this is a couple of days late, but I just wanted to take a moment and tell you what a wonderful husband and father Matt is. He is really good at making Mom (me) happy by helping around the house, helping with the kids, and not only allowing me to treat myself to simple luxuries at times, but encourages me to do so. He loves his little girls! Words cannot describe how wonderful of a father he is, but I will try anyways. He is really good about taking all of the girls out so that I can have a break or get something done. He also spends time with them individually. Reagan loves going golfing with Dad, or to the bookstore to pick out a new book or two. Kelsey wants to be just like her dad "because he's so smart," and she loves going to the mall with him and resting with him on Sunday afternoons. Gwyn gets so excited when she sees her dad! She learned how to say "daddy" a long time before she could ever say "mommy" and she follows "daddy" with the biggest smile and runs to gives him a big hug. It's so cute! She also loves that Dad is so much fun to play with. I don't know how I got so lucky. I could not ask for a better father for my children. Thanks Matt, I love you!

Sound to Narrows - We're famous!

2008-06-15T15:30:00.001-07:00

Here's all of us at the Sound to Narrows Race in Tacoma on Saturday, June 14th.

This picture made it in Sunday's Tacoma News Tribune. It was a very large picture and the caption reads: Kelsey Shumate (far right), 5, hides as sister Regan, 8, father Matt, cousins Tanner Shumate, 6, and Anson, 4, make faces. (They spelled Reagan wrong, but oh well.)

This was another picture that the Tacoma News Tribune photographer took. It's a picture of the diaper dash for one year olds. As you can see, they were all a bit confused. Gwyn is on the far left and next to her is my friend Tiffany's baby girl, Kate. This picture didn't make it in Sunday's paper, but it's on the Tacoma News Tribune website. It could possibly be in Thursday's paper when they post the results.

This is the 2nd time Reagan has had her picture in the paper from this event. The first time was the first time we participated in the Sound to Narrows race in 2003. Reagan was 3 and a diaper dasher. We made it on the front page!

The day was overall a really fun day. Reagan, Kelsey, Tanner and Anson ran the 2K with their dads, Matt and Devin at 8:00 am. Jaqui and Travis ran the 5K at 8:30 am. Matt and Dacia ran the 12K at 8:45 am for Matt and 8:50 am for Dacia. Matt ran it in 56 minutes, which was better than he expected. It was a minute slower than last year, but he was sick this year and hadn't trained as well as he did last year. Dacia did excellent, taking 6 minutes off of her last 12K time! Then Alan and Stella left at 9:00 am for the 5K walk. Stella has also been sick, so it wasn't as easy as it could of been, but she's made the goal to walk the 12K in the future. Finally Gwyn and Ella ran the diaper dash, even though for Gwyn it was like a walk of total confusion. Imagine being told to run to a massive amount of people who are screaming and yelling. Eventually she saw me and smiled as she picked up the pace, but by that time she was about 10 feet in front of me. If you were wondering about me, I'll have to wait until next year to see how I'll do. To make a long story short, I ended up getting sick, even passed out for a minute or so, right before we left the house for the race. Therefore, I was feeling ill and week for most of the day and I knew that it was not possible for me to run that day.

I'll post more pictures of this year and past races when we get back into town.

A visit from the Foxes

2008-06-08T20:45:00.000-07:00

The Foxes were our first friends in Spokane Valley. They moved in the same week as we did, and they lived only 1 block away. This is a picture from the first time Reagan and Kelsey went to their house to play. Over the next 3 years, they played a lot together. We would also have game and pizza nights where us adults could play some games while the kids played together.

Six months ago, the Foxes moved to Portland, OR. They came up to Spokane this weekend to visit family, so we were able to get together on Friday, for games and pizza. Here's some pictures of us playing Wii.

Here's Simon. He was just 1 month old when they moved. Next is Mason and Gwyn, then Kelsey and Everett.

Katie and I didn't play any Wii. We talked about sewing, scrapbooking, and other girl stuff. In the first picture I'm showing her my new scrapbooks. We can't wait to see them again in August!

Kelsey and Tanner

2008-06-08T20:22:00.001-07:00

These are cousins, Kelsey and Tanner. Kelsey is 4 1/2 months younger than Tanner. You can tell that they love each other a lot. Here's a few flash back photos of them. This is in May 2003! Kelsey was only nine months old.

Here they are in December 2005.

And here they are, being silly, in June 2006

Here's a picture and story that I stole off of Grandpa Shumate's Blog. What sweet kids!

We all went to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate Reagan's birthday. Kelsey and Tanner (both are five) are inseparable as friends and just love being with each other. All of the grandkids were given a cup of tokens, which are used for the rides at Chuck E. Cheese. Kelsey and Tanner went off, hand in hand, to spend their tokens. They came back to eat birthday cake a while later and were counting their tokens. Together they had seven token left. They asked me if I had any, which I did not (what grandfather would keep tokens from his grandchildren?). They had realized that if they divided up their remaining tokens, one would have three and one would have four. A few minutes later Tanner came to me with a token and said, “Here grandpa, take this token because we don’t want to fight over it.”

Grandparents

2008-06-08T19:48:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of family photos that were taken recently.

This is Grandma and Grandpa Shumate with all of their grandchildren. This was taken on Mother's Day, just before we headed back to Spokane.

This is Kelsey and Gwyn with their Grandma Marini. This was taken when Grandma came to visit us in May. Reagan was at school.

World Premiere: Team Shumate Logo

2008-06-04T18:20:00.000-07:00

Since 2003, the Shumate family, young and old, has participated in the Sound to Narrows race in Tacoma. Whether it's running, walking, or crawling the tough 12K course, the 5K, the 2K, or the diaper dash, we've made it a family tradition. Last year, Matt's mom thought that there was enough of us to have our own logo that we could wear at future Sound to Narrows races. So, this is the logo that Matt designed for Team Shumate to wear at the Sound to Narrows race on June 14th. (Notice that "Grandma" and "Grandpa" make up the head a.k.a. the "head" of the family.) I'm posting this so that family members will be able to see it, as they've been patiently waiting on the edge of their seats. For all you Sound to Narrows racers out there, say "Go Team Shumate!" or something like that if you see someone wearing this shirt.

Colonies

2008-06-03T12:38:00.000-07:00

Matt's brother, Travis is in a band called "Colonies." Maybe you've heard of them? Last month they went on a mini-tour, with a show in Spokane on the 16th. We took the girls to the show, since they love their Uncle Travis so much and the opportunity to see him to perform is rare for them and me. Matt usually goes when they have shows in Seattle or Tacoma when we are in town. It was cool to watch and hear their songs. The band, and Travis's wife Jaqui, stayed at our house Thursday and Friday night before going on to their last show in Rexburg, ID on Saturday. For a band of all guys, I would have to say that we enjoyed having them, and not because they moved our piano for us (thanks guys), but because they were very polite and respectful. (I hope that doesn't ruin their image any.) This is a picture of them with the girls when they left, early Saturday morning. Travis is the one holding Gwyn. You can check out Colonies on the link in my list of friends.

Blog addresses wanted

2008-06-02T11:52:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone. Now that I'm a blogger, I've been blog hopping and checking out everyone else's blog. You all have truly inspired me to start one. What a great way to keep in touch! Before, you had to wait for the yearly Christmas letters to see what everyone's been up to. I have stole a few of your addresses from other blogs, I hope you don't mind, but if I don't have yours yet, please leave it for me here. I promise to check it often. There are some of you who think I should read the Twilight series books. I'm going to be way too busy now, reading all your blogs. I've been putting it off for as long as possible in fear of getting sucked in and not getting anything else done. (I know it's amazing I've gone this long without reading them.) Nobody told me that starting a blog would now consume all my free time. It's for a good cause, so I can justify it. Hope to hear from you soon!

YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS!

2008-06-01T20:23:00.000-07:00

This is only about 1 minute long. Matt created this little movie for me on Valentine's Day, a couple of years ago. I always wanted to share it with everyone so this seems like the perfect opportunity. Isn't he the best?

She's a mad little princess!

2008-06-01T20:18:00.000-07:00

I just had to post this picture. Just like a princess. Actually, Gwyn doesn't usually freak out like this. She was trying to get the camera I was using to take her picture, but her dress up shoes were stepping on the bottom of her dress so she was stuck. Well, it made for a funny picture.

First post ever!!

2008-06-01T19:21:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is. The first post of our blog. I hope it's the first of many. I think I am already hooked on blogging, but only time will tell. Since I just started this blog, I have some pictures and events to share from awhile ago, to kind of get you up to speed. This first picture is of Reagan. She's been growing her hair out since kindergarten (Sept 2005), when she cut it to her shoulders. Last summer, Kelsey cut her hair pretty short. Eventually Reagan wanted to cut her hair too, but not until it was long enough to donate to Locks of Love. She has always wanted to help kids in need. She used to put change in the umbrellas at Wal-mart because it was for kids in need. Anyways, we figured it would be long enough by her 8th birthday in February. We did some research and found out that Great Clips will cut your hair for free if you donate it to Locks of Love. So, on April 12th we went to Great Clips to get her hair cut. The lady who cut her hair was like, "Are you sure you want to cut your hair? She definitely was. She got 10 inches cut off! We are so proud of her! Here are the before, during, and after pictures.