Reach the Beach

Shane signed up to do the Reach the Beach ride with some Precoa people again this year, so we drove over to meet him in Pacific City.  I got up early that morning to do an 11-mile run as part of my training for the Seattle Rock ‘N Roll half marathon. I ran to Champoeg on our training run, and Shane picked me up about 7:30, and I drove him to Newberg High School where he started his ride.  With all of his marathon training, he decided to do the 75 mile ride instead of the 100 miles. 

After I got home and got everything loaded, we drove to the beach.  As we were driving along 99, we saw a bunch of bikers, so I hurried and looked up on my phone where Shane and Jake were and I saw they were just ahead of us.  The boys looked for them out the window and were pretty excited when we saw them biking on the side of the road! 

When we got there, Stacey was already there, so she had scoped out a parking spot for us near her.  We are always quite the sight with all our kids together!  In order to get from our cars to the finish line, I walked in front and Stacey in back, and we made sure all the kids stayed somewhere in between.  We got several comments about our “little ducklings” as we walked along the road.

 

We lined all the kids up by the curb while we waited for Shane and Jake to make it in.

 

Before long, we saw them both approaching on their bikes!  High fives all around!

  

They did it!

 

Stacey and I found a spot on the beach for the kids to play while Shane and Jake got some food and relaxed after their long bike ride.  Madeleine played in the sand and loved running her fingers through it. 

      

 

Madeleine–8 months

This cute girl is growing up too fast!  It was a bit of a challenge to get her to sit still on the couch.  She finally found this purple necklace and was entertained as long as she could chew on that. 

Madeleine is as cute as ever, crawling and cruising all over the place and putting everything in her mouth.  She likes to reach out and touch people’s faces to say hi, she loves her brothers and all the attention they give her, and she has just learned to clap.  She is so slow and so deliberate as she claps – it’s the cutest!  We love our Madeleine!

     

Davis’s Baptism Day

Davis’s baptism was quite an eventful day with both sets of grandparents and Camille and Bryce there too, and Kallie’s baptism on the same day.  Davis’s baptism was first at 10:30 a.m.  There were three other kids from our ward being baptized at the same time, and the people attending filled the chapel.  Davis thought the water was a little cold though, and the look of shock on his face as he came out of the water caused a few chuckles in the audience.  My mom spoke on the gift of the Holy Ghost, and she reminded Davis what the Holy Ghost can sound like and feel like. 

 

Davis is such a fun, easy-going boy, and I was reminded again at his baptism of his baby blessing day, when Shane said he would be blessed with a “soft heart and a sound mind.”  That is our Davis for sure.  He said his favorite part of his baptism was the set of scriptures we gave him as a gift, and he has been reading them pretty regularly since he got them for his baptism.  Stacey’s mom gave him a pillowcase that everyone signed, and he was pretty excited about that also. 

Afterwards, we headed up to Kallie’s baptism.    After her baptism, we went over to Jake and Stacey’s for a little birthday party for her with some stroganoff for dinner and some cake and ice cream.  It was so fun to have these cute cousin buddies share this special day.

Gingerbread Nativity

Last year, we started the tradition of making a gingerbread nativity instead of a gingerbread house.  I put it off until later in the month, so we didn’t get to making it until the night before we left for Ashland, but it was still fun and turned out cute.  The boys did a great job with all the decorating!

                 

Christmas Tree

With 2:00 church, we had some time before going to take a picture of the kids in front of the Christmas tree.  They were luckily cooperative!  Davis and James both wanted to hold Madeleine so we had to take turns with that.

 

Madeleine Lee–3 months old

Madeleine is growing too fast, but she is as sweet as ever and we sure love having her in our family.  She loves to smile and coo at her brothers and parents, and she has an overall happy disposition.  She takes three naps a day, and she wakes up once at night to eat and goes right back to sleep.  She is getting really close to rolling over.  She likes to clasp her hands together and suck on her fists, but she refuses to take a pacifier.  She likes to look up at the lights and the fan, but she hates being left alone in a room when she can hear us all somewhere else in the house.  We love our little Madeleine!