My 5 Sons

2011-01-14T17:29:00.001-08:00

HomeComing

2009-10-12T18:01:00.000-07:00

Kevin and Kahlen attended RiverSide High School's Homecoming this past weekend. Kevin and Kahlen met Ariel and Jessica at Malibu this summer. They are very sweet girls. They had a great time. It was fun to see them get dressed up and go to a school dance.

Back to School

2009-09-23T21:08:00.001-07:00

It's back to school time. The boys have been back in school for a little over two weeks. I was able to get the older boys to somewhat cooperate for the"first day of school" photo on the front porch. Kevin and Kahlen really did not want to do it. I had to beg.

For me this year is bitter sweet. Kevin is a Senior. I REALLY can't believe it! I don't know where the time has gone.

I wasn't that excited for school to begin this year. I guess because I know after this year our family will begin to change. Kevin will leave for college and then Kahlen the next year. Don't get me wrong, I want Kevin to grow up and have the natural progression of leaving the "NEST" as I do each of them. It's just change I guess, and he's my first baby.

I want his Senior year to be the best!

I want this year to be great for each of them.

They are all in the full swing of school, homework and sports.

Kevin-Senior

Kahlen-Junior

Nikolas-Freshman

Jakob-Sixth Grade

Erik-Second Grade

The one thing I have learned through these years is that you should cherish each moment and really enjoy your child. Make the most of every day through the good and bad. It goes so quickly. Sometimes it feels like this or that stage will never end, but it does. And before you know your child has grown up and you're wondering if you've taught them everything they need to know before they go out into this world.

I believe God has allowed us to have children to give us a glimpse of the Love He has for us.

It's such a blessing to be a parent. I wouldn't trade it for anything!!!

Swimming at Aunt Michelle's

2009-08-13T21:06:00.001-07:00

This past weekend we headed for Eastern Washington to surprise my sister on her Birthday and spend some time with my family. We had a great time celebrating with her. The Boys had a great time in the sun and pool!

JAKOB

Kahlen and Nikolas doing tricks

Kevin and his famous Cannonball!!

Buddy swimming with Erik

My favorite!

Nikolas with a SMILE

Peonies From our Garden

2009-08-03T07:33:00.001-07:00

This is from our garden in June, my favorite flower, the peony. They are beautiful and smell incredible.

FINISHED!!!

2009-08-02T18:35:00.000-07:00

Here is the finished product. I am so happy about how it turned out. Thank you to my husband who is so handy at home projects. He did all the wood trim for me and put the top on. He does such a nice job when he does a project. I did all the painting.

I broke down the cost of doing this kitchen island ourselves.

Here is the breakdown:

Finished Remnant Quartz Piece $220
Trim $90
Paint $21.97
Cabinet Hardware $53
Antiquing Medium $2.09

For a grand total of: $387.06

For what it's worth, I believe anyone can do this.

Kitchen Island

2009-08-02T07:50:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of the progress of the kitchen island. It's been a lot of fun!

All that's left to do is antique it, baseboards and hardware.

PhotoBucket

2009-07-30T17:33:00.000-07:00

Photobucket is a great tool for editing your pictures and it's free!

Have fun!!!

Making a Picture Look Old

2009-07-30T15:46:00.000-07:00

I came across a website that you can convert a picture to make it look old. I thought this was such a cool website so I thought I would share.

Record Heat

2009-07-30T10:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the Puget Sound was affected by record heat, 103 officially at SeaTac. Here it was 106, so we headed to the river with our friends to keep cool. The boys had a great time keeping cool along with Lucy.

Kitchen Island

2009-07-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

David is so talented when it comes to doing home projects, he amazes me. When I come up with an idea for decorating our home he has always been able to do the project with perfection. My idea for a long time has been to make our kitchen island look like a separate piece of furniture from the rest of our kitchen cabinets. Well back in June I found a remnant piece of quartz for the top of our island. It was already finished, the perfect size and most importantly the perfect price. I had already been thinking about colors for the island. Originally I wanted the Pottery Barn color Jalapeno pepper (a green color). But when I found the remnant it didn't go with the jalapeno green. So, I decided to go with a different color that would compliment the quartz piece. The color I went with is Linden Blue which matches a pottery piece I absolutely love in my home. I am antiquing the island with an antiquing medium that I ended up having to order because no one carries it. The island is all painted now and David is going to put the top on today. I will antique it this coming week. Here are some before and during pictures of the process. I will post more pictures when the island is finished.

Happy Birthday Erik!

2009-07-26T06:54:00.000-07:00

Erik has been waiting a long time to do this! He has three brothers that have Summer Birthdays before him. His "Day" was finally here!

Birthday Cards

Erik and his good friend Chris

Erik riding his Ripstick

Wearing his new Lebron James jersey

Swimming

2009-07-07T15:40:00.000-07:00

Kevin and Kahlen haven't been all that excited about me taking pictures of them. Well they saw some of the action shots I got of them swimming off of the dock and decided they didn't mind so much. I had a lot of fun catching the action. It was perfect weather for swimming in the Sound.

Happy 4th of July!!!!

2009-07-06T22:01:00.001-07:00

The 4th of July is pretty special time for our family. First of all we get to spend it with Aunt Cathey and Uncle Doyl. They live in Palm Desert for part of the year so we don't see them until summer. We all look forward to spending time with both of them. The boys look up to Uncle Doyl and can't wait to see and spend time with him and they love their Aunt Cathey.

The whole Spee-bi-dah Beach Community comes together and has activities for the whole family. There is a rummage sale, country store, kids raffle, adult raffle, book sale, Bite of Spee-bi-dah, Strawberry Social, a special quilt is handmade by the women of Spee-bi-dah and is raffled off every year, a dance is held in the evening with a live band (the guys are from the community and play every year), a cake walk, bouncy toy and games for the kids, a sand castle contest, pancake breakfast, and a parade. It's very special there. I feel blessed that our family has gotten to take part in this special tradition with Cathey and Doyl. The 4th at Spee-bi-dah has given our family wonderful memories that will last a lifetime!!!

Spee-bi-dah Flag Pole

It wouldn't be the 4th without a bottle rocket

Community Festivities In the Park

The Parade

Fourth of July Weekend

2009-07-06T21:07:00.000-07:00

Our family spends the Fourth of July Holiday at Spee-bi-dah. It's a wonderful tradition we have and that we love. David's sister Cathey and brother-in-law Doyl have a home there. We have been going there ever since Kevin was born. This year we headed up Friday the 3rd and enjoyed some of the beach festivities and the boys helped Doyl fix the boat. Erik waited in and around the boat for six hours asking how much longer until we get it in the water? He was so excited when it finally happened!!!

Uncle Doyl, Kahlen and Erik

Erik learns to drive the boat

Jakob wins a cake at the cake walk

Kahlen gets to drive the boat by himself

David, JoAnne, Cathey, Kevin, Nikolas, Chris and Kelly

Kahlen's 16th Celebration

2009-07-02T16:36:00.000-07:00

Kahlen, Powell, Cory, Brendan and Garrett

Kahlen took his driving test the afternoon of his Birthday. We drove out to Puyallup since they closed the Auburn office and he past with a 92%. He is officially a driver now.

Kahlen had a few of his closest friends over to barbecue and have cake for his Birthday Celebration! That evening he took the car out and met his friends to tailgate near the Green River.

Happy 16th Birthday Kahlen!!!

2009-06-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

I know how long you have been waiting for this day. Well, it's here, you're finally going to be able to drive all by yourself. Kahlen we are so proud of you! YOU are a very committed, hard-working, goal oriented, high achiever, and a kind hearted person. WE are excited for you on this big day! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

It seems like yesterday when you were born. YOU were two weeks late. At birth you weighed in at 10lbs 7oz and were 19 inches long. Aunt Claudia is the person who came up with the name Kahlen which is an Irish name. Dad and I loved it, so we decided on Kahlen David.

Kahlen at a month, Kevin at a year in a half

Kahlen at two months

Laurie's 60th Birthday Party

2009-06-29T13:35:00.001-07:00

We celebrated Laurie's Birthday at Bob and Claudia's on Saturday evening. Claudia prepared a marinated butterfly leg of lamb on the barbecue with rice pilaf and green bean bundles. Cathey brought a cake from Hoffman's bakery. It was a lemon berry cake with marzipan covering it. It was delicious!!!! Laurie is heading off to Ireland on Friday the 3rd of July with her brother and sister to celebrate her 60th.

Bob thought it would be great to play Wii bowling with everyone and then test our Wii fitness age. He had been practicing all day long!!!!! Wii fitness ages; Bob 31, David 39, Claudia 69, Laurie 60 and me 78. It was a lot of laughs! I definitely want a rematch on the fitness age test.

Laurie's turn at the Wii

Leo played too

Leo, Claudia and David

Vicky, Laurie, Maxine, Cathey and me

Happy Birthday Jakob!

2009-06-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

Jakob found out I started a blog and he asked where his Birthday was? So here it is. Jakob's Birthday is May 23 which usually falls around Memorial Weekend. We celebrate Jakob's Birthday almost every year at the Beach House with Aunt Cathey.

Jakob and Aunt Cathey

Jakob and The Sheehan Birthday Cake

Erik and Jakob Fishing

S'MORES

MMMMMM!!!!

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-21T20:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day honey

It's been a long time since we have had rain on Father's Day. Even though the day was filled with showers, David had a relaxing day indoors. I dusted and cleaned the office for him this morning so he would have a nice clean spot to work and surf the internet.

We spent the evening with our neighbors Dan and Tamela for a Father's Day barbecue. We have been to many dinners and parties at the Brown home over the ten years we have lived here and Tamela always puts out an incredible spread of food. You can feel the love she has for her guests when you attend an affair in their home. Tamela is just an amazing hostess!!!!! For dessert she made these wonderful ice cream sandwiches that were definitely a hit; made with double chocolate cookies sandwiched between vanilla ice cream, yum.

On Saturday Kahlen fixed a cracked pipe in the sprinkler system for David as a gift. He really did it all by himself. David and our next door neighbor Dan guided him a little and I ran him to Home Depot for some supplies. Other than that it was all on his own. I think David really appreciated the hard work Kahlen put into the job.

Nikolas washed and vacuumed David's car on Sunday for him which was a really nice surprise.

Erik was busy cutting wood scraps on Saturday and took some water colors and created an American Flag for David's home office. It's really a neat flag. We displayed it on the book shelves in the office. Thank you Erik.

I think all in all it was a nice family day!!! I'm very thankful to have such a WONDERFUL husband and father in David. The boys are lucky to have such a GREAT DAD!

kahlen barbecued

Last Day of School

2009-06-19T14:55:00.000-07:00

It is so hard to believe the school year has come to an end. Kevin walked out the door this morning as a Junior and he returned home a Senior. Where did the time go?

Kahlen finished his Sophomore year and Nikolas his Eighth grade year. We will have three kids at the high school next year.

Jakob finished up his elementary career at Hazelwood today and will enter Rainier Middle School next fall as a Sixth grader. He will be the only son in our family to go to Rainier all three years by himself.

Erik finished First grade today and is now officially a Second grader. He will be by himself at Hazelwood for the rest of his elementary career. Actually, he will never be with Jakob at the same school again.

I know for the boys summer didn't come fast enough. They have all worked very hard this year in school academically. They are great guys!!!

The Parade of Buses

Waving Good-Bye to the kids!

Officially a Second Grader!!!

Rainier here I come!

The Presidential Academic Award

Honoring student achievement and hard work is the purpose of the President's Education Awards Program. Since 1983, the program has provided individual recognition from the President and the U.S. Secretary of Education to those students whose outstanding efforts have enabled them to meet challenging standards of excellence.

Some Great Shots of the Hummingbirds

2009-06-18T21:54:00.000-07:00

David and I love the sanctuary we have been creating in our backyard for the birds. He was able to get some great shots of the hummingbirds we have been able to attract .

Spectacular Speller Award

2009-06-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

Erik's Spelling Award

Erik is awarded the spectacular speller award for getting a PERFECT SCORE on EVERY spelling test throughout the school year!

Good job Erik!!!!!! We are very PROUD of you!

Football with Dad

2009-06-16T23:12:00.000-07:00

The Pass

The Catch

Nikolas' Birthday Celebration

2009-06-14T12:27:00.000-07:00

Birthday Cards

Nikolas and Buddy

Enjoying our backyard for dinner

Birthday Cake

Making his Birthday Wish!!!!

Guess Whos's Turning 14?

2009-06-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe it's been 14 years! You weighed 9 lbs 80z and you were 21 inches long.

Today you have become a wonderful young man whom we are very proud of! Have a wonderful Birthday! We love you!