Grandma's Birthday/Bell Ringing

So I know I already posted a blurb about grandma's birthday, but think that the event needs a little more publicity (haha, like anyone but me actually reads this)! Anyways, on Saturday we celebrated my grandma's 81st birthday. Wow! My grandma is a pretty special lady, always one to entertain us in some way. She is an accomplished writer, bayou cooking expert, and a very important part of my life. My daughter's adore her and she comes along with my mom to babysit each Tuesday at our house (she even does my laundry and makes us great dinners which is an added perk). A mother of 6, grandmother of 16 (I think), and many great grandchildren, she has led a very full and interesting life. At 81 she is still going strong! Her sister Top lives with her and they make every day an adventure. In addition to her birthday, we also had a great bell ringing ceremony in honor of the original Gooseneck School bell. This bell was located at Gooseneck School, which happens to be our family's homestead. We just moved the bell out to my parent's house and had it refurbished. It was a fun time reminiscing about living on Gooseneck and ringing the bell. My mom also wrote a very sweet family blessing, I will end this post with that and some pictures of the big event.

May God's blessings keep you always. May you see God's light on the path when the road you walk is dark. May your dreams and wishes come true. May you remember that alone we can do so little and together we can do so much. May you always have the courage to do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason. May you always remember that if you wait to do everything until you are sure it is right, then you'll probably never do much of anything. May joy and laughter fill your homes and always outweigh your tears. May you, at the end of your journey, have few regrets, wonderful memories, people who love you, and be able to look back and know you have finished your race well.

We missed everyone who was unable to attend! Come home soon!!

Grandma blowing out her candles with her Glenda (my aunt) & Aunt Top

Grandma with my Uncle Walt, Aunt Glenda, and my mom

The Skyberg Clan - my cousin Angie, Jason, Hannah and Chris (nice gangsta' pose Chris and Hannah)!

My cousin Jeremy (Glenda's son) and his daughter Greta - SHE'S SO CUTE!!!

Josh, Jess, Syd, Annie, Ben Ryan, and my mom & dad

PS - Leave me comments so I know that maybe someone reads this =)

Another whirlwind weekend

We had a really busy, but exciting, weekend. It started Friday morning with Josh's graduation from the police academy. Yes, I am officially a police officer's wife . . . weird! After 16 weeks of him basically living away from home, the girls and I are happy to have him home for good. The graduation itself was pretty cool, complete with bagpipes and a slide show showing all of the crazy stuff they did throughout the academy. I was definitely a proud wife as he was 4th in his class of 40 and was 1 in 5 to receive his shooter's pin for qualifying each time they had a range day. Yay Josh! Now we're back to 4 day work weeks and a weird schedule. Afterwards we went to the Roadhouse for lunch with the Edmiston clan, my parents, and Daniel (Josh's best friend who has to attend ALL of our special events, poor guy!). His family had the brilliant idea to all bring a box of donuts in honor of his new profession, so we came home with enough donuts to feed a small country. Saturday we were off to Albany to celebrate Josh's cousin Hannah's high school graduation - another Edmiston family filled day - and then to my parent's for my grandma's 81st birthday. Our kids were exhausted by the time they got to my parents and were super grumpy. Of course everyone was expecting Sydney to be her normal, perky self, and were disappointed when they were greeted by a crying, whining three and a half year old (everyone accurately plans on Annie being a grump in public). It was good to get them home and to bed. Today we skipped church to fully recover and are sitting on the patio in our lounge chairs watching the girls run around and play. It's nice to stay home!

Josh and I after graduation, in front of the fallen officer memorial

Grampy (Josh's dad) and his girls hanging out

My grandma (left) and her sister Top at her party (affectionately called Grandma Gigi and Grandma Toppy by my daughters).

Sydney and second cousin Keira in the barn. She thankfully perked up for awhile!

Something funny . . .

I forgot to add the funniest part of my weekend. Syd and Annie were playing "Jess and Josh" which is Syd's new game where they basically pretend they're us. Of course, Annie is oblivious to the whole thing. Sydney was in the play room getting frustrated with Annie and when I asked what was wrong she said "Josh just doesn't listen to me mommy"! Haha, I thought this was so funny. =) Had to share it.

Weekend Adventures

This weekend was a little bit crazy, which unfortunately for us is somewhat typical. On Friday, Josh got off early and we headed to Woodburn to do some much needed t-shirt shopping for him. Let's all be reminded that my husband HATES to shop, never thinks he needs any clothes, and practically has to be drug through each store. We were in and out in under an hour which is amazing to me, and headed back to Salem for grocery shopping. After grocery shopping it was off to Corvallis to drop something off at a friends house, and then to Albany to hang out with the in-laws for the evening. Talk about a long afternoon wasting a ton of gas (which is now over $4 a gallon - crazy)! Sunday we had our community group over from church for a bbq, which was a ton of fun. We've been working on our yard for a few months now, and for the first time ever it's looking pretty good. I think we must be getting old, because each weekend we get excited to work on our little projects outside. Anyway, it was great to have everyone over to eat and play games. We've been in this group since before Syd was born, and have lots of good memories with them! It's always fun when we get together. Of course, we were crazy busy on Saturday and Sunday getting ready and somehow I still didn't make it to the shower until about 15 minutes before everyone showed up! So again I am posting pictures of our weekend. I guess this blog is mostly just a way for me to post all of our memorable moments caught on camera.

Adventures in outlet shopping!

Sydney on the way to Grammy's - Always the life of the party on our long car rides

Community group BBQ

A trip to the dentist

The girls "pre-dentist"

Sydney adores our dentist, so when his office called us yesterday morning with an open appointment (I had cancelled our last one), she was esctatic! I don't know if it's the idea of being a "big kid", the free toothbrush, or the sucker at the end, but she raves about each visit for weeks. Yesterday was her fourth visit, and I was a proud mommy! They have slowly worked her up to a full exam and cleaning, and were finally able to do everything except take x-rays of her molars (her mouth was too small). The flouride treatment was the only downfall in her day. She had the worst look on her face during it, and then was really frustrated that she had to wait thirty minutes to eat her sucker. She asked me how long she had waited about every thirty seconds until she could finally eat! I think I'm dreading Annie's first dentist visit . . . she was wiggly and loud the whole time we were there. I had the bright idea to let her play with my phone and she managed to drool all over it and now I can't hear anyone who calls me! She is cute though. =) Anyhow, so far this blogging thing is working for my advantage. The old Jess would have been running late and completely forgotten the camera (which I have done the last three visits). The new, blogging Jess though "hey, great idea for a post" and made sure to pack the camera and take a few very cute pictures. Woohoo for me!

Flouride treatment time

Sydney and her beloved dentist

An update on our year . . .

Since 2008 is nearly halfway over (which is unbelievable by the way), I have decided to post some of our favorite picture memories of the year so far . . .

Ringing in the New Year . . . A fun dinner (with Shirley Temples) and a few games of Candyland and Life. We missed the fun party with all of our friends, but our kids were adorable and we had a special family night.

First snow day of the year

80's Karaoke Night - Let's all remember that we were BORN in the 80's and had to call our parents to ask what was in style! Also, Josh's black eye is real . . . a souvenier from a halftime game of flag football at the superbowl.

Little Annie's first birthday party. We were smart enough to strip her down as she made a huge mess!

The Tulip Festival

Seaside fun . . . A great five days at the beach. Daddy buried Syd in the sand, and here is Annie being crazy as usual, terrorizing her big sis!

The blogging debate . . .

I've been thinking about starting a blog for awhile now. I've had mixed emotions about the whole thing, but after coming to the realization that my daughters are growing at lightening speed and I have done little to capture their memorable moments, I need to stop letting life pass us by and start keeping track of all of the funny, sad, and even ordinary moments that make up our family. So here it goes . . . hope you enjoy us as much as we do!