bath time

This picture pretty well sums up my girls

A Nahshism

Tonight I heard Nahsh say:

I'm selling my junk. I'm selling my junk 'cause I'm gonna get new junk. Christmas is coming and I'm getting new junk.


An anti-consumerist in the making???

You know you're raising your kids in a digital world when.......

The other day Nahshon told me he could spell his name, so I asked him to tell me and this is what he said:

N H O S N A H  enter

Yeah, the only excuse I can give for that is that he types his name on the computer a lot when playing games. At least he was able to correctly get all the letters, even if not in the right order!

Do you think these glasses make me look smart?

What do you think, ladies?

excited baby!

I really don't know what she was getting so excited about, but thought it was too funny to not take a picture......... or 7.................

Sisters

When sisters stand shoulder to shoulder, who stands a chance against us?

~Pam Brown

Loud Barn Cupcakes

Ordered cupcakes from Loud Barn Cupcakes for Genna's birthday; aren't they awesome? Genna wanted tie-dye cupcakes, and since she doesn't like regular frosting, these were made with a wonderful mixture of cream cheese and whipped cream. Beautiful and delicious! Be sure to find Loud Barn Cupcakes on Facebook!

Noah doesn't just wear Angry Bird

Noah IS Angry Bird!

Seriously, doesn't he look like his shirt?

Sweet boys

Isaac and Nahshon went out to the garden today while I was doing homework in my room, and put together this vase of cut flowers:

Not too bad with their floral arranging skills!

They are going to have lucky wives one day

childhood obesity through the eyes of a child

I have to write a 12 page research paper for one of my classes this semester, and I'm considering childhood obesity as the topic of choice.  Jeremy suggested taking a different angle on the subject rather than writing a basic causes and treatments type paper. I considered writing a paper about childhood obesity from the perspective of children. I was trying to explain this to Bella, and thought I'd ask her thoughts on the subject. You know how people say a child can be brutally honest? Yeah, that's pretty much what I got from Bella on the subject. Here is how the conversation went:

ME: What do you think when you see fat kids?

Bella: It's sad.

Me: Why is it sad? There is no right or wrong answer here, I just want to know your thoughts.

Bella: Because they can't fit through doors, and then you'll have to butter them up, and then they won't have any butter left for toast, and that would be sad.......... and it's sad that they are not healthy and they'll probably get a disease like number 2 diabetes.


(we've had a discussion about type 1 vs. type 2 diabetes, because there is a girl at gymnastics with type 1 diabetes)

Wow. (I did warn you it'd be brutally honest!) Now, I KNOW Bella would not say this to a child, but the fact that she thought it makes me wonder what other "normal weight" children think about obese kids.

flowers!

It's been a few years since I've had a successful garden, but thanks to my mother-in-law's help and hard work, I have some beautiful blooms to admire this year!

I love how this one looks like there are flowers growing on the flower

can you spot my little spider friend on his web?

have a couple pumpkins growing on the side of the house

please don't ask me for plant names; I haven't a clue

LOTS of peppers on my pepper plants!

don't know what these are, but I think they are super cool and so beautiful

a story

I found this while going through some old stuff on my computer. It's a story Genna wrote back in 2007, when she was 5. Enjoy!



Once upon a time there was a princess named Hannah walking in the forest to see some unicorns. But the unicorns had very sharp teeth. The unicorns were going to bite her, so she had to go back home. Princess Hannah lived in a very big land in west Asia, and there were lots of castles there. Princess Hannah’s castle was very big, had very big windows with beautiful sparkly curtains, and was decorated with beautiful flowers. The castle was covered with hundreds of flags, and the flags had flowers and stripes. The castle also had balloons all over. The castle sat at the edge of a cliff, and the only way to get there was on the draw bridge. The draw bridge had a fence so you won’t fall off if you walk to fast. There was also a guard at the draw bridge to keep bad guys away. Princess Hannah lived in the castle with Prince Eric. There were married, and had 3 pets. They had a grey cat with a sparkly collar named Kadence. They had a black and white spotted dog named Murk. He had a shiny red collar. They also had a red fish named Sam that lived in a shiny tank in the middle of the castle. Outside they had a carriage with two brown and white horses named Jenny and Carl. Hannah’s mom lived in the castle too, her name was Queen Lara. One day Queen Lara had a birthday. They had a big party, and then took a ride in their carriage. They threw candy out of the carriage for all the people in the other castles. After their carriage ride they went home, but they forgot to close their draw bridge. Later that night they hear noises........bad guys were coming in! Bad guys were stealing all of their toys, decorations, and their Christmas tree. When they woke up they looked around the castle and said "Oh no, our things are gone! The bad guys took them!" Princess Hannah, Prince Eric, and Queen Lara went to look for their stuff. The bad guys threw their stuff all over the forest. The princess, prince, and queen followed the muddy footprints in the forest and found the bad guys. They hand-cuffed the bad guys and put them in jail in the castle dungeon. Suddenly the castle was at war. They sent the bad guys outside to fight. The bad guys were killed and the war was over. Now it was time for Christmas. The castle was decorated beautifully for Christmas and Santa was coming soon. On Christmas morning the queen got new make-up, Prince Eric got a sword to fight bad guys, and Princess Hannah got a new doll. They had a wonderful Christmas. The end.

YAY CAKE!

I think she might have a sweet tooth.....

no such thing as time off when you're a gymnast

summer girl

Sweet Angel Baby

All tuckered out after a long morning at the parade

CHALLENGE: Clean Out Your Crap

OK, it's that time of year again here in the Cranson household- time for the clean out your crap challenge! This is how it works: every day for one month, everyone in the family must get rid of 1 item. You can throw it away, give it away, or give it back to the person you borrowed it from. It could be anything from something as small as an old receipt or pen to something big like a piece of furniture. My kids actually loved doing this last year, and it really forced us to question our stuff and decide what we really needed or wanted. This is especially important with a large family living in a small house, but any size household can benefit from this challenge. I encourage you to give it a try!

Still here, just busy

Let's start the rundown, shall we?

Why the Washington State University logo, you ask? Because I have been accepted to WSU for fall semester!!

Navigating the ins and outs of financial aid, transferring credits from the community college, and just trying to figure out the university system in general after having been out for a while is all quite overwhelming. But, that's not all folks.........

Genna has been invited to join the level 4 team at gymnastics! This is a huge step up, and she's training for 12 hours a week through the summer! She'll have 10 competitions this year, including two that are out of state. But, that's still not all.........

Bella has just been invited to join the pre-team! This completely came out of left field to us as her coach hasn't said anything to give us indication she was ready to move on. She's trying to decide now if she wants to leave her friends and coach she's been with for two years and move up to the next level (which would put her close to her goal of joining the cheer squad), or if she would rather switch over to ballet instead as she seems to have a natural talent for it. But if you think that's all that's going on here, you are wrong!

A vendor has asked to sell Archys at AquaFest in Lake Stevens! The festival is at the end of the month, and Jeremy is in overdrive to get everything ready.

Of course then there's the whole matter of Isaac just having had surgery, getting ready for our annual trip to the lake house, getting ready for out of town family to come visit, oh- and I recently discovered I'm allergic to caffeine (what a horrible thing to be allergic to!), which means I'm doing everything without stimulants! Yikes!  Hopefully soon I'll have some time to upload some fun summer photos of the kids. Until then, keep your fingers crossed I make it through.

well.....

It's July 1st and the sun is shining and beautiful!! What a great kick-off to the upcoming holiday and the rest of the summer!

Yeah; I wish.

It's July 1st and in classic northwest style, it's cloudy with rain showers.

Guess what you get for dinner, boys!

No really, go ahead and guess:

Isaac and Nahshon did this, and I don't know what's inside. Beans? Olives? Fruit? Tomato sauce? Better hope it's good guys, 'cause it's your dinner.

Where has the time gone?

Those are not her dancing shoes

But she is on her way to her first dance class with Elegance Dance Academy! 

She's been wanting to do a ballet class for a while, and Jeremy entered a raffle at Genna's ballet recital and won a month a free ballet classes- what a perfect opportunity for Bella to try ballet!!!

totally normal nap time attire

(he's sound asleep!)

fly

boy

something to think about

Read this in an article tonight:


According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, one out of every 45 children is homeless in the U.S.




HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?




Think on that for a bit.

gym monkey

speaking of money

How is it that Micaiah and Noah instinctively know when going through my wallet, to only take out the biggest bills in there? It doesn't matter what combination of notes I have, they ALWAYS take out whatever is the largest. How is that?

$how me the money

The kids are always asking for jobs to earn money, and the other day I offered Isaac a job washing floors for a dollar. He then asked me if the dollar would have a 5, 20, or a 2 on it. I looked at him puzzled, and at the exact moment I realized what he was asking he realized what I was offering. I couldn't even finish telling him his dollar would have a 1 on it before he declared he would be turning down my offer.

My little carpenter

Today Elijah was feeling creative, and decided to make a little bench for his brothers. He found some scrap wood behind the house, a few nails in the shed, and in no time at all had put together this sweet little seat. I think my dad would be proud.