Summer Raspberries!

In the Hale family there is nothing more precious than raspberries. I was so excited to find u-pick raspberry feilds in Oregon and Washington to be able to pick berries with my kids- just like I did when I was little with my own family at our own rasberry patch. Ellie and Sam were excellent raspberry pickers and picked as much as I did. Jayne kept eating them but after seeing the other kids buckets she caught the vision and wouldn't eat any more because she was "saving them." We picked 12 lbs of rapsberries in less than an hour. The berries were huge! Picking raspberries means summer to me!

Giant Rapsberry FIngers

Ellie's Bucket!

The Rasberry Crew

Crazy Kiddos!

Here's these cute kids that I claim as mine!

Sam, along with girls have loved the neighbors kittens. He is such a great kid. He and I went on a Mother/Son date last night. I had so much fun talking with him. We picked up our movie tickets, grabbed some Panda Express for him and a salad for me, and sat and talked. I asked him if he was happy here in Seattle and he said yeah, and that he liked it here. We also discussed Poptropica and Pokeman. I am cluesless to both. But it was fun to hang out with him. We saw A Night at the Museum 2 and Sam gave it two Thumbs up.


Ellie is such a doll. She has been working on getting her bottom right tooth out for days now. That leaves her with only a couple left in her mouth. I love her toothless grin. Yesterday she had 3 of her little girl friends over for a end of the year Tea party. She has collected some new tea cups. She did something so mature during the play date. As they sat down for the tea party two of the little girls were fighting over a chair. I was in the kitchen as was seeing if they could just work it out. Ellie was sitting on the other chair. The two girls won't let go of the other chair. So Ellie got up and said they could have her chair. I was so proud of her for being such a peace maker. But that is the type of person she is, even at a young age she has such a pure heart and good intentions.

Princess Jayne! So darling and charming! So uncooperative! She was out in her princess dress sitting on a stool, so I grabbed my camera to take a picture, but she won't look at me once and she would pretend to fall off the stool every time she got back on! Yes she marches to her own princess drum. She has such enthusiasm about life that we are all holding on to her coat strings. My favorite thing she does is sing like a rock star! She will be closing her eyes, chin up, swaying her head back and forth and singing at the top of her lungs something about "I love my life." Then she'll coach me how to do it. "Okay Mom, close your eyes, and sing louder!" I've got to get her on video to record for her future career as a super star!

Seth has the girls for a Father daughter camp out this weekend. He called at 11 p.m. last night with the girls still awake. I am sure they are having the time of their lives. I am so grateful to Seth for being such a great father!

Jayne- How could we live without her!

I came home from Sam's soccer practice and Jayne wanted to make some small talk. She pulled up to the bar and asked,"So Mom, how was it going at brother's soccer game?" I loved it.

We were walking in the parking lot of the school to meet them after school and the wind came up and Jayne brushed her hair out of her face and looked at me so annoyed. Me- You know like the wind. Jayne- The wind is not my favorite! I cracked up laughing.

The weather was incredible yesterday, so we packed up the bikes and went down to the bike trail. Sam on his bike, Ellie on the trail-a-bike behind me, and Jayne in the bike trailer behind Seth. We rode a couple miles to Woodinville (another town). We got dinner there and ate outside. Jayne was so happy all she could do was sing. She made up her own song singing,"You know what! You know what! You know what." At the top of her lungs with twirling in between. She sang the whole way home in the trailer.

She put her lawnmower in timeout today for being a "meanie."

Everyday when the kids are at school she askes,"Where are my brother and sister?" She misses them every minute they are away! I was picking her up and she came running to me saying,"Did you pick up my kids for me?" Meaning Sam and Ellie.
Or, "Where's my Dad?" She answers herself,"Oh, the office."

With a pink backpack on and a baby under her arm wherever she goes, she's ready to conquer the world.

Mother's Day!

So I was feeling a bit guilty for not blogging like I said I would, but today (my day off) I wanted to write about Mother's Day. I just returned from my Grandma Farrell's 90th birthday party. At the party my Uncle, her only son, was asked to give the tribute to Grandma. I was so touch at the way he described her. The part I remember most went like this, ... "although I may not have grown up to be exactly the son you wanted me to be, thank you mom for making me feel like I did." That was in my words, I wish I could have remembered exactly what he said, but that was the jist of it. I thought of what a great example of a mother my Grandma is. I love that her son would say that about her. I hope that I can follower her example and make my children understandd their own brilliant selves. I love them dearly and I fell so lucky to be there mom. On my trip to Utah for my Grandmother's party I got to take her pictures the day before. It was super fun and will be one of my fondest memories with my Grandma. I only got about 2 words in the 5 hours we were together, but we did talk about how each of our children are so different. Sam wakes up early (6:30ish), pulls out his book to read to get his homework done before school. Then he practices the piano, gets ready for school and is off. He is gifted in reading, in music, and sports. Ellie on the other hand, sleeps in, wakes up famished from the whole night without food, pulls out her paint brush and starts on her art work. She is gifted in art, athletics, and she is very compassionate. She is always thinking of others. Then the Princess arises. Jayne. She wakes up when she pleases and starts ordering us all around. She is gifted with confidence, imagination, and beauty. She loves to primp (so I am not sure whose child she is). She needs her hair done, make-up on, and only wear's Princess skirt or dress (no pants allowed). They are all so different and they all amaze me. I feel so privilege to be there Mom. They inspire me and teach me daily. I have decided to not feel guilty on Mother's Day about all the things I have done as a mom (I'll save that for another day of the year), instead I am so grateful to be a mom. I kept saying "I can't wait for Mother's Day! It's one of my favorite days of the year." The kids caught on and were so excited to get up and make me breakfast in bed that Ellie woke up at 6:10 a.m. and then woke up Sam, and they came an woke up Seth to help! I love that they would be so enthusiastic. They just gave me a my Mother's Day presents. Ellie painted a pot at school with the plant in it, and Sam bought me Peter Pan in VHS at the used book sale at his school for $1 because he knows that Peter Pan is my favorite. So thoughtful. We're pulling out the vidoe machine to watch it together today! And Jayne stayed in her own bed all last night (with some help from Seth), which was a great present! Thanks to Seth for joining me in the crazy adventure as parents and putting up with my insanity which is given to all mothers! So, I love Mother's Day. I am trying to change it to Mother's Week. I could handle daily breakfast in bed and no getting up with children for a whole week. Thanks for spoiling me Seth. A special love to my Mom and Mother-in-law for being such great Mothers. Loves Amy

The New Year

The New Year brings my long list of New Years resolutions. Blogging is on the list, and pretty high up on it! I have wanted to join this hobby for my own sake of documenting life. So, as much as I am excited for you to follow some of the happenings of our family, I am mostly excited to get down whats up in life for my own family's sake.
I am so excited for 2009. I have to say 2008 was kind of a mess. The list is long of our crazy life- Seth had a job change (from Intel to Microsoft), finished remodelling our Oregon home, sold our home, moved to Seattle, house hunted for 5 months, bought a home, Ellie had a major bike accident that put her in the hospital for a week, with recover for a couple weeks, the kids started new schools, Sam played soccer, Ellie started a music class while on restriction with a broken leg, Jayne turned two, Amy holds on to sanity, and well, the rest of the stuff is the day to day stuff. Our Christmas card was titled "We Believe in Miracles" because of the amazing blessing that counteracted all of the crazy events this year. So I look forward to 2009, realizing we survived 2008.