Gale Munchkins

So, our Mikenna falls down quite often, which is typical of toddlers. This past week was especially sad. During Kaylee's gymnastics class, Mikenna was crawling up and down the mats, soon she was confident in stepping up and down and then...boom...her poor little nose. Then the following day, during Kassi's dance class...she was carrying around a graham cracker and I accidently bumped her...when she fell the graham smashed into her forehead...leaving an ugly "graham rash" behind. Not sure how she got the bruise on her cheek...maybe you can't even see it...poor baby... :(

Here are the girls at gymnastics today. I didn't have any to post on the "extracurricular" entry. Decided to enroll Kassi in the class as well. There were only 3 girls, so the instructor made an exception and allowed Kassi in despite her age. (We have a small problem with panties hanging out, but figured they're young :S)

May 24, 2006 You can see that soon, Mikenna's cousins will be bigger than she is!! They change so quickly! Sept. 21, 2006

Now that the new school year has begun, and life seems to be a bit more managible (mom is not so crazy) --Kaylee, Kiera & Kassidy get to develope some fun talents. Kassidy choose ballet & tap. She and her good friend Cadence love to dance each week together. Kaylee and Kiera choose to give gymnastics a try. Kiera attends a class with Emma each week (and Kassi may get to join them) and Kaylee attends a class with her friend Hunter (and hopefully James will be able to join her too.) Little Mikenna waits for her sisters to finish each class. Sometime quietly and sometimes not so quietly. Here she is with her buddy Ceder. They like to take each other's binkies and run around the room together.

We came up to Grandma & Grandpa Gale's (Mike's parents) home and there's a migration going on. BUGS GALORE... all over ...everywhere... Here's a pic from my camera (low quality) but you can see one of the bugs in the grass. I'll post more later from my camera. Joe and David caught a bunch (within minutes from their yard) and put them in a bucket. Kaylee is the only one daring enough to touch them. Hopefully I've instilled enough "fear of bugs" into Kiera and Kassidy that they'll stay away. ICK!! Papa Gale said they are merely migrating from the fields to who knows where but they are heading in a North East direction, right through their yard. Fun fun!

We went camping with some friends at Emigrant Springs at the beginning of August. It was fun and the kids really enjoyed themselves. For Kiera's birthday, the plan was to go to the park by the library for a picnic lunch and then have cake and ice cream. We were waiting for everyone to arrive, so Kiera and her cousins took off on their bikes. They were riding after David, who was heading down a steeper hill, (one which Kiera has gone down before without problems) and from what Kiera can remember ...James went by her, so she put on her brakes and lost control of her bike. We didn't see any of it, David just came running up with a very bloody Kiera. She'd cut her top lip, on the inside in two spots, and cut her bottom lip as well. The piece of skin that holds your top lip to your gums was torn and her top left tooth was knock inward. Her hands and arms, and legs were also all scrapped up. Not a fun day :( So, for her tooth we had to take her in to see the dentist. She was v...

Here are a few pics of Kassidy during her birthday month of June :) In this first pic, she's enjoying a popsicle with Ashton. Popsicle's come in second to the beloved OtterPop. Kassidy LOVES OtterPops. She asks for them first thing after breakfast, lunch & dinner; she asks for them as soon as we turn the car off after arriving home; she'll ask, on our way to pick up her sister from school, "Can I have an OtterPop when we get home?" Her favorite color of OtterPop currently is pink. Next you have our birthday excursion to Red Robin (on a Thursday night of course, so we can visit with the bird). Many of you know our family's favorite restaurant is Red Robin. We also like their B-day club perks! Here are Kassi and Ashton again , under the table, at our first campout on Father's Day weekend at Fishhook Park. At last, the birthday and the cake. Kept it simple, with a cute polly pocket Snow White on top. FYI: Kassi still LOVES her Snow White costume. She pla...

Here are some cute JCP pics of Mikenna. She was a bit tired, but the photographer was able to get a few smiles out of her. Mikenna became our 4th fish in the water this summer. We have all enjoyed Grandma & Grandpa's pool-especially the convience of being able to swim anytime we wanted!! I kept Mikenna's birthday cake ultra simple...I really was just dead on ideas for what to make for her, but I'm sure she didn't care, besides, she really didn't like the cake. Spit out the first bite, and then cried everytime I tried to give her another bite. She didn't want to have anything to do with the frosting either. I even tried giving her more cake later on that day, but she still spit it out. O-well, maybe next year will turn out better :)

Once again, mom and dad's (chan) have had a plentiful harvest from their peach and asian pear trees. (Cherry's too, but we ate and shared most of those.) It was Michael's idea to begin canning asian pears tonight, after we'd noticed that uncle had picked one of the trees clean--two huge boxes in the garage. We only canned one box, anyone want some asian pears? They're yummy!! We still have one more tree FULL of them, as well as the other box. Not sure how they'll taste after canning, hopefully not so bad; I did look it up on the internet and someone mentioned that dried asian pears were de-lish. I don't think I'll go there...I'll keep you posted as to the canned version. (Especially since we now have 21 quarts!) We canned 14 quarts of peaches, froze 5-1 gallon size bags and 5-quart size bags...Allison and Stacy also took their share of peaches. Ate a bunch as well. Mmmmm.... Kaylee was the only one who stayed awake to help us out.

It was a beautiful, cool morning-so I chose to leave the door open to the pool area during preschool. Mikenna kept going out onto the deck, so I'd bring her in, then she'd go back out, then I bring her back in....Finally, I let her go....slow and steady....Mikenna took a llloooonnngggg toddle from the kitchen, onto the deck, down the steps, pass the pool and over to her destination--the beloved jalopy. (Below) I'd just asked her, "where are you going" and she pointed and said, "that!" What a silly baby.

Ever since she became mobile, Mikenna has loved to delve into these cupboards-remove the contents and create mayhem. She also enjoys removing the laundry (clean & folded) from the basket, and opening clothes drawers to toss everything out. She has quite the little "flick" in her wrist as she picks up each piece of clothing, one-by-one, and drops it to the floor. Mikenna likes to stand in the bathroom and unroll the toilet paper, often, by the time I've caught her "at it" she has already unrolled the entire roll...grrr... If she's not in the bathroom, I hurry to the stairs, and if I'm lucky, she has made it safely up them to her sister's room, up on the bed where she bounces and just grins. Her sisters, when they see Mikenna coming, will exclaim, "the monster is coming! the monster is coming!" knowing that this dear baby sister will destroy whatever they are creating: drawings, playdough, puzzles, forts, etc. We love our baby monster,...

Kassi LOVES preschool. All last week, after her sisters left for school, she would ask, "When do I get to go mom?" At long last-today arrived and her preschool friends came over...it'll be a GREAT year!

We spent our Labor Day weekend camping at Mt. Rainier. It was beautiful weather and fun company! We hiked and played in the stream, sat by the campfire and ate yummy food! Thanks to everyone who came and hung out this weekend! Look forward to next year's camping trip! (more pics to come later)