Events for the ages

It seems every generation has an event that shapes thier views and future. Civil War, Lincoln, WWI, Pearl Harbor, JFK, Sept 11, 2001. We remember the events of 8 years ago, 1 month after we got married. We watched it unfold on the TV that morning before going to work. Robert was a sign language interpreter at CSUN and had to interpret the tragic news as it was broadcasted around the world from New York. Emma provided transcription services at CSUN. We were scared and uncertain but did our jobs with boldness and confidence.

We will never forget the heart ache, shock, unbelief, and the whirlwind of sadness and anger that we felt. This morning we put out the flag as a reminder that we will never forget and never back down.

Thanksgiving Plans

This year we are hosting the Thanksgiving dinner/party. I want to make sure I invite the whole family. So, ALL members of the Frost, Sewell, Young, Valadez (plus Chris and Wally) Families are invited. A special invite goes out to the Ken and Darlene Wood, Janet and Tate Carter, Tricia Ellinger, Carol Wood, Judy and Ryan Leonard, and Joanne and Lynn Poole Families.

We have some space to host visitors. The guest room is already taken by Ken and Darlene Wood but we have floor space and few extra beds and mattresses. We would prefer you let us know if you are coming so we can make appropriate plans.

Halloween is our favorite holiday but Thanksgiving is quickly rising to the top. We had a wonderful time last year at the Carters, lets duplicate the time we had again this year.

First Day of Kindergarten

Our baby going to Kindergarten. We took this picture about 8:00am. Cosette doesn't go to school until 11:25am!

Don't ask why, but she had to have her picture taken on the elephant.

The front of the school. She's had her outfit picked out for about two weeks. She loves school and really enjoys Mrs. Marley's class.

First Day of the Rest of Our Life...

Pictures will be coming, the camera is in Rob's car right now.

Anyway, I think my friend Julie said it when she talked about the first day of Kindergarten being the first day of the rest of our life. Right now, my family has at least 15 more years of public education to look forward to. Our elementary school starts at 7:55am. I am so glad Cosette is in afternoon Kindergarten!

The weather has been nice. We walk to school and walk home. We live at the top of the hill and pick up friends on our way to school. By the time we arrive, Cassidy and Claire are with us (and their moms). We have quite the adventure.

Unfortunately, since we do live at the top of the hill...walking home is a much bigger undertaking. It's good for me though. I bought a bunch of Klondike bars in a coupon spree a couple of weeks ago. Couldn't tell you how many are left, but there aren't too many.

With Cosette's first day of school came my first day of teaching at the University level. I admit I had tons of jitters, but those wore off quickly as I started to talk. My problem is, I like to talk. I have to bring water with me and slow down if people are going to catch any of the ultra-important things I have to say! This is quite the humbling experience.

Rob just started back to classes as well. We pretty much eat, sleep, and breath "school" at our house right now.

Hair cuts and more...

Emma and Cosette have been growing their hair out with the purpose of donating it to "Locks of Love". Below you will see the pictures of the most beautiful girls in the Wood family after the adventure. Emma had hair long enough to donate however Cosette was just a bit short. She was heart broken by this but wanted her hair cut anyway.

Getting a hair cut can be scary but Cosette was a real trooper.

Here is Emma. If you look close you will see her hair hanging just below the clock behind her. Is is curley so it looks shorter in the picture than it really is.

Rob did not get a hair cut. In fact as you can see in the picture below he has been growing it out around his face. Grizzley Adams come to mind. behind him and the kids you will see our new car. it is a 1999 Chrysler 300M. It is in mint condition and for the price we would be stupid to not jump at it.
Below is a random picture. It is of a group of carrots out of our garden. Apparently a few seeds were thrown in together and they came up as a family. It may look like one big carrot however this puzzles came apart and was actually 5 beautiful carrots. Now if they could just find spouses and create beautiful baby carrots we would be in business.

Farmers Market

We went tot the local farmers market on Saturday. A band was playing a sweet Irish song and this is the picture we caught. This just tugs at the heart strings.

Summer Vacation

We went on vacation to Northern Idaho, Spokan, and then Richland Washington. It was an absolute blast being with Grandma and Granpa Sewell. We had a wonderful time at Wally and Chris's place and we thourghly enjoyed the Leonards and their new home.

While in Richland we went to a park very similar to the 'story book park" in Burley Idaho where Rob's sister tricia once lived. Below are a few pictures of the good times we had there.

This is Cosette posing on the ropes. She is so grown up.

This is a picture of the Wood kids with Jacie Leonard on the Love Sac. Wow do the kids love that sack.
Here is Ethan being as cute as ever. he spend most of the vacation galloping around the different houses we were in. he also learned how to do a summer salt on his own. it is more of a jump that lands on his head and rolls over.
Here is our youngest cousin Rylee at 4 months old. She was a little fussy while we were there but then again what do you expect from a baby whose life was just turned upside down with visitors.
Isaac can do a full pull-up (with the help of mom of course). He saw Emma struggling to do one and saw Rob laughing at her and thought what a great way to get a laugh, so he did one too.

Over all we had a wonderful time on vacation. Now we all start school next week and boy are some of us excited (Rob is not one of them).

Congrats EMMA!

Emma is the newest member of the Faculty at Idaho State University. She was hired today to teach two sections of Special Education. We could not be more proud of Emma and her accomplishments.

WAY TO GO!

Concerts in the Park

It all started with Emma wanting to play the French horn again...She heard that ISU has a summer band open to community members. The band had 4 weeks of rehersal and a concert. Well, the thing about horn players is there is generally a shortage...so even though Emma was the new girl, they asked her to participate in the Municipal Band that had 6 rehersals and 6 concerts. The concerts were Sunday evenings in the Band Shell by Ross Park. It was rewarding to see Emma sitting in the back with a group of musicians again. Emma was pleasently surprised when on the first night of the concert, Rob started rounding up the kids to go. I thought I was going solo...the idea of chasing kids around for an hour couldn't have been that appealing, but my family came to every one of the shows (and loved every minute of it).

Cosette, Isaac, and Ethan are experts in finding new friends to play with. Here Cosette has convinced an older girl to play "doggies" during one of Emma's concerts in the park.

Isaac generally followed Cosette around until he was tired of being a dog. Here he wqas just waiting for the treats to come out. The band Shell where Emma played is in the right side of the picture there, so we were not too far away.

Emma never seems to give herself enough credit. She is a great horn player. We are always our own worst critics and Emma is no exception. Rob made the mistake of telling her he did not think the French horn was the most beautiful in the band. Naturally Emma was offended and Robert secretly vowed ot never say anything like that again. Emma was the most beautiful person in the band shell though.
Ethan has always been his own little man. He rarely plays with Cosette and Isaac at the park and is entertained by himself. He is really into jumping off things.

The picture below is just as the final concert was starting. They played compilations of Les Mis and Phantom as well as a few other known hits. It really was fun to be a part of.

Rob had to include the picture of Ethan and his OREO face. Once the Oreos came out the jumping was over and the hide and seek with the famous cookie began. Cosette and Isaac would run over, grab one or two and run back to the rocks. Ethan on the other hand never left the blanket again.

The kids are developing a love for music even if they don't know it yet. I assume this is called incidental learning.

Random Children

We love to see our children smiling, so here are a couple of CUTE kids doing what they do best...SMILE.

Who can deny such an innocent face?
Cosette had her friend Cassidy sleep over last week. WOW that was fun! They just had to be twins. This is a picture when they first woke up. Cassidy is not usually up at 7am so she was especially funny at that hour.
Below is a picture of Ethan everynight! He climbs out of bed somewhere around 3amand grabs his pillow, blanket, and whatever stuffed animal might be in his bed at the time. If there were two pillows and three blankets and four stuffed animals then he would try to bring them all into our room or the kitchen. He even uses his teeth at times to get it all in there. He is looking for someplace comfortable to sleep and it just so happens that Robs tummy is comfortable to him. Unfortuneatly, he does not stay very long because Rob takes him back to his bed a few minutes later.

Biking Fun

We had a wonderful time bike riding as a family on Saturday. Rob is done with classes until the end of the month so we thought we should make the best of it while we can. Below you can see the results of ride. Cosette can ride with the best, however she is yet to learn that "hot dogging" is probably not a good idea until you have greater command of the bike. She was so proud of herself riding with one hand and waving at us as she went along, lifting her front tire off the ground and laughing the whole way. It really was fun right up until the very end. We were about 500 feet from the van when she went flying like a trapeze artist (not really but it sounds better).

The picture below is when we got home, her elbow was still bleeding.

The picture below shows the bleeding cheek... not much blood but it was really swollen for a day or two.

Cosette's final injury, she likes to show people this one, maybe because she can see this ine easier.
After hitting the pavement, crying, and lots of hugs she got back on the bike and rode the rest of the way to the van. What a trooper!

Scout Mountain

We spent Pioneer Day in pioneer spirit...we camped on Scout Mountain! The kids had a great time, and we did too.

What does a little dirt and camping make for? Some happy boys!!

What are little boys made of?
Snips and snails, and puppy-dogs' tails,
That's what little boys are made of.

Scout Mountain overlook. As we were getting ready to leave this morning, the POW/MIA bike rally came through camp. We sat and watched 100 Harleys ride by. The boys especially thought it was cool!

July Festivities

We started out with a family dinner at our home on July 12 with Rob's mom, Aunt, and lots of family.
This is the tent trailer we bought for camping excursions. It will be tons of fun. It was built in 1960. We'll take it camping this next weekend.

July 17th was Roaring Rapids day in Boise. This was a family get together with Rob's dad. The kids really had a good time. Like last year, Isaac just loved the "ring around the roises" slide as he called it.

Cosette's butterfly from the Pioneer Day festivities.

We walked...and ran...in the parade here in Pocatello. The kids were great, even in the heat. Ethan sat in the cart the whole time. Isaac rode most of the way. The one time I tried letting him throw candy from the road, we ended up a whole parade entry behind. When he realized he was actually sitting on the candy and could throw it from the handcart, he was excited.

Cosette did a great job in the parade. She walked for 3/4 of it throwing candy out of her basket she just had to have. Before we left in the morning, we picked some wildflowers to put in her basket (she'd seen a picture of pioneer kids and the little girl had flowers in her basket)

In all, it's been quite a fun couple of weeks.

July 24th Parade

The LDS church celebrates the 24th of July as a commemoration of the day the Saints arrived by wagon and handcart in the Salt Lake Valley. Emma, Robert, and the kids will be pulling a handcart in the Parade this year in Pocatello. We will be dressed in costumes as we walk and walk and walk. Come support us at the parade on July 18 starting at 10am at Holt Arena and going down Center St. Following the parade the festivities will continue at the fairgrounds all day.

Boys

I don't have a picture for this, but I had to share the story anyway.

Isaac has really been turning on the "little boy scientist" attitude lately (Thanks for the phrase Gina). While normally I can work in the kitchen and things will be fine around the house, I really have to pay attention to the silence now. I've even had to take to locking my bedroom door because that's where all the experiments seem to take place.

Monday I found the boys with toothpaste all over their mouths, my bathroom floor, and the scale painted with the peppermint-flavored blue stuff.

Thursday, I'm trying to get the house ready for visitors and the kids packed to stay the night at Aunt Janet's in Idaho Falls. Again, it was too quiet. This time, I find Isaac and Ethan washing their faces in the toilet. It was a full on two-hand dip, face scrubbing experience (think the dwarves from Snow White...). Isaac took off running (I guess he's seen my temper before :-/) But Ethan wanted more of the wet stuff.

The only consolation I took was that Rob had cleaned the toilet the night before.

Other "experiments" Isaac has taken pleasure in include: studying the ants out back, digging in my garden, helping me "weed", and filling up holes in the concrete with water from the house (fill up a cup, spill half of it on the way outside, dump it in the hole, repeat).

Kids

Isaac still likes to dress-up every now and then...this time he and Cosette were playing "Cinderella" and mopping the floor.

I couldn't pass up this great picture of brothers who really do love each other. Isaac might push Ethan around a little, but Ethan bounces right back up and wants to do everything his big brother does.

Mary, Mary quite contrary...

How does your garden grow?

These two pictures were taken June 14, 2009.

These two pictures were taken July 5, 2009. Just over two weeks and a TON of rain later, it's amazing how fast it has grown. We've already harvested all our lettuce, and will be ready to harvest some more in about a week.

Sunshine

Here is our sunshine...the kids love their pictures taken.

What a stunning sunset.