Independence Day

It has been so long since I posted something... you won't mind that I post new-yet- already-old photos for your enjoyment, will you?

Here's a glimpse of the 4th at our house.

Virtual Vacay

I was kinda bummed when I realized that we don't have the $$$ to take a summer vaction of any kind this year... so you can imagine how excited I was when I read my friend Becky's blog!
She and her family are headed on a 16 state adventure this summer and her girls were afraid of missing out on summer fun at home with friends. So, Becky's leaving a "flat" version of her girls at home with friends so they won't miss out on anything.

Then in exchange, Becky generously offered to take along other people on their trip! (Well... a flat version of them at least!) So, Sadie and Allison jumped at the chance to "Hang with the Hofwegens" on their major road trip. (Grant wasn't interested... all he wants to do these days is ride on Dad and Grandpa's four wheelers.)

I made a "Flat Sadie and Flat Allison" and we said goodbye to them this afternoon. They've been mailed to Lynden and then will leave on the road trip July 2. Keep up on Becky's blog to follow where the Hofwegens, our girls and other stowaways will be this summer!

(And Beck... while the girls are with you in Lynden they'd love to say hello to friends or family there. They haven't given Grandma Sue a hug since Christmas! THANKS for taking them along! Just be sure to slather them up with sunscreen frequently and get them to bed before 10 pm or they'll be cranky the next day! :)

Sick of Snow Pix Posts??? TRY LIVING IN IT!!!

Seriously. The snowflakes coming down this morning around 6:30 am were just hilarious... ha ha ha. So, I thought, they'll be gone in a few minutes.

Nope. On June 10th, Pullman got SNOW. A lot of it, really. It came down hard through the noon hour. And so my kids got to make a snowman. On June 10th.

It's supposed to be sunny and 74 degrees on Friday. THANK GOODNESS!!!

And hopefully you won't see anymore photos of my kids in snow until next November. Seriously.

Steptoe Butte

After almost 50 consecutive days of work, Dwayne was able to be home with the family this weekend! Woo hoo!

When I asked him what he wanted to do, he said he wanted to go for a drive (really??? You've put thousands of miles on your truck in the last few months just driving around looking at fields for work. And now you want to do that on your first day off???).

So, we loaded up the truck and drove to the middle of nowhere to Steptoe Butte. Having been there as a child, I knew the view was beautiful and it was fun to hike around the hill.

The kids loved it. Simple pleasures. Picking weeds and finding rocks and sticks. Eating PBnJ and doritos. Watching paragliders hurl themselves off the hill (that part was REALLY cool). Basically hanging out together-- good times!

Here's a few pictures to share the experience.

Church Sermon Demonstration

At my church this morning, our pastor had planned a fun demonstration to show the height of Goliath (the giant that David slayed).

When I realized that several family members and friends were going to miss the demo due to serving elsewhere during the sermon time, I decided to tape it. (Especially for my friend Anita's husband John who is the base of the "man-stack" in the video-- thought he'd like to see himself!)

I hope you enjoy it-- it's educational AND entertaining for people of all ages.

Not-so-curly Redhead

So my middle child has the most beautiful red curly hair. I remember coveting red curly hair as a pre-teen (A red-headed blue eyed Miss Oregon won the Miss Teen USA pageant) and wished I could be so lucky.

Then God gave me a beautiful, curly red haired daughter. People comment on it ALL the time.

But she's decided she doesn't love the curly hair. She wants it to be straight like her mom and sister's hair. So, to humor her, we tried straightening it this week. And she loved it and showed it off to everyone.

I sure hope she'll learn to love her red curly hair. But it seems the grass is always greener, right?

New Game for your Kids

It's called "Phone Hide and Seek". Does your cordless landline phone (in my case... my ONLY phone) have a "PAGE" button on it? You know-- the button that, when you press it, makes the handset beep so loud that you'd be able to find it anywhere?

Well, a couple days ago, my 2 year old discovered this fascinating feature. (Who needs a cell phone, right?) So, we made a little game of it! He'd sit and count, eyes covered, while mommy would go hide the phone. Then he'd push the "PAGE" button and go searching for the phone. Sure enough, it kept us both busy for quite awhile (and I learned that the tougher the search, the more free minutes I had to pay bills!) Worked like a charm-- you oughta try it yourself!

Sadie's Spring Recital

For the family members who chose to skip the hour long recital of all kinds of kids you don't know...here's the one minute video of Sadie performing her piece, Roses from the South, Waltz 2 from Das Spitzentuch der Konigin, Opus 388 by Johann Strauss II, arr. Edwin McLean.

Notice the three note chord at the end of the song-- that's a big first!
(Turn off the background music at the very bottom of my blog to hear this better.)

Summer Camp at Ross Point

I have some great memories of church camp as a kid. We are blessed to have a great bible-based, safe and FUN camp close by. I went most summers as a kid, and can't wait to send my kids too-- my oldest had her first camp experience there last summer.

I've always remembered a photo (in the scrapbook my mom made me) of me by a tree overlooking the lagoon before campfire. When my daughter was at camp last year, I remembered the photo and tried to re-create it (swapping a bible for a bag of marshmallows as a prop...).

We were both at the tender age of 6 in the photos. Sniffle, sniffle. Wow!

The ZOO!!!

The kids and I spent last weekend with my three siblings in the Seattle area-- so much fun! The highlight of our trip was the Woodland Park Zoo. And who wouldn't enjoy Guitar Hero with your aunts and uncles! (Yes, Sadie's using an umbrella for her mock guitar...) Just had to share a couple photos.

Lenssen Look-alike Meters

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family history - Geneology

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Genealogy software - Roots

A Boy and His Tools

Two photos. Four months apart. Tools for different seasons.

My two year old has "made a living" by shovelling our driveway this last 4 months. Starting back in Novemer, as the first photo shows, his Dad gave him some good training.

Now that we've reached the end of March and see flowers in bloom, Grant retired his shovel and began to service his lawnmower, anticipating the need as our grass began to turn green.

Today, March 27, 2008... he's confused. We woke up to three inches of snow and a school delay. Does he bring the snow shovel back out and park the lawnmower?

Decisions. For a boy and his tools.

My Love

Eleven years. We just celebrated eleven years of marriage! I can't believe they've gone by so quickly... for better or for worse. My husband is really great-- I'm a blessed gal to have such a fantastic man until death do us part!

SWEET!!! (uh... 16)

GO COUGS!!!

Our little town of Pullman is in quite an uproar of excitement as we've watched our winning WSU men's basketball team ROCK their season and now find themselves in the top 16 teams of the NCAA! Good luck, Coach Bennett and team as you play #1 ranked Tarheels tomorrow night in NC. You'll have quite the cheering squad here in Pullman!

This post not for the weak stomach...

Seriously. If you get grossed out easily, don't check out this photo I'm posting. And you may think I'm a sicko for posting it, but it was just too funny (and us stay at home moms need a little humor in our days!).

In honor of St. Patricks Day, my two year old "gifted" me with a poopy diaper. But not just any poopy diaper-- it's GREEN. Yup. It wasn't staged, planned, or "Photoshopped". I have no idea what caused it. But since it's St. Patty's day I'm sharing it.

And now I'm even more seriously considering the beginning of potty training. Who wouldn't?


Here it is... don't get too grossed out!

LOVE Day

Happy Love Day!

I just had to post a recent photo of my little ones and I to tell the world how much I love them. So precious, and so quickly growing up...


And I just got a new scanner, so I had to scan a photo from ages past... almost 11 years ago. Happy Valentines Day to you too, my love!

MORE Snow Fun

Here's more photos of the fun we're having in the snow... gotta make the best of it because it's a nightmare to get anywhere around here with our eternal snow storm. (Did the White Witch become mayor of Pullman without my knowledge???)

Lenssen Blizzard Fun

Join our fun in this 2 1/2 minute video of our snow storm activities... wish you were here to join us! (Turn off my background music by scrolling to the bottom of my blog and clicking "pause" on my playlist before you click play on the video.)

Snow Day!

We got buried in snow last night! Here's a couple of photos of the fun and beauty we're beholding here in Pullman. (My husband is away on business this week... wish he was here to help shovel... I miss you, dear!)

A Glimpse of Christmas at Our House

Enjoy this presentation of the Christmas holiday spent with our family!

New Mommy Blog

I'm debuting a new blog-- Mom-E-Memoirs. It's a place where I'll blog about my thoughts of my life and hopefully share some of the creative things I work on.

So, if you can't get enough of the Lenssens at this stop, feel free to stop by:
http://mom-e-memoirs.blogspot.com/
and get even more insight on my family and our lives.

This blog will continue to mostly feature my kiddos and the day to day news from our home. Come back and visit soon!

Christmas Day

I wish I could somehow post all the photos, words, and videos that would somehow describe the joy, peace and love that our family enjoyed this Christmas day! But you and I both don't have the time to go through that... so here's just a couple of my favorite photos taken today.

Merry Christmas to all... and to all a good night! (These beautiful children are OUT like lights in bed right now... what a day!)

Merry Christmas!

Welcome all you who are visiting as a result of receiving our Christmas card! We're happy to share with you what we've been up to this year.

Scroll through our most recent posts on the blog, and even look back further into 2007 by clicking on the "Blog Archive" links listed at the right of your screen. Enjoy, and feel free to leave comments by clicking on the word "comments" at the bottom of each post.

And don't wait until next Christmas to visit again-- check in on our blog throughout the year to keep up with our family. Or, explore the "Likable Links" to see blogs of our friends and family (let us know if you have one and aren't listed). You'll always find something new!

May God bless you during this holiday season. Jesus is the reason!

Love from the Lenssens

Tis the Season for Children's Choirs!

We had two beautiful girls sing in Christmas Choirs tonight-- Allison was a part of the preschool pajama choir and Sadie had a solo in the production "Angel Alert". They did such a great job we wanted to share it with you. (Again, you can turn off my background music by clicking the pause button on my playlist at the bottom of the blog.)

"Party Cat"

Sadie got to play her favorite piano tune yesterday at her first piano recital. She's being accompanied by her teacher Miss Christina.
(Turn off my background music by clicking the pause button on my playlist at the bottom of the blog.)

Black Friday

What a blessed Thanksgiving we had yesterday! Spending time with my family was so wonderful. I'm so very thankful for each of them and the roles they play in my life and my kids' lives.

And here we are on Black Friday-- I ventured out not too far from home to the local ShopKo... and ended up coming right back home. I think that on this day I prefer the warmth and comfort of my home with a fire roaring, coffee on, and computer for christmas music and internet shopping.

Time for making Christmas cards too! Look forward to one in your mailbox soon.

"I do not like them, Sam-I-am!"

Time marching on...

To my surprise at bedtime last night, I found my 7 year old not just looking at the pictures in a book, but reading it word for word. A classic. Green Eggs and Ham. I remember reading the book as a child. And now my child is reading it. I feel old-- but so happy for my sweet girl who is learning and growing every day.

Let it snow... rainbow style!

We finally had our first snow today! And I was actually prepared with a fun snow activity with a way to "color" the snow. I picked up some squirt bottles from the local dollar store, and put food coloring and water in each one for the kids to squirt at the snow. They had tons of fun, and we ended up with a creative, tie-dyed snowman! Try it-- it's fun for kids of all ages!