2010 Round-Up

The year of 2010 was full of lots of changes for the Vastbinder clan. First we moved from Enumclaw to Maple Valley only to move again 6 months later, just down the street. Needless to say, we had two different opportunities to clean out and reduce "our stuff". Not that I want to move again for at least 5 years.

We really enjoy the Maple Valley area, especially the schools and lacrosse program. This year Kari is the treasurer for the local lacrosse club, so everyone is involved.


James Somewhere in between our moves, I was riffed from Microsoft. Which I'm beginning to understand was a very good thing as I'd grown a bit complacent - something I said I'd never let happen. Since then, I've been writing for an online social news site, Infoq.com, and am back consulting at Microsoft on the SQL Azure marketing team. This allows me to stay platform agnostic and gives me a good start at building my software consultancy, abattre. An idea and domain I've owned for almost a decade now. Scary, but interesting.
In this photo I'm attempting to funderwhack as I pass the Ragnar baton to Travis, but I clearly need to work on my form.

As for my expectations this next year, I'm still holding out for the iPad 2, but daily pine for and annoy Kari for the current iPad.... (Kindle on iPhone greatly extended the length of my bathroom visits this past year.)

Kari
This is my favorite photo of Kari from this last year. I played with it in Aperture until I got it looking right. I know it's not a pseudo-professional shot, but its my favorite. AND she looks HOT!!! I stink at Aperture compared to Photoshop, but I'm trying.  Kari is still in Nursing school and since the beginning of the year switched to part-time status. This has her finishing her degree in August 2011, which everyone is looking forward to. Kari, herself, will tell you she is done doing homework and pulling all-nighters studying for tests and quizzes. And, for a short time, Kari was a Cub Scout leader which tested the very limits of her patience and she has since vowed never to experiment with Cub Scouts again... (this is not entirely true lol, ok so a little true about it not being my "thing". lol   I am now teaching the sunbeams (3-4 year olds) in primary, which fits my schedule better because of school :) and I love those little 3/4 year olds-- Kari added this)

EJ
I'm putting up this photo of our eldest as this is how 3/4 of all his photos look like. Him, hiding is face from us to keep from being photographed. He turned 14 this last year which meant early morning seminary and Saturday night dances almost any given Saturday in the Seattle area. In true EJ style, he has yet to get his dance card and as such must endure a quick intro seminar on dance standards at every single dance he attends which is several times a month, even the New Years dance tonight. One day soon he may actually expend the energy to request a dance card and endure the 5 minute interview required to obtain it. But the real question becomes, will he remember to bring it with him to the dances....

TJ
TJ was able to play two different seasons of football this year. He played football for his Jr High team in Enumclaw this past Spring and for the Maple Valley Jr High this Fall. TJ plays half-back and linebacker and can always be found where the most action is on the field. TJ loves to fish and evidence of this is literally all over our home. In any given room, there is at least one pole, reel, piece of fishing line, tackle box, or random lure. The dilemma for TJ is keeping it in a single tackle box and obtaining permission from MOM. With the Cedar River down the ravine behind our home, he's snuck away more than a few times to commune with the river against his mother's wishes.

Rae
Rae literally embodies the nursery rhyme definition of a girl, sugar and spice - everything nice - that's what little girls are made of. Everywhere we go she has little friends going out of their way to to say "hi" to her and I swear she's every teacher's pet. Rae is 11 yrs old this year going on 30. This next year she graduates from Primary and can't wait. At least once a month she reorganizes and decorates her bedroom a different way and is a second mother to AJ.

CJ
CJ is our sensitive child. You can always expect a hug from CJ if he thinks you are feeling down. CJ is now 10 years old and reads like a champion. He's a natural leader among his friends and is always willing to help. He's often my sidekick when I'm working on a project, I thought with being a newer home those projects would go away, but at least I have CJ by my side reminding me not to use those 4-letter words of encouragement when I think they'd help things along....

AJ
AJ likes to show off his pearly whites and is always smiling, too bad Santa forgot to bring him new front teeth this past Christmas. So I thought I'd put up this photo of him to remind AJ of a time when he had them earlier this year. AJ is a consummate joker and snuggler. He's picked up EJ's sense of humor and can already tell a joke with a straight face. Most evenings you can find him snuggled up to Kari while we read scriptures waiting patiently for his turn to read a verse or two.

Plan for 2011

We have many plans for the new year, except participating in the Hill Cumorah pageant since they've denied us as participants 3 years running now. We received this most recent denial letter just before Thanksgiving, but we weren't thankful. I may decide to grow up, Kari will finish school, EJ will be able to get his driver's permit, TJ will begin attending Church dances, Rae will join Young Womens, CJ becomes a Boy Scout, AJ's two front teeth will grow in.

One hot spring day.....

Yesterday, we did some spring cleaning around the house and yard. I cleaned up most the downstairs while the kids and James worked on the outside.

Later in the evening the older 3 went to birthday parties, EJ and TJ went to a paintball party in tacoma, while Rae went to a little girls birthday in town. The 2 younger boys and me enjoyed the warm sun and went out in the yard to play. I went on a mad frenzy of photo taking and took 75 pictures in 1 hour. Here are some of the pictures I took.....

Caleb and Aidan in our apple trees...

Aidan was caught hanging from the tree...

Caleb was hammering a piece of wood...

Ok so I do like the dogs....:)

The boys love playing with the dogs, they are always wrestling with them....

Caleb and Aidan kept on purposefully falling out of the lawn chair....

Around the house....

A playhouse for the kids....

I am discovering new flowering bushes all over the yard, look at the lilacs I found... I love lilacs!

Random pictures.....

I have not put any pictures of the kids up in a while so I thought I would write another post for today with pictures from the last few weeks. I was uploading all my digital from my canon and found a few kids in the family had used the camera to take pictures of things. There was a lot of nonsense pictures and then a lot of Rae and AJ hamming it for the camera.

Here are some random pictures:

AJ- we call this look the "devil in his eyes" look...

AJ happy look....

This is where I found Aidan yesterday after he asked me to go outside to play with the dogs. (its a tree in our front yard)

Rae

Rae and her brothers found robins eggs....

CJ and AJ (taken on Saturday at Lacrosse game)

CJ at the lacrosse game on Saturday

EJ playing Attack on his lacrosse team

TJ playing in the Middie position on his lacrosse team

Check out the purple net (he wanted that color:) )

I did not know my bushes in from yard bloomed flowers! I know have flowering bushes this color, plus a few that are purple all over the yard.

Ouch, a plant you don't want to mess with.....

Ok so this is the plant from H E double hockey stick!. Can you figure out what it is....It's Stinging Nettle and I am feeling the pain from it right now....YES, YES. The moment I dived into it I immediate felt that pain, let me tell you. My arms, around my ankles, neck and a few spots on my legs are all rashed up because of this seemingly innocent-looking plant.

So how did this happen....

If you read the post that James wrote you will see that he complains about the OH SO many things that he has to do, that he perceives I don't do right. Well did he forget to mention that his lovely wife, goes out with this dear husband of her's to cut wood in our forest. Yes, oh, Yes. Isn't that suppose to be a "MAN" thing?!!!! :) (can you tell I am a little annoyed about his post :) )

Well, little Miss Kari, helped James cut wood, load the wood on the tractor, drove the tractor to house, dumped it 4 times over then stacked the dang wood in the garage. Mind you, I also mowed the 3 acres of grass in the yard afterwards. While loading the wood, I happened upon a grove of stinging nettle (James must be immune to it because he was standing in it too and it did not bother him)and have been in pain ever since.

So here ends the tale of the Stinging Nettle giving me a HUGE Rash and feeling unappreciated. Hey, at least I WILL do a "Man's Job" and have the stings to prove it! :)

Hail, Sunshine, Hail, Sunshine, which is it?

Ok this is getting super annoying. It's been hailing, then a few minute later it is sunshine and warm and then it hails again. What is up with that? I don't think in the 5 years we have lived here that it has hailed as much as it has this last week. UGH... Come on warm weather I know you can come :) It makes me want to move to California or something.

Here is the ins and out of what has been happening in the vastbinder household:

Nice and sunny hour (can't say day because this morning it was hailing HEHE)

Our Rhodadendrum's are finally in bloom. Our red ones came first, our pink one are just barely started to bloom. We bought this new house from a family that loved to garden. All the gardens are completely landscaped with shrubs and trees. Absolutely breath taking, if only I can keep it all up. HEHE.

It is sunny right now, a little cold but still sunny. The kids came home from school and immediately took advantage of the sunshine. They went out to play lacrosse and ride bikes while EJ wanted to take the quiet time without siblings and play his Nintendo DS.

TJ and AJ being Goalie (see that ugly semi trailer in background, that is the old owners trailer, they STILLLLLL have not removed the dang thing, I gotta call them to remind them :) ):

Rae trying to catch the Lacrosse ball:

CJ riding his bike:

We recently converted one of our horse stalls to a makeshift chicken coop. They are growing so fast. They are little miniature chickens now. The kids are loving taking care of them, we will see if they still are when I ask some of the bigger ones to clean out the chicken poop. HE HE.

Tonight we are headed out to go swimming at the community pool. We just bought a family pass to have family swim and so James and I can go do some lap swimming also.

Saturday, EJ and TJ had Lacrosse Games. They played a round robin against Stanwood, West Seattle, and the other MV team. There team placed #1. The boys absolutely love Lacrosse. Now if we can only start one here in Enumclaw that would be great. :)

Well that all for now. Going outside with the kids. Want to savor every bit of sunshine the sun has to offer.

Added some Cure, Red Hot Chili Peppers, New Order and Real Life to my playlist.  Enjoy.... Hey wanted to hear some 80's/90's music.  :)

I am going to kick some Dog Butt!!

These faces might look so innocent. BUT......

This boy:

AND this Girl:

DID THIS.....

AND THIS.....

AND THIS.....

AND THIS.....

AND FINALLY THIS (a little of our fault on this one, we should have burned this sucker in a bonfire a while ago, it been by the bonfire for a while.)......

To my yard today in 2 hours times. Why can't they go hunt (it's not like we don't have tons of rabbits, bird, deer, elk, and 10 acres of forest to go snoop around in)...why destroy my yard w/ things from the barn, and our burn pile...UGH...

Any one want to help me kick my dogs butts....:)

I cleaned up the mess a little bit ago before the hail started.....

More Chick Pics......

There has not been an hour where the kids have not visited the new baby chicks. They have been a big hit here at the Vastbinder household! We will see if they are a hit in a few months when they have to clean up Chicken poop. :)

BTW of the topic. James just installed Windows live Writer so I can write my blog without going to the actual blogger. I am loving it. It is so much easier to post pictures and write an entry. :)

Here are the pictures:

Couldn't get EJ in the shoot as he was busy playing Lacrosse. :)

EJ

TJ

Rae (always posses :) )

CJ

AJ