Cohen

This precious baby boy was born with several heart issues and after several surgeries within a few short days he went to be with Jesus.

Thursday, July 1st his Daddy and Mommy will be burying him. Please remember to pray for them and the extended family during this very difficult time.

To read the adventure this family has been on click here http://www.inthiswonderfullife.com/

**More Scheib family updates to come soon...sorry for the lack of blogging!

A day of surprises!

Saturday, June 26th was a day full of surprises! Jason had worked from 6 until 2. The kids and I met him at work and then we went to go do what the kids thought were some errands. Jason dropped me off at the front doors of the mall and then went to find a parking spot. I met him and the kids back at the van and told Jason our secret plans were a go! The kids gave us funny looks and then we told them they needed to get out of the van because we were going to see Toy Story 3. I wish I had been able to record their reactions. They were totally surprised and had no idea that we were even thinking about doing this.

Once we got our tickets, pop and popcorn, we made our way to the theater. The movie itself was great! While sitting there, I realized that this was the first movie that the five of us had been to together. We had Ethan on one of those booster seats that they offer, which I highly recommend to those of you with small children and thinking about taking them to the theater. Any ways, with Ethan sitting on the booster, it gave me a view of what things are going to look like in a few years. It was scary and exciting all at the same time. The kids are growing so fast and  I don't want to forget these moments together as a family.

After the movie, I got a call from my "sister from the other mister" (Tanya, my sis-in-law). She and Tyler were taking the boys up to Sumas later that evening and was hoping that our family would join them. After a little discussion, Jason and I decided that because he had been up so early all week and that morning, it would be best for him to go to bed and miss the fireworks. He gave me the go ahead to take the kids up and enjoy the fireworks display. I was bummed that he wouldn't be able to join us but the kids were so excited...and that's an understatment.

We eventually made it home from Bellingham and had a couple of hours before the kids and I needed to load up and meet up with Tyler and Tanya. I spent my time getting snacks ready and making up the back of the van for the kids to lay in while watching the fireworks.

We made it to Sumas and had everyone settled with snacks by 9:00.

Ethan went back and forth between our van and Tyler and Tanya's Denali.

Uncle Tyler had purchased some amazing Kettle Corn. The kids loved it and Tanya and I had a hard time keeping our hands out of the bag. HA!

Needless to say, the fireworks were a great way to end this very fun day. It was a late night for the kiddos but they all did great and we look forward to doing this again!

Field Day 2010!

We love Field Day around here! It usually always marks the last full day of school.

I took the girls to school and then dropped Ethan off at my mom's for the day. From there I headed back to the school to get my assignment for Session #1...the 4th & 5th graders. It was kind of a sad morning because this was Brenna's last field day.

I love that our school rents these really cool inflatables for field day. We usually have 5 or 6 of them there and then the rest of the activities are obstacle courses and games that our PE teacher comes up with. The big kids don't have to do any kind of rotation through the activities. It's a free for all...however, they are encouraged to do each activity at least once.

This was a new inflatable for us this year...the Rat Race. It was harder than it looked. I raced Brenna through it and came out with a "rug" burn on my elbow...I must have rubbed along the stitching some where. I forgot how bad those things hurt.

The other favorite for the kids is the Bungee Pull. The kids put harnessed on a harness and then are clipped on to a bungee cord. The goal is to see how far you can stretch that cord and place a Velcro marker along the upper side edges. The kids love to see who can their markers the furthest.

Alyssa's class was in the second session.

This was the first year that the 2nd & 3rd graders had a free for all. They usually go around to each station with their class. The kids loved it! These kids seemed to be a little bit better with making sure they went to each station and boy was I glad! My friend Janet and I were at the "Tractor Roll". The kids climb into big cardboard boxes and crawl in them to move the box down the field. This isn't a real popular station with the kids so we were glad to see the kids making sure they hit all of the stations.

Later in the day, I went back to field day to see Brenna again. She had been chosen to be a peer student and help with the Kindergarten & 1st grade session. We were so proud of her for being chosen to do this. She earned this, and didn't know it, from excellent behavior and great homework habits throughout the year! Way to go Brenna. She had a lot of fun helping the younger kids!

Later that evening, the PTA held our annual Family Fun Night. They provide dinner and all of the inflatables are up for the kids to play on one more time. Alyssa was so good about making sure Ethan got to go on the inflatables. She and Kylie took him any where he wanted to go. Such sweet girls! Here's Alyssa getting ready to come down the slide part of the Rat Race. Of course, Kylie was racing them through and I have them stop for a pictures..."Way to go Mom!"

All in all, it was a great end to the school year! The girls had to go Tuesday for a half day and since I was the room mom for Alyssa's class this year, I made sure we ended with a little celebration. I showed up around 12:30 with Popsicles for the kids and they were all out of school by 1:10!!

We are ready to start summer vacation and are hoping the sun decides to shine for more than one day at a time.

We set the pool up on Monday, because it was such a gorgeous day, and had it filling with water while we were at Family Fun Night. We finished filling it on Tuesday but haven't been able to even attempt to get in it because the weather got cold and rainy again. :( Here's hoping for some warm weather...and soon!

Have you given up on me?

Sorry for the delay in posts. I can't believe its' already the middle of June. Where has the time gone?

It's been a little busy around here with all of the "end of the year" activities and stuff.

Last Friday was Alyssa's 2nd grade Pioneer Cookout. I was so grateful that it worked out for me to be able to attend this! It had been raining all morning so I thought for sure we were in for a very wet cookout. Thankfully the rain had pretty much stopped by 11:00 when we were starting the fires. (There were four firepits that were brought to the school for this special day.) By 11:30 the kids were outside ready to roast hot dogs. Our teachers do a great job at organizing this event and provided chips and pop to go along with the hot dogs.

Here's Alyssa with Kylie and a few of their classmates...we paired the kids up to make the roasting go faster...2 hot dogs per stick!

It got a little too smokey for the girls so they got creative with their bandannas.

We had laid blankets out on the sidewalks, which were undercover, to help keep them a little dry. It wasn't raining at this point but it was very muddy!

Once the kids were finished with lunch, they were able to roast marshmallows and make s'mores! A cookout is not complete without s'mores. Although, I'm guessing the Pioneers did not have the pleasure of making s'mores. There were so many parents there for this activity which helped make the work light for all of us. We had everything cleaned up within about 10 minutes.

More end of year stuff to come!

A special birthday celebration!

Update 6/20/10...So, it was brought to my attention that I made a typo. And, of course, the birthday boy himself had to be the one to catch this. Nathan, I am so sorry!! I know you are 22, not 23. I obviously did not proof my typing. "Aunt" Tanya promises to not make this mistake again! :)

Today was Nathan's 23rd 22nd birthday! This called for a special celebration!

God spared Nathan's life from a very serious motorcycle accident just over 6 weeks ago. Ethan has been very concerned about his Nay-Nay ever since the accident and would like to spend more time than he's been able to with his Nay-Nay. So, when I told Ethan that it was Nathan's birthday he made sure that he was going to be able to see him! He wanted to take his Nay-Nay a birthday donut.

I had arranged with Janice earlier for this little visit to we didn't show up at the house while Nathan was away at Physical Therapy.

When we get to the Korthuis home, Ethan goes to Nathan's bedside and this is what Janice and I find...

Notice Ethan isn't looking at the camera...he is too busy watching cartoons! Nathan is so good about immediately finding a cartoon show for the two of them to watch together.

Once we got the boys settled, we brought in the needed items to start this celebration.

We left the boys to eat their donuts and Janice and I headed out to the kitchen for coffee, donuts and some chat time.

I am so thankful that Nathan loves spending time with Ethan as much as Ethan loves to spend time with him. The sad part is is that we haven't been able to do this as much as I had hoped. Between Nathan's PT appts. and Dr. appts. and the crazy schedule of the Scheib family, we just haven't been able to make the two schedules line up.

Here's hoping for another visit soon!

...a restful ending and the trip home.

So Sunday we all got sleep in! I didn't get out of bed until 9:30...it felt great! We just sat around all day doing nothing. I spent a little time out in the sun, did some reading, was on the computer, colored with Grace, and just rested!

On Monday, we had Becky's parents (I claim them as my second set of parents!), Frank and Wanda, Becky's Grandma Thompson, and also Becky's cousin, Kristin, and her family over for lunch. It was a very relaxing morning and afternoon. It was nice to spend a good chunk of time with Frank and Wanda. We had spent a little time here and there with them but not as much as we had hoped for because of all the icky sick bugs floating around.

Monday night was spent making sure I had everything packed and ready to go...or as much as I could pack at the time any way.

Tuesday morning I was up bright and early and caught the 9:15 shuttle from Prescott Valley down to the Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. Our driver got us there in record time. It was a good thing too! I was riding with a bunch of retired people and those women needed to back off on the perfume! I thought I was going to get sick from the strong smell.

I was so amazed at quickly I was getting through ticketing and security and then the delay came...I kept setting off the security alarm. I was sure to not wear any jewelry, other than my wedding ring, and I had nothing in my pockets. We could not figure out what it was. So, after the third time of setting it off I was asked to step into the holding area. They called for a female security guard and then it all began! I was taken to a different area...thankfully with all of my stuff that had gone through the belt...and they used the wand. Again, it kept going off. We ended up determining that Victoria Secrets needs to use a lighter gauge wire for their under wire bras! I will be sure to thank them the next time I'm in there. Go figure... my bra set off the alarm. The funny thing is, I wore the exact same bra but different color on the way to Arizona. So, my next question is... are the sensors in Arizona just stronger than the ones in Seattle? Makes me wonder!

When I finally arrived in Seattle, Jason was already there waiting for me. It was so good to see him. We stopped for dinner in Lynnwood. The traffic was starting to get heavy so we decided we would rather sit and eat dinner than sit on the freeway starving. It was good to have time for just the two of us to chat about our weeks before getting to the kids.

The kids were all at my mom's place and were thrilled to see me when I walked in. The girls were hanging on me and Ethan was being a "pill". He just looked at me and said hi and continued with the computer game he was playing. I got a good "love" from him later!

We got everyone home just before 9:00 and I was so thankful to be able to finally crawl into my own bed! I slept great! However, it was very hard to get up this morning!