Fun Times!!!

Last week the kids had Friday off, so we decided to head to the beach. We went to Cannon Beach and found a fun little cave to play in. The kids had a blast jumping the waves and looking for shells and neat rocks. In one of the pictures is of Elena throwing a huge fit because she lost her shoes and socks when a giant wave came up on the shore. I really thought she was kidding because she was screaming and whaling for at least 10 minutes....I haven't seen her do that since she was 2. It was actually very amusing, I was laughing my head off, I felt bad at first, but once we passed the 3 minute point, it was just plain funny! (I guess I'm not the most sensitive mother, besides they were not her best shoes).

The kids were so cold in the wet clothes, and at one point, we looked up the beach, and that last picture is what we saw...what the heck, is this a nude beach??? So funny though! Also, if you look in the picture with Tyler and Mason jumping the waves, Mason is actually in the air....pretty sweet!!!

Mason Turns 5!!!

So, this is a little late, but hey, better late than never!!! On February 26, Mason turned 5! To me, this is strange, because in my mind, Tyler is still 4 years old and Elena is 6. So, I'm not really sure how this can happen, but it has!!! Time has really been going fast lately. Now, on to our son. Mason is so full of life and personality, it is hard to capture in words what he means to us. Mason is one of those kids you look at and you can just see his mind working. He is always wondering how things work, who made things and why things are the way they are. Sometimes I feel inadequate to answer his inquiring questions! Way too smart for his own good. I love the way Mason can adapt so well to any situation. When we moved to Portland, we signed him up for preschool. On the first day of school, his teacher told me, "You couldn't even tell he was new, he just fit right in." I love that about him, it makes life so much easier just to roll with the punches, which he is doing great at. If I'm having a rough day, all I need to do for a little laugh is think of the many funny things Mason has said over the years. There are just a few posted on the side of our blog, check them out, they are pretty funny. One of my favorites is how picky Mason is with his hair, always telling me how to do it. The other day I was doing his hair in a mohawk, which is usually his request, and he says, "Mom instead of doing a mohawk, why don't you do 2 horns!!!" I keep telling myself I'll get a journal and write it all down, so I won't forget how funny these things are. Anyways, Mason is just tons of fun, always testing new limits and pushing himself to new heights, literally, he climbs this tree in our backyard, and each day he gets higher and higher. I'm not sure if I want him to get all the way to the top, it's about 25 feet in the air, but if I let him, I'm sure he could. Exploring and going on adventures is at the top of hist list. So, thank you Mason for filling our life with fun, love and laughter!!! We love you!!!

Caramel Brownies

These are my caramel brownies that my grandma used to make, they are amazing.

1 package (14 oz.) Kraft caramels
1 can (5 oz.) evaporated milk
1 package German Chocolate Cake mix
2/3 cup butter, melted
1 package milk chocolate chips (Guittard are best)
3/4 cup pecans (optional)
1 cup flaked coconut (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Heat caramels and 1/4 cup of the evaporated milk in small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly to avoid burning. Mix cake mix (dry), butter, remaining evaporated milk (3 oz.) and nuts (if desired). Spread half of the dough in ungreased 9 x 13 pan. Bake for 6 minutes exactly. Remove and sprinkle with chocolate chips and coconut (if desired). Drizzle caramel mixture over top. Drop remaining dough by teaspoonfuls onto caramel layer, spreading evenly as possible. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until slightly dry to the touch. Refrigerate until firm.

Fruit Pizza!!!

This is quite possible one of the best things in the world. On behalf of Kristina's request, here's my fruit pizza recipe. Enjoy!!!

Crust:
2 yellow cake mixes
1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 eggs
Mix dry ingredients in bowl until crumbly, and then add eggs.
Press dough into jelly roll pan and bake at 325 degrees for approximately 15 minutes, or until golden. Remove and cool.

Topping:
2 cubes (16 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla
Mix with mixer and spread on top of cooled crust.

Arrange fruit on top in any design you like:
(these are the fruits that work the best)
Strawberries
Blueberries
Kiwi
Bananas
Mandarin oranges
Grapes

Grateful

Sometimes housework can be overwhelming, and let's face it who loves doing laundry??? Not me, that's for sure, so right now I'm so grateful for my mom who took 2 huge bags of laundry, washed it and folded it by the next day...I've got my own laundry service..life is great! Thanks mom for all your help!!!

Sometimes I wonder if all these posts I'm writing are just for me! I kind of look at it as a journal entry to help me remember good times, but it is fun to share it with people. So, if you are reading my blog, please let me know, even just a little comment to let me know you care, thank you!

I've Finally Got It!!!

Ok, so I finally have got a hang of having 5 children. I know, you might say, "well, the baby is 6 months old now??? What have you been doing???" With each of my other children it took about 4 months until things started to get a little easier. With this last one, it's taken a little longer. Maybe moving in the middle of it all didn't help, but at least now I am enjoying every moment with my kids, yes, even when they are fighting, rolling their eyes back at me when I ask them to do something, crying and just everything they do that makes them each special and unique. Having children is amazing. It's definitely the hardest thing I've ever done, this is including the actually pregnancy, birth and raising them, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. They are such wonderful people. I'm truly blessed for having the opportunity to raise such strong, amazing little spirits. I love Elena and how funny she is becoming. She reminds me a lot of me...ha ha ha. No, really, I did used to be pretty funny back in the day. I love how confident she is in herself, that is very rare in girls these days, just this morning as we were doing her hair, she asked me, "Mom, do you think everyone in my class thinks I'm the prettiest girl in our class?" I said, I bet they do, and she said, "I think so too." I love it, such innocent confidence. And, I really do think she's the prettiest!!! She is so great at coming up with creative, clever things to do. She's very artistic and loves writing stories. One day I think she'd like to be a writer. Tyler is so fun. He's always so sweet and loving. His heart is as big as they come. I think this kid has the memory of an elephant, he remembers everything!!! He is also such a hard worker, he reminds me so much of Scott. Just laid back, carefree and kind. I love it, I can ask that kid to do something, and he NEVER complains, he just does it. He has such a strong love for his family and friends, children like him are one in a million. This brings me to Mason, for those of you who know him, he's a very active, fun little boy. He is always making everyone laugh (or cry!). He's so passionate about learning, I always find myself so perplexed by the questions he asks me, I wonder how a boy who just turned 5 could be so smart. His brain is always thinking and wondering how everything works. So amazing. I'm lucky if I can remember my phone number. Mason puts on a tough exterior, but on the inside, he's a loving, sweet, cuddly boy. My favorite thing is to lay in bed with him in the morning and just cuddle. He acts so tough, but he does love to cuddle, when no one's looking. Onto our little Brooklyn, or as we call her, "Brookie!" This girl is so obsessed with the color pink, I can't believe it. If it's not pink or does not have ANY pink in it, she's not wearing it. It's so funny. I love her cute, squeaky little voice, and her big beautiful blue eyes. She's so silly, always dancing, twirling, running in dress-up shoes, singing, "Shake your bootie," pushing her dolls in strollers, playing "puppy" with the other kids or chasing her BIG brother Mason. She loves him, anything he does, she wants to do. Not sure if this is quite the path I want her to go down! J/K!!! When I want a really great hug, Brooklyn gives the best hugs, she just melts in your arms, it's so sweet. I love that her hair is always wispy and all over the place, I swear I really do her hair! Now for our baby boy, Ryan, whom my children have renamed, "GOOEY!!!" Not sure if they got this name from the CRAZY amounts of drool that flow from his mouth, or they just think he's so cute, but nobody seems to call him Ryan anymore. Sometimes I forget it's his real name. He even responds better to the name "Gooey!" He's sitting up now, rolling all around, saying "Da Da" and just the other day, he started scooting backwards. Call me crazy, but I don't REMEMBER my other kids doing this until at least 8 or 9 months. Maybe he's just has super-strength from all the exercising I did when he was in my tummy!!! Ryan has been so funny lately, he just knows that our whole family revolves around him, and he loves every minute of it. He is always getting attention from one person or another, and if he's not, he let's us all know about it. You can always find him with the biggest smile on his face, sometimes I wonder why he's always so stinking happy, but hey, I love seeing that cute, dimpled face light up. Time is going way too FAST, and he is just getting bigger every day! Before I know it, all of my beautiful children will be grown up having FAMILIES of their own. So, for now, I'm just enjoying every minute of it! I am truly blessed with a wonderful family!!

Our School

We love the school the kids are going to. It reminds me of when I went to school. The size of the rooms are huge, unlike their old school, there was barely any room to move around. They have an awesome playground, and they even have swings!!! They have PE 2 times a week, and music on the other 2 days and on Friday they have Rhythm, which is where they learn dances. They even have Spanish on the days they have music. It's so fun. The kids have made a lot of friends already, and they love going to school. I think being the new kids was actually really great for them, because everyone would fight over who gets to sit by them or play with them, it has been fantastic. I also have to mention how much I love the homework....only 1 page a night. Much better than Elena's 60-90 minutes at her old school. In music class, Elena is learning to play the recorder...I love it, I still remember how to play it!!!

My New Best Friend!!!

So, I've discovered a new best friend. Scott and I have been trying to eat more vegetables, so we started trying these Ziploc Zip n Steam bags. I absolutely love them. We've cooked chicken in them and it was so fast and so tender. Every night with dinner we throw zucchini, broccoli, carrots and sometimes red potatoes in the bag and it's ready in less than 6 minutes. My children are loving it as well, Brooklyn can't get enough zucchini, which she calls, "pickles!" Anyways, just wanted to share this with all of my friends and family in case you are interested in eating more veggies, and needing a new way to cook them!!!

Winter

Here are some pictures from our winter wonderland!!

The first pictureis the view we get out our front window,

the second one is the kids going to catch the bus in the snow!!

They loved it. It's been a long time since any of us have seen

snow like that!

Prayer!!!

So Booklyn has now started saying her own prayers, we are so proud!! It's quite adorable actually, she might say something like this, "Heavenly Father, thank you to food, Heavenly Father, thank you to broccoli, thank you to mommy, thank you Linguine make good food (she had just watched Ratatouille) thank you Jesus Christ, amen." Might I add as she says "amen," she raises her hands straight up in the air. Anyways, the other night she went on and on and on and finally after about 2 minutes of nonstop worship, Tyler, who is the most patient of all of us shouts out a sigh and says, "I just can't take it anymore!!!" It was hillarious!

P.S. Today Ryan said "Da Da!" Of course, Scott thinks it's because he loves him the most, I just nod my head, and say "of course, Dear!!!"

West Hills Ward

The ward received our records in our new ward this Sunday and were officially welcomed in. After Sacrament meeting the members we greeting us with phrases like, "Did I hear right, you have 5 kids?" and "You're the new family with 5 kids." I guess we stick out a little. In the Summit ward it wasn't all that uncommon for us and our friends to have that number, or more!
We were invited over to our new friends Jeff and Natalie Call's house after church. I told Jeff that my grandmother was a Call, and that my dad was born in Afton, WY. After chatting for a while, Jeff decides to go on the church's new website (new.familysearch.org). What do we find out?..... his grandfather is my great grandfather, or in other words, his father and my grandmother are half siblings. (My great grandfather and his first wife had my grandmother, she died and he remarried and with his second wife had Jeff's dad!) Cool. I can't wait to talk to his Jeff's dad when he gets off his mission.

The West Hills ward is also setting a lot of records for the Humphrey family as well. Since receiving our records on Sunday, we've had the primary president, the bishopbric and the Relief Society Presidency come over to our house. Wow. Is that a welcome or what. I can't recall in my entire life ever having the Bishop ever coming over to my house. They really know how to make us feel important. I can't forget the Elders quorum, in our new ward either, they came out in numbers to help us move in to our new home. Thank you. I would be ungrateful if I didn't thank the Summit ward's Elder's quorum for helping us move out, Thank you as well.

The wonder of it all

All in all we had a wonderful vacation/trip up to Portland. None of the places we went to were busy at all, which allowed the kids to wander and explore as much as their parents would allow. Hearst Castle was the only hard part for the kids, as it was a living museum and no flash photography was allowed in or OUT of the castle grounds. The younger kids were getting a little rowdy outside the front of the castle and the guides suggested that they go inside to a quite room to play. This allowed Darcy to feed the baby and allowed Brooklyn to play with some toys, and get some of their energy out without disturbing the other visitors.
Sequoia was great. I think we saw maybe a dozen other cars the whole time we were there. It felt like we had the whole park to ourselves. The kids and I loved it. (Darcy was not comforted in the fact that no one would hear our screams, if a bear or mountain lion attacked) The kids could be as loud as they wanted and not disturb anyone. We had an amazing experience seeing the wonder of the some of the largest trees in the world. The few visitors we did see were mostly foreigners. It reminded me of when we went to the San Diego Zoo in October (kids are free for the whole month). A lot of people were speaking in foreign languages. The zoo wasn't that crowded then either.
Yosemite was awesome. Again not a lot of people. We did meet up with a family from England that we met in Sequoia, and their daughter, who was about Elena's age, and about her height too. If Brooklyn hadn't gotten sick we would have been able to have hiked a few more trails. She was able to ride "shotgun" on Darcy's lap. Maybe it was the insanely windy roads or the entire pack of ice breaker sours that she ate that made her throw up. We knew when it was time for her to throw up because she'd say, "Don't like it throw up." Not very enjoyable for Darcy who had to hold her for the hour trip on these curvy roads. We all wish we had a few more days there to see the grandeur of it all. We were able to get up to Glacier Point before they closed it the next day for the winter months. Hiking up to Glacier Point and Moro Rock and seeing the views were breath taking.
I think I should be out of work more often. j/k

All in all the trip was great. The day before we left Fontana there was a car chase that ended in front of our house to wish us goodbye with Fontana PD and Sheriff lights flashing all around, and even a helicopter overhead for over an hour wishing us goodbye. One of the suspects only broke in and barricaded himself in our neighbors house for an hour or so.
Arriving into OREGON, we were greeted with snow. Lots and Lots of SNOW. Roads were closed. What should have taken us 8 hours took over 13. Did I mention there was lots of snow. Record breaking snow. It broke records dating back to the January 1950. Welcome to the cold Humphrey family.

Best picture ever

Okay, for 4 months we've been trying to take a picture of Ryan
that shows just how cute he really is, I think we nailed it!!!
Call me a little biased, but I think he looks just adorable!!!!!

Ryan was priviledged to have his first taste of real food a

couple days ago...Mason thought he'd be nice and share his

gummy bears with his little brother(the one time Mason has

been willing to share!!!). Thankfully Scott was right there and

noticed Ryan choking and was able to turn him over and give him

some good back blows, but the gummy bear managed to slip down

his throat into his little tummy. Scott said after the fear of the whole

situation was over, he couldn't help but laugh as Mason sat there crying,

saying, "Why didn't you tell me he couldn't have gummy bears???"

I guess what had happened is while Scott was installing a shelf in our

kitchen cupboard, Mason was helping him out and Scott vaguely remembers

Mason saying something about "Ryan" and a "Gummy Bear." It was one of those

not so great parenting moments where you barely hear what your child says and

you agree to it anyway. So, poor Mason was so confused about why dad said he could

have a gummy bear one second and the next his little brother was choking to death.

Life is just full of surprises, I guess the earlier he learns this the better! ;-)

Yosemite

I love the picture of Ryan pointing towards the sky, I thought is was cute. Anyways, Yosemite was so fun. Spending 2 days there was barely enough time to see everything we wanted. We were able to go on a couple hikes and drove to some pretty spectacular view points. Half Dome is so beautiful, and just the waterfalls, there were too many to count.



And, what's a family excursion without Mason acquiring some major injury...that's right, he decided to walk along a wood fence about 3 feet in the air and did a lovely face plant onto the cement! Luckily no stitches required this time.

Sequoia National Park

The highlight of the whole trip for Scott and I

was the 400+ steps up Morro Rock. The view

was one of the most amazing thing we've ever seen .

We were able to make it to the top just before the sun was setting.

You could see forever. We took tons of pictures, but none of them do it justice.

The only thing in my book that comes close in comparison is seeing the

Delicate Arch at Arches National Park in Utah at sunset.

This was such a feeling of awe and amazement to see one

of the most beautiful of God's creations.

Solvang

Yes, we are here in Portland and now I finally have a little time to update the blog. I know it took forever, sorry, things have been a little busy. My parents spent tons of time getting the house ready, but there was still a lot to be done, so we actually just had our first night in our house on Jan. 9th. Before that, we were staying with my parents. First of all, we would like to update you all on our amazing trip up here. Since we have so many pictures, I'll be updating them in sections.

We started our trip in Solvang, CA...it was so much fun. The kids ate their first abelskeiver

(a danish dessert, kind of like a round puffy pancake), they loved it so much that Mason and Brooklyn licked their plate clean.

Hearst Castle

After our relaxing 2 days in Solvang, we were able to head
up the coast to see the beautiful Hearst Castle. Scott,
having served a mission in Spain, has been priveledged
enough to witness these amazing structures,
but I have never seen anything like it.
Words cannot explain how pretty everything was.
My absolute favorite part of the whole thing, was the
outdoor pool. The view of the ocean from that spot was
so beautiful. I would love to go for a swim and step out
of the pool to that view, heck I'd just be happy to have
a pool!!!