Short-ish update

 Wow, this blog has been silent for awhile. I decided to write an update on life right now.
 The first big news that is rather old now is that Emily is engaged!! Jeffrey and her are going to be married in April and I can't wait. I'm the first bridesmaid and sometime this week, my bridesmaid dress is going to get here. I'm the only bridesmaid that already is getting her dress just because Emily wanted to see how this style looked and to figure out if we liked it.
 Right after they were engaged, Jeffrey texted me and asked me to come over to Michael's house to take pictures of them. I came and I was feeling pretty happy that I got to be the first person to see them after they were an engaged couple.
 Besides being a bridesmaid for the wedding, my other important thing that I'm doing for this wedding is making the slideshow. I love working on that and I've already gotten all of Emily's pictures gathered. Now I just need Jeffrey's and I can work on organizing everything.

I thought this pictures was cute. This is one I'm using for the slideshow

Guess what I've already started working on? I'll give you a clue. It is a blog project that usually comes out at the end of the year. ;) Yep, I've already started working on my End Year Review. I love working on that blog post because I love remember all the fun times and highlights I've been through in the year. I can't believe 2015 is almost over! 

Another thing worth pointing out is that I'm now 17. My birthday was very special even though it was celebrated a day late. I got lots of candy and other presents and I felt very spoiled and thankful for my family. 

This past weekend, Mom, Dad, and Michael went to visit Papa. When they came home, Mom had a box filled with all our letters that we had written to Granny and Papa. Each child had an individual envelope filled with pictures, letters, and stories. I use to write to Granny and Papa every week (I still do, but not as consistently as I use to) so I've been reading those letters. I so wish that I could write a letter to Granny write now and tell her everything that I've been doing and whats new in my life. I miss her. 

Well, when I sat down to write this post, I was thinking of all sorts of things I could write about, but now I can't think of anything more to write about. So I guess I'll just leave you with this shorter update. 

September so far

I decided to do a quick blog post on what I've been up to so far this month! Here are some pictures I found on the camera so I thought they'd made a fun blogpost.

New to Old

Janeal, Mom, and I went up to Artist Point to hike to table mountain. It was all fun until I got home and realized I'd lost my little phone that I used like an iPod while sliding down one of the hills. That was pretty disappointing. 

The view

We were all about those shortcuts

The four of us get to be part of the Christmas Eve service this year! I thought all these notebooks with our names on them were fun because it means we all get to do it!

Ya know...making a s'more over a candle is totally normal....

Man on a mission. Who cares that his pants were getting wet. 

Fishing at the river!

That little smile is so adorable!!

Zach wanted to take the twins and himself fishing, but we didn't end up catching anything...

And of course....school.

Randomness

 The trees from the outside are gently swinging around making a water ripple kind of  shadow on the wall in front of me while I type this.

 School has started again for me. I started on Tuesday and so far I like it. I'm doing just normal school...nothing exotic but I still enjoy it. This is my 2nd to last year.

 Piano lessons are starting up the end of this month. Poulenc and Chopin have been on my mind since I'm hoping to play a their music during adjudications and playoffs this year.

 This time last week all the lighters were out except for a few that the generator had turned on. We happened to be out of power for close to 3 days. When it finally came back on again on Monday I let out a sigh of thankfulness but also sadness because I love the power being out but at the same time I can't stand it. I guess you would call it a love/hate relationship.

 I've been motivated this week to get a 50 mm. lens for 'my' camera. But looking for one and knowing the right kind to get is harder then I thought it would be.

 Last Sunday while the power was out, Emily, Janeal, William, and I decided to have a small party over at Michael's since his power was on. We loaded up several different kind of snack foods along with probably all the board/games we own and of course an extra table and chairs and headed over to Michael's. It was a really fun evening playing board games with friends and of course playing Balderdash with everyone at the end made everyone laugh. That game is always a good game for a lot of laughing.

 A year ago today, I went to the store with Mom and Janeal and bought a little eye shadow pallet that had 3 eye shadows, a very cheap eyeliner, some mascara, and some sparkly eye shadow and then the next day (Sunday) I wore makeup for the first time in public. That was a fun day because I had finally hit the 103 lbs. mark on the scale and finally I could wear makeup. I'd defiantly learned a lot about makeup and I love doing all sorts of different things with my makeup. Maybe I should start a YouTube channel a beauty blog. Hmm..good idea.

 A year ago also head another significant thing. Zach and Karin made their way up from Florida to stay here. I have had so much fun getting to know all of them better. I'm so thankful for the way God worked out all the small details so they could come up here. Tomorrow a year ago was when I took pictures of the twins of them in their Big Brother T-shirts and a strand of ultrasound pictures of baby Dwight. Then this whole month a year ago was when the all the work parties at Zach's house began. Wall paper peeling, hot steamers that would steam up your glasses, snapple drinks and sour patch kids, painting, Oreo's, the twins and Karin stopping in every once in a while, laughing and sometimes groaning like the once when Zach found out there was another wall of wallpaper on a wall we thought was already taken care of, Owl City, eating chili in a cup, mirrors that would swing out so I could see several of myself, the B's and Madison who came and helped out, and a check sheet on the fridge that slowly got checked off. All of those things reminds me of those fun days working at Zach's.

 Tommy comes home in 2 weeks. I got to FaceTime him today. He seems to be doing well although I can't wait for him to be home again. Five weeks is a long time to go without seeing him.

 This week my family and I watched, Ben Hur. I've only known the name and never the story so I was in suspense of what was going to happen the whole time we were watching it. Its a great movie (the 1959 version)  and a great story. Now I want to read the book.

Nephew update

I thought awhile ago that I haven't written about my nephews for awhile now so I should do a post dedicated just to them. I keep wanting to call them the Twins but now Dwight is with the twins so usually I just call them the Boys. They sure are a cute bunch. These pictures are some of my favorites that I took this month. 

 During the beginning of the month, Zach took Karin to Seattle for her brithday so we got all 3 of the boys! It was a lot of fun having them. Our house was soo hot though during the evening and I think Dwight was getting uncomfortable. Poor Baby Dwight. We still call him Baby Dwight and the twins pronounce his name, DEE white!

Benjamin is defiantly more of the boy who will smile for me when I take a picture so whenever I take a picture of him, I'll say, "Aw, thats a nice picture!" Then Alexander will be like, "Take picture of me!" then he'll usually not look or do something goofy/creative like this picture:

Alexander

Or this picture. Those yellow thing are his shoulders. I actually really love this picture.  

 The twins have finally figured out that Benjamin's freckle on his cheek makes him Benjamin and Alexander is Alexander because he doesn't have a freakle. So sometimes I'll trick them by saying, "Alexander, how do you know you aren't Benjamin?" then he'll say, "Cuz I don't have freakle!" so

I think their smiles give them away though. Benjamin usually
really big and closes his eyes a little but not Alexander. Haha

when they were here awhile back, I got a brown pen and drew a little freakle on his cheek and said, "Now you're Benjamin!" He got the hugest kick out of that. I showed him himself in the mioror and he was just laughing and laughing and saying, "I'm Ben duhmen!
Yes, that is how they say Benjamin and Alexander's name is pronouced, "Anti lan toe' really fast though.

Dad holding them right after they woke up from a nap. 

Benjamin at William's birthday party last week. Isn't his smile just the cutest?

See, he gets this goofy little face whenever I ask him to smile. Its kinda funny though because he knows he is just being goofy and then he'll just laugh at his face whenever he sees what he looks like. :)

Then we have Benjamin who smiles pretty normally. Whenever he sees a picture of himself, he will go, "Awww.." :) 

The twins also have a sort of new thing of saying, "I beat you!" They love beating people. They beat in racing, in eating food, and in who came out of Mommy's tummy first. So Benjamin will win in something and Alexander will say, "I came out of Mommy't tummy first so I beat you!" then Benjamin will get all concerned. One time I told them that I came out of my mommy's tummy before they did and Alexander will say, "No, I came out of Mommy's tummy first so I beat you!"

Another cute thing they do is when they are asking a question they will start it by saying, "I thought...." and then ask whatever their question is. So once Michael was praying before lunch and Benjamin right afterwards was like, "I thought why we pray?"  It is a unique way of asking a question but it is cute.

This is when he was rolling over. Karin and I were watching him
and he did roll over about 3 times! 

 Now we get to Dwighty boy. He is just the cutest, happiest, nicest, little baby I know! He'll just smile and he really is adorable. But I think he is a little shy of the camera kind of like Alexander so whenever I get it out to take a picture, he usually stops smiling. One day I'll get a good picture of him. :) He just started rolling over. He just gets bigger and bigger every time I see him! I don't have a lot of cute quotes and stuff to say about him yet like I do the twins, but I'm sure I will once he gets bigger and starts talking!! :)

Isn't that little face so cute?!

Me and Dwight!

Jeff and Emily

 Tonight I was randomly looking through all of my blog posts and thinking how happy I was that I posted all those posts/memories because I would have forgotten them by now. So I decided I should blog some more just for my own benefit. ;)

 This post is going to be about Jeffrey and Emily since I feel like posting about them. The other Saturday, I told them I had to work on my photography skills and I needed to use them as 'models.' ;) They liked that idea so I set up my tri-pod and started taking a bunch of pictures. It was a ton of fun being able to fiddle with the camera's settings and working with those two. Emily had the laughs but it made for some cute pictures. :) I put them all on the computer right away but then my editing program wasn't working so I decided to not edit them and just send them as they were. So here are some of my favorites. :)

This one is my favorite

and this one is another favorite. :) 

There were lots of goofy pictures but I'm only posting this one. :)

Memorial day camping trip

This past Memorial day, all of the siblings decided to have a camping trip in the woods behind Michael's house. It ended up only being Michael, Zach, the twins, William, and me staying overnight in the tents we had set up, but I even ended up leaving to go sleep at Michael's house around 12:30. So I'll try to tell what we did through these pictures. :)

We got to the campsite around 4ish and took several trips down the steep hill and through the brush to our 'campsite'. See that picnic table? We were wondering where we were going to set all our food and Michael was like, "I have a few boards up at my house that I can go get." So he went running off. Pretty soon I heard him come crashing back and when I looked over, he had this picnic table all thrown over his head. Zach was like, "Yep, that's a few boards!" We were laughing about that. 

Emily and Jeffrey ended up joining us for dinner so that was fun. 

After dinner, we headed over to the river to do some kayaking. I didn't kayak but Michael and William did. I took lots of pictures of Emily and Jeffrey instead. :)

Nooksack river

Michael and William

Hahaha, they wanted an awkward picture and I love this. They both look so funny and awkward! :)

Better

Then we saw an eagle with a fish...

Once we were done kayaking, we went back to have some s'mores.

The food table. Trust me, we had a lot of food...:)

Okay, I just think that this picture of Benjamin is sooooo adorable. Look at his little face. Oh ya, its an okay picture of Emily and Jeffrey too. ;)

The next morning! Tommy, Janeal, Emily, and Jeffrey left after we had s'mores because they were busy with other thing/didn't want to camp. That was okay because I ended up getting a whole tent to myself. Well...until 12:20. Benjamin started throwing up because he ate to much and I freaked out because I always do when someone starts throwing up so I went back up to Michael's house and slept there until morning. Anyways, I came back down and the boys wanted to go see the water so I took them there. We were playing a game where we had to hit that big rock out in the water that you see. That was actually where I was standing when I took those pictures of Jeffrey and Emily the night before. :)

These two. They are so adorable. Oh, here is a cute story. We went back and were eating breakfast and it had already started to rain but it wasn't to bad yet, and plus we were under a lot of trees so we weren't getting to wet yet. Eventually it started to rain harder so I found Alexander's baseball hat and put it on. He noticed I was wearing it and came and took it off and told me it was his hat. So I started to make up this sad story about how I was going to get all wet and how I really needed to wear his hat because I didn't have a hood like he did. I think he was starting to feel a little sorry for me, but it didn't last long because he wanted to keep that hat. Pretty soon though, Benjamin comes walking over to me and pulls out his hood so that we could both be under it. It was soo cute! He was like, "We can share!" It was so thoughtful of him. I love watching how those two act and trying to figure out their personalities. :) 

That was about it for the camping trip. After breakfast, we took several trips up the hill with all our stuff. I got pretty wet and dirty so I was thankful to go home and clean myself up. Later on in the afternoon, William, Janeal, and I went play games with some our friends and that was a lot of fun. Then I finished the day by watching YouTubes of military men coming home and surprising their families. I had a fun memorial day. I'm so thankful for the people who gave their lives for America's freedom. And here is a picture that really made me think of how some people who have lost their loved ones must feel on a day like memorial day:

End of the Year 2014

Happy New Year, everyone!!! I can't believe how fast the year has gone. Sometimes I feel like we just started this year by being at Papa's and having the funeral and everything. 

Here are the highlights of my year. I'm so happy to have this post out on New Years Day because it usually comes out a lot later. I've been working on this for a couple days so enjoy! :)

I personally started out the new year by being sick with the flu. We also started out the new year with Granny passing away

Cousins on top of the mountain that looks over Granny and Papa's house. It was sooo cold up there.

The view of Benton City

Dad and Uncle Greg looking at their Mom one last time

All of us with Papa after the funeral. 

And this is me right when we got home. I think I was getting a picture of my hair (cuz I was going to cut it soon) but I like it to show my new sweater that I got. It was Granny's but I claimed it. 

Family picture for the new church directory 

Ummm...ya. This is Tommy and me goofing off. :)

My new bag that Grandma made! I love it. :)

 February: 

We got a bunch of snow in Feb. and it was soo pretty and so much fun. 

You couldn't even tell it was our road because of all the snow on the trees.

Janeal, Michael, and I made an igloo thingy. It was really big and cool but the roof fell like right away. That was disappointing.

Look at all that snow!! 

My 'Pinterest Inspired' decoration for Valentines day. :)

Janeal and I served a dessert at our church with the Blankenship girls. It was a lot of fun.

We went to Jeremiah's funeral a month later from Granny's. This was a sad funeral...

 March:

The first day of March was James and Vanessa's wedding! It was so much fun. Janeal and I helped decorate the reception hall. Emily J., Lauren S., and I worked on this little section. It was so much fun to decorate because I love the old vintage look like this. 

Emily J. made this paper chandelier and we couldn't really see it when the lights were dim, so she bought a sparkle thingy and put that in it and it looks really pretty after. When the lights were dim, you could see the sparkles of it and be able to see what it was. :)

The Bride and Groom!

I didn't actually take this picture but I love how green the grass is. (this picture isn't edited) 

I love these flowers because it means that spring is coming!

A random cow at my Grandpa's barn

April: 

Umm..I can tell that Sparky really wants that egg!

Softball!

The homeschool conference! 

And the choir of the homeschool conference 

 May:

May stared with Emily Graduation!

Seattle from the air. So cool...

The first thing I did when I got home from FL was to take some pictures. I love how green everything is over here. :)

A recital that I did. :)

This is when we smashed my Pinata that I'd made in Spanish class. It was really funny trying to watch the boys hit it because they were swinging really hard and not hitting it! Haha

June: 

My teacher's 'End Year' recital! I played Fur Elise. 

Papa's 89th birthday. All of us went and my Uncle, Aunt, and cousin were there as well. 

All of the grandkids went to 'visit' Granny. We got some of her roses and put them in her vase thats on her grave. 

Surprise!! Karin drove up to Washington with her friend, Jamie! It was fun to see her and the twins again. 

This was really fun. We were babysitting the boys for a little and I dressed them up and got these adorable pictures. This was the last time I saw them before they left again so it was sad seeing them leave and thinking, "I wonder when I'll ever see them again." I knew that Zach was going to possibly get a job up here but it looked like it wasn't going to happen for a while.

 July:

Happy 4th of July! My toenails for that day. :)

We celebrated by having the VanderHeiden kids over and Taylor and Lena. It was a lot of fun. This was a cake that Janeal made. :)

...And this is what happens when Caroline steps on a bee. =| Oww...

This is actually a really funny story. So Emily and I really wanted some mint ice cream, but we didn't want Mom to know that we were going to have some so we planned that we would say we were going for a walk to the mail but instead we would get the ice cream and it some in the garage. Well, that one day Mom decided to walk with us to the mail so that idea was out the window. We got home and somehow Emily and I both ended up in the garage. We were just about to have some when Tommy comes driving up our road and honking his horn (like he did everyday)  We told him what we were doing and he was like, "Hey, I'll come with!" so he told us to put the ice cream in his lunch box, but I didn't hear him so I put the ice cream scoop, bowls, and spoons, in the backpack. We didn't have enough time to put the ice cream in because Mom was just coming out so Emily and I went tarring off with my bowls and spoons clanking and making a ton of noise. We were laughing the whole time and it was a miracle that Mom didn't hear us! We ended up making it to the fort and we all had some ice cream. Ahh...good times. 

Sunday

This was a doodle that I did. I looked at a picture from Pinterest so I didn't come up with it...

My home made slip-n-slid. I went on that thing so much in summer and after I was tired of it, I would sit in the sun and read 'Ishmael.' Those were also good times. 

Hay day with Uncle Fred!

My more organized nail polish. 

This is when I learned how to brighten eyes in photoshop. :) You can kinda tell that my eyes look really blue but thats because I brightened them. :)

 August: 

Umm...well we were trying to get some family pictures here but Michael (at the last minute ran out of the picture to answer his phone.) Hahaha

I made this picture heart for Mom and Dad's 30th anniversary. It tells a story.

We had fish and steak and set up a special table for Dad and Mom.

We visited Papa again. Janeal and I had fun looking at Dad's highschool yearbook. We found out that he was the class clown. haha

 September:

Zach and Alexander the first evening we had them over! Such a fun night just hanging out and finding out that Karin is pregnant! 

My 'Back to School' pictures usually end up looking some what like this. Like...what am I even doing?? Hahaha

Sooo cute....I love these little guys!

A sibling (minus Emily) hike to Church Mt. That was a ton of fun. :)

Karin asked me to take the boys pictures to announce the new baby. I love this one. 

Emily, Benjamin, and I. The boys wanted to look at Michael's 'Monter luck' aka Monster Truck...

Zach and Karin's house! We spent a lot of hours working in the house for the next 2 weeks. It was worth it though.

Um, yes, I have way to much fun with the mirrors in their house. They both swing out so you can see a ton of you! Its really cool. 

The boys room wallpaper. Grant and I took that all out and got it all ready in one day. That was fun to be able to get done so fast. 

Alexander and Benjamin's 3rd birthday party! Alexander kept on singing, "Happy day to you!"

Karin and her sisters rented this big bouncy house for all the kids. The boys loved it!

This is a random Sunday morning when Emily and I both put on sorta matching outfits with our pajama pants still on. We sometimes do that so it keeps our legs warm while we do our hair and stuff.

Then of course Emily had to get an 'after' picture so of course I had to act weird! hahaha

October:

A very cool rain drop picture

                                   

Another Pinterest Inspired decoration. 

This is when Tommy and I decided to go spy on the neighbor...

Pumpkin carving party!

My pumpkin won 2nd place! See the little pumpkin?

Such a pretty time of the year

Dad's birthday

 November:

My birthday breakfast

It was so fun to have Zach and Karin here! 

Haha, I had Sparky's ball in my other hand so thats why he looks like he is ready to run!

The Harvest Festival. This was funny because I was saying how I didn't have anywhere for my other arm and I was like, "Here, Roxana! You hold it!" 

Getting ready for Thanksgiving

Michael packing up and getting ready to leave. But...before he left, I had to look at his photo album. 

Thanksgiving! I think Tommy must have said something funny because we all look like we are about to lose it!

 December:

This is what happened in December! I love driving although its scary sometimes.=)

We got to babysit the twins for a few days and I told Benjamin to put on his pants.....hmmm...

Christmas tree hunting!

Me with my nephews!

All the kids on Christmas Eve

And then we got some more pictures after Zach and Karin left. Lol at Tommy's face. It makes me laugh everytime I look at it.

So much fun to have them all back again!

Haha, this is what happens when we got to Michael's house. At least he has a couch to sit on! 

We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house early so Emily could sleep. 

Then we opened presents in the evening. I got a bath robe for Christmas and its so soft and warm!