Rational Incrementalism

re·viv·al /riˈvīvəl/ An instance of something becoming popular, active, or important again.

2012-01-25T12:56:00.000-08:00

We are attempting to revive our blog. It has been ages since we have last posted. Not to fear, we are still here, alive and well. It has been a big year for us. Ava started Kindergarten and James started Middle School. Two very big and very exciting transitions for them. To add to the excitement, Andrew started a new job as the CFO of a small company, DGS. He is very busy and very ~~happy~~ busy. I will give a more detailed update on each of the children in a later post, but here is their most recent piano recital. We are proud of the work that they all did in preparing for this latest recital. The practice is neither easy nor fun (for anyone involved), but they all (eventually) do it and (begrudgingly) appreciate the results.

Ava performing "Cuckoo"

Jory performing "Minuet" by Mozart

Joshua performing "Ecossaise" by Beethoven and "The Wild Rider" by Schumann

James performing Minuets 1 and 2 by Bach

The Outside of Our Home (and Jory's Teeth)

2010-02-06T17:48:00.000-08:00

Jory lost his front tooth...he's very excited...

Relatives in Germany wanted to see the outside of our home and our backyard and our dog....here it is! I'll post a picture of the front later.

Winter Recital 2010/Science Fairs

2010-02-06T17:27:00.000-08:00

All three boys had their winter recital today. For some reason, the blog will not support video anymore, you can check my facebook page to see video of their performances. James and Joshua also participated in our district science fair this morning and both had honorable mentions.

Air Andrew

2009-12-25T17:25:00.000-08:00

Andrew was so happy to be done preparing for Christmas morning....

James' favorite christmas bingo gift... our neighbors, Sara and Noel, came for dinner, carols, and our traditional Christmas bingo game.

Kids in their Christmas pajamas...thanks Grandma Hill!

Fall Piano Recital

2009-11-04T13:07:00.000-08:00

Jory participated in his first piano recital.

Ava decided to try to pull the camera out of my hands while I was taping Joshua's performance...

James played Arietta by Mozart...I missed recording his introduction :)

Birthdays, Princesses and Penguins

2009-10-22T14:42:00.000-07:00

Joshua celebrated his 8th birthday! He was thrilled to get a skeleton for his birthday to decorate with for Halloween since he feels we are woefully unprepared to present a spooky enough environment for our trick-or-treaters :) He is looking forward to getting baptized in November! We can't believe how old he is...and what a "spec"tacular boy he is (note the new glasses - RED no less)!

We attended a Star Wars party....Ava...ever the princess

One step closer to her life's ambition....Thanks Grandma Duddi for finding the costume for her!

Ava is 3... and Fond of Dirt

2009-08-04T00:49:00.000-07:00

Thank you Duddi for Ava's lovely birthday gifts! She adores them. The book is the new nightly favorite and the dog purse accompanied her to church this Sunday :)

...some pictures of the rest of the delightful birthday day....

Ava was playing outside by herself this afternoon for no more than about 5 minutes...but this was the result...

Jory's 5th Birthday Backyard Olympics

2009-07-14T23:23:00.000-07:00

We had Jory's birthday party tonight. We did the 1st ever Backyard Olympics. We divided the kids into birthday "countries". We had the country of ice cream, the country of cake, presents, hats and balloons. The kids decorated white T-shirts with their country's emblem and this was their "uniform". We then had an opening ceremony where the kids paraded into the "arena" to the Rocky theme music. The kids had a great time. They did 6 different challenges (pin the medal on the Olympian, summer team bobsledding, the long jump, discus throw, ping pong ball races and jump rope challenge) and then a team relay obstacle course at the end. Jory, of course, had a terrific time and was so happy that he finally had his turn to have a big party at our house for his birthday.

Jory's Birthday

2009-07-14T10:58:00.000-07:00

I video taped Jory opening his presents from his grandparents...but Ava bumped into me and the setting on the camera switched to fast record...(I wasn't aware of this until after) SORRY! He was SO excited though....

Sweet Seconds

2009-06-30T14:35:00.000-07:00

I was cleaning up breakfast when I heard Joshua and Ava singing in the living room. It's nice to have moments of sweetness in between the normal arguing :)

Father's Day Camping Adventure

2009-06-23T00:40:00.000-07:00

We went camping over Father's Day weekend to Lake Quinault. While there, we visited the Hoh Rainforest and Ruby Beach. We had a lovely trip. The kids had an amazing time. We camped with our friends, the Freemans. We only wish we could have stayed longer.

Beethoven and Ballroom

2009-06-14T00:51:00.000-07:00

James and Joshua had a piano recital Saturday afternoon and a ballroom dance recital later that evening (after playing double-header soccer games preceded by swimming lessons). Overbooked?.....well, maybe a little.

Jory and Ava's Aspirations

2009-05-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

Jory and Ava have decided what they want to do with their lives...

Ava and Her Dog Neo

2009-03-18T21:42:00.000-07:00

I thought you might like to see how Ava is growing up! She LOVES her dog Neo (according to her it is "MY Neo"). In this video Ava is 2 yrs and 8 months old.

March Piano Recital ...cont'd

2009-03-16T21:27:00.000-07:00

Here is James' recital piece: Minuet 2 by J.S. Bach

March 2009 Piano Recital

2009-03-15T16:29:00.000-07:00

We had a piano recital last Saturday. I realized too late that I needed to record the performance digitally so that I could post it to our blog, so this is Joshua's recital piece performed at home :). I will have to post James' piece later. It was having technical difficulties :).

Christmas

2008-12-25T18:12:00.000-08:00

our traditional Christmas morning picutres at the top of the stairs

The kids in shirts from Duddi

Ava and her beloved tent

the Christmas runner Duddi made for us....Thank you!

After a long day :)

We have had a wonderful, peaceful (well, as peaceful as our house can get) Christmas day. We hope you had an enjoyable day as well. The kids did better this year at understanding the true meaning of the day...a mark that they are truly growing up. Andrew liked the kids new toys almost as much as they did :)...(and I have to admit...I had a bit of fun playing with Ava's multilingual doll). James's highlight of the day was playing star wars with his brothers. Joshua's highlight was the bow and arrow he recieved (yes we are regretting it...no one is safe from the suction cup!). Jory's highlight was the bakugan ball in his stocking...you have to be nine or four to understand :). Ava's highlight by far was her pop up castle..."Come in my castle please" was requested about a million times today. Thank you to everyone for the lovely gifts. We miss seeing you all this year, although it is nice not to have to travel...or pack! Merry Christmas!

Peace

2008-12-23T11:50:00.000-08:00

The kids got out all the instruments and were playing along to music.

It's so nice when the kids get along.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-22T23:20:00.000-08:00

Grandma and Grandpa Hill came up for Thanksgiving. We went to Leavenworth, WA for a night. We stayed at the Enzian Inn, the same place we went to with Duddi when she came for Thanksgiving.

Snow Masterpieces

2008-12-22T23:00:00.000-08:00

Andrew is experiencing delusions of grandeur and has created a luge that goes from our playstructure in our backyard down to the cul-de-sac. Supposedly it is great fun to go down. All I know is that I hit the fence post and decided to be done. The "Igloo" he created next is pretty neat I have to admit.

Snow

2008-12-22T22:50:00.000-08:00

The Snow The Snow The Snow! This has to be the most we have seen in the 7 winters we have spent here. We moved here so we wouldn't have to shovel ever again! Oh well, the kids are loving it!

The Update

2008-12-18T21:52:00.000-08:00

Ava is doing well. She is an opinionated and quite obstinate two year old. She can be as sweet as honey one moment, and in the next moment, wack you over the head with a stick (as Jory can attest to). She is speaking much more, her favorite phrases being "don't touch me" and "no, its MINE", and oh, lest we forget..."I pretty" (uh oh). Delightful, we know.

Jory is still our sweet red-head most of the time. He wants to say and do everything his older brothers say and do and we are trying desperately to keep him from saying and doing most of theses things. We'll see who wins... He is on the brink of starting piano lessons. He loves to play legos and has discovered the joy of playdates when his brothers are at school. He tolerates Ava fairly well and when they aren't fighting in the car over everything and anything (yesterday it was over whether it was snowing or not -"is too - is not - is too - is not" - AHHHH) they are quite happy together, singing and dancing and chasing each other around the house with swords (I tried and failed to keep them from this - so much for my girly girl aspirations for Ava)

Joshua is still as determined as ever. He has amazed us this year with his school work. He will literally go through his homework packet, choose the assignment least desirable to him and say "let's do this now and get it over with". He had to get glasses last month and picked them out himself. We think he looks pretty cosmopolitan. He is pretty proud of them and was even more so when James tried to convince us that his vision was failing and he needed glasses like Joshua - then admited he was just jealous. You could see Joshua mentally jumping for joy.

James...he's nine....sheesh, we have been parents for almost a decade. Hopefully we have not made too many terrible mistakes in our parenting. James is pretty entertaining to be around. He is doing wonderfully with his piano study and is doing well in school. He and Joshua get along splendidly most of the time. They have a lot of fun together.

Hair and Halloween

2008-11-17T00:08:00.001-08:00

Halloween was fun for the kids. Following tradition, we went to Rose and Steve's. Ava was excited about the whole thing and kept wanting to go to "one more house".

Ava's braids...cute

Close Encounters

2008-09-17T19:55:00.000-07:00

Andrew had gone on a business trip to Vancouver and was returning a car he had rented to Weyerhauser. At around 11 PM, he was walking from the rental car lot to the lot where he had parked our 4Runner when he heard rustling in the bushes. It was pitch black and immediately thoughts of large, aggressive animals with sharp teeth or deranged, psychotic humans with weapons, ran through his head. At this point he started to panic and ran. He had been running for a minute when he felt claws dig into the top of his head. This came without any forewarning...no whooshing of wings, no scream of attack... he kept waiting for his attacker to grab his neck or do something...anything else. It turned out to be an owl attacking him. He, of course, started to scream and ran even faster, waving his arms furiously. The bird circled and was about to dive for another attack when Andrew finally came to an area that was lit. The owl flew off, but left him with some nasty, bleeding marks in his skull. Needless to say, this was all really very very funny (at least to me :))

Our Money Pit

2008-09-13T17:23:00.000-07:00

So we finally committed to finishing our yard and as Andrew predicted we did indeed have scope creep (more than we would like to admit to). So now I am obsessed with keeping our money alive (that's how I view all these plants...now...our retirement). Oh well, maybe now our yard looks good enough to sell...hahaha.

Olympic Dreams

2008-09-03T23:49:00.000-07:00

Much to our chagrin, the boys started BMX racing. James and Joshua are doing fairly well. Joshua just moved up to the intermediate division and James is not far behind. As for Jory, well, we are just happy he doesn't fall. After the kids have their first race, the track gives them special "first race" trophies that just happen to be their old tournament trophies. They are absolutely (to use a favorite term of James') ginormous. When Jory was awarded his, he was so happy he wanted to sleep with it. Needless to say he has been a bit disappointed that his subsequent racing efforts have not been so generously rewarded. The kids are having fun and getting some great exercise and now since it is an Olympic sport, Andrew is a bit happier about the whole thing.