Trekking Merricks

Costume Fun

2008-08-31T22:44:00.001-07:00

Thanks for the robot shirt Auntie Becky!

2008-08-23T11:29:00.000-07:00

We still haven't found the camera battery charger since we've moved so I'm down to using the webcam to take pictures. We're going to lunch with my Aussie friend Christina and the weather is nice and cool today - the perfect day for Lochie to wear his new robot shirt Auntie Becky sent him.

We're going to the Library Coffeehouse in Meridian. I used to study there when I was in hygiene school and one of the owners is such a nice man he even fixed a computer laptop problem for me for free once then helped me order more RAM online and then I took the computer back to him and he installed it for me for free. It's a great little place and their cinnamon rolls are voted Best in Boise! Yum!

4 year old viewpoint

2008-08-12T02:05:00.000-07:00

Lachlan and I were practicing counting today by using a cute computer game of math activities. The game called for him to use the mouse and "drag & drop" a certain number of fruit/vegetables into an Elf's picnic basket that the elf asked for.

The elf asked for 6 strawberries, 0 (zero) mushrooms and two pears. Lachlan loves this game and straight away counted out six strawberries into the elf's basket. He then counted out the pears - but instead of clicking the basket closed so the elf could "check" the order and reward points, Lochie started trying to place mushrooms into the basket.

I reminded him that the elf requested zero mushrooms, but still he tried hard to click and drag the mushrooms over onto the basket and each time the game rejected this because it was incorrect. Lochie became so determined and frustrated and kept trying to add the unwanted mushrooms to the basket that finally I said "Honey, the elf doesn't want any mushrooms - just 6 strawberries and 2 pears. Stop trying to put mushrooms in his basket".

He replied with consternation "But Mum, I HAVE to put mushrooms in the basket - the elf HAS to eat his vegetables if he wants to eat the strawberries for dessert!".

I got a good chuckle as he was so serious about it. Obviously we've impressed upon him the need to eat his veges before treats!

No new news on the homefront

2008-08-04T11:37:00.000-07:00

So I give you... dramatic prairie dog!

Rainy Day

2008-07-22T12:57:00.000-07:00

We had a loud, booming thunderstorm last night and some more storms today. It makes for much cooler weather and Lochie is having an indoors days today watching his new Veggietales DVD and playing with his toys in his room. It's supposed to clear up tomorrow and we're set to have 90 degree days the rest of the week :(

Baby Kinley is here!

2008-07-20T22:03:00.001-07:00

My dear friends Shanell & Darren W. welcomed their fifth beautiful baby tonight!

Shanell is such a champion - she had a very difficult week and a half of on-again-off-again active labor but it was all worth it because Kinley is such a sweet little girl - a beautiful head of soft, dark, short downy hair and very good looking for a newborn!

Her full name is Kinley Sue W. and she weighed in at a healthy 9lb 10oz (Shanell's biggest baby yet! Kiera was 9lb 1oz) and 22 1/2" long. She was born at 7:40pm on Sunday, July 20th at a local birthing center and is baby sister to Kyler, McKenna, Kiera and Konnor.

I am so honoured to have been able to hold both Konnor and now Kinley soon after each was born and am so proud of Shanell - she is such a great Mum and did such a great job!

Lochie @ Settlers Park with new bike

2008-07-16T22:17:00.000-07:00

Spiderman bike!

2008-07-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

Lochie's Nana & Poppa gave him a special surprise treat for the Summer - a new bike! We went down to Settlers Park and Lochie learned how to ride it! He took to it like a duck to water and after only about 40 minutes he was able to brake, steer and ride by himself - only falling off twice when rounding corners. He was very excited!

Berry picking & sprinkler fun in our backyard

2008-07-09T00:29:00.001-07:00

Summer Raspberries

2008-07-07T13:27:00.001-07:00

We are fortunate that our new house had a raspberry bush already planted when we moved in and in the next week or two we should be able to harvest delicious, sweet ripe raspberries! We have picked a few that were ready early and they were quite sweet and juicy so we are excited about this next batch ready to pick! Lochie is such a big helper with watering the garden. Daddy planted a tomato shrub, some potatoes (well we ARE in Idaho!), some sweet potatoes and some spring onions. He also planted some seeds which will grow an array of flowers that attracts hummingbirds & butterflies. We're a little late in the season for planting, but the people at Zamzows thought we might be ok since it has been quite a mild summer so far. Here are some pictures and video of our raspberries and red rose bush in our backyard...

4th July video

2008-07-05T14:54:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th July!

2008-07-05T12:57:00.000-07:00

We had fun celebrating America's birthday yesterday with the McDonald family and had some great BBQ followed by some fireworks. The boys had fun with water balloons, glow sticks and bubbles but of course for Lochie the highlight of the night was the fireworks. His favourite was a little one that looked like a cardboard monkey driving a car. I found a picture online of what it looks like pre-lit. The thing lasted like 12 seconds and moved forward probably 8 inches - but Lochie is still talking about that one today! We had cool spinners, flashers and pretty glitter cones but it was the monkey drive one that did it for Lachlan! I really liked the ground blossoms (?) that spun around in different colours and also the glitter cones. My friend Shanell provided some great fireworks for us (they're running a stand this year) and Josh got some great ones too so between ours, the neighbours across the street and the sky lit up with pretty illegal fireworks from people in neighbouring subdivisions we had quite a great display! As always, Lachlan was so excited to spend time with his "best friend" Aiden - he is always SO excited to play with him and the older boys too. Lachlan is so cute because whenever he talks about Aiden he always calls him "my best friend Aiden" - as in, "Are we going to my best friend Aiden's house?" or "Me and my best friend Aiden played with the glow sticks like lightsabers!". Aiden is a super-cute little boy and he is such a crack-up because he is always so animated and excited about everything I find myself grinning whenever I'm around him. We had so much fun and it was a really relaxed, enjoyable holiday. Here are some pics of Lachlan in our front yard before we went over to the McDonalds and also some of the boys and the fireworks (I didn't use a flash so they are a bit blurry but it captured the fireworks better).

First BBQ in the new house

2008-06-22T23:37:00.000-07:00

We had our first barbeque in our new house this Sunday evening and it was so much fun! We used to barbeque in the old house but the barbeque sat out in our back driveway off the alley and any random stranger driving by or walking past would say "Smells like you're havin' a barbeque!" or "Grillin?" or some other genius comment like that. And also anytime a car plummeted down the dusty back alleyway it would kick up so much dust we'd hurry to shut the lid on our little Weber so we didn't end up with dirt burgers! So you can understand the sheer bliss David, Lochie and I experienced grilling for the first time in our own backyard tonight! Now a Merrick barbeque wouldn't be the same without David making King of the Hill references to "Sweet Lady Propane" versus charcoal (David is a charcoal man all the way!), and me with my required sliced beetroot (pickled beets for you yanks!). In Australia we put beets on burgers and a burger just ain't the same without 'em for me! So here is a BBQ hamburger Merrick style: Charbroiled all beef lean patty on a fresh white sesame seed bun, thousand island dressing (only Kraft because it doesn't have high fructose corn syrup and it has little pickle pieces in it), melted provalone cheese on the patty, sliced tomato, romaine lettuce, grilled pineapple ring, slices of onion, three small slices of beetroot - squish together and enjoy (omit the beetroot if you're a yank). I was so proud of Lachlan as he had beetroot on his burger tonight - what a little Aussie boy! I didn't put any on at first but he requested them - knows how to melt his Mum's heart! As you can see we're saving up for patio furniture and that's going to be our next big purchase! It was great fun and we plan on grilling Alaskan salmon burgers in a few days, and maybe turkey burgers next weekend - yum! We also grilled Hebrew National Kosher franks (the best hotdogs in the world bar none! - except maybe sausage sizzle sausages!) and they were awesome - I was so full from my burger though I couldn't have much of a dog but the boys finished off mine no problem! We've noticed a huge increase in Lochie's appetite since we've been in the new house - all that running around the backyard makes a growing boy hungry!

Adventure Island @ Settlers Park, Meridian

2008-06-22T23:12:00.000-07:00

By the way Lochie is not screaming/squealing in this video - it appears like it but it's some random little girl in the background.

Exploring our new area

2008-06-22T13:14:00.000-07:00

For the first time in many, many years we have had a full weekend together at home - Saturday and Sunday off! When he was working at Alaska Airlines, David's schedule gave him Mondays & Tuesdays off and working from 4pm to 1:30am - with me working the weekdays so we were like two ships that passed in the night. We had a few random weekends off together when David paid other people to work his shifts so we could fly down for a visit to California, but this weekend was our first real, unplanned weekend off together we've probably had since about a year and a half. It was AWESOME!! I worked a full day on Friday and Lochie (still recovering from his frenectomy) fell asleep really early around 6:30pm - so David and I went out in our new backyard and played lawn darts with a set we got him for Fathers Day! It was so nice just to spend time together alone (something we'd almost forgotten!) and he beat me 6-2 (grr - rematch!). He only won because he had the "lucky" orange darts though and I had the puke green coloured darts which jinxed me! On Saturday we continued to unpack moving boxes - but it was fun to have so much storage space to decide where to put everything! And, in Lochie's words, we spent a lot of time "brr-laxing". Lochie who is still forbidden from jumping on the trampoline or running around too much spent a lazy Saturday morning befriending all of the worms in the yard. He spent hours both yesterday and today gathering, naming and talking to his new "friends". After lunch we took a drive around our new town of Meridian and came across a small local festival called Meridian Dairy Days. We wandered around looking at different booths set up and Lochie had his face painted and got some free candy, but it was near the closing of the festival and there wasn't much action going on there so we drove into Boise around our old haunt (shudder) and visited the Bench Commission to see if we could find a cheap but nice second-hand desk - no luck, better deals on Craigslist I reckon. After that we drove back to Meridian and took a photo of an old barn which is on the corner of Ustick & Linder right near our new subdivision. I drive past this cool old barn every day and wanted a snapshot of it because it looks like one big gust of wind would send it over! We had driven past this huge, cool baseball complex on Ustick and Meridian Rd a few times and had noticed from a distance there looked like a lot of activity and families at this playground with a jungle gym that looked like a pirate ship so we decided to inspect closer - it turned out to be a cool park called Settlers Park which has a fishing pond, concession building, a huge playground, and the "pirate ship" turned out to be a cute free mini-water park for kids! It was so awesome and Lochie's eyes bugged out when he saw it so of course it was hard to say no to him. He was supposed to take it easy still a bit because he still has the sutures from his frenectomy but we figured it wasn't like he was going down waterslides or splashing around in a pool or anything so we let him go play in the water in his clothes and he loved it! It had a whale with a squirting spout and a pirate ship mast that filled up and splashed all over the kids standing under it when it became heavy with water. It also had many other small sprinklers and sprays and the flooring was a soft textured cushioned foam material with a pebbletex like non-slip grip. It is only a few blocks from our house so I can tell Settlers Park is going to be our new favourite hang-out this Summer! Also, there are two new features going in that look to open soon - one David & I couldn't figure out what it was supposed to be - the other looked like a music park as it had an array of chimes, drums with tethered drumsticks etc and music pipes etc so that will be really fun for him as well! We plan to have a barbeque on Sunday afternoon and continue unpacking - and I'm challenging David to a lawn darts tournament and this time I'm playing with the lucky orange darts!
**Update** I saw our friend Brent at Winco tonight and he told me that Settlers Park hosts a free family movie night every Friday night throughout the Summer - last Friday night they showed Charlotte's Web. They set up a big outdoor movie screen apparently - we'll check it out next Friday night!**
Click here for more info on the Settlers Park Adventure Island Park

I got worms!

2008-06-21T10:47:00.000-07:00

It's hard to know what you're going to get when your 4 year old all-boy boy tells you that!

Darth Lochie

2008-06-18T19:09:00.000-07:00

Lochie filmed today in our new backyard in his new Darth Vader costume. As you can see he has quickly made a full recovery!
Also, I can't believe how much like a yank I sound in this video! I was super tired as I didn't sleep much last night worried we'd sleep through our alarm since we were up late unpacking still last night. I find when I am really tired my accent goes haywire. I need to get a bunch of Kath n Kim videos or something an immerse myself in Aussie language again!

Ropey before and after

2008-06-18T13:18:00.000-07:00

Lachlan had his "ropey" (lingual frenum) surgically removed under IV sedation by Dr Kempers at Boise OMS today. He did so well and was such a brave boy - the nurses said they had no problems putting the IV in - the whole procedure including recovery took only one hour and Lochie was a little sleepy but very excited about his prize for being such a brave boy - a Darth Vader costume he had been oggling at Target for months now!

The doctor cauterized the incisions and only had to do a few sutures where he had to cut deeper to remove muscle attachment both sides of the midline. I was surprised that the nurses didn't set a follow-up appointment - they said if there is no sign of infection or problems etc Lochie is all finished with them and his sutures should come out by themselves in 5-10 days!

We came home and watched a Scooby-Doo DVD and I gave him the pain meds they had given me and am keeping him on them every 4 hours for today and tomorrow. Lochie played with some moon sand outside and of course tried on his costume and stalked around the backyard in character for a while too! The picture here in his new costume was taken only about 2 hours after his procedure! He is back to his old self already - keeping him quiet is proving to be a challenge but it's a good sign he is unfazed by the whole experience! Thanks for your prayers! xoxo Bi

The new house!

2008-06-17T22:58:00.000-07:00

We're all moved in to our new house! If you need our new address just email me at biancamerrick@msn.com!

I have most of my pictures I took during our walkthrough pasted on over at facebook and you can click this link to view them (without having to be a member or sign up or anything):

David & Bi's New House Pictures Link

Lochie's New Bedroom!

2008-06-17T22:18:00.000-07:00

We just moved in late last week and I have been working very hard to get us all settled and I started on Lochie's room because it's the most fun! Here is Lachlan setting down for the night in his new big boy bed - got a steal at Ethan Allen on clearance for $50 for a brand new floor model twin mattress & box base!! He;s very happy for his big boy room & bed!

If you could keep Lochie in your prayers, he is having oral surgery tomorrow morning to have a lingual frenectomy - he has muscle attachment that adheres his tongue to the base of his mouth but unlike most frenectomys where they can do a little local anesthetic and snip the ligament attachment, his oral surgeon Dr Kempers will have to go along each underside of the tongue and separate the muscle attachment running from the back to the front. He'll have sutures for 5-10 days and I have to keep him quiet for a few days after the surgery - soft diet etc so please pray for me as well!! We have lots of DVDs, Jello, pudding cups and colouring in books all set up so maybe Mummy will also get a chance to recover from having HER wisdom teeth extracted LAST week in the middle of our crazy week where I worked 3 full days AND we moved house! I kind of pushed myself and got an infection and a lot of pain so it'll be nice to have an excuse to lay around in bed for a few days and maybe both of us can make a nice recovery together!

I'll also post some pictures of our new house when we did the walkthrough before we moved all our boxes in.
Love, Bi.

Favourite Memories of Lochie

2008-06-06T21:03:00.001-07:00

This will be an ongoing list I'll contribute to as I remember. I am not the sort of person who keeps a journal or baby book (sorry Lochie!) and these are some special memories I don't want to forget over time as he gets bigger and bigger. Some are recent memories, some older:

* Lying on cuddly blankets and pillows in our very dark bedroom listening to Rosemary Clooney sing "Mambo Italiano" and 4 1/2 yr old Lochie laughing and using glowsticks to put on a light show (which was actually pretty good!) then the mp3 player randomly turned to Alvin & the Chipmunks singing "Christmas Don't Be Late" and Lachlan collapsing in giggles at the chipmunks singing.

* 4 1/2 yr old Lochie interrupting my time in the shower to use the toilet and after taking a long time, asking impatiently why he was taking so long and him responding with "Look Mum I was just drawing love hearts for you in the mirror!" - seeing many wonky love hearts drawn in the steam in the bathroom mirror and a sweet smile on his face.

* Looking into his big brown doe eyes and hearing him say "Mum your face is so pretty, Mum your hair is so pretty" me savouring the sweet moment before he said "Mum your mustache is so pretty" WHAT?!?! Time to get the waxing kit out! LOL.

* The time we were shopping at Shopko and he was only 2 1/2 and wanted to sit on the bikes. I lifted him up on a 12" bike and got a bike helmet and put it on his head - accidentally pinching his skin under his neck when I strapped it on - it pinched so hard it bled a little and took a little chunk of skin. The scream of pain and the look of hurt and betrayal in his eyes as he looked up at me and said "Why did you do that to me, Mama?" and how sick I felt in my stomach that for the first time he knew I was not immune from hurting him.

* Miscalculating the time and getting us stuck in rush hour human traffic on a subway in Tokyo. He was only 4 but I looked in his eyes and told him there would be a lot of people squishing us but that I would never let go of his hand and to step off onto the platform ahead of me. I held his hand above his head and with one hand on his little back, gently guided him through the crush of businessmen and uniformed school children as the crowd of hundreds moved en masse towards the elevators. Hearing his little voice ringing out above the drone of the crowds "Sumimasen! Sumimasen!" (excuse me, excuse me). How courageous and unfazed he was and still managed to remember his newly acquired Japanese language skilled!

* Taking 2 trains and walking back to the hotel in Ginza at midnight with Mum & Dad and Lochie, scared we may have missed the last train for the night - how Lochie crashed out asleep on the train and how Dad carried him so far back - Lochie practically a dead weight! How it didn't faze his Poppa to do that for his only grandson. Looking ahead at my Dad carrying my son through the streets of Tokyo, and my Mum reaching up to wrap her own scarf around his little hands and neck to protect him from the wind chill - just knowing at that moment that this was an image, a memory I would be recounting to my son in many years to come.

* Flying over Boise late at night in a fog, hardly making out the city lights - a sleeping little one year old Lachlan leaning on my arm. Then wondering why the plane was turning around - we had to go back to Seattle because we couldn't land. Letting tears fall unchecked as we flew back knowing David was a thousand feet below me waiting excitedly at the airport to greet us after a week apart and not knowing where I would stay that night, what I would do and feeling very scared and grown up all of a sudden. I had planned the trip months previously and I was full time in dental hygiene school, feeling like I was missing out on my little boy so wanted a special Christmas vacation with him. I had prepaid it many months previous and by the time we traveled we were having a very tight week financially. The fear of not knowing where my baby and I would sleep that night and how we would get there at that late hour. The kindness shown to me by a random Alaska airlines worker who gave me a voucher to stay in a Holiday Inn for free after watching several fellow passengers get turned away and refused free accommodation - and I hadn't even thought of requesting it from them! The amazement I felt at kindness of strangers and answered prayers as Lachlan was showered and curled up in a crib in a warm, comfortable hotel room that night.

* The first time I ever said "You're my best boy, Lachlan" and he responded with "You're my best girl, Mama"... and it's been our "thing" to say to each other ever since. And when he says it he says it with such tenderness it melts my heart every time. Lochie knows how to melt a girls heart that's for sure - other sweet sayings he has said to me include "I want to love you forever, Mum" and "You make me happy in here" (indicating his chest area). Sigh - such a little love-bug!

Buses & Trains - cover by Hayley Legg

2008-05-04T21:24:00.000-07:00

I've been enjoying watching this young girl from Gold Coast/Sydney who has been putting up videos on Youtube. We seem to have very similar tastes in music because she has done covers of a lot of songs I like. She actually takes requests from people and attempts songs viewers suggest which makes it really fun for the viewer. I hope she is successful in her goal to get signed as an artist as she seems very genuine. I haven't heard this song by Bachelor Girl in a few years but I loved it years ago when it first came out.

Tokyo January 2008

2008-05-02T19:39:00.000-07:00

Finally I have uploaded our January 2008 Tokyo pictures! Lochie and I had a fantastic time meeting up with Nana & Poppa! You can click the pics for a larger image.

Re-posting of older Australia 2007 pics

2008-05-02T19:33:00.000-07:00

My image loader I used to use is down now so I am reposting my pics from Lochie's and my trip back home to Australia last May 2007.

A need for setting privacy controls on the blog

2008-05-01T23:16:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone.
I wasn't sure who all out there was still checking our family blog since I had slacked off for a few months there and hadn't posted anything new. I had been a little better about posting lately. My friend Keri had a bad experience with her blog where some stranger posted some unsavoury comments so she had to set privacy controls on her blog (by asking people to log in to view) and not having random access to strangers, and after I have had a stranger in Brazil comment on one of my posts I decided it is for the best if I only make the blog available to family and friends, especially since we have pictures and videos of Lochie up.

If you're here because you received the email to come and register and check out the blog, welcome or welcome back! We have had some wonderful adventures the past year with David working at Alaska Airlines which has really opened up our travel opportunities! Several trips down to see David's family in So Cal. last year and this year and we're planning another trip down in June especially to see our nieces as one is graduating high school and the other is graduating from college. Lachlan and I were fortunate enough to meet up with my Mum & Dad in Tokyo this past January, and Lochie got to experience the joys of visiting Disneyland in California in March.

Another advantage of privatizing the blog is my newfound freedom in sharing personal family information that I previously didn't feel fully comfortable sharing before. The way the blog was originally set up, anyone who knew the blog address (http://trekkingmerricks.blogspot.com - previously http://lochies.blogspot.com - archived) could look around the site - but I set it so my posts wouldn't be tagged to show up in google searches etc. With the changes blogspot has made though, I believe it changed so that anyone was able to find my site by googling a phrase I may have typed, or a funny youtube clip I may have posted. So although I apologize for the new inconvenience of logging in to view, its better for Lachlan's safety and also for me not having to censor what I write as much as I previously did (like never mentioning local place names we visited etc). So bookmark us and visit us every now and then to keep updated on what the Merricks are up to!

And for those of you who have been praying for us especially for David with his upcoming surgery, I really want to extend our thanks for your love and support! We were blessed today when we went to the pre-op appointment as the doctor assessed the cancer and thinks the scar will be smaller on his scalp (about 1 1/2 inches now opposed to about 2 1/2 inches) and he thinks David probably won't need the chemotherapy gel at all if all goes well with the surgery. His surgery date is the 15th of May so keep him and us in your prayers still! We're fortunate that there is an on-site pathologist at the Treasure Valley hospital and Dr. Rodgers will biopsy the cancer throughout the surgery to make sure he has removed all of it. We really like the doctor and feel very confident with him - David is just antsy to just have it over and done with.

I'm rounding off with a picture taken at the park on Monday. We've had the wackiest weather - gorgeous warm Spring days 70-80 degrees one day then freezing weather the next day! I don't know whether to pack away my winter wardrobe yet or not! Hope it's warm wherever you are!
~~Bianca.

Mama's Mini-Me

2008-04-23T16:48:00.000-07:00

I got my haircut before my job interview yesterday so Lochie and I posed for some "myspace profile" type pics (i.e. taken yourself holding the camera at arms length so you can't see your body in the shot! Haha). Mostly to document my haircut since I really liked the colour Britney did this time and wanted a pic. The time before she made it a bit too dark. Then again it was still Winter then. Now I have Spring foils! I love how much I reckon Lochie is looking like me these days! I only hope his nose doesn't keep growing like mine seems to be since I'm getting older now! I am getting more and more afraid I am developing a Dean family schnoz! The picture of the Doodle-pro is a drawing Lochie was really proud of. He is doing a LOT of spider pictures lately. This one is "Spider smiling, wearing a hat". Up on our fridge right now is also "Spider in his web angry growling", "Spider in his web eating a popsicle". Not sure why spiders are his "thing" right now - we haven't read a particular book or watched any movies with spiders - just a whim I suppose. It's pretty enjoyable to listen to him describing his art projects as there is usually an elaborate story involved. Lochie is a great source of entertainment for us!

Micallef on Youtube

2008-04-19T01:42:00.000-07:00

I was so thrilled to find so many clips from a show David & I loved to watch in Australia called Micallef/The Shaun Micallef Program. David and I have enjoyed watching this show and also other Aussie comedies such as Thank God You're Here, Kath & Kim, The Panel, and old The Late Show (D-Gen) clips.
The following clip is a parody of an old Aussie TV show version of a BBC programme called "Hypotheticals" where a panel of celebrities and also other people - doctors, policemen etc were taken through a storyline by the host and hypothetical questions challenging the panel's ethics & morals were posed. I like this clip and thought I'd share it.

Hilarious "Bulgarian Idol" clip

2008-04-17T12:36:00.000-07:00

This lady is singing that song Mariah Carey made a hit: "Ken Lee"...
(I saw this on a blog I enjoy called By Ken Levine...)

2008-02-29T21:04:00.000-08:00

2008-02-29T20:43:00.000-08:00

Scientolo-haircut

2008-01-10T20:45:00.001-08:00

I went and got my haircut tonight before my flight (I was a mess - it was a necessity!). After I had it done I realized it is like that new style Katie Holmes and her baby have. I'm Thetan chic! Hahaha

Nihon ni ikimashoo!

2008-01-10T16:40:00.001-08:00

Lochie & I will leave for Japan tomorrow morning and will stay for one night in Narita before meeting up with my Mum & Dad to spend a week in Tokyo!

Lochie is very excited and has learned a few Japanese phrases already!

He can say "Konnichiwa" (hello), "Sayonara" (goodbye), "Arigato" (thank you), "Watashi wa Lachlan desu" (My name is Lachlan), "Sumimasen" (excuse me) and can count to 5 as well (ichi, ni, san, shi, go!). I am amazed how quickly he has picked up the few phrases I taught him. I started learning Japanese in primary school when I was 11 years old and studied it for 6 years after that. My Mum & Dad even sent my sister and I on a student exchange when I was a teenager and it firmly established my love for all things Japanese. I am blessed that this will be my forth time to visit that beautiful country!

Lachlan is very excited about the plane trip and seeing Nana & Poppa - it's going to be an awesome week! We leave tomorrow morning early (Friday) and get back next Sunday the 20th and unfortunately David has work so won't be going but he has been to Japan briefly once with me where we made a 3-day stopover on the way to Australia back in 1997.

I hope to post a few photos from Japan onto the blog as Dad will have his laptop with him so stay tuned and pray for us for a safe & happy visit!! - B.

Lochie acting out scenes from Star Wars with his new figurines

2008-01-07T22:13:00.000-08:00

Snow Days - making Snowman with Daddy & Snow Angels all over the lawn!

2007-12-30T18:07:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas 2007!

2007-12-24T19:43:00.000-08:00

Our family wishes you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2007-12-24T19:42:00.000-08:00

CrazyKens

Winter Garden a'Glow Video Clips

2007-12-22T23:06:00.000-08:00

Idaho Botanical Gardens Winter Garden aGlow 2007

2007-12-22T21:19:00.000-08:00

Lochie and I went to an awesome event tonight with our friend Karen & her kids Miranda, Alex, Jeff & Brocc - it was the annual Idaho Botanical Gardens "Winter Garden aGlow" event(if you click the blue text it'll take you to the official website). I got some AMAZING photos - the entire botanical gardens was alight with a gorgeous array of Christmas lights - and on top of that it was lightly snowing - so that combined for some pretty great pics! The kids had a heap of fun running around, throwing snowballs at each other and "skiing" down the cobblestone paths. There were fire pits everywhere and we saw a reindeer and Santa (again!). We all met over at McDonalds for some dinner beforehand then after we all went and had some Molten Lava Choc Cake & Icecream at Chili's (Karen talked me into it - but I HIGHLY recommend it if you haven't tried it!!). An awesome night all round! Without further ado here are some of the pics and video from the Winter Aglow.

Cookie Exchange Party @ Karen's

2007-12-17T03:09:00.000-08:00

My friend Karen hosted a cookie exchange party on Wednesday night where everyone took 6 dozen cookies packaged up in dozen sets. After having some nibblies and hot cocoa everyone was able to take 6 dozen different cookies home. I made apricot balls & chocolate truffle balls rolled in crushed candy canes (thanks Big Nan for the apricot balls recipe & others!). Karen made pretzel rods dipped in white chocolate with different candies sprinkled on top - yummy!

Karen's house was decorated beautifully for Christmas and her tree was gorgeous! Lochie got all excited when he saw the pressies underneath and asked if Santa had put them there!

We enjoyed the sweet/salty mix of the pretzels so much that Lochie and I made our own chocolate covered pretzels sprinkled in crushed nuts and sprinkles - this was Lachlan's first real cooking activity where he made all of it almost by himself. I melted the chocolate in the microwave for him, but he lay the pretzels out on his tray and when I told him they couldn't be clumped up he spread them out more, then he spooned on the chocolate and spread it out then finished up by sprinkling everything with the toppings he chose! He was very proud of his efforts as you can see by the photo! We had a lot of fun!

The family got elfed too!

2007-12-17T03:05:00.001-08:00

Get Elfed!

2007-12-13T17:45:00.001-08:00

My friend Keri elfed her family on her blog page and it was so funny I did it for our family too!
Copy and paste the following link into an address bar!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1375283569

Santa Pictures 2007

2007-12-06T16:06:00.001-08:00

Lochie's Blogspot still has his 2006 and 2005 photos! Click here to see how he's grown!

Lochie goes to see Santa!!

2007-12-06T15:11:00.000-08:00

Took Lochie to the Boise Towne Square Mall to see Santa Claus today! All Lochie wanted to do was cuddle up to him! And what a lovely Santa he was too - there wasn't a line at all - noone waiting after us and only one child ahead of us. The little baby in front of us who Santa held for a very long time and walked around so the baby could touch the fishing snowman. He was very patient and gentle and jolly too! Lochie told Santa that he wants a Darth Vader Death Star Transformer for Christmas and that he had been a good boy t his year and Santa said to Lochie that Santa loves him very much. Very sweet! Lochie is such a cuddle-bug! Maybe he was thinking of another older, grey-haired man he loves...

I was annoyed at myself when I got to the mall that I'd taken my flash card out of my camera - I even had my second older camera in my bag too- but the batteries were dead! Fortunately my Kodak has not a bad sized internal memory so I was able to still get a very short video and about 5 photos! When we woke Lochie up in the middle of the night last night for him to go to the potty he groggily said in his sleep "And I get to tell Santa I want Darf Vader toy when I wake up?" - even in his half-asleep state he was aware of his visit to see Santa today!! I had a dental appointment this morning so met up with David & Lochie at the mall and he was so wiggly & excited about everything! Right now as I type this I hear him in the living room saying "Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Christmas! I'm Santa Claus!" and he is wearing an orange soccer safety cone on his head for his Santa hat! Only 19 more sleeps to go (yikes, that many?!!)...

Christmas Messages #1 (Happy Birthday Billy)

2007-12-03T22:11:00.000-08:00

Watch first.

Getting Ready for Christmas...

2007-12-03T19:33:00.000-08:00

Dan & Katie's Trip to Boise Nov 2007

2007-11-19T14:00:00.000-08:00

Danny, Katie, Carly & Coco
came up to Boise for a visit

this week. I made rice, sweet

mince, thai green chicken curry

and beef & broccoli stir-fry the

first night. Funnily enough my

sister on the other side of the world

also made sweet mince and thai

green chicken curry on the same night

not knowing what I had made!

The kids had fun at the MK Nature

center and we got some great pics.
The both patted a gopher snake and

looked for trout in the river view

windows that lets you look in a real

stream!

We had a pre-Thanksgiving feast

at Brent & Cinji's on Saturday night
(unfortunately David had work so

couldn't go) and Lochie was thrilled
to see his "brother" Nicholas!

Carly & Lochie played well together

and Coco is such a sunny baby - all

smiles! Lochie sure enjoyed the

company of his cousins!

The family heads back to Southern

California today after a week-long
trip.

Lochie going through his candy loot!

2007-11-03T18:42:00.000-07:00

My Spidey senses are tingling!

2007-10-31T23:21:00.001-07:00

Harvest Festival/Halloween Photos 2007

2007-10-31T22:27:00.000-07:00

Calvary Chapel Boise Harvest Festival 2007 #2

2007-10-31T21:58:00.000-07:00

Calvary Chapel Boise Harvest Festival 2007

2007-10-31T21:25:00.000-07:00

Fall Foliage in Boise

2007-10-18T10:26:00.000-07:00

The colours in Boise this time of year definitely rival those of New England, in my opinion! I've never BEEN to New England but of course I'm biased towards Boise anyway!

Lochie and I went to check the post office box for my new business a few days ago and it is opposite a beautiful look-out on Federal Way. When I first drove past the mountains were a gorgeous purple hue but by the time I returned after checking the mail, the dusk was already turning into dark.

Lochie and I went to Shopko to pick up some stuff and he found this BSU supporters hat - he really, REALLY wanted it! He was pretty cute in it so I took a quick picture but I think that hat would be pretty dorky on a grown-up! Would definitely keep your ears warm though!

We've been slow-cooking a lot in the crock-pot - stews and pasta sauces mostly but I tried a spinach Indian curry last week and simmered the meat in the curry sauce for about an hour and a half and it was delish!! I have been cooking heaps lately - taco salad on Monday, Italian Meatballs on Tuesday and today we're making a potato soup. I have a cold right now so might make a chicken noodle soup instead but it is soup weather right now - it was so cold today it felt like it could snow but forecast said it will only get down to 42f today - low of 36f on Saturday so looks like we didn't have much of a Fall this year - pretty much went from Summer to Winter it feels! Glad we're taking Lochie to the Harvest Festival at the Idaho Fairgrounds for Halloween - it is a huge event out church sponsors and its free popcorn, sno-cones, cotton candy, rides, games, etc. It was so cold on Halloween last year so we were glad to be in a nice heated pavilion at the fairgrounds!!

Lochie & I are going to go snuggle and watch a DVD with some warm popcorn now...

Jack-o-lantern Video #2

2007-10-18T00:44:00.000-07:00

Lochie's Adventures in Pumpkin Carving!

2007-10-18T00:05:00.000-07:00

We had a great day today - Lochie had his chance to carve his pumpkin! This is the first year he's been big enough to actually do most of the work himself! I helped him with cutting the top but he scooped all the pumpkin goop out himself, and after I shaved it down inside on the "face" side to make cutting easier for him, he drew his own design and carved it himself! And I think considering the puny kids knife we gave him he did a pretty good job of it! And I actually accidentally invented a new use for the pumpkin seeds! I rinsed and removed as much of the pumpkin from the seeds as I could then soaked them in water for about 20 mins. I read on the internet about honey-roasting pumpkin seeds so I used a cast-iron skillet and toasted the seeds in some butter until they "popped" a bit and got toasty looking - then I thought I could skip the whole roasting part and honey-roast them in the skillet (duh!) so added golden syrup from Australia (like a cross between molasses and corn syrup I think for you yanks!), white sugar and cinnamon and before I knew it, it took on a toffee consistency and was hardening faster in my nice cast-iron skillet than I would have liked! So I threw the whole mix down on a baking sheet and put in the oven on low (250f) for about a half an hour and voila! Pumpkin Seed Brittle!! The boys LOVED it and it had kind of a nutty flavour like peanut brittle but a little more chewy. Lochie thought it was the best and we plan on doing the same thing with the seeds in the other pumpkin. Lochie wants me to carve a "Yoda" pumpkin - I did a pretty fancy Spongebob on a watermelon last year - I practiced on the melon and it was so time-consuming I didn't have the energy to recreate it on the pumpkin so Lochie had a Jack-o-melon last year! Will give Yoda a shot for him I guess - but if it becomes too much effort I'm just gonna punch a bunch of holes in it and we'll call it the galaxy!!!

Jack-o-lantern

2007-10-17T23:21:00.001-07:00

The object used to carve the pumpkin was a child's blunt, serrated pumpkin carving knife! We wouldn't let Lochie use a real knife - but in the blurry images of the video we just wanted to establish that it's actually quite an innocuous piece of weaponry! (in other words, Mum & Dad don't have a heart attack when you see him making violent stabbing motions with it! It's pretty blunt - thought you would like to know that!)

Pumpkin Patch Video Clip #1

2007-10-06T22:47:00.000-07:00

It was windy so the audio isn't the greatest - WARNING.. might want to adjust your volume down before hiiting play so the wind sounds don't blast you...!

Merricks & Wrigleys @ Linder Farms Pumpkin Patch Oct 2007

2007-10-06T14:48:00.000-07:00

We had a great outing at Linder Farms in Meridian with the Wrigley family today. Lochie found some real nice pumpkins but in the end he said he wanted some little gourds instead! We'll probably go out to the Berry Ranch sometime in the next few weeks anyway and pick a pumpkin out so he can carve it. I think he thought the pumpkins would already come carved because on the drive out he said "Mum can I get a pumpkin with a happy face?"! The sun was out and it was a beautiful day if not a bit windy and the smell of fresh hot donuts was in the air (and in Lochie's tummy - thanks, Darren!). We had a great day and agreed we need to get together with the Wrigleys more often! Happy Halloween!

The ever-changing Bat...

2007-09-27T16:01:00.000-07:00

Our new hermit crab named Bat (Lochie named him) is very interesting to watch because he has been changing his shells a couple of times a day lately! We had purchased some assorted shell sizes from thecrabbagepatch.com - a really cute hermit crab online store - and have had them in the crabitat for ages waiting for Cranky to go into a prettier shell (she's the one riding the dinosaur!). The shells they come in naturally are not so attractive and have little barnacles all over them and the new shells are SO adorable!
So you can imagine my excitement to discover Bat had changed shells - not only once but several times now! He was in a cute whale-eye shell last night (see picture) but as soon as I finished filling the water & food bowls etc and put him back in his crabitat he rushed over to a few new shells I had put in there and crawled into ANOTHER one! So far he has been in the pretty green "tapestry" shell with the flecks of mother-of-pearl second from the left, the jade turbo shell on the far right, the whale-eye and the exotic king crown shell in the bottom picture. And when I checked on him this morning he was back in the whale-eye shell again!
He is fun to watch because he puts his large pincher in the opening of the shell to see if it fits, then he turns the shell over and over to make sure there isn't a crab already in it, then he quickly heaves his soft, muscular abdomen into the new shell - this is how they hang on to the shell. Then he goes over to the salt water pool and sits in it a while - I think he is getting more "shell water" into his new shell. It has certainly kept us entertained and before we got the crabs for Lochie's birthday I didn't know much about them - I kind of thought their intelligence level was about that of a bug or something. Now they have been our pets for the past month I can TOTALLY see that is not the case as we have witnessed them helping each other (Cranky reached out and helped Crabby right himself up once) and last weekend when I cleaned out the crabitat and put Cranky & Bat into the shallow cardboard container together they were TOTALLY working with each other to give each other a boost to try and escape! I set Lachlan on sentry duty while I was busy cleaning and he said "Mum, Cranky is getting out!" - sure enough Bat had let Cranky crawl up on him and he held still while she found a foothold in the fold of the carton and hoisted herself up and was sitting on the edge! To make sure it wasn't a fluke I positioned them away from each other and watched - sure enough they sought each other out and marched single-file around the carton until they came to where the cardboard folds were that Cranky had just climbed (Cranky seemed to be the instigator). Bat stopped and they put their feelers out at each other and seemed to communicate silently together for a moment with the feelers going at lightening speed - then Bat positioned himself and Cranky crawled on top of him and tried to hoist herself up using the ridges/joins of the cardboard! It was really amazing to see and the first time I realized that hermit crabs can think and strategize on some basic level - they can also communicate somehow. It was fascinating to watch and now I am such a crab-fanatic! Lochie really loves his crabs and today he even made a tribute to Crabby who died a few weeks ago (he was kinda sickly since we got him - unlike Cranky & Bat who have always been really active & personable - they come out of their shells and walk around on us, eat out of our hands etc - Crabby never did that). Lochie made a craft project Hermit Crab and told me it was for Crabby. I reminded him Crabby was dead and he said "I know Mum... it can still be for Crabby" which I thought was really sweet.

Fall is here!

2007-09-26T22:20:00.000-07:00

That means:

Awanas starts up again at church!
time to clean out the fireplace!
get the winter clothes down from storage!
Pumpkin Patches & Harvest Festival/Halloween!
warm crock-pot stews and soups that heat the house while it slow-cooks all day!
fall foliage turning to gold, oranges, browns all along the Boise River!
Going out comfortably in long sleeved tops and jeans - light jacket weather!
Morning frosts and afternoon sun!

I LOVE the Fall - it is my favourite season!!
This is Lochie in front of our church (Calvary Chapel Boise) on Wednesday night for Awanas - he earned two patches last year on his vest and was very excited to start back up again! He is in the same class with many kids he knows from Sunday school and also saw some of our friends kids from bible study group, Grady & Wyatt.

Lochie's 4th B'Day Cake!

2007-09-21T00:24:00.000-07:00

Auntie Polly got Lochie a great Spiderman birthday cake from Albertson's - it was a really cool, detailed cake and even had a Spiderman toy he could keep afterwards! Lochie is STILL talking about his cake two weeks later...

Highlights from our family visit/Lochie's 4th b'day down in So. Cal. Sept 07

2007-09-20T23:31:00.000-07:00

Uncle Jim's Messerschmitt Part 2

2007-09-13T23:28:00.002-07:00

Lochie's Birthday - Riding in Uncle Jim's Messerschmitt. Orange County CA

2007-09-13T21:12:00.000-07:00

Bi & Shanell in San Jose, California

2007-08-25T23:51:00.000-07:00

My friend Shanell and I had a great day trip down to San Jose. Neither of us had ever been there before but we thought we'd check out the city. My brother & sister-in-law Roy & Paula had recommended the Winchester Mystery House to me so we thought we'd check it out. It was perfect weather and the tour was fun. San Jose has a fantastic light rail system throughout the city and from the airport we just took a free shuttle to the metro station and bought an all day pass for $5 which enabled us to use unlimited train & bus systems all day. We found our way to the Winchester house no problem and lamented the fact that there was a HUGE shopping mall called Valley Faire at our stop with some cool looking shops - but not enough time to visit it that day! After the Winchester tour we walked around and looked at the cute boutique shops at Santana Row and had lunch at Pasta Pomodoro. Shanell and I split a bruschetta and I had the Chicken & Portabello Pasta - it was delish! We had enough time to casually make our way back to the airport and had a smooth flight home - an excellent day to be remembered and the only souvenirs we bought back was a cute pewter photo keychain each that we exchanged and will put a pic of us together at the Winchester house to remember our great Girls' Day Out together!

Idaho State Fair, Alaska Company Picnic & Calvary Church Picnic

2007-08-19T20:02:00.000-07:00

We had a busy weekend August 17 we went to the Western Idaho Fair, on August 18 we went to the Alaska Airlines Company picnic and on Sunday August 19 we had our annual church picnic for Calvary Chapel. It has been beautiful, warm days but this weekend was perfect. Lochie had a lot of fun at the Agricultural Expo within the fair and also enjoyed the fair food! We had steak burgers with grilled onions and fries, funnel cake and homemade lemonade! Here are some pics!

San Diego Trip July 2007

2007-08-19T19:16:00.000-07:00

We had a great trip down to visit Lachlan's Uncle Roy & Auntie Paula and were fortunate that both Lochie's cousins Katie & Lisa were home for the weekend from college! After Uncle Roy & Lisa picked us up from the airport, we had a great authentic Mexican dinner and chatted late into the night. Lochie loved leading Uncle Roy by the hand all around his back gardens! On Saturday we went to the San Diego Zoo and took a bus tour all around the zoo! After the tour we continued on to the petting zoo where Lochie got friendly with some goats and had some cute pics taken! We then saw the new monkey treetops exhibit, the hippo, the apes & orangutans, the tortoises, snakes and walked through a large bird apiary. It was an exhausting but fun day! On the Sunday it was awesome that Auntie Polly, Uncle Jim & cousins Jaclyn & Matt joined us all down in San Diego for a barbeque - and Uncle Roy grills a mean shish-kebab! It was great also to catch up with Paula's mum Hilda who I hadn't seen since Christmas 2005. It was a great trip, fantastic weather and thoroughly enjoyable as always to see David's family again - I was shocked to remember that Roy & Paula hadn't seen Lochie since he was a 4 mo old baby as Roy unfortunately had pneumonia when we went down in March 2006! So they definitely saw some changes in Lochie! It will be great when we go down to So Cal for Lachlan's 4th birthday and David will be able to catch up with his family too.

Summer Fun around the house

2007-08-18T23:35:00.001-07:00

Australia Trip May/June 2007 (Finally uploaded!)

2007-08-14T19:11:00.000-07:00

soaked at muddies (cairns, australia)

2007-05-12T02:45:00.000-07:00

Current Location: Cairns, Australia

Having a great time in my hometown of Cairns. Went to muddies on the esplanade. Lochie had a lot of fun playing in the water with the other kids and on the ropes course with his Poppa.

Weather has been slightly overcast and still a bit humid - waiting for the cooler weather to kick in still! Brought with me mostly Fall clothes - having to go buy some more t-shirts I think!

Had a great Mother's Day - had brunch with my family - birscher muesli, poached eggs, bacon, quiche, bruschetta, sauteed shrooms - was great food and conversation catching up with everyone.