the pike boys: 2009

hmm...it's been a long time!

well, since it has been a very long time and an awful lot has happened here, i will just direct you all to our photobucket site and please feel free to see pictures of the house and the boys, you will also find a video or two of the boys.

we are moved into our new house, it has snowed here at the camp and we are freezing cold!

archer started walking at 10 months 3 weeks and he loves it! he has eight adorable teeth and is working on a few more, though i am not sure which ones yet. he enjoys a good game of chase or monster and will engage you then smile the biggest sweetest smile. he loves church and all the fun people who love him.

ronan can say just about anything now, though you might not be able to understand everything. he is as busy as can be and wants to DO everything under the sun. most particularly he is keen on cooking and wielding a hammer, though i managed to wean him of that deadly weapon finally.

odin is doing really quite well, though we are sure experiencing the thrills of a four year old--no one ever tells parents about a four year old!!! a little warning would have been helpful! he is smart as a whip and just about as darling as they come. a very sweet little boy.

i don't imagine i will get back to this until after christmas. i feel a little busy these days, with the kids all wound up, fixing up the house, archer's birthday, putting on the ward christmas party and the holidays, my time is swamped! so we'll see you later-though you might find me on facebook...

little archer smack, smack

Archer loves a strawberry smoothie as much as anyone!

archer's typical response to food

the boys

look at these dashing men! aren't they all just handsome?! i debated whether i should put this one on because ronan has his finger in his nose, but truly it is nearly impossible to snap one withOUT his finger up his nose these days, so it seemed fitting. don't worry, he isn't going to eat it. oh, and don't be fooled by the sweaters, it is still 105 over here, it was a very unusually cool day last sunday,

finding messes under the table, maybe making a few too..

odin bit through his lip, poor dang kid. he's OK!

aw, shucks, i am so cute

archer has been crawling for three weeks and it is the cutest little crooked crawl. he sprouted his first two teeth shortly after learning to crawl and then days after that he started pulling himself to standing. today he started cruising so really and truly here we go. for a while before he started crawling he had been focusing on trying to stand himself from a sitting position that i was certain he was going to skip the crawl altogether, but he finally figured it out. he is as adorable and sweet as can be! we love little archer to bits and pieces.

House Update

In the following pictures you will see that we have reached the final stages. Mark painted our walls, installed the doors and is in the process of installing our ceiling fans. In our bedroom we are going to try something out, which I am excited to see completed. We have drywall on the walls, will be installing pine wood on the angled slope of the ceiling and then we used drywall on the upper level as you see in the picture of our lovely ceiling fan. I LOVE my ceiling fan. I think it is GORgeous. Can't wait to look at it every night.

Don't you think it is pretty too?

Celery colored walls, at least I am painting my bedroom the color of a healthy food, if it is going to be the last color I see before I go to sleep...

And Odin can truthfully brag 'oh ya, well I can walk on our ceiling', at least until it is installed.

In this picture you will see the fantastic Spanish texture style that Mark put in our living and master bedroom. Notice the speaker wire. Ah ya, Mark has us completely wired for EVERYTHING there is out there right now.

Color is called Liberty, kinda like dark periwinkle. A NICE color.

Check out what we found at the Home Depot and Odin is so pleased. He talks about it to everyone. Who wouldn't love a space-themed fan???

And this is what our new couch looks like. We bought it clear back in April and has been in covered storage at the new house since then. Odin wanted to pose his new Transformers toy, to make a Thank You picture for Grandma Diana. So here you go Grandma, Thank You very much. The boys have already designated voices for each character.

Carpet installers come next Tuesday to measure for the next week's delivery! Start packin' sista!

Leah did me a favor. I don't know if she knows that yet.

Cousin Leah got our cousins camp weekend so perfect with her BLOG ENTRY that I am going to just cheat and post a link to her blog for any one who wants to see some awesome good times. We had nearly every Ashby family member here. Those who didn't make it were SORELY missed. next time!!!We got this camp pretty whipped into shape for40 overnight visitors, all with beds, albeit some where bunks and another was a netted tent in the woods. It was the envy of the camp, though, complete with queen bed, rugs, chair, table, lamp and an extension for a noise maker as well- for those Ashby-women types who can't sleep at night without one. I am still making apologies to Mark for the fact that I just simply need one.

walls, walls, walls, swamp cooler!

Mark's Uncles Ray and Russ and my cousin Scott were here for the weekend, look what they did! we have drywall on all our walls and they began taping and nearly finished the boys' bedroom. All after working until 10:30 Friday night installing a swamp cooler in order to be able to work so long and hard on Saturday! I am so grateful and impressed by their help. And grateful indeed for Mark, who informed me, that he is building ME a house because if it were just him, he would be perfectly fine living in cabins. With a smile on his face of course, because he knows that if MY life is easier, it comes back around. If momma is happy, everybody is happy.

Odin is a natural conversationalist. Very intelligent conversation and genuinely interesting, downright fun, even. We love this growing up boy!

Ronan is still an entertainer. 'You laughin' at me? Good.' His conversation is growing more every day. That kid can share a story! "Ya!"

Louisiana revisited

this section of pictures has ended up being rather long. but then so was the trip. a little apropos.

Thank you for our house which will be done in a few weeks...

Well, maybe not a few WEEKS, but sooner than later. This was one of about five ways that Odin expressed his gratitude for our house in this evening's prayer and his words certainly reflect the feelings of our family. Mark finished the roof this weekend and the siding is all nailed off. SwEeT!

A very wonderful person, named Lance, and his dog, Diva, have been here this weekend. This is one of three piles of trees and brushes that have been cleared for fire protection. We have a huge fire clearance now which I am thrilled about. After Mark stopped a wildfire from spreading up the hill from our lower neighbor's house I have not stopped feeling that we really needed to take care of this SOON.
It will also be a way of beautifying our home, I can't wait to spread seeds out there for next year's spring. We saved the big rocks to use in our backyard for the boys to climb around.

Odin, this picture is awesome! I am setting up a photobucket album for all of his pictures.

The Big Four and other news

We started off Odin's birthday with frosted muffins. Oh Yeah. We didn't wear Superman to church, though. Much as he wanted to.

He did get to cut his own piece out-he finally finished it three days later. That piece was ginormous!

Happy birthday weekend, we wrapped the house, put in windows, a slider door, and started on the siding! Hooray! Cousin Scott is here for a few weeks helping work around the camp and we are so grateful.

You can't really see it here, but Ronan has the silliest face on. He is prone to silly faces when a camera shows up. Funny kids. We love our boys!

This is the back of the house putting up 'pretty board' as it is called, we are going to paint it but that is all. no one will ever really see it.

This stuff is going to be covered in shingles like the rest of the original cabin. We also have tin to replace the front section of the original roof. Good. That stuff looks really bad.

Our status: pretty excited.

That is our metal roof. All done on the new section. We are going to replace the front of the old section as it is pretty chewed from the years. We have all our electrical, speaker, LAN, satellite, and internet cables run. Yah. We are all tech'ed out. Next is siding, insulation, then drywall. Hmm, sounding pretty good indeed.

a post for archer

My goodness, we love this little boy!

So curious about everything now. He watches his brothers so closely.

It has been a while since we updated his progress.

Age 5 months 1 week
Weight 16 lbs 12 oz
Length 27 inches
Head girth 17 inches
Rolling over back to front all the time since 3 months
Rolling over front to back off and on since 5 weeks

Full time sitter since 5 months
Pushes up off chest 4.5 months
First biter biscuit 4.5 months
First cereal 5 months
No teeth
Sleeps through the night if you count only waking up when I accidentally wake him. Which happens three times a night or more depending on everything that happens at our house.
Still only laughs for Ronan, Odin and sometimes Daddy.
Wakes up happy in the morning, but please don't interrupt his nap-time.

At the lake for Mark's birthday, Archer caught something too.

Welcoming Uncle Joel home from New Zealand Auckland Mission

Learning to sit. That is biscuit on his face.

Like, I fell over on purpose, Mom. I love the fingers, so does he. Digits all the time!

more than any of our other boys ever did

Keeps him very busy. He has trouble when he tries to take them off and they don't go anywhere. Kinda gets him squackin'.

fabulous spring days

ah yes, edible playdoh

i often walk outside and see this little scene...

I come out to the following scene quite often too, though Odin is not always so pleased with what is going on as he appears to be here...

A make-shift slide, mark's truck bed liner works perfectly!

Fiddler on the Roof

Do you know this child actor?

Archer Pike shone like a true star in his debut as an actor in the role of Motel and Tzeitel's baby in Tollberry Theater production of Fiddler on the Roof,
directed by the talented Meredith A. Fowler

Young Archer played his part of the adorable baby perfectly without once missing a cue or fudging his lines, well maybe once he did (but not too many were at the matinee on Saturday to know that)

It was clear that his performance rallied the cast together in the production of a lifetime

The music, dancing, acting and overall spirit of the play drove the audience to extensive and appreciative clapping throughout the entire performance

Thank you Tollberry Theater for two wonderful weeks of spiritual and emotional evenings filled with such wonderful talent from all the cast!

we had a happy one too!

This

is what I got to hear, but with even more perfection on Sunday at church! While all the other primary children sang to their mothers from the stand I got my own personal serenade in the foyer where I was tending Archer. Mark sent Odin out to sing to me and I about died it was so sweet. In fact I couldn't hold back the happy mom tears!

The best Mother's day ever. How do even very small children know how to have a good and happy day at church on Mother's Day? Ronan actually sat in a chair for a length of time during the meeting!

Mark and the boys made breakfast for me too, letting me sleep in till 6:45! Blessed day! (no sarcasm)

So much more lovely stuff happened but for now I have to stop because my little ones need some intervention. Mother's Day is over, after all.

It's an "I don't want to make dinner night", so now what?

The other night Mark asked for Senfeier, a German dish which is basically boiled eggs with a mustard sauce over potatoes. We had them over egg noodles last time. It is actually quite delicious but I was totally surprised when Mark not only liked them the first time I made them for him, but has repeatedly asked for them. It is a great quick and filling meal, especially when served with speedy mashed potatoes.

Our other quick and easy is SPAM sandwiches. I know, but we love them. As my mom so rightly said to niece Liffy's wrinkled nose, "honey, the green things are the least of your worries".

I wonder what YOU all eat (besides mac n cheese or fried ramen) when it is that kind of night. At our house we often end up with stupid dinners when I feel like that and we all end up going to bed still hungry.

So here is the request: inexpensive, quick, kid-friendly, and put-in-lunchable. With or without recipe link.