John is has officially been at the new job one year(yay). He has worked a smorgasborg of shifts these last few days and we are also getting ready for a Thorndike Family weekend at the farm. I have been working on a few things around the house...like trying to be patient in my quest to get rid of some kitchen ant naturally...ugh! It;s been day three of the battle and I think I'm finally winning!


The kids have been outside playing in the dirt non-stop. From the time they get up until I drag them in for naps or bathtime they have been out there getting dirty or riding their bikes. I am so thankful for the space and safe area of our home. God has really, really blessed our family.


We had to say good-bye to our close friend Lisa this last week....it's not a sad occasion , she is heading home to Oklahoma to greet her hubby, Andrew who has been in Iraq for 3 months. We feel very blessed that we were able to see her and spend time with her so often while she was home in Pendleton. Lisa, I miss you already, girl!


We are excited to see Andrew come home safely again, though....too bad they just don't live closer to us!


I guess the biggest news lately is that Hosanna now has 4 teeth and she's now only 17lbs. She is getting to be quite a big girl...although not as big as her siblings were at this age, by far!

Bubbles, toothies, and goo...

Jeremiah, Alison and Hosanna are the best kiddos in the world! We have been playing in the mud, riding bikes and having fun. Jeremiah recently got his first haircut in about 8 months.....YES! He know looks like Papa instead of Unca Airwin....according to him. Alison is officially a big girl...she slept in her big-girl bed last night with no problems. I wish I could get her to nap better in it! Hosanna is getting her third and fourth teeth! She's doing pretty well with it all...she's a bit more sleep, which I don't mind, of course!

They are definitely our precious gems!

I'm a slacker...

...I haven't posted regularly like usual...sorry.

Since last time...I went to Seattle to witness the birth of the newest Thorndike, Savannah...Dan and Elizabeth's first baby girl! That was on the 5th of April....then this last weekend it was back up to Seattle with the whole fam for Adam and Rippel's wedding. Adam and Rippel are dear friends of ours and both John and Jeremiah were in the wedding. It was totally awesome and we had so much fun.

During our trip however...Jeremiah ended up in the ER with a bout of croup and then that same day, little Savannah ended up going back in for some jaundice. I am happy to say...everyone is doing well now! God is so great! Also during the last week or so, Uncle Aaron was here for a visit and the kiddos were in HEAVEN! They certainly LOVE their uncle.

We are all getting well now from a little cold bug and our exhausted bodies...but, this too, shall pass.

OOOHHH.....one more thing.....only 13days until Josh, Meghan, Kaitlin and Zach are back in the states from Costa Rica...YYYAAAAYYYY!!!! Can you tell we've missed them??!

Life...

SO... we haven't done tons of amazing things over the last few weeks. But, we have worked outside, inside and all around our great new house. The kids have been enjoying lots of playtime outdoors as well.

Our biggest news lately is that Jeremiah is currently testing out a gluten-dairy-and mostly sugar-free diet. The doc thinks he may have inherited some fabulous food-allergy genes from his daddy....:) So, we have put both kids on the diet...no fair for one to have what the other can't, right? And, since there is more than one Thorndike with these issues, we have learned several "tricks" as well as found lots of goodies and foods for them at Andy's Market in Walla Walla.(including chocolate chip cookies, which he loves...at a mere $5 per half dozen, yikes!). It hasn't been so bad and at least I can keep them away from the bad sweets and junk food! There new fav snack is rice cakes with peanut butter!

a whole new life...

Well, it has been an interesting last few weeks. We got moved into our new house and started working on it right away. By the way, Thank you to Jesus for allowing us the blessing of owning our first home! We have a couple of projects going on right now, but they should be done in a few days thanks to my dad and John's hard work (Thanks, Dad!) and then I think we will just enjoy "our" house!

The kids have been doing good. We are all trying to get past a repeating stomach bug, but that doesn't really slow them down a whole lot.

Jeremiah continues to do well in school and loves playing outside or helping his Dad work. He has been sharing a room with Alison while we work in his room and I think we are going to have a hard time getting him to go back to his! He is really into the Cars movie cars and has about a dozen or so. Every time we go to the store guess what he wants.....another one. He's pretty cute though. He has been en excellent helper for me and is always asking if he can be my "big helper" at the store or home. Actually, today he helped me butter the bread for our grilled cheese sandwiches at lunch and he did a great job.

So handsome

Being silly...

Alison is still up to no-good....:) You think I'm kidding?? She loves to play with her princess things and is all about being a princess. This includes her beauty regimes of Vaseline in her hair and all over her body as well as any furniture nearby...aaahhhhh!!! Let me just say, it takes DAYS to get that stuff out...and yes, she has done it more than once....twice this week, actually. Her other favorites include throwing herself on the floor, eating until she can stuff nothing else in(which hasn't happened yet), hitting her brother, biting her sister, telling us "no", "I'm just checkin'", "don't help me" and my favorite..."STOP IT!" I love her anyway...and this too shall pass, right??!

This is Alison after one of her "beauty regimes"

This is how she went to Jeremiah's school with me this morning...watch-out Project Runway!

Being mischievous, as usual

Hosanna is going thru a landmark in babyhood...her first two teeth. I think she screamed for an hour or so last night. On the lighter side, she is a great giggler and raspberry-blower and she is finding her voice which is so much fun! She is grabbing at toys now and reacting to everything her siblings do to make her laugh. She had a 6 month check-up this week and the doc said she is perfect and beautiful...like I expected anything else, come on! She is weighing in at 15lbs and 12 ozs and is just great!

Poor thing fell asleep after a hard day at play...

John is staying busy with work and work at home. He got a new chainsaw, so beware! If a tree is slightly leaning or looking like it's on the brink or death or infestation...it's coming down! Jeremiah has been watching him with his "rainsaw" as he calls it(uh...the wood chips fall like rain..hahaha...actually he just has a hard time saying it, but that was pretty good, eh?). John is gearing up for better weather, he has lots of projects planned for our chunk of property this spring.

Getting ready for bedtime...

Me...well, I've been busy taking care of everyone else....and I love it! I can't wait to get all our construction projects and painting done over the next couple of days so I can actually start unpacking more than clothes and dishes. I miss my pictures on the wall and all our chachskies(?) aka stuff! I've actually been really busy with a Mommie and Me group we started at church for moms of infants and preschoolers(or even expecting moms wanting to get a head start getting to know other moms). We have moms from other churches as well as moms who don't attend a church, but need that adult conversation....we just get together in the church nursery and let the kiddos play while we visit for about an hour. It's a lot of fun. We were meeting every other week and last time we had so many moms come(so great!) we decided to start doing it every week. I am planning our meeting for spring break which is in two weeks and we will be going to a local park with all the kids...even the older ones, since there is no school. We are going to do a sack lunch picnic, so it should be lots of fun. I have really enjoyed getting to know lots of moms and I hope to continue to do so...

Well, here are a gazillion pics of the kids over the last few weeks....hopefully we can get a new computer desk soon....right now it's sitting on the floor in our room and so getting online does not have the appeal to it that it once did!

Love to you all, send us a note and tell us how you are doing!

Ready for church

Watching a movie

Breakfast-time

Getting warm and cozy

It's finally ours....sorta...

Yesterday we finally signed papers for the new house! It officially ours....in about 30 years..hahaha! We are so excited to get started on all our little projects we have planned and get settled into "our home". The kids can't wait to be in their new rooms and play in their big yard. I haven't taken very many new pictures...but as the next week or so progresses with our big move I'm sure I'll be posting many more for those of you who are too far away to visit right now.

For the last couple of years it has felt like this day was never going to come. Thanks to a patient realtor(thanks Brian) and lots of prayer, we finally made it.

We are SO thankful for such an amazing and wonderful God that He is able to provide this home for us!



John and I accomplishing the task of signing ALL those papers...ugh!




In front of our new home...(thanks Brian for being our photographer for the day!)

On a different note...here are some more things we did this last week:

new cut and color...yay! (thanks mom)

Adventures with corn on the cob.....very messy.

Alison is going fishing??? well at least she ready to! And what's with that face??!

A few days in the life of....

A few days in the life of Jeremiah, Alison and Hosanna....