Stein Annual Christmas Letter

Hey Everybody,

It’s time for our 2008 Stein family year-in-review. The Mayan calendar says the apocalypse won’t happen until 2012, so for the time being, we’re safe from terminators, zombies, or whatever else may graciously end my obligation to write these family newsletters in 3-4 years.

Benj is 3 years old and now attends preschool. Like a budding engineer, he spends lots of time building things. He talks constantly and we’re finally starting to understand him. We’ve learned that frissmas wides = Christmas lights and fock-it mick = chocolate milk. (You get used to it). And when he’s utterly incomprehensible, Lena’s always available to interpret. He’s said some funny things this year. I’ve been writing them down. My favorite quote this year:

DADDY: Do you want a baby brother or a baby sister?
BENJ: I want a brother.
DADDY: What if Mommy has a girl?
BENJ: Then I’ll make a baby boy in my tummy.
DADDY: You’ll make one in your tummy?!
BENJ: Yeah, and two girls in my boobies! (Demonstrates).

So the kid is ambitious—and yes, he’s perhaps a bit too nurturing. But in most respects, he’s just like his old man: he’s kind of lazy, loves chocolate, spaces out for minutes at a time, and lets a female control his life. I have that same problem.

As for Lena, she’s now 5. She’s incredibly bright and has become quite the accomplished reader. The other day at the grocery store, she asked Ira how to spell Kool Aid. Ira spelled it C-O-O-L. Lena gleefully corrected her. We think she’s a little too smart for her own good. Just this week, she faked a serious illness to get out of class. The kid deserves an Oscar. Her teacher was ready to quarantine the whole school! Seriously, we shouldn’t have to deal with these antics until she’s at least an obnoxious teenager. She’s also said some funny things this year. My favorite quote came after a prayer:

LENA: Heavenly Father, please bless the whole world and all the planets and stars . . . except for Mars. Don’t bless Mars. Amen.
MOMMY: Good prayer, Lena. But why don’t you want Him to bless Mars?
LENA: Because we can’t breathe and we die there.

Wow. We didn’t have the heart to explain to her just how inhospitable most of the universe really is—she’d ask God to curse the whole universe! In almost all ways, Lena is just like Ira. She loves to organize things, make lists, and adopt rules (for others to follow). She hates chocolate, loves people, and has an uncanny ability of getting her own way. How precious!

As for Ira, she got herself knocked up. Again. I can’t complain about her freakish fertility because her body has started changing in all sorts of “husband-friendly” ways (she begged me not to say this). Her due date is May 23. For now, she’s keeping a busy schedule. When she’s not juggling work, motherhood, and her church calling as Primary President (a big responsibility), she relaxes by reading books or watching the tube with me. She went sort of crazy this year on that Twilight series. Since everybody we know has heard her go on and on (and on) about it, I’ll spare you another round of punishment. Just so you know, she keeps a family blog at: www.steinfamily-oregon.blogspot.com

As for me, I feel so blessed. Though I’ve lost some more hair and found a few pounds, family, work, and life in general have been better than a man like me deserves. No complaints.
Merry Christmas from Keith, Ira, Elena, and Benjamin

Celebration Part II: Welcome to NEVERLAND

For Ella and Benjamin's birthday this year we decided to go with "NEVERLAND" theme, having them dress up as Peter Pan and Tinker Bell and inviting their friends to come dressed as pirates, Lost Boys, Indians, or Wendy. We ended up having all these characters at our party!

The trip to Neverland started out by Peter Pan and Tinker Bell sprinkling pixie dust on the guests as they arrived. We reviewed the story by going over some scenes from the movie, making sure everyone was aware of what the party was about. Below is a picture of us watching the movie...

Captain Hook (Keith) made special appearance and chased the kids around the house and back yard, making them walk the plank and having sword fights.
The kids got to play in the tent - LOST BOYS CAVE and decorate their swords with stickers.
We also had a Mermaid Lagoon (wading pool with some sprinklers) but unfortunately the weather was not really Lagoon friendly... We did get to "make shadows" by tracing each kid's outline on black paper.

Towards the end of the party we received a message in a bottle from Peter Pan, asking for help in finding his treasure before Hook got to it... Everyone enjoyed a treasure hunt, especially since they got to keep the found treasure (coin candies, treats, and a toy). Below I am giving out the treasure...

Keith decorated the cakes to make them look like the crocodile with the ticking clock. The kids loved those.

Even Jessie and I decided to join in on the fun by dressing up.

At the end of the night, after all the work we put into the party, we figured we deserved a turn at WII (the boys were playing during the cleanup!). Jessie beat me at tennis, just like she does on a real court!

Official Jam Tasters

The kids and I have been very busy this summer getting ready for winter - picking berries, freezing them, and making jam. This last week I've decided to make some new jams - blackberry and triple berry (blackberry, raspberry, and blueberry). The kids volunteered (actually, more like begged), to taste every single batch. Lena (being so much like her mom!) told me it was wa-a-y-y too sweet, Benjamin (just like he daddy), doesn't think there is such thing as TOO sweet.

Birthday Boy

Benjamin turned 3 last Sunday. Since him and his BFF have birthday only 5 days apart, they usually party together... This year, once again, the celebrations consisted of several phases. Phase one was a trip to Cold Stone Creamery to get their Birthday Creations (siblings and moms were invited). Earlier that day Benjamin got an awesome present from his cousin Katya (thanks, Manya and Dave!) - Buzz Lightyear Costume. So, Benjamin refused to take the costume off the first couple of days. In fact, when Keith checked on him that first night, Benjamin was asleep hugging his costume. We pretty sure he likes it...

Such a Silly Tooth Fairy!

A couple of weeks ago we went out to Subway for dinner. When Lena bit into her sandwich she got really upset and told me that sandwich hurt her tooth. I completely dismissed her complaints (she does tend to get headaches anytime I ask her to clean her room). However, to my horror I realized that her front bottom tooth was hanging by a thread! I was pretty annoyed that sandwich caused my daughter's tooth to fall out and vowed not to come back. The call to Lena's dentist in the morning revealed the awful truth - it is time for my baby to loose her baby teeth... Emotionally, I was not prepared to deal with such trauma, so I went into denial...

Keith had to bring me up to speed on the whole tooth fairy business before he went to work that night. I told Lena that if she managed to pull the tooth out on her own, the tooth fairy would come. My diligent child had accomplished that task within minutes. If only I were that good at my task... I accidentally threw away her tooth into the garbage can while cleaning up after dinner.The extensive sweep of the territory came up negative... Subject in question was MIA... I improvised by telling Lena that I would put the tooth under the pillow after she fell asleep because fairy was not allowed to come otherwise... I remembered someone mentioning coins but my wallet only had pennies which I did not see as worthy of a first-baby-tooth-out award. Paper dollar had to do...

I went to work the following morning excited to hear from Lena about her visitor. However, she never called. Imagine my shock when I came home and she still hadn't mentioned anything. I started questioning my sanity, wondering if I somehow lost the dollar between the kitchen and the bedroom. I ran and looked under the pillow... the dollar was still there... Apparently, I was more excited about the whole concept than Lena... She forgot to even check her pillow in the morning...

Tillamook - the home of Cheese Factory

So, every summer I get to audit some municipalities in Tillamook. This year my audit was scheduled for five days. Keith took some time off and drove up to see me with our babies. While I worked, they went for a swim, toured the Cheese Factory, checked out local library and Air Museum - very fun and active day. I met them for lunch at the Cheese Factory (but did not get to join them for the ice cream afterwards...)

Father's Day

I never posted any pictures from our Father's Day Celebration. The kids and I got Keith a new BBQ to put on our new patio. Kind of a selfish present, I guess! In case you can't tell, the cookie says We Love You (Lena and I baked it together).

Trip to the Coast

A couple of weeks ago we took a trip to the coast. We stayed at a wonderful hotel in Newport (thanks for those scripts, Debbie!) Even though it was a typical Oregon coast weather, we had a nice family weekend. We swam at a pool, went to Mo's for their famous chowder, and even checked out Undersea Gardens, Ripley's Believe it or Not, and Wax Works Museum.

Doesn't he look good even though made out of wax?

About time I put my face on this blog...

My beautiful family

5th Birthday

As I have mentioned, Lena was promised a pool party for her birthday which was put temporarily on hold due to weather situation. Well, our patience had paid off and we had a wonderful Princess (of course!) party at the local water park. Check out the birthday girl with her friends.

Thanks for the beautiful cake, Jessie!


Oldest friend - Jackson and Lena have been friends since before they were one.

Wild party crowd

Benj and Ella living it up

Dancing Queen (can't you tell I just watched "Mamma Mia"?)

Lena has been taking dance classes through parks & recs department for the last couple of years and has really been enjoying them. Well, this summer we decided to give ballet a shot. We found a new ballet school that has just opened. Even though we've only had four classes, Lena absolutely loves the instructor. Benjamin likes playing in the play area and watching the dancers. "Silly girls!" he says. Well, check out how cute she looks (in a black leotard).

Another Outing

Today we were scheduled to pick up our Portraits at JC Penney studio in Salem. Instead of running an errand, Jess and I decided to make it into another summer adventure. We took two cars (yes, we do know the gas prices, what can we do? We have four children and NO minivans!) and went to A.C. Gilbert's Discovery Village (check out link below)
http://acgilbert.org/index.html

Basically, the village consists of three historic homes that were converted into a childrens' museums, with exhibits varying from bubble making room, shadow room, dinosaur caves to pretend grocery store, theater stage with dress up clothes, anatomy lab, toy workshop. I don't know about the children, but Jessie and I enjoyed ourselves. In the court yard there was an enormous structure with long bridges, climbing nets, tunnels and slides. It took museum worker's escort to get us out of that place...



Yes, these are smoothies... yes, again...

Play Production

Little Children, Big Chair

Benj and his Bubble

Lena and Benj inside a tree

Summer Madness

I LOVE SUMMER! What's not to love? Juicy watermelons, fresh berries, long days, bright sun (an endangered specie in Oregon). It is close to impossible to be in a bad mood during the summer (I manage, of course). So, my friend Jessie and I have been trying to see exactly how many activities we can fit into these long days with our four children. Our weekly agenda includes a couple of episodes of berry picking (we have just finished strawberries and have recently moved on to raspberries and blueberries) a trip to the wading pool. Two weeks ago we took the kids there to get some professional pictures taken. All of you with little children out there know exactly how much work it is to get at least one decent picture out of a long session with your child. Well, since we like the challenge, we decided to go for two photo shoots at two different studios at the Salem Center. Needless to say, we got quite a workout pushing our double strollers up and down the mall, running between the studios, waiting in line, making silly faces at the children trying to make them smile, running back to the first location to pick up the pictures, then returning to the second one... Well that experience is not for those with health concerns, attempt at your own risk!

(Jessie, Jonas, Ella, Benjamin, and Elena taking a break between photo shoots)

Well, children had a time of their lives and got rewarded for their stellar behavior during the shoots with some smoothies and a trip to the neighborhood park.

Jonas is quite a smoothie boy

Lena & Benjamin at the park in Salem

Blowing bubbles with brother

Daddy's little helper