The Girls

It has been a while since I posted any new video of the girls. They must have been in a good mood one day last week, they allowed me to record them. Here is Gina working on Brahams Lullaby and Amanda working on a Prelude in A minor. Their progress is terrific! Practice, practice, practice.

New Video of Sam

Since Sam was little he has been interested in words and letters. He knows his sign alphabet and even how to recognize some finger spelled words. We started using large flash card words when he was about a year old. Now he recognizes about 20 sight words and if we would regularly show him more I am sure he will learn more. I find him to be very impressive! It was a rare moment that he decided to show off for the camera.

Sam Walking

Sam has always been drawn to the camera, here is a short video of Sam walking across the floor to get it! This has been a LONG time coming! Way to Go Sam!

Jumping beans

In the never ending effort to entertain our kids OUTSIDE of our house we put in a rather large trampoline. The girls have a great time jumping and playing around and Sam loves to bounce. He has on occasion jumped, too! HE was in jumping mood before I brought the camera out but you can see what happens once he sees that he is being recorded.

Amanda does some great tricks and has lots of fun here, also. She also tries to caox a jump out of Sam. The video is about 7 minutes long, so if you watch long enough you just see one!

What Happenned to the Summer?

Wow, I can not believe that summer is half over already. I have almost nothing on my "to-do " list done.

We have taken a few camping trips and caught a few fish. The kids have gone into the woods in search of bears, mountain lion and coyotes. Playing outside with the neighbor kids is the first thing discussed at the breakfast table.

OK. I guess it has been a busy summer. Here are few highlights in pictures.

Amanda, Gina and our friends Alayna and Jordan found this little guy and wanted a new pet. I said "fine as long as he lives outside in the tree in the front yard. " Then I made them wash their hands.

Amanda, Gina, Jordan and Alayna climb a tree at Nehalem bay. We had a great weekend camping with the Elggrens.

Here are the kids burying J.J. in the sand. What a good dog. If you are wondering why his leash is floating, there is a kite tied to the end of it.

J.J is really a talented kite master.

Here we are at Marymere Falls in the Olympic National Park. It was only a 1.6 mile hike. Mark had the honor of carrying Sam up the mountain. He needed a cold one when we got back to camp.

We have been having a great time camping this summer. We have one more trip planned in August. I am hoping to post a few videos soon, too!

Spring Break '08

With all the excitement going on in China I have not had time to post anything here. Lots of love going out to the (Adam) Cohn family and the newest addition, Eliana Cohn.

Our family headed south to California for spring break this year. Mark had to work in Irvine so we tagged along with him. Nihon Kohden's fiscal year ends March 31 so he had difficulty partaking in the vacation.

Here is a slideshow about our trip.

The Most Talented Kids

I just can not be more proud of my kids. They continue to work hard at their music.

Gina's first guitar recital was just before spring break. She did a great job and sounded terrific!

Amanda had a recital in December. Sam was sick that day and I had to catch it on the video replay.


Even though they continually argue with me about practicing, I think they know how much they are improving!



Sam has made a lot of progress in sign language. We can undersatand most of what he says but when he signs also, things go a bit more smoothly. I tried make an audition video for Signing Time. The show was asking for submissions from kids 3 and under. You will see he was not feeling particularly cooperative that day.