Happy Birthday Andy!!

Happy Birthday Andy!!! To my wonderful hubby who is the love of my life and the father of our children (and a wonderful father at that!!). Love you!

Christmas Eve

I intended for a sweet photo of the boys in front of the tree but the excitement got the better of them and it was late anyway. Merry Christmas!!!!

Wintertime in Oregon

This was on Thursday when we went to get our Christmas tree. We ended up out near Carver and found a really nice tree farm but the weather was terrible!! :) There were no other customers there that morning ...just us and I only managed for one picture because of my total fear of soaking the camera. But it was worth going out, especially for the boys who enjoy the chance of lots of mud splashing!! Thank goodness that storm is over and the weather is very clear now but chilly. Speaking of which I need to go to work and I just looked outside and noticed it's going to take me awhile to warm up the car!!

Finally!! Pirate pictures!!

These are from Halloween and I figured I better get them up before it's actually Christmas!! :)

I also had to add my neighbor boys' picture to the post since they were so cute and their mom claimed that this was the only picture taken by anybody were they were standing together!! (I can totally understand that and I don't have twins!!)

Saturday

I just had to provide a quick link to my girlfriend Crystal's Stampin Up! site. In the art gallery section of the site you will see samples of cards that a bunch of us made on Saturday. She came up with the design and several girlfriends and I got together on Saturday afternoon and made a bunch of cards. It was a lot of fun and chit chat and we got homemade Christmas cards done too! I can't complain about that!! :) Lucky for me it was fun since that night ended up being not so pleasant. The night before (Friday night) Matthew had been sick but both boys were at Grandma's house spending the night (so sorry Leslee!)so I was kind of thinking we lucked out not having to deal with the worst of it. Sadly I thought wrong...Saturday after bedtime was all done Mason got totally sick in his crib (it's so time for a big boy bed!) and we got to spend the evening cleaning it up. Amazing what parenting does to you on your Saturday night!! ;)

pics from Melinda's birthday and other randomness

I haven't posted for awhile since I forgot my password and just didn't get around to finding it out!! anyway.... I had meant to at least put a few pictures up from Melinda's birthday party at Pump it Up! I almost cringe to admit that her party was the 6th trip this year that we made to Pump it Up. But the kids love it and it tires them out so who can complain about that?! I did include the picture of Matthew with one of his three girlfriends! Of course his first love is still Francie in his class and he is still in love with Teacher Stephanie at gymnastics but he also really loves Kylie (Melinda's sister)! As soon as she showed up to the party Matthew stuck to her side like glue!

The pics of Matthew, Mason, and Skyler up at the top were taken when Skyler spent a couple of days at our house when Skyler didn't have to go to school. And the patience tester picture? I don't think I even need to explain! Although kudos to my lovely girlfriend Crystal who discovered the shirt. Even her own 5-year old knew exactly who that shirt was for!!


oh yeah....I changed the template/background back to what I originally had for my blog and strangely an entry that I couldn't get to post earlier (from back in October) now posted!! I don't know what that was all about (don't think I really care) but check it out. Something about birthday meanings ...I read andy's out loud to him and at first he was amused and then I think he was a bit disturbed as his fit him completely!! hee hee.....:)

pumpkin patch

boy am I slow...but I figured I needed to get these pictures posted partly because they are cute and also because there are actually rare photos of me!! Usually I am the one with the camera so rarely do I get my picture taken. Not that I mind too much but sometimes it is nice to have some documentation that I was actually at an event! Anyhoo...the Saturday before Halloween we got up early to go to the pumpkin patch at Lee Farms which is actually the one Matthew's kindergarten class went to. But I figured it would be easy and not too far away and we really didn't have a ton of time that day so we squeezed it in. Mason loved it; especially the slide in the haymaze and the goats. Matthew had already seen it so he was our guide and luckily it wasn't very busy yet at 9:30 in the morning! We also discovered they had fresh (hot!) donuts for sale and oh they were sooo good! We ended up coming home with a few pumpkins, very little dirt, and a lot of cinnamon-sugar. Worth every penny!!

pics from the beach....

ok so these are a few of the pictures I meant to put up on the last post but couldn't find the camera.....

birthday meanings.....

Ok so I was just on one of the blogs I read now and then and found this entertaining bit....

Your Birthdate: June 29

You have the mind of an artist, even if you haven't developed the talent yet.Expressive and aware, you enjoy finding new ways to share your feelings.You often feel like you don't fit in - especially in traditional environments.You have big dreams. The problem is putting those dreams into action. Your strength: Your vivid imagination Your weakness: Fear of failure Your power color: Coral Your power symbol: Oval Your power month: November

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

and andy's....hmmmm

Your Birthdate: December 30

You have the type of personality that people either love or hate.You're opinionated, dramatic, intense, and very outspoken.And some people can't get enough of you - they're totally addicted.Others, well, they wish you were a little more reserved. Your strength: Your flair Your weakness: If you think it, you say it Your power color: Scarlet red Your power symbol: Inverted triangle Your power month: March

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

I gotta admit I am always intrigued by this kind of stuff....must be the "Cancer" or "Crab" in me!! :)

and just for kicks..here is another blog and another one and another one that I read with regularity!! most of these are people I don't know....except Meegan!! :)

Grandma's birthday celebration part 2

So its been ages since I posted last but life sometimes gets away from you!! Last weekend we went to Lincoln City for our second part of celebrating Grandma's birthday. She loved it and the weather was perfect...lots of sun and almost no wind! She had a blast, I had a blast, my parents had a blast, however...my poor husband didn't do so well! Earlier in the week I battled a nasty cold and Andy managed to catch it on Saturday morning and spent the whole day in the hotel room feeling rotten. The kids actually started getting the cold on thursday night so they were miserable on Friday in the hotel but by Saturday felt a lot better. Andy pretty much missed the whole weekend while I shopped, went to the casino with my parents and hit the beach with my kids!!

My little sea turtle Mason was in heaven in the water. It really wasn't quite warm enough for water play but that didn't stop Mason! Matthew wasn't as thrilled with the water but had a much better time searching for rocks and shells. (grandpa also planted a few shiny new rocks for him to "find"!) Mason pretty much walked through the water constantly and proclaimed very loudly to me (constantly) "mommy I love it!!" very cute and eventually annoying all at the same time!! Grandma spent her time watching us on the beach and eating out with us....she loves all the extra time with the kids too!


and just because it's almost Halloween (my husband's absolute favorite holiday!!) and my kids are getting more excited by the minute I figured I had to post a picture or two from last year ...just for fun!



Hopefully in about 3 days I will have this years Halloween pics downloaded and posted of the "Pirate Ghost" and the "Pirate"!!

school days....

ok...so it's been a busy last couple of weeks!! We are finally all into the "school" routine of daily life and it seems we just keep piling on more activities as each week passes! Matthew loves school. I had hoped and figured that he really would like it but I didn't quite expect this level of happiness. Of course there have been plenty of suprises (mostly for me) in these begining weeks of kindergarten. I am amazed at how much Matthew has learned and picked up on. I am amazed that he fell into a routine so easily and quickly. I am amazed at how proud he is of his accomplishments. I guess I shouldn't be amazed at all these things but I guess because I'm his mom I get to be in awe of him.


However...there is one thing that has happened recently that has totally blindsided me. I really didn't have the forethought to see this coming and I can't believe that of all kids mine has a major first crush on a girl!!!! YIKES!!! I so didn't predict that one! There is a little girl in his class and he constantly talks about her. Today when we got home from school and after I fed Matthew a snack he came up and gave me a big hug and said "I love you mom...and Francie too!" Oh boy..... He has made artwork at home for her....he has talked about making sure he gets to sit next to her or talk to her ...he told me that when the kids were picking out bean bags he made sure and picked out the same color as her. I gotta say I really thought that Matthew would be a serious late bloomer and we wouldn't be talking about girls for awhile except on a more superficial level. I just didn't see this coming.......

and just for fun I wanted to put up a picture or two of this summer just because as much as I love fall (the changing season, beautiful weather that's crisp in the am but still warm during the day, fall clothes!, and fall t.v.!) I am a summer girl at heart and always miss it when it's over. sigh.....anyway the pictures are of our camping trip to Detroit Lake this summer which was a blast! We didn't take Mason this year (next year he can go) but Matthew had a great time and got to fish with daddy! It certainly made for great summer memories!

For Louise

Ok.....I am going to backtrack a bit on events with this one...but then again that seems to be the story of my life lately! In other words I am never going to catch up on anything!! So anyway, last Friday I figured since it was the last day we had for awhile to do something spontaneous but fun I decided to take the kids to the zoo. We have been to the zoo enough times that I really don't need any new zoo pictures but I took my camera anyway and about the time the kids were getting tired we stopped to play on these animals and lo and behold there was a hippo! My friend Louise loves hippos (anything with hippos on it, pics, etc.) so I got the kids to pose for me and managed a couple of shots before other kids decided to get in the way. However, once this picture taking started the boys decided this was actually fun (Matthew often protests his pic taken) and wanted me to take a picture of them on every animal. Oh darn, some of the other animals had too many kids and I just couldn't comply with that request. But they were excited about taking a special picture on the hippo just for Louise!

And speaking of Louise.....Matthew cannot quit talking about Halloween! Every day he asks if it's October yet and if Louise is working on his costume! Last year she made his very cool scary witch costume and this year she is going to do both boys' costumes. Mason is going to be a pirate (all inspired by his pirate shoes) and Matthew has said for almost a year he wants to be a ghost but we finally convinced him to be a pirate ghost! This was partly my doing since I wanted to dress him up more than just a plain old ghost! :) So the boys are anxious for Halloween or at least October and I think what really scares me is that yesterday in Target when we were looking at all the Halloween decor Mason pointed out something and kept say Santa. Yikes!!! So not ready for Christmas yet.....

First Day of School

Matthew had his first day of kindergarten today!!!! Wow....it's so hard to believe that time has come, although truthfully I am glad school has started because this is a kid that needs a consistent routine. Mental note: next summer there will be either lots of day camps or classes/summer school! He was quite excited to go to school...no trouble at all getting him out the door! Truth be told, I was the one who was a bit of a nervous wreck because I wasn't sure how he would react once he got there or if he would have a hard time following a new routine with new rules etc. But it turns out I had nothing to worry about...(at least not for today!)

Matthew also got a special treat (which I totally forgot about making until this morning when I was in the shower...oops!!) that I had promised to him when he had his first day of kindergarten. So here are pics of Matthew and the school bus cake (even though he won't be riding a school bus!) and eating it with Andy since he took the day off work just for this special day.