Wow. It's Been A While...

I'm not quite sure if I remember how to post all these pictures in order anymore! We've done alot since last August....including crashing our computer, and not getting all the photos unloaded from our camera...but here are a few :)

Brayden Graduated Preschool, thats him looking up at the flag for the Pledge of Allegeiance. He has also learned how to swim and ride his bike without training wheels lately! Being 5 has been good to him.

Carter has not stopped getting hurt this year, especially with this particular eyebrow. This has been our biggest ouchie yet with the boys, and it required not stiches - but glue to close it shut. I can't even count how many times he has banged that same spot in the last several months.

These are the boys playing outside while it SNOWS...on the first day of SPRING BREAK.

This is a letter Dillon wrote to the Tooth Fairy. Really? He even left a little book light out so the fairy could see it in the dark :)

 We went to the coast at some point. This is at Ona Beach just South of Newport. There is a small river that flows into the ocean called Beaver Creek. Its fast flowing and is fun to watch as it enters the ocean and the waves are coming in at the same time. You can see the boys alongside the river way far away in the picture below, digging and playing in the sand......

 ....then I noticed a wave coming in that just...kept...coming, further in and further in. You can see how far away the waves were from us! I'm standing in the same spot in these last two photos - glad I was paying attention! Beaver Creek was swallowed up completely. At least we found the missing shovel :)

Grandpa's Pictures

Grandpa took all these pictures last time we went to beautiful, clear, sandy-beached Crescent Lake.

I saw this picture and thought to myself, well no WONDER he couldn't hear me the whole time, not only was the life jacket up over his ears but it was up his nose the whole time too. And I thought he was just ignoring me.

 I just love this picture, don't you just want to sit there until the sun goes down with "It's almost paradise....." playing in the background? Just gorgeous.

Scrap Metal, Beaches, and Froggies, Oh My!

  Jim took these two photos while working at Phil Knight's property in Terrebone a while back, along with the big Indian above. A local artist creates these sculptures out of scrap metal and we love them. There were various little guys playing musical instruments and holding little guns and such and they each have the look of their own personalities. The cougar's eyes are made from spoons.

 For our 13 year anniversary we wanted to go to Crater Lake, but it was totally booked until October (wow, who knew?) So we went to the coast instead! We had never been on a trip with just the two of us for an entire weekend, ever. I don't think we really had any idea how exhausting it is to bring along the whole fam until we got there and just had ourselves to worry about! It was absolutely wonderful and I really look forward to a trip like this again with My Love soon :) Here are a few favorites from the coast:

 I took this photo of a seal lion fishing beyond the breakers early one morning, you can see his mouth open after catching a fish...before this I had never seen a seal lion fishing in it's natural environment, just laying around being lazy on a dock - so I'm glad I got a picture of it! And this house below was a place we happened to turn around at in Yachats. We have always dreamed of having our own little place in Yachats, right on the ocean like this. It's like we randomly found our dream cottage at the coast, that was currently for sale, and has an address only one digit off our home address....why oh why does the timing have to be off for us to buy our dream cottage? Pooh.

 And here is an update on the boys tadpoles....they are frogs with tails now - pretty cool actually! And I'm pretty sure there is still 3 or 4 of them, so we're holding strong with the last numbers until release day....

Well, I guess July happened too...

Is that not a perfect summer time kid-pic or what? And that pretty much wraps up what we've been doing all summer long.

We love watching the X-Games, and this was my compromise with the boys after they asked to take the skate ramp out to the street while the X-Games was playing on TV.....hmmmm, lets see - skateboarding over a ramp on hot asphalt...or carpet....the carpet won & so did mom with the helmets :)

We've been busy in the backyard, took a break from the tree fort (rock climbing wall to come soon) and we have roped off most of the back yard to plant grass, Jim has been putting in a stepping stone pathway along the house, and has even built this lava rock seat complete with a side table! It is totally sturdy, useable, and naturally cool looking all in one! He is amazing, I love the picture of him with his Mamma below, and it is even his BIRTHDAY TODAY, we love him SO MUCH!

One day, Grandma took the boys up the street to the park and came back with plastic bags full of stream water and tadpoles. So now we are raising tadpoles. Its been pretty neat to watch their little appendage-looking legs pop out of their tails, and even with all the handling the boys do I think we still have a few survivors. They take good care of them (too good), feed them frozen lettuce.....

....and have re-created the tadpole's "natural habitat" for their optimum health through their incredible transformation...

Those poor things. I really hope they live long enough for us to see a frog or two.

Here are a few more favorites from this past month:

"Shake your thang...OW, do what'cha gonna do!"  You can ALWAYS count on getting a natural smile in a picture if they are shaking their booty's.

"Follow The Leader"...too bad I didn't have a picture of MY muddy butt from later that day to show here...

Fell asleep while watching a movie from the top bunk :)

And here is a great picture from a night out with some of the most amazing women I'm lucky enough to still spend time with! I have known these ladies forever and I had such a wonderful time with them this night, nothing can compare to the feeling of knowing you have great life-long friends. Thank you so much for still being such wonderful people and still being in my life - can't wait to see you all again!

Did June Happen Yet?

Hooray for Carter's 6th Birthday! Jim got this picture of the fireworks off Pilot Butte this year, I thought it looked pretty celabratory for such a cute 6 year old :)

On Birthday Day, Carter wanted to go to the indoor bounce place, a park, and we told him he could go pick out a special birthday present at the store since all the family was coming the 4th of July weekend to celebrate his birthday, and it was only Tuesday....which seems like a LONG time to wait for all the action and attention. WELL. Good thing we made it to the funnest place first. Bouncing on various blow-up structures and sticking to velcro walls - the boys had a blast! (note Brady having a fabulous time in the picture above)  After the bounce place, next on the aggenda was Target, so its no surprise we were ALL (me too of course) excited to go. As soon as we pull up in the Target parking lot Brayden said his tummy hurt. Oh no. I asked if he was going to throw up...."no Mommy, my tummy just hurts." Ok, I think, then he throws up all over himself, over and over again. We had to go straight home and stay put for the rest of the day. Carter was such a good sport, and Dillon was the whiny one. Afterall, there HAD to be something in the trip to Target for him too and that was all that was really important. right? Good thing the weekend came soon!

Carter was so amazed with everything, he didn't have any idea it could get so good! Thank you everyone for everything and for coming, it really made him feel so special!

No Dillon, it's still not all about you, however, we did enjoy the cupcake show.

Here are some of my recent favorites from this summer so far...

We made an addition to the tree fort, it goes up higher, it's bigger, and you can jump off the edge. Its has a bit of danger to it so the boys naturally love it. All three of them are in the picture above :)

Birthday Boy

4? He is 4? When in the world did that happen?

We had alot of fun yesterday for Brayden's birthday - he got to go on a fieldtrip with Carter's kindergarten class to a martial arts/gymnastics place too. They all got to run around and jump off trampolines into a big pit filled with foam blocks and Carter got to show off his talent of doing headstands, that kid can balance on his head forever! It was so good for Brady to be a part of a kindergarten class for a little while...preschool is so dang expensive here, we skipped this year and he won't be going until this next school year, so he had a blast with all the kids!

There is Carter and I on the fieldtrip bus, I like to volunteer in his classroom every Wednesday while he enjoys me being there....unlike a certain older brother who is now so embarrassed of me that he quote/unquote "Tells his whole class that I sleep in my underwear." Yeah, you all know the story, and just look at him all proud of himself for *trying* to embarrass me.

Well, it didn't work. His class doesn't care and all his friends are always wanting to come over and play after school. The other day I had 8 boys at my house (I should mention my super sweet young-lady-neighbor who actually offered to help watch them all - really! Don't YOU wish you had a neighbor like that?). They were spreading like ants inside the house, in the backyard, in the front yard, hanging upside-down from swingsets, climbing trees, kicking soccer balls, riding bikes & motorcycles - it was really just a typical day in the neighborhood and I prefer all of them to be at my house versus being elsewhere, but It made me a little apprehensive about what this summer will bring.....maybe we'll travel alot :)

I'm so happy for HIM being 4, but not so much for myself. Not only is he the youngest in our little part of the family, but the youngest in the ENTIRE family unit and as much as I want him to grow and mature....I sure will miss having little guys. They are all well on their way to being big guys and I think there will be some adjustment periods coming up on me pretty soon. It's already hard to give Dillon the responsibility to ride his bike to his friend's house all alone - and its just down the street. And our neighborhood consists only of cul-de-sacs. No reason to worry much, right?    Hmph.

Well, this is NOT to be confused with us wanting to fill the void with another baby (folks, it wouldn't really turn out to be a girl anyway) but we're willing to take your kind donations of TIME & HEALTHCARE COSTS if thats what YOU'RE all wanting for us! HA! Yep, I think we're good with what we've got - totally lucky, and blessed, and content, and wouldn't change a darn thing. 

Haven't seen the blog for a while....

Long time no see for the blog. I'm trying to get myself back in to it and take the time to check out all these changes that has made it harder to post pictures and add text to them. Call me old fashioned if you like. Its been since Christmas that I've posted anything, but that doesn't mean we haven't done anything :) We went looking for leprechans, thought they might be sleeping in that big rusted out "thing" but there were none around.

Jim and I snowmobiled together and vowed to wear helmets next time. The boys went sledding down a snow hill Grandpa made with his excavator....then we had a "little" bonfire - click on the bonfire picture and it should enlarge, its a cute one of Dillon with missing front teeth. :)

We caught a certain technicolor kitty playing in a rainbow cast from the peep hole on the front door....

We went to Benham falls for the first time, Its so pretty out there and I had no idea how fast those rapids were. This was just a few weeks ago and you can still see the snow on the ground in the picture below. It was cold that day. Its still cold today. I'm sick of it being so cold.

Found a good picture of the Yaquina Head Lighthouse too.