Gotta Have Art, Gotta Give Art!

We are in the spirit of giving and sharing and I make it a point every year, as young as our boys are, to find a little cause for us to donate to that they participate in. During this time that I'm keeping my eye out for our special cause this holiday season, we put our old couch on Craigslist to sell and it got me interested in looking at the "wanted" section. I found a post from a kindergarten teacher from one of the schools here in Bend. She said that most of the kids in her class are below poverty level and she was asking for donations of crayons and paper or whatever people could manage. She told a story about how all the kids were coloring pictures and it was time to go home so she told them they could take it home and finish coloring the picture there. A little boy then asked her if he could take two crayons home so he could color. He didn't have any crayons at home, and I think that was what prompted her to ask for help. We all know that TEACHERS DON'T MAKE NEARLY AS MUCH AS THEY DESERVE and she was spending her own money buying clothes and art supplies for each of them and she needed help. I LOVE the idea of the boys helping other children who are about their age (especially since their own arts & crafts cabinet is overflowing with things to do and their Grandma happens to be a retired teacher of 31 years. This was the THING for us to do this year!) So off we went to the store and made small individual "packages" for each of the 16 children in the kindergarten class complete with a little package of crayons, colored pencils or paints, and a couple of Christmas tree ornaments to take home. We are delivering the basket tomorrow, YAY!

Monster Trucks and Saying Things

The Monster Trucks were so much fun for the boys, a must do if you have boys.

The boys have been saying funny (sometimes embarrassing) things lately and I had to share a few...

Carter, almost 3 1/2:

I try to do all my shopping while Dillon is in school so I have one less kiddo with me at the store so I took Carter and Brayden to Fred Meyer and we were looking at the bread. A man who worked there was talking to the boys telling me that he has all boys at home too. He was Indian and spoke with an Indian accent and Carter was very polite to him. After we walked away Carter says a bit too loudly with question in his voice, "That man talks crazy, he talks crazy." Oh dear.

After getting out of the bath I was helping Carter get dressed, we were face to face and he has a sweet way of looking right in to my eyes and holding a gaze. I said to him "I love you soooo much" he said right back to me looking now at my cheeks "I love you too, Mommy...." voice trailing..."but your cheeks are cracking." I thought that maybe I had some new wrinkles that popped up after such a stressful summer, moving in the fall, and losing Maddy. I went to the mirror to see what he was talking about - no wrinkles, just some teeny tiny broken blood vessels on the apples of my cheeks that contribute to my rosy complexion. Thanks for noticing, sweetheart.

Dillon and Carter got to go see monster trucks with Daddy and Nana and they had a blast. The trucks are really loud so the boys wore earplugs. A man was sitting in the row in front of them kind of off to the side and Carter says (loud enough for the man to hear, maybe due to the earplugs) "That man doesn't have any hair!" Leave it to Carter for blurting out the obvious...

Dillon, just turned 6:

Dillon and Carter were lucky enough to come across a $5 bill that neither Nana nor I wanted to claim for buying a gallon of milk, Dillon asked for it and I said "If Nana doesn't take it then you and Carter can split it, that will give you each $2.50." He thought for a minute and looked up at me and said, "Well, how about if Carter gets $2 and I can have $3?" I wonder what profession Dillon will take when he grows up, he always comes up with stuff like that!

Dillon had a couple of toys behind his back and said to Carter very sweetly, "Now you have to choose, Carter, one of the toys and you can have it forever." Very carefully, with great thought, Carter choose a hand. "NOOOO, Carter! (now irritated with his brother) You're supposed to choose this hand! The other one is mine." Dillon said, and tossed the toy to Carter with a 'how could you not know that' sort of look. Choices, choices....

One of the funniest things that Dillon does is getting Brayden to come down the hallway to his room with him. Dillon has an imagination that leads him to believe that scary things lie ahead when going down the hall and turning the corner to his room so if he can get someone to go with him he feels more confident. He will try to ask Carter very extra nicely in a sing-song sort of voice to come to their room with him, to make the prospect sound more appealing I guess, but Carter gets a bit annoyed and never goes. So now Dillon rounds up Brayden the brave 18 month old who is carefree going into a dark room, alone. So every time Dillon wants something out of his room I hear him holler, almost in baby talk, "Baaay-bee! a D-D's room, a D-D's room - binky?, Want a binky? Come on baby!" and off runs Brady protecting his big 6 year old brother from the dark, in promise of him finding a hidden binky.

Brayden, 18 mo:

He is not speaking in sentences yet, but he has a few new words he has added to his vocabulary.... He says Daggy for Daddy, Mammy for Mommy, Carger for Carter, D-D for Dillon, Kitty, Goggie, P-fishy (he always makes a p-sound before saying fishy), Giggy for binky, Football, Right Back, Bye, Night Night, Gamma for Grandma, Nana, Tina (though he won't let her hear it) Cracker, Tunky for tummy, Coat, Backpack, Guy, Horsie, Quarter, and everytime he sees a school bus he calls out "D-D!" for his oldest brother :)

Snoozing with a Sucker

We went on a gorgeous walk yesterday with Nana around Mirror Pond and Carter fell asleep in the car with a sucker in his mouth!.....Here he is snoring, snoozing, & drooling in the driveway when we got home ;)

Carter's Maze

Jim found some mazes to print out online the other night. Dillon has been enjoying the fun of doing mazes for a while now and can do some good sized mazes by this time, and Jim sat down with Carter to teach him how to do a maze too. He laid the paper on the desk then went into the other room and then Carter came up to us with this maze that he had completed all by himself! You can even see where he went looking to the exit and realized that it was the wrong way, then back tracked and found the way out. Not bad for a 3 year old! :)

Digging for Candy, The Ugly Witch & The Empty Bucket

Daddy was digging too....he is so thankful that the boys don't like peanuts or peanutbutter.

We trick-or-treated at Nana's house first, nice make-up job, huh?
What happened to all the candy?

Halloween & Birthday Fun

Its hard turning 6 on Halloween, so many things to keep us busy. This is Dillon at 2:00 in the afternoon laying in my bed watching a movie. Gearing up for trick or treating I guess!

We have superheros covered....and animals too.


Yes, his faces are telling us exactly how he feels about being in a costume. You can click on the bottom picture to get a better look at that "poor me, this is the worst thing in the world, how could you do this to me?" pouty lip :)

(Entertaining thier baby brother is top priority)

The First Snow!

We had our first little bit of snow on Saturday morning, we certainly live in Bend don't we? The boys couldn't wait to get outside, check out the crazy morning hair!
Carter gets really upset when his fingers get too cold....
Brayden had a blast wondering what all this white stuff was, he is saying "Oooohhh!" in this picture. Just like in the valley, all the snow was gone by the afternoon.

Sparks Lake

We took a little drive out on the Cascade Lakes Highway yesterday and stopped at Sparks Lake just past Mt. Bachelor. It had been snowing up there but turned to rain when we got to the lake. We were total lightweights and only stayed out of the car for 10 minutes - it was sooo cold! Dillon always appreciates a good view over a lake or river.
On our way back from the freezing mountains and lake we decided to drive through Sunriver and took some pictures of a few deer grazing and play fighting near the 14th par on a golf course. It was quite fun watching them play fight, they were having a great time!
Brady has found a new love for books (especially if they have "P-fffishies" in them) and a little stuffed animal beagle that looks exactly like Maddy, its his very own "goggie".
Ok, so I made some toast and sprinkled a little cinnamon and sugar on top for one of the boys who often share tidbits with Brayden. He apparently liked it so much that when they were done with the toast he stole the plate off the table, ditched the two binkies behind him, and licked the plate :)

Pilot Butte

From the top of the Butte, our house is somewhere in the middle of this picture. Off the street shown, we are just "right" of the street and just "right" of a red colored bush/tree - who ever finds it first wins money!!! Just kidding :) The picture above is Brayden trying to keep up with his brothers, its serious business.

This is the view of Pilot Butte right off our street
View from the top...I just love living here!
Another view from the top
Who cares about the view....let run and scream and play and slightly disrupt everyone elses peaceful meditative time....boys, oh boys. Gotta love 'em.

In Memory of my Maddy

We lost my Maddy yesterday. I got Madison as a tiny puppy almost 11 years ago before I even moved out of my parent's house. She has been with me through every major part of my life and its so very hard to say goodbye. It was the hardest decision in the world to feel at peace that it was the right thing to do. Though she was the absolute sweetest doggie to our family loving us and letting the kids and babies pull her ears and lay on top of her, she had a history of forever trying to attack nice innocent dogs and barking at people and we always feared that she would one day try to attack a pit bull or some dog that would really hurt her and we feared that in her old age she may try to bite somebody. She had recently spent some time in the doggie hospital with a bad illness, and when she got stressed and sick again during the move and after the move, we had to very tearfully say goodbye.

Dillon is a genuinely amazing person inside and out. He deals with things so well that it is beyond me and he was my rock yesterday. We talked about God calling Maddy to Heaven and it was her time to go and that we won't see her again. That she is in a wonderful place smelling all the angel doggie trails and barking at whatever she wants to bark at and that God is scratching her favorite spots under her petal soft ears. He decided that we needed to sit down and draw pictures of Maddy and all the things she loved. He cut a flower and glued it to the page for her and I. He helped explain everything to Carter in the nicest way and kissed his head when he cried. He is truly amazing and I feel so lucky that Jim and I of all people in this world actaully get to be his parents. We will always love you my Maddy May Mo, Ray Ro, Diggy Dog, Baby Girl.

"What?"
Yes, the boys have found dirt in the new yard. Bend has this sandy dirt everywhere and boys of all ages are drawn to it...Brayden can draw and loves to do so just like his artsy brothers.....And Dillon started kindergarten today! He is going to Bear Creek, the same school his dad and aunts and uncle went to, I think even a cousin or two went there. He was so excited to get there this morning that he was actually willing to sit nicely for a picture :) Next week he wants to start riding the bus and I'll probably follow it to school darn it.

Here is Braydens' room, the bugs in the Boy's room and a picture of the boys under the house running tv cable for Jim....little helpers.

We are finally settled in to our new house in Bend....what a long time coming! I had to take a picture of the boys in their old yard after we had taken away all of their toys and swingset. They are just sitting there in the empty yard playing in the playground chips. Then, in our new house there is a picture of Brayden "fixing" the train set on the train table and a good picture showing the pretty wood beam on the ceiling in the living room. This house is smaller than our last one but we like it so much more. It has lots more character with the wood beams and hand painted mural all around the boy's room. If you look closely enough you can find all sorts of intricate little bugs beautifully painted. I'm getting used to Bend, loving the wonderful fresh smell of the Juniper trees, and I get to see real mountains and Pilot Butte right off my street everyday :) I don't have my email set up yet but when I do, I'll send out all of our new info.

Brotherly Love