More fall colors...

After getting such great pics of the kids, I tried to get one of Claire...so that they would all have the same background and look, oh so pretty on our wall. Well, you can see how successful I was. Claire turned 7 mo. old a few days ago, but is still not sitting up. So I would sit her up in the pile of leaves and by the time I got the camera ready, she would topple over and freak out when she found herself surrounded by leaves. Our photo shoot didn't last very long...as i'm sure the neighbors were peeking out their blinds, wondering what I was doing to torture the poor thing.

Oh the funny things they say...

Last night Cole was in a super grumpy mood. We are experimenting with no naps....and it was a no nap day. By around 6pm he was crying about everything. I was trying to make dinner as he was chasing Jacob around the house...he then came up to me sobbing and whining. "Mom, Jacob won't let me hit him." I just busted out laughing. Poor guy, i don't think he's ready to give up naps.

25 Things about me

It feels kinda self-centered to sit and write a blog all about me. The reason I am writing this list, is that I have really enjoyed reading other people's lists. I have learned some really interesting things about people. :) I've added a few more than 25...so it's really 28 things about me.

1. I am very shy and feel like it takes a long time to really get to know me.
2. Once someone gets to know me, i'm a very loyal friend and would never "spill the beans". withough permission, of course. I don't share very much personal information until I feel close to someone.
3. I love to exercise
4. I love to eat. My favorite things to bake are homemade bread, soups, any dessert.
5. #3 and #4 tend to counteract each other.
6. I have four beautiful children, that are pretty well behaved...they have their moments!
7. I could spend a whole day snuggled on the couch with a good book, with only a few snack and potty breaks.
8. I love to play tennis and my dream house has a sport court in the backyard that I could play tennis on everyday.
9. I worry way too much about what other people think.
10. I think cigarette smoke is the most disgusting smell on the earth.
11. I have no desire to ever own a pet. Unless it stays outside...but if it gets really, really cold I know i'll feel guilty and let it in and then my house will stink.
12. I love waking up to the sound of rain after a long hot summer.
13. I like to call my favorite season fummer...the end of summer, beginning of fall..when it's still sunny and nice, but not too hot.
14. I hate to fly! I have to do breathing exercises
15. I will never attend another pampered chef, tupperware, avon, mary kay, candle party. Sorry ladies. ( I will do baby and bridal showers!)
16. Even though my hubby and I don't agree on everything, he's my best friend.
17. I'm very competitive. I love to play games...card games, board games, anything.
18. I played (junior) college softball. So very long ago..I love to reminesce about how good of shape I was in back then...
19. I have no interest in politics, although I should. My eyes will glaze over if you mention anything about politics.
20. I love to go for walks, and dread winter when it's hard to go out with all of the rain.
21. I hate it when people cut in front of me at the school drop-off zone.
22. I have a fear of frogs.
23. The one household chore that I detest is laundry.
24. I'm not a very organized person, and absolutely admire those who are.
25. I tend to gravitate towards people that are slightly sarcastic...I just find them funny. If they're sarcastic in a nice way of course!
26. Sometimes I test Brent by watching an item he's left on the floor, and seeing how many days it takes to pick it up. He absolutely HATES it when I do this. (of course, i've learned not to tell him)
27. I dread going to the dentist
28. I would rather go to the dentist, then to a social function ALONE.

Fall Colors

The kids and I took advantage of the beautiful fall colors and had a quick photo shoot. Claire was napping, so I just got the big kids. I need to mess around with the colors on Malia's pic, but other than that, I think they turned out pretty good.
This morning before school Malia was really, really excited, because they were having an assembly with a real live "Rock Band." She told me this, like it was the coolest thing ever. She went on to explain that the band is called the "deep sea divers" and they sing about RECYCLING! Ahhh....the innocence of youth.

A day at the Pumpkin Patch

Saturday we took advantage of the beautiful fall weather and took the kids to a pumpkin patch. Brent and I were commenting on how pumpkin patches have seemed to turn into carnivals...with face painting, pony rides, rope swings, slides, etc. We decided to keep things simple (and cheaper) by going to a farm just outside of Salem. They had a hayfort, tractor ride, some farm animals and a corn maze. Everything was free for the kids and only 2 dollars for Brent and I. Towards the end of the corn maze was a castle with a slide for the kids. So after wandering around the corn maze for quite awhile in search of the castle, we finally headed out the entrance, walked around the outside of the corn maze until we found the exit...and walked directly to the castle. Much easier than all of that wandering!

The kids then picked out a pumpkin and we headed home. You can tell it was a nice sunny day by the way the kids are squinting in the pumpkin pic.





We all had a great time and the kids are anxiously awaiting Halloween. This year Jacob wants to be spiderman, cole wants to be batman and Malia wants to be Eloise (from the "Eloise" books)

Of course I had to include the cutest picture of Claire! She's become so much fun lately. There's something about that 6mo. mark, where they just seem to change so much. She is getting up on her knees now and rocking back and forth with her little bum in the air, So Cute!

Life at our house

I found Malia pushing Claire around in her little doll stroller. It was pretty cute, Claire fit in there perfectly. She's just a little peanut!

Claire had her 6 month dr. appt last week. She weighed 13 lbs 10 oz and was 26" long. She had to get five shots. She's not sitting up yet, but rolls everywhere. She is entering the "everything I find in the floor enters my mouth" stage. It should be interesting, since our floor is frequently covered with little lego parts, polly pocket accessories and bits of paper (Cole love to cut paper!) It's going to be a chore to keep everything picked up all of the time. She is sure a cute girl and has become so much easier and happier since she's become a 100% formula girl.

The kids love to entertain themselves by jumping off anything they can find. Yesterday they were jumping off of some stools onto the couch. I took the picture of Jacob right before he biffed it hard and scraped up his forehead on the edge of the couch (you can see the stool slipped out from under him)

Malia ran in her schools jog-a-thon fundraiser Friday and ran 14 laps. She was a trooper. Jacob starts preschool next week and cannot wait, and neither can I. Cole is my mellow little troublemaker...quiet but deadly. Just last week he wrote all over our leather sofa in pen. Which I cannot get out! We even had one of those salespeople come by yesterday selling some miracle cleaner. I told her, "if it gets pen off of leather i'll buy it". So she came in and spent about 5 minutes trying to get it off. I'll admit, it did fade, but you can still see the pen. Of course she says, if I LET IT SIT....then scrub it, it will come off. Sorry, not enough to convince me! She was sent on her merry way. Well, I need to go change a diaper...the fun never ends. :)

Hiking Around Mount Jefferson

In early September (6-8) my brothers and I took our annual All Brothers Hike aka ABH. We've been doing these 3 day hikes for about 7 years, and have done hikes in Idaho, Washington and Oregon. This year we hiked up to the base of Mount Jefferson in Oregon. We look forward to this hike all year!

On Wednesday Sept. 5th I picked up Logan from the train station, and Vaughn (bro-in-law) and Kelly from the airport. Every Wednesday night I play basketball at the church so I brought the brothers along... We had a great time playing together, except on the last game I came down on my ankle and sprained it really bad. Later that night (really Thursday morning at 2am or so, Birch and Andrew arrived at my house.

My ankle was really sore Thursday morning, so I had Birch (the physical therapist) wrap it up before we took off for the mountain. We got to the mountain around 10:30am and headed on our way. Fifteen minutes into the hike Vaughn said the back of his ankle was hurting so we stopped so he could put on a piece of duct tape to help protect it. Unfortunately nothing could be done to stop the damage. His boot relentlessly hacked up his ankle the whole three days.

On both Friday and Saturday morning we got up between 4:30 and 5:00 am so we could hike to the top of the nearest peak and watch the sunrise. It is sure cool to watch the first rays of the sun peak over the horizon, crawl down Mount Jefferson and finally come to rest on us. Looking at Mt. Jefferson and the valley’s below while the sun rises always inspires us to sing. Last year Birch made us all small hymnals that we carry with us on our hikes, so we opened them up and sang – in harmony – a few hymns.

On our last day we stayed near a lake and most of us took a dip. We also had a mean Frisbee competition. The young boys, Logan, Kelly and Andrew, challenged the older boys, Birch, me and Vaughn. We played a game that was a mix between H.O.R.S.E (basketball) and Frisbee golf. Example: throw the Frisbee around a stump, through a clump of trees around a rock and then hit another tree. It was pretty fun. The younger boys were ahead, before Birch did a challenge where someone had to throw a Frisbee at a tree then someone else had to hit it before it hit the tree. Sounds easy right? We older boys did it on the first try. Then the younger boys tried… attempt 1, no go… attempt 2 failed, 3 failed, 4 failed, 5 failed. They never did successfully answer the challenge. We older boys got a good laugh out of it.


Anyway…we had a great time on the hike. We always enjoy the few days we get to spend together. It really strengthens us. We’re all definitely best friends.

Oh yeah….on the drive home, Andrews car (GEO Prism) that has 240k miles (or more) on it got stranded when the timing belt broke. I don’t have time to go into that story, but it was another adventure.