Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

For those of you outside of the NW... we have had snow falling all week!! It's incredible! Amazing! It reminds me of childhood in Northern Virginia and I'm loving it. If we could have snow more often in Portland, it would be so wonderful. It has been snowing non-stop all day long. 

Here are a few shots of the evening. 

 

"Wow... look at my tracks, Mommy"

These pictures were taken prior to the family participating in snow angle making.  Drew even got Miles to do snow pencils (rolling round and round in the snow).  Miles didn't really mind having his face snow covered.  He was totally enjoying it!

Of course, we end each snow play session with hot chocolate and one mini marshmallow.  : 0

The Baby Elephant

We could go to the zoo every week just to watch the baby elephant prance around it's living area. This trip included my mother who visited for a few days at Thanksgiving.  

Look at his tiny trunk compared to his mothers.  

So little... but still over 500 pounds! 

My Own August Rush

Miles LOVES to play the guitar. And his style sounds just like that boy from the movie August Rush! (well, almost). On this particular day, as soon as he got out of the shower... boom, there he was strumming away.  I quickly snapped a few pics to remember these moments. 

 

This is probably the only time you'll see naked pictures of my 2 1/2 year old on the blog, but I thought I'd share this one.  : ) 

Cousin Fun

Miles & Mommy (Christopher too) really enjoy getting together with our cousins Mom Lisa, Marin and Madeline. We spent one day at the zoo and the next fishing (where we caught two fish: Larry and Jerry).

Sweet Hugs

This was Jerry

Thanksgiving

I just love Thanksgiving because normally it means time with family (and delicious food!). This year was wonderful as we had grandma's, a grandpa, an aunt, and Drew's brothers families over for a nice meal.  We managed to have 10 people sleeping here comfortably that week (at least we didn't hear any complaints) and eat at one table for our Thanksgiving dinner. : )

(these dinner table pictures never turn out great)

Kids in Costumes

So I'm behind on posts, but here are some fun pictures from a little costume party:

"One of these things is not like the other.... come on tell me now"

The party ends with a wrestling match between an elephant and giraffe.

I'm not sure who won (not Cheetah Christopher as you can see from the previous photo got taken out early)... but Miles is sure to have his share of wrestling matches with his best bud Drew.

The Pumpkin Patch

Miles loves to give hugs.... 

... to anyone.  : )  

Potty Trained... I Still Can't Believe It!!

I'm not sure if it was motivation from seeing his cousin Marin or what, but one day Miles didn't want to wear diapers anymore. That was about a month ago.  I wasn't planning to encourage the switch to underwear until after the holidays, but Miles had other plans.  I had to hurry out and find the coolest little Diego, Thomas, Cars and Bob the Builder underwear so he had stylish options to choose from.  

I am so proud of him.  He got a new trike to celebrate!

We still have naps and nights to work on, but not for a while.  I'm dancing with delight.

Classic Shot of my Husband

I haven't blogged in a while, so I thought I'd catch up with a few little posts.

Several weeks back we had a wonderful weekend with solid family time. It was much needed since Drew has been so busy at work. The kids love time with their Daddy.  Okay, me too!  

We went to the Zoo at Saturday and on a long walk in the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge Sunday (at which, Miles successfully used his first Honey Bucket... but more on that later). Check out the second photo. I had to post it because it's such a classic shot of my most wonderful husband.  : )

Gotta love that blackberry.... 

Christopher Owen - 6 Months

My little baby turned 6 months last week. Christopher is so easy going, LOVES attention but doesn't ask for it, smiles when you look at him, giggles happily, and has a calm spirit. He grabs everything in site, sits (but does fall to the side after a while), has two teeth, and sucks on his two fingers. He started eating recently and enjoys it! Miles showers him with kisses and gentle hugs throughout the day. They took a bath together for the first time last night and after we noticed Christopher peeing in the tub, Miles copied him. Oh' my. These two boys make me laugh constantly.    

Great-Grandma just finished his quilt and we CHERISH it! It goes everywhere we go. Thank you Grandma for putting so much time, energy, and love into Christopher's baby quilt! It reminds me of the one we had growing up.

Gigi, Gran, Grandma, Great-grandma C, Great-grandma M, Gommy and Mamie - 

This shirt is for you:  "That's it!  I'm going to Grandma's"

Champoeg State Park

Here are a few fun pictures from our little trip to Champoeg park last Saturday. Miles rode around the trails on a trike (borrowed from our neighbors). He can ride for "miles," no peddles, just pushing with his feet! Pops joined up with us and gave Miles a valuable lesson about acorns... who was most interested in seeing how far he could throw them. We ended our outing with a picnic, including cheese sticks for all.

We LOVE time with Grandparents!  Thanks for coming Pops!  It was so fun to watch the two of you run around, exploring, climbing trees and laughing!

Making a Recipe Book

Up until this point, my recipes have been a complete mess.  I received a nice book from my grandma when I went to college and it held those little recipe cards so nicely.  Until I got lazy and stopped transferring recipes from little pieces of paper or 8x11 pages from online ideas onto the cards.  I decided it was time to get organized.  My good friend Kori put together a book like this several years ago and the idea always stuck with me.  

I went to the store and spent $15 on a binder, 10 dividers and 50 sleeves.  I used left over thick paper from our wedding ceremony programs to tape the recipes to and put each page in a sleeve.

The first page in the binder is a list (currently several lists) of ideas for dinner.  I need to make this look a little nicer, but it gives ideas that I might not always have a recipe for (i.e. tuna salad or baked potato).

I bought dividers with pockets to put recipes I've received but have not tried.  Once they are tried and true by this family, they will go on a page of their own.

10 recipe groups:  breakfasts & breads, appetizers, salads, soups, sides

fish, beef, chicken, other mains (pork, vegetarian), and desserts!

I love getting organized.  And it's so much easier to find that perfect recipe for tonight!

1st Attempt at Pumpkin Carving

I say first attempt because this picture was taken about 10 days ago. Looks like a nice healthy pumpkin, right?  We learned a lesson... maybe it was because we purchased a pumpkin from INSIDE fred meyer, maybe it was because we left the pumpkin on the kitchen counter for a few days after we carved him or maybe it was because we just got a bad pumpkin, but the GREAT PUMPKIN as we called him died on day 5. He rotted out and shrunk down to about half his height. Pour guy. We quickly bought a replacement, which we are keeping outside!.. and will wait until a week before Halloween to carve him.  : )

We had to finish the evening with some good old fashion sugar cookie cutouts. A classic smile from Miles.

mt. hood cabin

We headed up to the Corrigan cabin last weekend. It's so relaxing up there and we feel so blessed to be able to escape to the mountains on a regular basis for some quality family time. Pops and Uncle Shawn just fixed the wood stove, so here are my two oldest boys bring in the wood.  Miles loves to help do the manly chores.

We bundled up and went on a long morning walk around the camp.  Thanks to Becky, the boys had matching vests and fun hats.

The background of this shot is the bottom root structure of a huge tree that fell over. New trees were growing straight up out of the old roots. So cool!

So normally we grill delicious meals. But because this was a quick trip, our lunch consisted of box mac and cheese along with a can of beans (and I cant forget about the hot dog we added to it).  Lovely. Drew actually took a picture of the spread but I refuse to post that pic.  Nasty.  I'm not a fan of box mac and cheese. 

A few moments from our afternoon run... I LOVE these two.