Teeth

Just two days ago, I noticed that Finley is sprouting his very first tooth... then when I picked up Spencer from school today he announced that he has a loose tooth.  I wasn't sure whether to believe him until he brought it up again at home.  And sure enough... one of his bottom teeth is indeed loose!  Here is a photo of my smiley boy with his baby brother before he looses that tooth!  I'm editing because I just noticed that he has TWO loose middle bottom teeth (not just one)!

Cousins

I love this one because they have the same look on their faces.

Same shot only with smiles.  

We took several photos like this but Miles kept crawling away!

Pictures of Finley with his cousin Miles just warm my heart.  They are only about 6 weeks apart and it's so fun to watch Miles and see what's to come.  Finley is 6 1/2 months here and Miles is 8 months.  I can't believe how this sweet boy Miles is crawling already.  The boy can move... and fast!  He has four teeth now which is pretty exciting... Finley got his first tooth yesterday - hooray!

I may be on to something

I learned something new this weekend.  Spencer can vacuum... he enjoys it... and he's good at it. The future of my home is looking a little cleaner.  :)

Funny things they say

Me:  Okay, let's go upstairs and get dressed!

Spencer:  I don't want to... I'm tired...

Me:  ...me too...

Hudson:  Me three!

In the Whole World!

I hear this daily from Hudson...

Hudson:  Know what?

Me:  What Hudson?

Hudson: In daaaa whole wooooooooooorld!

This is all with a huge "knowing" smile upon his face.  

I have no clue what he means but I translate it to, "I love you more than anything in the whole world."  I do say this to him from time to time... perhaps this is what he means?

Race for the Cure

Every year we make it a point of participating in Race for the Cure with my Mom. The crowds are always overwhelming but it's an amazing experience never-the-less. My Mom is a two time breast cancer survivor and a true fighter. She is my best friend and I would do anything for her in a heartbeat. So yearly, our family rallies around her and we join her on this walk. Both to show her how blessed we feel to have her in our lives and to remind ourselves how wonderful it is that her doctors were able to find her cancer early enough that she's able to walk and celebrate with us. We love you Mom and are so glad there's you! Oh and Mom is cancer free... her treatments worked both times... isn't that great?

Finley in his Race for the Cure onesie (courtesy of Nanie Janie).

Nanie Janie and Finley

Spencer, Jeffrey, Kent and Uncle Greg

Spencer and Nanie Janie crossing the finish line together

My Mom and Dad

Muffin Tin Monday

My good friend Sarah introduced this to me and my friend Heidi reminded me of it when she posted it on her blog  yesterday.  There are many places where this has been blogged about, but here is an example of where Heidi found it. 

It's really just a way to make lunch time more interesting for our kids and encourage us to offer them more than the same old pb&j.  It takes the same amount of time, but is more fun to put together.  I think the kids have more fun eating it too.  

Here is this weeks Muffin Tin Monday:

Goldfish, Diced up String Cheese, Dill Pickles

Homemade Flaxseed Bread, Organic Applesauce, Organic Cereal Bar

Cousin's First Annual Camping Trip

We survived our second camping adventure!  This time we went with my cousin Aaron and his family and my cousin Greg and his family.  It was a bummer that my brother and his family couldn't make it but we're hoping they'll be able to come next year.  We grew up really close as little kids and spent almost every single day together so it was so fun to get the chance to get to do this with our kids.  Only we were supposed to be the grown-ups this time!

We got to Detroit Lake around 1:45pm on Friday.  We were shocked that it only took us about an hour and a half to get there (and Finley didn't cry the whole way)!  The drive was just beautiful.  We took the kids to a little restaurant in Detroit for ice cream and a snack.  As we were finishing our meal a man came up and told us he wanted to compliment us on how well behaved our boys are.  Then he proceeded to tell us that he believes this is a reflection of our parenting.  What a great start to the weekend!  

We checked into the campground around 3:00pm and proceeded to set up camp.  The boys were entertained by the many chipmunks we saw around camp and had fun exploring and collecting pine cones for our fire.  

Greg and Melanie came around 4:00pm and started setting up their camp.  We made hot dogs and beans for dinner and made smores.  YUM!  Aaron and Serena came around 9:30pm.  I was shocked at how easily their tent went up for the first time in the dark!  Aaron is an Eagle Scout though so I guess I shouldn't have been so skeptical.

We had a REALLY rough night.  Finley woke up crying several times.  The kind of crying that required pacing around in a tent that was too short for pacing.  I seriously thought we would have to pack up the next day and go home... that was how bad it was.  To top it off, the people across from us were partying.  At 2am we heard the guy talking to the park ranger about how he knew he was underage and drunk and so on.  Pretty funny.  I'm sure he felt great when our camp woke up around 6am.  (insert evil laugh here).  We were also on hwy 22 which was pretty loud I must say.  Waaaaaaaay too loud in fact.

The next morning Kent made breakfast.  We had a sugar cereal selection for the kids which they ate directly out of the boxes, eggs, bacon, sausage and pancakes.  Coffee too!  After cleanup we walked down to Detroit Lake.  The kids played with their fishing poles, threw rocks in the water and even did a little swimming.  We ate some lunch there at the water and then Melanie, Serena and I all attempted to get Jeffrey, Ricky and Hudson to nap.  Melanie was the clear winner of this task.  

When everyone got back to camp the kids went to the playground to play and before we knew it it was dinner time.  Melanie made us great foil meal dinners (meat, veggies & cream of mushroom soup wrapped in tin foil and cooked on the fire).  It was so good!  And of course there were smores for dessert.  I really enjoyed sitting around the campfire and chatting after the kids went to bed.  Finley slept much better the second night.  He only woke up the entire campground around 12:30am and that was it.  Fabulous!

Sunday morning Aaron and Serena made breakfast (bacon, pancakes, eggs & muffins) and before we knew it it was time to go home.  Next year we'd like to stay one more night.  It was so much work for just two nights, that's for sure.  Mom and Dad - good work taking us camping so often as kids... I had NO IDEA how much work it was for you!

Finley didn't do so well in the car on the way home - lots of crying.  Can someone tell me why some kids sleep in the car and others cry hysterically?  I'm ready to know the answer to this. 

We did stop for lunch at a super cool 50's spot in Salem called Rock n' Rogers.  I would definitely say stop there for lunch sometime if you're going through Salem - great 50's diner style menu.  Their breakfast menu looked great too!

Getting the kids into the outdoors was so fabulous.  It was so nice to have room for the kids to run and play together in open spaces.  It's amazing how much fun they have when there's room to roam and when they're surrounded by beauty (and dirt).  I asked Spencer what his favorite thing about camping was and he replied without hesitation, "Stewart."  Isn't that sweet?

I'm hoping to do at least one camping trip per month next summer.  Anyone want to go?

Kent and Finley at 5:40am on Saturday morning sitting at the fire.

Stewart, Hudson and Spencer standing still if only for a moment.  

Off to the lake!

Finley and Mommy in the Ergo

Our little campers:

Front - Finley, Evie, Ricky, Hudson, Jeffrey

Back - Stewart and Spencer

First day of school

Today marks Spencer's first year of Kindergarten.  Drop off went great... in fact the teacher had to shoo me away at the door because I was really wanting to walk him upstairs and make sure he was comfortable and okay.  He's going to a private school for his first year and there are only 5 kids in the class!  I see this as a positive thing in some ways and not in others.  I'm sure it'll be a great year!  I think I'm just being a nervous Mommy and can't believe her first baby is actually old enough for kindergarten!

This photo is actually from orientation yesterday.  His teacher's name is Mrs. Harper.

Carded

I went grocery shopping today and picked up a bottle of red wine (on sale, of course) and I got carded!!!  When I was young I never understood what the big deal was but at 34... man it felt good!  I think I may have been beaming in fact.  Just had to share.  And a big thank you to my friendly diligent card checking checker at Fred Meyer!