Fall Photos

Since having kids, fall has become one of my favorite seasons--it passes by way too quickly. Here are a few photos from Dorris Ranch, the pumpkin patch, and Halloween. This was the first Halloween that Carter had an opinion about who he wanted to be. I was disappointed that the boys would not be matching, until I realized they were both going to be "Mike"--Michaelangelo and Mike Wazowski.

Both boys enjoyed trick-or-treating. It was especially fun to watch Carter choose his candy--he examined it carefully before deciding which piece to take.

Playing in the fall leaves at Dorris Ranch.

Carter loved the hay ride.

It is impossible to get a photo of these two together. When I ask them to stand next to each other, it turns into a wrestling match.

Daddy said they had to pick out a pumpkin they could carry themselves.

Examining the pumpkins.

Found one he could carry.

With one hand even!

Michaelangelo!

Excited that he actually got to play with the nunchucks that Uncka bought him (I can't wait until he has kids!).

Mike Wazowski!

He always tells us, "Be back!"

I was trying to take a photo of his "Mike belly," but he just kept showing me his belly.

Fourth of July Fun

Last year, on the Fourth of July, we let Caden stay up to watch P.K. Park and Alton Baker Park's firework displays from our favorite little park.  It was a mistake. . ."someone" was a little crabby the next day.  So, this year, we started lighting off our fireworks at 7 p.m. so the little ones could go to bed at a decent hour.


Caden put on his sunglasses for the bright fireworks : ).

I am not sure who was more excited about setting off fireworks. . .Caden or Colby.  They have been setting off smoke bombs for the last three days. Caden says they are "fighting the pirates." He is definitely "all boy."

Caden is still a little nervous around the loud fireworks.  He said he likes the "quiet fireworks." So Colby, being a good daddy, only set off small fireworks for him.

Carter watched the fireworks from his jumper on the porch.  He was a little nervous, but never cried.

He smiled, laughed, jumped, and clapped every time another firework was set off.

Usually, we can see P.K. Park and Alton Baker Park's firework displays from the end of our driveway, but the trees have grown up so much that now we can only see the firework displays through the trees.  Lucky for us, our neighbors put on a firework display right over  our house : ). Surprisingly, the boys did not wake up; it sounded like we were in a war zone!

We hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th! 

Cousin Brody

Cousin Brody lives on the Oregon Coast, so we are not able to see him very often.  He stayed with my parents Easter weekend and we enjoyed visiting with him.  Here are a few of my favorite photos from our visit:

We think cousin Brody is pretty cute!

Only three weeks apart!

Caden is so good with Brody and Carter!

"Talking"!

Brody and Carter hugged and kissed each other. . .it was so cute!

Brody and Auntie!

Jesus and His Amazing Super Powers

We had another busy but fun Easter.  The boys went on three Easter egg hunts. . .yes, THREE! They started with an Easter egg hunt at our house.  The Easter Bunny left Caden a note that told him that the yellow eggs were for Carter, but he could have the rest. . .the first egg Carter found was purple.  Caden quickly reminded him that his color was yellow! 

After they found all of the eggs at our house, they visited with cousin Brody, ate Easter dinner, and went on an Easter egg hunt at my parents' house.  Before the day was over, they ate dessert and went on one last Easter egg hunt at Colby's aunt's with Grandma Odie.  They found all 28 eggs!

Even though much of our Easter was spent hunting for eggs, Caden is beginning to understand the true meaning of Easter.  If you ask him, he will tell you something like this:

"The soldiers killed Jesus.  And he died! That was not good! The soldiers put him in a tomb.  When the lady came to the tomb, the rock was rolled away and it was empty.  Jesus has amazing super powers!"

Got to love Jesus and his amazing super powers!

Carter (eight-months-old), Caden (3 1/2)

Second Day of Spring: Snow Day!

When Carter woke me up at 4:00 a.m., I was surprised to look outside and see snow blanketing our lawn.  Not knowing whether or not I was going to have to drive to work, I couldn't fall back asleep.  At 5:30 a.m., when I found out for sure school was canceled, I fell back asleep until Caden woke me at 7:00 a.m. excited about the snow.  I was able to keep him inside until 8:00 a.m. and then we had to go outside to measure the snow.  We had 5 1/2 inches on our back deck!

Don't let this innocent face fool you. . .

"Go get Daddy and tell him I have a surprise for him!"

  
Daddy is a good sport. . .

We are all ready for some nicer weather, but we might as well enjoy the snow while we have it.

A New Tradition?

Colby bought me a 50mm lens for Christmas and I took almost 400 photos while on Winter Break.  I haven't edited one photo and I return to work tomorrow.  We thoroughly enjoyed our first Christmas as a family of four.  We visited Santa, looked at Christmas lights, cooked our first Christmas Eve dinner, and made our Christmas rounds.  I will edit and upload a few photos soon.  

On New Year's Eve, we may have started a new family tradition.  Caden has been asking us to go bowling, so we spent New Year's Eve at the bowling alley teaching him how to bowl.  At first, Caden let us help him, but after a few frames, Mr. Independent decided he could bowl all by himself.  He scored a whopping 52 points! Going bowling on New Year's Eve would be a fun family tradition. . .until we are too uncool to be seen with anyway!

Caden's 2nd Time Bowling

Christmas Cards 2011

Every year, on the Monday after Thanksgiving, before I have even given a thought about our Christmas cards, we receive a Christmas card from one of our family friends.  I am always impressed.  This year, I owe Jill from Barnes Yard and Nicole from Between Babies a huge thank you.  I won 25 Shutterfly cards from both of these bloggers.  So not only will our Christmas cards be sent out before December 23rd this year, they will be FREE!


Shutterfly has so many cards to choose from.  It was hard to decide, but this is the card we chose: 

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

They are already being shipped! Thank you again, Jill and Nicole!

Our Lil' Bumblebees

Caden wanted to be Bumblebee from Transformers for Halloween.  Carter adores his older "brudder" and wanted to match him, so he chose to be a baby bumblebee.

Carter (three-months-old) & Caden (3)

Caden's First Jack O'Lantern

The other night, Caden waited very patiently for Daddy to come home so they could carve his pumpkin together.  This is the first year that Caden helped carve his pumpkin.  He was taking the pumpkin seeds out of the pumpkin one at a time.  After taking a few of the seeds out, he told Daddy, "You do it!" Despite getting his hands dirty, I think he enjoyed his first pumpkin carving experience.

Our Little Pumpkins

Last Saturday, we took the boys to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin.  It was taking Caden a long time to find a pumpkin.  When I asked him what was wrong, he looked at me concerned, "They're all dirty!" He does not like to get his hands dirty; he definitely takes after his Daddy!

Carter doesn't even know he went to the pumpkin patch--he slept the entire trip!

Last Fourth of July as a Family of Three

This was our last Fourth of July as a family of three.  Carter will be joining our family in six short weeks. . .or less (as of now, he's measuring two weeks ahead).  We had a fun-filled day:  we had lunch and dinner with Colby's family, set off a few of our own fireworks, and ended the day by watching PK Park and Alton Baker Park's firework displays from our favorite little park just around the corner.


Since Caden was so traumatized by fireworks last year, we didn't buy any new fireworks this year; we just set off the fireworks that we weren't able to set off last year.  If we would have known how much Caden was going to love watching fireworks this year, we would have bought him some more.  Colby said that next year, I'll probably be in the house with Carter while him and Caden are in the driveway setting off "scary (f)ireworks." He's probably right--if Carter is anything like his older brother.

July 4th, 2011

Hunting for Easter Eggs

When Caden woke up this morning, he couldn't wait to see what the Easter Bunny had left for him.  He enjoyed looking through his Easter basket and hunting for eggs.  After we went to church as a family, we went to Nana and Papa's because Caden heard that the Easter Bunny left him some eggs there also.  As you can see from the photos below, Caden absolutely loved hunting for Easter eggs.  This two-year-old has enough candy to last him until next Easter!

Easter Sunday

Monster Eggs

Since Caden LoVeS crafts, he was extremely excited to dye his Easter eggs.  This year, he made "monster eggs." (I'm not really sure what monsters have to do with Easter, but try explaining that to a two-year-old. . .) 


The photos on the bottom left are the "silly faces" he made while he was waiting to turn his eggs.  He is such a ham. . .every time he heard the shutter click, he would make another face.


Tomorrow, we will spend the day hunting for eggs, going to church, and eating Easter dinner with our family.  Happy Easter--He is Risen!

Easter 2011

Toys R Us Delivers a Train Set!

For the past month, Caden has been begging asking us for a train and tracks for Christmas.  While I was at work, he would beg ask Daddy to go play trains at Toys R Us.  Every day when I got home from work, a sweet little voice would plead, "Trains? Toys R Us?!" Because Caden is so cute convincing, we spent many December afternoons "playing trains" at Toys R Us.

On December 25th, Caden's wish came true.  Santa Toys R Us (according to Caden because he is afraid of Santa) brought him his very own train set for Christmas.

We had a wonderful time on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day spending time with both of our families, and Caden has been busy playing with his new train set ever since!

Memory Lane

Baby Boy,

I can not believe how fast you are growing up on us! This year, we will be celebrating our 3rd Christmas with you.  God has truly blessed us with a funny, smart, and handsome little man!

We love you!

Mommy & Daddy

1st, 2nd, & 3rd Christmas

The Nativity (according to a two-year-old)

The other night, Caden was playing with his Fisher Price Nativity set. He was mumbling something about "Buzz, Baby Jesus, and a manger."

I can not wait for Christmas break to play with my little man! (Five more work days to go!)

Shutterfly Shout Out!

Just this week, I remembered that I needed to add Christmas photo cards to my Christmas budget.  Well, not anymore! Shutterfly is offering bloggers who blog about their products 50 FREE Christmas photo cards.  I have never ordered anything from Shutterfly, so it was fun browsing through their website.  My favorite Christmas cards to send are the flat Christmas photo cards.  Shutterfly has a good selection of flat Christmas photo cards to choose from.

Now, all I need is for Caden to cooperate when I am trying to take a photo for our Christmas cards.  I tried to take photos of him last week, but he was NOT in the Christmas spirit!

The following photo is a photo that did NOT make the cut last year. . .I wonder why?! He has such a sense of humor!

Are you a blogger? If so, head over to Shutterfly and sign up for your free Christmas cards--It is hard to beat FREE!

Caden's 2nd Christmas

Snow Day Fun

Today, was the first snow of the season.  Surprisingly, Caden LOVED the snow! He had the most fun chasing Sasha.  She LOVED the snow, too! We didn't stay outside for very long because both of us have been fighting the sniffles.  My school district has already canceled school for tomorrow, so I will be at home enjoying a six day weekend with my family!

Mommy and Son Outings: Pumpkin Patch

Caden loved the pumpkin patch so much the first time that I decided to take him again today after I got off of work.  He is getting to be so much fun to take places.  We inspected the pumpkins, fed the goats, and ate a bowl of ice cream.  Caden loves to find rotten pumpkins and say, "Eww, sick!" He also loves to hunt for albino pumpkins.  I love our Mommy and Son Outings and will be sad when he is "too cool" to hang out with Mommy.

Pumpkin Patch 2010

Pumpkin Art

Caden has really been into art lately.  He drew the pumpkin on the left all by himself.  I think it's a pretty good pumpkin for a two-year-old, but I may be biased.  He also decorated the pumpkins on the right all by himself, except Grandma had to help him write his name.