Blakers

This little boy makes me smile most of the day. The times I am not smiling are when he is trying to empty my knife block, or running around with chunks of turkey in his hands that he stole out of the fridge.

He's learning songs. It took me about two weeks of him yelling "Bee-bo! Bee-bo!" at me in the car before I realized he wanted to listen to Bingo. I curse that song now. Anyway, he's added a new one to his repertoire lately. The ABCs. You can hear it, but hardly see it because of the crappy video our camera takes.

It's snacktime!

That was Carolyn's pronouncement as we headed outside to play with the dusting of snow that constitutes Oregon's impending "blizzard" I've been hearing about for the last 5 days.



















Schools closed and we can now stay home with nothing to do. Just what every mother needs with a a toddler and a preschooler.

I have the Christmas music playing because who knows if we'll get anymore snow before then, and we will settle in for cookie baking.

Happy Halloween!! (just a little early)

Can you tell Blake isn't so sure about this?

Nothing could get him excited. Not even hugs from the very excited mom. Have I told you how long I've waited for him to wear this. I've wanted a little Max for a long time now.

He started to get into it when he found out people would just hand him candy.

She's worn this costume three times in the last week and she still loves it.

Here's the happy face I was looking for.

The cutest part, of which there is no picture, of course, is when we took the kids to Aunt Bean and Uncle Wayne's house for a quick hello. Blake stood at the front door, and when Bean opened the door, Blake held up his pumpkin bag and danced his way in with glee. All we've heard since we left the trunk-or-treat is "can-ee? can-ee? mo can-ee?"

Field trip

I took my children to a pumpkin patch today. The weather has been gorgeous. It's been clear and sunny for 10 days straight. The crisp air makes me miss Utah. I don't usually miss Utah because I really like Portland, but they do have really nice blue skies. I treasure those out here in the midst of gray, drizzly northwest Fall. This weather has been wonderful. The forecast says rain is coming, so we trekked outdoors on Carolyn's day off from preschool this week.

This little man is just the cutest. He had a great time on the slide going up and down all by himself.

We looked at roosters...

and picked pumpkins...

Carolyn is all ready to carve. I told her to wait until Jeremy can join us on Saturday. She thinks that is very far away. It might be, but after trying to feed the children solo all week, there is no way I am going to try to gut a pumpkin with just four little hands assisting. An extra set of adult hands will be much appreciated.

It's finally finished

This quilt has been in the making for 18 months. I've started and stopped a hundred different times. My original, and best, excuse was that Blake was only 4 months old and I was too crazy busy just trying to survive. But he got older and I never returned to it. The baby it was for is no longer a baby. I decided to buckle down anyway because I have a new project I want to get going, and I need to have a clear conscience. So here it is. Next step is figuring out what to do with it.

Blessed memory lapse

Carolyn: "Hey, wait a second. I wasn't naughty today! I forgot."

Carolyn, dear, please forget more often. Today was a wonderful day.

True Scots

We figured since Blake came to us with red hair, we should start dressing him like the Scotman he is.

Please, no pictures!

I'm ready for my closeup!

Is this how you pose for GQ?

We decided to let Carolyn in on it too although she is definitely not a ginger.

Thanks Grandma for all the fun souveniers!

MIA

I posted and posted while I was in Alaska and then disappeared. Not that many of you were wondering what happened, but I got back to town and hit the ground running getting all the tiny details looked after for my sister's wedding. That is very time consuming! But I only have one sister. When she walked into the reception, looked around, and I heard her say "I love it," that made it all worth it.


This picture was taken Friday. I waited this long because I didn't have even a second to take pictures and had to wait for my sister-in-law to forward me this one. We are back to regularly scheduled life and I had no idea my real life was so relaxing!

Blake

Against my better judgment, I let Blake have a sucker in the car while we ran errands. Of course, he made a mess with it. Sticky face, sticky hands. But when you combine the two you have lots and lots of self entertainment!

Cutie Austin

This is my newest nephew, Austin. He's adorable. He and his mom are visiting this week to spend some time together before my sister's wedding.

There are other people who have come to town with babies in tow for this event, and Carolyn is in heaven. She holds and rocks them all. She's also told me that it's time for her to get another sibling. Her preference changes weekly, but right now she's requesting a girl because "we don't have one of those babies around yet."

Portland to Coast

Jeremy participated in the Portland to Coast walk relay with some of his coworkers. We weren't going to head out to the beach to meet him at the end, so I took the children to his first leg in Scappoose. Carolyn was so excited for her daddy.



This picture is right after the hand off. That hot pink slap bracelet is his relay baton.
And his orange and white number is now hanging from Carolyn's wall. She is so proud of her dad.

A little piece of heaven

I have a place where when I walk in the door and the familiar smell brings back years of happy childhood memories. It's a place that I feel is integral to who I am and who my family is. It could be because out of all the Christmases that I remember, there was only one that didn't take place at this house until I got married. It is where the majority of my memories with my cousins take place.

My grandpa's home.

What a wonderful place to go and visit.

I love the seclusion. I love the wood throughout the house. I love the smell of the garage to this day. Most of all, I love the sense of family, my family, that house evokes.

I am sure my nostalgia for this house runs high because as time continues its assault on my grandpa, the years (or months) that he has to be in this house are few.

We took Carolyn and Blake out for a visit today. They hid behind me as we entered, timidly explored their new surroundings, and soon ran pell-mell around the fire pit like crazy hooligans.
Watching them play and jump and chase each other reminded me of twenty-some odd years ago when I chased my siblings--except the hearth around the fireplace is much more toddler proof than it was in my days.

I want this house. I want to own it, to feel that more generations of children will gather around the wood stove while a grandpa plays Santa on Christmas Eve. I'm not the only one that feels this way. Other siblings and cousins have wistfully spoken of being in this house.

It's not practical. It's location is awful if you have a husband like I do who works in business centers. The upkeep on the house is out of my reach. But, emotionally, it's ideal. It's wonderful.

I cherish every moment I get to spend inside and am very grateful that today my children were able to have some of their own moments in this house.

Tea for two

Carolyn started to go crazy not having any children to interact with while we've been on vacation. I have a dear friend I hadn't seen in eight years who had some room in her schedule for visitors. Luckily, this dear friend has a little girl just the same age as Carolyn. They became fast friends and played so nicely that we stayed for six hours. The highlight was a tea party. Carolyn has always had to pretend when she plays tea party so she was thrilled to have graham crackers and something to drink out of her cup.

Sunday afternoon fun

We have spider boy and spider girl in this family now. They like to crawl across the ceiling.

Friday's Adventures

Friday, we took a trip down Turnagain Arm and went to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. It's essentially a big game reserve for rehabilitation of animals.

These are petrified trees from the 1964 earthquake. The ground dropped and the salt water that came in infiltrated the root systems of the trees preserving them.



Blake thinks this is his new "cat cat." We didn't let him give him any loves like he wanted though.



This is a glimpse of their future.




Blake attempted to steer Carolyn into the grass numerous times.


After we saw all the big animals we could handle, we drove to Girdwood and rode the tram to the top of Mount Alyeska. I was super disappointed with all my photos because the visibility wasn't good. All the picture taken of the glaciers and the inlet are grainy.


But Carolyn and Blake got to play on some snow in July.


Wayne is banned from any future family outings after trying to throw Blake off the mountain.


In the background you can see one of the surrounding glaciers.


This is Blake's preferred method of travel.


Look how clear the foreground is in the picture and how awful the background is! So sad. I needed sun and clarity to take beautiful pictures to convince my husband that Alaska is the place he wants to spend all his summer days. I don't think these are going to cut it.