Beginning of Vacation

Thursday we left for Ogden, Utah. We headed down in anticipation of seeing Andy's sister, Tiffany, come off her mission on Tuesday. We have been busy running all around doing the things that we like to do. Here are a few pictures from the beginning of the trip:

Kids asleep in the car (I was the only one awake at the time)

Once we got there it snowed the next day. I made sure to have all the kid's snow clothes so that we could do some playing in this foreign concept of snow...Charlotte liked it but got cold quickly.

Andy must have missed it so much that he wanted to do some shoveling...

Jesse acted like he was born for the snow! Throwing snowballs, making angels and just generally being a boy.

We decided to build a snowman and he turned out to be huge!!

Here is our finished snowman...mustache and all..

Coming in from the cold. Katie was with us because she was flying to Oregon to do some hunting with my dad.

Saturday night Andy and I headed to a BYU home football game. It was chilly but fun to do something we had never done together! They won 42-7.

We even got matching hot-chocolate mugs. YUM!

Cosmo even came up close to us!

Sunday was an experience- Charlotte was grouchy pretty much ALL day! Andy and I didn't get to sit down for one moment until she went home before sacrament for a nap. Jesse was good so that made up for Charlotte's grouchy mood.

Jesse got a hold of Grandma's camera and figured out how to use it. :)

And our weekend ended by playing a game of Settlers of Catan- one of our favorites. Here Andy is in one of his more "normal" poses :)

More pictures to come of Tiffany's return on Tuesday!

Fall adventures

So we carved our pumpkins a week after Halloween. It was a busy week for us...Jesse got to do his own pumpkin this year for the first time (with the exception of the knife). He LOVED it! Except getting his hands dirty in the gook but he did a good job. Here he is with his personally designed pumpkin:

Andy helping me with my pumpkin:

Scooping out the guts. Jesse actually touched them this year. In the past he wouldn't at all!

And the lit masterpieces.

A couple days later Jesse and I did some leaf rubbings and made a garland. He was pretty proud of it. :)

Jesse is into a phase where he loves to help with EVERYTHING! He has gotten really good at pulling the chair away from the table to step up and help in the kitchen. Here we are making pancakes. Bad lighting...

My mom and I went to the temple together on Friday for a much needed break. SO lovely! And all the trees were in their fall splendor. So we couldn't help but take some pictures.

And my little man got some new church clothes AND a hair cut. This makes him look so grown up!

I just finished this about an hour ago. On to the next towel!

And this week will be just as busy! We are heading to Utah on Thursday for a much anticipated homecoming of Andy's sister Tiffany.

Autumn

It really has been an uneventful week. Lots of relaxing due to the fact that we are all sick. There is a terrible nasty cold going around and we ALL have it. Even my poor Charlotte who doesn't understand why her nose doesn't work properly. When she can't drink her bottle she looks at it like there is something wrong with it. Poor thing.

Anyway- We ended up at my parents for a Halloween gathering of sorts. It was fun just to be around everyone. We didn't do much besides eat and play video games. Now I am not usually a gamer but every holiday we pull out "snowboard kids II" on the Nintendo 64. It is SOO fun to play it with everyone. We were all rolling in laughter at the end of each round :) So we didn't go trick or treating which may sound lame, but Jesse had loads of candy from the ward trunk or treat and other events. And he didn't notice or care much. And had plenty of time to wear his costume to other events. Here is some of the [horrible] candy that Jesse got. We have been slowly working through it and he is loving it! (Obviously)

'Tis the season for pumpkin food! We made these delicious whole wheat pumpkin pancakes for breakfast one morning and we all LOVED them! Go here to see the recipe. I had mine with molasses which I don't usually do but oh my it was just yummy. And now my mouth is watering.

So that is my week. We have Christmas music playing nearly all day now and are counting down the days to getting our first REAL family Christmas tree. Happy Holidays everyone! :)

Halloween

This weekend has been a busy one with all the things going on. But we did manage to relax here and there and spend some time together. Today Jesse and I were able to go to church all by ourselves! What a treat!!! Andy was sick so he stayed home (while Charlotte got her much needed 3 hour nap) and Jesse and I cuddle through church. So nice! Here is my big boy right before we left for church. I am going to buy him some new pants this week because his legs are growing out of all the ones he has!!

For Halloween we went to the Camas "Boo Bash." I should say Andy because I was tutoring. But I wasn't too dissapointed because I was told there were many lines and lots of people. It is basically an event where you walk around downtown Camas, which is small and very cute, and trick-or-treat at each store. On Friday we went to the Church's trunk or treat which was fun but crazy. He loaded up his pumpkin with candy and I have managed to stay out of it. Here are out costumes that I made for our family:

What concentration!

early in the week for family home evening we went to a pumpkin patch and then came home and made pumpkin rice crispie treats. Or Andy and Jesse did. I chose this pictures because holy cow they are so alike!!

Can't get a good face out of both of them at once!

And to top of the weekend I will be getting up early to Substitute for a Kindergarten class. That should be interesting....

Busy week!

On Sunday Andy worked a twelve and to top it off Jesse was sick. So we didn't go to church which usually provides me with some kind of respite from my everyday routine. So to change it up we went for a walk along the Colombia River. It was a BEAUTIFUL evening.

And the kids loved it to boot!

Heaven!

Pretty sunset as well!

The kids got out and played and Charlotte seems happiest playing in the dirt. Or chasing Jesse around and doing what he is doing.

Monday we went to The Dalles where Andy has a business meeting. It was four hours so we had to find something to do. They have a Colombia Gorge Discovery Center there that was perfect! Jesse loved all the cool exhibits and we even got to see live birds of prey! Cool :)

An old buggy. Glad I didn't ever have to use this mode of transportation.

Kids discovery room. I want one of these for the kids bedrooms.

A tent similar to the ones Lewis and Clark stayed in. Jesse wasn't too please apparently...

And what did we find but a replica of the "Mormon Handcart!" What it was doing there- I am not sure, but it was kinda cool to see it!

Charlotte enjoying her first independent slide ride.

Still in The Dalles at my favorite restaurant and what made me make the trip in the first place: COUSINS!

And these cinnamon rolls are worth the drive (and the calories!). This was after we had eaten half of it. They are the size of dinner plates!

Later in the week we were able to drive to Bay City (by Tillamook) to visit my Grandma. We stayed over and the next day Gram taught me to embroider. What a day! Mom took the kids and went outside and basically watched them all day (THANK YOU!!) and I spent the time at the kitchen table slaving over a masterpiece. Ok not really but pretty good for a first attempt.

It was a treasured memory I will always have with just my Grandma and me. :)

Another Week. Where is October going?!?

What a week! Well it really wasn't that busy now that I look back. But I got lots accomplished! And that always feels good. First of all, I canned my first batch of Salsa!!!! I think it turned out pretty well but I won't add as much apple cider vinegar next time- makes it too sweet. And I am a salty salsa kinda girl. But still good.

This week for Jesse's lessons we were learning about the letter "I." Jesse just soaks everything up so quickly and our lessons are over in less than an hour. It seems as if he wants to learn more so I tried some words with him this week. We used some scrabble pieces and put them together to see how he did and he READ his first word ALLLL by himself!! I am so proud of this little man! Other things we did: learn about inches, do "ice-cream cone math," watch ice melt, and make ice-cream sandwiches. We have so much fun together. :)

Char finishing up her last birthday cake. Of course she was more into it when 10 people weren't staring at her.

And decorating our "I" for the school board with eyes. Doesn't work too well but great for Halloween. :)

And that's all! I am enjoying blogging every week and hope that everyone else is liking this posts. Oh and I started a new challenge: the Body for Life Challenge. I have lost 4 lbs this week. It is encouraging and I am going to keep it up!! WOOHOO!