It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Every year we have a Christmas picture of the kids taken. This year in an effort to save money we did it ourself. The pictures turned out great. Merry Christmas Everyone!

Kayla Turns 11!

Wow, I can't believe that our darling, smart, funny, beautiful, daughter turned 11 on November 24th. It seems like just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital. We love you Kayla, never forget that!

Thanksgiving

So it's that time of year again. Thanksgiving was just this past week. We enjoyed spending time with my family in Roseburg. I was thankful that I felt well enough after surgery to go down. It was such a blessing to see everyone and we had much to be thankful for. My cousin Trina is home for a while from London and we got to meet the newest member to our family, Carter.

H1N1

Kayla with a fever of 102 & Cameron with a fever of 103.

Ah, the dreaded H1N1 virus as hit our house. Yesterday I woke up to children with fevers of 103.1 & 102. Because Kayla's asthmatic I took them in to the doctor. Both kids will recover but the virus has to run it's course. On the good side of things Kayla's lungs were clear. Today they have fevers of 100 & 99. We're making progress but both kids will be home all week recovering. Thank goodness for Netflix on demand.

A Yearly Tradition!

So, it's tradition. Every year for the past 10 years we've been taking our kids to Lone Pine Farms in Junction City, Oregon to pick out pumpkins. This year was no different. Thankfully it was a beautiful day to go and find the perfect pumpkins. As we walked out to the pumpkin patch Robbie and I realized that we finally were back at the first field we went to 10 years ago when we took Kayla to the pumpkin patch for the very first time. They rotate fields every year. It's hard to believe that this family tradition is 10 years old. This year was different, the kids didn't take nearly as long finding the perfect pumpkin. I can remember having to walk through the field forever for them to find the perfect pumpkin. I wonder how much longer this tradition will go on before they decided that they're too big to go to the pumpkin patch. I hope that they never outgrow it because it's a lot of fun.

THE PBR!

So, anyone who knows our family knows that we're crazy about Professional Bull Riding. We watch it every weekend on TV. Last weekend we got to go to the 2 day event in Portland, Oregon. We had great seats, had fun watching Flint the rodeo clown and saw some great rides and not too many wrecks. The best part of the weekend was getting into the Rose Garden early and getting to meet some of the riders and be a part of the Versus pre-show taping. The highlight of the pre-show taping was getting to meet rodeo legend Ty Murray. Many of you know him from his appearance last season on Dancing With The Stars. It was so much fun.

Sick!

So we got up this morning, got dressed and went to school as usual. Kayla found me on the playground at a little after 7:30 AM to say "My stomach hurts and I have a sore throat." I sent her into the office and she had a normal temp. My hope was that as the morning went on she would start to feel better. No such luck. By 8:30 AM her cheeks were red and she looked like death warmed over, so home we came. Thankfully she's now sleeping with her faithful protector Tug by her side.

School Open House

Crocs Shoes Back to School Photo Shoot
Originally uploaded by crocsinc

So tonight was the open house at Foster School. While I see the kids everyday at school and go into their classrooms once I get off of work it was fun to go in and see their rooms tonight and all of the students with their parents. The fun part for the kids was getting to see the room where Mommy works. So far we're off to a great year.

First Day of School

Kayla, 1st day of 5th grade
Cameron 1st day of 3rd grade

Yesterday was the first day of school. This year was different though. As usual there were the normal nerves but there were extra ones this year. Kayla and Cameron would be going to school at a different school this year. This year they would be attending Foster Elementary School where Mom works. I have to say I was a bit nervous for them and worried but they did fine and love their new school and their teachers. Kayla is a 5th grader in Mrs. Yon's class and Cameron is a 3rd grader in Mrs. Green's class. They love getting to see Mom at recess and love to give her hugs (which I love as well). Here's hoping we have a great year.

Labor Day 2009

So, Kayla went to my parent's house for the weekend and on Saturday we decided to go to the coast for the day. While it was rainy and yucky at home it was a beautiful day on the Oregon Coast. Windy at times but close to 70 at times too. We went shopping and stopped to walk in the sand and look at the ocean. There is just something about the ocean that calms my soul and makes me feel at peace. We don't go to the coast nearly as often as we should.

So we recently took our darling children on a vacation to The Great Wolf Lodge in Washington. It's an indoor water park. While there were times on the trip that things didn't quite go the way the adults expected the kids had a blast. They had fun swimming and going down the water slides. We also took them to Cabela's and Mt. St. Helens. Family vacations are something we all probably don't do enough. It's what they'll remember when they're older. I love my kids and can't believe how fast they are growing up. Before long there won't be anymore family vacations. I guess we need to take more.

Swimming Lessons, A Summer Ritual

So, I know that we are approching the end of summer when my darling children start swimming lessons. I always choose for them to take the last session of the summer because there are hardly any kids taking swimming lessons at this time. This year my kids got to take lessons with my best friend's daughters and they were so happy about it. I am always so amazed at how well my kids can swim. It's amazing.

EGGPLANT

EGGPLANT
Originally uploaded by Daisy.Sue

So if you were to come over to my house you would see that we have a laptop computer in our kitchen as well as a printer. You might think that it's a bit extreme and over the top and well to be honest, it probably is, however tonight it came in handy. We planted some plants in a small planter this summer and one of the things we planted was an eggplant. I picked the one and only eggplant that we've grown so far and proceeded to cut it up. I've never worked with an eggplant before so when it started to turn brown immediately after cutting I began to freak out. This is when that computer in the kitchen came in handy. I went over and googled eggplant and was so happy to find out that it was totally normal to have an eggplant turn brown immediately after cutting. Needless to say, next time I'll have some lemon juice handy.