Oregon Zoo

We took a trip to the Oregon Zoo on Saturday morning and it was quite a steamy day to be out. The boys had lots of fun and burned some energy (except for Jude who managed to eat the entire three hours we were there). Here are Samuel and Wes holding hands (voluntarily!) while looking at the grizzly bear.

Here's Jude, Time, Wes, Samuel and Grandma Mary.
Grandpa and Jude.
Here's Jude at the beginning of the trip.
I got a close up of the boys holding hands because I may just use it for blackmail when they are teenagers....
And of course Samuel found his way to this John Deere tractor.

Day at the Movies

Here are the boys waiting to go into the movie - they were just a bundle of energy!

I took Samuel and his cousin Wes to the Regal Cinema Free Family Fun day in Gresham last week - I didn't know quite what I was signing on for. It involved three bathroom trips over the course of one hour and lots of snacks. We went to see Veggie Tales, and I even learned a few things about the Bible. It's great because if your kid starts melting down, you can leave without losing any money. I think Joy (Wes' mom) and I will trade off kids throughout the summer so they can watch a few movies in a nice cool theatre.

My Boys Love Dirt

These are some pictures I took a few evening ago of the boys finishing off thier day in the backyard. I never really thought I would be the mom that would let her kids get dirty, but I gave up that fight long ago. It's nothing a bath can't fix, right? I shot these at sunset and I love the warmth the photos have. I'm not sure why Samuel is closing his eyes here, but he seems to be digging for something.

Jude sitting in a pile of dirt holding George's ball thrower.
Why can't girls be blessed with these kind of eyelashes?!
I can only guess why he has dirt around his mouth. Yuk.
He often scoots around the yard holding George's thrower like this.
And here's Samuel putting dirt in his tractor toy - he was very serious when he said, "I'm doing work, Mama."

Happy Valley Park With The Boys

Here's the only thing Jude did at the park - he's been a real grump during this whole teething thing.

As it turns out, the eastside does have a good park!! I've only frequented the Wilsonville and Sherwood area (much to my gas budget's chagrin) for the kiddie parks before today. While weaving through Happy Valley to this park, I was gazing at some residential structures that upon first glance, I assumed were apartment complexes, but when I noticed there was only one door and no parking lot to park many cars, my dismay set in. Seriously people, how much square footage do you really need??? I kept driving and saw a huge house that looked like an Italian villa. Wow. Which reminds me, I really need to take a trip to Italy, but that's off the subject.

Here's Ruby sitting patiently in her stroller - I really understood why Tami strapped her in as long as possible - when she was freed she was finding hairy balloon remnants and eating Cheerios off the ground - yuk.
Here are Eli and Samuel giving man hugs.
They are actually making the same face - great minds think alike!
Here's Parker, Samuel and Eli playing in the water. What wonderful weather today! I actually ended up with a nasty partial sunburn from hastily putting sunscreen on. It makes for a great farmer's tan!!

So, our garden is doing pretty well so far, I think. The boys and I actually ate snow peas from it in veggie fried rice the other night. Growing a garden for the first year is such a crap shoot - you never know what you're going to get given all the variables - location, soil, etc. But, I will take what I can get, even if it's only some snow peas and tomatoes.

A Bittersweet Farewell To Jude's Mullet

Last night on a whim during bathtime, Colin and I decided to trim up Jude's hair. This would officially be his first haircut, which made me so sad because he's no longer a baby. Sigh. This haircut comes after many straighforward comments from family and friends (you all know who you are!) such as: "When are you cutting Jude's hair. No really. When?" or "I saw Jude's pictures on your blog and his hair really needs to be cut." Subtle. I think I felt I would lose his babyhood when his locks were cut and today he did seem a bit more like a boy.

Here is Colin cutting it last night and Samuel doing who knows what to the camera - do you like that I blurred out his boy parts?
Here's the after shot - ok, so you can't see all of the hair, but you get the idea.
And this is the before shot of his mullet. Maybe I should grow it out again....

This Sweet Weather and How My Boys Enjoy It

The boys and I have been enjoying this amazing weather the last few days. On Thursday we went to Ibach Park in Tualatin to meet a couple of friends and as it turns out, our church, Athey, was having a grade school cookout and I got to chat with many moms I don't see very often. It was so great catching up - all the while Jude is finding a sandy mud pit to get horribly dirty in. That kid LOVES being dirty.

And last night I got out on a girls' night with Sarah to see Prince Caspian. I would highly recommend this movie - I liked it just as much as the first one. Queen Susan even donned really pretty chain mail, which I thought was a bit comical. Did they really have feminine looking bell-sleeved chain mail back in the day? At any rate, I found the Christ typology to be pretty obvious. Of course I was also looking for it. I love nothing more than going to a movie on a beautiful summer night.

So, Samuel and I are doing the summer reading program at the library this summer and guess what I'm reading him? Little House In the Big Woods - this was a series I could not get enough of as a kid. Ok, so I was a bit older than Samuel when I read it, but it's never too early to start, right? I think the summer reading program is great, if you read to your kid 12 hours over the course of this summer, you get to pick out a book to keep. Along with reading this, I ordered Little House on the Prairie (the TV series on DVD), just so Samuel can understand what we are reading about - and he loves it! I love how innocent the show is - remember when TV was wholesome?

So, upon recommendation from Nicole, I finally placed an order through Eyes, Lips, Face. Its an online cosmetic company selling most their products for $1. If you type the code "Carolina" in, you get 50% off your first order (there are numerous other coupon codes you can find on the internet as well). I heard that Nordstrom bought this line, then changed the packaging and had to sell it all for cheap, but when I checked Snopes.com, that proves to be false. I still hear good things about the makeup, so I'll see when it arrives. I'm a tough critic - but it was worth the $12 - I even order the spendier mineral blush (a whopping $3).

Here are pictures from the boys yesterday.
Jude found this popsicle stick somewhere and treated it like a binky - it keeps him occupied for awhile for some reason.
I finally gave it and let the boys have a popsicle treat - they love nothing more than these Koolaid popsicles. Oh, and that's dirty oozing out of Jude's mouth.
Colin brought home this kid fireman hats for Samuel's friends, but Jude got his hands on it for awhile. Why does it seem like Jude never has clothes on?
Since Samuel knows how to turn the hose on (which comes in handy when I'm watering the garden), he went ahead and cooled Jude down last night. I think Jude saw the opportunity to get dirty and enjoyed it. I left for my movie shorty after this picture was taken - Colin had to deal with this dirty baby. Hehe.

Father's Day Weekend

Well we had a great weekend celebrating Father's Day. On Saturday we had a bit of an impromptu barbecue with family at our place. Yesterday we just hung out as a family, planting more vegetables in the garden (we are now growing tomatoes and cucumbers) and taking a walk around the neighborhood. As mundane as it may sound, it was so wonderful just because of the beautiful weather. In my vain attempt to put clean dishes away a couple of mornings ago, I let both boys up on the counter to assist me. I caught Samuel in mid-yawn.

Here is Jude's latest "physical therapy". We are trying to force him to use his legs in this Johnny Jump Up and he's not having it - that boy sure has his opinions. The only time he was happy was when I was swinging him back and forth, which required no strength on his part whatsoever. We are going to keep doing this with him, though. He won't be a teenager and not walking, right?

Here is Jude and Colin playing ball yesterday.
Here is Grandpa and the boys from Saturday.

Samuel joined in the gardening yesterday - my poor basil has aphids, so he was spraying the leaves with a soap/water combo. Hopefully it works, because I LOVE basil.

An Amazing Movie and Fun With The Boys

So, we've been spending a lot of time at home lately (what with all the house projects and whatnot) and the boys are coming up with creative things to keep themselves occupied. I retreated upstairs for all of five minutes this evening for a diaper clean up and come back to find Samuel in his underwear plastered with stickers - as well as Jude. I am not sure who put them on Jude's man boobs...
Here is Jude with what was left of his homemade popsicle tonight - he sucked the life out of that thing.
Samuel doesn't like to contain his nakedness to inside the house - he ran outside to play and burn the last bit of energy. Oh, correction: he is still burning his energy - he has taken every sock out of the laundry basket and spread them all over the living room. Sigh.
Ok - so I've been hanging on to this treasure of a movie that Sarah bought me a couple months or so ago - I finally sat down to watch the first 1/3 of it, then I was addicted! I spent every free moment (read: late nights) finishing it and might I say - GASP - I put it up there with Pride and Prejudice. I said it and I mean it! It was amazing Victorian drama with pretty people (hey, you don't find many pretty Brits in Victorian movies) and even prettier clothes. There were so many interwoven misunderstandings involving love that my head was spinning. In a good way. So, head to your library or order it off Amazon - you won't regret it!

I escaped tonight by myself - which is a rarity these days - to the mall to find paraben free foundation. After the Clinique lady told me in a snotty tone that I would be hard pressed to find a dept. store brand of makeup without that preservative (it's linked to breast cancer), I marched myself over to MAC and inquired about thier stick foundation (which I have always been a fan of) and lo and behold - no parabens!! I had to sell my kidney to buy it, but it will be worth it, hopefully. Since when are the Clinique ladies snobs? I also hit up Bath & Body Works which is having an off the hook sale and I found that they are selling all thier Vincent Longo cosmetics (he has a great line of makeup that has won numerous awards) at 50% off. That only knocks things down to like $13 per item, but for lip and cheek stain, it's worth it. So, I won't be able to put gas in my car for like the next 3 weeks, but hey, I have pretty makeup!

Good Book and Jude's Mischief

Upon recommendation from a family friend, I've checked out this book from the library. She was spot on when she said that it reads like a murder mystery, yet it's about the food we eat today - from farm to table, it shows the many processes our food goes through. It's disturbing and makes me want to never shop at a normal grocery store again, but it's like a train wreck and I can't stop reading. I'm still in the section talking about how pretty much everything we eat - from the pesticides on our produce to the sodas we drink - all come from corn. They are feeding corn to animals/fish that were never meant to eat it. Anyway, if you're looking for a good read, I would suggest it.
Here's a picture of Jude yesterday getting into Samuel's Jonah DVD - don't even get me started on what big chaos that turned out to be. Let's just say that they were both crying so loud that Colin could hear them outside. Note to self: never let Jude play with Samuel's DVDs. Ugh.

Excavation Completed

So, the excavator guy finished his work on the yard yesterday and here's what we are left with. It's pretty much a mud pit - Colin is planning on planting grass all over.

Here is the driveway extended down into the yard of what will be the front of the house.
Here is Samuel peeing in front of the house - it's his latest pastime and I have nothing to do with it. Ugh.

Rippin' Up The Yard

So, we are having our yard levelled. Voluntarily. Colin is putting a garage in this summer and we need to have a flat yard with no random strip of concrete down the middle. Here are the pictures from yesterday: Colin is working off of his garage plans to submit to the county for a permit to build.

Here is the pile of concrete - I believe it was formerly a driveway.
Here is the backhoe (I think that's what they're called) pulling up the concrete.
He also ripped up every shred of grass and the dirt underneath to move it around and flatten everything out.

And of course Samuel LOVED this machine. He was out there pretty much all day either helping Colin dig a ditch for electrical or just watching it do work. My current battle is how to keep my dog's paws clean when he needs to use the all dirt yard. Ugh.

Ella's Pictures

Sarah, Joel and I headed out to a local park in my neighborhood yesterday to shoot Ella's baby photos. She was such a trooper - how much do I love babies?! Next I will attempt to create a baby announcement for them... Ella in a basket.

Here she is with Joel's wedding ring on her toe- I love baby feet and how divinely small they are.
Both wedding rings on her feet.

Joel and Ella.
The growing family!
Joel holding Ella.
These are what they called "her nervous feet." I love documenting little things like this.
This may be the cutest baby blanket ever - and how much do I love babies in tutus?!