See her?

She's sick.  well...she was sick.  and was, all weekend, and now that i think about it, last week too.  I thought she was grumpy.  turns out she had 4 teeth coming in-the giant ones in the back and i think she had a bit of a cold.  I'll spare you the details but our weekend was whiny and poopy and at times, looked like the bottom of bowl... oh well.  if that's the worst of it, i'll be happy.  she's back to her normal self, tired a bit early (she nearly fell asleep at the dinner table at 6 tonight)-but dancing and laughing and being sweet.  

Addison's love of water

Addison loves water. This summer, we would go to the Wilson outdoor pool and play. Will would beg for a life jacket to "keep me safe" and Addison would run full speed into the water until it was well over her head, plash around and then wait for someone to pull her out. It was the type of thing that people looked at me wondering what kind of parent I was letting my daughter drown before my very eyes. But she loved. I'd pull her out of the water, she'd scream with glee, we go back to the baby area and away she would go, back to the 4ft water. Will thinks she is crazy and way too brave.


She loves the bath too, particularly taking baths in the world's largest kitchen sink that we have in our house. It's like a jacuzzi tub, with a jet (the faucet which she likes to have going at all times). Here sheis trying to climb into the sink.

While in the sink she likes to wash her hair, her face and let the water wash her "buns" as she kindly refers to them. At first she thought she was peeing, and then realized...no...no pee, just a good cleaning! (a disclaimer to all of our houseguests...bath time provide the perfect opportunity to scrub out the sink after all dirty children have been cleaned).

Aside from the water, aren't her eyes to die for.
Oh to have blue eyes! My life would be complete with the most gorgeous-to-die-for blue eyes. I wonder where she got them? And..yes, she does bite her nails.
I don't know why. Maybe I've passed mild anxiety on to her. Who knows. But we'll catch her staring out the window biting her nails. It's enough that I have not had to cut her nails in months-i can't even remember the last time. We spend a lot of time painting ehr pretty toe nails but there are o fingernails to paint. weird. i love her.

25 posts in 25 days

possible? i hope so. We are so excited for Christmas that I figured I could remember the memories best by actually writing them down. SO...Let there be 25 posts in 25 days. I post all the way up to Christmas.

Today, 3-D glasses. Will loves movies. He is SO Rob's child. Rob's greatest pleasure is watching movies, over and over again, all day long if possible, with popcorn and diet coke in hand. Will loves the Disney classics right now. We are taking soccer and dance class on the weekends and the place we go has a library attached. In a cost cutting effort on our part, we rent movies. The library has a lovely assortment of Disney classics. A few weekends ago when Rob and I were out Christmas shopping, he picked up the Polar Express 3D version. Can you imagine Will's delight when he found out that things would pop off the screen at him? Here they are watching the movie. keep in mind that the room is totally dark.

Halloween Part 2

I mentioned we were WAY into Halloween this year. Our October included TWO trips to Sauvie's Island. The first with our dear friends and Addison's future boyfriend, Conor, and the second just the family. Here are a few pictures from pumpkin carving...

Halloween Recap

Halloween was a hit this year at our house. Will TOTALLY got into the holiday which was super fun. THis was the first holiday that I really felt like we were living through the eyes of our kids. Will has enjoyed holidays up until now, but it never really felt like he GOT it. Really understood what was going on. This year, we started talking about Halloween in September, We borrowed books fromt he library about Halloween, played a few computer games about Halloween and indulged in some f the classic Halloween movies like Charlie Brown. We decided to have a Halloween party and Will and I both looked through magazine after magazine finding the perfect food and decorations. It was so much fun. THe party was a blast. We're lucky to live in a neighborhood packed with great neighbors. Here are the kids in costume. Addison went as a ballerina and Will as Spiderman.

Here's Rob, he too dressed up in a batman costume. Nothing like being the only adult at an all kid party dressed up!

Here's a few of WIll's favorite decorations.

Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we headed back to the pumpkin patch, this time with daddy in tow. We all love this season; the cool fall air, the leaves falling, the shorter days, and the pumpkin patch. Will, Addi and I went out with some friends last weekend to Sauvie’s Island and rob was insanely jealous living via Skype and phone calls. So, as not to let him down, we headed back out to Sauvie’s to the giant pumpkin patch. We hit the corn maze first with Will leading the way. Addison thought it would be funny to hide in the corn stalks and jump out at us. She’s pretending to be a tiger here. Here’s a few pictures of the crew.

Last week I told will that we had to wait to get a caramel apple because they are Rob’s favorite. It was the first thing he asked for when we got out of the car. And here he is sharing it with Addison.

It was really windy all day Sunday and the dirt was getting blown around everywhere. Before we grabbed pumpkins, rob and I decided to try another pumpkin patch closer to home-hoping that the mountain that I backed to would cut down on the wind. WRONG! It was worse. But this one had ponies. Cute, fuzzy ponies perfect for any four year old to ride on. And Will, who is usually timid and shy, proudly proclaimed his love for ponies and his desire to ride one that minute to us the instant he saw them. $5 dollars for a 2 minute ride. Normally, we’d pass this opportunity by based on the ridiculousness of the cost. But, partly because Rob is still spoiling the kids rotten from being away so long and partly because I am always looking for ways to get Will out of his cautious shell, he got the pony ride. He was very nervous at first, asking me exactly where he should put his hands and what he was supposed to hold onto. He was curious about how the ponies knew to go around and around. Ahh, the young mind-it’s because their tied up and forced to do it! Oh well. Here he is on the ponies. The wind almost blew him off and it also forced him to ride holing on with just one hand, the other one shielding his eyes form the wind. What a big boy he is.

And here’s Addison, in the wheelbarrow waaayyy too tired to know what to do. Tomorrow night…we carve pumpkins!

Where does the time go?

My typical post... (this is what I am telling rob right now). Yes Rob! He's home! We have our DADDY back. I'm not sure it was the entrance he was looking for-the kids were int he bathtub and excited about playing cars. Oh well. He thinks they each grew a foot and that addison has the vocabulary of a 4 year old-not really. ten things we've been up to in the past 17 days:
1. spending time just mom, will, and addison. With ROb out of town promoting this, we've been home by ourselves. Thank god for family that spent hours watching the kids so i could get some grocery shopping done.
2. Pumpkin patch with friends-we'll be making another trip this weekend with Rob in tow to enjoy the delicousness of pumpkin season
3. Read library books. I am on a never ending quest to pay off our last credit card (so close...) and thus we rekindled our relationship with the library. I could write for days about the library but let's just say it's been romantic
4. Work-lots of work. on lots of things. Some day soon I hope to not work so much
5. Friends. Cool friends we have. enough said.
6. Planning...for the best Halloween party EVER! this has been a huge hit with Will. I never liked Halloween too much before this year and I am finally feeling first hand what it is like to live through your child.
7. Planning...for Christmas. I have some plans for this holiday season.
8. Back to the gym...in the morning no less. 5 am comes so quickly.
9. Studying...all of us seem to be studying something. Will is learning to read, Addison is learning to put sentences together, rob's learning to run a company, and i'm working ont his darn mba.
10. enjoying fall. fall is wonderful in Oregon. Something everyone should get to enjoy!

Saturday morning classes

The kids are in classes on saturday mornings this fall. Addison is in ballet and will in soccer. Rob caught these videos this morning. I'm not sure which one is cuter. Will or Addison???

ps. Addison did not like class the previous two weeks so I was excited to see her enjoy herself today!



Here's Will

Where does the month go?

We've been busy. September has been a busy month. here's a rundown of what's happened:
1. I started back to school. A great group of high school students with lots of possibilities.
2. Will and Addison are back to school/daycare full time. Will is learning to read and Addison language skills are growing each day
3. Rob has officially gone to work for himself. Wifi In Motion is taking off and the possibilities are endless. He seeing/hearing fantastic feedback from customers and interested parties and is selling lots of kits. Good things are on the Horizon.
4. Rob and I celebrated 6 years last week. 6 glorious, long years. We found our way back to the Edgefield where we got married. Enjoyed dinner, good beer, and a great breakfast. We found ourselves shopping at Wal-Mart that night for fun stuff for the kids
5. Will and I are planning the best Halloween party ever! so much fun! I have never really cared for this holiday but seeing it througha 4 year olds eyes has been amazing. I can't wait for the 31st! (and i hope people come...)
6. We've redcorated/redesigned the family/living/kids rooms. The kids are now sharing a room and Addison's old room is officially the "play room". this came after several falls out of the crib and a desire to sleep with Will (in his bed). Everyone is sleeping better in closer quarters. I love that the kdis love each other so much that they want to spend every possible second together. The living room got a makeover (an affordable one) as well as the family room. We love the new look and feel like it's a new house.
7. Lots of outside projects: gardening, harvesting, planting sod, and getting fall flowers out for show. Love this time of year
8. I've been working on cleaning out closets and cupboards. I've made many a trip to Goodwill in an effort to declutter our house. Right now we're burning all CDs to iTunes and will get rid of them soon.
9. Ballet classes started for Addison last week and soccer for will this week. so freakin' cute. i'll get pictures up soon.
10. good old fashion family fun: puzzles, art projects, coloring, and bicycles. We're a lucky family.

Addison's Birthday

This is a long awaited post from Addison's birthday. 2 years old. Too big. Too cute. I love the pigtails, the purse, and the lipstick. oh and the tutu and the adorable outfits from our friends across the ocean!

Happy Birthday to her!

Where does two years go? This was addison two years ago...

























I remember bringing her home. She was so small compared to Will, just over 6 pounds. It was like a little doll. She wore preemie clothes for the first 4 weeks before 0-3 month clothing finally fit. Besides all those newborn moments that parents cherish, I remember her being a great snuggler, a quiet baby-except between 7 & 9pm, and very content just being.

here she is at her 1 year birthday

























Notice the lack of hair. She was a fiery little lady even a year ago.

And here she was on Saturday, on her two year birthday.


Such a sweet little girl. She is still fiery, but sweet as can be in the next breath. She is in love with her babies and her recent garage sale find-a double stroller. She pushes that thing around the house like a woman on a mission! She also loves water: the swimming pool, the sink, the bath, the rain, anything wet. She eats more than the three of us combined and will likely increase our overall food bill twofold by the time she's 10. The girl can eat!

We spent the day hanging out around the house. Will was very concerned that she was not getting a proper birthday, with cakes and friends and balloons. Instead, we had pizza at nana and papa's house and had a lovely water balloon fight with aunt lyndsey and uncle steve. We officially celebrated her birthday on Sunday with cake and ice cream and LOTS of presents (pictures of that tomorrow!).

Happy Birthday little lady! We can't wait to see what the next year brings us.

A day of hots a colds...

We've had a long weekend, returning from vernonia yesterday afternoon from a weekend long softball tournament. This yearly tradition has gotten slightly more complicated with the kids in tow. It used to be Rob and I partying with friends for the weekend. We were content with an uncomfortable tent and a few blankets. Kids...well, you want them sleeping past day break and since the tent doesn't come with built in sun blockers, we'd have the campsite up awake way too early.

When we got home yesterday, we (mostly Rob) had to spend the entire afternoon fixing a broken hot water heater. what are the odds... we go away and the thing breaks. crazy. We got it fixed last night in time for 10:30pm hot showers. This mornign we had plans to go blueberry picking with our neighbors. The farm is just up the street from our house and we picked about 6 pounds in an hour. really fun. When we got back, will started feeling a bit warm. I thought he was tired, it had been a long weekend. My neighbor came over after picking and we canned 12 pints of blueberry jam sweetened with organic honey (no sugar!) and while we were chatting it up in the kitchen, will grew hotter and hotter. Tylenol for him and he was asleep in 20 minutes. Then Addison woke up from her nap. She was hot so I threw her in the COLD pool to cool down. Within a few minutes Will heard the splashing and came to join us. Tyenol had kicked in and he was back to normal, telling me silly jokes that make no sense at all. Then Rob came home and the Will's fever went back up and Addison went back in the pool for a cooling off. More Tylenol, Will asleep again and Addison eating ice cream. Here's a few pictures of her sitting on the kitchen floor eating. She is so cute and such a treat to take pictures of.






Will ended up waking up again happy and cooled off. He and I took a long bike ride throughout the neighborhood while Rob mowed the lawn. A perfect end to the day!

Berry Picking

We are so lucky to live near amazing farms!  Yesterday we went to pick raspberries.  I took the kids partly because they were driving me crazy and wanted them out of the house and partly because I loved to pick berries when i was younger and thought they would too.  I was right!   They loved it.  Will especially found joy in finding *the perfect* raspberry.  We picked 10 pounds in about 45 minutes.  The bushes were overflowing with berries!  Once the kids got their stomach full, they played hide and go seek in the bushes.  So cute.  
Will's perfect berry