Thank You Notes

Dear Poison Control,
Thank you for being there.  Thank you for being calm and efficient.  Thank you for being fast and telling me that the Ajax that Noah ate while I was in the shower was not corrosive and would not hurt him.  Thank you for stopping my panic.  And for being right.
Grateful mommy

Dear Disney Channel,
Thank you for giving me time to take a shower every morning (even though apparently Noah thinks that Ajax is more ineteresting).  Thank you for having shows that aren't annoying and that I'm actually ok with my kids watching.  Except Chuggington.  I'd be ok if that show fell off the face of the earth.
Clean lady

Dear Jesse and Kaisa,
Thank you so much for coming to see us next week!  We are so excited to have visitors and to show off our beautiful coast line!
Hostess with the mostess

Dear Sun,
Thank you for shining through the fog today!  The fog has been so dense and so present for so long that I was wondering if I would ever see the sun before 1:00 again.
Light lover

Dear Harry Potter,
Thank you for being so awesome that even though I started reading the whole series again for the umpteenth time, I still have a hard time putting the books down.
Nerdy woman

Dear Cindy,
Thanks for hooking me up with so much cheap and amazing fruit lately!  I got 6 cups of blackberries for free by picking them myself, and now I'm getting 10 pounds of peaches for a whopping $1 because you're willing to drive to Harry & David to get them.  Jam, here I come!
Scone maker

Driving Home

On the way home we drove on the coast so we could see as much of Oregon as possible before we leave (we'll probably be leaving in December).  We started by driving to Tillamook, where, I HAD to go to the cheese factory.

We have fun being dorks.  Especially if it includes free cheese samples.

Kennedy complained the whole time we were in the factory because all she wanted to do was drive this car.

Brett got mad because he had to be in the picture and I didn't.

Things we discovered about Tillamook:

1. It truly smells like cow manure.  It's slightly gross.

2. The cheese factory is hopping because there's nothing else to do in town.

3. The cheese at the Tillamook factory is more expensive than the cheese at our grocery store 7 hours away.

*Brett wrote a complaint about the price of the cheese and popped it in the suggestion box.  They then proceeded to send us a "thank you for your comment" in the form of coupons for cheese.

We then made a small stop in Newport for lunch and a trip to the aquarium.

Swimming with pirahnas.

How Brett got that stroller in that tiny tunnel on the floor that I could barely fit through is beyond me.

Snow Day (For Everyone Else)

While the rest of the United States is buried in 19 feet of snow and sheets of ice are covering the roads and causing school to be cancelled, here in my little corner of Oregon we have been enjoying the weather, which has been 65 and sunny for the last several days.  So what do we do during that time?  The only thing there is to do arond here: go to the beach.

Noah hasn't been to the beach before at any point when he was mobile, so this was a new experience for all of us.  I assumed that he would get some sand in his mouth, but I didn't expect him to be shoveling it in by the handful.



I guess dad needed to let his inner child play a little too because he needed to do a little bit of digging.  He lost something in the hole though.

Of course, Noah didn't mind one bit.  He was loving being dirty and being buried.  On the other hand, Kennedy was telling Brett, "Don't bury Noah!" or "Don't get sand on me!"  She was also squatting down to avoid actually putting her behind in the sand.  She sounds a lot like me as a kid, wearing pearls to the beach and playing in the sand from a chair.

Although it does seem like the beach is the only outing we ever really have around here, I have to say, it really can be a beautiful one.

Annual Pumpkin Carving Party

We were sad this year that we live so far away from the Waddoups because for the last 4 years we had invited them over to carve pumpkins, eat dinner and watch a scary movie.  We had our party just with our family this year though, and we had a good time.  We ate pizza and watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown with Kennedy.  Our pumpkins turned out wonderfully too!  I'm really proud of mine.  Usually I just do your typial triangle eyes and smile, but I opted for something a little different this time and it turned out great!



Brett's is always extremely intricate and takes him hours and hours to clean and carve.  This year it was just as intricate, but I think he's speeded up a little bit, which is good, because we had time to watch a movie afterward too.  Here's his rendition of Frankenstein's monster.



Kennedy picked out the ugliest pumpkin in the whole bunch when we bought them.  It looked dirty because it's skin was more like a cantaloupe than a pumpkin.  She requested that a ghost be carved into hers, so Brett freestyled one.

The best part about her pumpkin though was that we let her color it with Sharpies.  She used purple and green, and somehow managed to color it for probably 30 minutes straight without getting a fume headache.  She is very proud of the end result and had a great time carving pumpkins.

Ocean World

We went to Ocean World this morning to have a fun day with our kids.  I know that Kennedy looks terrified in this picture, but I assure you she had a blast.  This aquarium in Crescent City, CA is small, but for how little it had, it was pretty cool stuff.  Our first stop (after the gigantic gift shop where Kennedy stuffed toys in the stroller while we weren't looking) was the tide pool where we could pet the animals in the water.

Kennedy loved petting the starfish.  She was even brave enough to touch an anenome!  The other little girl on the tour screamed every time she saw anything, so I was pretty proud of Kennedy.  Although Noah didn't pet anything, he did try to eat a starfish.

Then our guide asked for a brave volunteer.  After seeing what this guy had to do, I'm really glad it wasn't me.  He was asked to feel the sting of an anenome, but because they can't sting through our skin, he had to put his tongue on it.  And he did.

Yuck.  And just so we could take his word for it that his tongue got tingly.  Do you know how many people's tongues have been on that thing?  I'm sure it's clean, but I won't be licking an sea creatures any time soon.  Just so you have a better idea, he licked one of these.

Once again, yuck.  We went to see the actual aquarium part of the place next, which was definitely limited.  They had some fish, and a bunch of manta rays, including a baby which was really cute.  They did however have TONS of sharks.

There are 7 in this picture, and that wasn't anywhere near all the ones they had.  We even got to pet a couple of sharks after looking at them in the tanks.

I caught the fin on this one, and it was a lot harder than I expected.  They didn't feel very slippery either like you would expect.

Even though Kennedy had no problem touching starfish and anenomes, she wanted nothing to do with the sharks.  I think her face sums it up pretty well.

We had to take the obligatory picture in the shark's mouth.

There were also two harbor seals and a sea lion who did tricks.  She impersonated a shark and a dolphin, went down slides, jumped really high, and did double back flips.  Afterward, Kennedy wanted to ride on the jet ski ride out front, and she actually let Noah sit with her.

And of course we couldn't leave without getting a picture of Noah surfing.

Better Late Than Never

We only just found our camera cord from the move.  I have been taking pictures on my iPhone and putting them up here.  As such, I found some pictures from April that I wanted on here, but didn't have access to until now.  First up, my dad with all 3 of his grandkids before we left Texas.

From left to right, Wyatt (who is obviously not very happy about the whole thing), Noah (who was still so small that he was swimming in all of his clothes), and Kennedy (looking as sweet as ever).  Then, a fashion shot of Kennedy while we were out shopping with Grandma Lee in Utah.

She loves trying on hats and bows at stores.  And here's a really good one.  This is Noah with his Great-Grandpa Crosby.

We had a good time visiting with Grandpa since he happened to be in Utah at the same time as us.  We were lucky enough to be able to see a lot of Brett's family while we were there.  And although this one is relatively recent and not late at all, it's pretty cute, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Noah is getting so big so fast!  He's already 3 months old.  He smiles all the time and laughs a lot too.  He's really getting to be a lot of fun.  I'm sorry I've been neglecting this blog somewhat, but I'll try to get back on track.  I have however been updating my cooking blog much more regularly lately, so if you haven't yet, you should check it out!

A Few of My Favorite Things

Baking

Going to eat dinner with Brett at the station (even though it's only 30 minutes)

The cool June weather here in Oregon

Long stretches of sleep

My daughter being such a good reader

The huge smiles and coos I get from my son

I have an amazing family and a wonderful life. I am so grateful for all of the blessings in my life! And speaking of blessings, Noah is getting blessed tomorrow! Brett got permission to come to church with us tomorrow even though he is on duty. Look for pictures, and make sure to check out my cooking blog which I have been updating much more regularly.

Ice Princess

While we were in Texas we took Kennedy ice skating at the Stonebriar mall. She looked absolutely darling in her skates, even though they were slightly too big. She was most definitely the smallest skater out there.

She kept getting really frustrated trying to walk around in her skates, but once she got out on the ice, she was fine. Being pregnant and having a weird center of balance, I opted out of the skating, but daddy was happy to carry her around the ice.

She was really unsure of herself, but she loved going really fast. She lasted a lot longer than I though she would too.

Here she is going out on the ice with Grandma and Mark.

Mark was helping her skate quite a bit too.

It was definitely a hit. When we left we passed by the rink again and she made us stop and watch the skaters for a little while. We took her on the carousel while we were there too and she cried when she had to get off. She was cracking up while the horse was going up and down. After that she got really cranky and we had to leave, but it was definitely a fun day.

Christmas Morning

We had a great Christmas this year with lots of family and tons of presents. Seriously, they just kept coming. We all got spoiled, but Kennedy really took in a haul. We left probably 97% of what we got in Texas since we'll be back there in 3 weeks anyway. We did get a nice surprise with a white Christmas too! Apparently it's the first one that Plano has had in 80 years. Brett was really mad because he thought that by getting out of Utah we wouldn't have snow. Unfortunately for him, we had about an inch and it was pretty cold. Kennedy woke up around 7:15 that morning and we went to go get her. She slept in her new Christmas jammies that were really cute.

Yes, I look extremely pregnant in that picture, and Kennedy looks very sleepy. When we started opening presents, Kennedy and Wyatt didn't really differentiate between their presents and just played with them all. We had to try and get Kennedy to come back and open presents because she was so interested in what she or Wyatt had opened that she wasn't interested in the next box. Here she is hoarding all of the books that she got - or trying to at least. They wouldn't all fit in her arms.

She ended up getting 3 doodle pads this year, and Wyatt got two. Apparently they weren't enough. She stole Wyatt's pad and had them both going at the same time.

Kennedy and Wyatt both got potato heads to play with, but they weren't satisfied with their own. Here is Kennedy with Mr. Potato Head and Wyatt with Mrs. Potato Head.

My cousin Orion (who is almost 3) and Kennedy both got tents for Christmas. We set up Orion's tent at my grandparent's house and Kennedy refused to come out of it. Wyatt would open the flap and look in and Kennedy would scream and laugh.

Kennedy and Orion kept going inside and playing together, which was really cute. I think Kennedy spent at least 60% of her time in that thing. Good thing we have one too.

We loved Christmas this year and had a wonderful time. We love being with family and are excited for Kennedy to be able to go back and play with Wyatt for a couple of months!

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

As you know, we headed down to Texas for Christmas this year. Kennedy and Wyatt took to each other right away and played the whole time we were there.

On Christmas Eve we decided to go down to Grapevine to see the ICE exhibit at the Gaylord Texan hotel. Apparently it was supposed to be pretty cool with slides made out of ice and such. It was Grinch themed and you could actually meet the Grinch. The weather was pretty bad (it snowed and we had a white Christmas!), we didn't have a toll tag in Christine's car, and we got lost so it took us an hour to get there. The walk to the exhibit was excruciating in the freezing wind, and when we got there they said it would cost $50 for just us 3 to get in and that their next available time was 2 hours later. Needless to say we did not go in. We just took pictures outside.

Kennedy and Wyatt loved the train they had set up. Kennedy actually cried when we made her get out of it. Then we all decided to pile in. Brett and I barely fit in that little teeny car.

In the lobby of the hotel they had a bunch of Christmas displays set up, including trains, villages, and a life size gingerbread house.

It didn't take us nearly as long to get home, and even though we didn't get to go in and had a huge ordeal in getting there it was fun to spend time with family and have some fun taking pictures! More Christmas pictures to come in the next few days!

Pumpkins and Boo at the Zoo

I promised pumpkin pictures, and here they are! The two smaller ones are the cute regular pumpkins (the one on the right is mine) and the others were definitely more complicated. The Waddoups came over for our 4th annual pumpkin carving/movie watching extravaganza and Kim and Brett went nuts on their pumpkins. Kim carved a ghost family which was so cute, and Brett went with the Utah Jazz logo.

They turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. :) We had a great time. We got up the next morning to go to Boo at the Zoo. I have been trying to go for several years, but things kept coming up. This year, we didn't let anything get in our way. We dressed Kennedy up in her witch costume, and she was darling.

I'm going to try to get a better picture for you before Halloween, because it really is a cute costume. We headed out and saw tons of kids and families in costume. It was so much fun! We trick-or-treated at a bunch of stands set up around the zoo. Kennedy loved getting all of the free goodies that included pencils and eggnog. Weirdly enough she guzzled the eggnog. We got to see the baby elephant who is only a few months old too.

Kennedy's favorites were the monkeys and the zebras. Every time she saw a monkey she'd say, "Monkey! Ooh ooh!" She really enjoyed seeing all the animals and was really interactive. She was so tired afterward that she even fell asleep in the car, which never happens.

We had a great time with our Halloween activities, but they aren't done yet! On Thursday we are venturing to a haunted house with Brett's brother and sister. I'll make sure to give a full report.