Getting Ready for Halloween!

Beware: the visual contents that you are about to see might frighten certain sensitive individuals. Viewer discretion is advised.

 Okay not this one...... the next one and so on. This will be the pumpkin we carve tomorrow along with some others. Coming soon to our blog!

Meet Girdy, our resident witch! She has a mean cackle and it can be heard echoing the streets of our neighborhood at night when she flies around checking to see if any of the children are out of there beds. If they are, she scares them in! As legend has it, that is.

 

 Meet our creepy crawly spiders.  Not scared? Well J-P and I were one night when we were finished watching a movie in our living room. We had the lights on thank goodness while we were talking and staring at the slider window when this HUGE spider went crawling FAST up the curtains.We have never seen one this big before. Even J-P was alarmed. He said, "What do I get, the shot gun?" It was so unerving that we got the vacuum and sucked it up with the longest extension after a few good screams and shrieks! From J-P of course, okay fine, it was from me! I was so freaked out that when we went to bed all I could think about was spiders crawling every which way. I searched the sheets, the curtains, under the bed......I wasn't taking any chances.

We left the vacuum outside that night!

 Okay this isn't scary either, it's our front door



11th year of sheer bliss!

J-P and I celebrated our eleventh year of marriage on the sixteenth. We went to a restaurant called Portland City Grill. It was amazing as we sat on the 30th floor eating our delicious dinner, we overlooked the whole entire city of Portland. Portland is such an interesting city with the water, bridges, boat activity and a cool mix of people.
What do I have to say after eleven years of marriage??? Life continues to layer and get more exciting and intriguing everyday. We have been through so many ups and downs in the past fifteen years of knowing each other that it has strengthened our bond as husband and wife. I still believe the best years are yet to come!

Sunday Stroll

 After church we followed the Thompsons to the Rose Garden. It enveloped all the senses.  Oregon is so beautiful, everything is green, lush and bursting with flowers. The kids had fun exploring.

 Calvin and Jack are good friends and have alot of fun together.

Calvin is checking to see how solid these roots really are. He looks like a scientist conducting an experiment.

 Moms chatting and talking about Mom stuff. It's all boring I assure you.

Cosette's first swing ride. She didn't take kindly to it. She wanted off.

Birthdays!

 We all laughed at Cosette because she crawled out from under the high chair and it was attached to her bum-bum.

 Meet froggy, Cosette's love.

 She loves froggy and never goes anywhere without him. Her favorite thing is to snuggle froggy with her 1st finger in her mouth. It's so cute and interesting because I use to suck my 1st finger as well. She is my mini-me!

Oliver! He is my non-drama boy and is always happy! He keeps our family balanced!

 It's that time for Calvin again, he has been on this earth for six years! I have the creases on my skin that show every year. Calvin is still fevering about once a month compared to two when we were living in the moldy house. After we left the mold, we all felt so much better. My health and well being improved, but little did I know then was that it was the affect of the mold on his hormones.

Calvin is bright, and intelligent despite his fevers. It affects his energy, his moods and his behavior. He is very sensitive and I have to watch everything that goes into his mouth. His body can absorb the most nutrition out of food, but he can also take all the bad. That's why he has to stay away from red food dye(so did J-P as a child), preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, most breads(gluten) and most processed food. If he does eat any of these things, he turns into a devil. What I have discovered is that Calvin has a very sensitive gut and these food additives, or types of food affect his behavior. I've learned that the human gut doesn't fully form until age 7. It's very common for children to have childhood allergies that they out grow. However, living in a moldy house exacerbated everything.

It's very challenging trying to find food that he'll eat that doesn't have all these things. He is very picky. I think I am going to find a hypnotist to convince him otherwise. (wink, wink)

 We didn't throw a huge party this year for Cal, we are thinking at this moment in time that every other year is a good idea for big parties. That still means a party every year observing the same rule for Oliver. I'm liking this plan! Thanks to every one that sent cards, gifts, and money!

 Okay, don't laugh. This was my first pyramid cake that I ever attempted. Calvin wanted a pyramid, so I gave him a pyramid, a crooked one that is. It was gluten free and very hard to work with. Definitely not my best work, but I tried.

 He liked it and everyone said it tasted good. Tasty is good.

 Guess who is ONE!!!!!!?

That's right Cosetti Confetti! Can't even believe I survived another year of infancy!
I forgot to record Cosette eating her muffin with whipped cream and didn't get one picture either.

 At one, she is driving....... around our backyard and LOVING it!

 Cal and Cosette are really cute together. He is a great big brother and wants to be with her all the time. He plays with her, makes her laugh, carries her around (which I tell him not to do) and crawls into her crib to lay with her. She loves his company too!

 Don't you wish all drivers on the road were this happy?

 She's my basket of love! Don't worry, never actually rode around like that. Just for picture sake.

Life is cruel, because you never can see the days quickly pass by you. It's only when you look back and see how much time has passed and it's then you wish you could of held on a little longer, a little tighter. Almost like a dream, falling through the cracks of consciousness and you can't quite ever catch it.

September Events!

 First day of Kindergarten for Calvin! His teacher is Mrs. Martinson. He is liking school and enjoys his homework which is only once a week.

 Oliver is going to a preschool just down the street from where we live and it's called Noah's place. It's at a church and he attends three days a week.

He likes to ride his Superman bike there. Oliver loves school and has been waiting his turn to go since Calvin attended his preschool. Oliver wishes that he went everyday. It's awesome living so close to everything and having the option to walk or ride bikes.

The boys got their faces painted at a school event. Calvin is a snow leopard and Oliver is a white tiger.

In character

He looks like he could eat me!:)

This is at a park very close to our house, it's so beautiful. It's not very big, but it has little trails to ride your through the trees.

I can beach cruise through the forest right? Why not?

Calvin, despite his health woes, is surprising us everyday. He started playing soccer and his first game he scored three goals! He really doesn't have much skill at all, but he is aggressive and gets after it. Every game he averages one goal. My little boy is not so little anymore.

Disco Mania!!

Tanya looking AMAZING as usual!

 Scott a.k.a Bono is looking way too serious for a disco party.

 Ammon aka disco dog is looking way too scared for a party

 Please take note of J-P's hair, everyone kept saying that he looked way too authentic almost like he does this everyday. Well that hair is everyday....yeah baby!

 Mary and Michelle

 Yours truly - Mr. and Mrs. Disco

It's not everyday that you can move next to really fun people that are down for anything and will help throw a disco party. Well, maybe I love to disco a wee bit more than they do, but we had so much fun even though it wasn't a big turn out. This was our first summer here.

Cosetti Confetti!

 How can you resist that smile? She is turning one in a couple of weeks and isn't quite walking, but crawling like crab. Everyday shows more promise. Cosette is very active and tries to keep up with her brothers. She is my hip ornament and I enjoy her company ever tick of the day. It is so fun having a girl! She blabs all the time and can say "Mama", "DaDa", "Ambumb"(Ammon), 

 Out with the boys washing the Land Cruiser. There's always been a fun off-road vehicle in the family.

 She's a great dishwasher

And loves to unload too.

But don't ask her Dad to change her dirty drawers because it's a fit busting out. He gets stressed and sweaty and starts yelling orders out like a captain who's loosing a ship upon a raging sea. Sometimes I think it's easier to change it myself to guarantee a much happier moral throughout the cabin, but on second thought, it's good for the captain to mop the deck sometimes, no matter the attitude.:)