Christmas Tree Hunt

One of my favorite parts of Christmas, is hunting for our perfect tree and this year did not disappoint!

We always go to Jack Lake Road out past Sisters and we find the best trees!

The boys had a blast traipsing being carried through the woods.  It was cold & windy so we tried to speed the process up as much as possible.  Luckily we didn't have to walk to far and we had lots of help chopping our tree down.  Cade could not wait to get his hands on the saw & he did a great job! (supervised of course)

Not only did we get a tree, we also got some Christmas card worthy pictures.  I was starting to think that cards weren't going to happen for us this year.  The thought of getting everyone dressed, situated and smiling for a photo was just daunting to me.  But I lucked out and the good ol' self timer pulled through for a family shot & the boys hammed it up for some brother love picts.  

While I can't disclose the pictures for the card, I do have some fun ones that weren't quite right 

for the card but are still absolutely adorable! 

Blake couldn't figure out why we were walking in the woods & still can't figure out why we have a tree in our living room!!

What more could a girl ask for?

Such a tired boy

Our lovely tree

Takes lots of concentration ie. tong hanging out

See no, hear no, speak no

Wordless Wednesday

Trick or Treat

 Despite the rain we had an awesome time trick or treating last night.   

It was such a blast for the boys to trick or treat with their cousins!  

We met up with some friends and started the evening off with some trick or treating at Tylers office.  We then moved on to Scotts office where the guys had set up a fun little scavenger hunt for the kids.  Then we braved the Old Mill and only lasted about 20 min.  When you have a pirate who refused to wear a coat and a parrot who wanted to eat every piece of candy he got and threw a fit when he couldn't ... trick or treating time got cut short.  So we took a break and headed over to our good friends the Beairds house for some tasty food and fun. 

 Once our tummies were full we headed out again to trick or treat the neighborhood.  

This time was much more successful.  We brought a coat for the pirate and tried as best we could to hide the parrots candy :)  

Blake had a blast for his first real time trick or treating.  He literally had the time of his little 18 month life.  Running, flapping his wings, jumping and going crazy in the dark as we went from 1 house to another.  One house we trick or treated at liked him so much they thought he needed 2 full sized candy bars!!  He loved the candy and actually learned and said the word for the first time "canny"  fitting for the occasion I suppose.  

Enjoy a few pictures of our cutie pies 

  

Pirate Cade

Pirate Cades little parrot flapping his wings

Our crew of cousins

Trick or treat!

B's little tale feathers 

This morning Cade gave me a little message "mom you have to ask me if you want a piece of my candy!  If you take it without asking me that's stealing!"  Ok Cade I will make sure to ask..... bbuahhhhh, right!

If I Could Freeze Time

I am so in love with the different stages of my boys right now.  If I could freeze time I would just so I could savor it as long as possible.  

I would freeze the way Cade & Blake are becoming friends and really playing together.  They race cars together, wrestle each other, dance and jump on the beds together.  But as much as I love the way they play together, after the calm always comes the storm and I even want to freeze the fighting.  Though the fighting & annoying each other is well, annoying it is also a joyful noise.  It cracks me up when Blake is annoying Cade because he deserves it 100%.  When Blake was younger and defenseless I would always tell Cade "just wait until Blake is bigger, he is going to get you"  and now he is getting bigger and "getting" Cade.  It reminds me of when my sister, brother & I were young.  We would fight and annoy each other ALL the time!

I would freeze the way Blake points at the rocking chair and says "peese" (please) when putting him to bed.  Our new routine is for me to rock him, sing to him, & rub his back before going in his bed at bed time.  

I would freeze the way Cade HAS to say good night to Blake and give him kisses before I put him down.  

I would freeze Cade and his excitement to learn and go to school.  He thrives at learning and when he isn't learning at school he is learning at home with his kindergarten book.  I love picking him up from school and seeing what pictures he has drawn for me.  Right now he is on a surf board kick.  For the past week or so he has had numerous drawings of surfboards and our family on them.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the way he draws people.  A stomach, a head, eyes, legs and a belly button.  No arms & no other facial features.  4 year old perfection!

I would freeze the way Blake hollers "mom! mom! mama!" to get my attention, or to just tease me.  He does it mostly in the car.  

I would freeze how Cade is so passionate about the Beaver football team.  We play Beaver games numerous times a day and if I would let him he would wear his Beaver jersey every day.  I can't wait to take him to his first game on Saturday.  It is going to be priceless!

I would freeze the way they both stand on the porch every morning & wave bye bye to Tyler as he leaves for work. 

I would freeze the way Blake says "oh" whenever I tell him something or the way he nods his head yes or no when you ask him a question.  

I would freeze the way they both just love there special friends "Melvin" & "Uno" 

I would freeze the way my heart just melts for these boys.  

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

          

The Dreaded Phone

I HATE talking on the phone! 
I hate it not because I don't like the people that call or I don't want to talk to or call people.  
I hate it because of the battle and hurdles I have to jump through while making a call.

Here are some of the reasons it's nearly impossible to talk on the phone:

Blake LOVES phones.  He loves pretending he is talking on the, playing on them and just carrying them around.  So anytime a phone is out he thinks he needs to use it.  Try having a conversation with someone while you have a 14 month little monkey grabbing at clawing for the phone.

Cade LOVES the phone.  He loves playing games, watching movies and drawing on the phone.  
He thinks he is ruler of the phones and can have them whenever he wants.  So when I get the phone out to make a call he all of the sudden thinks he needs and wants to use it.  Sorry buddy your not the boss!! 

Cade loves attention.  When the phone rings or I go to call someone that is prime time for Cade to want or need something.  Or excuse me think he wants or needs something.

The best time for me to talk would be nap time or in the evening when the boys are down for a nap.  
However when that finally happens there are a million things that need to be done and a phone conversation usually slips through the cracks.  

I am trying to do better at making time to catch up with people.  
Bare with me and please don't be offended if I don't answer and it takes a day or 2 for me to get back to you!!  

However, text me and I am super good about getting back to ya!  :)

San Diego Fun

We are back from an amazing family vacation to San Diego.  

The thing I love the most about vacations is I don't have to worry about whats for dinner, laundry or cleaning.  I get to spend all my time playing with, loving on and just watching my little family.  

I could go on and on about everything we did but I will spare you from that and just do a re cap.  

We hit up Sea World, the San Diego Zoo and 2 amazing beaches; Coronado (google it it's amazing) and La Jolla Beach also a great beach.  Sea World was by far our favorite.  The look on Cade's face when he finally go to see the Orca whales in real life was PRICELESS and worth every penny of the trip.  Second favorite was the beaches.  It took Blake a while to warm up to the beach.  He wasn't a fan of the sand at first but once he got the hang of walking in it he was digging and playing right along side of Cade.  

Enjoy some pictures of our trip

 Can't get enough of my boys faces!  Who knew we would create such beautiful faces?

 Check out those castles behind him

 Ready for fire works in his hillarious 4th of July shirt

 Waiting for the Orca show to start at Sea World 

 This is how excited he was to see Orca whales!! 

 Surfer dude

 Watching the other kids do the ride because he was too short :(

 Driving the boat

 Cades favorite part of the zoo was the "Melvins" even a baby Melvin

 B finally was let out of the stroller to run!!

 Wave jumpin

 La Jolla Beach

 Bake trying to decide if he is going to move off the blanket or not 

Fun at the Beach

Time for laundry sand sand removal!!

DIY Ghetto Style

Black Out Shades in 5 easy steps

What you will need:

- Bright sunny mornings

- A 1 yr old that is waking up anywhere between 5 & 5:30am

- Current curtains

- 2 large black garbage bag 

- Scissors 

1. Start by cutting the garbage bag down the seems on both sides

2. Remove curtains from rod and lay curtain right side down

3. Take black garbage bag that you cut, and attach at the top seem of the curtain with the straight pins

4. Repeat on second curtain panel

5. Hang back up 

 Can't even see the ghettoness 

 This picture was taken during the day!

Blake is now sleeping till 7-7:30... mission accomplished and it didn't cost me a dime!! 

Ghetto lovin, 

Wordless Wednesday

Sunny @ the Oregon Coast?! WHAT?!!

Growing up we went to the beach all the time!  It was only an hour drive away from Dallas and my grandparents lived there, so we had no excuses.  Now living in Bend it's a 4.5-5 hour drive and we hardly ever go unless it's for our churches family camp.  

We got lucky this weekend!  Edward Jones held it's summer regional meeting at Salishan in Lincoln City.  The forecast called for rain every day except for 1 so I went with the mind set that we would spend most of our time at the indoor pool.  Someone was looking out for us because the forecast was ALL wrong!  It was sunny with almost no wind all except for 1 day!  It was great.  Unfortunately Tyler was in meetings until lunch each day but the boys and I had a good time exploring, swimming and playing at the beach.  After lunch Tyler was able to join us so our afternoons were spent at the Aquarium (forgot the camera.. boo) and more playing on the beach.  Cade was in heaven digging, running around and burying everything.  Blake not so much.  It was his first time on the actual beach, feet in and walking around.  He wasn't too sure about the sand and when we put him down he pretty much stayed in one spot and didn't move.  He did a little digging and of course tried to eat the sand.  

 Digging 

 More digging followed by burying 

 Blake trying to figure this sand thing out 

 Watching Cade & daddy 

 Tide pool exploring 

 Loving the beach

 Cade getting a little sea life lesson

Amazing pool or purple sea urchins 

All in all it was a great trip!  Now time to unpack, do laundry only to pack up again for another beach adventure.  Off to San Diego next week!!  

Lovin me some summer trips!