gratitude and stuff

Sort of a hodge podge of Halloween and Thanksgiving, but I have been doing some photo editing and thought I'd do a quick update.  So grateful for my family and for the holiday season.  Two of my favorite things!! 

 Optimus Prime

 A "cute pirate" with her friend from school, Katarina

 Trunk or treat at the church, with BFF's from school. Kiara was Cleopatra this year.

 Spencer was a crazy Judge or something like that.

 Caden got to dress up for his Pilgrim and Indian Thanksgiving Dinner at his preschool.  Mustard Seed has been a great school this year!

 Love these kiddos!

My TEENAGER.  So weird that I am old enough to say such things.  

Happy Holidays!!

The benefits of having an older brother...

Levi played soccer for a couple of years before football called his name, but he had a great coach.  The coach has two sons, one Levi's age and one that is Kiara's age.  Several years ago, he invited Kiara to play on his younger son's team b/c they needed extra players one spring.  Kiara held her own surprisingly well at that age and has played with his team ever since.  This last year, however, he decided to consolidate and just coach his 12 year old's team and let his 9 year old play on the team.  We were disappointed b/c the coach is really that great, but as luck would have it the 12 year old boy team was short a player and he invited Kiara again to be on the team.  Kiara loves it!

You can't really tell from the picture, but she just scored.  The best part about it was that she had scored in the game the week before and a boy on the team bet she'd not ever score again...he bet in pushups and he had to do them mid game (and ended up with a yellow card from the ref who thought it was poor sportsmanship).  The smile never left Kiara's face the rest of the game.  

So despite the teasing, the endless fighting, and the tears caused from constantly being bested by an older brother...it has its benefits on the soccer field!

Yup, I am on it...

I know, I am posting holiday pictures the DAY AFTER THE HOLIDAY! Not even weeks, or my more traditional...MONTHs! Yay! I am editing pictures b/c I went a little crazy with my camera this weekend, but that is partly b/c the sun came out. I know, hard to believe that we in Oregon see the sun, but when it comes out, it is a day to celebrate and as it turns out, a day to take pictures.

We had a super fun Easter weekend, first visiting Olympia for a BBQ (and the hugest easter egg hunt ever, baseball fun, soccer fun, and just hanging out with the fam fun), and then Sunday we went to Ridgefield for a yummy Easter dinner and another easter egg hunt. SO grateful for wonderful family to celebrate Easter with. It was a great weekend.

This is what four dozen hard-boiled, decorated eggs look like. And, as opposed to my grouchy Pumpkin Carving Post late last year, we had a delightful time decorating and designing our millions of eggs as a family. Never fear, we found every single hidden egg and followed all life-threatening egg hiding procedures. No one has died yet...

Not sure why we are completely incapable of a simple smile for the camera. Completely. Incapable.
Completely. Capable.Completely. Capable.

Levi named all of his eggs and they each had a face.

I did not notice the twig until after I put this in the blog. She was heavily invested in finding lots of well-hidden eggs in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard!
Wondering why the completely incapable was caught smiling? He was actually being a turd and I happened to accidentally catch him smiling b/c he thought he was being funny. If you look closely, you can see the devilish look in his eye.

So sad this little ball of cuteness doesn't live closer to us, b/c she is seriously the light of the party. Such an adorable little thing and she often shouts clearly: "WAIT FOR ME!" and knows every single aunt, uncle, and cousin's first name by sight! Love this little girl!!
Is it possible to be overwhelmed by adoration? If so, I am sure Matt is overwhelmed. Caden LOVES Uncle Matt. This is just one of about a million Caden clinging to Matt pictures.
I have sooo many more pictures, hard to choose which ones to put in, and I won't give false promises of adding the rest of them later, but just know this is but a small snippet of our Easter weekend fun! :)
Wait, so this is NOT a punctual picture, but we made these for St. Patrick's day and they were SO fun. Lime sherbet ice cream with 7-up. Just wouldn't be right if I didn't have at least one totally outdated picture. :)

When I am a dad I won't get angry...

Caden has been telling us lately how to parent, and how he will do things differently when he is a dad. This segment is what he is going to do when his kids fight. Oh, and the shiner is from falling at the park, NOT from fighting. :)

Daddy Daughter Valentine's Dance

For the last couple of years, my dad, my brother Derek, and Spencer take all the girls to a special Valentine's day dance. We opted to step it up a notch this year and they went to an even nicer venue in OREGON CITY. 45 minute drive for all this bliss! From what I hear, it was well worth the extra drive.

The girls and their cousin Ashley after dinner.
My dad and all the girls.
This is scanned in...thus the quality issues...

Ummm...I did not tell her to make this pose. The girl is comfortable in front of a camera, what can I say?
For the girls, this year it was all about the earrings. Dangly, sparkly, or heart shaped? So many choices.
For me, the dance was all about the HAIR. Love an excuse for a fancy updo!
This was supposed to be a heart shape...can you tell? Emma could, and that is all that really matters, right? :)
I got reports that it was the most fun year ever, great food, great music, and of course, good company!

Funny how that happens...

Do I sound like a broken record? I am for sure going to stay caught up on my blog. Starting now. Okay, really, I won't. I am editing tons of pictures for my annual "blurb book" that I give to the family for Valentine's day and so I am sitting and staring at pictures for hours on end. My kids love to look at these books, so it is all worth it in the end, but my eyes start to gloss over from staring at the computer screen for so long! I figured I'd add some to the blog while the other ones are uploading to my blurb book. Here are some favorites from the month of December, for a bit of a recap.
Over Christmas break we decided to learn how to skate, spent lots of time and way too much money at the skating rink, but it beat video games and 46 neighborhood kids begging to play all break long! Levi is wreckless and I can't watch him skate, Caden is a nightmare can't even get in one good stride, and the girls took right to it. We ended up getting them skates for Christmas, though ironically we have not been back since. Hmmm....

Caden turned 4 (this is out of order but I am too lazy to cut and paste).Those are spider web cupcakes though they are a bit pink and blue rather than red and blue. Fortunately, he didn't complain TOO much about it.

Gingerbread house decorating. Our annual tradition that I sort of loathe (remember how I feel about pumpkin decorating? This falls into that category...just going for fun mom points and I need as many as I can get).
Can't forget the annual employee party, where I get to sit awkwardly and make small talk with lots of drunk people who I don't know. Always an awkward night, though it is always a fun chance to dress up and go out on the town with my man!


This is a well known pose at our house. Caden has two group poses, he either squeezes your neck till you are near choking...or we have to point or touch a random object.
Another birthday picture (again, out of order, again lazy...but hey at least I am blogging).
The boys all got shot guns for Christmas (never seen my husband so excited about a gift in his life...despite his rather grim expression...), and after all was said and done my mom asks "you are okay with him having a gun in the house?" Since my mom also got a shotgun, a pigeon disk shooter thingy and a GLOCK, she is obviously more of a gun fan than I am (and she can really shoot too...not a fake gun fan, a real gun fan). But the boys have gone shooting several times now and their obvious delight has softened the blow somewhat...
All of the girlies in our matching Christmas outfits.

Short and rather boring post, but I am not going to promise anything more inspiring since I will clearly just not get around to it and it isn't like I need more opportunities to remind myself of my shortcomings!! Happy New Year!!