Spring 2012 stuff

My Mom with all 11 of her grandchildren after Sunday dinner.

Rivers was one intense defender this year in basketball.  That's her in the pink and her cousin Madison in the blue. 

The records say it has never snowed in the Willamette Valley in March, but we woke up to this during the last week of March, so we hurried and went sledding before it melted.  That's me with my legs in the air after trying to take all 3 of the little kids down with me....we crashed and they all ended up crying. 

Ninja master

More snow pics.  CD got the sledding thing down.

And Rivers got creative with her snowmen.  I loved the 'stache and goatee. 

For Spring break we went to Bend, OR for a few days to ski at my favorite place, Mt. Bachelor.

The first day was beautiful and I had so much fun showing Rivers all my favorite runs.  Her favorite was good 'ole Dilly Dally Alley through the trees.  She said "Mom, this is so fun that I would do ANYTHING to be able to ski through the trees for just one hour", so we skiied through the trees a lot.  She really got good on that trip.  On the third day we took CD on the lift for the first time and I thought he would be nervous about the height etc. so I was being all nice and comforting until he said while we were going up "Mom, come on, it's not even as high as an airplane."  Okay then.

It's a good thing Dreyton is so comfortable with his manhood because he has to be just one of the girls a lot.  Here Rivers dressed them all up in her dresses.

Cute cousins....held hands the whole walk and really tried to have a conversation.  I heard them talking about the trees.

Reagan is such a clothes hog.  She LOVES getting new clothes and dressing up in Rivers' dresses.

Easter family pic

The dress I made for Reagan for Easter was made from 4 of my old shirts I cut up and upcycled :) 

Here's a picture of the party in the back of the dress.  I saw the idea on pinterest and gave it a try (since I used to make dresses for Rivers out of my shirts too) and it turned out perty darn cute.  Easter evening after eating too much candy and not taking naps, the twins (especially Dreyton) were exceptionally entertaining.  Tyler and Amber show up and Dre really starts showing off, tackling Cubby (my Mom's dog) and then running down the hill yelling "I WANT CANDY!"  while at the same time Reagan runs to the trampoline, trips and her ruffles fly over her head.  I guess you had to be there, but none of us could stop laughing

One of my favorite trees. 

Lots of playing in the ditches.

At the gymnastics gym that's part of CD's preschool, they have a gigantic pit full of foam cubes that the gymnasts jump into from a long trampoline or from the bars to practice their flips and stuff.  You can pay a few dollars and let your little ones play too while preschool is in session.  I need some pictures of them flying into the pit from super high.  Cassidy and Reagan liked to just lounge on the foam.  It's funny because they have a hard time getting out of the foam once they jump in, which gives me an excuse to jump in too to "save" them. 

More gymnastics

Woo-hoo!  Potty training....check.  This is the chart I made for Reagan because it was getting too hard to train both at the same time and Reagan seemed more ready, but as soon as Dreyton saw Reagan do it and get to put stickers on the chart, he joined right in and actually did better than Reags.  They still need diapers for night time and sometimes nap time, but it sure feels good to not be filling up quite so many garbage cans with diapers.  And their bathroom talk is hilarious..."I pooped a snake!" (Dreyton). 

Jason took the Young Men from church on a night hike without flashlights and had Carlos and I wear his super-freak masks and hide out in the dense trees to scare them.  It was actually really fun and you know they're scared when they all go completely silent with terror. 

Reagan, eating her giant cookie at Panera looking like she's from the 1700's or something. 

My mom's barn cat had kittens and Dreyton is so smitten and soooooo cute and protective with them.

Rivers did the 4-H fashion review where you design and sew your own outfit, then model it for the judges and in a fashion show for the parents and public at night.  Here she is showing off her completed skirt and shirt that she made. 

May 28th, my hunk of a boy turned 5 years old!  I love this kid so much and wish we could stop time for a while and keep him 5.  I'll put pictures from his Mad Science birthday party up in the next blog, but for now, here's a few cute pics of my fella. 

San Diego and babies

I left off the last post with Christmas, so I'll start this new one with New Year's.  Here's a pic of Rivers, Alissa, and I in our formal dresses to run the midnight race to ring in 2012.  Rivers wore my 8th grade dessert dance dress with the biggest shoulder pads I've ever seen.  This year we tried the race in Eugene instead of Portland.  I kind of missed running along the waterfront in Portland with thousands of other weirdo runners, but the smaller Eugene race was a fun change and went through a park in the dark along a raging river (plus we all appreciated the shorter drive).  I ran with Rivers and can't remember the last time I had so much fun running - love that girl.  Rivers won her age group and was so excited to be called up to get her medal:)  Tyler and Tanner wore tuxedo jackets, running tights and bow ties, and Jason is the only one that braved the 10K.   

Rivers showing the dress is stretchy enough to run in.

The twins playing in the hideout under the bushes that grew to the size of trees.

The look on Dre's face cracks me up. He just wrestled CD down and is quite proud of himself while he holds him down with one hand.  I keep telling CD he better be nice to Dreyton because he's a little toughie and in a couple of years their wrestling matches won't be so one-sided. 

We've gotten snow a couple of times this year too. 

One snow storm was followed by days of non-stop warm rain which melted all the snow and flooded the whole state like crazy.  This was a little ditch that flooded over my Mom's road.  Luckily this was the worst of it for us.  A lot of other people weren't so lucky and even the schools closed because so many roads and houses were flooded. 

Happy Birthday to me!  Carmel Apple Cheesecake from Jillicious......delicious!!!

We have been wanting to get away during the winter and found some great Southwest flights, so we flew the crew to San Diego for a week over my birthday. 

The kids (especially Rivers) LOVE staying in hotels.  Here's Dreyton enjoying the plush pillows.

We apparently went to San Diego during the best weather they had all winter, so we immediately took our white bodies to the swimming pool. 

Then it was off to Legoland, which was surprisingly a lot of fun.  I say surprisingly because we actually liked it more than Disneyland.  I think part of it was because we didn't have to wait in one line and even the little ones could go on almost every ride.  We just ran from one thing to the next and had so much fun.  Here's CD saying "whacka, whacka, what!" one of the 100 times that day.

Darth Vader made all out of Legos

All of those fun rides, and this is what we had to literally pull CD away from. 

Fried apple sticks

Our one group shot from the trip.

For our beach day we went to Coronado Beach

Dwight's face sums up how we all felt....although it wasn't as relaxing for Carlos and I with the twins near the water and always taking off running down the beach.  Dreyton wouldn't even look at the water he was so scared at first because during a quick trip to Pillbox beach by DelMar the day before, he, Reagan, CD, and Carlos got caught by a wave up against a cliff.  It's a narrow beach between the water and the cliffs with nowhere to run away to. 

Races on the beach....trying out the sport mode on the camera.

Pacific Beach

One morning we drove to Pacific Beach and rented bikes to cruise along the boardwalk.  It was one of the highlights of the trip for me (and it was one of the kid's favorite too).  The boardwalk goes right along the beach for miles and in the morning it wasn't too crowded and was the perfect temperature. 

Here I am trying to look as cool as I possibly can cruisin along with a toddler in the back and helmets in the front.  I forgot to bring my sunglasses on the trip but found these in our rental car....I'm old enough to remember when this style of sunglasses was popular the first time around. 

Rivers liked to look at all of the unique houses along the route.

Carlos took the kids for a hike at Torrey Pines Reserve while I ran on all the trails I could find there.  It was pretty, but I have to say it still doesn't come close to the majestic beauty of Pacific Northwest trails. 

I liked this little gem of a staircase through the rock down to the beach though!

Our afternoon at Pillbox beach

We stayed at the Morgan Run resort in the middle of horse country by Del Mar and had so much fun coming back each night around 7pm and going to the hot tub and pool and then using their great little fitness center together.  No one was ever there, so even the little ones got to join in. 

The kids thought it was exceptionally cool that we could order room service to the hot tub:)  Fun, fun little getaway.

After we got back, we signed CD up for TaeKwonDo Karate and it is so funny to watch.  He holds his arms so stiff in front of him that they are shaking.  He takes it all very seriously and I think Carlos is wondering if he did the right thing signing CD up because he is the target for all the new moves he learns.

Dreyton was being so whiny and clingy this day that I ended up digging out my sling and putting him in it so I could use my hands.  It worked like a charm even though he looks way too big for it. 

We had so many nice, sunny days this winter.  Here we are visiting the wetlands a few miles from the house where we sometimes see nutria (they look like a beaver with a rat's tail).

Sometimes I think winter is even prettier than Spring or Summer here because of all the bright green moss on everything.  This is a sidewalk that turned green with soft moss! 

This is why everyone should have a twin....

The girls visiting Jillicious Bakeshop for the best hot chocolate I've ever tasted and goodies.  Notice the two about to pop.  Whitney and Amber were actually due on the same day!

We kept waiting for the babies to arrive, but Valentines came before they did.  This year we melted crayon pieces in heart shape molds to make these heart crayons.  CD and Rivers had so much fun with it (okay I really liked seeing the designs the melted crayons made too). 

Rivers' heart hair on V-day!

Off to preschool with his Valentines.  Such a great kid.  His preschool teacher told me today that he has such a great spirit about him:)

Finally, Warren Tanner arrived to Whitney and Cody on February 15th.  Such a cute, good baby....and so fun to see how much my kids adore him.  CD could not stop smiling.

And a week later, big boy Riggins Baylor arrived and gave us even more to smile about!

Good job Tyler and Amber!