2 birthdays and a new house

A couple weeks before this dude turned 5 we moved into a cute, old farmhouse with the most beautiful view around.  It was kind of chilly one night so we found the mugs and hot chocolate amongst the boxes. 

....and got our big old couch along with everything else out of storage (it was like Christmas for the kids getting all their toys out of storage that they haven't seen in 1 1/2 years - I should lock their toys away more often so they appreciate them more). 

Here is a shot of the view from the back deck.  I always catch the kids just jumping and looking off into the sunset:).  Oh, and I am in love with the cute, red barn. 

CD is my baker/chef boy.  He insists on helping me make dinner every night and was excited when we unpacked this kids baking stuff.  He whipped up some cheddar and olive biscuits.

For his 5th birthday party I reverted to my inner chemistry nerd and turned into a mad scientist.

We made lava lamps (oil, water, food coloring - then drop broken up pieces of alka seltzer into the bottle - very cool!), elephant toothpaste (peroxide, food coloring, dish soap, yeast in a bottle - toothpaste looking stuff starts pouring out of the top), Flubber for everyone to take home, swirling colors of milk (whole milk on a plate with drops of food coloring, touch it with a q-tip with dish soap on it and the colors dart all over the milk), we put ivory soap in the microwave (just try it - got the best kid reaction from that one), tornado bottles, and the only dud experiment was the exploding sandwich bags (I should have used stronger ziploc bags instead of the cheap brand).  Sent kids home with flubber, composition notebooks, pencils, and compass' and our new 5 year old was happy.

As far as Carlos is concerned, a party isn't a party without a pinata either, so CD picked out a kickin' Monster Truck one (which he's very into these days) and we went through the line at least 3 times before it finally broke. 

I made a karate cake as requested

My cute Dwight likes his long locks to be combed a certain way and likes to make them completely smooth.

Have I mentioned I love our backyard view?

Diana, Whitney and I had another successful season of coaching the Timberhill Harrier youth track and field team and this year our group swelled from 14 kids to 38!  Here are most of them before our practice meet.

Cousins in the exchange zone

Lookin smooth

One night we went out in the tall grass in the little orchard (2 apple trees) and had fun until way after dark.

After Rivers' style review fashion show

 Reagan is such a shopper already (which I am not).  This is arguably the best toy store ever and Reagan was loading up her cart. 

 And there's always lots of playing in the ditches and fields of flowers. 

 I got CD some work gloves his size and it was the best purchase I ever made because now he wants to help with all the outside work so he can use his gloves.

Something I've been very excited about lately is my new mountain bike from my Mom.  Whitney and I initiated it in the mud of Decker Rd. (should have taken a picture on the wild trails) and it has been so much fun.  Whitney and I agreed that we're glad no one can see our faces as we fly down the trails because we have huge, crazy smiles on our faces.

 Here are Amber and Whit at the top of Dimple Hill.  This was a super duper ride too and we want to start a girls mountain biking group.

Summer life is good buzzing around the farm in this (Cassidy's new toy).

 Cozied up and ready to watch Dora

I could hear Dreyton playing next to this tree in a little fort while I was in the garden so I wasn't worried, until I went to check on him and he had climbed so far up this tree that I could barely see him.  Can you spot him?  I freaked and tried to climb up to get him, but there were so many branches I couldn't make it to him, so I climbed half way up and had to watch him make his way down, hoping he wouldn't fall.  Even when he got to me he wouldn't let me help him one bit.

 For Carlos and I's 12th Anniversary I went golfing with him.  I'm not really into the sport but figured that would be a nice thing to do since he loves it.  It was fun just hanging out with him and driving the cart around.

Then we went to the best place in the world (no joke) for dinner and it is just a couple miles down the road from us.  It's called Gathering Together Farms and they organically grow everything they serve and you can seriously taste the freshness.   Mmmm, Mmmmm  good.

Just another day in paradise

Here's my cute baker boy again.

Rivers did a kids triathlon in May.  Here she is being tough in the pool....

 ...on the bike (smiling)

 ....and running it in.

 Whitney and I accidentally dress alike about 75% of the time when we meet to go running.  People already get us confused and think we're twins, so it's kind of embarrassing and funny that we show up matching so much.

 When Amber asked what she should get CD for his birthday, I asked him what he's into right now and his response was "Monster Trucks......and dinosaurs".  So, she pulled out her old monster truck cut-off she wore to a white trash party and gave it to him and he rocked it.  Love that handsome face!

We celebrated Rivers' 10th birthday a little bit early with her friends since we were going to be gone on her real birthday.  Like usual she planned her party and wanted to hike to the top of Bald Hill, have a picnic and then go to her Oma's house to play night games.  Here is the whole crew at the top.  Carlos had to force the boys to get in the picture with the girls.  Such a funny age. 

Cute cousins looking sharp at church

 In the midst of all this birthday planning, moving, end of the school year stuff, I also had to submit my thesis and study for my 3 hour oral exam to finally finish up graduate school.  I was up many, many late nights and early mornings to get things done while the kids were asleep and this was the day after I took my exams.  I felt like I was running on adrenaline for a couple of weeks and finally crashed. 

Oh yeah....T-ball.  As a fielder CD would sprint to wherever the ball was hit and tackle his own teammates to get the ball.  He was proud of himself for "stealing" the ball.  We had to go over the rules with him.

Since we sold our dining table last time we moved and haven't gotten a new one yet, the kids like to eat dinner on the trampoline.  Makes clean up easy. 

 It took me 2 days to get our huge dandelion infested, super tall lawn mowed. 

During a little hike, Dreyton just couldn't resist running off the path and flopping into the tall grass.  Reminds me of myself as a youngster. 

 Rivers waiting for the bus on the last day of school

 End of school party at our friend's beautiful backyard, complete with bounce houses....

..and cotton candy (and lots of other fun stuff).

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.