The Harris Family

Christmas 2011

2012-01-03T22:51:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas holidays were very busy, but really lovely. These wee gorgeouses are just growing too fast for my liking. But it was so wonderful seeing their wee curious eyes light up as they gazed at their big brothers who were going bonkers over the excitement of all the Christmas festivities!

Olive is truly the sweetest wee girl.

And Penelope, you are pure dynamite I tell you!

A rare picture of me with both my girlies. And once again I look flippin' exhausted. One day I hope to look half decent and not utterly disheveled.

We had Ryan's parents(who drove from Wyoming), his brother Mitch (who had flown in from Florida), and Callie and her husband, Josh, with us for the weekend. We started off with a new tradition I stole from a lady at church on Christmas Eve, a "Shepherd's dinner". We laid a blanket out in the living room, read the scriptures that told of the shepherds on the eve of Christ's birth and the ate basic finger foods which may, or may not, have been kinda similar to the foods that shepherds might have eaten whilst in the fields. It was a lot of fun and Jack and Peter really got into it, so I fully intend on continuing it every year. Jack couldn't get over the fact it was like we were having a picnic but inside!

After the dinner and chocolate mousse (that was a success this year!), we let the boys open their p.j's and get into them before we headed out to look at Christmas lights in the fancy neighborhoods. Peter got spiderman jammies and Jack got Batman ones that were unfortunately a tad too big. He got pretty upset about it, but after a wash they aren't that bad at all.

Christmas morning wee dearest Penny decided that she was going to wake up at 5:30am and she wasn't in the slightest bit interested in going back to bed. Since I knew we'd have a lot of adults trying to get in the shower in a few hours before Church, I decided that since we were up I best just get myself ready. A couple of hours later the boys were awake and a few of us gathered in the boys bedroom before going upstairs to see what Santa had brought.

Both boys were spoiled and got really nice presents from Santa, family, and friends. Their big presents were a bike and a scooter. It was a chaotic morning, and I really loved taking a wee break and heading out to church for an hour to get away from the madness and focus on the most important part of why we were celebrating.

The dinner turned out delicious with some help from Liz. We had a honey glazed ham, brussel sprouts, roast potatoes, rolls, wee sausages wrapped in bacon, stuffing, and sparkling apple cider. I felt very homesick throughout the day and wished so badly that I could have been with my family too...I hope to go over one year for Christmas, it's been 7 years since I've spent it with them.

Ryan and uncle Mitch took the boys outside for a few minutes to try out their new pressies...Jack fell off his bike almost immediately and started crying that he would never go back on it EVER again. Thankfully that lasted about a minute and then he was back on riding to his hearts content. Peter even got a wee shot too.

And here are my wee lovelies in their new dresses that cousin, Madeline, sent over in the wonderful Christmas crackers she made for us. So beautiful.

A wee photo of all of us...I know Pete is t-shirtless and I should have put one on him, but this is how he runs around most nights and I want to remember that about him :)

And lastly, Ryan reading Each Peach Pear Plum to the wee ones before bed, I should have tried to squeeze Penny in there too.

Nov/Dec 2011

2011-12-20T20:46:00.000-08:00

Usually we go and cut our own Christmas tree down; I do really love this tradition. However, with the babies having a wee bit of a cold and life being generally chaotic we opted this year to get one from a boy-scout troop that was selling them by the side of the main road. We'll resume the tradition next year. We payed a little more than we normally do when we cut it ourselves, but really it was still VERY cheap and the tree is quite beautiful. I justified spending a little more in knowing the money was going to a good cause.

We also started the tradition of getting our tree the day after Thanksgiving. This may be a little early for some, but really I just can't get enough of a Christmas tree and all the gorgeous wee sparkly lights, so the longer we can have it up the better! This year Liz drove out from Wyoming to spend Thanksgiving with us...she was actually here last year too. Chris had to work the day after and so it didn't seem worth it for him to come. The boys absolutely loved decorating the tree, although Peter got a wee bit crazy and kept taking the baubles off to then re-put them back on..and off and on again.

After Ryan helped Jack top the tree off with the star, we attempted to take some family pics in front of the tree for the calendar I make every year. It was a bit of a nightmare. We ended the night keeping up Ryan's family's tradition of eating donuts and having hot chocolate..completely delish.

My mum sent the boys 2 Advent calendars each! Lucky devils. They have been in chocolate heaven every morning after finishing their breakfast at lightening speed as to get to their chocolate faster. We also have a felt one I purchased from a friend of mine in our ward who makes them. The wee ones can hardly contain themselves as they count down the days. Jack is way more excited than ever and very concerned that the elves might be watching and tell Santa if he isn't behaving. Unfortunately, he still fights with his brother. It only after he's got a few good punches in that he starts to panic slightly that Santa might find out.

We went to Ryan's work party on the 3rd. It's always at the Lake Oswego golf club, which is pretty fancy. The food is incredible and Santa pays a visit giving all the kiddos a really nice gift. In previous years Ryan has asked Jack a month ahead of time if he's going to sit on Santa's knee. Of course, like the vast majority of children Jack has always been terrified and wouldn't go near him. We didn't push him at all and either Ryan or myself would collect his gift. This year Ryan again asked if Jack was planning on sitting with Santa to receive his gift. Jack was adamant that he wouldn't be sitting, but that he would go up and collect it. That seemed like huge progress to me! After watching a few older children sit with Santa, Jack seemed to be getting nervous that Santa had forgotten about him. He suddenly stood up and starting raising his hand and trying to make eye contact with Santa to let him know he was still waiting..it was so funny.

Then Peter's name was called. Ryan and I could not believe our eyes when we saw Pete literally launch himself right onto Santa's knee. He only stayed for about a second...long enough to claim his gift and then he was off-ski! It was hysterical. Jack was called next and guess what?! He also thew himself onto Santa's knee! I guess he wasn't to be outdone by his wee brother! They both got great batman toys and immediately wanted to go home right away after Santa left:)

The babies turned 4 months on Dec.19th . They look so big to me and Penelope is rolling all over the place....Olive not as much, but she's getting there. She's way more mellow and relaxed, but that's how peter started out and he's crazy now. They are lovely wee smilers and started laughing just yesterday too. They're pretty great.

Dear Penelope

2011-11-18T23:02:00.000-08:00

Bebe girl, I am crazy about you! You are such a dainty wee thing, weighing a pound less than your sister at 11 lbs 11 oz and measuring 22 1/2 inches in length. You are very fond of your twin sister. Sometimes when you are crying in your cot at bedtime, simply placing olive a wee bit closer to you so you can touch her silences you immediately. It's one of my favourite things seeing you both sleeping side by side, breathing softly together. Unfortunately, you are still not the greatest sleeper at bedtime, but you are definitely improving and managed to stay in your own bed last night for a record 6 hrs. Usually you wake around 4am and spend the rest of the morn snuggled next to me feeding a little. I do treasure those little moments when I get to spend one on one time with each of you wee girlies.

I often call you my little madam because you are very strong-willed Missy. No tears, just full on screaming when your patience has run out. Your big brother, Jack, is really wonderful at comforting you. He sings lovely lullaby's and rocks you gently. He calls you his baby because we tell him how much you look like him. But generally you are the happiest baby around, bar your sis of course. I am constantly telling your brothers and dad to look at your beautiful wee smile; I can't believe how cheery you are.

You are very strong; both your wee neck and your legs...I feel like I'm barely holding you up half the time. It's your fav to be up on my shoulder checking everything out. In fact the other day we sat you in the bumbo next to us at the dinner table and I have never seen your wee eyes so wide! Just taking it all in. I have a suspicion that you may be an early walker like your brothers.

You smile the biggest when you are gazing at the fan in our living room, your new cute nickname is Elope thanks to big brother Pete, and relaxing in one of the baby swings lulls you to sleep within minutes.

I sure adore you sweet babe.

Love you,

Mum. x

Dear olive

2011-11-18T19:55:00.001-08:00

oh my wee lovely one, I can't tell you how much I simply adore you already. I can't control myself when it comes to those delicious cheeks of yours. At your 2 month mark you were a whopping 12 lbs 11 oz and 23 inches long, but I'm sure you've already piled the pounds on since then and unbelievably you'll be 3 months tomorrow! Stop growing so fast little beauty! I really love getting to know you; learning all your little habits and quirks.

Your good dear friend is Waterhouse's Lady of Shalott. She hangs on our living room wall and every time you are any where near her your whole face lights up and you can't stop grinning. It's very funny. Another wee pal of yours is your big brother Peter, interestingly enough you are his mini female lookalike. He really enjoys rubbing his head on your belly and although you get a slightly nervous, scared kinda look for a second, you get a pretty big smile on your face when he lifts his head and kisses your cheek.

You are a wonderful sleeper. The first and beginning of the second month you slept for about 4-5 hrs at a time during the night and now you are out for a full 8-9 hrs...it's incredible. Thank you darling!

Eating is very important to you, which is very clear from those little chunky rolls of yours. You gnaw on your wee fist to get my attention for a feeding and even though you are definitely the more mellow twinnie, you are getting a lot more vocal and wriggly. You are very content and happy sitting with Daddy in the rocker, conk out in a minute when you're in the car, love snuggling with me in my bed after you wake up each morning and you are a big time grunter! Granny always knows when I'm holding you when I talk to her on the phone, that's how loud you are!

I love watching you grow baby A, you smell so sweet.

Love you,

Mum x

Dear Peter

2011-11-17T15:31:00.000-08:00

You are one very independent 2 year old Mr! You have me ready to pull my hair out one minute and then laughing hysterically the next. What a wee nutter you are. I'm pretty sure you're a wee genius too though, hehe. You are a brilliant talker already and your vocabulary is growing everyday. Granny in Scotland is already amazed at how much clearer your words are and how much better your sentence structure is since she was here in September. I'd have to agree. Life is sometimes easier now that I know exactly what you're saying, but wee man...you are a handful too for that same reason!

You became a big brother to two lovely wee girls that you completely adore just 3 months ago and I'd say you took all the change rather well. There were a few times when you were a tad jealous and told me I was not allowed to feed the babies, but you really love to hold them and walk around singing, "olivepenny, olivepenny", strung together like it's one name...pretty cute. If you don't say "penny", you say "Elope", which I just adore.

Phoning Granny in Scotland to talk to her about "Spidiman" and "Vedom" (we all get a laugh out of how you say them, especially Gandpa McArthur) is a favourite activity of yours. I'm pretty sure Granny loves it too. You dress up as Spiderman a lot and have a fistful of action figures with you most the day. You refuse to go to sleep without all the spidermen on the dresser by your bed...it's a wee bit of an obsession. In fact, Sister Osborne at church, who adores you and you her, keeps Spiderman toys aside until you arrive at nursery! How nice is she?!

Jack is your favourite person in the world, but you're kinda into wrestling and fighting with him too; it's a love/hate relationship. I'm not really sure who you play with consistently at church, maybe no one at this age, but you have wee play dates with Zeke O'Brien occasionally and you really love Joey, Haylee and Katie Stock.

You know almost all the letters of the alphabet and can count to 12 before getting lost in the teens. Jack's favourite colour is green, so you decided blue was yours. You are really fond of Ranch dressing, ketchup and McDonalds...great, I know, a proud mummy moment. But what I love about you is that, unlike Jack, you will eat all your veggies and never complain about any food I make...you eat anything and everything and usually store it in your cheeks while you take another bite.

Colouring all over the kitchen table, window sills and windows with crayons is a frequent find when I nurse your baby sisters and Jack has left his crayons out, but you always say sorry in the sweetest wee voice that it's hard to stay too mad.

Jack may be the double of your Dad as a wee boy, but you are the double of him as he is now! I love it.

You are so loved Petey Pie,

Mum x

Dear Jack

2011-11-04T17:46:00.000-07:00

Just a wee note to record a bit about you at this ripe old age of 4...hehe. I say that because lately you've been getting a little bit annoyed at me when I try and explain anything to you. Your favourite one liner is "I know Mum! I'm the big brother remember?!" Hmmm, cheeky :)

You are a wonderful big brother,Jack. Can you believe you have 3 younger siblings already?! Because I can't. I still think of you as such a wee thing and then I look at you and I'm blown away by how big you are getting. According to your "Incredible Hulk" measuring chart you are 3 feet 6" tall and you weigh 38 pounds. Nice growing!

You were fairly obsessed with Sharks a while back and are still a complete pro when it comes to naming the different species. I'll need to test you again,but I think you know at least 20 or so. Your memory for things that interest you is incredible. But when you aren't interested you sometimes have a difficult time concentrating and staying focused..I'd say that's fairly normal though,right?

Presently, you are super hero mad! Batman, Spiderman,Captain America, Wolverine, the Ninja Turtles....you like them all, but those are a few of your super favs.

Your best friends are Peter and Joey Stock. You are friends with Carson Shewell and Ruth Dalton too. You go to Joey's a couple times a week and have loads of fun,even more when Haylee(Joey's big sister) gets home. In fact, you told me yesterday you wished you had a big sister like her. Cute.

You love to draw and colour,especially after the Sacrament is passed at church. I really like the pictures you draw of your baby sisters. You participated in your first primary presentation last month and you made me so very proud. Your part, that you had memorized was, "being confirmed and receiving the Holy Ghost." I loved every minute of watching you up there, it was really special for me.

You make fantastic forts with the cushions from our couch, your lego spaceships are sensational, holding olive and penelope brings an enormous smile to your face, and giving your dad "squeeze hugs" are a favourite part of your bedtime routine.

Your favourite food is spaghetti, but you enjoy a tasty chicken leg (or chicken on a stick, as you call it) and a sweet pickle very much too.

You think I'm super rich and want me to buy you every toy at the "red store" (Target). You love going there to persue the toy aisles.

Thank you for being patient with Peter. He is still really struggling with learning to share, but you let him play with your toys and share more than I know you'd like.

You are much more independent since I had your twin sisters and I am so proud of the great helper you've become too. You are a sweet and very sensitive wee boy, Jack, and your Dad says you really remind him of how he was as a little boy. You look just like he did when he was wee too, that's a very good thing!

I love you,

Mum. x

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T21:44:00.000-07:00

I love Halloween, and this year has been one of the most enjoyable as my wee ones have been literally counting down the days till it arrived. For that same reason it's also made October feel really long, so I'm happy the end is nigh.

We attended our ward's "trunk or treat" on Saturday night, except there wasn't a "trunk" in sight as we had it indoors...that's what happens when you live in Oregon, better safe than sorry!

It was a little chaotic at times and many people told me I was brave for bringing the babies along, but I'm trying to get over my fear of having all the children out at the same time. Plus it wasn't like I was alone anyway, Ryan was with us.

I had planned on buying the babies a costume, but when I thought about the cost for just 2 nights wear I just couldn't do it....I'll need to make them some thing in the future, although I guarantee that probably won't happen. So they wore the boys old costumes. Penny wore Peter's pumpkin outfit from his 1st Halloween and olive wore Jack's crocodile suit. They looked plenty cute.

There was a dinner, a small costume parade and then the kids walked around the church, either getting sweeties from some one in the hall or entering one of the rooms people had signed up to decorate. Peter couldn't believe his luck when he realized all he had to do was say "trick or treat" and he'd get a delicious sweet in his bag...so he was running up to just about anyone he could find to see it if worked. That boy is an absolute chocoholic!

Ryan sitting in the "sweetie distribution" zone. A little bit of a downgrade from the extra comfy chair he had last year.

Ryan's favourite costume he saw was "Mr.T", wee Isaac McGillvery. He was pretty great.

Then tonight I made us a yummy sausage and vegie stew with rolls before we all got dressed up again for trick or treating in our neighbourhood. Jack was right into answering the door when the kids came and giving them a sweetie. He probably wouldn't have cared if he'd just stayed home doing that all night. He kept saying, "nice costume", and "happy halloween" to the folks, it was cute to watch.

I headed out with just Jack and Peter while Ryan

stayed home with the babies. It was a fairly cold night and neither of the boys cared to stay out too long, but we still hit about 12 or so houses. They were more than content with their loot.

I asked Jack if he'd remembered to say "thank you" at this house and he ran back to say it just as the girl was closing the door, she loved it.

And the poor babes....they've been fussy all day today, don't know what's been going on with them, but Penelope was livid that I was taking this pic and not holding her instead. I'm a bad mum.

But then suddenly she decided to cheer right up! Ha.

Our October 2011

2011-10-25T22:51:00.000-07:00

The babies are 2 months now. Peter is 2 and Jack is 4. I would have to say that Pete makes life the most trying at the moment.

He is so lovable, but extremely strong-willed and stubborn. It's been tough keeping up with him; I know he's struggling a little with having to share me and I'm working on being more patient and understanding. But, heavens, that kid knows how to drive me crazy...good thing he's gorgeous; I love those big eyes.

Jack is a great helper; they both are actually. In fact, they usually end up fighting about who gets to help me with something...that's when I can say, "Guys, we have two babies, so you can both get me a nappy!" And then they're happy.

I do feel like I'm finding myself again and coming out of the initial "haze", but life is very different with four small children and I'm still adjusting. What's amazing to me, however, is that I think I still want another wee one in a few years, so if I'm saying that things can't be that bad, right?! haha.

I absolutely adore having wee girls. And I love that they have such wonderful big brothers that adore them too.

Jack has been really into drawing and painting lately. He used to hate drawing, never had the patience for it...he was too busy and couldn't sit still. Now that's almost all he wants to do. He likes to draw people in love and different people holding the babies. He draws Ryan and I and some of his friend's parents. He's very sweet about it. However, he stresses to me that HE will not be getting married EVER! And literally had a melt-down when I suggested that he might change his mind one day.

Today as Jack was leaving the room he said, "mum, don't let anyone touch my toys, but it's ok if Peter does because he's the best." I about fell over! How lovely. Best friends one minute and arch enemies the next I tell you.

The babies are getting so big with plenty of chubby layers of fat on their wee arms and legs, I can't stand how cute they are. They have their 2 month appt. on Nov.1st, so we'll see how much they've grown then. I'm already missing my wee tiny babies, but they are still so small and I'm loving this stage too. They recognize and smile at me a lot and it's the best feeling ever.

My friend, Val, and I took the kids to Bauman's farm on Wednesday last week. We had such a brilliant time that we went back there again on Saturday with Ryan, Callie, and Josh. The apple cider doughnuts and apple cider juice were to die for. I'm contemplating going back again before they take all the halloween stuff down...it was that good. Oh, and the boys loved it too. hehe.

Peter, Joey, Jack, and Katie

Callie, Peter, Jack, and Josh

Leigh, Peter, Jack, and Ryan

Blessing the babes

2011-10-04T15:36:00.000-07:00

Sunday, September 18th, we blessed the babies. My parents were over for two weeks (Sep.6th-21st) so we broke the "traditional" first Sunday of the month blessing day. I've noticed that at home in Scotland most people avoid blessing babies on testimony Sunday these days...I guess they don't want their non-member family members being exposed to some of the unusual testimonies...ha! Terrible though, testimony Sunday is great..hehe.

We didn't expect Ryan's parents to come as they had just barely moved (YET AGAIN!) to Casper,Wyoming,for a new job. But they shocked us and said they were going to drive all night to be there...18 hours! Ryan's wee sister, Rachel and her new husband, Logan, also drove a distance of 10 hours from Fallon, Nevada, to attend (we hadn't seen them since before they got married). It was really nice having everyone there. Unfortunately, Callie's husband, Josh, had Army drill, so that's why he's missing.

And, yeah, my boys NEVER stay still...this was the best family shot. At least Peter's looking at the camera.

The men that participated in the blessing were Logan, my father in-law,Chris, Ryan, and my Dad, Alan. (Missing is Ted Stock, a good friend of ours from the ward).

My wee darlings looked so beautiful, Ryan's mum made their dresses and headbands.

Ryan's parents, Chris and Liz, with the twins.

And my parents, Alan and Margaret. I loved that they were able to be there so soon after the birth...my mum was the best help and I needed her so badly during those first few weeks, I still do. Some days I don't cope very well.

The twins slept during their beautiful blessings and for

all the pics...it was great.

And the wild, but handsome big brothers, who sat quietly during the blessings, but were very animated and chatty through the rest of sacrament..boy, they loved all the attention they got from all the family present.

Dearest wee olive and penelope, we are so lucky to be your mummy and daddy, we love you both more than words can say.

Note: There was a funny, but awkward moment when Ryan and I went to trade babies after olive was blessed...we both looked at each other like, uh...how do we do this? Made one attempt, failed, and then managed. Lots of smiles and some laughter from the congregation. Slightly embarrassing :)

My newest babes

2011-09-11T14:29:00.000-07:00

I'm 3 weeks and 2 days late in announcing the birth of my newest babes here on my blog. That's ok though, since everyone that reads this already knows anyway.

Here is our little, olive Isabel. She is the older sister by 20 minutes, and weighed 6lbs 10 oz. She was the mellow 'Twin A' inside my tummy and still is for the most part, but can have a fairly feisty wee personality when she's hungry or looking for 'a hold'.

My wee breach baby, Penelope Anne,was 6lbs 13oz and it took that full 20 mins to turn her(which was pretty amazing) and push her out. She came out as perfectly beautiful as her big sister despite all the maneuvering. She is really quite demanding when it comes to the serious business of eating and is extremely vocal about letting me know when she's ready.

They are just as lovely as can be when they sleep side by side like this...

And even though I completely hate how I look in this picture, I kinda love it too....simply because it shows how bloomin' tired I was in the first few days after bringing the twins home. oh, wait, I'm still super tired...but thankfully not quite this bad. This will be a "nice" reminder of the beginning of my whole new life as a mum of four wee ones under the age of four...my life is happy chaos.

Time to come out!

2011-08-16T15:38:00.000-07:00

If our two new wee girls haven't arrived all by themselves come the early hours of Friday, August 19th........at 6am that morning Ryan and I will be headed to the labour and delivery ward at Providence Hospital here in Newberg, where they will be forced to come out! ha.

I may laugh, but I'm terrified....and excited.

Back with names and all (well maybe not ALL) the details soon-ish!

35 Down

2011-07-25T16:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I reached 35 weeks along in my pregnancy with our wee twin girls. I feel pretty happy about how things have gone thus far. I expected to be fairly miserable by now and be begging my doctor to help speed things along. I had a horrible fear of having to be on bed rest for a month or so. I was terrified that my tummy would be so enormous that I would have tons of stretch marks (how vain of me). I have had a few crying episodes when I think about all that is to come, but I thought I'd be way more panicked that I actually am. So with a few contractions, some aches and pains, a couple of small stretch marks, and a tight/compact belly with an 'outty' belly button, I feel alright and ever so happy to have made it this far.To be perfectly honest, I have a feeling the wee girls aren't in any hurry to come out either. I feel like I could go all the way to 40 weeks, but maybe I'm completely wrong.

I had hoped and still cling to the hope that I will be able to have a regular delivery, but as of right now baby 'A' is breach and if she doesn't turn I'll be looking at having a c-section. I scared myself and watched a c-section twin birth a few months ago. It really wasn't all that bad, but I was so nervous at the thought of having a long recovery with four wee children to take care of...goodness it's overwhelming to think of at times.

But my lovely Doctor continues to remind me each time I get that 'nervous look' on my face when he brings it up, that we are only doing what is necessary to get the babies out safely. I pray that wee baby 'A' will turn daily, but if it's not going to happen then I know we're doing what's best.

We bought a Honda Odyssey a few weeks ago to accommodate our growing family.....and I LOVE it. Hilariously enough Ryan really likes it as well (although he will never admit just how much he likes it because it's a minivan). It is much nicer than our other cars though, so who can blame him. He's already on the search for a new snazzy car for himself now because we have so much money left. NOT.

Jack is anxious for the babies to come and insists on calling them 'shark 1' and 'shark 2'....slightly obsessed with sharks? Indeed. It is very sweet though listening to him jabber on about how the babies "really ought to come out now." I can only imagine the pregnancy has seemed like an eternity to him. Peter kisses my tummy A LOT and tells me "You have babies." I'm interested to see how he will react to their arrival. I'm so in love with him right now....he totally potty trained himself. It makes up for the delightful 2 yr old temper tantrums he's been having lately.

Ryan still looks like a deer in the head-lights every now and then when people mention the babies arrival , but I know we'll struggle through and enjoy it together.

p.s. Still working on narrowing down our 'names list' so if you have anything lovely that you want to suggest let me know....so long as you don't care if I steal it.

A late Birthday post

2011-06-30T21:22:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to get around to this post for a while but my dear sweet Peter pulled a few of the keys off the laptop I use making it near impossible to type anything. I got a hold of Ryan's for a wee while to get this written.

The wee ones birthday always seems to last a week or more. They get gifts sent from abroad which don't always arrive right on time....of course they love that, and then I've had a birthday party for them the last two years that have been a few days after their actual birthday bringing in more gifts. The morning of their birthday we had two of Jack's wee

friend's over for an hour or so. The boys had fun but we kept things pretty low key that day as we had the party coming on Saturday (18th). We took them out for ice cream in the evening after dinner and they were more than content with that.

I had planned on keeping the party fairly simple, but I ended up inviting quite a few kids from the ward and I was so happy I had only set the party for an hour long. That was MORE than enough time. Even with the help of Ryan, my sister, Amy, who has been here visiting for a few weeks, and Ryan's sister, Callie, and her husband, Josh, I was still grateful it was a short party. It was an hour of fun chaos.

We played "pin the fin on the shark", musical statues (which the kids LOVED), and pass the parcel. Then we sang 'Happy Birthday' and handed out ice lollies and ice cream.

I kinda felt bad afterwards that I didn't dish out the cake, but my boys are even all that fond of cake and none of the kids seemed bothered at all about it either. It was just so hard to cut into it as I'd only finished making it about half an hour before everyone arrived.

After the kids left we all headed out to Red Robin for dinner.

Poor wee Pete hadn't had a nap and was completely wiped. He fell asleep on the ride to the restaurant and would't wake up no matter how hard I tried for a good 45 mins.

Callie and Josh left shortly after dinner and we dug into the cake.

It was a long day and I was completely exhausted....I'm kinda grateful that they share the same birthday, it's nice to get it all over and done with in one go. And I'll be able to do the same for the girls too I guess.

As far as the pregnancy goes things are going pretty well. I'm down to having appointments every two weeks now. It's been great having my sister here to watch the wee ones for me. I get to take a nap almost every day for a hour or two. She leaves on the 6th July and then the following day my mother-in-law comes to stay with us until the 2nd August. She'll go out to Reno for Ryan's sister's wedding, which is on the 13th Aug. and then be back to help out again. Who knows if the babies will be here by then or not. I've got another ultrasound next week to see the position of the babies and check their weight. I've been scaring myself a little by watching videos of twin birth c-sections. I know I won't have any option if baby 'A' isn't head down, but I am praying I won't have to go down that road...to me it just sounds scary having to spend more time recovering myself when I have 4 wee kids to look after.

Anyway, time in flying in and before I know it the girls will be here.

On our list of things to do still:

-Buy a new car that can hold us all! AND figure out what we are going to name these new

additions.

On a VERY happy final note. Peter decided to start potty training himself on Tuesday. I was skeptical that it was the real deal and didn't want to get my hopes up, but so far we have gone 3 days with 3 tiny accidents. He even went to the bathroom in two different public places yesterday...it's been quite amazing. A major blessing actually.

28 weeks

2011-06-08T12:44:00.001-07:00

Despite my urge and desire to keep things busy for the wee ones, especially during the nice weather, things are definitely starting to slow down around here. Last week after pushing myself a little too much I started having contractions that were only a few minutes apart. I was so worried and scared; I barely reached 28 weeks on Sunday. The last thing I want is to have these babies earlier than is already expected. After speaking with a nurse, who contacted the 'on-call' doctor, I was told to sit down and hardly move for the remainder of the night. They didn't want my body to establish a pattern that they couldn't stop. Luckily, I was fine for the rest of the night and only had a little bit of pressure. I headed into the doctor the following morning and although I was slightly effaced, I hadn't dilated at all. Good news. I was told I didn't need to go on bed rest, but I shouldn't be standing for more than 10-15 mins at a time. And to be honest, I can hardly do that anyway these days....I get exhausted so easily.

(I'm glad these wee guys like to dress up like superheros so often...it makes life easier when I want to have a lazy day at home.)

Saturday was just lovely. Some wonderful friends from my ward threw a baby shower for me. It was very personal and special. My friend, Val, had contacted my family and asked them for some info on me as a baby. It was so surprising to see the gorgeous picture my mum had sent of me as a baby with my parents, and just great fun listening to the stories she had sent about me too.

My mum had also sent a ton of chocolate for the shower, which was just amazing! I loved every minute of it.

(This is one of the girl's blessing dresses...my mother in-law made it, but I had my RS president add some lace around the hem.)

(And my friend, Anne, made a very pretty nappy cake (diaper), with lovely flower hair clasps on it.)

My sister, Amy, is coming to stay with us next Monday for a few weeks and then my mother- in-law will come the day after she leaves. I was starting to think my mum was over reacting a wee bit by sending my sister to help me this soon as I've been feeling fine since last week, but on Monday after going to target to run some errands I started having contractions again. I think it put me in my place....I am definitely SLOWING way down from here on out.

A birthday, mother's day, and 25 weeks along.

2011-05-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

A little after Easter the wee ones received a package each from my parents. The amount of chocolate inside was ridiculous! But I have enjoyed stealing some every now and then.

Granny knows Jack's great love for sharks, so he got a diver with cage, and a new great white...hours of entertainment..yuuusss! Peter got a bunch of winnie the pooh toys, he's a big fan.

I was craving a Cafe Rio pork salad 2 weeks ago. After doing some research through a few different recipe blogs I found a copy cat recipe that claimed to be the best. It was amazing if I do say so myself....particularly the ranch dressing. I felt pretty proud.

This picture may be a little silly to show, but a few weeks ago it was my turn to teach the preschool co-op Jack is involved in with some friends from church. I was teaching the kids about different baby animals and focused on pigs. I had the best time making each of them a wee piglet

to take home. I love how cute the piggies are together.

Mother's Day

It was Mother's Day here in the States on May 8th. It was a rough morning with the wee ones (they did not want to wear their church clothes), but it immediately got

better when Jack wasn't too scared to go up with the other kids during sacrament and sing, "Mother I love you". He swayed to the music and kinda got in the way of the wee boy next to him unfortunately, but I was so pleased that he knew all the words. I've been singing that song to him every night since the beginning of April so I was glad to see that it had payed off.

Tuesday the 10th, was my 29th birthday. I'm already feeling nervous for next years big 30. It was a very relaxing and glorious sun-shiny day. I feel very grateful for the wonderful friendships I've made in this ward. All day I had different

members stop by with flowers, fabulous gift cards!, cakes, chocolate goodies, balloons, and more. I felt very spoiled and loved. Ryan and I were able to have dinner BY OURSELVES that evening, thanks to some dear friends who watched the wee ones. It really was a lovely day.

On Saturday morning my good friend organized a birthday brunch at this stunning restaurant, Gracie's. It was by far the best breakfast I have ever eaten....I don't know why I didn't take a picture. I had the Benedicts topped with hollandaise, blackstone bacon and warm tomato slices...incredible. We are planning on returning to try their dinner or better yet, dessert menu.

Lastly, I'm 25 weeks now and feeling a lot more tired these days. I try and rest for a little while each day when Peter is taking a nap. Jack doesn't always make it easy, but he is pretty good about being quiet. At my last appointment, a week ago, I had my glucose test. I failed this test with both boys the first time and then passed after the 3 hour blood draw. I haven't heard anything from the doctor's office yet, so I am REALLY hoping that no news is good news.

A dream

2011-05-05T17:22:00.000-07:00

A property manager sent this in an email to Ryan and it made me smile. Course, ours aren't identical or boys, but it's funny none the less.

How Twins Are Made

Last night I had my first dream about the babies. It was so realistic, I almost expected to see them when I woke up this morning. In the dream I was trying to nurse them both at the same time and having a right time of it! I could not for the life of me do it and I kept busting up laughing just looking at them both trying to latch on. Good grief...what a riot this will be.

Easter Weekend

2011-04-25T15:09:00.001-07:00

My boys had a great day on Friday.....or maybe that was me. I so enjoyed that they hardly fought at all the entire day and played so wonderfully together. It makes me so happy when they are nice to one another, so hooray for a happy mummy!

In the evening Auntie Callie and Uncle Josh came for dinner and then spent the night at our place. The wee ones couldn't get enough of them. Jack showed off his amazing knowledge of sharks by naming more sharks than I've even heard of (Daddy has been practicing with him), and wee Pete was enjoying saying "josh" over and over again....he's got a wee obsession with his new uncle :)

On Saturday Ryan was helping a family in our ward move and Josh had some homework to do, so Callie and I took the wee guys over to an Easter Egg hunt near Jaquith Park with my friend, Val, and her family. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. But it was a beautiful day and swarming with crazy parents who seemed more eager than their children to grab the eggs on the field. Thanks to all those nutter parents, poor Jack only ended up with one egg and even sadder was poor Joey, who didn't get any. I was complaining loudly to Callie and feeling very sorry for the boys when a lovely fireman(they put on the shin-dig) overheard and came over to drop a big handful of sweeties into their buckets. How nice. Of course plenty of sweeties were coming their way the following day anyway.

When Peter's age group came a short while later I expected the same chaos. But thankfully parents behaved themselves and wee Pete scored big time. Once he realized what was in the plastic eggs he started grabbing 2 at a time! Ha. It was great fun to watch and when he got back to Jack he said, "it's ok Jack" and dumped a bunch of eggs into Jack's bucket. What a kind wee brother.

Once the hunt was over Callie and I took the boys to the mall for lunch and a wee bit of shopping at H&M. It has become a favourite past-time of mine to go there and look around...unfortunately I don't have a money tree.

Josh and Callie left around 5 and Ryan, after having spent 4 hours at the move, had to take off for the priesthood/leadership session of our stake conference. It was a long day for him.

Easter Morning the wee ones were having a wonderful time laughing together in their bedroom. We kept their baskets in our room for them to find...I didn't trust leaving them by their beds, way too much chocolate would have been consumed.

After digging into their baskets we got ready to go to stake conference. It was very nice, but as usual, difficult to focus as much as I would like on the talks.

After Peter and I took a short nap, we painted some eggs and had an egg hunt in the house...brilliant fun. Way too many sweeties were consumed though and Peter turned into Oscar the grouch.

I love Ryan's, "I'm trying really hard to smile when I don't want my photo taken" face. Jack looks so grown up and handsome.

And Petey pie and Mummy....he was being a very grabby boy, like last year I recall, and had cracked 3 eggs within about 5 mins.

Jack with all his chocolate loot.

And even though I look pretty bad in this picture, I loved that both boys had their mouths full to the brim with sweeties and still attempted to smile and said "cheese!"

It was a pretty lovely Easter weekend and it ended with a delish ham for dinner that night.

Six

2011-04-11T13:48:00.000-07:00

I looked through some old pictures today of when I was pregnant with Jack and Peter. I distinctly remember that I got UPSET when I was expecting Jack because numerous people commented on how small I looked when I was into my ninth month. Looking at this picture (which was taken a week before I had Jack), I don't think I look all that small. I thought my baby wasn't growing properly or something when people made those comments and it seriously made me a nervous wreck. Instead I should have been taking it as a compliment.

I found out I was pregnant with Peter when Jack was 16 months old. I managed to hide it (from local friends) till I was around 20 or so weeks. I didn't mind at all when anyone said I was small throughout the pregnancy because by the ninth month I was pretty huge (as seen in the above photo).

Yesterday I was 20 weeks with my third pregnancy. Not a great picture, but neither are the others. 20 weeks and I'm already this big! But it's ok, because this time I feel like it's not really my fault that I'm getting so big so fast. Why? Oh, because we aren't only having baby #3....we're having #4 too! That's right...wee fraternal twins. The weather hasn't been great until now and so I was able to hide it from the majority of my ward until this last week thanks to my trusty coat.

It was a rough start, but I feel so great just now. I get a little tired throughout the day dealing with the wee ones, but the sickness has finally gone.

Today our family of four went to my ultrasound appt. It took a long time checking those new wee ones to make sure everything looked good...thankfully no problems at the moment, but I will get another scan in a month and a half or so.

Ryan and I both expected 2 more boys....which I would have been more than happy with, but I also hoped for the possibility of at least one wee girl. The result: 2 lovely wee girls! We are feeling just a tad overwhelmed but very very happy. I'm looking forward to having my wee family of six.

Jack's birth story

2011-04-06T17:20:00.000-07:00

Jack's due date was June 21st. It had been a fairly rough pregnancy as I was very sick and teaching full-time at Forbes Elementary in American Fork. I remember throwing up numerous times in front of the kids in my class and I could barely keep any food down for the first 25 weeks. I had a little break in the middle where I felt pretty good, but then I began to thrown up again periodically during the last month or so. Ryan was in law school at BYU and we were a little concerned about money as I planned on quitting at the end of my school year to be home full-time with Jack. We had been living in Union Square for the majority of the pregnancy, but then at the end of April '07 we moved to Wymount (BYU housing)...it was slightly cheaper, but gave us an extra room which was what we really needed.

The ward there was pretty nice and we had some grassy space/a park out front that I looked forward to spending time on with Jack.

My brother, Euan, cousin, David Rae, and childhood friend, Jamie Munro, were coming over to travel around a wee bit in the States at the end of May through the middle of June. About a week before I went into labour, I drove up to SLC by myself and met them at the Christus statue in the visitors center. It was such a great day and we toured around al the sights for around 6-8 hours. By the end of the day I was very tired and just as I was leaving the bathroom in the visitors center before I drove home I started having severe cramping. I was so nervous about driving back myself, but I managed just fine. That next week I had a couple of pains here and there, but on the whole I felt totally normal.

On Thursday (14th), the boys came down to Provo to stay the night with us before heading to Vegas for the weekend. We ate out at Cafe Rio and watched a movie at night before everyone hit the sack. I asked everyone to hold off taking a shower in the morning till Ryan had taken one as he was going into work the following morning. It was around 12:30pm that I went to the bathroom, threw up, and then my water broke. I grabbed a towel and went back to our bedroom to tell Ryan that I wouldn't stop leaking (at this point I guess I wasn't positive that my water had actually broken). I grabbed our phone and called my mum for advice, while Ryan grabbed his laptop and starting looking up pregnancy stuff on the internet....haha...what a sight we must have been. After talking to my mum for only a few moments she told me to call the hospital and then go in. Thankfully I had only just finished gathering a bag of supplies together for the hospital a few days prior, so we were able to leave quickly. I tried to climb over the sleeping boys in my living room (jamie was in the bedroom though), with a towel between my legs! Good grief. I woke Euan up and told him I was going to the hospital. He was in a daze, but I got a "GOODLUCK" and a "thumbs up" from him and David before we left.

I had checked in with Utah Valley Hospital a couple of weeks before, so that when I went into labour it was faster. We were able to go directly to the maternity ward where they only had me wait a minute or so before taking me into a room to check if in fact my water had actually broken. Immediately the test strip came back BLUE meaning that it was my amniotic fluid. But when checked I was only dilated to a 1....annoying. They started me off on pitocin around 1:30am, but I was warned that I was likely to be in for a long night. Ryan tried to sleep a little on the uncomfortable couch that was in my room and I tried to sleep some too. I managed for a few hours, before I was suddenly woken up by sharp pains shooting through my abdomen. I woke Ryan and he got the nurse in to check me. I was dilated a little more, but only to a 4. They told me that when I got to a 5 I could have an epidural if I wanted. I did. Thankfully it didn't take too long before I was at a 5 and then they called in the anesthesiologist. He was not very friendly.and he scared me to death by telling me that if I moved even slightly as he was putting the needle in that I could cause major damage to my back. Great. I was already nervous about the size of the needle....I never actually saw it but Ryan said it was huge. I lay on my side as he put it in and tried not to move a muscle and I cried. When he was finished he left immediately and I was abandoned for a couple of hours. Getting the epidural didn't hurt, but instead of numbing the pain I suddenly started to feel numbing in my face and down my right side only. When I nurse returned she told me that she would have the anesthesiologist come back in and give me the epidural again.....I wasn't sure about that idea. Then almost immediately my legs turned to blobs of jelly and I couldn't move them at all, but still I had all the pain of labour in my stomach that was not numb. I started to panic and told Ryan over and over again that I did not want the epidural anymore...too late for that! He kinda didn't have a clue what to say to me at that point other than that there was nothing to be done about it now. He tried pressing the button a few times to get the epidural medicine to kill the labour pains, but it did nothing. After 11 LONG hours in the hospital, the new morning staff had come on, who were so much nicer, and they checked my progress again. Finally, I was dilated to 10 and I was ready to deliver. Throughout my entire pregnancy I had never seen the same Dr. more than once. I didn't like that.

With no Doctor in sight I began with the aid of a veteran nurse and her student nurse to push the baby out. The student nurse was really great actually. She held one of my legs and was very encouraging. Ryan didn't really know what to do...he looked as scared as me and had his camera in hand to take a few pics and a video. They kept saying, "push down through your bottom", which I wasn't fond of. Then a doctor I had never seen before came flying into the room. He asked one of the nurses to grab a mirror so I could see what was happening and then we proceeded. I wasn't entirely sure I even wanted to see what was going on. His name was Dr. Kent Gamette and he was a very nice older man, and had obviously delivered a lot of babies. He asked if he could cut me a tiny bit in order to prevent tearing, so in the moment I agreed, but I'm not sure if I really should have. It was very small though...on a scale of 1-10 it was a 1. I only pushed for 40 minutes before the head crowned. I could see it in the mirror...it was very surreal and bizarre. Ryan was still making a video which I thought I might regret later (I do and don't...I was bawling when I watched it back). The doctor told Ryan, who had been by my side the whole time, to come down beside him. He got there just in time to see baby Jack slip right out. The doctor held him upside down and said, "what do we have here?".....I was like, "um, it's a boy", we already knew that...but he just wanted to hear me say it I guess. They asked if Ryan wanted to cut the cord, but he really didn't so they took Jack away to clean him up and weigh/measure him. Ryan stayed close by the nurse to watch and take pictures. I still had to deliver the placenta...which I had not thought about at all. This was actually very painful. He pressed very hard on my lower abdomen, it was only briefly, but I started to cry again. I felt the placenta fall out of my body and then the Dr. began to stitch me up. Ryan was holding Jack now and brought him over to me. The minute I took him in my arms I became very overwhelmed again. He started to cry and I panicked for a second as I tried to soothe him, but he calmed down quickly and Ryan and I were in complete awe of him. I had heard the nurses as they were cleaning him, "his hair is red, no it's brown, no it's blonde!" I thought, good grief decide on a colour people...but it was fluffy and blonde. He honestly looked like a baby chick. His wee face was so sweet and I was very smitten with him right away.

I called my family in Scotland right away to tell them the news...my poor mum had been dying to find out what was going on being so far away. Then we had visitors a few hours later...the Guisti's came, the Claytons, and Ryan's sister, Rachel, and Uncle Jim and Aunt Julie. It was nice to have some family there with us. I stayed in the hospital for 2 nights before heading home. When we got home Sunday afternoon we relaxed and enjoyed Jack. The boys returned on Monday from Vegas to see baby Jack (I had such a hard time with them leaving), and Ryan's mum had arrived that same day to stay with us for the week and help out.

Here we are in the hospital a couple of hours after the birth:

Jack Alan Harris - 4 days old.

Jack was 191/2 inches long, weighed 7lbs 3 oz, and was born at 12.47pm on the 15th June 2007.

I'm working on it

2011-03-22T16:36:00.000-07:00

I look at this angelic wee face and think, awww, ain't he precious....and normally he is for the most part. But lately we've been going through a stage which may be giving me a glimpse into my future life with a teenager.

I am determined, however, to TRY and remain positive, to keep my cool as best I can, and encourage Jack to refrain from battering his wee brother. So far I haven't been a model mummy at all. I've lost my temper, been grumpy and frustrated, and so, I realise that I need to make some personal changes too in order to be a better parent and example to my wee ones.

Thankfully, fights, wrestling, and chasing (with the intent to hit when caught) aside, they are still best friends. They adore each other and I try to savour those wee moments.

Another reason I want to go home again already...

2011-03-14T17:51:00.000-07:00

Ena Matilda McArthur

Born March 8, 2011

I can't stand it, I want to cuddle her so badly.

And she was made for plenty of cuddles...weighing a healthy 9 pounds 15 ounces.

Jack singing

2011-03-10T09:58:00.000-08:00

Jack has always been really into music. We have dance parties in the kitchen almost every night as I make dinner...it's pretty great fun. Jack always makes sure to ask which band we are listening to...I'm sure he's going to have amazingly good taste in music..tehe.

Last week while Peter was taking a wee nap, Jack told me that he wanted to sing me some songs. Brillso. I ran to get the camera and here's what I got:

Callie's wedding

2011-02-24T21:29:00.000-08:00

I don't know whether to laugh or cry every time I take a photo of the wee ones together...Jack always has a grip of death around Peter's poor wee neck. He's trying so hard to be sweet and give his brother a hug, but wee Pete's face is always pleading "HELP ME!"

Callie's wedding was a week long event. I felt like I was at one of those Indian weddings....that's what they do their right?! Don't get me wrong, it really was lovely to see all of Ryan's extended family, but I was also very ready for it all to be over. I was beyond tired come Sunday evening.

Half the family arrived on Tuesday, we had her endowment session on Wednesday, a family dinner(which the wee ones and I actually missed) on Thursday, photos starting at 2pm on the Temple grounds on Friday followed by the sealing at 6pm, then a dinner in Gresham (an hour away)which got postponed till 8:30pm and then finally the reception back in Gresham on Saturday from 2-4(which turned into 6), followed by a ABSOLUTE LAST family dinner down in Salem(an hour and a half back from the way we came)at 7:30pm. It was hard on us all.

Wee Peter HATED wearing a tie on the day of the sealing, but Jack thought he was the bees knees! I was shocked...I may have to go invest in one (since these ties were borrowed from a friend).

We did take some family photos outside as well, but thankfully when it started raining, as it has a tendency to do here in Oregon, we were able to take some in the Temple's atrium.

Callie looked very beautiful in her dress. I was completely amazed how well Liz did transforming it too...it was totally strapless when she bought it; you would never have known though.

Ryan, Rachel, Chris, Callie, Liz, Mitch, and Casey.

A week home

2011-02-15T17:53:00.000-08:00

I've been back with my boys in Oregon for a little over a week now and it's been somewhat of a whirlwind since I returned. One wedding over and now I have another tomorrow. Ryan's youngest sister, Callie, will be married in the Portland Temple.

But for now, despite how tired and emotional I feel(it's been a very trying day with my wee ones), I need to jot down a few details from my very brief, but lovely visit home.

I arrived on Tuesday,Feb.1st at 8am. It had been a long flight, with one layover in Newark. I met the most spunky wee Scottish lady, who I chatted with for a few hours while we waited to board the plane to Glasgow. I haven't laughed that hard in a while..she was pure entertainment. It felt very strange not having anyone to worry about but myself. I liked it!Ha.

Day 1 was spent resting,hanging out at my parents house, and eating a delish pizza crunch supper from the chippy. Only my two youngest siblings are still at home(the house felt very empty) but my sister, Rachel, and her husband, Fred, were up from Wales for the wedding too and had planned to be there for the entire week I was...so nice.

Day 2: I woke up at 3am and talked to Ryan. Both boys were doing fine with Ryan's mum, but apparently Peter had seemed a tad concerned.

It was my brother, John's, birthday so we went over and watched my two nephews while he and his wife, Margaret, went out for a birthday lunch. It was so great seeing my nephews again, but by this time(noon)I was soooo tired from having been up since 3am. So, I kinda conked out on the couch while Rachel, Fred, and my mum watched them. Later that evening I went with my mum and Rachel to help put up the decorations in the cultural hall for my brother's wedding.

I got to see a few of my cousins and chat with them...swell!

Then just as we were about to head home we got a call from my brother, Euan. He invited us to stop by right then and visit baby Eleanor. We had been planning on going the following day, but I was way too excited to meet her to say no.

I need a wee girl! She was just beautiful. I do love my rough and tumble boys, but one day I'd love a wee girl to dress up...I loved every minute of holding her.

Day 3: I didn't do much during the day...I was feeling so jet-lagged that I took a long nap in the middle of the day. I couldn't believe how free I felt being able to do that. Later that night I went to dinner with my sister, Rachel, and some friends from my old E.K ward, Emma, Laura, and Ruth.

Day 4: My mum and I spent the majority of the day in the cultural hall at the Paisley building setting out the tables, etc. for the reception the following day. It took WAY longer than I anticipated, but it was so nice to spent the time with my mum.

That night, Rachel, Fred, and I went out to dinner with some of my cousins for a wee early birthday celebration (Fred was turning 30 the following tuesday!)

Day 5: THE WEDDING! In the U.K you have to be married civilly prior to attending the temple so the marriage ceremony was held at 10:30am. It was so beautiful and, of course, I shed a few wee tears. I get so much more emotional than I ever imagined watching my wee brothers and sisters get married.

Daniel looked very handsome in his kilt.

And Martha was breathtaking! They are smitten with each other...I am so happy for them.

Around noon we were let into the reception to eat and hear the toasts. It was great to see the remainder of my extended family that I had not yet seen. Then close to 3pm, my parents and I took off for the Preston Temple, followed by Daniel and Martha(who got honked at for being newly weds the entire drive down!), and quite a few members of Martha's family. It took 3 hours to reach our destination, but I was only awake for about 1/2 of it! Brilliant.

It was pouring with rain and the sealing wasn't till 8pm, but it was such a special ceremony and I was so happy I could be there.

Day 6: Everyone, besides my parents and I, had stayed the night down in Preston. We, however, had Eleanor's baby blessing to attend the next day, so we made it back just before midnight and got straight to bed.

Euan gave a lovely blessing and Eleanor looked absolutely gorgeous in the dress my cousin, Olivia, had handmade for her.

Here's the McArthur Family with newly blessed Eleanor.

We headed back to Euan and Alisa's flat for a tasty lunch after church where I got in as much "holding" time as I could since it would be the last time I saw her for who knows how long!

Day 7: I have never not felt sad about leaving Scotland. But on this particular occasion I couldn't wait to get on the plane. Leaving couldn't come soon enough for me; I was that desperate to get home to my boys. I spent that last day enjoying my sister, Isabel's 17th birthday, celebrating Fred's again a day early, hanging out with my immediate family and having the most wonderful lunch date with my best friend in the whole world (besides Ryan), Catriona. I love that after having lived in the states for 10 yrs now I can still fall right back into my friendship with her...she's so dear to me.

The entire flight home I was so anxious and impatient. I was able to sleep a little of the way though which helped it go faster. It was so wonderful to be reunited with my boys...even though wee Peter was calling my mother-in-law "mum"! She went back to Salem the following day and I got my title back.

On Monday....

2011-01-26T11:40:00.000-08:00

...I will be on a plane.

Destination: SCOTLAND

Traveler: JUST ME!

Purpose for Trip: TO ATTEND THE WEDDING Of ONE MR. DANIEL McARTHUR (my smitten wee brother), to his lovely bride to be, MARTHA.

Bonus perks that come with this trip: I GET TO MEET MY FIRST NIECE!

BEAUTIFUL ELEANOR FAWN McARTHUR

Duration of trip: 1 WEEK

Pre-trip feelings: ANXIOUS, VERY NERVOUS, HOMESICK already for Ryan and my darling wee ones, BUT OH, SO VERY EXCITED!

Two Pictures...

2011-01-13T11:20:00.000-08:00

I'm posting these just because I find them funny.

'Spiderman' taking a break from his regular heroic duties to watch his favourite t.v programe.

And, ever since we returned from Scotland in September, Ryan has been struggling with a small addiction....FIFA '11. Apparently, he thought it was necessary that Jack start his FIFA training young. However, Jack was more interested in making sure he 'looked' just like his Dad.

First Hair Cut

2011-01-13T10:00:00.000-08:00

I didn't want to cut Peter's hair, I really wanted him to stay little.

But when I saw his hair looking like this on New Year's Eve, I knew the time had come.

So we started the New Year with both boys getting a new hair cut. Pete sat better than Jack and played nicely in the bathroom sink while I took the clippers to it.

The finished product!

His wee curls are gone, but he's looking so very cute and grown up.

Our Christmas 2010

2010-12-28T13:17:00.000-08:00

This Christmas was the first year we have been completely alone as a wee family. As much as I love both our families it was kinda perfect and lovely having it just be us.

I've so enjoyed starting new and adopting traditions that we will continue each Christmas time.

We began Christmas Eve with the traditional drive to see Christmas lights. We found a neighbourhood about 10 mins from us that had the best house lights I have ever beheld. Blew my mind for reals.

Once we returned home, the wee ones opened their new p.j's before sitting down for some mediocre chocolate mousse....I will attempt to perfect it by next year.

Whoever found the sweetie in their mousse won a prize that the family could enjoy.

(Setting out Santa's cookies and the carrots for the reindeer)

And oh did the whole family enjoy! We had a brilliant time playing 'Hungry Hungry Hippos'. It has become a nightly ritual before bedtime since then.

On Christmas morning the wee ones arose around 8am. Decent time....I was very grateful. I can only assume it will get earlier in the next few years as they become more and more excited about their presents. Jack was very excited this year though...so much so that on a couple of occasions he couldn't stand how slowly Peter was opening his presents and so took over. Ryan and I made sure Pete got his gifts back and I could tell Jack was having a little trouble being patient. In my family growing up we each had our own pile that we attacked on Christmas morning and then we looked to see what everyone else had gotten after....I never had a problem with it and still don't...it was plenty fun. However, we decided to do it Ryan's families way and each take turns opening a gift. Someone is assigned the role of 'Santa' and finds each person a gift of theirs to open from under the tree when it's their turn. It's way fun this way too. Jack was our wee 'Santa' this year.

(Helping and then taking over unwrapping Pete's gift)

As I have mentioned before Peter is obsessed with Toy Story, specifically Buzz...so in his stocking he got Jessie and Woody. He walked around with all three in his arms for most of the day.

Peter main gift was the mega block pirate ship.

Jack's main gift was the Batcave, he really loves it.

We had a pretty yummy dinner, which after hours of preparation is always over way too soon, but it's always worth the effort.

Each year I make sure we have Christmas crackers to pull at the dinner table...a tradition from home I will never give up...it's brilliant fun.

The crackers were a hit with the wee ones, especially the hats, or the "crown" as Jack called it. Peter kept his on for the entire dinner...amazing, eh?!

An Anniversary

2010-12-18T12:01:00.000-08:00

This isn't a very recent picture, but it's one of my favourites of Ryan.

6 years today with this guy.

He's pretty great.

It's Christmas time!

2010-12-06T14:42:00.001-08:00

I feel a little pressure to update the blog. So, here it goes. These past few months have been busy, but really great. I so loved having my sister and brother in law here with us for 2 weeks...and I miss them terribly. I always have the hardest time in the few weeks after family leaves, but thankfully I had enough distractions this time around to keep my mind off of my Scotland home.

A group of girls from my ward and I started a preschool co-op. There are six of us involved and so far it's going fairly well. The children are beginning to adjust to the structure of it and getting along with each other pretty good for the most part. It's so nice to have a little more one on one with with Peter for a couple of hours twice a week and I actually quite enjoyed preparing for the short lessons when it was my turn to teach. It's reminding me of my teaching days and even though I thought for a minute "aww I kinda miss this", I really don't and I'm much happier at home with the wee ones.

For Thanksgiving this year, we were invited by Ryan's aunt and uncle to come out to Reno,Nevada. Their son, Jake, was getting ready to go on his mission to the West Indies and they thought it would be nice to gather the family for the holiday before he headed into the MTC.

I dreaded the thought of the 10+ hour drive out there, but we broke it up on the way out and stopped in Medford for a night(5 hours away) before tackling the remaining 5 or so hours the following morning. Peter hates his car seat and always has, so he successfully made the trip to Medford miserable for everyone, but thankfully he slept most of the morning/afternoon the following day. We didn't hit any major snowfall which made for a smooth trip all around. We had had to get some things fixed on our trusty old Buick le sebre before we left and a couple of new tires, but she didn't die on us which I consider a small miracle.

It was a really brilliant trip despite the tight sleeping quarters(17 of us under one roof!). The wee ones had loads of people fussing over them which meant I got a lovely break, plus I didn't really have to do much cooking either...always fantastic. On Friday we went wedding dress shopping with Callie. She ordered a really beautiful dress...here's a wee peek. She's going to have a different jacket that Liz will make.

A few photies of Jack...you'd think it was still Halloween at our house and not almost Christmas. Right after Halloween I went out and bought a couple of cheap costumes for him to play with and he has not stopped wearing them. He thinks he's pretty cool, and Peter couldn't agree more.

SPIDERMAN

DASH INCREDIBLE

When we got back from Thanksgiving in Reno we continued with our new tradition of going out and cutting down our own tree. Later that night we decorated it and then had some delicious hot chocolate. The wee ones loved staying up a little later than usual. Jack is really excited about Christmas this year...he has a REALLY long list of toys he wants.

Liz came back to ours after Thanksgiving and has been here with us for a week...she leaves tomorrow and I know it's going to break wee Jack's heart when she goes.

Lastly, just for the record I have to include these photos of Peter. This kid is obsessed with Buzz Lightyear. He walks around with these toys most of the day "making them fly" as shown in the picture below (of course, there is a whooshing sound that accompanies the flying) , and kissing them fairly frequently. It's hysterical.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

The lowdown

2010-11-09T22:18:00.000-08:00

I've been ignoring my blog for a wee while due to the fact that my sister, Rachel, and her husband, Fred, are here visiting us. Today Jack had preschool and so they went off to spend the day in Portland, so I thought I'd do a super quick catch up while they're out.

The days always fly in way too fast when we have family come to visit and this time is no exception. It's been great though and we've been able to cram in a ton of stuff over the last 2 weeks. I've kinda felt a little like a tourist myself actually...we've seen and been a few places that I hadn't ventured out to before.

First place we checked out was the Portland Saturday Market. Loads of weird and wonderful people to ogle at there! Oh, and of course there was a ton of delicious smelling food (although, unfortunately what I chose wasn't so delicious.)

It did rain for the majority of the time we walked around perusing, but we live in Oregon...that's what it does here. Can't let it slow you down, and we certainly didn't, since almost everything we did was in the rain.

When we got home we carved some pumpkins and then went to our ward's "trunk or treat". Since it was pouring down with rain we had it in the building. It was completely mobbed! It was fun seeing my wee ones get so excited. Everyone handing out sweeties was to go find a spot to hand out your goodies somewhere in the building. Ryan picked a chair in the foyer outside the chapel. It cracked me up seeing him sitting there giving out sweeties to the trick or treaters.

Jack and Peter both flippin' love lollipops...swell.

Here's a family shot (in which I have a crown on my head) right before they went out trick or treating in our neighbourhood.

Peter couldn't believe his luck...he was in heaven! I'm usually a bit stingy with the sweets.

Out enjoying our crazy neighbourhood decorations! They go all out around here..it's brilliant.

Iron Man laughs in the face of danger! Hahaha.

Halloween was great fun and I think Rachel and Fred enjoyed seeing how mental it is around here at this time of year. We also went along to a pumpkin patch and made our way (amazingly) through the muddiest corn maze EVER!

On Monday(1st), we visited the 'Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum', where the Spruce Goose resides.

It's bloomin' gigantic! Totally worth getting a look at. Ryan didn't go with us as we went during the day, but it's totally worth going back to. The boys thought all the planes were pretty cool.

I've been with the boys to the zoo quite a few times this year and it seriously never gets old. I'm definitely thinking of getting a pass for our family after winters over. We got so lucky this particular day. It actually DIDN'T rain...miracle of miracles. And all the animals were out enjoying the weather, it was brilliant.

This is Pete's kissy face. It's so funny and he pretty much does it on command. He likes the lime light that one.

This past Saturday we went out to Multnomah Falls. It was FANTASTIC. A definite must-see. We hiked up to that bridge you can see in the above picture and then a wee bit past that to get another view of the Gorge. Pretty incredible. Can't wait till my parents come back for a visit and we can take them there.

Peter got the best deal. We borrowed this cool baby carrier from my friend for the trip and Pete enjoyed chillin' out in that for the hike....poor Ryan's back was breaking by the time we got back to the bottom though.

I'll post some more later...

Halloween Costumes

2010-10-22T17:18:00.000-07:00

Before we went to Scotland in September I was in TJ Maxx (or TK Maxx to those of you in Scotland) one day and found these ace costumes for a pretty great price. Jack had been asking me for months if he could be a tiger. Well, how perfect, there was his outfit...and when I saw the wee lion one it was hard to resist getting that for Pete! They seemed thrilled. When we got home Jack could not wait to get his costume on....after running around the house roaring and showing off his tail for approximately 5 minutes he demanded the costume off and said it was "too big"? What the devil? It fits, what are you talking about?!

I put the costumes away (as it was only the end of August at this point) and convinced myself that when I pulled them back out in October Jack would be thrilled once again with the tiger outfit.

On the flight back from Scotland 'Iron Man 2' was showing on the plane. Jack didn't have headphones to listen, but did he need them?....NO! He was hooked, completely mesmerized. He was Iron Man's new #1 fan. A couple of days later we were in Target. As we strolled down the newly set-up Halloween aisle Jack's eyes fell upon a new love.

In that moment I knew it was "bye bye" to the handsomest tiger and cutest wee lion I ever did see. I took as many photos as I could that afternoon, forcing them to wear the costumes against their wishes...teehee.

The following day Iron Man and Superman came to the Harris home...and they've been "protecting us" (according to Jack) ever since.

2010-10-11T13:29:00.000-07:00

This was my favourite night while I was home. We've never all been together like this before and I loved every minute of it.

Starting from the left: Margaret (my sister in-law, married to John), John (my brother just younger than me), Me (oldest kid), Martha (engaged to my brother, Daniel), Daniel (brother #3, 5th kid), Alisa (my sister-in-law, married to Euan), Euan (brother #2, 3rd kid).

Front: Ryan (mine), Fred (my brother-in-law, married to Rachel), Rachel (sister #1, 4th kid).

We ate chinese food, the boys played computer games, the ladies had a blether, and it was all just lovely.

Family photos 2010

2010-10-04T20:37:00.001-07:00

Last year I won a giveaway photo shoot through the blog: kateandjessphotos.blogspot.com. I know this mother/daughter photography team from our previous ward in Wilsonville, here in Oregon. I was super excited to get some family photos taken, but really nervous that the wee ones wouldn't co-operate. Well, Jack lived up to my expectations and was fairly miserable for the entire shoot. BUT miraculously the pictures turned out lovely anyway...even the ones in which he's pouting and being difficult he looks very sweet...lucky for him! Ha. Here's a few of my favs:

I really LOVE how they turned out.

Loch Lomond

2010-10-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

Rachel, Fred, Ryan, Neal (he ditched school), and I headed out to Loch Lomond on a fairly pretty and warm day. We went through the tourist shop for a wee look and I ended up buying some tablet, fudge, and macaroon to bring back to a few people (For some reason this is underlined and acts as a link to a photo of some delish ice cream we had at Nardini's in Largs. I have no idea how this happened, but at least you get a wee peak at the yummy ice cream).

Then we sat and ate our wee picnic lunch whilst staring at this beautiful view.

I don't think I actually took a minute to look at what the story was with this bell, but Neal got great enjoyment out of spinning it as hard as he could till it turned the whole way around.

We walked around a tiny portion of the shores for a few pics, but then headed off to the outrageously overpriced Sea Life Center. Fred went in ahead and got us set up with a wee deal that got each of us in for cheaper, but really it still wasn't worth what we paid. I thought the sharks they advertised were going to be massive....yeah, they were pathetic and small.

In the wee shop after going through the Sea Life Center the boys thought it'd be great fun to dress up as pirates.

I felt kinda bad that we'd gone without the wee ones since this would have been something they'd have actually enjoyed, but we hadn't planned on going, it was total spur of the moment. So, I bought Jack (who was not feeling great due to a cold that had triggered his asthma) a Hammerhead Shark. He's obsessed with Sharks so he was content with that. Peter got this freebe hat. Pete actually loves to put things on his head...and not necessarily hats.

Machina

2010-10-04T14:11:00.000-07:00

Miss Catriona Mitchell.

We've been best friends since we were 11yrs old.

I can't tell you how much I love her.

We laugh so hard when we're together.

I miss her all the time.

It just wasn't long enough.

Family BBQ at Castle Semple

2010-10-04T13:20:00.000-07:00

Sunday 12th we attended Stake Conference in Glasgow. It was nice to see some familiar faces and the talks were really good. Afterwards we headed over to Castle Semple, where my grandparents and cousins, the Hales, live. My cousin, Olivia, had been married there just the month prior for her civil ceremony before heading down to the Preston Temple. The marquee they used for the cutting of the cake, and eating of the cake was still up and it was so it was there that we had our family BBQ. These are my favourite times when I go home...I love getting to see everyone all in one go.

My cousin, Larissa, also had a gorgeous wee girl not long before we got there...wee Islay was passed around quite a bit throughout the day, we were all desperate for a hold. Here she is with my sister, Rachel.

Enjoying some yummy chocolate orange cupcakes that my cousin, Nevada, made. Brilliant face in this one Dane.

The two American's in the background..Ryan and my uncle Larry.

Ben (Olivia's new husband), Larissa, Olivia, and Nevada.

I have been in desperate need of a hair cut for quite some time....luckily my cousin, Madeline, kindly offered to cut it for me. Thank you so much...I love it.

And then it was my turn again to hold wee Islay. I just loved her. I need a wee girl.

Kelvingrove Art Galleries and Bo'ness

2010-10-04T09:56:00.000-07:00

Today the wee ones and I are loaded with the cold, so maybe while they sleep I'll be able to bust out a couple of posts from our trip to Scotland....we shall see.

My dad attended Glasgow University for his law degree....pictured below. It's such a cool looking building. In 2004, Ryan and I went for a wee mini-tour around it with my dad. We weren't able, however, to go into the Kelvingrove art galleries at that time, which is located just minutes away, as it was under renovation. Ryan was pretty anxious to get a look inside this time around.

The Art Gallery is stunning, but compared to when I was little the permanent exhibitions aren't as cool. They used to have an amazing dinosaur gallery, and an 'under the sea' room which I remember being incredible. Maybe they weren't really that great, but that's how I remember them. My granny and my aunt Joy (my mum's younger sister) met us there.

Here's a picture of the enormous organ located just inside one of the entrances. For half an hour each day a wee lady comes out and plays it...and all the old biddies sit fascinated and give her a standing ovation when it's over...I loved it.
Ryan and I looked through some of the permanent exhibitions, but we spent the majority of our time looking through the visiting exhibit 'Pioneering Painters: The Glasgow Boys 1880-1900'. There were some really lovely paintings. We got a nice surprise when my cousin, Nevada, appeared as we exited the exhibit. Later after Nevada and my mum reused our tickets for the 'Glasgow Boys', we went to the 'Uni cafe' ( I think that's what it was called) and had some yummy lunch. Ryan got his first irn bru( Scottish drink) since arriving and had a wee pork pie and beans....I think he liked it? Ryan has some issues with some of the things we eat in Scotland...it's funny to watch him try new things.

The following day, we got together with my brother and his family again. We took a 45 min drive to a wee town called Bo'ness. This is where the real 'Thomas the tank engine' lives...oh and Percy.....and the annoying Fat Controller.They charge an arm and a leg to get into this place, and really there isn't a whole lot to it, but it was still worth it for the wee ones sake. They, at least, had a fun filled day.

The train(pictured below) takes you on a 30 min ride through some pretty countryside, and then dumps you in a fairly isolated area with a few kiddy rides and a tent with a guy doing a 'punch and judy' puppet show. Ryan and Jack actually loved the puppet show....jack laughed the loudest every time 'Judy' smacked 'punch' in the face with a mallet....great.

Me (holding Peter), my brother, John, Isaac, Samuel, and Jack.

Ryan with Peter, Jack, and Percy.

We stood in a queue for a few mins to get a look inside Thomas' engine. The men that work here and are pretending to be Thomas' drivers take their job VERY seriously.

Another wee train we got to ride on....it simply went back and forward a few times...and was powered by our smiles!!! haha

Jack (and some random overly excited girl) enjoying the swing ride.

Jack got his face painted as he watched the puppet show....he wanted #4 for Gordon.

Just before we left the wee ones saw this little carousel of cars, etc.

Oh how I wish they hadn't. Jack, Samuel, and just about every other kid in the vicinity wanted to ride on the bloomin' double decker bus. Specifically the top of the bus. It turned into utter chaos and the woman in charge of the ride started screaming like a nutter that there was no way she was coming back to work tomorrow. She was even heard exclaiming " I don't care if you're related to God himself, you are not getting on the top of that bus unless I say so!" Baaahhaa

I was extremely happy it was time to leave after that.

Stirling and Doune

2010-09-28T12:59:00.000-07:00

After 2 days of severe jet-lag, hanging out at home with my family, and enjoying some local parks with my brother and his kiddos, we decided to go see some castles! We got really lucky with the weather that day....it was beautiful and so warm. When Ryan and I went to Scotland in 2004, prior to having any children, we went to a bunch of castles. I wasn't sure if we'd get to see as many this time around, but we had a couple in mind that Ryan for sure wanted to visit. Growing up we'd go to castles for school trips, on days off with my extended family, and I even went to a couple on youth trips with the church. Despite being to so many, I never tire of the experience....there is always breathtaking scenery to enjoy and it was really cool to take Jack inside a real life castle.

Our first stop was Stirling Castle. That's a statue of Robert the Bruce that sits outside the entrance, and in the distance you can just barely see the Wallace Monument.

Jack got fairly excited about this "big water gun"(as he called it) and sat on it for quite some time while Ryan walked around trying to figure out where in the castle he was supposed to be according to his audio tour...very amusing.

Here's a nice wee photo of Jack and I in the courtyard of the castle grounds. This kid has become a pro-poser...that's what happens when your mum is a nutter like me and takes hundreds upon hundreds of photos.
I love Jack's wee tiny self gazing at the side of the castle in this one. And in case you were wondering, Peter stayed outside roaming the grounds with my mum. He managed to spill an entire cup of juice down himself and when we returned from our wander around the inside he was wearing a "Nessie" t-shirt that my mum bought in the castle shop.
After a spot of lunch and a "luxury Scottish ice cream" (at least that's what the ice cream van claimed) we headed off to Doune Castle, only 20 mins away. Heard of Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Well, this castle was primarily used in the movie and apparently they actually have an annual Monty Python day at the castle...interesting, I'm sure there are lots of weird and wonderful people that attend that!
We took both boys for a look inside this castle and they loved it. I did too. This one, to me, had a "true" old castle feel, it really was something else.

The way there

2010-09-24T12:32:00.001-07:00

We have returned! It was the loveliest trip home and because we packed so many wonderful things into our two week visit to Scotland, I'm planning on writing a series of short posts on each.

On Sunday the 5th we arose at around 3:30am. I thought the boys would be a disaster waking them up at that time in the morning, but both were strangely cheerful...fine with me! Ryan's sister, Callie, had come on Saturday and took us to the airport. We arrived and actually had quite a bit of time to kill before our plane boarded. Thankfully they had a t.v near our gate showing kids programes, so Jack was plenty satisfied...he really likes to watch his morning cartoons.

Our first fight was just under 5 hours. Both boys were pretty tired by the time we got on the plane and conked out just after we took off. Jack loved the take off, although his ears bothered him quite a bit until he zonked out. Peter slept for about 2 1/2 hours on this flight, but was still behaving himself and manageable for the remainder of the time. We only had an hour and a half in the Philadelphia airport, so we let them play in this pretty cool 'Please touch museum' that was also close to our gate until boarding time.
The second flight to Glasgow was just under 6 hours...not bad I thought before we took off....oh how wrong I was. Jack was amazing...REALLY amazing. Peter, however, was a living nightmare. He looks so cute and innocent in this picture below...he's good at deceiving people like that..ha.
He only slept for about an hour at the start of those 6 hours and then he was non-stop into EVERYTHING and EVERYWHERE for remainder of the time. Then just as we were about to land the kid conked out again....hmmm. I hadn't had a single wink of sleep and by the time we landed in Glasgow the tears began to flow. I was so grateful to be home, but more grateful to get off that plane. We arrived at 7am(Scotland time) Monday 6th. My family were all waking up to start their day and all we wanted to do was go to bed. As hard as we tried to hold off and go to bed when we should, none of us managed and we each took extremely long naps throughout the day. Here's Peter meeting my brother, Daniel for the first time. Daniel had never met either of my boys before because he was on his mission each time I was over with Jack.
Even when we'd wake Jack up from taking a nap he'd end up this like after a few minutes...poor kid.
Later in the evening my grandparents came over for a delicious dinner and they brought a fun 'Thomas the Tank Engine' cake for Jack and Peter.
That first night both boys had a rough time adjusting to their new time schedule, but that's jet-lag for you....it took about 3 days for them to really get on Scotland time. The second day we were so excited to see my brother, John, his wife Margaret, and my two gorgeous wee nephews, Samuel(3) and Isaac(almost 2).

Here's Jack giving Samuel(below) his belated birthday present, he had just turned 3 the week before we came.

The wee cousins got on really well and to be honest that was one of the hardest things for me to see...it's so sad that they don't get to see them all the time; I know they would be the best of friends and they were while we were there.

Oh flower of Scotland

2010-09-04T17:33:00.000-07:00

At 4am tomorrow we will be on our way to Scotland. I have butterflies in my stomach. I'm excited, and very very nervous.....it's going to be a LONG flight with my busy boys, but it'll be so worth it. Back in 2 weeks with lots of photo's!

I love you Cannon Beach

2010-08-19T11:26:00.000-07:00

Since summer began Jack has been asking to go to the beach. I would love to be courageous enough to take the wee ones by myself during the week, but I just don't think I'm cut out for that kind of stress....so we planned on going on a Saturday when Ryan could come along too. PROBLEM--we have come to realize that Ryan's calling/title should actually be Ward Mover coordinator rather than Elder's quorum president....just about every single week he's had to help someone move into the ward or out of it. Now don't get me wrong, I think it's important to serve one another and I can't help but admire Ryan's positive attitude and his willingness to help( I complain about it WAY more than him), but it's been a little hard having him gone so often.

Well, I thought for sure our scheduled beach trip would be cancelled due to another move last Saturday, but Ryan, being the good dad that he is, didn't want to disappoint and we went anyway even though a little later in the afternoon. We've been to Lincoln City a number of times, and it is the closest, which is always appealing to me....I hate long car trips. But I really wanted to go to Cannon Beach. We've never been and it just looked so beautiful in all of the photos I'd seen. I wasn't disappointed....well, I guess it was a little sad that it was overcast, but really is wasn't bad at all as it was still a warm day.

Jack was beyond ecstatic to have finally arrived at the beach of his dreams. Both boys spent the majority of time in the water despite the fact that it was pretty bloomin' cold. After a late lunch, a captivating rescue( we don't actually know what happened, but 6 paramedic and lifeguard rescue cars came down onto the beach and zoomed past us), and plenty of sand castle building, both boys were frozen to the bone from being in the water for so long and were ready to head home. It was worth the 2 hour drive each way and I will definitely take my sister and brother-in-law there when the come in October...even though it'll be even colder.

Little Petey had finally had enough and sat quite content with a towel around him watching his brother continue to build castles.

When we got home it was pretty late, but since both boys had slept in the car we let them watch a movie for a little while. Jack is currently obsessed with the old Winnie the Pooh collection(which I love). I adore that wee Peter sat with his hand on Jack's lap.

Here is one last random photo of Jack and his new favourite past time.....thankfully he put another cushion in front of him before he launched himself into the air...I am happy to report that so far there have been no injuries.

The 'naughty' Superman

2010-07-27T12:33:00.001-07:00

This whole post it completely out of order......oh well.

On Sunday Liz flew back into Portland. She stayed with us until this morning and then took off again (much to Jack's dismay) for South Carolina. Yes, South Carolina, not Florida. So, we just learned this weekend, that Ryan's dad got another job offer to be a Plant Manager(with the same company) over in a town called Aiken...4 hours over the border from Tallahassee. We were pretty surprised that they are moving AGAIN so soon, but this job is more suited to Chris and offers a nicer pay check so I don't blame him for taking it. I was a little sad, however, that now when we go to visit we will have to drive 8 hours to Disney world instead of 4. Lame.

Yesterday we spent the morning/afternoon at the Portland zoo....I love that place. It's so gorgeous. It has some great animals and Jack was WAY more into it this time. Last time we went was when my parents came last September. I think next year I will for sure buy a season pass...it was a very fun day. They have a train ride that used to just go around the zoo....well now it goes all the way to the 'Rose Gardens' and then back to the zoo, so it takes about 35 mins, but Jack and Peter were in heaven. When we got home around 2pm, Auntie Callie and her boyfriend, Josh, were waiting for us. Jack pretty much LOVES them. On three different occasions, all while driving to Safeway, Jack has started screaming that I needed to pull the car over because he just saw Callie and Josh....of course, they were no where to be seen...that's how much he loves them...they are his hallucination.

Here, in our wee town of Newberg, they have what they call an 'Old Fashioned Festival' every July. Last year we didn't go...should have...but didn't....I had just had Peter and was not feeling adventurous enough I guess. There is a Children's Parade, a carnival, live music, fireworks, and tons of delish food. Children are encouraged to dress up however they like and walk for all to see and wave to all the spectators who line the streets....it's kinda interesting, but Jack was a pro...he likes feeling like he's the center of attention:)

Jack was Superman...because I don't have any other costumes for him....but he was more than happy to be "superhero Jack" as he called himself.

Here he is with a few other kids from our ward that we went with. Isn't Superman supposed to be good....Jack was running around with a water gun and shooting at everyone....thanksfully there was no water in it....hmmm...he could not be more of a boy.

These two have been having a lot of fun together lately. Yeah, they still get into all sorts of bother and love to hit one another and wrestle like crazy(I do feel like I spend a ton of time pulling them apart and playing the referee), but for the most part they really do get along fairly well. Peter is Jack's little shadow and when Jack laughs, Pete lights up....it's very sweet.

Enjoying the wee pool on our side deck.

For quite some time Ryan has been encouraging me to go ahead and have my wisdom teeth taken out. I'd been told the same thing countless times from different dentists. I only had 3 wisdom teeth and 2 of them had grown in and were fine, but the 3rd one which wasn't through yet was growing in crooked. I didn't really like the idea of that last one messing up my bottom row of teeth, so after rescheduling the appointment to extract the teeth about 4 times I finally set a date and had them removed. You'd think that after previously changing the appointment 4 times I'd have timed it better this time around....well I didn't. I scheduled it for 2 days after Ryan's 30th birthday...when I should have planned a fun birthday party or something since his b-day was mid-week. It worked out perfect though because our good friends, the Guisti's, came into town for a short visit that weekend. It was lovely to spend time with them again after not seeing them for 2 years. We miss them so much!

It's so fun having an updated picture of these two wee guys together!

We're missing Jack and Luke from this photo (sure they were off causing mischief together somewhere...haha.) Can't wait to meet baby boy #3 one day in the near future...we're coming to Reno for Ryan's cousin's Farewell at the beginning of December!

July...

2010-07-08T12:42:00.001-07:00

People keep asking me "So, how many days?" .........well I stopped counting and haven't been really thinking about it all that much because it still seems like ages away to me. Well, I decided to take a minute and count. 58 days. Then we'll be in Scotland. It stills seems too long because I want to be there now, but the time is flying by and we'll be there before I know it.

These last few days have been flippin' roasting here. Torture actually. I can barely stand it. Poor Ryan had to drive the whole way to and from Medford in 98 degree heat without air conditioning in his car. He was soaking wet when he got home.

I cut Peter down to one nap a day because he was staying up way too late at night with the two. Now he'll take one 3-4 hour nap in the middle of the day. It's nice, but if I want to do something with friends in the middle of the day it messes him up and he is a nightmare grouch. I can't complain too much though, now he goes to bed at 8pm and sleeps till 7-8am. Oh how I love getting to sleep through the night again.

I was going back and forth on putting Jack into a preschool this coming Fall. We decided to wait until next year. For now I'm going to do a little playgroup with a few girls in my ward who have kids the same age as Jack. We'll take turns teaching the kids in our homes a couple of days a week.

We went to a Rodeo on the 3rd July. I loved it. I probably won't take the wee ones to the evening show again, but we'll definitely take them to the carnival again during the day. Jack got to ride on a pony and go on a mini-roller coaster. He had a brilliant time, but both kids were wiped out by the evening.

At the end of last year I won us a family photo session. We set up an appointment to take the pictures in the middle of August. Here's the link to the photography blog of the mother/daughter team that will be taking the photos: http://kateandjessphotos.blogspot.com

She wants to know what kind of setting I want.....I need help, I have no idea. ( If you scroll through her blog she has pics in both kinds of settings) We can either do trees, grass, etc, or old walls, train tracks, stairs, etc. What should I do?

He's 30!

2010-07-08T12:11:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was Ryan's 30th Birthday! He had a board meeting in Medford(5 hours away) on Tuesday night and then stayed the night at his Aunt and Uncle's house before heading back up on Wednesday. Jack is really into birthdays at the moment. When I told him it was Dad's birthday his initial reaction was "No, it's not dad's birthday, it's my birthday!" ...he got over that pretty quickly though and was really excited to help me make Ryan a birthday cake and get the presents wrapped. Then, of course, he decided he didn't want Ryan to get the presents and that they were actually his instead...ha.

Peter gets really excited when he hears Ryan coming home each evening from work...and usually ends up here on daddy's shoulders.

Ryan with the wee ones after singing "Happy Birthday"

My friend, Ashley, offered to watch the kids while Ryan and I went out to dinner. It was so nice to get out by ourselves. We went to the Cheesecake factory and even though I had make this pathetic birthday cake (pictured below) we couldn't resist getting a slice of banana cream cheesecake. It was incredible. We stopped off at Barnes and Noble so Ryan could use a gift card he got from his parents and then we headed back.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY again Ryan...the wee ones and I think you're the bees knees. Love you.

June continued...

2010-06-30T09:53:00.000-07:00

The rest of this month has been pretty low key...nothing too interesting going on. Ryan's mum came and spent every weekend with us until she left for Florida yesterday morning. It was nice having some extra help with the wee ones. I think she was really ready to get going though, she and Chris have been apart for 2 months now. Jack misses her already and frequently asks where she is, but she'll be back in about 3 weeks. Ryan's sister, Rachel, is graduating from BYU-I at the end of July and Liz is coming back through here after the graduation to pick up her truck and drive it back out to Florida.

So, here's a few wee pictures of stuff we've been doing these last few weeks:

Peter and Jack loved all the extra attention they got when Liz was here...

We took them to a place called 'Safari Sams'; it has the biggest jungle gym in Oregon, a mini-golf course and arcade games/air hockey.

Jack got in a quick game of air hockey right before we left...we'd been there for 3 hours...he was pretty good at it actually.

Peter has spent quite a bit to time wrestling and sitting on top of this soft toy Jack got from one of his wee friends at his birthday party. I think he likes that it doesn't wrestle back...unlike his big brother.

Ryan and I left Peter at home with Liz last Saturday and took Jack to his first film in the cinema, 'Toy Story 3'. He was so excited. He is currently obsessed with Buzz Lightyear. He thought he was pretty cool getting to go out with us by himself and he sat great through the entire film. At the very end he told me he was ready to go home and see Pete...cute.

We watched Avatar later that night (I still hadn't see it) and looked after my friend's wee boy, Lincoln, for a couple of hours. He's just a few weeks older than Peter and they were having a brilliant time going in and out of the little coupe car the entire time. Peter is very possessive of me and got extremely jealous every time I held Lincoln..ha.

On Monday Liz and I took the wee ones to a park up in Wilsonville, where we used to live before we moved into our house. They have some water features that the kids can play in. The last time we came Peter was only a newborn, so it was fun watching both of them run around.

Peter was terrified at the beginning when the water got high and would run away as fast as his wee legs would carry him, but later he got very confident and walked right through all the sprinklers.

Peter and Liz

The weather has finally turned to summer here and we're loving getting to go outside more frequently. We also went with some friends to pick strawberries last week at a local farm....I loved it...and the strawberries were the best I have ever tasted. We're going again this coming Friday...this time I'll take my camera.

The Party

2010-06-12T17:14:00.000-07:00

Ryan woke up at 5:45am to go and play golf with some friends this morning...crazy....but he loves it. Normally I would have obviously stayed in bed,but today I knew I had to get an early start before the wee ones arose...I had a cake to make.

So, I tried the cupcakes....it was a fairly tedious process and they did not turn out how I wanted. Definitely not like the picture I posted in my previous post. They were kinda tie-dye rather than stripes. I was disappointed, but decided that I would make a cake version instead(I had seen this one on a different blog I read).

As I was making the individual cakes I got really excited.....the colours were just so gorgeous.

Here we are right after singing 'Happy Birthday' to the boys

Here's the "before we dive in and eat it" picture of the finished cake...that took WAY too long to make...but it was so worth it when we cut inside and all the kids saw it.

Jack and Peter had a brilliant time running around like maniacs with all the other kids. I made my own version of 'pin the tail on the donkey'....mine was 'pin the funnel on Thomas'.

Here is wee Peter, looking all old and not like a baby anymore....I love this boy, he has such a cheeky personality.

Jack loved the cake and had a lot of fun blowing out the candles.

Peter had his first taste of cake, but was way more interested in smashing the cupcake to smithereens.

Our friends the Stocks, Daltons, and Wraughts came...thank you again for the lovely gifts!

Happy Birthday boys!!!! (Even though it's not till Tuesday).

Birthday cupcakes

2010-06-04T13:32:00.000-07:00

(Picture taken from "The girl who ate Everything' blog)

Jack and Peter have the same birthday, June 15th. We're going to have a small party for their birthdays on Sat.12th. here at the house with a few friends and then we'll do a family dinner on their actual birthday. I came across these cupcakes on a blog I look at and just loved them. I want to make them for the party. I went out and bought everything I need to make them this afternoon.

Baking intimidates me...not just baking actually I always get supper nervous when I try a new recipe. I'm terrified that it'll turn out just awful and everyone will smile pleasantly, but secretly think I'm the worst cook ever.

I'm going to do a test run of the cupcakes in a wee bit...I can just see it being a disaster if I leave it till the day of to try making them. Wish me luck!

Going private

2010-06-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

If you want to keep reading my blog leave your email....I'm going to make it private.

Paint colour

2010-06-01T08:44:00.000-07:00

Here are two shots of the paint colour we went with on our upstairs walls.

The rest of May

2010-05-31T15:13:00.001-07:00

Friday 14th - Our ward had a wii bowling tournament as a fundraiser for YW's camp. Ryan and I started out in different teams and demolished our competition. I shouldn't brag, but I never usually beat anyone because I'm always playing against Ryan so it was fun to win for once. Then I had to play against Ryan....Yes, I lost. But he beat out everyone in this second group so he continued.

He ended up coming in 3rd in the entire tournament and we won a nights stay at the Marriott hotel. Yes please. Ryan's dad is out in Florida already and has been for about 3 weeks now, but his mum is still here until the 29th June. So she came up and watched the wee ones while we took advantage of our prize.

We went downtown in Portland after checking into the hotel. We got Ryan a new suit for work, had some dinner and then went to see Iron Man 2. It was very odd not having to worry about being home by a certain time.

The next day we bought some new book shelves for our living room and some paint. I was really eager to get something done with our upstairs. It was incredibly boring.

Thursday 27th- I started painting our upstairs living room and got 2 walls done by myself in between "busy boy" Pete's naps.

Friday 28th- Ryan and I then stayed up till 1am finishing the job. It's very bright, but I really like it.

Saturday morning- Jack said, " Mum, the wall is green." Me: "Yes it is, do you like it?" Jack: "Yes, I like it, it's really nice." Me: "Awww, thanks wee man." Jack: "You're welcome mum."

What a sweet lad.

Sunday 30th- I got a 3 hour nap in the middle of the day....never happens... pure dead brilliant.

That night I watched a 4 hour long BBC version of Emma that I got for my birthday with Ryan's mum who was staying with us for the weekend....also pure dead brilliant...I want to watch it again.

Today (Monday 31st)- It is Memorial day so Ryan has the day off work. Ryan got up with the wee ones and I stayed in bed until 9:30am. I got to finish a book that I have been working on for about 2 months. Ryan's mum is still here and playing with the boys....while I sit and jot this down. Later we're having a BBQ, Ryan will be grilling. I feel like I'm on holiday.

I will post pictures of the living room later.

Only 111 days to go!

2010-05-17T17:09:00.000-07:00

I'm so flippin' excited! I just bought tickets for our whole family to go to Scotland! We head out on the 5th Sept. and return on the 21st Sept. I have been unbelievably homesick for about two weeks and on a mad hunt to find us some cheap tickets. After having a slight melt down on the phone to my mum yesterday and crying for most of the day, I refocused and found us a really good deal on some US Airway tickets. It's a 1 stop flight, which is ideal when travelling with the wee men. I'm so glad that Ryan is coming with me too. He's only been once in 2006 and I really can't even begin to imagine travelling by myself with the two boys.

It's still a little ways away, but I am so ecstatic to see the "bonnie bonnie banks" of my homeland again.

Another year older

2010-05-11T14:49:00.000-07:00

On Sunday it was Mother's Day here in the States (it was on March 14th in the UK). Ryan made me breakfast...it was supposed to be breakfast in bed, but I kinda got out and made the bed. So all four of us sat on top of the bed and shared it.

As much as I love being in YW it was nice to be able to go into Relief Society with all of the women in our ward. The men took over all the women's callings for the last hour, it was great..plus I didn't have to prepare a lesson, that's always a lovely bonus.

Later in the day we had Ryan's mum and the Sister Missionaries over for dinner. I felt spoiled, I got some really nice gifts.

Then yesterday the spoiling continued as it was my birthday. I have made the most wonderful friends since moving here to Newberg. One friend surprised me with a delish cheesecake and balloon on my doorstep first thing in the morning. I got some beautiful tulips from my friend, Val, and my amazing visiting teacher brought over a loaf of homemade artisan bread. The boys and I met Ryan at the mall later in the day and we ate dinner at the cheesecake factory. It was the perfect place to be with my noisy children. There were tons of people having 'Happy Birthday' sung to them .... I didn't and the pathetic dessert freebie wasn't enough to convince me to change my mind.

Here's a photo of me with wee Peter at the restaurant and then with my wee Jack the lad.

I've had such a lovely couple of days. I love my wee family and was glad I also got the chance to talk to my family in Scotland too. My dad said, "well....28 years ago today we had the pleasure of your company". I said, "yeah, I know, I'm getting pretty old....but not as old as Ryan, he'll be 30 this year!" Ha. I won't be laughing when it's me.

They're moving.

2010-04-27T19:20:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my luck, both wee ones in bed by 7pm. Jack usually goes down this early, but Pete lingers around until closer to 8:30pm. Anyway, I thought I'd just jump on and give a run down of our weekend. Friday afternoon I got a call from my father-in-law saying he'd got the job in Florida. As I congratulated him I got a wee bit teary eyed which kinda surprised me. I knew it was very likely that he'd get the job, but I guess another part of me thought this one might fall through like some of the others he had interviewed for. We came to Oregon to be close to Ryan's family since there is no way we're headed over to Scotland anytime soon to be close to mine (for some reason Ryan isn't so keen on the idea of going through law school again...can't imagine why?).

Well, Chris asked us to come over for dinner on Sunday as he would be leaving Tuesday....what! I was pretty shocked. We had plans for dinner with a family in our ward, but under the circumstances we cancelled so we could go say farewell to Chris. Liz (my mother-in-law) is going to leave at the end of June after school gets out; she works as a teacher's aid.

We had stake conference this weekend. Ryan had priesthood meetings during the day and when he returned I headed out myself to the Saturday night session. It was really wonderful. I haven't cried like that through a session of stake conference...well...ever.

During the Sunday morning session both kids conked out. It was fabulous. My children have never been so well behaved at church(if only they would always dim the lights during sacrament meeting! It was being broadcast from our stake center to our home building). When Jack woke up 5 mins before the end he turned to me and said, "Mum, I'm sick. I need to take a nap". Before I could say a word, he started to cough that dreaded cough (the one that sounds like barf is coming). I grabbed him, and ran as fast as I could to the closest bathroom...he exploded all over the sinks. Poor kid. And poor me. I did not want to clean it up, but of course I did.

He took another 2 hour nap when we got home, but seemed grand as sand when he woke up. We decided just to take him to Ryan's parent's house even though we were still a little unsure about him...mainly because this would be the last time he'd see his Grandpa for quite a while. Minutes after walking through their front door with him he exploded all over their carpet. Oh, motherhood. I tended to the wee sickie for another hour before he zonked out again. Bless.

It was an "interesting" visit...dealing with wee sick Jack, meeting Callie's(ryan's sister)new beau, hearing about Casey's (ryan's bro) new life on a chicken farm(he came in from Cali for 1 day to collect all his furniture that was stored in his parent's garage), and hearing about all the plans for their move to Florida.

Oh and Pete just woke up and he has a temperature...smashing.

Tulips

2010-04-21T10:46:00.000-07:00

Our friends invited us to come along with them to the Tulip Festival in Woodburn last weekend. I had actually been looking at someone else's pictures of their visit to the festival a few days prior and was in complete awe...it looked truly breathtaking. I wasn't disappointed. It turned out to be a slightly longer drive out there than I had anticipated and Ryan even made the comment that he didn't realize we were going to California to see the tulips, but it was a pleasant drive (with both weans asleep) and lovely scenery.
Of course I attempted to get the boys together for a nice photo in amongst the flowers, but it went as expected...no one co-operated.

I loved this brilliant old steam tractor...I thought Jack would too, but for some reason he was a little unsure of it and threw a massive fit as we walked towards it.

Pete and I sat for a few minutes in with the tulips and got a couple of cute wee shots together, before grabby Pete thought it would be more fun to behead the poor things.

Jack told me over and over and over that he wanted to go in "that house"(the windmill)...of course it was purely decorative and so he was pretty disappointed when he finally got over to it. He did make an attempt to launch himself over the railing around it, but I'm no fun.
We have been enjoying some beautiful sunshine here in Oregon and I hope it continues a wee while longer.

In other news, Ryan's parents are waiting to hear back from a job interview that might take them to Florida. It would be sad not to have at least one set of grandparents close by for the kids to grow up around, but if that is where Chris gets a job then we'll be happy for them. And really I don't think I'll be that upset about having to take a trip to Florida to visit them...Disney world here we come(...maybe).

Easter '10

2010-04-06T12:34:00.000-07:00

Easter Weekend was bloomin' busy this year. Of course, in typical Oregon fashion, we had freezing cold wind/rain that made the community Easter egg hunt we attended REALLY special. My husband's dear aunt Julie made the comment that the kids looked like "New England Fishermen" in this picture...brilliant. They waited in anticipation for the horn...but alas when the horn actually sounded poor wee Joey(in the blue) had a slight change of mind and decided it wasn't for him and began to cry. Jack quickly grabbed three eggs that lay close by, but within SECONDS ...

...the whole lot had vanished. Oh well...needless to say I wasn't too disappointed it was over. The weather made the whole experience rather miserable...here's hoping for a more cheerful day next year.

On Saturday night Ryan's parents came and stayed the night with us. We watched conference and then painted some eggs in between sessions. Jack was having a brilliant time. He wasn't too gentle with the eggs, but then again he's not very gentle period.

Pete had been napping during the egg painting. Jack could barely contain himself when Pete woke up and made sure Pete got a proper look at each of the eggs he had painted.
Pete was equally excited about the eggs and being the "grabby" boy that he is....swooped at numerous eggs...
...examined them carefully and then proceeded to chuck them on the floor. Jack thought this was a genius idea, but I was quick to foil that plan. Thankfully we only ended up with a couple of Humpty Dumptys.
He's pretty cute, but he's very mischievous!
It was a rather jam packed weekend, with a lot of sweeties consumed(especially when my mum's package full of AMAZING chocolate came from home), but it was nice to spend some time with family and enjoy conference.

Side note...we were watching part of "The Return of the King" after all the family had left on Sunday night as we got the kids ready for bed. Jack probably shouldn't have been allowed to see any of it, but in the short few minutes he saw he got annoyed at the "naughty monkey" (gollum) and exclaimed "It's Jesus" when he saw Gandalf....ummm...great.

Oh Happy Day!

2010-03-22T16:45:00.000-07:00

I am so happy I can hardly stand it! This kid is POTTY TRAINED!!! Hooray...it's glorious. I never thought I'd be so ecstatic to hear the sound of pee.

Three and a half days of pure torture, but it was all worth it! He's still wearing pull-ups at night, but for now that's totally ok with me. I'm a very proud mummy.

(And...even though Pete still prefers to walk around the furniture as his main mode of transportation, today he started crawling!)

Bits and Bobs

2010-03-09T15:26:00.000-08:00

1. In May we'll have been in our house for a year. It seems hard to believe. I kinda feel the same way I do when I think about my kids. You know that feeling of, "He can't be that old, I just had him!" Well, sometimes I feel like we just moved in.

I love our house. We looked at about 20+ houses when we were searching for the right place and I got a pretty good idea of the things I wanted in a home. But, at the same time I knew that this being our first home I wasn't going to get everything I wanted right away.

Last weekend I saw this show called "House Hunters". It's brilliant. It does have me really thinking about the little things I would like to have in a second house. But for now I am content and happy.

2. Oh, and I don't feel so bad about taking so long to decorate my house. After visiting with a couple of people this week I realize that it can take years to have your house decorated the way you really want it. (And we have no money right now.)

3. I was reading someones blog yesterday who talked about sending their kid to Art class. I sat there and actually said, "I want to send my kid to an art class...wonder where I could find one?"

Really?! What am I thinking. I bloomin' went to college and got my degree in Art Education and then taught for 2 years. Jack already does a lot of drawing, watercolour painting, play dough, and crafts with me, but I really need to start teaching him about the different styles of art and introducing artists every once in a while. Maybe I should start a wee art class in my home...um, no.

4. Jack is officially obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine. He still loves cars, but for the time being trains have taken the lead and are number 1 in his eyes. Yesterday I had a moment where I got a little afraid that Jack's obsession might be rubbing off on me. I actually drove my children 35 mins (each way) to Toys R Us just to get Jack "Spencer" and "Toby" because I thought he really needed them. Yes. I think I might have a problem. But I don't feel too bad because my good friend, Val, has a problem too...Ha. When I told her the trains were 40% off she said that she wants us all to go to Toys R Us for her birthday on Thursday...hysterical. Her son is nuts about Thomas too. Love it.

5. Over the last few weeks I have had A LOT of people ask me about my "status" here in the States. Most people assume I am an American Citizen. I'm not. I have my permanent residency or "Green Card" as it is commonly known. It was a long, hard, and very expensive road to get it and I pity anyone that it just starting the process. It lasts for 10 years and then I have to renew it again. I've gone back and forth on the idea of getting my citizenship here for quite some time. I mean, really, why not? I am pretty much going to be living here for the rest of my life and Britain doesn't even let me reject my citizenship there anyway, so I would have duel. I need to stop wavering and just decide what I'm going to do. It just breaks my heart a wee bit to think that I will never live in Scotland again.

6. Pete doesn't want to crawl. Why don't my kids want to crawl?! It's odd. Jack starting doing a weird half crawl when he was 7 1/2 months old and then walked at 8 months. It was a nightmare. No common sense whatsoever! I had been hoping that Pete would be different, but alas no..he's the same. He's been walking around the furniture for about a week now and is on cloud 9. The boy refuses to bend his legs when I try to sit him down. When I put him into the crawling position he pushes himself back up to sitting. Oh well, the sooner he gets to start properly playing with Jack the happier he'll be.

7. My camera is dead...I will liven up my blog with some more pictures as soon as I get a new battery!

February

2010-02-26T14:45:00.000-08:00

I need sleep.

Sunday Feb 13th:

4am-Jack is crying. I go into his room, it's still very dark. I don't turn the light on though because Pete sleeps in there too. "It's ok Jack, lie down babe". "NO MUM! YUCKIES!" I turn his night light on to find his entire bed covered in purple puke. We had been at my in-laws house for dinner the night before. Jack had eaten A LOT of blueberries. Yuckies indeed.

5:35am- More purple puke.

6am-More.

6:12am-More.

8am-More.

12 noon: Jack has his cars lined up on the kitchen table....he's happy as a clam. He's suddenly all better.

Saturday Feb. 20th:

8pm-Put Pete to bed (Jack has been asleep for an hour already).

8:25pm-Collect Pete from his bed...he's stuffy and congested, very upset.

8:45pm-Put Pete to bed for the 2nd time.

8:55pm-Collect a crying Pete from his bed...he falls asleep in my arms within seconds...so tired, but miserable.

9:03pm-Pete is back in bed and appears to be out for real this time...I wait...still sleeping..brilliant.

12:35pm-Ryan is sound asleep,dead to the world. I hear Pete crying. I stumble down the dark hallway to Jack and Pete's bedroom.

12:40- Try feeding Pete, he isn't interested. He looks up at me with sad, pathetic eyes and then barfs what I can only describe as a bucket load of grossness all over every inch of me.

I'm too scared to even move. Good thing I didn't...

12:41-Another massive amount of puke all over me....nice...I am ready to puke myself.

12:47pm-I have never taken a shower at this time of night before, but it is very necessary. Pete gets a bath too.

1am-Pete is asleep, but awakens upset and distressed every 40 mins for the rest of the night.

7:35am-"Mum, where are you?" Fabulous, Jack is up.

Ryan was already gone for his Sunday meetings when I finally dragged my body, with two kids attached, out into the living room.

We traded off later that morning so I could go teach my Beehive class. I could say I have never been so tired, but I'm pretty sure I have been.

Monday thru Wednesday the house was puke free, but no one really felt good. Then Wednesday night Ryan was up barfin' till the wee hours of the morning. He took yesterday off work. He went back in today, but I'm not so sure that was a great idea. Hopefully good old 'Vial Fotheringham' doesn't end up with a bunch of sicko lawyers by the end of the day.

Today I feel queasy....oh bother.

A wee plug

2010-02-15T13:38:00.000-08:00

WANT ONE OF THESE?

No, you can't have my cute wee baby, but you can have one of these gorgeous outfits for your kids or order a customized t-shirt for yourself. Check out my cousin's blog if you're interested at http://joynevada.blogspot.com.

Happy Birthday Rabbie

2010-01-25T15:33:00.000-08:00

(Robert Burns)

Today I am homesick. I was so homesick that I busted out my massive Scottish flag and actually thought about hanging it up in my house somewhere...I know...ridiculous...I put it away.

It's been exactly a year since I was last home and even thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. I am such a wuss.

January 25th is Robert Burns birthday and all over Scotland people are enjoying haggis, neeps, and tatties for their dinner tonight. Since I am pretty sure I will not be able to find any haggis (I know my boys will be SOOOO dissapointed..ha) I will be making some regular old uninteresting meal.

This past weekend most of my family back home attended our stakes "Burn's Supper". Here's a wee summary of what typically happens: General welcome, followed with the Selkirk Grace. After the grace, comes the piping (my Grandpa usually does this) and cutting of the haggis, where Burns' famous Address To a Haggis is read and the haggis is cut open. People usually then begin eating just after the haggis is presented.

My Granny frequently recites the Burns' poem "Tam O' Shanter which is over ten minutes long! My new years resolution this year is to try and memorize it. We'll see how that works out for me.

So, whether you're Scottish or not, Enjoy your Burns Night!

My other half

2010-01-18T15:47:00.000-08:00

Ryan has a blog (you know...my husband). I love it. When we first started getting to know one another I was impressed with his vast knowledge of random trivia. I liked that he knew A LOT about a lot of different stuff. I studied Art Education at BYU. I always hoped to marry someone that would want to come to an art show with me or be willing and able to discuss a piece of art work. I believe Ryan was a great choice for me. He knows what he likes and why! None of this "just because" nonsense. On our second date I invited him to come to an art exhibit with me. It was perfect and he intrigued me.

It's not just that he has an appreciation for art that I love, but the amazing desire he has to continue learning. So, often I find myself frustrated because I can't remember the name of a specific piece of art, or I can't remember which movement one came from, etc. Sometimes I feel like my days all blend together and I'm in a bit of a rut. Ryan renews my desire for knowledge. Now, believe me...we do have conversations face to face..indeed we have many. But his blog exposes his great mind a little more and I feel pretty special that he picked me.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-28T20:53:00.000-08:00

This year Christmas was lovely for the most part . It really does make a huge difference having your own children to enjoy it with. It was fab watching Jack get so excited on Christmas morning. He was up first at about 8am and I took him up stairs to look over the presents for just a few moments. He was desperate to get crackin' on the presents, but we waited until Pete and Ryan were awake.

Both of the boys got pretty spoiled. I had done quite a bit of shopping on Black Friday. I totally stayed within our budget, but the kids got more for their buck I guess, due to the sales.

Jack was in charge of giving each person a gift to open when it was their turn. And he took that opportunity to help you along with the opening process as well. He was very sweet.

After the gifts I cooked a deliciously unhealthy breakfast. It was all going great until about noon, when Jack suddenly had a fever. If you know Jack you know that nothing slows that kid down. Well, I picked him up and within about a minute he was asleep in my arms. He slept for about 2 hours, woke up with a raging fever, wouldn't eat anything and then went back to bed for another 5 hours. It was so sad that he was unwell on Christmas, but he did get to enjoy the morning at least. Pete was fine thankfully and had great fun playing with wrapping paper for most of the day.

At about 2pm Ryan's family came up to our house. We exchanged some more gifts and then had dinner at about 5pm. Having never made the Christmas dinner before, I felt a little bit of pressure with all the family there, but it all went off without a hitch. I decided on a ham which was a nice change. Ryan's aunt Julie told me she thought it would all go great so long as I wasn't cooking a haggis! Ha. Maybe I should have. I did have a lovely Scottish table cloth and some christmas crackers from home on the table.

Here are a couple of cute pictures of my wee pete to start off with. I love this wee guy so much. He just started on some 1st foods, cut his 3rd tooth, is sitting up great, and is beginning to edge forward a little bit. I am hoping that he does not start walking at 8 months like Jack did. I love the sitting phase, he is so happy and content with just a couple of small toys and he loves to watch Jack running circles around him.

My wee chunky cutie

Jack taking a quick look at the presents on Christmas morning

Jack with his stocking stuffers

Pete's first gift

Jack in his Thomas hideaway tent

Mummy and Jack

Jack with his Thomas carnival track

Jack wasn't too happy about this picture getting taken

Pete with his 'Rex'

After his first nap...poor wee guy was still so unwell

I felt way less homesick this year than I previously have at Christmas time. I don't know if it's because we were in our own house this year or what. But it is so nice having our own home to start some family traditions in.

December 18th 2004

2009-12-18T11:29:00.001-08:00

Ryan and I were married in the Orlando Florida Temple 5 years ago today.

My wee brother Neal

My grandpa Clark on the pipes

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY RYAN! IT'S BEEN A WONDERFUL 5 YEARS!

Getting in the Christmas spirit

2009-12-08T09:39:00.000-08:00

On Saturday we had Ryan's work Christmas Party at the Lake Oswego Country club. It's very fancy. We enjoyed a delicious brunch, caught up with Ryan's old buddies from the Utah office, and even had a visit from Santa. Jack was petrified of Santa. He cried when he arrived and wouldn't go any where near him. Consequently, we don't have any pics of him with Father Christmas. Pete, on the other hand, was brilliant! He grabbed hold of his beard and grinned from ear to ear. It was so funny. We'll see how he acts next year.

Jack decorated a christmas cookie after the brunch, but only ate the MM's and then tossed it. What a surprise. Both boys got a present from Santa and now Jack is getting even more excited for Christmas day. I'm pretty excited too. It's so much more fun with wee children.
Here are Ryan and Jack decorating the Christmas Tree last week for Family Home Evening.

We took this one ourselves with the timer, so it ain't great. But we want to wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T15:17:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving has been a happily adopted holiday for me. What's not to like really? I mean I always loved Christmas dinner and Thanksgiving is basically the same. I love that Ryan gets a couple of days off work to spend time some extra time with us and then, of course, it's a nice opportunity to think about the things we are grateful for.
We headed down to Salem to be with Ryan's family for the day and greatly enjoyed the yummy feast of really good food, followed by games and conversation. Ryan and the boys stayed the night down there, while I headed home. I had plans with my friends to go out shopping on Black Friday. It was so hard to get up at 3:30am when it was the first time in a while I had gotten a really good uninterrupted (by Pete) sleep. But it was worth while. I got all of my Christmas shopping done for Jack and Pete and just had a blast hanging out with the girls.

Pete has started sitting up really good now by himself and also had his first taste of rice cereal which he wasn't a big fan of at first.

Not impressed with the rice cereal at all!

Jack has discovered a new love: making art! It makes me proud. He still loves playing with his beloved cars, but for now he is spending a great deal of his day drawing, colouring, and painting.

The boys have been getting along so much better lately. Well, let me rephrase that. Jack has been getting along much better with his brother lately ( although on second glance at this picture here it looks like Jack is ready to take a punch at Pete..Haha). They roll around on the floor together and Pete is highly entertained by pretty much everything Jack does. I love having two boys. It makes me so happy to see them interacting and I can't wait till Pete is old enough to really play with Jack.

We went with some friends on Saturday and cut down our own Christmas tree. It was really fun and I hope that it will become a new family tradition...at least while we are living in Oregon. I mean seriously you can't live here and not get a nice real tree, ours is lovely and it was only $10! I am really looking forward to spending our first Christmas in our new home this year.