I love you Cannon Beach

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

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...

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!

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...

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

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

(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!