Stockdale Family

Benches!!!

2013-02-27T14:59:00.001-08:00

So my AMAZING husband surprised me while I was gone to my sister's house mid-December with the beginning of my Christmas present! He began building one of our dream side benches in our living room. It was a complete surprise to me and I was so excited! Well, once one bench was finished being built it just seemed natural that the other should be built as well. It took a while to fully complete everything. I was going to make the bench cushions myself, but once I got started I scared myself and didn't want to mess it up so I called a professional who made them beautifully! I did end up making all the pillows. These benched have a lot of storage which is also a massive bonus :)

Dave even took some step photos of one of the benches. It just amazes me that my huband can do all this! What an amazing guy!

Christmas Decorating

2012-11-30T16:20:00.001-08:00

First let me express how much I LOVE Christmas, Christmas decorations, Christmas shopping, holiday food, Christmas music, you get it. The kids and I will be away from our home for a week during December so I seriously considered NOT putting it all up, maybe just the basics. It just ends up being a lot of work and I figured if I we don't get to enjoy it for very long then what's the point. Well, that thought didn't last very long, so after all the dust settled from Thanksgiving we broke out all the Christmas decor and I got to work. After 5 inconsistant days, over 175 individually boxed Hallmark ornaments (TONS of work to get out of all those danged boxes), two trees and tons of other decorations I'm finally finished! It sure takes a long time to get everything the way I wanted it with two little ones to care for. So I thought I'd share :) don't judge the pics, I don't have a very good camera.

Here are a few before pictures:

Completion:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! :)

Quick Note

2012-11-25T16:47:00.001-08:00

Ok, so I've thought we haven't done anything that I could blog about . . . well, I downloaded pictures off my phone and I've come to realize I was wrong. So here is a nice catch up in the following 10 posts! Have fun catching up! If you can't see all 10 posts on this page you can click on individual posts in the blog archive to view them all.

Bella's 4th Pink Family Birthday Party

2012-11-25T16:47:00.000-08:00

Bella has become obsessed with the color pink over the last few months. And since then she has also been requesting a pink birthday. She REALLY wanted me to paint the house pink as well as the carpet for her birthday, I told her that wasn't realistic, lol. So instead we decorated as much as we could, including people. Just about everybody either wore pink or wore something that was pink, it was awesome! We let Bella decide what order to do things and she wanted to play games first so EVERYONE sat down and played duck, duck, goose (one of her favorite games). It takes a while to play even one round with having 23 people playing so we only played three rounds but everyone played and it was a lot of fun! After the 3rd round she was ready to move on to hide and seek, again EVERYONE participated! HOW FUN! Grandma and Grandpa even hid! She had to find 22 people, what fun! Bobby had the best spot, hiding in Bella's trundle! Next Bella wanted to have cake, she loved her pink strawberry cake. We also had pink marshmellow bouquets, pink lemonade and at dinner we had pink rice with our chicken!

Bella was kind of confused. I had to explain she had to break through the streamers. She had fun once she got it. My niece, Ashley, decorated everything. Dallin helped a lot too.

I'm 4!

Debra didn't get a pink shirt for Rob thinking he wouldn't wear it. But I think he felt left out so he stole Bobby's shirt, lol.

SMOOCH!

Here is our yummy pink rice!

Lisa and co. got Bella pink cowboy boots, seriously the cutest things ever!!! She didn't take them off all night. Bella also loved getting Thomas the Train movies and mermaid from Rhona and fam. She slept with a little pig from the Wassoms that is from Scentsy that has something fragrant in it.

When all was said and done I have to admit I got a little emotional. We got to have a large family birthday celebration for my daughter that we waited for three years to get pregnant with! So much love and it meant a lot to be able to have it actually on the 4th anniversary of the day of her birth!!! WE ARE SO BLESSED! Thank you Wayne, Rhona, Xavier, Max, Kylie, Neela, Debra, Rob, Ashley, Bobby, Dallin, Camille, Mark, Lisa, McKayla, Natasha, and of course Grandma and Grandpa Melton!! WE LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!

Fun things about Bella: she loves everybody, seriously, no matter what you look like and who you are she is more than likely already going to love you and want to play. Age also does not matter. She hates, absolutely hates saying goodbye, she doesn't ever want anyone to leave her (other than her parents ;). She loves Thomas the train as well as mermaids and fairies and of course is obsessed with pink right now. She loves her school and her favorite is to paint. She also is excellent at memorizing and learning spanish words (thanks to Dora the Explorer). She is an extremely picky eater but is getting better and she likes to help. She is perpetually happy and she pretty much has one volume, very loud (we are working on that one). She loves her little brother and they play so well together.

Happy birthday my beautiful Baby Bella Bugs!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!

Thanksgiving 2012

2012-11-25T16:18:00.002-08:00

Thanksgiving this year was held in Eugene for my family. It was a family only celebration this year and we had it at our house. Wayne, Rhona and kids came down from Seattle and Debra, Rob and kids came down from Battle Ground, WA. Wassoms stayed with us and Seattle Meltons stayed with Grandpa. We had a lot of fun playing and enjoying each other. Especially Bella and Grayson, they really love their cousins. Natasha and McKayla were even able to spend the night a couple nights!

23 people fed at our house this year, I think it is our current record!

Lots and lots of desserts! Wayne went a little crazy, he made 26 dozen pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, 6 dozen chocolate crinkle cookies (all cookies were eaten by the time Wayne left), lemon bars, key lime bars, carmel bars and Rhona made heath bark. They also brought two pumpkin pies!

Dave made 5 dozen delish rolls, a 23 lbs turkey, Rob made 10 lbs of potatoes, a vat of orange jello salad was provided by Mark and Lisa but Stacia made it. Lisa was pretty much in charge of all the sides with the veggie platter, baked beans and garnishments.

The kids had a good time playing games together at the end of the night.

It was really great to have so much family for Thanksgiving this year! Now we just need to get Greg and Julie and co as well as Kirk and Heather next year!

We played bump and kickball one night. Debra, McKayla, Ashley and I were nuts and went out Black Friday shopping at midnight. I think they will all agree that it was a little crazy. We went out again around 8 and it was much better and we actually got a lot of good deals and it was just a fun thing to do, really.

The last night everyone was here we celebrated Bella's 4th birthday which will be in a different post.

Visiting Debra's in the Fall

2012-11-25T16:04:00.001-08:00

Dave has a lot of business trips in the fall. He was gone for a full week one week so we decided we would pack up and head north to my sister's house in Battle Ground, WA. The kids would get to play with a pack of cousins and would love it, so that is what we did!

We went shopping at the Factory Store Outlet Mall in Woodburn, Bella found this hat and just had to have it and I just had to get it for her :)

The kids had so much fun at their cousins' house playing, running around, and of course jumping on the trampoline.

We went to the pumpkin patch with Debra and Camille. There was a barn that had some farm animals in it but Bella thought it was too cold.

A hay pyramid that you can climb on, yes please! See if you can spot Bella and Grayson.

Oh wait, the climbing wasn't enough, nope, there are tunnels underneath it as well! Too fun!

We had to break to eat some lunchies. Grayson was getting tired and grumpy but we pressed forward.

I think he found his pumpkin.

They found this yellow ladybug and were mesmerized by it.

"I eat donut" - Grayson @ Krispykreme

We did all sorts of fun things with Debra, the pumpkin patch at Sauvie Island, Krispy Kreme, shopping and just hanging out, it was a blast!

Of course my kids don't really smile for me when I take pictures. That is mostly because after I hit the button to take a picture it takes forever for the picture to actually take so here are some true happy photos of the kids :)

At least they smile at each other. They may fight with each other but they sure do love one another.

Halloween 2012

2012-11-25T15:47:00.000-08:00

We had a lot of fun parties to go to this year to help us celebrate Halloween! So much fun! The kids really enjoyed dressing up, playing games and trick or treating. I have to say they are the cutest kids ever :)

Bella was a mermaid princess and Grayson was a Leopard. Grayson was going around saying rawr, rawr, it was adorable.

Seattle Trip

2012-11-25T15:43:00.001-08:00

We took a trip up to Seattle and our main purpose was to visit my cousin, who is more like an uncle because he is just a couple years younger than my dad. He isn't in the best of health and we wanted to make sure we had a visit with him this year. We stayed with our good friends the Sassers. We met up with my eldest brother in Leavenworth which was a ton of fun because it was also the same weekend that they were having their Autumn Leaf Festival so we got to watch a parade and explore Leavenworth. Dave had never been either, it was a lot of fun to hang out with Wayne, Rhona and Neela. Again, I didn't take very many pictures and of course none with the people we were visiting. This is going to be my new years resolution, better at taking pictures!

Grandma and Grandpa Stockdale Visit

2012-11-25T15:36:00.002-08:00

Ok, first I have to say I am absolutely horrible and didn't really get any pictures of Dave's parents, Mike and Diane Stockdale. Like I said I am terrible at taking pictures, especially with not having a very good camera, just my phone. But here are some happening while they were here. Dave's dad helped work on the truck. They also spent a fair amount of time fishing. I was even able to go once! But Diane and especially Mike LOVE fishing so Dave was able to get a friend who had a fishing boat take us all out for a few days in a row. We caught a lot of salmon which was SO good! We really enjoyed having them here, they were a lot of fun and the kids absolutely loved spending time with their grandparents. Grayson sure loved his Grandma!

Bono got a special bone to keep him happy for a while.

I got up too early to go fishing so I was relaxing at our base camp. Here are some pics from base camp:

beautiful huh?! It is on the Siuslaw River.

Bella's First Day of School

2012-11-25T15:28:00.001-08:00

Bella started Preschool this year! She absolutely LOVES it! She is extremely smart and can memorize very well. I was really worried about her socialization and how she would behave with other kids as this has been an issue in the past but she has slowly gotten so much better. Her teacher reports she does extremely well and is a joy to have in class. She is very helpful, plays well with others, follows instruction and is always happy. Yup, that is our little girl. She is just a perpetual happy child that we are so blessed to have!

Bella's First Swim Lesson

2012-11-25T15:23:00.001-08:00

Bella took her first swim lesson class this past fall too. She was so excited and she listened very well. She just has to redo the first class again as she didn't pass much. Putting her face in the water terrifies her and she is still really little but she has time to figure it all out. :)

Summer Time

2012-11-25T15:18:00.001-08:00

We had a lot of fun in the sun while we had it this summer! Here are some pics to help us remember the sunshine we won't see again until next summer:

We went to Wildlife Safari which was really fun, we drove through and saw all sorts of fun animals, giraffes, zebras, lions, elephants, tigers, bears, birds, snakes, pretty much everything. Then we walked through the pedistrian portion of it where there was a train ride and OF COURSE we had to ride on it, the kids are obsessed with trains! You can tell from the picture below Bella is amazed :)

Grayson likes to get up WAY too early, like before the sun comes up...there are days this is my only relief:

But then I get these two cuties:

We went to the lake a few times this summer, Bella loves getting in the water and splashing. Grayson just seems to enjoy throwing things into it. Silly kids.

Bella's first time on a sail boat, not a good pic but that is all I could get while holding onto Grayson.

We went to the lake to celebrate the 4th of July with Mark and Lisa and family, Grandma and Grandpa and a few of our good friends, the Hallocks and Johnsons. It was a lot of fun and all the kids REALLY enjoyed being in the sun and water all day. We also had lots of good eats!

Yeah, three canopies barely covered us all, I thought it was pretty funny.

We also spent a lot of time in the backyard in our little wading pool to keep cool. I just love this picture of Bella.

We also spend a ginormous amount of time at many different parks. The kids love to play at any park. They make friends with everybody and anybody. In fact there have been a couple different instances where Bella wroped some tween aged boys into doing her bidding and a pack of 8 year old girls were following Grayson around. It was just very funny. To Bella everyone is a friend and if she doesn't know you, you are a future friend, it is that simple. I hope she never loses that.

We went camping near Crater Lake. Dave had never been and it was such a great campout, we had a blast and it was really hot!

We took our Labor day holiday day trip near Salem to Silver Falls. There are a bunch of different falls and we hiked to a couple of them. It was a lot of fun and we had some new friends, David and Danielle Hitz, accompany us! The kids actually did a lot of hiking too, they like exploring especially if water is involved.

Grayson's 2nd Birthday

2012-11-25T14:56:00.003-08:00

Grayson turned 2 June 1! He is such a little cutie and such a little stinker! That boy sure can make me laugh as well as melt my heart. I think he has much the same effect on most people he encounters. Just so fun.

We didn't have a huge shindig for the little guy but we all had fun. We feel so blessed to have some family live in the same town!

Camping

2012-11-25T14:52:00.001-08:00

We went camping only twice this year. We were able to go out in our NEW tent trailer! It was SO great, I can't even tell you. Not being in a tent camping with little ones is the best! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the new tent trailer, sorry! But here are a few to commemorate our adventures :)

The kids had a ton of fun with family and playing outside constantly. Grayson LOVED riding his little push bike and he could go fast! He also loved that he could find rocks anywhere and would carry them around like prizes. Bella just loved the attention she could get from her cousins, just playing with them. I love camping, being outdoors and spending time with family.

New Member of the Family

2012-06-24T17:39:00.000-07:00

My eldest brother, Wayne, decided to sell our Grandfather's 1966 Ford F-250 Custom Cab Camper Special (a mouthfull, I know!). I've ALWAYS loved this truck. Dave is going to be very busy for a very long time restoring this beauty! I am so excited! This truck has only had four owners, my grandpa, my grandma, Wayne and now us. I just think it is so neat to have something from my Grandpa who passed away when I was a toddler. I am really looking forward to the completed restoration. Both Dave and I love classic cars too, so it fits us very well. :)

Here it is in 1984, look how wonderful it looks (Wayne too ;)!

My Little Monster No More

2012-02-24T18:34:00.002-08:00

Some of you may already know of our troubles with Bella's teeth, for those who don't I will give a quick summary.
When Bella's top four front teeth came in they came in all yellow, I was really concerned. I didn't take her to the dentist because she was under 1 year old and who takes a baby to the dentist?! Anyway, by the time she hit 18 months the yellow parts of her teeth just chipped off super easy and it was like over night that it happened. From then on we had a little monster. I took her to a doctor and they said to take her to a dentist. Then she got sick and her gums were bleeding at random times and we were completely freaked out. We took her to an emergency dentist who refused to even look in her mouth! We took her to another dentist who said there was nothing that could be done to help her. We KNEW this could NOT be true. Luckily we are in a ward (our church) with several dentists! A couple of them took a look at her but by the time we had them do this her gums finally stopped bleeding, but her teeth were still really bad. But one of them, who will forever remain my HERO, Dr. Matthew Bahen of Emerald Valley Dental http://emeraldvalleydental.com said he could help her. We took her to him twice to get resin bonding done, which is just kind of like a fake tooth attached to the original shards of teeth still there. The first time they didn't take very well and we were only able to get two done, Bella was of course freaking out and Dave had to hold her there in a bear hug while she was worked on. The second time only two were able to be done but one was lost fairly quickly because she had a cavity and he couldn't drill it out because of Bella freaking out again (she was too little to give her any nitrous oxide).

I had been growing more and more anxious about her getting her teeth fixed for a few reasons. One, SHE LOOKED LIKE A LITTLE MONSTER!!! Poor thing! Two, sometimes when she would fall, the sharp points of her monster teeth would cause much more damage than regular teeth and third, she is approaching the age where kids might start to notice and poke fun at her and I didn't want that for my sweet baby girl.

But just this last week we got in to see Matt :) (that is a SUPER big smilie face). He was able to use the nitrous oxide on her which took a good 10 minutes of her screaming until she got enough in her system and was completely complacent! CRAZY, I have NEVER seen my daughter be so complacent, EVER. Unfortunately, Dave was there as he was being the one holding her, but as soon as Matt took out a needle, they almost lost Dave. He had to lay down, he turned green and almost passed out. Yup, my husband is that man, the big guy who passes out because of needles. It isn't that he is scared of them, we are actually told by doctors it is an actual physical reaction to something foreign entering the body and the body is saving it's blood for other vital organs and muscles such as the heart and lungs. Anyway, so Dave had to leave while Matt did his beautiful work. Matt was able to drill out the cavity and fix ALL FOUR teeth!!! I can't even tell you how THRILLED I am about it! She looks like a normal little girl again :) I am one happy Mamma! And I am FOREVER indebted to Matt! It isn't super normal to have a lot of work done on one so young and they had to make sure the rest of the office was clear of other patients so they wouldn't be freaked out by Bella's screaming. Their office is a bit away but it is so worth it for us! Anyway, his staff was wonderful, friendly and super nice. And his office is SO nice! I THANK YOU MATT!!!

Here are some before and after photos of Bella. Sorry if they are blurry.

BEFORE

AFTER

I should note that Bella hates getting her picture taken, she hates the flash :)

Oh, I forgot to mention that Bella's bad yellow teeth were formed in utero and what the docs think is that I got sick while the teeth were forming and my body needed all the good stuff to fight the illness which then took away all that Bella needed. Again, that is a theory that two doctors told us, but who really knows. All we do know for sure is that it happened in utero.

My Christmas Present!

2012-01-12T13:16:00.000-08:00

First let me say that my husband is AMAZING! I had no idea he could do this . . .

The man built me a sofa table! How amazing is that?! We actually found plans for a four cubby on pinterest with the link here: http://www.takethesidestreet.com/2011/05/table-is-complete-next-comes-styling.html

I loved it instantly! I knew we needed something like that to clean up the toy mess that was in the living room. So, of course, my man went to work (without my knowledge). He even dragged my dad and brother into it by borrowing their tools and even my dad's house to build it so I wouldn't know! Dave built it in about 5 hours, after it took him 2 hours to modify the 4 cubby plan into 5 cubbies and get the materials. He presented it to me unfinished on Christmas so that I could pick out the color I wanted. He also had me look for the baskets I wanted as well as decor I wanted to place on top. The decor is not done yet, there will be some plants and I am always on the lookout for a small ceramic/metal bird which I think would go wonderfully with the ensemble.

I just LOVE it!

I love he even did the detailing on the side! It is perfect!!

Isn't my Dave AMAZING?! I sure love that man!

Now that I know I have such a carpenter on hand, we've come up with several more projects for him to do! Hopefully we will finish one this coming weekend and I can post it on here when completed!

(I just had to add pics of my sweet babies! They are SO adorable!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them!)

I am so blessed to have such happy children!

Projects I've Been Working On

2011-12-05T14:02:00.000-08:00

I've been doing several crafty things lately and here are a few of the projects I've been working on:

First up are holiday blocks, one side says Give Thanks and the other Merry Christmas. A group of girls and I got together to make these and holy cow we did not know what we were in for! I can't believe how long it took to make these suckers but I LOVE the result! Check it out! (if you are interested in instruction on how to make these leave a comment with an email and I will send you them)

And here is the Christmas one in action!

A giant fall wreath that I LOVE! I made this for a balcony needing a little something in my home. Now I have to make a Christmas one, but not until after Christmas to get the flowers at a much better bargain!

I was talking with one of my friends and she mentioned she'd like to do this one and I thought, wow it sounds so easy and I could really use it! I totally get sick of fishing for my makeup in my unorganized drawer. I also chose to make a little something for my brushes and q-tips!

Get a frame, spray paint to desired color, cut and insert sheet metal and attach magnets on the back (get the good magnets, not the already circled ones, they don't hold much weight). For the containers I got two Mikasa crystal candlesticks from Goodwill and two candle jars from Michaels and glued them together. I think they turned out pretty wonderful!

There are more projects coming up that I've had ideas for. Stay tuned!

Bella turned 3!

2011-11-25T19:59:00.000-08:00

Our sweet baby girl turned 3 on Thanksgiving too! We waited until most everyone left to celebrate but we did have everyone sing to her, she thought that was a lot of fun. She kept asking for cupcakes and I feel bad that I didn't make any, I just knew we were already going to have a massive amount of desserts.

Bella actually letting me take a picture of her, she is saying "cheeeeeese". She is holding a special eye spy toy from Grandma Stockdale! Thanks Grandma!

Bella has a new found favorite. Thomas the Train. Oh my gosh. I had NO idea about this until we discovered a lot of Thomas and Friends episodes on Netflix. I also had no idea it has been around forever, go figure. Anywho, she LOVES Thomas and trains, so for her birthday we got her some trains and a few tracks, now I think we created a monster! She is obsessed with them, she doesn't want anyone to play with her with them, really. She also has to sleep with them! Crazy. Forget dolls and princesses, my little girl loves dragons, cars, airplanes and trains! Choo choo

Thanksgiving

2011-11-25T18:25:00.000-08:00

We had Thanksgiving at our home this year and had plenty of company! Dave had a brilliant idea of rearranging furniture to fit all the adults and teenagers as seen below (look at all that YUMMY food!).

Teenager table :)

All little kids ate here and it worked great!

We had 24 people in our home! It was amazing! We had such great food and a lot of it! Way too much dessert we didn't even put a dent in it! Thank you to the Wolfleys, Johnsons, Hallocks, my dad and step-mother, Mark (one of my crazy brothers), Lisa, Stacia, McKayla and Natasha.

I am always so thankful for what I have, I feel so blessed all the time but this is a fun time of year to express it. I am thankful for my Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice, without Him I would have nothing. I am thankful my Father in Heaven sent me my sweet husband who is so good to me and our babies, I would be absolutely miserable without him. I am thankful for my sweet babies (even though Grayson's neediness is killing me right now), they are TONS of fun and are so dang sweet, they enrich my life every day. I am thankful for my home, that my husband has a job and I'm able to be a stay at home mommy. I am thankful for all my many temporal blessings such as my wonderful home and working vehicles.

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving as well!

Summer so far

2011-08-28T10:22:00.000-07:00

Here in Eugene we went straight from winter (55 degree days) in May and even June to summer in July. It is nuts. But here are some pictures to document our summer. Granted we have done a lot more going to the lake, visiting friends and family and such however I am TERRIBLE at taking pictures! So here is what we got so far.

We were just playing outside enjoying the warmth and sunshine for the first time in forever!

Grayson had his first birthday! Bella, of course, had to help him open his presents.

We went to Seattle to visit friends and go to a concert. We had a BLAST with the Sassers, we went to the zoo and Bella LOVED it. Bella and I were able to ride a camel which was super cool. But Bella mostly liked the sharks. She is obsessed with water and water animals. One of her favorite movies is a dolphin documentary. A girl after my own heart for sure!

U2 concert!!! Oh man, seriously, I cannot say enough about this experience!!! Dave got me tickets for the concert Christmas 2009. We didn't think we'd be able to go because at that time the concert was scheduled for 6 days before I was due with Grayson. But then Bono had back surgery and it was delayed for a year which worked great for us. We stayed with the Sassers and they were wonderful in not only taking our kids for the evening but also my friend's baby girl so they could go as well! It was my first real concert!! I was so stoked and WOW, what an amazing experience!! The music was amazing and it was SO much fun to see my all time favorite band live! I gained a whole new admiration for the Edge! Our seats weren't the greatest, but we moved down after a while.

In July my long lost brother, Greg, and his Canadian family came to visit. Well, they aren't really lost, they just live in Canada which is really hard for them to come visit and difficult for us to go visit. I hadn't seen them in two years! I hate that. Really hate that. But it was so great for them to come and they even stayed at my house, which was awesome because with baby schedules we got to see a lot more of them than we would have otherwise.

Grayson and cousin Tati playing in the sand and having a blast being so silly throwing the sand and putting it on their heads.

Grandma Leora found a starfish, the kids were amazed with it.

I got to hold my nephew baby Gavin. Oh, what a sweet boy he is! Greg and Julie sure are blessed with such sweet kids!

We went on a hike and I actually took the camera! Aren't you so proud of me?! I am! Bella hiked as much as she could. The trail was kind of overgrown with ferns that were taller than her so I had her on my back for a lot of it, but she was a trooper.

I know, this is a bad picture, but it is the only one I have of the boys! Grayson totally fell asleep in the pack, he had his head all the way to one side, it looked like it was going to fall off.

And thank goodness for Bono. We don't have to take our own backpack when he comes! He carries all our water, snacks, diapers and wipes in his pack, it is awesome! Oh and it tires him out really well.

Well, we've done a lot more than documented with pictures here, we went camping for the first time since Bella was born. It was a difficult first night (3 hrs of sleep) but the second was good. It was fun to finally go camping. Camping runs in my blood, but I also know we all need good sleep to enjoy ourselves so we haven't ventured out until now. It was a lot of fun and it was good to go with some friends.

We've done some fun yard saling, actual sailing, hiking, road trips, lots of time at the lake with friends and family, BBQs, fishing, clamming, walks and just enjoying nice weather before it disappears.

We hope all of you have had wonderful summers so far as well! Hopefully we will have great weather for a couple more months so we can enjoy the outdoors some more!

Early riser

2011-05-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

So because of this

sweet little girl

I had to make these

So that her room will look like this

in the morning so mom can try to get a few more

ZZZ's

For Denny and Fran :)

2011-03-21T21:23:00.000-07:00

This is just for Denny and Fran! Bella loves it! Listen closely, she says hi to you guys and that she loves you too! :) Thanks again!

Snow day!

2011-02-22T15:54:00.000-08:00

Dave had President's Day off so we decided to take our kids up to experience snow for the first time. We knew Grayson wouldn't really be able to participate in any fun snow activities but we figured Bella would love it as she LOVES to be outdoors and jumping in puddles. Heck, she would walk right into a lake, stream or river if we'd let her. We went up to Willamette Pass and started packing on the layers. Bella doesn't like layers we learned, but we had to do it because we also know she doesn't like to be cold. She didn't know what to think of the snow at first, until we were able to show her how you could have fun in it. We also brought our puggle dog, Bono, who loves the snow. We thought we'd put him to work:

Everyone had a good time. I'm still not sure how much Bella liked it. It seemed like she really enjoyed herself but she didn't say much which is a new experience for us all. Grayson hung out in the stroller all bundled up and was content the entire time. It was a lot of fun and we were all beat by the time we got home. A GREAT family day!

Catching up with B and G

2011-02-20T15:57:00.000-08:00

Thought we'd do some posting about our sweet babies.

Grayson is a crawling boy now. He is SUPER cute and such a happy little (or should I say big?) guy. As long as he is feeling well he is just this happy little man, I LOVE IT! He LOVES following his sister around, he absolutely adores her and she actually not only tolerates Grayson but it seems she really does care for him which is the cutest and most heart-warming thing on the planet. He started crawling about a month ago and he is already trying to pull himself up on things with not much success. He loves jumping in his jumper and he is a joy to bring with me to run errands. He actually falls asleep in the car and on the go which is a whole new concept to me. He likes to blow raspberries with his mouth. Since his surgery to fix his tongue-tiedness he has been having a hay day playing with his tongue! He loves to stick it out and curl it up, it is so cute. Grayson is an easy going baby and I thought he would be my cuddler but as things are right now, not so much a cuddler, darn it! He cut his first tooth on Valentine's Day which was such a blessing because he was having a really hard time teething. Not looking forward to more teeth coming in, poor thing.

One of Bella's favorite games with Daddy is the throwing the big red ball down the stairs, it totally cracks her up and gets her so excited.

Bella is doing awesome right now. Granted she has her moments, terrible two's and everything, but really she has been doing so much better! We've even been able to attend most or all of church which is wonderful for us! Her communication skills are developing quite well and we are able to figure out what she is saying or she can communicate what it is she wants which saves everyone from a nightmare. She still has her tantrums and that is usually when she is out of her element. She is a joy at home and is so great with Grayson and man, when she gives you a hug, you just melt . . . you really earned it from her if you get one. She is so sweet and is very concerned for the well being of others, asking if they are "okay" or "alright". She is absolutely obsessed with all things Toy Story. She loves Buzz, Woody, Jessie and Bullseye. She likes pretty things but could care less about princess things. She is a joy to have and we love her SO dang much!!! It is also really cute that she has some of her favorite people, Grandpa, Uncle Mark (none of us get this one), Natasha, McKayla and Stacia, of course, and when the Wassoms come to town she is ALL about her cousins Dallin and Bobby! She is loads of fun to play with. She doesn't really have fear which then scares her mommy because she will go down the HUGE slide at the park and jump off things, I guess she is kind of tomboy because of all this but she also loves pink and purple . . . my kind of girl :).