i'm alive...but my blog is not!

here i am...giving some much needed cpr and electric shock treatment to my blog.  man, i have so many things i could have blogged over the last five (or more!) months...but life has been too busy.  the five minute version:

• in may we went to sunriver for a family wedding.  it was awesome...we always love to go and i see we have managed to make it every two years!  sunriver holds a lot of great memories for us - aa and i used to go there every year for a little getaway.  our first trip with kellen was shortly before he turned one and i remember that he learned to patty-cake there, including the "roll it" with his arms and he was so proud of himself!  that first trip we found a great tree stump along the bike paths to take a picture of kellen.  we have managed to find that same stump the last two times we've gone and now have a collection of photos of each of them on the same stump.  i hope that the collection continues to grow!  what a difference two years makes - look at my baby girl!

• a week after sunriver, the kids and i took a little trip to the beach with sarah (my sister in law) and the boys and jan (my mother in law).  we stayed two nights and it was really fun...but a little crazy (what do you expect with a 4, 3, 2 and 1 year old!).  between my sister's kids and these boys, bennett and sammy, my kids are rich in the cousin department and it's oh so fun to see them all together!

Sammy (1), Maya (2), Kellen (4) and Bennett (3)

•  for mother's day i woke up to breakfast made by aa and the kids...with two special leaves the kids had specifically picked out for my place setting! we then went on a nice 1 mile hike at the audoban society.  it was a perfect little loop with a duck pond at the beginning and end.  we stopped at the half way point and enjoyed some little treats we had gotten at elephants.  it would have been perfect, except maya decided to take too big of a bit and proceed to gag and then puke all over herself and the trail. yuck.  needless say we got out of there as quickly as possible after using the water from our bottle to clean as much as we could off of her and the trail.  we quickly forgot about it all when we decided to go to salt and straw, the best ice cream shop for a little four sample tasting board. yum.  the kids devoured it, crazy flavors and all. 



•  when you work backwards like this...some milestones are given away!  big ones, like first haircuts!!!  may 6, we finally took maya in to chop off her locks.  i'd actually been wanting to bob her hair for awhile and after seeing a picture that a friend posted of her looking like a wild cavewoman, i convinced her to go!  we'd been asking her for months if she wanted a haircut and she would always say no...when i suggested it that weekend she said yes, so i guess we were both really ready!  i do miss being able to put it up in cute pig tails, but the bob is so cute and so easy.  i actually think she looks more like a baby with the little short bob than with her wild head of hair, so that's a bonus too!  she was perfect - sat stoicly still and was thrilled to finally get a lollipop just like kellen gets when he gets a haircut!

nervously excited in her pink convertible chair!

first cut!  sniff sniff

the look on her face the entire time!

my sweet baby girl with her new do!



hooray for lollipops!



• our new(ish) house has three parks within walking distance - it's awesome.  here are some fun pics of the kids at the park.  kellen is in his pj's because he had a 24 hour bout of a stomach bug (we all actually caught it after him - LOTS of puking, ugh) and was finally feeling good enough to get outside, something we all needed! 

• i'll end tonight's five minute update on the tulip festival.  the kids and i met aaron's mom down at tulip festival on a beautiful sunny day in late april.  we stopped and got some picnic goods at whole foods and then went to enjoy the beautiful colors.  it was actually my first time there, so fun to see the fields of flowers and lots of fun activities for the kids.  here's a slew of pics from the day.

grandma and kellen in the cow train

miss thing thought she wanted to ride on her own...only to freak out at the last minute and climb in my cow!



i have to agree...it was way more fun with her on my lap!



pretty colors

this picture kills me...her sunglasses, the look on his face, his arm around her and their little hands.  i could die.

maya and grandma snuggling on the hay bales

sweet cheeks

tractor tire swing was a hit!

there are those pigtails i miss!

mama and her babies!

sniff

grandma helping with the rubber ducky races!



• any bets on how long it will take me until the next post?  that is the real question!!!

Baby

It's amazing to hear these two little ones and their favorite made up game of "baby". I'm sitting here listening and wanted/needed (!) to capture this. Maya, of course, is the mama and kellen is the baby (crazy how those roles in life present themselves at such as early age!). Here's a sample of what I'm hearing!

Maya (as mama): baby, do you want to go to San Diego?
Kellen (as baby): yes, let's go to San Diego!

Baby: I went potty!
Mama: good job baby!
Baby: pssssss.....sssssssss, potty on you mommy!
Mama: babeeeeeee! Don't do that!

Baby: mama, it's my birthday!
Mama: let's go to frozen yogurt then!
Both: yayayayayaya! Baby: let's go to the park!

Mama: ok, oh look there is a swimming pool!
Baby: I'm floating away!

Mama: baby want to go to San Diego? With uncle bry. Ummm.
Baby: nope.

Mama: baby, it's your daddy on the phone
Mama: (talking on the phone to daddy) umm and we went to San Diego and we made a castle. Bye bye daddy!

Mama: let's make a castle baby.
Baby: I already am!
Mama: want a guy baby?
Baby: no, go get me that other piece.
Mama: ok, baby.
Mama: no, I want it baby!
Baby: I finished it mama, look at it!
Mama: yep!
Mama: (singing) teamwork, teamwork! I AM THE MOMMY!!!
Baby: I know that mommy!

And on and on it goes! This little game occurs nearly on a daily basis and the roles never change. Such fun and such gladness in my heart to be here to hear them play together in their imaginary world!

november catch up

just a had to share highlights from november...cause some good stuff happened!

maya moved from her mattress on the floor to her big girl bed (this may have happened at the very end of october...i can't remember)! it's been a seamless transition - she's yet to fall off the bed. i'm pretty sure since she spent the first two years of her life nestled in between aa and i, she was used to sleeping in one spot (meaning she never moved around in a crib all night long!). you can't see it here in this picture, but she actually uses her boppy as a pillow. i imagine she has lots of good association with that boppy and it also feels like she's being cradled in someone's arms (hooray for them not being mine all. night. long!).

in early november aa and i took a much needed weekend away sans kidlets. this would be our first time away from maya for more than one night (she had done that a few times when we moved and for our last anniversary). we hit the road mid day on friday so we could get down to the beach with enough time for a little happy hour at the salishan lodge, another beer at the salishack (a sweet, coasty dive bar) and then dinner at the side door (with our favorite pan fried oysters to start!). we basically did nothing the rest of the weekend but lounge, nap, catch up on magazines, watch movies or football (including an awesome duck win over stanford), snuggle on the couch and eat good food. oh and we did make it over to the lodge for a couple of swims/hot tubs. it was incredible to have some one on one time with each other (something that is SO hard to find with two kids...but SO important). the weekend was not quite as relaxing for the grandparents...sadly both kids slept terribly and were up multiple times in the night. much fun was had, but it might be awhile before we get another weekend away! :(

kellen and i raked (played in) a lot of leaves - the con to living in a neighborhood with LOTS of trees! truth be told, kellen and i rakes some leaves and aa raked a LOT of leaves! ;)

my gram was in town for a couple of visits and my kids had so much fun with "drammy". it brings me such joy to see my kids loving my gram so much. i can remember (and still do) loving my gram and grandpa so much that it hurt...literally, we'd SOB after leaving their house. i only wish my grandpa was still alive, cause i know they'd have so much fun with him and he'd love loving on them too.

kellen wrapped up about six months of semi-private swim lessons at the farber swim school. he grew so much in those six months and i was so proud to see how far he'd come. he's much more confident in the water now (although still doesn't love his face to go under water) and we're hopeful that when we start up again in the spring that he'll step right back where we left off. poor maya was demoted to playing in the hot tub...we couldn't seem to get a schedule with the instructor and our swimmate that aligned so we could do a mommy and me class while kellen did his lessons - hopefully that will also happen when we start up again in the spring!

maya potty trained this month! this girl was actually ready to potty train in july/august (going potty on the toilet 3-4 times a day without being asked), but with the pending move and because she wasn't even two i didn't think it was possible and was too afraid to make the plunge! after we settled into the house, she was no longer so eager...but during the first week of november, her interest peaked again and i took the opportunity to say goodbye to the diapers. she was diaper free for a week before spending the weekend at her grandparents (nov 12/13), but that wasn't really fair to ask someone else to forgoe diapers in her first week, so she wore diapers that weekend. once we got home that sunday, i packed up the diapers and we haven't looked back. she basically trained herself and is practically night trained as well. i can't tell you how happy we are to no longer change/wash diapers. now if we could just figure out how to get them to wipe themselves we'd really be set! btw, her favorite undies are these pink ones pictures - those are apples on them and she calls them her "undies apples". she'd wear those undies every day if she could! as soon as she takes them off she says "wash my undies apples please mama!". she also has "undies stripes", "undies flowers", and "undies swirls".

and this post is suddenly WAY too long and i haven't even hit on thanksgiving!  i think i'll end on potty training and come back for a little turkey and pumpkin pie.

iPad killed my blog!

well...not really, cause i'm trying to revive it!  but aside from life (which is crazy busy with two littles), i blame the purchase of the ipad with the decline in my blogging.  you see, pre-ipad i actually had to go into my office and sit down at my desktop to do anything on the internet...so it forced me to post to my blog.  now, i can pretty much do anything on my ipad (pinterest, blog reading, facebooking, words with friends...yes, it can be a problem!) except easily post to my blog.  well, i could easily post...but not easily add pictures and what's a blog with no pictures? 

so, i need to find a way to bring this blog back to life and i'm working on that (have a lot of things to work on at the moment though...so we'll see how it goes!).  i have so much to catch up on over the last few months - most importantly a certain someone in this house turned FOUR!  four...are you kidding me? 

despite the lack of attention on this blog, he was showered with celebrations for nearly a week.  first off on the night of his birthday he chose sushi for dinner.  so our little foursome ventured out to the neighborhood sushi train (which was rumored to be pretty good) and enjoyed a feast of sushi.  rolls, edamame, noodles and sesame balls.  it was quite exciting for the birthday boy to grab the little plates off of the rotating conveyor belt.  sadly, i brought my camera sans memory card...so no pics of my sweet birthday boy's sushi outing.  afterwards we went to peachwave to get a froyo with unlimited toppings (faves include:  popping boba's, m&m's, anything gummy and of course sprinkles)!  we brought it home and did a little cupcake/candle and singing action.

family shot...so hard to get all four looking good!

the next day was the day he celebrated his birthday at school.  it was my day to work in the classroom and in honor of his birthday we brought mini ice cream cones from trader joes.  they were a hit in the classroom.  he was given a birthday crown to wear and got to pick out a book from the birthday basket - which of course was the highlight for my book loving boy!  instead of rushing back to pick up maya, i took him on a little birthday lunch date at mcmenamins.

finally the weekend arrived and it was time for his par-tay...a fire station party to be specific.  portland fire and rescue rents out their historic belmont firehouse (no longer a functioning station) for events.  the highlight was getting to sit in the real fire engine and to slide down the fire pole.  well, the fire pole wasn't really kellen's highlight (he made it to the top of the pole only to turn around and say no thank you), but it was a highlight for many of his friends!  what fun to celebrate with some of his closest friends - including our baby and me group (6 of us who all had babes around the same time and used to attend the hospital based support group for new mamas!). 

firefighter cousins sam and maisy!

playing in the firetruck with best bud, max (from nike)

the kids on the tour listening to the real firefighter lecture them about fire safety

the cake...by beaverton bakery

my boy...too nervous to go down the fire pole he'd been talking about ALL week!

max TILDEN! going down for his fourth time before he had to be cut off!

mama's two babies!

daddy helping him to blow out the candles (must have taken 10 tries!)

the next day we had a family dinner and his choice of meal was chili bar.  i made two kinds of chili - regular red chili with beef and italian sausage and a white bean, green chili and chicken chili.  of course lots of toppings were offered, including chips, sour cream, avocado, tomato, hot sauce, green onion and cilantro.  we followed the chili bar up with a little ice cream cake (again with lots of toppings) and a few special gifts from family.  what a lucky boy to be loved by so many.  needless to say, by the end of the week we were a bit birthday'ed out. 

k blowing out candles one last time

papa, b and k

"dancing/running in circles"

baby sammy, sarah and grandma

it's crazy to think our boy is four years old - he's a full blown kid now, who can carry on a real conversation, who loves loves loves books (and also tv!), who is sweet, cautious, kind and sensitve...with a bit of a stubborn side, who is open to trying new things, but often needs a little reassurance, who is fascinated with learning about new things, who wants to know all the details of your day, but not so willing to share the details of his (when we are apart), who is gentle and protective of his little sister (except when he's not, which is about 15% of the time!), who loves his family, who has a hard time picking a favorite of anything - it's ALL his favorite, who is a little on the shy side, especially with new people, who has one of the most contagious and genuine smiles, who can't wait to run as fast or be as big as his daddy (it's almost a daily conversation...when will i be as big as daddy, when will i wear the same size shoe as daddy, when will i be as fast as daddy?!), who still loves thomas and also cars the movie charactors, who has really good hair, who is a puzzle master, who is my "snuggle bug forever" (according to him!!!) and who is FOUR!  it makes me want to smile and cry at the same time.  i know they say time flies, but i really can remember that day we brought him home from the hospital (to a 55 degree house...brrr!) like it was yesterday (and yes, i did want to return him to the hospital in a brief moment of hormone and sleep deprivation insanity).  we love you sweet boy!