Birthdays

Jemma's birthday is coming up and I have been uncharacteristically sentimental now for weeks about this! The kids have been poring over the picture books lately and they especially love pictures of their birthdays. They are both so excited for Jemma to have her own birthday and they have their presents wrapped and hidden away and they talk nonstop to her about her cake, her streamers, and her first happy meal! Yes, we take our kids to McD's on their first birthdays for their first all-american hamburger and fries. Here's some oldies but goodies:

Jack's first fry. He likes it.

First cake!

He wasb't too sure about the sticky white stuff,

so his big sister jumped in to help.

Ava, on the other hand, bit right in.

nummy.

(Okay, Jemma is starting to look a whole lot like her!)

Mmm, she was sweet!

I remember all of this like it was yesterday and I cannot believe my baby is turning one.

It is (almost) the most wonderful time of the year.

The Christmas catalogs are coming hot and heavy and Jack can't wait to tear into them.

He spent the other day poring over the Cabelas catalog--I found him like this at least three different times during the day!

You can see how he checked out the Pottery Barn catalog and then chucked it aside.

He has picked out many things for his own list but he also found all kinds of goodies he wants to buy for the rest of us.

We do love presents at this house!

Ready and waiting for a date with grandpa.

The bookstore and an ice cream cone...two of her favorite things.

Pumpkins!

Pumpkin carving requires a big bowl of carmelcorn and as usual Jack was my baking buddy. He was super excited about the old school air popper (is it possible he has grown up with micro popcorn only??). Since this is my blog, I'm going to go ahead and say that I make the best carmelcorn ever. It's true.

The first cut.

Jemma was more interested in eating the paper.

Ava is awesome at cleaning--she digs right in and hauls out all the goo.

Jack, on the other hand, likes to psych himself up first. He sized up the pumpkin for a good five minutes and then hollered, "okay, I'm goin' in!"

Ta da!

I wish you could see the faces here--Jack requested a scary monster with sharp teeth and Ava wanted one like her...complete with missing front teeth. I thought it looked pretty good but she didn't think it was quite girly enough!

Where's Jack?

Today has been an awesome sunny fall day and while Jack was busy playing outside, Jemma was crawling all around looking very blue. I finally figured out the problem and I set her up on the couch so she could see out the window.

Found him!!

When Jack heard her giggle, he ran right over.

So happy!!

On our own.

Ed and I decided at sort of the last minute to stay another night after everyone else went home. When the other cars drove off, Jack and Ava looked lonely and blue for a minute and then they ran in the house and got busy enjoying the quiet! Ava took a long bubble bath and Jack headed down to the bedroom and made a big tent to play in.

We went back to town for some treats--here's Ava with a bag of fresh bread and a leaf bouquet she'd been working on.

Ed with a cute kid in one hand and a glass of Jack in the other. Ahh, vacation!

The weather was awesome all weekend--almost too hot for a hot cocoa in town!

Jemma was there too! She spent the whole weekend either in bed or in the backpack and she was happy in both!

I spent many hours sitting right here on the deck, reading and looking at this view!

A rare family shot!

The Wallowas!

Here's one of the reasons we love the Wallowas so much!

It's a pretty low-key place smack in the middle of some gorgeous mountains and rivers.
With some really fun and unexpected shops.

The Casebolt kids were the first cousins to get there after us so Will and Jack headed straight for the river.

While the girls started working on some art.
This is the room the kids sleep in--it has five beds and they spend a lot of time jumping from bed to bed and snuggling under the covers eating popcorn and watching movies. It's kid heaven.

Ava and Jack love spending the weekend running wild with their cousins but every once in awhile they hook back up for a little sibling love.

They like to hit this park right at the base of the mountain.

Here's Ed giving Jack a ride back over the creek.

Kayte and Ava.

Checking out the river through the bridge. I love this shot of Jack and Will in the back--they spent the whole weekend with their little heads together like that.

Ava flying on the zip line.

Brooklyn hopped a ride on the banana.

Jack hitched a ride with Ed and Jem.

The big girls.

The boys found a snake and my brave Jack picked it right up (look really close-it's itsy)

We eat way too much yummy food--here's some happy kids chowing Stephen's huge breakfast.

The girls were busy working on all kinds of art projects: painting, drawing, and sculpture all weekend and on the last night they arranged an art show for us, complete with yummy hors d'ouvres on the deck:

Ed made a friend.

Cousins!!

Kayte, Ava, Madison, little Jem, Will, Jack, Sara, Brooklyn, Hudson, and Ben!

This was our 5th year at the Wallowas with the cousins and we love it! The first year we just had the 4 big kids and I was about 20 weeks pregnant with Jack and Paula was sick pregnant with Sara and we thought it was crazy then. Then the next year Sara was a couple months old and Brooklyn was a teeny newborn. The next year Paula and Susan were sick pregnant with the boys and then the year after, the boys were babies and I was just weeks from having Jemma. This was the first year of no morning sickness, no huge pregnant bellies, no newborns or crying babies. Just 10 crazy kids who love each other so much! We have finally made it to the other side and the view from here is very very sweet!

Thanks to my mom and dad who make this trip possible and who do way more than their share so the rest of us can hang out, shop, and relax. And who also write the questions for the Newylwed Game, our favorite tradition and a hard fought battle every year!

Hitting the road

We're headed for our favorite place in mountains--we go at least twice a year and in October all the cousins come too. Which is exactly as chaotic and fun as it sounds. Jack has been up since six, with his "pack-pack" full of balls and weapons and he has reminded me at least 12 times to pack his boots and he has also reminded me at least 12 times that Will is coming too and he is his very best friend in the whole world! By tomorrow it will feel a little crazy but the kids love love it!

Ava (three years ago!)
Jack at Jemma's age.

Back when there were only seven cousins!

That's tiny Brooklyn at about 3 weeks.

My Jack--he was so darn cute!

I miss Ava. First grade is too long.

Flu season has hit hard and I have been doing more than my usual share of subbing and today I got to sub in Ava's class for the first time! As the art teacher. I know. I told Ed I was nervous to teach art and he nicely said "you'll be fine" and then followed that up with "but I don't know why they asked you--you know nothing about art." Which is so true. I'm creative but not the least bit artistic and there is a very big difference. I draw only stick people and up until a bit ago I thought Ava was a terrible artist too. Then she went to school and now she does some really amazing things. Yet another reason why I would never homeschool. Anyway, Ava's class was the last of the day and I loved seeing her cute face all eager and ready to learn. She was just drawing away and then she raised her hand and I called on her and she said, "I love you." And I love that she is still at the age where she not only gets excited to have me in her classroom, she actually says it out loud.

Jack

Jack's a funny kid. If he's ever moping around looking bored, I'll say "Jack do you want to do some chores?" and he says "Chores? I love chores!" A few weeks ago I noticed his bed was made every morning when I got up and I just assumed Ava had been doing it until I caught him in the act, pulling the blankets tight and smoothing out the wrinkles. In fact his chore list has grown quite a bit; he takes out the garbage (including running the poopy diapers outside to the can), makes his bed, sorts the laundry and runs all the baskets around, empties the silverware out of the dishwasher, dusts the bedrooms, and the list goes on. But his favorite chore is setting the table, here's a picture of him folding the napkins around the forks like "baseball bats".

He's a hard worker just like his daddy!

******

Here's one more Jack funny I didn't want to forget. The day after the marathon we had this conversation:

Me: Jack, don't lean on my legs--they're really sore from running.

Jack: why, did you fall off the treadmill? (For the record that has never happened!)

Me: no, I just ran a long ways

Jack: did you run out of gas?? (what he says when he gets tired)

Me: yeah, I started running out of gas by the end.

Jack's face lit up: Did you have to turn on your turbo jets to finish?!

Family resemblance?

To say Jemma is a mama's girl is a serious understatement. If I'm not around she is a very happy camper for whoever she's with, but if she can see me (or hear me!), she wants to be with me. The only exception to the rule is if she's cuddling with her daddy in which case she'll stay put as long as she can keep her eyes on me! The one thing she does love to do with Ed is listen to music--the louder the better and she doesn't care if it's Metallica or Johnny Cash, she's happy.

One of those nights

I never like it when Ed's gone for the night but unlike when we just had little Ava, I am now capable of handling it like the grown-up I supposedly am. Last week we were trucking it out on our own here and we did great--no meltdowns (me or the kids), lots of fun and even some very productive closet-cleaning and reorganizing. But tonight for some reason, when he's only gone for a couple hours, everyone fell apart. I'm pretty sure Jem started it but she has a nasty cold so I'm not going to blame her but by dinner they were all a grumpy mess. Instead of sending them to bed (which I was tempted to do!) I remembered we had some chocolate chips in the cupboard (a very rare occurence here) so we made up a batch of pumpkin chocolate cookies (a fan favorite!), made a fire, and settled into the couch. They started giggling and hugging and were so darn cute I had to take a picture.

And then I put the little pink chub to bed and came back out to find these two had moved to another couch and snuggled in to read:

Ahh, the power of the chocolate chip!

Happy Happy Birthday...

to sweet Kayte!

Kayte was my first and much anticipated little niece (and the first grandbaby on both sides). I was 20 weeks pregnant with Ava and I remember every single detail about the day she was born: I remember driving to the hospital, what I was wearing (my first maternity jeans!), buying Joe a cafeteria breakfast and then Paula making him eat it in the waiting room, every short hour of the labor and then the super quick time it took to push her out (which, 19 weeks later, made me insanely mad at Paula when Ava took hours longer to come!), her first cry, oohing and ahhing over tiny Kayte, leaving the hospital to get some lunch and then thinking I have to get back there! But the one thing I remember the best was when I went to bed that night, Ava gave her first real hey-I'm-in-here kick, strong enough to move the covers, and I thought, she can't wait to meet her cousin! Now seven (seven!) years later they are such sweet friends and I think what a blessing!