Jemma's Birthday!

Birthday girl with her rice krispie cake. yum.
She wanted mac and cheese for dinner so my buddy helped make it--I have zero patience for cheese sauces and Jack knows it so he offered to stir and he stood there for 20 minutes with a big ol' smile for his sister's b-day dinner. (He also helped decorate the night before while Ava read books to her in bed!). It was a busy Friday night so we had a quick party after school with the cousins.

Waiting for her friends. All day she said, "when are my friends coming??"

And then she was too nervous to blow out her candles.

We followed up the party with Jack's yummy mac and a cozy fire and movie. And then a whole lotta rice krispie treats.

The next day she had party number two with Ed's parents and this cute cake:

She looks older already. I have so much to say about this monkey...coming soon.

trick or treat!

It was chilly so we pulled out the cozy costumes for this one. Jack was Tigger and Jemma was a plush cupcake and Henry was my little monkey:

so darn cute.
We had a big group this year and the kids loved it!

This is the only semi-clear picture I have so just imagine 15 kids running across yards with capes and princess dresses flying, ringing bells and hollering "Happy Halloween!"

The crew.

And the loot.

(you can see my little "pupcake" on the left there--she did awesome this year with her little legs trying to keep up and her brave face at each door!)

Fall Carnival!

Can you stand this much cuteness?!

now that is one sad bride.

(love this one. I don't know where you live but around here the protesters are a group of mostly college students whose parents are still paying their bills so they can afford to hang out downtown all day, with their signs tucked into their North Face coats so their hands are free for non-stop texting about their mighty stand against injustice.)

These two are now old enough to do their own thing all night and just catch us later. When did that happen?

After the carnival, we trick or treated at the Casebolts where it is always a Happy Halloween with all sorts of homemade treats!

Then, we came home to carve pumpkins and squeeze the last bit of fun out of the night.

Happy Halloween!!

from my sweet bride and her handsome groom and the pretty mama and her clown baby!

Guess who's three!!

A boy and his dog

and his little boy
and his big boy

and his little girl

Cozy.

Take my picture!

done.

Fall Fun

We headed out for some fall fun with Ed's parents' last weekend and soaked up the fall weather.

Love this one!

Finding their way through the maze.

Jack and I took the horse ride. Loved it!

Jemma watching Jack chase the greased pig. Yep, that's what I said. Sadly no pictures (he's a fast runner) but our Jack hopped in the ring and chased that greased little piggy like a pro.

Oh yeah, this little chub was there too!

sounds like my Jack's view of life...

Brothers.

We love kindergarten!

I joined the kindergarteners on their trip to the arboretum in search of fall. And we found it!

Seriously cute kids!
My mom is the master of getting kids to love nature.

Jemma tagged along and her poor little legs were pumping hard to keep up the big kids!

House-full

We had the Casebolt kids last weekend and I'm happy to report that we're actually getting good at the eight kids thing. It really doesn't seem that crazy anymore (although it helped that Ben had a fever for two days so he was sort of out of commission).

Eight kids and not a single one looking at the camera.
The whole crowd. The girls only stayed one night before heading to their other cousins' but we hung on to the boys who played more than their share of Wii, wrestling, and football...conveniently all things Ed can play too.

Gone fishin'

So I got invited on my first steelheading trip. And I liked it. The good fall weather and Katie's yummy soup certainly helped.

Ed got one on and Isaac netted it. And sorry for the low quality pictures...there is apparently a sort of controlled panic when someone hooks one--lots of bustling about with the downriggers and other stuff I don't understand.

Checking to see if it's a keeper.
Kill hit with my drink bottle. Gross.

Ta da!

Beautiful girl.

We had a big tailgate party to go to this weekend before our game and since it was work related and Ed was going to be busy schmoozing, I talked Ava into coming with me so I'd have someone to hang out with. Best decision ever. She had so much fun! We got there in time to split a plate-size steak and Ava got a Diet Pepsi (super treat!) and she did some good schmoozing of her own. Then we went to the game--it was sunny and beautiful for the first half and she was just so happy--she loved all the rituals and cheering and high fiving with strangers. Halfway through she said "Thank you so much for bringing me--I'm having so much fun!"

And speaking of Ava, I've been meaning to say how awesome she is. I just got an unexpected compliment about her and I thought, I know--she is amazing! She has such a tender heart and she's had to learn about some big things this year and I've been so proud of how she handles things. One of our favorite things to do is hang out in her bedroom and talk--sometimes she'll start to tell me something and then she'll say, "Wait! I'm going to save this to talk about with you later!" She's got an impressive ability to read people and she's so full of compassion. It's a privilege to be her parent.

The Wallowas!

We took our annual (totally crazy, kid-filled) trip to the Wallowas a couple weeks ago. Ed and I are particularly big fans so we took our kids down a day early to soak up some R&R before the craziness began.

Rainy the first night! As you can see, we're so happy to be out of town and staying at our favorite place that a little rain doesn't bug us a bit.
We woke up to this guy on our front porch.

The boys hit the river asap. Ava wrote a class composition about how much she loves the Wallowas and one of her favorite parts is when Ed puts on his big boots and hauls them back and forth over the water.

My people.

Pretty soon the cousins started rolling in...there are an awful lot of them! I'm sorry I don't have more pictures of their fun....just imagine a huge room full of beds that you share with your favorite people to sleep and watch movies with, yummy snacks whenever you want, art supplies galore, fish you can catch with a bucket, hot chocolate for breakfast and popcorn for dessert....it's kid heaven.

After a morning of shopping with the girls, we put everyone down for naps and Ed and I got to go for a hike. All by ourselves. We went as fast as possible to make it to this bridge:

Which stumped us for a minute till we figured out it had been washed away. And there's Ed wearing Jack's backpack which gave me the giggles more than once.

My favorite person. In the world.

We got back just in time for the art show (the big highlight of the trip!)

My mom and dad (who makes this trip fun, relaxing, and, well, possible) and their awfully cute eleven.