Visit from Aunt Ruthann

We were so excited to get a visit from Aunt Ruthann. She and a few friends decided to take a trip to the Northwest and we were so pleased that they stayed at our house a few days while they checked out the Oregon Coast and Portland. Unfortunately the weather didn't really cooperate for them and they got a really good taste of the rain here in Oregon. We've had an unusually wet few weeks here. The spring is always a little wet and normally get quite a few wet days through June, but this year has been crazy.

After Hailee got done with school on Wednesday we got to spend some time with them in Portland. We got to go to our favorite bookstore and then to my favorite store for when I no longer have children wiping their faces on my clothes.

After a fun afternoon we came back to pick up Todd from the Airport. He spend two days in Santa Clara for work. He even got to go to the CFO of Intel's house for dinner. After we picked him up we went to our new favorite Thai food place. Lucky for us it's right by our house and so good.

I am so glad my kids will eat "weird" food. Hailee loved the carrot they cut to look like a flower.

Then it was back home again to play a little more with Aunt Ruthann. Hailee got to stay up a little later than normal so she could spend some time with her. It was a quick visit, but we loved seeing her. We're looking forward to seeing her again at Aspen Grove.

Without the German

Today I remembered that I had bought ice cream cones at the store last week. I let Hailee have one for a snack before lunch today. (She still ate two burritos at lunch so I guess we were okay.) She LOVED it. Right after she finished she wanted to know if she could have another one. I told her that she would have to wait until later.

Five minutes later;
Hailee: Mom can I have another ice cream cone
Nicole: Hailee you have to wait until later.

Two minutes later (about 10:45):
Hailee: Mom is it "later?"
Nicole: Hailee you have to wait until after lunch.
Hailee: What is for lunch?
Nicole: It's not quite time for lunch yet.
Hailee: But I want another ice cream cone.

Looks like lunch will be a little earlier than normal today.

***

On the weekends Todd and I have been trying to get things organized around the house. So for the garage and the main living area are getting pretty good. The time came to do the upstairs. Up to this point it was fine for James to run around the garage and when we moved inside Hailee kept him busy in their room. But now that we had moved upstairs he was so excited to be involved in the process. The only problem was his "help" was, as Todd put it,  kind of like climbing uphill in a mud slide. You don't get anywhere and you're a mess when you're done. After putting things away for the 5th time I exclaimed that I had lost my mind.

Hailee quickly wanted to know where my mind had gone.
Nicole: I hope someplace fun like Cancun.
Hailee: Cannon Beach would be nice too.

Anywhere but trying to organize things with baby James.

The next day I was making cinnamon rolls and Todd found the frosting in the freezer. I couldn't believe the last time I had it out I put it back in the freezer. Hailee said:

"Mom remember when you lost your mind, I guess that is why you put the frosting in the freezer."

***

The other day I made a German Chocolate Cake. It's been a while since I made it. After Hailee had some I asked her how she  liked it. She told me she liked it, but the next time she wanted it without the "german."  She doesn't really like the frosting, but she liked the chocolate cake.

***

The other day when we were on our way to pick up Todd from work Hailee started asking questions about cars. She wanted to know why we picked the car we had, what was my first car, and a number of other car questions. Hailee informed me that she wanted a shiny red car with no roof. She has loved convertibles since she first noticed one when we were driving.

Our day-to-day

"But I don't think James want to take a nap," said my helpful little girl. She hates it when James has to go down for his nap, even more than James does. There just come a point where the fun has to end for a short time and James has to go down for his nap. Our house is really very quite when that does happen and I have a sulky little girl. It seems like as time goes on they enjoy playing with each other more and more. When James does things to get Hailee's attention (i.e., sitting on her) she recognizes it as him wanting to play. She is the best big sister and I love seeing how he is learning from her. Hailee is always willing to share with him and just recently James is doing the same with her. The other day he even shared his favorite thing...Root Beer. (Yes, thanks to Hailee, James already knows what root beer is and loves it.)

James is constantly keeping us on our toes. He loves to find new things to play with. Here is is with the strainer.  He has to put everything in his mouth. Everything. If he's sitting by me he'll start chewing on my belt (a favorite thing to chew on). One time while he was doing this I wondered out loud why he would chew on my belt, surely it can't taste very good. Todd responded that it didn't taste too bad. I asked him how he knew what a belt tasted like since I had never seen him chewing on his belt before. To my surprise he has childhood memories of what things around the house taste like. He must have been a kid like James and put everything in sight into his mouth. I find teeth marks on some of the strangest things and the other day I caught him eating flour.

Even though he is the craziest little guy who eats everything in sight we wouldn't trade him for anything. Here is his new favorite trick. Blowing bubbles with a straw. Today he even discovered how cool it is to blow bubbles into a raspberry shake. 

FC Portland

What is the hardest thing about soccer....

....according to Hailee it's having to wait until 6:00 pm to go to soccer. Hailee just joined the FC Portland soccer club and she is in heaven. (So is Todd, he told me last night he even surprised himself at how excited he was to have her in soccer.) Today when I picked up Hailee from school (at 11:00 am) she told her friend that she couldn't play because she had soccer, I knew then it was going to be a long day. By 1:00 pm I came down stairs after getting James down for his nap and she had she cleats on and she was ready to go.

I have to say that all that waiting was worth the wait. She had such a great time and is already counting down the hours when she could go back. Thankfully she goes twice a week. Todd loves that it's in the evening because he gets to go and watch. I've never seen a more excited dad. When Todd found the program I was a little worried that Hailee wasn't going to be as excited as Todd was, but after seeing her in action I don't think we have that problem. It's really a toss-up as to who is most excited.

Soccer was really a family affair. Everyone was excited. It was super hard to keep James off the field. I really love Hailee's coach. He is from England and is so great with the kids. He keeps all the kids completely enthralled and entertained for an entire hour.

Baby James

That face just says it all. This little boy keeps us all on our toes. He is just the busiest little body and so much fun. Some of my favorite things he's doing lately.

* He loves his big sister. Anything she is doing he wants to do. One of my favorite things is when we're done with family prayers he follows his sister up the stairs and waits for bed time. They play for 10-15 minutes before I come to tuck them in. If I come to early I get in trouble. They are so sweet with each other.

* He is getting so good at saying please. He is getting much better at saying a lot of words, but "pease" still just melts my heart. How can I saw no to that cute face. The picture above was after I had mixed up some brownies. I had given one of the beaters to Hailee and James came up and said "pease." Once I gave it to him he was just so pleased.

* He still loves to shower and thinks he needs to get in with anyone that is showering. Bathing hasn't been his favorite thing, but a few Sunday's ago he decided he wanted to dive in with his sister. So he literally dove in head first fully clothed. I though after getting a good dunk he wouldn't want to stay and play, but he stayed and with her in the bath.

* Although he still loves to cause trouble and does so on an hourly basis he is getting a little better and being obedient. He'll try to plead his case by saying 'pease' but after a firm 'no' he'll usually be obedient. He's not quite like Hailee was, but he's learning.

We all just adore this little stink. He still is quite the little character when it comes to finding mischief, but we couldn't imagine our life without him. I am just in the process of finishing up my 2008 family book and it's weird to think he wasn't a part of our life then. Our family just feels complete with him.

Children's Museum

Hailee had a few days off of school because of parents conference so we decided to have a little fun. We invited some friends to come with us to the Children's Museum. Hailee really wanted to take the MAX line into the museum. We had a crazy morning trying to get ready to go, but in the end we took the train. Hailee and James were thrilled. We just missed the train we wanted to get on and waiting the next 10-15 minutes for the next train was the worst part of our train experience. The kids loved it and James was even content to just look out the window. Once we got to the station I was so glad that we had decided to take the train. The parking lot was crazy and our friends had a hard time finding parking. I think next time we go we'll go on the MAX again.

This time James was really ready for the Museum. The first stop was in the water room. I am so glad I put an apron on this time because he was wet from head to toe.

Here is James with Spencer. It was so hard to get pictures of their faces. They were just too busy to stop and look at me.

This picture just doesn't quite do justice to how wet he was. He would run from water spot to water spot and just splash the best he could.

This time we tried out the clay area. Hailee made a flower. It was so much fun to go with Kristin and Spencer. With two running in opposite directions at times it was nice to have a friend help. Spencer doesn't quite run away like James does.

We had so much fun exploring every part of the Children's Museum. I got a lot of pictures of the back of the kids heads.

And occasionally I would catch him enough by surprise to get a picture of his face.

We had a great morning, a fun lunch and even a little bit of happy playing time in the afternoon. The kids were exhausted. Once we got on the train James fell asleep in my arms, I was able to put him in his stroller, into his carseat, and into his bed with out him even stirring. He was so tired. They had such a good time and it was so fun to get together with good friends. 

Best Saturday

We had such a fun Saturday. We spend some time in the garden in the morning. We all love working in the garden. James is even getting better about not eating dirt. Hailee loves to help water and plant. I think we have almost everything planted that we want. We still have a little more room so we're trying to decided what else we want to plant. I love having a garden that we can work in together,

It was such a beautiful day we decided to do a little exploring. Some people from Intel told Todd about a place not too far from where we're living. It's called Horning's Hideout, they have disc golf, fishing, paddle boats, and camping. It's only about 20 minutes from our house and the kids had such a good time checking it out. Hailee and James loved exploring. Next time we go back we'll have to try fishing. Hailee was fascinated watching people catch and clean their fish (I'm not too excited about that part). James just loved running everywhere. It's fun to see him getting to be more and more independent. He can keep up with just about anyone no matter what the surface is. 

 

 

The lake they have is tiny, just the perfect size for paddle boats. Hailee was super excited to go and James was pretty good at sitting still. We got to see the fish jumping and salamander's swimming along the side of the paddle boat. It was so much fun.

 

James wasn't totally loving the paddle boat, but he did okay for a little while. 

 

They have a 160+ peacocks running around the property. Hailee was really excited to see this one with all it's feathers out. She was however a little disappointed to find out it's the boys with the pretty feathers and the girls aren't as pretty. That just didn't seem fair to her. 

They also had white peacocks. They told us that they weren't albino, it just sometimes happens. I wish we couldn't have seem this one with it's feathers all out. But he wasn't trying to impress any girls when we were around. Maybe next time we'll go.