I love this picture!

I love this picture! I just got it on a CD of some older pictures from my mother in law. There are newborn baby pictures as well as some when I was VERY pregnant. Even though I'm quite large they are fun to look at and remember. This picture I think was taken when my little guy was about 2 months old. I knew the twins were small when they were born so early, but you forget as they grow. This picture of the boys born just 2 weeks apart shows it. Check out those heads together! I really love this picture because I always wanted my children to grow up with a big group of kids their age at church like I did. Looks like there is a good chance of that...these are just the ones who had babies under a year old at the time. We are so blessed!(Now all of them have had their first birthday and two are getting close to their second! Time is racing by!)

Our trip to Washington

I'm finally getting time to post about our trip to the Washington retreat. We got very little sleep while we were there so I've been super lazy since we got home. We flew into Portland and then took the two hour drive into Washington. The drive is gorgeous all along the Columbia River. We stopped on the way at Multnomah Falls, which is still in Oregon. It was really pretty, but none of the pictures I took really turned out. To get the pictures I had to look directly into the sun and so I couldn't tell what I was getting. Turns out it wasn't much!




The retreat was held in the mountains of Washington, just outside a little town called Goldendale. For anyone who has been to the Ranch you would think you were there. The only difference is red dirt instead of black. Easton loved it there!! He is such an outdoor kid. He coulnd't get enough of running around out there. Of course he refused to keep a hat on so his little bald head was out in the sun all day, but he was covered in sunscreen much to his dismay. He made a new friend there. The little boy in the cart is just a few months older than he is and they loved being pulled by anyone who would do it. The man pulling them in the picture is in his late 70's! He also really loved the toy car, only he couldn't figure out how to make it go forward. His only direction was reverse. When he got tired of that he would get out and push it. And as you can see, much like the ranch, dirt must be covering your face at all times!

I didn't get any pictures of Toppenish when we went down to visit here. Most of them live on large farms. It is pretty in it's own way because of the huge expanse of fields and crops. Lots of green. There were even herds of buffalo. But it wouldn't be a true country experience if you didn't participate in at least one activity that could be the next episode of Dirty Jobs (actually I'm pretty sure it's already been done). Several of the city folks put on the long gloves and braved sticking their arm inside a cow to feel how large the baby she was carrying was getting. Too bad for me Easton needed a nap at that particular time and somebody had to stay at the house while he slept. As the mom I figured I should be the one to stay with him. Just broke my heart not to get covered in cow poop and other various bovine bodily fluids. I like animals, but I don't live on a farm for a reason :)

Our trip home was kind of rough. The drive back to Portland took an extra hour because we went into Toppenish. Sadly our boy had enough of the car ride about 20 minutes into it and cried pretty much the entire time. He had his eyes closed and blanket by his side, but he wouldn't give up and go to sleep. Then on the flight home we got stuck in bad weather and they wouldn't let us land. Circled for about 45 min or so and then had to land in a nearby city. Wait out the storm, and then fly back. We got in about 3 hours later than we were supposed to. Thankfully the little guy slept the entire time!!

We had a great trip and it was really nice to put faces to names we had heard for so long. Everyone there was so hospitable and you would've thought they had known you forever instead of just a few days. I really enjoyed my time there and look forward to seeing them all again.

Watering Grass With Grandpa

Today we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa while Grandpa was watering the grass. Of course that meant he had to have some help.


Spraying the water is SO cool! Especially when you get soaked in the process.


Some of the water got on the porch too. Almost as fun to play with as the hose.

And if you get thirsty? No problem drinks are provided!

My baby is all boy! He loves to get dirty, and isn't a bit upset when he's covered in mud, sand, grass, or anything else he's managed to get all over himself. These pictures just continue to show that he will put ANYTHING in his mouth. I probably should've stopped him from drinking hose water off the ground, but it was soooo funny that we had to get some pictures instead. We all were laughing and he was pretty proud of himself for not only getting messy but entertaining the crowd as usual.

How nice...

So I was given an award by Rob at Peanut Butter and Smelly's Dad which was very nice. This is the 2nd time I've been given one of these by someone, and rudely the first time I didn't blog about it. I'm always surprised by the fact that other people actually look at this at all since like I've said before I'm a blogging nerd. In fact I don't even know how to post the picture of the award to show what it is...yes I am that lame and that technologically illiterate. I'm seriously in the wrong generation when it comes to this kind of stuff. I'm lucky I can even get on here at all :) Anyway, I wanted to acknowledge this time and do it right away since I actually have a few minutes while my son is napping. But my computer ADD is kicking in which means I've been staring at this screen for way too long so it's time to move on to something exciting like...laundry!

GPS Giveaway

Hurry this ends on Sunday. Mommas Review is giving away a MotoNAV TN20 GPS. Check it out!

Fun with spaghetti!

The learning to feed ourself saga continues. The best part of him eating this was how hilarious he thought he was. I was laughing so hard and every time I did he would laugh and make a goofy face. Once again, makes me wish I had a video camera because the sound effects were the best part. He likes to add those to his meal times and they are usually quite entertaining. Needless to say he went straight into the bathtub after this. Mommy lesson learned though from that. I just put him in and didn't even take time to clean off the chunks. I figured why bother fighting with that when he's completely filthy anyway. Well, as you can imagine there were small bits of noodles and sauce floating around in the water. As if that isn't gross enough all by itself it gets worse when he sees the little disgusting floaties and starts eating them! I definitely learned my lesson though and will remove such things in the future before putting him in the tub. My stomach can't handle a scene like that again...yuck!