Halloween 2011

I was acutely aware that this is the last year that I will be able to "do" halloween the way we have since Evelyn has been born. Next year she will be in kindergarten (sigh...) so things will be different. So.. I made the most of today with my favorite little people!

My sweet pumpkin and cute ladybug!

Per our usual routine we started our "rounds" at Doug's office. His coworkers are like our second family, and they always enjoy seeing the kids and always have candy for them!

Trick-or-Treating with "Mr. Chris"!

Since ladybugs apparently eat bananas, "Mr. Michael" tried to give Evelyn a banana, not know that she does NOT like them. At all. I love her face in this picture!

I think the kids were more excited about coloring on "the big board" at Doug's office than getting candy!!

My sweet family!

We then made our other stops. First, the hospital where I used to work. Jody wasn't working but we got to see some of my old coworkers who I love and miss. A lot. Its always nice to go back to my other "home"!

Evelyn and "Miss Lori". She had treats for the kids.. so sweet!

Then, it was off to Grandma's work!

They love their Grandma!!

Then it was off to Jody's! Both the kids were getting tired of having their picture taken at this point!

Then once the sun went down.. it was time to head out for some trick or treating!!

Headed out!

Evelyn was SUCH a big helper and showed Matthew the ropes..as well as held his hand. It was pretty sweet to see them together!

Enjoying the walk around the neighborhood!

Evelyn and our neighbor/babysitter Miss Sarah. Both kids thought it was silly that she dressed up!

Happy with her loot!!

What a beautiful night. Lot of stars, cute kids, and candy. Happy Sugar High!!

Win The Day

In 1977, a young coach named Rick Brooks took over the helm of the dire football program at the University of Oregon. He had a dream. He had vision. He worked his tail off to make it happen. My dad was one of the ones who bought into Rich's dream, and became a season ticket holder. 50 yard line seats, no less. Year after year, rain or shine, good team or bad, my dad supported his "Duckies" and went to as many games as he could. I spent many a Saturday morning tailgating at Autzen and running around the rather empty stadium enjoying the game and playing with friends whose dads had also purchased season tickets.

As the years went on, Rich's dreams became reality and now the Ducks have one of the best football programs in the nation. And we still have some of the best seats in the house!! After my dad died in 2002, we knew there was no way we were letting go of the tickets. Too much attachment, and the seats were too good! Due to season of life (my sisters and I have young families) and the price of the tickets, we sell most of our tickets to pay for them. One of us tries to get to at least one game a season.

For the first time in 6 years it was ME who got to go to a game this year. WITH my sister Michelle, her friend Chris, and my nephew Curtis! It was such a great day, surrounded by dad's spirit and watching a great game!

Chris is a Cougar fan, and we made it clear how we felt about that! :) Actually, it was SO fun to have him along, he is a hoot! (And do you see the magnet on my sister's car door? My sweet and talented hubby made those for me, for us to take to Eugene. I heart him!)

One of my favorite picture of the whole day, and only Chris and Shell will get it (one word: wikipedia!)! :)

Autzen Stadium.. one of the most beautiful places on the earth!

Curtis, Michelle and I

My "Best Man"! Brian was the best man in my sister's wedding almost 20 years ago; I was the maid of honor. I haven't seen him in years. He actually teaches at UO now and met up with us for lunch.

Here comes Chip and the boys! (Chip is in the white visor.. his trademark!)

The view from our seats. Told you they were good!

The reason we are here.....

Curtis had a great time. What a great nephew I have!

Chris watching his boys LOSE! Haha! He actually was a really good sport about it!

Sister love!!

The next morning the whole gang went to breakfast before Michelle, Chris and the kids headed back home to Idaho.

My sweet niece Abby

Matthew loves his Grandpa Doug!!

I love my sisters!

What a great weekend! Win the Day! Every day!

Fun in the Fall Sun

It is currently raining outside, but we have had some beautiful crisp fall sunshine this past week. The kids made the most of it for sure!!

We raked leaves. Well, I raked, they played!

We went to our friends Faith and Eva's soccer game and Matthew got to play with his buddy Colin.

Both the kids had a blast rolling down the hill. In the dark. Hilarious!

And we rode bikes. Matthew is all boy and the faster he can go the better.

I hope you enjoyed the sunshine, too... then enjoyed a cup of cocoa when you came in from the cold. We did! :)

Visting

Our dear neighbors Troy and Lucille sadly moved to an assisted living facility in Albany a couple of months ago. It was the right move for them for many reasons, but we love them dearly and miss them very much. We took a trip down to visit them last weekend. It was so great to see them and their new place!

The kids weren't in the mood for pictures, can you tell?

Such a sweet couple.. married 66 years this week, too!!

The kids LOVED playing with this deer in their "yard"!

Matthew, Mr. Social, was happy to give hugs...

... and high fives!

Evelyn has always been shy around Troy. "You and me, we'll be friends someday, you just wait!" Troy always tells her!

Yep.. I miss them even more now. We plan on visiting them again soon!

( A Somewhat Silly but) Sentimental Goodbye

When Evelyn was a newborn, she was a pretty fussy little one, for many reasons. The Twila Paris lullaby CD was one of the few things that would actually calm her down. Thus began our time of having this CD as the only thing ever playing on her CD player.

There were days when it was on 24/7, even as she got older. When we would leave the house, Doug or I would usually ask the other, "Is Twila off?". It became such a normal thing in our house that Evelyn started to call the CD player "Twila", too. The player and the music were synonymous in her eyes. For almost 3 years.

When Matthew was on his way 2 years ago and Evelyn moved rooms, there was no doubt in her mind that "Twila" was moving with her. We knew we wanted the actual Twila Paris CD for Matthew, so we slowly started weaning her off night time music. We bought a new CD player for Matthew's room and he, too, enjoyed that lullaby CD for over a year.

For the past 2 years Evelyn has listened to different types music on her "Twila" during nap/quiet time. About 6 months ago the player started to show signs of wearing out. The lid wouldn't stay shut, the CD wouldn't play sometimes, etc. We knew its time was drawing close to an end.

We had a small power outage last week and when it came back on, "Twila" wouldn't work at all. We told Evelyn we would try to fix it but knew she was most likely a goner.

Yesterday I had to tell her that indeed we couldn't fix "Twila" (even tho her daddy tried really hard to make her work again!). Bless her heart, she started to cry. Of course, I did, too. We will get her a new player, I told her. "But it won't be Twila, momma!" Oh, honey...

A chapter coming to an end for us. For her.

Kind of a silly chapter, but a big one for my sweet girl.

Thanks for the memories, Twila!!

Pumpkin Patch 2011

Such a beautiful October day like today just screams "hey, let's go to the pumpkin patch!" So when the kids (okay, all of us) woke up from a nap we headed to our favorite place to procure those orange, carvable squash.. Baggenstos Farm.

I am really trying hard to NOT get frustrated that my beautiful and sweet children do NOT like to have their picture taken often and do not pose well at all. It is just where they are right now.. and I am learning to just go with it and get the best ones I can!

That being said.. here's a glimpse of our fun family outing!

Playing on the big tractor while we waited for our turn on the hay ride

My and my sweet pea.. she thinks self portraits are fun!

Matthew LOVES tractors, but he gets scared of their loud noise. Doug is trying to convince him that the tractor is not out to get him! :)

Snacking on the hay ride. Notice Matthew keeping an eye on the tractor pulling us.. he really is quite concerned!

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!

Doug and Matthew having yet another talk about tractor safety!

But my oldest LOVES it here and ran and ran and ran! (Oh.. if you are thinking, hey there are a lot of green pumpkins... you're right. It was strange. Not the best crop this year.. but we did find some good ones!)

Off to find her treasure!

This was her first pick but she wanted to keep looking!

Our trip wouldn't be complete without romping thru the Christmas trees!

and yet again... poor buddy was really kinda freaked out by the noise!

She found THE ONE!!

And Matthew did too!

Needless to say we did NOT ride the hay ride back to the farm. We walked (not far really) and enjoyed that much better!

Enjoying some kettle corn.. and trying to keep the bees away! Yikes there were SO many!

This is him saying "noooooo".. as in, don't take my picture! *sigh*

We then took the kids to the kids hay maze and man, oh man they had a blast running and jumping on the hay bales!

Happy Boy!

My favorite picture of the day... catch me sissy!

My little ray of sunshine! :)

The best "group" shot of the day. Again.. *sigh*

Days like today I am reminded that it is not about getting the best photo, but enjoying the time making fun memories together.

Happy Fall, friends!