ROAD TRIP!

Well, actually we took a little road trip down to Veneta. We had quite a time though. On the way down we saw this van. Seems like you only see things like this in the Northwest (especially on your way to Eugene).

I think you can read what his window said in here. I kind of want to check it out to see what his ad says, but it looks a little scary to me. (They really should make a bumper sticker that says, "Keep Portland Weird, Keep Eugene Weirder.")

When we actually got to Veneta we drove around a bit looking at houses and then headed on down to the strawberry patch to pick berries.

Here's Caitlin showing you the big berries we got to pick. They were all pretty ripe, even though we were right in the beginning of the season.

I don't know if you can tell from this photo, but Brenda is a serious strawberry picker. Most of the rest of us would eat a few and pick a few. Brenda would pick a bunch (very quickly) then eat one, then pick more, then eat one...

Here's Caitlin and her cousin Josiah searching for just the right spot to start picking!

Here's Cody and I trying to pick berries. I bet you can guess that this front pack didn't go over too well when you want to pick berries. He was trying to get into everything and he can't have strawberries yet (poor guy)!

This arrangement worked a little better!

This is how ripe those strawberries were! We really got there at a good time because they weren't all picked over yet and they were ripe and delicious.

Brian found one that looked like teeth! (He isn't even close to being a serious picker like his sister!)

Yep, his kids sure love him! (I think Cody looks disgruntled because he can't have any berries to eat! He's already shown that he loves blueberries.)

{I just have to tell this story about leaving the berry patch. When we got up to pay, we had FIVE buckets. Brenda had told us that we could fill them over the top because we just paid per bucket and not by any particular measure. (Apparently, that's what the people had told her last year when they picked there.) Well, we saw this older guy with his bucket piled about 8 inches OVER the top in a pretty spectacular mound. I asked Brenda if we could do that and she said, "I don't think so." ~I think I took this as a challenge. ~ Then, I asked the lady at the cash register if we could and she said we could, but it was pretty tough to get them stacked up so they would stay. So we stacked ours up so we ended up with FOUR buckets that had mounds about 3-4 inches above the rim. So, I turned to Brenda and said, "See, and you didn't think we could do this." She answered, "Well, I meant my conscience." =) }

While we were cutting the tops off these strawberries (back at Brenda's & John's house) John found one that looked like a heart (or Mickey Mouse, whichever). We had to take a photo for Aunt Brenda. (We were making that yummy, delicious freezer jam. It sure makes it hard to buy the stuff at the store again.)

Back at the house is a trampoline, which Caitlin just loves to jump on. Brian was trying to take her photo mid jump, but that proves to be very tricky.

Here she is with her pose! I asked Brian if he told her to pose, but he said no, she was just supposed to say, "CHEESE!"

That night, we were staying over so Brian gave the boys some money for fireworks. Here is Josiah with a sparkler. I'm sorry, but those are my favorite things, as boring as they might be to others!

FRIDAY!!!

On Friday, Brian and John got to go early morning fishing on the MacKenzie River (sp?). This is what they brought back:

I think John caught 6 and Brian caught 4. They look like big minnows to me.

The day was super duper HOT so we went to the Tennis Club pool to cool off.

I don't think Caitlin had any idea how silly she really did look, even without the funny face. (Her cousins were wearing goggles so she had to wear some too!)

I had to put this photo in because Cody really will let other people hold him without crying (as long as he doesn't hear my voice). Aunt Brenda keeps telling Caitlin that it took her three years to be in Caitlin's good graces. =) I think that's a slight exaggeration, but probably very slight. It's amazing how different your kiddos can be!

We really had a great time! Can't wait for the next trip!

"I feel the earth move under my feet..."

Here is Caitlin enjoying the Earthquake house at OMSI. She loves this. We've had to pull her out of it just to let other kids have a turn trying the 5.6 quake or the 6.8 quake. I've only been in two earthquakes (in Palm Springs), but it was mainly sand under there so felt more like a rolling sensation than a shaking. OMSI is pretty amazing though. Anyone who wants to come visit me can go there with me and see it! There's nothing else like it that I've seen anywhere else. (Sorry this picture quality is so poor, I took it on my phone.)

Cody finally enjoyed it too! He got to play in the infant area. Now that he is crawling a little and rolling a lot, he can get around to the toys there. It was pretty nice today as it was sunny outside so not too many people were there. We had the whole infant area (which isn't that big) to ourselves, so Cody mouthed every ball he could find. Pretty gross, but what's a science museum without a few germs between strangers?

Hopefully, in the near future, I will be able to post more videos. I just have to figure out how this all works! Soon, though, very soon...

Summer is HERE! YEAH!!!!!!!

We have been waiting and waiting and waiting for summer. We love garage sale-ing, the sprinkler, breaking out the kiddie pool, lemonade and sunshine. After a looooooooooooong, rainy winter we've been just waiting to have some nice temperatures. Well, it looks like it might finally be here.

So, the other day we went to the "river water" (the Willamette River) to let the dogs play for awhile. As we were heading home, we saw a FREE sign (can't pass those up) and found a pink nylon bag that I thought had a chair in it. Come to find out, it had this cool cabana in it. So we popped it up and have been playing in it ever since.

Here's Cody, eating a carrot, and Caitlin drawing pictures in the cabana.

We have a blanket out there (thanks Brenda) as well as a bean bag chair, all in the name of comfort. We pretend that we live somewhere that has sunshine all year long. ha, ha, ha

We also broke out the kiddie pool. Caitlin gets to play in it first, but inevitably the dogs end up either drinking out of it, or getting their toys out of it (usually Caitlin throws them in). The water is always FREEZING too. I don't know how we can handle that cold when we are little. I sure don't do well with it now.

Casey is just learning how to retrieve from the pool without getting really wet. She always runs around the pool a few times until we say, "go get it, go on, go get it" then she starts to figure out we're not getting it for her.
We are also excited about our strawberries!

We are actually going to get a few this year. Every year we get a few more. Caitlin always ends up picking them before they are fully ripe, unless we watch her like a hawk! (I think we will even take her strawberry picking this year. Last year, blueberry picking was a big hit.)

Lastly, I had to post a few pictures of Cody and his carrot.

I was talking to my Dad on the phone while Cody was gnawing on this piece of carrot. He was trying to crawl and not lose his carrot. He kept sticking it in his mouth and then getting on his hands and knees. Of course I didn't have the camera ready and only got these two photos, but isn't he cute?

~Cody turns 8 months old~HOORAY!

What a great age! We are having such fun with the little Coderton. He laughs all the time, you can change his mood with a little tickle or a funny face, and he loves his family. I want to remember him at this age. I swear, every stage he goes through, I feel like I can't remember how Caitlin was at the same time. I remember some things about her very clearly (the purple castle, laughing and loving Abby, no hair, sweet little chubby cheeks, and loving her like crazy), but I don't remember the specifics so much any more. I want to remember the stages, but it all gets so fuzzy with all the memories that get stacked on top of the old ones.
So, I'm making a list of what my kiddos do right now, here goes:
Cody ~ he rolls over and over and over everywhere. He's not fun to change anymore because he practically does gymnastics while we're trying to put his diaper back on. He laughs at every little thing we do when we're trying to make him laugh (it's sooooooooo easy). He has 8 teeth and he sure is grumpy while he's cutting them. He cries when we walk away. He doesn't sleep through the night and you'd swear he was a different kid at night because of how he whines and cries. He already seems like he loves to eat. He's started eating meats like chicken, turkey, and ham. He doesn't seem to like the corn/squash babyfood, and maybe not the beans, but everything else seems to go down pretty easily. He makes this "smacking his gums" sound/face when he sees us eating and it makes us feel guilty. He loves to ride around in the baby carrier that I wear to stores and out walking. Sometimes he looks like he's swimming while I'm walking. He has blue, blue, blue eyes and blonde hair. He thinks it's really funny when you smell his feet and tell him, "P-U!" He seems like an adrenaline junky and likes to be tossed in the air and danced around the house. He loves the songs, "I'm a little teapot," "Ring around the Rosie," and "Mama Jama" (Black eyed peas). He certainly likes to pull hair and kick his legs. He likes to play with anything that's not a toy, especially if someone else has it. He scoots backwards, but can't seem to go forwards yet. He has the best looking sad face where his bottom lip looks like the bottom half of a rectangle (I still want to capture that look on film).

He loves his sister, and she loves him!

That's a lot about Cody, now onto Caitlin~

Sheesh, she's four going on 18. That kid knows her mind and no one is going to change it. She seems so much older than four at times, but acts so much younger at others! She loves being a big sister and often brings about much laughter from Cody. She loves to sing, and dances whenever we hear live music (Woodburn Outlets, Saturday Market, on the radio in the kitchen, etc.). She's still afraid of the roller coaster at Oak's Park, but she braved a ride on it this year anyway. She's timid of physical challenges, but is so smart with intellectual ones. (Though she has started jumping off our bed.) She's a picky eater, unless it's a treat. She likes such an odd assortment of meal time food: kielbasa (kabanos is one of her favorites), dill pickles, pineapple, pears, jello, CHEESE (she's a cheesehead for sure), eggs (boiled especially), ham, salmon, crab?, shrimp, mac n' cheese, hotdogs, bagels, edamame, green beans, raw broccoli, corn on the cob, strawberries, BLUEBERRIES, pancakes, waffles, oatmeal, dry cereal, apples (but not so much bananas), and most of all peanut butter and jelly (which she asks for for breakfast just about every morning). To be honest, I've just about named the whole list. She's picky and we have to make her eat her meals just about everyday. She doesn't have to be told twice to eat ice cream or any kind of candy. She really likes dried fruit in granola (especially the mango flavored pineapples). Outside of mealtime, she wants to constantly play "animals" (where we have to have an animal and she has one and we talk to each other). She absolutely loves to be outdoors, or playing with her dog Casey, or to be chased.
She's funny, silly, sweet and kind (especially when she might have hurt someone's feelings). She expresses herself so well that I can usually understand what she is talking about (like when she asked for "that silver thing for the brownie mix that has lines on it"- the wisk, for her to lick the mix off of). She has a bunch of friends, but is slow to warm up, especially when she hasn't seen them for awhile. She likes to go yard sale-ing with us and find new animals, plastic or stuffed. She loves to color ("color with me"), play with stickers, and paint (when possible). She also loves to have books read to her and has PLENTY to choose from on her bookshelves. She always shares with her Daddy, even if it's the sacred "last one." (Which always amazes me!) {Oh yeah, and she always has that chapped skin above and below her lips. I can't seem to get her to stop doing that!} She's an amazing kid, and in one month and one week, she'll be four. YOWZA!

Oh yeah, and this is how long her hair is in the back!

Father's Day

This one's for Brian. He's a great Dad(dy). He always says there's nothing better in the world than to hear a child guffawing (yep, that's the word he uses a lot). It's true. He really makes the kiddos laugh. He always talks about how he can't wait to take his kids fishing or hunting, or even to watch their first t-ball games. (Sorry kids, looks like you're playing t-ball whether you like it or not!) I can't wait to watch him watch them. There is something amazing about how much you love your children. Who can help it? They can be SO EXASPERATING (as I'm positive my parents felt about me), but you can't help but love them so much it hurts sometimes. Well, who can blame a girl for loving a guy who loves like that? That being said, I'm going to post some of my favorite pictures of Brian with his kids. Hope you enjoy! (I'll try to do it chronologically.)

Brian and Caitlin (a day old). He sure did like to hold her when she slept. (He must have been pretty comfortable because we have a lot of pictures of her sleeping on him!)

He sure loved to take pictures of his pretty little girl. ("She's alright, I guess.") He loves to say this with a big fat smile on his face.

This is us around week two of having a baby. I don't think that Brian knew how much being a family guy would fit him like a glove.

Here he is with the two girls he's raising, Abby and Caitlin.

I just threw this one in there to keep you all awake. {Really Brian, what were you thinking?}

Kid number 2. (I swear I have tons of pictures of Caitlin between these times, but I don't seem to have that many of Caitlin with Brian...at least not that I can find.)

I'm so glad he got a boy too. I know that he's always hoped to have one of each to make life complete. And we did, yeah!

I just love this picture~! I think you can really see how much Caitlin looks like her Daddy (and Cody looks JUST LIKE ME!) Hee, hee

Cody really enjoys his time with his Daddy (and seems to have taken a liking to Brian's ears).

This really shows how much fun Caitlin has with her Dad. She always wants him to play some made up game of his that involves tossing kids in the air, or making faces, or some such nonsense. Caitlin just eats it up, and Brian loves to hear her larger than life laughter.

You know Brian, technically Caitlin and Cody made you a father, but you were made to be a father long before they came along. Happy Father's Day!

PUMPKIN HEAD

My little sweet Caitlin...master procrastinator. I know that when I was growing up, I always wanted to put everything off (especially those long papers I had to write). I believe I've somehow passed that on to my daughter. She won't go to bed and stay there to save the world. She'll do anything to put it off one more moment! Tonight, as I was trying to get her just to go to her room and pick out her two books for me to read, she found this hat and had to put it on. I had to make myself not laugh when I asked her why she was wearing the hat and she told me that she wanted to be a pumpkin for Halloween.

(By the way, I have to put Vaseline on her just about every other night because she constantly licks her lips and chaps above and below the lip line!)

(This hat is actually for Cody made by my friend Eileen last summer. Caitlin loves to wear it though and see herself in the pictures with it.)
So, I get her to bed and read her two stories (nightly ritual). Then, after she has been in bed for about ten minutes, she gets up and HAS TO HAVE her favorite (stuffed) animal(s). You can never tell which of her animals will be her FAVORITE on any given night. Tonight it was Whopper and O.J. (an orange cat). Of course I couldn't find O.J., so I told her that we would just have to find him tomorrow. "Oh, okayyyyyyyy," she says (as if that was the ONLY toy that could possibly make bedtime happen, and she would suffer and be LONELY without him). When I went in much later to make sure the light wasn't too bright, this is what I found:

(That's Whopper on her chest.) And that orange squished cat by the pumpkin hat (under the elephant) is the one she is currently calling O.J.

Lastly, people ALWAYS tell us to enjoy this time when they are little...it goes so fast. (I would seriously be RICH if I got $100 for every time someone has said that to us!) I know it's true. As agitated as I might get trying to get Caitlin in bed and have her STAY THERE, I know that someday I will miss her 101 excuses for why she is out of bed. ("I'm thirsty, can I just have some water?" "I'm lonely because my animals don't talk to me." "Casey won't let me sleep." "My light's too bright (or not bright enough)." "I have to go potty." "Can't I just stay up with you?" "Can't I sleep in your room?" "When Daddy gets home, can you just tell him...(this one is always something new)." She sure is a stinker, but I know that I do treasure her little personality and her imagination!