Caitlin's first performance!!! (Ha, ha)

Caitlin's new preschool is in a local Luthern Church's basement. She is loving it and learning all kinds of grand things. She has brought home many new (old) favorites (songs) that Brian seems to know as well. Today at their church, she got to sing in front of their whole church! (Brian said it was a small congregation.) I had to take the children to mass yesterday so I could stay this morning with Cody to nap while Brian took Caitlin to sing at her preschool's church. I was sad not to be able to go and see her, but someone had to stay home and I figured it should be me. =( Well, we did get some shots of her though, so here they are!

Here is Caitlin in her pretty "Christmas" dress from last December. It's very pretty and still fits her, so we wrestled the tights on her, whipped her hair back to fit into her headband, and squished her little feet into her Dorothy shoes. She was all dolled up and ready to go!

Here she is sitting with her Daddy posing so beautifully! They sure look alike, eh?It took us awhile to get her to quit making "goofy, silly" faces and just smile. This one would have been perfect if I hadn't cut Daddy out of it. Oh well, she still looks sweet!Here's Caitlin talking about the apples falling from the trees, umm, umm, good! I wish she didn't have to wear these T-shirts! You don't even get to see her pretty dress! What a bummer! She was still cute though. (We also have this taped, so if you ever come over, be sure to watch it! )Last pictures! I'm not sure what they were singing above, but Caitlin was doing very well. The songs she performed were: "The B-I-B-L-E," "Jesus Loves Me," "Ten Apples," (?) "If you're happy and you know it," and many more. She was doing most of the gestures and singing loudly. We were very proud of her!

What's been happening...?

Hi All! Sorry for the skipping of posts! It's really difficult now because I'm back to work full-time and Cody and the computer are in the same room. But, I wanted to share a little about what's been happening!

Cody took his first few steps the first week of September. He had been standing up right in the middle of the room and suddenly, he decided to move. (I have a feeling we will be running after him very soon.)

He does like to get into everything! He loves to climb the stairs every chance he gets, and doesn't do as well with climbing down. As you can see here, he is trying to climb onto the step stool that his sister is standing on.

Caitlin has started a new preschool a few mornings per week. She is liking it, though she doesn't know any of her friends' names. She is doing some pretty swell art work, if I do say so myself. This kid LOVES to color.

Here they are "just chillin'" in the living room. Caitlin on her bean bag chair and Cody listening to the music on his walking toy.

Anyway, that's all folks! While Cody is awake, I maybe have 10 minutes (here and there, certainly not all at once), to complete a blog entry. However, he's learned to shut the computer off and it makes it even more difficult. Hope you are all happy! Take care!

What a WEEK!!!! Silverwood Amusement Park, Idaho)

I sincerely apologize to all the fans of "Artistically Denied" (ha, ha) who have been waiting for my next blog entry. So few comments, so little affirmation, makes me just put off a new entry and put it off some more, until it's been OVER A MONTH since my last one. But, I do have more pics and more comments to add, so here goes!

We spent our last vacation days (I started back to work on Monday) visiting Brian's side of the family in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The next few blogs will be about this trip!

Our first full day in Coeur d'Alene was spent at Silverwood Amusement Park. When we entered the park we stopped briefly at some of the carnival games. Here is Caitlin and Joe standing by this crazy huge game! This picture if for Josiah as he seems to like these types of machines and this one had the biggest CLAW and animals I've ever seen. We didn't actually play this game as it seems to me that JOSIAH is the only one who ever actually gets a toy out of one.

This is a cute picture of Caitlin, but also of the newest attraction at Silverwood called "After Shock."

This ride has you sitting in seats with your feet dangling and a harness support . It brings you up one side and has you dangle in the air facing straight down. (*I must say here that I am not one to believe in the harness keeping me from sudden death. Johnny's daughter Helena said it best when she said, "What if one of those workers accidently bumps the button that releases those harnesses? So true in my head!) Anyway, once the ride is released, you go down, spin around the loop and then do it all backward up the other side. It's quite a rush, I assure you and we got EVERYONE (Daniel, Mike, Diane, Joe, Brian and I) to take a ride on it! There's another part of Silverwood that is a water park. There are these big slides for people to slide down and experience the oh so unpleasant suit up the dupa feeling (at the end). They are pretty doggone fun, especially as you end up going pretty fast and sometimes catching some air on the way down. Here's Mike (who enjoyed these slides just as much as his kids, if not more)!

Here's Brian coming down the "bumpy" slide. This is the one where the first bump throws you in the air a little and it's really oh so fun!This is why we were having so much fun at the Water Park! Grandma Diane had the kiddos set up during their naps and watched them for us while we got to play on all the fun water rides! Thanks SO MUCH Grandma Diane, we really appreciated this!We think that Cody is going to be a real water baby. He sees water and immediately wants to be put down so he can play in it. This day was a little bit on the cold side, so Cody just got his feet wet in the wave pool. Here's Brian, Daniel and Joe as we wait to get on the wooden roller coaster, "Tremors" (? I think).

Here are two of the signs you see before you go on this roller coaster. The first is because this roller coaster has a camera stationed to take your photo, the second is because it's freakishly scary tunnels make you feel like you're going to get your head chopped off. I ducked each and every time, whew!

I'm not sure why we have no photos of Gma Diane or any of Johnny's family, but apparently we were more concerned about riding all the rides than taking photos. I sincerely apologize to Diane, we promise to have more photos of you in the next few entries!

CAITLIN'S BIRTHDAY! Yeah!

Caitlin turned the big 4 on Monday! First thing Brian did when she woke up was to sing her Happy Birthday AND she got to have two birthday parties on her special day!

Her first party was at her preschool. Her teacher, Ms. Becky had a Hawaiian themed lunch party for her. We brought everyone small cupcakes and "good for you" junkfood cookies (that's what they were called).

Here's Caitlin making a wish (I hope).

Here's she's blowing out her one lucky blue candle.

About an hour later, we had her second birthday party. She invited all her friends (that weren't at her school), Wyatt, Nicole, Margaux, Michaela, Kylie, Hannah, Braven and Lucas. We had the party at the park near our house.

Here's a picture with her and Wyatt (a friend for quite some time) deciding who will ride the swing first. (It was so cute because we saw Wyatt pushing Caitlin on the swing!)

Here she is sliding down the windy red slide showing how old she is! Wyatt is showing that he is 5!Here she is just hanging around with her friend! (He was one of the first to arrive (and incidently one of her first friends) so we have a few more pictures of him than all the rest!)Here is Cody, just hanging out having a good time at the park!Here are Caitlin and Nicole (whose birthday is the exact same day, just one year older) swinging, while Daddy, Cody and Michaela watch and push when needed!

Here we are back in the covered area where Caitlin gets to blow out the candles on her baseball cake. (We went to Costco and she got to pick whichever one she wanted and this is the one she picked! It is a baseball diamond with a baseball glove and ball on top of the diamond. It does say Happy Birthday Caitlin though!) Luckily, it was a white cake with strawberry mousse filling! Yummy!The top picture is the "gang" except for Hannah who was sleeping and had to come later! The bottom one is an up close shot of the cake and Caitlin blowing out the candles! She had four and one to grow on (just like we always did it in my family).

After cake and juice, the gang headed over to the pond where they could all feed the ducks!

This is the gang coming back to get all packed up. It was really a nice time and fun day! Happiest 4th Birthday Caitlin!

Family ties...

Brenda, John and their family came up on Saturday. We decided to go to the Willamette River and let the dogs be in the water, and the kids just have fun at a park. It's cheap, easy and everyone always has fun! Portland is really a great place to be in the summer!

Here is Brian in the river holding Casey (spazo dog) so that she doesn't chase the stick he threw for Abby (the old lady). I think Sam is mining for gold in the back there! ha, haI want everyone to notice that Cody is NOT crying while Aunt Brenda is holding him. He loves the water and isn't as finicky as Caitlin was about people holding him, as long as they love him. =) Here's Sam playing "got your toes" with his favorite birthday cousin! Caitlin always has fun with her cousin Sam!You would almost think that Uncle John and Josiah didn't have any fun at the park, until we got out the whistling football that makes any person look like an NFL quarterback! Here's Aunt Brenda always taking pictures! Brian is back there trying to wear Casey out a bit. If I had 1/10th of the energy that Casey does, I would achieve greatness! ha, ha, ha

Here's a somewhat good family shot. Cody is trying to show everyone that his Daddy has a caffeine addiction. "WON'T ANYONE LISTEN??? LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THIS CUP!!" That is what he is saying! (Oh yeah, I think that cup belongs to BRENDA! Caffeine addiction must run in their family!)Finally, here we are trying to get everyone rounded up, while I try to take photos of my cute kiddos. Brenda is trying to help me, while Brian just lies around snapping random photos of people with dogs running through the shot.

We had fun, we always do. Come on back, you guys, so we can do it again!

Noon Tunes

Brian had started this and only wrote one sentence! I'm here to finish the job! In Pioneer Courthouse Square ("Portland's Living Room") on certain days throughout the summer they have what's called "Noon Tunes." It's local bands playing live music in this mini amphitheater. It's quite fun. You see a lot of people that you know are on their lunch breaks, in all their office wear, hanging out just listening to whatever music happens to be playing. It's very casual, and allows you to have your children with you when you are listening to live music (very exciting for us)! Anyway, Caitlin had a grand old time. She danced...

found a friend who danced beside her...
and played with Cody, who wished he could be out there dancing. (I just know it!)

Cody just "chilled out" with his Daddy, eating a nectarine . He sure likes to eat! Yeah!

I don't even remember the name of the band, but it was kind of funky, bluesy voice, Portlandish type of sound. Pretty good. Made many little kiddos get up and dance. (As well as a few brave adults.) It sounds like once a week they will have this live music during the summer. I hope we get to more of them. (Brian's station promotes it and has a live person there doing live shots.)

Here is the actual Courthouse, and it's pretty fantastic (old and all)!

Finally, as we were walking towards our car, on the sidewalks of some of the streets downtown, there are these fun water sculptures. Caitlin decided she wanted to sit on the seal. Makes you wish you were a little kid too!

I feel like I wish we could enjoy more of what makes Porland, Portland, you know? I really always enjoy these types of outings where you can just enjoy what Portland has to offer, especially the music. Hopefully, there will be more to come...