Caitlin's Random Photos...

Caitlin is all about taking pictures with the digital camera. She often takes very random ones, but her "subject position" tends to be very good! This is one of Abby and Casey on their dog bed. A little dark, but not too bad!This one I think is funny because it is just a light switch cover that I found at a thrift store, but it looks very good centered in this picture!Here is our messy living room with the big beach ball (taller than Cody). My running shoes (that have never hit pavement at a jog) centered just so. This one is my favorite. She caught Cody crying one morning while I was trying to get him dressed. Doesn't he look tired and miserable? He definitely takes after his Daddy in the morning!

We are always trying to guess what Caitlin will want to be when she grows up. Maybe a Veterinarian? Maybe an Artist? Maybe a Photographer? You just never know.

Trick or Treat!

October 25th, and 31st...

We got to "trick or treat" twice for this holiday. A local grocery store and the rest of the strip mall shops around it, hold a trick or treat time the Saturday before Halloween. We dressed the kiddos up and off we went. (But first, we had to take some photos, right?)Here they are laughing on the chair. Cody was Tigger (as I'm sure you can see) and Caitlin was a "spot doggy" for the second year in a row.

Cody wasn't too sure about wearing his hood. It sure was cute looking on him though. Caitlin wore this same outfit when she was 1.Coders wanted to play "beep the nose" which always gets a laugh.
I really hope that Cody keeps his blue eyes!

Here's Cody, walking around the grocery store. Brian went in a few days later and found out that Cody had won 4th place in the costume competition. We didn't even realize there had been a competition. I wonder what 1st place won?

Halloween Night...
Caitlin got to go out trick or treating with her Daddy, while Cody and I stayed home and handed out candy. I'm just going to post a few of the pictures for you all to see...

We found this neighborhood that was all decked out for Halloween. We drove by it a few times in the past week just because of the decorations. Caitlin seems like she isn't bothered by all the crazy, scary decorations. She usually just thinks they are "funny." Hmmm...
Caitlin did bug us about not having enough decorations up in our yard. We did have a few, but no blow up decorations. Sheesh. Brian and Caitlin found this funny pumpkin on their travels. Some people are so clever!
Caitlin seemed to tire of the walking around rather early, I thought. However, it might have been that she just wanted to go home and hand out candy to the other kids. She did come home with quite a stash of candy though.

Every year, it's more and more fun having the kids experience the holidays. Can't wait for the next!

Pumpkin Patch

We all went to the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago to get some pumpkins. However, I can't find those photos. So, Caitlin got to go to the same pumpkin patch for a school field trip. I found this photo of the two kiddos in the haystack maze. Aren't they so cute? They really do, usually, play really well together and have lots of fun.

Cody's Birthday!

October 16, 2008

Unfortunately, Brian had to work on Cody's 1st birthday. But, luckily, Brenda, John and the boys were coming up the day before to see a new baby relative here in Portland. So, we decided to plan a party for that day instead. I guess we technically celebrated the last day before Cody turned a whole number.

Here we are hanging out in the living room getting our photos taken! We were waiting on tacos, I believe. Caitlin is ALWAYS SUPER DUPER excited when her cousins come for a visit. She just has a blast with them. They all love to entertain each other. Brenda is so happy that Cody is so much more receptive to being held and loved on by his Aunty! (Caitlin was a teensy-weensy bit less receptive, heh, heh!)Here's Caleb entertaining Cody 'til the food arrives! Love those bubbles!

I'm not sure why, but when we were handing out plates for cake, Sam didn't seem to want to use the mermaid one! = ) {He almost didn't notice at first.}Oh so patiently, waiting and eyeing the cake!I'm going to just flat out apologize to Brenda (and Caleb) for including this photo, but it's a good picture of us eating the cake, right?

This kiddo really doesn't refuse much in the way of food. He sure did enjoy his birthday feast! Hope for many, many more sweet Cody!

(Caitlin helped pick out the photos to use for this blog entry! Thanks so much for your help, Caity!)

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!