Spencer the Race Car Driver

Here's my cute, little race car driver.  Spencer has been telling me this is what he wanted to be for a couple of months now.  A big change from last year when we had to do some serious convincing to get him to wear a single part of his Bob the Builder outfit.  I would certainly have preferred a costume without a built-in six pack (for a 3-year-old!  Seriously, who comes up with this stuff!), but this was the one Spencer wanted.

We opted to go to 5-6 houses tonight instead of the ward trunk-or-treat this year.  I'm not a fan of having to buy a ton of candy and then coming home with a ton of candy.  What we did was about the perfect amount for Spencer.  He was super excited and had fun, but didn't come home with a bucket full of candy.



Everything was good until bedtime.  We ended the night with a series of meltdowns over everything from underwear to sippy cups.  Maybe that little bit of excitement was too much.  It was fun, but I'm glad it's over. :)

October Fun

Something about fall makes me feel all crafty.  It's weird because I really don't have a crafty bone in my body, but I always attempt to copy other people's ideas around this time of year.

I finally finished the Halloween tree ornaments that I started last October.  I think they turned out super cute and it's fun to continue that tradition from my childhood.  Spencer likes them too because none of them are scary and they all have smiley faces.

 I also made this wreath and was pleasantly surprised how it turned out.



This has nothing to do with Halloween, but it was fun.  Dirty clothes hampers make great hide-outs and vehicles!

Alan had a scout camp-out this last weekend and decided to take Spencer with him at the last minute.  (Sorry, no pictures of this one.  Alan didn't want to bother with taking the camera.)  I did some quick shopping for winter clothes for Spencer and my two boys wound up having a wonderful time despite Spencer having an accident at about midnight and then having to share a sleeping bag with Alan for the remainder of the night.  Good thing I had sent an extra pair of jammies.  It was also a good thing that they were only camping about 20 minutes from our house since Alan locked his keys in the car in the morning and I had to drive out to unlock it for him.  :)  The troupe did an orienteering course on Saturday morning and Spencer loved running around on the trails to find the flags.  He'll be a great scout in a few years.

I wasn't sure if we would make it out to our favorite pumpkin patch on Sauvie Island again this year because of the camp-out, but we managed to squeeze it in.  It was rainy and super muddy last year, but the sun was out and the weather was perfect this time.  We took a fun hay ride out to the patch.  After finding two great pumpkins, we rode back to the farm store and had hot, roasted corn and caramel apples.  So yummy!  It was getting a little late so we didn't have as much time to play as I would have liked, but we still had a great time together.  The only thing that would have made it better would have been if our friends that took us last year could have been there again.

Almost Paradise

After our two weeks at Geoff and Tanya's house, Spencer and I got to spend a week with my parents and youngest sister in St. Johns.  Sleeping in, playing with Spencer, reading, having someone cook for me, having adults to talk to and just being home were heavenly.  It took me a good three nights of good sleep and naps in the afternoon to feel caught up on sleep.  It was seriously so wonderful to be there.  The only things that could have made it better were if Alan and my other siblings could have been there with us.

There is just something so special about being home.  It's hard to describe how good it feels.  Part of it is that I leave all of my concerns and obligations in Oregon when I go.  I guess the rest of that peace comes from all of the love I feel from my parents and siblings and all of the wonderful memories I have of my childhood.  I am so blessed to come from the family I do and to have grown up where I did.  Even though St. Johns seems extremely brown compared to Oregon, it's like paradise every time I get to go home.

We had the most gorgeous fall weather while we were there, so we got to spend a lot of time playing outside.  Spencer had a lot of fun helping Grandpa in the yard, jumping on the trampoline, playing in the sandbox and kicking a ball around on the lawn.  I took a lot of pictures and I'll let them do most of the talking.

We happened to be in St. Johns during Homecoming week, so we got to go to the little parade.  It was small, but great since Spencer and I had managed to miss every other parade during the summer.  Michelle is quite the candy-magnet in town so they both came away with way more candy than I wanted Spencer to eat.  Good thing I could help him out with that! :)

 Thanks again for the wonderful time Mom, Dad and Michelle.  I love you so much!  My heart breaks a little each time I have to leave home again.  I think I would be perfectly happy in Oregon if it wasn't so far from home.

1 to 5 overnight

I'm back!  Spencer and I spent the last three weeks in Arizona.  We stayed with my three nephews and one niece in the Phoenix area for the first two weeks of our trip.  Going from being a mother of one to a mother of five overnight was not easy for me.  The first week was a lot of work, but ok.  Four of the kids got sick the 2nd week, however, and that was hard.  I was exhausted from getting up 5 or 6 times during the nights.  Besides that and getting totally lost on the way to piano lessons, I think things went pretty well.

The three boys are all in school, so Spencer and Kaitlyn (2 1/2) got to hang out with me a lot.  We ran errands, played with play dough, went to a fun park with ducks and geese, went to story time, and just played.  They had a lot of fun together the first week, but had a hard time sharing anything the second week.  Neither of them is used to having to share a lot and they're both used to getting more individual attention than they were getting.

Braden turned 6-years-old while we were there!  To my relief, he chose a gumball cake out of his mom's cake book.  It was simple to make and the hardest part was finding a store that sold gumballs and candy coins.  It was supposed to be red, gray and white; but I didn't have the right food coloring and it turned out pink, purple and white.  Luckily, Braden didn't seem to mind that his cake was "girl colors."  Kaitlyn loved it!

 I got a huge surprise when Alan called me at 6:30 on Friday morning and told me to open the door.  He had flown down to surprise us!  It was so good to see him and to have some extra help for a couple of days.  I think that was the best surprise I've ever had.  We took the kids to the building workshop at Home Depot on Saturday morning.  They all got to make rescue helicopters.  We had never taken Spencer to a building workshop before and he loved it.  I was so glad that Alan was there though.  It wouldn't have been as fun for everyone if I had to try to help all of them at the same time.



Nathan (9) didn't want to follow the instructions for his helicopter.  He figured out how to put it together on his own and then spent a lot of time doing a fancy paint job.  It was so much fun for me to get to know all of the kids better and see their different personalities.

You can't have a cousin get-together without a cute bathtub picture!

We had planned to go to the zoo on my last day there, but since several of the kids still weren't feeling great, we settled for a park and a movie at the theater instead.  This was the only picture I got of everyone together.



I was definitely ready to be finished when Geoff and Tanya came home, but I'm glad I was able to help them out and get to know these kiddos better.  We wished we lived closer to them so we could see them more often.  I have a new respect for any parent with more than one child.  It's a whole new level of busy.  And, I don't know how they give each child the attention they need.  It was hard for me to always be needed by at least two of them and yet never feeling like I was giving anyone the attention they needed.  Props to all of you moms out there!