Snow in Oregon

If you woke up, looked out the window and saw snow, would you throw on your boots and head out into it as is?

Cuz that's what Jemma and Carter did. The seriously frigid temperatures didn't even seem to affect them...just me, violently shivering at the front door. I was able to hold still just long enough to snap a shot or two. Then it was back into the house to defrost, have some breakfast and...

put a few more layers on to head back out into the snow, snow, snow!

It came just in time to kick off the holidays. Carter and Jemma were sure Santa would be coming soon since it looked like a winter wonderland here at home! Just one month to go...and the anticipation is already killing them!

Bum Thumb

Monday night, we decided to take the kids bowling for the first time...they were SOOOO excited. We had them all shoed up, Jemma took her first turn (assisted by Daddy)...

...and then Carter was up. He insisted on carrying his ball (which was a light-weight one by the way) all by himself. That would have been fine had he seen the 3 inch step at the edge of the bowling platform. (Look at the photo of Jem and Carter below to see the step I'm refering to...it's at the bottom of the picture.) And you know, even that would have been fine if the bowling ball hadn't fallen on his thumb just right and popped it like a tomato. Poor boy. He'd already sliced the index finger on that hand earlier that day (hence the bandaid that's already present).

It actually took us a while to even find where all the blood was coming from...his little hand (and my hands if I'm being honest) were covered and he did some serious resisting when I tried to clean it off. So, after Jemma and Brandon finished the fastest game of bowling EVER, it was off to the ER for the first time. (For being married 6+ years and having 3 kids, I'd say we've done pretty well.)

Gavin was a trooper while we were at the bowling alley. He DOES NOT like his carseat, but didn't fuss once while we were there even though he was stuck in it the whole time since I had Carter on my lap and Brandon was assisting Jemma.

There's Carter's thumb wrapped in a paper towel at the bowling alley.

Brandon was the lucky parent and got to take Carter to the hospital. After a couple x-rays, we found out he'd broken a piece of the bone off the tip of his thumb...if my scanner worked, I would scan in the pic they gave us and show you, but it doesn't. Sorry.

He ended up with 2 stitches and was placed on antibiotics (which smells terrible, by the way, so I can only imagine the taste) for his "open fracture wound".

Here's what his thumb looks like today, 5 days after he smashed it.

There's still a little guaze stuck to where they stitched him up. (In case you're wondering what that white stuff is.) But all in all, it's looking MUCH better.

(Do you think he needs that nail trimmed?!?)

Bicycle Riding

I think it was two springs ago that Jemma REALLY wanted a bike...so, we headed to Target and picked up the most girly bike (within our budget) we could find, took it home, and after one or two tries, she wouldn't have anything to do with it. I remember taking her outside and trying to bribe her to ride the darn thing with treats and what not. In fact, I distinctly remember purchasing little fairy wings and a wand (from the dollar store)...but she didn't give a flying leap about it all. She was NOT going to get on that bike.

So, at the beginning of the summer, when she hopped on her bike and started riding it all on her own, I remember standing at the kitchen window in utter awe, SO GRATEFUL she was finally riding that bike that had been sitting in the rain on our back porch for a year and a half, rusting.

However, I definitely did not expect her to try the ultimate challenge of riding her bike WITHOUT the training wheels for at least another year. But, I have a friend who mentioned removing the pedals along with the training wheels and letting her learn to balance and then put the pedals back on.

MIRACLE!!! We took her pedals off and let her coast around on her bike for a couple weeks, stuck the pedals back on last Saturday and watched her take off. FABULOUS!!!

So, now that she has learned to ride that pink bike, it might be time to upgrade in size...she's pedaling like a mad-man and her knees are almost knocking the handlebars!

Hilarious!

Here's a little clip of the big accomplishment.

Wedding Bells

My sister Melanie jus got engaged to this super great guy, Jade. We met him last summer in Tahoe and these two are a great match.

Congratulations you guys!!! We can't wait for the big day next April!

By the way, this picture was taken just after Jade proposed. Don't they look soooo happy?

LOVE IT! And love them. :)

Any reason for a photo shoot

Last Sunday, I was pulling clothes out of the kids closets to iron for church, and low and behold...

they had stuff that matched!!!

Any excuse to go take pics right? EsPeCiAlLy if it's NOT raining! :)

The kids were pretty cooperative...Jemma especially likes "photo shoots"...Carter on the other hand takes a little bribery, but with a piece of gum in his mouth he was much quicker to give a smile. (But only one or two.)

We sure love these three and can't believe how quickly they are changing. Gotta capture as much of it as we can, right!?

Happy Halloween

The kids have always had a theme for Halloween. This year, Jemma was Maid Marion, Carter was Robin Hood, and Gavin was King Richard. In hind sight, I'm glad I made their costumes this year, but it just might be the last time I make all of them. Carter's was the first one I made, and the pattern was so ridiculous that he is not wearing the original costume. This one was the 2nd try. Jemma's dress wouldn't have been too bad, but the material was a NIGHTMARE to work with...that costume satin is slippery stuff. Gavin is also wearing the 2nd try on his costume...he was originally going to be a lion wearing a crown (King Richard the "Lion Hearted") that way he'd be toasty warm, but I made a little mistake with the pattern I purchased...it said "size 1/2" on it...I was thinking "size 0.5/6 months"...pretty sure they meant size 1-2 years cuz it was GINORMOUS! Lesson learned, and now I have a lion costume half sewn up...maybe for next year.

This year, we spent like a week or more celebrating Halloween. On the 23rd of October, we attended a Halloween party held by the spouses/significant others of the optometry students. The kids were super excited and had a ball.

Here are a few pictures from that night.

Then on the 30th we took the kids to the annual church "Trunker-treat". With Halloween on a Sunday, this was the big night to collect all the goodies. It was RAINING of course, so I didn't take any pictures while we were there, but here are a few from before we headed over.

Then on Halloween, the kids had helped me plan out a festive dinner, so we stayed home, turned off most (Jem would have had them ALL off) of the lights, lit our lanterns and snacked on our Halloween goodies.

We had a pumpkin shaped cheese ball (stole Sharee's idea from last year!):
Bones & blood (bread sticks and marinara sauce); ours looked like doggy bones. :)
Cheese pizza...it was supposed to look like candy corn once it was cooked, but ours got a bit over cooked and so the mozzarella cheese in the middle looks just as dark as the cheddar around the outside. Dang it! Here's what it was supposed to look like.
Mud, dirt & worms (chocolate pudding, crushed oreos & gummy worms) for desert. :)
Jemma was probably the most excited for all the Halloween food. We all enjoyed eating it, but she was definitely the most enthusiastic over having a Halloween themed dinner. That makes all the work/prep/stress etc. worth it!