San Diego to Tempe

When I left for San Diego the sun wasn't even up in Portland, but boy was it wet!

And landing in San Diego was a welcomed glorious heat from the sun! 

Ben said I could get what ever I wanted for lunch, so....In 'n Out it was!

It doesn't really matter what we do, I just love being with Missy, we've never actually lived in the same city, except for one glorious summer at Tadmor they lived up the hill, it was the life.

We had to leave Wednesday morning to drive on over to Tempe and pick up Jer from the airport, so naturally we stayed up most of the night talking and laughing and her, packing for their camping trip following the Duck game.

Just one of the kids, along for the ride. Go Ducks!

My road trip buddy... 

Coopey Coop! 

The ever grown up Bailey and Logan, I swear the know more songs from the top 40 list than I do! 

'Dad' and 'Mom' "Are we there yet?"

Hot tubbing and swimming is a pretty fantastic way to spend game day! 

The crew, also Tammi and Jammi were there but I'm realizing now I have no hard evidence. It was so fun and caused me to desperately wish my kids were along for the trip and that we were continuing on to go camping with the Brown's!

Me and Bailey, she's so grown up! 

Ben's brother crafted these signs and we were quite the spectacle walking into the game. The story behind it is that someone spray painted the 'A' on the mountain next to the stadium green in the middle of the night, by the time the sun came up Arizona State had already painted it back again.

Me and my honey, right after we took this picture Chip Kelly ran right by us...it was kind of exciting!

Ready for the game to start! 

We Won The Day! 

So fun, we're making this an annual thing, going to a game together! We've done it 3 years in a row now, well the first year was at Autzen but still, I'm all for the tradition to continue! 

And then we were off to the airport at 6 the next morning...quick but oh so fun!

Halloween

The kids had been counting down the days to Halloween with great anticipation. We didn't do a big party this year. Instead we toned it down and invited the neighbors over for a pre-trick or treat party in the culdesac which turned into our living room for drinks and cookies. We successfully planned out a few future parties, one being our annual neighborhood Christmas lighting party that inadvertently got started last year when on a random sunny Sunday 3/7 houses were getting adorned with lights by the heads of the houses and a throw in took place to deck the halls of the remaining houses. I whipped up some cider and a couple other of the gals baked up some cookies and before we knew it  there were 18 of us chatting and sipping and donning our gay apparel, and it was fantastic. Well they want more, and we're talking maybe bigger and better? Shocking I know. The other genius idea that sprouted was a Civil war game day viewing party complete with culdesac tailgating. Everyone is pumped, even the ones who aren't all that into football. 

I love our neighbors and the relationships that have grown in the last two and a half years of us living here! Another fun happenstance was one of Lincoln's best friends from school was with his mom and brothers and stopped in to say hi and they ended up staying right up until trick or treating and Jer and I had a great chat with his mom who's going through some pretty tough stuff. None of this could have happened if we had been busy scuttling around prepping for a huge party but you never know what will happen next year. 

Onto the pictures of the night...

Dinner!

Snacks before dinner...so creepy and crawly!

Me and my Jessie

The cutest bird ever! 

Jessie 

Batman 

Grandpa Roy, or a rodeo clown, stopped by while the two kids I nanny for were still here 

The Bride 

My adorable crew 

Taking a break before heading out for round two.

The aftermath!

Observations of a 7 Year Old

Last night Jer and I were looking at the humor section on Pinterest. And there were some Hilarious things there. While looking we were giggle which escalated to laughter, to belly laughing at times and near crying episodes. The kids were playing in the front room and would run over to see what had us acting so silly only to find a bunch of words, most of the things were those e-cards that I can't get enough of.

Then Lincoln in all his articulateness goes "You guys are laughing and having so much fun together like you just had a date"

I guess it does feel like that when you're married to your very best friend and favorite person in the world! I'm one lucky girl!

Cousin Halloween Party!

My adorable sister-in-law had been wanting to do a cousin Halloween gathering since September and the night had finally come...the tables were set...

The chili was prepared by the adorable momma-to-be!

The cousins were gathered, while Uncle Jer/Dad read to a captive audience

I got some Nash snuggles...and the kids 'ate' chili, okay my kids don't really eat chili but the cornbread muffins with pumpkin toothpick skewers were a big hit...

As was the Frankenstein cookies and cream pudding!

It was a lovely evening with family celebrating a being together!

Thankful

It's November, when did that happen by the way, and people all over facebook are posting daily what they're thankful for. I didn't join in but you can't help but run through your own mental list reading everyone else's. Me? I'm thankful for our family, and for talented friends that help capture that our family over the years. Toby at Gobias Media has done it again. I haven't seen all of the pictures but these are the ones he posted on facebook this morning after just spending a half hour with our family last night photographing away.

I just love them all so much!

And my sweet Hailey bean growing into such a lady, he say's she's one of his favorite subjects!

This is just a teaser, more to come later.

Makes My Heart Smile

I had so much fun living it up two weeks ago! Well two weeks ago (how has it already been that long?) I was frantically trying to pack and make lists and plan for the multiple family members it took to care for my clan while I was off gallivanting with some of my favorite people!

Jer and I got to use some air miles and fly to see the Ducks play in Arizona. He has a goal to see Oregon play in all of the Pac12 stadiums I think in the next 10 years...something like that. So when Ben and Missy decided they were going to drive to Tempe as a family and then take off to go camping at the Grand Canyon we knew we had to be at least some part of it....I'll get to that in another post. This one is all about how my husband loves me so thoughtfully!

On Sunday night (my flight left at 7:20 Tuesday morning) I had a breakdown. I was feeling sad, and overwhelmed. 

Sad for all of the heartache that has been around us, and touching those we love dearly for a while and some doozies that crept up kind of recently. I didn't realize how I was internalizing all of the sadness I was feeling for people I care so much about. And overwhelmed at everything I had to do! Planning to be away from four kids with Jer starting it already out of town and school and Dr appointments and home community and mildly sick children, and of course all the laundry still had to get done. Like I said, overwhelmed.

And Sunday night my sweet husband asked me why I was so quite, and I just shared the tip of the iceberg and then I kept talking, and then I started blubbering. 

So I blubbered, and talked, and talked and talked, and he smiled and listened. And it was exactly what I needed.

So when I woke up Monday to my lists of things to get done I was feeling a little warn for the wear, but hopeful. And I walked into the kitchen to find this note/list of his own.

It was the most important list of all and it met me right where I was, spoke my language, showed his love for me and pointed me to the promises I have in Christ. Through my husband Christs love was revealed to me. What a gift!

Clipping

Every day the kids come home from school they inform me where the got to on their clip chart. It's a behavioral tool that is used where you start on the green can move up for good behavior our down for poor choices. Well they also include friends that 'clipped off' that day, that's where they do so good they clip off the chart and onto the teachers necklace and a jewel gets added to their clip. It's a very big deal, and both Payden and Lincoln have a jewel which means they've successfully 'clipped off'. I am one proud momma.

Well the other day Payden was telling me how one of the kids "got all the way down to parent contact. That's when you have to go to the office and call your parents, but if you can't get a hold of them then you have to talk to the principle. And I think that actually sounds kind of nice, because the principle is a girl and she is nice and she smells like Grandma Tammi" a giggle escapes me, "no I'm serious she really does. She really smells exactly like Grandma Tammi, I know because she sat next to me for a minute at the beginning of school and I thought Grandma Tammi was there and then I realized she smells like Grandma Tammi"

Oh I love her descriptions of life!

What Do You Want To Be?

I realized with all the cute things on pinterest that help document first days of school, new years, fathers day's, birthdays, I don't remember ever asking my kids what they want to be when they grow up. That might just be my tired momma brain but today, I went ahead and asked them.

Hailey wants to be a person that finds out things about people me:"An investigator?" Yeah a vextigat...inbextiga...in, what you said, yes what you said.

Payden wants to be a teacher "oh a teacher that teaches dance and music and stuff"

Taylor wants to be a princess

Lincoln wants to be a movie maker. "And like do voices for characters in the movies"

I love these kids!

Shady Dell

Shady Dell, it's in Molalla and I had never been. There is a group of guys, and gals I guess, that love their trains. And they've turned a hobby into an experience. So on a donation run mini train station we headed on an unseasonably warm October Sunday.

I got to ride on the back of the motorcycle with my honey while the kids rode with Grandpa Roy.

Blurry but there is something amazing about experiencing the world on a motorcycle, the smells, the sights, it's a different perspective and I love it!

Mini trains that you can ride on. 

We were on a real steam engine.

And took about 4 5-10 min rides. Looking carefully you can see all 6 of us!

It was a beautiful afternoon, and I wish I would have had my actual camera with me.