the o's

it's my party and i'll cry if i want to

2012-01-29T14:57:00.000-08:00

we had a little family get-together to celebrate tatem's first birthday this weekend. we had the cleaned the house, set out a spread of yummy food, hung strings of pics from her first year, gotten balloons ... we were ready to party!

poor tatem, however, was not ready to party. she woke up from her nap with a 101* temp, bright red cheeks and in an overall bad mood. we think it's just teething b/c she has been fine otherwise and she is due for her first molars... poor baby!

we still had a great time with family and wesley loved blowing out the candle and playing with tatem's new gifts :)

look at that sad face! :(

my mother-in-law is a fantabulous baker/cook and she made the yummiest gluten-free birthday cake - i might have to request this cake for my bday.. it was meringue layers with almond paste and whipped cream with strawberries on top (see above photo for tatem's individual cake). once tatem got a bite of it, she did stop crying for a bit. she liked her cake :)

she was in bed by 6:30 pm and woke up in better spirits this morning.

happy birthday sweet girl!

tatem: ONE year

2012-01-26T15:19:00.000-08:00

tatem is ONE today. what?!?!

i woke up this morning totally excited to celebrate my little tater-pie's birthday. maybe it's because the day she was born was one of the most beautiful, exhilerating and magical days of my life.

or maybe it's because she was an extreeeeemely fussy baby and her first few months were difficult b/c of all that crying! and i'm so happy those days are behind us! :)

(i actually don't have any pics of her crying - which is crazy b/c she cried alot. like, a LOT.)

maybe today is so exciting b/c tatem is a total mama's girl and i know that (for now) being with me is her absolute favorite thing in the world.

probably all the above reasons are why i woke up totally excited to celebrate this girl. this year has been so incredible and also incredibly hard. being the mom of two young kids is no joke! add in tatem's extreme fussiness, wesley's "terrible 3's" episodes and my tendency to get really frustrated in chaotic situations... that just spells disaster! however, although i've had my moments, i feel very proud of the job andy and i have done this year. we soothed tatem when she was fussy, and played with wes on the floor for hours, and did our best to keep our home happy. andy and i prayed together more this year than we ever have, and god continually blessed us with patience and wisdom when we felt at the end of our rope! wesley and tatem are both happy and confident kids and i believe they know they are very well-loved - that makes me proud.

tatem has developed a lot this past month! her biggest development was walking! in addition to the wobbly steps she is taking, she is pointing at things she wants, loving stuffed animals and babies, and can understand lots of words we say. for instance, if i say "tatem, wanna take a bath?" she will crawl right to the stairs, up the stairs and to the bathtub. then she will try to get in, which is just hilarious b/c she's not even close to being able to get her leg over the edge (yet).

speaking of stairs, she is also learning to go down the stairs on her tummy. she will crawl to the top of the stairs and i tell her to "turn around", at which point she shuffles her body around and starts to slither down the stairs the safe way. it's so fun to teach these kids! she isn't totally trustworthy w/ the stairs yet, but sooooon she will be and i will love it!

(wes wanted a turn on the throne. this is his "joke face")

tatem is sleeping ~11 hrs a night with no interruptions (!!!) and takes 1 or 2 naps a day. she is quite the rallier so i can plan her nap(s) around what i want to get done in the day and she can hang out till nap time comes. soon she will be down to 1 nap all the time, which will be awesome!

we are having a fun day celebrating little tatem. she got to open her present from wes (us) this morning, which was a cuddly baby doll. she loves it already. so sweet. tonight we are going out to a cute little gourmet pizza place to celebrate, and then having a family birthday party this weekend. more pics to come!

tatem - we love you soooo much! you are beautiful, smart and sassy and the perfect addition to our family. happy birthday sweet girl!

xx,
mama, dada & wes

(doesn't she look like such a toddler in this pic?! can't get over it!!)

the house

2012-01-19T11:50:00.000-08:00

finally! posting pics of the house - lots to be done still but here's the "so far" look at our new home :) we have always loved ranch-style houses... in fact, the first house we ever put an offer on (and didn't get) in portland was a ranch. we love the wide open feel and the blank canvas to make it what we want. when we saw this house, we fell in love - it was everything we were looking for. totally clean and well-maintained but tons of opportunity to modernize it over the years.

the above pic is our house in the midst of a blizzard. it stays so warm and cozy during these cold winter months! and the stars are not actually on the house - i just placed those over the address numbers just for safety's sake :) so, eventually (you'll see that word a lot in this post!) we want to give the outside of the house a little face-lift. new paint, etc.

when you walk in the door, this is the first room to your left. i LOVE this room. so much natural light. i have a thing for white painted brick fireplaces (again, there was one in that first ranch we tried to buy years ago!). this room has such a peaceful feel. still a lot of hominess to add to this room - it is still pretty empty. my vision for this room is that it will be the "nice" room - but i don't want a "formal living room" that no one ever uses. we actually spend a lot of time in here! wes and i have our "book club" meetings (where i read books to him outloud while he thumbs through other books on his own) on those white chairs... anyway, i haven't found side tables yet that are simple but can also hold books, blankets, etc. we will try to keep the big toys out of this room - it's mostly for reading and relaxing :) ... at least that's the plan..

still to add to this room: window treatments, mantle over fireplace, side tables, lamps, a few plants, the piano we are inheriting (YAY!!), etc.

then you go straight into the "dining room" - that's in quotes b/c it's not a dining room at all right now. this is where lots of the toys are b/c it's right next to the kitchen and i'm in the kitchen a lot! eventually, we will tear down the wall to the left and have an open kitchen. some of the wall backing up to the living room will come down as well, so it will all be much more open.

and the kitchen

thru the sliding doors from the kitchen, here's our backyard ... there's a patio there under all the snow :)

ok back out to the main entrance, if you go up these stairs you get to our 3 bdrms and the kids' bath.

tatem's room

wesley's room

kids' bathroom

our room - it actually never looks like this. it usually looks all messed up with clothes everywhere and two naked babies crawling all over the bed!

again, nothing on the walls yet, no curtains, and my green chair is just begging for a great pillow :) all in good time....

we will eventually get curtains, but i do love waking up to this tree outside our window

our bathroom - eventually would love to redo this bathroom with andy!

ok, downstairs is the family room. still need side tables, lamps and to hang some prints on the walls. i'm excited for garage sale season - i need some good finds for this room! (the swordfish - or 'swordy' as wes calls him - is from andy's dad's restaurant)... he's awesome.

there is also a wet bar on the other side of this room - totally 70's - love it!

laundry room off the family room

there is a guest bedroom and bathroom off the family room also - not pictured :)

and just downstairs from the family room is this gem

those of you who have children understand how stoked we were about this room! for now, this is just where we play and then leave it messy when we are done. the kids love to bomb around in here and i love doing nothing but closing the door to this room when we are done playing :) eventually, there will be a ping pong table, maybe a tv, who knows.

just off the play room is this random room - the previous owner of this home used to cut hair so she had a little "salon" that i am loving to finally spread out my crafty stuff in!

craft room

and that's it. thanks for touring our new home!

first steps

2012-01-18T19:48:00.000-08:00

she's been standing alone for weeks, and has even taken a few "lunging steps" at me, but today tatem took her first real steps. she stood for a bit and then took four even steps towards me. then she did it again and again and again. so we've seen about 4 series of 4 steps - i'm so excited! i think she is going to love being up and walking around (and i will too! this girl weighs a TON).

when wes started walking (at 13.5 mos), he took off and was walking full-time within the next 2 weeks... i'm curious to see if tatem will take off like her bro, or if she'll just dabble in walking and continue to crawl for awhile. either way, such a sweet sweet milestone!

tatem had another 'first' today... her first sled ride! we got about 5" of snow today - it was a beautiful day with snow falling for about 8 hours straight. when dinner was done, we bundled up and took the kids on a little sled ride down our street.

this pic is super blurry - i (obviously) wasn't using a tripod, and i (obviously) was holding tatem in one arm, so i just couldn't keep my camera still enough to get a crisp picture since it was dark - anyway, it still shows the beautiful snow in the culdesac :) i love our street - quiet and peaceful. (that's andy pulling wes in the sled)

these two thrill-seekers were going about .0002 mph and LOVING every second of it :) wes doesn't even know there is such a thing as going downhill sledding... he will not be so into these neighborhood rides once he learns of those!

love these pics. so happy to freeze these moments in time of wesley and tatem.

once we got back home, tatem was content to just sit on the sled and swish the snow around. she just loves new experiences so much. love this girl.

and wes was back to "digging for buried treasure"...

hopefully i'll get a video of tatem walking soon!

xx.

preschooler and (almost) 1-year-old

2012-01-16T21:37:00.000-08:00

i'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that my baby will be ONE next week. this past year has seemed sooooo long in some ways, but has flown by in the blink of an eye in others. more on this in tatem's official "one year" post, but i thought i'd post a few pics of the kids that i took the other day.

we are really getting into the swing of things in our new town. wes is really liking his preschool and we are all loving our home and neighborhood. we have spent a good amount of time outdoors almost every day despite the cold - it's just been so beautiful! i still have yet to take pics of the house and post them! i keep wanting to wait until the house is kind of "finished" but that might take 10 years... so i'll do it soon!

wes and tatem have been SO. MUCH. FUN. lately! it is so incredibly fun to watch their bond grow. wes is really wanting to help tatem out a lot these days ... this is usually not much *help* of course, since he's not really that much bigger than she is. but he tries :) she is so close to walking so he just thinks he can go scoop her up and help her - we've had to learn (at tatem's expense, unfortunately) that he is not to hold her unless they are both sitting down!

here he is instructing her on how helicopters fly high up in the sky :)

tatem is LOVING anything soft and cuddly these days. anytime i give her any sort of blanket, she makes this silly giggle and lays her cheek on it with a huge grin. so funny! her favorite thing to cuddle up to is her jelly cat.

wesley is really into "funny faces" these days - he likes to make "jokes" a lot and do strange things with his eyes. his jokes are usually just funny sounds, followed by the question, "is that a funny joke, mommy?" he can also be very serious when he's playing make-believe with his toys. i love listening in while he weaves himself into a web of imaginative play with his dinosaurs, monster trucks and cars.

you can always see the wheels turning with this one!

i wanted to add a recipe we've been enjoying. we love oatmeal around here and i made it in the crockpot overnight for christmas day this past year. i just love waking up to the smell of cinnamon oatmeal; and even better is the fact that breakfast is MADE upon waking! overnight oatmeal is the way to go - and there are endless variations!

i have combined a few different "recipes"... here's how i make it:

2 apples (or pears), peeled, cored cut into 1/2" pieces
1 1/2 cups almond milk (any other kind of milk would work too!)
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup uncooked steel cut oats
2 T coconut sugar (can do brown sugar or no sugar at all)
1 1/2 T butter cut into 5-6 pieces
1/2 t cinnamon
2 t ground flax seed or wheat germ
1/4 t salt

garnishes: roasted almonds, roasted pecans/walnuts, dried cherries, maple syrup, additional milk or butter, etc

coat inside of 3.5 qt (or larger) crockpot with cooking spray. add all ingredients (except optional toppings of course); stir, cover and cook on low for 7 hours. spoon into bowls in the morning and enjoy!

i have started doubling this recipe b/c a) crockpots usually do better with more to cook b) it cooks for longer so you can put it up earlier than 11 pm if you like to get to bed earlier! and c) it actually keeps really well in the fridge AND freezer so great for leftovers..

i'm not much of a warm fruit person in the morning (or anything sweet in the morning for that matter), so i have actually been preparing it sans fruit or any sweet stuff at all. either way you like it, the consistency is soooo good!

so. that's all for now.

can't believe we will be celebrating this little one's first birthday next week!

new year

2012-01-02T20:43:00.000-08:00

we had a fabulous week leading up to new years eve. so many people were in town for christmas - another bonus to living "back home" is having time to see everyone who is visiting for the holidays! i had several lovely chats with dear friends. it was SO GOOD to see them all!

we have had some snow (much less than i had hoped for!) and uki (andy's dad) brought over a sled to play in the yard with wes. wes was STOKED!

wesley even got to learn the ropes in shoveling snow - so cute to see my boys out there working so hard!

we all were super excited to welcome our dear friends, the domingo's, from portland as our first overnight guests in our new home! they arrived friday afternoon and just left this morning (monday), and we had a fun-filled weekend with them. it was so great to see wes and olivia get to play together again!

our weekend was made up of good food, lots of laughs, several rounds of rummikub, great conversation, and the kids got along great. us adults even watched a movie... in 7 20-minute parts, of course (not so easy to watch a movie when you have 4 kids around!). new years eve we all bundled up and went downtown to see the sights and ride the carousel. this was tatem's first time and she loved it. so much fun to share this with good friends!

olivia and wes have such a great time together - it's so fun to watch

wes is loving his scooter :)

bathtime!

thank you, domingo's, for coming to visit! we had such a great time and look forward to your next trip our way!

i just love this time of year. i love to look back at the highs and lows of the past year and make new goals for the coming year. we have had a busy 2011 with lots of changes, and there is much to be grateful for. we look forward to this next year with much excitement - special time with family, meeting new friends, new school for wes, and a few resolutions thrown in there too.

as always, our prayer is for health, wisdom and the ability to give thanks in all circumstances.

happy 2012 to you!
xx, the o's

tatem: 11 months

2011-12-26T15:35:00.000-08:00

it blows my mind that tatem will be ONE just a month from today. her newest tricks are: clapping, waving, saying "no-no", standing alone and balancing for a few minutes before slowly lowering herself to the ground, dancing whenever she hears music, signing "more" and "all done", crawling around with something hanging out of her mouth like a doggy, and many more...

our favorite new thing that she does is when we say "how big is tatem?!!", she raises her arms with a huge grin on her face and we all sing "SOOOOO big!!". it's adorable - now she will just look at us and raise her arms which means she wants us to play that little "game" with her.

this pic is from the night she really got it. look at the pride!! :)

and the video ;)

tatem loves her big brother - they are so cute together. i love to watch this bond between them grow. wes started calling her "the bay-pay" (his rendition of "the baby")... then it turned into "pay-pay" and now he just calls her "papes"(pronounced "pay-ps"). not sure why, but amongst her other nicknames (tee-tee, tay-tay, sweet t, chicky-choo, miss moo, etc), papes has stuck.

papes and wez:

tatem weighs appx 20 lbs, wears 12-18 mos clothes and is nursing ~4x a day. she is taking two naps a day, and is f i n a l l y sleeping well at night (knock on wood)! she is sleeping appx 7ish pm to 6ish am, give or take, and i couldn't be more thrilled about it! neither could she! she wakes up happy and refreshed and we are all just stoked about it :)

this girls is sweet, smart, full of personality and we love her to pieces.

happy 11-month birthday, bay-pay!

home for christmas

2011-12-25T21:14:00.000-08:00

for those of you who follow me on instagram, these photos will be a repeat b/c i left my camera at my mom's house christmas eve. so we are getting all phone-photos this year, and my faves were insta'd. anyway, what a wonderful christmas we had - our FIRST christmas in 14 years that we didn't travel home - we were already here!

highlights from the past 2 days are:

spending a relaxed christmas eve morning out to eat with the kids at one of our fave places, huckleberry's; going to aunt sam and uncle tim's for a little cousins gift-exchange; driving thru the snow flurries to pick out ornaments and listening to christmas music; being home; watching wes and redd play and laugh and enjoy e/o at nana&papa's house; tatem giving us all a "silent night" sleeping all the way till 6:30a.m.; being HOME for christmas morning(!), seeing wesley's face when he realized santa's cookies were gone, along w/ the reindeer food we left out the night before; hearing wes say that he is so thankful for his special gifts; reading the nativity story from the bible while wes played along with the nativity scene pieces; long naps for the kids; spending christmas day with mimi and uki; yummy food; great conversations; wonderful family . . .

merry christmas!

28 hours ... and a santa visit

2011-12-20T15:45:00.000-08:00

i got the very special treat of being alone with andy for 28 hours this past weekend! (thanks mom and dad for watching the kids!) andy's company christmas party celebrated a successful year at the skamania lodge and i was soooo happy to be able to be there for it!

i haven't written much about andy these past 3 weeks b/c he has actually been in portland for much of it, finishing out his year at the portland office before fully moving over to spokane. i have kind of kept it quiet on my blog that he was gone - just didn't feel safe announcing to the world that i was home alone each night w/ the kids! but now. now andy is home. and we are sooooooooooooooo happy to have him back!

i flew into pdx on saturday and we did a quick ikea run (how does one move to a new place without having to go to ikea several times? sure missing that store here in spokane!) and then out to skamania lodge. i can't explain how wonderful it was to be able to chat with andy uninterrupted! and to have a beautiful room all to ourselves! and a fun party just downstairs that evening.

i was so proud of andy at the event - he was recognized for hitting some big goals he had set for himself. but more important to me was the way he has really impacted the people he works with. he will be greatly missed at that office, and i feel so proud to be "his". congrats to you, babe, on a wonderful year - you have worked so hard and we are so proud of you!

loved the paparazzi booth at the party :)

thanks to my parents for watching the kids. these kids are sweet, but they are at an exhausting age so we felt especially grateful to know they were in such good hands!

we are enjoying being home as a family now. we got to go see santa yesterday and wes was much happier to sit on santa's lap than he was last year. it was really cute seeing both kids on santa's lap... i remember last year being about 33 weeks pg with tatem and telling wes that next year he'd have his baby sister with him too - crazy what a difference one year makes. i cannot even imagine our life without sweet tatem!

5 days till christmas! woohoo!

christmas greetings, from the o's

2011-12-14T06:49:00.000-08:00

this holiday season we thank god for family and friends, good health, two beautiful/silly/sweet children and a happy new home in our hometown.

it has been quite the eventful year; the two highlights being tatem's birth in january, and relocating our little family from portland back to spokane after 14 years of living elsewhere! we have been here 3 weeks and we're all adjusting well so far - missing pdx, but looking forward to this next chapter of our lives.

wesley continues to make us laugh with his wit and humor, and impress us with his smarts. and tatem is not lacking in personality either! she is a vocal girl who knows what she wants! both of them keep us very busy -- and extremely happy!

hope you all have a wonderful holiday. . . full of joy, laughter and time spent with those you love - xoxo

(family pics taken in cannon beach 11/14/11 by my wonderful friend koren)

'tis the season (to unpack boxes)

2011-12-06T15:26:00.000-08:00

oops - haven't posted anything in awhile. life here in our new home has been good and a little crazy. we got our tree earlier than usual this year, to make up for the lack of furniture in our living room :) every year, christmas with kids is more and more fun. wes is sooooo into everything this year, and tatem is just along for the ride, watching wesley's every move. we have gone to see the live reindeer a few times, and are looking forward to seeing santa this weekend followed by horse and carriage rides around downtown.

the morning we decorated our tree, andy ran to starbucks and got us coffee/hot chocolate and we had a little picnic on the floor.

cheers!

once breakfast was over, i caught wes sitting alone and staring at the tree - so in awe. love him.

overall this move has gone really well - the movers were a huge help, and we successfully got everything from point A to point B. things at the house are still in a bit of disarray but it will come together in time (that's what i keep telling myself at least!)... we reeeeally miss our portland peeps! it's so strange to not be busy with our usual playdates, moms group and dinner dates with friends. but not only will we be seeing portland friends in time, we are looking forward to building a community here in spokane!

i must add, however, it's been great fun to spend so much time with my parents, andy's parents and my sister-in-law. love being near all of them!

wes and tatem have been so cute together - wes truly enjoys his little sister and everything she does. here they are playing a little game of "steal the fork from wesley's mouth"...

oh, and you're probably wondering about sweet t's little eye patch?! i've been noticing one eye seemed weaker than the other, and it didn't resolve itself the way most newborns' eyes do. so i took her to a pediatric opthamologist and it turns out i was right. one eye isn't moving laterally like it should, but it's a mild case. we were instructed to patch the strong eye for 1 hr a day for 4 months and then check back to see how she's doing. she actually doesn't mind the patch too much, and i think she looks so cute in it.

tatem: 10 months

2011-11-26T09:51:00.000-08:00

tatem june is 10 months old - i swear it was just yesterday that i was posting her 9 month blog. this has been a busy month with our big uprooting from portland to spokane. tatem has been a trooper and has hardly missed a beat through the whole move (except for a few rough teething nights :/)

wes has started calling tatem "tay-tay" or "tee-tee" and both have kind of stuck this month. the two kids just love e/o. tatem is so FUN these days. she has just started to become more interested in books, which is fun now that we are reading lots. another new favorite for tay is crawling into small spaces - cabinets, side table shelves, etc. she is pulling up on everything and cruising a bit if she's motivated enough! if she is standing and drops a toy, she can sloooooowly bend down and pick it up and stand back up again (holding on to something of course!).

tatem is loving peek-a-boo and even can do it herself! a few weeks ago i was changing her diaper and she put her lovey over her face and then took it off with a huge smile and eyebrows raised. then she did it again and again while i narrated the whole thing (where's tatem? peek-a-boo!). it really is so crazy these days b/c we can see her literally changing into a toddler as the days pass - just in little ways she does things and interacts. now she will sit on her knees as she plays with a toy and then crawl off to find something else. such a big girl.

it is amazing all the sounds coming out of her mouth! tatem loves to imitate sounds - saying uh-oh, dada, mama, neh-neh, papapa or anything like that to imitate us.

tatem is loving the stairs at our new house - she has already mastered climbing up them. she'll take 3 or 4 at a time, but is still quite dangerous as she has no concept of falling down them. such a busy age! we have been unpacking all week and it's amazing how long it takes to just unpack one box when you are constantly watching a baby who may or may not be eating some sharp object off the floor, heaving herself off the top of the stairs, or trying to pull up somewhere she shouldn't be.

tatem is nursing about 4 times a day and once during the night - still 8 teeth but i think more are on their way. she loves food and really doesn't like any baby food. this is great, except i still feel limited in what i can really feed her... meal time is always a big effort!

i had to add this video andy took of T and her new crawl. she has been doing this since just over 9 months - i love that she's no longer army crawling, plus this method is just so much more efficient!

we love you tatem june! you fill our days with so much fun!

thankful

2011-11-25T21:13:00.000-08:00

we had a lovely thanksgiving this year - it was so wonderfully simple to pack the kids up in our new home and drive across town to my parents' home for our thanksgiving feast -- no 6 hour drive! both kids took great afternoon naps while we hung out and prepped dinner.

so fun having uncle tim and aunt sam with us! (baby stella is due next month - CAN'T WAIT!)

we all enjoyed lots of yummy food, good conversation and lots of cuddles with the kids.

there is so much to be grateful for. being surrounded by the best family and friends a girl could ever wish for being one of the many things to thank god for every day.

thank you god for this life!

moving day

2011-11-21T20:10:00.000-08:00

today was moving (out) day! we woke up and sprung into action... packing up the last linens and randoms laying around. my mom and i took the kids out to get bagels and returned to the 24' moving truck backed into our driveway. the movers were AMAZING. best money i ever spent (and not even that expensive)! they stretch-wrapped and padded the furniture and were so efficient it was incredible. for those of you who are aware of my total addiction to multi-tasking, you can imagine my delight watching all this going on around me. efficiency at it's finest!!!! ;)

my mom and i left with the kids at 9 this morning and got in at 3 - the kids were great and i was SO thankful to have my mom there to entertain them while i drove.

andy and his dad handled the movers and all the details and took off driving the truck at noon - made great time and got in around 6:30. we are both really relieved and grateful we made it safely (especially w/ some weather scares). a special thanks to my mom and andy's dad for being there to help us - we couldn't have done it without you!

tomorrow is a full moving (in) day. we are staying at our parents' tonight. we are looking forward to our first night in our new home :)

portland: we love you! spokane: we are happy to be "home"!

grady's at the beach

2011-11-15T10:11:00.000-08:00

the whole grady family got together in our favorite place in the world last weekend to celebrate our dad's 70th birthday! cannon beach, oregon holds so many memories for all of us. we went as a family every summer since i was 3 or 4 years old, and we all have our own special memories there as adults. cannon beach is the biggest reason why andy and i packed up all our things 9 years ago and moved to portland. being such a short drive from this place was a huge motivator in getting me to oregon!

there is something about the air in this little coastal town that is different from any other coastal town. every single time i've visited cannon beach, i open the car door upon arrival and take a deep breath, and then i'm on vacation. i love everything about this little town.

this past weekend was special b/c we were all together - kyah and dustin flew in with my niece, haven, and it was the first time i've met her! she is SO sweet - so easy and happy. i can't wait to spend more time with her this winter!

i kind of look like i'm going to eat her in this pic - a little freaky i know, but she just looks so beautiful i had to post :)

all the cousins together - just need baby boy grady to get in the pic next march!!

the hillis' walking to town

we stayed at the ecola creek lodge which was perfect for all our little families. andy and i rented a 2 bdrm that had a big living room and kitchen and the rates were really good. highly recommend this spot! not to mention, if you have kids, they will love the koi pond AND the little bunny rabbits that are always just hopping around the grounds!

wes and tatem loved playing on the floor and couch in our room

over the bridge to the town

we tried to hit low tide one morning but didn't quite make it - so no starfish sightings. but gray mornings on the beach are my fave so we still enjoyed ourselves :)

nana was writing words in the sand for wes and he was taking them down one by one. SAND, BOX, FAST, JUMP, DOT, BED, ELF, etc. he can now pretty much read any word that follows the rules he knows (short vowels, etc) and he is always begging for more words. it is sooo fun!

we spent lots of time in my parents' space eating and playing games. wes and i were enjoying some sweet potato pancakes (thanks izzy!) and watching curious george :)

i asked my friend koren months ago to come out and photograph our family all together so we had pics on saturday afternoon - i will post those when i get them.

every time we took a pic of the kids, all of us adults were singing and dancing trying to get them to look at the camera and maybe even smile. we were mid-song (i think it was "i've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart" for this pic) and i just had to turn around and catch a quick pic on my phone of the singing squad. ha!

koren and i actually met working (and rooming!) together back in '99 at the cannon beach conference center. we've remained great friends since, and it was SO fun to get to spend some time over coffee after the photo shoot. such memories together in that place!! thank you koren for making the trek out to capture such a fun weekend in photos!

...and the weekend ended abruptly for me saturday night when i came down with the stomach flu. ick. i haven't had a flu in soooo long - it was awful! and i had to miss out on the rest of the festivities b/c i was feeling so bad. i'm better now - not 100%, but definitely better. thanks to my man for packing up our hotel room, driving us home, unpacking everything, watching and feeding both kids, etc etc etc so i could lay in bed! and all this with not one complaint. i'm just thankful the worst day was a weekend so i had his help!

i love you, andy.

now i'm looking around my living room and cannot believe that one week from today this house will be totally empty, professionally cleaned and ready for a new family to move in. we have lots of "last's" (playdates, dinners, etc) this week, plus packing, so it will be a busy week. my mom flies in friday night and we will do all the last minute stuff before we drive out monday morning. mixed emotions - so sad to be leaving but looking forward to what's ahead.

xo

farewell party

2011-11-07T14:12:00.000-08:00

wow - our friends/family threw us the most wonderful farewell party - we were totally floored by the people who came to say goodbye to us - people from all circles of our life here in portland. andy and i were just overwhelmed by the love and the thoughtfulness that went into the event. thank you to all of you who came and a HUGE thank you to erin p, britt, ingrid, elissa and lauren for all you did to make the party SO SPECIAL. we will never forget it.

the party was held at the lucky lab pub in multnomah village - this little part of portland is a special place for us. our first house was right near here and we have spent lots of time in multnomah village. the decor was so cute and thoughtful, the food and beer was great but the big surprise was the book of pics and letters that was compiled for us. letters and pictures from friends and family - this is one of the best gifts i have EVER received.

after a fun night talking and laughing w/ friends and family, we got home, sent our babysitter home and climbed into bed so we could read through our book. many laughs and tears - and for a split second we thought "wait. what are we doing?! why are we moving?!"... we know we have so much to look forward to, and we know our reasons for this move... BUT it is hard, especially since we are amazingly blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful people.

thank you all for being a part of our lives!

now the party is over and it's down to business - we have 2 weeks to pack up and handle 43,782 details before we pack the truck and move east.

if you'd like to see all the pics (thanks lauren!), click here!

kooky spooky halloween

2011-11-01T14:08:00.000-07:00

halloween is wesley's favorite holiday and we had a FUN weekend celebrating all things kooky and spooky :)

we kicked off the weekend w/ a little spooky pj's pumpkin pancake feast w/ some friends

mimi and aunt linda were in town for the weekend so we got to have a few meals with them. they brought the kids a few halloweeny things like spiders (wes was STOKED) and a cute halloween hat for tatem. thanks for coming to visit mimi and aunt linda!!

saturday we had a few parties - one was a costume one w/ some of my fave people. it was so adorable seeing all the kids dressed up.

sunday we carved pumpkins - seeing wesley's face when we turn out the lights and light the jack-o-lanterns makes me smile.
he is so enamored by it all. i lit them the next morning too before he came into the kitchen and he was just over the moon.

we have spent halloween w/ our friends (ex-neighbors) for i think 5 years now... before we had wes, we would walk around the neighborhood trick-or-treating w/ just matt, jj and violet. now there are 4 kids between the 2 couples!

LOVE this pic of the 4 kids (wesley's shield blocks someone out in every pic...)

t snuggled up w/ me while we trick-or-treated w/ the big kids

wes was SO adorable trick-or-treating. after 2 houses he said we had to go home and we told him that we had just started. his eyes were so wide, not able to wrap his mind around the fact that he was going to get even MORE candy. he only had 2 little pieces in his bucket and he thought that was it -- ha! then he started to run along side violet saying "i have been waiting all year for halloween and now we are IN HALLOWEEN! it's my favorite holiday!" or "we're trick-or-treating! we're trick-or-treating!" andy and i just smiled at e/o about a billion times - he really got it this year, and it was a hit. :)

the after-party... violet teaches wes how to count his loot :) (and tatem desperately tries to get in on the action)

hope you all had a kooky spooky halloween!

...i can't believe it's november 1st! eek!

see wes run

2011-10-28T14:32:00.000-07:00

wes continues to crack us up (and challenge us!) on a daily basis. it is truly amazing how much these little people understand at this young age!

a few of my fave things as of late are:

-he says "ensigid" for "excited"... "I AM SO ENSIGID FOR HALLOWEEN!"

-the other day he asked a question and i was kind of zoning out and just answered with a lame "because." and he said "but mommy, 'because' does not answer the question." oh snap. i gotta stay on point with this one!

-whenever you say i love you, he will say back "i love you too!"... so if you say "have a good night's sleep", he will say back "you have a good night's sleep too!"

-he still cannot say his "th's"... so that is 'lat' and those is 'lose' and this is 'liss'.. and thank you is 'lank you'

-wes has made up a new contraction. it's called "willn't", as in "will not", as in "won't". even better is the fact that he can't really say his l's yet so it comes out sounding more like "i wewn't eat squash" (which is actually true. he won't eat squash)

but my most favorite development these days is that wes is learning to read! he has been asking me for weeks now what certain words say and he's been sounding out letters. yesterday during tatem's nap, we sat down and i wrote out a word and helped him to sound it out. he ate it up and kept asking for more.

in about a half hour he mastered these words:

then we moved on to something else and today i wrote the words out on the above sheets of paper and taped them to the wall in a different order (b/c he could easily remember and guess at the words). when he saw them up on the wall, his face lit up and he immediately started "reading" the words. i'm so glad i grabbed my phone to take a video of him reading some of them - here he is reading some of his first words ever! he's so pumped! (ps sorry it's sideways - my bad)

wes has never been super into coloring, or crafting - he likes those activities for about 10 minutes; so letters, books and words have always been something we do together b/c he's so interested. i love his excitement (or should i say "encigidness") to learn to read b/c it's a great productive activity we can do together!

love you wes! it's SO fun to watch you learn!

tatem: 9 months

2011-10-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

tatem is 9 months old today! i cannot believe she is an "older baby" now... lately she has been looking so big - i can see little glimpses of what she will look like as a toddler these days.

tatem's 9 month stats:
height: 27 3/4" - 65th %
weight: 18 lbs 10.5 oz - 65th %
head: 17 3/4" - 85th %

tatem continues to be a total mommy's girl - she has been a little fussy these days due to the incoming of teeth #7 and 8 :( she will fuss and crawl over to me, but once she's in my lap, she's still fussy, always trying to get closer to me.... like she just wants to be in my skin! oh sweet tatem, it's sad to think there will be a day that you don't think i'm all that :)

she loves to eat but definitely has her favorites - this girl loves meat and potatoes, roasted veggies (so thanksgiving should be a real treat for her :) etc. she loves cheese and have i mentioned yet that i am no longer off dairy?! the clouds have parted and i am enjoying cheese, butter and the like again! tatem gets no dairy except a little cheese and some greek yogurt - but so far she has had no reaction. she absolutely inhales the apple cinnamon oatmeal pancakes i make (tweaked the recipe for her to have no sugar/dairy/wheat in them). she likes most foods but if you puree them, forget about it. she eats bananas in 2-3" pieces... takes bites off and looks at you like "what. you didn't think i knew how to take a bite like an actual person?"

she is pulling herself up as of this past week! i remember wesley doing this, but it was weeks before he could really stand on his own w/o collapsing every 2 seconds. not so with tatem, she pulls up and then can hold on with one hand while she plays w/ a toy with the other. it seems she is always studying how to do something and is not afraid to try anything. seeing her stand so strong and so proud brings a smile to my face - she loves to be vertical :)

tatem has a dimple! i didn't even notice it until this month! i don't have a great pic of it, but it's on her left cheek - adorable. she is smiley, but is still kind of a tough crowd. the checkout lady at target was cooing at her and trying so hard to get her to smile and tatem just looked at her w/ a nonplussed expression. she cracks me up.

the one person who can ALWAYS get her to smile w/o even trying is this boy:

tatem babbles a lot and has said her first word(s). she has said "dada" for months now, but now she is saying it every time she sees andy. i feel pretty sure she's saying "dada" on purpose. she calls me "neh-neh"... again, this has become the syllable she says every time she sees me or whenever i pick her up (even the middle of the night). when i say "can you say 'mama'?" she says "mama" right back, but still calls me "neh-neh". but the definite first word that i know she is saying for sure is "uh-oh". she has always thought it was so funny when she would drop something and i would say "uh-oh". any time i say that, she always repeats back "uh-uh" and then laughs. the other day, she dropped her sippy cup and looked at me and said "UH-UH!!!" so cute.

she is still sucking on everything. she is partial to any type of paper or fabric... or the bottoms of anyone's shoes. yuck. if she's quiet for more than a few minutes, i almost always find her sucking on a sticker, a magazine, or someone's shoe - gotta keep an eye on this one!

we love you tatem june! you brighten our days with your smiles and your spunky personality! can't wait to see what this next month holds! xoxo, neh-neh, dada and wes

also - wes would like to wish everyone a happy halloween! "it's the beautifullest holladay in the whole wide world!!!!!"

special day

2011-10-23T14:25:00.000-07:00

today was a special day as tatem was dedicated at church! pastor guy was able to dedicate tatem before our big move, which we were so grateful for. we have loved our church so much and it was so special to have this little dedication with some friends and siblings there.

everyone started laughing at one point and i learned later that tatem had been flashing a big goofy grin at everyone in the congregation - she loves the stage! :)

pastor guy prayed for us with our move, that we would find great community in spokane and for tatem that she would come to know and love god in her life. a very special moment for our little family.

nine

2011-10-17T14:53:00.000-07:00

andy and i celebrated NINE years of marriage last wednesday! i think this is the first time since i started my blog that i haven't blogged about our anniversary on our actual anniversary. instead, we spent our anniversary packing (andy working) and we left for a long drive to spokane at 5 pm ... even though we didn't "do" anything big for our special day, we had a nice drive, reminiscing about our special day 9 years ago. we feel lucky that we are still in love and still very much looking forward to the rest of our lives together.

even better than an anniversary date, we got our keys and spent lots of time at the new (empty) house! so fun to walk around and look in all the closets and dream up all the things we plan to do ...

went to the apple festival with my dad - so quaint and fun. good live music, wes rode the apple train and got to have his first carmel apple :)

happy anniversary, babe. you make life so fun. thank you for all you do for me and for the kids. i love you and am so lucky to be your wife! xx erin

pumpkin patch

2011-10-09T20:23:00.000-07:00

we lucked out with a perfect saturday pumpkin patch outing! we made last minute plans with some friends to meet at baggenstos (where we've gone for pumpkins for the past 5 years) - the weather was ideal and it was sooo fun seeing our kids play and get excited about the fall season!

we started with kettle corn and lemonade

farmer wes

olivia, wes and brooklyn on the hay ride to the patch... total joy!

i had to take a pic of this... check out how wes has his hand on livi's leg :)

papa tyler and his little pumpkin doll, harper - adorable duo (ps - i did zero editing to harps' eyes in this pic - they are just that blue!)

wes found his pumpkin

getting a pic of these 6 little loves was a bit of a struggle, and this was the only one they are all kind of looking in the direction of the camera

...and here's what all my other shots of them look like :)

moms and babes (britt's due any day now... the suspense is killing me!)

the o's struggling for a quick picture :)

have i mentioned that I LOVE THE FALL?!

we all moved on to good beer and spicy cajun tots at mcmenamins afterward.. so fun. man, we are going to miss our friends when we move... :*(

these are days

2011-10-05T20:40:00.000-07:00

i keep having this nagging feeling that time is passing too quickly. we have had many sweet moments with the kids lately: reading in bed, going on walks, watching wes and tatem interact - squealing in delight at eachothers' antics, making halloween decorations, talking about life, and the list goes on. there are several times in a day that this feeling washes over me --

these are days
you'll remember
never before and never since,
i promise,
will the whole world
be as warm as this
~10000 maniacs

of course the days are long and can be trying with two little kids, meals to make, normal parenting struggles and tons of packing to do (countdown to the move is on: <7 weeks!)... but overall i just know these days are flying by. and i wish i could bottle this stage of life we are in.

it will be no time before wes and tatem are in school all day, being big, making their own friends, gaining independence and i will think back to the days when they were small and our activities were so simple and fulfilling. (check out our string of felt ghosts wes and i made this week - spooooky!)

feeling grateful. soaking it in.

ps all these pics are just phone pics from the week - sorry for the poor-ish quality :)

tatem: 8 months

2011-09-26T10:10:00.000-07:00

tatem june is 2/3 of a year old today - stop time! i love this age!!

tatem has been on the move since just over 7 months. she hasn't figured out a way to get up on all fours but she gets around just fine by heaving herself with her left arm and right foot. she has just figured out how to go from army crawling to sitting up and back down to army crawl. every time she sits up from laying down, she looks so proud of herself! as soon as she learned this skill, we had to put the crib mattress down - this girl is always working towards mastering the next skill and i couldn't relax knowing she "may or may not" be hoisting herself up and over the side of her crib!

because tatem is so active, changing her diaper has become an olympic sport. it is exhausting and should be a 4-man job, but usually it's just me :/

tatem has 4 teeth and 2 more that are just on the surface ready to break through. the last tooth she got kept us all up for almost a whole night so i'm hoping that's not the case with these next 2... but the teeth have been helping her in the food department. tatem's life motto is "DON'T TREAT ME LIKE A BABY"... she wants to eat the same food we eat and she wants to eat it BY HERSELF. she has almost perfected her pincer grasp which makes all our lives easier b/c she can feed herself very small bits of soft food. so fun to watch her! she can also drink water from a sippy cup. i keep feeling like she is so much older than her age - she grows up so much every day - trying to savor every minute while she's a baby!

tatem is a total mommy's girl. she loves her daddy but if i am in the room and not holding her, she screeches and squawks until she is in my arms. then she will look around from her perch on my hip with much satisfaction - all is right in her world if she is with me:)

it seems tatem already has a sense of humor at just 8 months. the other day, i went up to get her out of her crib after a nap and she was laying on her back with one leg hanging outside of the crib. her other leg was crossed over the first leg and it was just swinging up and down like she was a teenager on her phone in bed. she had her lovey on her chest and she was staring at the ceiling just smiling so big... it was like she knew she looked funny and couldn't wait for me to see what position she was in. we both just sat there and laughed and laughed - what a personality!

tatem is wearing size 6-12 mos clothes and is napping twice a day. usually around 9 and 1:30... the goal is that she would sleep a total of 2-3 hours in a day, but she can rally on much less. bedtime is 7 pm, sometimes earlier if she didn't nap much that day. she is totally attached to her lovey now - she loves to suck on fabric so sometimes when i pick her up from her nap, her lovey is drenched. really tatem? no paci but a piece of fabric? whatever works...

tatem is a squealer and a screecher. when she's not making these adorable high-pitched noises, she is saying "dadadadada", "neh neh neh" and "ba ba ba"... and sometimes "mama". i think she is starting to associate "dada" with daddy but "mama" is still just a random sound to her.

tatem's favorite thing above crawling, sitting, food and her lovey is: WESLEY. she adores him and he really brightens her world. she watches him so intently and then scoots over to him wanting to take part in whatever he is doing. he has been so great with her (98% of the time :) and thinks her attempts at playing with him are cute and funny.

tatem saw wes had a banana in this pic - so here she is taking off on a journey across the blanket to reach her two favorite things: food and her big brother - look at that focus!

we love you so much tatem! happy 8 months to you!

cousins

2011-09-23T14:06:00.000-07:00

i love that wes and tatem have cousins. we've gotten to play with cousin redd lots this week and we love it!

redd is all about the big machines - such a man

tatem watches redd and wesley's every move... won't be long before she will be into everything! (did i mention she has been army crawling for about 4 weeks?? more on that in her 8 month post - coming soon!)

no one really wanted their picture taken, but they were all just so cute playing around on the floor...

baby chase was born to uncle dan and aunt katie back in may; and we still have yet to meet our sweet baby haven cousin who lives allllll the way over in nashville. we get to meet her in november at our little grady family reunion - cannot wait! oh, and we have another little cousin due this december - a baby girl for uncle tim and aunt sam! .. and i think i'm allowed to share the news that uncle jake and auntie cat are ALSO having a baby soon... in march '12!

the more the merrier! love all these babies - keep 'em coming!

xx - auntie rin

good enough

2011-09-20T14:46:00.000-07:00

yesterday was a terrible horrible no good very bad day here. i am fighting the cold that wes and andy so lovingly passed on to me, andy was out of town for work and tatem was teething all weekend which resulted in very little sleep for me. i was irritable upon waking yesterday, which is a really nasty way to roll into the start of a week.

i constantly struggle between the importance of making good healthful food for my family and the importance of playing with my kids. i feel like it's a constant battle that i am always losing at on one end or the other. since i was feeling yucky yesterday, all i wanted was to have good healing food all day. i feel like i spent the entire day (aside from a playdate in the a.m.) in the kitchen... cooking, feeding the kids and cleaning up.. and doing it all over again. and again. and again. both kids were needing my attention and i kept having to tell them to wait, hold on, just one more minute, etc etc. i hate doing that.

i am one of those people who struggle with saying something is "good enough". i hate the term "good enough!" there is always a better way to do something, a healthier option, a more time-saving approach, etc. but i am learning that sometimes "good enough" is actually the best route if it makes the family happy! yesterday when i was up to my elbows in chopped kale and tatem was crying and wesley was whining, i stopped myself and packed up the kids and we went to the park. all of our moods were instantly restored upon arriving at the park, breathing the fresh air and playing together.

i still finished my lentil kale soup when we got home and felt like it was a juggling act all night feeding and keeping my babies happy whilst cleaning up the kitchen, getting some food myself and getting them down to bed. i went to bed totally exhausted and kept having to remind myself that i did a "good enough" job, even though i felt i could have done more with the kids, been less irritated, etc. being a mom is no joke! especially when you are sick!

anyway, just having to remind myself these days that "good enough" is sometimes the best i can do - even if it drives me crazy! it is easier said than done to lower expectations and be ok with the toys on the floor, dishes in the sink and dirty bathrooms. anyone who knows me knows i get insane pleasure out of a clean house, candle lit and good music on... that was basically the opposite of my house yesterday. :)

today has been much better (mostly due to the fact that i have yummy leftovers and have no need to cook!) but also b/c i've spent much more time on the floor playing with my monsters - seeing them happy makes these crazy days worth it.

partly cloudy & preschool

2011-09-13T15:08:00.000-07:00

i could not be happier to be writing my "welcome, fall!" blog! it's no secret that i love the cooler temps, candles lit, jeans and boots, soup simmering on the stove... sure sure it's only mid-september, but today we woke up to partly cloudy skies and a yummy homemade soup on the menu for tonight.

but even more exciting is that it was wesley's first day back at the preschool we love and adore! last year he was teary at the thought of me leaving him, and this year he marched right in and got to playing. he's such a big boy - saying so many funny things. today on the way to school, i was reminding him to be a good listener, help clean up toys and all that. after thinking it over, he said "yes, but mommy, cleaning up makes me a LEEETLE bit tired, so i probably won't be doing any of that." i had to hold in the laughter as he continued to negotiate with my talk of "teamwork" and "listening and obeying" by saying, "i will probably pick up one or two toys and then just sit down for a rest." ha!

happy first day to my school boy!

and b/c it's (almost) fall, i'll add the recipe for oatmeal yam muffins we made last week - during the 90+ degree heat as we were beckoning fall to come to portland ... :)

oatmeal yam muffins

1 c old fashioned rolled oats
1 c whole wheat flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground nutmeg
1 T ground flaxseed (i used hemp seeds)
1 c cooked and mashed yam (aka perfect baby food i made for t that she would eat none of!)
3/4 c brown sugar
1/3 c canola oil
1/4 c skim milk
1 large egg
1 t pure vanilla extract

preheat oven to 400°. line two standard muffin tins with paper liners.

in a medium bowl, whisk oatmeal, flour, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and hemp or flax seeds. in another small bowl, combine sweet potato, brown sugar, oil, egg, milk and vanilla, whisking to blend well. pour over dry ingredients and stir to combine. mix until just moistened. scoop into muffin tins and back for 15+ minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

enjoy, and happy (almost) fall!

wedding weekend

2011-09-07T15:21:00.000-07:00

we got to spend the beautiful labor day weekend in seattle, celebrating one my dear friend's wedding! wes and i were both in the wedding so the weekend was full of fun bridesmaids things (bachelorette party, manicure/pedicures, hair/make-up, etc) as well as some really fun family events that wes, tatem and andy got to come to. we had so much fun celebrating kaci and adam and the exciting future they have to look forward to.

kaci and i have been friends for 17 years - it was so fun (and a tad emotional) to see her getting married. adam is such a perfect match for her - i'm so happy for both of them!

of course, i didn't bring my camera to the actual wedding b/c between helping wes be the world's cutest ring-bearer, nursing tatem when she was hungry and being in the wedding myself, taking pics was just not doable. it was killing me though! the day was GORGEOUS and kaci looked stunning. (if you want to see pics of her wedding, request to be friends w/ "kaptured by koren" on facebook - she posts most of her stuff there... her pics of kaci's wedding are amazing - as always! or link here to her blog)

i do have one pic (courtesy of koren) - here's wes and i walking down the aisle - he was so handsome!

i did take some pics of the weekend leading up to the wedding day...

we kept ending up in kaci's room at her house on the day of the rehearsal dinner - mostly b/c it was the best place for babies and kids to play. tatem and kate (andrea's daughter) were fast friends.

kaci and i

i met andrea through kaci years and years ago - it was so fun to reconnect this weekend. there is always lots of laughing when andrea is around!

we snuck in a rare pic of the 4 of us :)

other great friends were in seattle for the wedding as well - it was so fun to get to spend some time together and see our kids play.

ellie - ang's daughter - adorable! this girl is 4, going on 15!

riley and wes playing in the fountian

claire put the kids to work shucking corn - wes was stoked!

my boy and i :)

what a beautiful way to spend labor day weekend - congrats kaci and adam!

tatem: 7 months

2011-08-26T14:24:00.000-07:00

tatem june is 7 months! i can't believe how fast she is growing. this girl loves to eat, smile and watch her brother. her favorite thing right now is interacting with wesley - she doesn't laugh much, but when she really laughs, it's always at something wesley is doing. here are just a few phone pics i took of the two of them together - tatem likes to be right in the action, doing whatever wes is doing! i love that this is the beginning of a fun relationship for both of them!

tatem is getting so heavy - i don't know how much she weighs right now, but it's probably around 18 lbs. i am opting for the ergo or stroller more and more now, where i used to just carry her around at the park or in stores. she is nursing about 5-7 times in a 24 hour period (one or two of those feedings is still during the night), and is eating 2-3 "meals" a day of solid foods. i took the kids out to sushi for lunch yesterday and tatem got her first tastes of rice... i'm so glad i got it on video. she was a little apprehensive each time, but chewed and gave us the biggest grin every time! wes is chattering as usual in the background of this vid :)

(fyi.. in this video i say that tatem is having sushi but don't worry, it's just rice! no raw fish for her just yet)

tatem is always moving! she has been rolling and rotating 360 degrees on her tummy, as well as creeping around... mostly backward. she will stare at something in front of her just out of reach and you can tell she is just willing herself to move forward, but hasn't figured out how. she does lunge forward from a sitting position now, but ends up on her tummy...

even though she moves a ton, she is very happy (so far) in the stroller, as long as she has a good view of whatever is going on around her.

so lady-like

the pic above is from a fun summer evening this week - andy and i strapped on our roller blades b/c we can no longer keep up with wes on his skuut bike - we had so much fun racing through the trails and ending at the park for some playtime before bed.

the o's on wheels

wez working the monkey bars

happy 7 months, june bug! we love you sooooo much!

recipes

2011-08-23T14:48:00.000-07:00

there are few moments in the day when i am not thinking about food. not only because i LOVE good food, love to cook and just plain LOVE to eat... but also b/c i have two littles who are constantly eating. tatem is at that age where she is still nursing as much as ever, but is starting to eat 2 or 3 meals a day. i feel like all i do is feed that girl! wes has about 3 meals and 2 snacks a day and i should add that he doesn't like to eat the same thing two days in a row. :/ so food is something that is always on my mind... what am i going to feed them next and what's for dinner.

i fall in and out of love with the idea meal-planning... i absolutely despise making grocery lists and planning meals, but i love it when i have all the ingredients for a week's worth of planned meals. on top of juggling the two kids' eating schedules, i also cannot have a stitch of dairy in anything i eat b/c it makes tatem scream her poor little lungs out for an entire night when i do eat dairy. this makes meal planning even harder b/c i LOVE cheese! milkshakes! chocolate! butter! i always crave comfort food when nursing, so that has made the non-dairy lifestyle a little harder. but i've been off dairy for almost 6 months and have some recipes i wanted to share that are totally satisfying and can be made dairy free as well.

first, i hadn't made beans from scratch in a long long time and i'm so glad i made these one day this summer...

1 lb great northern beans
1 bay leaf

rinse and drain beans, picking out any damaged beans or small stones. in a large bowl, soak the beans, covered by 3" water for 8 hours or overnight.

drain the beans and rinse them well w/ fresh water. transfer them to a slow cooker. add 7 cups water and the bay leaf. cook on high until they are just tender, 3-4 hours. drain them, but save the liquid if you're planning to freeze them.

(if you want to freeze: divide the beans into 2-cup portions, place in ziplock freezer bags and cover with cooking liquid. store in freezer for up to 3 months)

i used the beans for this recipe - we've made it a few times and LOVE it

white bean and sausage saute

4 italian sausages
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 minced garlic cloves
3/4 cup chicken broth
14-1/2-ounce can diced tomatoes
4 cups cooked white beans, thawed and drained, if using frozen
1 teaspoon fresh sage
1 teaspoon fresh parsley
2 cups baby spinach
salt and pepper to taste

in a large skillet, sauté the sausages until they're cooked through, then slice them and set them aside.

heat the olive oil over medium heat and swirl to coat the cooking surface. add the chopped onion and sauté for 4 minutes, then add the garlic and sauté for a minute. add the sausage, chicken broth, and diced tomatoes. mix in the cooked white beans, sage, and parsley. bring the mixture to a boil, then simmer for 5 minutes.

add 2 cups of baby spinach and salt and pepper to taste. cook until the spinach is wilted, about 2 minutes.

the other recipe i had to add was my mom's oatmeal pancakes. we make these at least 3-4 times a week for breakfast and usually a few random times in the week for after-nap snacks. it's one of the only for-sure things wes will eat any time and anywhere, even two days in a row (which, as mentioned above, is a rarity).

i have such good memories of my mom making these for us when we were kids. i would stand and watch her pour the batter, flip them and they were on my plate as soon as they left the griddle.

we have added lots of things to the batter... berries, nuts, chocolate chips, hemp seeds, banana, etc. but the plain recipe is the standby and it's perfect as-is. wes likes them plain with butter and i like them with peanut butter and maple syrup on top... YUM.

mom's oatmeal pancakes

1 1/8 cups milk (rice, almond or hemp milk works too)
1 cup rolled oats
2 tablespoons oil (i use coconut oil)
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon brown sugar
dash cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

combine the milk and oats in a bowl and let sit for at least 5 minutes.

add the oil and beaten eggs, mixing well. then stir in the flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and baking powder. stir just until dry ingredients are moistened.

bake on a hot, lightly oiled griddle, using 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake. turn them when they top is bubbly and the edges slightly dry.

while i'm on the topic of my mom's cooking, she has a wonderful food blog - www.atmykitchentable.org - where she shares lots of great healthy wholesome yummy yummy recipes.

and speaking of food... tatem is officially a fan of corn on the cob. someone get this girl a steak!

catching up

2011-08-20T19:56:00.000-07:00

i have been photo- and blog-delinquent lately and i am finally sitting down to catch up! life is moving fast and we are soaking up our summer days before fall comes.

a few weeks ago, i co-hosted a baby shower for my good friend britt. her (second) little girl is coming in october and we cannot wait to meet her! it was so fun to shower britt with lots of love and gifts :)

just last weekend, tatem and i went to spokane to celebrate my dad's 70th birthday and also get some stuff worked out on our new house! ingrid and redd were there, as well as jacob and catherine... it was SO fun to hang with the fam and celebrate the wonderful man that my dad is. we compiled a book of letters and pics from friends and family and surprised my dad with it on his bday. it was such a memorable time.

here's a phone pic of tatem and her papa :)

wes has been a total riot lately. he now names every animal he has and every name is very pointed... for example, a blue dinosaur is named "bluey... b/c he's blue" (he always explains the name he chose). his cow pillow pet is named "cowy... b/c he's a cow". his purple t rex is named "rexy purple oranen... b/c he's purple and is a t rex". you get the idea. anyway, my favorite is his rhino... his name is "horny... b/c he has horns". ha!

here's wes showing off "spiky... b/c he has spikes".

a few of my fave things wes has said in the past few days are:

- when the doctor said "ok wes i'm going to listen to your heart now", wes' eyes grew really wide and he replied, "but, i have GOD in my heart!" adorable little man.

- when the hair stylist asked wes if he likes kitties, he said "yeah, but i'm really into ghosts right now"... what?! cracking me up.

- when the old lady at the store told me i had beautiful children, wes piped up and said very seriously "i'm my family's hero"... love him.

...and this is his newest smile - yikes!

tatem is making us smile daily as well. she just started reaching out for us when we go to pick her up - i don't know if i noticed these things with wesley. but since this is my second child, i try to make note of every single little milestone - it all goes so fast. just 2 days i go, i went to pick her up and she reached up to me - it made my heart melt a little. love this little girl so much.

tatem is teething hardcore which has made for some brutal nights, but she is pretty happy during the day. she just loves being part of the action.

she is loving solid foods but is already particular as to what she will eat. i made a bunch of perfect, fresh, organic baby food (butternut squash, apple, green beans, etc).. and she will have none of it. she kind of gags and shutters through every bite. then one day i bought a jar of earth's best sweet potato and chicken (pureed meat kinda grosses me out) and the girl just completely chowed down. we joke that she would just prefer we hand her a chicken thigh to gnaw on ... ha! anyway, for the princess, i pureed chicken the other day (ew) to mix with the other stuff i already made. i hope she finds it palatable.

her hair continues to puzzle and amuse us :) this is how she looked one morning after her daddy bathed her the night before w/o combing her hair before bed. wow . . .

i also have some recipes to share... i'll do that in the next post! xx

wes NOW

2011-08-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

another "wesley NOW" post... he is saying so many funny things these days i must write them down so i don't forget. i don't know when it happened but our boy is now talking more like a real person and less like a toddler. using words like "instead" and "definitely", he is just cracking us up as he explains his world to us in such articulate ways.

-the above pic was from a little dessert date wes and i had at new seasons. he got a mini cupcake and kept taking little licks of the frosting and making these sweet small sounds saying "mm mm.... mm mm. this cupcake is pretty cold. i'm pretty lucky to have this cupcake, mommy. mm mm."

-wesley still wakes up as a different animal every day. lately it's been either a squid or a baby velociraptor. all transitions to/from the bath, potty, meals, etc are all navigated much more smoothly if you play along and call him the animal he is and spew continuous facts about said animal. he is such a sponge at this age and will recall long lists of facts about anything. thank god for the wikipedia app on my phone!

-one of his new sayings is (in a high-pitched agreeable voice) "OF COURSE!"... if i ask him if i can have one of his strawberries: "of course!"... if i ask him to please take his plate to the sink: "of course!" ... when i ask him if he knows how much mommy loves him: "of course! so much!" it's adorable.

-wesley talks non-stop and most of the time i LOVE this about him. it is trying some days when all i want is peace and quiet! but for the most part we so enjoy listening to him. he now has started to maximize his talking time by saying words not only on his breaths out, but also on his breaths in. try it. it's hard! in fact, the only person i've met who can rival wesley's ability to fit the most words in per minute is his auntie ky-ky! anyway, about 3 times in each story-string, if he feels he's losing his audience, he will lower his voice very dramatically and say "and you know? the important thing is? ..." and then finish his story. and of course i use the word "finish" loosely b/c the end of one story is usually just the beginning of another. :)

-another newer development is that wesley has become totally WILD. like, bouncing off the wall crazy boy wild. again, cute lots of the time; kind of irritating some of the time... but i know it's the age and that he's a boy! anyway, he's almost always racing around and when he does this, he crouches down into a running race stance and says very slowly and dramatically, "get your MARKER.... SET... GOOO!" and then bolts around until crashing into something and inevitably collapsing into sobs and desperate requests to be held. oy. anyway, imagine the "get your marker..." part being said by a kid who can't yet pronounce his r's... adorable. it's my favorite thing he says right now.

-anytime we give him a new morsel of information about anything of interest, he immediately says "what you said?" and we say it again and again he says "what you SAID?!" and we say it again... for awhile we were wondering if he just couldn't hear us, but we think he just needs to hear something new a few times so he can fully digest the information. "what you SAID?!???"

-we talk lots and lots about making good choices to listen and obey. to be a kind and gentle friend. to protect our family members, etc. wes woke up this morning very happy and said "mommy, i have decided to make a really good choice today and share toys and be a kind gentlemen." he fully understands the concept of making choices to listen and obey - although lots of times he doesn't make the right choice, i feel a teeny sense of accomplishment that he's starting to see how life is good when we make GOOD choices.

-our favorite thing to do this summer has been to take wes on bike ride on his skuut bike. he is getting so good at it and balances so well. with tatem's naps and it kind of being a low-key summer, we have relished our bike rides, sometimes going on 2 or 3 of them each day. wes slings the garage-door-opener over the side of his bike and we are off. he gets to operate the garage door when we leave and when we return, and tatem watches him in awe from the stroller or the ergo. today he brought his binoculars on the bike ride - needless to say, they were a huge hit. he stopped at almost every corner to take a look around... :)

we love you wesley jack! thanks for filling our days with sooooo much chatter and fun!

xx - mommy

homeward bound

2011-08-02T14:49:00.000-07:00

back in april, we were presented with an opportunity to move back to spokane. our home town where we both grew up and where we go to celebrate most big holidays with our families. when we moved to portland 9 years ago, we thought we'd stay a few years and then uproot once we started a family and get back to the grandparents in spokane... time flies when you are having fun and we fell in love with portland and everyone in it! we have thoroughly enjoyed so much here... we LOVE our church and our church family, i loved working at nike, andy works w/ incredible people at aerotek, we absolutely adore the city and all it has to offer.

the reason we haven't made this move yet is b/c over the years, we were never both wanting to move to spokane at the same time. it was always one of us who would say "let's simplify and move back to spokane" and the other would say "eh. i'm not really feelin it" and that's where we would leave it.

so in april when there was mention of a job coming available with andy's company in the spokane office, andy jumped at the chance to at least put his hat in the ring. we have prayed about this decision for so long and this time doors have been flying open left and right. the crazy thing is since tatem was born, we have both been more "ready" to move to spokane - and although we are heartsick at the thought of leaving our amazing community of friends and family here, we know it is time to move on.

so, we looked at only THREE houses w/ our realtor and bought one! (how funny after searching high and low for 4 years here in portland for the right house!) fell in love with the house and the neighborhood (same junior high and high school andy and i went to - crazy!... and walking distance to the same pool that i grew up taking swimming lessons at! ha!) the house is clean and well-maintained but since it's a 70's ranch, there is lots of updating to do (over time). we are sooo excited about making the house our home.

we are grateful for direction and peace about this decision. there are still lots of unknowns but we are so looking forward to this next chapter of our life. we aren't moving until thanksgiving, so we still have some time here in portland! more updates to come!

tatem: 6 months

2011-07-27T10:03:00.000-07:00

happy half-birthday to our sweet tatem june! this has been a big month for tatem... she got her first 2 teeth a few weeks ago, is rolling all over the place and just mastered sitting up last week! she is at such a fun age... easy with the smiles and laughs. actually, i use the term "laughs" loosely, as tatem doesn't laugh as much as she snorts. she has this new smile (pictured below) where she scrunches up her nose if she's REALLY happy, and then snorts. so lady-like. the cutest is when she sees wes walk into the room, she will scrunch up her nose and smile and give a long even snort to express just how excited she is that wesley is there.

tatem is an ok sleeper - naps are getting better. she just dropped her 3rd nap so she is down to just the 9ish and the 1:30ish naps. they are usually about an hour and a half, give or take 30 minutes. i'm so grateful these have gotten longer as they used to be only 40 minutes! the afternoons are good if we just keep her busy until her 7ish bedtime. she is still waking at 11 and 3 to eat at night, so our pediatrician is encouraging us to get serious about solid foods. they are such a mess! but i think she's ready for more than just breast milk by now.

speaking of breastfeeding, tatem eats about 4-5 times during the day (and the 2 at night) and she specializes in nursing acrobatics. this girl is almost always moving... usually one foot is up on my shoulder while nursing, while the other limbs are moving in some sort of freestyle rhythm. a gymnast perhaps? it makes me laugh every time. i just know my life is going to get seriously busy once she learns to crawl!

one of the only things that makes her stop moving when nursing is if she hears wesley making a funny noise, she will just pause and then break into a huge smile, while still nursing. it is amazing the admiration and love she has for him already - i love it.

tatem is very vocal - screeching and squealing most of the time in happy outbursts. she also says "ga", "na" and "da"... "dadadadada" being her favorite. this doesn't mean "daddy" yet, but it will soon!

tatem's 6 month stats are:

head circumference: 17 1/4" - 85th%
height: 26" - 50th%
weight: 17 lbs - 70th%

we love you sweet T!!!!!!!! xoxo, mommy daddy & wes

summer

2011-07-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

lucky for me, we've had a fairly cool summer thus far. i'm not much one for heat, but i do love the sun. i took the kids up to spokane for a week while andy worked in seattle and we had a fabulous time. that drive isn't so fun with two kids, being the only adult. but it's well worth it once we get settled in and get to spend time with nana, papa, mimi and uki. i barely took my camera out the whole time as we were busy just playing, but here are a few pics for you...

kids on the counter while nana makes granola... wes ate so much of it, i was surprised there was much left to bake! tatem is so happy being an onlooker... anything wesley is doing is considered cool in her book!

nana and wes made pancakes out on the porch one morning - what fun!

wesley's admiration for the lawn mower and/or tractor has clearly not faded one bit... here he is watching papa mow the lawn at 3+ years

and you may remember this pic from back when he was about 15 months... total awe :)

tatem loves the bumbo chair...

we have been enjoying summer stuff here in portland as well - concerts in the park, farmers market, the zoo, and plenty of bbq's with friends!

sweet pic of britt and tate playing in the park.. britt is due w/ her 2nd girl in october... can't wait for tatem to meet her little friend!

livi and wes - two peas in a pod

little baby harper sound asleep amongst the chaos :)

handsome wez!!

lastly, a sweet brother/sister moment from the other day. tatem is so enamored by her big brother - it really is amazing to watch. anytime wes gives her any attention at all, she is so happy to just stare at him. they were both just laughing and laughing while wes was trying to put the sippy cup in tates' mouth. love these two!

oh, one more thing! my sister kyah gave birth to my BEAUTIFUL niece, haven sage hillis yesterday. they live in nashville so i haven't met her yet - but i love her so much already! not being able to meet her is killing me! being an aunt is so amazing. congrats to kyah and dustin - well done!

sweet haven :)

no girls allowed

2011-07-12T07:21:00.000-07:00

i was super jealous as andy and wes pulled out of the driveway last weekend for a no-girls-allowed camping weekend. i kept saying at the last minute... "maybe tatem and i could come?!" and andy said "nope - no girls allowed this trip!" i LOVE to camp and i LOVE to watch wes enjoy these activities but andy and wes needed some man-time and our tent isn't really big enough for the four of us. tatem and i enjoyed a quiet girls weekend alone and we were soooo excited to hear all about the boys and their time camping at the clackamas river.

(this is the only pic taken w/ my camera... i sent them w/ the point-and-shoot :)

when asked about the highlights: wes said "peeing in the river standing up!", "s'mores!" and "watching daddy chop wood"... andy's highlights were spending time with wes and getting to chat around the fire. such a special time for my boys - love them both so much.

next time... girls will join!

july 4

2011-07-07T19:28:00.000-07:00

we had a lovely july 4th weekend full of a beach visit (previous post), bbq's with friends, park visits, naps, etc...

we had a jam-packed monday (the actual 4th) planned, but all were cancelled immediately upon wes waking up throwing up in bed early monday morning... what?! poor guy! it was the strangest thing.. he was in a fine mood, had an appetite, no fever, etc but threw up about 8 times from 6-10a.m.

by 10:30 a.m. he was totally back to normal but we still wanted to keep him home to make sure he was ok, and to keep from spreading any germs he might have. although we were bummed to cancel our fun plans to meet friends at the lake oswego parade and then to meet up with other friends at a bbq and fireworks show that evening, we ended up having a really fun and sweet day. both kids napped really well, which left andy and i lots of time to chat and cook good food for our dinner.

after naps, we spreaded out a blanket on our driveway, opened the garage door for wes to get his toys out and ate and played. tatem is loving the excersaucer these days so she loved watching wes ride his bike from the comfort of her seat in the saucer. we were laughing at ourselves b/c our meal consisted of homemade chicken noodle soup and salad... not exactly a summer meal, but it's just what the doctor ordered and we all devoured it!

andy bought just $10 worth of fireworks earlier that day and wes couldn't have been more excited to sit in his chair and watch the "huuuuge show" :)

cannon beach

2011-07-02T11:03:00.000-07:00

cannon beach is my favorite place in the whole world and i miss it tremendously if i haven't been at least every month or so... i've been craving a day in cb for weeks and we decided to kick off the long holiday weekend with a day there yesterday. we met up with our bend friends, the staleys, since they were spending the week there. so fun to see them!

what a fun day filled with friends, beach, park, shops, reading, lollipops and yummy food. both kids were beyond tired when we got home last night - it was an early-to-bed night for all! but so worth it.

happy 4th weekend!

tatem: 5 months

2011-06-26T12:50:00.000-07:00

miss tatem june is 5 months old today! this past month has been full of tatem learning new tricks... unfortunately none of those tricks are "sleeping for long stretches at night"... but we can hope that is coming :) tatem goes down for naps and bed awake and does really well with that - she continues to reject pacifiers (we've kind of given up...) and doesn't suck any fingers. she prefers so just suck on the sleeve of her pj's or the back of her hand. whatever works i guess!

we stopped swaddling t at 4 months and just a couple weeks ago she started sleeping on her tummy. so sweet! i can tell she is much more comfortable being able to roll around and choose a sleep position... plus the bonus is that she can now (hopefully) get rid of the bald spot on the back-right side of her head! :)

tatem is a mover and a shaker... she is rolling all over the place and is even scooching forward to reach a toy. she loves to sit up (in bumbo chair or with assistance) and hates to be held cradle-style. in fact, she hates to be reclined so much that she even leans forward in her carseat while driving around - that must be exhausting for her but she doesn't seem to mind. i look back there and she is leaning forward from her shoulders up, just looking around. andy and i keep saying how she seems older than she is... she just seems in such a hurry to catch up with wesley. she has been drooling a ton and i just noticed 2 swollen bumps on her lower gums... i know that this could still mean months before teeth actually pop through, but still, it's all just going so fast!

i just started making some baby food - i've given her a few tastes and she seems to like it. i finally let her try some food b/c she's been lunging/reaching for food, smacking her lips while watching us eat, and just starting at every bite we put in our mouths for about a month now... i pureed some butternut squash for her the other day and she was into it! she didn't eat much but i could tell she was just stoked to be part of the action, wearing a bib and looking important like her brother! i am not sure when i'll start giving her solids regularly... her pediatrician gave me the green light at her 4 mos appt but i'm soaking up the last days of her needing nothing but breastmilk. but look how proud she looks wearing wesley's bib :)

wes thought it was soooooo cool to watch her trying to eat. he couldn't stop laughing and saying "ooooooh the baby is going to grow soooooo biiiiiig!!!!!!" (side note: check out tatem's crazy hair! she has that poof on the top all the time - hilarious!)

tatem is a social butterfly - naps are still unpredictable but she is happy happy being in the action. in fact, she takes her best naps in the ergo while at the park or at playdates with wesley's friends. tatem knows the sound of her own name - anytime i call to her she looks up, finds my eyes and gives me a huge smile. she went into the nursery at church for the first time a couple weeks ago and did great. our little girl is growing up - i cannot believe we are talking about teething, solid foods and baby proofing already.

she has found her toes as well - love this stage! she is totally enamored by her toes and can get them into her mouth as well.

tatem still gets up 2-3 times to eat at night... i don't think she needs all those feedings.. but i'm going to wait till 6 months and ask her pediatrician about a 'plan'... i don't feel sleep deprived (thankfully), but i'm definitely tired and could use some longer stretches if tatem can handle it!

both our kids continue to love love love music of any kind. when tatem is fussy, i can calm her immediately by laying her down and singing to her - not only does she stop crying, she actually totally brightens up and is happy again for awhile. the other day, wes and tatem both woke up from short naps crying/whining/screaming... ugh. after about 30 minutes of both of them clinging to me and crying, i put on wesley's fave song (beyonce's 'all the single ladies'), cranked it up and wes and i spent the next half hour dancing our little hearts out while tatem sat in the bumbo watching and wondering what kind of family she was born into.

wesley's rad moves

freestylin'

tatem, the confused onlooker

after the song played no less than 10 times on repeat, we were all sweaty and happy and in much better spirits. i am happy that music makes these kids as happy as it makes me!

not only is today tatem's 5 month bday... it's also andy's 31st birthday! we have had such a fun day celebrating daddy today and will continue our celebrations into the evening. happy 5 months sweet t and happy birthday daddy! we love you sooooo much!

food

2011-06-20T21:28:00.000-07:00

food is always on my mind. i LOVE good food and i love making good food for my family. i have had a hard time getting well-rounded meals on the table since tatem was born... not only b/c i'm still acclimating to life with two kids (and cooking a full meal requires several steps that are spread out over an entire day due to the little ones needing me!), but also b/c i have to be completely dairy-free due to nursing and tatem's sensitive stomach. anytime i have had dairy, it has resulted in at least 3-5 days of screaming (tatem) and not much sleep for anyone. i hear that this will probably pass when she's close to 9 months, and it's worth it to me to keep nursing and be off dairy... although i will say that when i can have dairy again, i am going to drink my weight in milkshakes! :) i CANNOT wait.

anyway, i have been wanting to post this soup that i have been LOVING from my new cookbook, feeding the whole family, by cynthia lair. this cookbook is so full of good recipes i had to choose which one to post... if you like cooking with whole foods and are looking for new ideas, you would love this cookbook!

anyway, back to the soup... it is hearty and filling. you may wonder why i am posting a soup recipe in the middle of june? well, a) i love soups. and b) it's about 60 degrees here in portland... and c) even if it was warm out, i've been known to turn the a/c up and cook a yummy soup and pretend it's fall :)

---
thick potato, cauliflower and dulse soup

1 T evoo
4 cups chopped onions (about 2 large or 3 medium onions)
1/2 t sea salt
3 cups diced potatoes (about 2 medium potatoes), divided
1/2 cup chopped celery (about 2 ribs)
1 large carrot, diced
3 cups of bite-size cauliflower pieces, divided
3 1/2-4 cups water
2 T cashew butter
2 T tamari or shoyu
1/3 cup dry dulse (this is a dark red sea vegetable that is high in absorbable iron and other minerals - great for nursing moms!)
sea salt & freshly ground pepper

heat oil in 4 qt pot over medium heat. add onions and salt. cover the pot and simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally, until onions cook down to a nice mush (15-20 minutes). add 2 cups of the potatoes, celery, carrot, 1 cup of the cauliflower pieces, and water to the mixture, cover, and simmer until potatoes and cauliflower are soft (15-20 minutes). let cool. put cooled soup into blender in small batches (or use your immersion blender... a tool i desperately NEED TO BUY!) with cashew butter and tamari and blend until smooth.

place the remaining 1 cup potatoes and 2 cups cauliflower pieces in a pot of boiling water and cook until tender (about 10-12 minutes).

prepare dulse by washing in cold water and gently tearing into bite-size pieces.

drain the cooked potato and cauliflower. stir cooked vegetables and dulse into the finished soup. season with salt and pepper.

serve with a big green salad!
---

the main challenge for me with cooking these days is when to do it (how to balance staying home and preparing dinner with playdates and getting out) and what to do with the kids when i'm up to my elbows in chopped veggies and other prep work. tatem is now loving the bumbo chair and wes loves to sit on the counter and ~~talk non-stop with hardly a breath in between words~~ chat so i've been propping them both up for part of my cooking time... it makes for a cute little picture, even if it really only lasts about 15 minutes before someone needs a change of scenery!

speaking of food, i have to mention my mom's new blog! so much of my life growing up took place in our kitchen. fond memories of my mom chopping vegetables, or making homemade bread.. she mastered the art of making healthy/simple/beautiful meals and making meal times important family time ... she teaches cooking classes and has now started a blog to share all her healthy yummy recipes. check it out here: www.atmykitchentable.org

these pics of wes at the park have nothing really to do with food... but i thought i'd post them anyway. he keeps looking so BIG to me these days... growing boy. his new obsession, p.s., is dinosaurs. every morning when we go in to his room to get him, he pops out of bed and says "I'M A MEGALOSAURUS TODAY, MOMMY!" or "DADDY! I'M A PACHYCEPHALOSAURUS TODAY!" i'm not kidding with those words either... he asks at least 3 billion times a day "mommy, what's that dinosaur's name with the really thick head??" and i say "pachy....." and he says "OH! YES! IT'S THE PACHYCEPHALOSAURUS!" all these words are exclaimed with his adorable lisp, by the way. and this is all in caps b/c he doesn't say anything in a quiet voice - it's all very... exuberant. oh man... love that boy :)

photo opp

2011-06-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

my dear friend koren took some family pics of us and i'm so happy to have documented this time of our life. we went to one of our favorite parks that we have been going to long before wesley was even born. thank you koren for snapping such great pics of our family - these pics will be cherished forever!

stats + pics

2011-06-13T14:02:00.000-07:00

we had wesley's 3 year appt and tatem's 4 mos appt last week. thankfully, andy joined me for the appt's b/c both kids needed shots and wes is PETRIFIED of the doctor these days! we were so proud of wes, though. he was so cute stripped down to his underwear, touching his toes for the doctor, opening his mouth wide, letting her check his ears/eyes etc. the shot brought tears but they left soon after so that was a total blessing. wes weighed in at 30 lbs 8 oz. which is news to me because some days i swear all he eats are a few bites of toast and water... toddlers! he remains at the 40th-50th percentile for height and weight.

wesley is talking non-stop. and when i say "non-stop", i mean really and truly he doesn't stop talking until he falls asleep for nap or bedtime. he is still napping almost every day (1-3ish) and is going to bed at around 7:30/8 pm.

tatem did great at her appt as well.

her (4.5 month) stats are:

height: 25" - 85th percentile
weight: 15 lbs 6 oz - 75th percentile
head: 16" - 90th percentile

big girl! she has officially passed the weight wes was when he was 4 mos... in fact, she is about the same size he was at 6 mos! ha!

tatem is rolling both ways and practicing her sitting skills. she seems to just want to MOVE. she is scooting and rotating all around... her temperament is so much happier these days... but we think she will be even happier once she can get moving. she coos all the time and everything is going into her mouth! she still won't take a paci.. so bummed. instead of a paci OR her fingers, tatem has taken a liking to sucking on the her sleeve when she goes down for her naps. she usually falls asleep with her right arm draped over her face so as to have the forearm there at the ready in case she needs to suck. i find this amusing since we have about 30 different pacifiers she could have and she has 10 fingers she could suck. but, should i really be surprised? she likes to keep us guessing :) she is finally falling into a bit of a nap rhythm which is nice. other than that, lots of drool, lots of smiles. love this age :)

oh, and i painted her toes... not easy on a baby!

we went to ingrid's this morning and i brought my camera b/c i've been meaning to get some pics of the cousins together. so sweet. love these 3 kids so much!

story time with izzy

more stories with rinnie

the boys

in other news, i turned 31 on thursday! i won't be putting my height/weight stats on here, but let's just say i do feel older ;) i had such a fun birthday... andy took the day off so i was able to run errands on my own, go to lunch with some great friends, and then spend time with the kids and andy for the rest of the day. so much to be thankful for and so much to look forward to. i love life!

xx- erin

the wez is THREE

2011-06-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

we spent a long weekend in spokane to celebrate wesley's THIRD bday... i cannot believe we have a three-year-old! he is loving being three so far... everything he does, he says he can do it now b/c he is a 3-yr-old. so sweet. here's our weekend in pics :)

the invite (it was a small gathering.. just family)

THE CAKE. (mimi is an amazing cake maker.. this was vanilla cake with buttercream lemon filling and fondant icing. pretty amazing... and looked just like wesley's idol: lightning mcqueeeeeen!)

i've been trying to get better about getting pics of the 4 of us... nothing special, but still documents this time in our lives. tatem slept almost the whole party away in the ergo :)

tatem and mimi

these two... always the performers :)

the o's at the after-party... reading one of wesley's new books (this counts as a family pic, even though tatem is nursing!) :)

andy's parents bought wes an awesome train set, and my dad made a beautiful train table... as you can imagine, HE LOVED IT. and so do i, b/c it means hours of wesley keeping himself happy and busy :)
thank you to both sets of grandparents for such a perfect gift for the wez!

we had one nice day so wes played outside in the baby pool for hours, flew a kite with andy and ate popcorn with papa... all this on no-nap... needless to say, he was asleep by 6:45 that night!

we didn't do a big party in portland this year, but did have a few friends over for a pajama and waffles party one morning :) i made yummy waffles and the kids decorated them with whip cream, berries, sprinkles, candies, etc. it was so fun!

wes with his ladies :)

brooklyn eating her "waffle cake"

happy happy birthday to our funny smart handsome man! we love you soooo much and can't wait to see what this next year holds for you!

xx-
mommy, daddy and tatem

tatem: 4 months

2011-05-26T09:03:00.000-07:00

tatem june is 4 months old today! i love this age because she is really starting to do new things and become more and more aware with every day that passes. tatem LOVES her big brother ... she just watches him with her big blue eyes while he runs around. she is hardly fussy at all anymore (thank you god!), but we can tell that she is frustrated with being so limited in her skills. she wants to be on the move! this new awareness with the world around her brings with it the distracted nursing... it is hard to get her to eat for more than 2 minutes at a time unless we are in a quiet dark room... i remember this stage with wesley... but with him, it was easy to dedicate time to nursing him in a quiet room. now that is nearly impossible with a toddler running around!

tatem is rolling from front to back with ease and is sooooo close to rolling from back to front. she loves to lay on her side and suck her fists while watching the world around her. since she doesn't take a paci (much to my dismay!!!), we just stopped swaddling her this week b/c sucking her fists seem to be the only way she can self-soothe. so far, the weaning off the swaddle is going well. i think tatem will be a tummy sleeper, so as soon as she figures out how to roll onto her tummy, i think she will start to love being unswaddled even more. **i'm updating this blog just hours after i typed it up this morning... she is now rolling onto her tummy! she has done it about 15 times today!**

she also loves to suck on the muslin fabric of these little lovey's... who needs a paci when you can suck on fabric?!

speaking of sleep, tatem continues to keep us on our toes! she is an ok sleeper at night, waking 2-3 times in a 12 hour period to eat and then goes right back to sleep. but days are all over the board. some days she takes 4 short naps, and other days she takes only 2 or 3 b/c they are so long. she is so unpredictable but it works with our schedule b/c we are out and about so much. she can rally, though, when she hasn't napped enough, which is nice. she is happiest when being held facing out and watching everything going on. she could do that for hours!

she is sitting up in the bumbo chair and i'm not surprised that she LOVES being up so she can look around. i love this face! ...always perplexed.

tatem still is loving being sung to. one of my favorite times of day is getting her ready for her bath when i sing to her without interruptions. her eyebrows go up and down and she watches me so intently, smiling and squealing, and sometimes just being quiet and watching. i don't have the best voice in the world, but she thinks i do :)

our 4 month appt isn't for a couple weeks (i scheduled her 4 mo and wesley's 3 yr appts to be together) so i have no idea what she weighs yet. she is wearing size 2 or 3 diapers and is in 3-6 month clothes. the 3-6 month clothes are fitting her perfectly right now at 4 months so i'm thinking she'll be out of the cute summer stuff i got for her before it actually gets nice out... :/

happy 4 month birthday to our junebug!! we love you soooo much!

in other BIG news... we are celebrating wesley's THIRD BIRTHDAY this weekend... time is flying!

boys trip: newport beach

2011-05-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

while tatem and i were in nashville, andy took time off to spend with wes. after picking wes up from school, they hit up wesley's fave sushi spot and hit the road to newport, oregon. andy has always wanted to take wes to the aquarium in newport, and he found a great deal on a room at the hallmark inn where they have a pool and a kids basket full of crayons, coloring paper, beach balls, etc. so fun! wesley loved having a sleepover in a hotel with just daddy! soooo fun!

a quick pic of me w/ my babes before we took off on our seperate trips :)

wes loves the beach, but hates the wind... beach time was about 3 minutes this trip due to wind :)

hitting up the rogue brewery for dinner

crayons and a plastic sting ray for wes... a good beer for daddy

watching the waves in the morning before heading to breakfast!

huge crabs at the aquarium!

biiiig sharp teeth... (or as wes says "sharp quiche!")

they had such a fun time swimming, going out to eat and just hanging out as boys. they spent the rest of the weekend back in portland hanging out with friends and running errands. thank you andy for taking such great care of wes while us girls were out of town! love you boys!!

girls trip: nashville

2011-05-17T13:26:00.000-07:00

tatem and i are home safe and sound from a super fun girls trip to nashville! my sister, nephew redd, tatem and i flew and met my mom in phoenix and then flew from there to nashville to hang out w/ kyah and celebrate her pregnant belly and shower her baby girl w/ all sorts of love and gifts :) i didn't bring my camera b/c my hands were full w/ tatem but i did document the trip with phone pics...

looong layover in phoenix (our flight was delayed 4 hours... ugh!)

with the time change, naps and getting in so late, we didn't get moving and out the door until after 2 pm every day. but we had a great time shopping and eating out! here's sweet t and i before hitting up some cute shops and seeing kyahs sleeveless retail space, which was amazing!

lots of love for the littles

wine and chats out on the patio

if you're wondering if this is what you think it is, the answer is YES. that is a pregnant kyah holding her dog, lola... in a baby swing. move over lola, baby girl is on her way! :)

tatem was soooo great on the trip. she was so chill on the plane and hanging out with us whatever we were doing. i'm hoping and praying she has turned a corner! here she is just observing while we all cook and prepare for kyah's baby shower

all us girls plus redd on ingrid's back... he got cut off a bit. happy baby shower kyah!

more shower pics.....

i love this pic of kyah showing dustin (daddy-to-be) all the shower gifts :)

lastly, a pic of t. aside from her many smiles all weekend, this was the face she had on most of the time. not easily impressed... she makes me laugh!

andy and wes had a great weekend too... they had a little boys trip which i will post pics from soon! so happy to be home - we missed our boys! xx- erin

circle bago

2011-05-11T14:03:00.000-07:00

our sweet musician, wesley, continues to woo us with his tunes. in the past few months he has really started to pick up lyrics of songs... some that he's only heard a few times. i think he is going to be like his daddy who can hear a song once and know all the words.

the other day, i was doing laundry and caught my three favorite people hanging on the bed doing this: (lucky tatem!)

i finally got a few videos to share... we sing "i love you lord" every night before bed so he knows the words to this song quite well.

and wes learned "you are my sunshine" at school :)

wes has officially written his first song, "circle bago". although the words have no meaning (to me, at least), i was amazed to watch him work out the words and tune and keep singing it over and over... even after nap and the days after, singing it the exact same way every time. you can see, he is a lyrical genius :)

circle bago, by wesley jack

circle bago,
circle bago...
circle bago
is my tinnnnn

and i never heard it
in a long time ago,
but nobody else says
QUACK! QUACK! QUACK!
NEN! NEN! NEN!

circle bago - take 1

circle bago - take 2

tatem and i are off to nashville tomorrow with my sister, nephew and mom to help throw a baby shower for my older sis, kyah. so excited for a girls trip! wes and daddy are having a boys weekend! i'm sure we will have some fun pics to share next week!

mommy's day

2011-05-08T13:51:00.000-07:00

happy mommy's day to all my mom friends, to my sisters and especially to my mom and mother-in-law! i am so grateful to have a mom who has dedicated her life to us kids and has made so many sacrifices on our behalf. and to my mother-in-law for raising an amazing man who makes a wonderful husband and father.

wesley's school had a little mother's day tea on thursday and it was precious to watch wes and his classmates sing songs to us moms.

wesley was apparently "not in the mood" to perform that day. he mostly looked at me the whole time and swung his arms while the other kids did the motions and sang...

but i still beamed as a proud mother should and took lots of pics of my sweet boy :)

swinging the arms... perhaps he was bored?

oh! he's singing and doing the motions!

nevermind. that was short-lived.

needless to say, he was so excited when the performance was over so we could have tea and cookies together :)

we've had a lovely mother's day weekend. being a mother is fulfilling and challenging - even on the hardest of days, i wouldn't ever choose a different job for myself. i love you so much, andy, wes and tatem! thanks for making my job as mom such an incredible journey!

family time

2011-05-02T14:29:00.000-07:00

the kids and i just got home from a wonderful week in spokane! we went up there for my mom's bday and to let the kids get some grandparent time so i could focus on one kid at a time, get some rest, and eat some of my mom's great food :) we also got to have some fun dinners with mimi and uki and aunt sam/uncle tim! what a blessing to get to spend a whole week with family. andy flew up on saturday to have a family dinner and drove home with us... i was reeeally happy to not do that long drive home without him!

wes and nana made frozen chocolate-covered bananas

playing cars

papa is a sucker for those chubby baby cheeks

wes "working the land"

wesley eating his greens :)

for my mom's bday, we went to the kroc center to take the kids swimming. what an amazing place this was! pools, indoor play structures, beautiful workout facilities, etc. tatem and wes did so well. we'll definitely be back to this place!

tatem in her new suit :)

mommy and tates

wes and nana

happy bday mom!!

happy wes

we got to see lots of aunt sam... love you sammi!

last but not least, i'm finally posting a side-by-side photo of me at 3 months and tatem at 3 months. my parents had this out for me when i got there last week and i was SHOCKED by how much she looks like me! the pic of me is a picture of a picture so it's not great quality...

look at this mini-me!

happy monday!

tatem: 3 months

2011-04-27T10:33:00.000-07:00

our litte tatem june-bug is 3 months old! these past 3 months have flown by but have also seemed very long at times. tatem is becoming more and more smiley as the days pass, and since she has been a reeeally fussy baby, these smiles are beautiful glimpses of the happy baby she is (hopefully) becoming! she is having more happy awake time in between naps which is SO nice.

at 3 months, tatem weighs approximately 12 lbs 13 oz and LOVES to eat. i feel like i'm nursing her all the time! she is growing fast, wearing size 2 diapers and 3-6 months clothing.

she loves to be bounced on the yoga ball when she's fussy... as soon as she grows out of this fussy phase, i think andy and i will burn that yoga ball. we have both logged some serious hours on that thing!

tatem is going to love music just like her big brother. every night before bath time, i sing to her and do a little baby massage and she is so enamored by my singing... watching my eyes and my mouth move. she is all smiles when her daddy sings to her too. we sing lots of beatles, alison kraus and alicia keyes as well as some of our favorite hymns. the way music effects our moods always amazes me.

tatem loves to lie on her back and look around. she really dislikes the carseat, which makes car rides really hard. i am in spokane this week with the kids and drove the 6 hours by myself (more like 8 hours with a baby who needs to nurse and a toddler who needs to use the potty!)... and MIRACULOUSLY she did so well for most of the drive.

tatem is a lucky lady to have a doting older brother who lets her into his cool forts. wes insisted tatem join him in the last fort we made. this was one of our first glimpses of our kids "playing" together. tatem loved being in the fort with wes, and wesley was all smiles saying "oooooh this is SO FUN to have baby in the fort!!"

tatem cannot wait to be able to play with her cousin redd! she watches them play and just wants to be part of the action already! wes and redd have been having a ton of fun together - it is so cute how they light up every time they get to see eachother. it's like they know they are family. can't wait to see tates bombing around with these two brutes :)

happy 3 months tatem june! we love you sooooo much, despite the crying! :) we hope and pray this next month will continue to bring us more peace and smiles.

pj's and paci's

2011-04-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

wes and tatem have had a fun-filled week of playdates, school, church, etc...... of course, the only photos i have from the week are of us at home in pj's :)

i finally took the time to learn how to use the moby wrap so i could hold tatem and be a little more hands-free. she likes it ok but still prefers the ergo... or that i just hold her with my own hands and NOT try to be hands-free! actually what she really prefers is that i hold her while bouncing on the yoga ball and sshh-ing and patting her back all at the same time. but all women need to learn that we can't always control our surroundings, right?! anyway, but the late afternoon nap usually happens in the ergo or moby wrap these days b/c she's not tired enough to take a real nap in her crib that time of day, but way too tired to be able to last until bed time. so she usually spends the late afternoons strapped to me dozing away while wes plays, whether it's at home, the park or someone else's house.

tatem is having more and more awake and happy time. we have had a week of mostly good happy naps and awake times, but definitely had a couple hard days in there. i have been off dairy for 6 weeks now and i still think something is going on in tatem's tummy so we are still trying to figure that out. i'm just soooo thankful that her fussiness is becoming less often and that she is so smiley and alert these days!

she always has kind of a perplexed look on her face... this girl is hard to impress! :)

wesley has been so sweet with baby. still squealing every time he sees her, "OOOHHHHH a BABY that was BOOOOOORNNNNNN!" he has been singing to her a lot and i don't know if it's a toddler thing, but he literally cannot sing without singing REALLY LOUD. i try to remind him to use a quiet voice but he practically shouts the ABC's, twinkle-twinkle, i'm a little teapot, etc. i guess tatem just has to get used to his "go hard or go home" mentality when it comes to music.

i finally caught a pic of both of them together... only took 11.5 weeks! ha! you can see wes is saying "cheeeeese!" in this pic. and tatem's belly is hardly being held in by the snaps on her pj's... time to move up a size i think!

wes likes to slide under the playmat with tatem and look at the toys (still squealing, "oooohhh a baby that was boooornnn!, mind you). he lays there for a few minutes and then yawns and leaves b/c his cars are much more interesting. you can tell in his pic he's trying to be there for baby sis, but looks a little bored ;)

paci update: we have gone a full week w/ no paci! wes has done so well. we are actually really amazed by how easy it's been... a few shorter naps (or no nap somedays) b/c the paci always helped calm him down and make him drowsy; and a few requests for the paci but no real set-backs at all. a lot of times right before bed, he would ask about the paci and then before we said anything, he would say "but i have cool big boy cars that i bought myself!" we are so proud of our big boy!

snotrod, boost and wingo: you really helped us out this time! wes loves you and so do we! :)

officially a big boy

2011-04-10T20:34:00.000-07:00

today was a big day: wesley turned in his paci's at the toy store (aka target) for three cars from his favorite movie "cars"... 'wingo', 'boost' and 'snotrod' are the names of his new friends that he has talked about for ages!

we have talked about doing this for a long time and he kept telling us he was ready. wes has not gone down for a single nap or bedtime in his whole life w/o a paci! eek! after explaining everything to him several times to make sure he understood, he woke up today from his nap and said "please can we go turn my paci's in! i'm done with them!"

he had many cute sayings this afternoon... like "oh what a wonderful day this is!" and "this is SO MUCH FUN!" as we walked through the house putting his paci's in a baggie to give use as currency to buy his toys.

andy actually got a little teary-eyed when wes proudly handed over his paci's. this is wesley's last "baby thing"... he is potty trained and sleeps in a big-boy bed and now he is paci-free. kind of an emotional transition!

proud wes with dj, snotrod, boost and wingo :)

he is in bed now and has said a few times that he "actually needs his paci's". i think it will be hard for a few days, but we can tell that he's thinking it over and understands that he chose to buy cars with is paci's and that paci's are for babies. but he is still kind of whimpering for his paci - so sad! *sniff* our baby boy is growing up!

tatem is doing well.. we are enjoying more happy awake time with her and she continues to do well at night. days are still very unpredictable but that's just how us females can be i guess! she is a happy bather and she enjoys taking her baths with the whole family in the bathroom with her! wesley likes to be there every step of the bath time squealing the whole time, "ooohhhhhh a BABY that was BORN!" and "ooohhhh what a pretty BABY" :)

i'll put a little paci-detox update in the next blog entry... :)

photo assignment: simple

2011-04-05T13:15:00.000-07:00

i am in a little photography club but haven't been super involved in it since tatem's birth. i haven't been very pleased w/ my photos lately, and i haven't been taking time to do much editing... *sigh* hopefully soon i will have more TIME to spend on this area of my life! ;)

this month, the assignment was a different word each week that we photograph and publish our takes on that word on sunday... then link to the next person in the club and it circles around... this is week #3 and i'm just joining in. :)

the word was 'simple'... my life is full of simple joys right now, so it was an easy part of the assignment to jump in on. most of these simple joys have to do with the little people in my life :)

... like smiley tatem-daddy time

wes and uncle jacob playing

painting rocks with nana

tatem and ben trying to hold hands on their second date :)

wes with one of his main ladies, olivia

and another one of his main ladies, brooklyn

daffodils from a friend.. spring is here!

and a toddler behind those daffodils

cousin redd snuggling with papa

baby dreds ... like, all out knotted up dreds! what to do with these?!

smiley baby who loves her hanging toys

signs of spring

thank you, god, for the simple joys in my life!

now go check out what lucy came up with!

ruben

2011-03-28T14:41:00.000-07:00

i have been dreading this post. so i'll get right to it: we found ruben a new home. the only word to describe how andy and i feel about this is heartsick... like when you break up with someone who you are still in love with.

when we got ruben 6 years ago, we loved him like a child and we dreamed of him growing old with us and our children. we never ever ever thought we would be "that couple" who got rid of the dog when the kids came. but, we also never anticipated ruben continuing to be as needy as he was at 6 years old. ruben is a total lover... always wanting to be touching us, being pet, leaning on us etc. he could never be put in the garage or the backyard if we had people over or just needed a break from being licked to death :) it seemed most of our days were planned around trying to give ruben exercise so he wouldn't be barking/whining non-stop. and the days i didn't get out with him, i paid for it in the form of him needing a ton of attention from us all, waking us up from much-needed naps, etc. he also began to be so much work when we took him on trips w/ us (whining/barking non-stop and becoming afraid of the most random household objects at others' homes that we would literally have to escort him past the offending electrical outlet, bucket, patch of hardwood floors... all this on very little sleep b/c he often woke up when in another place at 4 or 5 a.m. and would wake wes too *sigh*) so we couldn't travel with him anymore.

when wes was born, i started to feel guilty about not being able to be everything ruben needed... but we kept up with him pretty well. visiting parks, going on hikes and walking around the neighborhood was how wes and i spent lots of our afternoons with ruben. then when i got pregnant with tatem, it seemed ruben's needs went up a notch and my tolerance, energy and ability to keep up with him continued to decrease.

we threw the idea around of finding him another home off and on, but couldn't bear the thought. his personality is so tender and loving that if placed in the wrong home, we feared he would be totally neglected and maybe even abused. finally, around christmas time we decided that if an opportunity were to arise where ruben would be in a better situation than he is in at our home, we would consider giving him to some other big-hearted dog-lover who could give ruben what we can't. this person, ideally, would also have experience and love for the vizsla or weimaraner breed b/c that is primarily what makes ruben extra needy. we even prayed about it, which was kind of strange for me to pray about something like that... but still, he is our baby and it was quite an emotional decision.

fast-forward to 4 days after tatem was born... a co-worker of my friend's mom mentioned that she was looking for a dog. her dog passed away last year at 14 years old and my friend's mom mentioned our situation. i was really skeptical as i called her b/c i wasn't ready to face the thought of losing ruben and i truly didn't think we'd find someone who was perfect for his personality. i was wrong! this woman works part-time, has a big backyard, goes on long walks every day, and basically her entire life revolves around the doggie in her life. the craziest part was when i told her ruben's breed(s), she started crying and said her old dog who just died was a vizsla and that is what she wants.

i told her all about ruben's personality... the good, bad and the ugly just so she knew he wasn't that dog who just lays on his bed in the corner. she laughed through the whole thing and i began to feel like this lovely dog-friendly woman just might be a perfect match for our dear ruben. we met her just a few days later and brought ruben to do a sleep-over at her house. he connected with her right away and after about a week of trial we all decided it was a good fit. ruben was doing better there than he's ever done at anyone else's home.

this wonderful woman has had a void in her life ever since her sweet vizsla passed last year. whenever i call her to see how ruben is doing, i can't help but feel like ruben and her were meant to cross paths at this point in their lives. it seems he is just as good for her as she is for him. she speaks so fondly of ruben's antics, laughing as she tells me funny stories and i hear she is even going to take a little class to help him with the whining. so sweet! she lives about 2 miles from our house and she said we can come see him any time at all. (we haven't gone yet just b/c we don't want to confuse him in this transition time, but WE CAN'T WAIT to play with them at the park this summer!)

andy and i talk about him (in code, b/c wes still hasn't really noticed and we don't want to start a melt-down) quite a bit. how we miss his sweet face and his quirkiness. we talk about the pre-baby memories we have with just ruben. we talk about how we feel so awful that we had to find him another home, how we feel like we failed him and how much we miss just having him around. sometimes we think we made the wrong decision. BUT we know we did the right thing for everyone involved. ruben is happy and that makes me happy.

we love you, ruben!

visitors

2011-03-25T18:33:00.000-07:00

we have had lots of visitors since tatem was born but i haven't posted a lot about them! andy's parents were here last weekend and we had a wonderful weekend with them. it is so fun for us to watch our kids bond with their grandparents/aunts/uncles.

aunt samantha (andy's little sis) came to visit this week and we had a great time as well! she was super helpful with the kids and it was good timing since andy has been working lots and left for dallas yesterday :) aunt sam was my other set of hands... feeding, changing, playing, reading, running errands with wesley, etc. i loved having her around to chat while we played with the kids. thank you sammi for coming! we already miss you!

we are getting soooo much rain these days - ugh! i am a rain lover, but even i am tired of it! we have had breaks in the rain but rarely long enough to pack up both kids and get to a park. i got to take wes to the park the other night when andy got home from work and it was so fun to be out in the sun. (so funny how now that we have 2 kids, a "break" is just having one of them with me! just a few months ago, a "break" was doing something without any kids ;)

anyway, when we don't get to the park, we've been just playing on the back patio. we are craving fresh air... come soon, springtime!!!!

our little tatem is doing well - 2 months old tomorrow! she continues to keep us on our toes by being completely unpredictable every day! some days she naps lots and other days she hardly naps and mostly fusses ;) she is really strong - always wanting to "stand" when being held, holding her head up well and starting to break out of her swaddles. she is giving us big smiles and those just about make up for the hours i spend walking/bouncing/shh-ing her ;)

i had to get a shot of her hair b/c i'm afraid it might fall out like wesley's did... she has wild hair just like i did as a baby! i keep trying to find a baby pic of mine to compare w/ tatem... we sure do look a lot alike, i hear :)

my parents are here this weekend... on with the family fun!

lately

2011-03-20T12:35:00.000-07:00

i haven't gotten my camera out as much as usual as this past week has been super busy! we are doing well and tatem is getting happier by the day... thank God! she has also been sleeping so well. the past few nights she has only woken once in a 12 hour period! i know her sleep patterns will ebb and flow a lot before she really settles into a routine, but i will take the sleep when i can get it! she is starting to give us bigger smiles and is awake and alert a lot more each day. she already shows wes favortism - so fun to see her and her "BIG HUUUGE brother" (as wes describes himself) connecting.

wesley has been singing the beatles' 'dear prudence' these days and tatem just looks at him and smiles. it's adorable to watch him looking at her and singing... "the sun is up, the sky is blue, it's beautiful and so are you... deeeeear prudence". so sweet.

sweet T at 7.5 weeks

wes continues to be so helpful with tatem. the moment he hears her stirring in her room, his eyes get really wide and he says "OH! my baby is awake! i will go get her!!!". then we get to her room and he hurriedly turns on both lamps and the overhead light in the room and gets me a diaper. the lights are a bit much but he loves that he has a job. the other day i asked him if he could please bring me a diaper. in a high-pitched helper voice he said "oh! sure i can!" and then, with an inquisitive expression on his face, said "think we need rash cream too mommy?" haha! he will be ready to babysit in no time!

wes is also saying "i love you" and "you're my best friend" a lot these days. very sweet, even though he does say several other people/things are his "best friend" all day too (ie. lightning mcqeen and other characters from cars, daddy, tatem, friends and lots of inanimate objects... grass/rocks/sunshine, etc) but i still take it as a compliment when i'm included in his mix of "best friends". :)

wes is sounding out letters a lot these days. he will say "BALL. buh. buh. ball stands with B!!" (instead of saying "starts with", he says "stands with"). "JET. juh. juh. jet stands with J!!" so fun to watch it click for him!

tatem thankfully takes a bottle so i get up early some mornings and pump and let andy and wes do the feeding routine. this gives me time to start breakfast, get ready, or just snap a few pics of my favorite 3 people in the whole wide world ;)

TGIF

2011-03-11T15:50:00.000-08:00

we have had a ROUGH week. wes came down with that nasty flu/cough/cold that has been going around. going into having 2 kids, a week like we have had was a big fear of mine. sick toddler, needy infant, sleep deprived family, husband at work.... that sums up what the past 4 days have been like. BUT, miraculously i have both kids sleeping right now and i'm not so dog-tired i can't keep up the blog, so that is good news :) also, i'm soooo grateful that so far wes is the only one in the family who has gotten this bug. we hope it stays that way!

wes is doing better and i'm hoping he has turned a corner now that he is napping more than 30 minutes without waking up in tears from feverish aches and pains and a snotty nose. tatem is doing better today, but we are still trying to figure out WHY she has been so uncomfortable. she is doing wonderfully at night for her age, so that is a huge blessing. but the days have been TRYING, to say the least! today has been much better as we are tweaking things so i'm hoping and praying we can pinpoint what is causing her discomfort asap.

there were many times this week that i have felt at the end of my rope with both kids needing me every minute of the day. i felt frustrated that i couldn't have a minute to eat; and at the same time felt guilty that i was always having to leave one to help the other. thankfully, andy has been such a huge help and a loving friend through all of this. i also have a great support system who has been checking in on us too. a wise friend and seasoned mommy of 3 kids reminded me of a country song i love called "you're gonna miss this" by trace adkins. when i write the lyrics out, they sound a bit cheesy, but if you hear the song, it's really a beautiful message:

you're gonna miss this

you're gonna want this back

you're gonna wish these days
hadn't gone by so fast

these are some good times

so take a good look around

you may not know it now

but you're gonna miss this

it's been a chaotic week, and i know this isn't the end of it. there will be several more illnesses, tantrums, fussy times, etc. but i'm grateful for a little break in it today. for the smiles wes is giving us and his sense of humor that has come back just this morning. and for the sleeping happy baby i am looking at right now. and i am grateful for the reminder to soak it up b/c they are only little for so long.

we still managed to take some pics at the beginning of the week before the sickness and crying took hold of the house ;)

my friend ang came down for the day at the beginning of the week and it was sooo fun to have her here. it was also nice to have another set of hands to hold tatem while i cuddled a sick wesley!

tatem chillaxing (she likes to be held, so this only lasted a few minutes ;)

wes got out his keyboard and serenaded the baby - this was his idea... so sweet!

one morning while the baby slept, i put a party hat on wes while he sat and watched me make breakfast. something about sick kids make them so extra sweet. he kept putting his chin in his hand like this (see pic) so i asked him to lean over and put his elbow on his knee... he didn't understand so he just put his other elbow on his knee. cute :)

we had a break in the rain and a break in the fever last night so wes and i did some sidewalk chalk outside. we are soooo ready for some FRESH AIR after being so cooped up this week!

love you, sweet T! (her wacky hair cracks me up!)

THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY! hoping and praying for a relaxing and healthy weekend! xoxo

random

2011-03-02T13:28:00.000-08:00

andy just finally strung wesley's little guitar and i just had to post these pics. i have visions of our family sitting around a campfire in years to come w/ my boys playing guitar together. wesley watches his daddy with such admiration as he plays guitar. i hope his love for music continues as he grows older!

...and i think he's going to be a lefty! he has favored his left hand since the beginning, especially with sports and guitar. mimi is a lefty so i think he got this from her!

wesley has been so funny lately... he is obsessed with story-telling these days. we tell him a story and he immediately (like, before we even finish the story) requests that we tell that same story AGAIN. this goes on and on until we change the subject. he is also really interested in all animals that have sharp teeth... or as he says it: "sharp keesh". all animals with sharp keesh are "ferocious, but friendly", according to wes :)

today he walked up to me holding two jars to his chest and said "mommy, i'm pumping"... as in, pumping breast milk. wow. maybe i should pump in private from now on?? (who am i kidding? if i have 10 spare minutes to be alone, pumping is not how i would fill my time!)

tatem has been extremely fussy these past two days AND NIGHTS. ugh... i know in the future this will all be a distant memory, but i reeeeeally miss my sleep, and it makes the days much harder to be patient and energetic with my kids!

luckily, motherly love is unconditional and i know she is worth it :)

happy wednesday!

tatem: 1 month

2011-02-26T19:53:00.000-08:00

we cannot believe tatem is already 1 month old today! she is such a joy to have around and her first month has been pretty smooth! aside from some reflux issues (poor baby!), tatem is a really happy baby. she is awake for longer periods of time now and is content laying on the floor looking around. she is starting to coo and gurgle which makes wesley laugh so hard! she will make eye contact and stare right at me now... i know that first smile is not too far away!

daddy loves to play guitar for his kids... tatem loves it just like wes!

big brother!

tatem we love you so much and can't wait to see what new developments come in this next month of your life!

mimi & uki come to town

2011-02-23T12:32:00.000-08:00

mimi and uki came last weekend to meet tatem and hang with our little family. we had such a nice time... a good balance of going out to do fun things and just hanging around the house while we played with wes and took turns holding the baby. we enjoyed great food and lots of laughs... thank you mimi and uki for such a great weekend! come back soon!

tatem is awake for longer periods of time now... so fun to see her waking up!

mimi and tates spent some quality time together while i played with wes

wes and uki playing :)

i am on day #2 of taking care of both kids now that andy is back at work. tatem has been more fussy these past few days so it's been a little challenging, but overall we are doing well! i know i have to lower my expectations regarding my house being in order... but that is hard for me! i just want to constantly pick up toys and do dishes but i know that's not a priority right now.

wes is doing so well with tatem... he was asking me to hold him this morning and then tatem started to cry while she was in the swing. immediately, wesley asked me to pick up the baby because she was crying instead of picking him up. so sweet.

although we miss daddy soooo much, we are all happy to get back into a routine. we had a busy morning out yesterday, so today we spent the morning at home... i even had about 30 minutes while both kids were "busy" (tatem: sleeping, and wes: deep in some make believe story with his cars) when i uploaded some pictures, washed dishes and fed MYSELF. it was bliss, i tell you ;)

tatem is starting to take the paci more... thankfully!

sweet boy

as some of you know, we are still in the rental we moved into a couple years ago (looking to find a house to buy, haven't seen anything we love, yada yada)... since this place is still pretty temporary, i didn't decorate much of a room for tatem but i did give her a little corner of our guest room. how nice of me! ;) i made the flags and got a few new things to put up. i love that she has a little feminine place of her own in the house. we also have a mini crib in the room but it's not in the pics!

ok..... i have a little longer till baby and toddler wake up and need me. off to take a nap!

help

2011-02-20T13:56:00.000-08:00

when tatem was first born, my mom so graciously spent 2 weeks with us cooking, cleaning, playing with wes, holding tatem, encouraging us to rest, etc. i am so grateful i could have her help as we adjust to being parents of 2 children. thank you mom for all you did! we are soooo grateful. (and can you believe i don't have a pic of you w/ both kids after all that time you were here?!)

andy then took a week and a half off work to be home and hang with us and he goes back to work this week. he has been such a huge help and we will miss him so much during the day, but i'm grateful for the sweet times we have had as a little family... laying in bed in the mornings, reading books, playing with the baby and not being in a hurry to get anywhere.

andy, you are so loved by all 3 of us! thank you for being a hard-working dad, for never complaining and for making us all laugh all the time. we know how lucky we are to have you!

love, mama/wes/tatem

four

2011-02-12T15:25:00.000-08:00

we are so enjoying our little family of four! tatem has been pretty mellow... so far! we have had a few rough nights, but overall she's been a really easy baby. she is still very sleepy... i have to wake her to feed her all day and night. she has been awake and alert for longer periods of time in these past few days which has been so fun. wesley is doing wonderfully with her... he will walk into the room and say "where's my baby?!" the two of them will be two peas in a pod i'm sure :)

i am enjoying holding my baby so much. she loves to be held and cuddled, which is very different from how wes was. he always wanted to be swaddled and put down... this made him an EXCELLENT sleeper from the beginning, but i never got to really cuddle with him a lot! tatem loves sleeping on my chest, and surprisingly enough, i sleep great with her on me. for a high-maintenance sleeper like myself, this has been a surprise to me that i can sleep so well with her.

overall, we are totally enjoying these sweet moments with a newborn. we know how fast this stage goes!!

a few pics for you of the past week or two... a little disclaimer: our laptop is dying so i am posting this from andy's laptop where i don't have my editing stuff. so these pics are just straight from the camera... hopefully our laptop will be fixed or replaced soon so i can get back to beautifying my pics!!

wes loves laying w/ tatem and laughing at all the funny noises and movements she makes :)

tatem LOVES her black&white book just like her big brother did!

sharing a quick kiss between brother and sister before wes goes to school :)

not surprisingly, wes has been pretending to be a baby now that a baby lives at our house. he is learning to share her toys... here's his version of them "sharing" the bouncer chair ;)

morning snuggles and reading the black&white book again... love these little people!

ok... naptime for ME!
xoxo- e

dying laptop :(

2011-02-10T19:11:00.000-08:00

fyi... my laptop is dying so that is why i haven't posted anything lately! i have some cute shots of wes and tatem and can't wait to post an update... in short, we are doing well. adjusting to life with two kids! tatem is super sweet and wes is doing great with her! will post more when our laptop is fixed or replaced SOON!

tatem's birth

2011-01-30T14:05:00.000-08:00

i have been wanting to get tatem's birth story down in writing before the details become too foggy. amazing how there is no downtime these days!

for those of you who didn't know, my birth story with wesley went as planned (natural labor/birth) until after pushing for several hours, he made no progress and was delivered via c-section. so this pregnancy has been spent thinking a lot about whether or not i wanted to try for a vbac (vaginal birth after cesarean) or schedule a repeat c-section. i had good reasons for both, but due to the support of a wonderful mid-wife, andy, and some family and friends, i decided to go for the vbac and see what happened... (and i'm SO glad i did!)

last tuesday evening (1/25/10), after a fun afternoon with wes, my water broke right when andy got home from work. i was really surprised b/c i still had a week until my due date and was not feeling like this baby would be here anytime soon. we called my sister to come be with wes while we leisurely packed our hospital bag, played with wes, ate a little bit of dinner and mostly just looked at e/o a million times like "ok, here we go!"

we got to the hospital around 8 and got checked in - contractions were getting more intense but not very close together. we spent a few hours walking the halls and i could not believe we were doing that b/c labor with wes came on so suddenly, i pictured this labor being a really fast one!

at about 3 a.m. my midwife checked me (i was 5 cm and 90% effaced) and did a few other natural things to get labor moving faster. i was READY and the waiting was really hard for me. the contractions started to come on stronger and i started to get more focussed.

by 6 a.m. i was quiet and concentrating through each contraction, and by 7 i was unable to get through a contraction without counter-pressure on my lower back. i could tell the baby was moving down and i knew i was fully dilated. at this point, the midwives and nurses switched shifts so i got a fresh new team. the midwife was AWESOME and my nurse had actually just a vbac in the past year so the energy was just what i needed to get mentally prepared to do the most important (physical) work i had ever done.

after i was checked (and i was right: 10 cm and fully effaced and feeling the major urge to push!) my midwife could tell that the baby's position was not as bad as wesley's was, but she wasn't in an ideal position. for that reason, they got the squat bar out and i followed my contractions, letting my body instruct me in what needed to be done. the coaching during pushing was awesome from andy, midwife and nurse.

i have never worked this hard before! it was a beautiful labor of love and i was happy that it lasted no more than 30 minutes this time :) tatem june was born on 1/26/11 at 8:17 a.m. (7 lbs 6 oz) and it was the most surreal moment of mine and andy's lives. we both couldn't believe it. here she was! on my chest! we had done it!

the next two hours were total bliss. holding tatem, recounting the details from the past few hours and enjoying being totally lucid after labor. so much thought, prayer and preparation had gone into this moment and i am grateful beyond words to have been able to experience it.

we have been on cloud 9 since then too - we are home now and enjoying the crazy life with a toddler and newborn. i am sore and tired and feel like there is not one moment to myself... but above all, i am grateful.

happy BIRTHday, tatem june oranen!

welcome to the world, tatem june!

2011-01-27T14:39:00.000-08:00

she is here! tatem june came after a wonderful labor and successful vbac delivery at 8:17 a.m. on january 26, 2011. we are so very grateful for such a beautiful experience, a smooth delivery and a healthy baby girl. i'll post more about the birth story and pictures later... but for now here's our first pic as a family of four :)

welcome to the team, tatem... we love you SO MUCH already!

busy waiting

2011-01-23T18:48:00.000-08:00

we have had a packed weekend with mimi and uki in town and me attending two of my friends' baby showers! i am staying busy busy and going on lots of walks... no baby yet!

wes thoroughly enjoyed having mimi and uki visit... he and uki spent lots of time fishing. uki has a fishing boat that he is excited to share with wes next summer - in the meantime, they practiced on this cloth/velcro set wes got from his great aunt linda :)

i only had my camera at one of the showers this weekend. this is my dear friend kathy from nike... she looks amazing and is ALSO having a little girl. can't wait to meet this little beauty! my little girl has so many baby friends already ;)

in our few moments alone as a family this weekend, we made sure to go on plenty of walks and spend plenty of time being cozy...

love this picture of my 3 boys watching football

i have my 39 week appointment tomorrow. i still cannot believe she could come any day now! until then, we will just be busy waiting. i'm grateful that the weather report for the week is sunny and cold - my favorite... more walks and park visits!

weekend

2011-01-17T20:09:00.000-08:00

i spent saturday co-hosting a wonderfully FUN shower for this beautiful mama-to-be... soooo excited that our girls will be so close in age!!

...and all day sunday was spent laying low in sweats with my boys. it was such a needed time for us 3 and i loved every minute of it.

the rain has been non-stop these days, but has cleared up most of the evenings so we've been going on "moon-walks" as we call them... strolls around the 'hood in the dark with wes and ruben before bedtime. we miss getting fresh air so much these days that these moonwalks are really rejuvenating for all of us!

here's to soaking up every simple minute before the BIG CHANGE comes :)

family of three

2011-01-10T13:20:00.000-08:00

we took our last little vacation this weekend as a family of three to cannon beach. my favorite little place in the world, full of memories of my own childhood, memories as a newlywed with andy, and new memories with our little (growing) family. wes has been to cannon beach several times, but it seemed that this time it really clicked to him how special this place is. we had so much fun mosying around the town from our pizza place to the candy shop, toy store, beach, ice cream, etc. we also spent lots of time talking about how this is the last time we will ________ (fill in the blank) with just wesley. it's a bittersweet feeling - we are so excited about the next stage as a family of 4, but mourning a bit the loss of our life with just one kid. our ratio being 2:1 for just a few more weeks feels a bit scary! overall, we know it'll be a great change and we are excited!

we lucked out with great weather - clouds, sun, rain, hail and snow... a perfect pnw weekend!

wes enjoyed the trains at the toy store... it was difficult peeling him away from his make-believe story he had woven himself into in the matter of minutes... something about the trains driving to the hospital to get more gas (????)

...and the candy store was a big hit as well (OBVIOUSLY.)

wes LOVED his little bunk room where we stayed... he talked non-stop about a party he was throwing in there and he kept going in and shutting the door, only to open it seconds later to bring us some (pretend) strawberry cupcakes. who needs books/tv/movies when you have a creative 2.5 yr old to entertain you?!

speaking of creative play, i snapped this shot of one of wesley's very dramatic rants between his delivery truck and jet. he spent an hour or so saying "oh nooooo! i'm not crashing! you are crashing! nooooo! owww! this is quite a craaaaaash!!!" love listening to him.

we don't go anywhere w/o these little guys... as you can imagine, they keep wes busy for quite sometime while we all enjoy dinner out!

seeing my boy loving this beach makes me so happy :)

family of 3.5 ... for a couple more weeks!

we are home now and getting last minute things done before the baby arrives. we got the infant carseat installed too - THAT was strange. i have 2 carseats in the back of my car... WHAT?!

happy monday to you!

36 weeks

2011-01-05T14:11:00.000-08:00

ahhhh, pregnancy. my dear dear friend pregnancy. i'm being sarcastic, of course. :) i am officially 9 months pregnant! i can't complain b/c pregnancy has, overall, been very nice to me. HOWEVER, it's starting to become hard to do even the most menial of tasks with a toddler and i'm really starting to feel ready to meet this baby girl and to get my body back!!

my dear friend, koren, came over yesterday to take some maternity pics of me. i really wanted to document this pregnancy and was so grateful she was happy to do it. she just picked up a new camera a couple months ago and has taught herself how to work it so well already. she just started a little biz and has a new blog - here's the link. thank you koren for capturing some pics of my girth ;)

a few notes about life here at 36 weeks pregnant...

-the nesting energy has totally kicked in... i cannot relax for very long w/o popping up to do something that could definitely wait, but in my mind it has to be done RIGHT.NOW. andy finds this funny and a little annoying i'm sure but he's been a great sport. i'm keeping him very busy :)

-at 4 a.m. the other morning my eyes popped open and i realized i hadn't even thought to buy newborn diapers yet! i could not fall back asleep for the rest of the morning b/c that got me on a whole new train of thought of anything else i needed to buy... needless to say, my excitement was a little over-the-top when diapers.com delivered my diapers, paci's, lotion and other stuff yesterday. (why am i so excited about diapers? it's not like it's my first baby!!!)

-this baby moves about a million times more than wesley did. she is in CONSTANT motion. should i be scared?!

-we haven't decided on a name yet but probably won't until we meet this little girl. we have about 4 faves, so we'll see what she looks like when we meet her :)

-shoes have become a dilemma. when i was this pregnant with wes, it was warm enough for flip-flops. it's 30 degrees these days and all i want to wear is my uggs, but they are hard to put on... most of my "slip-ons" are heels... if you see me around town wearing yoga pants and slippers, don't judge me!

-one of my only real anxieties around when i will go into labor is the logistics of who will be here to take care of wesley, what time of day it will be, etc. this is something that keeps me up at night!

-my braxton hicks contractions continue to come on stronger, some taking my breath away for a bit. nothing painful, just intense. this is good practice for labor!!!

-we are starting to make bets on the day this girl will come... my official due date is 2/2... any guesses? if you guess right, you will get a prize :)

-oh, and how is it possible i can love this new baby as much as i love this boy?!

xoxo, mama rin

happy new year

2011-01-01T21:37:00.000-08:00

beautiful weekend to celebrate a beautiful year

so much to thank god for

grateful for eachother, family, friends... and a new baby coming soon

looking forward to a beautiful, simple, challenging, unifying (andmuchmore) 2011

holly jolly christmas

2010-12-27T13:24:00.000-08:00

making a gingerbread train w/ mimi and daddy

we did have a holly jolly christmas, indeed! we are home now from a quick 3-4 day jaunt to spokane to spend the holiday with family. it was a wonderful time filled with games, food, laughter and lots of playtime with wes. this is the first christmas that wesley has kind of "gotten it" as far as christmas traditions go, and he LOVED every minute of it.

opening a present on christmas eve morning :)

A BULLDOZER!

uncle danny helping wes open gifts

uncle tim & aunt sam showing wes how to work his toys

more presies at nana & papa's house

papa hand made this stove for wes... it is THE COOLEST
(and wes has whipped up some yummy meals in it already)

i had a little scare last wednesday (some bleeding and intense contractions 2 days in a row) and had to go into labor&delivery at the hospital so they could check me. they were worried i was in pre-term labor - eek! i was especially worried b/c andy and wes were already in spokane (they drove a day early and i flew on thursday to avoid the long drive) so i reeeeally didn't want to be stuck in portland while the rest of my family celebrated christmas in spokane! thankfully, all was fine and i was sent home a few hours later with strict orders to SLOW DOWN so this baby can keep cooking at least another few weeks. for those of you who know me, "relaxing" is not something i am good at---especially with a busy toddler and a huge to-do list! anyway, here's me at 34.5 weeks... merry christmas baby girl! hard to believe you will be almost 1 next christmas!!

34.5 weeks

heading out to the snow w/ papa

"this is a fun fast ride!" :)

we are happy to be home now - laundry is washed, folded and put away and we are spending lots of time playing on the floor with wesley's new toys. we have much to be thankful for and i love that this season always reminds of us those things. as always, my family and friends top my list. love to you all.

happy holidays from the o's!

zoo lights & mud puddles

2010-12-19T13:16:00.000-08:00

we have been having so much fun this winter - seeing christmas through the eyes of a 2.5 year old! we met up with some of our mom's group friends at zoo lights the other evening. the only night that worked for (most of) us was friday night. it was unseasonably dry AND it was the friday before christmas, so we knew we were in for a chaotic time with the traffic, crowds and cold wind. but we still had a great time and are so glad we went!

andy, wes and i had a little picnic in our car in the busy zoo parking lot and then bundled up and braved the cold and crowds. we got hot chocolate and popcorn and met up w/ our friends. the lights were amazing, as always, and the kids loved it!

the group of us... this is the best we could get, but with 8 adults, 4 toddlers and 1 baby, my standards weren't very high anyway :)

we missed a few families in our mom's group who couldn't make it but look forward to our playgroup christmas party this week!

andy had to leave town on a short trip this weekend and wes, ruben and i needed some fresh air. so we went to the field this morning b/c it was beautiful, cold and sunny. the sight of us walking across the icy foot-bridge was comedic, i am sure... me, 8+ months pregnant, holding the leash with one hand w/ a CRAZY dog on the end pulling like crazy and wes on the other hand while he slid all around in his rain boots on the slippery bridge happily yelling "weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!" once we got to the field, i realized it was one huge mud pit and wes and ruben had so much fun splashing, playing and rolling aroud. wes kept squealing and saying "this is fun in here! mom, this is SO fun in here!"

the trip back to the car was probably an even funnier sight as we were all covered in mud and still slip-sliding along on the bridge. wesley's pj's were completely soaked and dripping with mud. thankfully, andy was home in time to give ruben a full bath (he was THAT muddy) while i showered wes off and we all got cozy by the fire.

...lots of work but the fresh air was so worth it!

looking forward to a week of fun with family and friends as we celebrate christmas.... until next time: happy holidays to you from the o's!

loving the stage

2010-12-17T11:53:00.000-08:00

wesley had his first school christmas program last night. IT WAS ADORABLE. andy and i couldn't believe how sweet it was and how fun it was to watch wes and all his small friends do all the motions and words to these songs and bible verses.... oh, and he grabbed his crotch about 20x up there too (see pic below)... classy.

we were so proud of him!

some special pics of wes loving the stage! :)

...aaaand he's all boy.......

proud momma and her big boy!

baby shower

2010-12-08T15:32:00.000-08:00

my sister, ingrid, and friends britt and erin threw me the most wonderful baby shower on sunday. it was so fun to have so many of my friends all together and celebrating this little girl. what a different world it will be dressing a GIRL! the accessories, leggings, ruffles and bows!

i wasn't in charge of the camera so i don't have pics of everybody but here are a few. thank you ingrid, britt and erin for all you did; and to all my friends - i am a lucky girl to have such wonderful women in my life! THANK YOU for making this such a special time!

xx- erin

nesting part II

2010-12-05T21:31:00.000-08:00

we got our tree this weekend! all this nesting energy is going to good use getting the house christmasized and getting stuff ready for the baby. we had such a great weekend and wesley is LOVING every second of it. we also set up the dresser for the baby sister... well, we gave wes the new dresser and baby sister will get the hand-me-down white one :) wes has been saying "mommy i LOVE you!" and "daddy, i LOVE you" and "i LOVE my baby sister!" alllll weekend. what a sweet age and what a sweet time of life we are in. i am reminded often these days that this is such a special time in our life and it will pass so quickly. i'm savoring this one-on-one time with wesley, the newness of explaining a new baby to him, the holidays and the overall family time we are getting. i am just feeling really really fulfilled and so grateful.

some pics for you...... :)

the hat and jacket are TOO BIG so that's why you can hardly see his eyes in any of these pics...
but he has his saw, so that is key

searching for a tree

family pic w/ the tree on the roof

wes opening his annual ornament present

a little family dinner...

...and jacob's famous colombian hot chocolate, homemade whip and schnapps (virgin for me - don't worry)

the boys were kept up waaaay past bedtime but watching them play was worth it!

wes playing in his room while we put together the dresser

wes half naked and hammering with daddy

i was thrown a wonderfully fun baby shower today as well and got to see so many people who are dear to me - what a FUN weekend. more pics from the shower to come!

xx-erin

boys

2010-12-02T13:55:00.000-08:00

wes and i got to watch baby redd the other day and i just had to get my camera and capture some of their adorable-ness. we kept it informal by staying in our pj's all morning and playing with toys. watching them play together is SO fun... and it doesn't hurt that they are both reeeeeeally cute.

nesting

2010-12-02T13:47:00.000-08:00

i am now 31 weeks with only 8-9 weeks to go. i cannot believe it! i have been nesting like crazy... which has actually been a welcomed change since i have been pretty unorganized since i had wesley 2.5 years ago! we took on the major feat of cleaning out our garage a few weekends ago... we unpacked and re-packed every single box into labeled bins. we threw a bunch of stuff out and now everything has a place. i cannot explain in words HOW HAPPY THIS MAKES ME! it's something i've wanted to do for years and we finally did it and we did it the right way so we (hopefully) won't have to do it again for a long time. i tell andy all the time: "go ahead! name any object you can think of and i can tell you exactly where it goes in our garage!!"... and he just looks at me like i'm crazy. and i kind of am. we also cleaned out and reorganized our freezers and the junk drawer this past weekend. check and check!

since we are still in our rental and not sure how long it'll be before we find a home we like enough to buy, we aren't really doing a whole nursery... so most of my nesting energy is going towards organizing, cooking, baking, crafting with wes and other wonderful things. thank you, pregnancy, for giving me the crazy NEED to get these things done! :)

i am having tons of braxton hicks contractions; some that even slow me down now; but overall i'm feeling great. being up and down on the floor with wes while playing or helping him go potty have been getting a little more cumbersome. the baby is about 4 lbs now and wes was 8 lbs 12 oz (GULP) so i really don't know where the other 4-ish lbs of this baby are going to go. it seems her space is already very limited....

i am being careful to not wish the pregnancy away, even despite the discomforts. it may be the last time i am on this crazy journey of growing a baby inside of me, and i am really loving all the kicks and movement. the anticipation of wondering what she will look like, what her temperment will be, etc is so fun. we are having so much fun with wesley and can't believe we are going to get another little life to care for in the very near future!

give thanks

2010-11-26T15:06:00.000-08:00

wes wearing his indian hat he made at school :)

what a wonderful thanksgiving we had this year. we were lucky to have my parents here for the feast, as well as most of my siblings. we missed you kyah and dustin!!! wes spent the majority of wednesday and thursday in his pj's being loved on by papa and nana. he and redd are starting to really play together which is SO ADORABLE! wes is having to learn to share with redd... not always easy but he's getting it down :)

redd watches wes constantly and learns how to "play"

so much to be thankful for. top of my long list of thanks is for my happy toddler boy who is sweet as can be, a bouncing baby girl in my belly and a husband who makes me smile. i am so incredibly grateful for our family and friends who love and support us and make life so much fun.

what a joy this life is!!

daddy and his boy

papa and nana are full of love!

us and our boys

the table

nana and redd

cozy cozy wes and nana

wesley realizing that papa can build ANYTHING :)

hope you all had a lovely holiday! now, on to CHRISTMAS!!! :)

biiiiig booooyyyy!

2010-11-12T12:32:00.000-08:00

dare i say it? i am afraid i might jinx us but i think we have a potty-trained boy on our hands, people! with minimal accidents and a pretty good understanding of the potty, wes has been in underwear all day including naptimes for 3 weeks now. we are still hesitant to swipe the night-time diaper, but that will come.

you know how when you're a new mom you learn quickly that every time you announce that your baby is sleeping through the night, or finally taking a bottle, or fill in the blank, that's when they change it up on you and stop whatever it was you were so excited about?! that is precisely the reason i have been wary about posting our potty success on the blog... but i feel we have been over the hump long enough now to announce it. :)

wes is really proud of his biiiig booooyyy underwear and he has really done so well with the whole process. i am sure there will still be accidents and even regressions (when the baby comes perhaps?!), but we are out and about w/ underwear on and loving it!

proud of you wesley jack!

trick-or-treat

2010-11-01T14:35:00.000-07:00

wes has been looking forward to halloween and trick-or-treating for months now. we had so much fun with him this weekend leading up to the big event... the only day in the year when you can knock on peoples' doors and expect candy! :) wes had a case of the stomach flu last week which was really sad and unfortunate, but we were thankful that he was much better by the weekend and could partake in all the fun festivities!

we packed our week and weekend full of fun time w/ friends and family. we had a fun little halloween party with our mom's group friends. love this sweet line-up of the costumed littles. wes was a " 'struction worker"... anytime he told anyone what he was dressing up as, he would follow the answer ('struction worker) with this little story: "i'll put on my work boots. and i'll go outside in the dirt. and i'll FIX my bulldozer." very matter-of-fact. that's obviously what 'struction workers do.

we met up with family in multnomah village at the crazy trick-or-treating fest. it was a bit too crowded for our taste so we just enjoyed the kids in their costumes at starbucks, got some candy and moved on. look at these sweet cousins... redd is wearing the little bear outfit wes wore a couple years ago. i can't believe wesley ever fit in that little thing! chances are, baby girl oranen will be wearing it next halloween :)

these two were hard to photograph on this day... wes was overtired, redd was trying to eat the pumpkin bucket and there were about 3 trillion people in the store so these are the best i could get. still, you can't really take bad pics of cute boys!

then we were off to our old neighborhood to have dinner and trick-or-treating with some friends and wesley's older girlfriend, violet. violet is almost 8 and we met her when she was just wesley's age... it is so fun to watch these two interact. wesley is enamored by everything she does, and i believe the love is mutual b/c she just loves on wes so much. it is adorable.

i can't believe thanksgiving is just around the corner now! hope you all are enjoying your halloween candy... i know i am! ;)

potty and pumpkins

2010-10-26T14:20:00.000-07:00

we were home alllll weekend with a potty training wes :) potty training is one of the most frustrating and gratifying things i've EVER done. as my friend lauren said, "potty training is NOT for the faint of heart!"... i agree. but i'm thankful it's going well so far and we did have a great weekend lounging around the house. we cooked, baked and carved pumpkins. it was actually really nice to be forced to stay home all weekend. we should do it more often! we did go do a friends' house for dinner one night and ran a few errands, but most of the weekend was spent playing make-believe with wes, eating yummy food and reminding him to "tell mommy/daddy if you have to go potty!" that saying actually makes me want to puke every time i say it now b/c i say it A BILLION TIMES A DAY.

anyway, on with some pics. look how cute and proud he is in his big boy underwear!!!

let the halloween festivities begin! we have a few halloween parties this week and then trick-or-treating with friends on sunday... wes is S-T-O-K-E-D!!!

more pics to come :)

pretend

2010-10-21T13:31:00.000-07:00

i say this at every new age wes enters, but this is for sure my favorite age so far! wes has really gotten into pretend play lately and it is so fascinating to watch and listen to! his favorite way to spend his time these days is to find any 2 of his cars/trucks/fire engines/rescue vehicles and carry on a dialogue between them.

overheard just yesterday were these gems... i just had to post them so i wouldn't forget the adorable things that come out of this boy's mouth!

"no, fire engine, don't touch those wheels. GOOD listening, fire engine!"

"don't worry, police car, it's a loud siren but it's a friendly siren..."

"it's not the dump truck's turn. it's the police car's turn. ok! now it's your turn, dump truck!"

"now you get a sucker, race car, because you took a very good haircut!" (note: he calls 'getting a haircut' 'TAKING a haircut')

"bye-bye, bulldozer! see you next later!"

many times, when he's thinking up a story for his automobiles to reenact, he stares out the window to sort through his words.

and sometimes the cars crash, in which he makes this motion and then encourages them to "get up and try again"....

oh how i love this age.. talking with wes is such fun these days!

update on my pregnancy... i'm feeling good overall, aside from a little light-headedness that probably comes from caring for a toddler and running around a lot! my cravings CONTINUE to be thai food and cupcakes. not really the combination, but those two things usually always sound good :) since i obviously don't indulge in thai food and/or cupcakes on a daily basis, there is a lot of forcing myself to eat b/c not much else sounds great. the other day i was craving a good IPA and a big slice of chocolate cake.... like, for DINNER. i didn't cave, but i will be so happy when i actually start enjoying normal food again! :)

here's me at 25 weeks... only a couple more weeks in my 2nd trimester and then the countdown is ON!

see you next later!

sun river weekend

2010-10-18T12:37:00.001-07:00

we spent a not-long-enough weekend in sun river with some of our good friends, the domingo's. the weekend was filled with PERFECT weather, bike rides, great conversation, amazing home-cooked food, ice cream, trips to the park, watching our kids play, early bedtimes for kids and late night conversation for adults, games, movies, baking, cooking, jammied kids watching cartoons in the mornings, and the list goes on....!

we had good intentions of getting a pic of all of us together, but it didn't happen. this will have to do :)

thanks john/britt/olivia for such a fun weekend!