It has come to my attention

Recently a friend of mine asked why I hadn't posted anything lately.  I had two thoughts:  1.  Someone actually still reads this?  and 2. Oh, hot dang, it has been awhile!  (ummm... two months... oops).

You know the whole reason I started this blog was to brag about and keep track of my insanely cute new son, Olaf :)  And I really had so much fun with it!  And then with poor #2 and less available time it just sort of dropped off.  Which is a bit of a bummer, because the best part of writing it is the ability to look back and see what we were doing, what we looked like, kids' milestones, fun photos...  Seriously, I love looking back at it.  And I have missed a lot of things that would have been fun to look back on I am sure.

All that to say...  I am still busy.  But I am going to put some photos up now that I can look back on in a few years and say, look how cute and little they were!  And look how random I was in posting them!

a little family photo on a visit to Steve while he was working up north

Olaf has learned many things in kindergarten.  Notably one of the best -- how to traverse monkey bars :)

Our first time on quads.  We like to teach the redneck part of our lives at a young age.

Look, Daddy bought us glow in the dark bat masks for our dance party!

Olaf and I stomped the yard and ye ol' Church square dance out at Stonewater Ranch. 

A typical fall Saturday afternoon of helping daddy with chores.

I ran another half marathon this year with a new group of ladies.  This is my friend Katie.  She's a keeper.  Let's all hope she moves to Leavenworth :)  (hint hint Katie)

Post race exhausted-ness.

I built Olaf a "fort" in the tree out front consisting of about  boards nailed up.  He LOVED it.

He still loves it.  However Steve has added numerous amazing features that only daddy's can do.  Like a platform WAY higher than any mom would ever allow.

Cuties at our school pumpkin carving night.

CHEESE!

Cutie cousins Olaf, Ingrid, Trygve

More of those 3 cutie cousins, catching the first flakes of winter while waiting for the bus.

So that takes us up to about... November 1st?  Ha ha.  Then we went to Florida.  I keep waiting for Steve to finish his sweet little video so I can post it on here... really I should just post a bunch of photos because who knows if the video will ever be finished :)  But it's late for this momma and I am heading to bed, so Florida vacation photos will have to wait!

first day of snow play

It has been just gorgeous here with the snow!  Cold, yes.  Slow driving, yes.  But super beautiful. 

Olaf was really excited for the weekend because he knew we'd get to go outside to play in the snow.  So yesterday we got them all bundled up and went for a little walk into the woods, picked out our Christmas tree (didn't cut it down yet, just found it), and did some sledding.  Olaf has finally gotten a little tougher, and actually walked most of the way himself instead of crying to be carried.  Bonus!  Awesome!  Forest was content to babbled while on my back.

We all came back rosy cheeked and ready to warm up by the fire that Steve had started.  COZY.  Just in time for naps :)

The boys seem to be growing up so quickly.  It's crazy how Forest went from baby to toddler in like 2 months I swear.  He doesn't talked a lot yet, mostly just babbling.  But we can make out what he means for ball (ba), bottle (baba), binky (baba), blanky (baba)... ha ha, do you see a trend?  Usually it's accompanied by a pointing finger.  Well there's also "go", "up", "dada" and "mama" and I think he says thank you sometimes "tay-oo" and olaf "o-ah".  Who knows though really :)  We just love that he's trying to communicate.   He loves walking, playing cars, putting little people in cars and taking them back out, throwing balls, terrorizing the dogs, blowing raspberries, chasing people and climbing stairs.  Ah and DANCING like a maniac.  Love it. 

I want to send lots of love to Grandma Riley in Oak Harbor today -- hope you are feeling good today!  The boys are all sending you lots of hugs and kisses!

Cousins

Having fun climbing all over at the Moonlight Music Festival in Plain last night.









This little Plain concert morphs just a bit for me each year. It used to be Steve and I could enjoy the music, talk to all our friends and neighbors, and then ride our bikes home in the dark. Even with baby Olaf we were able to do this and just pull him along. It gets a bit harder to do each year. This year Steve was gone. And while there were many lovely family and community members to keep an eye on my children, it is MUCH harder to relax and enjoy. So we didn't stay too long.

Luckily I don't have FOMS (fear of missing something) so I wasn't too disappointed to leave early to put boys to bed. I have discovered that I have a much better time relaxing at home than wrangling two whiny babes just so I can talk to people for a few more minutes! I am looking forward to the day, though, when we can let the boys run a little free-er. But blessed to live in a place where until then, I have lots of helpers!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone. That's right, I an totally technologically hip and with it.

Sunny Saturday

Finally some decent weather in Plain! Oly informed me at 6:45am that it was most certainly "hot" outside and that wading pool time was needed. So, with the addition of some cold irrigation water plus some hot water from the house, we had the perfect temp at approximately 9:30am. Forest and I watched while the crazy boy splashed!

























P.S. I don't know why these were all a bit fuzz-tastic...  maybe I had a tad of water on the lense of my phone?  I don't know.  Ah well.  You get the picture.  Ha ha.  No pun intended.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone. That's right, I an totally technologically hip and with it.

the chickens will thank me someday

Well, I just shot (at/near) my first coyote on the property.  Usually this is Steve's job, but since he's been gone I swear they are getting brave.  The dogs always bark bark bark at them but the lone cayotes just cruise along the tree line, and previously I couldn't bring myself to pick up the shotgun and scare them off.  Though I have been tempted, multiple times... 

However, today the dogs barked and ran at the coyote and it hightailed off into the trees.  Phew.  Except when my two came back to the house, the coyote bounded after them like it was a game, stopping about halfway between the tree line and house.  I'm sorry but that is WAY TOO CLOSE for me.  I don't want them to even think they can be friendly with us, or the dogs, or cat.

So I loaded up a shotgun shell, went out on the back porch and fired about 50' to the left of him.  (I had no intention of hurting him, just wanted to scare him). And BOY howdy did he run for the hills.  Mission accomplished.  And I was all shaky...  Hope I don't have to do that again soon - not a huge fan of using the shotgun when Steve's not home!  Although it's intended purpose is for scaring off wild animals and intruders, so I guess I used it correctly for that.  Just one shell.  And the chickens will thank me one day.  (when we get them)

Anyway, that's my excitement for the afternoon.

merry happy day after Christmas

From the cutest boys (in their matching jammies) on the block.... merry happy day after Christmas!

Yesterday was fun!  Crazy, but fun.  12 adults and 7 children under 4... obviously a little nutty in our little 1400 square foot home.  There may have been more than one fight over Lightning McQueen (even though there are 4 different ones) or a fight over monster trucks (though there are well over 7 different ones)... or too many cooks in the kitchen at one time.  But overall the food was delicious, the company was wonderful, and we celebrated the birth of Jesus with a gusto.  We sure feel blessed.

First snow day play

Nov. 20th was our first day of snow here in Plain.  So we headed out to do what is most fun - sledding!  There wasn't a ton of snow so the sledding mostly meant I pulled everyone around.  And let me tell you - our three Saugen cousins are NOT light!  I think Micah weighs more than his older sister, and Olaf is close behind :)  Luckily with both Christie and I we managed to pull them up the hill.

Olaf looks totally prepared, right?  Nope....  his boots from last year don't fit and I haven't found him any yet for this year so he's wearing skater shoes.  Also those mittens he's wearing -- we already lost one so now he's down to socks on his hands!  I looked for cheapos at WallyWorld yesterday but no love.  No mittens, no snow boots.  Poor kid will just have to wait until I can get out to shop again!

Yum!  We all shared a thermos of hot cocoa when we were all done.

saturday in the country

Steve split and stacked wood.
All day.

So me and the boys did some other things to occupy ourselves.
We walked to the hardware store from the bridge. 
Actually Olaf, Serenity, and Micah rode their little run bikes while Christie, Donna, myself and my mom walked behind them, carrying the little babies.  And on the way back Olaf had to be carried too because apparently his endurance isn't that of his cousins :)  But we all had a good time out in the rain, even Forest and Kyler who both (blessedly) slept the whole time.

After lunch somehow both the boys ended up sleeping at the same time - yeah!  So I made applesauce, as shown below.

Does anyone else ever use these apple peeler/corer/slicer doodads?  They are AMAZING.  I want one, badly.  This one is my mothers.  I borrow it sometimes in the fall because it makes anything with large quantities of apples so much easier.  I swear we'd eat more apple pies if I had one.  (Hint hint mom, Sue.... Christmas... just sayin')

Nevermind the particle board countertop... we'll get our concrete one installed one of these days...

Since Wenatchee calls themselves the "Apple Capital of the World", we always have lots of places to get apples in the fall during harvest time.  They used to export more apples than any other place in the world, and do hold the world record for largest apple pie ever baked, but I think Japan is beating them in apple exports now.  That's okay with me.  There are still PLENTY of apples to go around.  Not to mention pears and cherries.

My applesauce recipe is this:  Put all cut up apples in a pot with some water to keep it from burning.  Bring to boil.  Turn down to simmer for like 1/2 hour, stirring every 5 minutes or so.  Put in the blender and pulse a few times until smoother.  Voila!  I don't add any sugar.  These apples were Fujis from Mom and Dad's tree, so they were already pretty sweet.

I just love making things to eat to put in the freezer.  This is my third batch made!  Although batch 2 didn't count because I sort of forgot I was making it, and burned it to the pan so badly it took steel wool, hours of scrubbing, and my sister in law's mom Donna to get it all off the pan.  Needless to say that batch didn't quite work out.  I am just thankful our precious All-Clad cookware survived.  I can't afford it again without a wedding registry.

Fire in the fireplace was nice too.

All in all a good day.

Hello and happy June!  Good gracious, can't believe it's practically July already...  We are having a nice weekend.  Steve is home, and though we are busy and people drop by the house and are in and out, it's just so nice to have the 3 of us here this weekend.  We got tons of work done around the property too - mowing, weeding, watering, planting etc.  A snapshot of our day today:

Swimming lessons!  We had a great time with Oly in the pool.

It started off nice and quiet until daddy told Olaf to squirt me.  He has lethal aim as you can see!

A tree climber in the making?

Or perhaps just a tree hugger?  It is Leavenworth after all :)

33 weeks along.  Good night that tummy is getting BIG.  Luckily my face and arms haven't followed suite yet.

bonFIRE 2010

Every year we have a bonfire at our house.  This years was... shall we say... HUGE?  Combining our construction project, brother Dave's projects, and 2 friend's home improvement projects, that was a lot of 2x4 scraps.  And then there were all the trees that were limbed and/or cut down.  Seriously.  Huge.  Fire.

And this year, for the first time ever, the fire department got toned out for it!  Steve had actually called them ahead of time to let them know we'd be burning, but of course they still had to come out and confirm that it was a bonfire (NOT a structure fire as it had been reported), and that it was not going to burn down the neighborhood.  I took photographs which didn't turn out well, but still kind of show the flashing lights (See below).  Had to show that they were actually here you know.   Of course we didn't get the engine, just the command truck.  The nice thing was, we had forwarning since Steve had his pager on.  Another nice thing was that they arrived in about 5 minutes.  Not bad for a rural fire department!  I admit, I was slightly apprehensive/embarrassed at first until the firemen showed up and stayed and chatted for awhile and were laughing and talking away, enjoying the burn.  There were random cars that would stop on the road and just stare for like 5 minutes.  What can you do - they may have just been jealous to not get invited :)  Probably the biggest excitement Plain has seen in awhile.  No seriously. 

 Flashing lights on the command rig, oh yeah :)  Bonfire to the back left.

Was a good time had by all.  Being preggo I couldn't enjoy the keg of libations (aka Vitamin R, aka Rainier Beer) but I did enjoy talking to my friends and enjoying their company.  Stayed up WAY too late (like 11:30, whoa!).  Steve was up much later making sure that it burned alright with no flare ups.  And it did just fine.  He was back out there today piling the remnants into a smaller fire where it will likely smolder for the rest of the week.

Anyway.  Fun times.