November

November flew by! We've been a busy bunch... here's what we've been up to:

November can't go by without making the most delicious pumpkin bread in the world!

Opening night of Twilight! Need I say more?

Tanner the photographer. Tanner HATES getting his picture taken, but loves taking pictures of everyone else. He proudly turns the camera on, puts it up to his eye and says "Cheese". Here are a few of his shots:

This year we spent Thanksgiving in California. We had a blast! There were so many fun pics I had to do a slideshow : )

Poor Little Moose!

Max recently turned one! It's hard to believe that it's already been 1 year since our 10lb 8oz little moose joined our family. Man, I love him!



For some reason birthdays and holidays never seem to go as planned in our family. And for some reason, both my boys were sick with high fevers on their first birthday's. So while trying to sooth a sick, lethargic little boy, we were also trying to sing to him, make him eat a cupcake and open presents. What mean parents! Why do we do this to our poor children!?

One highlight of our weekend was getting to spend time with my niece, Lucy! Lucy's parents went on a trip to Japan and left Lucy with my parents in Seattle. She is such a funny, sweet, adorable little girl. I kept sneaking into her room just so I could look at all her little girl clothes.

Max received many fun presents, but there is one in particular that is worth bragging about. My sister, Jul (Lucy's mom) made this. (See more pics on her blog.) She wrote an adorable little story titled, "The Totally Awesome Sandwich", she designed the fabric, and when it arrived she sewed the book together and embellished the pages with fun textures. My boys love it! If you're interested, she's selling them on etsy. What an "Awesome" present! Thanks sis!

Happy Halloween!

Here are some fun pics we took this week...

Trunk-Or-Treat.


Painting Pumpkins.

Showing off pumpkins.

I was a moose at work. (This is what I come home to everyday... aren't I lucky!)

The purple dragon and the pirate checking out their loot.

This is a quick clip of Tan Trick-Or-Treating in our neighborhood. He held his hook in his left hand and his pumpkin in his right. Since he was tired of waiting for his slow parents and his hands were full, he decided to start knocking all by himself... with his hook. One lady even said after answering the door, "I thought that sounded like a hook". Jer and I thought that was pretty funny. We've never seen Tan so excited. He ran so fast from house to house and his pumpkin kept getting fuller and fuller with candy. After 2 streets it got so heavy that it was throwing off his balance and he started falling over.

It was a "LOOMY" week!

Nana and Papa Aldridge came to visit for a whole week! We all had a great time!

Nana recently learned how to loom hats and has been working on some for a local shelter. While here on her visit she made 7 hats! She also had the patience to teach me how to loom. I'm "hooked"!

Here's my first hat and here's all you need to do it... plus some yarn.


Here's a pic of Nana in her looming chair and a pic of the boys with their new hats from Nana.


Since Max's birthday is right around the corner, they decided to give him a gift early. He loves it. (And so do we... this toy has made us adults laugh a countless number of times. When you hear it, you'll understand!)


Since the weather was GORGEOUS all week and since the leaves are such beautiful, bright colors right now, we tried to go outside as much as possible. I LOVE THE NORTHWEST!

We also went on a little adventure to downtown Portland to a Chocolate store on 23rd Ave called Moonstruck. It was delicious!

We're looking forward to their next visit!

New Family Tradition

You know something is going to be a family tradition when you're already looking forward to reliving the day a year from now!

Grandma Leen and Papa Bob came to visit for the weekend to celebrate Papa Bob's Birthday. On Saturday we decided to go to the local pumpkin patch. What a blast! Who would have thought that one little pumpkin patch would have so many fun activities.

Here's all the stuff we did:

CORN MAZE (Not to brag, but Jer and I completed the maze in 20 minutes... they say it takes the average person 45min-1 hour!)

PONY RIDE (Tanner rode Peanut)


PUMPKIN LAUNCH, PETTING ZOO (The goats name is Billy, and he happens to be the same goat that started eating the sleeve of my sweater when I was so kindly petting his face.)


STRAW PYRAMID, TRACTOR RIDING, CORN CRIB (I left a trail of corn everywhere I went for the whole day.)


HAY RIDE, WE PICKED OUR PUMPKINS, JER WASHED THEM ("This here pumps just fine"... anyone seen "The Pump"?)


Later that day we celebrated Papa Bob's B-Day! Look closely, that there is a delicious chocolate tart (found at Costco) filled with homemade lemon pie filling. Yummmm!

Happy Birthday Dad!

It doesn't get any fresher!

I love working with the youth at church and being a Laurel Advisor! I get to hang out with the coolest girls around and I get to do all the fun things they have planned for mutual night.

Last week we went to a family's house and made fresh apple cider!

First, we picked (and played) in their orchard


Second, we washed


Third, we threw the apples in the apple press


Fourth, we poured


Fifth, we partook


Sixth, I took some home to share with my boys


YUMMMMM!

Grandma Gwen's Visit

This past weekend was full of fun, fun, and more fun!

Since Grandma Gwen was in Seattle, we had to make our way up there! Max had never met her before this weekend and Tanner was just 9 months the last time we saw her. Whenever we're with Grandma it's always a good time. It's pretty much a guarantee that whenever she's around there will be laughing, singing and card playing (mostly NERTS!).

And of course Tanner can't go one day without riding a scooter... so somehow he talked Papa Bob into chasing him!

On Sat. afternoon we went to a Mariner's game. Although they lost over 100 games this season... they won for us! This was such a fun game! The seats were awesome, the boys were great, and the weather was beautiful... 70 degrees in the end of Sept. (weird, but we'll take it!).

We sat in ROW 6 and our seats came with WARNING labels!

Max also decided to start walking on Saturday. He had walked a few steps here and there, but all of a sudden it was 5 steps here, 6 steps there!

He doesn't say much, but he sure can skateboard!

I've already blogged about our little skater dude, but believe it or not he's getting better! He watches the neighborhood kids and tries to copy them. See here for his skateboarding last winter. Like I said before, he has been skateboarding since he was 13 months old. He used to skate on toys or books, but now has moved onto the real thing. We now call him Tanner Hawk.

You know you’re obsessed when…

1. The Twilight Saga takes up so much of your free time it’s all you can think about and therefore you find yourself blogging about it.

2. You want to buy a t-shirt that says:

"I poured glitter on my husband so he would sparkle"

but you know your husband won’t be caught dead in public with you wearing it.

3. You talk your husband into reading the whole Twilight Saga (including Midnight Sun’s 12 Chapters) just so you can have someone at home to discuss every chapter with.

4. You get personally offended when your husband rips on Edward or Bella.

5. You get excited when your baby gets his sharp corner teeth before his front teeth.

6. You look forward to going to work just so you can talk to coworkers about Edward and Bella and Jacob and Alice and Jasper and Rosalie and Emmett and Carlisle and Esme… you get the point.

7. You put a Twilight Movie Countdown on your blog.

8. You go into withdrawls after you've finished reading the Saga and desperately want to start reading Twilight again, but you can't since you've loaned it out.

9. Your husband is desperate for whites so he starts a load of laundry himself.

Okay, so I started writing this thinking it would be funny, but as I reread it, it’s just embarrassing! I think I need help!

How To...

My brother-in-law, Matt recently had to give a "How to" report.... his was on "How to procrastinate" funny huh! This brought back memories of all the "How to" reports I've given throughout my life, my favorite one being in 3rd grade on "How to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich". Anywho, Matt took great notes on one of the other presentations and was able to share his new knowledge with his wife who shared it with me... and now we're addicted! Thanks guys!

Here's all you need:

• Peanut Butter
• Ritz Crackers
• Almond Bark
• A toddler who loves to push buttons on the microwave, who loves to make messes, and who loves chocolate

All you do is make a mini PB sandwich with 2 crackers (be sure to load on the PB). Melt the chocolate and dip the mini sandwiches until well coated. Put on wax paper.



ENJOY!