Lou Lou Turns 5!

Emma has been asking to go camping for her birthday for 3 years in a row. We've had to explain to her that camping in Portland in March would really not be that fun. But since it was the "family party" year, we decided that we could camp at home. We made a "camping" cake (scene), a paper campfire and even pulled out the girls beach tents for sleeping. Justin and I slept out "under the stars". It was so much fun and Emma was thrilled. After hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner, we "roasted" marshmallows, ate cake and ice cream and then watched Planet Earth in the tents. It was a great birthday Emma - we love you!

The Cake - Justin took the scrap cake pieces and constructed the hill, complete with edible grass, gummy centipedes and spiders.

Getting ready for bed . . . 

It looks like they really think they'll roast if they hold them there long enough.

Emma made that hat herself, just in case anyone didn't know it was her birthday!

Itzhak Perlman

For Valentine's Day Justin gave me (us) tickets to see Itzhak Perlman with the Oregon Symphony. It was just this last Monday. Oh my goodness, it was so fun. I love the symphony anyway and to see Itzhak Perlman in person was amazing. We had a great time - thanks honey, you are a great date! 

Here's a little ear candy for you:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dggfA9Vo64U

Nostalgia . . .

Every once in a while I am hit with a major case of nostalgia. We love Portland, we are totally happy here. But we miss San Francisco too and when I think about it sometimes I get kind of melancholy. It was such a good time in our lives. The city was amazing and we feel so lucky to have lived there and experienced all we did during our 4 years there. I know we will feel the same way when we leave Portland. I was just going through some pictures and found a few of our favorite things about SF. 

Tidepooling - We absolutely LOVED going tidepooling. We can't wait to do it here at the Oregon coast. It was the girls very favorite thing to do and we went as often as we could (it didn't hurt that it was only about 20 minutes from our house and it was free!)

The Marin Headlands - right across the Golden Gate, about 10 minutes from our house. We loved to come out here and have picnics and enjoy the view of the bay. It was a perfect Sunday drive destination and we probably did it at least a few times a month.

The Palace of Fine Arts - This is my favorite place in SF. I love the architecture, it is so beautiful. It was my favorite place to go and walk around with Justin and the kids. I spent a lot of time there while we were in SF.

Alamo Square - Full House - what else can I say?

THE RAT!

I'm sure that some of you can relate to this. I have a husband that thinks he's pretty funny. I will admit it, I am a super jumpy person. I get startled so easily and most of the time it just takes Justin walking in the door from work to scare me. Well, about Halloween time Justin found a new way to scare me to death. The rat. I've honestly never seen anything uglier. I don't know where he found it but one day it showed up under the sink and when I went to get the dishwasher detergent, I very nearly had a heart attack. I should have thrown it out while I could. Since then the girls have grown attached to the rat. They won't let me throw it away and I don't have the heart to do it when they aren't looking although I know I should because . . . the rat keeps rearing it's ugly head at times when I least expect it and most of the time now, it's the girls that are the instigators. Everyone is against me!

My Amazing Mom!

I just have to brag about my mom for a minute. I can't say enough about how wonderful I think she is. She is smart, talented, a wonderful mom and grandma. She is also super-crafty in all things. Something I aspire to but never seem to get the hang of. This Christmas she went crazy making gifts for everyone and we LOVE all of the things she made. I just had to show off a few of them. These matching aprons she made for the girls and me have made me so happy. I've never felt so cute while cooking and the girls are really motivated now to help out in the kitchen, which is good and bad :)

Here are the darling cupcake outfits she made for the girls. They love them and would wear them every day if I would let them. Thanks Grandma, we love it all!

Related?

I have been looking at pictures of the girls when they were babies and I'm thinking our kids are all related, whadya think?

Davis 4 months

Emma 2 months

Emma 2 months

Abby 2 months

Abby 2 months

I can't believe they were ever this little!

It goes on and on!

Yesterday . . . 

Justin was telling the girls all about Helen Keller (you know, he's really into eyes these days). So he gets done explaining all it and Abby says:

"I wish Jesus would have been there to, like, put some mud on her eyes or something."

Riding in the car to the zoo on Saturday:

"Mom, don't you just love those days when you're with your whole family, the sun is shining and everything just feels fresh and new and happy?" I sure do!

A few more Abby quotes!

I'm sorry, she just cracks me up. These are my favorite from today. 

 - "Mom thanks so much for the popsicle, you are the best mommy ever. I mean, where did you even get these, they're not even in season."

- (conversation with Justin after getting his hair cut) 

Justin to Lanie: "The problem isn't the hair cut, it's the receding hairline."

Abby: "I don't want your hair to fall out."

Justin: "Well, it is. It's all coming out."

Abby: "Well, pray then!"

If only it were that easy . . . 

 

Nice Try!

On Saturday morning we were all sitting around the table, eating our pancakes and divvying (how in the world do you spell that word anyway?) up our Saturday morning chores. Abby gets her all-too-sweet look on her face, cocks her head and says, "I have an idea Mommy. How about for our chores Emma and I will play so so sweetly and quietly in our room and won't disturb you and Daddy at all while you clean." Nice Try Abby, it was very tempting!

There's Something about Davis!

I know, I know, I have been posting kid photos in excess lately. I can't help it. I'm pretty into this little guy and I just can't keep myself from sharing him. Hopefully soon we will have a really exciting adventure to blog about. Hopefully it will not involve one of our cars and fire. Anyway, here are some photos of the little big man at almost 4 months. 

Christmas Fun!

I knew that eventually I would get around to posting a few Christmas pictures. I can't believe how few we took this year. We decided to finally break out the video camera again so we do have quite a bit of Christmas video. Davis, on the other hand, is greatly under-represented. He was "snug in his bed" through most of the Christmas festivities. He did show his face long enough to get his Christmas Eve pajamas though. Justin's family always did Christmas Eve PJs and my family always does a Christmas Eve ornament. So we have continued each of those traditions and the girls were so happy to get their PJs and ornament this year. Since they love bugs so much, we got Abby a grasshopper and Emma a frog for their ornament, they were thrilled. Another tradition we want to carry on is the Christmas Eve seafood extravaganza that the Wilkinsons always have. Since  we didn't go to Utah this year for Christmas, we did our own Christmas Eve feast with all of our favorite foods: king crab legs, shrimp, artichokes and oysters (even the girls tried their first oyster this year). We made sure to decorate the sugar cookies for Santa (he LOVES sugar cookies and we always have to leave out a lot for him. )

Look at this fat happy baby! He loves Christmas!

The girls showing off their pj's and ornaments.

Getting in a little 'Twas the night before Christmas before they head off to bed.

Mmmmm!

The all-important sugar cookies.

The Great Portland Storm

We had a crazy storm up here in Portland over the Christmas holiday. Everything literally shut down for weeks. Schools were closed for a week, church was canceled for 2 weeks, the roads were insane and I literally didn't even leave the house for 2 weeks except to play in the snow and to venture to the grocery store one night only to realize that I couldn't push the cart through the parking lot. So what did we do for 2 weeks in the house. . . 

We at ate a lot of this (these were supposed to be friends/neighbors gifts that were rendered undeliverable due to the weather, so eventually disappeared (not quite sure how that happened:)

We got crafty!

We hauled away bits of the ginormous tree that literally uprooted from our front yard on Christmas Eve and fell across the street.

We marveled at the inch-thick ice that developed overnight on top of the already 6 inches of snow.

And we played and played and played in the snow and we got our "white Christmas" even though we weren't in Utah this year. It was perfect!

Farewell Old Friend!

For those of you who have been with us through the drama of the Jeep over the past 8 years of our marriage, you will really appreciate this. For those of you who haven't, it's still a good story. We have loved our Jeep. It has seen us through many camping, biking, and family road trips. It's taken us to the top of Mt. Logan and across the country to San Francisco and Portland. It's weathered the winter storms over the Sierra Nevadas. It even survived the Portland Arctic Blast of '08 and narrowly escaped the tree that fell in our front yard only a few short weeks ago. The Jeep has also been towed at least 4 times since we moved to Portland a year and a half ago. It's been in mechanic shops all over the west coast. It has squeaked and screamed and smoked it's way through life. But it has ever remained faithful until the fateful day of January 9, 2009 when it went out in a blaze of glory. 

Justin drove it to work on Friday morning. All was well. I met him Friday night for a work party and when we left the party that evening, we were met with this. (see below) Between the time Justin left the Jeep at 7:00 a.m. and returned at 8:30 p.m. an electrical fire had all but consumed the interior of the Jeep. Ah, how fitting. The best part is that Justin looked at me later that night and said those all too common words, "I think we can fix it!" Not this time. It is on it's way to the U-Pull it junkyard where it will finally be laid to rest, never to be fixed again . Goodbye old friend, you will be missed . . . sort of.

Davis at 10 weeks!

Our little guy is growing up so fast! He is such a chubby happy baby, we are all pretty happy just staring at him all day. The girls are completely obsessed with him and I get in trouble with them if I let him cry for even a minute. He's going to be so spoiled but we are having a lot of fun doing it! 

Secrets!

So, we are pretty into surprises in our house. This comes from Justin. I love surprises but I can never wait for them and I was always a "peeker" growing up. The girls love to be surprised and for the past 2 years have not asked for anything for Christmas. They say they will love whatever Santa wants to bring them. I love that about them. They do always love whatever Santa brings them. This year though has brought a new challenge. When we asked Emma what she wanted for Christmas she told us that she wants us to be surprised and that's why she is only telling Santa what she wants. Hmmmm . . . 

A few recent favorites . . .

I don't know if I've formally introduced Ellie the Elephant and Lily the Lamb on this blog yet. They are our other 2 children. The girls have had them since they were born. They fix "owies", help induce slumber, and love to be dressed up. 

The girls at the Sauvie Island pumpkin patch. Have I mentioned before how much I love Halloween and pumpkin patches. I know it's almost Christmas but I'm a few months behind in my life these days. I also love Christmas but more of that to come in a few months :)

Justin and Emma at Mt. St. Helens. 

Abby pulling around the cousins. 

Poor Davis, he doesn't have a chance in this house of girls. I just noticed that he's even wearing a gown to top it all off. What a sport. (This one is mostly for you Mikey.)

What I am NOT missing right now . . .

I am thankful for a lot of things this holiday season and not looking like this anymore is one of them. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind being pregnant that much, I actually even enjoy it a little. But I just got done scrubbing the tub and I didn't have to lie sideways on the edge of the tub to get to the hard to reach spots, I didn't get bleach all over my belly and I wasn't even out of breath when I got done. Like I said, much to be grateful for. And, Davis is so much cuter "out" than "in".