happy halloween weekend!!!

glowing mamas' to be...

seriously could these two mama be any cutier??!! i think they are both absolutely adorable! they are both due with in a few weeks of each other...one before christmas and one after.
kats sister hosted a little shower for her in portland over the weekend...she is a mama of two busy boys and they are expecting a girl in december! wendi is also a mama of two energetic boys and she doesn't know what baby #3 is yet. we thought it would be best to throw mrs. wendi a shower after the baby is born that way we know if we need to buy pink or more wrestling singlets! (her husband is an ex-osu wrestler and her other two boys have already been wearing singlets for years!)
i'm anxiously waiting the arrival of two newest little love bugs!

kat opening gifts...i made her a blanket and some hair clips, i guess it was funny! :)

the day of the shower was also wendi's birthday, so the day wouldn't be complete with out some cake and ice cream to celebrate!

(notice heather being a geek in the background!)

girlfriends...

here is a few pictures of the blanket i made kat...

i absolutely loved how it turned out, especially the scalloped edging...

it has been awhile since i have sewed, but i got a new sewing machine from my mother-in-law last christmas and i finally had some time to re-teach my self how to sew, with some help from my mother-in-law of course! :) i hope to do some more fun new projects this winter...stay tunned for sewing and baby updates!!!

annual pumpkin patch visit with the cousins...

every year all the grandkids get together with grandma (my mom) on a friday and we visit a pumpkin patch. i always look forward to the day because i love pumpkin patches and it is so fun to watch the cousins together.

this is gwynn running to miss evie, she was so excited! evelyn was clapping, i guess she was just as excited! :)

and they meet...
evelyn wanted to do what ever gwynn was doing :)

miss evelyn and grandma...

the kids loved the wheelbarrow, especially miss evie. she rides in ours at home a lot when we are doing yard work, so i guess she is use to them.

miss gwynn was the only one brave enough to ride the horses :)

three kids in the wheelbarrow was a work out to push!

i love, Love, LOVE the next two pictures!!!

there even all looking at the camera!

evelyn trying to keep up with payton...

of course miss evie wanted to pick up all the old corn cobs and pack them around...silly girl!

and this is the nut house...

a house full of filbert nuts...how fun is that???!!!

after wearing them out with all the activities, we had some warm donuts and apple cider and then parted ways. my little tiger was asleep before we even got to the freeway. :)

ps-thanks grandma for the cute pink monster shirt! sometimes dad even calls me his little monster, so i think its perfect for me! :)

road trips...

the last few weeks we have been road tripping around oregon. sometimes brian has to travel for work and it just so happened that he had lots of fun places to go over the last few weeks. the bonus was that evelyn and i got to tag along and enjoy the nice sunny fall weather.

first stop diamond lake, as you can see from the picture it was clear and sunny. it has been awhile since i was there, so it was nice to enjoy the lake and the great walking trails.

i think miss evie was ready for a break from the truck! :)
second stop, crater lake...

this was another place i haven't visited in awhile...i would have to say that oregon is a pretty awesome state! the weather was perfect and there was no crowds since the tourist season is over.

picking up pine cones...

the whole fam, even allie cooperated for the picture :)

the ladies...

we then ventured over to summer lake to visit my aunt and uncle. we had dinner at the cowboy dinner tree in silver lake. if you haven't been there before you should check it out sometime, it is a very unique and rustic restaurant with generous portions of food (like a whole chicken or a small roast that they call a steak!)

cowboy dinner tree...

riding the hay bale steer...

gitti' up..

this picture doesn't really show it, but miss evie managed to get a black eye while at my aunt and uncles. she was trying to pull her coat off the the metal bar stool and it came over on top of her. :( poor girl...i think it actually looked worse a few days after it happened. but she is healing great and we are on to our next accident, i think this is the age for lots of bumps and bruises.

we were home for two days and then we ventured down to ashland for the week. miss evelyn and i had a great time running and playing at litha park. the weather was summer like, which was nice. we also got in lots of visits with the douglas fam. we had dinner one night, coffee and a walk the next morning and ice cream in ashland later that day for dessert. it was fun to watch evie try to keep up with the douglas boys, she it going to have her work cut out for her i think. it makes me smile to think of our kids growing up together! and your not going to believe it, but i didn't take one picture while i was in ashland for the week, not even of the cute kids together! i think we were just too busy soaking up the sun and trying to keep up with our busy kids! :)

thanks douglas fam for all the fun, i wish we could always get together on warm fall nights for ice cream...

fun pics from the last few weeks...

helping mom cook...she thought basting her forehead with the heavy cream she dumped on the counter was a good idea :)

(for some reason this pic wouldn't rotate)

miss evie has been super into dolls over the last few weeks. she made the baby a bed in a tupperware container and even dressed her for halloween in the bunny mask (notice the bunny nose on the baby). so we call this "bunny baby"...she has been totally cracking us up lately with her creative play :)

she loves sitting and playing with her new table and chairs, sometimes she wants brian or i to sit with her. :)

deer and cow almost always either eat with her and sometimes even take baths with her, she is feeding deer some strawberries in this picture...

rolling around with best friend...i swear these two love each other more and more every day!

yeah, mom's ipod! she thinks its a treat when she gets to listen to it

playing dress up...for some reason she LOVES my half marthon t-shirt. i'm not sure why, but she always gets it out of my drawer and wants me to help her put it on. )

these were some fresh crab cakes i made that were sooo yummy! brian's family went crabbing the oregon coast the weekend we were at the ranch and brought us back a ton of crab. so we sat in the yard one night and cracked crab and then whipped these babies up, boy were they tasty.

a few weeks ago miss evelyn and i woke up bright and early and headed up to portland to watch gwynn and payton. it was dark when we arrived and the the kids were still sleeping. they were so excited when they woke up to see that "baby evie" was there. :) we had a busy day playing and enjoying the great fall sunshine we had.

gwynn showing miss evie how to play baby dolls...

packing around her babies, at one point she was holding one of them upside down :)

we got to take gwynn to school which was fun, but that meant the payton, evelyn and i got to play until it was time for us to pick her up.

mr. payton...such a handsome little guy!

picnic in the backyard after a long day of playing...

i think we are getting spoiled with all this amazing fall sunshine! i have to admit that i'm loving it! before we know it the rain will be here....ahh i love the change of seasons!

happy fall!!!!

girlfriends and sisters....

i don't think life would be complete without them!

miss evie and i headed northbound early thursday morning to visit 3 girlfriends, my sister, and 5 super cute girls! first stop was longview were i visited with my old running partner jessica and her cutie pie clarie. evie loved all clarie's toys which was great because it gave jess and i time to chit chat! after taking care of some house stuff, we were then off to meet my friend pam and her three sweet girls. they put in a new play structure at the lake by were we used to live, so of course we had to check it out. then we went for a little nature walk as the girls were collecting treasures for a project at home. :) it was so great to catch up with those two awesome ladies, i miss them!!! and i can't believe i didn't get any pics of all the girls together...i guess we will just have to get together again! :)

we then were headed for olympia....my girlfriend elizabeth and her husband just moved there over the summer, so we wanted to check out their new home. elizabeth's daughter lauren is a night owl, so luckily evelyn slept on the way there so she could party it up with her until 10:30pm! i couldn't believe she stayed up that late. it was great checking out their new home, it is in an awesome area with lots of big trees and had lots of room to accommodate crazy guests like evie and i! :) friday we went to a county chick show out in farm country, it was fun and the carmal apples were amazing!

our attempt to get a picture of evelyn and lauren together...

this picture totally cracks me up...evie is showing us her belly and lauren is wigging out about a spider she saw! they totally feed of each others sillyness!
thank you elizabeth and lauren for the awesome accomations!!!

friday afternoon we were seattle bound! we took a walk at the sculpture park while we waited for aunt sasa to get our of her meeting. it was a little windy, but felt good to get some fresh air after our car ride.
on satruday sarah, evie and i headed north of seattle to skagit vallay. there was an awesome farm tour going on with 12 farms. i think we only made it to 4, but we spent so much time at each one because we were having so much fun. we visited a dairy farm, the super cool pumpkin farm, a berry farm which also had pumpkins. we ate lots of yummy food, went on tractor rides and just played in the sunshine all day...it was so much fun!!! they do the farm tour every year, so if any of your are interested you should check it out next year. click here for more info on festival of family farms.

this was the coolest pumpkin farm ever...they had all these amazing displays set up everywhere.
notice all the great paintings...the farmer is also an artist and he paints all of them!
re-organizing the gourds...one of evie's favorite games :)

another great display and painting...

pumpkin patch fun...

the best aunt sasa ever!

she was fascinated with the pumpkin blossoms...

re-organizing again!

look at all these amazing berries! it seemed so late in the season to have fresh berries, but of course we were excited and brought lots home.

being silly and showing us her belly button!

notice all the strawberries stains on her shirt...i think she might of overdosed on strawberries that day. :) i don't blame her, they were yummy!

we then went the town of edison, which is a super cute farm town. it had the cutest little coffee shop/restaurant...

we drove home sunday night, so we could be home in time to see my girlfriend mindy monday morning. she was passing threw the area and i would have hated to miss her visit. she lives in central washington now, so we don't get to meet up for coffee us much as we use too! it was so good to see her!

thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU, to everyone who made our visits so nice. we had such an awesome girls weekend! i hope we can do it again soon!!!