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!