Spring has sprung!

This past month has been a fun one.  We had a mini spring break at the coast (see previous post) then I got to celebrate my 35th with my best girlfriends.  My oldest friend (she's going to strangle me for that) came up from Rogue River which was so special.  We've been like sisters since 1997 and I miss being able to just drive across town to visit and talk about the everyday little stuff.  Some other friends from Portland and of course Corvallis also joined us (there were 7 of us in total) for dinner and a movie, in which I giggled through like a 15 year old girl.  I regressed in my maturity level for a few hours and we had so much fun. 

I've known each of these girls for over a decade and I couldn't ask for better life-long friends. Ene, Shannon, and Tara. We've seen each other through our single days, through our college years, through different relationships, through different jobs, and even while having families of our own.  Love, love, love them.

This past week I met my friend Mandy and her two daughters in Woodburn for a tulip festival.  We had never been before and it was a much bigger production than I thought.  There were several rides for kids, a playground, food booths (with elephant ears!), and of course the amazing fields of flowers.

 My boy took this picture!

Mini Spring Break

Spring is one of Josh's busiest times so we can't get away for the week like many families can.  Instead we took a mini break (two nights) over in Newport.  Some of our good friends let us use their condo at The Embarcadaro.  We went to the aquarium, played on the beach, visited the lighthouse, and flew a kite.  Sad to say it was my first time flying a kite in all my 35 years (as of today, it's my birthday!)

This picture is terrible because of the sun glare but Millie has a sweet smile so I decided to include it.

 Our kite was pretty big, about 4 feet across, but Josh got it up right away and even gave Cash a turn flying it.

And ending on a sweet note...

Come on Spring!

We've had an extreme winter, for the valley anyway.  I guess I shouldn't be complaining since my dad, who lives in Michigan, has been dealing with subzero temperatures for weeks on end.  We had an entire week of school cancellations in December followed by 1 week of school before Christmas break started.  In February, we had a whopping 15 1/2 inches of snow at our house.  Growing up in Klamath I was used to that much of the white stuff but after living in the valley for almost 13 years it came as a bit of a shock.  School was once again cancelled and the kids and I made the most of it.  Josh even stayed home from work one day!!!  I know, shocker!

 Catching snowflakes on his tongue.

Growing up where I did, I was used to being around horses.  I love them and love riding.  Josh has a fear of them which he attributes to not being around them enough when he was younger.  He wants nothing to do with them.  I don't want the kids growing up with the same fear so I decided to get Cash started early and signed him up for riding lessons.  He was completely undaunted by the huge horse we put him on.  For his first lesson we worked on teaching him how to hold the reigns, how to turn, and commands for stopping and walking.  A few weeks later we went riding again and he learned how to trot, with the instructor holding onto the lead of course.  This last weekend was our 3rd lesson and Cash played Simon says with the instructor while on the horse and they worked on turning while simultaneously giving other commands like going from walk to trot, then stopping, then walking, and so on.   

Christmas and more...

Cash's school Christmas program was super cute.  He stood on the stage in front of a massive crowd and actually sang along this time.  In the past he has tried to hide his face and he covered his ears because he doesn't like the loud clapping from the audience.  I didn't get many pictures because we were sitting so far back in the church.

In December we got a little bit of snow, about 8 inches.  At the time we thought it was a lot because we rarely get that much to stick in the valley.  Then came the snow storm in February, but I'll post about that later.  Here are a couple pictures of the kids playing in the snow in December.  They wore the scarves that Nana made them.

I started the Elf on a Shelf tradition this year.  Cash thought it was really fun.  I just don't know how I'll top it next year.  It's a convoy, elf style!

We went to The Zoo Lights at the Portland Zoo for the first time this year.  The weather was decent and the lights were so pretty.  Not sure we'll be doing it every year, it's a long drive, but it was fun to do something new.

And finally, Christmas...My dad and Kathy flew in from Michigan to spend a few days with us.  Kathy is the perfect house guest.  I would cook and she would clean the kitchen afterwards.  Such a huge blessing to this mama!  Christmas Eve Church service.

Christmas pajamas...

 Millie got a play kitchen.  It was a huge hit!

Although I'm not a fan of kids playing video games, we finally broke down and got Cash a Nabi tablet.  It has a bunch of learning apps on it and best of all, it's excellent leverage to get him to pick up his messes!
Grandpa Eddy was teaching Cash how to use it.

The only group picture we got while Dad and Kathy were visiting.

Thanksgiving

I'm going to make this post short and sweet because I have a few other photo projects right now to work on.  I'm in the middle of catching up on the family scrapbooking and I just started Millie's baby album.  On top of that, all of our family photos from 2007 to present were deleted off of the photo storing website I use.  Most of them I have backed up on USB drives but I like to have them in a second place just in case our house burns down or the USB drives get lost, etc...  It's time consuming to download this many pictures but I'm determined! 

For Thanksgiving we went down to Klamath Falls to visit Nana and Papa.  We've been seeing them a lot less this year, only every few months, because my mom has been working a lot and can't travel up here very often.  We were happy to go down for a couple of nights and have a relaxing time with them.  Cash and I went ice skating again this year while Josh and Millie stayed cozy by the fire pit with hot chocolate.  Cash is a lot heavier than he was last year which made my job a lot harder since I virtually have to hold him up the entire time but neither one of us fell so I consider it a success!

Playing catch up with the blog....

Now that we're almost done with November, maybe I should get the rest of October pictures up, huh?  Cash's Kindergarten class went on their first field trip.  Millie and I tagged along to help chaperone.  It was also school spirit week and "crazy hair day" which explains Cash's spike hairdo.

This is a picture of both Kindergarten classes together.

I have a tradition of taking pics of each kiddo on their birthday, a special photo shoot just for them.  Here are Millie's 2 year pics that I took at Avery Park.

We had two little birthday parties for Millie.  It's tough to have a big party for her, given they have to be inside at this time of year and our house starts to feel cramped with more than a dozen people.  Especially if those people are of the small, energetic variety.  The first party was with Nana and Papa then we had a second party with Millie's cousins and our friends, the Smiths.  We had a Minnie mouse cake and a silly string shoot out.  I'm so terrible at making sure we take pictures at the parties because I'm so busy hosting.    I've tried handing that responsibility over to Josh but he always takes 2 obligatory pictures then sets the camera down and we once again end up with no pictures.  Someone has to give me some tips on how to handle it.

For the harvest carnival this year Cash wanted to dress up as a Ninja Turtle.  I made most of his costume, excluding the mask and nunchucks.  If you have a son between 5 and 10 years old then you probably need no explanation for my costume but I was April, the Ninja Turtle sidekick from the cartoon.  Millie was, no surprise here, Minnie Mouse.  She loves her costume and especially the little ears.  She wears them all the time.  Josh was in Bandon for cranberry harvest the week of the harvest carnival so I took the kiddos solo.  We had a lot of fun playing Bible themed games and Cash won a drawing and came home with a new bike!!!  I was so excited for him, I almost cried.  I've never won anything in my life and I'm so glad that I signed him up for the raffle.  What an awesome blessing!