Thanksgiving Weekend 2013

It was a busy Thanksgiving weekend!

Thursday was Thanksgiving.

We stayed home this year for Thanksgiving and my side of the family came to our house for the day. It was the first time for us to host Thanksgiving and the first time in {at least the last} 7 years that my whole immediate family was together. We ate, watched some football, kids played and we ate some more. 

Amazing that everyone is looking at the camera! I think that might be a first!

 Auntie Sha, the photo boomer 

 Kids Table!

Us

Thursday night my mom, sister and I went out and did some shopping {yes, you can call us crazy}. However we decide shopping on Thanksgiving is not worth it. At all. You can get the same sales on Friday {DURING the day, NOT in the middle of the night!} So we went home and slept and then went back out the next morning. People are crazy though when it comes to Black Friday.

Friday was the Civil War.

Russ went to the Civil War game. Our brother-in-law is a UofO alum and has season tickets and invited Russ to go with him. 

The kids and I headed up to my Aunt and Uncles in Portland to watch the game. It was a great game! The Beavers actually put up a fight and we lost by only one point. It was sad, we were so close to winning. But it was a way better game then we thought it would be so it was a lot of fun to watch!

Friday night we stayed at my sisters and Russ stayed at his sisters. 

Saturday we went to Zoo Lights.

Saturday Russ helped his sister and brother-in-law move and we hung out with my sister. And then went to Zoo Lights! 

{click here to see the first zoo light experience, we've only gained a couple kids :)}

 Sibling love

 Lily checking out Lily 

{the baby elephant at the zoo is named Lily}

She loved touching the lights!

The Bartlett family!

Sunday we got our Christmas Tree.

Searching for the perfect tree (the only picture I took).

Well, that was a busy four day weekend! 

Hope you had a fun Thanksgiving weekend!

Fall 2013

I can't believe it's been OVER a month since my last post! I feel like the reason for that is because there is so much to catch up on that I keep putting it off and then never end up posting anything! So here we are a month since Lily's broken leg (which healed great, after 3 weeks in a splint!) and tomorrow is Thanksgiving (not sure how that came so fast!). Here's a little catch up and then I'm going to just pick up where we are in life, because if I don't, I'm not sure I will ever blog again. 

The weather has been pretty nice this fall! We made to the pumpkin patch kind of on a whim one sunny Saturday afternoon with some friends. 

Searching for the pumpkins

Luke and Blake

Pretty typical family photo these days

Blake got to drive the tractor!

A wagon full of kids!

Russ and I both entered a new decade... the thirties... yikes!

My sweet sister threw me a surprise birthday party at a tailgater before a football game, and had lined up babysitting (my wonderful in-laws, who drove all the way up from Medford-- thank you guys!!) so I could actually go to a game!

For Russ's birthday I surprised him with a day off of work and a family trip to the zoo. Something we had been wanting to do for a while. 

Then we had a little party at our house. 

And of course there was some Beaver football involved. 

Russ has made it to every home game this fall. And Blake went to quite a few too. Both those boys love their football and their Beavers!

We've been teaching Blake's class at church which has been fun!

We had the Hulk and a Butterfly for Halloween

This little girl got a horrible virus.

 We ended up in the ER one night because she was just not acting normal at all and hadn't for days and I wasn't wanting to take any chances since she had been hospitalized for pneumonia and bronchiolitis last winter.

We were there for a few hours, they ran a gamut of tests and everything looked great so they sent us home and thankfully the next day she really started to improve.

We've been playing outside a lot since the rain hasn't really started yet. Have I mentioned how much we are loving our new neighborhood! 

Lily has really wanted to feed herself lately,

which is great, but it usually ends up like this...

And then straight to the bathtub she goes.

Well, that's what we've been up to in a nut shell (I'm sure there is lots I have forgotten). Hopefully I'll get better at staying on top of this blogging thing, and blog more then once a month! 

Hope you had a great fall!

A Fall Saturday

Many most all of our Saturdays in the fall are spent tailgating followed by watching the OSU Beavers play football. (sadly we haven't witnessed many wins this season) 

Grandpa and Blake ready for some football!

Today was the first game this fall that has been cold and rainy. I'd say we were pretty lucky with the weather this year considering we only have one more home game left. It was Blake's first rainy game. He did pretty well considering the freezing cold and drizzley rain. He made it through the fist half and even took an hour nap!

 The poor kid had so many layers on he could hardly walk!

After half time my mom, Blake and I headed to the MU to warm up and dry off. 

If you watched the game you can recall the second half... not pretty. 

First half not bad. We were only playing the Stanford who was ranked #4 in the nation. The first half we gave them a game. Second half, like I said, not pretty. 

Glad I left after the first half. I was happy when I left. I said to Russ after the game "we did really good against the #4 team"... his response... "you weren't there for the second half"... good point. 

There's always next year... right?

Back to tailgating... I think my dad is trying to demonstrate that its so cold you can see his breath.

My mom and dad. Aren't they cute?

[this was the first time we have ever had to make a tarp barricade to stay warm!]

 Not very happy with the Beavs.

Now time for a nap.

I would have to say despite the bad season, I love spending our fall Saturdays tailgating and watching the Beavers play! Maybe next week we'll win!

A Birthday Weekend

{Is it already Wednesday?! Oh my how the days fly by! I meant to have this post done on Sunday oops!}

Russell's Birthday was on Sunday so we had fun birthday weekend!

On Saturday before the OSU game we had tailgating b-day party for Russ.

 {sadly we lost, again}

Danny and Russ.... yes, Russ did allow a duck fan to come to his party

 Benny even showed up

  The Bartlett side of the family!

One cute little Beaver fan!

Saturday night Russell's parents stayed with us. Sunday we went to church with them and then out to our favorite pizza place. Fun weekends always go by way too fast!

Happy Birthday Russ! I love you!