Easter 2014

Easter Sunday was a beautiful sunny day! 

On Saturday we dyed some eggs.  

 

That was interesting with a 1.5 year-old. Thankfully the carpet was still tan colored when everything was done!

Sunday morning the kids opened their Easter buckets and had a little Easter egg hunt.

Then we went to church!

 {this was the best picture I got}

 {but here are some of the outtakes...}

 {love how they are holding hands}

{these two}

Every other Sunday we teach Blake's class at church and it was a nice break to have Easter Sunday off. And the kids did great in their classes, which meant we got to enjoy the whole service!

 At church

After church we came home for lunch and naps. After nap time, we headed over to our friends, the Hammagrens. There, we had a little egg hunt and a very yummy dinner. Usually we have ham on Easter {I'm not sure why, it's just what we've always done}. This year we decided to change it up, and got a Tri-Tip from Costco. It was soooooooo good! I'm thinking that might become the new tradition.

{Lily didn't really understand the egg hunt, she just liked to take eggs from her brother's bucket}

Blake, Karter, Luke

{The Leyva's joined us for an Easter Egg hunt!}

 Us and the Hammagrens! 

I can't believe this was the fifth Easter in a row we have spent with the Hammagrens. It's turned into a fun little tradition! And has been fun to watch our families grow over the years! We feel so blessed to have friends that feel like family :)

Hope you had a blessed Easter!

Past Easters: 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010

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!

Easter 2013

Easter this year was a little untraditional for us. We had been at the beach for the weekend and traveled home on Easter Sunday which meant we didn't make it to church on Easter Sunday. Gasp! I know, at first I thought not going to church on Easter wouldn't be that big of a deal, {since we go to church almost every Sunday} but it really felt kind of weird. Like it wasn't really Easter or something. Anyhow we did celebrate Easter at the beach in the morning with Easter buckets, and egg hunt and a yummy breakfast {you can see here}. Then we went over to our friends the Hammagren's house for a yummy Easter dinner {for the 4th year in a row}.

Here are some pictures from Easter dinner...

 Yes, the kids look like they are dressed for summer... it was 70 degrees on Easter!

{That's pretty much unheard of for the Willamette Valley on Easter}

It was fun to change it up a little this year, but I think next year we will make it a point to go to church on Easter :) Hope you had a great Easter!

Here is Easter 2012

Christmas 2012

Well, here we are a month later and I'm just now getting around to blogging about Christmas! Ah, needless to say life with 2 kids, or life just in general is busy!

Russ had all together 11 days off from Christmas to New Years, which was probably the most time he has had off since college. It was wonderful! We headed to Medford the Saturday before Christmas and spent till Thursday there.

Christmas this year just seemed a little off. Lily had been fighting an awful cough for a few weeks prior and on Christmas evening we ended up in the ER with her {I will post on that one of these days}. I didn't really enjoy Christmas day because I was so worried about her all day, I knew something wasn't right with her.

We did have some fun though so here are some of the highlights....

My Grandpa turned 80! The Sunday before Christmas my mom and her brothers threw my Grandpa a birthday party. It was great to celebrate my Grandpa's 80 years!

 My Grandpa with all but 3 of his grandkids. {my Aunt and her family who live on the east coast couldn't make it and Logan was at home sick}

Ian, Michelle, Tristan, Me, Lily, Blake, Grandpa Lowell, Nicki and Mitchell

My Mom with her 2 brothers and their Dad {just missing my Aunt Peggy}

Todd, Mom, Grandpa Lowell and Tim

Christmas Eve we spent the day with Russell's family. Russell's sister Kacie from Portland came down and Grandparents from Arizona and California came up, we spent a nice relaxing day just visiting, hanging out, opening a few presents, {that would be Blake} playing, eating yummy food and ended with going to church. 

Lily meeting Grandma Z for the first time!

Blake practicing his present opening.

Having fun with new toys!

The 4 of us before Christmas Eve Service

Christmas morning was a bit of a blur for me. Lily had been up a lot the night before, and I from being worried and worked up about her being sick began to feel sick. We started the morning out at my parents house and exchanged gifts with my family and then we went over to Russell's parents and did gifts there.

 Christmas morning at the Messenger's

 Cousins!

Christmas morning at the Bartlett's

 Bartlett Family

Nana Pam and Papa Don with Blake and Lily

We went to my Aunt and Uncle's for Christmas dinner. We barely ate dinner and then took Lily to the ER {that's why there is a lack of "Christmas dinner photos"}. 

I really would have liked a Christmas re-do. It was not fun having a sick baby on Christmas. I guess we'll always remember Lily's first Christmas!

Pass Christmases: 2009, 2010, 2011

Halloween 2012

Halloween was so fun this year! 

The weekend before Russ and Blake carved a pumpkin. I thought {being a boy} Blake would love the "pumpkin guts" but he wasn't too willing to stick his hand in the pumpkin and pull them out, he left that up to daddy.

Blake and the pumpkin. 

On Halloween Day we were going to go Trick-or-Treating downtown Corvallis, but Russ was on his way back from a business trip and was unable to meet us until later and I really didn't feel like braving the rain with two kiddos. Since it's pretty much become a tradition to go Trick-or-treating downtown with Michael {this would have been the 5th year!} we had to at least meet them downtown to say hi.

A monkey, Beaver Cheerleader and a Spy

After visiting with Michael and Marilyn we headed to the Harvest Carnival that our church puts on every year. It's a pretty incredible carnival. There was tons of games and activities, a petting zoo, a couple bounce house/maze things, popcorn, cotton candy, hotdogs and it was ALL FREE! Such an incredible outreach to our community!

At the carnival we meet up with Luke and Becca

A cow and a monkey- best buddies!

After the carnival we meet up with the daddies who were finally off work and did some trick-or-treating! 

I was pretty surprised at how quickly Blake picked up on trick-or-treating. In between the houses he would say "more tantdy". I think I might have enjoyed trick-or-treating more then he did!

{Blake}

{Lily}

This onesie Blake wore on his first Halloween... Blake was almost 5 months old... Lily is um, only 5 weeks old! 

I can't wait till next year!