Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was wonderful! We spent the holiday (plus some extra time too!) at my parents' house in Corvallis. We had such a great time. Here are a few photos:


Walk with my mom and pepper


Jasper on the Sherry's tire swing


My dad with Gideon at the Corvallis Christmas parade


Rob and Jasper at parade


Jasper playing in the dirt at the Christmas Tree farm we went to cut down my parents' tree




We went to a fabulous model train show (the boys enjoyed the wooden train table the most, though :)

Turkey Shirts

I made Gid and Jasper matching turkey shirts to wear for Thanksgiving. They aren't quite done- I still have to stitch around the borders.

ABC, easy as 123...

Direct link to Jasper's serenade.

Creating

We've had a really rainy couple of weeks, which means lots of indoor, creative time. Jasper has really taken to making cookies. We've made cookies four times in the past two weeks.... We made sugar cookies for a friend's birthday, chocolate chip cookies for a friend who is moving away in a week, and oatmeal raisins for us- yum!




Jasper has also become quite the lego builder. He builds these elaborate train scenes with dinosaurs and tunnels along the track.


these are the "scary-nice" dinosaurs

The other day as I was putting Gid down for a nap, Jasper build this snake track:


Oh my goodness! How can I make a blog post without posting a picture of this adorable baby that I can't get enough of. He's such a fun baby, crawling all over the place and up to four or five steps at a time with his walking!




These two adore one another... most of the time.


This morning Rob had to get some work done, so we made it a family outing. Jasper loves going to daddy's work. Gid- not so much. He was pretty frustrated that I wouldn't let him touch anything or crawl around on the e-coli infested ground :)

Jasper's suit and Gid's first steps

Jasper has four cousins that were born the year he was, so each year my mom asks my siblings and I to take pictures of each of the "quints" for my parents' Christmas newsletter. This year, my mom sent Jasper this adorable suit. Jasper looks so grown up in it! Can't believe how fast he's growing up. His new thing to say is "um... sure" when I ask him to do something. It sounds like something I would say. Weird. Anyway, here are some shots of him in his Christmas suit:




On another, very monumental note, Gid took his first steps this past Wednesday!! He kinda just happened to have the right mix of balance and momentum for a split second. He's done it once or twice more but with the same scenario, where he lunges toward me and happens to step a few times before he falls into my arms. It's so different than with Jasper. Jasper's first steps were so deliberate and very accurate. Gid is just super excited to be moving, he can barely stand it. He pulls himself up on everything he sees. He walked from living room to the bathroom this evening, scaling the walls, cupboards and doors to do so. Once he's pulled himself up on the couch or a chair, he lets go and stands there so proud and excited with a huge laughing smile. He's so adorable. Just love this little babe so much.

Eat local for Thanksgiving!

I know I'm on a bit of a soapbox the past couple of days, but these are things that I care about- the environment, agriculture, religion, parenting. All things I care enough to share :)

Last year, we made the pledge to eat local for Thanksgiving and we are doing it again this year. Only hitch is we are going to Oregon to eat with my folks for Thanksgiving dinner. So if I'm pledging to eat local, does that mean I purchase the turkey in the Puget Sound or in the Willamette Valley?? Any suggestions?

If you live around here, you should take a stand too! Buy some local ingredients, go check out a turkey farm, shop at Pike's Place, etc. ..

http://www.pugetsoundfresh.org/eatlocal/index.asp

Gideon is crawling to D.C.!

Help reform our nation's toxic chemical policy by joining the Million Baby Crawl!

http://www.seventhgeneration.com/million-baby-crawl/?id=13661

Quilting

I have many sister in laws, aunts in law, and a mother in law that make some of the most beautiful quilted, hand crafted things I've ever seen. Super talented when it comes to color coordinating, aesthetics, and all that stuff. I know these quilts are probably too busy and not very well laid out. I saw this website called "ugliest quilts ever" or something like that. I'll probably look at these someday and think that, but for now, I'm liking them okay. With that being said, I've been working on matching quilts for Jasper and Gid. Outer space theme. They are made with love and hopefully the boys will cherish them. I'm going to do a red border and then some kind of binding around the edges. I think I will send them away to a professional machine quilter to have them finished. I'd love any kind of advice you have to share.

10 month old Gideon

Here's Gideon having a bad hair day:

More Halloween tales

I forgot to mention what a wonderful time we had trick or treating in our neighborhood on Halloween. Last year, we did the business district thingy down in Ballard where you go from store to store. We had fun, saw a bazillion kids in costume... but it was a little crazy for us. When we returned home we saw this family trick or treating along our street. We thought it was so great. The business district trick or treating is such a huge fad right now, but why not do it the old fashioned way? I suppose that Fremont may not be the most ideal neighborhood with the number of apartment buildings and Aurora Ave a few blocks away but we love it here. This is our home and there are a ton of other children living in our neighborhood too. Anyway, last year when we saw that family trick or treating we said to one another that next year we wanted to be that cool family and try out our neighborhood. Our friends the Kilburns wanted to do the same thing so we went out together.

Halloween evening, after a short stop by our church "trunk or treat", we met up with Max and family and ventured out. Let me tell you, people we super excited to have trick or treaters. Jasper got huge handfuls of candy at many a door (and often a handful for the parents and Gid too!). We were totally spoiled. Max and Jasper were so cute together. Sadly, I don't have any picture of them...

Here's one last shot of the boys in their costumes right before we left to go trick or treating around our Fremont neighborhood. Captain America and side-kick Bucky Barnes:


what the heck- one more with Gid looking at the camera:

Halloween

Here are the boys in their completed Halloween costumes:

Bucky Barnes and Captain America

We went to the Pumpkin Prowl last weekend. It was so much fun. Here are a few more pictures:




On Saturday, we took a hike at Carkeek Park and enjoyed some beautiful colors and sights of fall. This trail led up through a grove of Big Leaf Maples and we found some of the largest leaves we'd ever seen.





Gid started pointing!

Later, Jasper swept the apartment-


Tonight we did some pumpkin carving with our friends the Kilburns. The pumpkins turned out awesome. Sarah made some really, really delicious vegan pumpkin cupcakes that I will be dreaming about tonight.


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Max and Jasper's pumpkins

End of the season gardening

We've had a very successful gardening season. We've grown rhubarb, raspberries, peas, carrots, potatoes, pumpkins, dahlias, swiss chard, spinach, cosmos, and a variety of herbs. Kinda sad to see the garden go to bed... We will continue to harvest swiss chard and some of the herbs until the first frost. Here are some shots of the boys doing "work" in the garden with us:

sewing

This seems to happen to me every fall. The days get shorter, the leaves start to turn, the weather changes, and I become a homebody. I am overcome with the desire to cook and sew and nest. A few weeks ago, we spent the entire weekend re-arranging our small apartment. Thank goodness I'm married to the most patient man in the world who toiled all Friday night and Saturday (foregoing his weekly ultimate frisbee game - a major sacrifice) with me to move almost every piece of furniture we own so that my "vision" could be realized. I have to say that I am very pleased with the way things turned out. The space in our place is much better utilized now and I feel as though there is a better flow.

I've also been sewing quite a bit. Last time I was home in Corvallis my mom sent me home with some old patterns that she'd been holding on to since we were kids. I used one the the patterns to make Jasper some PJ's with dinosaur print:



The other thing I've been working on is Jasper's (hopefully I'll be able to whip something up for Gid in the next few days) Halloween costume. Almost done ( I actually finished the boots tonight but didn't get a picture of him wearing them yet):





Last week I ordered enough fabric to make quilts for Jasper, Gid, and Rob and I. Now, that is going to take me till next fall to complete.

Matt and Lucy's wedding

This weekend we went down to Oregon to see two good friends of mine get married. Lucy and Matt have been together since senior year of high school. They were both two of my dearest friends from Corvallis and it was wonderful to see them so happy and in love and wed. A whole bunch of the CV gang was there to celebrate. It was great to see so many of my good, old friends. Wish I could have hung out with them a bit more, but we ended up leaving the reception early to get back to our little babes. My dear mom and dad who had just flown in from Ukraine only hours before were watching our kiddos at the hotel. I started feeling really badly for them around 8 pm realizing they hadn't slept in over 24 hours.

Lucy and Matt got married at Timberline Lodge which is at the base of Mt. Hood. The scenery and view was spectacular. The ceremony was really, really touching. Everyone in the room was crying when the groom read his vows. Ahhh, makes me want to do it all over again. After the ceremony there was a cocktail hour and then a really lovely reception. I'm so glad Rob and I got to be there.

This is really lame- I don't have any pictures from the actual wedding. I have a shot of Rob and I, with the bride and groom in the background:


And a shot of Mt. Hood:


And a picture of Rob and Jasper the next day at Trillium Lake:

Wicked

Rob took me to see Wicked last Thursday. It was amazing! We both really liked it. Rob was so cute. He tried to surprise me, but I overheard a bit of a phone conversation he had about buying the tickets. I've been wanting to see this play for a really long time, so it was really sweet of him to splurge and take me to it. What an incredible story! So interesting. We both want to watch The Wizard of Oz again to tie up all the loose story ends.

Poor Gid with four teeth all at once

Little Gid has four teeth coming in all at the same time. He cut is bottom two back in July. Now his four top teeth are all emerging. The first on broke through about two days ago and surprisingly was not one of the front top- it was the the next one over on the left. He's a bit miserable, though. He's constantly looking for something to bite and drooling and his checks are all flushed. It's so hard on their little bodies when these teeth start coming in. Rob and I are feeling it too, as he's been waking up 3-5 times a night.... Looking forward to the teething stage to pass.

Prayers for Todd

My heart is heavy today as my brother-in-law Todd (sister Meta's husband) is back in the hospital with an infection and fluid around his heart. Please say a prayer for him, even if you don't know him. Meta and Todd have three little kiddos who need their daddy here on earth and to push through this. Go Todd!!