More photos

Just some more pictures... it wasn't worth trying to get them into the right place on the last blog. I get so confused! :)

Kareli and Kayin loved the face painting :)

Pin the Nose on the Pumkin

Ring Toss

Darts

(Kareli might have had a little help...)

He actually got several to stick!

Mmm... gooey chocolately Brownies...!

Kayin loves dressing himself :) The black socks are my favorite...

I can't figure out why animals flock to me... it's not because I spoil them or anything... I wouldn't build them a big cat tree or something like that, because that would just be sad and pathetic, right?

They actually do really well in the bath! They like it best when the kids are in there with them and don't meow at all, but the pictures weren't exactly publicly appropriate. :)

This movie just cracks me up every time I see it. :) Poor Kareli... she had to sit there while I ran back inside to get the camera!!! I'm such a bad person, but at least now you can all smile with me!

Life goes on...

Well, we're keeping super busy while Mickey is gone, that's for sure. It makes time pass much faster. Can you believe it's almost November?!?!?!

We went to a fair over at Nathalia's house and the kids all got to go on rides together. First time for Kareli, and she wasn't too sure if she liked it or not. The nice worker kept making silly faces at her every time she went around to help keep her from crying. The boys were hilarious; their first ride was that spinny car, where you turn the wheel. They got in and had a blast spinning the wheel and thought that was the whole ride. They all had a moment of panic when the whole thing started moving! Then they loved it. :)

Kayin's first cotton candy! Yum! But oh so sticky...

We also went to Oxbow Lake with some friends and played in the sand and water there, on one of the few gorgeous days we had this summer. Almost like going to the beach! We found big patches of wild blackberries and scratched the tar out of ourselves getting them, but they were SO worth it!



Our first Pinata! Man that glue gets everywhere! We still haven't worked up the nerve to break it though... we had too much fun making it!

We were very surprised one evening to find a little bat crawling across our living room carpet! I picked it up in a cup and took it outside, then we all took turns petting it and looking at it closely. Then I finally thought.... hey, if it's not flying and it's not acting normal, perhaps there's something wrong with this thing. Maybe we shouldn't be touching it....." Which led to a frantic hand-washing/sanitizing evening. We left him on the porch for a few days to see what would happen, then finally moved him to the garden. I think it was sick, or too young to leave it's mother, because we found him dead a few days later. Poor thing; he was really neat to watch. We loved his clicking. Another addition to our pet cemetary...

Before Mickey left we went to the kid's museum in Portland and had a great day there; I was thinking an hour, maybe hour and half, and we'd be bored and ready to go. We spent the whole day! And still didn't see everything! That place is amazing. :) Kayin loved the contruction room and the cars you could pretend to drive.

Kareli loved the cars also, and the water room. The water room was my favorite too; I could have changed the currents the whole time we were there, just to see where the rubber duckies would go next!

We have (temporarily, I hope!) 3 little kitties now: Smokey, Bandit, and Jo Jo. Jo Jo is the light-colored one in front. Troy gave us 3 week old Jo Jo to bottlefeed, but he needed so much attention to be happy that I called a shelter to ask if they had an older kitten I could have/borrow, to teach him how to be a cat. I don't need another neurotic pet. :) I figured the new one could also teach him to eat and use the litter box. Well, they called back saying they had two 4 week old kittens that were still bottle feeding that needed a home. You know me; how could I say no?? So I had to bottle feed them all for a couple weeks. :) But honestly, it really was a lot less work because JoJo stopped whining for attention, and they all started using the litter box the second day! Yay! I have enough bums to wipe around here without them added to the mix. :)

The army had a little harvest party for all the families with deployed soldiers and it was a ton of fun. It was an all-you-can-eat pizza feed, and they had a magic show, face painting, balloon animals, pumpkins, and lots of games to do for the kids Kayin and Kareli went nuts! I love child-oriented activies. :)

Kareli's been having a horrible time sleeping since Mickey left, and kept waking up earlier and earlier. I don't know about you, but I'm not very friendly at 4:30 in the morning. So I started laying her down with her Daddy Doll and told her to talk to him if she woke up, then snuggle him back to sleep. And no crying, because it makes him sad. It worked! First night she slept until 7:30, which is the lastest in months! Hooray!! Now it's settled to around 6:30, which I can handle. Ahh, but wouldn't 7:30 be great every day??? It's so cute to see her hug him tight and give him kisses. Both kids love their dolls. Umm, action figures?

It was a horrible year for gardening her... cold and cloudy all summer. My plants finally started producing just as the frost hit. :( We'll be eating fried green tomatoes for ages, apparently. Well, Kareli actually just love them as-is. She's always walking around with one. :) At least the plants grew though!

So anyway, we're just keeping busy doing a lot of living. It's already been a month since Mickey left, so yay, time's going fast!! Hope you're all doing great too!

Our California Trip

Last week we went to California for Mickey's niece's Quinceanera (15th birthday party), always a big event. We had big plans for what to do to pass the 5 days we were there, but between kids, naps, eating, and planning the party most of it changed. You know how it is. :) Still, we had a lot of fun and it was great to meet his family again. The kids were shy at first, but Mickey's sisters have a no-nonsense attitude about that and snagged them from us right away, so they warmed up quickly. :) Pretty soon they were both following Tia Eli and Tia Karen everywhere, and poor Tio Ariel couldn't get them off of him. That's what they get for being nice, right? LOL

Kayin and Kareli both climbed their first tree while we were at a cute little duck pond, much to Kayin's delight. He's been asking to climb a tree for ages, and this one was perfect for them both.

We went to a Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey Circus, which Kareli went nuts for. She sat on our laps and refused to let us sit back; she had to have her hands on the rail the whole time so she could see everything and spent the whole time clapping and stomping and yelling. Kayin, on the other hand, made it about halfway through and started asking "Are we done yet? Can we go play?" Crazy boy. :)

We also went to Medieval Times, which was AWESOME! Wenches (yeah, I know you love that, Troy) and Serfs served us food on pewter dishes that we ate with our hands while we we watched a 2 1/2 hour play. There was jousting, sword fighting, and skill displays, and they had horses doing tricks during the breaks. Everything was amazing. They only down side of the whole evening was that the knight our section was paired with was a little girly-boy, constantly flippin his waist-length hair and blowing kisses. He lost every event and was the first to die. :-( I got over it by cheering for the red knight who was really cool. :)

This was the announcer for the whole evening and had parts in the play; he was really funny and got everyone super excited.

Kareli's favorite part was the food (naturally; she never stops eating *smiling*) and the horses. Kayin went nuts for the fighting - he was on the edge of his seat the whole time. He liked it much better than the circus and says it was his favorite thing of the whole trip. :)

That's the green knight; he double crossed everyone but luckily got killed in the end. :) Oh, and they have a different story every night, so you never know what will happen.

Here's our fancy kids, all dressed up for the party. Kayin was so proud of his "fancy clothes" and showed them off for everyone. Tia Eli bought us all new clothes for the event.

Here's Oscar Jr, (a nephew, and Alma's Escort), Alma (the birthday girl), and Crystal (another niece, and Kayin's "bestest friend ever! I love her!")

Tragedy in the house...

It's heartbreaking, but these two poor children were drinking alcohol and got in a car crash (according to reliable sources.... them). Both ended up with serious boo-boos that required a full day of doctoring. Luckily Dad has a medical degree (or at least the supplies to do something; just as good, right?) and was able to fix them. Oh, the poor babies!

Updates on my life!

Hey everyone, it's time for my bi-annual update. :) Or at least it seems that's about how much I get on here. We've been keeping busy with life, the universe and everything, and having lots of fun. Dad was up all of June and I made him work his fingers to the bone for his room and food. We gardened, mowed, weeded, castrated pigs (I opted out of having him butcher chickens, lucky him), raked and shoveled sand, dealt with flooding, and a lot more. Oh, and he had to keep my house clean and the kids entertained on top of that. :) Boy was my life great! Poor dad. We went to a Milton-Freewater church reunion (I know, who's ever heard of that?) which was a lot of fun, and one of the ladies had this picture posted. How cool do we look?

We stayed in Tri-Cities for 4 days last week so Mickey could get his eyes fixed (Yay, no glasses in Iraq! Lucky dog, I'm so jealous!) While we were there we finally got up the courage to get Kareli's hair cut into bangs. Now we love it! We took her to a place called Monkey Dooz, where they can sit in cars and watch a cartoon while they get their hair cut. Kareli (and Kayin) really enjoyed it.

How cute is that?? She loves not having her hair in her face all the time.

Kayin graduated Preschool! He wasn't happy that I made him stand up front for a picture:

... but he was thrilled when he got to sit on Mrs. Brooks' lap and get his certificate. :) She's such a wonderful teacher; he adores her.

We had a ton of rain the whole time Dad was here and the whole back lot completely flooded. There were waterfalls and rivers everywhere, and it went up to our knees on level ground when we waded across. The pond above us flooded into ours, and ours flooded into the neighbor's below us. It was a nice cascading effect. :) Good thing they built the stuggas up so high.

This used to be the road, and all the water on the right is where the beach used to be. And the Strommers had just put down $100 worth of sand to get ready for a wedding reception. It took nearly $400 more to get it back into shape when the water went down. All the sand got washed away. Luckily it was perfect just in time for the wedding.

We made the most of the high water and went out boating nearly every day, once we weren't at risk of being washed into the neighbor's yard.

Troy surprised me with the announcement that I was now the lucky owner of two little pigs, as long as I went to get them and took care of them. :) Onery booger! But they are very cute, and the Strommer's call them Crispy and Crunchy. Dad castrated them while I held them, which was traumatic for everyone (Poor Kareli cried and cried every time the pigs squealed, even while we were just chasing them). They recovered quickly though and are growing fast. And it's much easier taking care of them when we don't have to walk five miles to do it! Yay for big backyards!

The kids throughly enjoyed dressing Dad up. He looks so beautiful in makeup!

Kayin was very proud of teaching himself a new trick. Freaked me out the first time he flipped over, I thought he'd crack his head for sure!

He's also very good at delegating responsibility. I thought this was a pretty smart arrangement for him! Notice Jarek is tied up and pulling him, while he sits at a desk they somehow wedged into the sled. :) We had to laugh at that.

Kareli is my little dirt eater. She loves that stuff! Kayin likes to help out by dumping it on her head, which is how I found her in this picture. That was some nasty bathwater!