Is it already December?

I can't believe how fast the time goes lately.  It's amazing that it's all ready December.  I am so far behind on Christmas compared to where I usually am.  We don't have anything done.  I have several projects half done but can't seem to find the time to finish them.  Usually this time of year it slows down at work but I have been so busy there I am working overtime.  I did find the time however this weekend to do our family pictures and they turned out so cute.  I typically have those done before Thanksgiving so I can do my Christmas cards and hand them out at Thanksgiving but not this year.

I am skipping over a Thanksgiving post.  We went to my moms and had a nice time but I want to get to posting our family photos because I don't have much time these days I am going to skip somethings and post the really awesome things.

I found other photographers pictures that I liked and they were taking their photos in Star, ID so I wanted to go there and find the cute barns and old cars they were taking photos in front of.  So we headed out to Star.  We got to Star and it was not what I was expecting.  There was a lot of new homes and subdivisions.  Where are all those cute old barns?  We drove around on some roads for what seemed like forever until I finally saw this old falling down house and decided we would just settle for that.  I was hoping that it would help block some of the wind.  It was FREEZING cold outside and windy.  Of course we couldn't wear our coats because that would ruin the color coordination I was going for and not look good.

I brought my tripod but realized I had taken off the part that connects my camera to the tripod and was not about to go home for it so I had to balance my camera on the tri-pod then set the timer and hurry and run into the photo.  It's pretty amazing we can get any photos that look good with this method.  The one we had the most problem with looking at the camera was our dog Bo.  He wanted to run around and we were having a hard time just getting him to sit.  He made it into 1 photo and then went back into the car.  Jaelee was so cute we would take a photo and then she would run and get into Greg's jacket and cover herself completely and lay on the ground.  I'd like to thank my family for bearing with me and letting me drag you all the way out to Star in the freezing cold.  Without further ado here are our photos.

P.S. I'm saving the best for the cards so you'll have to watch for that in the mail - when I can find the time to print and mail them that is. LOL

This picture almost was the Christmas card.  You can see in Jaelee's face that she was freezing and behind her Greg is wiping and getting boogers out of Jayse's nose.  LOL  LOVE IT!

Year 3 Books

I finally finished the twins 3rd year books.  I have been working on them for over 6 months and this weekend I sat down and finished them.  I am really loving this digital scrapbooking.  I don't have to print the pictures then cut out shapes and paper and letters, it's all just a click of a button!

Anyway here is a look at the book.  They both have the same guts I just change the cover for each kid.  I was trying to get these done for their birthday but looks like it will be part of their Christmas instead.

Year 3 | Make Your Own Book

Jaelee's Cover

Halloween

After we built the ship I decided I needed to add a few things to the twins' costumes.  I knew it was going to be cold and I didn't want them to have to wear their coats and cover up their costumes so I added a pirate jacket.  Then we didn't have any boots for them that looked piratie so I made shoe covers out of felt that looked like boots.  Both turned out pretty good I thought.

On Halloween day the twins got to come to my work for desk or treat.  They get to go around to every ones desk and get candy.  It's fun and they get a lot of candy because they get to go around several times.  I brought the ship to work and it was a big hit.  My co-workers really liked it.

Carving Pumpkins

We carved our pumpkins this year and the twins did a pretty good job helping - Jayse more than Jaelee. He did a good job helping Greg get the guts out and carving. I helped the kids draw a face on their pumpkins and then Greg and I cut them out.

Building the Ship for the Pirates

Every year Greg and I liked to make the Halloween costumes for the kids but since I have been so busy I didn't feel like sewing pirate costumes so instead since the twins wanted to be pirates for Halloween this year I came up with the idea that they needed a pirate ship.  Originally I had the idea to make it out of boxes and put it over our wagon but then I remembered that we had this piece of plywood in our garage left from another project and I thought we might as well make it out of that and then we could re purpose it after Halloween into a toy box or sand thing outside, or anything else. 

I did some research online about ships and then drew up the "plans".  Then with Greg's help I drew the outline for the ship on the piece of plywood and then he cut it all out. We still wanted it to fit over our wagon so Greg made a frame for it so it would slide right over the wagon.

 

Farmstead & Pumpkin Patch

We took the kids to the Farmstead Maze & Pumpkin Patch.  They have a lot of things for kids to do there.  The day they were there they had face painting, costume contests, trick or treating and a princess you could take pictures with.  And then there's all the play things, the big bouncy thing, the slides and many others.

We started off playing on the slide and then made our way over to feed the goats.  On our way to the goats we got a picture of Jaelee with the princess in the huge chair.  Jayse did not even want to go near her.

 

October Stuff

Random catch up of some of the pictures I had on the camera of the stuff we've been doing. October is my favorite month but it's been a crazy month this year. I have been really busy with work and the twins were sick for the better part of 2 weeks (and by the way I am home from work right now because Jaelee was sick last night). Anyway we have still managed to do some fun things.

Jaelee has these two little dolls and she wanted her hair done like them.  So I braided her hair and she looked so cute.

Road Trip

Jaelee and I took a road trip up to see one of my bestest friends in Northern Idaho. Jayse stayed home with Greg.  We left Friday after I got off work and headed up to Lewiston/Clarkston.  It was homecoming weekend at U of  I and Amy had the whole weekend off.  There was a lot of traffic going up because it was homecoming.  It seemed just as I had passed all the RV's going 50 miles an hour Jaelee would tell me she had to go potty and I'd have to pull off somewhere and watch as all the RV's pass by us.  Other than that we had a pretty good trip up.

It's October!!

Most everyone knows that I love October. It's my favorite month. So October 1st I had our Halloween decorations out and ready to be put up.

The twins and I made ghosts out of coffee filters and cotton balls.  Then we hung them from our light fixture in the dining room. They did a very good job. We also hung up some Halloween guys we colored last year. It looks lovely!

BSU Football

Where does the time go? I can't believe October is all ready almost over.  We have kept pretty busy this month.  First off I feel like I lost my 3rd arm - my camera.  Last month it got an error message on the screen that wouldn't go away.  I googled online what it meant and found this tutorial on how to fix it.  So I went to the store and got everything it said I needed and then Greg worked on it for me.  It would take one or 2 pictures and then stop after he worked on it.  I decided to send it to Nikon for them to work on it but that took me several weeks to finally box it up and send it.  Long story short I still don't have it back and have been with out it for over a month now.  I have been having to use our old camera and it seems like no matter what I do with it every other picture is blurry.  Anyway back to the good stuff......

In September we went to a BSU home game and tail gated.  The twins had a lot of fun running around and playing with other kids.  The game was a little boring since it was pretty much a blow out so I spent a lot of time trying to get photos of me and the kids.

Potato Head Glasses

While we were in Oregon Jaelee put on a pair of potato head glasses. I remembered that I had a picture of me with a pair on so I got a picture of her and then asked Jayse to put them on so I could get a picture of him as well. So here we are with our potato head glasses on.

Labor Day Weekend Day 5: Heading Home

On our way home we stopped to take a break and let everyone stretch. I snapped a few pictures.

Labor Day Weekend Day 4: The Beach

On Sunday we went to the beach. It was fairly warm and the wind wasn't too bad. It was really foggy though.  I hadn't ever seen it on the beach during the day like that.  It looked pretty cool.  Greg was crabbing on the dock and the kids were playing in the water and sand.

My kids like to pretend like they are a dog and fetch sticks (or anything that can be thrown). Jaelee was playing fetch with this big stick.  They think it's fun.  After the kids had played for a little bit I wanted to get some pictures of them under the dock.  I bribed my kids to get pictures by telling them I would build sand castles with them when we were done with pictures.  I got some cute pictures and then the kids played in the water running away from the waves.  Then we built our sand castles.

A day at the beach is always fun and relaxing and was a perfect way to end our time in Oregon.

Labor Day Weekend Day 3: Loon Lake

Saturday we went to Loon Lake.  It was really hot on Saturday which was perfect for a day at the lake.  Greg's brothers Scott & Brian were there with there families which is great because the twins get to play with their cousins and I love seeing them play with their cousins.  The kids played in the sand and water for hours.  Jaelee really liked this blow up pretzel and spent a lot of time in it.  Jayse love to play with this dump truck and pushed it up and down the line of the sand and water.

We also got to go out on the boat.  Greg rode on the tube while the twins and I enjoyed riding around on the boat.  We all had a lot of fun and stayed until the sun started to go behind the mountains.

Labor Day Weekend Day 2: More Crabbing

Friday Greg took Braydon and Tyler out crabbing on the dock. The kids and I were going to go to a park. We got all ready and headed to the park but they feel asleep in the car so I just drove around so they could get a good sleep and I could get familiar with driving around Reedsport. After we did several loops around town I drove out to the dock to see how Greg and the boys were doing.

It was SUPER windy out there. I took a few pictures of them and headed back to the car. I went back to the house and grabbed sweatshirts for the boys and drove back to the dock. The kids had woken up at this point so we tried to take them out on the dock but it was so windy they couldn't even open their eyes with out watering. I decided it was better to just head back to town. They were hungry anyway so we went to McDonalds and had lunch. Greg stayed on the dock with the boys. He took them later to a gas station and bought them a lovely gas station lunch. The twins and I went to the grocery store to get our ingredients for dinner and headed back to the house. We spent a nice afternoon just hanging out.

Labor Day Weekend Day 1: Crabbing

After playing at the lake we got to go out on the boat and go crabbing. Crabbing on the boat is a lot of fun. Greg gets the rings & pots ready, throws them and pulls the rings & pots in. We just get to ride on the boat and wait to see if any crab come up in the rings. The kids like to ride on the boat but they are afraid of the crab for some reason now. Jaelee would go to the front of the boat as a ring with crab was coming up. She wanted to be as far away as possible. Jayse likes to look at them in the buckets but wont get closer than that. This trip I pulled a couple of the rings which I thought was fun. I am also like the kids and will look at the crab but am not going to touch it. It was a lot of fun and when we had our limit we headed back in. Greg and his dad stayed to wash the boat and the kids and I headed back to the house. On our way back Braydon took a few pictures of himself and the blurring landscape as we drove home. You'll see his pictures below.

 The first crab in the bucket.

 

Braydon's pictures:

  Our crab loot:

 

Labor Day Weekend Day 1: Lake Marie

We visited our Thornton family on the OR coast for labor day weekend. We left Wednesday after we got off work and drove over there during the night.  It's really nice to drive at night because the kids watch a couple of movies and then fall asleep, traffic is lighter and the weather is cooler.  We didn't arrive until early Thursday morning.  We went right to sleep. 

Thursday we went to Lake Marie.  It's a lake just behind the ocean tucked away by trees. It was much warmer there than the beach because there is hardly any wind.  The kids got to play in the sand and eventually the water.  Greg made a friend with a traveling guy and his dog and our dog got to run and play in the water with the other dog.  Everyone had a good time.