Oscar's first haircut

He's a heartbreaker.

First snow day

We had our first snow day in Corvallis.  Lucia skipped into our room that morning and said "hey mom, guess what, there's a car.........." and she stopped and looked out the window and said "there's another one!"  I said, what?  She said another car that's covered in snow!

They were so excited, they immediately went outside in their pajamas.

 We came in and had breakfast and got bundled up for a walk.  It was a fun day without an agenda.  Love that!

Tree cutting adventures

Cut a tree this year with some dear friends.

Sweet moments

Lucia started learning the violin/fiddle a couple of months ago.  She is learning the Suzuki method and I'm learning along with her.  I LOVE it and she seems to really, really enjoy it too.  Practice so far is fun and not stressful (knock on wood).  Instead of regular, formal recitals, our lovely teacher has the kids perform at an assisted living facility in town.  Seriously, it is the epitome of sweet.  The residents are almost in tears when these kids come.  It is a huge hit there!  The kids can totally choose if they want to play in the group and if they want to do a solo.  If they don't want to play that day, that's totally fine too.  No angst, just fun.  It is, I mean, AWESOME!  Lucia watched at the first one and this time she played in the group and alone. We will be learning our first fiddle song soon!

Embracing the rain and walks to preschool

It's fall in Oregon and the rains have started!  The first day it rained hard we walked outside and the kids were just bummed.  There was some moaning and groaning and Oscar asked,  "Mami, when is it going to stop?"  My answer was "in march!"

Ha ha.  Anyway, Lucia's preschool is about a 20 minute child's pace walk and we've made it a goal to walk or bike there and back as much as we can.  We have done it all but maybe 2 times.  They got some umbrellas and along with the raincoats and rain pants, they are set.  And before we knew it, it's just part of our day and that's that.

 Lucia picked out matching umbrella, raincoat, and boots.  She's hard to miss!

Some mornings, it's a chore to get them all ready (and me) and out the door.  But, I'm always grateful.  It's a sweet time to just enjoy the outdoors, our neighborhood, and each other.

Scott's birthday and Thanksgiving

Birthday and Thanksgiving all in one week!  The kids were excited it was Scott's birthday.  Lucia asked, "Dad, why aren't your friends coming over?"  We laughed.  He said, "ha ha, I have friends!"  Tee hee.

He had plenty of help blowing out the candles.

On Thanksgiving morning, we joined some other families for a hike and decided it was a great tradition so hope to continue it from now on.

We have also been working on a 'thankful tree'.  The kids drew a tree and then cut out leaves and we write on them things we are thankful for.  So far we have my family, my cats and dog, McKenna (Lucia's buddy), Felix being born, and my bike.  Working on some more but that's a good start.

And then there's Felix, going along for the ride.

Breitenbush with the McSpeert's

Another trip to Breitenbush never fails to bring great times.  Again, with the McSpeert's at the almost exact same time as last year.   This time, with brand new baby boys in tow.  The ladies (Lucia and Elizabeth) had a blast of course and picked up playing together as if no time goes by.

 Kathleen and I had these two ladies in 2008 just 7 months apart in age.

And we've got these boys about 6 weeks apart.

 And then there's this guy in the middle, Mr. Enthusiasm.  He is especially enthusiastic about being a big brother. 

 And here we are, family of 5.  Crazy!

 And here are my boys, cuddling up in the Breitenbush cabin after a soak.  Sweet times!

SUMMER 2012!!!!

Well, I wasn't a very good blogger this summer but I thought I would post a recap.  It was an incredible, memorable, awesome summer of course starting with the birth of Felix.  Scott was able to take 10 weeks off work which made all the difference for us and especially for Oscar and Lucia.  I truly think that the relationships among our 3 children will fluorish more because of it!  So here are some fun pics of us chillaxin' and having fun.

Here's my breastfeeding support group:

 Lucia gets a new tag-a-long and she is pretty gung-ho about it!

Scott took the kids to Oregon Country Fair.  They are still talking about it...

Nana came to visit!

 These silly willys did a lot of blueberry picking, I mean eating.  Us grown ups did most of the picking!
First smiles.....

 The county fair!

 Hiking

 The bathroom!  More on that later!

We went on an awesome camping trip to the coast with 5 families and something like 14 kids!  The weather was epic!  It was our first trip in the van, all 5 of us..

It was also our yearly anniversary trip.  Here we are-- 11 years married.  Lucia already off playing with her friends.  the boys hanging with us!

Then we took a very short, but highly enjoyable camping trip to Silver Falls State Park.  First time there.

Oh yeah, and the Cox's came to visit too!

 Mostly we hung out a lot....getting to know each other.

 Wow, I am so grateful!

Wow, Wow, WALDO!

Our last camping trip was a few weeks ago to Waldo Lake.  It was one of the last weekends it was open and it was absolutely epic!  The weather was warm, clear and beautiful.  It was one of my fave places before and now it most certainly is up there!  We had a GREAT time.  This time, we pitched a tent so we had a little more room for our growing family.  Of course, we hung out in the van a lot.

 Oscar spent a lot of time doing one of his favorite things--throwing rocks in the lake.

 Oscar and Lucia spent hours making things.

 Here's their garden made of sticks.

 There's was lots of kissing.

 Hanging out on the beach.

 And more hanging out.

 Oscar decided that going 'bumpety bump' on his balance bike was much more fun than that pavement! So he insisted on riding on the trails and as most oregonians know, Waldo Lake is trail heaven.  Lucia wanted to try it too and she was rocking the trails on her pedal bike but we don't have a pic of that yet.  Wonder what this holds for us in the future....

Tonite when I was putting Lucia and Oscar to bed, she said "when I grow up, I want to stay with you. And I want Felix to stay too, and Oscar too.  Maaaaybe dada.' 
These are sweet times and I'm trying to cherish all the moments.  Can't believe she's so big. 

Baby doll lover in-training

The kids think it's time for Felix to play with baby dolls.  He is going along with it so far.