End of October

We are going to be spending the rest of the month of October up at Logan and Alyssa's house. While there we will celebrate Rowan's 1st birthday!He can trade his happy meal box for a birthday hat. We will take pictures. So you will be ooohhing and aaahhhing over the cuteness early next week.

In other news... we have gotten a couple of letters from Krystle. She is scheduled to graduate from boot camp on November 14th. In her most recent letter she said "To sum up my life at the moment read 2nd Timothy Chapter 3." We are confident that God is sustaining her at this time. He holds the victory over all things.

Grandkids suit me to a "T"

Genevieve got a new little tea set yesterday. It is a Disney Princess one.

She had to try it out at Gramma's today. They even had to turn around part of the way here because she forgot it at home.

She usually dresses up for tea but today Old Navy Halloween t-shirts were the attire of the party.

Here is the family having tea.

Wyatt has fine form.

Miss Danika has a little bit to learn. She liked it though. Sugar Plum Spice!  YUM!

Pumpkins at Pizza night

Pizza night again. It has been a long time since Jess and Joylynn and the kids have been able to make it. Rylan is working every Friday night and misses out :(
But we saved him some tonight.

Here is a boy totem pole.

Here is a wiggly girl one.

Look at that jackolantern smile!

This little pumpkin needed some tickles to help her smile.

It doesn't take much to make this dolly look and smile.

Even their Momma and Daddy posed with a pumpkin.

Lucky us. We get to have Wyatt spend the night. Here he and George are waiting for Gramma to read them a bedtime book.
It was a good Pizza Night.

I love FALL!

Courtney picked up some maple leaves on her way home the other day.
Of course I had to take a picture of them :) I have stubbornly refused to light the pilot on the furnace. I figure we can afford to put on more clothes and run around the house a bit to get blood flowing better than we can afford the extra natural gas costs.
It has gotten down into the thirties outside but hasn't gotten below 65 here in the house.

We are using up some scrap wood and pieces of a couple of trees that we had removed from the side of the house a few years back.
Cozy warm fires in the fireplace insert are so fun.

Sometimes we are relegated to warming our hands over candles or around cups of hot chocolate. But sooner or later I'll cave and let them have central heating back.

Our scare"crow" doesn't mind the cool rainy weather. It's all a part of Fall in the Northwest. And you know what comes after that... more rain and more cold and WINTER! My favorite season of all.

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry

Our school, Oregon Connections Academy, rented the museum for the evening.
All currently enrolled families were invited to attend.
Har, Rylan, Hayden, Cam, Courtney, Wyatt, Genevieve, Danika and I all went. We had some friends that are also ORCA families meet us there as well. It had been a long time since we had been there and it was fun to see the grand-kids enjoying different things.

Take a pop bottle add a little water and pump air into it. Whoosh! It takes off like a rocket. Genevieve waiting patiently to hit the switch.

Wyatt and his Grampa in a space capsule.

Boys, boats and water. There are so many things to play with.

These guys loved this room with it's hand lenses and microscopes.

Danika was relegated to riding in a stroller the whole night. The toddler area was closed to our group. She took it all in stride. Here she is with a snack this afternoon. She is turning into a real munch mouth.

She is such a happy baby though.

Happy 3rd Birthday Genevieve!

Today was Genevieve's 3rd birthday. We looked back at the blog from 3 years ago to see her as a tiny little baby.
She is a quite independent and wonderful young lady now.

A purple 3 and three cute finger puppets decorated her cake.

Her Momma and Daddy got her a Dora scooter and her 3 uncles got her a My Little Pony from each of them.

Here she is "cheesing" with her Mom.

And here she is with her big brother and little sister too.
She gets to hang out with Daddy tonight because he had to work today.

It is super fun to have you for a grand-daughter Genevieve. I hope you had a fun birthday here at Gramma and Grampa's.
We love you!

Slow news days...or photo days

Even though the grandkids were at the house, I didn't get my camera out. :(


I did take pictures of Cameron doing a science experiment. Observing a flower and labeling all of the parts. Fun stuff :)


But I'm posting a couple of unique photos that I took around 8 a.m. on Wednesday as I pulled into the mall parking lot.














Doesn't Lloyd Tower look cool with the sun shining on it through the fog?



Sorta looks like a towering inferno hey?

Many years of marriage... and time with friends

On October 1st, 1983, Mike and Naomi Mata were married. We were honored to be able to celebrate their Silver Wedding Anniversary (that's 25 years in case you don't know) this weekend with a nice dinner with some of her siblings.
We were trying to come up with how many years of marriage we represented at the table. It is something over 220.

Mike and Naomi (25 years)

Byron and Anita (24 years)

Iris & Ivan (47 years)

Howard (sixteen years before Orma passed away) & Kathy now 7 years

Darrel and Janet (33 years) Looks like he may be objecting to my picture taking :)

Clint and Judy (soon to be 47 years) I think they got married in Kindergarten.

Naomi is my stand-in with Har, we've been married 29 years.
It was really nice to get together with that group. In looking at the photos I'm amazed at how dominant that blue eye color is in that family. Wow.

This is Rowan this morning with his signature hair-do.

We had a visit from a friend and his daughter (also a friend) and her little boy. Jenny and Nicholas are here for a couple of weeks from the San Diego area. They got to visit with Alyssa and Rowan here too.

Jenny, Nicholas and Grandpa Craig.

Courts studying.

Hayden taking a break from school.

A boy and his dog (sorta). How perfect is that!

First of October photos

As you can see our leaves haven't started to change yet on the maple tree. This maple isn't doing very well. It has a number of branches that didn't leaf out this year. We need to mark them somehow and prune it this winter so it comes back healthier next spring.
It is the best climbing tree ever.

Danika LOVES to walk.

She also likes to play with Cousin Rowan.

We went to a mall in Beaverton to have Rowan's official 11 month picture done.

Stopped to see the animals at the pet store.

Here is a photo of the photos. I like the fall decor.
A fitting thing for a little guy who will be one on November 1st.