Zoo trip and more grandbaby delights

Zoolights at the Oregon Zoo

We purchase a membership to the Oregon Zoo every year. This year we have our youngest 3 kids and all of the grandkids on our zoo pass. Plus we get 2 guests in free each time we visit. It really is worth the $.
I love going to see the lights early in the month because it gets me in the holiday mood.
We have never gone on opening night before but all the kids but Rylan were able to go so we went.

Henry's first trip to the zoo.

These glasses are so fun! They make each light have a halo of some shape around it.

We had to make our annual stop for hot chocolate at the Africafe.

Doesn't she look like a little homeless waif with her fingerless gloves?

The whole group (except Joylynn who was getting glasses for Rowan and Cam).


Fun on the homefront

Just a few pictures of some of the regular stuff that we did while the kids were here. Brushing teeth and bathing... not super big deals but when you have a camera around most of the time anything can be a photo op.
Doesn't it look like Henry is sooo in love with his Mommy?

He is getting a little big for my pedestal sink. Maybe next trip he will be bathing in the kitchen sink.

Aunty Lyssa got Henry his own "Hobbs" tiger. Do you think Henry looks anything like "Calvin"?

I asked Rowan to give a hug to his sister in Mommy's tummy. He did... however I would have preferred he face the camera. :P

Needed to post an update of the photo from a little over 3 months ago.
This was taken at church this morning. He is getting to be a big little guy.

This Gramma business is pretty great!

Thankful, thankful, thankful....

KatzenJammer Kids

These two are getting to be so fun. They chatter to each other and hug and tussle.


Thanksgiving meal prep

I had quite a few helpers in the kitchen today. Here is a sampling of some of their chores.
Cherise was up early making delicious pies.
Cam made his pumpkin pies with fresh pumpkin that Cherise brought.
Lyssa and Logan were on KP duty pealing potatoes.

The Hungry Gang

Everyone but Cherise, Henry and Rylan made it to the dining room to dish up when everything was ready.

Picture Time.... not everyones favorite activity

It is difficult to get 5 little kids looking and smiling and sitting still... They did pretty well.

The grandboys.... Wyatt, Rowan and Henry.

The grand-dollys... Genevieve and Danika.

I rarely get photos of Rylan so I'm taking advantage of getting this one of him holding Henry.
The K&C Family ->

Jess and Joylynn and their bunch.

Logan, Alyssa and Rowan.

Krystle and Tyler.

THE FAM!

I think this is the only full family picture we have taken since Cherise's wedding in Aug '08.
We sure love all of our kids!
We thank God for each and every one of them.


PIE

This is how we ended our Thanksgiving Day. Trying to make a dent in these awesome desserts.
Cherise made an Apple Cranberry Pie & a Pumpkin Turtle Pie.
Cam made a couple of homemade Pumpkin Pies.
Tyler brought homemade yumminess in the form of Chewy ButterCookies.
AMAZING!

For all these blessings may we be truly thankful!

Fall chores and Kiddo updates

We had great weather for doing yard work for the past couple of weekends.
Har got up on the roof and cleared all the leaves from the gutters.
Yup, he still climbs the trees to get up on the roof.

After that was done, he put up my Christmas lights too. Hurray!
Krystle and Ty raked all of the remaining leaves and filled the yard debris container.
The parking strip was raked and leaves piled on the road just before the street sweeper took them away. That was one fall chore done in the nick of time!


Haircut
Logan and Lyssa took me to the mall with them to get Rowan's hair cut.

He was saying no to the idea of the clippers. He thought they were too loud.

The buzzing was quick and then the stylist resorted to finishing with scissors. Rowan in reflection here checking out the process.

And then checking out the toy store for a "treat" for being a big boy.

PB & J with eggnog

Joylynn's kids stopped by for a few minutes the other day. They were hungry for PB&J. The eggnog was a huge hit too. You can't quite see it in the photo but Wyatt has a few teeth gone on top. Pretty soon he is going to look like a jack-o-lantern.



Park Play

Today we got out of the house for a few minutes to play outside at a park.
It was just a few minutes past 5 but it was getting pretty dark.

Rowan doesn't say swing and slide. He says "weeeee" and "aaahhhhh".
We did a little of each.

Next post there will hopefully be photos of every one of the kids and grandkids.
They should all be here for THANKSGIVING!

Early post this weekend...

I mentioned in my last post that Nicole had a birthday party on Sunday but her actual birthday was Monday so... in addition to having burgers and fixin's for Monday Night Football we had to have a cake too.

The extra large candle represents 20 years :-)

Thanks for coming over for the game on your birthday.
We were honored you decided to share it with us.

Weekends are for family and fun.

It is only Saturday morning but I feel like we've had a full weekend already.
The boys and I were gone yesterday to have Cam take his state tests for school.
Logan, Lyssa and Rowan came in the afternoon and stayed the night here on their way to Sisters, Or to spend part of their vacation time at his folks place.
Jess & Joylynn had an appointment and their kids came here. J & J came back afterwards to join us for Pizza Night.
Friday was also Life Group night for our high-schooler and college aged kid so there was a lot of taxi-ing to do.
It was a full day!
But I came home from one of my jaunts to find cousins having fun...

These guys are playing together much more now that Rowan is getting more social and communicating more.
Wyatt sure loves his cousin.

I think the feeling is mutual.
Have you noticed that a lot boys clothes come in stripes? So much so that we refer to Henry as our little stripey guy.
It wasn't until I put this photo of Wyatt and Rowan on the computer that I realized they were stripey guys too.
So of course I had to put a picture of Henry here with theirs.

"Hi" Henry... I can't wait 'til we see you at Thanksgiving!!!

It was a night full of pizza eating and apple eating...

with a few hurt feelings thrown in.

Aunty Lyssa helped smooth things out.

The Goodbyes are always the hardest cuz those kids just like to be here.

We managed to get smiles.... sort of :P

Rowan was anxious to get going this morning. He was excusing a little cough.
They are now on their way south and are going to get to see snow over the pass.


Way to go Cam!!!!

Cam had his mandatory testing on Friday and he exceeded his grade level in Math and Reading so he can drop the Skills for Success class for the rest of the year. He will have more time to concentrate on his core classes.
We think he is the Coolest 6th Grader around!

Cozy weekend....

BIRTHDAY WEEKEND

Logan and Lyssa.... started the weekend by going shopping and getting a lovely pea-coat for her to stay warm this winter as well as have enough room for her expanding belly.
I love this picture of them!

Q-U-I-L-T

I'm sure many of you are getting tired of seeing pictures of quilts but sewing is what I've been doing lately.

My friend Nicole turns 20 tomorrow.
She has the most romantic heart I know. So I made her a quilt with a Victorian feel.
It has a gold on gold rose pattern on the back.


Since Alyssa had a birthday this week, Logan made reservations to take her to the coast for the night. We got to keep Rowan here with us for overnight.

You can see a wee bit of the boy in this photo but the focus obviously is how Hayden has caught up with his father in height. We'll see how tall he ends up because I don't think he is done growing yet.

Rowan got a Handy Manny tool kit for his birthday.
He loves using the tools on just about everything. He is doing a computer adjustment here.

Grandchildren in the LEAVES!

We have loved our maple leaves every year we've lived in this house.

This is our 20th fall here on 15th.

We have photos of very small children romping in the yard and posing in a very similar manner many years ago.

I swiped this picture of Henry in the LaGrande-ian leaves from Kiel and Cherise's blog.

Isn't he a cute little guy!

I Dream of Krystle?

Nicole's party was a costume party today. Har and I didn't get to make it over there but we got a picture of Krystle and Tyler before they headed out.

I hear everyone had a nice time and I'm looking forward to seeing more photos of everyone and their costumes.

Jess, Joylynn and the kids left about 4 o'clock, Logan, Lyssa and Rowan left shortly after.

The kids got home from the birthday party with 3 extras to watch the Dallas/Philadelphia game on the "big screen" downstairs.

It was a nice weekend. Time to get to sewing this week's projects :)