Playing Catchup - October. The First Half Anyway.

My absolute favorite part of October was that Jamie came to visit! She was here for 10 days and half way through her trip, her friend (and now my friend) Amber came too! It was so much fun having them here. We ate lots of great food and did lots of fun things. Jamie and Amber are both incredible women, who adore my children and spoil us like crazy. We are so blessed that they came to visit us! 

One of the things we did was go to the archery range up in Forest Park. We brought Tyler with us. We were there for a couple hours and we had a blast. There was a guy there that was a modern day Robin Hood. His name was Jules, and he helped us figure out what we were doing. He was so nice and having never done this before, we were really grateful he was there! 

Sean's Dad has a custom-made compound bow from the 70's. Brad recently gave it to Sean, and this was his first time ever shooting it. It was really cool! We also brought a little bow for the kids since they wouldn't be able to handle the big boy one.

This picture lies. My arms were so sore from the gym the day before that I couldn't pull the bow back by myself. Sean had to help me. Ha. I had fun though regardless!

There are so many trails around there! E and M got a little restless so Jamie took them for a little walk. Soon after, Asher and I joined them. It was a little cold and wet but it wasn't raining, and it really was a great day to be out!

 Jamie and I took a trip to Moonstruck Chocolates. Because, Chocolates!

I love the walk home from school. We don't get to do it as much this year. With 2 boys in 2 different schools we usually drive to go get Asher, then go get B. Sometimes though, if we hurry, we'll walk to go get Asher then jump in the car to drive to get Brayden. We are so fortunate that their schedules are different enough that we can do this!

Maverick finally got his first haircut! He is older than any of the other kids by the time this happened. I was super reluctant, as always. But first haircuts always take a couple days for me to get used to, then I like them! I just feel like it's a portal from "baby" to "toddler" and sometimes that's hard to stomach.

Amber made the boys hats out of newspapers. Everett's wouldn't stay on his head so Sean taped it. Everett started running around the house chanting "Now I have a beard!"

Asher's hat has a hat! And he wanted a beard too. The boys played with these hats for the rest of the evening. Notice the yarn over Asher's shoulder? That's his Cat's Cradle yarn. He is obsessed with Cat's Cradle right now. Amber even bought him a book, and he's learned most of the tricks in the book!

Jamie, Amber and Everett went to the store. It looks like I've been missing out. I definitely don't have this much fun when I go grocery shopping!

Jamie snapped this picture of our family. It's such an accurate snapshot. Sean is studying (or at least attempting to), I am teaching Asher more Cat's Cradle tricks, and the rest of the boys are using me for a jungle gym. This picture makes me laugh!

Amber and Jamie watched the boys one evening while Sean and I went on a date. We tried Ethiopian food downtown. It was really good! And, further proof that Jamie and Amber spoiled us while they were here! Jamie had bought the boys a really cool fort kit that they played with while we were gone. The boys were in heaven. They really miss Jamie and Ambe rwhen they leave.

Jordan's Run

This was the 2nd year for Jordan's Run. It's a 5k put on by a high schooler in Banks. It's in memory of Jordan, who died of SCID July 1, 2013. This year, the money raised went to a boy named Dalton, who has the same disorder. I am so grateful for amazing people like Jessie, who sacrifice so much to put on an event like this. I'm also grateful for amazing people like all of the friends/families/ community members that support thost that need support. Such an incredible experience! 

Catching Up - September

I took a lot of pictures on my phone in September and I wanted to get them blogged! So here is a smattering of the funness that ensued at the end of Summer!

We were at a friend's house and her husband has this bike out front. Everett is obsessed with motorcycles, and when he offered to let Everett siton it, his dreams came true! He even got to push the button to start it up. Everett was in heaven! 

We played at the park a lot, and Maverick found a love of the slide. He went down this slide no less than 20 times. The best part? He could do it all by himself! He'd slide down, walk all the way around, climb up the stairs, get all settled at the top then laugh with glee as he would slide down. I could have watched him for hours. He was having so much fun!

Maverick LOVES music. It seems that all of my kids loved music but Maverick's is a new level of love. He dances constantly, and even if there isn't music, I just know that he hears it in his head. He is always dancing, spinning, singing. He plays the piano more than anyone else in this house. And he doesn't just pound on it to make noise. He deliberately pushes the keys. This boy is constantly happy and smiling, but nothing makes him happier than if he is listening to music.

Dad's cousin and his wife live 2 miles from us. They have a beautiful grapevine that is 20ish years old.  They weren't going to get to them this summer so they let us come and clip as many as we wanted. Mmmm. We also left with 2 salmon that Mitch had caught only two days prior. They sure do spoil us!

We took the boys to watch the airshow. It was ridiculously hot that day so we didn't stay in this spot long. We found a shady patch of grass that had trees for the slackline. We spent 4 hours in Hillsboro watching the planes. It was incredible. The Janeway cousins came and joined us too. Such a fun day!

Asher in his element

Macton wasn't feeling very well so after he woke up from a nap, he promptly fell back asleep on me. This never happens anymore! I had to take a picture. I am cherishing these memories more than ever, now that my last baby is outgrowing the baby phase!

Asher had his jog-a-thon at his school. He ran 2.5 miles in 25 minutes. Crazy animal!

Another day. Another park. Another slide.

Everett had brought his bike to the jog-a-thon and the cones were set up on the blacktop. Everett had a blast pretending he was on a race course.

It was a really hot evening and the boys were all shirtless (and pantsless) about to go to bed. Sean was wrestling with them and I had to get a picture of all of that skin! There are so many boys in this house. It's amazing to me that we all fit in this tiny space, and they still manage to wrestle and have as much fun as they do. I'm not going to lie though, I really cannot wait to have a bigger living area! Who knows when that will happen though. We are still entirely uncertain what our living conditions will be like in Hawaii. Exciting times ahead!

This picture is blurry but I had to post it. Again, Sean was playing with the boys and Asher stopped playing and just started busting a move. He was popping his hips and dancing and having so much fun. I wish I caught it on video!

Again, blurry. But I love seeing all these boys piled up. Wrestling is something we do lots in this house!

Brayden's Fun Run! I didn't get any great pictures of him, unfortunately. He also ran close to three miles in 30 minutes. I don't know the length of the track they ran so that's just a guess. I have amazing children. I am so proud of them and I love that they love to run. I hope that stays with them as they get older.

I love this kid's eyes. He was perfectly content chillin in his stroller watching everyone run.

One of the dad's that we were sitting by had ridden his motorcycle there. As I mentioned earlier, EB is obsessed with motorcycles. He went over to this dad and asked if he could wear his helmet. The dad happily let him! He even let him wear his gloves. EB wore this getup for a good ten minutes. And the smile never left his face. As the dad left on his motorcycle, Everett ran over there and watched him leave. He, too, let Everett start up his Ducati. Everett jumped and waved goodbye. He was definitely that guy's biggest fan that day!  When Sean came home from school that day, the first thing Everett said was "Dad, I want a Shoei for my next birthday!" (pronounced Show-y). Probably not going to happen this year, Son!

We went to Ryan's office to apply some vinyl and the boys got to play on the stairs outside the building. They had so much fun going up and down, up and down.

Morning reading session. The red splotch on B's forehead is a jaguar print tattoo that he had gotten from the Fun Run the day before. He was so devastated that I wouldn't let him wear it to school again!

I'm always reminded that 4 kids is a lot of kids when I take them to Costco with me.

Macton almost always wakes up happy. The boys rush up there to play with him for a little bit before someone grabs him out.

Ninja sighting. They are wedged between the wall and the door jam of the boys bedroom door. No doubt protecting them from evil while they sleep.

Farmer's Market!

There was a really impressive live band there so we stopped to listen! I look unimpressed but really, I was mesmerized!

We finally made it back to the BMX track!

Mitch had given us beets from his garden too. The boys had never had beets and I anticipated that they wouldn't like them. I maybe told them that if they ate lots of beets their pee would turn red and they thought that was so cool. So they had a competition to see "who could get the reddest pee." At first they didn't really like them, but that didn't stop them from eating them. They each had so many, they didn't eat anything else for dinner. They got full on beets! Oh, and then asked for more the next day.  Parenting for the win!