It seem like only yesterday that I was called to be the Bear Den Leader for our church's Cub Scout troop. That was BEFORE Joshua was even a cub scout, before I had Oliver. Now I'm going on my third year as the Bear Den leader, and I can say that I really enjoy it! I think it's the best calling in the whole church. It's so much fun working with 9 year old boys and seeing their enthusiasm for games and activities that we do. It makes me feel glad that I can offer them something fun and educational to do once a week with their church peers. My favorite thing about this past year was that Joshua was in the Bear Den with me. It has been wonderful to spend that time with him every week. So the year went too fast, Joshua finished his bear and then turned 10...and now he's in Webelos. We both worked hard together to earn his Bear and several other awards, and it's been a rewarding year.
I think the thing I enjoy the most about Joshua right now is that he is old enough to have and share such interesting thoughts, yet he is still young enough to be innocent and sweet and helpful.
I posted awhile back that it was my birthday...and finally I have uploaded the pictures from the celebratory events. Brent had the weekend off so we could've gone to the coast and stayed in a yurt again like we did
last year, but I was fancying the idea of sleeping in my own bed more a bit more. So as is customary with my birthday (since I was quite young), we went out for breakfast. At the Multnomah Lodge!
It's just such a lovely, old lodge and ever since the very first time we drove through Oregon together I've wanted to eat breakfast there. Brent and I had an anniversary dinner there a few years back, but our kids have never been...and they beg every time we drive past. So we made a day of it, met my sisters' and their families, ate a scrumptious breakfast, and then hiked to the TOP of Multnomah Falls (which we've done once before, but a LONG time ago on our first trip to Oregon. Toby was 18 months).
some pictures from brunch
in the gorgeous dining hall...oh my, I wish I captured the skylight looking up at the waterfall.
The food was pretty good too!
My sisters and I + niece on the platform overlooking the top of the waterfall:
after a 2 mile-ish hike up
I have my 20 week baby belly
and my little baby bear
and all my wonderful boys
what more could I possibly want?
(Besides Elsa with us, which I'm sure she was).
NOW...for some more Instagram fun:
LOVE it! I don't know what I ever did without Instagram.
{I had boringer pictures, that's for sure}
The next day was Sunday and it was my acutal, actual birthday, so Brent made a delicious stir fry for dinner, at my request...and he made some key lime cupcakes from a pinterest recipe, which I also requested. He's seriously the best! We had our friends over for happy birthday dessert:
One year closer to eternity...oh yeah! I LOVE that.
I haven't blogged in so long...wow! I've been bad! Really, really bad! Just when I was *almost* caught up too...I've let it all slip again. Part of my problem is that Brent and I have an obsession with cameras. We seem to be collecting them. We now have 4 cameras!!! {How did that happen?!?} So downloading the pictures off of all those cameras takes SO much time, that I just don't want to do it. Urgh. One of the cameras is from my new ipod touch that I got for Christmas...the pictures aren't that great, but it's so small that it fits in my pocket, and I take it everywhere. So thus, it captures a lot of daily things that I normally don't capture. So I'm going back through the year to post the {very} best of, hopefully it won't be boring!
12/25/11 - a really great video of Ollie and I on Christmas Day...my kids request this little clip over and over so we've watched it a lot, and we always laugh! Hopefully the grandparents will enjoy it!
1/11/12 - funny pictures of Toby with a bubble beard:
I was washing pans and letting Ollie touch the bubbles and pick up handfuls of bubbles, and Toby came along and joined the fun! He made himself a little beard. Lovely! I really love how these pictures, and especially the last one show Toby's personality. He's a sweet, playful guy with a funny sense of humor...most of the time.
1/21/12 - Wilamette Falls after several weeks of very heavy rain, looking as full as I've ever seen it:
1/23/12 - a stroller ride through the woods with a bear and an owl:
...And later that day, it is revealed that Ollie has truly entered TODDLER-HOOD:
This is what it looks like when you leave your toddler along for 3 minutes with a bag of powdered sugar...haha! Thankfully our powerful Dyson vacuum got that stuff right out of the rug. And I'm really grateful that Ollie doesn't often make messes of this magnitude...he hasn't made one quite like this ever since.
1/24 - This is what it looks like when your toddler starts eating food from his own plate with a fork, and doing a good job of it:
1/26 & 1/30 - Some pictures from our backyard swings:
Gotta love Instagram.
1/27/12 - a free night at the Oregon Symphony and the band Arrival (a completely authentic and absolutely fantastic Abba cover band from Sweden), gratis of my sister Lara and her groupies (she always knows someone in the music industry...this time it's actually her in-laws who do sound/lights and sing backup for the band):
backstage with the band
2/4/12 - our first really nice day of the year...signs that spring are on the way:
1. Joshy finds a little garden snake sunning itself on the rocks in our front yard.
2. A trip to the park (it's finally dry enough) reveals the first daisies of the year...so pretty!
3. The first time all three boys ride the tire swing together...it didn't last long! Ollie was slipping through the hole.
2/5/12 - Ollie's first day in nursery:
anyone in our LDS (Mormon) faith knows that 18 months is a big deal because your baby grows up and goes into the nursery, and you finally get to sit through your Sunday classes and enjoy them! Ollie really enjoyed playing with the toys and eating snacks. He's having a hard time staying there without me though...but it's getting better. He's my first kid to have a tough time staying...my other kids didn't even look back to say "bye mama".
3/1/12 - Ollie has his first major owie. :( Sad! Sad! I was pulling a big, heavy homemade pizza on a pizza stone out of the oven and he ran up and grabbed the wire rack I was taking the pizza from. I was shocked because he has shown in the past that he knows "hot" and doesn't touch it. I'm guessing that he forgot because he was so hungry! Poor boy!
I called his pediatrician and she told us to bandage it once a day and watch for signs of infection. So we did a sterile gauze pad with triple antibiotic ointment, followed by sterile gauze wrap and a self-adhesive coban wrap every night before bed. It never got infected. The doctor said it would look worse than it really is for a lot of days and then suddenly the skin underneath would be ready and the burn would be better. I googled burns and learned everything additionally that I needed to know (or re-learn)...that it was a second degree burn, which takes 2-3 weeks to heal, how to treat it, bandage it, watch for infection, etc. It is time like these that I am really glad I took a semester long first aid class in college and worked in the OR (operating rooms) for a year, because I know all about bandaging and sterile fields...and I'm not at all squeamish (although it is much harder to see your baby's wounds than it is to see someone you don't know under a sterile drape). Anyway...Ollie did fine with it. It was sensitive for him and he treated his hand with care. He would point to it when I said 'owie'. He would not touch ANYTHING when his bandage was off. And he really only needed a dose of ibuprofen at night to take the edge off for a week. Sure enough, right at 2 weeks and 5 days the skin looked better! It was quite the transformation. And now there is barely even a scar to remind us of the ordeal. I'm so glad we got through that in one piece!
Boy wonder draws realistic portraits of everyone in the family:
Joshua drew these of Brent on 1/14 and Kate on 3/3
Are you laughing?? Cause I am!! Toby is crying...he's so scared.
Wow! No really, I think that Joshua has some potential and if he keeps showing interest in drawing we'll look into drawing classes.
3/4/12 - a spring time, evening walk through the wildlife preserve in our neighborhood:
niiiice and glowy!
3/13/12 - Where did spring go? We had our first snow day:
...and actually what that really means is that we had our FIRST SNOW of the entire season. That would explain why everyone was so excited.
3/14/12 - Ollie LOVES apples (well any food, really). I was shocked the first time he ate the whole thing...core and all, and handed me back the stem. It's a pretty regular occurrence now.
sitting in my sewing chair in the laundry room
3/18/12 - Mr. Potato Head? No, Mr. Ollie Head:
Well, I think that about does it for now. I have much more to catch up on, but this is a good stopping point.
