Saturday, May 28, 2011

New Blanket and Riverside Park

So I finally found (thanks to Natalie) some good photo software that's easy to use and just does simple stuff. SO I have some photos for this blog.

Now my next issue is that instead of showing me photos on the blog when I am posting something, I just see a jumble of letters and numbers. Anyone know how to get it to have the photos again so I can see them to put up commentary on each photo?

The first few photos are of two blankets I made with Natalie's instruction. I was going to just make one for new baby Emerald, but Dora desperately wanted one too.

Most of the other photos are from a trip to Riverside Park where I actually remembered my camera. We have been going every day to feed the ducks and to play but I never take the camera. I can't keep up now that I'm pregnant. Plus, no one really wants dozens of posts about the same activity!

So, here are a few shots. Now I'm caught up on my blog and ready for the new baby.

Oh and that shot of Dora at the bottom is her doing her "No" face. She blows at me with her tongue when I tell her something she doesn't like. SO funny, but I try not to laugh and encourage it.

























Sunday, May 22, 2011

New House

I don't think I've formally announced on my blog that we're moving. We move the second week of July to Texas--leaving sometime around July 16th I think. Whit will be out in Texas for a week for orientation then he has to come back out here to do 3 more weeks of work before joining us down there. We haven't sold our house out in Oregon yet (fingers crossed) but we are buying a new one out in Texas!

We found a great house we are really excited about. Red brick has always been my favorite--traditional facade.

Anyhow, it's a red brick house. It has 4 bedrooms, an office, a kids' game room, family room, media room and a separate "Man Cave" with a loft for Whitney. (He's really pumped about that! Blogger is being weird so I'll have to post individual tags on the photos below later. I am excited about the kitchen too, but it had AWFUL wallpaper when we looked at it (which has since been removed) and I didn't want to post my photos with the wallpaper--I'll wait for new ones. If you want to see more, email me and I'll send you a link.

It also has a pool and the yard is bigger than an acre. It has a big paved area for the kids to ride bikes, a three car garage (two of them are really BIG garage areas like for a small RV), and a great sitting area off the Master, another little nook room off the master, double master closets, a huge pantry in the kitchen, an over-sized utility room (with a pool bath--yay!) Anyhow, we are just SO excited. It's also in between Clint's and my mom's houses (around 10 minutes to each) and has REALLY low taxes.

For the other food storage/survival nuts out there, I'll also say it has a buried propane tank (500 gallon), and we intend to get a generator, too. AND it's on a well, SO, we could be off grid if we wanted to. haha.

It'll take some work too (I see several bathroom remodels in the future, and I want to redo the kitchen cabinets) but that's good right? We can do some fun stuff and put up before and after shots.

The point is--we're excited!! What do you think??










Photo Hiatus

Some of you (all two people who read my blog) may be wondering why you haven't had any new photos in a long time. Well, you can expect it to continue to be a while. There are two main reasons for this. First, we got a new computer (finally) because we blamed every computer problem on our computer being so old. Turns out, not so much.

Anyhow, my old editing software (that just came with the computer, I guess?) Yeah, it's gone. I HATE what this computer came with. It would be like switching from a potato peeler to peel potatoes to a woodchuck whose tail you have to squeeze to get him to chew on the potato and bit by bit, but you're trying to keep him from biting you or getting away. YEAH--maybe not the best analogy, but I find myself very annoyed. I am trying to get something new but so far, all I seem to be able to get are $700 potato peeling, dicing chopping, cooking and sautee-ing all-in-one machines when what I really want is just my old peeler back.

Problem two? Dora used my cable that links the camera to the computer to upload photos as a "leash" and they played dog with it. You'd think that was fine, right? You'd be wrong. It died. So, now I need a new cable AND a new potato peeler.

*sigh* Maybe I'll get this fixed and make it through a photo backlog on my camera before the new baby. Maybe not. :-) Until then, you're stuck with Whit's crappy snapshots he takes with his phone. Sorry.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Directions

I took a new route over to a friend's house to drop off a bag today. I accidentally turned a street early--and Eli immediately informed me that I'd gone the wrong way. I was supposed to keep going and turn on the next street. Anyone else LITERALLY have a 3 year old with better directional sense? I am not sure if it's a really pathetic commentary on me or really impressive he pays such good attention.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Lucky

I haven't been blogging much lately. Part of that is just that things have been really busy. We've had lots of house guests and I've been working a lot and the kids are so darn cute I just spend every minute I have left over playing.

But.

I had something to say that couldn't go without being said. No, it's not mentioning that my 3 year old son has learned all the letters (upper and lower) and is learning to read AND write. I have been thinking for weeks I should not this in the blog because it's so cute. He walks around all day with a pad and paper asking me what word he should write next. I tell him, then I tell him how to spell it and he practices writing. We have pages and pages and pages of paper covered with his newly-learning to write scrawl. We've done cards for the grandparents too, which I think are quite cute. But, that's not the thing I felt I needed to note.

It's not that we're moving to Houston, although I've been thinking I should officially announce that. We've spent a lot of time deciding and planning and so on, and we have even found a house. We close on it July 12, whether we sell our house here or not (scary!) We could sure use some prayers on selling our house out here, if you have any to spare. We are all excited, most of all Eli who just can't wait to live by cousins and most of all, Papa and Lerdleluh.

It's not even that Dora's talking like mad. She learns new words every hour and always astonishes me by the words she already knows and has picked up on. She is communicating better and better and gets so frustrated when we don't understand her. She is the CUTEST kid in the world (I have it on the independent authority of a lady I didn't know at all at the grocery store who just fell in love with her. I was actually a little worried she might try to take her from me. Normally I could easily defeat a 60 something lady but in my pregnant state...you never know.)

It's not that my mom's convinced the baby will come tomorrow because it's the 16th and both my kids have come on the 16th and Whit and I were married on the 16th so she's just convinced and now she has me worried... I still need the next two weeks to prepare!! My other two kids had to be pried out by crow bar and I have just assumed this one would be the same way.

No, the thing that just must be said is how grateful I am for my adorable, handsome, smart, kind, thoughtful and hardworking husband. He really is a superhero. Eli has been telling me he wants to be a superhero when he grows up and now I know why. He watches one every day. By what criterion do I gauge this to be true? Well, he works really hard--picking up extra shifts to help pay for a move to be closer to MY family. He then comes home, after working hard and not sleeping nearly enough and he does the laundry. All the laundry. He helps with dishes--he makes dinner and helps when I make dinner. He bathes the kids and puts them to bed. He washes and details my car and fills it up with gas.

Oh and did I mention he puts up with my wide ranging and unpredictable pregnancy (and non-pregnancy) mood swings? I mean, let's face it. I am pretty close to perfect usually (haha) but when I'm pregnant I can be a little... grouchy? That may be too strong a word (haha again) but Whitney deals with it uncomplainingly. (is that a word?)

I love you Whitney. Amidst all the stuff he does for me, he manages to do things for his extended family too. He also manages to be the best dad I know. He plays with those kids, even when he's exhausted and they KNOW it down deep in their souls that their daddy loves them unconditionally. They know that even when they scream (which they do) and even when they whine (which they often do) and even when they poke him in the eye or lick his head (which Dora has been doing a lot while pretending to be a cat) that he still loves them. He plays pillow run pass (don't ask), hide and seek, whee up, and on and on and on.

Whitney T, Daddy, whatever name you go by... we love you. We are so lucky to have you and we want the world to know.

xoxoxo
Bridget/Mom

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Urban Monkey

A new kid play place has opened in Grants Pass--wahoo. It's called the Urban Monkey and it's mormon owned. We went over there last Friday and the kids had a great time. They have huge bouncy houses, a room full of trampolines, balls and foam pits and various other things (kids' play room, foos ball, basketball hoop, skate park, etc.)

Here are the VERY few shots I got that turned out. It was kinda dark for my camera and being pregnant I couldn't follow the kids into the trampoline zone. Dora loved the big slide.

She also loved jumping with daddy.

You can't tell but they are all jumping.


This is Whit touching the ceiling. I like that adults can go play too. We'll go again after I have the baby so I can have some fun!


Dad's still got the moves--he impressed Eli with his flips, and I'll admit. I was impressed, too!


Fun in the foam pit. My kids LOVE a foam pit. LOVE IT. If you didn't see Dora, you knew she was in or headed for the foam pit!



Wanna come with us next time we go?

Monday, May 2, 2011

Ice Cream Cones

We have been eating a lot of ice cream around here lately. Dora and Eli both love it. I thought these shots of Dora were pretty cute.




She's been putting her face in her hands a lot. Cute!

Easter

This is Eli's first Cadbury egg that he can remember. He took one bite and gave it to dad.

Dora LOVES the peeps. She still asks for more.



The chicks that peeped in your hand were a big hit, too.

Official egg hunt in pajamas... You can tell the eggs were expertly hidden in very hard to find places...


The kids' favorite thing were the confetti eggs, which Dad helpfully showed Eli how to hit off the tee. Cute to watch--annoying to clean up!