we are still alive....

Ok, so it's been a few months since my last post. I was able to blame it on not having a camera but since Sam bought me a new one for my birthday, I guess I can't use that one anymore. I have just been lazy and not kept up. I will try harder from now on.
I have been working part time since October at Macy's so that keeps me pretty busy. It's just holiday help at this point but may turn into something more permanent part time after the 1st of the year. I really like it, nice to have a little break without all the whining, being pulled on and everything else that goes along with having 2 little ones.
The boys are doing great. Porter is doing amazing at potty training. We started in August and after the 1st week, he really got it. He now only wears a diaper to bed. Wyatt seems to be getting a ton of teeth all at once. He only had 2 top ones and 3 bottom ones and now he is getting a 3rd on the bottom plus has all his back molars. He is starting to talk so it's funny to hear him in the middle of the night call out "Mommy" or "Daddy"
Sam has been staying busy at work too. We weren't sure how the winter was going to go but it seems to have stayed steady for now. He and the neighbors have been making a lot of sausage (scroll down for a picture) and they are making some more this weekend. They've nicknamed themselves STD Meats (for Sam, Tom and Doug) Tom even had some t-shirts made up for them. Men and their meat...what more do I need to say.
So here are some recent pics...

Porter and Wyatt

I thought this one was so cute.....

my little handsome Wy-guy

getting ready to go play outside

some of the sausage courtesy of STD meats

Porter's nice shiner.....we were at Macy's one day shopping and Porter was in the back of the stroller and Wyatt was in the front....Wyatt decided to get out....well, that makes the stroller back heavy and Porter tried to stand up at the same time and the stroller tipped over and Porter hit his cheeck on the seat frame.... and within a few minutes his cheek was so swollen that his eye was starting to shut.....it was horrible. It wasn't quite as bad as I thought in the days to follow but still didn't make me feel any less guilty. ...

Porter and Wyatt after their buzz cuts

so we are trying to get ready for the holidays. Lee and Sheri are coming to stay Christmas with us and they are heading out 1st thing the day after Christmas to head to Arizona for a few months. I think we are going to head to Roseburg over New Year's but we will have to see with my work schedule.

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!!

camping, camping and more camping!

well the summer has sure flown by! I guess that's what happens when the weekends are consumed with new camping adventures. We were gone pretty much every weekend except one in July so we are getting lots of use out of the new camper. One weekend we camped at Perry South which is on the backside of Lake Billy Chinook, we were within walking distance to the lake so the boys had a blast playing in the water. We have found that Wyatt has no fear, he will just keep going in, no matter if it's over his head or not. Then the next weekend after that, we headed to Diamond Lake to camp with my mom, Lee, Penny, Zoey and Rusty. The weather was in the mid 80's so it was nice but we didn't go in the water since there was a problem with the algae. The mosquitos were pretty bad...I took a shower and by the time I got to the car, I had 3 bites up my arms and some on my legs. It was a great time and I even thought I was going to get some pictures since my sister brought her camera.....no dice. I brought the laptop to download from her camera but her card didn't fit in the laptop.....darn it! Oh well, we had a great time and the kids had fun in the dirt.



The next weekend after that, we headed to Prineville to see the fair with Lee and Sheri. Porter and Wyatt had a great time seeing all the animals and petting them. They both also went on a pony ride....Wyatt liked it at 1st but after a few minutes he was ready to be done. (scroll down for some pics)



The weekend after that, my dad came over for a few days to visit. Since Porter was little, he has always referred to my dad as "buddy" so that is what he is called. Every morning Porter would wake up saying "where's buddy" and wherever he went he would saying "coming buddy?" it was a nice visit, we walked the butte one day and of course I thought I was going to die pushing the stroller up it....man what a workout! My dad got in some good quality time with the boys.



Last weekend we hung out at home and relaxed a little bit. I've been working on cleaning out the garage to get rid of some stuff and gather it up for an upcoming garage sale. And I got our extra room cleared out and organized which was an all day event. It was our one room that is storage and the "catch all" for everything.



And then yesterday the boys and I headed out to Prineville Reservoir to spend the day with Lee and Sheri. It was very hot so it was nice to play in the water. The boys had such a good time...once again Wyatt had no fear in the water, he would just keep walking past his belly deep...we had to keep a close eye on him. Porter met a little friend so they filled up some holes with water and he had a good time pushing his dump truck around. He also decided he didn't want swim trunks on, he wanted to be naked.....so he was the naked boy on the beach.

That is what we've been up to. Hope everyone has had a great summer! Now for some pictures!

Here is Porter with papa at the lake......





Porter pushing his dump truck

Wyatt hanging out in the water

Wyatt on the pony ride at the fair

Porter on the pony ride

the boys decorating a cookie

and away we go!

Wow! The last 2 weeks have surely flown by in the blink of an eye. on Thurs. 6/24 the boys and I loaded up and headed over to Roseburg to stay and visit for a few days. We got lots of family time in which was very nice. On Friday my mom and I took the kids to the fish ladder out Winchester so the kids could see the salmon...man there were some big ones! we then headed to the park so the kids could splash in the fountain and play. On Saturday I was able to take my dad out for a belated Father's Day lunch. But I have no pictures to post since I forgot to download them off my sisters camera before we came back.

Sunday morning we loaded up the kids and headed for the coast. Our first stop was in Bandon to check out the Wildlife theme park. It was very neat....they have a huge area for the petting zoo and you can feed all the animals. There were deer, goats, peacocks and ponies just wandering around. We then went to a fenced area where we were able to pet some lion cubs. We wandered around the grounds and saw some monkeys, leopards, bears and some other animals. After that we headed to the beach. The water was pretty cold but the kids found a little pond type body of water and proceeded to get soaking wet. Even Wyatt crawled right into the middle and splashed around. It was pretty darn cute watching them play in the sand and water. We weren't really sure where we wanted to stay the night so we got in the car and headed north. We settled on staying in Coos Bay and thought the next day we would head out to Horse Falls to hit the beach again (that is where we went a lot when we were younger) Well we are almost there and hit a road block - the road was closed due to the parking lot being redone. So other than putting the car in 4 wheel drive and driving through the sand, there was no other way to the beach. So we continued to drive north until we hit Winchester Bay and found a beach there. The weather was so nice....was 65 and no wind at all! The kids had a blast playing in the sand building castles and playing in the water. After a few hours we loaded up and headed back to Roseburg. The boys and I stayed another night and headed home on Tuesday morning. So we got home and then had to get the camper loaded up so we could head out on Friday to go camping. We went to Deschutes park again which is at the mouth of the Deschutes at the Columbia. The weather was warm but the wind was blowing so hard. Sam headed out to fish on Sat morning with his friend Mike but they were back after an hour or so because it was too windy. Porter had a ball just playing and watching the other kids play around the campground. We got home Monday afternoon and unpacked. Boy it sure is nice to be home this week to just unwind, catch up on laundry and get the boys back on schedule (they did NOT sleep very good while we have been gone)
So that's what we've been up to for the past 2 weeks. Going to lay low this weekend....I have a baby shower to attend on Saturday and I was thinking about taking Porter to see Toy Story 3. He is absolutely infatuated with Buzz Lightyear and I thought it would be fun to take him to the theater since he has never been. It's supposed to be in the mid 90's also so we are going to try and stay cool.

Everyone take care and have a great weekend!

pics from Wyatt's birthday

just wanted to post a few pics from Wyatt's birthday party. We had a great time visiting with our families and Sam smoked some tri-tip so it turned out to be a great day.

A sweet smile from Zoey.....

my boys in the backyard
my sweet boy

Wyatt with what is left of his cake.....

The beginning cake

nice big bite of yummy cake

We had a great weekend. Sam ended up getting together with the neighbors and they made some more summer sausage and some kielbasa which they smoked and it turned out delicious!!! The men are gettin g good....must be all the time that they spend playing with their meat! ha ha.

The boys and I are heading out tomorrow to go to Roseburg and then my sister and I are taking the kids to the coast on Sunday. It should be lots of fun playing on the beach and going to the petting zoo.

Just want to send out a congratulations to Clint, Tanya and Dane on their newest addition: Kimber Lynn Houston was born yesterday and she is beautiful. Best wishes for them and their new little one.

Everyone have a great week and weekend and I hope to have pictures to post when we get back!

Wyatt eating birthday cake

We had a birthday party for Wyatt on Saturday....I know....can't believe he's already 1 (he will be on Thursday) He was so darn funny eating his cake....I got him a little mini cake and he started eating it and then just smashing it until it was a big pile of mush. Anyway, thought I would share the little video.

Memorial Day camping

We had a great time camping in our new camper. The weather did not cooperate as it rained off and on all weekend along with high winds....we were sure glad we had a nice cozy camper to rush into vs. a flimsy little tent....lol. and it was also nice when the heat would kick on in the middle of the night. Other than a handful of things we forgot we did pretty darn good for our 1st venture out. We were right on the water so Porter had a great time playing in the mud...I definitely did not pack enough extra clothes for him. We got there Friday early afternoon and settled in and unloaded the boat. Then my girlfriend Amy, her husband Jayson and one of their boys Gatlin came out to hang out with us for the afternoon which was very nice. We were lucky enough that they brought us some lighter fluid for the fire (one of items we forgot) along with some tortilla chips (another forgotten item) Sam had packed everything to make guacamole and as many of you know, he makes KILLER guacamole so we couldn't eat it without tortilla chips....lol.
On Saturday morning we got up and went fishing. Sam caught 2 trout and had a few that got away as well. After a few hours we headed back to camp. Other than that, we hung out at camp and relaxed and had a great time. We can't wait to go again over the 4th of July.
Here are a few pictures from our weekend.

family pic taken by Sheri before we headed out


Porter giving a cheesy grin

Wyatt

Porter playing in the mud

after playing on the shore for awhile, Porter decided he wanted to go out deeper into the water.... which was very surprising because he usually is more timid but he was very brave.....but only would go out further if he was holding onto daddy's hand

Porter holding Daddy's finger

Porter watching Gatlin fish

Our campsite

In other news, Lee is recoving nicely from his knee surgery. We were lucky enough to have Sheri staying with us last week while Lee was in the hospital and the boys loved having nana here. They stopped by today to say hi after Lee's dr. appt and Porter cried when they left, as they were pulling out he was crying saying "I want nana" it's a far cry from when he was little....he would cry everytime he would see her..... he loves his nana now!!!!

Probably not doing too much this weekend. Sam still needs to unload the camper so I can clean it a little more and repack clothes and towels and such. We'll probably spend some time outside since it's supposed to be in the 70's both Saturday and Sunday..... that will be nice!

Hope everyone had a great holiday and has a great weekend!

Wyatt's finally crawling!

Wyatt's finally crawling...I think now I will definitely have my hands full......lol. Just wanted to share.