Thanks!!!

Today I just want to say a big Thank you to all of those Vets out there who have sacrificed so much for me.

This is my Brother-in-Law Ben...Went to Iraq three times.

I'm sure I haven't told him or many veterans thanks enough...Thanks You!!! I'm sad to say that it took a day of remembrance for me to say it. But that isn't to say that I don't think it quite often.
Tonight I Oscar and I worked on some homework about what service men we are related to. It was fun to look back and to see the service men, past and present who have served in our families. This includes my Grandpa Oertli who was a Swiss army member during WW2.
Oscar loved hearing about who they are/were and what branch of service they were in.
Happy Veteran's Day!

Open Mic Delight

Happy birthday to me! I had a great birthday full of fun, friends, and a new stockpot!
My New Stock pot!!! Whooo hooo! Just what I was hoping for.

Ricky organized a night out to one of our favorite places...The Green Frog. Little did we know that it was Open Mic night and packed completely full of people. Lucky for us they made room for us.
It could be that two of us were quite noticeably prego and they decided they couldn't turn us and our kiddies away. (FYI-These pictures are all out of order ...oh well more to come on the green frog in a minute!)
Poppy and I spent the day together and we had some tasty smoothies for lunch that went along great with the yummy orange cake my great Neighbor Reem brought over for me.
The night before my birthday, Daddy and kids took over the kitchen to prepare for my birthday. Poppy decided she wanted some chapstick...lovely!!

It was a rainy morning and poppy decided I should try on her Rain hat.

Here is the photo of the packed green frog...notice the amount of children you see...none!

Betina took the opportunity to measure my head for my up-coming birthday present of a hat. She even let me choose the colors!
Ricky made me some delicious cheese cake brownies, topped with chocolate leaves (he and the kids had made earlier in the week) and brought it with us to the green frog. It was delicious!
Here is the little cubby where they made room for us. They brought in their outdoor tables and were incredibly accommodating. It was so fun to be stuffed in a corner with some tasty food and some pretty good music in the background.

Rick really made my birthday great! What a great guy!!
Oh, and thanks to my great family/friends who gave me a stash of chocolate for my underwear drawer...it will go to good use. Also a huge thanks to Merilee who every year makes it a special point to show up on my doorstep with a wonderful gift and a warm smile. How you manage to mother the world I'll never know...but Thanks for making my day bright!

Halloween??

Due to an untimely dropping of the camera, we are Halloween picture free. NO need to fear they did wear costumes and were incredibly cute. Especially when we went to Oscar's class for his party. Poppy( a beautiful butterfly) and Oscar( a Spy) were so cute cuddled together on the reading carpet at school. A kind mother took a picture of them but I have no idea who she was or where to get the photo.
We had a wonderful Halloween full of candy, friends (thanks to Betina for having us at thier halloween party), and a spooky goodness!

This however is a pitcure of us the day before Halloween, on a hike withour friends. Kamiak butte is gorgeous this time of year. We had a nice time in the wonderfully warm fall weather.

Rock Your Vote My Friends!

"There never was a good war, or a bad peace."-Benjamin Franklin

Rainy/Wet Day

Ready for rain? How about the snow? Yes, my friends we had a slaty-snow mix this morning.
No need to fear. Poppy was ready!

Will You?

Hold on bloggie buddies as I briefly...unload a quick soapbox on voting.
#1. I hope you are registered to vote.
#2. I don't particularly want to know who you are voting for, or why. I do hope however, that you have seriously reviewed each candidate and will be making a well educated decision, based on actual facts not the spam smear campaign emails that infiltrate all of our eboxes. A good site to check out the fact is politifact.com
#3. In a nation of uncertainty and common dis-trust for Washington politics in general, I hope that you will at least consider one of the two candidates and vote for the one that truly reflects the majority (we all know that both sides have plenty of things we don't care for) of your concerns.
#4. Hope...hope that with this coming election we will see some much needed improvement and some light into our dreary looking whitehouse.
Good luck to all and we'll see in a weeks time who holds the future of our nation.
Remember if you don't vote you can't complain about the job they are doing!

My vote is in...lucky for me our county is all absentee ballots and I got mine last week.
It's in the mail, and I feel relieved to have it sent off. To the rest of you who have to wait until next week...I wish you good tidings of happy polling.

Full fall days

Grandma and pa visit

Ahhh...the peace and tranquility that abound in my house when the GRANDparents come to town.
Soccer games, walks, talks, jokes, stories, bike rides, ice cream...

It is so lovely to have them in town. In fact I find myself with free time and not knowing what to do with it.
The kids on the other hand, always enjoy the little extra TLC they get when they come to town. Poppy was quite sad when we only read THREE books before bed tonight...
Thanks for Making the trip guys! You can move right on in when every you want! That is, if we can get rid of the little mouse that seemed to like to scratch the wall by your bed...sorry!

Half way, Half Marathon

20 Weeks...or half way through pregnancy! That's what the Dr. said on Thursday, along with the A-OK to Run the half. He said and I quote "you know that pregnancy wise, you are entirely fine running the half...the only risk is falling, so be careful."
With a go ahead and feeling fine I decided I would give it a go, with the opt-out option at any time.

(Me and Ashley one mile from the finish)

To be quite honest, I felt great! At the turn around point I was once again reminded why I LOVE running so much! I love that every piece of my being is engaged (baby too). The physical, emotional, spiritual...it's all there, actively engaged in one purpose. I just feel ALIVE!!!

(Check out Ricky's neck...mine was pretty bad too)

The protein we consumed in the form of bugs, was enough to fuel us through the race.

(Me, Dorothy, Mairi)

A couple of the other NIAC ladies ran their first half. I was so proud to have so many people I knew completing their first half marathon. There is something so inspiring in seeing someone accomplish it for their first time. Way to go to Ashley, Mairi, Dorothy, Sheri, Tera, and Beth!! All of these ladies (not all pictured) did it!!
Ricky took fourth place overall and first in his age group. My time was 2:17, not a PR but we'll just call it a Prego PR.

I have been telling myself for the past few weeks that I was only going to run through the half marathon and then, I would find another exercise source for those mornings...One thing is for sure...I'll see how I feel Tuesday morning and if my brain can handle the running withdrawal. But then, who knows if I were to actually stop running I may actually re-hab my hip for better post-pregnancy running. Ah, to run lighter with less weight hanging on my pelvis...that is somethign to look forward to!

O' boy's firsts

Oscar's first race...the 1 mi. Pumpkin dash.

Here he is post-race stretching.

Both Poppy and Oscar got to take a pumpkin home.

He ran so fast and was the first kid finisher of the race. There was one other boy his age and he made sure that he never passed him. It was so funny to see this little competitive side of him.

Fall season of soccer...ok so not really a first, but it is the first time i think he really understands HOW to play. He and Kade (the boy in the white hat) are the only two first graders on thier team. I think they enjoy being the big boys. He is loving Soccer!

And last but not least!! His 1st tooth fell out!!

He immediately pulled out his microscope and began investigating it. He had a hard time deciding on weather or not to "give" his tooth to the tooth fairy, in exchange for money. He loves to explore it. He eventually decided to put it under his pillow, and because the fairy knew he wanted it back, she left it along with the money.
He has now demonstrated that he can put a pretzel through the hole, and he has a whole new whistle.

Oh, and on the friend update...they are friends again and life is good. But we knew it wouldn't last too long. His bike buddy apologized and they are once again peddling to school.
I'm quite grateful because this pregnant body of mine is having a tough time making it up our big hills pulling the trailer with Poppy in it twice a day...let's just say my cardiovascular system isn't quite what it used to be.

Tender hearted

This is the Valuable lesson taught in FHE (Family Home Evening) last night...doesn't he look like a fierce pirate?
Don't be fooled by the rough exterior. Deep down, or not so deep, is a very tender hearted boy.

More than once he has come home from school or church very concerned over the welfare of another child. Then there are the times he hears me listening to NPR and he learns a bout the war in Iraq...concern almost fills his entire soul with sadness for that other person/persons.
Yesterday was no different except this time it was himself who was offended. He favorite friend in the world, the one who is a couple of years older but seem to always love playing together, riding bikes to school every day together, told him that he no longer wants to be his friend.
He came home on the verge of tears and broke down on my lap. I couldn't imagine anyone NOT wanting to be friends with this fun loving, adventurous soul. I asked about the details and truly, like all kid fights, they were quite trivial...something about the bigger boy wanting to make Oscar stay on gear # 2 while he switched to gear #6. I'm sure there is the element of the older boys pride at stake, considering the younger boy is very fast on his bike...but truly...is this worth the fight???
Today was no different. The boy once again informed him that he no longer wants to be his friend. We once again have the tears and sadness.
Although I try to explain that you don't want to be friends who aren't kind anyway, I'm sure it hurts just the same.
My poor tender boy...Thank you for always looking out for others and being so kind.
And to all of those who try to show my sweet boy what a cruel world it can truly be...I say, go hide yourself in a hole and do unto others as you would have them do unto you!

Poppy' 3rd B-Day!

For the past months since Oscar's Birthday, Poppy has only had one request for her birthday. A strawberry cake. It was always the same request with very little elaboration on what exactly that meant. A strawberry shaped cake? One that is strawberry? Or just strawberries on a cake?
We settled on making a strawberry cake (from scratch, no cheap box cake for my girl) with strawberry cream cheese frosting, and strawberries on top! And because I was not creative enough to turn this heart into a strawberry( as I was planning) we settled on a heart shaped strawberry cake...and she couldn't have been happier!
After a tasty cake we opened some of her presents...Thanks Grandma Edge for the fun dollhouse...it has really kept her busy.
We partied with the new Candyland game and read her new "Fancy Nancy Bonjour Butterfly" Book a hundred times.
Because we had the cake the night before ( due to soccer and other conflicts) Poppy and I spent her birthday morning reading more of her Fancy Nancy, and doing a bit of shopping for some butterfly wings of her own.
While visiting the fabric store for a pattern and some material, we came away with an already sewn, Pixy outfit that she declared as a butterfly. This mom couldn't have been happier to shell out the $20 for the outfit rather than paying the $40 on material and the time to make it.
I think we both got a little bit of a present.
We then went to lunch at the mall next door, just before going to have Ice cream at Ferdinand's with Dad.

Daddy and the Pink butterfly

Ummmm...Huckleberry ripple. I think she was having a great birthday!
After a few more rounds of Fancy Nancy I tucked her into her bed for a nap. When she woke up, we were back to normal: soccer, dinner, and dad's meetings.
It was kinda fun to do her birthday on a different 24hour schedule. That way she had a little more energy for it all.
Happy Birthday to the Poppy girl who is a Binki-free big girl who suddenly seems much to grown- up for a short three years.

Three Years Ago...

The Poppy Girl entered our world.

Her 1st Birthday! Ummmm delicious!

Her Second Birthday...a little less messy.

And as of Yesterday she is now 3! We had a great day and I'm going to post more about it when I actually have time to download the pictures...But happy Birthday to the Pop's!!!