still around...

Hey all... just in case you're wondering, I'm still blogging here. Goodness, it's been a long time. Spring has passed us by all too quickly and I can barely find time to get the regular things done around our home with all the extras going on lately. It all comes on at once!

If you follow along with us on Instagram or Facebook, you may have seen some of what has kept us so busy. Here's more of what we've been up to...

Aside from our normal weekly schedule of getting Kai to and from Kindergarten in the afternoons, visiting with both sets of Grandparents at least once a week, squeezing in play dates, and attending church functions 3 times a week, we've found room to cram some special activities in as well.

Spring is such a busy time all of a sudden with a kiddo in school. It seems they pile on events all at once. Last week Malakai's class had a field trip to Public Works. It was an open house day so there were a LOT of other field trips and families as well. I was able to take Malakai while Ben's mom watched Desmond and Aurelia. It was such a treat to help out with his class and have some time to just focus on him. It was also nice to connect with other parents, since Aurelia was born on the 3rd day of school I haven't been in his classroom as much as I had envisioned.

The following day we had a Jog-a-thon fundraiser for the school so I packed up all 3 kiddos and joined the other Kindergarten parents and students in the rain to help count laps as kiddos dashed around the track. It was such a blessing because although it had been rainy and was pretty wet, the rain let up for the hour that our kiddos ran. Desmond wasn't too into it, which really surprised me. I talked him into doing one lap around with Malakai and they walked huddled together the whole way around. Malakai did 19 laps in one hours, which I think is close to 2 1/2 miles.

We've spent a lot of time at our pediatrician's office lately. Unfortunately all 3 kiddos have been suffering ear infections. Aurelia has had 2 in the last 2 months, Malakai had one and Desmond had a double. Keeping track of medicines has been fun. I've been really thankful for my collection of essential oils right about now for general sickness, ear discomfort and seasonal discomforts alike.

Sadly Malakai will need surgery to have ear tubes put in to keep him from having so many ear infections. I had hoped we would get past this season with no more infections, but he had another right after allergies hit. I'm wishing we had done this last year, but we thought for sure he'd mature out of it. After school is out we'll get it all taken care of and pray that ear infections will be a thing of the past for him!

Lately I've been spending a lot of time gardening. We have quite a bit of green in our little veggie garden! I have 5 different lettuces, 2 tomatoes, onions, carrots, red peppers, cilantro, basil and strawberries clustered in big and small containers. We've already enjoyed a few salads out of our garden, the basil is new within the last few days, and sadly the birds got to the few red berries I had, but I'm hoping to beat them to the next round!

The only thing growing faster than our little veggie garden is our sweet daughter. She is doing so many new things! She's doing this hilarious scoot crawl and she is FAST. She is able to get into a lot of things and I've found myself cleaning the floors much more often. She loves to spit her food, even when she likes it. 

We've also been getting outside and taking advantage of the great weather we've been having as much as possible. Playing at the park or in our own front yard has been a lot of fun. Aurelia loves to watch the big kids play so we will often sit on a blanket together while the boys play on the playground. Her new favorite thing is to pick and try to eat the grass now that she can crawl to it. 

She used to hate the feel of grass but today I set her down so I could carry a watermelon in from the car and she was very excited. 

Hopefully I'll get to updating again here sooner than I have been. I have so much more to share and I still have a few informational posts about essential oils in the works too! 

sunny days

It has been a gorgeous week of sunny days around here. We've been limited in our enjoyment of it, but have been out in the spring weather when we could. Desmond is on a nap strike so I decided to wear them out earlier in the week and we went for a walk to the park in the mid afternoon. I got some fun pictures and had some sweet conversations. 

Desmond has been narrating everything he sees, he will ask some questions but mostly he tells you what he thinks about the world. Malakai still asks a million questions a day, I love it (most of the time). As we walked by a house with freshly cut grass and clippings on the sidewalk you could smell it in the air and Kai said "mama...I smell green beans" in a disgusted voice. I try not to laugh at him when he says things that strike me as funny, but it's so hard sometimes. I explained to him that it was the grass clippings, but he insisted it smelled of green beans. 

Malakai looks so big to me, walking around without someone holding his hand (until we come to a street of course, no one lecture me please). 

Kai got ahead of us once we were on the path to the park, Des had to catch up with him and I felt super slow lagging behind them. They did wait up for me when they got to the park, how nice. 

{not quite heavy enough to teeter totter on their own}

They climbed around on the play structure and went down the slides a few times as usual. It amazes me how independent Des is compared to the last time we played at the park on a regular basis (early fall). He's all over the place and I'm not too worried about him stepping off of ledges to nowhere. 

I always suggest they run up the hill when I want to wear them out and head home soon. It's their favorite part of this park. Kai took off and Des ran after him...

This is the only photo in this post that I edited, because I wanted to see the joy on their faces but they were a bit backlit. However, it doesn't post large enough here to see. Click through and you may be able to view it bigger. Such happy kids!

At the top of the hill they discovered a patch of dandelions with a cucumber beetle in it and they had to investigate. 

I suggested we go on a walk before heading home but Des was breathing hard after the hill so we found a picnic table to take a rest but instead they both picked me flowers. 

{I came home with handful of daisy and dandelion tops}

On our walk Malakai declared that white trees are made of paper...I love the way his mind works...

We walked a few blocks away before Kai declared he wanted to go home, so we turned around and  headed back. This was the first time that they've both walked the whole way to and from the park. In the past Des has gotten too tired and needed to be carried back or we've had the wagon. They were pretty exhausted so we took a rest when we got home and early bed time went very smoothly. 

Des is still on a nap strike so I'm thinking with this pretty weather (if it lasts) I need to get them out of the house in the mornings to wear them out in hopes he'll actually go back to nap. Mama needs a break!

I can't wait for this weekend, while I have a lot of decluttering to do I plan to spend some time outside with my guys! 

Happy Friday!

Celebrating Fall

We've done a lot of things over the last couple months to celebrate the season.

In September we went out to Johnson Brothers Greenhouses nearby for a harvest event. They had cider and cookies and a free flower potting station for kids. 

When we arrived we realized we didn't have Desmond's shoes. We both assumed that they were in the car because he typically takes them off as we are going somewhere we've given up on putting them on until we arrive to our destination. So we just doubled up on the socks and carried him half the time, he didn't seem to even notice.

The boys loved digging in the dirt, picking out flowers and planting them. They especially loved watering them with the piggie watering can. The gal that helped them through it was great with kids. We browsed a bit and headed on our way to warm up. The boys were very proud to display their creations out front.

We get a LOT of leaves at our house, from the very beginning of fall and into the winter. The orange and yellow leaves are thanks to our giant maple tree out front. It dumped two times what you see covering our yard and driveway in the pics below. The boys really enjoyed playing in them, and thankfully Ben was able to get the majority off the yard before the rain made them soggy.

We have a lot of leaves in our backyard too from several small trees. Kai loves to help rake them up with Ben. There is another gigantic tree just waiting until we get all these leaves up to make it's contribution. 

There have been a handful of sunny afternoons, warm enough to head to the park. I love watching these two play together, such little buds. 

More recently we made a visit to one of the farms down the street from us to pick up pumpkins. Unfortunately the whole experience of riding the wagon out to the pumpkin patch and picking a pumpkin is too expensive for us. Thankfully our kids don't yet know what they are missing. They are totally thrilled walking up to the pumpkins on display at the store front and we are just as pleased to use free pumpkin vouchers we received from our mortgage advisor's office.

After getting pumpkins we stopped at a park on the way home and enjoyed a few more moments of sun. Then the boys colored them (we don't carve yet!) and set them out front for display. 

Last Wednesday we stopped at the other farm down the street for their last day before closing until spring. They have a play ground and goats, so the boys thoroughly enjoyed playing there. Thankfully it was nice and sunny, and not too cold.

For Halloween we didn't really have much planned for costumes, I couldn't get the boys to commit to anything so I didn't make or buy costumes. At the last minute I convinced Desmond to wear Kai's old Batman PJ's with the cape for his costume, and Malakai wore this awesome spider shirt that Grandma Debbie had made him. It was NOT a costume though, he was NOT spider man. Just Kai, in a spider shirt. He was very serious about that.

Ben and I didn't do costumes, but he did wear a Batman T-shirt to match Des, which rendered him the nickname, "Batdad" at the Harvest party that night. Our church puts together a HUGE harvest festival for the community out at Camp Harlow (which is a ministry that they run). There were tons of games to earn candy in several different buildings, plus a petting zoo with a lemur, bunnies, a wallaby, tortoise and snakes. Des feels the same as mama when it came to the snakes.

We are planning as long as we can to take our kids to the Harvest party and avoid the door-to-door trick or treating trend.

I'm so thankful we made the extra effort to get out and enjoy the fall weather before it turned into the rainy cold mess that it is here in the winter, which is surely just around the corner!

today at the park...

...this cuteness happened-

and there was a LOT of giggling.

park picnic

Last week we planned a park picnic with some of my friends from my old job. Which included Henry (who I used to do daycare for). We don't see them nearly enough, it was so fun to get together. The weather here is hard to predict in the spring. It can be beautiful and sunny or grey and rainy. Somehow we landed on a perfect sunny (but a bit windy) afternoon.

After work we met up at the park by our house. We each brought something to share for the picnic. The park was really crowded when we first got there, but soon the crowed thinned out as it neared dinner. Once we finished eating we had the whole playground to ourselves!

{we broke down + let Kai play in the sand cause all the cool moms were doing it}

{Jenny + her almost 2-year-old Henry}

{Kacie + her almost 10-month-old, Emmiana}

{Jacoby, Henry, + Malakai playing on the "car" before we headed home}

We had such a great time and even Ben (the only dad that could make it) enjoyed himself. All three of us were EXHAUSTED when we got home. We gave Kai a very thorough bath and had some quiet playtime before he conked out for the night. We weren't far behind him. 

photo friday: finally spring

I've been agonizing over blog posts + facebook updates from those of you in warmer climates talking about your lovely weather and calling it "summer" already. In Oregon's Willamette Valley spring is a bunch of rain mixed with some sunshine (which makes vibrant rainbows), but mostly cold.

This week we were finally able to experience the spring that the rest of you have been talking about. Unfortunately yesterday I was feeling quite miserable so we stayed inside, but this morning we went for a walk to the park and played outside for a good hour and a half. It was warm enough for me to take off my sweater on the walk home!

We ate lunch with the back door open, airing out the house, and I felt too productive to take a nap wile Kai snoozed, so I worked on things for my job and calling doctors, nurses + schedulers to figure out Malakai's consultations + surgery stuff for the next couple of weeks. Plus, we're finally getting our flu shots! Well, I am, and Kai is getting his booster. We're so late that our doctor's offices were both out of the vaccines so we're going to Public Health.

Of course I grabbed my camera while we were out this morning and snapped some photos of play time at the park and a few things blooming out my front door.

{looking cool in daddy's shades}

{top left: asking me "please" for help...then he learned to go down by himself!}

{he loves to climb!}

{he kept putting the bark in the holes on the stairs, driving the car, sitting at the table}

{he discovered a stick, it was the most fun he's ever known}

{pink hyacinth lining the walkway to our front door}

{the first tulip}

What has spring been like where you live? 

Happy Weekend!

photo Friday: it's been awhile

It's been a while since I've done a photo post... I doubt they've been missed since I can rarely bring myself to post anything without photos.

Anyway, we got our family pictures back. Here are a few {ok, a lot} of our favorites.

One

a river runs through it...

On Saturday Ben + Malakai took me on my belated Mother's Day walk down the Willamette River. We started at Alton Baker Park and were shocked at what we saw...

{Ben had to have some fun}

If you look closely, you can see a duck floating by the bench. This is actually a bike/walking path that runs along the river. Thankfully, just the lower part was flooded. The river was raging just at the tree line in the back, but then lapped up like a lake at the edge. We walked underneath the footbridge you can see up at the right and along the river. It felt strange to be that close to the water.

Along the way we saw a large group of geese. I am normally not a fan of birds, but there were goslings. Baby animals of all kinds are my favorite. Malakai really loved watching them search through the grass for worms. 

Although it was warm, it was very overcast which makes for great lighting for photos. We stopped several times along the way to take pictures.

I also took some photos of the scenery. This is McMenamins North Bank. McMenamins has unique restaurants spread out all over Oregon & Washington. We love them. There are 3 in Eugene, but North Bank is a favorite because of it's location right on the river.

This is Ferry Street Bridge. A main bridge to get from one side of the Willamette to the other. It goes right into the heart of Downtown Eugene.

On our way back we came across the geese again. This time they were hiding in some blackberry bushes behind the railings.

Aren't they so cute?!

We had such a good time getting some fresh air and experiencing new things and places with Malakai.

Sunday was a fun day as well, more on that tomorrow.