Day 703

Kaitlyn has developed what I call a "cheese" face. She smiles so hard sometimes that her whole face scrunchies up. It's super cute, but we are going to work on remembering how to smile softly again.

Day 702

Another masterpiece by Parker, this one titled "Nemo and Friends."

Day 701

Les and Parker headed over to Grandpa's for some Sunday Football. Parker was completely entertained by Grandpa's iPad and successfully opened up some new levels for him on Angry Birds.

Day 700

Kaitlyn spent a good part of the morning on an adventure with Woody - I am not sure quite what they were doing, but it involved a lot of "Yee Haw!"

Day 699

After a busy day of errands and seeing Tangled at Clackamas Town Center, the kids and I relaxed with a quiet evening at home while Les went to a Blazer game. Parker completed his first 100 piece puzzle! He and I did it once together then he took it apart and did it a second time all by himself.

Day 698

For 2010, I continued by unbroken streak of taking hardly any photos at on on Thanksgiving. However, Aunt Susie to the rescue! She snagged my camera during a lull in the food prep and snagged this photo of the Haines family.

Day 697

Les made his standard pre-Thanksgiving Costco run and brought home the goods in these cardboard boxes. The kids decided that the best thing to do was strip to their unders and run around with the boxes on their heads chasing one another. This was great fun until Kaitlyn ended up taking a header down the stairs. Thanks to the box acting as a helmet & body armor, she wasn't injured. Needless to say, that was the end of that game.

Day 696

The kids were disappointed that there was hardly any snow on the ground, but both of them were pretty excited to be wearing their new scarfs to school for the first time.

Day 695

Although it wasn't much, this technically counts as our first snowfall of the year. I think it was about an eighth of an inch.

Day 694

Uncle Mike and Uncle Andy babysat both kids solo for the first time while I took Mom to go and see the new Harry Potter movie. Les still wasn't home from Los Angeles, so the uncles took over while we met Mindy and Carrie at Bridgeport for the movie. Afterwards, I treated the boys to Chinese food for dinner as a thank you.

Day 693 - part two

Usually I can narrow my photos down to one a day, but I needed a second this time. These are the Chilean miners who were trapped underground for months. They were honored at the CNN Heroes event that Les attended. His seat was about 8 rows back from the stage and he saw quite a few celebrities (LL Cool J and Renee Zellweger to name a couple).

Day 693

Grayson and family came over for a pajama party play date. When they arrived and Parker saw Grayson in his Batman pjs, Parker had to rush to his room and change into his matching ones. They played so well together. Parker did really well with Rhiannon too - but Kaitlyn wasn't interested in Rhiannon when she realized that she's not quite old to play how Kaitlyn wanted to.

Day 692

Here's Les' hotel room in Los Angeles. He traveled down south to attend a dinner with Anderson Cooper as the guest of honor. One of Les' clients is sponsoring the CNN Heroes banquet and Les was invited to attend the dinner, the red carpet events and the taping of the show.

Day 691

With Les at a Blazer game, Grandma came over and played play-doh with the kids and me. Kaitlyn had some trouble keeping the play-doh off her shirt, so we removed the offending garment. The kids had a fun time making cakes and cupcakes with the new set that Kaitlyn got for her birthday.

Day 690

Kaitlyn got some new purple shoes with glittery laces and she is in love. She wore them to bed - after she'd been asleep for a while I tried to take them off and she got mad at me. Oh well, cant' hurt anything I suppose.

Day 689

Kaitlyn has been enthralled with Parker's train sets lately. She sets up the tracks all by herself and all the train cars must be organized by color. She's also become an expert at making train noises and doesn't like anyone else to make the noises with her - especially not Parker.

Day 688

Here we have a Daddy turtle swimming in the ocean and a Mommy turtle on the sand with all of her babies and her eggs too. I am going to have to get Parker to start signing his work - as that will increase the value when he get famous.

Day 687

To celebrate Bailey's third birthday we joined family and friends at Safari Sam's. We'd never been there before, but it was kid heaven. The play structure was enormous and Kaitlyn jumped right in - as long as Daddy went with her. But it took Parker a while to warm up, finally it was cousin Tobey that convinced him it would be fun. After cake, we tried our luck at the arcade games. With all of our tickets, the kids jointly picked a pack of silly bands as their prize. And so the first "fad" toy has taken over our family.

Day 686

Saturday dinner consisted of only us and Grandpa tonight. Since Red Lobster was busy, we convinced him to try Gustav's again. Both of the kids really liked the Swiss cheese fondue that we had as an appetizer.

Day 685

Parker snapped this shot, which shows our solution to the "Kaitlyn keeps falling out of bed" problem. We tucked a pool noodle in between the slats of her bed and ran it along side her. So far it's doing a pretty good job of keeping her in bed.

Day 684

Although we don't actually have any fish in the tank yet, the children seem fascinated by it. Perhaps they think it's another TV?

Day 683

Kaitlyn once again takes the role of guest photographer and captures one of our favorite meals - Breakfast For Dinner.

Day 682

I was inspired by my scrapbooking weekend to get a few layouts from 2007 finished (one day I'll get caught up to the present!) Here's some of my favorite pictures of Parker from St. Paddy's day - he's about 9 months old.

Day 681

Kaitlyn's favorite birthday gift was her new baby doll (I spent too much money and splurged on an American Girl Doll "Bitty Baby). Though Kaitlyn has named her Julie, most of the time she just gets referred to as "New Baby."

Day 680

After driving up from Bend, it was dinner and a show with Mindy and Carrie (Have I mentioned recently, best husband EVER). Dinner was at the Melting Pot and the show was So You Think You Can Dance. This picture is from my favorite dance, Fix You, which was choreographed by Travis and danced by Robert and Alison. It was perfect conclusion to my Girls Weekend.

Day 679

While I was in Bend, Les and the kids embarked on operation clean the fish tank. The tank had been "dormant" for quite a while - so this was a big project. As a reward for all their help, Les to the kids to the fish store and let them pick out all new rocks and decor.

Day 678

Once again it is time for scrapbooking weekend in Bend. I had to go into work for a few hours, so I had to drive down by myself for the first time. It was kind of nice to be able to pull over when ever I wanted to and take pictures.

Day 677

Parker brought home another fabulous drawing from school today. The green dots falling down the left side of the house are the eggs that the bird is dropping - in case you were wondering.

Day 676

We celebrated Kaitlyn's third birthday at Round Table Pizza with Grandma, Uncle Mike and Uncle Andy. Grandma & Uncle Andy collaborated on the cupcakes. Pizza, cupcakes and presents were all enhanced by the soccer team of 4 year-olds having a team party right next to our table. I managed to forget to bring a camera - one more save goes the the iPhone.

Day 675

Election day - Les voted.

Day 674

Les brought home a lollipop for each of the kids to have as a treat after finishing their dinners.