Day 793

First it was a tent with Kaitlyn's bed in their room and now the kids have a teepee on the treadmill in our bed room. Both of them spent nearly an hour playing in it and I think they brought about 15 stuffed animals in to join the fun.

Day 792

Sunday is still bath night at our house. The kids are starting to get too big to share the tub - literally there isn't enough room for the two of them. After a few minutes they start fighting over the real estate and the toys. So lately, Kaitlyn will get in first and after 30 minutes or so, Parker gets in too. When the first fight breaks out, it's time for Kaitlyn to get out and Parker gets some solo time. And once we've got nails clipped, hair brushed and jammies on . . . it's time for Mommy's bath :)

Day 791

After dinner, the kids and I wondered around Target (yay Target!). Among the goodies that came home was a new set of drawers to hold our ever-growing stash of art supplies. They'd been taking over the dining room table and now they've got a place to live.

Day 790

More and more Parker is coming home with pretty detailed drawing and he's always got a story to tell about them. According to Parker, this drawing is of him and Grayson watching a rainbow.

Day 789

Snowstorm 2011 finally landed at our house - all of about an inch of snow. We didn't have any trouble getting to and from work - but two separate drivers had problems making it down our street and they ended up in our front yard. There was minimal damage to to cars, but we lost a shrub and now have tire tracks going through the bark dust.

Day 788

The kids bring some type of artwork home everyday - but I especially love the pieces that have hand or foot prints on them. It's real proof of how small they once were.

Day 787

It may be a little blurry, but Parker really framed this picture of Fatty just right. I love it when the kids want to walk around and take pictures of things with my camera (or cammer as Kaitlyn calls it). But now we just need to work on them standing still long enough to get some pictures in focus.

Day 786

Since we were away for Valentine's Day, the kids had bags of cards and candy waiting for them at day care. I was pretty impressed with Parker's ability to read most of the names on all the cards. Kaitlyn was most excited by the pencil she got from her teacher and we had to sharpen it right away so she to "do art."

Day 785

While I was up getting something for Kaitlyn, Parker snuck in and stole my spot on the couch - even my blanket! He was pretty proud of himself for playing such a trick on me.

Day 784

Kaitlyn is guesting as the photographer today - with a shot of the baby doll that she got for her birthday. Before our Sunriver vacation, her name was Julie. However, Kaitlyn has decided that she needs her own baby Abigail and had renamed Julie after her newest cousin.

Day 783

Both Les and I took Friday off work, so the whole family got to have a day together at home. We headed into town for dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory, where the had the best balloon guy I've ever seen. He made Kaitlyn the Little Mermaid! And Parker got a really great Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Day 782

We packed up everything and were ready to go by 11 - but I made Les stop and take a picture of me and Carrie before we left. We stopped in Bend to buy chains for the Enclave, just in case it was snowing in the pass. We got to have a late lunch at my favorite mountain eatery - Calamity Jane's. Once we got home it was nap time for everybody.

Day 781

With all the fresh snow we headed over to the sledding hill in Sunriver. Although it was "closed," we couldn't resist going on the runs anyway. Kaitlyn was not interested at all in sledding, but Parker was non-stop.

Day 780

It snowed!! With around 7 inches, the kids had their chance to make their first real snowman - with Daddy's help, of course. We also had a snowball fight, made snow angels and shoveled the drive way. Kaitlyn's favorite thing to do was to flop down in the snow on her knees. Later in the afternoon, Miss Carrie arrived to spend some time with us.

Day 779

We celebrated Valentine's Day by taking the kids into Bend to see Gnomeo and Juliet. Then Les grilled up steaks on the BBQ.

Kaitlyn developed a strange fascination with sweeping and spent most of the day sweeping the floors - not that I am complaining . . .

Day 778

Before all the cousins left for home, we headed over to Fort Rock park to enjoy the sunshine. Before loading up the car, Susan helped me get the kids nicely seated on the front steps of the house for a quick picture. All five of them play so well together - Tobey and Sean are really good with the younger ones. I can't wait until Abigail joins in on the fun and evens the odds for the girls.

Day 777

There wasn't a lot of snow in town, so we headed up the mountain to the Wangoa Snow Park to do some sledding. The weather was perfect and the hill wasn't crowded. All the little kids had a fun time and were more adventuresome than the previous year. Kaitlyn got tired of sledding pretty quickly though and decided to dig, then fill in holes in the snow. The big boys had some fun sledding over the top of Joe.

Day 776

Day one of our Sunriver vacation involved a lot of packing, driving and unpacking. It was a late night for the kids. However, they were very excited when the cousins finally arrived at the house - including baby Abigail.

775 part 2

While I was busy playing with Jeff at my office, Les was hanging out with The Colonel at the Louisville airport.

Day 775

Jeff is still hanging around the office. The whole sales team was out on a team building activity, and since Jeff couldn't go, we sent pictures of him with various other staff members to keep him top of mind.

Day 774

Kaitlyn snapped this shot of her brother while the two of them were playing in the den while I was working on my Layout A Day. Like most of Kaitlyn's photography sessions, this was only one of two photos not REALLY blurry.

Day 773

For a few weeks Parker has been saying how much he loves Potato Soup. The other day at dinner I ordered clam chowder, thinking he would like it. I set the bowl in front of him and he looks at me disdainfully and says "Mom, it's supposed to be orange." To make up for my mistake, I bought some Tomato Soup and he ate two helpings for dinner.

Day 772

In the month of February, I am playing along with the Layout-A-Day challenge, so Kaitlyn kept me company in the den while I was working on the computer. I wrote her name for her and then she traced it over and over again.

Day 771

Instead of building a fort out the couch cushions, we decided to try something different. I grabbed one of the king-sized fitted sheet and created a fort using Kaitlyn's bed and the table in their bedroom. We tried to have nap time in the fort, but eventually (after way too much playing around) we ended up with Kaitlyn in Parker's bed and Parker in Kaitlyn's.

Day 770

With Groupon in hand, we loaded the kids and Grandpa into the car and headed down to McMinville to visit the Evergreen Aviation Museum - home to the Spruce Goose. The kids were a little rambunctious, so I chased them about while Les and Grandpa took some time to really look at the displays. The kids did get a chance to "fly" in their very own airplane - both of them were excited and we didn't have to coax either to give it a try.

Day 769

Kaitlyn takes after me in her picky-ness regarding food, so it was a pleasant surprise that she decided to chow down on some lettuce. She kept reaching her hand in the bag and pulling out big chunks - then she actually ate them! (It makes me smile to myself thinking that one day she'll probably end up a vegetarian).

Day 768

I dug all the snow gear out of the closet in preparation for our upcoming Sunriver trip - I wanted to make sure everything still fit. The kids, however, insisted on wearing their coats, hats and gloves to school - regardless of the fact there was no snow.

Day 767

Les had some co-workers in town from Montana and since I refuse to eat sushi with him, he convinced them to go out for a boat-load of it.

Day 766

A big day - Les stood in line and registered Parker for Kindergarten. He had to be there at 7:00 am and ended up being number 22 in line. We hope to get Parker into the all day Kindergarten, but we won't know for sure for a few months. I can't believe Parker is almost five and will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. Where did the time go?