Halloween

We had a little trick or treat party this year & it turned out to be super fun. Oscar & Calvin were fire men. Aneka & Kiera were various versions of princess's. Marley was a cat. I was a cat. Darren was a clown. They all headed out early likt 5:30pm & had a blast & then came back to the house for dinner!! Here are some shots..

Here are the kids, Darren & our friend Lisa.

Here are all the kids in costume.

Here they all are hitting the first house next door.

Here are the kids eating macaroni & cheese together!

Here the kids are having "band" practice.

And the token sugar high starts....

Such fun!!

Boys in Fall

We met Darren for lunch downtown yesterday & "leaf suffled". So cute. The boys have started to make silly faces at each other & they were facinated by the drinking fountain in the park blocks.

Playdate with the Edwards girls

We are fortunate to have some neighbors who have kids our age & we love. Unfortunately, they are moving at the end of the year to southern california. Here are some shots of thier girls w/ our boys at today's playdate.

Aneka & Oscar gave us a puppet show.

Kiera & Calvin toddled around each other...

Oscar enjoyed the leaves on the way home.

Home Improvement

This weekend we decided to tackle one of our many home improvement projects. In front of our house we have two HUGE maple trees. Over the last few years the lowest few branches have gotten lower & lower and most recently - since they are loaded with leaves it is not uncommon to brush you head on several leaves while coming up our front steps. SO... we borrowed a chain saw, rented a chipper & went to it. Here are some pics. The boys LOVED it.

Boys boys boys

We just found out that this little baby is a BOY!!

Oh my. Yes three little boys in our household.

We are already trying to figure out where to put the third refridgerator.

What would you do with 24 hours

I have been a stay at home mother for almost 4 years now. We have two active boys & I'm 4 1/2 months pregnant. We are 90% sure we'll be homeschooling the boys for the first few years. And to top it off my husband travels 50% of the time. You can see how rare it is for me to have time alone. I remember reading during my first pregnancy how it is imparative that a mother gets 30 minutes to herself every day. At the time Darren & I thought, "No problem." Then the baby came.

Now don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining. I do have occasional breaks from the boys. Granny comes over to play w/ the boys. I have monthly bunko night w/ my girlfriends. I also go to the occasional baby shower, candle party, etc. Grandma & Grandpa take the boys once a month for an overnight. This used to be husband & wife time alone. Then I got pregnant for the third time. And I was really really sick. So they started offering to host the boys during Darren's travel weeks once a month so I could throw up in solitude & moan on the couch as loud as I wanted. This reduced our date nights quite a bit, but was critical to my survival of the first trimester. So now I'm 20 weeks along & feeling better. We haven't shifted back into weekend overnights yet. And today, the boys go to grandma & grandpa's house for an overnight. Darren is out of town & I feel pretty good. I have been given a gift of 24 hours! What would you do?


Garden, clean, shop, cook, lunch w/ friends, see a movie (all at once), sleep, get a massage, make an uninterupted phone call?

I've been stewing about how to best use this time. Since I'm pregnant a good long sleep is a priortity. And since I'm a respectable woman I also made an appointment for a cut & color. Beyond that? The meet up w/ friends thing is hard since they also have kids & no offense but I am not sure I want to send mine off only to hang out w/ any of yours. Sorry if that sounds selfish! I'll clean a bit & decorate for Halloween because I'm type A like that. I might watch one of our netflicks movies that we've had for 3 months. Oh and I'll catch up in Oscar's, Calvin's & my pregnancy journals. I'm so excited.

So... what would YOU do if you had 24 hours!

The importance of sensorship

We have worked over the past 4 years to purge all bad words from our language & house. We've even purged grey area words like instead of "butt" we say "bum". Or "oh my Gosh" is not allowed, instead we say, "oh my goodness". This has been very successful until tonight. Darren was watching the SNL spoof of a Palin / Clinton speech. It is VERY funny by the way & here is a link if you haven't seen it yet.

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/palin-hillary-open/656281/

Well at somepoint while Darren is watching this, Oscar goes into the office & looks over Darren's shoulder just in time to hear "Clinton" say "boner shrinker". Oscar laughs & says, "boner shrinker? What is that?" Oh my...that was one of those hilarous moments that you are not allowed to laugh at or the kid will think they are being funny & repeat the phrase for a year.

Anyway - I guess it just goes to reinforce the one time a kid sees or hears something they shouldn't will be the one time they are paying attention.

Why can't kids sleep when they are tired?

Let me re-phrase. Why can't babies & small toddlers sleep when they or tired. Or maybe even better. Why can't MY babies & todders sleep when they are tired. Oscar is almost 4 & is an awesome sleeper. Sleeps almost 12 hrs at night & 1-2 at naps. Love that. He wasn't always that way. I don't think until he was about 2 1/2 did he really start sleeping good.



Which brings me to Calvin. The last few days have been TERRIBLE. I remember Oscar when he was just over 2 going through a nightmare phase or a fear of us going away phase. It was like he reverted to infancy all at once. We had to sit w/ him while he fell asleep & at least once a night when he woke up. We gradually worked into "we'll be back to check on you" every 5, 10, 15 m. You get the drift. Well apparently Calvin has hit this now. We spent the weekend w/ family in Seattle & all slept in the same room. That must have made Calvin realize he doesn't want to be alone anymore. Tonight & last night I've had to sit in the rocking chair for an hour while he dozes off - his little head continually popping up to make sure I'm there. Today at naps he refused all together to be in the room (and yes there was MUCH crying). Finally when I was in tears too I let him out of the crib. He proceeded to crash on the couch while I read a magazine for 1 1/2 hrs.

Here is Oscar after coming downstairs from his own 2 hour nap in his own bed looking at Calvin sprawled out.



What is wrong w/ this kid!! I'm wondering if it is time to move him in w/ Oscar now? Any ideas???

Trip to Seattle

We went to seattle this weekend to visit my cousin & her family. We are supre close since we are the only two girl cousins of 9 on that side of my family. It was really fun.


We saw Cooper play a football game:

Calvin took his stance very seriously...
We hung out with Cassidy & the whole family:

Corn dogs for all the kids!!

Cassidy helped Oscar learn a few computer games & how to play Wii. Oscar was shockingly quick at picking it all up.....

Our boys w/ the Buchholz family...
While there we had dinner w/ more family to celebrate my grandmothers 88th birthday. We do that annually! It was a super fun weekend!

Applesauce day

We have a HUGE apple tree in our backyard. So every year, since we moved here we have picked the apples, made and canned applesauce. This year was no different. This was our 5th year doing this & we set records! Our supportive family always comes over to help & w/o them we would only be able to do a fraction of what actually gets done. Today we canned 80 quarts of applesauce. Yes 80. Now my mother tells me that on the farm she grew up on her & her mom used to can 100 quarts of each fruit annually. But for a pregnant city girl 80 quarts is amazing. And in case you are wondering.... yes we will eat them all this year. Over the years we have quite a system figured out.

First we pick. Take a close look at this loaded tree. This shot was after we picked 14 grocery bags full. There are at least 6 left Darren says.

Then we core, slice & peel. Darren's job this year.

Then we cook and season the applesauce. My mother & mother in law who self-lessly slave away for us.

Then we can it.

Not bad huh?

Fall... Sept 1st or Sept 22nd?

If you ask me, September 1st. If you ask Darren September 22nd.

Fall is my favorite time of the year. Cool mornings and nights, yet warmish days. Pumpkins. Colored leaves. Boots. And best of all soup. So. This year, I've decided to wait to pull out the fall decorations until Sept 22nd in honor of my husband (since the weather is also clearly on his side this year). However, I am going to start to cook like it's fall.

Yup that means soup, artisan bread & green salad for dinner. Yes - I know it is 80 outside & I'm in a tank top cooking this soup but I'm SO ready for fall. So tonights special is called Tomato Orange Soup. I discoved it last spring when my friend Jen & I took an epicurian walking tour of portland & we were led into Elephants Deli downtown in the fox tower. We sampled this soup. It has been in the back of both of our minds ever since. I think Jen must be moving into fall early too becuase she made this soup also this week & was kind enough to email me the recipe. It sounds strange but it is SO SO SO good. And it is available on the web so I'll go ahead & clip it below. Enjoy!!

ELEPHANT TOMATO ORANGE SOUP
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 cup heavy cream

In a saucepan, melt butter; add onion and sauté until translucent. Add tomatoes, salt, pepper, baking soda and thyme. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered about 15 minutes or until slightly thickened.
Puree in a food processor or blender; strain through a sieve or food mill. (The Soup Lady likes a little texture and uses a hand held immersion blender for this.)
Return to saucepan and stir in orange juice. At this point, the soup can be refrigerated until ready to serve.At serving time, add the whipping cream and heat gently, stirring constantly, bringing to a simmer and adjust seasonings if necessary. Extra cream maybe drizzled on top of the soup immediately before serving for decorative effect.

Annual Vacation to Cannon Beach

We have been fortunate enough the past three years to spend our summer vacation at my parents condo in Cannon Beach (thanks mom & dad!!) It is right on the beach, walking distance to the main street of town & has a spectacular view.

Look behind the boys for the view... Yes that is haystack rock!!

The weather was great too & our week was filled with beach trips...

Tide pool hunting trips...

Visit to the Tillamook factory...

Checking out the local bunnies...

And some good family time. This is too cute not to share...

Super Fun Weekend

What a great weekend. Saturday we went to the third birthday party of one of Oscar's buddys, Chance. It was really fun. Water play. Cake. Visiting w/ my mommy friends I haven't seen FOREVER.


Here is the b-day boy!!




Here are all the little kids acting much like little adults sitting quietly while eating. That is Calvin on the left & Oscar second from the right.
And Calvin soaked to the bone but having a blast!

Then Sunday we went to the zoo. What a great day. Perfect weather. Active animals...

No zoo day is complete w/o a preliminary stop at Starbucks. Here are the Lewis men...

Play time on pretend animals.

Petting the goats.

And the moral of this story is....

DON'T RUN WITH YOUR HANDS IN YOUR POCKETS!!

That is what Oscar was doing when he fell. Full speed, onto his chin last night.

OUCH. He was hysterical for almost an hour. I haven't seen him that upset since he broke his arm a year ago.

This is the bruise he has now. It looks way worse in real life. Notice his puffy face & cheeks! Poor little fellow!!

Nausea, Headaches & Cravings... Oh My!!

You'd think I'd be less surprised by first trimester pregnancy symptoms given this is child #3 on its way. Well think again. Perhaps it was because my pregnancy w/ Calvin was SO good. I actually remember telling Darren, I could go through this a few more times no problem during that pregnancy. Ahhh well. I think God is telling me that three children is more than enough. This pregnancy has been TERRIBLE so far. I am sick most of the time, if I don’t have a full blown migraine I have a normal headache. And I am a slave to my cravings this round too. I’m that crazy pregnant lady you hear about who drags her whole family to a Chinese restaurant because I NEED Chinese food. Yikes. We’ll I’m 11 weeks now so hopefully I’ll settle into a nice second trimester very very soon. If you pray – include me in your prayers please!!