Halloween Photo Shoot

Adventure to the Apple Farm

Last Tuesday Ben had a work "field trip" down to Madras, meaning he was gone from 7 to 7. Ugh. The implications of this for me were a long day with the kids. Determined to make the most of it, we stayed busy all day. In the morning we headed out to do some errands, and then hit story time at the library. It was quite the exciting story day for the boys (or me, perhaps) because they actually participated for the FIRST TIME EVER. (We've been attending fairly regularly since they've been about a year old...now do you understand why I'm excited?)

After lunch and a nap, we packed up into the car for our big adventure: a visit to the apple farm. It was the perfect crisp fall day for an outing. We went to Oregon Heritage Farms and it was awesome! It may be the fact that all the activities were actually free (unlike the majority of farms these days that are charging for every silly thing!) that made me enjoy it so much. We visited some goats and piglets, inspected the tractor, challenged the hay maze, sat on pumpkins, sampled apples, and shopped the store. And, they had an apple bounce house that the boys dubbed their "mattress" that the kids jumped in and burned lots of energy.

From the apple farm, we headed to my favorite plant nursery, Farmington Gardens and walked around checking out the end of the season sales (we ended up snagging 2 raspberry bushes for $6). We were the only customers, so the kids had the run of the place: their favorite activity is picking up gravel and putting it into the top of any cones they can find. Our night ended with a little dinner date at my favorite Baja Fresh. We went home sun-kissed and satisfied and successfully made it until when daddy, aka Prince Charming, arrived!

Seth in the hay maze

Sammy

Inspecting the huge tire

Seth would only look at Sam

Sam's "say cheese" look

Seth

Sam

Yah for someone willing to take a picture of the three of us!

Uncle Cay-ub

Last weekend Ben got a wild hair and decided he wanted to go to Eugene to watch the Ducks football game. It worked out perfectly that his brother Caleb (now 14 years old), didn't have a football game. Diane was already driving this way for a women's retreat at the coast, so she could just drop Caleb off at our house on Friday, and pick him up on Sunday. If I had Caleb at my house every Friday afternoon, I would be a lot more sane! He plays so well with Seth and Sam and they just adore their uncle Cayub. While most teenagers might be too cool to play with their little nephews, he indulges their every whim: from running around playing airplanes, to snuggling on the couch, to reading them stories, to being tackled on the grass playing football. It warms my heart to observe their special relationship!



October Update

Life around here is busy, but good. Fall is truly Ben and I's favorite season and we've been trying to savor it as much as possible. God is so good in creating the seasons!

I've been trying my hand at canning for this first time this year. I haven't done a ton, but did preserve some peaches, pears, and applesauce. I can't wait to do more next year!

I started watching my friends' son, 9 month old Wesley, for one morning a week. We're enjoying having him as a part of the family on this day! It's wonderful to have Seth and Sam be around a younger kid: teaching them to be kind, share, be good examples, etc. Wesley loves it too, and spends the morning crawling around after them!

We took a three day crack at potty training, and Seth and Sam actually did pretty good. They maybe had about equal successes and accidents each day. However, it started to be a battle with them, and they were just wanting to wear diapers. Truthfully, I just am not up for the fight yet. If they aren't potty trained by two and a half, maybe I'll entertain that battle, but until then, we'll continue to casually train.

Two weekends ago Ben and I split up: I went to a women's retreat with my church, and he took the boys to Dufur to spend the weekend with his family. It was a wonderful experience for everyone! I loved having the entire weekend with no schedule, eating every meal without getting up, and lots of quiet time.  Ben and the boys watched both Caleb and Levi's football games, which the boys loved. (consequently we've been playing lots of football around here!) Ben also got to go fly-fishing with his brother and guide Nathan, and almost caught his first steel head.

My dad visited us for a couple of days. We all had a blast! We met Katie and her girls at the zoo and dad treated us to Subway and Starbucks. Ah, it's always great to be daddy's little girl again! Seth and Sam adore their Papa and spent the evenings climbing all over him.

Our dirt, or now mud, pit

Checking out what neighbor Frank is doing

 Beyond all these "big" things, we spend our days contented at home. I kick the boys outside as much as possible where they "feed" spiders by throwing dirt on them and saying, "Here's your pancakes fider. Eat. Say please. Say tank you." They use any stick or similar apparatus as a blower, weed wacker, drill, sander, chainsaw. etc...and surprisingly enough, they all sound the same (a loud, obnoxious, high pitched squeal). I got a great video the other day of them playing football just the two of them: hiking the ball to one another and chasing and tackling. Wow. And, as you see in some of the pictures, we've been playing in the mud a lot. I'm learning to accept a lot of really dirty laundry in exchange of hours of tactile enjoyment for the boys.

As a result of splitting Seth and Sam into separate rooms, we lost our guest bed. In exchange we now have the mattress in our bonus playroom. While not the most classy of arrangements, it is a main attraction at the Morris household. It is a giant trampoline, and airport landing for the boys flying around the house, a pretend bed for pretend naps, and a place for me to crash when Ben isn't having a good night of sleep!

Seth and Sam's imaginations are exploding and a joy to watch! The picnic table is first a big jet, then a tractor, then a place to play pretend drums and trumpets, then a kitchenm then a burning house where the firetruck needs to come rescue it.

Seth has been playing in the mud a lot lately

Seth saying "cheese" for the camera

It continues to be hard for me to describe each of the boys' individual personalities. Seth is currently our easiest child (I say currently because he was our squeaky wheel as a baby!). He's very happy-go-lucky, always quick to smile at us, full of playfulness and laughter. His language never ceases to amaze me, as he's putting together full sentences with fairly good grammar. Seth loves to read and falls asleep with a book on his face most nights. He's very curious and asks, "Whatsthat," continually every day.

Sam isn't too into mom taking picture, especially in the middle of a "game"



Finally, a good "cheese" from Sam

 Sammy is definitely our sports fan and takes playing his athletics very seriously. His basketball gym is our entry way, and he only wants real games, with one basketball, played in that gym. One cannot shoot from the carpet because then you are not in the gym. Sam treasures individual, quality time with Ben and I..so it's nice when he gets up a bit earlier in the morning than Seth, so we can have good snuggle time. He's maybe in the "terrible twos" a bit more than Seth and has been throwing ragging fits a couple times of week. Ugh. We've also been struggling with him using a whiny baby voice a lot, that drives everyone crazy. However, we just love him to death and know these things are just a phase! We especially love him when he says things like, "Mama, you stink." And as I'm contemplating whether or not its bad breath or a lack of shower, he smiles and says, "You stink like applesthauce." (yes, he has a bit of a lisp as well).

Maybe I should write updates more often so they won't be as long!

The Squirrel Lady

Yep, that's me now. I'm the squirrel lady. How embarrassing.

I couldn't help it. The boys were so excited about seeing a squirrel on our deck, I just wanted it to come a little closer so that they could observe it. And I figured that since I wasn't giving it peanuts in a shell, where it can bury them all over neighbors' yards, then it's ok, right?

So the squirrel has been making frequent visits to our deck. In my defense, I don't feed it every time, only for special occasions, like when cousin Judah visited us. And I found out that my 70-year-old neighbor has also been feeding the squirrel...in her house! Yep, she lets it come into their back room and eat off their carpet. So, I could be crazier. Can you tell that I'm trying to justify myself right now?

In the end, I finally understand the phrase, "You'll do anything for your children."

Even become the squirrel lady.

Cousin Judah in between Seth and Sammy

The Portland Gondola

It's hard to believe that last Thursday we had 80 degree weather! We knew that fall weather would come ever so quickly, so we took advantage of the sun and headed off on a little family adventure. Ben had been wanting to take the boys on the gondola (or tram) that goes from the OHSU down to the waterfront. On a clear day you have amazing views of Portland as well as Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, and Mt. St. Helens.

Ben showing Seth the tram

Getting ready to board

At the bottom of the hill, tram above us

Checking out the city on the way back up

Our view

Apparently this is what happens when you point the flash up
I think it turned out to  be kind of a cool picture!

Seriously, they are so cute!

As we came home, we were asking the boys what we did. Seth's response was, "Not go to a park." They were pretty bummed that the park we ate a picnic dinner at didn't have equipment to play on. Apparently riding the tram wasn't as big of an impact on them as not playing at a park; however, Ben and I had a blast, and it made for some great pictures!

A Walk Down Memory Lane

When we went to Lakeview last month, besides the pleasure of visiting home and family, another wonderful surprise awaited me: all my old toys. My mom had cleaned out a bunch of stuff and found all of my sister and I's cherished childhood treasures: my little ponies, country bears, and our quadrupulet dolls (thank goodness I only had twins!). While Ben didn't seem too thrilled (possibly because they were all girl toys), I just got a hoot out of Seth and Sam playing with my old toys. I taught them how to set up the country bears house, how to dress all the animals, how to comb the ponies' hair. Seth and Sam had a blast too...but maybe someday I'll have a little girl, so she can fully appreciate these treasured toys!

Seth

Sam

Another little treat my mom found was a shoebox stuffed full of all my notes from middle/high school. Ben questioned, "Notes? Like papers?" My incredulous response, "Are you kidding me? You didn't write notes? No, notes from friends." Oh boy were these notes hilarious. I still haven't waded through them all, but sure have been tickled by this little window in my past. Was I really that immature? I even have a letter, written "to my future children" for an assignment in an eight grade class. It talks about checking out the "fine high school guys" and how I liked a boy that was older than me, which my parents didn't approve of, but "would they rather have me go out with a nice boy who's older, or a loser in my same grade." Ha ha. The majority of the notes were from my best friend and cousin, Kristi, detailing how we were going to "kick butt" against various competition in various sporting events. Man, we must have spent a lot of time writing notes. Well, I guess I spend a lot of time writing emails, facebooking and blogging now...so, not much has changed (except hopefully the quality of the content). We women like to communicate!