She's One!

It's hard to believe that Estelle Hope is one year old! The past year has flown by. Estelle is so friendly and smiley. She is always sure to get other peoples attention at restaurants by looking over and smiling at them, until they smile back. She is quite the ham. We had a little party for her yesterday. My sister Lesha and her family came for a visit so we had the party while they were here.
Opening some presents.
Her cookies and cupcakes. She had never had a cupcake before so this was pretty exciting once she figured it out.
Hmmm, what do I do with this?
She ate almost the entire thing! Estelle loved everyone singing happy birthday and watching all the kids around the table was enough entertainment for her.

Estelle has given us so much joy in the past year. Having this little girl is even more fun than we thought it would be. We love you Miss Estelle Hope, and thank God for you everyday!

Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet

This year Lane has been all about the Halloween decorations! I don't normally do anything, but because he was so in to it, I caved at the last minute and bought a few things. We also made ghosts out of some of his old white t-shirts to hang from the tree.
Lane is holding up an Oregon Ducks "O" in this picture. Quite the football fan!
Over the weekend we made some sugar cookies. Lane cut them out for me and I decorated them, because I am controlling like that. In my defense, I let him decorate one of the spider webs and he did a great job, but then he lost interest.
Yesterday when he got home from school he wanted to color some halloween pages. So we found a few online and printed them out, it kept him busy for a while. He has become a GREAT colorer!
Lane and his buddies Daniel and Seth. This is the only picture of Lane I got in full costume.
My two together. Estelle did so well. We walked for a long time too and she just hung out in the stroller. AND, her duck bill was in her face most of the night and she didn't really complain. :)
Trick or Treat, Smell my Feet.... that is all I heard come out of Lane's mouth for the past week, so I thought it was an appropriate title!

Pumpkin Patchin'

So we hadn't been up to Bate's Nut Farm in two years. Last time we had Case with us. Last year, I just didn't feel up do it, being 4 cm dilated for about 4 weeks, ya know. (TMI) So at the last minute I decided to take Lane out of school early on his birthday and go up there. It takes about an hour. It is always SOOO busy on the weekends, so a Tuesday was the perfect day! The weather was so nice and cool and there was hardly anyone there.
Lane got out of the car, extended his arms out, and said "AHHH, country!" It is out in the "country." Kind of up in the mountains. They have goats, chickens, pigs, ducks, llama's, etc.
Farmer Lane
The hay maze was very fun.
Hay ride! Look at those dark clouds! I loved it!

What a fun place for some pictures. Estelle was all smiles, until she fell in between the pumpkins and got stuck!

Lane's Birthday Party

Lane had a fun party. It was a little stressful for me, I am not going to lie. I won't go into details, but I will say that the kids had fun and that's all that matters. I told Lane he could invite a couple kids from school and then Kristian and Hunter came too. It was so nice that Jason and Elaina (Kristian and Hunter's parents) were able to help me! Estelle loved Jason and he held her a lot of the time.

We had a camo theme. So I got a cheesy plastic camouflage helmet for the boys and a whole bunch of other goodies.

Cupcakes, pizza, chips, and veggies and dip made it easy on this party planning mama!
One of the dads (Reese's buddy from work) brought an old parachute.
We turned the patio into a fort full of guns and army guys.
We played melt the ice block that has an army guy frozen into it! Thanks Michele for this idea!
Target shooting

A tank pinata, look at that focused face!

He always gets a little embarrassed when we sing happy birthday.

Lots of great gifts! He got this Lego truck from his Grandma and Grandpa, he has been wanting it for SO long!

Jason and Estelle, buddies :) We missed having daddy at the party. He would have been such a help and Lane would have loved it too, but this is the way it goes around here. We plan for something and then usually it gets turned upside down! Overall it was a good party for the kids. I try to be simple about things though, and it just never turns out that way, oh well! Happy, happy birthday Laney Pants!

Lane's 7th Birthday

Words could not describe what Lane has meant to me in the last seven years. He has been such a well behaved, mild mannered kid. It has been such a blessing and joy to watch him grow. I can hardly believe we have a seven year old.

1 year old

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

6 years old

SEVEN!!!!
We had a party for him on Saturday. It was a camouflage theme. Lane had a great time, but we were sad when at the last minute Reese had to go on a trip and miss Lane's party. But I am thankful, this was the first birthday of Lane's that Reese has missed, so we are doing pretty good :)

Lane is in first grade this year. I love this age, watching him learn SO much! I can't believe how just in the last few weeks he has really gotten the hang of sounding words out. He is also a good friend and brother, he shows empathy for others and that makes me so proud. Another thing that's been really fun this year is AWANA. Lane started this year and I can't believe how much he is learning about God and the bible. I used to be a leader for AWANA when I was pregnant with Lane. I love the program because of the biblical base and memorizing all the verses. Having that knowledge is so important. He looks so cute in his little vest and he gets so excited when he earns jewels.

I will share pictures of Lane's party soon. Happy 7th Birthday Lane!!

Busy Couple Weeks

We have had a very busy last couple of weeks. We've had lots of doctors and dentist appointments. It seems like they come in spurts and we have a whole bunch at one time. Three of those appointments were dentist appointments for me. I ended up having to have a root canal. I have never had one before and I was in quite a bit of pain for about a week afterward. Pregnancy has really been hard on my teeth. But I think I am past the worst of it... thank the Lord!

We went to Legoland for our friends Kristian and Hunter's birthdays a couple of weeks ago. We had never been there for Halloween time. The Brick or Treat trail was fun for the kids. Those three boys have so much fun, and Reese and I had a great time visiting with Jason and Elaina too!

Last week we had the fall festival in our neighborhood. They have fun rides for the kids and games. Lane always has fun at it. The kids got in their costumes which is always cute.
Here is our little ducky. Cutest duck I've ever seen.
And the ARF trooper without the mask. Don't ask me what an ARF trooper is. Something from Star Wars. I think he just liked the black and white camo.

This past week my friend Lindsey came to visit us. It is always fun to have her here. We got to do a little shopping, we ate a couple yummy meals out, watched a movie two of the nights, and hit up Starbucks. It was great girl time.

We are now preparing for our "birthday season." Lane, Reese, and Estelle all have birthdays within 3 weeks of eachother. I used to love to plan birthday parties. I had so much fun making food, planning games etc. I have lost some of that ambition. I am sad about that, and hopefully I can get that back. We are having a little get together for Lane this weekend. I think it will go well but I have just had a really hard time getting it all together. He is pumped about it though, so just watching him have fun will be worth it :)

Tasty Tuesday: Cranberry Dijon Pork Roast

This time of year, I love crock pot meals. Usually we have an after school activity going on once a week and having dinner ready to go in the crock pot gives me one less thing to worry about. This is a great one. I made some roasted root vegetables to go along with it including carrots, turnips, parsnips and sweet potatoes, just cube them up, toss with olive oil and salt and pepper and roast at 375 for 30 or 40 minutes.

Cranberry Dijon Pork Roast (Taste of Home)

Ingredients

• 1 boneless pork loin roast (2 to 3 pounds)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 envelope golden onion soup mix
• 1 can (14 ounces) whole-berry cranberry sauce
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Directions

• In a large skillet, brown roast in butter on all sides. Transfer to a 5-qt. slow cooker; sprinkle with soup mix. Add cranberry sauce to skillet, stirring to loosen browned bits from pan. Pour over roast.
• Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours or until meat is tender. Remove roast to a serving platter; keep warm. Strain cooking juices and stir in mustard. Slice roast; serve with sauce. Yield: 6 servings.