Our Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was a fun one. My brother Matt and Reese's brother Jordan came to visit. Lane was really excited to have his uncles come to visit and Estelle loved all the entertainment she had.

The moose mugs that Reese's mom sent for his birthday (think Christmas Vacation, cousin Eddie)
My picky little eater. Notice the turkey, stuffing, jello salad and roll. That's it. We had so many other yummy things to eat too. But he did enjoy his turkey leg!
My even pickier eater! I am not sure what is going on with Estelle but she doesn't like much. I have been trying to get her to eat all table food but she will not eat any meat. I have tried a lot of different things too. She did eat a little turkey and wild rice soup I made with leftover turkey though. So for now she eats eggs pretty much everyday for protein.
We took the guys out to Point Loma, this is Matt looking out over Mexico. Reese, Lane and Matt got to go golfing one day and Reese and Jordan went out to the sky diving school that Reese went to and Jordan sky dived!
Jordan and the kids

Matt and the kids

The guys even got to take part in our Christmas decorating!

This year I am very thankful for all I have been blessed with. When I asked Lane what he was thankful for he said his home. Lane is pretty aware of people that don't have homes (he sees lots of homeless people around here). And I thought that really summed it up. I am thankful for my home, not just my house but for my home. My home has love in it, it has Jesus in it, and it has my very favorite people in it. Another reason I am thankful for my home right now is that I have memories of Case in this home. But the thing I am most thankful for is my home waiting for me in heaven. I am reminded to set my sights on eternal things, not just things in the world but things that last, the truly important things.

Fun with Family

My sister Lesha and her family came to visit last week. The kids had a great time together, and if was fun hanging out with my sis. The hubby's even went to a Chargers game!

The night the guys were at the football game, we took the kids for a walk down to the bay.

We went to Legoland on Friday.
Daddy got Estelle a princess crown!
Lane loved having his cousins come to visit and I noticed he really liked Brielle and was kind of protective of her :)
I wish I had a picture of the group, I know Lesha got one when we went out to dinner one night. And it was so fun to have them here for Estelle's birthday party!

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!!