Christmas Party

We just got back from the Ogden/Dykstra annual Christmas Eve Eve party. Here we are all dressed up.

Halloween Costumes

Today I got the kids all dressed up in their Halloween Costumes to go to Caleb's work and "trick-or-treat" from office to office. Hannah has been looking forward to this all week! She was really excited to wear her Tinkerbell dress and to go to Dad's work. Here are some pictures.

Peter's monkey outfit has a banana connected to the right hand.

Here they are at Caleb's work. Caleb had to go retrieve Peter. He likes to explore.

Enjoying their spoils.

The aftermath of the chocolate, caramel and peanuts.

Take a Picture of Me

This is one of Hannah's favorite things to say (second only to "Watch Me"). She has also started posing for pictures. Here's a set of pictures I took the other day of her doing all sorts of different poses. Side note: Hannah and Peter love to play in Hannah's crib together. It's actually pretty nice because they are somewhat contained.

This one is from earlier this month, but it's just so darn cute, I had to include it. :-D

Bug Jammies

These next couple of days we have the pleasure of having my nephew's Joe and Judah visiting with us. Titus and Elizabeth are celebrating their 10 year anniversary and they are celebrating without kids...so we are celebrating with kids. Today the kids spent the whole day playing outside. It was raining, but they didn't seem to mind. And actually, that left me with a lot of free time. Who would have thought? 4 kids and free time...wow! And we even managed to have some Hug family nap time. :-D Anyhow, here we are enjoying some jammy fun. Aren't they super cool? (Joe doesn't like to be called cute...he prefers cool)

And they were having so much fun I had to join in. Unfortunately my footy jammies don't have bugs on them, but they do fit me while I'm pregnant.

Tortellini Time

Today we had Tortellinis for lunch. It's a fun lunch. Not only did we have a great time singing the Tortellini song* while we were waiting the 3 minutes for it to cook, the kids also had a great time making their food into finger ornaments. Don't worry, they ate every piece of food they touched. Check out the photos.

Peter saw what Hannah was doing and decided it was a good idea. It's amazing the stuff they pick up from each other.

Also today I had the kids try on their new swimsuits. We are (hopefully) headed to Hawaii this winter, so I figured I better buy the kids some swimsuits and sandles while the stores still have them in stock. Here's Hannah in her new suit. Gotta love the pose!

And Peter in his new suit & flip flops.

And while I had the camera out I got a video of Peter walking...in his new shoes. This is the first pair of "hard" souled shoes he's worn and he did really well.

In other exciting new, we bought a new chair. This, of course, is not the exciting news. The exciting news is that we now have a large box in our living room. Here's Hannah getting in the picture with Peter.

*Note: For those who are curious, the Tortellini Time song is just my variation on the Peanut Butter Jelly Time song. Not super creative, but a very good distraction for hungry kiddos. :-D

The Fair and the Wedding

I just realized that August is almost over and I still haven't posted the events from our big Montana road trip. So here I go.

Day 1, 2 & 3
Our journey began on Friday afternoon when we hustled down to La Grande for Caleb's 10 year High School Reunion. We were a little late, but that was good because it would have been more awkward to have been on time. Last year I went to my 10 year reunion and it is definitely less awkward to go to someone else's because at least then you're not expected to know people. However, before I went to mine I studied my senior year yearbook, which helped a ton. I highly recommend it! Anyhow, we had a great time. Then Saturday morning we went to the Union County Fair. Here are some pictures of the fun animals we saw.










Then Saturday night we drove to Spokane, spent the night, then drove to Kalispell in the morning. We arrived 30 minutes before the wedding started, which was quite the feat considering 10 minutes before we left Spokane we remembered that we were going to loose an hour because of the time change. Anyhow we made it and had a great time. David, a roommate of Caleb's from college, was getting married. And Ben, Caleb's other roommate, was in the wedding. So it was fun to see both of them and hang out. Here are some pictures:

The wedding was outdoors and the weather cooperated.

The happy couple!

Hannah showing some more of her dance moves. If you missed the video of her dancing, you definitely need to check that out!

Hannah and Sammy hugging. Sammy is the son of Ben & Hannah.

Here's our table. Caleb, Amy (Ben's Mom), Hannah (Ben's wife), Sheri (Hannah's mom), Paul (Ben's Dad), and Ben. It was really fun to catch up with Ben and Hannah and with Ben's parents (who we know really well).

I could have sworn I got a picture of David, Caleb, and Ben, but I must have taken it on someone else's camera. Alas

Stayed tuned for pictures from Glacier & Bozeman. I will hopefully get them posted before September!

Life Around Here

I guess the most exciting news around these parts is that Peter has started walking. Ever since we returned from our big Montana adventure he's been cruising all over the place. The problem is he's pretty hard to catch on film. There are 3 things that tend to happen - 1) I can't get the camera out fast enough, 2) He sees the camera and starts to crawl towards it, 3) Hannah sees the camera and thinks I'm taking a pictures and attacks Peter with a hug so she can be in the pictures as well (see video 2). But anyhow, here is a video where Peter is actually walking. He walked all the way from the end of the kitchen to me, but I didn't get the camera out quick enough, so I only got the tail end of it.



Here's Hannah attacking Peter with a hug.

In other news, Peter loves to climb. He is always climbing onto chairs, stools, couches, boxes, or what ever else is elevated off the ground.

This is one of his favorite chairs to climb into. And he turns around and smiles as if to say, "look at me mom, I'm sitting in the chair just like you and daddy." He's so proud of himself. It's pretty cute...especially since he has an adorable smile!

And, of course, Hannah sees me pull out the camera and she jumps into the pictures. It's still pretty hard to convince Hannah to let you take a picture of her, unless I'm taking a picture of Peter. Then she runs in and says, "cheese," as shown in the previous video.

Peter also loves to play outside. Every time you open the door he'll make a mad dash to get outside and then every time you close the door he'll burst into tears. He's pretty dramatic. So here he is just waiting for Caleb to come in and open the door so he can sneak out.

Here's Hannah talking on the phone - a favorite activity. Last Christmas the guy at the AT&T store gave her an extra model phone and she loves it. She calls people all the time. As a matter of fact, sometime when it's time to take a nap or get dressed she informs me that she can't because she's on the phone. Luckily I always know the person she is on the phone with and can tell her to call them back. :-D

Here we are making banana bread. Hannah is great stirrer. And you'll also notice that Peter has climbed up on the step stool. Luckily he is now able to get down by himself as well.

Climbing again.

Aren't they precious?

Hannah Dancing

Check out these dance moves!



Don't you wish you could groove like that!

We Survived

Last night we returned home from a 10 day road trip. And I am proud to say that we all survived. Our week (plus 2 weekends) included 2 weddings, 1 high school reunion, and some time at Glacier National Park. I will do a separate post for each section of our adventure, but now I will post some stats.

- We drove 2,360 miles

- We were in the car for 50 hrs and 43 min

- We took 936 pictures

Oh, and we are also the proud owners of a new minivan. Well, it's not a 100% new, but it is new to us! Here's a picture. It's cleaner now. This is from our third day in Glacier. Also take note of our new rocketbox.

And here's the inside with our two happy campers. 1/3 of the back seat is folded down, so it that's why it looks a little goofy.

Victoria

So basically every weekend in July we have been up to something. Over the 4th, we went to Eastern Oregon to hang out with Caleb's family (pictures and post to come soon). The next weekend we went to Victoria, BC (pictures and info below). The following weekend we redid my parent's deck - not really a big outing, but a definitely a big activity (see raspberry post). And then this last weekend we went camping (see previous post). Thank God this next weekend we are chillin' around here, because the next weekend we leave for a 10 day vacation to La Grande, Kalispell, Glacier National Park, and Bozeman - during which we will attend 2 weddings and 1 high school reunion. We'll see how much sleep we get. Anyhow, now you can understand why I am a little behind on blogging (not to mention I have 2 super active kids :-p).

The second weekend in July Caleb and I went up to Victoria, BC, Canada kid free. My parents offered to watch the kids for a night. I know, pretty awesome. So we took the Victoria Clipper on a 3 hour boat ride up to Victoria early Saturday morning and returned via Clipper Sunday night. This was a fun trip for us because 7 years ago (+ or - a couple weeks) we spend some of our honeymoon in Victoria. So we had already done all the touristy things like Butchart Gardens, whale watching and tea at the Empress Hotel. So on Saturday we went up in a small airplane for a site-seeing tour of Victoria and the surrounding area. It was something Caleb wanted to do on our honeymoon and we just didn't get around to it. And then the next day we rented a scooter and just drove around for a couple of hours. Here are some pictures from our weekend get-away.

Here I am in front of the plane.

Mt Rainier. The weather was gorgeous the whole weekend and we could see the Olympic Mountain Range and it was BEAUTIFUL!! I love Washington! :-D

Caleb in the plane while we are cruising.

Butchart Gardens from above. I have to admit, it's not that impressive from the air. It's much cooler on the ground.

The mountains, which don't actually look that great in the pictures but were amazing in person.

This is down town Victoria. On the bottom right you can see the Victoria Clipper and on the left you can see the Empress Hotel.

Me getting off the plane.

Here I am in front of some hydrangeas in the Empress Hotel garden. Hydrangeas were our wedding flower. :)

Caleb looking mean on the scooter.

Action shot!

More action. We took a lot of pictures of ourselves riding the scooters. It was a lot of fun. I would recommend it to everyone!...most everyone.

Here we are both on the scooter. We decided to get a two person scooter instead of a 2 one person scooters because it was more social (and warmer). But note that Caleb did most of the driving, so this picture is a little deceptive.

A scenic shot on the scooter.

Caleb in front of the castle. This was Caleb's favorite site on both visits to Victoria. :-P

Me and some flowers. Caleb likes to take pictures.

Together in the gardens.

So that was our trip. We had a great time and would love to have another get-away before #3 arrives in February. So if you would like to watch our kids, let us know...it will be easier now than it will be next summer. :-D