This week

This week we were FINALLY all settled in from our very busy March/April. Finally! All of the must-do items were off the list and I could start on some fun can-do items. I took the the too-small cupcake liner ball and made these cute flowers to hang in the window instead. (Directions here and here). Super easy and super cheap! I've heard they don't last forever, gravity and all, but for a $5 project, I'm thrilled with how they turned out!
I also finished a sewing project I've been thinking about for the last 4 months. It's actually a Christmas present, so I can't blog about it, but it was fun and easy, and a nice thing to cross off the list. More to come on that in about... 7 months! :)

The girls and I got to see my cousins who recently returned home from their missions in Boston and Kansas. Thanks to the convenience of family emails, we got to read weekly reports on their missionary time. It was fun to hear them speak in church and have another opportunity to talk to Cora and Violet about what missionaries do. How exciting that they (a brother and sister) got to come home on the same day, 45 minutes apart!

The girls are both really into playdates right now... Violet had her first couple and they were a success. It's fun to have the girls close enough in age to be able to play with friends together. Who knows how long that will last?? We also got a few days of nice enough weather to play outside, which was lovely.

Saturday was our big day, we took a big hike! Thanks to a neighbor, I found out about a hike only 10 minutes away from us. I had thought, for whatever reason, we had to go east to get any hiking in, at least a 45 minute drive. This was much closer, and perfect for us... pretty, not steep at all, wide trails. We did a 4 mile hike, and although Violet had a hard time the last 20 minutes (and fell asleep 2 minutes after we got back in the car), we all had a great time. The girls loved seeing the deer, bikers, horses, flowers, birds... and horse poop. Near the end I was pointing out ALL the horse poop piles to get Violet to laugh and distract her from her tired legs. Whatever works! Luke had it pretty comfy in the backpack, but he was eager to stretch his legs and throw rocks when he got the chance to walk. We'll definately be going back! Maybe we'll be able to make the 7 miles loop someday. Then we'll need a while backpack of snacks and pb&j!
Luke slept a record 3 1/2 hours when we got home, while Kevin and I deep-cleaned the garage and the girls rode bikes and played in the sandbox. A fun AND productive day! We had to reward ourselves with Cafe Rio--yum!

Official Wedding Pics

Rearranging

It doesn't seem like we've been in this house all that long, but then, it has been two years-- this week in fact! It was time for a little rearranging.

We bought this bunkbed set and bedding from my parents who won't need them in their new condo when they move. A great deal! The queen bed in the guest room went to the basement, to be brought out when we're done using the crib. We moved the guest room to the corner room and it's now officially Cora's room... she'll just have to move out when guests come :). It'll be nice to have a bed with a smaller footprint and bigger capacity.
We moved the nursery to the middle room.
And we put the bunks together in Violet's room. When we bought them Cora was still pretty terrified of going up and down the ladder. She's fine with that now, and she'll only need to sleep on the top bunk when we have guests, any way.

Bunking up the beds leaves more room for playing!

We spent all last weekend disassembling, assembling, and moving furniture up down and around. I finally got the closets completely switched this week, now I just need to do put up the wall hangings. And figure out what to do with this lost little pink ball. It's one of these and it's so cute, but it doesn't fill up the space like I imagined it would. I'm thinking about adding some hanging tissue paper flowers to go along with it. I was going to paint wood letters to hang above the windows, but the ones I found were either too big or too small. So I'm still brainstorming... any ideas?

Luke Update

Luke is now 16 months old. Here's a little about what he's been up to lately.

-Luke's new fascination is light switches. Thankfully he can't reach them yet! But whenever I'm carrying him and he spies one, he reaches to try to turn it off and on. He's a pretty curious guy... he'll also reach and pull clothes off their hangers in the closet, Pata's glasses out of his pocket, and anyone's phone.

-Lukey loves to give kisses. If he's in the right mood, he'll reach for you face and kiss you over and over. He must also fancy himself a little prince, if you pretend to go to sleep (or really are-- Pata!), he'll come and plant a slobbery one right on your lips to wake you up. But beware, he might bestow a honk on your nose or try to open your eyelids instead.

-We've learned the hard way that all the bathroom, pantry, and closet doors, as well as toilet lids, must be kept shut and garbage cans can't be on the floor. Otherwise you are bound to find cans of diet Dr. Pepper being rolled around the kitchen, garbage in the toilet, and toilet paper shredded all over. Luke still thrills in emptying cupboards and strewing plastic bowls and plates and tupperware around the house. Sometimes I'm glad he's a shortie and can't reach as high!

-Luke is still sucking on his fingers, more often the last week or two when he's been teething. I'm hoping that his fingers will grow long enough that this isn't comfortable and he stops soon!

-Luke has 3 super soft, cute blankies. But he now prefers one of the girls' dolly blankies, much to their chagrin. He also likes his car quilt, but it's too big to drag around most of the time.

-Speaking of cars, Luke loves them! On our last library trip he insisted on taking all the truck and cars books out after I kept putting them back several times. We finally checked out a couple, even though they are ones for older kids. He was interested in a variety of bedtime books until I happened upon some vehicle books my mom gave Violet. Now those are the only books he wants read to him! He loves zooming his little cars are trucks around, and lego and polly pocket cars too.

-Luke loves going outside and feels personally insulted if someone goes outside without him. At least that's what I suspect the loud screams mean. He has fun exploring the front and back yard, running near the street to watch how fast I run to get him, and running down hill at the park. One of the parks nearby has a smaller slide that Luke can manage to climb up the stairs and go down all by himself. It make a nice little circuit for him.

-Luke has 2 more months to go before he can go to nursery. I think he'll have a blast there, and Kevin will be excited to be able to attend classes with less exertion.

-Luke is a mama's boy right now, moreso than I can remember Cora or Violet ever being.

-Luke loves his sisters. They do a great job playing with him (most of the time!). He has a specific shriek just for when he feels they are being unfair. Luckily, he doesn't usually follow it up with a bite now (which he was doing for a few months just a bit ago).

-At his 15 month appointment, Luke weighed 21.05 pounds (7%) and was 30.71 inches tall (35%). He still has chubby cheeks and thighs, even though he's a little guy. Maybe some more of Kevin's tall genes will kick in later?

-Luke can be a little daredevil. He came up with this trick all by himself. He'll do it over and over and over!

Zoo

We had a ball at the zoo on Friday! We got there pretty early, before the crowds, which was so nice. The animals were fun to see, and everyone enjoyed the train ride and carousel. (I enjoyed the members punch pass you can buy to make it cheaper!). We got an annual pass and hope to go every few months in the next year, if anyone wants to meet up with us there! The dinosaur exhibit that is there now is pretty fun too.

Grandpa's Shop

Hundreds and hundreds of toys, repairs, and inventions were created here. Many thanks to my cousin Ashley for taking the pictures.

A few more Oregon trip pics

(Violet's feet)

The Beach!

We were lucky to have a beautifully sunny day at the beach on Saturday. It was warmer than the days before, the sun was shining, and it wasn't windy. That's as much as you can hope for for the Oregon coast in April!

We started off at the Tillamook factory tour, with icecream of course!
We stayed at the beach for a few hours after that. Luke had a ball playing in the sand.... until he saw the ocean and got close enough to see it was indeed water, and then we could barely keep him out! He would run straight into the waves over and over. And get so mad when we catch him before he got very wet. Luckily we put the beach blanket quite a ways from the water, so when Lukey made his mad dashes to the water when he thought we weren't looking, we were able to catch him in time!
We seriously need to do a warm water, warm weather beach vacation for these kids! The girls loved digging in the sand too, collecting shells, and running in the waves.
They were only ready to leave when their wet jeans got so cold they couldn't stand it anymore. Luckily I remembered to bring a change of clothes, and they warmed up on the way home!

Oh, and the big kids did a little sea weed jumping too. We were right by some large clumps of these long seaweed ropes.

We said goodbye to Kurt and Jen after church on Sunday. It was another gorgeous day in Portland, so the rest of us went to a neat park and took a walk too. It was almost too hot-- amazing! We left Monday morning for the long drive back home. It was filled with more potty stops, and a little bit more whining, but for the most part everyone did well and we made it in one piece.... 13 hours later.

The whole trip ended up being 10 days, with a wedding and a funeral, three states, seeing most of the members of both of our extended families, and about 32 hours of driving time total. It was a great trip, but we were all glad to be home and get settled once again!