Long overdue Ladies night pics!

Can you believe this is from way back in March? I'd say we're overdue for some more crazy times ladies!

My Super Jetter Man

Secretly and affectionately also known as Super "cheddar" man. And what a little man my Snackie is! He's the reason why in this house we eat things known as, "monster soup" (minestrone), "cat pee juice" (orange juice), and "invisibility sticks" (carrots). He's an adventurer, a musician (it's quite amusing to hear a 3 year old singing "knocking on heavens door"), a comedian (every punch line includes "road hog!")...and a lover not a fighter (well...he can hold his own I suppose!). He's in love with life, and everything about it...even the flies ...they're "nice" and they're his "pets." He's our sweetie, and our cutie, and our reminder of all that is, and should be good in the world...and golly, we love him!

Little O's BIG day

It's hard to believe my little St. Patty's day baby is a year old already, but it's true. And since we can't turn back the clock, we decided it was time to celebrate!

It was a great party with great friends, a gorgeous professional grade cake (thanks Kara), good food (thanks Bryce), and plenty of smiling Irish eyes. Check out the pics, and the little video of an adorable Little O, and a little bit of The Snack as well.

(side note: Bryce's 30th B-day was the day after Little O's, so we surprised him with a candle on the cake too) :)

North of the Border

Did you know there are mountains in Texas? Neither did I. But Bryce knew it, and all he could talk about doing for Spring break (and his birthday) was going to Big Bend National Park. So we decided that as long as we're living in Texas, we better make the most of it, and see what beauties exist. But of course we didn't decide this until 4pm the night before we'd have to leave in order to make the 10 hours (each way) of driving worth our while! So we scrambled. Our camping gear was a little out of date for this growing family, so we had to purchase a larger tent, and some miscellaneous other gear, but we pulled it all together (this, by the way, is a great way to see if your emergency kits are up to par...ours were not) and were on the road before 7am the next morning. And we had a fabulous time! Big Bend is an oasis of beauty in our forlorn Texas landscape, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. As you can see in the pictures, our campsite was in the middle of the desert, they call this, "primitive camping" I call it, "where's the toilet!!??" Everywhere...and anywhere is the answer, so I enjoyed a couple of days urinating with the rattlesnakes and scorpions (fortunately we did NOT actually encounter any of these!). Baby O was thoroughly intrigued by cactuses, and determined that desert rocks and sand are some sort of delicious treat, so needless to say she never left our side. Snackie on the other hand could hardly be contained, he is truly an adventure man, rarely did he go anywhere without his backpack on....always begging Bryce to hike this hill or that one.

Our first day in the park we visited the hot springs, and splashed in the Rio Grande. Bryce took a little swim across to the Mexican side...only to find out later that this is strictly forbidden so technically he is now here illegally! The next day we hiked around the more mountainous side and saw some beautiful views. There was one hike we really would have liked to have gone on, but the sign at the start read "Mountain lion warning" and gave instructions to hike in large groups, try to appear big and scary, and keep children close. It doesn't take much more convincing than that to send us in another direction! So we headed out to Santa Elena Canyon, and hiked some switch backs (yikes....I'm slightly paranoid of ledges...especially with children!) into a beautiful sandy shaded area of the canyon with large boulders to climb and rest on. We unfortunately witnessed a teenage boy jump about 20 feet and land with a broken leg...and more unfortunately witnessed the inefficient rescue operation where several Rangers hiked all the way into the canyon carrying large heavy equipment to wheel the boy out on. I asked one of the men why they didn't boat up the river, and he responded "this is what we get paid to do." What ever happened to working smarter, not harder?

We saw our share of wildlife as well. The first night a mouse was scampering around our campsite, Bryce tossed a rock in it's direction, and it leapt 3feet in the air! Ever seen that before? Neither had we. We found out later they are appropriately named "Kangaroo Rats." From the safety of our car we saw a few Havalinas (wild pigs) a Coyote, some Deer, and on the last day we made friends with a couple of lizards (and sadly brought one home with us wrapped up with our tent...it now rests in peace on the door jam above our back porch).

We had a wonderful time camping as a family. Bryce took great care of us, making fire, food, shelter, and fun. He made sure we stayed warm enough at night, and cool enough in the day. He even was the one to get up and cuddle with Baby O when she would awaken, and drag Snackie back into his sleeping bag when he'd slither across the tent floor at night. We're looking forward to many more camping trips as a family, we probably won't be driving another 10hours to Big Bend again any time soon, but if you're up for it....do it - in our opinion, it's well worth it!

Good morning little walker!

It's hard to believe our Baby O is walking! But it's official...she chooses walking over crawling, so I guess we can call her "Toddler O."

Instant Pudding...

I was lost to the world for a while there. We moved to a new apartment, and it took like a month to get our internet turned on...unbelievable!! Add to that that we were over on our cell minutes, so it was like living on the moon! How did people live without instantly being able to connect to each other? We live in an instant world...that's for sure.

But Hey...I'm back...pistachio anyone?

Twilight...at midnight

Staying up way past bedtime...

Waiting an hour in line and another in the theater...

Straining my neck from the 3rd row...

Listening to girls squeal and guys guffaw...

Getting home at 3am and heading off to work 5 hours later...

...and was it all worth it?

Uhmm...yeah!

I can't deny I went into this thinking I would hate it. I had visions of a super cheesy teenage love story drama unfolding before my eyes...yet again (yes I loved...and hated the books). And it's true...that's exactly what the movie was...but there was something more to it that really appealed to me. I had serious doubts when I heard they were making this movie. I thought it was done too quickly, which would mean cutting corners on quality etc. I also worried that the characters would not meet my expectations and that they would alter key aspects of the books. So I walked into the theater prepared for the worst, and I believe that is why I walked out of it with two thumbs up (or at least one and a half). In our group there were a lot of mixed reactions, a few people were disappointed that it wasn't truer to the book, others thought is was way too cheesy etc. etc. But we determined that our varied reactions all depended on our initial expectations...and who we were sitting next to! (A little advice...don't see this with your husband if he's a "tough guy" or with a friend who's never read the books and already knows she will hate the movie).

I really loved the way the movie was filmed, loved the lighting and the pace, and I was absolutely drawn in by the music and the scenery of the Pacific Northwest (it helps that I lived there for a year and a half, so it brought back fond memories). I quickly adjusted to the characters and found that the adaptation from book to movie was done better than I expected. Of course...it was still super cheesy! And yes I had some guffaws of my own, and a little bit of disappointment, but all in all I think I'll add this one to my A list.

So....what did you think?

Halloween '08

"Looky there Cap'n...them's comin' fer our booty!"

We sat down for a little candy break at the trunk-or-treat party, and Baby O warns Cap'n Snack that mama's laid claim on the Twix bars!


Snacker had a blast carving pumpkins with daddy this year...or more accurately, he had a blast playing in the slop!




And we all had a good time at our friends costume party where mommy and daddy went as ourselves...super geeks! :)

Skater boy

The skate board has made it's way out of hiding. When he turned two, Mr. Snack got a super cool skate board for his b-day from super cool cousin Harley. But given the fact that my Snackie was still just a baby (at least in my eyes), I kept it tucked away for a while - only emerging at rare times, only to be used on the carpet...and only in a sitting position! Then we took our annual pilgrimage to Utah again this past August, and again out came the Long Boards and of course Snackie and Harley could never get enough of them! So I resolved that maybe the boy is ready to be...a boy (with the proper safety gear of course!). Suddenly he's not a toddler anymore, he's ready for action all the time now, climbing crazy things, zooming out of control on his big wheel, and wanting to ride his skate board...every day....first thing in the morning...before bathroom visits...before breakfast...before getting dressed...before we're even AWAKE! But dang, ain't he cute.

Snackie demonstrates his best skateboarding "trick"...a head stand...sans skateboard! :)

Pumpkin patch kids

Snackie & Baby O chat about life and pumpkin patches, and the weather (yes it's still dang hot here in Texas!)

I had be pretty quick with the camera to catch these two in such sweet poses...pumpkin patches are just too much fun to be slowed down by taking pictures!

Snack & his buddies had a blast together bouncing and running and wrestling and laughing.

(we only had one kid fall off the 4 foot high hay bales...I'd say that's not too shabby!)

Mama had some fun too, it's always nice to get out and about with the kids (and the moms!). Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to work on my back flips this year...sorry to disappoint you all.