Rain, rain go away......

...but until it does, here's what we've been up to when it's not nice enough to go outside!

* Hot bubble baths

* Baking, Norah is quite the little chef!

* Playing at the indoor play area in the mall

* Lots of coloring and creating, Nolan's even taken a liking to crayons(and not just eating them)!

* Play dates with friends, for the kids and Mommy & Daddy too :-)

* Movie time, what could be better than a snack, juice and a movie after a nice long nap!

30 - 1

Yep, that's how old I turned yesterday!
I had this yummy strawberry swirl cheesecake to help me celebrate.

Happy birthday song and blowing out the candles, the kids loved this but didn't understand why when they pulled the candles out to lick them there was no icing?

Big hugs for Momma on her birthday :)

Norah with my brother and dad. My sister and Casey also helped me celebrate but they didn't manage to get in any of the pictures.

*****
And I'll leave you with this.
Casey said after searching he found the perfect card for me, and this is so him!
Thanks babe, I'm glad I still "got it" !

Halloween Fun !

Here are our pumpkins
Norah designed her and Nolan's(2 on the Left) & I carved them

Superman !

My little heros

Norah helped Nolan at all the houses,
and he followed her like a little puppy dog ;-)

Nolan and his friend Carson takin a little break

Norah and Alissa enjoying some of their Halloween treats!

Costumes at the Patch

Last Saturday we attended a birthday/costume party at the pumpkin patch! It was a great time and we got to try out the kids' costumes, which I absolutely love and am so happy with. The day was perfect with sunny skies, no rain and very little mud. The kids had a yummy brunch, birthday cake, animal sightings, corn mazes, sawdust piles and pumpkin picking. Nolan also had a few minor injuries including a finger nibbling from a piggie, and a bonk in the face from one heavy duty hula hoop. Poor kid had a rough day, prior to these 2 incidents he fell off the bleachers at soccer not five minutes before having to get his head extracted from those same bleachers. He was such a sport and only really cried when his head was wedged in those dang bleachers! Hopefully he'll be accident free for a while, fingers crossed. Norah was the perfect little wonder woman and got to go to her first slumber party that day. She had a blast, with the exception of waking up with a low grade fever that only lasted about 24 hours and was not accompanied by any other symptoms, YAY! We are looking forward to carving pumpkins tomorrow night and going trick-or-treating on Halloween :-)

BUSY

We have been incredibly busy these last couple of weeks, but it's been a good busy! So let's see.... where to start, how about with Norah. She started her first team sport, she's playing soccer! And in turn, I am now a soccer mom ;-) It is absolutely fun and so cute seeing a bunch of little 4 yr. olds chasing around that ball. The kids both have also started swimming again, and it's been a challenge with Nolan to say the least. Norah goes to lessons without me, but I am in the pool with Nolan and he isn't so much into participation, listening to the instructor(or me) or following along these days! All he wants to do is do what he wants, which usually isn't what everyone else is doing! So I will try to be patient, but it's going to be a long swim session with him. He has also started climbing! He climbs out of the crib, on his changing table, on the coffee table, couches....you name it he climbs it! It's been interesting.

Casey and I have both been keeping busy with work! He has been working in Kent now since about June and the commute is not fun. It adds a couple extra hours to his day and with the weather getting worse and it being darker out it's just gonna get worse. He is keeping his options open at work and may look into a job closer to home or pursue the possibility of firefighting(something he's thought of doing on & off over the years). I am going to be adding one extra 12 hour night shift every 2 weeks to my schedule so I can bring in a little more money, it is almost Christmastime ;-) At work I am also going through training to learn how to insert central lines(PICC's) into our tiny babies and am very excited I will get the opportunity to do this! We also went to my 10 yr high school reunion and annual work Halloween party last weekend! I can't believe it's been 10 yrs since HS, it was fun to see old friends and catch up. And, my work Halloween party was the best yet, I already can't wait for next year.

We are headed to the pumpkin patch this weekend so be on the lookout for pictures of that too!

About to dive into his crib!

Uh-oh, oh no(as he says) ~ caught

Even though she's not really into climbing she had to be like Nolan

And wrestling,

they can't get enough of it!

Our latest adventure !

We spent the past weekend at a little cabin just off of Lake Cushman. We went over Saturday morning with my friend Jenny, her boyfriend Matt and her son Dylan, Matt's sister and her little girl also joined us for part of the weekend. We stayed in a little cabin that ended up being kind of cumbersome when you add 5 adults and 4 children, but thankfully the weather was beautiful and we were able to play outside a lot.

Saturday we payed at the nearby park with a great play area for the kids, we went to she beach where the kids played in the mud. We had a yummy dinner and campfire with smores! Sunday we took the kids on a hike. It was Nolan's first time, it was a short hike about a mile of which he got carried about 2/3 of the way. He wanted to walk but the short hike would have ended up taking 2 hours because he was fascinated by all the plants, stumps and leaves! We also let the kids play a little in the lake, it was really warm out by afternoon. We had another yummy dinner then headed for home.

Playing at the playground

After a dip in the lake

"painting" the rocks with mud :-)

Best buddies

Nolan, Norah and Dylan

(click to enlarge)

On our anniversary we......

....were going to do this (hike to High Rock Lookout), but
there were at least 10 cars at the trail head.

So instead we hiked through this,

and this,

and this,

to get to this (Cora Lake, Gifford Pinchot Nat'l Forest)

For our Anniversary we decided to go on a day hike, so we packed up the kids and took them over to my dad's place (thanks dad)! Then we headed up towards Mt. Rainier where we planed on hiking to High Rock Lookout (one of our favorite day hikes). It was TOO crowded though, probably 20 plus people up on the top of the rock didn't sound like fun! So we turned around and drove just a few miles down the road and decided to hike into Cora Lake. The hike was beautiful and we only ran into a few people on the trail. Once we got there we explored the woods around the lake, had a snack and decided to head back(I had to work that night so we didn't have tons of time). Just for fun we did some trail running and ran most of the way back to the car. We stopped at a little cafe in Ashford, got yummy lattes and scones and headed to pick up the kids. It was a such a nice way to spend our 6th wedding anniversary!