shiners and smarty pants

Finn's ornery grin... ;)

See Finn's faint shiner on his right eye??

Finn gave himself his first shiner last night. The silly kid was spinning in circles until he fell down laughing. One of those times he fell right into the coffee table. He cried for a minute, got down, and spun around some more. All of this after he got his first bloody nose last week... he climbed up on my bed and fell off. This one seems to be a little more accident prone than (but just as tough as) Cullen!

Finn-Finn is talking a lot now, today he said "plane" for the first time today. Most of his words revolve around food.. the first thing he says to me every morning is "eat". He asks for "cream" (whipped cream) after every meal, even breakfast. Earlier today, I caught him helping himself to cookies out of pantry. I've tried to put them up higher in the pantry, but then he just climbed up the shelves to get to them! What can I say, the kid hollow-legged-boy likes to eat!

In other Finn news... he's trying his hardest to pee in the toilet like brother. And yesterday he did for the first time! Hopefully potty training will be easy for him too. He's also gotten his diaper off a few times and peed on the floor, laughing all the while. What a stinker our Finn is.

Cullen's Bob Books

I finally found the Bob Books I bought for Cullen some time ago. We started with book #1 on Sunday night and he did amazing! He loved it and was so proud of himself. Monday night we read book #1 and #2, and last night we added #3. In fact, last night he read book #1 with no help or mistakes at all. We'll be through all 12 of these level one (kindergarten) sight word books in no time. His brain is such a sponge, I love helping and watching him learn! The greatest part is the proud look of accomplishment when he's done it all by himself.

boy cousins

Got this cute picture of Austin with the boys from another cousin. :)

60th Wedding Anniversary

I love them!

"A leader is one that knows the way, goes the way,
and shows the way."
-John C. Maxwell

My grandparents are pillars of their church and community;
such natural leaders! That quote makes me think of them...
I know that they have shown me the way.

The family, minus Helene and Ray.

All the cousins, minus Ray.

cake table

cousins

more cousins- helping get the food ready

Another red headed cousin :)

getting ready to cut the cake

Cullen and Uncle Andy

Cullen and his two sidekicks :)

Gosh, I am so blessed to have my grandparents!! They are an incredible example of love.. love to each other, to God, to country, and to everyone they meet. I cannot say enough good things about them and all the fond memories I have because of them. They are good people and I love them. I am blessed to have them in my life. I pray I can be half as kind, loving, generous, happy, thoughtful, godly, or inspirational as they are. I am so thankful we are all able to get together and celebrate them.

arctic cat

The Arctic Cat...

"This is just great!"

Our little stair-steps.

changing gears

The look of concentration...

Finn-Finn the animal lover

Finn squealed and laughed just like Cullen did
when he was this age. We sent a copy of Cullen
doing this to Sean in Iraq.

h a m !

the snappers were a huge hit

as was the shovel on the arctic cat.

Grandma and Papa surprised Cullen with a new riding toy when we got to their house Friday evening. Cullen was in heaven! Finn is finally old enough to take over the Jeep that Cullen outgrew, so both boys spent the rest of the night driving around. Cullen mastered the two speeds and reverse and surprisingly, Finn drove his Jeep around pretty well too. They did take a break, or two, to pop some snappers, raid the drinks in the garage fridge, and catch some lightning bugs (we don't have them in CO :( )

VBS

Cullen had Vacation Bible School this week. He told me this morning, on the drive there- "Mom, I just love Vacation Bible School." It's quite the step-up from VBS of my youth, the teens run it (with help from parent volunteers), they come home with really cool crafts, and have awesome snacks each day, and lots of big painted boxes made into props.

His teacher asked me Tuesday if Cullen is always so serious. What? My child, serious???!? No, he's not! He's ornery and doesn't know a stranger. Today his teacher told me they could hear Cullen singing the songs the loudest today, and that he was really jamming! :) It was really fun hearing him talk about what they learned that day. His favorite was when (Apostle) Paul was bit by a snake and shook it into the fire, but he wasn't hurt.

Portland Saturday Market

We walked a few blocks after the parade to visit the Portland Saturday Market. It's a hippie like atmosphere with tons of vendors and endless rows of good food. Mom and Teresa took the boys over to the carnival area to play. Sean, Dustin, and Josh went to watch the World Cup in a bar, and the rest of us shopped. It was a gorgeous day! Later, Saturday night we went to Alex's graduation. Yay, Alex!!

VooDoo Doughnuts!!

Before the parade on Saturday, we went to the famous VooDoo Doughnuts. It was a hole in the wall, and has a constant, long line. We got lucky and only had to wait about 20 minutes. Both Dustin and Sean got the personalized (creme-filled) cock-n-ball doughnuts. Don't ask, don't tell and Barack Obama rules, respectfully. Guess they just couldn't resist. :) Cullen and I went for the VooDoo Guy, it's a raspberry filled doughnut with a pretzel poker. We also tried their famous maple bacon bar. It was a fun stop and we loved all their doughnut names! Who doesn't love a good doughnut anyway?!?

Grand Floral Parade

Picking Courtney and Josh up at the
train station in downtown Portland on Friday.
They just came in from Seattle.

Grandma buying the boys toys before the parade.

They hand out chalk before the parade and
ask people to decorate the streets.

Cullen hitching a ride with D.

Cullen and Mark adding our artwork for the parade.

What Cullen wanted. :)

Finn doing some artwork while waiting for the parade.

Our crew waiting for the parade.

Some Indians in the parade.

Finn fell asleep watching the parade.

Amazing! All the floats are made of flowers
and natural items- coconut, seeds, etc...

This one was cool, the hippo opened and closed its mouth.

Saturday morning we headed to downtown Portland to watch the Grand Floral Parade. It was fun and the weather was perfect.

Portland Children's Museum

Cullen loved playing cashier, it was cute..
the scanner would beep everytime you "scanned" an item.

Cullen and Teresa made a line to direct the
current and move the boat down.

Cullen spraying water.

Finn spent his entire time in the water-room filling buckets.
This was hands-down Finn's favorite room, he cried when
we made him leave. :(

Cullen made a snowman and a gingerbread-man.
You could have paid to have them fired, but we didn't.

Cullen working on his creations.
(With a little help from Aunt Teresa.)

Finn rolling out the clay.

The boys driving a bus.

Uncle D doing Cullen's face paint.

Uncle Mark did Finn's face paint.

On day 2 in Portland we took the boys to the Children's Museum. It was really cool and I was excited we got to go. There was so much to do and see- these pictures don't really do the place justice. I wish we had one nearby!

After the Children's Museum, Mark took Dustin, Sean and me to the Nike Employee Store (they knew someone that got our names on a list). It was incredible! We were able to buy everything there for 50% off retail and Oregon has no state sales tax, so we got some wicked deals!