Pumpkins, Costumes and Carnivals OH MY!

A couple of weeks ago we made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful day so we met our friends the Estes' at the local pumpkin patch. We had a great time, except for the fact the Daddy was out of town, so he missed out on the fun. We did all sorts of fun stuff, a hay maze, a hay tower, tried some apple cider, the corn maze, the HUGE pumpkin sling shot and a hay ride out to pick pumpkins. There was so much to do we actually didn't do all of it. We all had a great time. Thanks to Dan, the kids were able to do all the things that I couldn't do with a baby on my back. Here are some pictures of all the fun!

Just riding along :)

Christina and I
The hay mountain
The corn maze!


Slingshot!

Pumpkins + mud = FUN!

This last Saturday we met up with our friends the Salters at the Annual Candy Corn Carnival at the church. The kids costumes had not arrived yet so we "winged" it. Noah was Peter Pan, Reyna was a "princess" and Julia went as the cutest baby in the world. The kids had a great time. There were games and lots of prizes.



The whole "herd"
Well that's all for now, we'll see you soon!

Carrot toes and other items of interest....

Well here we are. I am updating the blog as promised. This will be mostly photos of our recent activities. The "Carrot toes" title is just a little something that refers to Julia and her super cute eating habits.. Julia is full on eating "big girl food" and one of the things that she likes to do is put her toes in her mouth after each bite. So basically she has a different type of toes each night. The kids think that it is hilarious and will call her by her type of toe for the rest of the evening. Good stuff.Off to school!
Playing at home

Ballet fun!

I need to upload the pictures of Tae Kwon Do and then I will post them :)

OK I admit it.....

I am not so good with the updating of the blog.. So I will give an abstract of our life for the last month and fill in with the details later. The beginning of September marked a new chapter "Stiffler life" Noah started school. He is now attending Kindergarten and LOVING it!!!! We decided to allow him to ride the bus (Two trips to the school and back each day is a little much) He loves it! He actually gets a little upset with me when I have to drop him off or pick him up... He is learning a ton of things, his favorite being how to read and write. Last night he was able to read me a word!!! It was one of those mom moments that just brought tears to my eyes. Awesome!

With fall comes a whole host of activities. AWANA has started, and this year Reyna gets to participate. She is so excited to be a "Cubbie" with her best friend Emelia. She is really taking to memorizing her verses. It is sooo cute! Try to teach a 3 year old to say Ecclesiastes and you will understand what I mean. Noah has proceeded to the next level in AWANA, it is called Sparks. He is doing really well and has 4 verses to share this week. GO NOAH! Reyna has also started a ballet class which is soooooo precious and on Monday Noah had his first full Tae Kwon Do class. They are both doing great and LOVING it!

You may be thinking "So where does that leave Julia?" Well, miss Julia continues to be mama's little bug, patiently going from one activity to the next. She is such a good humored baby, she is so interested in everything around her and loves going from place to place. She is now SIX months old. I can't believe how time flies. She is 15lbs 9oz , 26.5 inches long and FULL of energy. We just started feeding her solid foods. She is so cute she flaps her arms and kicks her legs in anticipation of each bite. Good stuff.

It seems that around here there is a always a ton of activity. I will try and update with some photos, we will see how that goes :)

I've been tagged

The Rules:1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.3. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. (If you don’t have a blog, email me or put it on my-space)4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.Ok...here goes...

#1 My favorite things to watch are Spanish Telenovelas. I actually get really upset if I miss an episode and no one is allowed to talk to me while its on.... (yay for the new DVR)

#2 I love to cook. I secretly want to be on the next food network star so I can have my own show.... It would be super cool.

#3 I hate socks. I avoid wearing them at all costs.

#4 I have always wanted to be a police officer (since fifth grade). I am only 5'1" and a mother of three though. It will never happen.

#5 I can't swim. I HATE my face in the water.

#6 I am terrified of heights, Just THINKING of them gives me a stomach ache.

#7 I really want more kiddos. I love having them. If time and money weren't an issue I would have at least a dozen.

#8 When we retire I want to get a huge Sailboat and just travel around for months at a time.

OK so Christina, Elaina, Alison, Andrea, Kristin E, Janelle, Megan and Kristin J.

Camping!

This last weekend we went on our first real camping trip in three years. We were originally going to go to Nehalem Bay State Park, but the weather was going to be foul so we decided at the last minute to change our reservations and go to Cove Palisades instead. I am so glad that we did. On our trip we were joined by our good friends the Salters. We left Sunday morning and after an uneventful car trip (that is saying something considering there are 7 kids between us) we got to the campground at around 3:30 in the afternoon. The spots that we ended up with could not have been more perfect. Close enough to the restrooms and Playground, but far enough that we didn't have anyone traipsing through the campsite. Here are some photos of our setup.

Other then a small amount of rain on Monday (light showers from about 6am to 2pm) The weather was pretty great. All the kids got along swimmingly. We generally just had a great time playing in the dirt, riding bikes and swimming in the lake. I was surprised at how well all our kids slept. Especially with two babies I was worried it would make for some long nights. Interestingly enough it was not our children that kept us up, but rather the very loud snoring man across the way. I mean it was INSANE. The guy was so loud that he might as well have been IN the tent with us. Good stuff. We are planning to go to this same place next year and possibly stay for a week. I can't wait it was so fun! Here are some photos of all our activities.


Just after we arrived
Checking out the lake
There was lots of dirt.
.. And Rocks
Fun on bikes


Fun in the lakeSMORES! (there was a fire ban in effect so we used our Charcoal BBQ to make them, worked out pretty good.)




Well there you have it. Until next time....

I went to SkateWorld

That's right, I went to Skate World. Anyone who grew up in the Gresham area understands the significance of this statement. Many a weekend evening was spent in the red carpet oasis that is the local skating rink. I cannot honestly remember the last time I found myself on roller skates. It was probably in the 7th grade, that was 14 years ago, AAAK! My friend Christina and I decided that it would be a good "date" to go and burn up the rink, so, last Friday I found myself down at the local skating rink. It was petty dang fun. The place has not changed. Everything down to the carpet covered mushroom things that you sit on was the same. Skating was good. I thought I was going to die several times. I kept saying "oh my gosh I just almost died" and I would have to pull over to recoup my balance. I had a pretty spectacular crash which resulted in several bruises and a whole lot of laughter. According to Christina I looked a bit like superman as I landed face first on the rink. She would spontaneously laugh at me every few minutes thinking of the incident. I can't say I wouldn't do the same. It had to be dang funny. Awesome. I did however bounce right back up again and even felt good enough to give a little bow. I am so glad that we went and I am looking forward to going again. I may not be the "coolest" person at the skating rink but who cares it was dang fun.... So bring on the rental skates and licorice whips, I am going skating!

Ummm is it really August??? I'm not sure....

Okay, I would like to take a minute to complain about the ridiculous weather we are having. I am completely unimpressed. UGH! We should be spending our days in the pool splashing. Instead the kiddos keep asking me WHEN they can play in the pool again and I can't give them a firm answer. We have had our first "fruits" from the garden and that is all sorts of exiting. My lemon cucumbers are doing well and there seems to be a bazillion tomatoes just needing to ripen. I can't wait. The strawberries are incredible, we all ooh and ahhh over them as they ripen.

In other news life is pretty quiet as usual, we were able to see Eric's sister Amanda last week. She is in the Air Force and we are only able to see her a couple times a year. Well that's about it for now. Here's to hoping the sun will come out soon!