Beautiful day in February!

We had a beautiful day today and decided to take advantage of the sun shining. We headed out to a beautiful spot in the foothills of the coast range.

Here is the start of the hike...the boys were so excited they started running across the bridge. And no they don't have glow in the dark bunny tails...I guess their rain jackets have a reflective spot at the bottom of the coat. I never really noticed that before.

The boys and their friend Jonah at the base of a huge old oak tree.
Much of the trail was in the forest but there were spots that opened up to beautiful meadows showing dramatic cloud formations and nice views of the mountains.
The boys taking a contemplative moment at a bench rest stop. For some reason Dylan thought that pose under the bench was more comfortable.

This was the longest the boys ever hiked before without being carried or pulled in a wagon or stroller...and with absolutely no complaining! We did a nice loop trail that was about 1.5 miles. On the way back Dylan and Cole had so much fun holding hands. Since it was such a nice day there were other people out on the trails and the boys liked to stop and tell the other hikers all about the things we saw along the way.
All the boys are holding hands for the last push before making it back to the car.Once we got back to the car we enjoyed a nice picnic lunch together...except that mom never seems to have it together enough to be able to pack food for herself, so I end up just feeding on their scraps! The boys LOVE picnics especially when mom packs their lunches in their very own lunch box...it's just like the big kids at school that stay all day and eat lunch at school! Hopefully we will have more nice sunny days!

Sun, vacuums, maps and newts!

We have had a nice week that included a few days/hours of no rain and even SUN!!

We went for a hike with some of our friends and got to see several newts that were enjoying the break in the rain.

The boys always want to do everything that Mom and Dad do...so can you guess who was more excited, Mom or Cole, when he wanted to take over the vacuuming? Both Dylan and Cole did a very thorough job and are happy they have a new 'job' to do around the house. Me too!

This weekend the 'guys' came on a work tour that Mommy was helping to lead. The group enjoyed watching the boys switch between walking, pushing, pulling and riding in the wagon. The boys especially loved the mud puddles and talking about how much mud was on the wagon wheels. The boys had just about as much fun washing the mud off the wagon once we got home.
It turned out to be an amazingly beautiful clear day!
The boys have always been interested in maps and when Daddy found some old road maps we didn't need any more the boys were thrilled to look at and draw on them.

They are telling Mom all about the places they see.

See for yourself!!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We have spent the last two days celebrating Daddy's big 37th birthday.
On Daddy's birthday morning, the boys woke Daddy up with a surprise 'Happy Birthday!' and balloons we hid in Mommy's closet. A good start to the day.

Then there were some birthday wrestles.

Some birthday presents.

And of course a birthday dinner.

We had to have a party in order to wear our fabulous party hats! And to have cake (or individual pear raspberry pies) and ice cream.

And to have a bigger audience for our birthday sillies.

And fun family time!

January's daily tasks

We are getting back into the groove of daily life after a busy bustling holiday.
The guys are back to their love of cleaning. I'm not sure their version of cleaning helps Mom too terribly much since I usually have to clean up their 'cleaning' projects. But it sure does keep them occupied!

This is going to be one clean door! Now if they could just clean up that huge soapy puddle at their feet!

This past week the boys have discovered the remote control for our ipod speaker system. Several times a day they want to turn the music on. They shuffle through the albums, including several kids albums, and go straight for Nirvana (classic grunge). They turn it up really loud and start to dance. They say 'lets rock out mommy!' And we all dance together.

They have discovered a new favorite way to brush teeth. Sit in your brothers lap while Mom or Dad brush both boys teeth at the same time!

They keep us guessing!

Party time with Lina

Over the holidays one of our good friends had her second baby, so we got to watch her daughter Lina (one of the boys buds) while she was in the hospital. They had a no children under 18 in the hospital, unless they were the patient, rule due to the swine flu. They even had guards at the entrance of the hospital.
But we lucked out because we got to play with Lina for a couple of days! Here Lina and Dylan are cleaning carrots they harvested from the garden for lunch.

Dylan and Lina playing a duet.

Dylan always offers up his seat at the lunch table to the girls that come over to play. Such a gentleman!!

Dylan also offered up his bed to Lina for nap time...which I think he did so that he could sleep in a sleeping bag. But they all ended up on the floor together. If you couldn't guess...no one napped. But Lina read the boys books since she was in the middle and they had a little bit of quiet time.

Tea parties are always better with one more friend! Cheers!!

Merry Christmas!

We had a fun Christmas being silly and spending time with friends and family!

Daddy and his boys!

We made cookies to share with all our visiting cousins and aunts and uncles.
Cole is a pro with the spatula!

Dylan was so excited to read him name written all of the wrapping paper of this gift from Nana.
The boys were so excited about all their gifts. Every gift Cole opened or watched being open he would shout out with supreme joy and excitement. He would shout 'ha haaaaaa' in his funny deep voice.
Their excitement was profound for their gifts that ranged from a fun pink pillow...
...to a cool building set...

...to the amazing drill set...

...to the array of cars and truck they got.

We wish you all a very merry Christmas and a fabulously amazing New Year!!

Holiday Fun

We have been very busy this week with many holiday activities.
But we always make time to be silly!!

We got to ride the 'Holiday Trolley' to downtown Corvallis...

...while downtown we stopped at our favorite book store and got a couple of books. Before heading back home on the trolley Daddy read the books to the boys while they were eating a snack at a coffee shop.

We had several holiday parties that we went to this week, including a 'celebration of peace' at the boys school. Cole is in the middle of this picture...sitting amongst his classmates.

Here is Dylan with his classmates (they are in different classes). They were excited to sing 'holiday' songs and talked about it for days...but didn't open their mouth once to sing during the whole gathering!

Speaking of holiday songs...the boys are very into singing Jingle Bells and have been playing the piano while singing it lately. They even found some Christmas sheet music of Mommy's and got a music stand out, put the up sheet music and proceeded to stand in front of the music and sing their different versions of Jingle Bells.Here is a great video of Cole playing the piano...he's not singing Jingle Bells in this one...but it's still great.