okay, so i know i’ve been posting like crazy today…….it’s not going to slow down anytime soon!
(halloween, dylan’s birthday, eric’s birthday, thanksgiving………..)

that said, we carved pumpkins last night!!!
i just love doing this, i don’t know what it is, but we always have so much fun!

eli dug right in cleaning out the pumpkins……i just LOVE this picture!

this was dylan’s exact reaction! he dissapeared for awhile after this! (he’s got a thing with textures!)

eli working SO hard! he’s a man with a mission!

look at that concentration!

i just LOVE these lips……..

team work!

dylan showed back up when it was time to use the little tools……

such a boy!

our hard work paid off!

eric and eli did the bat, eric and i teamed up on the spider, and i went all martha stewart on the holy one! (i acheived the look with a power drill! :))

so, another fun tradition has taken place, on to another one tomorrow…………

i had a shoot on friday evening with my good friends mel and ben. they needed business portraits, and then we went ahead and took some fun ones. i even got in on a couple at the end!
thanks guys, it was fun as always!

eric and i went to an 80’s halloween party on saturday night……

i wish i had a better picture of us, our babysitter took this really quick before we left. it doesn’t do my hair justice!!!!!!

and you can barely see it here, but eric even grew a mustache for the event!

we had a great time, shannon and mark did an awesome job!

LOTS of karaoke, and uno playing took place.

it was fun to just be out for the evening with my husband.

i got a new lens today……..YAY!!! i’m so excited about it! i took eli outside in the front yard for a 5 minute shoot this afternoon…….. he’s getting less and less patient with me lately. the last picture says it all…..he said this was his “crabby face”. oh well, he survived, and i got some cute pics. i just love this little boy!

okay, so the title of this post is a bit decieving…….

on saturday we went to a park called daybreak.

anyway, we were on our way home from eric’s parents house, and eric took a bit of a detour. this park, or trail, is one of the spots where he fishes from time to time. it was raining, and yucky outside, but he assured me that we wouldn’t melt, and that i should just trust him.

well, it turned out to be a really fun experience. not just the trail, and the rain, but all of us together. sometimes i think we just get caught up in the normal weekend routine, and we don’t make time for the “experiences”.

lately, that has been different, and we have grown closer as a family because of these little outings eric keeps insisting on :)

(not to mention the photo opps they present!)

so here it is my view,

my family…….

everytime i go to take a picture of eli, lately, he starts moving all weird, and striking these bazaar poses……..then he’ll usually snap out of it, atleast for a minute…..

our rain boots!

i am in love with this one.

the rain, the sunshine, and the way his little body moves…..

this was the view behind us on the trail.

magical…

look at how eric and eli are standing just opposite one another.

like father, like son!

eric snapped this. a bit out of focus, but i’m just happy to be showing up in some pictures with my boys!

little monkeys……

eli getting reprimanded…..

(he wanted to get closer to the water)

i just love watching eric be a father, so gentle, yet strong, and his boys just adore him! what more could i ask for?

so there you have it.

an ordinary day, turned extraordinary.

this was only the beginning of the amazing pics i got. if i get to it, i’ll try and post some more, but you know how it is……..a new day, new experiences, new pictures!

we are finally feeling a bit better around here. eli went back to school today, and dylan and i stayed, since it was my work day. (co-op) i think we are all happy to see some new faces. we were getting a little tired of each other to say the least!

i started to try and organize my life. it’s a big job. things just get out of hand so fast. if you have any amazing organizing tips, leave me a comment, i need all the help i can get!

i thought i would post this picture because it says “i’m eli, and riding bikes is what i do”. this is where he’s most happy, i think. he gets it from his father. he is SO fast, and a bit reckless. (he’s got scars to prove it!) when i watch him jumping curbs, and trying to make the longest brake line on the black top, i can’t believe he’s only three. i know i’m his mom, but seriously the boy is amazing! and when i really want to yell to him “SLOW DOWN!!” i’m trying to stop, take a deep breath an just say “good job, buddy!” because he is who he is:

a smart

funny

talented

crazy

handsome

sweet

bike-riding

boy.

i have to go now because he’s looking at me with thise big blue eyes from under that big black helmet, and asking “can we go ride bikes mom?”

dylan is so sick. he came down with the croup on sunday night. i layed on his floor all night, and just listened to him to make sure he was still breathing. we’ve been through this a few times before with eli, so we knew there wasn’t a whole lot we could do, except take him outside in the cold air, run the hot shower, and set up the humidifier. on monday, i took him in to get a steroid shot, so his airway would open up, but the steroid comes with it’s own set of problems. it makes him SUPER irritable, and wired . so we didn’t sleep monday night either, but for different reasons. then yesterday afternoon, he started getting croupy again. last night was by far the worst. eric sat on the couch until 4AM holding him upright so he could breathe, and sleep, since he hadn’t in a few days. every hour or so eric would hold him in front of the window so he could breathe better. i took over after that. we went back to the doctor today, they sent us home with a few doses of an oral steroid if things get bad again. the doctor said that dylan sounded like gollam from the lord of the rings! we even got him to say “precious”! eli has a cough and a little runny nose, i guess they grow out of the croup after a few years.

i took these pictures today while we were outside. it’s amazing how much better he sounds after being outside for awhile. eli was riding his bike, and dylan and i hung out on the tail gate of the truck.

oh, to be sick, and still look this good….

we started out the day at The Pumpkin Farm out on sauvie island. we had a lot of fun! the kids had a blast, and they were amazing the whole time! i got some fun pics that i thought iwould share…….

you gotta love the dirty knees…

enjoying some pumpkin suckers……

dylan looking like a little model…….

eric even took some pics of me with the boys, that never happens!

papa, this ones for you……

dylan finds water anywhere and everywhere……..he actually took a “taste” of this.

he said it was “yummy”! it looks pretty gross to me.

eli and his daddy……..

i just loved this picture…..

eric and i never have pictures together…..

i’m glad we took this before we left.

okay, so after the pumpkin farm, eric just started driving. we ended up in astoria, and went on to long beach. the boys were amazing in the car, and it was such a beautiful drive. you can actually drive on the beach. that’s right up eric’s alley. he’s always trying to drive in weird places, wanting to test the limits of the “cruiser”. this wasn’t really dangerous or anything, just a bit of an adventure!

i wish i had more great pictures from the beach, but it was really, really windy and dylan wasn’t loving it. i have to say, this picture sure does make up for it though.

my supermen……