Visiting Debra's in the Fall

Dave has a lot of business trips in the fall.  He was gone for a full week one week so we decided we would pack up and head north to my sister's house in Battle Ground, WA.  The kids would get to play with a pack of cousins and would love it, so that is what we did! 

 We went shopping at the Factory Store Outlet Mall in Woodburn, Bella found this hat and just had to have it and I just had to get it for her :)

The kids had so much fun at their cousins' house playing, running around, and of course jumping on the trampoline.

We went to the pumpkin patch with Debra and Camille.  There was a barn that had some farm animals in it but Bella thought it was too cold. 

A hay pyramid that you can climb on, yes please!  See if you can spot Bella and Grayson.

Oh wait, the climbing wasn't enough, nope, there are tunnels underneath it as well!  Too fun!

 

We had to break to eat some lunchies.  Grayson was getting tired and grumpy but we pressed forward.

I think he found his pumpkin.

They found this yellow ladybug and were mesmerized by it.

"I eat donut" - Grayson @ Krispykreme

 

We did all sorts of fun things with Debra, the pumpkin patch at Sauvie Island, Krispy Kreme, shopping and just hanging out, it was a blast!

 

Of course my kids don't really smile for me when I take pictures.  That is mostly because after I hit the button to take a picture it takes forever for the picture to actually take so here are some true happy photos of the kids :)

At least they smile at each other.  They may fight with each other but they sure do love one another.

Halloween 2012

We had a lot of fun parties to go to this year to help us celebrate Halloween!  So much fun!  The kids really enjoyed dressing up, playing games and trick or treating.  I have to say they are the cutest kids ever :)

Bella was a mermaid princess and Grayson was a Leopard.  Grayson was going around saying rawr, rawr, it was adorable.

Seattle Trip

We took a trip up to Seattle and our main purpose was to visit my cousin, who is more like an uncle because he is just a couple years younger than my dad.  He isn't in the best of health and we wanted to make sure we had a visit with him this year.  We stayed with our good friends the Sassers.  We met up with my eldest brother in Leavenworth which was a ton of fun because it was also the same weekend that they were having their Autumn Leaf Festival so we got to watch a parade and explore Leavenworth.  Dave had never been either, it was a lot of fun to hang out with Wayne, Rhona and Neela.  Again, I didn't take very many pictures and of course none with the people we were visiting.  This is going to be my new years resolution, better at taking pictures!

Grandma and Grandpa Stockdale Visit

Ok, first I have to say I am absolutely horrible and didn't really get any pictures of Dave's parents, Mike and Diane Stockdale.  Like I said I am terrible at taking pictures, especially with not having a very good camera, just my phone.  But here are some happening while they were here.  Dave's dad helped work on the truck.  They also spent a fair amount of time fishing.  I was even able to go once!  But Diane and especially Mike LOVE fishing so Dave was able to get a friend who had a fishing boat take us all out for a few days in a row.  We caught a lot of salmon which was SO good!  We really enjoyed having them here, they were a lot of fun and the kids absolutely loved spending time with their grandparents.  Grayson sure loved his Grandma!

Bono got a special bone to keep him happy for a while.

I got up too early to go fishing so I was relaxing at our base camp.  Here are some pics from base camp:

beautiful huh?!  It is on the Siuslaw River.

Bella's First Day of School

Bella started Preschool this year!  She absolutely LOVES it!  She is extremely smart and can memorize very well.  I was really worried about her socialization and how she would behave with other kids as this has been an issue in the past but she has slowly gotten so much better.  Her teacher reports she does extremely well and is a joy to have in class.  She is very helpful, plays well with others, follows instruction and is always happy.  Yup, that is our little girl.  She is just a perpetual happy child that we are so blessed to have!

Bella's First Swim Lesson

Bella took her first swim lesson class this past fall too.  She was so excited and she listened very well.  She just has to redo the first class again as she didn't pass much.  Putting her face in the water terrifies her and she is still really little but she has time to figure it all out.  :)

Summer Time

We had a lot of fun in the sun while we had it this summer!  Here are some pics to help us remember the sunshine we won't see again until next summer:

We went to Wildlife Safari which was really fun, we drove through and saw all sorts of fun animals, giraffes, zebras, lions, elephants, tigers, bears, birds, snakes, pretty much everything.  Then we walked through the pedistrian portion of it where there was a train ride and OF COURSE we had to ride on it, the kids are obsessed with trains!  You can tell from the picture below Bella is amazed :)

Grayson likes to get up WAY too early, like before the sun comes up...there are days this is my only relief:

But then I get these two cuties:

We went to the lake a few times this summer, Bella loves getting in the water and splashing.  Grayson just seems to enjoy throwing things into it.  Silly kids.

Bella's first time on a sail boat, not a good pic but that is all I could get while holding onto Grayson.

 

We went to the lake to celebrate the 4th of July with Mark and Lisa and family, Grandma and Grandpa and a few of our good friends, the Hallocks and Johnsons.  It was a lot of fun and all the kids REALLY enjoyed being in the sun and water all day.  We also had lots of good eats!

 

Yeah, three canopies barely covered us all, I thought it was pretty funny.

 

We also spent a lot of time in the backyard in our little wading pool to keep cool.  I just love this picture of Bella.

 

We also spend a ginormous amount of time at many different parks.  The kids love to play at any park.  They make friends with everybody and anybody.  In fact there have been a couple different instances where Bella wroped some tween aged boys into doing her bidding and a pack of 8 year old girls were following Grayson around.  It was just very funny.  To Bella everyone is a friend and if she doesn't know you, you are a future friend, it is that simple.  I hope she never loses that.

We went camping near Crater Lake.  Dave had never been and it was such a great campout, we had a blast and it was really hot!

 

We took our Labor day holiday day trip near Salem to Silver Falls.  There are a bunch of different falls and we hiked to a couple of them.  It was a lot of fun and we had some new friends, David and Danielle Hitz, accompany us!  The kids actually did a lot of hiking too, they like exploring especially if water is involved.

 

Grayson's 2nd Birthday

Grayson turned 2 June 1!  He is such a little cutie and such a little stinker!  That boy sure can make me laugh as well as melt my heart.  I think he has much the same effect on most people he encounters.  Just so fun.

We didn't have a huge shindig for the little guy but we all had fun.  We feel so blessed to have some family live in the same town!

Camping

We went camping only twice this year.  We were able to go out in our NEW tent trailer!  It was SO great, I can't even tell you.  Not being in a tent camping with little ones is the best!  Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the new tent trailer, sorry!  But here are a few to commemorate our adventures :)

The kids had a ton of fun with family and playing outside constantly.  Grayson LOVED riding his little push bike and he could go fast!  He also loved that he could find rocks anywhere and would carry them around like prizes.  Bella just loved the attention she could get from her cousins, just playing with them.  I love camping, being outdoors and spending time with family.

New Member of the Family

My eldest brother, Wayne, decided to sell our Grandfather's 1966 Ford F-250 Custom Cab Camper Special (a mouthfull, I know!).  I've ALWAYS loved this truck.  Dave is going to be very busy for a very long time restoring this beauty!  I am so excited!  This truck has only had four owners, my grandpa, my grandma, Wayne and now us.  I just think it is so neat to have something from my Grandpa who passed away when I was a toddler.  I am really looking forward to the completed restoration.  Both Dave and I love classic cars too, so it fits us very well.  :)

Here it is in 1984, look how wonderful it looks (Wayne too ;)!