Forget About Everything Else I've told you...Candy, Candy, Candy!

Halloween is one of those weird holidays that would be very hard to explain to someone who had never experienced it before. It's one of those holidays where we as parents let all those valuable lessons we have been trying to instill into our children throughout the year fall by the wayside. We are less concerned for our kid's safety, we don't enforce all of the rules; we're all caught up in the wonderful memories from our childhood. On this night anything goes! Halloween goes against the principles we teach our kids the other 364 days of the year and we love it!

We are always telling our kids "Be true to yourself", but on this night we say, "You can dress up and be anything you want to be, you just can't be yourself."

We tell our kids, "Never talk to strangers", but on this night we encourage them to march up and knock on as many stranger's doors as possible. In fact, if they hesitate we say, "Come on, you have to go up the door. Okay, I'll go with you this time, but next time you go up alone. Okay?"

We often say, "Make sure you come inside before it gets too dark out there." But on Halloween we say, "Stop asking if it's time to go yet; we can't go outside until it gets dark, that's when the fun begins."

We tell them, "Don't watch those scary shows on t.v., you'll get nightmares and warp your mind." But on this night we oh and ah, laugh and giggle at all the spooky, scary decorations gracing the lawns of the neighborhood.

We tell our kids, "Sugar is bad for your bodies and it creates cavities; only to be eaten in moderation. But on this night, we hand them a huge empty pail and say, "Fill it to the top with sugar. Lots and lots of sugar! We follow that up with, "Wow, look at all that candy, that's awesome! Look how full that is sweetheart! Great job honey!!!"

We tell them to never take candy from strangers, but on this exclusive night we say, "Now walk up to this strangers house and take the wonderful treats that they're handing out... hurry...run!"

It might sound strange to an outsider, but to us Americans it's a wonderful exciting night!

Besides being able to re-live our childhood memories through our children, another great benefit for us parents is putting the munchkins to bed and raiding their buckets!

This year we had a pirate princess, Pocahontas, Thor, and of course Nacho!

They had a great night with friends and, I have to say, Mom and Dad had just as much fun!

What's not to love about Halloween!!!!

Wine Tasting on the French Riviera with Brad Pitt

I think of myself as a pretty low-maintenance girl. My idea of a perfect night is a back rub, a glass of red wine and a good movie...preferably starring Brad Pitt. Now, if I was requesting a back rub from Eduardo, would only drink imported wine from France and a wanted a foreign play to be performed in my living room, that would be high maintenance. I think being perfectly content with getting my wine from a box allows me to be included in the low-maintenance category!

I have a very short bucket-list. I like to think of myself as adventurous, but if I were being honest, my list looks sort of puny. Vacation to a tropical destination with my love, win a million dollars, and go wine tasting.

I was so close to crossing wine-tasting off my list, but it still remains...I am cheap. A wonderful night out with some great ladies landed us at a wine bar for a birthday celebration. A few of us have October birthdays and it was a great excuse for a girls' night out! With that said, I was too cheap to order the wine sampler; instead, when the waiter asked what I would like I said, "a glass of merlot that's around $8.00." Classy!

Now that wine tasting is being put back on my list, it will now read: Wine tasting on the French Riviera, hosted by Brad Pitt.

Do I have bucket-lists and dreams mixed up?

It was a very fun night with some awesome girlies! A lovely dinner, a very tasty $8.00 glass of wine followed by my absolute favorite; frozen yogurt!

What really made the night? Amazing friends that you can laugh and be silly with! Friends that will gladly take you up on your offer for a piece of gum that you found at the bottom of your purse. Friends that let you sing with them in the car despite your lack of vocal ability and, most important, friends that don't judge you for the massive amount of frozen yogurt that one might choose to consume!

Love you girls, it's so amazing doing life with you!

I missed the photo-op! I was busy trying to find great karaoke songs to accommodate my vocal ineptness. Karaoke girls-night is next week....hmmm, not sure if I'll post those highlights.

Okay girls, you and your tiny cups of frozen yogurt...we're going to need to work on that!

I didn't want to totally intimidate them, so I went light!

Introducing a New Member of the Family

No, I'm not pregnant. Let's just clear that up right now. Our official headcount will remain the same from here on out. You should know by now that I'm dramatic; I like to call inanimate objects by name, giving them their own personality.



Summer to us equals camping; as much as we can. We just can't seem to get enough. Every available weekend between June and August we consume with exploring the beautiful mountains that surround us, relaxing with no distractions, and spending time making memories with our children.



As a child, some of my greatest memories were pulling in late at night to an unknown campground and setting up our humungous tent with poles we always failed to mark. Setting up that tent usually erupted into a few curse words, but it all just added to the memories! The smell of the campfire, the chill on the tip of my nose as I laid snuggled in my sleeping bag, the endless adventures and made-up games between great family-friends.



I couldn't find very many old camping pictures, and none of our awesome tent. But here are a few.

Mom, please don't yell at me for posting this pic... you look hot!
Isn't little Britt adorable!

Some might think it's odd to play house in the woods; cooking outdoors, going potty in a freshly dug hole and attempting to stay warm by a fire... always a struggle to build! To us camping means an escape from our everyday routine; an excuse to do nothing but play, eat and sit. It forces us to completely focus on our children without the endless to-do lists looming over our day. I know without a doubt that our kids will look back at our camping adventures and remember them as some of the most precious times we shared as a family.



As we were packing for this trip, Abby was double checking our supplies. I really do believe that child doesn't trust us... at all. She asked us two times, "Did you remember the propane?"



In my opinion, our kids are completely spoiled campers. Camping in our toasty-warm pop-up; they have no idea what "roughing-it" is . But, I'm totally okay giving them this luxury. I agree... why freeze? At least that's how I feel now, having adopted the newest member of our family. Do you see him poking out there in the background? Meet Viking Spirit. He is a bit shy, but very special to us.

I love how content a little boy can be hunting for rocks and watching them splash into the water.

Father's Day weekend couldn't have been spent in a better way!

What Not To Wear

You know those people that hang on to things that they wore in high school thinking that one day it might come back into style. The ones that have a hard time switching gears when it comes to fashion. You know, the ones that get closet intervention from Stacy and Clinton. I am one of those! Well, maybe not as bad, I'd like to think, but in more ways than one I fit that bill.

A lot of it has to do with the fact that I have been out of shape for six plus years, bearing our beautiful children. So I do get some points added for that, right? I mean, who wants to go shopping and spend money on new clothes when your weight is up and down like a roller coaster for that long. Not me, obviously!

So, the whole kid thing is done. Our family is complete. The years of having the baby weight excuse are long gone, Matthew is two and a half. So, were does that leave me? Oh, yeah, closet disaster and major intervention needed. I knew it needed to happen, it was just a matter of doing it.

I knew exactly who to ask to help me make it happen. My Plato's Closet dressing room buddy! Yes, we always ask for the large dressing room. Two reasons. One, our massive pile of clothes to try on will not fit in the smaller dressing rooms. Two, how lonely and boring would it be to try on clothes alone? Seriously. It just becomes a hassle and trying on everything takes longer, because we have to come in and out of our dressing rooms to show each other for outfit approval! It just makes sense, to us anyway!

A few weeks ago, we entered the closet in need.

These boxers were given to me in high school at my 14th birthday party! Wearing boxers to volleyball practice was the thing! Thank you Helen and Shannon for my awesome boxers, I obviously got my use out of them. Fourteen years worth! Yes, and that hole has been there for at least a year. They were my painting shorts, everyone needs a good pair of painting shorts, right?

One of my excuses for not doing this sooner, is that I now have the space to store all my hideous old clothes. But, being blessed with an amazing closet does not mean I should keep the clothes I bought at goodwill when I was in high school. Yes, it pretty much was that bad.

My most commonly tossed item was my ridiculous amount of solid colored shirts. Specifically black! Black hides a lot!

I purchased this fleece when I was fifteen from our church. I love the memories I have of the church I was raised in, but do I really need to harbor this hideous fleece to reminisce? I think taking out the old photo album will suffice!

We were laughing so hard, I was crying!

I didn't even care what was thrown away. I told Heather if she thought it should go, add it to the pile. I wasn't looking!

Time to make a trip to Goodwill and give them back their clothes!

At one point she said, "I can't believe you moved across the country with all of this!" I knew she was thinking, "all this crap," but she doesn't swear, so she stopped her sentence short.  

Yeah, I know, it's bad!

Look at all those empty hangers!

So now my oversized closet looks even more oversized, actually it looks pretty pathetic! Time to go shopping!

Auction For Paula

I know I don't usually post on Tuesday's, but this post is for a special purpose! Paula is battling cancer and fighting for her life. The stress of medical bills are piling up and her daughters have put together an amazing online auction in support of her.

Paula's Story

Paula Lee Thomason was born in November 1947, 6 months after the aliens landed in Roswell, New Mexico!!!!

For the last 9 ½ years she has been a Flight Attendant for Horizon Air.

In April of this year (after 5 months of continuous coughing) the doctors discovered that her right lung was blocked with Cancer. Quite a surprise as Paula’s friends will attest she has been a health food nut and non smoker her whole life.

As of today, she has undergone Chemotherapy and Radiation. She now has small spots of Cancer on her Pancreas, Liver, Lungs and Kidney. The second line of defense will start with some more chemo in two weeks. Who knows?????

Paula’s family include 3 daughters.

Her oldest daughter, Kalle and her husband, Tony Fletcher with their two daughters Emerson and Elliot. They live in Washougal, WA.

Her middle daughter, Greta and her boyfriend, Steve Mahalko of Los Angeles.

Her youngest daughter, Ingrid who lives in Austin, TX.

Paula lives in Vancouver, WA.

You can follow Paula’s journey on her blog:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/cowgirl

Please take some time to look over the auction, there is a lot of great items up for bid! Vacations, handmade items, celebrity donated items (Meg Ryan). To bid, leave a comment under the posted item, the highest bidder wins!!

Also, if you would like to make a donation in support of Paula, you can do so by clicking here and leaving your contact information in the comment section!

Here is the link to the Auction

http://auctioncowgirl.wordpress.com/category/auction-items/

Thank you for taking the time to help Paula and her family during this difficult time!

Birthday Girl, The Big 28, Lots of Love

I usually don't make a big deal about my birthday.  My personality is one that has a real hard time receiving gifts and being pampered.  I guess it's because I always feel like I can't really express enough, how thankful I am.  I love giving gifts and I know I need to be better at being the one receiving.  Erik and my Mom are always telling me that.  My sweet friend Heather told me, "You better get good at receiving!  Cause you've got a lifetime of it as long as I'm your friend." I love her, lots!!!!  

To say I was spoiled this birthday, would be an understatement!

Monday morning started with coffee and wonderful girlfriends, honestly thats all I need for the perfect birthday!!!!  These girls mean so much to me, I love them and cherish them as a gift from God!  They all took me out that night to a yummy Vietnamese dinner and Cold Stone for dessert!  They also gave me a huge gift certificate to my favorite store, Plato's closet!  I know, they are the best! Love!

The only excuse that I have for not having more than one picture of this awesome night, is that we don't really take many breaks in our conversation.  Between our laughing and gabbing, Heather snapped one picture of Kellie and me, so this is all I've got!  Good job Heather, look at you, shooting in manual and everything!!

I slept in until 7:00 yesterday, felt so good,  I woke up to this wonderful note

Love him!

this HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIGN

and the kids singing happy birthday to me!  They broke out in song all day long!  All day Matt was saying,"Hap birtay mom, love you!"

When I got on the computer yesterday morning, I was overwhelmed by all the love! My mom made me cry with her post and I was so blessed by everyones birthday wishes! I am one lucky girl to be surrounded by such amazing people in my life! Again, tears!

Sweet texts from my sis and my Ken (my Idaho bff), love you!!!!

Mom and dad sent beautiful flowers and chocolates! They also sent me a whole Under Armor cold running outfit!  I did a little dance when I opened it, they always know the perfect gift to send!

Erik got home early from work yesterday (I can't remember the last time that happened), he sat me down on the couch and told me not to look.  He blared "Today Is Your Birthday" (Beatles) on the stereo! I sat there giggling at him, while he went back and forth to his truck retrieving gifts.  

Sparkling Cider, Stainless steel garbage cans from his work (he knows I am practical and would love them), he took care of a nagging to do list item for me (a Costco electronic dvd player return.  Again, I am practical and was very excited about this gift), a huge Costco double chocolate cake, and a Shiatsu Foot Massager!  

The foot massager made me laugh, I knew it was also a gift for him.  If you know me, you know that I am a sucker for any kind of massage. My love language is touch and so I am always seeking out my next head, foot, back massage!  The way we watch t.v. at night, is both of us cuddled on one couch, with Erik massaging my head.  It is so routine at this point, he doesn't even know he is doing it half the time!  But, the one thing he doesn't do is feet!  When I was pregnant he did a few times, but I don't even ask anymore because I know he hates it!  So when he brought this in, I knew it was a double gift!  I did say to him later that night, "you know, I love the foot massager, but nothing beats the human touch!" He quickly responded, "oh, no problem, I will hold your hand or rub your head while the foot massager is doing it's job!"  Works for me!

Abby lost another tooth, Matty is blowing on the salsa because it's to spicy, a big fat chocolate cake with not enough candles on it and the whole crazy group smiling for the tripod!

We went out to dinner, everyones favorite, Mexican!  The kids were so well behaved, it was odd and we all had a wonderful time!  We then went home to the monstrous chocolate cake! The night ended with Erik and I cuddled on the couch watching Modern Family (we just started watching the first season on dvd, so funny)!!

The perfect birthday!  And it's not over yet, I still have my birthday race on Sunday!  So excited!!!!! Wish me luck!

Mark's Injury, Facebook Beginnings and Blog Award Fun

Wow, that's a lot to put in one blog post, or at least the title!!


Up first:


I now have my business facebook page up!!
Click here to check it out!

The next portion of this post, is the tragic portion! Prepare yourself, it's hard to hear!

So we went to the zoo last week, fun day! Well, I tried to have fun and clear my mind, of what had just happened moments earlier! But, it was really hard, I had this sick feeling in my stomach, that wouldn't go away.

I guess I need to back up a bit. My camera, my amazing, lovely camera! Lets, just say, good things don't come cheap and I have an amazing husband, that supports my expensive dream! I have upgraded three times this year and I now have my dream camera! You would think, as attached as I am, that I would take extra precaution to care for him. Well, this day I failed, I failed miserably.

So, back to the zoo. I picked up my friend Melissa at her house, we loaded up the kids and the gear for the day! I said to her, as I was buckling my seat belt, "I nestled my camera in the bags back there, so just remind me to get it out before we start unloading." Okay, so many things wrong with this picture. Mark should not of been just in the back, not nestled in anything but his case, and no one should have to remind me to take care of him. I really set myself up for this tragedy. Why the heck was I okay with him alone, unclothed, unbuckled, in trunk of the car? WHAT KIND OF MOTHER AM I?

We get to the zoo, I hop out, to safely get Mark out of the trunk and I set him on the cushiony ice chest! REALLY, I know what your thinking, who does that? Why didn't he scream at me, like my other kids do? Why didn't someone warn me, I was being ridiculously stupid!

So, here it comes. I go next, to unload the double jogging stroller out of the back and yes, down he goes. It all happened in slow motion. His body hit the pavement and my heart sank! At that moment, I felt like the worst person on the face of the planet!

By Gods grace, he survived. He has a battle scar, a small crack on the top of his head. Every time I look at him, I will see my negligence in caring for him. I have learned a huge lesson! Being an adult, I shouldn't of needed to be taught this life lesson of responsibility. If I was my own kid, I would be in a massive amount of trouble! I have always been really good at punishing myself, ask my Mom. She is always telling me, how she really didn't have to do much in the discipline department, because I would take care of it myself. I am so thankful God taught me a lesson, with a small amount of damage!

I didn't want to tell Erik, but of course I did, right when I got home! He is so gracious with these sorts of things! He had every right to chew me out, and make me feel bad, but he could see how torn up about it, I already was. Instead, he just sympathized along with me. Love him!!

I called about insurance coverage that day! Mark is now insured. Not that I haven't learned my lesson, but I do have a house full of little hands, so anything can happen! I was tempted to call and put a dishonest claim in a few months from now, so I could get Mark replaced. The insurance lady even told me that I had that option, but then said that I didn't hear that idea from her. I know God will honor, honesty and so I am trusting Him with the whole thing. He can make Mark last a lifetime, if He wants too. I love serving a God that cares even about the small things, that are big to us!!

Here are a few pictures at the zoo, taken with Mark, right after the fall!

So, the third subject, is a happy one!


Thank you Kimberly, author of the stinker pinkers, for this One lovely blog Award!

Here is what she said:

2. Organized Chaos – Linsey is a sweet sweet mommy of 4! She has a fun blog. Always a great topic to read. And seriously…doesn’t she look at Giada from the Food Network??? Simply Lovely Linsey!

Seriously, how sweet is she!! How could that not, make your day! It certainly made mine!
There are quite a few differences between me and Giada, one large one comes to mind! But, I will take that compliment any day!!

Check out her blog from the link above, it's super cute!

The rules are:

1. Accept the award and acknowledge the person who bestowed it upon me.

Thank you again Kimberly!

2. Pay it forward to 15 newly discovered blogs I enjoy

Absolutely!

1. Jasmine Star Blog

I cannot get enough to this girl. Not only is she an amazing photographer but she can write! I just love her posts and usually will not miss one! Her husband is an equally amazing photographer and writer, he pipes in on occasion!

2. A Daddy Blog

Even though this award is not very manly looking, I really like his blog and seeing things from a Dad's perspective. He has an adorable little girl!

3. From The Aisle to Aloha

Lindsay is a newlywed, living in Hawaii, with a husband that she adores. She is a Navy wife, and her blog is always a fun read. She is an amazing painter and has just opened up an Etsy shop. With all her great ideas for your home and all her DIY projects, you will be hooked! She is super cute and her fun personality is a common thread throughout her blog!

4. Ni Hoa Y'all

Wow, this family never seizes to amaze me! They have nine kids with one more on the way. Four biological and soon to be, six adopted! I love her posts, just an amazing mom with some amazing kiddos!

5. Packing Light

These two could not get any cuter! Two friends out on the road pursuing their dreams! They are writing all about their journey along the way! One musician and one writer, both full of ambition!

6. Heidi Hope Photography

7. Betsy Blue blog

8. Chris Mclaughlin Photography

9. Audry Woulard Blog

10. Mindy Young Photography

Love their work!

11. Better After

Such fun, to see things transformed! Before and Afters at there best!

12. Clickin Moms

Best site to further your photography skills, some amazing ladies on this blog!

13. Love Meagan

Fun blog, with lots of great fashion!

14. Bless My Nest
Paris is a sweet Mom, with a blog full of great recipes. She inspires me to want to cook more for my family and to cook them healthy delicious food, like she prepares!


15. A Beautiful Mess
Alicia has a great blog filled with wonderful photography! I love her sense of humor! I also love her blog title!