good fall

Good weather, good trees.

Good boys, good leaves.

Good pumpkin patch.

Good-bye rock wall. Good change.

Good husband, good helpers.

Good potato vine. (you can't kill that thing)

Good boots.

Good dragon, good knight.

This good fall has been such a delight. the end.

Birthday

Coley's two now guys. Here is a sample of his cute-ness.

Two

Two two-year olds. Two very sweet and adorable boys. Days spent with them are pure bliss and pure frustration. To each other they are equal parts best friends and bitter enemies. Perfect frenemies. Perfect little boys.

This is where all the rich people who live around Twin Falls go to swim. Nick's cousin bought a membership to this country club and I invited myself and my boys to come along a few times. Its awesome. I like to pretend that I belong there, with all the other "real" doctor's wives. Xavier and Cole love the sandy beach and paddle boats but they never put much effort into eating the lunch I so lovingly packed for them. But the hot sun sucks all the energy right out of them and I am almost always guaranteed a 3 hour nap after swimming there. I want to be rich bad.

A no post

Summer has been so busy, crazy, stressful, fun, wonderful, and sooo short. You know how we bought an old 60's style ranch house to fix up? Well thats what we did all summer (I swear we like doing that stuff). Nick worked like a champion and I gave my orders and approvals. Don't you love before and after pictures? Me too! and I had tons to share. But somehow we have lost all of our photos from like the last 5 years. Steps are being taken to retrieve them, don't fret. Until then enjoy this lone photo of Xavier (and his cousin) that somehow got attached to my desktop. It could be the one and only from summer 2010.

Ode to Cleveland

Oh Cleveland. Maybe it is ranked as the #4 most miserable city in the US by Forbes magazine but I love it. How bad can a city be when I can count at least 3 H&M stores within 20 minutes of my brother's apartment. The scenery is so green and lush, it reminds me of my days in Oregon. And the houses! The houses are off the charts charming. Old city charm. If only I had taken better pictures...

Here is a little recap of my travels to this fine city:

My first visit was when I worked on the corporate board at REAL DEALS on HOME DECOR, my brother and sister-in-law's new franchise. They held their first convention in Seville, OH just hours away from where Brett and Eryn were living in Cleveland. It was a brief but fantastic visit. Here we are at a Mexican restaurant in downtown before heading out to an Indians game.

Visit #2. Nick and I took our little Xavier, who was 5 months, on his first vacation to Cleveland. Complete with an Indians game, Rock and Roll hall of fame, and a trip to Niagara Falls. Great vaca.

This is a picture from my third visit to Cleveland, during Brett's dental boards when I was given the task of lending my mad dental hygiene/assisting skills. He took me to a restaurant that was featured on the food network and is famous for its Rueben sandwiches. Can you believe the size of that sandwich? Brett was suffering from extreme stress and lack of sleep. Nothing that a huge pile of pastrami can't fix.

The final stay. Nothing can be better than watching a fabulous brother emerge confident and victorious from a long and tenacious battle with Dental School. He will be a wonderful Dentist (I should know I have worked with all sorts). And the best part? Free dental work for the rest of my life. Thanks Bro.

And thank you Cleveland.

How to Train Your Children (to make it through the movie)

We decided it was high time we share with our boys one of our OLD favorite pastimes... going to the movies! We thought, "hey they watch movies 9-10 times everyday at home, surely they are ready to make it through this one." Here's what we did:

1. watched the previews at least 8 times on youtube with the boys

2. got them super-psyched by talking about how awesome dragons are and by making dragon noises all morning

3. talked about all the popcorn, pop, and candy we were going to eat at the movies

4. arrived on time to our movie so we could purchase all our goodies

5. refilled our GIANT tub of popcorn about 20 minutes into the movie

6. ran out of jelly beans about an hour into the movie

7. finally took Cole to run around in the hallway just after the jelly beans ran out

8. ultimately left the movie about 15 minutes early when Xavier wanted to start running around with Cole. I pretty much guessed the ending anyways.

What we learned:

1. arrive late next time to avoid wasting precious "attention time" on previews

2. buy the biggest tub of popcorn for FREE refills (I have never heard of this before)

3. bring, I mean buy, a full bag of candy next time

4. wait another year before attempting this again. It felt like a super-stressful way to drop $30 in 1 hour and 20 minutes.

What shall we tackle for fun next? Any suggestions?