Free Hugs

I bought this onesie for Kinsley soon after we found out we were having another girl. 

Sadie must have remembered me getting it because when I pulled out the shirt  from storage and put it in a pile for Kinsley to wear, she immediately pulled it from the piled and said, "Mine!"

 That's her new "smile" pose.

I thought for sure since it was a 3-6 month shirt she wouldn't fit into it and then I could explain to her that it was for the baby.  

But it fit.  

Sort of. 

And she thought she was so cute in it! 

:)

53rd Park

 Wes had a day off other than Sunday a few times this summer.  

Hallelujah!  

And on a few of those days the weather was nice.

Double Hallelujah!

At some point we took the kids to the park off of 53rd and Main in Hillsboro to play in the fountains. 

Not too exciting to some but for us, we thought it was great!

Sadie, as usual, needed time to warm up to something different.

 Not a happy baby.

Here Wes is, being the baby's body guard OR extremely uncomfortable.  

I'm not sure which. :)

She so cute and pensive.

And she's so sassy!

Jared is so good at quickly assessing which kid will be the most fun to play with 

and then becoming good friends with them in order to steal their toys.

 Kinsley being a good baby.

Here Dad is making sure Noalee asked to borrow the current water toy in her possession.

She is very good at scaring any boy (despite size) out of their things thus she is holding the biggest super soaker I've ever seen.  She then enjoyed the rest of the time terrorizing and plotting against all the boys.  

Don't be fooled by this face.

 She can be evil!

 Here Jared is with a cup.  I'm quickly snapping this picture while at the same time repeating over and over again the caution that water WILL RUIN the camera!  :)

 Proof I was there.  :)

Thank goodness for days off! 

School Has Started

School started for us last week.   

All I can say is sharpening 50+ pencils by hand is painful.

Next year I'm investing in an electric pencil sharpener.

That is all.  :)

What _____ Did The Most This Summer

 I thought I would just sum up what each person in our family did the most of this summer. 

What Wes did the most this summer.

WORKED

While I only have a picture of him working on his truck, he spent a lot of time at his regular work too. :)  

He is a hard working man in all aspects of his life.  

He works hard at work, he works hard at home, he works hard to be a good dad and husband.

What Brandy did the most this summer.

BOUNCED

 

You read that right, I bounced.  Kinsley prefers only Mommy to hold her and only while standing.  And so I spent A LOT of time bouncing around Kinsley while trying to shuffle the rest of life.

What Jared did the most this summer.

SOCIALIZED...sort of. 

This is the first summer that Jared has fully embraced having friends over to play.  He likes to plan to have friends come over, especially his neighbor friend Matthew.  But when they come over, he spends about 30 minutes with them playing toys or playing outside (because his annoying mom insists they do SOMETHING other than electronics) and the rest of the time is used doing (you guessed it) some sort of electronics.  

(Electronics kind of drive me crazy)

What Novalee did the most this summer.

LOVED

She loved her mommy and helped her about 95% of the time.  She loved her baby sisters and played with them so much.  

I should add that she got GOOFY and CREATIVE a lot too.  

She spent a lot of time at the table drawing, making necklaces, painting and playing playdoh.

Here's a goofy picture of her as proof. 

She said she was being a guard. :)

(She has on like four shirts)

What SADIE did the most this summer.

ENJOYED

 Sadie enjoyed the outdoors and getting dirty.  She spent the majority of the time going from the kiddie pool to the sandbox and back again, which made a lovely mess for mommy. :)

 What Kinsley did the most this summer.

SLEPT  

   

 I guess that is to be expected.

  I wish I could do a bit more of that...

And so, Summer is almost over.  While I feel ready to have the kids back in school, I'm grateful for this summer and the full days with the kids where I could just connect with them.  I loved having the time to learn more about them and how they think and what they feel.  

I don't want to get too sappy because I do that enough already but I just want to say I love my family so much.  The time I have with them is so precious.  Even though there are times when it is hard and times when I take for granted what I have, most of the time I just love them and am so grateful for what I have.  I love my calling as mother and wife.  

Well I guess I got sappy...

52 Hikes

Wes has this cool book that has 52 hikes you can do in Oregon.  We found one that was seemed easy enough and hiked it at the end of July.

It was pretty cool.  It was only a mile or two.  And it was mostly in the forest and would weave back to a little creek/river every now and again.  I'm too lazy to go find the book and name the hike or even discover the name of the river.  :)

We had such a good time hiking I tried to convince Wes that we should try to hike the whole book in our lifetime. 

 I got a lukewarm agreement to "try".  

Guess how many we've done?

One.  

That's right, we're off to a good start.  ;)

Here we are at the beginning of the hike.  

 Kinsley's somewhere under that little strawberry hat. :) 

For only being two months old she did pretty good.

 Sadie on the other hand, got sick of being carried around pretty quick.

 Novalee at one point discovered that the seeds of some sort of plant were sticking to her clothes and exclaimed, "I don't like the wilderness!"  :)

 Oh yes, now I remember the name of the Hike.  4 Point County Trail.  Why you might wonder.  Well out of 36 counties, this spot is the ONLY spot in Oregon where four counties touch.  I know, you are bored impressed!

 Sadie enjoyed throwing rocks into the creek. 

 Novalee made a fishing pole and set it up by the water.  Then she enjoy screeching and yelling at anyone who bumped it.

 

 Skipping rocks...

 or boulders.  :)

 

 

 

 I thought I should at least try...she didn't like it...obviously.

 Pretty Sadie.

 Could the vegetation in Oregon be more green and pretty? 

 Kinsley's pretty too.  :)

At the end of the hike all three kids jumped in the water.  Well Sadie fell in after trying to copy the big kids only to discover it was too cold for her taste and in a quick attempt to turn back fell all the way in. Poor thing.  She wasn't too happy about that.  But the kids had fun and it was enjoyable to just sit by the water and watch them play.

New Dress for Sadie

With it being so warm, I thought I would make Sadie another pajama dress with some fabric I've had for far too long.  So I just made a pattern using a dress she is currently wearing.  But when I finished the pajama dress I thought it was too cute to wear as just pajamas.  So I just added yellow ribbon and turned it into a play dress.

 I realize this is a goofy picture of Sadie but I just couldn't wait to have her try on her dress AFTER her nap, so I woke her up.  :)

 Sometimes when I'm making something by just winging it and I can see it's actually starting to come together I get so excited. I know, I'm a nerd.

 Sadie on her way to church in her new butterfly dress!

Polly Pea Pocket

My mom got a new puppy this summer.  She is the cutest little thing.  She is a mini schnauzer.  I kind of swore off dogs after our last experience but it's hard to resist puppy lovins.  :)  

  

How can you not love something so adorable?

My mom brought her over to our house so the kids could meet her.

 Novalee and Polly together.  Both tiny little things with large personalities. 

   The kids kind of love her.

 Maybe a little too much.

  I'm pretty confident she wouldn't last a day in our house.