Fun with Family

My blog has been very random & inconsistent as of late. For that, I apologize. But, before you get your hopes up for a blog with a point, allow me to unload some more random photos and update you on the last few weekends.
Last I left off it was Easter & the boys had just met up with the "Bunny". We spent Easter's Eve with my family but before we left for their house we had an easter egg hunt at ours. The weather was outstanding. Hunter stumbled upon a "marshmallow tree" and found all his eggs. For a minute I thought about having him hunt for the numerous golf balls left behind by the previous owners that we keep finding scattered about the yard. ;) Easter Sunday we spent with Jared's family and had a nice lunch and relaxing afternoon.


Our yard is brimming with blooming flowers & bushes. Its fun to walk around the yard every few weeks and see what's new in the garden.


Everything makes for great bouquets in the house!
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The big event this weekend was my brother & his wife's wedding reception. They chose the bamboo room at the Art Center in Pendleton. It was a beautiful room, named for its bamboo hardwood floors and one end of the room is a fireplace with a mantle that stretched the length of the wall & little benches tucked in the corners. It was the perfect location for their Italian themed celebration (they honeymooned in Venice.) Unfortunately my fancy camera broke last week so I don't have too many fancy shots. But I did try to capture many of the familiar faces who traveled from afar to be there! It was great to see family I hadn't seen in years. It's crazy how fast time passes and you really see it how long it has been in the children. The old saying, "They grow up so fast!" is so true!

Bob, Cindi, Jordyn, Peyton & Conner came from Seattle. (I don't think Conner was even born last time I saw the family.)

Maxine & her sister's family: Joe, Roberta, Sandy & Alma who all came up from Portland. (You can see my brother, Joe in the background with our cousin Devin. He didn't leave that corner all night. It helped that, that was where our Cider keg was kept.)

Jim & Judy, my Grandpa Paul's brother & wife, came from Salem. And with them they brought their daughter, Rhonda and her girls Kaitlyn (holding Logan) & Sarah. Sarah quickly became Hunter's favorite cousin and didn't let her out of his sight the entire night... nor the next day for that matter. He still asks about her. :)

My Dad, Uncle Joe & Jared relunctantly taking a picture

Rhonda & Pam

The Grigg group: Brooke, Trey, Koby, Kyra & Skyler (These are some of those children that grow up entirely too fast, that I mentioned before.)

Nana & Grandma

Papa, Nana & Uncle Lance from Medford

The three stooges

Awww, now isn't that a cute couple? My cousin Mackenzie with her boyfriend Zack. He's a good kid and is starting to come out of his shell around the family. I'm sure it's overwhelming at first to get to know everyone.

Some more guests at the reception.

Check back for more photos of the reception as I get them.

On Sunday before everyone left we hosted french toast brunch at our house. It was so great to have all of our family over, our house is officially a home after they were there to christen it! I hope to have many more meals with our family at our new home.

Now that we expanded the dining/living room there's plenty of room for everyone!

Joe & Joe (One never bears his arms and the other exercises his right to whenever he can.)

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Now these pictures are random but I couldn't resist.

The first is Hunter giving me his Oscar worthy mad face. I get this a lot when he doesn't get his way or I have to tell him "no". Lately its usually me saying no to his pack a day habit of chewing gum. By the look on his face you'd think it was nicotine.

Here is Hunter out enjoying the sun. We took some beach towels out to the back yard and had a picnic (one of his favorite things is to go lay out in the sun with my sunglasses on). While we were laying in the sun he asked if he could take his shirt off (he usually is too modest) I said sure! Afterwards he said, "Mommy can you take your shirt off?" I told him no and why it wasn't appropriate for girls to do so and he replied, "But, it feels so good!" That may be kiddo but it's still not going to happen. After our picnic he decided it was time to ride his harley bike. I love that he is wearing his camo boots. This year it seems that's all he'll wear is rain boots. Last year it was crocs, wonder what next year's trend will hold.

I can't remember if those were marshmallows or grapes in his cheeks, but it was funny to watch him try to smile without popping them out of his cheeks.

Its hard to believe that in a matter of months Hunter will be starting Kindergarten!! Where has the time gone? I look at Hunter then at Logan and think, just 4 years! I can't believe how much of a difference just 4 years can make. It seems like a blink and they are walking, talking beautiful little creatures so curious and adventurous. We are about 95% sure he will be attending Ferndale this fall. We have gone back and forth about whether to send him to private school or a school in Washington.. but for now it's the country school down the street, the same one that Jared attended over 20 years ago. The only criteria I think Hunter has for his school this fall is that it has a big yellow bus that picks him up.

Now this photo Jared warned me not to post, but he never checks my blog. Logan has been such a chunky monkey and has soo many baby chub rolls I just had to document them.

Here he is doing tummy time and playing with the baby in the mirror. He's so cute.

He really loathes tummy time but I know it's detrimental to his development and I would love for him to start crawling soon and being able to hold himself up. He can sit for a few minutes now by himself but still is a bit floppy. He can roll from side to side and manages to scoot around a bit but hasn't actually "rolled over" or "sat" unattended.

He's almost 6 months, which means weaning to a bottle and starting rice cereal. I'm really hoping that will mean longer stretches at night. Especially because it looks like I may be returning to work in June 2 days a week. And I'm going to need more sleep if I plan on pulling that off! I'm both excited and hesitant about returning to work. I think I need to for sanity's sake and because it seems the busier you are the more you get done. Right now I tend to put off a lot of tasks because I know I have time to do it later. Maybe if I had less time to do things in I'd be more efficient with the time I had.