Santa and a Pony Ride

Santa

This is what anticipation of a pony ride looks like.

Joel

Darion

Joel's Birthday

Yesterday was Joel's birthday. How can you not love this boy? He is so sweet and makes sure that we never take life too seriously. What would we ever do without this adorable little red-head?

He made sure to get up nice and early so he could open his presents

He was very excited and surprised about getting a new train set.

His nursery teacher made his Halloween costume for him (prince philip), because he wants to marry Sleeping Beauty. Now he's ready to kiss the girl and propose.

His "Bolt" cake.

This was today; I had to put it on here because he is so cute.

Darion

I hope you had a great birthday Joel! We all love you so much. Thank you for being part of our lives.

Field Trip

Darion's Head Start class went on a Field Trip to Rivers Turn Farm. Joel and I were able to go with his class. The kids were all so cute and we had so much fun. We learned and got to experience all sorts of fun things.

The kids got to feed bamboo to the horses.
They had a HUGE gravel pit that Farmer John let us play in.

Darion took such great care of Joel. He made sure he felt included.

We got to pick and eat all the raspberries we wanted. It was hard to leave this part of the tour. This is Darion and his friend Minh.

We picked apples and ate them right of the trees. They were delicious.

Farmer John let all of the kids each take one pumpkin home. Darion and Minh were very proud of theirs.

Joel was also proud of his. He wanted a little one.

Farmer John let all of the kids pick flowers.

There were dogs that followed the kids around. Joel is our little animal lover. He was more than happy to help take care of the dogs.

Thank you, Darion, for letting us in on the fun! We love you!

Summer Days

It's been a while since our last post, and we've done a lot since. I'm too lazy to try and catch up on everything, so here is the fast version:

A trip to Utah for Garred and Jessica's wedding

The Eugene parade (it was filled with all sorts of crazies)

Family visits and trips to the coast

and having fun with daddy around

PORTLAND

My parents came up for the weekend. Yesterday we drove up to Portland and did some fun things. We rode the tram, visited a Chinese garden, and ate some delicious food. We all had fun.

At the Chinese Garden

Waiting to get on the tram

Visitors

We were lucky to have Grandma Roxy, Papa Ernie, Great-Grandma Steadman, and Aunt Darlene stay with us for a few days. We had a full house, but it never seemed too crowded because it was filled with loved ones. We have to take all of our visitors to the coast because it's so beautiful here. Here are some of the pics:

Joel and Papa Ernie

Grandma Steadman (left) and Aunt Darlene (right)

Papa Ernie and Grandma Roxy
Joel (isn't he sweet)
Rusten and Darion
Darion doing "sand angels" (silly) Thank you for spending some time with us. Please come again soon! We love you!

Utah Trip

We had the opportunity to visit family in Utah. We miss them and love them. We had a great time.

The boys had a waterfight with their cousin Kingston.

Grandma and Grandpa let the boys play in the mud.

The only time the three of them would sit still long enough for a picture

We had so much fun and now we're stuck missing our families again. We love Oregon, we just wish we could bring all of them with us up here.

DISNEYLAND!!!

We went to Disneyland over Spring Break with the Lubbers Family. We sure had a lot of fun, but now we're missing everyone! Thanks mom and dad! Here are some of the pictures: