Guess who's getting big?

Brody is! He turned 18 months!

Brody is so fun to have in our family! He is the sweetest little guy ever! He loves following his big brothers around, trying to do whatever they are doing. He loves to dump bin after bin of toys out in the play room. He loves to have a cracker in each hand at all times. He says uh-oh, all done, momma, daddy and counts to 3. He is a busy body and is into EVERYTHING! We love him soooooo much! (and we are so glad he gets to go to nursery now!)

Here's his 18 month stats:

Weight: 22 lbs 12 oz. 13%

Height: 32.5 in. 57%

This & That

Here's what we've been up to the last couple weeks, via my phone pics: 

Brandon took a day off work and we decided to head to Bauman Farm to play!

We have been enjoying our back yard! (and the beautiful Summer weather!)

Homemade rope swing,

and water slide!

Porter being Porter. What can I say???

We've also been enjoying some camping... in our own backyard ! (that's my kind of camping with three little kiddos!)

Brody's first s'more. I think he likes it:)

Not only did we have s'mores, we made banana boats! YUM!

Brandon's High School is playing in an Alumni foot ball game in August. He's been going to practices twice a week. He has been having a BLAST! And he says he still has some of his technique from college. Good job honey! Sometimes I go with him to his practices and walk around the track with the kids. It's fun to watch him practice! I can't wait to see him play! If you want to come to the game, all proceeds go towards helping find a cure for cystic fibrosis. August 11th, 7pm Oregon City High School (that's who their playing. Sit with the West Linn crowd and cheer him on!)

Brandon is on the end in the light blue. What a hunk:)

We go get frozen yogurt for our family night treat on a regular basis. We can't help ourselves!

We met up with some friends at one of the Wilsonville water parks. So fun & refreshing!

You can't live in Oregon and not go berry picking in the Summer! We went to Koch farms and picked strawberries & raspberries.

 

We go out to pick the berries

for homemade jams and jellies,

But come back with purple fingers

and the berries in our bellies.

I wanted to get caught up on blogging because on Saturday we are off to the beach for a week! Pics to come!

Happy 4th of July Everyone!

First of all, I'd like to say, this was our FIRST 4th of July to be here in Oregon (besides the year when we were in Klamath Falls, but I wouldn't really count that as Oregon!) It was fun to do some of the local 4th of July festivities I've been hearing about! We started off with a parade in Mollala. We were with a huge group and we all kept busy waiting for the parade by playing with pop-its!

My boys loved these clowns on funny bikes!

They were intent on getting lots of candy, too!

I loved the bag pipes!

Porter made a haul and was soooo proud of the peeps he got! Yep, that's right, they were throwing out Easter candy. Only in Mollala...

After the parade, we headed to a Catholic church for their all-famous Catholic Chicken. Here's all the kids excited to eat some yummy food!

And the Catholic Chicken did not disappoint! My kids are not meat eaters, but Porter cleaned the bones!

After Catholic Chicken, we headed to the Mollala Buckeroo Rodeo. My boys decided they wanted to try their hand at Mutton Bustin'!

They were awesome! I got videos of them that I'll have to post later. Their friend Ansen was brave enough to ride a sheep, also!

We saw Smokey the Bear! I love Smokey! When I was young (maybe 6ish?) I wrote a letter to Smokey and he sent me a bunch of stuff back! Only YOU can prevent forest fires!

Brody enjoying the rodeo with his daddy. (I just looooove this picture!)

This was a very kid-friendly rodeo. One of the games they played was so funny! Porter & Hudson & any other kids that wanted to, went down to the field & took their shoes off.

Here's all the shoes! And they were shuffled around, too!

Then the kids had to run back to the pile of shoes and find their own shoes! So funny to watch! I'm glad my kids came back with the right shoes on:)

After the rodeo, my kids had had it! (actually it was half way through the rodeo, but oh well) So we went home for a mandatory nap. Then we headed to Mt. Angel for fireworks! Waiting for the fireworks, the adults chatted, the kids ran around playing football, then kept themselves busy with glow sticks!

The actual fireworks show was awesome!

But my favorite part was watching the delight on my kids' faces! Priceless!

Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming!

We have been doing a ton of swimming so far this summer. Not only have we been swimming in Grandma's pool, but Porter &Hudson just finished taking swim lessons. They were in different classes right next to each other.

They both did awesome!

I was worried that Hudson wouldn't want to get in the water & participate, but he did everything his teacher asked him to and I could tell that he was really having fun! He always had a smile on his face!

Porter is all but swimming. I bet by the end of the summer, he will be swimming all over the place!

And look how cute Hudson is:)

It was so funny to see Porter next to the other kids in his class. He was by far the littlest and youngest!

I signed the boys up for swim lessons last November, and at that point, Hudson wouldn't even stand on the platform. He has come a looooong way!

This picture's tiny, but I was zoomed in as far as I could. Porter got to jump off one of the platforms.

I am so glad Hudson isn't scared of the water anymore!

Porter loved his class and all the fun, new things they got to do.

And this little guy was so awesome the whole time! He was so good waiting for his brothers to finish every day, and didn't complain about not getting in the water himself. Luckily, yesterday Brandon took off work and came to watch. Then we all went swimming. Brody loved it & Porter had a blast going down the slide and swinging on the rope!