what a good big brother...

Hey Ollie, he can't have those....

baking with ollie..

I love to cook with Ollie, it just cracks me up, eventually max will be able to join in on this, but right now it is just a me and ollie thing..

The other night B requested an apple crisp, I love crisp, this is why I don't make it. I pay weight watchers every month, making a crisp is really defeating the purpose of what I am trying to acheive... but whatever, I gave in and made it, this is how ollie helped, eating the centers out of all the apples... yummmmm...

Here he is making rice krispie treats for him and dad.... again, defeating the purpose... Ollie is a skinny little guy, he can still enjoy eating things like rice krispie treats...

despite my families sweet tooth cravings, I am doing good, I have lost 15 lbs so far, alot to go still, but 15lbs is a good start...

to be a kid...

I sent Ollie outside the other morning to work off some energy and give me some time to get the house cleaned up. This is what he did with his unsupervised time. My initial reaction when I saw his lovely mud puddle, was to shut down his fun. But I realized when I went to get him out of the mud, that this is what kids do. I can hose him off and put him in the bath.

I remember the feeling of mud between my toes from being a kid, so I let him have his fun.... I even let max join in for awhile... dirt does not kill children... max did not get to play as much, he kept trying to eat the dirt, so I put a stop to his fun pretty quick...



When they were done I stripped them down and hosed them off in the kiddie pool. Max did'nt mind, Ollie did'nt take to it very well... then we were off to the bath.... than I made a good lunch of mac and cheese and put two happy, clean, well fed boys to bed for the afternoon....

Happy nine month B-day little man....

Wow I can't believe he has already been out of me as long as he was in me... gross... my pregnancy seemed like forever, but having him around has seemed to fly by so fast. I can't really remeber life without the little bugger.. it seems like it would be lonely around here without him. Who would ollie have to step on and throw things at....

So here is some info about you max at nine months...

*You are a big baby, I can barely hold you sometimes you feel so heavy, that is okay though.. at your 6 month check up you were 18lbs, we will see how much you weigh this month...you are healthy and adorable.
*You refuse to sleep through the night, last night I was up with you 4 times, before I finally gave in and just brought you to bed with us. You also had a poopy diaper that I was trying to ignore till I finally gave in and in the dark changed you... maybe that is why you were'nt sleeping so well.. sorry...
*You are almost walking!!!! that is pretty amazing to me... Ollie did'nt walk till 15 months... it is funny to see you pushing around your little walker thing... you are still so little...
*You eat anything and everything... I am very careful for the most part on what I give you... I cut the skin off your fruit... you did find a whole nectarine last week and sucked the thing clean skin and all, the pit was the only thing left... impressive...
*You love lasagna... I mean love it... you ate more of it than ollie did... I might rename you garfield
*You light up when your daddy gets home..
*You light up when ollie comes in to wake you up from a nap... you and ollie have a special smile for eachother..
*I lost a very special quilt grandma made for you, she replaced it with your cowboy quilt.
*You have a new game, called bite momma when your nursing, we don't like that game, and your days of nursing are numbered...
*You make our family complete and we love you lunchbox (daddys nickname for you)

Riding the "Train"

The India festival was in Pioneer square, so we had the max line coming and going on both sides of us. Ollie was more excited to see the "trains" than he was about the indian performers...

So after we were done at the festival (eating) we took the boys for a ride, just a block up and a block back, but it was fun.

Max was mesmorized by the passing people..

On the ride back we caught the downtown trolly that goes along the Max line... it is like a little tour ran by two old men that give you facts about portland as you ride... that was pretty fun too.....

We are going to get real train tickets and take a ride south to salem... it is only an hour and will be fun... we are going to ride down and have lunch in downtown salem, and than get on the train and ride back home... the funny things we do for our kids.....

PDX India Festival

What could be better than a bunch of indian food booths... ummm nothing...

We went down to the India festival not really knowing what to expect, it was kind of disappointing but fun.

I was hoping there was going to be more art, maybe some henna artist, some music and clothing. There was not much down there besides food. Which believe me, I am not complaining, we love indian food at our house...

well almost all of us love it, it is alittle much for the little guy, max.... Ollie loves it....

we watched some performers that were really cute, mostly children performances, again it was kind of disappointing, but we had a great day....

The train wrecker....

B taught Ollie a really fun trick... how to wreck the trains... so now instead of having a quiet past time, we have a loud train wrecking past time... thanks B....

I heart old friends...

My friend tonya lives in New York, I never get to see her, and chatting on the phone is next to impossible when you have little hands that get into anything and everything if you are'nt giving them 100 percent of your attention.

But on saturday she had a 3 hour layover at the Portland airport, so I got 2.5 hours of uninterrupted chat time. It was great, catching up on eachother's lives, talking about the old times and just enjoying being with someone that has known me over 10 years... I was actually quite jealous though, she looked great... I who rarely change out of stretchy clothing, and always seem to have a mystery smear somewhere on my shirt... thanks tonya for being my friend.... and any other old friends out there, feel free to plan layovers at PDX I actually quite enjoy the airport...

Ollie the underwear model, and his max smile...

So we are'nt really trying to potty train yet, we are just easing into it. Ollie has been giving us some signs that he is ready, so we are just kinda going with it. No pressure though, I thought I was'nt really going to even try till he was closer to three.

We had to switch to pull-ups cause the darn kids new trick was taking off his diaper, which he loves to do in his bed. We had a couple of nights being woken up by him, in a sopping wet bed, fun to deal with in the middle of the night. And always the lovely surprise when he comes out in the morning with his diaper in one hand and a naked butt... Needless to say we switched to pull-ups. He knows how to pull them up and down, but has'nt taken them off in bed yet, I am hoping that is a trick he won't learn.

We were at the store buying t-shirts, and I just could'nt pass up the little briefs... they are seriously sooo freakin cute... and I am not a big fan of character stuff, we are pretty plain at this house.... but the toy story, buzz lightyear undies I could not pass up... not to mention toy story 1 and 2 play often on our t.v.....

This is the smile Ollie gives only to max... I don't know if it is becuase Max has his mouth open alot, but everytime ollie smiles at max, he squints up his eye's and opens his mouth... it is pretty cute, and pretty special to have a smile that is only for your little brother..

Max the little walking man..

Max is so close to walking already!

He is only almost 9 months... not only does he pull himself up on furniture, but he can get into a standing position by himself in the middle of the floor. He kind of rocks back and forth on his heels and toes, trying to get his foot to take a step...

I pulled out the walker contraption we had for Ollie, and max runs allover the house with it. It is funny to see such a little guy walking all over the place. I did walk at nine months, so it looks like Max is taking after his momma....

fun with playdough..

How can it be 90 degrees one day, and the very next it is cloudy and in the 70's... this is august right...

Not that I mind that much, but when the weather is crappy, it makes me want to curl up on the couch and watch movies all day. Which with having two small kids is really not that pratical..

So to beat the boredom at our house, we made cornstarch playdough... It was entertaining

for oh maybe 45 minutes.....

Chugga.... chugga... choo.... choo

We got Ollie a wood train set from Ikea, and he is obsessed. He loves putting the track together and running the trains around. It took a little while for him to figure out how to connect the trains, they are magnetic, he would get frustrated and throw them. Thankfully we are over that...



Here is Ollie showing off his chugga..chugga..choo..choo skills
And Max, being the little brother that he is... he is trying to get the train so he can see what it tastes like, this is very alarming for ollie... it is pretty funny hearing ollie say "no, Max."

the littlest one...

He is just too darn cute....

Breakfast conversation..

Me: "do you want peaches or oranges?"

Ollie: "PEACHES"

Ollie (banging a spoon against a metal bowl): "Cool Noise."

Me (totally impressed he just used the word cool in the right context): "ya that is a cool noise, now stop."

Ollie (scooping a huge amount of peaches on his spoon): "big bite!"

Ollie: "ummm these are good."

Ollie: "I like peaches."

Me: "what?"

What happened to my baby? This is the first time ollie has put small sentences together all on his own, in a total conversational way... it totally blew me away....

i mean really...

watching my kids does'nt look that hard... haaaa just kidding aunt jo....

Happy B-day papa mike...

We hosted a birthday BBQ at our house for Papa Mike.. It was the first time we have had an actual event in our backyard... it was alot of fun, and made me appreciate my lovely backyard even more...

**just a note... I had to save you all from the horrible shot of my cleavage... I promptly went out and bought a new bra after I saw these photo's.. I did'nt think nursing made that much of a difference in my chest size, but they are taking over my body... hopefully when more of the weight comes off my boobs will go back to a more acceptable size, they are probably going to look like deflated balloons but I guess that goes with being a mother..sucks


Gavin while playing stepped on a bee... sucks to be him... gavin you have big feet, like father like son...



Here is annie and jeff having a stimulating conversation with mike and mom regarding the state of our healthcare system, wish you were here Bex, and jeff and shannon, i am sure you would all have alot to add...



Chloe entertained us with her super human tricks... hey annie can you do that...


















Ollie had a blast running around with Gavin and Chloe...

Crafty, crafty, crafty....

there are times when I think I am pretty funny, also sometimes I am the only one who gets my jokes.....

On thursday I was contemplating the blank wall above my dining room table, I decided it needed a painting...

Me and the boys had spent our morning watering the garden, and i had spent a good amount of time tying up the monstrous tomato plants, that are busting out of their cages. My monster tomato plants were my inspiration....

Originally, I was going to put something on it like..."bless the garden that gives us such good things to eat."... this is what ended up on it.. haaaaa....



On Friday I helped Annie with her hood to coast project. She had seen some buffs at REI for $20 that were basically a tube of fabric. So we set out to make our own... we went to Rose City Textiles, a fabric shop that specializes in sports and outdoor fabrics. We found some really cool bamboo fabric, that is super soft and sustainable, are'nt we just great environmentally conscious girls.. Chloe and Gavin were a huge help in keeping max and ollie occupied, while me and annie looked around...

We got our fabric, than went and had lunch at one of my favorite spots... Swagat indian cuisine... both my kids love indian... Chloe was so cute and very adventurous, not scared to try anything I handed her way, she kept getting up and getting small bowls of yummy stuff... it was pretty cool..

We came back to the house and sewed all of our buffs, than being the super crafty girls we are, screenprinted on them all... I was super stoked on how they came out.... These are for the Nemo Hood to coast team... so it says Nemo... team of no-one... which was an old screen we had on the Gocco, but it worked out perfect... Another super funny thing... Nemo named there team Meat Omen... which is of course team nemo backwards... funny....

this is what happens...

when you leave a fruit bowl
on the table and have a two year old. You may wonder, where were you when you child was taking bites out of all of your lovely organic banana's... well that is what I get for typing on my little blog, while I should be paying attention to what my child is doing... and I should get really curious when he is so quiet...

My poor Banana's...

Yummm, organic veggies

That I did'nt have to go to the store for! I am so stoked on http://www.organicstoyou.org/ mostly everything is local and in season, everything is organic, and did I mention I don't have to go to the store... yaaaa....
We got our first delivery on tuesday, I pulled out all my veggie cookbooks and started collecting recipes to go with the veggies I got. I made an awesome potatoe, rosemary, garlic and kale dish, that even brian ate...

well it had potatoes in it, so it is kind of like cheating, Brian eats anything that has potatoes in it, but it felt good to feed my family such good things..


















Baby loves beats.. I mean Beets... yeah for purple diapers.













Baby loves melons... haaaaa