Grandma Visit

We got to spend another weekend with Grandma Bernice in Sunnyside.  After falling and breaking her hip back in May she has decided to move into a nursing home so that she has someone there all the time and won't all anymore.  She is doing well and the home she is in is so nice, newly remodeled, and only about 2 minutes from my aunt's house.  So on Saturday morning we went and picked her up for a visit with everybody at Aunt Deena's house, even my brother Paul and fiance' Kate were there.  So here is a pile of pictures of the family

 "Daddy, I want this car"

 Kids doing some dishes.

 Grandma at the kids table...

 Paul and I with Grandma

 And with her youngest great-grandkids.

Dirty Thirty

On Monday it happened, I entered a new decade, the decade of 30.  Everyone kept asking me how I felt about turning 30, and often people seem a little freaked out about it, but honestly 25 was worse for some reason.  By 30 I had hoped to be married and have a kid, and hopefully be a stay-at-home-mom.  So when you have everything you ever hoped for how could you be upset about turning another year older?  I think what is weird about 30 is that I remember my mom turning 30, I was almost 6 then.  And now I am the age that I remember my mom...and even more strange is the fact that my children will not feel that way about 30 because they will never remember their mom being 30.  And what's the big deal about 30 anyway?  I still feel young, dress (too) young, and think I can do things I did when I was younger :)  But now I'm an adult with a husband, kids and a mortgage.  Awesome.  

Bryce and I got all dressed up to go on a surprise date, and I love surprises so I was excited about it all day.  Even getting puked and pottied on couldn't bring me down knowing that I was going out later, in a dress!

 We went to a nice restaurant downtown and it was such a beautiful evening we were able to sit outside.  And the outside seating is located by the brick wall where we had our engagement pictures taken.  We brought our own bottle of wine that we had been saving for a special occasion and it was delicious!  Thanks cousin Caleb for hooking us up with some nice wine!

 The area we live in has one main road in and out and there are always "Happy Birthday" "Welcome Home" "Will you go to prom with me" signs posted on the trees.  And Bryce put one up for me, I love this kind of stuff, he couldn't have done a better job of making me feel special!  I almost got run over running across the street to get my picture taken with the sign because apparently half a bottle of wine had some how impaired my ability to see how fast a car is coming.  I also got catcalled at, and really, what could make you feel better than that when you are turning 30?

I got a really cool necklace that Bryce found on Etsy that has the kids names stamped on it and then I got to pick out some new shoes at the downtown Macy's which is way cooler to shop at than the one in the mall by our house. I got flowers and cards from him and the kids, it was a great day and I was sad to see it end, I wish it could be my birthday longer...oh wait, lets celebrate again next weekend!!!

What we've been up to

Here are some random pictures and stories from the past several weeks.  

Kiddos reading a story with Daddy:

 After hiking around Sullivan Lake over Labor Day weekend.  I especially like Dietrich in the back in "his seat."  He even hiked quite a bit at the end...and I just noticed he is wearing his pajama shirt, clearly you don't have to get dressed while "camping" (I say camping loosely because we actually stayed in a cabin, but it's like camping, kind of, and we had a fire every night).

 Now Mommy gets to read the stories:

 And Dietrich even reads stories.  Lenorah of course adores him and he wants to play with her so badly, she's just too little still.  (and clearly Santa Rocks all year long).

 Daddy gave Lenorah a bath!  It's kind of a big deal because it's usually my job and he worries about her nooks and crannies, but he did great, she was happy and Dietrich and I made cookies while they did bath time.

 Dietrich likes to stick his spoon in the batter and then eat it "I yike it mama."  I bet you do.  Whenever he hears the mixer he comes running, dragging a chair across the kitchen, "cookie!"  I was thinking the other day how excited he will be when I do my Christmas baking, there will be so many cookies.  And then I thought he'll be as excited as a kid on Christmas, and then I realized it would be Christmas and maybe I need to get more sleep so that my thoughts make more sense.

 Lenorah and her friend Emery, clearly the most interesting thing about each other is toes.

 I love these pictures of them together because I think (and hope) that they will know each other forever and always be friends.  I have a baby picture like this with my friend Courtney, our mom's were friends and we always were too.  Her birthday was a few days ago and she would have been 31 this year.  She died 11 years ago bringing her own baby into the world, and I always think of her and miss her in September.

Here our some sweet babies at the park, I love the Fall but our park days are numbered, so we need to get in as many as possible before the really cold weather hits us.

Outdoor Cooking

A few years ago I was at a friends house and they had just put in a bar outside, it was great, a nice little hot plate, fridge, and an old bathroom sink.  So when we bought a house I knew I wanted one of those one day, and Bryce decided that this was the year for it.  So we made a plan, showed it to some friends and family, took some suggestions, modified our plan and Bryce started building...    

                               

And sometime last week it was finished!

 Bryce found this great sink on craigslist, it is possible that the place he went to to pick it up was a crack house, but we've cleaned it up and the rest of the kitchen was built around it.

 Bryce then found the teal tile at a used supply store, along with most of the white tiles, but we did have to buy a few new.

 Mom bought us this cook stove a few years ago for Christmas, she thought it would be great in our outdoor kitchen someday.

 And we have some bar stools coming that will provide seating over here...

 Bryce even put some roofing above it to protect it from getting too much weather on it.

 And last week I made my jam outside!  In my new outdoor kitchen!

Clearly I love it.