#10... Happy New Year!

I did it! I really did it!

So, here's #10, undoubtably the most memorable moment of the year for our little Kai. He was chosen for "Jedi training" on our recent visit to Disneyl@nd. We had watched other kids doing this on our last trip in the fall of 2009. He has talked about it for. a. year. This time he got chosen to be in the "training", and not only that... he was right out in the center of the stage. He was so serious about it all, and I was so excited for him that I was nearly in tears! After he finished, he kept saying, "Were you so happy that I got to do that, Mommy?"

Due to the enormity of this (in our little guy's eyes), I have deemed that a still photo is not enough. Below you will find the video footage of his "battle" with Darth Vadar. Be sure to watch for the high five at the end!

See next entry!

Happy 2011 everyone!!

Kai takes on Darth at OneTrueMedia.com

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

True Joy

Sorry, this may be a repeat for some of you, but how can I resist this face of absolute joy? Who else but a little boy can be this happy frolicking in the *chilly* ocean! No doubt about it, this kid is a true Oregonian!!

One of my favorites

OK, here's #8, quite possibly my favorite shot of the year. I haven't shared it because, frankly, I don't want a picture of my son in his undies on the internet. I just can't pass it up, though. So I will only keep this up for a short time. Honestly, that's why there have been less pictures lately... keeping clothes on this little boy is just not happening these days...

#7

This one is from January 2010. The beginning of his dress-up phase which is still going strong. Our little guy has got quite the imagination!

P.S. Make sure to check back every day for the rest of the year since I'll be posting a pic a day to meet my deadline!

Family Day 2010!

Hard to believe it's been 3 years since our amazing little boy was placed in our arms. After the first 24 hours of motherhood, I could have never imagined the years would fly by as they have (that first day was a LONG one!). The picture below was minutes after he had come off the plane. Don't we all look terrified?? (We WERE!)

Here we are today with our silly, funny, smart, caring little guy. It's no surprise that this is one of my favorite pictures of the year. It captures our daily life oh-so-well! This boy's always good for a laugh!
This is the first year that Kai is really understanding his story. All day we've been reminiscing with him about his travel day; what it was like for him and us. Although that was (by far) the best day of our lives, we concluded that we've all had way more fun today. After a couple weeks of non-stop action, we've taken a lazy day, winding down from the exciting weekend and really enjoying some family time. We started the day with breakfast (with Gr. & Gr. C) at Sl@ppy Cakes, then made the two hour drive home. We had a special afternoon movie time, complete with a popcorn snack in the family room, then some Christmas clean up and playing with new toys. We've been enjoying some family game time after dinner and will end the evening with a viewing of Kai's homecoming video. Perfect end to a very fun holiday weekend!

Merry Christmas Eve!!

Number 5... Kai's first school picture! How can this NOT be a favorite??

As always, we are counting our blessings this holiday. I don't even know where to start, but they all begin and end with this amazing little boy. Hard to believe we were lucky enough to become his parents.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!!

Spiderman mask

#4: New spiderman underwear quickly and easily turns into a mask. One of the funniest shots of the year, no question.

Natural

This is definitely one of my favorites from this year. It was a great photo opportunity seized by Dad; I remember vividly the day it was taken and the great pride I felt watching Kai participate in his first track meet. He is such a natural for the long jump, and I think this picture captures it beautifully. Makes me very excited about the track meets for summer 2011!

Too wet to go out

#2: My goofy boy entertaining us on a wet spring day!

10 Best of 2010

In an effort to force myself into being a better blogger, I've decided to share my top 10 favorite photos of 2010. Some of them may have been posted already this year, but hopefully I can come up with some new stuff to knock your socks off. Or, at least, give you a little glimpse into our lives! They will be posted in no particular order, and you'll notice I've given myself most of this month to accomplish the task. Only time will tell if I make it!

Quick reminder!!

Just a quick reminder if you're planning to do Christmas shopping through Amazon.com this year. Enter through Holt's website, and they'll receive a donation from your purchase. A little way to help by doing practically nothing at all!! Click here to start shopping!!

YIKES!!

Has it really been almost a month since I last posted anything?? Bad blogger... bad, bad blogger. Seems we've hit another busy patch and the last month just plum got away from me. Not sure what happened there. Oh wait, I know... school, work, housekeeping, playing, swimming, family weekend get-a-ways, fun, 4 year old stubbornness, house rearranging... I could go on and on!

Really, things are good around here. Quick update: Kai is back in swimming and doing GREAT! Putting his face under and floating with this teacher without freaking out. Huge step! I am back on the road... running, that is, and planning to do a 10K this weekend! Joe is busy, busy, busy at work and busy, busy, busy at home as always. We're just both thankful to have secure jobs right now!

We had a fun weekend get-a-way with my family a few weeks ago. Here's a few pictures!

Yes, that's Santa! There was a Santa convention (or training maybe) going on the same weekend! Lots of jolly men with white beards roaming around everywhere. So fun!

Pumpkin Time!

We've been pumpkin patch hopping! The past two weekends we've made it to two different patches! Both so fun with completely different fun-for-all activities! Our first visit was to our favorite local farm, where we make several trips each summer for strawberries, corn, and other yummy local produce (oh yea, and the playground!). We went to this farm during a dry spell in an otherwise very wet weekend, so more than anything we were happy to be outside!

Silly boys!

At the corn maze entrance

Goat feeding

Trip #2 was to our new favorite pumpkin patch! It's much smaller than farm #1, and it's main attraction is a CRAZY hay ride. And yes, it is CRAZY! The wildest we've ever been on! We went with Grandma & Grandpa M, and I don't think they believed us how wild it was going to be. I'll be nice and not post any mid-ride pictures, but we'll just say we were holding on for dear life! The other fun part is the (encouraged) throwing mini pumpkins at scarecrows. Kai's favorite part BY FAR! This is the patch where we actually bought our pumpkins (which are still waiting to be carved).

Excited to throw pumpkins!

Stockpiling ammo...

Pre- Hayride

A little boy's heaven!

Definitely a forced pose, but he did it!

Honeybee!!

OK, I'm a few weeks late on this one. Kai moved up to the next class at preschool in mid-September and now he's officially a Honeybee! Here he is on his first day as a Honeybee. This is actually the 4 year old class, but they moved his entire (3 year old) class at the beginning of the school year. He is doing fabulous! It is much more structured and "school like", but he is doing amazing! He is learning pencil control and tracing letters and words and his name. We are so proud of him!!

Spirit Week 2010

This past week was Spirit Week at Kai's preschool. He had lots of fun seeing his friends dressed up in "different" clothes, and talking about what they all choose to wear. He was a good participant, 2 out of his 3 days at school.

Monday: PJ day

In my opinion, total genius! It was great to not have to get him dressed and ready on a Monday! Of course, he since he doesn't wear jammies to bed, he had to wake up and put his PJ's on. At least he could wear something fun, and dressing was not a chore that day!

Wednesday: Wacky Clothes day

I realized the down fall to my practical shopping ways... this little boy does not have many "wacky", or even printed clothes! I had to resort to swim trunks to find wacky pants for him. But, alas, in the end he was not interested and chose this not so wacky outfit. At one point I got him to wear his clothes backwards, but right before we left he turned it all around and this is as wacky as we got.
Thursday: Book character day

Yes, we do have a Batman book!! This was totally his choice and a bit indulgent on my part, but now we have Halloween taken care of, too!

Proxy Falls Hike

These moss covered cascades of lava flow were abundant on this trail;

I thought they were just beautiful!

He melted... like the "hot lava".

My good little hiker.

It was a gorgeous day, with hints of fall around every corner.

"The Falls"... best family shot in a long time...

My favorite leaf of the day

Intently watching a butterfly on the rock... can you see it?

Yesterday we took advantage of our beautiful weather and Joe's extra day off work and headed out on a family hike. While our little guy is not awfully fond of walking (why walk when you can ride??), we've decided we just need to make him do it, in hopes of him developing a love for hiking and the outdoors. This was our third official "hike" with him, besides the occasional "nature walk" around the park or strolls around the neighborhood. He did great! The loop was about 1.25 miles and he hiked the whole way! Towards the end he even said he wished he could go there everyday. I'm sure the promised treats at the end had nothing to do with it! The trees are just starting to turn around here, and the colors I had read about on this blog did not disappoint!

HALT!

I knew my great running season couldn't last forever. After several months of breaking records and feeling stronger than ever, my running came to an abrupt end about a month ago. As I was out on my longest training run for an upcoming (now past) half marathon, I developed a horrible pain in the back of my left "upper thigh". Shrugging it off to having run 12+ miles, I kept pushing through to the finish. After that run, the pain did not improve over the next week, so I finally went to the doctor. Of course, physical therapy was ordered. I thought I had just "pulled something". My PT had much different news for me. Apparently, I have "sacroiliac dysfunction". That's a fancy way of saying that my pelvic bones do not like to stay in place and the muscles surrounding them are not strong enough to keep them there. Great. He informed me that my legs were actually two different lengths, since one side of my pelvis was massively rotated forward. After a swift adjustment to my pelvic bones, I was back in line. Now... how do I stay that way?? More good news! He had a handy-dandy gut-wrenchingly tight belt for me to wear... 24/7 for at least 2 weeks. Lovely. No running until my muscles are strong enough to not wear the belt. Pretty much the only good news out of the whole thing is that he still wants me to be active, and he encouraged me to walk for exercise. (BTW- walking is NOT easy for a runner!) My awesome and super supportive running partner agreed to walk with me during my recovery, so that's made it much, much easier! Back at home, my son sees my nifty new belt, and calls it my "superhero belt".

Any hoo... fast forward 2 weeks to today. I finally have a PT appointment worth talking about! For the first time I went back and my bones have stayed put for the past 2 days!! Record breaking! Still no running, but I get to start spending time out of the belt! He actually said by the end of the weekend he wants me to be spending 3-4 hours a day without it. I also get to progress my home exercises, and I can now ride my bike! I'm so encouraged, and feel like I'm coming back to life. Best of all, my pain is much, much, much better! Only occasional twinges now in certain positions. Guess all those kegels really are paying off!!

Now if only the weather would cooperate so I can take advantage of some of my newly rediscovered freedom!

Make new friends... but keep the old...

One theme for our summer has been making new friends. New school, new neighborhood... it's inevitable. We have been spending time with a handful of special new friends this summer, and we've gotten to see some good friends from the past as well.

Here's some pics of the fun times we've had with some of our new friends! The boy is the grandson of one of Joe's co-workers; he and Kai hit it off right from the get go! The girls are some of our new neighbors, so we've spent lots of time at the park with them, and some fun excursions. We feel lucky to have met such great kids from wonderful families, and Joe and I think all the parents are pretty fun, too! (My new running partner is actually the girls' mom!)

Eatin' pie in the little house

Parade time!

All ready for a fun day at the coast!

(They're watching a movie, not rolling their eyes!)

Nature walk at Hendrick's park

Kai has also had chances to see some of his old buddies this summer. He's gotten to see friends from his previous day care a few times at birthday parties throughout the summer, and he talks about missing them quite frequently. We've also had a great friend (of mine!) move back to our area; remember how well these two got along?? We are sooo happy to have them closer and look forward to many, frequent play dates!!

Coast x 3

After not making the drive for nearly a year, we have gotten our much needed fill of our beautiful coast. We went three times in August! I may be a *bit* prejudice, but I don't think there's anywhere more beautiful than the Oreg0n coast. Being a native, I've seen it many, many, many times and it's beauty never ceases to amaze me... no matter what the weather is like.

Our first trip was a day trip with just our little family of three. The next trip was an overnighter with Joe's parents. Our final trip was a day trip for Kai and I with some friends! Each one had pretty decent weather and tons-o-fun! Here's some pictures from our little excursions!

Trip #1

Haceta Head Lighthouse

Our most successful family hike to date. Half mile each way.

He hiked up by himself; had to carry him down.

Contemplating life...

Playing in the cool "fort" we found

Trip #2

Roasting marshmallows on the beach was definitely the highlight of this trip,

even though he didn't roast any and didn't eat any of the roasted ones.

So sweet...

No explanation needed...

First official sand burial

Haystack Rock

Trip #3

See what I mean??

He is a true native. Got soaked,

even though the water was

FREEZING!!

Perfect tree stump... a cubby for each kid!