Birthday Pictures!

Here are the pictures that I promised from Maren's 2nd Birthday party !

Carolyn took these beatuiful shots when we first got there, and Maren was still waking up from her nap...

After a YUMMY dinner of pizza and salad, Maren got to open her presents!

Play tea set

Aqua-doodle

Baa-Baa-Black-Sheep (this is what Maren named it, and she sleeps with it every night!)
Play cookie baking set
Her "cake" was a tower of chocolate chip cookies

COOKIES!! She actually blew them out!

Mmmm...good cookies!And now for the guest list: We had the party at Carolyn and Amit's house (Carolyn took all these pictures so she isn't in any of them!)
Carolyn's brother David and sister Kathy were in town from Portland - it was so fun to see them (they are my second cousins).

Me, Kathy and Starlyn - Starlyn is Carolyns good friend since college and we have gotten to know her since we moved here.

School Days

We are 2 months into the school year and Joel is still loving pre-school.The Car Mountain - this might be Joel's favorite part of going to school!

This was hat day - Joel's shirt was much more interesting than his hat - do you see him in his tie-dyed shirt?

Every day they have a "project" that they have to do sometime during free time...sometimes it is practising writing the letter of the week, sometimes it is more of a craft. Looks like he is really concentrating on this one!

Some sort of pizza game...

Pumpkin Patch!

First Hair Cut

Now that Maren is 2, I decided it was time to get her hair cut (actually, she got it cut the day before her birthday so that her birthday pictures would be cute!).Notice the too long bangs and the mullet in the back?!

Now the back looks like this! So cute.

And from the side...

Clips are a must now since she cut it a little too short on the right side. She is cursed with the stick straight thin hair that is really hard to cut (just like mine!)...so this will likely be a lifelong problem!

She's happy as can be with her new hair cut!

Happy Birthday, Maren!

Yesterday was Maren's 2nd Birthday! I can't believe she is already two, and she seems so grown up! Right now she is very primly serving me tea with her new little tea set...so cute! I didn't have my camera for her birthday party (don't ask), so I have to wait to get pictures from my cousin. For now...here's the one birthday picture I got!

We tried to teach Maren that she is two, but every time we ask her how old she is, she says 4! I think she had a really fun birthday, and we had fun seeing her enjoy it. More pictures to come!

Happy Halloween!

Well, Halloween is not my favorite "holiday" but I have to admit that it was fun getting the kids dressed up and seeing how much fun they had. We went to a carnival at a local church where they got to "Trunk-or-Treat" and whack a pinata and jump in a bouncy castle. There was also a box maze inside the church that was a big hit!

Joel was a pirate (after going to EVERY store in Boise to find a costume) - Arrrrrr!

Maren wore the outfit that Amit brought her from India - we called her an Indian Princess. It was warm enough for her to wear short sleeves the whole night!

How cute are they?!?

I love this picture of Joel. Such a stud.

A visit from the McCutchen's

Last weekend Brian, Emily and Violet came to visit us from California! We had such a great time together playing games, taking walks, playing with the kids, and just hanging out. It was so good to spend 4 days with them - definitely the longest visit since we all left Chicago!

Emily and I got to get away a couple of times to go shopping, and also to do some crafts at Archiver's! But we had fun even when we were preparing meals and taking care of fussy kids! :)

Greg and Brian went for a mountain bike ride on Saturday afternoon. The weather was perfect for it, and they enjoyed seeing Boise from the hills.

The girls swinging...

and playing in the wood chips.

Cute little Violet - the poor thing was teething while they were here so she had a hard time sleeping and eating. But she was still so fun and cute and all the kids got along really well!

We also went for a couple of little hikes on Camelback...notice Joel's feet are not touching the ground?! They had so much fun running and playing and enjoying the indian summer days!

Thank you so much for coming...it was FUN, FUN, FUN! We love you guys!

Fishing

Greg and his friend Tom went fly fishing a couple of weeks ago, and Greg caught 7 fish! They were all pretty small, but they had a great time, and Greg is looking forward to going again next week!

Sunny Saturday

A couple of weeks ago we went for a hike in the foothills and then to get coffee and cookies at the Flying M. It was a nice family morning.