Birthday!

My parents were up for a long weekend to help celebrate Miles turning TWO. It was a very fun weekend. Thanks for making the drive, Mom and Dad, we love you!!

Transitions.

Just said Goodbye to Miles' EI therapist this morning.  Her fam is moving to CA next week.  My tears are proving transitions are harder for me when Miles is involved.  God provided a wonderful friend in Kim this year, we're praying His next helper will be an even greater blessing.

transition

Miles was pretty intrigued by the crazy pile of boxes in the living room before we moved out. They proved a great place for him to pratice his standing. This pile of boxes was tripled in size before we were done....and the garage was already full. It was one ugly mess.

Then we moved. We moved into a neighborhood where people introduce themseles before we can introduce ourselves. Where we have PURPLE carpet. Very soft, but very purple carpet. We moved into a house roughly twice the size of our previous home. We moved in and have been slowly unpacking and doing projects as we go. We're currently hunting down an odd odor in the kitchen, so if you come over- don't judge us by it. :-) We're incredibly happy and blessed to be in this home, all if it's quirks included. We'll have plently of little projects to do this summer to get the house up to speed, but (hopefully) nothing major.

Miles has been in his own little heaven with all the boxes that have been around. When I empty one and toss it aside he crawls over and plays inside it. I'm pretty sure that he's learning NOTHING by playing in it, but sometimes the kids just needs to have fun. Plus, it's cute.

Here's the only picture of the kids I have in the new house: playdoh. playdoh on carpet. Yep, you got it- I don't care! It's industrial carpet in the family room area and so I don't really care what they do to it, which is rather freeing.

I'm hoping we'll actually take some pics of the place soon, we'll see if I come up with something exciting to post about. :-)

Catchin' up.

Alright, so moving is not a friend of the blog. SO, here's a quick glipse of some things we've been doing BESIDES pack, move and then unpack.

We've been getting going on our running. I'm all the way up to 3.25 miles. I've got to get to 6+ in the next month, so I'm praying the rain finishes up around here so I can get back out there.

We enjoyed some sun before we moved...since then, it's been rain-rain-rain. Seriously folks, it's been wet- even for Oregon. Here's Mi sporting some overalls and his (then) new hat--which is currently missing. I'm hoping it shows up soon in a random box....

We let the kids run wild with the camera while we packed. They dropped it and busted it. Eric brought the ol' thing back to life somehow. I'm secretly kind of hoping that they drop it again soon and finish it off so we can spring for a new one. :-)

Here's a pic of Maggie taken by Sam. As you can see we also sported some pretty bad hair while we were trying to move. Poor girl.

And, last but not least (as least for this post) when all your toys are packed you play with packing tape. Here's Sam's "creation" one evening.

Nomads & Oreos

We're currently "camping" out at Eric's parents house while we wait for our new place to close.  Eric's parents have been very gracious not only in allowing us to invade their home, but also provide quite the variety of yummies to eat.  Grandma took the opportunity to buy some fun stuff in honor of our stay:  HoHos, Fritos, Cheetos, Oreos, and of course Grandmas famous cinnamon rolls...you name it: if it's a "sometimes food" - it's here right now.  The kids (and Eric) are in HEAVEN.  After downing the usual sandwich and fruit, I let them experience some chocolate creme Oreos....with milk to dip them in.  OOOooooh, baby!  Those were some happy kids. 

Lately, Sam has been talking about everything as he does it (wonder where he gets that from....)- so his dipping cookies in milk experience sounded something like this:  "Mom!  I love these Marios!!  They're super yum!"  Either my pronounciation of Oreo sounds more like Mario than I thought....or it's time to lay off the Wii for a while...

Yum Yummy Yummers SCONES!

We had breakfast for dinner last night, so in effort to make it seems more "dinnerish" for my husband I threw together some scones yesterday afternoon.  I haven't made scones in a long time, I think we all missed them.  These are SUPER good ones, folks!  Don't skimp on the almond extract, it's worth getting it if you don't have it already and it makes your baked goods taste like you own a bakery!!  Here's the recipe I used:

Cherry Scones
3/4 cup dried cherries (I used cranberries)
1 cup boiling water
3 cups flour
3 T sugar
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 t cream of tartar
1/2 cup butter
1 egg, separated
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup half and half
1 1/2 t almond extract

Soak cherries in boiling water for 10 minutes, drain WELL.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cream of tartar in a large bowl.  Cut in butter.
Combine egg yolk, sour cream, half and half, and almond extract and add to flour mixture.  Stir until soft dough forms.
Turn out onto floured surface and knead gently 6-8 times.  Kneed in cherries.  Divide dough in half.  Pat each ball into a 6 inch circle and cut into 6 wedges with a sharp knife.  Place scones on lightly greased baking sheet.

Beat egg white until foamy and brush over scones.  Sprinkle generously with added sugar.
Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes.

Just in case you haven't seen it yet...

Because they're cute...that's why.

Here are some cute pics. That's all..

Miles, playing under his high chair...probably his favorite place to play in the house right now...I just put the highchair on Craigslist. Don't tell Mi.

Okay, so I might be the only one who thinks this one is cute...

S&M making some "pie" out of a preschool magazine that had come in the mail that day. TOOOOOoooo proud of themselves.

Okay, this one isn't cute either...I got a very cool new pic for our new place for my birthday from Eric's parents. I am continuing to try to outfit my home with things other than world market items...and failing time after time. I just like it there. Sadly, i had to send the pic back home with Mark & Shari so they can store it until we move. Two weeks from tomorrow: We're outta here! (and I get my picture back...)