A Cowboy, a Jedi, and Emily.

Here's Emily.  and Emily.  (Emily is Maggie's American Girl Doll....for those of you not in that phase)

 This was Maggie's first time getting her hair straightened.  It curled back up quickly in the wet Oregon air, but since it only took about 10 minutes to do - and she LOVED the fact that her hair could be strait if we wanted it to be- it was well worthwhile.

Our Jedi.  I think we'll be seeing this costume for a few more years.

YeeHaw!  Miles was a cowboy this year...all thanks go to his Aunt Andrea and her extensive dress up supply.  Sam was never too thrilled about dressing up, so we don't have much dude stuff around for Miles to use.  He refused to wear the hat outside the house, but thought it was super fun while we were here.  He would put the hat on someone's head (or his own) and say in his high pitched voice: "Yee" (insert 3 second pause here) "Haw".  Totally deadpan, no life, no whooping, nothin'.  It was hilarious.

And lastly, a pic of all three kiddos.  Happy Halloween! (yes, that would be The Force Sam is using on the camera....)

The After Pictures!

Living room, after.  Check out how great it looks without the entry wall!  New rug too.

 Pretty new tile....

 Yep, that's my man rockin' the purple shirt.  Way to go Eric!

 Only partially made the bed.  ;-)

Birthday!....finally.

Here are some pictures from the twins' 7th birthday with the fam.  Sorry it took me so long to get them up, you'll see from the next post that we've been busy around here.  ;-)

We don't consume much cereal in this house and Eric thinks it's cruel that I don't buy it.  SO, for their birthday he bought the kids their own box of super-sugary cereal to enjoy.  They were thrilled and I am happy with one box of corn syrup a year.  We can handle that.  ;-)

 Maggie invited her friend, Leah, to go to dinner with us on her birthday.  We hit Red Robin, of course.

 Sam invited his friend (cousin...!) Joel.  What a blessing to have a cousin that is also one of your best buds.

 A week or so later we had their family birthday party.  Here are the twinsies.  We made it through year SEVEN!  Yea us!

 Back to the evening with friends again (sorry, I'm not going to move pictures today....just gonna get 'em up!).   They kids wanted to make "Cookie Pizzas".  So I baked huge cookies, covered them in frosting, and let them put more sugar on top.  Ick ick ick.  They had fun.

 They affectionately called their creations "Sugar Piles".  Accurate description.

 Okay, back to family.  Opening presents.

 Grandma Moffat made Maggie a girl sized outfit to match her Emily-sized one (her American Girl doll) for Halloween.  As you can see, she was THRILLED!

 Some cousins gearing up for cake.

 Sam chose "Chocolate Fudge, PLEASE Mom!?" and Maggie chose "Strawberry and Lemon".  We made Strawberry cupcakes and frosted them with Strawberry lemonade frosting.  Yummers!

Here's the birthday girl and Emily giving a Halloween preview.

 Reading with Grandpa the night before Grandma and Grandpa Viertell took off to head home.

 Oh, and Maggie lost her first top tooth sometime in there too.  ;-)

School Pictures 2012!

Here are our big FIRST GRADERS.   ;-)

Purple carpet?....what purple carpet?....

I have pictures from Sam and Maggie's Birthday party that I just found on the camera (oopsies), but am going to post these super exciting pictures first.  Today marked the day that we said buh-bye to the uber-dark-light-sucking-lint-collecting-some-call-it-Eggplant-we-call-it-Purple carpet.  Yaya!  We (by "we" I mean Dad Moffat, Greg, and Sam) also took down a little half wall that was at the entry way.

 Mom and Eric.  Notice the weary faces....

 So.Tired.Must.Watch.Football.....

Greg had the great idea to let the kids throw some artwork on the subfloor sometime before the work starts Monday morning.  As they "decorate" I'll snap a few pics.  Who knows when it will be uncovered again.  Lord willing, not while we're living here. ;-)

First Day of Preschool? Why, yes it is!

That's right folks!  MILES had his first day of preschool today.  I was so excited for him I almost forgot to take pictures of our little man in his big backpack.  ;-)  He'll be going two mornings a week to a community preschool in the area.  The classroom is a mix of "Community Peers" (in other words, typically developing children) and children with Special Needs.  He already seems to be loving it there and impressing me with his skills.  He took of his backpack by himself and hung it up in his cubby when we arrived.   I didn't know he could take it off OR hang it up.  Big mistake, Miles...now Mama is going to expect things like that out of you at home too.

Here are his first day pictures out front.  (Pardon my paint job, I'm part way through some repainting out front).