52 - A Portrait A Week

I heard of this from the lovely Andrea over at bookscout (and wife of Chef Aaron of St. Jack) and felt compelled to join as well. Seeing as I haven't posted in over a year, I figure I can handle at least 1 a week with pictures of my boys. Hopefully I can find time for a little caption as well. Since I just downloaded the blog app for my phone, this should be a piece of cake. I'm going to have to fit in quit a few at first to get caught up...what week are we in now?

Bunk beds for best buds.

The original post can be found here at Che & Fidel.

Time Warp

Wow. it has been over a year, almost 18 month since my last post AND it wasn't even of much substance. I even made a promise...well, that's broken.

Here it is the night of Easter and I have had this page open since last night. I can't even believe how fast time is passing us by. In less than a month Henri will be 4. We will have a 4 & 5 year in our home. That blows my mind. True kids. No longer babies (though they can throw a tantrum like any two year i've ever seen).

Life is busy. So busy I blink and have 1 kid going into Kindergarten and the other into Pre-K. Hubs has been at his job for over 2 years when we only expected 1 and I have been at mine for 3 already. The boys are thriving. So smart and witty. Sometimes too smart with logic that you can't argue with. Oliver and I have some really fun space & science based conversations in the morning on the way to school. He has such a creative and analytical mind, yet is very sensitive and pretty emotional.

 Henri is the class clown. A fun loving goofy boy that can be pretty moody. He pouts and grunts often, but you can usually break him out if it with a good tickle. He is so smart for his age, taking in everything Oliver says and does like a sponge.

Easter was lovely. Grandparents came up for brunch and hubs got to go in a couple hours late. I wish we could have had the whole day as a family, but I'll take what I can get.

The boys were VERY excited about their easter basket and finding the bunny's eggs. They did really good not touching anything and letting mommy get a few more minutes of rest before starting the whirlwind of a day.

Cracking the eggs.

Easter finest. I hope they keep having the same taste in clothes as I do and bowties as well. Little boys in bowties is to die for adorable.

The Easter Brunch spread. Not shown are the cinnamon rolls (GF of course), Rice Krispy treats the boys & I made, and the quiche is hiding behind the flowers. Everything was so tasty, except for my overly salty potatoes.

I was able to coax Oliver into a picture with me.

A Day Out with Thomas, and Oh, Father's Day.

The opportunity came up a couple of weeks ago to buy tickets to see Thomas the Train (though it was noted the proper name is Thomas the Tank Engine...) and we felt like it was something that we couldn't pass up. We hardly do anything special like this besides Zoo or a movie at the Kennedy School. We knew that we couldn't pass this up for our boys.
The Day out with Thomas was at the Hood River Railroad and they told us to get there an hour early to partake in the activities that were going on. Unfortunately, the whole day started off behind schedule. Graham had to run into work to go over the prep list and I was supposed to get up and get the boys ready...well, that didn't happen and I was passed out cold until he got home and instructed the boys to jump on me. Going against tradition, Daddy cooked us all a tasty breakfast of eggs, potatoes & some of his breakfast sausage that he makes for St. Jack. Yum Yum! We left the house 30 mins after we planned on leaving and then poor Daddy had contact lens issues and stinging eyes. no bueno. We had to make a few unscheduled stops and left the city with about an hour until the train departed.
After a few minutes of being lost, we found the station and parking, practically running to catch the train only to see Thomas peep and steam off. Luckily, the lovely people working just crossed out the 12:45 time and wrote in the 1:30 boarding for us. How sad would THAT have been?!
First they decided to ride the mini-train:

Next it was the sand tables

 

Then Thomas(!) came back and we had to stand in a line that just appeared out of nowhere. As we boarded the man helping everyone on the train mentioned that the last car had interesting architecture. 

 Unfortunately, the train just backed up on the track fro about 10-15 mins and then went forward back to the station. I think it was fine for the boys, by I was really hoping for a fun ride in the mountains without views of the freeway and water lines.

As soon as we departed the train we headed back to the car. Of course this was bad news and Oliver melted into tantrums. We had planned on walking around Hood River and finding some lunch but we weren't hungry and knew we couldn't take the boys into any restaurant with the moods they were in. 

We decided to take the long scenic drive home along the Gorge highway past all the falls. We had every intention at stopping at Multnomah Falls and it was packed, the entire bridge was filled with people so moved on. Every falls site was busy so we pulled off at Graham's favorite little spot.

Oneonta Gorge

Family Fotorama

I was debating on sharing the link or waiting until I had the photos and could upload my favorites here, but we all know that it will be months before THAT happens!

Chaney Family Photos - June 2011

Tease

Yesterday we had a family photo shoot with the lovely Tamara Young of Tamara Young Photography. 

We started off the morning at some old train tracks near the waterfront and then headed up to a playground in Washington Park.

Here is a little sneak peek.

Alice

We have a new addition to our family. Our Facebook friends already know ALL about it...Her name is Alice. She is a 4 month old Fluffball. About 3-4 weeks ago we finally decided to get another kitten. After running around town with the boys, I finally made my way to The Oregon Humane Society. They have such nice facilities for the cats with rooms to get aquainted. As soon as I saw her I knew she was the one...I went in wanting a short hair possibly Manx and ended up with a long haired little thing, but luckily she doesn't seem to have much of a cry!
(Jupiter drove me insane at the end of my pregnancy with Henri...) I swore I wouldn't have a long haired cat again but she was just so cute!

She is becoming a Mama's girl and sleep between us every night. She has had some night time potty issues but I think she might be over them...She is growing like a weed and eating like crazy! We are thinking she might end up being a pretty big gal.

These pictures are from when we had her for about 1-2 weeks and she finally let Oliver hold her. The boys are crazy about her and Henri squeals with glee every time he spots her. Oliver asks for her every night. Most nights I fib and tell him I will bring her up  in a few minutes, only because 9 out of 10 times he will not go to sleep for an hour if she is in his room. Tonight they both fell asleep within minutes...

PS, Oliver picked out the name.

The Pumpkin Patch

Sunday we braved the traffic and headed out in the gorgeous Fall day to The Pumpkin Patch. I think it took about 45 min to an hour to get there, once we got to the Sauvie Island Bridge. It was one of the quickest trips yet, mostly due to the fact that when we got back from the field, the Kettle Corn and Caramel Apple booths were closed...I SO had my heart set on a Caramel Apple!

This year was the one I was waiting for, talking about it for 2(!) years! The first year we made the trip I was 20 weeks along with Henri and Oliver was 13 months, not yet walking...Last year Oliver was 2 and walking fine, but I had a 6 month old Henri strapped to me, both years we forgot the wagon...This year, FINALLY, we remembered the wagon and both boys can walk! They had a blast running around through all the pumpkins though Oliver never found one because they were all "too big" He really wanted a little one...We already have 4 medium & small pumpkins from Gramma so really this was for a carving pumpkin and the experience (which I force on Graham every year, just like Tree hunting and Santa visits...) Lucky for my I am pretty immune to his complaints.

;)

Ready to roll!

 

Waiting for Big Brother to come out of the barn.

 

Off to the Pumpkin Field

 

Uh oh, we lost a child..

 Working out those legs!

 

Probably the biggest hit of the day was the tractor pulling the hay ride...Henri pointed and squealed EVERY time.

  

 This is what I got when I asked Oliver to sit on the pumpkin and smile...the other is his trade marl overbite smile.

  

Trying to find the Perfect Oliver pumpkin...

 Heading home.