The difference a year makes

Same football. Same boy.







Same uncle. Same nephews.




This Thanksgiving season we are grateful that Keith is officially larger than a football.

Illness, Birthdayness and Submarines

I'm receiving hate emails and harassing phone calls from family members for allowing so much time to lapse between posts. Let me assure all of you it can only be attributed to the "Black lung" which has seized our home. The good news is that the boys are on the mend. Only runny noses remain. The bad news is that cold sores have commandeered my face. I have nine (yes, count them, NINE) cold sores right now. And I'm not counting the little tiny ones that huddle near the big ones for protection. I'm talking separate beasts, here. OK, I'm grossing myself out, moving on...




Birthdayness.
My sister Darel uses this term to justify week-long birthday celebrations and ridiculous requests regarding her celebrated day. I've chosen to describe the month of November at our house as pure "Birthdayness". The boys were insanely spoiled by grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts and uncles and honorary Grandma Patti. Mostly the month has allowed Brent and I to re-live the amazing and difficult time that was November 2007.


The boys have come a long way. Their heart, lung and temperature monitors no longer haunt our sleep. We don't live and die by the baby scale each morning, just hoping that the boys have gained weight. We no longer pray for Keith to have a bowel movement so he can eat. And fortunately, Brent and I do not share a less-than-twin size cot 24 inches above a tile floor.




Fortunately, these pictures bring back very real memories that also seem very far behind us.

Presently, the boys are tearing up the house. Just today, furniture was rearranged, an entire box of tissue was torn to shreds and partially consumed, toilet paper rolls were unraveled and literally every reachable kitchen item was pulled from its cuboardly home. And just to make sure I haven't lost my sense of humor, Keith decided to dock his own personal subs in the tub this morning. He just wanted to remind me how grateful I am that he has a healthy bowel system. And in a weird way, I'm glad he did.

Animal Crackers in My Soup

"Monkeys and Lions loop the loop."






"Gosh oh gee, Grandpa has fun,"



"Scaring animals one by one."





Thankfully, Grandpa repented of his evil ways and decided not to scare the animals anymore.



Grandma is the only one who could love a face like that.




There was one big monkey that got away...but he doesn't look too scared.

Welcome Jade!

We got to travel to Boise last weekend so C and K could visit their newest cousin, Jade. She is absolutely beautiful! She has olive skin, dark eyes and loads of hair.

Grandpa and Jade.


No, Brent. Don't even think about it.

G and G with their current grandchildren. Another is very soon on the way!

One of the best things was being able to spend time with Great Grandma and Grandpa Johnson at their farmhouse. Here's a 4 generation picture on the front porch.


We also got to celebrate an early birthday for the boys.





They LOVE riding around on their new trucks from Grandma and Grandpa B. Although Mom will be relieved when their feet can touch the floor and she doesn't have to push them around on her knees!




I am currently in the process of teaching Cole to push Keith around. The training is coming along quite nicely.

Fall Fun Part II

Here is a picture of us picking out our pumpkins last week. The boys loved to crawl around in the pumpkin patch and they really enjoyed the hayride. Despite Cole's lazy eye in the pic below, he really did enjoy it.




We carved our pumpkins this week. The boys weren't as excited about it as we thought they would be, but it was a good effort. They both wanted to eat the pumpkin tops and crinkle the newspaper more than anything else. I guess next year they'll appreciate it more.

Keith's face pretty much summed up the boys' mood for the evening...

Fall Fun

We are sorely missing New England this fall, but we've been trying to take advantage of the beautiful fall weather here lately. We took a drive 2 weekends ago on the scenic Columbia River Highway. Since I took most of the pictures, they turned out pretty bad, but at least we got a fellow sight-seer to take a picture of all of us.

We also celebrated Brent's birthday. The football gods gifted him with a huge win for the Cleveland Browns on his special day. Nothing I got him topped that.

We recently went to Baggenstos farm, home of the famous "Election '08" corn maze where we got seriously lost for an hour before Obama's hairline saved us and we made our escape. http://www.baggenstosfarms.com/

The evening also included a hay ride and a visit to the pumpkin patch. I forgot my camera on the hayride, so I'll post pics of that when I get them from my friend.



Cole and Keith and I were able to meet up with my Mom's family to surprise my Grandma Hague for her 80th birthday party. It was so fun to see everyone. Aunt Darel came back with me so I could survive the drive and spent the weekend with us. She turned heads at church as usual. All the young men were asking me about her. It was pretty funny.