How to pick a pumpkin

Check each one to see if you can pick it up.

Pick up every possible pumpkin, even if you think you have one picked out.

Consult with your best friend.

Rejoice when you find the right one!

Teach your brother to do the same.

The Terrible Twos are Nothing Compared with Three

Daddy: Ali, go ask mommy if dinner's ready yet.
Ali: (shouts) Mommy, is dinner ready yet?
Mommy: It's almost ready.
Daddy: Ask Mommy how soon.
Ali: How soon!!!
Daddy: Ask Mommy how many more minutes it will be before dinner.
Ali: That will be twenty more dollars.
Daddy: (Can't talk anymore he's laughing so hard.)

Later...

Ali: I'm going to step over here, and then (as she's crouching to jump off the toilet)...watch this Daddy, it's gonna be sweet!

Anna: (on multiple occasions lately) Guess what YOUR CHILD did today!

In case you haven't heard

Ali is now three! She was very excited to have a birthday, although she was a bit bummed when she discovered that she had to be three for an entire year before she turned four.

Her day in pictures:
Helping to bake her cake.

Getting ready to blow out the candles on her cake. She decorated the cake by herself!

Checking out her birthday balloons.


Showing Daddy her presents.


Opening more presents!

Let us count the ways...

that we love Oregon. We went up to visit the Strand family for a short little trip, leaving Sunday after church and coming back home on Wednesday. We packed our days with fun and we all fell in love with Oregon.

Our love affair with Oregon included:
blueberry picking

visiting the windy coast


as well as eating seafood, playing at the pool, and enjoying wonderful company.

Now, we are preparing ourselves for a birthday...and a little girl very excited about turning three.

Get Down

Ali had a blast at VBS this year. One of the songs she learned was "Get Down". She was amazed when I told her I had the song at home. So, thanks to my "Underdog" CD, Ali had her own little dance party the other day. The video fun to prove it...sorry it is sideways; it was my first venture with video on my camera and I've yet to figure out how to turn it.


Josiah is growing and is as cute as ever. He's a crawling machine and now sports four teeth. His favorite food right now is blueberries, as shown in the following picture.
Okay, you can't really see the blueberries, but you can see those cute teeth!

More to come, but I hope this satisfies you for now!

Birthdays and Beaches and Princesses, Oh My!

Having our birthdays so close together does have its benefits. On June 25, we headed down to our old stomping grounds in the OC for some birthday fun. We stayed with our wonderful friends, the Merciers and Cooks, who were wonderful hosts and hostesses. Ali loved seeing her buddies, Patrick and Cassidy, and was super excited to have some quality time with Miss Melanie.

However, the main reason the trip occurred when it did was take advantage of the "free ticket on your birthday" at Disneyland. Since kids are free until they turn three, this was the perfect time to go. We felt like quite the rock stars when every employee we ran into wished us happy birthday (after seeing the birthday pin we were given). We rode rides, danced in the parade, and most importantly (in Ali's mind, at least) met SIX princesses (Ariel, Jasmine, Mulan, Snow White, Cinderella, and Belle for you princess lovers out there). We also saw Alice (which Ali was VERY excited about as well). The teacups were a family favorite. And Ali left with a crown that flashes colored lights (leave it to our daughter to pick the tackiest crown of the bunch).

We also spend time at the beach, where we were able to catch up with our friends, the Darts, buying some new Rainbow sandals, eating many meals with great friends, and going to the beautiful wedding of Jenn and Kris (which happened on a great day; July 3--our fifth anniversary!)

All in all, a great vacation. We were sad to leave. Here's a pictorial guide to the trip:

Ali super excited to see her buddy Patrick


Having a blast on the teacups.


Our friends, the Darts (Jason couldn't make it to the beach)



Josiah LOVED the beach. He could have spent days there!


Ali and Cinderella. She was so excited to able to meet and talk to the princesses.



Ali and I "doing the twist" with one of the parade dancers.

They get along so well...

On at least a weekly basis, people remark to me about how well our children are behaved in church. I always wonder where they go to church, because Ali leaves for "Children's Church" for about half the service including the sermon, and Josiah has been preaching about as much as I have lately. This makes for comments from Anna like "I thought the first five minutes of your sermon were good, because that's all I heard before having to take your son outside."

Last weekend, Ali went to Kidfest with Anna on a Mommy date. She met Dora, and enjoyed bouncing in the bounce houses. With all the kids there, Ali got very used to being ushered out of the bounce houses after a couple of minutes of bouncing, which is very sad because she is physically capable of bouncing for upwards of an hour.

Thankfully, Ali got to make up for lost time on Memorial Day. The whole family decided to take a trek down to Mt. Cross Lutheran Camp for their annual barbeque. At the camp, a bounce house was set up where Ali bounced to her hearts delight. This took over an hour, and no one was there to usher her out. Ali, being a conscientous young girl, still ushered herself out every three minutes for the first half hour we were there to ask me if she could bounce more. As I didn't have much else to do and we really wanted her to enjoy her first taste of camp, I let her continue until it was apparent to anyone who saw her that she really needed to take a nap.

Then last week, our dear friends the Berkbiglers came to town. We got to spend some time with them, checking out the sights and sounds of Concord as well as the smells and tastes of the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield. And where else can you find portraits of Elvis and Ronald Reagan made of 10,000 jelly beans. We had much fun, and then shipped them off in Coastal Starlight Express.

Seriously, you're writing about us again?