First Foods!

Torin got to try his first solid foods, peas, this weekend, and he loved them!  We can't wait to feed him other foods!

Fun at Precoa

One great part of working at Precoa is that it is a fun work environment.  Here are a few of the things that have made it a fun 2014:

In May, during the incentive travel trip, we decided that we should fill Jim's office with balloons, so we stuffed over 1500 balloons in!  Fortunately, Justin had an air compressor and we were able to enlist a number of volunteers to help tie the balloons.

Some of the balloons we bought were pretty cheap, and we were filling them very full, so they started popping as we were throwing them in.  It was a bit unnerving sitting right outside as they were popping!  By the end, we were throwing them over the wall (through the ceiling) to get the office completely full.  Jim loved it and had his family come in to run through the balloon-filled office.

The summer picnic is a fun time for the entire family.  We have held the picnic at Memorial Park for the past 5 years.  Every year, we seem to add new things.  This year, we added bubble soccer.  Jacob loved playing, even if he had a hard time getting back up when he was knocked down!

There are constant activities and tons of food.  After being runner up in last year's egg toss (to an egg that didn't break when thrown 50 feet in the air onto the ground!!!), Jared didn't have as much success this year, only finishing in the top 5.

One of the traditions of the summer picnic is to do it on the hottest day of the year.  This year's was in September, and fortunately, it wasn't the hottest day of the year, though it was pretty warm, as the melted crayons in Kate's prize could attest!

Precoa also does some great meetings and events.  This year's sales meeting was at Skamania Lodge and included a hike up beacon rock to see the sun rise, where we toted up speakers, motivational poster boards, and food to create the right atmosphere.  It also included a hike in the gorge to Oneonta Falls.  They are definitely places we want to bring the kids!

We held our annual strategy meeting in Walla Walla, Washington, at a large home on a winery.  While we were there, we got snow.  We had some early morning runs through 17 degree weather, played the 'door game' late into the night, and got lots of work done.  The home accommodated us perfectly and was beautiful.  Check out the carving on the door!

The snow made the drive home pretty treacherous.  There were two cars that made the drive, and fortunately, Jared's chose to go through Washington through the gorge, which brought them home nearly 4 hours earlier than the other one that stayed in Oregon!

Jared loves working at Precoa.  It is a challenging job as he works to help the company grow, but he loves it!  Plus, it's a lot of fun!

The Potty Train

Liam is potty training right now and it isn't an easy task.  At the beginning, Liam was pretty excited to get stickers and potty treats.  After a few days, it it wasn't nearly as exciting for Liam.

There have been some frustrating moments - like the time that during family home evening, Liam discovered the 'escape hatch' in his undies and peed right on the floor and the many times that he has had an 'accident' right after being asked to go... then scooting a few inches over and continuing to play.  

But, it does give us some fun pictures since he is rarely wearing pants these days.  He has been outside in the front yard a few times in the past weeks to help rake leaves.

Liam has shown up at the Bowles' back doorstep a few times without pants on.  Once, he and Kate even brought back a half dozen doughnuts!

He can even pull off some great costumes (like a witch!) without pants!

We hope this potty train reaches its station soon!

Soccer season

As many nights and weekends as we spend in parks and on soccer fields during the soccer season, it's funny how few pictures we have of the kids actually playing.  That probably has something to do with Jared coaching during Jacob's games and Dani multi-tasking watching kids and trying to watch games all at the same time!  We were blessed with beautiful weather all throughout the soccer season this year, so we could 

Claire's team could best be described as a team full of gentle souls.  Jared described the team's style of play similar to a bunch of butterflies, floating around the ball, but never really wanting to be too aggressive.  In a practice near the beginning of the season, Claire was put as goalkeeper and allowed a goal, which was apparently pretty traumatic.  She didn't play goalie in a game until weeks later, but in that game, she had a couple stops and gained a little confidence.  By the end of the season, she was doing pretty well as goalie (other than her throws, which typically traveled around 5-6 feet total) and really enjoyed it.  We enjoyed watching her run and enjoy playing.

From the beginning of the season, nearly everyone on Jacob's team wanted to try playing goalie, which Jared loved, of course.  There was a lot of energy on the team and there were quite a few moments that everything seemed to come together nicely.

The season ended with a jamboree, which involved playing 3 half-length games on an incredibly soggy field (that kind of smelled like sewage).  The season ended on a high point as Jacob's team scored with less than a minute remaining to win their last game!

Beautiful fall weekend

One thing that we didn't get to do as much in 2014 as we did in 2013 is go for family bike rides.  We woke up today and it was a beautiful day, and now that Torin is getting bigger, we decided we could figure out a way to get him into the bike trailer next to Kate.  Liam joined Dani on the back of her bike.

It was a change for Dani to have Liam instead of Kate, and she could feel the difference!

Kate and Jacob's pictures were photobombed by their beautiful mother!

After riding for a while, we took a side trail and found ourselves at a little park.  Torin got to swing for a while - he didn't have much of a reaction, so we'll assume he loved it!  The big kids took turns hanging upside down on all the different playground equipment.

We enjoyed the blue sky and fall colors.  The trail we took went over the Tualatin River and next to train tracks, which had a couple trains pass during our ride), so the kids (and daddy) were all excited!

It is a long process to get everything re-packed up (it took nearly as long to load all the bikes than we actually rode for!), so Kate and Liam went for their own bike ride as Jared loaded up all the bikes and trailer.

a few of Torin's favorite things

Torin LOVES his exersaucer.  He will stand in there for an hour or more.  He reaches for toys, bats at the different moveable toys, and just loves playing.  He watches anyone and everyone who is in the room.

 

When he gets tired of the exersaucer, Torin also loves to sit in the Bumbo, in large part because he likes being up and part of the action that happens in the kitchen.  He sometimes plays with toys, he sometimes just likes to sit and watch.  Andrea thinks he is like an owl, head always turning to watch!  He also often spreads his arms out like he wants to give a giant hug!

He also loves playing on his play mat.  He likes to look at the baby in the mirror and play with the toys that hang down.

Torin started rolling over a few weeks ago from back to front.  He hasn't really gotten to the front to back roll yet, but he is starting to enjoy his tummy time.  Sometimes, he loves to lift his head up, and other times, he likes to just lay down and relax.

Torin spends lots of time in his car seat and is super patient just hanging out there.  In church, for example, he will just hang out through the entire sacrament meeting until he falls asleep for a nap through most of the 2nd hour.  He hangs out in his carseat through soccer practices, library, zumba, and running errands.  What a patient little guy!

We love this little boy.  He is a relaxed, peaceful little guy that loves socializing.  He is quick with a grin.  He loves to coo and talk softly.

Eventful trips to the dentist

Our kids had a couple dentist appointments this week.  First of all, all four were amazing for the appointment! I think that the sunglasses accessories helped Kate.  This week's appointments revealed two more (Claire's and Kate's) unique dental situations that our kids have.

Claire ended up having a second appointment this week to get some work done.  One of her permanent teeth isn't coming in straight, so she needed to get a baby molar pulled so that the permanent tooth wouldn't be damaged.  Claire was a trooper for it - she still has no idea that she got a numbing shot before her tooth was pulled (she thinks the topical numbing was all she got!).  She got a temporary spacer put around her tooth and will get a more long-term one once it is custom made.  Her mouth is pretty small, and she will certainly have braces and possibly more dental work in her future.

 Jacob has some discoloration in his top front teeth.  It may have happened from a high fever when he was a baby (he and Claire were over 104 a few times), or they just didn't form right from the start.  The discoloration has faded a little and may continue to as he gets older, but he may eventually need some work.

Kate, we learned this week, has a small mouth and will eventually need a palate spacer because she has a cross bite.

Liam has two baby teeth that have fused together and come in at the same time (which happened a long time ago).  Fortunately, Liam is probably the one child that won't need further work on his teeth (or so it appears at this point) as his permanent teeth appear to be normal.

Torin doesn't yet have any teeth, and we're hoping to not continue this track record!  Hopefully they're there!

Halloween

Dani bought matching Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy costumes.  Liam decided that he didn't want to be Raggedy Andy - he wanted to be Spiderman!  Liam was super excited at every door and was as enthusiastic with his "THANK YOU'S" as he was with his trick or treating.  Kate was pretty serious about her trick or treating.

 

Torin came along and was as calm and relaxed as ever.  It was wet but not raining - a classic Oregon Halloween.

Claire and Jacob have been loving Harry Potter recently, so they decided to go as a witch and a wizard.  Jacob's glasses made him a perfect Harry Potter, and Claire's red hair made her a perfect Ginny Weasley, though she was sure to correct anyone who called her that because she was really Hermoine Granger.

The whole group after a successful night!  We had to snap pictures quickly because Jacob (the only one who can really hold Torin) has a limited time that he can hold Torin!

Our happy little pea pod!

A co-worker of Jared's wanted to have huge mushroom necklaces for his and a buddy's Mario and Luigi costume.  We googled a design and Claire and Jacob were more than happy to help (and stay up way past bedtime) make the mushrooms!

So many pumpkins!

11 pumpkins!!!  We somehow ended up with 11 pumpkins this year!!!  Here's how:

We started with getting 1 from Claire's activity days activity.  

We then added the 6 pumpkins to carve from Al's Garden Center, after we went to Bauman Farms.  We got some great pumpkins!

We added another 2 little pumpkins from nursery from Kate and Liam.  Finally, we added a green and a red pumpkin from Jacob and Claire's school activity.

Add that to the giant mums that we got at Bauman Farms, and we had quite the pumpkin display!  Liam made a "mad monster," with the help of Trevor.  Kate made a princess.  Jared made a spooky castle.  Claire made a Harry Potter logo, and Jacob made a potion (a flask) and the word BOO!  Trevor also made a pumpkin and brought it to work to submit in his pumpkin carving contest.