What Am I Thankful For?

For him

For her
and for him
and for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (Thanks Amber for taking the pictures)

K&J Photography

There is a contest to get a free photo session from K&J photography and their photos are beautiful. If you are in the Portland area or plan on being here at some time you should enter.

Bubba

We were a Target a couple of days ago and checking out when Jacob said "She is Beautiful!" loud enough for those around to hear. I asked him "who is beautiful?" and he pointed to the lovely lady behind us who was probably about the same age as his Nana or Grandma. I think he made her day! (PS- he loves to go out and play in the rain with his boots and rain coat, thanks Nana!)

More Visits

After Sid, Katie, Matty, and Goober left Papa Streeter came (Mama Streeter was already here). We stayed busy for their entire visit. We went straight from the airport to Red River Gorge.

There are lots of waterfalls in the gorge.
Dad came to Oregon and became a tree hugger.
Lots of waterfalls. Lots and lots.
We also took a trip to the Tillamook cheese factory (YUM). It is the Streeter family favorite cheese, so it was a must do.
We went from Tillamook to a little town on the coast called Oceanside. We had delicious seafood and even more delicious dessert at a little cafe called Roseanne's (I think). Then we spent a little time on the beach.
My kids like to be with their dad. The Oregon coast is beautiful.
Claire is still very afraid of the ocean after her little incident, so Grandpa kept her safe at a distance from the water she was ok with.
Near Oceanside is a little State Park. It has a cute little lighthouse.
There is also an impressive Octopus tree.
It is really big.
We ate lots of good food while Ma and Pa were here. Dad saw a couple places on the food network that he wanted to try, so we drove across Portland to try Otto's sausage kitchen.
We also went to the Pearl District to get gelato at my favorite gelato place, Mio's Gelato.
Forest Park is a huge Urban Park/Forest in the middle of the city. We had a nice walk there.
It is pretty.
We also enjoyed time eating yummy food out at other places and at home. Mom and Dad got to go catch up with Dad's old college roommate too. We stayed busy and even overlapped our next company by 2 hours. Stay tuned ...

Visits

October was a busy month for us... we had LOTS of visitors and we loved it. Our first arrival was Sid and Katie.

We took them to Columbia River Gorge to see lots of beautiful waterfalls.
Our kids love Sid (they love Katie too). He taught Jacob and Claire lots of important things.
He taught them about exploring caves.
We threw an Oktoberfest in their honor... complete with Leiderhosen, homemade rootbeer, hotdogs with sourkraut, make your own big soft pretzel, and polka music.
Then our friends Matt and Rachel got here. Then Mama Streeter got here. The girls shopped, the boys explored. We ate, we played, and we made yummy calzones.
Sid and Katie got engaged! They were really happy.
We all tried out several types of donuts from Portland's famous Voodoo donuts. They have CRAZY donuts. The bacon maple bar was really good (real slices of bacon on top) but to my surprise I really loved the grape donut too. I think the one covered in cocoa puffs was my least favorite.
Claire loved her M&M covered donut.
We also went to the rose garden and although the roses were past their prime, there were still a lot in bloom. On top of all of those things we enjoyed funny games (including a human mop race) staying up late, lots of laughing and I enjoyed my own cheering squad at my soccer game. Thanks for coming everyone. It was fun (stay tuned, this is just the beginning of the visitors).

A New Name for Motherhood

I was helping Jacob get dressed and he was keeping his balance by putting his hands on my head... this must have reminded him of blessings because he told me when he gets older he gets the priesthood. I told him he was right. Claire then chimed in "when I am bigger I will get the priesthood." I told her, "No, remember, the priesthood is only for boys." To which she replied "no the pink priesthood is for girls." It is amazing the power that the color pink holds.

Happy Halloween

We had so much company in October and I need to post those pictures, but I wanted to post Halloween before we are too far removed. We had great fall weather for Halloween, nice enough that we could be comfortable trick-or-treating in short sleeves! Jared and our friend Chris did most of the trick-or-treating supervising and I joined the for part of it!

Thanks Chris... you were a good sport!
Our 'princess' and 'monster' pumpkins per request of the kids.

Here are the adorable pirates in full costume! They had a great time and were so good at trick-or-treating this year, but were afraid of some houses or decorations (namely a smoke machine and a gorilla handing out candy.