December Album: highs and lows

Well, mostly highs.  At least, looking through these photos, there were so many good times.  I went photo-crazy with the kiddos – documenting all of their joy as we all looked forward to Christmas.  My mom visited for a week, and she is even more photo-happy than me!  It was nice to catch her in front of the camera too.

   

    

  

And, she braved Pioneer Square with me and the kids to get our photo taken with Santa!  Leo wasn’t convinced that he needed to be on Santa’s lap.  It was classic.

       

Fiona made Mom promise that the next time she came back she’d bring Gramps.  It came sooner than anyone expected.  Right after Mom left, we got some tragic news: Aunt Terri passed away suddenly.    It’s hard for me to write about, and I still can’t believe it happened.  Mom and Dad decided to spend Christmas and New Years in Portland so that they could visit with Uncle Lou. 

We made the best of circumstances and really enjoyed their visit.  Of all the months, December is not Portland’s time to shine.  Literally and figuratively.  I tried to make the ‘rents as comfortable as possible – with an electric blanket, earmuffs, wool socks, flannel pants, clown noses… Hopefully they’ll be back.  I won’t be offended if it’s not during winter. 

   

   

   

We also spent some time with the Matz family.  The kiddos had a great time.  Leo still talks about Katelyn. 

   

   

Aunt Terri, you are so missed.

November Album: Fall festivities continued

Because we needed a few more events squeezed into what I refer to as “birthday month”, we celebrated Dia de los Muertos.  I was chatting with a friend of mine who grew up with this tradition.  I didn’t, beyond the Catholic All-Saints Day.  I love the opportunity to celebrate a festive Mexican holiday and to give our children a chance to ask questions about family members who have passed away.  Lucky for us, my mom created two incredible cookbooks that feature photos of great-grandparents (along with fabulous recipes!).  So those were prominently displayed.  Matt and I were reflecting that we don’t have many old photos.  Why is that?  I remember one of my favorite rooms in my grandmother’s “house on Addax” in San Antonio was plastered with framed portraits, many of people I didn’t know – just knew we were related in some way.  Or maybe I did know them, but those photos were taken long before I met them, so I could only catch a faint resemblance.  (Fast forward to December, when I plastered my own stairwell with a gazillion framed portraits – as many generations as I could squeeze on that wall!)

   

I used the opportunity to dust off my favorite calacas from Oaxaca, where Matt and I visited during our three-month graduate program in Cuernavaca back in 2004.  I remember seeing these figurines all over Oaxaca .  It took me a little while to embrace them.  Maybe they were too unfamiliar in a country where so many rituals were quite familiar.  I grew up with many customs ala San Antonio, mainly centered on food and religion, with a splash of culture (e.g. cascarones), and I wonder why Dia de los Muertos didn’t make the cut?  Too Central/South Mexico?  Too pagan in origin?   Whatever the reason, I’m re-routing (can you hear the GPS lady? “Re-routing”…).  I love this holiday.

But the real holiday of November, of course, is sweet Fiona’s birthday.  And what an occasion it was!  We celebrated with a bike party, in which Matthew and I created a bicycle obstacle course, complete with hay bales, a forest, a crocodile pond with a bridge, a tunnel, and everyone’s favorite part: the “pop” (a roll of bubble wrap taped to the ground).  We took over the covered basketball court in our neighborhood park (in case it rained) and staged tables with bike decorations, snacks, coffee, and four dozen cupcakes (!) for all of her friends.  It was a blast.  There were so many kids!  We enjoyed watching them navigate the course. 

  

After all the cakes and cupcakes of birthday month, I opted for an apple pie to celebrate Fiona’s fourth, finished off with cut-out owls.  Fiona didn’t seem to mind the break from tradition.

What a beautiful month, squeezing in time to enjoy the outdoors before the winter’s rainy weather set in…

  

And a Thanksgiving with much to be thankful for!

Appreciate good health!

oh, man.  I've been in the midst of battling the flu for 2 weeks!  Hopefully this goes away soon!

In other news: I decided late last year (in keeping with my one-word resolution tradition) that my word for 2013 is: APPRECIATE.  So here's to not taking health for granted.

More to come.  I'm a bit behind in posts.

Pause.

Happy 2013.  A few weeks ago, a dear friend, mother, grandmother, and dear sweet woman whom I called Aunt Terri passed away.  A shock.  Grief and mourning.  And I take pause.   When Matthew and I moved to the Pacific Northwest ten years ago, she and Uncle Lou opened their homes and hearts to us unconditionally.  This life is so quick.  Her life teaches me that LOVE is the greatest gift.  Who are we, what is this life without LOVE?  Share it; spread it; give it openly. 

Her family, whom I claim as my own, celebrated her life in a funeral just days before Christmas.  They were so full of grace; in my grief I had to admire their peacefulness.  This song, “It is well with my soul” was comfort to me during the service. 

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul

October Album: festivities galore!

I often refer to October as my “crazy time”… three birthdays that span from October 6 to November 5, with Halloween in between, not to mention this year’s election cycle, plus we decided to host all three birthday parties - large and small, an impromptu dinner party, and Oma and Papa came to visit.  Not to mention that Matt flew to Oklahoma and drove back in our new (!) pickup that we bought for a freakishly good deal from his parents before the whole dang “crazy time” even began.  It was out of control. 

I love this picture – in the middle of the craziness, right after Dean’s birthday party, we went to Sauvie Island to pick pumpkins with Fiona’s class. The day was beautiful, and if it weren’t for this pre-arranged event, I’m not sure we would’ve had time to pick a pumpkin for carving. Or three.

 

 

Leo got to practice saying “pumpkin” over and over and over and over.

And here they are, carved! Can you guess whose is whose? Dean drew his vampire face, Fiona wanted a silly pumpkin, and little Leo’s is the smiling one with hair that looks more like a crown.

So, here is our month in pictures…

Matthew came back at the beginning of October with our truck – and we surprised him with a crazy decorated house.

  

We went to Hood River for apple picking on Matt’s birthday and celebrated with cheesecake in the evening.

  

  

Matthew’s parents helped us celebrate Dean and Fiona when they came to visit, in a joint-pre-birthday party with two cakes, 10 candles (6+4) and presents.

Then, Dean’s actual birthday arrived!

   

We threw him a birthday party in our house which involved projecting “Madagascar 3” on our wall…

  

We went to the Pumpkin Patch the following morning…

We hosted a lively gathering that week…

I chaperoned Dean’s class field trip to Fazio Farms in the rain - thank goodness for the covered hay maze!

   

Fiona got an early birthday present as we were planning her bike birthday party for the first weekend in November…

Okay, now I must pause here.  A week before her fourth birthday, Fiona can pedal on two wheels.  She amazes me. 

  

And then at last, Halloween!  For Dean’s school, they had to dress up as storybook characters, which I think we all forgot about.  So the morning of, I quickly put together this Harry Potter get-up, adorned his forehead with a lightning bolt out of eyeliner, and, voila!  Though he makes a pretty good likeness, Dean doesn’t know anything about Harry Potter.  Yet.

    

Halloween night was a lovely and lucky break from the rain. Fiona, bless her heart, wanted to wear the exact same costume as last year, and she continues to be the prettiest Buzz Lightyear ever. Leo wore a hand-me-down bumble bee costume – the three word phrase that he still loves to say, and Dean, for crying out loud, wanted to be a robot, and wanted to make the costume… in the middle of everything! So I pulled together a box, dryer duct, electrical wire caps, and a paper plate, and a yogurt container for the helmet with fuses. Printed out some “flux capacitor” symbols and went crazy with some silver spray paint. Done.

I think I was wearing this wig to reflect the craziness of all that happened this month.

September Album: Indian Summer

We finished out our summer with a BANG.  The weather was incredible – I always forget what a fantastic month September is.  Entirely under-rated.  Nature’s best surprise. 

Some of our September events are worth remembering, especially as it has started raining non-stop (writing from the end of October): 

1.  We reveled in the outdoors!  We celebrated birthdays and the last days of preschool.  We rode bikes as often as possible.  We played in the park with friends.  AND we completely redid our back patio, took a leap of faith by deconstructing the too-small deck and replaced it with stones and grass joints. It worked! The grass grew in, and it really softens what is otherwise a pretty hardscaped patio.

 

2.  Dean started kindergarten!  He is one excited boy.  He couldn’t wait for this day, and he has hit the ground running!  Dean’s learning so much, his brain is tired by the end of the day!  He has never slept better.  Still up at the crack of dawn, but that’s another story…  Fiona was excited on his first day.  She wanted to ride her bike to school with me and Dean too.

  

 

3.  We returned to Lost Lake!  An end-of-summer  treat!  Our first tent-camping experience after a five-ish year hiatus.  We went with open eyes, having camped with a nine-month old before, and our eyes pretty much stayed open all night with three kids in the tent.   But going with friends made the sacrifice of sleep worth it.  And look at this stunning view!  The kids all truly enjoyed themselves.  So we will be back.