Halloween 2011...

October was packed with Halloween Festivities. We hit up the Plumper Pumpkin Patch a couple of times, once to play with all the cousins, and another to pick out our pumpkins. This farm is awesome and every year they add something new. This year it was the hay bale slides. The pic below shows you how obedient Kate is these days, not to mention the little Diva attitude she has to boot! This pose is all her doing, there was no "coaching" involved on my part.







Justin and I were invited to an Adults only Halloween Party. The theme was MTV's VMA's, so we decided to appear as Snooki and Pauly D. Obviously Justin pulled this one off much better than I did. I am as white as they come. I think I need a little more junk in thrunk and some cushion, if you know what I mean. The party was so much fun, as you can see Fergie, Marie Osmond, Justin Beiber, Snoop, Cyndi Lauper, Usher, Bono, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, KISS, Britney Spears, and Elvis were also there, just to name a few.







Grandma and Grandpa threw a little Halloween party for the kids. The kids bobbed for apples, ate donuts off of a string, decorated cookies and had a fun time dressing up in all their costumes. It's always fun when Grandma and Grandpa do it up big.






And of course tonight was fun too! We live behind Ironwood, a neighborhood that gives out the "big" candy bars at Halloween, so Zach(a clone trooper) and Kate(Cinderella), were in heaven hitting up all those houses this year.

Old Videos...

The kids and I were going back through our blog tonight and watching all of our old videos. So FUN! This one never actually made it on the blog for some reason. So here Zach is making his debut...as KISS!

It's Official...

Justin bought my Dad's practice located in Tigard, a subarb of Portland. Never in a million years did Justin think he would own a practice this soon. It all seemed to just happen, and fast too! We ask ourselves if we are ready for this every day. My Dad and my brother Andy have been great "go to" people for all those burning questions you just seem to have when you are first starting out. I give Kuddos to all those dental students who graduate and jump right in with two feet, without a lot of help. It is a lot of work. We just hope that all this work pays off in the end. It definitely makes you wish sometimes that you worked for a corporation that came with a set salary and benefits. Being the boss has its perks, but so far it has just brought on a lot of people wanting to do this and that for set amounts of money, and thousands of questions about a lot of stuff, frankly we don't know. Is that bad? Hopefully we can get on top of this, and soon.

This is the building Justin signed the lease for, as the new location of the office, that he will move the practice into sometime next year. It is a block away from the location of where the practice is now. The new building is along a major hwy and has lots of visibility. It will pretty much be gutted and it has to be re-plumbed to accomidate a dental practice, but the exterior is great and will stay the same. Yay! for something we don't have to change! The new sign went up a couple of weeks ago and Justin is very pleased with how it turned out. Let the build out begin.

We will have to take a lot of before and after pictures. This is all we have so far...

What Happened to Barbies and My Little Pony...

Kate is 4 today and what does she ask for?...A pink and purple ipod and Toms! The teenage years have arrived around here. I am scared to think of what she will want next year. Following family tradition, Grandma had a cake for her after dinner last night, and surprised her with a pair of pink sparkly Toms and the closest thing she'll ever get to an ipod at this point, an ipod charm neckless. She loves them both! We are having a little friend birthday this weekend and she can hardly wait.

These 4 years have gone by so fast. She has given us a couple good scares with RSV and Dehydration stays at the hospital back when we lived in PA, but has been healthy ever since. She is quite the tease and extremely expressive when she talks. Her angelina lips haven't gotten any smaller, and she thinks that she rules the roost around here, and who are we kidding, she pretty much does. She can be so brave and wonder the neighborhood helping herself into others' homes and then turn right around and put on this shy, "don't look at me" little girl act. She will always be our little "Oney". WE LOVE YOU MISS KATE!

Secretly Loving Attention...

Anyone who knows Kate, knows she runs very hot and cold when it comes to giving her attention. She will come downstairs in a cute headband or bow in her hair, and the minute you tell her how cute it looks, the next she is ripping it out of her hair, and telling us "Don't look at me!" Getting a picture from her can be so difficult and then at other times she loves it and poses willingly. I used to get frustrated but am proud to say that I have graduated to the whatever stage. They are who they are.

The day she received her new (hand-me-down) "lillytards" from her cousins Lauren and Maddi, in the mail, was a great day. She changed into this purple leotard and headed outside to show it off to all the neighborhood kids faster then I could blink. I had to capture her excitement...and she let me.