Sports Weekend

GO HUSKIES!

The Husky Game Saturday night was incredible!! Two overtimes, lots of action, a WIN!! YAY!! Our family drove to Seattle Saturday afternoon. Vance and the boys headed to the game with Matt while Lesha, Hazel and I had some girl time! My nephew Kai and bro in law were also at the game... so my boys got to see their cousin Kai too!

Earlier in the day Saturday we enjoyed Merit's soccer game. His team is playing soo well together!! They are a blast to watch!!

 Hazel, taking it all in

The boys are excited for Halloween and Harvest parties... Merit plans to dress up like

a football player. Willem has sort of a scary costume... I ran

acrossed this picture today and got the giggles!! Willem was a very cute Ninja!

And Merit's superman move there is pretty cool!

This picture was taken two years ago.

Fall Fun, Merit Henry's Birthday!

Merit's Birthday was yesterday! It is hard to believe we have an eight year old

in the house. We are sooo proud of Merit! He is a wonderful student, a fun brother,

an amazing son and a great friend to many.

Yesterday we enjoyed having a party with his entire second grade class at school. Mrs. Hammond, his teacher, is soo sweet and helped make his birthday special!! We all enjoyed Dominoes pizza and celebrated Merit.

After school we had a fun party here at our home!

 Eight years old! We are CRAZY about this kid!!

Thanks Kelly for your help and company!

We had a great time!!

for the birds

 Hazel, Willem and I headed down to the cabin after lunch today. The weather is beautiful and I thought it would be fun to get a few shots of Hazel. I want to work on her one year pictures this week. She will be one on the 21st!! When we arrived at the cabin, Willem noticed there was a trapped woodpecker inside the wood stove. We called Vance to ask advice on how he thought we should try to get it out. He suggested we open the stove door, open both man doors, at that point he was pretty sure it would fly right out. Willem told me this was a job for him and that Hazel and I should just wait outside the cabin! He was man in charge on this little mission and I found it to be SO fun to snap pictures of him while waiting out on the deck.

yeah,  he felt a little freaked out

So then we wondered, why isn't he flying out? Willem grabbed the end of the mop to see

if he could be coaxed.

He did fly out. It was very startling!! Yes, we were expecting it, but he seemed large in this tiny cabin.

And, he didn't fly out - of the cabin. He headed over to our candy dish and jars of buttons...

I went around the the outside of the window and tried to shoo

the woodpecker away. Hoping it would head for an open door.

We heard some "knocking" and Willem said "I think he is pecking!

Do you see his pecker?" I had a hard time staying upright. This whole

rescue mission had me laughing my head off.

I started getting loud and making large get out of here gestures with my hands.

But, he found a different, more lovely perch.

Hazel was so ready for a nap at this point, so we got her up to the house, gave her a little snack and to my amazement she fell asleep in her highchair!! I don't think our children have ever done this before. Once we laid her down, Will and I checked to see if the woodpecker had flown away - and he had!

Each day is an adventure. And I love hanging out with these kids!

October is such a fun month!!! Autumn colors, two birthdays in our family, football,  Halloween, soccer - we are enjoying it.

Merit is so, so excited for his birthday Thursday! We will have an eight year old in the house!

So thankful for these kids!!!

 THESE TWO! Exploring together, looking to big brother for comfort, hanging out, having fun...

 These Three! I love the photo shoot with these cuties!!

This one is a favorite.

Have a wonderful weekend.

 Exploring Moses Lake is always fun.

10 things that make me smile:
Merit's determination when he does his school work, practices spelling words or plays sports.
Watching Hazel walk
Willem's imagination
Merit's teacher
Imagining having Thanksgiving at my dads. Although no plans have yet been made to travel over this holiday, I have really fond memories of being in his shop last Thanksgiving.
Dreaming about maybe someday, some way, adding a 4th child to our family.
My friends
Thinking of some day being in the classroom TEACHING!
Vance
Attempting dinner at the Whitehouse Crawford in Walla Walla

ok, #11 - I had to add one more. That is so me. I wrestle with simplicity and have to be a little random.
Watching Hazel and her cousin Kendal interact today made me smile

I LOVE listening to the songs our boys come home singing! These are songs that they have learned at school that have catchy tunes and make me smile! Hazel likes to dance to them. :) This week we have been singing about the letter C (Willem's letter of the week at Happy Hearts). And we have been singing about Butterflies. Merit is studying butterflies in his classroom. The vocabulary words he is coming home with are so impressive. I love hearing the definitions. Also, they have caterpillars in their classroom!
Well, fall is officially here but this weather is warm and beautiful!! Yesterday we took the boat out. It was 80 + degrees. It was fun to be out on the water. The boys fished for a little while, but we didn't catch anything this time. We ordered Woody Burgers and ate them on the dock and dipped our crinkle fries in fry sauce -- yum!  It is fun to enjoy these warm, fall days.
Tonight Merit had a soccer game. They played awesome! It was really fun. AND Papa Stan and Gramma Adie were here to watch it.
They are staying with us tonight. So I am going to run...
I'll be back with some fun pictures sometime this weekend.
More soon!! Michele

Monday greetings

I love all the colors of fall.

Vance mowed the field. I spotted him out there on his big FORD.

And then saw the little Ford... a first birthday gift for Merit from

Grandpa Vic and Gramma Kris... hard to believe our youngest will be ONE year old

next month. All three of our kids have enjoyed driving this little tractor.

An evening hike with my camera in hand was good for the soul.

God's creation is breathtaking.

We had a gorgeous sunset last night.

I enjoyed taking the Valdez Family's photos Saturday afternoon. Those pictures are on my photography blog linked to this one. I had kind of a blah week last week, but we had a great Sunday yesterday. And I have a feeling this week will be better. Enjoy your day! I will be back soon.