7 months old

See my big 7 month old here! He is seated next to Uncle Vinny's giant stuffed dog, which he offered us to take home from UT but that thing would have filled half our minivan (and the other half is occupied by boys) so the answer was a swift NO.

So wow...7 months! He's scooting still and getting very quick. He will crawl for just a few "steps" but still not full crawling. I thought for sure by now he'd be crawling the way he was rocking a couple months ago but the commando crawl is satisfying his movement needs and that's fine with me. He sits easily unsupported and is starting to pull himself up on things and can scale a single step. He's decided he's not into baby food, but he does love to eat paper. For the most part, he's a happy and easy-going little guy (unless of course my sisters are in town when he decides to scream for entire car trips and refuse to sleep...he likes to make "good impressions" apparently.)

All in all, Benno's a wonderfully smart, adorably cute, super strong, perfectly sweet baby boy so I think we'll keep him.

Mes Souvenirs de Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in Utah was a blast. Lots of fun...lots of food...lots of cousins...lots of travelling. As you can see, I have lots of photos too...though I'm annoyed that I don't have a few more specific photos: George went with the boys to the dinosaur museum AND to the BYU-UofU football game and took NOT ONE photo of those momentous Kodak-moment-loaded opportunities. He obviously doesn't manage the blog or he would have known not to miss those blog-worthy shots. By the way, BYU WON...if you hadn't already heard.

On our way to Utah, this is near La Grande, OR...gorgeous!!!


I love this photo for a number of reasons: a glimpse into our entertainment, evidence of law-breaking (speed limit at that moment was 65), and notice where George's eyes are! (You can click on the photo to enlarge it and see the details a bit better)


We stopped in Burley, ID, at this Wendy's but didn't actually eat here thanks to the enormous lines both inside & out...draw your own conclusions about this sign.


A quick hot dog lunch to tide everyone over until Thanksgiving dinner, including Great-grandma (otherwise known as Vovo)!


The boy table:


Adorable Kiara and Adrian with his cheesiest squinty-eyed grin:


Everyone digs into the delicious Thanksgiving meal--sorry Jenny that I caught you at an unflattering moment (that's sparkling apple cider she's holding though Vovo thought we were actually drinking champagne--she was terribly distressed when we filled 15 year old Karlie's glass to the brim!)


I love this photo of Benno sitting with Papu--we were up in the TV room watching The Incredibles' TV debut.


Kissing cousins...they were fighting and Aunt Ellen made them kiss & make up...but then they kept kissing--cuties!


While all the guys (and Nikki) were off at the BYU game with the big boys, the rest of us picked up some lunch from Wendy's (not the Burley one...weren't sure where their Jalapeno Melts were) and took it to the park in Alpine to eat and play. Unfortunately it was more than a little bit chilly out, but luckily I had packed along my hat and a few pairs of gloves...Vovo looks pretty good in my hat, doesn't she?


I love this one of Kiara & Ellen--they were looking at the horse penned up next to the playground. Ellen's sporting another one of my hats.


Christopher comes down the slide!


Benno's getting around pretty easily now and I laughed when I found him here admiring his reflection.


Karlie & her baby sister Nora on her blessing day!


The whole crew...well, minus Vinny, Nikki & Kiara. Look at Aaron's eyes. He's so moody and it shows. And in case you were confused, that's Adrian George is holding...he & Christopher look so alike sometimes!


Anyway...lots of fun and a lot of great memories. It was a great trip!

Turned off Cyndi

Public service announcement: I was getting tired of the music playing every time I opened my page...as much as I love you, Cyndi, I had to turn you off.

Giving Thanks in Utah

Oi...we are busily preparing here to take off "bright and early" (in quotes because as much as we always shoot for early, it's usually 9am or later before we truly hit the road...one of these days!) to spend Thanksgiving in Utah with George's family. I am truly excited to see all the family and not have the entire Thanksgiving meal to prepare myself...but I'm dreading the drive just a little bit. Benno, sweet Benno, is at that specific age that is REALLY hard on road trips--not easily entertained and no longer happy to sit still for more than 10 minutes. With the older boys, this is nothin' but Benno is going to be difficult. Wish us luck.

Thanksgiving is one of my very most favorite holidays of the year--not just for Thanksgiving dinner, which is my favorite meal of all...I think I could eat it every day and not get bored--but for all the history of it and most importantly, that it's a day to reflect on all the many, many, many blessings in our lives and to be thankful for those. I love the story of the Mayflower and the Pilgrims--after all, I have Mayflower ancestry though I believe I would love it even if I wasn't descended from those brave, faithful voyagers who played such a big role in our American history.

Anyway, as I'm not sure when exactly I'll be posting again during this trip, I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving--I am so grateful for all the wonderful people in my life and in the lives of my little family!!!
Love you BIG!

Concert Stars

George & I went to a concert last Thursday evening, along with our friends John & Wendy though the place was so jam-packed with highschoolers that we really didn't see much of each other during the concert....but that's a total tangent... We went to see the group Stars, whom I was not familiar with prior to the concert and after seeing them, I wouldn't call myself a fan, BUT I did enjoy the opening band whose name was "Miracle Fortress."

It's become my little concert tradition to carry along my 5" sketchbook and sketch the bands as they perform. Then after the concert, I get the bandmembers to sign my sketches. I have drawings and signatures in my book from: 10,000 Maniacs (the new one with Mary Ramsey, not Natalie Merchant), November Project, Cure (no signatures on that one, sorry), Low (twice!), Pink Martini (and not only did I get signatures from them, but the lead guy Thomas Lauderdale gave me his address to mail him copies of the sketches too!), David Mead, Glenn Phillips, Levi Weaver, Kid Beyond, Imogen Heap (also no signature but I tried...she totally disappeared after the show) and then lastly Miracle Fortress & Stars.

So above are my sketches of Miracle Fortress. I did sketch Stars too, but their performance was not conducive to good sketches: they twirled around too much, faced away from the audience for a good part of the show, and they turned the lights on and off all throughout...annoying! I wasn't "feeling it" either as they performed, so needless to say, my sketches of them didn't turn out too hot.

Wardrobe Triumph!

Hear ye! Hear ye!

Carol at long last is fitting into her pre-pregnancy jeans--size 6 no less!!!!

Yes, it's true. It's only taken me 9 mos of pregnancy and 6-1/2 mos post-partum but at last, I can wear my old jeans!!! I'm still 10 lbs from my ultimate goal, but you know what a milestone it is to even be able to get them on comfortably. I first got them on while all the girls were in town, but that was after I'd managed to lose a quick couple extra pounds overnight due to an upset stomach so I thought it might be more of a fluke...but here we are several days later and I'm still in the jeans! : )

Of course, we're hitting the holidays now so let's hope I can keep up with this downward trend.
***Drawing not to scale...that's why it's still a drawing and not a photo.

Girl Trip: Portland 2007

Ha, ha...I have the advantage--all my sisters are on planes heading back to AZ so naturally I'll have the news of our girls' trip up on my blog first--don't worry, they'll all get theirs up before long as well and can add to what I'll share here.

We had a fabulously fun weekend! The weather mostly cooperated with sunshine and only slightly chilly temps (though for these AZ girls it was freezing). Katie, Maury, Lacy & Melissa all flew up from Phoenix on Friday and left this afternoon...and all the days in between were filled with lots of good food, good fun, and happy memories.

So Friday, we ate at Papa Haydn--a wonderful treat of a restaurant in downtown Portland where we enjoyed delicious meals and even better desserts. We walked up 23rd Ave to Moonstruck Chocolates (as if we needed more sweets, but yes, of course) and were entertained by a drunk Elvis impersonator along the way. We finished off the evening with a visit to Powell's bookstore and left loaded with books...

Saturday, Maury & I rose early to get in a good run--Maury's training for a marathon. I ran 6 miles with her (which I haven't done in years...pretty proud of myself for that one!) After a brief errand at Target, we drove out to the coast. First stop was the Tillamook Cheese Factory for samples of cheese, cheesy lunch & best of all, fresh ice cream! From there we headed north to Cannon Beach, where we got out & walked up the beach for a bit.

Sunday, after church we went to Macaroni Grill and then on to Multnomah Falls, where all but Lacy (who wisely stayed behind in the warm van) heroically hiked to the top of the falls and came back down in the dark. Maury, Melissa & I stayed up afterward to do makeovers (and what lovely women we were, I must say).

Today, we shopped at the Nike Employee Store before hurrying off to get the girls to the airport on time for their flights home to AZ.

It was such a fun weekend and I only wish we had another few days to play together. Thank you all for coming all the way up here to stay with me! I miss out being the only one so far away from AZ so I can't tell you enough how truly wonderful it was that you all came here. You're all so fun and all so beautiful (YES, you too, Melissa!!!) Despite the occasional sickness & the cold I hope you all had fun too (and that maybe, just maybe, you'll want to come back to Portland again!) We definitely need to make this a regular thing, whether we do it here or anywhere (especially since next time I won't have to have Benno in tow!)

I'm still here...

...just been a busy week. I'm getting ready for a fun-filled girls-just-wanna-have-fun weekend with all my lovely sisters and for George, it's "crunch time" at work too so we've barely seen each other.

In the midst of our busy busy-ness, there was an election this week...and I'm MAD. Well, mad about half of it, but it was the important half that really has me upset. I got my way with the other half. We only had 2 measures to vote on here: measures 49 & 50. The good news first: measure 50 failed. Measure 50 was about amending the Oregon state constitution to add a cigarette tax to fund a new children's health program. The bad news: measure 49 passed.

Measure 49 was a big deal though...it was the current Democratic legislature's attempt (and successful one now at that) to repeal the previous measure 37, which passed by an overwhelming majority 3 years ago to require the state to compensate property owners or else allow them to use their property according to whatever laws were in place when they purchased the property. So according to these legislators, measure 37 was causing all kinds of trouble (namely, they were having to compensate people with money they'd rather use elsewhere) and so they needed to "fix" it. 49 "fixed" 37 by creating all kinds of hoops for property owners to jump through and new bureaucracies and restrictions on how much can be built, etc...in essence, they've now made it virtually impossible for anyone to legitimately make a claim for their property. And they created all this propaganda surrounding measure 49 painting pictures of all these terrible 37 claims wanting to put in shopping strips, subdivisions & parking lots on pristine Oregon land...their slogan was "keeping Oregon beautiful." I'm SO mad that people actually fell for that...do they really understand that they're trading away their own freedom and property rights for this idealized vision of Oregon (which I would argue was never going to be at risk from any measure 37 claim)? I know of 2 people, who are both quite dear to me--one in particular, who fell for that nonsense...and it makes me so mad and really truly sad. Oregon is the nanny of all nanny states--property owners can't possibly do what's best for Oregon with their land...only the state can be trusted with our precious land. (What? you've lost $500K of value on your property as a result of our wildlife protection act? That's too bad--we've saved that precious earthworm on your property so you should be grateful. What? you want to build an additional home on your property because you've got a terminal illness and your son wants to move in to help run the farm? sorry, that would obscure the view of the natural Oregon vista...can't happen. Go ahead and file a claim though and after you've dished out a few thousand dollars for appraisals and state fees and whatnot we can refuse you again, and along the way some out-of-state environmental group can sue you for filing a claim when they find out there's an earthworm on that farm that needs protecting...no problem for us since you'll be responsible for all the court costs.)

Anyway, I know no one really cares about that unless you happen to be in Oregon too...and it seems I'm quite in the minority here (even in my own home!) in standing up for property rights, which is a crying shame.

November...

...and of course the first thing that always comes to mind with November is swim lessons...?!?! Well, that's the case for us at least.

I love Aaron in this photo.

And under the category of not-so-noteworthy news, I finally got my hair cut after, um, let's see, it's been SEVEN months! Yikes.