Bye bye, Brasada

Happy trails to you, until we meet again.

Brasada Ranch

Alisa and I are vacationing in eastern Oregon this week. We're at Brasada Ranch for clear skies, relaxation and a little horseback riding. I took a few pics from the ride this morning. Alisa had never been on a horse before. Here she is on "Sweet Thing."

What a beautiful place this is. Many thanks to Gramma Margie and Grampa Chuck for watching the kids all week.

Sammy is 18 months: Part 2

Here are the boy's stats:

Height: 2' 9.47" (83.41%)

Weight: 25lb 9.5oz (67.21%)

Head circumference: 19.57" (95%)

Little Lights Valentines

Olivia's school takes Valentine's Day very seriously. It has to be handmade by the kids and this year we were reminded: no super heroes or my little ponies, please. The snow last weekend have us ample time to work on our cards. Really, Olivia doesn't quite get that quantity is more important than quality when we are talking ten kids' valentines. Here is my favorite of the three she did finish:

So cute. Here she is signing her name to Scarlett's card.

She wanted her name to have sparkles so she wrote it first and then added the dots:

Super cute.

Snow day!

I think I would be more excited about the snow if I hadn't been stuck in the house with sick kids for the past four days. But, it's here and there's more on the way. Here is what I found this morning: 

Three inches of snow at least. So we went out to investigate:

Poor Sammy had all of his snow wear in the car, thus his sister's fleece and boots. It is pretty and gets me in an Olympics mood. :)

Sammy is 18 months!

Sammy is 18 months already. Amazing. He is such a sweet little boy, and I am not just saying that because I'm his mama. One thing we have noticed: he knows exactly what we are saying. If I tell him, Go get in bed and pull the covers over your feet, he will do just that. If he wants to watch TV he will hand me the remote and then go sit patiently on the couch. He doesn't have more than a handful of words but he totally said "Mommy riroveru" the other day. Without comprehensible words, when he wants things, goes through a protracted pointing and verbilizing process to get us to understand what he wants. Words or not, this dude is sharp. He surprises up by doing stuff we didn't even know he could, like turn on the water faucets, open the fridge, and bring people their shoes when he realizes we are going out.

Also, this kid does love his sister and wants to do what she's doing and be where she is all the time. 

But he likes his own stuff too, like putting things in boxes and pouring them out, riding his car towards a wall and smashing into it, and he really enjoyed the snow this week:

Tomorrow he goes in for his 18-month check up. I am sure he will be declared: Delightful!