A Quilt from Great Grandma

Those of you that know my grandma Know what an accomplished seamstress she is.  Over the years I have gotten so many treasured items that she made.  From clothes when I was I kid, to fancy dresses, place mats, bibs for the girls when they were babies, and even a Christmas tree skirt.  She also is a fabulous quilter and has made quilts for just about everyone in the family!  Last week River got his own quilt from great Grandma!  It resembles a rocking horse quilt that she made me when I was little.  I loved my rocking horse quilt so much that by the time I was a teenager, there was only a small corner left of it.  She made me a replica of this quilt when I was 19, and I still have it tucked away in perfect condition!  River's quilt is lovingly titled "The little Engine That could" because he is our little engine that could!  It is sure to keep him snugly warm over the years.

       Just an update on how River is doing....he is doing great and his cleft does not bother him one bit!  We are getting lots of big wide smiles from him, and I try to cherish all these big wides smiles from his cute little cleft.  I'm sure going to miss it when its gone, I like him just the way he is. He is a happy baby and always smiling and laughing, and telling us stories with his baby babble.  He seems to have some red in his hair, which my mom is not doubt happy about.  Time will tell if her turns out to be a strawberry blond or an auburn red head. He has big bright blue eyes that he is always getting compliments on.... He got those from me :)  He is a handsome boy that's for sure!  We will be going to Shriners in 2 weeks for a check up, and to talk about surgeries which will be coming up soon.

3 months old!!!

Holy Cow!  River is 3 months old today!  Man how times flies!  I wish he could stay my sweet cuddly baby forever!  He is getting so big, laughing and smiling a lot.  He is really strong and almost sitting up on his own.  He is most happy in the early mornings when the girls are getting ready for school.  He tells us stories with his baby babbles, it is so cute!

Easter Weekend

       We had a nice sunny Easter weekend.  It started out on Saturday with Brooklyn's first softball game.  She plays for the Mt. Hood Blue Angels, and they won the game!  Brooklyn had a nice hit and scored at run for her team. Hopefully she'll follow in the foot steps of her Auntie Tay and be an awesome softball player! 

          The girls were up bright and early Easter morning waiting to see what goods the Easter Bunny had brought them.  Justin and I were up late with River and we didn't get to bed until 2am.  We had a nice pancake breakfast, then did some yard work. Grandpa D came over and did his annual Easter egg hunt for the girls, while I picked a bouquet of Tulips from the side of the house. Justin cooked a good ham dinner, and Grandma T brought over strawberry shortcake for dessert.  The girls and I also decided to do a mini photo shoot for River, with outfit changes and all!  Enjoy the pics!

First Beach Trip!

Last week we headed down to Lincoln City for River's first beach trip.  At first we didn't think we would be able to fit all 5 of us in the car, but the girls were willing to sacrifice comfort to go!  They were jammed in pretty tight in the back seat, but we made it work!  Needless to say we are in the market for a minivan!  We stopped at Spirit Mountain buffet on the way down (Our fav!) and we had an hour to kill before the dinner buffet opened.  Kinda hard to gamble when you have the kids with you (and little money lol) so Justin took the girls into the kids arcade while I sat in the lobby and fed River his bottle. 
        We stayed at a great hotel right on the beach.  It had a fireplace and an awesome ocean view!  It also had an indoor pool, a must for the girls.  I have fond memories of my parents taking us on many Spring break beach trips to the coast.  There was always an indoor pool....a good thing to have when you live in Oregon and never know what the weather is going to be like.

          It did rain of course, but we had half a day of sunshine on Monday and spent some time on the beach.  The girls and Justin explored the tide pools, while I carried River around in the baby pack. We also made a quick visit to Newport to visit my Aunt Jeaneene who has lived and worked there for over 30 years!  We don't get to see her often but it is so nice when we do! We also stopped at the OSU Mark Hatfield marine center and spent some time in there.  Its a cheaper version of the Newport Aquarium, but we actually like it better.  There is a resident octopus there that the girls like to check out.  They have a short life span in captivity so it's a different one each time and the girls love seeing them each time.  This time the octopus was named "Pearl".  The girls and I also managed to sneak in a brief trip to the outlet mall for some shopping deals!