random picture dump.

i have had the hardest time staying on top of our blog the past couple months.

i feel like i use all my allotted daily screen time working on things for our letterboard shop, and our blog is getting neglected because of it.

oops.

both are good things.

the shop is such a fun thing for me to work on.

it's not easy - i have to work hard and step out of my comfort zone often - but it is really rewarding.

it has been fun for matt and i to see the hard work especially pay off lately.

but, with that being said, this blog is really important to me. and falling behind gets me stressed.

i have been posting on this thing for over 6.5 years and, even if no one ever reads it but me, i find it to be such a great way to reflect on how lucky i am to be married to my favorite person on earth and to have 3 darling sons. we have such a good life!

time for a picture dump or my ridiculously handsome crew..

our newest nephew, eddie!

oh, and this is a picture of tank listed for adoption on the pasadena humane society website just a few hours after he ran away.

uhh that was a little too efficient, pasadena humane!

if i said i wasn't a bit tempted to leave him there to find a family that could deal with him peanut-brain, i would be lying.

a stander, a swimmer, and a reader.

tad learned how to pull himself up a few weeks ago, and he is sure loving his new skill.

i don't think it will be long until he is walking.

part of me is happy about that because i am tired of having to hold him in all those not-crawl-worthy places.

but the other part of me is nervous because he is already so fast when he is crawling!

either way, i am certain he will be walking by christmas.

and seriously, is there any better gift then that?!

probably not.

therefore, we shouldn't even try to buy him anything else to compete with it ;)

holden can swim!!

he can really really swim!

it is so exciting.

he was stuck in a preschool 1 swim class for 3 rounds.

although he was improving each time he went, he was never given the green light to move up to the next level for quite a while, and matt and i were thinking it was time to give him a break from swimming.

but then, one day, it clicked! just like that.

he got moved up to preschool 2.. and then got to skip up to preschool 3.

he can swim from one end of the pool area to another, and can dive down for toys on the bottom of the pool.

and i am seriously so proud of him!

what a fun skill to have.

chet is a full fledged reader.

it is nuts!

he loves sitting down and sounding out a book, reading signs along the road or in a store, making shopping lists, writing letters..

matt and i are now at the stage in life where we can't always spell out words to each other to sneak them by our kids, because chet can figure it out!

he seems so much older now that he can read so well.

and, although growing up always makes me a little sad, i am so thrilled - it's like a whole new world for him, now that he understands what all the words around him say!

camping in cali.

matt took chet and holden on an overnight camping trip the other weekend.

remember how we had signed chet up for scouts? and then backed out? haha

well, part of that deal was that we would go on more family camping adventures in exchange for scouts.

so this was us keeping that promise.

originally, we were all going to go. but then we figured that tad just wasn't at a great stage for camping, so tad and i stayed home. (which i wasn't overly sad about!)

matt found a campsite that was about 90 minutes from our house, up in the mountains.

holden and i worked hard, while matt and chet were at school and work, to get everything organized to go.

holden loves to help, so this was like a dream for him!

the boys left saturday morning and got back sunday afternoon.

they explored, burned things with magnifying glasses, got dirty, went on a little hike.. you know, camping things.

the boys had such a good time.

the worst part was the temperature - we didn't anticipate how cold it would get up in the mountains!

and there was a fire ban.

and we don't own sleeping bags.

soo.. matt said it was a coOOoold, sleepless night! 

but, they all survived, and are itching to go again.

the boys don't know it yet, but they are getting sleeping bags for christmas from my parents. they are going to be so thrilled!

a squirrel trap.. that caught nothing.

matt is such a great dad. these boys sure are lucky!

halloween 2016

after changing their minds on costumes many times, chet and holden decided on being jedi for halloween this year.

and, obviously, that means i dressed tad up as yoda!

a perfect little halloween trio :)

for a girl who doesn't really like halloween, and refuses to watch star wars, i think i made some pretty cute costumes!

we went to a halloween puppet show at a library nearby, joined in on a halloween parade at chet's school, and trick or treated around our neighborhood.

the streets around us were actually super lame for trick or treating on.

maybe 1 in every 10 houses was handing out candy.

sooo.. we walked a lot!

but, it was a nice night. and, when we did finally find a house that was handing out goodies, the people there tended to be very generous!