Canady Insanity

One Year...

2010-03-09T11:03:00.001-08:00

Jim and Mary,

A year has passed.
You are gone but not forgotten.
Your legacies live on and continue to bring joy and wonder to the world.
As you watch down upon us, you are always remembered.
May the wind be at your back and the sun on your faces.

My favorite Holiday reminds me of my grandparents

2009-11-24T00:39:00.000-08:00

It didn't come after the memorial service...

It didn't come after Lobster day...

Will it come over Thanksgiving? My favorite holiday and the holiday to mark my grandparents anniversary and my grandmother's birthday.

Probably not.

Will it ever come? Does it need to come?

These are the questions that I have been asking myself over the last few weeks. I may be 3000 miles away, but it seems like we are still stuck, still searching, still waiting, still looking for closure.

Maybe it is just me, maybe I can't get the closure because I am far away and don't see how the family interacts. I don't think it is just me though.

I think how November 2009 came and how I felt when it really has been a year since we said goodbye to our grandparents, I think deep down inside we all knew that would be the last time we would see them like that. Them... how we know them. I was not there for the going away picnic, but from the photos they looked so happy, especially grandpa. He was pulled from the brink and was going on to live his life like normal. Going to Florida, only a little bit behind schedule. See, nothing ever changes in Connecticut. One of the things that I could count on.

Here we are now, just days away from Thanksgiving, this was always my favorite holiday and seeing my grandmother in action on this holiday as a kid made me want to be just like her. Since I was 21, I have prepared a Thanksgiving meal each year, with only one exception – their 60^th anniversary celebration dinner.

It has been 8 months since they have passed and in that time our family has had so much happen, so much personal tragedy and so much triumph. It seems almost impossible that all that has happened in a short 8 month time frame. It is like karma was getting even with us, things were good for so long and then we just had to deal with some bad stuff for a while. But then I remember, no matter how bad it keeps getting, how impossible it all seems – think of what Grandma and Grandpa went through. All of the loss that they suffered and they just kept going forward. For a good part of her life, Gram was a teacher. Even in her death, she is still a teacher.

I am not sure when closure for me will come. Maybe it will come next summer when I come back to Latimer Point and stay at the cottage. Maybe it will come when I go to visit their grave site, maybe it will come when I can finally work up the courage to watch the DVD of photos that my cousins worked so hard to put together. For now, I take comfort in something as simple as my grandmother's perfectly printed Jam labels, I carry one that says "blueberry" with me all the time.

Maybe it will never come...then what? I guess I'll just have to live life like my grandparents taught me. One day at a time and don't lose sight of what is right in front of you. Although I am very sad that they are no longer with us...I shudder at the thought that we could have never have had them to begin with and I am happy that I has as much time with them as I did.

I miss them, but I am happy!!

Minam Hunting Trip 2009 = success!

2009-10-15T12:44:00.001-07:00

This was the Lostine River we camped next too in the Eagle Cap Wilderness

We got dumped on for 3 days during the trip

The Hunting crew (Joe, Sean, Ryan)

The 4x4 that I ended up getting midway through the trip

Not a bad rack if I say so myself

2009-09-04T10:01:00.000-07:00

Think he likes ice cream! Boys got a treat night for potty training (Liam) and doing a great job getting his haircut like a big boy (Tyler!)

Fishing!

2009-06-21T16:21:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday we decided to head to the Lake (Hagg Lake), since Tyler had been asking to go fishing for many weeks now. Anyway I went early in the morning to get a bike ride in around the single track loop with some friends, and Jules and the kids met me out there afterwards. We packed a picnic lunch, Julie bought her fishing license and we threw the poles in the water after eating. Low and behold they were hittin like crazy (ok not really), but the kids did reel in quite a few of these little guys. We threw them all back (I think it was the same one that was really hungry!). The kids loved it, so we are planning another fishing trip for next weekend, and I am going to squeeze in another MTB ride!

Tyler with his first fish caught!

Mom helping out the proud fisherman

Liam caught some too!

Tyler with another catch

Haircuts at Home!

2009-06-20T21:58:00.000-07:00

We normally take the kids to a fun kids only haircut place, but it is summer and they do not need fancy haircuts, besides their hair grows so fast! So, we bought some clippers at Target and after one session, they have already paid for themselves! Here are the BEFORE, DURING and AFTER Photos. Can you guess which child behaved better???

Liam, before!

During - he looks like a little girl in this picture.
Holding still for daddy!
Almost done!
Dad is just putting on the finishing touches!
Cheese!!! (Note Tyler is in the background, already negotiating to avoid getting his haircut) Not too, bad, the light blond hair hides any mistakes, so his actually looks pretty good!
Tyler before - enjoying his last few moments of happiness!
Tyler during, he was pretty squirmy.
Tyler screaming! He hates it and is yelling that is hurts.
Tyler is pissed! Look at his face.
And there is the happy boy with his half, hack job of a haircut since he would not sit still. It actually isn't that bad. Ryan did a good job considering he had a screaming child for the entire 5 minutes that it took to cut his hair.
Yes, we will pay for a real haircut for Tyler before he starts Kindergarten!

Snow in Portland?!?!

2009-04-27T22:14:00.000-07:00

Now that Spring is here and we have even had a few summer days, we need remember to horrible event that happened in Portland this winter....SNOW!

Tyler is standing in front of our house at the edge of the road. Do you see the road? NO, because they don't plow here!! If you don't plow, then why does it snow?! Or maybe I should ask if it snows, then shouldn't you plow?

Anyway, the kids had a ton of fun and I hadn't seen that much snow on the ground since April 1997 when I lived in Boston.

The freezing rain is GREAT here. Nothing beats 10 inches of snow with 1 solid inch of freezing rain on top.....

Tyler and our neighbor McKenzie sledding down their driveway!

Liam was confused and didn't really like the snow at all (yep, he's my son!)

And this post concludes, 2008. Hopefully I will get started on our 2009 stuff!!! Stay tuned.

My Grandma's Homemade Devil Dogs!!!

2009-03-21T14:23:00.001-07:00

At work a couple of weeks ago, we decided to have a pot luck for the 1st day of Spring!! I signed up for making Devil Dogs. I had a couple of people come up to me and ask what a Devil Dog is? One person even thought it was some sort of hot dog....

So, on Friday I brought in a whole tray (double recipe). I didn't even make it through the front door before people were eating them. They were a big hit!! It was only the second time I made the recipe, so I am happy that they came out good and that everyone liked them. Thanks Gram for a great tradition!!

I can't even title this post....

2009-03-15T21:32:00.000-07:00

To say that she was the world's best Grandma doesn't describe it....

I knew when I was blogging about my Grandpa that I was going to be doing another post very shortly for my Grandma, I hoped that it wouldn't happen that way, but I knew in my heart it would. The day my Grandpa passed away, I was at work when I got the call, my co-workers asked me what was wrong and I shared the news with them. I immediately said, "If my Grandmother lasts a week, I'll be shocked." Well, 9 days later, she went to join her husband and I am happy for her and sad for me all at the same time. Every moment of those 9 days, I wanted to call her up and beg her not to go, to tell her that I still have so much more to learn from her, but I knew it would not be fair, I knew she would teach me my final lesson very shortly. When you believe you should be with someone, than always be with them, no matter where they lead you nor how painful or hard it may be at times....

My grandmother was an amazing woman and I have so many cherished memories of her. Even though she is gone, she will always be with me because I feel that I am very similar to her in many ways.

Growing up, I have such fond memories of spending the week at "Camp Grandma". My cousins and I would all spend a week at the cottage and make too much noise for Grandpa, but just the right amount for Grandma! One year when I was 6 or 7, I showed up later in the evening when all my cousins were already in their PJ's and watching a movie with some popcorn. Grandma urged me to quickly get my PJ's on, so I could sit with my cousins and eat the popcorn before it was all gone.

I remember my Grandma taking me swimming at the little beach after dark, when the water was still "bath water" warm and the fish lit up the water. She was always the tannest grandma around! One time me and a couple of cousins (Kathryn, I think) went down to Florida for a school break - Grandma took us all to Vero Beach for the day and we all got "sun-burned", well, we thought it was sunburn until my grandma discovered that her skin was red also....it was immediately decided that we did not have sunburn, we all had "Wind-burn" because our grandma did NOT GET sunburn.

At Latimer point, I was always in such awe of my grandmother when it was time to sell tickets for the Annual Latimer Point picnic, she was the one who sold the tickets and collected all the cash, growing up I though it was the best job in the world!! She was so important and everyone wanted to talk to her and ask her advice on things. She would always introduce me to however she was talking to, I always thought that was neat - especially when I was a little kid. One year, she got us the 1st tickets, #1! It was pretty cool!

When I was old enough to drive, I would spend as much time as possible at Latimer Point, even though I worked all summer, I was determined to spend time with my grandparents. On nights when I could get off by 9pm, I would drive over and spend the night with them, sometimes I would do this for weeks on end. Grandma would always wait up for me, just to make sure that I made it home safe. She would always take such good care of us at the beach, there was always a huge basket of sunscreen, a fridge full of snacks and a host of bikes to ride. I would remember about 5pm in the evening she would start the appetizers, it was typically cheese, crackers and all sorts of good snacking food!!

While in college, I would try and take the train down a couple times a summer, just to spend the weekend or the day with the them. She was always so happy to see me!

After college, I decided to move to San Diego, everyone else thought I would be back soon, but I knew that I would not. Saying goodbye to my grandma was the hardest thing. I remember the day like it was yesterday, I said goodbye to my family and my grandma was the last person for me to say goodbye to, I turned to her and just completely broke down crying. She took my into her arms and whispered some grandmotherly words of encouragement. I almost decided not to move, just because I didn't want to leave her.

The first time I brought Ryan back to Latimer Point, I told him on the plane ride - "just wait until you get to my grandma's house, she always has some excellent baked goods". After a long flight we arrived and much to my horror there were not any baked goods. Ryan and I were hungry so we started nosing around looking for something to eat and that is when Grandma made us corn muffins- nothing special, just the corn muffins out of the Jiffy Box. Ryan turned to me and said "these are the best corn muffins I have ever had!" And you know what? They were!

My Grandmother was a kindergarten teacher for many years. I remember one time, I was about 4 or 5 and I spent the day in Mrs. Meehan's class. She was so happy to be there with her class and I was so happy and proud to tell everyone that Mrs. Meehan is my grandmother.

Even with such a large family, she never missed a birthday, anniversary, Valentine's day, St. Patricks day or Easter card. More often that not, the cards were filled with confetti!! She always bought us Victoria's Secret PJ's for Christmas. Instead of stockings she would fill up these giant gift bags with candy, pens, post it notes (I still have a couple of them left) and all sorts of other trinkets that we could not live without. She would always sent me my annual Latimer Point paraphernalia consisting of hats and T-Shirts.

Before my grandparents retired to Florida there was always a HUGE celebration at Occum Lane for Thanksgivings with all the traditional fixings. That day was always one of the happiest all year for me, perhaps that is why I have ALWAYS cooked a huge, traditional Thanksgiving dinner every since I was 21.

I am going to miss the matching outfits that she would purchase for all the great grand kids, her excitement when I would visit her and she would get to show off something new that she found or purchased, her words of wisdom that she would give me when I was having a rough time, the nice chats that we would have on the phone when she would fill me in on all the family gossip and the love and strong sense of family that she instilled in me. Gram - I hope that I can be at least 1/4 of the woman that you are. I love you and miss you so much already!

Paris Hilton Move Over!

2009-03-08T22:26:00.000-07:00

Just messing around with camera

2009-03-08T22:23:00.000-07:00

Quad City

2009-03-08T22:18:00.001-07:00

Two Jokers Hamming it up on the Quad Montage!

More Family (Canady) photos from around the holidays

2009-03-08T22:09:00.000-07:00

Some more family photos of the Canady's from the holidays, just wanted to share

Tyler and Liam in the requisite "same sweater that we got for Christmas" photo (mom trying to corral them for the photo)

Hmm, trying to remember exactly what was going on here, but just looks like typical brother stuff, Tyler beating up his younger brother.

Ahh, these kids look sooooo HAPPPYYYY!

4 generations on my mothers side! L-R : Liam, Julie, Ryan, Barbara (Great Grandma), Jim (Papa), and Linda (Nana)

New Camping Trailer

2009-03-08T16:29:00.000-07:00

Late last year we sold our small pop up trailer and bought something a little bigger and a little bit nicer. Anyhow since my dear mother-in- law requested pictures here they are. There should soon be some pics from our inaugural trip to Seal Rock up pretty soon.

Here is the trailer:

This is the back where the two bunkbeds and bathroom are at. There is a shower/tub, sink and toilet.

Galley area with Fridge, freezer, and pantries. Microwave and Oven. The back door is to the bathroom

The dinette and sofa, both of which convert to twin beds. The dinette is on a slideout.

Front bedroom which has a queen bed and a couple of small closets.

In Honor Jim Meehan

2009-03-03T22:45:00.000-08:00

"Fair winds and following sea's"

Ryan

The World's Best Grandpa

2009-03-03T19:25:00.000-08:00

The world lost a great man on Monday and I am very sad, but at the same time I am very happy for what a great life he lead and the legacy that he left behind. Here are a few highlights!

Jim Meehan (not James!)

Husband to Mary Meehan for over 65 years.
Father to 7 children
Grandfather to 15
Great grandfather to 18
and trusted friend to many more!

My grandfather served on Submarines in World War II. He was stationed in Pearl Harbor before the US entered the war and luckily he was moved to sub duty before Pearl Harbor was bombed. His sub the Guardfish made it back to Pearl Harbor some months after the attack. After a short stop, they then unleashed fury in the Pacific! Even having a write up in Time magazine with some amazing photos (that I am still trying to get my hands on!) If you were able to get my Grandfather talking about the war, he would sometimes tell stories of when the sub was under attack and they thought they were never coming home.

Few people know that my Grandfather was also a civilian on the maiden voyage of the USS Nautilus, the first Nuclear powered submarine. My grandfather made a living building submarines and supported a large and loving family with that career.

He was also an avid golfer! One year on opening day of a Connecticut golf course, he put his ball on the Tee, swung and nailed a hole in one! It doesn't get much better than that.

Grandpa showed us how to crab and clam at the Latimer Point. He would take us out fishing on the Kelly Girl and skiing and kneeboarding in the Brown Betty.

During the winter, when he and Grandma were down in Florida, we would always get huge boxes filled with Oranges and Grapefruit. Grandpa would always tease and say that he went out and picked them himself!

Grandpa always had his secret stash of snickers and Breyers ice cream in the freezer. Everyone knew just where to look for his "secret stash"

He even was a Christmas Tree cutter - one year he let Mike and I cut a Christmas Tree down from the Uncasville home and he put it in the back of his Mazda truck and didn't tie it down, so it ended up in the middle of 395!! Somehow he got the tree back in the truck and safely installed in the tree stand at our house!

The best part of having such a wonderful Grandfather is his well placed birthday! Every year in August, my family celebrated "National Lobster Day" where my Grandmother would buy a literal ton of Lobsters and we would feast the entire day. I am so happy that Ryan and I were able to bring the kids to experience Lobster Day last year. Of course it was Grandpa's 85th Birthday and it was the best one!

I have so many wonderful memories of my Grandfather and he has had a huge influence on who I am today. I just wanted to share a little piece of him with all of you.

Grandpa at Lobster Day! Happy 85th Birthday!

Grandma and Grandpa on their wedding day!

50th Anniversary Photo
50th Anniversary photo with their children.

60th Anniversary Photo (notice what they are wearing!)

Grandma and Grandpa created the greatest place on earth - yes, even better than Disneyland! They created Latimer Point and it was the place that always made everyone the happiest!

Multnomah Falls

2009-03-01T22:43:00.000-08:00

The day after Christmas, we decided to go for a drive! The city and the highway's were pretty much shut down during the snow storm and this was one of the first days that all the roads were open and passable. So we took the drive out I-84 towards the Gorge and after 15 miles of clean, dry pavemant we were suddenly in 4 inches of hard slush. It made for a white-knuckle 5 mile drive. It was pretty crazy to be going 65 miles an hour on the highway and then looking off to the side and wondering why everyone is pulled over. Then you suddenly realize, the highway has not been plowed! I have NEVER seen anything like it before. But the trip was well worth it, the falls were beautiful, it is very rare that they freeze over like this.

Christmas 2008!!

2009-03-01T22:16:00.001-08:00

Santa was very good to the boys this year, there were all sorts of presents. The big presents were the Lego's this year. Liam and Tyler really like the dinosaur legos!!

Here is Tyler's big present from Santa - Santa was very lucky to be able to find this for him!!!

Christmas Cookies!

2009-03-01T21:55:00.000-08:00

This year for Christmas, we had a very special treat! Not only did we have 1 1/2 feet of snow, we had lots of family come and visit. Grandma Michel, Aunt Shirley, Nana and Papa came up from Austin. Here they all are on Christmas Eve making cookies for Santa and his Reindeer!!

RockStar!!!

2009-02-23T22:17:00.000-08:00

My cute Rockstar baby!

Zoolights!!

2009-02-22T23:47:00.000-08:00

Every year around Christmas we go to Zoolights. They string lights (LED- of course) on just about every inch of the zoo. Luckily we went this year on a really nice night, it was about 50 degrees out, so we got to take our time and look at all the lights. We even got to see the baby elephant!!

Tyler and Liam had a good time looking at everything, too!!

Hopefully, I will have Christmas done in the next couple of posts!!!

The Quad!!!

2009-02-22T23:39:00.000-08:00

Liam likes the Quad just as much as Tyler did at his age!!

Even the boys like it together!!

Thanksgiving!!!

2009-02-22T23:28:00.000-08:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that I am behind...maybe in March you will see Feburary Posts!!!
Here is Liam eating his Thanksgiving food. His favorite was the homemade cranberry sauce.

Notice...he has two plates....He ate just about everything, too!

And Tyler on the other hand didn't even come close to eating 1/4 of this....

Look how nice our house looks for Christmas....Ryan did a great job with the decorating this year!!

Oh yeah...we have a Blog!!

2009-02-22T23:09:00.000-08:00

2 months goes by real fast, really fast when you do not update your blog!! OK, we have been major slackers. You would think that after we purchased a new camera with fancy lens' that we would have all sorts of photos to post on the blog. Well....that is just the thing, we DO have all sorts of photos to put on the blog, about 1500 to be exact!

Updating our blog is like paying off credit card debt, if I just do the minimum each day then it will take me like 10 years to update it. Maybe Obama will have a bail out plan to put more hours in the day, so I can get everything done!!

In the meantime enjoy some photos, these are all around November 2008, eventually we will catch up.
Liam climbed into the lego bin and could not get out, it was pretty funny!!

Liam can eat a banana better than a monkey!

Someone ordered Snow

2008-12-14T09:37:00.000-08:00

Here's whats on tap for the next few days, wonder if it will be around again for Christmas. The Canady's are from Texas, where it snows once a millenia

2008-12-07T14:36:00.000-08:00

Tree Day!

The weather was great today (read No rain!), so we decided to head out to the country and find ourselves a tree to put in the house. We ended up at a local tree farm (same place we got our pumpkins) and proceeded with the long and arduous journey of finding the perfect Christmas tree. The farm also had some added attractions for the kids for a family affair. Well we are just about ready for the Canady Family visit. Nana, Papa, Great Grandma and Great Aunt Shirley will be visiting this year for Christmas. Hope they like the tree!

"Hmm, which way do I go here, jeez these hay mazes are so confusing!"

Tyler attempting to set a new land speed record for sliding down a corrugated plastic pipe.

Just hanging out looking for the perfect tree
(that likely wont fit in our house and my husband has to carry)
This is the one? Doesnt look that big....Ryan can cut this down and carry it, and set it up no problem....

The cutting of the tree!

Hmm this didnt look that big when it was in the ground...pushing 8' with this one!
Good thing we have vaulted ceilings!

We decided to convert to LED lights this year and that included the ones for the tree, we like'em.

Here is the tree all decorated and ready for presents (that all depends on the boys and the naughty and nice list)

2008-12-07T14:09:00.000-08:00

Time for another update, trying to stay on top of things around here with the holidays is definitely easier said than done. Anyhow, Thanksgiving weekend on Sunday we decided to get out of the house and go to the Evergreen Aviation Museum for some history. This is the musuem that houses the Spruce Goose (the ginormous wooden airplane that Howard Hughes built, think that movie the Aviator was about this).

Here is Tyler manning the guns of a bomber, I still think he has a ways to go before he can handle this one.
Liam checking out what its like to be in the driver's seat in the interactive learning section of the musuem

This is a Ford Tri Motor (commonly called the "Tin Goose"). It was both a passenger and mail carrier.

This is the famous "Spruce Goose" (our buddy Joe standing there at the bottom), I couldn't even get a picture of the whole thing its so big.
Here's Ty checking out what its like to fly the airplane. This was another interactive unit in the education section.

New Truck Finally!

2008-11-29T22:00:00.000-08:00

Well its not really new, but its new to me. Anyways wasn't planning on this till later next year, but an opportunity came up and I decided to get it. Its a 2005 Dodge Quad Cab 2500 (gotta pull a trailer, no its not diesel, could not afford that), but it has a lot more room for us and the kids than my old dakota did.

Ryan

Christmas on Wisteria Place!!!

2008-11-17T22:31:00.001-08:00

Yes! That is correct, we have our Christmas Lights up already. Well almost up....there was a slight miscalculation and we needed to buy more lights.

So why do we have our lights up so early....??
We couldn't just let our neighbors be the only ones to have their lights up!!!

To those keeping score, our neighbor's technically won. They put the lights up real quick and turned them on, while Ryan was still putting ours up. But, by the time Ryan is done with our yard we are going to have more lights than them. I think the rest of the neighborhood thinks that we are all nuts, but what do we care?!

Landon turns 2!!

2008-11-17T21:58:00.001-08:00

Ryan's friend from work Sara, invited us to her son's 2nd Birthday party. It was a John Deere party and there was a house full of kids, all under the age of 8. Somehow there was no alcohol served at the party and we all survived. Liam and Tyler had so much fun!!
Gracie is so cute!! Ryan kept trying to trade her for Liam, but somehow it just wasn't working!

Tyler stuffing his face with cake!

Liam wasn't so sure when I started to hold Gracie!! He got a little jealous.

There is the birthday boy!!!!

More Soccer Class!!

2008-11-17T21:42:00.000-08:00

Ryan took our new camera to soccer class and figured out how to use the "action shot" feature and viola 130 pictures later, here are a few of the good ones!!

Package from Latimer Point

2008-11-16T22:13:00.000-08:00

The other day a package from Latimer Point showed up!! It contained all the wonderful Latimer Point items that one will need for the next beach season. The boys were especially happy to discover the beach balls. I have to say: Great- Grandma is very smart, you can tell she raised a bunch of kids herself....there was one ball with Tyler's name on it and one with Liam's name on it!!

Halloween Night!!

2008-11-16T21:48:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know I am pretty far behind on my blog, but I am trying to catch up. Here are the pics from Halloween night!!! Our pumpkins are lit!

Liam got tired of walking, so good thing we took the wagon along!!

Tyler and Liam knew exactly what to do when we got to each house, they would walk right up and Tyler would ring the doorbell and they would stand their waiting for candy.

We took the neighbor's with us and Tyler had so much fun running from house to house!

Liam was able to grab a piece of candy, of course, I would not open it for him, so he just sucked and sucked on the wrapper until he would able to tear the wrapper and get some candy out. That kid was so happy!

Intel Halloween Party

2008-11-10T21:40:00.000-08:00

Every year Intel has a nice Halloween party for the kids. This year it was a HUGE party!! There were over 400 people that showed up, mostly kids! Some of the costumes were really cool. I also added another post after the Haircuts post, so scroll down to see more pictures!!

Liam is reaching for food, of course! Tyler playing "golf" for candy. Liam kept stealing all the balls from the kids trying to play.

They had ALOT of candy there, but they also had apples, so good thing I grabbed one and let Liam walk around with it all night!

Master Yoda!!

Tyler and Liam won a cupcake from one of the games, that thing was gone is two seconds!! As soon as Tyler took it out of the box, Liam knew exactly what it was and wanted it immediately!!

Right when we walked into the party area there was this huge inflatable castle to greet us. Tyler and Liam were both amazed by it! By the end of the night Tyler figured out that he could "fight" the ghosts.

Haircuts!!!!!!!

2008-11-10T21:29:00.000-08:00

My mom was VERY brave, she took both Tyler and Liam at the same time and all by herself to get haircuts! She said something about them not listening...but I just told think she was chasing after then fast enough.

Thanks mom!! I have little boys again, instead of little girls!!

Halloween Prep

2008-11-08T19:32:00.000-08:00

Here we are getting ready for Halloween...the house is all decorated and the pumpkins are being carved.

Grammy's HERE!!!!

2008-11-08T19:19:00.001-08:00

My mom was just in town for a quick week long visit. Of course, the kids were spoiled and had tons of fun. It was pretty much like Christmas around here, since they kids had all these new toys to play with!! Here is Liam climbing up on the Lego storage box...little monkey!

Grammy was able to find a "light sabre" for part of Tyler's Halloween costume, of course, Ryan was able to modify it with a green LED light.

Tyler trying on his hockey pants!! I wonder if he will go ice skating now!

Look at that LONG hair!

Tyler with his WAX teeth!

Little Monkey that likes graham crackers

2008-10-25T23:03:00.000-07:00

So, after dinner one day, I was in the kitchen cleaning up and Tyler was at the table painting. Well, I guess Liam was really ticked that he couldn't play, so he pushed Tyler's booster seat up against the dining room chair and climbed onto the chair and then onto the top of the table.
Liam can also eat a whole box of graham crackers all by himself if you let him....here he has 3 of them in his hands and he was still whining that he didn't have enough.

I am going to have my hands full with this one!!!

Soccer class!!

2008-10-25T22:55:00.000-07:00

We enrolled Tyler in a soccer class for kids his age. It is pretty funny to watch this high school kid teach these 4, 5 and 6 year olds soccer. They pretty much just run around like crazy for 45 mins and that is fine with me!!

Liam even has lot of fun when there is a break in the action and he can kick the soccer ball.

Cute Kids!!!

2008-10-25T22:50:00.000-07:00

My babies!!!

Are we bad parents?

2008-10-25T22:48:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it just has to be done....please don't call Child Protective Services....

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-25T22:31:00.000-07:00

The weather has been great here!! So last weekend we took advantage of it and headed out to the pumpkin patch to pick out some winners! Things were pretty much picked over but Ryan found a couple of nice ones. Pictures of them carved following later (we still need to carve them!) Here are some good pics of the kids having fun and causing a bit of trouble.

Halloween at the Farmer's Market

2008-10-25T22:25:00.000-07:00

Sadly, it was the last regular market of the Season at the Beaverton Farmer's Market. Now we have to wait until the weekend before Thanksgiving for the harvest market and then it is REALLY over until May. Of course, I can always go downtown until the end of the year, but that is not as fun! Since it was the last market it was pretty fun, they had a special deal for the kids to dress up and go trick or treating. Tyler is "Master Yoda" this year, so he had lots of fun walking around!!

Hunting Time again!

2008-10-25T20:31:00.000-07:00

Looks like its been a while since we last posted, so here is a new one, not really about the kids though. This one is about my hunting trip. Every year I go out "hunting" (usually come home empty handed, but hey its hunting not catching!) Anyhow, my buddy and I drew two tags this year, 1 elk tag for later in January, and a Buck tag for October (gotta have head gear to shoot'em). Well a couple weeks ago my buddy and I packed up and headed out to the Oregon/Idaho border in an area called Hells Canyon where the Snake river makes the border. The driving trip out there was about 7 hours to the last town and another 2-3 hours driving dirt trails to get to our locations (some of the dirt trails looked more like goat trails). Only one casuallty was suffered, we slashed a tire driving across what seemed a boulder field, after that I hoped and prayed that we didn't get anymore flats as I was outta spares (mental note: take lots of Fix a Flat next year). Well we ended up camping in two areas, the first was about 6300 feet and lots of rain, wind and ice. A few days later we moved lower to sunny, warm, and dusty. Crazy stuff. As usual we came home empty handed, but....my thinks that I dont really hunt and dont even see deer, but just sit around and drink beer and whatnot. So this time we were able to shoot some deer.....with a camera..... to bring home the "proof of life" so to speak. We actually saw three herds of doe and fawns totalling about 20 deer, but couldnt find the daddy's anywhere around, stupid smart deer.

Here's the pics:

This is the view from the first area we went to and set up camp at. Beautiful but desolate country, and the terrain is pretty easy walking too....if you are a mountain goat!

This is some of the country and road that we had to drive to get to our second spot for our trip. I would love to have a cabin down there along the river. Very nice.

This is the second spot we settle on and set up camp right next to the river, a stones through across the river to the state of Idaho!

We didn't take our trailer due to some of the roads being very "non existent" so went fairly primitive this time. This is our cover shelter for cooking and kicking back, this particular design worked well and was rated I would estimate to about 25 mph of wind gusts. That is my orange sleeping dome in the back.

Hmm, well as you can see we now have a different design, as stated earlier, the previous design worked well .... for a bit, and then we had some crazy winds come through the canyon and pretty much destroy our wonderful design. This designe however I would conservatively estimate is rated to about 45 mph and it stood up well the rest of the trip, ohh well sometimes you have to make adjustments.

The small little hills in the background are actually about 3000 feet tall, we ended taking a little jaunt up the one you see behind the truck there, almost to the top, you know just for a little exercise and all. We were pretty much dead when we got up there, it definitely kicked our butts.

Some friends of ours we found along the way

Here they are again, alas no head gear on any of them though! Safe for another year

This was the best one yet, were able to get close enough with our friends to take pics with me and the deer, sick really sick, you dont know how mad I was. Just one, all I wanted was some horns on just one of those guys and it would've been in the back of the truck and into the freezer. This was my piece de resistance for Julie as my proof that I do see deer and go out hunting.

Well for the year I am 0/1, but still have an Elk tag for a January hunt so who knows, we may still get some meat this year.

Next post should be after Halloween.

Ryan

And a drum roll please!!!!

2008-09-11T20:52:00.001-07:00

Here are the during shots!!

Technically, I was incorrect when I said we are "getting rid" of the pink countertops. They are still there, but better stuff was laid over them! It is a pretty cool product, it is engineered granite and they just lay it right over the exisiting countertops. We have a pretty small kitchen so it took them about 7 hours to lay everything and 8-10 hours later you can dance on the countertops if you wanted to!!

AFTER!!! (I still need to replace the nasty mini blinds and put the trim back up around the window, but already 100 times better!

I love the new sink!!!

If you know anyone that wants to buy a newish faucet and old kitchen sink, please let me know!! We are trying to sell some of this stuff to have some $$-since we have none now.

Walk through the Rose Gardens

2008-09-10T22:05:00.000-07:00

The weather has been GREAT here in Portland and we have another great weekend on tap!! We have been taking advantage of this great weather (while also taking it easy) by checking out some of the local parks. Last Saturday we went to Washington Park again, but instead of visiting the huge play structure, we took a walk through the rose gardens. It is quite a beautiful place, with over 200 varieties of roses. It is just a neat place to walk through and admire the view of the city and the beautiful flowers. Liam and Tyler of course ran around like maniacs. I think they had lots of fun!

Here is Liam stuffing his face with some blueberries! (his favorite)

Here he is trying to get as many blueberries in his mouth as possible.
Tyler and Liam sharing the blueberries.
Tyler is giving his blueberries to Liam. He is such a good big brother!

Great view of the city. My camera isn't that great, but right behind that building in the center of the picture is Mt Hood.

I'm cute!!!

2008-09-10T22:02:00.000-07:00

And he knows it, too! Watch out, this kid is going to get away with EVERYTHING!!

Bye Bye Pink Countertops!!!

2008-09-10T21:45:00.000-07:00

FINALLY!!!

I never thought the day would come...I mean really, we had a house FULL of pink stuff, but slowly and surely the pink is disappearing from the house. Our latest pink victim is the kitchen countertops. The Asian lady that owned the house before us, was SOOOO proud of these countertops, I believe she told me in broken English that she tiled the countertops herself. Well, not as proud as I was to get rid of them....(I mean really, who picks out 2 x 2 light pink tiles?)

And the gross sink is gone too!!!

Here is a good BEFORE shot.

Now that I have you all excited...I haven't taken the AFTER shots, but it looks so much better....now I just need to get rid of the pink floor in the kitchen...I should have some AFTER shots by tomorrow. The kitchen is still a mess we haven't put anything back on the countertops.

Uncle Brent and Lisa tackle Portland....

2008-09-02T22:58:00.001-07:00

...and our kids pretty much tackled them. Although, somehow Brent still managed to escape changing a messy diaper...hmm stupid Uncle pact...

Brent and Lisa took Liam and Tyler to the park, of course they ran around like maniacs.

They tooled around Stumptown and took some pics. No, this is not the worlds largest weed...this is the world's smallest park. Pretty dumb, huh? I think it costs the taxpayers a few hundred thousand for upkeep. They should charge admission to visit the park.

Fun with the fountain...or just relaxing after a long day?
Brent and Lisa are brave...they took Tyler and Liam to Dairy Queen!!

More fun at the park!

Labor Day Camping!!

2008-09-02T22:33:00.001-07:00

Uncle Brent and his girlfriend were in town for a few days this weekend. We had camping plans and luckily Brent and Lisa were good sports and went with us!! (plus Lisa was a REALLY good bartender!!) Lets just say all had a good time on the mountain!

Brent and Ryan enjoying a beer by the fire!

On Saturday we hiked up to Lost Lake Butte. It is only a 2 mile hike, but it gains 1200 feet in elevation, so it brings you up to about 4500 feet. We left Tyler at the campsite with Uncle Brent and Ryan, Lisa, Liam, Alex (our friend's kid) went up. I carried Liam on my back with the baby carrier on the way up and I thought I was going to die...but the view was worth it!!

Liam and I with Mt Hood behind us (in the clouds)

Alex, Ryan, Me, Liam and Emmy!
Ryan and Liam taking a break at the top.Too bad Mt Hood was behind the clouds, if it was a clear day we would have had a very clear view!
On the way back down Liam would not go in the baby carrier, he screamed, so I had to carry him in my arms on the way down....baby was on the back on the way up and baby was in my arms on way down...lets just say I was sore the very next day!

As always, Tyler had lots of fun!! Here he is on a short hike from our campsite to the Lake. He went everywhere with his "walking stick".

Tyler stacking the wood for the fire. Ryan, Brent and our friend Doug built that fire pit...it worked pretty good!
Ryan and Doug shaving the pitchwood for the roaring fire!
Liam exploring everything!
Uncle Brent is teaching Liam "hook 'em" horns! I don't think he is so sure of all that yet!

New Roof!!!

2008-09-02T22:25:00.000-07:00

A few months ago our neighbor was doing some home improvements....he replaced his window coverings, bought a new stove, painted his living room, got new carpet...and got a bid on a new roof. He "challenged" us to a game of who can spend $20,000 the fastest!

Well...after the new kitchen countertops come in next week.... WE WIN....

Check out the new roof!!

Happy 4th Birthday Tyler!!

2008-08-11T23:06:00.000-07:00

Ty turned 4 today!! He was so happy, he kept saying that he is 4 today!! All in all it was a pretty good day. He went to school and told everyone about CT and all the Lobster that he ate!

Ryan got Tyler more Star Wars legos...I am not sure who was happier.. Ryan or Tyler!
Tyler wanted to play baseball, like the Yankees!! So we had a mini batting practice in our backyard. Ty did pretty good!

Lobster DAY!!!!

2008-08-10T22:18:00.000-07:00

We made it back home safe from CT!! And I do not even know where to begin, I have so many pics... I'll start with a little bit of lobster day first! For those of you that are non-Meehan....Lobster Day has evolved into an annual family reunion to celebrate my Grandfather's birthday. I believe it was my cousin Kathryn that coined the phrase "National Lobster Day". Why do we call it lobster day?? Well, there are always a literal TON of lobsters...Ryan and I each ate 2 1/2 lobsters...body included. I believe we had some other food there, but all I ate was Lobster, clam fritters and stuffed clams...I wanted a devil dog, but those puppy's were GONE in 2 seconds. The closest I got to a devil dog was watching my brother get a 1/2 eaten one. Good thing I have the recipe!

This year 13 of my 14 first cousins were there. Of course, I didn't realize it at the time, I guess someone should have taken a picture or something, it was good to see everyone!

I do have to give a huge shout-out to my Cousin Kathryn, she worked her butt off to help Gram get everything ready for Lobster day. Thanks Kathryn!!

Liam had so much fun, too. He didn't have any lobster quite yet, but he still ate everything else! Luckily there were a bunch of second cousin's there. He had fun playing with his cousin Sean that is a just a few days younger than him!
All the kids had so much fun with the golf cart. At one point, there were like 7 kids under the age of 7, screaming at the top of their lungs...."WE WANT THE KEYS...WE WANT THE KEYS!!". Luckily, one of the older cousins was nice enough to take them around in the golf cart, like a 100 times..at least we got to eat in peace for a few minutes!! 1/2 the time I had no idea where my kids were, it was pretty cool!

Tyler in his Lobster shirt!!

Liam in his Lobster shirt! Happy 85th Birthday, Grandpa! (Actually it is a little early this year, Gram moved Lobster day up a week for the Canady's!) Nice Lobster rug!

Liam being cute during a passing thunderstorm! Kids eating!!

Liam is checking out the lobsters!

More to come over the next few days...I'll get all caught up soon!

Dinner Menu for the week!

2008-07-28T23:29:00.000-07:00

'Nuff Said.....

Grandpa....the kids are ready for the boat!!!

Bird Attacks Tyler...at the Zoo

2008-07-28T23:10:00.001-07:00

On Sunday we went to the zoo...We all went into the parrot enclosure and if you pay $1, you can let the birds drink juice out of a cup. As soon as we got in, Ryan had a bird come right to him, then Tyler approached the bird and I think the bird got scared because it flew and hit Tyler right in the FACE! Tyler was OK, but he cried of course, he was pretty scared...once we got settled in a bit the birds starting coming right to Tyler.

Liam had so much fun! I think he would have walked the entire zoo if we let him. In the areas that weren't crowded we would let him out of his stroller and he loved to walk up to each area.

At lunch time we were able to catch a bird show and it was pretty cool. They had the audience sit on the lawn and they had eagles and hawks fly right over your head. The really cool thing was they had a bald eagle fly right over head. It was pretty amazing. The bird had a wing span of 8 feet!!

Party at the Park..Saturday

2008-07-28T23:03:00.001-07:00

The weekend is supposed to be restful and relaxing...WHAT? Not when you have two kids with unlimited amounts of energy. We spent the day on Saturday at "The Party in the Park". It is at our local Park & Rec district facility. There was a car show...big boucing things, music and a bunch of other things. We went for a few hours. Liam had fun with the balloon and Tyler had fun looking at the cars and jumping!

The big rocket ship was BIG It was about 40 feet high and Tyler and Ryan waited in line for 1/2 hour to go down the slide. Ryan said that as soon as Tyler got to the top he just went right down the slide, he didn't even wait for Ryan. He was pretty happy!!

What a beautiful day on Wisteria Place!!!

2008-07-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

We awoke on Thursday morning and what a beautiful day!! The skies were a gorgeous blue. The air was crisp and dry. The birds were singing, just a beautiful day...then I look out my window and see something...

Looks like we have been professionally T.P.'ed!!!

Even our neighbor's house was hit hard, but not as hard as ours!!

Ok, so here's the story. So, across the street from us we have a couple of teenage girls, Lexi and Hailey. They are pretty cool girls and Ryan and our neighbor Marty give them a hard time every once in a while. Plus, about 4-5 times a year their trees get T.P.'ed. A few months ago, Ryan fixed their computer or something and when he came out to go to work that morning, they had written "geek squad" on his car window. The other night it was pretty hot out so we were hanging around outside with our neighbors. We might have been doing a little bit of drinking (just a little). And someone came up with the idea to saran wrap Lexi's car. After we saran wrapped it, we TP'ed it. Right as we were putting the finishing touches on the car, her dad pulls up. Luckily he is a pretty cool guy (he might have been doing some drinking, too) and he tells us that she is camping for the next 5 days....so we wait. She comes home, thinks its funny and tells us to watch out...well I guess she got us, because I think she used 20 rolls of TP, plus the sprinklers came on that night so there was wet TP everywhere!!
Poor Ryan he had to pick it all up!
So now the ball is in Ryan's court and he wants to get her back....GET READY!!!

Just Peachy!!

2008-07-20T18:58:00.000-07:00

Sunday was another great day! The weather was a little more to my liking at 87 degrees!! The boys had fun playing outside in the pool.

Liam has a bunch more teeth coming in because the mouth is really bothering him. The only thing that makes him happy is eating a peach, nectarine or watermelon slice. Luckily, it was the first week of peaches at the Baird Farm stand at the farmers market, so I loaded up on the good stuff.

Liam attacked the peach like it was his last meal. There was certain hell to pay if anyone tried to pry that peach out of his hands. Once he ate it all the way down to the pit I had to pry it out of his hand and he threw a huge fit.

I have to give a shout-out to Ryan for this weekend....he is recovering nicely from his back issues and got more stuff done on Saturday than he has gotten done in the last 2 weeks! He helped me clean the garage, he put the camper back in the garage (it has been sitting on the street since March) and he mowed and weed wacked the lawn. I love you, babe!

While we were cleaning out the garage, I took our suitcases down from the attic for our trip to CT!! Only a few more days left. Of course with everything going on right now, I want to leave right now...Tyler is really excited, he can't wait to eat a bunch of lobster (honestly, either can I) I have rounded up a few bottles of wine and read up on the lastest TSA regulations for what you can bring on the plane, so we are all set to go!! I hope CT is ready for these ORE-Y-GON boys!!!

Washington Park

2008-07-20T17:54:00.000-07:00

Saturday started out with our May-October weekly ritual of the farmers market. I bought about $40 worth of fruit! Tyler wanted a little something of everything. All the blueberries that we bought are almost gone, those two kids can eat some blueberries! The weather was pretty chilly in the morning, so Tyler didn't go running in the water fountain like he normal does.

After nap time we went to Washington Park. It is a huge park about 8 miles from our house. The Oregon Zoo is at Washington Park and we have been to the zoo many times, but we have never been to the rest of the park, which is about 400 acres all in all. One of Ryan's friends told us about a huge playstructure at Washington park, so we decided to head out there on Saturday since the weather was just about perfect. (I thought it got a bit chilly, but Ryan said it was perfect!). I tried to get a picture of Tyler, but he was just too fast, he didn't stop running the entire time we were there. Liam was practically running around the park also!

After the kids ran around like maniacs for about 1 1/2 hours we went to get some dinner. We stopped at 3 restaurants and all had a HUGE wait!! After an hour of driving and finding parking, we almost went home to eat cereal, but then we remembered our old trusty standby...the buffet! As always Tyler sat with his butt firmly in his seat and ate all sorts of stuff. Liam did really good too, he ate just about everything I put in front of him...You gotta love the buffett when you have kids under the age of 6!!!!

More of Liam's Birthday pics...

2008-07-20T17:40:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are more of Liam's birthday pics. he loved the ice cream cake that Ryan made from him. Of course his tummy didn't like it later....all the sugar gave him some "poop" issues....

Happy Birthday Liam!!!!

2008-07-13T23:36:00.000-07:00

Here is our little bundle of joy on Friday 7/13/07

And here he is our walking monster 1 year later almost to the minute...

More Pics to come, but those of you that can't wait....check out the video of him walking. He does more walking than crawling these days!

You asked for it...

2008-07-08T21:56:00.000-07:00

Ok, Ok, so I am way behind on my posts, but what else is new? The job is keeping me busy and Ryan has been pretty busy too, although he isn't in school anymore...hmmm...

Anyway, we went camping over 4th of July weekend. It was fun! The weather was good, not too hot, but no rain!!

Here is a pic of Tyler running around with his"light-saber" that Ryan made for him!

Liam had so much fun camping! I am not sure, which kid has more fun, Tyler or Liam!

Liam eating dirt!
Liam up against a fallen tree in the campsite!

Tyler by the Clackamas River, the river was WAY too cold!! But the dogs had fun and Tyler loved throwing rocks in the river!
Tyler in a hammock.
Tyler and Liam playing in the pool in the backyard.

All my handsome men after their haircuts!

Look!!! Tyler isn't crying!!!! He usually screams up a storm and it is pretty embarassing, but this time he promised that he wouldn't cry and he didn't!!

He almost cried, but he held it together!

Tyler wanted it sit in the motorcycle like his Uncle Mike!!

Look at that Handsome boy!

Liam loved to play with all the toys at the hair cut place!

Liam did great with his haircut! He didn't cry at all!!

CRAZY HAIR before the haircut!

Before!

Liam loves to play outside, he does a good job walking outside!

A couple of weeks ago, Ryan set up a tent outside and him and Tyler slept outside the entire night in the tent. Of course, Tyler didn't go to sleep until after 10pm, but he had so much fun!! Ryan is going to take him backpacking in a couple of weeks.

Ryan was testing out his new gear in the backyard!

Since Tyler has been so into dinosaurs, we are lucky that all the museums and the zoo have dinosaur exhibits....We took Ty and Liam to the zoo for the dinosaur exhibit and he wasn't sure what to make of it, the dinosaurs were very big and very loud!!! At the end of the dinosaur exhibit there was a slide and Tyler went down it about 10 times!!

The big T-Rex, it was a robotic T-Rex, so it moved pretty fast and made a very loud roar!! Tyler was pretty shocked until he got used to it!

Here is some cute video of Tyler and Liam sharing ice cream!

Video???

2008-06-15T17:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have messed around and messed around with this video...I know that I was able to rotate it once, but I can't figure out how to do it again....so just tilt your head to the left and ENJOY!!

The first video was taken about 1 month ago, the 2nd video is so cute and it was taken on Friday.

Jobs...jobs...jobs...change!!

2008-06-15T17:27:00.000-07:00

Liam "posing for the camera"
More poses...what a ham!!!!

Tree-hugger!
Tyler is pretty hard to get a picture of these days, that kid is fast and doesn't sit still at all!!!

Tyler having fun at a party!!

Liam is almost a computer tech!
Liam liked the swing!!

Ok some random stuff! Of course, the big news was Ryan's graduation!! YEAH after 7 years, I don't think either of us really think he is done. It will be short lived because he is off to grad school soon!

Luckily Ryan got another job offer with Intel, right in his same area, just as a Engineer! So, unlike me he will be using his degree. He is just waiting on some details before all that is official, but if everything goes through, it will be a Monday-Friday 8-5 type job, so we might even be able to have a normal life.

With all the excitement with Ryan...I actually have had quite a bit of excitement with my career. I quit my job at Emerald Staffing after 5 1/2 years to accept an offer at Leonard Adams Insurance to be the Assistant to the Commercial Lines Manager. I am hoping it is a good career move for me. The company is bigger and it is a new industry! I will be doing all their Human Resources and general management there, of course that is all after I learn to speak insurance! I start my new job on Monday! So wish me luck!

My friend at work had a going away party for me on Friday, so alot of the above pics are from that! Tyler and Liam had so much fun!!

Ryan Graduated!!!

2008-06-14T16:27:00.000-07:00

After 7 LONG years!! Ryan graduated on Friday! Of course it isn't "really" official yet because PSU mails the diploma's out (stupid-I know). But at least he went to the ceremony and his name was on the program as a graduate, so I am feeling pretty confident that he finished!

I tried to take some pictures but the lighting was horrible! You would think that for the commencement ceremony for the Electrical Engineering department that they would at least figure out how to use some lights, but I guess some things just aren't meant to be!

Enjoy the few pics and Congrats to RYAN!!!

Busy Busy Busy...

2008-05-28T22:37:00.000-07:00

These last three weeks have been pretty busy!! Ryan's mom came out for Mother's Day weekend. We had a great time! The boys had so much fun with her. Ryan took us out to an amazing brunch at one of the nice hotel's downtown...we had Salmon, Ahi, Oysters, cheeses and all sorts of fruit. Plus the dessert area was amazing (I think that was Tyler's favorite part!)

We had to get a new washer recently, our old one was making this awful noise and Ryan was sure that it would go out at any moment, so sure enough, after almost 10 years of marriage, my husband committed an unspeakable act and got me a washing machine for Mother's day. I'm a lucky gal...what can I say! Liam loves the washer, he loves to watch the clothes go around!

Here he is at 10 months old! I almost forgot to take pictures that day, so this was right before bedtime! He still has some "crazy hair"!

The weekend after Mother's Day, I went up to Mt Hood for a company retreat. (yeah, fancy word for party). My boss has a 6000 sq ft "cabin" in Government Camp, there is still so much snow there. At his house there was literally 20 feet of snow piled up on the side of the house. It was really wierd because it was about 85 degrees out and 20 feet of snow...here are some scenery shots.

Last weekend, Memorial Day, we took our annual camping trip to Lake Billy Chinook in Central Oregon. Tyler had so much fun, he really loves camping!

Tyler did a good job sitting by the fire with the other kids! That kid can eat some marshmallows!

Here is Liam in "jail". He didn't like to spend any time in his playpen, he had much more fun out crawling and walking around! Speaking of walking...he can take 2-3 steps here and there on his own and every day he seems to be getting better! I am pretty sure that he will be walking no problem by summer! Look out Connecticut!

Tyler and the dogs in the dog park!

Liam loves to hang out in the hammock, he would pull the flaps over himself and play peek-a-boo!

After we got back from Camping, Liam discovered the quad. Ryan caught him standing on the seat area! FUTURE STUNTER??

Other than being super busy, the kids are doing well! Tyler is really into Star Wars, Ryan has these legos that he let Tyler play with and then one day we let him watch the movies....big mistake...all he does is talk about Star Wars. Yesterday he asked me for a Yoda costume for Halloween....oh man, he is all boy!

I am going to try and attach some video of Liam walking.

3rd Generation Submariner??

2008-05-10T09:23:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't know about that...(Tyler isn't so silent!!!), but Tyler sure had fun all over the submarine at the museum. He is finally old enough to go on the sub so Ryan took him on Friday. Ryan said he tried to play it cool on tour, like he was just another tourist, but he said that somehow it slipped that he was on a sub before and of course the tour guide was full of questions!! Liam and Ryan's mom hung out at the baby section of the museum...sorry Liam you have about 3 more years before you can go on the sub!!!

Winter Camping in April!

2008-04-24T19:16:00.000-07:00

It warmed up a bit and a lot of the snow melted, there was still some cloud cover but not a half bad day after all. It was very pretty up where we were.

We also brought along indoor activities since we knew it might be cold, so here is Liam doing his new favorite thing, standing up! He likes to stand up and play on this play table and we put it up on one of the bunks for him to play with, Think he is having fun? I cant really tell!!!

Liam found a water bottle that became his new favortite toy for the day, he was obviously very happy with it.

Tyler went out for a bit to play in the snow and ended up throwing snow at Emmy who just tried to eat it. Tyler loves camping and has a ton of fun regardless of weather.

Our Modest campsite. Everyone else there was in full on travel trailers and fifth wheels, they must have thought we were crazy for being out there in tent trailer. I have extra insulation that I installed though for colder weather and we had an extra space heater that we brought along, it actually stayed pretty warm inside, a littel cramped with two kids, two parent, and a dog but we had fun none the less!

Saturday morning this is what we woke up to, very pretty but a little on the cold side.

Snow in April! And we went camping in it! Crazy peoples from OryGun!

I am writing this instead of Julie so bear with me this time. We recently had a new State Park (Stub Stewart) open here in Oregon (about 35 minutes from home), so we decided to get the trailer out and take a weekend trip to celebrate my sabbatical starting. We were supposed to go with some friends but they heard it was going to be cold and wussed out on us, I said "Its April, it wont be that cold, we are still going!" Well the day we were leaving we heard it might snow, good thing I had taken measures to add extra insulation to the trailer for colder weather camping (and hunting!). Anyhow, I picked Tyler up from school early and him and I took the trailer and got it all set up and then drove back to pick up Mom and Liam. We had cooked dinner before hand (great idea Hon!) and I was just building a fire when this crazy white stuff started coming down! Needless to say it didnt stop and we woke up to about 3" of snow in the campground. We had two heaters though so we stayed warm inside.

Walking?? Soon??

2008-04-13T22:54:00.002-07:00

9 months old today!!

We stopped by a vineyard after the knife show in Eugene, there was an awesome view of the mountains, wow, there is a ton of snow out there still!

Tyler and Liam after our picnic lunch at the knife show!

Well, Liam has his sights set on walking, now that he has the crawling thing down he has no interest in crawling. He spent most of the day today pulling himself up into a standing position. I found him standing on the kitchen chairs, the dog's food dish stand, Tyler's step stool and all of his toys...He was only happy when he was standing or walking today.

Oh boy, what am I going to do?

I have some video to load up, I should have it up by tomorrow, since my laptop won't load video...

Video!!!

2008-04-09T19:16:00.000-07:00

I had some computer glitches with my laptop...but I figured it out, so I was finally able to upload the video to Blogger. Enjoy!

We have movement!!

2008-04-08T21:18:00.000-07:00

Liam is completely on the move!! He crawls all over the place and he has his sights set on walking. As of last night he started pulling himself up with my help into a standing position. He held onto his activity center and walked along side of it. Tyler didn't even crawl until he was 13 months old....so I have this 8 month old that is showing signs on walking...what am I going to do!!?

It was pretty exciting tonight, I was on the phone with my mom and she was asking if Liam can put himself into the sitting position and I told her that he tries, but he can't yet and then like 30 seconds later he did it! He was crawling and then pulled himself into the sitting the position! It was crazy!!

Here is Liam doing a headstand. I have no idea what he is doing, but he loves to do this!! Last nigh was hairdo night in the bath!! Doesn't he look super-handsome?!?!

Look at my teeth (and my messy face!)

Mohawk!! Am I going to be a rockstar? (he has the screaming down, just right!!)
Look at those beautiful blue eyes and the crazy, finger in a light socket hair!

Stay tuned, we have a crazy several weeks coming up!! This weekend, we are headed down to Eugene for the annual knife show (Ryan likes to check these things out), then we are headed to a vineyard to check out some wine we have never had before. The weekend of April 19th we are going camping (hopefully the weather will be warm!!). Then Ryan's mom is coming in May for Mother's day and lastly, back to back camping weekends in May.....It is a good thing that Ryan gets to start his sabbatical for work next week (8 weeks paid OFF!!) He really needs it to focus on school!!!

Liam Update!!

2008-03-26T23:41:00.000-07:00

I was so excited about getting all caught up on the blog that I completely forgot about the Liam news.

He finally has TWO teeth! Both of his bottom teeth came in on St. Patrick's Day (of course!!). We all had some sleepless nights the week before his teeth came in, but now all seems to be fine!

Also, the other big news, he just about has the hang of crawling. He was crawling all over my bedroom tonight. He would take a few little crawls and then fall on his stomach and then take a few more crawls and fall on his stomach....he had a HUGE smile on his face the whole time. I'll try and get some pictures or video tomorrow.

Blog Catch Up!!

2008-03-24T22:35:00.000-07:00

Wow, we have alot going on in the Canady household, here is a quick catch up!!!

After Grammy left, Tyler and Liam were both actually really good. Tyler got all his stickers at school the next day and overall really good!!

Tyler went to a birthday party for his friend Conner. They had the party at this place called "Pump it Up", where they have all inflatable bouncy, jumpy things. As you can see from the pictures he went nuts. I felt bad for Liam, he really wanted to get out there and play with the kids.

Here he is going down the slide!!

Aw, Amelia is giving him a big kiss!!

Here is Liam on his 8-month birthday!! His hair is crazy and he sits up so well right now. Of course he is still drooling a ton!

Tyler and Liam in the bathtub!! Tyler likes to share his toys in the tub!

Look at the handsome boy!! He looks so much different once I tamed the crazy hair!

He looks like a completely different boy!!

We went to Claim Jumper last Thursday. The kids had so much FUN! It is new chain here in Portland, so after a few tries, we finally went when it wasn't so crowded. They are really a good restaurant for the kids, they brought out a free dish of finger food for the baby, he didn't like it so much, but it was pretty neat. The food was crazy and there was so much of it!!

Liam kept trying to grab our food!!

EASTER!!!

And somehow the fun never ends here! Ryan is on Spring Break and he took the week off of work as well, so he is tiling the Master Bathroom, he is one day into the project and I think he is majorly regretting it! Also, we got a bid for new granite counter tops, so we are going to get those, so no more PINK counter tops!!! We also got a bid to replace the pink counter tops in the kitchen, but we will wait until summer to see about that! Pretty soon I might have a master bath that is sort of in this decade and not 1987! More pics to follow!

Random Pics....

2008-03-04T18:52:00.000-08:00

Grammy is leaving tomorrow and the boys are going to be very sad!! Tyler has been spoiled with toys and everything he wants and Liam has been held nonstop!!! I feel sorry for the teachers at school tomorrow!!

GRAMMY'S HERE!!!

2008-03-02T08:16:00.000-08:00

And, of course the boys are being spoiled beyond belief!! But we wouldn't have it any other way! Both Tyler and Liam and being very good for Grammy. I tried to take Tyler one last time to go swimming for Grammy, but he wouldn't even get near the pool. He has turned into a big chicken since Liam was born, he used to be such a daredevil! I think next round of classes, I am going to take Liam on a "Baby and Me" class to see what Tyler thinks of that!
Here is Tyler getting his haircut...again, one of the things that he is deathly afraid of since Liam was born. He used to do OK getting his haircut but now we have to hold him down. He yelled and screamed soooooo loud. By the way, he was the only kid that yelled and screamed...yeah embarassing!!!

Here are just some random pictures over the past couple of weeks!

Here is a "Neat trick" that Grammy taught Liam, he can't pull himself up on his own yet, but he sure LOVED to stand there!! We are still waiting for crawling to happen and his first tooth, but I am confident that both will happen any day now!!

More pics soon!!

Long Overdue Post!!

2008-02-07T19:15:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know, I am pretty behind already on my blogging...but it has been a crazy week. The stomach flu has been going around, first Liam had it, then I had it, then Ryan had it (he got it the worst) then Liam again and then Tyler a little bit. Needless to say it has been a LONG week. On top of all that two girls in my office quit and left us in a lurch, so I've been working like crazy just to keep up!

Liam has really been enjoying his activity center....he loves to grab onto all the toys and spin around. Plus, he just loves to stand up, because he can see everything that his big brother is doing. He is learning lots of bad habits, already!! He is still working on crawling, he can now pull himself up on his hands and knees and lift his head up like he is about ready to take off....watch out!

On Saturday when I was sick, Tyler and Ryan went out for "Boys Night Out". They went to Red Robin for dinner and then OMSI to see the dinosaur bones and then to Cold Stone for ice cream. Tyler had lots of fun and of course, we are still on dinosaur overload.

Ryan bought Tyler another floor puzzle at OMSI and of course Tyler put it together in no time flat. He is good with the puzzles.

This is a picture of when Liam was sick last week, all he wanted to do was hang out in his Johnny Jumper! He just loves to bounce, bounce, bounce, but when he is done he lets you know RIGHT Away!!

We didn't make it to Tyler's swim class last weekend because I was sick, so hopefully he will go in the water this Saturday. I had to bribe him, they have a snack machine in the lobby and I told him that pick any snack he wants if he goes swimming for the entire class. Lets see what happens.

SNOW DAY!!! (actually 2 hours)

2008-01-28T21:53:00.000-08:00

The snow finally came today! We had about 1 inch and of course that completely shut everything down for about 2 hours. By 11am the roads were dry and the sun was shining. So luckily before school, Tyler was able to get out and play. I think he lasted exactly 8 minutes! He had his snow boots, snow pants and snow gloves. The weather people are predicting another snow event for tomorrow AM. Tyler would be VERY happy with that.

Liam is on the move. This morning while we were getting ready to go, Liam rolled all over the place. He is working on crawling. He gets himself in this position, but he can't quite get his head up. He creeps forward and they said at school today he was really trying to crawl. Just my luck he will be crawling at the end of the week! I am not ready for this, especially since Tyler didn't crawl until he was 13 months old!

Tyler loves to work on this dinosaur puzzle that his Nana got him for Christmas. Ryan and I worked on it with him a few times, but now he puts it together all by himself! Liam can't wait to help out his big brother.

Liam had his 6 month Dr visit on Friday and he is still tracking bigger than Tyler. He is 27 1/4 inches long and weighs over 17 lbs.

Ryan's birthday is tomorrow! He has to work and go to school, so it is just another day for him! He'll leave the house about 6am and if he is lucky, he will get home about 9pm. Wish him a Happy Birthday! I think he will like it!

Lumberjax!!!

2008-01-24T23:00:00.000-08:00

I got to go to the Lumberjax game with a friend. Yes, I have to settle for the Lumberjax, since we do not have professional hockey here in Portland. Professional Lacrosse is actually pretty cool! They play about 12 games a year, usually on the weekends and the price is right! Ryan and his friend split our season tickets this year, but since neither of them can go, I got to go to the game with a friend! They lost in OT and there weren't any major fights, but lots of action!

Tyler and Liam stayed home with a babysitter and they were both pretty good. Liam fell asleep with out me! He got me back though, because he was up at midnight and at 5am. Little brat!

Brrrrrr...

2008-01-22T18:36:00.000-08:00

I have been saying all day that it is Connecticut cold out!! It very rarely gets below freezing here and we are headed into our third day of below freezing temps...they even used the phrase "Wind Chill", that is something that you only hear a handful of times a year here. Maybe we will get some snow over the weekend, so Tyler can have fun and play!

DINO ATTACK IN PORTLAND!!

2008-01-20T22:24:00.000-08:00

Ryan took Tyler to "Walking with Dinosaurs" at the Rose Garden. It is a pretty neat event, you actually do not get to walk with the dinos... but you get to sit in your seat and watch the lifesized dinos walk around the stage. Ryan said it was pretty loud! I had to stay home with Liam, so I missed the whole thing. Ryan said that Tyler did good, he wasn't scared at all and stayed in his seat pretty much the whole time.

Check out the Video that someone posted on You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_9GnP-lhaY

The Dino parade continues. OMSI (Science Museum) has an exhibit starting in Feb and the Zoo has robotic Dino's starting in May...good thing the kid likes Dinos.

Swim 101

2008-01-20T22:13:00.000-08:00

Well, Tyler went to swim class on Saturday. We were running a couple of minutes late, so Ryan quickly got him to the pool area when all the other kids were already in the pool. Tyler hesitated a second then got right in.

The set up was pretty neat...I enrolled him in a class for pre-schoolers that can't yet swim, basically just a get used to the water type class. It is a regular pool, the water is up to the chest on an adult, but they had these submerged platforms for the kids to stand on. Tyler got right in and had a HUGE smile on his face, he took a few steps and stepped right off the edge! He went underwater and the teacher grabbed him and put him back on the step. I thought for sure that was it, but he was fine. He was fine until about 20 mins into the class and he started crying and freaking out! He stayed in the water for 29 of the 30 minutes of class, so he did good. The poor kid was so cold when I finally pulled him out of the pool, I think he just got himself worked up.

The picture is hard to see, so that is Tyler with the teacher and the red kickboard.

Buffet Palace

2008-01-18T21:55:00.000-08:00

We went to Buffet Palace tonight for Dinner. It was our only night of the week to eat dinner as a family since Ryan has school or work every other night, so it was fun to go out!

Tyler loves the Buffet Palace as soon as I asked him if he wanted to go, he ran and got his shoes and coat on all by himself....hmmm....he usually plays the helpless act every other time, but you say "Buffet" and he was ready to go in 2 minutes! He likes to eat the "beans", (Edamame), Fruit (he ate so much fruit) and he played with some crab legs! Plus he got to eat for free, so the price is right. Liam just like checking everything out, he was a good boy, too.

No pics tonight...Tyler goes for his first solo swim lesson tomorrow. I wonder if he will get into the water all by himself. I think you can do a poll on Blogger...maybe I'll try to figure it out.
Stay tuned because we have an action packed weekend ahead!

Emmy loves me!!!

2008-01-15T22:50:00.000-08:00

As much of a pain in the ass that Emmy is, she is really good with the kids. Ryan seems to remind me on a daily basis that if Emmy wasn't good with the kids that she would be gone.

Now, would you believe that this sweet, loving dog barks ALL day and jumps out of her 7 foot kennel and over the 6 foot fence?

We had a little weather action this AM in Portland. We had snow FLURRIES and tiny bit of ice. Of course that was cause for massive school closures and a 2 hour delay here in Beaverton. Luckily for me Ryan called in sick to work so he took the kids to school so I could get to work on time. Of course Ryan didn't think he was so lucky, he was pretty sick today. And had to deal with two small children until 9am. I got home from work and cooked him dinner, I think he will survive. I just hope that I don't get sick now.

Dinosaur Wars

2008-01-13T19:47:00.000-08:00

Tyler had fun this weekend with his dinosaurs! Check out the video, they both make tons of noise and roar and growl, he likes to terrorize the dog with these, also! It is pretty funny! Thank you Uncle Brent and Santa for the superloud dinos!

Liam turned 6 months old on Sunday! Before you know it, I will sending him off to college!

Tyler was demanding that I take a picture of him, too! Here he is with his best "CHEESE" face! He is holding a stuffed puppy in his hands! He won't go anywhere without "puppy". Puppy comes to dinner, goes to bed, watches him take a bath. Tyler won puppy at a reading contest at school. I wonder what life was like pre-puppy, because with puppy it is an all consuming keeping track of puppy all day long!

More fighting Dino's...sorry a bit out of sequence.

There is a bad cold going around and Ryan and I are starting to get sick already...so hold on tight, there might not be much posting this week. So far, the boys are OK, lets hope it stays that way!

Enjoy the video!!

Minor Glitches Fixed

2008-01-09T21:38:00.000-08:00

OK Day 2 we are still here! I am still learning all the features, so Ryan fixed some of the minor glitches, anyone can now leave comments. I still haven't figured out why some of you (my mom) can't view the video, but I have been able to view no problem..

Anywhere here are some pics from today.

Tyler was a little brat, he didn't take a nap at school today. They took him outside and had him run laps around the cul-de-sac instead!

Liam flirted with all the girls and ate, of course!! I put him on the scale and he weighs about 18lbs. Maybe he will sleep through the night...haha..yeah right!

Welcome to Insane Chaos!!

2008-01-08T19:10:00.000-08:00

I admit it! I don't know what I am doing or why I am doing this...I really don't have time to start a blog project like this, but what the heck. I am inspired by my cousin Maegen and her husband, Jay. See, they emailed me one day to say that they have this little blog. Actually, I think the exact email was "Jay and I are sort of dorks and we have a blog" I started to read it and I thought, what a GREAT idea. I guess I am a dork, too! Anyway....1 month later and I am totally addicted to their blog! It dawned on me last night, I should do a blog for the boys, so everyone can check in on them. I realize that we are so far away from family and it is hard on everyone. Also, I do not send out pictures and video enough (yes Mom, I know). So, I hope this will be a quick and easy way for me to take a few moments a few times a week to post some pictures and to give everyone an idea of what is going on!! ENJOY!