Halloween

I had to start off this post with a picture of Calvin taken on Halloween at the trunk-or-treat. As you can see, he is dressed up as the cutest baby ever.

Next, we have Hallie and Ashley who have just come back from trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. I told Hallie this would be her last year of trick-or-treating, so she had to spend it with Ashley.

Cooper decided to go as Darth Vader, but would not wear the mask because it is Haden's mask. I tried to convince him that it was okay to borrow the mask to go with his costume, but he insisted he could not wear it. At least he had his new red light saber.

A couple weeks before Halloween, Lexie came home from school talking about Egypt and mummies, so when I saw this costume in Walmart, it seemed fitting. Plus, we have family in Egypt right now, so it seems appropriate that she was Cleopatra for Halloween.

Haden, as you can see, is thrilled that I am taking his picture as Obi Won Kinobi. He really wanted to be Indiana Jones, but the costume that I ordered never came, so this is what I found at Target. I think he was pretty happy to be Obi Won.

We spent Halloween afternoon carving our pumpkins. We were able to get some good sized pumpkins this year and Jim decided he wanted to carve a Calvin pumpkin. He spent a good 2 hours working on this pumpkin and it was awesome. I wish we could have preserved it somehow.

I forgot to rotate these next 3 pictures before uploading them, so here are the pumpkins all lit up and sideways. ;-)

This is Cooper's pumpkin that I carved. He really wanted Darth Maul. I was impressed that it really does look like him. I also carved a Chewbacca pumpkin for Lexie, but she set it all the way on the edge of the front porch and the wind knocked it over and broke the pumpkin. I was sad because it was really cool. I should have taken a picture of it before she took it outside.

Haden carved this one all by himself and he also designed it. He just wanted to do a face and I think he came up with a pretty cute face.

Halloween was great this year. We had really warm weather which made it much more enjoyable for the kids. Even Cooper made it all the way around the block without complaining about being tired.

I have to go back in time to Cooper's birthday for a minute. The kids have been making special cards for each other when their birthdays come up and it's fun to see how creative they can be. This one just totally cracked me up. Kenedy made this one for Cooper and it's not super clear, but she has drawn a picture of Cooper dressed up as Indiana Jones--or what he dresses up like when he's trying to be Indiana Jones. He's always in just his underwear, has a sombrero on and is holding this sad little portion of his blanket that he uses as a whip. It's pretty funny.

Haden also made a card for Cooper, but the funny part wasn't the picture, it was what he wrote. He wrote: Dear Cooper, You are the best brother ever! You may someday end up breaking my arm, but you're still awesome. You're crazy for Indiana Jones and Star Wars. You break my legos and you are the best wrestler ever. You are totally cool. From Haden This is classic Haden. He is so clever and funny and I really do think that Cooper may break Haden's arm someday.

Here are my two beautiful girls who sang The National Anthem at their Veteran's Day assembly at school yesterday. I tried to film it, but I had Cooper and Calvin with me and I couldn't get close enough to hear them very well and Cooper wouldn't be quiet. They did a wonderful job. They are great friends and I'm just so very proud of them.

I had to end with some cute pictures of Calvin. He is such a sweet boy and growing up fast. I think he held this position just below for about 5 minutes this morning and I just had to take a picture.

Jim and I have been taking tennis lessons on Friday nights and we leave Calvin with Kenedy and Hallie so we can do this. This is how we found him when we got home. Apparently he had been quite cranky, so Kenedy set him on the couch next to her and he eventually went to sleep. So cute.

I had to take this picture because Calvin will sometimes just bring the blanket or burp cloth up over his face and just let it sit there. Sometimes, he pulls it off like he's playing peek-a-boo and then pulls it back up. Other times he just lets it sit there and then you will hear him giggle a little bit. I've never had a baby do that. He's a funny boy.

Coopers birthday and a few other things

I can't seem to find my newborn baby pictures of Cooper, so these pictures above are from when he is between 5 and 8 months old. It was fun to look back at what he looked like when he was little. I don't see much of him in these pictures. He has changed a ton.

Cooper James Carey was born on October 3, 2005 weighing in at 8 lbs 15 oz--the exact same weight as his father. We were debating about his middle name--it was to be either James or John. Haden's middle name is James, but when Jim told his mother how much he weighed, she thought it appropriate that we use James as Cooper's middle name as well. He was a really easy baby. He hardly ever cried and started sleeping through the night at about 5 weeks. He stayed perfect until about 2 months after he turned 3 and then, his strong personality emerged. I think Heavenly Father thought I needed a lesson in patience. :) He is going to give us a run for our money, but he keeps us laughing as well with the funny things that he does and says. He's a sweet boy and we sure love him.

We had family in town on his birthday, so we just opened presents and had birthday cake and ice cream. All he really cared about what that he got the Darth Maul toy he had been asking for. Happy Birthday Coop!

He would not put clothes on, so we figured, since it was his birthday, we would let him be in his underwear. This picture will be fun to show all his friends when he's a teenager. ;-)

Lexie got to feed Calvin a bottle for the first time last night. She was pretty excited. Calvin also had his first rice cereal. He's growing up so fast and getting cuter and cuter each day.

We had our neighborhood block party in September and had a great time meeting a lot of our neighbors. They hired a band to play and we all brought food to share. It was really fun. The firemen from our station right down the road also showed up to show the kids their truck and talk about fire safety. They got there right in the beginning and my 5 kids were the only ones at the party then, so they got to get in the firetruck and also try on the hat and coat the firemen wear.

Lexie is playing soccer this year, so I thought I would include some pictures of her first game. She has gotten better as the season has gone on and last game she was able to score her first goal and also had an assist. She is really starting to like it. It's been fun to go and watch her play.

My baby's growing up and Hallie's 11th birthday

Here are some recent pictures of Calvin. He's growing up so fast and I'm finding myself wanting time to slow down a little bit. He started thinking about rolling over the other day and I can't believe he's old enough to start doing that. I'm trying to enjoy every minute with our last little one. He is such a sweet boy.

Calvin fell asleep in the bouncer with his Hobbes tiger and his Pooh snuggly blanket.

He's loving the binky, which is great for me.

I just had to take a picture of him crying. He has a very sweet cry and he's still really cute.

Jennifer Childers found this tiger at a garage sale and brought it over for Calvin. We looked online to find a "Hobbes" tiger to buy for him, but the author of Calvin and Hobbes never authorized his characters to be produced as toys. It's a perfect little tiger and we thought he looked really cute holding onto Hobbes.

Just a cute pictures of my boy.
Just hangin' in the hammock.

Hallie Kate Carey was born on August 3, 1998 at 7:21 am, weighed 9 lbs and was 21 3/4 inches long. She was very much different from Kenedy because she was almost 2 inches longer than her when she was born. She was born with a full head of the most beautiful auburn hair. We would go places and people would always comment on how much hair she had. I was in Costco just a couple months after she was born and I was holding her when a woman came up to me and asked me where I had found the beautiful doll I was holding. I just sort of laughed and told her it was my baby. She was a very smiley and happy baby, but did not sleep well. In fact, she didn't sleep one night all the way through until she was 2 1/2 years old. She also learned to climb out of her crib when she was 10 months old which made for very exciting times at bedtime. She talked very well really early and has always had only one volume--loud. ;-) She's a very sweet girl and always willing to help out with cleaning the house and watching the little kids. She has a great personality which makes for a lot of laughing around our house.

Just a funny picture of Hallie when she was almost 3.

This was the last time we went to our favorite park in Portland before we moved to the Tri-Cities. She looks like she's having a whole lot of fun!

Our first trip to a pumpkin patch in the Tri-Cities. She thought it was so cool that there are white pumpkins.

Showing off her money from the grandparents.

Jim's gift to Hallie. Anyone that know Hallie very well, knows this shirt is perfect for her.

Her favorite chocolates-Lindor truffles.

Grandma House found a place in Island Park that does trail rides and arranged for Hallie to take a 2 hour trail ride while she was visiting them in August. She was very excited to find out.

I'm afraid that as hard as she tries, she won't ever be even close to gangster-ish!

The Oregon Coast and Lexie's 6th Birthday

On July 18, we headed to Lincoln City, OR to meet up with most of Jim's family. His sister Jana and all her family were there along with Kim and her son Sully and Jim's parents. We stayed together in a house until the 20th. We had really good weather and that always makes for a good time at the Oregon Coast.

The kids went down to the beach a couple of times and just had fun playing in the sand and jumping the waves a bit. They were also able to walk around on the rocks and find sea creatures.

Trying to surf the waves, I guess.

Haden needs to work on his surfing pose. He could take some pointers from Lexie.

My three beautiful girls.

The kids on the front porch of the house we stayed in with their cousin Sully. They spent a lot of time out here eating and just goofing off with one another.

The kids wanted to be in the hot tub all the time--especially Cooper. Now that we have one of our own, I have a feeling I'm going to be spending a lot of time telling Cooper we can't get in the hot tub right now.

On Sunday, we decided to go to a lighthouse just up the highway from Lincoln City called Yaquina Head lighthouse. We've been there before when Lexie was just a baby, so we decided it was time to visit again. All the kids went up the 111 steps and took a peek at the view from the lighthouse. After that, we went to the Oregon State University Marine Science Center in Newport where they have an octopus and lots of sea creatures to see and touch. It's a great little science center and it's free.

A picture of the fam in front of the ocean outside the lighthouse.

Yaquina Head lighthouse

Slowly going up the stairs, but we made it all the way.

On Monday, it was time to head home, but the kids hadn't played too much at the beach, so they needed one last experience there. Jim took them to the shortest river in the world--the D river. It's right in Lincoln City and the kids like playing in it because the water is much warmer and there's no danger of getting swept away by any waves. Haden and Cooper had a hard time with how cold it was right down by the ocean, so this was a place that was more fun for them to play.

The D River

All of us together on the deck before we all went our separate ways. We had a really great time together.

We stopped at the Otis Cafe, about 2 miles out of Lincoln City to get lunch as we started our journey home. They have really good homemade bread there and a special spice mix Jim really likes, so we bought some to take home with us. A great end to a fun trip.

Two days after we got home from the coast was Lexie's birthday. Alexis Paige Carey was born on July 22, 2003. She was the first of our last 3 kids to be born here in Richland. She was the smallest of our babies weighing only 8 lbs, 5 oz. However, she has probably grown the fastest. I used to think that Kenedy was my fastest grower, but I think Lexie's got her beat. She was always a very happy baby, but had one fatal flaw. Until she was 8 months old, she threw up all the time--usually very large amounts. She also perfected the art of projectile vomiting-usually all over me. I changed my clothes and hers 3-5 times a day. We did a lot of laundry and scrubbed a lot of carpet during those first 8 months of her life. Despite that, I sure love my Lexie. She is the sweetest little girl. She has a very tender heart and always lets us know that she loves us. When I was in the hospital after just having Calvin, Jim brought the kids to visit. Lexie came up to me after taking a look at Calvin and said, "Mommy, are you doing okay?" Jim said all the way to the hospital, all she wanted to know was if I was okay. She is a treasure and I'm so glad she's in our family.

Lexie with Kenedy and Hallie in the hospital the day after she was born.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Lexie and Hallie. Hallie was always so excited to hold her.

Lexie is sitting here on the window sill of our house on Firerock with her favorite bear. When you squeezed it's hand, it sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

We celebrated Lexie's birthday this year by going to dinner at Red Robin and then going to Howard Amon park afterwards to open presents and play for awhile. We weren't at the park long since her birthday fell during one of the really hot days we have been having lately. Then, we came home and had birthday cupcakes and ice cream.

Dinner at Red Robin. Yummy!

Cousin Brianne and her husband Nate came for a visit to the dentist after our coast trip. It was fun to have them here for a few days and to help us celebrate Lexie's birthday.

What a lucky girl. Check out that load of presents.