So last night I went to see this movie with my good friend farrah.  I had never seen any Mama Mia anything.  I like musicals so I was excited about it but I didn't know anything about the story line or really much about the music.  All in all it wasn't quite as good as I thought it would be.  I liked it but it's not a favorite.  There were some parts of the movie that were just GREAT, and I thought to myself, "I love this movie."  Then there were several parts I just felt a bit board because it was too cheesy.  The singing was Fantastic except for Pierce Brosnan.  I do like Pierce, though he wasn't a horrible, he really wasn't a good one either.  Amanda Seyfried on the other hand, who played Sophie and is the girl on the above poster,  was amazing.  She has such a beautiful voice.  I would like to get the cd, but I won't be buying the movie.  As for how many stars I would give it, I have no idea.  Like I said it was a lot of back and fourth for me.  Knowing what I know now, I would still have seen it.

Why I love Oregon

Oregon was the 33rd State.  

So here are 33 reasons why I love Oregon.

1. There are tons and tons of trees.
2. Everything is so green.
3. Rain.  Believe it or not, I love the rain.  I grow a little tired of it at times but all in all I love it.  I didn't use to think I liked it.  Then I moved away and discovered my love for the rain when I didn't have it anymore.
4. I'm an hour and a half away from the ocean.
5. I"m an hour and half away from the mountains.
6. The Gorge
7. Summer berries
8. mild summers.   I love that in between heat waves there are cooler days.  
9. There are so many flowers that grow well here.
10. There aren't a lot a bugs.  I hate bugs.
11. You can be close to something and not necessarily see it because of the trees.
12. There are so many recreational things to do right at your fingertips.
13. It's clean.  It wasn't until recently in visiting other places that I realized not all cities are clean.  I was appalled at the filth in the LAX airport.  I was afraid to touch anything.
14. Trees
15. Most of my family lives here.
16. Spring is Beautiful.
17. Fall is my favorite season.  I do wish he had more trees that changed colors, but I am also happy to have the evergreens.
18. Winter.  It does rain a lot but at it's better than the snow.  I love snow in moderation.
19. The beautiful green rolling fields in the Scholls area.
20. When it does snow, everything stops.  Schools are closed.  People stay home from work.  It becomes a special fun day.
21. Most people are nice here.
22. Drivers are generally polite.
23. They have a million bike lanes.  
24. Tillimook ice cream
25. Tillimook cheese
26. You can go camping and feel like your in the boony's because of all the trees and yet if you turn the corner you have all the amenities that, in my opinion, make a good camp site.
27. Did I mention all the tress?!
28. There is no sales tax!
29. cool summer nights, usually.
30. I am not an environmentalist by any stretch of the means, I do appreciate that we're Green.
31. more summer berries
32. Multnomah Falls
33. It feels like home.

I am an Oregonian through and through.  There are some things I really don't like about it like how liberal it is.  I also wish Lane's family was closer.  I guess there are pros and cons wherever you go.  For the most part I love it here.  I don't know if we will always live here or not, but I do love it. 

On our way to go meet Lane's brother to go canoeing, Jeremy did this to his hair.  He said he wanted spikey hair.  I'm just glad it was water and not juice.

Lane's brother Val, wife Collette, Camilla, Nathaniel, Brianne, Jared, and Emma.  They stayed with us for two weekends and canoed the Willamette in between.

Lane, Riley, and Jeremy canoeing.  The boys really liked it.

Backyard Camping

Last Friday we were suppose to meet Lane's brother out past Salem to go camping.  Since Lane got home from school way later than expected, we weren't going to go.  We didn't want the boys to be crushed, so we camped in our backyard.  They loved it.  To tell you the truth, it was a heck of a lot easier too.  Tyler was able to sleep in his crib in the house and we just kept the monitor outside.  In the morning we went and met his brother to go canoeing.  We had lots of fun.

The other day as we were walking home from the park Jeremy says,

"That house and our house are taped together."

(we live in a townhouse and are connected on one side.)

I just love the way that kids think and make their observations.

Tyler has been teething lately.  It's been sad because usually he doesn't cry often.  He has been fussy and he wakes up a lot at night and you can just see in his face that his gums hurt.  Two nights ago, Tyler woke up twice, not long after we put him to bed.  I went up to check on him.  Then I came out and hollered down the stairs,

"Lane?  Would you come give this baby a blessing?"

Jeremy came out of his room almost immediately with his arms folded and says,

"I will give him a blessing."  Then he squeezed his eyes shut.  It was so precious!

Tyler in the play kitchen.

Seriously, Could He Be Any Cuter?!

I know I just put this picture on the side bar, but every time I look at it I just smile.  I really don't think he could be any cuter.  Tyler is my cheerful, sweet, easy baby!  He smiles all the time.  He has such a great smile and dimples to boot!  (although they aren't quite as prominent in this picture as they usually are.  He is so sweet and is such a lover.  He's always giving hugs and kisses to all of us.  When Riley or Jeremy are crying he is concerned, crawls over, and proceeds to kiss them and pat them several times.  (they love it too).  He got his first tooth a little over a week ago.  10 1/2 months.  My boys are late teether's and I quite like it that way.  Tyler is all over the place these days.  He's been standing up and walking on the furniture for a while now.  We love Tyler sooooo much!  

We had more family visiting this weekend.  Since all the forks were used at dinner, we used plastic forks for desert.  As soon as Riley finished he proceeded to get the tape to make something.  This is what he made.

Then he made one for Jeremy...

and then for Dad.

Family Home Evening

For the readers who don't know what Family Home Evening is, I will explain.  As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we are counseled to have a weekly family home evening.  A family home evening usually consists of a song or two, prayer,  a scripture, have a lesson, activity, and a treat.

Tonight was such a great one.  We had a lesson about the church pioneers.  We talked about their journey, some of the trials, and the Martin hand cart co. rescue.  The activity was making paper handcarts.  As soon as we finished Riley ran over to the living room floor and stared using the blankets to make a "snowy mountain."  Then they proceeded to play with them while Riley sang 'The Handcart Song."  It was so cute.  What was so wonderful about it was that they were totally into reenacting it with their own handcarts that they almost completely forgot about the treat.  Let me be honest, sometimes that is bribery to get them to be reverent during the lesson.  It was a wonderful evening.

Weekend With Family

This weekend was a blast.  Lane's brother Veloy, his wife Tamara, and their 4 kids came to visit.  We went to to the beach, went berry picking, had a picnic, and loved every moment of it.  Below is a few pictures from the picnic we went on.  When it was time to eat, Riley sat looking over the water.  Spencer soon joined him.

Aunt Tamara, Kali, and Sarie

Jeremy loved sitting up in this tree.

Berry Picking

How can you go to Oregon and not pick berries?  We couldn't let that happen.

We picked rasberries and blue berries.

Uncle Veloy and Valane

Spencer, Riley and Jeremy

Day at the Beach

The morning after they arrived, we went to the beach and had ooooh so much fun!!

Aunt Tamara

Riley loved building sand castles.

Sand Lover

When we first got to the beach, Jeremy headed strait for the water.

He played, got wet, and then ran to play in the sand.

He acted as if he was in rapture with the sand.  It was so cute.

Tillamook Ice Cream Factory!

Chloe

Mmmm ice cream!

Our engagement

Seven years ago this month Valane proposed.  In reflection I decided to blog about it.  Be warned that I have a tendency to be long winded.

One evening Lane asked me if I wanted to go to the beach the following day.  I didn't want to because we had so many things to do.  Then I thought, "I have gone to the beach more times than I can count.  I know you have only been to the beach a couple of times.  So if you want to go, let's go."

We got a much later start than expected.  As we were approaching Lincoln City, I suggested that we go to the outlet stores first since they close so early and then we should go to the beach.  He told me he really wanted to go to the beach and asked, "Can we just go to some beach off the side of the road for like a half hour and then go the the outlets?"

I conceded.  Then when we were just minutes from the closest beach he turned onto Hwy 101 putting us at least 20 minutes away from the nearest beach.  Now there is something you need to know about me.  I hate wasting time driving.   I must take the quickest route anywhere I'm going.  I informed him that he was going the wrong way and that he should turn around.

After he told me to trust him, I thought to myself, you don't even know your way around here.

"If you want to go to some beach off the side of the road, you need to turn around."

It was evident that he wasn't going to turn around so we were now on our way to Neskowin.  Arriving in the city limits he turned off some random road, that wasn't going to lead directly to the beach, and parked at someone's barn.  It was very clear to me that it was not public parking, so I told him that we couldn't park there.

He said nothing and got out of the car and said, "Come on."

I soon saw big red block letters on the side of the barn that read HORSES.  I was so excited because I had always wanted to ride horses on the beach.  I had told him about it some a couple of months prior to that.  We proceeded to the barn and I soon discovered, by the conversation, that Lane had talked to them before.  We were told that it would be about 15 minutes until we could go.  I was elated.  We walked around and pet the horses as we waited.

A middle-aged woman came out of the barn.  "There is a kitten stuck in the rafters.  I can't reach it.  Could you get it down?"

So Lane went to rescue the kitten while I stayed trying to decide which horse I wanted to ride.  Up unto this point I suspected nothing.  It wasn't until he was in the barn for some time that i started to wonder what he was up to.  He came out and said, "let's go.  We're going to come back a bit later to ride."

I got in the car and before he got in, he went to the trunk, and then brought me this dress and instructed me to put it on.  It was a very pretty renaissance style blue velvet dress.  I don't remember where I found privacy to put the dress on but I did.  When I returned he was nowhere to be seen.  The owners of the place told me that he would be back.  She put a chair close to this dirt road and told me I could sit there while I waited.  Several people waked by and looked at me in question.  I shrugged my shoulders.  It wasn't long before I saw Valane riding towards me, in a prince costume, on horseback.  He then got off the horse to help me up on mind.  Then we headed towards the beach, on horses, in costume.

The woman from the stable rode some distance behind.  We rode around for a while,  as we approached the shore Valane got off his horse and helped me get off of mine.  He then handed the reins to the woman from the stable.  We walked towards the water.  He got down on bended knee.  He said some very sweet things to me.  His eyes were a bit teary and he was a little choked up.  Then he asked me to marry him. "YES!"

He then put the ring on my finger and stood up.  I threw my arms around him and kissed him.  When we turned around to go get on our horses, quite a crowd had gathered from a distance.  I hadn't noticed that there were but a few people on the beach when we rode up.  We continued to ride for a while and then returned.  We were engaged and I was so happy!

Lane did give his camera to the woman from the stable to take pictures.  Unfortunately, when we got them developed, every picture was so grainy you could hardly make us out.  I'm a little sad about that, but i always have the memory in my heart.

This picture was our engagement picture that we sent out with our wedding invitations.  We got married in October.  Tune in again in October to see pictures from our wedding.

The cute things he says

On Saturday, after reading Bridget's blog, I told Lane that she got an i phone for Nathan's birthday.  Then yesterday out of the blue Riley asked how old 'Ethan's Dad' was.  I said I didn't know.  Lane told him he was probably about 30 something and then said, "he's older than me."  

Riley was so confused.  "But your taller than him!"

So we tried to explain to them that just because someone's taller doesn't mean they're older.  Lane told him that one day he might even be taller than he is.  Or maybe Jeremy will be.  Who knows maybe Tyler will be taller than all of us.  You never know.  The conversation went on for quite a while.  

Then Jeremy exclaims, "I'll grow up to be a Dad and then I'll say 'Dad I'm bigger than you!"

Thinking about how cute Jeremy is, and the cute things he says, I remembered one of his prayers.  I would say it was about a year ago.  I don't know if I blogged about it, if I did, sorry for the repeat.  He was blessing the food and wanted help that time.  Instead of repeating bless the food so that it will strengthen our bodies, he said,

"please bless the food to strengthen our bottoms."

It just made me laugh remembering that and I had to share.