Happy Birthday Aspen!

I can hardly believe that Aspen is five years old already. Times goes too fast! He is a great, protective big brother, smart and questioning just like his dad (worries and drives me crazy at times!), and is incredibly loving and challenging all at the same time. He has recently started an outdoor preschool class, and I heard through the grapevine that his teachers were "impressed with his character". Nothing makes a mom more proud and encouraged! Although I may not always see it at home, others do!

Aspen's birthday fell on a Monday this year so because of that and the fact that I had to work that day, we celebrated his birthday the Saturday before. Aspen was very excited to wake up to the kitchen decorated for his Batman themed birthday complete with blue and black balloons and a Batman table cloth. We started the day off with traditional cinnamon rolls and Saturday morning cartoons.

Later in the afternoon, his party started. We invited 5 of his friends and took them to the Clackamas Aquatic Park for a couple hours, and then back to our house for pizza, pop, ice cream cake and presents.

Aspen showing off his birthday cinnamon roll - our family tradition!

On our way to the Aquatic Park with a car full of excited boys - Aspen and Adam in the back and Isaac and Luke in the front. In the locker room after swimming the boys were telling Mark, "this was the best day of our lives!"

Luke and Isaac getting into the water...still a little timid. By the end, they were both going down the slide (in the shallow area) and playing with Aspen and Adam in the wave pool.

Adam and Aspen, on the other hand, didn't waste any time running into the wave pool and wading out as far as possible.

Luke, Journey and Isaac hanging out in the shallow area. It was quite the challenge keeping track of all 6 kids!

Ahhh, boys. It's impossible to get a good picture without some major bribing (or threats!).

The lone, brave girl, Aspen's friend Sofia.

Aspen got some great gifts, batman toys and Legos! He's been playing with them every day since :)

It was a blast and I think Aspen will have great memories of the day for years to come.

Salmon!

Whoo hoo! Mark's first salmon of the season! I love fresh salmon and was seriously doubting whether we would see any this season. Mark has definitely put the hours in over the past month or two. Way to go sweety!

More Randomness From Our Lives

Aspen's in the middle. See explanation below...
We had two days in a row of no rain and took advantage of it by going to the park each afternoon. I included the two pictures above because Aspen just cracks me up at the park. He has no shyness when it comes to groups of kids already playing. As we walked up to the play structure we could hear the kids counting. Still 50 feet way, Aspen loudly joined in causing the whole group to stop and look at him as he approached. He automatically pushed his way into the middle of the group and started playing. He completely asserts himself into any group without hesitation and immediately starts vying for the top dog position.
I just stand back and try not to laugh.

Journey's favorite part of the park are the 'quak quak's'. She is fascinated by the ducks and loves to feed them. The ducks at the Happy Valley Park are some of the most loved ducks I've ever seen. Every time we go there, there's food floating on top of the water while the ducks ignore it.

Journey doesn't go anywhere without her babies!

One of the best purchases I've made this spring are the rubber boots Aspen's wearing. He's discovered that he can now play in the creek that runs through the park and he loves exploring and pretending that he's apart of Dirty Jobs show.

Even a port-a-crib can become a fun toy in the right hands!

I can't believe they were all able to squish in together. Fun times!

Our afternoon snack time has turned into "tea time". Both Aspen and Journey love eating their snacks on pretty plates and drinking milk from the tiny tea cups. It's a fun time for us all to sit down together after naps are done. I'm hoping to find a chapter type book that we can read out loud together during our tea time. The only problem is that I've always hated reading out loud so I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with that idea.

Here are a couple recent pictures of me at 18 weeks pregnant. Definitely got a belly, but enjoying it while I can before I get giant :)

Also, 18 weeks :)

Our Crazy House

Here are some pictures of our adventures tonight. It's been pouring down rain all day, we had already watched "boy" shows like Dirty Jobs on tv, and Mark and Aspen were looking for something else to keep them entertained... They started the wall climbing in the entry way and then migrated outside to rope up to the deck. Journey and I watched from the windows as they swung from the deck oblivious to the rain. I love watching them have fun together!

IT'S A...................

GIRL!!!!!!

AND WE COULDN'T BE MORE EXCITED!

Just a quick update. Our ultrasound went great, and baby girl was very cooperative with showing us the goods :) She looks healthy and right on track for her size.

Aspen loved being apart of the ultrasound. Especially since it was just him and not Journey too. Now we get to decorate a new room for Journey (she's moving out of her room into a new one) and pick out a name for the baby.

9 More Days Until Our Ultrasound!

We are all very excited to find out if we are going to be adding a baby brother or sister to the family. So far, both Aspen and Journey want a sister. Aspen will be coming with us to the ultrasound and is very excited about that. I'm sure he will get bored with it half way through, but there's always Mark's i-phone to save the day!

Here are Aspen's name ideas for the new baby:
Boy: Caden
Girl: Hailey
Not bad, huh? Apparently, Aspen has a friend at church named Caden. I'm not sure where Hailey came from.

Journey likes to lift my shirt up to "see" the baby and poke at my outie belly button. She's also been praying for the baby before bed at night. Too cute! She is a little mommy to her dolls so I'm sure that after the shock of a new baby taking her place wears off, she will love it.

Mark is loving my enlarging belly, but is bummed that the baby is coming in the middle of tuna season, ha, ha! He has signed up for 3 tuna tournaments. The second is at the beginning of August, the third is August 29th, and I'm due August 18th. He was wondering the other day if I could talk the midwives into inducing me so that he will be able to participate in the 3rd one (I tend to be late).
First of all, not going to happen. Secondly, trying for this baby was his idea! Not too much sympathy there.

I've been doing pretty good except for the normal back and leg aches I experience in pregnancy. I realized that the reason this pregnancy may be easier this time is that I've been taking extra Vitamin B6 and unisom since the beginning. I ran out of B6 a couple weeks ago and started feeling really tired, nauseas and rundown. As soon as I started taking it again, I was fine.
And, I'm totally curious as to what the sex of the baby will be!

And The Fishing Begins.....

Here's the first keeper fish of the season - a Columbia River 47 inch sturgeon! Mark started the day fishing for springer salmon, but gave that up and ended up sturgeon fishing for the last half of the day. They had a blast, and between him and his friend Scott, they caught about 12 fish and one keeper. A busy day! They came back sore, tired and sun/wind burnt, but very proud.

They were taught how to skin, fillet and cook sturgeon the right way (the last time we tried to cook it, it was disgusting!). The fish was really great this time. We had a big fish feed, and we all liked it, even Ava!