Happy Birthday Baby Boy

September 26th 2006 you, Noli Cannoli, came into our lives

and we can call you ours for all eternity

Happy Birthday Baby Boy, we love you!

Pics from his birthday party:  Nolan had wanted every cake he could think of.  He wanted a Wonderpets cake, a batman cake, a shark cake, a Hulk cake, so on and so on.

Since he was so into superheroes and he couldn't settle on one cake, I caved and made 4 small cakes in 4 of his favorite super heroes.  Batman, Hulk (no that isn't a big green blob, it is a hulk fist....duh, lol),  Captain America, and Spiderman. 

sneak peek

So a long long time ago I knew this girl named Jlyn, she was a sweet girl. We always had friends in common and even went to summer (or was it winter) camp together a few times. Well through the wonderful world of facebook and blogging, I came across her again and low and behold, she is one talented photographer! I love her blog and I am so lucky to have snagged her to do some family photos of us.

We are still in the editing stages but I can't help myself....I am in love with them...I am going to have to buy a bigger house so I can hang all my pictures up! (okay not really....but I am wondering where I am going to hang them all!)

So if you are in this area....would love a fantastic photographer for an awesome price and is very professional and great with kids....call me up! I will give you her number :)

Thanks so much Jlyn!!

Also, these are only a few of the pictures...I will post more when we get them edited and done :)

There are better pictures of the boys in some of the other family pictures....but really....this is the boys "real" smile.....I love them.

Gabe being the funny guy that he is :)

The beach and a wedding

The last week of August we ventured to the coast for a few day before we went to portland for James' little brother Matts wedding.

We went to a tiny town called Cape Meares past Tillamook. We were about a block away from the beach. We stayed a house that was just perfect. Erin, Liam and Judy were able to go also and it was such a nice trip. Perfect weather and great company.

The beach was sooo nice, no people, lots of shells, and really nice sand.

Liam could hardly contain himself, he loved it

Gabe found so many shells

Nolan wasn't too excited about how cold the water was

But he slowly warmed up to it

The next day we had to go to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Nolan sat and watched for a long time

We also got to eat lunch there

I do have to say after hearing about the cheese curds "squeeky cheese" and finally being able to try them....I am in love.

It isn't a trip to the cheese factory without some icecream!

Did some hiking

800 year old tree...wow

Love these two!

Gabe doing some Yoga

Monkey see monkey do!

Nolan wrote his name so well in the sand

Perfect weather

James searching for starfish with Erin. There were starfish, crabs, all types of sea creatures in those rocks. The kids took it upon them to save all the starfish that were laying on the beach and throw them back in the water

Yes James, you do have a nice rear end

Gabes best friend........he loved this crab........they shared a very nice 5 or so minutes together when he decided he needed to save it from the seagulls since the seagulls were eating ALL the crabs on the beach.

The rescue mission didn't go quite as planned.....for his best friend washed back up on shore where the seagulls automatically started pecking at it.....he ran to save his life again shooing away the birds, but they wouldn't have it......here is James having the talk with him.

Poor guy.....Rest in peace

We went to the zoo the next day since we didn't make it to the aquarium

Which was nice since all the animals were actually out. Kids obviously loved it

The rest of the trip was spent in Vancouver at Mike and Rachel's. The boys had so much fun playing with cousins for all hours of the day.

Wedding day! This is all the boy cousins....there is actually two missing!!

The happy couple :)

The next few pictures James and I gave the boys an action and they had to make a face with it...This is what they cam up with......

Super hero

Sad

(Gabe has the funniest expressions...I love that boy!)

Scary!

ExcitedScared
And my favorite...........GIRLY.......I love Gabes face!!

Congrats Matt and Brittney!

First day of school

My oldest went off to school. A big ol Kindergartner now. Not my baby. Handing him over to public school. He will make friends and learn lots of new things and learn some things that I wish he hadn't. I love my Gabriel and I am so proud of him and how smart he is. He is going to be a great student and be such a good friend.

Waiting for the bus


I raced the bus over and met him to make sure he went to the right room

This is what we did while he was gone. Nolan was sick and didn't want to move

Gabe getting off the bus...I couldn't get the kid to stop talking he was so excited about all the things he had experienced on his very first day of school

Utah trip

So WAYYYYYYY back in July we took one of the best trips ever. We went to Utah. We started the trip off with telling the kids it was going to take 2 WHOLE days to get there and made it sound like it was going to take forever. But instead we drove up to Spokane to surprise the kids and flew. The kids were so excited! This is a first for both of them unless you want to count when they were babies. They have been asking to fly in a plane for a long time now and it was priceless to see their faces when we drove up to the airport.

Waiting for Aunt Becky to come pick us up in Salt Lake

The next day we went to a really fun water park and spent all day. This is a first for our family and the kids threw me through loop....Gabe was scared of the water and wouldn't touch it and Nolan was a dare devil and kept trying to go for the deep end and went down the slide at least 20 times.

The next day we went out to good ol Vernon (no not Vernal...Vernon) I love going out there, it is so quiet and peaceful. James Grandma and Grandpa and some of his Aunts and Uncles live out there. They have a lot of cows and a lot of beautiful mountains all around, it is the perfect place to "Just Be"

There was at least one morning where James went out and helped with the hay and move pipe.

And there were many trips to go feed the cows

The boys loved watching the twin babies

No Vernon trip is complete without one night of just hanging out in Aunt Julies back yard and letting kids play

Gabe and Kaiden...best buds and best cousins

The kids sang "I am a child of God" for Great Grandma and Grandpa...It makes me so proud to hear them sing

The next day was the 4th of July...The town is so small that their parade makes two passes by the kids. But the there were so many people! Lots of people came from out of town just for the Vernon 4th of July!

Nolan really is happy in this picture, he is showing off his candy

After the parade is the lunch and games and races

These three boys were inseparable! And between them they ate a whole lotta nachos

Nolan ate a whole lotta snow cones

And no 4th of July in Vernon would be complete without the races....

Our last day we had to go to Temple Square. It was a first for the boys.

Being there really makes you fall in love all over again with the gospel

Being there also made me fall in love with something new.

Lion House.

I dream of it still.

Turkey potpie, black cherry soda, and rolls.

Yum

After temple square we met up with some of our "cousins"....Emily and Keith and their boys at the Dinosaur Museum. They moved away a few years ago and it was fate that we were in Utah at the same time. I wish we could have spent longer together but it will just have to be another time.

The next day the boys were so tired. There was a lot of this.....

And this....

Thank you Crystal and Rob for letting us stay at your house and Becky for letting us borrow your car!

Until next time ,Utah......we will miss you.