One last time...

The sale of our old house is days away from closing.  Finally:)  So we took this past weekend as our last opportunity to have a slumber party and say one last goodbye and think about all the fun memories we made as a family there.  We all slept in sleeping bags on the floors of our old rooms.  The kids had a great time staying up late playing Go Fish.  We couldn't resist signing our names on the secret door in the boys room.   





The backyard in progress 6 years ago.

 

Nicole looks so great in this picture!




And this is how we left it.




The first time the kids went into the finished new house 6 years ago.





Signing the secret door.  We love you old house!





So it begins...

Every year we do a Lord of the Rings marathon at Thanksgiving break. Dave and I have been doing this for a few years now and last year Nicole joined us. This year for Thanksgiving we will have lots of family visiting so we decided to do it early this year. We started last night with the first half of Fellowship of the Ring. It usually takes us 5 or 6 nights with all the extended versions of the movies. So awesome. I love this time of year!

A mohawk a mullet and Michael Jackson

Molalla River ward had an 80's dance...needless to say it was AWESOME!

Dave in his mullet, vintage Van Halen 1984 world tour t-shirt ...and don't forget the snake skin pants.

Long live the King of Pop. Long live Michael.

These are Dave's actual sunglasses that he bought in the early 80's. It doesn't get more authentic than this.

Lauren breakdancing.

The music was all on an old school juke box with real records. It played in random order but the guy in charge played P Y T (pretty young things) by Michael just for us. We all danced to MJ and called it a night.

WE WON THE BEST DRESSED AWARD!

We needed some dogfood...so we went to Safeway after the dance. I was laughing so hard I was crying. No one would look at Dave (even though over half the people in Molalla have mullets:)

She's here!

Lauren has been counting down the months weeks days and even hours for the arrival of her new friend Rebecca. Lauren's Aunt Ylfelynn wanted her to pick an American Girl doll for her birthday and her new doll came to our doorstep today! What a special gift. She loves her. Lauren is at this moment asleep with Rebecca by her side in matching pj's. Thanks for a beautiful birthday gift Ylfe!

91 pounds

We had a family outing of peach picking on Thursday. The kids were in juicy sticky heaven. We picked 91 lbs of peaches. The peaches are now all washed cubed and frozen for our years supply of smoothies:) Beautiful.

Fall craving...

Fall is my favorite time of year. I love maple trees that turn fantastic colors. I'm getting excited next month for school to start again and the leaves to begin their descent.

Peasants do...Peasants do not.

This last week was our families special week where we "go without" the basic comforts. This year we decided to be peasants. Through the whole week we were always saying "peasants do..." and also "peasants do not...". So here's a little glimpse of our week.

Peasants DO stack fire wood. Peasants do NOT have air conditioning.

Peasants DO wear pillowcases.

...and pull weeds. Peasants do NOT eat chips.

Peasants DO push wheelbarrows...even when they're 5. Peasants do NOT watch movies.

Peasants DO husk corn.

...and they DO play with the corn hairs.

Peasants do NOT whine about moving big rocks for 2 hours.

Peasants do NOT play the Wii, but they DO play with moths.

Peasants DO sleep on the floor in the same room. Peasants do NOT have pillows (except for mom peasants... and baby peasants sleep in cribs).


Peasants DO have campouts with cousins...

(even when they wear way better home sewn peasant clothes:)

Peasants DO pick berries.




Peasants do NOT eat corndogs...but they do make fires


...and they read by the fires late into the night eating marshmallows.

Yes peasants DO eat marshmallows.

Peasants DO eat pancakes. Not Krusteez mix, but real ones from a recipe passed down from the pioneers made by Aunt Tyra. YUM!

Peasants do NOT eat ice cream cones from McDonalds, but they do make homemade ice cream in tin cans that taste way better.

Peasants do NOT sleep in. Peasants DO wake up early and gather big sticks.

Peasants DO look like Huckleberry Finn.

Peasant families DO love each other.

This week we learned to be grateful for little things like work gloves when you're pulling weeds and pillows and night lights. It's rewarding to live a more simple life even for a short time and cut all the electronic stuff that we feel so attached to. We learned to work hard and enjoy life barefoot and wearing pillowcases.