My Singer!

Chelsea is always singing songs. Real ones that she knows or ones she makes up about what she is playing or parts of songs she knows to familiar tunes like primary songs or Hannah songs. She is really good at remember songs. Yesterday she came home from Kindergarten and told me she had music class. And then she sang me Yankee Doodle Dandee. I sang along for the first verse but I don't know the rest. Then she proceeded to sing the next 2 verses along with actions. Since she always gets stage fright I decided to see if I could get her to sing while I recorded it. She made it through the first 2 but then got nervous. She still looks cute singing it though. Morgan and Mia are in the video too trying to steal a bit of the attention.

Mia's accident

It was Mia's turn to have an accident this week. On Sunday I substituted in nursery again. About 2 minutes before it was time to leave Mia ran from my lap across the room and tripped. She hit her eyebrow into the table and it split open. Amazingly it didn't bleed much but opened up pretty good. I didn't want to take her to the ER after our experience with Chelsea there in May. After debating with Cameron after we got home about what to do- we decided to take her to our good friend Sam to have him fix her. He decided to just put a steri strip on it instead of stitching it. I was happy with that and she hasn't even bothered it at all. Hopefully we can go more than a month before we have another big accident again.

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday I decided that we needed to take the kids to the Country Mercantile pumpkin patch. I couldn't think of another day this month we'd be able to go so I called Gigi and Meredith to see if their families could join us. Amazingly even our husbands all agreed to go. Gigi and I drove together and got their first. While we waited for everyone else I agreed to let the girls get their face painted. But as soon as they started everyone else arrived and then all the kids wanted it done. Collin was not to happy because it took another hour (it seemed) to get that done before we could head out for the very short hayride out to the pumpkin patch. We decided that this was something that would be more fun for NON farm kids because one of the things to do (besides the hayride pulled by a tractor- which we have plenty of) was to climb a straw bale stack (which we also have plenty of). So why did we pay to do these things? Who knows. Something to do to make it finally feel like Halloween is coming up. This pumpkin patch was geared to preschool aged kids and I think next year I'll have to go to the one with a corn maize that is geared to older kids so that Collin isn't soooo bored. Notice his bored look while impatiently waiting for the face painting to get done.

Morgan and Chelsea were very happy with their butterfly/flower face painting. Mia got her Princess Mia crown and makeup. Mason got batman and then proceeded to face plant in the grass when he tried to fly!

After everyone getting to pick the perfect pumpkin out of a giant patch we headed to Round Table Pizza for dinner. It was a nice memorable way to spend an October Saturday.

Afton, Taylee, Bruin and Camryn. Below is my Cameron along with his sort of name sake- Camryn Harker. Collin, Regan and Taylee took the longest to find their perfect pumpkins.

Family Pictures

We decided to have professional pictures taken for the first time since our wedding. Other than the huge group family pictures on both sides. And I'm not talking about going to JcPenney's or Picture People. I'm talking about a real photographer that does a 2 hour photo shoot and takes lots of pictures and not just five or so. We had Billie come out from KBphotography to take our pictures at the Othello farm where we will eventually be building. She didn't think the sun was just right yet so we took lots standing by the shade of the haystack and out by the railroad track that is nearby. By the time the lighting was right for the family picture Mia was done! And the mesquitos decided to come out in full force!! It was no fun and so we don't have many family ones to choose from. I'm sure I'll end up spending a small fortune anyways since I love so many of the individual ones of my kids. If you want to see the picture proofs you can go to www.kbphotography.smugmug.com then click on family and then Calaway family. The password is farm. Let me know if you have a favorite. I really loved the photographer and I highly recommend them. They also have a blog www. kblightphotos.blogspot.com Next time we'll just remember that the sun sets a bit later there than in Tri cities and to wear mesquito repellent! I was miserable with bites for days afterwards.

Business in Oregon

Cameron decided at the last minute to go on a business trip to Oregon last weekend and invited me along. Luckily, Gigi agreed to watch our kids so I could go. We drove down and stopped at 2 outlet malls in Oregon (no tax so everything to me is additional 8.3% off in my book). I found a lot of good buys and had the most fun that day. Plus we ate a late lunch at the Claim Jumper. It was so peaceful being just the 2 of us for the long drive down to Eugene, Oregon. The irrigation company that Cameron was going down to meet with put us up at the Hilton there and we had a comfy bed. While Cameron was in meetings I spent time beautifying all morning and reading in the afternoon after going to lunch with business conference with him. That night we went to dinner a few blocks down from the hotel with the company. We left the next day after another meeting and made the long drive home. Like many couples I know - we had some miscommunication on the drive home. I said I wanted to stop at Chevy's at the Clackamus mall on the way home for lunch. He said - really. I said no but somewhere there. He thought I meant I didn't want to eat lunch in Portland and drove on by!! By the time I starting paying attention (I was reading and checking blogs on my blackberry) we had long since passed that exit and I was starving. Sadly we finally stopped in Hood River at Quizno's. Not that it's bad but not what I wanted. I can go there anytime - we have plenty of Quizno's in our area. Next time I am going to be very specific about my wants so there will be no more misunderstandings.

The only pictures I took were the view from our hotel room. Very green and beautiful there although I saw very little of the city. I should have taken pictures of my purchases. My favorites are a cream sweater from the GAP and black peeptoe heels from factory brand shoes.

I love blogs!

I loved the internet before I discovered blogging but I love it even more now. Blogs make the world smaller. I am amazed at the people I have found through blogging. Old friends, new friends, relatives, and former roommates. I love being able to keep up with their lives with little effort. I realize I am getting to know even my close friends and siblings better through their blogs. This week my friend and old roommate, Jenny, sent me links to 2 of our other old roommates blogs. I was happy to see what these girls were up to that I haven't seen in like 12 years! I was very impressed with Shaina's blog and feel like I must not have really known her in college or she hadn't blossomed yet. She is an amazing scrapper and crafter and I hope that I can use her blog as inspiration to start doing more of that again. Those of you who are into those things will want to check out her creations. She seems to have a huge following since I noticed she's had over 18,000 people visit her blog that I think is only just over a year old. Anyways, if you think you know someone I know whose blog I haven't seen I would love the link. Or if you just have a favorite blog that you read let me know too. Although I probably shouldn't add any more to the ones I follow.

Football

Collin started football this fall much to the amazement of his parents. I thought he was going to stick to only his one obsession - Farming and only things that go along with that. He has a lot still to learn - being that he's only 10 and doesn't have parents who watch football on TV. He's been to a few high school games and when Grandpa Bob comes to visit (or we visit them) he sees games and bets on them for Grandpas contests. He had his first game yesterday and got to go in for about 5 plays. They have more than 30 kids on the team so I don't think he'll get too much playing time. But he's learning and trying something new so I am VERY proud of him. Doesn't he look tough?

Collin is on defense. He played safety - I know almost nothing about football so that means nothing to me.

Cameron made it to the game (since it was in Othello) and the girls played with their new friends - and distant cousins, Carmen and Emma (in the pink sweatshirts -they are both in Chelsea's class). I sat with Angela (their mom and Cameron's 2nd cousin) during the game and was glad she shared her blanket with me since I came ill prepared. Not sure what I was thinking.