Trip out west...

A few weeks ago I headed over to the great city of Monroe, WA (just outside of Seattle) to visit a WONDERFUL old friend, Darci. She and I were roomies our freshman year in College and I just can't get enough of the girl! :) We had been planning this trip for a few months and it just never worked out. We were using the alabi that it was a 'photography' weekend. She wanted me to take their family pictures, and I couldn't turn her down! :) It was really just an excuse to have a little weekend get away together. It was such a nice and relaxing weekend with her and her family. They totally made us feel like part of the family and we had such a great time there. We stayed up late chatting, and beading and watching movies. It was perfect!

Her little guy, Myles and Tucker became quite the buddies...

OK, so I almost just burned this picture and deleted it from existence, but it was the only one we got of the two of us, so I had to put it in...

We did get out for some photo shoots. The weather over there is so crazy that we had to literally wait for a break in the rain, then we would hurry and get ready, go out to a park, take pictures for a while and then would have to be done when it started raining again. So our photo shoot turned into a two day event. You can imagine how happy her husband was about that... :) SInce men tend to LOVE to get their pictures taken anyway! :) He was a trooper, though! :) Monroe is so beautiful and picturesque. It was great. You will have to stay tuned to my photography blog if you want to see their family pictures, they turned out great! :)

One day after taking their pictures Darci grabbed the camera and took one of Tuck & I. I don't know why I am posting this one of myself, either! But I love it of the two of us, even if I do look like death! :)

What do you think of my new BIGGER pictures? Are they too big??? I'm not sure that I like people looking at me THAT closely! :)
( I couldn't do the top two pictures because I stole them from Darci's blog!)

tuckers secret life as a photo journalist...

Tucker got a hold of my camera and this is what I found.
I like to call it 'a day in the life...'
Here is our home from his perspective.
His crazy daddy...

His equally crazy mother...

His living area...

Fire....oooohhh!!!

Candle (excitement!)...

Wall (It doesn't get much better than this!)...

Coffee table & rug (just beautiful!)...

Daddy putting in our new windows! Yea...
(I might need to work with him a little on this one, but I guess to a 3 year old, heads really aren't that important!)

& Halloween decor on the mantle...

So what do ya think, we got some talent here, or what??? I think he just might be following in his mama's footsteps...

Three cousins...

Allen, Kelli & Keyton came into town a few weeks ago to meet the newest little member of our family. I tried to get a decent shot of the three cousins together, but this was the best we could do. Carter doesn't look too happy, I think Keyton is looking at his mom and Tucker is just in his own little world back there. In just a few more short months there will be two more cousins added to the mix! It's hard to imagine life before these little ones were in the fam!

Keyton, Tucker & Carter~ Oct. 2009

Halloween extravaganza...

Oh Halloween, how we love you so! You bring us great friends, and delicious treats every year! This year our friends, Doug & Sadie came on Halloween weekend for our 7th annual Pyper/Agurkis Greenbluff/Halloween extravaganza! It was great! We got to go trick-or-treating THREE times! Jealous much? :) Here is our weekend in a nutshell. (sorry for the overload of pictures!)
Round #1:
U-High, our local high-school and my alma mater, has an annual trick-or-treating event in the morning where kids can walk through the hallways and the high schoolers pass out candy. It was a great start to our Halloween weekend. Tucker was a dinosaur this year. I bought that costume the week after Halloween last year at Target for $4 on clearance. I got it more for dress up, but Halloween came around this year and he actually wanted to wear it! I wasn't going to complain, it made my life easier not having to worry about a costume. You can bet I will be hitting up Target again this week for some more Halloween clearance items for next year! :)

He did hate the hood (head) though, and refused to put it on. I was also going to make a little flame for him to blow, and get some green pants and paint his face green. But since he was happy as is and my energy level is at an all time low, we didn't worry about the details much! :)

I'm not sure who was more excited about all of his candy, him or his mama! :)
Next up for the day was our annual trip to Greenbluff with Doug & Sadie. This years Greenbluff experience was a little different. Because it was so close to Halloween, most of the pumpkins had been picked over. What was left were the rejects, or the absolutely huge ones, that we didn't want. So we didn't even get pumpkins this year!!! Can you believe it!? I know, it's like Halloween blasphemy! :) We did go to about three grocery stores on the way home to get some, but all were sold out!! We usually go to the farm where you have to cut your own pumpkin off the vine. Yeah, that wasn't gonna happen this year, we went the lazy route and ended up leaving empty handed! Oh well, we still had fun up at Greenbluff.

Taking pictures in what was left of the pumpkin patch! :)

Tucker loves him some Sadie!

And of course, when Doug & Ben are together, a race is gonna happen! :) This time Tucker wanted in on the action!

We did get our pumpkin doughnuts (of course!) and our pickles!
(it's tradition, and they are both SOO good!)
Tucker eating his pickle...

That night the sunset was so beautiful! As we were getting ready for the evening, I just snapped this really quick, it's not that great of a shot. It made me wish I lived on a hill! :)

Round #2:
Trunk-or-Treat. Here we are handing candy out of our trunk. This was the first year that the trunk-or-treat wasn't on Halloween night, so I had gotten a ton of candy to pass out for both Friday and Saturday night and it was all gone within one hour of our Trunk-or-Treat! :) I think some kids were making 3rd and 4th rounds around the cars! :) I love the trunk-or-treat. It's safe, it's easy and it's quick! :)

The next morning Sadie had to go to a dog farm to check out some puppies. She is a volunteer for the 'make-a-wish' program and one of the families she has been working with is wishing for a dog. She went to go pick out a good one for them. Anyone who knows me knows that a dog farm is NOT my idea of a good time! However, I have a little boy who loves dogs with all of his heart. So Doug & Sadie, out of the kindness of their hearts took Tucker to this dog farm with them and it was all he could talk about all day! I know that one day I will have to give into this love affair. I am just putting it off as long as I can. (Is a fish a good substitute for a dog? I could do a fish!)

Tucker and Sadie, again...

Round #3:
Trick-or-Treating with the Enloe's. Next up for the evening was actually trick or treating. This was Tucker's first time actually going door to door.
But first we had to get ready... Here are tweedle dee & tweedle dum...

I was lame and just bought a bat shirt, put glitter on my face, painted my fingernails black and called it good! :)

We went up to the Enloe's and the first thing Tucker did was 'ROAR' his loudest dragon roar for Carter & Olivia...

Trick or treating is serious business...

After a little while the kids were ready to be done. Ben was planning on taking Tucker out for more, but you know it's a good time to be done when in between each house, you carry the bucket and your husband carries the child. Tucker was worn out!!!
But I wasn't complaining because then it was back to the Enloe's for some yummy hot chocolate!

Our next stop of the evening was over to see the cutest little pea pod you ever did see!!! :) Is this not the cutest thing ever???!!! :) Tucker had to go over and see his new little baby cousin! :) And I just couldn't get enough of this little guy!!!

Next up for the evening was making some delicious caramel apples. Because, ya know, we needed more sugar and all! :)

It does not get much better than this.

Tucker and Buddy are best friends. Tucker would like to think, anyway. I'm not sure Buddy enjoys it so much! :)

And the annual Halloween PJ pictures...



My favorite thing about Halloween: M&M's for breakfast and a carmeled apple for dinner on Sunday.
My least favorite thing about Halloween: Tuckers tantrums that have been happening all week when I WON'T let him have candy for every meal!
Other news from the weekend is that on Sunday, I officially passed the 24 week mark! I can't believe it's already been 6 months!!!

Is is too early for this baby to come out already, I am done with being pregnant! :) Although I'm not sure that I'm ready for two kids!! I'm not complaining though. We really are SO excited!! I just feel so blessed that we are going to be bringing another little one into our family! I have a lot of friends struggling right now to even just do that and my heart hurts for them! We don't realize the blessings we have until we or the people we are close to have to go through these types of struggles. All of you please know that you are in our prayers!

Halloween festivities!

Last year we did a lot of fun Halloween-ey things during the entire month of October. This year I wasn't so vigilant in my celebrations. But we did have fun decorating the house. And we have loved the beautiful fall colors that have come. (that already almost gone thanks to the cold weather!) And of course, we have had our fair share of treats, but just not to the extent of last year.
Tucker made that cute pirate pumpkin with our friend, Katherine. She watched him for us one night so we could go out and when we went to get him, they had made this cute pumpkin! She is awesome, thanks so much Katherine! (Even though I doubt she reads this blog!) :) And Spokane has the most beautiful parks for enjoying the falling leaves. We are so lucky! That beautiful bridge picture is from a photo shoot I did up at Manito park. Gorgeous! Ben's mom sent Tucker the best Halloween package (thanks grandma!) and it is was a big huge spider. So we had to make a spider web on the banister of our stairs. It was pretty cool, Tucker loved it! I also have these blocks that can make all of these different sayings for different holiday's. Right now I have them saying, 'Happy Halloween'. Almost every time I went in the living room, Tucker had re-arranged them. I wish I would have taken pictures of them all, but I just thought it was so cute. He thought they were toys for him to play with and he would always try and put them back! :)

We had our little play group at our house this week. We were supposed to be learning the letter E, but since it was Halloween week, I thought we would do some fun Halloween crafts. We made these little paper pumpkins. I had these grand ideas that the kids would love them. I failed to remember that they are three year olds. I basically made all the pumpkins myself and after giving them to the kids, they were destroyed within minutes! Maybe next year! :) I made some sugar cookies for the kids to decorate and it was pure and complete chaos! But the kids were having fun, so I just let them go with it. I just had to snap some shots of my disaster of a kitchen! I guess if they were having fun, then that's all that matters! :)

I will post more pictures later of our actual Halloween day festivities! We had a good one this year! (meaning we got lots of candy, of course!) :)

winter boots...

Click here to see what I want for Christmas. (And also a chance to win some yourself!)