Friendsgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year with a low-key dinner at our place for some good friends. Jason, Elizabeth, Tanner and Brittany are all from North Carolina and far away from their families this time of year.  It was so great to welcome them into our little Portland family with some good food and good laughs.

Funny thing though, we didn't take any photos.  Boo.  We did, however, snap a few shots at the annual REI Turkey Bowl on Thanksgiving morning.

Kate Movie Tuesday

Our little dancing queen. We were grabbing some pizza after a fun trip to IKEA a couple of weekends ago. Stay tuned at the end for a new piece of Kate's vocabulary.

A change of pace

It was about this time last year that I returned to work after three awesome months of maternity leave. And, when I say work, I not only mean working at REI, but also working at home.  Yes, I'm going to call being at home with Little K "work" because it is.  Or rather, was.

Our schedule used to be crazy. Since B and I both work in retail, we had irregular hours that didn't jive with daycare hours and since we both work in retail, we didn't have paychecks that jived with daycare costs.  So, we adjusted our schedules, took turns staying at home with Kate and never, ever saw each other.  In other words, work.

However, in the past couple of months, two super-awesome-absolutely-wonderful things have happened.  First, our good friend Gail started an in-home daycare.  Someone we know and love who wants to watch Kate for us for a reasonable fee?  Score.  Yes, sign us up.  Kate has been attending A Child's Dream Daycare & Playhouse since August and loves it.  She goes two days a week and B and I were able to adjust our work schedules once again so we had a wee bit more family time.  Things were looking up.

Then, at the beginning of November, B was able to leave his retail job because he picked up some more consistent photography work.  Score #2 for the Hoybooks.  We still take Kate to daycare so B can edit photos from home uninterrupted, but we actually have time together as a family.  Weekend days together as a family.  The entire Thanksgiving weekend together as a family.  

We are thoroughly enjoying this new change of pace.

Oh, Oregon, you kill me.

Since the rains returned to Portland on October 12th, we have received over 13 inches of rain. That is nearly 200 percent of normal.  It did not rain on only six days in that time.

In other news, Mt. Hood Meadows only has a 27 inch base.

*sigh*

Hoybooks

Wayne Country Club, September 2012
On a side note, whose blond child is this?

Kate Movie Saturday

Little Lady

Apparently, the shoe obsession starts early.

Halloween Scrooge

I'm not sure when it happened, but it has. I've turned into Halloween Scrooge.  I'm sorry, I know its like "the most fun holiday ever", but I just can't get into it.  I haven't always been this way.  When I was a kid, Halloween was the greatest.  My dad and I would go to the Girl Scout Father-Daughter Halloween Party every year and we had the best costumes--Paul Bunyan and a tree, a baker and a sack of flour, a pair of dice, Father Time and Baby New Year.  God, we were awesome.

Perhaps all my Halloween cheer was used up.  I got nothin' left.  So, I wasn't very surprised to discover that I'm raising a mini Halloween Scrooge.  Kate was definitely not into it.  The "pum" was awesome, but the adorable monkey costume? Not so much.

We are such Halloween Scrooges that after we put Kate to bed around 7:30, I put a bowl of candy on our porch with a note that said, "Our baby is sleeping. Don't ring the doorbell, or else.  Take a treat."

Bah-humbug!