8 Years and Counting...

Anthony and I just celebrated our 8th anniversary. We were SO VERY lucky enough to have Nana and Papa and Saralyn and Spencer watch our children for us so that we could spend two nights away together in Bend, Oregon.

IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!

We were able to sleep in, hang out, pig out, play, pig out and then play some more.....and all with absolutely NO children.

AMAZING!!!!!

I was able to go on a 11 mile run one morning along the incredible hiking trails. It was one of the most wonderful runs of my life. Perfect 65 degree weather, and gorgeous scenery....

This little BBQ joint was INCREDIBLE!!! So incredible that we ate there twice. YUMMMMM!!!!.....

Hey, back off....I ran 11 miles so I could eat these crispy golden pieces of heaven smothered in tender pulled pork and cheese. Oh man, my mouth is watering just thinking about it...

We worked off a bite (or two) going on a beautiful hike along the river...

2920 days, 3 kids, 4 homes, 2 careers later and I still love you, Pabst. Thank you for the best 8 years of my life. I can't wait for the next 8 ( and then the 8 after that, and after that, and after that....you get the idea.)

Mother's Day Brunch

Kai's preschool put on a little performance and brunch for Mother's day. I LOVED hanging out with my buddy boy and hearing him sing to me.





Here is the beautiful pendant that Kai made for me .....

School Carnival

Spring Has Sprung

A sure sign that Spring has arrived here in Oregon is the Tulip Festival. The kids love to run around looking at row after row of gorgeous Tulips. After the running and smelling and posing gets old, the little kids play area is always sure to please.

Stitchy Poo

A couple of weekends ago, Chris and Steph went on a weekend backpacking trip and asked us to "babysit" Stitch. My kids were so excited, you would have thought a celbretiy was coming over for a sleepover. We went on at least 3 walks, and Maya and Kai insisted on sleeping downstairs with the guest of honor.

Passion for the Weather

Okay, so it will come as no surprise to those of you who know us well that we have a bit of a celebrity crush here in the Pabst household.
On any given weekday night at about 4:15 pm you will hear at least one of our three children yelling, "It's STEPHANIE!!!"
Our dear friend, and local celebrity, Stephanie Kralevich, is KPTV Fox12's Meteorologist. We all LOVE her so much.
Ever since the first day Maya met Stephanie, she has developed a passion for the weather.

Yes, Stephanie is an amazing meterologist, but it also doesn't hurt that she is also Uncle Topher's girlfriend. Our whole family (especially our little Munchies Ü) is madely inlove with her.

Since Maya has developed this passion for the weather, she has been lucky enough to be featured on the news during Stephanie's weather segement once or twice or.....okay so it has been 3 times. Each time has been just as exciting as the first. Our whole family gets so excited to see it. There is something so exhillerating about seeing your face on t.v.


So, it came as no suprise to me the other day, after a huge hail storm here in Tualatin, as we were looking out the window and Kai asked if we could go outside and take some pictures to send to Stephanie. My heart melted.

As I was taking the pictures, it hit me, that although his desire for the photo shoot was slightly narcissistic, it was still ignited by a passion for learning about the weather.

So then I thought, why don't more people do this?......take pictures of their kids being a part of the weather and send it into their local news stations? I admit, I never would have thought about it until Stephanie first put Maya's class picture on the news cast.

It has been such a fun thing for our family.

SOOOOOOO, for those of you with (or without) kids who live in the greater
Portland area should REALLY consider teaching your kids about the weather, go on a walk during a beautiful day, play in the rain.....whatever. Just make sure you take a picture and send it in ----> PHOTOS@KPTV.com. Those of you who live elsewhere, look up your local news stations and find out where to send their viewer photos. I promise you, it is SOOOOO fun and totally worth it.

And so, without further adieu, here is Kai and his Fox12 weather debut:

Teacher Appreciation Day

Yesterday was Teacher Appreciation Day and since I am one of the Room Parents for Maya's class, I was able to create a couple of appreciation ideas for Mrs. Biondo. I had a great time sneaking around and creating a thank you book from each child (which I forgot to take a picture of....of course)



Mrs. Biondo's favorite treat is Almond Joy. I used the idea from Eighteen25 and tweaked it a bit to be more personal for Mrs. Biondo. She loved it.

How to Train your Dragon

For Family Night we all went to see this:













We are super excited to go and see this:














and even more excited to go see this:
















One of our favorite "traditions" as a family after watching a movie at the theater is to wait until all the people have left and we let the kids loose. They have so much fun playing tag and running in and out of the isles of the movie theater. I keep waiting for the day that the Big Boss Man comes in and tells us to get ourselves and our crazy loud kids out of his theater.....
But until then, and until Pixar makes the movie, "HOW TO TRAIN YOUR CHILDREN" we will continue on with our super fun tradition. Ü