Look who arrived today!

...Shhhhhh...it's a surprise!


Ever since Natalie was a toddler I have been receiving the American Girl catalogs and Natalie enjoyed looking through them with me. Just recently, she has shown more interest in them. Last week, prompted by the free shipping promotion...and her upcoming 7th birthday, I went ahead and ordered one.



I thought about getting her one of the historical dolls, but I think she may be more interested in those when she is a little older and can read all the neat books that come with them. So here are the three "American Girl Today" dolls that I narrowed it down to. There wasn't a doll that resembled her exactly. The first one is the closest, but she has blue eyes (Natalie's are brown). The second one has bangs...Natalie once gave herself a haircut so she could look like "the doll in the catalog who has bangs." The third one looks like her except the hair is much darker. I went ahead and ordered her anyway and now I am having second thoughts. This is what I hate about myself...I torture myself with indecision and when I finally make a decision I second guess myself. Should I get a different one? Exchange it for another? I know she will love the one I got, but I just hope they don't come out with a light-brown haired doll with no bangs and brown eyes in their new catalog...I will just kick myself!

She really likes "china things" as she calls them, so I will give her this outfit for Christmas.

Pumpkin Carving...

...Oh, the HORROR!

Okay, we had a little fun with carving pumpkins this year. The kids thought the seeds and pulp were sooo gross. Zander asked "Why is my pumpkin so swimy (slimy) mom?" And Hayden kept saying "yucky punkin mama."

Natalie and Harley's Jack-O-lantern's


Zander and Hayden's Jack-O-lanterns

Here are the pumpkins that came out of our garden...While they are still green I carved each person's name in their very own pumpkin. Then as it ripens, the cut scabs over and you can see the names are all raised off the surface. It's kind of hard to see on the computer screen, but it looks cool in real life.

The whole bunch!

Mmmm...Roasted pumpkin seeds! I toast them in about 1 T butter on the stove along with some Worcestershire sauce and garlic salt then into the oven they go for 35-45 minutes at 250 degrees.

Don't forget to watch It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown on Tuesday Night on ABC from 8-9 pm!!!

Do you want to see more pictures from Eagle Crest?

I feel like a photo hog these days, but I have some more great pictures to share from our get-away.

We took a walk down to see the Dechutes River up close.

The condos next to ours had some shade trees where 5 deer were hanging out. Here are some photos of another deer across the walk who was snacking on some greens. I was able to get real close and the deer didn't seem to mind.

Mid-way through the week, our friends, the Mickles, joined us for a few days. It's so great that our kids all play so well together. On Thursday, Dan had to drive back into Gresham to work at the college. Debbie and I had facials scheduled, so Scott had to watch the whole crew while we were out. When we got back he had them fed and all down for a nap!
The next day, the husbands went out golfing, and we took the kids to the play area for a while. They brought bags to collect leaves along the way.

Here are the boys!

All the kids loved running down the hill...a good way to tire them out before bedtime!

After walking all day on the golf course, Dan fell asleep by the fire...or maybe he was tired because he had to wake up at 5 am the day before to drive for 3 hours, work a full day and drive back...hmmm...better not wake daddy!


In the morning we layed low for a while, had breakfast and played games. We have already taught most of our friends to play the game "Settlers of Catan," so it was only a matter of time before Scott and Debbie would get "dominated" by Dan's gaming skilz!


Natalie made friends with a girl at the kiddie pool and they spent quite some time jumping together off the steps.


Zander and Hayden loved the indoor pool too.


After swimming, the guys played basketball...


...and the kids played in the other half of the gym.


With fondue on the menu, everyone had to pitch in and help cut stuff...even the guys! The kids were really curious about what I as making...shhh...chocolate pudding to go inside the crepes for dessert! Yummm!

Because we had games set up on the table, the kids got to have a picnic by the fireplace.

Hey look...we have the same hairstyle!

More fun times together.


Mmmm whipped cream!

One of the ways I kept the kids busy was to have them do crafts. Here they are making fall masks using the leaves they collected as well as some colorful feathers. Come see how the other projects turned out at my Paper Capers blog here.