Trick or Treat

We had so much fun downtown Walla Walla this afternoon trick or treating!  Our little cow totally got it, she was all about getting her bucket filled up with candy.  She'd go up and kind of shyly (Hadley, shy?) say "tick o tee" (trick or treat) and "dee too" (thank you) and "wo co" (welcome).  Such manners :)

Her costume just kills me...cutest thing I swear I have ever seen.  This is only a fraction of the pictures I took:
 

Buddy rolled along for the ride in his matching cow costume...which getting on him was sort of like stuffing a sausage.  I got size 6-12 months but the little butterball is busting out of it already! Whoops.
 

Here is the only pic I got of them together, will do better on Sunday when we do the real trick or treating. (And yes, Hadley is having a snickers.  It was the only way I could get her to sit down. No judging!)

Love that daddy

Sunday funday with the daddy....

Toofer

As Andy would say - Coen got his first toofer today! I am definitely one of those people that would never believe you if you told me your child was teething at 4 months of age. Honestly, I didn't know this could happen. Anyone who is a doubter, as I was, is welcome to come on over and feel the little culprit first hand! I guess we know why Mr. Coen was waking up 10x a night...and why he routinely tries to shove "Clophie the Giraffe" all the way in his little mouth. For the record, he only woke up once last night. I love this kid!!

The Craig Cottage

Open for business! 

If you're looking for a place to stay in Walla Wine Country -- check it out:

http://www.craigcottage321.com/

If you mention you heard it from me, you'll get 25% off (I have connections...)

Old Friends

Cait & I - Beresan Winery

Caitlin (Woolman) Mariani and I met each other on our first day of 7th grade, back in 1993, at Leota Jr. High.  We were sitting next to one another in Mrs. Barnfather's art class.  I was so nervous about making friends that day and she welcomed me right in. I remember that day like it was yesterday.  Since that day, we've seen each other through everything you can imagine.  I think one of the best parts of having a friend for this long is looking back and marveling at how much we've changed over the years, but also how we're really still the same girls we were in Mrs. B's art class.  It's all gone by in a flash really, and much has changed, but what remains is my friend Caitlin is still beautiful inside and out.  We have a great time together -- so when she & her husband Simmon made the trip over to Walla, we knew we'd have a relaxing, wonderful weekend -- and that's just what we did!  We did our signature Saturday walk to the Farmer's Market, grabbed coffee and brunch, and enjoyed the crisply sunny October day.  We also managed a trip to Beresan winery and enjoyed such beautiful atmosphere, adults drank wine contentedly while the kiddos (well one kid really) chased all the dogs through the vineyards.  We also snagged our favorite babysitter for Saturday night and enjoyed a delicious (if not completely gluttonous meal) at T. Macs. 

So glad Cait & Si made it over -- I know there will be many more visits in years to come.  Please come back soon!

Another gem from the weekend, Andy proving to me that taking care of two kids and drinking wine is "really not that hard" ;)

 

I'm pretty sure Hadley misses Simmon & Caitlin already, she has so much fun with them:

The gift of gab.

Well, she has it!  This kid won't stop talking, it's so cute!  She's a little difficult to understand (for everyone except mommy & daddy of course) but some recently heard little tidbits:

Mommy I want (fill in name of desired object here)
Mommy shoes, I wanna outside
Daddy doggie
Moatmeal peas (oatmeal please)
Mommy backhoe (when she sees any type of farm equipment, which in this town is often)
Uh oh dropped it...

I could go on and on, literally couldn't fit all her words here if we tried. But I hear from here it's a slippery slope - I'm sure we'll be discussing the laws of phsics in no time!

That's quite a rig you've got there.

Why yes, yes it is.

Klickers

Anyone in Walla Walla knows about Klicker's Berries & Antiques. It's an adorable little farm that started growing strawberries in 1918 and is still going strong with the fourth generation of the family. If you're serving a strawberry shortcake in the summer, your berries better be from Klickers.  Shoot, I am totally turning into a Walla Walla girl aren't I? Well in the fall, Klicker's does pumpkins (and Christmas trees in December) so we went out and spent a whopping $19 on as many pumpkins as we could fit in our two radio flyers (which were complimentary from the farm, of course). We are getting in the spirit over here! And wouldn't you know it...someone accidentally ripped open the 100 piece bag of Halloween candy already. Whoops...

More pictures from the farm:
 

 

 

 

 

 

Block's Cellar

We haven't officially named our winery yet...but what is official is the 60 gallons of Charddonay fermenting in new French Oak in our basement! We don't know where this venture will lead...for now it consists of a couple of wine hoses, a french oak barrel, 60 gallons of freshly pressed, premium Chardonnay grape juice from one of the top vineyards in Walla and the cellar we inherited when we bought our house. We are just two CPA's, two lawyers, a doctor and her winemaker husband (wine maker by day at Seven Hills, no less) -- so in other words, a bunch of dorks who like to drink wine!
Any ideas for what to name the winery? We're having a heck of a time over here.

Eavesdropper

We must have a little eavesdropper on our hands...because without any action on my part, little C bear slept for 10 hours last night, had a bottle, then slept for 3 more...Huh?? He must've heard me talking about him and decided to shape up!

Happy Friday I guess!

Sleep woes

It's really hard to be mad at someone who is this cute. Ok, I'm not mad at him, but this sleep thing is killing me! Coen was quite a hungry little man from day one. For the first 10 weeks of his life I fed him, no lie, every 2 hours around the clock. Looking back, I'm not totally sure how I pulled it off and still made it to all of our daily activities / walks / playdates, kept the house (somewhat) clean, cooked dinner, played with Hadley etc. etc. etc. I think I was just barely making it to be honest. Then, at 10 weeks, it's like something clicked and suddenly this little person went from waking every 2 hours, to sleeping between 10 and 12 hours straight. It was magical! I thought we had cleared the hurdle, I thought we were on the upswing...Well, I was wrong! I don't know what happened, but the last few weeks (at first I blamed a growth spurt, now I'm not so sure) he has been waking up close to 10 times a night. If he wasn't so cute I'd probably consider sending him back to God with a little thank you note!

So I've decided that tonight we are going to make some big changes (no binky falling out and waking him up etc) and attempt to get this kid sleeping again. I am cool with one, even two wake ups for bottles or whatever...but ten, no can do, Coen, no can do!

Wish me luck blog friends.

Falla Falla

I can't wait for FALL to finally be here. Until today it's been 75 & sunny here in Walla, however, it's October so I thought it was appropriate to start decorating. So many fun things to look forward to this month...the Corn Maze & pumpkin patch, The Marianis coming to visit, Bloktoberfest at Ryan & Michelle's house, and of course, HALLOWEEN and our kids in matching cow costumes.

Hadley is practicing her Moo already.

"Little" Brother

When a new baby joins the family most parents can't wait to take that token picture of the proud older sibling tenderly holding their brand new baby brother with a beaming look of pride.  Andy and I, having a 15 month old that thought her new brother was akin to a stuffed animal, were not those parents.  We are finally in a place where we could get that photo, so instead of Hadley holding a newborn, this is Hadley holding her 4 month old brother...It is quite hilarious given that I think his head is actually already bigger than hers. There is a 4 lb disparity between them...I wonder how long it'll take to close that gap, I'm thinking before long, we can just call them twins.  I can't wait to show this picture to the kids some day when they are older.

3 Peas

When we moved to Walla Walla, I was really excited to live closer to Andy's big family, but in many ways it was also a lot like moving to Zurich for me. I was once again moving away from my girlfriends (and let me tell you, I have some wonderful ones!). Those first few months in Zurich were very tough for me (poor Andy, he had to entertain me a lot!) but someone very special eventually came along, and her name was Anna. Well, when we moved here we kept joking about how long it was going to take to "find my Anna". While no one will ever compare to Anna, I did finally make some friends here in Walla Walla. Two of the gals in particular have been really wonderful and the best part is that they are both named Stacy/Stacey. Andy calls them "the Stacys" of course. The other great part? We all three have daughters born in February of 2009. That's them up top - the first pic is Hadley & Juniper (Junie) and the bottom is Sophia (born 2/3/09), Hadley (2/12/09) & Junie (2/25/09). We have already started brainstorming for the triple birthday party we're going to throw....I'm not gonna lie, a blow up castle has been mentioned! Something tells me these three girls are going to be friends for many years to come.