Spring has Sprung...

One of my favorite times of the year is early spring.

I love when the weather starts to warm...

I love seeing the bulbs start to poke through the earth.

Crocus' are one of earliest signs of spring.

The flower often peeks through frozen snow on the ground.

I also love to see the plum trees start to blossom.

We saw a white flowering plum tree and Quincy said " It looks like popcorn on that tree." I said "Yes, just like the song ' I looked out the window and what did I see? Popcorn popping on the apricot tree'. " He thought that was funny, and now he tells me every time we see a plum tree in bloom, " It looks like popcorn mom."

I love to watch the spring green buds show up on the willow trees...

I love seeing the sun shine through after a rain storm...

I love to watch the new green growth on the maple trees....

I love to see fuzzy pussy willows....

I love seeing dark rain clouds roll in for a rainy afternoon thunderstorm.

After all we all are familiar with the popular phrase "April showers bring May flowers"

I love seeing bright yellow daffodils showing their pretty flower heads....

I love spring!

Family Pictures....

For the past six months or so my Mom informed us that we would be taking a family photo during Thanksgiving break... since everyone would be together.

I have sort of been dreading this photo shoot since I'm almost 7 months pregnant now. I feel enormous and wasn't exactly keen on the idea of capturing myself at this stage in life for the next few years in a family photo.

However, I must say that the picture shoot with everyone was seemingly painless. We'll probably see how they turned out this week. I, did, however make my mom snap one of our little family before we changed out clothes.

And I will say, I think we all look pretty good.... I was even pleasantly surprised at how I looked, not nearly as dreadful as I felt in my mind.

I'm sure the family photos we had done by a friend of ours did an even better job than this little snapshot. Maybe we will do a family picture in a Christmas card this year after all.

Thanksgiving Week in a Nutshell....

The beginning of our Thanksgiving holiday started with surprise..... for Grammie, that is.

My sister and her family were originally going to fly into Portland early Wednesday morning and leave Friday afternoon. I talked to my dad on the phone Monday afternoon to find out that they changed their plans to drive up late Monday night and get into Vancouver early Tuesday morning. We all knew about it and did what we could to keep my mom from finding out.

They got to Vancouver about 7:00AM and really confused my mom when they plopped onto her bed. She heard my sister Emy say, "Is that Grammie?" My mom's first thought was that it was Quincy and I, but she was confused as to why we would be at her house that early. Finally she realized it wasn't MY voice, but EMY'S voice. She was so happy.

This is my sister's family...or the Robledo Family: Gilbert (Gil), Emy, Lexi, and Evangiline (Evie).

This year for Thanksgiving we sure had a full house! Not only were all of MY siblings and THEIR families here...but my Grandma came, in addition to my Dad's sisters' family. All in all our numbers for dinner were up to 20 people. Mom had to do some re-configuring to be able to fit everyone into the tight dining room quarters. In fact she had to expand the dining room into her living room. It all seemed to work out though.

Since all the kids will be away for the Christmas holiday she decided to use the nice Christmas china for Thanksgiving. I must say, it did look very festive!

After everyone was full from eating a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.... we did exactly what you end up doing when everyone gets together, taking group photos of everyone.

Here's Great-Nanny with the little grand BABIES. I couldn't believe how big Quincy's cousin Lexi is. She is 9 months now and wearing a size 6 1/2 shoe and some 2T clothes. Just to give you better perspective on those stats, Quincy's 27 months old and wearing a size 8 shoe and 3T clothes. Lexi's quite the little match for Quincy....

This is Quincy's other cousin from my side of the family, Evie. It's funny to think that Evie is my step-niece when she's already a senior in high school, and older than Karter--my youngest brother! Evie is the sweetest girl. Not only is she is beautiful inside and out, but she's great at playing with the little kids. We are so glad she could come up to meet the family.

It's really crazy to think that the last time I saw Emy was the first time I had ever met her, not only that, but I was newly married, living in Boise, and still going to school.... it's amazing how much has happened since then!

Look, now we're both married and we have got 2 1/2 little ones on our hands. Man, I'm REALLY starting to look preggo right now! Uggg.... I can't wait to get this little guy out! He kicks like crazy. Tyler and I might make small to average size children, but boy are they healthy and strong. Pipa kicks and moves constantly, sometimes so much that I feel like my insides are bruised. It will be so nice to hold him in my arms and see him. Quincy can't wait either. He had SO much fun visiting with his cousin, Lexi. He can't wait to do fun things with a new little brother.

It was such a wonderful Thanksgiving this year, thanks Mom and Dad for everything! And thanks Emy and Gil for being able to share in all of it. It was great to see you guys. Hopefully we'll be able to see you more often.

Fall is in the air....

I love living in the Pacific Northwest because you can actually witness the changing of the seasons. Right now most or all of the deciduous trees are starting to change colors and loose their leaves. Portland is beautiful this time of year.... despite what you might hear about all the rain.

I also love the seasonal vegetables that you see in the stores... like small gourds and pumpkins.

This was the view from our patio the other morning? See there are blue skies here during fall!!

The scenic drive to Tyler's work is filled with hillsides which look like the picture below.

And lastly, I couldn't resist putting this picture of our Jack O Lantern. I love his grouchy eye browns and how he's peeking through our sliding glass window at us. Every day Quincy says, "There's my Jack Lantern out there."

SNOW?!!!

Only in Idaho does snow start in October. What Washingtonion ever heard of this? Not me until I moved here. Rexburg is even worse, fortunately for us, it went as fast as it came.