our view lately

so my trusty site that i use to make fun picture collages with has been down the last couple days. and i KNEW that i wouldn't have much more free time in the next couple days. who knew this mom of 2 stuff and working from home would be this busy. wow. anywho, our only saving grace these really hot days is our $10 barbie pool we bought harper a couple weeks ago. she loves it, and we are fine to turn in our redneck cards and say that normally the 3 of us are in the pool (minus huck who is always on his 3rd nap when we 'pool')l. we feel like as long as either david or i says...'we look like the biggest rednecks', than maybe it will lessen the blow if someone actually calls us out on it. it is just too darn hot. happy sweating to you and yours.

happy father's day!

hello, seattle.

our last stop on our northwest adventure was seattle, wa for our friend mark wagner's wedding. david had wedding stuff to do the first couple days we were there. we had fun visiting my friend meghan who lives in portland that drove out to meet us.

we had to wear ALL of our clothes because it was so cold.

we also bummed around the house a little bit. traveling takes a lot out of you!

we went to the children's museum.

after the wedding we did some serious sight seeing. we heard that seattle has about 30 GREAT days a year. and i think we got 3 of them. it was so beautiful.

gorgeous, huh?

pike's market!

a PINK poodle!

fish throwing

we are happy to be home! but what a fun time we had making some memories. but back to life we go. sleep training for the little bean. i had forgotten how awful it really is. but he is taking it like a champ! and harper is back to 'big girl school' as we call it. which is hardly what it really is. it is only on thursday and only from 9-2. but thank goodness she loves it so much. it is much needed for me as well. i'm not sure what else the summer off holds for us just yet. we are really enjoying David being home all day everyday. i think it will be a rude awakening come august. happy humidity to you!

the no good, very bad, terrible flight

sorry for the blurry picture. it is only fitting. it's all in the title really. when we left san clemente, we boarded a flight to oakland. then one from oakland to seattle. little did we know that the last leg would go down in our history books as our worst flight ever (at least we hope). we should never have flown out the day after disney and no good naps. but we just didn't know. we were THOSE parents. we had no control of our 2 kids that were screaming. uggggg, exhausting. harper had the biggest tantrum of her life ON the plane. she was SO tired, screaming at the top of her lungs (no, really). david's sleeper hold just didn't do its job. how could that be possible? i finally got her to nap on my lap (a miracle in itself if you know harper) by singing none other than cumbaya. david finally got huck to sleep as well, but that wasn't before this lovely trail of events. i forgot to pack an extra shirt for huck...wow, i'll never do that again. he had spit up massive quantities on his shirt twice and then low and behold he blows out a diaper. i had poop in 3 different places on my jeans and his shirt was covered. SOOOOO, huck spent the rest of the flight in DAVID'S t-shirt tied at the bottom like a gown. it was just kind of funny at that point. so funny that at the end of the flight the sweet woman behind said "wow, your kids did so good". and i literally said "ummmm, what??? are you deaf???" the poor couple that picked us up from the airport definitely could tell that they had stepped in a bee's nest with the look of my jeans and our poor 3 month old in his father's shirt. unreal.

so long san clemente

you were so good to us.

DisneyLand!

"If you knew me, you would know"...
Do you know that game? Well, if you knew my husband you would know that he LOVES Disney. He is a professional Disney go-er. So since we were in Cali for a couple days, of course we made time to go to Disneyland. I knew David would love to introduce our kids to Disney. We had a great day. We didn't know what Harper would think, I mean, it is super overwhelming (in REALLY good ways). But she LOVED it. Here are some things she loved:

-the carousel (her first ride)


-the Dumbo ride
-meeting all the Disney characters (Goofy, Pluto, Mickey, Buzz Lightyear)


This was her face when she saw Buzz in the Buzz Lightyear ride:

-she found some Harper sized Winnie the Pooh bears that she kept saying 'i so much' to which translates to 'I love you so much'.


-Easily her favorite thing of the day was meeting Jesse and Woody from Toy Story. I wish I had a picture of her face when she first laid eyes on them. I will never forget it. Here is Harper meeting them (she is slightly scared of them because they are so big!)

It was worth every penny we spent buying her a Jesse doll before we left.


We have SO many pictures and video from the day, I tried to narrow it down. These were the highlights. Even Huck did really good for a 3 month old!


We aren't sure if she will remember anything from her first trip to Disney. But we will never forget it.

san clemente, ca

how better to celebrate david's sabbatical than to take a fun family trip? we packed up and flew over to cali (on route to seattle for a friend's wedding). we stayed with our friends the thrash's in san clemente. it was so fun. it was a full house with their 2 kids and our 2. we had hazel, harper, hank and huck. they were super great hosts. we got so caught up in the awesome weather. man, it is a rude awakening here in nashville at 97 degrees. anywho...

our first night in cali we had a taco picnic on the beach. it was yummy and fun!


we did lots of exploring this beautiful little town.


harper loved hazel's toys and sandbox. thanks for sharing so well hazel!!


we took some not very good family pics.



we met up with our friend vern who is an old leader that is now a marine officer in cali.


and of course we did some bible reading.

Beeeeeach.

So I'm so behind and little bit overwhelmed. But I'll just take it in parts. We went to the beach with YL and family last month. It was awesome. Awesome to be with friends. And then so fun because Harper LOVED the beach. She would stay out at the beach all day. Had sand every where. And only wanted MORE. It was great. Here are some pics!

Ummm, it doesn't get cuter!


Sandy kisses.




Nothing like being buried in the sand.


I think he liked the beach too!


Happy Anniversary to US.

PS - our friend Jamie Clayton is an awesome photographer. Here is a link to some pics he took of our family of 4. http://www.jamieclayton.com/film/the-otts/

uncle andy comes to visit!

i'm beyond behind in posts. but my brother came to visit and got to meet huck for the first time. so much fun.

we are in seattle until tomorrow. we have had a whirlwind adventure, but OH So Fun. I can't wait to post pictures and stories from our west coast adventure. you will hear tales of the cali life, disneyland!, some fun plane rides, and trekking around seattle. so great. until then...stay clean friends...