The very newest Orr

As many of you know, we are going to be adding to our family in a few months. The evidence is pointing towards a boy at this point, so we are moving forward with that hope in mind. He is a healthy and happy fetus at this point, with very wiggly legs. We are so very excited to meet him!

Alannah

Alannah is getting around pretty good these days by crawling and cruising around on furniture. One of her new favorite activities is to open the cupboards and drawers in the kitchen; raiding them of their contents faster than her mama would like. As of yet, she hasn't shown signs of picking up after herself, but we are hoping this will come with time!

New paint in the dining room!

So one day, Jessica decided that the white walls in the dining room were rather boring and on a wild hair, painted the 3 walls in green stripe. Nick was undecided at first about whether he liked it or not, but in the end everyone thought it was an improvement. Now if only we could get the rest of the house done...!

The princess campout...

SInce it was the last of the camping season, Emberlea decided it was time for her princesses to hav a campout on the living room floor. They all slept in sock sleeping bags and had their respective stuffed animals for comfort. EMberlea and Mama put them to bed around the campfire one night and they all slept soundly (we can only assume!) until morning. At least no one was hurt this time!

Alannah's First Birthday!

September 30th, Alannnah turned one! We had a small get-together with some of Nick's family over for dinner and cupcakes for dessert. Alannah got to open her presents, with lots of help from her big sister. Emberlea even voluntered to "help" play with the new toys as well. (Wasn't that generous?!) Alannah enjoyed one whole cupcake to herself and had lots of fun looking at her new things.

4 yr. old Cubbies begin again

As fall came around, Emberlea started going to her AWANA club at church again. She is in the four year old Cubbies group now, which meets upstairs with the "big: kids!

Matching nightgowns!

The girls got matching nightgowns this summer, which was a thrill for Ember. Alannah was indifferent! But we got a cute picture of them on Emberlea's bed.

Lane County Fair

We went to the county fair in August and took the kids. It was a hot day, over 100 degrees. Emberlea got an airbrush tattoo on her arm, got to ride the plastic ponies on the carousel, and also a real one! That was a highlight for her. We didn't go on any of the rides, but we did take a look at some of the exhibits (where it was air-conditioned!) and got dinner from the food booths. We were waiting around for 8 o'clock when the musical act was to begin. This year on that Saturday of the fair, it was Chicago (minus Peter Cetera), which we really wanted to see (ahh, the eighties, such good memories...). Although we didn't have tickets to actually sit in the concert area, since it is an outdoor venue, we could stand at the back fence and watch from about 50 meters back; still be blown away by the volume of the music, which you can hear quite clearly, even in the parking lots! We only heard about 4 songs before Alannah started to get fussy, probably a little loud for her baby tastes, and we decided to call it a night.

Family times...

Just some silly pictures of when we were out to eat one time.

Emberlea and Ruthie got to spend some time playing together and running around at the Oregon Garden where the wedding was held.

Cousi Kim's wedding

Kim looked beautiful for her wedding on July 28th this year.

Emberlea's first day of ballet class was foggy and cold. She was a little unsure of herself at first and didn't know how to act during class, but she had lots of fun. It was really cute to see so many little girls in ballet costumes!

Family mini-reunion!

Since everyone was up from out of town for Kim and Byron's wedding, we had a mini-reunion with that side of the family. Aunt Sandy and Uncle Roger had a huge picnic for all the out of town guests the night before the wedding and we all ate in their beautiful yard and enjoyed Sandy's exquisite flower garden. It was also the first time Emberlea and Alannah met their cousin, Wallace Kennedy! His parents, Jessica's brother Rian and his wife Meghan, had not met Alannah yet either. Emberlea had lots of fun with her first cousin once-removed, Ruth, who is Jessica's youngest cousin and the babies had fun with their grandpa, who read them a story.

Dinner on the patio

So the patio was done just in time for summer fun and eating outside. It was great when the Kennedy grandparents came up from California to be with us and to attend Jessica's cousin Kim's wedding. They had the honor of being our first houseguests, and also helped us initiate the new patio and outdoor eating area.

The day that both Aurora and Snow White had broken limbs...!

It was a sad day indeed when these two princesses had "matching" broken ankles and even broken arms all in the same day. They should never have jumped off that piano bench...such an unfortunate accident.

Yard and patio pics

Hanging with the kids

The finished product

We think our hard work paid off!

Laying the bricks!

After all the prep work, laying the bricks seemed less challenging, but it

was hard work none the less.

More patio prep pics!

The prep work for laying the patio...

It took us a while to dig out the area, pour two tons of gravel, and 1/2 a ton of sand as a foundation for laying the patio bricks. Whew!!