We made the paper

I presented at the Stayton Rotary club back in March and was invited back last week to receive a check for $2000 to create a library at Great Mission International's children's home in Ghana. The local paper wanted to run a story about our little family and this generous donation. Thank you Rotary for all your support!

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/section/STAYTON

photos

Haircut #2

Coen's hair grow so fast! Daddy decided he could cut it himself last night. I think he did a pretty good job!

The strong willed child

My mom bought a book by this title when I was a toddler. I now have it and apparently need to start reading it. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree with Coen. Here's an example:

At dinner he got in trouble for screaming and melting down as I started to cut up his food. He thought I wasn't going to let him feed himself. Punishment at our house is not getting to eat until the crying stops and an apology is made. The crying stopped quickly, but he would NOT apologize. We kept saying, "Coen, say sorry" and he would just turn away. Carter jumped in with "he's a baby. He can't talk." If only this were the case. It took about 15 minutes, but we finally got him to copy me one word at a time "mommy, I am sorry"...

Hours later I asked him to say sorry just 'cause. He immediately said "sorry!"

Yep. Strong willed.

When it rains...

The day before Thanksgiving we ended up heading to Statyon to spend the night because our house was full of dehumidifiers and random equipment sucking water out of our hardwood floors. The noise was unbearable and the machines were right in the middle of where we do all of our living. Saturday morning the machines were removed and we were left with a whole in our laundry room floor (soon to be fixed hopefully). Insurance will cover it, after our $1000 deductible. At some point. I'm not exactly understanding what we are waiting on so, I'll be calling AGAIN Monday morning.

Fast forward a little bit and I'm greeted by our neighbor telling me that his kid saw an opossum go under our house. Great, I'll add it to my list. And I did. Today when the pest control guy came he did not have good news for us. Not one, but 3 opossum under our house and they have been busy making a mess down there. An almost $3000 mess. Again, I'm told that insurance will LIKELY cover it, but will cost us the $1000 deductible.

Man.. We are hemorrhaging bills over here this month.

Thanksgiving

This post is so very late!

We celebrated Coen's first Thanksgiving at Auntie Jeanette's house this year with a TON of Mintens! The Westlunds are always so kind in opening their home to anyone/everyone on Thanksgiving and we always have so much fun catching up with family and seeing how big all of the kids have gotten. This year, Coen was the youngest great-grandchild, but that didn't stop him from jumping right in to play when we arrived.

You never know if you are going to get the shy Coen or the anyone-can-hold-me Coen. On this day, we got the latter which I loved! He had so much fun with all of his 2nd cousins and got love from everyone.

All the great-grandchildren took photos with Papa Ron and GG Lois (Nope, this isn't ALL of their great-grandchildren)





We spent the night at Grandma and Papa's and of course, they had a fun surprise for the boys. I don't even know what these are called, but they are FUN!

Date night!

Coen has been home almost 3 months. In that time, we have slowly been getting him used to staying with someone other that Chris and I. I started having our normal babysitter come by for a few hours each week while I stayed home, but did chores around the house. At first, he would come running for me every 20 minutes or so to make sure I was still around. Little by little, he's gotten more comfortable with the idea that if I leave, I will come back. So far, he has been to the childcare at the gym twice (an hour each time) both times WITH Carter. That's key. If Carter is with him, he's good to go.

Tonight is the night. We are finally having our first date night since Coen came home. It's the office Christmas party and we are going all out and spending the night out too! The boys will be with their sitter that Coen has been getting to know until Auntie Lindsey gets off work. Then, because she has to work in the morning, she enlisted soon-to-be-Uncle-Matt to come over bright and early to watch the boys. I can't believe how lucky we are to have so much support!

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Follow-up

We had a blast last night! The party was really fun and with my borrowed dress, I was able to splurge and get my hair did (as my sista would say). We slept until all of about 8 am. Darn. When you have kids, your clock just won't let you sleep late. We enjoyed breakfast and adult conversation (definition: a conversation during which time no one announces "I need to poo poo" or interrupts with whining or freaking out that their spoon fell on the floor).

When we got home, Uncle Matt was playing with the boys in the playroom. The dishes were all cleared and in the dishwasher and we got to hear all about the pancakes (in the shape of Christmas trees no less) that the boys enjoyed earlier.

We have GOT to do this more often - not sure if the Rios clan agrees :)

Honah

The other day we had quite the surprise. Auntie Lindsey came by and told us that Santa had given her an Elf on the Shelf for the boys. He came with a book and told us that he would watch the boys each day and then at night, while they sleep, he flies back to Santa to give a report. When he returns in the morning, he finds a new place for the day. The boys are not allowed to touch him else he loose his special magic. In order to get things in motion, the boys had to give him a name. Carter immediately chose Honah. It sounds like Jonah (or at least it does now... it started off kind of like ho NAAAAAA).

Silly Honah has already ridden on one of our reindeer decorations and sat up in our kitchen chandelier.