Happy Dappy Pumpkin Days!!!

Here we present the Armstrong Family in Pumpkin:









Daddy's in the middle with the googly eyeballs, Trinity got to look the meanest since she can't say yet. Aidan wrote his name on his and Shad added ears! Camten opted for no touching his pumpkin with a knife (in the back), and Mom's the little, happy one.


At our house, pumpkins and excavating go hand in hand this year. We decided to fill in the pond in the back yard. Camten took a couple of swims this summer in the mucky mud. Trinity seems to be growing into a personality that might investigate the pond even more, and we don't want to take the chance for at least 2 years... to be safe. We have a great spring to tap off of in the future, and we found some exciting things at the bottom of the pond - we're guessing they slipped down the drain from our neighbor's pond, so that's where we ran them to as we found them: There were six 4in. goldfish in all colors and four crawdads!! Plus double the floating pond plants we'd thrown in - apparently, they multiply.

I snuck into Jeremy's shop and got a picture of his favorite project: '67 Camaro!! He's got it up on jacks this week and removed the rear end, having a one built. He cleaned up the entire underside of this future show piece, and undercoated it. Then he put the drilled and slotted disk brake system on the front, while it's so handily available. As I write this, he's painting the new 12 bolt rear end, getting it ready for installation...

Suki had a great birthday party!! It's so much fun to get together with family!! The kids all love Aunt Suki so much and how fun to help her blow out her candles! Camten has loved "castles" ever since! We found a home for one of our favorite kitties from Penny's babies - "Silver" is Suki's new best friend. I thought she'd follow her around the house and be a great study helper, since Su has so much school - sure enough!! But I did not guess the kitten would prefer to ride on her shoulder!! I wonder how that will work out when she's full grown?!









Shad discovered messaging on my computer - chatting with Suki, of course, and then Nana. Writing does have it's benefits! And so does spelling!!!! (I guess.)


He had this picture taken for show and tell at school. We are very proud of our 2nd grader! and our Kindergartener!!!! It's fun to get up in the morning now that there's 3 of us, and setting the clock back was a nice break, too. :-) Now the sun gets up with us, too!

One more thing - not only did Jon have a whopping birthday party too (I forgot my camara!!!!) He and Angie came back from Africa with tons of pictures and stories.








Now I just can't wait for Halloween and Jeremy's birthday party... and the next step with our Maaco endeavor!!!

"So, where's Dollar and who are you?" you ask. Good question. Why would I be taking pictures of myself? But if you must know, Aidan's great with the camera, too, although, he can't help taking a few "bonus" shots. You might want to see how I updated yesterday's blog, too. It just wasn't obvious about what car I thought was so cool, so I deleted the car show shot to clarify my point. Just wait, next posting will be ALL about my cool car - I didn't mention that my friend, Katey, also got a '64 Nova, oh yea, a wagon. So, we'll be fixing up matching rides (with mountains of help from our wonderful husbands, of course) over the next few... months? years? Hmmm... we'll have to see. Nothing worth doing well should be rushed, right?

Dollar wouldn't hold still - me either, for that matter. (See the cool dump truck up there?)

Nice picture, A-bear!! :-)

Someone also mentioned I might like to remember the days of diaper-changing... at first I was horrified - no thanks! but then I remembered how I do get a quiet moment with little people, who don't otherwise pause for anything! So, thanks, Kristi, you're right. And, check this out! I caught Camten smiling - he always runs from the camera! (Or maybe he's just running from Aidan, who was chasing him anyway?)

Time flies when you're having fun!!!!

I can't believe summer is over! No matter how we tried to squeaze everything in, there was so much more we could have done! We finished fixing up our property for sale, which was, perhaps, our most important project - Trinity's helping dad lay the sod in the front yard. The excavator has been moved to a new project site now, and every last detail is finished - including an offer on the house! :-) It's true! Hopefully next month I'll be taking pictures of new stuff we get out of the money from this sale!!!

It could happen!!



Trinity's growing into a beautiful, curly-haired, blond, dimpled, one year old. She has her favorite things to get into in every room of the house... and beyond! In Daddy's shop, it's his rolls of tape for masking and spray-painting. She wears them like bracelets. In the living room, she goes right to the remote, of course. In our bedroom she finds the cordless mouse, and takes off running. In the bathroom, she likes my drawer with lipstick and pretty girl things. In the other bathroom, she opens the door to the shower and climbs in to play (and get all wet!). In the kitchen she has two favorite options: the sandwich baggies or the cereal, which must be fascinating to dump out. She's helping Mom cook. The rest of the house is safe from her curiousity unless you are one of her brothers trying to play quietly, or a cat getting in a nap. The patio outside is her newest favorite place to play and explore under close observation, but first the cat food must be put out of reach, or it's our Princess's first order of business to spread it all over for kitty. There's nothing like being one year old!!!!


We "camped" in the back yard this year, my favorite way to "rough it"! We had roasted marshmellows, a pond, a tent, a cooler of drinks - it was beautiful! And then we went to bed in the house!! :-)


Our city had a Day at the Park and all 4 got to jump and play for a whole $5 - that's what I call fun for everybody!!! They had a dog show, too, so maybe next year we'll bring out our own award-winning Dollar. He came with us to a car show, and was quite a hit! We had fun trying to hold him, too, he's gotten so big! We made it to quite a few car shows this summer. I think that was our "family favorite thing to do."


Speaking of cars and totally cool... check out this work of art!!!

I think I refered to this '64 Chevy II Nova as "an old car that was too good of a deal to pass up" in my last blog. (I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it!) Unfortunately for my husband, I fell in love with it while it sat in the driveway waiting for the title before being resold for a profit. On the other hand, Jeremy now has a wife interested in car things like never before... I can't wait to fix this up and drive it everywhere!!! What have we gotten ourselves into?!

Since we love snakes around here, especially the Anaconda, we had to go see the Reptile Show at the Clackamas Library. You will be happy to hear that Anacondas do not make good pets. I was happy to find out! But they are so cool to look at and to watch other people hold!!


Our favorite fair is the Clark County Fair - close, but not too close, big, but not too big - plus they had a great reptile exhibit this year and we got to see yet another Anaconda. Of course. But that's not all!! They also had a GREAT crash up derby!!! Oh yea! So much smashing, and crashing and loud motors and dirt - it was practically paradise! We dived into the experience and ate cotton candy and hand-dipped corndogs for lunch! And then we got down to business... winning stuff! Actually, we only took home one stuffed animal this year. (Phew!) And we were SO happy that Nana could join us. That's two more eyes to keep track of everyone! One of my highlights was when Camten saw a car dealership set up and started walking around the cars admiring the rims and paint jobs thinking we had quite naturally come upon a classic car show. Did I mention the car shows were a family favorite?

Let's see... we garage-saled! Meaning we tried to sell our cool junk off. Hanging outside was fun, but what a lot of work for pennies!!!! And that reminds me that we had a great Summer Party with all my family, including Kristi up from Mexico... why didn't I take pictures of that? Oh, probably 'cause I was so tired from garage-saling!!

We went fishing with our friends, Darrell and Becca and baby Hannah! The boys watched carefully and learned a lot! Shad caught his first fish and Aidan was one fast catcher with the net! The Rainbow Trout farm is right next to the property we are selling, so it was actually a very convenient fish we caught. But since only Jeremy has ever really fished before and the rest of us were kinda freaking out over the hook and worm thing, it's probably good we went where we could see the swarms of fish in the water and the help at the farm prepared the fish for BBQing for us.



Unbelievably, that brings me to September and the first day of school! (Actually, I could go on and on about my "new" Chevy II if anyone's interested!) This year we have 2 catching the bus!! Shad's in 2nd and Aidan's in Kindergarten! They had a great first day, of course, it's Mom that was pacing and fussing, wondering where her boys could be for so long!! Well, me and Camten and Trinity, who suddenly had to play with each other for a change!!








Since nothing ever stays the same around here, I wonder what will happen next? Summer may be over, but something new is just getting started!

The FUN never ends!!!
Everybody dives into berries in summer, right? But how 'bout Oregon grown strawberries right from the local farm... no, better yet, blueberries off the bush down the road from cousin Elliott's house!!!! We can even top that! These cherries were picked by grandpa Mike in Scappoose who actually climbed to the top of his cherry tree and threw branches at us loaded with ripe fruit - AND climbed safely down in one piece!! "Them's good cherries!"

"Why" you ask, "were you wandering around the state collection berries?" The answer, of course, is here:

Is that a beautiful tow truck, or what?! We were waiting for daddy, sweetie, JJ or Jeremy to return from his totally awesome road trip to Maryland and back via Denver, Billings and Missoula with this cool tow truck he found on ebay!! The truck was great, but the trip was incredible!!

After spending the first night in Cambridge, Ohio, Jeremy awoke to quite the day of driving - Ohio, Indiana, Missouri... he didn't stop until he got half way through Kansas... and all to catch his friend, Colin, in Denver before he left for Texas. That's not confusing at all, is it? Nice house, Colin and Rachel! Thanks for the great visit and opening up your new home to our crazy traveler!!!

With no time to spare, it was on to Billings to stay with Grandpa Herb and Grandma Mary, and who's birthday would it be? Jeremy actually arrived in Billings on his grandma's birthday - I told you this was an incredible trip!! All the family showed up for a great party - even the Palucks from Vancouver, WA!! Grandma's sisters were there, Aunt Pat and Aunt Margaret, and both of her daughters, Joyce and Susan and their families - and grandsom Jeremy!! But that's not all, Jeremy got to meet his cousin's little girls... Taycee and Kinsee! So, was it a birthday party or a family reunion?! We're just so grateful you could have a birthday, Mary, so everyone could get together and have so much fun!!! :-) Thanks!! Now, let's see if I remember some tidbits of news... Tyler is 6'4" now, I think, and playing on the high school basketball team a year before he gets there... And Kaitlyn has a boyfriend (you are very brave, girl, to let the news out to relatives like that!)

Billings is "JJ's" home town, you know, after seeing the family, Jeremy found some "old friends" - Vinny, you are doing AWESOME!! I don't know anyone who's gotten shot 9 times and lived to tell about it, but you've taken the experience to heart and realized God has a plan for your life and there's a reason you're still alive. Keep on hangin' in there!! Everything's going to work out for the GOOD!! So, what's a tow truck for, but to tow things? And since we got a nice, big one handy all the way from Maryland, might as well move one of these:

Jeremy said this shed looked a lot smaller out in the field... but it towed!! No problem!! :-)

Finally, "JJ" can't go to Billings and not drop in on Kent and see his cool shop - and Kent got a couple chances to work on the truck, too!! Thank you, Kent! It's so cool when a good friend just drops what they're doing to help us out, you make us miss the Montana way of life, friend!! Out here it seems like everyone's too busy to fit anyone in until at least next week some time!

Who could ask for a better vacation than a trip like that? And wouldn't you know, that tow truck sold only 5 days after Jeremy got back and put it on Craig's List. Actually, we had kind of hoped to "play" with it a little longer! It's sure handy having a tow truck around when there's cool deals to find and buy and sell and who-knows-what!!! Even as I write this, Jeremy's renting a tow-dolly from the U-Haul to go get an old Nova that was just too good to pass up, even if it is way outside of town!! Like I said, too bad the tow truck sold so fast!! But, on the other hand, how cool is that?!

Summer - Summer - Summertime!!!

We love summer!!!!! We love the IDEA of summer: long, sunny days, BBQs, car shows, fairs, playing outside all day together, swimming, going to the beach or fishing, camping and bonfires. Last year seemed to fly by without so many lazy, sunny days and we've been waiting all year to try again - kinda like being in a hurry to do nothing. Of course, with 4 little kids and us for parents, "nothing" looks pretty hectic! Shad and Aidan got us started with T-ball, which I guess ended when summer began, but sitting in the grass watching them play really got us in the mood! Shad had an incident falling off the play equipment at school which turned out to be a break, or a "bump on the bone" as we called it, so he started his summer wearing a cast, much to his disappointment. More importantly, we got to fill in at Vista Highlands for a week, and Shad's cast came off the night before we got to swim in our old pool!! But in the meantime, cast and all, we celebrated Aidan's last day of preschool (key word being last, for those "in the know") and Shad's last days of 1st grade, including a very cool picnic at

his school! Trinity started walking - oh, yes, she walks! and had her first birthday! Her little friend Austin came to her party, with his dad and mom, but she didn't stop getting new things after the 7th! She was in a daze with all the cool toys she kept getting. The day after her birthday a huge box arrived on our doorstep full of toys and clothes for her from her cousins in Arizona. I wish I'd've taken a picture of the mess we made looking at all the beautiful clothes and testing out all the toys, and there was Trinity in the middle of it all and loving every minute. She may be only one year old, but she knows pretty shoes when she sees them!! Only a week later we celebrated Shad's 7th birthday - but Trinity still thought it was hers, she got so many more gifts!!! :-) Thank you, everyone!!! Shad had school on his birthday, so we got to sneak out and get his gift - a bike which Aidan helped pick out and which Aidan gets to ride quite a lot! Nana arrived to help decorate with baloons and streamers - and to help with all the mountains of energy exploding every which way! The totally cool party arrived in Matt and Carol's van: Elliott and Anna, Monique, Maama, Boppa, and of course, Matt and Carol all arrived at once (pretty much) and Shad had a GREAT time. Thanks so much everyone for all the Monster Trucks, the costume, the foam disk guns, and the frog! Plus a whole bunch more - Thanks! (Well, maybe I take that back about the guns - who thought of that crazy idea?! I've been stepping on foam disks ever since - often wet from Trinity finding them first! Ick!)

Aidan loves cats, so when our 3-legged momma Penny had 4 kittens, he personally took care of all of them. We kept a little grey one that we called Salty: he was born on our 8th Anniversary!!! and we ate at Salty's!! :-) Aidan is sitting in the little cat area we walled off from the babies, so they were fairly safe until they crawled over it! Then we found them permenant homes (thanks to Craig's List!!)

So, where did the "lazy summer" bit go? Oh yea, maybe that part started... when Jeremy found a great deal on a Tow Truck in Maryland!!!!! WHAT?! Oh, it's true!!! So, off he flew, via Atlanta, to Baltimore to pick it up and drive it back home!

Camten is climbing on the rock pile that went into the sand filter system at our property house... which is pretty much DONE!!! Know anyone looking to buy a beautiful 4 bd 2.5 ba on .5 acre in a wooded setting next to a trout farm?