Our cutie pie

I Can't get over how big Matthew is getting. Our friends have a 2 week old baby and seeing him makes me realize how fast this past year has been. In the last 3 weeks Matthew has finally been really healthy for the first time since November it seems. He has been really happy and laughing always. For the longest time he has not crawled, but rolled wherever he wanted to go. Just this past week, he has finally figured out how to crawl forwards. He still doesnt go far, and rolls around a lot, but he is definetly crawling.

He has also gotten 4 new teeth this week. That brings him up to a total of 12 teeth, before the age of 11 months!!!! Wow, he has a lot of teeth.

He has started trying to pull himself up to a standing position, but hasn't quite mastered it yet. But if you stand him up, he stays for a long time. He loves to stand at his "piano" and play music.

Here are the latest chic pics from Wednesday. They are now 2 weeks old and oh so big. We took them outside for the first time and they loved it, but were cold. Isaac's new fun job is to hunt in the backyard for worms to feed to the chickens. They go crazy for worms.

They have started to roost, and will jump to the top of their cage, or your shoulder when I take the lid off of their cage. While out in the backyard, Omelet took up permanant residence on my shoulder. So cute! I can't wait until they are able to be in the backyard permanently, running around and have more freedom. Soon, hopefully some time in April.

Mr. Funny and his brood of chicks

Week one chick update: The chicks are all doing great. I am amazed by how fragile they are, and yet how much they grow each day! Every morning I go down to clean their brooder and see that they have a bunch of new feathers. The black one (Omelet) is several days older than the other two and it makes a huge difference. She is bigger than them and has a lot more feathers. Isaac loves to go down and see them. They run and hide behind their food when they hear us coming, but the minute we put treats in our hands and say "here, chick, chick, chick" they come running and eat right out of our hands. Isaac loves to feed them.

Here is a picture I took yesterday after a week at our house (they are 10 days old now) and you can see how their loosing their down covering and getting new feathers. They seem to have tails coming in and along the top of their back. From yesterday to this morning the black one has gotten a lot more!

Isaac had a wal-mart gift card for his birthday, so we went down and let him pick out a new bike helmet. I liked the Cars one, but he insisted on the one that had Bert and Ernie on it (Sesame Street) He was so excited to wear it and the arm and knee pads that came with. He played outside all afternoon wearing the whole ensamble. His shirt fits perfectly...it says "Mr. Funny" on it. You can see his scissors in his hands, he was going around cutting on my bushes.

Sorry I have no pics of Matthew, we went to the duck pond yesterday and the camera was not working...ugh. I will get pics soon, he is so happy and healthy lately. For the first time in literally 3 months, we are all healthy at one time. It is soooo nice, I had forgotten what that was like. :-)

On a side note, potty training is going well, Isaac has stayed dry for 3 days now and is not wearing diapers during the day anymore, even when we go somewhere. YEAH!!!!!!

We have been invaded by...Pirates! Arghhhhhh!

On Saturday we had a Pirate Party for Isaac and his friends. What a great time we had. We decorated the porch in a pirate theme, complete with a plank to walk up. In the background we had the song from the Pirates of The Caribbean playing to help set the mood.

Chris printed off the big pirate ship picture, and we had a big pirate flag covering the door. It looked awesome and is still up as I hate to take it all down. We were blessed with a really nice sunny, fairly warm day (by february in Oregon standards!)

Our first ship of pirates "walking the plank"!

Here is the band of scallywag pirates that met everyone at the door. Chris's parents were here for the weekend, which was really nice. (Matthew had fallen asleep, so did not join the party until later)

Capt. Isaac was so excited to greet everyone! He talked like a pirate all day (and again yesterday , and today...)

Everyone got their pictures taken on the porch, and most had dressed up in full pirate gear, it was so cute to see them all decked out!

Isaac was happy to have his best friend Cole come. Cole just got a new baby brother on monday and we weren't sure they would venture out for our adventure. We are so glad they did. Welcome Pirate Ethan!!!!!

The kids had a great time playing games, especially musical chairs.....my favorite was Tori who picked a chair and stayed there the whole time!!! Kaetha was our winner, with Zander putting in a good race for 2nd. We also had a pirate ship pinata that was a lot of fun. I have never seen such crazed looks on the kids faces as they beat that thing as hard as they could.

Isaac had been asking for a pirate ship cake for months now as it is on display at the local grocery store. It was the coolest cake! It came complete with pirates to man the crows nest and fire the cannons. He loved it!

Matthew even got in on the fun...here is Master Mathhew and his pirate hair! Argh!!!

We had such a fun time and it was great to hang out with all our good friends. We visited for a long time while the kids hid treasure and played pirates! When everyone left Isaac crashed in about 5 minutes....that was one tired pirate.Thanks to everyone who came and gave presents to Isaac. Our house is overrun with pirates and we are having a great time playing with them!

Happy Birthday Isaac

Hard to believe that our little boy is turning 3. Time goes by too fast. He seems so grown up now.

We aren't having a party for Isaac until tomorrow, so we tried to do somethings to make his actual birthday special. In the morning, I made him his favorite pancakes and put candles in them so we could sing happy birthday.

Then we drove to Oregon City to meet daddy for lunch. From there we drove to Mulino to pick up Isaac's Birthday presents....3 2 day old chicks!!! He knew we were getting them and was so excited. I had originally decided that one of them would be Rhode Island Red, but when we got there, Isaac insisted on getting the white one (a leghorn) So we ended up getting a Buff Orpington, a Austerlop, and a Leghorn.

They will live in our basement for the next few months until the weather warms up a bit and they get all their feathers, then we will move them out into their coop in the backyard. Hopefully by July we will be getting some fresh eggs.

Isaac loves the chicks, and wants to go down and see them first thing in the morning, and all day long. He is so gentle holding them and of course wants to hold the white one the most, that is definetly his favorite. He named the white one "peacock" and the brown one "Hashbrown" and the black one is "Omelet". :-)

Bogey seems to be oblivious to them, they chirp away and we hold them, and Bogey just lays on the ground looking bored. I am sure that when they start running around, she may try and go after them, but one peck from them and she will have her tail between her legs running the other way. :-)

Long time no Blog...Christmas and beyond!

It has been a long time since I have blogged (obviously) I even comtemplated whether I would bother anymore, but I know of several people that love to see pictures of the boys, so I am renewing my commitment to blogging!

I will post a smattering of pictures from Christmas onwards, I was thinking that we had not done much, but as I look at the pictures I see that life has been eventful. But for the most part one or all of us has been sick everyday since around November. This has been the worst winter for that and we are all tired of it. It has made life really difficult around here and we don't venture out much. I can't wait until spring and hopefully we can get out of survival mode. UGH!

We had a great Christmas, as you can see by this cute, cute picture of the boys on Christmas morning. It was fun to see Isaac fully get into the whole Santa thing. Matthew seemed to enjoy his first Christmas, and was so excited to open presents (and then try and eat the paper!) We spent Christmas day here with Anne's family and then drove up on Boxing Day to Canada to see Chris's family. Luckily for us we purchased a new Mini Van the week before Christmas, so it was a much much more comfortable ride up to Canada.


Isaac at Grandma and Grandpa Dunlops house playing "Hungry, Hungry Hippo's"

Matthew sure enjoyed mashed potato's and Cranberry sauce...Mmmmmmm!!

Once we got home from Christmas we were ready to get going on the house. I had been without a kitchen floor for a few months, and though it was nice to ignore it and not clean it, I was anxious to get the kitchen done. Chris worked really hard and now we have a beautiful laminate floor. Chris did a great job installing it....now if I could just find time to finish painting the cupboard doors, and paint the walls, and get the trim done...ugh, I guess we still have a lot of work to do!


Chris, Happily putting in the last board! Way to go Mr. Handyman.


In January, we finally got enough snow to play in, but only for a few hours and then it melted. Isaac was so excited to go out and build a snowman, and Matthew loved feeling the snow and looking at everything.



The big news of the last month is that we have started Potty Training Isaac. He is eager to go on his potty and wear big boy underwear, but usually on his terms. That means that he does well for awhile and then will have 2 or three accidents on the carpet. I will be so happy to get our carpets cleaned soon! Today we went out to lunch at my Grandmas and he used the bathroom there and stayed dry all morning, hopefully this is a sign of things to come!!! I can't wait.


This last picture seems to depict our life the last few months. This is us visiting our friends Dave and Wendy in Canada last weekend. On the sunday that we were leaving, instead of playing with their two boys, Isaac climbed up on me and fell asleep (10am, very unlike him) He ended up having a fever that lasted most of last week. I feel like I have spent about a month on the couch with either kid sick or myself.

So there you go, a very quick up date on what we have been up to! Tomorrow we celebrate Isaac's 3 year birthday. WOW, I am amazed and sad at the same time...he is such a little boy now, no longer my baby. Will do a post on him and his special suprise for tomorrow.

Merry Christmas from the Dunlop Clan

We just recently sent out our Christmas pictures minus the annual letter this year. We have just been swamped with stuff around here and did not get around to writing one. Hopefully you have recieved our cards and are now checking out the blog to see what we have been up to. Here is our year in a nutshell.

This past year has been a busy one and an exciting one. The highlight of the year happened in April - our precious son Matthew was born! He has been such a joy and a delight! He is the cutest little thing, and no matter how he is feeling, he is smiling. He likes to kick his legs and chatters non-stop. He has had acid reflux and will cover you in spit up if you are not careful, but I think we are finally starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel on that...it seems to be less and less. He is growing so big, so fast. He loves to sit on the floor surrounded with all of his toys and play and play. He lights up whenever Isaac is in the room. He is not crawling yet, but I suspect it will happen at any moment. He gets into the position, but hasnt figured out how to actually get moving yet.

Isaac is growing by leaps and bounds. He is a smart little boy who loves to jump and play hide and go seek. He knows all his letters and their sounds and counts pretty well too. His favorite letter is G, his favorite number is 5, and his favorite color is blue. He is showing himself to be fairly musical as well and loves to sing and dance. When he goes to Grandma and Grandpa Basden's he loves to play Grandpa's banjo and Grandma's Mandolin....he is even starting to get some rhythm. Isaac is a sweet, sweet, soul who is very caring towards Matthew and others around him. He loves to laugh and have fun! His favorite thing to say right now is "Come play toys with me!"

I (Anne) love being home with the kids and feel so blessed that we can do that. This past fall I have taken a part time teaching job with a Theatre Company called CYT, Christian Youth Theatre. They hold theatre classes for kids after school, as well as produce 3 Musical productions a year. I fell in love with the company and have since been asked to be on their Board of Directors for the Portland and Vancouver CYT's. It is as if God handed me the perfect company to fit my talents and interests. I will also be directing for them in the spring and again next fall. This has been a tremendous blessing in my life, and fits nicely with our schedule. Isaac has really enjoyed seeing the older kids and learning some of the songs and dances. Good thing I get free tuition, I will need it when he is old enough to take classes!

One of the things that we do with the kids is to go visit my Grandma and my Auntie at their Retirement home for lunch. The people there just love seeing the boys, and Isaac spends most of the time dancing and entertaining them. He calls it "grandma's castle" because of the way the building looks and just loves going there.

Chris is still working in the mapping department at Oregon City, and doing taxes during tax season. He is an awesome father who spends lots of time playing and roughhousing with the boys. All of his pants are getting holes worn into the knees from crawling around on the floor with the kids. Chris is in a men's Bible study group that meets every week at a local coffee shop. He has made some great friendships with the other guys there, and looks forward to it every week. He is quite proud of winning the "Most Hideous Holiday Sweater" award last week at our Bible Study's Christmas Party!

We have settled into the house now and have spent the past year doing many projects around here. The biggest one being remodeling the kitchen. At this point, we still have no floor and most of the cupboard doors are just half painted. Hopefully when life returns to normal in the new year (ha!) we can get that finished up.

We hope that you all are having a Merry Christmas season and wish you best in the New Year! Bookmark our page and come back often to keep track of our growing boys!

All is better...and Busy

Life around here has been really crazy the last 3 weeks....we had a week of Matthew being sick, then travel to Canada for Thanksgiving, and then Anne was at the theatre all last week working on "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown". I thought I would get everyone caught up a little on us.

#1 Matthew is doing much better, sorry for the gross picture I posted...I honestly was not waiting for him to throw up so I could take a picture, it just happened that he did that right when I went to take a picture of him. But, really that is what was going on most of that week. We are going back to the doctor today, just to make sure he is 100% better, but he is really much better, just a little bit of a cough left. Here is a much nicer picture of him looking much healthier. This was taken at a family Christmas party we had at my Grandma's retirement home.


#2 Our trip to Victoria was wonderful. It was the first time that we had been able to travel up there since Matthew was born. He did really well in the EPIC car ride. Our drive on the busiest travel day of the year took almost 12 hours (it normally would be around 5) It took us 1.5 hours to get through Seattle and Everett, and then their was an 1.5 hour wait at the border, then we had to wait for the ferry. We arrived at Chris's parents around 11 pm, very tired. The boys actually did really well though, and they slept most of the way. It could have been a whole lot worse.
We had a nice relaxing time, and Matthew's cousins and Aunt Lorna and Uncle Bob enjoyed getting to know him. They were soooo excited to finally meet him.

We went to the duck pond several times and fed the ducks and peacocks.
They were amazing and would eat right out of your hand. It was really fun. Isaac just loved it of course.
#3 This last week, Chris has played "Mr. Mom" in the evenings while I was off at the theatre getting the show "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown" up and running. For those of you who don't know, I have taken a part time job with a children's theatre company called CYT...Christian Youth Theatre. It has been a lot of fun and the perfect job for me. The kids range in age from 8-18. We still have shows this weekend at Mt. Hood Community College. It is a really great, HIGH QUALITY show, perfect to bring the young kids to.


Check out the website if you would like to purchase tickets, or give me a call. The Gresham outlook had a great article about the musical and the company on weds. I currently am teaching an acting class for them and will be directing for them in the future. I am looking forward to being around this week and getting caught up on housework, and spending lots of time with the kids. If you are wondering wether I fell off the face of the earth, I didn't, I just got swallowed up by the theatre.

On Saturday morning, I woke up to a high school flashback....our lawn had been "forked" and saran wrapped. The kids in CYT decided to show their love for me by filling our yard with forks and wrapping saran wrap all over our lawn, car and porch. Very sweet. Isaac LOVED it and thought is was really fun to stomp on the forks. They wrote all sorts of notes on paper plates and left those around. Funny Funny!!! Guess this is payback for all those poor people we toilet papered while in high school.


Along with all of that, Chris bought a new (new to us) car on saturday...a post about that to follow, and we had a family Christmas get together on sunday. So needless to say it has been a VERY VERY busy 3 weeks. I still have another weekend of shows to do as well. Ah, the busy Christmas season! :-)