Girls Night Out, and Kellen too!

Kellen and I took off to Portland for some much needed girl time with my favorite gal Maris! We came equipped with chocolate chip cookies, sorbet and Mary provided some excellent wine for the occasion! Kellen had some milk, provided by me! It was great to hang out and catch up with Mary! She is just such a little jet-setter that it is hard to pin her down! She starts back to school soon (she is an elementary school teacher) so we were able to squeeze our "Amy and Mary time in" just before she started working again! Mary and I met our first day at the University of Portland and have been attached ever since. We studied abroad in Austria together, were roomies our Junior year and housemates our senior year. We ventured to Ireland for 4 months together and set her brother up with my sister (who are now married with 3 kids..) so we are sistas for life! Love you Mary Mary Dinosaur!

The Washington Cousins come to Visit!!!

Jeannie and Tyler came down this weekend to run the Hood to Coast Relay! Their team was one of two teams running in honor of Brooke Colvin, thier dear dear friend (and Sam's godmother) who was killed tragically on Mt Hood earlier this year. We were lucky to get to spend some time with their kiddos Ellie (turning 4 Sept 2) and Sam, 17 months! They are beautiful!! Those brown eyes, those curly locks! We had a fun filled few days. Today, with Nonnie and Pompa, Sam, Ellie, Connor, Kellen and I walked down to the Sherwood Saturday Market and then on the park at Stella Olson to swing! Pompa spoiled the kids with fast crazy rides in the radio flyer and donut holes from Sesame! We had so much fun! It is fun having cousins to grow up with. Growing up, all my cousins were back in New York. I love that Connor and now Kellen see thier cousins on a weekly (sometimes daily) basis. And even though Sam and Ellie are in Bainbridge Island, we still see them often! We are so lucky to have an amazing and close family. Sam and Connor and the infamous Radio Flyer!

Connor and Rachel sharing some good ole fashioned mac n' cheese!

Ahh, the joys of a gassy baby!

So Kellen has gas. No questions about it. Connor has gas as well, as all babies do, but Kellen's gas is pretty dang intense! He will be so peaceful one minute, then literally, without warning, he will scream at the top of his little lungs for about 20 - 30 seconds straight, then finish with either a series of very audible toots, or a likewise audible blowout in his nappie! Then he is back to his zen state. This whole process takes under a minute, and occurs upwards of 10 to 20 times a day. I was fortunate to catch an episode and will share our gas joy with you all! Peaceful Zen baby.

Woa! Lookout, reach for your ear plugs!

This is a doozy! Right about now he was blowin' up his nappie!

Ahhh, back to peaceful Zen baby.

Picnic in the Park for Kellen!

All the girls - Tasha, Frisch, me, Mary D, Jen, Onchi, and Maris. Missing is Tara. Bummer.

Connor eating one of Maris's famous choco chippers! He was a lucky boy that night!

My girlfriends from college and thier families threw us a "Welcome baby Kellen" shower in the park! It was a perfect evening for hanging out at Lair Hill park in Portland. We live all over the greater Portland area now this location was perfect for everyone. The food was fabulous, the company even better. One of the highlights was seeing Frisch (Ashley) who has recently moved to SLC to be with her fiance. She was in town for the weekend!!! Mary Mattecheck with Kellen

Mary and Scott Davis with Kellen.

Kellen is 1 month!

I cannot believe my little Kellen is one month old today! I knew they said the time would fly, but you really never understand how fast until you are in the mist of it all! Kellen's arrival really made Don and I feel like our family was complete (I am not closing the door on other kiddos just yet though..) We feel so blessed to have two precious little boys to share our love with. Kellen has already proven to be very much like Connor, yet completely different all at the same time. Don and I don't think he looks much like Connor at all, although other people think he is a spittin' image. Kellen already proved within the first hour of his life that he will not be like his older brother. Don and I were relaxing in the birthing suit when all of the sudden this loud, screeching, glass breaking sound came blaring out of the bassinet next to my bed. GOOD LORD ALMIGHTY! Sweet little baby Kellen has lungs! Don and I exchanged glances - we knew we were in for it! So the first month in the Corcoran household has been loud, full of poopie diapers, tons of spit up (there is a certain sitting area in our house where if you knew of the amount of puke that hit that spot, you would never sit there... I will never tell...), lots of love sweet moments too. Kellen has already outgrown some onsies (you know when you snap them down over the diaper, then you look up and realize the onsie has become an off the shoulder look....
Connor is an amazing big brother. He has weathered the storm well. He is very gentle (lots of pats on the head) and blows him kisses. He also loves to put his binky in (then take it out and put it back in again, and again...) One time he couldn't get Kellen to open his mouth for the binky, so he shoved it in his ear. I guess he figured it just needed to go in an opening of sorts, not necessarily the mouth! The funniest thing is when Kellen is crying in the car, Connor gets all worked up and yells "NO, NO NO NO!" and points very angrily at him. Connor prefers quieter car rides, don't we all?
So my darling Kellen, we love you so much! You are the perfect addition to our family. I hope you will always know how much you are loved by each of us, even Murphy loves to lick your little toes when he gets the chance!

Pacific Northwest Summer Berries!

One of the many wonderful things about living in the Pacific Northwest is the abundance of berries every summer! There are countless U-Pick fields everywhere! We live within 5 miles of at least a dozen! And the Oregon strawberry is soooo delicious!! The blueberries are so plump and juicy! The blackberries are enormous! I just go berry crazy this time of year. Our Sherwood Farmer's market has a great display of local berries for sale. So we walked up there this morning and bought several pints of berries. Connor loves them too. A little too much. His diapers are not particularly fun to change these days.

Cannon Beach!

We took a day trip to the Oregon coast today with the boys! It was awesome. We left the house super early so we could make it to Pig n' Pancake in Cannon by breakfast! (Connor and I are pancake fans these days...) We were really glad we left so early as the parking filled up as we were unloading the boys. After a hearty breakfast (Connor ate all 5 pancakes on his kiddie menu!!), we headed down to the water. I sat on the beach feeding Kellen while Don took Connor down to the water. Connor loves the water, but I thought for sure that the coldness of the Pacific would scare him off. But as I was getting settled I looked up to see my 18 month old up to his waist in the ocean and my husband running after him to keep up! I couldn't believe it. This kid is fearless when it comes to water! For those of you who haven't had the awesome opportunity to enjoy the Oregon coast, the water is extremely cold!!!! I mean dip your toes in and get an instant headache cold! After they were done playing in the water, they come up to the sand and Connor plopped down in the sand to play with his sand bucket before we had the chance to dry him off. As you can imagine - sand was EVERYWHERE on his body! He was so happy he could have cared less!! He was one happy beach goer. I can't wait until next summer as we will have both boys running around the beach!

Connor with sand literally stuck to his entire body!

Don and Connor running around in the freezing cold water.