I got the message saying that I've reached the storage limit for pictures with Blogger, but I started using Flickr as the middle man. As if getting a blog post up wasn't a multi-day thing, it's now a little more time consuming. 
(Though I guess I'm glad to be able to keep it updated at all. I've posted at least once a week for the last 3 years, and for the first two years I posted almost 5 times a week. I laugh now when I think about all the extra time I didn't think I had!)
Anyways, all that to say... yes, I'm posting about our last weekend when it is now Friday.
Whatever.
...

This past weekend was Thanksgiving and it was pretty laid back this year.

Chris had a really slow day on Wednesday so he came home early and was able to finish up the stool project we've been working on for a couple of weeks.
This little stool has so many uses but was pretty boring looking before we painted it.
Bennett likes to stand on it to help us cook and he also sits backwards on it to eat if he's watching a show:
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We also got our Stickygrams in the mail and I love them:
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On Thanksgiving I actually did my hair all fancy-like so we had to take a picture to document:
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Chris and Buckley on the way in to my family's Thanksgiving:
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Saturday night I went to Abi's for her birthday/craft night.
We did an old Finnish craft called Himmeli, which is really just string and stir straws:
photo
Sunday morning we met Chris' parents at Lovejoy Bakers for some breakfast then went to grab coffee at Ristretto. Schoolhouse Electric was closed unfortunately but I loved their tree out in Ristretto: 
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We were able to get most of our Christmas decorations up over the weekend.
Chris put of lights on the house and I love the way they look with the new paint:
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Sunday after nap time, it was so nice out so we decided to be spontaneous and go get a tree instead of going to church. We figured there may not be another chance to get a tree in dry weather, so we jumped on it.
We went to a little tree farm called Century Farm and it was essentially in this family's giant back yard and the trees were so nice!
Searching:
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Keeping eachother warm:
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Cutie:
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"This one is perfect mama":
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Found one:
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This is the very first picture of all four of us. Bennett was staring at the candy cane the woman had just given him. He couldn't believe he was just given candy.
Classic Hardestys:
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Earlier this week we decorated the inside of the house.
Bennett has never been interested in decorating the tree until this year.
He loved it and hung all of the ornaments at his height:
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The living room mid-decorating:
(notice all of the ornaments)
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The washi tape stag head that Chris did:
(and my new paper trees, I kind of love them.)
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Now that the decorating is done, I can focus on wrapping.
Yikes.

Have a good weekend friends!

This weekend was a wet one in Portland.
 As I type up this post, it's extremely stormy outside. It's kind of nice to be inside our cozy house while it's a crazy mess outside and I'm certainly thankful that we have a roof over our heads!

On to the weekend...

Friday morning Buck woke up and gave me the puppy-dog stare through the crib slats:
Then they went and got even cuter when Bennett was holding Buckley:
(This is my new favorite picture!)
Friday was a grocery-getting day.
I noticed so many new holiday treats at Trader Joes.
(I bet they make so much money on their holiday treats alone...I saw people hoarding the Candy Cane Joe Joes!)
I had self control and only brought home the bottom right:
(Now I have to decide if I want to make the recipe on the bag or
 just put them into my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. Hmm.)
As we returned home, I noticed that a certain boy had lined up his cars in the window sill earlier when I was getting ready:
(he even faced them all in the same direction...traffic jam!)
 Friday night for date night we saw the new James Bond movie Skyfall.
I'm not a big action movie fan, but decided to be a good wife and go since Chris really wanted to see it.
I ended up understanding and actually liking it...and BONUS I didn't fall asleep!
(I always fall asleep during movies and this one was even 2.5 hours long!)
We went to Veggie Grill after the movie. 
It wasn't bad, but it also wasn't amazing.
 I still like Native Foods better!

Saturday, I went to my friend Kelli's baby shower.
I made her a really cute mobile, but of course I forgot to take a picture of it!
These were the super cute little sugar cookie favors:
While I was at the shower, Bennett had a playdate with his best friend Avery.
They got donuts, chocolate milk, went to the pet store and got to pick out new cars at Target. 
Avery's dad Stephen was taking the best pictures of them all morning.
My favorites:

 Can you tell he doesn't get donuts much?!:
 Sunday we did stuff around the house and in the afternoon Chris left for church 
(he was playing this weekend) 
while I took the boys to my mom's house to celebrate my brother's birthday:
(Happy Birthday Graham!)
 Buck looking cozy on my mom's couch:

I hope all you Portlanders are staying dry today!

Happy Monday Friends!
Have you guys heard of Foldable Me yet?!
(the same company that makes Sticky Grams)

Well we made some foldables of ourselves, and everyone that comes over wants to know where we got them so I wanted to share!
Cute huh?:
The process is pretty fun, and it's kind of similar to making a Mii on a Wii.
Figuring out what features look like mine:
It ships for free all the way from the UK, so it takes a while to get but it was worth the wait!
Everything comes flat on a sheet of cardstock:
Then we got to folding:

Kind of fun huh?
I wish you could make kids, then we could have one of each of us
and it would be like a 3-D family picture!

make kids next!



We got a ton of stuff done over the weekend, and I was able to get away for a bit which has not happened in a while.
I love all three of my boys, but a little 'me time' was much needed.

Thursday we met up with Lauren and Fern and went to the park by their house.
The babies just kind of hung out while Bennett played.
Fern saying hi to Buckley:
The park has a sand pit with a ton of big trucks in it.
(how cool is that?!)
I'm pretty sure B could have stayed there until bedtime.
He was in heaven:
 That evening while I was making dinner, B wanted to "look at the stars" in the hallway, 
so he layed down on his blanket and stared at the ceiling:
(that kid has an imagination)
 I made one of our favorite dinners.
roasted veggie and ricotta pizza:
(recipe here.)
 Buck played a little soccer:
Chris and I had a low key date night Friday night.
We tried out Los Gorditos in the Pearl. 
I had noticed the restaraunt a few months ago for their vegan and vegetarian menus. Back then I wasn't eating meat for health reasons. I recently started adding it slowly back into my diet, though I was nervous to try pork for the first time (I love me some good carnitas).  I was willing to try it out since the place seemed pretty health-minded. I got carnitas tacos and they were amazing. Not greasy or heavy and the homemade corn tortillas were so good.
Chris got the torta.
It wasn't as good as my tacos:
 Buckley turned six months old on Saturday.
He also started sitting:
(okay Buck, for real, stop growing up so quickly)
 
Sunday morning we had vitamins and water for breakfast.
Super filling, I know.
(just kidding)
 After breakfast I went over to Abi's house for a pillow-making extravaganza:
(It was so nice to get out of the house and hang out with girls AND be crafty. 
I came home to my boys all refreshed. Thanks to Chris for watching the wee ones!)
 Sunday we just hung out at home and did a bunch of projects that had kept getting 
put off for one reason or another.
I sewed up my pillow:
(I love the way it turned out!)
Chris did a bunch of things, one of which was consolidating all of the extra non-burned wax from three old Volcano candles. Does anyone else think those candles are poorly designed?
Anyways, it was a project I'd been meaning to do for a year probably and Chris finally did it for me.
What a guy! We got three good-sized candles out of something that would have otherwise been thrown away! 
(I totally wouldn't go to this much trouble to save any old candle, but Volcano candles just smell so darn good (and are so darn expensive) that I couldn't bring myself to throw the old ones away. So glad I didn't.) 
 Sunday night we went to church.
On the ride home I had given Bennett a cup filled with apple slices and grapes to eat.
After he was done eating, our conversation went like this:

Me: "Bennett what did you do with the grape stem that was in the bottom?
B: "I don't know."
Me: "Benntt is it in your mouth? Spit it out please."
B: "Spit."
(he literally said "spit" as he acted like he was spitting it into the cup. 
You might of had to be there, but immediately after he did that Chris and I want into full on silent laugh mode.)
Me: No really Bennett, do you have it? Where did it go?
B: "It's up in the sky flying"
Me: "Bennett did you eat the grape stem?"
B: "uh huh."

I love that boy. He keeps things interesting.
(and he eats grape stems apparently)


Happy Tuesday Friends!
Once again, we had a busy, but fun weekend.
I'm pretty sure it will stay like that until January. 
Oy vey.

Buckley is growing way too quickly.
He decided that he wanted a toy that he couldn't reach so he rolled until he got to it:
 Within the last couple of days he actually has been scooting to get things that he wants. 
I'm pretty sure he will be an early crawler. Lord help me.

Friday night we had date night with the Hartmanns.
Chris and I haven't been to Lardo since it was a cart, so we decided to try it out.
It was really awkward to get a good picture in there, but here's Craig and some food:
(haha I'm sure he'd love that picture, right Lauren?)
 I got the only non-pork/non-meat item, the chickpea sandwich which was really good.
Pretty much a falafal in patty form with tzatziki sauce, pickled onions and arugula:
 (Their fries are also amazing, though this is the first time I've really had anything greasy in five months and I did not like the  way that it made me feel! Bleh. I always felt that way after eating heavy meals, but I didn't realize it wasn't normal!)
 Saturday was a full on family day.
In the morning we celebrated Chris' brother's birthday out at their house in Gresham.
We got banished to the kid table:
 Afterwards, we went up to my sister's in Ridgefield to hang out with my family.
My sister made soup and sandwiches and we just hung out while Bennett played with his cousins.
He paused from play to let Chris read him a book about whales and dolphins:
(yes he is in a Thor costume)
 Buck got lots of attention from my mom, sister and I:
 Despite the fact that he was cutting his 2nd tooth, he was really happy:
 He also got in a little bro time:

This afternoon I'm going to the chiropractor for the first time.
I totally messed up my neck and shoulder last week by sleeping on it wrong, so I'm looking forward to that not hurting anymore. Actually, my whole body is probably messed up from carrying two giant babies...maybe she can fix that too.

Ok nap time for all of us.
(hopefully)

Happy Thursday Friends!
I think this was my my favorite Halloween ever.

We really didn't do anything too out of the ordinary.
Our friends came over and I made curry to warm our bellies before heading out into the rainy night.

This guy is what made my Halloween so awesome: 
(he says the funniest things and cracked us up the whole night!)
 Bennett the lumberjack:
(pretty much the cutest lumberjack ever)
 Lucy the Tiger and lumberjack Bennett all ready to go trick or treating:
(isn't little Lucy adorable?)
Trick or treeeeat: 
 They took turns ringing the doorbells:
 As B walked away from the houses, he told the homeowners that he was going to chop down their trees or even their houses.
Here he is chopping down a tree:
 His loot at the end of the night:
(apparently our neighborhood is the place to go for full-sized candybars!)
And this guy was dressed in his moose pajamas:
(Buck stayed in the Ergo and we kept each other warm. He slept half of the time and watched B the other half, taking notes for when he can trick or treat next year)

Crazy that we will have two trick or treaters next year!
I can't wait!

(See Bennett as a gnome last halloween here)