Braces...

Mac Attack has his braces in place now...

He really does have a mouth full of metal! He has braces and the Herps appliance still in...so there is a LOT of metal in his mouth.

Poor Kid...not sure what he is going to eat for the next year or so!

Yikes!

Happy Birthday to Alec and Kate

On Saturday we celebrated Alec and Kate's birthdays. It has been a while since we have all been together...everyone has busy and conflicting schedules, so it was VERY NICE to have us all together.

We missed Sydney. She is in Mississippi at school. We hope to see her over the Holidays!

 Alec has the "Potter" curse...closed eyes in most pictures. LOL!

Family Time is a Blessing!

Growing Up

All my kiddos are changing and growing WAY to FAST!

Lilly Belle is 7...well, if you ask her, she is 7 and-a-half. She is in second grade, playing flag football, doing girl scouts, gymnastics (soon) and chasing her brothers around! She just had her Well Child Yearly check-up. She is 49" tall and weighs 50 lbs. She is really starting to "stretch" out...she is gettin' some long legs! 

She is FINALLY eating like a regular kid should and trying new foods...whew, the whole eating/food thing has been a struggle from the very beginning! She is a funny, quirky kid. I love her laugh! She is always a light in my day.

Our Lil' Griff Man is shooting up like a weed! He is almost 3 (Dec 1st)

We should have named him Bam-Bam...but for those of you that knew my Dad, you know that the name "Griff" has the same meaning as Bam-Bam does!

His is FREAKISHLY strong. He had a Well-Child visit too and the pediatrician was shocked at his strength.

He is a hand-full, no doubt...BUT we love him to pieces and he keeps each day very interesting! We have just about zero down time with him.

He's already climbing walls, fences and trees that are way too tall, always has skinned-up knees, he will be riding his bike way too fast very soon, he's probably going to end up with something in a cast just about every summer...ahhh, yes...we have our hands full, but wouldn't change it for anything.

He is 37.5" tall and weighs 32.5 lbs. He is starting to talk more, not a lot, but more...which is a great "relief" to me. I was starting to get a bit worried. I think that he is just very busy all the time and doesn't want to slow down, even for a second, to spit out any words. He's capable and he's smart, so it will come.

Mac Attack is growing up all too fast as well. He is a 6th grader now...to see his latest picture, scroll down to the next post.

Love to you all and thanks for reading!

Changes...

When I look at this picture...I see just how fast Mac is growing and changing.

WOW...

the teenage years are just around the corner. I can't believe how fast time has gone by.

He is such a great kid and Pat and I are lucky parents.

Keep up the good work Mac Attack.

We think you are just awesome and love you with all we have!
Football Stats for 2012-
Height- 5'
Weight- 88lbs
Position- Wide Receiver and Line Backer

Lilly Belle is Playing Football!

Yes, you read the title correctly...Lilly is playing Flag Football this year!

She had her first practice and game this weekend...

SHE LOVES IT!!!!

She is also the only girl on her team, but it doesn't bother her in the least.

She plowed through all those boys no matter what their size.

She came SO CLOSE to scoring a touchdown too.

It was very exciting! I have no doubt that she will be scoring some touchdowns at her up-coming games. 

She is #3.

GO LILLY!

When she almost scored her touchdown, I got so excited...I screamed "That's my Girl" really loud.

Everyone was cracking up. I loved watching her play!

 Her friend Waylon (Destiny's boy) is on her team. He is the smallest guy out there, but one of the most determined!! He would not leave the ball at all...he was as glued to it as he could be.

So Cute.

 So, we are really soaking up a lot of football this year! They both have practices during the week.

Mac's games are on Saturdays and Lilly's on Sundays...whew...that's a lot of ball!

Another win for Sandy Red Team!

This week we played Mollala. They played a great game and all the boys

 worked together to win by a big lead.

Mac played most of the game and held his positions well.

Go Sandy RED!

Let's Read!

Lilly has been reading like CRAZY since school started. She has always enjoyed reading, but it seems she is really soaking it up since school started!

The past few evenings Griff has grabbed a book and joined her. It's very sweet and also GREAT because he hardly ever sits still- especially to read a book! Maybe this is a sign that he will at some point "calm" down a bit.

I love and cherish these moments so much.

Corn Maze

We went to The Oktoberfest on Friday evening. We had never been before I wanted to check out all the booths and stop by to say hi to Alyssa and shop her Scentsy booth. It ended up being a very short outing because Griff was having a rough evening.

He did seem to enjoy the hay maze...but it certainly didn't take him long too find his way out of it!

Maybe I should set one of these up in our yard...LOL.

An OMG Griff Moment!

I know you all love my Griff stories...this was a true OMG moment. 

In the Potter house we say Oh My Goodness, not Oh My God. (just to clarify)

Anyhow-

He was in the back yard playing away. I heard him fuss a little, but knew it wasn't a true cry...just a complaint. I shrugged it off and finished putting away just the few dishes I had left to do.

I went to out to check in on him...

When I first saw him, from a distance...I thought he was bleeding from his mouth. It was all down his mouth, his fingers were "soaked" red and he even had red running down his legs. I ran towards him to discover that it was just a red marker!

Yep...he somehow got a hold of a bright red marker and ate it. 

AHHHHHHHHHHH....at least it was just a marker this time and not a dead bird.

OMG.

Back To SCHOOL...

Well, we have the first week of school under our belt...WoW.

Lilly is a 2nd grader and Mac is a 6th grader.

GULP...

I really need my babies' to stop growing soooo fast.

 

They are both excited for school to be in full swing.

Here's to a great year at OTPA!

Just for fun...here is a link to last year's "First Day of School" photo-

http://www.potterluv.blogspot.com/2011/09/first-week-of-new-school-year.html

They have grown just a tad-

Squeezing it ALL in...

Labor Day weekend is always "bitter-sweet" for me. It's a reminder that school starts in only a few short days and that our schedules will be drastically changing...I am always bouncing around lots of grand ideas for our last summer vacation weekend. I had been searching the web for room rates, places to go, things to do, etc and it all seemed like a bit of a frenzy.  No place felt right and everything is always crowded.  I took it as a sign and decided to stay here and fill our 3 days with little things. I think we did pretty darn great.

We enjoyed hanging together, lounging together, eating meals together, doing some "grunt" work around the house, a few movies, organizing school supplies and Wild Wood Park!

Wild Wood Park is awesome and it's only about 25 minutes from here on Mt. Hood. We took our bikes and the bike cart for Griff. We spent several hours riding all the trails, enjoying the river banks and playing on the playground. 

 Mac even practiced a bit of Karate Kid...

 ...and Lilly did some gymnastics.

A super fabulous 3 days together. A great end to this beautiful summer. I am actually really happy that we wound up scrapping all the "fancy" plans and hung here,  it was really all meant to be just as it was.

Hello September... a brand new month. A bittersweet change,  the end of summer is upon us, school is so very near...  (exhale) 

  I am not particularly happy to see you if I am to be honest. Summer was grand! We were gifted so many warm sunny summer days here this year.

September-  be gentle with us please...  we are just not quite ready for Fall yet.