A Random Photo Post, just because...

This is Alyssa Belle posing with her very first Crayola Color Wonder Creation.
I had been hearing Moms rave about the Crayola Wonder Markers and when I saw they had a Tinkerbell book, of course Alyssa HAD to have it!! She loves it because she's able to unleash her artistic side and I love it because there's no mess for me to clean up!! ;) My little girl is growing up so fast and I love to see her take an interest in art like this. :)




Here's one of Alyssa & Daddy, gaming together. :)
I thought it was such a cute daddy daughter moment. And if you'll notice, they have the exact same look on their faces as they play! Trav was playing a very 'kid-appropriate' game and Alyssa liked it because she had a controller of her own and she pretty much enjoys doing anything as long as it's with Daddy. It's so awesome to see the two of them together like this because she really is her father's daughter, taking after him so much including his love for video games, books and the outdoors. :)



This one was taken at Silas' 8th Birthday Party, it's one of his friends, along with Kayala and Alyssa waiting for the Pinata to come crashing down. K-bear and Lyss are such great friends and enjoy hanging out together every chance they get! It's been so great to watch them grow together and when they don't think anyone's looking they can be exceptionally cute, as shown here. :)

It was a great birthday party and everyone had a blast! Auntie Ashley ended up retrieving all the candy bags and distributing the candy evenly amongst the kids, which I thought was a great idea. :)



Well, that's all for today... I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and are enjoying Fall even though the weather around here has decided to hold onto summer for a bit longer, Darn weather! I'm so ready for fall/winter!! Not a lot on the agenda this weekend. I'm still trying to take it as easy as possible and hopefully won't have any more contraction scares until we get closer to December! Travis, Alyssa, Olivia & I all send you our love!
Take care,

The Berk Bunch @ the Beach

Since I actually have some free time today and a computer that works, I wanted to post some pictures of my family on their trip to the Coast over the summer. Here are a few of Uncle Geno, Aunt Kayli, Uncle Brandon, Aunt Nicole, Uncle Christopher, Aunt Katarina, and Uncle Nathaniel. (My Brothers & Sisters) Looks like they had a blast!! :)

Geno, Christopher, Brandon, Nicole, Kayli & Nate and Katarina in front.

Playing in the Sand :)

Growing up so fast!!

Brandon, Chris, Kayli, Katarina, Nate, Grandpa Berk & Nicole

We miss you!

With them living all the way up in Washington, we definitely don't get to see as much of them as we'd like and we miss them dearly, so I was super excited to get pictures from Mom and wanted to share them with all of you.
Lots of Love,

Shots & Red Robin...

Alyssa got her Flu shot (and a couple others she was due for) on Tuesday and I just wanted to write to tell you all how awesome she did!! It felt like a milestone of sorts, because when the nurse called her name, she stopped playing, got up, walked right to the nurse and said, "Hi, I'm Alyssa." The Nurse said, "Hi Alyssa, Follow me." So she followed her to the back, and with very little prompting she stepped on the scale and stood at the height chart, all on her own! I just stood back and felt a little un-needed as I watched my two-year-old go through the motions like such a big girl!

Later, when the Dr. came in the room Alyssa continued to amaze me. She introduced HERSELF to the Dr. and they shook hands, (since this was the first time that she had seen this particular doctor.) They talked and joked, all the while Alyssa cooperated perfectly. Everything checked out great and the Dr. was very happy with Alyssa's growth and development.

I was happy to hear that Alyssa seems to have filled out a bit and isn't on the tiny end of the charts anymore. She was in the 60th percentile for weight, whereas in the past she's been around the 20-30th percentiles. However, she is a little shorty like her Mommy, coming in at the 25th percentile for height. But hey, great things come in little packages, so we're not complaining a bit!

After the check-up, it was time for SHOTS. I must first mention, that this was the very first time Daddy has not been there for shots (because the appointment was very last minute) so I was dreading the shots part, A LOT! But, Alyssa was given 3 shots and hardly cried a bit! The nurse had her sing 'Twinkle Twinkle' and she made it through the entire song with no tears until the final shot was given. Then she got a really sad look on her face and I about bawled!! I did my best to suck it up, held her in my arms and seemed to get more choked up than she did... Stupid Hormones!!

Alyssa, got a sticker and later we took her out to her favorite restaurant (Red Robin) for dinner where she got to meet up with her buddy, Red Robin!! It was a good day. Hope you all had a great week!
Love,


Here are the pics :)

Hugging her Buddy, Red Robin :)

Dancing with Red :)

"YAY!"

Labor Day Weekend

We spent Labor Day weekend @ Vicki & Jordan's in the valley. Mom, Alyssa, Olivia* & I headed over Friday afternoon and got there just in time to pick up Toryn from school. It was so great to see the big First Grader and he was thrilled to see his cousin Alyssa Belle waiting for him outside the Elementary school. Shame on me for not having the camera out, it would have made for the perfect kodak moment, TJ picking up Alyssa and yelling to all his classmates, "Look, this is my cousin!!" I have to remember to always have the camera ready!!

Travis and Dad headed over after they got off work Friday night and so Mom, the kids and I just ordered a pizza and hung out around the house, while Vicki and Jordan went to get her Tattoo touched up. Then Saturday morning we woke up to RAIN!!! Typical weather for the valley, but it really put a damper on our plans to go to the State Fair. :(

So, we adjusted our plans and decided to head to the mall instead! We had an awesome day at Washington Square Mall. Alyssa got a new Tinkerbell hoodie from the Disney store and some Tinkerbell PJ's. Trav got a new video game, a really creepy one that he plays after Alyssa and I go to bed- too graphic!! ;) And I got some much needed maternity jeans and a very pretty maternity sweater to get me through the fall/winter. When I was standing in the checkout line at Motherhood, I realized this is probably going to be the outfit I end up wearing to the HOSPITAL!!!

Then while the guys did their thing, Mom, Vicki, Alyssa & I headed to Macy's and Vicki & I decided to be "Stacy & Clinton" and put Mom through a little "What Not To Wear" make-over. We just started grabbing clothes off the racks and putting together outfits, then we shoved Mom in the dressing room and made her model each outfit. It was soooo much fun!! All she was really searching for were a couple tops and we ended up finding a couple that she looked great in. We decided that we'll definitely have to do that again sometime and take turns! :)

After we all got pretty shopped out, we left the mall and headed over to Chuck.e.Cheese. Travis and I really wanted to take the family out to dinner and thought that would be the perfect place to go! We all had a blast especially TJ & Alyssa! Here are a bunch of pictures of the "kids" being kids ;)



Then on Sunday, everyone (minus Jordan who had to stay home to take care of a sick puppy) headed to the Evergreen Aviation Museum and spent the day checking out all the neat aircrafts they have on display, including The Spruce Goose! It was a lot of fun for everyone and we took a bunch of pictures there too. But for some reason they aren't wanting to show up in my post. I'll have to revise this later, but seeing as it's been almost a month since our trip, I figured I better get this post up already!! ;)

Sunday night we went back to Vicki's house, filled up on munchies and sundaes while we relaxed and watched movies. We woke up on Monday had a big breakfast and then we had to get on the road and head back to Central Oregon. It ended up being a beautiful day and we had a lovely drive home on the back country roads, even stopping at a farm stand for some fresh valley fruits and veggies. (Figures the weather wouldn't cooperate until the day we have to leave, but we had a great time anyway!)

So, that was our 3 day weekend. As always, it wasn't nearly long enough and went by way too fast! We look forward to seeing everyone again next month for the Halloween Baby Shower Celebration!! Hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day weekend too!! Love and miss you all.

Belly Pics!!