Fall phone dump.

Fall 2013.  Aka a bum load of pictures. No particular order. 

All occured in the Autumn of  2013.

We figured out a remedy to Cache's disdain for 3 hour church meetings in an uncomfortable shirt and tie...

Let the boy ride his bike!  

 I hope all his problems in life are linked with a solution as easy as this. 

 * * *

 Devin just ordering a "hagabur." That's all Gage's restaurant makes.

 Naomi, ah this amazing girl. I just admire her strengths so much.

She schedules daddy daughter dates and always picks Kneaders where she orders a chocolate tart.

 Twilight Sparkle had to be taken to the pony doctor to be restitched several times this fall. I kept leaving her in stores and really started to resent this pony intruding on my rare alone time.

 School pictures. 

I love my freckled faced, toothless, dimpled boy.

Dream come true. :)

We are a family of bikers now.

(Devin's dream come true)

 Someday I'll actually get to ride my bike instead of push him and adjust his helmet every two point five seconds, then carry his bike and him the 4 blocks back to our house.

 He is my baby. I baby him. 

You just can't say no to this chubby face squished in his helmet.

 Notes I find in Cache's back pack:

Still continues to be the silliest kid in class. Luckily his teacher is silly too and really appreciates him.

Such a relief. He has soared from being the bottom of the class to grade levels ahead in reading. She has nothing but good to say about him and our Cache is back to his happy happy self at home. 

Prayers answered.

One day we found the wiener mobile and checked that off our bucket list.

This is me "directing" Devin to take a picture of the Wiener mobile and not just us. 

For some reason Devin loves it when I scold him for silly things. I think he does it on purpose just so he can get me mad and laugh at me.

When I pay bills, these two have to pop in and hang for awhile.

 Homemade pizza, movie and popcorn. Every Friday night here at the Orton house hold.

Lesson learned. If you don't decorate for holidays and seasons in a timely manner, Naomi will. In a matter of minutes, she hauled the decoration bin up stairs, unloaded it, built this contraption/tower and declared it:

"The most beautiful thing she has ever made."

She is known in this house for her busy body gene. She can have an entire floor torn to pieces or "decorated" in the time it takes me to brush my teeth. It's truly exhausting but astounding. Orton through and through.

* * *

 General Conference came and went. What a wonderful weekend that always is.

 Breakfast burritos in mass production.

Friends, coloring, naps and soul filling teachings that I look forward to every 6 months!!!

 Getting energy out at the park in between sessions.

Fall means footsie jammies.

Freshly bathed and jammied up. Not much I love more than that combo.

Especially on a chubby baby boy who likes to kiss his mama.

A lot.

 Devin's sister Julie taught me to make apple sauce! Major step for this girl, who pretty much detests food making. (Love food eating.) Mostly because I totally, totally stink and am cursed in the kitchen. I'm sure I hold some kind of record for kitchen fires. 

Apple sauce was a success and the cousins ran wild on Julie's "farm."

The cousins eating apple strings for their snack.

Cache and Kyle were missing most of the afternoon, which was kinda okay, you know, as long as they weren't bugging anyone. After awhile I went to find them. 

ME: "Hey Cache and Kyle what are you guys up to?"

Them: "Just digging our own grave."

Me: "I can't think of a more fitting activity for you two boys." 

Them: "What?"

 Princesses don't bed down to pick up apples! Thats what brothers are for. He loves to follow all her "plans." How many years will this last?

I hear the ice cream truck and roll my eyes and groan, simultaneously Devin goes tearing through the house yelling "Iiiiiiicreaam!" and looking for spare cash..

I am married to a forever child. Lucky kids.

More fallness.

 Nay: "Daddy's stuck in the tree."

Cache: "Oh brother not again."

 Can't pick my favorite.

The Greenbelt. One of our regular destinations.

 To practice our pirate skills. 

Above: Devin the awesome pirate.

Below: Amie, the awkward pirate.

Woody found Woody at Wal-mart, and was a bit happy about that.

Sometimes I don't burn things.

Baby Lily came to visit! I love this baby. (Sarah's baby)

And finally after waiting "all his life" to be a scout, it finally happened.

Never have you seen such excitement. This boy got a hold of a scout pamphlet when he was 3 years old and lived in St. Louis. He kept that thing for years, looking it every night after I put him to bed and asking me daily when he would get to go to scouts. It seemed like a lifetime away then.

 He and his friend Bryson will pour over their scout books after I've picked them up from Scouts, and he is ON me to figure out how to sew on these patches.  I have no clue what half the words he is even talking about.  A whole new world. Oh boy.

  Before I forget this story. Cache and I were up late watching the Olympic opening ceremonies. When they announced that they would be doing the National Anthem, Cache who I thought was asleep next to me, jumped up and bolted for his room. Half a second later he was back next to me frantically buttoning up his scout shirt! Then he stood and saluted while started playing a song he didn't recognize.. the RUSSIAN national anthem.  He sulked back to his room, while I cried tears of laughter. Such a funny boy. Man I love this kid.

Devin and Amie turn 9

I wrote a mushy post in the months leading up to our anniversary, buuuut I don't feel like gushing that on a blog right now. Maybe I'm getting shy. I hope not. Either way, Devin and I have been married for 9 years! It hasn't been an easy 9 years. Well harder than some, easier than some others. It was hard for us.  But when I focus on just he and I? That bond between us?

Easy pie.
I accredit it all to him.
One of the best marriage advices I heard once is that marriage is never 50/50. It usually is 99/1. I can attest that Devin has been that 99% for so long. We finally reached a point where he built me for so long, so many years, I was able to step up and be the 99 when he needed to be the one 1%.  Actually I think I've never done more than 75% but it is a lot more than one percent I use to only be able to give. That's why I call him "my Johnny Lingo." But that's another mushy post for another time.

Just making out, while our kids jump the freezing river. 

Often, it seems on days when one of us feels on top of the world, the other one has the worst day ever. So we feed on the others vision of hope and excitement to pull the other out of it.  Its weird how that happens with us. And yes sometimes we both come together at the end of the day and we've both had a terrible time.
Those are the days we save doughnuts for.
Or a fizzy drink and a funny show wrapped in each others arms in our "bear blanket." The same blanket  Devin use to wrap us both in on cold winter nights in Provo and walk me back to my dorm.
And if our bad days drag on and turn into bad weeks and months... we get out of town ASAP. Anywhere. Find a lake and sit on the edge and throw rocks in it, or find a mountain town and buy a burger. Just anywhere to pull us out of our 'world' we are so wrapped up in.

Anniversary movie and dinner date 2013

We are figuring one another out each and every week that goes by.
We still have a lot of figuring out to do.
I'm so glad.
It gives me a high when a piece of his personality jumps out, that I have never seen before, and maybe he himself has never seen before either.  Or the look in his eye when I can tell I've surprised him and he is seeing a new side to me.  Even the little things like when I brought home a pair of Timberland socks  a few months ago and he admiringly looked at them and said, "Did you know that is my favorite brand?"  No. I didn't!  Ha. I just love things like that.

I get absolutely giddy  imagining the life ahead of us.
The adventures we want to take.
The time we want to spend.
The things we hope to accomplish.
The laughs we will share.

Running in the Oregon rain. April 2013

With Devin there is always plenty of laughter. Even when its inappropriate. ha! Undoubtedly there will be big mistakes, shared heartache and trials too. BUT, I plan for the good and dream of the exciting.

Luau in Papeete 2013

I know we'll hang onto each other when bad times come.

Boise foothills date night 2013

 We are very different, in fact opposite in so many ways, but alike in just a few ways that it works.  I honestly think the differences between us work towards our harmony more than the similarities.

Drinking fizzy drinks infront of the fire in our basement,

 documenting our 31 year old profiles.

Here is to a bright future ahead.

Boat to Moorea 2013

Making memories, forgiving each other daily, being a team and being totally in-love. I guess I ended up writing a mushy post after all. Ah geez, I can't help myself. Oh well. Happy Anniversary to my Devin.

"Our song" of the year:

These guys were playing live in the Hotel Lobby at the Luau in Tahiti! First time we ever heard the song. Had no idea how famous they were! We just loved the song and sang it as we drove around that beautiful island . AAAAH most magic memories of my life! Devin's been singing it ever since. :)

Christmas 2013

My parents headed south to Arizona and Devin's parents are on a mission... 

So we were Christmas Orphans this year.  

We still had a sweet little Christmas here. Calm and Cozy. 

Devin's Family always did a take it easy type of Christmas Eve and a big dinner on Christmas day.

My family did the opposite.  So we combined our traditions and took it easy both days. 

 Devin did cook a turkey Christmas Eve and we just formed our meals around that for the next week. It was nice. Devin did spend most of Christmas day making a soup out of the turkey bones.  It was delish! And he was pretty proud of it. :) And according to his studies kept us healthy this season. 

We had Christmas Eve with Dylan and Sara(Devin's bro) and their 3 boys.

It was.. energetic.  I have a video of the Nativity-turned-dance party, but here is the only picture I took.

Naomi being the only girl in the Nativity was Mary and wanted no one else but her Daddy to be Joseph. :) 

Buffet dinner of cheese balls, turkey, egg nog, popcorn and stuff like that.. and we played some fun board games. It was a nice night. We tracked Santa on the Internet, Devin helped Naomi put out her reindeer food she made of oats and sprinkles, then went to bed.

  Santa Came!

 Mrs. Clause convinced Santa to move our tree to the basement in the wee hours of the night.

The usually sharp Mrs. Clause had one too many cookies, and missed that the tree is 10ft  and the basement ceilings are 8ft.. resulting in spilled water and some hedge trimming  at 1:30 am! Good thing Santa is a saint :) haha. 

Funny funny memories. For them I mean.

Cache only asked for an Ipod touch.  He got a go-cart instead. 

Some of his other spoils were: a rainbow loom and Percy Jackson books.

No complaints

This girl got what she wanted. An Elsa doll.

Non intentionally, Gage had a very train-y Christmas. He just loves them!

In case you are wondering about Gage's stocking... I ordered it before he was born. He was our "St. Louis baby" and we thought that's what his name would be. :) We still call him our little Louie at home. So for now we'll keep it.

Santa hit the button right on the nose with this train. Gage was the last one to wake up around 8:30 and he came down, spotted the train, and began yelling "A choo choo train!" Then he got down to business playing with it yelling "CHOOCH!" As it went round and round. He was so intense about his train you couldn't even talk to him or touch him he just was zoomed in on that thing. 

It was pure magic in my book. :)

Then he figured out the train would still run OFF the track. And that made all our lives a little easier since we weren't having to re-track it every 3 seconds.

Just adoring his choo choo.

Daddy gifts. 

OH wait, Santa brought me something too! Surprised me to tears. OH I love it. 

No I'm not trying to show I'm pregnant like all my siblings thought when they saw this picture. I'm just trying to balance on the couch and look good... it's a hard job.

Devin was not forgotten.   The kids got him a Costco Pecan pie! They really picked it out themselves and wrapped it and hid it in the garage. 

He also got some Nike dressier clothes he can wear in the office and to sporting events.

The rest of the day:

I will never forget Naomi zooming off in the go-cart in her little fur coat, Cache's helmet 3 years too big, and her pink gloves.  As we were instructing her on where the gas and break were she just TOOK OFF. And then she just kept going.   I was so scared and surprised I couldn't stop laughing and running, and yelling: "Devin get her! Get her!" Even though neither of us could ever catch her.  Legally she is too young to be driving this thing. It is really fast. And she figured out how to spin cookies and flip herself around and would giggle and giggle. No fear at all. My kids are crazy!  

Nay's first time playing pick up sticks. 

My parents showed up so we could shauffer them to the airport. 

It was fun to have them even if it was for just a tiny bit.

Gage colored himself to sleep.

That's it. Christmas 2013.
 First successful Christmas as Orphans.