We did celebrate Halloween :)

Here are some pics of the girls on Halloween. We started off by going to Albany to trick-o-treat at the businesses downtown on the Saturday before the 31st. This was our first time and we loved it. On the actual holiday itself, we hit up the businesses in downtown Corvallis during the day and then went around our neighborhood that night. It was so much fun. We could hardly keep up with Taylor who was running from door to door saying "Trick or Treat, Happy Halloween, Go Beavers" it was pretty fun!!

They had the building open where they are creating all the animals for the massive carousel that will go in somewhere in Albany. It was amazing to see all the people carving and painting these. This is Rilee on her bear.
And Taylor on her Bunny.

Cutting Up!!!

In November we went to Roseburg to celebrate Bryce's birthday. While we were there, we loaded my mom and dad's truck with a load of wood.

This summer, my sister cut a bunch of trees cut down on her property. We had huge logs that needed to be split and then stacked in the truck.

As you can see Taylor was in charge of running the splitter and Rilee headed up the stacking. It was so cute!! It eventually started to pour down rain on us, but they stayed out there until the very end...what a couple of troopers! After we were done, we all headed in for a warm bath/shower, which was much needed, as you can tell by Rilee's face :)

Their jackets were ruined with pitch and mud, but it was totally worth it!!

Cowboy Girl

Rilee declared on our way home, "I'm a Cowboy Girl!"

I think they liked it :)

What's up with that name?

So people have been asking where the name Alston Jamaal Young comes from. Basically, our boy will be named after three important men in our familiy.

For starters, Jamaal is my (Jason's) middle name. All of the children in our family have names that come from family members. Taylor has Mandy's middle name - Marie. Rilee has my sister Cherie's middle name - Nicole (My other sister Gena would have killed us if we inflicted the name Louise on another child). Since our older girl has Mandy's middle name we thought it would be appropriate for our oldest boy to have mine.

The last name is also mine of course but before it was mine it was my father's. My dad was the only child of his parents Cheatum Young and Ella Belle Young. When Dad was a little boy Cheatum was killed. His mother remarried and took her new husbands last name. Therefore, all of Dad's siblings have a different last name making him the only Young of the bunch. Our son will be the first to be born with Young surname of my Dad's posterity. My sister has two boys but their name is Mabee. Our baby boy represents the carrying on of the family name.

Finally the first name - Alston. We like last names that work as first names for our kids. Any of you who have heard the name Alston before probably know it only as a last name. In fact it is the last name of the man who married my Grandma Ella (Dad's mom). His name is Eugene Alston. This is a man who when he married my grandmother took my dad aside shortly thereafter and told him that my dad was not his step-son and he was not his step-father. He didn't believe in things like that. He told him that he was now his son and always would be. He kept his word but that wouldn't surprise anybody who knows him at all. Grandma Ella passed away last month and I had the privelege of spending an entire day with Gene Alston which is a rare opportunity for me since I have always lived a continent apart from him. He is one of the best, most honorable men I know or could imagine. He is definately worthy of being my son's namesake.

So there it is: Alston Jamaal Young. No pressure kid.

It's a...

BOY!!!!

Alston Jamaal Young is right on schedule with his April 7th due date! Jason's just a TAD bit excited. The girls are slowly warming up to the idea. Taylor's first question was if we could see if it was brown or white :) Gotta love it!!

Let the shopping begin!

Bling Bling!

We Love Swimming