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Star Wars, Battle of the Siblings Coming to a Theater Near You

Our Mission Statement

The Cavanaugh Family mission is to be a healthy and happy Christian family while preserving a fun family atmosphere.

We will accomplish this by applying God's truths to our lives, being faithful, loving, kind, and compassionate to one another and having a lot of laughs.

We will consistently strive to improve the way we walk in our Christian faith through personal spiritual growth and studies, fellowship with others and by being in God's word and prayer. Also, by being silly, forgiving, and finding time to just be ourselves.

Our goal is to be the best family we can be and show God's love in our community in which we live and to be a "World Class" Christian John Deere Family.

By accomplishing our goals, we will be able to support the activities that we love the most, like riding our John Deere tracker, visiting the John Deere store, wearing our John Deere attire all the while making ourselves fit right into our small town community of BD.

This is our Mission Statement.

Be who you want to be...

We got this table off of Craiglist for FREE. Yes, that is right FREE. I wanted something more country for our kitchen and this was a price I could not pass up. I figured the kids would trash it over the years and then one day I would sand and repaint it and recover the seats.

That one day just came. I was so tired of looking at the stains on the chairs it grossed me out and I am sure our guests. I was trying to decide what to do when my mom suggested we recover them. In order to save money on fabric we went to Goodwill. I decided to let each of the kids pick out fabric for their own chair. Reilly of course got the "camo" or "hunting" fabric "jus like my dad". Liam went with the Transformers (his new favorite, it changes every week) and Natalie went with Dora. I used some fabric I had gotten over a year ago to make aprons out of and the kids decorated a chair for Mema with hand prints. Dad's is not done just yet because I want some Oregon Duck fabric for it.

This was such a fun project. I even got vinyl. Yes,vinyl. I swore I would never get it, but I figured this way I could just wipe them down and then one day I could replace them with something more grown up.

The kids LOVED this idea and think their chairs are the "cooles".

Just another crafty day at the Cavanaugh house.

What is new...

Liam ~ loving school and having so much fun learning. He loves his teacher Mrs. Evans. He misses soccer and being with us during the day. He loves to be creative and do all sorts of arts and crafts (hmmmm who does that sound like?). He also loves to read and write. He has made lots of new friends and is growing like crazy. He has grown 2 in since August 13th.




Reilly ~ Is back from his trip to Oregon with Mema and is settling in nicely. He had so much fun and did much better then I expected. I guess he loved all that attention from the ladies in the family. He loved hanging with Grandpa Chucker and I LOVED that he got a chance to spend time with him and grandma. He will remember this trip for a long time. He is learning to write a lot and loves to pretend and tell stories. He is really into John Deere trackers right now and anything John Deere. He has one t-shirt that we have to wash daily!




Natalie ~ Loves to be naked still and changes her clothes like 9x a day. She is potty trained and loving being a big girl. She is a mama's girl although she really likes to hang with dad while he is working outside. She is always on the move. I think it is another Grandma Joyce, Mema and me. She never sits for more then a minute before she is off to another task or into something else. She loves her friend Will. She is so happy and hilarious. It is hard to capture it all and she is growing sooooo incredibly fast.





Jason ~ Starts a new job on Monday. He will be working as a Project Manager for Triamp Group . He will be working Cavanaugh Automotive on the side and he has a guy coming to work for him at the shop. The doors are not closing as of now. Business has been really slow the past two summers and he had to make a change. We have been so fortunate to own our own business and to be able to afford to live on one income. God has continued to bless us and will continue in the future. He is trying to find time to hunt and watch football but it is hard to fit in with all the work he is doing. He heads to Oregon for a game on the 11th. He also lead worship at church last Sunday. It was so great to see the Jason I married 11 1/2 yrs ago up there singing away. I hope God allows him to do it again soon.




Me ~ As always busy, busy, busy. I am finding time to workout - yahoo! I take a Stroller Strides class three times a week with Reilly and Natalie. It is a one hour class with circuit and strength training with the kids in the stroller. It is so much fun and the kids love it. I am busy scrapbooking, doing MOPs, playgroups with friends and just hanging out. It has been an interesting start to Fall. I enjoy the time I have with Reilly and Natalie but I miss Liam. I am heading to San Diego in Oct to train to be a fitness instructor with Stroller Strides. My neighbor & friend Jenni bought a franchisee and I am helping her get going. I am so excited and hope to make it a business of my own one day.


Mema ~ I could not get away without mentioning her since she has been at our house for the past 2-3 weeks (off & on). Lets just say I have not thrown any chicken nuggets at her, she has not yelled at me and cried, we have not had any major melt downs so far so good. Yes, she drives me crazy sometimes, BUT I love her and she is such a BIG help. She is heading home on Sunday after being here a week, in Oregon a week and back here a week. Goobs came over this past week and took her out on a date. I guess she loves being retired (semi).

Brown Bear Brown Bear by Liam Cavanaugh

First Day of School

Kindergarten Orientation

Liam had his Kindergarten orientation. His teacher is Mrs. Evans and she is kind and very funny. We got to see the classroom and just kind of warm up to the idea. Liam was off and running while I sat back and tears welled up in my eyes. I was fine until we walked into the classroom and then I almost lost it. I gained my composure and I was the only one crying (is that weird).

Liam got to sit at his desk and there were about 10 kids there today. BD Elementary offers full day Kindergarten so half the class came this morning. They will come tomorrow for a full day (10 kids) and then Liam will go on Thursday full day with the other 10 kids. Friday, is his first full day with all 20 kids.

I took him and Reilly for a little treat at the Bakery. Liam is so excited he can hardly stand it. I am sure once he realizes that it is all day every day he may resist a bit, but for now he is ready to go!

The Apple of My Eye

My big brother Liam loves to play with me. He always plays dolls with me and house. He showed me how to paint my baby dolls toes and fingers today with markers. Then we gave the babies green eyes and I colored all over the babies legs. It was a lot of fun and mom was not even mad, until she realized what we had done. I love my big brother...I hope Reilly will play dolls with me when Liam goes to school.

BD Labor Days

It was a great Labor Day Weekend. We spent the weekend over at the Hood Canal with friends at their family cabin. We went claming and crabing and spent one day on the lake jet skiing and fishing. The kids had a blast! I forgot my camera so no pictures...ugh! We came home Sunday night to beat all the traffic.

The kids and I headed up today to the BD Labor Day Parade. They had so much fun getting a lot of candy and snow cones. Natalie mostly stayed in the stroller as she did not like all the noise. The boys loved the John Deere trackers and the cool cars. I of course, loved getting to meet and shake hands with Dino Rossi.

What we have been up too...

Natalie is potty trained. Yahoo! It is so great and she has literally done it on her own. It is like the light clicked and she was ready.

Liam is getting ready for Kindergarten.

I am sad that the weather already feels like Fall.

Jason is working as usual to support us and pay all the bills. He might be going Dove hunting this next week and not sure on early season this year.

Reilly is learning to write his name and loving that he is like his big brother. Although, Liam always makes sure to mention HE knows more. :O)

I have been excersing FINALLY 4 days per week pretty consistently. Now if I could just stop eating so dang much. I start a supplement program next week in hopes to getting slim before our friends wedding in October.

Summer is ending fast. We have one last trip to Hood Canal with some friends over Labor Day weekend. The years are flying by...I can hardly beleive that summer is almost over. Ugh!

A Political Mission

Mom, daughter, sister-in-law, friend, wife, grand daughter and now Political Activist. I have taken on the mission (because I need more to do) to advocate for our neighborhood against the rezoning of our property from R9600 (4 parcel per acre) to Urban (1 parcel per acre) as part of the City of Black Diamonds updates to the Comprehensive Plan and Development Regulations mandated by the Growth Management Act by the State of Washington. That was a mouth full!

I have petitioned our neighbors and presenting this to the Planning Commission. Now the Planning Commission has moved forward to the City Council with the CP and DR. So I have sent e-mails to all City Council members and a copy of the petition and letter. The GMA of Washington does NOT require a city to have Urban Reserve in its CP and DR. The City of Black Diamond is just choosing to have it.

What it means for us as property owners is unclear. So far it takes away our rights to build on our property, subdivide, or use our land for anything we want. It will probably raise our property taxes and lower the market value of our homes.

Urban Reserve is a designated area that a city by definition zones for future use, but may not be limited to. This to me sounds like the city is planning on limiting us on our use so that they can use it for something. What that is no one will explain.

It is interesting to say the least that three months after we have been dealing with King County about the land use to test and possibly use our property to upgrade the sewage conveyance system (putting a pump house, a odor eliminator and a utilities access road on our property) that the city is now deeming our properties as Urban Reserve. The same property owners that are in the works with King County and the same property owners who are fighting King County.

Something fishy is going on...and well I am getting to the bottom of it.

That is my cause.

Oregon Coast

Last Wednesday Jason and I embarked on a 5 day trip to the Oregon Coast with our 5 1/2 yr old, 4 yr old, 2 yr old and our 2 dogs (8 and 3). Our trip down was beautiful and actually quit fun. The kids watch a movie and slept most of the way (Thank the Lord for portable DVD players).
We took a long way to the coast and ended up in Lincoln City around 5pm. Of course our first stop was MO's for some famous chowder and seafood. The kids had hot dogs as they have yet to acquire the fine taste for seafood.

Then it was off to Beverly Beach (7 miles north of Newport, OR). We love Beverly Beach and our camp site was really nice and private which was great for the dogs. We got all unpacked and the kids wanted to go to the beach immediately.

So the kids and I headed to the beach and enjoyed the Oregon sand (there is no comparison unless of course you are in the Caribbean). They rolled in the sand, covered themselves in the sand, ran in the water, and just had a blast.
Day Two, we enjoyed a day at the beach as it was sunny and warm. Then it was off to camp for some lunch and a drive into Newport for Mommies favorite coffee at Dutch Brothers. The kids had smoothies and I thoroughly enjoyed my favorite drink the "Almond Joy". Jason thinks I am crazy, but I just LOVE that place.


Day Three, another day at the beach and playing. We rode bikes, played football and chalk on the road. We headed into Newport again to Yaquina Light House and to check out the tide pools. This was a lot of fun! We ate lots of yummy food and of course we roasted Smore's. Uncle Mike came down and hung out with us.

Day Four we packed up early and headed to Florence to Haceta Beach where Reilly, Natalie, the dogs and I hung out for the late morning/afternoon and played on the beach and took naps. Uncle Mike, Liam and Jason got to go golfing at Sandpines. It was a fun day and we loved being right on the beach.

Then after golf we headed to Junction City to visit with Jason's Aunt Arlene and Uncle Bill. We also got to visit with his grandmother Betty. The kids had so much fun playing with Michael and Darrin (Rick (Jason's cousin) and Heidi's kids). They rode bikes, played the Wii and just chased each other around.
On our last day Uncle Bill make us a delicious breakfast. I have never had Sweet Potato Pancakes and they were amazing! Jason got to enjoy some hot cocoa and remember the days when he was a kid and had pancakes and hot cocoa with Uncle Bill.

After breakfast it was off to Grandma Betty's. We really enjoyed visiting her and Reilly just loves her. We helped pick up apples for her which was no easy task there are a lot. I left with 2 bags full and there were about 5 buckets full. We finally hit the road around 2:45pm and started our trek home.
We stopped in Tigard at our favorite place - Pizza Caboose for dinner. This is one of our stopping places on our trip to Oregon each year.