Becky's Blog

Ella earns a math award

2011-04-19T11:07:00.001-07:00

Since it has been over a YEAR since I posted I figured I had a good excuse now. Ella is in kindergarten this year and is enjoying it! She is in full day which suits her just fine as she is a go go go girl! Every month the school as a PAWS assembly and students are recognized for either academics or character traits (these are a surprise too, they don't know they are getting one until their name is called). This month Ella got awarded for doing really well in math. I guess she is a numbers gal like her mom!! :) Since this is her first time getting an award like this I figured we better live it up and show her how proud we are! Kevin, Roc and I went to the assembly to watch her get the award and Miss Callie Jade napped at my mom's house!! We are going to take her out for a special meal too! Great job Ella, we are so proud of you!! Here is a video of her getting the reward and a couple of pictures too. (had to include one of Roc too-silly face while waiting for the assembly to start)

Here's to trying to keep this blog updated!!

Pathetic

2010-03-18T21:02:00.000-07:00

My blog is seriously lacking, but I just can't keep up... Pathetic I know! Stayed tuned I may eventually update this at some point. Until then ....here are some cute pictures of my sweet princess, my wild and crazy boy and my littlest jewel.

Callie's Dedication

2010-02-01T17:38:00.001-08:00

This Sunday we had Callie dedicated. It was a great service! Our pastor did a great job and it was a very meaningful and personal service. We chose Psalm 121 as her life scripture, this really is a life scripture we have for all our children. Also we requested "Be Thou My Vision" to be sung. This is really my favorite hymn, but the words really speak to how I hope my children can live their lives. The worship team did a great job with this. We are so blessed to be a part of this church! Here are some pictures (please ignore my hair, i am so embarrassed by it-i really need a haircut!) My only regret is that we did not record this to view later-bummer!

Haiti

2010-01-15T08:23:00.000-08:00

Please keep my sister and her family in your prayers today. They are trying to get Alex home to them as soon as possible. For those of you who don't know they are adopting him from Haiti and he is currently in an orphanage that is at its maximum capacity and it expecting to be receiving even more children that were orphaned during the earthquake. All the children in the orphanage now have adoptive families waiting for them. If Haiti is willing to release them on humanitarian visas they will have room for more newly orphaned children. If you are willing please take a moment to call your senator and plead with them that they will do what they can to make this happen. If you don't know the number to your senators here are the WA ones. Maria Cantwell 202-224-3441
Patty Murray 202-224-2621. Thank you and please pray they get him home soon!

Christmas Season

2009-12-20T21:19:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it is almost Christmas! This month has gone by so fast, I am afraid I won't be getting Christmas cards out this year, but I am going to try and do this for Valentine's. A bit of a catch up on what we have done (if I can remember).

Kevin took Roc and Ella up to get the tree this year, Callie and I stayed home. I like going but thought it would be better if Callie stayed in a warm house. Our pastor and his son (roc's best bud) joined Kevin. They went one Saturday on a bit of a time crunch and came back empty handed, but then went the next weekend and got us one.

When they got home Kevin and Ella headed to the nutcracker. Since Ella loves ballet we thought it would be fun for her to see one, so I figured it would be a good daddy-daughter date. Josh and Sadie joined them and the girls had a great time. They got to see real reindeer before and that was fun for Ella. I mentioned make sure you get your coat but somehow she left without it, so she does look a bit cold in these pictures, but had fun nonetheless. The girls had fun dancing in the aisle during some of the show. Kevin called early enough and got the front row in the first balcony So not super expensive tickets, but not so far away that they wouldn't be able to see.

Since Kevin works for the city he had the opportunity to ride in the City Bus light parade. So Roc, Ella and Kevin headed down to do this only to discover they were an hour late, They still got to check out the bus at the end but missed the parade. So Kevin drove then around to look at lights and discovered a live nativity at the Adventist church, It had actually camels and everything and Ella told me she saw the real baby Jesus. She also mentioned that it was a bit scary! I did not know about this particular live nativity, so plan to check it out next year. So since they missed out on the city light parade, they got to ride in the city but that was in Union Gap's light parade. I think they had fun. Next year Callie and I will be joining them.

Ella had a mini class recital for her dance class. It was not like the Spring recital with all the classes, but just her class with a few dances and showing what they were learning in class, then a gift exchange. She had a great time and did a great job!

Today our church had their Christmas program. Roc got to be in it and they learned the motions to Away in the Manger. Unfortunately my pictures did not turn out that great. Ella had fun,but spent most her time on stage looking around at the other kids and the people in the nativity scene. Roc did not do the motions but he still looked cute up on stage.

Ella has really been wanting to make a snow angel, so the morning after a big snowfall she and Roc headed out, they only lasted a few minutes but they did have fun making the angles.

Tomorrow I am having a small cookie decorating party for Ella, I thought it would be fun to do this but wasn't sure if I could handle it with tons of kiddos so she is only having her pre-school buddy and sister and Sadie come. Should be fun.

I definitely think Christmas is more fun when you have kiddos. Roc is old enough this year to understand ti more and it should be a good year for him, I am hoping he will not be sick, since this poor kiddo has been sick for his first two Christmas's. Ella is getting excited for Santa to come. She has seen a few Santa's but has declared to me that they were not the real Santa. just the pretend ones. Ahh too cute! She wants to leave him cookies this year so we will be doing this.

ok this is getting a bit long so I will just close with some pictures from the aforementioned events. I haven't uploaded my pictures from today, so I will get those posted here later.

Catch up

2009-12-10T21:27:00.001-08:00

Once again I am having a hard time keeping this updated. My kiddos are keeping me very busy. As I said to Stella the other day, I was NEVER late until I had kids! I also always had a clean house! It bugs me that I can't keep my house clean like I like, but I know that the day where I am not tripping over toys will come all too soon and I will miss it! I basically keep up on the maintenance (dishes, laundry, quick pick up of clutter, etc.), but have a hard time getting the deeper cleaning done. Stella keeps promising to come and be my personal assistance, but I just can't seem to get her over here and to commit to this! Anyway enough of that.... Roc has now had enough of naps. I was hoping this would mean he would finally sleep in past 6:30 but so far not luck with that! He seems to make it fine through the day-not anymore grumpy than usual so, so far it has been ok. Callie has also decided that she wants to be in on the action all day too so she does not nap for me either, but she is such a sweet, happy, content little girl I am not really pushing it either, but by 6 she is ready for bed, we hold out till 7 and she is such a great little sleeper-usually sleeping till 9ish in the am-no waking up for a feeding either(she has actually done this for quite a while now)! (however this am it was 6:30-so I hope this was a one-time deal) I love it though-as I woke up with both Ella andRoc till they were a year. Callie and Ella are sharing a room and so far so good on that too.
Ella is having fun with pre-school and I am impressed on how she is doing. She has a great teacher and it is fun to see her learn to write her letters and numbers. She is also still enjoying dance class and having lots of fun going to Cubbies with Sadie!
Roc is really into trucks of all kinds still and puzzles. He does a great job of putting these 25 piece puzzles together, something I know Ella was not doing at this age. I got two of Drew's old truck books from my Dad and he has a great time looking at theses and learning the names of all the different kinds there all. Diggers are an all time favorite. Ella and Roc also have fun looking for American Flags when we are driving. This started because on Veteran's Day I was taking them to get their H1N1 vaccines and Ella kept asking where we were going, so to avoid answering her (till we got there) I said let's see how many American Flags we can find. So know when we are driving they search for these.
Callie had her four month appointment last week-I will do a separate post for this as I want to post some pictures and videos of her, but they are on my other computer.... but it is so cute because she has discovered her thumb and has been sucking in this lately. She really goes to town. I got some cute videos of this. Also Kevin was watching some other videos of her with her and she started to laugh at it-It was so cute. She is really such a happy laid back baby-she really is fun. She wakes up happy every morning. When I go into get her (usually Roc comes with me) She just smiles and smiles at us.
Well enough rambling-hopefully tomorrow I will post some pictures of Callie at four months!

Halloween

2009-11-01T21:01:00.000-08:00

Callie and I stayed home and watched scary movies and Kevin, Ella and Roc went to a carnival at West Valley Church. I am not too into Halloween and buying costumes, but since Ella recently acquired a Snow White outfit (a nice gift for her for all the pain she endured at the dentist) she wore that and I dressed Roc up as a husky fan. Of course Callie was Eeyore, a costume I actually did buy when Ella was a baby, so I had to dress Callie in it since both Ella and Roc wore had worn it. I kinda like the idea of the carnival, the kiddos had a great time and you don't have to worry about what might be in the candy they are getting or walk around in the cold. I think this may become a nice tradition We did not get one trick or treater, which does not really surprise me, beings that we don't really live in a neighborhood. I did not get any pictures of Ella as she was hanging out with Sadie and did some trick or treating earlier with her, but here are some cute shots of Roc and Ella.

2009-10-29T16:36:00.000-07:00

Well I know that I have been a major slacker here on the blog but don't really have much to say really. Pretty much just usual life around here these days. So I will just give an update on my kiddos.

Callie continues to be a very easy going baby. For the most part she is sleeping a good 12-13 hours at night and only waking up once, sometimes twice, to eat. She is pretty good about going back to bed after eating too. It is nice. I do hold her a bit after I feed her at night just to make sure she is good and asleep though. She loves to smile and coo a lot. It is so cute. I attempt to get this on video, but she tends to stop as soon as I get the camera going. I realized that when I am recording there is a red flashing light so I think she notices that and focus on that instead of her smiling and cooing! She really is a great baby and I am enjoying her. I remember stressing about how I would be able to handle three little ones before she was born, but so far so good. I think since I know she is my last baby I am just enjoying it more knowing I will not be doing this again. Also I am pretty sure God knew I needed this or I would go insane!! ha ha.

These days Roc still loves to help me in the kitchen and loves to play with cars, balls, puzzles, etc. He also loves trucks, tractors, diggers, cop cars, motorcycles, etc and we find as many as we can while driving or looking at the road below us. He also has decided that it is fun to tease Ella and gets her going every time...But he does love his sisters and loves to kiss Callie. This morning he was rubbing Ella's arm (which she did not like) but then declared I love you Ella. He can be such a sweet boy. He is also a pretty good helper at cleaning up toys and he loves to help me unload the dishwasher and vacuum. He went fishing with Kev the other day. I was a bit nervous about this so Kevin had him wear a life jacket and also tied a rope around him and himself so he was safe. He did have a great time doing this. He is totally talking now, and has been, but now it is really clear and he speaks in sentences. He also can count to 100 and recite the alphabet backwards. I am amazed at his abilities.

Ella is still in dance but she is also doing AWANA cubbies with her cousin Sadie, and is loving it. I also take her to my friend Katie's house one day a week for pre-school. Ella and her daughter are friends and will hopefully be going to the same school next year. Ella loves doing this and I am so glad Katie is willing! I am wondering is she will be ambidextrous (sp?), as she tends to use both hands when writing. Katie told me last week that she wrote with one had on one side of the page and then switched to the other as she moved across. So we will see where this goes...Ella recently got to go on a trip with my mom to visit the Hoefers in ID. They flew there, so I was a bit nervous about that-but the plane did not crash and Ella had a great time. She did not want to talk to me on the phone while she was there, but told me when she got home that she was having too much fun to stop and talk on the phone. For more details of this trip check out this.

Well that is the news for now. I do have a few cute pics of Callie so once I get those uploaded I will post them for you viewing enjoyment.

My littlest jewel.

2009-10-21T15:11:00.000-07:00

Newborn Photos of Callie Jade

2009-09-29T12:28:00.000-07:00

ok I think most of my blog readers have facebook, but just in case you don't I want to show off the beautiful pictures Hannah took of Callie. She was just about a week old (and due to technical difficulities I just got them :)) Anyway go here to view them. Hannah did a great job and I know I am not biased when I say this but Callies is the most beautifly baby I know!!!! Now I just need to pick my favorites to put in my collage frame.

Oregon Coast Vacation 2009

2009-09-23T08:50:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday we headed out for a few days down on the Oregon Coast. I was not sure how travelling with three little ones would go (especially a newborn) but it actually went pretty well. The kiddos did fairly ok in the car on the way there-however by the time we got there I was relieved to get out of the car! Callie actually did really well on the way there-coming home-a different story!
We stayed down in the Depot Bay area for the first three nights and had a great view from our room-we actually even saw lots of whales in the water-this is something I have really always wanted to see and finally got to! We pretty much just spent time at the beach, letting the kiddos dig in the sand and playing at the resort pools. We had really good weather too, which was great. Friday night Rachael met us and spent the rest of the weekend with us. She is always fun to hang out with and the kiddos enjoy playing and being with her. Saturday we headed up to Seaside and on the way stopped at the famous Tillamook Cheese Factory. The highlight of that of course was the ice cream. My favorite is Black Licorice-Yum Yum. It is white in color and has a fairly mild flavor, but is delicious. So good in fact Roc traded me his bubble gum cone for mine. Being the loving mother that I am I let him do this-but he did not finish it so I did get some! I wish they sold this flavor in the stores!
Saturday night we spent at Seaside, while the beach was really nice, it was just too busy for me. I like the Depot Bay/Lincoln City area much more. Sunday the kiddos played on the beach a bit more then we headed to Washington Square for a little bit and then headed home.
I have posted my pictures here on facebook if you want to take a look. All in all we had a good time and it was really nice to get away for a while.

Callie's Two Month Appointment

2009-09-22T14:20:00.000-07:00

Callie had her two month appointment today (not officially two months till tomorrow). She weighed 13 lbs, 23.5 in length, and 15.75 head circumference. She is in the 95th percentile for all her stats! What a little chunk. I want to compare Ella and Callie at the same age, but for some reason I don't have Ella's stats on hand-so I am going to try and get these at our next appointment.
So far Callie seems to be pretty mellow-she sleeps a ton (Dr. said that was ok -he said babies that are growing a lot sleep a lot-and she does seem to be growing a lot!), she is cooing more and more each day and smiles a lot too. She does seem to have a bit of a flare for the dramatic though. She will go from not crying to screaming, not much in between. It is kinda funny. She actually does not cry that much and is easily comforted when she does. She is way better at driving in the car than the others-she tends to just fall asleep-which is great. Ella is my helper in the car and will pat her tummy if she does start to get upset.
I can't believe my little baby is already two months! Time does go by fast. She is so precious and cute! I love her so much.
I am going to have my sister Hannah do a two month photo shoot of her with the other two kiddos-so once those are done I will post some pictures.

Huskies Littlest Cheerleader!

2009-09-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

I tried to get Callie to happily pose for some pictures in her cheerleading outfit. She was a bit grumpy so we will try again later-but here is what we got for now. And of course a few of Ella-Roc was with Grandma at the time so that is why is he not in the shots!

My Littlest Ballerina

2009-09-10T14:26:00.001-07:00

One of my friends from Kansas sent the girlies tutus-I was able to get Callie's to post in hers for a few minutes-isn't she precious!

Back into the Swing of Things

2009-08-19T14:52:00.000-07:00

Well I think I am finally getting back to normal life-other than sleep of course. Callie actually doesn't do too bad at night, but she does like to be held to sleep at night more than in the day-not sure why. I actually think adjusting from two to three is way easier than one to two-for me anyway! She will be one month on Sunday-wow! I have braved the doctor (Callie's two week) and dentist with all three in two-but have yet to brave the grocery store with all three! Ella and Roc both had their four and two checkups last week My mom came with me which helped a ton! Also I have been using a sling for Callie-which is extremely helpful. Ella is in normal height (39.75 in) and weight(34.4 lbs) range, but Roc is still in only the 10th percentile for weight (25.2 lbs now!) but is normal for height (33.5 in). Today was Ella's follow up dentist appointment so I also scheduled Roc for his first. He did great! I am still lacking in the picture department but did get some shots of Ella (she wanted me to take pictures of her doing different poses in her new dress). I think she is quite cute.
I can't believe summer is about over-Roc and Ella got to spend a lot of time at my parents pool swimming and Roc actually was quite brave. He loved to jump from the stairs to someone and would not always wait till we were ready so we really had to watch him. He also got brave last weekend and jumped off the diving board to Kevin. Once he did it once he thought it was great and would jump, get out, run to the board and do it again and again! Of course I never had my camera so did not get to capture this. If we go swimming this weekend I will be sure to bring my camera!
Oh and one more thing just in case you did not know. The reason we named Callie -Callie Jade is Ella is Ella Ruby and Roc is Joseph Roc-so we thought another "stone" would be perfect for our new little princess. Now we have a Ruby a Roc and a Jade!

Life these days

2009-08-08T11:20:00.000-07:00

So far so good around here. The kiddos really do love their new sister. They love to give her lots of kisses and hugs! We are working with Roc on being gentle with her and he is doing pretty good. Callie is doing pretty well at night-only waking up every few hours-so hopefully that will continue-She sleeps really well in the bouncy seat so that is where I put her at night. I have yet to brave the grocery store by myself with three kiddos-but did manage to get to her two week checkup and Ella and Roc were very good-so that made it very easy! Callie had already gained a pound and is in the 95th percentile for height, weight and head circumference!
My wonderful church family and sister in law Katie provided us with dinner for a whole week and this made my life so much easier and I am so thankful for all of them!
Hannah came over and did a new born photo shoot of just Callie and is going to do one of all three soon. I am excited for that. I have not looked at the pictures yet as my computer screen does not work (basically it is just very dark-i am debating over getting a new monitor or a whole new computer)-but I am sure they are great.
I am realizing I have not taken many pictures of Callie-but here is a cute one of her peacefully sleeping in the swing-as both Ella and Roc are gone now so can't bother her !! ha ha. And one of my two little girls!

Miss Callie Jade

2009-07-28T20:35:00.000-07:00

ok I know this has taken me a while but I have been a little preoccupied-in a good way of course. We are so excited that Callie Jade is here and she is a healthy little girl. I thank the Lord for the miracle of this precious little girl and the safety of her delivery. Ella was right-after all Jesus did tell her it was a girl. I was induced on Thursday and was expecting it to go pretty fast but it actually took longer than I thought but it still went pretty well. As she was coming out Kevin, my Doctor and the Student doctor all were saying the face looked like a boy and it seemed forever for them to turn her over and declare she was a girl. I was thrilled. She has dark hair and it is mostly on the back of her head. Not sure if it will stay dark or not. She weighed in at 8 lbs 9.6 oz. 21.5 inches, 14.25 head and was born at 5:16 pm. I calculated the contest results (hopefully correctly) and there were actually three winners: Kaitlen, Katie F and Janette. I will contact you regarding your prize. Ella was pretty convinced that her name was Dora and actually told me that her name was not Callie but Dora, then she heard me tell someone her name was Callie and she said no it is Dora. However after leaving the hospital she and Rachael were talking and she called her Callie and called her Callie the next day-so we have made it through that little confusion! My sister Rachael took care of the kiddos for me and was a ton of help and I am so thankful to her for that. Hannah also came in right after Callie was born and took pictures. I have yet to see them and am excited too-for now these are the unprofessional ones that we took :) Check them out here. Ella and Roc are both doing pretty well and really do love Callie. They love to kiss her, look at her and hold her. (you may have already seen some on Kevin's facebook) Roc got her going pretty fast in the swing and the bouncy seat so we are working on that!
Well that is it for now-Callie likes to keep me up at night so I need to get all the rest I can get when I can get it!

Contest Info

2009-07-21T16:20:00.000-07:00

Well Thursday is getting closer and closer! You still have time to enter if you want and the contest does not officially close till Thursday morning (early) or when I actually head to the hospital-whichever is sooner. This is how I will be determining the winner. If you are the closest answer to stat you get a point. If you hit it right on the mark you get three points (although sex is only worth two). If you are correct on the name that is worth five-since it was a bonus stat. The person with the most points in the end wins! Anyone who changes their answers is officially disqualified (Kevin...) ha ha-that was for you Raquele.

Roc is Two!!

2009-07-17T21:03:00.000-07:00

Today my sweet little boy turned two. I can't believe it! What a precious boy he is to us! We started out his celebrations by doing a combo little party for Ella and him with my Grandma Ruby and parents last week (and Uncle Mike made an appearance-thank you!). Grandma Ruby loves a party so I thought it would be fun to have her over for some cake to celebrate. The kiddos had fun opening their gifts from my parents and Grandma Ruby and eating cake. Then today I had Roc's party. We had the cousins over and also his little buddy, Ian, from church. The kids had a great time and he got some fun gifts. Roc is a little fast and blew out his candles before we sang and before I was ready to take a picture so we had a re-do (this happened at both his party's) so he has gotten to blow out plenty of candles. He has been saying Birthday Party a lot and mainly connecting it with Ella, but I was finally able to convince him that today the party was just for him. Tonight we have him is gift from us-A baseball hitting game. He and Ella had fun giving it a try tonight-with Kevin's help of course.
Roc also had fun helping me make his cupcakes yesterday and kept saying birthday party while we were making them. Cute. He actually got a chef outfit and cake mix from his friend Ian, since his mama knows that Roc is an aspiring chef-so we will be sure to be having more fun in the kitchen! Thanks to all who came to his party's and made is birthday more special.
Rather than just a pick a few pictures I am just going to post them on facebook. If you don't have facebook just go here to view.

Baby Guessing Contest

2009-07-06T20:09:00.001-07:00

I thought it would be kinda fun to have a contest about the baby-especially since we don't know the sex. We are just about two and a half weeks away from due date-so now is the time to start guessing. Just leave me a comment-on this blog- with your guesses to the following stats and the closest one will be the winner. (if you are not a registered blogger just do an anonymous comment and leave your name so I know who you are) This contest is open to all who read my blog-but one entry per person-and it open till we head to the hospital. Also just to be fair to everyone, as I have told some people, my doctor plans to induce me on the 23rd if I am ready-but you never know...

Sex:
Date of birth:
Time of birth:
Length:
Weight:
Head Circumference:
Bonus Stat: The Name!

So have some fun and start guessing!

More of Ella's birthday

2009-07-01T20:41:00.000-07:00

Ella had a great time at her first sleepover-they managed to sleep through the night after falling asleep around 9:30, but were up at 6 am-needless to say Ella was wiped out. A few weeks ago her Aunt Connie (my SIL) came for a visit and gave Ella a Tinkerbell cooler. When she opened it I said oh that is a cute suitcase. So even though it isn't Ella thinks it is and has had it packed for this sleepover ever since. She also made sure this doll Aunt Connie gave her was in it (you will see it in the pictures on my sisters blog. I thought that was pretty cute. (for pictures and details go here to my sister's blog) She slept almost the entire way back from Ellensburg, but woke up the second I pulled into the garage. She lost it a bit, but finally fell back asleep on my bed for a few hours. We then went to Red Robin for dinner. She was still a bit tired but managed to have fun-and was thrilled to see the bird and get a sundae. We met up with my parents and Rach/Rogeilo and Rogeilo's sister so it was fun. Ella got some really cool water toys at her party and we pulled one out this evening. It is a whale/sprinkler toy. They had fun running and playing on it.

Ella's Birthday

2009-06-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

My precious little girl turned four on Friday. I can't believe it!! My mom recently discovered that Stop and Go has really good big soft serve ice cream. So Friday afternoon she, my grandma, Hannah, Emmett, Ella, Roc and I went there for a cone for Ella's birthday. They have a great shaded grassy area with picnic tables so it was fun for the kiddos to run around and eat and we could sit and enjoy our cone. Then when Kevin got home from work Ella opened her gifts from us. Today was her party and it was a great time. She invited her cousins and some friends (and mom's) from church. Auntie Rach and her fiancee and sister also came. There was also a special surprise visit from Strawberry Shortcake herself. A few years ago my friend Stella made a Strawberry Shortcake costume for Halloween so I thought it would be fun to borrow this and Hannah graciously said she would be honored to fill the role. She did a great job and all the girls got to have a picture with her. I am going to develop them and have Strawberry Shortcake autograph them so each girl will get their own picture. Now Ella is at her first sleepover ever. She went up to spend the night in Ellensburg with her cousins. She was thrilled about this. I am only slightly nervous, but she is in good hands I know. I just hope she sleeps ok. Tomorrow we are taking Ella to her birthday dinner at Red Robin (or as she sometimes calls it McRobins). We took her last year and the RR bird just happened to be there and Ella has talked about it ever since. So we are going on Tuesday as the bird is there Tuesdays and Thursdays. Plus she is signed up with them so she gets a free meal! Yeah! Here are a few pictures from her gift opening and party.

Haircut Boy!

2009-06-20T10:59:00.001-07:00

Today my little baby became a big boy! We took him to get his first haircut. There is a barber right next to Ella's Dance Class so we decided to take him there. He cried the whole time and it was pretty pathetic, but he did sit in the chair all by himself! Kevin took him for a treat afterward so this cheered him up. To me he looks so much older now! (don't forget you can click on each picture for a closer view)

Randomness

2009-06-11T19:59:00.000-07:00

Another cute concert video by my darling kiddos. Just out of curiosity-can you understand them? I can, but then again I think it is always easier to understand your own children's talk.

Roc got a fun new outdoor water play sink from Grandma and Papa for his birthday-he got to have it early since it has been warm lately. This has brought great joy to them and I hope to get some decent pictures of them playing with it. Here is an ok one for now. Unfortunately the pump for the faucet was defective so we are waiting on a new one to be shipped. Once we get that I hope to get the good pictures.

Ella has fun dressing up with the princess dresses at other peoples house and really wants to get one. She actually asked me for one on the way home from the dentist the other week. We had just found out at the dentist that she has cavities again-and don't get me going but the one from our previous horrible dentist experience fell out-so needless to say we have to redo it (at a new dentist). She is not looking forward to this appointment (and neither am I). She actually began to cry when I went to the old dentist to get her records. She has not been to this place since last August and we never drive by it so I know this really did traumatize her. But anyway back to the dress. I told Ella that if she let the dentist fill her cavity I would buy her any princess dress she wanted. She asked if she could have shoes too. So if she does well at the dentist she will be the proud owner of a new dress and shoes. In the meantime I decided she might as well use her flower girl dress-from Andrea's wedding- for dress up-so she has been wearing this around lately. The other day she declared that she was going to "Marry herself to Roc-and then have a baby-cuz that's what you do after a wedding" (well at least she got the order right :) ) She got on my shoes from my wedding - so of course I had to take a picture of this bride and groom. Aren't they cute!

Finally just some cute photos of the kiddos-and one of me and Roc that Ella took.

Weekend fun and a little more

2009-05-28T20:09:00.000-07:00

Ella and Sadie love getting together and playing. Sunday Ella went to Sadie's for the afternoon. While they were playing they discovered some Dry Erase markers and decided to draw all over themselves. Amazingly there was none on the clothes! Aren't they cute though, I think we will show this one at their weddings!

Roc has really been getting into reading books more, meaning he will sit and listen to a story and point stuff out in the pictures or ask questions about the story. He also likes to look at books himself. One of his favorites is The Busy Spider. His favorite page is the one with the rooster and I love the way Roc says Cock a Doodle Do. He has recently discovered a rooster in The Happy Man and His Dump Truck. So we read this multiple times and Roc really gets into it. Here is a video of him saying Cock a Doodle Do. He is a bit distracted by playing so it is not one of his best renditions but you will get the idea.

Sunday afternoon we also met up with our Pastor and wife and their son Ian, who is exactly 4 months younger than Roc. We hung out at a park (I took my camera but did not get any pictures-opps) for a while but it was so windy we decided to go get something to eat instead. While Roc and Ella stood on chairs, looked out windows and spilled water everywhere, Ian sat happily in his highchair-with a bib on-eating his dinner-Aubrey has trained him well. I am impressed! That night as we were getting them ready for bed Roc kept saying Buddy Ian, Buddy Ian. It was so cute. It was fun getting together with them and we are so glad for them and all they do for our church.

Ella and Roc love to give concerts on the coffee table. Here are a few for you to enjoy-hopefully as much as I do.

Sprinkler Fun

2009-05-16T20:33:00.000-07:00

After Ella's recital (see post below) I got her an ice cream cone at McDonald's (we really live it up around here :) ) and got one also for Roc. Since it was nice out I had them eat outside when we got home. They got pretty messy so I was washing off the porch and of course then they played in the water, so Kevin decided to turn the sprinkler on. They had fun-although Ella was a bit more brave about running through it. I tried to get her on video doing one of her ballet moves where she runs and leaps-so she is leaping over the sprinkler. Yeah for a nice day where we can be outside!

Ella's Dance Recital

2009-05-16T20:14:00.000-07:00

Today was Ella's spring dance recital. It was held at the West Valley Jr. High auditorium and was for all the students -not just Ella's class. Ella did a great job of getting up on stage and preforming in front of so many people. The first dance they did was a ballet dance to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It was quite cute, but you many have to leave some to your imagination as my video of this is a bit dark. Then later they did a tap dance to a song called Going to the Zoo. I went closer to the front for this one so hopefully you can see the pictures/video better. During the first dance Ella had to stop and check out and feel the curtain behind her- I thought this was pretty funny. Thank you to Hannah for fixing her hair and makeup up for me and to my Mom, Sadie and Grandma Ruby who came to watch (of course Kevin and Roc were there too). It meant a lot to Ella and she was really glad you were there. Sadie came backstage before so she could see Ella-so I got a cute picture of them together

Weekend Away

2009-05-13T21:01:00.000-07:00

I had the luxury of getting to get away last weekend. I have been wanting to go down to Oregon to visit my sister Rachael and needed to do so soon before it was too late to travel. So Rach and I decided on a date only to realize later that it was Mother's Day weekend. I decided to go ahead and go anyway and in the words of Rachael "Isn't the most relaxing Mother's Day one away from the Children?"
The weekend before I actually decided to go for the day to Portland to shop as my Mom and Hannah were headed down for Friends and Family at Macy's-and of course to see Rach. I figured it will be a while before I am able to do this again so I did not feel too guilty about it. It was a great day only to be stopped short when the power went out in the mall. We were in Macy's when it first went out,but then quickly came back on. Only to go out again about a half hour later and did not come back on. Eventually the stores made people leave so we headed out of town-took a while as everyone was leaving the mall at the same time.
Ok back to my weekend-Kevin took Friday off and I headed out that morning. Kevin left slightly before me to take the kiddos fishing at Sportsman Park-I guess it is a pond or something that you can take kids fishing. They met up with Brent and Emmett for awhile and apparently both Roc and Emmett ended up falling in the water! That night Ella was invited to a friends party so that gave Kev and the Kiddos something to do. I spent Friday shopping and getting some tax free deals and then met up with Rach after school got out. We then met up with her fiancee Rajaleo (I don't think I have spelled this right?) and went to Baja Fresh for dinner! Yummy-I love their fresh salsa bar. Saturday Rach and I did some wedding shopping and other shopping that needed to get done. I was on the hunt for some maternity clothes. I did not find much but I think I have enough to get me through the next couple of months. Then we met up with Rajaleo and went to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner and a bit more shopping. Sunday I did some shopping of my own at FM (my favorite store :)) and got some good tax free bargains while Rach was at church. Then met up with the newly engaged and did a bit more shopping. Then I headed out of town. Kevin took the kiddos up to Abby's on Sunday for the afternoon as the family got together up there to celebrate Mother's Day. They took the jeep up and Sadie brought hers too-so the kiddos had a great time driving the jeeps all around. It was a really nice relaxing weekend and was nice to be able to go without worrying about the kiddos. Kevin did a great job with them and the kiddos did fine too! Here are some cute pics of the kiddos fishing and hanging out at the Hoefer's on Mother's Day. Also a video of Ella fishing.

Week in Review

2009-04-24T21:02:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday when I was at my mom's working-My mom took Ella to Fred Meyer-there Ella discovered a purse and hat she just could not live without. Of course my mom bought it for her! Isn't she just adorable. She loves wearing it and thinks it is the most beautiful thing ever!

My grandma got the kiddos a jeep to ride around outside-since it is getting a bit warmer we got it going for them the other night. Roc wasn't too sure about it at first-but now he has warmed up to it more. He about drove over the cliff once so we are working with him on his driving and breaking skills. Notice Ella is wearing the hat and had the purse in the back of the jeep.

Katie and I took the kiddos to feed the ducks -usually there are swarms of them and they eat a ton, but they must be getting fed a lot as they weren't totally going for the bread-but the kiddos had fun anyway.

Easter and Ultrasound

2009-04-16T19:51:00.000-07:00

Ok -so I am really falling behind. I looked at last year and my posts per month were way more than they have been this year! Better get blogging!

For the first time ever, I decorated Easter eggs with the kiddos. We only did twelve as this was a practice year and they did have fun, however Roc thought it was more fun to squish the eggs rather than decorate them. Ella just happens to love the whites of the eggs plain and egg salad sandwiches so we had no problem eating the eggs afterward.

We celebrated Easter by first going to a Good Friday service at our church. I have never been to one of these before and really enjoyed it. It was a great service and I got a lot out of it. Poor Roc though, was not happy in the nursery and I was even paged once as he would not stop crying. Kevin took care of him for a while and then got him back to the nursery and he did ok for the rest. He is going through a bit of a clingy mommy stage-hopefully we will be over this before the new baby arrives!

Saturday morning, after ballet, we went to Emmett's second birthday party. Can't believe our little boys are almost two! The kiddos had fun decorating a Easter gingerbread house and we had a delicious Cobb salad for lunch. Then that afternoon/evening we had the annual kids and adults egg hunt at my parents. As usual they went all out on the eggs and the family Easter baskets. The highlight of the hunt is us adult "kids" get to do it too, and the eggs are full of money, as well as candy. Roc and Kevin hunted together and I went with Ella.

Sunday morning our church had a breakfast and Easter egg hunt for the kiddos. We amazingly made it there on time-8:15 am! It was a bit chilly so but they had a great time hunting for eggs. Since Roc had practice the night before he knew right what to do without help! Then we had a great church service afterwards.

Tuesday I had another ultrasound because they did not see everything they wanted to see with the first one. It was during Kevin's lunch break so he met me and the kiddos there. I was so nervous I would accidentally discover the sex it was hard for me to watch it too much-but we made it without finding out! It was fun letting Ella see the baby on TV! Both kiddos love to kiss and blow kisses on my stomach. Roc will say "baby" and kiss and pat my stomach. Ella loves to kiss it too and also likes to talk to the baby and wonder is she can hear her. She also tells me quite often "I like your baby, mommy" Pretty cute. Her new favorite names are Dora and Elizabeth.... She is still convinced that it is a girl. Jesus has told her this. She also is pretty confident that she has two babies in her tummy. She told me just the other day that God puts babies in tummies and he put two in hers :)

One more rambling thought, Roc loves to look at the trucks and motorcycles that go up and down the road below our house. He also loves to wave at everyone passing by, it is really cute but not a lot of people wave back-or even notice him. At least he is too young to realize this but for his sake if anyone drives by and we are out-we would love a wave back! He also really enjoys looking for the planes that fly overhead and as soon as he hears one he says "plane, plane" and is totally looking for it!

Happenings-for lack of a better title.

2009-04-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

As I sit typing this Roc is sleeping in my arms. He got sick Tuesday night and threw up all over Drew (he seemed to take it in stride which was good!). Kevin and I were at our home group and Drew was babysitting. We came home and Roc pretty much threw up Tuesday night and all day yesterday. He threw up today once so far and is very sleepy. So far Ella is her usually bouncy healthy self. So that is good.
I really don't have much to post on but do have a cute video to share. Ella decided to read to Roc before his "nap" so got him all settled with a blanket and the horse pillow she has. He did pretty good about complying with her, for a while anyway!

Abby held another craft day the other day, so we headed on up to Ellensburg for a morning of fun. The theme this time was Easter. The kiddos had fun decorating paper Easter eggs and making coffee filter flowers. As usual the crafts last about a half hour and the play time for a few hours, which is fine, at least they are having fun. This was the first one Roc really got to participate in and he had fun painting!

Finally just a cute picture of each of the kiddos. Ella with her bitty baby and backpack and Roc looking cool in his shades!

Random Post #2

2009-03-14T15:48:00.001-07:00

Since I can't seem to post more often, here goes another rambling post.
Roc has now learned how to turn my computer off so I rarely come in the office to work on the computer when he is awake as, as soon as I am doing something, off goes my computer. Oh what a guy...
Last Thursday I subbed in Hannah's bunco group and managed to leave with a prize. A set of Paula Deen candles. They are really nice. I had fun and it was nice to get away for a few hours. When I got home a mini green house was on our counter full of seed of many varieties that Kevin had the kiddos plant for me. This was quite a surprise that I was not expecting. It will be nice to have a little garden this year, just hope Kevin and Ella can help me as it won't be easy digging around in it with my watermelon belly :) Kevin did not think about taking pictures of the kiddos planting job, bummer-so I have none to post along with this.
I mentioned the sticker activity books I got the kiddos for Valentines a few posts back. Well Roc it really getting into his now. He loves to put his stickers all over the pages. I show him where they are supposed to go and he does his best to get it there. It is really cute. "Shister" he says for sticker and it is quite adorable, if I do say so myself.
Our church recently started a weekly women's group and last week and while the we are meeting and talking, the kiddos play in the nursery with some girls from the church. When I went in the nursery to get the kiddos Ella was having a great time playing duck duck goose, totally running around and laughing. It makes me so happy to see her having fun, must be a mom thing.
Ella is still convinced we are having a girl baby, and now she is also convinced that she has two babies in her stomach. One girl baby and one boy baby. They are not ready to come out yet though she says. She asks me every so often if my baby is out yet. I reassure her that she will for sure know when this happens.
Back during Valentines Ella's Sunday School made Valentines. Ella made one for a few different people but one of them she made for Jesus. It happens to still be in our car and just the other day she asked me how she would get this to him. Maybe he will come for a visit she said, then proceed to say "Jesus, will you please come for a visit." She also asks me why she can't see him, where is Heaven, etc. I am amazed at how much she picks up on and do my best to explain these things to her.
Roc loves to help me vacuum or sweep and one of his latest favorite activities to do is sweep into the vacuum under the cupboard (part of the central vac system and very handy) in our kitchen.
He also loves to listen to music on the headphones, here he is singing some song that has WE WE in it. So cute!
Finally, have any of you out there read the Twilight books? These are not something I would think I would enjoy, but I do love to read and so many people seem to be reading them and liking them...
Ok, one more... if you live in the Yakima Area I encourage you to read this blog and add your name to support it. This has been a hot topic with the other mom's (and one dad) at ballet the past few weeks. While the girls are dancing we sit in the waiting room and talk. One of the mom's owns her own Espresso Bar so we were asking her about her bar last week and got into talking about the new rage in espresso bars. The dad that comes with his daughter is a detective on the police force her so he is always full of insight full information, but assured all of us last week that he has never been to one of these bars. Good for him. Today one of the other gals mentioned that someone from on of the Foursquare Churches stated this blog so I figured I mention it here so others could know about it.

Random Post

2009-03-03T14:17:00.000-08:00

So I had my ultrasound today, and thankfully did not find out the sex. I told the gal I did not want to know but was afraid I would accidentally find out-Yeah that I did not! Katie watched the kiddos for me which I am grateful for. Ella does great sitting at doctor's offices but Roc is another story and so it is nice to leave him somewhere else.
Speaking of Roc is new thing is to jump off the coffee table to the floor, I am a little concerned that he is going to break a bone doing this and am dreading the day he figures out how to climb and jump out of the crib. Because he likes to jump and climb on everything I am really thinking of enrolling him in a tumbling class they have at Gymnastics plus. It is for 18 months to 3 (i think) and I am thinking if he does this maybe he will get it out of his system and not do it at home! ha ha I doubt it, but it is worth a try.
Ella has really been getting into changing her bitty baby's clothes. She can now dress the doll herself and recently I got her a shoe organizer that hangs from her closet. It has little mesh pockets so I put each outfit in a pocket. Now they are not all jumbled in a box and she can easily get a complete matching outfit on the babe. I think this has helped her alot because I notice new outfits on the doll frequently.
Yesterday when Ella got up she asked me if the baby was out of my tummy yet. I thought that was pretty cute. I told her if it was out she would defiantly know!
This past Friday night Kevin and I went out for dinner-by ourselves! Something we have not done since before Roc was born-so it was much needed. Our faithful babysitter-Drew-did a great job.
Finally, this Sunday night someone managed to break into our mailbox. Our mailbox is located down the street from us so we can't see it from our house. For this reason we have a locked one, but we don't get our mail everyday. We do get it every few days so the most mail that was in there could only be from a day or two and based on the timing of certain things we get I doubt there was anything important in it, but still this is annoying and I send for alot of freebies/coupons so I hope they didn't get any of this stuff! Whoever did this, did it to all the boxes in our section, plus as you drive down the road you can see they hit the whole street. Kevin's boss lives at the end of the street below us and hers was broken into too. Why can't people just leave peoples things alone!
ok enough rambling-off to get a snack!

Misc Post

2009-02-18T10:03:00.000-08:00

I caught Roc getting into the cake the other day so I thought it would make a good picture. Kevin decided a video would be better. Good thing it was not frosted yet, or it could have been a real mess.

For Valentine's Day we got the kiddos a sticker activity book-they have them at Costco and they are really neat. Ella is really enjoying hers but I think it was a bit advanced for Roc , since there are projects on each page and you put stickers according to the activity. They also got a fresh heart balloon-purple of course!

Roc had another ear infection last week and since he has tubes now, rather than fluid building up it drains out the ear, so it is pretty obvious when it is infected. He got on some antibiotics and ear drops and it cleared up pretty fast-so he is feeling much better! Other than that, it is pretty much life as usual around here.

It's that time of year again

2009-02-06T15:46:00.001-08:00

Ella has been waiting and waiting for these to come in at Fred Meyer, so when she saw them there the other day, there was no way we could leave without getting her-and Roc one. Happy early Valentines Day.
Roc also had his 18th month appointment yesterday and his stats are as follows:
weight: 22 lbs-10th percentile
height: 32.5-50th percentile
head circumference: 18.5-50th percentile

Bowling

2009-02-04T10:40:00.000-08:00

Last night Kevin and I met up with some church friends for bowling. It was really fun and brought back memories of when we bowled in a league with the Zieks when we lived in KS. Oh the good old days! I have not been bowling since then but I really do enjoy it. I defiantly need to do some practicing though if I am ever going to make it to the professional level. What I really want to do is join a league again-maybe a mom's league if I can find one, but may have to put this on hold till I don't have a tiny baby in tow... I want to take Ella too and now that Roc is not crawling I think Kevin and I are going to take them soon. I messed up on the time so we got there early and I was beginning to think we had the wrong date or ally, but Kevin convinced me to bowl a game with him-so we decided that we would bowl and game and then leave if no one showed up, but they did and we realized we were a half hour early- We did have a lot of fun and even decided to stop at Ron's on the way home for an ice cream cone! Yum! We left the kiddos under the care of my brother Drew-and he did great-although I think the kiddos did give him a rough time about going to bed, but both were sound asleep when we got home so all was well.

Boring Blogger

2009-02-02T10:12:00.000-08:00

ok so not really much to blog about lately but I figured I better get a post in someway or another. This past week nothing too exciting has gone on-just normal life. I did have another Doctor appointment and Ella and I got to hear the heartbeat again, can't ever get enough of that. This weekend Rachael was in town so we were able to see her for a bit, which is always nice. Ella went to ballet and did great. Last week she had a bit of an injury so we had to leave early and she was thinking she was not going to go back, so I was quite relieved when she decided it would be ok. I think she really does enjoy it, but her little injury did scare her a bit.

Yesterday we went to church and for the month of February the church got to turn in requests and then vote on what they wanted the preacher to preach on, the top four top will be preached-one a week. Sunday's was the 4th top vote and was on fasting-what it is, what it was like in the OT, NT, should we do it now, etc. What I really like about our church is one of the Sunday School classes is led by the pastor and we go over in more detail the sermon and group discuss it and stuff. It is really interesting and helps to get even more out of the sermon. There was lots of good points made but, one thing I really got out of yesterday was thinking about Lent. I never really have thought about it, but just because I am not Catholic does not mean it is something I can't participate in....

We also went to a Superbowl party, of which I did not watch anyone, but oh well, it was fun to get together with some church friends and eat some good snacky foods!

Well off to do lots of laundry and keep up with Roc-who had his 18th month appointment this week, so I am anxious to find out it stats, will post later.

18 Months Old

2009-01-26T12:00:00.000-08:00

I have been meaning to post this for a while now and am finally getting around to it :)
Roc turned 18 months on the 17th! Wow! What a big boy he is. Here is a list of some of his favorite things and other milestones he has reached:

*He is talking way more these days, mostly just one word at a time, but occasionally two. I think this is a combination of age and getting the tubes in his ears.
*Loves to climb-on everything-couches, tables, chairs, counters, etc. I definitely have to keep a watchful eye on him!
*Very interested in whatever I am doing in the kitchen. I can barely make it into the kitchen before he scoots a chair over to stand on so he can watch and get into everything I am trying to do. I think he may be a chef one day.
*He is always willing to help me out with laundry and emptying the dishwasher.
*Loves Ella and not only wants to be with her, but will copy what she is doing as well.
*Has mastered the words "no" and "mine" quite well.
*Can be a bit shy around people other than us, but has never been afraid to be with them, just a way quieter Roc.
*Very, very active. Can't sit still for 10 seconds. Loves to run instead of walk.
*Likes music and dancing to it.
*Share his sister's love of butter, cream, etc. as evident by the video and pictures below. (note: he can say butter, but of course refused to say it on my video)

I love you so much little guy and am so glad you are part of our family!

Baby Update

2009-01-15T16:32:00.000-08:00

I went in today for a check-up. This was the nurses visit one, where they go over a bunch of paper work, health questionnaires, talk to you about how you are feeling, etc. I decided to take Ella with me because they told me they would check the heartbeat and I figured she would like that. I asked her if she wanted to go with me and she said yes. On the way there I said we are going to drop Roc off at Emmett's to play, I was figuring she would say I want to stay at Emmett's, but she said she still wanted to go with me! It was kinda a long visit, but Ella is so good she just sits very patiently and watches and listens. We did get to hear the heartbeat, and it seemed pretty loud to me this time. It was neat. The nurse asked me if we wanted to find out what we were having and I said no, do we need to note that in the chart? I don't want to accidentally find out. She told me they wouldn't let that happen. I am determined to keep this a surprise, even though I know when we go for the ultrasound it will be hard! We then went and had some routine lab work done-Ella always likes to play doctor so got right up on the chair with me and watched the girl take about 5 samples of blood. I am now about 12.5 weeks and am feeling better, but still have my days of throwing up, not every day but every few days. I also feel like I could sleep all day! This should pass soon though, the nurse told me. I hope so!
Thanks again Hannah for watching Roc, it makes it so much easier!

Update

2009-01-08T14:35:00.000-08:00

I have not been that great about blogging lately, but hope to get better. Part of my excuse is I really had not been feeling well for a while and have been pretty tired, but that is slowly passing and I seem to feel better (and less tired) as the days go on. I went through my camera and decided to blog about some past events, so here goes.

Ella and Sadie worked on a gingerbread house before Christmas, and had a great time. Katie helped them do it and I think it turned out great. They had just as much fun eating the candy as they did decorating the house.

Drew (my brother) hung out a few times here over his break. We enjoy having him over. One night I jokingly said I'll give you a dollar if you go outside and make a snow angel. I was originally going to say five but thought he will never do this so said one. I got off cheap on this one as he did do it without a second thought.

Most of the cousins singing Away in the Manger on Christmas day.

Roc really only likes to eat what he can feed him self -and he is pretty good about it. But one thing he has started to do lately is dump the food on his head or down his shirt! Much to my delight :)

I took the kiddos to our new Sonic the other day for the 1/2 price drinks. My favorite thing there. We all enjoyed a drink and I let them get out of their car seats and we hung out in the car and drank our drinks for a while. All went well till Roc poked his straw through the side of the cup :) I got my self a Strawberry Limeade (which I get regular strawberry syrup but diet pop) I can't do a totally lite drink so this is my way of cutting down some of the calories. Roc and Ella each got a real fruit smoothie-sounds healthy-right??

Also baby is due July 25 or 26th. We are excited and I am holding my foot down-WE WILL BE SURPRISED-on the sex of this one.
Now just have to come up with a name :) Ella's suggestions so far are baby Jesus, just "Plain Baby" or another Roc. Not sure we will go for these but we are thankful for her suggestions.

Thank you to all who read this whole post.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-01-07T10:20:00.000-08:00

Week Recap

2008-12-29T14:17:00.000-08:00

So Roc came down with something last Sunday night. Not sure what it was-he threw up but was totally acting fine so we figured it was just because Kevin had Ella and Roc all wound up earlier. Well then next day we went up to Abby's for a birthday party for Jesus, which was really fun and the kiddos had a great time, but then Roc decided to throw up all over Abby's carpet. I managed to catch some of it in my hand, but since you get no warning of this her carpet suffered some. For further details of the birthday party for Jesus click here. We made it home safely with no more incidents, but his throwing up continued -for days-we thought he was getting better, then he would throw up again. This was a very long week, as he was very tired and upset/fussy. Thankfully Kevin had 1/2 of Christmas Eve till today off so he and Roc bonded a lot and no one else seemed to catch it, so I don't think it was the flu-but who knows. I was set to call the doctor today but he seems to have perked up! He get his tubes tomorrow morning so we are anxious for that to be done with. I am no too worried about it since it is fairly routine, but they do put them totally out. Christmas was a bit of a bummer only because Roc was sick so we had to bag our Christmas Eve plans, but Ella and I did go to my parents for Christmas day. No point in having Ella miss out on the fun and the cousins, Kevin didn't mind missing it and I did bring him leftover Christmas dinner so that helped! Rachael and her man visited Kevin and brought him some snacks-and Roc threw up all over Rachael. ( this was the second incident of this as he threw up on her the previous day when she stopped by for a visit.- Rachael just goes with the flow so it did not seem to bother her too much) We did do gifts with the kiddos in the morning before we went to my parents and as much as Roc was able he opened his. He was thrilled with the fire truck and police car we got him as it makes noise and stuff. Kevin and I don't really exchange gifts but he did get me a rice cooker from the kiddos, something I have been wanting for a while so I was excited. Ella of course loves all her new bitty baby stuff-especially the backpack from my parents. Friday we attempted to have Roc and Kevin open their gifts from my parents and Grandma Ruby, but Roc did not last too long so we only stayed for a bit. Saturday my grandma had a party at her house. It was a buffet and games, the Kiddos played downstairs with Claudia, my grandma's helper and the adults had fun upstairs. I hung out with Roc downstairs as he was pretty fragile, but it was fun to visit with Claudia and the cousins always have fun together. It was a nice way to end the Christmas season. Sunday was a normal day, but we did skip church as I did not think it would be good to take Roc to the nursery and I am really not into going alone. I am just so glad Roc is feeling better and hopefully he will bounce back tomorrow quickly. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and has a Happy New Year.

Christmas Outfits

2008-12-20T13:27:00.001-08:00

4th post of the day-blog slacker is catching up.
My parents got all the grand children matching Christmas outfits and they are so cute. Here are the kiddos in them. Some are at our church playing and jumping off the stage! (not during the service mind you, ha ha-and they weren't the only ones doing this so I figured it was ok)
In a couple of them Roc is making is cute scrunchy smiley face-so click on the picture for a close up.

Roc and Audrey

2008-12-20T13:20:00.000-08:00

Third post of the day.

Roc and Audrey are not quite old enough to make and decorate cookies so they just watched, but since they are so cute I figured they needed a post of their own. Roc got a bag of gumballs and before we knew it he had them opened and was eating one. Oops!. He then decided he needed to see Audrey closer so he proceed to climb up her highchair for a closer look. I told him to give her a kiss and he did, it was so cute. Audrey is so cute who wouldn't want to kiss her!

Christmas Cookies.

2008-12-20T13:12:00.000-08:00

Ok my second post of the day, wow-so scroll down far enough so you don't miss any.

Sadie invited Ella over to make Christmas cookies yesterday. The girls had a great time and I was really surprised at how well they did rolling the dough and cutting out their shapes. They went a little overboard on the sprinkles, but that is all part of the fun. Sadie dumped a ton on one and then told me -see it's not too much. It was really funny! Here are a few pictures of the fun.

Ella's Christmas Ballet Performance!

2008-12-20T12:35:00.000-08:00

Ella had her first ever ballet performance today, and she did great. She was so cute and did so well. I am so proud of my little girl. I am going to post my videos here (ok got one dud on there but can't figure out how to delete-sorry) and my pictures here on facebook. Kevin, Roc, my Mom, Sadie and Grandma Ruby also came to watch. I was amazed at how well Ella was willing to do this in front of so many people. After the performance the girls had a gift exchange. Then my Mom, Grandma Ruby, Ella, Sadie and I went to Starbucks for Hot Chocolate and Cranberry Bliss Bars to celebrate. My Grandma Ruby is so cute, after one of Ella's dances she says to me "Ella was the best one!". She is not partial or anything so it must be true:)

Sick Kiddos

2008-12-10T16:23:00.000-08:00

Ok-my second post of the day----wow. Poor Ella has not been doing too well. Last Saturday she came down with an ear infection-first one ever-. The on call doc put her on amoxicillin, but this little girl refused to take it. So after throwing it up I said forget it. Which was probably not the best choice (lesson learned). She seemed to be doing better thought but then last Tuesday she has a horrid fever (103 ish) and both ears were infected. My dad said get her the medicine-so we tried to disguise it in a milkshake,but no fooling this girl. She did not see us put it in but would not drink it as it tasted yucky. So we finally managed to get it down her-no easy task with this one, and you have to give them 20 doses over 10 days-not fun. Once we got some Advil and amoxicillin in her she seemed to do better and slept all night, but her fever kept coming back in the evenings. Thank goodness for children's Advil though. Then a few days later she was fine, but on Sunday she started to get a horrid rash that rapidly spread through out her whole body-So off to the doctor we headed on Monday. He assured me it was not contagious (whew!) (I was imagining calling ballet and Church to tell everyone she exposed them to some horrid disease :)) He took her off the amoxicillin saying it was a strep rash-I think a combo of the ear infection and reaction to the medicine? He put her on a different antibiotic and told me to bathe her in Aveeno bath stuff. This seemed to work and she has no rash but last night her ears were bothering her again. Since we were headed to the ear doctor for Roc today I figured he could check her ears too. He said she has lots of fluid and to give her dimeatap and that should clear it up. Roc on the other had has tons of fluid and defiantly needs tubes. He said he is probably not very comfortable and hears us in muffled sounds. I think his hearing seems ok as he can follow commands but he does not say much so maybe the doctor is right....We can't get in till the 30th but I am really really hoping this helps improve his mood-and mine :)

Christmas Tree

2008-12-10T16:08:00.000-08:00

Saturday we headed up to the woods to get our tree. For only five bucks you can get a permit to cut any tree, in the woods, that you want. There was no snow at all (other than a slight amount in a very tiny section of the road)! It seems weird that we have no snow yet, even in the mountains! Anyway we drove and drove and finally reached the end of a road and got out. Kevin had us truck up a very steep hill, but we could not find one we liked, so back down we headed and drove till we found a clearing. We found a great one there (I'm all for choosing one quickly and getting outta there, but Kevin's more into finding one that looks good-but we managed to find one we agreed on in not too long of time). Ella was not too found of the whole thing and just wanted to go back home and watch cartoons! Roc had fun though-however since he slept for about 30 minutes in the car he would not nap when we got home. (lesson learned there!). Here are a few pictures of the event.

Long Time No Blog....

2008-12-02T16:54:00.000-08:00

Ok Katie has informed me that my blog is getting boring and Kevin says I better hurry up and do a new post or I will lose my subscribers! ha ha.

Not much going on here but Roc has been fighting a cold off and on for a while now and I am beginning to wonder if his ears are bothering him more so we have an appointment with the ear Doctor next Wed. This sounds bad, but I kinda do hope it is his ears as I think I have listened to enough whining to last a lifetime these past few weeks....So if it is his ears at least we can treat this and move on!

We headed out to get our Christmas Tree on Saturday and made it not further than the store to get the permit when Roc threw up! We decided a bumpy truck ride through the woods, in the cold, would not help so we turned around and went back home. He was totally fine after he had a bath and did not throw up again, so it may have just been a combination of a cold and riding in a bumpy truck. For some reason my kids tend to throw up when they cough. We are going to make a second attempt this Saturday.

I did actually do some Black Friday shopping, first time in a long time. I am not a die-hard and did not get up super early or anything. But I did hit Rite Aid, Fred Meyer (1/2 price socks!) and Jo-Ann's. I need some new scissors and since they were 50% off plus an additional 20% I wanted to get some. Got them and a few other things too....

We did start the advent calendar last night though and the kiddos enjoyed that. Ok so that is it for now....Hopefully I can come up with some more posts so I won't lose all my "subscribers!"

"Jesus Knows!"

2008-11-18T12:14:00.000-08:00

I got the kiddos in the car and headed to Safeway this morning. We got there and park and I then realized I didn't have my wallet, and then remember that I had placed it on the roof of the car when getting the kiddos in. I get out, but unfortunately no wallet sitting on the roof. I turn around to drive home explaining to Ella why and then proceed to pray out loud that I will find the wallet. I am scanning the road and praying. I am telling Ella I am looking on the road for the wallet while I am driving (and praying) and she declares "Mom, Jesus knows where it is!" Yes he does and we need to pray he shows us where it is I say. Up 66th I go and down Prospect Way around the corner and there it is, in the middle of the road. Open but in tact. It appears to have been driven over but nothing was missing! Wow. After I get it and we head back to the store Ella says "Mom you should have just put the wallet in the car before we left" Thank you Ella for the words of advice!

Free Shipping

2008-11-17T14:19:00.000-08:00

For those of you out there that have little girls American Girl is doing free shipping with no minimum purchase required! This is a great deal and perfect for Christmas Shopping. Also you don't pay sales tax either. For those interested just go here for the online store and when checking out put in GIFTSHIP as your shipping code for free standard shipping. I am so glad this happened as I have been wondering what to get Ella for Christmas! Now I am done, Yeah!

If any one is interested this is what I got her:
This,
This (for $8 why not)
This
This
For $3 who could pass these up!
and
This

Roller Skating!

2008-11-12T13:37:00.000-08:00

The City had their annual employee skating party last night so we thought we would give it a try again this year. Ella was totally excited about it, but not so sure once she got the skates on. She was a bit hesitant but did manage to make it around the rink a few times with our help. I got to skate this year too since Roc is older. We even let him have a go at it. They only lasted for about an hour so we headed home after that, but the highlight was Ella won a hot-dog (and ate the whole thing) in one of the games! It was a thriller alright! The videos may be too dark but I thought I would try them anyway.

Ballet and Harvest Party

2008-11-04T13:36:00.000-08:00

Ella went to her third ballet lesson this week and did great. She told me she did not want to go, but I made her anyway, knowing she really did want to go :) Well we got there and she started talking to her teacher and the other girls and did great. The teacher is so sweet and makes it fun for the girls. The teacher put the monitor on so I was able to see a bit of her dancing and she looked like she was catching on pretty well.

After ballet we headed up to the Hoefer's for Karis's fourth birthday party and the annual harvest party. We roasted marshmallows, decorated cookies, did crafts, had a pinata and a tractor ride for the kids. It was great fun and we all had a good time.

I have decided that rather than trying to post a few of my favorite pictures from stuff I am just posting them all to facebook. For those of you who have not joined the facebook world just click here and you can view them.

Halloween Recap

2008-11-03T14:36:00.000-08:00

For Halloween Roc was a wild husky fan and Ella was a ladybug. I got them dressed up and we headed to Grandma Ruby's house, then my mom's and then to Kevin's work. They got lots of delicious candy. Then for dinner we went to my sister Hannah's house for the annual Halloween party. We ate some delicious home-made chili and cornbread and of course candy! Kevin took the kiddos out trick-or-treating for a while and then Ella helped hand out candy to the "Childrens" that came to the door. She was wound of course. It was fun that Roc was old enough this year to go trick-or-treating. They took along the cute felt bag I made for them.

Random Post

2008-10-28T16:47:00.001-07:00

My little brother Mikey stopped by for a quick visit the other day and proceeded to wound the kiddos up as much as possible. Here are some videos of the fun and a picture of Ella cutting his hair. She was playing the hairdresser. Mikey is also famous for rummaging through the cupboards for whatever he can find to eat. Oh we love you Mikey.

Kevin has been working on a massive retaining wall on the side of our house, near the hill so he has been busy working on this and spent a good chunk of the weekend on this. Ella had her second ballet lesson on Saturday and seemed to really enjoy it, so I am relieved. She was not scared and went right to the teacher and started talking to her so I quickly made my exit before she could change her mind. I met a nice lady whose daughter was there for the first time and we had fun chatting while the girls danced away. Then our church had a cider press in the afternoon, we went for a little while, but then had to get Roc home for a nap. They had some children's activities and Ella had a great time with some of the girls her age. Sunday was just a normal Sunday not much going on. Now I really need to stop as I need to get ready for the Life Choices Banquet tonight. Writer Francine Rivers is speaking so it should be a good program.

Watch This

2008-10-23T21:18:00.000-07:00

Ok I am copying my sister Abby but, you gotta watch this -it is too important not to. This was created by my brother Michael and it does go fast so be ready with the pause button. He also created this one so if you have time, watch it too (actually he has created quite a few so if you like these you can look up all videos done by him).

Tagged

2008-10-23T14:33:00.000-07:00

Ok I was tagged by Hannah and have to say 6 things about me that you may or may not know, so here goes in no particular order of importance.

I am by far the most attractive of the girls in my family....ok totally kidding on that one.

here is the real list

1. I have to get ready each day (shower, do my hair, make-up, get dressed) everyday, even if I have no plans. For some reason it bugs me not to do this.

2. I am extremely frugal-not cheap-but frugal :) I love to bargain shop and stock up on good deals! One of my mottos at home is natural light is free light. I must have thoroughly ingrained this in Ella, as when she goes in her room to play she pulls up the shades so she does not have to turn the light on.

3. I can't stand a messy kitchen, while I do have stuff on my counters I do all the dishes and clean the kitchen while I am cooking and when each meal is over.

4. I work out every morning-no exceptions (unless I am totally sick-or we are out of town)

5. I am totally addicted to news right now. I constantly have FOX news on and then occasionally the other totally news channels. I love this political stuff and was bummed that I missed watching Bill O'Reilly on The View-only got to watch part of what he showed on is show the O'Reilly Factor.

6. I love to read (fiction) and read at least a book or two a week-I read while I work out and before I go to bed at night.

So there it is... I tag Stella, Kaitlen and Kristen....no pressure.

Can you get any cuter?

2008-10-18T20:09:00.001-07:00

Need I say more....

Pumpkin Patch Fun

2008-10-18T19:58:00.000-07:00

Very close to our house is a Fruit Stand (if you can call it that-it is really much more-gifts, fruit, fruit trees, etc.) and they do a few festivals throughout the Yakima fruit growing season. One is a Harvest Festival with Hay Rides, Pumpkin Patch, Hay Maze and Cider Making. The other day Katie, Hannah, and I took the kiddos to check it out. It is perfect as it is not too large and something you can do in about 30-45 minutes. The kiddos had a great time going through the maze and posing for pictures. They don't do the Hay Rides or the Cider Making on the weekends so Kevin and I took Ella and Roc today to do that. We had a great time and even decided to do some cider pressing. It is delicious. Our weather has been pretty good so we were able to enjoy it without being cold. I have posted my photos here for your viewing enjoyment.

When Daddy Dresses Me!

2008-10-15T18:08:00.000-07:00

I asked Ella what Daddy put on her for church (since I was gone at WOF) and she said a polka dot dress. I couldn't think of what she met so thought she meant a pink polka dot summer shirt she has that is a bit long. I was thinking how could he have thought that was a dress? I hope he put something under it... So I asked her to show me and she opened her closest and showed me a summer dress that she wore when she was 1 or 2. I couldn't believe it so I had her put it on for me just to see how it would look. The pictures don't do total justice to how short it was. Kevin did say though that she did get some complements. I just hope they did not think I set this out for her to wear! (now i am not ridiculing Kevin in a way-he did a great job on his own for three days, I just think this is so funny I had to share).

Women of Faith

2008-10-14T13:45:00.000-07:00

This past weekend my Mom, Abby and I headed down to Portland to meet up with Rachael and go to the Women of Faith Conference. I have never been to this and did not really know what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised (and would defiantly want to go again next year). I really enjoyed it and the speakers were not boring at all. And Nicole C Mullen was there (a great Christan singer)and I did not know she was a featured singer for the conference. She puts on a great show but is very humble and gives all the praise of her talent to God. We even got to sit in the box seating area as someone from Rachael's church knows the Pepsi people so they let us use their box, it was great. The conference was Friday and Saturday. On Sunday we did some marathon shopping and I got a great deal on a sweater-regularly $59 for only $4.99 and since we were in OR I did not have to pay sales tax!! I also managed to find a cute duvet cover for our bed, on clearance so it was an especially great deal. They were out of the sheets for it but I am on the hunt for these on ebay-since this stuff ends up there a lot of times.

Birthday Celebration

2008-10-09T20:38:00.000-07:00

We met Kevin after work at Red Robin-Kevin had is free birthday burger coupon so we could not let this deal pass by- Ella remembered going there for her birthday and the Red Robin bird happened to be there that night so she was really hoping he could show up again, and much to her delight he did! Oh I wish I had brought my camera. She was thrilled to say the least. Roc had a great time entertaining people with his loud cooing and his cute hair. (now this has nothing to do with the birthday, but his hair is finally starting to grow and it is so soft and fuzzy, I love rubbing my face on it, and he must love it too as he will rub it up against my face-I treasure these moments as I know they won't last long). On the way into RR Ella sang Happy Birthday Daddy-o to him.
During the day Ella helped me make a cake. Whenever we bake her job is to look at the box and tell me how many eggs we need and then she helped me put in the other ingredients too. She did a great job. (When we were talking about the cake making on the way to RR ((as I was telling her not to tell Daddy so it would be a surprise when we got home)) I reminded her of what she did to help me and she said oh yeah mommy we were like a team. I thought that was cute.) Then she had the job of decorating it and putting the candles in. Then she decorated a card for him and I wrote on it what she told me too. It really was quite sweet. She was so excited to give him the card and blow out candles with him when we got home. I love how excited she gets about these things. When she was decorating the card she found a picture of Kevin and me before we were married so somehow she got the idea that this would be a surprise for him too, so she got it in a box to give to him :) Roc was just thrilled to look on and eat his cake.

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment :)

Happy Birthday

2008-10-09T18:33:00.000-07:00

To my sweet husband or as he likes to be called "my man!". Hope you have a great day.
my man and his boy.

Why is it....

2008-10-09T11:52:00.000-07:00

whenever the kiddos are doing something cute, funny, etc and you run to get the camera, they stop?
Ella and Roc have had a lot of fun playing forts with the couch cushions and I looked over and Ella was lounging on them reading her new High Five magazine she got in the mail. I was only able to get one photo of this (and not a great one) before she noticed and then stopped.

Roc has learned the sound a dog makes and we are slowly working on the rest of the animals. I love the way he forms his mouth when barking.

He also has mastered the word hello, and was totally saying it last night while looking out the window, until (of course) I got the camera out:) But I was able to capture some of it!

Update

2008-10-06T08:42:00.000-07:00

Not much to report on this end. Just the same stuff going on around here. I have been slowly working on some of the craft projects I mentioned in a previous post and once I have actually completed some I will post some pictures.
Ella and Sadie had a great time playing the other day and somehow Sadie ended up with a head full of chapstick. According to Katie, Sadie did it because it was fun. Well Ella claims she had no part in it and Sadie put it in her own hair and even some in Ella's. Not sure if this is totally true but nonetheless I think most of it has come out of Sadie's hair and the girls had fun-so that's all that counts, right?
I helped my mom at a wedding on Saturday night, this is the first catering event I have helped at since Roc was born and it was fun, but I forget how much work these can be. The bride had a candy/cupcake table that she wanted someone to watch over so my mom volunteered me for this one! It was fun, she had various different jars filled with different candies and bags to put it in. I think this is a great idea and the people enjoyed it a lot. The bride also wore a brown dress, it was really pretty, but I have not seen this before. I have seen dresses that are accented in a color but not totally a color other than white/cream.
Hope you all have a good week.

The Shack

2008-10-01T14:21:00.000-07:00

Until recently I had not heard of this book, but my mom heard some great things about it and encouraged the family to read it. I just finished this the other day and I must say it was a let down for me. I found it to be incredibly boring -other than an occasional section-and found myself reading it quickly so I could move on to other books (I love to read and have a way long list of books to read). Have any of you out there read it?-Am I the only one that did not enjoy it? To be honest-and please don't be offended ((as I am sure a lot of books I like are not enjoyed by others)) especially anyone who enjoyed it-I found it sorta dumb(to put it nicely). If you have not read it or heard of it, go here for more details. I am thinking my poll queen sister Abby should do a poll on her blog about this :)

Note to my Readers

2008-09-27T17:44:00.000-07:00

Ok-just in case you saw my travel journal and thought, way too long -I'm not reading that! and did not read it you may have missed that at the end of the post there are three links to my photos. Not sure that anyone did this, but Rachael mentioned to me how long it was so I had to tell her about the photos so I am passing this info on to you all.
Thanks and don't worry it won't hurt my feelings if you don't read the travel journal. :)

Videos

2008-09-25T12:36:00.000-07:00

Trip to North and South Carolina

2008-09-25T12:08:00.000-07:00

Kevin’s younger sister Andrea –who lives in Raleigh NC-got married this past weekend. We decided that it would be fun to go to the wedding and see most of Kevin’s family. So here is a day-by-day documentation of our adventure-Enjoy and I hope you don’t get bored reading all this. It is mostly detailed for my records but I am sure you will enjoy it too:)

Day 1 Wednesday:

We actually left on Tuesday evening and spent the night at a hotel near the Seattle airport. We stayed at one that let you park your car if you stayed the night-they also shuttle you to and from the airport. This was actually cheaper than parking at the airport and then we did not have to rush in the morning and drive over from Yakima to catch our flight. We also enjoyed a delicious hotel breakfast before heading to the airport-Not. It was actually kinda funny- the breakfast bar had some cereal, coffee, and juice. There was also a waffle Nazi (per Kevin) that would not let you make your own waffle, but would let you have one that he made (and who knows how long ago) :). Ok after our delicious breakfast we headed to the airport and got on our flight. It was not too bad. Ella did pretty good-except she was not too fond of the seatbelt rule and asked me every two seconds when could she take it off! She kept her self entertained with books, coloring and stickers. Roc did ok too considering it was an almost 5 hour ride, but not something I wish to repeat anytime soon. We flew to Atlanta with a 40-minute layover and then a short flight scheduled to Raleigh planned. Well, we landed a bit late and sat on the runway for at least 20 minutes. So needless to say I kept saying to Kevin we are never going to make our flight. As soon as we got off he took off running with Ella (I had to wait for the stroller for a minute-so took Roc with me). In our rush we did not double-check the gate for our connection. Let me tell you I have never ran so fast with a stroller and a child in my life. We had to go from one end of the airport section to the other. When we got to the gate we were informed we were at the wrong gate and had to go to another concourse (on a tram) to get to the right gate. They kindly told us we would never make it and they could do nothing to help us. We tried anyway and got to the right gate one minute before the flight was set to leave, and low and behold the gate was totally empty and the flight had left early (we got there at 9:19-flight was scheduled to leave 9:20). Now we were not the only ones to have this happen to. They did reschedule us for the next day and gave us a hotel and meal vouchers, but what annoyed me was when we were on the plane the stewardess said they could not call our gate and let them know we were coming nor could the people at the wrong gate call ahead for us. You would think it would be cheaper for the airline to just wait a few minutes, rather than pay for hotels and meals for people? So we headed to the hotel and slept for a few hours. Mind you we had no luggage with us! (A side note I did have a carry-on suitcase with our toiletries and an extra change of clothes with us, but in Seattle they told me I had too many items that were not allowed and since I did not want to throw all the stuff away we checked the bag-in hindsight I wished I would have kept it…) ok enough of that-on to the good stuff.

Day 2 Thursday:

We woke up very early and headed to our 7:30 am flight to Raleigh. We made this just fine; the kiddos slept the whole time! We landed, got our rental car and checked into our hotel-This hotel was not that great but it was only for one night so we endured it. We were all pretty tired but wanted to go see the family, so we showered and got ready, had some lunch but Roc was so tired I went back to the hotel to let him nap. Kevin and Ella headed to Andrea’s to hang out with the family, but poor Ella was so exhausted she was not having fun, so Kevin came back and we all slept a while, then headed over to Andrea’s for dinner. Ella had fun with her cousins (Jesse, Austin and Ayden). Also there were Kevin’s parents, Sisters Kathleen, Dawn and Andrea, Brothers Brent and Nolan and Future BIL's in Chris (AKA The Groom) and Neil. Ella met the neighbor girl her age and had a great time playing with her. Later that evening Ella and Ayden had a great time helping Dawn tie the bows for the wedding programs. They each took turns holding their fingers so she could tie it. I was wishing I had taken a picture. They were so cute sitting on the chair together. Then it was off to bed.

Day 3 Friday:

We got up and headed to Myrtle Beach, which was about a three-hour ride. The kiddo’s took a pretty good nap on the way down, but also did their fair share of fussing and whining (think back to our Spokane drive) :) We got to Myrtle Beach before we could check in to our room at this great hotel, but the hotel said we could still park there and gave us some towels, so we headed down to the beach to play. We had a great time, although Ella had more fun playing in the sand than the water. This was a nice day, some sun and some clouds, but the water was warm! It was great. We also headed to the hotel pools. They had two hot tubs, two outdoor pools and an indoor kids wading pool with neat fountains and showers and a neat thing that was a shallow pool, with a lazy river attached. It was actually really fun but a bit cold. For the lazy river you got in a tube a rode around-there were fountains and showers that you went under too. This actually made it colder. (I want to go back in the summer and do this again). We met up with some of the family and swam, but had to be at the rehearsal at 4 so we got checked into our room and got ready for this. The wedding was on a grassy area overlooking the beach. The other flower girl was seven and she and Ella became fast friends. Ella was running around dancing before the rehearsal, having a great time. I must say she looked so cute too! Roc was having a great time getting into the bark and hanging onto the fence overlooking the pool. Ella did great practicing but was a bit tired to Auntie Kathleen did end up holding her during the second practice. Since I did not know how Ella would do at the wedding -we planned for Kathleen to hold her during the wedding if Ella couldn’t make it the whole time. Then we headed inside for a delicious dinner and Ella and Roc ate a ton, so they must have been really hungry. Then most of us headed out for a walk on the beach and then to the pools for more swimming. Grandma and Grandpa even got in on the action. If you look at my pictures Roc was so tired he fell asleep on Kevin while riding on the lazy river. (My plan on this trip was to stay on WA time for sleeping so the kiddos went to bed later and slept in later. This worked better for Ella than it did Roc.) Since Roc was wiped out I went up to the room and Kevin and Ella played for a bit. Then we all went to bed.

Day 4 Saturday:

Wedding Day has arrived. Ella actually slept in pretty late, but Kevin got up with Roc and took him down to the beach so Ella and I could sleep. Since the wedding was at 1:00 Ella and I did not join them when she finally did wake up. I did not want to deal with any moods if she did not want to stop playing so Kevin went and got us Starbucks and Krispy Kreme donuts while we hung out in the room. While we were waiting for Kevin Roc decided it would be fun to throw his milk cup over the balcony (we were on the 8^th floor). As it was falling I had visions of it landing on someone’s head, (actually Andrea’s as she was walking into the hotel this exact time) and hurting them badly, but fortunately it landed on an alcove type thing. It did not break and Kevin was able to get it for me when he got back. Then we got ready for the wedding. Dawn helped me with Ella’s hair (since she won’t let me touch it) and it turned out so cute. I must say Ella was adorable! And I am not biased :) I was a bit nervous that Ella would not want to be the flower girl. A few days before we left I told her she got to go barefoot and she did not like that idea at all, but surprisingly she changed her mind and was totally happy about this. Kevin was an usher at the wedding and then took over watching Roc for me so I could take pictures of Ella. I was hoping Ella would cooperate and do this flower girl thing as I had visions of her not wanting to and it being a disaster, but she did absolutely wonderful. She had a great time walking down the aisle throwing her rose petals. Then she did great standing up at the front. I was sitting in the back with Dawn and once she noticed me taking pictures she started to smile really big and then proceeded to wave and blow kisses. It was so funny and adorable. She even managed to stand up front the whole ceremony and then throw more petals on her way down the aisle. I was so proud of my little girl. During the reception many people came up and told me what a great job she did and how cute she was! We enjoyed some great food at the reception and Ella even got in a dance with Grandpa and had fun running around with the cousins. I left the reception a bit early as Ella was begging to swim. So basically that night was just more swimming and beach walking. Then off to bed.

Day 5 Sunday:

We got up and said good-by to the family as they were all leaving but we were staying one more day. We spent the morning/afternoon playing in the pools and beach and then went on a drive –in which the kiddos actually took a nap and then got some pizza and pasta to eat back at the room. Then just Ella and I headed out for a walk on the beach. When we got there it was pretty dark so I held Ella’s hand and she informed me that God was holding her other hand. Precious! Then Ella decided she wanted to swim again. I really did not want to as it was cold, but then decided it was our last night and would it really kill me to be cold for a little while, when it could bring Ella joy? So we headed up to get our suits on and then played in the water and I hung out in the hot tub and much as possible. While it was fun, it really wasn’t the same without everyone else there.

Day 6 Monday:

We had to check out by noon so after some breakfast (a side note, Kevin when to Starbucks for our coffee each morning so I totally forgot to buy my Myrtle Beach Starbucks mug, bummer :( ) we headed out for our last walk on the beach. Ella was not that into walking in the water so we mostly stayed further up and looked for shells. The kiddos were ready to go at this time (Roc actually fell asleep in Kevin’s arms while we were walking) so we headed to the room, got cleaned up and headed back to Raleigh. They did pretty well on this drive and slept most the way. YEAH! We went straight to Andrea’s house-as Kathleen (her boys Austin and Ayden), Brent, Grandma and Grandpa, and Jesse (Andrea’s boy) were there. We pretty much hung out with them till bedtime. Ella got along with the cousins really well and they had great fun playing and jumping on the air mattress with the boys, which was in the dining room. Ella gets along well with everyone and had fun with Grandma and Grandma too (and of course all her aunties there!).

Day 7 Tuesday:

Time to go home. While we had fun, it is not totally easy traveling with children and we were tired and ready to go. I was really dreading the long plane ride. We made it through security fine and had a quick flight to Atlanta. In Atlanta I realized they put us all in different rows for our Atlanta to Seattle trip. Hello a three year old by herself?? They told me the flight was full and they would do what they could but could not make any guarantees. In the end they were able to get Kevin in a seat and then Ella and me together, and then when we got on someone graciously switched with us. We endured the long ride with some fussing and some sleeping, but we did make it and amazingly as soon as we got off the plane all our moods improved dramatically. I must say I have never been so happy to be off a plane in my entire life-other than the time I flew to KS alone with Ella when she was 15 mths-and declared I was never doing that again. We got our luggage and called our shuttle, they arrived very quickly and we got our car loaded up and headed home. Since it was 6:30 I did not want to attempt dinner when we got home so we stopped at the Issaquah Costco for a hot dog and pizza. Roc slept most the way and Ella fell asleep outside of North Bend. So we did have a nice peaceful ride home.

All in all it was a good trip and really nice to see the majority of Kevin’s Family, whom we don’t get to see that often. And to those of you that read every word-Thank You-I hope I did not leave anything out! And Thank you to Kev for taking care of Roc in the am’s so Ella and I could sleep!

To view my photos of the trip go here and here and here-unless you have facebook-then just go to my photos on that.

Back to Life....Back to Reality!

2008-09-24T10:49:00.000-07:00

Were are back!!!!!!!!!I will be blogging and posting pictures of our trip to SC/NC soon, but first I have a lot of laundry to do and email catch ups etc. Check back later for the details of the trip.
But one picture for now....

Weekend Recap

2008-09-15T14:23:00.000-07:00

Saturday did not do much, but did meet Hannah at Jo-Ann's to purchase some of the necessary supplies for the crafts I motioned in a previous post. I hope to get started on these soon. Hannah is very helpful and it going to try and make some of the stuff first, then I can look at hers for inspiration. Although I am on my own for the tutu, for some reason I can't figure out she does not want to make one for Emmett? Then of course we watched the poor huskies loose once again! Agg! Oh well maybe in two weeks it may be better (Bye this weekend). On Sunday we went to church and then in the late afternoon headed up to Ellensburg for Avery's 2nd birthday party. It was nice out so the kiddos had fun playing outside and did not want to leave, and did not fall asleep on the way home liked I hoped they would. I have spent all morning cleaning and doing piles and piles of laundry. Oh the exciting life I lead.

Girls Weekend

2008-09-09T17:09:00.000-07:00

I did something this weekend I have never done before-I left for the weekend and spent the night aways from my kiddos! Us Sisters decided to celebrate our Mom's 60th B-day by taking her to Portland for a fun filled weekend of shopping! We left our husbands in charge of the kiddos and headed out early Saturday morning. We met up with Rachael down there and enjoyed a good time of shopping and eating out. We stayed the night at Rachael's apartment and ate some delicious cake she made. I did not take my camera thinking I would leave it with Kevin to document the kiddos every move, but the only picture he took was one of the toy room with every toy dumped out of the buckets and all over the floor. But he did manage to get it all cleaned up and the house looked great when I got home. Thanks honey!

While shopping I found the cutest ballerina wand and was looking at it and then Hannah and I looked at each other and said-pretty much in unison-I/You could make this! Then we found some neat felt flowers things at Pottery Barn and decided we could easily craft these as well. I took pics on my camera phone and am hoping I can actually do this. I have been wanting to find some cute nick knack things for Ella's room and am planning on taking these ideas and making these for her room. I don't know how to upload camera phone pictures, but basically they are felt flowers with a stem. My idea is to make these in butterflies/dragonflies and flowers to match her room. They are on sticks so I am going to get a neat clear vase and put colored glass beads in the bottom and then these in it-to display on her dresser. The wand will be for her to play with. (She has her first ballerina lesson coming up soon-so I am sure she will love this wand) . We also saw a neat felt bag for trick-or-treating, which actually looked pretty easy to recreate ourselves. So know we can be busy with projects.

All in all it was a fun weekend and the kiddos remembered me when I got home so I guess it was ok that I left.

Political Delegate

2008-09-03T21:14:00.001-07:00

ok I have decided I want to be at the next presidential convention as a delegate. Maybe it just because of the convention going on, but I find this really fascinating. I have had an interest in politics, but not a totally active one. I do vote, but have never given to a politician or helped one in a campaign. I did go to a political party/fundraiser for Senator Brownback when we lived in Kansas and actually thought it was fun and in the back of my mind have thought it would be fun to be involved more but have never really done anything about it. Maybe it is time-I am going to look into how to be a delegate. Maybe it is not for me and maybe I don't qualify but at least is is worth looking into.

Football Season Is Here

2008-08-31T20:13:00.000-07:00

My huskies getting ready to watch the game... Actually two of the three went to bed soon after the game started but they had to get their jerseys on for a picture anyway. Ella even slept in hers all night. It is only too bad we did not win the game. But hey the season has just begun.

9 Years...

2008-08-29T13:50:00.001-07:00

of wedded bliss. Yesterday Kevin and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. We went out to dinner at Santiago's and it was delicious. I asked Ella if she wanted to come with us or stay with Uncle Andrew. She first said she wanted to come with us, then changed her mind and said she wanted to stay with Drew, then finally decided that for sure she wanted to come with us. I really did not mind taking her and actually kinda did want her to come (not that alone time with Kevin would be a bad thing though) . She is not difficult to take care of and does pretty good just sitting and eating or looking around. We tried to talk her into ordering a "special drink" but she wouldn't go for it. (They offered Roy Rogers, Shirley Temples and Un-Tequila Sunrises for only $1.50) . Not sure why she didn't want the drink but oh well she actually really enjoyed sharing Kevin's meal with him. I of course had to take the camera along and was going to have Ella take a photo of me and kev, but we saw some people we knew so they did it for us. When we got done eating Ella was very excited to take her leftovers home, but accidentally spilled them all over the booth chair, Kevin quickly scooped them back into the container and off we went. Not sure I want her to eat them now but did not want her to see us leave them behind. They are sitting in our fridge but hopefully she will forget about them. When we got to the car she said now are we going to the anniversary? I said we already celebrated it at dinner and explained to her an anniversary was like a birthday. She did not really get it and asked a few more times if we were going to the anniversary, but then fell asleep and forgot about it. Another funny thing she told us at dinner that she and Roc were going to get married too. Oh boy does she have a lot to learn. Anyway here are a few pictures from the night. The one of me and Kev was supposed to have Ella in it but if you look closely you can she the tip of her back as she did her best not to be in the picture, what a little stinker.

Spokane

2008-08-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

Friday night we headed to Spokane. Some friends of ours from Kansas recently moved there and we wanted to see them. Spokane is also a halfway point for us to meet Kevin's parents, who live in Libby MT. Since Kevin's parents were going to be there we decided to see both them and our friends. Rather than driving both ways in one day we decided to head over Friday night. The kiddos did pretty well on the way over, Roc fussed a bit but eventually fell asleep and so did Ella. They both slept till we got to Spokane. In my mind I envisioned carrying a sleeping Roc to the room and them both going to bed right away, but then instant the car stopped both were wide awake-and had gotten their second wind-it was about 9:30 ish. They were excited to say the least. Jumping all around the room, etc. so we decided go get some Dicks (fast food hamburgers-not as good as the Seattle Dicks, but a close second). So Ella and Kevin headed over to get the food and Roc and I hung out in the room. I figured I better get a picture of the occasion. Kevin said you should put the clock in the picture (he thinks no one will believe I actually let me children stay up past 10:00). I told Ella to say "milkshake" for the picture-so she put her hand in the air and said "milkshake". The kiddos finally got to sleep and of course were up at 6:30. Kevin took them downstairs to breakfast and I got ready and then met them. There was a Starbucks across the street so Kevin got us some coffee and headed up to shower. While I was eating with the kiddos Ella had to go to the bathroom, while trying to get the door open she fell and was crying. I was headed over to her holding Roc and my full cup of coffee-Roc decided that was the perfect time to pull my glasses off and in the process knock them and my coffee to the ground. Now fortunately no one was burned and there were plenty of nice ladies to come to my rescue. After making quite an impression at the hotel, we headed over to the Spokane Riverfront Park to meet Kevin's parents. It actually is a pretty neat place. There is a huge radio flyer wagon turned into a slide, lots of toys to play on and a carrousel to ride on. After hanging out with Kevin's parents we met our friends for the afternoon and evening. We hung out at the Northtown mall and let Roc and Ella play on the mall toys -for a long while- then headed to a park for more fun on toys and to take pictures. We then headed to Costco-for gas and of course hot dogs and pizza. It was great seeing our friends and we are glad to have them living so much closer now. We headed home around 6:30 and expected a quiet ride with sleeping kids. Wrong. Ella did fall asleep soon after we left but Roc decided to cry. He cried for a long while, fell asleep, woke up and cried, fell asleep, woke up cried, etc. Then when he finally really fell asleep Ella woke up and cried. For at least 30 minutes. I declared we were never doing this again (many times) to Kevin. My favorites quotes from Ella while crying "You need to get me out of this car seat now because I am a girl" "I am so crabby" "I need my Mommy, I need my other mommy" " Your other mommy?" I said-which she clarified meant Grandma. At one point she said "I need Sadie". Let's just say-it was quite a ride and I am not exaggerating that one or both were crying for at least half of the three hour drive. But other than that we had a great time. If you want to see the rest of the photos I have uploaded them to Facebook. If you don't have Facebook just click here.

One Year Photo Collage

2008-08-22T12:58:00.001-07:00

I narrowed down my favorites of Roc's one year phots to put my collage frame together. I actually had more than nine, so just got all of them and put the ones that fit best into the frame. I think it turned out great, not sure if you can really tell from my picture of pictures, but at least you get the idea. I also am on the hunt for a cool frame with three slots as there are three of him on his radio flyer that are so cute I need to display them. I also absolutely love this one and want to display it also, so need to find a good frame for it. Roc is so expressive in these photos-he has such serious looks in some and perfect glee in others! I so love this little guy. Hannah thanks for the great photo shoot.

Ella's First Girls Night Out.

2008-08-19T13:42:00.000-07:00

Ella had a horrific dentist appointment yesterday morning (without going into details-let's just say we will be finding her a new dentist) -so I decided she deserved a little fun. Since Rach was in town I suggested we go to dinner. Hannah and my mom joined us and we headed to El Porton. I had not eaten there in a very long time and wanted to try it again. We had fun, but poor Ella was just too tired to totally enjoy it, but I was able to get a few cute photos (from the willing participants :)) from the event.

Visit from Auntie Connie

2008-08-19T13:33:00.000-07:00

Kevin's sister,Connie, stopped by for a visit on Sunday. We had not seen her in a while so it was nice to visit. She called to let us know she was almost here and Ella decided that she could not come until the playroom was clean. As she was putting blocks away she kept saying, "Is she here?" She really wanted to be finished before she arrived. Auntie Connie arrived with a huge bag of gifts for the kiddos, which of course they were totally excited about. I wanted to get a picture of both the kiddos with her, but Ella was not into it, but later Auntie Connie was showing her how to jump rope so I was able to get some photos.

Fish Hatchery

2008-08-17T17:13:00.000-07:00

Just up Powerhouse Road towards Naches is a little fish hatchery, Kevin took Ella to this about a year ago and we decided Roc needed to visit, so we headed up there (actually it has been a while since we did this but i decided I would go ahead and blog about it anyway) to check it out. The big fish had already been released but there were lots of little ones to look out. We did not stay too long, but Kevin did find some fish food and fed the fish a bit. The kiddos enjoyed watching this and Roc wanted to jump in with them... This is actually a good outing as it is not too far away and can be done quickly. We also took them to check out the Yakima River, we stood on the side and let them put their toes in and even saw a snake. Here are a few pics from the adventure-one is of Ella pointing out the snake to us.

Finally.

2008-08-17T17:07:00.000-07:00

Ok I know I have not updated in a while. It has been really hot here and we spent yesterday hanging out at my parents, swimming in the pool. It was quite relaxing as Roc took a nice long afternoon nap, so I was able to enjoy swimming in the pool chatting with Abby, Hannah and Rach-and later Katie, while the little girls (and Emmett) played and swam. They also enjoyed a delicious Popsicle, and had equally as much fun feeding Gracie (the Hoefer's dog)

Roc's One Year Photo Shoot

2008-08-06T19:59:00.000-07:00

ok so I think the majority of the people who read my blog have facebook, so please check out the three photo albums I did on facebook of his one year shoot. For those of you faithful readers who don't have facebook you can still get into the photo albums by the following three links. Please enjoy them and let me know what your favorites are, I have to narrow them down to nine, as that is how many pictures my frame holds.

Thanks Hannah for the great photo shoot!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24885&l=19451&id=783174709

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24868&l=19b05&id=783174709

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24424&l=0a5ac&id=783174709

3 Year and 1 Year check ups

2008-08-05T14:14:00.001-07:00

We headed to the Doctor today for the big 3 year and 1 year old check-ups. Ella is old enough to know what is going on and was not too excited about this. But all was well-she only had one shot but Roc had to have four! I hate this part of the visit, but you do what you have to do.

Stats:
Ella remains my tall skinny girl at 38inches tall (90-95th percentile) and 26 lbs (25 percentile). The Doctor is fine with this as this is where she has been for sometime now.

Roc was 31.25 inches (95th percentile) and 19.14 lbs (10%percentile) Head circumference 18 inches (25th percentile). I have another tall skinny one on my hands. I am ok with this if the Doctor is. He did not seem to be concerned about his weight (last checkup he was in the 3rd percentile) and just said to feed him as much as I could and since he is growing in his percentile he looks fine.

Not much else going on that is too exciting around here.

Roc is a mover and a climber so I have to keep a careful watch on him! He loves to walk up the gravel driveway and also loves to play in the gravel around the swing set-much to my delight as he gets very dusty and dirty doing this. He also loves dogs-He loves my parents dog and also my brother's dog-whom Kevin took care of while they were gone so it was a great delight to have her in our yard for Roc to play with.

Ella has been enjoying "organizing" still and has found some pictures of herself-she likes to get these lined up just so and enjoys doing this over and over. She also loves to go outside and pick "flowers" and "cattails" She actually loves cattails and was thrilled when Kevin brought a real one home to her the other day. She is also getting into looking at letters and numbers and wanting to know what they are-while I hate the thought of sending her off I am thinking preschool might be a good idea-we will see....

Hannah did a great one year photo shoot of Roc, but I have been having trouble viewing the pictures, but once I do, I will post a few as he is soo cute. Since Roc is such a mover it was hard to get him to sit still so most of these are him in motion!

Oh and this is my 150th post. A funny note-Abby started blogging after me and met this milestone a long time ago!

Tagged!

2008-07-29T19:54:00.001-07:00

Ok so Abby has tagged me so I guess I will do this...

20 Years ago I was....
12 soon to be 13. This was the summer before I went to 8th grade. I am pretty sure...Abby says she was also going into 8th so one of us has calculated wrong.... but oh well close enough. I really don't remember much, but Abby mentioned the Nordstrom Anniversary sale and this was a found memory each summer. I also used to go to church camp each summer and did love it so I am sure I was just getting back from having a great time there. I also probably spent my summer babysitting.

10 Years ago I was....
22 soon to be 23. I was working at the Factoria Nordstrom Espresso Bar as the manager and had recently met Kevin-we met February 98 as that is when I started at the Factoria store and he worked there too, in the shoe department. Oh the memories of working there. Kevin and I officially started dated on Memorial Day of this year. Our first date was a Mariners Game of all things. In October of this year I made the move to theNordstrom Corporate Offices and began working in the Accounting Department.

5 Years ago I was...
Spending my first full summer living in Kansas. Kevin was just finishing his first year of Law school and I was growing my first tomatoes. And man my plants were big! I worked forPayless Shoes Corporation in the Lease Administration department as a Lease Auditor. In looking back this is really how God works things out in our lives, after working in the General Ledger portion of the accounting department atNordstrom , a position opened up as a Lease Administration- I took the job and enjoyed it. It was not just chance that when we moved to KS, there happened to be a Retail Corporation headquartered there that had openings with the same kind of work that I did forNordstrom . Cost of living is less there and so are wages so it was a real blessing to find a great paying secure job with benefits. I will always look back on Kansas with fond memories -good church, good friends, good neighbors, good job etc.

3 Years ago I was...
Living back in my home town of Yakima. And a brand new mother to Ella! She was born the end of June so was still a tiny baby at this time. I was also taking care of my elderly great Aunt and working for Jan's Catering! Wow! Kevin and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary this year.

1 Year ago I was....
Moved into our new home that we built-we moved at the end of March. This was very exciting for us and Kevin spent a lot of time and energy putting our personal stamp on this place. A mother of two now, Roc was just two weeks old and I was adjusting from one to two. I remember thinking how could I have thought one was a lot of work? I stopped working for my mom (other than bookkeeping on my own time) and was officially a stay at home mom. Kevin also just started is planning job with the city. Ok I just realized this was not one the items, but I wrote it so it stays.

So Far this Year I....
Celebrated Ella's Third Birthday and Roc's first. Witnessed many of Roc's firsts-crawling, cruising, walking, running, etc. Not really anything too special this year so far, just the same old same old... Oh we have planned a vacation... Kevin's sister is getting married in SC so we decided to make the trip, this will be a good time of seeing a lot of his family we have not seen in a while and will be fun to see this part of the country. Oh and Ella gets to be a flower girl-I am excited about that.

Yesterday I...
Went to Office Max to get ink for the work computer, went to Target since we were right there. Then went and did the weekly bills for my mom's business while Roc napped. Drew came and watched him and it worked out great. Drew did not want me to pay him as he said he ate enough Tillamook Ice Cream and Cheez -its' to make up for it:) Had dinner and put the kids to bed, worked on catering stuff (till my bedtime:) Exciting life I lead, I know.

Tomorrow I will...
Be taking Ella to the dentist. I have a sinking suspicion she has a cavity so I am stressing a bit about this! This is also her first dentist appointment. Looking at the grocery ad's-one of my favorite Wednesday morning activities. Laundry and cleaning-but hey aren't those pretty much everyday occurrences?

Next Year I will...
Be the mother of a four year old and a two year old. I think life will be much easier. Both the children will be older and I think everyday it gets easier. Celebrate 10 years of marriage to Kevin-wow! Maybe we can go on a cruise! Yeah right I am to frugal for that but a girl can dream right? :) Actually I want to go on the Disney Cruise, but not till both kiddos are old enough to enjoy it-so that won't be next year, but soon enough.

I tag...
Stella and Kaitlen. Oh and Sam, Jen, and Sara since I frequent their blogs too! Now get to it:)

Attention Starbucks Fan's

2008-07-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

If you have a Starbucks gift card or Duetto visa, and have registered it-go to Starbucks on Friday or Saturday, with your card, and get a free Vivanno. It is a new smoothie type drink, that comes in banana/chocolate or orange/mango/banana. Also if you are unaware once you have registered your card you will not longer have to pay for Soy/Breve/or Heavy Cream milk upgrade or flavored syrups in your drinks. Also when you buy a pound of coffee you will get a free tall beverage of your choice. Now if you are just a regular coffee drinker you get free refills while in the shop. Just go to Starbucks.com for all the details and enjoy a free drink this weekend. I will be for sure!

Future Basketball Star

2008-07-22T10:53:00.000-07:00

We got Roc a Basketball Hoop for this birthday, it is the kind that gets taller as the child does. He seems to enjoy it. Here are a few shots of him in action.

Roc's Birthday Party

2008-07-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

Roc had a great birthday party. It was a family party, plus Stella-but hey she is such a good friend she is considered family too. We did a BBQ and had delicious pie made by my Grandma Ruby. Roc enjoyed his birthday cake but seemed very serious while he was eating it. Thank you to everyone who came and for all the wonderful gifts. We really appreciate it. Here are a few pictures from his special day.

Visit to the fire station

2008-07-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

Today we, along with Josh and Sadie and Scott and Hailey, Karis, & Avery, went to the fire station for a tour. Kevin set this up as he has decided to decorate Roc's room in a fire engine theme, so why not get him even more interested by getting to actually look at the different trucks, the station and meet some real firemen. The children were all given stickers, a hat, and pencils. We toured the whole station and the firemen explained what they did, what each room was, what there specific duties were, etc. Also we even have some fire women in this town! I think he said there were three but I can't quite remember. The adults were more interested in all these facts, but the children got more excited when they got to get in the trucks. They first got in one of the old fashioned ones. (I was a bit disappointed that all the children wanted to do this, but Ella-but oh well I am not into forcing something just to get a picture) Then we went outside to check the others out. Roc sat in the drivers seat with Kevin and tooted the horn. Then (I think it was Sadie) got to turn the sirens on. At first the girls did not want this to happen as they thought it would be to loud- I was fearing some tears, but then Hailey decided it was funny, so that got them laughing instead- Thanks Hailey-you're a real trouper! Then the real highlight came-they let the adults ride up in the ladder-Kevin and I went first, then Scott and Josh (with one of the firemen). The put these heavy duty belts on us and then linked us to the side of the ladder cage. It was really high up, I think 100 feet. The view was amazing and it was only slightly scary when it moved. The last thing they did was one of the firemen got all dressed up in his suit they wear for fighting fires and showed us everything they put on and why. I think it was a really great experience and the firemen were very informative and spent a lot of time talking to us. It was great and I am glad we did it. I took a lot of pictures so decided to try a slide show instead. For some reason I could not get the -add a page element- slide show to work so I am adding it through slide.com instead.

Red Art Gallery

2008-07-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

So Katie (my sister-in-law) discovered a little art gallery in town that does art for preschoolers on Fridays from 10-12. We decided to take the girls today to check it out. It does cost 5 dollars but we went ahead and decided to splurge on some fun :) My dear little brother Drew was willing to watch Roc for me, which I am really glad for-I was able to help the girls and not worry about what Roc was up to or what he was putting in his mouth. We got there right at 10 and only a few others were there, but by the time we left at 11:00 it was getting crowded so I was glad we got there early. The girls had fun with gluing a collage, stickers, and painting, and they were even allowed to paint on the walls. We decided that Abby needed this feature for the next craft day. What is funny is Ella really likes to cut so the other day (after she cut my shower curtain) I gave her a bunch of construction paper and told her to cut it up, I was going to do a collage, but have not gotten around to it yet. Here a few pictures of the fun.

Now I have been hounding Katie to start a blog and told her this would be a good way to start, don't know if she will go for it, but we can hope!

As Promised

2008-07-17T15:21:00.003-07:00

Roc was up from his nap on time and I was able to snap a few shots of him right at 3:17 pm.

Happy Birthday!

2008-07-17T08:06:00.000-07:00

To my sweet little boy. I can't believe it, but today he is one! He is such a sweet little guy and we are blessed to have him in our family. I love you so much! He has recently learned to clap so when I sang Happy Birthday to him today he clapped along. Another one of his new favorite games is to play "Where's Roc?" He will hide behind something and when we say "Where's Roc?" he will peek out with a big grin on his face and then hide again right away. He also loves to climb on things and is quite proud of his accomplishment in doing so. He also has mastered the art of running and prefers this over walking. Here a just a few pictures of him today and his birthday, provided he is not napping I will get a shot of him at 3:17 pm-when he is exactly one year old.

The First of Many

2008-07-14T10:11:00.000-07:00

Today I picked my first ripe tomato! I hope this is the first of many. I really only like Roma tomatoes, so I planted 3 of those and one of another variety. I can't remember what it is called but it is sorta like a Grape tomato but bigger-it sounded like a cross between a Grape and a Roma. It was actually pretty good. I have some big Romas growing but they are not turning color yet... and for some reason my plants are not getting that tall. In KS they would grow almost as tall as me! Roc wanted a taste of the tomato too and kept trying to grab it while I was trying to get a picture.

Holiday Weekend Recap

2008-07-07T13:16:00.001-07:00

On Friday we went to my parents house and the kids got to play on the new water slide. Ella wasn't totally brave on it and had more fun just playing around it and climbing up and down-but not actually sliding down. It looked fun and I was wishing there was an adult version available. I am not into taking babies out late so we skipped looking at fireworks. On Saturday Ella and I went to watch my brother Andrew play baseball for a little while, he got a few hits while we were there and they won the game! Ella even found a little friend to play with! Then we went with my mom to Macy's- I was in desperate need of some summer clothes and a new swimsuit. I found a few things which was good but could not find a swimsuit. I decided that since I have had the same swimsuit since before I started dating Kevin, it was time for a new one :), so I will keep looking. Then I talked Hannah into seeing the Kit Kittredge -An American Girl movie- with me. It was actually pretty good. On Sunday we did the usual church in the morning and then I went, with Ella, to go to my mom's catering bills for the week. Afterwards Ella and I swam for a little while and then Sadie came down to swim too. When we got home Kevin surprised me my washing most of our windows! They look great! Thank you!

Swimming in the Big Pool

2008-06-30T18:00:00.000-07:00

My parents pool is up and running. Ella and Kevin have been enjoying it these last few days. Ella seems to be pretty brave in the pool. My goal is to teach her to swim this year, we will see if this happens. Roc enjoyed it for a few minutes, but did not last that long. The water may have been too cold. We will keep trying and I am sure it will soon be more fun for him.

Birthday Celebration

2008-06-27T14:28:00.000-07:00

Ella woke up to these gifts waiting for her in the playroom. A Bitty Baby umbrella stroller, Changing Table and Diaper Bag. She was quite thrilled to say the least. She also received many phone calls wishing her a happy birthday and a suprise visit from Uncle Mike, who was in town for a few days. Then we met Kevin at Red Robin for her free birthday dinner. She got the chicken strips and ate a few bites, but was more interested in looking around and everything and putting salt/pepper/red robin seasoning on her food and asking us if we wanted some more.. and some more...Then they brought her a sundae and sang Happy Birthday to her, I am not sure she really understood what was going on but she did love the sundae. All in all it was a good third birthday.

My Baby Girl is Three!

2008-06-26T08:04:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday to my sweet little Ella girl. I love you so much and am so blessed to have you for a daughter.

More details to come, but now Roc and I are just waiting for her to wake up and discover her birthday gifts that are waiting for her.
Pictures are Ella's birthday, Ella's First B-day party, Second B-day Party and Third B-day party. (i can't get them to line up how I want, but you get the idea)

Ella's Party

2008-06-24T15:12:00.000-07:00

Ella's actual birthday is on Thursday, but I had her party on Monday. For some reason Ella got it into her head that she was having her party at my Mom's house. Well she wouldn't let it go and mentioned it every time I-or anyone else- talked to her about her party. So we had it at my mom's. We decorated cupcakes, colored Ella the Elegant Elephant pictures, blew bubbles, opened gifts and had lots of playing. I just invited her cousins and Grandma Ruby this year, but may branch out and invite friends next year? Ella blew out all her candles in one blow! She got some wonderful gifts from her cousins, my parents and Grandma Ruby-Thank you!!. Thank you to all who came and make this party so special for Ella. I am waiting for her actual birthday to give her the gifts from us, this is the first year we have really gotten her more than a small gift. Now that she is older and understands it I decided it was time for more gifts. Here are a few pictures from the day.

Another Nephew!

2008-06-21T17:35:00.000-07:00

My sister Abby has just gotten word that they have a little boy waiting for them in Haiti. They have been in the process of adopting from there and just today found out they have a child. Please see this for more details! Congratulations to the Hoefers . We can't wait to meet this little guy and have him be a part of our family.

Another Ella Funny

2008-06-17T18:18:00.000-07:00

This may have been a you had to have been there moment, but I thought it was funny. Kevin was changing his clothes when he got home from work tonight and Ella told me she was going to go help him. Then I hear her say, in one of her excited voices, "Daddy can I help you take off your stinky socks?" Oh the life of a child.

Hiking

2008-06-17T18:07:00.000-07:00

Well sorta... So back when I used to drive Ella around to take a nap I discovered this hiking trail way at the end of Scenic Road and have been wanting to check it out, so finally this weekend we headed up there. It was fun, but was actually pretty rocky and the trail got thinner and thinner and I had visions of us losing the stroller down the hill so we decided to turn around. This walk does take you down to a creek so sometime we may try to do this again and make it all the way to the creek and hang out there for a while. Ella was a trooper, but I did end up carrying her a lot of the way. Roc did great in the stroller and had fun looking around at all the sights. If anyone is into walking for exercise this would be a great place for a power walk-as long as you don't mind a little roughness and hills. But I don't recommend going alone as it is pretty isolated.