Sparkle in Seattle

Disneyland on a Monday Afternoon

2011-05-02T22:19:00.000-07:00

One of the benefits of Ryan going to school here in Southern California this year has been that she gets out of school each Monday at 1:15. We have been able a few times to leave right after school to spend a few hours at Disneyland. It only takes us 45 minutes to get there and usually the crowds are pretty light. We spend a few hours wandering around and riding rides, then it's time to head home (because a certain 6, almost 7, year old has school tomorrow!)

Today was one of those Mondays! I was extremely tired from the weekend, but since I had promised them we could go, I loaded things up and away we went. I even took my camera this time! We had such a nice day. It was WARM out, but that just made rides like Pirates of the Caribbean even better!! I never thought the day would come that I would go to Disneyland by myself with 3 little girls and not think it was a big deal. I definitely have my system down and each time it gets easier!

My girls love the tea cups! Sophie wanted to turn that wheel SO bad, she just couldn't figure out how to reach far enough without falling over!!

My girls favorite ride is Storybook Land. I let Ryan take a few pictures here.

Do all kids love carousels? My girls LOVE going on carousels. I even sit on a horse with Sophie and she is happy as can be to hold on to that pole!

We went to the petting zoo this time. Sophie hung out in the stroller!

Peyton made sure to give equal petting time to each goat!

I know most of this is boring to everyone but my Mom, but I'm trying to be better about taking pictures of my kids. I'm HORRIBLE at it and someday my kids are going to wonder why there are no pictures!

Happy Number 7!!

2011-04-29T22:26:00.001-07:00

My "little" girl is turning 7 next week so we had a party tonight to celebrate! She chose to have a "movie" night here in the theater room at our apartment complex. We figured we needed to take advantage of some of the amenities we have here while we can.

She invited lots of her new friends here in California and all of them came, including her 1st grade teacher! We ended up with 21 kids and lots of parents!!! We had pizza, chocolate popcorn, salad, strawberries (fresh from the field today!), candy, and cupcakes! The kids watched "Despicable Me", but in all honesty they only lasted for about 30 minutes of the movie.

They then entertained themselves by doing shadow puppets on the movie screen and playing "ring around the rosies". Each time they would try to sing louder and jump to "fall down" harder! It was REALLY loud!!

Ryan's friends gave her so many wonderful gifts. She says her favorite was the "Squeakies", I'm still not sure what they are!

We then sang happy birthday and had cupcakes, which were super yummy if I do say so myself!!! It was such a fun night and I really appreciated all the wonderful friends that came to celebrate Ryan. This is the complete opposite of when we moved here and she was so lonely and crying to go home. Now I watch her with all her sweet friends and know it's going to be so hard when it's time to leave. That is something I'm not looking forward too. What a fun night!!!

1st Grade!

2011-04-28T22:51:00.000-07:00

My very "big" little girl had her 1st grade program tonight. I have been watching Ryan so much lately and realizing what a "big" girl she is becoming. Her performance was so sweet and fun to watch. The program was called "How Does Your Garden Grow?" They sang the cutest songs and did the cutest actions. She really enjoyed preparing for this and learning all her songs. She was so proud of herself and I couldn't have been prouder.

I have seen Ryan make such amazing progress this year both emotionally and academically. Her teacher, Miss Paddock, has been such a great influence on her. I am so very greatful that Ryan has had the opportunities she has had this year!

My American Girls!

2011-01-28T21:55:00.001-08:00

After months and months of promises, we were finally able to take our girls to American Girl! After searching the whole store for the perfect doll, they BOTH settled on Laynie, the 2010 doll. Heaven forbid we be different.

Sophie's Blessing

2011-01-28T21:12:00.000-08:00

While we were in Arizona for Christmas, we had the opportunity for Troy to give Sophie a name and a blessing. This was such a sweet experience because were were able to have so many loved ones with us. Three of my siblings and their families were there, Troy's sister, Mary and her family, my parents, Troy's parents and our good friends J and Shannon who happened to be in town from Vegas. For both Ryan and Peyton we were only able to have both sets of parents and a few close friends, so this was a new experience!

Our family of 5! And this was on December 26th (not really missing Seattle)!

Even though Sophie was a little older than Ryan and Peyton were at their blessings, she was still able to wear the same dress, that was my niece's dress. It is so sweet that my sister and I were able to have our blessed in the same dress!

Such wonderful men who are great examples to our girls!

Our New Arrival

2010-11-03T21:00:00.000-07:00

Little Miss Sophie FINALLY decided to enter this world on September 12th! My due date was the 9th, but for months I had been telling everyone that there was no way I was going to make it to my due date. This baby was coming early, I was sure of it. Peyton was six days early, so surely Sophie would be even earlier. Man was I WRONG! My mom arrived on the 8th and Troy had been home for over a week, but nothing was happening. We went downtown Seattle on the 11th and went to the market and had dinner. I walked up and down those stupid hills two days past my due date.

Finally at 3am I was woken up by my water breaking. This was a strange surprise as my water has never broken with my other girls. Troy and I arrived at the hospital at 4am and as the nurse was checking me, we discovered that due to "stress" Sophie had pooped already. So apparently we were going to have to pay attention to that. I was dilated to a 4 and got settled into my room, got an epidural and began the wait. Lucky for me, my doctor was on call that day. Things progressed fairly quickly from a 4 to a 6, but then things stopped. I probably sat at a 6 for over 6 hours. They moved me around a bit, but each time I laid on my right side, Sophie wouldn't do well. By this time, it was 2pm and nothing was happening. I was still having contractions, but they were pretty weak. My doctor was concerned that her cord must be hung up on something and determined that she was not going to come out naturally. Dr. Channell decided that Sophie was going to arrive via c-section. I wasn't happy about this, but I was obviously going to do whatever was the safest for my little girl and myself.

Once a c-section was decided, things moved very quickly. I was prepped and wheeled off to the OR and Troy was busy sending texts to let my family know what was happening. Troy's not one for blood so he stayed up behind the curtain with me. Sophie arrived and was perfect. As Dr. Channell was pulling her out, she even commented on how chubby she was!

She weighed in at 9 lbs. 14 oz. and 21" long. I knew she was going to be big, but I was not expecting a 10 lb. baby. She was almost a pound bigger than Peyton! They cleaned her up, sewed me up and then I was able to see my beautiful baby girl. While laying there, the anesthesiologist said to me, "and now they're putting your uterus back inside your tummy". Seriously??? I don't think I needed to know that it was outside my tummy! I did remember to ask Dr. Channell what Sophie's cord was hung up on and apparently it was her neck. I am very grateful to an amazing doctor who acted on the best interest of me and my baby. However, I don't know why people choose to have c-sections voluntarily because I have never felt such horrible pain in all my life. The next morning they made me get up and walk to the bathroom, HORRIBLE PAIN! The girls were so excited to come see their new little sister and it was so fun to see their excitement and immediate love for her.

Because I'd had the blood clot back in June, there was concern that I could develop more having had surgery so my doctor started me on blood thinners that night. By late morning on Monday, I was having a lot of pain in my leg. One of my veins was completely inflamed and bright red. I had been telling my nurses (all four of them) throughout the day that my leg hurt and each one just kept saying, yea, varicose veins, Sorry! Really people?? So finally that night, I had Troy go find out which doctor was working. Luckily the doctor arrived right away and knew that I had developed blood clots. I had another ultrasound done on my leg and I hadn't just developed blood clots, the ENTIRE vein was clotted, from my hip down to my knee. Good thing they had started me on the blood thinners the night before. So now I not only had the pain from my surgery, my leg hurt so bad too. Plus the privilege of giving myself shots in my stomach twice a day for a couple months!

This was definitely a new experience for me. I had planned to bounce back from having Sophie very quickly as I had with Peyton. This definitely made me slow down. I spent most of the first couple of weeks sitting on the couch or my bed. At least I was able to have a lot of cuddle time with my baby thanks to my Mom for taking over things with my other girls. I never once had to worry about them and was able to get the rest I needed. It took a good two weeks until I really felt mostly normal.

The pain finally receded in both my stomach and leg and the girls and I were able to get on with life and get things back to some sort of routine. Even through all the complications, I wouldn't trade it for the world, we absolutely LOVE our little Sophie!!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-02T22:39:00.002-07:00

We had a fabulous time for Halloween this year. We took the girls to the church party on Friday night, carved pumpkins on Saturday night and did a bit of trick-or-treating around our little neighborhood Sunday night. It was a fun weekend with lots of family time, which was desperately needed!!

We had the beautiful princesses "Belle" and "Cinderella".

And, our sweet little witch.

1st day of 1st Grade!

2010-09-01T23:00:00.000-07:00

My little 1st grader started school on September 1st. She was so excited and couldn't wait for school to start. She has been having such a great year and learning tons!!

Little Fish

2010-08-31T23:04:00.000-07:00

Since I wasn't allowed to travel this summer, I decided to put the girls in swim lessons. They LOVE swimming and have become quite good, especially at diving.

Number 3!

2010-07-07T23:15:00.000-07:00

Peyton turned 3 the day after we returned from vacation so we threw together a quick birthday with a couple of her little friends (one of which declined having her picture taken). We met at Build-a-Bear and then headed to McDonald's for lunch.

Afterwards, we dropped by our favorite cupcake place, Trophy Cupcakes.

On our way home I texted our good friends, Scott and Cristie, and asked if I provided the pizza and cake would they let us come play at the lake. They happily agreed. During lunch, Peyton exclaimed, "this is the best birthday EVER!" It turned out to be a fantastic day, even if most of it was planned as we went along!

Key West

2010-07-06T23:30:00.000-07:00

When we lived in Maryland, we had great friends in our ward. This spring one of those friends invited Jac and I to Key West. How could we say no??? My brother and sister-in-law very generously offered to watch the girls while I was gone. The girls and I flew down to Sacramento where I did a quick drop off of the girls and then hopped on another plane to begin my adventure. I flew from Seattle to Sacramento to Dallas to Miami where I met up with Jac at 1:30am. We stayed the night in Miami and after a fabulous brunch at Icebox Cafe (home of the famous Bomb cake featured on Oprah) we took the drive down to Key West. We met up with Jan and Jodi and had a fabulous relaxing week. Other than hanging at the pool and eating, we didn't do much. Unfortunately I developed a blood clot and so the relaxing part was doctors orders anyways! I spent a day going from urgent care to getting an ultrasound on

my leg to talking on the phone to doctors all day. It was LOTS of fun! Luckily I was going to be able to fly home. We walked Duvall street went to the Hemingway House, but other than that, LOTS of pool time!

Jodi left and Jan's husband, Ray, arrived at the end of the week. We had a great night out on our last night at a beautiful restaurant overlooking the ocean.

Jac and I started our journey home driving the three hours from Key West to Miami. Once we got to Miami, we headed back to Icebox Cafe for lunch/dinner before heading to the airport. After arriving at the airport Jac easily got checked in, but when I tried (and our first connection was together) the computers wouldn't let me check in. It turns out the delay of our first connection had me missing my second connection to Sacramento. After rearranging flights over and over again, I finally got on a plane from Miami to Minneapolis to Salt Lake City, staying overnight (thanks Jac!) and then finally arriving in Sacramento the next morning, the 4th of July. My brother picked me up and after church we had a great time setting of fireworks in the street. After another relaxing day, the girls and I finally headed home. And that was the end of my travels for the summer thanks to the blood clot!!

Giveaway!

2010-06-22T16:47:00.001-07:00

Hi all!

I know I never update my blog and someday I might get around to updating it on my super crazy (actually totally boring) life. But for today I wanted to let you know about a giveaway my sister is doing over on her blog, www.lexikatedesigns.com/blog. She's offering a $50 gift certificate for her hair clips!! The rules are simple, just share this giveaway with your friends either on your blog, twitter of facebook and comment back to her with a link to your posting!!

My new toy!

2010-04-15T09:46:00.001-07:00

Troy very graciously let me buy this so I am back to the land of the living computers!!!! (as soon as I figure out how to use it!!)

Oh, and PS, for those who haven't heard, we're expecting baby girl #3 in September.

Christmas Dance Recital - Part 2

2009-12-18T22:18:00.000-08:00

Tonight was Show 2 for Ryan's Christmas Dance Recital.

Once again, it went great and she was cute as always!

For this number she did a routine to the song, "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch".The Grinch was dancing around on the stage with them so Ryan seemed to be a little distracted by the big, green, hairy, thing dancing around!!!

Christmas Dance Recital - Part 1

2009-12-17T22:13:00.000-08:00

Tonight, Ryan had Show 1 for her Christmas dance recital.

It went great and she was so CUTE!!

She had a great time and did not stop talking about the show the whole way home. She kept telling everyone we passed she was in a dance recital (good explanation for all the makeup)! She can't wait to go back again tomorrow for her jazz number with the Grinch!

P.S. I'll apologize now for the video, I was taking video and pictures at the same time all by myself!!! It's mostly for my mom though!!!

The Story of My Cruise Through Pictures!

2009-12-16T12:00:00.000-08:00

My good friend Kristen won a cruise on the radio. Unfortunately for her husband, but fortunately for me, he couldn't go with her. I happily accepted her invitation and we set of on quite the adventure. We were on Royal Carribean's brand new ship, Oasis of the Seas. This is the world's largest cruise ship and it did not dissapoint!!!

I REALLY wish I'd gotten a picture of this ship next to a regular cruise ship, but I never had the vantage point.

Deck 8 was "Central Park". This had tons of live plants, beautiful seating, a Coach store, specialty restaurants (you had to pay $75/person extra in one!), an art gallery, and strolling musicians!

On the back of the boat were two extremely tall rock climbing walls and an outdoor amphitheater overlooking a diving pool where they put on a show.
On the front of the boat was an adult lounge, pool, "healthy" restaurant area. These chairs were so comfy and after a red eye flight getting there, it didn't take long for this to happen!!!
There was a "floating" bar that went up and down from deck 5 to deck 8.
A cupcake store on board! What's not to love? I LOVE cupcakes!!!
The contest Kristen won included VIP passes to a concert with Rihanna onboard the first night. We were able to sit in the second row center. I didn't know much about Rihanna, but she put on a fabulous concert!!!
Unfortunately it was only 20 minutes long!!!
Friday morning Good Morning America was filming and they asked all the guests on board to hang out in different areas. Unfortunately it was REALLY early in the morning, but we got to see a BEAUTIFUL sunrise!!
Sam Champion and Melissa Rycroft from GMA.
Apparently "real men" wear rhinestones!!
The full size carousel on the Boardwalk (deck 6)!
We got a private ride since no one else was out!!!
The second night we went to a concert by "Mosaic". These guys sing everything acapela. There was NO music accompanying them but they are able to make their voices sound like EVERYTHING. AMAZING!!
Kristen LOVES Coach!
A Johnny Rockets on board as well!
They were doing face painting on Saturday and Kristen and I convinced this man to do Spiderman on his face!!!
Our "artist" beautified us, Kristen as a cat and me with my "fairy" paint!!
They do some crazy silly parade through the main area of the boat!
We went to an ice skating show that was based on the stories of Hans Christian Anderson. The story of Thumbelina was all drawn by this artist in sand. Very cool.
We met a few of the other radio contest winners. These are our friends David and Jasmyn. We went to a comedy show that was VERY entertaining! Jasmyn also won Modern Bride of the year and is on the cover of their magazine. It's been a good year for her!!! And they live in Phoenix!
Saturday night they had an Elton John impersonator. Very entertaining concert, I'm just not a GREAT fan of Elton John!!
Our new friend Tony, another winner from the Seattle area!
Late Saturday night they had a 70s disco party, complete with the "Village People"!
Seriously a FABULOUS adventure!!!

Two and a Half Years Later....

2009-12-15T20:41:00.001-08:00

The day after our "sweet" Peyton was born, the 787 was "rolled" out.

Two and a half years later, we have this...and they have this...

Christmas Dinner

2009-12-04T16:16:00.000-08:00

Last night was our Christmas dinner for Relief Society at church. We had a dinner for all the adults in our ward and I was in charge! Me being the control freak that I am decided I'd prepare all the food myself and then had it off to people to cook. On the menu was Cherry and Blue Cheese Salad, Cranberry Chicken, Mashed Potato Casserole, Homemade Rolls, Slushy Punch and Chocolate Fountain for dessert. Some fabulous ladies in my ward volunteered to come set/decorate a table and host their table. We served the food family style, which helped because nobody had to stand in line for a buffet! I spent four days running around like crazy and alternating from being totally under control to having slight panic attacks. Everything turned out beautifully and the food was really good, if I do say so myself (I had never made the chicken, potatoes, or punch before!!).
Our program was excellent! We had two beautiful musical numbers, Janelle sang beautifully for us and Laura played a lovely song on the piano. The Johnson's gave us a short talk on "The Spirit of Christmas". Kelly shared an absolutely sweet story while her husband shared different ways that we can bring the Spirit of Christmas into our homes. The night was just what I wanted. I think it is the perfect kick off to the Holiday Season for me because now I can start to focus on Christmas in our home!
Thanks to all my wonderful friends who very graciously helped me in every way possible!
I'm horrible and completely forgot my camera to take any pictures, but I'll share the recipes so hopefully that will make up for it. Enjoy!!!

Punch
3 oz. package jello, any flavor
1 cup boiling water
3 cups cold water
1 large can pineapple juice
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. almond extract
1/2 cup lemon juice
Sprite

Place jello and sugar in gallon size ziploc bag. Add boiling water. Mix until disolved. Add the cold water, pineapple juice, almond extract and lemon juice. Mix to combine. Place in freezer. Every few hours mush the bag so it will remain slushy and not an ice block! Place in punch bowl and add sprite.

Mashed Potato Casserole
8-10 potatoes
Salt/pepper
8 oz. cream cheese
1 cup sour cream

Boil potatoes until soft, mash with salt and pepper to taste. Mix in cream cheese and sour cream. Place in 9x13 pan and dot with butter. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Can be made ahead and either frozen or placed in the refrigerator. Serves 10-12 people.

Cranberry Chicken
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
4-6 chicken breasts
1/4 cup butter
1 heaping cup whole cranberries
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbs. red wine vinegar
dash nutmeg

Combine flour, salt and pepper. Dip chicken in flour mixture. Melt butter in skillet. Brown chicken 4 minutes per side.
Boil cranberries in orange juice until the berries pop. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until dissolved.
Spray a 9x13 pan and add chicken. Pour sauce over chicken. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Uncover for the last 10 minutes.

My Friend

2009-09-24T15:00:00.000-07:00

This is my beautiful friend Ida. Today she has lost her battle with cancer. Ida and I became friends shortly after I moved to the Seattle area. We were called to be on a committee together at church and because of this, we got to know each other. I have never been so greatful for a church calling.
When Ryan started attending Sunbeams (the youngest Sunday School class), Ida was her teacher. I know she made an impact on Ryan that has helped to develop her knowledge of the gospel. Ryan has known that Ida has been sick and yesterday she asked when Ida would be well enough to come home from the hospital. I told her that unfortunately, that wasn't going to happen. She asked if Ida had to go live in Heaven now and I said yes. My poor five year old started to cry. A minute later she asked when we would see her again. Me, being in a rush and not thinking in an eternal sense, I said we wouldn't. Her quick response was, Mom, what about the resurrection? I know it is truly from the examples of primary teachers, like Ida, that my daughter has a knowledge that we will all be ressurected after we pass from this life.
Ida was an amazing example to me. While serving on the activities committee together, Ida helped with EVERYTHING. No matter what she was asked to do, she did it without question. She was quick with new ideas and ways to make things better. She truly went above and beyond. Ida had a beautiful knowledge of the gospel and was strong and determined in her beliefs and standards. Earlier this year Ida was called to be an adult Sunday School teacher. I truly enjoyed attending her classes and learning from her as Ryan did.
A few weeks ago I was given the opportunity to sit and chat with Ida during an afternoon. We talked about so many things. I will treasure that ninety minutes that we spent together. There are so many things I will miss about Ida. I will miss the silly faces we gave each other, the many laughs we shared, the long conversations had after meetings. However, I know that she is truly in a better place. I hope to have learned from her and find a way to treasure my friendships even more. Life changes so quickly and people move in and out of our lives so often, but my spirit has been truly touched through my friendship with Ida.

Spontaneity!!

2009-09-23T13:15:00.000-07:00

Apparently Jac didn't have any plans for Labor Day, so on Friday afternoon I got a text from her saying she should come to Seattle for the weekend. Of course I couldn't say no, so I quickly hopped online, found her a flight, booked the ticket and three hours later she was on a plane headed our way!! Lucky her, she had a bag packed for the weekend at her mom's house. Totally spontaneous!!!
We all picked her up and headed to Naan & Curry for some yummy Indian dinner. The girls weren't crazy about the food, so after their dinner of rice, we stopped by DQ on the way home for some blizzards.
Troy of course had to work on Saturday, so we headed down town to do our loop: Anthropologie, Nordstrom, Sephora, Chocolate Box. Shopping and food, what's not to love?

Wig and Jac love to try on the Anthro headbands!

And, if the big one does it, the little one does too... Hope Wig doesn't decide to jump off a cliff or Peyt is going to follow!

Lunch at Nordstrom, which we haven't had together since Maryland! Nothing beats our first Nordstrom lunch. It was the beginning of a CRAZY friendship and it's always a special place for us to go.

Wow, I look AWFUL!

Reading 'Where the Sidewalk Ends' poetry; Jac gave the book to Wig for Christmas, so it's always their thing to snuggle up and read their favorites. Jac's favs - 'Boa Constrictor' & 'Crocodile's Toothache' and Ryan's favs - 'Sarah Cynthia Silvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out' and 'Unicorn'.

We all crawled in bed to give Troy love. He was trying to watch tv, but we wanted him to play with us instead! He was probably watching 'My Antonio', really bad reality tv anyway.

Wig... followed by Peyton of course... wanted Jac to paint her nails in her special order. Of course whatever Wig wants from Jac, Wig gets! Isn't is gorgeous?!

We're so glad Jac came. Nothing beats just hanging out and relaxing with good friends on a spontaneous weekend!!

1st Day of Kindergarten... Finally!

2009-09-15T21:54:00.000-07:00

Ryan had her first day of Kindergarten today! After two weeks of the teachers being on strike, they finally came to a resolution yesterday morning and the classes started today. Ryan woke this morning with a great big smile on her face and quickly had her bed made and her clothes on! Troy was able to work from home this morning so he could go with us to take Ryan to school. We walked her over, found her class and she was so happy to jump right in with her class. She had such a fun day and is so excited to go back tomorrow and 'everyday'!
(I did have to explain to her that she doesn't have to go on Saturday or Sunday.)

A Portland Wedding

2009-09-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

We journeyed down to Portland yesterday to attend the wedding of one of Troy's co-workers, Phil and his bride, Tianna. The wedding was at 3:30pm and we were set to arrive in the Portland area around 2:15. At about 1:45, I decided I should probably start getting my makeup on. Unfortunately, I then discovered I had left my makeup on the bathroom counter back at home. I quickly got on my phone and started calling the Nordstrom's along our path to see if I could get an appointment to get my makeup done. I finally got an appointment at 2:30 at Washington Square in Portland. Since I was going to be tied up getting my makeup done, Troy was in charge of rushing to Macy's for a gift (I figured I'd have a half hour to get this done until I realized I would now be spending that half hour being made presentable!). Troy wasn't thrilled with this idea, so I got on the phone to Macy's at Washington Square. The girl who answered was extremely helpful. She pulled up the registry, picked out a gift in my price range, let me pay over the phone, and had it gift wrapped. All Troy had to do was go to gift wrap and pick it up. Seriously, what did people do before cell phones and GPS? After my makeup was done and the gift was secured, Troy brought all of our clothes in to Nordstrom and we tied up the family restroom to change. We then quickly booked it out of the mall. Too bad we didn't have more time, it looked like a really nice mall!!!Unfortunately we were running late now. The wedding was set to start at 3:30 and we arrived at 3:50. Lucky for us, as most weddings they didn't start the ceremony until about 4:00 so we were just in time. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, unfortunately, we were sitting out in the sun with no shade and it was over 90 degrees. Not terrible, but for everyone dressed in suits and wedding attire, we were melting. The ceremony was overlooking the vineyard. Everything was beautiful, the flowers, dresses and especially the surroundings. The wedding was at Garden Vineyards and it is amazing. After the ceremony there was a cocktail hour with some appetizers. Everyone ran for the shade and drinks to stay cool. We later had dinner, which was very yummy, some toasts and speaches by family, and finally cake. Most of you know I only eat sugar on Sunday, that rule was broken yesterday. They had four kinds of wedding cake and I LOVE cake. Between Troy and I, we tried them all!!! There was dancing, which was the favorite part of the night for Ryan and Peyton. Peyton would dance for a while and then come back because she was thirsty. Then she'd put her finger up and say, "Mommy I dance", and off she'd go again. This went on all night! Ryan made a little "boyfriend" named Cameron and the two of them danced all night as well. It was a beautiful night and we were glad we were able to make the trip down.

Since it was late, we grabbed a hotel nearby and crashed. In the morning, we headed out, but stopped downtown Portland at Voodoo Donuts for some CRAZY donuts. I don't love donuts, but these were DELICIOUS! Peyton had a donut with sprinkles. Ryan had something like cotton candy with blue frosting, blue sprinkles, and pink sprinkles. I had a donut with chocolate icing, oreos, and peanut butter. Troy's was a heart attack waiting to happen peach fritter with the biggest pile of cream cheese frosting. Seriously, they were all so good I was wishing I'd had another.It was a quick trip but a lot of fun! Hopefully we can go back to Portland and spend a little time sometime soon.

When I Grow Up...

2009-09-10T14:54:00.000-07:00

Back at Ryan's preschool graduation, her teacher asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. Her response was a soccer player. Everyone knows how much this shocked me, considering my daughter has NEVER played soccer. Because of this, we've decided to encourage her in her "dreams" and signed her up for soccer with her best friend Kennedy. Her first practice was last night and she LOVED it! She ran up and down the field, tripped over her cleats, kicked the ball around, and just had a blast.

(thanks for the pic Sarah)

Family Pics

2009-08-29T21:29:00.000-07:00

We had some family pictures taken the day before we left for Montana.

Here are a few of my favorites, which do you think I should have printed?

Life's a Beach

2009-08-24T00:59:00.000-07:00

I know you are all missing my vacation updates, so here goes!

Since we didn't have transportation to church, we started the day out by making candy leis here at the resort. After our nice candy breakfast, we headed out to the beach. We just went out in front of the hotel and plopped ourselves down in the sand. The girls had fun playing in the sand and Troy and I read a bit. After a while, we coaxed Peyton out into the water for a little fun. She even willingly got onto the boogie board. Unfortunately she was sent tumbling in the waves after catching one a little too big for her! Too bad I didn't get a picture of that. It took a lot of convincing, but slowly I was able to get Ryan out into the water with the promise of just jumping in the waves with Mommy. Then we got her to lay on her boogie board so I could just pull her around. Not long later, she was cruising, catching every wave she could. I went back up to the sand and played with Peyt for a bit and Ryan made friends with another little girl down the way. When we decided to leave the beach, Ryan started complaining that she still wanted to "catch some waves". Ah, my surfer chick!

Everyone was hungry so I went about making sandwiches for lunch. Peyton wanted PB&J and while she was eating that I gave here a slice of cheese, next thing you know, she's opened her PB&J and put the cheese in it and put it back together. GROSS. She did eat the WHOLE thing.

We then decided to take a break from the sun so we headed on the bus to Lahaina to wander Front Street. We had some fun wandering in and out of some art galleries. While we were in one particular gallery we love, Peter Lik, Peyton decided she didn't need to wear her dress or shoes anymore. It didn't matter what I did, she would not put her dress back on. She at least had a cute flower in her hair!! It also showed how clean the beautiful wood floors were!

After we had all the fun we could on Front Street, we headed back on the bus over to Aloha Mixed Plate for some yummy Hawaiian food. This is our way of having Kalua Pork without having to go to a luau! We discovered this last year and it was one of our favorite restaurants. The food is cheap and good and it's next door to the Old Lahaina Luau, so you can enjoy some good music!

Another fun day!

A Little Healthy Competition

2009-08-20T01:30:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a break from my vacation posting (because seriously we didn't do anything new yesterday, more pool/play time)!

Everyone knows that I was participating in a health competition throughout the summer. It was great. It lasted 10 weeks and helped me to lose over 12 pounds. I've decided to start this competition so that I can continue to improve myself and my health. Let me know if you're interested and feel free to pass the info along to anyone who might want to join. The last challenge had 40 people from across the country!

Feeling sluggish? Fat? Want to be healthier? Let’s work together, motivate each other, and have a little competition! I just finished a similar competition and loved it so much that I had to start this one so I could continue on a healthy path. It’s great motivation! Not only because you could win money, but you have to report your points weekly for everyone to see! You don’t want to look like a bum!

Here’s how it works: This contest is open to women only. All contestants will need to donate $20 bucks to the pot to be involved. There are 10 points to be earned each day, Monday through Saturday. Sunday is a free day, with no exceptions. The total you can earn in a week is 60 points. All points are to be emailed to Kim every Sunday and they will be posted by Monday on a blog (made specifically for this competition). For every day after Sunday that you send in your points, you will lose a point. So, make sure you email them over on Sunday!

Here is a breakdown of the points:
No Sugar – 1 point
No Unhealthy Snacks – 1 point
Healthy & Correctly Portioned Breakfast – 1 point
Healthy & Correctly Portioned Lunch – 1 point
Healthy & Correctly Portioned Dinner – 1 point
Take Multi-Vitamin – 1 point
No Food After 8:30 p.m. – 1 point
Exercise 45 minutes – 2 points
Drink 64 oz. Fluid (No Sugar!) – 1 point
Total = 10 points daily

You will also have 10 bonus points that can be used throughout the competition for those days where you are really struggling. You will need to report any bonus points used in your Sunday email. Any unused points will be added to your final score at the end!

There will be a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner. The first prize winner will get 50% of the money, 2nd place will get 30 %, and 3rd will get 20%. Everyone will get a healthier/sexier body!
The competition will start September 6th and will run for 10 weeks until November 14th. All money is due by September 2nd.

(if you want the info, leave a comment w/your email or some contact info and I'll give it to you.)

The blog I will set up is a place that everyone will be able to post to. Not only will you see everyone’s points posted there, but you can offer some suggestions on things working for you, recipes you love, motivation, thoughts, questions for the contestants, etc.

Pool Days

2009-08-20T01:13:00.000-07:00

This is when Troy starts to get bored. We have literally spent the last two days at the pool ALL DAY LONG! However, this afternoon, Ryan was able to finally go on the "big" slide. I was talking to another family whose little boy had been going the whole trip and he is smaller than Ryan. So, we marched ourselves up to the slide, stood as big and tall as we could, and she PASSED!!!! She is so excited to have a wrist band just like all the big kids and she can do the slide when she is FIVE! Anyways, this is all very exciting to her, however, not so much for the two year old who isn't invited. Ryan kept going over and over, with myself and Troy joining her a few times. Peyton would jump off the side of the pool to Daddy, but that lost its appeal rather quickly after she realized what Ryan was doing. Oh well, someday! After a fun filled day, we hurried to catch the bus and headed down to Lahaina for some dinner. (What's with the eyes?)

We didn't see much before we had to catch the last bus, but we were able to walk through one of our favorite art galleries. We'll head back over again another day! P.S. This picture is for Jac!

Lazy Pool Day 3

2009-08-17T23:35:00.000-07:00

We started out the morning with a little workout, then we hit the welcome breakfast for a healthy and delicious breakfast of muffins, pastries and orange juice. After breakfast, Troy went to join the group workout session and the girls and I headed to the pool for some fun. The girls had so much fun playing with all the kids and the toys. Ryan would spend all day at the pirate ship playing if we would just let her! Since we had to return the rental car by 2pm, Troy drove us over so Ryan and I could get our toes done. It wasn't the best pedicure I've ever had, but it is so much better than they started out!! Ryan got yellow toes with little white flowers to match her new "bikini". I know, I know, how immodest, but they were both so cheap and so cute, that we indulged our "little" girls! Besides, Ryan really needed a new suit and Peyton needed one that Troy could put on her that didn't take 10 tries. After returning the car, we came back to the resort, slathered on some more sunscreen and headed back to the pool. The girls swam and played and we happily read our books. Ryan loves to wear her snorkle and swim around. Since Ryan is STILL too small for the "big" slide (by less than an inch), we spent some time on the extremely, teeny, tiny slide! Peyton can't get enough of it. The three of them kept going over and over and over again. We finished off the night by grilling some steaks. We tried to go watch the movie out on the lawn, but since it's so windy, they had to have it inside and it was a really small room and both girls were tired. It's pretty pathetic when they are asking to go to bed!!!!

Big Beach

2009-08-17T01:17:00.000-07:00

Day Two! Today we got up and rushed off to church. Us and the rest of our fellow tourists helped to increase the ward attendance at the Lahaina 1st ward. Parking was CRAZY with all of us invading. The girls were mostly good for Sacrament Meeting and Peyton made friends with the guy sitting next to her. At first I thought she'd be scared of him. He was definitely a local with his long hair, but sweet as can be. He kept pointing out characters in her books, turning them around so she could see them correctly, and he even started coloring Thumbelina with her. At one point he had closed his eyes and she turned to me and said, "Shh Mommy, he's sleeping!" Then she got very excited when he opened his eyes again. I thanked him after the meeting was over for entertaining my daughter, and he assured me it was the other way around.After church, we headed back to the resort for some lunch and then off to "Big Beach". Big beach is over on the South East side of the island, past Wailea. It's BIG! It's about 2/3 mile long and is a really wide beach, lots of room for anyone who wants to play. Only problem, the waves are CRAZY. Seriously, the shorebreak is very dangerous and will knock anything down. Troy took a few good spills, as well as Ryan. The girls loved playing in the sand and Troy loved playing in the water. I loved sitting in the sun and taking pictures of everything! We even found a little crab. Peyton had so much fun saying "crab" over and over and over again.After finishing at "Big Beach" we headed further along the road to the end. It ends out in the middle of the lava fields at the ocean. It's crazy to see.We then stopped in Wailea and walked around for a bit before heading to a favorite spot of ours for dinner, Maui Tacos. When we got back to the hotel, we jumped in the pool and hot tub before bringing the girls back to the room to crash. Fun times!

Hawaii Day 1

2009-08-16T00:41:00.000-07:00

Well, since I'm a good 2 months behind in blogging, I figured I'd start where I'm at and then as I have time (or when we get home from vacation) I'll try to catch up!We arrived here in Maui yesterday for our annual 2 week vacation! Troy is very good to me!!! After our standard stops at Costco and Walmart, we finally arrived at our resort and got settled in. We even spent a little time at the pool.We all woke bright and early at 5:45am because of the 3 hour time difference! Since we have a car for the first couple days here, we decided to go ahead and take the drive to Hana. In all the times we've come to Maui, we had yet to make the drive. After a quick breakfast at a favorite spot of ours, we hit the road. We decided to drive all the way to the Seven Sacred Pools at the end and then slowly work our way back. I'm not sure how long it actually took, but it was quite a while! It's only 48 miles to the pools, but it's a lot of one lane bridges and turns so it takes FOREVER. We got to the pools and fortunately for us it was Free Fee day so we didn't have to pay the 10 bucks to get in. However, the majority of the park was under construction and no swiming was allowed due to the currents and dangerous water. Good thing we didn't pay!After a bit of hiking and a lot of mosquito bites, we got in the car and headed on our journey back. We then stopped at a beautiful water fall just off the road for a couple of pictures. Next stop was the blacksand beach. Ryan was so happy to finally be able to get in the water and play with her sand toys. After a bit of fun in the sun, we decided it was time to continue on. We stopped at a roadside stand for some ice cream and smoothies. We then tried to find the lava tube but by the time we got there it was closing. After another stop at yet another waterfall and a few more mosquitos (who would latch on to me the second I stepped out of the car), I was done.
We headed out of the rainforest and on to dinner at Mama's Fish House. This place is recommended each time we've been here, but we had yet to go so since we were in the area and it was dinner time, we splurged! It was a bit pricey, but the fish was outstanding. After we finally arrived back at the resort, we quickly got the girls ready for bed and it might have taken Ryan all of two seconds to fall asleep. It's hard to run and play all day and all night!
11 hours start to finish, Ryan has NO desire to do that again!!!
We'll see what adventures tomorrow holds.....

She Thinks She Can Dance!

2009-06-16T19:05:00.000-07:00

Today was Ryan's dress rehearsal for dance class! I don't expect anyone other than my mom, sister and Jac to watch the videos, but if you want to, feel free!!

Ryan really enjoyed this year with Miss Charity and all her little friends!

At least she can leap!!!

She's on the far left in each video, she's kinda clueless sometimes, but still cute (thank goodness)!!!

Ballet routine

Tap routine

Graduation Day

2009-06-15T20:02:00.000-07:00

Preschool Graduation was the morning of May 29th. Ryan was so excited and had been counting down the Friday's from four weeks before. She was very excited to wear her cap that day and the most important part of the day for her was that her Daddy would be able to come. Camilla put on a great program with a few little songs, then she asked everyone what they wanted to be when they grew up. Ryan was the last to go and her response was a soccer player! This was news to me as a while back I received something in the mail about kids soccer and I asked her if she wanted to play. Her response, with a totally sassy look on her face, was "Mom, do you REALLY want me to play sports?" From there I dropped it and figured we'd just continue our way through dance classes, apparently she has other ideas though!
Camilla then gave a little speech about teaching and the kids. She had been telling the kids at the last class day that she was kinda sad to see the year end and once again, leave it to my kid to blurt out, "I'm not sad, I get to go to Kindergarten!!!" Ryan has seriously loved school this year and is completely ready for Kindergarten. I'm excited for this new phase in her life, but I loved watching her throughout the year. We couldn't have asked for a better teacher than Camilla! She is amazingly patient and unbelievably creative. I completely admire her! I just hope she'll decide to go back to teaching when Peyton's ready for preschool!!!

Ryan and I made this cute little gift for Camilla to remind her of her "teaching days!"

Going Private

2009-06-11T06:39:00.001-07:00

After listening to my good friend Sarah, I've decided to follow her example and go private with our blog. I've always thought "private" blogs were annoying, but after listening to Sarah, it's not something I'm willing to risk. Let me know if you want to keep reading!

Photography Class Week 2 - Shutter Speed

2009-06-02T16:19:00.000-07:00

A Princess Dressed for a Tea!

2009-05-07T09:24:00.001-07:00

We had Ryan's birthday party yesterday. She wanted to have a Princess Tea Party.

Here's the front and back of the invite.

All of her little friends came dressed in their princess best!

We had a yummy lunch of PB&J, Fairy Fruit Wands, and Goldfish crackers.

All the girls decorated a little jewelry box and we played "Pin the Crown on the Princess"!

I think all the girls had a great time and Ryan got such wonderful gifts from all her sweet friends! It was a lot of work, but seeing how much fun Ryan had made it all worth it!!!

Happy 5th Birthday Ryan!

2009-05-06T17:08:00.000-07:00

My sweet little girl has now turned FIVE!!! She couldn't be more excited and we couldn't imagine our lives without her!

Five things that describe Ryan:

1. She's such a wonderful part of our family. No one can make Peyton laugh like she does!
2. She LOVES singing. She knows more songs than I do and will sit in the back of the car and sing along with whatever is on the radio.
3. She is such a great friend. She loves playing with all of her friends!!
4. She loves learning. She loves to go to school and can't wait for Kindergarten!
5. Pink! Need I say more?!?

Tulips

2009-04-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

While Jac and Marilyn were here we headed up north to the tulip festival. It was AMAZING! All the tulips were in full bloom and it was almost a nice day.

Jac always says I'm the photogenic one, but I think this pic of her is so PRETTY!!
She's totally going to be America's Next Top Model!

I think the first time Peyton smiled this day was when Troy found her a tulip off the ground!

They had these great face painters at Tulip Town so I indulged and let Ryan have a peacock. Peyton was so mad after Ryan got painted on because she wanted it too. She kept pointing at Ryan's head and then her own and crying!!

We headed over to the Kawanis Salmon BBQ for lunch! Totally random thing to do, it was like a ward party.

Peyton sure enjoyed MY ice cram bar!

Oddly enough, Ryan's cup had No-No written on it, no idea why!!

And just in case anyone needs some love, here's a kiss from me to you!!!

Springtime with Jac

2009-04-28T17:46:00.000-07:00

It's been 6 months and Jac has been promising Ryan she'd come visit for her birthday, so Jac and Momma Marilyn came to enjoy the beautiful wet, gloom of Seattle.

1st stop, lunch at Anthony's on the pier where we all enjoyed yummy clam chowder and fish.

2nd stop, paying homage to the big Anthropology. We love it! Wig found this cool pop-up book on fairies. It was so cute, I decided to indulge Ryan, both she and Marilyn ended up taking one home.

We tried on silly headbands...

...and Wig tried on 'Carrie Bradshaw' shoes at our 3rd stop - Nordstrom! We always pay homage to the flagship store. What can I say, we're creatures of habit... and we love great shopping!

On to Pikes, but not before stopping at the Chocolate box to get gelato and chocolates. The tulips were in bloom at Pikes and we were in heaven. They were so beautiful!!!

Jac and I with the babies shopping for the perfect flowers.

Wig was pretty good being dragged through the streets. She was happy and silly and only a little whiny, but what's new!

Grandma Marilyn couldn't leave without taking a bouquet with her and Wig insisted on carrying them. Too funny, they weighed almost as much as she does.

We tasted dipping oil for bread and marinades. I figured this was the perfect time to get something to make for Sunday dinner!

We visited the fish markets where this crazy guy tried to get Jac to hold a dead salmon. She wasn't going for it!
Ryan can't leave without her picture on the pig, so we made Jac get on with her! Oh, the good old days of riding a pig!!!!

Marilyn loves cheese shops, so we stopped in there too. And then we went a couple doors down to get mini cheesecakes! Seriously, we always seem to EAT our way through Seattle. I TRIED to be good.

The next day Marilyn very graciously planted my hanging baskets and in turn I helped her make her enrichment "purse"onality invitations. It was a fair trade!!

Daddy's Girl

2009-04-15T17:06:00.000-07:00

While doing the egg scavenger hunt in Kent Station, we walked past Claire's on the way to a store and Troy stopped and said he was going to pierce Peyton's ears. I kinda laughed and kept walking with Ryan to the next scavenger hunt spot. After walking back past, Troy was still in Claire's and Peyton was up in the ear piercing chair. I guess he was really going to do it! Unfortunately the pictures are from my phone so they're not very good. J and Shannon did video it on their camera for us so I'll post it when I have a chance. Needless to say, Peyton was not happy about this. As soon as the girl started putting on the gloves and wiping down her ears, she was screaming and twisting about. I had to hold her head to get it done. We're not very nice parents!! But she's so CUTE!!

Easter

2009-04-15T16:32:00.000-07:00

We started out Easter by taking the girls down to Kent Station for their annual Easter Egg Hunt. The weather was cold and windy, but the girls were excited to hunt for eggs and see the Easter Bunny. After waiting in a long line, they had their chance to gather eggs. Each kid was allowed five and that was over in no time. Kent Station also had an Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt so we took the girls on that as well. Like the good Mom I am, I forgot my camera!Easter morning brought excitement as Ryan woke wondering if the Easter Bunny had arrived during the night. Much to her delight, he had come and brought her the Hannah Montana Movie CD. Ryan and Peyton had so much fun searching the house for their candy filled eggs and spent the morning eating jelly beans and M&M's. We quickly got ready for church and enjoyed a wonderful service reminding us of the Ressurection.After church, our friends J and Shannon came over to have dinner with us. Everything was yummy, but unfortunately my strawberry shortcake left a lot to be desired, so I trashed it!!! That evening we went to Scott and Cristie's so Ryan could help Scott hide eggs for the girls egg hunt. Ryan had so much fun and loves hanging out with the "big" girls. Peyton was willing to be friends with anyone who would give her candy.After two full days of candy, I've had to cut Peyton off and she's been mad at me ever since!!!

SB, Part 3

2009-03-25T16:44:00.000-07:00

The funny thing about my sister and her kids coming to visit is that Slade and Peyton are only 7 weeks apart. Wow, what it would be like to have twins. They were so cute and fun together, but also TROUBLE! I never realized what an instigator Peyton is, but man, I don't look forward to her being a teenager! One day they were eating cereal and this is the next thing we saw!We would find them on top of the counters and hiding behind the glider slathering each other in Aquafor. Seriously, they were LOVING spending time together!!!We headed downtown again to get some fish and chips. Lexi loves Salmon and Ryan loves fish (at least deep fried). We were rained on most of the day, but we had fun wandering around. We went to Sephora and had fun doing crazy makeup. The girls went for ANYTHING sparkly, gee I wonder where they got that from!!
Time flew by quickly, but we had a blast spending it together! We love you all, come back again soon!!!! (How's next Saturday?)

Spring Break, Part 2

2009-03-25T16:36:00.001-07:00

Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day and since we love blogging, my sister found tons of cute ideas about crazy leprechauns coming to visit and we were fortunate enough that they came to our house this year. At first Slade wasn't too sure about everything.
Unfortunately, when the crazy leprechauns leave chocolate and candy all over, babies like to get into them when they're not supposed to!!!We all got dressed in our green and after dance class, we headed up to Snoqualmie Falls. It was BEAUTIFUL. I can't believe this place is 25 minutes away and we've never been there!!! Fortunately someone else was braving the weather so we were able to get a picture of all of us together.

Unfortunately at this point, it was time for Grandma to go home. We had so much fun together with all us girls (and Slade).
Thanks for coming Mom!

Spring Break

2009-03-25T15:56:00.000-07:00

Apparently we are starting a FABULOUS tradition of my niece, Lexi, coming to visit us during Spring Break. My Mom brought her up a couple of weeks ago and spent a week with us and my Aunt Julie came over from Texas as well. My sister and nephew, Slade, came a few days later to stay for a week also.
Julie turned the big 50 the day after arriving, so we did our best at celebrating. We had a yummy breakfast of German pancakes (Thanks Sarah!). We then headed off to Bellevue so Julie could go to Impress, a stamp store a friend of hers had told her about (she's way into stamping/scrapbooking). We then headed over to Whole Foods where we got a cute raspberry/lemon cake. We came home and made veggie and chicken enchiladas because Julie said she wanted anything Mexican! It wasn't too exciting, but we did our best!
The next day we headed downtown and wandered Pike's Market and Nordstrom. Ryan was even brave enough to stand next to the octopus at one of the fish stalls! When we got home that afternoon, the girls wanted to paint their nails and Peyton wanted hers done too, so she hopped up on my Mom's lap and grandma painted them for her!!Unfortunately Julie had to go home on Monday, but only after she taught me how to use my new Cricut machine. She had brought along about 18 cartridges that my sister and I stayed up all night learning to use. We have almost finished 16 way cute banners. When they're done I'll show you!!

Happy Birthday Jake, 80's Style!

2009-03-25T15:50:00.000-07:00

Our good friend Jake turned 30 last week and since his fabulous wife was due to have a baby at the same time, she put together a surprise party for him a couple of weeks early. Since Jake was born in '79, Sarah decided to do an 80s theme. Her brothers own a bounce place and the party was held there. Lots of people came dressed for the occasion, Troy and I included. It was a fun night and Jake was completely surprised!

"Purse"onal Enrichment

2009-03-25T15:29:00.000-07:00

I put together my first Enrichment night on March 5th. The theme was "Celebrate Your 'Purse'onality"! I found this idea online and thought it was very ME, along with being a lot of fun!. I first made all these little purse invitations that ended up super cute and fairly easy.
Boni helped me by making SUPER cute little purses for my poster. They were so cute that I had Ryan begging for them for days!
I got cute polka dot fabric for the centers of the tables and a bunch of sisters graciously made WONDERFUL cakes to be our centerpieces.
When everyone arrived, we had them weigh in their purses and right down the weight. We had a very yummy dinner of Sweet Pork, Cilantro Lime Rice, Black Beans, and freshly cooked tortillas (thanks a TON ton Shannon for her help in cooking).
After dinner, everyone filled out their BINGO "Purse" cards and I shared a talk from President Faust using words from the talk to play bingo. After that, we played the What's in your Purse game and I walked around with about 35 word strips of random things you might find in your purse. As strange as some things might be, there was only one thing no one had, a pair of socks (Morgan had, until she put them on to come with her mom to Enrichment)! After the game, our Relief Society President, Lily, gave a wonderful little talk about how our different "Purse"onalities make up our Relief Society.
After Lily's talk, we pulled all the cakes from the individual tables and cut them up so people could have a variety. There were so many great ones to choose from!
This was a fun night full of great food and lots of laughter. I wanted it to be focused on spending time together as sisters and enjoying the different personalities we each have. I think it was a success!

Valentine's Day

2009-02-26T14:14:00.000-08:00

Wow, I'm WAY behind!!!
I stayed up the night before Valentine's to make Heart cinnamon rolls. They were so cute, but unfortunately when I took them out of the frige in the morning, I let them sit too long and they rose too much and squished together. They tasted delicious though and the girls and I really enjoyed them while Troy was working!! I then spent the day cleaning up the house and getting ready for that night. For Valentine's night, we attended a party thrown here at our house. The girls went to J & Shannon's house with Ashlyn to babysit. The party was done completely by friends Rabecca & Pat. It was based on the theme Love & Marriage and was so much fun!! We started out the evening with a FABULOUS dinner that included barbeque pulled pork, shrimp, meatballs, veggies, fruit, 7-layer salad and rolls. We then played the newlywed game that included some funny questions and some tough ones. (If I'd done this sooner, I would have remembered what they were!!) We actually ended up winning!! We had so much fun playing this game, that we didn't get to the second one. We then had yummy cake and cheesecake and ended the night just chatting.
It was such a fun night and all I had to do was clean up before the party!!!

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

2009-02-23T13:54:00.000-08:00

Chill on the Hill

2009-02-18T17:20:00.000-08:00

On Monday the 9th, we went up skiing for Boeing's night on the slopes. My good friend Shannon watched Peyton and we took Ryan with us. We were joined by the Carter's and had so much fun! We got up there and rented Ryan's ski's and stuck her in a class for an hour and a half. We then went and cruised around for a while. When it was time, we picked Ryan up and then spent some time on the "Magic Carpet" with her. Troy was fed up with the crowds and since Ryan was ready for something a little more challenging, he took her up on the chair lift to a little hill. They both then proceeded to scream, cry, and beat their way down the mountain.

Ryan was doing such a great job, but then she'd go too fast and crash. Troy would then yell at her to get back up and the scene would play over and over again down the mountain! We then went back to the "magic carpet" area for a little more time so Ryan could leave with a good experience. All in all it was a fun way to spend family night, and you couldn't beat the price.

Here's the picture of what her face looked like the next day!

Weight Loss

2009-01-05T12:56:00.002-08:00

Why is it when I get up at 5am and go to spinning class, I feel great and then I proceed to sabotage everything I accomplished? I have seriously been eating EVERYTHING in sight today. I'm in a "biggest loser" challenge that I paid $50 dollars in to. I am supposed to lose 20 pounds by the middle of March. If you lose the 20, you get your money back and whoever loses the most, gets the money of those who didn't lose. Seriously, even money isn't enough of a motivator??? I don't know what to do!!!

NO COMMENTS NEEDED!!!

Seriously?

2009-01-05T12:56:00.001-08:00

It's a New Year

2009-01-05T12:52:00.001-08:00

Ryan moved up to her new class in Primary yesterday. There wasn't much change for her because her teacher from before is moving up with them. She was very excited to be in CTR 5 now!

Then, since Peyton turns 18 months this week, I took her in to nursery for the first time! I think I was way more excited than she was! She was fine when I left, but after a few minutes, they brought her to me. After rifling through my bag for her cereal she went walking off down the hallway. I decided if she was going to wander off, she might as well wander back up to nursery and so she did! Since she had her cereal with her, she was good to go for the rest of the time!! Yes, that's chocolate peanut butter cereal all over her clean white sweater! (That's what I get for not taking pics before church)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-03T16:25:00.000-08:00

We had a great time spending New Year's as a family.

We started out the night with an early dinner at Applebee's with Scott and Cristie.

We then went to Jay and Shannon's with Brian and Shanda to ring in the new year. Ryan and Kaiden had fun playing dress up! The kids all enjoyed a late night movie of Tinkerbell.

New Year's Day was spent taking down and putting all the Christmas decorations away. Then, Ryan and I finally got around to building the little gingerbread kit I bought her at the last minute. Oh well, it's something to do, right?

Zoo Lights

2008-12-30T22:25:00.000-08:00

We have been trying to take the kids to the Zoo Lights, but with this crazy weather, no day has worked. But since it wasn't raining today, YET, we figured now was as good a time as any. We invited the Bradshaw's to come with us and it turned out to be a great time. A little WET, but still fun! Also, it would be nice if Starbuck's stayed open past 9pm.
This is how the night started:
This is how it ended:

This One's For Grama

2008-12-30T22:20:00.001-08:00

Christmas 2008

2008-12-30T10:07:00.001-08:00

What a wonderful Christmas we had! Christmas Eve we were invited to Jake's parents. Ryan was so excited to go to Kennedy's grandma's house. We played bingo and I even won a round! We were then very fortunate to have Santa make a visit! He brought each kid a present of new Christmas jammies. Ryan was so excited and not at all shy about Santa, but Peyton just kept screaming at him. Troy had to take her up to get her present and she wasn't about to have her picture taken. She did enjoy opening her present and wanted to put her jammies on with the rest of the kids. We then had a wonderful dinner prepared by Jake's mom, Cheryl. The children then prepared for the nativity. All the children participated and most of them, including Ryan were beautiful angels. Thank you Sarah and Jake for including us in this special time!
Christmas morning we woke with two very excited girls. Peyton woke extra early and we gave her some bread, chocolate milk and animal crackers to tide her over until Ryan woke up. We finally sent Peyton in for Ryan and she was SO excited! We went downstairs and the girls were so happy that Santa had come. They both have enjoyed their presents so much and played so well together. Peyton was really in to opening the presents. She loved ripping off the paper and handing it to me! We spent the day watching the girls play with their toys and enjoying afternoon naps! We then had a wonderful Christmas dinner and just really enjoyed our time together.

Dashing through the Snow!

2008-12-20T09:28:00.000-08:00

Even though school was canceled everywhere yesterday, Ryan's preschool still held their Christmas party. When school was over, Sarah and I decided to be good moms and take our two CRAZY girls sledding. They had each been begging to go. We had them start out about half way up the little hill. I would stand at the top and hold the sled while they got on and then they would ZOOM down! They got a little braver and wanted to do it themselves, so they would trek back up the hill and slide down on their bellies. After watching and laughing for a bit, they came over to tell Sarah and I that they were going to the "tippy-top". We let them go and the crazy girls they are went FLYING down on their bellies again. They had so much fun and are a lot more brave than either Sarah or I gave them credit for. Ryan fell off once and rolled a bit, but that didn't deter her, she just walked back up and went again. Sarah took Pieper down a little "hill" once and she was good. I stuck Peyton on a saucer and pushed her down the little hill a couple of times, but she didn't seem too thrilled. Peyton's not much of a fan of clothes, so she kept kicking off her boots and socks and wouldn't keep her mittens on. When we left her hands were bright red! We had such a great time and Ryan has been begging to go again ever since!!

Nutcracker Tea

2008-12-14T11:56:00.000-08:00

Ryan attended the Nutcracker Tea yesterday at her dance studio. She had such a fun time dressing up in her dance costume from the spring and putting glitter in her hair. She was able to have cookies, brownies and yummy hot cocoa. She spilled a little cocoa on their rug, but "it was just an accident". She got to meet Clara and Snowflake. The little girls all learned a little dance to the "Chinese song" (whatever that is!) and then performed it at the end. She seemed to have a really good time when I picked her up, unfortunately I didn't get there in time for the little performance. I did snap a quick picture when they were done though, so not a total loss (for me!).

Let it snow!

2008-12-14T11:49:00.000-08:00

It snowed overnight and the girls were so EXCITED! When Peyton and I came downstairs this morning and opened the blinds, she let out a big WOW! Ryan wanted to go outside and Peyton wasn't about to be left behind. I put them both in their snowpants, coats, boots and hats and let them loose out on the deck. I'm not sure it was even five minutes before Peyton wanted back in and Ryan followed. They sure have fun looking at it though!!

I'm no Martha!

2008-12-09T14:54:00.000-08:00

I was making a QUADRUPLE batch of these today and I dropped half an egg shell into the dough while my Bosch was happily mixing along. Needless to say, I threw it all in the garbage and got to start over again with ANOTHER pound of butter, 4 MORE cups of sugar and ANOTHER 2 cups of peanut butter. Lesson learned: Turn the mixer off while adding in eggs!

What a Weekend

2008-12-07T19:54:00.001-08:00

This has been quite an eventful weekend! We decided to pick Troy up from work on Friday so that we could hurry downtown to see Santa at Nordstrom. When we arrived at the line for Santa at 5:45pm, I was told that the wait for Santa was about 3 hours and in fact the line had already been closed off. Seriously??? So instead we went to Cheesecake Factory!! We also took the girls on the Winter Wonderland Carousel. Saturday night we were invited to two holiday parties. One at our neighbors and the other at Troy's friend he carpools with. It was a great time to spend together enjoying company and visiting with new people.
Sunday was a typical day at church, until Peyton threw up on me. It wasn't much and she seemed fine. I cleaned us both up and headed back to class because Troy was teaching. Unfortunately, it happened again, A LOT! My good friend Cristie helped me clean Peyton up and I grabbed Ryan and headed home. We had made plans to go to Scott and Cristie's for dinner, being the good home teacher he is to us, and they said to go ahead and bring Peyton. We had a great dinner and were just finishing up when Peyton started crying for me to pick her up. Once she was finally in my lap, she threw up all over me AGAIN and a bit in my mouth. SICK. I grabbed my things and left Troy and Ryan to have dessert and we headed home for a nice LONG shower. I got her cleaned and changed and we rocked for a bit and then I happily put the poor tired girl to bed.
What an end to a fun holiday weekend!!!

Leavenworth

2008-12-07T19:37:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we were introduced to Leavenworth from our good friends, the Jacksons. They had made plans to run-off last weekend and very kindly asked it we'd like to go. Since Jac had to take off on Friday we were happy to jump at the chance for a little "getaway". We took off on Saturday and it was the perfect ending to Thanksgiving and kick-off for Christmas. We stayed at a great little Inn that had an indoor pool and a great breakfast. Stealing a line from Sarah, "we enjoyed the company of our friends, ate lots of good food, shopped til we dropped, swam, laughed and tried to keep up with our girls." Seriously Sarah, I couldn't have said it any better! Unfortunately there wasn't any snow yet, but it was definitely a little cold. Everyone knows I'm rarely dressed for the cold and I can happily say I was cozily layered in Uggs, sweaters, coats and mittens all weekend. Sarah very kindly took some great family pictures for me. We did some "urban" shots around the town and then went out past the town and got some great shots on the river.Overall, it was the perfect little getaway and we can't wait to do it again. Thanks Sarah and Jake for all the fun!P.S. Ryan wanted to wear mascara for the family pictures and when she had a meltdown later, her mascara ran all down her face!!

Thanksgiving 2008

2008-12-07T18:57:00.001-08:00

Our good friend Jacalyn came to visit us for Thanksgiving. We had such a great visit even though it was only for a couple of days. Our day started bright and early Tuesday morning when Jac arrived. We went straight downtown and had breakfast at our favorite spot in Pikes Market downtown, we got hot chocolate at the original Starbucks, tried on silly hats in Anthropologie (where we bought matching boots!), and enjoyed a fun, rainy Seattle day!Wednesday morning we started our turkey in the brine. After putting all of the brine mixture and turkey into the brining bag, we discovered a leak. We then had to transfer all to another bag and in the process dumped a bunch of the solution ALL OVER the kitchen! After cleaning up the mess we ran up to Bellevue to do a quick Christmas run and then got some grocery shopping done for our feast the next day. That night we hit two movies (and paid for both of them)!! We saw Four Christmases and then we had to see Twilight again, together. We also wanted Troy to see it, however he was less than thrilled!Thanksgiving started bright and early with a trip over to Gig Harbor for the Turkey Trot. No one was very motivated to get up that morning, but we were all pretty happy after we did! The weather was chilly, but beautiful and sunny. After our walk we stopped for donuts and chocolate milk. We then headed home and started our turkey on the grill. This was my first "real" turkey I've made and I must say it was FABULOUS. The turkey was so moist and tasted EXTREMELY good! I know I'm biased, but seriously, it was good! While I was cooking Troy put up the tree and then Jac decorated it. I didn't do one thing with putting up my tree this year and I was completely okay with it!
Thanks again Jac for decorating my tree, making yummy appetizers and providing lots of love and laughter!!!

Primary Program

2008-12-07T16:16:00.000-08:00

Ryan participated as a Sunbeam in the primary program. She was SO cute and did such a great job. She was paired up with her "older" friend Courtney. She was so excited to sit up on the stand and get to talk into the microphone. She said her part almost perfectly with just a bit of help from Courtney and she sang beautifully in her little trio. For a Sunbeam, we haven't had to worry about her being shy!!

Haircuts

2008-11-12T14:35:00.000-08:00

The girls got the hair cut today. After school we picked up Ryan and headed to Stephanie's house for cuts. Ryan went first and got a super cute "short" cut. She's been loving her long hair lately, so we only cut it to her shoulders, but WOW, there was a LOT of hair on the floor!Peyton finally got her first haircut. Stephanie happily cut the mullet off! We only had to bribe her with a sucker. She looks so stinkin cute, we'll just have to start doing a pony on the top instead of the back now!!

Family Time

2008-11-11T08:39:00.000-08:00

Since Troy had a dentist appointment yesterday, he decided to take the day off to spend some time with us girls. I dropped Ryan off at preschool and then Troy and I went to run a few errands. When we went back to pick Ryan up, she was so thrilled that her Daddy was there. We then surprised her and headed off to the movies to see Madagascar 2. The first Madagascar was Ryan's favorite movie from about 18 months to 2 years old. Her 2nd birthday party was even Madagascar themed! We enjoyed a healthy and delicious lunch of movie popcorn and candy. The movie was hilarious. There was plenty of comedy for the parents, especially for those who work at Boeing. After the movie we headed home and put a very grumpy Peyton down for a nap. We all headed outside to rake leaves! Our deck and yard were completely covered and we got most of it cleaned up. After all our work in the yard, we headed into the hot tub for some relaxation. The girls love "swimming"! Then we had a quick dinner and threw the kids in bed early. We then got to relax and completely veg out in front of the TV. It was such a fun day to just spend some quality time together as a family!!

Sally, the Adventure Cat

2008-11-11T08:28:00.000-08:00

Sally has returned!
Friday night after Troy got home from work, he went in the backyard and started poking around the wetland. He then went walking down the street along the wetland calling for Sally. He heard some meowing and went to investigate, but couldn't get to it. He came home and got me and asked me if I'd recognize Sally's meow. I said I would try and we left the girls in front of cartoons to investigate. I kept calling for Sally as we neared the place Troy thought she might be and the sound was coming from up above. We were shining flashlights in the trees and Troy caught her eyes in the light. The crazy cat was about 35 feet up in a tree. Now the question was what in the world we were going to do to get her down. Our neighbor, Will, said the fire department doesn't come out anymore. He had a 26 foot ladder that we decided to give a try. We met some other neighbors, Kent & Jolene and their kids, and they very graciously let us invade their backyard and were so helpful in trying to help us retrieve Sally. We tried from every angle possible, but were not successful in finding a secure way of positioning the ladder. Troy attempted to go up a ways and Sally even tried to come down, but unfortunately, it wasn't close enough. After a long time in the dark and rain, Troy was done. He told Sally she could just stay up there!! I decided to take Ryan to the fire department and see if she could "persuade" they to come help. As soon as we got in the car and pulled out of the garage, the girl from down the street came running up and said Sally was trying to climb down. We raced back to her house and sure enough, Sally had come down to the top of the ladder. With a lot of encouragement and quite the audience, Sally managed to back her way down. She was very frightened and very jumpy, but I think she was glad to be back with us. We took her home and locked her in the garage for the night. Since then she has stayed pretty close to the house. She seems to be either in the garage, on the back porch, or at Will's house. We're so happy to have Sally home, even though I'm still tempted to go back to the animal shelter for another one!!

Here Kitty, Kitty

2008-11-07T06:55:00.000-08:00

Have you seen Sally???
We haven't seen Sally since Monday. She usually lives at the neighbors house behind us so I don't worry too much. She always comes home to eat and when it's raining she hides in the garage. That hasn't been the case this week. I got a call from my neighbor yesterday asking if I'd seen her. After returning home from running errands, I noticed her food still hadn't been touched and still no one had seen her. I even made a trip to the animal shelter. No Sally. Ryan hasn't asked or looked for her recently, so I'm trying not to draw attention to it. I realized last night I can't even put signs up for a lost cat. I haven't taken a SINGLE picture of Sally since she first came to live with us.
I AM A HORRIBLE MOTHER.
Oh well, I guess we might be in need of a new Sally.

Fall

2008-11-03T14:43:00.000-08:00

Kennedy and Pieper came over today while Sarah went for her ultrasound. The girls had such a great time playing. The three big girls played dress-up and we all went outside. They had fun spinning in their beautiful dresses and enjoying the little bit of sunshine we had today!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-03T12:59:00.001-08:00

We started out our Halloween celebrations by going to the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago. The girls had so much fun running through all the pumpkins. Peyton especially liked sitting on all of them. There were so many green pumpkins and most of the pumpkins were HUGE. I guess that's thanks to all the rain this year.Our ward trunk or treat was on the 25th. We all dressed up, Ryan as Sleeping Beauty, Peyton as Minnie Mouse, Troy as a motorcycle rider and me as a flapper. We had a fun dinner and then left the girls in the very capable hands of our babysitter, Melissa, to trunk or treat while Troy and I were off to a costume/card party. We had a great time at the party, hosted by Cristie and Scott, who was dressed as a very disturbing Joker. We had such a great time playing cards and laughing all night.
Last week for FHE we carved our pumpkins. I carved Cinderella's castle and Troy did Sleeping Beauty. Ryan LOVED the pumpkins. Unfortunately we don't trust our neighbors so they were left on the back porch and no one else saw them. I went to take a picture today and one is totally rotting and moldy. AWESOME!Ryan had school on Halloween so she got to dress up and they had a party. They had games, trick or treating, and decorated cookies. She had such a great time. That night we went to our friends, Jake and Sarah, for trick or treating. The girls had so much fun and were definitely not shy about going to the houses. Pieper and Peyton happily tagged along. Peyton walked most of the time and would not let go of her bag. It was so heavy at one point that I took it to dump the candy at the stroller and boy did I get yelled at! I basically had to pry it from her hands at the end of the night to go to bed.Halloween has become so much more fun the last couple of years with our girls. They have so much fun and of course Ryan is completely into dressing up. Thanks mom for all the beautiful costumes! It means the world to us that you very willingly make their costumes. Ryan has had her costume on nonstop since Halloween. Actually, as I sit here writing this, she's in it again!!

Lexi Kate Designs

2008-10-20T17:00:00.000-07:00

My brilliant sister has finally got her website going! Everyone who knows me knows that Ryan ALWAYS has pretties in her hair. My sister is credited with making most of these. I have always laughed because she got her start selling her clips out of a little cardboard box to the mom's at her daughter's dance studio. I went with her once and it was hilarious to see the mom's swarm. It was like she had a box of drugs and the cash started flying! After her and I went to LA last February, she put her clips in a showroom in LA and has started selling to stores. She is so creative and is always telling me about the super cute new clip she just made.
Anyways a lot of you have asked if she had a website or somewhere you can see her clips. I must warn you, so far the pictures don't give them justice, but she's working on that. Also, she can do just about anything and is willing to do custom orders. Her website is just a sampling of some of her best sellers.
ENJOY!
LEXI KATE DESIGNS

Do you need a good photographer?

2008-10-16T07:09:00.000-07:00

If you've heard of Stephanie and Christian Neilson, the couple in the airplane crash in AZ two months ago, they had an AMAZING photographer by the name of Wendy Whitacre. She took all the photos that have been on the news and various blogs. Wendy owns Blue Lily Photography based in Temecula, CA and is trying to put together a trip to come to Seattle to do some sessions. If anyone is interested, check out her website here. She is looking to come to the Seattle area December 5th and 6th. Wendy will have a Holiday package available as well as other family packages. Here is some info on her holiday package, also she says her prints will arrive at your home in time for Christmas!

Holiday Package B: $360

1 reproducible digital file of your greeting card

20 digital files for you to keep and print as desired.

1 16x20, 1 11x14, 2 8x10's, 4 5x7's

If you're concerned about rain, here is Wendy's comment on an email she sent: One of my main concerns is weather. I've shot in the rain before and honestly, those are some of my more striking and dramatic pictures. But I don't know if you'd all feel ok with shooting in the rain, if it came down to that. I obviously won't be able to reschedule, since I'm traveling and everything, so I'd need to meet rain or shine.

If you're interested, email her, you'll be glad you did!

Oh Canada!

2008-10-09T08:29:00.001-07:00

(Ryan, Jackie and Angela)

In November of 2005 our little family of three set off for Halifax, Nova Scotia. Troy was on assignment there for what turned out to be 3 months of testing on the Apache Helicopter. While there we were "living" in the Residence Inn and became very close with the hotel staff. They were definitely our "home away from home"! They spoiled us rotten and took fabulous care of us. Every morning after breakfast Ryan would wander into the GM's (Frank) office to say good morning. We went to my first Canadian hockey game with Angela and Kelli. One of the girls who worked in housekeeping, Jackie, even babysat for us one night when the hospital sent us out on a date. It was seriously one of the best experiences of my life. I have NEVER met such amazing people. More than anything, seeing how they all loved Ryan was the best.

This past week Angela, who is now the GM of the Residence Inn, came to Seattle for a training course. We were able to meet up on Sunday to hang out and have dinner and then we met up again last night. Luckily last night I remembered to charge my camera battery! It was so great to see Angela and have her meet Peyton. Peyton is almost the same age Ryan was when we were in Canada. Ryan was constantly walking next to Angela and holding her hand. She sat by her at dinner and Angela even taught her how to do word searches! Peyton took right to her, she would run up to Angela and hold up her arms and Angela would happily oblige by picking her up.
It's so nice that no matter how much time passes, we have built these friendships that will last! Thanks Angela for taking the time out of your busy schedule to spent time with us. Ryan was talking last night about how much she's going to miss you!

Family

2008-09-29T07:09:00.000-07:00

There are many definitions of what a family is. In our own lives, we have many types of family: our little family of four, our extended families, families we've adopted ourselves in to (thanks Momma Marilyn), and ward (church) families. Yesterday, while at church, we saw a true example of ward family. Troy took Peyton with him to Elders Quorum for the 3rd hour of church while I was in primary. We've let Peyton wander a bit because it's either that or SCREAM. I guess she wandered out of Troy's classroom and after a "few" minutes (Troy gets the good dad award) he wasn't quite sure where she was and started roaming the halls to find her. Turns out she went to the High Priest class that was being held in the chapel, walked to the front, climbed up on Brother Tomlinson's lap and went to sleep. There are so many odd things about this, first, she doesn't know Brother Tomlinson. I think he is a very nice man, I worked with him on the activity we did for Christmas last year, but that's about all I know about him. Second, Peyton very, very, very rarely falls asleep while ANYONE is holding her. Turns out Brother Tomlinson didn't know who's kid it was, but she wanted up and he was happy to oblige! After class was over, Troy went to retrieve his daughter and all was well. Peyton was happily rested so that she didn't have to go home and take a nap! It's nice to have such wonderful people that I can trust with my children and who take us in!

Happy Birthday Sarah!

2008-09-19T08:41:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, we had the fun of celebrating my friend Sarah's birthday with her. After dropping the girls off at preschool, I went with Sarah to get our eyebrows threaded. She'd told me about it before and I wanted to try it out because Troy is ALWAYS complaining about my eyebrows and my good friend Reagan isn't living in my house, or even the same state, to keep them properly tweezed! It was at this little Indian place in Kent and it was only $6. It totally hurt, but it was well worth it, you should check out our eyebrows! After eyebrows, we ran to Target where Sarah needed some essentials, it's always fun to have a fun to wander on errands with. We picked the girls up from school and then headed to lunch at the Black Diamond Bakery. We had a yummy lunch and huge, messy, bright yellow cookies. After lunch we headed home for some afternoon naps. A couple hours later, Jake and Sarah picked us up for a pre-Phantom dinner at The Palomino in Seattle. The food was really good and it was a fun "adult" restaurant. Dinner is always more pleasant when you don't have to wrestle kids!After getting turned around a few times, we had just enough time to walk a few blocks to the Paramount, we arrived with only minutes to spare. Phantom was amazing of course. Having seen the show before, I feel I was able to relax and enjoy the music. Unfortunately we had a disruptive guy sitting by us, so I wasn't too relaxed. Seriously, no one should have to sit next to a drunk man during a musical. Aside from that the music was wonderful and the theater was beautiful!
While we were walking back to the car we passed Cheesecake Factory and decided that we needed to stop in for a quick slice of cheesecake. Your birthday only comes once a year so we needed to celebrate every minute possible. The celebrating ended at midnight when I felt really bad for keeping my babysitter out so late. Seminary didn't start until 6:15am. Sorry Melissa!! It was such a great day, thanks Sarah for letting us be a part of your celebration!!!

Preschool - At Last!

2008-09-18T10:11:00.001-07:00

Ryan FINALLY had her first day of preschool. School actually started while we were in Hawaii and then she was going to have her first day on Monday. Unfortunately due to her ear infection, she got to go to the doctor instead. And now, school is canceled tomorrow, but at least she got one day in. I guess we're starting out slow!
Ryan seems to really like Ms. Camilla. Each week they are working on a new letter and this week it is A. When I got there to pick her up after school, she was still very busy working on her art project. She had colored a couple of astronauts and then cut them out and very carefully glued them on black paper. She was just finishing gluing when I arrived and still needed to put her stars on the paper. We did a few and then brought the rest home and finished them last night.
Ryan is so excited to learn and be a big girl going to school. I'm so excited for this new phase in her life and can't wait to see all the fun things she learns.

Hawaii - Part 2

2008-09-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

Monday brought about a LAZY day at the pool. Peyton went down for an early nap and Ryan and I went down to the pool. She played at the pirate ship from probably 9am until 3:30pm. She made friends with a couple of little girls and they had fun running around and swimming all day. We went down to Lahaina and wandered through the shops and had some pizza. By the end of the nights, both girls were having complete meltdowns. Peyton slept so horribly that night that none of us got much sleep!
Tuesday was a day for napping. Peyton got up so early that she had to take a nap by 8am. After some cartoons we headed down to the pool and in less than an hour Ryan had her meltdown and we yanked her out and back to the room for a nap. Peyton and I spent some quality time together at the pirate ship. After a while, we headed back to the room for some lunch and Peyton's nap. Because both girls were sleeping, Troy and I decided to nap too! In the evening we took some pictures on the beach and had dinner at Hula Grill. Peyton screamed so much that a couple asked to be moved to a further table, a lady gave her a tin of mints to shake, and a couple offered to babysit for a day. Peyton even managed to attack herself with a red marker. Afterwards, the girls played on the grass and some Japanese tried to adopt Peyton. Wednesday was another lazy day at the pool. We were downstairs by 9am and hung out ALL day. When Ryan wasn't in the pool she was wearing her Giraffe print cover-up. She always kept the hood up and everyone that would pass her was cracking up! Later in the afternoon we wandered down the way to walk through the Hyatt. Peyton and Ryan loved the penguins and then sitting on some camel sculptures. We ordered some kabobs for dinner, and had a bbq. We finally came back up to our room at 8pm. We quickly bathed the girls and threw them in bed. Troy started out the day being completely bored and by the time we were sitting eating dinner, he was talking about what a fun day it was.Thursday started out slow. The girls and I took a walk to a nearby cafe to get some breakfast. We had REALLY good breakfast wraps and french toast. We were even nice enough to bring some back for Troy. We eventually made it down to the pool and hung out for a couple of hours. We got some tattoos and shaved ice. We then headed to Lahaina for some wandering. Monday night when we were on the bus there was a girl with a beautiful yellow hibiscus in her hair. It was so beautiful that I had to ask her if it was real. She said it wasn't, it was handmade from clay and she had gotten it from a little stand in some little shopping area. She said it was nearby Bubba Gumps, but that was all I had to go on. After an early dinner at Bubba Gumps, I headed out on the lookout. I finally found the little stand. The clips were GORGEOUS! Not covered in my usual bling, but something so pretty! I couldn't help myself that I had to buy two. After some chatting, we found out the couple who made the flowers was LDS. I was even more happy to be supporting a church family. The couple was so sweet that the man even threw in a plumeria clip. We slowly wandered our way back to Kaanapali and stopped in at Whaler's Village for some ice cream. Poor Peyton had been burning up all evening so we got her some gatorade and tylenol. Once we got back to our room and had her showered, she seemed to be feeling a little better and had perked up quite a bit.Friday morning Troy went off for a little scuba dive off the beach. The girls and I spent some time playing at the pool. When Troy returned, we headed upstairs for some lunch and Peyton's nap. Troy and Ryan went down to the beach to boogieboard. When Peyton woke up, we headed down to meet them. They were having so much fun and Ryan had a rash to match mine from surfing! After playing in the sand and water for a while, we headed up to "rinse off" in the pool! We played for so long that it was way past dinner time by the time we were ready to find some food. We finally headed over to a nearby Italian place, it was fine, but totally over-priced. After dinner we had a nice walk back to the resort and then everyone CRASHED!Saturday was our last day of fun. I took my turn diving while Troy and the girls played in the sand. It was kinda fun going off the beach because Ryan has never seen us dive. We always go off and get on a boat. This time she got to stand on the beach and wave to me as I was swimming off. The dive was nice. It was just me and the instructor and it was very relaxing. We saw a ton of fish and some beautiful coral. We saw a couple of eels and even an octopus. I've only seen octopus at the aquarium so it was cool to touch it and watch it ink. As soon as my head came up out of the water, Ryan was yelling hi to me and waving excitedly. After shedding all my dive equipment, we spent some more time playing on the beach. We then headed back up to the resort to get some lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging by the pool. There was a gorgeous sunset that night. For dinner we went to a local restaurant, Aloha Mixed Plate. They have all the typical Hawaiian luau foods without the prices! It was CHEAP and probably the best meal we had on the island! We had our kalua pig and lava flows! After dinner we wandered downtown enjoying our last moments of vacation (like the scary, big haired man)!Sunday was a LONG day. The flight was fine and Peyton was much better coming home than she was going, but still not very good! We got in about 25 minutes early and our good friend Jake came to pick us up. By the time we got home, everyone was exhausted and Ryan was complaining about her ear hurting. When we arrived at the house, we discovered we were LOCKED OUT! It was 10:30 at night and we couldn't get in our own home. Our keys were locked in our car. After knocking on my wonderful neighbors door at 11pm, they gave us a wire hanger and Jake was able to break into the Tahoe to get the keys. We were finally inside by almost midnight! Ryan was feeling miserable. The poor thing was running a fever and crying, she just wanted to go to bed. We threw both girls pjs on and threw them in bed.
Monday morning I made Ryan a doctor appointment to discover she had a really really bad outer ear infection. I guess that's what 14 days of playing in the water will do to you!
This was the BEST vacation. What more can you ask for, a wonder family, a loving husband, beautiful weather, a gorgeous resort, and 14 relaxing days! Thanks honey for providing this wonderful opportunity for us! I love you!

Hawaii - Part 1

2008-09-05T17:36:00.000-07:00

We arrived here in Maui on Sunday afternoon and have been having a great time. The plane ride here was tough. We were seated on the last row of the airplane, next to the bathroom. Aside from all the people who come and stand there and lean on you, you get to also listen to the toilet flush CONSTANTLY. To make matters worse, the flight attendants were HUGE! Every time the lady would come by she would ram into me. Once again, to make matters worse, the two 30 minute naps we got Peyton to take were rudely halted when she would knock Peyton's head or foot. I'm not a small person, but I believe that if you can't fit up and down the aisle of the airplane, you probably shouldn't be a flight attendant. That's my politically incorrect opinion! After we couldn't fit any more into our car, we headed off to our resort. We got to the resort and gotOnce we got here, we quickly got our bags and we got our car. We headed with the rest of the tourists to the Costco across the street from the airport and loaded up on a few groceries. Since checked in. We headed upstairs, threw on our swimsuits, and headed out to the pool. I seriously LOVE this place. It makes me wonder why we haven't been back here for 4 1/2 years. Yes we've been to a lot of other great places, but come on, this is MAUI!!My parents arrived later in the afternoon and we had a great time swimming and enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather. Everyday has been a lot of the same. We've been swimming and Ryan would be happy to sit at the pirate ship all day long. She makes friends with any little kid she can and pretends all day long.Ryan and I learned to make leis down at the shopping center nearby. The lady who taught was kinda crazy, but in the end we had a great time. Ryan made a beautiful Plumeria and Lavender crown for her head and I got to make a beautiful necklace. The fresh flowers don't last long, but they're fun while they do.We went snorkeling at black rock down the way. We saw lots of fish and my parents even saw a big sea turtle. By the time we got back out, the turtle was gone. The snorkeling didn't seem like as much work now that I've been scuba diving.Thursday my dad and Troy took a surfing lesson in the morning. They both got up really quick and did a great job. My dad has been talking about surfing for years so it was fun to be around when he finally did it! Who knows, maybe I'll go out one morning and take a lesson!
Friday we wanted to go scuba diving, but the South Swell (whatever that is!) came in and it churns up the water and makes for not very good diving. So then, we planned to go snorkeling down at black rock again and by the time we walked all the way down there, we realized the waves were HUGE and the water was really strong. Everyone was standing on the beach staring out at the ocean and I kept wondering what they were staring at. We walked down the sand to the water and realized they were watching the waves. There were warning signs all up and down the beach to not enter the water because of the strong water. There's no telling how long it will last, so we'll see what the next week brings for diving.After spending all day at the pool, we took the bus to Lahaina to wander around. My parents wanted to take pictures at the Parrot man. The six of us took pictures with five beautiful birds. I held Peyton in hopes of not having to hold a bird, but "unfortunately" I got one on my HEAD instead. When the guy put the bird on my head, Peyton started to freak, but luckily she got it under control. Ryan got to hold a little green bird named Peanut. Ryan was standing next to Peyton and at first the bird wasn't to happy to be close to Peyton, but luckily she warmed up to it and Ryan had a great time holding this beautiful bird. We got some great pictures and we go back tomorrow to pick up the prints. When we were done we took a few pics of Ryan alone with Peanut. We then got kisses from Tango, the bird Troy was holding. Ryan couldn't get enough and Peyton even got one!Saturday morning, Troy woke me up bright and early and told me that I needed to get down to the surfing lessons. I hurried down and there were only three of us in a lesson. I got up quickly and had a GREAT time! It was easier than I thought, but it was also much easier with a professional teaching me and pushing me into the waves. Seriously, it was so much fun! The current was really strong and I had to paddle long and hard to get to the instructor. By the time I got up and rode the wave in, I then had to spend forever paddling back out. I got some serious rash on the inside of my elbows and on my knees. By yesterday afternoon, I thought my arms were literally going to fall off. I couldn't even carry Peyton around. When I woke up today my arms just felt like they were really sore from working out and it also spread to my legs and abs.In the afternoon, we got a car and drove up to the Iao Needle in one of the state parks. It was gorgeous and just like a rain forest. We "hiked" around a bit and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. Afterwards we went over to Kihei and had dinner at an old-fashioned diner where they had a little classic car show going on for my dad. We even went down the road and walked on a beach that had some tide pools. Unfortunately there was nothing in them.Today, Sunday, we woke up early, got checked out of our room so that we could move to the next room and went to church. My children are HORRIBLE in church. Peyton screams the whole time and Ryan won't sit still and be quiet. Peyton finally fell asleep during Sacrament Meeting, but she would only stay asleep if Troy was holding her in the back of the chapel. Ryan refused to go to Primary, so we left my parents to finish out church and went for a drive. We drove back by some places we went on our honeymoon. After church, we drove over to Kiehi and had Maui Tacos for lunch and then over to Wailea to wander around. We wandered through the Grand Wailea Resort and it is probably the most gorgeous place EVER. If I was getting married on the beach, it would be there!My parents leave tomorrow for Kauai and we are going to spend some more time at the beach and pool here on Maui. Another week in Paradise!
We're having a great time and will keep you posted on what else is to come!!!

The Dangers of Scouting

2008-08-28T08:02:00.000-07:00

Because of my new calling in the primary presidency, we got to attend the Cub Scout Pack Meeting last night. It was a barbecue at Lake Wilderness. The girls were excited to play on the playground. They had a great time on the slides and the swings. They had hot dogs and chicken, lots of salads, and of course lots of dessert. While I was inline getting some food for Ryan and Peyton, I heard Peyton crying. I looked over and saw Troy holding her and she was MAD. Then I was sitting at the picnic table feeding her and she had a little spot on her nose and blood smeared across her face. I asked Troy what happened and he said that she was either stung by a bee or had a thorn in her nose. She got over it very quickly and while I was running errands last night, Troy put the girls to bed. Peyton did not have a good night. She started crying at 12:30. I held her and rocked her for a while. I gave her Tylenol, but she continued to scream. I never turned the light on and after enough screaming, I went to get her a bottle. Well, this morning when I went in to get her, this is what I saw. I guess there's not really a question of whether it was a bee or not. My poor baby!!! (It actually doesn't look as bad in the pictures. It's REALLY swollen.)

Super Saturday

2008-08-26T16:02:00.000-07:00

Saturday was such a busy day for us. We started out the morning with our Stake Primary Activity. The kids had a great time going to different ward booths that represented different countries. They made crafts or played a game at each. Annette and I were in charge of our ward booth. Our country was USA and Kelly gave us a "Hot Potato" water balloon game to use. When we went to Kelly's house on Friday afternoon, she showed us how to use the game and made sure everything worked. Then of course Saturday morning, it wouldn't work! We turned our booth into a "throw the water balloon in the plastic laundry basket and make it break" game! Oh well, we had the cutest sign!!!Saturday afternoon we were invited to attend the temple sealing of our good friends, Scott and Cristie Carter. I was afraid we were going to be late, but luckily, we showed up with 10 minutes to spare!! The sealing was beautiful and it was such a pleasure to be invited to attend. After, we were invited to a fabulous barbecue at their home with our girls. We had such a great time sitting around and enjoying the beautiful weather. Ryan had the most fun being with the "big girls". They gave her the biggest piece of cake and Emily and Ashlyn took her swimming in the lake and then swimming in the hottub. Peyton spent her time stealing everyone's drinks. At one point, the bishop let her take over his sparkling cider. She even stole Cristie's cherry coke. Later in the evening, the missionaries came over so that Elder Wilde could burn his suit as part of the going home ritual. So the girls were pretty entertained by that. It was so hard to leave, the girls were having so much fun, but they were SO dirty!
Thanks Scott and Cristie for including us in your special day!

Fabulous Friday!

2008-08-19T07:33:00.001-07:00

We had such a great day on Friday. My friend Boni invited us to her parents house who live on Lake Tapps. So we, along with Shanda and her kids and Laura and her kids, caravaned over to Lake Tapps. We spent time hanging out on the grass under the fabulous canopy. We had a nice picnic lunch and the girls had a blast playing on the grass or in the lake. Ryan has no fear anymore of water. She put her vest on and jumped right in with the rest of the kids. Ryan and Anna had fun playing with some barbies they found and the little baby pool. Peyton spent most of her time eating or trying to steal everyone else's water bottles. Thanks Boni, it was a blast!
That night I got a babysitter and Troy and I went to the temple for our ward's temple night. It's always nice to get out and have some quiet time.

Family Festival!

2008-08-13T17:30:00.000-07:00

Sunday, the 10th, was Boeing's Family Festival. The girls had such a great time. There was so much to do and so much to eat and in Peyton's case, so much to drink! When we got there we were all hungry so we went to all the different booths to get some food. They had Vegetarian Curry, Asian Chicken Sandwiches, Ribs, Hamburgers, Hotdogs, Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Caesar Salad, Corn on the cob, Watermelon, Yakisoba, Strawberry Shortcake, and Ice Cream Bars. It was ridiculous! We got a sampling of various things and then we grabbed some drinks out of a red wagon that was probably the size of two queen sized beds put together. I've never seen anything so huge! Peyton discovered soda. She REALLY likes it! Troy very generously started her out with diet Sierra Mist and then they moved on to diet Mountain Dew. Does anyone else see a problem with that???
We spent our time taking the girls on the bounce house/slides. They also had a mini-bumper boat ride, radio controlled cars that ran on a race track, Pony rides (Ryan was so excited, she got to ride Spotty. I don't know what Peyton's pony's name was), Air brushed tattoos (we even marked Peyton!), various carnival games, and way more I can't even think of. While we were standing in the VERY long line for the Pony rides, Peyton threw an enormous fit because she wanted more soda. Her fit was so ridiculous that Troy finally walked her back to the wagon and got her an orange soda. She proceeded to drink almost the entire thing by herself. Apparently we are not going to be having any more soda with her around!
The girls had a great day and we had so much fun spending time together as a family. That's been a hard thing to do lately so we'll take advantage of any opportunity we get!
(I can't find my camera charger and my camera battery died, so when I find it I'll post some pics!)

We'll Always Have Twilight!

2008-08-12T07:01:00.000-07:00

With threats from Jacalyn that if I don't do this, I will be beaten, I, like every other Mormon girl will post my blog on the Twilight series. And since Jac already posted such a great blog that explains the whole story, I'm just going to copy a lot of it!!
The OBSESSION, to put it mildly, began for Jac & I in Hawaii last year. We'd both heard about the book, but neither of us were going to read it. It sounded lame. A vampire romance written by a BYU grad, come on! But my Jac's mom gave it to her and I borrowed a copy from my friend Shanda and somehow we both ended up with Twilight on Oahu.
We were both instantly hooked!! We couldn't get enough. We read Twilight so fast and were thirsty (pun intended) for more. We drug Troy and the girls on our top-priority mission around the island until we found a Barnes & Noble where we both immediately purchased New Moon and Eclipse. We read and read and read. We read on Waikiki, we read on our balcony (in the dark), we read by the pool, we read on the plane. We laughed histerically together over everything! We told Wig part of the story because she wanted to be a part of the group too, and Jac even taught her how to say, "I want to suck your blood!".
Jac and I texted each other our favorite quotes everyday. We've read each book probably 3 times. We were all over Stephenie's website, we looked at the the cars, read the outtakes, read chapter 1 of Midnight Sun. We were major groupies!
And...we had to wait a year for book #4. How were we ever going to make it? We passed the time: we cheked the website for updates, watched the Twilight movies trailers over and over, and we introduced the book to as many people as we could. They enjoyed it, but not like Jac and I. We were the true devotees.

I finished way before Jac did, but we still called and text each other about the book. What we thought would happen, what we like, what was far-fetched. I even tried discussing it with Jac's friend Kate. She was the only other person who had read ahead of me! Jac loved it - her 2 vampire buddies, bonding without her!

I am so sad that the Twilight series is over, but I plan to re-read all 4 books asap. Yesterday, Jac and I had a long converstion (full of laughter) about what we loved. The best part about the series was having someone to enjoy it with.

No matter what happens, Jac and I always have Twilight!

California Dreamin'

2008-07-29T14:47:00.000-07:00

On Sunday July 13th, the girls and I flew down to San Diego to spend the week with my parents and my niece, Alexis, at their timeshare in Carlsbad. We had a BLAST! We spent a week going from the beach, to the pool, to the hot tub, only to repeat it all again the next day. Tuesday we drove down to La Jolla and visited the tide pools. Ryan and Alexis had fun looking for tiny crabs and Peyton just had fun hanging out. Dad wasn't paying very close attention and a wave totally got him! Wednesday afternoon we hit the farmers market for the best kettle corn, too bad they weren't there again on Saturday! Friday morning we all went to see Mamma Mia. This was the BEST movie. Peyton slept for the first half and then I stood in the back with her for the second half. This ended up being more fun because Ryan and I were having fun dancing and singing together. The girls liked it so much that they kept asking for the music after we'd left, unfortunately we didn't have any. On Saturday, our friends Greg and Audrey came over to spend the day with us. They have a little girl, Gia, who is 8 months old and a total cutie! We had fun day hanging out together. I was really good all week about putting sunblock on, but then on Monday, the 21st, our last day at the beach, I got FRIED! The back of my legs were the reddest they've ever been. They've even started peeling today. Tuesday morning, Dad and Alexis had to fly back to Arizona. Mom and the girls and I spent some time in San Diego and then made our way up to Irvine. We spent the afternoon shopping at South Coast Plaza and scored some great deals at Bloomingdales of all places! On Wednesday we drove up to downtown LA to get some fabric for Kristen and some other random things in the ghetto!
We then drove up to Sacramento to spend the rest of the week with my brother Dave and his family. Wednesday was my nephew Cameron's 8th birthday. Cinda made a great dinner and we enjoyed catching up. My nephew Cordon has a bunch of creepy crawly pets, some type of boa snake, a leopard gecko, some poison-dart frogs, hermit crabs and fish. I was told I'd be sleeping in the animal room. I refused to sleep with the snake so they very generously moved that into their master bedroom. Wednesday night when I tried to put Ryan to bed, she was insistent that the boys would be sleeping in this room. I told her no, her and I were sleeping there, she then started crying that she didn't want to sleep with all the animals. Needless to say, she spent four nights sleeping on the floor in the room my parents were in. Thursday morning, two of my nephews, Hayden and Carter, flew up from Arizona. This brought the count in the house to eight kids. (Poor Cinda!) Cinda threw a joint birthday party for Cameron and Katelynne that afternoon at Bounce U. The kids had such a great time playing. I got adventurous and took Peyton on one of the slides. She LOVED it! She kept laughing any time we'd get close to the slide or start climbing up the was to go.
On Saturday, I took my girls and drove over to the San Francisco area to meet up with an old friend of mine. Growing up I was best friend with a girl named Ryan, yes my Ryan is named after her. Her parents split up in 6th grade and I hadn't seen her mom, Kandi, since. After reconnecting this summer I was able to go see her and spend the afternoon with her. It was so nice to spend time together and have her get to know my girls. It's funny because Ryan is now the age I was when my friend Ryan and I became friends. We had a great time at the park and Kandi spoiled my girls with presents. I won't let another 18 years go by like that!Sunday was my nephew Cameron's baptism. It was so fun to be a part of and have Ryan there to see what it was all about. She hears about being baptized at church, but she hadn't been to a baptism before.All good things must come to an end and the girls and I flew home from Sacramento yesterday. Oh and what a surprise, it's RAINING today! It's nice to be back home with Troy.
Thanks Troy for letting us go and thanks mom and dad for a great two weeks!

Happy Birthday Peyton!

2008-07-08T21:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Peyton's first birthday. I can't believe my baby is now a year old, my how time flies. Peyton is a very happy, smiley baby. She loves to play with her big sister and now that she is standing and can push things around, she thinks she is such a big girl. She loves to crawl up the stairs and go play. We can usually find her in Ryan's room "reading" books or playing with her toys. She is VERY vocal, takes after her sister, and is constantly squealing. She HATES riding in anything where she is strapped in and I'm the bad mom that lets her ride around in the back of shopping carts, standing up! We walked into a store yesterday and because she was buckled in her stroller, she started SCREAMING so horribly that a store employee came around the corner to make sure everyone was okay. I'm beginning to wonder if people think I'm beating my child. All in all, we LOVE having Peyton in our family. She brings so many smiles to our lives, plus she's just so darned cute!
After our crazy weekend, we just had a mellow day together. The four of us went to dinner at Zephyr in Kent, Peyton didn't seem to care what she ate. They gave her a cupcake with a candle in it and a scoop of ice cream for dessert. As I reached for my phone to take a picture (since I'd forgotten my real camera), the brilliant child stuck her finger in the flame and after burning herself, it went out. Needless to say, she wasn't very thrilled by it and there were a LOT of tears! I felt bad, but sometimes, you wonder how they are ever going to learn! We then took Peyton to Target to get her a birthday present (how's that for planning)! We let her crawl around the toy aisles and she got fixated on Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Song and Story Learning Chair. Every time Troy would move it, she'd SCREAM at him. So that's what she came home with. Being the good parents we are, we brought it home and opened it and let her have five whole minutes to play (very generous considering we didn't get home until 10pm)!

Peyton's Party

2008-07-06T17:58:00.001-07:00

We had a birthday party for Peyton yesterday. Her actual birthday is tomorrow, July 7th. We decided to have a Patriotic Family Barbeque. Lucky me, it POURED ALL DAY! Seriously, all day. Poor Troy was outside pressure washing the deck in the puring rain. We potted some plants/flowers in the rain. It went on ALL DAY! Anyways, the barbeque was moved indoors and it was a good time. The party was set to begin at 5pm, so after stalling all day decorating, I finally threw up some decorations in the dining room and hung the balloons around the family room at 4:45pm. Peyton spent the whole time eating. She LOVES watermelon and was happy to sit in her chair and eat during the whole party. She loved the cake once she figured it out. I thought she would be sick last night after eating it all, but she was fine. We had a great time hanging out with our friends and celebrating our little Peyton.
After most people had left, our babysitter Melissa was playing with her and she took her first steps! It started out as a couple and she got more and more brave. Then as I had the dishwasher open and was loading up some dishes, she took about 10 steps to get to the dishwasher.
It was such a great day despite the weather. Thanks to all our wonderful friends who helped us celebrate this memorable time!

4th of July

2008-07-06T17:43:00.000-07:00

On the evening of July 3rd we went to the Emerald Downs Horse Track for fireworks. We found out about this last year from our friend Nicole. It is a great show and it's FREE! Even Peyton seemed to like the fireworks, she never even complained. Then, for 4th of July, we spent ALL day cleaning house. We then went to our neighbors, Will & Nicky's, for a barbeque. The kids had a great time drawing all over themselves with tattoo pens thanks to our neighbor Jenn's parents. (I don't recommend them. Even though they say they are washable, they're not.) We spent some time out on the street in front of the house shooting off some fireworks. Troy was apparently designated as the lighter! It's so weird to live somewhere where they're going off for a week before July 4th. There are stands set up everywhere to buy them and they go off all day and all night. Thank goodness we didn't have to deal with that growing up! We then went over to the elementary school behind us and watched the fireworks from Lake Meridian. The kids had a great time and it was nice to spend some more time with our neighbors.

A Day at the Lake

2008-06-29T20:43:00.000-07:00

We were invited to spend the afternoon at the lake with our good friends Scott and Cristie Carter and their super sweet girls. We had SO much fun! You couldn't have asked for better weather. It's been HOT here the last few days and it's been great. I know, hot being relative to Arizona where all my family is, but at least they have AC in their houses!! There wasn't a cloud in the sky so we had a great view of Mount Rainier. We spent the afternoon on their boat and we all took turns out on their massive 3-man tube. Ryan asked to go first and she LOVED it. Scott was very timid driving her at first, but everyone got more and more daring as she was having the best time.
She loved the bumps, loved riding with Ashlyn Carter and her friend Ellen. She kept asking to go faster. This coming from the girl who was scared of EVERY ride at Disneyland. Peyton fell asleep during the first couple of minutes. She never once complained about her life jacket and she even took a dip in the lake.
We stopped in the middle for everyone to take a swim and Peyton happily joined Troy. Ryan also had a turn on the tube with mommy and daddy and then we got a ride without her so we could be whipped around a bit more! Being out there really made me miss all the fun we used to have with my family out at Canyon Lake in Arizona. YOU GUYS NEED TO TAKE THE BOAT OUT!

Dancing Queen

2008-06-16T17:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a little preview of the fun we'll be having on Saturday!

In the first video Ryan is the 2nd from the left and in the second video, she's 2nd from the right!!

Punk Princesses!

2008-06-16T17:07:00.000-07:00

My good friend Sarah very generously took the girls and I to Seattle on Thursday to take some pictures. Sarah is a GREAT photographer and I've been begging her to take some pictures of my girls. A friend of hers had found a graffiti wall in Seattle so we decked the girls out and went in search. The pics turned out SO great and I've already had them printed off and I just need two more frames to get them hung up!

In addition to the pictures we had such a great time. The girls were well behaved (for 4 under 4!) We hit Krispy Kreme, had lunch at Old Spaghetti Factory and even enjoyed a walk around Pikes Market where we bought 3 HUGE bouquets of flowers. Ryan and Kennedy were each carrying a bouquet that was bigger than they were. It was a wonderful day!

Thanks a million Sarah, I owe you BIG time!!!

Falling Trees

2008-06-16T16:55:00.000-07:00

Last Monday, June 9th, was CRAZY windy! I finally got to the grocery store that afternoon after about a month of not going (I'm not exagerating). When we returned, this is what we found! (Our firepit and deck are underneath!!)

Thanks to our neighbor Ryan and his chainsaw, they were able to chop it up and then our wonderful home teacher, Brian Jessup, stopped by unexpectedly and he helped Troy toss it all back into the wetland where where it came from. We're very lucky the wind was blowing to the back of our house because the tree is right on the rear, right corner of our home and we would have had some pretty bad roof damage. Thankfully we had very little damage just on the fence and the deck railing!

My Grandma Wade

2008-06-16T16:44:00.000-07:00

On the last day of our wonderful trip to Disneyland, May 31st, I received a call from my mom letting me know that my Dad's mother had passed away. I was briefly sad, but also so happy for her that she could move on with her "life"! My grandfather passed away on June 8, 1994 and since then my grandmother has been very lonely. She was a wonderful grandmother and we shared many wonderful moments together.
So upon returning from Disneyland, our neighbors generously gave us three buddy passes on Alaska Airlines so that we could travel to Arizona to be with my family. The girls and I left on Wednesday, June 4th, and Troy came up to meet us Thursday evening. It was sad mourning the loss of our grandmother, but at the same time we had such a great time. My sister and two of my brothers live in Arizona, but my oldest brother lives in Northern California, so we all get together very rarely. Also, on my Dad's side, I have two cousins, Marissa and Sarah. We don't get to see each other very often either. It was fun to spend time together laughing and remembering the times we had. We sat around just calling out memories: water-skiing, dinner at LJ's pizza (just imagine eating cardboard), the sleepovers, playing in the irrigation (gross!), bags and bags of grapefruits and pudding pops!
Grandma Wade will be missed, but the memories will live on!

The Happiest Place on Earth!

2008-06-01T20:18:00.001-07:00

We surprised Ryan on Monday with a family trip to Disneyland! What a week it was. It started Sunday night when I started packing. We hadn't said anything to Ryan about what we were planning so I just told her we were going to California. She was then so excited to be going to California to go swimming. She came up with that all on her own. We had a nice flight and quickly got our luggage. We then had to wait for our shuttle to Anaheim. I made reservations on the Disneyland Resort Express. Their buses are PLASTERED in pictures of Disneyland. While we were waiting for the right shuttle, other people kept trying to get our business. One shuttle driver pulled right up in front of us and yelled out the window, "Are you going to Disneyland?" He kept repeating it and Ryan just looked at me all confused. I gave the driver a dirty look and he just said, "Oh, you're NOT going to Disneyland?" and drove off. Eventually the right shuttle arrived and Ryan just kinda looked at it and then moved around Troy to get a better view and was amazed at the big pictures. Then, when we got on the bus, the driver started talking about Disneyland. Ryan just kinda looked at me and I asked her if she'd like to go and she enthusiastically answered yes!! Needless to say, Peyton wasn't thrilled. After the flight and shuttle ride, she just wanted to crawl.We arrived at the hotel and got settled in and then went swimming. This was so much fun except it was a little chilly. Good thing there was a hot tub. We got up Tuesday morning and headed out for Disneyland. All but Peyton seemed to be having fun. She just scowled at everyone. We had a great morning. As soon as we entered the park, we immediately saw Donald Duck, Goofy and Mickey Mouse. We hurried and got Ryan an autograph book and she got all the signatures and pictures taken. Troy bought Peyton a baby Minnie Mouse and that was the only thing that made her smile in two days! We finally made it down Main Street and to the castle. We then headed into Fantasyland and hit the rides.Tuesday afternoon we met up with our friends Sarah and Jake and their girls, Kennedy and Pieper. The girls got their hair done at Libby Lu and Kennedy dressed as Sleeping Beauty and Ryan was Snow White. We then headed over to California Adventure for dinner with the princesses. We saw Ariel, Belle, Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. The girls were THRILLED by this. Dinner wasn't bad either, except for Jake's salad! We then met up with Sarah's sister, brother-in-law and their 3 girls. We were then a party of 13! We wandered back over to Disneyland where the girls got to see Minnie Mouse and enjoy some more rides.

(Cruella De Vil bagged on Ryan's shoes!)

Wednesday was another day filled with rides and wandering as a group of 13. Ryan loves "friends" so she couldn't have been happier. Thursday was down to just us four and Sarah's family of four. We had more time on the rides and seeing more characters. The girls were so tired and completely overwhelmed. Sarah and Jake came to stay at our hotel on Thursday and Friday night so we spent Friday morning swimming and then we put all the girls down for naps before hitting the parks again. This was probably the happiest day for Peyton because she got to take naps! Troy and Jake went off in "search" of In-N-Out Burger and two hours later, they finally found the place, 5 minutes from our hotel. I know, I know, it's a guy thing. Anyways we started off at California Adventure so I could go on the "big" roller coaster with Troy. That's the only thing he asked for all week. I don't do big roller coasters, especially when they go upside down, and neither does Sarah. I told Sarah if I had to go, she had to go. Troy and I watched the girls while they went first and then they watched the girls while we went. I have to admit, it wasn't as bad as I expected. I could totally do that again. The night was finished out back at Disneyland. We hit the kiddie rides again and then we enjoyed the fireworks over the castle.

It was such a great trip and completely exhausting! Everyone had such a great time, I'm not sure who liked the rides more, Peyton or Ryan. Thanks again Sarah and Jake, it wouldn't have been as much fun without you!!!!

I thought she was Snow White, not Sleeping Beauty!!

Bootcamp

2008-05-23T08:05:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of bootcamp. It has been a miserable, extremely difficult, painful experience that I LOVED every minute of. I highly recommend it to anyone. I was the only person who didn't miss a single day out of the twenty mornings we met. I can happily say that I improved my mile run time by 1:14. I have never been able (EVER) to run a lap around the track. Today I did a lap and a half before I had to walk for a couple of minutes. I also improved my pushups from 34 to 39. Yea for me!!! The scale hasn't moved much, but my clothes are fitting better and I'm able to wear things I haven't been able to since before I was pregnant with Peyton. I am going tomorrow morning to be re-weighed and measured. I'm sure I'll see an improvement in inches, but I wish I could see more of an improvement on the scale. I know, muscle weighs more than fat, but still. I also know if I wouldn't eat the junk I'd be better off. I'm back to writing everything down that I eat in hopes of eating less, at least it worked yesterday! Last night I went to coldstone with some friends and I had the lemon sorbet with raspberries. I really wanted the cheesecake with raspberries and brownies, but I guess I have to sacrifice somewhere! Anyways, I'll repost tomorrow when I know the measurements. The next camp starts on June 9th for anyone who wants to join me. I'll happily pick you up!!!

It's All Fun and Games...

2008-05-20T10:57:00.001-07:00

Until Ryan bashes her head on the driveway.
Ryan and Grayson from next door were running and playing on Sunday afternoon. She stopped herself running down the driveway and then proceeded to fall over herself. Oh well, she only cried for about 2 minutes and then she went back to running and playing again. She is sure to point it out to everyone she sees (like they could miss it)!

Projects

2008-05-19T17:34:00.000-07:00

I know that all of my family and friends love coming to visit me because I always make them do projects while they're here. So I'm sending a big thank you to Jac and Josh for all their work during their week vacation. My dining room has never looked better and my flowers have made me smile for four days now!!!
We did have some fun, I'm not a complete slave driver. We learned all about the beautiful history of Seattle (I highly suggest the underworld tour for those who are curious!), we went up the Space Needle and we even found the Troll under the bridge. What more could anyone ask for in a vacation?!!!

Sally!

2008-05-12T15:41:00.000-07:00

This is Sally! Sally is Ryan's new best friend. My best friend Jacalyn came to visit on Saturday for the week and she brought Ryan a birthday present. We had many talks about this and agreed that Sally could come to live at our house, but it would have to be outside because Troy is allergic to cats (I think Peyton may be too). Ryan is having tons of fun with her and she spends her life begging to go home and see Sally. She even tried to take Sally on a walk yesterday (Sally wasn't too thrilled). Thanks Jac!!!

The Big 4!

2008-05-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

Ryan celebrated her 4th birthday last Tuesday (5/6). She has been looking forward to her birthday since the day after Christmas. She was so lucky that Grandma Kathryn was able to come visit. We had so much fun going to the market to buy fish and eat our way through downtown. We didn't do much else because Ryan ended up getting sick the day before her birthday. The girls had so much fun with grandma sitting on the floor and playing with them. I guess I need to do that more! We went to birthday breakfast at a great little bakery in downtown Kent. Then we spent the afternoon making cupcakes. We made pizza on the grill for dinner (even though Ryan HATES pizza) and then we had cake from Coldstone (she didn't like that either)! Wednesday Ryan had a little party at the Federal Way Community Center Leisure Pool. We had so much fun playing in the water and then had (more) pizza and cupcakes. She loved all her presents and definitely wasn't shy about asking for them. She would open a present and then say, "I've always wanted this". After a couple of times, I started asking if she wanted "this" more than "that" and her reply was "I've always wanted EVERYTHING!" That's for sure! Grandma had to go home to Arizona on Thursday but we sure had a wonderful time while she was here and look forward to her visiting again soon! HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN!!!