The Yost Clan

Thirty-Three!

2012-01-25T13:51:00.000-08:00

Happy 33rd Birthday to my hubs!

We love you, Toddler! :)

A few random pics...

2011-11-11T16:13:00.000-08:00

Why aren't these random pics of your children, you ask? Maybe because trying to get them to hold still long enough for an "un-blurry" shot is nearly impossible these days. And since my camera is still dead I'm trying to take shots with my phone.

So here are a few of my current favorite things in our new home...

Firstly, Owen's big boy bed! I love how this room looks. It might be my favorite room in the whole house at the moment. It's just a happy place... :)

Here is my newly organized pantry! We've only lived here for nearly 2 months...and it was time to organize since I kept buying duplicates of all of my canned goods. ;)

Here is a picture of my dining room with my beautiful white mirror!! I just love it! We got it for a steal at a garage sale and then had a heck of a time figuring out how to paint it, but in the end just love how it turned out. The dining room is about to get a little makeover in the very near future. Very excited about that. :)

Speaking of this dining room makeover, were you thinking I was leaving these red snowflake chairs in here?? No sir. I'm going to make an attempt to re-upholster them myself. :/ Let's be honest, I'm probably going to have to call someone and pay to have them finished, but I'll give it the 'ole college try anyways.
Imagine this beauty with a fresh coat of glossy white paint and some new grey and yellow fabric on them. I'll let you know how it goes.

And I promise to keep making attempts to get some sort of kid pics up!

We are Alive!! I promise!!

2011-11-03T20:59:00.001-07:00

We are alive over here, I assure you! :) between the exhausting task of moving and getting settled, Hails getting settled into her pre-k routine, a laptop with a crashed hard drive and misplacing the charger to my camera blogging has been difficult.

I will, however, be getting my fully functional laptop back tomorrow and will order a new charger for my camera soon...maybe my sister has some pics I can steal, er...I mean borrow... ;)

Oh, Mikey...

2011-09-06T08:51:00.000-07:00

Here's Mikey...as a horsey...or maybe a pack mule?? At any rate, the kids had a blast playing all together on Sunday. Here's the action shot...
Ah...good times. :)

I drank the Kool-Aid... :/

2011-09-04T08:24:00.000-07:00

Or at least that's what Todd and my dad keep saying. ;)

My sister recently started selling Norwex products and to support her new business I hosted a party.

It.was.awesome.

Here is the pile of things that I got FOR FREE just for hosting.

Who'da thought I'd ever get this excited over housework?? It's magic, I tell ya! ;)

Milton Festival

2011-08-22T07:28:00.000-07:00

One of the things we are really going to love about living in a smaller town is stuff like this! A parade in the morning...that we walked to from the new house...

Here is Hailey...in heaven after finding the princesses! Owen wasn't sure he liked them. Then Todd made a comment about it being "too girly"...right in front of Peter Pan. Oops! :/The Boy Scouts had a rope to walk over for the kids. Case and Hailey did so awesome! Neither of them were scared one little bit. ;)

Here's Maggie talking to Alice...you know, from Wonderland. She had a "british accent". I use the quotations because it wasn't very good. :/

This was Case right as he walked up to us. He's so cute...er, I mean cool in these sunglasses! Love that kid.

All in all it was a fun day had by all. Except the people that got dragged on stage against their will to learn to hula dance. Let's just say we practically dove under the table and slinked away when that all started! ;)

In the words of little orphan Annie, "I think I'm gonna like it heeeeeeeeere!!"

For Granny. :)

2011-08-18T17:17:00.000-07:00

What a busy time we're in, but we still take the time to have lots of fun. :)

Case, Maggie, & Christy came over today for a playdate. Hailey was in the throws of playing "wedding" when they got here...complete with a fresh flower bouquet that Nana made her from roses and hydrangeas from our yard. It was actually a really cool looking arrangement. ;)
Here's Hailey..."pinning" away on Pinterest. She is as excited about putting things on her online pin board as I am. ;)Here she is in one of her new school outfits. She's worn this top non-stop since we brought it home. So cute.

Hails now teeters between the sweetest 4 1/2 year old you've ever met and the sassiest 14 year old on the planet. I always say that 90% of the time she's the easiest kid ever and then the other 10% she's a little...um...strong-willed. Did you honestly expect anything different from our kid?? ;)

And here is Owen in his Superman PJ's. Every little boy needs pajamas with a cape!

This kid just kills us with his cuteness. His verbal skills have kicked up another notch lately and he's speaking in mostly complete sentences! This baffles me, since at 15 months we were entertaining the thought that he might need some speech therapy! Nope. Just took his own time. My favorite things he says are...

"Sho-sher" (That means "hold me".)

"Einstein!" (He has a new obsession with "Little Einsteins" on the Disney Channel)

"Love you Mommy" (He recently switched it up from Mama to Mommy. Melts my heart every time)

And here he is...snuggling my Norwex dish towel. Seriously. He was rubbing his face on it the other morning the whole time I was making his breakfast. ;)

a family that plays together...

2011-08-11T10:21:00.000-07:00

We had the amazing opportunity to join Todd's former youth pastor at their annual Wakeboard Camp trip again this year. We did program (silly walk on/skits) and found roles for almost our whole family. ;) Here I am...dressed as "Bebe". And here is my trusty assistant..."Baby Bebe". ;)And this is Todd. Dressed as the "Leader 3000". He's a robot...just in case you weren't sure.

His costume consisted of a silver painted cardboard box, an old cordless phone, silver ducting and potholders for his arms and hands, silver spray painted snow boots, a pair of women's grey tights (that he was not told about until moments before his debut) and a grey pair of boys' medium cotton shorts. It was awesome.

God made dirt, and dirt don't hurt!

2011-07-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

My kids would spend the whole day in this dirt pile if they could. :)

Sweet Pea's First Birthday...

2011-07-10T14:43:00.000-07:00

Sweet Pea is 1! Hails and I found her "birth certificate" the other day and realized that she had turned 1. We just had to celebrate with a trip to Build-a-Bear. :)Yep. She has Sketchers Twinkle Toes. Real ones.
Hailey got home and immediately did her best to find a matching outfit to wear. We did ok with the shoes and the jean skirt, but when it came to finding a top that was another story.

Seriously.

There were tears.

In the end, I convinced Hails that coordinating with your best friend is better than matching anyway. ;)

So cute, right?? :)

Pictures for Nana...

2011-06-22T21:39:00.000-07:00

We made an attempt at getting some pictures of the kids for Nana who is away on assignment at Creekside. Here are the results...

Here are Hailey and Sweet Pea...in their princess dresses.

Here she is again...posing oh, so sweetly.

Close up!

Here's Owen. He fell into the laundry basket just as I clicked the picture.

Then had trouble getting out.

Oh well...I tried... ;)

"I so-sey"

2011-06-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

We've had lots of "I'm sorry"s going on at our house lately. Nearly always Owen saying it to Hailey. He sort of combines "I'm sorry sissy" into one word. He's all BOY and suddenly loves to hit, bite, and pinch his sister. Good times. When he does it he gets sent to time out and then has to apologize to Hails. This is what happens now when their relationship is restored and they give a hug... :)His feet come off the ground and she tries to twirl him around. So cute, but I'm seriously waiting for his head to accidentally pop off one of these times!?!
Oh, well. At least I can tell the paramedics that the motive was not malicious.

They love each other to pieces.

Hailey's Perspective

2011-06-03T15:21:00.000-07:00

This afternoon Hails and I were sitting on a blanket on the front porch eating our lunch on this beautiful sunny day. She was wearing shorts and a t-shirt for the first time in weeks.

"Mommy...why are you wearing jeans?"

"Well, Mommy's legs aren't as cute as yours in shorts."

"What?? I love everything about how you look, Mom. You're beautiful!"

Ummm...ever been taught a lesson by your 4-year old?

Humbling...

Yep...there are 2 ribbons and a jump rope tied to her ponytail...

2011-04-13T19:35:00.000-07:00

Hailey has become obsessed with Tangled. In fact, she's memorized large chunks of the movie and will randomly "cast" Owen, Todd and I in her performances. In this case, I was playing the role of Flynn Rider...also known as Eugene Fitzhurbert...

She's got some raw talent, I'd say... ;)

ETA: Sorry about the poor video quality and that this is sideways...it was an impromptu video with my camera... :/

Hailey & Owen Quotes...

2011-03-29T22:59:00.000-07:00

Hails was in the car today and we were reciting Bible verses...she goes, "Mom. Here's a good Bible verse. What is mighty? What is lovely? What is powerful? What is in your heart?...is that a good one, Mom?" So cute. "Mom...are you thinking what I'm thinking??" This usually comes right before she has the brilliant idea for fruit snacks for lunch. Owen's new favorite words are "saw-vy" (sorry), "wee-ooh, wee-ooh" (oatmeal) and "wuv ooh" (love you) ;) "Mom...I'm gonna marry Jake today." Hailey's new crush is Jake...from Jake and the Neverland Pirates on the Disney Channel. And my new personal favorite is that lately when I ask her to do something she salutes me and says, "Yes, SIR!" Such cute kids.

We're Alive!!!

2011-03-28T07:58:00.000-07:00

Yes, we're alive...and well! :) We've just had a lot going on lately and I've been horrible about taking pictures. I'm sure I'll get better about it once summer comes. I mean, you can only take so many pictures of your kids in their messy play room. ;)

Here's the boy. We've started the "paci in bed only" rule (for the most part), so Owen can be found here many times throughout the day. Sneaky boy... :)

He really does LOVE books, too, which is awesome. His vocabulary has had another big jump lately. He's learning his colors and animals and doing really well. And he has become very determined to be a big boy, too. He does NOT like to be left out of anything. If his sister has something, he wants it too...this will, of course, make fighting the picky eater and potty training easier. And here's the girl. She's just getting so big and so grown up right before my eyes...it's crazy. Last week we went on a field trip to the zoo with her class and it was so fun to see her with such a big group of her peers. But, the one she was the most interested in spending time with was her teacher! She's such a mini-adult.

Here's a bullet list of what else we've been up to lately:

*My 3rd Annual 29th Birthday! ;)

*Todd and my 8th wedding anniversary

*Put an offer in on a piece of property in Milton

*Offer accepted! We close in a couple of weeks!

*Meeting with architect, choosing finishes and planning for building our house on said property

*Doing more bookwork than I ever thought possible...and resolving to never be so behind on my bookwork again! ;)

*In the VERY beginning stages of potty training Owen. Like, letting him sit on the potty and nothing happens. I'm not pushing it AT ALL! I don't want accidents in the rental...

*Asking the Lord to make it very clear if this home we're building is what He wants for us...and asking Him to close the door if it's not.

*During the 3 days of sun we did lots of playing at the park and letting Hailey ride her bike.

*Missing my baby sister...a lot.

Well, that about sums it up for now!

Happy Spring!! :)

How we're spending these rainy days...

2011-03-05T21:30:00.000-08:00

Here's Owen...very sad because he wants the birdie that he saw out the window to come in the house. Ummmm...no.She's getting older and more mature every day.
Oh, wait...now she's jumping around like her brother. ;)

Getting a picture of him holding still is nearly impossible.

And he's loving doing the somersaults his sister taught him...

That's it! Lots of simple fun. :)

My Funny Valentines...

2011-02-14T13:36:00.000-08:00

This kid gets cuter and more personality every day!

Love him like crazy...He also just decided that he would wear hats. Which I love.
I mean, seriously... :)

And here is my Pinkalicious girl before her party...complete with her new Pinkalicious doll courtesy of her Nana. :)

(Party pics to come once I get them from my sister...)

Here's a cute pic of Hailey and Case on her actual birthday. They're best buds. :)

Quite obviously this post is missing a picture of my handsome husband...maybe he'll let me take a quick pic when he gets home from work today...or, wait...nope. He won't. ;)

2011-02-05T23:05:00.000-08:00

Can't hardly wait!!

Tomorrow my baby turns 4 and I'm all ready for our special birthday breakfast...pancakes, bacon and chocolate milk. :)

I remember being at a MOPS meeting when Hailey was little and this gal gave a talk about making birthdays special. One tip she gave is to keep streamers on hand and always decorate your kid's door for their birthday morning...I've done it ever since.

Well, tomorrow I'll have a 4-year old. Crazy.

The doctor is in...

2011-02-03T18:28:00.000-08:00

I don't know if it's a foreshadowing of things to come or just the two trips to our pediatrician's office in one week, but my son can't get enough of the stethescope.

Yep. Now he's checking her mouth.

She has been a little extra "mouthy" lately.

Have a great weekend!! :)

You give me FEVER...

2011-01-30T19:25:00.000-08:00

Seriously. I am pretty sure there have been 3 days in the past two and a half weeks where my kids have been fever-free. I'm praying that tomorrow morning brings normal-temp kids with bright eyes, because we are all very over this most recent bout of being under the weather!

Here's what the past few weeks have consisted of:

*Motrin & Tylenol...lots and lots of Motrin and Tylenol.

*Hailey's very first school pictures! (one of the fever-free days)

*I've done a little bit more sewing. I made a table runner. It's green and cream zebra print. I love it. :)

*After the house closed (FINALLY!) I wasted no time and hung up some pictures around here.

*Owen learned how to blow his nose. Awesome, except that now he does it without a kleenex. :/

*Todd turned 32! Sadly, his birthday was spent feeling absolutely miserable with a stomach bug. We celebrated on Thursday night with a quick trip to Portland for a Blazer game.

*Hailey's first school program! She's really shy in front of a crowd (she must get that from Todd??) but did such a good job! No tears or anything. ;)

*Is preparing for my baby girl to turn 4...gulp...I'm still in shock.

*Became an Auntie again to Micah James Fry today. Can't wait to meet him in about 2 and a half weeks!!

That's about it. I'll post some pics soon.

Denied...just kidding APPROVED!!

2011-01-20T08:08:00.000-08:00

In all seriousness, this is how we feel today! After the longest wait ever, the buyers of our Federal Way house have received final approval and the deal will close today or tomorrow! PTL!!!

You might be asking yourself, "Wait...didn't they move Thanksgiving weekend?? Why is the house closing now??"

Well, I'll tell ya...it's been a long almost 2 months for us. Let me explain.

When we got the offer on the house the buyer had "ants in her pants" to be in and settled by Christmas, so her lender said they'd be on the fast track to close ASAP with a closing date of "December 16 or sooner". We were told it would probably be closing December 1st. So, we moved since the buyer gets keys the day of closing. However, we didn't account for the bad weather around Thanksgiving that pushed the appraisal back. After the appraiser's walk through, he called our agent and was having trouble coming up with the right value for our house. In fact, his preliminary number was $65k lower than the sale price of the house!?! :/ He ran some different comps, added value for all of the upgrades we added, and we got the call that the appraisal was in at full value!! All that was left to do was get final approval and close. Or so we thought...

On the 16th of December (the contracted closing date) while on our way to the Young Life Leader Christmas party, we got the call saying the buyer's loan was denied by underwriting. *Insert pukey feeling here* We were blocks away from the FW house, so we stopped, went inside, and prayed. We asked that above all else, we would be where God wanted us. While we thought we knew the plan before, maybe He had a different one...and either way we'd be ok. We had two great housing options on the table, but one would require quite the task of moving for the second time in less than a month. :/

The next day our agent called and said not to get our hopes up, but that she was going to hand the file over to her own mortgage broker at the buyer's same bank to look things over. If there was any way to get this thing funded, her friend would find it. She gave it a 1% chance. We signed an extention that gave them another month to work out financing.

We buckled up to wait...and wait...and wait...

Long story short, we've been in a holding pattern for over a month...with a few hopeless moments in between...

BUT...

...the wait is over.

So...I sewed today...

2011-01-14T14:35:00.000-08:00

I made 3 things out of a large piece of leftover fabric I've had since Hails was a baby. I made a pillow & blankie for Sweet Pea and a matching pillow for Hails. She loves them! My new sewing machine is really cool...it even made these flower stitches on the edge of the blanket. It's hard to see in the picture, but it's really cute in person. Especially if you pretend you can't tell that my lines are crooked... ;)
Here's Sweet Pea all tucked in...Hails is loving it. :)

Stay tuned for an apron, table runner, and whatever else I can find!! :)

Our Crazy Boy...

2011-01-14T14:28:00.000-08:00

First off, the boy has a new haircut...and it's the cutest thing ever...he looks so much older! :)Secondly, he can NOT get enough of all of his books.

Current fave: When I grow Up.

(Pretty sure I got this one at the dollar section of Target.)

Lastly, he finally will wear a hat. Here's one I got for $6 at H&M. Love it.

He kills me with his cuteness.

"Is Jesus in my heart?"

2011-01-05T11:24:00.000-08:00

Hails asked me the other night, "Mom...is Jesus in my heart?"

I replied, "I don't know, Hails...did you invite Him in?"

"No. But I want to."

Needless to say, I was overwhelmed with excitement that all of the "training in righteousness" that Todd and I have been doing has resulted in her wanting Jesus herself.

We've always said that we didn't want to push, but just present the gospel to our kids. After explaining things at a 3-year old level, she insisted that she wanted to pray with Todd and I right then!

Last night Todd and I took Hailey to the bookstore to pick out a Bible. It was no surprise that she chose the pink one with rhinestones on it. ;)

She's been "reading" it ever since...

So sweet. :)

The Tupperware "Drawer"...

2010-12-28T19:33:00.000-08:00

Look who found a new favorite place to play in the kitchen...the tupperware closet... :)As many of you know, Owen LOVES hiding. This makes this spot perfect for combining his two favorite things...hiding and unloading cupboards. ;)

Hails has joined him now. As you can see, they both fit in said closet!

Owen has now moved on...after a good posed picture by my almost 4-year old DIVA, I can put away all the tupperware.

Shouldn't ever turn my back on this kid...he's now un-done all of my re-organizing... ;)

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!

2010-12-25T11:22:00.001-08:00

First of all, yes...we're all alive and well. As you can imagine it's been a VERY busy last month or so between moving, Christmas festivities, and all the craziness that comes with a 2-kid household. :)

Here are the kids this morning...all ready to rip into their presents! Here's what Hailey picked for her brother...a personalized backpack... :)
And here's what Santa brought Owen...his own drum set...without batteries...oh, shoot! ;)

And here's what Santa brought for Hailey...a "Strawberry Shortcake house from Target". She didn't tell Santa about this item, as she discovered it days after we'd seen him, BUT...he came through anyways and made for a very excited little girl at our house.

And here's the aftermath...

We had a wonderful morning, a yummy breakfast, and are now having quite the relaxing day watching basketball, playing with fun new toys and picking lots of our "previously loved" ones to donate to kids without toys.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS! :)

Oh, Christmas Tree...

2010-11-27T22:48:00.000-08:00

Here's the tree...all decked out. You can't quite see all the fun ornaments, but I'm loving the new color scheme for this year's tree! It's turquoise, apple green, silver and white...with TONS of glitter. Conveniently matching my living room decor. ;)

All we need is a tree skirt and we'll be set! Hmmm...maybe I'll get some fabric and make something??

Craftiness to come... :)

ETA: My tree did not come to look like this by itself...nor by my own craftiness. Thanks, Christy!! ;)

life in fife...

2010-11-26T23:29:00.000-08:00

So, we're all settled in here at our new place in Fife. We won't be here forever, but while we are here we're going to LOVE it! Our rental is a brick house built in the 40's. It's a little over 3000 square feet (I know, it's HUGE) and has tons of character.

Here's Hailey's room. It's huge. And you should see the closet. She can play in it.Here's Owen's room. It's probably twice the size of his old room.

Owen loves our closet. It's a cool place to hide out! :)

Here's our room. It's a little smaller than our last master, but still fits our furniture really well.

And here's maybe my favorite room in the house. The kitchen. It might be original. With bright yellow and blue tile.

Here's everyone resting after a long day of moving. Todd and Mike were extra sore after playing in the turkey bowl yesterday morning. Don't feel too sorry for them. That's what you get when you're the only two 30-somethings playing tackle football with no pads with a bunch of high school and college kids.

Here's the view of the living room from the dining room. As you can see, Todd is really excited about posing for my picture. ;)

And here is Hailey's favorite room. When we first came to look at the place, she walked in here and screamed, "IT'S PINK!" and from then on out referred to it as "the house with the pink bathroom". She loves it here.

And here's the rec room in the basement. It's also HUGE and connected to the room we'll be using for our office.

In the words of Little Orphan Annie, "I think I'm gonna like it heeeeeeeeeere!!"

The Boy

2010-11-24T10:06:00.001-08:00

Here's the boy. He lights up our life. Isn't that a song from the 70's??Here he is hiding in his recent favorite spot. He goes behind the door of the inside office and just waits. Unlike his sister who jumps out from her hiding spots before you even get into the room! :)

And here's Mr. Independent. Who must feed himself now.

(and yes, that's a chocolate donut on his tray...Todd went to the store for breakfast this morning and came back with what he refers to as "the breakfast of champions". :)

He has also perfected his "cheese" face when I'm snapping pics.

Oh, well. At least he gets bathed more regularly now. ;)

Oh, and sorry for the lack of pictures of Hails. She's going through a strong-willed phase and will NOT allow her picture to be taken right now. Let's be honest...this phase could last the rest of her life. ;)

Packing, Packing, Packing...

2010-11-23T20:51:00.000-08:00

Well, after a whirlwind last several weeks my house is beginning to look a lot like we're moving out. In fact, we're starting to move some stuff into the garage of our rental house TOMORROW! The brunt of the moving will happen on Friday, though.

I've really taken the opportunity to plan well and move smart this time around. I've carefully planned the packing in each room so that we know exactly what boxes are to be stored in the basement and which ones will be unpacked. Honestly, I'm so happy to live more simply! We've purged, sorted, donated and down-sized. It feels really good.

I'll post pics of our rental house all decked out soon. I love it. It's got some serious character...and by character, I mean bright yellow and blue tile on the kitchen counter and pink and black tile in the main bathroom more than half-way up the walls!! It's got immaculate hardwood floors throughout the main story and is so well taken care of by the owners. Best part? The 1500 square foot basement that has a huge bedroom for some much needed office space, large rec room, and more storage than you could EVER NEED!!

We covet your prayers right now...this time is very busy and a little stressful, but we're also really excited about the future...more specifically, very excited to live about 90 seconds away from Chris, Christy, CASE & MAGGIE!!! :)

Under contract...

2010-11-13T12:10:00.000-08:00

50 flyers

6 days on the market

1 showing

1 full-price offer

WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!!!
(pending the appraisal, of course)

***

Let me anticipate your questions and answer them, okay?

1. Where are you going to move??
We are planning to buy a lot and build a house, but as you know that can take a while so we're going to rent a house in the mean time.

2. Are you freaking out??
Yes, a little. We anticipated having our house on the market for months, so we were beyond shocked to have this happen so quickly. I know that God has a plan, so that is what I'm clinging to at the moment.

3. How soon will you close?
The people want to close ASAP, so their offer reads "December 17th or sooner", so we could potentially be moving by the end of the month.

Well, that's all I know...please pray for us, if you think of it, that the appraisal would come through right so everything goes through. And that the Lord would keep me from being anxious. And for Hails...she seems a bit stressed about moving.

Closets

2010-11-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

Before...After...

I was inspired by this project on a blog I love to read a long time ago, so when we realized that we could only list our house as a 4 bedroom if we added a closet to Hailey's room I knew this would work great!

On either side of her bed we added a PAX wardrobe from Ikea. Then we cut about 5 inches off of the bottom of her existing headboard so we could install the wall sconces. Since there was obviously no room for a side table to sit a lamp on, we decided that wall sconces were the way to go. And because Ikea is awesome, we found lights that didn't have to be hard-wired!! Yay for no electrical work! :)

All in all, it took us about 2 1/2 hours to assemble the boxes, put the doors on, and get everything put back into place.

We both looked at it and went, "Why on EARTH didn't we do this a long time ago??"

I'm really falling in love with this house again now that all of the unfinished projects are getting done... :/

(obviously the quality of my phone pic doesn't even compare with the professional one, but you get the idea... ;)

On the market...

2010-11-05T10:39:00.000-07:00

Our agent had her photographer come and take some pics of our house for the MLS and I can't believe how great it looks! Here's to seeing if our house will sell in this market?? :/ If it won't, it won't and we're good with that. Whatever God wants for our family is what will happen.

We covet your prayers as I attempt to keep my house "show ready" with 2 small kids. ;)

Our family trip...minus pictures :(

2010-11-03T05:50:00.000-07:00

So, let me start out by saying that although I charged my camera battery the day before we left for Fort Mills, SC it died on me during our first outing with all the kids. What the?? Must need a new battery or something. At any rate, Lisa kindly offered me her pictures and said she'd load them on our computer before we left. And they are on our computer! Unfortunately, they're on Todd's computer which has finally decided it will NOT charge when plugged in anymore. No problem, right? The computer repair place nearby said they could replace the part in just a few hours! Horray!! Oh, except they'll have to order the part from China, so it could be a week. (insert sad face here)

Well, let me narrate the trip for you and add pictures later, ok?

Our flight out East left Seattle at 6:05 am. Yep...we had to be at the airport just after 4:00 am which meant getting up to get out the door at 3! I almost just stayed up, but knew it'd be a long day. We flew to Detroit and then had a 40 minute layover!! I'm talking we scrambled off one plane and RAN to the other gate and literally walked directly onto our next plane. The timing was perfect because my sqirmy-wormy son was TOTALLY ready to sleep as soon as the plane started moving. Wait...why isn't the plane moving yet. Oh, right. Because the pilot's seatbelt was broken and it needed to be fixed before we could get moving. How important can his seatbelt really be, people?? It's HOT in the back of a parked plane and my kid is beside himself. (because again, he woke up before 4!!!) Finally we got moving and he slept the whole flight. Perfect.

We got to Aaron and Lisa's BEAUTIFUL new house in Fort Mills and the kids were in heaven playing together. I'll save that commentary for the post with pictures. I was pleasantly surprised at how well Owen went to bed at a normal time (which was, of course, 3 hours earlier than usual). Then it came to Hailey. She was SOOO tired, but playing her usual bedtime games. And continued playing her games every night we were there. She screamed and cried and came downstairs and brought Todd and I to the end of ourselves. We survived, though, and loved every other minute of our trip.

Some highlights:

*playing at this indoor play structure that was basically a McDonald's playland on steroids...that gets disinfected several times a day. :) We so need one in rainy Seattle.

*Hold 'Em...mostly because Lisa and I took all of Todd and Aaron's "money".

*Baking Halloween sugar cookies...that I crowded all onto one pan, only to make one very large Halloween sugar cookie. :)

*Carving pumpkins. Two princesses (one that looked a little like Lord Farquaad from Shrek...sorry Hails :/) and a dog. With his whiskers cut out! The pictures will prove it...they were seriously amazing pumpkins.

*Visiting Aaron & Lisa's church. We visited on a day where the fill-in music leader put a VERY "Southern" twist on the music...and it was fun. :)

*Trick-or-treating with the kids. So cute. And Aaron and Todd came back with full buckets of candy AND some overflow that ended up in an old pillow case. Then we all "inspected" the candy. You know the drill...safety first! Sugar headache later. :/

Our trip back was quite the challenge with Owen. That poor kid did NOT like being cooped up in two different planes for such a long time. And the lady in front of us on our second flight did not like him. And said to me at the end of the flight (after MANY huffs and puffs of frustration and head-shakes throughout) that "at least I knew I couldn't travel with him." To which I replied, "How can I not travel with him? He's my SON!!" Rude. Let's just say I was rather thankful that it took us forever to get to baggage claim after we landed so I didn't have to endure anymore of her mean-mugging.

All in all, it was a great trip and we loved having so much wonderful time with our family. We miss them already and have vowed to do more skyping.

We love you Gabby, Mason, Lisa and Aaron and can't wait to meet baby Fry #3 soon! Thanks for hosting our craziness for the week. :)

Fire-Breathing Dragon

2010-10-25T11:35:00.001-07:00

How on earth was I supposed to pick just one?? :)

"Week before Halloween" Party

2010-10-25T10:38:00.000-07:00

A typical family dinner turned CRAZY when Nana suggested treats, games and costumes!

I think Caser thinks that banana in his pocket is really a gun in a holster...Here they are...the three amigos...Maggie would have joined them, but she was sleeping. So cute!

Kissing cousins... :)

I didn't know that Strawberry Shortcake was friends with a monkey?? Who knew?

"Straw-ba-ba-ba-ba-berry!!"

All in all, such a fun evening...those kids make me CRAZY with their CUTENESS! :)

Can you tell we've been busy??

2010-10-15T12:46:00.001-07:00

With fall in session I feel like it's been ages since the last time I blogged! Sadly, I've also been quite lacking in the picture-taking department. Here are a few random things we've had going on lately -

*Beauty and the Beast - we got this movie recently and let me just say, I can now recite the entire movie without even looking at the television screen. ;)

*Hailey's "stall-itis" at bedtime has been getting a little better, although she has also stepped up her game in the creativity department. Gone are the days of the simple request to "try and go potty one more time" or "get a drink of water". Now we're dealing with "I'm scared of Pirates" and "Mommy, I don't think I had my vitamin today". It's pretty funny, actually.

*Owen is getting so much more grown up these days! It's like every day he's doing something new! Most recently he has started sitting on the rug in our kitchen when he's hungry. It's so incredibly cute. He just sits there and waits for a snack. :)

*Todd just finished building his first house start to finish! This is quite exciting, especially since it was sold months ago just days after it was listed. This kind of thing does NOT happen these days, so we know that the Lord had His hand in it.

*I'm still involved in Young Life, a full-time mom, and doing the books for our business (which has been stepped up a notch since building our first spec home...and just trying to do a better job at it) - our CPA, Wendy will be proud! The Lord has really convicted me of taking our job for granted and laid it upon my heart to be a better helper to Todd in this area. Hence, the lack of blogging lately...

*We're also gearing up for a fun trip to South Carolina here in the near future to see the Frys and CAN'T WAIT! Hailey is literally chomping at the bit for some good time with her cousins Gabby and Mason.

Well, that's about it for now! I promise, I'll work on some pics soon (if I can get Owen to sit still long enough)!! :)

first meeting

2010-10-01T08:36:00.000-07:00

So, by now everyone knows of the arrival of my sweet niece Maggie Rae...she's literally the cutest thing you've ever seen! Don't believe me? Check the Camps blog...no joke.

Anyways, I was privileged enough to be IN the delivery room for her arrival! Which, to be honest, I thought would be a little longer than 4 minutes, but Christy is a champ and she was out in 3 pushes...crazy. Sharing that moment with Chris and Christy as they met their daughter for the first time was the sweetest thing I've ever experienced. Thanks for that, you guys, it was unbelievable...and now I'm crying as I type. :)

Sadly, the day of her birth, both my children decided to come down with colds. Seriously?? You can't have a cold around a baby, so we waited, and waited, and waited for them to be well so that they could meet their new cousin. Hailey's wait was finally over last night and she got to meet Maggie. She's enamored!! Owen couldn't come since he's still got a runny nose, but to be honest, Owen's kind of a "Nana-hog" and will not be excited one bit for her to be holding Maggie... ;)

I didn't bring my camera (I know...I know), but Christy got some pics that I'm sure she'll share soon. Hailey couldn't wait to get her into her swing, so after my mom and I each took long turns holding her, we put Maggie in her swing for Hailey. Hails covered her in a blanket, gave her Sweet Pea (Hailey's build a bear) to hold (which was hysterical since Sweet Pea is 3 times the size of Maggie) and was talking sweet "baby talk" to her. In the end, Hailey declared that Maggie is her best friend.

So sweet.

2010-09-24T16:06:00.000-07:00

I'm cute.

That's all. :)

fall is in full-swing...

2010-09-16T16:11:00.000-07:00

Well, as you can tell from the title of this post, fall is in full-swing at our house! Here is yet another bullet-formatted post. :)

*As you all know I'm sure, Hailey started preschool last week. Although the drop-off portion of the morning has yet to be tear-less for her, she is so excited about the morning when I pick her up. She especially loves the arts & crafts. Wait, whose kid is she?? :/

Here are pics from her first day -

*Owen is getting more and more personality every day! He was eating a lime yesterday and here's the face I got -

*Young Life is gearing up to start in just a few weeks and we are so excited about this upcoming year! When we showed up at the first football game at FWHS, I was asked by probably 20+ kids when club was starting up! I love having that kind of momentum going into the new school year... :)

*BSF started yesterday and my soul has been SOOO ready to go back! We're studying Isaiah this year, which should be challenging, but so good. I must admit, I mocked BSF when I was younger and said more than once that I would never do it, but it's been the best study I've ever done. Such good solid teaching and such good structure. Wait...I'm thankful for structure?? ;)

Well, so far that's the gist of what's been going on this fall...I'll try to be better about posting pics (mostly for the grandparents) and keeping people in the loop.

Happy Sweater Season!! :)

Wait...How old are you, again???

2010-09-09T21:06:00.000-07:00

Here's a few tidbits of my conversation with Hails at bedtime tonight -

Me: ...and we pray all this in your Son's Holy Name, Amen.

Hailey: Did you just say sun?

Me: Yeah, why?

Hailey: Why did you say sun?

Me: I was talking about Jesus. Jesus is God's Son.

Hailey: Jesus IS God, silly!!

This, in turn, led to an explanation of the trinity...to my 3-year old. And surprisingly, she seemed to understand it to some degree?? :/

Later in the conversation I passed along a greeting from Auntie Sheeshe...here's how that played out...

Me: Oh, and Sheeshe told me to give you a big hug and tell you she loves you "DIIIISSSSSS" much.

Hails: Wait, why did you say "Dis"...you should say "this"...

Me: Auntie Sheeshe always says "DIIIIISSSSS" much.

Hails: Oh, so "Dis" and "this" are the same, like "purple" and "purpur" are the same...

Me: Yep. Wow, you're too smart for your own good.

Then a few minutes later she asked how the scratch on her cheek would heal...here's how trying to be cute was really confusing to my literal thinker...

Me: In the night while you're asleep, Jesus will kiss it for you and it will get better and better until it's gone.

Hails: Wait...He will come out of my heart and kiss my cheek?

Me: Ummm...er...yeah...sort of.

Hails: Will I see Him?

Me: No...you won't see Him with your eyes. We will see Him when we go to Heaven, though!

Hails: Oh. What does He look like?

Me: He has kind eyes, smiles a lot, and has long hair. He has the kindest face of anyone we've ever seen!

Hails: When I see Him, will His back be better?

Me: Huh?

Hails: From when He died on the cross?

Me: Uh, yeah. His back is all better, Hails.

Seriously...she's smarter than me most of the time.

15 Months

2010-09-04T19:57:00.000-07:00

15 Months...

"Owen, make the face!"
At 15 months old, Owen...

*is 20 lbs and 31 inches tall. This puts him in about the 5th percentile in weight and the 50th percentile in height.

*has at least 18 teeth! The doctor looked in his mouth at his check up and could NOT believe the mouth full of teeth this kid has. He loves having his teeth brushed, but giggles through the whole thing! I think it tickles his gums or something. :)

*is finally walking...no, I take that back...he's running! It took him a while, but in true Owen form when he was ready, he just took off...

*is talking all the time...he just doesn't speak English. :) He's babbling all the time, but nothing is recognizable. I asked the doctor about it and his response was, "he's a second-born boy". He'll figure it out...in his own time.

*is getting LOUD! He yells all the time...especially at meal time. Todd's folks took the kids to the Auburn Library the other day. Their report? Owen's not a library kid. :)

*loves people! No one knows where he gets it... ;)

Summer Update -

2010-08-16T10:13:00.000-07:00

Hails is sassy as ever!!!

She's got "Bieber Fever", a "very sophisticated palate", and will be starting pre-school in less than a month!?! Craziness...let the weeping begin...

P.S. John Travolta called...he wants his "Saturday Night Fever" pose back.

Owen is crazy and into everything!!

He's walking, climbing, and more curious than Hails ever was!

Life is fun... :)

I know...

2010-08-05T15:24:00.000-07:00

...you've already seen this one, but I couldn't help myself...

He's SOOO cute!! :)

2010-08-02T21:05:00.000-07:00

Cookie, Cookie, Cookie starts with "C"!!!

The Shoes...

2010-08-02T21:00:00.000-07:00

When Aunt Lynn Honey gives you her Nordstrom card and says, "go shopping!", what do you pick??

Shoes.

With BLING. :)
Hailey insists on keeping them on the counter as to avoid any interference from her brother who might like to try and eat them.

Thanks Aunt Lynn Honey!

The shoes are a HIT! :)

Re-Do!!

2010-07-27T00:10:00.000-07:00

Hailey's room needed a little sprucing up. When we moved her into her new room, we didn't take the time to paint or arrange the furniture in a way that made sense for her. The way the bed was placed didn't leave any room for her to play, so we cleared it out, painted a pale pink on the top of the wall and added some molding.We re-arranged and de-cluttered. It's so clean (for now) and has much better space for her to be in here.
We also took the attached mirror off of her dresser so it would fit under the window. This helped alleviate the need for a spot on one of the other walls.

In the end, she loves it! The colors on the wall look like Neapolitan ice cream! It's so perfect for my sweet little 3 1/2 year old, but will grow with her nicely... :)

Such a BOY!

2010-07-25T23:20:00.000-07:00

So, my son has developed a little extra "shenanigans" over the past few weeks. His first new trick? Pulling his sister's hair. Not cool, you little stinker!! :)His next skill? Walking, you ask? Nope. But he sure can climb and get into stuff! And lastly - we discovered last night that he has quite strong legs. This was demonstrated while standing on the picnic table next to his sister when suddenly he kicked Hailey OFF said picnic table. She was not injured, but was quite disturbed that he would do this to her... :)

Well, kid...you sure do keep us all on our toes!

P.S. He took lots of unassisted steps tonight! Walking is RIGHT around the corner for this one and I am not sure we are ready for it!! :)

Punky Brewster called...

2010-07-23T10:02:00.001-07:00

...she wants her "look" back... ;)

We recently sorted through several huge bags of hand-me-down clothes from some of our dear friends with 3 girls...needless to say, Hailey was THRILLED with a few treasures that really stuck out to her. Her favorite ensemble? Her Princess Aurora jeans, Tinkerbell t-shirt, sparkle shoes and an old pink knit hat that she's had in her collection for a while. Now, normally I have a very strict "no character jean" policy, but how could I say no after seeing the look on her face as she pulled these beauties out of the bag??

She's so cute...she kills me.

I'm Baaaaaack!!

2010-07-13T10:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back from camp, most of my laundry is done, and our house is feeling just about back to normal again. After a week with various grandparents, Hailey has spent the better part of the last several days punishing...er, I mean testing me. We've had several 5 alarm fits lately, but what she doesn't know is that this week has developed some pretty serious perseverance and tough-ness in me!!!

We brought 12 kids total from Federal Way High School this year. After coming to grips with some pretty distinct cultural differences, I realized that these kids just need boundaries. They need someone to say, "Hey! You can't act like that, but I still love you when you do!" So, I did.

It's so hard, but such a picture of what God does in our lives all the time. I hated having to be firm and tough...I'm much happier when I'm laughing and having a good time! I did still laugh a lot, but at one point found myself having to be so firm/loud that half of the dining hall got whiplash after I had to stop a food fight at my table that included ketchup!! Good thing they placed our table right next to the adult guests, huh... ;)

All in all, God is good! We had 2 kids from FWHS make a 1st time commitment to Christ and 1 guy re-commit his life! Then, we've also got several kids asking really good questions and pursuing Todd and I now that we're home!

What I appreciate about the kids that we brought is that none of them seemed to make an emotional "mountain-top" decision. They are really calculating the cost of following Jesus and trying to make a real decision! Praise God!

One of the biggest "take-aways" for me came when I was trying to get my girls to spend time with me on one of our last full days at camp. I'd had the "lunch incident" that afternoon, which in turn made them a little annoyed with me. Then, at freetime, I kept trying to hook up with them. I even offered ice cream! At the end of our freetime, the girls found me and took me up on my offer. After they got their ice cream, they sat at a table by themselves and said, "Thanks!", not making any room for me to join them. I was, of course, a bit disappointed and even a little hurt. It was then that the Lord seemed to gently speak to me and show me that so often, that's what I do to Him!! He just wants me...time with me to love on me...and sometimes I don't make time for Him. He doesn't get mad at me about it, but it grieves His heart when He just wants to be with me and reveal Himself and I don't take Him up on His incredible offer.

What a week! So glad to be home... :)

Obedience

2010-07-02T09:52:00.001-07:00

So, I'm leaving tomorrow morning for camp with 3 of my Young Life girls. As excited as I am to go and watch as the Lord reveals Himself to these girls, I'm really struggling with the thought of being away from my kids for the week! I think that the "stitch" episode made it worse.

Yesterday we went to Build-a-Bear so Hailey could make Owen and herself bears with my voice in them. She had the best time! Her bear is pink (of course), wearing a Princess Aurora dress (that matches hers), and is named Sweet Pea. She also helped make this monkey for Owen...he's wearing a Hawks uniform (of course) and we named him Largent. Can you guess why?? ;)

Obedience requires sacrifice, and I am honored that the Lord would invite me into His amazing plan with these high school girls...even if it requires me to relinquish my role as a mom for the week and learn to trust Him in a deeper way.

I wonder if my YL girls will think it's weird when I tuck them in at night, cut their food for them, and ask every 30 minutes if they need to go potty...hmmm... ;)

Stitch...

2010-07-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

Here she is...7 stitches right in the middle of her forehead. So sad...

What happened, you ask? Well...let me fill you in. She ran downstairs and then ran around her bed, tripped over her own feel (I assume) and smacked her head right into a wooden knob on her wardrobe. I heard a blood-curdling scream from downstairs and have never moved so fast in all my life! There I found her...my poor baby sitting on the floor with blood pouring down her face! I scooped her up, brought her upstairs, and got a cold rag to stop the bleeding.

In true Jessica fashion, it was 11:30 and I was still in my pajamas. I passed her off to my mom (who, thank the LORD was at my house) and ran to put some clothes on so I could take her to the ER. Something prompted me to call her pediatrician and when I told them what happened they said, "Oh, bring her right in!". We put a bandaid on her wound, which had stopped bleeding by then, and I left my mom home with Owen...who had coincidentally unbuckled himself from his high chair and was STANDING UP yelling at me. Whew...thankfully we avoided another catastrophic moment there!!

When we got to the office they quickly whisked us back into a treatment room, looked at her wound, and turned on Toy Story 2! Clearly kids should always be treated by people who understand kids... :) She watched her movie (which was the highlight of her whole day) and then the nurse came in to put medicine on her head. All she had to do was soak a cotton ball with this numbing medicine and we held it on her head for 20 minutes! NO SHOTS! :)

By the time the doc was ready to begin the stitching process Todd got there. Hailey didn't like the process at all, but she was more annoyed that the doctor's work light made it hard to watch her movie than anything else.

Once it was over, she was good as new...back to her old shennanigans! If it weren't for the princess, Hello Kitty, or Strawberry Shortcake bandaids that are being rotated on her head 3 times a day, you'd never know anything was wrong!

Now, as a mom, this was one of my most traumatic moments to date! My perfect baby girl has been scarred for life and all I kept thinking yesterday was what I could have done to prevent this from ever happening. Should I re-arrange her furniture so she won't knock into things?? Should I stop letting my 3-year old leave the room unsupervised?? Should I wrap her in bubble wrap?? Maybe I should stay home from Young Life camp next week just in case she needs me??

Nope. I must trust the Lord with her.

Obviously I have to do what's wise in watching my kids, but no matter what I do, there will be unforeseen injuries and things that are unavoidable. And that doesn't make me a bad mom! (Or at least I'm telling myself that!)

My poor baby!! Good thing you're so tough.

P.S. She's been nicknamed "Stitch" by her Papa...for obvious reasons. :)

Baby take a "Bowt"...

2010-06-26T21:50:00.000-07:00

Here are the girls with Ms. Paula, their dance teacher. She's wonderful. Little "BFFs"

Although it was a little long, Hailey and I had so much fun spending the day together. :)

Her beautiful flowers are currently in a vase on her dresser. She insisted that they be in her room. We did talk about the fact that they could not end up in her bed with her. :)

We're so proud of our little ballerina!

A good laugh...

2010-06-25T13:07:00.001-07:00

I'm in a phase of life where I feel like I've been putting a lot of pressure on myself to have a perfect looking home. I find myself on home decor and DIY blogs all day long.

This chick is funny...and so puts things in perspective. :)

Happy Fathers Day

2010-06-20T08:19:00.000-07:00

Todd,

You might be asking yourself why I chose to post this picture. Well, let me tell you...

This was taken moments after Owen was born. You were so overwhelmed and proud all at the same time. When Hailey was born you were over the moon and excited, but had no idea what you were in for. When he came, you knew just how much your heart would swell with love and how life-changing this moment was...hence, the emotion.

You are an amazing dad. Sometimes, I don't think you realize it. Our kids are madly in love with you. They both light up when they hear your truck coming down the driveway. Hailey talks about you all the time. You are such a kid at heart. I'm never surprised when you come home with some sort of toy that the "kids need". ;)

Thank you for loving our kids so well. That its so important to you to plan for their future and to dream big for them. The determination and excitement that goes into encouraging Owen to take steps and the importance you see in Hailey learning how to talk like a big girl and not be afraid of things.

You are a great dad, Todd.

We love you.

~Hailey, Owen and their Mommy

Family Camp Pics

2010-06-14T18:47:00.000-07:00

Family Camp

2010-06-14T07:41:00.000-07:00

So, after making my list and checking it twice, we got ourselves on the road for Washington Family Ranch with all of what we needed...including the camera! Went to take a few pics on the way down and discovered that the memory card was stuck in the computer...at home. :(

Thankfully, Christy (who is a much better photog than I've ever been anyways) brought her camera and took tons of cute pictures. I'll be excited to see them soon! :)

We had the BEST time at camp. My only wish is that it was longer so you weren't in the car for 13 hours in a 3-day period.

The highlights, you ask? Well, I'll tell ya...

*AUNTIE SHEESHE!!!
*The pool! Both kids LOVED it.
*Sid and Gus...the program guys. Hailey realized on "dress up like a superhero" night that she had the same shoes as Sid (converse) and a cape just like him (a tie-died bandana around her neck).
*SHEESHE
*Just being at The Canyon. It's beautiful.
*Hailey jumped off the diving board! 4 times! :)
*Owen's new pool floaty. He loved it. I have a feeling this summer will be awfully fun in the pool!
*SHEESHE
*Lots of family time.
*No cooking for 3 whole days!! Thanks Sheesh! :)
*The carnival! More specifically the cotton candy and popcorn. My kids were in heaven.
*SHEESHE...are you noting a theme here?? ;)

We absolutely loved our time there...we hope to make it a family tradition.

e-l-e-p-h-a-n-t

2010-06-09T08:21:00.000-07:00

The other morning while I was doing bible study with my friend Sam, Hailey took it upon herself to get out the paints in the office (I mean, climb up into the closet, dig through a closed box of art supplies, and grab the paints and the brushes) and make us pictures.

Ummm...no.

She patiently waited for them to dry and then wanted to write some stuff on Sam's painting...you know, for personalization purposes. She wrote Sam's name, her name, her new chosen name "Anna", and then she looks at me and goes, "Mommy...I want to write a long word across the page from here to here".

"What word do you want to write, Hails?" I asked.

"I want to write elephant. How do you write elephant?"

"E-L-E-P-H-A-N-T"

I look at her paper and sure enough she's written the word elephant on her paper. By herself.

I take no responsibility for her smartness. She came that way. :)

Sombrero...

2010-05-30T10:09:00.000-07:00

This kid looks awfully cute in a sombrero!! :)

Dancing in the Arms of God...

2010-05-29T08:21:00.000-07:00

This morning after doing a little quiet time, I picked up my copy of Dancing in the Arms of God that's been in my collection of books for more than 10 years. I haven't read it yet, but thought it looked good. I opened the cover and found this note written by my mom back when I was in the midst of my "dark days" -

"Dear Jessica,

How I love you! This book is for you to read when you are ready. Before you do, read Matthew 13 and evaluate where you might fit in the parables.

You are a gift from God and we love you with that everlasting love that never changes and is unconditional. As Abraham was asked to put Isaac on the alter before God, so He has asked us to do that with you. You are His to do with as He sees best remembering that He is the provider and is full of goodness no matter what the circumstances.

No, I am not pushing - I am letting go...I trust in Him for your best.

In His love,

Mom

1/19/2000"

With tear-stained cheeks and puffy eyes, I turned to the first chapter in this book this morning and began reading. The author, Connie Neal, describes a picture of herself as a young girl. She's all dressed up with a beautiful dress, perfect blonde hair in pig tails with bows, sitting in an alley amongst several garbage cans. She related it to how in life, our circumstances can look like big piles of garbage and that anyone else looking at this picture might only see that - the garbage - BUT our God loves us and sees US, not just our garbage. He sees His beautiful creation and longs to scoop us out of our circumstances and into a meaningful and deep relationship with Him.

I am so thankful that back in 2000 my mom saw past my "garbage" and focused in on the little girl who wanted so badly to be free, but just didn't know how. She prayed diligently and sought the Lord on my behalf for many years before I finally decided that I wanted better for my life and asked for better from God Himself.

As much as I pray against this kind of journey for my own kids, should they ever need to walk their own way for God to truly get a hold of their hearts I only hope I have the wisdom to spend more time on my knees in prayer for them than anywhere else. And I pray that I will always see them like God does...like my mom saw me...

One Year Old!!!

2010-05-27T08:13:00.000-07:00

Owen is 1!

How can they go from this...

...to this in one year?

Our sweet Owen Garrett is so perfectly suited for our family. The other night Hailey asked me, "Mom, did you pick Owen and me?" I told her that God picked them for us because they knew they were the perfect ones for us. :)

Here are a few fun facts about the birthday boy -

*Words - Although he can say "Mama", he prefers "Dada", "Nana", "Baba" or "Rara". Sometimes I feel a little sorry for myself, but the "Mama"s I do get are just more sweet.

*Food - He's eating all people food now...well, people food without wheat in it, that is. His favorites are bananas (he eats a whole one by himself every morning!), Trader Joe's gluten-free toaster waffles, and his newly discovered favorite - peanut butter! Oh, and he practically eats his own weight in Kix daily. :)

*Sleep - He takes 2 really good naps each day. One in the morning from about 9-11 and one in the afternoon from about 1-4. He sleeps at night from 7 pm-7:30 am most mornings. Thankfully he's over this before 6 am wake up habit he had last week!

*Play - He's loving several of his new toys that he got for his birthday. Currently, his faves are his Sounders soccer ball, this little workbench that makes sounds, and his Little People parking garage. The parking garage, however, gets pushed around for practice walking more than driven on.

*Movin' around - Todd was very determined to get Owen walking by his 1st B-day, but one thing we're learning about Owen is that you can't make him do ANYTHING he doesn't want to! (Wait...where would he get that from?? ;) He crawls faster than Hailey ever did and is perfectly content with that for now. He did take a few steps the other day, though. I think the walking is coming.

*Babyproofing - When Hailey became mobile, we put those cabinet protectors under the sink in the kitchen (since we store cleaning supplies and stuff under there) and put outlet covers on less than half of the outlets in our house. We said "no touch" once to her and she pretty much didn't think anything about it. Her brother, on the other hand, is into EVERYTHING! Must be a boy thing... :)

*How big? - His one year appointment isn't until next week, so I don't have any official stats, but I think he weighs just under 20 pounds and is probably about 30 inches. He's still kind of little for his age, but look at his sister. She's never been out of the 10th percentile for weight!

You're so special to us, Owen Garrett! We love you so much and thank God daily for picking you for our family! Happy Birthday!

We sure love this kid...

2010-05-23T21:02:00.000-07:00

I am overwhelmed at the love there is for my son. We celebrated his first birthday today with lots of our family and a few friends and there was no shortage of joy in our home.

The most joy-filled one of all was this boy...Here are a few pics of the party...thanks for taking these, Christy! You're the best. :)

Here he is! All naked and ready for his CAKE! :)

After making Owen a special wheat-free cake, all he ate was the frosting. ;)

This is my favorite picture of the whole day. You can actually hear him yelling! This, of course, came about 15 minutes after the cake eating started...right as the sugar kicked in.

This boy was SPOILED when it came to the birthday gift portion of the day! Everyone was so generous...I was in shock.

I hope you always know how loved you are, my sweet boy.

Birthday Banner!

2010-05-21T11:07:00.000-07:00

Here are some instructions for a do-it-yourself birthday banner! Firstly, you need a paper cutter, a bunch of letter size cardstock, a ruler, a utility knife and cutting board, ribbon, and those little sticky things that people use for scrapbooking. ;)First off, you cut all of the paper in half width-wise. Then, using a ruler, find the center of the paper and mark it at one end, like so...
Then you line up one corner and the center point on your paper cutter and make a perfect triangle shape...

Once you've done this with all of the paper, you can mix and match and decide what paper will be layered with what. I'd advise that the smaller triangles be some sort of cute print, but I wasn't thinking straight at the paper store, so I made due...

I then cut off about 2 inches of the tops of all of my small triangle pieces.

Then I used those little sticky scrapbooking squares I mentioned earlier to attach the pieces...

Next, you use that trusty utility knife (very carefully, of course) and cut a slit just a bit longer than the width of your ribbon. You may also want to score the back side of the paper just so it's easier to slide the ribbon through...

Then, slide the ribbon through like so. Keep in mind that you will want to decide at this step how you want your banner to look - one long banner or several smaller ones tied together like mine.

When cutting the ends of the ribbon, I made sure I left it extra long since I wasn't sure how each one would hang on the wall. I then picked my favorite font and typed the message I wanted on the banner in Word and printed it. Then I just cut the letters out and, again, used my sticky scrapbooking squares to attach them like so...

When hanging the banner, I laid it out on the table and tied all 3 strings together at one end and hung it on the wall. Then I messed with the letters and slid them around on the ribbon so they'd be positioned how I wanted them and then tied the other end.

Voila! There's my birthday banner tutorial!

Or birthday "bammer" as Hailey's been calling it... :)

Okay, summer...we're ready!!

2010-05-20T12:07:00.000-07:00

Target, you've sucked us in once again...how could we resist this cute suit and pool towel??

Now anytime these monsoon rain storms want to stop, we're ready to lay out in the SUN and not the living room... :)

Spring Spruce-Up...the Final Chapter!

2010-05-18T21:25:00.000-07:00

Here is my collection of newly covered pillows! I wish I could say that I made them myself, but alas...I don't sew...yet.

My dear sweet Mrs. Howard made them for me for $2/each and I got the fabric 35% off, so it was quite the deal. The best part? All of these pillow covers have zippers and are washable.

I love how these new modern fabrics made it feel so bright and comfy in our family room. :)

Adventures in Single-Parenting...

2010-05-15T21:08:00.000-07:00

First off, let me just say that I realize that this is like, my 4th blog post of the day. Can you tell my husband is gone and I'm a little lonely?? :)

So, Todd's been gone since early Thursday morning and we've done our best to stay busy. We went to the Supermall and Joann Fabrics on Thursday, had a very fun zoo day on Friday and then braved the grocery store right before dinner with both of my kids. Not smart. Owen was OVER the grocery cart after about 12 seconds and proceeded to arch his back and squeal through the whole store. Think I'm exaggerating? You are welcome to ask the lovely elderly woman who put her hand on my shoulder in the cheese aisle and said, "You sure have your hands full, don't you dear." Yup. I do, thanks.

Today was a new day, so I tried to stay positive and make plans to get out and about. I picked up Mom Yost and we all headed to Ikea for a couple of rolls of paper for Hailey's easel. Two rolls of paper, two picture frames, a faux plant, 3 blue vases, 5 Swedish meatballs and a surprise for Owen's birthday later and we were done with that shopping trip. How do you say no to lunch at Ikea when it's a "kids eat free" weekend?? :) All was good up until the bedding section and Owen was ready to go. And he meant it.

We finally got home and both kids went down for a nap. Life was good. Then they woke up, and seemed fairly happy! Yay!! How about another outing? A few errands, dinner at Panera Bread, and Hailey's promised trip to Target. We were optimistic.

Half-way through dinner Hailey has to pee. Keep in mind that we have our dinner strewn about all over our table, Owen is getting fidgety, and I have to load up both kids and hurry to the bathroom. When we get there, Hailey has to...um...go numero dos. And she is all in a tizzy because while we're all in the stall Owen won't close his eyes. Seriously?? Well, we successfully made it out of the bathroom in one piece with washed hands and headed to bus our table. Wrong move. My boy was furious with me when I put him back into the high chair. Somewhere between that and putting him in the red Target cart sent him OVER THE EDGE.

I tried everything, but he was NOT happy. This, of course, helped me make the executive decision that our Target trip needed to wait. The boy was in hysterics at this point. This, in turn, produced a very devastated girl who made it her mission to cry louder than her brother all the way to the car. At this point, I was THAT mom. People were staring. Awesome.

The crying continued and became louder and louder all the way home. I considered pulling over just so I could join in the hysterics, but my practical side won this battle when I remembered that the sooner that we were home, the sooner it would stop.

Needless to say, I'm exhausted and miss my husband immensely. It's especially weird not to be on and off the phone with him all day long. I can't wait until tomorrow night.

(Lisa, if you're reading this, you're my hero. I don't know how you do this 4 days a week!! :)

Spring Spruce-Up...part 3...sort of...

2010-05-15T20:58:00.001-07:00

This will only officially be a part of my "Spring Spruce-Up" once they are hung on the wall, but since Todd isn't home to do it, I had to post these pictures. I LOVE them.I love these images of my sweet babies' complete trust in their father. I wish I was always this trusting of my own Father...

Spring Spruce-Up...part 2.

2010-05-15T16:14:00.000-07:00

Part 2 of my "Spring Spruce-Up" involved re-styling my bookcase. I learned about that here.

The first thing I did was go to Ikea (gotta love it there) and picked up a few things...like this round lamp and glass vases. That lamp will brighten up this dark corner of the living room as soon as I pick up the right bulb for it. :)Nothing new here...just re-purposed some other picture frames I already had.
Here's my favorite view...why, you ask?

This "faux" houseplant I also got at Ikea. Lord knows I could never keep a real plant alive, so I go for the "faux" variety... :)

There you have it! A newly styled bookcase...complete with kid-friendly items at the bottom. :)

Stay tuned...more to come. :)

Spring Spruce-Up...part 1

2010-05-15T06:47:00.000-07:00

So, since my front room has felt a little dark and cave-like for the past several months, I decided to do a little "Spring Spruce-Up". Step 1 - put buttons on these sad brown pillows. (They had brown buttons on them, but they've all fallen off and most of them are lost. How sad.)One trip to the fabric store and a little button-making session later and voila!! :)Did you catch that? I MADE these!! And sewed them on with some gigantic upholstery needles. I know, I'm so crafty...

I made 2 of each button and put one of each on the pillows. That way I can switch up what button you see.

And here's a preview of part 2 of my "Spring Spruce-Up"...aren't you excited??? :)

Never too young for a little pampering...

2010-05-10T09:28:00.000-07:00

Hails and I went on a date for Mother's Day and got our finger and toenails done. It was a blast!Here's Hailey relaxing after the taxing task of having a mani/pedi.

I absolutely love that Hailey is at the age that we can go on a date together and have actual conversation. She's so much fun!!

My favorite Hailey quote of the day: "Mom, my toenails are GORGEOUS!! Do little kids say gorgeous?"

Little kids with adult vocabularies do... :)

My Body is a Temple...

2010-05-04T20:58:00.000-07:00

30 days ago I started dieting and exercising regularly. I've currently lost 17 lbs in 30 days. A few people have been interested in what I've done, so I thought I'd share...

Firstly, I've struggled with my weight for years. I've done every diet imaginable. I've lost, gained, lost, had babies, and so on. About 3 months ago I started really asking the Lord to give me the desire to do the work, and eventually He did. It started from the inside out.

Once I had the desire, I went to see my family doctor. I was diagnosed with insulin resistance about 4 years ago and he helped me get set up with a colleague in his office who does nutritional counseling. He showed me that what I had to do was give up anything with a high glycemic index (or in layman's terms, anything that causes a spike in my blood sugar). The most obvious culprits are sugar, white flour, white potatoes and white rice. The not-so-obvious ones are things like corn and bananas. He gave me a list of what to eat and how much and sent me on my way.

I have one serving of whole grain a day, one small serving of low-fat dairy, all the good veggies I can eat and 4 servings of lean protein. What's worked best for me is a protein shake for breakfast, a snack, a protein bar and veggie for lunch, another snack, and then a dinner that my family will eat...like chicken, roasted veggies and brown rice.

I'm also exercising most days. I'll admit, I've been a slacker for about 4 days while trying to get rid of this pesky cold, but most days I do a 45-minute Hip Hop Abs video that I have. Make fun if you will, but I start sweating about 6 minutes in and the first several days I could barely move! :)

Tonight, for the first time since I started, I gave myself grace and had a "free meal", if you will. I had a chicken stuffed tortilla meal from the Cheesecake Factory. I allowed myself to eat about a third of it and then made myself wait about 20 minutes to eat any more. After 20 minutes I wasn't hungry anymore, so I was done eating. Todd and I got a piece of cheesecake to share, but I had 2 bites and gave the rest to him. Now I'm downing the water like it's going out of style so I don't have a "sugar hangover" in the morning! I'd rather be up all night peeing than wake up with a headache... ;)

I have a long way to go (37 lbs, to be exact) until I'm at the ideal weight for my height, but I've set "mini-goals" along the way. For instance, after losing my first 9 lbs I was at my "pre-Owen" weight. Now I'm 1 lb away from being the lowest since having Hailey. I have another 10 lbs to be the weight I was at Christy's wedding. Another 12 lbs after that, I'll be at my pre-Hailey weight, which was the lowest I'd been at since my own wedding. 5 lbs later, I'll be at my wedding weight and then 10 lbs to my ultimate goal. I will celebrate each milestone, because it's all about baby steps, people!

Now that I've written this out there's no turning back, right?? Nothing like blogging to create accountability. :)

We love you, Miss Hannigan!!!

2010-05-03T07:53:00.000-07:00

This was me...

...all weekend.

We've had a house full of sickies, including Mama. I hate how impatient and grouchy I was all weekend. I promise you, though, I never called my kids "little pig droppings" once! Maybe Todd, but not the kids. ;)

Oh, well...new day, I guess. I only pray I get through another day of sickness in my house with more grace. Thank you, Lord, for new mercies this morning!

Miss Hailey...

2010-04-29T08:01:00.000-07:00

This girl has once again taken several big steps in the direction of overall girlie-ness!!

Step 1: Her mommy-ing.
She recently got all packed up for a slumber party at Nana's house. We widdled her pile of items down to these two, but only after some fierce negotiation. She wanted to take her doll, dolly bathtub, dolly car seat, dolly pack n play, AND a huge diaper bag. Oh, and the pink, fluffy rolling bag for herself.
Step 2: Knowing the importance of Real Simple magazine.
She was reading Real Simple to "Big Lion" this morning. He learned some very important skills, like how to decorate the edges of a frosted cake with a clean hair comb and which top-rated mascaras can be picked up for under 10 bucks! Life lessons, I tell ya...Step 3: Her first Barbie doll!!!!!
This one is near and dear to my heart, mostly because during all of the years of my childhood there was never a day you wouldn't see Christy and my bedroom floor COVERED in Barbie stuff. Love it. Todd was pleasantly surprised to find that for modesty purposes this Princess Aurora Barbie came with a pair of undies permanently attached to her body. I mean, we don't want people to be uncomfortable at the sight of a totally naked Barbie, do we??

Now we just need to figure out a way to keep Princess Aurora's shoes out of the mouth of this guy -

Any suggestions?? :)

it's totally manly if you growl while playing a princess piano and playing with your sister's pretend eyeshadow...

2010-04-26T10:02:00.000-07:00

It's NOT about me!!!

2010-04-20T08:28:00.000-07:00

I've been doing ministry with high school kids for almost 7 years now. This has been a year of tremendous growth for me as God has decided to make it very clear that it's not about me. Imagine that, huh?? :)

I've always had a very easy time finding common ground with the girls that I work with...until this year. The girls God has been drawing through the doors on Mondays could not be more different than me...and they've got WALLS up! I've literally spent entire car rides with them in complete silence. I mean, how long can you ask them questions about themselves without sounding like some sort of investigator?? Several months ago I started asking God for help. That He would break down the walls, show me the common ground, and begin to develop relationships centered around Him, not me. These prayers have seemingly gone unanswered...until last night...

I went to the school yesterday at lunchtime and met a few new girls. I invited them to club for a big spaghetti dinner and they said they'd like to go. Normally, this means "I'm going to say yes right now, but only so you'll go away. I'm blocking your number as soon as I get to my 4th period class." I had plans to pick up 6 girls. I ended up with 5. PTL!

Two of these girls in particular seemed really talkative and open. I really enjoyed our conversations, and then when we got to club they could not stop loving on my kids! That always blesses me to pieces when my whole family gets to do ministry together. :)

After our big dinner it was time for the talk I'd been working on. This was literally one of those talks that I was unsure of until the moment I stood up and began to talk. The Lord calmed my nerves like I could not understand. I guess I shouldn't be surprised...if He can calm a deadly storm he can certainly calm my nerves... At the end of my talk, after explaining the importance of Jesus' raising from the dead, God put it on my heart to have the kids close their eyes and listen while I explained the gospel step by step.

Then came the moment of truth...is anyone in this room ready to accept Christ?? I sure hoped so. I invited anyone who was ready to say "yes" to Jesus to just open their eyes and look at me.

I saw 9 sets of eyes look up at me.

Praise the Lord! Thank you Jesus for teaching me that I am only to be a vessel for you to love kids THROUGH me! I can do none of this on my own.

AND, after passing out Bibles to all of these kids and a few others, 2 of the new girls sat with me asking questions about how to read their Bibles and how to understand Scripture for nearly 20 minutes while their friends played in the gym.

Mr. Papa...

2010-04-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

She gets cuter EVERY day...

And smarter...she drew and wrote this all by herself!! :)

Big Boy Hair...

2010-04-15T08:53:00.000-07:00

Before ~After ~

Getting this after picture was quite the chore...the only good way to take a picture of Owen these days is to take it while he's eating. ;)

"Everybody"...

2010-04-09T09:04:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the Easter dress Hailey wore. Why isn't there a picture of her in it?? Your guess is as good as mine...

While the Easter dress is awfully cute, it's not the point of this post. The point, you ask?

My daughter has many imaginary friends these days...and when speaking of them as a group she refers to them as "everybody".

For instance, she says the other day that "everybody" was sitting at my mom's dining room table. Hmmm...

Their names, you ask? Well, first there is "Lola"...but you've already heard of her. Her boyfriend is "Joseph". And the rest of their friends are "Noogler", "Nooglock", "Noglog", "Noglock", and "Nooglook".

I realize that these names are all very similar, but trust me. She knows the difference between each of them.

I do appreciate them at times, however. When Hailey told me she was scared of the monsters in her room I asked her what made her think there were monsters in there. Her response was this, "Mommy, my baby dolls told me that my room was a monster room!!".

Cool. Thanks, dolls.

The next day, however, she informed me that "everybody" told her that her room was a sprinkle room and that Jesus would keep her safe.

Nice work, "everybody". :)

Playing together...

2010-04-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

The age gap is closing in and my kids are really starting to have fun together. :)

It's real cute.

Buckle up, folks...he's mobile!?!

2010-04-03T19:14:00.000-07:00

Well, here he is...our boy Owen.Ain't he cute?? ;)
He's movin', and movin' fast...

We discovered that part of his fussiness lately is that he was frustrated about not being able to chase his sister. That has changed. And I think I have some pretty major baby-proofing to still do since he seems interested in everything that Hailey never even was interested in...like light sockets, cords, and the fireplace at my parent's house. Whew...this guy is gonna give us a run for our money, I tell ya...but look at those baby blues!?! Could you just die??

*****

Oh, and we were also visited by the police recently. Some sort of complaint about our rowdy kids or something... ;) Just kidding...it's just Papa coming for a visit while working a shift in Federal Way.

Hails loved the car...so does Papa. ;)

...and by God's grace this is the only seat in a police car Hailey will ever sit in... ;)

Taming "Messy Jessie"...

2010-04-02T10:03:00.000-07:00

As a young girl, I quickly earned the name "Messy Jessie"...largely because my room more often than not looked like my closet and dresser barfed their entire contents onto my floor and bed.

Seriously, people. I wish I were kidding.

As I entered into a life of wedded bliss, I quickly realized that my husband struggled with the same issues as I did!! (Which, if you've ever dropped in on my Mother-in Law, you'll know that he was NOT brought up that way...I'm talking EVERYTHING has a place, and EVERYTHING is labeled! No joke - drop by and look in their garage...it's a thing of beauty!)

For the last 7 years, we've both really struggled in our cluttered messy existence, but it reached epic proportions when we had children. Kids come with a LOT of stuff...

I've tried nearly everything, from assigning "days" to do each step of cleaning, having my master-organizer sister Alicia help me, to designating entire Saturdays for un-doing the week's worth of mess. Nothing works.

I finally realized that on my own strength, nothing can change, so I started by asking the Lord for forgiveness for not taking care of my household like He would want me to and asking that He would give me the desire to provide a clean and calming environment for my kids and husband. I think poor Todd would have gone completely crazy had he woken up to not a single clean white t-shirt one more time!!

Long story short, here is what's working for me -

1. God has given me the desire to serve my husband well and keep our house clean and organized. Who knew?? :)

2. TV stays off during the day. It's too easy for me to have it on "for background noise" and end up parked in front of an all day marathon of "Clean House". Ironic, no? :/

3. Based on my more recent posts, you all know about "Operation Organization", and that I've designated almost everything in my house a "spot". (My Mother-in-Law will be SOOO proud!! ;)

4. I make sure the sink is free of dishes EVERY night before I go to bed. I also run it while we sleep and make myself unload it first thing in the morning. (Un-loading the dishwasher is on my list of housekeeping HATES...along with putting away the laundry and taking out the garbage. Not sure why, but I just loathe these tasks with a passion.)

5. I putter...this means that all day long I try to pick up what I can. I've come to the conclusion that it's pointless to pick up toys until night time, which is another every night task that Hailey helps me with as part of the bedtime routine.

6. Meal planning. I'm working on this one, but I have my system in place, so that's a step in the right direction. As you can see, I have a whiteboard calendar on the wall in the kitchen where I write down the meals for the month. Then I have a shopping list and my envelope of coupons on the cork board to its right. I'm able to plan my meals and then make my shopping list right there so I can be one step ahead. I'll let you know how this turns out, because I've only been doing it for about a week.
7. Our family calendar. This is going to rock my world, people!! Three months at a time at a glance. Loving this... :)

Well, there you have it. These are the tips for organization that are currently working for me. I am still a work in progress, but headed in the right direction. :)

Phase 3 of...

2010-03-25T18:41:00.000-07:00

"Operation Organization"

As you can see, we painted the room the same shade of blue that's in Owen's room. We got this bookcase and desk from Ikea and the organization began!!

My favorite part of the renovation is the little "desk" that we set up for Hailey at the end of my desk. She's got crayons, coloring books, and all sorts of craft things at her disposal. She's spent the bulk of today at her new desk. ;)
The bookcase on the wall has enough little cubbies and boxes for all of our medical paperwork (that's been busting out of this little file holder for months now), our receipts, and personal paperwork. We've got the big office outside, but it's been hard to keep our business and personal paperwork all separate until now.

This closet is just dreamy...until now I've had NO non-bedroom closet space in my whole house! No linen closet, no hall closet...nada. This closet contains all of my gift wrap stuff (a hanging bar for my collection of ribbon is coming soon), Hailey's excess art supplies, our medicines (which have been stowed in various places throughout the house - up and away from the kids - so you can never find the right thing when you need it), my vacuum (previously in the corner in our bedroom) and several other things. We also have 3 white board calendars to hang on one of the walls so I can keep our life all figured out! We are so bad at forgetting dates and things, so that'll help a lot...

I'm really excited that this room will be so multi-functional. I can work from here while Hails colors and plays, I can keep everything organized, and even do my quiet time in here.

Loving it! :)

Phase 2 of...

2010-03-21T15:28:00.000-07:00

"Operation Organization"

So, we painted over the purple and moved Owen into the basement. We chose this really nice calming blue because I didn't want it to feel like a cave and the green in his old room was pretty dark. I am in LOVE with this blue...so much so that you will be seeing it in the upcoming "Phase 3". ;)
This skinny bookcase used to be in our living room...when we first got married. I never put 2 and 2 together and noticed that it's the perfect color for the nursery furniture. It works so perfectly to store all of the little bins for extra changing table stuff, as well as a few decorative accents.

All of Owen's clothes are organized into "fits" and "not quite yet". ;)

...more to come...

2010-03-21T07:55:00.000-07:00

Hailey Lynn

*Due to the 70 degree weather yesterday, we went Saltwater Sandal shopping...Hailey picked a really cute hot pink pair and mommy chose a nice sensible white pair to go with everything that can't quite mesh with the pink ones.

*We got some workbooks a while back that teach some pre-writing skills...stuff like tracing letters and such. She's doing so well with it! She even wrote her name the other day.

*Her imagination has kicked up yet another notch lately! She still has many "big woman" stories, "grocery shops" in the laundry room, and has not 1...but 2 imaginary friends!! Lola and Neggler. Don't ask me where she came up with the new friend's name...I have no idea. :)

*90% of the time she's really obedient and well behaved, but the other 10% of the time I have no clue what to do with her!! She has a really strong will and throws quite the fit when she doesn't get her way. This makes for a mommy and daddy who are prayerfully dependent on the Lord for wisdom in parenting, which is not a bad place to be, I'd say...

*Still her spunky self. Lots of "shenanigans" and tons of laughs from this girl.

Love her.

"When I was a Big Woman..."

2010-03-16T19:15:00.001-07:00

Hailey is quite the story teller...mostly fiction. She has always loved telling stories that begin with, "When I was a little baby..." and end with something like, "...I was scared of Elmo." Well, we've moved on to this..."When I was a big woman, I didn't like black beans."

Or...

"When I was a big woman, I went to a princess party."

What???

You're a crack-up, Hailey Lynn... :)

Phase 1 of...

2010-03-12T16:04:00.001-08:00

..."Operation Organization"!!

I know what you're thinking...here we just got finished with Hailey's downstairs room and now I'm moving her again!?!

Here's my logic - I need office space inside my house. I've got paperwork strewn about and all of our personal paperwork is in disarray and has been for a long time. I could have emptied out the spare room downstairs and put a desk and stuff in there, but my goal for both of the kids is to each have one of the basement rooms, so I'd be setting up an office only to change it soon anyways. Also, it's getting increasingly hard to get good naps out of Owen with his room right by the kitchen. So, I've moved Hailey into the far basement room, will move Owen into her old room (once the walls are NOT purple) and will put a desk and such into Owen's old room.

Here's Miss Hailey in her queen sized bed. She looks so tiny in there, but she loves it!The crib is in the corner...

And we just swapped the shelves around and added a hanging rod to her old cabinet to serve as a closet for now. It works perfectly!

So, basically for the price of a new set of sheets (that I found on clearance at Target) and a curtain rod, Hailey has a new and fairly completed bedroom!

More to come, people...more to come! :)

Full of shenanigans...

2010-03-12T08:14:00.000-08:00

Here is what about 90% of our day is spent doing...drinking "tea". This girl is obsessed with setting up her tea party (just perfectly, of course) and entertaining a whole slew of her stuffed animal friends. And me. I drink lots of tea, too.

When we were at Nana's house recently with the Camps, Hailey brought the tea set and set it up on my parents' bed. I went to check on she and Case and Case was having the time of his life "eating" the plastic fruit and cupcakes. I noticed that the table setting was less than her usual picture of perfection. Hails looks at me (with a stressed look on her face) and says, "My tea party is a little crazy!!". Get used to it, Hails...Owen is expecting an invite soon and will undoubtedly be causing a ruckus, too! :)

We also always like to make time every day to practice our plie's. I mean, we do have a recital coming up in just a few months!! :)

This is one for the "show the boyfriend" file...ummm...just call her Nick Nolte...

The best surprise EVER!

2010-03-09T14:30:00.000-08:00

My husband is the BEST!

For my 30th birthday and our 7th anniversary, he surprised me with an overnight in Seattle. It was so nice to be together...and without our kids! (I mean, I love our kids and missed them like crazy, but it was really nice to be away. :)

The first destination was the Camlin Hotel. It is beautiful! Worldmark (formerly Trendwest) bought it several years ago and remodeled it and it is beautiful!

We got settled into our room and then walked around the corner to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Now, I know that we were in the city where there are a billion awesome restaurants, but the Cheesecake Factory is our FAVE...we couldn't resist.

After dinner, we started walking and turned the corner onto 5th Avenue and there it was...the 5th Avenue Theatre...and Legally Blonde the Musical was playing. Todd played it off and kept looking at this map for where to turn...well, he tricked me and we ended up going to the show! It was so cute...love that Elle Woods. :)

All in all, a wonderful surprise. I appreciate all the thought he put into it AND that he sat through a musical with me without even one complaint! That was a gift in itself... ;)

bedding

2010-03-04T11:20:00.000-08:00

Here it is...

...and it's about time! I've literally been looking for new bedding for nearly a year.

We loved our old bedding that we bought 3 years ago when we moved into our new house, however I washed my duvet cover in hot water a while back and it shrank SOOO bad! It bunched up really bad and barely hung over either side of the mattress. Let's just say that Todd and I are both cover-hogs and this did not a happy marriage make. :)

My dilemma was this - everything I liked was a comforter set, but I have a husband who REFUSES to use a top sheet on our bed (believe me, I tried putting it on several times in the early days of our marriage only to come to bed at night with the top sheet ripped off in a pile on the floor). This means that we do things "european style" with a bottom sheet and a washable duvet cover...never again in hot water, of course!

I searched and searched, only to find awesome duvets that were WAY out of our budget or awesome deals on comforter sets...oh, what to do??

The solution? This comforter set from Target (10 pieces for a hundred bucks!?!) and a coordinating duvet cover and sheet for a killer deal, too!

I love it and so far have only failed to make the bed once in a week. That'll maybe last another few days, but at least I can say I was motivated for a little while.

Thanks, Todd, for my early b-day gift! I love it. :)

my kidders...

2010-03-02T19:26:00.001-08:00

These two are my favorite.

This isn't what you think. My daughter is not trying to lay the smackdown on my son. She's trying to pose for a picture and he's not cooperating...hence his mad face...

Owen had his 9 month check up today and he's perfectly healthy. He's 18.4 lbs (25%) and 28 1/2 inches long (75%). Basketball player, perhaps?? :)

I'm not sure where he gets it, but I think he's a little overly dramatic... ;) We had to get his iron level checked at the lab on our way out, and he threw a 4-alarm fit because I put the puffs away...however did not even flinch when they pricked his finger to take his blood. Hmmm...

All in all things are pretty status quo around here. I've got the song, "Pants on the Ground" stuck in my head thanks to Hailey who sang it this morning all the way to dance class. Thanks Hails... ;)

owen

2010-02-26T16:01:00.001-08:00

I realize that I've posted 5 of nearly the same picture, but could you pick just one?!? :)

D.C.A.

2010-02-18T08:39:00.000-08:00

Hello, my name is Jessica and I'm a "Diet Coke-aholic". It's been 6 days since my last drink.

In all seriousness, I have a problem.

When there is icy cold Diet Coke in my fridge, I rarely choose water when I'm thirsty. It's sad and totally unhealthy. I've tried limiting myself to 1 a day, drinking a bottle of water before every can, etc. but I always go back to drinking mostly pop.

I recently stopped buying it, but allowing myself to have some when out and about. Ah, the headaches. However, almost a week ago I said "NO MORE!!". I need to get healthy, and one big step is getting rid of my vice. I have many other changes to make, but I'm taking them one at a time.

Goodbye, Diet Coke...hopefully for good, because I don't ever want to go through the days of caffeine/artificial sweetener headaches again.

tea party

2010-02-16T21:01:00.000-08:00

Here are my kids having a tea party...well, Hailey was having a tea party with her babies and Owen crashed, but you get the idea. Here he is trying to swipe a pretend cupcake that belongs to "Trace Girl".

("Trace Girl" is the newest member of Hailey's family of dolls...her given Cabbage Patch name was April Tracy, but somehow it morphed...she got her as a gift from Christy, Chris and Caser...she loves her, but has not forgotten about Pinkie or Sadie... :)

Here are the girls...having a lovely time, I'm sure.

The past 2 nights all 3 of these dolls have been stuffed into the baby crib together...each individually swaddled, of course. So cute. :)

this is what happens...

2010-02-15T22:27:00.000-08:00

...when you let your kid have WAY too much sugar at her birthday party...I think even Case was overwhelmed by her! :)

My favorite part of the video? When she "turns up" the teeny boom-box on the floor. Priceless.

Hailey's Birthday Party

2010-02-14T22:06:00.000-08:00

We celebrated with a little party this afternoon and it was wonderful! Thanks to my sis for taking beautiful pictures, as always. :)

I had the best time decorating for this party. I would NEVER have made it look this cute by myself, though. Thanks Shannon!

I may not have made the paper products, but I did bake and frost the cupcakes myself. They were to die for.

I also dipped marshmallows, sugar cookies, and pretzel rods in pink chocolate. They were such fun to make and really yummy.

Here's the tower of hot pink cupcakes...we did regular and mini size.

The hot pink roses my husband got me for Valentine's Day coordinated perfectly with the decor! Thanks, Todd! :)

All in all a wonderful afternoon!

Hailey Bug, you are loved!!

Re-arranged...

2010-02-11T18:25:00.000-08:00

Here is Hailey's newly updated room. When it was time to move her downstairs in order to make room for Owen, we did so before her window had been installed. We kept meaning to do it, but the project was pretty labor intensive because of the cutting of concrete that had to take place. Well, the window is in, her trim is finished, and we've re-arranged. It finally feels done in there. :)

Nice work, Todd. And thanks for even taking the time to hang stuff on the walls, even though it's your least favorite thing. :)

more birthday celebration...

2010-02-11T07:58:00.000-08:00

"Another celebratory dinner for Hailey??", you ask? Nope! This one is

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Like my table scape? (Sandra Lee always calls it a table scape.)
Here is my very creative centerpiece made of candy. Anything made of candy is a good idea, in my opinion...

Here's the table, all set for our lasagne dinner. (home made, of course)

And for dessert?? Rocky Road and brownie ice cream cake. Delish! It was a fun night had by all celebrating Grandma Patty's birthday!

purple ballerina

2010-02-07T22:19:00.000-08:00

Here's our purple ballerina. She's beautiful, isn't she?? :)

Here she is "princessing" her Auntie Sheeshe. Let me explain...if she touches you with her wand and says "I princess you", then you've been "princessed". If you are a boy, you will be "princed" instead.Here she is "princessing" again.

I chose to use this picture because she has the classic "little girl undies peeking out the side" of her leotard. :)

This is one happy girl. :)

3...continued...

2010-02-06T21:53:00.000-08:00

This is my 3rd post tonight, and although it's fitting I'm just too lazy to add commentary to this one. ;)

Happy Birthday, Hailey Bug!

You are loved!