The Riggle Family

Merry Christmas - Letter 2011

2011-12-20T00:01:00.000-08:00

Well, I cannot believe another year has passed. The older I get the faster they go. It amazes me every single year. We seemed to have another eventful year for 2011. Lots of fun stuff to share with you. We started the year with the decision to send Ethan back to school. We loved homeschooling and he was doing great with it, but emotionally he started going very down hill. He missed home so much and I just couldn't get him out of a funk. When my mom and sister visited last year it seemed to make him feel worse and not better. So finally one day when he was just so sad I decided it was time to send him back to school. He was very upset about it and really wanted to stay home but Derek and I decided going back to school would be the best for him. He took a trip to Washington and when my mom brought him back he started school. It took a couple of weeks for him to get into the groove of things and to make some friends but before long he was going to school happily every morning. His teacher was ready to send him to the gifted program within a couple of weeks, but we decided to wait until he could start at the beginning of the next year. Sending him back to school was a very hard decision for all of us but in the end it was definitely the best decision for him.

In March my sister, Alisha, came to visit us. We decided to head out to Myrtle Beach and had a blast. We ate great food, hung out at the aquarium and watched dolphins play in the waves at our hotel. It was a little chilly but a great time. We also found out that a possible marriage engagement might be on its way. That was exciting. The next week after she left we got the news that she had gotten engaged to Marlo. We had met him in October before and he is a very sweet guy and love Alisha very much. They decided on a shorter engagement and made plans to get married in August while me and the kids were already planning on coming out. So there was a lot to plan in a fairly short amount of time. Addie went back with Alisha to Washington and a couple of weeks later my mom returned to NC with Addie. I am so thankful that being so far away from home my family finds ways to visit. It means so much to us. While my mom was in town we talked wedding and let Ethan skip a day of school to go to the zoo. Plus my mom helped me rearrange my kitchen...which was amazing. Moms are always so good with that type of thing.

Soon after my mom left tragedy struck Fayetteville, NC along with several other areas of NC. We were hit with tornadoes. I had heard of tornadoes, of course, but had no idea what it was really like. They touched down about 5 miles from where we lived and the destruction was unreal. It really affected me emotionally as it did Derek. My church made huge efforts to help out, not only the church members who had been affected, but the community as a whole and it was so amazing to see all the humanitarian efforts and good deeds that people did. Watching people help strangers was just amazing. The day after the tornado hit we took the kids into the affected areas and joined other people from my church in handing out water and snacks to anyone who needed it. What amazed me most were people who had only half a house and were still feeling blessed and finding joy in what they had. It was amazing. It touched all of us. Of course after that, every time the wind would blow Addie thought a tornado was coming.

In May Derek's parents came down to visit us. It was right around Derek's mom's (Darlene) birthday so we had a fight night BBQ since she loves to watch boxing. It was great having them down and able to see where we lived. Within a few days of them leaving, Addie and I hopped into the car and headed to Michigan to see my dad. He was visiting his family (also my family of course) so I thought I would surprise all of them with a visit. It is always so great to get up there and I have loved being able to visit so frequently over the past couple of years. We had a great time hanging out with everyone and surprising them. Along the way I stopped in Flint, MI to visit our friend Emily. Her and her husband Jeremiah lived in the upstairs apartment of our duplex in Italy. We became very close with them and while we don't chat much in between every time we see each other it is as if no time has passed although our families keep growing. When I left Italy Emily had a 6 month old and Ethan was 2 months and now she has 5 amazing kids and we have our two. Unfortunately her husband was deployed so we didn't get to visit with him, but we filled him and Derek in with photos from our visit. Our trip to Michigan was definitely a great time.

In June Ethan finished the school year (with lots of A's) and Addie had her very first dance recital. If you have not yet seen it be sure to check out both of her dance videos on Facebook. They are the best. She barely knew the routine but she was following along the best she could and it was just great. Definitely adorable.

Washington was great. There was lots of visiting with friends and family, along with lots of wedding stuff. Most of the wedding stuff was already done but we had to do the fun stuff...bridal showers, bachelorette parties, etc. My mom and I also decided we needed some time to decompress so we headed out to Ocean Shores for a weekend.

The trip pretty ended soon after the wedding, which was awesome. It was a very sweet and personal wedding. It was officiated by one of Alisha's best friends and my family seemed to provide all of the entertainment. Addie refused to wear shoes so she was barefoot for the wedding. Then Ethan had a plan to do a ring magic trick and pull the ring out at the end of some scarves...but of course the ring got caught up in his jacket and so it didn't come out at the end of the scarf. The timing was perfect but caused some slight panic. And of course I wore an exploding dress that decided to fall apart moments before the wedding was to begin. Thank goodness for people wearing shawls. But aside from all of that the wedding was gorgeous and Alisha and Marlo were the cutest bride and groom.

Once we returned from Washington we had to get our butts in gear to get moved. We have become very spoiled with the military moving us and moving ourselves was not very much fun...but we managed thanks to lots of help from friends to include borrowing a trailer. We got moved just in time for Ethan to start school. The school situation couldn't have been any better. The school he goes to had just been reformatted and switched from being 5th and 6th grade to 3-5 grade. So every single student at the school was new to that school. Not just Ethan. His teacher is great and was a Department of Defense Teacher of the Year a few years back. Ethan is really liking her. He quickly got placed into the Gifted program which he is loving. Right now they are putting together Lego robots, which is right up his alley. Unfortunately they are having a hard time getting the robots programmed but Ethan is still loving. He is always so bummed anytime the class gets cancelled. He has always joined the History Club which meets one day a week after school where they learn about the history of North Carolina. He has really enjoyed that. He is definitely leaning towards a love for school which makes me so happy. I just hope it sticks. I have talked to him many times about how kids decide to hate school and he says that even though other kids say they hate school he really likes it. He just brought home a report card filled with A's and we are so proud of him.

A couple of weeks after he started school Addie started Pre-K. It took me awhile to warm up to her teacher but now I think she's great. We had a conference not long ago and she absolutely raved about Addie. Addie is one of the older kids in her classroom since her birthday is in November and I think it will definitely work in her favor. While Ethan is one of the smallest kids in his class, Addie is one of the bigger ones. At least for now. She has been working very hard at teaching herself how to read an write. We help her along but she just sees words all over the place. It has really started making me realize how hard the English language is to teach. So many strange rules. She's getting it though and loves to learn, as long as it isn't her mom who is teaching her. She is far too much like me sometimes.

After school started we had a few visitors. My mom came out again. She again helped me with some of those moving odd and ends and we made a fun trip up to Raleigh. The Natural Science museum was having an event called Bug Fest and so we thought we would check it out. It was thoroughly disgusting, but was also amazing. The kids loved it. They had all sorts of hands on booths outside the museum and then even more inside. The best part was that everything was free. The whole day was just amazing. The kids were good and we ended it with a trip to Trader Joe's (maybe not a big deal to most but when the nearest one is 90 minutes away...it is amazing) and The Melting Pot. The kids were even good at the Melting Pot. I was never concerned about them burning themselves or causing any issues. It was fabulous. While my mom was visiting, Derek's brother also visited. He had a fishing trip planned not far from Myrtle Beach and so he invited Derek to join him and some friends and they went off for a weekend fishing trip. Derek definitely enjoyed going off on a trip with his brother. It sounds like they had a blast. About 2 weeks later I also got to see my dad. He was on a business trip to Florida and got to make a stop in NC. I got Addie a bike while he was there and he got to help teach her how to ride. It was great...too short but great.

For Thanksgiving we got to head up to Cleveland to spend the holiday with Derek's family. Both of his brothers were able to come up for the long weekend also. Not very often do all three of the brothers get to be in the same place at the same time. It was really nice. Ethan and Addie got to spend a lot of time with their cousin Henry which was quite entertaining. Henry and Ethan live very different lives. Henry lives a very rustic life in Alaska which doesn't include things like cable TV...so him and Ethan battled it out a couple of times simply because they didn't understand how the other lived. I found it quite entertaining. They still had a blast together and definitely shared their love of Legos.

Addie has been continuing dance classes, although we switched to a different studio. She is really enjoying it. Ethan is still climbing, although next year he will possibly switching to a team environment. Unfortunately that means he might have to give up his boy scout troop and switch to another troop since both programs fall on Mondays. That is sad because the troop he is in, is really great. He is also continuing with piano lessons...although he's not always so great at practicing. I think the better he gets the more he likes practicing.

Derek is still the NCOIC of Nuc Med (he's in charge). He gets along pretty well there and the doctors like him there. Unfortunately the Army has made is very hard for him to get promoted which has been very frustrating. We just keep hoping to find an answer soon. He's taking classes to get his Bachelors degree but he still has a year or two of classes left. He keeps plugging away though so hopefully it will be done before we know it. He recently put on a Nuclear Medicine conference at Womack. They had amazing speakers that were pioneers in the field. I got to attend some of the lectures myself. For the first year it was amazing and they are already thinking of ways to improve it for next year.

I have been doing pretty well. I still do that scrapbooking thing and love it. I have also decided that it is time to get back to work. With both of the kids in school now it is time...plus I miss it. I have started volunteering at the hospital to get my skills back on track. But it is hard to motivate myself to go in when I don't have an actual job. Unfortunately there are no position available in the area. I may end up just continuing to volunteer and find a different job doing something random. We'll see what happens. I am also looking forward to leading a small group at my church. The group is for wives of soldiers and I really love the group. It should be a lot of fun and a great opportunity to learn and grow.

So, that has been our year. We get to finish it up here in Washington, which is amazing. There is nothing quite like spending Christmas at home. It is cold, wet and rainy...but it is home and that is amazing. I hope that all of you have an amazingly blessed Christmas and don't forget the reason for the season. As I do every year, I encourage all of you to pray for our deployed soldiers. We generally always know someone who is deployed and so it is always on our hearts. They can use all the prayer they can get, especially those not spending the holidays with their loved ones.

Merry Christmas to all of you!!

Love,
The Riggle Family

Dave Ramsey Info finally here...

2010-11-15T09:24:00.000-08:00

Alrighty, I promised information about Dave Ramsey long ago and here it finally is. A little about Dave Ramsey and why I would want to post about him on my blog. I am by no means perfect with my money and have made many mistakes and Derek and I have had MANY MANY fights about money over the years and have never been on the same page. I suggested to Derek that we do the 13 week Dave Ramsey money management program. He did not want to do it. Really he wanted nothing to do with it. then one day we needed money, not that much, for something for Ethan and we couldn't come up with it. We didn't have any savings for anything, no cash anywhere and were overdrawn completely on our overdraft protection. It was pretty ridiculous. So finally he agreed that we had to do something so we got signed up for the program. Now to do the 13 week program is not free. It is a little investment. They have the belief that if you invest in your future you put more into it. I tend to agree. So we paid our money and started the program online...we are not self starters so the online program was not our best bet and we ended up doing the program in the classroom later also but either way the program is the same series and is phenomenal. It is a Christian based program but is in no way churchy. If you are not Christian or do not go to church do not let that deter you from the program if you want to get out of debt. The program works. the premise of the program is to get out of debt and to control your money instead of letting your money control you. There are 7 baby steps that are to be done in order. The biggest step is to have a baby emergency fund so that you can cut up those credit cards and not worry about that "what if." That is generally most people's first wrong answer. Everyone keeps that one credit card in the back of their wallet for the what if but if you don't save money for the what if's everything becomes a "what if." So, i will provide some websites for a few things so that you can look into this program for yourself and see if it is something you need to think about over the holidays or ask for for Christmas. Or get signed up for in January or get a book or whatever you might need.

First off the steps:

Step 1: $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund
Step 2: Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball
Step 3: 3 to 6 months of expenses on savings
Step 4: Invest 15% of income into retirement
Step 5: College funding for children
Step 6: Pay off home early
Step 7: Build wealth and give

These steps are very important and cannot be done out of order. You cannot save for your children's college education if you are still paying off credit cards or your own education for that matter. So the steps are very important and are to be done one at a time and in order.

Next the program. First of all you need to see what he is all about so watch his FREE PREVIEW don't take my word for it by any means. You can do it on your own by reading his books. The best, easiest to read and get ahold of book is "Total Money Makeover." You can find this book at Target, Walmart, Amazon or any other book retailer. you can also find it cheapest at his website: Total Money Makeover

Next bit of info is the classes. the class is called Financial Peace University. You can buy the kit HERE but they sell it for a discounted price in the classes. To find a local class near you check out this SITE. If you think you might be interested in the class online check it out HERE.

Now if you don't think Dave Ramsey is so great please don't take my word for it. Dave Ramsey will tell you his ideas are not new. He made a lot of mistakes before he got it right but when he decided to get it right he decided he was going to get it really right and then once he did he decided to share what he did with the rest of the world. He took the ideas of our grandparents and business men of times past and put them together and came up with a plan that works. There is a little bit of wiggle room in his plan but some things are not changeable...such as accruing new debt with things like credit cards or purchasing new cars that leave you with a car payment. I sold my car. It was huge decision but I sold my brand new car. Since Derek and started this we have for the first time been on the same page as far as money goes. Before this we had very different ideas of how our money should be spent and we fought often. We started this about 1.5 years ago and I can probably count on one hand how many fights about money we have had since then. Life is much better. When we have an issue with money we can talk about it and figure it out together. It is amazing. Here are some amazing success stories about people getting out of debt: We are debt free!!!

Good luck and remember you have to Live like no one else so that later you can Live like no one else!!

Dave Ramsey to come...

2010-10-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

So, I've had a lot of people ask me about Dave ramsey...so I am going to post this weekend about it with links and even a fun little excel spreadsheet that has helped us with budgeting. She keep your eyes open and watch for it.

Our New Life

2010-08-05T22:07:00.000-07:00

So, right now I should be sleeping but I can't. Tomorrow is a big day. Enough of the traveling from place to place and finally we head to the place that will be our new home. We are planning on taking two days to get there, not because it will take us that long toget there but because we will be pulling a trailer behind us that may be a bit heavier than we should probably be carrying behind us, so we'll be going a bit slow...probably about 50 the whole way. So a 9 hour trip will probably take at least 12 if not more with all the stops that 2 kids and a husband with a pea sized bladder need to take.

So, life is about to get interesting. Housing is a little bit touchy. We decided that we were going to live on post because the housing lists weren't too bad and we could get more for our money that way, the only problem being that there would be a little bit of a gap between getting there and actually having a house. Looks like that gap may be a little longer than we hoped but hopefully not too long so until then we will be living in a camper trailer until then. Glamorous life, I know. But it will sure beat moving twice. So, like I said, I am quite anxious tonight and unable to sleep. Go figure.

Tomorrow we won't be heading out bright and early but instead will be headed out at about noon after we get some new tires on the camper and then we head out for this place called North Carolina. Wish us luck, pray for us, or whatever you do, because we'll need it. I know I'll be doing a lot of praying. Thankfully our kids are young and will love it all and think it is a grand adventure. Tonight Addie was beside herself and wanted to leave tonight. She is ready to go. I'm just ready to get settled. I don't know what N. Carolina will bring us, I know I wanted change and change is what we are getting so I am ready to head on this path to see what it brings and do my best to have open arms...although often times I wonder "What was I thinking?" But I know that with the support of my kids and husband with me and the support of my family from far away everything will be fine and God has led me to where we are supposed to be and is challenging us in so many ways and so many good things can come from this...I just wish it weren't the hottest part of the hottest season to be doing it in, of course. Thankfully we have AC!!

So, this ends my middle of the night ramblings and hopefully I can get some sleep. Goodnight!!

Hanging with the Genzel kidlets

2010-07-13T14:35:00.001-07:00

Hanging with the Genzel kidlets, originally uploaded by clara.riggle.

This is our last sitting around time with the genzel's and Ethan in true over-done fashion had to dress up in a 3 year old Pooh outfit and looked like a Winnie the Pooh that hadn't eaten in 4 winters. And here is Gabriel with his new birthday present Nerf gun from Ethan. Just had to make sure Aleta didn't miss us too much.

My Mama's girls...Alisha, Clara and a pseudo-daughter Katie

2010-07-12T10:48:00.001-07:00

My Mama's girls...Alisha, Clara and a pseudo-daughter Katie, originally uploaded by clara.riggle.

If ever we were to have had another sister Katie would have been it. I'm the uptight, bossy, mama type. Alisha is the business minded, focused on her future all the time type and Katie is the Silly, Push the rules a little only because it would kinda be fun, you know it would be, but don't push them too much, let's go on an adventure type. Makes for a nice rounded 3-girl set. Don't mess with us cuz we'll kick your butt and if you give us a little time we can plan you the perfect tattoo I'm sure. :)

Katie and my Mama

2010-07-12T10:41:00.001-07:00

Katie and my Mama, originally uploaded by clara.riggle.

These two may no longer work at Surface Art together but they still love and adore each other and my mom has always treated her in a daughterish way. So much so that when she gets frustrated with her She yell Kathryn Marie...(her middle name is actually Elizabeth, but my mom throws in my middle name for emphasis). Hopefully miss Katie will visit my Mama often and be super silly so that on those days she misses me lots Katie will make her laugh and not feel so sad.

Addie Loves her Uncle Jack

2010-07-12T10:38:00.001-07:00

Addie Loves her Uncle Jack, originally uploaded by clara.riggle.

Oh yes she does, as does Ethan, along with so many other people they are going to miss. It still hasn't really hit me that we are leaving and that we will not me just a few minutes away from everyone. My parents moving closer to us for our last few months here has been truly amazing and I am so blessed on the timing of that. I am so thankful that we have so many people to love and to love us back.

Addie & Rick Arguing about Pedals

2010-07-12T10:35:00.001-07:00

Addie & Rick Arguing about Pedals, originally uploaded by clara.riggle.

I'm trying to figure out how to blog from Flickr...unfortunately, I think I can only blog one pic at a time. Very sad. This is a picture of Addie and Rick where I told Addie to run over his toes because he was making fun of me and Derek because she has a really cool bike that has no pedals so she can learn balance. We think it is cool but Rick thinks it is lame. Well Rick... :P

Pickles & Ice Cream Blog Hop

2010-06-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Pickles & Ice Cream Blog hop. You have arrived at my page where you can get yourself a frame cluster I created for all of you. I hope you guys like it because I had a great time making it. Daybreak Scraps and Girl Boy Girl Designs made an awesome pregnancy kit and it was amazingly easy to play with. So, click on the images to get linked up to the kit and to get your free download.

Pickles & Ice Cream Collab
by Daybreak Scraps and Girl Boy Girl Designs

This layout was fun to make. I also used Emily Powers' Expecting template...because, well.. how could I not??

Here is your freebie. I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to leave a comment if you love it!!

There are many stops on this blog hop so check out some of the other girls on the team and see what they created for you. Thanks for stopping by.

Dawn - Daybreak Scraps (sign up for her newsletter while you are there)
Jenn - Girl Boy Girl Designs
NancyC
Rebecca
Andrea
Deanna
Gail
Anna
Jewel
Karen
Monica

Times they are a changin'

2010-03-31T12:20:00.000-07:00

Well, we got some big news last week. The news we have been waitinf for but hoping not to get. I guess that is only half trus. I have been hoping for some type of change for awhile this just wasn't quite the way it played out in my head, but I guess it will do. So, last Wednesday I got a call from Derek with the news that we had orders to Ft. Bragg, NC. No offense to anybody from N. Carolina but that is not where we had hoped to live. My first thoughts were of panic and desperation, but I quickly started getting used to the idea and checked out some maps. Here's a map of where it is located on the East Coast. I checked on mapquest and found that it is a 10 hour drive from Cleveland, so we will be able to visit Derek's family much more often. It is 9 hours from Orlando, so we can plan on at least 1 family vacation down there. And if a friend of mine's daughter goes to Florida, like she's considering, for college she'd be pretty darn close to people she knows if she ever misses home and a quick fix will do. We will be 2-3 hours from the beach and are already considering joining a friend of mine on their already planned vacation to Myrtle Beach. I know a lot of people who have been there, are already there, or are going there so we have a wealth of information about the area. that makes me feel much better. So here are a couple of maps:So, on this map you can see where Ft. Bragg is in N. Carolina. If you look South of Raleigh you'll see fayetteville. Ft. Bragg is the brown area next to it. We've been told to live on the west side of the base. We've been thinking about sending Derek off ahead of time to scope things out. We'll see how that works out. Right now we are still waiting for some of the shock to wear off. the shock has affected him more than it has me.
My family has been awesome. They have all vowed to visit often even if we were to find nothing to do there. Ethan is not very happy about leaving his friends but we've been talking about it and me and him have voted that we should live in an apartment so that we can have a pool. I thought that was a pretty groovy idea myself. We'll see what we can find. I think right now the most stressful thing is finding someone to rent our house and make sure that we will be okay financially. there is a lower cost of living there which also mean a lower rate of pay. Fortunately I can file for unemployment. That will be a huge help for us.

Another issue we have had is figuring out what to do as far as schools go. I have not yet heard anything great about schools and have been seriously considering homeschooling. This will be a HUGE change for us, but one I think we can handle as long as we can figure out everything else. So, our report date is July 11. Not far off. I have so many emotions about this I never know which one to feel. So, I've been trying to stay positive and find the good aspects of moving. It has been hard since I hear about Ethan being sad and Derek has been fighting it so hard. It has put me in the position to be our family uplifter. My family has been amazing. They are not even a little bit thrilled but they have been amazingly supportive through all of this, especially Alisha. The poor girl found out when she was all doped up on pain killers the day after major foot surgery. Not a good combination. But she's been awesome.

So, if any of you have any great info about Ft. Bragg, please share it with us. I would appreciate it. Oh, and for my family who noticed that the date will throw some plans off...don't worry. We are going to do everything we cann to make the family reunion still. In my head it is still working out. Ih ope it stays that way.

Here are some pics of the kids that are kinda fun. Love you all!!

Addie had this ball and somehow it broke. But between the two of them and Uncle Jack they came up with a new use for it!!

Addie is watching a UFC fight. I couldn't get over how into it she was. She couldn't take her eyes off the TV!!

Here are the kids making some mashed potatoes and in picture 2 you just know Ethan has to cheese it up!!

Thanks for looking guys!!

Happy Monday - baby butt pic warning!!! :)

2010-03-22T17:17:00.000-07:00

So, today was a good day. I woke up, even though I didn't get a lot of sleep, due to a big fat nap yesterday, and it was sunny out and I was just happy. I got a new computer at work and a giant monitor. That is awesome. I'm loving that. The scrapbook site I spend a lot of time at is having a birthday party this week, which means lots of free stuff and lots of sales. Yay!! That rocks. Then to top it off I have the greatest pics ever for posting on the blog today. I am going to do my bestest to blog at least on Mondays. So if I don't harass me about it.

This is going to be a short week. Ethan has conferences this week so he only has school for 3 days so my sister scheduled her foot surgery for Tuesday so that I could possibly help out if I could while she is not moving around real well. turns out I could, so Ethan and I will be headed up to her house on Wednesday night and he'll be hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa and I'll be chilling with my sissy poo getting her pain meds and food for a couple of days, and I'm sure watching lots and lots of chick flicks. Good times!! I love it!!

Well, I won't put off the greatest pics ever. Addie has taken to traveling down the hall on the bouncy ball with the handle lately upstairs. Well, last night she was traveling from our room to her room to get ready for bed and for whatever reason she had no clothes on so she was bouncing naked. You can't beat that. So, I had to photograph her little butt bouncing down the hall. Oh, and get this...I have an amazing child. I went into her room earlier that day and she randomly decided she should clean her room. No real reason and nobody told her too. She just decided it should be cleaned. Along with the bathroom. Wow!! Amazing child. So, here are the pics...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

2010-03-17T16:45:00.000-07:00

So, I have no exciting pics to share with you this week. I thought I would. Ethan was so excited this weekend to go and help his school plant a garden, but when Derek took out the camera there was no SD card. Now I do think there is a card in the bag, but I haven't looked and so there are no pictures nonetheless.

But I do have something for you that I think is pretty good. I have a story that Ethan wrote at school. When Derek saw the title he got very upset with Ethan and said it was very inappropriate but after reading the story changed his mind. It is actually very cute and funny. Ethan's assignment was to write a funny story. Ethan's teacher wrote this about his story "What a silly story! It is full of great voice, personality + fun words." I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. I am copying everything just as he wrote it without any corrections, except maybe some capital letters.

How My Sister Peed Her Pants
by Ethan Riggle 2/18/2010

Ssssssss! That is the sound of my sister peeing her pants. One day me and my sister were haveing a tickle fight and I got to start tickling her. Then I won and seriously I won like a race car champion and she lost like a really bad singer and I yelled Addie peed her pants like a valcano eruppted but my friend Tristan was over there so it was worse because Tristan saw it. That is how my sister peed her itty bitty underware.

The End

Also, I have some pictures up of our cruise. If you would like to see the pictures i have some links on Facebook. You don't need facebook to see these pics supposedly, so check these links out.

Hanging Out on the Ship
Jamaica
Grand Cayman
Miami
Ethan's Trip to the Mayan Ruins
Cozumel

Let me know if they don't work.

Valentine's Day Events

2010-02-15T15:02:00.000-08:00

So, as promised, here is my Monday blogpost. I will be trying very hard to post something every Monday from now on. Hold me to it. If you don't see something from me on Monday send me e-mails saying...where's our blogpost????

So, we had some fun Valentine's Dayheppenings around my house. I am not a Hallmark Valentine's Day type. I am also not a couple's Valentine's Day type. I hate that it is supposed to be a day to do to an over booked restaurant, get overpriced flowers and go to an overcrowded movie theater. Just not my thing. So, since I had kids I decided to start focusing Valentine's Day on them and making it a family event. Now to go with the whole non-Hallmark holiday, you'll never believe this, but I don't buy Valentine's cards either. Big shocker, right? LOL!! So, last year we made little treat bags and so when Ethan asked if we were making treat bags again I got online to see what we were going to do. I can't remember who, but somebody posted a website for these awesome little "Treat Transmitters" aka robot valentines online. As soon as I saw them I knew they were the thing this year. When I got home I showed them to Ethan and he agreed that they were the thing to do this year. So, I bought everything and got all the prep work done so that the night before we could get them all put together so that Ethan could take them to school for his Valentine party. It went flawlessly. Addie even got to help and we had an assembly line set up at our table to put them together and Derek and I weren't even up all night long putting them together. We got to bed on time that night and even watched some TV before bed. It was awesome. I did got to bed with dried glue all over my fingers, but that's the price you pay to send your kid to school with robot Valentine's I guess. They came out really cute though and I got a call from one Ethan's classmate's parents a couple of days later that Ethan's robots were the hit of the party and Ethan said he got at least 15 comments about them. he was pretty excited about it. So here are the pictures of us making them and our Robot Army in the kitchen.To make them we used Cardstock for the bodies, sticks of gum for the arms, life savers for the eyes and starbursts for the feet. The Ethan wrote Happy Valentine's Day! From: Ethan, on the back while I wrote things like Hug Me, U-R-A-*, B-MINE, etc on the fronts.

Our Robot Army

So, like I said on Valentine's Day I like to do something with my family, not just do something with Derek. So this year with Valentine's Day being on Sunday, I thought that sounded like a great day for a brunch. So, after sending out an initial text message invitation to a list of people that Ethan gave me, we started planning. It was awesome. The food was great, the company was awesome. My sister came the day before to help me get everything set up (and do a little cruise shopping). We stayed up waaaaaaaaay to late and came up with some really bad ideas like fake gangster tattoos. We failed miserably at looking gangster and really just look lame, but I thought I'd share the pics with you anyway...don't judge us...it was very late at night. We were a bit delirius.The next morning Alisha did put this gorgeous unhealthy looking cake together. Don't let her fool you. She has some tricks to make it much less fattening. Isn't it yummy looking??

Alisha decided that everybody must have a tattoo and put herself in charge and so Jack decided for a day he could have his very own tramp stamp. Isn't it cute?? Can you believe we got proof? Niki is the best sport when it comes to playing with Addie. More than anybody she gets down on her hands and knees to play with Addie. Not that nobody else plays with Addie, but I've never seen this before. Addie has an imaginary baby she plays with and likes to pretend that she's the mommy and she is taking care of her baby. Well, here instead Niki got to be the baby and when Addie turned around Niki got up and hid. So Addie decided Niki was in big trouble and put her in time out and was scolding her about staying in bed when it was her bedtime. Then Addie told her that she still loved her and she could get out of the corner. Oh dear!! What have we gotten ourselves into with this little girl?? Jack on the other hand thought it was a good idea to stay put and not move with the other babies in bed. So, that was our Valentine's Day. Thank you everyone who celebrated Valentine's Day with us and took time out of your day to hang out with us. I know there were 4-5 of you who I said would get an invitation to in the mail and they didn't come...well, I thought I sent them last week, but I came in to work today and guess what...they are still sitting my desk. Oooops!! I did have them for you. They are addressed and ready to go. :) Let me know if you still want them. Ethan decorated them and has a little hand written poem in them that he came up with himself. I was going to mail all of them but ended up seeing some a large portion of the people who came at our "cruise dinner" or just didn't think to give you your invitation because we see you everyday.

Well, I hope everyone has a fantastic President's Day. I had to work today, but Derek has it off and is spending the day with Addie and Ethan has it off along with Tuesday and is spending it with his grandparents in Snohomish. Enjoy your week. Ciao!!

apologies

2010-02-12T10:00:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know!! My poor blog has been highly neglected. So, I need to fix that. So I am going to start changing that and post every Monday with a weekly post of what has gone for the past week. Great way to start the week, right? So that is my newest plan. Hold me to it. If I fail to post kick me in the rear and let me know I have failed miserably. I will also try and load pics. I have been a horrible picture taker. I have a beautiful camera with no pictures on it. I am going on a vacation in 14 days so I'll have lots of picture to upload from that very soon. Yay!! Okay, see you all Monday!!

Happy Halloween

2009-11-02T22:52:00.001-08:00

So, for halloween Addie was dead set on being a rock star and Ethan wanted to something scary, so he chose an alien. I had some ideas for Addie's costume running through my head but nothing major. Nothing in her costume except the hair color had to be bought in the Halloween section so I wasn't in a hurry...until I got sick last week. I didn't leave my house until Saturday morning, although I had planned to go last week during lunch. So Saturday morning Addie and I headed off to Target to come up with an outfit for her "Rockstar" costume. Ethan had his several weeks in advance, so that was easy and he had a mask and everything. easy breazy. I was sick as a dog and was counting down the minutes to make a doctors appt. I didn't really think I needed one but my mom was worried and I knew some better cough syrup with a little codeine to calm my cough so I could get some sleep wouldn't hurt. So we went to Target got a mish mash of stuff then headed off to the doctor. The doctor told me I wasn't allowed to go trick'o'treating. Whah!! I love taking the kids out. I was pretty bummed. So we went home and took a nap, well I took a nap while Derek chased Addie around the house not taking a nap. When I woke up I got Addie ready with the help of my friend Paige, my parents and Derek. Ethan's costume was pretty simple although needed a little bit of work to sit the way it was supposed to. After the little bit of work i had to do I thought my head was going to start spinning so I threw the kids out along with Derek and they went to a friends house up north about 10 miles for a kid Halloween party and some t'o't-ing and I had a quiet house. You would think it would be restful but feeling as crappy as I did and missing the kids get to be so cute and fun it wasn't as restful as i'd have liked. Plus I was hungry and having had been sick for the past several days all the easy food was gone so i had to actually think about what food to eat. Lame. I am ready to be healthy. But it sounds like the kids had a great time...although the candy givers were a little chincey with their reese's this year...not that I would know...it's not like I went and got candy or anything. LOL. Here's the pics of the kids getting ready and in their costumes.

Paige was a super duper rockstar hair stylist. 2 gold stars for sure!!

Gotta have the rock star crimping going on!!

She's got diva primping under control

Ethan is putting the Earth under his spell

Let's roll and be as difficult as possible for mommy to get pics of us

Ready to rock and roll

She's got down that diva pout, dang it...I had hoped she would miss that part

Addie had to do some practicing to get those little fingers to move right

Addie LOVED her rockin costume

Rock on dudes from outerspace!!

Rock on Nanoo

The silly rocker aliens

Addie has got her bag and is almost ready to go...now she just needs to find some shoes.

Ethan and Gabriel getting ready to do some trick'o'treatin'

Ethan is leading the way

Apparently addie needed some makeup. I wasn't there so I am guessing sunglasses.

Not sure why...but this picture just freaks me out. A little too rocker gone, I don't know what...just not right.

As long as she can still rock I guess we're doing okay.

The Pumpkin Patch

2009-11-02T21:35:00.000-08:00

Every year I try and plan a trip to th epumpkin patch. Some years we go to a pumpkin patch by my parents house and other years we go by our house. There is a nice pumpkin patch about 5 minutes from our house. this year we thought we would try someplace different and went about 20 minutes from home to a place I had heard about the maze a little further south. Alisha decided to join us on our adventures and showed up in the middle of the night the night before. A fun little last minute addition to our plans. We got down Rutledge Farms and no one was there. It was awesome. It was the weekend before Halloween so we expected it to be packed. I always have to come up with a million reasons why we can't go until the last minute so that Derek doesn't carve the pumpkins to early. Otherwise we end up with moldy Jack-o-Lanterns.

The maze was awesome. The ground was packed down perfectly. No big mud holes or pits in the ground. The maze was pretty easy to follow and although Addie started on Derek's shoulders she quickly joined in and was running through the maze with everyone else. We had a blast.

After the maze we had to catch a ride on a horse drawn hay ride to the pumpkin patch. Now the pumpkin patch was definately lacking as was the entire rest of the field aside from the maze, but we were still able to find some good pumpkins and Addie thought the chickens were cook even if they had no feathers on their butts. They were mean chickens that seemed to pick on each other and pull out each others feathers. So although we will never go back to that pumpkin patch again, we had a great time and while complaining about what it lacked got some ideas of some new ones to check out next year. So here are the pics...

Getting started

Here began Ethan's obsession with the corn

Alisha posing on the bridge

A family pic on the bridge

These 3 were hiding in the corn waiting to jump out and scare us. Don't tell them...but we knew we were there.

Always looking adorable

Ethan captured his sis

Punching out a marker at a checkpoint in the maze.

Ethan talking to Addie while walking through the maze

The boys on the bridge

All the corn

Addie hanging out on a bridge looking at all the corn

Ethan was obsessed with the corn through the entire maze. What is it with kids and caring about the least important thing in an event.

No Ethan...Mommy takes the pictures and you stand and look cute!!

Ethan is always so sweet to his sister (well, almost always)

Being silly waiting to head over to the pumpkin patch

A family pic while we are waiting for the hay ride to the pumpkin patch

We had to take a hayride to the pumpkin patch from the maze area

Derek and Ethan are working together to find the coolest pumpkins

Ethan is on a mission to find the best pumpkin EVER!!!

This one looks waaay toooooo big!!

It looks like it could be a nice pumpkin

Uh oh...it might be too heavy

Addie's last test to see if she could lift it up

Addie made her decision

Ethan was checking out all sorts of pumpkins but this was the one he was pretty sure was the one

Ethan's final pumpkin choice

Ethan decided to hitch a ride to weigh in the pumpkins

Miley Cyrus 9/16/2009

2009-09-22T16:54:00.001-07:00

So, I'm a little slow. I should have done this last week, but I'm lame like that. I have the pictures from Ethan's trip to see Miley Cyrus. For those of you that don't know...Miley Cyrus is the star of a show called Hannah Montana where she plays a girl who has an alter ego as a famous girl so that she can have a normal teenage life. It is a cute show and Ethan will watch it for hours. Well, being the daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus, she also sings and is not half bad. Some people think she sucks but we like her. So for his birthday his auntie and my parents got him two tickets so that him and Alisha could go see the concert. To make sure he really wanted to go I had asked him before she got the tickets that she would be in town and did he want to buy a ticket to see her. After hearing how much it was he thought about it for a minute and said he would buy his ticket but me and daddy had to buy our own. And later when trying to decide if he wanted to buy something he was doing all the math in his head to make sure he'd have enough money for his ticket. So he was totally pumped for the concert.

Alisha picked him up and took him to dinner at the Spaghetti Factory in Tacoma. they got to sit in the Trolley Ethan and Alisha made a sign for him to take to the concert. He was pretty sure it was the coolest thing EVER!!!

Hanging out in front of the T-Dome

The concert was full of kids Ethan's age. Alisha said she was amazed at how glamoured up some of these little girls were. One little girl, Ethan's age, even checked my little boy out. He's 7 and already has it!!

Not sure what this pic is all about, but it made me laugh

He's always acting crazy

He's got his sign (along with a zillion other kids) and he's hoping Miley sees it

Here's Miley

Another pic of the two

Checking out the book he bought

He decided to take $30 to the concert and bought himself a poster and a book

At the last minute we found out that our friend's kiddo and Ethan's friend was going to be there too. They got AWESOME seats in the 11th row. Miley rode a motorcycle over top of them. It was all awesome and Ethan had an amazing time. (Although there was no crying because he "was just so happy!")

Derek's BIG fish

2009-09-14T21:15:00.001-07:00

We moved into our house in May of 2006 and since then Derek has had our neighbor as a fishing buddy. They go throughout the year and often spend several days and hours on the river and have come home with almost no fish. Since 2006 I think Derek has brought home 2 fish. So then this year everything changed. Derek went out to Neah Bay and came back with lots of fish, then he switched rivers to the Puyallup and Cowlitz from the stupid fishless Nisqually. Well, it has fish but the Indians get all the fish in the nets. Today he got these crazy salmon. For those of you like me who don't know salmon this is a King (the big one) and a silver (the smaller big one). I think salmon are the ugliest fish but they are so freaking yummy. Mmmmmmmm!!! Smoked or BBQ's with butter, or slathered with teriyaki or with a creamy dill sauce. Then the smoked stuff is awesome with cream cheese on bagels or crackers or even a sandwich. Our freezer is nice and full of fish now. Ethan has even done some catching. It is too cool.

I think the King is going to eat the silver. Hahaha!!

DMB 2009

2009-09-08T14:58:00.000-07:00

So, this was year 5 at Dave Matthews. It was awesome as always. The music was amazing. We saw G-Love and the special Sauce and unfortunately missed Yonder Mountain. Dave Matthews was phenomenal as always. He played a lot of new stuff which was great to get to hear it live for the first time. All of his older music you can find Live versions of but not his new stuff yet. He also played with Tim Reynolds, who is a good friend of his and an amazing guitar player. I had never had a chance to hear them play together and it was phenomenal.

We also decided to stay at a different campsite. It was much more expensive but it was a smaller area and the people were much different. I am seriously considering trying out premier camping next year instead. It was an awesome group of us this year and we had a blast. Before everyone else got there we headed off to play at Moses Lake. That was a lot of fun. So, here are some pics...
I love this pic. It is my new profile pic for most of my websites now.

Moses Lake
Ethan acting like an old man
At the campsite
Alisha hanging out at the site
Here we were playing with some neighboring campers...it was a game of hackey-volley-soccer-kick ball. It was quite entertaining
Ethan heading after the ball
A lot of people brought pools. The kids thought that was so cool.
Walking around the site.
The kids always love hanging out in the hammock
She's one cool cat!!
More playing in the hammock
Hanging at our friend's campsite
I told them to act like they like each other.
Catching some Zzzzzz's before the show
It started raining a couple of hours before the show on Saturday and Sunday. So we got all ready for the rain
The gorge is especially gorgeous after the rain
The kids wanted to take their pic from under the bear. I have no idea!
Then from on it, but it freaked Addie out a bit
This little girl loved the concert
And i loved it
The stage, with the Columbia River running behind it

Tolmie State Park

2009-09-08T00:49:00.001-07:00

I know the idea of a beach in Washington seems a little strange. In all honesty, it is strange. I love all the water here, even the rain, but the beaches here are a little weird. Last weekend was my neighbor's birthday and she wanted to go down to the beach a few miles from home with her grandkids. So me and Addie joined her. Ethan was at my parents' house and didn't get to come. so I grabbed my camera and went a little crazy. It was kinda cold, but a beautiful day.

This look on her face just cracks me up.

She was real quick to hike up her pants, kick off her shoes and get wet.

I'm not sure there is much to say about a lot of these pics. I think my girl is just gorgeous and in a gorgeous setting.

You are never too young to learn about showing crack. I did get her to learn how to try and pull up her pants when they start hanging down.

More sweetness

Hanging out with the neighbor kids. They are all within a few months of each other, with Addie being the youngest.

They found a jelly fish

Addie thought it was yucky and wouldn't touch it

Then Caden touched it

So she checks it out real close

and not wanting to be out done by a boy...

she reaches down and gives it a good poke

but she still thinks it is icky!!

Posing in the water for her mama. She is such a ham!!

Happy 7th Birthday Ethan B!

2009-09-01T22:25:00.001-07:00

Ethan's birthday was last Friday and we had quite the day. I was able to take the day off to spend with him and we had a plan. We started with biscuits and gravy while watching the Hannah Montana movie. In case you don't already know Ethan is a huge Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus fan. It is pretty cute. After that we picked up his friend Cristian and we headed off to watch G-Force, a silly movie about guinea pigs that are special agents. It was pretty cute. After the movie we headed off to get Derek and Addie and head up to Seattle for his surprise birthday festivities. We started with the Spaghetti Factory with the family. We ate good food, had cake and ice cream and of course presents. He got Legos, which are always a hit, a couple of tickets to see Miley Cyrus in concert at the Tacoma Dome and our gift which told him where we were going after dinner. He opened the bag to find a Mariners jacket and hat. He loves the Mariners (not the Indians!!!!!!!) And then we headed off to the game. He had a great time and then went home with his grandparents. I think it was a pretty good birthday. Here's some pics...

Ethan is always being silly and recently has decided he cannot give me a good picture.

Here Grandpa is giving him a hard time for not letting me get a good picture.

Everybody loves spaghetti

Addie kept stealing drinks of Ethan's Italian soda

Auntie picked out this cake for Ethan. It was pretty cool and very yummy

Blowing out the candles...not quite one breath but he sure tried.

Ethan thought this was hilarious...well, it was pretty funny

More silly pics

Ethan loved getting Mariner's gear.

Batting practice with his new Mariner's gear.

More pics of Ethan being difficult to take pics of. Grrr!!

Ethan and Riley

Aren't we cool parents? Of course as it was coming up some lady decided that was the time she had to get up and move. Stupid lady!! Ethan saw it, so it was all good.

I just love this picture of Addie with Justin

If you are a kid you can't beat a box of candy for each year.

This girl loves stickers, especially My Little Pony ones from her Aunt Stacy

Addie loves Miss Niki (soon to be Aunt Niki)

Addie loves to honk Daddy's nose

Uncle Jack got stuck holding all of the beer

Jeff and Michelle are always silly

Hot summer days

2009-08-17T00:34:00.000-07:00

No commentary on this one. It was hot...there was water...they were cute

Joe's House

2009-08-17T00:18:00.001-07:00

A few weekends ago I got a call from Stacy saying that she was going to be at her dad's house and that she thought she should head out to my house after she left there. When she mentioned it to Joe he had a better idea and thought we should head out to his house and play out there. he has a ton of property and lots of animals so I agreed to head out there with Addie Pat. We had a great time hanging out at the house and playing on the property.

Stacy had a clue how to drive the quads so she got to drive Addie around while I struggled behind
Addie loved to look at the animals but didn't like to touch them

We tried to feed the ducks but they didn't know anything at all about bread and wouldn't come to us
These horses were so nice and came right up to us
And liked to love on Stacy
and give her kisses I finally got the hang of the quad and gave Addie a ride

Addie had a blast playing with Jada's stuff
This is such an amazing view from their house

Addie's weekend away

2009-08-12T21:40:00.000-07:00

Ethan went to Cleveland for almost two weeks so my family decided that they should take Addie too so that we had a kidless house for a few days. Derek ended up going fishing so it was just me for the whole weekend. I don't have pics from Ethan's trip yet, but Alisha sent me hundreds of pics from her time with Addie. They had one heck of a weekend.

I'm not sure what she was pouting about but she is so good at it.

This girl can definately eat some corn. I think Alisha said she ate 3 of these.

You would think a social worker would know that you can't keep kids in the fridge. LOL!! Okay Addie thought it was funny to pretend hide in the fridge. she does this at my house too. Good thing she can't fit or this could be a bit dangerous.

Addie brings out the crazy side of Dan.

Addie loves to shoosh people.

Addie is a bubble blowing fool.

Alisha has been so excited to take Addie swimming for months.

I think it is a little bit chilly

I love this picture

More fun pool pics

Alisha wore her butt out!!

Chuck E. Cheese
Addie has been talking about going here for a few days now so I talked Alisha into taking her so that I didn't have to.

She used up all of her tokens to play on everything

Chuck E. scraed Addie so she hid behind her Auntie who would hopefully keep her safe

She really seemed to enjoy hanging out with Bob

and she is definately pals with Barney

Not quite sure where this was taken...but what an awesome pic

Grandma thought Addie needed some new shades

Chattin' it up with her brother

The kangaroo farm always looks better from above

Auntie and Addie

She loved the animals as long as she didn't have to touch them

Grandpa was willing to feed a llama from his mouth, although Addie would have nothing to do with it herself.

Dancing at the River Festival

And that was her weekend away.

Kenny Chesney

2009-08-12T21:01:00.000-07:00

So a couple weeks ago my friend Justin called me up and asked if Derek and I would like to go with him to a Kenny Chesney concert. We decided it sounded like a lot of fun so we decided to go. Of course it was on the same day that we had scheduled a garage sale. So we had our garage sale saturday morning and headed on up to Seattle for the concert. Stacy and Niki happened to be at the concert too so we all met up, got some drinks and had an absolute blast at the concert.

Me and Alisha hanging out at the Pyramid Brewery before the concert
Me, Justin and Derek
Hanging out at the concert

The Drive-In movie

2009-07-28T16:59:00.000-07:00

So, for the newest Harry Potter movie we decided to see it in the drive-in. That way we didn't need to get a sitter for Addie and the kids could just fall asleep. Plus it is fun. We got there really early since it was opening weekend...but it ended up not really being necessary. So we had to sit around for awhile until the movie started. Of course I took my camera. It was a fun time and the lighting was awesome so I ended up with some really great pics. I usually do some editing of the pics before I put them up but I didn't today. Sorry.

4th of July

2009-07-12T22:15:00.001-07:00

So, I meant to put this up a week ago, but obviously that didn't happen. For the 4th of July we went to a friend's family's house on a private lake in Monroe. We laid in the sun, slept, ate and did some swimming. Then we all sat on the grass and watched everyone set off fireworks. Addie is completely afraid of fireworks, as we saw at Emerald Downs. Well, for the 4th she came up with a safe zone. She kept trying to lay flat on me and Alisha's laps so I laid a towel down for her and covered her up with a blanket and this became the place she felt safe. Ethan, of course, also tried to protect her and was trying to get under the blanket and make her laugh. It worked really well. The fireworks went on for quite a while. They would go off for awhile and then stop for awhile. During one of the breaks Addie was out from under the blanket talking to Derek when all of sudden someone set off a firework across the lake and Addie dropped onto her tummy on the ground, as if she had heard a gun shot, and then quickly got under the blanket. A little while later as the fireworks started slowing down she again was out from under the blanket and another one went off. She dropped to a crouch and crawled like a duck to get under the blanket again. It was adorable even though we felt bad for her. the next day we headed home and took 4 long hours to get home. traffic was bad but not going in our direction. We stopped at a mall so that Derek and Addie could take a nap in the trailer. Derek had gotten no sleep the night before and so ethan and I went to Factoria Mall to find him a case for his DSi. Then we set off again. We decided to go home a different way and set off towards Puyallup where they have built a Sonic. Since we almost never get Sonic...only when we are out of town...we thought we would stop. It was unreal. It was not all that busy when we got there but we could see where it gets busy. They had someone to direct traffic and had rows set up for cars to drive through to wait in line to park their car and get drive in food. I love Sonic, but I doubt I would wait over two hours like some people did. This Sonic even has the staff wearing roller skates. It was fun. Well, enough blabbering and some pics for you.

Ethan was a total water baby. He was in the lake the entire time
Here is Ethan in all of his flotation gear giving Addie a ride
I don't know if you can see all of his flotation devices here, so I'll break it down...1 floatie, a noodle, a tube, a life jacket amd arm floaties. I'm pretty sure this kid won't be drowning any time soon.
Addie wet her pants...we are trying to potty train, which she is doing really well...and she wouldn't get dressed right away.
The naked baby in the hammock!!
Ethan is giving Addie another ride but is braving the water with a little less water protection.
Addie with her first sparkler this year. I was really nervous about it after she got burnt with one last year but she liked it and played just fine.
These sparklers were huge and Ethan had trouble holding it up very high
Addie's just hanging out waiting for the fireworks to start
Addie was trying to steal the neighbors golf cart
Derek just chillaxin
This is Addie right after the fireworks started panicking in Auntie's lap
More sparklers
I love these pics. Ethan tried really hard to stand still for some of them. I had my camera set up for a long exposure.
This one is my favoriteHere is Ethan getting warmed up by the fire
Here is Addie's hiding spot...obviously she is hiding in this picture
No fireworks for a few minutes...she's safe!!
Ethan is sitting by Addie here just to protect her. have I ever mentioned that he is the BEST big brother ever??
Addie is thinking about going into the water the next day
The boys took off to go fishing
Addie got splinters in her feet and needed some shoes and could only find her boots.
Here is Addie and Krissy hanging out on the hammock
Then Ethan and Addie were just chillin
One last voyage in the lake before we had to go.
Addie decided to go along with it
Then she decided she didn't enjoy that so much.

Emerald Downs 2009

2009-07-10T21:53:00.001-07:00

Every year around the 4th of July we go to Emerald Downs for the 4th of July Firework Spectacular. It never actually falls on the 4th but that's what we are celebrating. With the 4th falling on Saturday this year Derek and I both had Friday, July 3rd off, which is when it was scheduled for. We packed up the camper, got some food and headed up. We had to get there early to park the camper in two spots. Addie was still asleep so we pulled out some beers and hung out for a bit. We got in right in time to watch some horses head up to the track. Addie thought the horses were the coolest thing ever. Ethan had just gotten his DSi so he was entralled in that until I finally took it away and made him join the real world. Addie watched every single race and her Grandpa was more than willing to take her down right next to the track to watch each and every race. It was a great time.

After the races we waited for dark for the firework show. The show is always amazing because they set it up all the way across the track so it is just cool. Addie, it seems, still does not like fireworks this year, although it was better than last year. last year she sobbed the entire time. This year she started crying right off the bat but I was able to soothe her and as long as her ears were covered and she was glued to me she would watch the fireworks. I just had to keep reminding her how pretty they were. Overall it was a great night and of course I got some fun pictures.

Ethan is waiting for the horses to come over to the track
Here is the family unit hanging out by the horses
Addie LOVED the horses
And Grandpa loved watching Addie love the horses
Addie was trying to figure out which horses to bet on
Ethan is trying to see the horses coming around the track
My little cheesy girl. Always a ham for the camera
Why walk when your daddy can give you a lift?

Relay for Life

2009-06-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

I just want to share some of my pics from Relay for life. Most of these pictures were taken before I really started walking. I wish I would have gotten more pics of all of Ethan's rock star-ness but my camera was put away by then. This was an awesome experience. Here are the pics.

Addie hanging out in our little area.
A couple of my friends...Cyndi and Ina
The sun was out and Addie was just too cute not to take a million pics of her.
Emily and her sister Serry during the survivor's lap
Serry and family as they kept doing laps during the first hour
This my friend Gina. She is currently battling Lymphoma and yet she walked 22 miles.

Addie was ready to do some walking. Derek was able to come out for a little bit even though he was on call.
There was lots and lots of of fundraising on the field. Here were a few girls that were painting people's nails for a dollar. I couldn't resist getting Addie's nails painted. there was more paint on her fingers than her nails and I ended up doing a lot of the work but these girls were so cute trying to do their part to raise money for cancer.
The kids went crazy playing on the field during the walk.
Addie had an obsession with this grate of all things.
The kids wanted to walk a lot but would get tired. So we pushed them in a wheel chair and pulled them in a wagon some of the time.

My very last post for today!!

2009-06-24T16:41:00.001-07:00

So, after out skydiving trip we had to run home Sunday morning in time to go to my church's grand reopening after nearly a year of construction. I made Derek come with me and he didn't pout too much. They were giving out fresh cookies for everybody and Addie made a giant mess. Afterward we played a little bit for Father's Day, first with a BBQ place down the street. the food was awesome, the BBQ stunk, and they made beer. It wasn't crowded and it was just a nice lunch. Afterward we went up to a park in the area called Wonderwood Park. I had never been but I had heard about it from Laura, and Derek had found it a couple weeks before. So we walked around there with our friends Dave and Leanne and their little boy Adam. It was a great day. So here's some pics from Sunday.

Addie was trying hard to help Adam up, but I think he weighs as much as she does so she was having a rough time.

Addie loves to play with Daddy, especially when it involves throwing her around and spinning her in circles.

I love this!!

They have some great woodsy trails with lots of old trees and stuff.

Weekend at my parents' house

2009-06-24T15:54:00.000-07:00

Here are some fun pictures from when we hung out at my parents' house this past weekend. Our skydive was in Snohomish so we thought we would do some Father's Day celebration while we were up there. We got up there Friday night and worked on emptying my dad's keg so that Derek could take the kegerator home with us. I was an awesome wife for Father's Day this year. Beer and skydiving. You can't beat that. So now the keg is empty so that Derek can put in some Fat Tire. We drank, hung out and played pool. Same as always. Then Saturday night Alisha made homemade tortillas, my mom made carne asada and I finished it off with homemade fried ice cream. I have to say...it was all absolutely delicious. So here's some pics from the weekend.

Addie doesn't like to hit the balls, she likes to collect them.

I think my mom and dad still like each other after all this time.

Silly, Silly Addie Pat (By the way...she claims this as her name and will often correct you if you call her Addie. "No! Addie Pat!!")

Ethan was eavesdropping on Dan's conversation. He got caught just a few minutes later.

Addie was having a hard time making this work but kept trying. There are a few large bumps here in the driveway that are hard to get over.

This was pretty funny. Derek taught the kids about whip cream canisters so Addie had whip cream all over her mouth. So, I was trying to get a picture but Ethan wanted pics of him too. It became a real battle for the camera. I have such big hams for kids. I guess that is what happens when you take so many pics of your kids.

The kids didn't used to be allowed to play on the table but lately it has been allowed. It makes for some fun pics. Ethan is doing the robot in some of them. He's really good at it.

THE BIG EVENT!!

2009-06-24T14:38:00.001-07:00

So, I finally have pictures of our skydiving adventure. I have already wrote the story of how things went, but now here are some pictures to go along with it. Once again, if you have never been, you should definitely go. I know the whole perfectly good airplane comments...but it was amazing and nothing like I expected it to be. Amazing is the only word that comes to mind to explain it.

Here is Ethan, so involved in coloring his planes black that he doesn't even care what else is going on.

Derek is just chilling while we wait to go. I had to drink a margarita to chill out but he was just calm and ready to go.

Addie and I were checking out this plane when the pilot invited us to go for a little ride. It wasn't a long ride or anything. Just a giant circle around snohomish. I thought Addie would freak out but she absolutely LOVED it. It was awesome and just what I needed to calm down.

Derek is all decked out in his space suit.

Stacy is getting all adjusted and ready to go.

I am so glad I got to do this with Derek.

Derek and Brian...the Muscle Men

I can't believe Stacy wasn't freaking out at all!! I could hardly speak.

Here's our crew...Stacy, Derek, Me, Jack and Brian

Never too nervous to act crazy!!

Alisha wanted me to strike a pose. And you think I'm crazy? That girl is crazier than me. Now I need to figure out how to get her to jump out of a plane.

Ethan has recently decided he needs to be "Cool!"

Here's Kelly. He is who I jumped with. I was friends with his brother Casey. I knew he would take care of me up there, and he definately did.

Here is the plane we went up in

And off we go

My mom and dad were just sitting and chillin' out.

Alisha and Niki anxiously awaiting out return

Here the kids are entertaining themselves it the waiting area. Once again Ethan is taking great care of his sis. I love watching them together.

I'm not totally sure who these pics are of. I think one of them is Derek and one is Stacy.

My blood was still rushing here. Amazing!!

Here is the whole group that was there to jump and watch.

After we got to the ground and I saw Ethan he said he wanted to go. I'm guessing I already have an 18th birthday planned. Maybe Derek will jump with him and I'll jump with Addie. We'll see. I've got a couple of dare devil kids.

These pics are out of order since they were from a different camera. This is where we took our arch class. We all had to lay on our bellies and arch, to show that we understood what we were supposed to do in the air. If people don't arch in the air, there is not a lot the instructor can do about it, except yell. They are used to this while new jumpers are full of adrenaline and therefore much stronger. So they teach us ahead of time what we are supposed to do so that our brains will hopefully click into working mode quickly.Here we are before getting into our space suits. Before our lives were changed forever. :)

I like this picture of us going onto the plane the best.Here is my edited photo of me with the parachute. I love my camera. This picture is a perfect example of how awesome it is. Thanks Alisha for taking pics. That girl loved my camera so much, she took over 300 pic. Gotta love digital and 8MB cards. Now I just need to get a faster card. Who knew of such things??

I know watching from the ground is not the same. But I do what I can to share. I hope you enjoyed the pics of our very exciting little adventure here.

Hanging out at Jeff's Lake!!

2009-06-24T14:26:00.001-07:00

So, a couple of weekends ago I took Addie down to Maytown (about 15 niles south of us) to play at a friend's lake. Derek took Ethan and Cristian camping but didn't take a single picture. He's a dork like that. But I had my camera so I got some great pics of Addie just looking cute, since she does that so well. The weather was great and it was just nice to hang out. Right before we got there Jack proposed to his girlfriend of a few years so we got to see them while they were still super giddy. It was really exciting to see them all happy and excited like that. So now Miss Niki can soon be Aunt Niki. So, it was just a nice weekend overall.

Addie always loves on Miss Niki. Jack almost gets jealous because it always takes Addie quite a while to warm up to him, but it is always instant with Niki. I have to say...Niki is generally sweeter than Jack, but Uncle Jack can definately throw the kids much higher in the air and is always more than willing to do it for what seems like hours.

I have some big feet compared to my little girl

She won't even keep her shoes on outside.

Addie will ride in the golf cart or on a tractor all day long with Aund Stacy if we would let her. Stacy lets her steer and everything. You can tell if you walk behind the golf cart that seems to be driven by a drunk.

1st post in far too long!!

2009-06-24T14:09:00.001-07:00

So, this is going to be the first of several posts. I have lots and lots of pictures to put up. I am a slacker, I know. So, I will start with some pics I took a while ago. Most of these pics are from the Farmer's Market in Olympia. It isn't huge but has all the necessities of a great farmer's market. When we got there it hadn't opened yet so we walked down to the waterfront and walked around for a bit. Derek was off canning asparagus, which I do have a picture of too. He was so excited to go do this. For one because it is so yummy and for two it was kinda fun. The kids and I went over there for a bit. It was a lot of fun. So, here are some pics...

These first two pics were taken in front of our house. We live next to some woods that the kids are always trying to play in. Ethan gets to sometimes but Addie isn't allowed and the 2nd picture is when she got caught trying to go into the woods.

Here we are at the Farmer's Market. They have a cute little garden next to it that the kids were having fun running through and smelling the flowers.

This is when we went down to the docks. The water was full of jellyfish and Ethan was having a blast showing them all to Addie. He is always so sweet to her.

This picture was take at John and Jodie's house where Derek and a crew were canning asparagus. This is a yearly event. I hope he didn't make them too spicy. We will find out soon.

Skydiving videos

2009-06-22T07:47:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!! So, I've finally got the videos uploaded and ready to be watched. I will be putting pictures up later today or tomorrow also. If you have time...try and watch both videos. They totally compliment each other. This was a phenomenal experience and I would definately recommend it to everybody. Enjoy the videos.

Clara's Video

Derek's Video

Jumping from a plane

2009-06-20T22:59:00.000-07:00

Today has been an interesting day to say the least. After days and days of gorgeous weather yesterday it started pouring down rain. Not just a little rain but major dumpingt. Ugh!! My stress level totally jumped up wondering if the weather was going to permit us to jump after all the planning for the past year. For those that don't know...this was a Father's Day gift for Derek!!

So, I've been planning this for nearly a year. I kept it a secret from Derek all that time. A few days ago I made a comment about something and Derek said he thought he knew what we were doing. I said yeah right...then he straight out asked if we were skydiving. I can't lie when asked directly so that was the end of the secret. He was excited about it though.
So this morning I woke up and it was cloudy so I called Skydive Snohomish to see what was going on with the flights. They said they wouldn't cancel it at that point because the sun was out a little bit and might burn off most of the clouds. So all day I watched the clouds and they were messing with me. They would come and go. I called the company again about 1.5 hours before our scheduled time and they said to come on in and see what happens. They said it would be easier to send us if we were there.

So off we went and my anxiety level sky rocketed. I was tapping my fingers, feet and squishing my fingers without really noticing. So we started filling out the paperwork and I had to stop reading it because it wasn't making anything better. It said...Skydiving is not safe...great! Just what I wanted to hear, right?? We eventually found out we were going to be in the 3rd/last group for that time slot, so I decided I needed a margarita since we were told we had about an hour wait. I figured it would calm my nerves a bit.

There was a bar on the airfield so we headed on over. Addie was sitting on my lap and told me she wanted to go in a plane. I told her she couldn't go in a plane but we could go look at some planes that were next to the restaurant. As we were looking at a little two seater plane some guy got in it and asked if we wanted to go in it. So we got on in and went for a ride with some random guy named Dwayne. Addie loved it. We went up, did a big circle around the airport and came down. He told us that when he was a kid he would hang out around the airport hoping someone would take him for a ride so when he sees people that look like they would love a ride he takes them up. It was so random and just perfect. After we got back on the ground I was totally calm and ready to go.

Then it was about time for us to head over and get ready for our jump. We were doing a tandem jump which means we were connected to someone who is licensed for tandem jumping and has a ton of experience. I was set up with Kelly. I had requested to be connected to him. He is the older brother a friend of mine, Casey, that I knew since Jr. High. Casey was also a skydiver. He loved it and was always trying to get his friends to go diving. Awesome guy...he died in October 2007 in a plane crash with 9 others when they were on their return home from a skydiving event in Idaho. So, anyway...I was attached to Kelly who has nearly 4000 jumps. He was awesome.

So, up in the plane we went and traveled to 13,000 feet. It was me, Derek, Stacy, Jack and his friend Brian. There were also a few individual divers. So the singles went, then Derek went first out of our group. I scooted up, looked out the side of the plane and saw Derek falling through the sky!! Then away we went...with a few "accidental" barrell rolls as we jumped out of the plane. It is the most amazing feeling ever. It doesn't feel like you are falling, just flying through the air...very quickly. I had been so scared but it was so much different than I could ever imagine. It looked amazing and felt amazing, then all of sudden we slowed down and the parachute was out. I got to do a bit a steering and we chatted with Derek a little bit. he asked what we were going to do next year for Father's Day. Brat!! He said it was the best Father's Day gift ever.
So...I know a lot of you think I was crazy...I have to agree. I never had any intention of going. I only decided to go because I knew I wouldn't be able to see Derek's enjoyment if I wasn't there with him, or have any idea what it was that I gave him. So I went. Plus, knowing how much Casey loved it made me curious about it. It was a phenomenal experience and although I know it sounds crazy it was the most amazing experience of my life aside from seeing my children for the first time. It definately rates right up there with it though.

So...I just wanted to share my experience with all of you. Thank you all so much for being so excited and worried for me!! I will put pics and videos up soon!! Probably Monday!!

Ethan's rafting adventure

2009-05-26T22:50:00.001-07:00

I thought this series of pictures deserved their own post. I don't know how it started but Ethan was sitting on this raft. I don't know if it got pushed or if it just started floating but all of a sudden Ethan realized he was leaving the edge of the lake and started panicking. Derek got him to calm down a bit and then he and Jack went on a rescue mission to get him out of the lake. Once Ethan realized that he wasn't stuck in the middle of the lake forever and that he was going to be rescued he calmed down and sat still.

Once he was safe he decided he could do a little joyriding

And finally they got back to shore safe and sound

Memorial Day weekend in Maytown

2009-05-26T20:06:00.001-07:00

We had lots going on this year fro Memorial Day weekend. We were invited to hang out at a friend's lake in Maytown. Maytown is about 10 miles south of Olympia so it is real close to home. Only about 20 minutes away. It was a lot of fun. Derek had to work over the weekend so we were close enough that he was able to hang out a bit although he ended up having to work more than he anticipated, which stunk because he didn't get to play with us in the sunshine.

The group was a bunch of kids a bit younger than us that loved to party but were very mindful of the kids and seemed to enjoy them. It was a great time and I was so glad that we were invited out. I took a ton of pics and was able to whittle it down to just a few or so.

Addie absolutely adores Miss Niki. they had a little dancing game on the deck and were too cute to watch. They would dance from side to side on the deck and then jump off the end. It was cute.

Ethan very quickly found out that the lake and surrounding area was covered in tadpoles and frogs. He quickly named a tadpole Billy and after that they were known as Billies. Here he is searching for billies in a stream around the edge of the property.

On the last day we were there Ethan got to hang out in a boat a little bit. He thought it was the coolest thing ever. he listened so well and sprinted faster than ever to get his life jacket on before the boat left without him.

I thought this picture was cute. Have I mentioned that I LOVE my new camera??

Ethan went for a watery stroll

Addie loves these flip flops. She thinks they are the coolest.

Addie can't get to Niki fast enough when we see her and they are generally inseperable for a bit.

She is so darn cute in those bright sundresses

Addie and Daddy had a blast skateboarding down the hill. It was the perfect amount of slant so that they moved along well but not super fast. Still controlable.

Did Addie tell Aunt Stacy a funny joke?

Addie is the Budlight Monster

Addie loves to fly up in the air and Uncle Jack is so tall she goes waaaaaaay high in the air.

I think Addie jumped off this deck at least 100 times

Some of the guys made Ethan a couple of swords to play with around the fire. Here Ethan is attacking Jeff who took it like a pro.

Aunt Stacy shared donuts with Addie making her Addie's new best friend

Addie went for a tractor ride with Aunt Stacy
Addie wanted to check out the water for frogs then just wanted to stomp around in the lake
Addie loves her daddy and is always most comfortable in his arms

Memorial Day weekend at Salmon la Sac

2009-05-26T16:16:00.000-07:00

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I know we did. Every year a group of my friends go camping at Salmon La Sac and when we can we like to join them. This year, unfortunately, Derek had to work over the holiday weekend. I knew I couldn't drive the camper over and definately couldn't take the kids camping on my own all weekend long, so instead of going for the whole weekend we just went for one night. We had a blast. Of course I had my fancy new camera for the trip and so I got some absolutely gorgeous pictures of the kids. So, here are some pics of our trip...

My rockstar sis came with us. My friends are also her friends. Plus it was great to have her help.

The campsite is right on a river so we spend a lot of time climbing on wood piles and rocks. This is Ethan's walking stick he got at the Oregon coast in March.

Ethan thought it would be funny to dip his butt in the water.

This is my friend Ivy's little boy Bodhi. he thinks Ethan is too cool so he asked to go down to the river to play with us and they played awesome down at the edge of the river.

Another little girl brought this tricycle and Addie immediately found it and claimed it as her own.

Here is the one and only picture of me from the whole trip.

Ethan came up with some big plan to dig a hole and then eventually hide in it to scrae people. It was definately dirty but the kids spent hours entertaining themselves digging this hole.

Justin decided it would be fun to bring a pinata for the kids. It was great. We had a huge group of kids this year and they loved the pinata. It kept breaking without spilling candy but when the candy finally started coming out I thought it was never going to end.

The pinata became a hat after it had been beaten to death.

Addie couldn't quite get it figured out so Justin tried to help her but I think her head was just too little.Addie took possession of this dog. I love rottweilers and really wish we had one. They are such awesome kid dogs.

Here Addie and Clover were fighting over whose dog it was.

Addie had a very strange obsession with Jill's car.

Justin and Ethan did some BB gun shooting

Addie and Clover are only a few months apart and they always play well together.

A little bit before we left on Sunday I took the kids for a walk. There is a trail near the site that I had never really walked down. So we followed it along down to the water. It was just a nice little walk and some time for just the 3 of us to hang out although Ethan kept running off and hiding. Crazy kid. These are some of my favorite pics from the whole trip.

So, that was our trip to the other side of the mountains. We had a blast. I love that trip and wish we could have stayed longer and Derek could have been there. I hate it when he misses our adventures.

Mariners vs. Red Sox

2009-05-18T22:49:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning I was out doing some grocery shopping when i got a call from Derek that his boss at TG had called and offered him 4 tickets to the Mariners game that day for free. he just had to pick them up. He had already planned on camping that night with ethan and Cristian. Cristian had never been camping before and so he really wanted to camp and not go to the game. So Derek and I came up with a plan to bribe the boys (Ethan is always up for a game) so he made up some coupons for 2 camping trips for the boys. That did it. So, the three of them went to the game with my dad and they all had a blast, although we lost. We went from doing great to not as great. So sad. Here's the pics.

A breakfast made by a 6 year old

2009-05-18T22:19:00.001-07:00

So, the other day Ethan wanted to make some breakfast and he came up with this concoction. I was surprised he didn't toast the bread since he does know how to make toast. But if you can't tell what is on the bread it is the obvious PB&J plus honey graham bunnies. Yummy!!

The Reptile Man

2009-05-14T20:39:00.000-07:00

Ethan's school had a visit from the "Reptile Man" last night. Ethan really wanted to go so Derek took him and Addie. I was very proud of him since that is not really his thing. but he took them and had a good time watching the kids at this event. There was an opportunity for them to get a pic holding a snake but the line was very long. Fortunately, the Reptile Man has a zoo near my parents' house, so we'll have to check it out one day. Anyway, Derek took some fun pics that I thought I would share.

No matter where they are at, Ethan is always trying to take care of his baby sis
I just thought this picture looked cool.
Addie doesn't seem to be quite sure what is going on.
All Smiles
The Reptile Man with a tortoise, a Gila Monster and a sleeping alligator
Ethan always has a cheesy smile for the camera
Addie thinks she might want to touch it
Now she just wants to talk to it
Ethan's turn

Finally some pics from my new camera

2009-05-11T22:23:00.001-07:00

So, I finally have some pics to put up. I got my camera a week ago and have taken a ton of pics. I bought a new card for it to make sure I had lots of room on my camera. I ended up getting a Nikon D60 and it is awesome. I don't know how to use it yet, so I take all the pics on auto but soon i'll get the settings figured out and life will be good. So, here are the first pics. I got Ethan to put up with me taking a bunch of pictures at the park. He went between being cheesy and hiding from me. It was fun though.
Last Friday Derek decided to take Ethan camping. I didn't really want to camp so me and Addie went and hung out for a bit and of course, I took pics. Some friends of ours went too with their two kids. The next morning they went fishing and played at the Adventure Center's play day with bounce houses, climbing wall and fish tank. the boys caught some fist from the fish tank. It was pretty cool.
For mother's Day the family took me to the park for a picnic. It was fun and super sweet. I got some cute pics while we were there of course.

Taekwondo Videos

2009-04-30T23:25:00.000-07:00

Ethan's 1st TKD Belt test

2009-04-30T15:03:00.000-07:00

Ethan had his very first belt testing last night for Taekwondo. It was so cool. I took a ton of pictures (although not as many as I would have if I'd had my nifty new camera) and some videos. I was so proud of him. He was amazingly focused most of the time and seemed to know what he was doing unless he started watching everyone else. I thought he would be much more all over the place than he was and he wasn't at all. Taekwondo has been really good for him and it was so fun to watch him learn and grow.

I don't have the videos uploaded to Youtube yet but as soon as I do I will update this post. Sorry about the earlier post. I hit enter and it went through. So here are some pics for you guys.

Stretching before the event. Can you believe he can do the splits? How crazy is that??
More stretching
Waiting for instructions
Kicks for the actual testing
Combative stuff. his partner was only 4 and was all over the place so Ethan was having a hard time doing his stuff but he was sure trying to get the kid focused.
Ethan broke his first board. He was so proud of himself.
Ethan getting his new belt and certificate
My crazy kid tied his old belt around all of his stuff.
Ethan holding his certificate and old belt while wearing his new belt.

Videos to come.

National Take Your Child to Work Day

2009-04-27T11:51:00.000-07:00

So, last Thursday was National "Take your child to work day." The day before Derek and Ethan talked about it and Ethan understood that Derek was going to wake him up and take him in when he went in the next morning. All last week Derek had to weigh and measure people for the PT test and had to go in super early. I think he was dropping poor Addie off at 5:30ish daycare.

So the morning that Ethan was supposed to be going to work with him I was woke up at 5:00ish to Ethan sobbing absolutely hysterically. He cries sometimes but not like this. So I called to him to come into my room and then heard the front door shut. He tried to explain to me what was going on as he walked up the stairs but he was so upset he didn't make much sense. So he got into my room and climbed into my bed and told me through his tears that Daddy was supposed to wake him up and take him to work but he just left without him. I wasn't home the night before so i didn't know much about their plan. So apparently Ethan woke up when Derek was getting in his car and driving off so Ethan jumped out of his bed and flew down the stairs trying to catch him to go to work with him and Derek didn't see or hear him. So then Ethan tried crying louder hoping Derek would hear him with no luck. So when I heard him he was so upset. After I finally woke up a little bit we called Derek to find out what was going on. Derek's plan was to finish the measuring stuff then come back and get Ethan. So we reset the alarm and went back to sleep now that Ethan knew that he wasn't completely forgotten and deserted as he was thinking. It was so sad watching him feel so sad and hurt.

So, once we got up I got him dressed in his scrubs that we got him for when Addie was born and Derek came back and got him like he planned. They got all geared up and rode the motorcycle in. (I looked it up the other day and you only have to be 5 to ride on the back of a motorcycle. Yay!!) So Derek and Ethan got to hang out in the MRI department for half a day. Ethan loved it. Then they scanned Ethan's head so that he could see if there was anything in there. (Don't worry...MRI uses no radiation). He thought it was the coolest thing ever. So here are some pics from their day...Ethan could not keep his eyes open for a picture for nothing.

Ethan showing his dad how to sleep while working, I guess

Ethan can never resist an opportunity to be silly!!One of Derek's co-workers, Jenny, showing Ethan a little bit about MRI.

Ethan thinking about how cool it is to be there...or something like that

Spring has sprung

2009-04-23T20:59:00.000-07:00

With the weather being so nice we have been going to the park a lot. The park is always a fun place to take pics of the kids. Of course it is also the place that has me on a new camera kick. Now I want a fancy camera so that I can take super gorgeous pics of the kids. Well, these pics were pretty cute even without a fancy camera.

Alaska Pics...longtime coming

2009-04-23T20:31:00.001-07:00

I cannot believe how long it took me to get these up. No cool points for me. Well, here are the pics from th eboys trip to Alaska. It sounds like they had a blast. Lots of snow, skiing, BBQs and strange parties. Ethan and Henry had a blast playing together. They played in the snow and played Bakugan. I am so glad that they got to spend some time together. So...here are the pics.

They had a party to go to and the theme was short-shorts long-socks

Thanks Jodie for lending these crazy shorts to Derek

Here is everyone playing in the snow...
Here are the older boys on a cross country ski adventure

Ethan and Henry on the magic carpet. By the end of the week Ethan was a skiing machine and keeping up with Henry

Here's Henry

Here the boys comeGo Ethan GoGo Henry GoEthan againHere are the boys playing in the snow at Brian and Selita's

Hiking in the snow again

Derek taking a break

Hot chocolate is always yummy in the snow

Ethan is just chillin' in the snow

Brian's rockin' his 80's snow gear!! Love the pink helmet!!

Selita, Henry & Brian

Derek, Ethan, Henry & Brian

Henry & Ethan

Ethan, Selita, Henry & Brian

Henry has his rockstar outfit on for some guitar playing with dad

Ethan and Henry getting cozy on the couch

I'm so glad they enjoyed each other this week

Tattoo time. Ethan was soproud of his tattos when he got home that he didn't want to wash himself when he got home. Thanks Uncle Brian for inking up my boy!!

Here are some gorgeous pics taken up there. Many of them were taken within a quarter mile of Brian and Selita's house...if not from the yard.

My piggy girl

2009-04-02T17:19:00.000-07:00

Okay...this is my very last beach post. On our way home we stopped to eat in Aberdeen. addie is very hit and miss about eating. We very rarely order her her own plate because if we do she always decided not to eat. So here we had a cup of clam chowder that was just for her. She is very particular about how she eats it. It has to have lots and lots of crackers in it. (I don't know where she gets that from :) ) So, it was so think her bites were monstrous and yet she tried to get the entire thing in her mouth. Crazy piggy girl. She ate almost the whole thing though.

Cleaning herself off.Showing off her new shoes.

Hanging out

2009-04-02T17:13:00.001-07:00

Here are some random pics from our trip

Addie crashed. Notice she put her socks on her hands. Silly girl.
Ethan testing cheese at the Tillamook Cheese factory.Ethan hanging out in front of Moe's. Moe's is the very best place for clam chowder.Wrestling in the room