Because I Said So

Missing Teeth

2010-09-19T21:25:00.000-07:00

Sage lost her first tooth this week! She was eating an apple at school. It freaked her out. She smiles to show it off, but her lips cover the gap. To see it, she has to make a goofy face. She is good at goofy faces.

Hayden finally lost his wiggly top tooth. This is tooth number 3. At 8 years old, he is about the only kid in his class with any baby teeth left!
Yeah, he is a skinny thing, but this picture makes it look so much worse. I promise I feed the kid-a lot!

2010-09-19T20:56:00.000-07:00

Windows. I went with clay colored on the advice of my very helpful window guy. He has been really great to work with. My roof is on too. Black. Diego the roofer is awesome! I gave him a bunch of Nectarines and he gave me 2 watermelons. He has a great accent, and helps me when Sage comes home with new Spanish words but doesn't know what they mean.

Bathtub in main bath. I love our plumbers! They are really great guys.
Soffits. That was not a word I knew until just recently. Building a house is a learning experience. Diego the roofer is also our soffit man. They are still a work in progress.

My front door. It needs to be stained, but i love it. I fretted for weeks before picking it out. I decided against any decorative glass and opted for good old fashioned see through kind. Heath and I installed that puppy. It involved a lot of shims and at one point I had to hold it tipped away from the house on that aweful ramp for a good 5 minutes while Heath caulked around the thing. He ran out of caulk part way into it and had to round more up, then reload. That is a heavy door!
Inside: that business on the floor is where my island goes, that is the plumbing for the sink. I build that wood tool box looking thing to keep my kids from damaging the pipes. yeah, I have mad carpentry skills. Before the doors went in, the kids liked to ride up the ramp in the front, through the house and out the back ramp. Drive thru!

I love the tall ceilings!

Window wells. All filled in. The kids can get out of the basement no problem. One day all the neighbor kids were over playing tag. It was like Whack-a-mole, watching little heads pop up every few seconds.

My grand bathtub. It really isn't that big, only 5 ft. But if you build it up, it looks pretty great!

First Day of School 2010

2010-09-01T19:41:00.000-07:00

My big 3rd grader. Hayden was up at the crack of dawn, said he wanted to "look sharp" on his first day.
Mom: Would you like to ride the bus or can we take you to school
Hayden: uh, well, I think maybe I should just ride the bus
Yup, thats right, mom is not cool, he doesn't want to be seen with me. It was emotional to send him off, but I did not cry this time.

Sage is off to Kindergarten this year. Its all day so she gets to take her lunch. She is in the dual language program so half the day in Spanish, half in English. This was a real tough one for me, and I cried all morning long.

She forgot her backpack on the first day-right after this picture she set it down and ran Hayden his lunch that he forgot (yes, totally crazy morning!!!). Then we jumped in the van and headed to school; as we pulled in the parking lot she realized she didn't have the back pack. I took it to her about lunch time. She burst into tears when she saw me walk through the front door. She was overwhelmed from the whole morning of not understanding a thing. I cried even more. All afternoon I cried until I picked her up. She bounced out the door with a huge grin on her face and proceeded to tell me how great her day was. She has been all smiles since. She loves to say, "so I went to Kindergarten, and I can't understand anything my teacher says!" Sage is soaking up the Spanish like a little sponge. I marvel at how well she rolls her R's and the cute little accent she has picked up. Aside from that first morning, she loves Kindergarten.

Framed!

2010-08-31T19:28:00.000-07:00

Rolling the trusses! That's Heath in the attic; we may turn that space into a bonus room someday.

All framed!

Out of the Ground!

2010-08-15T18:33:00.000-07:00

In July, we finally got out of the ground! Dirt was put back into place and it started to look like a house!

Step 1 Waterproof the basement

Step 2 Get some wood

Our house in a pile!

Step 3 put a lid on the basement

> Inspectors making sure its sound

Hayden and James plotting a new game...

leap across the abyss into a pile of moon dust
So incredibly fun to the guys, totally frightening for mom to watch. And yet, I photographed it.

Step 4 put up walls!

A way out of the hole! No more crawling through windows-well, for me at least; the kids think its a great way in and out.

Heath and Ted playing with the forklift. Pretty cool!

Our fun 4th

2010-07-11T21:50:00.000-07:00

Jamie and Kyle came for the extended 4th of July weekend. As always when they are here, we had so much fun. We made red, white and blue tye dye shirts and festive hair ties. We had a campfire, and roasted giant marshmallows. We hiked up the ridge-when it was really hot-and forgot all the water in the car! But my Sage made it pretty much the whole way up on her own (a hundred yards or so courtesy of Uncle Kyle). What an amazing kid! Marlee prefered the route up the hill on her daddy's shoulders. Great view from the top though.

There were some Pop-its and sparklers in addition to the spectacular fireworks over the river. We met up with the Barth family for the big show. We also checked out a really cool park just down the street that despite living here for over 7 years had no idea about. But best of all, before they left Monday afternoon, we got Kyle to help Heath hang all the window wells in the basement. So Great! Thanks Kyle, you saved me!!! Neighbor Ted was pretty instrumental in the process as well.

dirty job

2010-07-05T22:28:00.000-07:00

Boy, there is a whole lot of dusty dirt at our new house. We bring mounds of it back to our old house after every visit. I have to scrub the ring of dirt out of the bathtub after every use. It is a full time job to keep up with the laundry!
Marlee, right before she slid down and got completely coated in dirt. She loves dirt!!!

making trails in the mounds of dirt.

The good news is that within that giant hole, much progress is being made. After the hole was dug, the footings were poured. Then came the walls. Plumbing went in, back filling the inside, putting down the vapor barrier, and the slab was poured on friday. The rock chucker and concrete pumper have been the most exciting pieces of equipment. The compactor, on the other hand, which is a tiny little thing, was heavily feared by the kids.

footings

walls
forms for walls set to go
Forman Hayden and his trusty sidekick, Emma. Hayden checks progress daily.

Since building things is what Heath does, he is pretty cool about each step, but for me its all new and exciting. I feel like a big dummy when i talk to the various subs, but luckily Heath has good friends that are patient and take good care of me. pumping the concrete into the forms

walls revealed

the Stone Slinger-even sounds cool!

choices, choices choices... yikes, I have only just started makeing choices, but there are so many things to think about. I hope I don't pick something aweful and ruin the whole place. faucets are on my mind right now. The plumber took me to the showroom and I got to look at all the possibilities. Marlee thought it was heaven with all the toilets!

I had never given any thought to the height of a toilet until recently. Hand washing is a whole new experience now that I have to check out every sink in town.

Heath hard at work

Marlee checking out exactly where stuff goes when you flush
Hayden is making sure everything is up to code
me and Heath getting the vapor barrier down before the slab is poured
a good fit!

Hayden's Baptism

2010-07-05T21:41:00.000-07:00

Hayden got baptized on Saturday, June 5th. What a beautiful day it was! Grandma and Grandpa G were here for the occasion. Hayden was baptized by his dad, Grandma gave a great talk about baptism, and Mom cried. There were three other kids from our stake that got baptized, one other boy from our ward. Hayden was a bit relieved to have his friend there as he was feeling a little nervous. He knew he wanted to be baptised, but not sure about having someone dunk him under water.

Hayden is eight! How did that happen? He is becoming a very independant young man. Very energetic about life! I hope that he continues to work on making good choices and be an good example to his sisters who watch his every move. He takes such good care of them. I am very proud of him.

He chose to go to Granny's Buffet afterward to celebrate. He also played his final baseball game of the season and because he was feeling so great after baptism, he was able to turn a triple play all on his own. It was a very special day.

The Miracle Shoes

2010-06-19T22:19:00.000-07:00

Fact: Hayden is rough on shoes. Luckily, we have found some tough shoes. Seriously, these are some energizer bunny shoes.

They have got him through the last half of school, basketball and several baseball practices (because he was too lazy to find his cleats) even an occasional appearance at church. The laces have had to be replaced because he doesn't usually tie his shoes. They flop off when he kicks a soccer ball or runs too fast. "Tie your shoe Hayden!" I am like a broken record.

Anyhow, when we were camping at La Wis Wis with Jamie and Kyle, Hayden and the girls and I were tossing rocks into the river. It was a cold and soggy weekend; in between rainshowers we ventured out from under the tarps. In a moment of sheer brilliance, Hayden decided it was a good idea to kick rocks...yeah, the shoe went out into the middle of the rushing, frigid river! I thought I could catch it if I ran down the banks a few hundred yards to a really rocky part. The big rocks made it possible for me to get nearly to the middle of the river. Yet, it still was too far out for me to fetch it. Just as I was thinking all hope was lost, out into the river charges Heath! Fully clothed-jeans, boots, sweatshirt, raincoat! he snatched that tattered old stinky shoe from the waist deep icy water. It was one of the funniest sights I have seen in ages. He was steaming mad. Heath stood next to the camp fire for about 2 hours until the numbness in his legs wore off and the cramping stopped. But he saved the shoe. Hayden's only pair for the weekend.

Well, since the shoe was wet, Hayden sat next to his angry dad at the fire with his feet propped up on the fire pit...yeah, he melted the bottoms of the shoes!

Did I hurry home to buy him new shoes? No way! Instead, a few days later, at our dirt pile, he managed to bury it. It fell off when his feet sank into the soft dirt. We spent forever digging around trying to find it. Heath was not letting us go home until it was unearthed. Talk about needle in a haystack! The neighbor boy had lost his flip flop in the same spot. Hayden was actually seeking out the lost flip flop when he lost his shoe. Well, as the sun set and it started getting dark, I finally found the thing. Talk about miracle.
So now, we wait see what is next in the shoe saga.

Here is Hayden in the miracle shoes cheating at mini golf. FYI, they are Addidas.

Movin some dirt!

2010-06-04T21:17:00.000-07:00

We broke ground today on our new house!!! We have been planning this forever it seems and finally we see some progress. The excavator was brought over to our lot yesterday and the digging started first thing this am. Me and the kids had to check it out even if it meant being a bit late to work. By the time I got home from work, they were done digging and we were left with a huge hole that is to become our basement. It was a very exciting day!

Christmas

2009-12-26T14:08:00.000-08:00

Christmas was pretty fabulous this year. We stayed home and had a quiet little Christmas Eve. We made waffles, opened up a few presents, and tracked Santa on the internet. Christmas morning we opened gifts then headed to Seattle for a few days. It seemed to be more relaxing than the past few years.

The kids and I do a gingerbread house every year. Why? I don't know. It makes a huge mess and it takes up all kind of space in an all ready cluttered kitchen. But we have a good time and it is festive so we do it.

Santa at the Boise Mall on our way home from Thanksgiving. Sage was mesmerised. She is always amazed at our good fortune of being at the same mall as him, sometimes in Seattle, sometimes in Idaho and sometimes at home. Crazy how that happens.

Naughty or nice??? Hayden had a lot of explaining to do. Marlee is just banking on the fact that she is so cute, the old guy wouldn't be able to resist bringing her everything she wants.

Hayden loves just about all fruit. Instead of an orange in the toe of his stocking, he found a pomegranate. He was so excited, said it was one of his favorite gifts...yeah, that is a bike in the background, he was more excited about the dumb fruit.

Favorite Gifts:

Dad-Double griddle and Guitar hero

Mom-Wii Fit and a massage

Hayden-Bike, Pomegranate, maybe Shaun White snowboarding game

Sage-Bathrobe and BFC Inc Doll Kaitlin

Marlee-Dress up dress box, monkey slippers

Sage turns 5

2009-12-01T13:53:00.000-08:00

To celebrate 5 years, Sage wanted to have a rockstar party. Jamie and Kyle brought Avery over for the weekend and several of Sage's friends joined the fun. Hannah Montana and Taylor Swift belted out the tunes as the girls made microphones, dressed up and destroyed a guitar pinata. This was one party that rocked!

Football

2009-10-01T16:32:00.000-07:00

Hayden decided to give football a try. Not flag like previous years. This was the real thing, pads, helmet, tackling and all. He wasn't a huge fan of tackling, even less of a fan of getting tackled. He makes a great kicker or running back. Not sure he will want to do it again, but it was an intense experience. The three 2 1/2 hr practices a week plus games every Saturday really seemed to be more than all of us were ready for. We had great weather just about every game, and the games were pretty fun to watch. Still, football is really serious business. Not to mention that some football parents are a bit overwhelming.

That is Hayden, all the way to the right, number 11.

He got to be one of the team captains this game

Hayden's team was the Eagles. He pretty much drowned in his enormous jersey. But dang, was he cute!

My Cute Kids

2009-09-13T21:56:00.001-07:00

Auntie Jamie took the pictures of my girls. She is awesome!

Summer Wrap Up

2009-09-13T21:08:00.000-07:00

Wow, where did summer go?

In June we started summer off with a visit from Jamie and Avery.

Then the first week out of school, we sent the kids to Idaho. They had a blast, I rested and recovered.

Cousin Krystal got married to Haini in Salt Lake, so we made the journey for a weekend of fun. No dancing for me though. These two can throw a great party!While in Salt Lake, we visited with our friends Billy and Diana and family. So good to catch up!

Sage and Brenna

Me and Diana

8 cute blondes!

July brought a fabulous 4th at Paula's house.

Summer got a bit crazy from here with Golf lessons for Hayden, Swim lessons for Hayden and Sage, Physical Therapy for me, playdates, birthday parties, Dr appts and, oh yeah, we work!

My friend Eugenia threw a big water party at her house and we had a great afternoon playing with old buddies and sliding on her awesome water slides-way cool!

In August, Hayden started Grid Kids Football, he has practice 3x/wk, pretty serious stuff! Sage learned to ride a 2 wheeler. Marlee learned how to open doors, and climb on to counters. She certainly is keeping us on our toes!

My doctor has turned me loose, and I think I am just about fully recovered from my surgery. Woo hoo!

The kids got to spend another week in IF, riding 4wheelers, playing with Grayson, Gabe and Dalton, having Fiesta Ole, and enjoying Grandma and Grandpa.

We ended the summer with a long weekend in Boise. We had a great time swimming, shopping, eating and just enjoying each others company. As with most of the summer, my camera was there, I just didn't turn it on :(

Back to School! 2nd Grade

2009-09-02T07:42:00.000-07:00

Whoo Hoo, back to school!

Baseball, Ballerina, and Back Surgery

2009-06-14T19:58:00.000-07:00

BASEBALL:

Hayden is all about baseball right now. Playing, watching, practicing, even Wii baseball games--or just talking about it, it doesn't matter. Grandma F. sent a Mariner's schedule magnet that we put on the refrigerator and so he tries to tune in to them as much as possible, he has about memorized the thing.

Over Memorial day weekend, we went to a Mariner's game with our good friends Ted and Stacy and crew. In honor of little league weekend, we got to walk around the field at Safeco before the game-but were very careful that we didn't touch the grass! It was so fun. We started out the game at the very top of the stadium. Last row. Then, with a little help from the friendly seating hosts at Safeco, we got upgraded to just behind first. Pretty amazing. Aunt Angie even showed up to hang out with us for a bit. Really fun time!

James, Emma, and Hayden fighting to make the catch!
Kyle, Emma, Hayden, Marlee, Sage, Adam and James

Me and the twins-Happy Birthday this week Mom and George!

Team Blimpie wrapped up their season earlier this month. Hayden was very pleased to have Grandma F. attend one of the last games and performed quite well. His new glove and bat have really upped his game. Both Hayden and Sage were bummed to see the season end, Hayden for obvious reasons; Sage because she had made friends with many of Hayden's teammates sisters and was not pleased to end her weekly play dates.

BALLERINA:

Speaking of Sage, she finished her year of Preschool with a fun water party and graduation. Since I am working more now, I will probably not put her back in next year as the daycare is also a preschool program. 1 more year till kindergarten!

Teacher Michelle-she is amazing!

Sage just had her ballet recital a few nights ago. She was fantastic. Such a proud 2 minutes! She knew every step and the teacher had her be the flower girl- in charge of the rose that the girls all leaped over. So Cute!!!

Sage and two of her ballerina friends at a kids fair performing thier dance as a practice before the big show. Miss Katie is their teacher, she has some amazing patience.

My video is terrible, otherwise I would post it. I bought the DVD of the show, so if any one wants to see the actual performance, just let me know.

BACK:

And me, well, I finally had back surgery. After years of agony, I finally found a Dr. willing to help me. You rock Dr. Wilkinson! I had a micro discectomy at L4-L5. He said that when he got in there, it was bad. Lots of scar tissue indicating years of damage, and he told me it had ruptured and there were pieces of my disk floating around impinging on the nerve. Yeah, I sorta thought so. So, no bending, twisting or lifting more than 10 lbs for 8-10weeks. My mom stayed with us the week of my surgery, then Jamie and Avery took over. Now, since I am still totally useless, we shipped the kids off to Grandma and Grandpa G in Idaho. I have great family and friends that have been so willing to help me out, and am so grateful for them. With out all the help, there is no way I could have had this surgery. Thank you to everyone who has called, brought meals, sent flowers, brought me goodies, watched my kids or helped in any other way. I am very blessed.

Sorry, no pictures of my scar.

Lucky Seven!

2009-05-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

Hayden has turned seven! yippee!

For his birthday, we got him a new baseball bat and DS game. Unfortunately, the bat was a bit too big and he had gotten his DS taken away for trying to smuggle it to school. Sort of a bummer.

We exchanged the bat for something more his size and he picked out a new glove to go with it, as well as a pitching net thingy thanks to some gift cards he had gotten. I was very pleased with his wise use of his money.

He is in the middle of Baseball season right now so the bat and glove were in need. He is doing Machine Pitch this year and is on team Blimpie. He plays 1st base, 2nd base and shortstop primarily. He had a game on his birthday and even helped turn a double play.

We had our friends the Chans over for pizza and had a tasty DQ blizzard cake per his request. It was a fun time.

At Seven:

Favorite color: Red

Favorite Restaurant: ShangHai Chinese

Favorite way to spend his afternoon: Playing DS or Wii
Hayden loves to go to Seattle and see his cousin Grady!

Favorite evening activity: Playing catch with Dad

He loves to tell jokes, watch the Mariners, anything involving electronics, read and be silly with Sage.

He is not so passionate about unloading the dishwasher, tying his shoes, cleaning up before bed and grocery shopping.

Hayden is finishing up 1st grade. He is an excellent reader, he has accumulated over 50 points in AR this year. He is quite the math whiz. PE is his favorite part of the week, however recess is great because he plays soccer with his buddies.

He loves to ride the bus still. He only wants peanut butter and jelly in his lunch, but on occasion is agreeable to buying cheese pizza.

Within the last month or so, he finally lost some teeth. The front bottom teeth. They were sort of pushed out by the permenant ones that were coming in, not enough room for all of them!

He is very excited that next year he can be baptized. I love it at night when he teaches Sage the right words to the primary songs. (She gets rather inventive).

He is a good boy, very sweet, smart and funny. He takes good care of his sisters and is a huge help to me. Love You Hayden, Happy Birthday!!!

Totally Two!

2009-05-17T19:55:00.000-07:00

My baby is two! We celebrated not too long ago with some good buddies and a bouquet of Elmo balloons. Her favorite part of the celebration was the Happy Birthday song. She sings it all the time now. So cute!
She has become quite a conversationalist and I love to have little chats with her.

Marlee: I want to go bye-bye
Mom: oh, where do you want to go?
Marlee: in the van
Mom: where should we drive the van?
Marlee to get dinner
Mom: what should we eat for dinner?
Marlee: Food!

She adores her siblings and copies everything they do. If they are outside, then she wants to be outside. If they color, then so does she. Even though she isn't as big, she is quite sure she can handle anything they can. IHer favorite and most used phrase these days is: "I'll do it!"

Heath had a very proud moment back in March during the NCAA tournament when him and his boy were watching one of the endless basketball games. Heath got excited about a particular play and jumped up and yelled, "Go Kentucky!" Marlee looked at him, and jumped up and repeated it right back at him "Go Kin tuck ee!"

She seems to have an internal calendar because she always knows when it is Tuesday and she gets to play with her buddies Adam, Kyle, and Josh. She never misses pointing out "Stacy's house" whenever we drive in our out of the neighborhood.

She loves Elmo, Dora, princesses and "hi shoe muse a coo" (high school musical).
She gets very excited when she hears the garage door open, because Daddy is home, and insists on Mommy putting her to bed every night. Every bus we see is "Hayden's bus!" Her and Sage are getting to be good friends; they love to prepare meals in their little kitchen together and share snacks. However, she will rat Sage out in a second if she feels she has been wronged, "mom, Sage took my ball," She can turn on the water works too when a little extra sympathy is needed. She is also a bit of a rule enforcer. Step out of line and she will let you have it! "No Hayden" when he gets into an argument with me. Love that she always sides with me.

Messy doesn't even begin to describe her. However she doesn't like messy hands and will demand a napkin or a wipe. Same for diapers. If its dirty, and I don't respond immediately, she just takes it off herself (lots of stress over this!)

She can make a mess and isn't afraid brag, "I made a mess!"

She would read books all day long if possible. Her favs are the puppy book I got her at a bookfair at the hospital, the lift a flap books that Hayden got as a baby (boy, are they in rough shape) and the Elmo colors and shapes books. She hasn't got to Twilight yet though...

TV holds no interest to her unless its the DVD player in the van, then she wants "Elmo on"

Favorite foods: Pizza, noodles, bananas, goldfish crackers and "oh git" (yogurt)

We have kicked the binky habit, however she still likes to sleep with three old ones that are completely chewed up and gross. She has learned to get in and out of her crib so she often climbs out to fill her crib up with as many toys she can get her hands on. I usually find her buried under a pile of blankets and dolls after naps.

I love to laugh with her because she has an amazing wicked cackle. She loves to have her "hummy" tickled. She is a total joy! Happy Birthday to you Marlee-girl!

Maui!

2009-04-28T21:13:00.000-07:00

OK, this is long. If you just want to see the pictures, go to my facebook.

Heath and I celebrate our 10th anniversary in June, so we decided to go to Maui for the occasion.
Who goes to Maui in June though???
So, we went early :)
It was an amazing week.
No kids, gorgeous island, no kids, lots of fun stuff to do, no kids...

So here is our Maui Top Ten:

10. Its a tie: The Road to Hana and Island Shopping.

Hana: Our first full day, we thought we would do the road to Hana as the weather was not so great-the trade winds were blowing pretty good, it was cloudy and a bit rainy at times and the temp wasn't even in the 80s (however, a poor weather day in Maui is still pretty great). It is a 3 hr trek on a road with like 600 curves, and 54 one lane bridges. Lots to see along the way. Our guide book says its not about the destination, but the journey. It was very scenic and lovely waterfalls and beaches along the way. However at one point, Heath says, "This looks just like Kent!" Its true, being from Western Washington, I am pretty familliar with lush green forests. Highlights along the way: the $6.00 banana bread, it was good, seeing all the maui weasels (later discovered that they were actually mongooses), and Black sand beach. Hana itself was as advertised: not much. Heath did get a big diet Coke there though.

6 bucks for banana bread! it was even a mini loaf!!!

See that little guy peekin around the garbage can? Pretty cute!

Shopping: yeah, ABC stores galore! We loved Whaler's Village in Kaanapali. Close second was the boardwalk in Lahaina. We enjoyed strolling around looking for souviners for the kids(who were at home with Grandma and Grandpa, not running around hiding and me yelling at them to stay with me). Fun resaurants in Lahaina that we ate at were Cheeseburger in Paradise and Hard Rock Cafe. The Maalaea harbor village was fun to look around too. Loved the cookie store.

9. The hot tub. Felt so good on my aching back and Heath's sore knee. We were sorta pathetic with our ailments, but hey, we got to use the handicap parking. The Mahana, where we stayed, seemed to not be very crowded. We sat in the tub by ourselves every night. One night it sorta rained on us, but that was OK. Not real popular during the day, but great after the sun goes down!

8. Yummy Food. I think our favorite place to eat was the Barefood bar and Grill in Whaler's Village. It was on the beach, in the sand. Live music and some really tasty moonfish. mmm.
7. Watching the sunrise on Haleakala. Everyone says you gotta do it. Since the 3 hour time differance was on our side, why not. So we got up at 3am to trek up the mountain. It was so COLD! Who brings their winter coat to Maui? Not me. The top of the mountain is above the clouds so when the sun pops up, its quite spectacular. It was a bit shocking to see tons of other people half frozen, half asleep, all waiting for the sun to come up. Heath thinks its a scheme of the Maui businesses, convince the tourists to get up extra early to have more time in the day to spend money.

6. Whale Watching. We were at the "tail" end of whale season. From our Lanai, we could watch the humpback whales frolic in the ocean. So cool! We went on a dinner cruise and talked to a naturalist who told us all about the whales. The cruise would have been on the top 10, but we chose a very windy night and the boat got tossed all over. No whale sightings either because it was dark.

This is the view from our room. I can't think of much that's more relaxing than watching the palm trees sway with the trade winds along with the crashing of waves in the sand.

Our view!

5. Old Lahaina Luau. I won us a free ticket to the luau! It was a traditional luau, no fire dancers (Heath was a bit disappointed) but the food was great and the show was too! Loved that it was on the beach and we got to watch the sunset. Great service there too!

4. The Lounge chairs. Oh, paradise found! We loved these loungers for napping in the sun. We did find out that the vinyl removes sunscreen-poor Heath looked like a zebra after laying down on his chest for a bit, then flipping.
You can see the island Lanai in the background shrouded in clouds.

3. The Big Island Breezer. Yes, an ice cream sundae from the Hagen Daz store is #3 on our list. Really, it was amazing. 2 scoops of pineapple, coconut ice cream, 1 scoop of macadamia nut ice cream, hot fudge, short bread cookies and whipped cream. We shared it. However we did go two separate times. so good.

(total side track, but on our honeymoon, we had a phenomenal sundae at the Ghirradelli shop that we still talk about-we like our ice cream!)

2. Snorkeling. We rented snorkel gear on our last day. We checked out Black Rock at Kaanapali beach, down a ways from our hotel. So awesome. We were both worried that our injuries would limit our fun, but it was not too taxing for either of us. The fish would swim right up in our faces-perhaps a bit too friendly for my tastes. We saw the famous humuhumunukunukuapua'a. Heath worked hard on that one. I wish we would have attempted snorkeling earlier in the week because it was so cool. Guess we will just have to go back sometime and do it again.
1. Helicopter tour. There are just not words. So amazing!!! We toured the West Maui mountains and Molokai. Breathtaking! I got the front window seat so my view was as good as it gets. The Molokai sea cliffs were awesome, 3000ft, the tallest on the planet. The pilot pointed out a 20ft tiger shark swimming in the coral near Molokai, sorta made me want to stick with the hot tub.

Early Easter

2009-04-20T21:57:00.000-07:00

Sage and I found her dress when we were in Seattle last. We both fell in love with it. We decided that Marlee needed something just as fancy and thought this dress matched fairly well. Both were so pretty. To complete the look, Sage and I found this shirt for Hayden. Love my shopping partner, Sage!

Gotta do eggs! one of my favorite activities! Heath was burning the midnight oil at the office trying to get things ready for a week's absence. Just me and the kids Friday night. Set up took FOREVER! We got table cloths and smocks and egg holders and crayons. The kids were so excited to color eggs. Finally, I gave the green light and, for the next two minutes we had a blast. It was over so fast! For some reason, I figured that 18 eggs would be plenty. Hey, I wasn't going to be around to eat any of them anyway right? 7 for Hayden, 7 for Sage, and 4 for Marlee (she needed a whole lot of supervision so that she didn't drink the "juice"). Not nearly enough.
Note to self, eggs are cheap and lots of fun...next year, two dozen at least.

We arranged for Easter to happen on Saturday at our house this year as Heath and I were departing early Sunday morning, long before any bunnies get up. It was really nice, and I think I might make similar arrangements next year. We got up and discovered lots of surprises in our baskets. The bunny was a bit generous with the kiddos this year. (Was it guilt for leaving them? yeah, probably!) They each got a spring outfit, a new game, books, some silly little toys, and a bunch of candy.
We loaded up on chocolate bunnies and then headed off to the girl's daycare egg hunt.

It was a beautiful day for an egg hunt. Marlee didn't really get it, but when she is told to get eggs with candy in them, she can be persuaded. Sage frolicked about the eggs, while Hayden's style was more frantic. The eggs were jamb packed with candy and I was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of sugar we were taking home. Both girls were pleased to wear their pretty dresses, but Hayden was mostly ticked off that I would suggest such humiliation. He was sure he would be the only boy not in jeans. Lucky for me, lots of other moms are just as terrible.
The big, creepy bunny showed up. Marlee had already had enough of him and kept a good distance from him at all times. The ever popular refrain of "where did the Money (bunny) go?" was repeated over and over to make sure he didn't sneak up on her. Sage however needed more time with him and made sure to chat and visit and get some hugs in. She is a lover, that girl. She loves the bunny and made sure to thank him for all her surprises. Such a thoughtful little gal.
Hayden was too busy staining up his church pants with all the other boys to even notice.

Grandma and Grandpa arrived in time to go to our Bishop's house for another egg hunt and picnic with lots of friends and food. Again, more candy. The day was so busy, Sage had a birthday party somewhere in all that! (Can you believe that she got more candy in her goody bag from the party???)

Creepy Bunny

2009-04-11T16:59:00.001-07:00

Poor Marlee wanted nothing to do with the creepy mall bunny, unfortunately, Sage refused to take no for an answer about a visit with him. I think Hayden sorta was siding with Marlee, but couldn't let his little sister make him look like a chicken.
Marlee keeps asking me, "where did the Monny (bunny) go?" When I don't answer fast enough, she tells me he is at the mall. Sometimes she is specific and lets me knows its by Macy's. She loves to look at the picture now. Me too--torturing your kids is hilarious!

Let Them Eat Cake!

2009-02-25T21:35:00.000-08:00

OK, so hyperglycemia might be an issue around here this month. We have had a lot of cake. Sage loves to cook and looks for reasons to wear her apron that my grandma made her. So we bake!

Groundhogs: Who doesn't love Groundhogs day? We had made these cupcakes in the past, and they are so darn cute. We had a really fun night even though the nasty little rodent saw his shadow. The kids had a blast and made an enormous mess. Heath even hobbled over to the table to help. Looks just like Phil, huh?

Valentines: because there just isn't enough chocolate at valentines day, we needed cupcakes. Luckily, I sent most of them to Heath's office and some to my girls at work.

Mardi Gras Kings Cake: Growing up, I can remember some friends bringing us back a kings cake from New Orleans after they went down for Mardi Gras. Loved it. Beads too! Sage and I decided to make our own version this year. Very tasty! Marlee got the baby in hers. :)

March is national nutrition month, so we will probably try some healthier options for snacks.

My Student

2009-02-25T21:23:00.000-08:00

This is my student intern. She spent the last 10 weeks at the hospital where I work.
On her first day she was chatting with my boss and mentioned that she was from Federal Way. Cool! Me too! So I turn to join the conversation and she looks at me and says, "you used to be my gymnastics teacher." Whoa!!! Sure enough, many years ago I had her in one of my gym classes at good ol Gymnastics Unlimited. Is it a small world or what???
Can I just add that she is an AMAZING intern and is going to make a fantastic dietitian someday. ...all goes back to those formative years at GU.

Heath

2009-02-25T21:10:00.000-08:00

A quick update on Heath. His knee is doing really good. His physical therapist has been impressed with his range of motion and is ready to start him on a bike. -Stationary bike, much to Hayden's disappointment who had visions of him and his dad doing physical therapy all over town together-hold tight bud, its coming!
He is brace free, got all the stitches out and really doesn't need the crutches, but the doctor encouraged him to keep them one more week. Sage likes it when he "crutches around" the house. She chases him and says, "don't crutch me Dad!"
Unfortunatley the poor guy got Strep Throat a week out from surgery, followed up with a stomach bug and now seems to have some sorta flu. Can't catch a break! He was tickled to get all the bandages and stuff off so he could shower a week and a half after surgery.
He is pretty amazing. I admire his strength, he has been such a good sport, hardly complaining at all, so tough... and his handicap parking pass is awesome!

Hayden practicing in case he ever "breaks" his ACL

Surgery

2009-02-06T22:25:00.000-08:00

Whew, what a week! Tuesday was Sage's check up. Wednesday, Heath spent the evening at the after hours pediatric clinic with Hayden for a raging ear infection. Then to cap off a week of medical fun, Heath had his ACL repair surgery. Needless to say, we have already met the medical deductible for the year.
Heath had his surgery today at noon. I worked the morning and then hung out at the surgery center so I could chat with the doc. He told me that the surgery went great and that I would have my husband back at 100% in about 6 months or so. Then as Heath was coming to, I got to go back and be with him. The nurse unloaded so many instructions on me; not sure what all I have missed, but there is no way that I got all that. No weight bearing this weekend. I have to empty the JP drain, meds every 4 hrs. around the clock. ice, brace. Follow up Monday to get the drain out. "oh, and did you bring crutches with you?" No, why would I? So then off to the home medical store. Believe it or not we made it home, after I tried to pass out when they showed me how much blood had saturated his bandages. Yikes! The kids were very concerned and tried really hard to help out. Marlee just wanted to snuggle with daddy. It was very sweet. Poor guy is totally drugged and can hardly move. He is not in much pain because he got a femoral block. His leg is pretty much dead. However, it should wear off soon, and then the real fun begins.
Two angels, Kara and Joe, brough us dinner. So grateful, there are not words!!!
Should be an interesting weekend....

Tiny Dancer

2009-01-20T22:01:00.000-08:00

For Christmas, my mom got Sage ballet lessons. I get to be the one to take her and it has become one of my most favorite parts of the week. It is fun to chat with her on the way there. She has some really great things to say and doesn't always get my undivided attention.
During class she frequently peeks over to see if I am watching (as if I would look away), and when she catches my eye she gets the biggest smile on her face. Total joy!

The dance studio has a dress code: pink tights, pink leotards, pink shoes. Bun in hair. She LOVES it! There are probably about 6 little girls in her class and it is just dang cute!!!

Dear Poor Neglected Blog

2009-01-19T22:45:00.000-08:00

I am so sorry I have been neglecting you for the past few months. I know that there really is not a good excuse, but you know, 3 kids keep me busy. Not to mention, my new friend, Facebook. So I resolve to try to be better. Keep you up-to-date, sort of. And, hey, I will even throw in a facelift to show you that I do still love you.

Rockin New Years

2009-01-19T22:11:00.000-08:00

We celebrated New Years with a rock star party. Ted and Stacy and clan came over and we rocked out! The kids were excited to dress up in their new rock star shirts. Sage wanted to be Midori, her fav rocker on GH. We just happened to have a bit of pink hair spray left over from Halloween. Marlee got in on that fun as well.
Playing lead guitar, Hayden!

Sage on Bass!

and on the drums, Marlee!

Heath, being a drummer at heart, totally rocked on drums. I can hold my own on easy playing the guitar. Hayden is no slacker either, I think he is working on medium now. Sage just wants to whack the heck out of anything she can with drum sticks, or sing. Her favorite songs: Hit Me With Your Best Shot, No Sleep Till Brooklyn, and "Livinin on a Prayer."
Marlee likes to hold Hayden's little banjo-lookin guitar and be part of the fun.

Ted was impressive on the drums and Emma was a great understudy. James is definitely a rock star. And Stacy, well, lets just say she can sing AND dance!

Hayden likes to sing, "I wanna rock and roll all night, and probably every day!"

You guys Rock!!!

Our Christmas in Idaho

2009-01-01T21:05:00.000-08:00

OK, these two pictures weren't in Idaho, but I think they are really cute. My little elves.

We took the whole week of Christmas to be with family in Idaho. It was a cold and snowy week full of Nintendo, hair cuts and Santa.

For Christmas eve, we had a campfire in the snow, roasted marshmallows and did some sledding. It was so much fun. I loved listening to all the laughter as I held Marlee by the fire. Very festive. Gretchen made some fabulous food for dinner: Pork barbacoa. yum!

All the kids knew that they would get to open one gift before bed. It cracked me up to hear Hayden and Grayson saying that they shouldn't care too much because "its probably pajamas." "yeah, its always pajamas on Christmas Eve." Yeah right, those two were so excited to open their gift, which was indeed PJs. Marlee oh'ed and ah'ed like it was diamonds

!

Christmas morning, we got up at 4:00am. Hayden told me that he knew Santa had come because the stockings we had set out the night before were gone. Ol' Santa had taken them down stairs by the tree and jammed as many toys as he could possible fit in them.
Sage and Marlee got a Jammin Jeep Wrangler. Sage asked for it last year, but Santa didn't come through. Its all she has talked about for a solid year now. She can recite the commercial word for word! She was so excited to see that jeep. She kept saying over and over, "its just what I asked for, and Santa brought it!" She still tells anyone who will listen.

Hayden got Guitar Hero. Santa also brought GH world tour for Hayden, Heath and me. We are gonna be rock stars!
Dalton got a PSP.

Grayson got a camera, Gabe got tons of super spy gear.
Lots of other fun stuff too for everyone. We had to leave the day after Christmas so we had to sorta limit what the kids got out so that we could make sure it all got home.
Of course it didn't.

December to Remember

2009-01-01T16:34:00.000-08:00

December 1: Heath's Birthday! We celebrated by going to Red Robin for a free Birthday dinner. Heath's pick: Whiskey River BBQ Burger.
December 2: Sage's Fancy Nancy Birthday Party. Tres Posh!

December 5: Construction Council Christmas Party. As usual, we won a bottle of wine.
December 6: Santa was in town! We got there just at his lunch break so Hayden got to take him some cookies. Santa told us a great story: One Christmas Eve he was coming out of a chimney and all the reindeer had gathered around waiting for him. Donner, the big guy, questioned him. "hey old man, what gives? You didn't smell this good when you went down, what have you been eating?" So Santa confessed about all the cookies kids leave him. The reindeer let him know that he needed to share and so he did. They fell in love with oatmeal raisin cookies. He told the kids that they eat healthy stuff too; some people leave apples and carrots. The reindeer really like those. However he did share a little secret; he has never told them about chocolate, so if you leave chocolate chip cookies, Santa keeps those for himself.
My kids were mesmerized with the stories. It was magical. As usual, Hayden and Sage climbed up on his lap with no hesitation and chatted his ear off. Marlee might not be as accepting as the other two. She prefered to ride the rocking horse.

December 13: The Red Cougars last basketball game. Hayden really enjoyed basketball this season. He made several baskets each game. It was very fun to sit on the sidelines and cheer him on.
also, Santa's workshop at Hayden's school. Since I am in the PTA, I had to be there the whole time. It was really cute. The kids did their Christmas shopping and Santa showed up. Hayden was a little unsure about it because he did not look like the same guy from last week. Sage didn't notice or care, she climbed up and told him a few more things she would like.
Then,
Sage and me went to the Nutcracker. It has always been one of my most favorite thing to do at Christmas time. Sage thought it was great. Her favorite part was the party at the beginning when all the little kids fight over their new toys, and the Sugar plum fairy. She thinks she might be Clara next year.
December 15: Happy Birthday Me! and Auntie Shelly too! To celebrate, guess where we went? Yup, Red Robin. My free Birthday burger: Whiskey River BBQ CHICKEN. yum.

December 19: Hayden's last day of School. 5th day in a row of 2hr delays because of snow. Heath's Company Party. Sage's preschool got cancelled for the week so she didn't get to have her Christmas party. I got cheated out of my last minute-child free Christmas shopping.

December 20: Brave the roads and set out for Christmas in Idaho. Left at 10:00am, arrived 10:00pm. It was -5 degrees when we got there. brrr.
December 25: Wake up at 4:00am because "SANTA CAME!!!"

December 26: Load up the truck, head home; roads had not improved.
December 31: Play guitar hero until nearly midnight. Hayden fell asleep at 11:45pm. so close buddy!
And that was that. Now we start all over! Happy New Year!

Fabulous 4

2008-12-05T22:40:00.000-08:00

Sage turned 4 last weekend! Yipee! She has been anxiously awaiting this for, oh, 11months. At least since we stopped celebrating her 3rd birthday. She loves celebrations. Already has the next 3 Halloweens planned out. We celebrated her turning 4 for about a week. First, at Thanksgiving, then at my Dad's the next night. We went to a wedding on her actual birthday and she was totally convinced that all those people showed up for her birthday. And there was dancing!
That was not all, then, we had a houseful of her little pals over for a Fancy Nancy party. It was divine.

At 4, Sage is totally and completely girly. She loves all things pink-still! Favorite ice cream-pink, favorite dinner plate-pink, favorite rock star-Pink...
Dresses, everyday, she wears a dress. Now that the weather has changed, you might think she would want to wear something warmer. Nope, in fact she really gets mad that I make her wear a sweater with sundresses that she is very insistant on wearing. She loves to wear her tinkerbell dress grocery shopping. We get lots of looks. I have pretty much given up on jeans for her-NOT going to happen!

She doesn't have an ounce of shyness in her. She makes friends everywhere we go. She has quite a few little girlsfriends now and a few boyfriends too. She is pretty sure that she is going to marry Hayden some day. She really wants to be a bride.
She goes to preschool with Miss Michelle who she loves. Sage always gives me a full report of who was naughty at school everyday when I pick her up.

Cousin Avery would tell you that Sage is a really good sharer, however Marlee would disagree.
I am thinking she might have a future as a party planner. She has very lavish ideas and loves big get togethers. Whether its a trip to Seattle or Idaho, she is always on alert to "get packin up!" I always like to peek in her backpack and see what toys she deemed important enough to make the trip.
She has a vivid imagination and energy to spare. She can out-talk about anyone I have ever met. (yes, she has totally surpassed Hayden-he does have her on volume though). She really loves to sing. Her favorite songs are Drift Away, Hit Me with Your Best Shot, So What by Pink, and Primary songs: I love to see the temple, and I am a child of God. She belts out the tunes in the car, in the shopping cart in Target, in the park, everywhere. She loves Hannah Montana. Sometimes when she gets really excited, she randomly will yell out, "Guitar hero, Aerosmith!" Not sure why.
She is at a very fun age, she is enthusiastic about pretty much everything, loves everyone, and is willing to try anything. She can be a bit sassy at time, but she makes up for it. I can't believe she is 4 already, couldn't be more proud. Love you Sage! Happy Birthday!

Novemeber Wrap Up

2008-12-04T15:17:00.000-08:00

Found Marlee in the sink:
uh, where did November go? It was a blur, I vaguely remember that. Here is what we did last week:
I started back to work. Yup, after a year and a half with just the occasional weekend, it was time to head back. Its only a couple days a week, so its not too crazy (yeah right!) The girls go to the daycare at my hospital and Hayden does an afterschool program. I am enjoying some adult interaction; dietitians are a fun bunch!

Sage dressed herself for her first day of daycare; she wouldn't touch these shorts all summer long, but now that there is frost on the roof tops, why not. I did not let her wear this however, she had to change despite the protests.

Saw Twilight again, and I am pleased to say it was better the second time. Heath and my sister Kim went with me and they seemed to think it was OK so if you haven't seen it yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR???
Who is not thankful for football and a feast!

Thanksgiving was at Aunt Marie's this year. We had a giant crowd up on Camano Island. The food was plentiful and delicious. We had a ton of fun. I tell you, one thing I am so thankful for is being part of a family of amazing cooks! Marie makes all the bread she puts in the dressing, its fabulous! Kyle did the sweet potatoes this year and as far as I am concerned, he can do them every year. Those are my two favorite Thanksgiving foods. Heath says Pumpkin Pie is his fav. Hayden says turkey, Sage liked the jello, and Marlee was into the rolls and olives.
Hayden dancing with Heather, she married Brandon who works with Heath. The kids had a blast dancing. Heath asked if we should get a sitter for the wedding, I said no, it will be fun to all go. yeah, fun.

I did black friday at Southcenter-5:00am. Thought I was going to die on the overcrowded escalator! Yikes! The top landing from the escalator at Sears was crowded with people who had no where to go. As I got toward the top, the stairs kept going, but the people had stopped and we all smashed into each other as more people kept coming up. Very scary. All to save a few bucks on skill saws, blenders, and video games. Of course, everything I was after had sold out before I swam through the masses.

A certain blonde princess turned 4! Big fun, but that will get its own post.
The smaller of the princesses started nursery at church, but that hasn't gone so well so it won't get its own post.

If November was a blur, I am sure December with be even more so. "Will be" -uh, we are already working on it...

Twilight Movie

2008-11-22T16:29:00.001-08:00

So, since we have already stalked Stephenie Meyer, her website, and all the other fansites, read each book several times and did the midnight release for BD, we were not about to miss the midnight premier of Twilight. We have been counting down, watching trailors, seeing all the interviews on Ellen and Today, and pretty much everywhere.
So Stacy and I and our buddy Shannon got tickets well in advance and prepared to be dazzled.
Did it meet my expectations? Not even close. I was soooo disappointed. Stacy too. I think I will leave it at that as many people I have talked to really liked it. I did not. Perhaps my expectations were too high, perhaps I have read the books so many times I can recite whole chapters at a time, perhaps midnight is not the best time for me to watch a movie. An entire theater full of people, mostly teenage girls is typically not the place I voluntarilly hang out either. Maybe all these things contribute, but fact is, I did not like the movie, two thumbs down. :( It pains me to say that. I am going to see it again though, just to make sure.

Fancy Family

2008-11-22T16:18:00.000-08:00

Have you read Fancy Nancy? Reglier hancy fancy, as miss Avery would call it. Its great. Hayden and Sage love the picture from when the whole Clancy clan hit the King's Crown for dinner. Its the cutest. Well, one night, Sage convinced us all to dress up like in the story and then the kids wanted to recreate the picture. This is our attempt. Even Marlee got in on it. She loved her fancy skirt and kept the hat on all evening.

You Can Stand Under My Umbrella

2008-11-22T16:13:00.000-08:00

ella, ella, aye, aye, aye...
Love this funny picture of Sage from Auntie Jamie's 30th birthday Luau. Me and the girls went to Seattle. Heath and Hayden went to Idaho for Grayson's baptism. (Way to go Grayson! Sorry I wasn't there buddy!)
The birthday was way fun. We surprised Jamie. Lots of kids to play with and the food was divine!

Give the Boy a Knife

2008-11-02T08:31:00.000-08:00

OK, so its just a teeny tiny saw, but we let Hayden help carve pumpkins this year. He has begged to help carve for the last few years. Don't know why i agreed, 6 seems a bit young to carve, but he showed me this was not true. He did a great job. While I carved the Mario pumpkin, he did the mushroom one. Yes, that's what its supposed to be. I drew it, he carved it just right, so its my fault if no one can tell what it is. heehee.
I love carving pumpkins, its one of my favorite parts of halloween. When i was little, my dad would have me draw the faces on paper and then he would carve them out. He was kind of specific on what sort of things were allowed-no curves. Yup, pretty much the standard triangle jacks. (don't tell him, but BORING!)
Well, must say, carving gets to be a task. Heath has zero interest in carving so he guts them for me and then disappears. This year it was really nice to have a buddy to carve with. Hayden was very patient and just kept sawing away. We had a really great time.

Mario, Nancy, and a little ladybug

2008-11-01T16:48:00.000-07:00

We are riding a sugar high as we continually pump massive amounts of the candy aquired last night. Its been great! Marlee seems to prefer anything on a stick, Sage likes gummies and hard candies. Hayden says his fav candy is laffy taffy and some chocolate. Me, well, lets just say we don't have to worry about the kids getting their hands on any of the milky way darks. I confiscated all of those! Heath likes Almond joy-yuck.
This year Hayden was super Mario. He loves to play the New Super Mario brothers and Mario Kart, so guess it was a very good choice. Sage was Fancy Nancy from her beloved books. Pretty much no one knew who Fancy Nancy was, but she was dang cute anyway. The pink hair was her favorite part. She told everybody, "Merci" when she got candyMarlee was a lady bug. The monkey costume was too big, would have really been perfect for her, but she was adorable. "Cute as a bug" you might say!
We went to the trunk or treat at the church, visited a few friends houses in town and then played games with our friends Ted and Stacy. It was a really fun night. Kids didn't get to bed till really late, but hey, its only Halloween once a year.

One and a half

2008-10-30T21:32:00.000-07:00

Today, Marlee turns 18 months, one and a half years old!
I can't believe how fast this has happened. 18 months means time for nursery at church. Whoo Hoo!!! That is really exciting and also a bit frightening. I swear I was just lugging her around in an infant carrier. Time flys.
At 18 months, Marlee is a very busy girl. She hardly creates one gigantic mess before she has to rush off to destroy something else. If she wasn't so funny and cute and sweet, we might even be angry about this. We call her the destructo baby. She likes it.
Her favorites:
Person: mom, but barely. She loves it when Sage runs in to get her after a nap, they laugh at each other, not sure what is so funny though. She loves to greet Hayden after school and Heath when he gets home from work.
Place: Sage's pink booster seat. PLEASE mom, just let me ride in there once! or at any park with a slide, the bigger the better. No fear with this little one.
Food: yogurt, food off other people's plates. She is a scavenger. Marlee will ignore the food on her plate and scarf down all of Sage's lunch, even when they have exactly the same thing. I am on to her though, and now just switch plates as she climbs out of her seat to find new food. (Not to long ago, we were playing at the mcdonalds playland and she wandered to the table near us, climbed up into the highchair and began eating the little boy who had vacated the seat's french fries-yeah, I'm mother of the year! Talk about horrified)
Game: name that facial feature. She can't get enough of poking me in the nose. It is so funny. Coloring on the walls and table and carpet with stray marker is her new trick too. She seems to be fond of painting, but I only give her a brush and water which is ok because it serves as a drink when the painting is done.
Fetish: shoes. any shoe with do-Heath's work boots, my flip flops, Hayden's soccer cleats or Sage's black sparkle shoes. Her shoes are ok in a pinch. She is really good at walking in shoes that are way to big. Maybe she has a future as a clown...a mom can dream.
Comfort: binkie and her night-night (pink blankie). She loves to drop the binkie out of the crib against the wall so that when she gets up, we move the furniture around for a scavenger hunt. Its hilarious how this never gets old. She laughs every time I move the crib.
Word: "mama" Also: "bobo's" (from Diego), "pumpkin", she has a few words, but mostly she speaks gibberish. Boy, she can let you have it too if you make her mad.
"uh uhh" means yes. That can get confusing.
Animals: Dogs and monkeys. She makes a great monkey noise. She knows it too. Horses get her excited too, and neighbor cats.
Song: Shake it, by Metrostation. She seems to be a fan of Pink too. hmmm? But anything loud that she can dance to makes her happy.
Marlee is a tough little gal, she doesn't take to much abuse from anyone. Yet she has a very soft cuddly side that will absolutely melt my heart everytime. She likes to place one hand gently on my cheek and just look in my eyes. so sweet. She has a great sense of humor, love of adventure and an intense curiosity of just about everythink. I have little hand prints all over that just make me laugh. She brings me so much joy everyday. I can't believe how fast she is growing up.
I put together some pictures of the past six months. enjoy!

Something About Sage

2008-10-20T20:43:00.001-07:00

My Sage is an amazing little girl. She recently accomplished quite a feat, however, I have been afraid to post it because i was sure she would revert back if i did. Back in September, we all went to have our teeth cleaned and the dentist had a serious heart-to-heart with Sage about her thumb sucking habit. As a former thumb sucker, i found it to be very cute. Not only that, it calmed her so why worry right? Well, the dentist told her she was a beautiful princess with beautiful princess teeth, but her thumb sucking was starting to move her teeth and if she didn't stop, she would not have pretty teeth for much longer. He also confirmed that princesses do not suck their thumbs. As a former braces-wearing teenager, I understood what he was telling her. So after the gorgeous hygentist (Sage was quite sure she was Sleeping Beauty) backed up the good doc, Sage decided enough was enough. Me, i wasn't so sure so i offered up a bribe-a princess dress if she could go 2 weeks without sucking her thumb. Well, let me tell you, the bribe was completely unnecessary. Sage has never put her thumb in her mouth since we left the dentist office. Amazing! Getting to sleep at night was a bit tricky for awhile, but she is working on it. She picked out a tinker bell dress and tells everyone how she earned it. I am so proud of her and her accomplishment.

Big Boys

2008-09-11T14:33:00.001-07:00

The high school football team came by recently doing a fundraiser. I told them I would buy one of their cards if they played catch with Hayden for a few minutes. He had seen them coming from down the street and was so excited when they got to our house. Then, I made them pose for a picture... Who knows if they will knock on my door next year.

Corny

2008-09-10T21:25:00.001-07:00

Our Bishop at church is a farmer. A week or so ago, he got a whole dump truck load of corn and dropped it in the church parking lot. Mounds of corn! We were driving home from Hayden's baseball game and decided we should stop and get some. He grabbed an ear and started to swing like he was Ichiro. Some of the kids running around the parking lot were eating it raw. Sage thought it was a good idea but quickly changed her mind with the first bite. All three were excited to take a little souvenir home.
Mmmmm, the corn was fantastic! We froze 60 ears, and about the same off the cob. Our freezer is full of corn and nectarines!

1st day

2008-09-08T20:42:00.000-07:00

Hayden's first day of first grade went well he says. I can't seem to get any details about school from him other than he now gets TWO recesses! Pretty big deal to him! Also, he is excited to be able to eat at school. So far he has mostly taken "cold lunch" but experiments a bit with buying hot lunch and sometimes just milk. He brought me a spork the other day because it came in the pack with a straw and napkin when he got milk and thought it was just too cool and handy to throw away.
I haven't been able to figure out what else happens during the day, it might be a secret because he isn't sharing. Sort of a first for Hayden...
Sage started preschool and loves it. She loves Michelle her teacher and has been waiting all summer to start. She knows a few of the little kids in her class and is busy trying to learn all her new friends names. She brings home cute little worksheets and is so proud of them. She was tickled to wear her Fancy Nancy ensemble the first day. "My shirt says mer-a-see, that means thank you"

Jack Johnson at the Gorge

2008-09-08T20:31:00.000-07:00

For Father's day, we got Heath tickets to Jack Johnson, his fav. He had to wait a few months, but the concert was so worth it. We had not been to the Gorge for a concert before but had heard good things. WHOA! it was so amazing! What a view! We got us a little spot on the hillside and ate our Subway as the sun set and then settled in for a great show. Sometimes you go to a concert and the performers sound all distorted and its really a bit disappointing. Not Jack. He was as good and perhaps better than his CDs. Stacy took the kids for the night (I've said it before, but man, is she a great friend or what?!!!)
It was a very lovely evening, not too hot, not too cold. Millions of stars. Great music.

Olympics

2008-08-26T21:39:00.000-07:00

So, I finally found the cure to Post-Twilight depression.
The Olympics!
Did you love them? We did.
We kicked them off with a opening ceremonies party. We had yummy Chinese food and good friends. We played the Wii-Mario vs Sonic Olympics, tried to do another game with frozen T-shirts that didn't quite work out like Family Fun said it would. It was a fun night. The opening ceremonies were phenomenal! I stayed up all through the parade of nations and fell asleep right before they lit the flame. Then I proceeded to try to stay up well past midnight everynight for the duration.

Heath and I were jumping up and down watching Michael Phelps swim. I was so excited for the mens gymnastics bronze. Nastia, Shawn...fabulous! Love all things gymnastics. Women's Beach volleyball was Heaths favorite, hmmm, wonder why. Hayden loved the basketball. Sage's favorite was the syncronized diving. She told me that she wants to dive in the next Olympics-go for it Sis, we will be there to cheer you on. She will only be 7, maybe she can dive for China, they like them young. Track and field was sorta disappointing. The 4x100 relays had me so mad I could hardly keep watching. But some of the later events were fun. The sweep in the 400 was really fun to watch. It was so great. Hayden keeps wandering about humming the Olympic Theme and I am already planning to go to the Vancouver Winter Games in 2010. Now, I just need to figure out what to do with my evenings.

Tail End

2008-08-25T23:01:00.001-07:00

So we had an incredibly busy summer. Last week we took a final trip to Seattle just the kids and I. It was too short as always. We happened to pick the worst weather of the summer for our week, but that barely slowed us down. We took off Sunday after church and got to my dads in time to watch some of the gymnastics.
Monday we went to Saltwater Park, a place I spent a lot of time at over the years growing up. What a nostalgic place! It poured on us, but that was OK. We checked out barnacles, and looked for shells. I think Marlee might have eaten some seaweed, but I am not sure. Hayden climbed the rocks and Marlee desperatly wanted to swim in the Sound, but as it was maybe 60 degrees, I wouldn't let her (oh yeah, and she can't swim). Sage was a bit more hesitant than the others, she was really bummed that the snack bar was closed.
We went at low tide and boy, was it low! There was an Army ship right off the shore doing cleanup of the bottom of the Sound. Pretty cool to watch. Hayden had been hoping to make a sand castle, but the park sand is too soft until it turns into rocks. hmmm, maybe we will have to take a trip to somewhere with great beaches for building sandcastles soon.

My Mom and Dad put together a great BBQ for the whole fam that night. It was way fun to see everyone-totally makes it worth the drive just for that.
Tuesday we bounced at a new bouncy place. Marlee showed her agressive side when any kids tried to take her ball. Sorta eye-opening for me. I have seen her get down and dirty at home wrestling with her dad and brother, but never to strangers. going to have to work on that. We did a little shopping at the outlet mall in North Bend with Avery and Jamie-Good stuff! Aunt Shelly took Hayden and Sage for the night. Wow! Marlee and me went to dinner with my parents and it was so peaceful. I got to check out the new Southcenter mall. Fabulous!
Wednesday, me and Marlee had lunch with Grandma Bird and Marie. We may have done some damage at Lasting Memories Scrapbook store. It was very nice to spend time with them. Then I got my kiddos back. They were totally exhausted-good work Shelly and Brianna! Dinner with Jamie and Kyle. Avery had some great books-Fancy Nancy and Alice the Fairy. Sage hopes to aquire them soon.
Thursday we hit the Rock before heading home.
Some of you may notice that there are certain things I do pretty much everytime I go to Seattle. Its never enough though. Sometimes its hard to be so far away. I hated all the nasty traffic, the rain was a drag, and its always hard to be away from Heath, but getting to see everyone was wonderful. I had a great trip and can't wait till we go back again.

1st Grade

2008-08-25T21:54:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that summer is over! What happened? I swear it was just last week that I took the girls to the craft store to stock up on supplies to keep us busy this summer before school was out. As if that was necessary!
Hayden starts school tomorrow. 1st grade! Wow. We met his teacher today and got to see lots of friends from Kindergarten. He is getting to be so grown up. As I was unloading his school supplies, I watched him visit with his buddies Braxton and Rylie. They talked about the places they went and what all they had been doing for the past few months and then chatted about video games then the Olympics and it really hit me that he is not such a little guy anymore. I tried to keep from getting emotional but it was definetly a moment for me. Tomorrow he will head off to 1st grade, and be gone all day. Don't get me wrong, I am soooo looking forward to this, but it is also so hard to let him go. All day, that is a long time. I am really going to miss him, he is an incredible kid. So smart, so kind, so sensitive. I couldn't be prouder. I think the girls are going to have a tough time too. Sage is going to be lost without her big brother to play with. Marlee loves to wrestle with him and lights up EVERY time he walks into the room. He is so good to both of them.
So, 1st graders are pretty grown up. Hayden got a new Nike backpack because the old Spiderman one was for Kindergarteners. He has his own hair products because he likes to style his hair in the morning just right. He is excited to ride the bus. We got him a lunchable at the store today for him to take for his lunch-he thinks those are for special occasions. And he says that 2 recesses is pretty cool too. I know he is going to do well. I just think I need another week to get me ready for this.
Hayden and his teacher

Got Fruit?

2008-08-25T21:44:00.000-07:00

Our nectarine tree was so loaded this year that one of the branches snapped from the weight of the fruit. Even after that loss, we still got 4 big paper boxes full. Nectarine pie, jam, smoothies, frappes, leather, even salsa; dried nectarines, fresh nectarines, frozen nectarines... any more ideas? They are soooo yummy!
Not as many pears, but they look to be manageable.
Oh, and if anyone was concerned, our pepper plants that were violated earlier in the summer have continued to produce and we are getting hot and spicy around here!

Breaking Dawn

2008-08-16T09:40:00.001-07:00

OK, its been a couple weeks since my last post. Where have I been? Oh, a little town called Forks. Breaking Dawn came out on the 2nd of this month. So, now that I am on the last couple of chapters of my second read, I am starting to realize that life must go on...I absolutely loved this series. Breaking Dawn was not my favorite, but there is certainly enough closure for me that I don't feel like there should have been more. well, perhaps more Edward, but who doesn't want a bit more Edward??? My absolute fav part of the entire twilight series is found in the final pages though. good stuff.
Stacy and I went to the Barnes and Noble midnight release party. Just us and a few hundred teenagers and a handful of other obsessed moms. It was great. Stacy wore her Team Edward Tshirt with pride. I had a bit more trouble deciding. Team Edward on front, team Jacob on back. Love that kid!
No, I'm not kidding, we really wore t-shirts. We had a ton of fun. We made an agreement that we wouldn't talk to each other before we were both done, but 7:30 the next morning, Stacy was calling to discuss the first part. :) She is such a fun friend!
Imagine my shock when the paper arrived the other morning and found my friends from forks making headlines. (With a little creative help from Heath) We laughed pretty good over this. Isn't he funny?

Vacation 08

2008-08-02T11:25:00.000-07:00

For vacation, we headed on a road trip despite the $4.25+ gas prices. 1st stop: Boise. We devised a 4 hour a day maximum drive plan so that Marlee would cope better. (umm, turns out naps are important too) We stayed at our beloved Springhill suites and had dinner at Wingers. Great start to the trip!
Second stop was Salt Lake City. We were there for a few days so we were able to do some fun stuff: Park City, where they had the 2002 Olympic games; the Hogle zoo, a really great mall-the gateway, and cousin Seran's 1st birthday party. Salt Lake is super family friendly. I wish we had stayed a few more days because there is so much to see and do.
Favorites:
Heath: Alpine slide, rock climbing with Hayden
Lori: The Olympics museum, the Flying Aces Aerial show, riding the chair lift with Sage
Hayden: Alpine slide, penguins at the zoo
Sage: The white alligator at the zoo, riding the carousel
Marlee: THE MONKEYS!!! "hi guys!" over and over and over-Didn't want to see anything else. Milkshakes at McDonalds.
Then on to Panguitch where we got to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Gretchen and the boys. Lots of Wii and DS downloading, 4 wheelers, a parade and lots of visiting with family. Thursday we got to see most of the Mitchell clan, and Clay and Kristi and family. There was a bit of a discussion...
Do you dip grilled cheese in hot cocoa? How about toast? What are your thoughts on homemade syrup. Please leave me a comment with your views. Its quite important that you are very honest with your opinion. There might be a couple marriages on the line.
Anyway. We went to the gorgeous and amazing Bryce Canyon. Spent a day at the Cabin at Panguitch lake.
It was loads of fun, even if Henri's drive in didn't have English chips.
Favs from Panguitch:
Heath: riding 4wheelers in the hills with his dad and the boys, chubby cheese burgers
Lori: reading Eclipse on the porch during twilight :), Riding the 4 wheeler with Heath looking for the tree we carved our initials in when we were down on Spring break in High school-didn't find it though.
Hayden: The parade, riding 4 wheelers
Sage: getting candy during the parade, riding with mom and Gretchen to Cedar city and going to the Pizza Factory, and Beaver for cheese
Marlee: gathering up unattended drinks and finishing them off. Doing laps around the van in the driveway.

Week 4: Boys

2008-07-15T07:32:00.000-07:00

So we are only on week 4, I had to double check that because I was sure it should be about week 17 or so. This past week seems like maybe it could have been at least 3 or 4 weeks long.
My nephews were here. Dalton, Grayson and Gabe. Sunday morning before church, Hayden says, “Now there will be more boys than girls!” Yup, the testosterone was flowing!
Monday we did the water fountains and Playground of Dreams. Always a good time. At lunch I learned really quick that 6 kids eat a lot of food. I braved Fred Meyer for more groceries with all 6 of them. Crazy, huh? Acutally, it went extremely well. They were all well behaved. As we shopped along, some guy saw us, turned to his wife and said, “whoa, she’s got an army!” The boys laughed and laughed about that pretty much all week. Heath took a Frisbee and they all played during Hayden’s soccer practice at the park. Not sure Hayden was into playing soccer so much that night, he kept looking over at the Frisbee players.
Tuesday we got to start swim lessons for Sage. The boys all took their Nintendo DSs. Well except for Gabe, he had lost his by this point. We rented a couple of Wii games so that it could be all video games, all the time. Well, almost…That afternoon, I invited Michael, Brenna, and Nathan down to slip and slide with the guys and Sage. OK, 9 kids now. I must say, the 3 additional kids made life really easy-who would have guessed. Everyone was completely entertained, all I had to do was provide towels and popsicles. As if that wasn’t enough, when Heath got home we headed out on the river for some tubing and wake boarding. It was a gorgeous night! The cousins loved riding the tube. Hayden decided that he would rather hold the flag, a job he asks about every single time we get on the boat, but rarely gets. He said he really likes to ride with Uncle Kyle, so he will just wait till Kyle comes back and let the guys have turns instead. Dalton tried out the wake board. I would have loved to have gotten some pictures, but I was on the beach with the girls, and Hayden and Gabe who were having the time of their lives swimming and eating sand. He made it up though, so we screamed like crazy people as Heath drove by pulling him. Way to go Dalton! He was pretty pumped up about it.
By Wednesday, my house was as trashed as thoroughly as possible. I am amazed that only one DS was missing. Me and Dalton had turned the place upside down looking for it. Meanwhile, the other kids had pulled out every single toy we owned making our search slightly more complicated. No luck. After swim lessons, we went to the park with a couple of other moms from church. Hayden had a soccer game that night, so we all packed up to cheer him on. He did awesome! There is about 145 kids on the team so playing time is limited, but he makes his presence known. I love to watch him play, he is so serious about it.
Thursday we played the beloved candy bar game. Who doesn’t love a game where the playing pieces are candy bars and everyone wins??? We were hoping to take the boat out again, but believe it or not, the wind picked up. Grrrr…we went out for pizza instead-after some much needed quiet time watching a movie. Then, as if the candy bar game wasn’t enough, we did mystery ice cream game. 6 unmarked pints, you guess the flavors. Well, it was a tasty day. We all pretty much agreed that the ice cream game was our favorite between the two games. AND, I finally found Gabe’s DS buried under Sage’s carseat(???)
Friday, our time was limited, so we had to squeeze lots in: swim lessons, a little geocaching and a picnic, then we hit open gym at the gymnastics gym near us. 2 hours of running, jumping, bouncing and flipping. Too much fun. I sent them home with Heath, wore out. Then Marlee and me went shopping.
We loved having the boys here-Thanks Gretchen for letting us have them for the week!

Favorites:
Heath: Playing guitar hero with Dalton after all the small people went to bed
Lori: watching the boys crack up playing the Rabbids game, and dancing around to the crazy songs on Grayson’s ipod
Hayden: DS downloading with Grayson, playing on the beach with Gabe and Sage on the Bonsai.
Sage: The candy bar game, swinging at the park with Gabe
Marlee: the Ice cream game, the potato rounds at Eatza Pizza

Our 4th

2008-07-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

OK, I know, total slacker! The 4th was over a week ago, but I've been really busy. We had Jamie and Kyle and Avery here and it was soooo much fun. Jamie actually put a fabulous post about it at her site :All Things Avery
We started out with a big ol pancake breakfast, then headed out for a bit of geocaching. We found 1 of 2, but the 2nd one seemed like perhaps someone else had found it and not returned it :( The kids love to take turns carrying around the GPS and treasure bag.
After some power napping, it was time to get serious about the celebration. We made some cute 4th of July crowns. Sage and Avery were extra excited, as every princess would be to have a new crown (or corona, as Dora might say). Marlee was happy to have one of her own too. I found the cutest straws at Target that were perfect for the project. I did not realize that they could also serve as pom poms, an added bonus.
The kids tossed around pop its in the driveway. We also had glow sticks for when it got dark-Pretty risky! We grilled and then headed to the river for the big show. Hayden and Sage crawled into my lap and watched the show. About two big booms in, Sage says to me, "Mom, this is fun, can we do it again?"
The whole weekend was tons of fun. We boated, played Wii, and got the world's absolute worst service ever at Wendys. Not even kidding on that last part.
I loved having them here. I especially liked to watch Sage and Avery play. Sage is sorta lacking in the little girl friends department. They are both at a great age and get along really well and are so darn cute. They both love Dora, and pink and dress up. I figure only another year or so and Marlee will jump right in there with them. Don't feel to bad for Hayden, he got plenty of boy time with Heath and Uncle Kyle playing video games. And that was only the warm up for his week with his cousins.

Missing

2008-07-07T08:56:00.000-07:00

Missing: ALL OF MY PEPPERS!!! yes, my cute little bell, anaheim, and jalapeno peppers were pilfered! hmmm, any guesses? I can tell you that my kids know better, and even if they didn't, peppers are not the thing they would take.
The gap in the fence makes me suspicious especially since I saw Ashley the neighbor girl picking some cherries not to long ago.
Heath says its payback. He confesses that he owes Aunt Phyllis a big apology since him and Kody used to pick her apricots and throw them around the neighborhood. I am guilty of picking all the Benson's roses when I was a kid. I picked ALL their gorgeous flowers and put them on bushes in my yard. Real sneaky, huh?
Anyway, I am so sad, I was really excited about them. Probably will patch the fence over the next few days. If anything happens to any of my tomatoes, I might resort to electric fence around my garden.
...probably can't do the shotgun filled with salt like Heath suggested...

Week 3

2008-07-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

Week 3 was all about house guests. We had my college roommate Amy,and her husband Seth and baby Levi. Then Jamie, Kyle, and Avery came. Sunday night, we got Dalton, Grayson, and Gabe. So the fun will keep going!
Hayden finished the first session of swim lessons. I think we will try to squeeze another session in somewhere before school starts back up. The first week of swim lessons, I tried to no avail to get Marlee in the splash pool. Sage loves it so I thought she would too. Nope. But last week, that was all she wanted. The little pool is only about a foot deep but that was enough for her. Marlee stood in the water and squealed and giggled and splashed. So cute. We set up our own little pool in the back yard for even more fun.
Tuesday, I had my second epidural steroid injection. This time I was super sore at the injection site. It was pretty miserable. The doctor says if this one doesn't work, he probably won't do another. Not sure what options I will have, and frankly, this last shot doesn't really seem to be working this time either. Very sad about that :(

Our 4th was so fun. The kids were so excited for the fireworks. Avery wanted to see the "big meatball" ones! They were so cute playing in the little pool, riding scooters and playing dress up.
We went boating on Saturday and it was wonderful. I forgot to sunscreen my back so I am a bit pink now. The kids all rode the tube and had a great time. Well, maybe not Jamie and Avery when they got sunk.
It was so nice to have visitors. We hope that they all had as good a time as we did.

Summer Week 2

2008-06-29T21:00:00.000-07:00

All three, all day, all week...
We did a whole lot of running around.
Swim lessons for Hayden, while Sage entertains herself in the splash pool; Marlee just does laps around the fence.
First Soccer Game: Hayden's team, the Orange Jets got rocked by a group of girls in purple. :)
Hayden got his own library card. And we set off on the summer reading program. We are reading James and the Giant Peach, Mr. Baseball and Katie Lynn Cookie Company. Hayden wows me with his reading.
Lots of sun-Thank goodness for spray on sunscreen, and the glue stick looking sunscreen is fab for faces! Sprinklers, kiddie pools, friends, fountains and slip-n-slides, oh my.
Marlee 2-fistin popsicles. The cherry-mango is yummy (and it was mine, originally)Both top teeth have FINALLY come in!!! whoo hoo. Boy was she a bear the last few weeks (months).
Marlee's favorite outdoor activity: painting. Give her a bucket of water and a brush and she is good to go. No mess, no clean up. Sage loves this too.
Hayden and I played several games of Uno, I celebrated the graduation from kiddie games. It was lots of fun to play a real game. Unfortunatly I think Sage and Marlee still have lots of Candy land and Shoots and Ladders left in them.
Lots of yard work, got the back yard looking decent.
1st boat ride of the year. Oh wow, now it's really summer! Marlee loved the boat. I was a bit worried after last summer, but she just was too little. Sage and Hayden and I dipped our toes in the frigid river, too wimpy to go any further. Hoping to log many more hours on the boat before fall.

Spike!

2008-06-22T09:04:00.000-07:00

Marlee's first up-do!

Summer-Week 1

2008-06-21T22:04:00.000-07:00

Our first week of summer is in the books. What a week too!

Monday: LAST DAY of Kindergarten!!! Since Hayden is officially in first grade now, we decided that him and his friends could walk home from school. James and Michael are now big 3rd graders so I didn't need to worry about the short walk (but I am a mom, and so I did anyway!) Despite my nagging back, me and Stacy walked part of the way to greet them. They were pretty proud to be on their own, very cute! Then after dashing through the Welcome to Summer banner at Stacy's, they were ready to celebrate. Not with me though. Sage got invited to a friends (Oh my, isn't she big stuff) Hayden invited a friend over, but along the way they ended up at the neighbors for a big water party. Peace and quiet for me and Marlee. Hayden picked McDonalds for his end of the year dinner before his first soccer practice.
Tuesday: We sent Hayden off to Sports Camp! Whoo hoo. Heath took me to get an epidural steroid injection in my back. (jury is still out if it really did me much good). Played with the girls, and boy is it quiet without Hayden. Sage eats up the one-on-one though. All princess, all day!

Wednesday: More Sports camp, Hayden got to meet some players from the local arena football league team. He even got them to sign the ball he got at the game Saturday! Numbing medication still seemed to be having a bit of an effect, so me and the girls hit the craft stores and got all kinds of stuff to create all summer long.
Thursday: Sage had Brenna and Nathan over to play. It was a gorgous day, so there was a bit of sprinkler fun in the backyard. Hayden refused to swim at sports camp. It was also our 9yr anniversary! Yay! How did wii celebrate; let mii tell you: we got a Wii! Big fun. The kids were really excited too.
Friday: Last day of Camp. Sage's friend Marissa came to play. We painted toes and made crowns. Marlee was intrigued by painted toes. A few moms from church met us at the park for lunch and fountain fun. Whoa, was it hot! Aubrey the babysitter came over while we had dinner at PF Changs (it was fabulous, as usual).

Saturday: Picked Cherries, and for the second year, they are full of bugs, YUCK! by this evening, the kids were just about to melt down stage, they are so exhausted by all the weeks events. me too.

Team Apollo

2008-06-09T13:07:00.000-07:00

Hayden is done with T-ball. He had a great season and loved every minute of it. He was so proud to have a uniform, and loved it when Sage had gymnastics before his games because then he would get to wear the uniform to the gym and Coach Brett would tell him how cool he looked. Hayden has pretty much lived for baseball the past few months. He practices hitting and pitching when he gets home from school, then meets the big boys as they come up the hill for a little game of baseball in our yard and waits for Heath to get home for some catch. We had a couple games of backyard baseball before my back got really bad and it was as close to Heaven as this little boy could imagine. We love his enthusiasm.
He loved playing on Team Apollo. He had a ton of really cute teammates. His buddy Cooper from our neighborhood was on his team, and he quickly made friends with all the other kids. One of the kids he really seemed to connect with was Claire. They loved to race each other to the parking lot after each game and loved to play catch with each other during warm ups. One day he came home from school so excited he could hardly talk (yeah, that's huge!) He had seen Claire at school!
Sage also formed a cute little friendship with the older brother of one of the kids on Hayden's team. Tad is in 1st or 2nd grade, but he was always so kind to Sage and they became buddies.
At the end of the season we had a little ice cream party and the kids all got trophies-cute bobble head ones. The coaches said a little about each kid as they handed them out. When they got to Hayden, Coach Mike said, "if I had a golden glove award to give out, this kid would definetly get it!" Hayden didn't really know what that meant, but was pretty proud anyway.

Birthday in Boise

2008-05-31T21:10:00.001-07:00

OK, as the final few hours of May wind down, I must confess that it is sort of a relief to turn the page on the calendar. Its been a whirlwind month. My picture file for May says 598 pictures taken, but I have a few more to download! Whoa. I'm tired.
Anyhow, the tons of pictures just means that we had a ton of fun. Last weekend especially! We met up with Grandma and Grandpa, Gretchen and all the boys in Boise for Hayden's birthday blow out! Good times!
First stop was Boondocks, if you've ever driven through Boise, you for sure have passed it and said, "wow, that looks like fun!" You would not be wrong. Even on Memorial day weekend, it was really fun. Bumper boats, Go Karts, mini golf, the arcade, prizes and snacks. What more could a kid ask for? Well, maybe a water slide or two, but they weren't open yet and we gotta save something for later in the summer, right?
Hayden and Sage rode the bumper boats with Daddy and soaked Grandpa, Uncle Will and Gabe, Dalton and Grayson. They got a bit back in return too.
Then, we rode the go karts. Hayden was a little nervous about them, so he rode with me because I am a chicken too. We pretty much got lapped by everyone.
Marlee slept through putt putt golf, but everyone else seemed to have a good time. The arcade was last. Think Chuck E Cheese. Actually they had some really fun games. The motorcycles were really fun. Aunt Gretchen figured out which games score the most tickets so Sage cleaned up on the prizes. If only we had gotten 360,000 tickets, we could have won a Wii...

Family Favs:
Heath-playing baseball at the park, Playing guitar hero at the hotel (he rocked out on Welcome to the Jungle, pretty good for a beginner!)

Lori-minigolf with everyone
Hayden-Every part of Boondocks!
Sage-Staying the night in Aunt Gretchen's room
Marlee-Getting her own cupcake in the bathtub

Stephenie Meyer!

2008-05-21T20:59:00.001-07:00

Have you ever done anything that you look back on and say, "wow, that was fun, silly, but really fun!"? Well, I just did. Stacy and me went to Portland yesterday to go to the Stephenie Meyer book signing for The Host. Its a 3 1/2 hour drive, but seemed so much shorter, chatting the whole way. While in Oregon, who can resist a little tax free shopping? Not us. We did some damage, but, I like to think mostly about all the money I saved. haha
Stacy and I were really not excited to drive in the city. She got the honors and did fabulous I must say, despite my constant efforts to get her lost. We really wanted to eat at the downtown Spaghetti Factory, but the silly place closes in the afternoon for a few hours, of course, right when we needed to be there. No worries, we had a yummy dinner at the Macaroni Grill.
Then off to the book signing...
We got there about 5:30, doors opened at 6, show at 7. The line was already wrapped around the building. Tons of teenage girls and their moms. Lots of Twilight bags, tees and such. We stood in line behind a cute girl who was quite knowledgable about how the whole thing would go down, and in front of a mom and her girls who were clueless. It was fun to chat with people who shared our obsession.
When we got in the doors, we got our pre-signed copy of the host and a ticket to get it personalized.
The theater was so dark we couldn't even see if seats were empty or not. It was really kind of scary. We got frusterated but ended up on the end of an aisle, pretty close to the front. not bad. Stacy wanted to read but it was too dark to see anything. I had questions to submit, so I got up to figure out how that was going down. I was walking around in the lobby when some kid bumped into me. I saw him coming and my first thought was, "a boy, at Stephenie Meyer? brave" Then I was irritated with him for bumping into me! But then I noticed that he looked a lot like the guy who is playing Sam Uley in the Twilight movie. I practically ran back to Stacy to tell her about my encounter. As I was telling her this, I noticed him walk into the theater and as he walked, he was attracting a crowd. The two sweet girls sitting next to us asked us what was going on and I told them that I was pretty sure the guy was Solomon Trimble. They jumped up and went over in line and ended up getting a great picture of him. They said he was really nice too. He posed for lots of pictures. Stacy couldn't talk me into going over though!

My pictures didn't come out good at all in that horrible, dark theater!At 7, the crowd screamed and screamed when Stephenie came out. It was really exciting. She seemed sorta nervous to be in front of a crowd; she talked really fast. I was sorta sad that I never figured out how to submit questions; mine were really good, much better than what she answered (really nothing new that hadn't been asked at other signings-come on people do your homework before you get there!)
She was done talking before 7:30. She walked right by us on her way out. I could have touched her, but settled for a wave, and she smiled back. Tried to get a picture as she approached, but mostly just got her torso. hahaha The girls next to us got about the same thing.
The signing was a bit of a disappointment. I think we talked ourselves into believing that we would go to ice cream with her or something afterwards. I don't know, we were crazy. With that many people to sign books for, she has to move fast, and boy, we got to the table and she was done with our books before we really knew what happened. It was way too fast. No pictures were allowed. So, we headed back to the hotel after a brief stop at Safeway for some Ben and Jerrys. Stephenie didn't join us. But, no regrets, we had a great time. Maybe she will be in Seattle for the Breaking Dawn tour...
I totally ripped this off from the twilightmoms website! The whole front row was a group of twilightmoms, it was pretty cool to see them too! We were surprised to see that the sign was changed during the show.
Stacy reading Twilight while we wait for our turn to get our books signed. I got my Host and my Twilight signed! woo hoo.
BTW: LOVE the Host, its amazing, on my second read right now :)

SIX!!!

2008-05-19T10:56:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Hayden! He has turned the big oh-six. He is quite pleased to be six because now he gets to move up in the age bracket for pretty much all sports-out of the 4-5's and into the 6-8's. That's big! It also means a later bed time. Yeah! Its good to be six, it's much more independent than 5. Six year olds don't have to ask for a glass of water; they just climb the counters, get their own cup and get the pitcher of water out of the fridge all on their own. Six year olds can make their own peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Really kind six year olds think of their little sisters and make extras! Thank goodness Hayden is one of the kind 6 year olds. Six year olds prefer showers to baths. He is a shower singer too. His favorite shower song cracks me up; its the water cycle song he learned at school.
"Evaporation, condensation, precipitation, on my head" sung to clementine.
Six year olds are responsible enough to have gadgets. Hayden got a Nintendo DS for his birthday. He played all weekend long. We have been talking about the DS since Grandpa brought his here at Easter. Hayden didn't really want much else. So to throw him off, I wrapped it and then put it in a big box and wrapped that. When he saw the big box, he was excited, but you could see the concern in his eyes-the box was way to big to be a DS! It was fun, he opened the big box and joy just spread over his whole face; the little boxes inside were just the right size.

At 6:
*Hayden is a great reader, he has moved into beginner chapter books like Flat Stanley, The Magic Treehouse, and Cam Jansen mysteries. I must say, watching my boy learn to read is one of the greatest accomplishments yet.
*Hayden is addicted to all things sports: T-ball is in season right now. He can't wait to do coach pitch though. He swings the bat around before his turn to hit just like Ichiro does. Its hilarious. He plays catch with the boys in the neighborhood everyday after they get off the bus. And nothing makes him happier than a game of backyard baseball with the whole family.
*Hayden refuses to wear sandals, and shorts are only OK if they are athletic shorts. If I veto athletic shorts, he opts for jeans and sneakers, even if its 98 degrees. Maybe the 100s will sway him.
*Hayden has not lost a single tooth. All the kids in his class have lost at least 1 or two, some have more holes than teeth. Not Hayden.
His favorite foods are blueberries and stawberries. Honorable mention goes to apples, grapes, and German Pancakes.
*Hayden has taken on the job of secretary. If you have called our house, you know this. It can be difficult to get him to give the phone up. He has also learned to make calls too, mostly to his friend Emma. (she sends him notes with her phone number, so cute!)
*Hayden's taste in TV is maturing, he would prefer to watch the Mariners, but will settle for whats on Nick or Toon Disney. He is bored with the shows on Playhouse Disney. This is sad for me...we did the Wiggles concert a few years ago and now, he says he doesn't like that show.
*Hayden plays hard. His little friends come over and they play hide and seek in the back yard and make obstacle courses and ride scooters and stuff. He plays amazingly well with Sage and has really tried hard to include Marlee too. He will entertain himself or help out me and Heath with chores. If he can find someone willing, he will play till they give up. He never does. He comes in at night coated in sweat and dirt, exhausted. All boy!
Six is a funny age, trying so hard to be grown up, but still trying to enjoy all the parts of being a kid. I love to watch him work through his decisions. He is so expressive. A big Hayden grin can brighten even the most gloomy of days. He is gentle and loving to his sisters and a friend to all he meets. I am so proud of my little man who is growing up sooooo fast. Happy birthday buddy!!!

Fortune

2008-05-15T10:44:00.000-07:00

Hayden and Sage got fortune cookies at PF Changs when Heath took them to get my gift card. Heath had kept Sage's fortune and showed it to me last night: YOU HAVE AN UNUSUAL MAGNETIC PERSONALITY
Yep!

Mother's Day 08

2008-05-15T10:03:00.000-07:00

We sorta took the whole weekend to celebrate. Why not, huh?
Saturday we went on a bike ride along the river. It was so much fun. We went about 4 miles; I can't give you the exact number because after we stopped to take pictures, I forgot to restart the GPS again for a ways. opps. Heath and Hayden could have ridden all day long, but my back objected towards the end, and there is only so much you can ask of a 3 year old. Sage was such a trooper peddling away on her little bike with the training wheels. When the kids took their helmets off, they had sweaty hair! Marlee rode in the trailer with her little face pressed against the side to see out. She didn't make a peep the whole way. She seemed to enjoy herself though. What a gorgous day! Hayden made sure we all dipped our hands into the river to feel how cold it is. Guess we won't be making any swimming trips to the river yet. :)

Sunday, of course, was the chocolate breakfast, my most favorite tradition. It was decadent and wonderful. The kids were so excited to give me their gift. Hayden came up with the idea all by himself and was quite pleased with it. They got me a gift card to PF Changs! mmm, lettuce wraps in my near future. The secret had been killing Sage for a couple of days. She is terrible at secrets, but managed to not tell me. Hayden also made sure that i got some chocolate too. That boy is great, always looking out for me. The kids did handprints at primary. I love that. I remember doing handprints for my mom when i was in school. The cute little poem, makes me cry every time. I cried when Hayden gave me his card too. It said, "Mom, I give you my heart, love Hayden" He made a cute little heart pin too. His little handwritting is what did it, so precious.
My kids are so much fun. They went above and beyond to make it a special day for me. Heath too!

Celebrating 1

2008-05-13T22:03:00.000-07:00

Well, the party is over, but the fun continues. We did lots of fun stuff to celebrate Marlee's birthday. She got her first taste of cake on her actual birthday (it just didn't feel right to make her wait till the party). What a shocker-she loved it!
Our trip to Seattle was so much fun. We headed over nice and early Friday and had time to visit the Build-a-bear store.

Hayden had gotten his bear, Hank, for his birthday a couple of years ago from Aunt Gretchen and the boys and it was such a special gift. We were haveing a tough time coming up with a gift idea for Marlee, and then we decided she needed a bear too. Hayden and Sage had a blast creating Claire the bear just for their sister (we named her Claire, because that is one of the names I wanted for Marlee). If you squeeze Claire's foot, it says "I love you Marlee!" What a fun place. I wish I had taken the video camera, it was really a good time and something we will probably remember for a long time.
Saturday was the party. Thankfully, I got lots of help from my mom and dad, Jamie, and Marie; otherwise the party might not have happened.

Marlee enjoyed her cake, but I expected more of a show. After Heath tried to clean her up, she really got after it. Luckily it was white cake and didn't make too big of a mess-yeah right! Aunt Marie made the cutest polka dot cupcakes and a special cake just for Marlee. Auntie Kim helped Marlee have her first taste of ice cream, it went over really well too.
Marlee wasn't totally focused on the gifts but she had lots of help from Sage, Avery and Hannah; thanks girls, you were too cute! Jamie and Kyle took most of the pictures but Avery helped out there too. just like her mommy :) (Jamie takes the very best pictures, not kidding!)

It was quite the celebration, she took a nice long nap after the party. Sage fell asleep about 6; she was only going to rest her eyes, but accidently fell asleep-for the night.
Thank you to all who came, it was a really fun day for us.
Oh, and the decorations were all recycled! just doing my part :)

1 Year!

2008-04-30T22:30:00.001-07:00

Marlee is one! Wow, her first year zipped by so fast. She has brought so much joy to our lives. For such a small thing, she certainly contributes a lot to our family dynamics. Today we celebrated this fabulous little girl. Her brother and sister were very excited to sing happy birthday to her first thing this morning. She was in a great mood. It was as if she knew it was her day and she was ready to party.
What a year it has been! She has done all the normal things like learn to smile and roll and crawl; walking is almost ready to be checked off the list. She can take a few steps, about 4 or 5 with no problem. She has even gone about 8 or so, but typically she knows if its more than a few feet, she can crawl there faster and doesn’t try too hard.
But mobility is not really an issue. She can climb stairs like nobody’s business, and can sorta come down, but I don’t really trust her yet. She can now climb up on the furniture especially the little table and chairs. Strapping her in has curbed her high chair escape tactics. Pretty much nothing pleases her more than to climb into a chair next to Hayden and play with his markers while he colors. She especially likes to have her own coloring book, even if there is no chance I will take the caps off the markers for her. However, she is sorta figuring that one out on her own. She is a monkey for sure!
And now that she is so mobile, she is quite certain that she is perfectly capable of keeping up with the big brother and sister. With the improved weather, she is able to chase them around the yard. Somedays, they sneak out; then she just stands at the door and bangs on it until someone takes pity on her and lets her out. She likes to do laps around the perimeter of the yard, same thing at the playground. It’s a bit bizarre. With Hayden’s Tball season in full swing, (hehehe) we are spending lots of time at the park, and Marlee couldn’t be happier, even with the nasty wind.
She is a complete chatter box. My friend was watching her this week and her 3 year old did something to tick Marlee off, and well, Miss M thoroughly chewed him out. She often has choice words for Hayden and Sage too. We are not really sure what those words are, but she means business.
She prefers to handle her own bottles now. After the whole BPA plastic bottle leaching toxins thing on the Today show, I tried to switch her over to sippy cups, but she promptly let me know that we are not quite ready for that transition. So we bought all new non-BPA bottles. (toss all your bottles with 7 in the chasing arrows if you haven’t already done so)
Such a busy month, we spent so much time on the go. She takes it all in stride with a big grin. Her naps have been interrupted, cut short and even skipped a couple of times. She is never too put out by any of it. I am just hoping that she doesn’t get used to the nap skipping stuff. She is a champ of a sleeper! She still takes 2 naps a day, but I am guessing that she will be losing one soon. It will be a sad day for me.
Favorite things this month:
Cousin Jess and her purple finger nails
Climbing
Whole green beans
Goldfish crackers
When Daddy comes home from work or when mom comes home from being out
Playing any game with Hayden and Sage

Spring Break

2008-04-17T14:38:00.000-07:00

Hayden's first Spring Break. ahh, we played hard. Seeing how I have been quite homesick, I decided that we needed more than just a way too short weekend to play in Seattle. Just the kids and I (just???) got to hang out for a few days and visit and do really cool stuff like roller skating and going to the Bouncy Place and even the Science Center for Hayden. A big thanks to cousin Avery for scouting out hot spots in town. It was so much fun!
Friday: We rolled into town nice and early. We went to dinner with my mom and dad at everyones fav, Red Robin. Apparently the mac and cheese was too much for poor Sage, she threw up all over the restaurant. It was aweful. And when I say all over, please know that I in no way am embellishing. Ask my mom. What a way to start the trip!
Saturday: well, the throwing up was an isolated incident, Sage was ready to tackle anything. We loaded up Cousin Jess and Grandma and headed up north where we gave Hayden to Auntie Shelly for the weekend (thanks aunt Shelly, you're awesome!) and us girls headed to Jenny's baby shower. Sage entertained all with her rendition of Drift Away, or if you ask her, "give me the beat boys and free my soul, i wanna get lost in your rock and roll and drift away." She prefers the long title. Marlee was entertained by Jessilyn and her cool purple finger nails. Those two made a connection, way cute!
Sunday: We had a belated Easter dinner. The WHOLE fam gathered at my dads. Boy, those events are totally worth the drive over. It is always so cool to have everyone under one roof. Lots of food and family. (only one missing was Heath:( ummm, I think my nephews are turning into giants. They soooo tower over me, and boy can they eat!

Monday: We bounced. The Bouncy place-soooo fun. Seeing as it was spring break, it was slightly more crowded than last time, but they had more bouncy toys so it wasn't terrible. Marlee got in on the jumping this time. She LOVED it. I had to limit my bouncing because my back is bad again. grrr. But the kids just bounced and bounced till they could bounce no more! It was great.
We went to dinner at Wally's with Mom and Mike and my Dad. Yum, the halibut was fabulous! No throwing up either, thankfully :)

Tuesday: Roller Skating! Oh my goodness, does it get any cuter? (actually yes, but we didn't know it at the time) This place was so cool. They played Disney music, had the tiniest skates, did the Hokey Pokey, and even let moms take strollers on the rink. At the end, the kids got an icy, which made the whole event even cooler. Then lunch at the Rock, mmmmm. Grandma wanted to take the kids to icecream after lunch, because apparently, all you can eat pizza does not fill them up sufficiently. Sage and Avery sharing a bowl of ice cream WAS the cutest thing ever.

Wednesday: After tearing Jamies house apart, we headed home. The fun had to end sometime, right?
Home sweet home, where Daddy was recovering from a nasty spell of the flu. We were lucky enough to miss it all. Poor guy had a miserable few days.

um, and are these photos amazing or what??? It is really great to have a sister with a great talent and a really nice camera! Thanks so much Jamie!

Our Little Artist

2008-04-14T12:26:00.001-07:00

Last month, Hayden's class did a weather unit. His teacher sent home a form that the kids could do a weather drawing and have it submitted to the newspaper. Hayden was pretty excited about it and drew "partly cloudy."
Well, we get the friday, saturday, sunday papers, and each time one comes, he always asks if someone in his class got their drawing in the paper. I have even gotten to the point where I just turn straight to the weather section. Friday, and Sunday, as ususal, we checked and were of course disappointed because we didn't know the artists. Usually my thought is that in the unlikely chance that he did get his picture published, it would probably be on a tuesday or sometime when we would never know. Well, today, he gets off the bus all excited to show me that he had been published. His teacher had clipped it out of the SATURDAY paper (the one untouched in our garbage can) and shown the whole class. He was sooooo proud. And, well, so am I! Way to go Hayden!

11 months

2008-04-13T17:03:00.001-07:00

11 months have come and gone, in fact the big oh-one approaches way too quickly. I guess I have procrastinated posting long enough. This past month included Marlee’s first Easter, a family birthday party, a visit from Grandma and Grandpa, The NCAA tournament and several play groups.
One of the most notable things last month was Marlee coming out of her shell. She has always been a bit shy, especially in big groups but that trend seems to be fading. We have been going to play groups, Hayden and Sage have had some friends come play, and lots of little folks at church to chase all seem to be helping her to become more social. We got to go to a big birthday bash for my Grandma, and Marlee seemed to really enjoy being around other people. Playing in the hall with all the cousins and Hayden and Sage really tickled her funny bone, particularly when Auntie Kim helped her run after them all.

Last month she continued her quest to become master crawler. I love to watch her prowl about, then focus on something across the room, and kick into turbo-speed after it. If that something is her brother or mom, she will usually let out a little war cry and have a huge grin as she tears across the floor. She loves to sit in Sage's rocking chair. Sometimes her chubby toes get stuck in the slats, its kinda funny.
She logged some time on the stairs, indeed, her favorite activity these days. Hayden loves to help her climb up and down. One day he tried to help her out by running up ahead of her to open the gate and she tumbled down. He cried harder than she did Now he is very diligent in watching her.
She has become a waver, she loves to wave at people as we leave, especially at the grocery store. She also points. My favorite is when she does the double point. Both pointer fingers, straight ahead, and oh-so-serious look on her face, cracks me up!
On a sad note, we finished up nursing at the end of this month. Sad? Maybe bittersweet is better. Sad to see that special time just her and me come to an end, but now I have a little bit extra free time. Hayden has become the primary bottle feeder. He is so excited to get to help feed his sister. It’s very sweet the bond those two have.

Easter 08

2008-03-24T21:08:00.000-07:00

We had a really nice Easter weekend here at home with Grandma and Grandpa from Idaho. They arrived Friday, about 3 minutes before Hayden's bus dropped him. It was a weekend full of visiting, basketball, egg hunts and yummy food.
Friday night we celebrated Grandma's birthday, I heard her tell Hayden she was 27...hmmm, I claim 27 too. Good for you Grandma!!!
We had lots of Easter fun. Friday, the kids went to a little Easter party at the church and had a cute little egg hunt. The candy in the eggs was the good stuff-Cadbury mini eggs, Robins eggs, Reeces peanut butter eggs, mmmm. The kids hunted alongside friends from their primary classes. Good times.

Saturday, we dyed some eggs. Boy, hard boiled eggs sure stink up my refrigerator, but its a tradition and I've got candles so we just deal with it. I love to dye eggs. I used to get all creative and put rubber bands on them and use stamps and crayons to get really fancy, but with a really eager three year old, we just employ the quick dunk method. Hayden insists on using the useless wire dipper, but Sage uses her fingers. She was quick to ask for a smock before we got started-I'm training her well! I was amazed that it was all done in about three minutes. For all the build up, it seems like it should have taken longer. Don't get me wrong, I'm not really complaining, we made a big old mess in that short time and my patience probably wouldn't hold for much longer. It really was fun though.
Lots of basketball to watch, Heath lives for March Madness, so he didn't get to far from his TV most of the weekend. My brackets took a bit of a beating, but I've got 3of my final four teams still going strong (and seeing Duke lose didn't really hurt my feelings anyway) Poor Grandma, she lost both her championship teams. Oh, and Go Cougs!

Sunday was nice and mellow. The kids had a good time going through the stuff in their baskets. Marlee liked Hayden's stuff the best. She got a little ball and had a ton of fun playing catch with her dad who really couldn't have been any more pleased at her apptitude for the game. Sage was so excited to finally get to wear her beautiful Easter dress. Auntie Shelly got her and Marlee matching dresses last year for a shower gift. (she is a smartie, thinking ahead like that!) Anyhow, for the past year, Sage has been so perturbed that I wouldn't let her wear this dress, mostly because it didn't fit yet, but also I wanted to keep it nice. They both looked so pretty in their dresses. Hayden was quite handsome too. Getting a good picture of all three is next to impossible, but I did try.
After church we had our own little egg hunt. Last year I learned that less is more with egg hunts and all the accompanying candy. Well, they still got way to much candy, but I am working on toning it down. Hint: the baskets look more full if you leave the grass in the bottom :)
We said a sad goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa this morning and are coming down off our sugar high.
I, for one, am tickled that there is no big candy event again until Halloween. Its almost time to start talking costumes...

Seat Upgrade

2008-03-11T21:51:00.001-07:00

For our trip to Seattle, we bid farewell to the infant carrier and let Marlee ride in style the big seat. Yay Marlee! She seemed to really like it. And only a few months from getting to face forward and see where we're going. Its no hot pink princess seat like sister Sage has, but, hey, it still feels like first class-just look at that grin.

10 months

2008-03-06T22:40:00.001-08:00

10 months already! Marlee continues to grow and brighten our lives. Over the past month we watched our little one get into all kinds of trouble as she explores her world. From scattering all our DVDs to unrolling the toilet paper rolls, she seems to know just how to make a big mess. Last month she mastered crawling, now she seems to be trying to set speed records; whoa, can she move fast! Her goal in life is to climb the stairs without being caught. Boy, if I forget to block them, she is half way up before I even realize she is out of my arms. She actually is a great climber and we think she will figure out coming down pretty fast too. Stairs are not the only thing she enjoys climbing, I have found her standing on “The Chair,” a funny little toy chair that sings and talks, the dishwasher, and anybody lying on the floor. She loves to get on the treadmill; again, I think this is part of her funny personality, she loves to watch us run on it, and I think she sees herself using it when she sits on the belt. She sometimes will pull up to something and let go, standing on her own for a bit. It makes her quite proud to know that she has done it too. How long before she takes that first step??? I really am not in a hurry for that.
Sticking out her tongue-I don't know what to say other than she reminds me of my old dog Sam when she would catch a mole out of the woodpile. sorta gross. kinda funny. What a goof! Marlee is totally addicted to her binky now. It’s really strange to us, Hayden and Sage never showed an ounce of interest in binkies. I sort of think maybe it was not the brightest move on my part to let her develop this habit, just to turn around and try and break it in a few months. Oh well, she loves it.
Speaking of things she loves, new favorites are Ritz crackers, Mom’s keys (ew, gross!), debit/credit/gift cards (even grosser), computer keyboards, wrestling with dad, Hayden and Sage’s bedtime, riding in the stroller, being outside, the sound of her voice, baths, bits and pieces of stuff on the floor. Things she does not love: riding in the car at night-still, 11:00 church, dry scratchy grass, mom checking for new teeth, noisy tables at the chiropractor, watching mom walk away.

Unleashing the Power of Sage

2008-02-26T11:18:00.000-08:00

For Valentines day, I got Heath a hat, but got the wrong size. On Saturday, we took the girls to the mall to exchange it-Hayden was at a birthday party. Sage, of course, had to go potty the second we walked through the doors. What is it about public restrooms that is so enticing to little kids. Totally gross! Anyhow. We caught up with Heath at the hat store where he had found out that the store did not have any more of the hats and couldn't refund our money because Heath had taken a sticker off. Lame. So we were working our way out of the store when Sage prances up to the counter to visit with the guy Heath had been talking to. She bats her baby blue eyes and tells him all about her brother, where he is what he is doing, tells him a bit about her, how she is a princess and likes the Seahawks and goes on and on until I take pity on him and call her back so we can leave. The guy was totally taken with her. He looked at Heath and says, "hey, I'm going to give you your money back!" The guy totally disregarded policy because of a cute little blonde girl.
That quite pleased Sage, more time to visit! Heath and I walked out of the store in silent awe after the transaction was done. Way to work it Sister!!!

Video of my Darlings in Action

2008-02-23T21:55:00.000-08:00

This is a little video I threw together of a few clips that I love, but they don't really go with anything. There is one of Marlee with her funny fountain duck. She love how it quacks and splashes all over (the kids really don't need any extra help with the splashing). Actually, all three of them quite like the duck. I love to hear Marlee quack back, it makes me smile every time.
Then there is Sage at gymnastics. She goes on Thursday afternoons and loves it. She waits all day to go and bounces around the whole time. Can you imagine the energy of this group of preschoolers? Sage is the one in pink pants, I love her free-spirit. She definatley marches to her own beat.
Last is a big one, Hayden finally has learned to tie his shoe. Whoo hoo! The smile at the end is the best part. :)

I have trouble with the music and the video at the same time. It has to think a lot! I have found that if you stop the music, the video plays fine.

Bitten

2008-02-23T21:00:00.001-08:00

So, I have always enjoyed reading. As a teenager, I read lots of romance novels. Funny story: In my 9th grade English class, Mrs. Gregory had us each come up with vocabulary words taken from our pleasure reading. One week, I was reading Danielle Steele at the time, and I was desperate for a word. I chose voluptuous-it was a big word and I had never heard it before. Hmmm, yeah, looking back, perhaps this wasn’t the best word to pull from my reading. Wonder what Mrs. Gregory thought.
As I headed off to college, I pretty much had to trade my romance novels for text books. Not nearly as fun.
Then the babies came and it was What to Expect when You’re Expecting, followed by Dr. Seuss, Lift-the-Flap books, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, and Don’t let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.
I fell in love with Harry Potter and waited anxiously for each book to come out. I have read all 7 books several times. Hayden and I read book one together, but I’m dragging my feet on book two (it’s a bit scary for him I think). I cried and cried as I read Deathly Hallows, knowing that was the end of the fun. It took me a while to get over Harry. But as the kids talk about him and play HP daily, he lives on.
Well, it seems like it’s been forever ago that my mother-in-law told me about a series she was reading about vampires. What??? Vampires? Yeah, not my genre. So at Thanksgiving, when she lent me three of her vampire books, I wasn’t really in a rush to read them. They sat on my bookshelf for over 2 months without so much as a glance. (Stacy, can you believe that???)
So a couple weeks ago, I picked one up to read while I was on the treadmill because the volume was sorta not working so good on the TV/computer. You know, it’s not easy to read a book and run at the same time. :) Didn’t matter, it only took a few minutes to hook me. I was on the treadmill for way longer than I planned. (great strategy by the way). Well, I raced through the three books way to fast. They are fantastic! Amazing. The first book is called Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer,if you haven’t read it, what are you waiting for? Then New Moon, and Eclipse. The next book, Breaking Dawn, isn’t due out until August. :( What am I going to do? I have already re-read the first three. I’m completely obsessed.

Look at them, how bad can they be?

Be Mine

2008-02-14T21:02:00.001-08:00

Valentine's Day is winding down, but it was a really good one at our house. My sweet kids woke up ready to spread the love. Hayden made my bed and really wanted to make me breakfast (toast with jelly), but instead agreed to me making something tasty and nutritious. We had a lovely breakfast before rushing out the door to deliver him to school. Marlee napped at Diana's so that Sage and I could go to Hayden's valentine party at school. Wow, 25 hyper kindergartners; even Sage was overwhelmed. It looked like Halloween, only red and pink. So many cookies, cupcakes, suckers and candy hearts! It was way fun. I loved to watch the kids open a card, see who it was from and see the look of gratitude on their face. Precious. I told Hayden about when i was in 5th grade, there was a boy named James in my class and he was sorta mean. He always teased all the girls. He always picked on me about my freckles; I thought he was such a jerk. Well, on Valentines day, he showed up with out cards, but had taken the time to write a little note or poem to each girl. Mine was simple, but 20 years later, I remember: Roses are red, violets are blue, freckles are nice, and so are you. OK, it was 5th grade, that was pretty nice.
So anyhow, after the party the kids and I took Heath cookies at his office. We had a little valentine gift too, but found out that Sage had already told him what it was the night before-Sage is terrible at secrets, but she thinks they are great. We completely disrupted the office, but I don't think anyone really minded all that much.
Lunch, naps, gymnastics, then we met Heath for dinner at "the pasta house" as the kids call it. yum! It was a rushed dinner though, since we had to make it to Heath's basketball game. It was a fun game, they lost in the last second though, major bummer!

There was a very loving atmosphere around our house today and it was wonderful. Not that we usually hate each other or anything, but today was very special and I really hope that we work to keep that nice spirit in our home.
Hayden wrote the sweetest note to me this morning. They have been working on spelling things phonetically at school and he really seems to do a good job. He has pretty good handwriting too! I could totally brag all day about my smart boy. He wows me each time I help in his class. ("Couldn't have a better mom then you," if you didn't already figure it out).

9 months

2008-02-04T09:59:00.000-08:00

Oh, Marlee is growing and growing and growing. Well, length wise that is. Doctor says Miss M is at the 85th percentile for length. She is long and lean, only at the 15th percentile for weight. We are going to watch her weight over the next few months to make sure she doesn't crash off the growth chart, but the doc and me sorta attribute the drop in growth channel to her mobilitiy. She is burning her calories as fast as she eats them. Thats pretty fast. And let me tell you, this is a girl on the go! At the start of the month she would move along slowly and sometimes backwards, often getting stuck under chairs and beds and corners. One day I could hear her calling me, but couldn't see her. She had backed under her crib and was hiding behind the dust ruffle. But now, its full speed ahead, onward and upward as she crawls and pulls up on anything she can get those busy little hands on. She is quite proud of herself to have learned this. Yes, that means she is helping with unloading the dishwasher, clearing off low book shelves, and generally finding all sorts of stuff that she shouldn't have. She is very curious. She is entertained with most anything these days, toys, toothbrushes, a shoe, the twangy thing on the back of doors (had to take the tips off though, she likes to put them in her mouth), and especially her brother and sister. She can sorta chase them now, and knows that she is part of their fun. Hayden is soooo good to his sister, she adores him and always smiles when he is near. Sage and Marlee are starting to be friends too. She has never taken a binkie, but found one when I was cleaning out the diaper bag and decided it was too funny. She likes to plug it in and spit it out. I laugh because she knows its funny. She has a good sense of humor. Bath time has always been Marlee's favorite, but it is especially now with her fountain duck. Marlee cracks up at this funny quacking duck that always squirts her in the face. She even quacks back! Between the duck and the baby, the bathroom is always flooded. This past month brought lots of snow, which still seems to delight this baby (and her mom). Her little nose gets cold as can be when we go out in it, but she doesn't care. She liked riding the sled with Sage around the yard. Daddy is most proud because she loves to chase balls. At Hayden's last dentist appt. Marlee got a little basketball that is her favorite ball of all. She knows its hers. Hayden can't wait for her to get a little bigger, he would love someone new to play catch with! 2 Teeth! The first was a breeze, the second one hurt us all. She has really swollen gums, so we are wondering if more are on the way. She does not really like anybody peeking at them and will clamp her lips shut and turn her head if you look like your going to do an inspection of her mouth. Marlee has always been a chatterbox, but now she seems to have realized that words are a must. She tries to mimic any noises she hears. My favorite thing she does is snuggle in to my shoulder with a blankie and sing her own little song when she is getting tired. It melts my heart every time! She is the best eater. We have finally found the one food she refuses: baby spinach...well, can you blame her? Everything else she opens her mouth wide for. This month she got to try lots of new table foods which she is really good at eating. She has mastered cheerio flicking. Marlee also tried her first french fry-now that is something to brag about! She wasn't into eating it as much as she was into waving it around like a wand...learned that from Hayden and his Harry Potter obsession. It was a really fun month, we are trying to slow down time so we can enjoy every ounce of this amazing little baby, but are failing miserably, she is growing so fast and time is flying.

Snowed In

2008-01-31T21:27:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday I worked; about the time I started to pack up to head home, I noticed that it was looking a bit white outside. I soooo hate driving in the snow, so I was less than pleased about this. Well, it was worse than I thought. It was ice falling. By the time I got to the car and scraped all the windows (no ice scraper in the van of course) it had turned to freezing rain. The normally 30 minute drive turned into well over an hour. It was nasty, we got about a half inch of ice coating everything. Well, then it turned to snow.
Sunday we woke up to about an inch or so-over the ice! Church was cancelled so we just hung out and played. It snowed all day! When all was said and done, we got 7 inches. Pretty cool. Hayden got an extra long weekend when school was cancelled on Monday and Tuesday. Thanks to warmer temperatures and some wind, we have gotten rid of most of the white stuff, but ruins of a few snowmen and a snow fort are still hangin on-barely! Luckily we got to send Hayden back to school too.

A Tooth-To Go Please!

2008-01-21T21:18:00.000-08:00

Marlee's first tooth has finally arrived. Whew, what a relief. Hayden and Sage both got tooth number one at 6 months, so as the big 9 month mark has been inching closer, I was getting slightly worried. She didn't seem to mind though, no crankiness or any other tell-tale signs. Actually, she seems quite pleased with it. She happily chews on anything she can get in her mouth, not exactly a new game, but seems like she knows that soon, she will be able to leave a mark.
As the little pearly white tooth popped through, she decided that sitting still was old news and took off crawling-forward. Yeah, she was getting by going backward, but look out, here she comes at quite a clip in the forward direction! Heath and I had been saying just a few days before that we suspected her to be about ready to take off, and sure enough, she did. She is pretty proud of her mobility and I think that she knows that she is getting closer to tagging along with her brother and sister. I think that is her motivation, she wants to be part of their fun so bad. So out came the baby gate and an added emphasis on vacuuming. My concern is that she is already thinking long and hard about walking, she is pulling up on furniture, toys and stairs...Running will surely follow....

Here she is learning last week, she is even faster now.

Snowy Day

2008-01-11T15:02:00.000-08:00

A bit of snow fell this week. I love the snow! I love to watch it, it is so peaceful and pretty. Growing up, it always bothered me when people would walk in our yard and disturb the snow.
Well, with kids of my own, disturbed snow, means kids at play, and that makes me happy. I used to love it when they cancelled school, now I just hope they don't. What a paradigm shift!

Sage likes to make snow angels, but since it was still snowing quite a bit, she did not appreciate the flakes in her eyes

The kids love the movie Frosty the snowman, I think they can both just about recite it. Well, last year, Hayden really wanted to make a snow man just like Frosty, but we never got enough snow to even bother putting boots on for. It has snowed a few times this year, but just like last year, it has been a light dusting, gone before lunch. So tuesday, when we had over an inch or so, we were able to make our snowman. Our snow was great for packing-real wet! Wouldn't you know it, I was out of carrots (I put off grocery shopping because of the snow) so we used broccoli for the nose and buttons. Hayden was concerned that he didn't have arms, but I thought he was quite a guy!

8 months

2008-01-11T13:50:00.000-08:00

Now that we are well on our way to 9 months, I guess it is time to talk about Miss Marlee's 8 month milestone. Oh, it was a good month for her, family visits, Christmas, shopping, birthdays. She got to try so many new foods: Cheese, Puffs, combination foods, lumpy stuff, mmmm. She is a great eater; eager to have whatever is on the spoon-even peas! Yogurt is still her favorite.
She is great at raking up little snacks or scraps of paper or whatever else is lurking on our floors. And trust me, there's lots on the floor. Santa brought her biter biscuits which she loves and can make a mess that is down-right impressive. Speaking of Santa, Marlee got to meet the guy, she wasn't particularly sure it was all it was hyped up to be, but was agreeable to one, just one, picture. Newspapers and wrapping paper were found in abundance over the last month and this delighted Marlee. She got ahold of the Sunday paper and her little fingers were black as can be. Got to watch her though, because she does like to eat the stuff.
The cold weather doesn't seem to bother her much, in fact, I think she quite likes it. She will bark at us though if we touch her with cold hands. We saw a bit of snow and she smiled at it and sorta seemed to be in a trance as she watched it. Me too.
She can say mom, and dada. However, it really doesn't seem as though she means it, just sorta baby babble.
Marlee did a fair amount of traveling during the past month: two trips to Seattle and enough errand running to equal another trip too! She definately does not like to travel at night. She prefers to be able to see Hayden. I was shocked and amazed at how well this baby will ride in a stroller. I don't know if it is people watching or the bumping into racks of clothes or what, but stick her in the stroller and she doesn't make a peep-I'm talking a couple hours here! It was amazing. She enjoyed her first Christmas and got lots of fun stuff, however its the stuff that Hayden and Sage got that really interests her.
All in all, it was a fun month that was over before we really got used to it. The holidays are stressful, but my Marlee seemed to provide a little extra peace and joy. Love ya baby!

Christmas

2008-01-05T23:27:00.000-08:00

I'm really hoping this video works. I had a great time looking through all my photos from Christmas; trying to narrow my favorites down to just a few wasn't happening. It is really great having a photographer come to Christmas! Thanks Jamie for all the amazing shots. We really did have a fantastic time at your house!
We got many great and wonderful things this year, we are quite blessed. I post this list of favs because it sorta makes me laugh. Sometimes its the little things that really get us excited. To see Hayden's face when he found his pack of gum, you would have thought that it was pure gold. (he would not have gotten very excited about a block of gold though!)
Favorite gifts:
Heath: Bike
Lori: Family cookbook
Hayden: Blueberry Pomegranate gum-his own pack!!! & mini air hockey table
Sage: hair brush with squishy handle
Marlee: Bongo Drums, or maybe just the wrapping paper and bows.
Thanks again to all for spoiling my children!

A December to Remember

2008-01-02T22:04:00.000-08:00

so much... where to start. Well, some of you might have noticed my month long absence. There was just too much going on! Seems each December that its over before it really starts and when all is said and done, I just need a really long nap. The whole thing stresses me out to the point where I turn into a complete basket case. Well, despite the sleepless nights, the shopping, the parties, the traveling and fretting and all that other stuff, we still managed to do some pretty cool stuff and have a whole lot of fun. So, on to the highlights:

One of the coolest parts of the month was the ABC birthday bash. We did a joint party for Avery and Sage. OK, my sister Jamie is totally responsible for this one(and she did an awesome post way back when the event actually took place-way to go Jame!). There was very little stress on my part, Jamie handled all the details. And boy, were there ever details! Two cuter birthday girls you could not find. Hayden was the bartender, he would bring you a drink even if you didn't want one. What a guy! My little princess got spoiled rotten (think she might have had a great head start on that) She got a princess dress, all the accessories she could dream of, roller skates, a pound puppy, a stuffed pony, lots of cute clothes, and a gorgeous cinderella doll that is to look at and not play with...to name a few. It was a great warm up for Christmas. Thanks to all; she is really taking her time getting thank you cards out.

Around here, we don't seem to get to Christmas until all the birthdays are taken care of. Heath celebrated his birthday with the Maroon Cougars, his basketball team. It was even a snowy day; who doesn't like a little birthday snow? We took him to Red Robin for dinner too. No cake, he prefers pie.

Then it was my turn. We got a babysitter for kiddos so Heath and I could enjoy a nice dinner at Anthony's. YUM! Almost worth having a birthday (I hate my birthday!) The mousse at Anthony's was fabulous, but then Heath got me the chocolate cake from Costco-you know, the 5 layers of fudge and chocolate and probably no calories that is a giant slice of heaven, yeah that's the one! Good times!

well, there is more, but the hour is late, so it will have to wait until tomorrow, sorry!

Top 10 of 2007

2008-01-01T14:18:00.000-08:00

OK, so where did December go??? As always, the whole month flew by in a blur of wrapping paper, gingerbread men, birthdays and 3 year old tantrums. Stay tuned for more details of our family's holiday happenings. Today however, it is time to reflect on the year that was 2007. I like to recap with a top 10; its sorta what I do.

10. Treasure Hunting Our new favorite family pastime is geocaching. Heath bought a GPS and we have had a great time exploring. Treasures we have found include a Washtucna Jr Firefighter badge, a pink yo-yo and a live giant man-eating snake.

9. Christmas and other celebrations. We could probably do a top 10 of just celebrations, but will lump them all together. Whether it was piñatas on Camano Island and in I.F., an Easter egg hunt in Seattle, ABCs in Maple Valley, or an evening of bad pizza and chaos at Chuck E. Cheese in Kennewick; we found many places and reasons to have a party. Christmas morning was especially special; we spent it at Jamie and Kyles where it was warm and cozy and wonderfully festive.
8. Boys vs Girls Heath and Hayden went first with a night at the Monster trucks in January. It was all about licorice, ear plugs and big trucks-pure testosterone! Then it was girl’s night out at Disney Princesses on Ice in October. Sage got all dressed up for the occasion. Our little Cinderella thought she was in heaven while she watched the show alongside several of her friends and their moms. It was a magical night.
7. San Antonio Trip Heath’s company sent him to San Antonio for the AGC conference in March and Lori got to tag along. The kids went to Idaho. We loved strolling the river walk and the boss even took us to Ruth’s Chris steak house for the greatest dinner ever! It was exciting even if we didn’t make it to the NCAA tournament games going on across the street from our hotel.
6. Independence Day We spent the 4th of July in Idaho riding 4 wheelers, jumping on the trampoline, and getting thoroughly sunburned. Even though Grandma D gave us a bit of a scare after her surgery, we got to visit with lots of family. Sage and Marlee loved the fireworks; Hayden-not so much.
5. 5K After months of logging miles on our treadmill, Heath and Lori ran a 5K in Idaho on Thanksgiving day. It was 17 degrees at race time but that didn’t slow us down. This was Lori’s first race. Grandpa, Dalton and Gretchen also took part in the fun. Good times were had by all once we warmed up and regained feeling in our fingers and toes.
4. Hayden’s Rookie Year He played T-ball, Soccer, and Flag Football through the YMCA. We loved sitting on the sidelines and cheering him on. Heath coached his basketball team this fall, they were the Maroon Cougars. Which of the sport was his favorite? Who knows, but he loved every minute of every game and practice.

3. Farewell to Diapers She was a little slow to catch on, but finally Sage is potty trained! Whew, 2 in diapers was a killer. What strange conversations one has while potty training children…
2. Kindergarten Hayden went off to Kindergarten. He says his teacher is the best drawer ever and absolutely loves riding the bus. He has completely amazed us with all that he has learned already. He is getting to be a good little reader. Lori cried on his first day, but now can’t wait for first grade when he will go all day.

1. Marlee Our little angel Marlee was born on April 30th. She has brought so much joy to our family. She loves her brother and sister, spitting, rolling into corners and riding in the backpack. It has been so much fun watching her grow and learn over the past 7 months. Great things are in her future.

7 months

2007-12-11T21:40:00.000-08:00

My Marlee turned 7 montsh-like almost 2 weeks ago. Slacker mom...

Anyhow, she continues to grow and learn and do all the wonderful things that she is supposed to. We marvel at what a sweet baby she is. She loves to grab a handful of hair and pull me in for a big ol wet kiss. I get most of the kisses. I love that. She is getting so big, her little feet are at the very end of the infant carrier, almost time to say good bye to that. We put away the bouncy seat, and the play gym as she has out grown them. She has become a great sitter, I pretty much never prop her up, she does just fine on her own. Can roll anywhere she needs to go-reminder to self, never ever leave her on our bed alone, she is at the edge in about two seconds.

Marlee seemed to take a break from solids for a spell, but her appetite is back thankfully. She enjoyed her first Thanksgiving, however I think she would have liked a slice of pumpkin pie over the pureed sweet potatoes. She got to have yogurt for the first time-yum! She loves it, in fact sometimes that is the only thing she is willing to eat.

Each night about 7:00 she wants to be stripped down to her diaper so she can roll around. No matter how foul her mood, this always makes her happy. She is ticklish and it is about the greatest thing ever to listen to her laugh and laugh.

What she does not like is riding in the car after dark. Not sure if its that she can't see anything , or a bad time of the day or what, but she lets us have it. And we did a bit of traveling this past month so she had plenty to be mad about.

Highlights:

Sitting in the Highchair

Watching Hayden play basketball-so many little people running around!

First Ferry boat ride. Who could forget the middle of the night playtime with Dad at the hotel?

Thanksgiving in Idaho-going to the museum, riding in the backpack and geocaching.

First snow.

Poor thing, her 7 month milestone was sorta overshadowed by Sage's birthday. She took it all in stride though. She was happy to share the spotlight.

3!

2007-12-05T22:46:00.000-08:00

Sage has turned three and is sooo fun. She is currently trying to master holding up three fingers. This girl is a social butterfly, and talks like she is 13! She loves to be a big girl, and desperatly wants to go to Kindergarten with her brother. Occasionally she goes to his class with me and feels right at home. She is going to be so ready for preschool next year. One of her most favorite things to do is paint, and also spends lots of time coloring. I was a little worried that she was not picking up her ABCs but we made up a little song to help her with her name and now she can tell you how to spell it and a few other names. Really cute.

She brings so much joy to our lives, I can't imagine what we would do without her. She is totally a daddy's girl. Heath can not tell her no for anything. Her big brother is her best friend. They play together so well, and cause lots of trouble together too. She would do anything for him. She even has started to show affection and concern for her sister. Me and Sage have a great time running errands while Hayden is at school; she is my little helper.

Her obsessions still include Dora, but she has expanded out to include the Disney Princesses. Cinderella is her favorite. So to celebrate the 3 year mark, we celebrated with a Cinderella cake.

She was a little nervous to cut it, but after spending all day telling her how yummy it would be and preparing her, she consented.

Pink is her favorite color and flavor. She always asks for pink lemonade, pink milk, pink anything. Macaroni and cheese is one of her most favorite foods, along with chicken noodle soup (Campbells, not homemade); however Saturday lunch with Dad is something her and Hayden both look forward to all week long: hot dogs and gatorade (eww, I soooo do not endorse this)

She loves to sing; loud, and mostly songs like ABCs, wheels on the bus, Book of Mormon Stories, I am a Child of God, Old McDonald, Twinkle Twinkle; but sometimes she throws in a few more grown up tunes: Lime in the Coconut, Wee who Whoo hoo (Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani), Real Gone, Life is a Highway, Party like a Rock Star ("its Avery's song!").

Sage is full of energy, she wiggles and chats all day long. Not sure she can sit still even if she needed too. I love that she sucks her thumb and snuggles with her pink blankie. She loves her nap and if I don't get her down, she will find a spot and take care of it herself. She has a very strong personality (not sure where that comes from). We love her so much. Happy birthday Princess Sage!

Our Thanksgiving

2007-11-29T22:13:00.000-08:00

A bit late, but here is the recap of our trip to Idaho for Thanksgiving. Good times! The 5K was an excellent start to the trip (details below). And we figured that all the calories we burned running would allow for major binging the rest of the day! I made a chocolate pie, after all, it's not Thanksgiving without chocolate pie, right Dad? (as if he reads this) Heath made 4 pumpkin pies. 5 pies for 6 adults and what seemed like about 35 kids but indeed was only 5 kids--overkill? No way, those pies didn't last long, especially considering Heath and his family are strong believers in pie for breakfast. Who am I to disagree?

Since we learned to make butter in Hayden's class, I thought it would be fun to make it with the kids. Gabe did about four shakes and since it wasn't butter, he lost interest. Most of the other kids gave up shortly after that as well. But Gretchen, Heath, Will, Dalton and I got it done. Grayson came back at the end to turn out some fine butter as well. Tasty stuff.

I must say, Grandpa's mashed potatoes were some of the finest I've had in years. It was extra special to have Great Grandma D at dinner.

So forever as long as I can remember, my dad has carved the turkey. Well, since Dad was hundreds of miles away, Heath stepped up. Ummm, watch out Martha, he can carve a turkey like nobodies business! Wow, what a guy. Gorgeous presentation as well. Iron chef Idaho?

Miss Marlee dined on sweet potatoes and banana yogurt. mmmm.

On Friday, after some Christmas shopping, we visited the Idaho museum. It was lots of fun. They are currently having an ice age exhibit. Heath was amazed to find out that there used to be whooly rhinos. Pretty cool stuff. The kids liked the kids play area, it had caves to explore and trees to climb and lots of other interesting things.

Friday night we had a little birthday for Sage. Craigo's for dinner of course. Stuffed ourselves silly again. Hey, we were really stretching those 5K calories.

Aunt Gretchen and Grandma had picked her out a Dora cake, which she was tickled with. They had also got a pinata. We stuffed all our leftover halloween candy in it and let the kids whack away at it in the basement. Hope the exploding candy didn't leave any dents in the wall! Saturday we went geocaching. It was way fun but we only found 2 of the 4 treasures. It was a beautiful day, a bit chilly, but nothing we couldn't handle. Burned off a bit more of that pie.

Then we celebrated Will's birthday.

Favorites:

Heath: Pie! The race

Lori: The race, Christmas shopping with just Heath for the first time in 6 years

Hayden: Riding the go-carts at TSR, Jumping on the cushions in the basement with the boys (yes, all the money spent to entertain him throughout the weekend and he picks the random free stuff)

Sage: getting pink milk at the hotel, getting her pink camrea from grandma and grandpa for her birthday

Marlee: Riding in the backpack outside when we went geocaching, rolling all over the living room playing with all the different toys.

Elfin good time

2007-11-29T21:46:00.000-08:00

my funny elves! Prepare for a laugh
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1114402884

Turkey Trot

2007-11-27T22:57:00.000-08:00

Last Thanksgiving I was early pregnant-too busy throwing up to really appreciate the holiday. I recall Heath calling his parents to wish them a happy turkey day and when he got off the phone he told me that his sister and dad had done a 5K turkey trot. I thought that was pretty cool. I have never gotten any thrill from running, probably because I have never really ran. Well, in my delicate condition, I decided that I would run in 2007, and it would be especially convenient as we would be in Idaho.
Fast forward a year…after lots of time on my treadmill, we arrived at race day. Heath, Harry, Gretchen, Dalton and I were all in on the fun. It was a gorgeous morning, temperature about 17 degrees F at race time. Brrrr, not quite what I had planned for. Well, despite the runny nose and frozen toes, I did it! 5K-3.2 miles. My time? 28:20. Is that good? Is that bad? I don’t know, this was my first ever race. I ran the thing, any time was going to be good. I didn’t think I would ever be able to run 3 miles. I placed 119th out of 282. I’m no Kody or Stacy, but its certainly good enough for me! (you guys are my heros)
Kudos also to Heath, You are so awesome! He was 45th, his time was 22 minutes 17 seconds. Pretty sure he could have done even better, but he ran the first little bit with me. There is no way I ever could have done it without all his encouragement and advice.
And well, gotta say way to go to my father-in-law. He did pretty great too. He had intended to walk it, but instead ran the whole way! Nice! Dalton sooo impressed me too! Good job buddy.
It was a really fun morning. Hopefully this will be the start of a really great tradition.

Thanksgiving 2007

2007-11-27T22:26:00.000-08:00

One of my greatest blessings.

Hope your Thanksgiving was great. Bring on Christmas.

Cousin Jenny's Wedding

2007-11-15T21:10:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, my cousin Jenny got married. We made the trek up to Lummi Island, meeting up with Jamie, Kyle and Avery along the way. To get there, we got to ride a ferry boat. We talked up the ferry boat to the kids for the week leading up to the trip. I love ferry boats. Long ago, Thanksgiving always meant riding the ferry to Aunt Marie’s house on Whidbey Island. We always met up with family on the boat and had a great time. Sometimes we would get snacks from the snack bar, use the bathroom, wander out to the observation deck, or just sit and chat. I have wanted to take Hayden on a ferry for awhile now. But how surprised were we when this tiny little raft pulled up. It couldn’t of held more than 15-20 cars. Snack bar? Huh uh. In fact, when Jamie got out to take a picture of this thing, one of the ferry workers asked her firmly to get back in the car. Not the experience I expected, but still pretty fun.
The wedding was at a cute little church that Hayden was sure looked more like a temple than a church. Got to visit with the family as the ceremony was delayed when some of the guests missed the ferry. My kids decided that they would rather sit with anybody but mom and dad. Fine by me!

The reception was at a gorgous clubhouse overlooking the bay. Hayden had a great time hanging out with Jon and Grady, the big boys. Thanks guys for being so good to my little guy. Sage was soooo in awe of Jenny. She was of course a beautiful bride, and Sage was sure she must be a princess: gorgous dress, tiara, sparkly jewelry-yup, that's a princess for sure.

Heath pricelined us a room in Burlington. We stayed with Jamie, Kyle and Avery. What a fun evening. Heath and i forgot swim suits, but Hayden and Sage swam. Avery had the cutest little nemo floaty suit, she had a great time splashing with her mom and dad. Hayden kept trying to drown himself in 3ft deep water. He would forget he could touch and freak out. Good times. Sage wasn't much better, she just climbed in and out; pool, hottub, pool, hottub. Marlee just thought it was great to watch. She gets such a kick out of her brother and sister. We all got milkshakes next door. Sage had a special blend of water and pink milkshake. The bed was great, really comfortable. Unfortunately, Marlee woke up about 1:00am and since we were all in this little room, I couldn't let her cry (sometimes she wimpers a little in the night, but is not really awake. ) so I grabbed her to keep her from waking up the others. BIG MISTAKE!!! She really woke up and decided it was play time. I tried to get her back to sleep, no luck. Heath ended up taking her down to the lobby where she wiggled on the couch in front of the fireplace happily for a few hours. Finally went back down around 4:00. OK, so even the first couple of weeks after she was born she knew better than to do that. It was wicked.

Sunday we drove all day. It was a pretty drive, we got to enjoy the end of the fall colors. There was a bit of snow on the trees as we crossed the pass. But were we ever glad to get out of the car!

Favorites:

Marlee- sleeping on Auntie Kim during the wedding. Taking her tights off at the hotel and rolling around on the bed.

Sage-blowing bubbles at the church and talking with the princess

Hayden-riding the ferry and hangin with the boys; not drinking the pool water.

Lori-Visiting with Ang and Kim before the reception started, listening to Aidin ask his new sister, the flower girl, why she kept dropping petals over and over as they walked down the aisle. Milkshakes with Jamie and Kyle!

Heath-the food, although his fav was actually from the drive over on Friday; we stopped for dinner in Ellensburg on our way to my Dads. College town right? Well, Heath took the older two in to the restaurant while I fed the baby in the car. The cute girl behind the counter asked him if he had any plans for the weekend, and he told her he was going to the west side for a wedding. She looked at him, and then at the kids and said, "oh, are these your brother and sister?" He liked that.

Death beads

2007-11-08T08:43:00.000-08:00

Boy, have I got a tale for you!

Early this fall, Hayden's school did a Jog-a-thon fundraiser. He raised $100.00-a big thank you to all that contributed. Anyhow, prizes for kids that raised this amount were many: a t-shirt, a playground ball, a whirley thingy, and $10.00 gift certificate to Toys R Us. Well, guess what Hayden's favorite part was. The gift card. So for a week or so he has had this money burning a whole in his pocket. Last Saturday, I took just him to spend it. We had a blast wandering through the toy store looking at stuff. He is just like his dad, very calculating when he shops. After checking out everything in the place at least 4 times, he decided on Aquadots. They are always advertising them on TV, and he has been begging me to get them for at least a month. I was very proud of his decision. It wasn't some dumb toy to be tossed in the bottom of the toy bin by mid afternoon, never to see the light of day again. This was actually something he wanted, something that stimulates creativity, and he pointed out that Sage would like it too. What a guy!

It was a little over his $10.00 limit, but hey, he has been such a good helper to me the last couple weeks that I was willing to help him out with the difference. So we happily tote home our prize and I kid you not, the kid sat down and played with the thing until we made him go with us to dinner, then he played with it until bed. The next day, he played with it all day long. He let Sage watch, and occasionally had a little job she could help with. He loved it. He crafted all kinds of creations with the little colored beads. Its kinda cool, you dispense them from what looks like a minature gumball machine into little trays, spray them with water and then set them under the little fan so they dry and Voila, the beads stick together. He had patterns he sometimes used, but made some pretty cool original art.

We discovered that the finished projects could be broken apart with a little effort and recycled. However, since it was such a hit, and he had just about used all the beads in projects that he didn't want to recycle, I bought him a refill pack yesterday. 750 new beads ready to be transformed into masterpieces!

Then, last night, we are just finishing cleaning up dinner when we turn the news on. There is my buddy, Brian Williams announcing a toy recall: "Children in Australia who have ingested the aquadots demonstrate symptoms similar to people who have ingested the date rape drug GHB. If you have this toy, please take it away from your child immediately." I usually try to keep the kids away from the TV when the news is on, but guess who was right at my side with huge eyes watching that telecast? Yup. He looked at his dad with a face that said, please tell me I heard him wrong. Heath pulled Hayden in close and explained that the aquadots were making kids very sick and we had to take it back to the store because we didn't want him to get sick too. Oh, the tears! He was crushed. We asked him if he had eaten any of them. He said no. Heath wandered aloud what they would taste like, and Hayden promptly responded with, "like soap." I said, "I thought you said you didn't eat them." and he said, "I didn't, I just put one in my mouth."

Great. Oh, and as the little death beads are miniscule, they are scattered about everywhere on the floor. I've swept and vaccumed but they still linger around.

Apparently, the glue converts to a chemical similar to that in GHB when sprayed with water. And since water is essential for using aquadots, poisoning children seems inevitable. What a great toy!

Princess for the Day

2007-11-06T08:37:00.000-08:00

Sage and I got to have a most magical evening together. We went to Disney’s Princesses on Ice. We spent all day getting ready. First we had to go get a tiara. Then Brenna came over and we did our nails and made princess wands. (oh, what a smart mommy, I knew they would have wands at the show to buy for a small fortune, but my princess took her own, and never asked once for the fancy light up ones. Yeah, smart and cheap!) Then, after her beauty sleep, we dolled her up. Katelyn lent her a Cinderella dress, since we- gasp-don’t have any Disney princess dresses. Sage was absolutely loving being in this gorgeous dress. She let me curl her hair and put on a dab of lip gloss. She looked so beautiful and grown up. Her daddy made her day telling her how pretty she was.
Then, off to the show with 2 car loads of princesses and mommies, and even an auntie Jamie. We arrived just as the show started. Jasmine, Belle, Ariel, Princess Aurora, Mulan, Snow White, Cinderella, Tinkerbell and even Minnie and Mickey were there. It was magical. Sage loved it all, well, maybe not the dragon from Sleeping Beauty, but everything else. It was so wonderful to be able to take her, all by herself and see the joy and amazement. We had a fabulous time. It was certainly a night to remember.

Miss Marlee is 6 months

2007-11-05T20:09:00.000-08:00

Our sweet Marlee is half way to one! I have had so much fun with her this month. She has found that there is so much to explore and learn. Her dad was finally able to load her up in the back pack; we got that thing with Hayden, and it's on the top of Heath's list of essential baby gear. She loves to be up high where she can get a good view of all that is happening around her, and this month, there was so much to see. On the feeding front: cereal is not so much her thing, but we added veggies, and eating is a whole new ball game! We started out with green beans, my fav. She attacked the spoon with each bite, and continues to. Marlee has happily sucked down peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash in addition to the beans. She also got to start some fruit, and hard to believe it is possible, but seems to enjoy them even more-I know, shocking! Slow start, have only tried pears and applesauce, but soooo looking forward to peaches and prunes. Cereal even seems to have gained favor since the selection has expanded. Yum. Big brother and sister can't believe she eats that stuff, however both get extremely proud when she wears the bib that says "I love my big brother/sister. " She loves to chew. She can jam her entire fist in her mouth. Paper is a favorite toy. She slimed up coasters at restaurants all over town this month. She has these wrist rattles that she can't get enough of; Marlee most prefers the pink pig. They go in the mouth too, all that sticks out is the green band.

It’s the best when you set a baby down and they curl into a ball, well, Marlee is no exception. One of my favorite baby tricks, she has taken to chewing on her toes. She talks to her feet and loves to pull her socks off. Her dad can’t deal with this, so he must always put her cute shoes on, pink sketchers that he had bought for Sage, way back when. We love hand-me-downs. A big thanks to cousin Avery, who supplied much of the wardrobe for this month. Miss Marlee is still quite long, 95th percentile, and we can now dress her in 6-12 mo sizes, woo hoo, the cute stuff!
Mom and Hayden continue to be her favorites. But she is getting to be friendly with all. Kids especially get her wiggling. She is dying to be mobile and chase after them. Just the sight of her brother and sister makes her laugh. Got to watch her when we set her down, because she is a roly poly. She is a talker. I was noticing her verbal skills last month, but there is no doubt about it, she is a chatterbox. Not sure what it is she is saying, but she has a lot on her mind.