confirmed

Little Dude is happy. Little Bit is not. We will be adding a boy to our family in April! The girls have moved into the bigger bedroom and next up is painting their old room...we still need to decide on a color. And yes, we (I) will be taking advantage of the great deals on Friday!

she's mine

even though she looks and acts like the mayor, she's mine. As long as i can remember, everything was sorted by color. As a child, it was my crayons, and i had a HUGE tub of them. I wish i still had that tub - it was great, so many compartments, made by tupperware in that ugly 70's orange that is soo back in style! Still - even to this day, everything is sorted by color. that is how i roll...apparently so does she....this is how i found her "organizing, so they won't look ugly mom". you can kinda see the pile of beads behind her that she is still sorting. she stopped long enough for 1 - "but that's all mom" picture. thanks sweetie!

halloween

not one picture from halloween night is on my camera. Grrr.... these are from a party we went to last weekend...A cute "pink" (sort-of) witch and a cowgirl. I told the girls I wasn't buying costumes this year - they could be as creative as they wanted with what we had here. I was willing to buy a little something to add to their costume if needed, but it wasn't. I love Halloween, it's one of my favorite holidays to decorate for, but this year I just didn't get into it very much.

names

paper boy, beckett boy, reed, graham, anders....so far those are the names that Little Dude has suggeseted. She thinks she wants a little brother. Oh, if only she knew what brothers are like before she made that wish - but maybe a little brother will be different from a big brother.....

Autumn Pics

they would NOT hold still for the shot we wanted!!!! Shake that booty girls!

If there is a camera around, she will not smile normally - just forced little grins....just like her dad.

what can i say - she loves the camera - well at least for a little while, and when she is done, she is done!

While the Mayor's sis was here, she took some great pics of my kids - thanks so much! I love them!

check yes or no

ahhh!!!! you know --the george straight song. well Little Dude got her first "check yes or no" note! ahhhhh!!! she's too little!

Corn maze and pumpkins

The mayor's sister was here visiting and we had a great time - I wish we could have seen more of her and the fam. I realized after she left, I didn't have many pictures, (I looked at my camera and haven't taken any pictures for the past month!) here are a few from out trip to the pumpkin patch and corn maze! Little Dude can't wait to go back to the corn maze, she wants to take the mayor and pawpaw - are you up for it? She loved it! We ended up turning around and coming out the "in" cause Little Bit had to go potty, but it was still fun. I think Little Dude and I coudl have stayed in there for quite a long time - she loved choosing which direction to go, even if we did end up going in circles!

First day of school

Tuesday was the first day of school for both girls. LD was off to first grade - can you believe it? So far she is enjoying it, but is really tired at the end of each day. LB was off to preschool on Tuesday and is enjoying it. She goes twice a week and I will take my turn in the teaching rotation.

Alaska

at the house - my dad out the parking brake on and put it in Neutral and Little Dude was revving up the engine - whenever she did it - you could hear their screams and laughter from inside.

I don't remember the name of the place we went, but it was lots of fun. The girls loved it. It was place with lots of trails thru the trees and sand and we were all covered in dirt by the time we got home. My dad found a fire that had just begun to burn all the underbrush and a couple of small trees. Mom called 911 and pretty quick the forest service was there along with fire trucks - it was kinda hard for the big trucks to get back into where the fire was - one truck got stuck. Looked like maybe a campfire had not been put out all the way? Glad it was caught before it got out of control. We avoided that area, but still had fun.

We also stopped by the biggest chocolate fountain - I didn't get a picture of the whole thing - but the girls loved it - Little Bit kept going back to this spot again and again and again.

Lake Dorothy

We hiked to Lake Dorothy while the Mayor's sis was here. We stopped along the way at the Sultan Bakery to get a donut and off we went. the little kids did so great! They loved walking the fallen tree and playing on the rocks and when we reached the lake - throwing rocks into the water.

Snakes?

the two headed turtle
little bit saying "hi there little guy"

marmar assisting little dude, she wouldn't hold it by herself. we thought she was going to drop it.

no problem holding the snake here.

Here's a few more pics from our time with the Mayor's sis... we visited the Reptile Zoo in Monroe one afternoon - oh it was soooo stinky in there! But the kids loved it! They got to pet roaming tortises, see crocodiles, and lots of snakes, a two headed turtle, and they each got to hold a snake. Ewwwww - I couldn't do it, it freaked me out! Way to go Marmar and Er!

another lost tooth

Little Dude lost another tooth last week, right next to the firt one she lost. We were at a friend's house and my friend told Little Dude that she would give her a dollar if she let me pull it. So L.D. let me try, it didnt' come out on the first try, so I told her I'd giver her a dollar too if she let me try again, and this time, out it came. Oh how she cried! Lots of blood and I think she was surprised that it came out. She made such a fuss, that my friend told her it was worth at least $1.50! So she came away fromt eh ordeal with $2.50 plus what the tooth fairy left - what a lucky girl!

a ferry ride

I'm so behind in posting on this blog - I have so much to share! We've been pretty busy over the past few weeks, I'll start with the most recent excursion - a ferry ride. They Mayor's sister has been in town and on her last day here, we went on a ferry ride to Kingston and got some ice cream - which the girls just loved and kept saying to me - mom, you know we haven't had lunch yet. yep - I know, enjoy your treat! the kiddos had lots of fun playing in the park next to the ferry dock while we waited for the ferry to return. On the way back to to Edmonds, we had an official, coastguard escort. on both sides of the boat. with people manning the guns out front. a little scary to see a coast guard pull up next to the ferry you are on. finally an announement was made that it was just routine.

a new chair

a friend was giving away this rocking chair...yeah for me! I painted it red and it sits on my front porch. I love it. well, these photos don't show the chair very well, but i'll get one of it soon! Little Dude's smile has changed - she has to show off that missing tooth!

Oh Dear

So a couple of days ago, one child decided to cut her own hair. It wasn't horrible, as long as her hair was down and I dislike very much her hair down in her face. So today, we went Hair by Judi and all is now well. except I forgot to take the camera with me, I guess I was thinking that Little Bit wouldn't actually want her hair cut along with her sister. She said she did once before, but refused to sit in the chair and get it cut. I was thinking in the back of my mind, the same thing would happen today and only Little Dude would come away with her hair cut. I was wrong. Little Bit got her hair cut, and she looks cute, she looks older and this time I didn't shed a tear. When little Dude got her hair cut the first time, I cried, no idea why! I was a little sad and if a certain little girl about 6 years old hadn't been annoying me dancing around the studio flipping her hair this way and that, then, maybe.

A busy week

We have had a week full of fun! It started off Monday with swimming at a friend's house in their backyard - jumping off the trampoline into the water :) Tuesday we went to the park with friends and had a picnic. Wednesday we went down to the river here in town and played on the sandy shore - I can't believe we have NEVER done that before - we have lived here for 6 years! It was so fun - the weather was hot and the girls loved playing in the river.

Thursday we went to Leavenworth - a small Bavarian town up in the mountains. It was even hotter there. We went with the Mayor's mom and grandma, and uncle, aunt and cousins. My girls loved playing with their cousins - they really look up to Katelyn and had so much fun with Jared! Thanks guys!

On Friday, we got up at 5 am, (well, one of us got up a little before 5am and the other well after that), picked up PawPaw and headed over the mountains to Royal City to pick cherries. Oh my goodness - we have so many cherries! I wish I would have taken a picture of all that we picked! Bing's, Rainier's and pie cherries. YUM!

Saturday, Marmar and Booboo and I canned cherries. We made 6 quarts of super yummy cherry pie filling, the lighter red bottles (that's all???? I picked those things forever!) and 42 quarts of bottle Bing cherries, the darker bottles. Boy were we tired and hot! In the evening, the Mayor grilled some steaks and we had a great spread for dinner and then went to a friend's house to watch some fireworks. The girls didn't go to bed til 11 and were so exhausted! Little Dude fell asleep as soon as she layed down, Little Bit took a little convincing.

I decided we needed to try a cherry pie with the Rainier cherries and well - it was just ok. Not nearly as good as the bottled pie filling we made. I think I will try again, and alter the recipe a little. Today we delivered cherries to a few friends and we still have oodles of cherries left! What else can one make with cherries????

swimming lessons

Little Dude seeing a friend at the other end of the pool

Kick those feet and SPLASH!

Waiting her turn to swim with the teacher

the girls started swimming lessons yesterday and Little Bit loves the water. She wasn't hesitant at all to get in, and out and in and out and in and out and in (you get the picture!) she loved "swimming" with her teacher - she put her head under water without reservation and is just a little fish in the water. Little Dude also enjoyed it, she is a bit more reserved (the teachers had to pull her into the water), but once in, she did just fine.

School's out!

Froggy cupcakes for the class birthday party. (the classroom is decorated with frogs)

Playing on the monkey bars - those are the same kind I fell off of in 5th grade and broke both of my arms. Be careful!

Little Dude getting her award from her teacher.

Getting off the bus. (She has a new grin since losing that tooth!)

with her candy gram poster - so fun!

Oh what fun! School is out for the summer! We are so glad to relax on our schedule a bit! But we have lots of fun things planned to do this summer around town!