The Gilbert Family

Spiderman Party!

2012-01-26T13:17:00.000-08:00

Reese's good friend, McKay, had a Spiderman Birthday Party in the beginning of December. When we got the invitation in the mail, Reese yelled, "Spiderman!!!" I was surprised she even knew who Spiderman was!! But she was so excited and had a blast! Here are a couple of the kids at the party with their Spiderman masks on.
I had to add this photo as I LOVED little Avery's face on the right!!!

I thought it was so cute that during one of the games, Reese kept raising her hand to answer the questions!!

Reese and McKay playing with balloons!! I wish I would have taken more photos as the whole party was SOOO cute! I loved all the decorations, games, etc!

Happy Birthday, McKay!! Thanks for having us over!!

Amy's Baby Shower

2012-01-25T17:24:00.000-08:00

I'm totally playing catch up now that I feel better! In Aug. 2011, my friend, Brie, and I gave another friend, Amy, a baby shower! It was a lot of fun planning and putting everything together! And since it was the Summer and beautiful, we held it outside. As everyone arrived, they could add names to the "Name Tree" to give Amy ideas for naming her baby girl! Here it is before everyone started putting the tags on it:

The table display of food and treats! It was a book themed baby shower so we used covered books for height on the table and through the party:

Our beautiful Amy:

The diaper cake was one of my favorites as it was looking ok but as the flowers were added, it just looked amazing! And yes, they were all real beautiful flowers from our hostess's yard!!

A cute setting for Amy to sit and open all her gifts:

Here is Rachel adding the name tags to our "Name Tree":

Party guests, Emily and Kaitlin. Huge thanks to Kaitlin for helping me set up!! It would have never gotten done without you!

The lady of the hour, Amy, and another friend, Brooke.

More book decor holding down the blankets:

More party guests:

The guests sat on blankets...picnic style!!

Of course, there were fun games. Love this photo of Kaitlin:

And then we got to watch Amy open all her cute books and presents!!

Thank you, Amy, for letting us throw you a baby shower! It was so fun, and we LOVE your little Alivia!!!

Reese chatter

2011-11-30T23:16:00.000-08:00

I was with a few friends tonight when I came home to Reese bathed and getting ready for bed. Here was our following conversation:

Me: "Did Daddy brush your hair?" (although I could already tell he hadn't)

Reese: "No"

Me: "Ok, let's brush it. Did Daddy brush your teeth?"

Reese: "No"

Me: "Did Daddy clean out your ears?"

Reese: "No. Daddy do nothing. Daddy read me a book."

Me: laughing!!!!

It's funny what Daddy considers ready for bed and what Mommy considers ready for bed!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-02T18:04:00.000-07:00

This year Reese switched back and forth between wanting to be Rapunzel, Scooby Doo, Rapunzel, an Ice Cream Cone, and finally Rapunzel again. Once she said Rapunzel the last time, I told her that was it and she couldn't switch any more!! :) I think she turned out to be a beautiful Rapunzel!!

We carved pumpkins and Reese helped and painted a few small pumpkins as well!

Hanging with friends at the Trunk or Treat!

Holding hands during the parade at Trunk or Treat!

Showing off all her loot!!

On Halloween we headed out to the neighborhoods and then met up with some cousins which Reese loved!

Checking out all their candy!!!

Meeting Cars 2

2011-10-11T17:59:00.000-07:00

When I heard that Lightening McQueen, Mater and Finn McMissile of Cars 2 were coming to a nearby mall, I just knew that Reese would love it. Luckily, it was happening today on a day that Trevor only works half day so we waited for him to come home, and we headed out.
When we arrived at the mall, there was a small line that wrapped around a water fountain. So Reese practiced making wishes and throwing pennies in the water. Her one wish was to get lots of candy on Halloween!! Crazy kid!

Daddy trying to show Reese how to throw the pennies over your shoulder:

When I originally saw this event on Facebook, I was picturing cardboard cut outs of the cars that we could take pictures with. Nothing big, but wow was I wrong! This was an amazing event! We first got a large Cars bag with a coloring book in each bag. Then we moved over to the next table where they had a game where Reese won a color changing pencil and Trevor won crayons. Then we moved to the next table where Reese spun the wheel and won a Cars Beach Towel! And I won a car air freshener. (not as exciting as the beach towel!)

The next table was just bowls of goodies to pick from! We could each pick a glass magnet or glass key chain. Everything was fine quality! Sometimes events like this give out cheap items but not today!

Finally we made it to Mater, Finn, and McQueen, and they were amazing! They were life size and real cars!! They were seriously cool!! We were told that they couldn't be driven but that they were just huge remote control cars!! Awesome! Reese wanted to get her pictures taken by herself:

SERIOUSLY COOL, right?!

They also had giveaways for the new Cars 2 DVD that is coming out next month. We thought they said Reese's name and got all excited but it wasn't her!! :( Still a VERY successful and fun afternoon! Here is Reese carrying all her loot through the mall!!

I love events like this that surprise you with how cool they are!!

Seahawks Game

2011-10-11T12:10:00.000-07:00

October 2nd, Trevor's brothers and a friend came to visit with us and to go to a Seahawks game. While they were visiting, they found a couple extra tickets so Trevor, Reese and I were able to go with them! Reese and I had never been to a pro football game before so we were excited to go! It was a crazy walk to the stadium...everyone is tailgating and throwing footballs around like the boys are doing below. Reese was even getting involved!

The start of the game was fun but scary for Reese. She started crying when they let off the fireworks, especially the really loud fireworks.

We were at the VERY top in the nose bleed section but I didn't care. It was still awesome and very loud! Trevor had told me before that this stadium is the loudest stadium in the country but I didn't realize how loud it really was until I was there! It is crazy!!!

Family shot. We really were at the very last row! My thighs were burning by the time I climbed to our seats! :)

In the middle of the game, someone got a little tired and crashed! I still can't believe she fell asleep in such a loud place especially since she won't go to sleep for me at home! :)

I accidentally cut Reese off but thought it was a nice shot of Trevor and me!

It was a fun and very close game. Seahawks lost but it got really exciting towards the end!

She'll be coming around the mountain...

2011-10-10T19:20:00.001-07:00

Puyallup Fair

2011-10-10T19:14:00.000-07:00

Of course, when the Puyallup Fair came to town, we had to make an appearance! Trevor only works half days on Fridays so it was perfect for us to spend the afternoon at the fair! Reese fell asleep on the drive there and even while we were walking from the parking lot. But she woke up quickly with all the excitement going on!
You can always see something exciting at the fair!!

We were told we had to see the mutten busters which are 4-6 year olds riding sheep! Hilarious! It was awesome!! Below is just a sample of the fun!

Reese had to go down the big slide which is one of her favorite attractions!

She's so excited!

And of course the train was on her list of rides!

She rode a canoe and went through a tunnel that she thought was the coolest!

She even rode a pony all by herself!

More rides!

Every year after we've already gone to the fair, we learn something else we need to try there. Next year...we're trying the scones! I hear they are life changing!!

Potty Trained!

2011-10-10T17:12:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I got really busy with work. I was working a lot more than my usual couple hours a day which prevented Reese and I from leaving the house much. Right at the same time, she got really interested in potty training so since we were stuck in the house, we did it! A week and a half later, Reese was potty trained!! She was awesome! It took her a while to get interested but once she was, it was cake! And her prize for potty training?? The Cars race track below!

Congrats, babe! You rock!

Good Fest

2011-10-10T16:19:00.000-07:00

On Sept 17th, our local mall was having their annual Good Fest which is a free mini street fair! Reese loves it especially the train ride! They also had a scavenger hunt with a prize at the end! Reese was a good sport and found all the monsters so we could go get the prize! But she couldn't wait to get to the train ride! Here she is waiting in line for the train tooting on her train whistle!
Reese on the train with her new cheesy smile!! Must be a toddler thing to do!

We drew on the sidewalk!

Played mini golf!

Played a fun baseball game!

And even dyed Reese's hair blue!!

We ended with a little ice cream at Coldstone which I would say was a very fun-filled morning!!

Nap Time

2011-10-10T15:53:00.000-07:00

One day I put Reese down for a nap and went in to check up on her about half way through and found this:
She found her sticker box and covered herself with stickers!!!
This is my favorite picture! She has stickers on her nose and covering her mouth! What a silly kid!!

Sweet Dreams!!

Family Tree

2011-10-10T15:40:00.000-07:00

Earlier this Summer, my Aunt saw the family tree I made for my mother at her house and asked me to make one for my grandma for her birthday. It was so much fun to work with my Aunt in making the family tree and see my grandma's tree full of branches and still growing! Love it!

Reese's 3rd Birthday!!!

2011-10-10T13:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome Race Fans to Reese's 3rd Birthday Party...(again!)

Reese had one party at the beach with family and a second here at our home! She was so excited the day of her birthday! She couldn't nap and was full of energy!
She had asked for a Cars birthday party so that's just what she got!
This is the exact cake we had at the beach although the beach cake was ton's better! Decorated cuter and I think it even tasted better!

I did race track foods so hot dogs, french fries, popcorn, and other things you would find at the race track!

A leaning tower of tires (or chocolate donuts!):

Trevor's caramel corn popcorn! Yummy!!

Fruit cars made from apples and grapes:

Dip Sticks of carrots and celery:

And for drinks, Motor Oil! (or Grape Kool Aid!)

Of course there were games...like pin the car on the finish line! Reese's car was Lightening McQueen but don't think she is awesome for getting it right on the finish line because she totally cheated!! :)

And then we played "Hot To-Mater"...Get it?! They tossed a cardboard Mater around and Austin and Reese were the last standing. Austin won!

Reese with all her gifts! Wow! She got loaded with new toys!

Family shot on her Birthday!

The next day we set up the easel Nana and Pap Pap got her, and she painted for a week straight! I had to buy her new paints 2 days after she started!!! The kid was and still is obsessed! But at least now she will do other things throughout the day besides JUST painting!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Reese! We love you and can't believe how big you are getting!!!

2011-10-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

CTR COUTURE

2011-10-06T15:05:00.000-07:00

A dear friend of mine started CTR COUTURE creating beautiful jewelry with a powerful message! I absolutely love the design with their constant reminder to Choose The Right! They have necklaces and bracelets in all colors, but my favorite is the Saint-Tropez Caribbean Sea necklace! I love the turquoise suede band with the bar & hoop closure. The pendant is a colorful stone with the CTR COUTURE logo on the front. It is an eye-catching necklace that can be dressed up or down.
They even have youth sizes perfect for the little girls or even Young Women in your life. Check them out...CTR COUTURE.

Switch Up

2011-10-06T14:10:00.000-07:00

Conversation I had with Reese today at lunch:

Reese: "I'm going to be the Mommy and you be the Reese."

Me: "Ok. I want some Apple Juice. I want some Apple Juice." (pretending to be Reese b/c she lives on apple juice.)

Reese: "It's in the car. Do you want some water?" (For the past 2 days she has been asking for apple juice and I've been telling her it's in the car...which it is. I just wanted her to finish the grape juice before opening another juice.)

PA Trip - part 3

2011-10-06T13:15:00.000-07:00

My last post was HUGE and this one is tiny! :) I should have planned that a little better! Oh well. My trip to PA was only supposed to be 3 weeks, but when I realized the day after Reese and I arrived home in Seattle, Trevor was leaving for Canada for 4 days, I decided to extend my stay! So it ended up being 4 whole weeks! Wow! It was a long trip but I loved every min. One highlight was seeing Trevor's sister, Tiffany and her kids! I'm SO glad they drove up to see us and so I could see my newest nephew, Landon! Here the kids are playing at Five Guys while we finish our lunch!
Then we headed over to Gabs for a little shopping and had to snap a photo of the kids. Here's Reese with her cousins, Samara, Gavin and Logan! I love these guys! Thanks for visiting us Tiffany!!

Of course, I had to get a donut or two from Maple Donuts! I asked Reese what kind she wanted, and she said a blue one. They didn't have any blue icing donuts but the lady over head her request and made her a special Blue Icing with Blue Sprinkled Donut! She was in heaven! Just look at that face!

Like always, our trip to PA was wonderful! We had so much fun and enjoyed spending so much time with family and playing with cousins! Next year, I'm shooting for 5 weeks! :)

PA Trip - part 2

2011-10-05T22:57:00.000-07:00

THE BEACH!

While in PA, my entire family rented a house in Duck, North Carolina and enjoyed an entire week at the beach! It truly was heaven!!!! Here is Reese catching an evening ride to the beach with Uncle Mark.

Our private beach the evening we arrived.
Reese loved the beach!! She would run into the water and then run away from the crashing waves!

Since Reese's birthday was coming up, so we had a birthday party for her while we were at the beach! It was her first birthday party with our family and it was awesome! She had asked for a Cars themed party but a week before she wanted to change it to Rapunzel. Since everything was already purchased and ready to go, my answer was "Too late!" She still really enjoyed her Cars party so everything turned out great! Here the cousins broke up into two teams to work on a game, but the adults ended up having to help!

Reese's awesome cake! The bakery actually ran out of Cars decorating kits which contained the cars. Luckily, I had extra cars so the bakery just decorated the cake with the road, grass, and Happy Birthday, Reese! As Kris and Martha were checking out with the incomplete cake, the cashier said, "Ok, I just have to ask...what is this supposed to be?" It looks much cooler with the cars on the cake!

Birthday girl eyeing up the cake!

Make a Wish!!

She had such a great party with fun games, a delicious cake, and tons of new cars and Rapunzel gifts!

Our days at the beach were bliss! It was perfect weather, warm ocean water and so much fun in the sand! I think Reese is yawning here but it turned out to be a cute photo!

Trevor wasn't able to go with us so I tried to take a lot of photos for him. This is Reese saying "Hi Daddy!"

Our rented beach house wasn't directly on the beach but instead it was a nice 5 min walk. I enjoyed the walk but not while carrying all our beach necessities...chairs, towels, toys, umbrellas, shovels, snacks, etc. So instead one of us would walk to the house and get Mark's truck to throw all our beach supplies and to carry all of us back to the house! Perfect!

We also tried Mini Golfing...not the best experience! :) It was WAY TOO hot and the little ones couldn't make it through all 18 holes without throwing huge hits!! I think Reese only made it to hole 3!

Resting with Nana while we waited for our turn.

Can you tell what she is wearing?

Yes, goggles! She loved them for when I would take her into the ocean to jump the waves so the water didn't splash in her eyes! I thought she looked adorable!

One of the best days at the beach was when my sister-in-law and my mom took all 4 grand kids to the aquarium for the morning and then laid then down for napped when they got home. That meant hours of kidless fun at the beach for me, my dad, my brothers, and my other sister-in-law! It was so nice for once not to always have to check on Reese and make sure she is ok. Just to be free to enjoy the company of my family and laugh and laugh and laugh like they make me do! And know that Reese was taken care of! Quote of that day...Dad, Mark and I were in the ocean and I just walked into a warm spot of water. "Ok, who just peed?" I jokingly ask. Mark replies, "Could have been me. I've gone 4 times and number 2 twice!" If you even know my brothers you would be laughing! They are seriously the funniest people alive!

Here is Reese in her "Alligator mask" from the aquarium saying "Rarrrr" to me!

Caraline and Reese in their masks.

One of the days we headed to the nearby lighthouse which was beautiful!

Family shot on the stairs on our way up!Petrified doesn't even come close to how scared I was climbing those stairs and at the top of that lighthouse! I must have been mad to even think I could do it! I literally held onto the handle of the door the entire time at the top! I didn't let go EVER! I was in everyone's way as they were trying to get out the door but I could not let go. I was unbelievablely scared and then Kris snaps this shot....can you see my fear? A second later, I quickly climbed down the stairs vowing to NEVER NEVER NEVER do that again!

After the lighthouse we headed up the coast a little to were you can drive on the beach. We drove around admiring the beach and the homes. Then we got out to do a little kite flying! It was a perfect kite flying evening and Reese loved her Barbie kite!

Half of each day was spent at the beach...every day for a week! Seriously heaven! The other half of each day was spent going to the aforementioned lighthouse, golfing, kite flying, stores, etc. Here is a shopping adventure with the kids. I love Reese's face in this photo!

The hammock store was a favorite place to relax!

I love how they are all holding hands! Totally not planned!!

One of our last days at the beach, Kris, Mom, Mark and Reese were jumping waves. The waves were decent but occasionally a really big wave would come. Mark would try to get Reese over top of the wave as much as possible and Mom would always go under with the wave! Not sure how it happened but after jumping the wave, we would look back and Mom was always in the sand trying to get out of the water! I thought the below photo was a perfect shot of that description as you can't even see Mom's face. And yes, she did end up on the ground after this wave!

Our last day at the beach we got together for a family photo!

Me and my baby!

Reese and her cousins!We sat down to get a photo of our immediate family when Mark sat right behind the tree! I was already busting up laughing! You just had to be there! :)

The good one!

I already miss the beach and can't wait to go back next year. We mentioned making this an annual tradition and I'm going to make sure that happens! :)

PA Trip - part 1

2011-09-08T23:28:00.000-07:00

Reese and I headed to PA for a summer vacation. We had planned for a 3 week trip with one of those weeks being spent on the beaches of North Carolina! Heaven, right?! Well, then the trip got extended for an additional week...4 weeks! Every min was full of fun and laughing! I sure love my family!

Reese at the airport nervous of Uncle Kris with the camera. It always takes a few mins for her to warm up to everyone! Well, almost everyone. She literally ran to greet her Nana!!

Excited to be with Cousin Carowin (Caraline) again!

I love the looks on the girl's faces here!! So funny!

Uncle Mark just moved into his new house and he had a surprise for Reese...a real life Mater from Cars! Uncle Kris and Nana drew the teeth and eyes to look just like his! It was awesome!

Cousin Matthew, Cousin Caraline and Reese sitting on Mater!

Our 2nd day there, we headed to a kids friendly amusement park...where it rained pretty much the whole day! And not just rained, poured at times! While waiting for tickets and others in our group, the kids had a BLAST jumping on the rocks! Best part of the trip! :) It's amazing how the little things amuse kids!

Funny Story: Since it was raining, Ethan kept asking his dad for an umbrella. We were standing under a tree and not really getting any rain on us, so Kris kept telling him no so he wouldn't poke anyone with it. But Ethan kept asking, over and over and over. "Can I have an umbrella? Can I have an umbrella? Can I have an umbrella?" 2 mins later, Ethan gets pooped on by a bird from the tree. Kris immediately says, "You should have had an umbrella!" I think I laughed for the next 10 mins!

Love this one of the girls at the park!

We were trying to wait for the rain to stop, but it never did so we decided to just deal with it. We got ponchos for everyone and headed out in the rain to have some fun! Reese in her poncho.

The horrible RIBBIT ride that I hated and the girls loved!

The park also had a log ride like at Disney World which I thought would be too scary for Reese. As I left her with Nana and Kris and I went on the log ride, Reese says to Nana "But I want to go on the ribber (river) too!" I ended up taking her and she of course LOVED it! We did it twice! I was probably more scared than she was! What a fun kid!

This ride is always a favorite.

Of course, we took a day to go visit my Step-Grandma and my Nanny. Here is Nanny and Reese while we sang Happy Birthday to them. Nanny's birthday was in June but she was getting a be-lated birthday gift so we sang to her as well!

Blowing out the candles.

A couple days later, my cousin Sarah drove up from North Carolina to visit with us and her family! We are SO grateful she did! It was wonderful to see her and her sweet baby Lincoln!

I also got to catch up with some friends from high school that I haven't seen in forever!! It was a fun reunion!

to be continued...

Cousins!

2011-09-05T22:59:00.000-07:00

In the beginning of Aug we headed to Othello for a weekend visit with Trevor's family. His sister, Melissa, and her girls were in town so Reese got a lot of time playing with her cousins! It was so nice to relax with family for the weekend and to see Melissa's new baby, Paisley (who is adorable!!!).

Reese had fun picking out necklaces from Grandma Gilbert's stash of goodies!
She also spent the majority of her time with her cousins in the awesome tree house that Grandpa Gilbert made for the grand kids! It is fully equipped with electricity and even a TV!

Grandma Gilbert with Piper and Reese!

Cousins: Grady, Payton, Reese, Piper and Reggie.

Just the girls with their crowns!!

A favorite was tractor rides with Grandpa!

And of course, here is sweet Paisley! She is so cute and such a good baby!! I miss her already!

The Warrior Dash

2011-07-17T23:54:00.000-07:00

A while back, Trevor heard about this Warrior Dash and wanted to sign us up for it. He told me it was a 3.5 mile run and I said ok. Then he told me that there were also a few obstacles during the run and after he described it in full to me, I changed my mind! Mud pits, rope walls, barbed wire, FIRE PITS!! No Way! But Trevor did convince his brother to sign up with him...who last minute wasn't able to go. Since Trevor didn't want to do this by himself, he convinced one of his friends, Anson, to pretend to be his brother...or cousin...and run in his brother's spot. Here they are nice and clean before the race:
Reese and her Daddy!

Prepping for the craziness:

Ignore the girls in green right up front. I just wanted to show you how many people were here at this race. This is just one group. This race was ALL day Saturday and ALL day Sunday!

They started the race where we could see them then they ran pretty much the whole race in the woods but then they came back around to us in the end. Before they finished the race, they had a few obstacles to go through right in front of us...the rope wall, the FIRE PIT, and one of the mud pits. There were a LOT more obstacles in the woods that we missed seeing but I think these last ones were some of the more exciting ones to watch. You can barely see Anson and Trevor climb the rope wall but then you get a good shot of the fire jumps and mud!

Trevor in the while and mud shirt about to cross the finish line!

Trevor and Anson immediately after they finished!! Crazy, right?!

I thought the backsides looks funny since that was pretty much the only simi-clean spots on them!

Of course, the race had huge water trucks there to get sprayed off, but it didn't really get them that clean! Here they are enjoying a turkey leg! The one sales lady told Trevor they sold 14,000 turkey legs on Saturday ALONE! I personally think they look gross but boys will be boys!

Somewhat cleaned off standing by the shoe donation pile with their girls:

I enjoyed watching it but was so glad I decided NOT to run it! Trevor loved it! That's all that matters!

Thomas the Train

2011-07-15T22:26:00.000-07:00

What a seriously fun day!! Thomas came to town and we HAD to go see him! We bought our tickets a month or two ago since we heard they sell out and sure enough...they sold out! We went with our good friends, Brie and McKay, and I'm not sure it could have been a better day. I paid for a train ride on Thomas but got a whole lot more. I didn't realize they would have a whole carnival of activities for the kids. Of course, we got our pictures taken with Thomas:
We rode a MUCH smaller train which was giving mini train rides while you waited for the longer Thomas Train ride. Here are our friends, Brie and McKay, on the mini train:

They had fun photo backgrounds:

Our train ride was perfect as well! We rode the train to the nearby Snoqualimie Falls which the trees pretty much blocked but when the train did stop this was our view out our window:

Everyone else's view was just trees while we got the beautiful scene above! Here are the kids looking out the window at the pretty view. What you can't see is me holding onto Reese's shirt as I was scared she was going to fall out our open window to the immediate drop off below!

They had train tattoos for the kids:

They had trains galore for the kids to play with!

They had live music, color stations, gift shop, food, a bounce house and of course balloons! The kids saw the guy making balloon guns and they were sold! Reese wanted a blue gun but since she could pick two colors she opted to go for a pink and blue gun! I love the bullet coming out at the end! I think every kid needs a balloon gun!

Reese shooting me!

We ended the fun day with ice cream and headed home! As soon as we got home, Reese wanted to get out all of her trains and set up her large set which she had taken down a while back. She much have forgotten how fun her trains really are! And here is Trevor's favorite photo of the day. Look at her crazy eyes! Gotta love her!

the sparkle of my eye

2011-07-14T22:20:00.000-07:00

My Little Swimmer

2011-07-06T21:38:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful and HOT day here in the Northwest, so we headed to the pool...again! I think this makes the 3rd day in a row! But today was a little different. I got Reese new arm floaties last night so she could swim by herself. She was a little scared at first and didn't want me to let go of her. But by the end, she didn't want me to hold her at all. "I do it myself." She would tell me! Here's my little swimmer:

I had to bribe her with ice cream to get her to leave the pool! When we got home, I gave her a little ice cream, put on the movie Cars and told her I was hoping in the shower. This is how I found her when I came out a few mins later. I guess all that swimming really wore her out!

Let Freedom Ring...

2011-07-05T23:36:00.000-07:00

We had a relaxing and fun 4th of July! We spent the early afternoon swimming and soaking up the sun!
We invited some friends over to the pool for a little BBQ and enjoyed more swimming, good food and great conversations!

We then headed to the local fireworks show. Trevor got out the sparklers for the girls and immediately, he had 8-10 kids swarming him begging for sparklers. He gave a few out and even more kids came!! It was crazy! But the girls loved them so that's all that matters!

Best pals!

On our drive to the fireworks, I told Reese where we were going and she said something about the fireworks are scary and she has to close her eyes and cry like she did last year! I was shocked that she remembered that from last year!! But she actually watched them this year! Although she kept telling me, "I done wit dis." But at least she watched them this year!! Doesn't see look a little scared below:

We were so close this year, we had ash falling on us! It was great! Well, the view was great, the ash falling in our eyes...not so great!

Afterwards, we headed to a local parking lot to set off a few fireworks that Trevor had bought. It was great up until one firework explored on the ground and a piece shot between my friend and I. After that, we hid behind the cars until the boys were done with their fun! Overall, fun day with friends! Happy 4th of July!!

Happy Birthday, Trevor...Part 2

2011-07-05T22:20:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night, I decided to take Trevor out for his birthday! He had always mentioned that he wanted to try the Underground Tour of Seattle, so that's what we did. It was really interesting and our tour guide was hilarious which always makes for a fun evening! An example of the tour:
There are so many cool buildings in Seattle. Here's just one dating back to 1890's:

These little purple squares are actually natural lighting for the underground that the city added when they raised the city!

Walking to dinner:

After the tour, I took Trevor to the pier for dinner at the Crab Pot. A favorite of his that he only seems to gets for his birthday!

They totally dump all the food on your table and you just get to work! Trevor loves it...I got a chicken sandwich (which was also delish)!

On the pier:

I'm so in love with Mt Rainer! It is just gorgeous and huge!!! It was a beautiful day Saturday so we got to enjoy all the sites!

Happy Birthday, Babe! It was such a fun night out!!

Day 5 & 6 of "Cars 2" Week

2011-07-04T10:46:00.000-07:00

Day 5 and Day 6 gifts got pushed together because of all the things we had planned. So Reese got a LOT of new cars on Saturday after the movie! She loved it and will probably be expecting gifts every day from now on! Reese and Daddy with Day 5 & 6 gifts:

Reese always put the cars in front of her face so I don't have a single shot of her entire face! Here she is with Day 5's gifts:

And here she is with the big finale...Day 6's large gift:

11 new cars and lot of fun activities later, our Cars 2 Week has come to a close. It was a fun week Reese but don't expect gifts this often!

Cars 2 Movie!

2011-07-03T10:47:00.000-07:00

Saturday was our planned day to go see the Cars 2 movie! We had a LOT going on that day so it ended up being very busy and we went to the movie before I gave Reese her last gifts. Which I didn't really care, and I think she like the cars even more after the movie since she knew where they came from. Here's Reese at the theater in her Cars shirt and Cars socks:

She did really well in the movie and LOVED all the popcorn! I just had to get a picture of her carrying that oh so large popcorn bucket!!

We thought the movie was very cute! On the ride home, Reese was already asking to watch it again! Maybe in a few months when it comes out on DVD!

Mariner's Game

2011-07-01T23:50:00.000-07:00

Trevor was given some free tickets for today's Mariner's game which was perfect to continue celebrating his birthday! We grabbed a couple of friends and headed to the game! It was a great game and the Mariner's won just for Trevor!! :)

Happy Birthday to Trevor!

2011-07-01T23:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Trevor's 29th Birthday! We had a small party for him Thursday evening with dinner, cake and presents! I made this delish but not so pretty cake, so I disguised it with a large pretty bow!!! As I was trimming off the top of the cakes to make them level to stack, the whole cake just fell apart in my hands! I blame the whole thing on the fact that this cake came out just too moist and wonderful! It really was good, just horribly unattractive! Trevor and a very excited little girl!

I actually had been giving Trevor little gifts each day throughout his birthday week as well...all leading up to his big gift of new sneakers. Actually, I gave him a card with a photo of the sneakers on it telling him to go pick them out himself since I would never have gotten him the right ones!

Which he got today after work and wore them tonight to the Mariner's game! We love you! And are SO glad you were born! Happy Birthday, Trevor!

Day 4 of "Cars 2" Week

2011-06-30T23:56:00.000-07:00

Day 4 was a busy day preparing for Trevor's birthday that evening so not many Cars activities were planned. But we did have another gift for Reese:
Peeking inside:

Cars socks and another new car!

I was trying to take a picture of just her socks (because I thought they looked so cute on her tiny feet!) when she wanted to include her new car in the photo as well!

Day 3 of "Cars 2" Week

2011-06-29T23:53:00.000-07:00

Day 3 was spent painting new Cars posters, putting together new Cars Puzzles, and of course opening the day 3 gift:
A new car and a squirt gun...perfect for the pool!

Day 2 of "Cars 2" Week

2011-06-28T22:32:00.001-07:00

So as you know, I have little gifts and activities for every day of this week as we are building the excitement up to see Cars 2 this Saturday! I put each day's gifts in a brown bag and made these cute labels for each day. Since Day 1 was a Cars related package from Nana, I started the labeling with Day 2!
Opening Day 2's gift:

I love her eyes in this one:

Showing us her new car:

After opening the new car, we got out ALL her cars to play with them. She started putting them together in the bunch so I snapped a quick picture with her and all her Cars. (And still more are on the way for the rest of this week...)

Day 1 of "Cars 2" Week

2011-06-27T23:50:00.000-07:00

The first day of our "Cars 2" celebration started with a package from my Mom to Reese full of new Cars and her first Cars shirt! It was the perfect way to start the week!

Sadly, my Camera card became full right when we were getting to the good part! Grr! I put in my little spare card, but only had enough space for this short clip:

Thanks, Nana! Reese loves her new cars and shirts!!

The beginning of our Cars 2 celebration!

2011-06-25T23:07:00.000-07:00

Four weeks ago our local Disney store started having Cars events every Saturday. They had a total of four events where the kids could go and do fun Cars related activities. Of course you know how much my little girl loves Cars, so I thought she would love the Cars activities building up to the new movie premier!

We actually only made it to 2 of the events because of other engagements, but Reese seemed to like them. The first one we went to, we made a 3D Mater from a cardboard cut out! And then she got to decorate him with stickers.

Today's final event was a scavenger hunt through the store using the red decoder below to decode the messages! Reese really enjoyed this activity! As you can see, she thought the red magnifying glass was pretty cool! They gave her a "Secret Agent" badge with her name on it, a certificate from the "Queen" of England, a passport that she used for each event, stickers and a large puzzle for going to multiple events!
I love how she has to hold her one eye shut in the above photo! She hasn't mastered closing just one eye by herself!

Here's my little Cars Enthusiast! Since Trevor is out of town this weekend, we are planning to see the movie next weekend so I have a whole week full of Cars gifts and activities planned for the munchkin! Should be fun!

First Day at the Pool!!

2011-06-22T21:20:00.000-07:00

That's what I'm talking about...

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

We were babysitting for a friend for an evening last weekend. Before they came, I told Reese that if she was good and shared her toys, I would give her a new Barbie just like the princess dolls she saw in the Disney store. Besides one meltdown she did really well so after the other kids left, I asked her what she was going to get if she was good. She said, "A Babie" (Barbie). I gave her the Barbie and she was holding it looking at it in aww when she said quietly but clearly, "That's what I'm talking about!" Ha! She was so exciting for her new doll!!

Celebrating Fathers

2011-06-22T08:01:00.000-07:00

Friday night we headed to dinner for an early Father's Day celebration! While waiting for our food to arrive, I read Trevor a little surprise for him from Reese. Earlier that day, I asked Reese a bunch of questions about her daddy and wrote down her exact answers! It was so cute to see what she came up with! Here are the questions and her exact answers:

How old is Daddy? 2

How much does Daddy weigh? Again.

How tall is Daddy? Paytes (Not sure she knew what that meant so just made up a word!)

What color is Daddy's hair? Black

What color are Daddy's eyes? Blue (They are hazel but she was close!)

What does Daddy love to do to relax? Color

What does Daddy like to wear? Black Shoes

What does Daddy like to cook? Eggs

What is Daddy's favorite household chore? Fix the curtains in my room (He just fixed them the day before!)

What is Daddy's favorite TV show? Scary

What is Daddy's favorite song? About Jesus

What does Daddy always tell you? I love you. I miss you.

What makes Daddy happy? He gives me M&Ms. (I'm sure this makes Reese happier than Daddy!)

When Daddy shops, what does he like to buy? Eggs

If he could go on a trip, where would he go? A baseball game

And he would take...? a ball and baseball bat to throw at the guys

I really love when my Dad...? cuddles with me in the park

It was really fun to see her answers! Then on Sunday we put up our Father's Day banner that we made, made Trevor breakfast, let him open a few gifts and then had dinner with friends and for dessert I surprised him with his favorite Coldstone ice cream to go! We love Trevor very much and are lucky that he is ours!I also found this clip to made fun origami from money! I thought they were so cute and included them in the card to my Father and Father-In-Law! Happy Father's Day!!!

Day at the Zoo

2011-06-21T11:35:00.000-07:00

A group of our friends decided to take a day trip to the zoo last week! All 8 of us crammed into one car and headed to Seattle! Besides it being a little cooler than what the weatherman expected, it was a great day!
The gorillas were exciting! The kids were standing up against the glass when this one gorilla came right up to them and sat beside them! It was just like he wanted to be their friend!

Then he put his hand up on the glass so Reese gave him a high five (with a little pony in her hand)!! It was so cute!

The zoo also has a fun spot were you can go and feed the birds. They give you a little stick with seeds on the end and you hold out the stick and the birds eat the seeds. Kaitlin and Blake got a real treat and had a personal visit from one bird!

All the kiddos, McKay, Reese, Avery and Blake.

There was also a fun carousel that we had to ride!

Afterwards, we all enjoyed some delicious yogurt from Yogurtland and then most kids fell asleep on the drive home! I guess we wore them out!

Sunday Walk

2011-06-12T19:16:00.001-07:00

This morning our little family took a walk. We let Reese guide us so whenever we got to a fork in the sidewalk, we asked her which way we should go. She would respond by saying "How bout tis way?" Then as we were walking (well, Reese was running the entire time) She would yell, "There's no time to loose!!" (a quote from Buzz on Toy Story). Occasionally she would also yell, "Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!" I love how fun she is!

Carnival Happy!

2011-06-06T17:20:00.000-07:00

We have had a busy last few days! Trevor left us for about 5 days for work so I tried to keep the munchkin busy.

Thursday was the last day of Reese's music class so we had a fun Carnival with music, games, and food!

Friday we met up with some friends at the KidsQuest Museum were Reese mainly played with their train set....as usual! :)

Saturday was the day of all days! We got up early and went to the Disney store for their grand opening for fun games and a free gift to the first 250 people...yeah it was just a bag! Nothing in the bag, just a bag! Anyways, we ran to a few stores in the mall then headed home for ANOTHER carnival at a local neighborhood. They had free food, cotton candy, snow cones, pony rides, clowns, balloons, and a huge bounce house! Everything a kid could dream of! After the carnival, we ran BACK to the Disney store to met Mickey Mouse who was showing up later in the afternoon! After Mickey we drove home where I dropped Reese off at our neighbors and headed to one of the best baby showers I've ever been to! Crazy day, right! Reese loved it so that's all that matters!

Here is Reese showing off her cool tattoo that she got at Thursday's carnival. It has a baseball, football and basketball with flames on it. She picked it out! That's my girl...she loves Cars, Toy Story, Sports and the color blur yet walks around in princess shoes holding her pink purse full of cars! What a well rounded child.
Reese on her first ever Pony at Saturday's Carnival! She LOVED it!

She also loves fire trucks so we had to get a picture with it!

Reese and her friend, Avery with their balloon flowers the clown made them. Reese specifically asked for a blue flower since it's her favorite color.

Mommy with her sweet little girl at Saturday's Carnival!

I was so proud of Reese when meeting Mickey. When it was our turn to walk up to meet Mickey, I asked if she wanted to go up by herself or if she wanted me to go with her. She said she wanted to go by herself and walked right up to Mickey and gave him a big hug and kiss!! :)

Then she turned around to give me a big smile! Mickey gave her nose kisses and she excitedly walked off the stage! She has always been afraid of characters but not this time. She loved it!

I didn't take ANY pictures at the Baby Shower. I guess I was having too much fun. But it was amazing! My friend took some so I may have to steal a few from her so you get an idea of the awesomeness of this party!

Friends

2011-06-02T20:06:00.000-07:00

We were at a party Tuesday night and Reese had a fun time playing with all her friends! I didn't get too many pictures but had to post this adroable shot of Reese and her friend, Avery! Such cute girls!!

A Gift from Daddy

2011-05-30T19:48:00.000-07:00

While on our date the other night, Trevor saw a little straw cowgirl hat that he wanted to get for Reese. So when we got home, he put his hat on and then told Reese he had a present for her. She got so excited and loved her new hat! Trevor told her, "Reese, I'm Woody" (from Toy Story) and She said, "I'm Jessie. and Mommy, you Buzz!"

Spring Fun!

2011-05-29T22:57:00.000-07:00

We had a beautiful day about a week ago, so we headed to the park with a friend and spent hours playing in the sun! The girls we having so much fun playing in the sand! I love Reese's dirty little face! Doesn't that just look like she had a blast? I was picking out sand in her hair for two days after this event!!
Playing Peek - A - Boo:

Reese's adorable friend, Avery:

Best buds:

Avery also taught Reese how to roll down a hill. I love this video because Reese will NOT put her head down and looks so cute rolling!

How-To Tuesday: How to get 5 mins of Heaven!

2011-05-24T01:02:00.000-07:00

My Fred Meyer grocery store was offering an e-coupon on their site for a FREE package of Magnum Ice Cream Bars. Of course they looked delish, but after tasting one, I was in Heaven! I have only had the double caramel kind but it was wonderful! Ice Cream with a layer of chocolate with a layer of caramel with ANOTHER layer of chocolate! Yum!
*Note: If you have a Fred Meyer or Kroger store near you, login to their site, add you reward card and get the coupon for a FREE pack. You WON'T be disappointed! They also have another coupon for $2 off one package, so what the heck...get 2 packages! :)

A visit from Nana!

2011-05-23T13:29:00.000-07:00

My Mom came out a week ago for a fun visit! It was a busy week packed full of fun, sickness and good food! A day after my Mom arrived, Reese got Croup and was pretty sick for a couple days! Besides that we still managed to get out and see some sights, see old friends we hadn't seen in a long time, and of course do some shopping! We went to Ikea for the first time and met up with my friends from St. Louis! It was great to catch up. I only wish we could have spent more time together! We showed Mom Trevor's office. We got free makeup at Clinique. We did sightseeing. We took Mom to Maggiano's! She took us to the Cheesecake Factory! We made Cafe Rio Salad! We played at an endless number of playgrounds, and even played in the rain:

A very bright day!

Picked flowers with Nana!

The monster:

Sightseeing:

We found a beach! Reese was so excited to play in the sand!

Barely touching the water!

Pike's Market!

A favorite of the market are all the flowers!

It was the Cheese Festival at the Market so it was PACKED!

Of course, you can't go to Seattle and not see something interesting:

Feeding the ducks:

Driving a Ferrari!

Loving the Carousel!

Thanks for such a fun visit, Mom! We loved having you here!

Bubbles

2011-05-21T21:50:00.000-07:00

May 4th was one of the first beautiful days here in the NW, so we celebrated the sunshine by having a picnic lunch and playdate at the park with a few friends! I love this picture of Avery and Reese both blowing to make bubbles! Reese is actually smiling as she blows because the bubbles are coming back into her face! It was such a cute photo, I just had to share!

Windy

2011-05-18T17:59:00.000-07:00

Today was beautiful! Warm, sunny and perfect! Reese and I were playing outside most of the day. After her nap, we went outside on our deck to sit in the sun and color. It was a little breezy and Reese's pages on her coloring book were flying up in her way. So she yelled to the wind, "Stop trees, stop!" Ironically, the wind did stop for a min. Without even looking up, she says, "Tank you" (Thank you). Then she looked up at me and told me, "My hair gonna blow away!" Funny kid!

A Royal Comparison

2011-05-18T00:07:00.000-07:00

I saw this floating around Facebook, and it made me laugh:

How-To Tuesday: How to use up leftover ham!

2011-05-17T06:45:00.000-07:00

Especially since we are a small family, whenever I make a ham...for example on Easter, we always have a ton of left over ham!! We get tired of the same ham and mashed potatoes meal day after day so here are two wonderful recipes from my Mom to use up the extra ham!

Ham & Bean Bake
(Sorry no picture)

1 Can Green Beans
3 Tablespoons Margarine/Butter
1 Cup soft Bread Crumbs
1 Can Cream of Celery Soup
1/2 Cup Milk
2 Cups Cubed Cooked Ham (You can also use the cooked packaged ham from the store but the fresh ham always tastes better!)
1 1/2 Cups Minute Rice
1 1/2 Cups Water
1/4 teaspoon Salt
4 slices of Cheese

Place rice, water and salt in a 9' square baking dish. Let thicken for a couple mins. Layer green beans on top of rice. Combine cream of celery soup, milk and ham in a separate bowl and heat in microwave for 30 seconds. Pour over green beans and rice. Top with cheese slices and sprinkle with buttered bread crumbs.

Bake at 350 degree for 30 mins.

Ham Vegetable Soup

Leftover Ham with Bone still in
1 Can Corn, undrained
1 Can Green Beans, undrained
1 Can Peas, undrained
1 Can Tomato Soup (the large size or 3 small cans)
5-6 Potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 Onion or Onion flakes
Salt/Pepper
Elbow Noodles, cooked with directions on the box

Put entire Ham in large 6-qt. pot of water so water covers 3/4 of the Ham. Simmer on Med/Low for 1-1.5 hours. (This is creating the broth for the soup and the bone gives the soup favor) Remove Ham. Let cool for a few mins then cut remaining meat off the bone. Add meat to the water (or broth) and discard the Ham bone. Add tomato soup and potatoes. Stir occasionally while it cooks for 10-15 mins. Add corn, green beans, and peas. Then season with onion, salt and pepper. Simmer for another 10 mins and its done! Pour some soup over your cooked elbow noodles in a bowl and Enjoy!

Now you can have multiple different meals out of your Ham!

Pirate

2011-05-15T11:50:00.000-07:00

I have a pair of socks that I got for free that have little skulls and cross bones on them. (I wouldn't have paid for them normally but they came free in the mail so I wear them sometimes with boot or other shoes you don't see the socks!) Today was one of those days. And as I was putting them on, Reese says to me, "Mommy, you wear your pirate socks?" I couldn't stop laughing!

How-To Tuesday: Make Personalized Photo Magnets

2011-05-10T11:07:00.000-07:00

This is another idea crafted from some adorable magnets my Sister-In-Law, Tiffany, gave me a while ago! They are photo magnets! Adorable, right?!
Ok, here are the directions:

Gather supplies...any shape hard cardboard cut outs (I used coasters found in the dollar section of Michaels.), photos, scrapbook paper, embellishments, glue, sissors, large round punch, magnets, and mod podge.

I put my coasters on the back of the scrapbook paper to trace and cut out the paper to the correct size. Then I glued the paper to the coaster.

Then I used my large round punch that was just a bit smaller than the coaster to punch out the photos. A tip is that I didn't always center the kids' faces in the middle of the punch; that way there is room to the sides for embellishments. Glue the photo to the coaster.

Add embellishments. I used some cardboard embellishments that I glued on during this step. All the other metal and ribbon embellishments, I waited until after I applied the Mod Podge.

Apply a thick layer of Mod Podge and allow to completely dry. I waited over night but that's just because I had the time.

Add metal and ribbon embellishments.

Apply magnets to the back of the coasters. And that's it! The photo below shows you the back:

They were pretty easy and turned out super cute! I did these for my Mom for Mother's Day of all her grandkids!! I tried to use colors that she had in her kitchen. It just so happened that I had everything in my craft supplies and didn't have to go buy anything extra! That rarely happens!!

Mickey Mouse

2011-05-09T11:06:00.000-07:00

While at the mall the other day we came across this giant Mickey Mouse sign so Reese had to get her picture taken with it! She looks so grown up here!!

Easter

2011-05-09T00:10:00.000-07:00

Easter morning is a lot more fun now that Reese understands what to do and how to hunt for the eggs. She woke up and was ready to look for eggs and candy and cars! (She automatically assumed the Easter Bunny would bring her new cars as well!!) Reese with her bunny ears on backwards, but that is how she insisted on wearing them:
Searching for eggs:

She found her Easter basket!!!

The Easter Bunny left her WAY too many eggs! She couldn't even fit them all in the basket!

Mesmerized by a new toy from her Easter Basket:

Reese is also getting into The Littlest Pet Shop so the Easter Bunny brought her a few new animals. I think they are just adorable!!

Our fun Easter morning breakfast! Please, don't laugh at my bunny pancakes...I've never made bunnies before! :)

Reese's cheesy smile in her Easter Dress which she loves to twirl in:

It was a perfect Easter! Reese loved all her new toys, candy and especially her new cars that the Easter Bunny brought her! Church was great! And even my ham turned out delicious! Can't get better than that!

A Big Boat

2011-05-08T22:07:00.000-07:00

Easter weekend, we headed over the Puget Sound to Bremerton for a friend's birthday party! They were our neighbors and great friends from St. Louis. Sadly, this was the first time, Reese and I had been over to visit them since we moved to Washington! But it was a great day for a ferry ride! It was a quick 30 min ferry ride...perfect for Reese to run around and see the sights! Here's a family shot from the windy ferry:Seattle in the background:Trevor and Reese on the Big Boat!

Swinging in our friend's huge yard!

Love Reese's static hair in the giant ball:

The three Doctors from St. Louis...Dr. Jensen, Dr. Gilbert, and Dr. Franklin:

And their beautiful wives:

Sunset from the ferry on the ride home:
Dark, silhouette shot of us on the ferry:
It was such a fun day seeing old friends and taking a fun boat ride! Hopefully, we will see them again soon!

How-To Tuesday: How to make an adorable Growth Chart

2011-05-03T00:12:00.001-07:00

I can't take credit for this adorable idea as it is all from my amazingly crafty Sister-In-Law. Tiffany, why don't you have a craft blog so I can see all your cute things??!! :)

This is the super cute craft my other Sister-In-Law and I were making a couple weekends ago in my Father-In-Law's work shop! I'm even stealing Tiffany's instructions! This is what she did:

I bought a piece of wood called Lauan. It comes in huge sheets and is really thin, but I cut two of these boards out of one sheet for $10. I cut the board 18 x 84. Sanded and painted the entire board a light coat of blue paint. Then I sanded it again so I could see some of the wood coming through. Then I stained the board and let it dry overnight.

Then I applied a vinyl growth chart from Stampin Up. I applied the pot first so that the top of the pot was at 1 foot. I have my board on the floor leaning against the wall. If you want to hang it on the wall, you’ll have to lower the pot and make sure you hang it at the right height. Next I applied the top of the tree and the two birds. Then it’s time for the trunk. This is the hardest part and takes two people. I used an X-acto knife to help get all of the little lines and numbers to peal right. I also stopped the ruler at 6 ft. You could keep it going into the tree if you want. Just make sure it’s centered when you lay it down.

Next I applied the branch and leaves. I had to use the X-acto knife again and shortened the top branch so that my leaves would fit.
Ok, the only thing I did differently was used a white paint with stain over it instead of a blue like my Sister-In-Law used. I think the blue would be awesome, but we only had white on hand so that is what I used! You have to carefully measure everything to make sure it is place on the wood in the exact spot and centered, etc. A little work but oh so worth it! It turned out so cute! I love it Tiffany!! Thank you SOO much!

Coloring Eggs!

2011-05-02T23:55:00.000-07:00

I told you I had a lot of catching up to do so here it comes...

The Friday before Easter, we colored eggs and Reese loved it! She was so excited about each color and was really good using the wire egg utensils all by herself!! She also loved drawing on the eggs with the clear crayon! And was so excited to see her drawing when the eggs changed colors!
Here she is patiently waiting for the eggs to become colorful!

Hopefully Just a Phase!

2011-04-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

I have so much I need to update on our blog but here is just a quick photo to give you an idea of the frustration Trevor and I have been going through for the past week and a half. Reese hasn't been sleeping and is starting to throw major temper tantrums. I think the combination is deadly.

Rice Krispies Treat Eggs with a Surprise!

2011-04-21T17:10:00.000-07:00

Aren't these just the cutest Rice Krispies Treats?? I saw these HERE and thought they would be perfect for a snack I was in charge of today. They were super easy just a little messy! Start out making Rice Krispies Treats as usual:

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 package (10 oz., about 40) regular marshmallows
- OR - 4 cups miniature marshmallows
6 cups Rice Krispies cereal
1/2 cup of chocolate candies
1 plastic snap-apart 3 x 2-in Easter eggs (the website calls for 12 but I just used the same one over and over...less to clean up!)

1. Clean, then coat inside of plastic eggs with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In large saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.
3. Add Rice Krispies cereal. Stir until well coated.
4. Firmly press some of Rice Krispies mixture into both halves of each plastic egg. Use fingers to make hollow center in each half.
5. Remove from molds. Place on wax paper.

6. Place candies in one half of each egg.

7. Gently press two halves of each egg together until they stick. For some reason, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product so here is the website version again. Cute, right?!

Fun in the Othello Sun!

2011-04-19T23:10:00.000-07:00

We hadn't been back to Othello since Christmas so we thought it was time for a little weekend getaway! It was a wonderful trip full of family, friends, playing, egg hunts, sun and crafts!

We started the fun by going to an Easter Egg Hunt and lunch on Saturday with my Sister-In-Law, Charee and her two boys! The house we went to had tons of fun things for the kids to play with...like a giant sand box:
What is more fun than digging in the sand on a nice Spring day?!

They also had a huge "tree house" as Reese called it:

Then we had the egg hunt which is always a favorite for Reese:

Excited by all the goodies she found!

Here Reese is enjoying a chocolate bunny from one of her eggs! I love her sweet smile!

After the egg hunt, we enjoyed a little lunch and played some more!

Reese is no longer afraid of Grandma and Grandpa's gator tractor! In fact, she LOVES it! She still won't drive it, but loves when cousin Grady drives her around!

While Charee and I were in my Father-In-Law's wood shop making crafts (pictures to come whenever I finish it!!), Grady and Reese were playing with everything! They loved these carts and called them trains!

They also requested BIG tractor rides from Grandpa numerous times!! As they were leaving, Reese would yell "Here we go!"

After the gator's battery ran out and eventually fully recharged, the kids got to ride it some more! A weekend of playing with a friend outside...life was great for little Reese!

After church on Sunday, we had another little egg hunt with Grandma and Grandpa! Reese did pretty well for herself over the weekend and has been asking for her basket of candy everyday!

Reese and cousin Grady after their egg hunt! Reese followed Grady around like a shadow the entire weekend! She loved every second with him and was so sad to say goodbye!

We had a great trip and only wished the weekend would have been longer! It was so nice to see everyone and to celebrate Matt's Birthday!

How-To Tuesday: How to make the best Banana Cake!

2011-04-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

OK Internet world, here it is! The best cake ever!! This is my absolute favorite cake...it's moist, sweet and oh so yummy! This is straight from my Mom's recipes:

Homemade Banana Cake
In a large bowl, add together:
2 ¼ Cups Sifted Flour
2 teaspoons Double Acting Baking Powder
½ teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
(Set Aside)

In a medium bowl, mash together:
1 Cup Mashed Ripe Banana
1 teaspoon Lemon Juice
Then add 1 ½ Cup Sugar
Mix together well. Then add:
2/3 Cup Sour Milk (or 2/3 Cup Milk with 2 Tablespoons Vinegar)
½ Cup Shortening
Then add to the dry ingredients and beat for 2 minutes at a medium speed.

Add to your mixture:
2 Eggs, unbeaten
1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil
1 teaspoon Vanilla
Beat for 2 more minutes at medium speed. Then pour into greased pans and bake for 30-35mins at 350 degree.
Let cool.

Frost with a Cream Cheese frosting or make this homemake Banana frosting:

1 Tablespoon Margarine
1 Tablespoon Crisco
3 Tablespoons Mashed Banana
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pound Powered Sugar
Milk enough to moisten

Mix all together and spread over cake!!! If you make this delight, I would love to hear what you think of it!!!

Take me out to the Ball Game!

2011-04-15T11:50:00.000-07:00

To celebrate all the April birthdays (Mine, Todd's, Matt's, and Tanner's in March) we headed to a Mariner Game on Wednesday afternoon! Besides it being FREEZING cold, it was a fun game!! We had great seats, 5 rows back!

Reese was so excited to "Talk a Moose" or talk to Moose! She also wanted to give Moose a hug and kiss! She did give him a kiss right on the nose and then a high five!! You can tell how excited she was in the pic below!

Our group....all 11 of us (minus Trevor who is behind the camera)!!

Reese was so good for the game! On our way to the game, my mom called and I was telling her we were headed to a game and Reese yells from the backseat, "Go Seahawks!!!!" (If you don't know, the Seahawks are the Seattle football team...we were going to the Seattle Mariners baseball game!) I thought it was so cute!! At least she had the right city!

The Mariners lost but it was fun to watch them play! Next time Mariners!!!

Big Girl

2011-04-13T16:50:00.000-07:00

Last week, I converted Reese's crib into a toddler bed. I was a little nervous thinking her new freedom would create all kinds of problems but she has been mastering the big bed like a champ! She loves to bounce on her bed and watch herself in the mirror across her room!

How-To Tuesday: How to Make an Egg Garland from Paint Chips

2011-04-12T11:03:00.000-07:00

I saw this BLOG that created this cute egg shaped garland from paint chips and thought it would be a fun craft for Reese and I to do. We headed to Home Depot and collected the paint chips. Make sure you pick up the paint ships that only have three colors on it. I picked up a few that had 4 colors on it and the white lines don't match up the same! I also used all pastel colors and love it.

We then used an egg cookie cuter and traced the eggs. Make sure you pick up a few extra paint chips so you can experiment with the placement and size so you get the white line in the right spot! Then cut them out and punched holes in the top. Finally we put each egg on a piece of ribbon and hung it up! I love it! And I love the little white line that breaks up the colors!

Happy Birthday to ME!

2011-04-11T21:20:00.000-07:00

The celebration started on Friday night when I thought just Trevor and I were headed to one of my favorite restaurants. When I came back after picking up the babysitter, I was surprised to see our friends waiting for me! Trevor had planned to have our friends go out to celebrate with us! It was so much fun! We should plan to do that every weekend!! I also made the best cake EVER! (Well, according to me anyways!!) My favorite banana cake....yummy! And I even got to use my new cake stand!We then had a few family members over Sunday night for cake and ice cream so I wouldn't gain 30 pounds from eating all this cake! Yes, I really could eat it ALL. It's that good! :)

Trevor also surprised me with a massage from his office today! The perfect ending to my birthday weekend celebration! Turning 27 didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought!

For Reals

2011-04-07T13:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, you know Trevor's been graduated from Chiropractic school and has officially been a Doctor for about a year. But having it all posted on his website makes it EVEN MORE official! I'm so proud of him and all his accomplishments! You are the BEST, Trevor! I mean Dr. Trevor!!

How-to- Tuesday: Create a super cute ABC Quiet Book

2011-04-05T17:45:00.000-07:00

When my little one was about to turn 2, I was looking to create a quiet book for church. I found THIS website. My Mom gave me a small scapbooking album with ABCs on them and then everything came together!

I printed out the dorling ABCs and cut each one just inside the black lines. I them used patterned scrapbooking paper for the background and a smaller peice of solid cardstock right behind the 2 cards. I glued everything together and was pretty impressed!

I only had 20 pages in the book and instead of buying additional pages, I just combined a few letters on a page. Worked great!

Enjoy!

Conference Tins

2011-04-03T23:39:00.000-07:00

So while living in St. Louis a family in our church ward explained how they involve their young children in General Conference. I immediately loved the idea and have kept it in the back of my head until this weekend! I bought 4 tins from Target's dollar section and simply printed out tags with the words Faith, Temple, Scriptures, and Family on them. I added a little bit of cute ribbon and bought a bag of candy...M&M's since they are Reese's favorite.

I set them out on the table and every time someone during conference mentioned any of the words on the tins, we could pick out a piece of candy! I know Reese is a little young and honestly, I wasn't expecting much from her this time around. But she actually got involved and loved the little game! It only lasted for a few speakers each time and then she got distracted and went off playing, but it was a start. I'm sure it would be better for older kids! I still love the idea and will definitely be doing this again!

Sorry for the horrible pictures and please ignore the one tin with no bow! I ran out of ribbon and wasn't in the mood try to fix it! :)

Jumping with Friends

2011-04-03T00:29:00.000-07:00

Last week, we headed out for a playdate/birthday party to a different bounce house. I've never been to these bouncing playgrounds before but they are awesome! Reese just LOVES them and it is great for her to run around. She loves jumping with her friends and sliding down the big slides! I think she also really like doing it all by herself! She needs a little help the first time through the mazes but after she knows what to do...she is off on her own playing with her friends!! Here she is climbing the ladder to get to the big slide on the other side: BEST photo of the day right here! Reese jumping like a froggy on the yellow dots! Love the action shot!

Reese about to go down a mini slide:

There she goes all by herself:

Lovin' every min!

Seriously for the next two days she kept asking to "Go play with my friends and go sliding and jumping!!" I wish I could take her every day!

I wanna look pretty

2011-03-31T01:17:00.000-07:00

So two days ago as I was putting on my make-up. Reese came in and was putting on my eye shadow. After putting a few brown strokes on her cheeks, she left taking the eye shadow with her. A few min later, I went to go check on her and found this:

Yes my sweet little girl is putting make-up on her and her cars! Love her!! Here she is below after she found Lightning McQueen! Of course, he needed a little make-up too! The really funny part is that a little later, we were heading out to the store so I said let's sit down and wipe your face. I began to wipe off her make-up when she looked up at me and said, "Mommy, I wanna look pretty!" Of course, she got that from me, as every time she puts on make-up, lip gloss, whatever...I tell her she looks pretty! Reese, you are already so pretty just being you!

Tractor Tipping

2011-03-29T13:38:00.000-07:00

You know my girl loves the movie Cars, right?! Ok, here she is re-enacting the part where Mater and Lightning McQueen go Tractor Tipping!! You can barely hear it but she does make a noise to scare the Tractor and then she tips him over!! She's so funny! (Excuse the Band-Aid on her face! She kept picking at a scab so we had to put Band-Aids on her face for a LONG time until it finally went away!)

The Tourist

2011-03-26T23:16:00.000-07:00

We watched the movie "The Tourist" last night, and I think it got us in the mood to see some of the sights in our own town! So today we spent the afternoon in Seattle. We first visited the famous Fremont Troll! Reese was a little nervous of the monster. Can you tell by her face?! After we left, she kept asking for the monster. She said she wanted to see it again. I told her we left but that she could look at the pictures on the camera. That satisfied her enough!

Then we headed a few streets down to the Gas Works Park right along Lake Union. It had great views of this cutie:

Seattle:

Even the houseboat from "Sleepless in Seattle":

Trevor and I with Seattle in the background:

The strange and interesting Gas Works Park in the background:

Reese even got to see a draw bridge rise up! She thought is was so cool and kept asking for it to go back up after it was already down!

We finished the afternoon at a new-to-us burger place, Dick's, where we had dinner and ice cream and left all in smiles!!

A typical sight

2011-03-25T14:01:00.000-07:00

Reese typically watches the Disney movie Cars. Today she climbed up on the chair covered herself and her Lightning McQueen car with her blanket and cuddled up to watch her movie!

I'm still surprise HOW many times she can watch this movie and not get tired of it! :)

To Nana & Pap Pap

2011-03-21T21:52:00.000-07:00

(Sorry Mom & Dad. Reese would NOT sit still! But she did sing Old McDonald for you! Enjoy!)

The Bachelor Finale Party!!

2011-03-15T16:44:00.000-07:00

A group of my friends and I have been getting together every Monday night after all the kids go to bed to watch "The Bachelor"! I love my girl's night and my girls! They are so fun! Well, last night was the finale so we threw a party! Here is everyone at the party! (Amy, me, Brie, Katie, and Wendy)
Brie made these cute "The Bachelor Finale Survival Kits" that contained Chocolate, Tissues, a horn, and a diamond ring!

Brie also made these cute roses so we each got a rose!

Wendy made these delicious sugar cookies in roses and hearts:

Amy brought yummy fruit:

I made a strawberry (rose) bouquet:

Brie also made these amazing raspberry cupcakes with roses as frosting:

Amy and I with our NEW rings! Love them!

We ate, laughed, ate, cried, ate, yelled and ate some more! What a truly great night!

A Bouncing Good Time

2011-03-15T01:30:00.000-07:00

For Reese's second cousin's birthday party we were invited to the Arena Sports Fun Zone Inflatable Playground Saturday morning! Expecting little beach balls and other smaller inflatable toys, I was extremely surprised as we walked in! These things were huge!! And it was so fun! As usual, Reese was a little unsure at first and kept asking to put her sneakers on and go home! But a few times down these slides and she was hooked!!

She did very well climbing up the "ladders" to the tops of the slides. Some were even hard for the adults to go up so she did awesome!

Here is Reese playing with Cousin CJ:

Reese making her way through the maze of fun:

An excited little girl:

This is for you to get an idea of how large these inflatables were. And this is only one. They had probably 7 or 8 and the largest one was impossible for Reese and I to climb up the ladder! It was ridiculous! This one was Reese's favorite. She got so fast at going through the maze that she would be done before I even got to the ladder. At that point, I knew she didn't need my help anymore and she did it all by herself from then on! She is the little girl in the white shirt almost to the top of the ladder.

Loving every min:

Right before we were heading out, I found Reese doing this in one of the bouncing inflatables. Poor girl! She was so tired!

Here she is sliding down one of her favorite slide:

Here she is enjoying a fun bounce:

Sadly, I didn't get a good picture of the birthday girl. But Happy Birthday, Maddy! We had a great time!

A New Toy

2011-03-13T19:26:00.000-07:00

Along with the Power Wheels Car, I also found a little Barbie Tricycle for FREE on Craigslist. It is a little beat up but it gives her something to ride! We finally had some sun so we went outside to try it out! She did really well, but still needed a little help from us.
We found a little hill that helped her get some speed and she loved it!

Trevor also gave the bike a try. I love his expression:

Gotta love the fun you can find on Craiglist!!

How-To Tuesday: How to Easily Sew Over a Bump

2011-03-08T14:09:00.001-08:00

I thought I would give my two cents to my friend, Christie's "How-To Tuesday" blog post. I always thought this was a well known trick for sewing but have come to realize that not as many people know this as I thought. If you already knew this...Consider yourself an expert seamstress!

While sewing have you ever come to a "Bump" or thick part of the fabric? Perhaps a thick seam...I used the pocket of a pair of jeans as my example below: The sewing machine was not made to go up a "Hill" like the example below. It can pretty much go through any thickness of fabric as long as the presser foot is level. See in the example below how the presser foot is NOT level and is trying to go up a "Hill"??
To quickly solve this problem and reduce the wear and tear on your machine, simply fold up a small piece of extra fabric and place it behind the needle under the presser foot. This makes the presser foot level again and can easily sew through the Bump.
(NOTE: you are not sewing the extra material to your project!! It is only to level out the presser foot!)

I hope this helps all you "wanna be seamstresses" like me!

A lovely Sunday walk...

2011-03-06T23:41:00.000-08:00

Poor Reese has been sick the past few days. It started on Thursday and seems to be at the tail end of it. That being said, we were tired of being inside for the past 4 days, so we took a little drive this afternoon and went to a local park that had some ducks. We brought some bread and had fun feeding the ducks. These ducks must get fed all the time because they knew what was going on. As soon as they saw us, they were literally running/waddling towards us! Reese loved it!

She is SOO excited here:

About to throw a handful of bread crumbs to the ducks:

Mommy and daughter:

Reese was loving it right up until the ducks got a little TOO close and bit her finger! I think she was more surprised than hurt. She actually got bit about 3 times because she would just hold the bread in the air and being short, the ducks could just reach up and get it out of her hands!! But once we started leaving she was asking for more bread to feed the ducks so she got over it pretty quick!

Night Night Kitties

2011-03-02T13:47:00.000-08:00

I walked into Reese's room yesterday to find her looking for her pink blanket. I handed her the blanket, and she pointed to her crib and said "Kitties Go Night Night". I then noticed she had her Kitties laying on her bed and was trying to cover them with a blanket!
Look closely and you'll see the tiny brown sleeping kitty had to be covered with the blanket as well!

Kids are so fun!!

One...Two...Three...GO!

2011-03-01T17:01:00.000-08:00

I had been wanting to take Reese up to the mountains to go tubing but it turns out to be a little expensive so instead my friend, Brie, found a spot up by the Snoqualmie Resort where you just pay to park and can go sledding all day!

We got up to the resort in the morning but the sledding hill still had to be groomed so it was closed. While we waited we found another much smaller hill with lots of powder where we created our own sledding hill! Here are our friends, Adam and McKay, about to sled down the hill! It was McKay's first time sledding, and I think he really enjoyed it!

I know my picture is not centered but I love Reese's expression in this picture:
Reese and McKay sledding! Going down the hill...See the beautiful resort in the background. I love the mountains!
Reese and McKay didn't hold onto the sled so at the bottom they both just rolled off! Reese got brave and went down on her belly! I new fav!

She was in a cranky mood and was crying about pretty much EVERYTHING! Poor thing! Here she is upset because she can't walk up the hill!

Trevor and Reese about to go down the BIG hill! It was so big, I had to put my hands out to try to slow us down the entire way down! I love Trevor's face...it really explains the day we had with the Terrible Two Year Old! :)

Sledding on her belly:

They also had a smaller hill perfect for toddlers. So McKay and Reese could go down without an adult:

I love their faces!

McKay and Reese about to race down the hill:

Here's a video of them racing:

By lunchtime, Reese was so tired. Here she is just leaning on Trevor's leg!

The Gilberts:

The Franks:

Daddy's Car

2011-02-27T23:08:00.000-08:00

So, last week I found this PowerWheels beauty on Craigslist...for FREE. (And it works, too!) I was so excited! And more importantly I KNEW Reese would be excited as well!
I met the other Craigslister at a grocery store, and as I was putting the car into the back of our car, Reese was looking around her car seat and asked, "Wat dat? A pink car" Then after a little while she noticed the VW symbol and yelled "It's Daddy's Car!!! Mommy, It's Daddy's Car!"

Ok, first let me just say that Trevor does NOT have a pink VW Beetle...instead he has a green, VW Jetta. But anytime Reese sees a VW car whether it be a Jetta, a Golf, a Touareg, or even a Beetle, she calls it "Daddy's Car". She can point out the VW circle symbol and thinks that is Daddy's Car. So now our sweet little girl has a "Daddy's Car" of her very own!

The Train Museum!

2011-02-24T20:39:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, Trevor's brother, Todd, and his family were in town. On our way to the North Bend outlets, we stopped by the Train Museum for the kids to play. Too bad it closed about 15 mins before we got there! Oh well. They still got to play around the trains for a few mins and loved every min.Cousin Grady and Reese

A day of LOVE!

2011-02-24T17:21:00.000-08:00

Our Valentine's Day celebration started with the usual heart pancakes:
then heart PB&J with heart bananas and chips for Lunch!

Reese and I traveled to Trevor's work to leave love notes on his drive home! We started with one in his car, then 4 giant hearts with notes on them on the side of the road on his way home, then one more at our door!

Then when Trevor came home from work, we gave presents. Here is Reese with her Valentine's basket of goodies!

Trevor bought his little girl a HUGE bee balloon that she LOVED! It is seriously bigger than Reese!

Trevor gave me a new cookware set that I LOVE and desperately needed. Our old ones (the ones we got when we got married almost 7 years ago) were leaving black specks of the nonstick stuff in our food...YUCK!!

The following day Reese got to open another Valentine's gift from Nana! M&M's are always a favorite!!

What a SWEET day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T14:33:00.000-08:00

To: You

From: Reese

XOXO

Fun-filled Saturday

2011-02-13T23:30:00.000-08:00

We started our Saturday with a morning walk in our neighborhood. It was a beautiful morning but as soon as we walked out the door, it started to sprinkle. Reese insisted on bringing her "brella":
We returned home to shower and get ready for Reese's friend, Blake's, birthday party. We walked out the door to leave and a wind storm had blown in. It was crazy windy! As soon as we parked for the party, a large portable basketball hoop blew over and crashed onto our friend, the birthday boy's dad's car! Yikes! It scratched the side door and broke the passenger mirror. Then once inside the house, the power blew and was off for the rest of the party! What a crazy storm!

I don't know how I didn't take any photo's of the adorable birthday boy! But I did get one of Reese eating her cupcake...pure joy! (There was blue icing up her nose!)

Again we returned home to nap and have dinner before we headed out for the evening...BOWLING! We went with our friends, the Franks and their sweet little boy, McKay.The bowling shoes were huge on Reese but they looked so cute on the kids little feet!

How cute is this. I'm sure Trevor loves the behind shot but oh well!

Trevor in action:

McKay was so independent and wanted to roll the bowling ball down the alley all by himself...which meant the ball took FOREVER to get to the pins! It was so cute! I thought for sure the one time the ball was going to stop before it hit the pins!! Here is Brie and McKay patiently waiting the ball to hit the pins.

Our scores! I won! I didn't do that great this time...probably because I haven't bowled in 2 or so years. Trevor and I used to bowl all the time in Rexburg where everything is so cheap. Now we rarely go but I still enjoy it! Adam's name is cut off at the bottom. But you can see that Trevor and Adam tied. Poor Adam would have had an even better score but he had to let McKay bowl one of his turns.

Thanks for playing with us, Frank Family! We had a great time!

I'll love you forever...

2011-02-11T17:15:00.000-08:00

Like you probably heard, my grandpa passed away January 19th. He was so sweet and caring! I love him dearly and miss him tremendously! He had Alzheimer's and deteriorated very quickly in the past few weeks. My mother was by his side as he passed. He was laying in bed and pretty much unresponsive but my mother was telling him how much she loved him and how much we all loved him when a tear ran down his cheek. It gives me such comfort that he knew his daughter was with him and loved him. I flew home to PA on January 21st to be home for the funeral.

(Pap Pap and Reese in Spring of 2009)

January 23rd, Trevor called to tell me that his grandma passed away in her sleep. Momo was one of the kindest woman. I loved to listen to her sweet southern voice! She will be greatly missed. As Reese and I were in PA, Trevor missed his 3rd, 4th and 5th days of his new job to fly to Louisiana with the rest of his family for Momo's funeral. (Momo with 2 of her daughters, Trevor's Mom and Aunt Kim)

Trevor is not one to take pictures, so I had to steal these photos from his sister. Thanks Melissa!

(The Gilbert Family)

(Trevor's Mom's side of the family)

When Reese and I got to PA they already had some snow. Since Trevor and I have never had much of a yard, or a hill, or even a sled, Reese has NEVER been sledding. Crazy, right?! How can my 2 year old never been sledding. But now she is a pro!

(Reese's very first time going sledding...notice how her face is a little unsure of this sledding idea. Yeah that quickly changed. Like a second after I took this picture. From then on she was ALL smiles!)
(Reese and Cousin Caraline - Reese loved to hold onto the rope. I think it helped her to feel in control of the sled)

(My Dad pulling Reese back up the hill. This is the best way to go sledding. Ride the sled down, have grandpa pull you back up the hill. How come that never happened to me when I was little??!)

(Reese's cousins...Ethan, Reese, Caraline and Matthew)

Monday, January 24th, my parents, my brothers, Reese and I took a day trip to Brownsville, right outside Pittsburgh, for my grandpa's funeral. It was great to spend the day with just my brothers and parents like in the olden days! :) We laughed the entire drive to and from...4 hours each way. We also drove around Brownsville and Maxwell to see my great grandparent's old home and to see how everything as changed. Sadly, most things have changed for the worse. But it was fun to drive around and see all the places we used to visit so frequently when we were young.

(My Mom with some of her cousins in Pittsburgh after my grandpa's funeral)

(Reese found these funny glasses at Uncle Kris and Aunt Martha's house!)

(Caraline trying them on)

(A sleepover at Nana and Pap Pap's house! Yeah Reese only lasted a few mins and then had to go to sleep with me.)

(This is Tweeky. He was our cat growing up. He is 21 years old and looks it! The poor thing is blind and deaf now and looks really rough. Actually this picture makes him look pretty good! But the funny thing is that Cousin Caraline always goes up to him and says, "Ahh..him so cute!" And when Reese first saw him this trip she said, "Him Scary!")

The day after we came home from Pittsburgh, we had a large snow storm and got about 7 inches of snow! It started one afternoon and never stopped snowing until the next morning! It was beautiful! Kris and I took a midnight drive on the four wheeler and it was awesome! No one was on the road so everything was white and peaceful.

(My brother pulling the kids in the sled with the four wheeler. They LOVED it!)

(My brothers, Mark and Kris, and Matthew)

(Reese LOVED the "Snow-bill")

(Reese, Caraline and Ethan)

(The stream by my parent's house. I don't think I've even seen it frozen!)

(Pap Pap pulling Reese with the "Four Wheel")

(Uncle Kris and Reese)

(Pure Heaven for Reese!)

(Nanny, my Dad's Mom, with my cousin's adorable little boy!)

(Reese, Me, my beautilful cousin, Sarah, and her sweet baby, Lincoln!)

(All the great grand kids that were in town)

(Reese cuddling with Uncle Mark and Caraline)

(Me and my Brothers!)

This man...

2011-02-10T19:12:00.000-08:00

is now an employed, working 9-5, pay-check bring in, gorgeous Doctor! Yes, that's right, Trevor got a job and we couldn't be happier for him! He loves it and we love the MONEY! Ok, I'm kidding but not really! That's seriously how I feel after almost 9 months of no work!

More fun with soda

2011-01-17T12:37:00.000-08:00

We tried the Soda Geyser again. Here is Reese and McKay loading the geyser tube with Mentos:

This time some friends came along and brought a fun experiement. We tried out the difference between Regular Coke:

And Diet Coke:

As you can see, diet is the way to go!

Christmas in January!!

2011-01-16T22:25:00.000-08:00

A couple years ago during our Souper Saturday Craft Day for our church, a lady was teaching a class on these amazing Christmas Centerpieces. Since I was also teaching a class, I wasn't able to participate in her class. So I took a picture of it, with the hopes of eventually creating one for myself! Beautiful, right?! Sorry, the phone camera isn't the best!!

I purposely waited until after Christmas, to get my supplies on sales. I already had the large ball ornament and the green wreath (which I dismantled and reconfigured to the shape on top of the ball ornament). I only had to purchase a box of mixed ornaments, 2 floral picks, (one I didn't even use) and the hanging ornament in the vase for roughly $3. My largest purchase was the vase for $4.99. I wasn't too upset about it but I probably could have found that cheaper at a thrift store or something.

I first attached the greenery to the ball with just hot glue! Then I added the hanging ornament, cleaned the inside of the vase, and glued the large ball to the vase. I had to do a little reshaping of the greenery as it got really smashed and misshaped with all the handling. Then I started decorating the greenery with all the smaller ornaments. I had to do this twice. My first time, was just ok. I'm not a florist so I had to play around with the design. Then I figured that since my ornaments where kind of smaller for the size of the centerpiece, I needed to do clumps of ornaments and it turned out great! I have one large clump at the top and four others around the sides. Here is the finished project...that I LOVE!

Example of one clump of ornaments:

Here is some of the top of the centerpiece. I love the snowflakes:

Overall, I am super pleased with the way everything turned out. I do have a few tips for anyone wanting to try this. These are things I probably would have learned if I took the class, but I had to figure it out on my own:

Don't use a sparkly large ornament...the sparkles get EVERYWHERE!! And you can't ever get them all cleaned up! And even now, if I put the centerpiece on the table, sparkles fall off onto the table or anywhere I place it. That just drives me crazy!
Use a variety of different ornaments, shapes, etc for the decorations.
Get a wide enough vase. I thought mine was wide enough but I could only fit one ornament to hang down and I really liked how the example had a few different ones hanging in the vase.
Take off the sticker on the bottom of the vase before you do anything! So much easier!!

I can't wait to use it in 11 months!! :)

A love for chips!

2011-01-15T16:44:00.000-08:00

This cutie loves her chips! So much so that she stole this ENTIRE bag of chips off the counter, sat down on the couch, and started to help herself one evening!! The mischievous smile shows that she knows she isn't supposed to be doing that!! But how can I say NO to her?!

Go Seahawks!

2011-01-13T12:56:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, Trevor was here:
and LOVING every minute of it! He and a buddy went to the first game of the playoffs where the Seahawks upset last years Super Bowl Champs! It was Trevor's first NFL game and claims it was also one of the best Seahawks games EVER! So glad you had an awesome time, Babe!

Snowman Kit

2011-01-11T20:55:00.000-08:00

Ok, seriously. How cute is this?! This is a snowman kit that includes everything for making a snowman, (except the snow!).

The kit includes:

Hat
Scarf
Carrot for nose
Branches for arms
Black dots for eyes, mouth and buttons
Pipe (although I really don't need this!)
And a cute bucket to hold it all!

I just love it! Although I bought this one, I'm sure you could easily make one to hold everything you need for these Winter days! These would also make super cute gifts!

Playing at the Children's Museum of Seattle

2011-01-11T00:59:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, a few new friends and I headed to the Children's Museum in downtown Seattle! It was a perfect play date! Reese ran around with her new friends...Avery and Auby (That's how she says Aubrey) and loved every min of it. Although you can't really tell in any of the pictures because this child NEVER smiles in pictures!!!!
Reese, Aubrey, and Avery in a firetruck!

Reese in the grocery store filling her cart with food and goodies!

Look Reese, Avery is smiling!!! :)

More interested in what Aubrey and Avery are filling there carts with and way too busy to look at me for more than a second!

Is that somewhat of a smile from Reese?? She probably didn't know I had the camera out! :) Aubrey was awesome and smiled on demand and held that perfect smile for a while! Love it!

Spelunking in a cave!

Riding a bike and yelling at any stranger that tries to touch it!

Putting plastic balls in one end and chasing it until it falls out at the bottom!

I'm so sad Aubrey has her eyes closed in this picture but how cute are these girls!!!

What a fun day! Let's do it again soon!!

The Soda Geyser

2011-01-06T13:48:00.000-08:00

My Mom got Trevor this Geyser Tube for Christmas! And oh how fun! If you guys have every seen any other videos, you know that putting Mentos into Soda creates an explosion of soda and fizz! So we took our Mentos, Geyser Tube and Coke (apparently Coke works best!)Then we set everything up over a drain so we didn't get into trouble with our apartment complex! :)

Then Trevor pulled the string to drop the Mentos into the Coke and this happened:

I didn't know HOW high it was going to go. Otherwise I would have stood back in the beginning! It went MUCH higher than what you see in the video. Next time I'll stand back further so you can see how high it really goes! Here is Trevor with the end result of Coke!

Thanks, Mom! It was a lot of fun! Now we need to get more Mentos and Coke!!

A great way to end 2010

2011-01-04T17:07:00.000-08:00

and begin 2011!

Our New Years celebration started with dinner with great friends...about 22 of them! I didn't get a group picture but there were quite a few of us! The food was delicious, the conversation was wonderful and Reese was actually really good! What a great evening.

Then we headed to Trevor's Aunt's home for games, more food and fun time! We weren't going to keep Reese up til the new year but we were having so much fun and she was still being so good. Here she is playing with her second cousins, Mattie and CJ. She literally copied EVERYTHING these two did! It was so cute.
This is at midnight. Aunt Sheila gave Reese a little firework...It is actually just paper that pops out. You can tell in this video that she was tired! She doesn't even move when it pops!! It DOES scare Trevor who is holding the camera...just watch when the pop goes off. The camera will jump as well! :)

More Snow!

2011-01-03T19:31:00.000-08:00

December 29th we had a beautiful snow! I woke up to about 2 inches of snow and it kept snowing until we had roughly 3 inches of snow. Not a lot but enough to have fun! I LOVE the snow and enjoyed every min of it! Although, our road did get shut down because people literal got stuck in the middle of the road and LEFT their car there to walk home! The cops couldn't even get through! Worse snow drivers ever! But thankfully, we didn't have to leave so we stayed home and played in the snow!

Just like me, Reese loves the snow and would probably stay outside until she froze!

The only reason I included this picture was because of Reese's hair! Look at those gorgeous curls!

Reese's snow angel. Can you see the little impression at the top of her head from the ball on her hat?! That makes me laugh!

Laughing because she just hit Mommy with a snowball!

Love her face on this one! (Click on any image to enlarge)

We hope to see more white this Winter!