Scaring a Mom to Death

This afternoon Kaylie was playing outside and Mark came in to say, "You've got to see this! Kaylie's up the tree!" I was guessing that she climbed a few feet off the ground. Nope - not our girl. She went all the way to the top and was a good 20 feet off the ground. Look close - that's her smiling little face poking out between the branches. After climbing down with spotting by Mark, we plucked the tree out of her hair and made her promise not to do it again. This girl is giving me wrinkles.

Welcome Baby Girl!

My friend Jayna gave birth to her second little girl, Emma Renae, on September 16th . Emma is welcomed by Jayna, Ed, and 2-year old big sister Paige. Jayna and I lived together in Connecticut and had many, many fun adventures together. I am so happy for you, Jayna! Congratulation! I miss you terribly! XXOO!

Emma Renae
6 lbs. 14 oz
18.5"

We're baaaack!!

Sorry for the long delay in posts... we were having computer problems, but we're back in the game! Hope you've been well! Enjoy!

September Sunrise

Mark took this picture the other morning. While it's hard to see the sun coming up later and later, She's still giving us quite a show!

Malia's 9th Birthday

We celebrated Malia's 9th birthday with a Barbie Princess party complete with Barbie Cupcakes, an ice cream sundae bar and a pinata. What more could a girl ask for - friends, family, sunshine, sugar, & Barbie... a perfect day! Malia was completely spoiled with amazing gifts of a Nintendo DS, an American Girl doll and book set, Webkins, clothes, gift certificates, art supplies... and much much more. She is one loved girl!

It was a full house
Some of the men folk

The birthday girl and BFC (best friend Cousin) Avery

Another guest of honor

Uncle Keith got a little carried away with the whipping cream. Mark thought we should offer a prize to the person who comes up with the best comment for this picture.

Chris & Josh

The pinata line up. Braeden got the first whack... Chris got the whack that brought the whole thing down.

Marty found other uses for the smashed pieces of pinata. I think I'll forward this one to the school board!

Grandpa Bob and Grandma Nicki - my wonderful parents!

Malia and Kari

Braeden always loves a party

Our Tree Climbing Girl

(Check it out - our girl wears panties now!!!!)

Ken's 70th Birthday

Mark's dad, Ken, turned 70 in August and we were so proud to host his birthday bash! Happy Birthday, Ken!
The birthday boy and his brothers Fred, Jim, & Frank

Fruit of Fall

We're knee deep in fruit off our trees and loving it - we've been eating pears and plums like it's going out of style. Sooo goood! Sadly, our apple tree didn't produce a single apple this year.

Camano

Did you know that 10:30am is the universal time for feeding cows? :-)

The Potty Update

So after all the bribing, encouraging, & pleading that we could come up, I think (dare I say it?) Kaylie may have decided to be done with this whole potty training thing. Friday morning she came down the stairs carrying her piggy bank (that is actually a bunny) and said, "If I stay dry all day long, can we go to McDonald's tonight?" I said, "Of Course!" and guess what - SHE DID IT! Not only did she stay dry all day, including through her nap, but she's been dry ever since - even overnight last night. She is 100% a pantie girl. To be honest, she did have one accident today, but we'd been in the car for 3+ hours and she was asleep, so I totally don't think that counts. Oh, and she used a port-a-potty for the first time "Ewwww! Yuck!" I don't think she'll be asking to do that anytime soon! Keep your fingers crossed for us! (Oh - and how funny is it that SHE bribed US to go to McDonalds?!?)

I Packed My Bags To Go To Grandma's

And in it I put:
Apple laptop, beach bag, coffee, donuts, everything, flip flops, (my) girls, hair products, ice cream, Josh, kayak, lemon bars, magic, Nano, ostrich, purse, Quizno's sub, Range Rover, smoothie, tanning bed, uniqueness, vagina, wonderful wife, xerus (swishy tailed), your car, & zedonk.

Goodbye Summer!

I am soooo looking forward to fall. I think I'm officially done with summer. Done with dirty barefoot feet, sunscreen, and kids up at 5:30am just because the sun is up. Today was the perfect teaser for fall... cool and crisp, a few rain showers, a little sun. Tonight we have a fire burning in the living room (ok, in all honesty, we are about to open the doors because it's getting really hot in here), I'm having an absolutely lovely glass of red wine (a super juicy full Malbec from Argentenia), and we have our "fall" music playing (you've gotta love these: Beth Orton, Jamie Cullum, with a little Louis Armstrong thrown in for good flavor). Mark is tucking the kids in bed (after blow drying Malia's hair - what a good, good Dad!). Chances are we'll play a few rounds of Dominoes tonight, because that is our official "sport" of fall and we are pretending that she has arrived.

Other fall favorites:

1. Walking Bainbridge Island, window shopping, kicking the leaves on the streets, stopping for hot apple cider and lemon bars
2. New dark wash jeans, boot cut, with just a touch of stretch (nice & long of course), a cozy chunky knit sweater, & new fall foxy black boots with a great heel.
   
3. Evenings at home with wine, a crackling fire & dominoes
4. Children asleep by 8:00
5. Rich pasta, soups, & more wine
   
6. Our wedding anniversary (it's no accident that we got married in the late fall)
7. Catching up on books - summer is just too busy to read all those books that are stacking up on my nightstand.
8. Knitting - it's time to start knitting scarves!!!
   

So Goodbye, Summer! You've treated us well, but we're ready to say goodbye... Ciao!

She's growing up!

This morning Kaylie packed her own backpack to go to "school". I have no idea what she packed in it, but I'm sure it's a fine assortment of animals, toys & books. She also picked out her shoes and put them on (the wrong feet, I noticed later). It just made my heart skip a beat when I realized how fast she's growing up. She is so strong and independent and so little, all at the same time. I wish I could keep her at this age a little longer.

Duuuude! Check out Josh and his totally rad faux hawk (and the gnarly bruise on the forehead to go with hit!)


And SBK's lovely Goldilocks. Did you know that she gets her curls from Mark? He used to have one seriously curly mullet. How hot is that?!?

Putting Our Lives in the Hands of Carnies

Saturday we went to the Hydroplane races in Silverdale. Unfortunately due to the weather (high winds, and later rain) the hydros never even made it in the water. We did, however, throw all caution to the wind and handed our children over to the grinning, toothless carnies and their rickety death trap rides. (I'm sorry - that's rude. One of the carnies had a few teeth)




Check out SBK's grin as she goes on her first motorcycle ride (And her last, says Mark!)

Cotton candy was the snack of choice, of course. Nobody could determine which was better - the pink or the blue. It's all good!




For ride #2, Malia chose "The Octopus". It was a very brave choice.. perhaps too brave. A few times around and I had to ask them to stop the ride so a very shaken Malia could get off.

And then we played at the park for awhile before the rains hit. (Hard to believe that it was raining sideways 20 minutes after these picture!)

Last week when we went to the park, Malia went across the monkey bars 30 times and came home with blisters on both hands. She toned it down to 6 crossings this time.

We ended the day with a carnival theme dinner at home: corn dogs, nachos, and root beer floats. There will be time for veggies and hummus tomorrow.

A great Malia picture

Malia is going to be NINE in September - I can't believe how fast she's growing up - or how gorgeous she is!

House Update - Painting is almost done!

So here she is! She's not finished, but we're getting there. Can you believe how much of a difference paint made? We still have a second coat on the trim, then the porches and the garage doors to paint but we can tell our little old house is feeling pretty!

A not so good idea

I heard from someone (who will remain nameless) that sometimes it helps encourage kids to potty train if they have to clean up their pants when they have an accident. Hey, I'll try anything once if it might help the cause... here is how it went down:

Last night SBK was outside in her bikini, playing in the water and running around. Sure enough, I hear "Moooommmmy!!! I need to be cleaned up" - a sure sign that she has poopie panties (or bikini in this case). So we march into the bathroom and I explain to her how she is going to clean up and wash out her swimsuit bottoms. (I know, just writing this I now hear how ridiculous this sounds.) We start out great, she takes off her suit and tries to shake the "stuff" into the toilet. No go. She shakes harder. No go. It's like a slingshot at this point and I'm getting scared. I asked her to slow down and try to shake out her suit into the toilet a little more carefully. This is when she grabs the suit and is holding the "stuff" in the palm of her hand (it's still inside the suit, so she's not actually touching it). In slow motion she looks at it closely.... then closes her hand into a fist... squeezing the poo everywhere.

I'm pretty sure I'm losing my mind.

Planning Ahead

Yesterday there was a catalog in the mail that had some Halloween costumes in it. The kids got to thinking and this is what we have so far:

Joshua - "An Imperial Storm Trooper"
Kaylie - "A beautiful butterfly"
Malia - "Too soon to decide"

I'm guessing this will change no less than 47 times between now and October 31st... we'll keep you posted.

The Painting of the House

It's coming along beautifully! Thanks to Jason, Bryan, Robert, and especially Marty (the paint pro who has been putting in overtime at our place)! The house is looking great... the body is finished and the trim work starts tomorrow. Mark is exhausted, today was a 6am to 8pm day, but there is an end in sight.

Thanks Lisa for loaning us your husband! We love you!

We'll post pictures tomorrow!