Tami's Blog

ALL ABOARD!!!!!

2009-04-24T12:10:00.000-07:00

Our first day on the ship. This is the picture they took of us getting on the ship. It wasn't the best picture but we had to get it with all the info for our ship.

We got on the boat as soon as we could. We wanted to have a lot of time to explore our new "home" for the next week. We had lunch in the buffet dining room. This was what greeted us as we came in. The food was pretty good here....great deserts....of course!

We finally got to go to our room about 1 or 2 pm. We were so lucky to get a handicap room. It was HUGE! Just look at this room. We were so spoiled....there is just no way we can ever go on another cruise....it just won't be as good. :0)

We had such a big bathroom...we even had a phone in there.

Here is our deck. It was twice as big as the one next door.

Our entry way, closet and vanity.

We even had a little sitting area.

This was one of Dave's favorite things. These pool tables rotate with the waves so your balls don't roll around. We had a pretty rocky voyage one night and these tables were all over the place but not one ball ever moved. It was way cool!

This is the Schooner bar...we played a few games of trivial pursuit in here and won two of them.

Here's a view of the dining room from the top. It was so pretty in there. We didn't skip one dinner here...the food was excellent. We loved our wait staff, too. You'll get to see them in a later post.

Here's our actual table. We had a limited view out those big windows. We always got to see the sunset thru them.

My artistic shot of the deck chairs. :0)

This is a view of the center of the ship where all the elevators were. It was so pretty in there. This picture so doesn't give it justice.

This is the pool deck.

Here is Old San Juan at night as we waited for the boat to pull out. We left port at 10 pm.

Dave and Old San Juan in the background.

Me and Old San Juan...not the greatest picture. But had to post it or you wouldn't know I was there. :0)

Bon Voyage!!!

Where Have I Been?

2009-04-05T20:57:00.000-07:00

Where have I been? Not on the computer that's for sure. Sorry to be gone for so long. Over the next few days I will try to fill you in on some of the things we've been up to. But for now I'll just post some pic's and blurbs about our trip to Puerto Rico and our Cruise. This was our get away for our 10 year anneversary. Yay, us!

This first group of photo's is from our 3 days in Puerto Rico. Enjoy!

View from the back of the hotel. All the windows are barred and most places are gated.

Here are some pic's of the suite we got in Puerto Rico. It's funny, but the whole place was tile. Not exactly what I thought it would be. I like carpet, it just feels more comfortable. I think this hotel would have made some uncomfortable. Not the hotel itself...it was very nice and pretty new. But the location was a little scary. As seen in the previous pic's. It was a bit like the slums. But I never felt that I wasn't safe. So, that's a good thing.

Nice spacious bedroom with king size bed and a door to the balcany. Best of all, there were two tvs. :0)

OOOOOhhhhh, the bath room. :0)

The Pool. It was so cold, they don't believe in heated pools. We never tried it out. But it was pretty to look at. Give me the beach any time.

We started out our first full day in Puerto Rico at the Bacardi Rum factory for a tour and a couple free drinks. Then on to El Murro an ancient fort and Old San Juan.

We got to try out two diff. Bacardi drinks to see what we liked. Dave tried a peach one that was pretty good. He also tried a more premeire drink...it was gross. I swear it tasted like bandaides. Nasty! I first tried the apple rum. It was ok. But......

I then tried the raz rum...oooohhhhh, yummy!

View of El Murro and Old San Juan from the ferry.

When we got off the ferry, this was one of the first things we saw. It was so pretty and peaceful. There were people playing chess behind me, enjoying the cool shade.

I took so many pic's of colorful streets this day. I can't believe how colorful this culture is. I just loved it. This one turned out the best.

The cobble stones in town are blue. I don't think I've ever seen blue cobble stones before.

The beginning of the fort walls. The hike begins.

I loved this bird sitting in the window.

A couple from Chicago took this picture of us. I have found that if I want a pic. of us together, I just go up to another couple who are taking pic's and ask if they would like me to take a pic. of them together and then of course they are kind enough to ask if we would like our pic. taken. Works every time.

I saw this flower just hanging out on the top of one of the fort walls and thought it looked so pretty there. So, of course I took a picture. :0)

I just loved the look of this beach. I was wishing that I could stay here and hang out a little longer. But, we needed to keep walking.

Oh my gosh! This is going to be a long walk. :0) It actually wasn't that far a walk.

The entrance to El Murro, finally. We walked forever to get there.

Even the inside of the fort had color.

I thought this would make a cool shot. I still think it does. :0)

Hey, look at that...a picture of me. I always forget to have someone take pic's of me. My poor kids are going to grow up and never know what I used to look like. :0)

The view of Old San Juan from the fort.

I love this shot of the sail boat and the sun behind. It almost looks like it's floating in the air.

Chapel inside the fort. Even the fort was very colorful.

Cemetary outside Fort El Murro. What a great place to be put to rest. Right on this beautiful beach.

We were walking around town and came across this church and went inside. It was so beautiful in side. Not much to look at outside. So, a nice surprise when we walked in the door.

Here's the ceiling of the church. So pretty.

I don't know how I didn't make this a blurry pic. I didn't want to use a flash, because it would really flatten it out, but I thought for sure it would turn out very blurry. I guess I got lucky. Such a pretty church.

I can't believe this didn't come out more blurry. It was so pretty in there.

Beautiful stain glass window. I loved this church.

A pink church, now how cool is that! I have never seen a pink church. I just love the colors of this little town.

On the way back across the bay we crossed paths with this cargo ship and the setting sun behind it. Looks really cool.

Here's our commuter boat to Old San Juan with El Murro in the background.

The view from our hotel balcany.

Here is where we spent our 2nd full day in Puerto Rico...El Yunque Rain Forest. A truly beautiful place.

This is the only kind of lizard you will ever see me get this close to. If it was real...well lets just say the screaming may damage your hearing. :0)

These flowers were just growing out of the walls. They were so pretty and everywhere. I wonder if I could get them to do that....prob. not!

Here's a close up.

I just loved the colors in this tree trunk. It looked like it was painted this way, but it was just naturally this way. Way cool!

I wish I could have cut off the branch blocking the tower.

Here's Dave in front of the tower.

The jungle is just so cool and lush from this angle.

The jungle thru a window of the tower.

The beach thru a window of the tower.

These little lizards are all over the island. If you know me, you know I scream like a little 5 year old when these guys sneak up on me. So, it was a HUGE thing for me to take this picture. While I was taking this pic. Dave started to chuckle because unknown to me, there was another little slimy thing climbing up the railing I was leaning against to steady the camera for this shot. I took the pic. then ran away shuddering like I had just swallowed a slug. I'm such a ninny!

We found this great place for a picnic by the water.

Dave crossing a bridge.

Tami about the cross the bridge. Green moss grows on anything that doesn't move. It's very pretty.

The majesty of the jungle was just so....I can't even describe how beautiful it was there. So green!

There it is the La Mina waterfall we had been hiking for a half hour to see. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

I was surprised how not sweaty we look in this picture. We took this on our way back from the falls. We were also so lucky that it didn't rain on us in the RAIN forest. :0)

I had seen this flower in the parking lot right before we started our hike, but didn't take the picture. I kept telling myself thru the whole hike that I should have taken the picture..it was the only flower like that I had seen the entire time in the jungle. I was convinced that someone would pick it before we got back...but to my surprise it was still there and as beautiful as I remembered it.

I think vacationing at the beach...any beach...is our preferred vacation get away. It's just so relaxing.

After hiking thru the hot jungle, it was nice to cool our feet at the beach.

Don't we look like we are having fun. :0)

The water was so clear and pretty. A bit chilly at first but not as chilly as the Pacific coast of Wash. State.

Every time we go on vacation on a beach I write the name of the place and the year in the sand.

Footprints in the sand.

Here's our rental car where we parked at the beach. I liked the paintings on the sea wall.

Getting this picture has a story...We had been in Puerto Rico for 3 days and had always been on the road when the sun was setting. This was our last day to get a sunset photo...and once again we were in the car. So, I just whipped the camera out and started to take a picture in a traffic jam. Just as I was about to take the shot a car came up beside us, saw me with the camera and slammed on his brakes so he wouldn't mess up my picture. Now that's conciderate! I got the pic. then looked back to make sure I hadn't been the cause of an accident. Thank goodness everyone was fine.

Here is the view of our hotel from across the street...the beach side of the street.

I don't know what this building was used for but I just liked the look of it.

Here is the fort El Murro from across the bay.

Dave outside a small fort called El Canuelo across the bay from El Murro and Old San Juan.

Sept. Camping Trip

2008-11-05T16:20:00.001-08:00

Thought I would post a "few" pic's of our camping trip last month. I'm actually catching up on some of my posts....Yay!

We went to Steamboat Rock to go camping. It's a very pretty place and perfect for our group. We usually take up a whole ring of campgrounds and this year we were able to get them right next to the water. The kids had a blast and I had a fun time capturing it on my camera. Enjoy!
Family picture time.

I got this shot of Sarah in a neat tree right by the water. Amanda wouldn't do it because she was afraid there were spiders in it.

She would rather sit in the grass.

I did get her to stand next to the tree. I told a little lie to get here there though. Bad Mommy! She saw a spider web near the ground and I convinced her it was deer hair. She thought that was way better. Shhhh! Don't tell her. :0)

Another family pic with Steamboat Rock in the back.

There was a really neat rope swing by the water. The kids really liked it and I got a few good shots of them enjoying themselves.

This is my favorite of Erin swinging. She liked it the most and we had a hard time getting her off it.

Erin and Charli playing in the sand.

Erin, Amanda and Charli just hanging out.

The leaves had just started to change. It was a beautiful fall for us this year.

Sarah and Charli, little buddies.

Amanda and Erin, little buddies. Can you believe that Erin is almost a year younger than Amanda?

Look at those dirty girls. They all had so much fun getting as dirty as they possibly could.

I have been practicing a technique called "shooting from the hip." It's where you just hold up your camera and take a pic. Not looking thru the view finder, usually I just put the camera close to what I want to take a pic of and shoot. I have gotten some really good shots. Like this one of Charli's feet. So Cute!

Another artistic shot.

Oooh-weeee! Look at those dirty feet and pants.

The deer came down into the camp sites toward dusk. It was so cool to watch them and their babies.

Erin riding her bike.

Sarah playing in the sand....again!

S00000000 big!

I love these last two shots with Charli, I like how the sun makes her hair glow. Now, if I could just get her to smile for me. :0)

Our Trip to Seaside

2008-10-27T15:18:00.000-07:00

So, I'm thinking I have some kind of sickness here....I just can't stop taking pic's. So, sit back and enjoy the many (and I mean MANY) pic's I took of our trip to Seaside. We went right before school started and couldn't ask for better weather. It was a bit on the chilly side but nothing to keep us from enjoying the beach. Enjoy!

Before we got to Seaside, we stopped in Astoria to see the Sea Lions. They were all over the docks.

Most of them were sleeping.

A few were having "arguments". Boy, Sarah did NOT like that at all. She wanted back in the car...NOW!

I liked this guy he was so calm, looking at me like..."OK, lady. Hurry up and take your picture."

We visited the Aquarium in Seaside and got to feed the seals. The girls really liked doing this. The seals were very funny. They would clap their flippers against their sides to make a loud clapping noise and get your attention. If you didn't throw a fish at them they would then use those flippers to splash you.

I love this picture of Sarah...she looks like she is thinking..."Tee-Hee...I'm going to chase those pigeons!"

I love these pic's of Dave with the girls. I'm not sure what they were looking at, but I'm sure it was very interesting.

Here we are in Seaside.

Here's Sarah in front of our condo.

The girls had a lot of fun digging in the sand.

I'm the photographer, so you never see me in pic's, and Dave is the videographer so you never see him on the home videos.

I love this picture. Aren't they so cute.

Look how sweet they all are. My family.

Here's Amanda in front of the condo.

Isn't that a cute face? You would never guess by the look on her face that the water is sub-freezing and all our feet are going numb. How come little kids have no feeling when it comes to freezing water? :0)

Sarah loved the waves coming in and when they went out she would start to cry. She didn't know that another would be coming back in. It was sooo cute. Now, Amanda would have nothing to do with the water. I think we may have gotten her to stick a toe in and then she ran back to our towels. Little chicken! :0)

There's our cutie pie Amanda. Hamming it up for the camera.

The girls begged us to dig a hole for them to sit in.

And with the sand from the hole we made a sand castle. The girls decorated it with broken sand dollars and seashells.

Here is our castle.

This was the view from our room. It was called a less than desirable room, but we were pretty happy with it.

Family Photo time.

Here's our pretty girl!

Now where do you think she gets that look from...Hmmmm! :0)

Sunset pictures.

Saw a pic. like this in a restaurant and tried to recreate it. I like it, but it's still not as good as the picture I saw.

Sarah would not look up for this picture. Oh, well, maybe next time.

Looking for more broken sand dollars.

Sarah loved digging in the sand.

So did Amanda.

That green bucket is full of broken shells for decorating our next sand castle.

Yay, she looked up for a picture.

Look at those cute little piggies!

Another family photo op.

Amanda as a mermaid.

Wow! Look at those dirty legs.

Now Sarah as a mermaid.

"Hey! Where did all that sand come from?"

Our beautiful sand castle.

This castle we didn't build, but I loved it with the sun setting behind it. Very pretty.

I love the cloud formation in this pic.

This picture makes me feel so peaceful. I love the outline of Amanda's face.

I don't know who these people are, but it made for a pretty pic.

Amanda shows off her broken shell collection.

Well, there were a buch more pic's from this trip, but I think these were the best ones of the bunches. :0) Thanks for taking the time to look at them. Hope you all are doing well. More later.

Photo Shoot with Brooklyn and Cassidy

2008-10-14T15:41:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago I went to a local garden park to practice taking shots of my girls and a friends girls. It was fun in one way, but it was also very rocky and steep in many places. Prob. won't be doing this again until the girls are a bit more steady on the rocky stairs. I did get a few good shots and thought I would share some of my fav's with you. Enjoy!

Our Last Day At The Beach For The Year

2008-10-14T15:01:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh, summer! This was one of our last days of nice weather. We decided to go with some friends on their boats. It was a lot of fun. Especially for the kids on the tubes....although I would rather call them couches...they don't look much like tubes anymore.

Sarah enjoyed some choco. chip cookies. Yummm!
Aden makes sure they are all ready to go tubing.

Terry and Charli look like they are having a good time.

Poor Ty kept getting soaked from the other tube.

Double tow time.

Oooh, they are going down!

They didn't go down, but the rope did break. Yikes!

Much too serious an expression. I guess he is taking his job seriously. :0)

Look whose ready to go back out.

County Fair

2008-10-14T13:48:00.001-07:00

In early Sept. we took the girls to the county fair. It's one of their favorite things to do. They LOVE the animals and especially riding the rides. I don't mind the kiddie rides too much, I just dread when they get old enough to ride the big rides. I just don't trust rides that are put up in less than 24 hours....and have you seen the carnies, they don't look very reliable...call me a snob but that just scares me.

I was happy to see Amanda step out of her (and my) comfort zone and pet most of the animals she came to. She walked into the fair grounds letting us know over and over that she wanted to ride a real horse. And, to my surprise, they did have a pony ride for the kids...So, Amanda was in hog heaven. Here are some pic's we took of that day. Enjoy!

"What's in there?"

I just love baby pigs. So cute!

This was so exciting to me that she was brave enough to pet the cow. I wasn't! :0)

I thought this was funny, so had to take a pic.

Yay, we finally got Sarah to pet something!

This pic. was taken about 30 seconds before Sarah stuck her head all the way thru and got it stuck. Let's just say her little ears were a little sore after we squeezed her out.

We all had a really good time. I just love to see how excited they get when we do these things together.

Lots O' Pictures!

2008-10-11T21:21:00.000-07:00

So, here are a bunch....and I mean a bunch of pic's from early Aug. when Dave's brother's family came out to visit us. I took a bunch but here are the one's I liked the best. Enjoy!!!

Where Have I Been!!!!

2008-10-11T20:46:00.000-07:00

Well folks....I'mmmm Baaaack! I can't believe how long it has been since I posted last. Since the middle of July we seem to have had one thing after another....A trip to Astoria, Or., Dave's brother's family came to visit us from the Midwest, Sarah's bday, A trip to Seaside, Or., Camping trip, Amanda started school...and I'm sure there was more I just can't think of it right now. I just hope I can get it together to post more often.

Our weekly schedule has left me breathless for the past month...but now that we are getting into the routine, I'm beginning to catch up on things....as least that was the case until Thurs. :0) We have a fridge in the garage that decided to crap out on us. So, on Thurs. Dave picked up a "new" one for us for $25. Well, it turns out that that fridge is now going to cost us well over $100. You see, I was trying to help Dave unload it from the truck and it kinda landed on my foot, Badly. So, we took a trip to the ER for X-Rays and I may have a bone chipped off. They aren't sure, so I have to have x-rays taken again on Wed. So, in the mean time, I have to stay in a splint and off of it for a week. I don't think it's broken, because it just doesn't hurt enough. It does ache REALLY bad but I would think that it would hurt more if it was truly broken. I guess we'll know more on Wed. It's ooh so fun going up and down the stairs on crutches. Sometimes it's just easier to crawl. :0)

Another thing I've been trying to do is get a photography business started up. I have been practicing like crazy and will post those here as they happen. I practice mainly on my own kids and they are sooooo over me asking them to help me. But, I plan to take some family photo's of some friends and this past week I took some pregnancy photo's of a friend whose due in Nov. So, it's been very eventful around here.

I mentioned that Sarah had her bday....No. 2! Where has my baby gone?!? She is the cutest little thing and I would like to share some of her bday pic's. Enjoy!

Happy 40th Babe!

2008-07-15T17:04:00.000-07:00

I am such a bad wife...or just a very late one...all the time. :0) Sorry it's taken so long to post this...but....Happy Belated Birthday Dave.

We celebrated Dave's 40th Birthday this year and here are some pictures from that party. Boy what a lead up to the party, too. Let me tell you this party was very close to being a no-go. For starters...I hate planning parties...I'm just not good at it. Another problem was that Dave didn't really want one....but some friends...and you know who you are...pressured me into throwing a surprise party for him. Well, as you will see, it turned out great and we had a wonderful time.

But it wasn't easy getting there....One of the hardest things was keeping it a secret. I spent the weeks leading up to the big event secretly getting invites out while Dave was out of town. Then, the weekend before, we were going to have a family dinner to celebrate his birthday. I felt this would throw him off a bit and that he wouldn't suspect the real party to follow. Well, that got blown to pieces when our youngest daughter got a terrible stomach virus and ended up not only giving it to the rest of us, but put herself in the ER as well. Poor kid was throwing up for a week and couldn't hold anything down. So, we had to cancel the family party...I thought we were going to end up canceling the whole thing....but I avoided that until the last minute.

The next part of my plan was to get Kevin and Angi to "invite" us over for dinner on Sat. evening. The only prob. was that Sarah was still throwing up. So, I told Dave that we should have Mom watch Sarah so that Amanda could get out of the house and play with Erin. I have a feeling that was a huge give away to Dave. I would not normally suggest something like that, but I was desperate to get him to go. He says he had a few suspicions, but wasn't sure until we started driving up the street to where the party was being held. We could see the back of the house we were going to, as it has a wonderful upper deck with a view of the entire valley. So, naturally everybody was out standing on the deck looking at the view when we started driving up the street. You would think that when an invitation says "Surprise Party" on it, you wouldn't be standing out, visible to the only street we could drive up to get there. Oh, well....Dave looks at the house and says..."So, are there going to be a lot of people at the party?" Gotcha or should I say Got-me!

I was sweating bullets the entire week before the party, thinking I was going to be able to keep it a surprise, but it didn't quite work out as I had planned. But, as you will see, it turned out to be a fun time.

We were eating out on the drive way....

and in the garage....which was perfect, by the way. It is huge and out of the wind, and the kids can spill on the floor and nobody cares. :0)

There's the birthday boy with my brother and dad and a friend of ours...Mike.

Here are some really good friends of Dave's, Terry, and Sue. Terry went to school with Dave and Sue "adopted" Dave when he came to work in her office.

Dave and Amanda blowing out the candle.

I'm so glad I caught his expresstion here. What could be causing such a look on his face? You wonder.....

....two bottles of Western Salad Dressing. Yes, you read that right. We can't get that kind out here, so when his friends went back to the mid-west to visit family, they brought it back for him.

I don't think you're over the hill Honey!

Oh, wait...with those glasses on...you look over the hill. Tee-Hee!

You may be wondering about the Red Sox t-shirt...well, when Dave worked in the same office as Sue, they would bet each other that their favorite team (Dave's-The Twins & Sue's-The Red Sox) would win...then whoever lost would have to wear the t-shirt of the others favorite team. So, she got him a Red Sox shirt.

After a bit of beer they broke out the dice table and the bets were on.

Some won quite a bit. Yay, Sue!

Even the kids got in on the action....we are such good role models. :0)

We had so much fun and Dave really enjoyed himself with everybody. We have such a wonderful group of friends and can't thank them enough for making this such a special day for my special man.

Baby Beauty Shop

2008-07-14T13:57:00.000-07:00

I snapped a few shots of Sarah doing Big Sissy's hair. She didn't quite figure out how to get the barret to stay in but she sure tried. I'm so glad I caught this, because I just know someday they may not be as cooperative with each other as they are now. I'm amazed everyday at how well these two play together. I hope it lasts.

Bubbles, Bubbles everywhere!

2008-07-10T14:06:00.000-07:00

I took the girls with their new bubble blowing guns up to a friends house to play. As you will see they had a great time chasing and shooting each other with bubbles. Boy, I wish they had these when I was kid, I might not have hyperventilated so much. :0)

My First TV Dinner

2008-06-30T11:25:00.001-07:00

One night while Dave was out of town, I just didn't feel like making a big dinner and then having to eat it for 4 days in left overs...So, I decided to do TV dinners. It was the first time Sarah had had a TV dinner and from the mess on her face, I would say she really got in to it. She LOVED it! I may have to try them again sometime.

Smooth Skin

2008-06-29T15:29:00.000-07:00

The other day I was helping Amanda put lotion on after a bath. She was rubbing it into her legs and she commented on how smooth her skin is. I said, "Yes, you have very smooth skin." Then, Amanda reached over her hand, rubbed it on my leg and said..."And, you have old, rough skin." Gee thanks Kid!!!!

Flowers

2008-06-26T15:29:00.000-07:00

I went crazy this spring taking pic's of flowers. I thought I would share a few of my favorites with you. Enjoy!

Birthday at McD's and 100th post!

2008-05-28T15:17:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh, post number 100! Took long enough to get there. :0) What a great post to hold no. 100...a post about Amanda's 4th bday party. Sorry it's taken so long for me to get it posted. But, atleast it's here now. We had a shared bday with our friend Aden. He turned 3 the day before Amanda turned 4...so, we decided to share a bday at McDonalds. I love having the party there, because I can actually enjoy the party, too. I got to take a ton of pic's that I wouldn't have been able to get if I had to throw the party myself. (as you'll soon see) So, here are the highlights of the party....Enjoy!

The birthday girl. Amanda turns 4...where has the time gone?

This is that little cutie, Aden. I just love his expressions!

Here is little Sarah with her new friend...Pink Bruce. Thank you 'Drama Sandy.

A shot of the loot.

My cousins children...Rachel and Cory.

Aden on the little slide.

Ok, so this is a pic. that Mom wanted and Amanda wasn't too thrilled about....can you tell by the smile? ;0)

The whole crew. Can't believe we got them all to stand still for 2 sec. :0)

Sarah playing the ring toss. That is what is so great also...I didn't have to come up with or supervise the games. Yippee!

Lunch time!

Two full tables. It was difficult taking pic's in here because of all the glare from the windows, but I was pretty happy with most of the pic's. They weren't great, but you could at least tell who everyone is.

Aaahhhh, chicken nuggets. My girls love them.

Corey finding the hidden cotton ball. He's so smart.

Now it's Amanda's turn to play.

Time to blow out the candles. Wonder what she wished for....

Now it's Aden's turn.

I love her expression on opening this package. So much joy.

Amanda loves Dora, so this was a great card to get her.

I like how her little foot is holding up the bag so she can see what's inside.

Looks like another great present!

MMMMMMmmmmm, Cake!

Another Trip to the Park

2008-05-18T21:42:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the park again. The girls were really good at letting me take pic's of them. I'm so lucky. Usually they get sick of me pointing the camera at them. But, it was one of the first times in a long time they got to play outside in just a light jacket. It started out pretty warm, but by the time we left, it was VERY cold. I can't wait for the snow to melt in the mtn's. Then, the wind will let up.
Amanda was walking a head of me and just turned around and gave me this great smile.

We actually bought this hat for Amanda in Vegas, but Sarah has adopted it and loves to wear it ALL the time. So cute!

At the park we like to play at they have these great little dino's. The kids love to play on them.

I just couldn't decide between these last two above pic's. Sarah was just too cute!

Sarah was showing something to our friend Ann.

Sarah was kind enough to sit at this tree for me and take a cute little pic.

Amanda put all these on a bench and I decided to try taking a really close up pic. I kind of like the outcome.

Aden loves it when I take pic's of him and ask him to scream for me. They make for some really entertaining pic's.

Oh, here's another pic. of shoes. These are Aden's. I like all the blue.

Look at that little button nose. I just love me girls. Can you tell? :0)

Amanda wanted to give her dog Biscuit a ride on the swing. I thought this would be a fun pic. and I was right. I love it!

The Many Faces Of Sarah

2008-05-18T21:21:00.000-07:00

Here I am practicing again with out the flash. Sarah made a great subject on this day. Who could resist taking at least one pic. of that hair! I, of course, took more than one. She really made me giggle with all the dif. faces she was making. Enjoy!

I Dude It!

2008-05-18T17:51:00.000-07:00

The following pic's may be a bit blurry. I was trying to get some pic's of Sarah trying to put her own socks on and teach myself to take pic's with out the flash all the time. I'm trying to learn how to use the light that's available. The pic's seem more three dimensional that way and you get truer skin tones. I'm not all that great at the indoor shots yet...but I'm learning. Enjoy!

Oh, and a translation of the title for this post is....I do it. Sarah has been saying "I dude it!" quite a bit lately. Oh boy, does she get mad if you don't let her do it herself, too. :0)

A trip to the beach

2008-05-16T21:04:00.000-07:00

Well, I think I've been away for long enough. Been out taking more pic.'s. These were taken a while ago, but never got onto the blog. Thought I would post them before I took them off my computer. This was an outing to the local "beach" along the river. There were a lot of ducks that day and we brought some bread to feed them. You'll notice that Sarah feeds herself instead of the ducks. It was pretty cute. We went with some friends had had a great time. Enjoy!

I call this Amanda's fake say cheese smile.

Here's my little Sarah. Her hair is now just about long enough for two full ponytails.

I love the sky in this picture. The way the clouds crisscross. Oh, that's Amanda, of course, and her little friend Ty.

This is Ty's little sister Charli. I love her red coat. She's so cute!

Such an intense look. Wonder what she's thinking.

Ty looks very concerned in this photo....again, I'm wondering what he was thinking. Prob. just trying to decide which rock to throw in next.

After many, many, many tries, I got this pic. of a duck. I love how it looks like he's looking right at me as I take the picture.

I loved the green in this duck. So glad it was in focus.

See, here's Sarah feeding herself. I don't think she gets the whole idea of feeding the ducks. Thank goodness the bread wasn't all moldy.

I like how the kids are both looking out to the water. I think they are watching the ducks fighting over bread crumbs.

Love this pic. of Charli! I like how her red coat seems to jump out of the pic.

I don't know why I like to take pic's of toddler feet. I just think their shoes are sooo cute!

Yay, I finally got a shot of one of the ducks taking off. You can even see the bread in it's beak.

After feeding the ducks we headed over to the play structure. Time for some FUN!

I like how the sun seems to bounce off Sarah's head.

Well, hope you enjoyed the pic's. I'll try to get over to the other blogs and leave some comments and catch up on what you all have been up to. Thanks for visiting.

Trying to be creative...

2008-04-13T23:36:00.000-07:00

Been playing with my camera again. Tried taking some pic's that I normally don't take pic's of and some old tried and trues. Here's just a few that I liked. Enjoy....

I like this one because of the color contrast. I was trying to capture the droplet on the flower. I just wish this flower grew on the sunny side of the house. It would have been very cool to get a glint from the sun off the drop.

I like this one because I like the sun coming thru her hair. Makes her look like she has a halo around her head. My little angel. :0)

I love how the sun shines thru the petals.

Aren't Amanda's shoes cute. Had to get a pic of that!

This pic make me think she's trying to fly. So carefree. It's great to be a kid!

Conversations with the little's....

2008-04-13T20:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Sarah had me in a fit of giggles....I was in the kitchen doing dishes when I heard a loud thump and then screaming from Sarah. So, I rushed in and scooped her right up. At which time Amanda states, "I didn't do ANYthing!" After a few min.'s Sarah calms down enough to talk. She keeps saying "Owie Mommy, Owie." I ask her where it hurts but she just keeps repeating "Owie." and squirming like her leg is bothering her. So, I let her down and the next thing I know she's running up the stairs. When she comes back down, she's carrying a sheet from under her bed. She brings it to me, touches my leg and says, "Owie Mommy, owie!" Then she hands me the sheet to put on, I realize, my stubbly legs. Then she's more than happy to sit on my lap and be soothed. Guess I need to start shaving more often. :0)

Today Amanda has been very needy. She has been constantly asking to play with me...even when we just got done playing a game. I don't get anything done when she's in moods like this. So, I suggested that she take her babies outside and play house in the play structure. I even gave her a towel from the garage (a clean one :p ) to use as a blanket or what ever she decided to use it as. Well, she kept coming in to get things for her house that she "just had to have." After about her 6th trip she asked for another towel. I asked her what she needed another towel for and she informed me that she needed a "rug" for her upstairs. I asked, "Can't you just have wood floors?" Amanda: "No, that's just for kitchens."

Learning to Wink

2008-04-03T22:04:00.000-07:00

I love it when I wink at Sarah and she tries to wink back. She has the cutest expressions and I actually got some of them caught in pic's.

I love how she squeezes her eyes really tight.

Is that not the most carefree looking little girl? You can almost hear the giggle, can't you?

That's my little beauty. Can't believe I actually got this pic. and she didn't turn away before I snapped it. Yay!

Another wink attempt. So cute!

I can almost imagine she's about to say, "This is my better side." :0)

Easter Pictures, Finally!

2008-04-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

So, here are a BUNCH of Easter pic's. We started the day before by coloring the eggs. Amanda had a lot of fun doing that. Sarah was taking a nap thru most of that, but liked looking at the eggs when they were all done.

Easter morning we went to church with my Mother and Grandmother. They really enjoyed the music. The girls did very well as well. Usually we don't make it thru a whole service, especially holiday services as they tend to run WAY over. But, the girls surprised us and we were able to sit thru the whole thing. Yipee!

When we got home, it was egg hunting time. The girls had a very good time. And, we had fun watching them. Enjoy the pic's. Hope you all had a Happy Easter as well.

Fun In The Backyard!

2008-03-28T09:57:00.000-07:00

Aden on the slide.

Amanda watching Aden on the slide.

I love to take close up shots.

Ally climbing the rope ladder.

Wee, that slide is fun.

I did it! I climbed up the slide. Yay, Aden!

My favorite picture of the day!

Who's The Boss?

2008-03-12T21:41:00.001-07:00

We were trying to teach Amanda a lesson tonight...she didn't like what I made for dinner so she only ate part of it. When we tried to get her to eat more, she said she was full. Well, then it was bed time and she told Dave that she was hungry. He told her she couldn't eat anything because it was time for bed...She should have eaten all her dinner. (See, she's been doing this off and on for a few weeks...she'll eat just what she likes...then she wants desert) So, then Dave asked her if we should ask Mommy about getting a snack before dinner. (she tried this with me last night. Dave was out of town and I was putting her to sleep. She wasn't really hungry, she just didn't want to go to bed) Soooo, anyway, Dave asks her if they should talk to Mommy and this is what she said..."No, Mommy said I don't need to eat anymore. And, she's the boss." Glad to know she knows who's in charge around here. :0) The bad thing is that she will prob. be up at 3 am starving and I'm going to be the one getting her something to eat. I hate being in charge! :0)

Hey "Four Eyes"

2008-03-11T11:54:00.000-07:00

I found these glass frames at my grandmother's house. They don't have any lenses in them and I thought they would be great for dress up. As you can see the girls just love them. They make me giggle every time they put them on. Have a great day!

Thank You Jamey!

2008-03-05T13:04:00.000-08:00

Thank you, thank you, thank you Jamey for showing me how to make the cool layout for my title. I love that website! I was up from 9:30 pm to 12:30 am trying to figure it out and did it all wrong. Then this morning, after I got a full 5 hours of sleep :0), I was able to get it to work in less than 30 min. I'm so excited and can't wait to do it again. Thanks again Jamey!

I'm Still Here!

2008-03-02T14:27:00.000-08:00

Boy, I've been gone too long. Not much has been going on, yet I've been very busy.

Finally had to take my kitty to the vet a few weeks ago. She had a tumor on her belly about the size of a sand dollar and twice as thick. Turns out it is an aggressive form of breast cancer. So, I could have mastectomy on that side of her belly and do chemo. Not! I won't put the poor thing thru that. It was torture just taking her in for the surgery. So, I decided to just let her heal up and live the rest of her life in comfort here at home. When the time comes and she's not doing so well, I'll decide to have her put down. I asked the vet how long she might have. He said it could be 6 mos. or 2 years. So, I'll just love her while I have her. She's just now getting so she is accepting Amanda, but is still terrified of Sarah. I think I would be too. :0)

Amanda had a really bad sinus infection last week. She never ran a fever or anything, didn't even have a runny nose. One morn. she woke up and her right I was all pink around the eye. The eye itself was a little pink, but it looked like someone had popped her in the eye. So, I thought she had pink eye. Took her to the clinic and turns out her sinus' were so full that the tear ducts couldn't drain properly and so she was having trouble with her eye. She also had a terrible build up of wax in one ear, because she only sleeps on one side and the other can't drain. So, we had her on antibiotics and we had to flush out her sinus' 3 to 4 times a day with saline in a bulb syringe. She really didn't like it, but she was a trooper and didn't fight us at all. Boy, we got some pretty green gook out of her nose, too. I tried it on myself (I wanted to know what I was putting my baby thru) It is an unpleasant feeling at first, but boy could I breath better after I did it. I think I may do that every night when allergy season kicks in. Get all the pollen out of my sinus'. I highly recommend it.

Sarah has managed to escape the flu bug this year. She and I have been the healthy ones so far this cold and flu season. She did contract Hand, Foot and Mouth disease about 3 weeks ago. It's a very contagious virus that the Dr's say almost everyone gets. I didn't know she had it right away. I thought she just had some teeth coming in because she ran a low fever around 100, and would point in her mouth and say owie. Then a few days later I noticed little blisters on her feet and hands. That's when I got clued in. Of course, then she's not contagious, just when she had the fever. So, I exposed a bunch of kids at a bday party and at friends houses and at gymnastics. I felt guilty, but how was I supposed to know. I thought she was teething. Oh, well.

Well, that's all for now. I'll try to be better about updating you all on the happenings in our little corner of the world. TTFN

Snow, Snow, Snow....Yuck!

2008-02-03T11:41:00.000-08:00

That's right I'm sick of snow. Can't wait for spring! It snowed another 2 to 3 inches last night. Oh, how I long for the sweet green grass and leaves on the trees. The beautiful flowers and that warm breeze. AAhhhh!

Don't get me wrong. I think snow can be beautiful and fun to play in, I just get tired of everything being either white or grey. I know, I know it could be worse, but this is my complaining session. So, bear with me. :0)

The kids actually had a lot of fun out in the snow today. They helped Dave shovel the driveway and then went ice cube hunting. I read in a parenting mag. some time ago about putting food die in icecube trays and then going out looking for them in the snow. They had fun with that. Now they are in the hot "pool", more commonly known as the hot tub, with Dave.

Well, that's all for now. I think I'll go watch the Travel channel now. Hopefully they will be featuring somewhere warm so I can pretend I'm there. Tah-Tah-For-Now.

What a little smarty pants!

2008-01-28T13:28:00.000-08:00

Well, here is an update on little miss Manda...She has taught herself to write the alphabet, much to our surprise. The other day she was playing with her chalkboard and she wrote out the whole alphabet with just a few errors. I figured she had been working on it at preschool. Then, last week I volunteered in her class. While talking to the teachers aide, I learned that they haven't been working on it at all. They do that in the 4 year old class. The 3 year old's concentrate on following instructions, taking turns, and basically getting used to not being at home all the time. I was so surprised, because we don't really work with Amanda on her letters or her numbers for that matter. I was certainly not that self motivated to learn things. In fact, when I was in the 1st grade I didn't learn to read until half way thru. I went to one of those "alternative" schools that let the child decide what they want to learn. What a bunch of bunk...I wanted to play in the homemaking center all the time. I didn't want to learn how to read or write. My mom finally pulled me out and put me in reg. public school and I was reading in less than a week.

Cute story: Amanda's preschool is offering a "class" on parenting your preschooler. So, Dave and I went to check it out and see if we were doing things "right" and to pick up any pointers. The preschool provided care for all the kids. Amanda was so excited to show Sarah where she went to school and show her off to her teacher. Well, skip ahead to last night....Dave was doing something that didn't agree with Amanda, (we're not even sure what he was doing) Amanda says, "Dad, you took classes on how to be a good parent and you didn't pay attention!" That just had us cracking up.

Stop Growing So Fast!

2008-01-10T23:13:00.000-08:00

There's my sweet baby girl. I can't believe how fast she is growing and changing. We just had her 18 mos. check up. (Even though she just turned 17 mos.) She is 33 1/4 in. long (95 %), and weighs 24 lbs 10 oz. (50-75 %). She's still allergic to milk, which is a huge bummer because when she does get a hold of milk or yogurt, she just loves it.

I was counting how many words she has and it's well over 30 now and I'm sure there is more that I just haven't thought of.

The other day we were all in the hot tub. Dave, Amanda and I were singing Ring Around the Rosie, and when it was time to "all fall down" we would all go under water. Well, skip ahead to later that night, after we got all cleaned up, I catch Sarah doing circles in the kitchen saying "Asses, asses, asses" then she would sit down. Then it dawned on me, she was singing the "Ashes, Ashes" part and then "falling down." So, I started singing the song. She looked up at me, smiled and started walking in a circle. When I got to the "all fall down" part, she sat down. Then I sang the second part of the song, which I never heard before until we got a cd with the song on it, and when I got to the part where it says "they all stand up", she stood up. It was so cute and she just loved that I understood her game and could play with her.

Today she said her first 2 word sentence. She said, "Mommy up." Ahhh, they grow up so fast.

Well, that's all for now. I'll give an update on Amanda later. Today is Sarah's day. Love you baby.

The Night Before Christmas

2008-01-07T13:39:00.000-08:00

Christmas eve we got all dressed up and headed over to my Aunt's house. We were celebrating my Mom's bday. It was a hard day. Her father was born Christmas eve and she was born Christmas day. So, we have almost always (when we were in the same state) celebrated their bdays together on Christmas eve. So, this year was the first without Grandpa. It was just hard to not grieve a bit for him. Mom, Aunt Sue, and Grandma each had moments that were too hard to bare, but we all were there for each other and made it thru.

Part way thru the evening, Dave, Amanda, Sarah, Mom and I went to Services. It was a full house. The girls did pretty well. The funny thing was the last time we went to that particular church (ours is on the other side of the river) it was ash Wed. When it was time for communion, Dave was going to take to girls with him. Amanda looked up at me with her hand covering her forehead..."I don't want the black stuff, Mommy!" So, cute.

After church and dinner at my Aunt's, we got home and put Sarah to bed. While Dave was reading to Sarah, Amanda decorated a couple cookies for Santa and got some carrots for the reindeer. I took some pic's of that and posted them for you to see.

A Couple Days Before Christmas

2008-01-07T13:30:00.000-08:00

Just a few days before Christmas..."Santa" came to visit us at home. I told Amanda that he had called on his lunch break from the mall to let us know that he wanted to come visit us. When he came he had some early presents that he couldn't fit in the sleigh. It was two giant boxes of fireworks. He wanted to make sure we rang in the new year with a huge BANG! And, boy did we! They were great! We even got some that fired up into the sky. So, pretty! Sarah did pretty good with them, but Amanda had trouble. She is just so sensitive to loud noises and doesn't like things that startle her. She stayed out for about half of them, and then went inside to play with her friend.

Naughty, naughty!

2008-01-06T18:42:00.001-08:00

Remember the day you brought home your sweet little baby, with that fresh baby scent? That innocent little delicate creature that made your heart swell to over flowing and caused tears to stream down your cheeks every time you thought of them? I remember the first time I held her and I thought to myself how sweet and innocent she was...I just couldn't imagine that I would some day want to spank the tar out of her little hiney....Well, those sweet little things grow up to be, back talking, don't listen when you say no, artists of floors and walls. Yes, my sweet little darling is shown below partaking in the creation of her first crayon master piece...on my kitchen floor! Ahh, to see the look of utter concentration in the moments before I started screaming...:0) Just kidding, I wasn't that upset. It's a good thing we are planning to tear up our kitchen in the next few weeks or months. Other wise I might have been a bit more upset. So, I repeated to myself when I saw this art work...."Take a pic before you get mad. Take a pic. before you get mad." So, here's the pic.'s. Hope you all are having a great weekend. Enjoy!

Our Little Helper

2008-01-06T17:52:00.000-08:00

Are we glad we got this shovel or what? We only wish we had gotten two...because now that Sarah has to do everything Amanda does, they both want to shovel at the same time. We've had a couple of nice winter snow falls in the past couple of weeks and the girls have had a lot of fun shoveling snow, building a snow fire man, and sledding. (I'll post those pics later) Thought you all might enjoy these pic's. We better enjoy these fleeting moments of them wanting to help us out, while we can. :0)

Our Little Star

2008-01-04T10:19:00.000-08:00

Below is a slide show of Amanda's school program. I was a little nervous for her when she first got on stage. She looked like she was about to throw up from nerves. But, as the show went on, she loosened up and looked to be having a good time. I thought the kids were just too cute. I can't wait for next years program. Amanda thought she was so special because she had so many there to watch her perform. Dave, Sarah, myself, my Mom and Dad and my friend from San Fran, Lori were all there to cheer her on. She even got a flower from Grandma to show her how well she had done. At the end of the program the principle of the high school came out as Santa to give the kids a candy cane. Amanda actually said thank you with out being prompted. Yay! Then we had cookies and punch. We all had a really good time.

Check out my Slide Show!

2008-01-04T10:17:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2007-12-25T13:17:00.001-08:00

Oh, Oh, Oh!

2007-12-21T10:09:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note because for some reason we are pretty busy around here. :0)

Sarah is really starting to talk, not clearly, but I understand a lot of what she's trying to say. Lately she picked up thank you, sounds more like 'ank oo, if you ask her what Santa says she says, "Oh, oh, oh!" So, cute.

Last night when I was getting Amanda ready for bed I was coaching her on what to say when she gets a gift from someone...Me: Amanda, what do you say when someone gives you a present?
A: I don't know
Me: Let's say Gma gives you a present, what do you say?
A: Thank you!
Me: That's right. What if it's a present you don't like?
A: No thank you?!
Me: Well, you shouldn't say that. You don't want to hurt their feelings. You should still say thank you. Because it's important to let them know that you appreciate them thinking about you. (Not sure if I lost her half way thru this little speech, but maybe some of it got in that little head of hers)
A: If someone gives me a gift I don't like I'll say 'Ohhh, Thank you' (She said that like she was being told to eat spinach in order to get a piece of cake)

Then as I was leaving her room, I blew her a kiss from the door, and she rolled over and said, "Mom, when you get old and die, I'm going to miss you very much."

Where did that come from? I told her..."I'll miss you very much, too. But, you don't have to think about that right now."

We've been very busy around here getting ready for xmas, like I'm sure everybody is. We also had a visit from my best friend from San Fran. She came up for a long weekend. It was a lot of fun. She came just in time to see Amanda's xmas program in preschool. I have a lot of pic's but I haven't got them on the comp. yet. Hopefully I'll get to that sometime soon.

Hope all of you are surviving the holiday build up. I hope to visit your sites soon. Take care.

'Tis The Season

2007-12-09T19:13:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't been around to visit all the blogs lately. It's Dec. and we all know what that means...Christmas cards and letters. I have been very busy getting ours done. I finally got them printed out and I've stuffed the majority. I'm just waiting on a few last min. address changes. Then, I can mail those little puppies off. Yay!

I have to give my Mom a huge shout out! She watched the girls yesterday so we could get our shopping done. We have almost every one done already. A first for me. I'm usually scrambling up to the last min. But, thank goodness for Grandma. She came over and Dave and I took off for about 5 hours. I couldn't believe how well Dave did...even in Walmart...he hates that store. Good job honey. I love you.

Hope you all are coming right along and staying sane. I'll try to get to you all and see what's up in your lives. Happy Holidays!

Antique Pictures

2007-11-30T20:12:00.000-08:00

I was a little disappointed in the antique pic's, but not enough to not buy any. :o) I was looking at other area's that have done these photo's and ours seem rather plain. There really isn't any cute backgrounds and they didn't put color into the flower on the girls' hats. But, the girls were so darn cute...I couldn't resist. I warned you Dave. :0)

So, here they are.

Here I Am!

2007-11-30T09:18:00.000-08:00

As you may have noticed, I have not been here for a while. We went to SD to visit Dave's family over the Thanksgiving Holiday. We were gone a total of 10 days. It was a lot of fun visiting everybody. I think the girls really liked it. In fact, one day during the visit, Amanda said she didn't want to leave. I asked her if she was sure. She would miss her pre-school and she said..."I can go to pre-school here."

We spent some time at our cousin Megan and Derek's house....oh, yeah, we visited with Al and Lori, too. :0) Amanda and Megan were hardly seen the entire time they were together. They got along so well. When they were apart for a few days, Amanda kept asking when Megan was coming. So, cute. I'm glad they get along so well. Derek was great with the girls, too. I think he liked playing with Sarah, too. He's really good with the little ones.

The only downer to the vacation was that both girls, and to a lesser extent, Dave and I, all got sick while we were over there. Amanda came down with a really high fever, 104.1, on Mon. and Sarah got the same 104 temp on Thurs. Happy Thanksgiving. We thought Amanda was getting better, but the night before we left, she spiked a 103 temp. at the hotel. She still has a temp. today. We've been to the Dr. and she said Amanda has a red ear, not infected, but her right lung sounds bad. So, she's on Azithromiacin (I know I spelled that wrong) She hates taking it. Thank goodness it's only once a day. I tasted a drop of it and it is truly awful. It tastes like bubble gum at first and then the after taste hits. It's like someone put cleaning fluid in your mouth. I think I'm going to call the pharm. and see if that's what it's supposed to taste like.
Yuck, :P ! While I was brushing Amanda's teeth this morn. I had her open real wide and saw Awwww, and I saw a bunch of little white spots on the back of her throat, so I'm wondering if she has strep. I wish the Dr.'s office would call me back so I can take her in...again.

Boy, it seems the girls are sick all the time now. I hope that means they'll have healthy immune sys. when grade school comes along.

I got back in time to get my Antique pic.'s. I need to scan them and let you see them. They turned out pretty good. I'll do that on another post. Gotta go check on the munchkins. Hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Just Friday

2007-11-09T10:47:00.000-08:00

Ah, I feel young again. OK, I look young-er-ish. :o) I just finished coloring my hair and now I don't look like the girls grandma anymore. Yay! Amanda saw me color my hair one time and asked what color I was going to color it. I asked her what color she thought it should be....Green...of course. That's her favorite color.

The other night I was getting Amanda ready for bed and was putting her toothbrush away. When I came back into the room, she said she wanted some flowers. Flowers? I said. Yes, roses. As she said this her little lips started to turn down, like she was trying not to cry. I asked her why was she going to cry and she just burst into tears. Apparently, she was sad because a rose had died, either one she had or one her little friend had. She was beside herself. It took me about 5 min. to calm her down. I kept saying that that was the good thing about plants, they kept growing new flowers

Then, last night I was sitting on the floor in her room listening to a song on her CD player before bed. She was playing with a stuffed puppy she just loves. She was petting it and cooing to it. I said, You really love your puppy. Do you want a real puppy? She said, Oh, yes! I said, Puppies jump and bark a lot. She said, When I turn 4, we can get a puppy. I said, Daddy may not want to get a puppy. Her answer for that was, When Daddy dies we'll get a new puppy.

Yikes!

Front Yard Fall Pictures

2007-11-08T15:32:00.000-08:00

Movie Night

2007-11-08T15:15:00.000-08:00

We had our first movie night as a family this week. We have been seeing "Dora Saves the Mermaids" commercials now for a couple of weeks. Every time Amanda saw these commercials she would come running to me and asking when she can watch it. She was very excited. So, the day of the show....Monday at 7 pm....Amanda, that morning, comes running into my room, "Mommy, Mommy, Dora saves the mermaids is on tonight." Then, she ran back out of the room and down the stairs. All day that's all she could talk about. So, after dinner we got all cleaned up and got our PJ's on and popped some popcorn and settled in to watch the show. It was pretty fun. It has only been recently that Amanda could stay interested longer than 10 min. to watch anything. So, we just may have to do this more often.

I remember how excited as a kid I would get when the Christmas shows would come on or the Charlie Brown shows. We would get to stay up "late"....it was so special. Now, I'm kind of sad that we can just plug those movies in to the DVD and watch them any old time. It isn't "special" any more. What do they have to look forward to now? Hmmm, I wonder what my girls will look back on when they get older that makes them smile.

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T22:38:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween everybody! I just thought I would post a couple pic's of our pumpkins. For some reason I don't have one of Amanda's pumpkin loaded on to the computer yet. But, I know I took one today, so when I get around to loading the disc onto the computer maybe you'll see it with the girls costumes. Any way, enjoy the pic's....

This is Sarah's pumpkin. Design by Daddy.....

This is my pumpkin...design...stole it from some website....modeled by Sarah. (isn't she cute?)

Dave's pumpkin...stole from the same web site...a real hit with the kids. :0)

Hello Stranger

2007-10-31T00:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I have had one heck of a month for Oct. Seems like it's been one thing after another. But, I'm back...I think. Every time I say I'm back somebody gets sick or I put my back out. I fighting a little cold now my self.

But, enough feeling sorry for myself...I just wanted to post a few pic's. I'll start tonight with some I took of Amanda and hopefully get some of Sarah up next. But, I need to get to bed now, so enjoy!

When It Rains, It Pours

2007-10-15T10:03:00.000-07:00

So, here's my sorry story for today. Amanda is finally starting to get better, but she is still a bit needy. Now, Sarah woke up with a nasty, croupy cough and 102 temp. Wait, that's not all! Dave is getting a crown today and...AND...I have put my neck out. So, we are so happy around here these days.

Now some happier things...Sarah is really, really starting to communicate with us. She understands almost everything we ask or tell her. She doesn't have a lot of words of her own though. We had to start the time outs with her already. She likes to get up on the couch and walk or more likely, run on it. Well, I got tired of barking "no" at her all the time. So, I told her the next time, I was going to put her in time out. She did it and she went in to the pack-n-play. Boy, cant that girl scream! Sat., she had 4 time outs in a row. As soon as I got her out of time out, she was back on the couch with a look on her face that said, "Try to stop me!" Stubborn little thing. She now barks when she is talking about dogs, or if she sees or hears one. She points up to the sky and says "A" when she hears an airplane or we ask her where planes fly. We play this really fun "game" together...I ask a question like "Do we need to change your diaper?" (the smell says yes) and Sarah will say "No!" I say "yes". She screams no and it goes on like that for a few min. Sounds really annoying, but it makes me giggle most of the time, because she straightens out all her limbs and really gets her whole body into the "no's"

Well, I need to go see what the little monsters are up to. I should go ice my neck, too.

Wings and Wheels Festival

2007-10-14T09:56:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to the Wings and Wheels Festival. It's to celebrate the first Trans-Pacific Flight. We started out at the airport. It was a little chilly there. Nothing to break the wind. They were offering plane rides for $20 and Helicopter rides, too. Last year Dave took Amanda up in one of the airplanes. She was free then. If she really wanted to go this year he would have, but she was more interested in coloring in one of the hangers. Dave was a little interested in the copter ride, but didn't think it would compare to the one he took in Hawaii, so decided against it.

After the airport we headed into town where the Wheels part of the festival was. It's where they showcase local owners of old timer cars. Although, some of those cars were from when I was a kid....Oh, I'm getting old! They also had some free kids activities. I took video of that, but there was just too much going on to get still shots. Amanda really liked the blow up bounce houses. One was set up like an obstacle course with two sides and the kids could race. Amanda was almost too small for it, but with a little help she did pretty good.

After lunch we headed home for naps, but returned later for the carnival part of the festivities. It was a lot smaller this year. I'm glad we didn't have to pay admission. It was perfect for Amanda. She went on 3 rides, the fun house and played a game and won a flower. It's one of those games where everybody wins. Sarah had fun watching, but is still too little to do much at these things.

This weekend I'm trying to get everybody healthy, so we didn't do much. We were going to go to the fire stations open house, but thought we better not. Good thing Amanda's class already did it. That way she doesn't feel like she was missing out. Hopefully she'll be better by tomorrow so she can go to preschool. She's so worried that she won't get to go. She is getting better. It was a little scary there for a few days. She woke up Wed and couldn't talk and could hardly breath. She was running a temp and had a sore throat. By Fri. night she was running a 103.8 temp. Luckily I had already gone to the Dr. and she gave us some prescript.'s for Amanda. At one point I was sleeping on her floor, and she was getting up every hour. Her fever broke three times and I had to change her sheets every time. They were soaked through as well as her. But, now she's running around and wants to go outside all the time. She just has a cough and sounds very squeaky.

Hope you all are doing well. More later.

I'm Back....

2007-10-13T22:34:00.000-07:00

But, I don't know for how long. :0) Wow, I took quite a little break! Haven't had much to write about and then we've been sick around here. So, I took a little break and took care of the fam. It's a bit late right now so I won't post too much, but will be posting a pic and telling about what we did last weekend. Stay tuned! :0)

I'm trying to get to everybody's blogs and get caught up. Geez, you take a few days off, and you have about an hour of reading to do to get caught up with everybody. :0) But, it'll be nice to get back into the swing of things. More later. ;0)

Sarah's One Year Old Pictures

2007-09-30T16:36:00.000-07:00

Here are the pictures of Sarah that I had taken at Sears. Her one year old pic's. I wish they had turned out better. They are OK, they just don't show Sarah's true smile and personality. She was such a bear trying to get these taken. She would only sit for about one pic. then she would take off running. I was so hot from chasing her down, by the time we were done, my hair was soaked and I wished I had worn shorts. But, they are better than nothing.

Sarah's 1st Birthday

2007-09-30T13:00:00.000-07:00

Our baby girl celebrated her first birthday on Aug. 3rd. And, I'm a bad mommy for not posting this earlier. It just took me this long to get the pictures on to the computer. So, at least I have them on now.

We celebrated at home with friends and family. The kids all really enjoyed playing on our new swing set and play structure in the backyard. It was a pretty warm day. Sarah got a lot of cute toys and clothes. Thank you everyone for the gifts and for coming to help us celebrate our baby's first birthday.

Oh my, we can't call her our baby anymore. She's a toddler! Aaaahhhh! Here are the many names we have given our little darling....Sarah-boo, Boobooo, Sarah-dactil, Baby monster, Screacher creature, Godzoockie, Sweet pea, and termite. I'm sure there are more, I just can't think of them right now.

Our little wonder girl is constantly keeping us on our toes. She is now running and climbing on everything. She has no fear, that's OK, I have enough for the both of us. She is so easy going and loves to go to everybody. We rarely have separation anxiety, in fact the only time she cries when we leave is because she wants to go outside, too. She's not upset that we are leaving. :0)

Below are some pictures from her birthday party. Enjoy!

Oh my, look at all the helpers who want to help Sarah unwrap her gifts. :0)

Great Gma and Sarah opening presents.

I made Sarah a butterfly birthday cake. I made sure to make it chocolate so it would show up better in the pictures. :0)

Are you sure I'm supposed to eat this?

Hmmm, this looks interesting. I wonder if it tastes good.

OOoooohhhh, squishy, squishy! I like it!

Now I'm getting the hang of this eating cake thing. Yummmm!

What? Aren't I supposed to make a mess? :0)

Tomatie Harvest

2007-09-30T12:41:00.000-07:00

Here is Amanda showing off her tomatie harvest. They took a long time to turn red. I've heard from a lot of people that the tomato harvest all over was like that. We had/have a lot of green tomatoes but they are sure taking their time turning red. That's her giant tomato plant to her right. I didn't know they got that big, it was draped all over the ground and climbing the tree and fence. Next year I think we'll fix it up with some string or something to climb. And, yes there is a metal shield thingy that helps support the plant somewhere in there. It just wasn't big enough. Oh well, this was our first try at this, we'll know more for next year.

Camping And Ticket Fines

2007-09-27T11:10:00.000-07:00

Camping....

Below you will see a slide show of the camping "trip" Dave and Amanda took in the back yard. Dave really wanted to go camping one more time this year, but it just didn't work out for us. So, he and Amanda decided to set up the tent in the backyard and camp back there. It was a lot of fun for them. Especially Amanda. She and Sarah both had fun setting up the tent. Sarah stayed inside with me that night, but played in the tent with her sister until Smores time. I got the girls all ready for bed and while I was doing that, Dave set up an old grill with wood burning to make our smores. They were soooooo good. Def. have to do that again. :0)

Ticket Fines.....
Last week I parked in a 15 min. spot for Amanda's gym class. I thought it was just a sign the building manager had put up and I've parked there before and didn't get into trouble. Well, I was taught a lesson that day. It is def. a city sign and I got a $15 ticket. So, this week I took the girls with me to the police station to pay my fine. Amanda asked what we were doing. I told her that I had gotten a parking ticket for parking in the wrong spot. I told her that I wasn't following the rules like I was supposed to and got in trouble. Then, we went to the Y and I worked out while they played in the kids play area. About an hour later I picked them up and we went back to the car and were driving down to Amanda's gym. She asked where we were going. I said, "We are going to your gymnastics class." And, she asked, "Are you going to follow the rules this time?" I giggled and said, "Yes, I'll follow the rules this time." ERRRrrrrrrr!!!!!

Check out my Slide Show!

2007-09-27T11:09:00.001-07:00

Story time!

2007-09-20T21:12:00.000-07:00

Another cute Amanda story. Let me know if you get tired of hearing them....on second thought, don't. I like telling them. :0)

Any who....We were driving over the bridge to go to swimming lessons and I was thinking out loud that I thought Dave and I should start shopping for a new car. Amanda asked why I drove a car and Dad drove a truck. Then I explained that my SUV wasn't a car, yadda, yadda, yadda. Then, I said I would really love to have a mini-van. We had one when I was in high school and we loved it. Amanda said, "A mini-van. That's so silly." I said, "Why's that so silly." I was insulted by my 3 year old! She says, "If you have a mini-van, then Daddy has a Mickey Truck." So, funny. They take everything so literally.

That reminds me of the time we went camping with some friends and their son (who was about 3 or 4 at the time) was helping his mother to play cards. When it was her turn she said, "OK, draw a card." He said, "OK, but I don't have any paper or a pen." Then, later he was in the camper calling for his mother. When she went in to see what he wanted, he couldn't think of what he called her for. So, she got tired of waiting for him to tell her and said, "Come on, spit it out." With total exasperation he says, "I don't have anything in my mouth!" Kids are so funny!

Below you will see a slide show of the pic's we took at the county fair. We went to two dif. ones this year. So, I will be posting those pic's later. Enjoy!

Check out my Slide Show!

2007-09-20T21:11:00.001-07:00

Tiny Talk Tuesday

2007-09-18T16:08:00.000-07:00

(This picture is of Amanda showing off her turkey. She got to make this project after sleeping in her own bed for 7 nights in a row. For the longest time she would sleep just fine, but then this spring the birds started waking her up at 4 am and she would either get us up, or try to sleep with us. So, I went to the craft store and bought a bunch of $1 crafts and when she completes her chart, she gets to pick what craft she wants to do. It has worked great. )

I stole the title to this post from my sis in law...thanx Lori. :0)

Dave was out of town yesterday, and when he called to tell me he made it to his destination all right. He told me a story about Amanda that he had forgotten to tell me earlier.

One morning while they were up early eating breakfast (one of those days that I took advantage of Daddy getting up early, so I could sleep in) Amanda got Dave's attention..."Daddy, don't, " Smack, Smack ( she makes the sound with her mouth wide open, showing all the food in her mouth) "nobody wants to hear that!" She does pay attention when I tell her to eat with her mouth closed! Yay! Now, maybe between the two of us we can get Dave to listen. Oh, that story makes Dave look like a neanderthal, he really does have very good table manners, he just slips up everyonce in a while. I'm sure I do to.

Don't box me in.

2007-09-16T21:41:00.000-07:00

It's just amazing how much money we spend on toys as a society, when in reality the best toy in the world is a beat up old cardboard box. My girls have so much fun playing in them. As you can see in my slide show.

Sorry, it's been so long since I've written. We've just been a little bit busy and I just haven't made the time to write. But, I'm back... :0)

Some cute stories,

After Amanda's 2nd day in school, I found out from one of her teachers that she had been playing in their rice sand box. And, she was pretending it was a farm. The teacher said that Amanda was telling them all about how her Grandma and Grandpa used to have a farm and that her Daddy used to live there, too. Then as we were leaving the parking lot, Amanda told me they sang Old McDonald Had a Farm. (I'm guessing that's why she told them all about G-Ma and G-Pa's farm) Then I said "Can you sing it to me?" And, Amanda says, "Mom, that's a school song, not a car song." Oh, well, OK, fine. :0)

The other night, Dave was getting Amanda ready for bed. While she was picking out stories to read, he decided to go to the bathroom. Being 3 years old and not knowing what privacy is, Amanda walked in on him. Of course, Dave was going as only boys can. Amanda looked at him and said "Why do boys pee like that, Daddy?" Not really wanting to explain male/female anatomy and how and why it works the way it does, Dave said, "I don't know, they just do." Then, Amanda said, "When I get bigger and get a spout like you, I can pee standing up, too. Just like a girl/boy." Tee-Hee!

Now, not to leave Sarah out, here's a update on her antics. Her stories aren't quite as humorous, but still cute. She's really becoming quite a climber. She's beat Amanda on the ladder by about 6 mos., she climbs on the couch and into her highchair now. She's trying to give me heart attacks. She's really trying to communicate now. She nods and shakes her head no. She points and now says Sishy for Fishy and Sissy. She says "No, no, no" and Da for Amanda. Now, I know I'm not supposed to compare the girls, but.....I just can't get over how very dif. they are. At this age Amanda had over 50 words in her vocab. but, she wasn't as phys. as Sarah. Amanda was always very sensitive...if you raised your voice at all toward her, she would dissolve in tears (still does), Sarah could care less. The other day, she was reaching for something (prob. a knife) on the dinning room table and I slapped the table really hard and said no. She just looked at me for a half a second and kept on reaching. I could tell Amanda not to do something and she would almost always never bother whatever it was again. Yeah, I bet you could guess that doesn't happen with Sarah. I knew it was too much to ask to have two obedient children. But, I have to say, I think we do have two very good girls and I wouldn't ask for anything more. I just love them so much I can't stand it.

Check out my Slide Show!

2007-09-16T21:40:00.001-07:00

9/11

2007-09-11T16:43:00.000-07:00

Never forget those lost.
Never forget those who served.
Never forget those serving.
God Bless.

Amanda's first day of school

2007-09-11T16:17:00.001-07:00

Well, Amanda had her first day yesterday. It went very well! I was thinking I may have to go in with her. She kept asking me if I was going to go with her. But, when we got there, a teacher from another room took her under her wing until her teacher came out. At Amanda's preschool, the teachers meet each child at their car and then all walk into the class at the same time. Amanda was the first one there. As I was pulling away, I could hear the teacher say, "Wave bye-bye." When I looked into the rear view mirror, I could see Amanda waving and looking around with an expression on her face like....What am I waving at. :0) But, she wasn't crying. Yay!

When I picked her up 2 hours later, I was first in line. I'm not sure how I became first both times, I'm usually late to everything. :0) But, when the bell rang, here they all came holding hands. Then Amanda saw my car and she burst into a huge grin and yelled "Mommy, I missed you!" Aaahhhh, melt my heart. She did great, but getting info out of her describing her day was like pulling teeth. As the evening progressed, she would tell me a little more and a little more. So, I got a good idea what she did. So, nosy mom got her fix. :0)

Here are some pic's of Amanda right before we left the house to go to school. She was so proud and kept saying "Take a pic. of this and take a pic. of that!" So, cute.

Here's the whole outfit. When I asked Amanda what she wanted to wear, she said a dress. That's when I realized, she doesn't have many dresses. She has a lot of skirts, but not many dresses. Hmmmm, I guess that means I need to go shopping....oh, darn. :0)

This is what happens when you have swim lessons and preschool on the same day. Poor kid was wiped out...Even when Sarah was screaming and poking her, she didn't wake up.

Preschool open house

2007-09-07T13:29:00.001-07:00

On Wed. we had Amanda's preschool open house. They didn't do much other than meet the teacher and get a tour of the school. It was cute when they took her to see where the bathroom was. Very excitedly I heard her say "I can reach that!" :0) I think she was talking about the sink. I filled out a bunch of paperwork while Dave and the girls looked around. I really like her teacher, she's more of an organized, stay on top of it teacher. I've heard the other teacher is a bit of a flake. I thought the more structured teacher would be better for Amanda. She already has experience with a flaky mom, now let's see how she handles structure. :0)

Below is the school picture they took a few weeks ago. I think it turned out pretty good. This was obviously before the hair cut, but the photographer did a good job. Miss Elaine, Amanda's teacher, also took a pic. when the kids walked in. That way they could have a pic in their cubby so they know which one is theirs.

I was going to go to school with Amanda the first day, but the teacher discouraged me from doing that. She feels it's easier to make a clean break. But, I think I'll play it by ear. I'll follow Amanda's lead. I asked her about it the other day, and she seemed fine, but then started acting worried that the teacher may put her on the school bus when they are done. I told her only people who made special arrangements ride the bus. I was going to pick her up every day. Don't worry. That seemed to calm her down. Should be interesting.

Here's Amanda standing right outside her preschool. She's so excited. I hope she makes lots of friends and really enjoys being there.

Amanda and Sarah playing in the kitchen area of the preschool. Right before I took this picture, Amanda came up to me and said "I want to do something." So, I told her to go play with the little girl in the kitchen. She had fun and I'm hoping that will help her want to go on her own on Mon.

The Hair Cut

2007-09-06T13:21:00.000-07:00

Well, it had to be done. Amanda had her first professional haircut the other day. I have been just trimming the ends for awhile now. But, with swimming lessons, her hair got really fried. So, I went to a pro to have the ends all chopped off before school started. When you look at the pic's keep in mind...I did not color her hair! I can't believe how much just cutting a few inches off can affect the color of her hair. I was afraid she wouldn't like it shorter, but now that I'm not pulling her hair out every morning trying to brush thru all the snarls, she really likes it. Whewww!

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Post No. 50!

2007-09-05T19:10:00.000-07:00

I just noticed...this is my 50th post. Yay me! I stuck to something. Wa-who!

Now on to some stories:

Yesterday we were on our way to gymnastics. As we were crossing the river, we saw a train. Amanda noticed there were 3 plane fuselages on it. She said: Mom, there's the train! It has planes on it!
Me: It sure does. They are going to make new planes out of them.
A: How?
M: They just make new planes out of them. (I don't know how...they just do, right? :0) )
A: Mo-om, Trains can't make planes! they don't have any hands!
----Geez Mom, I think to myself, don't you know anything!----

Amanda has this bad habit of hitting or pushing Sarah. I don't think she realizes that it hurts people to do that.

So, one day last week, I was on the phone with Dave and out of the corner of my eye, I see Amanda smack Sarah on the back of the head 3 times. Having had it with the warnings, I decided to show her how it feels to be smacked in the head with no warning. So, I reached over and smacked her on the side of the head. (Now before you call CPS on me...you should know that when we are playing and I thump her on the bumm, I hit harder than I hit her in the head) Oohhh, the surprise on her face! Then, I asked her how she liked being hit out of nowhere. Well, needless to say a few tears had to be dealt with. I felt a little bad, but I'm so sick of Sarah getting picked on by Amanda. I will not tolerate bully's. In fact, this reminds me of another "bully" story...

I had caught Amanda pushing Sarah down when I wasn't looking or so she thought. I told her not to do that it wasn't nice. I said if I caught her doing it again, I would push her down. Let her see how it feels to have someone bigger picking on her. Hmph! Then, i went back to washing the dishes. Well, that little stinker started saying "I'm going to push down Sarah. I'm going to push down Sarah." I warned "Don't you do it. You'll be sorry!"

Well, that little brat did it! She didn't just push Sarah once. NO! That didn't push Sarah to the ground. In the time it took for me to dry my hands, Amanda had pushed Sarah 3 times to get her to fall down. Aahhh! I was so mad. After I dried my hands, I walked right up to her and without a word, I pushed her to the ground. (I felt so bad, but it had to be done) Oh, boy did the waterworks start! But, you know what? After a good talk about how she felt and how she thought Sarah might have felt when she got pushed down (or hit), she hasn't done either since. Now, if I could just figure out how to stop the screaming at each other. :0) Aahhh, sisters.

Sarah has been so cute. She's trying to teach herself how to wink. I do it to her and then she squints up her eyes and blinks really hard. She's also started trying to spin in circles. But, she's not very good at it. She does it really slow and then falls on her rumpus all the time. One thing she's very good at is climbing. Oh, boy! This girl is going to give me heart attacks. She has no fear AT ALL! She climbs the ladder on our play structure and now she's trying to climb all our furniture. Aaaahhhh!!!!

A trip to the zoo!

2007-08-28T16:17:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share the pic's we took at the zoo last spring. Then, I can get them off my computer. I cannot believe how much faster my computer is when I get all these pic's burned on to CD and off the computer!

We went to the zoo in early June, before our long trip across the country. Dave had some meetings in Seattle, so we went with him and went to the zoo. The girls had a very good time. I think our favorite part was the butterfly display. And, if left up to me, we would have missed it. I thought it was going to be just a bunch of glass display cases with either dead butterflies or large displays with plants and butterflies that were hiding. Boy, was I surprised! The butterflies were kept in this huge tent with plants all over and the butterflies flew around us. Some even landed on us. It was so fun and so pretty.

I love, love, love my telephoto lens. We had fun in the bear area, I got some really close up pic's. Well, I really got a lot of close up pic's of everything. Loooovvvveeee iiiiittttt!

Any way, enjoy the slide show. And, thank you everyone for your comments. I love to read them.

Check out my Slide Show!

2007-08-28T16:15:00.001-07:00

A day at the park

2007-08-27T13:50:00.000-07:00

I was looking thru my pic's on the computer before I burn them to CD and delete them and saw that I hadn't posted these. So, here goes.

This was a day back in May, I think it was Mother's day weekend. We had a picnic dinner with my parents at the park and took some pic's. It was pretty cool and breezy that day.

This is my Mom and Dad with Sarah. We didn't have any pic's with just the three of them. Now I have one for her baby book.
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Grandpa Greg and Sarah. I just love this pic.
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I love this pic. of my Mom.
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Our little cutie pie Sarah. She just loves to swing.
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I love the expression on Amanda's face. We were so excited when she finally went down a curly slide. It took us forever to convince her that she would like it. Now she's not afraid anymore.
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I don't know who the other little girl is...she just asked if she could be in the pic. But, I like the look on Amanda's face. So, that's why this pic. is being posted.

We had a really good time that day at the park, even if it was a bit chilly.

Little words....

2007-08-23T13:30:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to update you all on what's been "new" and what's come out of the little mouths in our family.

Last night Dave was reading the paper and he was on the weather page. When out of nowhere Amanda comes up to him, puts her finger on SD on the map and says..."What's the weather like there?" Now keep in mind, we've only looked at maps to show her where we would be traveling or where our friends and family live. We've never showed her the weather maps. Dave was floored that she knew that. I think she's picked it up from the weather channel or something.

Today, on the walk back to the car from swimming lessons she asked me "What would we be if we weren't people?" I said, "I don't know. What would we be?" A: "We would be flowers. Girls would be sunflowers." Curious to see what she would next say, I asked..."What would boys be?" A: "Blueberry flowers." Very interesting.

Sarah isn't talking too much...Ok, let me qualify that, she talks all the time, but it's usually just "No, no, no, no!" Do you think she may hear that a lot? :0) But, she is trying to say Sissy. She points at everything. Uses the sign language sign for more to mean more, food, or bottle. She has finally learned to crawl down the stairs instead of just walking off it and she has learned to high five, to my surprise. I haven't really worked on it with her, but when she got down the stairs for the first time without falling off them, I said "High five Sarah!" and held my hand up. I was expecting to have to take her hand and show her how to do it. But, she got a big smile on her face and just started slapping my hand. I think she picked it up by watching us do it with Amanda. I was so excited.

The end of our vacation-Day 17-20

2007-08-21T16:09:00.000-07:00

Well, here is the end of our vacation, finally!

On Day 17, we left Dave's parent's house at about 10:00 am. It seemed on this whole trip, that no matter what time we woke up, we couldn't get in the truck and on the road until 10. We were headed for Medora, ND. I was prepared for it to be a very boring trip, but it was actually very beautiful. I think some believe farm country to be very boring, but its so pretty. I prob. think that because I didn't grow up in the country. I grew up on the coast, both east and west.

We stopped at the Jamestown rest area for a picnic. It was so nice there. The view was great. That's where we got a great pic. of us all together. Thank goodness I have a tripod. I just may use that pic. for our x-mas card.

After lunch and before we got to Theodore Roosevelt State Park, we hit one doosey of a thunder storm. I tried to film it on the camcorder, but it seemed lightning only struck where I wasn't pointing the camera. There were strikes so close our radio would cut out. I haven't been in a storm like that since we lived in Florida. It was great! Amanda wasn't even very scared. I think that's because she couldn't really hear the thunder.

When we got to Medora, we made a quick, light dinner and ate at the old town playground. It was great! A kids dream playground. We spent alot of time there. The campground we stayed at had live music. It was old timers playing country. Very nice. We also had a little visitor. A friendly little bunny. He wouldn't let us pet him but he let me get a good pic. of him. We had a great view of the mountains out the back of our camper. I really liked it there.

On day 18 we headed for Greycliff, MT. The driving was pretty uneventful. We stayed at the Big Timber KOA. Before we checked in, we visited a prairie dog town. That was so cute! They were all over the place and when we rolled down our windows we could hear them barking. The campground wasn't anything special, but they had a bouncing pillow. It was HUGE, and so much fun. We could all go jumping at the same time. In fact, at one point there was about 15 kids jumping on it at the same time. I wish the girls had been older and able to swim, there was a neat water slide park right next door to the campgrounds. The cg had a pool, too. So, we did go swimming for a bit.

On day 19, we took off for St. Regis, MT. We didn't really do much site seeing, we just wanted to make time and get home. We drove thru Billings again and saw a park from the highway and decided to stop there for a picnic lunch. The girls really enjoyed our lunches. After all that time in car seats, I can only imagine how they liked stretching out. I feel sorry for kids nowadays. Remember when we were kids and we could get out of our seats and play in the car. Yeah, not any more.

That night we stayed at THE BEST campground I've ever stayed at. It was so clean!!!! Let me tell you, it was so clean I let my baby sit on the bathroom floor and didn't feel grossed out at all. I think that bathroom was cleaner than my own bathroom. I really, REALLY want to go back there and go hiking. The only bad thing, was that I was missing home so bad. I think if we didn't have the kids we would have just kept driving, I wanted to be home so bad. So what if it was only another 6 hours or so. :0) That evening was a scorcher. It was around 100 degrees, thank goodness for AC. We went swimming and had ice cream, then as the sun was setting we took a little hike around the CG and a bit in the forest. The camp ground is the Nugget CG in ST. Regis, MT. Check it out if you go out that way. I'm telling ya, you'll love it.

Day 20, We got home. Yay!!!!!

Slide show of the end of our vacation.

2007-08-21T16:08:00.000-07:00

Our Trip-Day 14-16

2007-08-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

Wow! I just picked up the pic.'s from our trip. Cha-Ching! Yeah, I put a few bucks down for those. But, I just loved them all. I think I printed about 600 pic's. Somebody take my camera please. Yeah, try to get it away from me. :0)

Any way the trip story continues.....

Let's see, I left off with us visiting the farm where Dave grew up. That night was the rehearsal for Dave's niece's wedding. I don't know if you've heard this before or not, but when I was in high school our band teacher always said if you have a bad rehearsal, you will have a great performance. Well, the opposite is true, too. Amanda did very well in the rehearsal. But, when it came to the wedding and she saw all the people sitting in the church, I think she got a bit of stage fright. My plan was, to send her on down the aisle and step to the side so I wouldn't be in any of the pic's or the wedding video. Poor Amanda just stood at the beginning of the aisle, throwing her flower petals, quietly crying Mommy, Mommy. She wasn't moving, but she was throwing her petals. Finally, I ran down the aisle and called to her like she was a puppy, to get her to come down the aisle. The whole way she threw her petals and quietly cried Mommy, Mommy. So cute. I was hoping that if she got scared at least we could get something for Funniest Home Videos, but it wasn't bad enough to submit. Darn, I won't win $10,000. :0)

Dave was a speaker in the wedding and his brother Al was the videographer. It was a beautiful wedding and the reception was nice, too. We had plenty of food and the kids liked drinking their punch out of champagne glasses.

The next day was Sunday. I was going to go to church, but knew it would be a disaster with the girls. They didn't get enough sleep the day before (because of the wedding), so I stayed home and started getting things ready for our trip back. We had a ton of laundry to get done and packed up. Later that afternoon, Dave loaded on the camper and we packed as much as we could so we would be ready to leave first thing the next morning.

I made a slide show below of the pic's from the wedding, reception and getting the camper ready. Enjoy!

Check out my Slide Show!

2007-08-17T14:11:00.001-07:00

Cute conversation

2007-08-15T21:06:00.000-07:00

I just put Amanda to bed and while we were sitting on her floor listening to one song on her cd before I kissed her goodnight and put her to bed, we had a cute little conversation. It went like this:
A: Mom,when did I cry when I was a baby?
M: When you were hurt, or hungry, or tired.
A: No, when they took me out of you.
M: Oh, yeah you cried right when they took your head out. (she was a c-section)
A: Yeah, I said, AaaaHhhh, put me back in!
M: Yes, you did.
A: Did you cry when they opened you up?
M: No, they gave me medicine so I wouldn't feel anything.
A: How did they open you?
M: With a knife.
A: And you didn't cry?
M: Nope, they gave me medicine. It hurt later. Remember when Sarah was born and I
had a big Owie on my tummy?
A: Yeah.
M: Yeah, that hurt. But, I'm all better now.
A: Can I see the baby in your tummy? (We just finished reading a book about dif.
kinds of moms and it showed a pic of a mom with a baby in the belly)
M: No, I don't have a baby in my belly. Or, do you know something Mom doesn't know?
A: No, I just want to see a baby in a mom's belly.
M: Oh, OK. Time for bed.

Our Trip-Day 12-14

2007-08-13T19:44:00.000-07:00

July 4th (or Day 12) We spent the day at a lake where Dave's cousin's live. Oh, what a beautiful house and view. Very relaxing. There were a lot of family there to celebrate the fourth. We also had a surprise party for Mary's 80th there. Al and Lori got a cake and balloons for her. It was nice to celebrate again with a lot of family there. The day was very warm, which was good for swimming. The kids had a great time splashing around and riding the jet skis. Amanda just liked getting her feet wet, Megan was a little more adventurous. Derek was like a little fish, he kept jumping off the dock. The guys all took a tour of the lake early in the afternoon and the ladies took one right before and during the sunset. I got some great pictures of that. It was gorgeous! I'm glad we waited until evening for our trip, the guys had a very choppy, windy ride. Ours was smooth sailing. The best part was the fireworks. There isn't any established fireworks, but it seemed like every house on the lake had their own mini version of a display and it was beautiful. To see the whole lake erupt in sparkles was amazing. I hope to do this again. If we could only get the mosquitoes to quit-o eating us-o. I had so many bites on me, I'm amazed I don't have West Nile.

The next day, Dave and I took a trip to the nearby optometrist. I had been and still have a spot in my vision that won't go away. So annoying. It's like having a camera flash go off and you have that little spot that lingers, only mine won't go away. Any way, we drove an hour to go see a top notch guy, and he did all kinds of tests and all they come up with is that I have a floater and to get used to it. Groovy! We had fun when we got back though. Dave, the girls, Lori and Megan and I all walked to the city pool and spent about an hour tootling around in there. It was a lot of fun. The girls really enjoyed themselves.

On day 14 we went to visit the old farm where Dave and Al grew up. His cousin owns it now and they have been making some changes. Oh boy, have they made changes. It looks great, nothing like I remember. Amanda liked the cows and the horse we saw when we were leaving. We stopped to see if they would come close. Only the horse really did. Amanda didn't want to get too close, but Dad could feed it. She's chicken just like her mother.

That's all for now. I'll post more soon.

2007-08-13T15:51:00.001-07:00

Our Trip-Day 7-11

2007-08-12T22:28:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've taken so long to get back to this. But here's some more info on our trip and some pictures, of course, for you to view.

On day 7, we left Custer and headed for Pierre. Along the way, we stopped at Wall, SD and visited Wall Drug. I remember going there as a teenager and loved it. It's so fun to look at all the junk they have in there. It's a huge tourist trap, but what a great, fun place to stop. Or, so I thought. Not so great with children our girls' age. They were not interested at all. I was a little disappointed that they didn't have as much fun as I thought they would, but it prob. would have been more fun in a few years. Amanda had some fun in the "Back Yard", that's were she got to get in a covered wagon and pretend to drive the horses. We took a bunch of pic's in there.

We stayed at a friends house in Pierre and had dinner and jumped on their trampoline. That was Amanda's favorite part. My fav. part was staying in their fifth wheel. Aaaahhh, room. I could actually stretch out in there. I'm thinking we may graduate to a trailer....soon. Amanda was excited to sleep in the bottom bunk in the fifth wheel. Now she wants bunk beds in her room.

On day 8 and 9, we traveled to Dave's parents. This entry and the pic's below take us up to July 3rd. I took a bunch of pic's for the 4th so I'll make a diff. entry for that. But, on the 1st we took Mary out to lunch for her 80th birthday. It was a nice dinner (I forget we were in SD, lunch is dinner). Dave's sister Janet and niece Heather came to celebrate with us. It was a nice visit.

On day 10, we walked up to the city park with Dave's father and played and played and played. It was great. I finally got some good pic's of Sarah. Then, later that day, Mary introduced Amanda to the fine art of bean picking. Oh, boy those were some good beans. I think we may try to grow some next year.

July 3rd, or day 11, was spent relaxing and getting ready for the 4th. I'll write more on that later. It's getting late, I better get to bed. Enjoy the pic's below and there will be more to come. I hope I get to it soon. Nite-nite.

Check out my Slide Show!

2007-08-12T22:25:00.001-07:00

Day 4, 5 and 6-Custer, SD

2007-08-02T14:53:00.000-07:00

After leaving Cody, WY, we drove thru the Big Horn Mountains. What a beautiful drive. Especially at the top. There were just oceans of flowers. I took A LOT of pictures but tried to find the best one for the slide show below. We pulled off along the road for a picnic. The view was outstanding! I want to go back to go camping there someday when the girls are older. It's funny the further along we went, the more places I found to come back to when the girls are older.

We camped at the Beaver Creek CG in Custer, SD. Dave's old stomping grounds. The CG was very nice and great for Amanda. They had a nice little playground and a swimming pool with a water slide. The best part was the bunnies. They were everywhere and some of them were tame enough to feed. Good thing we brought along a bunch of carrots.

On the fifth day, we toured around the Custer State Park. We saw Mtn. goats, deer, buffalo, and donkeys. Yes, donkey's. We had a great time driving around. My favorite time was going thru all the tunnels. They had a series of tunnels that are cut in just such a way that when you drive thru you are looking at Mt. Rushmore. It was so pretty. I had been to Mt. Rushmore in high school. Boy, has it changed! It is beautiful there, but hot. Thank goodness they have a great ice cream stand there now.

After Mt. Rushmore, we traveled thru the Needles. Very impressive rock structures. I was afraid we wouldn't make it thru some areas. The tunnels were a bit snug for today's large size trucks. But, it was a lot of fun. And, again, I want to come back when the girls are older and go hiking.

That night some friends that Dave used to work with came to visit us. They had kids and Amanda had a blast playing with them. I could tell she was missing kids to play with. So, I'm glad they came to play with her.

The sixth day we just relaxed around the camper. I sent Dave and the girls off to play for about an hour and totally cleaned out the camper. Boy, it needed it! Then everybody took naps and I watched a movie. Later, Dave took Amanda to the pool. She got in, but wouldn't, and prob. shouldn't have, gone on the water slide.

I got some really cool pictures of the girls with the sun setting. It looks like the forest is on fire behind them, but it's not. There was a fire in the area, so the smoke made for some very colorful sunsets. I just wish the girls would hold still for 2 seconds so the pictures wouldn't be blurry, but I did get one of Sarah. Then the moon was spectacular. I really wish my pictures could be as beautiful as it was in person. I need to take some classes.

Any way....enjoy the slide show below. And, I'll write more later.

Check out my Slide Show!

2007-08-02T14:48:00.001-07:00

Day three-Yellowstone

2007-08-01T15:55:00.000-07:00

Day three in Yellowstone left me begging for more. We didn't give ourselves a lot of time in Yellowstone mainly because the girls wouldn't be able to hike the trails. I really wanted to just drive thru and see as many animals as we could see. I wasn't disappointed. Although, we still didn't see any bears. My parents did the next day.

Speaking of my parents, they drove around with us until after lunch. Then we went separate ways. It was really fun driving with them. We each had small radios, which are very handy when you're in separate cars. We could point out things to each other without having to run up our cell phone bills.

Amanda had a great time every time we stopped. She wanted to be in all the pictures. I felt sorry for little Sarah, she was stuck in her stroller most of the time because everywhere we went was on a cliff, no way did I want her toddling around. It may not look like it, but Sarah was there with us and later you'll see more pictures of her.

We spent way longer driving thru the park than we allotted and got out of the park late. It turns out, that was prob. the better thing for us to do. We left thru the east entrance, and found out later that that exit had been closed earlier that day because there was a fire threatening that area. We had no idea until my parents were able to get a hold of us a few hours after we left the park. We had seen the smoke on our way to Cody, WY, but had no idea how close it was.

We saw so many beautiful sites: Waterfalls, elk, buffalo, deer, pelicans, rivers and mountains. I took so many pictures, I had trouble choosing which ones to share. I wish the pictures of the burned forest turned out as beautiful as it looked to the eye, the color contrast of the blackened wood and the green grass just really was striking. At one point during our drive, we were stopped for about 20 or 30 min. for construction and I looked up and saw the moon peaking around the edge of the forested ridge. Had to get a shot of that!

Well, the kids are up from their nap so I better end this and get to day four next time. Enjoy the pictures!

Check out my Slide Show!

2007-08-01T15:52:00.001-07:00

Our Trip....Finally!

2007-07-25T21:58:00.000-07:00

Many of my friends have been bugging me to update my blog and write about our trip. Boy, it's tough getting back into the swing of things when you get home. I finally get everyone back on a schedule and then I go and get sick on top of it...But, I will start to update you on our trip now. So, here goes some of it.

The first two days we camped with my parents. That's them with the girls above. We went to Missoula MT first and camped at a little spot off the HWY called Yogi Bear camp grounds. It was cute and had a pool, which was nice but a little chilly. The girls handled the car trip rather well. We didn't have to use the DVD at all that day. Sarah slept most of the way and Amanda was amusing herself with a scavenger hunt that my friend Lori made for her.

The second day we continued to travel thru MT and saw some wonderful scenery. I wanted to stop and take so many pic's but if I stopped every time I saw something to take a pic of, we would still be on our trip. We traveled thru a small sliver of Yellowstone on our way to our second camp ground. And, we saw a moose, A MOOSE! I couldn't believe it. That was the first time I've ever seen one not in a zoo. Yippee! We didn't get any pictures because we were going too fast, but I was able to get it on video. I hope it turns out.

The second place we stayed at was Hebgen Lake, MT. It was so pretty there. We saw a pelican swimming in the water there. I didn't know we had these huge pelicans. Hmmm learn something everyday. I got some great pic's of Amanda there.

I couldn't believe I got her to smile and look at me at the same time. They had this building there at the camp ground and while we were taking the pic we were being dive bombed by birds who had made nests in the rafters right above our heads. I can't believe that Amanda didn't notice them, but was glade she didn't.

They also had a great photo op here with this fence along the outside of our campground. Amanda really liked climbing on it. Of course I think she just liked anything she could do that didn't require sitting in the truck.

Here is a the view of the lake when we woke up on our third day. It was beautiful.

Well, I have a ton more pic's to show, but this is taking too long. So, I will sign off for now and return for the rest of the story. And, I think I will do it with a slide show because I got a little camera happy, and took way too many pic's. But, hey that's me. More later.

Home again

2007-07-19T13:42:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody. Sorry to be gone for so long. We took basically a 3 week camping trip back to see Dave's family. Whew, that was a long time. But, it went really well. So, expect some really great photo's. I only took about 900, literally. I love my digital camera.

I wanted to thank Lori for introducing me to all her blogging friends. It's nice to meet you all. I like all the comments you leave. I hope to visit you all on your blogs as well. I'm still trying to find time to do it all, but will get around to it eventually.

Well, that's all for now. I'm still getting the house back in order and everyone back on a schedule. Wish me luck and to all you new comers...Welcome to my blog.

Early Bird....

2007-06-18T23:27:00.001-07:00

Our sweet little Amanda, what are we to do with you. Amanda has developed a little condition...it's called Early Birdism. Tee-Hee. Lately, she has been waking up when the birds in the tree outside her window wake up. And, since the sun now rises at about 4:30 in the morning, she thinks that it's time to stay up. We are so exhausted we can't stand it. Sarah won't go to sleep until 11:00 pm and now Amanda is getting up between 4:30 and 5 am. We have tried so many things to stop this...we've rearranged her room so her head is as far from the window as we can get it, she has a white noise machine and we've turned it all the way up, I've put a heavy blanket over the window to try and block out the light...and now I've gotten a digital clock in her room and taped a piece of paper to it with 7:00 written on it and told her she can't get out of bed unless the clock matches what's on the paper. Dave is a little skeptical that this will work and, truth be told, so am I. But, I thought we would give it a try. I might have to purchase a shotgun and go target shooting one morning. :0) This is just so not like her. She used to sleep from 8:00 pm until 8 or 9:00 am. Oh, we were so spoiled I just don't know what to do. Any suggestions from anybody out there? We will try almost anything.

Lori's visit

2007-06-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

Last week my best friend Lori came to visit us. We didn't do a whole lot while she was here. But, we had fun playing with the girls. Amanda had the best time playing with Lori. She would wake up every morning looking for her. We went to gymnastics to watch Amanda, she really enjoyed showing off for us. We also went to the library, had a picnic lunch and played around the house. We had a really good time. I can't wait to take the girls back to visit Lori and maybe visit the beach. We'll see if Amanda will go in the water this time. In the past she's run away screaming. Thank you Lori for coming to visit us. We really had a great time.

First Taste Of Marion Berry Pie

2007-06-07T10:55:00.000-07:00

No, that's not lipstick you see on those cute little lips. Grandma introduced the delicious taste of marion berry pie. She lllloooovvveeedddd it! After her first bite, she stood next to Grandma's chair with her mouth open for the next bite. She looked just like a baby bird begging for her worm.

Play Date

2007-06-05T22:18:00.002-07:00

Last week a couple of friends came over to play. I thought to myself what a great opportunity to get some camera practice. I needed to work on my action shots and the kids were very happy to show me all their moves. Below you will see a slide show of them.

Ally and Aden are a couple of Amanda's friends and when Sarah learns what a friend is, I'm sure she'll say they are her friends, too. They had so much fun playing hide and seek, I just had to take pictures. I thought they turned out pretty well. I can't wait to practice on them again. Let me know what you think.

Check out my Slide Show!

2007-06-05T22:18:00.001-07:00

Busy, busy, busy!

2007-06-01T15:39:00.002-07:00

Wow! A long time has passed since my last entry. Sorry about that. We've been a little busy around here. For the past couple of weeks we've been doing some home improvements to the back of our house. Watch the slide show below and you will see the highlights in pictures. Amanda helped Dave to measure the old back deck. Then, she helped to scrape the old peeling paint off the back wall. We spent another day applying a couple layers of primer and then another day laying down the paint. She had so much fun helping us with that.

After we got the painting all taken care of, Dave tore up all the old decking. What a messy job. He was covered with grim as you can see from the photo. Then over the weekend, Dave, my dad and my brother Greg spent a couple of scorching days putting the new decking on. They worked so hard on such hot days. But, oh how beautiful the deck is now. Thanks you guys, you did great.

Check out my Slide Show!

2007-06-01T15:39:00.001-07:00

Sarah's newest...

2007-05-18T00:25:00.001-07:00

This is what is new with Sarah...she has a new tooth on the top and another trying to break thru. It's so funny to see the top teeth in babies. They just seem so big to me when they first come in. I felt this way when Amanda's first came in. I was so worried that they were abnormally large and would look funny. Silly new mom.

She is a very good crawler and boy, is she fast, too. She stands up at every opportunity. She has just recently started cruising the furniture. She has some pretty good bruises on her forehead because she likes to crawl up to the furniture until she bumps her head into it, kinda like a battering ram. Then, when she makes contact, that's when she stops, reaches her hand up and stands. She doesn't really look where she's going, she just tucks her head and chugs along until she runs into something, then she stands up.

She's very stubborn, too. When her sister was a baby, I could tell her no and she wouldn't, say, tear into my house plants. We were able to leave all our plants where they have always been. OOOHHHHH, not Sarah. That little girl wants to do what that little girl wants to do. I can tell her no a thousand times and she just goes right on doing whatever she wants. The other day, I think I moved her away from a plant about 20 times before she gave up. I think we are going to have our hands full with this one. I do get frustrated with her, but then she gives me that cute little 2 tooth smile (3 now) and my heart just melts. I will tell her, "Don't you give me that cute little smile, you little stinker. You're in trouble and smiling...won't...get...you...out...of...oh, your so cute. Come here let me kiss that cute little face." See, it pays to be toothless, covered in drool and cute as a button.

Amanda stories...

2007-05-18T00:02:00.000-07:00

Let me set the scene: We were driving to my parents this afternoon and we were listening to Amanda's favorite CD, the Little Mermaid sound track. I wasn't paying too much attention to what song was on. Probably because it's like the 9 millionth time I've heard it. When, in the back seat I hear Amanda say, "Yeah, she's bad." I think to myself for half a second that she's talking to her friend Hannah. The friend only Amanda can see. Yeah, that kind of friend. But, then it registers what song is on. I say, "Oh Ursala. Yeah, she's bad." Amanda then says, "Yeah, she's bad. She's mean to Ariel. She needs a time out!" So, cute.

Recently I've come to notice that I say some words that pre-schools try to discourage their young pupils from saying...Hate and Stupid. So, I told Amanda that those were not nice words and that she shouldn't say them. I also said that if she heard Mommy say them, she should remind Mommy that they aren't nice and she shouldn't say them. Well....the other day I was driving and I was a wee bit late getting to where I needed to get. So, of course I was impatient with other drivers. The one in front of me was taking just a tad too long getting thru a stop sign, when I said..."Come on. Stupid girl, drive!" When out of the back seat I hear the sweet little voice of my darling tattle tale, "Mommy, don't say that it's not nice!" Then, at the mall yesterday, she kept hiding in the clothes racks. It really bothers me that she does that, because I like to be able to see her at all times. Call me paranoid, but I don't want her to get taken. So, I kept telling her to stay where I could see her. She would run around..."Can you see me Mom? Can you see me?" After about 20 min. of this I stopped, because she just thought it was a game, I said "Amanda, please don't run and hide. I might lose you and leave with out you. I would sure hate to lose you." Instead of being worried about me leaving without her, she hears the "bad" word and says..."Mommy don't say hate, that's not a nice word!" Oh, brother, kids. Gotta love em.

Can't wait, can't wait....

2007-05-11T23:03:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading the whole Harry Potter series...AGAIN! I had to, the next and final book is coming out soon. But, not soon enough. I just can't wait. What am I going to do with myself? I love these books. I look forward to when the girls are old enough for me to read them to them. It's a little to "dark" to read to them right now. But, I love the imagination that went into them. Anybody else addicted to these books?

Lookie, Lookie below...

2007-05-10T23:00:00.000-07:00

Below is a slide show of our weekend at the carnival, or the carmel as Amanda calls it. We had a lot of fun and Amanda did so well on all the rides. She wanted to ride everything! Even the big rides that she was too short for. What a difference from last fall. She was so afraid of everything then, that all we got her to ride was the Merry-Go-Round. Maybe next year I can take her on the spider (AKA: the octopus). Poor Sarah didn't get to ride on anything. She was so good though, patiently sitting in her stroller. The pictures you will see took place over two days. On the second day, we took a picnic lunch and enjoyed the beautiful day. We really needed it after last week. Sadly, we lost my grandfather. I can't really get into that right now. Still a little too raw emotionally. So, enjoy the slide show. We had a lot of fun taking them.

The "Carmel" Rides!

2007-05-10T22:58:00.000-07:00

My Babies

2007-04-30T21:08:00.000-07:00

I just love this photo of the girls. When I scanned it into the computer, I was messing around with the color and thought this was pretty cool looking. Enjoy!

Pretty flower!

2007-04-28T23:00:00.000-07:00

I just love this picture. This was a surprise flower that showed up in our yard one year. I think it's a bit unusual. Just thought I would post it.

Yummy tomaties!

2007-04-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

Today Amanda and I planted our first ever tomato plant. Or, tomaties, as Amanda calls them. It's a Roma grape tomato plant. So, the tomatoes are small, like a grape, and sweeter. We have three blooms on them right now. So, I'm hoping we'll have some good tomatoes soon. We also planted some radishes. They came in a plant kit that Amanda got in the mail. Dave and I don't care for them, but I won't let on and see if Amanda will like them. We try really hard not to show our dislike for veggies in front of the girls. We, OK I, want them to make up their own minds on whether they like something or not. But, that also means we have to take bites of the foul stuff and pretend we like it. Oh, well, it can't hurt us. No matter what Dave says. :0)