The "Family" Party

March 2009

I thought it would be fun to surprise Porter with his cake...so here are the pictures leading up to actually seeing the cake. I love his reaction!

In this pic all he can see is that it's got frosting and it's on fire...

But now he can see that it's covered in "Cars" that he didn't previously own.

Usually we have birthday's with the grandparents but the trip is a bit lengthy these days so we improvised. We invited our wonderful neighbors who have been the sudo-grandparents since we moved in. The kids love them and were so excited to have them here for our party!

Porters 5th Birthday Party

March 2009

I can't believe he's 5. They get big so fast. I'm not big on parties but I figured 5 was a milestone and deserved to be celebrated to here we go....
We invited the boys from his primary class and a couple of his nearest and dearest from preschool. There were only 6 all together but it was still crazy. We had pizza, cupcakes and then they went on a treasure hunt...the kids had a blast popping the balloons that held the clues.

This is the cupcake tower. Not quite the colors I wanted but kids don't care...right!

Happy Birthday my big 5 year old!

Preschool Field Trip

March 2009

Porters preschool went on a field trip to the high school today. In their first workshop they drew faces on cups and then planted grass seed. It was a really cute idea and Porter loved watching his face grow green hair.

In the next work shop they had the opportunity to "milk" a ply-wood cow. They even had one with chocolate milk in it. Porter was not impressed with the idea a refused to even go near the things. In the next one they all got to hammer nails into a block of wood. This was Porters favorite and he was mad that I dared to have him stop and pose for a picture.

After the work shops the class came out and took turns sitting on the tractor. They all really enjoyed this part of the field trip.

This is about half of the class. I don't know where the rest went...I was only in charge of mine!

A New Dress Up

February 2009

I thought I would try my hand a sewing since I can't ask my mom to do it for me anymore. Here is my first project that turned out like I wanted it to. Maisey thinks it's great!

So this picture is almost exactly the same but her face cracks me up every time I look at it so I had to put it on too!

A Soggy Day at the Park

February 2009

It's a nice day for February in Washington...that means that it's not raining!

(for right now)

This is the view at the park. This is Long Lake. It's about a minute from our house if you drive. It's great for water skiing, kayaking, fishing and all the other things people do on a lake. It also has a really nice park for playing at...if fish water isn't you thing...fish water is not my thing.!
The favorite for my kids are the swings. They can't seem to get high enough.

You just can't beat a good, old fashioned underdog. The kids prefer Josh for these...Mom just can't get them as high!



Maisey wanted to try out the big kid swing but realized that we wouldn't push her as high on it. She went back to the safer swing shortly after so she could go high again.

Porter likes to play on everything. He loves to have Josh help him with the monkey bars and things but I think he'll be doing it himself before long. They are both growing so fast.

Mocking the Injured

I hate to post videos back to back, but I just found this one of Maisey making fun of Josh. You just never know what your kids will pick up from you. Shoveling snow can be damaging to your self-esteem.

Christmas Morning

This is the first year we've been able to spend the whole day with just our family. I'm sorry to say it but, it was really nice. I did have to make the whole Christmas dinner by myself but I managed and no one got sick!

One Step at a Time

I'm trying to get into the blogging. I decided that I wanted it in order so i'm going to start here and work my way forward. One step at a time, right? This is December 2008. Its not common to get this much snow in the Seattle area. Glad we came from Utah where we are snow ready. It snowed 16 inches in about 24 hours. We learned that if it has snowed a lot that evening shovel it before bed. Why? Because the humid/freezing air freezes the top 2 inches of snow overnight and your 8 inches feels like 2 feet. We spent December 23 in the ER because Josh messed up his back shoveling it. This picture of me shoveling snow is as rare as the snow itself!

Family Pictures

My little sister took some family pictures for us while we were in Utah over Thanksgiving. Thanks Anna!

"Warm" Day At The Beach

Our "Beach Days" in Seattle are a little bit different from the ones that we know and love in California. Different isn't bad though, you don't have to worry about looking good in a swim suit here.

Re-Located

This is our new home....Seattle. We moved to Port Orchard, wich is a suburb of Seattle. Josh and I are both originally from Davis County, Utah so this is quite a change of pace.