Sweet, sweet girl.

I'll enjoy her while she's young and sweet.....

Mom and Kate picking flowers.

Hanging with Cousins

After celebrating Bradley's birthday at Red Robin (as evidenced by the giant chocolate syrup stains on his white shirt) the cousins came to hang out, literally. Woo hoo, no hands! She might be a girl, 6 months older and taller, but Bradley loves his cousin, Emily.

Tooth Two

It seems like that's how it usually works, lose a tooth and they all start falling out... I didn't expect it while she was in preschool still. This time I had to help her pull it out. After it was hanging by a thread for a few days. This time her cousin was there, who also had a loose tooth. So while they wore matching shirts I oragelled them up together and the wiggled away. Finally, after Kate's was out Megan said "Wow, I can't believe I was here for this!"

In all of the excitement, Kate subsequently lost the tooth, so had to write her fairy friends a note. It read. "Thank you for the dollar. I lost another tooth. From Kate. To tooth fairy. I love you. I see you." I'm sure the tooth fairy will deliever after that!

New Bed!

Well, it was before I was hoping, but sure enough we had some crib hopping. Last week Paige started showing up downstairs about 5 min after we put her down for a nap. After interrogating each family member, in hopes that she really hadn't done it, I finally had her show me how she got out. Yes, unaided, except by a pillow to stand on. So, we had our last night of reading stories in our favorite glider rocker....

and then reluctantly sold it the next day on craiglist. Also got a twin mattress on craiglist. And wa la, Paige got a new room. (We had the bed and bedding in storage). The furniture was mine and also my Mom's when she was young.

Here's her version...

Zumba!

I've been joining in the ZUMBA craze at the gym. It's a fun fast-paced dance/aerobics class that is a great whole body workout.
Paige and Kate were begging me to dance with them last night to music in the family room. As we were rocking out Bradley said "if someone walked in right now, I would tell them you are NOT my mom!"

Kentwood Band Festival

Tyson got to play the trumpet in a band festival with several area elementary schools, the junior high, and high school.

Kitchen Makeover

While Grandma was busy getting makeovers, watching Mary Poppins, and being Mary Poppins, Grandpa (Dad) and I were busy making over the kitchen. This was before the granite came. We had to put plywood on the countertops and have them level.

After the granite we tiled the backsplash. Grouting is seriously a painful process...

But well worth it. We ended up wrapping the window (and slider), shortening the curtains and many other side projects....THANKS DAD! And Mom, the behind the scenes helper.

My desk that will have to stay clean now that it's so pretty. I Love, Love, Love it.

Makeover Fun

With Grandma in town, Kate had no problem giving up her bedroom, because she had a new client for her makeovers. Paige joined right in on the fun. They woke grandma up every morning at 7am to remind her! Grandma was great. She handed over all her make-up and let them have at it (something Mom would NEVER consider).

It was hard to get Paige to stop. She would have done it all day if allowed.

The results were beautiful, an a 2 and 5 year old sort of way!

A Tooth Fairy Sighting!

It was a dramatic and exciting event when Kate discovered that she had a loose tooth. Of course Paige was sure she had one too, so I wiggled hers several times that evening too. Kate was surprising tenacious about trying to pull it out. She said "I just can't stand it in there anymore, I want it out." But after a oragel treatment and lots of tugging, she decided to wait... until Grandpa volunteered to give it a wiggle! And we all know Grandpa loves to pull teeth.

Sure enough they got it out and then came the tooth fairy.Kate woke up in the morning and said "Mom! I heard a sound in the night! It was fairy wings. And I saw them! There were three of them in pink and blue. They were tiny like a button and had sparkly wings and they had wands in their hands!"

I of course was amazed at how many details she could remember from a nighttime visit. When she questioned why they didn't take her tooth that she had hidden in the pocket of her sleeping bag I told her that it would have been a pretty big tooth for a fairy the size of a button!

She was thrilled with her dollar and excitedly spent it the next day on a Costco hotdog, after holding out 10 cents for tithing. Of course Bradley had to inform her about how dumb that was since Mom would have bought the hotdog anyway!

Firestation Fun

Bradley needed to visit a fire station in order to earn his Wolf rank in Cub Scouts. So he and Kate and I went to visit one after school one day. Bradley seemed in awe the whole time. He was pretty speechless, which is unlike him.

Kate liked seeing that the wheels of the firetruck were as tall as her.

I guess I shouldn't have enjoyed this scouting activity as much as I did, because a week later I got called to be Bradley's scout leader...can't wait to don the yellow shirt!

Boys and Basketballs

Bradley played his first season of basketball and Tyson played his first in 4 years. They had a great time. We lucked out having the same coach for both boys so all of our games were back to back. I must say, it is a very exciting sport and a WARM one at that! All went well except for the darting 2 year old onto the court. This would happen when Rick would volunteer to keep score the second game because he was tired of helping corrall the girls. Then Paige would get tired of being coaxed to stay on the bleachers and make dash for her dad accross the court-taking the direct route of course. To my dismay we spent many second halves in the hallway. Fun watching those buckets.

Bradley's team was undefeated! Way to go.

Thanks coach Goodwin.

Valentine's Day on the Slopes

Although we don't work for Boeing, we do enjoy their perks every once in a while. We went night skiing at Snoqualmie Pass for $10/each (normally $30). Luckily that's all we paid since we left early (a first for me) with dripping gloves and wet bottoms. That was an uncomfortable ride home! I guess I should expect to ski in rain living in Seattle, but I never had before. Miserable! That being said, the first two hours were perfect and it was well worth it. We had great company. Rebecca and her boys and my sister, hubby, and daughter. We also brought along another guy friend who put up with all of us and the kids. Maybe the propane fire will dry our soaking gloves.....no such luck!

Bradley chillin' on the lift after Tyson and Christian ended up on the one behind.

Happy Valentine's Day sweetie!