Sunday, April 29, 2007

Happy #16

This past Friday was our 16th wedding anniversary. To start off the celebration Brian sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers. The flowers would have been enough but we also had a fun day planned for Saturday. We started off Saturday morning by going to breakfast, just me and Brian. We decided to try Sunset cafe in Auburn. We heard that they served a great breakfast and we had never been there before. Next we picked up Austin and went to his soccer game. It was a fun game to watch and his team won 7 to 2. A friend took Austin home from the game and Brian and I headed out to Bellevue to do some shopping at the wonderful Bellevue Square mall. We definately had our fun spending a little too much money. To end the wonderful day we went to dinner at Palisade's, which is on Elliot Bay. It has a great view of downtown Seattle, the Space Needle and the water. The food was fantastic the service was great and best of all I got to spend the whole day with Brian.

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband! These past 16 years have flown by. I still remember being poor college students, living on $800 a month in a cinder block apartment with a kitchen the size of a small bathroom. I think our bathroom was bigger then our kitchen. Oh the memories! I can't wait to see what life has in store for us over the next 16 years!


I had a really great picture of Brian and I at dinner- but I somehow deleted it. These darn computers.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

"Just" Girls

Austin is playing on the Synergy competition soccer team this year and the coaches decided to start off the year by having them scrimmage against the Synergy girls team. When Austin heard that his team was playing against a girl team he said , "They are just girls, we will beat them easily". The girls team has been together for a few years and I believe were undefeated last year. This is the first time that Austin's team has played together and they have had only one practice with half the team there. I told Austin that girls can be just as good as boys and even better. He said, "no way we are going to kick their b----!"

The boys did play a great game but the girls ended up winning 5 to 3. You could see as the boys walked off the field that their egos were crushed. I even heard a few comments about cheating. As if girls could not win a soccer game against boys unless they cheated. I think it was a good eye operner for the boys and really showed them how good the players are now that they are playing competition soccer. Two of the girls are in Austin's class at school so we'll see how that goes tomorrow at school. Austin may be getting some grief from them.

This was a forced smile after the game was over.

Some of the girls were very tall on the other team.

Austin playing on his rec. soccer team.


Austin and one of his best friends Mar'yea.




Friday, April 20, 2007

The Colinator

This blog is dedicated to our Colinator (nickname that Austin gave Colin). Many of you may know that food is high priority on Colin's list. This is the kid who minutes after eating any meal is asking for a snack. Of course he doesn't want a healthy snack either. Well, Friday's are known at our house as "sugar day" because that is the one day of the week that the kids can have sugar cereal for breakfast. This, of course, is Colin's favorite day of the week. Every morning first thing, and I mean first thing, like 6:00a.m. he is asking if it's "sugar day". When I reply "no" we then get into the pouting, whining....you get my idea.

What brought this whole experience to my mind was this past Thurs. night when Brian got home from work, Colin in a very excited voice said: "Dad, it's sugar day tomorrow!" He was so excited to let Brian know, it was the cutest thing. It sounded like he had just won the lottery or something. Oh, if it was always so easy to make our kids happy!

Monday, April 16, 2007

Family Fun Day

Last Friday we went up to the Tulip Festival in Skagit County which is 60 miles north of Seattle. Acres and acres of tulips are grown here and are in bloom the month of April. It was fun to spend the day with the family and enjoy the beautiful outdoors. We were a little bit wary of going up because of the weather but luckily we did not get rained on. The kids did great in the car, no fighting (believe me that is a miracle in itself)! Of course it helps when 3 of them fall asleep.

When we told Austin we were going to the tulip festival his first comment was that it was going to be boring just walking around looking at flowers, but he ended up having a great time and that night before bed he told Brian that he had a really great day. Yeah! Let me tell you-it is hard to impress a 10 year old boy.

Minature water wheel at Tulip Town, USA.


For those of you who have not come to visit us in Seattle, look what you are missing out on!

Rylie and mom


Colin, Rylie, Jackie and Austin. Orange was Colin's favorite color of tulip.





One of the highlights for the kids was the tractor ride around the tulip fields.


Sienna all bundled up.


Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Latest Update

Since we are new to this whole blogger phenomenom we wanted to share a few fun events we have had recently.

Even though Sienna's birthday was almost a month ago we wanted to share some of the pictures of her birthday party with everyone (especially the Grandparents). We invited some friends over for cake and ice cream to help celebrate her first birthday. It was a great party even though Sienna did not know what was going on, but we got some great pictures.

Birthday Girl

Sienna liked the frosting a lot more than she liked the cake.

The funest part was playing with the paper.

Lakeland Hills does an annual Easter egg hunt for the kids every year. This is our third year going and the kids have a great time.

Sienna was in no hurry to get those eggs. Maybe next year.


Austin prepping Colin on the best way to get the most eggs.

Rylie and Rachel all ready to go hunting for eggs.

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Gotta Start Somewhere

I've read a few blogs but never thought that someday I'd be writing one myself. But, as we've been reading blogs from our friends we realized what a great tool this is to stay in touch with family and friends.

There seem to be a lot of firsts that we have to go through. Our first bath, steps, birthday, crush, kiss, failure, etc. Some are definitely more pleasant than others. We wish we could forget some and relive others. Some, ...well, some are so special that we reserve a special place in the deepest part of our memories and have a direct link to them to bask in those moments. For me, the type of memories I have stored away are ones like my first diving grab at second base, the first time I was in the tube of a wave, the first time I saw Jackie, the birth of my children, etc.

My hope in the first attempt at a family blog is to register those firsts - good, bad and funny.

Today there was one such first that was really a joy. We were out front talking with our neighbors and doing some yard work and Jackie set Sienna down in the grass. Her face instantly lit up! She twirled her little feet around in the grass enjoying the new sensation while at the same time her hands roamed to blades of grass, grabbing and pulling at the source of a new sensation. But the joy was short lived as Jackie realized that we had just fertilized the lawn and she shouldn't be on it.

Jackie picked her up and Sienna instantly let us know of her unhappiness by giving out a whine. But Jackie, ever the uber mom and thinking quickly on her feet, walks over to our neighbor's lawn and set her down.

Oh the Joy! The sweet wonderful elation! Back on all fours in the nervanah, which is grass and rocks and bugs. The beautiful simple smile and satisfaction.

See, the beauty of our memories is the ability to retain these firsts and relive them when we choose. Now, writing this blog I've been able to relive this moment over and over again and share one of the simple sweet joys that I find each and every day or at least I try to find.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this - my first blog.