Read to your Child

In an effort to adopt/adhere to the "Read to your child" campaign we read stories to our kids every night before bed.

Tyler has taken it to a whole new level.

She is in a toddler bed and has pushed books inbetween the mattress and the bedframe up and around her shoulders. Not knowing what this or her shouts in the evening after we've left the room for another book were all about we decided to not question it.

I wish I could somehow record it, but the last couple of nights it has all became clear. Tyler used to sing until she was tired enough to sleep. She now reads books. After falling asleep I find a stack of books in the bed with her, and last night I could hear her reading the book to herself. She's got a great memory and as I listened from the stairwell she was telling the story of Strawberry Shortcake's Halloween Play very well.

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary

6 very busy and good years!

(Can't find a picture with just the 2 of us, always a kid in there somewhere)

Looking forward to many more...

(years that is)

Happy Birthday Daddy, John!

Happy Birthday to Daddy John who turned 35 this year. At his request, which I think he makes almost every year but to which I actually honored this year, there were no gifts. Just a lot of love and attention and a night in the mountains.

Our moth/butterfly catchers

We joined our friends the Thorton's at Denny Creek for a night of camping...They are seasoned family campers and are teaching us the ropes. extravagant camping that included fancy Noodles and cheese, cheese sandwiches, and smores.

Silly Faces

Girls found some "violins/fiddles" down by the creek
It was very cold but we survived even with Tate who was a bundle of energy, I was actually surprised at how well he did.

We love you Daddy!

Thanks for taking us camping, it was a great way to celebrate!

Evolution Painting

This is a picture of the house the day we came to look at it, before we bought a lil over 5 years ago.

Last Tuesday & Wednesday John took work off and painted the house. It's been sunny and hot everyday except the days he paints, then it rains. Luckily it wasn't enough to stop him, plus he's a fast worker!

We now have a green house-the trim is almost done and wouldn't it be just my luck to lose the battery charger to my camera-so guess you'll just have to wait for the finished product.

McKenna Special Photoshoot

When Tyler turned 2 she had a special photoshoot with our good friend and photographer, Leslie. McKenna has patiently waited for her turn and was so excited when I told her it was her special day with Leslie. My little girl looks like she is growing up way too fast, Leslie said it was her camera.

Funny thing about the cupcake-Tyler got a special Lollipop, so I made McKenna a special cupcake to take. I was told McKenna was a great little model doing all that was asked, but as soon as the cupcake was given and eaten, the smiles were over. McKenna is one smart cookie :)

Tate-9 mos

Tate you are SUCH a boy. Even at 9 months.


The other night as your dad was wrestling or rather tickling Tyler, you pounced him. Crawled right over and started pulling his hair.
With that in mind thought I'd do a list about the current
You:

• LOVE Your sisters-they make you laugh
• Love cars and watching the wheels move
• Sleep in the guest room cuz you like the room DARK-no night light for you
• Crazy fast crawler and already pulling yourself up to stand at anything you can, infact yesterday your dad caught you standing for just a second in the middle of the room
• One heck of a right hook
• Pull any piece of hair you can get your little grubby hands on, especially your sister's. Unconsciously pull your hair with your left hand when your just sitting there
• Put anything and everything you find on the ground/floor in your mouth
• Love your cheerios
• Not too fond of your high chair, will sit in it to eat reg finger foods, but prefer to have Mom hold you when eating baby food
• Still don't have any teeth but chew on everything like a puppy dog
• Any piece of paper you can get your hands on immediately goes in your mouth
• You're not very fond of crawling on the hard wood floor so you started crawling on your hands and feet also. it was pretty funny.

Thanks for taking such great pictures Leslie!

D-Day: Kindergarten

It's here, McKenna is starting Kindergarten. ALL day every Thursday and Friday and half day every other Wednesday. Weirdest schedule and it means a couple of long days but it does leave time for travel inbetween school days.

Yesterday McKenna had orientation where she was able to go in and meet her teacher Mrs Lundh and a couple of the kids in her class. I had to explain a few times before we went she didn't get to stay and school didn't start until today.

Mrs Lundh went over a few things with the kids including what was going to happen in the morning when they got to school and where they would put their stuff.

Last night we got out the new school clothes and laid out what she wanted to wear. Her Dad gave her the sweetest blessing which brought tears to my eyes and comfort to my troubled heart. When he was finished she jumped up and excitedly announced that she'd been baptised. (I didn't know she was already looking forward to that.)

This morning she got up and quickly got dressed. She didn't fuss or screan as I combed through her extremely too long hair getting the snarls out and she was too excited and nervous to touch her breakfast. She hardly drank any of her carnation instant breakfast which she usually downs in the 1st 5 minutes of being up.

We left at a quarter to 8 to walk down the street tothe bus stop and make sure we got there in time so we didn't miss the bus. We got there 10 minutes before it was scheduled to come.McKenna kept reassuring me that she was ok to ride the big bus with the big kids and that I couldn't come. (aka I'm nervous to be riding the bus alone but it will be ok). We met a couple of Moms Lisa and Mary Jo. they were really nice and told me how great the Maple Lawn and its principal are. Did you know that this year's Kindergartners are going to graduate in 2022?




As the bus pulled up you could see she was nervous but excitement still won out. She climbed on the bus and gave the bus driver a big hug and then one of the girls from the bus stop was nice enough to invite her to sit by her.

As the bus pulled away I wasn't the only one with tears in my eyes, One of the other mothers relived the moment sending her lil girl to Kindergarten last year.

She'll do fine and I'm really excited for her and anxious for her return. As is Tyler's, thank good ness Tate is here to distract us both.

Being at the school Yesterday I was reminded just how unready I am for her to go. I'm just so nervous, I'm not there to protect her or to show her what to do. I know this will be really good for both of us. I'm excited and scared by how much she will grow up.


Part 2-

So as you can see McKenna came off the bus running. She was still pretty happy but she was REALLY tired! She actually ran past me and then as soon as she stopped moving she started chattering about some boy at school and how she was asking him for space. It was all pretty funny. She was too big of a girl to ride the wagon home...at first that is until the road started to get steeper and then they were all about riding in the wagon.

Tyler missed her sister. She didn't cry but as soon as it was time to go I woke her up from her nap and she ran to the window calling out for Kenna and looking for her everywhere. She just couldn't get to the bus stop fast enough.

McKenna did a couple of projects at school and I think she had a good time. I think it was a good day for all!

Backpack Backpack, Backpack Backpack

Monday night as we said good-night to the girls (a lot of important conversations come out at this time) McKenna told me she wanted to take her money to the store and buy the Barbie Backpack for school.

Rewind: about a month ago the kids and I were at Fred Meyer to do some grocery shopping. They had just gotten out their stock of backpacks and so we went and looked at them and the prices. McKenna found a few backpacks she liked and then she saw it. A pink, shiny and jeweled backpack with a picture of Barbie on the front. I looked at the price and I knew she had a couple of backpacks at home and couldn't bring myself to buy it for her. She had just gotten her birthday card and Money from her Great-Grandma Harris and as we looked at it I mentioned this and told her if she saved her money maybe she could come back and buy it.

Fast Forward back to our conversation. I told her I'd look and see if the backpacks were on sale and she could get her money and we'd see what we could find. That night I saw that the backpacks were 60% off-school starting this week I'm sure they're eager to get them out of the store, but the chances of Barbie still being there was slim.

The next morning I showed her a few other backpacks and she saw one she liked (not Barbie) but bright with flowers and that night we all piled in the car and headed to the store. McKenna had her little red purse with her birthday money and some allowance in it, $11 total. While she was looking at shoes with her Dad I walked over to the Backpacks and there it was-the very same Barbie Backpack she'd fallen in love with a month ago-the only one left. I looked at the price and with 60% off it was exactly $10.

McKenna couldn't have been more thrilled, she took the backpack and gave it to the checker who rang it up to a total of $10.97 and then McKenna handed her $11 over. She was excited to get some money back and I could see the pride she felt by doing this all by herself. It was so cute.

Thank you Great Grandma & Grandpa Harris for this Wonderful Birthday gift.

Canada By Storm

My brother James has been in town for the last couple of weeks as he finished up banking school up at UW.

Thursday night James and John went and watched the SeaHawks play the Raiders in a pre-season game.

His Gorgeous wife Laura and their 6 month daughter Katelyn flew up for his Graduation Friday and then we jumped in the car andand did a whirlwind tour of Victoria & Vancouver. Being in seperate cars it felt like we didn't see them as much as I expected to but we had a great time with them!

Tate and Lil' Miss K were good friend right from the start-I think they'd just never seen another person as small as them so I caught them discussing it in the bedroom.

We drove to Sequim Friday night where we slept, got up and were on the road by 6 am to catch the 8:30 ferry to Victoria. We were all a little sleepy but that didn't slow the girls down, they loved running around the Ferry with their Dad. In Victoria we parted ways for a bit-the Payne's visited Hatley Castle-It was the home of James and Laura Dunsmuir and later turned into the Royal Roads Military Academy. It was a very interesting story the history of the castle-built like Extreme home Makeover where the pieces of it were flown in from around the world and done in 18 months. Not bad for a castle. We found there have actually been a lot a movies that have been filmed there as well.

The girls loved the beach, the very windy not so sandy beach and throwing rocks into the ocean. That night we went to the Butchart Gardens for their last night of fireworks for the season. It was a very fun night, well except for the part where we left our camera at Butchart and John had to drive the 30 minutes back to find it. Luckily some nice family turned it in. How do I know it was a family? They took their picture for us-see picture of random family in slide show.

Sunday morning we got up not so quite as early (thank goodness) and took another (Very nice) Ferry to Vancouver where we hung out at Stanley Park. That night we strolled looking for food and then topped it off with Ice Cream. It was another late night and so Monday morning we all slept in til 8 (a mother's dream) and to a wonderfully Yummy Breakfast-this was not your ordinary Continental Breakfast! I'm a big Fan of the Holiday Inn Express Chains. They took very good care of us!

Seattle was a bit rainy and we spent the morning around the Space Needle and jumping in puddles until we had to say good-bye to our beloved Aunt Laura, Uncles James (aka Norm, Mark-he answered to them all) and baby Katelyn. We loved spending time with them and look forward to seeing them again.

The Party Continues

When Aunt Laura came she brought along a few gifts from the Stephany crew. The girls LOVED the cards from their cousins Maddie and Keira and have carried them around for days.

The girls LOVED the cards their cousins Maddie and Keira made for them and have carried them around for days.

and the girls have worn their dresses a few times-so adorable!

Thank You!

For the love of Girlz

I love having lil girlz for the following reasons:

Playing Dolls, even better together

Dress up all year long!

Always ready for arts and crafts!

Free Frosting and taste testers!

and lots of Singing!!!!