Merry Christmas

Wow I can't believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve! Wishing you and your family a very Merry CHRISTmas & and safe and Happy New Year!

Surprise!

 Pat actually kept a secret! BIG SHOCK! He can never keep a secret!

 Not a cute picture! I think I had one to many glasses of wine at this point!

Goofy Girls

What a wonderful evening. My sweet hubby and my three best girl-friends threw me a surprise dinner party! It was such a wonderful evening. And, crazy that Pat actually kept it a secret. Though I was suspicious that something was going on because he was acting very weird. 

I can't believe that in 10 days I will be 30! YIKES! The 20's were great! So here's hoping that 30 will be even better!

Give the kids a Canvas and let them create! (It doesn't need to be fancy!)

This week I bought a file cabinet. Presley played all afternoon inside the box while I organized piles, and piles of papers! When Ethan got home from school I asked them if they wanted to paint the outside of the box. They were so excited. My kids love art and they love projects.  We sat down and they each painted a side of the box. Even I painted a side of the box! It so funny but this box provided hours of entertainment for my kids and they were so proud to show Daddy when he got home what they had made.

You don't need special supplies, just a box and acrylic paint and maybe a bed sheet to cover the ground! Grubby clothes would be good too!

Another Fall Photo

My Friend Jenni took this picture of our family at the Pumpkin Patch! I thought about using it for our Christmas card, but that would be weird since it's a Halloween picture! I thought it was a really good picture of our family! So back now to the drawing board to find the perfect picture for our Christmas card this year!

Taking care of Pets!

Taking care of Pets can be alot of work! I usually try to take Harrison in and have groomed 1-2 a month, and a couple times a month I also give him a bath at home! Today he got into some mud in the backyard so Presley said, "Mom let's give Harry a bath!"  So we did. She has taken on many responsibilities of having a dog. Presley loves animals! 
So now we have a clean, good smelling dog! Wonder how long that will last? And Presley was able to help out and give Harry a bath, blow dry him and then brush him!

Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday Presley had a field trip at one of the local pumpkin patches! It turned out to be a gorgeous day! Pat worked from home so he was able to attend too, which was really fun for Presley! Hay-Rides, Corn-maze, playing in a room filled with tons of corn kernels, and feeding the animals were many of the high-lights of the afternoon! Sure wish brother could have been there with us!:(  He has a birthday party to go to tomorrow at a different pumpkin patch so look for pictures of that soon!

My girl-friend send me this picture that she took of our family on a camping trip this summer! What a wonderful camping trip it was! Though we are alittle dirty we sure did have a great time! The kids love camping and being out doors! We will definitely go back to Cape Disappointment next year!

First Day of School

Both kids are back in School now. Ethan has been in for about 2 weeks and Presley just started yesterday!  They both are so excited to be back and to be learning! They are little sponges at these ages and so excited to learn (hopefully they will always have this enthusiasm!)

Ethan is currently in a Pre-First program! He attends school M-F all day! The first week was a little tough on him! But this week seems to be going more smoothly!
Presley is in her second year of Pre-School. She goes Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday for 2-1/2 hours. She loves doing show and Tell and wants everyday to be her snack day!

We are lucky that each one of them got really good teachers! It's going to be a great school year! And I look forward to seeing the changes that Ethan and Presley make.

Happy 6th Birthday Ethan

Wow, hard to believe that Ethan is 6 years old today!  Time sure does fly! We had a wonderful day!  I took the kids down to Seattle to the Pacific Science Center. They spent a few hours playing and looking at exhibits, we then went and watch the Hubble Imax 3D! It was pretty cool!
Lunch was at the Center House! The kids insisted we eat there! We then headed back home and finished off Ethan's cake!  It turned out okay, I am not a cake maker!:)  Ethan was soooo excited about all his new Star Wars Stuff!!!!

Pat's Catch

Pat has went out crabbing the past couple of weekends and had great success! He left again at 5:30 this morning to do some more! I think he might be hooked! When I talked with him about an hour ago he had about four more! Here is to lots of fresh seafood!

Beans & Tomatoes!

Happy Friday! It's been a wonderful day. My girl-friend and I took the kiddos up to GreenLake for the day, the kids played in the kiddie pool and we had lunch and ice-cream there! I was so excited when I checked the garden, look at all the goodies I got this evening. Headed out here soon to have dinner at a friends. I think I will make some Garlic Green beans to take with me! Pat and our friend Michael left after work to check their crab-pots! Hopefully they caught some and we will have crab, steak, veggies & some wine for dinner! Sounds like a perfect Friday night!

We got Corn Folks!

Finally the good weather is back! Our garden could sure use the sun! Especially to ripen all those green tomatoes! Our corn is now taller than both Pat and I! Out of the 12 stalks three of them so far have corn growing! Hopefully we will get a couple more! But I am excited to also use the stalks after harvest for Halloween/Fall decorations!:)
The pole beans are huge! Everyday we go out and pick some. The kids love eating them raw and I never have any to saute at night! Oh well I shouldn't complain. They are eating their veggies!
And this is the first year we have done Walla Walla Sweet onions! They are almost all the way out of the ground! They are medium sized. I thought they would be a bit bigger, maybe we didn't plants the seed far enough in the ground!

We sure are enjoying all the yummy veggies!

It's Sea Fair Time

Believe it or not when I was a little girl I wanted to fly jet planes! Not a Blue Angel Plane but a F-14 TomCat! ( I think I might have been inspired after watching Top Gun at a young age!) So every year when SeaFair comes around I am giddy to go and watch the planes. It is such a thrill! The kids enjoyed it though I think it will take them a few years to really get into it! If not it's still nice to go and watch and have a picnic! My camera has been acting up again! (not happy about that! I think it might have got sand in the lens from last weeks trip to Alki. So I had to use the manual functions. Which is really hard to do when the planes are breaking the sound barrier!) Anyways it was a great afternoon spent with my dad and my kids!

Celebration Weekend

Wow what an amazing weekend with the family celebrating my mom's retirement from the bank. 44 years of banking and she has finally retired! Hopefully for good this time!
We surprised my mom and dad with a weekend away with the whole family (well minus one, Chad my brother in law wasn't able to make it because he was harvesting corn)

We started off Saturday afternoon with a trip to Gig Harbor we had a wonderful lunch at Anthony's and shopping downtown. We then headed out to Grape View. My best friend has a Cabin out on the Hood Canal! My mom was very surprised with our destination. We spent Sunday and Monday playing down by the water, finding shells and sea creatures! It was so nice to not have any distractions and to be able to spend quality family time!

Gerspacher Cabin

Pat & Presley at Tsillian Winery in Chelan! If you haven't been to this place I highly recommend it! It has amazing food, outdoor seating in the Summer and every Saturday they have a different band playing! You feel like you are almost in Italy when you are there!

Pat's parents came for a few days! Ethan, Pat and Grandma G played goldfish daily! Ethan is really good at any card games! I need to take this kid to Vegas!:)

Presley in Chelan having yummy Maui Sorbet Ice-cream!

Water balloon fight were had

Presley brought her little mermaid dress up dress and I think she had it on half the time we were there!

Many hours were spent at the pool these last 8 days! One day I think we were there for 6 hours straight! My kids might have grown gills!

Presley really enjoys back floating

Ethan and Presley racing from one end to the other! It was so nice having their life vest that we could be in the water with them but also let them have some freedom!




Wow what a great vacation! We spent 8 wonderful days at the Gerspacher Cabin! Every day was spent at the pool, many hours of relaxing! Visiting with Grandpa & Grandma G. We had our good friends the "Bailly's" come and stay with us for 3 days! There was never a dull moment! Water balloon fights, trips to Chelan (not as many as we usually do!) weather in the 90's almost everyday and much, much more!