A new member of our family...

Meet the newest member of our family... Ernie!Ernie was an early gift from Santa. He is 8 weeks old and the cutest little Corgi ever!

Happy Halloween!

Ready to trick or treat!
Scary Vampire...

My 3 sweet (most of the time) kids!

Sandy and Rizzo (aka Claire and Anna)

I love the look on her face...

My "Meowmee"

Wouldn't you run if you saw this face??

Anna's favorite thing in the world is ANIMALS! Every kind, shape and size...
She calls cats "meowme's" and dogs "foofs"!
Her favorite "meowme" is our kitty "Buddy". She can't walk past him without mauling him and giving him all kinds of kisses.

He is usually patient and will put up with a little bit of Anna- but typically gets up and runs away within minutes of Anna screaming "MEOWMEE"!!

A little fishin' fun!

How do you keep 3 kids quiet, calm and still for a period of time?
You DON'T take them fishing!

Garrett has been asking to go fishing for a while. So we decided to give it a try and make it a family outing!

Well, FUN it was for the kids. Productive, it was NOT!

We didn't catch any fish, but the kids had fun climbing, exploring and playing with worms!

In all, Garrett got what he wanted, and the girls got to experience what we decided should be a boy trip- FISHING!

Dragon season!

My soccer star is back... here is Claire at her finest, playing soccer!

Once again, I think the real reason she plays is for the treats at the end! But she does a great job running, kicking and most of all having fun.
Her team is the DRAGONS... sound familiar? Yep, Garrett is really disgusted that Claire's team is also the dragons! When the coach asked the kids what they should be called, Claire immediately called out "The Dragons"! The rest of the kids full heartly agreed and the decision was made that they would be the Dragons:)
I won't have to be confused who to root for...
GO DRAGONS!!

Go BSU and the Dragons!

Football season is in the air! Every where you turn you see crazy BSU football fans...hats, bright orange shirts, flags, etc. I am definately a BSU fan- I will root for my alma matter in good times and bad. But I am a bigger Dragon fan!

What is a DRAGON, you may say? The Dragons are little (big in their mind) 7 and 8 year olds who play Flag football.

Yep, my Garrett is a big DRAGON football player!

He decided he didn't like soccer because there was "too much running", so he decided to try Flag football (I giggle inside, because I am sure there is just as much running as soccer). His first game was a Jamboree at BSU stadium. He was so excited to play on the "smurf turf", but we soon realized only the "real" football players get to play there- we played on the practice field near the stadium. Oh well! The Dragons still did great and most of all had fun!

Happy 2nd Birthday to my baby!

Two years ago today, I gave birth to my baby Anna! What an experience! It was by far my very BEST labor and delivery... every thing I hoped and wished for in a labor! It was planned (I was induced because my doctor was moving to Australia:)), my mom was there and last but not least I got an epidural!!

I arrived at the hospital around 7am and checked in. They immediately started an IV and started me on some pitocin. My doctor arrived and called the epidural guy in- he immediately started an epidural and everything went numb! Hallelujah- that is everything I wanted!! After giving birth to 2 children with no drugs, I knew what it was like and wanted no part of the it!! The only exciting part of the entire labor was when my blood pressure dropped and they came rushing in to give me some medicine to fix it... I was out of it and don't really remember it (I guess that was part of the problem!!)

Anna was born at 4:00. She was the longest labor- but if I had to do it again- I would do it that way again, and again! Sometimes I wish I could go back to redeliver my other kids having the epidural!! I sat up in bed, watched TV and talked and laughed with my family. She was 8 pounds 15 ounces- not a small baby!!

While in labor- I had the best nurse! I wanted to take her home with me. We all took bets on how big the baby would be- the nurse guessed 8.5 pounds- I thought she was crazy! (I wanted her to be wrong!!) I was not interested in delivering that big of a baby- I was wrong and she was right!! I delivered my biggest baby- a baby girl named Anna Loraine.

Now, here she is! She is now 2 and acts just like a 2 year old should act! She is beautiful, happy, and so sweet! She loves her "sissy", babies, all animals and doing everything her big brother and sister are doing. She doesn't like being left alone or being told no! Anna is the third child- which I believe has the "Kacy" syndrome- not talking! Anna can say about 10 words (mommy, daddy, nana, papa, sissy, bubby, meowmeow, woof, Anna, Isome, Isit, bite, see, me, mine, nightnight, byebye, hi). She does know some sign language, but only uses it when she wants!!

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby! I love you!

Back to School time....

It is that time of year again... BACK TO SCHOOL! After a very fun but short summer, it is time to hit the books! I am super excited for school this year- Garrett is in the 2nd grade (the grade I taught for 9 years and LOVED) and Claire will be in my school this year in Kindergarten!! Both of them have wonderful teachers (hand picked, of course :) )!!

Garrett is loving school and is really looking forward to checking out 2 books (instead of 1) in the library this year! It is the little things in life that makes a 7 year old happy!

Claire is going to school all day, everyother day! She wishes that she could go to school every day- but will settle for just about anything! I am sure the teachers are struggling more than the kids:)

Claire getting ready to say "good-bye" to her mom and dad!

Claire and her new kinder friend!

We are off to a great start! I am so proud of my kids and what they are about to become!

Our annual trip to Seattle...

Here we are again- the end of the summer and home from Seattle! We had a fabulous time, and already talking about next year! I think that is a sign of a great trip! Seattle is where my heart is...I live in Idaho, but absolutely LOVE Seattle. No, I don't think I could go back to live, but definitely visit! I decided to make a top 10 list of the things I love about visiting Seattle...

10. The restaurants! There are places to eat in Idaho- but not near the amount of GREAT ones!

9. Taco Time- Yep- it deserves one all by itself... I ate Taco Time 3 times while visiting!

8. The Woodland Park Zoo- that is amazing!! It is a little like Disneyland- it could take you 3 days to do the whole thing!

7. The Beaches... the amount of water from oceans, lakes, bays, rivers is endless! I love it!

6. The professional sports teams...Marniers, Seahawks, Sounders- they have it all (or almost all!)

5.The Shopping...it is amazing!

4.Issaquah... truly where my heart is! When I go to Issaquah, I am filled with emotions- ones I can't describe. Sometimes it brings tears to my eyes. I just love that quaint little (well it once was little) town!

3. The weather...I can say that because I don't live there- but a sunny day in Seattle is the prettiest site ever! I could even stand the rain for a while to experience a sunny day in Seattle!

2. The Trees- they are everywhere and everything is GREEN! Brown is not an option!

1. My friends and family- Seattle wouldn't be anything without my wonderful high school friends and my family that lives there! They truly make Seattle everything I love! Every year, my high school friends go to dinner- we have a wonderful time and it makes me look forward to the next! I love you all!

hAppY BiRtHdAy AMERICA!

Happy Birthday to the best nation ever! We are so proud to live in freedom- and give thanks to everyone who fights for it! This 4th of July weekend was a hard one for us. Anna was sick the entire weekend, so it made it hard for us to do anything fun! She had hand, foot and mouth disease. It sounds weird- but honestly it was HORRIBLE! The doctor said she would have 4 bad days- he needs to change his wording to 4 HORRIBLE days! She ran a high fever, wouldn't eat, sleep or stop crying! It was not fun! But to say the least, we did get to watch some cool fireworks and have a yummy BBQ at Rich and Sherry's house. Next year will be much better!

Claire's graduation

The best preschool teachers anyone could ask for!

All Claire cared about was her flowers!

Claire and her mini me!

Claire graduated from preschool on Wednesday. They had a fun little ceremony where they sang some songs, then they presented their diplomas to them by announcing what the preschoolers thought made them special. It was really cute! Then they got to eat pizza and play at Pojo's! What a great way to end preschool and start kindergarten! I do have to say that Claire had the best preschool teachers ever! She is more than ready for kindergarten- and I am ready for her to be at my school. I can't wait to see her shining smile walking down the hall or the look on her face when she is learning how to read!

Last day of school...

The last day of school for Garrett was May 29... He was so excited to have summer, but is going to miss his friends. This is the part of taking the kids to my school instead of their neighborhood school. Although he has lots of friends at school, it is harder to have play dates with them since we live so far away. But in all, he had a great school year, learned a lot, had fun and became a fantastic reader. He even got a perfect attendance award! This was not because we tried... it just happened! Some kids really strive for this and get really down when they are sick or have to miss a day- I can honestly say, we didn't TRY- we just had a healthy year! Now onto 2nd grade! I think I am more excited than him!

Congrats Kiera!

Congrats Kiera!

My favorite pic of Claire and Kiera!

The baby camel I wanted to take home... I am sure no one would notice!

Claire and her new best friend, Megan!

Claire and I went to Oregon to my niece's graduation. We had so much fun with my brother and his family. We went to a cool "drive thru" zoo, went to a movie, went bowling and went to Kiera's high school graduation. It was such a nice relaxing trip with just one child! I don't know why people have more than one!:) My other niece, Megan, was so nice to Claire the entire time! She played, slept and ate with her- I don't think Megan left Claire's sight! It was pretty cute- but I am sure Megan got tired of her new attachment. In all, we had a great time, and we are so very proud of Kiera!

a little girl time...

Having a little popcorn during Hannah Montana

This weekend the boys went up to the hills to go camping, fishing, hunting- you name it- BOY things! So the girls stayed home and did GIRL things! First we went to the park to feed the ducks- there weren't any ducks, so we went to the dentist's office on a little creek where there are TONS of ducks! Then we went shopping for some new dresses (what is a girls weekend without shopping??). My neice is graduating from high school, so of course a girl needs a new dress! After shopping, we went to dinner! Claire wanted to sit outside for dinner, so she picked Smokey Mountain pizza. We ended our night by a little polish party (toenails only) and a Hannah Montana movie! We had a great girls night- we hope the boys want to have boy time again SOON!