Happy Birthday Daddy!

It was Dave's birthday yesterday...poor guy, I don't think he had a whole lot of fun after just having knee surgery the day before. He was a great sport though for the girls sake! They of course had the best time! Carolyn was kind enough to make dinner and have the "birthday party" at our house so I didn't have to do much of anything which was so helpful. We ate dinner, opened gifts, ate dessert and then everyone in my family was asleep by 8:05. Not too exciting...I am really glad we went to the ocean as part of his birthday or I would have felt really horrible!

After the kids and I got home I came in to check on my patient and this is what I found!

The girls helping Daddy open gifts!

Birthday Dessert!

Dave is recovering nicely from his surgery and is hoping to hobble to work on Thursday. He has to do interviews for the middle school at the end of the day so he will go in for sure at that time- and then his only other commitment is the Prom on Saturday- guess who he asked to go? Yep! Yours truly! I asked him if I could buy a new dress? I haven't gotten a response on that one yet!











Have a great day!

Ocean Shores

We just got back from a weekend get-away to the Ocean! Actually, the girls and I took Dave (and his mom and Jerry) for his birthday. We will still celebrate on his actual birthday but he is having knee surgery tomorrow morning and I know he won't be feeling very festive on Tuesday. This way the girls got to celebrate with him in full force!

We were up and out the door by 9 a.m. on Saturday and arrived to rain, wind and the COLD. We were really hoping for some nicer weather so that we could hang out on the beach before we checked into our hotel room. WRONG. The weather just wasn't cooperating! We ended up eating our picnic lunch in our car and then went through the shops until our room was ready. Once we got to the hotel, the girls wanted to swim and we spent a lot of time in the pool with them. We spent the early afternoon going through more shops, playing arcade games and eating ice cream. Our evening was spent having a great dinner, going swimming again and then after the girls went to bed the adults played cards.

This picture makes me laugh! We are all jammed into our car eating lunch!


Taylor is literally running as fast as she can to get back to the car- it's raining and windy!

The girls and their daddy at the pool!



Maddie insisted upon wearing her life vest into the stores....

Yummy! Ice cream!

We woke up on Sunday morning to sun! After eating a quick breakfast we went to the pool again and we convinced the girls to cut their time short so that we could go to the beach before we had to leave (the girls had to go to a friend's b-day party in the afternoon in Olympia). Talk about a turn around in weather! No wind and sunny! The girls had a blast watching people clam dig, jump in the water and run all over the place!

Taylor enjoying the sun and the water!


Maddie girl fell down in the water so off came the pants!

This is one of my favorites...it makes me tear up. Taylor and her daddy. One of only many reasons I married him- a great dad!


The Myers family~ the best we could do~ nobody wants to smile at the same time!

The girls are exhausted (and so are mom and dad!) but we had a great time!

Boston Harbor Pictures

I had to share some beautiful pictures that Tracy took up in a helicopter yesterday of Boston Harbor! He needed a camera to borrow and so we were lucky enough to get all the pictures! As most of you know, since moving out to Boston Harbor I have felt so very fortunate but having these pictures in hand makes me realize what a truly special place this is! Enjoy!

My favorite!

Breathtaking!

The Harbor!

Our House!

The seals! Tracy said that they must have been feeding off of something because he thought he saw probably over a 100 seals!

Kindergarten Registration

Oh My! How is it possible that our sweet little baby girl is headed to Kindergarten in the fall? As I was filling out all the paperwork I had lots of memories running through my head...her first birthday party, eating cat throw up under the table (it's true!), playing with spices and flour on the kitchen floor, I could go on and on.... I am SO excited for her to start school and for all her new adventures that will take place during this next step in her life! She too is excited! She didn't quite get the concept that you sign up and then start in the fall. She had a 30 minute meltdown about the fact that she couldn't start school the very next day! As she was sobbing, she was shouting "Mom, Mom, I just need to start my learnin!" I love this girl!

Easter (A little late!)

We had a wonderful Easter! Maddie stole the show in my opinion this year- she was at the perfect age to be excited about everything! She woke up at 6:15 a.m. to use the bathroom and as she was going a little light bulb went off in her head..."Mom, did the bunny come?" "I don't know" "I need to check" "Okay"....She promptly goes out to the living room- "Mom, where is my basket?" "I don't know" "Him's was hungry- he ate all the lettuce" "Where is my basket?" And my favorite..."Mom, look, him's left him's tail on the ground!....I need to get my sister" (the bunny left parts of his cotton tail as a trail to help the girls find their baskets) and then she promptly ran in and woke Taylor up! By 6:30 a.m. the girls had found their baskets and were very busy eating candy and playing!

We headed to Dave's mom's for Easter brunch which was DELICIOUS! I think I ate 3 (ok maybe 4) sticky buns. YUM! Then, we headed to Everett in the afternoon for Easter dinner. The whole family was at Connie's house and it was so great to see everyone! The girls had fun finding Easter eggs that Connie and my mom had hidden all over the house for them!

So cute! Maddie, John, Taylor and Emilie!

Pre-Easter Festivities

This evening we had Dave's sister, Mindy and her family over for Easter egg dying and homemade pizza. This has become a tradition over the last 3 years or so and one that I always look forward to! Taylor and Maddie really enjoyed dying the eggs this year (which by the way, are now ALL cracked!) and also had fun putting as many stickers as they could on them after they had dried! I do love how excited they get about these little things and I hope this lasts for their life time! If they are anything like me, then I am hopeful! Dave can always get me out of bed in the morning in a heartbeat if he says that it's snowed outside :) After everyone had left, the girls argued (oh yes, it's true...) about where their baskets should go so that the bunny could find them and then we of course had to put carrots and lettuce out for him! And just like that they were in bed and asleep! We are looking forward to a fun day tomorrow with both of our families. We will have brunch at Carolyn's in the morning with Jerry and his family and then we will head to Everett for the afternoon and have dinner at Connie's with my family. We are celebrating my Grandpa's successful completion of radiation as well! Happy Easter!

Taylor is officially avoiding the camera! Hence the reason you can't see her face in very many pictures lately!

Now you know why all the eggs are cracked :)

Maddie, Kitrick, Abbey and Taylor

Aren't these beautiful?

Our sweet girls...ready for the Easter Bunny to come and visit!

Spring Break~ Day 5~ Last one...boohoo :(

The girls and I spent the majority of our last day of spring break running errands together. They were troopers! We had to drop things off at the Goodwill, mail a package, get a pair of my jeans taken in to be turned into capri pants, go to the grocery store and then to the dollar store (I had to get some prizes for school). We split up the errands by doing half in the a.m. and then we took a break and went out to Yelm to eat lunch with Dave. The girls love his office because it has yummy lollipops in it so they were very excited to go and see him. It was a busy work day for him and we only stayed for a little bit before he had to go and discipline some more kids :) After lunch we finished up our errands. We spent the rest of our evening just hanging out together. The girls are asleep and I am about to go and pop some popcorn for Dave and I and we are going to watch the season finale of Friday Night Lights! My kind of Friday! I will be back soon to post Easter pictures I am sure but if I don't see you this weekend, I wish you all a wonderful Easter!

Daddy and his girls!

Spring Break~ Day 4!

Today was our catch up day at the house! More laundry, picking up and our big job was cleaning out our closets- taking our winter clothes out and putting our spring ones in. The job is almost done but we need to finish up in Maddie's closet tomorrow morning. I didn't take any pictures today but did want to share some funny stories with you. First, Maddie was jumping on the couch and then sitting on top of the pillow cushions, both of which she knows I don't let her do but she informed me that "my daddy ALWAYS lets me do this" and I said " I know, I must be the biggest, meanest mom ever" and she replied: "You aren't that big!" I had to laugh at that one. I'm not big, just mean :) Taylor has been obsessing over Hannah Montana the last two days. I don't know why because I do not let her watch the show (even though she begs me every day!). She bought a Hannah Montana microphone yesterday and since then Dave and I have been informed that we can call her by one of her three names....Taylor, Tay or Hannah Montana. She also let us know that she prefers the third name. She is telling everyone who will listen that her name is now Hannah Montana. She cracks me up! Below you will find a picture she drew today of Hannah Montana. Pretty cute!

I am bummed by the scan (and obviously do not know how to work it!) because you can't see her feet. She has 4 huge toes....something Taylor hasn't ever added to any of her "people" pictures. Oh, well!

Spring Break~ Day 3!

I can't believe day 3 of break is over...time is going by way too quickly! Monday is going to be right around the corner...ugh, ugh, ugh! Only a few more months right? I can do it! We had a quiet day today which was nice. We haven't gotten to lounge in our jammies yet so today was our day. In the early afternoon, two of my co-workers came by for lunch and to see the house. They had seen it at the end of the school year last year and hadn't seen it yet with all the "stuff" in it. It was nice to visit with them outside of school. After they left, the girls and I headed out to run some errands. We spent a lot of time at Target because Grandma Oh-Oh and Grandpa Woof Woof had sent them each $10 for Easter. Normally the girls have to hand their money over to Dave and I and we put it into their savings account but today the girls and I decided it would be okay for them to actually spend the money. Maddie picked out her toy (a barbie that came with a couch, laptop and a drink) in 30 seconds. Taylor however spent at least 45 minutes deciding on her toy. She ended up with a Hannah Montana microphone and a little dog. Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Sieck! Other than that, not much else went on in our household! Dave had to work late and just got home. We are doing laundry tomorrow and cleaning out the closets and putting our spring clothes in them. Should be a great time :)

This was the only picture I took today. It was a big deal to the girls! Taylor has decided to have her booster in the 3rd row of the car and Maddie has changed her car seat over into Taylor's old spot. They were thrilled by the change...I am still getting used to it- I have to climb over to buckle in Taylor.

Spring Break~ Day 2!

Today was another absolutely beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest and we decided to take full advantage of the weather because I know it's going to change back to the rain sooner than later! We were in the car by 8:30 and at our friends house by 9 to head up to the Point Defiance Zoo! We had an absolute blast! We were at the gates by the time it opened so it was not crowded at all which was really nice. The girls were troopers and walked around the majority of the zoo. Taylor's favorite animal this visit were the elephants, Maddie's favorite were the Polar Bears and mine was the Beluga whale! The whale kept swimming right by the glass and the girls thought this was fantastic! Another great day! I will leave you with too many pictures but it sums up our very fun day!

The girls first spotted 2 peacocks walking about- they were very excited about this and tiptoed over to check things out!


You gotta love the monkey's!

My favorite pictures are this one and the next one. The girls were fascinated by the whale.

Another of my favorites. Maddie was trying to "touch" the whale!

Taylor letting loose at lunch!



Maddie in the kids zone enjoying the swing sets and climbing area.

Maddie feeding the goats. Taylor put food in her hand but wouldn't feed them. go figure.

The highlight of the trip- the carousel. My girlfriend and I almost fainted when we noticed it was free! You have to love that!

Spring Break~ Day 1

What a fun and sunny day the girls and I had today! As soon as the girls got up and had eaten breakfast they headed outside to play! They stayed outside for the majority of the day and as a result are exhausted and in bed! We had our friends Krista, Kaylin and Macie over today for a play date at the marina. All the kids had fun eating lunch in the sun and then playing in the sand and water. We had to pry them away from the beach after 3 hours (Macie had to take a nap)! After we got back the kids wanted to run in the sprinkler (remember, it's April 6) and had a good ole' time doing that. Lots of swing set time, riding bikes and just hanging out together was also done today. A fabulous start to our spring break together! Here are some pictures I took of our adventures today!

Taylor was highly irritated with me in this picture because I had already taken her picture 3 or 4 times this a.m.! This is Taylor's morning request from me for her breakfast...a smile face!

Maddie, Taylor, Kaylin and Macie enjoying lunch at the marina!

Maddie girl in the SAND!! Yes, I think she might actually LIKE the sand this year!! Whoohoo!!

Taylor and Kaylin searching for shells in the water.

Maddie girl and I! Taylor was DONE with pictures at this point!

One Spring Break Over, One Just Beginning!

I am sitting here typing this update and am so thankful that I don't have to go to work tomorrow! My first day of spring break....woohoo!! Unfortunately, Dave's break is officially over. For the past few years Yelm schools and Thurston schools have never had the same break. It is nice for the girls because they get to be home with both of us and not go to daycare for 2 weeks but it would be much more fun if we had it all together! Dave was super daddy this week! He took the girls to the movies, out to lunch, played anything and everything they wanted to and managed to put together a swing set! It took him a week to put the swing set together but it was worth it once we saw the girls excitement over it being done. He didn't finish it until yesterday around 8:30 p.m. and we had to pry the kids off of it to come inside to go to bed. They spent the entire day today out in the back yard playing on the swing set and with the neighbor boys.

The finished product! As you can see, we have a little more work to do...wood chips and a border! But the girls are happy!

I am so excited that it is going to be sunny for a few days on my break. We don't have big plans to do anything but I am going to try and post a few pictures each day from our break. I think we are headed to the marina for lunch and some sand play with our friends tomorrow. Should be fun!