Leavenworth and the Movies....

I forgot to mention that on our way to Crescent Bar that we met my mom in Leavenworth. We had so much fun eating lunch at Gustav's, walking in all kinds of shops and of course, eating ice cream! Taylor and Maddie loved the Christmas shop and had to pet (gently) the life size Santa's! It was pretty comical! They actually did an amazing job not touching things in the different stores and stayed interested in it for a lot longer than I had expected. I guess that means we can head back over for another visit when there is some snow on the ground :)

Taylor and Maddie were obsessed by the life size bears all throughout Leavenworth! I could have posted 10 different pictures with the girls and bears...they kept insisting on getting their pictures taken with all of them!

We had a rainy day right before we left for our trip over the moutains so Dave and I decided to take the girls to the movies. We went and saw Wallie (not my favorite kid movie by the way!). It was nice to spend some time together just the four of us before we left!

It seems as if we are frantically trying to do as much as possible before school starts again in a few weeks! The girls went to their new day care for a few hours today (Miss Tammy got a teaching job) and as much as I was dreading the drop off it actually went pretty smoothly. We had no tears until lunch time when Maddie refused to eat and apparently went into another room and cried for her mommy for a half an hour. When I asked her why she didn't want to eat she said that she was just "being shy". Hopefully that won't last too much longer...breaks my heart to know that she was crying. We have been so lucky to have the girls at such a great place these last few years- this will be a big adjustment for all of us. I am planning on taking them back for a whole day next week and then the following week they will have to go for two days (I have state days) and then after Labor Day they will go to Miss Brenda's 4 days a week. The rest of our week is busy- we go to visit Roger, Lynette, Amy, Drew and Luke tomorrow on Camano Island which will be a lot of fun. Wednesday, Taylor has her friend Brooks coming over for a play date, Thursday I have Bunko at our house and my sister will be here visiting with Emilie. Then on Saturday we head to Whidbey Island for a wedding! Phew...Busy, but loving it! Just savoring my time with the girls as much as I can before September rolls around. Wishing everyone a great week! ~Heather~

Here are some random pictures I found on my camera...Enjoy!

Our Taylor Bug~she loves to dress up-notice her beautiful earrings? They were Dave's Grandma's clip on earrings that he has been saving for them to wear....She loves them!

Dave's family came to visit on Saturday night- the cousins, Taylor (4), Drew (2) and Maddie (2) had lots of fun together!

Drew really wanted to wear the same type of jammies as Maddie~ here they are "matching"! Drew's daddy will certainly love this picture! (Sorry Matt)

Luke (5 1/2 months) was enjoying some snuggle time with Uncle David!

Crescent Bar

The girls and I just got back from spending a week at Crescent Bar with my mom. We had so much fun hanging out in the beautiful but very HOT weather! I have tons of pictures to share and I think they will sum up all the fun we had together. Many great memories were made over the week and will not be forgotten for years to come! Thanks to Connie and Richard for a fun four days as well!

On our first morning at C.B. the girls were put to work scrubbing the deck!

Taylor, I mean "Jazzy" the dog...the girls were dogs all week long!

Maddie AKA Razzy the dog

We did lots of swimming in the pool which was Maddie's favorite!

What's a trip to Crescent Bar without a spin out on the jet ski?

The girls slept in a fort one night...They LOVED it!

On one of the hottest days of the week, beer was going for $9 a bottle :) You gotta love Richard!

(For those of you with bad eyes...he made a hat that said Cold Beer $5 then crossed it out and put $9!)

Connie, Taylor and Grandma went Kayaking!

We had lots of fun riding on the boat, jumping into the river (Connie you will notice that you are blocked by Richard's hand!) and even took a cat nap!

Taylor loves the sand and had a blast playing in it!

This picture is actually pretty funny because it is of Maddie on our last day at C.B.~ All the other days we were there, she wouldn't TOUCH the sand. Go Figure!

This pictures sums up how much fun the girls had!

We had lots of snuggle time with Grandma!

Sugar Cookies-Yum!

As I was packing and getting ready to head to Crescent Bar for a week with the girls and my mom, Taylor asked me if we could make some cookies to take with us. I told her that would be great! When I went to get the chocolate chips out to start making the cookies with her she quickly informed me that she didn't want to make those kind but the one's where you can put sprinkles on them when they are done cooking. Now, I was fine with the chocolate chip cookies, but sugar cookies? UGH! As most of my family knows one thing that I have always detested doing with a passion is making sugar cookies. I remember vividly having to sit with my sister and mom on the night before Easter decorating hundreds (well, it sure felt like hundreds!) of sugar cookies. I have carried my wonderful attitude about sugar cookies throughout my lifetime; both my mom and sister still joke with me about making them. I usually only do it once a year, at Christmas, with the girls and the last time we did it, quite frankly, it was not fun- both were too little and lost interest quickly in it and I ended up having to frost and sprinkle the cookies by myself! So....was I excited to do this? Not in the least bit! But did I do it? Of course! and you know what? It was actually fun! Having my own kitchen now made it that much better right off the bat and Taylor really did help me with all the mixing and measuring. When it came time to frost, Taylor stayed with me the entire time! Maddie even joined in at the very end of our frosting time (just in time to lick the bowl!) So, I guess I will eat my words about sugar cookies for now....

Taylor hard at work!

Maddie didn't frost many cookies...she was too busy licking her fingers!

Maddie and Taylor being silly!

The finished product! Yum!

Mommy, Taylor and Maddie's Fun Day Together

This morning the girls and I were finishing up a yummy breakfast of homemade waffles (one of Dave's specialities) when Dave surprised us with a gift card to my favorite pedicure store! I have been desperate to have one since we have moved in- my feet are not used to the hardwoods yet and with all the unpacking they were pretty beat up. So, with a big hug and kiss to our favorite guy, the three of us headed out to get our toes done. Taylor has had her toe nails painted a few different times for special occassions but Maddie had never been before. Taylor knew exactly what color (purple of course!) she wanted and Maddie quickly followed suit choosing an extremely bright pink for her toes! As I was sinking my feet into the warm water, Maddie started to cry because I think she thought she was going to have to stick her feet in as well. So, I got a majority of my pedicure with her sitting on my lap! She finally relaxed towards the end of it and ended up sitting in the chair next to me with her big sister Taylor. We had a very fun time and the girls were very proud of their toes (and hands for Taylor!). We ended our outing with a trip to Old MacDonalds for lunch- Yum! It was a great way to start our week out that's for sure! Our week seems to already be filled up- we are making raspberry jam with some of our friends tomorrow and then on Thursday morning we are heading over the mountains to spend the week at Crescent Bar with Grandma Kathy! Wishing everyone a happy week! ~Heather~

Taylor loving life!

Taylor getting her feet worked on while Maddie is checking the whole thing out!

Taylor and Maddie enjoying their day out with Mommy!

The final product...you can't see Maddie's very bright pink!

SPU Basketball Reunion

Wow! A majority of my old (it is weird saying old!) teammates came over for a BBQ and major catch up chat session this weekend. It was just like old times! We came together like we hadn't been apart for ten years! We had lots of laughs and lots of reminiscing about all sorts of random things. Everyone brought their children as well and at one time I counted 13 kids running around having the best time together! It was an evening that I won't forget for a very long time!Beth and I~Great Buddies all through College!

Chantel A.K.A Snax and I~College Roommates

Left to Right~ Stacy Brough, Beth Palmer, Lynne Roberts, Linnea Jarvits, Chantel Vinson, Hannah Bradford, me, Wendy Kuipers

Chantel, Beth and I~ Still laughing at each other even after 10 years! Also, this is Beth's son, Jace, who was best buddies with Taylor this weekend. They were sad to leave one another.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Fun pictures of the house

I feel like I have been posting way too much about the house....but couldn't resist a few pictures of mostly completed rooms. We are finally in the stage where we get to decorate so it has been fun putting our ideas onto walls and things.

This picture isn't that great- but I saw this at a friends house and asked her if I could borrow her idea. It is a curtain rod with hooks to hang the kids art work on...I love it!

I have had these old fashioned alphabet cards for over 3 years...a gift from my mom. It is nice to finally have a spot for them!

Here is Dave's "man" room....I have never seen him quite so excited about something. He is so proud of his Cougar room :)

Up close picture of the life size cougar stadium rug. The girls love running end zone to end zone and call this daddy's Go Cougs rug!

The mini wet bar- I am thrilled that all these lovely glasses don't have to go downstairs in my kitchen cupboards!! :)

Wishing everyone a fun weekend! I will post again soon with pictures from the SPU 10 year girl's basketball reunion we are having at our house on Saturday night. It is sure to be a fun evening!