What Can I Say...

She loves the camera, literally.

I Love This Face...Enough Said!

I Have The Sweetest Husband

My husband knows I love flowers and especially the big bouquets that he occasionally surprises me with from Pike Place Market. He brought these home to me at the beginning of Feb. and it reminded me of Spring. Have I told you guys how lucky I am to have him as a husband, a father and as a best friend. Well, I am. I am blessed beyond words. I love you John!

Science Fair Project

This was the first year Blaise was required to do a Science Fair project so this was definitely an experience. He chose his topic all on his own; which butter melts faster, margarine or real butter. He was excited about all the trials and presentations. I wonder what he will choose next year. Hmmmmm. Great job Brother (what everyone calls him at home).

Family During The Holidays!

This past Christmas was the first time we have stayed in Washington since moving to the NW. We celebrated Christmas with my Mother in law and sister in law in Renton. I wish I could have captured my children's expression as they walked into the door. There were so many presents and the house was decorated so cute with personalized stockings and decorations. Barbara, I know you will ready this, and I want to thank you for all the work you put into making our Christmas so awesome. It was amazing the happiest we all felt and you truly mean the world to us! We hope to see you this weekend :)

Christmas!!

Can you tell I'm trying to catch up on posting... Wow, these are from Christmas. I keep telling myself that as long as I'm posting, it's OK. We had a blast as always this past Christmas. Each of the kiddos received their very own cot for camping and Santa brought the younger ones a bb gun and Blaise a pellet gun. John loves to go shooting at the range so we thought we would make it a family event! The close up of our Christmas tree was to show you some of our ornaments. They each have one ornament for each year of their life. They are old enough now, that they can pick out their very own glass ornament every year. It's turned into a fun event and one that takes us down each isle until they find that special ornament that they claim as their very own. We come home and write their name and the year on the bottom so there is no confusion.

Birthday Meal, Japanese Style

Every year the kiddos get to pick a restaurant of choice for their birthday meal. This year we sort of guided Ethan with his choice and we ate at a Japanese restaurant where they cook the meal in front of you on a hibachi grill. We all had a ball as the chef tossed Shrimp shells, made volcano's out of onions, and juggled utensils. I do have to mention that the fire and utensil tossing scared Addi and I don't think she will be visiting that sort of restaurant for many years to come. Her birthday is in April and she has already mentioned to us that she will NOT be choosing the Japanese restaurant. I bet she chooses Rainforest Cafe, it's one of her favorites.

The Many Faces of E

Here are the many faces of our youngest. He is the happiest little guy who happens to have the best hair in the family. These pictures make me smile, how blessed we are to have this little guys in our lives!

Birthday Bash!

Since Ethan was born 3 days before Christmas, it has been easy for the 2 special days to merge together over the last 2 years. I promised myself that this birthday would be special and separate. Ethan is a pirate little boy so we had the cutest cake complete with cupcakes for his party. It was fun and he had a blast! Can't wait to see what he will want for his themed party this upcoming year.

My Heart Still Hurts...

I wanted to share a note written by my husband last week, we had such a scare that we want to get the word out to as many people as possible. I still cry when I think about what happened, and I have anxiety the last 2 -3 times I've dropped him off at pre-school. I hope you all learn from our experience and please share the message! I love my family and I'm so grateful for them!

I forgot to secure the cap to a bottle of cough syrup; Ethan got up this morning and sometime after breakfast drank the entire bottle. We didn't notice anything until he started saying "I'm crazy mommy...I'm crazy." He wouldn't stop saying it...We noticed a rash, and quickly after that it hit him like a ton of bricks. He couldn't hold his head up, it kept rolling from side to side...his eyes were out of focus and rolling around in his head. At first we thought it was a concussion, he had taken a pretty good spill and had a bump on his head...we just didn't know, so we called an ambulance which took Jen and E to the hospital. Jen told me afterward that E was completely unresponsive, wouldn't talk, wouldn't react to anything on the way to the hospital.

After a CT scan, a chest x-ray, and a spinal tap...the ER doctor was able to rule just about everything out except an allergic reaction, OR if he got into something. I drove home to comb through the house to see if I could find something; Jen asked E while I was en route, he told her that he had drank a bottle of orange medicine. When I got home I found the empty bottle, right were I had left it the night before.

My little man could've died today, the ER doctor admitted after he stabilized how worried she had been Thankfully he is doing much better, as of a few hours ago he was tearing through a bag of potato chips and wanting to drink dad's Coke. I couldn't stop staring at him, feeling like I had failed in the most basic way a dad could fail...to protect my family. E turned and looked at me, I told him I was sorry...he said, "that's okay daddy." I will never forgot today, or that moment.

The pediatrician came in and tried to make us feel better, she told us how often this kind of thing happens...parents that are shocked to find out that one of their kids got into a medicine cabinet. She asked us to remind our friends, ALL OF OUR friends how important locking up all medicine is. Don't count on child proof caps, don't be surprised that "baby-proof" cabinet locks aren't so baby-proof...I wouldn't want any of you to go through what my family went through today.

Thankful Jars

We've started a new tradition in our household where we write on a piece of paper what we are thankful for. We will do this every year on Thanksgiving day. I'm still contemplating how to preserve the outer drawings and if we should do a new outer layer every year? But... the tradition has been started and it will be a fun thing to look forward to this upcoming Thanksgiving.

Holidays with the Fam

We spent Christmas Day with my Sister In Law and Mother Law, which was so much fun. The kids laughed, smiled, and played the entire time we were there. I can honestly say they slept like champs that night. I added this top photo so you guys could see John (in the photo on the wall) as a kiddo :)

Snow Day

We love the snow and we were extrememly excited and shocked that the school district did not cancel school. The street was full of kiddos running around throwing snow at each other as they waited for the bus. We are hoping for one more good snow before Spring :)

Soccer 2010

We ended another successful soccer season with a pizza party. These boys have played soccer together since they were 5. They all go to the same school and all live within 2-3 miles of each, with 4 of the teammates living in the same neighborhood. It's an awesome experience and I love to watch them grow every year. I'm already looking forward to next year.

Yep, she loves the camera!

She is what she does now when I pull out my camera. I'll take a silly face over a mad face any day. By the way, I love this face!