Sunny Days!!!

Today was warm enough to put on swimming suits and head straight out to Lundeen Park by Lake Stevens. The kids had a great time! Here are pictures.

A mama duck and her almost grown babies were swimming with us today.

Claire getting in the COLD water!


Will loved digging in the sand.

Will threw little rocks and sand in the water all day, but then he saw this big rock and really really tried hard to pick it up to throw in the water. Maybe next year :)

After a couple of hours in the sun Will was ready to go home for a nap- can you tell?

Funny Stuff!

Trailer: Tommy Boy

Flixster - Share Movies

I wanted to include the above because I just came across it again, and it made me laugh so hard again. Maybe it's just late, but I had a good chuckle. Ok, it's late and I need to stop blogging.I haven't even been blogging on my site. I was sucked into other friends sites.
What a good husband I have too. He had a meeting tonight for church so I put the kids to bed, but then hopped on the computer and started blogging without doing the dinner dishes. Shawn came home after his meeting and did the dishes for me without saying anything. What a great husband! Anyway, I really need to get off the computer. I just wanted to include something funny.

On Lake Stevens

We went on Lake Stevens today for the first time in the five years we've lived by it! We have been in Lake Stevens many times before, but never on it. We bought a Wave Runner!!! I am sooooooo excited! We took it out for the first time tonight, and it was so much fun. Claire absolutely loved it and kept wanting to go faster and faster. Will liked it too after he got used to the idea. We had to go really slow with him, but he liked it in the end. We are going to get a tube and pull the kids behind it and supposedly you can water ski behind it too. I'll try it out when we get a ski. I'm so excited to have something that goes on the water! I told Shawn he will become addicted and the next thing will be a boat :) not for awhile, but this will be so much fun for us! I can't wait to take it out in really good weather. Today was a little cold, but we couldn't resist trying it out! I'm sure we will be on it all summer, and I'll post more pictures!

Fancy Shoes

Shawn won't be too happy when he sees this picture, but it's just so funny and cute. Will loves to wear Claire's Snow White shoes. Claire has quite a few dress-up shoes, but these are the ones he loves. He could care less about Cinderella shoes, and all of the purple sparkly shoes. He loves to wear Snow White shoes. Very funny. Anytime the dress up box is down he searches through everything until he finds these shoes. Maybe he likes them because they are red, or maybe I don't realize it and they are really comfortable????? This is what happens with an older sister I guess. Anyway, here is a picture! Maybe I'll throw in a picture of him playing t-ball just to make Shawn a little more happy!

Dance!

Claire had her dance performance last weekend! It was quite a production. Here are some photo's of Claire in her costume. She looked so beautiful and did a great job up on stage!

Surprise!!!

My 30th Birthday was a complete surprise! First, Shawn flew one of my best friends up from Arizona for my 30th birthday. We see each other rarely, but always keep in contact. The last time we saw each other was a year and a half ago. We've know each other since about age 14, so we've known each other for half of our lives. It was such a surprise to see her. Shawn said he had a late meeting one night, so I didn't expect anything, but that night when he came home Krista walked in with him. It was so unreal at first. I felt like I was in a dream, but I was so excited. We had a lot of fun while she was here. We went and saw two movies at the theater without kids (we put them to bed and left Shawn to make sure no one woke up). We got a massage. We went shopping and got matching shirts (cheesy-I know but BFF). We went to Seattle twice and to the zoo with our kids. It was so great to see her and her little boy Robbie. Since we don't see each other often this was such a treat to see her for a whole week.
Having Krista come and visit is surprise enough I think, but Shawn had other plans. Half way through Krista's stay Shawn sent us to the outlet mall on a Saturday while he ran some errands. We went shopping, but all of a sudden Krista got terribly sick. She said her back was killing her and we had to go home right now so she could lie down. I was so worried about her I sped home thinking we were going to have to take her to the emergency room. When we got home though there was another surprise. Shawn got a lot of my friends together up here for a 30th b-day surprise party! I walked in totally surprised. Krista wasn't even sick. She was just pretending to be sick to get me home quickly without asking questions. It all worked, and I was totally surprised! Shawn and Krista did a great job! And I had a great birthday! Here are some pictures of Krista's visit and my party!




Surprise!!!

Krista with our kids on a ferry ride!


Downtown Seattle at the pier. We just had the kids go on a carousel ride!

Matching Seattle shirts!

Downtown Seattle!

Preschool Graduation

Claire just finished preschool. I can't believe she will be in kindergarten next year. She is ready, but I don't think I am. A couple of days before preschool was over, they got to go on a field trip to the school bus barn to ride a school bus and learn about safety on the bus. The parents got to go on the field trip too, but they had all the kids get on the bus first. I saw Claire climb up the bus steps and then saw her little head bob along the bus windows as she made her way to sit by her friend. My eyes got a little watery seeing her on the bus. All the parents agreed that the field trip was probably more for the parents than the kids (to get the parents ready to send their little ones on the big yellow bus). Claire can't wait to ride the bus, but she was sad for preschool to end. She loved her teachers and her friends there. She got teary eyed on the last day of school and kept hugging me tring not to cry. I wish I could take away sadness and fear, but I guess that's part of growing up.
Claire had an end of year performance for school. I've included some pictures of her and Vivi at the program. Also, on the last day of class they had the kids dress in a cap and gown, and I've included pictures of Claire graduating from preschool. She was so cute! Claire really wants Will to go to Sunnyside next year. She says he needs to go because it's the best! After the preschool graduation we had a pizza party with all of the kids and parents from her school. I've included some pictures of Claire and Vivi at the party too!


Ms. Lori (Claire's teacher) and Claire

Claire and Vivi at the school program!

Claire singing "Walking Throught the Jungle" in her school program. She's in the middle with a panda bear mask.

"We're #1!!!" Claire and Vivi at the after school party.

All of the food we got to eat at the party- Claire and Vivi sharing a chair and munching away!

William David Houston

I found my self a couple of days ago calling Will "William David Houston" over and over again. Claire calls this his trouble name, and she is right. He was in trouble a lot last Thursday. It started when I left the fridge door open while I poured a glass of milk, and while I had my back turned William David Houston got in the fridge and grabbed some leftover pasta dinner from a shelf and spilled it all over himself, the fridge shelf and fridge door, and Lilly (Lilly was thrilled to be in the way and tried to help with clean-up). This wasn't to big of a deal (kids spill stuff right). After cleaning everything up we headed to the outlet malls to return a shirt. While I was at the cash register returning the shirt, William David Houston slipped out of my arms and sprinted to the nearest dressing room (sprinting is a new skill he just mastered, and man is he fast). I tried to catch him before he ran in, but I was just a second too late as he shut the door and then locked it. I really think he knew what he was doing. I couldn't get him out of the dressing room. I had to get a sales lady to unlock the door so I could haul him out. So the day went on and toward the end I was doing dinner dishes and the kids were playing. At least Claire was playing, but William David Houston decided he wanted to color our new flat screen computer monitor with a ball point pen. It looked so horrible. Luckily, Shawn wasn't there to see it. I almost cried when I saw it. The entire screen had ink on it. I can't believe I was able to get it off, but luckily for everyone (especially William David Houston)I did! What a day. I need to keep both eyes on my cute little William David Houston all of the time.