Mia's 2009 Christmas Recital

Just got back from Mia's Christmas recital. This year it was held at Cascade Community Church in Monroe. I really liked having it at that spot because it was so much closer than having to drive to Bothell and also this year they didnt have so many of the adults preforming so it more for just the children which is who I would rather watch. Again this year Mia was put in the back row and it was really hard to get a good picture of her or even just watch her becasue we couldnt see her. I think this is about three years now and this time I am saying something to the ballet teacher. I think I'll just shoot her an email. We also took Sweet Sugary Goodness to the vet forher very last vaccination. She's feeling pretty rough right now cause her shoulders are sore. I've got her laying on a heat pad right now cause I think that might help. I've been thinking about enrolling her in a obediance class also. I want her to be very well behaved and trained. Probably cost too much but just a thought. Tomorrow is the Rockette show and Chellsea's friend Kathleen will be comming to watch Bubba while we go. Maybe next year we can take him with. Worked out this morning also. I've been running 4 miles each time I go and lately I found that its getting easier and easier to do the 4 miles so this morning I raised the incline even more and upped the speed. I ended up burning almost 500 calories and ran 4.5 miles. Hope this is gonna help shrink my tummy :)

Mia's Beautiful Butterfly hat...

So Mias’s been bugging me about making her a hat. I have been so busy working on everyone else’s’ hats for Christmas that I have been neglecting my wonderful Mia’s plea’s. So I russell up a hat pattern and get to work. The pattern on the hat is called a “Butterfly” stitch and I have never done one before. I usually Google all the knitting terms that I am unfamiliar with or I will got to http://www.youtube.com/ and watch how someone else does things first. However, on this butterfly stitch I find nothing helpful. I did find some instructions but they were too complicated for my pea brain to comprehend. So I finally had to go to a knitting forum online and ask for help. I just love all the knowledge on the internet. You can find out all kinds of good things. Specifically Mia wanted a Lime Green Hat to match her lime green coat. I got the pattern, I got the yarn, and went to work. Mia would monitor my work every day asking “Is it done yet?” “Looks like your almost done mom, right?” My fingers actually hurt so bad on the third day but I finished it for her. So now she has her Lime Green Hat to match her Lime Green Coat and you know what? Now she wants a Lime Green Scarf! Ahhhh! oh and Bubba just had to model a slouchy hat for the camera. Isnt he so cute?

Turkey Turkey Turkey!

We didnt get too many Thanksgiving pictures :( But we did have a great time! As always there was way too much food. Isnt there supposed to be too much food? I thought so! We ran just a little late getting to Grandmas house because Ditterbug took a particularly long nap. We were worried that one of us would have to stay home with him and not get to go but on Thursday he looked so much better. His nose really dried up and his cough was really good sounding (not that deep nasty). It was kind of funny not to see Amy at the house because all the kids were there. Not sayin it was a bad thing that she wasnt there, just kinda odd. I also missed my brother Kirk. I sure wish things were different with him. And Shelby. Thanksgiving is not quite as animated without Shelby. Maybe things will be different for Christmas. Mia's little friend Emily had her appendix out and Mia was very upset that Emily might die. I asked Mia what she thought might happen and she said, "The Dr will probably cut out her appendix, put it in a ziplock bag, and Certainly put it in the fridgerator". She's so funny. Maybe her family used in for Thanksgiving (Blah). Mia and Bubba are both sitting at the computer table playing a puzzle game. Bubba loves his sister so much. Sweet Sugary Goodness went to the Doctor yesterday and received her Rabies shot. Her poor shoulders hurt so bad and the medicine mad her really tired. I put her on the heating pad for awhile and this morning she is feeling much better. Getting tired of sick dogs and sick children. I

, making Mia's Lime Green had to match her coat. It has a new stitch it in that I've never done before called a butterfly stitch. Its really not a hard stitch to do but I couldn't find any directions on the Internet and it took me forever to get a fellow knitter on a forum to finally respond to my plea for help. Was very frustrating but finally I got it and now her hat is under way. I decided to add yellow to the hat mostly because I don't have enough green to finish it but I'm thinking that the yellow is going to do just fine! and Mia has decided that she likes the yellow also. Very interesting hat. I will post pictures when I am done :) Thanks mom for all the good eats! Was a great day and we all appreciate the hard work in the kitchen :)

My husband surprised me with a weekend getaway to Whidbey Island. We took the ferry over to the Island and stayed at a little resort on the water called Captain Whidbey’s. We ate a wonderful meal at the lodge restaurant. I had a lamb shank?! When they brought it out it was this huge piece of meat attached to a huge bone and I started laughing saying it reminded me of the Flintstones or maybe a caveman meal. Made me want to pick it up by the bone and start gnawing on it. Then there was this guy behind us that had one of those funny sounding things that you hold up to your throat so people can hear you talk that makes you sound like Darth Vader. Of course this also made me snicker through the whole meal. On Saturday we took another ferry over to Port Townsend and on the way I was watching the water and thought I saw a shark fin. I got all excited and started pointing and saying "Look, Look" and then at the last minute I thought-That cant be a shark, I can’t yell shark or everyone will think I'm an idiot. So instead I yell "Look, Look, Things! Theres THINGS in the water!" Oh I am such a retard. Things in the water? why would I think that would sound better than "shark". Uhhh! They were sea lions and they were huge. They reminded me of army slugs. Long and kinda slimy looking. Port Townsend was very cool. We walked around and checked out a bunch of shops. Got the girls some gifts and visited an antique mall. Sunday we went to Deception Pass and took some really great pictures of the water and the bridge (which was very scary to cross). and a seagull pooped on our windshield-gross! Then right before we checked out to leave the lodge my husband say’s “look under the stairs” There was a family of otters all curled up underneath the steps of the deck in the back leading to the water. I think that they must have made a home under there. They were very cute. So we saw an awful lot of wildlife and had a great weekend. Oh on the way back we stopped at a super nice thrift store and my husband got a boat prop and I got a bunch of yarn and some knitting needles (lots of goodies) it was like Christmas 2nd hand Yeah!

Knitting Projects!

This is my cat hat. Everyone in my family just loves this project. I did a white one for Chellsea and this black one is Mia's. I have a red one with black ears for Bubba. The blue kinds striped one is called the flower pot hat and I dont think you can see it in the picture but it has a green stalk with a yellow flower coming out of the top of it. That was one of my very first hats. I think I'm going to make one of these hats for my facebook friend Cameo's baby. I'll try some fall colors for that one. Then there is the apple hat with the little brown worm on it. How cute was that one? I loved putting the little green leafs on it! I got to get making him another one of those cause that one got too small too quick. Lets see if I can find a piture of the pumpkin hat cause that one was sure a cute one too and I'll have to get to diggin these hats out cause it has started getting very cold out lately. Brrrrrrr. Actually the pumpkin hat was one of my favorites to make. I got to get going on the turkey hat. Before you know it it will be Turkey day and I wont have it finished. Geez. And the triangle hat with the beads. That one was knit with some of the softest yarm ever. I strung all the beads on the yarn before I started knitting and them just kind of "Placed" them where they needed to be as I knitted. What a fun project. lets see do I got anything else I can share? Derr how could I forget my Ditterbug hat! I thread little bug buttons into the yarn and used a black and red combination then I added the bottom blue and knit in the word "Ditterbug" in yellow yarn! Very very fun hat to knit.

Princess Sweet Sugary Goodness

Welcome to the family Miss Princess Sweet Suagr Goodness. What a great addition. She is already crackin us all up with her squirl skin. She's been beatin up and draggin that thing all over the house and WOW is she smart. She's practically potty training herself. We got a bunch of the puppy potty pads and she is hitting them everytime! I've got a new red sweater that i've started knitting for her and we put a heating pad in her kennel. She really is a princess. The other day Chellsea packed her up in her purse and brought her to town to have lunch with me. Oh and tomorrow is her big Dr appt with Dr Wendt. She's getting all her shots and nasty worm medicine. Yuck! I guess its probably better than getting worms :(

Miss Mia is exspecially attadhed to her. She just cant seem to let her down. I'm surprised she hasnt pee'd on her yet. Mia wanted to call her Frolly cause she says she just frolicks all over the place. She really is quite jumpy and I would say frolicky also. Silly little Mia.

Sugars likes to climb up on Chellsea big ol boobies and snuggle down in between. Its like watching her hop on a water bed. Very funny to see.

Me and Brad both agree that she sounds like a chicken when she cackles at night. (She's lonely in her kennel) Havent heard her bark yet but I have a feeling that part is coming.

Perfect Family

I think I do-I think I have the perfect family. My boy, he is just so warm and yummy right now. He screams a little but we wont talk about that in this blog today. He is getting so tall and skinny, well he's kinda always been skinny-like a bean pole! but he is the snuggly-est little guy! He still sinks down into the crook of you arm when your holding him and he loves it when I get all up behind his ear and play "Snoop Dog". Thats when you make those puppy lickin sounds and snort air behind the ear. He squeals and laughs. and he really likes "Gucks" right now. We bought him a new truck book at Mia's open house and book fair the other day and he has been packin it around like a lovey.

We also have this racoon infestation at our house. At about 2am you can see that they have parties at our house. We currently host about 6 total. Last week I started trapin them and we caught 2 of the babies. So we are down to 4 and last night I didnt set the trap. this morning I noticed that the dogs water was filthy again. They must come to our house just to party and before they go home they probably just alll wash their hands in the clean dog water, right?

So Brad goes to work and comes home with a fake coon skin hat and it is funny! Bubba thinks its a "meow" and wears it around the house. He'll through it onto the ground and stomp on it and say "oww". What a ham.

Brad came walkin into the hosue the other day with some broken eyeglasses on that Mia found in the grocery store parking lot. They looked so funny all crunched up on his face and Mia dancing all around saying "they are made in China".

Mia had a nice little bed all made up for Bubba in his room. She made sure it had a the softest blankets and his "Thavorite" pillows. She is such a great big sister. Even her teacher at school said that Mia is VERY family oriented and talks about he family all the time. He teacher also told me she is very into fashion and compliments her outfit almost every day.

Fallon is at a birthday party that started last night and ends this morning. When I dropped her off there were boys at the party! Who has a birthday party for a 14 year old girl and invites boys?! Anyways i had to make sure all the boys left before I left. So this one boy (before he left) comes up and is standing there all with his pants hanging down and his under draweres hanging out (yuck) AND his shirt is unbuttoned-all the way. So I'm all "honey, I'm not sure if you know but your shirts all undone. You might want to take care of that" and he's all "I know" so I keep on him till he buttons the thing up. Boys! Sheesh!

Bubba is not going to be that boy!

Chellsea is really starting to find her wings. She is such a late bloomer. She had been talking to a boy named Nick on the phone. I guess they went to middle school together and he was one of the dorky boys that she hung out with, He prob got picked on too. So she is supposed to go out on a date with this guy. (cross your finger) He better be nice. I hope I get to meet him before they go out. And she has made friend with one of the girls at work and they seem to be hangin out alot. My worst fear is that she will not be a good influence on Chellsea. I hope she encourages her to continue with school. and Chellsea dyed her hair and really pretty dark redish color? It looks really nice on her. Good choice Chells!

Brad has been super sweet. Lots of affection and xoxo's from him. Its like living with a big warm yummy soft bear :) I love my family!

Fallon is such a good

Daroga 2009

I just love camping. I dont mean the fake kind of camping where you drive up with your motorhome full of tv sets and ir conditioning units. I mean like Daroga. You drive up with your car loaded full of all your good crap that you think your gonna need then you hunt and peck for a two wheeled cart so you can start packing it across the field and over the narrow walkway to the island. Unfortunately for us we had only one cart so We piled everything up on the baby stroller and used one of those pull tight zip lines to hold it all together for the journey. The last thing we brought was the air mattress and we had to blow that up at the car before we took off to the island. By the time we got it blown up it was getting kinda late and as you know...when the sun starts to go down at Daroga the winds picks up. We were about half was across the walkway when the air matress started fighting us. We worked as a team and finally got that puppy over to our site. We had so many people that everything was set up lickety split! I think we roasted marsh mellows every night. I loved early in the morning when the bird would start pecking around for food and making all their good morning sounds. Then one by one the camp sites would start to come alive. Usually you heard the babies first-ours too. Then all the pots and pans clanging as people got the breakfasts going. Morning was a good time to check out the wildlife. The beavers were working overtime on a section of the lagoon and late in the day the turtles would be out on logs catching the sun. There were also lots of Osprey out all over and at night they would swoop down on our camp. I wasn't sure if they were attempting to eat the bugs are is they were actually swooping in for the bats that were circling around for the bugs. The evening wind usually lasted about an hour and then everything would calm down and the games would begin. Badminton, volleyball, some type of game where you throw balls connected to a string around a pole!? What the heck? anyways, we played alot of cards and did alot of laughing. One day we took off and went to visit a dam and they had this really cool museum with hieroglyphs etched into rocks that came from the Columbia basin before they flooded it. We saw the fish ladders and inside the dam area you could see the fish going up them through the glass. Bubba just loved that part. One day we took the girls to Ohme Gardens and of all the children I think Mia had the best time. She said she would like to go back for her birthday. We also went to the drive in movies and saw Night at the Museum 2. It really was a good move. I would say it was probably better than the first one. I miss the old drive ins when they had the boxes you would put in your car window. We did stop at an old diner on the way home that actually had things from the fifty's all over in it and they had some of the old boxes from the drive in. I thought that was pretty cool. We spent most of our time in the water, wake boarding mostly. Fallon and Jenny both got up on the boards Yeah! Good job girls! And Mia is now the master of the three man floater. Jen is got the most guts for riding the single tube at super fast speeds. I was really impressed. Her feet were flying up around her face and she was just laughing and smiling like it was the best ride in the world. She is so much like her mother. :) Every day at 2:30pm the lawn sprinklers would come on and Bubba would just squeal. He would take this racket and spend the entire time trying to swat at the water. He also learned how to ride a scooter. well kinda. He walked the goofy thing up and down the walk every day and would watch the other boys on their scooters. He can ride one if someone else rides it with him and I bet you by this time next year he will have the hang of it. He's so smart. It really is great to get together with your family and make great memories. I know that our gang will remember this trip for along time. I always think that we are a pretty tight little family until we go on one of these trips and then I see that one or two of the kids seem to get a little tighter. I guess theres always room for just a little more! I just love the picture of Chellsea and Mia on the hill. They are so close. I really really really love this time in my life right now. Everything seems to be really smooth and calm. Is this how it feels before the storm? Hope not. But I am grateful for the loveliness of my family today and for however long it will last.

The Iron Goat Hiking Trail

Sunday afternoon we all took off to the Iron Goat Hiking Trail up off highway two right out of Barling. Packed us up some chicken sammies and cold water. It was a very hot day out. We are all so red neck that I was hiking in a swim suit, skirt and flip flops. Brad didnt even wear a shirt. Mia also had her flip flops on. You know...we were just fine too. I bet all those die hard hikers with their ankle support high dollar hiking boots and socks up to their knees with the full below the knee Kacki short and backpacks full of survival supplies were looking at us like we were dorks. But you know what? We werent hot. We kind of just strolled along and t0ok our time to enjoy the little water falls and we even stopped and picked wild strawberries. Oh mama they were so good. Wonder if the die hards even noticed them? The only thing that I might have brought that we didnt was some spray for deer flys. They were really thick and OWww they hurt! :(

Fishing sean is OPEN!

Wow! I have been having so much fun knitting this fish hat. I love the colors and the yarn is cotton. The dark blue and the light blue stripes just make this hat really stand out. The top and side fins were supposed to bejust one thin knit section but I didnt really like the feel of that so I double knit two sections then I sewed them together to make them thicker. I really liked the result. The bottom tail flippers were the same thin sections. I didn tlike that either so I again did double sections and then before I sewed them together I stuffed them with a little fluffy goodness. Also the eyes were supposed to be glued on felt pieces with big X's on 'em to make them look like dead eyes but I went to Benny's instead and got the snap on glass eyeballs. I'm really happy with this hat and it is so cute on your head. Even my husband wants me to make him one. FISH 'ON!

Pacific Raceway-Go Car Go!

Me and Brad spend the day at the races. It was great. After watching some of the funny cars drag we took off to Nitro Alley to sniff the cars. Phewy! I think my husbands been sniffing alittle to many of them cars. I don't know how he can stand right behind them when they're revving up the engine. That gas is so strong it bites your eyeballs and strangles your throat. I had to run the opposite direction when one started up. Cough cough gag. Then when we were taking pictures n front of the Nitro Alley sign so ding dong came up behind me and squeezed his butt in the picture. Really! I don't even know the guy. Its was a very exciting day and I cant wait to spend another day like this.