The Good Ole Days

The kids and I went up to see my Mom and Dad while Todd was away on business. While my Mom was at work I confiscated some pictures from the archives. Sit back and enjoy the show!
I hope my parents forgive me for this at some point.
Just thought I'd include this since I was talking about my best friend growing up, Megan, in a post a few days ago. She is on the far left, I'm on the far right. This is my Grandma Bunny (Mom's Mom). This was too embarassing to pass up. Grandma's aren't supposed to wear bikinis are they?

Date night and dancing.

My Mom in the school cafeteria, she's on the right.

No explanation needed. Poor Bambi.

My Dad (in black) and my Uncle Charlie.

My Aunt Theresa (on the left) and my Mommy.

Weren't the 70's awesome?! My Dad's engine. Man did he spend a lot of time waxing that thing.

My Aunt Theresa and My Mom (on the right).My Dad was a fire fighter for the Forest Service, he was on the Hot Shot crew. He is the 2nd one from the right.

My Mom standing in front of my Grandpa's plane. Look at those legs! She was well on her way to 6'1" already!

First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage, Then Comes a Baby in a Baby Carriage

Rehearsal, Ella and Michael walking down the aisle. Getting pretty in the Bridal Room.

Okay, this better be the only time I see her in a white dress getting dolled up for a wedding.

In the Bridal Room.

The Ring Bearer, Michael (Brett's nephew).

The cutie with the dark hair (holding flowers) is engaged to Nicole's brother Brian, and is also Brett's sister. Sis and bro marrying sis and bro - sounds kinda familiar!

Our little fam.

Me, Mommy, and Sis.

My nephew Adam, and Dawson.

Steph, Christina, Tina, Sara, Yours Truly.

I think Ella had a little too much punch.

Big D, holding Ella's purse, hmmm.

The happy couple!

It's official, I'm old. . . One of the first families I babysat for was the Atkins, Nicole was their oldest. I've known her since she was less than a year old - bald, ears pierced, chubby cheeks. We all lived in Big Bear, CA, then a bunch of us moved to the Tri-cities to start the Calvary Chapel there just before I started high school. She was the flower girl in our wedding, and last weekend, Ella was the flower girl in hers. How can that be? I don't feel (I said feel, not look) like I've aged a bit, yet someone that I used to babysit is now a friend. Nicole is a sweetheart in every sense of the word, if it were up to me, there would be a picture of her next to that word in the dictionary. She is just a gentle soul, and I love her to pieces. Ella was so excited to be in the wedding, and talked about her "twirling dress" for months, and Todd and I were honored that she was a part of such an important day in their lives. Ella did really well, especially considering Fri morning we spent 4 hours at the hospital waiting for Aaron to get out of surgery (decided he didn't need the upper 1/3 of his tibia), then we immediately got in the car and drove to the Tri-cities, then we went to my parents to change and then on to the rehearsal. All things that require calm and quiet, not a good combo for Ella. The next day we had to be there about 3 1/2 hours before the wedding for pictures, so I was proud that she made it through the weekend with only one meltdown - courtesy of a Barbie band-aid removed prematurely. The wedding was beautiful, Nicole was beyond beautiful, it was a really special day and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. My BF growing up was Megan, who happens to be Nicole's cousin, so I got a chance to catch up a little bit with Meg's parents (she couldn't come with her fam, she had a baby girl 8 days earlier - welcome little Kennedy!). One of the fun things they did at the reception was a candy table with cute little bags to load up on goodies. Dawson got a hold of a mini Reese's peanut butter cup, so we were quite a spectacle while we hosed him down with Benedryl and tried to keep our wits about us until we knew he was okay. One of these kids is going to give me a heart attack at some point, no doubt about it.

Nicole and Brett are honeymooning in Maui, then back home to Cali. I wish they weren't so far away, but now we have another excuse to go to Disneyland.

I love you Coley, May God bless you and Brett always.

Stay Cool, See You Next Summer

Ella had a blast at the fair with her cousin Gabe. They went on the tea cups, this dragon roller coaster and the giant swing thingy together.

Dawson went on this ride twice, by himself, and LOVED it. He made quite a spectacle of himself when his turn was over though. Ella and Gabe by the pig pens - how fitting. . . The fountain at Riverfront Park. Not only can you play in the water, but you can often watch Spokane's Finest bathing here. Ahh, don't you just love down town?

Riverside State Park. The kids love the carousel, not that you can tell by this picture of Dawson.

Ella insisted on climbing the cherry trees, picking them is just too ordinary. Cherry picking up on the Bluff. Summer is officially over and now that I've dried my bitter tears, I thought I'd post some pics of our last few weeks of sunshine. Don't get me wrong, I love all 4 seasons, but summer and I are like this (I'm crossing my fingers). But on the flip side, I'm kinda happy to pull out my box of jeans and sweaters, I planted autumn themed plants for the porch. I've already started making cool weather dinners - chili, lasagne, soup and bread. And the single most important reason I am okay with fall is that it means we're that much closer to CHRISTMAS!!!

Gimme Some Suga'

Sugar cookies are divine. Home-made goodness, chewy on the inside, frosting hardened ever so slightly, adorned with colorful sprinkles. It's quite the process - make the dough...chill the dough...roll out the dough...cut into shapes...bake...cool...frost and lastly, accessorize them. But then, oh but then you can EAT them. As I write this I am just sick from eating one (maybe 4) too many. I am trying to work on virtues one at a time, apparently self control will be the last one I attempt.

"Do you work or stay home?"

As a stay-at-home Mom I get this question a lot. And don't get me wrong, most of the time people mean well, heck, I've even asked this question myself. And for the record, I've done almost every possible combination of work/college/home-maker and all have their pros and cons. I worked full time and went to college part-time while Aaron lived with us and never missed a soccer game or parent/teacher conference. I also went to nursing school full-time and worked part-time during another period of time while Aaron was at home. I worked until the day before Ella was born, then worked very part-time with her in tow to do books at St. Al's, and I continued to work at the clinic once a week. I stopped there all together about a month before Dawson was born and have been "home" full time since then. No matter how you slice it, being a Mom is tough work.
Here's what I did today:
Vacuumed and dusted 4 of the 5 bedrooms
Vacummed and dusted the family room, living room and dining room
Scrubbed the kitchen and floor
Washed the laundry room floor
Made breakfast, lunch and dinner
Made cookies
Cleaned 2 of the 3 bathrooms top to bottom
Stripped the beds and towels
Did 4 loads of laundry, start to finish
Plus the "usual" games, book reading, nose and hiney wiping etc.

Now if that's not work I don't know what is! Okay, I'm off my soap box now (I need to get into it, I have more laundry to do).

Dawson's Appointment in a (pea)Nut Shell

Dawson's appointment with the allergist went really well. Some great news - no other allergies that we know of! Yahoo!!! I was just bracing myself to hear the doctor say "wheat, dairy, eggs..." so I am incredibly grateful that we are just dealing with a peanut allergy at this point. They didn't test him with every panel, there are about 4 more sets of 12 allergens, but they won't test him for those until he is older and they feel the need. The pet allergy panel also came back negative - Bailey was thanking her lucky stars. Dawson did great, I was worried about the zillions of pokes they would give him, but allergy testing has come a long way since I had it done, and it isn't nearly as painful. A bag of Oreo cookies saved the day, and he was a real champ. On one hand I'm glad he doesn't have say, a dairy allergy, because it is so much harder to avoid and cut out. On the other hand, at least a dairy allergy isn't fatal! So we are still armed and dangerous with 2 Epi-Pens and strict instructions about going to the ER with a Benadryl glugging boy if he ever looks crossed-eyed at a peanut. Some of you may be getting a handy-dandy, 2 page instruction sheet from the Doc, laminated and all (I knew I loved this guy when he said to put a picture of Dawson on the sheet and laminate it, right up my alley). So we are SO grateful for our one little problem, it could have been so much worse. So I'm on a mission to find some pseudo peanut butter for him to enjoy. Almond, cashew, something of that nature. But ironically enough, every time I find one the label reads "processed on equipment that processes peanuts." What the heck is almond and cashew butter for if it's not for people with peanut allergies?!

Slumber Party

My nieces came over for a little slumber party. We had fun staying up late, watching girly shows, eating candy, chips and pop, and watching more girly shows (we'll never forget the singing competition we watched, painful for all involved). We had planned to work on a craft project too, but vegetating was in order so we followed our hearts right to the couch and didn't get up.

I love you Bethanne and Rachel. You have grown from feisty little tots to beautiful, caring young women and I'm so proud of you. How lucky are we that we're neighbors?!

Remember when I said that Dawson gives love nibbles, but doesn't actually bite? I was wrong.

What a Day, Ella's Off to Pre-K!

Ella did great on her first day of Pre-K! She was a tiny bit nervous at first, but she got into gear pretty quickly. I think the major factor for success was the company of her BFF Olivia. Ella has grown up so much this past year and it's hard to face facts, my baby girl is not so little anymore. I remember when she turned 1 thinking "it's okay, I can really freak out when she turns 5." Well, that's only 4 months away. The time goes too quickly, I wish each stage lasted twice as long (well maybe not the part where they don't sleep through the night). I'm glad she has a couple hours each week to do something that's just special for her, but Dawson and I miss her. He points to her car seat and says "Ella, Ella" with his hands out as if to say "where is that crazy chick that's usually right there?" But I'm sure she'll have a blast, no annoying baby brother, no lectures from Mom, double the messy projects now that she can do them at home and school. I look forward to all of the stories I will undoubtedly hear at the end of the day. The 100 bucks a month is worth it for the stories alone. Maybe I should make a deal with her teachers - I'll only believe half of what she tells me about school if they only believe half of what she tells them about home.