Photo of the Day

This picture always makes me laugh. That is Corey right after she turned one. I'm not sure how many people even remember the show "Bananas in Pajamas" but it was one of Corey's favorite shows at that time. Here is "B1" or "Banana 1". I don't think he made noise, so I'm not even sure why Corey has that surprised expression on her face. Sadly we no longer have "B1". Pooh Bear wore those pajamas for a long time until they got too worn out.

Gabby's 11th Birthday!

Gabby turned 11 on Friday and it was a very busy and fun birthday!


On Thursday night she helped me decorate cupcakes to bring into school the next day.

The finished product. We made both chocolate & yellow cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I didn't have any but I heard they were yummy.
I brought her Panda Express for a special birthday lunch. Her favorite meal-chow mein, orange chicken and broccoli beef (though she doesn't eat the beef). Here she is with Emma.

Handing out cupcakes to her classmates.

Savannah stopped by for a picture.

First we had yummy pizza, strawberries and root beer.

Then we had birthday cake! This year Gabby wanted an ice cream cake.

Blowing out the candles.

The directions for the cake were to keep frozen and then take out for 20 minutes prior to serving. We did that, but the ice cream was still so frozen Scott had to use two hands to cut through it! I have had ice cream cakes in the past and they always had regular cake with the ice cream. This one was just ice cream. Weird...but good!

Then it was present time. Here is one of 3 Webkins that she got.
Here is Winston attacking Brenda & Jerry as they watch the present opening.

A new jewelry box. That girl has too much jewelry!

Scott, Clarissa & Winston who matches the color of our floor perfectly.

An American Girl mini-doll.

A big long box...she thought it was golf clubs.

Getting some help opening it up.

A chair! Emma is helping put all her gifts on it for a final picture.

Here she is with all her gifts including a new book (The Lightning Thief), two iTunes gift cards, a Barnes & Noble gift card, 3 Webkinz, a couple of scarves and more earrings. She also got lots of $$ from Grandpa, Gamma & great-grandmother Gigi. Not to mention Emma gave her $11.11- I sense a theme!

Gabby got these balloons from her Great-Aunt Patty

These balloons were from us.

This morning all us girls headed to T-spa for some pampering. Corey & Gabby soaking their feet.

There's Emma & Savannah!

She also got a manicure-pretty nails!

Gabby getting her manicure.

The finished product-she can never have just one color!

Emma's nails-they had a cool design.

There's Emma!

Corey's toes!

Gabby's toes-again, two colors!

Photo of the Day

This photo of Scott & Gabby was taken during her soccer awards ceremony. He had just presented her with the trophy in her hand. Scott was the coach for the "Blue Bombers" in 2003 in Victorville, CA. Gabby would have been 4 1/2 years old.

Birthday Wishes

Happy Birthday Wishes go out today to our youngest daughter, Gabby, who turns 11! We love you, kiddo! We are so proud of all that you have accomplished, but mostly, we are proud of who you are. We are so thankful every day that you are a part of our family.

Also we want to wish Happy Birthday to my Aunt Patty who turns 71 & Joseph Sutton who turns 3! We hope you both have a fabulous birthday!

Photo of the Day

This photo of the girls & Pluto was taken on our very first trip to Disneyland on 10/12/01. We had just moved to Victorville, CA a few months earlier. Corey was in kindergarten and Gabby was still just 2 years old. We lived about 80 miles away from Disneyland.

Blog Books Are Here!

I have been waiting impatiently for the 3rd and 4th volumes of my blog books to come and now they have arrived! A few of you have asked me what a blog book is, so here is your answer. I do mine through Blurb.com which "slurps" up your blog and then you get to edit the pages. I do a lot of pictures in mine and cut out any unwanted posts. They are a great way to make a keepsake and not very time consuming or expensive. I'm sure there are several blog book sites out there, but I have used this one for all 4 volumes and have been happy with the service & quality.


All 4 volumes. I did mine in softback but you can do hardback also and different sized books.

Here is Gabby (reluctantly) modelling the inside. Sorry the glare from the flash makes it hard to see.

Photo of the Day

This was taken outside the fire station near Michael T during a kindergarten field trip. There is Gabby in the middle in the light pink coat with Jesikah next to her in the darker pink jacket. This would have been October of 2004.

Photo of the Day

I took this photo of our back yard right after we moved in. There was just sod and bark. It was so plain! This was February, 2004, and I remember it was really warm and sunny which is unusual for this area. I met Rozanne a few weeks later at the mailbox, and I remember her commenting on how nice the weather was for their first February in Washington. It was pretty short-lived, though.

Photo of the Day

We took a trip to Phoenix, Arizona in June, 2003. Here are the girls on the balcony of our hotel room ready to head to the pool. It was in the 100's the whole week we were there. The resort we stayed at was awesome. It had a lazy river and 4 or 5 different pools. We spent the whole week in water. It was way too hot to day anything else.

Photo of the Day

This is the only photo I could find of both of my girls with Santa. There is the infamous Gabby grimace! The photo wasn't dated, but Corey is missing some front teeth, so I'm thinking she's around 6 years old which would mean this was taken in Victorville, CA in December, 2001. The shirt Gabby is wearing is from the San Diego Zoo. If you look real close you can see she has a blond Polly Pocket in her hand. Ah, the days of finding Polly Pockets everywhere-I miss them!

Piano Practice

Gabby is now in her 5th year of piano. I'm sorry to say it will probably be her last. If she moves up to ballet III next year, she will be busier than ever, so we will have to cut down on something. For now we will continue to enjoy listening to her daily piano practice. One thing I won't miss is having to listen to her gripe every time I remind her to do it :)

It took forever to upload this video and it's a bit blurry-not sure why. Hope you can hear it!

Walk Around Capitol Lake

Yesterday we woke up to sunshine and so I made everyone shower early so that we could get out and enjoy it before it went away. We parked at the Capitol grounds then walked down to and around the lake and back. Tons of people were out. It was a great way to spend the day. It was so nice to feel some warm sun on our faces :)


View of the lake from Capitol hill.

The girls & Winston always like to climb this little hill.

Photo of the Day

This photo of Corey & Paige was taken in July, 2008 when we took the ferry from Bremerton to Seattle with the Bass family. They are standing in front of a candy store at Pike Place Market showing us all the goodies that could be had. I think we did get some candy from there. Do you remember Rozanne?

Photo of the Day

Corey is 4 years old in this photo taken in our house in Iowa. She loved Blues Clues and this was her "Steve" shirt. She loved it so much we had to buy it in a bigger size after she grew out of this one. I think this was taken on the first day of preschool.

Photo of the Day

Remember dance festival at the Tacoma Dome? I remember cutting out all those letters for their costumes! The girls look so young and it was less than two years ago-July, 2008. Pictured are Madi, Paige, Corey & Emily.

Birthday Wishes

Happy Birthday wishes go out late to Ally whose birthday was on this past Tuesday!!! Hope you have a great year being 11!

Photo of the Day

I have been thinking about doing another segment on my blog and finally decided on a "Photo of the Day". It will consist of either old pictures that are scanned (to motivate me to get that done) or new pictures of whatever catches my interest that day. I figured since I put most of these photos into my blog books, it would be a great way to get some of our older photos that are not digital and are laying around languishing into a format that will get them viewed.



This photo of Scott in his Carhartt "bibs" was taken in Iowa during wintertime. It was so cold there that he had to wear these to work in the warehouse to keep from freezing. You can see Gabby behind him. She must have been around 10 months old. Scott still had the "big" glasses back then and his hair was mostly brown instead of gray :)

Winter Gardening

Sometimes Mother Nature likes to give us a reprieve here in Western Washington. I think she knows that if we don't get at least some sun breaks throughout the winter we might all turn into slugs. Today we hit the low 50's and it wasn't even raining! It may not sound like much to people in other parts of the country, but after you live in liquid sunshine for months on end, it is a nice change.

After work I decided to enjoy the weather and headed out to the back yard to do some gardening-yes, actual gardening! I pruned many of my plants including my magnolia tree and raked up all those yucky leaves that have been having a grand time fermenting in my flower beds. I guess we didn't do as great a job as we thought this fall raking leaves. I managed to fill the entire blue yard waste bin before it was too dark to see anymore.

I don't know how my body will feel tomorrow-probably really sore from all that raking & squatting-but right now I feel terrific. There is just something about gardening that I just love. Maybe it's seeing new signs of life-my bleeding heart is sending up shoots!-or just knowing that eventually it will warm up and we will be able to enjoy all those beautiful flowers. I know it will be a long while, but I cannot wait for spring!

Puyallup Volksmarch #1

This morning we started our quest to complete 20 Volksmarches this year in Puyallup. We got a bit of a late start, but still managed to finish before the rain started. It was quite cold & the fog kept us from seeing "wonderful views of Mt. Rainier" as advertised. Still, we made it and were happy that Jen & Clarissa both came along to participate. Winston was happy to be included as we are really bad about walking him regularly.


The group (minus Jen who's taking the picture) .

Jen & me. I made Jen be in the picture even though she protested.

Gabby

The girls took a little spinning break while Winston dug in the rocks.