A few extras

Happy Memorial Day!

I came across a few pictures as I was cleaning up my computer and just thought I would share.

Emerson loves to play on her big sisters back. It makes for easy hair pulling! =)

Hannah and her cousin Ashlyn in their Hannah Montana wigs!

Isn't she so sweet when she sucks her thumb.

Cheese!

Back by popular demand...here is another comparison of our beautiful little girlies.

Have a great week.

I forgot to add a video at the end of the previous post. Here are Hannah and Jakob dancing...what would a party be without dancing?!? I think Hannah and Jakob could give the Dancing With The Stars dancers a run for their money.

The big birthdays

Our long weekend didn't get off to such a great start. Tom ended up having to work until 3:30 (grrr) on Friday so we didn't get the early start we had hoped/planned for. Traffic was HORRIBLE. By the time we got coffee and got on the road at 3:45 the normally 20 minute drive from Everett to Seattle was at an hour. It took us a painful 5 hours to get to Ocean Shores. It was so hot and I was boycotting the AC because of the price of gas (3.97/gallon) but by the time we managed to get to Sea-Tac I said screw it. It was horribly hot in our car. Emerson did really well considering the heat. Grandma Judy kept Hannah overnight on Thursday so we were down one kiddo on the way there which was probably a good thing. We stopped in Olympia and grabbed a quick bite to eat, I fed Emerson and then we kept on truckin. The big surprise for us when we finally got there was, Kevin's dad had flown in from Indiana for the week. I think Tom and I were the only ones that didn't know already (Kevin had spilled the beans to Rich and Kim) and what a nice surprise it was!

Saturday we got up early and headed down to the beach with Rich and Leina. The kids had so much fun down there. They both (Hannah and Jakob) insisted on wearing their swimming suits just in case they got wet. It was probably a good thing because as soon as we got there (9:00 am) they stripped down and were headed out toward the water. I'm the mean mom and won't let Hannah actually go into the water because of the strong rip current. I'm a little paranoid like that. We played there for about an hour and then headed back to the house for breakfast.

Kim and Judy opened their gifts after breakfast. Us kids got Judy a beautiful necklace that Kim picked out and then we all pitched in and got Kim a gift certificate to her favorite spa. The two little ones were less than impressed with the gifts and more so unimpressed that Auntie Kim didn't let them help her open her gifts...they were being kind of bratty.

After breakfast we got cleaned up and got ready for the guests to arrive. The party started around 1 and I think we ate until we went to bed that night. Tom did a wonderful job BBQ'ing. He likes to consider himself the BBQ king, don't let the bunny rabbit apron fool you. =)

A group of us left the party and headed down to the beach to play in the sand, fly kites and we even had a fierce game of four square going on. If you look closely at the picture, Tom is being called out by his Aunt Sally. I think he was trying to plead his case for not being called out. I can just hear him saying "what!?!", makes me laugh.

It was a really nice weekend. We couldn't have asked for better weather. I think that was the first time I've been at the Ocean and had nice weather all weekend long. What a treat! We headed home on Sunday and met up with my parents and their friends down at the Pikes Place Market and then headed to the Spaghetti factory for dinner. It was the perfect way to end our weekend.

Hannah's new house

Just had to share pictures of Hannah's new house. We had some boxes that were left in the house from our new desk and I decided to have some fun with them. Hannah wasn't too sure about what I was doing but she quickly changed her mind when I brought out the markers to decorate. I made the comment to Tom that I should have thought of that earlier on in the day and not 30 minutes before he came home. She played in there and even ate her dinner in there. She was pretty cute, coming to the table to let us know about her dinner party at her house. The white piece of paper is "to let everyone know what her name is and that it's her house". Tom said that we can leave it up for a while since she's having so much fun. It's not like we actually use the front door. =)

As a side note. Hannah's newest thing is to tilt her head like a model when ever the camera comes out. At first it was cute, her posing and all but now it's getting a little old. =)

And, we couldn't have a post with out including Ms. Emmie. She loves her Bumbo seat. I was against them at first after hearing all the safety recall stories, but her pediatrician said they were perfectly safe as long as she is supervised while sitting in it...DUH!! We do have to keep a close eye on her because she likes to reach for her toes and starts to tip out of it. =) But, boy does she love it!

Have a great weekend!

Mothers Day

I had a really nice Mother's day on Sunday. We were busy as usual but I don't think I'd know what to do with myself if we weren't. We "slept in" until 8:30. Emerson was so nice to let me sleep in. She's usually up by 7 these days. She's really throwing me for a loop with this early waking thing - Hannah has always been a late sleeper so I've grown used to getting up around 9 sometimes 9:30. 7 o'clock is for the birds! Tom and Hannah went to get me coffee, while Emerson and I enjoyed a little Mario Kart on the Wii. Tom walked in and saw that I was still in jammies and playing the game and he said "I'd have it no other way". I think I've surprised him with how much I'm enjoying the Wii, I've never really been into the whole video game thing. Tom and Hannah made us some french toast to hold us over until brunch at my sisters house. We headed over to Becky's house around 1:30 and had a wonderful time there. She tried a new recipe and boy was it y.u.m.m.y. We're definitely going to need to remember that one for next year. Hannah and Emerson got me a German Shepard Webkinz, a new coffee mug and a Starbucks card. I'm one happy mama! Tom said that Hannah was quite certain about getting me a Webkinz but had a hard time picking which one to get me. She was pretty cute. She told me as I opened it that "she knew I was going to love it" - how could I not?!? After we opened our gifts we had to get scootin to Issaquah for dinner with Judy. Tom was in charge of the camera and the only pictures I got were the ones I remembered to ask for and a few of Spencer taking pictures of Tom. I guess that's what I get for making him in charge of the camera for the day. Lesson learned. =)

I've got lots of laundry, work and possibly a sick little one to give extra love to, to keep me busy until we leave for Ocean Shores for the weekend. Tom's mom is celebrating her 60th and his sister, Kim, is turning 40. It's a par-tay weekend. Watch out Ocean Shores! I'm certain I'll be back next week with pictures of the big bash. Until then, I hope everyone is having a great week. Hugs to you all!

Spokane...finally

We had so much fun in Spokane. Tom took Friday and Monday off so we had an extra long weekend, which was a good thing. With Jen and Eddie living there now it makes it a bit more tricky to fit everyone in and feel good about it. =) Now I know how they felt on each of their trips home from Japan. We decided to fly over rather than drive. For one I'm not confident in our Jetta, it has almost 140,000 miles on it and we don't really fit all that comfortably into it. And, by flying over we got to spend more time there, so we flew. Emerson did so good on her very first plane trip and Hannah had lots of fun, not sitting in a car seat. Hannah was so cute - when we started to take off, she held onto her piggy tails as if they might get blown by the wind.

Tom got excited when he saw the WSU plane...he was hoping that we'd fly on it, no such luck.

Friday was kind of a do nothing day. We woke up and Tom & Hannah took Caryl grocery shopping, while Emmie and I stayed back and played. After dinner we headed out to the base so that we could see Eddie in action and tour the station. That WAS the plan, but the Walkers forgot their licenses (I left mine in my jeans that I wore on the plane and Tom threw his out with our boarding passes) and we all know that you can't get onto a military base without a license. So, instead we went over to see the Pohl's new house. What a beautiful house. So warm and welcoming! We left there and drove back to Caryl's house so that Tom could go rummage through the dumpster. =)

Happy Wii-ing

Saturday morning we went to Olivia's (Tom's cousin's little girl) 5th birthday party. We crashed the party so that we could meet up with and see Tom's aunts and cousin. We've gone the last two years, they just happen to have her birthday that first weekend after tax season. Works good for us just as long as they don't mind us showing up. =) They had the party at the Corbin Art Center again and it was so much fun. The kids made Mermaid windsocks, crowns and picture frames. Hannah loves to do crafts - she got to use markers and glitter glue so the party was a huge hit. After the party we met up with the Pohls at Dicks and had us some yummy burgers, drove around and then went back to their house for the night. We played their Wii and had so much fun that we had to go out and get one for ourselves.

Aunt Leina, Jakob, Hannah and the birthday girl Olivia getting their directions.

Jakob was Hannah's prince today...and they danced.

Sunday after church we had a party at Caryls house so that we could see the rest of our Eastside gang. It was nice spending time with them and it always makes us wish we lived closer.

Monday was Jen's 32nd birthday. It was so nice to actually spend her birthday with her. We met up at Zips and had a yummy lunch, then went to the kids' school to pick them up. We went back to their house for some more Wii time and birthday cake before we had to head to the airport.

That pretty much sums up our whirlwind trip to Spokane/Coeur d'Alene. That was almost 3 weeks ago. I've been trying to get this posted since then...but "life" always seemed to get in the way. Since then I've gone back to work temporarily. My sister needed some help with a special project so I volunteered and am back at Univar (where I worked before I had Hannah) part-time. She's thinking that I'll be needed until October. It's really nice, I go into the Redmond office once a week and then work from home the remainder of the time. I really have the best of both worlds and I am SO thankful for this opportunity. I'll leave you with some pictures of the last few weeks. Have a wonderful week and Happy Mother's Day to all those Mama's out there.