Spring time color

The other day I was at Target blowing my $100 purchasing the household necessities and discovered that Essie nail polish is now being sold at the ol' Tar-jay.  There went $8 out of the budget super fast.  I picked up Navigate Her which is so different from the normal pinks, purples and oranges I normally gravitate towards.  It was fun to paint my nails since I don't normally take that much time for myself to make my nails all pretty for just a day.

Valentine Swag Swap

A few weeks ago, a couple of gals, Caroline and Alissa, had come up with a great idea to do a Valentine blog swap.  Each blogger was paired with another blogger and were to put together a box of goodies to send to the other.  It sounded like fun, so I tossed in my name and my partner is Frances.

It have been fun to read about Frances and I love the name of her blog, Welcome to GrownUpLand.  She's a recent college grad from TCU and has fun posts about music, pinterest and her life and the ups and downs.  She sent me a fun box full of goodies.

Love the outside of the box!  It came a few days before Valentine's Day, but what fun to receive a box that states Happy Valentine's Day!!

Here is the majority of my goodies.  I must confess that I devoured the Reese's peanut butter heart and my boys consumed the Hershey's kisses. :)  I'm going to add a photo of my favorite guys and put the photo frame in my studio.  I love getting note pads and this one has magnets and the back to hang on my fridge.  Whoot!!  I'm constantly jotting down random ideas, menu plans, new kitchen gadgets or appliances that need to be replaced after 12 years of marriage, or things needing to be accomplished.

She also sent nail polish with a new pedicure set to make my toes all pretty and then socks to cover up said toes when my feet get cold, which is 10 months out of the year.  There is also some super fun bracelets and a pretty fabric rose, too.

Thank you Miss Frances for the box of goodies!!

Day 314

A little playtime
Loving the tongue

Day 225

A Day at the Beach
Ocean Shores

Day 192

A Day With Thomas

Day 164

Silliness

Day 360

Tonight is movie night and since I received a popcorn popper for Christmas and the boys received the movie Up from Uncle Kyle and Aunt Robin, it was a movie night in the making.

We did enjoy the movie and made 3 bowls of popcorn. Andy didn't care for the salted popcorn, but enjoyed the popcorn sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. Aaron liked the popcorn too and left me a nice mess to clean up on my red couch. We might have to start having movie nights more often.

Day 355

This week with Andy being out of school for the Christmas holiday, I figured we should have a few crafts to keep us busy instead of running back and forth to school. Since I pulled out my stamps the other night to make labels for Christmas presents, I got the idea to pull out a few stamps and let the boys have some fun today. Aaron had more fun stamping himself with the ink pad than stamping the paper. Baby wipes work wonders on clean up.

Day 320

Today was such a fun day. I got to spend the day shopping with my mom and aunt. Mike took the boys to Qdoba for lunch and a little concert with Switchfoot and then bought tickets to the U2 concert at Qwest Field next June.

To top off our day, my parents took the boys for the evening and Mike and I headed to Oklahoma City to see Switchfoot in concert. We had such a great time rocking out and singing along to a lot of the songs since we have almost all their cd's. It was so nice to have a date night with my husband during our vacation.

Day 312

Today after church was a relaxing day at home and the boys built a train track. It was really sweet to watch them continue to play nicely together even after their baths. Granted they had their moments of disagreements, but they are each learning how to work together.

Day 310

My dear friend, Dana, decided to have a girl's get together for no other reason than to hang out without our kiddos and enjoy each other's company. She fixed quite the spread of cheese, crackers, spinach artichoke dip, veggies and dip, wontons, chips, salsa, guacamole and brownies. Along with all the yummy food was wine and mocktails for all us preggers. Come to find out, there was one more amongst us as she told us tonight she was 12 weeks along and starting to tell people. Somethings in the water around here....

Okay, the mocktails were yummy drinks and I'm going to have to get the recipes for Thanksgiving for some fun, festive drinks, but the best part was just catching up with one another. After a chance to eat and drink, Dana whipped out the XBox and my favorite game, Lips. It's a karaoke game with a mix of songs from the 70s, 80s, 90s and today. I sang Walk Like an Egyptian by the Bangles to warm up and then busted a move with some song about lip gloss. I have no idea who sings it, or why I'm so good at it, but I can put that song down and earned nearly 2 million points to become Super Nova. Unfortunately, the little one kicking around is starting to make it hard for me to sing and breathe at the same time, so I was a bit winded after the lip gloss song, but I was glad Dana's sister got a picture of me belting out the song.

Day 227

As each day begins, I feel just a bit better, but once again, spent some serious time with the couch. This morning, Mike was playing Memory with Andy and Aaron and I enjoyed watching them play together.

Day 226

Day two of being sick, so in order for Mike to go back to work, Grandma came to the rescue. She came and picked up the boys and I to take over to her house so she could take care of us. I finally started to feel a little better this evening and while Barb was trying to change Aaron's diaper, he escaped and began climbing on top of grandpa. I just happen to have my iPhone in my hand and was able to snap a picture of my little escape artist. Luckily, grandma was able to get Aaron diapered before any kind of accident could occur.

Day 213

Redmond Town Centre is one of the local shopping malls that happens to be an outdoor mall. It's a great place to visit when it's nice outside, but Christmas shopping isn't quite that much fun when it's 40 degrees and raining. A couple of years ago, the property management installed a musical garden for the kids to play and learn about different sounds in nature. There is a water feature that is currently in full swing this summer and all three boys had a blast splashing in the little river. It wasn't until we got home and I was looking through the pictures that I noticed the corn dog and hot dog little boys. The third little guy is my cousin's little boy who is a month younger than Aaron. They are in town visiting since his grandma is coming up with my guy's nana and papa.

Day 200

As I was cleaning up from piecing my buggy barn stack, I noticed my fabric confetti and thought it was a fun reminder of all the work I have put in putting together the first 10 blocks.

Day 199

Tonight we celebrated my friend, Sarah's new baby boy to be born next month. The dinner was Mexican themed and we had a dessert of chocolate fondue. Fondue seems to be a big attraction with some of my friends and I, and what better way to have some yummy chocolate and fruit. At the far left is the milk chocolate fountain and the dark chocolate is in the fondue pot to the right. We had a great evening of girl time and oohing and aahing over baby items once again.

Day 193

Elisabeth's camera has been returned to her, PRAISE THE LORD!!!! Here we are shortly after we began our tour, before we all got dunked.

Sadly, as of today writing this post, I do not have a picture, but it will come.

Today was our last day celebrating Elisabeth and one of the gals, Atefeh, has a friend who goes white water rafting down the Wenatchee river and offered to take us for a tour. We met Mark in Cashmere, got suited up with gear and then headed a few miles out of town to where the boat was tied and began our journey. This time of year, the Wenatchee river is at a stage II or III for rapids, but the water level is low, so you do have to watch out for the rocks. We were on the river for about 45 minutes and then stopped for lunch and to move the raft around the small dam via a cart left by some generous person whom all the rafting tours use. I was sitting on the front right side of the raft chatting with some of the other gals in the raft when next thing I knew, I was over the side of the boat completely submerged under water. I swear I swallowed a few cups of water, so I come up sputtering, but I'm too far away from the boat already as I got caught up by the current. First reaction is to get the water out of my nose and then follow the advice Mark gave before we began the trip. I got my feet up and kept a hold of the paddle, only I started to lose my flip-flops. As I'm trying to get my shoes back on, my tail bone met a rock. So, I keep thinking feet up, butt up. I couldn't get my shoes back on, so I let them go bye-bye down the river, only I lost the paddle as well. Unfortunately, I had quite a ride down the river, because once everyone got back in the boat, the raft got stuck by a rock and once Mark got the boat free, they had to come get me. I wasn't feet first down the river like I should have been because I was more concerned about where the boat was, than my head hitting a rock. Not smart, but it is what it is. Well, I did finally get back in the raft and all the gals were so impressed about how calm I was floating down the river. I was starting to get cold and they didn't know that I was starting to freak out mainly because I was cold and my tail bone kept meeting rocks.
Amazingly enough, my sunglasses stayed on my head and I somehow didn't lose my headband. We continued down the river and low and behold, we find my stinking flip-flops and one of the lost paddles. My shoes were floating down a slight detour on the water, so we had to get out of the boat once again to get it over the rocks and back onto the main section of the river. Well, somehow, Crystal manages to stub her toe, but we continue on and later find the last wandering paddle. There was a nice soft gentle section where Elisabeth gets out her camera and Mark takes a group shot. I told Elisabeth I wanted that picture to use for my blog and she said she would email it to me tonight.
We make it back to Cashmere, unload all the gear and Mark takes Crystal and Kirsten back to get their cars so we can all go home. While waiting for the return of the vehicles, we all sit, chat, eat and use the restroom so once Crystal is back we can head back to Bellevue. Elisabeth needed to be back in town for a dinner hosted in her honor with the gals who were unable to come to Lake Chelan.
Anna and I were dropped off in Issaquah and it was so nice to be home and see my boys again. I think both Andy and Aaron grew while I was gone. I did enjoy my weekend away and hope that we can all go away again someday.



Update: I later received an email from Elisabeth stating she managed to leave her camera in the ladies restroom back in Cashmere, but God was awesome and the camera will be returned to Elisabeth by the end of the week, so once she emails pictures, I will be able to post our group picture of our great adventure down the Wentachee River.

Day 173

Today was a lazy day at home. Aaron is still under the weather, but at least he stopped tossing his cookies. This morning, Andy pulled his down comforter cover into the living room and wanted to use it as a tent. Mom helped him out and turned it into a fort for him and brother to play with. Unfortunately, Andy doesn't quiet understand the concept of physics yet, as he kept trying to jump into the middle of the fort. The boys had a good time and I'm sure we will try it again another cold, rainy day.

Day 155

The boys and I were invited to join some friends of ours for a pre-birthday party celebration. We went to Kidz Bounce in Preston and then had lunch at Red Robin in Issaquah. The table was set with balloons on each chair and the static electricity was crazy. I snapped a picture of Aaron with the balloon stuck to his hair. It's so great because he was laughing because we were laughing at him.

Day 145

Today is the unofficial start of the summer season, but most importantly, our nation sets aside a day to remember those who gave their lives to fight for our freedom. Mike had the day off and we spent the evening with his parents enjoying a nice BBQ. I was inside the house helping my mother-in-law put dinner together and Mike was outside living it up watching the boys play outside.