Gracee's 2nd Birthday

Gracee's has offically hit 2 and now has a reason to act the way she does. Jake asked me the other night "do you think she is going through the terrible 2's" and I said "if this is not them, then shoot me". I hope people understand--2 and red-head should not be aloud to go together. I tell people she acts like a 7 yr old but is really 2-- I think a lot of this comes from her trying to keep up w/ her brother-- her vocabulary, her aggressiveness, her attitude.

Some of the things Gracee loves to do: read, draw, dance, play w/ her kitchen and all the new food she got, dig in her mom's purse (to find gum and chapstick), and pick on all the little kids her age.

What she can say: she has a ton of vocabulary. she mainly says 2 worded phrases and every once in a while gets out a sentence-- I dont want it, no want go nana's (the babysitter).

She went to the doctor yesterday for her well child visit and did not want a dang thing to do w/ Dr. Julie (of which is the sweetest, kindest, gentlest person). she weighed in at 25.11 (35%) and 35 inches (20%). Last time in March she was 85% for height--guess she is going to be a midget. She was such a big girl when she go her flu shot-- her brother on the other hand cried like a baby.

Family Pictures

We took these a couple of weeks ago but I am finally getting around to posting them. My vary patient friend Annette took these--doesn't she do a fabulous job.

Silverwood and Stoneridge Resort

We took our little vacation for the summer up to Idaho to enjoy Silverwood and stay in a resort, that I used to stay in growing up, called Stoneridge. I will let the pictures do the talking-- its much better that way.


some nice lady took our picture after we got off the log ride



Krae being a nice big brother and taking his sister on a kiddie ride-- the helicopter's. Truthfully I think he enjoyed it just as much as she did.


Gracee and I shared a snow cone while waiting for Jake amd Krae to get off a roller coaster ride. she pretty much took care of the whole thing herself, little stinker. I might add that Krae rode every single roller coaster ride there and LOVED them. I took him on the 1st one, a mild one, it only lasts about 30 seconds but it beats your head around and as I am screaming in the seat next to him he is laughing his head off because his little head I am sure is just being beat to heck. I forgot to add that Jake lost his voice from all the screaming he did from riding the rollercoasters, but krae still has his voice.



We spent the 1st couple of hours on the ride side of the park and then headed to the waterpark for 4 hrs during the heat of the day. I must say Gracee LOVED this part, a playground and water all in one



Krae loving the water also-- his dad and him got to go and enjoy some of the more thrill seeking water slides while Gracee and I stayed at the kiddie zone.



Jake being the good sport he was, took Gracee down the little kiddie slides and cut his finger (trying not to wipe out another little kid) but would not tell me because he was afraid I would make him stop and go get it fixed (sound like a little kid to you)




Here are the Stoneridge pictures. I first have to add how I love this place-- lots of good memories. we used to go there once if not 2 x a yr with all my aunts uncles cousins and Grandma and spend our whole time in a one bedroom condo-- I have no idea how we managed that. Anyways this place is surrounded by a golf course and has a mini golf course, and indoor pool and hot tub, 3 raquet ball courts, a basketball court, an arcade, 2 tennis coutrs, a playground and much more-- who wouldn't have fun.

Gracee at the Playground-- I finally got a face picture-- I have about given up on taking pict of her because all I ever get is the back or side of her head


Krae at the playground


All 3 of my kids mini-golfing-- I know this particular picture does not look like a golf course -- this would be the reason why my daughter was more interested in "swimmin" than golfing. all she could say the whole time was go swimmin


Gracee about the 1 and only time she hit the ball other than that she was too busy throwing a fit wanting to "go swimmin"


Krae mini-golfing--nice form I might add


The hot tub-- we spent a lot of time in here. I remember as a kid going swimming the minute we woke up then eating bkft, then going again, then eating lunch, going again, then eating dinner, and then going for a late night swim-- so we tried to live up too that-- we almost made it but one of those swims Gracee and I traded in for a nap-- it was the best, I do not even know the last time I had a nap.


I had to include this pict-- isnt it the sweetest, they are actually getting along. Or should I say Gracee is actually being nice enough for Krae to touch her-- he can get so mad because she does not want to have a thing to do w/ him at times. Maybe I should clarify-- when he wants her to do something she does not, but on the other hand when she wants to, he does not want her around- go figure

Happy Fathers Day and Misc.

By the way I hate how these pictures download, I can never get them in the order I want them. so in no particular order...

OK now that I have that all clear I wanted to wish all the fathers out there a Happy Fathers Day. We spent out day in the mountains fishing (I figured it was something that both the kids and Jake would enjoy). We went with my sister in law and her husband and son, and met my parents up there (although everyone was invited, not all we able to join). It rained most the day :( so we were soaking wet, but that did not stop us. We did stop and cook some lunch and made a fire so that we could warm up.


ok, these were suppose to be last but because they are here there is nothing I can do about it now. I included these pictures to show what we have been doing the last few weeks around the house. For those of you who do not know, this is our back yard that is FINALLY all picked up and organized (I have only been trying to get that done for the last 5 yrs and something else always seems to be more important). Usually it has tall weeds and it is where we pile everything when we do not know what to do w/ it, or have the time to deal w/ it. As you can see, my husband collected wood and we finally have it in a nice, neat pile instead of a heaping stack. We mowed all the weeds down and removed some shed bases (3) (left by the previous owners), weed ate ? eated ??? around the fence, hauled 3 loads of junk to the dump, saw 3 snakes (but no mice), got stung by wasps, etc, etc, etc. I am just sooooo glad to finaaly have it done. I wish I would have taken a before picture because some of you are probably thinking it still looks like a pig sty-- believe me it is a 100% better than it used to be.



Gracee and Jake fishing-- she loved the idea until she fell in, then she was too stinking cold to care.


Krae and his cousin Quinten w/ the days catch-- not much, nor very big, but is sure made these 2 happy.


So beside cleaning up our back yard, we finished up our 6 week swim lessons last week at the court club. This is Krae, and for some reason it was just the 2 of them on the last day, usually there were 4.


Here is Gracee and I-- on the last day they learned about water safty so they all were wearing their life jackets. This was a parent/tot class so yes, I had to get in the pool everytime, besides having to do that I enjoyed the class, especially the last 5 mins of every class where we went and sat in the hot tub. Gracee liked it the first week, cried the whole time on the 2nd and 3rd week, and then the 4-6th week she decided she was quite the fish and became a dare devil-- so much that she now scares me around the water because she has no fear. I do not know if that is a good or bad thing.


And here is Jake (my 3rd child) on the way home. He decided to put our nephews swim goggles on. When he let me take this picture I am sure he did not even think that I might possibly put this on here

Its About Time !!!

Well after the comment I made on my last post, 2 months ago, about being excited for spring quarter to begin because I would have so much more time. I was DEAD wrong we have been SOOOOOOOO busy. Krae did babseball and that ate up a BUNCH of our time 3 days a week. By the time he got to baseball by 5:30 and stayed until 7 and did not get home until 7:30 we did not have a whole lot else going on for those 6 weeks and boy did we pay for it later. We basically only got around to mowing our yard but ignored the weeds and was that ever a big mistake. I think we are going on 3 or 4 weeks now of doing nothing but yard work on weekends ( in addition to the othr home improvement projects we had going). I still wonder how working mothers are able to get everything done when they have more than 1 child in an acivity. When do you fix dinner, when do you clean house, How do you keep on top of everything? WOW-- it has me scared to get him involved in anything else.

Anyways now that I have rambled on--Here are some picts of what we have been up to lately:

Krae @ Baseball-- look at his pants-- how cute-- he does not even come close to filling them out-- with the genes he has, I am sure that will not be a problem someday.


Jake's sister's fam and us went on a vacation to the OR. zoo and beach at the beginning of May

Here we are at the zoo-- minus Jake who is taking the pic


Here we are on the beach-- notice the sandhill in the background-- people climb it all the time. This is the 3rd time I have been to this spot and I finally climbed it. Last time we were here in July and Krae climbed it and made it look so easy-- that was not he case, but I eventually made it to the top-- poor Jake carried Gracee all the way. Good thing it had rained the night before and made the sand not so soft.





As you can see I was the last one up because I am taking the picts-- krae is ahead of us all


and finally the view from the top--- itwas worth the climb


family pict


Our house project: we finally got the patio cover done-- or done enough for now-- Jake would like to add railing in between the posts and he still has to enclose the underside so that we do not get a done of wasp nests (at the rate we are going that might be next summer).



And while jake was working on the patio cover I got the pleasure of shoveling all that rock (most of it) in the playground area. Now the kids have a nice little area to go and play, and let me tell you, they have already got some good use out of it and so have our friends. I have to give Jake the credit for putting together the swingset-- if you have never put one of these things together before-- it takes more time than you think-- it probably took him a good 2 full days or so.

Spring Break !

First of all I must say I survived the first 2 quarters of my radiology class ( and so did the students) that I taught at CBC. This spring I will just be helping in clinic classes and therefore do not have to come up w/ power points, handouts, quizzes, tests, etc so it should be a walk in the park. I am glad to see that my working life will slow down a bit because my family life always seems to pick up in the spring and summer. That is the great thing about teachng at the college I can kind of pick and choose and that way I can cut back in the spring and then I hope to only have to work 2-3 days in the summer instead of 4 (if everything goes my way).

Here are soem random pictures that describe what we have been up too lately

I have been introducing potty training to Gracee for the last couple of months now so everytime she takes a bath I always try to sit her on the toilet. This is what I found one day--Kraeton trying to potty train her. That would be fine and dandy but he later left her in there and shut the door and she can not get off the toilet by herself. I was trying to locate where the screaming was coming from and found her stranded on the toilet. I seriously think this girl is ready to potty train. In the last couple of weeks she has been hidding to go poop and then coming to me and telling me "poopy" and 1 time she even brought me a diaper and the wipes. Yesterday she decided she was going to try and change her own diaper and I ended up w/ a shoe coated in it from her stepping in it (luckfully it happened in the kitchen and therefore did not make too big of a mess). I have decided that I will probably wait until my next school break in June to potty train her because for the last couple of months I have been telling myself that during my spring break I was oing to take her binky away because she was becoming wayyyy to attached to it. Mission accomplished, yea. Taking the binky from my kids is ALOT harder than taking a bottle away but we survived, well should I say I did. I left Jake w/ her for a couple hours the 1st day I took the binky away and he had to put her down for a nap and he said she kicked his butt. she through the cup across the room then the bink, then started kicking and screaming and literally beating the crap out of him. And while we are on the subject of Gracee we had her 18 month check up. She weighs 22.5 lbs 20% and 32 inches tall 70%, we got out of there w/ no shots so we both were happy girls. Oh yeah, I also had Dr Julie do a physical on me because it had been since 04 and Gracee did not like Dr Julie doing anything too me. the sethescope could not come near me, the ear checker thing, nothing.




Some goofy pictures of the kids:

Krae came out of the bonus room the other day looking like this and thought it was the funniest thing and let me take this picture, I warned him after the picture was taken that about 10 yrs from now he is going to regret that.


Gracee w/ Nina's reading glasses and of course a book.


Last weekend Kraeton participated in a wrestling Camp at the high school where they practiced 4x over 2 wks and then had a little tournament. For little ole burbank they actually had a decent turn out, there were about 50 kids w/ 10 in krae's age group of Kinder and 1st graders. To my surprise he actually did exceptionally well. My son loves sports but is not real serious about them and from what I had seen at practice he was just there for the fun and games. My parents came and for those of you who know my mom she never leaves the house w/out her camera, so I told her you better hurry down there mom because if you are not there when it starts there may not be any picture to take-- I ate my words. He just happens to be good at a sport I could care less if he plays in-- I hate wrestling from everything to what they have to wear, to the way they take care of themselves (diets), to the 1 on 1 "its up to you to win". He now is onto baseball (well actually they overlapped awhile and I have no idea how people do it when there children have multiple things going on, and then on top of that, other children doing other things. It drove Jake crazy that we could not sit down and have dinner together)and to my surprise again he can actually hit the ball, as a matter of fact the coach came up to me 1 night and asked if my husband would be willing to come to 1 of the 3 practices each week to help w/ hitting because he thought Kraeton had really nice form-- too bad we rarely practice hitting.



I got the pleasure last week of watching my niece Laney while my brother and sister-in -law went out to dinner for Amy's b-day (that was a first for us). We really enjoyed Laney's company even though attention to my poor little girl lacked-- I decided to take them on a mini walk and my daughter ended up getting dumped out head 1st onto asphalt from the stroller. I then had 2 crying babies because Laney was afraid since Gracee was screaming and then I had to carry both of them back home (there for a while I was not sure if I was going to make it back home, my arms were killing me).


We went bowling for Ryan and Amy's B-day latter that week and here the 2 girls are sitting together-- did I mention how super hard it is to get both of these guys to look at the camera at the same time-- those stupid delayed digitals



I forgot to mention that I have been cleaning like a mad dog. Since I have been so busy my house has been spot cleaned. I am one of those that always has to have things picked up and looking clean but I am not a clean freak, My house is not spotless, I call my type of cleaning "topical cleaning" because from the outside it looks clean but if you look really close it is not. So I decided that I needed to go from room to room and clean from head to toe, so I started in Krae's room, then the living room, then the kitchen then my office and a few storage closets along the way and hopefully tomorrow I will finish up in Gracee's room and our bedroom and bath. I even broke the paint out and did touch ups in every room. The only bad part to it is that it is taking forever and by the time I am done I will need to start back at square 1-- it will just make me feel soooo much better once it is done.

At the end of the week for some down time we decided that we would go try out camping for the 1st time this year. We have never done it before but we are headed to hood park, yeap that it only a couple miles form us but we decided we would give it a go. Jake's sister and brother in law are going to join us since they just got a camper. I know it may seem a little crazy but we always say we are going to do more than 1 camping trip and we usually only get 1 or 2 in and I told Jake that this is 1 way to get more camping ,but he is convienced that it is way too close to home to be considered camping. I guess we will find out-- wish us luck.

Happy Birthday U 2

So I do not normally post everyones b-days, but this one was worth posting because I had the perfect picture to go with it. Yes, I was told that this had better not show up on the blog (back at Christmas time), but I finally could not hold out any longer (sorry guys). Ryan's was yesterday and Amy's is on Friday. Happy Birthday Wieseler's. I can't wait to go bowling considering the last time I went I fell flat on my face.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEE

In no particular order at all because I randomly did this blog:







Yep, thats right I am one year closer to 30 and its had me a little freaked out this past week. Not that I think 30 is extremely old, but when you tell someone that you are twenty-something--they always reply w/ something like "wow your young". I have a feeling once you hit 30 they no longer will say that, maybe thats just me.

So I got to get up and go have breakfast w/ my favorite girls Jess, Amy, and Bobbie at IHOP. We all decided that going to breakfast was a GREAT idea, until it actually came time to ordering and we all we starving and wanted EVERY breakfast item on the menu. While at IHOP Bobbie mentioned that I should order first since it was my b-day . Later on (mind you it is 9:30am) I hear them start to do a birthday song ( in the back ground) and in my head I was thinking, who in the heck is celebrating their b-day at this time of the morning, then it dawned on me that they we probably headed my way, meanwhile the girls are talking and do not realize what is going on until I say "Sh@!, they had better not be heading over here"--too late they already were. Lesson learned--be careful what you tell the waiters, but we did get to enjoy some yummy ice cream at 10 in the morning, that does not happen too often. We then headed over and got pedicures, and sure as hells bells I got another damn thing of grass painted on my toe instead of the flower that I asked for. I think that the last time I got a birthday pedicure I got the same thing. This time I got a combo, a little bit of grass w/ some corn?????

We had some family over this afternoon for no, not cake (not a big fan of cake but yes I do eat it) but Mud Pie that Jake made me. And of course I cannot forget the presents. Now that the addition was done almost 2 yrs ago (in April), I finally decided that bare walls are no longer OK. So I asked for mainly money so I can get something up on those walls in the new livingroom. I have put it off for so long because we were trying to decide what theme we wanted to go w/. I was thinking an african theme and Jake was not too crazy about that and he would take a hunting room any day, but I am not crazy about that so I finally decided the heck w/ it and got a mirror, a star (since everyone else has one in there house), a couple shelves w/ matching frames, and then I am waiting for the spring craft show at the end of march to get a metal frame work design w/ dried flowers ( thats where my cash will go) in it and from there decide what and where I will hang this stuff. I also recieved a couple cook books, mini crock- pot (for dips), entry way table and mirror, a large painted picture of a rooster (that my mom painted), and a hand crafted rooster (from Jess). Oh and Jake made me some coasters out of tile for the living rom up stairs. And I forgot to mention the present I got myself, a new purse and wallet.

I must not forget to mention that it is my Dad's Birthday also, yep poor guy had to share his birthdays w/ me. I am sure he would say that he never got a birthday from the age of 22 to about last year (I think that is when I finally let him have it back and decided we could share it). I must add there is a good and a bad to having it on the same day. Good that I get to celebrate such a great day w/ him but bad because when I was growing up, regardless if it was our b-day or not--we worked. I do recall that for my 16th B-day I got to pick rocks ALL DAY. I was not a happy camper.