It's Beginning to Look A lot Like Christmas!!

I just love this holiday season, it makes me so happy and feel so good inside! I love to just sit in my house and have all the reminders of Christmas all around me and listen to Christmas music. We decided to just get a small tree this year since we will be going to California, but even though it's small, I still love it! Tyler and Kai keep asking ever day if Santa comes today (this will be a long December), and they started their advent calendar to the countdown (thank you Grosi). This year we will spend Christmas in California with some family. It will be so fun to spend time with family this holiday season and meet our new baby nephew on the Schmidt side of the family. I can't help but be so thankful with how blessed we really are I am thankful for all our blessings and to be together as a family this Christmas, because that is what really matters. Here are some pic's of what makes me so very happy! Tis the Season!

Austin did a GREAT job on the Christmas lights on the house!

The stockings are hung just waiting for Santa!

And what Christmas is truly about, the nativity scene.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was a lot of fun this year with these little girls! (sorry the pictures are in backwards order..) Tyler was a witch and Kai was a monkey and the cutest monkey I have ever seen, every house we went to people had to comment how darn cute Kai was and she was so happy and exited to say trick-or-treat and then get candy! Then she would immediately say, "mommy, can we go to another house now?" And Tyler was a champ, she stayed running with the big kids and wanted to go to as many houses as possible. Before trick-or-treating we went to our neighbors for a halloween party that they have every year, we played games and had scary food to eat. I made "mummy pizza's" to take over, and they had other items there like bloody fingers (chicken trips), mummy toes, and lots of other scary things to eat. Then we started to walk through the neighborhood trick-or-treating with some friends, when Austin and our neighbor decided to go get our trailer and hook it up behind his Excursion. So we piled a lot of kids in the trailer and drove through the neighborhood trick-or-treating. They got so much candy and loved every minute of it. And thankfully, we had a dry evening! We had non-stop rain for 24 hours before the evening of halloween, then it stopped raining and was actually not very cold for the entire night.

This is the "candy sorting" party that we all love to do! We did this the morning after Halloween because we were too tired that night

The trailer filled with kids going trick-or-treating

Tyler doing good, filling her pillow case with candy!

She was making a drink out of witches brew!

My mummy pizza's we took to the party.

Aren't they so adorable! Or scary I guess I should say since Kai wanted to be a scary monkey and Tyler wanted to be a mean witch... what is with that?

Yes, I dressed as a witch too! But I was a nice witch.

This was the day before Halloween before Tyler went to preschool in their adorable skirts that Grosi made.

Carving Pumpkins/Pumpkin Patch

We have had a fun past few days celebrating halloween. First we carved pumpkins this weekend and that is always fun at our house. Kai really loved to clean the "pumpkin guts" out and played in the guts for a long time, she loved the feel of it. Tyler has never been so fond of the feel, but she got through it by washing her hands every few minutes. And Austin did a very cool pumpkin as usual with the skull and flames of etc. I did the haunted house one and Austin and Tyler did the other skull head. Overall, it was a great family fun filled evening!

Then on Monday Tyler's preschool had a field trip to the pumpkin patch and I took the girls. That is always fun. They have a small petting animal area with a baby cow, baby goats, baby pigs, a bunny, and baby horses. Tyler and Kai loved touching the animals, but the pig's scared Kai a bit as they were very interested in her and wanted to sniff her a little too much for her liking. We went for a hay ride, went through a hay maze, then the kids got to pick their own pumpkin out of the patch to bring home. It was a fun day!

The Dentist!

Tyler and Kai had a dentist appt this week and come to find out, Kai had a cavity! How could this be, she is only 2 years old and believe me my children hardly ever get candy or sweets and they brush there teeth every day. Joe can you help me out here?

Anyway, Kai was such a good girl! I could not believe it. She let the dentist drill, rinse, dry, put a fill in and everything while being so good and brave. Even after we got home she said, "Mom, can we go to the dentist tomorrow?" She surprised me and I was very proud of her. Pics are below.

Roller Skating

Last weekend our neighbor had a birthday party roller skating. This was Tyler and Kai's first experience on roller skates. They both loved it and got the hang of it pretty fast, although we did have to hold on to their hands to entire time. Kai was funny, she would say, "I can do it myslef now" so we let go of her hands and immediately she would fall down, then should would want our help again. She so badly wanted to skate on her own, but just too little still. After a while she got tired, and we we pushed her in a stroller, as the skating place allowed strollers on the floor, then Kai really enjoyed that. Tyler had fun, but she really liked to watch everyone else skate and observe . She was really uneasy on the floor and wanted us to hold her hands, but she did really well.

It was a fun birthday party and a fun family day of roller skating. Austin even did the

Hokey- Pokey and won a race in a game against other skaters. Enjoy these silly pictures...

Tyler's 5th Birthday!

Tyler turned 5 yesterday. Yes, I said 5! She is growing so fast and I can't even believe it! She is such a good girl and we just love her to pieces!

She had a great polka dot birthday party with her friends and had so much fun. Then on Monday she had a birthday surprise at preschool with was her Grosi and Grosvati surprising her with their visit from Utah. She was so excited to see them and we have had a very good visit with them. We went to the fair, made a birthday cake, opened presents, went to a birthday dinner out, went for a walk, went to the park and much, much more! We have all had so much fun these last fews days and we love having Grosi and Grosvati here to visit. Thanks for coming and for the fun surprise for Tyler! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my 5 year old!

Here are pics from every year on Tyler's birthday.

Tyler was born in San Antonio, Texas

1 year old!

2 years old!

3 years old!

4 years old!

5 years old!

Sushi Night!

Austin and I LOVE sushi and could eat it for every meal, except its very costly, so unfortunately we rarely get it. We have been wanting to make it ourselves for a while now and we finally scheduled a day for it and invited some neighbors over to enjoy with us! We were very apprehensive since we have never done this before and had no idea what to expect. Austin went to a few different places in Tacoma and found some great sushi grade fish. He purchased tuna, salmon, and tilapia. I got the "fixins", shrimp, avocados, carrots, cucumbers, etc.. and I attempted to make the rice, which by the way, is more difficult than I thought, with a few ingredients I have never used before! And Austin was the "Master Sushi Chef". He did such a great job and the sushi was the best I have EVER had! It was sooo delicious and everyone really loved it. It was so fresh and light. Austin really came into his role a master sushi chef and enjoyed making his creations. It was a huge success and we will absolutely be doing it again in the future. We would recommend it to any sushi lover, as the cost was WAY cheaper than a restaurant and fresh and better tasting!

Thanks Dear for making such great Sushi!

Tyler's First Day of Preschool

Tyler is now in the 3 day a week preschool class and today was her first day. She goes to Strawberry Patch Preschool, which is a parent cooperative preschool and we both love it there! This year she has a new teacher, Miss Sally, although she is not new to us, as she has been a parent there for a couple years. The last teacher, as Miss Teresa, retired last year, and we will miss her, but Miss Sally is a great teacher and this will be a great year! This is a hard year at preschool for me because I know it's Tyler's last, then off to Kindergarten next year and I am not sure I can handle that!!! SO, I am very glad that this preschool is a parent co-operative and I can spend a lot of one-on-one time with her before she is off to school for good, without Mom at her side! Here are pic's from her first day, and I was a "parent helper" today.

The Puyallup Fair!

We love the Puyallup fair and try to go every year. This time we went with some friends and if you go on the first day of the fair before noon, then you get in free, so that is what we did. We packed in a lunch and made a full day of it. The girls love to look at all the animals and it was a beautiful, sunny day in Washington. We all had a great time!

What a funky chicken!

Oh, we want one of these!

This is one patient Mamma!

Aren't they sooooo adorable

!

UFC 102!

Austin is a huge fan of the UFC (and I enjoy it too), and we take turns with a group of friends hosting each fight at one of our houses, BUT UFC 102 came to Portland and we did not want to miss on this great opportunity to actually go to the UFC live, so a few months back I got Austin tickets as a surprise and our friends Jesse and Katy got tickets as well. This Friday Austin, Jesse and Katy headed to Portland to watch the weigh-in's, then on Saturday, after the baby sitter got here, I met up with them. We were able to stay with some of Katie's family and save on the hotel costs, so that was really nice, and we actually went to UFC 102!!

It was so, so cool and a lot of fun! Randy Couture vs. Nogueria was the main event fight and it went all 3 rounds, but unfortunately Couture lost to decision, but regardless, it was a great fight. There were a lot of other good fight and we all just really enjoyed it and had a great time.

Utah summer 2009

Where do I begin?!?!

This summer in Utah was so much fun and we were so busy! Here is a list of some things we did:

Running the Provo canyon, mountain biking on South Mountain, Canyoneering the Subway Canyon in Zions National Park, wake boarding and tubing on Deer Creek, four-wheeling to Daniel Summit, swimming, riding the zip line, lots of great food and eating out, shopping, and time with family, friends, and more family!

What a great summer we had!!

This will be a summer we wont forget and it was great to see so much family and spend so much time together. Thank you especially to both our parents for helping out so much, watching the girls sometimes, planning fun events, and putting up with us! We love you and we are so grateful for you!

I tried to post some pic's below, but I have so many!

Tyler is getting so big (almost 5), isn't she so pretty!

Yup, that is me, repelling in Zions

Zions is so beautiful!

Silly Austin

The rock is so red and really cool how the sand and wind can shape the rock and make it have these grooves and lines in it.

The subway canyon in Zions, for good reason, looks just like a subway tunnel

l

Just the girls!

Mya, Tyler, Kai, and Afton

(and congrats to my sister for adding one more girl to this mix, born today!)

Tara with Bella, then Austin with Kai, and me with Tyler on the tube at Deer Creek

A giant inflated slide at my Aunt Karen's house for my cousin David's birthday.

This is Ginny, Devan, Sam, Massiel and Kai

Can't forget Tyler and Kai's favorite thing... the zip line! So much fun!

Since Devan and Ginny are living at my parents house, we got to spend a lot of time with them and the girls just adore Ginny!

Look what I caught them doing at Grosi's house.

The zip line again!

Kai LOVED getting her hair cut and wanted to do it again, right after she was done... so exciting, just like a girl!

Four wheeling to Daniel Summit with the Lewis family. We were all together for 3 whole days!

Lewis family pic!

Great Weekend!

This 4th of July was great! It all started off with my 5K run in Tumwater which was the first running race I had ever entered. My goal is to run at least the half marathon (maybe full marathon) in Seattle in November, so I thought I would start at a 5K level and work my way up. Well, my goal was to just finish this race and not to come in dead last, but to my surprise, I did more than finish, I actually came in 1st place for Women! Now, don't get me wrong, this was no HUGE race with thousands of runners or anything, but regardless, I was pleasantly surprised and a little proud of myself! I actually got a nice plaque and ribbon. I guess this means I will keep training and move on up to a 10K. I do like running, but I don't want to get obsessive about it, so I will continue to run for enjoyment and stress release and I may enter a race here and there for fun.

NEXT we had a huge neighborhood BBQ in our court and it was a blast! We had so many people here and lots of food, fun and games! The kids played on the trampoline and in our new little blow up pool. We had pinatas, sparklers, basketball games, rodeo golf and we ended the night with an awesome firework show put on by Austin. It was a great 4th of July!

Tyler's Dance Recital

Tyler had her first dance recital tonight and she did so great! I can't believe how fast she is growing! She looked adorable and and had no stage freight. She remembered her dance pretty good and it was just so sweet. We were so proud of her and she said it was a lot of fun, so that is what matters. I was a little mad though that she would not let me take very many pictures. I wanted to take some in front the my neighbors beautiful flower garden, but Tyler really does not like getting her pic taken and she would not have it and since we were late, I did not have time to argue with her, so I got a few at the recital and I did get a professional one that I will post after I get it. We love you Tyler, and great job on your first dance performance!

THE SUN!

We have had the MOST beautiful weather! I tell you, it can rain in Washington, but when the sky is blue and its not raining.... it is the most beautiful place on earth! We have been outside every day just soaking up the sun and playing, playing, playing! We went to the pool last week and the girls had SO much fun and yesterday I had a great girls day on our lake. Just my two girlfriends and I left all the kids to their Dad's and went out on a little trolling boat to our lake. We were out there for 4 1/2 hours! and had not realized it when we got home... (thankfully we have wonderful husbands, and they were not mad, just happy we enjoyed ourselves). It was so peaceful, and beautiful and quiet and just wonderful! I had such a good day and a much needed girls time. 

And also on another note, I was outside working on my computers on my deck because it was so beautiful and all the sudden, I heard this tiny baby kitty cry. I was looking around and saw this little kitty that came out of no where! She was hurt, with a tooth hanging out and her nose was scratched, but she was so adorable. I was not sure to what to with her since, Amiga is NOT kitty friendly. But he kitty was too small to survive on it's own and I wanted to find a good home for her, so I went to my neighbors house and she instantly fell in love with her and took her to the vet to keep cleaned up and is keeping her. Tyler and Kai love this kitty and Tyler named her "Bear". They go visit the kitty every day at the neighbors and it's Tyler's Kitty away from home.  

SO... here are some pic's of last week swimming and Bear, the Kitty

Another Project

We FINALLY got some yard work done. Our yard is so difficult because of the hill, the septic system, and a trillion rocks that its just so expensive to do anything! But this year we promised ourselves to do one part of it, then next year we will do another section and so on. BUT, since the girls got a trampoline this year for Christmas we needed to get an area ready for that. Here are the dramatic before and after pic's. We love it and have been out there every day this beautiful weekend just jumping on the trampoline, playing in a new sand box and soaking up the sun! The girls just love the trampoline and that is all they want to do. It's the first thing Kai asks to do when she wakes up in the morning and from a nap. We had such a fun weekend playing at home with each other and our friends, what a great holiday weekend!

BEFORE!

After the tractor got it ready for gravel.

AFTER!

Silly Girls.

Austin will build a retaining wall with bricks over on the right side where the side of the hill was dug out.... plus a few other things we are still doing with gravel for a swing set etc... It looks great, but still has a lot of work left to do, but a great start!