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

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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!