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!

Mosaic Tile Floor

After we built our addition onto our house, we had a new landing area outside our garage door and entryway into our new playroom and it was our vision to do a mosaic tile floor with Austin's mom, who is extremely talented in mosaic tile art.  So, she came to visit for a few days and we all did the floor together like mad to get it done while she was here. She is very artistic and talented and we could not have done it without her.  Here is our journey from beginning to end!

This is what it looked like BEFORE!

This is where the old landing and new entryway meet.

The hardi-back is in place and we drew on our design.

Time to mosiac the tile peices. Just like a jig-saw puzzle

.

Now the tile is done and "glued" down. Needs to dry overnight, then we will grout.

This is our design. A sun with N,E,S, W points and a moon in the middle of the sun.

Austin is grouting.

The finished product! We love it and it looks so great! Thank you to our talented mother-in-law and lots of hard work. The picture does not do justice of how beautiful and meaningful this looks. This was a special project that we will love and enjoy forever!

Happy Easter!

This Easter we decided to go to the Clearwood Annual Easter Egg Hunt. It was so fun for Tyler, unfortunately Kai was not feeling very good, so she was asleep at home with a neighbor watching her. Tyler had fun though. She even found a "Golden Egg" which there were only a couple of for A LOT of kids, so she was so lucky to find it. She got to go redeem her golden egg for a prize and she got a $5 gift card to Pizza Hut! After the Easter egg hunt they had an egg toss, so Austin and our neighbor Mark were parners for the game and they did so good. They came in second place and even got a $50 gift card to a local restaurant. After all the Ester festivities, we went back home and dyed easter eggs. Tyler had a friend from preschool come over for the Easter Egg hunt and the dying of eggs, Chloe Coleman, and they played so good together. Chloe's parents also came and we had a great dinner and relaxing evening just talking and getting to know each other, I love having new friends over! Then, on Easter Sunday we went to a neighbors house for an Easter BBQ with carne-asada, steak, ribs, hot dogs, pico-de- gallo, salad and angle food cake for desert! It was a great dinner and a good time with our really good friends. So, even though we missed our families for Easter this year, we were surrounding by good friends and had a great Easter.

I love how concentrated Tyler is here. She takes easter egg dying seriously! She just loves doing stuff like this.

Kai loved it too and threw a big tantrum when we were all done and the eggs were all out.

The Easter Bunny!

This is the special golden egg tyler found during the hunt

And this is her $5 gift certificate from the gold egg

Mark and Austin getting ready for the Egg Toss... see how many people are lined up that they beat!

Austin takes any competition very seriously!

Catch that egg!

Only in the Northwest do you BBQ in the rain!

California and the Wedding

We have been so busy and done so much while we have been in California, I don't even know where to start, so I will post a lot of pic's in this blog because I have so many good ones.

First, the entire reason we are in Cali is for Austin's brother's wedding, Cody and Kendra. Tyler was the flower girl and Austin was a groomsman and Jesse, Austin's brother, married them. We stayed with Austin's mom, Karen, for the first few days we got here and the weather was beautiful. The girls went to the park a lot and I fell asleep just laying in the sun, something I am not really used to in WA. Then, we went to Richard and Lynn's house to get ready for the wedding. While in Santa Cruz, I met up with one of my best friends Noemi Diaz, who is living here with her mom while her husband Tony is deployed in Afghanistan, we had a great day shopping and going to lunch. It was so good to see her and I have missed her since she left WA. Austin and I then went to her house a couple days later for our favorite Mexican food that Noemi's mom makes, potato taco's. Ok, seriously very greasy and deep fried, but AMAZING! BUT, lucky for me I was had the pleasure to go running a few times with Lynn and a couple times Tara was able to join us too! We ran on the Santa Cruz boardwalk and I even saw whales while running, it was absolutely beautiful!
Then, there was wedding business with the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner at a very good Mexican restaurant. And finally, the wedding! It was so much fun and just an all around beautiful, smooth running wedding. Kendra looked beautiful, and all the bridesmaid's, groomsmen, and of course, flower girls were all so good looking. After the wedding we had a yummy dinner with toasting to Cody and Kendra, then dancing, more dancing, and more dancing! Kai was SOOOOO funny, she stole the show, seriously. She danced all night long and was just adorable. Tyler did such a great job as a flower girl, especially since she didn't feel good. Tyler looked so adorable and just so old with her hair in the "up-do", not my little baby anymore!
The day after the wedding we spent half the day at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk riding some rides and playing at the beach with Jesse, Tara, and Bella, and Austin's Uncle Russ and his family. The girls loved playing in the sand and seeing the ocean.
So, now we are back at Karen's house and we leave to go home tomorrow night.
Overall, we have had a wonderful time and spent so much time with family we don't see very often. The pictures below tell it all, even Austin is smiling in MOST my pictures.

Only on the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.... Of course, Kai loved it and Uncle Russ, above, gave into it.

Richard and Lynn (Cody's dad and step-mother), or as we call them, "Poppi and Noni"

Riding the carousel on the Boardwalk. This brought back many childhood memories for Austin and Jesse. You can see Tara and Bella in the background

Kai in her "bling" outfit and binky at Karen's house, or "Opie" as we call her.

Tyler doing her favorite thing, swinging, ay the park near Opie's house. We have spent a lot of time here this trip.

Uncle Garrett and Kai. He loved hangin out with his nieces

Austin and I at the rehearsal dinner

Daddy and his girls at the wedding

Our new "Auntie Kendra" and the four brothers

The wedding ceremony being performed by Jesse. He did such a great job!

The Groom and Groomsmen with Kai

The bride, Kendra, with the flower girls and and me and Kai

Our family pic at the wedding