getting ready to move

I was thinking this blog was going to be pretty random, but when I looked at the pictures I quickly realized that they are all related to the fact that we are getting ready to move next month. I have been putting off working in the flower bed in front of my house for several weeks now. It looked great in April, but then may was so rainy, I didn't want to get out there. Now that Kara's out of school and it isn't raining every day, I didn't have any excuses left. Also, if we want to get our house rented out, we need to get some pictures soon. So I took the kids outside and let them play while I worked. Kiersten enjoyed riding her bike in a princess gown and new sunglasses Daddy ordered for her. Kara scootered up and down the sidewalk.

Evie was bummed to get stuck in the stroller, but I cant trust her not to run away, so that is where she spent her time outside. she also got to try out some new sunglasses.

This is how things were looking. Weeds, dead tulips, and all. I'm sure my neighbors were getting tired of looking at this mess.

As soon as I was done weeding, and Kara saw me start planting flowers, her scooter was put away and she was outside with her windowsill flowers, which had outgrown their plastic confines. Though I hadn't planned for them, we were able to make room.

much better. Though every year, those lilys are bigger and taller, I decided to leave them for now. If our renters want to pull them out or move them, I will not complain.

Also related to moving, we turned Evie's crib into a daybed. First, so it will be easier to move, and second, because we wanted to store the pack 'play she was sleeping in almost every night instead of her crib. She was pretty excited about it. Suddenly she has no problem with wanting to sleep there. I guess it was the caged in feeling that was putting her off. We completely cleared out her room so I could clean the carpet, so we put her crib in our room for now. We then moved everything from the guest room that didn't get packed or put in the yard sale into Evie's room. That left the guest room empty and ready for cleaning. Finally, we moved the girls into what had been the guest room so I could tackle their room. It turned out to be a great move. It works better than the room they have been in. We really wish we'd thought of making that change a lot sooner.

We did a lot of searching yesterday for the tv stand for the girls' tv. During the search, Ben came across Kiersten's old giraffe toy. So he brought it in for Evie to ride. She has been on that thing ALL morning! Good call, Ben!

so far we have around 30 bins packed up, and almost 5 weeks left to pack up the rest. We are finally making good use of our way too big dining room! It is kinda weird to be living with these bins, and empty drawers and cupboards. I can't wait til we are moved and can unpack. It has been interesting as we pack each room or closet, how much stuff we have that we don't use, want or need. Our walk in closet is really filling with things intended for our big, neghborhood yard sale in a few weeks, and I don't think we'll miss a thing. But some of our neighbors are going to be getting great deals on some pretty nice stuff, just because we finally admitted that we never use it.

4/12/11

Kara recieved a princess cupcake kit from her aunt Nancy for her birthday. Since then we've been busy, or out of town, or just had too many other treats around. But last week, I decided it was time to let her make them. The girls decided to have a princess party, and make the cupcakes at the end. So we all dressed up in dresses and jewelry. (notice the gorgeous necklace Kara made for me :)) They had me in a skirt, but I took that off for baking. It was pretty fun.

making the cupcakes.

They are always impatient when we have something baking. I had to put the cupcakes in the freezer to cool them faster, because they were so ready to get to the decorating. I know if they'd had more time to cool, they would have looked better. But oh well, they were gone after 2 days anyway.

they each had a little pastiage circle with a picture to paint. The edible water color was included with paint brushes. Kara got a little frustrated that she couldn't stay inside the lines with the brush. Kiersten was just worried about finishing her cupcakes first, and she had no reason to worry. She was done with all of hers before Kara was satisfied with her first one.

They loved the little pink crown wrappers around the cupcakes. Kara was reluctant to throw them away when she ate them. I was letting her save one for her scrapbook, but she left it down and Evie got ahold of it, so that was the end of it.

a closer view. can you see a difference between Kara's and Kiersten's?

The proud artiste. She loves watching cake decorating shows on tv and often tells us she wants to be a cake decorater.

Kiersten was pretty proud of her cupcakes, but mistakenly thought that she had free license to eat all of the ones she painted.

Princess Evie just got to sit in the high chair, snacking on a wagon wheel.

On sunday, I took the girls outside to ride their bikes. Kara fell down, and Kiersten decided it was too dangerous outside. So she brought her bike in the house. Evie was thrilled to see her riding it around.

my little beauty. It's fun to see her personality develpoing so much lately. She sure is a handful though.

Kiersten did end up coming back out to ride with kara. They have so much fun riding around together, but they hate that I wont let them ride in the street, or even go around the block unless I'm following behind them. I guess I'm just the worrying kind of mom.

that's all for now, as I have TONS to do before flying out to Utah with the girls soon. Hopefully Daddy can find something fun to do while we're gone. These 3 little girls are usually the focus around here.

outside again

Kara wanted to go on a walk this morning. With Christmas and being out of town, and then how rainy it's been since we've been back, they really haven't gotten much outisde time. So after the walk, I decided to let them get their bikes out for a while. Here they are getting their helmets on. I didn't feel like going up to get the good camera, so these pics are taken with my old purse camera. I don't know if that's the issue with this picture, or the bad lighting in the garage. Kara kept getting off her bike to help Kiersten with the steering of her trike. Kiersten just wanted to be pushed around. Maybe this summer she'll get better at pedalling and steering.

After we put the bikes away, the girls wanted to play in the backyard. I let them get out all of their balls and I brought out their bats and a new frisbee they got in Utah. Kiersten didn't hit the ball once, but she had fun trying. you can probably tell I went upstairs for the good camera.

She would announce every time she was about to go down the slide. If Kara and I didn't stop what we were doing to watch, she would get upset. Then we had to clap and tell her how good she did after she slid down.

This is a good picture of their cute raincoats. It was about 45°, but Kiersten still kept saying she was hot and wanted to take off her jacket.

Kara is a natural at throwing a frisbee. Her first throw was great. She got good height and distance. Even my throws wobbled more than hers.

Kiersten isn't quite as good with the frisbee. She basically just throws it straight down. She even climbed to the top of the stairs and slide, trying to get more height, but then she still just slammed it straight down.

They were more than ready for lunch when they finally came inside. Hopefully, when they're done eating they will go down for naps after playing outside for over 2 hours.

Papa and Grams

Ben's dad, Kerry, and step-mom, Lana came out on saturday for a visit. Ben took Kara with him to pick them up from the airport. She was so excited to go, and even more excited when they all arrived home together. She loved showing off by spelling words and reciting the pledge of allegiance for them. Here is a picture of the girls "helping" me make a cheesecake. Ben made a blueberry glaze for it that turned out really good. Especially since he didn't really know what he was doing, he just threw it together.We let Lana take a nap, since she was up since 1AM getting ready to leave. While she slept, we watched Tropic Thunder. It was pretty funny. We took them to dinner at Ben's favorite mexican restaurant, La Palma. Then we came home and watched Kara's new movie, UP, and had the cheesecake.

Sunday we decided to go to the NW trek, since everyone usually likes going there when they visit us. It was raining the whole time, but not too cold. We didn't mind the rain too much, except I forgot to change my shoes I had thrown on to run to the store. I meant to change into boots, but forgot, so I was walking through puddles and rain with slip-on ballet flats and no socks. Here we are watching a beaver show off.

Ben got a picture of the mountain lions since they are not always out on exhibit, so we don't see them as often as the other animals. Kerry and Lana said one of them looked like she had recently given birth. I can't tell those things, but if anyone would know, it'd be those two.

After NW trek, we went home and had the roast Ben started the previous night. He made up a really good recipe that everyone seems to love. It was tasty as usual. Kiersten, Lana, and I took naps while the guys watched football. Then we watched Transformers 2. It was an okay movie. That evening, we all watched old movies of the girls when they were babies. They were pretty fun to watch and remember all the silly and adorable things they did, and how cute and little they were.

Monday morning, Papa helped the girls ride their bikes around the block several times. He is always such a great sport about playing with them and letting them do whatever they want. Lana made us all a delicious breakfast, and of course we had to have her make some baked beans. Ben made sure I took note of all the ingredients for the beans, and I was supposed to watch her make them, but she had them already done and cooking in the crock pot by the time we woke up. They are much earlier risers than we are. Lana took Kara and me shopping for clothes, and she is just too generous. I kept trying to tell her I was just letting her get me one thing, but she kept taking everything I so much as looked at, and handing it to the cashier. She took the receipt and ripped all the tags off everything on the drive home so I wouldn't know the amount to reimburse her. She also insisted on getting Kara anything she wanted, and got a stuffed toy for Kiersten too. It was fun shopping with her, even though I now have to think of a good way to pay her back.

Kerry and Ben stayed home from shopping. They played in the backyard with Kiersten. It is so cute to hear her say, "papa! where are you?"

After we got back from shopping, Ben grilled some steaks for all of us, and we had Lana's baked beans. It was a tasty dinner. All of us girls took naps again while the guys watched more football. the girls played with Papa and Grams the rest of the evening and got just spoiled with love and attention. Here is Kiersten perusing a toy catalog waiting for us to come home from the store. I asked Kara to look through the toys r us book, and circle the things she would like to ask santa for. She circled all but 6 items, which she crossed out, so I will have to go through it with her again to find out what things she would most like to ask santa for.

They flew out early tuesday morning, and we all miss them already. Kara has a list of things planned out that she wants to do with them the next time we go to Idaho for a visit.

Labor Day weekend

Ben's sister Nancy, and her husband Vic came to spend labor day weekend with us. They arrived early friday morning, and I expected them to be sleeping in when the girls and I woke up. Instead, I woke up to find them playing candy land with a very excited Karalee. Kiersten slept in until I woke her up for breakfast an hour or two later. Ben had to work that day, but we had plenty of fun without him.
Kara got to ride her new bike outside for only the 2nd or 3rd time. (it's been rainy, and we've been busy.) And Kiersten got to try out her inherited trike. It was lots of fun, and also nice to have someone else there to go chasing after them once in a while. Kara is so brave to ride down the hill on our street. Kiersten is still a little hesitant, and needs help to stay on the sidewalk.

Of course Kiersten had to try out the new bike too. That's our little neighbor girl, Haley on the lawn. She loves riding bikes with Kara, and is glad Kara finally has a real bike to be able to keep up.

Later that afternoon, we decided to head to the beach. It was a bit cooler than we would have liked, but we did see some sun, and Kara had lots of fun collecting seashells. She isn't too fond of going in the water. Kiersten on the other hand, wanted to be in the water as much as possible, and kept trying to break away from me to get in there deeper, but I'm one of those "worried moms", so I wouldn't let go of her hand. She even saw a couple of small crabs that washed up, and she thought they were neat.

Here they are playing ball.

Victor loves baseball, so on saturday, we went to see a Tacoma Raniers game. I wan't expecting too much out of a minor league game, but I was surprised how exciting and fun it was. It was very similar to a mariners game, but with fewer people there (especially thanks to the rain) and I hadn't heard of any of the players. But I'm glad we went. This picture is after the downpour. Our section wasn't covered, so it really emptied out. That made it fun for the girls to run around and play. I think Kara's favorite part was getting snacks at the game that she normally doesn't get to have.

Here we are enjoying the game. I don't know what all those snacks in my lap were, but I swear I didn't eat all that myself! Doesn't Nancy make a cute pregnant mommy?

Kiersten got to meet Rhubarb, the moose. She was a little scared of him though. This is as close as she would get. Kara was not at all interested in meeting him, and was even scared when I took her to the bathroom, that he was lurking around the corner.

Sunday was a nice, relaxing day. We spent the morning playing wii, and the afternoon playing so many board, card, and dice games, that I couldn't even name them all. It was a fun day, even if I did snack a little more than I should have. Kara is still talking about uncle Bictor and aunt Nancy, and their fun visit. It's exciting to think the next time we'll see them, their little boy will be born!

8/27/09

Our plan this past weekend was to just hang out and be lazy, but it didn't turn out that way. On saturday we decided to change our back patio. So I helped Ben lift all the slabs of rock and stacked them up on the porch. Then he started digging because we wanted the patio surface to sit lower so it would be even with the cement from the porch. I cut some sheets of plastic to fit under the new patio area. then I went in to get lunch for the girls while Ben stayed outside working. So while I was feeding the girls lunch and recovering from all my heavy lifting, (I didn't remember those stones being so heavy when we originally put them down) Ben got the whole thing finished and moved. I was glad I didn't have to help anymore because of the lifting, and also the bugs. It seemed like there were 30 spiders under every slab, so I was pretty freaked out. We also uncovered earwigs and centipedes, which I have never seen in our backyard before. I guess you just have to know where to look for them. After we all got showered, Ben asked Kara if she wanted to go to the toy store to get a new bike. We have been noticing lately how small her current bike is. Kiersten is about ready to be able to ride it, so we wanted to get Kara a bigger one. So we all headed to toys r us to pick one out. Here she is trying it out in the kitchen! On the way home from the toy store, Ben wanted to stop for KFC, then we headed home. just as we sat down to eat, Ben got a call from our friends, the Bipperts. They were in town and said they would stop by. I was glad to see them, but a little horrified at the state of our house. We had been working in the yard, with the girls shut inside to play with whatever, and make plenty of messes, then we left for toys r us, and I hadn't picked up a single thing. So we did a quick straighten, and made Kara clean up the playroom so she could play in there with Evan. So they got to come to a messed up house, but they didn't seem to mind. It was fun to see them, and it turned out okay afterall. After they left, Ben put together Kara's bike for her, but I thought it was getting too dark for her to try it outside. That's why she had to ride it around the kitchen. I'm just glad we have enough room for that type of sillyness.
Sunday we decided to go to the zoo. It was a pretty nice day, and not too hot. I am really wanting to get up to the woodland park zoo again. Kiersten's never been there, and they have african animals, which pdza doesn't. But being closer, and not having to pay, always ends up taking us to pdza instead. Oh well, we always have fun. Just a couple pictures from there.

Ever since changing the back patio, Ben started feeling really itchy and stiff. It was alarming, because a few years back he had a similar episode that just kept getting worse until he couldn't bend certain joints at all, and had to have fluid removed from his knee. None of the doctors he saw could figure out the cause, but some theories were a bad form of strep, or arthritis. He was worried that it might be the same thing again, but the soreness and stiffness started getting better, so we thought it was just from working in the yard. But the itching kept getting worse. He called me from work on monday to say he wanted to cut his arm open with a knife to scratch the bone, so that was a bit disturbing, and I thought maybe he should go to the doctor. But he remembered how they couldn't do anything for him the last time, or tell us what the cause was, so he didn't want to. He started getting little red spots, but it didn't look too bad. Tuesday after work, he was covered in a rash, and we decided he better go to the dr. in the morning. When he woke up yesterday, the rash was even worse. the splotches were about 3 inches wide, and all over his back and arms. The doctor said it looked like it could be an allergy, and gave him a prescription. He said if it doesn't go away in a few days, it might be something worse, so to go back. So far, the pills have not helped or made any difference, but we'll give it a few days to see what happens. He told me he wanted to take an oatmeal and chocolate milk bath, gross!

These pictures are from tuesday before we went grocery shopping, the girls were hanging out on the stairs while I was making lists. Kiersten had her first pigtails that day. It was really hard to get them to be pigtails because all of the long hair is right on top, and it was hard to get the side hairs into the elastic. So she will probably be sticking with pony tails for a while. Kara asked me why I did Kiersten's hair like an alien. It's hard to see in this picture, because they blend in with the stairs.

here's a closer picture of my little devilish girl with her piggy tails. Yesterday after the gym, the girls and I came home and made sandwiches to take to the park. Kara was really excited to take her new bike. I had to stop at the post office, and then we got to the park. I always push the lock button as soon as I have Kiersten's door open, so I can drop the keys in my purse and have one less thing to hold in my hands. For some reason, I was having a hard time getting Kiersten out, so I set my purse down on the floor. I didn't remember to pick it back up when I slammed the door shut! I realized as I heard the door lock, what I had done. I was so angry with myself, but I was glad that I had thrown my phone in the diaper bag. Ben had mentioned that he might leave work early, because he was still feeling miserable, and he'd already missed most of the morning anyway, while he was at the doctor. So I called him to see if he had left. He hadn't, but he said he would just make a few phone calls, and then come over. I wasn't too worried, because we had just gotten there, and I knew the kids would want to play for a while. Also, I had the sandwiches with me in the diaper bag, so that was good. Kiersten slept for the first 40 minutes while Kara played. Then she woke up and they ate their lunch. I talked to Jackie for quite a while, and that helped the time pass quickly. After we had been there for an hour and a half, I called Ben to see where he was. He said he was still at work! I got so mad because I thought a few phone calls would mean half an hour at most. I knew it would take him a minimum of an hour to get home and then come back up to the park. So he said he would come straight to the park and I could take his car to go home and get the spare key for my car. I said he had to leave work immediately. I was worried that the girls were getting tired, and I knew Kiersten was thirsty, because she was trying to steal every kid's drink. Luckily, they both did okay until he got there. We had said I would take Kiersten with me, since he does have a carseat for her in his car, but she seemed to be having fun playing, so I said just to keep both girls at the park, and I would hurry home for the key. I guess Kiersten got upset that I was leaving, so Ben sent her to catch up to me. I heard him yell that she was coming, and as I turned around, I saw her running happily toward me. I headed back to get her, but not in time to stop her from tripping on the sidewalk, and faceplanting into the pavement. She had a bloody nose and a scratched up face. poor baby! She looks horrible!

but at least she can still be happy, even all banged up, the poor thing! We had dinner, and then watched Pineapple Express. It was an okay movie, not really my thing, but Ben liked it. Today I get to stay home and catch up on housework, since I was at the park all day yesterday, and didn't get anything done around here.