Thanksgiving.

We had a nice thanksgiving at home. I cooked my first turkey and learned a little in the process. My parents came over to celebrate with us and we all had a lot to eat & a lot left over.
:-)

SNOW!!!!
If you haven't heard yet the Northwest is suffering from some very cold weather.
Sunday night it snowed... four inches. Monday night it all froze, so tuesday the roads were solid ice. And tuesday night it was 17 degrees outside! Wow! we are not used to this. We did manage to play in the snow a little bit, but boy it takes forever to warm up when it is this cold.

At the Begining of November the Disney company sent me and Josiah on a trip to Disney on Ice. We were able to take along 50 kids from a local boys & girls club (Don't worry, they were brought by other adults so I didn't have to watch all those kids!
It was a lot of fun!

Josiah's first Soccer Game.
Ok, picture this: 21 4 & 5 year olds, pouring down rain, on one soccer field. What do you get? A whole lot of fun. We enjoyed Josiah's first soccer game on saturday, and it was a mob of children running up and down the field for 30 minutes chasing after one ball. Josiah did really well and when he was put at goaly he stopped to kids from scoring.

And then there is the trophy that he proudly carried around most of the day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!!

Wow! he is 12 already!? Hard to believe. First for his birthday we took him to get a new bike. Then on Saturday night we went to La Cocina, Y Cantina for our birthday tradition (every birthday we go there).

And of course, my quest for great family photos! I am actually impressed with this one.

Josiah was a power ranger for halloween. these pictures are from a "mommy & me" day. Last saturday I took him to the Pacific Science Center for some Halloween adventure. we had a great time walking through the butterfly exhibt, learning about how our bodies work & touching the sea life.



Below is a shot of Josiah scraping ice off the car. He wanted to help daddy, it took a long time but was worth the wait!




Alex's birthday is this weekend so maybe I can get some shots of him to share with you all- he is in a 'no picture' phase and I can't get him in one shot!!

It has been another fun week for us, well for me. I was lucky enough to have an all expenses paid trip back to Southern California for some work and fun. I spent 5 days in Anaheim at the Grand Californian, which is by far one of the more up scale hotels I have ever stayed in and this time was no different.
When I first checked in I had been up since 3:00 am, spent the day in Disneyland running around and was in my sweats when I was told that I was at "VIP" Status in the hotel and would I wait because the check in manager was looking foward to meeting me... yes really. That was a little weird, but as soon as I walked into my room the phone rang from Guest Services to welcome me to the hotel and find out if I needed anything (again... huh?). I was taken aback by all this attention... but After the second phone call the next morning to see how I was doing I felt pretty good :-).
I had a blast on Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, Tower of Terror, Soarin and of course Screamin. I walked until I couldn't walk no more and then enjoyed people watching in the Magic Kingdom. After an exhausting day I always find myself pondering why I love this place so much and then I realize how much magic and joy are held in the park and how the outside world is left behind as soon as you walk through the gates. By then my thoughts are usually interuppted by the screaming kid who wants to stay and see Buzz Lightyear.
The conference was a huge success, everyone was very thankful at all the hard work I put into it, but really it was a blast to organize.

On Tuesday night I got to do something most people never do.... I got to go back stage! that was so much fun (for those reading with little children or a great imagination stop reading now). We saw the costume shop, I will be forever traumatized seeing all those character heads hanging on racks, and buzz lightyear taken apart & laying all over the floor. I saw all the old buildings and heard what they used to be and what they are now. It truly is a piece of history I will probably never get to see again. Sorry, there are no pictures of backstage- I was told that if I pulled my camera out I might get shot. :-).

The bottom picture is hard to make out, but it is by far my favorite part of flying... It is the top of Mt Rainier sticking out above the clouds, usually you can see the whole mountain peering out against the blue sky, but on this day it was only the top part.

The view from my room at sun rise.

Soccer!!!

We signed Josiah up for Soccer this year, in hopes of giving him an outlet and a sport to enjoy. Since three of us are already in baseball, we thought it would be best to direct Josiah's sports interest to another area. After the first practice it was very clear that Josiah should have been signed up for Football instead. He got kneed in the head twice, then at the second practice he learned that he could knock other kids down for the ball. He is a good aim when it comes to kicking it in, but I don't think Soccer is the right sport for him :-).

Happy Birthday Josiah!!!!!

Josiah turned 5 on the 22nd and we had a Pirate party for him.
Grandma, Grandad, Grandma, Papa, Aunt neeners, Uncles Nathan, Andrew, and Matthew all came over for some Pirate fun.

With School comes fundraisers! we may hit you up in person, or if you are out of state check out the website at www.qsp.com Alex goes to Harbour Pointe Middle School #425009629.
Thanks for your support!

Entering Middle School...

I didn't cry when Alex went to Kindergarten, but today I got a little teary eyed. My young man has headed off to Middle School, a time of 6 classes in one day, 5 minutes to get there and a locker on the other side of the school.
I tried to find his first day of school photo last year for comparrison, but I think it's on a cd somewhere. Last year he was several inches shorter.

It's hard to see your boys grow up and I can only hope that Alex becomes the amazing young man I know he can be.

First day of Pre-K
Every year I make a big deal of Alex going off to school, so it was only natural that Josiah expect the same treatment.
Today was his first day in Pre-K. No more games all day, he actually learns to write and other things! how exciting.
Look for Alex's first day of school photos tomorrow!

The Evergreen State Fair...

We had a great time at the fair yesterday. The first thing we did was find Josiah's blue ribbon cookie.


We then headed off through all the booths and let the boys ride some rides. We had a LOT of, David & I were exhausted... Josiah & Alex were not.

Sickness in our house...

Well, I honestly have never been so sick in my entire life. Last Tuesday afternoonn I went home from work a little early feeling achy... I had know idea what I was in for. With in two hours i was totally SICK. I couldn't move from all the pain and my throat felt like it was swelling shut. I had a tempature of 101 degrees and I questioned whether in not it warrented a trip to the doctor. After spending all day Wednesday in bed with my tempature at an all time high of 102.6 David decided I should hit the walk in clinic.
Well, I suffer from a kidney infection and strep throat with a cold starting. WHAT? so I have spent four days in bed, taking lots of drugs and sleeping more than I have ever sletp in my life. Today is saturday and I ventured out of the bedroom & out of the house. I am taking life VERY easy, but I have to also get back to normal soon. today was my first meal in five days and I am excited. Continue to pray that I will not over do it but also that the special day David & I had planned for the boys on monday will not be hindered by my energy.

Hope you all are doing well! The exciting news of the day is, David's brother, Nathan is on his way home from Iraq!!!! YAHOOOO! time to find him a nice girl :-).

One more ball game photo... I love this one of Josiah, you can even see all his freckles!

Mariners Vs. Yankees 8/22/06

For my dad's birthday & father's day we treated him to a Mariner's game. We choose the Yankees game because Alex has always been a HUGE fan of A-Rod, and so, he is a fan of the Yankees... I know, I know, seeing the Yankees hat on one of my children's head is so sad and the worst part about last night was when we realized Alex's hat was too small and my mom treated him to a new one so Alex gave his kids one to Josiah. So now I have two boys with Yankees hats... where in the world did I go wrong?

The evening started out innocent enough, until Alex took a bite of his sandwich from Subway and broke a tooth... What did he put in his sandwich? It was one more reminder that Nathan had originally broken the same tooth of Alex's in a pillow fight two years ago...

Overall we had a great time! Josiah kept himself busy with my digital camera (I think i deleted more than 40 useless photos). He learned a bit of patience, on a digital camera you have to push the button & wait. We got lots of photos of the guys on the field, of the flags behind us, the lights, several of the sky... there was nothing in the sky. He learned to get peoples heads instead of their feet and at one point he was directing us so he could get silly pictures. And did I mention that he took great effort in taking a picture of his finger? After a few failed attempts, Josiah finally got this picture of me & David.

Here is a self portait of Josiah...he looks a little tired...

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. The Mariners tied the game up in the 7th and Josiah learned what the Rally Rag was used for... we all received one when we entered the staduim. My poor dad had to hold his hand up to keep from getting hit in the head while Josiah swung it around. He got really excited when the staduim went bonkers and he was right there to join in.

and then there is my quest to get some great family photos in different places. Will I ever get all three of them to look at the camera and smile??? The joys of boys :-).

We had a good time at the Branley Family Picnic this year. It was at my Aunt Mary Jo's in Enumclaw. Josiah got to ride a horse and Alex and the other kids played crochet, football & baseball. It was hot, but a lot of fun to connect with the family.

See what I mean by hot pants?

The last two weeks have been really busy. Sorry for the lack of posts, but my camera died while camping and I have been waiting for a cord to my new camera to download all the fun stuff we have been doing.

Last Friday we enjoyed one of the Seafair festivities by going to the Tour de Terrace to enjoy some great food and watch a smaller version of the Torchlight parade. It is a great parade and you get to see the Seafair clowns, Seafair Pirates & the Lake City Vigalanties, all with a lot less crowd to deal with. All three of these groups is something that I remember from when I was a kid going to these parades and I am excited to get the chance for my kids to have the same memories.
Alex has been hiding away at Grandma Billie's for the last few weeks so unfortunatley none of the photo's contain him... I will try and get a bunch when we pick him up this weekend!

On saturday we went to Mikayla's birthday party at an Aqua Sox game. We had a great time watching the game and just hanging out with our friends.

FAMILY CAMP!


This year David & I decided to join a long standing tradition in our church. We decided to join several families for the annual camping trip. We have been preparing for this trip for a little over a month now. We purchased everything we needed and packed the car up for a 45 minute drive north of our home to a Christian Camp site named Warm Beach.

We arrived early Thursday morning and got our camp site all set up. The reason why we have never gone to family camp is because I am not really a camper and Family Camp always falls on the week of my birthday, so going camping is not my idea of fun, but this year was going to be different. David & my dear friend Kim set out to make the day a special one. Late in the afternoon I returned to our site to find a Strawberry Shortcake table cloth with party hats, noise makers, birthday cards & a everything else needed for a party, including a nice banner that I wore that said "Birthday Diva" on it. It was definitely a birthday that will go down as one of the best- even if we did have to roast marshmallows in the pouring down rain.

Friday, Saturday & Sunday were also a blast, so much so that I want to go camping again before the end of the summer. Josiah learned to ride his bike and Alex had a blast will all his friends running around the property causing trouble and having fun!

Tomorrow starts another week, one I am not really looking forward too, it will be the first full work week we have had to endure in two weeks- it may not seem like a lot to some, but having some time off has really been wonderful the last few weeks and it will be hard to go back to the daily grind.

Love you all!!!

PS Alex doesn't like having his photo taken so this is the best I got :-( and my camera broke on saturday so I didn't have the chance to take more pics :-(- thank goodness for Ebay!