"Magic School Bus"

Brian and I took Ashley on a special date last Sunday. We picked her up from Gammy and Grandpa's where the kids spent the night and took her out to lunch and then to "The Magic School Bus" play. We went out to PF Chang's at Bridgeport Village and she used chopsticks for the first time. They have a little device that attaches to the chopsticks to keep them together. She ate her whole lunch with them! After lunch we drove downtown to the Children's Theatre where the play was and got settled in. The daughter of one of the surgeons Brian works with was in the play, so it was fun to see her perform. We got to meet the cast and get autograph's at the end too. Isaiah got to spend the day with Grammy and Grandpa at the Home and Garden show. They're getting ideas for a covered sitting area in their backyard. Both kids were exhausted from a fun weekend and slept great that night!

1st Trip to the Dentist

This was the first visit to the dentist for Isaiah. We didn't take Ashley at this age, but she was going so I figured it would be a good time to take him. This way they would be encouragement for each other. I was really impressed, as well as the dentist, with how well he did. He was a little nervous about the chair tipping back in the beginning, but once he got settled and the movie "Cars" came on he was game for whatever. They even got a cleaning in.

Ashley had been to the dentist with Brian, but this time she got to go to the kids dentist. She was so excited and did great throughout the entire exam. They took both kids at the same time and I needed to be with Isaiah to answer questions for the dentist. That meant Ashley was all by herself. I could see her, but her back was turned so she couldn't see me. She picked out a movie to watch as they cleaned her teeth. She was a little concerned about Isaiah so she asked to come over and check on him and give him a kiss, then she went back to her chair to finish her cleaning. I was really proud of her, the dentist isn't always the most fun place to be and she did great!

Yummy!

This was my attempt at making Mickey pancakes. They turned out more like little teddy bears but they were a hit, especially the M&M eyes!

Happy Valentine's Day

We had an awesome Valentine's Day, kind of celebrated with the kids a few days early making Valentine cookies, opening packages from Grammy and Grandpa and parties at the kids' school. Brian and I took the day off to ski at Mt Hood Meadows. We dropped the kids off at daycare and were on the mountain around 10am. It snowed and was pretty windy, but we'll take any weather just to be up there. We love to ski and don't do it enough. We look forward to the kids being older so we can take them. It would also help if tickets were a little cheaper, although we did find a good deal on our tickets for Valentine's Day (2 all day tickets for $79). Plus when we picked them up at the ticket counter the guy handed us $20 in food vouchers... score!! So, we skied for about 4 hours and had a blast. On the way home we heard on the radio that hwy 26 was closed in both directions at Sandy due to a 3 car pile up. We had Grammy on the phone trying to direct us to an alternate route since we had to take 26 to get the kids! Luckily we were close to the ODOT station near the turnoff to Timberline. They had just opened two lanes and by the time we got there it was wide open. It would have been a bad way to end a very good day on the mountain if we weren't able to pick up the kids.


This was my Valentine's Day gift! He was so cute carrying it through the door. The bouquet was as big as him!

Water Leak

We had a big scare today! Brian got a call from the water company that our neighbor noticed more water going through the storm drain in front of her house the past few weeks. When they looked at our meter we we had over 100,000 gallons more water usage. They sent someone to the house to walk around and didn't notice anything suspicious on the outside, but my first though was great, does that mean something is broke inside? Brian was able to take the day off since there were no surgeries scheduled for the day. This was luck because the whole week before and after they had 2 or 3 which means he would have been in surgery all day and not able to take care of this. When he got to the house, he didn't find any water inside (thank goodness!), but did figure out the leak was between the house and the street. Looking around he found the area where we turn off the sprinkler system was underwater. Calling the plumber he found out it was going to be $1-2,000 to fix, not a price he wanted to pay! So, that got Brian motivated to figure this out himself. He started digging and found the leaking pipe at the connection to the house and the sprinkler system. A trip to Home Depot for a part that cost him $3.45 and a whole day of digging, he fixed it! He was tired, wet and full of mud, but felt great that he figured it out. Remembering back to the summer we started noticing a "flushing" sound outside our kitchen window. Since it was a new house, we had no idea what it was and if it was normal, but since it wasn't happening very frequent we left it alone and kept an eye on it. Well, that "flushing" sound got more frequent the last couple of weeks. Now that we found the leak what had been happening was the water level was rising high enough to seep into the hole where the pipe came into the foundation. Luckily the previous owners put in a sump pump so we didn't have any damage to the foundation. Now we know what that "flushing" sound is we are super aware when it goes off again. I just have to laugh because Brian has learned so much from owning this house. Shortly after we moved in our fridge went out, so he figured out how to fix that. Then awhile later our stove and water fountain went out and now the leak. Each has been a fairly cheap fix, but could have been a lot more expensive if Brian wasn't such a fix-it man! Good job honey!

Sawyer's Baptism

Danielle and Hani chose Brian and I to be Sawyer's Godparents, so we went up to Seattle to participate in his baptism this last weekend. It was a very special day and we feel honored to play that role in Sawyer's life. Ashley is also very excited to be a Godsister and asked us "does that mean that Isaiah is a Godbrother!!!??"... "Isaiah, you get to be Sawyer's Godbrother!!!!" "Yay!!!!"

The Powell's and Saliba's came down for Isaiah's birthday. We hadn't gotten a group picture since Sawyer was a newborn.

You can't tell, but Jo is pregnant with a baby girl due in May. 6 months from now, she'll be a newborn




Ashley hangin' out with Auntie D and Uncle Hani

Watching Football with Papa

Elmo!

Isaiah loves Elmo, so an Elmo themed party was perfect for him. I found some really cute ideas on Pinterest and had everyone over for pizza and cupcakes on his big day.

I was happily surprised these turned out as well as they did and they were fun to make!

Before the party



Left to right: Quinn, Spencer, Ashlee & Justin, Ashley & Isaiah, Bella and Preston, Ty, Peter, and Nathan. (Sawyer is sleeping)

He wasn't scared of the candle at all, blew it out all by himself!

He was so funny eating his cupcake. His hands did not touch, they stayed down by his sides. Maybe he's practicing for a future pie eating contest.





Happy Birthday Boy!

He really got into opening his gifts (as well as the other kids!), but wanted to play with each one right away instead of going on to the next gift. I don't blame him, he got some really fun stuff!

Sawyer made a short appearance for the party but slept most of the time. He probably heard all the commotion downstairs and saw it best to stay where he was and catch up on some z's.

"Follow the leader".