Fathers Day 2009

Fathers Day 2009 This year on Fathers Day I kinda screwed up. I honestly didn't forget and had planned all along to have the kids make Geoff some cards the Sat. before, but we got tied up all day so Sunday came and they didn't have anything for Fathers Day to give him. (Remember his 'yearly' gift was the flat screen tv and then I was going to buy him a little gift like a CD, but he wanted the Green Day CD when it came out, so he went and bought it.) Anyway....his feelings were hurt. He thought we forgot about him, so come Monday the kids and I worked for 5 hours on gifts for Daddy. They both made cards, books and craft projects. I then made one of his fav. dinners of a Turkey Roast, he was so happy and said 'see this is all I wanted'. The kids felt great about doing something so special for their DAD! My kids are so lucky to have such a great Daddy in their lives. We LOVE you.
Here's the gifts they made for him. The foot/handprint one he wants me frame and hang in our room.

I stole this idea from a friend of ours, except she wrote "#1 Dad lives here" in the street with sidewalk chalk, but since Geoff was at work all day on 'our Monday' Fathers Day we surprised him with this on the sidewalk.

Picture Says it ALL

This is what I deal with everyday!!! Ahhh :0) Need I say more??

Brynley at 4 Months

My baby girl is now 4 months old! I'm capturing a picture on her 'birthday' for every month for the first year. It's fun to see how much they change over that year....so here's her 4 month shot.

My Happy kids!

Kaylyns Family Party

We celebrated Kaylyns birthday with a family party the day after her actual birthday. She chose a High School Musical Birthday and invited her grandparents and Aunt/cousin. We had pizza for dinner, then she opened her gifts and had cake. She enjoyed her family party. Next is her friend party, when I'll let her pick 2 or 3 friends to go with her and have lunch and play at Chuck E Cheese......again. I might wait a few weeks though!! The Birthday Girl with her cake. We wanted a Costco cake, but since they don't have character cakes I improvised!

Kaylyn on her new Disney Princess Bike. She LOVES this bike. It's so pretty. Little did she know it's been sitting in a box in our garage since March.

Kaylyn with her 'friends' from her favorite movie!


Our family on her 4th Birthday.

Kaylyn's Actual Birthday

Kaylyn's Birthday was June 16th. She turned four. Her Birthday was also Hayden's last day of Kindergarten so we went to celebrate both. First we took them to our new library (which they LOVE), then we were going to take her to dinner wherever she wanted. She chose McDonalds, which we tried to talk her out of, but she really wanted it; however when we got there they were packed and there was no where to park, so we talked her into Burgerking instead, but when we got there and Geoff saw the prices he said if we were going to spend 20+ dollars on dinner he'd rather us go to an actual restaurant. I then remembered that Chevy's Tuesday night has kids eat free, so we went there and spent about 5 bucks more than if we were to stay at Burgerking. We also went to Chuck E Cheese and gave them both 5 dollars worth of coins to play with. That took almost 2 hours to go thru. We had a really fun night. Kaylyns gift on her actual birthday. Gabriella and Troy dolls that sing. She loves them.

Her with Chuck E. She wouldn't sit up on the stoop by him. He freaked her out if she got too close.

Geoff trying to win tickets for the kids and Hayden playing a bowling game.

Kaylyn on her favorite ride there. The bike that goes up in the air. She can't reach the peddles though, so I have to help, but still it's her fav.

Brynley Giggling

My Mom got Brynley to giggle today for the second time. I asked her to stop so that I could grab the camera and tape it. I'm so glad after I got the camera she kept it up. Usually, as all parents know, this is when they stop. This has got to be one of the best sounds in the world.

The first time she giggled was June 10th when I was giving her tastes of my strawberry popsicle. She had red stained lips and was giggling. Each time was a different laugh, almost as though she was trying them out to see which one suited her. I wish I would've caught it on tape, but I knew she would stop as soon as I came back, so I called Geoff at work so he could hear; ofcourse, by the time he answered she had already stopped. It brought tears to my eyes to hear her so happy.

Kaylyn's New Room

I had painted Kaylyn's bedroom pink over two years ago, but left one wall white with the intention of doing a checker board pattern on it. I was just intimidated to start such a big project, but after talking with a friend who had done it also (thanks for the tips Gena) I was ready to start. My Mom planned on taking Hayden and Kaylyn for Friday night and once I had this idea I asked her to keep them Sat. night also, so I could finish and surprise her for her birthday this week. Step 1- Took me 4 hours to plan out the size of the squares, how many to do and to tape it all up. I ended up doing 14" squares. There's 70 total. I then used the level laser and tape measurer to do the tape.

Step 2- I painted white paint around all of the tape so that if a color was going to bleed thru it would be white. It just makes everything look crisp and clean. Then I mapped out where I wanted each color. I didn't want a pattern I wanted random, just as long as two of the same color weren't touching.

Step 3- Paint the four different colors, with two coats each. This took 4 hours also. I was so excited to remove the tape.

Finished project. I love her room and more importantly so does she. While I was at it I moved her furniture all around and hung some pictures I had been waiting to hang. Hopefully she'll be able to grow with this paint, because I can't imagine painting over it anytime soon.

The happy little girl, sitting on her toy box. I finally got her to hold still for two seconds to take this. She was jumping off of everthing she was so excited.

Haydens End of the Year Party

Hayden recently had his end of the year party in his Kindergarten class. Family was invited, so we went down in the afternoon and he read us his stories he's been writting all year. The kids then ate goodies and visited with their friends. He has had such a wonderful Kindergarten Teacher. Thanks Mrs. Ortner, for a great first impression on what fun school can be! (Fingers crossed that Kaylyn will have her also.)

Pressure Washing

Geoff recently spent his day off (after working 8 days straight) pressure washing the house. The back was the worst and took the longest, but here in this picture you can see how clean the right side is compared to the the left. 11 hours later the whole house, driveway, patios and patio furniture was done. It looks so nice!

I couldn't belive how much crud came off our house and driveway. Lots of mold and cotton.

I'm surprised I got a smile out of him. This was at the end of the day when he was soaked, covered in dead bugs and freezing. Atleast it's done for another 2 years.

My three kids!

I had them take one shot with all three kids.....I wasn't planning on it, so they are kinda ragity, but I love the picture, just because they're all in it.

Brynleys 3 months pics (professional)

I took Brynley to have her pictures professionally done and they turned out SO CUTE! I'm really happy with them and the woman that took them. They're hurting so bad for business they gave us some deals and specials they normally wouldn't and they didn't push us to buy too much, they were just glad we bought anything! Anyhow, here's a few of my favorites.

Daddy, doesn't usually like naked poses, but how couldn't he. I thought this was so darling. We got a few other nude shots, but I won't post them on here.

Eagle Crest

We recently went to Eagle Crest Resort with Geoff's family. Eagle Crest is located in Eastern Oregon. It's only about 5 miles from Redmond. We loved it. The weather was perfect. The house we stayed at was so nice with a fireplace & Jacuzzi tub (not that we used either of them) a creek and pond out back and flat screen tv. There are so many things to do at Eagle Creek, including 3 Golf courses (one of which Geoff, his parents and brother-in-law played), 4 swimming pools, kids spray park, basketball courts, tennis courts, shopping, gyms and spas. We decided someday we'd like to retire there and in the meantime hopefully we'll get to make this a yearly tradition. The cousins loved the time they spent together.

This is a picture of the 3 bedroom, 2 bath house we stayed in. It was so nice and had plenty of room for 3 families.

Our family on the back deck of the house.

Haley, Brynley, Hayden, Kaylyn and Ava before swimming on our last day.

Brynley in her swimsuit with lots of sunblock. She's such a happy baby!

Eagle Crest (part 2)

Kaylyn enjoying the water spray park.


Hayden getting dunked on. They had such a blast.



Kaylyn and her cousin Ava. We spent over 3 hours, on this morning, at the pool.

This was the creek that ran behind the house we rented. The kids loved to put their feet in and throw rocks into it. We loved to sit on the porch and just listen to how beautiful it sounded.

On our way home we realized we would pass Multnolmah Falls. The kids had never seen it and Hayden has always loved Waterfalls, so we decided to take a quick detour. We didn't make it up to the bridge, because we're all so tired and in flip flops, but we got some great pictures from down below. We'll have to take them back soon and maybe pack a picnic lunch. It's so beautiful.

Also just a funny side note: as we were taking pictures this little boy (probably around 5) started taking pictures of Brynley in her carseat instead of the Falls. I just thought it was so funny considering there is the large, magnificent waterfall in front of him but Brynley was what he wanted pictures of. His parents were so so embarassed.

Night and Day

I just had to post this picture because I wanted everyone to see how very different my two girls are. Kaylyn is so fair skinned, blonde hair and blue eyes, and Brynley is the exact opposite. Brynley looks like I've taken her tanning (which trust me I NEVER would. It is a very scary thing in my family!). She definitely has Hayden's skin tone...her eyes are still undetermined. They're both so beautiful.