Camping with the In-Laws...

   So, a few weeks ago our little family made the trek down to Oregon for some camping with my in-laws. I highly recommend Milo McIver park near Estacada. The bathrooms were well taken care of and the on-duty park attendents were WONDERFUL!

   After survivng the bees in our campsite, Grandpa Jess's much too friendly elderly MALE dog, not to mention the HEAT!! We plan on going camping next year only for FIVE whole days! I know am I CRAZY?? but really we had a great time! Alyssa didn't even have to go without tv since her Uncle Dan brought his laptop and she got to watch Toy Story over and over and over again (she was happy!). Michaela LOVED getting dirty as she crawled around the campsite trying to eat ANYTHING she possibly could ( this includes pine cones!). Chris and I on the other hand...well I think next time we will take an air matress and I am NEVER sharing a sleeping bag with Michaela EVER again! ;-)

Alyssa had a ball and WAY too much sugar but thats what camping is all about right? She loved roasting marshmellows and making s'mores and no matter how many of those things she ate, she fell into bed every night exausted! Which means my mission was accomplished ;-)

Swimming the heat away!

   During the course of this summer we have spent quite a bit of time swimming the day away at Millersylvanina Lake. Needless to say we had a ball. Michaela is such a water baby and of course who can resist eating the SAND!

   Anyhow, while Michaela and I hung out on the beach playing lifeguard and watching our pup; Chris and Alyssa enjoyed some Daddy- Daughter time in the water. They were so cute I couldn't help catching at least some of it on film!

   It was a great way to spend some pretty hot days thats for sure! Too bad it took so long for the hot weather to reach us here in Washington!

Our Adventures at Borst Park.

  Last weekend we were down in Centralia and Alyssa convinced us to stop at Borst Park. This is the park where Alyssa swung on her first swing and played at her first playground. I am so excited to report that this is also the very first park Michaela swung on her first swing!

  Chris and Alyssa enjoyed playing on the playground while I packed our littlest one around on my back which she thought was pretty funny.

  Daddy and big sister dabbled in a little ghost hunting at the old Borst home which was pretty cute if I don't say so myself! While Michaela and I enjoyed the lovely gardens surrounding the property.

Happy 4th to ALL!

  For the 4th of July we just stayed home! with the exception of the parade we attended here in good old Tumwater and that crazy trek down to the fish and wildlife place to view the FANTASTIC fireworks!

  We started off in a mad dash due to us late risers wanting to attend the parade at 11am. I know, I know that's pretty much noon! how could you not be ready? Well, we have two kids who both had to eat, bathe, and get dressed, then we had the two of us to do the same. If you know my oldest at all you probably already know that she can be dramatic as well as a bit....absent minded..I started her first on the road to get the hay out of the house and she was the LAST one ready! As a mother this is just plain frustrating..what is she going to be like at 16?!? The parade was great and lasted for OVER an hour..doesn't that seem like a longtime? We took our pup Avery to the parade but she was pretty..well not impressed to say the least! After the parade we all came home and of course my husband, Chris and our oldest just HAD to start lighting off fireworks. We had a lovely BBQ which included a yummy crab salad thing that Chris put together but unfortunately he couldn't eat (what a shame..did I mention it was super yummy?) we ended our relaxing 4th in the front yard watching our neighbors set off $300 bucks(ouch!) worth of fireworks and lighting off the ones that we had; oh and a mad dash across a VERY busy street to view the professional fireworks and yes it was totally worth it! Hope everyone had a fab and safe 4th!

Soon to be toothless!

  So I am a little behind on updating my blog with AMAZING new events going on in our lives. A week ago EXACTLY my first born darling daughter lost her FIRST tooth! Can you believe it? She is 5 1/2 years old and already loosing teeth; but thats not all she also has another 3 teeth that are ready to go as well. Basically, in a matter of a few weeks my baby is going to be missing all four of her front teeth.

  What this means to me is 1.) the Tooth Fairy is going to be awfully busy at night and 2.) my baby is most certainly no longer a baby, this both makes me happy and sad. I am happy because we made it this far! and I am excited for all the other firsts to come along and to get to see the wonderful young lady I am positive she will grow up to be. I am sad because its the beginning of the end; she starts school this fall and I know nothing will ever be the same with her again. Pretty soon she will prefer "hanging out" with her friends to hanging out with me and she just might not be as excited to try out my latest handmade creation. I know that our relationship will change and evolve but is it normal to still look at baby pictures and REALLY wonder where the time has gone? Its hard to believe that this child was in my belly for 9+ months and has now been walking and talking her way around this world for 5 1/2 years. It seems like yesterday she had to have a binky, her blankie, AND her "Teddy" (really he is  a lamb and we still have him) just to go to sleep and now that blankie is hiding in her closet to preserve it, the binky was banished YEARS ago, and Teddy...Well he is currently residing in her little sisters bedroom just in case she needs him too.

...BUSY in Mommyland!

WOW! That's about all I can say! We have been so busy where to start?? I feel like I almost have to peruse all the pictures that I have taken that my WONDERFUL husband so kindly uploaded for me this morning!
  So, lets see here; we got a new puppy and her names is "Avery" and yes we now have FOUR women in this house and two men ( that would be Chris and our Guinea Pig "Spike")! We all love her so much its nuts. Now, if only she would stop using my house for the bathroom it would be great but we will be patient as she is ONLY 9 weeks old! Oh I probably should also include her breed huh? Well she is something of a mix which includes American Bulldog. What mother couldn't love that face??

We have also made our FIRST batch of homemade jam. The back story on this is I had been thinking about doing it for awhile and kept putting it off AND if you know my daughter AT ALL you know she LOVES her PB&J sandwiches and wouldn't ya know we ran out of jam. Lucky her me, I had some frozen berries in my freezer so I threw those in a pot, turned on the heat to med-high and brought them to a boil. Then I threw in a bit of sugar so sweeten the pot and some tapioca to thicken it; which I just might leave out next time. Anyhow and there ya go its a BIG winner at my house and I think I may just freeze some next time I make it so that I'll have it on hand.  

At the same time we needed the jam I also needed something for my little one to snack on in her highchair while I was making meals or just to munch on. So I took a page from my friend Carey's book and made homemade crackers and added some cinnamon and sugar just for the heck of it and they were yummy added to that homemade jam! Alyssa, my five year old asks for them too!

We have spent A LOT of time in our newly fenced backyard lately and one of those times we ran into a HOBO of all things sleeping in our yard..Funny thing is she looked an awful lot like my daughter!

Michaela wasn't very sure about what was going on with that or how her sister had suddenly turned into a hobo,

but she loves her anyway!

Speaking of our wonderful backyard; which my wonderful husband (I apparently am loving the word wonderful!) spent his weekend fencing in so we wouldn't loose Avery..Not to mention our children! We have pictures of our wonderful garden! We have had a bit of a tough time getting everything to come up and apparently we are just not meant to have garden fresh green beans this year, but I think we just might of a few things to enjoy, if Avery will stop walking on my fresh transplants! Since these were taken I have also added fresh basil, corn, cucumber starts and seeds; I had 5 cucumber starts but SOMETHING keeps coming by at night and eating the leaves, jalapenos, bell peppers, red onions, and more lettuce. Hopefully the weather will work with us so we can start EATING some of the yummy things we are growing?!?!

The Smiths do Portland!

  A few months ago our family made a trip to Oregon to enjoy the zoo and all that it had to offer.

For those of you who don't know my husband is originally from Portland and I grew up in Centralia an itty bitty town. Basically, Chris HATES public transportation because he had to use it growing up, now me, I have only used public transportation a few times in my life and for this reason it holds a certain interest for me. Anyway, I thought it would be FUN to take the kidlets on the MAX to get to the zoo. The husband was not quite so enthusiastic about it but we did in fact take the MAX and finally arrived at the zoo after getting on the wrong train and then transferring to the correct train with a very impatient five year old. Alyssa LOVED the trip to and from the zoo on the train! We got to see lots of very interesting people and parts of Portland and the surrounding cities we had never seen before.

  We enjoyed taking in the sights at the zoo, Alyssa especially loved the Bald Eagles, she still talks about them to this day! Michaela slept through most of the zoo but I know she will love it when she gets older. We also got to see polar bears, baboons, turtles, hippos and tons of other awesome animals.

After the zoo we went back to our car and ventured to this really sweet local restaurant called "Montage" after a 45 minute wait with two little kids we got a table and let me tell you it was worth the wait! If you like Cajun cuisine that is fresh and made from scratch you should venture on over to this place! Its located under the Morrison bridge and they don't take reservations so either get there early or be prepared to wait.

Here comes summer??

  As this is my first post I'm a little unsure what I should say so I will give whomever finds themselves reading this a rundown as to what my fab family and I have been up to.

 I have recently taken up sewing, knitting, yogurt making, and basically anything else I can possibly make homemade. I have found that my children and husband tend to enjoy things more when they are homemade and I enjoy providing the things we need myself. I am currently working on a blanket for my youngest daughter and should have plenty of other projects in the works soon enough in preparation for upcoming Christmas and Birthdays. I recently made my first homemade diaper which I am super proud of not to mention 3 pairs of babylegs for Michaela. Anyhow my interests lie basically in creating wonderfully cute and useful things for my family while at the sametime conserving what money my husband makes being a diesel mechanic.