Day 363

We were playing around with the new Wii Fit game and added our youngest member of the family. This is my little Wii family.

Day 360

Every year Grandma Barb gets us an ornament for the year. These are the ones we received this year. It's kind of funny, but when I took the first pictures, I didn't realize they were our ornaments. I just thought they were cute.

Day 355

For years I've told myself that I'd make some stockings for my family, but I have yet to be inspired by anything. I'd been searching some of the after Christmas sales too for anything that seemed to suit our family. This year, we finally decided to commit and buy some that we liked. I'm still holding out hope that one day I'll make some, but in the mean time, we have some lovely stockings to hang.

Day 353

This morning the boys had gymnastics, and since we were out of the house by 10:30 with no obligations, we decided to make a visit to the zoo. It was pretty cold and rainy this morning, so after seeing some of the animals outside, we decided to stick with the indoor exhibits.

I snagged a picture of this little guy, but forgot to get what his name is. I thought he was cute.

Day 342

I have been hard at work on getting the Christmas cards addressed and out in the mail at a decent time this year. I'm just about done, and if they get out this week, then it will probably be the earliest ever.

This is my "workspace" while I sit on the couch, watch television, and address envelopes.

Day 330

Happy Thanksgiving!

Day 284

In kind of a spontaneous move, we decided to upgrade the stereo in the family car so we could use our iPhones to play music and drive with a safer Bluetooth option. We had tried various alternative methods without much success, so we thought a more professional option would be useful.

We were originally going into the store to check out pricing, but then decided if we didn't make the commitment, then we'd probably be considering it for another six months. We were fortunate that they were able to do the install the same day.

So far, I couldn't be happier with the upgrade!

Day 263

Today we were able to give the gift I finished up a couple of days ago. I'll have to say that the birthday girl was pretty surprised and happy with her gift.

Happy Birthday!!

Day 260

I spent some time today working on a special project for my mother-in-law's upcoming milestone birthday. All of the pieces came together this morning, but the funniest part was that I had never figured out the right program to make it into one cohesive gift. So I spent some time installing a program I'd bought but never used, figuring it out, and then uploading the finished product.

I was thrilled to pick it up this afternoon. Now to get it framed and wrapped.

Day 251

For this school year the routine is that my mother-in-law takes care of the kids on Tuesdays while I'm at work. This morning she had a doctor's appointment, so I met up with her to watch the kids for an hour or so. While I was waiting for her and the boys to arrive, I realized I had a pretty cool view from the fourth floor of the medical building, so I took the opportunity to snap a few pictures.

Day 248

We took the boys to the fair after naps this afternoon. When we left the house, it looked like it was about to pour on us, but we avoided any rain at all. The sun even came out for a little while. It seems like we might have lucked out because the rest of the weekend looks pretty stormy.

Day 218

I spent a good hour this morning working on figuring out our calendar for the next several months - more specifically, September through the end of the year. It seems like this last quarter of the year flies by with school starting up again, holidays galore, fall and winter activities, and several birthdays.

I made some progress, but decided to take a break and come back to it later.

Day 206

Today we went out to the Bellevue Arts Museum Artsfair with grandma and grandpa. I really, really like to go out and look at all the artistic stuff people are doing, but the biggest draw for me is the jewelry. There are some very innovative people out there.

I was going to feature a gal whose jewelry I liked, but I didn't get a very good picture because she really threw me off when I asked if she minded if I took a picture. I thought I would ask because I know some people don't want you trying to copy their work. But her issue was she was concerned that the purpose I had in taking a picture would be to "slam" her work.

I thought what she did was gorgeous, which is why I wanted the picture to put it on my daily blog. But when I did get her permission, I was still so thrown that I just snapped a quick one and went on my way. It didn't show the detail that I wanted, so I'm going with a picture that I thought turned out more artistic.

These are graduated bowls by Marge Margulies Pottery. The coloring and design are just amazing. The bowls start at about cup size and work their way out to a significant 18 inches in diameter. They were really pretty bowls and fun to photograph.

Day 165

Today was the dinner celebration for my birthday with my hubby's family. For the last several years, I've shared my celebration with Father's Day and have been overruled on my dessert preference in favor of some sort of lemon concoction. Not a big fan of lemon - unless it's lemonade.

This year I got lucky since Father's Day is next weekend. My sweet mother-in-law served my favorite birthday pie - apple. And I got to take home the leftovers.

Happy birthday to me! ;)

Day 88

A picture of me today taken by my dad with our new toy. After my last very long post, that's all I'm going to say for today.


Don't mind my brother drinking chocolate milk in the background. This one was better than my other choice.

Day 70

Today I did something I rarely do. I bought myself some music. My sweet sister gave me a fantastic gift certificate to Barnes and Noble, which was just awesome because no one ever thinks I'd like something like books or music.

I tend to be kind of picky about making sure I use my gift certificates on just the perfect thing, so it's taken me nearly three months to figure out what to buy. Now I'm anxiously waiting for my new tunes.

Day 52

The purpose of our trip to Portland was to celebrate my grandma's 85th birthday. We've tried to visit her a couple of times since Paul was born, but it just hasn't worked out. This was the first time she met both Matt and Paul.

The boys took to all the family right away. They're nice people, and of course, it was quite the sacrifice for my boys to be the center of attention. ;)


Posing with us was my cousin's little girl. She and Paul hit it off right away, and Paul's already asking when he'll get to see his new cousin again.

Day 51

I love to take the boys to experience new things, and trips out of town are a fantastic opportunity to expose them to new adventures. The one thing I wanted to do while in Portland was go to the zoo. We got up this morning and headed straight to the zoo from the hotel. One of the cooler things about our zoo membership is being able to get free or discounted admission to other zoos. We were able to get into the Oregon Zoo for free, which is an awesome price.

This picture is of the seals. The Oregon Zoo has quite a few more water exhibits than our local zoo, and they were all pretty cool. The seals in this exhibit were having tons of fun just swimming around and around. I liked the motion in this shot.