4th of July tradition

Long before I was married, my family used to go to the Tacoma Rainiers Fireworks Extravaganza every year for the 4th of July... now that I have my own family we started making it our tradition too! The last couple years we've gone with some friends and have a blast! Nothing better than a baseball game and fireworks! This year the weather was perfect, sunny, but not too hot, the Rainiers won, it was a great game... and the fireworks were amazing!


the boys love to go to games... they have so much fun


getting ready to watch the fireworks


waiting patiently.... adam lasted about 3 min into the show before he fell asleep

loving every minute!

i love this man!

Happy 4th of July!

Blake turnes 3

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLAKE!

here's blake on the morning of his birthday showing us how old he is!

for his birthday we invited a few friends to come play at Chuck E Cheese... he talked about it everyday the week before his birthday... and is still talking about it now! (pa came to play too... and helped me out a TON, he was a lifesaver! thanks dad!)

opening presents and eating cupcakes (i know, i went all out on the cake :)

here's everyone that came to help celebrate!

the moms (such beautiful ladies!) and my cute boys!

olivia and ella... such pretty girls. gunner and jaime...what a handsome dude.

the conks... we always have so much fun with them!

stephanie also brought her girls aubry and katie... but i didn't get any good pictures of them, sorry... they were having way too much fun to say cheese for me!

thank you to everyone that came, we had so much fun... Blake LOVED it, and had a great birthday!

ROUND 2

blake got a huge semi truck from auntie aj... he LOVES it

we had another birthday party with just family... it was also my sisters boyfriend, Tommy's birthday, so we had a joint party. here is blake opening presents... one of which were Pop It's... those things you throw on the ground on the 4th of July, both kids had a blast playing with those!

he also got a giant Thomas play tent, which he loves but takes up so much room (thanks for that Marilyn!) :)

both baseball lovers, so this was the obvious choice!

jonathan unfortunately had to work during both of blakes parties, but i still got a picture of the birthday boy with is daddy!

Happy Birthday Blake, we are so blessed to have you as a part of our family. You are so sweet, smart and funny... we LOVE you so much!

CALLING ALL GIRLFRIENDS!!

I am in need of some SERIOUS help girls! My closet is stuck in collage and I can't get it out! It's time for an intervention... I need help going through my closet and letting go of some of those 'i've had that since high school' things. Then I need someone (this will actually probably take a few of you) to take me shopping and tell me what is cute.... because seriously I have NO idea anymore... i.e. are tappered jeans, capris, shorts, and pants REALLY in (I may refuse, I look like a complete idiot in them). ANYWAYS, if it were up to me I'd wear workout pants, tshirts, and sweatshirts all the time... BUT... NEWSFLASH, I AM NOT IN COLLEGE ANYMORE! (we won't talk about how long ago it was either). Since you all dress so cute and fun...... help a sister out!

WHO'S IN!?

(this all may have stemmed from my shopping trip yesterday where everything affordable I found was UGLY, and anything cute was EXPENSIVE! needless to say I came home empty handed and a little depressed...)

so proud...

...of this boy!



he is officially potty training! yay!
and he is a pro!

we started yesterday...
-he has had no accidents
-he gets up and goes to the potty all by himself
-i rarely have to remind him
-he's gone both #1 and #2 with no problems (he sits down, so there's no mess! :)
-he's gone potty in public restrooms (he told us he had to go!)
-last night (his first night) he woke up dry

i have no delusions that we won't have some accidents in the future or that we don't have any more work ahead of us... but he's doing it, and doing really well! so, for as well as he's doing, it was worth the wait!

haircuts x3

yesterday in the beautiful sunshine, i sat all my boys down on the deck and tortured them with haircuts! they all did surprisingly well... blake didn't even cry this time!! this is major progress people, the last few times it has taken at least 2 sometimes 3 people to hold him down just to buzz it off. yesterday he sat on his dads lap, didn't cry, and sat perfectly still while i was able to trim around his ears and neck! adam did really good too... he was a little squirmy, but didn't cry! now, if adam's hair wasn't starting to get in his eyes i probably wouldn't have cut it, i think he looks so cute with long blond shaggy hair, but it is summer, and the poor kid doesn't need hair in his eyes!

adam before:


adam after: (i was amazed at how soft and fine his hair is, and how LONG it actually got)



blake before: (ok, he did cry a little before we started, but he calmed down)


blake after:


no before/after pictures of jonathan, because let's face it, seeing a grown man get his hair cut is neither exciting or cute. but of course i think he looks handsome! :)

it's official

jonathan has been selected by his work to take a temporary assignment in LONDON for 6 months!

we will be there from the end of July to the end of January!

100th post

i can't believe i've had this blog for almost 2 years and i'm just now getting to 100 posts! well, at least it's a good one....

this saturday i ran my first half-marathon!

i was excited, but nervous... and so happy that i had a bunch of friends that did the half marathon too! we had a great time and everyone did amazing, i was so proud of everyone! i wasn't too happy about the rainy weather, but very grateful that i decided to bring my hat, so it really wasn't an issue. i ended up beating the goal that i set for myself and really enjoyed the run! i still have a lot to learn about racing because the last couple miles about killed me, and i have been so sore the last couple days i could hardly walk! all in all it was a great time and i'm excited for the next one!


my mom brought the boys to cheer me on at the end... i almost cried when i saw them at the end, but still had about a 1/4 of a mile left, so i had to suck it up! :) they also brought me flowers...so sweet!


that face should say it all....

i think it took me about 5 min to get up after squatting down like that!

here are my stats:

time: 1:46:16 (8:07 min mile)

5th in my age group

22nd female overall

83rd finisher

*thank you to my parents for watching the boys the night before, and for bringing them to the race, it meant so much to me to have you there! i love you!