I spent the first 4 hours of my day on the phone with Qwest and battling my network of computers, trying to get them all connected to the internet. I used to be able to figure these things out fairly
easily, but not anymore. It’s beyond me! Of course, David is in the door for 30 minutes and has them all back online. I felt like I totally wasted the first part of my day.

Then I went to get Bailey lunch and went through my pantry to find a bunch of tiny little black bugs. I found some of these about a week ago in a container of bread crumbs. There were TONS of them - we threw out the bread crumbs and inspected a few other things with no other signs but a random one here and there. I went deeper into my pantry and found a
total infestation of them. I went through and threw out a ton of boxed pasta and bagged crackers, etc. Kept a few things that showed no evidence of any live bugs or dead bugs. THEY ARE SO DISGUSTING. I put everything left into gallon sized ziploc bags and cleaned out the rest of the pantry, wiped everything down, cleaned up these disgusting insects and I found a giant spider who was probably getting ready to sit down to a lunch feast. I couldn’t let him go though, he was just too big, and it was one of those spiders that has a big round back and long skinny legs. I had to sing with the radio to avoid hearing any type of crunch which would have led to me screaming my head off.

So everything got put back away and we’ll just say a few prayers that they are GONE FOR GOOD. I can’t imagine what is left they’d be in. I must have thrown away $150 in groceries. Bleck.

What a wasted day! :o( David is on his new schedule though, which is nice, he was home just after 2:30 today. Of course, it’s 5:29 and he’s napping. ;o)

Here is a picture of Bailey and Libby last night -aren’t they adorable?

Here’s my two youngest chickies this morning watching cartoons. They were watching Timmy Turner, but I had to ask them since I’m posting about cartoons what their favorites are. Kenzie says "Scooby Doo". Bailey says "Dora and Fairly Odd Parents". They watch pretty much anything though. I will still catch Ashlyn watching Barney with Bailey in the mornings I thought they were cute all cuddled up so I snapped a pic. Quiet
moments like this, with them being cuddly with each other are becoming more of a rarity these days!

I don’t remember my sister and I ever being cuddled up watching cartoons together. Though, we were 8 years apart, so while she was watching things like Jem, I was watching Dance Party USA. LOL.

My baby boy is 12 today! I say “baby” because it seems like yesterday that he WAS a baby! Where have the last 12 years gone? Holy cow. TWELVE YEARS OLD. And he’s not even my oldest. Talk about making a person feel OLD. Tanner came into the world just after 2am on February 23rd, 1995. I was due on 2/24 and had been to the doctor the day before on 2/22. I went to my mom’s for dinner with Katy and we went for a walk after dinner. I started having mild contractions that were like 10 minutes a part for about an hour and we started getting ready to go to the hospital. Myndi (my sister) and Ron (my stepdad) were going to watch Katy for us, while my mom and I went to the hospital. Just before we left, Katy was “painting” makeup on Myndi with a paintbrush and accidentally jabbed the paintbrush into her ear and it was bleeding, thinking maybe she’d poked a hole in her eardrum or something, they thought maybe she’d be needing to go to the hospital with us. Everything turned out okay with her, and off to the hospital we went….

I started having really horrible contractions that I felt more in my back then anywhere, I was in SO much pain, they gave me an epidural right away and I was able to sleep for a good hour before I was ready to deliver him.

He came out upside down, which was the cause of my back labor, I should have known he was trouble right from the start. LOL. He was 8lbs, and the perfect picture of health. He was a very good baby and I had the greatest helper in the world in Katy. She loved being a part of everything, changing him, dressing him, all of it. She loved her baby brudder. The one thing I remember the most were Tanner’s toes, they were the longest toes ever, we used to say he could hang from a tree like a monkey. He also looked like a little old man. We’d say that he’d look the exact same at 90 years old, with a few more wrinkles LOL. I’m hoping to get some baby pictures to post if I can get my other computer w/scanner working.

We are taking Tanner and a friend to the movies tonight and having cake and ice cream after.

Happy 12th Birthday
Buddy!

Bailey
wanted Tanner to wear her birthday crown.
No, he wasn’t super happy about wearing it. LOL.

This is what I came home to this afternoon, after taking Ashlyn to the doctor. The kids outside, in the rain, flying a kite. When I drove up, McKenzie and Bailey were dancing around in the rain, hair sopping wet. They were having a great time. It was so windy we thought the kite would carry Bailey away. She came in by the time I had a chance to snap a pic… this is Grandma Lisa outside with Tanner and Kenzie…. that’s Bailey’s birthday kite she got from Dusty, Angie, Haley and Travis. If you are reading Angie, she loves it! She also wrote with the sidewalk chalk outside today (in the rain too LOL)!

We moved into this home in July of 2004. We moved from smack dab in the middle of Vancouver out to a rural part of Clark County - between Hockinson and Battle Ground. We can look out our front window and not be able to tell if our neighbor’s car is in the driveway. Rather we can count how many of their cows are out grazing. We can look out our back deck and see beautiful trees down by our creek and horses grazing. The kids can play outside without any fears of them getting abducted or harmed. We don’t have to worry about vandalism. I can’t tell you the last time I locked my van door when I came in the house (this is not an invitation The only noises we can hear at night are coyotes and maybe a tree frog here and there.

I didn’t know if I would love it here… I used to think of myself as a city girl, liking the country scenery but more partial to the convenience of living in the city. It’s 25 minutes from most anything. 25 minutes from David’s job, restaurants, the mall, Target, my mom’s house, Walmart, Target (LOL). When we first moved out here, I knew the road okay. This is my dad’s house that he built years ago. I visited fairly often, often enough to know the route. But it wasn’t “my route”.

I was driving home from the store the other day, a drive I’ve made hundreds of times in the last 2 1/2 years. I started thinking about it… and wondered when did it become so familiar? I remember the first time we drove into town. It seemed so strange. The grocery store, wasn’t my grocery store I was used to shopping at. The road and the scenery wasn’t the same as the road we used to travel to the grocery store. The neighbors, weren’t mine. Now, I drive into town and this is my town. It is my familiar. I can’t imagine driving another road to another store or home to another house.

We don’t know where we are moving to yet, but we know we have to move this summer. My dad has to move back in as part of a business transaction he’s doing with some real estate. I am not big on change. Finding a new home, a new route that’s familiar, a new town that is “ours”, new schools for the kids. I’m not looking forward to it!

I was trying to find a picture of our house and our land, but I can’t find one on this computer, so here is one of Kenzie I took recently… and you can see our view… what’s not to love?

I know it’s been a really long time since I have updated our website. I was in a major funk about it… wasn’t happy with the layout and how I had to go about updating it. I’m finding my way out of that, changing things around a bit. I hope you like it :o)

Bailey turned 4 on Valentine’s Day and Tanner’s 12th Birthday is just around the corner. My kids are growing up so fast. Too fast.

I have to share a sweet moment that happened the other day. Bailey and I walked McKenzie into school and it was pouring. I decided to carry Bailey so her shoes/tights wouldn’t get wet. So I grabbed her out of the carseat, grabbed Kenzie’s hand and we made a quick dash into the school. As we were walking back out of the school, she told me to jump in a puddle. I asked her “why?” “I will get all wet” I told her. She told me “it’s okay mama, you will dry”. She said “I love jumping in puddles”. I remember being a kid and loving to jump in puddles also. What kid doesn’t? And what mother doesn’t say “don’t jump in that puddle, you’ll get all wet” LOL. Well, I decided to find a puddle to jump in, and I did it. Of course, I picked a rather small puddle, but my jeans got a little wet, my shoes… WET. But my daughter thought I was the coolest person in the world right about then and just burst into laughter. It’s okay to get wet once in awhile. My daughter taught me that!

We measured my little peanut girl, she’s 38 inches and 33lbs. Such a major difference between her and McKenzie and that age. My 3 older kids were always on the small side also. Just petite little ones. They change and grow though. Ashlyn and Tanner are the same size, Ashlyn a few pounds heavier and they are 18 months apart, kids change sooo much in their childhood, it’s amazing :o)

Her big party is on Sunday, at Chuck E Cheese (her choice, of course). Here are some pictures from her birthday. The pink sweater that Bailey is wearing was crocheted by a friend of mine, named Susan - isn’t it gorgeous? Thanks Susie! You can click each picture to enlarge.