• Our Family

  
  
  
  

• Help Send Tanner To DC

  

• Archives

  Select Month November 2008 October 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 February 2005 November 2004 July 2004 June 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 April 2002 August 2001 July 2001 June 2001 May 2001 April 2001 March 2001 January 2001 December 2000 November 2000 October 2000 September 2000 August 2000 July 2000 June 2000 April 2000

• Blogroll

  • 50’s Housewife
  • A Kernal Journal
  • Baby Liam’s Blog
  • Elaina Grace
  • Frugal Homemaker Plus
  • Green Jello
  • iMommies
  • In A Shoe
  • Libby Dog
  • Little Kenadie
  • Living Hope Church
  • Organizing Junkie
  • Our Journey to Sophie
  • Seasons Of The Heart
  • SW Washington Living
  • Team Houston
  • The Homespun Heart
  • The Maguire Clan
  • The Watson Family

• Quick Links

  • About Us
  • Jessica’s Kitchen
  • Kids In The Kitchen
  • Las Vegas
  • Our Ebay Auctions
  • Photo Gallery
  • Rare Movies
  • SWWA Living
  • The Ulloms Arcade
  • Wacky For Webkinz
  • Washington Carseat Law
  • World’s Smallest Cat
• 

• Weather Report

  

• Counter

  You are visitor #:
  free counter
  
  
• 

Tuesday was my grandma’s 89th birthday! We celebrated at one of her favorite places, Hometown Buffet. This woman is truly amazing. She lives completely on her own and still drives and is completely independent! She will be having knee replacement surgery shortly and I have no doubt that she will recover perfectly fine and barely skip a beat.
My grandma:

First I have to share a song I was sent by my friend Michele, called Cinderella by Steven Curtis Chapman. Absolutely love it! David - you have to listen to this!

And some pictures I got in email from another friend of mine, Marcy, that I thought were great and worth saving and sharing here

Click to enlarge

Grandma Lisa came down on Saturday on her way to Seaside and decided to kidnap Bailey for a few days. She took her with her. They will have a grea time, and yes I am enjoying the peace and quiet but I miss my little girl! She gives the best good morning kisses ever! Mommy misses you Bailey!

Today we are carving pumpkins. We had to carry our own through the pumpkin patch this year, so we all got fairly small ones. I have seen the little drill kit they make now on a few different tv shows, and I’m tempted to buy one of those. Carving pumpkins is always crazy and chaotic here…. David ends up doing most of the carving LOL.

Tuesday, is my grandma’s 89th Birthday! We are going to Old Country Buffet. Sadly Bailey won’t be with us, but hopefully Grandma is staying with my dad that night and she’ll see Bailey on Halloween. My nephew Austin is coming to trick or treat with my kids… so that will be fun. Kids have early dismissal two days this week and I have a surprise for Ashlyn, McKenzie and Bailey Thursday night, better not say here what it is…. but I bought matching sweatshirts at the Disney Store if that gives you a hint

So it will be a busy week, not sure when the next time I’ll be able to update will be… have a happy and safe Halloween! Don’t forget It’s A Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is on tomorrow night at 8:00pm on ABC.

~Jessica

We’ve had a somewhat busy week this week - lots of things going on. Tuesday, we went to the pumpkin patch. This was our first time going during the week, and alot of the games and activities were closed. No pumpkin launch, no face painting, etc. But it was half price, so we can’t complain!

Cedar Creek Grist Mill in Woodland. I read about a free apple cider pressing they were holding today and it sounded like fun. We went there a few years ago and it’s gorgeous, I figured it would be nice to see it in the Fall with all the leaves and things changing colors. We got a little misdirected on the way there, so we arrived towards the end and they were running out of apples. We were so bummed! We did all get a sample, but not a jug like we’d been hoping for. It was EXCELLENT too. Such a teaser LOL. We did buy some fresh stone ground flour. That was fun to watch, I didn’t get any pictures of the guy who was passing it out, but he was covered head to toe in flour dust. His hair was white, his overalls and all.

Bailey is loving her preschool class. She’s made lots of new friends and her teacher is amazing. She brought this painting home today and I had to take a picture. Notice the picture her teacher took of her painting, she takes a ton of pictures of the kids for various projects. It’s alot of fun

I only buy a tiny package of the kids’ school pictures. They are a little bit too expensive for me to not have any control over what they look like or how they smile when their photos are being taken. I buy just enough to pass out a few wallets and put 5×7’s in this neat frame my sister got me a few years ago that holds four 5×7’s. Click to enlarge!

Let’s just say, I’m glad I didn’t purchase bigger packages. They all turned out okay, but there is something small about each one that I don’t like. I didn’t even know McKenzie wore that necklace to school. It looks okay and it’s totally her, she always has something like that added to her outfit for the day LOL… but I wouldn’t have picked that for an acessory LOL. Katy missed picture day so she didn’t get hers taken, so that’s why there isn’t one of her above. They are growing up so fast.

My mom has been a busy little bee cleaning out her garage. She stopped by on Sunday and dropped off a big bag of stuff for us. In it were the flower girl dresses that Katelyn and Ashlyn wore in our wedding. McKenzie and Bailey were all over them

This is a good comparison in the size difference of my girls. McKenzie (almost 7 1/2) barely squeezed into that dress Katelyn wore (at almost 8 1/2). Bailey I think wore the dress about the same as Ashlyn did when she wore it. But Bailey will be turning 5 shortly AND Ashlyn (who was fairly petite at that age) was barely 4.

It was fun seeing them in these dresses. I then had to take a picture of a collage that our friend Michele made of pics from our wedding. None of my pictures are that great, I apologize! My camera just wouldn’t take a good picture with the lighting in the room that day and the flash on the picture frame of the collage made that kinda crappy too, but you get the idea!

I love the holidays. I could say this in every single post I ever write. I love Fall. I think it’s partly because it’s the kick off to some of the major holidays. It always been my favorite time of the year. I can go back into my childhood and it just seems like this was always the time of the year that my family was the closest and that comfort routine of going back to school, gearing up for Halloween, etc.

My mom always had a knack for making holidays special for my sister and I. She only had the two of us, but she put alot of time into decorating our house, helping us do holiday projects, taking us to various holiday functions, and just making it special! I just want the same for my kids. It’s a little more difficult. I’ve got 5 to create equal memories for LOL. It can be exhausting, but they do each have their own way of expressing their excitement about these things! It’s a lot of fun and I’m happy to say that even though it is exhausting it honestly is still the most bestest, coolest, awesomest time of the year and I have to thank my children for that for sharing it with me (and yes, I’ll give my supportive hubby credit too, he does do a pretty good job of putting up with my erratic behavior and spontaneous spending habits I have this time of year - which reminds me just of the position my stepdad had when I was little LOL!!) :) I am already starting to get sad that October is approaching half over.

Totally off the subject of the rest of the post. I wanted to just talk for a moment about… Men In Trees!! It comes back on tomorrow (Friday). Yay! This was my favorite show last year. I loved it!! I was telling everyone that I wanted to move to Alaska, just because of that show. Turns out, they film in Canada LOL.

I was watching The View this morning and Anne Heche was on as a guest. Did you know…. HOLY COW… Marin (Ms. Heche) and Jack (James Tupper) are together in real life!!! I was completely shocked! I don’t keep on top of entertainment news very well apparently (though I do watch The View every day!) but they are so darn cute together on that show and I always thought I could see that chemistry coming through very well. Makes me even more excited for it to start tomorrow. I hope it works out because nothing seems to end a show quicker than a failed onscreen/off screen romance!

Kids are home tomorrow, no school for Columbus Day! Ashlyn is already at her dad’s house. And I just got word that we might possibly be working our TheLightMan.com business at a haunted house in Portland every weekend through Halloween. My post may jump from busy, busy to really super crazy busy, busy.

Take care everyone. Have a great weekend!

Grandma Lisa turned 50 today! Hope she doesn’t mind us sharing that! She spent the weekend on a 3 night cruise. Nice way to celebrate I’d say!

The kids are sending you lots of birthday wishes today Grandma Lisa!

I have to share a new site that we are making. It’s updated daily (at least that would be our goal So please bookmark it and check back often. The kids are all helping me with it - it’s a family project.

Every Day Is A Holiday
http://holidayprojects.blogspot.com/

Thanks for your support!

Jessica

David had Friday, Saturday, Sunday off this week. It’s been really nice having him home this weekend. Between work and football, we don’t get to see him very much during the week. He was able to watch Bailey’s dance class for the first time on Friday. Plain Grandma came along also The girls are all so cute to watch.

Here are a couple of pictures… we were behind a tinted window, so they didn’t come out great at all, but oh well

All the girls, Bailey is third from the end. She’s the second oldest in her class

Bailey and her friend Morgan.

Yesterday we ran a lot of errands. We went grocery shopping and we took the kids to see Game Plan. That was a really cute movie. The little girl in that movie is adorable. Bailey said when she saw her “that’s Sophie from Cory in The House”… LOL. Tanner and McKenzie picked out costumes. Tanner is going to be the scream guy, with the mask that is attached to some type of cord, and when he pushes the button, fake blood trickles down the “skeleton” looking face. He was the same thing last year but his mask broke before trick or treating, so he wanted to be it again, with a working mask. Gross, but his decision. McKenzie is going to be a queen complete with a big hoop skirt. It’s cute, but I was surprised that’s what she went with! Bailey decided on Minnie Mouse, which I’m watching some on eBay or will buy at the Disney Store. Ashlyn wants to be Wonder Woman. Target didn’t have her size though.

Today… lazy day… We skipped church today. They are starting a new series on Sex Ed, and I wanted to watch it online before I took Tanner and Ashlyn to it. We’ll go next week, but I do admit I’m nervous LOL! It’s cloudy and chilly, a great day to cuddle up with our blankies and catch up on our DVR… and Sunday football for David of course.

Happy Sunday!
~Jessica

Yes, it’s been forever since I’ve updated. Stop all the hate mail and call off the hounds… I WILL TRY TO BE BETTER!

I hate wet flip flops. You’d think our little town was going to wash away into the Pacific Ocean, the way they were calling for rain yesterday. I knew it was going to rain… So I had no excuse for wearing flip flops, other than I really don’t like wearing tennis shoes. And this is the time of year, I have to pull them out of the closet and dust them off and get them ready for wearing. But… I’ve been dragging my feet on that one. No pun intended.

McKenzie and I ran into Costco for “a few things”, walked in with slightly overcast skies, yes I will admit, dark grey clouds were looming far off in the distant sky. After all, like I said, it was going to rain today. LOL. We came out to a torrential downpour, or my version of one at least. McKenzie had picked out a new coat in Costco, thank goodness or she’d have been whining like crazy because she had left her jacket at home.

By the time I got my cart unloaded and into my van, I was drenched… and my flip flops were wet. Soggy wet. I hate wet flip flops. By flip flops I mean those flat 2 for $5 pair from Old Navy So, guess what I did when I got home? I found my clog style Crocs. The tennies will have to wait for another day

So the kids have started school since my last post. This includes Miss Bailey who is in her third week of preschool. She loves it! It is held in a little dance studio in our town and taught by a lady who used to teach elementary school for 25 years. I really didn’t know what to expect, with it being in a dance studio, and this is our first “real” preschool experience. I’m extremely impressed! The class is small, so that helps. Bailey would be happy to go every day of the week, she has made several great friends already. She also takes a 60 minute dance class every Friday at the same place, combination of jazz, tap dance, and ballet. She is of course, LOVING THAT, as well!

The kids are all adjusting well to being in new schools. I’ve asked all of them if they like their new schools better, the same, or less than the old schools. With the exception of Katy, they are all much happier here! Katy is starting to make more and more friends though and I think she likes the small school better.. she can get from point A to point B in just a few short steps and she has a locker, which her old HS didn’t have lockers She’s had fun decorating that all up and shares it with one of her new friends.

I will just load up with pictures I think for now… and try to be better about posting daily updates in the future. I’m sorry - sometimes LIFE takes over and what can I do about it?

Back To School Slideshow

Kylee and Austin’s Birthday
My nephew Austin celebrated his 4th birthday last weekend. We went to CHUCK E CHEESE! Not a fun place on a rainy Sunday afternoon, but it was actually not too bad. My kids are finally to the age that I let them play without worrying… YAY! Kylee is Austin’s sister… she turned 7 also this month. Happy birthday kiddos!

Til next time!
~Jessica

• SpringWidgets
  Christmas Tree
  Create a combination of lights, ornaments, and more to make a custom Christmas tree. After decorating, use the tree as a Christmas countdown to remind you how many shopping days are left! If the widget is placed on the desktop, right-click and select Preferences to redecorate again and again.

  Get this widget!

• Gotta Pay The Bills

  
• 
  
  

• Subscribe

  • Posts | Comments
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  •