Reading....

Well my new obsession seems to be reading. Now that I am not working I have been able to sneak in quite a bit of reading. Both kids absolutely love going to the libary (we have two in town, one small and one big one). Keeping track of what books we have is another story. We do have the "library box" and for the most part the kids are great about keeping the books in the box.

It is a lot of fun to watch the kids pick out books. Bella now knows where "her" books are at. She walks up to the shelves and just literally starts grabbing books! She doesn't open the book and I don't know if she really even looks at the front cover much. With all that said she has picked out some great books. Some that don't even really make it out of the "library box" but others she almost has memorized by the time we have to take them back.

Ethan on the other hand (probably because he is reading his books) takes his time. Granted he is pretty much just checking out The Magic Treehouse books. He is hoping to read the WHOLE SERIES this summer. I haven't actually wrote down and marked off the ones he has read, but it looks like there is 28 books in the Magic Treehouse Series and 14 in the Merlin Missions part of the series. I can't keep them all straight so I will have to consult with the boy to figure out for sure which ones he has read. (By my count I think he has read 14 books total, so 14 out of 42). Some of the books he can read in one sitting, but he still has quite a few not sure if he will make it all the way through them before school starts.)

It is fun to watch. He read for about 2 hours of our drive to vacation and about 3 hours on the way home (It is really only a 3-3.5hr drive). Also if he remembers to bring a book in the car he will start reading as soon as he gets buckled in!

Having a little extra time on my hands I have remembered that I do love reading.

I have been really loving anything by Kristin Hannah.

So far I have read: True Colors, On Mystic Lake, Firefly Lane, and The Things we do for Love. I am a few chapters into Between Sisters and it is seeming to be as good as the others. Firefly Lane and The Things we do for Love have been my favorite two so far. (They were read in the order listed) I cried at the end of Firefly Lane (I know some don't want to feel that way in a book, but as long as it is good I don't care). The Things we do for Love I think should be a must read for all moms, especially those adoptive moms. I truely didn't read the description/summary of the story (and for those of you that check out my links...don't read too much information) I like to read it as it happens and NOT know ahead of time. Lets just say I finished it late at night, holding Bella and tears a flowing =). A must read I think!

(Mom if you are reading I can re-check it out if you want to read it!)

I have only heard good things about Jodi Picoult. Well I guess I shouldn't say it like that either you like her or you don't. I really want to read My Sisters Keeper before I see the movie. Well lets just say so does the rest of my town. There are a ton of hold on this book... I have been tempted to buy it and then just loan out or resell it.... we'll see! She touches on controversial topics, but I have read from a lot of people that have loved her books!

Another good author/book I have heard good things about is Kate Jacobs. (Here is also her own website.) Again lots of holds so sticking with whatever comes back to the library first.

After all this book talk I had better get to bed....busy day tomorrow. A couple hours and a picnic lunch at the riverfront park (playing in the water feature) and then we are making a library run. (I think Ethan has finished all his books and I am going to see what else they have from my list.)

What are you reading?

Back from Vacation....

So we are back from vacation and there is still soo much to do! We had an amazing time as always. Lots of goodies to eat, hot tub and swimming pool, inflatable jump houses, bumper cars, dark light (where your white clothes glow) miniature golfing and of course bike riding! I think our final tally was 68 miles on our bikes. Ethan did amazing and rode his new spiderman bike the whole time.

I have hundreds of pictures to go through, but these 4 caught my eye right away so they got edited first. =)

A few weeks back I noticed a small gap appearing in his somewhat perfect little smile and low and behold there was an adult tooth coming in already behind it. The baby tooth became loose thankfully and while on Vacation it was barely, literally hanging on by a thread. So when dad asked if he could pull it, Ethan said, "OKAY". Here is what we got a semi toothless boy!

There was soo much to do on vacation, but poor Bella had to miss out on the bumper cars. They really jolted you around, but the funny thing is 2 years ago they had let her go on them with me... So needless to say she did lots of pouting when Ethan and one of us was riding.

I think this was Bella's last year on the baby seat on my bike. Her feet just miss reaching the petals on the tag-a-log so there she sat. Almost always with her blanket, even though it was in the 80's or 90's the whole time she had to have it. Worked out okay because for the most part it covered her shoulders and neck from the sun and a burn. This night we took an evening ride near the airport and loved the fact the horses were loose in the field and came right up to the fence. Ethan even got to feed them some "weeds" that were there by the fence. Poor Bella missed the whole thing.

and can't leave out Dad.... Just taking a break while the kids played at the park. It was hot and a long uphill climb to the park.

I have edited a few more pictures but will save them for another day with a few more stories from vacation.

Bellla from 3 to 13

Ahh Miss Bella... It is so funny it seems lately her personality has doubled. I mean she was a character before, but now even more so. Her little attitude and humor and little Bella-isms are really showing.

It seems like lately my postings on here have been far and few inbetween (spending too much time updating FACEBOOK) and then when I do post it seems to be a lot about Ethan so here is one of many new posts about Bella!

I simply LOVE this photo. It is her, it is the expression she gives quite often. She opens her eyes up wide and you can't help but giggle/laugh at her and then she busts up laughing her cute little laugh! I have been meaning to order some photos put onto a canvas. Maybe this will be my first one. (Just need to pick out a favorite of Ethan and have them done at the same time)

You should hear this girl talk on the phone....She carries on real conversations and even calls Todd all the time (aka Dad). Lately though her favorite person to call is MARSH (have no idea where that came from though) and we can't help but laugh every time she says it. All we can ever think of is The Brady Bunch and Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!

Oh and if you need a reminder of Marsha Marsha Marsha video clip check this out! (Gotta love YouTube)

The kids have been loving our beautiful weather and being outside. I soo need to get them out there more. This night Bella brought her back pack FULL of Barbies and play food. They had their own little tea party out on the deck! Gotta love their little imaginations. Soon enough it will be her and her friends sitting on the deck talking about BOYS!

Here is to many more nice summer days and better blog updates!

BOYS RULE!

During the last week of school they had a field day...

They did lots of fun stuff including face painting as you can see! Ethan asked for the Boys Rule all on his own! He found the plastic fangs in the play room and he had to wear them.

I love them and how he is trying to be oh so tough!!!

P.S. I had never seen it before but they used colored pencils and water for the face painting. (I might have to try that at home, wouldn't the kids get a kick out of that!)

Weekend Recap....

Weekends seem to go by soo fast and thankfully the past couple of weekends I feel like we have got a few things done or at least it seems like we have accomplished something!

Saturday morning got started off with a little bit of cleaning aka mostly vacuuming; which turned into both boys getting haircuts. Dad was great, he got the camera and shot a few pictures from his lawn chair (yes it has been beautiful here so Ethan got his hair cut outside)

I am soo loving his new super short hair do... I think next time we will go super short on the top too. Next we headed off to a nearby town for a birthday party of one of E's classmates! It was at a great indoor playground ... they even had a face painter! As you can see Bella enjoyed being turned into a princess. Thankfully she didn't throw much of a fit when we had to wash it off later in the bath.

Sunday we did the normal church and then Uncle Jay and Aunt Cara (and the boys) were up so we headed to Grammy & Papa's house to visit, eat, and play a little. Ethan (and Bella) sure enjoyed the little kiddie pool. It was a pretty little pool, but that didn't stop either one of them from playing in it and having a great time...

Now onto Monday morning.... It will start like any other morning; getting up and getting for daycare and school. The difference will be me NOT working right now. Yes the economy has hit us. So you stay at home moms...what is your schedule like. LOL tomorrow I am hitting the grocery store and taking a nice long walk! Oh and can't forget I am throwing in a load of whites in the laundry.... =)

So wish me and us luck on my new work-less adventure. We were not quite expecting this so expenses aren't where we would want them to be in a one income situation and that I find a new job soon (secretly I will love spending some time with the kids over the summer). Everything happens for a reason just not a 100% sure what this reason is just yet! =)

P.S... In my last post I showed you my new water bottle (which I use multiple times a day) and my new grocery sacks from Glamorous Groceries .... I have used my polka-dot one a ton. It holds soo much and oh ever so stylish!

I love Starbucks and great new Etsy find....

So most people know I love my Starbucks coffee. My coffee of choice is usually either a hot or cold Venti Iced White Chocolate Real Carmel Mocha, no whip. I love my new find at Starbucks... a 16oz hard plastic (double walled so it doesn't sweat all over the place) cup. It looks just like the iced plastic cups!

I was going to link you up to the Starbucks site, but they are out of stock and I'm sure if you Run ... Now... go! LOL you will be able to get one at your local Starbucks!

Here is my other fun find Glamorous Groceries. Debbie is the mom of twin boys on Ethan's soccer team... cute and good little soccer players. We have been talking at the games and she told me about her etsy site... Then she was super nice and gave me a new grocery bag....

Yes Miss Bella is sleeping ever so uncomfortably in the top of the shopping cart!

First of they are HAND MADE, super cute, and LARGE. You can fit soo much into them! After using this right after she gave it to me, I went and bought one for myself! OMG Check out how cute it is... Don't have personal pictures yet, but here are the ones from her etsy site:

Glamorous Groceries

Won't I be styling at the grocery store.... I look forward to purchasing more!
If you purchase, please let her know how you found out about her site!

A picture a day...

So I originally revamped my blog so I could focus on my photos. Focus on learning more about my camera, how to take picture in all manual, in general to take better pictures. Well as you can tell I took a nice long breafrom blogging and will admit I quit making sure I took a picture everyday...yes I take so many pictures that I'm sure most days are still covered.

My reason for all the explaining....I'm going to post a bunch of my favorites in the last month or so....just a heads up. Don't worry I won't post them all! I'll just link you up to my 365 photo gallery!

I look forward to sharing some of my favorite photos!

Some new reading material....

Who doesn't love links... lots of fun stuff to explore!

I have a few fun posts to link you up to for pictures and a great one I will have to do tonight (I couldn't get the pictures to upload online this morning) and forgot or well ran out of time...didn't email them to myself at work =) So tonight!

To start off who can resist brand new baby pictures (helps that she is an amazing photographer!)Andrea Burns introduces Audrey..... (She is a fellow digital scrapper and designer that I have followed for a long time)

Next is Ali Edwards... she just simply does an amazing job of capturing Life as it happens. She recently had a new baby girl too and well I love the story these pictures tell! Check out her post of pictures... wouldn't that be great in a collage frame with those captions on the photos??

Hmm an idea... now to get it implemented like all of my other idesa!

I found a great new http://www.etsy.com/ site, but you have to wait until later...I have pictures to go with it! =) I want to post them together!

Oh and we finally finally got our new phones! Todd got the LG EnV2 and I got the LG Voyager So far Todd seems to like his ... just a learning curve and I am loving mine! (Which will also be the home phone... we'll see how that all works out). So soon those of you that call us... well it ring to my cell phone and if we are at home and we don't answer...Leave a message or call again =) We may just be in another room and can't have multiple phones in every room!

What is new... I need to start working out again or well start altogether! Eating better and walking! One of my online girlfriends Jean and I have decided to walk a 1/2 marathon before next year... so we have time to get into shape and get walking!

Look at what can be done with a little bit of walking and eating right!

This woman used SPARK PEOPLE and walked her way right onto a magazine cover! Maybe a goal for Jean and I ....long distance email pals meet and walk a 1/2 marathon! LOL Well you never know! Here is her home page on Spark People.

Well I can't very finish this post w/out any pictures....

So ... Ethan has been very much into his Nintendo DS. He has a few games that he goes back and forth with. On this day he had taken it to school so he could play it while he waited for me to pick him up... We picked up Bella and came home, checked the mail. We went in the house and he just sat in the car, a few minutes later I shut the garage door and went back into the house.... He finally came into the house with his DS still on. I asked him, "You finally decided to come in?" His reply was, "It was getting hot in there!" (meaning the car LOL)...Ahh our Miss Bella... She really has come out of her shell. More comfortable with us and everything else around her! Definitely has some personality to her... and quite the attitude! These pictures were taken after bath when she did her own hair! Matching even!!!

Hopefully I will be posting more again soon!

Just a little behind on the blog!

Okay Okay it has been over a month since I've posted to the blog! I had high high hopes of taking pictures and posting everyday to the blog. I will admit I was doing really well with taking a photo every day, then my computer half way crashed! My EHD completely crashed showing 0% (yikes.... lots of $$$ on there) and my computer gave me the blue screen of death. So I have spent countless hours at night uploading my photos to my smugmug account, making sure everything is backed up and saved.

I have missed quite a few days w/ my photos... I'm hoping by the end of the year that I really haven't missed that many and that I can add in some daily routine type photos or photos from around the house.

So not sure how I want to update I have soo many pictures I want to share... I guess I will just have to do a few at a time LOL

So there it is ... I hope to start back in with the adding posts to the blog!
We'll see LOL

March 13th (72/365) Family

A few weeks (or months) ago we kind of dubbed Friday night as family night. I tried picking up take out on the way home (been trying to save a few dollars the last few weeks) and then we've either been playing games, watching movies and having popcorn. On this Friday the weather was amazing... you know that perfect get outside in your t-shirt kind of weather. The weather that makes you want spring/summer to be here!

We opted for a nice little walk before dinner. We have a nice little route that is probably about a mile... maybe a tiny bit more! We all 4 even walked tonight. Bella did great. Walked the whole route all on her own!

I know way to many pictures today, but soo hard to narrow it down.

I loved how this picture turned out... the worn net just hanging with the blue sky background; a simple photo!

There is a great little fish pond in front of one of the houses that we pass a long our walk! The kids have always loved to stop and find the fish! One day while we were looking the lady that lives in the house happen to walk home! We had a nice little chat and told her how much we loved stopping and looking at the fish!

Little miss Bella... such a big girl these days; Walking the route all on her own! Hard to believe she will be starting preschool in the fall (and ballet if she has her way).

I haven't quite figured out why Ethan is afraid of these vents/grates. I guess I will admit that I am not one to just stand on them when I see them, but am completely comfortable walking across them. It was pretty comical to watch Ethan as he was standing on top of this grate. You could see the wheels turning as he tried to figure out if it would hold him or fall away.

Ahh how these melt my heart. A budding photographer just like his momma! I love that he loves to take pictures (and can be quite good at it) He is quickly learning to stage his shot (if need be)

I love seeing what he captures thru his lens!

Once home Bella couldn't change into her ballet clothes fast enough.... and yes that is one of Bella's dresses that "Jumbo Barbie" has on! They twirled and twirled around the family room!


We are all looking very much forward to many many more walks around the neighborhood! Hurry up spring and start showing yourself!

March 12th (71/365) Haircut

We received a notice in E's Tuesday folder saying Spring Pictures were this Friday. One of the notes in the Life Touch flyer was to have haircuts 2 weeks before pictures. Well to start off that might be hard since we just received the flyer two days ago. So here we are getting his hair trimmed the DAY BEFORE pictures. Not ideal, but turned out okay. I was growing quite fond of the little longer look. No it wasn't past his ears or anything, but definitely not the short do he has had for years!

Today after Melissa cut his hair she asked him if he wanted her to wash it. He surprisingly said YES. So after getting his hair since he was 10 months old (aka almost 6 years of haircutting) this is the first actual hair washing he has got.

He will be my little groomer. He seemed to really enjoy the wash. He loves to dress ... I mean I don't ask him to and he will choose to wear a tie (to school or to church). Since starting at private school he has had to wear his khaki's and polos to school and they are required to be tucked in! I do have to watch the boy and make sure he doesn't just tuck EVERYTHING in. He is still learning when it is appropriate to tuck and when to NOT tuck! LOL

Speaking of spring pictures I am hoping to have them back in a couple weeks. Then you will see his fashion sense. He choose it all on his own; right down to the jeans and FLANNEL. He said everyone was required to stand against this tree (aka back drop) and boys put their hands in their pockets!

March 11th (70/365) Lunch

I know a super exciting photo of the day! =) Somehow a long time ago I got wrangled into making Todd his lunch for work (Heck I barely make anything for myself let alone for others).

Yes I buy certain name brands and can you tell me why a sandwich tastes better when I make it or is it his way of sweet talking me into continuing to make his lunch. Maybe it is the layer of meat, cheddar cheese, lettuce, swiss cheese, more meat (and don't forget the mustard that I don't even like the smell of!).... I am not complaining though... the least I could do (plus I usually do it while he is watching the news which I prefer not to watch)
Yes this is the most often made lunch. Other lunches mostly consist of peanut butter and jelly and left overs! Happy Eating!

March 10th (69/365) Legos!

Legos have long ago taken over our "playroom" aka converted dining room! We have the old dining room table to be Ethan's Lego table and well lets just say it is over flowing with mini Legos! We are forever trying to find the perfect storage for E's legos! While at our local one stop shopping (Fred Meyers) I saw a few different plastic storage drawers.... Hmmm not 100% convinced (plus that would require that we actually sort thru his hundreds of Lego pieces!
How is everyone else storing their Legos?

I ran across this blog LEGO MY PHOTO he is doing a photo a day project ... basically just like this! The only exception is that everyday his photo is of his Legos! Spend a few minutes going thru his site! He has some fun Lego set ups and some amazing photos too!

I posted a link to his blog on the Holt board and a few pictures of his including on that had a basketball hoop set in it and a fellow adoptive mom from the site sent me a message saying she would be more than happy to send me thier basketball set! Ethan will be soooo excited (Look for a picture of the day coming soon!)

March 9th (68/365) Chores

Ahh the infamous chore list! I would love to make some sort of chore chart or job chart or duty log... Something that not only lists the things around the house that we would like the kids to be responsible for, but to also list things like: Write a letter or card to a freind, teacher or family member, say prayers before dinner/bed, etc. You know something that they can put a tiny sticker on or move a magnet (aka re-usable chart) or write their name or something! We've talked about it over dinner and the thought is there, but I have yet to make the chart!

We've already tried to implement a few simple things...
Ethan clears the table (moves the plates, silverware, glasses to the sink area), puts ketchup, sauces, condiments to the fridge, napkins to the recycle bin or garbage.
Bella puts napkins on the table and puts vitamins at the appropriate table spot. Trying to add silverware and extras to the table to her list.

We are working hard (complete work in progress) on getting the kids (and myself) to pick up our stuff and move it to the appropriate place in the playroom. Ahhh someday it won't be such a struggle to keep an orderly house!

What is on your list?

March 8th (67/365)

Still feeling the effects of my cold/flu... Todd took the kids to church today and to breakfast. He brought Bella home and then took Ethan grocery shopping with him! Look at what they brought me back....So I didn't have to go grocery shopping and still got my Sunday morning Starbucks! Thanks boys!

and what is up with this.... It is March and it snowed yet again! Not enough to stick, but still it is March and it was snowing!

I'm finally feeling better...of course the weekend is over!