Lil Pumpkin

We have the privilege to do respite care for a 3 mo. old baby. Isn't he cute!!?? He was here for Halloween and he'll be back this weekend and for Thanksgiving. He's with a great foster family now who go out of town a lot so he stays with us. Welcome Stanley!!

Soccer fun!

All 3 kids are playing soccer! We've had beautiful fall weather which makes
watching games so pleasant.

Mady is such a go-getter and really hustles for the ball.

Connor rarely gets to the ball, but he scored the last game. He was so proud of himself!!

Tori does great and it's so fun to watch her play, I'm a proud momma!

All because two people fell in LOVE....

We just returned home from a trip to Colorado for our dear niece's wedding! Shawna FINALLY found her man and they had a BEAUTIFUL wedding! We had so much fun...we stayed with Roger and Joyce, visited the Air Force Academy, had car problems, borrowed a car, did some swimming, celebrated Tori and Laurel Joy's birthdays, had lunch with Shawna and Ben, went to rehearsal and BBQ afterwards, and danced the night away at the reception!! Our girls were flower girls along with their cousin.

Mady, Laurel Joy and Tori did a great job!

Shawna with her dad.

Connor waiting patiently for the wedding to begin.

I caught Mady under the table peeking in the gifts!!

Tori dancing with cousin Luke.

The cake was placed on a tree stump, decorated with aspen leaves.
The theme was fall with very natural and organic elements. I loved it!!

Passed down to the next generation,

Luke and Joshua decorating the get-away car!

At the reception.

Famous at last....

The kids got to ride in a LIMO this morning to school. What fun!! Our good friend knew of someone who had a limo and he arranged it. Thank you Lyndsay!!! Even better, its a HUMMER party-mobile!

Family Fun

Anna holding on tight...

Gracie playing with the kitties.

Connor's "Dinosaur" (notice all the laundry that needs folding!) :-)

Kitties sleeping in my laundry basket.

Balloon fun at a street fair.

Time for a movie!

Connor happy with his new gardening gloves and

Buzz Lightyear laser gun received in his Easter basket.

My crazy daughter!

Mady went to a birthday party and the Reptile Man was there. She's so brave! I hate snakes!

Go Green!

So, I did one good thing for Earth Day...I watched Oprah!! No, really, on her show it was about Living Green. They showed how to pack an earth-friendly lunch. Since both my girls take their lunch and someday Connor will, I went to this website http://www.snacktaxi.com/ and ordered reusable sandwich bags. I know they're pricey, but in the long-run more cost effective than buying ziploc. I think the kids will have fun eating out of them too!

(come in various patterns)

More kitties??

So, the last pack of BLACK kitties are now sitting in a kennel at the local PetSmart waiting for their "forever homes". Kind of sad...but it was time for them to leave us!

We now have a new litter of 3 week old kits and their mama, Betty! They have some strange names for these cats, we usually rename them. I just picked them up today so take a look...

Look at that face!!

So I have REALLY been bad about not blogging...I could give you many excuses, but I won't because that takes up precious blogging time! So, anyways, I apologize and now will move on!!

Here's what's happened in the last 2 months.

• Connor turned 4 on Jan. 28!
• Tori began playing indoor soccer.
• I've been taking the kids swimming almost every week.
• Phil's work is stressful and Microsoft is doing 5000 layoffs in the next 18 mos.
• I'm still "Just a mom!"
• Oh, and we're doing foster care for cats!! Ha, ha! Doesn't that sound funny?

Here Kitty, Kitty...

On Feb 18 we took in a mom cat and her 4 babies. 3 black boys and one Siamese girl. It's through an organization called Purrfect Pals, a no-kill cat shelter. They came to us sick and on medicine which my kids helped me give them once a day.

Then they got upper respiratory infections (colds) with conjunctivitis in their eyes which then was diagnosed as herpes. Fun, fun!! We then started 2 different eye drops plus antibiotics.

4 medications in all for the past 5 weeks. Whew! It's been hard and way more work then I thought! Plus, feeding them, cleaning the laundry room (where they stay), mopping, disinfecting, and cleaning the litter box for 5 cats!! Yuck!

Some are more loveable and tolerable than others. The mom cat is VERY sweet, licks her babies and still lets them nurse, which is so fun to watch.

My kids have thoroughly enjoyed it which is what matters! Now that the cats are healthy and off meds they can be adopted. This morning we took them to PetSmart, where they hold adoption events. But, if they don't get adopted they come back to us and we try again next week. Well, they came back...they'll try to move them to a pet store that has kennel space on Tuesday.

Historic floods

Our beautiful Snohomish river went over it's banks last Thursday, closing hwy9 and many other roads, it's incredible to see it! We ventured out this morning and took these pics, which the river has actually receeded since a few days ago. Roads are still closed.

The kids are on the road that goes through "the Valley" to our beautiful quaint town!

The waters cover lush green farm fields, nurseries and produce stands, and the driving range!

Right by the shops, notice the tree logs up on the picnic tables. On Thursday the water was over all the grass.

So, I went to a MOPS group back in October and the craft that day was to make a chalkboard, very easy (which I like). What to do with it?? I came up with the idea to put a Bible verse each week for the kids to memorize, and me too!! It works perfect, we see it every day as we sit down to eat. The verses pertain to the kids like something they need to work on. :-)

The twins are back...

after almost 3 weeks without them (since it was Christmas break). They returned on Monday...happy, content, cute, more teeth and more hair! :-) And eating homemade baby food which Gracie kicks with glee, and Anna clenches her mouth shut!

Annabel LOVES the jumpster way more than Gracie.

Gracie is now crawling all over, exploring everything, touching, playing, picking things up and putting in mouth. I really need to keep my floors clean!!

Grocery bags, I know, not very safe, but she loves the crinkly sound.

My crazzzzy week!

My week started out kinda rough...here's a rundown...

• Mady got the flu, then Phil, then Tori.
• I watched my friends' 2 kids Mon-Wed.
• We stayed home a lot, and too cold to play outside.
• I cleaned/scrubed the fridge/freezer.
• Cleaned and organized all 3 kid's bedrooms.
• Got completely caught up on laundry (only lasted a few days, then I was back at it).
• Put away Christmas decorations, took down tree! Feels sooo good to get the Christmas stuff outa here.
• Let the kids build AND keep up for 3 days a fort that covered the WHOLE living room.
• Did some small puzzles. :-)
• Did meal planning for the week, went to Costco and grocery store, bank, paid bills, went through papers, organized my desk, cleaned the kitchen.
• Went shopping at the mall and bought some WONDERFUL new flannel sheets...160.00 regular price, on sale for 65.00, then 10% off, then used a gift card, then used money my mom gave me for Christmas, so they were virtually free!! I love that!!
• The week ended with Mady loosing her first tooth, finally!! It's been loose for months, and today Connor bumped it while rough-housing, it became really loose and right before bed I told Mady to pinch it, she did and it came out!

The tooth fairy pillow.

Love a clean fridge!

Nighty-night!