Oh Happy Day!! :)

This picture was taken 2 years ago (the date on the picture is wrong). . . and today is a VERY happy day for me because. . .
I now can join Nellie in celebrating the fact that I no longer wear braces - YAHOO!! Nellie got her braces off 17 months ago, but I made her smile with me for this picture, so we could have an "after" shot. My mid line is still 1/2 mm off, but that's better than 3-4 mm off like it was before 25 months of braces (a month longer than originally thought). I've learned through this whole process that my nose is actually off, making the mid line look worse "~. The funny part is that Lee didn't even notice that I was now "brace less" - it sort of hurt my feelings at first, but then I had to realize it was a big deal for ME, and I shouldn't expect him to be as excited about it as I was. I took Paige and Addison in to the FD today to see him this afternoon, and he didn't notice. I talked to him after work, and before I left for my RS birthday celebration, and he didn't notice. The only reason he DID notice is because I asked him to take this picture of Nellie and me tonight, for this post!! Oh well - so much for surprises!

Turtlesaurous turns 23!!

Scott (AKA Turtlesaurous) turned 23 today. His birthday dinner consisted of the same thing it has for the last several years; Salisbury steak with mashed potatoes and gravy . . . and "Jesus rolls" of course :)
He only got one gift tonight because we'll celebrate all the March birthdays later in the month, but tonight it was just Scott, Sarah, Chad, Nellie and Lee and I, so this is what he got.

Years ago when I was making the girls their rag quilts, Scott had asked me when I was going to make one for him, so I decided to do it for his birthday this year. I chose fabrics that had to do with dogs since that seems to be a big part of his life, and added a bit of this and that (some of the plaid is from old Christmas PJs - hopefully for good memories).

While he was here he got a phone call from Emilee's family singing happy birthday to him. He also had messages from the other kids' family's

Here he is with his motocross cake (Family Fun idea). I thought it fit him perfectly. The toy dirt bike even makes noise and the rider has a removable helmet and all!!

We later decided it wasn't as much of a challenge just to blow out 2 candles, so we added the rest on the "trail" of his cake

Happy Birthday Scott - our life would definitely not be the same without you. We love you and are SO glad you're part of our family!

Our Dog/Kids Play Date

We had a fun play date this last Saturday @ Carnation Elementary complete with dogs: Tug and Skeet were there with Scott, Penny was there with the Stokes Family, and Dohini (sp?) came with the Kevin's. We had a lot of fun. We threw sticks for the dogs, talked on the 2 way radios with the kids, and played tag.

With all that running the kids got tired so Grandpa got into his fire car and got water for everyone, with the little crystal light juice things to add, so we ended up with some cute "juice-stashes" running around.

Lee's UN-eventful "real" birthday

We had already celebrated Lee's birthday on Sunday with Tyson and the family, so Lee's "real" birthday didn't seem too exciting. He's been doing a good job trying to watch his weight lately so I tried not to load him up too much for his birthday breakfast - however he does heart scones, so that's what he got for his royal treatment of breakfast in bed

He had to go to Seattle for a meeting that morning, but then he took the rest of the day off and we "strolled" through Molbak's. That's what his birthday wish was, so that's what we did. I thought we may end up going out to eat so I hadn't prepared anything for dinner, but when I realized we would be "dining at home", I asked him what he would like for dinner - to which he said "egg sandwiches"! How's THAT for a special birthday dinner?

Here's lookin' at YOU kid! I love you!

Braden's birthday shopping trip . . . a little late

Braden turned 5 last September, but we're just now doing his birthday shopping . . . better late than never right? ")
He found what he wanted right off the bat @ Target . . .

. . . so we headed to McDonalds for a "treat" and to play on the toys

Here's my little McDonald guy serving me a happy meal

Practicing on Grandpa

Here he is "surprising" his family when they returned from Gracie's violin practice - "shhh, Grandma, don't tell them."

We enjoyed our time with just Braden and we definitely learned a LOT!!

Super bowl party and Valentine/Birthday parties

Last Sunday Jen and Ryan hosted a super bowl party. Here's Chad and Tanner watching the big game
Calley had gone to her parents house to get some dental work done so Tyson came by himself

Lee and Nellie on the love sack - as you can see Nellie was REALLY into the game :)

At Ryan's work they're having a Tom Selleck (sp) look alike contest, hence the reason for the long flowing locks and facial hair

After all the commotion, Tanner was bushed!!

This Sunday is Valentines Day of course AND the Sunday between Tyson's and Lee's birthday, so we took advantage of that and had a combination Valentines/Birthday party

Here's Lee enjoying his heart shaped strawberry pancake for breakfast this morning . . .

. . . along with his Valentine cookie of course :)

This actually looked better than it does here, but we had heart shaped hamburgers/chicken burgers for dinner with delicious festive salads and a fruit tray with scrumptious dip

The pile of burgers on the end were the "well done" pile ") . . . not sure how that happened, but you never know when someone will ask for one - ha ha!

The cheese was cut into hearts but I decided not to try the tomatoes - too messy!

Calley brought the fruit tray with dip, Jen brought the "bleeding heart" salad, and Em brought the pretzel strawberry salad - YUM!

Emilee had done Bailee and Paige's hair in heart designs so I had to get a picture of it. Addison's hair was done as well but I missed out on that one - maybe you can see it in the next picture with the chocolate mouthAbby trying to escape

Birthday boys

Nellie made/designed this shirt for Tyson in one of her classes at school

Birthday spankings for Grandpa

And Tyson got spankings as well - just not as many :)

The dessert of choice for the birthday boys; homemade extreme chocolate ice cream for Tyson, and pumpkin pie for Lee - 80 candles between the 2 of them - YIKES!

Tyson had just blown out his candles and Lee was getting ready to.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to 2 very special boys in my life, and happy Valentines Day to all!

My Mother, the Pirate - Aarrrgh Matey!!

So my Mom had cataract surgery Wednesday (looks like I need to correct the date on my camera). Here she is all hooked up and ready to go. Notice the mark on her right eye to make sure they did the correct one :)
Here's our good little patient after returning home a few hours later

Mom wasn't supposed to do anything strenuous the rest of that day, so I asked her if she'd like to watch a movie . . . this is what she looked like for @ 1/3 of the movie, but hey, I enjoyed it ")

Today we went back to see the Dr. and she was able to remove her "pirate-ness" - she was very happy about this. She can already see MUCH better so she's very encouraged. PS. . . don't you love Grandpa's long locks (he's growing them out)?

My wonderful parents, which I feel very blessed to have.