Zach's Birthday Week...

I say a week, because every day this past week something was always about Zach! This year was a family birthday year, so the extra days of feeling a little birthday love were great! It started out with Grandma Laraine cooking up his favorite pasta dinner, and ending in cake and BEYBLADES on Sunday! Tuesday morning he opened gifts before school, and ate dinner at Red Robin that night, adding more beyblades to his collection. Over the weekend he lost his tooth(well Kate knocked it out with a pillow, but it was loose to begin with) and got a hair cut. Then yesterday he had birthday lunch with the principal(she has lunch with all the kids who have december birthdays and gave wach one of them a Krispy Kreme dounut) of his school and came home to a gift from Grandma Raelynn and Grandpa Marty. I have to say he had a pretty darn good week! Turning 7 isn't so bad.

Pinkalicious...

My mom, my sister and I took the girls to see Pinkalicious. This was Kate's first musical and she loved it! It ran for a little over an hour which was perfect. She has asked to go see it again and every time we get on the freeway she states, "This is how you get to Pinkalicious!" Her favorite color is no longer purple...it's now Pink. Kate has not been into pictures lately and gets all embarrassed about it, but I managed to bribe her for a couple.

Fall 2011...

Our entire fall consisted of soccer, soccer, did I mention soccer? 5 out of the 7 days in a week, over the past two and half months, Zach had practice or a game, and two games on Stuardays...just sayin'. Justin had Zach in two leagues this fall, which lets be honest, I was worried about. I was worried that he would have melt downs about having to go to practice because he was tired, get hurt for playing in a second grade league, etc. I could not have been more wrong. There is something about having a goalie and a larger playing field that motivated Zach to try his best! Kick and chase was fun too, just not as challenging. I played the role of the chauffeur, minus the SUV soccer mom thing, Kate played the cheerleader, a cute one I might add, and Justin was the co-coach for both teams. Zach had a great season, scoring a few goals here and there, survived without any injuries, and loved playing with all his buddies from school, especially Nate.

Halloween 2011...

October was packed with Halloween Festivities. We hit up the Plumper Pumpkin Patch a couple of times, once to play with all the cousins, and another to pick out our pumpkins. This farm is awesome and every year they add something new. This year it was the hay bale slides. The pic below shows you how obedient Kate is these days, not to mention the little Diva attitude she has to boot! This pose is all her doing, there was no "coaching" involved on my part.







Justin and I were invited to an Adults only Halloween Party. The theme was MTV's VMA's, so we decided to appear as Snooki and Pauly D. Obviously Justin pulled this one off much better than I did. I am as white as they come. I think I need a little more junk in thrunk and some cushion, if you know what I mean. The party was so much fun, as you can see Fergie, Marie Osmond, Justin Beiber, Snoop, Cyndi Lauper, Usher, Bono, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, KISS, Britney Spears, and Elvis were also there, just to name a few.







Grandma and Grandpa threw a little Halloween party for the kids. The kids bobbed for apples, ate donuts off of a string, decorated cookies and had a fun time dressing up in all their costumes. It's always fun when Grandma and Grandpa do it up big.






And of course tonight was fun too! We live behind Ironwood, a neighborhood that gives out the "big" candy bars at Halloween, so Zach(a clone trooper) and Kate(Cinderella), were in heaven hitting up all those houses this year.

Old Videos...

The kids and I were going back through our blog tonight and watching all of our old videos. So FUN! This one never actually made it on the blog for some reason. So here Zach is making his debut...as KISS!

It's Official...

Justin bought my Dad's practice located in Tigard, a subarb of Portland. Never in a million years did Justin think he would own a practice this soon. It all seemed to just happen, and fast too! We ask ourselves if we are ready for this every day. My Dad and my brother Andy have been great "go to" people for all those burning questions you just seem to have when you are first starting out. I give Kuddos to all those dental students who graduate and jump right in with two feet, without a lot of help. It is a lot of work. We just hope that all this work pays off in the end. It definitely makes you wish sometimes that you worked for a corporation that came with a set salary and benefits. Being the boss has its perks, but so far it has just brought on a lot of people wanting to do this and that for set amounts of money, and thousands of questions about a lot of stuff, frankly we don't know. Is that bad? Hopefully we can get on top of this, and soon.

This is the building Justin signed the lease for, as the new location of the office, that he will move the practice into sometime next year. It is a block away from the location of where the practice is now. The new building is along a major hwy and has lots of visibility. It will pretty much be gutted and it has to be re-plumbed to accomidate a dental practice, but the exterior is great and will stay the same. Yay! for something we don't have to change! The new sign went up a couple of weeks ago and Justin is very pleased with how it turned out. Let the build out begin.

We will have to take a lot of before and after pictures. This is all we have so far...

What Happened to Barbies and My Little Pony...

Kate is 4 today and what does she ask for?...A pink and purple ipod and Toms! The teenage years have arrived around here. I am scared to think of what she will want next year. Following family tradition, Grandma had a cake for her after dinner last night, and surprised her with a pair of pink sparkly Toms and the closest thing she'll ever get to an ipod at this point, an ipod charm neckless. She loves them both! We are having a little friend birthday this weekend and she can hardly wait.

These 4 years have gone by so fast. She has given us a couple good scares with RSV and Dehydration stays at the hospital back when we lived in PA, but has been healthy ever since. She is quite the tease and extremely expressive when she talks. Her angelina lips haven't gotten any smaller, and she thinks that she rules the roost around here, and who are we kidding, she pretty much does. She can be so brave and wonder the neighborhood helping herself into others' homes and then turn right around and put on this shy, "don't look at me" little girl act. She will always be our little "Oney". WE LOVE YOU MISS KATE!

Secretly Loving Attention...

Anyone who knows Kate, knows she runs very hot and cold when it comes to giving her attention. She will come downstairs in a cute headband or bow in her hair, and the minute you tell her how cute it looks, the next she is ripping it out of her hair, and telling us "Don't look at me!" Getting a picture from her can be so difficult and then at other times she loves it and poses willingly. I used to get frustrated but am proud to say that I have graduated to the whatever stage. They are who they are.

The day she received her new (hand-me-down) "lillytards" from her cousins Lauren and Maddi, in the mail, was a great day. She changed into this purple leotard and headed outside to show it off to all the neighborhood kids faster then I could blink. I had to capture her excitement...and she let me.

The Big 32...

Another year and another birthday has come and gone. Between all the soccer practice, games, gymnastics, dance, school, and church, we managed to celebrate Justin's big day. According to Zach, we celebrated Dad's "Jimmer" birthday. 32 has become a very important number around these parts. For his big gift we finally purchased a Grill. Yep, you heard me right, our first BBQ in almost 10 years of marriage! We can hardly wait for it to be delivered. Happy Birthday Justin! We love you. And yes my kids' are sporting their blue Gatorade mustaches, which for the moment is their beverage of choice. Zach calls it "G serious." I am going to miss all of his pronunciation mistakes one day.

Zach and Kate's First Day...

Zach started first grade at his new school, Bonny Slope Elementary, this week and has come home everyday just loving it! He has gotten himself ready every morning, dressed, lunch packed, even teeth brushed. Zach's teacher is Mrs. Weber. Her room is OCD organized so I love her already!

Kate has also been getting herself ready for school, especially with making sure her bed is made, boy I hope this routine lasts long. She finally started pre-school. This has been a long time coming. She has been more than ready, even though she won't let you know she loves it...she does! Her teachers are Miss Patty and Miss Valerie, aka "Miss Valerina". They are high energy. I guess you would have to be if you are going to be a teacher to pre-schoolers.

This week has been crazy busy with errands, soccer practice, etc. and it will only get worse as next week we add the second soccer team, gymnastics and dance to the already chaotic schedule. But I have loved watching these two take on some responsibility and can' believe how independent they are becoming.

PS - I think it's time for a new camera!