My Beautiful Girl

After church today, Kyla saw some crocuses growing in our yard and wanted to pick some, you know me...I ran and got my camera:) It surprises me at the oddest times, how quickly she is growing up. Her beauty makes me catch my breath and I daily thank God for the gift of her.

Progress...

We had another weekend of house prep/painting. Gary, Chad's dad came over and was such a big help! On Saturday we scrapped, sanded, caulked, and covered the windows. Trina, Chad's mom, came over and played with the kids as Chad, Gary, and I worked outside. What a blessing our family is to us!

As soon as we got home from church today, Chad and Gavin were doing the man thing and figured out how the new paint sprayer went together.


Chad was able to prime the entire back side of the house and the studio addition. Well, at least as high as he could reach:) We let that dry for a while and then Chad put on the first coat of paint!


I was getting a bit worried, we were working so hard, and the house kept looking worse and worse, I truly didn't see an end in sight. Thankfully, Chad is so focused and was able to get a good portion of the trouble spots done! Now we go upward:)

Kia comes to visit!

I've been blessed to be able to raise my children with some great friends who also have children. One of them is Jolina, who lives here in town. Her daughter Eva, 3, is one of Kyla's dear friends and her youngest is 2 months older than Gavin. Since both our big girls are in school this year, we are trading off "babies" once a week. Kia came to visit yesterday for a couple of hours. Her and Gavin are at that stage where playing together isn't that important or easy:) We had a great time, even with Gavin being grumpy at times. Here are a couple of pics from her visit.

Music Time

Kyla is Home!

Swim Baby Swim!

Kyla started swim lessons last night at the McMinnville Pool. The lessons are a christmas present from Grandma Trina, Thanks Ting-a-Ling! Kyla has taken the parent/child swimming lesson twice now and was ready to move up to the minnow class. We watched from the side of the pool as our baby girl just hopped right in the water.


There are 5 kids in her class. Kyla used a kick board, put her face in the water, grabbed for rings under water, and practiced kicking.


I think Gavin may have enjoyed the class as much as Kyla. He loved watching all the kids, (there were 8 different classes being held) and all the activity. Chad and Gavin even spent some time up on the balcony watching! How fun! Her swim classes are twice a week for six weeks, we're going to be there a lot!

I've Figured it Out!

Gavin has needed a haircut for a couple of weeks now but I've been putting it off after the fiasco last time:) After much thought, I finally figured out a way to keep Gavin busy so that I can quickly cut his hair. I put Chad's computer out in the kitchen and put one of our kid's movies on it! Genius! Gavin doesn't get to watch TV yet so this is a totally new thing for him. It kept his attention and I got his hair cut with very little fuss. Hurray!

As a treat, Kyla and Gavin both snacked on popcorn and finished the movie:)

I just have to brag a bit, Isn't he the most beautiful boy?

It's begun...

For the last couple of years, we've said that we should paint the house. Well, we've finally got around to it and what a project it is turning out to be:) We did a rough calculation and we have about 3,000 square feet of house to paint. Not only do we have to paint all that space, we have to pressure wash, scrape, caulk, sand, and then paint. Oh what a job! We were thinking that we could just pressure wash the house and then paint it, nope that's not going to work. We don't have very strong water pressure here so even with the pressure washers that we borrowed, we still didn't have enough umpp to get it done well.

We did have enough water pressure to find all of those little places where our house isn't sealed. Yep, you guessed it, we magically got water inside the house as well. Not too much, but just enough to cause problems and shut down our pressure washing operation. I was in the kitchen and noticed some random water sprinkles on the floor and then my head got dripped on. Oh NO!! The seam where the addition was added on the the original house wasn't sealed, I didn't know that when I was blasting it with water. I kept repeating to myself as we got the fans and the towels, that water features were supposed to be relaxing. I'm guessing that there isn't enough relaxation power when it's unplanned and in your kitchen:)

On to scrapping. We decided not to get the rented scaffolding this weekend, we wanted to see how far we got with the prep work. Good call Chad! We found that we have plenty of work to keep us busy right here on the ground.

Thankfully, we have a great family who were very willing help. My parents came over and with them they brought Tiffany, one of the students from the school that mom taught out. She kept an eye on the kids for us. What a huge help! Chad's dad came over as well. Thanks so much everyone for your help!

We still have a lot of work left. Chad and I are working outside today scraping, caulking and sanding. Anyone want to help?

Is it Fall?

The mornings say it's fall, and the trees say it's fall, but the heat in the afternoon screams summer! We are have another heat wave it seems. As Kyla waits at the bus stop, all the kids are buttoned up in their coats as the temperature hovers around the 50 degree mark. But when she gets home for lunch, the temp is quickly raising to the 90's.

After Gavin's nap today, we got the sprinkler and the pool out and played a bit in the cool water.

The kids snacked on apples right off the trees and I enjoyed the chance to check on my garden. I've really enjoyed all the strawberries, cucumbers, cherry and heirloom tomatoes and beautiful flowers this year. I'm ready to add two more raised beds for next spring. I need another attempt at cucumbers before I give up on them:)

Climbing Trees

Recently, Kyla decided that she was going to learn how to climb trees. She put on "good climbing shoes" and headed to our fig trees. For those of you who know what a fig tree looks like, this was the perfect starting point for her:)

She did great, she only got stuck once:) After some verbal guidance from me, she was quite successful! She did try some unconventional starting points, but all in all, she seems to have figured it all out.

Gavin just enjoyed eating his apple and watching the show:)


At last check, she was headed to our huge walnut tree. I should probably go and check on her:)

Whoops!

Yesterday while I was making dinner, the kids were playing out on the front porch. The kids had been having a rough time playing together so when I heard Gavin scream, I wasn't to concerned. I went and checked on them and it turned out that Gavin had hurt himself. He was climbing in our stroller and it tipped over with him standing in it. His gargantuan head trips him up again! He landed on his face of course and split his lip and gave himself a bloody nose. Here is a pic from the aftermath of the incident...

You can't see it, but he has a nice bump on his forehead and his lip is swollen and bruised. He looks much better than I expecting him to this morning. He did a great job holding the ice to his mouth and chin, though.

That large head of his will be his downfall:)

Our Bus Riding Girl

Kyla rode the bus to school today. We had to walk down half a block for her to get on but they dropped her off right in front of the house. She was fearless!

She just climbed right on and found a seat and then waved at Gavin and I from the window:) I guess she got a little mixed up as she got off the bus @ school and ended up in the cafeteria. With some help, she was able to find her classroom and start her day. What a brave gal!

Finally!

We've been saying for a couple years now that we needed to go and visit Uncle Andrew. He's the kids' godfather and our dear friend. He and his wife, Suzanne, live up in Wenatchee, WA.The drive itself was most daunting:) According to mapquest, it should take six hours, add in two young kids, my small bladder and traffic, it took over 8 1/2 hours! There were a couple times on the trip up that I was ready to jump out of the car and walk home:) We made it up there around 9pm and put the kids right to bed. It was so nice have some quiet time to visit with them. Suzanne and Andrew were married three years ago and we really haven't had the chance to get to know her until now. Suzanne is an avid animal lover with her favorite being horses. What a perfect place for Kyla:) They have two dogs, two cats, and three horses! Kyla and Gavin were in heaven! All those animals to love!


First thing Saturday morning, we were up and out at their stable were they board their horses. The horses came out and got to run and play for a bit and then they saddled up Valentine and Sampson for Kyla and Chad to ride. Suzanne even had a pink saddle for Kyla:) She taught Kyla how to turn the horse and how to trot, Kyla caught right on. She rode for over an hour, we were all really impressed. Valentine even got spooked near the end of her ride and nearly shook Kyla right off, but Kyla took it all in stride and didn't want to get off:)


Chad rode Sampson for a bit and then even Gavin got to join in the horse riding fun. He wasn't smiling for the pictures, but he sure was giggling!

After giving the horse treats and much love, we headed to the Chelan County Fair. We checked out all the animals and even watched a pig race:)


Kyla fell head over heals in love with Aunt Suzanne, it was quiet entertaining to watch:) Suzanne was so patient with her, I that they will be fast friends from this point on.

One Sunday, Kyla wanted to say goodbye to the horses so Suzanne, Kyla and I headed to the stables again. Kyla helped Suzanne clean out the stalls, feed the horses their treats, and over all enjoy every aspect of horses. Suzanne taught her how to lead Valentine. She was so cute walking around the stables in her polka-dot rubber boots:) Kyla told Chad that her favorite part was scooping the poop:)


We headed South on Sunday at 1. The trip home took only 7 hours, we just stopped once. Gavin didn't sleep at all! He was pretty grouchy, which made us all grouchy! We made it home safely, even with Gavin screaming randomly a good portion of the time:) We were all really glad to be home! What a great trip, we enjoyed really getting to know Suzanne, refreshing our friendship with Andrew and letting them get to know our precious children. We'll be back, maybe when Gavin's a bit older and quieter:)