Memorial Day Weekend

For those of you who are also my facebook friends, you already know that we spent the weekend at Ryan's dad's house and mostly out on the lake. For the rest of you, well now you know. (Me sunning on the deck prior to tubing)

One of my all time favorite summer activities involves a speed boat and a warm lake-inner tubing. I will eventually attempt my luck at water skiing, but for now I LOVE LOVE LOVE to go tubing at any opportunity. Devil's Lake in Lincoln City is my favorite tubing lake because its a really warm lake all the time and especially when the sun is out. The lake is only around 20 feet deep so when you fall in you can sink more than a couple of feet and still not hit cold water. (Caitie, in the boat ready to go!!!)

This weekend was especially fun because my sister Arda came out on the lake with us for the first time ever in her life on Sunday and my friend Megan came out with us on Monday. I don't have any pictures to share of our day with Megan because my camera isn't a cool, water resistant one like Matt's but here are some pictures of Sunday-Thank you Matt for bringing your really cool camera and taking awesome photos! (Caitie and Matt on the tube)

Caitlin refuses to ride with me because I'm too much of a dare devil. I enjoy the speed and challenge of holding on around tight corners and Caitlin doesn't want to fall in the water, so she went with mister safety Uncle Matt. I think she would have had a good time with Megan also because Megs isn't the dare devil type either. In her defence she's seen people thrown so hard they got a concussion...I've yet to actually sustain an injury when I fall off-or jump off. I suppose that would curb the appeal of speed somewhat.


Most of these pictures seem to feature Caitie with her Uncle Matt...There are more pictures to come I just ran out of time to upload them all when I started this post and now I'm at work and the photos are on my home computer. I will post a few more later of Arda, Ryan and I on the tube. At one point we even got Grampy Rich out on the tube- with Caitie because they like to go the same slow speed. But again without Matt's awesome camera we didn't get any photo documentation. Hope everyone else had as wonderful of a Memorial Day weekend as we did!

In case of an Accident

This morning while getting ready for work and school, Caitlin was being very helpful. She picked out the shoes she wanted to wear and helped me find an extra outfit to pack in case she spilled something or otherwise need to change, she took her antibiotics without argument... and she gave me absolutely no privacy in the bathroom. I thought she would never get out so when she finally did I was just grateful and didn't question why she suddenly left-my mistake. As we were walking out the door this morning she said "Mommy, I packed an extra pair of panties in your purse in case you have an accident." I couldn't decide whether to laugh or say Thank You. I am so blessed to have such a big helper!

Happy Birthdays!

It was Birthday Party central in our family this weekend! Amelia's 6th Birthday was on the 11th, and the Twins (Gioia and Ian) 3rd Birthday was the 12th. Since the weekend before their birthdays was Mothers Day weekend, both parties were postponed until the weekend following. Caitie and I drove over Friday night to spend the night for Amelia's party Saturday afternoon, and then home again for the Twins' party on Sunday morning. We are pretty much birthday caked out! The weather was beautiful though for both sets of birthday parties and the kids had a great time. It was also one more reminder that my little girl isn't gonna stay little for much longer.:( She didn't whine or ask for presents for herself and she was a really big helper with the twins and their friends, and I wanted to cry and tell her to stop growing up. Well actually, I did tell her I wished she would just stay my little baby forever and she responded with "That's not fair, YOU got to grow up!" When I asked her why she wanted to grow up, she gave me a "well duh" look and said "Hello?! You promised me horse back riding lessons when I start first grade! If I don't grow up, I'll never get into first grade, and I want horse back riding lessons!" She was so serious when she said this that it made me laugh, I suppose it will be ok for her to grow up for one more year.... After that I'd really like her to stop and just stay my little innocent angel. I don't have any pictures to share at this time from the twins' party because I didn't remember my camera and I haven't received any email pics yet, but here are some from Amelia's party and the bubble blowing escapade afterword.

Everyone LOVES pink Shoes!!!Lucas won the prize for being the only one who DIDN'T have to get up and run during Duck Duck Goose! Amelia modelling her new pink shoes and Hello Kitty shirt Is that HANNAH MONTANA??? Grandpa is so cool! Lets RIDE!

Everyone Blowing Bubbles in the wind:)

Happy Mothers Day all you mommies:) So far today has been a great day. I woke up with allergies-couldn't breathe, itchy eyes, scratchy throat, and the cat wouldn't shut up. But Caitlin slept in, and when she woke up she let me put her hair up into two ponytails that are super curly because she asked me to put her hair in pin curls last night. Then she put an eye mask on me so that she could surprise me with a Mothers Day gift. She was super excited to give it to me and then as soon as it was opened she asked if she could wear the crown that came inside my card. It was pretty funny. After the gift opening it was time to get back to life as usual, so I unloaded the dishwasher and vacuumed the floors while Ryan made breakfast and Caitlin watched a movie. Well actually she's still watching the movie and now I'm gonna relax until its time to go to Kim and Rob's for Sunday Dinner with the family. Every time I start to feel like I want a larger 'immediate' family, we go have dinner with the whole family and I get my overwhelming noise and drama fix. Today should be fabulous. I hope today is just what you want as a mommy too.

She is my whole life...

This post is just a really long collection of pictures from last year because today we're having a quiet relaxing home day. I meant to post these photos through out last year but since I didn't put them into individual posts you get them all at once:)I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! After we came home from Disneyland, Caitlin was so happy to see Casey. Meeting Minnie mouse was SO cool! We had breakfast with the Princesses, Caitlin dressed up as her FAVORITE princess, Aurora AKA Sleeping Beauty. Disneyland is amazing to a 4 1/2 year old, and as a result it is amazing to her parents as well.:)
My little ballerina practicing for her first recital. She has done ballet for the last few years, but she didn't want to do the recital until the second year.

The dance teacher comes to her preschool which is so convenient for us!

At my office 'company picnic' playing frisbee and taking a self portrait.

Alexandria and Caitlin on the boat "crabbing".

We used every single tile when we played scrabble.

At the state fair taking a break with Gioia and Ian. Practicing her tractor driving skills at the state fair.

First horse back riding lesson on Star. Thank you Tammy for taking the time to introduce Caitlin to the joys of horse back riding! She's addicted!

This picture looks fake but its just because the lighting on the photo was so poor that we had to 'edit' it. We took this shot to prove that Caitie was in control of the horse all by herself! :)

Feeding Tammy's baby Lexy, this may have been better than the horse back riding.

My 30th birthday! Caitlin and Faith 'tubing'.

Paul and his son Dominic. Paul came out of the Marines in need of a job, Faith and Caitie were in need of a nanny...Paul to the rescue!

Jason smiles at the camera while Phill holds on to the 'seadoo tube'.

Gary was nice enough to bring his boat and then do everything possible to knock me into the water. Since my balance isn't that great anyway, it didn't take much.

Caitie before (above) and after (below) her first "Red Hat Ladies" luncheon. Because she's under 50 years old she's a 'pink hatter'. At the luncheon they had a drawing, and she won. A pair of clip on earrings and a pretty necklace. She was so excited.

At her birthday party with the family...opening presents, wearing two of them. A cheer-leading outfit and a new "pink hat".

Caitlin on her actual 5th birthday wearing her Fancy Nancy dress. She LOVES Fancy Nancy, she has all the books and adores anyone who dresses 'fancy'.

Pumpkin Carving Time!

Halloween. Little Monkey Lucas and cheerleader Caitlin.

I'm outta here! See ya.

It's a winter wonderland:)

A little snow is no reason not to wear my bathing suit mom.. I'll compromise and wear boots ok?

YUMMY! Snow soup, snow-vanilla-sugar, Thank you uncle Mark.

Arda and Amelia were the cookie decorating queens this year.

5 going on 15. Christmas morning, wearing her new princess pajama's listening to her new Hannah Montana mp3 player.

Gioia, Lucy, Ian playing with their Christmas Kitchen.

On New Years Caitlin and her cousins Amelia and Gabrielle decided to play makeup... to make themselves look like tigers.

This picture is Caitlin's dream, two little baby 'sisters' that she can hold and dress up and feed. She'll just have to settle for baby dolls since the chances of me having either two more babies or twins are fairly slim.