Happy Days: May 2009

Papa John came for a visit a week ago, and despite everyone having head colds (which Papa John inevitably came down with himself) we all had a blast. We didn't really do much out of the ordinary - the girls took Papa John to the Farmer's Market, Kid's Castle, Story Time - and the most memorable evening was when we blew up a bunch of balloons and turned the fan on, blowing them all over the room and sticking them to the walls, ceiling, and each other. (If I'd had any idea the balloons were going to be such a hit, we wouldn't have worried about doing anything else!) The girls were so excited for Papa John to come; they went totally bonkers for a couple of days before mellowing out a little. Even more exciting was sleeping in mom and dad's room while Papa John slept on the blow-up mattress in the girls' room. Everyone was sad when we dropped him off at the airport to go home. We love and miss you Papa John! Hopefully it won't be so long before we see you the next time. Thank goodness for the computer, Internet, and webcams!

Snuggles with Papa John!

You can NOT make me snuggle because I'm NOT going to bed!

Balloon baby!

Watch out! Here she comes!

OOOOOHHH!! Let's put the basketful of balloons on top of the fan!

It's magic! The balloons fly out every time!

Hey guys - hey these are stuck down here - did you see? Guys?

Ha ha! Decorating Papa John with a beautiful balloon do!

A balloon bow is the perfect accessory!

Here's how you do it - rub the balloon on your head...then...

...stick it on the wall! Papa John showed me how!

Papa John and Princess Cadence

So, it's been a little while since I've even logged onto a website that wasn't in some way related to schoolwork or product research, but I decided I just need to stop waiting until I have time and make time for this. I'm just kicking myself for not sharing all the super cute things the girls are doing every day. And I'm way behind on picture posting. But you already knew that.

So here's a quick recap of the last 4 months - Cadence turned 3 and decided to have an Abby Cadabby birthday. After she decided this, of course, I couldn't find anyone in town that carried the Abby Cadabby party things, but as luck would have it, the last place we went to look had a small section of the Sesame Street Fairy hidden practically underneath Elmo. Cadence spotted her right away. Pam, Jared, Dylan, and Pop-Pop came into town and with our good friends the Huards we went looking for some fun in the snow. We really had to search! We'd had a little warm/dry spell and we ended up going clear up to White Pass before we found anything resembling snow, and even then it wasn't great. But we pulled out the sleds and had some good fun for a couple hours despite. And as if that wasn't excitement enough, the very next day Jared's handgun went off in the upstairs bathroom (yes, he was holding it) and it shot through the floor into the kitchen below, right in the spot I had been standing not 2 seconds before. Do we know how to have fun or what!

Kennedy turned one in February and once again, everybody from the West side made the trek over the mountains to come celebrate. Things didn't go quite as I had planned, but we had a good time anyway. We went over to the Arboretum and my cousin Abby took some really nice family pictures. The rest of February we were all sick with horrible head colds. Blah.

March we all ended up with food poisoning from Papa Murphy's. We also went over to Seattle/Poulsbo/Tacoma and Cadence, Kennedy and Grammy met up with Pop-Pop and Dylan and they all went to a children's museum at Factoria Mall while Mom went to the Temple. Then we stopped by for a lovely visit with the Miles family before heading to our respective places of rest - Robin, Cadence, Kennedy, and Dylan went to Auntie Pam's and Grammy went to Aunt Maureen's. We all got together again a couple days later at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, where it rained and rained on us, but we had a good time anyway. The day we all left to go home the Stull Family came down with a horrible stomach flu and they were all out for a week. Fortunately we didn't bring it home with us.

April - pretty calm, although the sicknesses through February and March left me behind on my homework so all of my spare time was spent working on that. Grammy and Nana came over for Easter lunch, although Nana didn't eat much. Technology is wonderful! Who would've thought that we would be able to have friends and family over for special occasions, even when they are thousands of miles away. I love video chat.

That brings us to May. Theh girls are growing like weeds, and so anxious for summer when they can wear their swimsuits all day long. Cadence is quite the little dancer, so we're looking into ballet for her. Kennedy is quite the little climber, so we're looking into putting away what we might have spent on dancing to pay for ER visits and body casts for her. No, she hasn't actually fallen off of anything she's climbed up onto and hurt herself, but the other day she grabbed the knobs on the dresser and started scaling it. She got herself pulled off the ground and with her little toes hooked onto the ledge was clinging to the dresser, probably 6 inches off the ground, giggling, so pleased with herself.

I turned in my last final at midnight last Friday (5/08) and summer semester started yesterday (5/11). No rest for the wicked! But, if I just keep on keepin' on, I'll be done in December; I'm REALLY looking forward to that! I'm also volunteering twice a week in the evenings with Project Literacy, teaching basic literacy skills. We're going to scale it back to once a week this summer, though, to give me a little more time for homework, and to give my students a little vacation time.

Jeremy's doing well at work; still on the heart team; still lovin' what he's doing.

I guess that brings everybody up to speed on what's been going on (short version of course) until now. Today we're doing laundry and rearranging in the girls' room for Papa John to come visit. He'll be here tomorrow and Cadence is really excited.

Alright, now for what you've really been waing for: PICTURES!! There's a ton, so I'll start out with some highlights and put the rest in a slide show for later.