New hair

You will have to look close, but this is going to be my before picture.

This was right before I mowed my yard and weeded some of my flower beds. My hair was getting pretty long, but it didn't really have any style. It is not a nice even curl, so I have to straighten it. It doesnt' have any "bounce" in it when it is straight. So....I thought maybe a perm would give it some even curl and be a fun wash and wear hairdo.

Or maybe just chop off 4 or 5 inches!!!

After I mowed the lawn and weeded the weed beds (there aren't really any flowers in them anymore!) I took a shower. I got out and chopped off my hair! I really like how it turned out! I am ready for summer now! We just need some warm sunny weather!


I told Lesley about what I did, because she was having the same issues with her hair that I was with mine. She wanted a perm or a shorter hairdo.

This is her before.....

This is her after.....


She bought Pizza for lunch and I cut her hair!!! I think I took off about 6-8 inches!! Now we both have fun summer haircuts!!!

Are we not the cutest!

Have a great Tuesday!!

To Perm or to Cut....

That has been the question I have been asking myself lately. Do I leave it long and perm it so I have some curl, or do I cut it and have it easier to take care of?

That is the question.

Stay tuned to see what my decision was! :)

Have a great rest of your Sunday!

Cutest Card!

Is this not the cutest card?! I am not a fan of mice, but this one I LOVE!!

I found this card online on Jan Carlson's blog. I totally CASE'd it! She had a banner on top that I left out and I changed some of the colors.

If you are not busy tonight at 7pm, come and join us at the Ferndale Senior Center to make a couple of cute cards! :)

Have a great Thursday!

Happy May 25!!

That's right...the 25th of May!

That means there is only 7 MONTHS until CHRISTMAS!!!

Are you ready? Have you made your list? Checked it twice? Started on all of your crafts?

Yeah....me either :)

Have a great Wednesday!

Aiden

Aiden is getting soo big! Today he is 15 months old. (Tomorrow it will be 7 months until Christmas!)

He knows a lot of signs and words. He says Da for ball, sometimes if you tell him ball he will say ball, but usually it is Da.

He loves flowers! He sniffs his nose anytime he sees a flower (even if it is a flower pen!)

He says MAMA for mommy (also MAMA for grandma! :) )

He says "nananananana" while he shakes his finger. That means NO!

He also says ni ni for night night.

Bubble, banana, and apple are all words he can say.

He can sign, cracker, cow, apple, kitty, dog, airplane, thank you, please, more, eat, milk.

I am sure there are more, but that is all I can think of right now!

He is a very busy little guy! He loves to be outside. When he hears a lawnmower, he sign "more" while he says lalala. In his head it is "lalala-more" ;)

He loves to slide, climb, eat dirt and rocks, smell flowers, see the cows, chase the puppies and the kitties, color with crayons (mostly on paper) build with blocks, blow bubbles (with and without bubble solution!) and play balls.....any balls, soccer, tennis, football, baseball, tiny balls, big balls...

He definitely keeps eveybody on their toes!

Super Busy Saturday!

Alexandra participated in the Ski to Sea Jr race on Saturday morning. Her team did wonderful!!! It rained the whole time...but this IS Washington!


Alexandra did the running leg :) of the race. When they started, a ton of the kids took off like a bullet! Alexandra stayed near the front of the pack the whole race and did a really good job of pacing herself! She took off quickly, but not so fast as too tire herself out. They had to run to laps and by the second lap, you could tell who had started really fast! They were near the end ;)

The runners started the race. Next came the three-legged, bikers, soccer, then finally the obstacle course. Their team did really good!





Their team was the Sour Patch Girls! They had their last names on the back. Love the bright color of the t-shirt! If you couldn't tell, their team number was 64. :)

They didn't get first place, but I thought this was a fun photo op!

After the race was over, I went to work for a few hours. I got off a little early so that we could go to our very first Sounders Game!!!!!

We had a blast! We got our tickets through the Bellingham Sportsplex. They offered tickets to the game and a chartered bus! That means no driving for me:) I was all over that!

Best part was the view from our seats! This was taken from my seat without my zoom on....that means we were that close to the Sound Wave! The best drum line EVER!!

This is with the zoom! :) They were great! After the game was over, they moved to right by where we left our seats. We had to walk right by them! If there weren't so many people and we didn't have to catch the bus and we knew how to get to the bus quickly, I would have stood there and listened a LOT longer!

McKenzie had a great time. She did not want to miss a minute of the game. I asked her if she wanted to get something to eat. She asked how much longer to the start of the game. I told her about 10 minutes, and she had to think about it! She wasn't sure if she wanted food and possibly miss the first 10 seconds of the game, or watch the game and not get food! Food did win out, but we had to go FAST!

We had to walk right by the mitt at Safeco Field to go the Qwest Field. And not to miss a great photo op, I told the girls to hop in! Jay rolled his eyes at me for stopping foot traffic to get their picture in a big metal mitt, but I told him to get over it! :) It is not everyday that they can get their picture in a huge metal mitt!

All in all, it was a very jam packed, busy, fun and exhausting day! We are all off to bed now! Have a great day!

Happy Mother's Day!

Mom and her four darling children!

I know.....Mother's Day was a couple of weeks ago. I have been very busy! Here are a couple (OK!! a LOT!) of pictures that were taken on Mother's Day.

Katherine, Kellie, Lesley, & Michael

Mikey and his Mommy!

I was hoping for some good photos of our little group.....instead we got some GREAT candid, creative, interesting photos! But they represent our real family and I am glad we have them!

Richard, Alyssa and Aiden (and Katherine!)

Aiden and his mommy!

Grandchildren!

Mom with her grandchildren: front row is McKenzie, Alyssa, Alexandra, and Derek

back row is grandchild-in-law Richard with great-grandchild Aiden!

Lesley with Mommy!

Katherine and mommy!

Kellie and mommy! :)

The Dexters!

Dwayne, Lesley and Derek!

(it won't be long before Lesley and Derek have to switch places in their line-up!)

Me and my girls!

One of the photographers!

She doesn't look real confident!

It was a great day! Lots of food, fun, and family! We even had a bit of sunshine! What more could you ask for!

Chocolate!!

For class, McKenzie has to pick something she is interested in and do a report on it to present to her class. They did this a month or so ago. She did elephants.

Mrs. Galbraith told them, "If you did an animal last time, do something different. If you made a poster last time, present something different for your visual."

McKenzie was a little bummed because her and Emily already had their animals picked out! So, we talked about it. I gave her lots of suggestions on what she could do. Of course she didn't like any of them! :)

Then she picked one. CHOCOLATE!! Now why didn't I think of that! :)

She looked online for some chocolate information. We found a couple of books on chocolate. Then I got a brainstorm! We need a field trip! We must see how chocolate is made. Sample some very yummy chocolate.

So.....we went here:

This is the machine that mixes the dark chocolate. (the milk chocolate machine is next to it). On the left side you can see some chocolate in molds. The shelf they are sitting on vibrates. It shakes all the bubbles out. Then they put it in the fridge to set. Sometimes they fill them. They have TONS of different molds! We saw animals, shoes, golf clubs, flowers, cars, martini glasses, a little cottage, and soooooo many more! All made of CHOCOLATE!!!

This is how they get their chocolate! This is Belgium chocolate. It comes in huge bricks! (You can also buy them!)

These are the beans pods from the trees. They split them in half and take out the beans. The beans inside are covered in cocoa butter. They scrape off the cocoa butter and toast the beans outside in the sun. I didn't know the pods were so big!

This was the best part of the field trip! SAMPLES!!! We also had to buy some :) For research!

I am glad McKenzie picked Chocolate for her research project. I learned a lot! I just have to make sure I let her do it! :) I had so much fun, it would be very easy for me to take over her project! :)

Have a great day! Go eat some chocolate! :)

SNOW!!

Yes, that is right! SNOW!!

I woke up this morning and had to rub my eyes a couple of times to make sure they weren't playing tricks on me!

They weren't. It was really snowing! On April 14!!

Bellingham has about an inch that is sticking. There have been a couple of accidents on the freeway

I remember a couple of years ago, it snowed for a soccer game. It was also picture day.....McKenzie's team had their team photo in the snow! They ended up cancelling the afternoon games because nobody could see the fields, the kids were not showing up (!!) and most importantly, the fields were being damaged! :) In soccer, it is all about the fields!

Enjoy your day!! Stay warm!