Gone Fishin'

I honestly never thought that I would be able to use a title referencing Louie Armstrong and Bing Crosby's Gone Fishin'...but here I am doing exactly that.We all went to a birthday party today at a Lake. The rain subsided in order to celebrate sweet MJ's day! Colin had a BLAST! He swung at a pinata for the first time, went fishing and of course had his share of cake. The candy and prizes from the pinata entertained him the rest of the evening. He loves putting any treats he acquires into his treat jar. After dinner, if he is a good boy he gets to pick one treat to eat. The excitement of the jar can actually trump a piece of cake. Even if it is just a small tootsie roll. He likes that he gets to choose exactly which one he wants.

Colin had a lot of fun fishing today. I do not think that he actually understood what he was doing (that the purpose was to catch fish) and thankfully he did not catch anything except for clumps of dirt and grass. It was a first to see Will fishing - I NEVER thought I would see that! Maybe that means I will eventually be able to talk him into camping. Maybe,

Fishing



Relaxation





Lots of treats!

 



Cake!



~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

 The B Family

Growing like a weed

Meli's doctor appointment went well.  She has moved up from the 25th percentile to the 50th!  Come on chubby cheeks!  She is 19 weeks and weighs 14 lbs 14 oz.  She is also 25.5 inches long. She gained a little more than 3 pounds since her 2 month appointment and is around 2 inches longer.

She has been a little fussy the last few days.  I think she is preparing for another growth spurt and has been super tired. I was home Thursday and Friday with her and she seriously slept most of Friday.  She may also have been recoving from her shots and we were in the car most of the day on Thursday.  We drove down to see Grandma.  Meli was so happy to see her but mommy did not plan so well...driving for a couple of hours with a baby that just had shots and missed her nap = bad idea! In my defense, this is the worst reaction to shots that either child has had.  Usually they just sleep a lot.  She even got a little bit of a fever this time.


A sweet friend sent Meli this headband that she made.  Super cute!  Meli loves the flower!

~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

The B Family

A little of this, a little of that

I have so many blogs that I have started but have not really had the time to finish, so I thought I would just combine them into one hodgepodge blog.

The weather here has been crazy!  We had our 5.9 (or close to that) earthquake - which I thought was an airplane crashing (I was close to an airport at the time) into the building.  Earthquake was the last thing on my mind.  We have also been having the hurricanes, which in this area we just get really bad storms when they occur.  Hurricane Irene - I did not notice so much.  It rained a lot, there was a lot of lightning/thunder, and the winds were strong (the tree in our backyard freaked me out a bit) but it did not appear to be as bad as they were thinking.  At least not in our area.  I thought the next hurricane (not even sure it got a name) was a lot worse.  I am very comfortable driving in rain.  I mean, you cannot live in the Pacific Northwest and not be.  But this storm was the first time I was not feeling so good about it.  I was glad when I got the kids safely home. The pattern seems to be a couple sunny days, rain, thunder/lightning, repeat.

We have been able to still enjoy the outdoors, but I have been trying to plan crafts so that Colin is entertained.  This brings me to my new favorite website - http://pinterest.com/.  LOVE IT!!  It is a place where you can share craft ideas.  I have so many fun ideas for the holidays, birthdays, etc.  We did our first craft from the site this past weekend.  Penguin feet!  We need to work on keeping our feet steady but it was a lot of fun.  We did one for Meli too!  So small. We ended up using one of the penguins for Will's birthday card.  Colin really enjoyed craft time.

We also made some puppets.  Pictured below are the lion and elephant.  We also made a frog.  Next weekend we will make two more.  Then it is time for a puppet show!

Pinterest has also given me ideas for some changes to Meli's room. I am keeping it yellow, but want to go with less of a theme.  I love this room from Pottery Barn.  Meli's room is going to remain yellow but I like all of the white, which is mostly what we have now.  The second picture is what I want to do with her letters we already have on the wall.  Adorable!  I am thinking of either buying or making something like the butterfly hanging decoration.  I love it! My vision of Meli's room keeps changing...It started as Winnie-the-Pooh, then bees (inspired by Pooh's bees), then I added butterflies and other bugs.  The colors are yellow, white and a little bit of green.  I have some bug pictures that I have yet to hang.

Potterybarnkids.com

MeMe has been so funny this past week.  She is experimenting with different noises she make.  She started doing this high pitch scream.  At first I thought she was upset but she was smiling.  She cracks herself up! Not my favorite noise though.  She is also grabbing everything!  At dinner she gets pretty jealous and wants to join in.  So, she is usually sitting in one of our laps - eyeing are food.  She wants it.  Plates, glasses, silverware - none of it is safe.  She has her check up tomorrow, so I will post her stats later.

My dear, dear husband celebrated his birthday on Monday.  We had plans for the last weekend, but poor guy had strep throat.  Poor baby.  This made my week of birthday dinners crash.  His throat was so bad he had to eat broth and rice pudding for several days.  Now that he is feeling better I can start making his favorite meals.  Colin and I made turkey meatloaf together on Monday.  Colin had so much fun adding the ingredients for me.  He was so proud.


Birthday cake





~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

 The B Family

Photos by Colin

Colin took my phone the other morning and just started snapping photos of every little thing in Meli's room.  I thought some of them were cute, so I thought I would share.  Plus, it is neat to see what a child finds picture worthy.

Meli's dresser

Pooh flying a kite

Mommy & Meli

Meli's bees

Meli's head

~ Love, Hugs &; Kisses ~ The B Family

More Colin Tidbits

Colin is always good for some funny stories.  My little guy is always making me laugh.

The other day when we were driving home he told me he needed to go to the doctor because his teeth were broken.  He uses the word broken when something hurts. He needs the doctor to give him new teeth and he wants red ones.

At dinner one night Colin asked Will for a drink of his wine.  Will said that only adults can drink it.  Colin then tried to convince Will that he was an adult.  The conversation went something like this:

Will: "Adults work, do you have a job?"

Colin: "I go to work!"

Will: "Where do you work?"

Colin: "outside"

Will: "What do you do at work?"

Colin: "I watch movies on my computer, talk to Joe (one of Will's friends), go to the snack machine, eat lunch and talk on the phone"

Colin is preparing to test for his white belt in Tae Kwon Do.  To get it he needs to be able to do certain positions, count to 10 in Korean, recognize the American flag and the Korean flag, and a few other things.  I think he is almost ready!

~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

The B Family

4 months

Baby girl is 4 months!!   I think that Meli is such a perfect addition to our little family.  Perfect fit! We all enjoy our time with her. Colin loves trying to make Meli laugh.  He is good at it too. We call on his talent when she becomes a cranky pants. Thankfully, little princess has a great disposition and only gets fussy when she needs food and is sleepy. 

She has her appointment later this month.  I cannot wait to see how much she weighs.  She is still pretty thin.  Long and skinny.  Her face is getting a little chubbier.  I love baby chub!

Meli is smiling and laughing a lot.  That makes it easier to get pictures of her smiling, which makes mommy happy!  Pictures like these:

Such a happy little baby!

Working on crawling - not quite there (thankfully)

Meli loves her daddy!

Our little princess

~ Love, Hugs &

Kisses ~ The B Family

Can you say...Cutie Pie???



The first thing I bought when we found out we were pregnant

 A big difference between boys and girls are the clothes.  Boys clothes are cute and adorable but there are not necessarily a lot to choose from and for the most part boys do not care. It is going to get dirty anyway.  Girl clothes can get dirty too.  I know I was always making mud pies...but girl clothes are just so cute!  I have had so much fun dressing Meli up.  She gets dolled up but I am realistic and a busy mama so during the week it is usually a onesie but on the weekends or if we are going out then - dress up time! 

Meli and I went to a baby shower this last weekend...she was so cute in this blue dress with big white poka dots.  I failed to take a picture.  Darn! I will make sure to have her wear it again.  We moved Meli up to 3-6 month clothes last week (she is 17 weeks now and will be 4 months on the 10th)...I will admit I was a little sad.  No more 0-3 sizes. Well, except for dresses and sweaters. Just not onesies and pants.

We also went to Chucky Cheeses.  This was a first for all four of us.  Colin had a blast!  He was able play so many games and run around with his cousins. Aidan was celebrating his birthday.  We also let him run off with Alexei and Aidan without us parents tagging along. Such a big boy!  Meli has been wanting to stand all of the time this past week.  So she stood (with assistance) on the table and watched everybody.  She was such a good girl.  She ate.  She took a nap.  Then she watched some more.  Colin and I played whack-a-mole.  That was a first for me and it did not quite live up to all of the hype.  Maybe it was just an old machine.  A bit of a fail.

On a side note, Will and I are thinking of moving again.  We want to get something with a bit more room and a little newer. We met with our real estate lady this past weekend and will start exploring exactly it is we are looking for this next weekend.  We are thinking maybe building...but we will see.

Here are some recent pictures from this past week.

Playing with her little friend, Tux

Daddy's little girl!

Will had the headband on upside down - still cute!

Pretty baby

Hanging out

Talking to Daddy & Colin - she is a little talker!

~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

The B Family

4 Years

Will and I just celebrated 4 years of marriage at the end of August.  I cannot believe it has been that long.  We have been through a lot together, good & bad - I am thankful for it all!  Every detail has made us who we are as a couple.  I am a very lucky woman.  Lucky to have a sweet husband, a caring lover, a fair partner and a loving father to my kids.  Lucky.

Here are some quotes that when I read made me think of our relationship in some way. 

"Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along". Rumi

"I love you, for putting your hand into my heart and passing over all the foolish, weak things that you can't help dimly seeing there, and for drawing out into the light all the beautiful belongings that no one else had looked quite so far enough to find". Roy Croft

"In marriage, each partner is to be an encourager rather than a critic, a forgiver rather than a collector of hurts, an enabler rather than a reformer". H. Norman Wright and Gary J. Oliver

Honey - I love you and am so thankful for our 4 years of marriage. Thank you for putting up with me and loving me only the way that you can.

Wedding day 2007

2nd Anniversary - hiking

3rd Anniversary - Mt Vernon

4th Anniversary

~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

 The B Family

TKD Tiger

Colin started Tae Kwon Do a few weeks ago.  He LOVES it!  The first class he was a little timid, but the Master is really good with kids and had the parents get involved (Will) which put Colin at ease.  That class there was only one other boy and Colin but now the class is growing.  They had just opened, I think we were even the first people to sign up.  Class is twice a week and has been a good outlet for Colin's excess energy.  He also seems to be getting more confidence when it comes to certain areas that he was a little timid in before.  I think this is going to be such a great thing for Colin and I am hoping it is start to his experience with sports.  We are not going to force him into sports, but I am hoping that he shows an interest.  Watching tee ball and soccer at his age would be so fun!!

I keep forgetting to bring my camera to his class but sooner or later I will.  For now, here are two pictures from my phone.

 

Here are a few bonus pictures of Colin.

Well the first is a picture of the drawing Colin gave to me so I could hang it up at work.  He drew Power Rangers (the red) fighting bad guys (the black). 

~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

The B Family