Oh We're Going to a Hukilau

So, what did you do last week? Well, we got to watch 5 kids for 5-1/2 days. No one thought we could do it, but we did. And everyone survived, including me!

Court and Brad had the opportunity to go to Hawaii. This has been Court's dream since they first moved here. So, they got their tickets and got Grandma to come watch the kids. Sarah was miffed...she wanted to go to Hawaii. She also wanted to go to Utah to see everyone for Spring Break, but this was also not going to happen. So, we hatched a plan. We would have a luau while Mom and Dad were in Hawaii.

Then, in true shipyard fashion, the Hawaii trip got moved up a week. What to do? It would have been hard for Grandma to get here earlier. That also meant that Court and Brad would be leaving the day after we got back from Portland. That's a turn around I've made many times and do not like it. So, Brent and I talked about it and decided that I would watch the kids. He would come after work, then go home to sleep since we're not used to getting up with a baby.

I just wanted Court to be able to go. I know how much she's wanted to go and I wanted it for her.

But, I'll tell you, when I got there at 6:15 am on Monday morning, I was thinking I might be crazy. How could I go from no kids to 5 kids. And not only 5 kids, but 5 kids THINGS that needed to happen that week. Let me explain:
Sarah - age 12. Tuesday night was New Beginnings. Wednesday afternoon was piano lessons. Thursday night was the orientation at the high school - yeah, she's in 9th grade in the fall. Saturday night was the YW Broadcast. And, in the midst of this, we found out that she had to register for 9th grade before Court and Brad got home. Eek!
Chloe - age 11. Wednesday afternoon was piano lesson as well. Other than that, there was school work and piano practice.
Kyle - age 6. Had a birthday party on Saturday that needed a present. Plus homework.
Aaron - age 4. Also had a birthday party on Saturday that needed a present. Plus, he's home all day.
Emma - age 15 months. By far the youngest baby I've ever watched overnight. And she would be home all day too.
Ashley - age 36. Presidency Meeting on Wednesday night.

Yeah, a full week. Jeez! But, I decided to just take it one day at a time. So, I went grocery shopping with two kids - and found out how long Emma's arms really are. I went to New Beginnings and the YW Broadcast with Sarah and remembered how much I love young women's. (I do get to go to camp this year. I'm helping with the 1st years. Woho!) I took 2 kids to Walmart and we bought some pretty darn fun gifts for the birthday parties. And I even got to my presidency meeting with only minimal craziness.

I could never have done it without Brent though. He is such a calming influence on me. I love him.

Anyway, as I said, everyone survived the week. Saturday, Grandma got here and Brent and I went home. But then we had promised to have a luau. So, Sunday, we went back over and had a luau. Everyone got duded up in their Hawaii things.

Chloe, Aaron, Sarah, Emma, Kyle

Kathy (Court's mom), Kyle, Aaron, Me, Sarah

Brent didn't want his picture taken, but he was in Hawaii gear too.

We had made an Aloha banner that worked for the luau and to welcome Court and Brad home, made Hawaiian Haystacks, which almost everyone liked, and yummy cupcakes...

Yeah, got the idea from Pinterest. I don't think I had the right icing tip though. It looked better on Pinterest. But they tasted good.

It was a fun night and I'm glad that we could do that for them. Court and Brad had a great time in Hawaii and now they owe us big time. Just kidding guys! Glad we could help!

And it's awful quiet around here now...kind of good and bad.

ALOHA!

We Are Marching to the Madness!

I don't know where you were this weekend, but I know where we were. (I also know where Brad, Court and Ryan were.) We were in Portland. Why were we in Portland? Well, it is March. Which means the Tourney is here. Which means we are wherever the tourney is.

So this year, Brent got tickets to the first and second round games in Portland. It was off to Portland for us.

We left on Wednesday by train. Brent has been wanting to take the train somewhere for a while now. I was indifferent in the matter, so Portland it was. What did I think about the train? Well...you can't be in a hurry. It was about an hour late getting into Portland, which seems to be about normal. It's louder than I expected. But, you can get up and walk around so that's nice. I'd take the train again, but not a long way.

Then Thursday morning dawned and Brent met up with Ryan and a very sick Brad. I met up with a pretty sick Courtney, but we didn't let that slow us down. We shopped and shopped and shopped. Then we took a break and shopped some more. Then we took the boys shopping and then we took a break and shopped some more. It was pretty good. I'm not a huge shopper which means I can do this binge shopping then not have to shop for a long time. Plus, Court and Brad are leaving for Hawaii in...let's see...12 hours, so they needed to supplement their wardrobes.

During one of our breaks from shopping, Court and I got manicures and pedicures. We got the new OPI gel nail polish that is suppose to last FOREVER so we'll let you know. Oh, and the funnest quote of the day. When the people asked us if we wanted to get our manicures done at the same time as our pedicures (to which we said yes), Court said, "I will feel like I'm on a tv show if we do that." It was actually kind of hard. It was hard to remember what you could move and what you couldn't. But it was like being on a tv show. If only someone had done my hair!

We, however, did take one morning off from shopping to go to Multnomah Falls. It was a rainy, overcast day so the pictures, I think at least, turned out AWESOME!

There was a lot of water coming down the waterfall because of all the rain we've been having. While everyone else in the country's been having summer-like weather, we've been stuck in winter.

We took some pictures at the base of the waterfall...

We walked up to the bridge and took some pictures. (Notice all the water on Brent's glasses. I don't think it was rain, I think that's spray from the falls.)

That's as far as I went, but the rest of these brave people decided to hike to the top of the falls by saying, "It's only a mile." Yeah, only a mile - straight up! Court made a valiant effort, but couldn't make it. But here are some pictures so we can all enjoy the view from up there.

The water roaring off the top of the falls.

I made this picture big so you could really see it. Look for the bridge - that's the bridge we were on. See the curvy road, that's what we walked up to get to the bridge.

And if you can't quite figure out just how high they hiked, here's a picture of where they where from where I was. (Sadly, this isn't actually them, but you can imagine.)

Oh, you can't see anything? Look at the top of the falls, then to the left. That's the platform they were standing on to get the pictures.

We had a great weekend in Portland. We saw rain, snow, sleet and sunshine. You have to love the Northwest in the spring!

The Incredible Jumping Daisy!

We got Daisy a new toy.

 

Here she is after she has "killed" it and thinks herself quite the thing. Basically, the toy is a bunch of feathers that are put together in such a way as to make them flap like a bird. I have always thought Daisy might like to hunt birds since she always freaks out whenever a hummingbird comes around. You can just see her thinking in her little kitty brain, "I could catch that fast, little darty thing. And then I would eat it."


At first, she wasn't really good at actually catching the "bird." She would jump around, fall down most of the time, and very rarely actually catch it. But she's getting MUCH better. It's a lot of fun to watch. Thought you might like to see it too.

This one might be better if she hadn't jumped right out of the screen!

She's a funny one!

What?

This is what we woke up to this morning...

Yep, about 3 inches of snow. (I know Brent will say 2 but I swear there's 3 out there.) The weather people kept saying that it might snow but I did not believe them. I was wrong.

However, this snow did not elicit the same pandemonium as the last two. Remember? No?  Look here and here and here. Brent's work and all the schools were on time. Sad.

But, the funny thing is, the snow is almost completely melted off by now and a snow plow just came up our street. Sure, when we really need a snow plow, nothing. When it's just wet pavement, they're all over it. Funny!

Spring has brought such a nice surprise!

They Say it's your Birthday...

Well, not my birthday, but Brent's birthday. Since his birthday was on a Saturday, we thought it would be fun to have a party that day. And I thought it would be fun to have a theme party! Probably because I've been looking at Pinterest entirely too much.

What's the theme? Star Wars of course. So I made some lightsabers...

And we found some Star Wars tattoos and we were in business!

We had a houseful, what with Brad and Court, their five kids, Ryan and Marcela, their two kids, and Marcela's mom and sister. It was loud and chaotic and great!

I made pizza for the festivities, since Brent shouldn't have to cook on his birthday. It was very tough, but I pulled through. I ordered it online and everything.

Then we opened some presents.

Brent got a lot of great things. Legos, bacon popcorn, Star Wars on bluray (yep, I caved), a Lowe's gift card and lots of fun cards.

This is Kyle's theme card. It says that Sebulba likes Brent. (Sebulba - and I might be spelling that wrong - is from Phantom Menace. He's kind of a bad guy so I don't know what that means for how Kyle sees Brent.)

Emma really wanted to help open presents but Chloe was on it. (Notice the bacon popcorn in Brent's hand. We haven't tried it yet. Honestly, I'm a little scared.)

We had a lot of fun just hanging out...

Cami and Sarah

Emma

Luz, Marcela and Dany

 We were so glad that Luz and Dany were still in town to enjoy the craziness!

We had some pie and cupcakes. Pie because Brent loves pie. Cupcakes because he chose a coconut cream pie, which I don't like, but I like cupcakes.

And we even got a little show from Cami, assisted by Emma.

I never got a good picture (note to self, must get a digital SLR), but I'll try to describe it. Cami got up on that little step and proceeded to pretend to sing. With her mouth open and arms out. It was hilarious! Then Emma got in on the action and jumped up there too. We had a good laugh.

I hope Brent enjoyed his party. I know I had fun!

Happy Birthday Brent!

Really...

And for your next installment of Daisy does the darndest things...
Yep. Here she is, sitting on the printer, chewing on the scissors. Why? I really don't know.

Happy Birthdays!

(Brent updated our blogger and now it's somewhat hard for me to figure out. Don't worry. I'll get better at it!)

Yes, I really did mean "birthdays". On Friday we celebrated Cami's second birthday along with Marcela's birthday, since they are only a day apart. When we walked in the door, we were surprised to see Marcela's mom and sister there! Apparently not as surprised as Marcela was since Ryan and her family conspired for months to get them here. What a fun surprise!

And now onto the pictures.

Here is one of the birthday girls herself. Cami is a cute little thing. She was so confused by all the fuss for her. When everyone sat down to watch her open her presents, she came and sat with us. And then when the cake came out, she kept hiding her face. It was cute!

And birthday girl #2...Marcela!

I am a fan of her cute little sweater dress.

She wasn't super good at blowing out the candle, but we got it out anyway.

I thought I had some more pictures, but then I remembered that I had taken them with Ryan and Marcela's camera, so ... oops! Anyway...

Happy Birthday ladies!

40 Bags in 40 Days

Have I mentioned my love of Pinterest? I haven't? Well, I love it. And when I saw this challenge at the end of last year - ie the 40 bags in 40 days challenge - I got all excited and decided to try it.

What is a 40 bags in 40 days challenge you ask? Well, you make a list of 40 places in your house you want to organize/clean out. Then for the next 40 days, you work on one of them a day. This idea is great for me because I have a problem with getting overwhelmed and hiding in my room. Literally.

Anyway, I've been doing my 40 bags for the past few weeks now and it's a raging success. Here are some of the places I've organized...







I've also cleaned out the file cabinet, my shoe bucket, and the pantry, among other things.

It's actually quite cathartic for me! I will never be perfect at decluttering - I can still hear my Grandma saying that I might need that someday - but I am getting organized and I love having a specific place for a specific thing. It's great!

Off to my next bag!

Oh Daisy

We have a crazy cat. She has the funniest personality and gets into the funniest things. So, I think this year I'm going to share some of the funny things she does.



Brent has decided to start dressing a little bit nicer for work, which also means he has to iron. This is the pile of ironing. Daisy likes to sit on things, but this time she got into his shirt to take a nap.

Just makes me laugh.

Frozen Mayhem Part 2

Well, freezing rain has been falling all day, but it's now turning to snow. The weather people were saying that it was going to start getting warmer by noon. Not so much just yet. Still 28 degrees at last look.

We got a little stir crazy and went out to see what it was like. (But not stir crazy enough to go to Costco like one of our friends. He's crazy.) Anyway, here are some pictures of the ice we've gotten. Brent says it's 1/8 inch thick and I say at least 1/4 inch so I'm going to say we have a TON of ice out there.
This is our attempt to show how thick the ice is, but it just wouldn't take a good picture. I'm continuing to take donations towards Ashley-needs-a-digital-single-reflex-camera fund.

This is the road outside our house looking down the hill...

And up the hill...

We could get out but have decided not to chance it. Like I said, we have plenty of food and frozen pizzas. (Hee hee) So we're staying put for now.

And, sadly, Brent and Ryan are going to have to watch the USU game on tv. The monorail is not running today and most of Seattle is closed so no basketball for them. Sad days guys!

Now on to organizing and packing up the craft room. Why you ask? Well, we're going to be doing some home remodeling and getting ready to move our bedroom downstairs. Lots of work ahead but I'm excited.

:)