Seattle Vacation

March

The days are going by so quickly.  Ashton finished up Basketball. Hannah started her Tennis season and even started playing indoor soccer on Saturdays.

Trophy day!! 

Cool cake for the trophy day!

We went to Julie Englands wedding.  It was beautiful and we enjoyed seeing her be truly happy.

Love those guys!

Leif and Julie, Me and Ashton

He can now build his track all by himself! Very creative tracks and I am so proud of him for building it himself!

He is still loving Seahawks Monopoly. His new thing is to be the banker.  He is very particular with how his money is placed in front of him. If he gets 5- $100's he trades them in for 1 - $500 and he thinks he is richer!  So cute!

Ben is working now at Columbia Athletic Club.  Mark is his boss.  He mostly works with the other Pros there and helps to teach the kids tennis.  He is really good with the kids. He likes his job too! He is still dating Sabrina. They seem happy and she is a great girl for him.

Ashton did this in school. It was so cute!

Valentines and More.

Happy Valentines Day!

Valentines Day was fun. Ashton had a cute party in his classroom. Decorate and ate cookies, played bingo and exchanged some Valentines cards!  We came home and ordered PF Changs for dinner with daddy and played aggravation before bed time. It was a wonderful day! 

He was excited to get the book pigeon and stuffed animal to bring home for the long extended 3 day weekend!  He looked so happy! I wish I had video taped it!

His box is the white one with all the hearts! 

Cookie snack time!


LEGO MOVIE

We took the kids to "The Lego Movie" today. Ashton started crying when the bad vibes came around on the screen. It was awful. I feel so bad for him because he just doesn't like negativity. But I also am getting tired of walking out of every movie we take him to. I decided I had to get mean and tell him to quiet down. I even went so far as to tell him he is being a big baby and that is was only Legos! I felt so awful saying it, but it worked! He quieted down and we stayed. I always explain the movie as it goes so he understands what is happening.  I am hoping he doesn't remember me calling him a big baby though! So mean.  So far he hasn't said anything about it and he thought it was a good movie!  Mark, Ben and Hannah really liked it too! Great story moral. Telling people to stop following the manual instructions and try to think outside the box. Get creative. Mark loves that! Ben and I have a hard time with creativity and we have always loved instruction manuals to Legos. So that is how Ashton and I build too. But after that movie, Mark and Ashton got creative and built a great tower! 

I finished the VGAL (Volunteer Guardian Ad Litem) training. It was good. I have decided to continue and try one case out and see how the experience goes. I actually just got appointed to a case and will begin this next week. I look forward to helping, but I am nervous for all the interviews with people. Mainly the parents that have their issues. But those can be in a office of the juvenile center.  You do get a choice in cases too, so that helps to pick one that I am comfortable in starting with.  They have once a month meetings for the VGALS to get together and be able to talk about issues or cases since we can't talk to people about them. Most cases are extremely heartbreaking. Seems like a movie and so sad that there are so many of them out there. Anyways- I do hope to actually get paid for a job sometime in the future, but for now this helps the community and gets me more experience, more social and my mind busy.

It is that time of year to sign Ashton up for the public school. We are going back and forth on kindergarten again or first grade. Ashton is hilarious! He says he wants to do kindergarten again because it is so easy! Ha!! At least we don't have to worry about his feelings being sad if we hold him back. ;) I think he will do fine in first grade. More Challenging and struggles, but it would work out. Then kindergarten will be a breeze and another year to socially develop and grow. I do think we are leaning toward that one. Three weeks to decide.  I don't think there is a right or wrong, but tough to know what to do.

Trying to get on Ben to get his colleges narrowed down. His girlfriend is gone this weekend, so we told him he has to focus! He just can't balance everything very well. Still no tennis for him either. I think he is on 3 weeks now without playing. Still trying to rest his Wrist.  His dad wants me to take him to a sports medicine doctor next. I guess that is on the agenda for next week. 

Hannah seems to already know what college she wants to go to. Wester Washington University. Now we only have to get on her next year for the SAT! 

What a great weekend!

We had such a fun weekend!  It started Friday for Ashton and I.

FRIDAY

He had a field trip to Central Market.  We shop there often, but have never seen many of the places the employees see.

His Class.  The "Madeline" doll is because it was French Friday and the French teacher was trying to incorporate some french words at the field trip. She used the doll for the kids to find and then they would have to talk about stuff that was around it.

They are very serious in the board room. 

They let the kids try cheese. It was blue cheese. Most of the kids did not like this type of cheese. It was funny to see their faces.  

They were able to see the refrigerated section and this is the freezer. Brrr....it was cold!

SATURDAY

It started out with 8am Basketball practice!  Mark is the head coach for Ashton's team.  They are looking great and have their first game next this coming Saturday.

Then there was Team Photos. This is from my camera. Not the professionals.

Then Saturday afternoon we went bowling! We invited Ben's girlfriend Sabrina.  We first went to lunch at Panera Bread and then headed to Brunswick Bowling on 164th.  It was a lot of fun! In the first Game Sabrina seemed to do so well by using the bumpers a lot. Not sure how she mastered that one, but it was funny!  In the second game, Mark seemed to have warmed up and did awesome. Ashton actually didn't lose. He beat Sabrina by a tiny bit. She was being silly and goofy, but it paid off for Ashton!

When we first got there, it was Moonlight bowling. Fun! I wish it would have lasted the entire 2 hours. It was great!

SUNDAY

It was the Seahawks versus the San Francisco 49ers in the playoffs!  Seahawks won!! What a great game.

Happy New Year!

2014

Wow! I can't believe it. They year went by so quickly.  I am looking forward to this year. Mark and I will celebrate our 7 year anniversary this year on 07-07-07!   This will be Ben last full year at home before he goes off to college….. sad….
Marks Mom and dad turn 70 this year.
Our friends the Prices, will be celebrating their 25th Anniversary on June 25th. (That is pretty cool.) Jenny Prices's mom will be 70 this year also.
Hannah turns 16 -eek! Wow! She will be driving. They both will have their license. That is crazy wild!

Definitely a year to remember!

The year started off with a relaxing day at home. Mark Put Christmas lights away and then we took a nice walk with Ashton to the Mill Creek Town Center.  It was great to enjoy the sunshine. We haven't gone on a walk for a long time there. Then when we returned, Ashton wanted to play Seahawk Monopoly.  It was his first time playing the adult version of Monopoly. He had a lot of fun!

After a long game (about 3 hours...), I wasn't able to manage my money that well. Mark and Ashton were so close for 1st place. Mark won by about $70. 

This photo is Ashton getting excited about buying lots of "suites" for his property. $400 each time you land on it. Ouch! 

I had to keep reminding Ashton that we can only play this on days we have a lot of time. He loves games and he would play this a lot if he could. We will stick to Shrek JR. Monopoly that only takes 15-30 minutes to play each time!

It was a great first day!  Here's to many more in 2014!

Santa Photos

We had our annual Santa Photos done. We decided the rule for the cousins was if you are under 21 and have no children of your own, then you are in the photo!  Jacob was happy to be in it and we were glad because Autumn wasn't too sure of Santa. She loves her Uncle Jacob so it was nice he was able to hold her and be in the photo!

Fun Photoshoot

Back in November I made the kids go to Chateau St. Michelle's Winery to take photos. My main goal was to practice because I had a photo shoot here a few weeks later. I wanted to get a feel for the area and the sun at that time of day. I decided I might as well make these into Christmas cards, which you should have received by now. I didn't want to post the photos until we surprised you with our card. 

The kids were big troopers that day. It was the start of the cold weather, and they got a bit chilled when they took their coats off. 

I wanted to have some fun and I had Hannah be the perfect little girl she is and then the boys do a silly thing. Ben decided to jump in the air, so Ashton did too. You can't tell by the photo, but Ashton got some air time too!

I definitely love the setting here at the winery. It was beautiful. I recently took photos here again of some people, and it wasn't as lovely a month later. I must remember that November is a perfect fall time for the pretty fall colors.

There was a pretty building in the front of the fountain. We weren't really sure what they used it for, but it was a nice setting for our photo.  These kids are sure photogenic! I really should make them go to different places on their day off of school to let me check out more photo setting opportunities! Not sure if they will go of it. Even though they were smiling for these photos, I think they had enough after a while. I did let Ashton get a bunch of wiggles out in between shots. Tons of Candid shots of them that were fun too!

Here is the back side of the Fountain. Such great scenery!

I made them take umbrellas for props. Not really sure why, but I had this fun vision of the Pacific Northwest and rain. I thought it would be fun to take some shots with the sun in the background. Perhaps I may be the only one to get a kick out of this, but Hannah was a great model for me.  Those boys sure can be impossible sometimes!  (but adorable....)