Ben's tournament season begins!

Ben's tennis tournament season has begun. His first tournament was in Bremerton, so dealing with the ferry was atrocious. Ashton did enjoy being able to walk around the ferry and go from seat to seat. He made sure we were all moving together. We did have one late night on Friday in Bremerton because Ben's tennis match was running 1 1/2 hours behind schedule. We didn't get home until 1am. Thankfully he was able to stay in Bremerton Saturday night so he didn't have to deal with the ferry that night. He was excited to get home Sunday for his cousins 16th birthday, but had to go back to Bremerton Sunday night. He won the consolation round for the tournament! We are all so proud of him!


My nephew Jacob! Good looking guy. Can you believe he is about 6'4". Wow! One inch taller than Mark. Jacob just turned 16 today!! Happy Birthday Jacob!









Hannah's favorite thing this week is making jewelry. She has been making a lot and looking forward to wearing some in her Hawaii vacation coming up. She is very creative and good at it!





And here comes our upcoming tennis star! Mark had an opening on court, so Ashton was able to get in a little half hour hitting time with daddy. They both seemed to love their time together. Ashton sure has come a long way from our indoor balloon tennis games. Before we left the house, Ashton kept asking where his bag was. I didn't understand until he said "Ben has bag, Hannah has bag; where is Ashton's bag?" Of course it was in Ashton language, but I had to take his preschool bag and turn it into a tennis bag for that day.

I just can't tell what he loves more. Soccer, baseball or Tennis?

The kids are officially done with their USTA Jr. Tennis team and their soccer. But no worries because Hannah starts a new indoor soccer team in a few weeks, and Ben's tennis tournament season is just beginning. Never ending in our house. Mark recently asked about signing up Ashton in some sort of soccer program. Not sure if I want to add anything more to our schedule yet.




As you can see with the video, Ashton is learning to count to 10. He does pretty good most of the time. 9 & 10 can sometimes get switched around. He knows all his basic colors and has almost learned all the alphabet letters. I have been working extra hard on "M-O-M spells MOM" with his magnadoodle! I think he is starting the basic concept of reading. Hee...hee... I know he has a long ways to go, but we are actually really trying to work with him on some of the pre-reading books. It is all just memorization now, but some day he might surprise us. :)

Dancing is something he loves to do lately. He is absolutely obsessed with Black Eye Peas. He has always loved the beats to songs (must be the rap music Ben constantly plays in his room), but now he insists on having Black Eye Peas on all the time. We only have 5 of their songs, but I refuse to let him listen to "My Humps". He is such a repeater. I am a bit worried. Maybe it is time to accidentally lose the iPod for a while.

After a year of trying to get him to make baskets, he has finally figured it out. Now if he can only dribble....

Ashton's new things this month

His obsession is still trains but.......

He is definitely into coloring and stamping. He loves doing it every day! He even made a Birthday card for his Grandma last Wednesday. He was very proud of it and smiled big when he gave it to her.

He looks so serious. He is definitely a lefty!


He loves pushing the Grocery cart at Central Market! He calls it the Baby cart. It is our new place to shop during the non-busy hours M-F mornings. ;) I try to limit it to 2 times a week, but anytime I say I need something; he mentions the baby cart. ;)

We had to take daddy with us on the weekend! He had to see what Ashton loves to do!


Ashton sure loves to play Gamecube with his brother and sister. He only pretends, but I am sure he will catch on soon enough.

He even loved going to the dentist! He remembers "Dr. Olga" from the tennis club, so it was a familiar face. Plus it helps that their office is designed to make the kids happy. Look up at the ceiling and watch a movie!

He has on his first bandaid. He kept complaining about a rug burn from preschool. He must have tripped and fell. I finally suggested a bandaid and it must have helped it from scraping on things, because he talked much less about it hurting.

Still loving Preschool! ;) He has grown quite independent. He doesn't have to know where I am at all times. In this picture they were all sitting watching our visitor, Mickey, the librarian from the Mill Creek Library.

Colds, Tennis, Soccer and Baseball......

The colds keep coming in and not stopping. I swear we are washing our hands! I know it is just the season for it, but I hope it stops soon!

We are all trying to play tennis through our colds. Mark had two tennis tournaments that he had to suffer through with congestion.Cough....Cough.... but he did pretty well. (Just don't ask him, he won't agree)
Ben and Hannah's Tennis teams are doing great and having fun. We have had to sit through traffic on a Friday night a few times to get to these other tennis clubs, but it is worth it to see them out there trying their best. I am trying to help captain Ben's team. I am glad they are all kids that know how the Jr. tennis teams work. It has been pretty easy. Mark helps coach both of their teams when he can. He certainly seems to love coaching all those kids. I know they like having him out there helping. He has so much patience!
Ashton had some time out on the tennis courts with his daddy yesterday. He has his tiny little racket in hand, and looked adorable. His attention span doesn't last long, but I am glad he like to pick up all those balls afterwards. Get some of his energy out! Now my tennis is another story. I wish I could get out there more. I think 1-2 times a month is my average. I keep telling myself that my time will come! I hope it comes soon!

Now soccer is still on our agenda. I thought it would be over once December hit, but they both wanted to do more! (Boy do these kids keep us busy!) Ben and Hannah play on an indoor soccer team on Sundays. I guess we should be lucky that there is no practice during the week. I wouldn't know how to fit that into the schedule even if there was. With Tennis practice every day after school and Ben's extra tennis class on Saturdays; I think we pretty much filled up every day of the week. I keep trying to take a photo of the kids soccer, but my camera isn't cool enough to capture their quickness! So sorry Ben and Hannah....Ash get's most of the photos here. ;) Ashton only sport related scheduled activity is Little Gym. Somewhat of a little gymnastics class for the small ones. It is fun. He really enjoys it. I think his favorite thing is hanging on the bars when he gets there.


We are super excited about our new find! We happen to go into Sports Authority looking for some things for Ben, and walked out with a Lefty baseball glove!! Some of you may not know that our little Ashton is following in his daddy's footsteps. He is our Left handed boy. We are discouraging baseball in the house (although nerf football, nerf soccer, and nerf basketball are okay) He seemed to catch onto the concept of the mitt in hand and ball in the other. Of course that didn't last too long either. That darn 2 year old attention span! ;)



Ashton is still attending the Mill Creek CO-OP preschool. He likes it there. I am thankful that they have all the messy stuff that I refuse to have in the house. Like glue, sparkles and VOLCANOES! ***See video!** That lovely combination of baking soda and Vinegar. Not really sure if I am up for all that at the house. ;)

The New Year! 2011

Amazing how time flies so fast. The two teenagers and two year old can really occupy our days to whiz right by us!
Ben has started out the year today by saying this day was the highlight of his life. It was his first time watching the Seahawks play at Quest field. Mark and Ben screamed and screamed until their voices were raw. Thank goodness the Seahawks won! So glad the simple things like a winning team can create such fond memories for our big guy. Too bad it wasn't anything like our family nights or our special yearly vacations. ;) Mark sure did enjoy the game today too. He couldn't stop talking about it! I am glad they had a great time! I am sure Mark's 2011 dream would be for the Seahawks to go to the Superbowl again, and for him to come into 1st place for his Fantasy Football team, not 2nd place like he did for 2010.

Ending the 2010 year and starting the 2011 year for Ashton will be his trains. He is absolutely obsessed. Between his birthday and Christmas, I think he has enough trains to last him his whole entire toddler years! He likes us making different tracks for him daily, and is trying very hard to do them himself too. Perhaps this is early signs of engineering. We have taught him to say "Cool Track" and Hannah is trying to teach him "That track blows my mind". Too silly! Our goal for the first part of the New Years is to teach Ashton how to correctly play tag and Hide and seek. Oh he sure can play now, but it is his own rules! ;)



Hannah is our simple one to please. All I had to do was ask her what she wanted me to make for dinner. She choose pasta with Marinara and Alfredo sauce mixed with a side of chicken. Pretty darn easy! I know Hannah is looking forward to 2011. She will be turning 13 in May, and that means she can start her own FaceBook account and have a phone. I guess that gives us more things to ground her from if things start to go astray.


My hope for the New Years is just to have a working car! I sure do love my Volkswagon W-8 Passat! That baby has power to get up and go! Unfortunately it doesn't seem to go. It's been in the shop and will stay there for another week or so. They pretty much are rebuilding the engine.

I am sure you are thinking why am I keeping this 7 year old car. We keep it because I love it, and because we have a great warranty! This approx. $7000.00 job costs us only $11.00 for some bolts. I think I can live with the free loaner car for another few weeks! ;) Mark sure does hate my car. I hope to have it for another 7 years if it will putt-putt until then!

A sad thing for this year is my new friend Malin is leaving. I just met her this last September and she is heading back to Sweden. She has been a great highlight in my weeks at Ashton's preschool, and I hope the best for her future! So thankful we have met and I will miss seeing her smiling face!

Christmas 2010

What a wonderful Christmas we had!

Ben and Hannah always spend Christmas Eve with their dad, so we missed them a lot, but we knew they were having a blast with their other side of the family. Mark, Ashton and I had a different yet wonderful Christmas Eve this year. Our friends invited us over. We had awesome homemade one of a kind Turkey Taco soup! It was delicious! It should be in a cookbook! Gotta get that recipe!! We then attended a Christmas Eve service at their church. Ashton did pretty good the first 1/2 hour. Started saying "Go home" the next 1/2 hour and then lost it the last 5 minutes of the service. The three of us went out to dinner after that (Azteca - hee hee...) and came home and made Chocolate Spritz cookies! That was my first time ever seeing the Spritz gun used! Mark was an expert and made great looking cookies! Boy was I impressed. I never knew how cool it was to watch my husband make some cookies! That will be a tradition for us every year! Mark has now decided that he loves the Chocolate Spritz cookies much better than the original. (But we all know his obsession for chocolate!)

Christmas Day was busy but wonderful! We Started off with having the 5 of us eat a big breakfast; open gifts; and just enjoy our time together! Then the hustle and bustle of the day begins! Cleanup, showers and packing the car for the day. First stop is my family! It was a fun time at my parents house. There was great food, dessert and nice conversation the whole afternoon. Then to pack the car again to head 1-1/2 hours to Mark's family. Again with the wonderful food, dessert and some disco spinning on the floor! Ashton sure can make his Auntie's do some crazy stuff! We ended the evening with dropping off the kids at their dad's to finish their Christmas Day. They were super excited to still have more presents to open and it was 10pm. What a wonderful full day spent with family! ;)

Merry Christmas!

Wow! Santa visits by boat!

We spent the late afternoon/evening at Auntie Christy and Uncle Barts home in Black Diamond. Ashton had tons of fun playing with Uncle Bart's trains. Then he heard that Santa was coming to visit him on the dock. He was so excited! Santa gave him some trains to play with and gave Ashton presents to give to Ben and Hannah.