13 Days...for such a time as this?

My little brother joined the Navy, he leaves on the 12th. We had his going away party tonight. I have mixed emotions, scared...worried...incredibly proud, but most of all I don't really like to think about it. It's bittersweet, it is SO what he needs and I truly believe it will be so good for him. There is a 10 year age difference between us, so from the moment he was born I took on the second "mommy"persona. He was the ultimate live "doll" for me. :) I adore him, my boys adore him. I love to watch them all interact. I hate the amount of time he will be gone, what he will miss, what we will miss. But I do know that he is in God's hands and he has called him for such a time as this...okay, now I'm sobbing...

Luke 6:23:23Rejoice and be glad at such a time and exult and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is rich and great and strong and intense and abundant in heaven;

I Got Tagged

Got tagged by my friend, Marisa.

Five things on my to-do list today - well tomorrow as today is coming to an end...
1. Maybe take spin class, depending on how spunky I feel - little leary after the 1st go around.
2. Shower AND wash my hair.
3. See if I can convince neighbor to put up the last ceiling fan in Levi's room, as Josh is dragging his feet on it. He hates electrical stuff...
4. Clean up the house, finish steam cleaning carpets in boys rooms.
5. Work on wedding stuff and meet with NEW realtor that hopefully will get our condo sold!

Snacks I enjoy
1. Chips, salsa & guacamole
2. Costco Trail Mix
3. String Cheese
4. Frozen Junior Mints or York patties
5. Air popped Popcorn w/ real butter and sea salt...Y.U.M!!!!

Things I would do if I were a millionaire
1. Buy a little bigger house in DT Kirkland with a MIL and pay it off.
2. Open a yoga studio and floral shop
3. Have a staff (chef, personal trainer, housecleaner, assistant...) - Oh yeah!!
4. Travel w/ some of my staff. :)
5. Figure out how I could give a lot away and make the most impact overall.

Places I have lived
1. Bothell, WA
2. Woodinville, WA
3. Kirkland, WA
4. Richmond Beach, WA
5. Sequim, WA

Bad habits I have
1. Staying up to late to watch a show
2. Picking the skin around my nails
3. Waiting too long to fold clothes, causing wrinkles (Makes my husband nuts!)
4. Picking out the "good" stuff from the trail mix, I leave all the peanuts for Josh - hee, hee
5. Eating what Levi doesn't, which is a fare amount as he's so darn picky!

Jobs I have held
1. Beauty Advisor @ Drug Emporium, now Longs (which I think is out of business now too) Basically a glorified name for the gal that worked/stocked the cosmetics. :)
2. Receptionist at Dr. office
3. Loan Coordinator WAMU Wholesale
4. Event Planner
5. A Momma and planning weddings, doing floral arranging as they come...

I now tag...Kara! Get to work! :)

I HEART BOB!!

It's true I'm in love with B.O.B. Don't worry Josh is aware and he's thrilled, in fact he too loves B.O.B.! I'm referring to my double jogger that arrived today. Yay, I am seriously SO excited about this thing!! Read on and you will see it is worth every red cent!

Back when Greyson was born I bought the double Maclaren, lovely stroller glides like a dream and turns on a dime. Perfect for shopping and your occasional walk. But, I love to get out and walk/jog with the boys especially on these sunny days. So I looked around for a double jogger, I wanted something with the large jogger wheels along with a swivel front wheel. This would make everything easier constantly going up and down sidewalks to the road...potholes, whatever I was tired of tipping the stroller back each time to maneuver it. So I found one on Ebay, it was a brand I had never heard of, but it appeared to have everything I was looking for, and it was only $130. Well I was still well below the weight limit with both boys in it but I felt like I needed to put more weight on G's side to keep it from flipping. Sure enough I loaded Levi in one day and went to reach for G just as a runner was passing with his dog. Levi craned his neck to watch as they passed and the whole jogger toppled over on top of Levi with him IN it! Instant pandemonium, I flipped it over pulled him out...he was bleeding, he cut his top and bottom lip and his eyebrow. Oh poor guy, I felt terrible. Nothing a popsicle couldn't fix though. :) Eventually we were off, and then the anger started to set in as I had a nice long walk to stew about what had just happened. How could that happen, what if it happened to G? Who the heck makes a crappy stroller that could flip so easily? This could happen anytime. It's impossible to load them both at the same time. When we came home I immediately put it on craigslist. I had a ton of responses and sold it the next morning. Off it went with a tinge of guilt...hoping and praying they would never experience flipage.

Hence B.O.B. my duallie revolution he's stable, secure, smooth, easy on the eyes and I'm certain he will never let me down or send my children a flying! What more could a girl want? :)

Shake it!

So Levi has figured out how to randomly play songs on the Ipod? Every now and then I'll catch him bustin a move shakin his booty! Of course when he spied me taking video with the camera he became a little camera shy and then decided to say "cheese". I know we all think our kids are so funny, but I just had to share. I think it's hysterical and I really have no clue where he learned to dance like this! ;)

You KNOW you want it! :)

Or maybe you know someone who does?? Ahhh...our condo is killing us, we've got to sell it or rent it. It's been on the market since February, lemme tell ya paying two mortgages is nothing short of AWESOME!! :) Check it out http://www.elegantcondoliving.blogspot.com/ if anyone comes to mind, PLEASE send them our way. We'll rent it or sell it without a realtor to save us both $$$!

So sad...but all too true, AND funny!

Princess Ella

My girlfriends daughter had her 1st birthday this past Saturday. I snapped a few pics with the fun new camera I got from the boys for Mother's Day. I have this fun new program (thanks to Angie :) that allows you to handpaint B&W photos. Cool stuff!! Check it out, you can save $5 on the program by clicking on this link http://www.magicsplash.com/index.php?id=MS106736

hApPy bIrThDaY ELLA!!!

We have a breakthrough...

Mr. Greyson Jax finally has a tooth!! I just disovered it this morning, at 8 months I was beginning to wonder. Some say it's normal and even later, but Levi had his first tooth at 3 months. Poor Greyson, always being compared to big brother.... ;)

Sunshine makes me SMILE!!!

So I along with every other Washingtonian (I imagine) have been LOVING this weather. We spend our days outside soaking it up. Our plants, trees and flowers are in bloom (finally). The boys love it...Tia loves it, I LOVE it. I get especially giddy when I see our wisteria bloom. I've worked diligenty to have to wrap around our porch and have trained it to eventually go over our garage. Each year it gets fuller and fuller. For this I am especially proud of. I'm not a great gardener, or one at all for that matter. But I still try. It kills me to plant things year after year. I hate buying all these flowers that will only die in a few short months. So I'm a bulb & periannual girl. Maybe that's why I get so excited when I see that my wisteria actually comes back to life each Spring. We also have some beautiful Lilac bushes and an incredible snowball tree that were planted by the previous owners. I just love the shape and look of the flower blossoms from this tree. The blooms start out as a pale apple green color and turn white as they fully bloom. They make beautiful bouquets which I put together every few days. Well Levi saw me cutting some branches the other day, he saw the clippers in my hand and said..."Momma, those owie." I agree with him that yes, they were in fact owie and just for Mommy to use. He ran off into the house and emerged back outside with his tool box in hand. As you can see above he is searching for the perfect tool in the above picture...
I can only imagine what was going through his head...'yep these plyers should do the job'...
I just giggled and let him do his thing. I just love that he always want to help or do what Mommy's doing. Makes me think he thinks I'm kinda cool and I'll take that as long and I can! :)

R.I.P. Paci...

Praise the Lord, Levi FINALLY slept without his paci last night! We've slowly been working towards this. For the past 6 months or so, he's only had it for naps and at night. But I had finally had it, the darn this was so gross! So I told him yesterday that paci was all gone and he was a big boy (all the while Josh laughed and said "yeah right, you'll cave, I give you til 10 o'clock tonight!" thanks for the support honey. :) He went down without a fight, he asked for it once, but I just told him the same thing. We found one of his soft cuddly bears for him to sleep with for comfort along with his blanky. He's all about Mr. Bear now.

Paci OUT - Bear SO IN!!

Lady Killers

Well it's official I've got a couple of lady killers, Greyson and his charming, darling dimple and Levi's gorgeous long lashes. Which I occasionally use to sweep the floor! ;) Don't you just want to eat them both up...oh I just love them!

Alki

The sun peeked out for a little fun in the sand at Alki.

How can two brothers look so different? Levi so fair and strawberry hair. Greyson has a more olive complextion with dark hair. Makes one wonder what more would look like... :)