School, Christmas, church...

Here's a random post..

First, I graduated from school! YAY!! I know have a Bachelor's degree in Project Management which is pretty much a management degree. I don't want to be a manager, but I did take a lot of classes which will be helpful in the job I already have. Boeing pays for it and is giving me 100 shares of stock for completing the degree. How could I pass that up? Anyway, I am all finished and now I have a lot more free time for working overtime! :) And, of course whatever else I want to do. It's so nice to not have to tell the kids they can't talk to me because I have to write a paper or take a test. The kids were very good about dealing with it, but it's nice to not worry about any deadlines.

We had a wonderful Christmas at Whistler in Canada. I learned that my rear wheel drive car that I love doesn't do so well in the snow! I parked it in a garage and didn't move it until it was time to go home. Luckily, the bus ran right in front of our hotel straight to Whistler Village at the base of Whistler Mountain. Mom and I took the kids to the Tube Park. Cam loved it and Paige hated it! They give you these big inner tubes (how do you spell that? Inter? Inner?) and then you go to the top of a big hill and sled down. Usually they have a moving track to take you to the top, but it wasn't working while we were there, so we got a lot of exercise. Whistler Village is beautiful and it snowed every day! The hotel had a nice hot tub and heated pool (The guy said the pool was 40 degrees, but I don't understand Celcius, so.. we'll just say it was warm, but not warm like the hot tub.) Papa made each of the kids a cradle for their babies. One for Paige's doll and one for Cam's teddy bear. They are beautiful! He signed and dated the bottom of them so they will always remember and someday their kids can have them.

Before we left for Whistler, we had a Christmas celebration with the kids' grandma and great-grandma. Cameron is the proud new owner of a great telescope and the sky cleared up for the evening so we were all able to see the beautiful full moon and its craters. It was amazing! Paige got a doll house which I love. It's beautiful, white, three stories. She's very possessive of it right now. Jeff is working on making me a new blog, so I'll post pictures when I get that up.

Jeff and I are looking for a new church. We haven't been happy at a church since we left Northgate which was years ago. Like.. ten years. TEN years! That's crazy. We've tried, but I've never felt at home. I thought I had found one in Everett, but I just have so many differences that it isn't home. I want a home where everyone is welcome, no one is judged and I'm inspired by the message and excited to be at church singing and worshiping. The longer I am without a church to call home, the more I feel separated from God. I don't think you have to have a church, but for me, it's a place to help me stay on the right track and focused on what is important. The church we used to go to has changed its name, but the lead pastor is still there and the church is moving a little closer to us. Still, it's a drive, but I think it's time to go back. I smile when I think of it. How does ten years go by so quickly?

I'm also trying as a family to keep the Sabbath as God asked his people to in the Bible. The Jews celebrate the Sabbath from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. This makes it difficult for Jeff when he has a wedding, but there are many weeks (especially this time of year) where he doesn't have a wedding and we are trying to make it family and God time. I love some of the Jewish traditions of lighting candles in the evening, starting the Sabbath at sundown the day before and focusing on family and God. I'm just.. feeling a bit lost today.

Cameron will be six years old in just two weeks! I can hardly believe it. I have an almost six year old! He is having a rough morning. The two of them are fighting and crying and getting things taken away from them. Sounds like it will a long day.. Poor kids, it must be hard to get so miserable!

Yea, still need to make a new blog

but in the meantime...

The kids just got back from a few days at Mom and Dad's. They had tons of fun and I had a nice break. I finished up school and now I have an official Bachelor's degree! Yay! I'm still going to keep my current job, though. I just like to go to school. Actually, that's not true. I like taking math and French, and some other classes, but not all the classes that are required for a degree. I almost went for the master's as well, but then I realized I'd rather have my life back :) Boeing gives me 100 shares of stock for graduating, which is a great graduation gift!

Jeff took me out to dinner last night to celebrate. We went to a place on the lake.. I think Emery's? I could be wrong though, since that looks like the name of a nursery and not a restaurant. Either way, it was really really good!! I had steak and shrimp and we shared a bottle of Syrah and a Creme Brulee dessert. It was so great! Oh, and the best part was the oil you dip the bread in... YUMMY.

Paige and Cam had a great time at the family Christmas. Jeff and I weren't able to go because of work and school, but the kids had fun at Uncle Tim's! They both got blankets and cheerios with a cheerio cookbook, Cam got legos and Paige got a build-a-bear in a swimsuit. She's very cute!

At some point I'll get another blog. :)

moving the blog

Okay, as much as I used to like blogger, I'm increasingly fed up with it! It removes pictures randomly, it won't rotate my pictures correctly and it chops off the sides! GRR. I just tried to post pictures from Halloween and it was such a mess, I gave up. I'll move it later and post the link here.

GRRRRRRR!!!!

I'm not fixing it until I'm finished being mad about it :)

Here's one picture...
Or two

Jeff is famous. Well, he could be.

Jeff was on Komo radio yesterday morning. The radio guy interviewed him about proposal photography since he had done Courteney and Jed's shoot out at Cape Flattery. Here's a link to Jeff's blog about it:
http://blog.jefflaplante.com/2007/10/10/radio-story-on-komo-1000-news-proposal-photography/

Sarah had her baby! Sarah and Esteban had a baby girl named Sophie and of course Jeff took pictures of that too :) here's a link to a slide show. Turn on your speakers.
http://www.jefflaplante.com/slideshows/Sophie/

Happy Birthday Jeffery and the kids are silly

Today is Jeff's 33rd birthday. Yay Jeffy!!

We went to dinner at Tony Roma's and then back home for cake.

Tonight, we were sitting at the dinner table as a family with Jeff's mom and grandma. It was kind of chaotic and loud and Cam put his hands out to pray. He reached across Paige to hold his grandma's hand and pouted when I told him he had to include Paige by holding her hand. Usually Cam says grace, but he was busy figuring out how to avoid holding his sister's hand. As he was resisting, I said:

"Paige, would you like to say grace?"

Paige: "Grace!"

We all laughed soooo hard. I know that's so cliche, but Paige really thought that was what I was asking her to say.

A little while later, Cam asked if he could play a video game and I said sure. He wasn't quite ready though because he was still finishing his cake so I said that Paige could watch cartoons until he was ready. Cam said "NO!!" and Paige said "NO!!" I was confused until Paige continued with "Cam wants to play a game, I will wait." and Cam said "See? She will wait for me. That's my girl."

:) My kids are nuts!!

quick update

I've been so busy with school work and work work that I just haven't had time. Things are good here and I have lots of pictures to put up when I get a chance.

Highlights:
Cam started Kindergarten and so far he really likes it.
Cam had a tooth pulled because it had abscessed (poor guy!!) and now a tooth is loose for the normal reasons.
We went to Wenatchee last weekend because Jeff had a wedding to shoot in Chelan. Brittany was supposed to be up here, but then plans changed and she wasn't coming so I called her up and told her we REALLY needed here and would she PLEASE come up and she did!! YAY!! The kids love Brittany and Jeff and I do too. We had a great time with her. I hope she moves up here.
Cam is almost finished with speech therapy now that he can say anything you ask him to say.
Paige.. I must have an update on Paige.. but, I can't think of anything. She is doing well :)

cat

Halloween, and 'darn it....'

Paige knew she wanted to be a pumpkin as soon as she saw this costume, but Cam was a little more difficult. He really wanted to be a ninja, but I'm not into fighting and swords and stuff, so I said no. I had said okay to a skeleton and then we found the best feather boa I have ever seen in my life and Cam said he wanted to use it to make a Mikey the Bird costume. I haven't finished it yet, but here is a good idea of what it will look like. Mom is going to make his hood with a beak and proper Mikey parrot colors.

Here is Paigie in her pumpkin. It's very cute! Notice Genevieve in the background, full of class. :)


The other day, Paige had a stuffed shark and was running around the house singing the Jaws theme song, but saying "Darn it... Darn it... Darn it" She insists that sharks say "Darn it".

Yesterday, their grandma came and picked them up and kept them until dinner time. I didn't know what to do with myself when I first came home! They went to two cemeteries to take pictures of a couple of headstones she needed pictures of and then they went to the movie store and had lunch with great grandma and played and played and then they came home. They sure slept well last night!

A few Alaska photos..

Back from vacation and Paige is THREE!!

Paige turned three yesterday! Happy birthday, Paigie. Cameron picked out a cute little bear that sits in a boat that Paige can pull around, Grandma Patty gave her the Ariel bike, her daddy and I gave her some arts and crafts and coloring books, Gramma and Papa gave her a cute little doll named Lili and she also got some penguin books, a beautiful dress with a kerchief for her hair that matches and a My Little Pony that changes colors when ice is applied. We had a party on the beach in Mukilteo and she loved it. I'm glad because she sure does hate the Edmonds beach even though it has the best crabs and sea life. Gramma also made cupcakes with marshmallow penguins on top. Paige had a pretty great day.

Vacations were really good. We spent the first week on the Sun Princess cruise ship to Alaska. We went with my parents and the kiddos. The ship stopped in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Victoria. It also sailed into a fjord with a magnificent glacier at the end of it. I have some awesome pictures to share!

The second week, the kids stayed in Wenatchee with their grandparents and played with their neighbor kids. Jeff and I stayed at the Ritz-Carlton on Grand Cayman and went diving in some of the most beautiful water ever. We saw some really cool things - a shark, lobster, huge angelfish, giant tarpin, stingrays, conch and a seahorse. The Ritz was amazing. I suppose you'd expect that from the Ritz, but WOW. I was not disappointed. They just happened to have a Tiffany's in the hotel (how convenient is that?) and I got a beautiful silver necklace there. (Thanks, Jeffy!)

We came home and Mom stayed with us for another week because she had a training over here and now everything is back to normal. It was a great three weeks and I wish I could do it again next month.

Pictures later.

Post for the sake of posting

I'm too tired to post.

Paige got a new bike. We went to the zoo. Pictures another day. When I'm not half asleep.

Goodnight.

Oh yea, I saw the new Harry Potter movie. Good stuff. Must see.

Jesse and Tammy are married!

The kids and I went to Wenatchee this weekend to go to my cousin Jesse's wedding to his sweetie - Tammy. Dad officiated and did a fabulous job, of course :) I got to see a lot of family I apparently hadn't seen since my own wedding 9 years ago. I didn't realize it had been that long. The kids had a fabulous time dancing at the reception and Paige kept looking for "The Princess." Both kids were completely taken with Tammy. Cam even got to dance with her and he seemed quite embarrassed by it, but he secretly loved every second.

Both mornings we awoke in Wenatchee, Cam said to me (first thing before even opening his eyes) "I think we have some company... The sun has come to say good morning." Poor kid also ran full on into the sliding glass door because he didn't see that it was closed, rolled over in bed and smacked his head on the corner of the bedside table, and then later was playing on a rocking type playground toy and smacked his nose on the bar and got a bloody nose. I think Cammy got Gramma's accident prone gene. Oh, I forgot that the week before he was riding on Gramma's back and the two of them fell HARD onto the street. Poor Cam got a good scraping and Gramma got the wind knocked out of her.

Paige had a problem at one point of saying "Shut up" over and over and I had to keep correcting her. Later, she was talking to Gramma and said "Mommy loves me, but I said 'shut up' and she told me to knock it off." :) Silly girl.

Ooh, Danielle is engaged!!! YAY Danielle!! I'm so happy for you, love! I used to babysit Danielle when she was little and I just love her. She was a sweet little girl and I am completely thrilled about her engagement.

I think that's it. Good night.

We're certified!

Jeff and I are officially scuba certified! YAY! We did our open water dives and did just fine. I had a bit of a panic on the first day of open water because visibility was terrible, kicked up sand was disorienting and I got tons of water in my mask. Oh, and I saw a jelly fish. The second day though, I did just fine. We've been to 60 feet (well, MY dive computer says 59 feet), but whatever. Last time we dove, though, I saw one of these... a Lion's Mane Jelly and the thing was about 3 feet tall. No kidding.

SCUBA, baby!

Jeff and I began our SCUBA training on Friday evening. We had an evening of classwork and then a little more on Saturday morning before we went to the pool. Saturday and Sunday we spent several hours in the pool practicing things like changing regulators underwater, trying to float mid-water, clearing a mask full of water... good stuff. By the end of Sunday, Jeff and I were both feeling pretty good about it all. Next weekend we have two days out in Puget Sound at Mukilteo and I am VERY excited about that. A little scared too, but totally excited. I don't really know what to expect, but the instructor assures me I won't be cold underwater. I'm not buying it, but I'll find out soon.

The kids spent Friday evening with Mark, Jenn and Collie Collie. Saturday, while Jeff and I were in the pool, Mom took the kids to the beach at Edmonds where they were lucky enough to hit the low tide and they found starfish, jelly fish, crab, sea anemonies (which squirted water at Cammy!) and other little fishies and beach stuff. The kids had a really great time. They got new buckets from the toy store and also had ice cream and treats in Edmonds. Sunday morning, we went back with everyone and saw more sea life and watched a heron catching breakfast.

Sunday, Mom went home and Grandma Patty and Great-Grandma came over to watch the kids while Jeff and I finished up in the pool. The kids had a great time with them too, of course :) They had dinner on the porch and blew bubbles in the water table. God has truly blessed us with wonderful friends and a wonderful family who enjoy being with our children while we run out and play :)

For Norman

Other randomness

Just a few pictures I found on my camera.

Turns out, Cam does know how to use an umbrella properly, but this shot cracks me up.


Here, Cam has a top and he was spinning it and then put his finger on it to make it like a record player. He's never actually seen a real life record!


What a cute picture he drew! I think it must be a self portrait... I see a resemblance.


Here, we made fake snow. Jenn gave us some in a container and then we just added water and got this. They love it.

The kids make cute drawings

The day after we went to the farm, Cam drew three pictures - one of a kangaroo, one of a lemur and one of him holding my hand. I just love these pictures!



Then, Paigie drew this picture of Shrek.

The kangaroo farm!

There's a farm in Arlington with kangaroos! It's the Outback Christmas Tree and Kangaroo Farm. They also have lemurs, ostrich, flemish giant bunny, llamas, donkeys, geese.. Lots of silly animals! Here are some pictures of our trip there with Cammy's class.

It was my birthday

Back on May 19th. Jeff and I had dinner at The Herbfarm, which was really amazing. I can't even begin to describe it in a way that would do it justice. Because it was my birthday, they had made me a pipe cleaner crown and placed it at my table along with a little framed 'happy birthday' wish. The theme was Copper River salmon and included wild foraged mushrooms. The place settings had 7 wine glasses and four forks. It was a nine course meal with pared wines... easily the best meal I have ever eaten. One time I got up during a course (7+ glasses of wine will do that to you) and when I returned, my plate was gone! A waiter showed up and went looking for my plate. It had be rearranged on a new clean plate in a fancy arrangement and kept warm for the 3 minutes I was away! Really amazing and definitely something I will want to do again someday. I am 30 now! Yikes. Here's a picture of me in my fancy crown :)

Random photos

How cute is this? Cam is playing with the Mr. Potato heads and Paige is combing his hair. Even better - Cam knows she is combing his hair and wanted her to keep doing it! Wow. Maybe there is a peaceful sibling relationship in the future for these two. :) They sure are cute.



Paige likes to play Dora on the computer so much that Jeff set up a computer for her upstairs. I took a picture of her and then she got annoyed with me because the flash was bothering her eyes. In the next picture she was giving me a dirty look because I didn't stop 'picturing'.

These next pictures are great!! We went to the science center and one section has some dinosaurs. I think they are 1/2 scale and they move a little and some of them make noise once in a while. It's been there for a really long time because I remember seeing them when I was a kid. We found this Allosaurus and the kids wanted their picture taken with them. I told them to stand in front of him. I took one picture and then the dinosaur roared and scared the poo out of the kids! Paige ran so fast she wasn't even in the second picture. Look at Cam's face! Poor kid, but it was really funny!


It was warm on Monday! We went down the street and played with the kids in the neighborhood. Cam got all hot and spiked up his hair.


I have no idea when these pictures were taken, but it's pretty recent since I see my new purse in the photo :) I'm still a fan of Paige and her glasses. She still is too!

Apple Blossom in Wenatchee

That's a picture of the Seattle Seahawks' mascot Blitz holding Cam! The Seahawks' band was in the parade and Blitz was riding a motorized scooter on the route. Cam was standing up and waving and Blitz came over to say hi to the kids. He put down his scooter, picked up Cam and turned around for Jeff to take his picture. It was fabulous! He was really good with the kids, making sure they weren't scared of him before doing something like picking up Cam!

On the way home, we stopped by Uncle Tim's Pine River Ranch B&B. Tim is making a fabulous wedding and reception location at his home/B&B. You can see the progress on his page. He's doing it all by himself. I think it will be amazing when he is finished.

Paige draws cute pictures

Paige drew this really cute picture tonight. She asked me to write her name for her on a piece of paper and then a few minutes later she showed me this. She said it was a crab and she said she wrote her name at the top. It's totally cute! Then she added a nose. She said "The crab needs a nose, but he doesn't need a nose, but I added a nose."

Funny girl!

Cam wants you to know that he can write his name too :)