Merry Christmas and a riddle...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Here is a riddle for you all...any guesses?

Catching up...

I know I've been very bad at keeping up with the blog but I'll try to catch up a little. We'll start with Halloween. Madison was Little Bo Peep (costume courtesty of my mom) and Juliana was her sheep. They were very cute!

Birthdays!!!

Couldn't forget the most important post of all! On Sept 12th Juliana turned 2 and we celebrated both girls' birthdays with a My Little Pony Party. Madison was very excited by the box of yoo-hoo my parents brought for her, as well as a strawberry shortcake doll. Juliana was thrilled by her new backpack and her Dora tricycle. Their big gift was a swing set, given by mommy, daddy, and my parents. It is, as I type this, still being put together, but should be done tomorrow. Then I think that will be the highlight of their birthdays! Here are some pics...

No move for us..

At least not for awhile. Back in August Rich and I went to look at 6 houses in the Gig Harbor area. 3 of them were flat out disgusting, 1 was a great house but too far away from his work, one was too expensive, and one was nice but not much bigger than our current house. We really went through our budget and considered what was available in our price range, and decided that this is not the right time to buy for us. We will reconsider it in 3 years when our current house is paid off and we can rent it out. For now we are staying put, unless of course we win the lottery!

Rich is back teaching and coaching. I am of course looking forward to the end of the season, even though now that he is taking over the head cross country coaching position, he will never really have an off season.

Work is going fine for me. After waiting for a year I was finally able to get a part time position, so I will have my own medical benefits and we can get me off Rich's policy, which is going to save us I think $250-300a month yay! I was already working part time, but this benefitted position is different in that I now have to work 2x a week, whereas before I only HAD to work 4x a month. It will out though. We are still really tightly staffed and expecting an increase in deliveries in November so it should be a busy time.

On to September...

At the beginning of September, our babysitter abruptly announced that she was no longer going to be working for us. By abrupt I mean she gave us 5 days notice. That caused some serious stress and me scrambling around, trying to get my Thursday night shifts covered. Luckily I was able to get them covered, and now we have a new babysitter. Rich's aunt has graciously offered to watch the girls for me. I am so very grateful for this!
While I happened to be searching craigslist for a new sitter, I noticed an ad for a preschool that still had openings. I still didn't have Madison enrolled anywhere because I had thought we would be moving (see next post). We went to visit the preschool right away and loved it. The teacher told me that they only reason they had posted an ad on craigslist was because they and the church they are affiliated with had been mistakenly left out of the phone book. This preschool is usually full in the spring, so were very lucky to get her enrolled there. So I guess I can thank the babysitter for that one! She started the 3rd week of September and so far she loves it. Here are some pics from the first day...

Where do I even begin...

It has been so long since I posted a real update that I have no idea where to begin!

We went to the ocean in August, and it was a ton of fun! The girls had a blast playing in the sand and flying kites. I managed to convince Rich that we should stay the night, so we stayed at The Quinalt Beach Resort and Casino. We have stayed there before and it's really nice. I figured Rich would go for it since he could go down and play in the casino :-). We had a great experience staying in a hotel with the girls at The Great Wolf Lodge so I thought this time would be good too. Wrong! Madison fell asleep as we were waiting in line to eat dinner, and that little 10 minute nap resulted in her being awake until 11pm. Oh well! Here are some pics of our fun!

A few pics...

It's been forever since I've updated. I will try to write something later, but I've been really busy lately so for now it's just a few pics...

Summer fun...

Whoever said summer was a time for relaxing was very wrong...we have been very busy! We visited my parents earlier this month, and that was a lot of fun. My mom retired so not having kids in the house all day was strange, but nicer than I thought it would be. This past Monday my Aunt Sharon and Uncle David met us at Woodland Park Zoo, and we had a great time. I hadn't been there since I was little so it was all new. The girls loved it!

Rich just returned from fishing trip #1 of 2, and they caught 11 salmon, yay!

As for me, despite the # of deliveries being down at my hospital, I have been working pretty steadily. I've done quite a few great deliveries, and really been able to test my skills. Tuesday night I started my first ever IV on a baby, and got it on the first try, yay me!

I have a couple weeks off at the beginning of August, and we will be using that time to go to Point Defiance Zoo, and Ocean Shores, and oh yeah, probably looking at some houses. We'll see what happens on the house front, I'm not expecting much because our price range is so low, but you never know.

Here are a few pics from our recent fun!

4th of July fun!

We had a great 4th of July. The weather was great! As usual we went to Rich's grandparents house because they live on the water. Rich drove his parents boat down in the morning, and I brought the girls down around 12pm. We hung out, the girls took a nap, and when they woke up the tide was just about in far enough for swimming so in they went. They both like the water pretty well. Madison did get pounded by a big wave, but after a little crying she went back in the water. Later on we went for a boat ride, with grandpa driving and daddy water skiing. Madison thought it was the best thing ever, she couldnt stop giggling. It was Juliana's 1st boat ride (it was such a lousy summer last year, we never did put the boat in), and I don't think she was as impressed. Later on we were joined by more family and friends, and we had a big potluck with lots of yummy food. I made dirt cake and it was a big hit. I had to leave about 6:30 to go to work, which was too bad, but I had a fun day so it was okay. I didn't have any pts. until 5:30 in the morning so I was actually able to watch some fireworks from the unit. Here are a few pics...

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Vegas baby!

Rich and I were lucky enough to be able to take a trip to Las Vegas recently, kid free and all! Although I missed my girls, we had a great time. We got a really great deal and we were able to stay at a really nice hotel on the strip, The Venetian. Last time we went our hotel wasn't that great so this was a big improvement. We got to the hotel around 12 and there was a big check in line, so we went to eat instead. When we were done we went back to check in and the line was just as long, so we figured oh well, we'll just wait in line. Well right when we got in line, an employee came over and let us and a few people in front of us go to another part of the hotel, where there was no line, to check in. We had a really nice desk clerk, and I was feeling brave so I slipped him $20 and asked for an upgrade. And an upgrade we got LOL. He put us in a 1500 sq ft suite, on the 30th floor, with a view of the pools and mountains. Best $20 we spent there I'd say. Some other things we did on our trip included going downtown to Fremont St. to see the light show, riding the Gondolas at our hotel, going to Madame Tussauds wax museum, went on the Nascar ride (not my thing lol), Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay, saw Sirens of TI at Treasure Island hotel, saw a comedy-magic show, lounged at the pool, and of course ate a lot! We had a couple meals in some nicer restaurants, and it really reminded us that we are just not fancy people LOL. Next time we will remember that! Here are some pics from our trip...

Our Gondola ride

The view from our room

The King and I

Some of the pools at our hotel (there were 5)

A shark at the Shark Reef

Rich and I were lucky enough to be able to take a trip to Las Vegas recently, kid free and all! Although I missed my girls, we had a great time. We got a really great deal and we were able to stay at a really nice hotel on the strip, The Venetian. Last time we went our hotel wasn't that great so this was a big improvement. We got to the hotel around 12 and there was a big check in line, so we went to eat instead. When we were done we went back to check in and the line was just as long, so we figured oh well, we'll just wait in line. Well right when we got in line, an employee came over and let us and a few people in front of us go to another part of the hotel, where there was no line, to check in. We had a really nice desk clerk, and I was feeling brave so I slipped him $20 and asked for an upgrade. And an upgrade we got LOL. He put us in a 1500 sq ft suite, on the 30th floor, with a view of the pools and mountains. Best $20 we spent there I'd say. Some other things we did on our trip included going downtown to Fremont St. to see the light show, riding the Gondolas at our hotel, going to Madame Tussauds wax museum, went on the Nascar ride (not my thing lol), Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay, saw Sirens of TI at Treasure Island hotel, saw a comedy-magic show, lounged at the pool, and of course ate a lot! We had a couple meals in some nicer restaurants, and it really reminded us that we are just not fancy people LOL. Next time we will remember that! Here are some pics from our trip...

On to the big girl bed!

This story starts out random but it all links together I promise! Earlier this evening I went into Madison's room and my sense of smell was immediately assaulted by the smell of sunscreen, which she had decided to spray all over her little table. I opened the windows, and turned the fan on but I knew there was no way she'd sleep in there tonight. So we figured okay, she'll sleep in Juliana's room, we'll just put her to bed after J is asleep. So we put Juliana to bed and then the 3 of us went outside to do some watering. The windows and doors were all open so I could hear Juliana if she cried. We were out there awhile, and soon I heard Juliana saying "Hi mommy" over and over, and she sounded a little closer than she should have. But I thought I was just going crazy so I ignored it. Pretty soon she sounded even closer, so I got up to investigate. Then I saw her cute little face peering out the kitchen window. I thought Rich was inside playing a joke on me until at that moment he came around the side of the house. Turns out she had climbed out of her crib and was looking for us! I took her to her room and made her show me how she did it, and she climbed right out again. I'm so glad she didn't hurt herself. We never ran into this issue with Madison so it's all new to me. I was really hoping to hold off on the big girl bed until after we move, but I guess I don't get my way this time. Oh well!

My big girl....

Madison has finished her first year of preschool! I'm so proud of her, she really came a long way this year. While we have a lot of work to do academically (her preschool was not good for that) she is a different girl socially. That was my main reason for putting her in preschool, so I'm happy. Not too sure what we'll be doing with her next year but we'll figure that out later.
I took a picture of her on the first day of school and another on her last day so here they are! She's grown so much!

A few Pics...