Father's Day 2013

Our number one guy! Daddy! This year was a casual year. No big todo. We got up and had breakfast and headed out to church. I was surprised our ward didn't do anything. Hmmm....no talks or kids singing. Oh well. When we got home, Emma gave Dad a card she had made at school. It was so cute! Totally of of those you keep in a box for the next 30 years!

Inside says, "Dear Dad, I love you with all my heart. I really like to hang out with you. You are very good at making and you make a really good breakfast. You are good at brushing teeth. Thanks for being a good Dad! Love-Emma."

I love the brushing teeth part! To see her Daddy through her eyes. Oh my precious girl!

We packed a snack and drove over to the river by us and munched and relaxed by the water. Owen through in rocks and even Dad and Emma started collecting rocks for him!

We came home and mommy made one of Daddy's favorite dinners, Shephard's Pie. Was a new recipe and was really good! Its was a pretty day and we hope Daddy felt special! We love our Dad!

Last Day of School!

I cannot believe how quickly this school year went! Even faster than Kindergarten! Is that even possible? Emma just LOVED her teacher Mrs. Banks and when we turned to leave this last time, Emma cried. Next year she will not be back to this school and a sense of finality was present. My little girl has a big heart and felt the sadness of saying goodbye. I felt for her. I know the feeling at her age of change. So we hugged and tried to make the last day of school a summer kick off!

We headed to cafe Rio for a fun lunch. Emma was so excited to have a burrito! And we all know this family loves Cafe Rio.

Then, we took it up a notch and headed to the ballpark for a baseball game and fireworks! The kids had a blast! They danced to the music, ate snow cones, elephant ears, Redvines, and pop. Watched the mascots and players and enjoyed the firework show.

Emma was happy as a little lark by the time her head hit the pillow. Summer had started and she was ready to go!

Trip to the Grand Coulee Dam

We went to Grandma and Grandpa Anderson for Memorial Day and went to the Grand Coulee Dam. Its not quite as impressive as Boulder Dam in Nevada, but it was pretty big. Kids had a great time going through the museum. What Phil and I thought was amazing were the "coulees."  Huge areas of Washington carved out by water from one of the worlds largest flash floods. The water would have been a wall of 900 feet tall and the falls it created would have been 10 times the size of Niagra Falls. Crazy! Learned a little bit about our state!

Trip to Seattle!

For Christmas, I bought Phil a "Weekend in Seattle." -2days, 2 nights, a Seattle Sounders game, and a date night dinner! Phil chose a weekend in May when the weather would be better and we headed over. Grandma Anderson watched the kids so it could be an adults only weekend. Thanks Grandma! Its such a pretty drive and we got their mid afternoon. First thing on our list? A NAP! Yep, we took a nice nap with no children bothering us! hehe. For dinner, Phil wanted real seafood so we headed to a local favorite, The Crab Pot. There was a tank of live crab behind our table and they kept staring at Phil! We ate their brother, so they were probably plotting revenge. hehe. This was one of those places where you can order a dinner for 2 and its a huge bucket of shrimp, clams, mussels, crab, biscuits, sausages, and corn. So good! Then we headed out to a movie and saw Iron Man 3. Was good, especially for a #3. :) 

Saturday was Phil's game. He suited up in his Seattle sounders shirt and we battled the parking for 45 minutes! SO many people and fans. We parked several blocks away and still had to pay $15! Only downtown Seattle. We got in and found our seats. Man, it was crazy! The amount of blue and green was amazing! The Sounders have a huge fan base and they even had their own band. They also had fire that came out the goal posts when a goal was made. The stadium is actually the Seattle Seahawks football team. Was pretty cool! The game was really fun and the Sounders won! Phil enjoyed every minute and that's all that mattered. After the game we went to the Cheesecake Factory and had a delicious dinner and headed back to the hotel to watch movies and veg out with no interruptions. Was fantastic! :) We took our cheesecake back with us and ate in in bed! Thats just our style. hehe.

We had a great trip! We hope to get back in the Fall for a football game with the kids!

If you haven't heard the word!

We are happy to announce that Baby #3 is on its way! The baby's due date is Dec 13th. It will be a very Merry Christmas to us! :)

And we had our first sneak peak of our little peanut! It was moving so much she had a hard time managing a good shot! But she did manage one good one of the profile. Looks like a baby to me!

We are excited and Emma is extremely excited and hoping its a sister. :) We'll see in about 8 weeks!  Until then I am hoping for more energy and to get back to normal as I head into the 2nd trimester. Hoping to start finishing up that long list of projects before the baby arrives! Wish me luck! :)

Family Photos 2013

Everyone who knows me well, knows how much I love photography. I spent a year saving up for a decent camera and I use it often! But one of my favorite things is family photos! Usually, I prefer Fall with its golden leaves and jewel tones, but as the year changed and the cold grey of winter was set in my bones, I ached for color and spring. So, January or not, I called up my friend Holly and scheduled our session. Of course wouldn't you know it, it rained on our scheduled day. Boo! Waited three months and had wait some more! But we rescheduled and managed a PERFECT afternoon with soft light and bright colors!  Our only challenge(as always) was Owen. He HATES photos and is VERY uncooperative, but Holly was awesome and managed some great moments! With out further adu....our session!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

I am not big on big birthdays. Ok, clarification...I am not big on big birthdays for myself. I love to plan the kids birthdays, but I rarely do anything for mine. For a few years we went to Disneyland and the beach, which I loved, but living in Vegas made that much easier. The last few were very low key, dinner out and maybe a movie. This year was just as quiet. I spent a few hours out and about with my friend Brooke to Marshalls and World Market(my favorite!) and then Phil took me out to dinner at Rock City Grill which was really good. Then we picked the kids back up and had cheesecake and I opened a few gifts. Phil got me new grey converse! Love! He also got me my favorite wall scents from Bath and Body. My mom got me new jammies from Victoria's Secret and some cute hand towels for my kitchen. I had a nice birthday and figured I'd say so. I bet if I look back through the blog, you won't find any birthday posts for me. :)  Trying to be better at ALL the events in our lives. :)  Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes!

A few of my lovely gifts.

Not sure why, but Owen didn't want to cooperate for a birthday photo with Mom!

We tried, but to no avail. Ha!

The birthday girl. :)