She's Walking!!!

Last Sunday the 22nd, on Maya's birthday, Addison took her first steps. It was absolutly amazing. We were all just sitting around talking after having dinner and she just decided to walk.
I, of course, was no where near my camera. Thank goodness for my brother, Spence. He happen to be sitting right next to his camera bag and took this video.
Thank you Spence.

She is growing up way too fast!

PAY IT FOWARD!

I have seen these "Pay it Forward" posts popping up all over the place lately, but I have always been too late. That is until I was the 3rd and final lucky winner on my good friend, Britney's blog.

Here's the idea. Be one of the first 3 people to leave a comment on my blog and you will be the lucky recipient of a "mystery" handmade gift or goodie from me some time this year.

There is a catch. You have to post the same thing on your blog and do the same for 3 lucky people. GOOD LUCK! This is going to be fun!

Making Memories

We do the "marble jar reward system" in our home and it works wonders. Each kid has a jar and for the "good" things they do...they get a marble. "Bad" and they get one taken away. When their jar is finally full, we make a HUGE deal out of it and that child then gets to buy a toy, treat, or go on a special date with mom or dad to a place of their choosing.

Well, yesterday Maya put the last marble in her jar.
We cheered.
We sang.
We danced.
And then she decided that she wanted to go see the Tualatin High School's production of Beauty and the Beast.

It was Anthony's turn to take her.
Since I am obviously a blogger addict, I asked him to please take the camera and take lots of pictures for me.


THIS IS WHAT HE CAME HOME WITH....
*believe it or not...This is just a fraction of what was actually on the camera. (Sorry to make you all miss out but I had to draw the line somewhere)

Although I was a little bugged that I didn't get to see any pictures of Maya enjoying the ACTUAL PLAY...The one thought that was going through my mind as I was viewing the 20+ photos of my husband and daughter being total goof balls in front of who knows how many people, was how grateful I am that I have a husband who knows how to have a blast with his children REGARDLESS of how many people are looking. The only thoughts going through his mind were of his incredibly funny and bright 6 year old daughter SO full of personality and the great time they were having at the Beauty and the Beast play.

And it is for things like this that I don't give him enough praise and thanks.
Thank you, honey, for being the greatest dadda in the whole wide world, our children are SO LUCKY to have you!


just as a side note: I had three different people come up to me at church today saying how cute it was to see Anthony and Maya having so much fun together during intermission.

Alphabet Hunt

I just made a really cool activity that Kai is madly in love with. We call it "Alphabet Hunt" (HERE).

Kai gets bored pretty easily with most craft projects and such. His mind just needs to be stimulated a LOT. He loves the educational games on the computer BUT I don't like him sitting in front of the computer all day. So I came up with this idea to create a Alphabet hunt for him in a box of rice and he absolutely LOVES it.

I am sure in a day or two it will be forgotten and I will have to come up with some other idea to captivate this growing mind. But for know...this is IT!

Tagged By Britney

My good friend, Britney tagged me. This was a scary tag but I lucked out. The sixth picture in my sixth picture folder was the following:
This was Maya's day of kindergarten orientation. She is bringing her contribution to the class stock pile. WHAT A CUTIE!!!!

Thanks for the tag, Britney. That was fun.

So, now I am tagging...Jen C, Jen S., Jodi, Deisha, Amber Jenkins, and Lori Oheler

Just cross your fingers, open up the 6th folder in you picture file and post the 6th picture in that folder and then tag 6 more people.

Good Luck Ladies!

Maya's 6th Birthday Princess Party!

We started the day off with our special birthday tradition birthday breakfast. Maya chose Sherry's for their hot cocoa and pancakes.

Maya's 6th birthday party was this last Saturday and while I probably went a bit too far and did a bit too much....it was a BLAST! All the little princesses that came seemed to be having so much fun the entire time. At the end of the day while I was tucking Maya in and giving her a big kiss, she whispered to me "This was the best day ever, Mom. Thanks for making it for me." Need I say, IT WAS ALL WORTH IT!

I started off the party by sending all the girls into hair and make-up with Auntie Cheryl and my mom. When they were done with that they were able to dance around to a wonderful cd I had made of some of Mayas favorite songs. Or they could go and decorate a goodie bag that would be used later on to take home some pinata candy and a couple other prizes and treats.
I tried to catch them while they were running around and dancing to get their picture taken with the Princess of Honor...

Here is a special SHOUT OUT to my mom and Cheryl. Thank you so much for all your help. I could not have done it without you....literally. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!...


(sorry Rachel, I am not sure how we missed you. You will have to come over later and we will take one then!)

When the girls were done with their bags and make-up, we went back into the "Grand Ballroom" and played pass the frog. (just like hot potato) Whenever the music stopped, whoever had the frog got to pick a prize. We did this until everyone got a prize...

We then played kiss the frog (just like pin the tail on the donkey). I drew and cut out a big frog and used some lips with each girls name on it.

We then went in to hit the tiara pinata.

After that, the girls sat down at the table and decorated their rice crispy wands (HERE)

Prince Kai even got in on some of the action!
Since the girls were already at the table, we had cake and ice cream next. I made Maya a princess cake this year that was so cute but probably took way to long (HERE)They had strawberry ice cream served up in goblets and pink lemonade ...

This girl got SPOILED. She has such great friends who care so much about her and were so happy to see her happy. I loved how excited they were for Maya to get to their present...

Each girl went home with a fun goody bag (HERE).

The party was so much fun and I know that Maya and hopefully all here friends will remember it forever. I had a very happy girl that felt very special and that made it a HUGE success and was all worth it!

My ABBA DABBA ROCKS!!!!!

I just got a phone call from my sister saying that her daughter won a recipe challenge that they do in her school district. I don't know all of the details...all I know is that I am SO PROUD of my niece, Abbie! However, I do know that any student who wanted to try and have his/her original recipe picked (so they had to come up with their own recipe, too) enters it in and then only one student from each school gets picked to go to the finals. Abbie was that one person from her school. Well, Today was the big challenge. Kind of like my favorite show, Food Network Challenge (which Abbie introduced me to BTW). There were over 100 kids and their recipes but just one winner

....and YES, the winner is......(drumroll) ABBIE CARLSON!!! YIPPEE! I am just so proud of her right now.

You will have to go to my sister, Jen's blog to get all the details. She promised to blog about it tonight!

I want to know how we can get our school district to do something like this. I think it is INGENIOUS!!!

Oh yeah, and guess what, my husband is on the way to the store right now to pick up all the ingredients for ABBIE'S HEALTHY CHICKEN BITS. We are having them for dinner tonight in her honor. YUMMY! WAY TO GO ABBIE!!!!