weekend fun...

We have had a busy weekend full of lots of parties and a little bit of projects ( I know we just can't stop it seems). On Friday evening we had our good friend Todd's 40th birthday party.

Uh oh says Claire!! Can you believe he is 40!

(she makes this silly face a lot)

It was a fun Mexican party with a root beer guessing contest and yummy carrot cake. We had a lot of friends there so it was fun to visit and the girls had a great time playing with all the kids that were there. Here are a few pictures from the fun night.
Kelsey and Jodie she loved that root beer bottle.
Olivia and Jada best of friends

Ashia, Todd and their youngest Hudson.
He may be 40 but he is still full of fun and craziness!
Hunter ( their middle child) helping with the cake.

On Saturday we had a nice day so we headed to the local nursery to purchase a tree so we could get it planted so it will hopefully start growing while we are away in Japan (plus they had a sale which worked out to our benefit).
Here is the before picture.
And here is the after with the new tree and you can kind of see the bamboo we planted between the shrubs that will hopefully get really tall really fast to hide our unsightly neighbor's yard and give us more privacy.
Here is at the nursery I tried really hard to get a good picture of both of them, but never could.
But I did get a good one of Olivia.
And a few good ones of Claire by themselves.

As you can see Claire was just not into pictures.




They even had snow at the nursery. Fall right into winter.
That evening we headed to Port Orchard for a house warming party. It was again a fun night filled with friends and yummy food.
Little Reed is so cute.


Here are some more pictures of them working today and our new tree and bamboo.
Olivia watering.
The bamboo
Our new tree (and Olivia shoveling dirt).
A Japanese maple...pretty fitting I suppose for us. Now if it will just grow fast so we will have some more cover of our neighbor's home. More trees will be planted next spring when we get back from Japan.

Harvest Blog Party

I decided to join in the Harvest of Friends Blog Party hosted by Lynnette. I just love reading Lynnette's blog she is such an inspiration to me and she is so funny and cute. This is a great idea to get to know more about each other and meet new people. So here goes.

1. What is your favorite thing to snack on while you're blogging?

I don't usually snack on anything but if I do I usually want a little bit of chocolate and a cup of tea.

2. What is one thing you wouldn't want to live without?

hmm...just one well right now with the sickness going on probably Elderberry and Umcka for immune support.

3. Beach, Mountains or Farm? Where would you live if you had a choice?

I grew up on a farm in the mountains and I feel drawn back to that I would love to get back to Montana someday. That being said we love to go to the beach and play so we would have to plan plenty of trips to the beach for fun.

4. What's your least favorite chore/household duty?

cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms. I just procrastinate these chores for as long as possible.

5. Who do people say you remind them of?

I have heard Claire Danes a long time ago. Must be why I loved the name Claire and named my daughter that ;) Not really!

6. Prefer parties and socializing or staying at home with the fam?

I like both. Being a stay at home mom it is always nice to get out and socialize with adults, but I love to be home with my family too.

7. What's your all time favorite movie?

Probably Sound of Music

8. Do you sleep in your make up or remove it like a good girl every night?

Do I have to answer this? So embarassing that I rarely remove my makeup, but have never gotten in the good habit of washing my face before bed.

9. Do you have a hidden talent or a deep desire to learn something that you've never had a chance to learn? What is it?

I recently have a deep desire to learn more about photography and editing photos. I just love photography.

10. What's one strange thing you're really good at?

I can't think of anything.

11. What first attracted you to your spouse?

His smile and sense of humor.

12. What is something you love to smell?

The farm...it is stinky at times but I love it. It just brings me home and brings back so many good memories.

13. Tell something about you that you know irritates people.

It irritates my husband that I don't put my dishes immediately into the dishwasher and when I say hate. I don't know if something irritates other people about me.

14. When you have extra money (HA!) what's the first thing you think to do with it?

save it up for a big purchase of something we are really wanting

15. Are you a silent laugher or a loud laugher? What makes you laugh the hardest?

some of both... tickling my husband and girls their laughter makes me laugh

16. Where is your favorite place to shop?

Maurices for my clothing, Fred Meyer for a one stop shop, Target and Ikea for house products, Target for kids clothes.

17. What's one thing you'd do more often if you had more time?

Scrapbooking...I love it but have a hard time getting time to work on it. Reading would be my other. I love to read but get so absorbed in books that I get nothing else done so I have to limit my reading time.

18. Are you a big spender or frugal?

I am probably more of a big spender but am working on becoming more frugal. I am not afraid to return things though and if I second guess it when I get home then I just take it back.

19. Who is your favorite character of all time (from a movie or book)? (Can't be real)

hmmm...I guess Maria from Sound of Music since that is my favorite movie

20. Would you want to be famous?

No not really.

So there you have it. Be sure to hop on over to Lynnette's blog to meet other fun people and join in if you would like to.

Halloween Party and Pumpkins

Sunday we went to a fun Halloween party at Wes and Carlyn's house. Olivia was super excited to finally get a chance to wear her Halloween costume of Cinderella and Claire was Snow White (picked out by Olivia). Our little princess looked so cute as we were getting ready that I had to get a few pics before we took off.

Olivia in all her Cinderella clothes including shoes, earrings, rings, and Cinderella sunglasses.
Claire in her little Snow White costume, unfortunately we did have a head band or tiara for her to wear.
The girls dancing together while we waited for daddy to finish watching the game.

When we got there we had some food and then carved pumpkins. Hans and I don't usually carve pumpkins so it was fun to try our hand at it. As you will see in a little bit we need some practice and better drawing skills!
Claire is ready to go with her marker (ahhhh!!!)

Olivia had fun drawing the face this pumpkin even has ears!
Olivia's finished drawing which I then attempted to carve out.
Claire and Eaton having some fun.

They did a search for goodies in the straw and the girls had fun and found lots of fun things.
Claire liked the suckers.
All the princesses in the hay. Mia was Belle and we were so excited to get to know them as they will be headed to Japan with us. Yay for new friends.
Olivia was pretty excited about this find whatever it was :)
Here we are with our princesses. Claire was getting pretty tired as she missed her nap. She proceeded to zonk out at about 4:30 that afternoon and I had to wake her up at 6, but it was so nice to just sit and relax and hold my sleeping baby. I rarely get to do that with Claire like I did with Olivia so I just soaked it up and enjoyed watching Toy Story 2 with Olivia.
Here are some pictures by Olivia.

A self picture.Her bear pumpkin.
The dog pumpkin.
The cat pumpkin.

And finally the pig pumpkin (he is my favorite).And here are our beautiful carvings. I don't think we will go into the pumpkin carving business anytime soon.
And I just thought this picture was kind of cool that Olivia took of the pile of Halloween lights that are still sitting on the chair waiting to be hung outside. I still haven't gotten around to doing it and probably won't just need to put them away. I think it is funny the things they think of to take pictures of. An artist and photographer in the making :)

While daddy is away the girls will play...

Last week Hans went to Montana to go bird hunting with his dad for a week for a birthday present. We missed him immensely (especially me in the evenings when I was burnt out) but we did manage to have some fun while he was away. They had a great time and were very successful with their pheasant hunting. Here are a few pictures his mom took while they were hunting.

We found different things to fill our time. One evening I made tapioca pudding and the girls had fun licking the beaters from the fluff.

Claire often makes this face and it just cracks me up.
I also decided to change out the curtains in our front living room as I have been wanting to change the curtains ever since I made the first ones that just did not work to draw attention to the room. I am really happy with the red and now just need to reupholster the rocking chair again. Oh and I didn't keep the rug, although looking at the picture I really like it.
One evening Olivia wanted to go outside. It had been raining a lot the whole week so she went out on the front porch with Claire and I found her with her pumpkins all lined up and reading to them her new library books. So cute.



Then it was too cold and dark outside so we brought them in to read to them.
And Claire did some reading too.
The girls played really well this night and it was so fun to just see them playing so well together.

Here are a couple videos of the girls tap dancing and of Olivia reading to the pumpkins. Olivia loves to tap dance and now she gets shoes out for Claire to wear too. They are quite the pair.