9 years ago today....

So...Nine years ago today...I became a wife.

Since then, my life has changed so much.

I met Kevin in 1994, when we started dating. Way back then, 15 years ago, I knew that I would marry him. I remember after Prom, I came home and told my mom that he was the one I was going to marry....and sure enough...5 years later...that we did.

When we started out we didn't have much. We lived in a low-income apartment, both worked and went to school full-time...all the while being instant parents to a 4 year old little girl who needed so much! We stretched every single dime we had and believe me, there weren't many of them. We shopped for clothes exclusively at Value Village, and scheduled our grocery shopping every week. There was rarely anything extra. However, we graduated, we maintained our love, and our family got closer. We faced struggles most will never know, and yet, remained intact, and got stronger around every turn.

Life has changed so much!

We had our kids at a point, when things were much more settled in our lives. We own a home, Kevin has an amazing job which allows me the privlege of staying home with the kids, We don't worry so much about money...

Through a lot of good times, and yes, a lot of bad times; but always together; we have grown into a very loving, comfortable, content, happy, secure family.

I could NOT imagine my life without Kevin in it. He makes me feel secure, he gives me peace of mind, he is my best friend, my second hand...my everything. I am so proud of the man that he has become and so glad that I was there through it all.

Of course he does his fair share of making me crazy as well, sometimes making me feel like I have 4 kids, inconsistency, pety arguments, workaholic...but I am not sure I would have it any other way.

I so love him!

Kevin, Thank you for our journey, so far! I love you!

Of all the little boys....

Our amazing Tyler...

The fact that you are now SIX years old is both so wonderful and so unbelievable that I just can't explain it. You are such a bright spot in our EVERY DAY!!! We are often in awe over the things you have been able to accomplish in this one year. How much you have grown.

You finished and excelled in Kindergarten! You can talk better, count higher, run faster, and are working so hard to read more and more everyday!! You have become an amazing big brother, and you have many friends...

I love that when I am watching, and you don't know I am watching, I see you becoming an independant person...with indiviual thoughts, ideas and emotions.

As parents; though we are thrilled that you are becoming all of these things, we are sad too. Sad because you are, in little ways, starting to pull away from us already. As parents, we have nurtured, guided and helped you since before day one. Your best interests have been our ONLY concern...as time rolls on...we still hang on to the fact that we just need you to need us. Your independence is making that less of a factor, and even though that is the ultimate goal for all parents, it is sometimes hard.

It is something you won't understand until you have children of your own; that I know...but when that day comes...I promise you will see it so clearly. As a parent, you start doing the absolute best for your kids that you can humanly do...and then, you don't ever want to stop.

So......AT SIX YOU:

~LOVE your daddy...you want to do everything with and like him.

~Love baseball

~Want to be "everything" when you grow up...a fireman, a baseball player, an atronaut...etc

~Say things like..."I would be so happy if I could stay in Kindergarten forever"...and "I will never know a better life than this"...and "when I grow up I am going to marry mommy" (my favorite!)

~Peanut butter and Marionberry jam sandwich is LITERALLY your favorite lunch, EVERDAY!

*LOVE school

~Would do anything for your baby sister, even though you sometimes get irritated with her.

*Have lost no teeth, but really want to

~Have two favorite pairs of shoes, because "they make you run faster"

*Have never been on an airplane

~Are afraid of spiders and bees

*Don't like most chocolate...will eat it with no other options...but won't choose it.

~LOVE to draw and you are very good at it.

*Fight brushing your teeth twice everday...on que...without fail! :) a fight you lose!

~Love salad

*Don't like pineapple or green beans

~DO NOT like being on the spot...and we can already tell you are going to get your feelings hurt easily as you are extremely sensitive.

You have the best smile and belly laugh. You make everyone around you smile as well! You light up rooms and lives instantaneously!

As much as I want to be OK with the progression that is life; I don't think I am. I think it is something that will have to be practiced by me, and not come naturally. I really love where I am right now. Daily life has its challenges but overall, I wake up happy and go to bed with anticipation. Everyday, I look forward to another new moment. I love it all...the messes, the new found 5/6 year old throw-yourself-on-the-ground-fits...the fighting, the love! It is the one place I feel TRULY, unconditionally, cherished. To my kids, NO ONE could do my job better.

Tyler, you are such a wonderful little boy, and it is my honor; my privlege to watch you grow. Everyday I learn more about who you are becoming and more about what I can do to help you get there.

I COULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN A BETTER GIFT THEN WHAT I WAS GIVEN THE DAY YOU WERE BORN; just six years ago.

Of all the little boys in all of the world, how did I get so lucky to get the best one?

We love you best boy!

Happy Happy Birthday....

Today is Tyler's 6th birthday!!! I sit in shock and awe today! SIX years ago...SERIOUSLY!!!
We are celebrating on Saturday, and quite fankly...I don't have time to post right now...so I will for his (1st) party on Saturday....

(he is also having a friend birthday party...but not until Kevin gets home from his business trip....)

I just wanted to acknowledge my little man today!!!!

We love you Tyler!

Just thoughts...

So, school has come to a close.

I am so happy to see how far Tyler has come this year!

I mean...he can do simple math, he can count to well over 100 (before school started, he could count to around 35), he learned all of his "sight-words" and has such an interest in reading. His knowledge and skills have evolved and he is now reading his early level books to us at night, and doing VERY well at it! He draws detailed, and elaborate pictures now and can write sentences by phonetic sound. He works and plays well with his peers and socially couldn't be happier! He loves his school, his class, his friends and his teacher!

I am SO happy that he developed a love of learning...that he had a good experience in Kindergarten so as to be excited and love the idea of coming back in the fall! It was such a wonderful year, and we had a great teacher and a great group of kids! I couldn't have asked for better!

Funny, it all comes full circle....if I think back...I was so afraid of him going to the big world of school...the world where I can't fully protect him from the people, the experiences, the change, the bullies and the germs. Where he will grow, far more then 10 months worth, in just 10 months.
The world where I, for the first time, had to let go.

What I learned is, in order for our kids to grow, and become who they are destined to become, we have to let them live...to grow, outside of our ever existent shadow. We can still guide and watch them with the goal of protection...but in the end, how they cope has to be up to them, or we are setting them up for failure.

They are all growing so fast, and I wish I could just freeze now, for a tiny while...just to enjoy all it has to offer. To breathe in the innocence, the unconditional love for life and everyone in it, the smiles and the multitude of belly laughs.
That is my reward today and everyday, and the only one I need.

I have happiness for how time turns us into ever-growing, ever-changing, pliable, moldable adaptive people...and also have sadness for how the world requires us to grow and change and adapt...
because sometimes....
I wish it would always be, just like it is today...

Summer birthdays...

So, often, having a summer birthday means that you are forgotten at school...

However, in Tyler's class, they took all of the summer birthdays and celebrated them all these last two weeks of school.

So today was Ty's day....

I tried to get him to choose ice cream bars or sandwiches...but he is not a fan of chocolate, so it limits the options a little......

but he went with doughnuts!

Being that you can't make things at home anymore, due to allergies etc...he got to pick anything other than that.

A Day in Kindergarten

If you are 5 years old (or 6), and about to finish Kindergarten....you need to do it RIGHT!

Today was PARTY DAY!!!!!! The end of the year party!

The kids had SO much fun.

We wanted to make this party fun and memorable for the kids, and that it was.

They made very cute frames, decorated in a beach theme...in which I would later put pictures that I took of each child...

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Here they are all finished! SO cute! I always love the way they come out!

They planted sunflower seeds, and decorated a planter stake for them...

They made "fish bowls" with paper plates, foam fish (which my friend lovingly cut out, individually, for me) and sand and fish bowl rocks.

Finally....the cherry, as it were....we made ice cream sundaes! That was a hit! Chaotic...but a hit!

(look at Makylie....isn't she hillarious! She was just staring longingly...and I think she stole some whipped cream a couple of times.....)

What a great day....Filled with laughter, and smiles. Memories to carry....

We have such a great school. It is simple and wonderful! For me, it has such a home-town feel! We are in this trifecta...sitting right on the corner or Snohomish, Mill Creek, and Everett...and our area is growing by the day...literally! Our school is one of the oldest, and has such a modesty about it...but what a loving happy place to be!

I have surprised myself with how sad I am for this chapter of our lives to be closing. I mean I get emotional often enough...but seriously I get choked up just thinking about this......but at the same time very excited for the first grade. Ty is SO ready!

I just can't believe he is about to turn 6.

Who knew...

So, as most everyone knows...Our beautiful, little Makylie has some speech issues.

She hardly talks, and a lot of the time, when she does...you need myself, or Tyler around to translate what she says. Don't get me wrong...she talks all of the time...it is just in her own language.

We just kept waiting and figured that a magic light bulb would go on, and she would suddenly be able to talk like everyone else. We work with her a lot trying to teach her to enunciate and blend letters...and she has come a LONG way in the last 3 months or so...and is getting better about copying...but there is still a long way to go.

So, at her last Dr appointment, she said we should start looking into some options. So, since then, she has had her hearing tested, her motor skills tested, her dexterity tested and of course THREE sessions of speech testing.

As it stands now....her hearing is NORMAL, her motor skills are NORMAL, her dexterity is ADVANCED.
For speech, there are 5 tests that are given.

This little bitty girl, who hardly talks, scored in the 6 YEAR OLD level on TWO of them. It is clear, my little 3 year old, non-speaker has obviously been soaking it ALL in! :)

She was literally answering questions that I, (in my head of course), was laughing at, thinking she would never know the answer to, because they were so complex. They would show her a picture of some animals on a playground, and say..."can you show me which dog, that has a collar, is at the front of the line." If you think about that sentence, there are A LOT of aspects for a little 3 year old. She had to remember dog, collar and know what front was in comparison to back, or middle. She did though...time and time again, and really, she surprised me. The other test that she flew through was the understanding test....they would ask her to find the teeth...the grandpa...the elephant...the fan...etc etc....

One test she scored average on, and I can't really remember it. I think it was asking her secondary words...like, this is a light...it is also a ------ and she was to attempt to say "lamp"...but it wasn't about how she said lamp, it was about her being able to come up with the word.

Finally, the two that she had huge problems with were Articulation and sentence forming tests. The first, DID matter how she said the words...which we already knew was a problem...the second was a test where they would ask her..."right now the girl is drinking juice", then the picture is turned to the girl with the glass being empty... "now................." The expectation was that she would say...the glass is empty. Yeah, not so much.

It isn't that she doesn't know...it is just that she can't figure out how to say it.

One test that I thought was THE most telling of her problem was connected to the Articulation test. They would show her a picture and say, "find the elephant"...she would then point to it. (she got this part right on EVERY picture) Then they would turn the page and say, "what is THIS"...it was THE SAME THING that she had JUST picked out correctly on the previous page, and more times then not, she just couldn't find the word.
What it showed, was that she knows the information, she just can't make it connect to her tongue for whatever reason.

Needless to say, she qualified for speech therapy and will begin in September at the school district preschool. She is really excited, though I really don't think she understands fully that it means mommy will be leaving her there...it will be good for her! I want her to get help with this before she gets to Kindergarten when kids really start to notice...

For me,

All kids in, at least a little bit, of school...
Seriously....
That, I don't know about....
That, I am still trying to soak in

I am not sure if mommy is ready.

A LONG time coming!!!!!!!!

So....when we bought our house...it was two different shades of purple....

When I say purple I don't mean purple, like a man couldn't live here...but eggplant and a light, "whitish" tinted mauvey kind of a color...

It also had the swiss look, with the diagonal cross bars as "design".

We NEVER liked it...

Not just the swiss design, and the color, but the fact that the original owner just quit painting where it got hard...so we had sections of trim that were simply, NOT painted....

So here is the before....Not a great picture...but all I could find at the moment...Keep in mind, a couple of years ago, we took down the GIANT tree, on the left, that is blocking half of the house in the picture...

So we wanted to get rid of the swiss-like trim and that was step one...

So...this spring, Kevin went and removed all of those lines...THEN...

He and added some BEAUTIFUL 3 inch cedar siding to two accent points on the front of the house. The cedar came from Kevin's grandparents house, before it was demolished to make room for their new house....so it was sentimental as well...which is kind of nice to have that be a part of our house!

Then he added siding to the areas that had that LOVELY "Swiss" look, so that they would look "normal"...

Then we primed....(and our good friends, Mark and Erin came and helped...Mark painted our window...he is always super appreciated! :))

And that is how is stayed...

from late last summer, to....

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LAST WEEKEND!!!

THEN......

it was a little of this....

And a little of that....

UNTIL....

FINALLY.......

WE HAD THIS......

YEAH....it has been a long time coming, and we are so so happy! It looks amazing, and as usual, the pictures do not do it justice!

It is a nice creamy, iced latte color (the pictures make it look a little lighter then it is)...and then the accents are a milk chocolate color...then the trim is a cream. BEAUTIFUL!

Next step will be the front door...which will be a deep red, or a deep turquoise...that has yet to be decided...Then Kevin is going to put on a fancier trim around the windows above the garage, and finishing the "look", will be large clay pots that will match the door color and hold our beautiful Clematis that is in between the garage doors, and our other favorites.

We are very happy that our purple house is no longer...