Beautiful Babies...

If there were ever any questions about who Kyla looks like...I hope these pictures help clear that up! (Kyla Joelle - 7 weeks, Landen Douglas - 8 months)

Happy Monday everyone!

Trick-or-Treat

Landen and Kyla were the cutest trick-or-treaters we saw tonight! Landen decided to be "Bruce the Shark" for the second year in a row...given this was his plan B when his mommy couldn't find an apple costume...what four year old wants to be an apple?

There's no candy for these cuties...it's a book every year! Kyla LOVED her book and was grabbing at the pictures like crazy!

This sweet baby cow is growing up WAY too fast!

Happy Halloween!

Fall is here!

We are welcoming the autumn season at our house, this is my FAVORITE time of year! I have all my fall decor out and there is a constant fall scent in the air (thank you Scentsy). Life is continuing to be busy around here, which we seem to be surviving so far. Ben has been keeping busy with subbing and coaching since September, and the Nooksack boys managed to take first in league, which means onto district! (and the football season continues!) I am about half way through my quarter of classes at WWU, and I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, it's still a REALLY small light, but none the less, it is there! Next quarter I'm not taking any classes at night...we are both excited for that. By not having to be gone one or two nights a week I can focus my time and energy on my National Board portfolio, which I have scheduled to be done with by the end of February! People keep asking me what I'll do with all my time when I am finished...and the truth is, I haven't had time to think about that...so when the time comes, I'll start brainstorming.

Today was Landen's birthday party! The good auntie would have had her camera in hand, but guess what? I forgot it, along with his birthday card! He didn't seem to mind however, because I did remember the present! (Hot Wheels track that sticks to the wall, he saw it on TV apparently, sorry Kate!) We had a nice relaxing time with friends and family and of course ate way too much food, and put together toys!

Kyla is growing like a little weed (do I say that every time I post?) she is already inching up on 7 months! She has two teeth on the bottom...I promise to get a picture of those little chompers soon. And believe it or not she is starting to get some hair! She is getting better at sitting up, and rolls over in a snap! She continues to be a mommy's girl, but is a little more generous with the smiles these days. She is such a precious baby...and is loved loved loved by our family!

My grandma is starting to make some serious progress! Before it felt like "really is this progress?" but now, she is walking (sometimes without a walker), talking much more (most of it makes sense), and is able to eat food! She is able to go on more outings now, but is ready for a nap when she gets back to the center...it is looking like she will be able to come home before the holidays!

Holidays!!!!??? Can you believe we are talking about them already? Tis the Season...hope you are enjoying the festive time of year!

Summer 2011

It has been a crazy summer I tell ya! I haven't done a lot of blogging these days because honestly it didn't seem like there was much to blog about in our life! Some of you have known what our summer has entailed...incase you haven't, here is a brief recap! -Abbie went to WWU for classes Mon.-Thurs.-Ben painted (with Ken AND on his own) off and on -Grandma (mom's mom) had a brain aneurysm burst...-Dad and Mom spent EVERY weekend of July and part of August in Seattle-Mom got a mini kitchen make over! (whoo-hoo) Due to the business, we have spent a lot of time down in Seattle with grandma and my family...it hasn't been a fun summer really, but a summer that has drawn us closer as a family and closer to our Lord. When I got home from our much needed Costco Run today, I noticed my hubby had uploaded the pictures off our camera... the last pictures taken was July 4...the day before grandma's aneurysm! These were awesome pictures are worth sharing...these events are the highlight of our summer and definately deserve to be blogged about! Kyla got dedicated on July 3, 2011 at Christ Fellowship!!! This was an exciting day for our family!We had a 4th of July BBQ with friends and family...Landen got a few fireworks and we watched the fireworks everyone who lives around us lit off.
I don't know why but I just love this picture of Landen...he seems like such a big boy now that he is a BIG brother...!

Sumas Days!

Today mom and I got to have the kids while Katie did hair for a wedding! Even though the sun wasn't shinning, the wind was blowing, we decided to brave the parade for Sumas Days. We sat right by the bus stop just in case the clouds decided to open up we could take shelter under the covered area! The parade was good, and even though it was chilly we had a good time. Landen wasn't too sure about going into the street to get candy, he would only go if an adult held his hand and took him out to get it! As nontraditional as this seems, it was actually a great thing, it shows he listens carefully when his daddy tells him over and over "stay away from the road buddy!" He still managed to make a haul with his candy. He put his stash in the stroller pocket and we headed to the park for the carnival!

Waving at "Grandpa Grandpa" in the big fire truck...next year he might need to ride in the truck he had quite the parade wave goin'...

And then....off the the BOUNCY HOUSE!!!...we were down the street from the park and Landen says "oh I LOVE bouncy houses!" He did awesome, and had a lot of energy to burn after eating that parade candy!

Spending tickets on a new water gun and a orange squishy spider...

Bean bag toss....

Dunk tank...Landen had no trouble dunking the cheerleaders...they thought he was "SOOO cute..." until they saw his arm...he throws pretty hard for a 3-year-old!

Kyla slept the entire morning!!! She is SUCH a good baby!

And it wouldn't be a carnival if we didn't eat corn dogs! YUM!! It was a great day and we had a lot of fun!

Diamonds are a girls best friend...

The boys were all working and so the girls went shopping...there had been plenty of talk about getting Kyla's ear's pierced, so we decided today was the day! So off we went to the mall and we headed straight to Claire's! When we got there, there was an 8 year old getting her ears pierced for her birthday and guess what her name was??? Kyla! Weird huh? So we waited our turn and took a couple "before pictures."

Don't you think this bald little head is just begging to have something girly? We thought so too! Kyla truly did amazing! Don't get me wrong there was some tears, but no more than when she gets her shots, and her mommy said "Shots are worse!" After she got both ears done, she settled down with a bottle and little Tylenol and slept the entire shopping trip! She looks just as girly as can be with her new sparklies!

At Claire's after your ears are done, you get to pick a sucker for being so good, since Kyla is too little for her sucker, Landen scored and got to pick one.

Right after she got her ears pierced Landen said "Awww look at her sweet lil ear rings!" He is such a great big brother, he watched the entire time to make sure nobody hurt his baby! We had a great shopping trip and the kids did awesome. Looking forward to our next shopping day!

Summer Tans...

Uncle Ben is always tanner than the rest of us but he gets especially tan compaired to the littles in our family. Landen and Kyla are very fair skinned, but Kyla looks especially light when she is getting cuddles from Uncle Ben.

Smiles...

...from Kyla...she is growing like a weed! Katie is so good about sending pictures to this auntie who has withdrawals regularly...life needs to slow down! Look at this sweet smile...

Where did April go...?

I can't believe the month of April went flying by and I didn't blog once...! Now don't think I didn't think about blogging, I did...there just wasn't time! And to be honest, there still isn't! Just to update our friends and family who might be feeling outta the loop here is our life in a nut shell:
-I am working full time...which we are extremely grateful for!
-Ben is coaching middle school track...also grateful for the opportunity to work with our community's youth!
-I am going to school full time (times two) for my masters...this quarter is extremely busy with class Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday with an occasional Saturday class and Thursday class.
-SCENTSY...keeps us both busy...Ben is left doing the running around for deliveries and anything else I run out of time for!
We are truly enjoying any free time with each other and are now considering a trip to Costco a date night! (or at least quality time together) We are trying to get in as much auntie and uncle time as we can with Landen and Kyla...such sweeties! Landen is an awesome big brother, if you ask him about his baby he will tell you "Our baby is a pooping machine!" (and he's not lyin') Kyla is growing like crazy and is already over a month old...to say she is a mommy's girl is an understatement...but that just means she has one heck of a mommy! We are looking forward to the summer and I am looking forward to only taking two classes (rather than the four I am taking now). God has answered huge prayers, and I am going to be working full time again next year despite the major cuts the school districts are facing, He has truly been faithful. Those are pretty much the goins on around here...we hope the Lord is blessing you and your families this rainy Spring season!

Welcome...

Baby GIRL! Kyla Joelle was born March 29, 2011 at 2:25 pm. She weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. She is such a gift! This beautiful picture was taken by Beth Strotz Photography.

Lexy Marie!

Ben and I spent a day of our mid-winter break visiting our family in Marysville. They just had a new baby girl and she is DARLING! I could hold her for hours...and I did! This baby is SO loved and we are thrilled that we get to watch her grow! Thanks for sharing your beautiful baby girl with us Lindsey and Levi, she is truly a blessing to our family!

SNOW!!!

It was a family afair at our house...it's amazing how one little 3-year-old can get six adults outside playing in the snow!Landen wishes the snow could be warm! How about that snowman? pretty good right? Landen loved it, until he saw his daddy making the body and as he rolled, the snow on the ground "disappeared." The grown ups had to take turns pulling Landen on his sled...I didn't get pictures of that, but trust me it was hilarious! They all came to the consensus that it's harder than it looks to pull a sled! When we ran out of snow in our backyard, we moved to mom and dad's backyard...Ace LOVED having snowballs thrown at him. He would chase them and dig at them until they broke apart! The snow is fun, but this family is ready for SPRING!

Ruby's Bed-Head

Ruby has a special blaket that she sleeps on next to the bed...we call it her "Princess Bed"...well the other night she kept whining by our bed and it turns out someone put her blanket on our bed...and she wanted it down! The second I tossed it on the floor she was out like a light! You can see she isn't super impressed with my desire to take a picture of her while she was sleeping!

Study Study Study...

...that's all I ever do! On a regular basis, this is our breakfast bar.
I have started studying with food...probably not the best idea...but ya gotta do what ya gotta do! I remember having a very close relationship with Crispy M&M's when completing my undergrad and for my masters it has turned into Pretzel M&M's! But for this session I had some Valentine chocolate on hand so that did the job! The end of the quarter is within reach!

Happy Valentine's Day!

When I got home from work my sweet hubby had roses, a box of chocolates and this "I LOVE YOU" balloon. I shared my chocolate and enjoyed my flowers...and Ace really enjoyed the balloon! He literally stood my the counter and whined until we figured out what he wanted was the balloon. When we finally put it down lower on the ground he just stood there looking at it. Eventually he started jumping up and really playing with it. I got a great video of it so I'll try to post that later too! He is seriously, the cutest, funniest, most lovable puppy ever!
Happy Valentine's Day everyone, hope it was a good one!

Cutie-Pie-Cupcake

Mom and I picked up a cupcake magazie/book on one of our many trips to JoAnn's. It has inspired us (along with many cupcake shows on TLC) to make cute cupcakes! These ones were my favorites so far...simple but cute!
I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but it's a chocolate cupcake, with light pink frosting, with white pearl sprinkles on top!

Super Bowl Sunday...

Without question our household was pullin' for the Greenbay Packers! Ben was ready for the game before church, and made sure his nephew was ready too. He made sure Landen was going to wear his Packers shirt from Uncle Ben. And boy was he pround to be wearin' it! He made it very clear that the "Packers are going to win because I'm wearing my shirt!" Before the game Ben taught him the whole "GO PACK GO..." bit. Unfortunately...like every weekend, I had homework to do, so while Ben watched the game I studied. After the first touchdown of the game (made by the Packers) our phone rang...it was Ben's lil Packer fan calling for Uncle Ben with the following message "Woohoo...GO PACK GO PACK GO PACK!" We also go a follow up phone call after the BIG WIN "They won Ben, Packers won...they didn't give up! Woohoo!" It's good Ben has recruited someone to pull for the Packers with him...even if he is only 3!

Beautiful sunrise

Ben having the artistic eye that he does...informed me the other day how beautiful the sunrise was...I was getting ready for work and couldn't be bothered (or knowing me, didn't have time) to stop...so he captured it for me! How great is our God?

Out with the old...and in with the new!

After trying to grow my hair out for nearly 6 months...I decided it was time to stop fighting with it every morning and chop it off! I went from spending 20 minutes on okay hair to 10 minutes on cute hair! Believe it or not...this makes EVERYONE in the house happier! Thanks Heidy for always givin' me great hair!

Night Class...really?

I am officially back at school two nights a week. To say it keeps me busy is an understatement, but I keep reminding myself that it is only for a short time! By Spring of 2012 I will have earned: National Boards Certification, Masters in Literacy, Reading Endorsement, and my ELL Endorsement. There will be nothing more to go to school for...except maybe my PhD...and I'm not thinking about that for now! Our weekends are pretty much filled with Ben watching football while I read at the kitchen counter! I have learned the hard way to limit my reading to 2-3 hour spurts...I tried 6 hours and woke up with a very sore neck that is still not any better!
Needless to say, unless Ben takes up blogging (which is not likely) the blog may suffer a teeny tiny bit. I am going to try to keep up with at least one blog a month to keep everyone up to date, but I make no promises. I hope that everyone is enjoying the beginnings of 2011!

Happy New Year!

Can you believe it's 2011 already? Where did the year go? Ben and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on the 20th, it seems like time is just flying by! We are looking forward to a great 2011, and can't wait to see what God has in store for us!