you give love a bad name....

My friend, Amy, invited me to ladies night one weekend. Dinner at The Olive Garden and a concert to see tribute bands for Bon Jovi, Guns N' Roses, and Journey. I've only been to a handful of concerts but I do love Bon Jovi. It was a great group of ladies and I had a lot of fun!

Bon Jovi is one of my favorites ever for some reason! Oh yes, I did sing out loud to all his songs.

 

I thought it ironic that the kid who was doing the tribute to Bon Jovi was perhaps 19... how does he even know who Bon Jovi is?! He did well enough, though... wig and everything.

I didn't know many Guns N' Roses songs - a lot of "yelling" to me :)

This dude was the most surprising with his appearance but I think he had a fantastic voice.

I had to laugh at all the middle-age/old people that were rocking out as if they were in their teens/20's again. Some amusing, some pretty icky! 

Great friends, yummy food, a lot of laughter, rockin' music... all made for a great ladies night!

{October 2012}

Happy Birthday Kelley!

We are so lucky to have this handsome man in our lives! He loves us, provides for us, plays with us, holds the Priesthood in our home, motivates us, and above all... makes us laugh!

His actual birthday was pretty low-key. We took him out to lunch to celebrate. Then in the evening we had his requested dinner: chicken fettucine alfredo with broccoli and texas toast. I made a yummy carrot cake (from this recipe - SO delish http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/05/carrot-cake-supreme/).

The girls were excited to give him his gifts. This year Seoul was very specific about what she thought Kelley wanted: a yo-yo, shoot guns, a puzzle, and a tie.  I was hard-pressed to dissuade her otherwise... so I didn't. Sydney got him a ball. Pink, of course. I got a silly little helicopter he can fly with his iPhone. It was super windy that night so when he tried it out, it ended up on the rooftop of the 2nd story house across the street. (A neighbor saved the day and got it down for us.)

We love him! As the man of the house he is the best we could ever ask for!

Happy Birthday dear Kelley!

[We had a family celebration at Bullwinkle's later that month, but it will be a separate post.]

{Why yes, this is posted the same month as his birthday!}

sweet

Just some randoms:

Loving big sister versus tolerating little sister - ha!

This is Seoul's ship of treasures to show daddy when he got home from work.

Go Beavs!

Hangin' out at home with my girls! Oh wait, I do that every day :)

Silly faces!

I told Seoul to smile and this is the silly pose/facial expression she came up with.
Oh my.

Seoul has been into doing her own "pony tails" lately. Barrettes down the strand of hair by her face. Sometimes she'll get 3 or 4 barrettes on each side.

When we moved to Canby she could barely see over the top of the wall out the window. Oh, how she grows!

Happy Birthday to the Canby Library! They had Dr Seuss hats and Sydney loved hers.

Our friend loaned us this little kid tent and the girls LOVED it! Seoul slept in for naps and at night. Sydney liked the idea but then wanted into her own bed.

During the day sometimes the girls Skype with Kelley while he's at work. He jokes to his co-workers that he's baby-sitting the girls while I run errands.

Seoul insists she's not tired every day for naps. Sometimes I find her asleep in silly places... she didn't make it out of the bathroom she was so tired!

Wow Sydney is not loving Seoul's love right here...

Sydney is getting so big... feet reaching the foot rest. What's next?? Her own bike? :)

Always wants to be like daddy!

Sultry pose or cute face? Haha!

The girls came out wearing daddy's hats one morning. They thought they were so funny!

When the girls go with Kelley they find all kinds of places to hide and worry daddy.

Sydney with a hammer. What??
Kelley alternates girls now for daddy-daughter day so Sydney gets her one-on-one time with him.

Loves!

{September 2012}

Sydney's many expressions & milestone update

Our baby girl makes us laugh every day! She is very personable and captivates people everywhere we go. We love her expressive face!

I've been neglectful of updating the blog about her various milestones. Besides having all her teeth and walking (two common markers), we think she is pretty smart! She runs, throws balls (and other objects), kicks, walks up and down stairs, and is almost fully jumping. Her eating skills are progressing, although she is still so messy! She easily uses spoons and forks to eat, though. She talks constantly and picks up  new words every day. Most are easily understood from listening to others talk to her. She can name all her body parts, knows most colors, counts from 1-3, knows part of her alphabet, and knows all animals (even safari animals) and their sounds. She identifies anything you ask her in books, and then some. Her new favorite answer to things is "(be)cause" which makes me laugh. She loves to sing short songs: Twinkle, Tinkle; Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes; My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean; Happy Birthday; I Am A Child of God; and she asks for the "Jesus" song at bed time (Jesus Once Was A Little Child). I'm sure she knows others but can't think of them right now. What else? She loves playing with dolls, doing anything Seoul does, and can follow directions to do things, including cleaning up. I think she will be the one that is always in the thick of activities at schools & parties when she's older. Her temperament is pretty stable these days - she is happy but definitely lets you know when she does NOT like something. That's our girl and we love her bunches & bunches!!

The Color Run - check!

My old roommates formed a team to do The Color Run in Portland. I thought I read somewhere the Portland race had 15,000 runners. They had waves of 1,500 going every 15 minutes. Insane! I didn't get any pictures at the beginning of the race since I didn't carry my phone.

At the beginning of the summer I was gung-ho and did the couch-to-5K program again. I made it to 3.5 miles... and then stopped running. Lost motivation because I started training too early, I suppose. So every now and then I'd get gung-ho and run again but nothing real consistent. Leading up to the run I was going just once a week, maybe 1-1.5 miles at a time. My goal was still to run the entire thing without walking.

Well, I did it! Didn't walk a single step. Brittney mapped it as 3.7 miles so no wonder I struggled at the end without knowing why. She was a champ and stayed with me until the last .25 miles when she surged again. She was smart, and trained every day, though! I was pretty pleased with myself for finishing.

Thanks for the motivation Brittney!!

I love my family so much! I'm so grateful for Kelley supporting me in all my crazy endeavors. He had the fun of entertaining the girls for an hour from the start to finish since I had to wait for my wave of runners to start. There were just a few minor issues. I hope the girls come to enjoy exercising in many different forms like I do. (Yep, call me crazy!)

My {old} roommates Jessica and Brittney. This is our second 5K run together - the last was two years ago. I think they have aspirations to run a 10K next, and potentially a half/full marathon. Me? Not so much. I'm solid at a 5K these days. I don't love running so much. In high school I could barely run a mile and I honestly never thought I'd run much further than that so I'm pleased with my running abilities now.

{September 2012}