Our HOT weekend

We hit 90 degrees this weekend in Seattle and holy moly, it's HOT! The thing about the northwest is that 95% of the people don't have A/C, and we are part of that 95%. I mean really, we have about 8 warm days over 80 degrees so it's a luxury here. Our house hit 84 degrees today, ugh. We ended up going out and buying an A/C unit for our bedroom, the only cool room in the house. Oh how I love you A/C. I have a feeling we are going to be spending a lot of time in our bedroom during our heat wave.

We started the weekend out with some backyard pool time. Sydney loves her pool and she had fun.

Here's a video of Sydney telling me she's too busy for me to take her picture, silly kid.

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Sydney spent some fun times with Greg and Jessica this weekend and I am sure Jessica will be posting pictures to her blog soon. She loves these two so much and wouldn't leave Greg's side at all. She also spent some time with Jessica's nephew Jackson and I swear she is talking better today than yesterday. Being around older kids is really great for her vocabulary.

Here are some pictures of Sydney and Anthony from yesterday:

Sunday evening Sydney and Anthony spent some quality daddy-daughter time together. They went to Lowes and the grocery store and this was what I was greeted with when I opened the door:
Flowers from Sydney and daddy, how nice is that???

And tonight it was still 85 degrees at 8:30pm so we decided it would be fun to run through the sprinkler. Check out Sydney's cute new bathing suit, courtesy of Ari. Sydney didn't want to take this suit off!

So excited to run through the sprinkler!!

Spray Park!

Today was the kids last day of our Kindermusik program. Lisa found this really great toddler music class and we were able to start attending with just four weeks left, which was good because it was something to do after our other activities ended and before a lot of the fun summer activities begin. Sydney was in a music class before and it was not near as great as this one. The teachers were awesome and the kids played with tons of instruments each time, from sticks to drums to bells. They absolutely loved it! I also loved that the teacher included 10 month old Jacob into everything. She added his name into songs and let him play all the instruments the older kids were playing. In past classes I noticed most teachers ignoring the younger siblings-so weird to me.

After class we headed over to the new spray park at a local park. The place was packed! Between the awesome weather and school being out, holy moly-happening place to be. Sydney's thing was to put her foot in the fountain, run over to me and sit down, wrap herself up in the towel for 5 seconds, then run back and do it all over-50 times. It was hilarious. She was freezing cold the whole time-the weather was close to 80 yet she had goose bumps all over and she was shivering at one point. How does my warm blooded kid get so cold in water? Wow.

Samantha and Sydney having fun


The three amigos
I think Samantha is doing a little jig here E.T. phone home
Baby Jakey

Lottery winners!

Not us, but one of my former employees!
I just read in the newspaper one of my former employees won $1 million in the Washington state lottery. He was on my team for just a short time but he was a good guy and pretty darn smart. Just had to post this because this is so cool!! I love it when good things happen to good people.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20080627/NEWS01/162439541&news01ad=1#Marysville.couple.has.plans.for.their.%241.million.Lottery.win

Farmer's Market

Last night Kristin and I took the kiddos to a local farmer's market. I love the taste of freshly picked produce, and supporting the local farmers is an extra bonus. My main goal was to find some good strawberries, and I found them! That along with some delish cherries and radishes.

Here are the kiddos testing out the strawberries:

Standing in front of some "art work"aka paint can lids on a pole.

"Chocolate makes me better"

Tonight Sydney and I made a chocolate pie for daddy. He works so hard so Sydney and I can play all day. He is a wonderful daddy and husband and we wanted to let him know that we love him. If you know my husband, you know dessert is one of the best ways to show the love.
Here's Sydney enjoying her chocolate spatula. Yes those are runny eyes and a runny nose. My kiddo is sick, again! While eating her chocolate she looked up at me and said, "Chocolate makes me better." Amen to that sister.

Also, a couple funny things Sydney is doing lately. Her first thing is she will have a toy or book and ask me, "Who got this for me?" I'll tell her it was Mam-O and she'll say, "Thank you Mam-o, thank you for my book." It is so sweet.
The other thing that cracks me up is Sydney imitates everything I do. We'll lay down on the pillows and color or play a puzzle and however I have my hands, arms, legs whatever, she is doing the exact same thing. It just cracks me up. My little shadow. I have to say one of my favorite things about her right now is the way we can just look at each other and crack up laughing. I am so blessed to have her as my daughter. Not only is she so adorable, but she is the sweetest, thoughtful, most caring little girl ever. She is just a special kid. How did I get this lucky? And please Lord, please bless us with another baby as wonderful as Sydney. Can it happen twice??

Oh my goodness...

After all the nagging and harassing by yours truly, Kristin finally started a blog!!! (Kristin is Cole's mom, FYI...I think everyone who reads this knows Cole!) Anyway, I am super excited because all that harassing since last fall actually paid off. Now if only I can get Lisa to get busy on her blog....hmm. Peer pressure.
And yes, I am a blog addict and I need to join bloggers anonymous because I love reading all my friend's blogs.

Check it out-and check out the cute pictures of Cole and Sydney from yesterday:

http://www.coleandfriends.blogspot.com/

Sydney's new BFF's

Tonight Sydney and I had dinner with my old friends Carrie and Heather. I have known these girls for years-I met Carrie when we were both in high school. We worked together at JCPenney, and eventually moved on to WaMu at the same time. Heather also worked with us at JCPenney and she became my Montana road trip buddy. We had some great times on our road trips, and the road trips must have been a success because Heather later went to graduate school at Montana State. (We both loved Montana!)

We've stayed in touch over the years but the three of us get together maybe once a year-not nearly enough. We decided tonight we need to have a monthly get together. I adore both of them, they are such awesome girls and they adore Sydney. And now Sydney adores them-she loved all the attention she received from Heather and Carrie and on our way home she even said, "I miss my new friends so much." Too cute.

Sydney and her two new BFF's:


Funny story-Carrie was playing with Sydney and there was a slight injury. Carrie offered up a balloon to make her feel better, and it worked. The problem is Claim Jumper restaurant didn't have balloons so we went to another restaurant to get a balloon because there was no way Sydney would forget about the balloon once Carrie mentioned it. Sydney was so excited about her balloon-she talked about it for quite a while. Then I made a HUGE mistake. I decided to open the sunroof since Sydney loves all the windows and sunroof open, totally forgetting about the balloon. Guess what flew out the sunroof? The beloved balloon Carrie got for her. Oh boy. There was a major balloon meltdown. We ran into the grocery store where I bought Sydney a new balloon, Dora the Explorer of course. She seems to be pretty happy with her new balloon but she's still talking about her pink Carrie balloon. Mental note-don't ever open sunroof when helium balloons are present in car.

Race for the Cure

Today was the big Race for the Cure in Seattle, and it was great. Last year it was Sydney and I walking with Emily, Diane and their friend Kristy. This year we had a good sized group of people (twelve total) from family to friends. Next year my goal is to get a group of at least twenty, and to really go out-I'm talking boas and the whole bit! Our team name is Saving Second Base... ;)
The weather was pretty nice and there were so many people running and walking, it was amazing. It is incredible how many people come out to support the breast cancer cause each year.
Here's some pictures from the day:

My bro Trevor and Michelle running the 5k (Trevor is in the red shorts on the left)

Michelle, Trevor, Aunt Cheryl, and cousins Molly and Matthew during the walk
Papa pushing Sydney in the stroller-I think I pushed Sydney a total of 5 minutes the whole day between my dad and Matthew helping out-nice.
Emily and Diane
Me and my auntie Cheryl
Sydney and her beloved Luna bar. A guy was handing these out and so I gave one to Sydney, she loves protein bars. Anyway half way through the race she still hadn't taken a bite so I asked if uncle Trevor could have it since he was hungry. She told him no. I finally broke it in half and gave him some. She held the rest of the bar the whole time, never eating any of it. Silly kid.
Why we race for the cure...
Me and my bro
The group
My dad with my cousins Molly and Matthew
Em and I
Prego mamas-me with Kristin. She is 20 weeks along now (with another boy!) and I am almost 15 weeks.

The "D" word

My child hates dresses. It started when she was 3 months old at Christmas. She cried and cried while wearing her beautiful Christmas dress, the second we took it off she stopped crying, smiled and was her normal self. Sometimes I can talk her into wearing a dress for Nana, but lately it's all about NOT calling it a dress. A month ago she wore a "denim outfit" instead of a denim dress. In the picture above she is wearing a "long shirt with short shorts" instead of a dress with the matching diaper cover.
The thing is-I'm not a fan of dresses either so I know where she is coming from. Sometimes a little girl just needs to wear a dress though. Especially when mommy purchased some really cute ones recently.
Here's my kiddo playing soccer in her long shirt and short shorts:

Slumber party!

Sydney had a slumber party with her godparents and bff's Greg and Jessica this past weekend. I'm not sure who has more fun when these three get together, Greg and Jessica or Sydney. Before the party Sydney listed everything she wanted to do with Jessica and Greg:
Play toys with Jessica, play cards with Greg, go to the park, play with puppy, make pancakes...the list went on and on. Needless to say after hearing Sydney talk excitedly when she came home about all the fun she had and looking at the pics-they all had a fab time.

Sydney loves the park...is it any wonder why she has so much fun with these two? That and the fact that she gets 100% of their attention the whole time.

Sydney loves her spaghetti!
Happy birthday to Greg! What a privilege for Sydney to join Greg and Jessica for his birthday dinner at Buca!!
And congrats to Greg and Jessica! They just bought their first house. Their condo sold in like three days (even in this market, it was that nice of a condo!) and they are moving into the cutest house just a few blocks away from their condo in a couple weeks. Sydney is already talking about all the fun she is going to have playing in their backyard. ;)

And the cutest video of Sydney:

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Playdates at our house

Yesterday we had Jessica, Georgia, Brody, Ari and Darren over for a playdate! Sydney did pretty well at sharing her toys, which is always a good thing. The weather didn't cooperate so well, it wasn't raining but it was a bit chilly so no pool. The kids had a great time anyway though. Ari is so adorable, she is such a little princess,totally Sydney in two years. What I love most is the way she "poses" for pictures...check out Georgia's blog. I call her Miss Teen USA...she is so doing pageants as a teenager!
The boys did great and are so well behaved, and so cute! Here are some pictures:

Jessica pushing Brody and Syd on the swings

Ari
Princesses Ari and Sydney
Darren
The girls-Ari with her mommy Georgia and Sydney
Darren had the best time with the horse, it was hilarious!
Jumping on the pillows...pretty sure Mam-o thought she was making these for us to sit on, not jump on. They do make great trampolines though! Brody-is he not the cutest???
Sydney with her Jessica. Poor Sydney, she is used to Jessica not leaving her side the entire time so after five minutes when she didn't get cuddles and attention from Jess she started crying...until Jessica held her. So maybe Jessica and Greg spoil the girl a tad....

Today my friend Carli and her daughter Gracie came to our house to play! I have never heard more, "That's mine" and fighting over toys before. Apparently they are too much alike and had some power struggles. They did have a good time and Sydney told me later that Gracie was very nice.

This is my favorite picture of the girls-Gracie would not sit next to Sydney on the stairs and Sydney would not sit next to Gracie on the bench. So here you go...I have a feeling these girls are going to grow up to be very strong willed...you think?
I finally bribed the kids with animal crackers...how cute are they?