"Sticky Eyes"

I love 2-year olds!  I love that stage of life, all the discovery & new experiences.  I especially love the things that come out of their mouths.  Abby is no exception.  She's quite a talker!!  Lately she has taken to asking us "Do you have sticky eyes?"  I am not quite sure where sticky eyes came from but she gets quite a laugh out of her sisters which in turn makes her think she is one funny girl!!!

Cute Girls!!!

Thanks to Grandma & Grandpa they looked beautiful in their dresses! 

We love our cute girls!

 

Cousins

Easter Egg Hunt & Dinner

Since both we & Jason's sister's family had to leave Sunday afternoon, we did all of our Easter festivities on Saturday.  It was actually nice, since then Easter was for church & family.  The uncles took on the job of hiding all the eggs in the yard for the kids to find.  The little cousins got all the eggs on the grass, while the older ones had some significantly more challenging places to look for eggs.  It was so fun.  Abby really got into it. I always love when kids start to "get" holidays & traditions and Abby definately caught onto this one.  Especially once she figured out chocolate was involved.  Lots of loot found by all!

 

 

 

After a bit of running errands & shopping we finished off Saturday with a delicious family Easter dinner.  It was pretty special, all of Jason's family was able to be there.  It's been a while since we've all been together & you never know when it happens again, so it was fun to take it all in!! 

Just like every night we were there, the brothers finished off the evening (late into the evening) with some rousing, incredibly complex game!

A Spring Break Trip to Seattle

 

Originally, we had not planned on going anywhere for spring break but then I started to get the road trip itch (crazy I know with 3 kids & me pregnant).  I just felt like if we didn't go anywhere for spring break, we would be stuck at home for quite a while, with soccer season & baby coming.  So, being the best husband ever, Jason obliged my crazy wishes & last minute we packed up and headed to his parents house in Seattle on the Wednesday afternoon before Easter.  His sister's family was already planning on being there so we knew it would be a party!

The road trip was great, the girls were amazing travelers, which made it especially worthwhile.  The weather was spectacular...seriously, for those of you who have been to Seattle in March, know it can be so much less than spectacular.  It was amazing, sunny & warm almost everyday. 

The first day there, we ventured down to a cute children's museum in Tacoma (those pictures are on Jason's phone).  Allow small, it was really fun. Abby spent almost the entire time with the rubber duckies in the water area.  She went home nearly naked, she was so wet.  The kids had a great time.  We finished it off with a picnic lunch & headed back to G & G's house.  With such great weather, the kids were able to play in the backyard whenever we were home.  It was so, so nice.

Friday morning the men went golfing, along with Emily & Lauren.  Jason was excited to show the girls the finer points of golf.  They adored their daddy/daughter date!  While the boys were gone, the ladies squeezed in a little shopping, always a good time. 

Later that afternoon, Jason & I ran our girls down to Redondo Beach.  I don't know that we've ever taken them there & it was fun to show them where we played as kids (& where we got engaged!!).  They had a great time throwing rocks, finding shells & crabs.  It was amazingly beautiful!! 

 

Abby throwing rocks!

 

Abby was not really impressed with the crab.

Questing!

The Cherry Blossom trees were amazing, we couldn't resist a few pictures of the girls!

Sorry to Seattle friends we didn't get a chance to catch up with!!!

Lauren's Gymnastics Party

2013 is the year for a friend birthday party for our girls!! Can I tell you how much I love birthday parties?  Can you sense the sarcasm?  Due to basketball schedules, we ended up having to have Lauren's birthday party a couple of weeks after her real birthday, which was a little hard for her, but we talked her through it.  She really wanted a gymnastics birthday party.  I found this local gym that will do birthday parties, for a reasonable price, for lots of kids.  Sounds great right?  Can I tell you, it was amazing.  Pure genius!!  Your group has open access to half the gym, loaded with trampolines, foam pits, bars, balance beams & tons of other toys for 1 hour & then you conclude the party in the party room for 1/2 hour.  It was absolutely the most perfect birthday party ever.  So perfect, we'll be there again in May for Emily's party! The kids had a fabulous time & it didn't even have to be at my house...amazing! 

 

Emily testing out the trampolines!

The foam pit was a huge hit...there were some kids doing some pretty crazy flips into the foam & they couldn't even hurt themselves.

Abby working on her balancing skills

This was the biggest hit of the day...and of course it involved Jason.  He's such the best entertainer of children. I should hire him out!   He had a line of kids waiting for most of the party.  It got a little crazy when he started pushing them into the foam pit!  They loved it!

Here's the gang...Lauren with 18 of her little friends.

 

All & all, huge party success!!

Basketball

I am feeling very deliquent in my picture taking.  Somehow I only ended up with a few pictures from Emily & Lauren's basketball season.  Actually, I know why.  Jason coached both teams, which left me to entertain a crazy active 2-year old.  In the end, I think most of the entertainment was for the poor people who had to sit by us each game. 

Both girls had great seasons & had tons of fun.  It's fun to to see them try & love sports as much as Jason & I do.  Basketball season has now finished & with 1 week break we have moved onto soccer. 

 

A Girl & her Horse

This is Abby's horse Sally (named after her Aunt Sally, of course.)  Grandma & Grandpa Hall gave her Sally for Christmas & she's been a big hit.  Abby plays with her all the time & while she's not good sharing Sally with other people, her baby doll was lucky enough to hitch a ride this day!

 

Projects

Everyone knows one of the joys/headaches of home ownership is projects!!  Our house is no different.  Since we moved in almost 2 years ago, we've always had some sort of project going.  Most of the credit for finished projects definately goes to Jason, so I thought I'd take a minute to brag!! 

After years of apartment/no garage living, he has relished in the fact that he has "man" space, more specifically work space.  And I can't complain, because he had produced some pretty awesome results!!

So I thought I'd share a few of our finished projects! And I don't have many before pictures.  I generally don't think about that until it's too late.

 

This is really the only one I can take a lot of credit for.  This was our $30 dresser bought at a garage sale in Torrance.  Originally light brown, it was begging for an update but had to wait until we had the space to do the work. So I got to clean, sand & paint this one.  Jason instructed on tools & helped with all the hardware stuff.   So this was one of the first projects we did, mostly because we needed somewhere to put our clothes:)  I might add that it may never be moved from this spot because it it so darn heavy.

This was all Jason...from pinterest to completion!  Probably  on of the first things we found on Pinterest, we knew we needed it.  It's just outside our garage door & has helped keep the clutter out of the house.  Love it!!

 

Also while we were still in Torrance, some great friends passed on this cute bunk bed.  We took it from light brown to white and it has been perfect for the girls!

 

 

We found these cute nightstands at a thrift store here in Boise.  They were in pretty rough shape but came our looking pretty cute.  This was the first project we used our little paint sprayer, not sure we loved it but we're still learning.

This is Jason's most recent completed project.  He custom built the book shelf & shelf along the wall in Emily & Lauren's room.  It's purpose is to try to keep some of the collectable clutter organized.  I am biased but I think he did a pretty amazing job.  (Excuse the dresser, it's on the project list to be refinished)

 

This is my craigslist bench.  Purchased in a lovely red color, that certainly was not going to work for us.  This sucker was a tough one.  Jason spent many, many hours stripping all of that lovely red out of lots of little crevices!!  This little bench was an experiment in adding more color to our house & I love how the yellow turned out, plus it's great storage.

 This is Jason's beloved work space.  The bottom bench area was excisting when we moved in but Jason added the top portion to house the growing collection of tools!

This is our downstairs guest bathroom.  It was just a plain white before we started, a little bland.  We painted, Jason did the batton board & made the floating shelves.  This one is still in need of some detail decor, which is always the hardest part of decorating for me.

 

 

Next up: the cutest little farm bed for Abby...goal is to be completed before the baby comes!

 

 

It's so fun to have a handy husband that actually loves (and always needs) a project!!  I think we have many, many years of projects ahead of us!

Lauren's Birthday!!

Lauren is 6!! So hard to believe. She is our helper, always wanting to help with everything.  She is competitive, friendly, super active, inquisitive  & very loving little girl!  She is loving school, although she believes is ready for 1st grade right now.  She is working hard on her reading & is getting very good.  The last few weeks she has received a special sticker in library for great behavior & is quite proud of that.  But even better, there's a little boy in her class that has struggled all year with behavior & keeping up with the class.  She came home a couple of weeks ago & was so excited because he had also received a special sticker in library.  She was super excited & told me, "Mom, I was just so proud of him!"  I loved it.  She's our sweet girl!

 She was so excited for her birthday.  She prayed everynight for about 2 weeks before that she would have a great birthday!  Although she's not having her friend party for another week, we did have a little party with  just our family. She also had a friend that had a party on Lauren's birthday so she did get to go to a party!  Sticking with tradition, she got to choose the menu for her birthday dinner, which consisted of Hawaiin Haystacks, finger jello & french bread!!  I love that it's so simple, yet they are so excited about their dinner.  Big score for Mom!!

She had pretty specifically requested a rainbow cake for her birthday, so I oblidged.  The layer cake was bit time consuming, but turned out pretty fun!! She loved it.  I always wonder why birthdays are so much work but then when you see their reaction, it's definately worth the time & effort!!

 

Legos from Grandma & Grandpa

So much excitement for an electric toothbrush!

 

She's all about LaLaLoopsy these days!

The girls & the cake

The inside!

I dont' have a picture but she also got a gift card from her Grandma & Grandpa Polson for Target.  She eventually (after an hour of deliberations) picked out her beloved LaLaLoopsy Mermaid. 

It was funny to watch her have to angonize over how to spend her gift card, but we had some great conversation about making choices & I think she did a great job in the end!



Snips & Snails...

and puppy dogs tails!!!  We certainly have never had much of that around our house, but all of that is about to change!  We are so excited to be welcoming our first little boy!  I have to say it was a bit of a shock at the ultrasound appointment.  I had pretty much decided we were headed toward all girls, so it has taken a bit for this to sink it.  Lauren was over the moon excited, she had wanted a boy so bad.  Emily, on the other hand, has taken a bit of covincing.  She had really wanted another girl.  She has realized though that she is pretty good with baby boys and I think even she is excited now.  Abby is excited for now, but may not be so when baby takes some of Mom's attention!

 

Baby Boy Polson will make his grand appearance May 28th 2013!

 

Valentine's Day

Valentine's week was crazy!  Looking back now I don't remember why but despite the craziness we managed a little family Valentine's celebration!  We started our day with eggs, heart shaped toast & strawberries!  They girls, of course, had great parties at school & came home with lots of fun treats from their friends!  This year we did homemade( ideas from Pinterest) Valentine's for their friends & they turned out super cute!  They girls enjoyed it so much more than just store bought ones!

For our "fancy" dinner, we dined on heart shaped pizza, raspberry salad, finger jello & grapes! 

It turned out to be a simple but very fun day!! 

Abby is still working on smiling for the camera!

January/February

January & February were my picture fail months.  I literally took not one picture in January & only pictures on Valentines in February.  So sad.  They were also a bit crazy months.  I was put into Young Women's in November & getting the new year started was a little hectic.  It's been fun though.  I have always loved Young Women's and this time is no exception.  I have a pretty awesome group of girls & super fun leaders to work with. 
We spent a lot of time at home in January due to the cold.  Jason has started & finished a few projects (pictures to come), which has kept him busy.  The girls are loving school & having lots of fun indoor playdates. 
In February the girls both started their basketball season.  It isn't quite over yet, so I will get some pictures.  This is Lauren's first year playing & Emily's second.  They have had so much fun & improved a lot.  Lauren's games are pretty funny, lots of traveling, double dribbling, etc, but she has a great coach & has learned a lot.  It's amazing the difference a couple of years make because Emily's team is really starting to "get it."  Passing is still difficult (everyone wants to score) but they are really starting to understand the game.  Both girls have scored, despite usually being one of the shortest, which is super exciting to them.  They have two more weeks & then right after basketball ends, soccer begins!
Abby is 2!  That's pretty much sums it up for her.  She can be the sweetest & in an instant turn around and be a little stinker!  But she is so so fun and cute (which saves her a lot!)  She adores her sisters & can't wait for them to come home each day.  She talks & talks, counts to fifteen, wears her tutu & tap shoes everywhere & has recently taken to loving to sing her nursery songs.  Speaking of nursery, after 8 months of Jason going every week with her, she has finally started going to nursery by herself.  Jason & I have actually been able to attend Sunday School together the last 3 weeks!  It's heavenly.

Let it Snow and Snow and Snow

We had a lot of snow this year.  I guess maybe it wasn't a ton of snow, but soon after the biggest snow storm, we had extremely cold weather for about a 3 week period.  That meant that none of the snow melted.  I am not kidding, our street literally had compact snow of it for the entire month of January.  For a few weeks, our highs were in the teens with lows around 0.  I have never been so cold.  When the cold front broke and temperatures went back to normal (like 32 degrees) it felt so warm.  We finally thawed out the first week or so of February & it's been much more pleasant since, although we've had some snow the last couple of days.

All that said, the girls have had fun.  With the first storm, they & Jason made a huge snowman & snow slide.  Both stayed with us for weeks, although it got a bit to cold to play outside. 

Abby seriously lacks proper snow clothes but she doesn't stay out too long anyway!