37th Wedding Anniversary

Happy 37th wedding anniversary Mom & Dad! We all love you so very much! Enjoy your special day! xxoo

I LOVE Our Children

A few nights ago as I was starting to get the kids ready for bed I decided to crawl into Nicholas' bed and lie down beside our sweet boy. I stretched his arms and legs and watched part of a movie with him and then he asked to take some pictures together on my phone. So I asked Ella to grab it for me and she happily obliged. Ella hopped into Nicholas' bed too and we took several shots of the three of us. Some silly, some smiley, and some extremely close up. I love these wonderful moments with my kids and I love capturing them on camera even more. I don't want to forget the sweet, normal, cozy moments of our day-to-day life: Nicholas' toothless grin (six teeth gone and no permanent ones growing in yet), Ella's sweet baby-ish curls all messy and unkempt before bed, and the giggles we shared as we tried to get the "perfect" photo. I can honestly say that becoming a mother is the greatest accomplishment in my life thus far, and I love these two precious souls more than anything in this life (my husband is included in that love too). 

Mom & Daughter Day

 Last Saturday my lovely mama and I went to the Troutdale Outlet stores to do some birthday shopping for Ella and some Christmas shopping as well. I love spending time with my mom and with the busy-ness of being a mommy and wife, both of us working part-time, and our daily responsibilities we hadn't been able to have a mother/daughter day in quite some time. We had some outlet coupons and scored some amazing deals so it was a win-win: time with my mom and some great shopping!

When we were all shopped out, my mom suggested we have lunch together at McMenamins Edgefield which is right around the corner from the Outlet stores. 

I love everything about Edgefield. It's so picturesque, historic, and serene. This was the view out of the window where we ate lunch. 

Cheers to fun time with family!

I snuck over to my mom's side of our booth for a shot of the two of us.

We split our two lunches so we could share each other's favorites. My mom always orders a salad and I always order a sandwich. I had to try the Edgefield Reuben (I love to try Reubens where ever I dine but so far, no restaurant can beat the Reuben at a little local dive bar in my hometown called Smeads) and my mom got a southwest salad. 

It was such a lovely way to spend a Saturday!

Swim Lessons

Elizabeth has started week two of swim lessons. This week her group has been in the BIG pool every day and she's absolutely loving it!

Tomorrow is her test to see which class she will place into for future lessons. She's made so much progress these past two weeks and understands water safety. 

This is Ella's friend, Paylin. Paylin is in another class that swims at the same time. They like to sit in the bleachers and dry after lessons are over. 

Nicholas enjoys watching his little sis swim. He is content observing instead of participating. When I asked him if he wanted to go to free swim one afternoon, I got an adamant, "no." I just ordered Nicholas a head floatation device for kids with special needs that should arrive soon. I hope he will want to use it when we take our end-of-summer trip to visit our friends in Kennewick. They have a pool and I hope Nicholas will be able to enjoy swimming with the other kids. 

Ella loves to jump in with her instructor's help. 

She swims with such confidence and ease and has such a great time in the pool. I am contemplating signing her up for one more week of lessons so she can squeeze in more practice before preschool starts. It's a great way to cool off on these hot summer mornings!

Brewfest

Last Saturday evening we had an impromptu date night with my mom and dad at the Vancouver Brewfest in Esther Short Park. My parents had been the night before for my dad's company work social and they had a bunch of beer tokens left over to use. They know how much Jeff likes craft beer, so they invited us to tag along. 

It was fun to try different types of beer, but since I am not as much of a beer consuier like Jeff, I found one that I really liked and drank that one for the rest of the evening. 

There were a couple of cover bands playing at Esther Short Park, but I have to say I liked the first one better than the headliner. The first band played a great mix of classics, while the headliner band played only AC/DC songs. I like a couple of AC/DC's songs, but they're not my favorite. Still, it was nice to sit and relax and chat with a (free!) beer in hand. 

The other couple on our double date. Love them. 

Thanks Mom & Dad for a fun evening! Also, thank you Auntie Eva for watching our kids last minute. 

Summer Happenings

Our summer has been filled with lots of water play. Most of the days have been HOT, HOT, HOT and we've been trying to keep cool in either the air conditioned house, or in pools, sprinklers, and the river.

One afternoon Ella couldn't wait for me to turn on the sprinkler, she was so excited to cool off that she didn't even change into a swimsuit, she just jumped right in wearing her dance leotard. 

The kids have spent many afternoons lately in creative play. This particular day Ella and Nicholas played school and store with a cardboard box and several toys and household items. They had so much fun they played for over three hours like this!

Last Saturday Ella and I spent some time in the wading pool. I haven't been able to sit outside and just relax much this summer, so it was nice to get some sun on my face and spend some mommy/daughter time with my little girl. 

 A few days ago Ella was playing dress-up and she asked Nicholas if he would like to dance with her. She took his arms in hers and swung them from side to side and danced to several children's songs that were playing. It was one of the sweetest moments I have witnessed between them and it melted my heart. Nicholas was grinning from ear to ear and Ella was thrilled to have such a willing dance partner. I love their magical sibling bond. 

Last Sunday we had dinner at my folks' house and Ella absolutely loves helping Papa in the garden. She runs around and looks for things to help pick, and likes to help water the crops. Papa appreciates the company.

I spotted the August super moon last weekend and snapped a few photos of it rising over our neighbors trees. It was so beautiful. 

Ella started swim lessons this week and LOVES it! She's the only girl in her group and thinks all the boys are super fun and her teacher, Cassidy, is really smart and pretty. 

The lessons are much needed since she doesn't like to get her face wet, even in the bathtub, and we're going to visit our friends in a couple weeks who have a pool. 

After swim lessons we try to squeeze in some park time which makes the day even more special. 

Ella has so many hair accessories I find them all over the house. I really need a more efficient storage solution for them. A couple of days ago I noticed she was playing hair stylist with Nicholas and when they were through he had this heart barrette style going on. Pretty, don't you think? 

Ella and I went grocery shopping last Monday after swim lessons and she begged me to buy a watermelon. I realized I hadn't purchased one all summer, so I put one in the cart. Nothing screams summer louder than sweet, juicy watermelon! Ella and I ate 6-7 slices each that night. 

I have been enjoying getting pampered these past few weeks of summer. I treated myself to a new amazing mascara that actually gives my non-existent eyelashes some length, and I have enjoyed a couple of Shellac manicures. 

It's so nice to look at pretty, sculpted nails that last about two weeks. 

A few months ago I posted about my trip to California to see my forever friend, Lyndsey, and her new baby Benjamin. Unfortunately, baby Ben had to spend fourteen days in the NICU because of aspiration pneumonia.

He went from being intubated, then on c-pap, hooked up to tons of tubes and wires as pictured above with his mama...

to this smiling, perfect newborn boy. He ended up pulling out his extubation tube one evening when daddy came to visit, and he did just fine with it gone, breathing on his own. 

I am so in love with this photo Lyndsey messaged me. Lyndsey and Keith didn't expect their newborn son to be in the NICU and I was heartbroken that I had to return home the day after Ben's birth. They are both the most strong and wonderful parents, juggling travel back and forth to the hospital, their two-year-old son Henry's needs, and trying to fit in sleep and visitors and Henry starting school between all of that. I know it was excruciating for them to have to leave their second son in the NICU every night and Lyndsey said that only way she could sleep was knowing that her favorite nurses were doting on his every need. 

Benjamin Winter Yeomans has been home with his family for a month now and showered with love, attention, and affection by all he meets. I cannot wait to travel back to California to hold him, snuggle, him and cover his adorable face with kisses!

 Ella's feet are growing so quickly she doesn't fit into her tap shoes anymore. She took one last tap dance on the bathroom floor (because the sound is so pretty) before her shoes had to be retired. She will need new ones when dance begins in the fall. 

We planted three varieties of tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, and Habanero peppers in pots earlier this spring and they are finally producing ripe fruit. Later this afternoon I plan to make garden fresh salsa complete with Walla Walla sweet onions from my parents' garden. Mmmm, one of my favorite summer foods!

I am also kind of obsessed with these colorful macaroons from Trader Joe's. Seriously. They're legit. 

One of my other favorite summer dinners has been stuffed, baked avocados. I stuff them with whatever I have on hand. These had Tabbouli salad (also from TJs), garlic, lemon, salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese. I baked them at 400 degrees for 6-8 minutes and it was the perfect light summer dinner. 

Last weekend we began a living room and dining room make-over. The two rooms are open to one another and the walls in both are a dark yellow which looks like sunshine threw up in there. We also currently have a red sofa and chair which I absolutely loved when we purchased them (it was a popular color in 2004), but which now I have grown to dislike greatly. The deep red color is too dark and dominant in our small-ish space. The sofa and chair also aren't functional as Nicholas takes up three fourths of the sofa when he lies on it, and no one likes to sit in the uncomfortable, overstuffed chair. We also have little (read: NO) seating for company. So, we decided to start the room make-over by shopping for a new sofa. We found one (similar to the one pictured below) but customized it, choosing the perfect layout for our family and a different neutral fabric. It will delivered in 8-10 weeks so in the meantime I plan to paint the walls a neutral color, buy a new area rug, and start shopping for pillows and accessories in our new color scheme. Pinterest has become my new best friend and some of my inspiration will come from the corner shelf I recently purchased and was able to store most of my pottery in. White, beige, and black will be the staple colors with pops of teal, navy and coral/red accents. I am looking forward to a lighter, brighter living area and hoping my kids can keep the neutral colors clean! Thankfully with our sofa purchase we also opted to buy a seven-year warranty which will cover any damage to the couch in that time period. Hallelujah!

 That's all the ins, outs, and happenings so far for us this summer. Now we're starting to think about getting ready for fall. Ella starts preschool in September and Nicholas will be in first grade! I cannot believe how big my babies are already. We will enjoy these last weeks of summer and are looking forward to our final summer vacation on Labor Day weekend.