Welcome!

I just want to welcome all of you to our new Top Secret Blog and apologize if having to sign up for a Google account was a pain in the you know what.   Thanks for taking such an interest in our crazy but pretty normal life.  I enjoy writing about Lainey and Beau's antics and absolutely love sharing the photos I take.  And because no blog post is complete without a photo, here's a recent one of the star's of the show playing Ring Around the Rosie.  I can't remember if I've posted this one before so I apologize if it's a duplicate.

Self Portrait

Upon returning from changing Beau's diaper, I found my camera laying on the floor of the play room.   She left evidence.  How she managed to take a self portrait with a dslr I'll never know but she did manage to change all my settings.  

Discovery Park

I'd never been to Discovery Park so we decided to throw the kids in the car after Beau's nap and go explore this huge park that's a short drive from our house.  Every once in awhile you'll hear about a coyote or cougar on the loose in Seattle and it's usually in this park.  I took a bunch of sand toys that as it turns out, we didn't need.  Lainey hurled every rock, stick, log she could carry into the water and Beau, after taste testing a couple handfuls of sand, seashells and rocks, found a couple of sticks and pretty much practiced walking on uneven ground.  

My silly boys and their purely by accident matching outfits. 

There wasn't a piece of driftwood left near us when we left.   I wish she cleaned up her toys half as well as she did the beach!

Walk softly and carry not a big stick but TWO sticks! And check out the determined expression on Lainey's face.

The highlights for me-
1. spending a fun day with my family
2. watching my babies make new discoveries and learning a little bit more about their personalities
3. last but not least, a new family photo!

No guts no glory

Beau's favorite thing at any park is the slide.  It was the swings but apparently he's over that, maybe there isn't enough of an adrenaline rush for this boy.  And he doesn't want the little baby slide mind you, but the big kid one, curly if they have it. The kind that makes his daredevil sister hold on to the sides to slow herself down.  He throws a hissy fit if he's not allowed to go down at least once and the look on his face is just priceless. We managed to keep him off the curly slide but gave in on this one.  The poor kid turned and crashed toward the end, landed in the wood chips and looked up at me with a huge smile on his face and stuck a wood chip in his mouth.   

This one's gonna give me more gray hair, I can tell.

(And yes, that's Robert behind him, wearing shorts, in MARCH! We hit 70 yesterday and I can already tell, I'm really going to miss our A/C at the old house!)

And for those that insist Lainey be in every post-

Absolutely no cooperation on her part to take pictures so I had to catch her while she played. 

This is how my day started and I have a funny feeling it's going to continue.

Happy Birthday to MY mom

Today is my mom's birthday. She would've been 62.  It's hard for me to imagine her as a senior citizen. She'll always be 49 in mind.

I haven't located the box with all my old photos of her as a child so as a tribute, I have one of her granddaughter voluntarily working in the yard doing pooper scooper duty, something my mother could never convince me to do.  She would've loved to have seen this.

As a side note, Lainey came in the house right after this because she started throwing rocks at the house. As I carried her off to time out, I noticed that she had stepped in doggie doo doo. Maybe it was the same turd we see falling off her shovel here. Crazy kid. 

Happy Birthday Mom. I miss you more and more every day. 

Sunny Saturday

After learning that the temp was supposed to be close to 70 this weekend, we decided to take full advantage of living in Seattle with a trip to the Ballard Locks.  For those of you who haven't been, it's where ships go from seawater to freshwater and vice versa.  Certain times of the year there are tons of salmon in the fish ladder and a few hungry sea lions.  The few times I've been to the Locks I've never seen a salmon nor a sea lion but I'm hoping to catch both later this summer.   We got an invitation from a neighbor to come over for a "welcome to the neighborhood dinner" with three other families while we were out so we extended our day to include picking up cupcakes from my favorite cupcakery, Cupcake Royale.  Lainey still thinks cupcakes are birthday cakes, more accurately, her birthday cakes.  My hope is Easter throws her off that path but I'm sure I'll be stuck hearing about the Easter Bunny and fielding requests for colored eggs for months to come so that may not be a good alternative.  I love these types of days, just the four of us, no real plan for the day, just hanging out, making memories.  Speaking of making memories, my favorite moment of the day had to be when Beau threw his hat out of the stroller for the 15th time and Lainey said, "Can you pick up Beau's hat please Mommy?"  Such a helpful little girl!

Is there anything hotter than a guy wheeling a stroller? Well, maybe a double stroller! 

Watching the boats come through

Daddy almost lost a finger that day. Never get between a girl and her cupcake!

My cupcakes.  

My Messy Marvin

At times like this I wonder if I really need to let him feed himself or if the pediatrician is just full of it. He'll learn it eventually right?  In my opinion, oatmeal is one of the worst foods to clean up. The texture and consistency gross me out and it sticks so well to everything.  Maybe I'll turn this one over to Daddy since it's Saturday. 

Yipppeee!!

It's forecasted to be 68 degrees tomorrow!!  You can probably imagine how we feel about that but here's a pic just in case.

Spring is on its way!

Missing mojo

I've been in a rut lately. After all the stress of packing, moving and unpacking, I just haven't had the energy to take pictures.  However, one of the benefits of moving is all the things you discover as you unpack. Today, for instance, I found a box containing my photos from our trip to Italy in 2006.  It was before I had got my dslr and oh how I wish I could have a do-over!

I have a hunch my creative mojo will be back soon!

Back to normal

Not much new to report these days. We're pretty much settled in at the new house and learning new ways of doing things. Lainey and Beau love playing everywhere but their play room it seems, I love LOVE my new washing machine and Daddy loves being able to get home in less than 6 minutes on average.  We love hitting the two parks that are close by every chance we get.  I realized yesterday that I could smell the ocean from here and never in my life did I imagine I'd be able to do that!  We walked to Lainey's first day at her new preschool this morning and I made it a goal to do it without thinking I'm going to pass out. Hopefully I can do it by the end of the school year!  I'm not sure when 5 blocks was enough to make me sweaty and winded but I definitely don't like it!

"You're not supposed to be up there Lainey, but while you're up there, throw down some  more toys I can choke on."

Hmmmm....what else of my sister's can I touch and get her all mad?

A rare moment of tenderness

Beau's favorite part of the day-when Daddy gets home!

Just a tiny bit of the baby visible, otherwise, it's all little girl.

Little daredevil

It's any wonder

why I can't get anything done around here lately.  I don't know how he got in there without falling on his noggin but he couldn't get himself out. 

Party time....FINALLY!

She's been talking about it for weeks and today it finally arrived-Lainey's birthday party!  With moving and all that nonsense, we decided it would be best to have it somewhere other than our house so we chose the Seattle Aquarium.

The cake. Lightning McQueen of course.  The invitations were cute, girly mermaids and fish but since Lainey is a sweet mix of tomboy and girly, we just had to include Cars.

No birthday is complete without Ring Around the Rosy with best friends.

Meeting Sammy the Sea Otter.

Who quickly became Beau's new best friend.  

Keeping a close eye on the cake. This girl actually has a bigger sweet tooth than I do. And if you know me, you know it's bad!

Getting to touch (or in some cases, grab and hold) star fish, crab and other sea creatures.

I'm not touching it Mommy

Singing happy birthday to herself. 

What do you mean I can't have any more cake?

It's been amazing to watch these three grow up and become such sweet, beautiful young ladies.  I look forward to celebrating their birthdays and milestones for years to come.
["We are the three best friends that anyone could have," keeps playing over and over in my mind.  Probably not a good idea but it's stuck!]