::imperfect perfection x3::

We took the girls to the beach for the first time a couple of weeks ago. A long overdue trip! We are so close but it's *just* far enough to not be convenient. Does that make sense? And the water is chilly so you can't really swim...unless you are super brave. (steph? tj?) :) Not to mention the thought of one of the girls eating sand gave me the willies. But now they are old enough to enjoy it and I don't have to worry about sand-poisoning. (or something like that....) ;) Tony had to go down to the Bay Area for an brief appointment one Saturday so I asked him if we could tag along to have a picnic on the beach. We had to be back in town by 2pm so it was just a quick down and back, but as you can see, we had SO much fun!! Waiting for the first wave on the toes....brrrr!! In order of bravery: Ashleigh, bravest. Avery, sort of brave. Jordyn....chicken liver. "BYE BYE, OCEAN!!" (Bay, technically)

Oh my. I know it's been a looooooong time since I've 'officially' written in the blog. It's just been a looooooooong year. I know everything is supposed to make us stronger, but when you are going through it, you feel more like mush than steel. Oh well. I guess that just makes you appreciate the transition more, right?? rrrright ... Well, here are a few things that have happened.... Probably most notably, Tony was on a business trip out of state and had appendicitis. He thought he just had food poisoning at first, but after he passed out in his hotel bathroom because of the pain, he figured it might be something more serious. He had to call 911 to get to the hospital, and after many hours and tests later, they sent him home because "everything looked normal". Well, after the pain meds wore off around 4AM, back to the hospital he went and a few short hours later he was on in the O.R. getting his appendix out. Thanks to the generosity of his "work fa...

Almost there....just gotta adjust the font colors, etc... Man this is fun. And I'm being serious!

I forgot how to do a custom background. I keep coming up with ones that aren't wide enough. More studying needed. I wish I would just be able to remember what I've done in the past instead of trying to figure it out from scratch every time. grrrrz.

Little Miss Ashleigh is obsessed with a certain Disney Princess----- ARIEL . Everything she does, she does "Just like Ariel". I'm told this 100 times a day. "Look mom! Just like ARIEL does!" as she's "brushing" her hair or whatever else she can think of that " ariel does". Luckily, she hasn't tried using a fork yet...at least not that I've seen. Heaven forbid she tries. With that mop we call hair it'd FOR SURE get stuck and we'd have to shave her head to get it out. *crossing fingers* she doesn't try it. We've watched The Little Mermaid 4 times just today and s he has been wearing this green halter dress for three days straight. I know I'm the mom, and I can choose what they watch and blah blah blah. So I'm an enabler. So what? :) I have to admit, it's really cute. And I love the music in the movie, so we sing and dance along to the different scenes. Can I tell you how humorous it is to over-hear thr...

I wish my garbage bags were as glamorous as these: ....but then again, you are literally throwing your money in the trash. (They are cute, none-the-less.) Anyways, this post is not about cute garbage bags. It's about reaching a breaking point. This is what I deal with on a daily, or even hourly basis: No, no. A tornado did NOT pass through here, despite the tipped over toys and chairs and miscellaneous items strewn about. This is AFTER Jordyn put all the books and some of the toys away. Yes, this is after a good amount of cleaning. On any given day, we will spend a good 30-40 minutes cleaning up their mess, only to have it destroyed again a couple hours later. I've tried explaining when they are done with one toy, to put it away before getting out another. No. That would make too much sense, mom. And instead of changing clothes 50 times a day, just get dressed ONCE, maybe TWICE if you get your clothes dirty. And Ash, why don't you try to wear ONE layer of clothes inste...

It's summertime! Last night we went to a Sacramento Rivercats baseball game (well, we made it to the 7th inning stretch) Cutie Pies!! Today we played outside in the splash pool. Life doesn't get much better. Here's a short clip showing our mad jumping-into-tiny-wading-pool skills. Or something like that..... HAPPY SUMMER!!

This picture will make much more sense in a minute. ;) I was just tucking in the girls for naps and I told them that if they stayed in their beds and took looooong naps that they could have a cookie when they got up. (yes, bribery works sometimes. I prefer to call it incentive .) :) Avery asked, "Can you put a candle in it so we can blow it out?" Thinking this was a little odd, I said, "We don't put candles in cookies, sillies! We only blow out candles on our birthdays. That's what makes birthdays so special because we do special birthday things!" And they all responded, "And make wishes!!!!" "Yes, wishes too!" I replied, with a slight chuckle. Avery piped up, "I'd wish for a new doll!" Ashleigh: "I wish for a new rainbow!" "OK..." I said (restraining the laughter.) Then Jordyn says, "I'd wish for a new sarr !!" {aka: car}. She continued after pausing a moment to think, "...a BLAC...

Nothing to blog about. Sorry about the delay. Just haven't been in the mood, I guess. The blog and I have had another birthday. Woo! And we got the girls zoo and fairytale town passes so we have been enjoying the sunny days there. It's been kinda rainy the past little while, but things are supposed to be nice and sunny for a bit. Yay ! Finally! I feel so badly for friends and family who have been having snow! In May, people! That stinks. I want to update the look of the blog. I taught myself some basic HTML editing, and how to do my own backgrounds, but I have forgotten how already. So I will spend some time working on that. I need to switch it all up and maybe THEN I will be inspired. : / In the meantime, here are a couple recent pictures of the girls taken a couple Sundays ago before church. Enjoy! Avery channeling her inner Vanna: Jordyn perfecting the cheesy grin and pose: Goofy Jordy. Ashy blue eyes. Typical Ashleigh pose:

I was taking pictures for a new listing the other day and saw this little humming bird nest near the front door. I had to take a picture and post it because its darned close to the cutest thing ever. There is no frame of reference to show the size, but the entire nest itself is close to the size of a silver dollar (which, do they even make anymore?) and the two little eggs inside were like the size of two perfect, tiny, white jelly beans. Precious.

My beloved Grandpa, Howard Vincent Schow, passed away March 29th at 2PM. He was the kindest, funniest and bestest "good doobie" in the world. I feel so blessed to have been able to have him so long in my life and to have been able to spend so much time just being around him. I have not enjoyed being so far away these past 7 years and miss being able to spend time with him, especially saddened that I wasn't able to really say goodbye and that my girls will not get to know their wonderful GreatGramps. He served in the Navy during WWII and lived most of his life serving the Lord, alongside his wife and eternal companion. My most favorite memories of Gramps are playing Pollyanna before bed and then waking up to waffles made from scratch (from the Tupperware bowl in the pantry) with real crumbed bacon that was mixed into the batter. In a word: HEAVENLY. (especially when topped off with any of Gram's homemade syrups---maple, strawberry, raspberry, boysenberry, and apricot. ...

So my mom and I took the girls to the park. I played like a little kid (after I finished reading the Lands End catalog, of course. I didn't fall in love with anything...darn) It was fun. However, I fear I will be very sore in the morning.... pictures of me doing the zipline not included.... (you see me wayyyyyy up at the top?? the girls got NOTHIN ' on me....) :) Jordyn Avery. With her wild hair. Ashleigh. Looking a bit uncomfortable .... Photos of the gorgeous Spring foliage. It's definitely sprung here. Happy Spring, everyone! Now, go swing on some swings! It's sooo much fun!! :)

My parents and brother are visiting from Idaho and the day they got here was my mom's birthday. The girls waited at the door with their signs for Grandma. This was the best photo I got.... :) (notice the one slipper on jordyn ...yeah no explanation for that. she just wanted one . whatever.) We've had so much fun already. More posts to come about what good times we have had together!