Giveaway

Don't you just love that word? It's right up there with FREE! Well, one of the blogs I follow is giving away a very very cool crafty 'toy'. You have to go and check it out. It makes even the un-crafty people look very crafty. (I think I said the word, crafty, too many times).
Here's the link

Fish on!

Last Wednesday night Jason, his friend Jason (I'll call him Jason E.), and Jason E's dad drove up to Westport to go fishing with my uncle. The last time Jason went fishing in Westport was about 17 years ago. I went with him then and I have to say, I'm glad it was just him that went this time. I love being out on the ocean, and getting to hang out with my uncle, but it is way too long of a day for me! They check in at 5:15am and don't dock again until about 4pm. 12 hours on the boat...nope, not for me.




But Jason, Jason E, and his dad had a blast! It was cold but nice. Fought off a few sharks and lost a couple of bets (first catch, biggest fish) but they're already planning their next visit!

A HUGE, Giant thank you to my Aunt Doll and Uncle Dave for letting the boys stay in the apt and for a FANTASTICALLY delicious trip!!!

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Molly's concert

This was taken from my Flip camera. It's a great camera for close up and personal videos, not so much for stuff like this, but you get the idea. Molly is the one in the yellow sweatshirt.

I'm an auntie!

I know I've been an aunt for about 14 years but this time I have something I never had before... a nephew!!!

He is a very very adorable kid. Born 6/13/10 (exactly one week after Daisy's birthday) weighing in at 9 pounds 2 ouces (yikes) and arrived at 4:04am via a C-section (after being in labor allllll day and night).

Julian James Picinich! I think I might try to call him JJ, that's cute!

Sorry, I'm not allowed to post pictures yet but you can be sure I will once I get the ok!

for now, here are some pics of us waiting for him...

and here's a teaser shot....

Happy Mom's day....

This post is (obviously) a little late but I have good reason for that. I had big plans for Mother's Day. I wanted to go hiking with my little family. My experienced sister, Debbie, gave me some good advice on where to go and what to bring. Unfortunatly, we found out that Jason had to work that day so scratch that plan! I know I still could have gone but I really wanted it to be a family day. So instead, after church the kids and I weeded and weeded and weeded. They weren't exactly excited to be out there sweatin' on a Sunday but I was very proud of them and we got soooooooo much done! I took a 'before' picture but funny thing is, I can't find it! Weird, I know. But if you've been to my house lately, then you'll know that it was a MESS!!!!! The only plants I had in the garden area were 2 lavendars, 1 flowering bush (not sure what it is called) and a small tree, oh and a clematis that needed some attention. So the reason for the lateness in this post, is I just finished planting yesterday... well, finished for now. It is mostly done. I still need to hang the lattice for the wisteria but it is really coming along. I was looking for some chaotic color and after time, it will start to grow in so nicely. One of my favorite features is this tiered pot I painted. I found it here. I liked the idea of all white flowers against the colorful pots so I went that way. I'm not done with this either, I want to paint a white 'P' on it or my house nubmers, I can't decide yet. I need to wait for the pots to completely dry and thanks to Mother Nature, I still can't get that done! The top pot will have a large, white flowering blossom too. I'm just waiting for that to happen...

molly and macey-jo

just a few quick shots to keep the grandparents happy: Molly ran track for the first time this year. She did GREAT!

And she is still riding and jumping. I think she'd leave us and move in with them if she had the choice.

And Macey is playing baseball. This shot is from ONE of the sunny days she played. This weather has been really cruddy for baseball.

My camera battery has been dead so I'll get some current pictures of Jake and Maya up soon.

this and that

I am happy to say that this quarter is ALMOST over! I'll get to check off 12 more credits! 34 total! Yeah!! I am sad to say that my time spent in the ECE dept. has come to an end. I've created such great relationships there with students and staff and that will be missed. Now I'm on to the exciting world of math, sciences, english... joy.

I am also looking forward to another member of the family joining us very soon! Cameron's fiance' is expecting on June 3rd!! Little Julian James will be the second boy in the family. The first will be 14 and a half years old! I can't believe it's been that long. My kids are excited to have 6 cousins now.

A few weeks ago, I put a shower on for Tanya. Here's a few shots:

I had high hopes of making my own cake using fondant but realized I had zero time to do that. I still want to try this though, it looks so fun.

These pictures should be switched. The bottom one is a little girl who was helping Tanya with her presents. There was a lot of little gifts in this laundry basket and pretty soon she was inside of it trying to get them all out (see above picture). She was so cute because after Tanya opened up the gifts she would be a little Vanna White and model the present for everyone to see.

look at that belly! LOVE IT!!!

My wonderful MIL made all of the food. I didn't want to stop eating! It was amazing food!!

Molly took this m-n-m's shot. She likes to get some interesting shots... wonder where she gets that from?

Easter

So sad. This year Molly and Jake had no interest in dyeing eggs. Molly actually slept through the whole process and Jake was watching TV hanging out with G'ma. But us girls had fun!

For Easter dinner I made strawberry shortcake. First take some whipped cream. Mmmmmmm.

Then some Angel food cake, store bought... only the best from me!

Cut up the angel food cake and the fresh strawberries.

Add one very pretty dish.
start layering

pretty little design on the top.

Looks yummy, doesn't it!

here's a random shot for the day. this is the set at our church. It looked like we were at roof top level, looking at the tops of buildings and the Space Needle. the tightrope walker with the wheelbarrow is actually hanging from the ceiling and resting on the tightrope that is going across the stage. It was really cool.

I hope you all had a blessed Easter. We were pretty happy to have spent it with MOST of our family. We missed seeing just a few people: Dad, Jackie, Deanna, Darin, Daisy, Dani.

Practicing...

Maya practicing before her concert.

HIVES!

These are not the greatest pictures but it gives you an idea of how miserable Macey was. Last Sunday at about 10pm, Macey comes to me and tells me that she is itchy. I lifted up her shirt and this is what I found. This is her back and I know the picture stinks, but you can see the splotchy red parts. It was like this all over her body. Here is her back: It looked like someone had punched her in the face.

Big red welts on her forehead.

We can't say for sure what caused them but Jason and I are about 90% positive it was an allergic reaction to the penicilin (sp?) she was on.

It is 4 days later and she still looks pretty bad and is still very itchy. Benedryl wipes her out too. The doctor gave her some on Monday morning and this is where she was about a half an hour later:

This was taken from my cell phone camera.

busted

When I got to Molly's concert last week, I got there plenty early to position myself in the best possible picture-taking spot. I knew the gym would fill up fast so I was pretty proud of myself for getting there in time to get the PERFECT spot.
And it would have been the perfect spot if they were in the same spots they were in at the last concert. For some reason they were on the complete oposite side this time. So no pictures of her acutally playing her bass.
I settled for getting pictures of her during her down time, waiting for the other bands to perform.
One small glitch... she spotted me trying to get her picture so she hid behind her bass, like this:

So then I would text her and threaten her if she didn't knock it off, so I have some pictures of her trying to slyly read her texts, like this:
Can you tell by her fact that she is very frightened by my threats?

But I did sneak this one in:

the neighbor

Our next door neighbors are the kind of people that have lots of pets. 3 dogs, 1 lizard, 2 guinnea pigs and the newest member: a toad.


They just brought him home this past weekend and you would have thought they brought home tickets for everyone to Disneyland.







His name is Motor. Welcome to the neighborhood, Motor.