Another Creative Side of Amber and One Brave Boy

So Rob and I came home from a date a few weeks ago and found this!




Her inspiration you ask?

Never a dull moment with Miss Amber!!

On to our Brave Boy! So one night David says to me "Mom, my finger hurts. I hurt it in PE playing volleyball the other day. Look what happened". And he proceeded to show me his finger (as he innocently flipped me off) that looked rather infected. Possibly a hang nail gone bad or something similar, I thought. By morning the thing had doubled in size and his finger was red and swollen. So off to the doctor we went. It was some kind of staff infection!!! WHAT?!?!?! SERIOUSLY?!?!? Where in the world...? So the doc had to drain it. Yes, cringe! The doc told David "it will hurt but if I gave you a shot to numb the pain, that would hurt worse." So David needed that bullet to bite on ~ which wound up being my hand being squeezed to pieces. Man, he was SO brave!! Trying SO hard not to cry until I told him "it's okay to cry! This hurts!". Even the doctor told him to cry because he knew it hurt. The doctor had to take a sample and send it off to the lab to make sure it wasn't MERSA (which it wasn't) and get David on an antibiotic. So I took the brave boy to Starbuck's and got him a Venti Vanilla Bean Frappuccino and his favorite breakfast sandwich. I'd say he deserved it, don't you?

The Girl is on a Roll!!!

This past Saturday was the WMSTA Music History Day. Amber tied for 1st place in her age category!! She did a live performance of The Girl I Mean To Be from the Secret Garden.

Those two women are the judges. And anyone that has been to things like this, knows you DO NOT sit close to the judges.

Amber's Going to STATE!!!!!

So back at the of January, there is a regional Solo Ensemble contest. This is where music students from the San Juan region come and compete against each other for the privileged of moving on the the State contest. Well, Miss Amber won FIRST PLACE!!!! SO PROUD of this girl!! Here's her piece that she will also play at the end of April over at Central Washington University.

A BIG thank you to Barb Buckingham ~ our wonderful pianist!!

Sonata for Bassoon by Paul Hindemith
Movement 1


Sonata for Bassoon by Paul Hindemith
Movement 2

Trying Something New

So last year we did a regular, in-ground garden. Some success, some not. Got overwhelmed with weeds :P

This year we are going to try THIS:

Square Foot Gardening.

I took a class last week about this and I'm encouraged. I'm ready to put this to the test. SO many people swear by this way of gardening and LESS weeds. That is important to me.

We will keep you posted on our progress and the results.

PS ~ Remember our sad results from our pumpkin patch? I learned from taking this class that MANY people did not have good pumpkin crops. I'm feeling much better now that I know it just wasn't me. Is that terrible?

Just teasing you...

..(Cassie, Tina, Jenn, Kris....) until I get the one up that's REALLY good.

I was too busy dancing and rocking out to the music to get the entire song. This is one of my new favorites. So below is his music video for this song. LOVE IT!!!

Missing our Buggy

We got to talk with Lizzie yesterday. She's getting to be such a big girl too. And she was in such a sassy mood. So I thought I'd post a few photos from her trip out here. We LOVE going to Kyoto Steakhouse for dinner.

Made a smiley face just for Lizzie


Just watching the guy cooking her dinner and spinning eggs.


The Volcano


And Lizzie's reaction ~ the heat was pretty strong.

And tradition has to to continue to stuff ourselves and have ice cream at Mallards.

Lizzie helping Amber eat hers


Helping Daddy eat his


And finishing off Ganma's


FINALLY she's full :D


And asking Daddy if she got the the stuff off her face.

We Miss You Lizzie!!!!

Ever See $86 Worth of Chocolate?

We're talking "high end" chocolate, not your normal, everyday, run of the mill Hershey's. Seven bars and 2 packages of chocolate covered marshmallows (made in-house). And yes, we do still have some of those bars left to nibble on.

On a trip to Seattle back in January we stopped at a place called Chocolopolis!! It's AMAZING!! It's on Queen Anne Hill in downtown Seattle. Stop by if you get the chance and get one of their yummy hot chocolate or drinking chocolates. You'll LOVE it!

Did you know that cacao grows in so many regions? Rob did but I didn't.

And another shot we snapped on the way down. Just too sweet!

Musical Weekend

I can handle weekends like this every weekend!!!

Friday ~ Bon Jovi concert in Seattle.
For Christmas we bought tickets for all of us.


Nose-bleed section, behind the stage but oh, SO fun!!!



This was the kids first "real" concert.

Saturday ~ A Jazz concert at Lairmont manor

Can't beat a weekend FULL of music!!!

Vacation anyone?

I wish!!!! I told Rob just last night that Disneyland is sounding like a good idea right about now. Except we are having better weather here than down in So. Cal. But just to get away and run around Disneyland for a few days would just be heavenly. But unfortunately, too many commitments :(

But I did run across this picture today on the Disney Parks Blog (yes! It's true!!). This picture just took my breath away.

A Foggy Morning on the Rivers of America

I just LOVE the little details of Disneyland. Here are some of my favorite details that I've snapped from previous trips.






And this is one of my favorites!! I played with it a bit in a Photoshop class I took.

And my other all time favorite!

So Sorry!!!

Life is taking over blogging :D Go figure!!! So we will catch you up on things but first I need to give this boy

his own blog entry.

Isn't he just the cutest thing?!?!

David turned 13!!!!! As of January 29th it's official ~ our baby is a teenager. Complete with his voice changing and the dark hair coming in above his upper lip. It's not quite time to start shaving yet, but I'm sure it's not too far off. Makes me sad (and feeling older). But it's still one of those birthday's that you can still buy fun "boy kid toys".



So glad he still LOVES to play Legos


Are you sensing a Star Wars and Star Trek theme here?

He's always loved Star Trek and Star Wars



And what is a birthday without getting something Nerf to be able to torture your sisters?

Now to explain David's cake. He has always LOVED slug bugs. So when I saw these at the store I just knew I had to put them on his cake even though it was a tad child-like.

He LOVED it!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID!!
Hope that wish comes true!