3 years ago...sniff*

How cute are they??? Morrie hates it when I pull out old photos because we miss when they were younger so much, and it seems so hard to remember!! Isabelle was in the 3rd grade here, and now Maria is going into the 3rd grade, how time flies...Can you tell I couldn't find the photos I wanted to blog about today! I came across these, and I had to share!!

More Salem...

You tell me that the other girl in the picture is 11, I'm just having serious doubts...every girl on the other team was her size...Anyway...Go Izzy!!

The girls painted their hair before the first game, you know...intimidation and all...they were having so much fun!

Look at this girl go!

This game can be quite pushy, and it is my goal to keep my mouth SHUT whenever it seems out of line. Sometimes however, I will shout "OOHHHHH" when there is an obvious foul of pulling the jersey, or pushing from behind...Morrie tells me I have to keep quiet, but it just comes out! I can't help it!! It's like a mother bear protecting her cubs...it's instinct...but i think I am getting better. It helps that's Isabelle keeps her own elbow out for blocking purposes.

Go Storm!!

This is what happens when your daughter gets invited to a Storm game...with a bunch of other girls...in a suite...with free sugar...

Morrie had just picked her up, it was late, and she came up to see me, giggling all the while. She loved the game, loved the blow up noise sticks she came home with, and loved the face paint. I just sat there with my mouth hanging open. It was hysterical!

Sassy Lady

This is the sweet Maria, wearing her ultra cool sunglasses. In the lower picture I just asked her to look at me and this is what I got. She is is just too cool without even trying. We showed up to Isabelle's soccer camp early to take pictures and Maria brought her purse, some gatorade and some books to read. Although, she was bored after 10 minutes...

She got her hair cut this summer, which I failed to post about when it happened. She got several inches cut off, as did her sister!! It was very exciting for me because their hair was soooooo long, I was happy to have a more managable length to deal with.


The girls are watching old episodes of the Cosby Show right now. They have been obsessed with it since last spring when I got some DVD's of the show. They now record it on Tivo and watch it repeatedly. I never realized how great the show was for kids...every time I think I should explain a situation that is happening on the show...the characters proceed to explain it for me, and the girls are probably listening more to them anyway. They are watching the episode where Elvin and Sandra are telling them they are not going to med school and law school, but are instead opening a camping store. It's a riot!

Happy Birthday Annie!

Annie turned 1 just the other day! So, she's technically not a puppy anymore...YAY!! This is Annie with her "Skunky" (black) and her elephant. She loves the skunk. Sometimes when she sleeps with it in her crate, she will bring it out with her in the morning and take it outside while she walks around. I have to go find another one, it is a toy that has no stuffing (she's pretty good at ripping stuff apart and leaving stuffing everywhere).

Here is Annie swimming in the lake. It's a little bit like the loch ness montster coming uot of the water!

Here is a pooped out doggie riding home from camping. She was loving the sun streaming in through the window, and trying to lay out on Maria's little lap. I know it looks like she has a million leash devices on, but it really wasn't that bad. So, here's to a calmer second year!!

Voila!

The top picture is looking into the kitchen from the family room. The red cooler at the far end is my "counter" where I usually cook pancakes on the griddle. The griddle hardly ever slips off. The garbage can in the back right corner is useful as a counter, and with the slanted lid, the paper plates we use fall right to the dog's feet. The black part if the wall is where we have taken out the drywall and the new window will go right there.

Morrie is expanding the kitchen floor into the family room (which is one step lower so we have to raise the floor). Do you like our plastic "walls"? They are super handy and the dog never gets stuck in them...

Maria is handy as a weight when Morrie needs the floor framing held down. Isn't she cute? She only tripped on it once today, and then right afterwards went in the kitchen and tripped over stuff in there. You are not allowed to have bare feet anymore in here. Although, I try to do a really good clean up job so the cats and dog are safe.

Ask and you shall receive...

Okay, here's a picture of the "kitchen". I didn't have my regular lens on the camera, so it's a sub-par shot. I promise I'm going to take more, but for those of you who HAD to see something, here you go! No cabinets, no floor, no nothing! A few appliances though, that's always a plus.

Making a Splash!

Isabelle and her soccer "mates" had a great time swimming in the hotel pool while in Salem. We managed to get them all to line up and jump in together! I should have taken a picture of the spectators by the pool. The girls were screaming up a storm as they sat on eachothers shoulders and pushed one another off, or threw the beach balls. It was insanely loud as the screams would bounce off the tiles walls. In the meantime, the parents were trying to chat while we sat and watched, but the chatting was not going so well. You could hardly ear the other person speaking. We should have sat around texting eachother as would any pre-teen in their right mind!

Salem!

Alright, so these pictures are posted in reverse order, I can't help it! Use your imagination, it's like a fun flip book!

This is from Isabelle's Oregon tournament. I will probably post several times on it, there was so much fun being had! This picture was taken after their 3rd game, which they tied in the last few minutes to qualify them for the semi-finals the next day. It was a nail biter moment for the parents and when Kiana (!) made that goal, the roar from our side was insane!! The previous tournements this year didn't end so well, so this time the girls were beyond excited.

Shoot, Wednesday already?

On the house front we are looking everywhere for a window to install. Checking prices and time frames...this is a blast! Isabelle is having fun at soccer camp this week with her team. Today Maria and I got pedicures while Isabelle was at soccer. It was great, except for the part when the lady cut my toe...hmmm...maybe I should look into nicer places from now on!

I am going a little crazi with the upstairs are messy as the downstairs. We have lots of things packed away and stored in our bedroom, so there is not a single place that is clutter free, or pleasant to be in. So this is what it is like, huh? Ok, ok, so we will be super grateful when it's all done. I'll try to keep that one in mind. The dog keeps licking the sub-floor, and I am afriad she will cut her tongue. The sub floor that seems to be the tastiest are the parts that have jagged gouges. Yummy.

And to top it all off, the children are hungry. Again. Sheesh.

Who needs a kitchen??

We don't!! Our kitchen has been demolished, yay! I'm working on the pics, and all the flooring is gone too, no kitchen floor and no dining room florr. Today I am tearing out the bathroom floor (because why not?). Morrie is moving on to tearing out part of a wall for a new window and the demo part should be somewhat complete and they can have their ridiculous dumpster back. Oh, and I'm loving watching the Olympics in between "cooking" meals for the fam and ripping out carpets!

Ohhh, a dumpster!!

We got our demo dumpster delivered today!! We are really tearing out the kitchen tomorrow and I haven't finished packing the kitchen yet, oh yay! I've been working on it all week, this hasn't even begun to suck yet and I'm overwhelmed??? Nahh...just easily side tracked I guess.