Send in the Clowns!

Just wanted to share a few pictures from my nephew's school play last night.  It was called "Clowns" and Julian had one of the lead roles and did an awesome job!! The mad hatter hat made the entire costume in my opinion. 

In that bottom picture of the kids, I am not sure if Michael was a little freaked out by cousin's appearance or if he really just did not want to be there : ) Probably a little of both!

Living room/Dining room transformation update!!

Well, since my original transformation post, we have already changed our color scheme and decided to go lighter.  Thought maybe the gray and red combo was a little dark for our main living area.  Instead we will go with this... (Unfortunately the computer doesn't give it much justice, but it is a very light blue and khaki)

We may go one shade darker on the khaki.  We will still have the chair rail with khaki and blue on the main wall and one solid colored blue wall. The rest of the walls will be khaki with white trim.

Here is the before pictures....

And the during.... (This is tonight with primer on the walls. Paint goes on tomorrow!!)

I will of course be back with the afters hopefully soon.  Adam has 10 days off of work because he is playing in a hockey tournament this weekend so he has been working very hard on this project hoping to finish before he goes back to work. 

EGG DROP UPDATE:

For those of you that checked in Tuesday evening for the results, sorry I didn't get them posted then.  Anyway, unfortunately Mykayla's egg did not survive the drop but she did get a lovely certificate that said Congratulations! Your egg almost made it! Too funny! (On a side note, I think Daddy was more excited to see the results and more upset about them then Kayla was)



Operation 1st grade egg drop

Tomorrow is the 1st grade egg drop at Mykayla's school. Basically, package a raw egg so that it will not crack when dropped from the roof of the school. There is some very specific rules to follow in order to not be disqualified from the contest. Mykayla was very excited to do this project with daddy.  After checking and double checking the rules, Mykayla and daddy (Ok, let's be realistic, daddy did most of the work. Mykayla was moral support) went to work with their plan.  Daddy "blew up" water balloons, packaged them in a box, not to exceed 7 inches on any side and then secured them with tape and straws in a grid format. Next, it was time for a test drop. We had bought a carton of 12 eggs so we could drop it several times till we perfected it.  Daddy went up stairs to his bedroom and dropped the package onto the deck down below and then the moment of truth.....IT SURVIVED!! Mykayla was so excited!!! The package is currently setting in our fridge (Wouldn't want the egg to spoil, I guess???) waiting for it's big appearance tomorrow. I will update tomorrow with how it did.  For now here is some photos of tonight's prep session.

1st attempt: Box and balloons too big!

Wrapping up the box so Kayla can decorate it.

2nd attempt: Smaller balloons with straws in grid format. Had to tape the box shut, it was a little full.

Waiting for the test drop

and IT SURVIVED!!

Weighing the package on daddy's work scale (You can probably guess what he has to weigh on this. Nice huh?) It was 5.14 oz, could not exceed 8 oz

Tune in tomorrow to see how it did in the real thing!

He is Risen!

Christ the Lord is Risen Today!! What better reason than to celebrate? 

Yesterday we went to Marysville Church of the Nazarene's Egg Hunt and festivities.  They had 10,000 eggs, face painting, bouncy houses, pony rides, popcorn, cookie decorating, coloring, Lego building and Easter story telling. It was an amazing outreach with about 1500 in attendance getting a small glimpse of the true meaning of Easter while having fun and playing games. We ran into cousin Elliott (and her mommy and daddy) and her cousins Zander and Zoe. It was so fun to see them! This was Michael's first big, lots of people event since really walking and for some reason I decided not to take the stroller out of the van. Man was that a mistake! I was exhausted after 45 minutes of chasing him and promptly went and got the stroller to strap him in. 

This year we celebrated Easter at my sister and brother in law's home.  Celia always has beautiful decorations and a wonderful meal prepared. This year, I even helped out in the kitchen preparing stuffed mushrooms, potatoes and deviled eggs. Auntie Cookie (this is what my kids call Celia) made a special dish just for Michael with some of the items we were eating minus what he couldn't have and he ate every last bite.  Mykayla and Michael each got 4 "Easter baskets" total. (Yes, I am fully aware that my children are spoiled, but my family loves doing it!) The kids all enjoyed an Easter egg hunt outside in cloudy weather but with a brief break from the rain. (It was so beautiful and warm yesterday.  Could it not have done us a favor and stuck around for one more day.

Hope you all enjoyed celebrating Christ's Resurrection with your loved ones!

I'm so Dizzy

We had a great time at Dizzy's Tumble Bus yesterday celebrating Logan's 1st Birthday. Cute little place in Bellevue that looks like a bus and has rings, parallel bars, a trampoline, slide, monkey bars and much more.

After the Dizzy Bus, we all headed over to Alfy's to celebrate with more friends and family. It was a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme with lots of balloons, cute cupcakes and friends and family to celebrate with!

Happy 1st Birthday Logan!

One year ago tomorrow my best friend gave birth to a little boy, Logan Bennett.  Logan was born 8 weeks premature with a due date of June 14.  I remember getting a call from her mom on that morning.  I happened to be on a break at work and she said "Maelen, they are taking Jen in for an emergency c-section, Logan will be here today." I hung up the phone and spent the rest of the day worrying about my best friend and her new little boy.  I knew he was very premature and with a stay in the NICU, many challenges and difficult times were ahead. But what a stubborn (A little bit like his mother) and STRONG little boy he was! Throughout the days and weeks ahead, Logan would improve, then fall back a little, then improve, then fall back and then improve some more.  I was fortunate to visit him and Jenny at University of Washington NICU a couple of different times and was amazed at the work they do there.  Logan is the first child close to me that was born premature or had to be in a NICU for that matter.  My first visit, Travis (Jenny's husband) met me at the elevator. (Such a good guy! Jen knows of my fear of  riding elevators by myself so she always had someone waiting for me) He showed me the ropes of how to enter the NICU with the complete scrub down and health check. I was very intimidated by all the tubes, machines and alarms at first. I was able to touch Logan and see his little face and body and again felt very intimidated but as time and visits passed, I became more and more comfortable with it and even got to hold Logan on one visit! Logan got to go home on July 3, 2010! He spent a total of  8 weeks in the NICU at University of Washington, was transferred to Children's Hospital for surgery and then spent 2 weeks there before going home.  Today Logan is a happy and healthy one year old little boy!  On Saturday we will celebrate him and all he has overcome in his first year of life. I am so excited to help celebrate with him. I have watched him come a long way and fight so hard! He truly is a blessing and I love him!!

This picture is from my very first visit with Logan. I believe he was about a week and a half old. So tiny!

This is my favorite picture! His little eyes are open, looking at mom and dad.  Jenny and Travis were amazing through this whole thing.  One of them was by Logan's side at almost all times. Logan was blessed with very loving, patient and faithful parents!

Logan chilling at the parade (Late July 2010)

I took this picture about 2 weeks ago at the mall with his new hat that I bought him.

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY LOGAN! AUNTIE LOVES YOU!

You know you are a cop's kid/wife when...

You know you are a cop's kid when...

Your mom and neighbor decide to take pictures of you with your hands up against daddy's car.  Michael was not very cooperative.  We got a pretty cute one of her little girl though : )  

You have pictures from the beach of you in daddy's "cop" glasses.

Token picture of child "behind bars". This picture, ironically was taken at the Pierce County Sheriff's Dept Christmas party.

You know you are a cop's wife when...

(Some of these I got from a group I use to belong to but all are from my experience so far)

* You go out to eat a restaurant and automatically sit in the chair with your back to the door, so he can face it!

* While driving together in your family car, your husband points out all suspended drivers and moving violations.

* You ask your husband why he is so dirty after a shift and he says "Because I wrestled a half naked chick in the mud." (This was shortly after Adam started his field training)

* You go to bed, but are still "awake" till you hear the key turn in the door and know he is safe at home.

*Shortly after the door closes you hear velcro ripping

* You have to explain to your 7 year old one more time why daddy isn't home when she goes to bed.

* You hear all about the speeding ticket he just got out of because he is a fellow law enforcement officer : )

* COPS is on your DVR and you actually enjoy watching it with him and listening to him talk to the suspects/officers on the show.

* You get to wear the bright yellow vest at an accident scene during a ride along so people don't keep "bugging" you.

* You begin to worry when an unidentified car has been sitting in front of your house for longer than 2 min. We have a stop sign in front of our house; but still, move on people!

* You have a love/hate relationship with shift changes.  You love the ones that give him several days off in a row and hate the ones that he has to work several days in a row.

*You are a PROUD wife and know that your husband is putting his life out there so you and those around you can be safe.

(I could go on, this is just to name a few!)

I LOVE my deputy!!!

Let the Living/dining room transformation begin....

The other day, Adam says to me "I have been inspired by Amanda's (my sister in law, who's blog I have referenced before) blog post and I think we should start slowly redoing rooms in our house." Or something close to this : ) I was so excited!!! There is so much I have want to do but do realize we have to accomplish things slowly. I am totally OK with this as it is going to get done. Our first transformation is going to be the living/dining room.  Basically our downstairs, minus the kitchen is one big open living area so we will start with that entire room.  Last night, we sat down and made our wish list...

Living/dining room wish list:

-Wains coating with chair rail

-paint walls

-paint or refinish hutch (my scrapbook hutch)

-new blinds on windows & sliding glass door

-paint ugly green tile around fireplace

-replace gold lighting fixture in dining room

-baseboard and window trim

After some discussion and flipping through the Home Depot color book that I got for inspiration, we decided on some main colors and ideas for the room.  We decided against wains coating and are going to go with painting the bottom part of the main wall in the room and then put up a chair rail.  We also want to paint the wall that is next to the fireplace.  This paint color will probably be a light gray and the rest of the walls will be painted white.  Then we will use red for an accent color (frames, accessories, maybe some furniture).  The main furniture project will be my hutch.  We will probably get slip covers for the couch and chair for now and possibly do something the the dining room table and chairs. I am going to do some garage sale hunting to see if maybe I can find a table to refinish.  Our current dining room chairs are black, may just buy red cushions for them and call it good. 

Adam came home from Lowes with these today.  Our wish list is also in this picture.

This is our original inspirations!

I will post before and after pictures when we get started, hope you will continue to follow our transformation!



A Perfect Spring Day!

Yesterday we went to the Pierce County Sheriff's Department family egg hunt and what a great time it was.  I enjoyed watching Michael this year because he actually "got it" and knew to look for eggs and toss them in your basket.  It was very bittersweet for Michael because all he could do was find eggs, but not enjoy : (  If the candy wasn't hard and small, then it contained something he couldn't have.  Luckily I had some Pirates Bootie on hand for him.  There was also cupcakes, cookies, and other snacks that poor Michael kept eyeing but couldn't have.  In the future, I will definitely have to plan for such events so that Michael can enjoy the treats too. Mykayla is a seasoned pro at the whole egg hunt thing so she of course got a ton!
Some pictures from the fun we had yesterday...

To finish off our perfect Spring day, we went on an afternoon walk/wagon ride and then had barbequed hamburgers and turkey dogs with baked beans for dinner. It was a good day!!

A Mobile Phone Memoir of 2010

Adam and I got Blackberries on Valentine's Day last year.  So today I uploaded all the photos from Valentine's Day 2010 to today. (Thank you Kattrina for the tip on uploading the pictures, wish I would have known it was that simple a year ago!) Thought it would be fun to share my favorite 3 from each month over the last year.  Here we go... (It's kind of long, sorry.)

February

Celebrating Mykayla's birthday at Great Wolf Lodge

The very first picture I took on my phone on Valentine's Day

My cool little man

March

Michael looks up to his big sister

Michael & his cousin Elliott.  Believe it or not, they are only 2 months apart : )

1st lost tooth

April

Michael's 1st Mariner game

This is how I found my boys many days when I came home at lunch

2nd lost tooth

May

Snuggling with sister

Adam and Kevin "crabbing"

Swinging at a neighborhood park

June

Relaxing at Whiskeytown Lake during our trip to California

Mykayla's Kindergarten graduation

Trying solid foods for the first time, not a big fan of peas

July

Logan chillin' at the 4th of July parade

Mykayla at Dash Point State park in daddy's cop glasses

Mykayla and 3 of her preschool friends that we see every couple months still

August

Cowboy hat from Papa Mike and Grandma Linda's was originally sisters

Mykayla's locker at school

Yep, he fell asleep in the exersaucer

September

Waiting for sister to get home from her first day of school

Elliott helping Papa & Grandma move

Michael cruising

October

Mykayla's 1st sleepover with her friend Olivia

My mom & dad's amazing Halloween costume. My dad majored in costume design in college, can you tell?

Typical man in the TV aisle : )

November

Mykayla & Daddy getting into the country music awards

Grandma Linda looking at Black Friday ads with the grandkids.  I am pretty sure she is writing a list as they all point things out to her.

Heathman Lodge on a business trip with Auntie Cookie

December

Mykayla the Red Nosed Reindeer

Having some lunch in the toddler class. This was his first week in the "big" kid class.

Ice skating at the Pierce County Sheriff's Dept family Christmas party

January

Mommy and Michael sleeping, scary how much we look alike. Obviously someone else got ahold of my phone : )

The newest member of our family, Brooks Steven-January 12, 2011

Pushing the cart at IKEA. We were looking at big boy beds so we could give cousin Brooks his crib back.

So I think now that I have shared one year in one post, from now on it will be one month in one post. A collage of my favorite cell phone pictures from the month.

It will be called "My Month of Mobile Memories". Stay tuned!!

Love to scrap!!

So today's prompt is Music and for a second week in a row (total failed attempt last week) I am going to attempt to record and upload a video about this prompt.  Crossing fingers!  Ok, apparently not going to happen anytime soon : )
Instead I will take a prompt from the book I got at the library:

#87  Do what you love. Blog about your passion.

I love to scrapbook, definitely one of my passions and all time favorite past times.  I have several friends and family members that I scrap with, many of whom I have introduced (insert my apologies here for those I have enabled in this hobby) the hobby of scrapping to.  My favorite scrapping pals are my sisters and my mom.  We all have different scrapping styles and it is so fun to see each other's pages of the same set of pictures. I started scrap booking in 1998.  My introduction to it was a Creative Memories party where I purchased a 12x12 album, a circle cutting system and scissors.  I have since found several scrapbook stores that I love to just go and wander around. Oh and still page ideas!  I was a loyal customer of  Lasting Memories in Lynnwood till last year when they closed their doors after 14 years.  I will always have many memories of crops, friends and purchases (Yes, they tracked how much you spent, let's not go there) at Lasting Memories. In the last 13 years of scrapping, I have completed close to 20 of my own 12x12 albums and about 25 albums as gifts including an album for each of my bridesmaids when I got married, an album for my twin sister in laws for graduation, an album for my older sister "from her husband" : ), several baby books and lots of mini albums and calendars in between. I am currently working on 2008 and hope to get a jump start on 2009 soon.  I do have to admit to skipping around though, I get bored easily : ) My current scrap space is limited to a hutch in my dining room as my scrap room became a nursery in late 2010. (He was definitely worth it!)  My current favorite scrapping tool is my Cricut, an electronic die cutting machine.  You can do just about anything on your pages with it and it has endless possibilities.  My all time favorite item to buy is PAPER!! You can never have too much paper.  I will end with some fun photos of my favorite hobby addiction. It's an addiction, not gonna lie!

Below is a picture of mini albums that my sisters, mom and I did one evening while attending the Scrapbook convention in Portland. We did this in our hotel room : )

Half my scrapbook collection

The other half

My scrap space

The sign says Memories from the Scrapbook of the Heart.



"Sunny With A Chance of Ice Cream"

Today's blog featured author: Mykayla

Ok so this post will be a bit of a mom brag but I am totally ok with it.  Mykayla at 7 years old is an amazing reader (5th grade level) and writer.  She recently placed 2nd in the school spelling bee among other 1st graders.  She loves to write short stories and loves even more to share them with family and friends. So I have decided to feature her latest story inspired by the book Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs for my blog post tonight.  I am going to write her story below exactly how she wrote it. Enjoy!

Sunny With A Chance of Ice Cream

By: Mykayla Pawlak



Once upon a time lived the tiny town of Brownie point NO MATTER what Ice-cream came down from the sky at Breakfast, lunch and dinner.  It flew across the sky!! The weather forecaster predicted that it was going to be a sunny day with ice-cream was going to come down softley.  When it landed it looked like diffrennt colerd montins falling from the sky!  The pepole yelled for  Help and also ran for shellter and when it stoped they came out and played in it.  Then the towns people called the sanitaion department and they took all the ice cream and put it back on the earth so the next day would have anof ice cream to eat.  And the pepole in the town of Brownie point stayed there forever. The End

Coming soon... I found a book at the library called "No One Cares What You Had for Lunch; 100 Ideas for Your Blog" I am excited to use some of these writing prompts in my blog!  Tomorrow is Wednesday, going to give a second try to Vloggin Vednesday, hope it works out this time.



A very crafty Sunday

We had a crafty Sunday afternoon today.  Mykayla made a pencil holder using a toilet paper tube and craft sticks, Michael colored with his chunky crayons and I got one page scrapped.  I was hoping to do more but dinner dishes, bath time and bed time called instead.  Possibly this week while Adam works, I will get more done. Wishful thinking at least!

I don't know what I would do if my child had allergies...

Being a preschool teacher, I have had a few children with allergies to one food or another. I have always been known to say that I don't know what I would do if my child had allergies.  Guess I spoke to soon because we recieved test results today from Michael's allergy testing 2 weeks ago and well, I have a child with allergies.
Michael has had "extreme" baby exzema since he was very little.  We have been in and out of doctor's offices, had a few several ointments, creams and oral medications prescribed and yet nothing seemed to really do the trick.  Finally, two weeks ago we were able to get him into see a pediatric allergy doctor who immediately did blood work (His back was too broken out to do skin testing) and sent us home with an entire page full of  bathing and ointment instructions to get his skin under control.  I spoke with the doctor this afternoon and the numbers (not sure how these work but will hopefully learn more soon) were very high for peanuts/tree nuts (96) and eggs (72).  He is also allergic to beef, wheat and soy.  He told me at this point to stay away from seafood also.  I mentioned an "incident" that we had with a Recees peanut butter cup when Michael was about 9 months old.  He got ahold of one and ate just about the whole thing till I caught it. (Insert total mom guilt moment right here).  Within 20 minutes of eating it, he started puking and acting a little funny.  Very scary moment for me! He was fine and I chalked it up to too much sugar at one time. Um, that wasn't it! So the doctor said, "That brings me to my next point, you need to carry an Epi pen for him also." Woah, what??? That made it all very real and scary for me.  So over the next couple weeks, we will become more educated, aware and careful when giving Michael anything to eat.  He is also highly allergic to dogs.  Kind of a bummer considering most of our relatives and friends have dogs, we do not.
After 16 months, it is a relief to know what the problem really is and be able to move on from here to help my little man feel better!

April 2010

This picture was taken the week of Easter, we took him to Children's Hospital Urgent Care clinic in Bellevue on Easter Sunday.  Thank goodness for an auntie who doesn't take no for an answer!

March 2011

Great Wolf Lodge, last weekend of March. His arms and legs have been broken out for several months now.





We had to take advantage of the sunshine this afternoon

We are fortunate enough to live directly across the street from Mykayla's elementary school so on days like today, we have to get out and take full advantage of the sun and the great play toys across the street. That is exactly what we did today!

Then we came home and got out the hula hoop, jump rope and sidewalk chalk. I even got in on the jumprope action, great workout!

A beautiful afternoon with my beautiful children!

My husband...

So I was super excited to do a vlog (video blog) this week.  There is a blog that hosts Vloggin Vednesday.  He gives a prompt each week and you record your blog instead of typing it.  Well last night after 4 recording attempts and a video download error, I gave up at midnight.  I am going to try again next week, this time giving myself more time and not being the procrastinator that I usually am : )

I have decided however to still go ahead and use this weeks prompt for the vlog to blog about.  After all he was one of my most favorite people and I love to talk about him. 
So this weeks prompt...your signifigant other! So of course I am vlogging blogging about my husband Adam. 

How we met....
I met Adam through his oldest brother Patrick.  Pat and I went to a Homecoming dance my Junior year of high school.  We became friends and started to hang out.  He introduced me to Adam and in turn had got to know my older sister Celia.  Long story short; Pat and Celia were married in 1998 and Adam and I got engaged on Valentines Day 2001 and were married in March 2002. ( We jus celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary) So yes, my sister and I have the same maiden and married name.  It is so fun to have a sister along at family events! Adam was my first boyfriend, first kiss, pretty much first everything and I wouldn't trade that for anything.
I have come up with 10 things about Adam that I am going to share...

1.He is an amazing father to our two children

(Old picture, but one of my absolute favorties!)

2. He is a Deputy Sheriff for Pierce County and I could not be more proud!

3. He graduated from Central Washington University with a degree in accounting

4. Adam has 9 siblings; 5 sisters and 4 brothers

5. He is an awesome uncle to our 15 nieces and nephews

(Again, pretty old pic and obviously some are missing but you get the idea)

6. He loves watching and playing hockey. Our garage is consumed with on-ice gear and goalie gear

7. Our garage is also consumed with a motorcycle that he rides when and if the sun comes out

(Let's face it, we do live in Seattle)

8. He is an avid football fan! I refer to myself as a football widow during football season.

9.  Adam is a natural at any sport he wants to pick up and do.

10. His all time favorite movies are the Back to the Future movies.



Guess that got kind of long or I just really like to talk about him : )