10 years: 2010, 2011 & 2012

2010

September 2010-Mykayla started 1st grade.

November 20, 2010-We celebrated Michael's 1st birthday with a turkey birthday theme. Happy 1st Birthday to our little turkey!

2011

September 2011-Mykayla started 2nd grade

November 2011-Michael turned 2!

Instead of a cupcake, Michael got a special Rice Krispie treat Popsicle from Auntie Cookie.

2012

March 9, 2012-We are celebrating our 10 year anniversary with a mini vacation to Sun Mountain Lodge for a couple days and a day of skiing.  10 years! Wow!!

On top of all the exciting events I have highlighted this week, we have also witnessed a couple weddings, had nieces and nephews born, taken other mini vacations, bought and traded in cars, payed off cars, enjoyed holidays and of course have enjoyed being with friends and family. Thanks for joining me on our journey and a look back. I have had fun!!

10years: 2008 & 2009

2008

May 2008-We took a family trip to Disneyland and had a great time!

November 2008-Adam is officially a commissioned deputy for the Pierce County Sheriff's department.

2009

March 29, 2009-We found out we were expecting our second child.

May 5, 2009- Adam graduated from the Basic Law Enforcement Academy and began his field training.

July 10, 2009- It's a Boy! Michael Carson is due November 27, 2009.

September 2009-Mykayla started kindergarten. 

Yeah, I was a huge blubbering mess but at least had a good excuse : )

November 20, 2009- Michael Carson was born! I was induced a week before my due date and he was still 9 lbs 13 oz, so glad I did not go till my due date!

This one is not loading correctly but at least you can still see his cute face : )

10 years: 2006 & 2007

2006

Probably our busiest, most eventful year yet!

January 30-Feb 5, 2006-We took a much needed vacation to Hawaii with Adam's parents. It was our first major get away since Kayla was born. We left her in the trusted arms of Auntie Nuni and Uncle Bubba and according to them, you would have never known we were gone : )

July 2007- We made a huge decision to leave family and friends to move about an hour away. We moved to Tacoma with Steve and Sandy Brannon and American Construction Company. We were both employed with them (Adam did their payroll and I was the receptionist) in Everett and then moved with the company to a brand new office in Tacoma on the Hylebos Waterway when the office in Everett was shut down. We lived in the Brannon's downstairs apartment of their home in Dash Point until buying our home in Brown's Point. This was definitely one of the biggest decisions/life changes in our marriage thus far. I think it has proven to be very good for us and our relationship.

September 2006-We purchased our second home in Brown's Point directly across the street from the local elementary school. Perfect! 

2007

March 2007-We celebrated our 5 year anniversary with a trip to Vancouver BC and Grouse Mountain for some skiing. My first and only time (till this weekend) skiing!

July 2007-I left my job at American to become a preschool teacher at Kindercare and got to be down the hall from Mykayla everyday. 

November 2007- We, I should say Adam decided it was time to start trying for another baby. I would have started trying when Kayla was 2 but the timing wasn't right. God had another plan! I came home one night and went to take my medicine when I realized my birth control was missing. Adam had hidden it, his way of telling me we could start trying again. I was so excited!!

(Unfortunately none of these events have made it into a scrapbook or the pics are on a laptop that is currently dead)

10 years: 2004 & 2005

Last night I was looking through scrapbooks making a list of big events for each year of our marriage and reminiscing about all the great times we have had. 2004 and 2005 in a list doesn't look too long and eventful but that is because we were busy enjoying each and everyday with the newest member of our family. I have a few events to share but lots of pictures : )

2004

February 23, 2004- We welcomed Mykayla Christine to our family. She was a perfect bundle of pink and cute in every sense of the words. As you can imagine, the rest of 2004 was spent enjoying our new bundle and getting used to being new parents.

One of my favorite pictures from when I was in labor with Mykayla! Adam was so good and so comforting!

Our new family of 3

Is she her daddy's child or what?

2005

Febryuary 23, 2005-Happy 1st Birthday to our princess!

10 years: The first 2 years

On Friday, Adam and I will be celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary. (Seriously, has it been that long already???) I would not trade anything about the last 10 years for anything in the world. What a wonderful ride it has been! We were engaged on Valentine's Day 2001 and planned a wedding for March 9, 2002, a little over a year to plan our big day. So in honor of our anniversary, I am going to blog about 2 years a day this week.

2002

March 9, 2002- We were married at First Baptist Church in Everett and celebrated afterwards with a reception at the Everett Elks.

March 2002- We drove to Southern California to spend our honeymoon in the Grand Californian at Disneyland. We went to Disneyland and California Adventure and enjoyed each others company as newlyweds.

The rest of the year was spent in bliss as newlyweds : ) 

2003

March 2003- To celebrate our first wedding anniversary, we took a trip to Ocean Shores for a couple days.

May 2003-We decided we were done with apartment living and were ready to purchase our first home. We packed up our apartment, put almost all of it in storage and moved in with my mom and dad to look for our first home.

July 21, 2003- We found out we were expecting our first child! (And yes, if you do the math Mykayla was conceived while living with my parents : )

September 2003-House buying is stressful! After two realtor's and a couple failed offers, we FINALLY purchased our first home in Marysville. 

Ocotober 13, 2003-It's a girl! We had come up with a girl name several months prior and it pretty much stuck without ever consulting a baby name book. Mykayla Christine was due March 5, 2004.

(Pictures are a little fuzzy as they were taken directly from my scrapbooks)

Celebrating my best friend

Happy 29th Birthday to my BFF!!

 Today is my bestest friend in the whole world Jenny's 29th birthday, thought I would tell you about this amazing gal who has been a part of my life for the last 17 years. Jenny and I met at First Baptist Church in 1995 and pretty much have been best friends ever since. Throw in my twin sister Kattrina and we are the three Amigos. We have been through almost all life's monuments together, have shed tears together, have picked each other up when one or the other falls, have looked each other straight in the face and told them how it was and have conquered some of life's most difficult moments together. 

In June of 1997, our youth group at First Baptist took a mission trip to Tecate, Mexico where we built 12ft by 12ft homes and taught Vacation Bible School to the children their.  We stayed a couple days in Southern California before heading into Tecate to put some finishing touches on what we would do while in Mexico. One evening while staying in a local YMCA, we had been playing games and basketball in the gym. We were in the locker rooms showering and freshening up when I noticed that one side of Jenny's face was bright red while the other was pale, her pupils were two different sizes and if you held her hands one was freezing and the other was burning up. I pointed this out to her and soon after we returned, Jenny was in the doctors office having blood drawn and test run to see what the issue was. In July, Jenny was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma cancer. A tumor was on top of her lung.  Jenny was getting ready to enter her freshman year at Cascade High School in September with this scary chapter ahead of her. I cannot remember any detail of when Jenny told us what the doctors had told her. (It's possible, I have blocked this from my memory) Over the next several months, Jenny underwent chemotherapy and stayed several nights and days at Children's Hospital in Seattle. I had a couple chances to visit her at Children's but after about 2 or 3 trips I had to be honest and tell Jenny I would see her at home when she was well enough to have visitors but that I would not be able to come to the  hospital anymore. I was emotionally drained after a day's visit. Seeing children with IV's in their heads riding bikes around the hospital was too much for me. (I can't help but think this was totally selfish of me but I know Jenny was so understanding and never once mentioned it) I would say the hardest part of it was that Jenny (even though she is 2 1/2 years younger than me) always took care of me like an older sister. Visiting Jenny was sometimes like visiting a very small child and I could not handle seeing her like that or having the roles reversed. I can recall a few late night calls from Cindy (Jenny's mom) letting us know that they were heading back to the hospital because she had caught some bug or was not doing well. Each time we hung up the phone, I would cry and say a little prayer.  I could not imagine being 17 and losing my best friend. Now some of you know Jenny well enough to know that she was not going down without a fight. She was so strong and stubborn and in January of 1999 was cleared of cancer and was in remission. Jenny had clear checks with every follow up appointment and now 13 years later, does not even have them done anymore. 

While all of the above seems totally depressing, we also had fun times throughout her treatment. Jenny was a recipient of several Make a Wish foundation wishes. I had the privilege of joining her on a couple of them and will never forget any of them! We rode in limos, had on ice seats to skate shows, ate at one of the most expensive restaurants in Seattle and had a day of unlimited games at Gameworks in Seattle. Jenny flew to Southern California where she met Howie Mandel and met and skated with Scott Hamilton. I was invited along on this trip but due to some severe anxiety issues I turned it down which to this day I regret! 

Despite the first two years of high school being spent in and out of the hospital and missing several days of school, Jenny graduated with her class on time in June of 2001. I am pretty sure I shed tears as my amazing friend walked across the stage. Jenny was in my wedding in March of 2002 (Yeah, this girl helped me go to the bathroom on my wedding day. That is dedication!)  and was present at the birth of my daughter Mykayla. She has been actively involved in both my children's lives ever since. And when I say actively, I mean cleaning up their puke (more than once), watching them overnight and attending annoying children's concerts (Think Wiggles!) with us even when she did not have children of her own. Jenny married her husband Travis (who coincidentally also had childhood cancer, diagnosed in 1989, remission in 1992 and was trained by my dad at Comcast several years before the two of them met) Their son Logan is celebrating his 2nd birthday next month. I blogged about him last year on his first birthday. He was born 8 weeks premature and spent several weeks in the NICU at UW before being transferred to Children's for two weeks. Logan was fortunately as stubborn as his mother and put up an awesome fight for his life! Today he is a happy, healthy little boy who is lucky enough to have Jenny for his mother.


Jenny-
Happy Birthday to my very special friend! Thanks for all you have done and continue to do for me and my family. You know this blog does not even begin to cover all you have done for me and been through with me. I love you and am so happy to call you my best friend. Here's to 17 more years!!
-Mae

I love organizing!!

I have been putting my love of organizing to good use this week and after saying for several months, "I really need to get that in order." I have finally done it!! I started on Monday with our business drawer and files. We still had 2010 and 2011 business and paperwork in the drawer so you can imagine it was crammed full. 

Tuesday I organized and purged (Big time!) the kids memorabilia buckets. Michael's was not too bad, Mykayla's was a mess. 3 1/2 years of Preschool/PreK and 3 years of elementary school...lots of artwork and paper! I saved everything apparently and now it was time to move on. I let her help me to make it a little easier. We enjoyed reminiscing together. My new system is courtesy of my big sis. Each grade level has a separate folder.  If it doesn't fit, it doesn't stay!

Wednesday, I tackled 5 photo boxes full of photos. My goal was to have 1 picture box of some kind. I found the perfect bin and got started. This mission was completed Thursday morning. It took awhile because I was having so much fun looking at pictures and walking down memory lane. I did get rid of a small stack (mainly of all those index prints. Why on earth was on hanging on to those?) I have a VERY hard time getting rid of pictures. After all, I am a scrapper!

And finally...Michael's closet before & after. This is where all these memorabilia and picture boxes are stored.

Before...

After..

Ahhh, I love a clean and organized space!!