Check out the new button

I added a new button to our family blog and I hope you all will take a minute to check out the link. The button is for my friends son, Austin. Austin is waiting for a kidney transplant. We had hoped that his Mom (who is a match) would be able to be Austin's donor but follow up tests have concluded that it isn't possible for her to be the donor. Austin's uncle is currently being tested to see if he will be able to be the donor.

So check out Austin's blog and read his story. If you are able to give anything to help with the costs, there is a link that allows you to donate. If you aren't able to give, please give prayers in behalf of this family. They are such wonderful people. I can't imagine what Cortney and Ben have been feeling while watching their son deal with this illness.

We will be having a garage sale here in Washington ( I am hoping for mid June) so if you have things to donate to the garage sale please let me know. All the proceeds will go to Austin's medical costs.

God Bless! Have a wonderful day!

pics of the girls on Rosado blog

http://lafamiliarosado.blogspot.com/2011/03/st-pattys-day.html

Here is a link to Rachel's blog. She put some cute pictures up of the girls at Lattins.

The girls

I got a new camera! I love it. I'm very excited about it, I know nothing about it. It's a cannon and is one step up from a regular point and shoot camera and that's all I know. The girls are both asleep at the same time right now so I thought I would share some new pictures that I took with my new camera. We've also been doing some fun things this past week or 2. This picture is of the Cougar at NW trek. My camera has 35x zoom. It's so fun.

Peter brought home a ballet outfit for Violet last week and she is in LOVE! She walks around like a little ballerina and wants to wear it everyday when she gets home from school. Her toe walking suits her when she is wearing her ballet outfit.

The girls and I took Aunt Diana to NW Trek on Saturday. It was raining and we didn't have umbrellas so we rented some. Violet insisted that she needed to hold one all by herself. It was a big as she was.

Claire had originally wanted to walk, I didn't pack the stroller, then we got there and she wanted to ride, so I rented a stroller, then she would only ride if Violet sat in the stroller and she could sit on her lap. Claire is going to make me gray.

Violet had picture day this week at school. I hope she smiled for the camera. She decided she wanted some lipstick. Thank goodness this was the day before picture day because that is long wear lipstick and it takes forever to get off!

Katie and Kya are visiting! The girls love Kya so much. Today Claire was helping me upload these pictures onto the computer and she pointed to Kya and said "Kya!....Let's go!" Then she went and got her shoes and coat.

Claire loves to give Kya kisses, they are so sweet. I can't wait to have all the cousins together this summer, the kids all love each other so much.

Kya playing with all the kids at Rachel's house.

Claire has no fear at all. I try to convince her that the toddler slides at the park are more fun than the 10 foot high ones but she insists that the big ones are much cooler. Again, Claire is going to make me gray.

The girls fought bedtime last night for about 4 hours and I was so frustrated and tired. But when I went to check in on them before going to bed they were snuggled up in Claire's bed. It just melted my heart. They are so precious.

how to survive a rainy week

So we are super bored around here. It has been raining and cold all week and we have been inside way too much. Mary sent the girls a rainy day survival pack, it has lots of crayons and Paint. Violet loves to paint and color but Claire really loves to finger paint. It's even more fun if you get to be nakie while you paint because then you get to do body art too.

our little "butting" artist. ok now you know how bored I am I am making up unfunny puns :)
what?

Also, since Peter doesn't get home till 7 it has been a real struggle to get dinner made without a big fight, a tantrum and some destruction, so I decided we needed something cool to keep in the kitchen to keep the girls entertained while I made dinner. A little plastic tote filled with play sand and some sand toys and cars and animals and little plastic jewels and bugs and you've got an indoor sandbox! I know you think I may be insane but the girls are pretty good about keeping the sand in the box and they loved it! They sat for 45 minutes straight while I made dinner.

I buried a bunch of stuff in the sand and the girls had so much fun finding everything. Claire found an elephant!

Also on thursday we got to sneak over to the cider mill after preschool with Olivia and Rachel. There were baby goats born that morning and they were so precious! My camera was at home so maybe Rachel will share some pictures on her blog later. The girls had a blast and of course we had some donuts. We left just as the rain started and a field trip of preschoolers showed up. Just in time! So we are surviving our boring rainy season, but we are really anxious for some sunny weather! Hope you all are well. We are ready to count down to August when everyone will be here.

Oh kids

The girls have been having bedtime at the same time the past couple of weeks and we usually have a quiet show going on the mini dvd player to help keep them quiet while they fall asleep. Well Claire fell asleep right away and I went to check on Violet. She had the light on, and was standing in Claire's crib watching the show! Claire slept through the whole thing.

I cannot believe that our little Sam is 3 now. I was pregnant with him when we moved to Houston and to think we've been here over 3 years now, that seems like a long time. Around Christmas time the boys got really into dinosaurs. For Sam's birthday we went to the Dino museum and they both got model dinosaur bones.

We opted out of the traditional cake route for Sam'e birthday and went with blueberry muffins instead. He's not really a cake guy, and that is okay, we really didn't need a big birthday cake to eat up.

We had a great time with the Flynn family. Our kids really took to Kya, especially Sam.

Allison and Kya got along really well, as well as 8 month olds can get along. They are very cute.

Kya and her buddy Sam, he is such a softy when it comes to babies.

That is about all we've been up to. The boys are taking swimming lessons and Wesley loves them! Sam is a little more leary of the water, but hopefully he will get it someday. Growing up in Washington we never really HAD to learn how to swim because honestly I never really remember going to a pool. But here, swimming is the thing to do in the sweltering summer sunshine. So we learn to swim. I wish I could swim. It looks really fun, and it is good exercise too!

What a cutie :)

Kya is starting young :)