Father's Day

Scott and I spent 12 Father's Days together before we had Adam. During all those years, I always knew that Scott would be a great father - but over the past 3 years I have watched him become an AMAZING father! One of my favorite things to do is to watch him with Adam. He is Adam's hero and is terribly missed every day until he gets home from work. Every morning Adam asks where his dad is, and it is heartbreaking to see the disappointment on his face when I tell him his dad is at work. Like I said, I knew Scott would be a great dad - but he has surpassed all of my expectations!!

Adam and I made Scott breakfast in bed - Adam, of course, joined his dad and ate his breakfast in bed as well. I actually did take a couple of pictures, but I guess they must have been erased from the camera before I could download them. So, I decided to include some pictures of Scott with Adam over the past couple of years.

This is the start of their relationship.

The rest are pictures of the two of them playing together. They LOVE to hang out together and just have fun!!

Thanks for being such a wonderful dad, Scott!

T-Ball Anyone?

Adam has been waiting, and waiting for this day to come! We signed him up to play T-ball about 2 months ago, and he's been anxious to start!! Well - today was the day! Adam joined his T-ball team - the HOTWHEELS (the kids got to pick the name!) He's on a team with kids who are a little older than he is, and most of them played last year as well, but we wanted him to play with his neighbor friend, Max. He did pretty good, and doesn't seem to be behind the other kids in skill level.
Here he is at the beginning of practice with his coach getting ready to run the bases for the first time. We're lucky that his coach is one of our old neighbors whom Adam already knows.
I adore this picture! I think the look on his face captures the excitement and joy that he's been carrying around! He loved running all the way around the bases!
And, here he is in the outfield. They ask the parents to help out at practice to keep the kids focused. So, Scott spent time out in the outfield as well. This is the fielding stance. So very cute! It was pretty funny to watch as most of the kids spent their time in the outfield playing in the dirt. Adam was pretty focused on watching the ball, but I think his dad had a lot to do with that!!
And, here he is up to bat. Adam's had quite a bit of batting practice playing ball with his dad. He loves to hit a ball that's thrown to him, but he did great hitting it off the tee as well. He got it on the first swing!
This is the team at the end of practice doing their cheer.
I hope Adam continues to enjoy playing teeball. He smiled all the way home tonight, and is ready to go back and play some more!

How long has it been??

Scott and I celebrated a pretty good milestone in our marriage back on May 28th. It's hard for me to believe, but we have been married for 15 years! It's been an amazing 15 years, and I feel blessed to have spent them with an amazing man. Originally, we planned for a trip to Italy to celebrate - Scott is anxious to head back to his mission stomping grounds - but we decided to put that on hold when we found out we are pregnant. (I didn't really want to travel that far while pregnant) So, we went for the next best thing - Gig Harbor, Washington, of course!!
Gig Harbor is about 2 hours from our home and as the name suggests, it is a little harbor town. Scott had a great time playing with his new camera (I'll put them up in a slide show next. He got some amazing pictures of the harbor!) This picture was taken by a very nice gal we met on the only public dock in downtown Gig Harbor. She was there taking pictures for her business, and Scott enjoyed spending time talking to her and getting pointers.
Below is the bed and breakfast we stayed at. Our room was on the top right of the house, and it was a nice place to stay. One of the best parts was the great dock right on the water. We enjoyed breakfast both mornings out on the dock, and it was so peaceful!

This is the view of the town and harbor from the bed and breakfast. If it hadn't been cloudy, you could see Mt. Rainier off in the distance at the right. The downtown area is also off to the right.

On Saturday, we did a little driving around and checking out some of the beaches. This is us sitting on the beach at Narrows Park. That's the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the background. Scott had been to this beach for some fishing before, and we had a great time walking up the beach. You can walk all the way under the bridge - it was very cool!!

I have to admit - Gig Harbor wasn't quite Italy, but it was a great weekend away, and a nice way to celebrate. 15 years sounds like a long time, but I'm looking forward to many, many, many more years together!

Does Scott have a second career?

These are the pictures Scott took while messing around with his new camera.

WTG Graduation

Today was a bit of a sad day. Adam graduated from Woodinville Toddler Group. I will admit, that yes, my eyes did well up with tears - but I'll blame it on being 25 weeks pregnant. We have so enjoyed the past two years of being in toddler group and have made some really great friends! I have learned a lot in the Parent Education portion of the group, and Adam has done some really fun projects that I am just not brave enough to do at home because I don't want the mess!! (driving cars thru paint, painting with golf balls, painting with fly swatters - you get the idea!!)
There was an outdoor theme today, and Adam spent most of the day outside "painting" the toys. (Painting outside with water IS something we do at home - quite a bit, actually). Here he is with his friend Caden painting the top of the little train. (You can really see how much taller Adam is than Caden in this picture. He is so much taller than most of the kids his age. Not sure where the giant gene is coming from!!)
We had an extra long circle time! This was a great song about cooking hot dogs. They're getting ready to explode with a big BANG!!

Each child got the oppertunity to walk up the stairs and everyone clapped for them. Adam was the second to the last one, and he sure was excited by the time his name was called! He was beaming!!

Each kid also got a little certificate officially naming them as Woodinville Toddler Group alumni. Adam was very excited to get his and has been carrying it around the house. I think we'll have to hang it up in his room!

And here he is - one last picture with teacher Tina.

Adam sure has grown up a lot this year. At the beginning of the year, he was so shy and would hardly talk to anyone. His speech has really improved, as he's continued to go to a speech class once a week, and teacher Tina mentioned how much better he is doing at expressing himself. He's even started talking more and more in circle time and contributing ideas for songs and things to sing about. It's been so fun to share this time with him the past two years, and it is definitly something I'm going to miss!

A Garden all our own!

About two summers before Adam was born, Scott and I - with the help of my brother Hyrum, built a raised bed against our fence for a little garden. The area gets a TON of sun, and it's worked quite well for us to grow a few vegetables every summer.
Adam is at a fun age right now where he is so excited to help! He likes to go out every day and see what's growing, and he even remembers what we planted where. He's really been enjoying watching the carrots sprout up! He's been helping me weed, and water and keeps us all updated on what's going on in the garden!
It doesn't look like much, but we've really managed to get quite a lot of veges out of this little space. This year we planted: cucumbers, zuchini, yellow squash, pole beans, sugar snap peas, cauliflower, broccoli, rosemary, chives, oregano, garlic, red onions, shallots, tomatoes (both cherry, and roma), carrots, radishes and potatoes.
There is also a little strawberry patch. It gets bigger every year, and we are just waiting for all the blossoms to become little red strawberries. I LOVE fresh strawberries!!

The potatoes were a new thing for us this year. We go to a great nursery near our house called Sky Nursery. They are so helpful with everything, and they suggested we try the potatoes in pots. So, these are our two pots of potatoes. I planted them about 4 weeks apart, and they are just going nuts - at least above the ground. Hopefully some little potatoes are also growing below the ground!!

We also have several blueberry bushes that we planted along the fence and at the back of the house the first year we did our garden. We've increasingly gotten more and more blueberries each year. So, we decided to add to the berry bushes and try raspberries. Again, the nice people at Sky Nursery took Scott through all the motions of how to care for them. This is our little raspberry patch. I was excited to see that there are even a few blossoms on them. I didn't think we would get any fruit off of them this year, but we may get a little.

I'll try to post periodic updates on the successes or failures of the garden this year. We've already got blossoms on the tomatoes and peas, and have had some yummy grilled broccoli from the garden already! Can't wait to start picking and eating!!

Year End Toddler Group Picnic

It's getting close to the end of the year, so all of the fun year end stuff is happening. Saturday, June 6th, we attended the year end picnic for Woodinville Toddler Group. It's held every year at a great park in Woodinville called Cottage Lake.
Here is Adam with Teacher Tina - she was his teacher this year.

And this is teacher Debbie. Debbie was his teacher last year. (Not sure about that look on his face!!)

They rented a little train for the Toddler Group's 20th anniversary this year. A train is the schools mascot, and it sure was lots of fun to ride. Adam rode three times - twice with me, and once all by himself. He had to get in on the last ride before the train was packed up, and there wasn't much room for adults.

We also walked down to the lake, and Adam threw lots of rocks into the water.

And you can't forget the bubbles! Grandpa was trying to help Adam figure out these cool bubble wands.

We had fun seeing old friends from class last year, and playing with the new friends we've made this year.

Daddy's Birthday

Scott's birthday was June 4th, and I didn't take very many pictures. Adam had been waiting anxiously for several days to give dad his presents, so we didn't wait very long once every one was awake! (Notice - Adam is still in his pajamas!!)
Adam picked out several toys for he and dad to play with - some water rockets, squirt guns and these great suction cup paddles and a ball.

They've had lots of fun playing - especially with the squirt guns, in all the nice weather we've had.

Uncle Brian came over and we had a nice BBQ for dinner. Scott got to cook on his new grill (that was his present from me!) We also celebrated on Sunday with my family and had another great BBQ! I'm glad Scott likes to cook out on the grill!!

We sure love dad and are so happy to see him everyday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTT! WE LOVE YOU!!