One more new Trace Trick...

Please excuse the no helmet.. this was a spur of the moment decision and his helmet was in the bottom of a box that has been packed up while construction is taking place :-)

But yesterday Trace told me to take off his training wheels. So I did and he took off. We took them off last summer and he had no problem with the balance part of it but the child does not pay attention to where he is going and always ran into something. At least with the training wheels on the damage to him was pretty minor when he hit a pole or car. No training wheels always left him on the ground skidded up. So here he is cruising around last night. By his 3rd ride with Dad he was able to take off all by himself. Where does the time go!

My little rider...

Ready to go for his first solo spin...

Started on the pavement until he stopped to tell dad, THIS IS BORING, I WANT TO TRY THE DIRT.


So here he is in the dirt.


He is so serious, not even hint of a smile until he is all done.

Lori's Bridal Shower

The girls had a great weekend throwing Lori's bridal shower on Sunday. We started out at Desert Wind for brunch (highly recommend!! Food was yum and the winery is gorgeous). Then we set out on a wine tour. We hit 7 wineries and had a great time. It was very much Lori's style and I think she had a great time. Amee flew home so it was nice to see her too.

Friday Night bowling....

We had a blast bowling with the Jeremy, Nicole, Cheyann and Taylor. Rick won the adult game, big shocker! I of course, well stunk! Bowling is just not my game :-)





Kait and Cheyann checking out the lane... this was before Kaitlyn hucked the ball into the lane on the left... ummm yea, NOT HER LANE!


Jeremy lining up.....


I think the little kids only used this like 3 times before they got bored with it...


This is Trace watching his ball go down the court. He didn't fall when he threw his ball, he layed down to watch it all the way down the lane. Guess that is a better view.

And a motorcycle rider is born...

Trace had a fantastic birthday. He had a great day at school complete with a special crown made by Teacher McClan. When I got to daycare he was still wearing it. Then we headed to the Bounce Arena where 16 of his friends joined him for bouncing and cake. Since I am such a great mom I got blue frosting on the Cars cupcakes....whoops! We said good-bye to lots of blue faces and teeth.

When we got home we surprised Trace with the motorcycles. He was so excited! He couldn't believe he had TWO DIRTBIKES. It took us forever to get him to come inside for the night. The next morning he went running out to the garage. I asked him what he was doing and he told me, "I just wanted to make sure my dirt bikes were still there." And when we got home that night he didn't even get his bag and coat all the way in the front door before he dropped it and went to the garage to just sit on his bikes. They were a hit!

Today Trace and Rick went for their first real ride. He is taking his nap now without too much debate as we promised him to go to the motorcycle shop when he wakes up to look at goggles and boots. He did really good for his first time. He has both brakes down and only "almost" tipped Rick off he back a few times. I think he thought he was super cool because he was popping wheelies... Rick said he was pretty good with the throttle. He never gunned it and understood to let off when he was turning. I think tomorrow the plan is to go to my parents and let him try it out all by himself. He says he is ready.

We have a very busy weekend. We will go pick Kaitlyn up from school at 3 and then meet our friends The Douglas' to take the kids bowling. We all have today off so we decided to go early and then we'll probably grab a bite to eat and head home. Tomorrow we'll go up and let the kids ride at my parents. Rick's sister Amee is flying in for his other sister Lori's bridal shower that we are having on Sunday. We have lots of stuff to finish up tomorrow for the shower so I'm sure Amee will be put to work. Kaitlyn is going to Rick's brother's for a sleepover with Meredith. Michelle will bring her home Sunday morning when she comes up for the shower.

The shower starts with brunch at Desert Wind Winery at 10:30 on Sunday morning. After brunch we will head out on a wine tour limobus. Amee will fly back home Sunday night.

Rick is busy getting the garage all emptied out so they can come and tape and mud on Monday. They say it will be ready for paint by next weekend. Which means.... we are almost 100% done with the first phase of our remodel.

So yea... BUSY WEEKEND. But it should be a fun one!!!

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY TRACE!!!

Today my little guy turns 4! He was excited this morning. I told him last night that when he woke up he would be 4 (since he was born at 3:52 am) so at 6 am he was in my room asking if today was his party and if he was 4 now. When I said yes to both he let out a huge WAHOOOOO and when running through the kitchen.

This afternoon we rented the Bounce Arena and I invited all his classmates, his cousins and friends from Prosser and daycare to join us. It will be his first "kids" birthday party and it really is the first birthday he really understands. He is just so excited to be 4! Probably because he thinks he is getting one of these:

Which he is getting! That bike is a 1974 MR50 that a family friend restored for Trace. It is gorgeous. In fact it came out so good that we are a little hesitant to put him on it right away so we bought him a 2nd one to ride now... I know, I know :-) But this is what is waiting for him to come home tonight:

It should be like the best birthday ever for my little guy!

It's Daytona Time!

This weekend kicks off the 2008 race season!

Hoping to see this again.....

Here's to a safe race!
with the 24 and the 48 safely far away from victory lane ;-)

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY MEREDITH!

Meredith's birthday was yesterday and today is her party. Rick decided to build her a toy chest for her gift. We all did something on it, Kaitlyn and I picked out the fabric, painted the flowers and her name, Trace helped Rick cut out all the pieces, both kids sanded it. We had such a fun time making it a family project. I think the end result is beautiful and should be something that Meredith will be able to treasure for a long time! Rick did an amazing job.

I put together this little book for her, that will be her birthday card. I took pictures as we were building it.

The finished product up close:

Way to go Sam!!!

We are so excited for our friend Sam Roebuck!! He and his family packed up and moved to North Carolina late last summer to go after Sam's dreams of working in the big 3 of Nascar. Sam has been a fixture in Northwest racing since FOREVER. Sam went to work for a Craftsman Truck Series Team with driver Scott Lynch. Sam worked all winter on getting this team ready for the 2008 season that kicks off this weekend in Daytona. Well tonight Sam, Scott and team qualified their truck 13th and made the race! We have always known that Sam had talent way beyond the scope of racing we have out here. The greatest thing about Sam though is how great of person he is. Someone you can not only be proud to call a friend but also honored!

So tomorrow night at 4:30 tune in and watch and cheer for the #29!! I know Heather was torn on taking the kids out of school to go watch Daytona but they are on their way to support Sam and I'm so glad. I hope that tomorrow is every dream come true for their kids Blake and Emily and that Sam can enjoy every minute of being in Daytona and being part of the best of the best... because he is certainly deserving!

The Roebucks are a great reminder to go after your dreams!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

My Valentines in their Valentine outfits from Grandma Sue and Grandpa Dave....

Sending the love...

Well we survived the day, which started out a little on the insane side. Kaitlyn was a mess from the word go. She drags her feet so bad in the morning but today was even worse than normal. Add that to the fact that her ears must have been SERIOUSLY plugged because she heard NOTHING I said. So add that to the fact that she left her 100 day celebration - 100 item bag in the car when I dropped her off... and wham, makes for a perfect morning! I got the call about 10 minutes after I dropped her off that she was hysterical and she wouldn't calm down because she was so upset that she didn't have her 100 pennies. So I drove back to the school and gave her the bag. Did the trick, when I picked her up she was in a great mood, had a great day, life was perfect (did I mention not even a thank you for bringing back her bag). haha, well at least it was a great day!

Trace spent the evening with Grammie Kathie. They went to the movies and dinner. It sounds like he had a great time.

Kaitlyn and I came home and worked on her Valentines. She enjoyed having all of mom's attention and I had fun working with her on it. We finished everything and got some treats together for Trace's 3 teachers.

Kaitlyn's treats and cards

Trace's teacher's mailboxes

Trace's cards

Rick has an ear infection, yuck! He came home and slept all evening and is back in bed already. Hopefully he will be on the mend tomorrow. He needs to finish Meredith's birthday gift tomorrow night so its all ready for her birthday this weekend. I can't believe Mere and Trace are going to be four already!! For anyone that doesn't know both my kids are days apart from their cousins. Rick's sister Wendy and I were pregnant the same time and Kaitlyn is 3 days older that Carson. Then on round 2 Rick's sister-in-law Michelle and I were pregnant at the same time and Meredith is 4 days older than Trace. Makes for fun times!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentines day... I hope you can spend it with the ones you love the most.

My closet... oh my organized closet

As promised here are a couple of pics of my closet... I know, I know... its small it shouldn't be such work! But it is :-) I am oh so looking forward to the modern luxuries of a walk in closet in our next house. Apparently in 1962 they weren't the necessity they are these days! My SIL came over tonight and just laughed at me and I believe said, yea right how long is it going to stay looking like that. Well I'm going to work at it, I promise!

Rick is working as we speak on my clothes folding table. He already put up a shelf with a hanging rod. Wahoo!

Kaitlyn had her school speech meet today. She did so good but didn't advance. She was so bummed. Those 1st graders were amazing on how much them memorized. I was so proud of her getting up in front of a room full of people and beling out 3 verses from memory and then saying what it meant to her. It was a great experience and she'll be ready to go get them in 2nd grade :-)

Can you believe it!

Becky are you sitting down.... I CLEANED MY CLOSET. My ENTIRE closet! I need to pick up a few more bins tomorrow to finish it up and then I'll post a pic just to prove I really did do it :-)

I must not be feeling well, this is more cleaning and organizing than I have done EVER in my life!

What have we been up to?

Well until about 6 pm last night the answer to that was NOTHING! We had the lazy lou's all day yesterday but I guess that turned out to not be such a bad thing because when we got the motivation we got to work!

Here is the bags of garbage that we have compiled from 3 rooms in the basement:

(this is in addition to 10+ bags that have already been delivered to the local thrift store)

Here is my cleaned laundry room... (shelves to be added above the washer and dryer and a clothes folding table coming soon!)

And that storage room that we couldn't open the doors in... well here it is with doors open wide! Still needs a little more TLC but we are oh so close.

I went down to Rick's dad's this morning. Sue has the tool for the snaps and gave me good directions for my fabric shopping. Rick is actually going to bend a bracket out of metal for me to hang in the closet and that bracket will be mounted to a piece of wood that will be covered in fabric. The fabric will have the loops with the snaps sewn on to it. I think I will also take the advice of the ORGANIZATIONAL QUEEN and put my not so often and seasonal purses in labeled containers. Did I mention we even went and bought a label maker!!

It is such a good feeling to walk down the stairs and and know that my basement isn't such a pit. I might actually even welcome people to come down there. We will start to empty the bedrooms out probably tomorrow and then begin to demo them, going to even take out the sheetrock and the ceilings so we can put in new recessed lighting. The big debate right now is if we take the windows out and have the concrete cut to bring them to code. The pro is that we could officially call this a 6 bedroom house and the con of course is then having to pay property taxes on an additional 1200+ square feet. Probably time to call a real estate agent and get some advice on that!

The kids are resting and we'll head over to our friends from a game name and the Budweiser

Shoot Out car race shortly. Should be a fun night!