Going Private!

Hi! I am going to be making this blog private soon I think. Mostly for the safety of my kiddo's. If you would like to be a reader of the private blog leave me your email address in the comment section and I will add you! Thanks!

Peyton's Golden Birthday

Little Miss Peyton had her "Golden Birthday" this last week. She turned 2 on December 2nd. Happy Birthday Sweet girl!

Miss Peyton is a fun, energetic, spunky, giggly little toddler. She lights up whatever room she is in with her personality and that cute little dimple. Her words are many now too. We still can't understand half of them though and that is the source of many frustrations for her. Some of our favorite sayings of hers are, I unno (I don't know), I firs (I'm thirsty), Maaee (Maddy), Ax (Alex), & Why? Why? Why? (no interpretation needed for that one I'm sure!) She has many many more then that but it would be too long to list them all here.

Thats about all I have time for right now... Maybe I'll get around to posting about our Griswold style Christmas tree hunt soon. Or maybe not.

Halloween

Just pics today. :-)

One relieved Momma!

We got the results from Peyton's MRI the other day and it was NORMAL! Well actually, not normal normal. Normal for Peyton normal. She has some fusion in her vertebra that isn't normal anatomy, but its Peyton's anatomy. So what a relief! Thank you for all the prayers for her and for us, we truly appreciate them. God is Great!

A worried Momma

That is the face of a wonderful kid. I love her so much I can barely catch my breath sometimes. Which is true for all my girls, but this week it was especially so for her. About a week ago, I had taken her into the doctor for a short visit in regards to her dimples on her backside. See, they were not aligned and being the responsible parent I am, I made an appointment. The thing of it was, I fully expected her Pediatrician to say, "Don't worry Mom, its fine." Well, he didn't say that. In fact, he took one look at her spine and said, "This worries me." WHAT? He wasn't supposed to say that! And it wasn't the un-aligned dimples that he was worried about. It was the lump centered right on the base of her spine. A LUMP on my daughters spine. He did tell me that it is most likely a Lipoma. Which is made entirely of fatty cells. Ok. I can handle that. He also said it could be fluid draining there, or a tumor. A TUMOR. The first things that went through my head were: No. Not my kid. We have healthy kids. She's fine! She runs and laughs and plays. There is no way a tumor has been growing on her spine. Then I calmed down a bit and thought we will take it one day at a time. One Prayer at a time. So the Ped ordered an MRI of her Spine at OHSU, with complete sedation. We had to wait a week. A full WEEK before the thing was done. Which was this past Friday. We were to check her in at 1:00, she would be brought back to begin the IV/sedation process at 2:00 and the MRI would be at 2:30. No food after 8:00 am, no drink after 11:00. Of course, hospitals being hospitals, it was delayed by an HOUR. She was not sedated until just before 3:30 and she was off to her MRI for an hour. What a long hour. We got her back and was told that the results won't be in until Monday or Tuesday. One thing I do know is that they only had to take images of her spine which was relieving to me. I was told by the ped that if they found ANYTHING they would immediately scan her head, so the fact that they only scanned her back was good news. Until I know for sure though, my prayers are still right there... I will update with the good news when I get them!

What lisp?

Excuth me? Are you Thelling me that I have a lisp? Why? Oh, it must be becauthe I loths one of my thop teeth. :-)



Yes, Maddy lost one of her top front teeth! It's a funny story how it happened too. So, the tooth had been hanging on by a thread for a.very.long.time. She would not let us touch it. So we just let it hang. And hang. And hang. Then one day when I was on my way home from work with Alex & Peyton I got a phone call from Trav. Trav was at soccer practice with Maddy, so I thought it was somewhat strange that he was calling. When I answered the phone it was Maddy. She said "MOMMY! GUESS WHATH?! MY TOOTH FELL OUTH!" I made all the appropriate oohs & aahs a Momma is supposed to make then I asked her how it happened and if she pulled it her self. She says, "NO! Daddy kicked the soccer ball REALLY hard ath the wall, then Grandpa tried to stop ith, and ith flew up and ith HITH ME IN THE MOUTH! And my tooth justh flew RIGHTH OUTH!!"

Way to go coach(s). Its a good thing that was Maddy!

Buh Bye for now.

Hey.

So I am pretty sure that my frequent blogging days have come to an end. I am still keeping this though, so don't totally leave. Still check back! Or add me to your reader. Or something. I will try my super hardest to blog more, but like all mothers of 3 who happen to work full time, work in each of the kids' classrooms 1 hour a week, as well as coaching a kinder girls soccer team, who tries to feed her kids healthy dinners all while keeping up the laundry of said 3 girls, I am busy. Insanely so. Exhaustingly so.

I still have things I would like to document and hopefully I will work some of those memories free soon so I can blog about them. For now though I am saying buh bye. See ya soon I hope.

Me

Its the most wonderful time of the year - Soccer Time!

Its soccer time! What a wonderful day at the fields. Maddy's team lost, but seriously only because those girls were exhausted . No lie. The yellow team had 5 subs, to the black teams 0 subs. And the girls moved into a bigger field. A much bigger field. I seriously think it's twice the size of the Kinder/1st grade fields. AND they play for 25 min halves. So the Black Hawks were running their little hearts out. They were leading 1-0 for most of the game, but the Yellow girls ended up scoring 3 goals on them in the last 5 minutes or so when my girls just couldn't do it any more. I was super proud of them. For reals. I am normally not the Black Hawks coach either. My hub & father in law are the coaches, but they are both out of town this weekend at the Ducks football game so it was Coach Stacey to the rescue!

Alex's team WON! What an amazing bunch of kinder girls we have. I am one of her coaches, but had to miss the whole game because both the girls' games were at the exact.same.time. (Like half of the rest of the season too) They won 3-0. Alex even got to play for the opposite team for a few minutes because they just didn't have enough girls today.

I am super excited for this soccer season. I love pretty much every thing about it. Well, except for when it pours down rain. Or when it snows. Since both have been known to happen around here. Lets go Black Hawks & Blue Unicorns! (Alex totally came up with her team name too. The Blue Unicorns. How flippin cute is that?!)

Maddy with the ball. Doncha just love the "M" wristband?

Lets go #1 er, 1's! Alex rocks.

Hustle!

Are the games over yet? And yes, I have boogers. What's it to ya?

Post game pic of the really sweaty soccer girls.

Coach Stacey & the soccer super stars. Oh and Peyton too.

First day of school! (Ok ok, it was a few days ago, but I'm busy!)

Here they are folks! What I am sure you have all been waiting for. First day of school pics! Maddy is my great big 2nd grader, and Alex is in Kinder! Holy moly that went fast. They both had fantastic first days. Maddy has her two BFF's in her class again and Alex has a bunch of boys in her class but since she is pretty much a tomboy herself she won't have any problems finding a best friend soon.

WOW!

My girl Alex is amazing. She is! She woke up yesterday morning and said, "Momma, I want to get my ears pierced." I was pretty shocked that she had made that decision to be quite honest. See, I offered for her to get hers done at the same time as Maddy back in July and she adamantly refused. There was NO WAY IN H E Double hockey sticks that anyone was going to come close to her with an ear piercing gun. Nuh uh. So, since I had told her that anytime she decided she wanted to get them done, we would go out as soon as we could. It happened to be a good day yesterday so off to Claire's we went. When we got there, she sat up in the ear piercing chair and she was ready. I had asked for them to do a double piercing, so we could get it done all at once and they stepped up, counted to three, pulled the trigger and voila, Alex has pierced ears. With.Out.A.Tear.Shed. Nothing. Not even a squeak came out of that girls mouth. Like I said, Alex is amazing. Now, bring on Kinder!

Pip Squeak

You know that old saying, "When life hands you lemons, make Lemonade?" Well I have a new one for you. "When life hands you a toddler covered from head to foot in VASOLINE, Blog about it!"

Another one bites the dust

My 7 year old daughter has become an Oregon Ducks Football fan. We're talking a big fan. HUGE. Its cute, but also a teensy bit disturbing. I mean come on.
1. She's a 7 year old.
2. She's a 7 year old GIRL.
3. Did I mention she's a SEVEN YEAR OLD GIRL?!

Is it me? Am I that out of sync with little girls? I thought they were supposed to be obsessing over Hannah Montana and Barbies & stuff. Not when & who the Oregon Ducks are playing.

This morning she was super excited. Her Ducky's are playing tonight. She got up, got dressed, brushed her hair & teeth, made her bed, came into my room, went into my closet, picked out MY clothes because she wanted me to to wear a GREEN shirt, then went into Peyton's room and picked out Pip's clothes because she wanted her to wear her Ducks tee shirt, all with out me saying one word to her. Then she says to Trav "Daddy! I am so excited because the Ducks are on TV tonight! I want some new Ducks clothes because mine are all too small now." And of course, when anything has to do with the Ducks Trav is all for it and tells her he will get her some soon.

And you know what Alex said? "The ducks are poopy butts, GO BEAVERS!"

So the war continues....

Wonder

My littlest girl, you're growing too fast.

Though you still fit perfectly as I hold you.

Your sweet weight in my arms.

A gentle pressure against my chest.

Your head tucked into my neck.

Your calm, even breaths.

The soft squeak as you suck your favorite thumb.

A quiet sigh.

Bliss.

A new day

Lately it seems like my family has been hit with some pretty serious stuff. My whole family. My parents, sibs, in laws, us. And its been making me re-evaluate my life. What I am doing? Where am I going? What choices should I make, or what choices should I have made.

Who can I rely on?

GOD

It boils down to that. I can put all my faith, all my hopes, all my dreams in Him. All my fears, all my apprehension, all my failures. He wants those too. HE WANTS EVERYTHING. And I NEED to give it to Him. My faith requires it.

Proverbs 3:5,6: Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart, and lean not on to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.

That is one of my favorite verses. It's so... Perfect in its simplicity. TRUST in Him. Easy enough right?

I know that that is what I am going to do. I am going to put my faith first. And I am going to try my hardest to be what He wants me to be. And I am going to love on my family, because it doesn't cost me a penny and it's value is priceless.

A moment to remember

*Disclaimer - These were taken at the END of the day, so don't mind my daughters very dirty clothes!

Amos Lee

Trav & I went to the Amos Lee concert at the Zoo last night. It was a wonderful night full of good food, great people watching, and truly excellent music. If you have never heard of Amos Lee before, I HIGHLY recommend him. Especially if you like folky, jazzy music. He reminds me alot of Jack Johnson, James Taylor, Jason Mraz & others. So good. Check him out.

Now. The people watching like I said was great. I mean GREAT. The amount of Wine & Beer being sold there was just, wow. I mean, everywhere I looked groups of people were walking by with each person carrying a bottle of wine or two beers each. Unbelievable. Even the air smelled like beer. Not that I'm an uptight non drinker. That's not it at all. It just seemed so excessive. Towards the end of the show, we decided to pack up our spot in the far far far back and walk around a bit to see if we could get a better look at the stage. We ended up against a wall like 20 feet away from the performers. It was pretty cool. Anyways, while we were standing there, this INCREDIBLY drunk man came up and started dancing. He looked like he was trying to mimic a monkey. The way he was waving his arms and body, and couldn't walk straight was funny but also a bit sad. I don't think I have seen someone that impaired for a long time. Watching him, and watching the girl he was with try to help him stay up right really made me think of how lucky I am to be married to Trav. Who would never ever become that sloppy drunk.

The whole night was really fun, and on the way home Trav told me that that was his first ever concert. WHAT?! We've been married 8 1/2 years and we've never been to a concert together? WOW! Well, it might've been his 1st, but it definitely won't be his last. We are already planning on going again next year.

Here's a pic of Trav & I under the umbrella that I took with my cell phone. Did I mention it was raining? At an outdoor concert? NO? Well, yeah it was. Didn't stop us from having a great time though.

Summer

Summer time. A time of the year to spend outside. Away from the computer. It's the perfect time of the year to ride bikes, have picnics, work in the garden, go to the beach, be a family loving each other. Which is what I've been doing instead of blogging. I'm sure I'll take the time soon to document all the fun things we've been doing, and not to mention school is almost back in session. Kinder for Alex, and 2nd grade for Maddy! If that's not blog worthy, I'm not sure what is.

For now though I will just post a few pics and say, have an awesome rest of the summer!

Visitors

My childhood BFF Susanne who lives in SO CAL, came up for a visit this past Friday, and it was so good to see her! Her and her family were headed up to OR for a vacation on the Oregon Coast, and seeing as we live 45 min away from where they are staying, it was just about perfect that they made it to our house for a night! They have 2 boys, Josh who's 3 and Carter who is 2 months. AND THEY DROVE. Brave souls. We fit quite a bit into the little less then 24 hours we had together, but I am so glad we were able to catch up.

Thanks for coming Mike & SuzyQ! You have a beautiful family!

And I was just saying how I was finally starting to like it here.

Nuf said.

The Man Date

LMAO. At my hubs expense. Seriously.

We were on our way home from lunch today when Trav gets a phone call. He was talking to this person, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out who he was talking too. Finally he makes a remark about a movie and I hear a "Yeah Man, that'd be cool". So I deduced that he had been invited to a movie. Still not sure with who though. He says that he needs to talk to me, then hangs up.

He says to me, "That was David, he wants to know if I want to go see Transformers with him!"

Me: "Wow Trav! Got a little Bromance going on?"

Trav: "Shut up Stace."

He calls David back and they set up a time and who's driving.

1:45 and David will drive.

1:45 on the DOT Trav stands up, gets his shoes on and STANDS BY THE DOOR. Seriously. He stands by the freaking door.

Me: "Waiting for your date to pick you up dude?"

Trav: (wearing a sheepish smile)"I just don't want him to have to get out of his car to come to the door."

Me: "Ok, whatever you say."

Finally David shows up at 2:00, and Trav literally runs out the door.

I guess my man was a teensy bit excited for some "guy" time. What do you think?

Lazy day

Hey. Wuhs up. Nothin here. Literally. Nothing. Today has been a supreemly lazy day. I can't decide if I like it or not. I have so much to get done, that on one hand I am mad at my self for getting nothing done. One the other hand however, is the feeling of peace knowing I had a day to do nothing before the busy two weeks ahead.

I didn't even want to blog. No big surprise there. My blog has been banished to the back of the bus lately. Which is fine. I mean, HELLO, I have 9 readers. (Thank you all 9 of you by the way. I truly appriciate each and every one of you.)


Anyways.

Thats all.

Sincerly,

Still Being Lazy
AKA, Stace

The (not so) scenic route

I love my hub. I really do. He is a great man who does so much for our family. Big and small. I can name so many small things that he does that just makes him wonderful as well as my life easier. Like changing the television channel to channel 2 before he shuts off the TV at night because he knows I like to watch KATU news while getting ready for work. Or like how he always makes my coffee and lunch in the morning so I don't have to. Or how he almost always does the dishes every night after dinner because he knows how much I don't like to. Among MANY other things.

BUT. And this is a pretty loaded BUT. He likes to take the "Scenic Route". You know, the route that in all my past experiences takes 2X as long as the normal route. Enter big sigh here.

This weekend we were able to go to Warrenton/Seaside for a great weekend away to visit some pretty great friends, the Wilkins. It was a really fun time and we didn't really want to head home but we kinda had to. Right before we left, Trav says to me:

Trav: "Stace, I think I am going to take us home through Tillamook, through Hebo and off Bible Creek right in to Willamina"

Me: "Really Trav? I don't really want to do that. It's really windey and bumpy isn't it? I would much rather take 26 through Banks/Forest Grove/McMinnville."

Trav: "No, its not that bad, I promise! I am pretty sure that's the way we are going to go home."

Me: "No, really Trav, I really really would rather go the way we came. I think it will take us a lot longer to get home that way, and I would rather just get home a quick as we can."

Trav: "It won't take us longer, I bet we will get home in just about the same amount of time.:

Me: "Traaaav,(note, whiny voice) I really really really don't want to go that way."

Trav: " Staaaaace (note, mocking whiny voice), I really really think we are going home that way, don't worry about it."

Me: "Fine. Seriously though, if it takes longer then the normal route, you are going to have to deal with me."

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We are now all loaded up in the van, and headed on our way home. Through Tillamook. And we turn off at Blaine. And we drive. And drive. And drive. On really bumpy, windey roads. And we drive.

About 3 hours into the trip home. Yes. 3 hours. (My way would have taken 2. Just 2) We drive upon a big body of water. This is different then the Nestucca River we have been following the whole way. It kinda looks like a, huh? LAKE?

Me: "Um, Trav? I didn't know there was a lake up here by Willamina."

Trav: wearing his oh shit face. "Uh, there isn't"

Out comes the map.

Me: "It looks to me TRAVIS, that we are all the way over here. On our way to YAMHILL. On Meadowlake Rd."

Trav takes the map.

Trav turns the van around.

Me: "Seriously Travis, where are we going now?"

Trav: "We need to find the road to Bible Creek. It looks to me like its 6 miles back, then 26 miles down that to Willamina."

Me: SILENT

Maddy: "Mommy! I don't feel good."

Me: "Sorry sweetie, you are feeling car sick, just go to sleep, that'll help"

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25 min later.

We finally get back to the point where Bible Creek road is. We turn off on to it. We aren't but 5 min down Bible Creek when I hear it. The noise no parent likes to hear EVER, let alone your vehicle. A puking kid.

Trav pulls over, I hop out of the van (Have I mentioned yet that the rain was coming down in buckets? And had been the entire time?) and I grab an empty cup that was in arms reach and hold it for Maddy to be sick in. All while standing in the rain. While Trav sits in the drivers seat feeling sorry for himself.

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Maddy is cleaned up with baby wipes. We are back on our way down this wonderful scenic route, when I look behind me and guess who has wriggled out of her car seat? Oh yes, Peyton! Yay! She has learned how to crawl out of her 5 point harness! What's next kid? Top story work?

I unbuckle and turn around in my seat to buckle the kid back in.

She does it again.

Its now become a game.

Oh joy.

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Finally after 4.25 hours on the road, we pull into Sheridan. Van running on fumes and smelling like puke.

Thanks for the memories Trav. Now don't ever take us on the Scenic Route again. Love you. Stace

Fourth of July Fun

The 4th of July. Independence Day. Also known as my hubs FAVORITE holiday. He loves every bit of it. The over priced fireworks, the BBQ's, the desserts. Did I mention the OVER PRICED fireworks? Seriously. He might have even traveled a bit north to buy some too. Maybe.

We were invited to two different events that day, and of course, we went to both. We started out at our friends/small group leaders/pastors house for a little swimming, boccie, and bbq. Good BBQ. Really good. My friend Rachel might just make the best corn salad EVER. Oh, and the home made Ice Cream. With fresh strawberries. Heaven.On.Earth.

The second event was at my in-laws house. Where we lit off all those over priced fireworks. From up north. Sadly, we really couldn't enjoy the fireworks all that much because my "nephew" Bruce the dog, got really spooked by them and TOOK OFF. Like, really really took off. So the entire night my bro Austin was searching for his dog. Trav went out for a good 2 hours before finally returning to light the rest off. Luckily Bruceters found his way home around 2:00 am. So all turned out well.

And finally, here is a GORGEOUS picture of my 3 beauties. I might be biased, but I am pretty sure you will agree with me here. As well as a picture from a year ago to show how much they have grown since the 4th last year.

See, told ya they are stunners.

A day at the beach

I took my girls to the beach today. Alone. Wow, was that more work then I thought it was going to be! We went onto the beach for a while, then we went to the outlet mall, where Miss Maddy got her ears pierced!

Then, we went to Mo's for lunch. Even though I packed us one. Oh well. After Mo's we went back down on the beach at Taft's and played for a while. It was so windy too. Like, uncomfortably windy. So windy that the sand hurt when hit bare skin. But other then that it was a beautiful clear day.




















So, if you are still with me after the great photo share of 2009, have a FANTASTIC 4th of July!