A Valentine's Birthday!

Our little Dominic isn't so little anymore! He turns 2 today! He's our Valentine's Day baby.



He's the run down on Dominic:
- He loves Meat and Cheese! Those are two things I know he will eat!
- He is talking so much more now and putting words together - my favorite is when I get him out of his crib and he says "morning mama" :)
- He loves animals. Animal books can keep him interested for quite some time. Playing dogs is a favorite past time.
- He loves to go on walks with Cole on Sundays. Again all the animals and birds are the highlight.
- He loves to play babies with Macie and will carry baby dolls around the house all the time.
- He adores Macie and always wants to "play" with her and does all the girly things with her like lip gloss & brushing hair.
- He is so sweet to Tessa and kisses her all the time.
- He's a great helper, always willing to throw away diapers, clean up, and get Tessa's burb rags when ever he sees "spi-up".
- He is totally attached to his 2 blankets and still loves to cuddle.
- He loves "boy toys"(which we don't have a lot of) and when we play at friends houses he goes right for the guns and swords.
- He likes to play football and wrestle with Cole.

We feel so blessed to have this little MAN in our family!


-about 4 months -


-about 1 year-

And the water flowed . . .

We had an interesting weekend. Friday evening I went into the kitchen to find my sink filled with 4 inches of dirty water. I had seen this in the past and by turning the garbage disposal on everything easily slipped back down the drain. Not the case this time. When I turned on the disposal the water churned and went nowhere so I turned it off and the water splashed in my face.



I could now see the water rising so I grabbed the plunger hoping for success, but it didn't work! As I watched the water rise even more I called my dad to ask for a solution (I don't think my parents have ever hired a maintenance guy , my dad can fix EVERYTHING!) No time for advice because I was about to have a flood! I threw the phone and yelled "I'll call you back"! I grabbed a big bowl and began bailing water from the sink and dumping it into the bathtub (the water had all sorts of 'veggies' in it) After I emptied it enough I asked the neighbors to stop using their sink until we got the problem fixed. So I called our maintenace guy and he was here from 7-8pm and wasn't able to get the pipe cleared. So we called in a plumber who got here at 10pm and stayed until 11:15pm. (So much for our nice relaxing Friday night watching LOST) Cole headed off to bed - he'd been up at 4:30am everyday that week studying for mid-terms, so it was just the plumber and I. He was a funny little guy who mumbled to himself. After running the "snake" 50 feet twice the drain seemed to be "healthy" as he called it and he left.

Everything was fine Sat. and Sunday morning, but when we walked in the door after church on Sunday afternoon we were welcomed by a FLOOD!!! Our kitchen sink was filled to the top, the counter covered, the floor flooded and part of our carpet super wet! We dumped as much water in the toilet as we could, asked the neighbors to not use their sink, and mopped up the water best we could. (the only thing ruined was a full bag of chicken that I had thawing in the sink).

My boss didn't want to pay for a plumber to come on a Sunday so we didn't have the carpet taken care, or the drain fixed until Monday. We had a fan blowing under our carpet for 48 hrs, so we walked on air for a few days. Everything seems to be fine now (keeping my fingers crossed:)

It's times like these that I am grateful to still be renting because we didn't have to pay for anything and the bills were expensive!!

Tessa's Blessing Day

On February 3rd Cole blessed Tessa. She was a quiet little ANGEL through the whole thing. We loved having so much of our family there and having them all over for a meal after our church meetings. Macie was so excited that Tessa got to wear "her" blessing dress.

Let it Snow!

We actually had some snow in Oregon! The most we got was about 2 inches which melted by mid day, but it was fun to get out and let the kids play in the little that we had. We don't have boots and Dominic wasn't liking the fact that he couldn't get his thumb in teh right place in his gloves so they didn't last long!

Chubby Baby . . .

OK, she probably doesn't look like it to you, but for being one of my kids she is. Tessa has the cutest little chubby thighs. I absolutly love 'em. The other two were so long and skinny. Right now she's shorter than they were . . . but only time will tell!

My Little Cook

Dominic LOVES to Cook! When ever I'm in the kitchen he pulls a chair up and says "cooking mama?!" Of course he wants to do everything I'm doing and I hear lots of "my turn mama!" Dishes are also a fun past time and even though things are a gigantic mess by the time we are done we have lots of fun together.


Dominic loves meat. We had left over chicken breast and he grabbed a whole breast and starting munching on it.

Our little dog "Calvin"

After going to the Dog show of course we had to have our own dog show. Macie was Calvin and she and Cole set up an agility course in the living room.

Happy 27th!

Cole's Birthday was January 15. We had a little party with Dominican food, german chocolate cake, and lots of Fast Break candy bars - all his favorite things. I got him tickets to the Brian Regan show in March.

Portland Dog Show!

Yes, my friends, we who are not "animal people" went to the Portland Dog Show in January. Our good friend Lindsey, a classmate of Cole, had her dog Calvin entered in the Dog show to do the agility course. We had a lot of fun learning how the judging works and what the judges are looking for and of course the kids loved looking at the dogs, but trying not to get too close- they are both quite scared of them, but hopefully this outing helped.

Free Lunch Meat Anyone?

So if you have a Safeway and want free Hillshire lunch meat go to www.moneysavingmom.com and just scroll down a touch. I follow her blog and have gotten tons of great deals & FREE stuff becasue of it!! I'm sure you'll love saving money too! One day I'll put up links to all the great frugal websites and blogs I check out daily - stay tuned!