Play time with Dad, Maddy's shoe fetish, & Lexi's visit!

I know this is a lot of things in one post. Why make several when you can do one long one. ;)

So, regardless of Blayne's size, my kids think they can take down their Dad. Blayne sits on the bed, doesn't move, doesn't fight back and my little kids fight with all their might to try and push him off the bed. This happens on a regular basis. I love watching them have so much fun, it reminds me of playing with my Dad when I was younger.



Then, I have no idea how this happened (wink,wink!), My Maddalyn has a little shoe fetish. If you leave your shoes unattended you may find them on her feet or in a different spot then you left them. She has a big thing with Gavin's shoes right now. I think it is because they are big but not too big, so she can walk in them. The worst part is she has no qualms with putting on the accompanying socks too! GROSS!!




Shannon and Lexi came over to spend Saturday with the kids and I. My kids haven't seen Lexi in a few months. They may have invaded her personal space a little. But it was no time at all before they were all playing like there was no time lost. Maddalyn may have played a little too rough at times, but all in all it was a fun visit!!

I am pretty sure she belongs to me........

Our little Maddy is so different from Victoria and Gavin, I'm pretty sure she belongs to our family!

Through the years Victoria and Gavin both have had a special toy or animal that they carried around for awhile. They would obsess for a bit then the toy would make it into the toy boxes with all the other old special toys.

Maddy on the other hand!! Maddy is completely in love with her baby dolls. Not only hers but Tori's and Gavin's old baby dolls that we still have. If they try to stake claim on their own toy then WW II breaks out. She's never happy with one or one at a time, she has to have every baby in sight.

I love it, she just loves those babies so much. We have to hug and kiss them, talk with them, bathe them, etc. She is so animated about her babies, well really she is dramatic and animated about everything, including throwing fits! Good thing we love her so much, we wouldn't trade her for anything!!!

My New Car

Not that my other Subaru was old, but it was getting ready to turn 90k, and getting ready to need some serious repairs and maintenance. So Blayne started doing some shopping around. While shopping he was finding that the stinkin "cash for clunkers" was depleting all dealerships of any inventory. Finally one of the dealerships got a shipment in. The same day Blayne went and picked out a car. We were still on the fence, then they made an offer we couldn't pass up. It is a 2008 Outback with only 7,900 miles on it. It still has the new car smell. Still under factory warranty, plus since it is so new it qualifies for their "Certified" which extends the warranty to 100K (limited), so they also threw in the 100k bumper to bumper and power train warranty. Like I said a deal we couldn't pass up! I'm happy, Blayne did a good job, especially seeing that I didn't even see it until he brought it home.

TILLAMOOK!

Family trip #2! We skipped church on Sunday, it was the family in town mixed with a holiday weekend clause :).....it could be possible.............probably not. OK, we just skipped church!

We left rainy Sandy and went to overcast, windy, sunny "at times", but NOT rainy Tillamook. We took the kids to the Tillamook Cheese Factory to get the traditional Ice cream for the kids, squeaky cheese for Dad, and the best caramels ever for Mom.


After our expensive trip there, we drove to Garibaldi. In Garibaldi we found an access to the beach so we could take the kids down to the water.

I had a lot of fun drawing in the sand with the kids. I tried to do something with each of them so we can get them developed and frame them for their rooms. We also took a picture of all of our footprints together in the sand. It isn't real clear but I love it.




All said and done, we had a great day. Victoria starts the 2nd grade on Tuesday along with Blayne going back to work. Today was definitely a great way to finish off the summer and we made some GREAT memories!!

Ramona Falls hike

So Sean (Blayne's brother) and his girlfriend Cassie came into town from Fresno for the holiday weekend. Blayne took Friday off of work and decided that all of us should go on a hike. Seeing we are taking all 3 kids I ASSUME I will manage even with my sciatic condition. So we start in on our hike around 12:15.

So, we hit a sign prior to the trail head that reads, "Ramona Falls 4." So, I say, "Blayne, I think this may be too long of a hike for the kids." He assures me they will be fine. So we go ahead and keep going. We saw some beautiful landscapes and scenery.



This is where I started to question my husbands judgement. Our little hikers started to drag and turned into not so happy hikers. I keep asking, "But, how much longer? I need an actual calculation of minutes!" Blayne and Sean continue to assure me we are close. ARGH!!!! I'm getting quite irritated! At about two hours in I informed Blayne and Sean, once again the Yates men have proven they have NO CONCEPT OF TIME!!!!!! So we arrived at beautiful Ramona Falls about 2 1/2 hrs later. It was awesome, I'm not sure it was worth it, but it was very pretty. FYI: the 4 mile incicater was ONE WAY!! We ended up back at the car at 4:45pm, 4 1/2 hours round trip. UGH!

My Sick Little Girl

So, having this stomach flu thing going around, my kids managed to get it. Gavin first, 24 hrs later, gone. Victoria managed to throw up ONCE!!! Maddy on the other hand, got sick after Gavin and is still getting over it. She threw up for 24 hrs, then the poor girl has had diarrhea for 5 DAYS! So at least once a day I would try to get her into the bath just to comfort her. This is my poor little girl, you can obviously tell she is not feeling well. Usually she is the child that manages to get water on every surface of the bathroom. She looks so pathetic! I'm just glad she is starting to return to her old self. As much as you enjoy the break of them laying on the couch and not doing anything, it's good to see some of her sweet personality come back.