SIPRESS SCOOP

After years of dreaming & hard work, on Friday June 10th, 2011, I earned my Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies.  It was a great day. Tyler, the kids, my Mom, my Uncle Greg, cousins Emma & Jacob plus my Grandpa's wife Barb cheered me on inside the Tacoma Dome. 2011 has gone by so quickly.  Since Josie's birth completing my homework has been tough. Some days i just wanted to stay home & hold my baby. But I knew that she was safe at home with her father while I attended class.  I look back and I am so grateful for Tyler who has always believed in me & never kicked me while I was down.  Our plan to have children while I attended school was one of the best decisions we could have made for our family.  Everyone keeps asking so many questions!!! "When will you get a job?" "Where will you work?" 'what will you do with the kids?"  All kinds of personal questions. Tyler & I have been waiting to hear if he will return to work or not be...

June 13th Josie started to crawl.  It is crazy how fast she gets around, from the living room to the kitchen or into play with the cars in Issac's room.  Last week we went to the lake to enjoy the sunshine & I couldn't keep her on the blanket, she loved the feeling of the sand between her fingers. She tries to pull herself to stand but her chunky legs are not strong enough yet.      June 14th, we took the kids in for their well-child check-ups.  Josie is 6 months, 15 lbs and 25.75 inches tall.  Issac is 2 years, 30.5 lbs & 37 inches. Issac is in the 96 percentile for height, gonna be over 6 feet tall!!!  Took the kids in get their pictures done, as usual they turned out great.  Here are a few shots. They both cooperated so well, it was hard to choose which pictures to order so we bought the cd with all 64 original pictures.  I hope picture cd's don't go out of use anytime soon!    ...

We had a busy few day surrounding Issac's Birthday. Thursday we woke up to a beautiful day so we took our family to NW Trek Wildlife Park with Cousin Robbie & Cousin Hannah. It was a wonderful time & the park wasn't too busy because it was a weekday.  The kids LOVED the animals & being able to run freely. Friday we went to Tacoma to participate in "Play in Peace Day". It was a fabulous day to celebrate the memory of a lil girl & hold a peace march, then we went home to BBQ & have some relaxing family time.  Saturday was Issac's Party at Pacific Science Center.  We did a dinosaur theme with cup cakes & lava muds (chocolate pudding, oreo crumbs & gummy worms) for the kids.  Issac got some clothes, a BBQ, a tool bench, cars & dinosaurs: all his favorites. He was so cute running around saying, "I two" & "party". Unwrapping presents could have taken all day if I had let Issac do it his way- he wants to ...

May is a super busy month for us. May 5th Tyler & I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary.  Tyler got me a dozen roses & a card.  We had a busy day at home as we packed the car and headed north to Bellingham for the weekend.  We arrived at my Mom's house in Ferndale Thursday night.  Friday, I went into Bellingham to join my fellow UW Tacoma classmates on the CIVITAS annual trip.  We had a busy afternoon that started with a presentation from city planning officials on their "urban Villages" concept.  Then we walked to meet with a habitat restoration specialist who discussed a beautiful project along Whatcom Creek.  Finally we walked down to the old GP Paper mill site for a couple of meetings with Port representatives.  First the economic advisor discussed the impact of the border. Then we were given a tour of the old GP site. It was fascinating to see these old brick buildings being gutted and take a close look at the huge p...

Easter weekend was BUSY.  Thursday Robbie & Hannah came over for a visit.  Friday Grandma Laura stopped in for a few hours & then we took Josie to her 1st Mariner's game in the evening.  Issac stayed at home with a babysitter and enjoyed a fun night of playing cars & watching movies.  The Mariners have been on a loosing streak but they WON for us. ;)   Saturday morning Grandma Melanie came down from Bellingham on the Amtrak. Her train was running late but when she arrived we drove straight to the zoo to enjoy the amazing weather Seattle was having.  Issac enjoyed his 1st Easter Egg Hunt.  He was totally IN TO IT: climbing under bushes & filling the baskets of other children in the toddler egg hunt area, the eggs were empty but made us excited for the Easter Bunny to come.  We then enjoyed the zoo visiting all the animals, of which the monkeys, gorillas & elephants were most captivating to Issac.  Easter morning,...

1st- this blog goes back & forth a little because Tyler wrote some, then I wrote some, then Tyler and so on. So I apologize, but there are parts that each of us are more familiar with.  We are beyond grateful that Joesphine has NO LONG TERM damage from her complications.  A lot of questions have been asked around the birth and complications so here is our attempt to provide everyone with the detailed story.  So we am going to try and explain the chain of events.  On Friday December 10th my contractions became regular around 5 pm. We continued to make & enjoy dinner with Grandma Melanie and we finally arrived at the Birth Center at 945pm. We checked into to triage thinking it was going to be a long night, Leah was dilated @5cm,and it was probably around 1015pm when we got a room. We got all settled in our room. around 11pm Dr. Minehan came and checked on how far Josie had progressed, which was about the same as when we checked in, no...

We started April off with a trip to Spokane to see Jayson & Andalyn.  Ty & I were both nervous about how the car ride would go but both kids did great.  We left our house when we got up & moving & stopped in Moses Lake to play at a park & have lunch before finishing the drive.  When we arrived Anadlyn had made chicken enchiladas for dinner & they were PERFECT, not too spicy not too saucy, just yummy.  After some play time outside & dinner we headed over to our hotel for some swimming & then to bed.  Saturday we adventured to a hands on children's museum in the Spokane mall.  Issac didn't stop moving the entire time we were there, he was all over the place enjoying his time with uncle Jayson.  We ended the afternoon with a nice gondola ride across Spokane Falls. It was a beautiful day & the river was powerful from recent storms.  Saturday night we enjoyed some pizza.  Sunday morning we rushed over to...