It Is Good Enough For The French!

And it's good enough for me! My coffee percolator broke on Sunday (*insert crying here*). If you know me, you know that the only break I've had from coffee since I was 2 years old was the first half of my pregnancy (yes, I said half).

Amya had a cold yesterday and needed breathing treatments all day long, so I got through it re-heating the coffee that was still in the percolator. This morning I scrambled through my cupboards in desperation. I just knew I had unpacked a French Press during the move! Yes, I had, and I found it! I hadn't actually used a French Press since college (a great birthday present from Bryce), so I called up a friend at an early hour (she has a kid, so I was safe), and got a tutorial. It was so easy, Amya could do it! And she did!

She stopped half way through to clap for herself!

...now I'm good...

(until company comes...this way could take a while!)

**Amya is much better today!**

Yeah!...A Sunny Day!

Kristen and I took Sadie and Amya to the park on Friday. The girls kept hugging each other and giggling. How cute is that, I ask?

Don't You Hate It....

...when the other people know their picture is being taken and you don't?!

Yup, She's A Toddler!

Before I took my shower this morning, I set Amya up at a little table with some yogurt and a cartoon. This is how I buy myself a few min. of uninterrupted shower time. When I emerged from the bathroom, this is what I found......... Amya decided to eat the yogurt, but on the chair, instead of at the table (I found the trail!). She also decided her toy Wuzzle needed to go swimming in the yogurt container. She found a pair of her diaper covers and put those on (pink). Then she found her wet Elmo washcloth, and decided that needed to be on her head!....and was flipping through the channels looking for a "diffa cahtoon" (different cartoon)!

Happy Birthday, Friend!

We miss you and can't wait until you're done with your Masters! Hang in there...just a few more weeks to go!

Future Make-Up Artist

Amya loves to paint. Her favorite backdrop is her face. She has watched me put make-up on many times and sometimes I let her try some. Today, she took it upon herself to use her watercolors to give herself a complete makeover!

You'd better run, Lewis! She may decide that cats are her new favorite backdrop!!

Dan's New Toy

Dan's birthday present arrived in the mail today....Russian Knights SU-27! Dan loves flying remote controlled model airplanes...he even figured out a way to turn it into a business and make money, but that's another story.

This is an excerpt from Dan and Amya's conversation:

Dan: "Amya, look at Daddy's new toy! Do you want to fly this with me?"

Amya: "Yah, Dadda! Let's go!"

Dan: "Oh wait, Amya! I didn't mean it was a real toy! Put it down gently!"
This is even better... This is a direct quote right off the front of the box...

"Base on excellence jet fighter of Russian, we extract design the electric jet model of SU-27."

There is a proof-reader somewhere out there, out of a job!

Toddler Fits!!

Amya is very good at them. This one was inspired when we told Amya she needed to take her paints, paper and brush back to the table, and she couldn't paint in the Den (carpeted area). I missed the beginning, but you can imagine her throwing down all the contents in her hands, then standing, with a pause, and staring straight ahead (vintage Taylor Priest, circa 2001). When she realized she had caught our attention, the wailing started!

Goodbye Grammy And Pappy!

...we had fun!

Goofin' Around

How Does Your Garden Grow?

...less than one week later...

A Drive To See The Sights

It snowed last night! I know it may seem a little odd to get excited about snow in late February, but it has been raining for days. We don't get a lot of snow here, so we're actually not sick of it yet. But we are sick of the rain. So, this was a nice change!

It's Dan's birthday today, so he took the day off. We piled into the car this morning to go for a drive and see what the snow looked like from a higher elevation...

We weren't disappointed! You can see along the hillside where the snow line is. Those poor people along the river didn't get any snow!

Time to warm up and see if we got any good shots! Amya wasn't as impressed as the rest of us!

The Perfect Storm

One of my favorite things to look at is snow, lying gently on branches and needles, with a blue sky shouting in the background. I just can't get enough of this sight! If you look closely you can see that was still snowing when I shot this picture.
...looking down on the city of Hood River...

In between the foreground and the background, the Columbia River is hiding

Happy Birthday Old Man!

...love of my life...

Play Time!

Grammy And Pappy Are Here!

And they've already been coned into reading many books and watching Seaseme Street!

time to plant the crops

Heres a shot of Carol working the soil with Lewis helping out where he can....this is our new garden and around here, growing season starts early....these 2 beds will be lettuce and asparagus and the beds in the side yard will be tomatos, pepers, corn, peas and beans..... the area behind the garden here is the berry patch that has rasberries and strawberries...

Tea For One

Amya got a tea set recently and she is in love with it! She loves pouring the water (there is a lot of room for improvement there) and dishing out the snack. We actually had to put it away for a while and pull it out for special occasions because that table was not meant to be continuously soaked! She is fun :)

I Got Wife-Napped!!!!

...for Valentive's Day...
We spent the three day weekend...