I'm having a moment...

Actually, what I am having, is a hard time fitting my head thru door ways!! I'm not sure exactly what this is all about, but I'm feeling pretty cool about it anyway! I was nominated for this award...

Yahh for me and my silly little blog!! Thanks Jenn!! So here is what I am supposed to do...Tell you all 7 things about myself that you may not know (lol, that may be a little tough...this is kind of a tell all blog), thank Jenn at 4ever Love for nominating me, and tell who I am going to nominate! Here we go...

7 things about me that you may not know...

1. Praying Mantis absolutely make me cringe. They paralyze me with their hungry little eyes and crazy little arms.

2. I like goofy movies. Super Trooper is one of my all time favorites!

3. I knew NOTHING about Down Syndrome before Jake. I never stopped to notice how many people with Down Syndrome there are leading typical lives, until Jake. I purposely "put Jake out there"...because I want people to notice what I never did. I missed out on a lot of life before Jake.

4. I do laundry...when I absolutely have to! Which isn't very often, because Zach picks up the slack in that department.

5. I talk/text my mom everyday. Usually many times a day.

6. I LOVE that I am the "crafty" friend.

7. I love liquid cheese. EZ Cheese, gas station nachos, you know..liquid cheese. EZ Cheese is a staple for our hospital stays. Zach stopped questioning it after the 2nd or 3rd time because he saw how happy it made me.

That was actually somewhat hard. There is a lot of useless knowledge on those 7 lines! Enjoy!! And again...THANKS Jenn at 4ever Love for nominating me!! Jenn also has a little boy Tyson who happens to have designer genes. He also happens to have a birth date very close to Jakes! He just turned 2 also! I fell in love with Jenn's blog because I thought Tyson looked like Jake! Funny ha?! Check it out for yourself!!

And my last little task...tell who I would nominate...Jenn at 4ever Love (of course...I love how similar our blogs are...and that she doesn't leave out the pictures of Tyson with poop all over himself)!! And House of Smiths! It's a super fun craft/home blog!!

Ok, probably one of my longer blogs...so I'm off to put sick kids to bed!! Have a good night everyone!!

Followers...

Do I really still have any? I can't believe I have not put a new post on in 12 days! That's just madness!

Our week has been crazy busy, but packed with lots of good things. For what ever reason it seems like Jake has had tons of therapy or classes in the last week. He is doing one of his little motor skills/ verbal skills switch ups right now. He's mastered this walking stuff and is even starting to run a little. We are working on getting him to kick a ball...sometimes it's done on purpose, sometimes it just looks that way! But his vocabulary is really starting to turn on! He's starting to sound a little less cavemanish and a little more todderish. He's starting to repeat words and sounds. Again, not so much on purpose, but they do come out every once in a while. The other day at feeding group he said APPLE plain as day! It was beautiful! And his range of sounds are really starting to broaden! Ahh, I'm a happy momma with this little monster lately. Oh, and speaking of monsters, we will be going on a hunt for DRAWER LOCKS today. Enough said.

Gracie has also made some big changes in her own little way. Her transformation from preschool last year to pre k this year is amazing. It's pretty incredible how much difference a year of maturity makes! Since I last posted I got to work in her class room for a day, then we went to the pumpkin patch with her class a few days later. Ahh, it's that time of year. We decorated for Halloween a little, and finally decided that she will be a Happy Witch for Halloween this year. It's just a witch...who is happy! She came up with that all on her own! LOL.

Last night, I met up with some fabulous ladies from our Down Syndrome group for a woman's group craft night. It was great. Hung out with some good friends, met some new friends, and chatted with friends I don't see too often. We had lots of tasty foods, wine, and the hot glue was flowing! That's my kind of night! I think I did at one point turn into a crafting drill sargent though. It just happens sometimes. Sorry.

Today we are off...TO FIND DRAWER LOCKS, get Zach a birthday present, and maybe finish up Gracie's Happy Witch costume. It's the first time all week the little box on our calender has nothing it! I'll take it! Then tomorrow we will go back to the pumpkin patch for family day with Grandma & Grandpa & maybe a few friends as well. Sunday we will celebrate Zach's b day, and Sunday evening he will leave for another long hunting trip! You may not hear from me for awhile again! I promise to surface every once in a while to let you all know my head is above water still!!
HAPPY WEEKEND EVERYONE~
Julie

Where to start

I have been running myself in 27 different directions for about the last 3 weeks with birthday parties, girlfriends weekend, everyday life...but then the flu jumped into my life and took over. Interesting when we can't tell ourselves, "you have too much on your plate", that your body does it for you! Guess we have to be told to stop somehow right?! I just wish mine didn't come with 104 degree temps, chills, and the lovely body aches!

Ok, so back to where my 27 directions have taken me. Well, maybe not 27, but a lot! I showed off some of Nicole's 18th birthday party decorations that I worked on. That was tons of fun! The very next day we went to our mini BFF's pirate birthday party. Happy 6th Birthday Roman! Then we had the Buddy Walk, & Jake's mini monster birthday party!! Two totally amazing events that make me so grateful to be part of this community, friendships, & family. Ahh the love we felt last weekend. It couldn't have been better!! I have no pictures to share right now (again, thank you Jake for pulling mom's camera off the counter)...I'm not bitter..., but Auntie has lots & as soon as I can get them from her...I'll post! We were just recovering from the birthday extravaganza, when BOOM, momma gets the flu! Knocked down, in bed for 3 days...dead to the world. Thank God, I got over it enough to travel to the Oregon coast with my girlfriends for our annual girls trip! Well, I was sort of over it. The first 2 days were a little rough, but my friends are not scared of a little flu bug! LOL, there were more antibiotics, antibacterial gels, soaps, & wipes, in that car than most hospitals keep on hand!! Not to mention the econo size bottles of Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Mucinex & Delsym! And then you could always go with the good ol' theory of "enough hard alcohol will kill anything"...I didn't test that theory! But the Malibu Rum was flowing nicely in our room! I did manage to perk up about midway thru the weekend and got a little shopping, eating, and dancing in! Had a few walks on the beach & laughed so hard I might have pee'd my pants...a little. Really, just a little. I will soon post pictures of that too! Not of me peeing my pants, but of my friends weekend!

Breakfast of champions!

Birthday cake for breakfast!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE MAN!

My baby is 2!

Well, almost 2! He will be tomorrow. But tomorrow is jam packed full of happy goodness. Odd, just typing the title..."My baby is 2" chokes me up! I LOVE IT! The best feeling ever! There were times (too many of them) that we thought we would never see his 1st birthday...and now here we are celebrating his 2nd! He is so healthy, and happy, and full of energy, and into everything. He is such a typical 2 year old! In the last 2 years he has been to the ER 7 times. Flown to Seattle Children's 3 times. Had 4 surgeries. Those days are BEHIND us now! Audios, see ya...well NEVER AGAIN!! He's a giggly little boy with a mouth full of teeth! He grunts like a little caveman when he wants something, and squawks as loud as he can when he's excited. Usually chasing Gracie around the house with hopes of pulling her hair. The movie Happy Feet mesmerizes him. He loves to be sung to, and loves to play with musical instruments. I love to sit and think about what his future is going to be like. I have such high hopes for him. He's amazing and deserves everything he could ever dream up. I will teach him to dream big!

Tomorrow is not only his birthday, but it is also the Buddy Walk. How cool is that? Couldn't be any more perfect! Then we have another birthday party to go to in the afternoon! Sunday, we will celebrate his Mini Monster birthday bash! He has lots of friends coming over for pizza, cup cakes & a bouncy house!! It's sure to be a good time!!

Happy Birthday my little Bubba! I love you so much!!
-Your smitten Momma!

I'm shameless...I know!!

A little of what we have been up to...

This post is going to be a whole lot of random-ness. Not a word, I know, but I like it. So, I'll start with this...


My co-pilot on a crazy busy day of running around!

**WARNING** Pictures are less than, hmmm, well, great. Until a new camera makes it's way into our house (thank you Jake), you all get Iphone pics! Moving on...

So, what have we been up to? Hmm, well...for starters, the Seahawks are back in action! I'm not going to pretend that I'm "that" girl that LOVES football & knows all things football. I'm not! But I do LOVE the fall season. And with the fall season, comes football. I also don't mind watching Matt Hasselbeck. He's pretty easy on the eyes. Speaking of eyes, I'm pretty sure my husband is rolling his right now (or as soon as he reads this). We are a Seahawk family. Gracie isn't really sure why she HAS to wear these "bird" shirts every Sunday, but she's cool with it! Especially since she got a new one!!



Gracie's "Game day face"! Pretty tough...with her monkey, right?!

On all the other days that the Hawks are not on...I've been working on Nicole's 18th birthday party decorations. Here are a few pics of some of the stuff I did...

I wish I could take credit for this FABULOUS cake...but I can't! I can only take credit for finding the woman who made this little piece of heaven. Did I mention it was FABULOUS?! I have NEVER eaten chocolate cake like that before. Thank you Kym!

OH MY GOSH...I almost forgot to tell the world...

Momma Stewart had her twins on Monday morning!! Well, I guess that deserves it's own blog post!! As soon as I get my hands on those beautiful little babies (and snap a few pics) I'll be fill ya in a little more!! But until then...

CONGRATULATIONS STEWART FAMILY!!

Now I must go, Buddy Walk buttons to make & Jake's birthday decorations to finish! No time to rest (or blog) in this house!!