Update...

Look, I know it's been a long time....but life has been INSANE! Time to catch up the last two months, so brace yourselves, this is going to be a long one.

The first weekend in June, the Nadeau Family goes steelhead fishing at Wynoochie Lake. It's one of my favorite weekends even though I don't fish - I just enjoy being out in the middle of nowhere and camping. And Chris gets to do something he loves and fish..... Allison also loves camping because of all the junk food she gets to eat. I was messing around with my camera and found out a way to accentuate all the cheese she had eaten...pretty cool, huh?

The following weekend we took the Young Women to Hope Island for their Girl's Camp hike. Kind of a funny story....All the girls started on the hike walking around the inside of the island. Chris was working so I had Allison, and I thought that it wouldn't be a very good idea to try and hike the entire thing with her. So, we played around in a meadow, but then we got bored and decided to hike the inside of the island as well - only about 2 miles. Not very far into it,Allison decided she wanted me to hold her. It was kind of a pain, but okay so we continued walking. After about 1 mile of the hike, Allison fell asleep in my arms, so the rest of the hike - another mile - I had to carry 30 pounds of dead weight. Not so much fun....but we made it. Then I was able to lay her down and let her sleep a little while longer. She's just so cute.
Once she woke up, I couldn't keep her out of the water.....
For Father's Day, the Nadeau Family got together at Burfoot Park. It was a really good time to get together and play around for a little bit.
They have toys there, so Allison and Rose were loving every minute. They are such cute cousins. During the month of June, we were also able to go to the drive-in. It was pretty fun, and Allison had a great time laying on top of the car!

For the 4th of July the Nadeau Family rented a couple of cabins at Lake Crescent. It was a beautiful lake and fun to spend time with family. We had ducks right outside our cabin....
And the water was right there for the girls to play in...
And it was just a nice weekend to relax and spend some time together.
I just thought these pictures were so cute - our neighbors had a small sailboat and it's the perfect backdrop for these pictures

Allison is such a sweetie....time to trim those bangs...
We could not keep her out of the water - again!!

Allison is obsessed with the water and goes swimming all of the time. We just can't keep her out of it....but we love to watch her playing in it.

Allison is also loving having Taylor and Kendall live nearby again. They are so much fun together I am also glad they are so close now!

Allison is also EXTREMELY independent. Here are some examples.

She always wants to change her own diapers. I let her help me when we're home, but it's just not okay when we're out in public. I guess it's time to potty train....

But it's just so cute!

She also insists on pushing her own stroller....crazy girl!

She also wants to be a big girl....drinking her own water!
And she will no longer let us feed her....she has to do it herself! Which is good, but messy at the same time.
This past weekend was Dance Festival at the Tacoma Dome. After seven months of hard work it's finally over. There were so many kids it was crazy!
Just like the preview in May, they didn't have enough girl dancers for the Tango. They needed Heather for all three performances, but I only had to dance for the two performances on Saturday. We had a really good time - it was fun pretending to be teenagers again.
By the end of the weekend we starting getting a little silly and taking all kinds of crazy pictures. We had so much makeup on we had to show it off!

I think we're both happy it's over, but sad at the same time. It was so much work, but well worth it. I just hope the youth all enjoyed it and can have good memories from it.
Today we went to the Nadeau's and had a BBQ with a couple of Chris' cousins. It was a lot of fun and Allison loves playing with her cousins. I put her hair in a pony tail today, and I thought she looked so cute.
When we got home, my whole family was here so we got to spend some time with them as well. Sidse took the little girls out for a photo shoot. I love this picture of Allison..
I keep thinking that now that Dance Festival is over life will calm down. I don't think that's going to happen since we're signing papers on our house this week. So exciting, but it's going to be a lot of work! I just can't wait until it's all done and we can move into our own place. I just can't believe it's really happening.

I hope everyone else is doing well and you enjoy all of these crazy pictures. We're really loving life right now and enjoying every minute with our little family.

Memorial Day Weekend

Hey, I think I'm doing pretty good - Memorial Day was only ONE weekend ago and I'm already posting about it. That's pretty amazing if you ask me.



We ended up at Ocean City State Park near Ocean Shores for the weekend with Chris' brother Tim and his wife Julie. There were some rough moments, but it was still a really good time. Allison's really getting used to the camping thing! Which is good because we go A LOT. I think she likes it so much because of all the junk food we eat!
She loved going to the beach!! She's been before, but probably was too young to remember. She could not run fast enough to get to the water.
Julie had to save her from the water that came in way too fast. If I was patient enough to post videos, I would post a video of her jumping around in a pool of water and falling in face first. It was hilarious!
On Sunday night, Chris' dad and brother Jeremy and Jeremy's friend came to visit. It was fun to have a big group of people to hang out with.

The camping trip would have been great except the first night Allison tried to blow out the Citronella candle and got a little too close - singeing some of her eyelashes. Then on Sunday morning she lost her balance while throwing something into the fire and fell in. That was a scary moment, but it turned out okay. Both arms were pretty badly burned - not from the actual fire, but from the metal ring around the fire that her arms slid across on the way in. I'd post a picture - but the burns were pretty nasty. I guess she'll learn not to get too close to the fire!

On Memorial Day, Chris' dad had a BBQ because Chris' Uncle Rick was in town with his wife Gloria and grandbaby Madison. We got a picture of Rose, Madison, Lacy and Allison all together. Madison is so tiny, it's hard to believe that Allison is the youngest in the picture. I thought they did pretty good posing.
After the BBQ, most of us went to Jared's baseball game. He got a home run!! His Grandpa Kirton was very proud! I'm glad we all got to be there.
I hope everyone had a great weekend - we sure did (minus Allison's burns). We are looking forward to a lot more camping this summer and will definitely post more pictures.

May....

Well, it's been about a month and a half I guess. Life has been pretty good - crazy busy, but good. April went by really fast. We got to go camping for the first time this year with our friends Daniel and Heather. We went to Fort Warden State Park and had a ton of fun. It is so beautiful up there and it was great to get out and enjoy the sun - we picked a great weekend to go, although it got REALLY cold at night.

At Fort Warden they have old bunkers that you can check out. I believe these were called Batteries, but I have no idea why they call them that - maybe somebody could fill me in....it was great to have our little backpack for Allison - she loves it and couldn't run away!
Another family picture at the Batteries...
Then we went down to the beach and played for a little bit. Somehow Heather got a hold of my camera, but I thought this picture was really cute of her with Daniel towing around Allison in the back.
And one more of Allison and her Daddy....it was a great camping trip!!
Allison has been really enjoying being outside. At the babysitters they have a pool so I'm sure she is going to be extremely tan by the end of summer. I bet people won't believe she's my child. Anyway, we've been having a really hard time keeping her in the house - she's really into the slide and the tricycle (even though she can't reach the pedals yet).

And down she goes...

Last Friday night we got to go to Logan McGee's birthday party at a park in Olympia. It was a fun BBQ with just a few people - so we really enjoyed ourselves. Allison and I had fun playing with their son Kason. I told Logan I would post this picture of Kason with the pink sunglasses just to tick him off - but he's so cute with them on!

Allison and Kason really got along well - I can't wait until they can run around together and really play hard.

Allison definitely loves her Daddy - sometimes I fell a little left out, but it's great to see how well she gets along with her Dad.
On Saturday, we had the Tri-Stake Dance Festival Preview for the Youth in the Olympia, Lacey and Elma Stakes. They held it at the SHS Mini Dome and about 4 of our Shelton girls didn't show up - so their leaders had to fill in....totally unexpected but a lot of fun. Kamala, Heather, and I made sure to get our pictures taken so we could document the experience. The other adult leaders kept mistaking Heather and I for youth - we kept getting in trouble for not being in the right place - we just had to keep reminding them that we were leaders and knew where we needed to be. Hopefully we'll find some girls to take our place for the big performance in July - otherwise we'll be doing this again, I guess. Oh well, I never got to do it as a youth, so I might as well do it now.
One last exciting bit of information - it looks like we might be buying a house!! We are soooo excited. If we do get it, then the picture above will be our neighborhood - Kamala across the street and Heather next door. I think we would all have a lot of fun. Anyway, the situation is that Heather's next door neighbor passed away and the family would like to get rid of the house ASAP. The court has told them that they need to get an appraisal and then they can sell it for 90% of that amount. So, the appraiser is coming this Thursday or Friday, and then we can decide if we can afford it. We've already been told that we get first dibs on the house, so as long as it doesn't come in too high then we will be buying it. It needs a lot of work, but that just means we can get it for a better deal. I'll post again when we find out and I'll also have to post some pictures.

Anyway, we hope life is going well for all of our friends and family. I feel like everyone I know is having babies right now - my college roommate Michele just had a baby girl, and then Chanel is having a girl on Wednesday. My cousin Liz is having a boy soon and then Becky in July - there are going to be a TON of babies around. No more for us yet, but hopefully soon. Anyway, maybe I'll post a little sooner next time - probably not but you never know.

Monthly Update

Well, I guess as long as I post once a month I'm doing pretty good, right? My goal when I signed up for this thing was to do it once a week, but my computer situation doesn't really allow me to do that right now - I get frustrated every time I get on this laptop!!

Well, Chris got special prescription safety glasses for work and he brought them home to show them off. We thought Allison looked so cute in them...
Allison LOVES to drive (well, pretend to drive). We went to Red Robin the other night and I could hardly get her away from the game room - she just wanted to play on the driving games all night. She's such a cute kid.Once again, Allison loves to be outside. I can't wait for it to warm up a little more so we can be out ALL the time. I love that Allison is so mobile now and can explore all kinds of things. It can be a pain at times when I want to go inside and she does not, but we're working on getting her to listen!

We went to Burfoot Park in Olympia the other day with Chris' Dad, Stepmother and Brother-In-Law. Chris' dad found a little crab and Allison was all about playing with the little thing. I'm sure that will be TOTALLY different in a couple of years.
Just a cute picture of Allison and Haley. It's so fun to get to see them together at church every week and see how they get along. It makes me feel better about dropping her off with them every day.
Okay, just a funny picture. We went to Whidbey Island last Sunday for my cousin's kid's baptism. It was a LONG drive and Allison was ready to be done before we even got there. She did pretty good, but it was a good thing that we didn't have to drive home that night and got to stay in Bellevue (more about that later). Sidse, this picture is for you!
This is what prompted me to post tonight....I was cleaning the kitchen and Allison wanted on the counter. She said she wanted to wash her hands so I turned on the water for her. Well, within a few minutes she was soaked up to her waist and her hair had gotten quite wet as well. The counter was covered with water but she had a lot of fun - I didn't even mind cleaning up after her mess...
I wish I could have gotten a picture of her sitting in the sink (she did that for awhile as well) but the best we could do was this....it took me quite awhile to get her to get off the counter. It was just way too much fun!Well, hopefully you guys like pictures of Allison because that's all we seem to post....she's really all that matters anyway.

Things are going great for us. Chris' job is still going well and we are so grateful for that blessing. It looks like we may actually get the option of me staying home and having more babies - something I NEVER though would happen. It will still be a little while, but I can see it in the future...

My job is going fine - nothing exciting. I would much rather be home with my baby.

Allison is doing great as well - as you can see from the pictures. As I mentioned above we stayed in Bellevue Sunday night. Allison had a Doctor's Appointment on Monday morning at the Children's Hospital office in Bellevue. It was so nice to have an Aunt willing to let us stay at her house so we didn't have to fight traffic - Thanks Aunt Belinda. Anyway, we went to the doctor because she has had this horrible cough since Christmas. It gets better and worse, but it just wouldn't go away and was a dry hacking cough that seemed to flare up at night, when going out in the cold, or after running around for awhile. At times she would cough so hard she'd make herself throw up. I felt so bad for her we had to get it checked out. It appears to be a mild case of Asthma....no fun for her but there is the possibility of her growing out of it by age three. It may also be something she has to deal with during the winter time. Anyway, she now has a fun little inhaler that we've already gotten to use. It really seemed to work so the diagnosis appears correct. We also got a steroid treatment to give her if it doesn't seem to get better. It's just so nuts to me to have to deal with this stuff - having been so healthy growing up and NEVER getting sick. I just hope all of the rest of our kids are healthier! Between Chris and Allison I don't think we could handle another sicky....

Sorry this has been a BOOK! But, if I'm only writing once a month it's going to have to be long. Hope everyone is doing well....