Homebodies

I know I haven't posted in a long while. Its just that we don't do anything anymore, except work at the house! We have been doing so much outside and no matter how much we do, there is still a ton that needs done. We've been trimming, weeding, mowing and planting. We've got the rose beds looking 100% better than when we moved in. Jered has trimmed up quite a few of the trees and those are looking a lot better. We've got some though that need cut down completely. We got our garden planted and already have some sprouts. Ashlyn is very excited about the cantaloupe and pumpkins (cross your fingers)! Jered set us up with a soaker hose for the garden with a timer so we don't have to worry so much about watering or for us its more like not watering. The bathroom remodel got put on pause because we've been doing so much outside. We've had such beautiful weather this spring, we've really taken advantage.

Also I've been working a lot of overtime. A few weekends. a few late nights, working on my day off. I'm tired! There is a light at the end of this overtime tunnel though! We've hired a couple of new people to cover the shifts we're all working OT for and I'm switching my hours at the end of the month. I will be working 5 days a week 7am-330pm. I needed to switch hours when Ashlyn starts school but I'm really looking forward to getting off those couple hours earlier through the summer as well. Right now we usually get home about 6pm and we like to do stuff outside for a bit before it gets dark. Before we know it, its after 8pm, we haven't eaten dinner and Ashlyn needs to be in bed. Needless to say, most nights she's been up a little later than usual and she's been eating a lot of peanut butter sandwiches, cereal and/or yogurt for dinner! :)

Most of you probably saw the huge surprise we gave her the other weekend. My friend at work was selling her step-sons quad because he had outgrown it. She asked me if we wanted it for Ashlyn and she gave us a super good deal so we went for it! My friend and her husband were able to bring it over a couple of weeks ago and we kept it hidden for about a week before we showed it to her. She was SO surprised!! Jered took her for a ride first and then when we put her on it for her first solo ride....oh boy! She took off with the throttle pushed all the way in and almost ran over Jered! Thank goodness my friends husband Craig had put a governor on the throttle so all we had to do was tighten the little screw so she couldn't go so fast. She's been riding a bit in the driveway, learning to turn and how to do slow down, how to start it etc. Her hands are too little to reach the brake and be able to squeeze it hard enough to slow down but letting off the throttle is working for now. She asked me, "Mommy did you ever wreck when you were little?" I told her "yes I did, many many times because I was going way too fast!" She has no fear though and I didn't either. I can remember riding for so long my thumb would hurt from pushing in the throttle. My cousin Traci and I would ride and ride and ride when we were growing up. Except we were only on 3 wheels, with no helmets and we'd be gone for hours at a time riding all over the farm. There were quite a few times we came home a little bruised and bloody, more afraid of getting in trouble for doing something to the 3-wheeler than we were for ourselves. My brother ran me over once and made me promise never to tell Mom. The scratches and bruises on my back were a pretty big clue though! :) How did we survive? :)

We just got back from our annual Father's Day camping trip. We had the best time! So relaxing and fun. After our first ride out to the sand dunes and to the beach, when we got back to camp Ashlyn said, "THAT WAS AMAZING!!!" Sums up the whole weekend. We didn't make it home till 11pm Sunday so we're all a bit tired and there's lots of clean up to do but it was all worth it!

Ashlyn will be going to Vacation Bible School again at my mom's church the week of June 23rd. So Jered and I will be footloose and fancy free for a week!! :) We'll miss her like crazy of course but we're both looking forward to it too. We'll go to a few restaurants we've been wanting to try but aren't exactly kid friendly.  Maybe even stop for a drink after work. No plans really but I'm sure we'll find something to do! :)

Of course we have the 45th (?) annual Ballard family campout/reunion for the 4th of July coming up in a couple of weeks. So we'll be headed down to Florence again. No quads though, just lots of family and fun. Our friends Justin and Steph and their two kids have come with us the last couple of years. They're coming again this year too. After a couple years in a row you're a regular! The kids have a great time, the adults do too! ;)

Just two short months and Ashlyn will be in kindergarten. I'm not ready! I'm not ready!! Stop the clock!!! I asked her the other day if she would just stay 5 forever. She told me she couldn't because she's gonna be 6 soon.

Summer is here and we plan to make the most of it!

 I think she was a little surprised :)

 Pure joy

I think this face is excited shock!

Such a big girl these days

First solo ride, she's feeling pretty good!

New haircut and a crazy face

 Playing in the ocean. Its impossible to keep a 5 year old 

out of the ocean, no matter how cold the water is. And really, 

why would you want to?

 Nolan finally arrived at camp on Saturday afternoon. These

two play so well together and always have so much fun.

Getting to ride together on the same quad. They both really

wanted to ride together, so Jered put-putted them around camp

 a few laps.

EASTER

We had a wonderful, relaxing Easter weekend. We were hoping for more sunshine on Saturday but only got a little in the morning and then rain, rain, rain for the rest of the day. So not much yard work completed, though I did get both back decks swept off. Of course after only one day, there's more pine needles, my nemesis!

Saturday afternoon we colored Easter eggs. We did Volcano and Tie-dye eggs. For the volcano eggs we made a paste with baking soda and a little water then added bright neon yellow food color. We painted the paste onto the boiled egg then dropped one drop of two or three other colors of food color. Next we dripped vinegar over the egg and watched the reaction of the baking soda with the vinegar. After letting them sit for a minute or so, we just rinsed them in water.They came out great! Our new favorite way to dye eggs! For the tie-dye eggs we soaked the boiled eggs in vinegar for about 5 minutes, put the egg in a colander, dropped one drop of color on the egg then rolled it around in the colander. We did two to three colors per egg, one color at a time, then rinsed with water. They were ok. We did them last year too but we liked the volcano eggs best. I had also bought a bunch of plastic eggs and candy. Ashlyn had a great time stuffing as much candy as possible into each egg and then trying to get them to close.

The Easter bunny was very nice to Ashlyn this year. He brought her some headbands and barrettes for her hair, a jump rope, some side walk chalk, a chocolate bunny and The Frozen CD. She loved the CD and listened to the whole thing before we left for Grandma's. She walks around singing those songs constantly! She knows all the words too which is just amazing. She's going to be much better at the "Who sings this?" game Jered loves to play than I am, for sure!
At Grandma's house she got a new watering can, new gardening gloves, money, more chalk and lots of candy! As soon as we got home Sunday afternoon she was filling her watering can and watering all of the plants outside.

Easter pics:

Jered and I spent his birthday weekend at 

Grand Lodge. Lots of fun!

Our pretty little poser

 hunting

 look at my haul!

 O M G....its $$

 I love $$

 family pic, but Ashlyn said it was way too bright

 cousins

 eating candy

 being silly with my cousin Grace

watch out Mom, here we come

 helping Daddy mow the lawn. Look at all those dandelions!

Big thanks to Grandpa Eddie for the riding lawn mower!

I compromised with Daddy. I wanted to sleep in my

castle tent from Grammy, he wanted me to sleep in my bed.

our volcano eggs

April showers bring May flowers....right?

This sun has been so awesome! I've heard rain is on the way but I'm going to enjoy the next couple of days of sunshine! We're already loving all the daffodils and cherry blossoms. I've been a little disappointed in the lack of spring flowers at our house. But this just means I'll be planting lots of bulbs in the fall. We want to give the yard at least one year to show us what its made of. So far: lots of trees, maple trees already blooming (ugh, leafs and raking) and not many flowering plants. Although there is a little rose garden on the side of the house. They looked a little rough so I trimmed them back quite a bit when we first moved in and now they are starting to bud. I'm hoping they all do well this summer. I've got lots of landscaping ideas saved on Pinterest and lots of ideas of where I want to plant things. It has to be a work in progress, we do not have the time or money to landscape the whole place in one summer! I have plans for a couple of raised garden beds, I want a vegetable garden this year! I'm also hoping we'll get the chicken coop and composting system up this summer. I have lots and lots of plans (if only I had lots and lots of time and $$)!!

We spent a lot of time working at the house last month but we also managed to do some fun stuff. We went to a Winterhawks game, we checked out opening night of the new arena football team: the Portland Thunder, we did the Shamrock Run for Eli's birthday. We spent a weekend in Washington for cousin Grace's birthday. Hockey is always a good time and if time and money allowed we'd probably go to a lot more games. Ashlyn loves it because she usually gets a popcorn, cotton candy or red rope. This time she shared a cotton candy with my friends' son Drayton. The Portland Thunder game was interesting. It was a lot of fun and I'd go again but NFL its not. Ashlyn, McKenzie and Brady did the Leprechaun Lap at the Shamrock run. Steph and I chased after the three of them. It was a lof of fun and though the kids had to do a lot of waiting around they had a great time and they got a free t-shirt. Definitely something I'd do again if she wants to.

Last week we took Ashlyn for "Kindergarten Round-up" at the grade school. How did this happen? If I could stop time, I would! Our big girl is excited for school but is still thinking her friends from WeeCare will be going to the same school with her. I'm hoping she will adjust easily and the round-up gave her a chance to meet some new kids. Corbett has a 4-day school week. The class hours per day is a bit longer, but they don't go on Fridays. If there is a Monday holiday, then they go on Friday. Ashlyn should have no problem because she's used to being in daycare. I'm going to have to change my hours when she starts school though. I have LOVED working 4-10's and having that one week day off. Ashlyn and I get some one on one time and I'm able to do so many things that would have to be done on the weekends otherwise. BUT going back to 5-8's will work better with Ashlyn's school schedule.

We celebrated Jered's birthday this last weekend. We had such a good time! We had reservations at Grand Lodge in Forest Grove Saturday night and we managed to get 12 new stamps on our passports.We drank some wine, we ate some good food, we soaked in the soaking pool. It was just nice to have a weekend to ourselves. Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma G for keeping Ashlyn over night. She had a blast! They made rice krispy treats with frosting and sprinkles and a birthday cake for Jered.

We checked out Grandpa's green house when we were there yesterday afternoon and OMG! It is overflowing! There's tomatoes and onions and peppers and flowers and baskets oh my! Grandpa is going to give us some tomato and pepper plants to plant in my garden. I'm so excited! Hopefully Jered and I can get the garden spot cleared out this weekend.

A few pics from our lunch date to Hood River a few weekends ago:

 I love this sweet face <3 p="">

 looking too cool for school in Daddy's sunglasses

We found this cheese at Costco, she was pretty excited! :)

House and Fun

We have been working on our house little by little. Working full time and trying to do home projects makes it hard to get things done. Slowly but surely we will get things finished though. We finished painting the kitchen the other night and I love it! It looks great! We had our new carpets put in a few weeks ago and it makes such a huge difference! So much cleaner and the color is more suited to our tastes. Downstairs in the theater room there is not one inch left of anything even remotely related to the Blazers! The red trim and doors are gone gone gone! The dark blue color we picked looks awesome. I painted the bookcases and the doors back to white and now we just need to put up all the trim. At first we thought we'd do white trim, but I have found that I greatly dislike white trim! It shows everything, ugh! We have two dogs, two big shedding black dogs. Black dogs and white trim? Not a good match. So we're going to go with a stained wood trim instead. Most of the upstairs is stained wood trim and its so much better than the white. 

We haven't done much to the outside because we have been having a lot of WIND! Apparently this has been an unusually super windy winter. Welcome to Corbett! :) There is not much point in doing too much yard work when all it takes is one windy night and the yards are covered in leaves and limbs. So far I haven't minded the wind too much but the other morning as we were leaving for work, I looked up at the trees and boy were they swaying! I crossed my fingers and prayed we wouldn't come home to a tree on our house! We were safe, those trees have been there for many years and not come down yet, at least that's what I always tell myself.

Here's what else we've been up to:

I chaperoned Ashlyn's class trip to OMSI earlier this month. This is her class singing space songs while waiting to go into the Planetarium. We watched Perfect Little Planet. It was pretty cute but boy did I get dizzy and nauseous. It didn't seem to bother any of the kiddos though. It was a lot of fun and Ashlyn was super excited I was able to go with her and her class. I have to say a big Thank You! to my friend Jason for covering me at work so I could.

 Nice night for a campfire and campfire = marshmallows!

Ashlyn's friend Gemma from school had her birthday party at Mt Hood Ski Bowl and the kids all got to go tubing. I wasn't able to go but both Jered and Ashlyn had a blast! Ashlyn's ready to go back asap!

 Making silly faces

My brother's wrestling team. That's him standing front left. Jered and I love to go and support him and his team. Ashlyn loves it too. She gets really excited when we tell her we're going to a tournament. They have been doing really great these last few years and this has been the best year yet. District Champs, Dual-meet Champs, 11 kids going to state (the most ever) and 8 of those took first at the District meet. Plus Keith was named Coach of the Year for the third straight year. Monroe Wrestling is a real Ballard family affair. Two of the assistant coaches are my cousins, two of my other cousins have run the little kids program for the last 8 years or so and help out coaching the high school kids as well. My cousin's wife calls them the "Wrestling Mafia" :) There are always a handful of my cousins on the team as well. The State tournament starts tomorrow. We've purchased our tickets, we are ready!

Snow

The only picture I got at the birthday party. 

Ashlyn said "it sure was a fun party!"

 Completed my first Lite Bright

 New cousin Julia

 isn't she pretty?

 Sinder makes a good pillow in the car

 very colorful outfit

 SNOW!!!! Finally!!!

 sledding

 Horsetail falls

 Multnomah Falls

Happy Birthday 5 year old!

I'm starting a couple of new things this year: 20 questions and a letter. I asked Ashlyn 20 questions about her favorite things. She took this very seriously and took her time thinking about her answers. Also, I'm writing her a 'letter'. I have a friend who blogs and she does the birthday letter and its always just the sweetest thing.

First the 20 questions:

1. Favorite color? Pink and Purple and Blue and Yellow.
2. Favorite TV show? Doc McStuffins and Jake and the Neverland Pirate
3. Favorite outfit? Dresses! Especially my new birthday dress
4. Favorite game? The mermaid game
5. Favorite toy? Celestia
6. Favorite book? Belle and Ariel (from the Princess book)
7. Favorite song? Mama Mia
8. Favorite thing to do with your friends? Play w/ Elsie
9. Favorite thing to eat? Hamburgers and chicken nuggets
10. Favorite ice cream? Vanilla and Chocolate 
11. Favorite fruit? Mandarin oranges
12. Favorite drink? Milk and water
13. Favorite cereal? Rice Krispies
14. Favorite breakfast? Pancakes and waffles
15. What are you really good at? helping Mommy
16. What do you need more work on? cleaning my room
17. If you could have one wish, what would it be? I could fly
18. Where do you want to go on our next vacation? to Ireland again! or Canada
19. What was your favorite thing we did this year? going to Ireland
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A sogropher (sonographer) like you Mommy :)

To my big 5 year old:
You have grown up so much this year even though I'd like to keep you my little baby forever. I've asked you to stay my little baby but you always tell me "No Mommy, I'm a big girl!" You're right, you're such a big girl. You are sweet and sassy, bossy and opinionated, stubborn and confident, but also shy in new situations and large groups. You are so independent and like to do things yourself. Most weekends you have already gotten yourself breakfast before Mommy or Daddy even gets out of bed. You are such an early riser, its a real treat for us when you sleep in! You are so loving, I can't get enough of your hugs. Some of my favorite moments are when you say out of the blue, "Mommy, I love you!" or when you give me hugs just because you want to. You love to sing! You're constantly singing and making up songs. You sing along with songs on the radio better than I do. You love to read and often times will repeat most of the story after hearing it only once. I often hear your playing with your animals (friends) and acting out parts of stories we've read. You love your stuffed animals or friends as you call them. You have so many in bed with you there's hardly room for you! Most of them get named for what they are: Panda is Pandi, Bear is Beary, Armadillo is Dilly, Rudolph is Rudy, etc. You have a blue dragon you love and you named him Lucy. You still have "Lovie" and I think always will, as long as it holds together. You love to run and jump and climb and race. When we drop you off at school, most mornings we race down the hallway to your classroom. At home you love to do laps around the house before doing just about anything: brushing teeth, before getting in the bath or shower, before getting dressed etc. I know Daddy is hoping this means you will be a track star like he was. Your BFF's at school have stayed pretty constant for the last couple of years: Elsie, Evita and Gemma. You've been asking for sleep overs with them for the last year or so but Mommy just really isn't ready for that. You and Gemma started WeeCare around the same time so you really have been "friends forever". You have your own mind and want to go at your own pace. Its very difficult to hurry you up. You do equally well playing by yourself or with friends. I sense you like/need your alone time. I did too when I was growing up and I still do. You still do not like to try new foods. You have your favorites: cereal, peanut butter sandwiches, yogurt, apples and applesauce, oranges and Burgerville hamburgers, the only burger you'll eat with sauce. You're not much of a fry girl but you love onion rings. You only wear dresses and have switched from preferring leggings to tights. You have your own sense of style and pick out your own clothes. You know what you like and don't like. This morning your wore a black and red dress with a purple shrug, green vest and black tights. We made a big move this year to a new house and you handled it so well! You love showing off your new room and all the stairs we have. You're favorite colors are pink and purple and you love anything Disney Princess. You picked the purple bedroom and chose bright pink princess bedding for your big girl bed. You are an awesome traveler and have flown on an airplane more times than I can count. You're first flight you were only 4 months old, maybe that's why you love to fly so much! This year we went to Ireland and you were amazing! You loved climbing on the old castles, going to the beaches and chicken goujons (chicken strips). We allowed you a lot of freedom of in Ireland and we watched you grow even more independent. Sometimes that independence gets you into trouble. I know its hard to understand that things can't always be done your way. You do NOT to like shop even though we do a lot of it together. You're favorite store is Target, although now that you've discovered churros, I think Costco is high on the list. You love your sweets! Cake, ice cream, chocolate and especially anything gummy, just like Daddy. You love to watch TV and completely zone out when we give you TV time. Disney Jr. is your favorite channel. You don't watch a lot of TV but you've been watching football since you were born. Its not your favorite but you have learned we root for the Ducks and the Beavers, unless they're playing each other and then Daddy and I try to get you on our side. Ducks for me and Beavs for Daddy. You are still so clumsy :) You're nickname at school started when you were about 2 years old and it stuck. They call you Ash Crash, in fact I just heard Elsie call you Ash Crash the other day when I was picking you up from school. Your knees are constantly bruised. You fall a lot but know that if you fall you "Get back up!" You are so tough but sensitive too. I am so excited to see what the next year brings. We love you more than you'll ever know and I'm so happy I get to be your Mom.

Two long busy months.....

I do realize its been two months since I've posted. YIKES!! A LOT has happened in the last two months. I'm working on finishing up my Ireland posts but here's a short post on what's been up with us.

We signed on our new house a couple weeks after we got back from Ireland (oh Ireland, I miss you!). Then Jered left for hunting on Halloween. Ashlyn got super sick Halloween night and we had to miss trick-or-treating, I was more upset than she was! She was going to be a super cute unicorn darn it!!

With a lot of help from some very good friends (you know who you are!) we moved into our Corbett house on November 17th, 2013. We have been loving our new house! We look around and we realize its a lot of work. We know there will be some tough winters. BUT, we just love it! It just feels right, it really really does.

Thanksgiving was spent in Woodburn with Grandpa and Grandma G. We had a delicious smoked turkey. I'm not really a turkey fan but every year Grandpa smokes us a turkey and its always fantastic!Grammy drove up from Monroe to spend it with us too. Grandpa was in Arizona visiting his daughter Amber. She's due pretty soon with a new granddaughter!

Grandma and Papa Mac arrived about a week before Christmas. Papa Mac told us to make him a list of home projects and boy did we ever. There's at least 30 things on the list!  Some big, some small. There will definitely be some before and after photos coming soon.

Then we had our hectic as usual Christmas. We had 7 Christmas's, yes you read that right, I said SEVEN. A couple weekends before Christmas we had our friends and their kids up to Corbett and we let the kids exchange names. The Sunday before Christmas was spent with the Kacalek clan at Aunt Lavonne's new house. Christmas Eve at Grandpa and Grandma G's in Woodburn. Christmas morning at our house in Corbett, afternoon at my Aunt Jean's in Monroe, evening at my Dad's also in Monroe. We're not done yet, one more to go. The weekend after Christmas we were back in Monroe for Christmas with my immediate family. Phew, all done!

After Christmas Patsy and Steve came up to stay with us and Steve got to work on our list. He's changed light fixtures, fixed the grout on the tile, ripped out the nasty carpet in the media room, put in hardwood flooring on the stairs to the basement (it looks beautiful!), demo'd the upstairs bath (goodbye 1970's). That's not all, there's more I'm sure. We've been keeping Home Depot and Lowes in business the last few weeks and we're not done yet! The next big purchases are carpet for the media room and new vanity, tub/shower etc for the upstairs bath.

To start the new year off right: we SOLD our old house!!! Yay!! Only on the market 12 days. :) Our neighbor was our realtor and he was awesome. We sign on the 7th and the official closing will be the 10th. A huge relief, I feel like a huge weight was lifted of our shoulders. Now we can really settle in and get down to business setting up our new house.

A few pics from the holidays:

 I got ahold of Auntie Kari's camera

Family portrait Thanksgiving Day

Daddy trying to skate on the frozen pond.

This was about 5 minutes before he fell and

broke the ice with his head. He had a concussion

for sure. Mommy says when Daddy and his friends

are together, its like they're 12 years old again!

 Putting the star on top of the tree

 YAY!!

 Pretty girl in her fancy Christmas dress

 Santa left me a LeapFrog LeapPad Ultra.

My very own tablet!!

 I'm pretty excited.

 Getting ready to open presents at Grammy and Grandpa's

 New hat from cousin Charity

Cousins: Bailey, Jeremiah, Macy, Tobin, Me, Maliah