Night Ski Trip

To prepare for Dad leaving on his week long work trip, we headed out for some FF this past weekend.  Blake enjoyed a busy Saturday working on some real estate projects and Allie and I enjoyed a play date, some cleaning, and laundry washing at home.  When the day was coming to a close we decided to head out for a night adventure up at Bogus.

When we arrived the lights were off on the trail.  We enjoyed a true "night" ski.  The only time we had any light was when we went by the Sno-Cat that was grooming the trails on the ski resort.  He actually flashed his light down on us, and I was able to take this photo

Allie and Daddy at the end of our trip.  We were waiting for the horses from Bogus Creek Outfitters to arrive.  We were trailing in front of them on our way back in.  When the horses came Allie got a little freaked out and then asked, "Are the horses bringing baby Jesus?"  I am not sure what version of the story she got this from?  I guess we better work on this story.

Where is Allie?

Well a dirty little secret I have to share is YES Allie ends up in our bed probably 95% of the time at night. She comes in anywhere from 2-6 am.  The problem with this bad habit is that I am totally oblivious to the fact that she gets in the bed (Any old roomates will know what a deep dead sleeper I am-those darn alarm clocks that I would leave ringing). The other sad part is she gets in on my side of the bed every night, and I am still out too cold to realize it.  The other flip side of the scenario is that Blake rather enjoys having her in the bed.  He is fully aware of her presence into our room, but just lets her stay.  So, about this picture.  Allie is into burying her face in the mornings when we are up getting ready and she is still trying to stay asleep.  Lately it has been under a pillow; but today it was the duvet cover.  I walked in to find legs sticking out and yes her face under the duvet.  I had to lift it up to make sure she was breathing (nurse-mom instict).  Silly Girl!

Where is Allie?

Nurse Allie

Alliee is into playing a lot of make believe latey.  One of her favorites is to get out my nursing bag  and play with all of my equipment pretending to be a nurse

I love how the stethoscope almost touches to the floor when it's in her ears

Hopefully one day Allie can join the generations of nurses in our family.  (My dad's mom is a nurse, and my mom is a nurse)  This picture was taken on my graduation day from Nursing School

Allie might also have the wonderful opportunity to go to nursing school and meet some amazing girls.  What a fun group of girls I got to know at nursing school.  Oh how I miss these girls and those great days at nursing school.  

I can smell Spring

 I am so excited for the spring and summer to arrive.  We enjoyed playing outside today for a little while.  Allie and Owen continued to play out in the back yard while I prepped our lunch.  How nice not to have a whinny child at your feet begging for food.

We dug in the rocks

We practiced kicking and throwing the ball

We even practiced hitting the ball

Miss Helper

My girl has been quite the helper lately.  The other day instead of quiet time she was put to work helping me clean downstairs.  I don't know why I have always been nervous to do my weekly cleaning with Allie around; probably because I think everything is going to become undone and it is going to take me way longer.  I was WRONG!  Allie wanted to join in on the cleaning fun the other day and she was great!  I think I actually cleaned faster having her help, and she worked her little tail off.  She cleaned my toilet, dusted the pictures, washed the walls, and cleaned in my fridge.  Now, many things I had to go over and redue with her, but if I can get this girl trained she is going to be a big helper.  Thanks girl!

Ready to work with gloves and a smile on her face

That hat looks familiar-If you look closely in the bottom right hand corner you see the silverwear container from the dish washer.  Allie's new chore has been to unload the silverwear into the drawer and find the "matches."  She loves it and it buys me some time to put the rest of the dishes away quickly.

Instituting Quiet Time

We have kind of been going through the short nap or no-nap phase at our house.  Since we have had days where there have been no naps, I instituted "quiet time."  Allie is so good about grasping the concept of things.  I explained that nap time was a time where she needed to stay in her room reading books and playing quietly while mommy got some work done in the office.  I told her that if she came out before I came to get her, her bedroom door would close (that is the ultimate threat for Allie).  Well it was one hour later before I heard a peep, which was "Mommy, I have to come out to go potty."  When I went into Allie's room she had put together 1/2 of a 24 piece puzzle.  I was pretty proud!  I am glad that our first quiet time was a hit.  I am sure we will have those days when quiet time doesn't go so well, but we're off to a good start!

Allie and the finished Pooh Puzzle (thanks Ainsley for all these great puzzles)

Albies Run

Another great Albies week of doubling those coupons.  I got some great deals and lots of freebies this week.  We just love our Juicy Juice.  It was also a special treat to get those free Darigold milks.  Allie thought it was quite the treat to have pink milk

The Grand Total was $24.09

Trip to the Littles

The circumstances worked out perfect for Allie and I to head up to Seattle for the week to visit my sister and her family.  We drove with Blake up to Kennewick, WA and stayed Sunday night with him.  We dropped him off there and headed out Monday morning to Seattle.  

Our week was filled with lots of fun excursions, lots of fun times at the Littles, a 101 Crash course on Couponing, and two outings to my new favorite store in Bellevue-The Good Will. 

Tuesday morning we got both of the kids dropped off to school and headed over to the Bellevue Mall.  We let Allie play on the boats for a little while and then headed off to Pottery Barn Kids Story Time.  My how I wish we had this store in Boise.  It was a great place to let Allie run and play for 30 minutes while we browsed the store brainstorming how to replicate everything.

Allie just kept crawling to the top of everything

Once she was on the top, she would just sit there, hang out, and hop off to the next one

After leaving the mall with nothing, we headed off to pick up Ainsley from school.  We then went and hit the Nordstrom Rack and Target.  My sister and I both walked away from these two stores bagless.  I guess we think everything is overpriced these days due to the cheap groceries and great steals at the thrift stores. 

Trying to get a photo for the grandparents-not to successful

We then tried individual photos and ended up with goofy faces

We had a nice wrestling match on the "pallet" that night

Wednesday we had a blast as we took the girls to "Pump It Up."  My sister and I had as much fun if not more than the girls.

The girls had quite the fun time going through the obstacle course

Allie was able to get a little assistance from Ainsley so she could make it the whole way through 

But flew with flying colors up the "ladder" portion

Definitly my favorite event of the morning...the gigantic slide

Allie loved jumping on the "spot."  We couldn't figure out what was underneath this little circle, but you definitly got some big hops on this one

Thursday we went to the Good Will and had some good finds.  The Bellevue store is where it's at!  There were so many great clothes from Gap, Gymboree, etc. for dirt cheap.  There were even handfulls still with original tags.  To top it off, we hit the "pink dot day," which meant that anything with pink on it was an extra 50% off the ridiculously low prices.  We walked out with great loot for a very low bill.   We also celebrated Ainsley's birthday at Red Robin that night.

The girls just loved the shoes.  This section backed right up to the children's clothing and kept them entertained while we shopped.  We were thrilled to see there pick on shoes...hot pink boots with a 3" heel.  

For dinner all the kids enjoyed milkshakes with sprinkles

Ainsley has warmed up to Red Robin-the bird.  She was thrilled when he came to sing to her for her birthday.  Allie wanted nothing to do with the bird and kept her eye on him the entire night.  We went to the bathroom mid-dinner and had to walk to the front of the store to get to the restrooms.  We passed by the "Robin" who was passing out balloons to kids.  Allie stated that she didn't want the "Robin" giving her a balloon; she wanted the lady that she saw standing next to the Robin to give her a balloon.  

Thanks for the fun trip Littles.  We sure had a great time and wish we lived closer to you guys!