Marchtastic!!

Here's the rundown--March is such a lovely month, and an especially lovely month if you happen to be a girl with a birthday (that's me), an anniversary (also me), and the birthdays of lots of other delightful personal faves..March is definitely a good time to be me!! This year, we even had a few days where it wasn't totally snowing--bonus!!

Uncle Jens came through town, always a niece (and nephew) fave--especially when he sports Gramma Jan's complete favorite shirt (she may not actually agree with that last statement there)...

Kylie got baptized!! She has been looking forward to this special day (one that was even Spring-like) for years!! She opted for the low ponytails in the hope that they would not float up in the water when her dad baptized her--great choice for Ky with both the hair and getting baptized as the newest member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (in our family, at least)...

Mom and Ky in the dressing room ( I promise I'm not actually up to anything here). When I met her to get her changed out of her wet clothes, the first thing she said was, "THAT WAS AWESOME!! Can I do it again??" And now, she really feels like she's eight--and hey, it's great to be eight!!

This is a whew, I can't believe it and I am so thankful--our darling Gramma Jan flew down for Kylie's special day and rented a car that she drove to visit her sister. Morgan, Kendell, and Kylie tagged along, as did a Nintendo DS. The DS in question was not realized to be missing until Gramma Jan had turned in the car and flown all the way back to the Evergreen State. After some very sickish feelings in some stomachs, an answering machine message to Hertz Rental cars, not to mention some prayers and preparation to learn a very expensive lesson, we were shocked to get a call this morning to let us know they had the item in question and we could come pick it up!! Paul, the all-star dad brought the DS home, and hopefully it will just STAY there...(thanks Hertz!!)

Speared ears...

After our birthday dinner last night, we went to get Kylie's ears pierced!! She was excited, nervous, excited, nervous--she wondered if I could bring a few feathers to tickle her feet with to take her mind off of things, mmm-I do love that she's coming up with big ideas. Too bad that when we reached our particular piercing destination, we were informed that no piercing could happen right then--because of the recession. Really? Yes, really--no piercing because of the recession. Ohhh--Kayyy...
We were, however, able to be penciled in for this morning, and after much anticipation/angst, not to mention having to go with choice #3 on the earrings (#'s 1 and 2 while displayed, were apparantly actually "not available"), the ear lobes of Miss Kylie are now dazzling , sparkly, and pierced!! After all was done, Kylie said that getting her ears pierced didn't hurt nearly as much as getting pinched by a certain sister of hers--good to know...

Miss Kylie is 8!!

Great things about being the birthday girl...

--lots of hula dancing in the backyard, with not too much snow...

--little bro and closest thing to a little bro sporting super-gelled mohawks...

--getting to choose the birthday dinner restaurant to go to with just mom and dad (for the record, Rumbi was the top choice for the third year running, they have the best Mac and Cheese according to the birthday girl)...

--getting to smile with mom all day long!! Kylie has always been our happy and smiley little miss. On March 13th, 2001, I had gone in to see my Dr. in the morning. Gramma Sharlene was with the 3 other kiddos while I was at my appointment, and when she found out I would be sent over to the hospital, she told them she would take them to Wendy's for lunch. My 6-year-old, Curtis, asked her, "who's Wendy?". Yes, we've always gotten out a lot...

Happy Birthday, Kylie!! Thanks for coming...

Surprisingly Fantastic!!

First off, it's not a surprise that the weekend was fantastic!! It was fantastic and absolutely the best that my mom and I were completely in kahoots (don't know the last time I've been there) and managed to pull off something so unexpected for my super sis, Kari, the Birthday Princess...

Kari lives 3 whole states away, but when our cute mom, Eagle-Eye Jan spotted a sweet deal on Southwest, we hatched a top-secret plan for me to fly up on the morning of March 6th...

It was totally fun to call Kari on the cell phone when Mom and I were about 2 minutes away from her house. Kari said she was waiting for mom to come pick her up for lunch. I told her to have fun and call me when whe got home. By this time, we were in her driveway and mom went up to the door. I waited another minute and then went up and knocked--that was quite fun!!

We had a grand lunch, did a little browsing in Sumner (on our way out of a great little shop, we saw this great white tray with a handle and compartments kind of basket without a pricetag-the lady called us back to let us know it was only $152.00-should she wrap it for me to take on the plane?? mmm, probably not this time...), went to see the rest of the crew, had cake, smiled with our sister-in-law, Jen--she's a March birthday girl, too...

We most certainly did not skimp on the See's Chocolates, chocolate brings families together...

And just like that, I am back home to at least one sign of Spring (our poor sickly-looking crocuses) along with our fairly constant companion: SNOW. For the record, it totally snowed in Seattle while I was there, too--sorry, you're welcome, whatever...

**Highlights-in addition to the complete and astonishing surprise factor for my sis--so glad my presence wasn't a bummer, that would've been bad...

--Her kid neighbor called out "HEY KARI-NICE HAIR!!" as I was retrieving my bag out of the car. Her poor panicky face as I turned around and the realization that the "nice hair" did not actually belong to Kari--oooh, good times...

--I now know where I stand with my cute nephews, Jack and Cole, who when faced with the incredible option of being cowboys and taking care of the brand-new baby calf that was born out at Grampa Larry and Gramma Peggy's that very morning, they opted to kick it shopping with Aunt Kirsten (unless Aunt Kirsten was going to play cowboy and then we could kick it together there)--aaah, thanks guys...

All in all, an awesome weekend!! So appreciate my superstar husband holding down the fort so I could go. Love my birthday sis and my partner-in-crime mom!! So fun to see the entire Seattle crew in their natural habitat...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KARI!!

So March 5th has always been a very special day--it is the day of birth of my very favorite sister, Kari!!
You say it "car" + "eee"= Kari!!
Look how excited I am here in my parents styling bed at age 4 to be squeezing my smiley lil' sis!!

Kari is a good sport, even when a certain child of hers may have drooled (okay he definitely drooled) chocolate all down her blue shirt...



Kari is a cute mom, who loves her boys even when they may or may not drool...

Kari is a cute wife, who could absolutely double for cruise director Julie McCoy of Love Boat fame when it comes to activity planning, minus the shuffleboard and Promenade Deck...

Kari is a cute sister!! She's fun, witty, clever, deliciously daring in the kitchen, not to mention stylish-- that may stem from the fact that as a toddler with a wide instep, aka "special feet" she HAD to get fantastic shoes at the Stride-Rite store because they were the only game in town when it came to shoeing "special feet." Her red and yellow "ketchup and mustard" shoes (such a clever name that young Aaron and I came up with) were so bold and so great, a super sign of things to come for Kari and her fantastic taste in footwear!!

Hope that your day is so grand and so happy and the best birthday ever!! I so wish I was there to celebrate good times with you!! Thanks for being my favorite sis...HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KARI!!