Walls and a Floor!

After months without our master bath its so exciting to see some progress. 

new sub-floor

shower walls and floor

Demo time

After months of saving and a little help from our family we finally have a contractor we like and we're ready to finish our master bath. Tonight Finn got out his tools and helped Jim with the final demo work. I'm so excited to finally get our bathroom back!

one last look at the old bathroom

looking into the garage

a view from the garage ceiling

Pt Reyes Lighthouse

Today we headed out to the Pt Reyes National Seashore. After a scenic drive we stopped at the beach for a picnic lunch. The cousins enjoyed playing games on the drift wood and digging in the sand. After lunch we headed over to visit the lighthouse. Its whale season so when we got to the light house there were park rangers available giving talks. We learned about the migration of the gray whales and got to take a look the baleen and jaw bone of a whale. After the lighthouse we ended our day at Anne's house for a family dinner. It was a fast weekend, but it was great having all the cousins together.

Sonoma with the Family

Lorina and the kids are visiting for the weekend, so today we decided to take a ladies trip and head to Sonoma. We started off at Valley of the Moon. While Lorina and Anne enjoyed a tasting, Julia and I took a tour of the grounds. I took this opportunity take a few shots of Julia, always one of my favorite subjects to photograph. However she's not the same curly haired little cutie I once chased after with the camera, she's blossomed into a beautiful young woman. Lucky for me she's still willing to have her picture taken. 

After Valley of the Moon we headed to BR Cohn to taste olive oil and chocolate. Then we headed over to Imagery for another tasting and a look at some local art. We ended our day with a lunch on the patio of a local restaurant. It was a perfect day in Sonoma.

Its cookie time!

Today we picked up girl scout cookies for the troop. They have quite and operation so it was very quick. We formed a line and put 60 cases of cookies into the van in 5 minutes. Mackenzie and Josie watched the boxes for me on the ride home. Now its time to distribute them to the troop and start selling!

me, Gloria and her hubby

all loaded up

Grad night

Every five weeks Jim graduates a new class from Chiefs academy. For me this is usually a night of solo parenting and mac and cheese. Well one of our good friends Terry from Eastport was graduating so I decided it was time for me to go and have some fun. I found a babysitter, sent my dress to the dry cleaners and I was ready. The last graduation I had been to was Jim's and I was pregnant with Mackenzie. So I was uncomfortable and found the whole affair a little boring. This grad proved to be a lot more fun. I had fun at cocktail hour reuniting with a few old shipmates and chatting with Jim's coworkers and their wives. Dinner was much better than I remembered, but then again so was the red wine! All in all it was a fun evening and not too bad for a date night.

Jim and Dan our Seneca friend

Dawn & Dave

my old shipmate Dawn from the "hen house"

the Julies

Terry and Jim

"Ant" Anne's Birthday

February is a popular month for birthdays in our family. There is a birthday almost everyday for the first week! Today we had Anne and Levi over for dessert to celebrate Anne & Kenzie's birthdays. They brought Mackenzie the game twister. This was a lot of fun for the kids and got pretty crazy! Levi had fun getting the kids into all kinds of crazy positions. Finnegan really enjoyed spinning the wheel and helping Daddy call out the positions. 

six years old!

Where does the time go? Today Mackenzie celebrated the big "6".  Didn't I just bring home a little peanut that was the size of one of Daddy's shoes? My little blue eyed baby has sprouted into an amazing girl. This years interests include: horses, dance, science esp lizards, drawing and crafts. She is now beginning to read books and enjoys reading to us at bedtime.. She loves Dr. Seuss especially green eggs and ham and the foot book.

She weighs 55 lbs and is in the 85% for weight. She is 47 1/4 inches tall and is in the 80% for height.

  Mackenzie had decided months ago that she wanted an American girl doll for her birthday. She scoped the catalog everyday showing me which doll she wanted and what outfits she liked. So I decided to have an American girl theme for the party. Her birthday fell on a Wednesday this year so we made it an after school party with her friends. The guests: Abby, Kesang and Nicole. We made American girl jewelery and mini purses. Then the girls had fun playing and being silly. We ended the afternoon with cupcakes and presents. After all the presents were opened I pulled out one big box for Mackenzie to open. It was her doll who is now known as Josie. She spent the rest of the evening putting on her different outfits and brushing her hair.

Nicole making jewelery

Abby

Nicole, Mackenzie & Kesang

Mackenzie, Abby & Josie

My birthday girl