Swiss Days!

Swiss Days was so much fun this year! I think it was the best Santa Clara has ever had! The new city building is so pretty and I love how they had the parade came down Santa Clara Drive this year! The turn out was great!
It was a fun weekend! I ran the 5k and loved it! It was so pretty out that early and it was fun to run through downtown Santa Clara. I love this cute little town! When we ran down past Grandma Tobler's bakery the front door was open and there were the cute ladies with their baker's hats and aprons cheering everyone on! My favorite roadside cheerleader was the old lady sitting with her CD player blasting Bob Marley as we ran by.


Friday night at the Swiss Miss and Mister fashion show with Grandma Rosenlof!


On the float waving! It was so cute seeing Grace waving her little hand!





The girls were in the Swiss Miss and Mister Fashion Show again! This has become a tradition the girls look forward to every year. Grace was old enough to participate this year and she had fun! They were so excited to be in the parade which was so much bigger and better this year! So many people lined the streets. We sat at the end of Grandma Rosenlof's driveway to watch the parade. The girls had fun waving and riding on the float! They were happy that they were one of the first floats so they could run back and watch the rest. They didn't miss out on the candy either! We gave the girls some money to blow at the carnival. They bought cotton candy, snow cones, and tickets to play games. When we were leaving they had just begun storytime and we could hear the reader of the books loud and clear through the sound system and Emma said said, "Mom I know that voice, I don't even have to look. It's Mrs. Lefler!" Sure enough it was Emma's school librarian dressed up as Dr. Suess. We ended our day listening to her read a few books. A perfect ending to a fun weekend!

Baskets did the trick!

Thank you Daisy for the basket ideas! I walked into JoAnne's today and all of their woven baskets were 50% off. I bought Emma and Julia baskets for their laundry and they loved putting their laundry away. They hung their clothes on hangers, put undies and socks in the right places. Shocking! I know the novelty of the baskets will wear off but this new little system made laundry day much easier for me!!! I know this sounds silly but I am feeling empowered here! I also bought each of the girls a small basket to keep downstairs to contain the little trails of destruction they leave behind. As I find things I put them into the baskets. I already saw a difference today. Thanks again Daisy and if any of you have any organizational tricks up your sleeve please share!!!!! As you can see I really need them and I will be forever indebted to you for a great idea.

Baby Crissy

Here are Crissy's first babbles! I LOVE this stage she is in. She is growing so quickly and I wish I could freeze time now. Her sweet baby days are going by too fast! Her new tricks include taking of her diaper and sucking her big toe. The girls of course think she is sooooo funny and they kiss, hold, and spoil her all day.

In a Slump

It has been a hard couple of days. As you can see, Grace is up to more of her little tricks. (note the hair cut job) She got into my makeup while she was supposed to be napping on my bed. Crissy took her diaper off in her crib and peed everywhere. It was not a very productive week. It felt like I just went in circles. I am not in control here! SO before I headed to Target to do unnecessary damage I happened to read my sister Deann's blog and she was talking about beginning a new routine with her kids now that school has started. She even had this picture posted of Goldie Hawn from Overboard. SOOOO funny but sad that this is really me every night.



But no more! Like Deann I am going to get my kids on a better routine and to bed earlier! This will give me more energy to deal with Grace's antics and some peace and quiet each night. I am also going to come up with an actual cleaning schedule for me to follow. I am excited to make these changes. Thanks Deann!

Lake Powell

We enjoyed a few days at Lake Powell! It was so beautiful! Thank you to the Greens for inviting us once again! We had a wonderful time!

Sarah Palin for VP!?

I can't say I was even close to being excited about this upcoming election. I haven't jumped on the Obama train or the McCain train until now. Last night I watched Sarah Palin speak at the RNC and I was so impressed. I loved her confidence, toughness and above all I loved hearing her talk about her family. I loved watching her family come up on stage with her and see her holding her baby in her arms. I love that she was a hockey/PTA mom turned city council woman turned mayor turned govenor. I think it is awesome! She was inspiring to watch and I finally feel like I can get into this election.
I do have one concern that I keep trying to shove aside but it keeps bothering me. Can Sarah Palin be Vice President of the USA and still be an involved, present mother to her kids? She has five children which include a newborn with Down Syndrome and a pregnant teenager. They are going to really need her. Can she do it? How does the vice presidency work? What will her daily itinerary be? Her husband will have to step up to be the primary caregiver. What do you guys think?
I've always been torn on this issue. Some women have to work and some women want to work. I think it is so important to stay home with your kids if you can. On the other hand what would the world be like if all teachers, doctors, lawyers, city council etc.... were men. I love when I take Emma to the eye doctor and Dr. Sharon Richens is there to answer all of Emma's questions about her eye. Emma leaves wanting to be an eye doctor. I love it! I want my daughters to be well educated and strong. I would love for them to be become doctors,nurses,teachers; whatever they want to be. I love that Sarah Palin is a mother with a mission. She is strong, inspiring and ready to take on the world. Maybe I just have an issue with the timing. I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this!!! And I will be voting for Sarah Palin in November.

Who Done It?

Most Recent Offenses: Crying and Whining so much my mom is always on the verge of losing it, leaving a little trail of my belongings all over the house, and grossing out over what my mom makes for dinner almost every night and then requesting cereal instead.

Most Recent Offenses: Dropping coins into the CD player in the van. Now we can't listen to Mama Mia anymore! Carrying juicy strawberries all the way upstairs and leaving a trail of very red juice on the stairs. Playing with soap in the bathroom, spilling salt all over the pantry, and last but not least refusing to keep my clothes on. Oh yeah, I also colored myself pink with marker and did a big "doo doo" in the tub. That sent everyone running. Gross!

I was combing Grace's hair out after her bath and thought it was strange that so much hair came out into the brush. Her hair seemed a little thinner. I just thought Crissy had pulled another handful out. We all went downstairs and I put on Curious George so I could start unpacking from our trip. I went into my bathroom and found a bunch of hair on the floor. I just stood there and stared. Then I saw my orange scissors on the counter. I'm surprised I stayed so calm. I about went into cardiac arrest when Emma was two and came out from under the crib with a chunk of her hair missing. It got caught in the springs. So because I am a seasoned mom I calmly went to find Jason before I flipped. I asked Grace if she cut her hair and she simply said "No, Dah". I kept asking her and her story was the same. Long story short she was blaming Julia. Of course I had no idea what "dah" meant until I asked her again and she pointed to Julia and said, "dah". Julia looked at me and told me she didn't do it. I can usually tell if Julia is lying and I totally believed her. Jason put doubts in my mind. How could Grace use those big scissors all by herself? She would have to use two hands to cut for sure. But then again, I let Grace cut with little child sized scissors because there is nothing more frustrating than trying to teach a kindergartner who has never picked up a pair of scissors how to use them. So, it comes down to the scary possibility that my two year old can lie or my five year old is lying and really good at it. Jason and I even tried asking Julia in her sleep if she did it. We got her half awake and she repeated the same story in her sleep. I'm so bugged I don't know what happened. All I do know is that Grace's hair is cut in two places and I was planning on having our family pictures taken this month. I'm going to have to put a hat on her.