Monique Wins!

Some of you may be aware that Monique and I have been in an intense battle to fight our expanding waistlines. I know, you're all rolling your eyes right now, but we really wanted to get ourselves back to the glory days of peak physical fitness.

The challenge was who could lose 15 pounds first. Initially, we thought it might take a month or two, but after 7 months of dieting and intense exercise, Monique has reached her pre-Samantha weight of 115. That was her goal. She is awesome. I'm still 4 pound away from my pre-mission weight of 175.

This wasn't a contest for bragging rights, there was a big prize involved. We never buy clothing for ourselves. I still wear shirts from 10 years ago, so I said that whoever gets to their goal first, gets a $300 shopping spree for new clothes.

Congrats Monique! Kudos for all your hard work. I'm glad you like to run now...that makes me a happy husband (I've always wanted a running companion.)

Random Kid Pics

I was looking through our pictures, like I often do, and found some pretty cute ones of the kids. I was noticing that I don't have many of them together, which is kinda a bummer. I guess it's because neither one of them (mainly Parker) will hold still long enough to get a good shot! Little stinker! So, here's some of my favorite solo pics that I've taken recently.

Here's Sam "dressing up" for a party...or so she says.

One of Parker's favorite activities lately...climbing in the fridge!

Sam, playing at The Bouncy Place at her friend's birthday party.

One of Parker's first experiences down the slide. He gets a kick out of it!

Not much to say...just a cute boy!

What a cheese!

Timber and Some Fuzzy Friends

It's only 1:00ish and our day is already full of events! This morning we had some trees cut down in our back yard. We basically live in the forest back there and we needed some sunshine! We have PLENTY of trees still, on the side of our house (our property is almost an acre and most of that is trees). It went well...No injuries or falling trees on our house! I'm happy!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

If you notice, there's much more sunlight getting through. That was the point of this. It's gonna be a lot of work, but we plan on getting all that wood cut up and out of the way and then preparing the ground for grass! I'm so excited to have a nice yard. We have a small patch of grass in the back yard, but not much. It will be great to have a real back yard!

Anyways, in the process of all this the guys found a bird nest with baby birds (crows...we think). They almost cut right through it, but thank goodness, they saw it and were able to get it out of the tree with the birds safe and sound. At first it was kinda exciting, but then I felt really bad for these birds. I mean, we totally cut down the tree they were living in and now what??? What about their momma bird??? After contemplating taking care of them ourselves (ya right!) we ended up calling a wildlife shelter here in Renton and brought the birds, in the nest, to them. Crazy! I'm just glad they'll be safe and taken care of. I was really worried! I'm kinda weird like that! I really like animals...

Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager

I'm notoriously behind the times on fun/funny stuff on the web. Interstingly enough, I'm on the computer all day and still not cool. Computer nerds are cool, right?

Here's a little nugget from the web - Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager.
Life is hard for Chad Vader, the younger, less charismatic brother of Darth Vader, who is the day shift manager of a grocery store.



UPDATE: I've removed the streaming video due to mild language towards the end. (This is a family site after all.) You've been warned, but it's really not that bad!

Check out the the series here:
http://www.blamesociety.net/chadvader/index.php

Sunny Saturday!

We've had a great Saturday today! We woke up early to get to the park before the sun wore us out too much (it hit over 90 degrees today!). It's this great park in Redmond, Farrel Mcwhirter Park. This park is great because it's so beautiful and has trails to hike and has farm animals! The animals are so cute and fun! After we checked that out, we headed home to get the swimming pool out and do some gardening. Samantha planted her very own rose bush all by herself. She dug the hole and everything! The kids got some swimming in and Sam loved to slide down into the water, while Parker enjoyed the water from the side of the pool. Jeremy put him in though, and he cried. Too cold!

In the meantime, my dad (Grandpa Fred) called and asked if Samantha wanted to go to the Museum of Flight with him and my little brother, Tanner. They were also going to go out to dinner to Red Robin. Samantha was very excited and decided she wanted to go. That left me some time to myself, while Parker slept. I ended up going shopping and left Jeremy to listen for Parker. Shopping is so relaxing without the kids!

Tonight the kids got to stay up a little later than usual and Sam played the Wii with Jeremy, while Parker found the kitty water that I had put out on the deck earlier (usually the water is downstairs in the garage, but the cat looked so hot and tired. I brought it to her). Since it was fairly fresh, I let him go at it! He tried to drink it, but failed...luckily!

Today turned out great! The weather was nice, the kids were happy (for the most part), we had fun, and I got some free time! What more could you ask for?!

Hike

Samantha is the type of kid that doesn't forget anything.  If she's ever thought of something she wants to do or somewhere she wants to go, she'll let you know and will not let you forget.  SO, her latest choice of adventure was a hike.  Actually, in her words it went like this..."Mom, I want to go on a walk through the trees and on a mountain."  Being the great dad that he is, Jeremy took her on her hike and she had a blast!  She had only one complaint...that it was too long.  Jeremy and I thought it would be just the right kind of trail, but I guess we were wrong.  Poor Jeremy ended up carrying Samantha most of the way, but I guess what do expect with a 3 yr. old.  The trail led them to a small, very small, waterfall that she really looked forward to seeing.  She told me she saw a "lug" (AKA -slug).  She also told me they looked for fairies on the way. It's just great to have such an adventuresome little girl.  She's always thinking up new things to do and see.  It's great!  The next things on her list is to visit the zoo and she wants to be a baseball player.  Fun stuff !!!

 

Minibosses

Hey everyone! There is this band that I really like, they are called the Minibosses and they do pure instrumental music from old Nintendo games...it's pretty rad (yes, I said rad.) Have a listen on the jukebox below or go to their website to download the songs for free! I recommend starting with Super Mario Bros. 2 and then listen to everything else.

It definitely brings me back in time. Wives, if you weren't much of a game player growing up, grab your husbands, I think they'll enjoy it. I'm realizing our blog demographic is mostly Monique's friends, I need to reach out to the fellas.

You might need to download Adobe Flash Player 9 to see the jukebox, if so, just follow the link below:

To use the E-Phonic MP3 Player you will need Adobe Flash Player 9 or better and a Javascript enabled browser.

Birthday Party!

As you know, Parker celebrated his first birthday on April 30th.  We weren't able to have a party that day, so we finally had one today.  We celebrated with Jeremy's family, with mine at home sick :(  This post is dedicated to my family, who weren't able to see our birthday boy today!  The party involved lunch, presents, cupcakes, ice cream, and of course...the Wii and board games.  You can't have a party with Jer's family without the last two activities.  We had fun, even though we were missing some that we wished could have been there.  Parker got some really fun toys and some stylin' clothes.  The cousins and Sam got some fun little presents from Grandma Klein.  NOBODY felt left out :)  That's what grandmas are for!  Unfortunately, I didn't get any GREAT pictures of Parker.  He was kinda grumpy (he's been that way for a week now!)  I think he's teething???  But, he didn't scream through the whole party, so that was good!  He wasn't thrilled about the cake, as you can see in the first picture of his cupcake experience, but loved to smoosh it in his fingers.  I guess whatever makes him happy!  It was a great day!

Year of the Rat

I know Monique just did a post about our cat Cinders and how annoying she is. It is true, our cats can be a big hassle and obnoxious, but she failed to mention that because of our awesome cats, we have had no mole holes/mounds in our lawn. It is great!

We woke up this morning to another great catch...a dead rat on our deck. It was a really big one, the kind that would bite your hand off if you stuck it in the wrong place. It was easily 10 inches long from nose to tail. A dead rat is much better than an alive one, so kudos to the kitties for pouncing on this one. Just when I thought I could be no more proud, I stepped out the front door for my morning run and there was a dead mole.

Update: Monique said she doesn't want a picture of a dead rat on our blog...so click the link to see it if you want.

Click here to see the rat
This thing was huge (seriously!)

Here is the running tallie since we've been in this house, pretty good if you ask me:
8 moles
3 mice
1 rat
1 bird

Cinders likes to catch old dead leaves and bring them to the back door like it is something spectacular. If she wants to do yard work also, I'm fine with that. I'm just waiting for the day they bring home a deer...that would be awesome. I imagine it would look something like this.

Nice catch kitties!

Happy 1st Birthday (April 30,2007)!

Parker is the big "1" now!  His birthday was actually yesteday, but with Jeremy around during the day now, it's kinda hard to get to the computer with the pictures on it to post things.  I just can't believe how time has flown!  He's been such a joy to have around.  He was a little (or a lot) cranky in the beginning, but has turned out to be such a happy boy!   He's starting to talk, with his favorite word being "kitty" right now.  He knows what a dog says (it sounds a little like this...whoo, whoo), but has yet to say "doggy".  And he gets very excited when he sees a cow, and when you ask him what a cow says, he'll say "booooo" (mooooo)!  As you can see, he's really into animals at the moment. It's really fun!   He isn't walking yet, but loves to hop around on his knees.  A little silly looking, but he gets around and hopefully will get out of this phase quickly and learn to walk already!  I miss having my little newborn baby, but am so happy that he's growing up to be a healthy, smart little guy.  I can't wait for the years ahead and what they will bring!  Happy Birthday, Parker!