Halloween

Tenlee loves Minnie Mouse so when she saw the costume at the store, she knew without a doubt what she wanted to be for Halloween. We had a little incident with some paint on her costume while she was at school the Friday before Halloween, but fortunately I was able to get most of it out. I think the makers of this so called "washable paint" should be run out of business for advertising a bogus product. This paint DOES NOT COME OUT of anything! It won't even bleach out of a white shirt. This was not the first piece of clothing that has met it's death from this paint. I very kindly asked the daycare to not use it anymore, at least not the blue. The other colors seem to come out OK, but the blue is impossible.

Baylee chose to be Sleeping Beauty or as Tenlee likes to call her "Sleeping Cutie". I like that too. I bought the blond wig for her, but she insisted that she looked ugly with blond hair so she wouldn't wear it. Just long enough to get a picture. I have to agree that Baylee definitely is meant to be a brunette! I think both girls looked adorable!

A Vacation with the Pearsons

Last weekend we went to Seattle with Ryan and Kinzie. This was for no other reason than going on a vacation! It didn't revolve around work, little league baseball, family events or kids. Just a real, much needed vacation. This is something that Josh and I have never done since our honeymoom 8 years ago! We have done a lot of fun things, and gone to some fun places over the years, but everything has involved one of the things listed above. A couple of months ago, Ryan found great plane tickets and asked us if we wanted to go someplace. Since they had never been to Seattle and Josh and I haven't really done any of the "Seattle sites" we decided that would be a fun place to go.

We arrived in Seattle early Thursday and spent the day in downtown. We saw some interesting things and people while walking around. Including 3 guys being arrested in the middle of the street right after we walked passed them. I remember thinking as I passed them that I was glad it was the middle of the day and I wasn't by myself. We turned around and they were being handcuffed by police! We also went to a Mariners game that night.

Friday we went go-carting (way fun!). We also went on a 2 hour Lakes cruise. We saw Bill Gates 66,000 sq. ft house and the floating house used in the movie Sleepless in Seattle. After that, the Space Needle and more time in Seattle. Friday night we drove to Birch Bay (100 miles north of Seattle) to stay the weekend at one of the time share condos my parents are members of. Birch Bay is on the border of Canada. Beautiful place, but smells like fish. But it was fun to watch the seals on the dock and see all the awesome birds.

Bill Gates house (the part you can see anyway)

Sleepless in Seattle floating houseBirch Bay

There are 2 bald eagles in the tree

The seals were so fun to watch
Sunday afternoon was full of shopping and then back to Seattle to stay at Josh's sisters house that night. Then home on Monday. We had so much fun with Ryan and Kinzie! This was a great vacation. I hope they had as much fun as we did! Thanks for the good times!

Devin and Kiley are married!

Wow, I can't believe that my "not so little" nephew is married. Devin (Jody's 4th child) got married to Kiley over Labor Day weekend. Kiley is a great girl. She has been part of the family for a while and we all just love her! Their wedding was very beautiful and we wish them nothing but happiness in their life together!

Mr. & Mrs. Devin Pearson

I love my girls!!

This picture looks like they are going to Prom! Baylee and Jaten are the best of friends!

A Rothwell wedding is not complete until the "crazy aunts" arrive (my dads sisters)! They have been doing something a little crazy at each wedding for the last 10 or so years. Love them!

First Day of School

I can't believe my little girl is in kindergarten! When did she grow up? She was so excited to ride the bus. I take her to daycare at the same time I usually do and then the bus picks her up and drops her off everyday. The first day didn't go quite like that. They tried to bring her home, but she knew where she was supposed to go and it was all written down in her bag. We got it all figured out and everything has gone great since then. She is loving her teacher, Mrs. Donovan and loves school. She is in the same class with her friend Spencer and is still able to play with her other friends everyday at recess. I didn't even cry the first day, amazingly enough!

Baylee and Spencer

Rodney Atkins

Every year my work is a sponsor at the Western Idaho Fair. With this comes a few perks. One of them being that we get VIP tickets to all the concerts. The concerts are free anyway, but with the VIP tickets we don't have to wait in line and we are guarenteed a seat. This is great since I'm not a very patient person and hate waiting in line! This year Rodney Atkins came to the fair. I LOVE him! Crystal and David came with us. It was a fun night without the kids! Thanks Cassi for babysitting for all of us!

Best Place on Earth!

Once again, I'm very behind in posting to this blog! This summer has been so crazy with work and vacations, I don't even know where to begin. Let's start with Redfish trip. This was a perfact vacation! The weather was great, family was awesome, food was amazing! The kids all had a great time. It was so nice to not have to worry so much about Tenlee this year. As she gets older, it is easier to camp with her. It was just go great to spend time with family. I wish everybody could have been there this year, but with so many people its just hard to make it work for everybody. Unfortunately my camera was dead and I was not able to take any pictures :( I hate that! Oh well, hopefully I will remember to charge it before we leave next year!

Summer

Wow, it's been a really long time since I last posted. A lot going on I guess. Summer is always busy for me at work. We have a lot of events that we are at for work to promote Project Filter. While I love it, I'm always relieved when summer is over. My busy schedule doesn't leave a whole lot of time for fun family stuff, but this has been, and will be, some good times. In June we traveled to California for Josh's grandparents 75th wedding anniversary! Amazing! Not many people can claim that accomplishment. It was a great time with the family. We also went to Six Flags while we were there. Baylee LOVED the small rollercoaster. She could have ridden that all day! Tenlee also loved the rides, but her favorite was the train.

We went out to Mackay over 4th of July weekend. I love going out there and spending time with my family, but unfortunately I ended up with a sinus infection or something and was sick the entire time were there! For some reason it always happens when we go out there. But I still love it. The girls also loved being out there. On July 2, my new "great" niece Jordan was born. Jaris and James have a beautiful baby girl. It killed me to have to wait a week before I could see her because I was so sick! But she is just perfect!

Next week we will be going with my family to the best place on earth, Redfish Lake. I can't wait! I am very ready for a vacation, sun, and relaxation! I will post again after the trip.

Preschool Graduation

Tonight was a big night for Baylee. She had her preschool graduation! She was so excited. The kids were all so cute. They sang "Love Story" by Taylor Swift and also performed the chicken dance! So cute. Baylee has just loved her school and all of her friends. It has been so good for her to be in this environment. It's been just as good for Tenlee. I'm amazed at what she knows. I can't believe that in a few short months I will be sending Baylee to Kindergarten! How can that be? I still look at her as my baby girl.

All Put Together

Here is Tianna all ready for Prom! Isn't she just beautiful?

Tianna's Prom

Last week I offered to do something so out of character for me and way out of my comfort zone. I offered to make sleeves for Tianna's sleeveless prom dress. I am not a seamstress at all. My sewing ability consists of blankets and curtains. The only sewing of clothing that I have ever attempted is Barbie clothes when I was 9 or 10 and a shirt and pair of shorts in my home ec. class in Jr. High. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to offer my very limited sewing services to Kim and Tianna, but I did. Then I panicked. What the ___ was I thinking?

So I sat at work after saying I would do this thinking of ways I could possibly make this work and look good. I had an image in my head of what I thought the sleeve should look like, but I wasn't sure what Tianna was thinking. I remember being a teenager and having a very clear idea of what I wanted something to look like. If I didn't get this right Tianna may never forgive me! Fortunately when I asked Tianna what she had in mind, it was exactly what I had pictured. Whew, one hurdle out of the way. Now I just had to figure out how to do it. I had Tianna put on the dress and I did some measurements. Kim brought the fabric over Thursday night (prom was Saturday). After some thinking (and praying), I figured out how to make the sleeves. So I started sewing. By 10:00 Thursday night I had the sleeves sewed and pinned to the dress. Now all I needed was Tianna to come put the dress on again. That didn't happen until Friday night at 9:30 because of her crazy (but normal) teenage life. Luckily for me, I got the sleeves right. Tianna was thrilled, I was overjoyed, and Kim was relieved! I got the sleeves sewed on that night and the dress was ready for her Saturday morning. Here is a picture of how they turned out. I hadn't ironed them yet, but you get the idea. I'm really proud of this accomplishment. I still can't believe that I did it and that it turned out so well. Now maybe I will attempt something other than blankets or curtains.

It looked a lot better after I ironed it but I forgot to get another picture

So the dress is done, now to make the girl look more beautiful than she already is. I did her hair for her for the Sweetheart dance a couple of months ago. She loved it so much she asked me to do it again. Now THIS, I am comfortable with!. I love doing this kind of thing! Especially with her hair! So here are a couple of pictures of her hair. I'm hoping she sends me a picture of it all put together soon so that I can post it too.

Beautiful Tianna!