9 years

My husband and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary yesterday! I know everybody says this but it's crazy that it's been that long. I think once you hit 10 years than that's a biggy. Sonny and I bought ourselves some baseball equipment for our presents this year. Sonny got a new bat and I'm getting a new glove. Yay! I haven't had a new one since I started playing softball in middle school. So we're ecstatic to start playing some ball! I had a couple of doctors appointments (still trying to figure out this dang back problem!!!!!) yesterday so it seemed like just a normal day. But when I got home, we decided to hit up a new place in Tacoma. Sonny found this place called "Southern Kitchen," a restaurant that had been featured in Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on the Food Network and, I guess, Oprah also likes it too. Well, she was right. It was fabulous :) I had the Southern Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes, corn, and candied yams. Sonny tried out the Cajun Catfish. We realized when we got there that they didn't have a kids menu so Taylor ended up eating a basket full of french fries. Aren't we great parents? Anyways, so we stuffed our faces and boy, does that food sit hard in your stomach! But we had a great time. We'll be going out to dinner, just the two of us, next tuesday night so I'm excited about that too. We are now, as I type, getting ready to leave for the Great Wolf Lodge for a night. It's like a huge indoor water park so we are stoked about it! Taylor, I'm sure, will be in heaven. So I better go and get ready!

A visit from 2 grandmas

A couple weeks ago we were lucky enough to have both of Taylor's grandmas visit. They came down to wish Taylor a happy 3rd birthday. What nice grandmas! Sonny's mom came to visit first and Taylor had a really good time with her. Taylor had a bit of a fever the first couple days she was here so we didn't get out and do much. But we did get to eat out at a couple great places. We also went to our favorite beach in Steilacoom where Taylor showed her all the neat little crabs and other sea creatures. We spent one day doing a bunch of yard work, getting a spot of land ready for the garden. But most of her visit was spent building some totally awesome storage shelves in our garage. We have been storing everything in closets and are now super excited to have some storage elsewhere. Sonny and her were hard at work for less than a day and had the whole thing built! Watch out Extreme Makeover Home Edition! Thanks so much Gini :) We really appreciate it.
Sorry, these next couple pictures are out of order. Sonny went to Virginia to attend an Oral Surgery class and Taylor and I went to our beach on a Sunday afternoon. Surprisingly, we couldn't find a single crab. I must have looked under every single rock. I think the tide was too high and they were already back in the water.

When the tide comes up at night, there is this one little spot where a pool forms. It's just the right depth for Taylor to wade in and throw rocks without me having to watch him so closely.

Holding a crab. To bad it was dead :(

My mom came to visit right after Sonny's mom left. I love when she comes to visit! Taylor and I count down the days until she get here. Taylor calls her "Bami." We lived so close to her for 4 years during dental school and had a really hard time moving last June. She came just in time to celebrate Easter and what a fun time we had with her! We had an egg hunt in our backyard and did some other fun easter activities. We also worked on the yard a lot. My mom was nice enough to buy some pansis and marigolds for my garden and some other plants. My favorite part of her visit was spending a couple days doing some major decorating. Since moving into our new house 6 months ago, I have been wanting to decorating it. My mom gave me some good designing deas and tips and bought me some cool stuff for my kitchen etc.

Taylor and I planted three blueberry trees in this very area today. We are looking forward to eating fresh blueberries soon.


Some of the marigolds and pansi's in a cool looking new pot my mom got us. Love it!

This is where my little garden will be this year. It is a bit rocky (the rain does not help that situation at all!) so I bought some chicken fencing so that I could sift some out before I plant the vegetables.


My new clock

My mom and I went to Joanne's and got the grapevines to put on top the cupboards and we found most of the baskets at the Goodwill. It makes my kitchen a little more homy now :)

The Easter egg hunt in our backyard. There weren't many places to really hide the eggs well but Taylor still loved it.

I asked Taylor to make a funny face and here it is



Tay and his "Bami"

We made some easter treats, of course!


DuPont had an easter egg hunt with lots and lots of kids. He was hesitant at first but ended up getting a few eggs.

We had a good time with the two grandmas and we hope to see them again soon.

Taylor's 3 years old pictures

Here are the yearly pictures we took of Taylor, and a few of our family too. I tried to coordinate our outfits. They didn't turn out as well as I was hoping but oh well, they're just pictures I guess, right? I always have too high of expectations. It started out pretty rough with Taylor and then the lady warmed him up. She had to bring out a bunch of sports equipment for him to play with. That is why he is holding something in each picture. I guess you do what you gotta do to get some pictures taken :) Oh, and don't you just love the train that Sonny is playing with in the family picture? I asked him to put it down but he just couldn't let it go. hee hee! We ended up going to JC Penney's and buying the cd that had these poses, and a lot more too. And we had a coupon that gave us a free 8x10. We chose the one with Tay wearing the baseball glove. I wanted to buy a 16x20 of us that same day but decided that we would shop around for a better rate. Anybody know of any store or online company that has a good price? Well, enjoy!

Happenings in Washington State

Well, since my last post, nothing major has happened up here in Washington State. We're just waiting patiently for the rainy season to be done. No such luck yet; it is raining as I speak, or should I say, write. If it's not raining, then it's pretty cold. We've had a few sunny days the last couple of days stuck in with the many rainy and cold ones and have spent a lot of time outside on those ones. We have really enjoyed using the nice community green in the front yard. Taylor has fun playing with his friends in the neighborhood on it. All the little boys bring their toys out and they all get a lot of practice "sharing" them.

Taylor is STILL into his swords, I can't believe it.
A couple weeks ago, Sonny had to go a "Dentac Birthday Ball" for work. He had to go in the military dress blues. I liked the top half of the outfit (made him look like a pilot) but made fun of his band pants! Ha ha! He lucked out and found them used at the thrift store on base, where a lot of his collegues bought them brand new. I was invited as well but decided to use the admission price for some cute clothes instead! Good thing I didn't go because Sonny said it was a total drag, really really boring.

"Doing stocks"

Taylor also had a birthday on the 19th. He turned 3! He had a lot of fun opening his presents, having chocolate muffins and orange juice for breakfast, and then going to Chuck E Cheese. The first time Taylor went there he was a little too young, so he really enjoyed it this time around. We ended up staying there WAY too long though (3 hours, just playing games, talk about overstimulation!) For dinner we went to McDonalds and let him run around in the play area.


My mom gave him this scooter and he is in love with it. He calls it his "roller skater." How cute :) And sonny found this plastic armor at the thrift store for a buck. He calls himself the "knight in shining armor."

The skater in action!

Chuck E Cheese

I found a recipe for chocolate cake on allrecipes.com. It didn't turn out so well. It tasted ok but just looked strange. The recipe called for red food coloring so the chocolate cake part was red! Weird. Taylor has really been into Scooby Doo lately so we made that the theme.


Last but not least, we FINALLY decided to change his crib into a big boy bed. He did pretty good for a couple nights but now plays for like an hour and then falls asleep. Naps are pretty much non-existent but I can get him to play by himself in his room for about an hour, which is better than nothing, I guess. Taylor is doing really well with potty training. He has begun to tell me he has to go instead of me asking him all the time. Our next tackle is getting him to go in different pottys. And he has also recently learned his ABC's which is totally cool, I think.

And I am still working on getting my back better. I'm going to the Physical Therapist, getting trigger point injections, and experimenting with accupuncture. As soon as I feel enough improvement, we plan on having another baby. So for the time being, we are just living life here in Washington and looking forward to some warm weather!

The past month

This last month has been full of rainy days and a couple days of sun. My cousin talked me into dying my hair blond back in November and now Taylor and I are twins! But man, it's tough keeping up with it and stuff but worth it because I think it suits me. I was a toehead (is that how you spell it?) when I was little so I'm going back to my roots.
The days that it has been sunny, we have been having lunch outside.

When it rains, we do a lot of crafts at our kitchen table. Taylor loves to cut and is really good at it! He cuts out little shapes and then glues them to paper. Lately he has been asking me to draw the letters out for him. He is really interested in letters right now. And while he does art stuff, it gives me a chance to work on my cookbook. I'm trying to organize all my favorite recipes into one big cookbook. Below is one of Taylor's sculptures, "Frosty the snowman."

We crank open the blinds in the morning when we see that the sun is out. Then we lay on the woodfloor for a minute or so and soak in some rays.

Yeah for sun!

Another thing that we do a lot of bring all of Taylor's stuffed animals downstairs and hide them under the blanket, in the "pirate cave." I'm in charge of guarding and protecting the animals (laying down with them under the blanket) while he goes back and forth upstairs to get his animals. This morning while we were doing it, I snuck a little nap in for a minute or so. This is one of my favorite games, you can probably guess why. Oh, and Tay likes to wear his belt around his waist, not even in the loops of his pants. Its a sure sign of piracy, he says.
Taylor has always liked stuffed animals and has tons of them. Lately, he's decided that they are prisoners and need to be tied up. Poor little christmas doggy :( Sorry the pictures crocked.
When we moved in last October, we heard that there were a few little boys in the neighborhood for Taylor to play with. For the last couple weeks, they have been playing a lot. They like to play with Sonny too (hee hee). He's realized that he is the neighborhood babysitter.

Sonny in action
I really really like this community greenspace!
And the other day, Taylor insisted that I take a picture of him. He then proceded to pose like this. He cracks me up sometimes! He is so full of questions lately too. Whenever we see a kid at the park, an old man at the store or whatever, he asks me "What's his name?" And every night while I'm making dinner, he asks me "What are we having?" I'm glad that he asks lots of questions! He is so observant and sees things that I don't.
I haven't got a picture of him with his backpack but the last couple months, Taylor has been going to "Tay Tay School." It's an hourly care center that they provide for military families. He's been going there about twice a week while I go to different doctors to try and figure out the back pain that I have been having the last 5 years. I'm so greatful that I found this place because otherwise, I don't know who would have taken care of him. Taylor really loves it there and sometimes, doesn't even want to come home. I'm glad that he is becoming so independent. He is also doing really great at potty training. Sonny is starting his residency in June so we are also getting ready for that. Ah! We have some great trips coming up the next couple months so we are excited about that too. So we are just hanging out here in Washington waiting for the winter to end (RAIN!) and for spring to start.

Big Day

Taylor did his first pee pee in the potty today :) I have been trying to spark his interested in the potty for many months without much success. He always said that he was "scared." Once and a while he would practice sitting on the potty for a few minutes and then be done. So this is a huge step for him! We are so proud of him and hope that the rest of the training goes well. I think he is going through some kind of growth spurt right now because he has been talking really well and seems really into learning letters and numbers. What a cute little guy!

San Diego

Last week we traveled down to the San Diego area. Sonny attended a continuing education course in Oral Pathology on the navy base there for a few days. After those few days, we stayed another week just too goof off.

These first couple are just some real cute pictures of Taylor that I had to include. Here he is helping me make Sonny's mudpie for his birthday.

He loves his little buddy, Butch

We met up with Sonny's brother, Bo and went to one of his trade shows at the convention center. We purchased this skim board for Taylor. We couldn't resist, it was $10.

We spent a lot of time with my family too. They came down to San Diego and hung out with us there. Here's my sister and my parent's dog, Ringo. What a cute little pooch!

Taylor is still really into taking pictures. Actually, he's pretty good at it. This one looks kind of psychedelic. Pretty cool.
Taylor's post-modern art work. Seriously, I've seen pieces like this in museums (along with hangers just hanging from the ceiling... whoever decided that was artwork must have been on crack!) I thought Taylor's work here was halarious!

San Onofre beach. We stayed one night at a beach cottage right down on the beach. The tide was low so we found some neat shells and as seen here, a frisbee.



It was a rocky beach, like those we experience in Washington

The beach cottage

We found a fun little spot in San Diego, the Old Town area. They had a lot of historic buildings and museum like shops. Therewas one little shop that must have had like a million windchimes hanging from the ceiling. What a sight! And what a sound!

I had to take a picture of this place, Cafe Coyote. It had out of this world chips and salsa. My kind of place.

We had to swing by Balboa Park again, one of my favorite places in San Diego. A great place to just relax and explore.

Grandpa and Tay studying the coy fish

I think I've posted this same picture on my blog before but I just love it so much. The palm trees, the beautiful building's reflection on the water... doesn't it look like a postcard?


And I wish I could get this picture in black and white. I think it would be neat looking.

I tried to capture the essence of this flower but really didn't do it justice. Balboa park has this indoor garden place ( really intelligent sounding huh, I forgot what they are called) with tons of flowers and plants. It's fun to walk around in.


You might wonder why I took a picture of a door... Well, we drove out to Hotel Del Coronado again this visit. Supposedly the hotel is haunted by the ghost of a woman who died there. This is the very room in which the ghost resides. Scary! I was actually pretty spooked out when walking by it.


My mom and I enjoying the warm weather. This hotel is one of the only hotels made out of wood still standing in the U.S.

Sistas chillin' by the fire at the beach


Tinfoil dinners at the beach is the best!


Sonny wanted to go to Korean B-b-que for his birthday dinner so went for it. We cooked our own meat on a grill on the table, which made the room super duper smoky.


The goods on the grill

After this trip, I'm pretty much 100% sure I want to ultimately settle in the San Diego area. It's California, but without the grimyness of L.A. There is hardly any rain but yet it's still green, no snow, the beach real close, and lots more. The only drawback, which is a big one I know, is the price of living. Hmmm, we'll start saving now!