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!