Easter and Aunt Melissa visits us!!!

My sister Melissa and Ava

-We went to see 'Mirror, Mirror', which was an interesting take on Snow White.  Shortly after the movie started Ava was getting restless and asked if this was going to be a long movie!  All the girl ever wants to do is watch movies, but she couldn't sit still during this one. 

 Cute Bunny Ava!

 Decorating eggs

 Finding eggs on Easter morning!  Isn't she cute in the morning?

 Oh man, Easter Bunny is too nice.

 More egg hunting at my Uncle Wayne and Aunt Stephanie's house. 

Means more candy....

 Happy with her eggs!

 Playing at the Zoo and riding the Lions.

Or getting eaten by them!

I'm so behind on blogging....and I keep saying I'll do better!  It's amazing how busier life just seems to get and we aren't busy with school or sports or other activities yet!  We did enjoy having my sister with us for a week in April, it was her Spring Break and she chose to spend it with us.  Unfortunatly for her she contracted my cold and sore throat and pink eye from some where.  The day she left, she went to Urgent Care before going.  Man I hate being sick all the time and I feel like that has been our status for forever.  Cross my fingers, we are all in good health at this moment though!!!!  Love you Sis, glad you came to Oregon!





Mya @ 18 months!

Like my cool kicks?
Oh yeah, I rock. And I drool, BIG TIME!

Good afternoon!

All smiles!

Watching a move and having a snack, nothing better.

Let's go for a ride.

Honk, honk!

Waiting for Daddy to come home, best time of the day!!!

Mya is seriously a happy, go lucky little girl....we just ADORE her! She is still great at self entertaining and does her own thing.

Favorite things:

~Looking at books

~Playing at the park

~Swimming in the hot tub or bath

~Loves gogurts and nutrigrain bars

~Says "Dadeee" millions of times a day, has only said Mommee twice! (So jealous)

~Says dogee, eee (while pointing to a tree), Hi and Bye....can't remember what else, not alot yet

~Loves shoes, when I pick her up from daycare she used to run to me all excited, but now she runs and grabs her shoes and sits down for me to put them on.

~Gives great kisses, but not too freely anymore, but we get some good ones at bedtime

~Favorite movie is Madagascar

~Dances much better than Ava did at this age

~Loves her babies and freely gives them kisses and pats on the back

~CANNOT be trusted in the bath too long, still poops occasionally in there...so gross!

~Nods yes and shakes head no when being asked a question

I'm sure I could go on and on....she is just a doll. I'm in love with her curls, after having Ava with stick straight hair, curls are fun! We feel so blessed to have her in our life!

Ummm...It's been FOREVER!

Wow, I can't believe how behind I am. And how many times I've said to myself that I was going to update this dang Blog, but put it off. So here goes, sort of a recap of the last couple months and off course the pics are always out of order!

*Thanksgiving: My Aunt & Uncle own this awesome, huge beach house now in Seaside, OR. So family nearby and some from UT and Eastern OR came to celebrate together. There was about 28 of us I believe. My oldest Brother & family and my little clan got a 3 bedroom @ my Dad's Timeshare nearby, the Beach house is big, but not quite big enough for all the crazy little ones.
Trish turns 31: Oh ya, I also had a Birthday....on Thanksgiving Day! Lucky me! I was kidding with my Mom when she said she wanted to make me a cake and said I wanted a Barbie one...and that's what I got. The little girls loved it though! My awesome hubby got me a Kindle Fire, only had been out for 4 days! If you know my hubby, you know he's not into the latest and greatest anything, he steers clear of all things electronic and spendy. But I love it!

My Girls: They sure are cute little monsters! Never a dull moment around here, even right now Ava is hanging on my arm while I type this. There is no such thing as peace & quiet anymore!

Halloween: Can't believe I had to go back to Halloween, I'm lame. But had to show you what a cute Clown I had around here. The about pic is with her pal KaeLynn. They ran away from the Circus together and spent 1 1/2 hours out in the cold Trick or Treating with their daddies!

Halloween Trunk or Treat: Our church did a trunk or treat and everyone loved my car! Some people decorated a little bit, but mine was awesome, thanks to Pinterest for the idea! This is one of two pics that I got of Mya in her Ladybug costume, sorry little lady! She was a cute bug too!

Okay, I'll be back for more updates, like our fabulous Christmas with the Family and other silly moments we have together as a family!

In need of motivation!!!

No pics today, but promise I'll be back soon with some updates. The girls are still super cute! Ava had her check up and the girl is 49 lbs and 3 feet 10 inches tall. She's at the top or over the scale in %, of course. Average size of a 6 yr old or so, poor girl. Feeling really bad that she still has to wait 2 years for school to start and by then who knows how huge she'll be. Guess she'll have to deal with all that awkwardness like I did being the Tall girl in school. Not hearing what your friends are talking about because they are like a foot below you when you walk in the noisy hallways of school. But if any good comes of this, hoping this wards off boys for a bit longer. Though it didn't work for me, I just went after the older ones (won't even tell you some of their ages-unless you are family, then you already know!) It could go either way! :O


Anywho, this post wasn't going to be about Ava, it's going to be about ME! I'm in need of some support and motivation, so I'm reaching out to my loved ones for some help. I was going strong for the first 6-7 weeks of doing Weight Watchers. Then stressful events started approaching and I started slacking off on what I ate. I keep trying to get back in the game, but struggle every day now. I'm down 15.8 lbs, but looking back at the end of September when I was down 12 something, I haven't come far! I had this nice goal of losing 30 lbs by Christmas, I can see that's not going to happen now. I'm determined not to be fat the rest of my life, or the rest of my 30's, but I'm at a plateau and need to find a way out of it. Of course this week is going to be rough with my Birthday and Thanksgiving. I plan on not going overboard, but still enjoying it. But after Thanksgiving my plan is to buckle down and get moving again. I will say I've been exercising 3-4 times a week, which I didn't do well the first month when I was really losing weight fast. And I got Zumba for the Wii, it's fun, though I'm extremely uncoordinated. But I've been wanting to learn it for a while now and have needed to switch up my routine a bit. So I'm asking for positive words, advice, just anything. And I'm also doing this to make my self more accountable. Feel free to ask me on Facebook or anywhere how I'm doing and if I've lost any more, I need the reminder all the time. Thanks!

Hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving!!! I'll be celebrating my 31st Birthday on the same day, does that make me a Turkey? :)

My Little Lady is FOUR!!!

My Ava lady turned FOUR on October 24th!

And I'm just now getting to this post because I've been swamped with church stuff, as you can see from my last post!

The Friday before her Birthday we had a party with her Playgroup pals!

I went slightly overboard with her Strawberry Shortcake party, but that's what Moms are for!!!

See the cute tutu, yep, I made that. And found the applique for the shirt. And I made strawberry shaped ribbon hair clips for all the girls.

Me & my Girl!
Oh, and this pinata, made that too!
Told you I went crazy, loads of work, but it was worth it.


Some of the food. I made Strawberry Cake Pops that turned out way cute & YUMMY!

And the kids left with loads of candy! Fun times!

The next day was her Party with the Family!

My Mom & Step Dad came down from WA and Grandparents and Uncle Wayne & family came from Hilsboro. Ava got lots of fun gifts.....like a Strawberry Shortcake!

And......

A BIG GIRL BIKE!

Think she likes it????

I like it because now when we go on walks I actually burn some calories since she gets going fast and sometimes I have to jog to keep up!

My Grandma, Aunt Stephanie, & Mom

Grandpa Clift's 88th Birthday is the day after Ava's, so they get to celebrate together. I made a yummy brownie ice cream cake with whipped cream frosting and PB cups....to die for!

My little Princess!

Ava's Doctor appt is next week, so I'll post her ridiculous stats then!

I must say, I'm starting to notice a GOOD change in her. I think Preschool is a good thing for her and she's becoming easier to manage/negotiate with at home. She loves to make up songs and sing all day. Her and Mya love to get into yelling contests...much to my displeasure, but they have fun. She loves her Best Friend Kiera (of course), Candy and crocodiles! She can be a super helper sometimes and is great at making her sister laugh. And she wants a baby Brother really bad, and then a couple more sisters and a couple more brothers! No, it's not in the works!!!!

We love you Ava!!!!!

Blue Lake Ward-Super Saturday Crafts

TO FAMILY & FRIENDS NOT IN THE AREA: Ignore this post....it's for a church craft day we are having (unless you really like something, in which you could let me know).

Blue Lake Ladies~
Our Super Saturday is just around the corner on Saturday, November 5th. It will go from 9:30 am to 3 pm...you do not have to come at any specific time, but make sure you leave enough time to do all you signed up for.

There will be a FREE Class @ 10 am! Regina Hardy & her Mom will be teaching how to make Caramel Popcorn and other goodies. We would like to know how many to prepare for, so please let us know if you would like to attend, but come even if you forget to sign up!
~Family Frame $25~ (See email attachment for different color options. If you want to do more than one and have no time, the instructor will do them @ her home another time.)


A Lunch will be served around Noon, so even if you don't want to do a craft, come for the class and hang out for Lunch after!

Payment is due by October 30th (next Sunday), but if you know what you want, please pre-order this week to my email with the order form. Some crafts take longer for the instructor to prepare. Hope to see you there!

Vanilla Brown Sugar Body Scrub or Pumpkin Spice Sugar Body Scrub

$2.50 each

Temple Picture Board/block

$3.00 each
8x10 Canvas Jewelry Holder
$7.50 each
(You will need to bring your own fabric of choice, JoAnn's has "Fat Quarter" for $.99-1.99 depending on if they are on sale)
"HOME" hanging sign
$8.00 each
(Pick either BROWN or BLACK vinyl lettering-need to specify in order)
Block Christmas Tree
$3.00

Christmas Tree Paper Cone

$3.00

Stamped Christmas Ornaments

$3.00

(There will be a variety of stamps and shapes to choose from at the activity)

Ball Paper Ornament

$1.00 each

Ribbon/Paper Ornament

$0.50 each

Friendship/Thinking of you card

$1.00 each

Happy Birthday Card

$1.00

Green Snowman Card

$1.00 each

Star Christmas Card

$1.00 each

Merry Christmas "Holly" Card

$1.00 each

Red Snowman Card

$1.00 each

Life moves on...fast!

See what I mean? Life is too fast. My baby is growing too fast...
And holding her own cup to drink her smoothie!
Can barely get the girl to eat fruit, but make her a smoothie and she's all over it.

This room was half pink/half lavender with a girly border around it. We've officially moved the girls together and now I have a guest/craft room again!!! Jeremy didn't want to paint the room (not sure why-I'm hoping for a boy next), so I took the project on all by myself! And made him watch the kids, ha. I really like the color, it was the 3rd one I chose, thankfully only bought 2 sample containers before choosing. First guests arrive Wednesday night...my Dad and Stepmom.

Baby Daniel entered the world! He is our good friends, the Dovers' little man, and he's a cutie!

And this is Daniel's Big Sister KaeLynn! She spent the day with us to give her Mommy and baby bro a break. We had a little girl time and did some nails.

This little lady is just sooooo cute! Love that face.

My Blue-eyed babe! She can't sit still for 5 seconds in the bath tub, always trying to stand up.

My other blue-eyed babe! Or I should say Santa Claus.

This lady started Preschool/Daycare 2 weeks ago and is loving it. She loves all the crafts and swimming on Wednesday. She even told me she has a boyfriend, but doesn't know his name. Glad she's having fun! And lately she's been wanting to write her letters and our names, without us nagging her about trying. And she LOVES to paint, which is awesome because she'll actually sit and do it for up to an hour sometimes. With her SHORT attention span, this is a good thing.

Mya is slowly starting to take more steps. The other day we witnessed her take about 5 or 6 steps from an end table to the wall. She's on her way. And she's a climber! She likes to climb up the stool in the bathroom and hang on the sink, so now we have to keep the door shut, I'm afraid she's going to fall and crack her head open. She's been getting a little more cranky lately, hopefully it's a teething thing. But I think she's got a pretty strong-willed personality like her Sister...not good.

As for me....I finally joined Weight Watchers online in August. And in the last 5 weeks have lost 12.4 lbs!! I'm already seeing the results and feel really good. If the hubby was a little more supportive, that would be nice, but I'm not doing it for him anyways. This is looonnnggg overdue and I'm sick of being unhappy about myself. And my Sister-in-law is doing it with me and I know she's going to rock it too! It's also helping me realize how much healthier I should be feeding my kids, I don't want them to turn out like me and have low self-esteem, I hope to be a good example in all I do. Thanks for all the support...it keeps me motivated!!!

(Now last time I committed to getting healthy, I got pregnant.....praying that doesn't happen for awhile!)