Thanks Auntie Lynn!

"This little stool is mine~I use it all the time!
To reach the things I couldn't, and sometimes things I shouldn't!"

Mike's Aunt Lynn painted this step stool for Carina for us-isn't it cute? She is so creative! We bought the plain white stool, and after briefly thinking that I would personalize it myself we asked Lynn if she wouldn't mind doing it. I am so glad we did because it turned out way better than I could have done! This is actually a belated thank you posting because she finished it back in February for us, but I forgot we had taken Carina's picture with it. Also, she wasn't really tall enough yet to reach the sinks or counter tops with it then. She obviously is a growing girl because we have been using it a lot the last couple of weeks! The other day while I was making my now famous pizza cupcakes she stood next to me on her stool and played with a piece of the dough. I think she is really enjoying being a part of the all of the action that takes place above her head. So thank you again Auntie Lynn! Carina loves her "I can reach it!" stool.

Carina the Egg Hunter

The Easter Bunny left his ears behind! Easter morning @ our house

We spent Easter Sunday at Mike's mom's house. His Uncle Dan and Aunt Lynn came over, as well as Greg, Trisha, Dominik and Lance. Of course we picked up Great Grandma Carlson too! I was excited to see how Carina would do on the egg hunt. A few weeks ago I started hiding plastic eggs around the living room and had her look for them. She thought this was the best game ever and would quickly find them, put them in her basket, and then say "Mommy hide 'em again!" Once in a while I put goldfish crackers or Cheerios in the eggs so she could open them for a treat. She then came to expect that ALL of the eggs should have a treat in them...oh well it was a fun way to have a snack!
I was wondering how the real Easter egg hunt would go, since Carina didn't have any competition at home. Dominik is 4 1/2 so his parents told him to look for the eggs that were hiding in trickier places. So the kids got started, and Carina immediately started finding eggs all over the backyard and putting them in her basket! She even carried her basket the whole time, and it had to be getting heavy after a while! Dominik was so sweet and found eggs for "baby Carina" too. Lance found a few, but then he found the bubble maker and that was WAY more exciting! I just loved watching Carina enjoy the day-our little girl is growing so fast!

And I have to brag and say that I think she looked incredibly adorable in her Easter outfit...good thing too because Mike almost choked when I told him how much it was...darn that Gymboree and their cute clothes! I very rarely splurge so it was worth it. (Stop laughing Jenny you shop there more than I do!)
Our Easter dinner was super delicious, and overall it was a wonderful day spent with our family.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! I had fun hunting for eggs today, and the Easter Bunny brought me lots of treats!

Game Night!

Many of you know that we have Family Game Night every Saturday night with Mike's side of the family. It's a tradition that has been going strong for years now, and we rarely miss it. However this past Saturday Mike and I cheated on Game Night with....another Game Night! Our friends the Way's hosted a game night at their house, so Mike and I went while Carina stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's house as our delegate for family game night. The Way's game night is intense: People are divided into teams, which change each round. As teams earn points, individual members are earning the points their teams earn. (I don't know if that makes sense-like I said it's intense!) They have a wheel to spin, and you play whatever the wheel lands on. You never knew if you were going to play Catch Phrase, Cranium, Taboo, Oodles of Doodles, Trivial Pursuit, Scene It, or even Operation! Everyone was pretty competitive, but luckily the sangria slowed a few reflexes. In the end the five people with the most points played against each other in the Elimination Round to determine the ultimate winner. Guess who won???

ME!!!

That's right, I won and I did my crazy happy dance because I don't normally win anything...I have to credit my mad gaming skills...and a little luck in answering a Trivial Pursuit question...seriously,how do people know some of that stuff? So the extremely coveted Game Night trophy came home with me.

The Chrome Gnome!

I think John was genuinely upset to see the Gnome leave, and so to help ease his pain we are going to document the Gnome's life while he is in our possession. So far he has been to Sausalito and Rodeo Beach! Thanks to John and Jessica for an incredibly fun evening...you can try to win the Gnome back next year!