Pumpkins

These are Arianna's pumpkins. She drew the designs and carved most of them.

Catching Up

Some Decorations at our house

Arianna, Ethan, Zane, and Zuleikha


Arianna and Ethan

Arianna and Ethan wearing shirts that Grandpa Clark and Grandma Sandee bought for them from Yellowstone.

It has been a while since I have updated this blog. All is going well. Let's see - where to start.

The week of Halloween was good. Michael had left for LA on Sunday and came back on late Thursday night. The kids were very good for me while he was gone. Much easier than I had thought.

Halloween. Arianna was Minnie Mouse and Ethan was a Tiger. She had a great time at her school Halloween party. Then she came home and we had a little time to relax before we went out to trick or treat. We got them all dressed up and then went to our neighbor's house to pick up Zuleikha to go with us. Then we headed out into the neighborhood. All week I had been working with Ethan to say Trick or Treat and he would not say it, but as soon as he heard the girls saying it a few times he picked it up quickly and said it so cute! For a while he would say thank you when i told him, but then he heard the homeowners say your welcome so when I would tell him to say "Thank you" he would say "Your Welcome" it was so funny. It was also really cute because he had a pumpkin to hold his candy and he would not let anyone else hold it. He would start dragging it and if you tried to help him he would tell you no. He did really good. He walked up and down our street and another street - both of which are on hills and he didn't get tired. We eventually met up with another neighbor whose boy is in Kindergarten with Arianna and we finished trick or treating with them. It was so nice to have Halloween on a Friday!! Michael's parents came in late that night because Michael's mom had appointments on Saturday and then that evening Michael and I were able to go out for a while on our own.

Ethan is talking more and more which is great. He is combining more words for sentences, says I love you, etc. He loves airplanes, cars, balls, bubbles, cats, slides, riding toys, and dogs. He acts like a stereotypical boy. He is still on the aggressive side, but that is just his personality. He loves to bang on things, etc.

This last Thursday Ethan had a success. He had gone a little poopy in his diaper and I asked him if he wanted to go lay down for a diaper change. He said no and ran to his potty and said he wanted to sit on there. So we did so - not really thinking anything would happen, but it did. He then proceeded to go poop and pee in the potty. He was very excited. It hasn't happened again, but it was funny because the next day after he had gone potty in his diaper I asked him if he waned to sit on his potty he said no, but then proceeded to put his big teddy bear on the potty. It was too cute.

Arianna is doing very well. She is almost 6, but more like going on 16. She is doing great on reading, and math. Hopefully that will continue through the rest of school for her. She just finished up soccer, but still has swimming. We have tried to get her into Girl Scouts, but it appears that might not happen. I have called several times to find out about a troop for her, but so far nothing. They said that it looks like there is not a troop in our area for her age. If they don't come up with something soon then we are looking at Campfire USA.

We have her birthday party set up. We are having it at the pool where she has her lessons. It will be on the 13th. She loves to go swimming so we figured it would work well and it will also let Ethan participate because he likes the water as well. He is in swimming lessons too.

This last weekend we went down to Portland to see Ken and Kar-yee's new baby. He was born on Oct 16th. He is very cute. Michael was able to go over in the evening for a while just to visit without the kids. I kept the kids at the hotel and went swimming, etc.

For Thanksgiving we are going to Michael's parents house and then Michael and I are going over to Portland on Friday and Saturday to try and so some shopping for the kids. We have family pictures this weekend and Arianna has a friends birthday party on the 16th.

Arianna has today and tomorrow off from school and Ethan is at daycare these 2 days so it has been nice. We went to the library today and she is having her friend Shalini over right now to play for a few hours. Tomorrow we are going to see High School Musical 3 at the Theatre and then doing some shopping at the mall.

Things soon are going to start getting crazy for us this time of year. Since we won't be home for Thanksgiving, I am going to be behind on getting Christmas stuff up. So I might work on that before we leave so it is done when we get back home. Ethan's birthday is on a saturday this year, but we will just be doing a small home party with the neighbors and us - unless we go to Michael's parents or something like that. I am not sure what we will do for New Years. Since we have lived up here Ken has always come up, but with the new baby I assume that will not be happening so we will have to see what we will do.

My goal for next year is to save up so we can take Arianna to Disneyland for a long weekend. And then work on getting our Hawaii trip planned.

Well, I need to get going. enjoy the pictures.

Pumpkin Patch Time

This weekend was a nice weekend so we went out to the pumpkin patch with the kids. It was nice to not have it rain and it wasn't very muddy. The kids had a good time. Then on Saturday night we had Ethan go to Parent's Night Out and took Arianna out to dinner. She has been begging to go back to The Melting Pot. She went there a long time ago and loves it,but Ethan is too difficult to take there. So she got all dressed up and looked pretty for her night out.

Sunday we met Michael's parents for lunch. They had been down in LA visiting Michael's sister. Her husband has been transferred to Guam and so they are flying out today and will be there anywhere from 3-5 years. So we had a nice lunch with them and then that was about it. It was a fairly low key weekend for us.

Next week will be a little crazy for me. Michael has to leave to LA on Sunday for a conference for work. He will be back late on Thursday and then Friday is Halloween. We will see how it goes. Ethan is really attached to Michael right now, so it should be interesting :) Michael's parents will be up Halloween weekend for an appt so we might be able to get a night off then.

Fun weekend in Portland

This last weekend was a nice weekend for Michael and myself. On Friday the 10th, Arianna had a vacation day from school, so we left early afternoon and took the kids to Michael's parents house to stay for the weekend while Michael and I went to Portland. We had a very nice time. We stayed downtown, parked the car and walked the whole weekend. The weather was nice and it was just an enjoyable weekend. We walked all over downtown and the pearl district on friday night. Then on Saturday we slept in, walked around town, did some shopping, watched a movie and then had dinner for Ken and Kar-yee. It was so funny because Kar-yee was due with there baby on the 10th, so she was overdue and so Michael kept calling to see if she was in labor or if they would make it to dinner. We went to Veritable Quandary it was yummy. Then Kar-yee had told us about this chocolate place called Cacao. they only serve chocolate and they have real hot chocolate (like in Europe) where they melt the chocolate bar and keep it liquid by stirring with a paddle all the time. We were soo excited to go there, but when we got there they were closed because there had been a death in the family. We were going to try and go on Sunday but they opened too late and we had to leave earlier in the morning. So after we found out it was closed we walked down to Voodoo doughnuts. We have always heard lots about it. They were okay, but not the best doughnut I have ever had. I like Top Pot Doughnuts here in Seattle better.

Ethan has learned a sentence now. On the way to Michael's parents house he said Papa where are you. He loves his papa. Then while we were gone it was dada where are you. In the past he has also said a sort of sentence of Kitty go? Implying where did kitty go.

He has also had a lots of firsts in physical abilities. A few weeks ago he did a perfect sommersault on his own, he can jump (with both feet coming off the ground), he is singing songs - doesn't have perfect words, but he knows the rhythm and uses his own words to fill in.

Ethan started his first swimming lessons yesterday. They had a mommy/daddy and me class at teh same time as Arianna's class so it worked out perfect. I don't know if we will do more than one class or not. We will see. Ethan is very comfortable in the water. He is fine if we put him underwater. He wants to jump in, he kicks his feet when we float him on his front and back. The one thing he doesn't like is blowing bubbles.

Arianna is doing well in swimming. She moved to the school age classes and since she is advanced she is the youngest in the class. There are kids ranging in age from 6-12. She has always been used to being the best in her class and now the older kids can go faster than her so it was a little of a shock, but hopefully it will push her to do even better. She is still in soccer. She is also learning to ride her bike without training wheels. Since we live on a hill she has been a little slower than other kids, but we are working on it. We have to drive to specific park because it is like the only one that isn't hilly. She is still enjoying school. She is doing so well reading. She can read her reading books pretty much all on her own. Their phonics program has really made sense to her and she likes it. She is also enjoying the variety of her classes. She enjoys gym and she loves going to the library to check out books. she is also doing well singing songs from music class.

We are waiting for information on girls scouts to come so we can find a troop for her.

We are planning on going to the pumpkin patch this weekend. That should be fun. Michael is going to be heading out of town soon for work. He has to go to LA for a conference from the 26th-30th. The kids will be missing him. Michael has also started car pooling 2 days a week. We will see how that goes.

Well, i need to run.

More pictures :)

This is a picture of my family in Montana this summer. Everyone was there including Kyle and his girlfriend. Kyle is in the back behind my mom and his girlfriend is in the gray sweatshirt nex to my dad. Taunya is standing next to me in the orange, Rhonda is behind Arianna and her husband Michael is behind my Michael, and LeOrla is next to my mom. My nephew Dylan is behind me, Emily is in the green, Wyatt is next to Arianna and Dalton is standing behind him. The two people missing is Ethan as he was asleep and LeOrla's husband Lance who was not able to make the trip. This was taken around 11pm after letting off our fireworks so everyone was a little bit tired :).

Random pictures and update

Arianna and her missing tooth

Michael's new hat!

Things are now in a pretty good schedule here at the Wilde house. Not a whole lot has been going on. We did have some excitement last monday. Arianna lost her first tooth!!! She was very excited and the tooth fairy came to visit and paid $5. Of course she put it in her piggy bank to save. She lost one of her bottom front teeth and the one next to it is now becoming more loose so I assume that will be out soon as well. She doesn't play with her loose teeth a lot so they take a while to come out.



This last weekend was nice so we took a hike in St. Edwards State Park. It is a large park in the Kirkland area where a monastery used to be. There are lots of trails and a great playground. We hiked around 2 maybe 2.5 miles down to the lakefront and then back up the hill. This was tough on Michael as Ethan got tired and wanted to be carried the whole way up and we choose the difficult trail to take that was pretty much just a straight up the hill. Arianna did a great job with the hike. Oh well, it was nice and cool in the forest and along the lake.



I am happy because I am getting a facial and pedicure tomorrow. I have not had either one in a very long time so I am going to pamper myself. I joined a moms group recently and have started participating in their activities. There are a lot of walking groups so I do those a couple times a week. And tomorrow there is a mom's night out for dinner and a movie so Michael said he would be home so I could go to that. A couple times a year he gets a night out where his work group goes to a baseball or basketball game so it is nice for me to get out too.



It looks like we are going back to Hawaii this spring! Yeah. We booked the time we are in Oahu and are finishing up the details for our time in Kauai. I am so excited in Kauai there are Zipline tours where you hang from a zip line and go across forests, waterfalls, rivers, etc. I have always thought that would be fun to do, so we are planning on taking one of those tours. These tours also have you lunch at a spot where you can swim in a pool where a waterfall is and have rope swings, jumping off cliff into water, etc. How Fun!!! We also plan to do a lot of snorkeling as well.



Well, I need to get some cleaning done. I went grocery shopping and swimming this morning, so I need to do the cleaning. I am including some random photos from Arianna getting off the bus on the first day of school, the kids riding rides at the Puyallup fair, Ethan putting a strainer on MIchael for a hat, Arianna missing her tooth!



Have a great day

School Days!

Well, I am a little behind on posting. Things of course have been busy. Arianna started her first day of Kindergarten on Sept 2! She loves it and is doing great. She takes the bus in the morning and home in the afternoon. She loves riding the bus. It makes her feel like such a big girl. She goes to full day kindergarten. She catches the bus at 8:50 and then gets home at 3:55. She has made good friends with a girl down the street. Her name is Shalini and they are in the same class. She is already learning a lot and remembering lots. She had her first school book fair and bought some books and we have just started a cookie dough sale for her school. She wants to get $200 so she can take a Limo to Lunch - that is the prize. She gets to eat hot lunch sometimes and sometimes bring her own lunch. She also loves the they get to go outside 3 times a day and has PE 4 times a week. Arianna has also started swimming lessons again - she had like 2 weeks off and soccer. Both of those are after school.

Ethan is doing well. His word list is growing every day - which is nice and he is now putting 2 works together like Bye Bye Dog or Hi mom or Go Kitty when he is wondering where the kitty went. He is running so fast now. Sometimes I actually have to do a good job in order to catch up with him!! He loves to climb and go down slides. He is warming up to the swings - he has never really liked them, but now he will at least sit a little longer on them. He would just rather be active and running around then sitting.

Last week was my first week of having 2 days to myself!!! It is nice. I got the whole house cleaned up with was nice. Then Michael's parents came up this weekend and watched the kiddos for us while Michael and I cleaned up the garage and organized. We took 3 loads to goodwill and a load to the dump. It is so refreshing to get rid of things. We have even more sorting to go through!! But it will get done. We also went to the Puyallup fair this weekend. We go every year. This year Ethan was able to ride on the rides. You are supposed to be 2, but he is close enough and he is as tall as most 2 year olds. He had a blast!! Arianna was such a good sister and rode on the baby rides with Ethan sometimes so that he would be comfortable. Then he was able to do it without her. He loved riding on these motorcycles that just went in a circle.

Arianna had a good time too. I took her on a rollercoaster that is similar to Mulholland Madness in California Adventure (she loves that ride). She liked this one as well. We wanted to go on more of the grown up rides, but they had longer waits and so she decided to just go on the little kid roller coasters because the wait was much shorter. Ethan did pretty good staying in the stroller. He ran around sometimes, but it is so crazy busy that it is hard to keep track of him. Arianna loves going down the giant slide. It has 100 steps that you have to go up in order to slide down. She did it 2 times.

We are working on joining 24 hour fitness. With microsoft we get a great deal of like only $30 a month and no enrollment fees. That is cheaper than where I currently go swimming and the gym close to us has a pool so it will be perfect. They also have a kids club where the kids could go and be watched while I work out.

We are looking at going to Hawaii again this spring. If we go we will go to Oahu and then we are deciding between Maui or Kauai. I also want to go to disneyland. We didn't get to go this year and I am really missing it. Michael and I talked about maybe taking a long weekend and taking ARianna down for a few days and leaving Ethan with michael's parents. We will see.

Well I am going to post a few pictures of the kids. Arianna from her first day of school, and both of them playing at teh park.