She's taking it to the floor

I was busy working off the portion of the bear cake that I ate and Zoe quickly wanted in on the action.

She loves the Wii Fit board, but doesn't quite understand the mechanics of how it works.

During one step aerobics session, she wanted to get on the board.

As she stood there, she clapped in time to the rhythm.

I see dance recitals in our future.

Maybe, just maybe, a dance off.

Or two.

The reason for the Wii Fit

My mom and I decided that we had always wanted to learn how to decorate cakes. Instead of buying all the supplies and then paying for a class, we decided to buy the Wilton's Course 1 book and try and teach ourselves.

On Saturday we met at my mom's house to practice our first lesson: using the tips.

She made little bear cakes to practice on.

We sat around her dining room table (Zoe, Grandma Lily and Grandma Kathy) to try our hand at decorating a bear. We decided on the panda design and got to putting the decorating bags together and dying frosting black.

Zoe had already started in with her frosting and her bear.

As I sat down at my spot, I saw this. Apparently you don't need to actually put the frosting on the bear to eat it.

After realizing that some decorating frosting needs to be thinned and that an hour after you begin to decorate using a 16 tip and tiny stars you will have a hand cramp that will make you want to eat the cake you just decorated for comfort.

Without further ado, my bear.

His eyes look a little cross, but apparently I was supposed to use tip 4 and decided to buck the mold.

The view from the back. So cute with his little tail.

Me with proof that I could decorate a cake. Since my hand is still cramped from all the decorating and the Wii Fit, I'm not sure when I'll get to the next lesson.

My decorating partner, enjoying my bear. Notice the black frosting! It came off Sunday night in her bath.

I'm so glad we got a Wii Fit just in time to start cake decorating.

It helps those stiff muscles really relax.

I am unbalanced

This weekend N and I came across a deal that couldn't be passed up. We bought a Wii Fit.

On Friday nights we're usually in bed around 9:45. Not last Friday. We stayed up until 11 o'clock playing with the Wii.

I honestly thought it would be more fun than challenging. While it is incredibly fun, it's really hard. I did some hula hooping. For 3 minutes. I didn't know I had so many muscles in my hips.

I even convinced N to hula hoop. He's already a pro.

We spent the weekend playing around with it and trying the yoga, strength training, aerobics and balance games.

N is very good at all the balancing. I am terrible.

I was called unbalanced more than once this weekend.

If that wasn't pleasant enough, I was also weighed and measured. According to the Wii Fit my correct age is 35 (which is 4 years older than I actually am).

Apparently I'm out of shape and unbalanced.

The good news is that I can totally entertain the crowds at the next sock hop.

Friday Five Faves - vol. 10

I'm not quite sure where this week had gone. It seems to have flown by. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining it's Friday, I'm just praying that this feeling stops so the weekend seems long.

Here is my 5 fives in no particular order:

1) Zoe's talking. This week she saw N's car in the driveway and yelled, "DAD!" Then she goes, "no, daddy at kool." She knew he wouldn't be home and she knew enough to say he was at school.

There are times I still look at her as the 2 pound baby I first met and it brings tears to my eyes to see the girl she's becoming.

2) N's kool. For the last year N's been on a wait list for the degree program at school. Yesterday he found out that he's been accepted. He will begin the degree program in the fall.

While we are completely excited that he can pursue his dream of earning a degree, we both know it's going to be hard work. We're both a bit worn out on this schedule, but it'll be worth it in the end.

I couldn't be more proud of the fact that he's worked full-time and gone to school full time for the last year. He's worked very hard to get where he's at. I know God has some amazing things in store for him.

3) LifeWater by Sobe. I normally don't like flavored waters. I like it ice cold, plain, NO lemon and NO ice. N on the other hand hates water. That is until he discovered LifeWater. His favorite is the black & blue berry, which I think is appropriate if you know N's line of work!

I had a sip and was impressed. It's really great flavored water.

I'm more impressed that they have N drinking water regularly now!

4) Pretend. Zoe is into pretend. She loves to feed her dolls, host tea parties and make spaghetti and meatballs out of Play-Doh. We play pretend all day. Last night she had her head on my shoulder, patted my back and then made a burping sound. She looked at me and said, "MOM!"

5) Flowers. This weekend is the last chance to order flowers from the Washington Bulb Company. Every year they host at Tulip Festival in Mt. Vernon, WA. They have the most gorgeous tulips I have ever seen. I ordered some bulbs while I still lived in Puyallup and was blown away by the size and beauty of them.

If you order by the 15th, they will give you 20 free bulbs. Granted you won't actually see the flowers until next spring, but I can assure you they are worth the wait.

Have a great week all.

Just like Daddy

Happy Birthday Grammy

When N and I got married I inherited a whole new family. I can honestly say that I love and cherish each one of them.

Two people that helped shape N into the awesome guy he is today are his Grammy and Grandpa. I never had the opportunity to meet N's Grandpa, but I do have the awesome opportunity to have a relationship with Grammy.

For some reason, knowing how important this woman is to N made me a bit intimidated by her. It wasn't until Christmas 2006 that I had an opportunity to just be with her, to talk with her and get to know her better. I immediately understood the relationship she had with N and how she had come to mean so much to him.

Grammy is a woman of Godly character, genuine love and continual joy. You cannot help but want to be around her. I am so grateful that God has put her in our lives and that our girls have her as a role model.

Happy Birthday Grammy/G.G.! Our lives are richer because of you. We hope your day is as full of as many blessings as you are to us. Love you!

We love to hop...from a distance.

Last year we had the awesome opportunity to bond with nature. A small frog got into our house and as I was trying not to scream, N was trying to capture it. Then the frog jumped into our couch and much lifting and tugging happened before the little guy was apprehended.

I don't really like animals that are unpredictable. I basically like fish and dogs. Beyond that everything is questionable.

I was pulling some weeds and noticed something moved by my impatients. We've also been dealing with quite a few crickets, so I thought maybe it was something like that.

Nope.

The frog is back. Granted, I'm not sure it's the same frog because while N was busy getting inside our couch, I was in another room trying not to scream.

I ran inside, told N the frog is back, got Zoe's shoes on her and we all went outside to look at our visitor.

I know I really shouldn't be terrified of something so small, but seriously they can totally hop on you or in your clothes at any given point. I'm not really down with that kind of unpredictability.

Did I mention that they can hop?

Zoe takes after her mother. She preferred to stay on the other side of the patio. She then noticed my gardening gloves and decided they would give her some kind of protective shield against the hopper.

She slowly walked over to daddy to see what this was in his hand.

She kept a good 2 feet distance at all times. At one point a glove fell off. She ran about 7 feet away, beckoned me over to put the glove back on and then hopped over to where daddy and the frog were. After all, it is a frog, they hop, she can hop, they were bonding!

After all the hopping, Zoe decided to take the gloves off and water her pumpkin. N let the little frog go back into the flowers.

Here's Zoe, much like her mother, instructing daddy to put that frog at least 7 feet from her.

They are unpredictable.

Even if you can hop just like them.