Burrito Grande

Have you ever seen a burrito this size?

We have and we LOVED every bite.

Case and I made our way to a college favorite this weekend up in Seattle Gorditos.

If you haven't been to this little hole in the wall restaurant

where the sign on the street claims

"healthy mexican food"

then you've GOT TO GO!

So good. A special treat for us since we don't get to go very often.

Seriously GO get one.

clean...and then clean some more

Today was cleaning day. The day where I actually clean the house from top to bottom. Not that I don't clean EVERYDAY but once a week I REALLY do it all (including the bathrooms). As those of you with small children know...as you are clean someone is always behind you messing it up again as you go. Sometime I think why do I even bother cleaning? I love the feeling of a clean house but it only lasts a few minutes anyways. I still do it though.

Well today I decided that I was going to try to keep the girls occupied outside for the entire duration of my cleaning. Two hours would be ideal but I wasn't counting on it. I set up this easel and paints and closed the door so they couldn't get in with their painted fingers. They actually painted for about an hour. It was so nice. Of course when they were finished it took me about half hour to clean them and the mess they had made. Oh well. They had fun.

Go Jake!

Yesterday we went to my brother, Jake's track meet. The girls were pretty excited to go to the big race. If you ask Heidi today if she saw Jake race she nods and says, "Meet!" Pretty cute. Jake ran the 800m and the 200m. We only got to see one race because an hour of Heidi on the enormous bleachers was about all I could take. We made signs to take and cheer Jake on. Sorry if we embarrassed you Jake. Kyla was VERY excited about the signs. Here we are walking from our car, down the street, to the stadium, cheering, "GO JAKE!!!!" the whole way. To see a picture of Jake click HERE.

Last Day of {Swimming} School

The Little Fish has graduated from Level One Swimming. She's been in Level One for almost nine months now (she started before she was even 3) but has made huge improvements and has so much confidence in the water. She can go under water, hold her breath, climb along the wall, pull herself out, jump in, kick her little legs, retrieve things from the bottom of the pool, and swim "on her own" a little bit.

Here she is swimming from the teacher back to the other kids, face in and all.

Since today was the last day of class the kids got to line up and take turns jumping off at the deep end into the jets. Kyla loved this and did it three times in all. Here Heidi is watching (she TOTALLY would have done it too if I would have let her). A few times I thought she was going in anyways. I wasn't really prepared for these actions shots with my camera but here they are. The first one is hilarious and I wish it weren't so blurry.

We start up swimming again in just 4 weeks at a different pool. This time its mostly to be outside and with Kyla's good friend Taylor. We'll be in Level One again but the class is everyday. So who knows she maybe on her own soon enough.

Princess Party

Okay... so I LOVE BIRTHDAYS!!! Especially my own (and now my kids too)! This Sunday I concluded my birthday week with a Disney Princess party. My mom put on the party complete with Belle cake and all. How appropriate that there were 9 Bells in attendance plus my mom and dad.

I LOVE THIS CAKE!

Kyla LOVED the whole party! She was so excited to see the cake, cupcakes, and party favors. Here she is checking it out.

Heidi thought it was very yummy! Isn't she cute?

Another year gone by and another year older. Getting close to 30!

the start of something...

Foul Ball

Every boy's ball field childhood dream came true last night.

Joey and Taryn took us to the M's game for my b-day. We were seated on the third baseline only 15 rows up or so. Taryn and I were minding our own business (talking and not paying attention to the game) when all the sudden a big commotion started all around us and before we know what's happening Casey leaps across the both of us and is laying on our laps. He scrambles into the aisle and then yells to Joey that the ball has rolled under our seats. I have been ducking and covering for a few seconds and then it happened: THEY GOT IT. That foul ball was theirs. You should have seen them. They were SO excited. They could NOT stop talking about it for the rest of the game...and the ride home.

This was not Taryn's first encounter with a foul ball by the way...she was once hit in the head by one at the King Dome.

What made it even cuter was the fact that they were wearing matching outfits (even the shoes).

Happy Birthday

Lately Heidi has been walking around singing Happy Birthday to herself.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR HEIDI"

Anyways, tomorrow is my birthday 28 and Kyla's half birthday 3 1/2 (I love that by the way) and Heidi's 2nd birthday is less than a month away. We've been talking about all the birthdays some and so birthdays have been on her brain. I attempted to get her to sing Happy Birthday and tell the camera about her birthday but as you will see that didn't quite work out. It never does when you try to capture it on camera. I probably should have asked her when she wasn't so busy. I decided to post the video anyways because I still think she is so cute even if it nothing super cute happens.

My favorite part is when Kyla pulls on the buckle of Heidi's seat and I ask Heidi what they are doing. If you listen closely she very calmly says "Fight!"

Pause the music on the playlist so you can hear.

A side note: I hope Kris Allen wins American Idol tonight.

missing sweatbands

I don't know why I think this picture is so funny but I do. This is how I caught Kyla watching Dora this morning. Maybe its the serious look on her face or maybe its the fact that she looks like she's ready for aerobics 80's style. I just think its cute and very Kyla.

"helping" dad

A melt down can be occurring at our house and all Casey has to do is ask if anyone wants to help him do some sort of project in the garage and the tears stop.

Last night (after bath and pajamas) they went out to help put together Heidi's new bike. A few weeks back Kyla got a new bike that is pink and purple. She calls it her "Barbie" bike even though it isn't Barbie. My mom got Heidi a new pink and purple trike and she is so excited for her very own "Barbie" bike.

The girls often "help" with their own Handy Manny tool sets that Santa brought each of them. The tools have names: Pat (the hammer that Kyla calls a Bam), Felipe, Turner, Stretch, Rusty and Dusty.

Last night "helping" turned into playing flashlights and getting into the trike box. First they took turns and then got in together. Heidi didn't like that much! They've been sick and their faces have Vicks all over them (in case you are wondering why they look so greasy!)

P.S. Cute Socks Case

Bowling Bells

Such a fun date night! I did not bowl well but we had a lot of fun.

Casey's fist pump after making one of many strikes or spares. Did he learn this from Tiger? I think so.

Nice shoes.

I think I would have done much better if my carpel tunnel syndrome (from all this blogging I've been doing) wasn't so bad.

Totally Tourist

This SATURDAY was really fun. A beautiful sunny Saturday and no golf? Must be Mother's Day weekend! We took the girls down to Pike Place in the morning. Taking millions of pictures as I do, I blended right in with all the people who had just piled off a cruise boat and flooded the market.

Heidi was very impressed with the PIG.

The TULIPS were really pretty. We didn't take any home but now that I'm thinking about it, we should have. But then again, it would be a little too hectic trying to make our way through the crowds of people with two strollers and a bouquet of flowers (while taking pictures).

This is Kyla crying because of the STINKY fish smell. She is very sensitive to offensive odors.

Heidi didn't seem to mind.



The highlight of the trip for the girls were these "scrumptious" PEARS!

Kyla liked this ugly little statue and wanted to take a picture with it.

After the market we walked down to the waterfront to see if we could see Ariel swimming in the sound.

All in all a really fun Saturday day morning! I loved it.

Moms' Day (a little early)

Happy Mothers' Day Mom.

I love you.

Happy Mother's Day to Carolyn too... thanks for Casey! He's pretty great.

And to all the other mothers reading this too.

This post by Casey (a date with dad)

Dad decided that it was time for Kyla to take in her first ball game. I knew she wouldn't necessarily get it, but it was just as much for me as it was for her. I was as excited about this "date" as I have been for anything in a long time. A couple of the highlights......

- Safeco field is pretty awesome just to look at, as soon as she got her first sight of the field..."Dad! Let's go see baseball! C'mon!" We ran down the first row we found to look at the field. She loved it!

- The national anthem was a pretty big hit, anyone who knows Kyla knows that any type of singing or dancing is a hit. I made her put her hand over her heart during the song, she thought that was pretty funny.

- Kyla saw her first mullet....it brought a tear to my eye. I told her "business on top...party in the back." Not sure she really got that one.

- She didn't really watch the game of course, we pretty much just played around in our seats. The only time she'd really pay attention was when something big happened and the crowd would cheer and dance......when that happened we'd get our boogie on for a couple of minutes.

- The ushers gave her some baseball cards, she was into that. She couldn't wait to get home to show mama.

- On the way home she asked if we could go to a movie.

A night Dad will never forget.

Dad was feeling a little bad. Heidi cried and cried when Kyla and I left her for the baseball game. I decided we needed to do something together the next night. What better than a trip to DQ?

Lots of people say Heidi looks like her Mom, which I agree with 100%. but the thing she has most in common with her mom is her love for ice cream! Heidi is hillarious. She absolutely devours the cone. She is a completely different person with Ice Cream. I must have taken 30 pictures of her.....it was just too easy. She was smiling and laughing the entire time. By the end, her favorite thing was to share ice cream cones. She'd get a lick of "Dad's ice cream" and Dad would get a lick of "Heidi's ice cream". It was a blast...the girl is an ice cream freak!