It seems as if it's been awhile since we've properly updated our blog. Things are progressing very quickly it seems in the Beadnell household. Jaime and I just attended Kindergarten orientation for McKenna a few days ago. She'll be going to Canyon Creek Elementary, which as we found out, has the largest population of any elementary school in the district. Which means that the full time class that we'd like to get McKenna into will require a luck of the draw in a lottery system that they hold after everybody registers. We just watched "Waiting for Superman" so we know the outlook is cloudy. ;) She is very ready and excited to go in any case.
McKenna has also just started to fundraise for a TrikeAThon to benefit St Jude Children's Research Hospital.  She's only been doing it for 2 days and so far many people have generously donated $385.00.  Her original goal was $150, while her class goal is still set at $1500.  As you can see, she has already shattered her individual goal, and we hope the class does better than than their goal for this exceptional cause.  If you have donated, thank you very much.  If you haven't and you'd like to monetarily you can go to her St Jude webpage.  If you'd like to help other than monetarily, you could post the link (www.mytrikeathon.org/mgb) and a short blurb about the cause on your Facebook, Twitter, or Blog.

Lilah is doing great, she is wearing "big girl panties" now throughout the day and is extremely proud of herself. She's turned into a real prankster and comedian as well.  She knows that McKenna doesn't like mustard, so every time Jaime or I are making sandwhiches, she'll open the fridge and grab the mustard bottle and hand it to us and say, "McKenna want's a bunch of this on in her lunch!".  The other night while I was putting her to bed, (I usually dance with her in the dark and sing her a little song before I leave) she turned to me, put one finger on my lips mid song and said, "Shhhh, you really shouldn't sing that.  Try the ABC song" and then started to giggle.  She is learning her alphabet and numbers from her sister, and they both play together for hours with their dolls or making pretend.  It usually consists of McKenna telling Lilah what to do and say and then Lilah going along with it for a bit and then turning trying to turn the tide.

Jaime is as busy as ever in her job.  She is also busy around the house and managed to plant 60 new primroses the day before it snowed for 2 days straight.  (The same day I mowed the lawn thinking that the bad weather was done).  We finally ushered her into the smart phone digital age with an Android LG Optimus V from Virgin Mobile.  I have nothing but good things to say about Virgin Mobile (it runs on the Sprint Network), the plan for unlimited data and unlimted text and 300 minutes is only $25 with NO contracts.  The same plan on Verizon would run about $80 (which is what I have through work).  If you are looking for an inexpensive high quality cell phone and carrier, I would certainly recommend Virgin Mobile.

I've been busy racking up the ebooks on my Kindle during my lunch breaks at work.  And fiddling with my own Android HTC Incredible.

That sums up all I can think of for the time being.  I've just posted some more pictures on our website.

Until next time, Stay Classy!

McKenna is participating in a Trike-a-Thon at her preschool to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Her personal goal is $150 and her school's goal is $1500. If you'd like to help out, you can donate any amount you'd like at the link below or http://bit.ly/gdjzRj. St Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance and no child is denied treatment because of a family's inability to pay. It's a great cause and a fun time for the kids involved. Thank you!

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Shop Addition, Just Add Siding

The seasons they are a changing.  We put away the little kiddie pool for the year, although now we'll probably have a few more nice weekends the kids will bug me about.  The garden is doing well, some of the crops are done with for the year (strawberries, dill, and radish).  We are still getting quite a bit of cucumber and zucchini , and the carrots are growing, albeit a lot slower than what the seed packets said.  We hope to have a few pumpkins ready in time for Halloween, although right now they are just teeny tiny.  If all goes well I'll even have the siding up on my shop in time for the weeks on weeks of rain that winter usually brings with.

Lilah Catches a Fish

We went camping at the KOA in Lynden a few weeks back.  It was a lot of fun.  The kids really liked the pool there and the paddle boats.  We even caught 3 fish out of the little lake.  Although we caught more "mermaid hair" (seaweed) than anything else.  It rained all of Saturday and most of the morning of Sunday, so on Sunday morning we went Bellingham and saw Despicable Me.  When we got back to camp it was sunny all through Monday, the extent of our visit.

McKenna Catches Some Mermaid Hair

Jeni, Rich, Jaime and I took McKenna and Lilah to the Monroe (Evergreen) Fair.  McKenna is tall enough that she was able to ride most of the kiddie rides all by herself or with any random friend that she happened to talk to while standing in line.  Lilah is finally tall enough to ride most of the rides with an adult-and in some cases with McKenna-, and I really enjoyed riding along with her/them.

At the Fair

McKenna just finished up her Story Drama Classes from the Seattle Children's Theater which she really enjoyed.  She wasn't quite sure about it at first, but really took to it toward the end of the 8 week classes.  Next up is her 2nd year of preschool which starts on Wednesday.  We were trying to get her into early enrollment for Kindergarten (she missed the age cut off by a few months), but for a number of reasons it didn't work out.  So now she'll be one of the oldest in her classes at school instead of the youngest, which is just fine.  McKenna also got her hair cut into a little bob.  She looks so grown up, it really makes her look like a different person.

McKenna's New Haircut

Lilah is talking up a storm now.  She loves to pretend play about anything and everything.  When I'm reading a book to her she'll pluck the strawberries out of the pages and eat them, or pull a butterfly from the pages and give it a little kiss.  She's getting very close to being potty trained too.  She stopped smearing her poop on the walls (hopefully that is over anyway).  We've resorted to bribing her with M&M's for going #2 on the toilet, but it seems to work pretty good and she get very excited when it happens.  We've even roped McKenna into helping her remember to go.
I've been uploading quite a bit of video to YouTube with my new Droid Incredible, you might want to check some of it out.
I'm going to be doing a 3.5 mile obstacle course called The Warrior Dash near Portland this weekend.  It should be pretty sweet, and I've been training for it almost every week by watching WipeOut on TV, so I should do pretty well! :)  I bought a pair spy sunglasses with a camera to record the entire thing and hopefully will cut a short video of it after the race.  So stay tuned for that :)
Recently read books for me include Abraham Lincoln; Vampire Hunter, The Passage, The Stupidest Angel, and Fluke.  Next up is the 3rd and last book in the Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay.

Well, until next time.  Keep the fire going....

We finally got the rear patio cover finished.  It only took a year to finish up, as we basically demo'd it last year right before starting the house re-roof project.  A special thanks to Jeff (as usual) for helping me out with a lot of it.  It will be nice to be able to use that area in the rain again, especially because the kids will be able to ride their bikes and play outside even when the weather is less than perfect.  After it was finished I got to thinking, wouldn't it be cool if we could of done it with solar panels?!  There is always next time :)

At the moment, nobody in the Beadnell household is sick.  This is quite a feat.  We've been busy doing everyday life type of stuff.  Jaime has been working a little overtime at her work, and although I'm not back up to the hours I once was at mine, we've been getting a little busier which will hopefully continue.
Since it's been staying lighter outside for longer we've been starting to get some things done around the house that we've been putting off through the winter.  We planted 2 new hybrid fruit trees in the front yard.  1 is a 5 species apple tree and the other is a 4 species plum tree.  Hopefully in a few years (before the apocalypse) they'll actually bear some fruit so we'll be a little more self sustaining.  (I'm kidding, sort of....)  I'll finally (hopefully) be finishing the back covered porch that I took down during the re-roof last year and the shop addition.
Jaime has been diligently researching her ancestry once again and updating her genealogy.  She's also starting oil painting and we've got a few of her pieces hanging on our walls already.
McKenna and Lilah are still going to Rosey's daycare and are still loving it.  There have been a few of their friends who have left which is sad, but it is getting them ready for what life is really like I guess.  Friends come and go, move away, graduate, etc.  McKenna is also still really enjoying preschool 2 times a week.  She brings home her own piece of artwork every week and is getting really good at writing her alphabet and a few words.
We hope this finds you well, until next time...

We decided to have a small family outing this year for Lilah's 2nd birthday instead of a big party.  Great Wolf Resort in Grand Mounds (near Olympia) fit the bill just fine.  We stayed over a Monday night and since it wasn't very busy, they upgraded our basic Family Suite room into a ginormous 2 separate bedroom w/ huge living room (50" LCD), 2 bathroom Grizzly Bear Suite.  McKenna is finally tall enough to to ride down the smaller adult slides with somebody, so that was fun because Jaime and I actually got to do some waterslides as well.  The girls especially had a wonderful time and can't stop talking about it....again (we went once before about 6 months ago or so and it seems like McKenna just recently stopped asking when we were going back, now it starts all over again!)  McKenna is enjoying preschool and learning more and more everyday.  She has also been to a few friends birthday parties, one at a kids Little Gym and another at an inflatable Jump house.

I've been staying up way too late recently playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 on XBox LIVE and Facebooking (is that a word yet?).  If you happen to play COD MW2 on the 360, look me up gamertag "MABEADNELL".    I recently rediscovered my old photo box and have been going down memory lane.  I befriended a few people on Facebook that I haven't talked to in 20+ years from my Riverside JrHigh & Elementary School days in Billings, Montana.   I posted some old pictures of those days and all of a sudden those few friends turn into 40 or so!  It is so good to hear from old friends and see what they've been up to.  It's hard to believe that so much time has passed seemingly so quickly.

Well, it's much too late once again and I'm of to bed...until next time.

Another great, short, long, sad, fun, exciting, etc year down!  We've had many ups and downs but we pulled through no worse for the wear.  You can always look back through our previous posts to catch up if need be :)  
We had a wonderful Christmas with both sides of our family.  Christmas Eve was spent at our house with Jaime's Mom, Dad and sister and my Mom opening up family presents and stockings (that Santa so graciously dropped off the night before on his test run for the big night).  Christmas morning the girls woke up and and we had breakfast and then opened up gifts from Santa.  Then after naps we went to Marysville and had a nice dinner with my side of the family at my side of the family, Shawn & Karen's house.  We played some games and opened up some more gifts.  My brother Jim was up from Arizona, as well as his son Evan from Montana, and his other son Nick who is currently stationed over at Bangor.  We had a lot of fun and we were all, especially McKenna and Lilah, very spoiled with all of the gifts.
On the 2nd Jim, Shawn, and I went go-karting at Champs in Mukilteo and then to Sherlock Holmes, and then to eat.  It was a fun brothers outing and I'm so happy we can do it from time to time.
Jaime got me an XBox 360 for Christmas and I've been staying up WAY to late playing until all hours of the morning. The only times I really get to play is when everybody else is asleep, which is actually right now..so...until next time..... :)

New pictures have been posted at our website .
Happy Holidays to you and yours.

This has been a long month in the Beadnell house. Some wonderful things happened, and some very very sad things. The great news is, the roof is finished and it looks amazing. Mark and friends got together and really did an amazing job getting the work done in two weekends and we couldn't be more pleased with it! Also in the good news department, I finally had my sinus surgery at the end of July and little by little every day I seem to get a bit better. I have had a couple of days this month without a headache (which is HUGE news because I have had a constant sinus headache since February). The girls are doing really well, McKenna is beginning Nursery School on September 8th and is getting very excited to start. We have an open house this Thursday and it's all she can talk about....I have a feeling Ms McKenna is going to give Teacher Patty a run for her money! Lilah is still Momma's little cuddle machine and is getting sweeter and more snugly each and every day (I thought the opposite was supposed to happen?!) . Oh what a lucky mom I am.
So now the sad news....
A very close friend of our little family passed away on August 9Th. Ashkan was a brilliant person and an absolute wonderful friend who will be very difficult to live without. Mark & I had the privilege and honor of working alongside Ashkan for 5 years at Plywood Supply, and I had the honor of spending time with him outside work, shopping, hanging out at the park with the girls and painting pottery. He was McKenna's first "boyfriend" and when she was about two yrs old she had the most adorable crush on him....following him all over the place and competing for his attention when I would bring her into work. He had a magnetic personality and anyone who had the opportunity to befriend him knew great things were in store for him in the future. The world is so much less colorful without him in it.....R.I.P Ashkan 1987-2009 love you forever!
Jaime

What a glorious day! Okay, so I will recap the rest of this lovely Independance Day weekend shortly, but first things first....Lilah went potty in the potty chair today! There was no fight involved....I asked if she wanted to sit on the big girl potty chair, she nodded yes and proceeded to the facilities (aka Marks throne). We took her diaper off, I sat her on the toilet, she sang herself a encouraging tune and presto peepee!
Harps began playing, angels sang the whole shebang.

So....what else happened this weekend?

Friday the NellNells stuck around the house and painted the storage shed. It went pretty quickly and I am happy to announce that this weekend our storage shed now looks like a million bucks. I hope our neighbors enjoy the colors sauteed mushroom and warm mahogany. Saturday we hung out with family to celebrate the 4th of July holiday. Jeni and Poppy Rich came over for lunch and afterwards we went on to Shawn and Karens house in Marysville for a delicious dinner. Then, home again, where we put the girls to bed entirely too late.

One last thing before I forget, about an hour after Lilah peed in the toilet she again let it flow...right after bathtime, but this time instead of using the facilities she peed on Marks lap.....am I a great potty trainer or what!?

All in all, a really nice weekend .

J

What a lovely weekend we had! On Saturday the girls, Aunt Jeni & I had a blast, walking around the mall and window shopping. We visted the girls favorite shops and McKenna even managed to charm her Aunt into buying her a princess goblet. (Aunt Jeni = a Sucker for a pretty toddler face).
Sunday (today)we had a ton of fun spending Fathers Day with Lilah & McKenna & of course Mark! We went down to Picnic Point in Edmonds and enjoyed a overcast day at the beach. The girls had a ton of fun playing in the sand, Lilah seemed to enjoy the beach the most...sand was in every crevase by the time we left. Shortly after the Beadnell clan returned home we all took a nap. Oh what a glorious moment in history, the girls were sleeping at the same time. And REALLY sleeping. Not trashing their rooms in the dark and pretending to sleep.
After the fabulous mid day nap, my dad aka "Poppy Rich" and Aunt Jeni came over to finish the Fathers Day celebration with a dinner. The girls ran around basking in the attention of the extra people within our house and were so excited to give Poppy the gift they hand picked for him. They bought him a white betta fish and lovingly named him "Leotard Bobby" (McKenna chose the name Leotard, Lilah chose the name Bobby). All in all, we had a nice day. Hopefully, Mark enjoyed himself. He is, after all the best dad the girls could ever ask for and the best husband ever.
I hope everyone else had as great of a weekend that we had. Happy Fathers Day to all you Fathers out there reading this blog...
Goodnight. Jaime