Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Babbitt/Lewis family to you!


Christmas present mayhem.....










Kaitlyn modeling her new Aeropostale sweats.
7:42 a.m. The kids and their Christmas stockings.....

Oh Christmas Tree....and other Holiday Spirits!

Two of My Favorite People!

Christmas Card Count

I borrowed a chapter from the "Book of Shelley" and decided to compare the Christmas versus Holiday cards. Including the cards that arrived in the mail tonight, we have Holiday is leading the way with 14 and Christmas only has 9. Are we forgetting the real reason for the season?!

Jr. High "Flash Back"

It was "Flash Back" Day at school last week. Kailtyn was dressed adorably from the 50's complete with the poodle skirt and initial sweater (just like Laverne from "Laverne & Shirley"). I know I'm a little biased, but she's so darn precious!

Kaitlyn Got Her Wish!

It was a snow day in Puyallup today. Schools were closed as we got 5 inches of snow. Kailtyn spent the day playing with Bailey in the snow and creating this beautiful snowman, complete with hat, mittens, and scarf.

The SNOW continues!

It stopped snowing for several hours late this afternoon and this evening. But it's started back up again and the white stuff is falling hard. Kaitlyn is doing her "there won't be school tomorrow" happy dance. When this photo was taken just a few minutes ago, we have 3 inches of snow already!

It's Snowing!

Schools closed early in Puyallup this afternoon and I didn't know why until I got home. It is a winter wonderland up here on South Hill. The snow is beautiful. The roads in the valley were just wet, but up here they are slushy and the side roads are nasty. Just imagine what it will be like by peak commute hours. Thankfully Kaitlyn, Bailey and I are safe at home. Some of us are even playing in the snow!

Shelley Mauss Rocks!

Thank you Shelley for taking the time out of your weekend to take our family Christmas photos. You truly have a gift! We really appreciate you and your talent!


Tim will fix your mower and refrigerator as payment for your services!

Thanksgiving 2005

Tim and I had a wonderful day at my cousin Karen's for Thanksgiving. There was an abundance of food (as usual) and a good time with family and friends. The only thing missing was our kids, who spent the Holiday with their other parents, but we get them next year!

Thought For The Day (and every day!)

"It is hard to stumble when you are on your knees."

As seen on a local church sign this weekend. It apparently struck a cord with me and I felt it needs to be shared.

Yellow Roses

A man sent me flowers - not just any flowers, but my favorite yellow roses! The card said "you are a blessing". Right there anyone who knows my husband would correctly guess that these flowers were NOT from him!
Thank you Tom for my beautiful roses! Working for you at ML is so much more pleasant than my previous experience, and that is the true blessing!

Happy Halloween

May your "holiday" be filled with friendly ghosts and gobblins and may you never run out of candy!

We had a visitor this last weekend - Viper Mauss came to stay for a few days. Her Mom forgot her witch Halloween costume, so we just put her in her fleece.

The Fab 4 Take on Sin City!

Las Vegas survived the invasion of the Fabulous Foursome. Our trip started out very early on Friday morning and ended very early on Monday morning. Our trip included lots of laughter, some gambling (but no big winnings), shopping, sunshine for Miss Shelley, eating and of course, drinking. We had very expensive cocktails at the amazing Wynn Hotel/Casino. Who knew you could spend $61 on 4 martinis?! It even "rained men" one night. Miss Lyons played in several poker tournaments and made it to the final table in her last tournament. Way to Go Chrissie! Later that same afternoon we needed a little more adrenaline through our veins so Chris and Kris went on a "loopty-loop". There was even a little education thrown in the mix of our trip, some of us learned a new word: Oligopoly! I dare you to use that in a sentence correctly.

All-in-all it was a FABULOUS trip, but what else would you expect from this group.

Thank you ladies for a great birthday dinner (including wine directly from the bottle) and memories to last a lifetime!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today I turned 38. Wow! How the heck did that happen? Time sure flies! My birthday celebrations started last week with dinner at my Mom's with some of my favorite cousins. I got great earrings from Karen and cool cash from Mom. These photos were taken tonight with my brand new digital camera compliments of The Mauss Group. Thank you Tom & Shelley! I had a great party at work today with lots of sugar! We had dinner tonight at Red Robin, for my free birthday burger. Tim even made me a birthday cake. I got lots of thoughtful gifts, including a relaxing pedicure and adorable shoes with a Terri on Saturday. Kaitlyn gave me a great necklace and Tim is painting our bedroom next weekend as my gift. I HATE to paint, but wanted to change the color. I'm heading to Vegas with the Fabulous Foursome to continue the celebration and Tim will have the room all painted when I return. What a guy! Thanks to everyone who made my birthday so special!

Royal Bailey

It's not every dog that is special enough to, not only sit on the leather couch, but to sit on a pillow on the leather couch. Good thing Tim didn't catch him, or he'd be sent to the floor in no time! I, persoanlly, think Bailey is adorable and let him sit where he pleases cuz its just so darn cute. Imagine that!

Peace Arch

O' Canada!

We went to Vancouver, B.C. this weekend and stayed at the River Rock Casino Resort. It's a brand new hotel that just opened last month right on the Fraser River. Our 545 square foot suite was beautiful with an amazing king sized bed behind glass french doors. It was quite the bargain at $99 canadian! The morning we checked out the lead singer from Air Supply was standing right next to me. The band had played in the hotel's theater the night before. It was weird being that close to a "rock star" from the 80s. Saturday afternoon we went to Granville Island and walked around.

Happy Anniversary

Four years ago today, Tim and I got "Mauied".
Tonight we celebrated our anniversary with a carpet picnic in the living room with pizza and champagne. We then took a walk through the woods and came back home for dessert that Kaitlyn made for us. This weekend Tim and I are going to the River Rock Resort in Canada for a little weekend getaway to continue the celebration of our wedding anniversary.

Our Wedding Vows
You are the one I want to share my life with.
I will love you and stand by you always.
I will have faith in you and encourage you in everything you do.
I will be here to listen to you, to laugh with you, and to hold you.
I will work with you as we build our life together.
I will strive every day to make our relationship stronger.
I will be your friend, your love, and your partner for all the days of our lives.

Did the Puyallup!

"We could do it at a trot, we could do it at a gallop, we could do it real slow so our hearts wouldn't palpate - we weren't late....did the Puyallup!"
Onion Burgers, Krusty Pups, Cotton Candy, Scones....it was a successful day at the Fair. The kids went on rides and played games. The girls make doo-dah birds. Sir Timothy even won his Lady Kristine a stuffed animal.

Our House has Gone to the Dogs!

We have a house guest this weekend: Viper Mauss. She came to visit while her Mommy went to Portland with some other friends. We have renamed her "Pissin' Princess Priscilla Pee-Pee" due to the fact that she likes to pee on the floor. This is not an acceptable form of expression in the Babbitt household and confuses Bailey who knows this is a No!No!

Watching these two little mutts is very entertaining. Night One:Viper bares her teeth and growls whenever Bailey gets too close. Keep in mind that Bailey weighs 3 times as much as Viper. Day Two is a little better. Bailey sniffs and Viper just walks away. Bailey tries to play, but Viper is just not into him. The only real fight comes when they both want to be on my lap at the same time. So far they've been able to share my attention.

According to Tim, if Pissin Princess Priscilla Pee-Pee goes on our carpet one more time, she gets a royal boot in her butt and a one-way ticket to the Puyallup Pound! (Don't worry Shelley, I'll protect her - Maybe!)

First Day of 8th Grade

Kaitlyn went to the first day of 8th grade today and she survived! She realized it wasn't near as scary as the first day of 7th grade. She has some new teachers, but some old ones too. She was happy to see her friends again. Her big complaint was that she only had 1/2 hour to eat her lunch. For those of you who have eaten with Kaitlyn before, you know that she is POKEY and 1/2 hour barely gets her two bites of what she's eating. Maybe that's why she's so skinny!

Concert Connection

Attending the concert the other night got me thinking about all the other concerts I've attended. I decided to compile a list. I'm amazed that there are several different artists that I've seen more than once. My very first concert (that I remember) was in 1983 at the Kingdome. It was The Beach Boys, and I went with my mom. Here is my the list I came up with, in order, or at least close:

1. Beach Boys
2. Sandi Patti
3. Amy Grant/Michael W. Smith
4. Lionel Ritchie
5. Chicago
6. The Judds/Merle Haggard/Hank Williams Jr.
7. Richard Marx
8. Beach Boys (again!)
9. Wilson Phillips
10. Amy Grant (this is #2)
11. Tim McGraw/Little Texas
12. Mary Chapin Carpenter/Trisha Yearwood/The Mavericks
13. Reba McEntire/John Michael Montgomery/John Berry
14. Wynonna (since she is one of the Judds, this is sort of a #2)
15. Vince Gill/Patti Loveless
16. Collin Raye
17. Red Hot Chilli Peppers/Foo Fighters
18. Back Street Boys (we took the kids!)
19. Collin Raye (#2)
20. John Tesh/Nicole C. Mullen
21. Amy Grant (this makes 3!)
22. Toby Keith/Teri Clark
23. Kenney Chesney/Gretchen Wilson/Blaine Larsen
24. Chicago/Earth Wind & Fire

Chicago with Earth Wind & Fire

I've discovered that I'm too old to go to a concert on a work night! Last night we saw Chicago and Earth Wind & Fire at the White River Amphitheater with our friends John & Pam. Tim and I started the evening at Red Robin enjoying Happy Hour. Then we met up with Pam and John and loaded the school buses used as Shuttles to the concert venue. This was a unique experience for me, being a private school brat, I never got to ride the yellow school bus! The venue was really nice. The view of Mt. Rainier was incredible. The only downfall was that around 10:00 p.m. the wind changed and there was a lovely aroma provided by the dairy farm across the street. It was rather stinky! The concert itself had mixed reviews. These are amazing musicians that were at the top of their game in the 70s and 80s. There are still a few original members of each group, but its just not the same. It was fun to sing along with some old tunes, though. I'm really showing my age here, but when Chicago was touring their Chicago 17 album, I was in the Tacoma Dome with a lot of other screaming teenagers. I was 17 at the time. 20 years later I was at my second (and probably last) Chicago concert. At 11:30 p.m. the bands were still playing. We decided to throw in the towel and catch the shuttle buses back to our cars since we all had to go to work today.
Thanks John and Pam for the tickets and another fun experience for me to blog!

What a Day!

We had an interesting outing on the Instant Gratification this weekend. We launched the boat at Coulan Park in Renton. Our friends, John and Pam, joined us for a day on the water. We cruised around Lake Washington and Lake Union. Tim got stopped by the Police (yes, in the boat) for going too fast in a no-wake zone. Luckily, he got away with just a lecture from the officer including the phrase "you are responsible for your wake". It was priceless. The sun was warm and the water refreshing. We anchored in a bay, had lunch and played in the water. We had a minor visor incident, but Kris's great retrieval skills saved the day. Things got really interesting when we returned to the park to take the boat out of the water 7 hours later. As we were prepping the boat for its ride home, John and Pam couldn't find their Lexus SUV. Funny, but it wasn't where they had left it. Hmmm. Come to find out, it had been towed by the Renton PD. Of course it took the Renton PD 1/2 hour to figure that out. At first they were going on the assumption that it had been stolen. Nice! We found the Lexus and unfortunately it cost John and Pam over $2oo to get it out of "car jail". Bummer! To add to our frustration, while we were all out in the boat having fun, some jerk decided to break in to our truck. The lock was broken, the handle cracked and the door slightly dented. The would-be thiefs must have gotten scared off mid-stream because nothing was taken out of the truck. I guess we should be thankful for that! I knew that the boat was just a "hole in the water we were going to throw money into" but I had no idea what other joys it would bring!
All-in-all the day was a wonderful time with friends!

Maiden Voyage

Today was the maiden voyage of the Instant Gratification. We took the kids to Lake Washington. We spent a good part of the day in Meydenbauer Bay enjoying the water. The kids had a blast on the ski tube. Tim even took a ride on the ski tube - and let me drive. That's pretty big time!

We're looking forward to our next boating adventure and to having our friends come too!

Holy Fish-Paste Batman! We bought a boat!

Sir Timothy just had to have a boat, so he got one. This weekend we bought a 2006 SeaRay 205 Sport. It's a 20 foot sport cruiser. It is blue (purply-blue) on the outside and yellow like this one on the inside. It definitely passed the Kris "cute factor" test and has all the mechanics that Tim wanted. I'll post a "real" photo of our actual boat once we pick it up from SeaRay of Lake Union later this week.

Thanks to the help of one Miss Chris Lyons, our boat has the perfect name: Instant Gratification

Grandma & Grandpa Babbitt

Tim's parents came to visit from Bristol, IL to see their beautiful grandchildren and to help celebrate Tim's birthday. The photo is from the Ballard Locks (the first time). Tim's Dad thought the locks were so fascinating that they went back again the next day. The kids weren't too thrilled. They find it a bit boring, but then again, they live here.

Seafair Sunday

Thanks to our friends, John and Pam, we had a wonderful sunny day on Lake Washington! The weather was beautiful and there were boats everywhere! It was a Seafair Sunday that none of us will forget. Kaitlyn is just coming out of the float tube in the first photo and Katie Sue and Timmy on the boat in the second photo. We tied up to a sailboat with a family that had been camping in their boat since Friday. Their anchor held us from drifting away. We had GREAT views of the airshow and the hydroplane races.

Sir Timothy Turns 41 !

On August 4th Tim turned the ripe old age of 41. Wow! My husband is only 9 years to 50!
We had a BBQ with his parents, visiting from Chicago, our kids, and my Mom. Of course, Bailey Boo was at the party too!
Tim's Mom made him his favorite strawberry pie and he got lots of golf goodies as gifts.

The Fabulous Foursome - Yes Again!

Central Pierce Relay 2005

Dani and Kaitlyn (her want-to-be adopted daughter)

Kaitlyn (also known as "Mini-K") helps out at Central Pierce's Relay setting up Dani's team tent site. I believe the finished product earned her team 2nd place in the tent judging competition. As Dani so eloquently puts it: "Kaitlyn is a SUPERSTAR!"