random pictures

I finally downloaded all of my pictures off of my phone. random, pixelly thoughts in no particular order:



Mrs. Cloud's Thanksgiving feast and program. This is the 5th one I've attended over the years, but the 1st where my kid belted out all of the words. Go Tuck!

Luke on a random Sunday.

Eden with some friends at Disney on Ice. It was a fantastic night at a new arena 20 minutes from our home.

Boutique #2

"Holiday Boutique Gone Chic" We LOVED Snoqualmie Ridge!

Bumper of a car that I rolled into at a stop light. Fortunately I just barely scratched it...

Eden's field trip to the Salmon Hatchery

Eden in her school play "Pinocchio" All she wants for her birthday is acting classes!

Luke playing ball at school. They let the parents come and eat lunch with the kids a couple of times each year and then hang out with them at recess. fun times...
The only pic I have of Luke at soccer. Looks a little uncomfortable...

Tuck in a PR costume with his cousin at his side. Don't know what happened to the other half of the pic? Luke and Cameron in the background playing Wii. We miss our cousins :(

Family day at Lagoon. Probably the funnest day we had all year. My kids LOVED it. Luke on the Colossus for the 2nd time and 3 year old Tucker on the Tidal Wave. Those kids have no fear!

Dave w/the men heading out on their guys weekend. Gotta love that van!
Little Liza at a lake in Yellowstone

Our favorite lake and restaurant in Island Park

I need a living room makeover

An announcement

I've held off announcing for quite awhile as I wasn't sure if this news was going to take or not...I know you may think I am crazy but we're adding another to the family. 3 Cavalier puppies were abandoned on a busy street near our home and our neighbor, thinking one was ours, dropped her on our front porch. It has taken Dave over a month to come around but last night I caught her sleeping on his lap! He won't admit that she is truly ours, but in my heart, she is my puppy. Her name is Sophie and she is the most mild mannered, sweetest thing you've ever seen. She and Meili love each other and practically look like mother and daughter.

Happy Halloween

Can you guess what we all are?

Sassy Mei mei mei mei

Where have I been? It is Sassy Mei season...don't worry (mom), it will all be over next week! We had our first holiday show last week and it was a huge success. In two days, we crammed almost 700 people into an 1800 square foot home. We are headed to Snoqualmie Ridge next week with 46 vendors.

Some pics from the show:

There were so many cute things, I just couldn't resist:


Headband, dress, Baby Legs and squeaky shoes. LOVE those squeaky shoes - I put them on her everyday...she can run BUT she can't hide :0

My animated wonder

What would I do without this child? She keeps me smiling all day long :)

"Look at my owie Makkkaaay"

Tuck on wheels

He did IT!

First day of school

This is the first year in 4 that I did not cry on the first day of school. I had to carry Liza in one arm and drag a kicking and screaming Tucker to both Luke and Eden's class rooms. Definitely not a good first impression on their teachers. Regardless, they were both so happy to start. Eden has 3 good friends in her class and Luke has 7 other kids from the ward in his. They are both well taken care of :)

"I am not getting off...you have to pull me off...I won't go, I won't"

Tucker didn't want to leave Eden. This is when the crying began. I pried him off and drug him across the courtyard to Luke's class.

Two weeks later Tuck got his first day. He is in a private pre-school with 8 very close friends. We are so lucky to not only have a tight group of friends (and family) share this class but to have Mrs. Cloud again (our 6th year) in pre-school. Eden and Luke adored her and Tuck has been looking forward to this for 2 years!

Tuck and his best friend Mason

Tuck and his cousin Addison

Scouting and swimming

I have been a terrible blogger the past 4 months and must apologize to my mother. Time to play catch-up.

Collings Summer 2009

Dave was called as Scout Master in March. Some scouting highlights:

WASH JAM

Scout camp

What did we do all summer?

Swimming lessons

Where it all began

Tomorrow marks 10 years from my first date with Dave. To fully understand why that is important, you'd have to know the history of how we actually met (which I will write on January 22nd...) I have the greatest husband on earth and am so grateful that he agreed to go to the Symphony at Snowbird 10 years ago.

Semiahmoo

We visited the Semiahmoo resort with Dave's parents last week and had a wonderful time. It was beautiful and very entertaining. They have everything~ sandy(somewhat)beaches, a large swimming pool and hot tub, tennis, basketball, ping pong, in house movie theater, scavenger hunts, croquet, volley ball.The kids can't wait to go back next year!

Projects

I scream, you scream...

We love our summer visits from family. Each time Dave's parents come, he and his dad pick a house project to work on. This time we created a storage unit under our stairs.

We're done!

My kids rotate having a party on the last day of school each year and this year was Luke's year. They were off having such a good time that I didn't even get a single picture. Somehow we ended up with 4-5 of Eden's friends too...which I'd take any day :) The entire second grade made these shirts and all wore them on the last day of school:

Catching up

MEMORIAL DAY

Took off to one of the local lake trails to do some letter boxing. This is the first year we'd ever heard about it and have completely fallen in love with the adventure. Check it out: http://www.letterboxing.org/

Our letter boxing diary. We are still looking for the perfect Collings' family stamp.

Luke's choir concert. The battery in my camera died just after this shot. I loved the program and especially loved his music teacher this year.

MAPLE VALLEY DAYS

We rode our bikes from our home to the parade





Liza LOVED it. We couldn't get her out of the street.

Someone in the band threw a drum stick at Tucker. You can only imagine the fun he had with that thing.

We ride this little train EVERY year.

where have we been?

The kids are finally out of school and we are soaking up every second of this summer. It has been fantastic so far. I have left the blogging world for awhile to chase another obsession:

More later...

Liza and Luke playing a funny on mommy.

They sure know how to make my blood rise!

Locks O' Love

Last fall Eden brought home some information on Locks of Love and has been begging ever since to cut and donate her hair. Yesterday I finally gave in and took her aunt Makay.

going...

going...

Gone! 7 whole inches!

Seahurst Park

Posts from my mother...THANK YOU for such a fun fun trip!

Believe me or not, the rain stopped for a weekend so we decided to go to the beach at Seahurst Park in Burien where we searched for creatures and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.
Our adventurous group; Tucker, Bianca, Liza, Makay, Isaac, Addi, and Grandma behind the camera

Two things Liza loved to do at the beach were,
1 - wade in the water with her shoes and clothes on

...and 2 - eat sand, yummmm

Pals out to discover

The Catch of the Day; little crabs, what fun!

I call this the 'BiDoo'

Garage Sale Treasures

We happened along some garage sales on Friday in a nice area and found great treasures! Best of all was this mountain bike that Luke had been desperately wanting for quite a while and it was only $20! Saved me a couple hundred. Luke was thrilled (as you can tell from his expression).

Luke in action

Liza decided, "I deed a bike" tooo

Bike Ride

Saturday morning was super weather, the best so I got on my new Trek Hybrid bike and my mom borrowed Becky's mountain bike and we took a 22 mile bike ride down a dirt path along the Lake Wilderness trail to the Cedar River trail. The scenery was spectacular beside the river and past pastures, farmhouses and pines. We Northwesters are lucky to have this beauty in our backyard. There is nothing like it (that is if it doesn't rain!!!)

the Cedar River

The bridge under construction we had to sneak across