Estes Encounters

Happy Birthday!

2011-01-27T17:06:00.001-08:00

My Babies are one! I am so grateful to have their first year behind us. They were HARD! They were SO worth the wait, the hormones, the tears, and the sleepless nights. If I had to choose one word to describe these two, it would be JOY.
What an amazing year this has been. We have had so many family and friends who made the journey out to help and visit this year. Just over a dozen in the first six months alone.THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. I personally would not have made it through this year with out you.
Two babies.... One present. I wonder how long I can get away with this?
Annalise faired much better than Mckay in the cakey-gooey-mess department.
She was not impressed with her cupcake AT ALL.
McKay on the other hand tipped us off to the fact the blue frosting STAINS...hands, face, teeth, etc.

Highlights for these two at one year: pat-a-cake, "Yea"(followed by clapping as you see here), Chicka Chicka Booom Boom, Peek a Boo, the dishwasher phenomenon, the parade wave hello, as well as the hello telephone greeting, and "More" with the appropriate sign.

Love these kids. Every one.
Happy One, you two.

Universal Christmas

2011-01-27T13:22:00.000-08:00

This year for Christmas we took the fam down to Florida to Universal Studios. We decided to try investing in memories this year rather than gifts. We are contemplating taking a family vacation each year for the Holidays as a new tradition. It was a long drive with a very packed car. Everyone did great, even the babies! It was probably the longest for Jake who drove through the night so that the kids could sleep.

We stayed in a condo about 15 minutes away that my parents have through their timeshare and it was super nice but really tiny. It had trails, a kids center, several pools, a workout facility and a computer lab.

Here we are enjoying a butter beer at Hogwarts. The Harry Potter Venue was the highlight of the two theme parks for me. It is truly amazing what they have recreated. Magical!

Kenna is enjoying the playground at Jurassic Park.

This was taken just outside the World's largest Hard Rock Cafe. The babies only gave us grief at the park once. They were super troopers! Not an exciting photo, but the only one we have of Jake. Sorry hon!

Our first ride was Spiderman 3D! The special effects were pretty cool, just like the glasses.

Again, at Hard Rock Cafe. Super cool strings from someone famous....can't remember. Typical me.

McKay and Annalise in a rare appearance out of their stroller enjoying the bounce house in the Barney kiddieland. Cute as ever.

Over all we had a wonderful trip with great weather and fun memories. However, it was very expensive and hectic to travel during the Holidays, so it is hard to say yet whether this will become a tradition or not.

Foliage, Homecoming, Halloween

2010-11-02T05:49:00.000-07:00

Fall colors from the backyard

Annalise and McKay enjoying the fruits of Jack's labor.

Jack scored ten pounds of candy. Eww!

McKenna and her date (1st one ever!) for homecoming.

Cute Halloween nerds.

Trick or trunk!

September Pics

2010-09-28T06:54:00.000-07:00

My two cute kids looking especially great for church! Kenna played an arrangement of " A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" this month for sacrament meeting. she did a great job.

Annalise is entertaining McKay with her super clapping talent.

Pajama party! Jack is great at keeping the kids while the rest of us get ready for church.

Jack received his Webelo badge this months for cub scouts. He is a great little scout!

Kenna will be taking her driver's permit exam in a few weeks. She is working hard at school and is rocking AP Chemistry! We are so proud of her.

Some milestones this month include: Sitting up

Almost crawling, YIKES.

and lasting through three hours of church.... Twice!

Early Sweet 16

2010-08-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

Sonya Payne and I took Mckenna and her friend to Virginia beach for a girls getaway and as an early sweet 16 for Mckenna. We met up with another friend from MN whose boys were competing in the Jr. Olympics that same week. We had a great time!
Mckenna and Destiny on our dolphin tour. We were able to get up close and personal with the dophins. It was AMAZING!

Here are current pics of Mckay and Annalise. Seven months and going strong. We are having so much fun with these two!

Jake has taken two trips out of the country this summer. One to St. Petersburg Russia and one to Vienna Austria ....see pic below. Rough life!

Six Month Stats

2010-07-11T14:15:00.000-07:00

Annalise: 15 lbs./25 inches

Starting cereal.....yum!

McKay: 18 lbs. 10 oz./26.5 in

Jack: baseball/golf tournaments/scout camp/trampoline/anything to be outside

5 Months and Counting

2010-06-22T09:25:00.000-07:00

Miss Annalise and Mr. Mckay are busy discovering their ability to sit up and join the party at the Estes house!

Mckenna had her 4th year hike last week and counted it as her most favorite year at girls camp! She made it through with out any blisters or drama. SUCCESS!

Faces

2010-05-14T14:17:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Girl

Happy drool baby

My little peanut

Jack-man

Random Pics

2010-04-18T19:42:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of the kiddos just hangin out.

Blessings

2010-04-04T12:35:00.000-07:00

We blessed our babies last Sunday and they are 3 months old. McKenna dressed the girl and Jack carried the babies to the circle. We had several friends attend and the babies were quiet the whole time.

Two Months

2010-03-04T09:44:00.000-08:00

Happy Eight Week Birthday to McKay and Annalise!

Which one of us does NOT like our party hat?

This is the "I am SO not impressed" look.

2010-02-07T11:24:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday!

We made it one entire month.

Especially for Diana

2009-11-12T11:44:00.000-08:00

My mother-in-law has been requesting a picture of me pregnant. She even went so far as to try to convince Jake to take a picture of me while I was sleeping and put it on the internet. So Diana, this is for you.... I must really love you. I had my check up today and both babies are doing great. They each weigh three pounds! I am still free to keep up my daily activities and all is well.

Homecoming

2009-11-12T11:32:00.001-08:00

McKennna attended her first homecoming. She went with a group of friends. Kathy and Dick were here on a visit along with some other friends from Minnesota. Kathy graciously did McKenna's hair as well as took some great pics of her in her dress.

More pictures

2009-10-14T12:14:00.000-07:00

Random Pictures

2009-10-14T10:46:00.000-07:00

These are from our recent trip to Virginia. There would be more if I knew or remembered how to rotate and save to my computer.

These are a few from EFY.

More to come as soon as I figure the picture editing process out.

This Blog Has Been Stolen

2009-09-17T12:42:00.000-07:00

This is Nikki's sister Mardi. I HAD NO OTHER CHOICE BUT TO STEAL THIS BLOG!!! I looked at that STUPID girl's picture for almost an entire year now and I CAN'T TAKE IT ANY LONGER!!! So here is something more pleasant to look at.....

I'm dreaming of...

2009-01-10T16:28:00.000-08:00

Thursday, my day off, I had an incredible dream. It started off innocently enough as I was visiting my neighbor to get a recipe for donuts. (Which oddly enough I was planning to do later that day). As I am talking with her, I become incredibly sleepy to the point Jake had to come and take me home. (Six houses away). Just before we leave, Nicole Richie hands me her baby to take home and she will be up in a little bit?! Now, we are in the car and I am holding Nicole Richie's baby in my arms when again I begin to doze. When I wake up in my dream the baby isn't in my lap. "That's okay" said Jake, "I will slam on the brakes and it will roll forward up to the front again." So he slams on his brakes and the baby does indeed roll up to the front. I scoop the child back into my arms when I actually wake up to find myself cradling air. What the heck?

Aside from the dream I wanted to post the latest picture of Jack and Mckenna. Love you guys!

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T18:03:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!
We want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We love and miss all of you. The following is a clip from Christmas morning. These are mostly to benefit Grandma and Grandpa.

What the end of this video does not show is Jack exclaiming after unwrapping his scout belt..."Wow! This really is the best Christmas ever!" So...um... Why did we buy the Wii?! I guess it is true that Grandma always knows best! Sorry to Mckenna, her video won't upload! Uggh.

Twilight Before Christmas

2008-12-13T18:52:00.000-08:00

If you liked the movie, you'll like this. If you hated the movie, then you'll really like this! Either way, enjoy! Click Here

Disco Elf

2008-12-13T18:24:00.000-08:00

All Done

2008-09-12T15:23:00.000-07:00

Our house is done! We are in the process of setting the close date for the end of September. We absolutely love our home. The builders have exceeded all of our expectations. We feel very blessed to live in such a beautiful house. I have had so much fun! Now all we have to do is pay for it!

They just planted grass and topped it with straw.

Entry

Kitchen from entry

Kitchen from great room

Kitchen

Island from back

Fridge

Dining room from kitchen

Great room from dining room

Fireplace

back deck

View off left side

View off right side

Half of kids bath. Tub and toilet in separate room.

Mudroom and cubbies. Thanks Kaden!

Stairs going up from mudroom.

Banister, railing and knoll post.

Master tub

Master shower

Summer Days

2008-07-29T15:11:00.000-07:00

Mckenna with friends from Minnesota who came for a visit. The backdrop of the photo is the Potomac River in National Harbor, MD.
We toured with our friends the Moss family while they were here. We got to see all of the monuments, as well as the Holocaust museum. It was wonderful and very exhausting! We miss you guys!

Here is Jack on the putting green at Penn National golf course. He had the opportunity to attend golf camp for a week. Pro golf is in his future if you ask him.

Ladies and Gentlemen! I proudly present the Cardinals, who took first place during the little league baseball tournament! Congratulations! They remained undefeated throughout the entire tournament.
Surfer boy here at Bethany Beach Delaware!
Way to go Jack! These waves were huge. the picture does not do them justice. Jack and Jake got creamed several times during our stay, but they always came back for more.

Bathing Beuaties on the shore. Poor Mckenna ripped her suit the first day and had to wear mine until we could find her one here at the beach boutique.

I'm too sexy!

Here we are posing for our boys! I must confess, I mostly stayed in the very shallow waves. I am getting old.

We had the opportunity on the fourth of July to attend a fabulous breakfast picnic with our friends. There was a wonderful patriotic service honoring about thirty service men and women who were in attendance. This picnic is hosted every year by a retired Colonel in the Army. This year there were about 400 people in attendance. It was a great way to start of our fourth!

Some happy picnickers!

Mckenna is pictured here flying through the air with the greatest of ease. As you can see, this poor missionary volunteered to swing all of the kids at the picnic. His poor shirt will never be the same.

Our house is moving right along. they keep saying it will be done the end of August. Here is the back view of our siding with the stone.

Here goes the siding!

These are some of the few things we have been up to since the beginng of July. Summer is flying by!

One More thing...

2008-06-23T14:43:00.000-07:00

I forgot this one:

13. My running route consists of two roads. Tick Ridge which turns onto Coons Ave. I giggle every time I go around the corner!

Cruisin'

2008-06-19T10:04:00.000-07:00

This past April Jake and I had the opportunity to go on a cruise with some of our college friends. We had a blast. I don't think I have laughed that hard or that much in years!

Here we are, the safety kids. We were terrified of the open water so we spent the first day wearing our floatation devices.

This was probably our favorite excursion. We rented mopeds to tour the Britsh isle of Nassau. We spent the majority of the day exploring the island, driving on the left side of the road.

These are some of the best women I know. It was so great to be with them and catch up.

This is the whole gang. If the pictures here are fuzzy, that's because some poor sloshed girl passed us by and asked if she could take our pics. Oh well, you get what you pay for eh?

Okay. "Lucy you got some splainin to do!" Jake and Rick decided to don Speedos for our snorkeling excursion. However, there were no Speedos to be found. So they went shopping on the cruise ship's store thinking they would for sure have them there. No luck. So first they asked the sales lady if they in fact carried Speedos. She gave them a crusty look and said No!
Then they spot the clearance rack where they came across some womens' spandex exercise shorts. There were just two left, a small and a large. YIKES! They brought the pairs up to the same lovely sales girl to buy. She disdainfully told them that they were women's shorts to which our husbands replied, "We know, these our for our wives." Jake had also previously ordered some fake chest hair and some gold necklaces for effect. It worked, they successfully shocked and grossed out not only our group but another couple who previously were sitting near moved far away. I can't say I blame them.. It was SCARY! Thanks for the laughs boys!

All in all it was a fabulous trip! We were able to spend some QUALITY ALONE TIME together, as well as laugh ourselves silly! We love and miss everyone and will hold dear the memories.

Raise The Roof!

2008-05-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

Yea! A roof and drywall. What more could a girl ask for?
A double deep garage according to Jake.

The technical term for this arc is a "Schwoopie roof."

A view from inside the dining room.

Picture perfect fireplace. Flanking the sides will be five foot black bookcases and entertainment center.

Dining area view from the entry way. There will be another column on the right side of the dining room.

Entry and study door from kitchen.

View of great room from where my kitchen island will be. Note to self, clean lens of camera after loaning to your daughters friend.

View from dining area.

View from mudroom into kitchen greatroom and study area.

View of mudroom from stairs. If your laying sideways on said stairs.

2008-03-16T20:43:00.000-07:00

The following is the results of an inkblot test I saw on Tracy's blog. The following are the results:

Inkblot

2008-03-16T20:37:00.001-07:00

Tickle's Original Inkblot Test

My Result: Reserve

You approach the world with your guard intact because unconsciously, and perhaps consciously, you want to maintain an element of control in your relationships with people. You tend to hold your private experiences just out of reach of others. You're not one to immediately show all your cards, to let people into who you really are until you're ready.

Unfortunately, that sometimes means you also hide things from yourself. You may find that your desire to remain guarded backfires, affecting your self-awareness. Why are you like this? It's possible that you act in this manner because of a deeply-rooted fear of being exposed, or of truly expressing yourself. To protect yourself from this fear, you act in the opposite manner — you are guarded.

There is a certain respect that comes with resistance, an unconscious understanding that the human psyche is very vulnerable. We all feel we have a lot to hide, and you are not one to be intrusive or thoughtless about how you approach sensitive topics with others. Therefore you inspire a sense of safety in others when they are around you. Your psyche is very deep, very rich, and the more you can let yourself know (both the good and the bad), the more you will be able to appreciate who you really are.

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=inkblotogt&c=50652

Decisions, Decisions

2008-03-16T17:41:00.000-07:00

Okay. Now that the framing has begun, we have hit a few minor bumps. I have posted two possibilities to correct the one issue that still needs to be resolved. The kitchen window, which I love, is sooo big, however there is only eight and a half inches from the window to the wall once the window is installed and trimmed. This means that the cabinet that will come up to it can only be between eight and eight and a half inches deep. I came up with the two following solutions:

#1.This is a bird's eye view of the perimeter cabinets. This option has two 8 in. deep cabinets that come all the way down to the top of the counter . These will flank a set of regular 12 in. deep cabinets on either side of the range/microwave. These 12 in cabinets are 42 in. high and come down to 16 in. above the counter top.

#2.
This option has only 12 in. deep cabinets that are 42 in. high. The ends of these cabinets would angle back toward the wall at a 45 degree angle.

I would like to know what you think. If any of you have other suggestions I would love to hear them.

We've been Framed!

2008-03-15T12:09:00.001-07:00

Back Side View

Great room window

Back View

Other Back Side View

Partial Front - No garage

View from Master bedroom

Dining room/ Partial greatroom

Broken Ground

2008-01-27T13:47:00.002-08:00

This photo is out of order, but I do not have the time nor inclination to figure out what I need to do to move this to the bottom of the blog. Anyway This is the color of cedar shakes that will go on our house. The trim will be ivory.
We have officially begun the actual building process. These are a few photos of our "hole" as we affectionately call it. It is amazing how exited we were to see this. We thought this would make it all seem more real, but it really hasn't.
Jake climbed a large dirt pile left over to take this shot from the back of our yard.
The hole on the right next ot the pile of dirt is where our garage will go.
This is taken from the front of our lot. They did a nice job arcing the back yard edge. We do own another quarter acre into the woods, but that portion we will have to clear ourselves at a later date. For now the builder will landscape everything they have excavated.

We have officially broken ground!

2007-11-12T10:44:00.000-08:00

I am finally ready to face this whole blogging bit again. Here I go!

November has brought with it many ailments and illness. Jack has had perpetual breathing issues, especially at night. In the past, he has had his adenoids and tonsils removed because of sleep apnea. That helped for for awhile, although he still struggles at night and now during the day too. He is CONSTANTLY stuffy. His new pediatrician sent us to an allergist/immunologist after looking up his nose and discovering that his mucous membranes were literally swollen shut.

So off to the specialists! After taking Jack's history, the allergist decides to test Jack for allergies. This is the test that involves placing possible allergens on the arms, waiting for 20 min. to see which of them if any the person reacts to. Turns out, Jack is allergic to the whole world. Not exaggerating, he reacted to every single allergen.

What does this mean for us? Shots, lots and lots of shots. Once a week for the next three years, we will travel to Maryland so that Jack can get a shot. The plan is after three years, he will be desensitized to his allergies. Meanwhile, back at home we have the pleasure of sterilizing the house, especially his room. No books, stuffed animals, curtains, carpet, placing allergy covers on all of his bedding as well as his mattress, purchasing a special filter for the furnace in the new house, central vac,vacuuming his room at least twice a week, and last but not least removing the dog from the home. This last one may take some time.

I have had the pleasure to contract bronchitis two times within the last month. It is something I often get this time of year, each year. While at the allergists office, in the midst of taking down Jack's history, he proceeds to ask about my health, whether or not I get this every year,(yes) the same ime every year, (yes)do the doctors diagnose me with bronchits, (yes). "Jack," says the doctor "your mother has asthma." He told me to go to my doctor immediately and get it checked out. I did, and turns out I do have asthma. The doctor thinks that next year, if I start with my inhaler and some allergy meds, I can cut this thing off at the beginning.

TopTen Indicators of a Virgin Blogger

2007-10-16T15:06:00.000-07:00

1. Took over an hour to choose a template.
2. Took over an hour to choose colors.
3. Took over an hour to come up with a blog title.
4. Had daughter, daughter's friend, sister, and husband vote on blog title name.
5. Once done with template, colors, and title, let blog sit for over a week without posting.
6. Have sister call after looking at blog and telling you to change it, she doesn't like the colors.
7. Took over an hour to change colors for the second time. Got sister's blessing.
8. Took over an hour to find photos in computer to post.
9. Called sister to get directions on how to import photos to the blog.
10. Will call sister to figure out hosw to post this blog!

Weatherstone Drive - Lot 201
1/2 acre