Just Me!!

Then...April 2010 LANIE GRACE CORTEZ Now, a Year Later April 2011 Happy Birthday LANIE   Wake up sleepy head, Parties On! A little Scary Wait, that's backwards Ryan! Happy Birthday Laners! It has been a spectacular year of changes. Houses, Jobs, Ages, Friends, and most importantly internally. I am not the same person I was last year. Daily experiences change us, heck even our blood cells have changed, and replaced themselves at least tenfold. I am happy for the changes, but sad to see the kids growing so much. My baby is a toddler, with specific ideas and desires that sometimes don't require my help. Valerie is changing into a very beautiful preteener. One with specific interests and ideas. Ethan needs some changing. He needs someone who understands him and happens to NOT be female. He hee. We had a wonderful time at The Cortez's yesterday. The birthday girl did such a wonderful job staying happy, until the cake was set in front of her. I have never seen any...

Thanks to Groupon (luvin it), I got my newest night stand addition! A huge Decorating dictionary by Home and Gardens! Best thing about it, it was only $2.71 out of my money jar! Right now on my night stand I have: Two Food Network Mags Five decorating Mags (library checkouts) New Decorating Book Parenting with Love and Logic Zero Regrets by Apolo Ohno The Last Town on Earth Rich Like Them I would say that's sounds like a well rounded Person, (not me, just my choice of books ;)wouldn't you? So I set up some daycare for Charlie so that Mark could go back to writing! For some reason a three year old requires a lot of attention! Imagine. That. I am really gangbusters about Mark finishing his book, after all it will eventually get me a larger house to decorate and of course some servants!!! A.

"Lovin the Rug" The other day we had the exciting opportunity to work through what types of cabinetry we want to install in our dream kitchen. Home Depot promised it would be a free consultation, so we felt comfortable to just take a peek into our future (way future). Although no big surprise to us, our styles are different. Mark is contemporary modern and I, well I am still waiting for a design stylist to tell me what category I fit in. I definitely enjoy a decluttered room, old houses, and country style kitchens. Oh, and lets not forget about subway tile....love it! What do you think my contemporary modern man would think of this awesome, superly delicious, colorfully wonderful kitchen? I will own the rug that is under the table in the top picture. I would prefer the rug be yellow though. I am addicted to design blogs, and plan to make my own mood boards for each room in my house. Here is a list of design blogs I am addicted too (just to name a few :): Little Green Note...

Would I be pretentious if....  I wanted a flowering chandelier?  An entry way like this one? A stamp with our address on it? I love each and every one of these decorative embellishments. It is me, don't you think?

Ethan's 4th Grade class put on a wonderful show about the US rivers. What he didn't tell us was that he had signed up to dance during the program. What a wonderful job he did. I am so thrilled that my son is not afraid of performing in front of large crowds...he's only afraid of a shark or two that might come out of the shower head. Boohahahahah. Pretty sure that Ellen will be ringing my phone soon, since I uploaded this video to Youtube! A.

We found a gem at the Sumner Library the other day. We went just to hang out, check out some books, and let Charlie play on their computers. When we took a bathroom break Charlie saw all the kids her age, tucked in a classroom listen to books on Wildlife and talking about Safari's. We snuck in and caught the end of the show. It took her a minute to get comfortable but soon enough she was wearing the Safari hat and pretending she was seeing Tigers roaming all around her.

Valerie trying her hand at painting owls On our way to China Town First, a quick stop at IKEA! Ethan enjoying the anime section of the bookstore Hello Mr. Crabby Ethan and Valerie enjoying Chinese Ramen We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon at China Town in Seattle. We originally went there so that we could get Valerie's shoes for her Kung Fu lessons, but since it was a Sunday everything was closed. We ate some yummy food: the kids ate Chinese, I had Vietnamese, and Mark had Korean food. We had a blast. Charlie got her stuffed "Ponyo" at the bookstore. I don't think it has left her side since we gave it to her (except for that one time when Ponyo was lost--it nearly panicked Mark and I more than it did her). A.