NANNY FLO

Happy Mothers Day, Nanny Flo!

A TRIBUTE TO THE MIGHTY FLO

She's a world traveler with street smarts to boot.  

All the kids love her because she takes time with each of them and makes them feel special.

She is absolutely mad and is usually up for whatever's going on. She is great for a laugh and she has a great sense of humor with absolutely no pretenses. She is the least snobby person in the world and you'll never meet anyone more down to earth.

 

She is a stud magnet. I had to beat these two off her.

What we love about Nanny Flo:

1. She's very kindhearted. (Grace)

2. She makes the best food. (Grace)

3. She gave birth to and raised the best man I've ever known. (Garreth, of course, although Stephen and Davy are pretty great, too!)  (Erin)

4. She is so good with the kids.  She always gets down and plays with them and thinks of really fun things to do.  She is a terrific grandma! (Erin)

5. She's a great sport and always up for anything. (Erin)

6. She's very generous and would do anything for us. (Erin)

7. She has a cute dog named Sassy. (Liam)

8. She's nice. (Liam)

9. I like ladybugs climbing on my shoulders. (Sam)

10.  She always gives us presents. (Liam)

11.  She always gives us treats when we go to her house. (Sam)

12.  Her have suckers. (Sam)

13.  I love her. (Sam)

14. Her has pop at her house (Sam)

15.  What I love about Ma that makes her so unique, is that she would honestly live out of cardboard box with one set of clothes and could still be happy.  She places very little value on material things and a whole lot of value on the people around her. She has a keen eye for those in need and gives freely of her time and energy to the less fortunate around her. She has always been gifted that way. She's always been a champion for the underdogs of the world and defends them tooth and nail. I know she was brought up that way seeing her own mother care for the poor and the sick when they had very little themselves. She is a modern day Mother Theresa for the sick and the old at St. Marks where she lives.  I respect and admire her charity. She is an amazing example to us all. (Garreth)

16. You might think you're a hard worker, until you visit her on her hands and knees at work scrubbing floors at age 63. Whenever I think my job is tough, I think of her busting her rear end at her age, making enough to get by and fully understand just how easy I really have it. She has always been a really hard worker and inspired me to follow suit. She is one tough woman and I am very very proud to be her son. I owe so much to her and understand how hard it was for her to leave her country and family and show up in America with little more than an idea, two strong hands, a willingness to work, an appreciation that work is work and you take what job you can get, say thanks, and ask for more, and above all a fierce determination to provide her children with hopefully more opportunity than she had.  Her story is one of sacrifice for her kids and I'll never have the means to repay her. I love her dearly. She is my hero. (Garreth)   

WE LOVE YOU, MA!!  

Wee Grace and Liam

I've been going through some old pictures and I found some of Grace and Liam that were so cute I just had to share!

More Fun in Seattle

This weekend we went down to spend the night at the Muffoletto's on Bainbridge Island and we had a great time!  

Miranda and her friend babysat so we could go over to Seattle and hang out with Filipe and Joei.  We went on the Underground Seattle Tour, which was really cool.  Quick background: When Seattle was first built in the late 1800's, people didn't take into account where they were building and had tons of problems with the tides and being built on a sandbar.  So when a fire destroyed a lot of the town in the 1890's, they were a bit smarter and built everything up higher, but the original buildings are still underneath.  The tour took us down there, where they haven't touched anything for over a hundred years.  There were lots of interesting things to see and great stories.  If you go to Seattle, I give this tour 2 thumbs up!

Waiting for the ferry

On the ferry

We also went to the Seattle Zoo, which is one of the best zoos we've been to.  Filipe's brother Chris and his wife Mercedes, who live in Seattle, came too.  The kids all had a great time, but Sam especially got really into it!  He was so excited about every animal!  We made the mistake of going to the petting zoo section first, so after that Sam wanted to "get in" with every animal. 

Liam, Grace, and a big gorilla.  I didn't get a good picture, but we got to see one gorilla nursing a brand new baby.  It was so cute! 

Sam and his orangutan buddy

Clint Eastwood and a gorilla

Grace loved this arctic fox

The highlight of the trip was the grizzly bears, who came right up to the glass where we were standing and gave us quite a show, play fighting with each other and sticking their noses on the glass.  Sam got a little scared and took off running when they started swimming over to us.  Even when he saw that they couldn't get through the glass, he covered his eyes and clung to us tightly.  Later he kept talking about the bears and said, "Them tried to KILL me!" 

The whole gang

Things are looking good....

Well, we finally received and accepted a counter offer from the bank and it looks like this actually might happen!  We are hoping to close by the end of May!  Here are a few more pics of our new house that I pulled from the realtor's website:

And a few more of Birch Bay State Park, just minutes up the road from us:

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

We've had a great weekend so far.  Filipe, Joei, and Miranda came up last night and spent the night, then today we went down to Skagit County for another look at the tulip festival.  We always have so much fun with the Muffolettos - we're glad they live so close!  

The whole gang

Kids and daffodils

The Muffolettos

Garreth and Filipe, frolicking in the flowers.  They just love springtime so much that they can't contain themselves sometimes!!

Garreth, let me just begin by telling you how much I love you.  But it's time we had a talk about something, honey.  You're 34 now, and I think you're ready to hear it.  Here it is, are you ready?  YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING YOUR FRIENDS TELL YOU TO DO.  Yes, sometimes it's fun, like the time you jumped into an ice cold stream in your knickers while hiking with Dave (in early April).  But sometimes it's just not a good idea, especially when lots of people with cameras are around.  I'm sorry you have to learn this lesson the hard way, with public embarassment through the miracles of modern technology, but maybe this will be a turning point for you.  Remember, I love you, and yes, you definitely should be on a calendar somewhere, Mr. April!  

I'm on a roll...

I know I don't have to post every video project I do, but I'm just so darned proud of them!  (And, hey, you don't have to watch!)  Here is Sam's first year video.  Once I picked out the pictures, this one took less than an hour to make.  I really love doing these, so if anyone wants me to make you one, send me a picture CD  and I'll crank one out for you!  But do it soon, because once I go pro, you won't be able to afford me!!!

Updates

Just to let everyone know, we did make an offer on the house and we are still waiting to get an acceptance.  The house is in short sale, which means that the owners and the bank are working together to try to sell the house for less than the people owe on it, in order to avoid foreclosure.  Our offer was accepted by the owners, but now we are waiting to hear back from the bank.  It could take a while, since the banks are so backed up right now.  We are trying to be patient!  We changed lenders and financing terms and now we don't have a deadline to close by, so that makes things easier.  Hopefully it will happen soon, but we are willing to wait for our perfect house!

We also heard some news today about Declan's adoption.  The state is in the process of terminating parental rights of the father and it has taken forever.  Today they had a pre-trial where they set a trial date of June 5th.  I can't imagine any reason why they wouldn't terminate then, but with these guys you never know.  (We were also told our adoption would happen in March...) I am not worried too much, because I know there is no way they would let Mike retain parental rights, or that he would want to.  I think he is just very angry and trying to make things as difficult as possible for everyone.   With this news, we are hoping that we can have the adoption happen when we go home for rodeo, and we could just extend our trip and try to stay a while.   As frustrating as this news is, I am just so happy that Declan is with our family!  When I think of all the little miracles that led up to him joining our family, I am just amazed and so grateful.  There is no doubt in my mind that Heavenly Father wanted this child to be a part of our family.  We are so lucky!

Erin's First Movie Project

Yay! Garreth has been patiently tutoring me on the iMac and tonight I finished my first project... Declan's first year video.  This is something we did for Grace and Liam's first years (some of you may remember Grace's feature-length movie from her first birthday extravaganza). But Deco and Sam don't have one... yet!  I'm really excited that I finally know a little about making movies, and that it's fairly easy.  Pretty soon I'll be good enough to make them for our friends and family! 

Don't forget to pause our music before watching