Brother's working hard in the kitchen after Christmas Eve dinner. Thanks, guys!

We went caroling with Santa this year. Here he is with the Smith family.

We all chose a family, or 3, to carol to. We had a really neat experience at one home, the people we sang to asked if we would go across the street to a man who lost his wife 2 days prior. I could hardly sing the songs, because the man and his daughter were getting teary -eyed and just knowing of his loss was overwhelming. That was the best house we went to, I hope we were able to bring him a little Christmas cheer during his time of grief.

Scarlet and Clayton in front of...well, I don't know whose house it is. I just know that it's the house Scarlet and I look out her window at every night and sing Christmas songs. She loves seeing Santa and watching the lights before I put her down. It's going to be a sad night when they turn them off until next year.

Scarlet was a big helper with making carmel corn for the Young Women group. They all love our recipe...but they don't know that the secret ingredient is having Scarlet as a helper!

She loves "pop-pop", even the plain stuff. Yuck!

Scarlet is a chocolate milk fiend lately, which is awesome! Tons of calories, fat, and protein to help her grow a little faster. I've been too nervous to try regular milk since she seems to have a sensitivity to it. It's been about a year since I've tried and when we did...let's just say, I'm not ready to do that much cleaning again yet.

Debbie and I left Charlie with Scarlet during one of our many Seattle trips while she was getting infused. I was a little nervous because Charlie just can't get up and leave to use the bathroom or anything and leave her alone and the nurses said they wouldn't be able to come and stay with her if he needed to leave for any reason. But, it all turned out great and I got to go and get some awesome U district Thai food.

Scarlet is so used to her routine when we go for her infusions that she goes right to the scale and wall to measure her height. She knows that her feet need to be close together and her head touching the wall. She's a pro!

Scarlet and her musical talents!

Random December pics

Putting together gingerbread houses with friends.

We had a lot of fun...after they were all made. I was getting pretty frustrated with my lack of success with measurements, etc. We ended up making 7 altogether, mostly to give away.

Sometimes being laid off really isn't so bad. Lots of morning cartoons with Scarlet.

Random December pics

Not happy with me, while sitting on Santa's lap. She didn't cry or anything...but she came pretty close. It was her uncle Michael who dressed as Santa and even after telling her who it was and even after her actually seeing Michael put the suit on she was still scared.

Scarlet just looked especially cute one Sunday before church. She usually watches a movie while we get ready and was kinda zoning out a bit.

Another scared Scarlet picture. I don't know if Michael even got to ask her what she wanted for Christmas...

Beat that cousin Star! :) Sonny got the whole nativity on his face.

Watching Pa sing at the Christmas lighting in Leavenworth.

Happy Halloween!

Scarlet with her goods after trick or treating. This was actually the following day but she wanted to dress up again. She ended up being a witch again this year even though I actually bought her a lion costume. She threw the biggest fit because she didn't want to wear it. We were late meeting up with her cousins so I finally decided to put on her princess dress and make her a witch. She loved it and that's what matters, right?


Here they all are right before take-off. Scarlet was terrified of Darth Vader and wouldn't sit for a picture. Her face looks so scared. She was fine once cousin Parker put the visor up and she could see his face, but as soon as it was down she would run away. She had a great time trying to catch up with cousins and saying "Trick, Treat", she was so cute lots of people gave her extras...we even got 3 full-size candy bars from one house. I didn't like any of them, but you still feel like a winner when you get 3 big bars!

Fall Fun

This picture was taken before Charles tossed leaves at her, she ran away after that. She still likes to play in them but is a little more cautious around Charlie. She even has her very own rake to help with the leaves. This year was just training, next year she'll be raking the leaves by herself. j/k

Scarlet doesn't like getting her hands messy especially with pumpkin guts, so she watched as Charlie did the gutting. We toast the pumpkin seeds every year and every year no one ever eats them. hmmm...

Scarlet picked out her very own pumpkin at the hay maze down the street and got to use paint to decorate it. She loves the color pink!

Happy 2nd Transplant Day! Sept. 18th

It's hard to believe it's been 2 years since her transplant. I can still feel the anxiety that came along with it and waiting for the marrow to arrive. She also had her only dose of radiation that morning. I remember carrying her to the room and holding her until the sleepy medicine kicked in and then I was whisked away quickly so they could work. It was hard for me not to cry because the room looked so alien-like. There was this giant machine and gadgets everywhere and lots of workers in the room that made me feel fearful of leaving her. I was grateful that Scarlet was put to sleep so quickly and didn't have a chance to look around much. But, really, she was only 5 1/2 months old and probably wouldn't notice if machines looked scary or not. It was just me being a scared mom.

Anyway, we are so grateful for her to be here with us so we celebrate with a BBQ,Dairy Queen Ice Cream cake and lots of family and friends. We are lucky to have so many people close by to celebrate our happy day with.

I asked for red balloons, to symbolize the red marrow she was given. The kids all loved them and they all got a small gift, too. Thanks Amy and Debbie for working that all out. I'm still really bad about doing that.

Scarlet was watching Looney Tunes a bit at the time, I think Charlie has some ulterior motives about making her a cartoon/comic junkie like he was as a kid. I'm on it though, I counteract with lots of princess movies, stories, dresses, and dolls.

Thanks to everyone who came and helped us celebrate our special day with Scarlet Rose.

A giant thank you to Ralf, her donor, for providing for our family and allowing us to still have her in our lives. We are forever grateful and are excited to meet him someday.

More Sommer fun in Salmon

I should have done this update sooner. I've been trying to upload Jodi and Juleah's song, but it's been failing every time. So here is the intro to the Salmon Idol Competition and I can't remember what song they were singing in their 80's costumes. Jodi did a good job finding the costumes for most of the people performing in the intro. Way to go Jodi, it looked awesome!

I think Jodi said something about looking fat....Are you Crazy!?!??

Jodi and Juleah sang a song from "Wicked" and got 2nd place. I'm not a fan of Wicked at all, but they did a great job singing. For those of you who just love Wicked, I did try to like it, but I just don't. Sorry.

Liberty and Riley after the show, I couldn't catch Josi and McClay. I love this picture of them, they are so cute.

On stage after their performance and receiving their roses. They were asked a lot fo really weird random questions while up there. Like, "What planet would you be?" I swear the kid MC-ing was on some crazy pills. I think Josi was the only one who could answer that question.

The Vonn-Sommers family in the Salmon Idol, Jr. competition. They didn't place, but they were awfully cute! This cute little bunch belongs to my older sister, Jodi. She sewed all the kids outfits out of old curtains from their thrift store so they would look totally true to the musical. She also didn't use a pattern, when she told me that I thought for sure they would turn out awful, but to my surprise they were really nice.

Scarlet in her princess dress from Grandma Vicki. She has worn that dress everyday for 3 weeks now. It used to have lots of glitter on it and now there is practically none, all the glitter is on everything else now. But, she still loves her dress and feels like Sleeping Beauty in it. She sings, "I know you...I know you" and dances in her pretty dress. We need to start working on the rest of the words with her. I love having a little princess.

Slidewaters

A day at the waterpark in Chelan. We went with Aunt Amy and her kids, Aunt Kellie and Star, Grandma Debbie, and 2 fun babysitters for the older kids to go down the slides with.

Scarlet had so much fun in the kiddie pool, she never wanted to leave but I was getting bored after awhile and took her on the medium slides with me. She liked those too, and even went down a few times alone and of course Grandma was at the bottom to catch her.

Kellie and Amber went down the big slide...I was too scared. Besides, someone needed to video this, right?

We had an awesome day. Thanks Amy!

Scarlet inherited this slide from her cousins. There is finally something for her to do in the backyard now! She wasn't into her sandbox until this summer, so really, she does have that to play with too.

I made some jello jigglers for Scarlet to "cook" with the other week. She had a lot of fun cutting out the shapes and I think a little even made it into her mouth!

Our 6th wedding anniversary. Wow! It's gone by fast! We are so blessed to have one another.

Scarlet wanted to get "beautiful" too.

Family, Smallwood's, & Leavenworth

We had so much fun at Smallwood farms. I'm so glad there is something around here with animals for kids to see. They gave us a bag of feed since it was the end of the day and I didn't bring enough cash inside for any extras. I'm terrified of feeding animals, don't like the thought of my fingers being tasted. I warmed up after a little while and only fed the ones with small mouths. Scarlet wasn't as interested in the animals as I thought she would be, they have kid bikes around and swings that caught her eye more.

Scarlet really liked the rooster and needed to take a ride on him. After Smallwood's we were off to Leavenworth for Cold Stone ice cream and music in the park. Scarlet was really diggin' the german music and danced a little with me in the circle. It was so much fun being together as a family and doing "normal" family things. I don't think I'll ever take that for granted.

Down at Grandpa Larry's and Grandma Shirley's for a quick visit before Smallwood farms and Leavenworth.

Scarlet got to meet Shamra, Grandma Shirley's horse.

Teach them while they're young, right? I thought this was a pretty classic shot; Saturday morning playing video games with dad in her spider-man jammies.

Gotta love Summer

3rd annual Father's Day Mariners game. Mariners took on the Orioles and lost. Lots of people left in the bottom of the 8th, probably thinking the Mariners had it in the bag. The Orioles may not have won if the Mariners didn't make so many mistakes in those last 2 innings, but it made for an exciting game. Happy Father's Day, Dad! (He's the one in the Orange)

Nanny Anni stayed awhile with us for awhile in June and most of July. One of those days we went out to Lincoln Rock Park while Charlie helped bring in canoes for the scouts. We had a lot of fun and Scarlet loved playing in the water and seeing all the dogs. Her and Anni are resting in the shade here.

Cheetos and Rootbeer...Does it get any better?

July 4th

My parent's, Micah and Anni along with the Anderson family were over for the 4th. This is actually the 5th, but we still had lots of food to cook up so the party continued.

One of the perks to living across the street from the church is that there is a giant parking lot perfect for lighting off "legal" fireworks. Not sure if that's really allowed or not, but it felt safer than the street or out tiny driveway. I had to put quotations around "legal" because there was a fire at the church this year from "illegal" fireworks. It was a group in the back of the church who were setting off some kind of mortars and it knocked over and set the bushes on fire which consequently set the people behind the churchs' tree on fire, getting all too close to their home. It was crazy how many people saw the thick smoke and drove from the street into the lot to watch the firefighters doing their job. It was the happenin' thing that night. Of course, we were already there, but I'm sure if I wasn't there then I would have at least gotten close enough to see what was happening. Anyway, fire was put out, girl and friends were caught, and the home was not affected by the fire...except for the tree and the churchs' bushes. Lesson learned: Don't kick over your mortars near bushes...or don't light illegal fireworks in the church parking lot.

Cousin Star and Scarlet have so much fun together. I thought this picture was really cute, the two of them trying to put on sunglasses at the same time.

Those kids had so much fun getting dirty together. When I gave Scarlet her bath that night chunks of sand were just coming out of her diaper area...kind of reminds me of Hawaii.

They are just too sweet. I really hope they get to stay close together growing up. I haven't even seen some of my cousins since I was 10 and I want my kids to know theirs. It's fun seeing those 2 play together. Star has such a spunky, fun personality; they play really well together.