New Vacuum... Again

In the course of the last 2 years we have gone through 2 Halo's. The first one we had for about a year and then the motor burnt out so Halo sent us a refurbished replacement for it. The *new* one arrived right after we got back up here last year. Worked great and life was good. Last week the *new* one's motor burnt out. Since the *new* one didn't come with a new warranty we had the option of taking it in to see if it could be fixed or just buying a new vacuum. We went with the latter of the two options and last Thursday night we ordered a Dyson DC25 Animal. Well this beautiful purple vacuum arrived on our door step this afternoon. I am completely in love with this vacuum. It is so easy to use and switches from upright vacuum to hand held tools in a matter of seconds. The ball technology makes it virtually effortless to vacuum and the best part is it goes from carpets to hardwoods like there is no difference between the two. 40 minutes after starting it up the whole house less the bedrooms and kitchen are clean, including all the cobwebs upstairs. Now to get the bedrooms cleaned up so we vacuum them next!

All clean and pretty, ready to get busy picking up dirt and dog hair!

Normally I wouldn't show the after picture...

But seriously! This is amazing. I just vacuumed on Sunday night with our really old little red vacuum that we now use for the car. I am shocked by how much was sucked up and so happy that that layer of dog hair is now in there and off of the floor :)

Fun in the Sun!

Last weekend was another beautiful one here in the Pacific Northwest. Phedora and our neighbor Niko spent the afternoon playing in the pool. Poor Hayden was stuck inside all weekend with a fever. Hopefully this coming weekend will be just as nice or nicer than last. Though the forecast is calling for rain.

Fun with the hose in the pool.

Phedora and Niko playing in the pool.

First Blooms of Spring

Flower World

The day before Mother's Day the kids and I went to Flower World in Snohomish. I am so happy that we found out about this fabulous nursery. It is 15 acres of nursery and walking trails. We only hit the nursery on this trip, but we plan to go back this summer and explore the rest of what is available. We got a few vegetable starts and some new flowers for our yard.

In front of one of the ponds.

Another little pond, this one had fish and turtles.
The fish and if you look closely, you can see one of the turtles.

Turtle, Turtle

My baby Boy!

This morning Hayden made this for me. I came out of the bathroom and walked toward the kitchen when Hayden said..."aww you were supposed to look down, go back to the bathroom and look towards the garage and look down" So I did and this is what I found. He is such a sweatheart!

The Farm

Today we went on a field trip with Phedora's preschool to The Farm in Snohomish. We thought the weather was going to hold out for us but about a third of the way through the tour it started pouring. On the way home we stopped and bought a couple of tomato starts, corn starts and an orange flower called a tequilla sunrise. By the time we got home the sun was shining again and we were able to go work in our garden. We planted the tomatoes and transplanted our lettuce and spinach starts that we have been growing.

Ready for a wagon ride out to plant pumpkin seeds.
Taking a wagon ride.

Showing off her pumpkin seed.

Ready to cover it with dirt.

Standing in front of her seed.

Heading back to plant marigolds.

Marigolds (which will live in its little planter on the

deck for the time being, it looks like a weed).

Racing to get out of the rain into the barn.

Phedora sliding.

Looking at the baby chicks.

Awww I want one.

Petting the lambs.

They had baby rabbits too and sheep and goats as well. Of course the battery in the camera died though so no pics of those. After all the excitement the kids enjoyed a ice cream on this cold spring day in Wa. We had a great time though despite the rain.

Swimming Swimming....

For the past month and a half or so the kids have been taking swimming lessons. They are both becoming more and more comfortable in the water, which is a good thing :)

Hayden swimming on his own.

Phedora swimming on her own.