We had a couple Easter celebrations, one with family and one with friends. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but the top ones are us at the farm for an Easter egg hunt. I must say, Ada loves cousin Madeline!
And we had a family from Lucy and Will's school over to our house, along with some other friends- both great celebrations!
( I'm trying to keep with the blog- might be late, might be short, and there might be few, but I'm trying not to give up on it!)
Look at all the children! Lots of cousin love goin' on!
My mom, sister and niece practiced Silent Night together and let's just say, it was a job well done!
Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus
Lucy
Will
Ada- no thank you!
Henry
We finally got our tree! I felt like we needed to get it because I wasn't quite convinced it was Christmas yet, it just came so darn fast this year for some reason. So, it was especially important to have the decorations up so I could start feeling the Christmas vibe.
Ada wanted to wear the Easter bunny hat, sure, why not?
The "after", I love it! The first night we had it all up Nate and I slept on the couch. Now on to the Christmas shopping. I'm doing ok on that. Can't figure out what to get the twins, so if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear it. We don't need any toys and the older kids will be very upset if for some reason M & H were forgotten. What to do? What to do?
Sitting here at 10:20 wondering if I should go to sleep because it just seems inevitable that I will be woken again. It has been quite the series of events here everyone! To start, Nate's folks house was the top story of the news. If you haven't heard yet why, the video is below.
Everyone was ok, but it was quite scary. Edie and Tony had to rush Granny (94 years old) out of the house down a steep bank, while the fireman couldn't get up the hill to get to their house because of the snow, so they had to run up this huge hill with hoses in hand to put out the fire. Both their cars are goners and the "lounge", which was under the garage and was my first room makeover project is in need of another huge makeover. Gladly, I can report that our wedding china survived the flames, but Nate's 5,000 dollars or so worth of books that he was given didn't.... But really, that stuff seems so small. There house was ok (Praise Jesus!) and everyone involved was ok (Praise Jesus). Anyways, while we were still processing this news, I go to pick up poor little Henry and he threw up. All over. It's so sad to see a little guy get sick like that. We thought we were in the clear and then miss Ada chimed in tonight and now has had 3 baths, 3 sets of sheets and 3 jammies. I might also add that I have thrush, yay, I know, weird. Sooo, I think we're going to be alone on Thanksgiving. Initially I was pretty bummed. We were going to some of our good friends house, with Nate's family coming up, and other good friends, and scrumptious food from talented chefs. A big party. Lucy and Will, well, they've been talking about our Thanksgiving party for a while now. However, I think Lucy started to sense that it might not happen. We were talking in the car and she said, "I'm trying not to get too excited about Thanksgiving, because I'll probably get sick or something". For some reason the stomach bug seems to come on important days for her. Like, a couple years ago she woke up as sick as a dog on Christmas. And she missed an assembly she was supposed to be in when she was sick last week. And I'm just remembering now that on her first Thanksgiving our house was in the middle of a major flood. Our house was literally surrounded by a lake for hundreds of acres (up to Nate's knees) and we had to evacuate and get rescued by our landlords with waders on and turkey in hand (we made it on the news that Thanksgiving too). Cynicism growing about special days. Sooo, I was driving to Fred Meyer to get a few items this evening and decided that, gosh darnit, Thanksgiving will be fun! We really do have so much to be thankful for and this is a good lesson to focus on ALL the things we have, rather than the things we don't have this Thanksgiving. I ended up buying some fun little toys for the kids and am going to do a scavenger hunt for them throughout the house over the course of the day. I think I'm also going to put a big ol' piece of butcher paper on the dining room table and we can all draw pictures of things we're thankful for throughout the day and look at/ talk about the pictures while we eat the Thanksgiving dinner that our friends will still be bringing to us. And then, I know I will totally win Will's heart by watching Star Wars which we just got in the mail and letting them sip on some hot cocoa on the couch, usually a no-no. And all those games we always love playing, but rarely do (hide-n-go seek, uno, charades, talent show), I think those will make an appearance. Anyway, I'm discovering more and more that it's all about perspective, it really is. From the fire, to sickness, to Thanksgiving, we can look at the many things we have, how blessed we are. It's utterly ridiculous. One last major thing we have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving is the last two years we've have with Ada. Tomorrow is her 2nd birthday and we have absolutely cherished every single day we've had with her. We love you so much! Happy Birthday!
My sisters and I threw my parents a much deserved retirement party. It was an attempted surprise and we pretty much pulled it off. We surprised them on my aunt and uncle's boat, however, Nate and I missed it by about 20 seconds- so close. It was a good time to celebrate the years and years of hard work my parents have committed themselves to in order to provide for our family- no small thing.
Here we are in an intense game of bingo- I mean, what else do you do when you're retired?
The five of us.
My sisters (doesn't Jodi look adorable with her pregnant belly? another cousin real soon- and it's a boy!) and the hubbys.
And my mom and dad with crazy Uncle Ron and Aunt Jeannette.
For Nate's vacation we went down to stay at our generous friend's house. They were gone for a week or two and offered their house in West Seattle to us. We had a wonderful time. Alki is so fun to explore with the kids and we had some reunions here and there as well. Mostly is was just good to be in a new environment.
This was the view from Alki
Here we are meandering through the little ponds when the tide was out
The globe lights in the backyard that essentially represent summer.
It was year two of Family Reunion at the farm. It started by meeting up with Nate's brother and his family at Nate's folks house. It was so great to have boy cousins for Will to play with. Will and Luke are best buds and just followed each other around everywhere.
GG and Ada reading after a bath. Yes, my children do bathe... occasionally.
Emma and Lucy at the farm. Speaking of following each other around, these two are inseparable.
Goin' on a tractor ride, or 2, or 3.
Brandon pulling the kids (and Scott)
And the annual spray down at the folks house. And Ada, she was more in observing mode, not at all interested in getting squirted.
Ada is turning into Miss mom. She plops herself between the babies and starts to read. She takes her baby (or bunny) and feeds it, puts it to bed, rocks it. She'll be able to babysit the twins in a couple years I'm pretty sure.
Family movie night with popcorn, hot chocolate in sippy cups and every blanket and pillow from the house.
The twinsies are starting to sit up. Kind of.
One of Henry's favorite activities is being spit at. Gets a laugh everytime.
Reading Narnia with the kids. I decided to put Will and Lucy to work. They did it gladly.
So, as of late we have been a wee bit crazy. We had croup go through 3 kids, a staph infection with 1 and colds have hit us all. We are actually finally on the mend, but it's been a ride for sure. I guess the good news through it all is that I'm getting kind of used to waking up in the middle of the night (: Actually the last several nights have hopefully started a new strand of not waking up in the middle of the night. Since the sickness has left I've been enjoying longer nights of uninterrupted sleep. Wahoo!
Summer has officially started which I have to say I have been a little hesitant about. All 5, all the time! So far it's been good actually. I've really enjoyed the extra time I've had with Lucy to read and hang out. She's really a light in this house. I'm sorting through what July is going to look like and then Nate gets August off which will be wonderful. Looking forward to many family reads, movie nights and outdoor adventures. For the last couple weeks I've been pretty overwhelmed, but I've been handling life better now that I have some energy back and am really enjoying my children and our life. This is a roller coaster ride. It really is.
Right when we got there the train rounded around the corner- lucky us.
Growing up It wasn't abnormal to be at our neighborhood beach in Bellevue 3 nights a week in the summer for picnics- oh I love that beach, so many memories. It's crazy to think about our kids creating those memories now. We went on a picnic last night and had such a relaxing time. The kids threw rocks into the ocean, hunted for decapitated crabs and climbed in the tree with dad. I decided I want to have picnics there in the summers. A lot of them.
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