The Farm

Last Saturday we spent the afternoon at The Farm, a place out in Snohomish that does a corn maze in the shape of the state of Washington! While our kids were too little to enjoy the maze, we did do some other fun things. They had all kinds of animals to pet (our kids loved the little white bunnies), they had a huge, long trough of water that they raced live ducks in, they had old farm equipment to climb on, hayrides around the corn maze border, a mini hay maze in the barn for kids, and a little "cow train" that was pulled behind a tractor. Adam has been obsessed with machinery and tractors lately, so he especially loved it.
It was muddy and rainy, and we really didn't have the boots and stuff one should have for the mud, so we were pretty dirty by the time we got back to the car! It was fun, though-- next year, we're going to pick our pumpkins there!

Adam wasn't a fan of the bracelet he had to wear.

This is what she does when you ask her to "say cheese!"

She has the best daddy ever-- not just anyone would squish into a tiny car just so his daughter can go on the ride, too. (He actually said this was pretty fun.)

Adam was big enough to ride alone. I think this ride was their favorite.

Halloween Costumes

This year I decided to take a break from costume-making, and though part of me regrets it, most of me is SO DARN RELIEVED that costumes are already finished and ready for Halloween.

To celebrate, I decided to do some photo ops in a nearby park. Nicole is very hard to wrangle; she would run waaaay off and Steve would have to chase her (example: in the second picture, you can see a teeny Nicole followed by her Daddy). Adam, on the other hand, loves having his picture taken and was more than willing to pose for me. Here they are, our little Pumpkin and Butterfly:




Happy Haunting!

more from my camera...

This time, I found some good stuff! So, without further ado, here are our children and the sundry mischiefs they've been up to.

Burying one's sister in coverings of any kind is a favorite game.

I know what she's thinking: please let me survive the snuggles...

Oh, come on. Boys like their share of fluffy skirts, too!

And if it makes you feel any better, he's been watching Garfield's Thanksgiving Special where the grandma cuts up a frozen turkey with a chainsaw. So now, instead of mixers, he builds chainsaws, makes the sound effects, and chases Nicole around screaming, "THIS... is WAR!!!"

Yeah, she's cute.

And I don't think this needs an explanation, but I do think we should submit it to Quilted Northern for some kind of ad campaign.

Messy house, messy hair, happy child. That's life around here in a nutshell.
(And oh how sweet it is)

Surprise-- I never post pictures of me. But, well, it was my birthday.

I'm getting so old.

And those of you who know me are probably laughing sarcastically now, but seriously.
I'm feelin' the age.

Last but not least my birthday present-- a new stroller!
4 inflated tires, amazing comfort for them and ease in pushing for me, and..... it fits through doorways! Hallelujah!

at least he's polite...

I asked Adam if I could hold the phone (he was talking to my mom). He politely said, "No, you may not have the phone." It catches me off guard when he's so civil, because the next minute he'll be screaming because I gave him a time out for something... ah, life with a 3 year old! :D

He also keeps me in line. The other day I was frustrated about something and I mentioned how I thought the situation was stupid. I hear this little voice from the back seat saying, "We don't use that word stupid." He was right. It's good to have a reminder that the rules are for everyone. :)

Meanwhile, Nicole has developed a love of wipes. If she is crying or throwing a fit, all you have to do is offer her a wipe and the world is right again. She'll usually wad it up and wipe her mouth, then spread it out and play with it. She'll clean with it, wrap her toys in it, and use it as a mini blanket for her dolls. I think it's hilarious, and hey, it keeps her pretty clean in the process.

And I don't have any pictures, but maybe I'll take some this afternoon at the mall playground. This weekend is our big Fall Cleaning, so wish me luck! And then all the fall holiday fun can start!

Bath time always presents a chance for arguments over who must be washed first.
Steve asked,
"Who should I wash first?"
Adam, who hates being washed, said, "Wash Nicole, she's reaaally dirty."
Steve then said, "I think I should wash both of you."
Adam replied, "Wash both of... Nicole."

our latest doings

Sooo.....
It's been a while, yes I know, and while I did miss blogging about some things this summer, for the most part it was pretty boring, with nap schedules ruining any chance to go to library story times or playgroup. However, now that it's fall (my absolute favorite season), I have activities scheduled for every weekend.
Last weekend, we decided to zip off on a trip for Labor Day. I have always wanted to be the kind of person who could just take off on a trip and love it. Unfortunately, when I do that, I forget things. Important things. Like a crib for my daughter to sleep in. Or my husband's CPAP machine. So I guess I need to be a plan-ahead type of person when it comes to trips.
We went to the Olympic Peninsula, just a couple of hours away. We got to take the ferry (the kids' and my first trip) and we went down and walked the trail to Dungeness Bay beach. We were planning on seeing the Olympic Game Farm, but we didn't have time, and everyone was exhausted by Monday because a) Steve got no sleep without his machine-- how on earth did he ever survive college we look back and wonder-- and b) both kids wound up in our bed both nights.
We did get to go to a neighborhood park by our hotel, and the trip was just refreshing because we stayed in this little town where it's just trees and farms and little tiny communities every so often. Everyone was friendly and kind, and we decided that it would be a fabulous place to retire.

In other news, Nicole is talking quite a bit now, and she and Adam have a great time playing together. Adam is really good at playing pretend, though if you try to join in, he feels the need to remind you that's it is "just pretend." Nicole loves dolls and wearing dress-up frilly skirts, and both of them can "sing" a song or two by themselves.

So here are some visuals for what we've been up to:

Tired and hot at Snowbird:



Adam and Nicole on a family picnic at a favorite park here:


Adam at that same park, doing the zipline by himself:






Wading in the freezing waves at Dungeness Bay:




So there you have it! More posting next week if we get to do our weekend plans!

what was supposed to be on my camera

I had the brilliant idea to blog all the random photos on my camera. I was expecting some cute shots and stories to go with them. Instead, it was a slideshow of Kids In Motion. For example:

This was supposed to show off her adorable new pajamas.

And this was supposed to show off their loving sibling relationship.
(I promise he was hugging her, not putting her in a headlock. And she's smiling. Anyway.)


As it turned out, I had about 35 pictures and came out with only 3 that were not fuzzy around the edges:

A still shot of my 19-month-old--- that's rare!

Adam put shorts over his pants and looked like some kind of tiny hockey player.

And this is one of the cutest fluffy skirts I've ever seen-- and Costco had 2 more colors! Hardest thing I ever did, just buying one.

I have discovered, after weeks of blurry photos, that our new camera does its best flash work when the battery is freshly charged-- so the longer you wait to charge up, the slooooowwer the flash is, and the more you end picture sessions with, "Erg! I wish we'd never bought this thing!"


I usually remember that right after I finish my "Erg!" exclamations.

pigtails and swings

I put Nicole's hair in pigtails... she was so cute! By naptime, she'd ripped them out, but at least she's good about letting me do her hair. :)



And Adam has finally branched out from mixers and humongous smiley faces with itty-bitty-smiles: he proudly showed me yesterday that he had drawn swings.


Oh, and Nicole got to go to nursery for the first time (officially) on Sunday. We'd taken her a couple of times, but this time, I left her after the first half. She did great!

Snoqualmie Falls and Preston Park

Saturday, 3 of us were feeling pretty crummy (I forgot to mention that for Mother's Day, my kids gave me their cold. How very thoughtful...)

And my brother called and told us about how much fun they were having on the beach.

So we decided to go swimming.

We got all ready, packed the car with towels, inflatables, and changes of clothes, and drove down to our apartment's pool.

Which was closed for repairs.

We stood there for a minute, cold congestion and resentment building inside us. We thought about the beach. And about all the cloudy days we've been having. And we wanted a vacation.

So, we went home, put normal diapers on the kids (because you do not want to leave them in swim diapers outside the water...), and started researching hotels and getaways nearby.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of fun things to do around here.

We couldn't decide. Then we wanted to plan in advance so we could do more than one activity. Our enthusiasm for getting away was being replaced with indecision.

Finally, we decided that we really would have more fun if we planned a trip and were actually packed before 3pm.

How anticlimactic.

Sighh.

We've never done a trip on the fly before, and I was really thinking we'd do it this time...

Oh, well. So what to do with our day? We could not take staying home with that beautiful sunshine smiling outside!

Why, Snoqualmie Falls. (whose main lookout point was closed for construction... what was up with our luck on Saturday?!)

oooh. aaaah.

odd baby pose 3
(if you ask them, the rocks to climb were the best part)

aw, he's so cute, that one in the middle

more gorgeous green to play in...
i love washington

odd baby pose 4

As beautiful as cascading water is, I get miiighty nervous around precipices... especially when two small people dear to me are doing their best to wriggle through any protective fences to get a better look. I was glad when we'd "been there, done that" and could move on to safer areas. And no, I don't EVER plan on taking small children to the Grand Canyon. (If I made it back with my sanity, which is doubtful, the nervous twitches would render me useless.)

So, having made it safely back to the car, we stuffed our kids with a picnic lunch and headed home.

But it was kind of a long drive-- about two hours-- and the kids did not like staring into the sun.

Park needed.

We pulled off the freeway to follow directions to one park and ended up finding another, much better park. It has to be the coolest playground I have seen. Ever. I would love to meet the engineers who came up with some of the playsets. It had a 2 story and a 3 story slide, it had an outdoor metal piano, it had all kinds of twisty twirly things on which to run and spin-- it was amazing.
And, it was right next to a brand-new, fake-turf-and-dirt soccer field. (Imagine the BYU indoor practice field, only outside on a breezy, sunny afternoon. Aw, yeah.)
Adam and Nicole ran from one end to the other and played in the goals. It was the perfect end to a beautiful day. And you know what? It made us forget all about being sick. For then.

Heron Park

Heron Park is in Mill Creek, by one of the most gorgeous golf courses we've ever seen, and is tucked away in one of those subdivisions full of ridiculously huge and beautiful homes that make us wonder what on earth these people do for a living, since most people who make their money in Seattle or Redmond with the big names live in Bellevue...

...hmmm...


...but I digress.

Friday was a beautiful day, Steve had taken a half day off of work in honor of our anniversary on Thursday (6 years, yay!), and we needed to get out of doors. This park had a small but lush lawn where we tossed around the airplane, and two small playsets. They did have baby swings, which is always a plus, but we couldn't take our eyes off our kids for a minute because there is a steep hill on the playground path that leads directly into a little duck pond! Overall, the park was less fun for toddlers and we probably won't be going back.

throwing the airplane

I asked him to smile...sigh

fun with her daddy

love it when we capture shots like this!

dancing in that fabulous vitamin D

odd baby pose, take 1 (you'll see more of these later)

odd baby pose, take 2

one of the last surviving metal slides

all great parks have at least one installment of bizarre modern art

it's been a while...

...so let me fill you in on what's been going on.
My mom came to visit, and that was a ton of fun and our kids had a blast playing with her!
Steve's birthday was last Wednesday, and he is in his final twentieth year.... hehehehe. :D All joking aside, I love Steve and I'm so happy I get to share his birthday with him. The kids and I made him posters and a yummy cake, we took him out for a day of fun in the city, and his early present was his phone. I hope you had a good birthday, Steve! We love you!!!
And here are some pictures from the various sundries we've been up to:

This is what happens when your shutter speed is SO SLOW... really bizarre faces!

Adam and Nicole got new bikes! We got his from TRU and hers from craigslist, brand new.

Adam set up the chairs and told me he was riding the bus, so I gave him a paper plate to use as a steering wheel.

This is one of those moments where all I can think is, "Why???"
And then I take a picture.

The Aquarium was part of our fun day in the city-- it's cute, but small, and if we didn't have a two-for-one coupon, probably not worth their outrageous admissions charge. :)

Then we went to West Seattle for some italian food and cupcakes... we tried Cupcake Royale, and, ok, they do have pretty darn good cupcakes. On the way, we saw a little lookout point where you can get gorgeous shots of the city.

This was so crazy the first time we came to Seattle-- there is one particular cliff where you can take pictures of the Space Needle and it looks huge and like it's in the middle of downtown, and that's the picture you always see on postcards and stuff. However, ACTUALLY, the Space Needle is kind of small (comparatively) and waaay off from the big part of downtown.
Still love this city, though. Even with the several things that drive me nuts about it, I have completely fallen in love with Washington state.

Happy Easter!

Easter was a lot of fun at our house-- it was General Conference weekend, so we got to stay home and watch, and our kids got to play with their Easter stuff.

The Easter Bunny had a great time hiding baskets...

and eggs....

and pictures of the Savior for the kids' rooms.

Nicole didn't hunt any eggs past the first one-- once she discovered they held candy, she grabbed on tight until we pried the melted chocolate out of her hand.

Adam, on the other hand, LOVED finding "Eeeeaaas-ter eggs" and had a blast, especially when he, too, discovered that they held candy and not "medicine," as he originally thought (like we've ever had medicine the size of Reese's mini eggs... that would be one hard pill to swallow!)

Both of them enjoyed their toys, chocolate bunnies, and especially the bubbles that the Bunny brought.

And those of you who know my nickname for Steve probably get why this is one of my favorite mornings... "Happy Easter, Bunny!" :D