We're having a boy!

And other stuff...

Little Rebecca is just too cute.


Building a giant airplane out of leftover boxes. (Maybe we like Amazon a little too much...)

Breakfast in a row: 5, 3, and 1!

She's walking!

Rebecca started walking last week! Yay!

Right after our kids finally got over the nastiest 2 week long (!) stomach flu ever.

And then time stopped because we've had snow and ice for almost a week. We're going a little cabin crazy.... it wasn't so bad the first few days because it was fluffy snow we could play in. Now it's tiny little ice pellets that don't make snowballs but do soak you in a matter of minutes. Here's hoping the rain they're predicting for the weekend clears the roads soon!

home again

Unpacking.

Sick day-- Adam passed around a virus.

Rebecca didn't catch it, though. Yay.

Forest Park in Everett-- awesome park!!! Besides a wonderful playground, it also has a petting zoo.

Rebecca liked watching the other kids play.

She got her exersaucer! It's always a great day in babyland when they're old enough for one of these!

easter, birthdays, and a little down time

Soo... we're having a rather busy few weeks.

First, Steve had a birthday. It wasn't a big deal, really, just involving turning 30!!!

Oh yes, I made him have all the candles. :D

But I digress. He got a Kinect for his birthday and it's fabulous! Adam will demonstrate a driving game:

See how there's no controller? This thing is amazing.

Then, it was Easter. The Bunny did his usual thing of bringing small outdoor toys and new books, plus hiding candy-filled eggs in obvious places so a 2- and 4-year-old could find them. The Bunny courteously comes to our house on Saturday so Sunday is not wrecked with sugar-filled insanity. :)

Here they are, both playing with the baby's new blocks. Baby toys, apparently, are always more fun.

Next, we have some guests coming this weekend as we are blessing Rebecca, and then next week is our 7th wedding anniversary.
And after all that, you may not hear from us for a while.
:) kidding.

In other, less-important news, we got a second bouncy chair so we could have one on each floor. It's rather cushy and Rebecca likes it. It also plays harp music, which I really appreciate.


I also enjoy having a baby with enough hair to put a barrette in.


We also took a little trip to the Mukilteo Lighthouse beach so the kids could throw rocks in the ocean. It amuses them to no end, and resulted in Steve's brilliant new house rule of "We only throw rocks at the beach."


(Our house has these decorative rocks they liked to throw... anyway.) That's what we've been up to.

before the baby

Just a few pics that were taken before our latest Grand Adventure:

playtime at home and in the park

tent-building is always good fun

pics from lately

It's been a few weeks, so here's the update.
We'll start with our greatest achievement from January: giving up pacifiers (Nicole) and potty training (Adam)! Here they are with their Big Prizes from the goals:

There was a lot of excavator-drawing, of course.

And here is Nicole, practicing the law of Where There is One Picture Taken, There Shall Two Be Taken Also

Here's Adam climbing on large fake rocks at a park nearby that they've just started to develop. I don't have pictures of Nicole at the park because her favorite thing to do was say, "Oh no.... I running away!" and take off.

So here is a cute picture from bedtime instead.

There was also building of things, like excavators, and garbage trucks, and what Adam called a "flying excavator, which is so cool."

And yes yes yes I am still working on taking pictures of our house... the problem is I want daytime pics, and we're usually really busy during the day, or really crabby. :) But we did get Adam's new dresser put together and all the dressers rearranged, so progress is being made! Pictures soon to follow. Really.

this week

This week we had lots of good fun. Going to the mall play area, working on learning the new primary song for this year, fixing dinner together (yeah right to all those magazines that say kids will eat foods they help prepare... our kids are pretty good eaters but they draw the line at asparagus, despite helping steam it), and of course, these moments that were actually documented:

Nicole likes to have her hair done-- frequently. She still only leaves it in for a few minutes, usually long enough to go "pretty, pretty" and show the other parent.

And I just realized how big she looks... I was used to Adam getting bigger, but now my baby's growing up, too.... guess it really is time for the next one! :D

Nicole graduated to the toddler bed.
We bought Adam a twin bed; we'll have pictures of that next week.
(and hopefully some of our house)

Lately they like to give each other "BIG hugs!"

This excavator, in Adam's words, is "really busy because it has THREE scoops!"
He even drew M birds in the sky. :)

Cookie break! They love to help with the mixer. Even though I still (sigh) can't get my chocolate chip cookies to turn out right.

And that's our week in review. Cute babies, fun at home, and working on organizing/decorating our house (can you say nesting?) :)

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!

so sad

Today I had big plans for a zoo trip. I had sandwiches ready, I had naps and everything planned out so we could spend maximum time there without whiny kids, I had our route mapped so we could hit the carousel and the indoor play area... and Steve gets home last night and his voice is about an octave lower. Totally sick. I was sad...

...until this morning when we got up and it was the most perfect fall day. Ever. Partial sunshine, cool breeze, no rain. Then I was depressed. Siiiggghhhh...

So we cleaned our house instead. And took lots of naps. And went to the park. So it wasn't a total loss, and we had a lot of fun moments singing silly songs and snuggling as a family. But why oh why are we always sick when we have a perfect day for my perfect plans?

I think it's our nasty carpet. Can't wait until our renting days are over.

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!

this is what we do

Playtime. So important for little kids, thus so important for moms. This is what we do. :)

Adam using the mixer. I like how he draws hair now, and all the cookies he's making in the mixer.

This table is great for setting up the whole zoo!

And here's Nicole, playing with the two toys she was designated. We're still working on the whole "sharing" concept.

In addition to mixers, Adam now builds airplanes. This one actually looks like a helicopter, with propellers on top and on the tail, but if you ask him, it's an "aaiiirrrpyane."