Blog picture

Above is our new blog picture ~ we took it while hiking up "Little Mountain", which is about 3 miles from our home. If you look between Jeff and I, you can see the snowcapped peak of Mt. Baker. We hope to hike up this little mountain often, which also overlooks the puget sound. The sights are breath taking!

Where's the potty?

Potty training is such an exhausting process. Our method requires no pants and the potty going everywhere with the kid. Unfortunately, it also requires a person to constantly be with the kid! There are times where we are either asking (after the kid has been doing the potty dance for a while and is no longer) "where is the potty?" or "where is the potty?" (as in, get the kid there quickly). We are happy to report that our kid (Charlie) is doing pretty well, but he is still not too certain. Right now our family room is covered with a little people land and the potty is centrally located so he can dance his way right over and do his job.

Oh, Happy Day

Josie turned 9 years old on Friday! Her dessert choice was a chocolate shake, so we had to be creative with blowing out the birthday candle.

All the kids enjoying their shakes.

Josie was surprised with some fun packages in the mail that day. Thanks for the presents!!

It was a happy birthday for Josie ~ beginning with cinnamon rolls and ending with chocolate shakes. Oh yeah, and some fun gifts to open too!

"Eye of the Tiger"

I am not sure what to feel about the fact that my 2 year old baby, dressed in red puppy pajamas, is running around the house belting out "Eye of the Tiger. Bum.....Bum, Bum, Bum......Bum, Bum, Bum.........Bum, Bum, Buuuuuuuuum." The hard rock edge is not up to par, and the clarity is iffy, but if you listen closely it is there.

emotions

We had to say good-bye to G'pa and G'ma Crull earlier than what was planned ~ Great G'pa Kelley was not doing well and Great G'ma needed G'pa and G'ma Crull to come home.

I do not think I realized the distance of our move until that moment. When my parents decided to take off after the phone call with my G'ma Kelley, it was discussed whether it would take 2 or 3 days to get back to Iowa. They had taken their time coming to WA, which was a 3 day journey. I felt horrible, as if I was taking time away from my mom and her dad.

The emotions started as they left. The kids were so sad that they had to say good-bye to my parents, which in turn tore my heart to see. I was sad the rest of the day ~ that we had made the decision to take our kids away from both of their G'parents and the relationships that had been beautifully developing for the past 5 years.

I am still sad.