Sneak Peak

Some of you know that we finally bought a house here in Spokane in May after a year and a half of looking. Most of you that know this also know that the house was completely stripped down by the former owners. Everything from the water heater to the kitchen to even the door stoppers were gone. It pretty much left us with a blank slate...and a massive headache that we are still enduring. We finally moved in this past weekend and now have the hub of the house unpacked. I still have two roll out shelves and a ton of space that I am not even using. I love the kitchen. It's hard to tell, but the cabinets are a cream color with a dark glaze. I love the look. Here are some pics....it's not completely done (hence the hanging lights over the bar) but about 95% completed.

Before: I was waffling on the mint green...keep, go, keep, go...eventually, it had to go...

After

We designed a built-in bookcase for cookbooks.

We will post some more pics soon.

Half Moon Bay

Since it is fall i should probably update my blog with all things summer. Um, okay Daniel and I did our annual HMB trip. Stayed in the same place, ate the same food (Happy Taco, no lobster this time) and loved it. We rented bikes and brought cheese and bread and had a picnic. As usual, it was a fantastic time.

If you ever go to HMB and like Mexican food then you need to eat here. I would have totally passed it up, but we dug around last year and asked all the local latinos where the go to place was and this was it. It is SO GOOD.

I can't even express how much I hate this picture of me. No photo editing program in the world could fix me looking like a lamo. But I love holly much more (she is single, so tell your friends). On our way home we thought we would surprise Holls in Palo Alto and take her out to dinner. Fortunately, our GPS got us there a few minutes before she was leaving. We went out to this yum noodle place and got tart yogurt. Then we cruised around Stanford. Way too much construction going on, but good times seeing Ms. Holly. Seriously, if you know any cool, single guys then let's make a love connection (Holly is going to kill me twice if she ever reads this). Hi Holly. Love you!

Ella is ONE!

Ella is one year old, i cannot even tell you how fast the year went. I don't remember Abby or Jarom's first year blowing by so quickly. She did just start sleeping through the night in July, so it has been a long year as far as sleep goes. I have never been so thrilled to ditch the formula or the cumbersome infant car seat. Hooray.

Here is Ella's encounter with her birthday bundt cake. She, as usual, got sick of her chair after about 10 minutes. Even sugar can't make this girl sit for very long.

Happy Birthday Little E!

Summer....summerized.

Summer flew by and I am heading back to Spokompton on the first. People keep asking me what happened to my blog (as in, where have I been and why). I guess I have no desire to blog and have been busy taking care of three kids sans Daniel for most of the summer. I haven't seen our house since I painted the kids rooms in July but Daniel has done a ton of work and the kitchen is almost completed with the exception of the granite counter tops and the back splash (this is out of the mouth of Daniel, remember i haven't seen it). He won't even send me pictures. I guess I will see it in person in a week. Here is a little of what we have been up to. First off: Santa Cruz.

i tried telling my brother in law if he lost daniel's glasses while jet skiing i would pay him $5. I guess i should have offered $10.

Love the tide pools.


It looks like she is texting or something, but it's a shell. Not a cell. Ok.

These photos took forever to upload. Guess I better work in installments. Next up: the city. Stay tuned.

Guess who's walking...

yeah, her.

and not just two or three steps. She is walking. turning corners and all. busy girl.

trying to be better

I am so bad at blogging-i started blogging in '06 so I guess i gave it a good run. Actually, i would like to be better and since Daniel is in WA and I am here; he does pop into my blog once in awhile so I should probably post some pictures. The kids are having a great time. Jarom learned a front flip off the diving board and Abby can do a roundoff. Ella has no tricks as of right now. Although she can stand for a few seconds. Big news, i know.

graduation.

The Graduate.

Daniel told me the other night that I am banned from blogging. I had to inform him that i haven't blogged in ages and suggested i should be banned from reading blogs instead. Anyway, after a year and a half of searching, we finally bought a house. A totally gutted house. That is another post. if i can manage it sometime.

Jarom had his preschool graduation last week. The time seems to fly by so fast. Sometimes I feel like I need a big fat break from the kids and other days i just want them to stay little. I don't think i can have either, so i am trying to enjoy the moment. Oh, and the kid changes clothes constantly. He took off with Daniel before i had the chance to realize that he had raided his box of last years clothes.

Jarom and his two best buds, Alex and Mckay

Family shot: Man, i can't wait to lose the nursing B_ _ B's!

hey look at that.

Somebody learned to crawl last week. Or two weeks ago. Maybe i should return to my blog and journal this stuff down.

Do you think 20 years from now E will give a find it crucial that she know the exact second she learned to crawl? Um, i didn't think so.

good grief.

i don't think i have ever abandoned my blog for a month. i have no idea except i am sick of blogging. Just in time for abby's birthday, too. Sorry, girl. Here's a re-cap of what has gone down the last month. Hmmm. okay, let's see:

There was a spring break involved, only i was pretty convinced it was actually winter break. I think it even snowed. whatever. same old sob story. daniel had to work in tri-cities so we tagged along. Tri-cites usually stays about 8-10 degrees warmer than spokane and the weather was nice. The kids had a great time swimming during ella's naps. They had a running trail backing to the hotel with a fun park with a zip line and huge climbing wall. We headed to seattle to stay with friends for the weekend when daniel finished working.






i went willingly to moses lake to see my friend Kristina and her newest little boy added to her brood. no pics to show for all the fun the kids had playing together. so lame.

Jarom had an easter egg hunt at his preschool. I only stayed to catch a few pics until i had to head home to feel E and head to Abby's field trip. They were coloring eggs with the seniors at the hospital. no good pics for that, either.

Suddenly the weather turned nice in spokane for a few days and so i dusted off our single jogger and took E for her first walk. It was nice to enjoy the weather, we tried to get out as much as possible.

Maybe i should blog about disneyland

i think it's about time i spilled beans about our trip to so cal. when february rolled around i decided we needed to go on a trip with the kids because i was flat tired of the weather. i have no idea why we decided on disneyland because here's a little secret-daniel and i both kinda dislike disneyland. There, i said it. Sure, it's cheery and happy, but it's also long lines, commercialism, and expensive. We figured the kids would be at a great age to appreciate it, but what we didn't take into consideration is what a downright little bugger of a baby Ella would be. It was *almost* unbearable. Seriously. That girl. huhhh.
We surprised the kids and i told them we would be going to grandma and papa's house. They were thrilled but i figured Disneyland would surely trump going to grandma and papa's. Yeah, i was wrong. We got to Anaheim and Abby started reading the signs and asked if we were going to Disneyland. I told them we were. They got all excited for about 2 nano seconds and then asked, "and then we are going to grandma and papa's"? Luckily, my parents did make an appearance.

The first day we were there, we went on an early open day. We were seriously an hour into the park and my Jarom starts whining. JAROM! He never whines. I swear that place induces whining in children and fighting in adults. I must have overheard parents yelling at each other 2 or three times on that first day. I mean, i can go to walmart and see the same thing and it's certainly a whole lot cheaper. We hauled the kids out of there at noon for lunch and went back to the hotel to swim. E had a nap with the windows open so we could here her, D and I laid out while the kids swam. Now we were talking. The kids didn't even want to go back to disneyland, they wanted to keep swimming. We finally went back to the park after dinner.The kids wanted to stay in my parents' room, which was fine by us. We took E and met up with Courtney and her beau for dinner. It was good food and great company. Also, while there i spotted not one but two Honduran restaurants. So we stocked up on some banana soda that you can't get here in the states. i love LA. You can get all kinds of amazing food.

The other great part of the trip was heading to Newport & Balboa island. We hung out on the beach and had lunch at BJ's. I tried their pizookie, which is totally overrated. It was a gorgeous day so we were grateful for the fabulous weather.

I hope Abby is old enough to take on the big dipper this summer. She is such a thrill seeker. We took her on California Screamin' twice before we all got headaches. She rode space mountain more times than we can count. It was fun having both of them be tall enough for most rides. Jarom tried to sneak onto the rapids ride in Cali Adventure, but we got stopped and measured again and had to send him back!

We are sticking to Santa Cruz as the master plan. Beaches, sand fun, rides, good weather and great food all for much, much cheaper than disney. Maybe we will talk about going back in 10 or so years!

That was nice

Too bad this was so last week.

and this is the status quo.

if anyone asks, i am sick of living in a snowglobe.

Look Closely

I was looking for library books in Abby's room when i spotted her closet looking fairly nice for a 6 year old.
Then something caught my eye. I thought it looked hilarious hung up instead of in the dress up box in the basement.

Do you know what today is?

uh, yeah, it is valentines day. Of course. But today also acknowledges another special day for people all over this country and around the world.

It is National Donor Day.

Do you know that there are approximately 100,000 people waiting for an organ transplant. More than 1/3 of them will die waiting to get the organ they need.

This is my beautiful friend Tiffany with her sweetheart of a son, Jackson Burton Rich. Jack passed away on September 23rd, 2008 as a result of a backyard accident. He was 16 months old. That fall day began so regularly and then turned so tragically. As Tiffany and her husband Coby stood in the hospital and came to the awful realization that it was time to let Jack go they made a decision that would change the lives of at multiple families. They made the decision to donate Jack's organs.

In Tiffany's words she recalled, "We felt impressed to have his valves donated to help save someone else's little angel. If we could save one mom and dad from standing in front of a little white casket asking the Lord "why? Why OUR baby?", then it would be worth it. We were told that Jack is helping to save not one but four little babies born to damaged hearts."

I can't think of a more painful moment that two parents standing together and making this heartbreaking decision. But realizing this was a tragedy they could not change and putting aside thoughts of themselves, they did for others what they could not do for themselves. Truly the definition of Christ like service.

Are you an organ donor? The first thing you can do is talk with your loved ones about what you would like to have happen if you were ever in this position. People are more likely to donate their loved ones organs if they have had a prior conversation about it. You can also check the box through the DMV when you are renewing your drivers license. Above all else, make your wishes known ahead of time to those you love. Your final act on this earth could be to save another.

(thank you Tiff and Cob for letting me share Jack's story. ily)

Ms. Abby J.

I have to jot down some kind things Abby has done this week. You know, so that when she is whining about having to practice the piano again or being stubborn over something trivial, I can look back and see some redeeming qualities.

• She cleaned the entire basement all by herself. Jarom was there, but he played while she cleaned.



• Unloaded the dishwasher. The entire thing. She even climbed up high to put the glasses away.



• She got Ella up the other morning so i could get a few more minutes of sleep. When i came downstairs she was reading "Once Upon a Potty" to Ella (and even showing the pictures!) while E was in her swing.



• She put her basket of clothes away before school the other morning and i didn't even need to remind her.

Thanks for being a good girl *most* of the time!

When A+B does not equal C

Does this look like the face of a baby who still needs to wake up at night? No. How about twice a night? Definitely no.

I am slowly losing my marbles. Ella is the worst sleeper of any baby i have ever even heard of. Do you know how i know this? Because the whole blogging world is one big gigantic peephole and voyeurism is the word of the day. I am so sick of reading about other peoples' babies, ie. "little Jane slept 12 hours last night and she's only three days old" or "little Johnny is amazing, he has slept thru the night since he was 4 weeks old." Ugh, make me puke. Yeah, your kid is a star and mine is loser. Brag on.

But for my own sake and sanity i need this kid sleeping through the night. We are a Babywise family and that means you pull your own weight by getting at least 10 hours of consistent sleep by the time you are 8 weeks old. It makes for a happier baby and a happier mom. Two very important things. Only this kid is in revolt mode. She is just not having it. at all. I have no idea what her problem is and it making me completely batty. For awhile (and by awhile i mean a week) she was napping great and starting to at least sleep from 8:00 pm-3:00 am. I thought she was catching on and then she started waking early from her naps and she STILL cries like a baby(lame attempt at inducing a laugh) when she goes down for a nap.

So it was obviously time for Babywise/sleep boot camp. I decided i had had enough and that E was going to sleep through the night whether she liked it or not. I started sending Daniel in when she woke up at night to get her back to sleep. Then I decided that she was just going to have to cry it out (CIO). It started working okay until she took up a new trick: Rolling onto her tummy and getting stuck! It was obviously cause for screaming like a madwoman because now not only does she cry like crazy when she goes down for a nap but she has to get rolled back over more times than i like to count. i just don't know what to do. and i am hesitant to ask for advice because i am pretty sure i don't want to hear, "sorry, but ___ was sleeping through the night since the day we brought him/her home so I don't know what to tell you."

yeah, whatever.