Piggies!

Getting to it.

I started the room overhaul Friday and I'm happy to report that after days of furniture lining the halls, numerous tubs of clothes, and 2 trips to the dump, Ava is officially in Jack's room (with all of her earthly belongings in tow), the baby's room has all of it's furniture in place, including a freshly painted dresser, the walk-in hall closet has been totally cleaned out, the garage is the cleanest it has ever been, and Ed's office is totally reorganized.

The rest of the house is completely filthy but I'll take what I can get, right?

I generally do this sort of nesting when I'm nine months pregnant but it appears I have gotten smarter--no more moving beds and dressers (by myself) when my belly is so big I can hardly use my arms. It's nice to know that I am not only older but a wee bit wiser.

My little sanguine Jack set up shop in the hallway so he could keep his eye on the action.

A little piece of quiet.

So much squishy goodness.

This kid cracks us up. She has an awesome sense of humor and loves to make us laugh.

She makes the best faces and her giggle gets the other kids going fast.

We love her!

24 weeks.

The baby is now 11 inches long and weighs over a pound. The blood vessels on his lungs are developing and he can hear all the racket we make out here. (I still don't picture him as a he--it's weird just typing that!) This has been a low-key couple of weeks baby-wise and I almost forget I'm pregnant. In fact someone asked me the other day how I was feeling and it took a good couple seconds for me to figure out what she was talking about! Yay for the fourth baby and being too busy to notice!

I have big, big plans to start work on the nursery this weekend--I meant to start last Monday but I am a monster procrastinater and frankly just too lazy. I have to start by cleaning out Ava's entire room (closets, drawers, everything!) and while this is usually right up my alley, I am finding myself sitting on her bed every day just thinking about it and not actually doing it. Mainly because once I start my house will be a mess for weeks because after her room I have to do Jack's, then Jemma's, then the hall closet, and then the garage. It's a whole big process and it's not pretty! And it's been pretty easy to come up with an excuse every day to postpone! But now here it is in writing so I'm going to get to it....tomorrow.

Seattle.

We headed out last week for a quickish trip to Seattle. We took Ava and Jack and planned for some serious touristing so sweet Jem got left behind.

Jack listened to a lot of books on tape and Ava read the Rebecca books and they are both blessedly old enough to travel with and actually enjoy! No "when will we get there" or us having to be quiet so they can sleep. Just lots of funny stuff overheard from the back seat. We stopped in North Bend for lunch and some shopping and then got to our hotel with plenty of time for the pool before dinner. Side note here: we stayed in the best hotel we've had (and we've had a lot in Seattle!). Not the fanciest but perfect for kids! All suites (I'll do pretty much anything not to sleep with my kids!) that open into a five-story atrium, HUGE free breakfasts (made to order omelets, french toast, pancakes, hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, cereals, fruit, breads, drinks, you name it!), easy parking, great pool. All around awesome hotel.

After the swim, we headed to downtown Seattle.

First stop (after Red Robin of course): The Mariners.

Jack waved at Ichiro for a long time and when he got no response, he finally said, "that's okay--he's busy working."

So darn handsome.

************
Oh yeah. A funny thing happened that night. At 1:30 am the fire alarm went off. Ed jumped out of bed and started pounding at any and all devices that could make that sound--the clock, the phone, his phone--then an automated voice hollered through the room that is was a fire alarm and would we please head outside.
In the pouring, freezing, Seattle rain.
I, of course, took the time to get dressed, get my money, and brush my teeth (priorities, huh?) and then we gathered with 200 pajama-clad strangers in the parking lot till we were let back in. There was a large number of high school kids in our midst so we have a good guess as to what happened. Also, I got a serious case of the giggles in the parking lot and literally could not stop, Ava did not think it was so funny:

But we all got tucked back in, safe and sound, and were immensely grateful we did not have a baby with us! Nothing like having to get your baby to sleep in a hotel in the middle of the night.
And the next day, contrary to the weather forecast, was sunny and beautiful!

Twins.

Heading to the zoo. Ava all set with a hot chocolate and banana to go.

Jack said, "you better hurry and eat that banana or the monkey's gonna take it from you!"

I love these two.

They did lots of hand-holding and hollering, "look at this! Come over here. Can you see?" Always looking out for each other--sort of makes our job easier.

Freckles.

We saw lions, and tigers, and bears. And, in fact, we got to see a bear rip through a campsite to show us what happens if you don't properly bear-proof your food.

Guess who we ran into at the zoo? My aunt Julie! From Coeur d'Alene. So funny.

Mmm, I love 'em.

After the zoo, we headed to the wharf for a late lunch and a bit of wandering.

Oh hey, I was there too!

Jack chowed a hot dog while the rest of us had fish and chips and clam chowder (in a bread bowl). Yum. And eating on the water in the sunshine? Double yum.

We zipped back to the hotel for another swim (for Ed and the kids) and 45 minutes of magazine reading for me.

After free appetizers at the hotel, we headed back downtown for dinner at the Crab Pot--a place Ed has been wanting to go for a long time now.

The place was packed so the kids had a ride on the carousel while we waited for a table.

Ta Da!

Worth the wait.

Ed and Jack chowed, chowed the seafood. Ed sticks to crab, Jack loved the clams, Ava and I got stuck with the shrimp and corn on the cob. We picked up a sweet treat and went back to the hotel. The next morning, after another HUGE breakfast (and some chocolate-dipped old fashioned doughnuts to go), we joined the throngs at IKEA.

Oh yes, and it was our anniversary. And, if you can spend hours and hours at IKEA with your kids and millions of other people hemming and hawing and then finally loading up all your purchases (which generally takes a good 45 minutes) and still like each other in the end, then you must be doing something right.

The kids had some chocolate milk and a cup o' meatballs (something about this menu item pleases me immensely) while they waited for us to load.

And so we spent the rest of our anniversary with these two monkeys, listening to greatest hits from the 80's on Sirius, eating sour patch kids and chocolate almonds, and driving home to pick up our sweet Jem. And a little note here about Jem. We had a lot of fun without her and at one point, Jack, who had been jabbering nonstop, took a break to say, "aren't you glad Jemma's not here so we can have some peace and quiet?" But when we turned for home, everybody was missing her and there was lots of fighting about who would hug her first! And when we pulled into my mom's driveway, she was standing at the glass door yelling at us and about flew off the deck to hug us. And she was giggling nonstop, and saying everybody's name, and rubbing our back and arms and legs and literally shivering with joy.

Just the sort of welcome back you want!

We've come a long way....

Happy 12th anniversary to my best friend, the one person I would always rather be with.

Sophomore Prom.

1994.

16 years ago.

1995.
1996 maybe? maybe '97.
(at this very house we live in today!)
Checking out colleges, senior year.

Senior Prom.

(somehow I only have one shot and my eyes are closed!)

High school graduation.

*************************************

17 years since we met, 12 years since we married, 3 1/2 kids...we just might be growing up.

Happy Anniversary!

The sun came out!

and Jack was so excited to get out there that he forgot his pants in his hurry:

and he played like that for a very long time.

Overheard

Jack: Sara, are you going to swim in the pool this summer?

Sara: Yes! Are you going in the deep end?

J: Probably not. I mean mom would be really sad if I drownded. (Pause) Probably a lot of people would be sad.

S: Yeah, I don't really know how to swim yet in the deep end.

J: Sara, the thing is that you just have to believe. I mean if you believe in your heart, then you can do anything!

One of those days.

Ed was gone this week and after a long day of icky cleaning projects, we all woke up restless and grumpy the next morning. After everyone wandered around the house for a few hours driving me nuts, I finally got us all clean and ready and loaded everybody up to head out (in the pouring rain) in search of some fun (namely Starbucks and the game place). I hopped in, turned the key, and click, click. The battery was dead. Since my little monkeys were daddy-less, I had to call my own dad who probably thought he was done saving me years ago but really never is, to come over and give us a jump. Jack was super excited about the turn of events and pulled up a stool to help:

By the time we were revved and ready to go, it was naptime so I promised them an outing later. I eventually ordered a pizza and we headed out to pick it up but once again...click, click. This time Joe came to save us and we headed straight to Les Schwab for a new battery, only it was until we got there that I realized my kids were dressed in a variety of shorts, tanks, and some flip-flops (at least one of them had no shoes)--my kids have apparently missed the memo that summer is a month late! It was freezing and pouring so hard and loud I could hardly hear them talking in the back seat. Anyway, we got there about a minute before closing but when I hauled in my wet, seriously underdressed children, the guy took pity and was nice enough to fix us up. So an hour later (and $100 poorer) we finally picked up our pizza. I was soaked through and totally wiped out but all three kids were giggling so hard, it may have been worth it.

Library time

Even Jemma gets in on the fun.

Kamiak Butte

We were headed to Kamiak Butte and when we drove past the bears, we saw one ripping apart a hide so Ed pulled in and the kids were excited to see eight bears pacing and eating and ripping that thing to shreds.

We had a quick (and freezing!) lunch before starting the hike.

Poor Jemma tripped and fell before we even started and literally rolled down a hill and then when Ed had her in the backpack he slipped and fell a bit and then a pine branch snapped right in her face--not her favorite place to go! But she perked up and we are always surprised at how cheery our kids are even after trudging straight uphill and slipping through the mud for 3 1/2 miles.

Jack packed his rubber band gun in case we met any wild animals.

Memorial Day.

Fried chicken and iced tea...yummy.

The Casebolt kids came to spend the night and Paula dropped their stuff off earlier with strict instructions from Will for Jack to not get into his backpack and he so he didn't get into it but he did wear it around the house all day: The kids love watching Ed play Super Mario on the Wii and he loves it because I can't complain when they are all happily (and quietly) entertained. So I left him with the seven kiddies and ran errands instead and came home to find them fighting the bad guy here:

My latest purchase for our bedroom. I found this on an etsy site and I loved it--I was in a hurry to hang it so I just spray painted an old frame but I have a better frame in mind that I'm now on the hunt for.