Happy brithday Josie!

Josie is 2 today! She was born on December 27, 2006. We thought for sure that she would be born on by Thanksgiving, then on Jack's birthday, and then maybe on Christmas, but she had her own date in mind. I can hardly believe it, the last two years have flown by. Looking at her now, she is definitely not a little baby anymore. Now she is talking, walking, jumping, playing with dolls, having tea parties, hugging her animals... all of the fun things that little girls do!

Here she is a week old with big brother Jack, who had just turned two.

We love you so much Josie, you are such a delight to have in our lives. Your sweet smile lights up the whole room.

Happy birthday sweet girl!

A gingerbread party!

Since Jack turned 4 on the 12th and Josie will be 2 on the 27th of December, we decided to do a combined birthday party this year. The theme was gingerbread and each child got to decorate their own graham cracker gingerbread house. It was really fun, a little crazy, but the kids all had a blast!

The week before Tyler and Jack put together a gingerbread house to have as the centerpiece. Then I made a sign out of gingerbread cookie letters, and made a bunch of gingerbread boys to pass out. The night before we made 20 little graham cracker houses, after two trips to the store for more graham crackers and 6 different kinds of frosting attempts! Finally it was party time and Jack and Josie could hardly hold still they were so excited. We rented a long kids table that everyone could sit down at and then brought up the houses and tons of candy! I was really surprised at how well they did. It was fun seeing some of the kids get really into it and try piping frosting all over the houses. Other kids were pretty quite with their mouths stuffed with candy!
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Afterwards we had pizza and snacks. We sang happy birthday and had candy cane cupcakes with peppermint ice cream. Jack was ready and know just what to do to blew out his candle. Josie was a little shy so she got some help from some friends with her candle.


Even though I had told everyone not to worry about presents the kids were still blessed with some really nice gifts. Thank you so much! I think one of the highlights was after opening gifts the older kids took all the colored tissue paper and started throwing it up in the air. They were having such a delightful time, I didn't worry about the mess.
Even the parents got to sit and relax and enjoy the party. I think we had 26 kids in all, with a couple little babies. Little Ketziah sleep right through it! Jack and Josie both had a great time, I think that they still felt their birthday was special even with it being during such a busy season. Thank you again for all those who helped to make it so special. Whew, now for the clean up!

Happy Birthday Jack!

I can't believe our little guy is 4 today! Has it really been 4 years since that amazing day that he was born? tHere he was on December 12, 2004. We had no idea how much our lives would change and how you could possibly love someone so much! Happy birthday Jack! You bring us more joy then you could ever imagine!

Sacramento

We just got back form a trip to visit my mom and Mike in Sacramento. It was my first trip ever to California and it was nice to feel a little sun. The kids were great travelers, they were really excited about the airplane. Especially because they got to eat dum dums during the take off and the landings! We stayed at a nice hotel right on the river by old town Sacramento.

The next day my mom took us to the California state train museum. It was one of the coolest museums I had ever been to. Jack was in awe at all of the old trains. We got to go inside a bunch of them and see what life was like on trains in different time periods. Upstairs they had a huge toy train exhibit and of course a big Thomas exhibit that the kids could have stayed at all day.




Later we all went swimming in the hotel pool.

The next day my mom had a big early thanksgiving dinner for us. She made a huge turkey, we gave Jack the giant drumstick to see if he would eat it. He actually did, for some reason he just loves to eat the drumsticks!


We had a nice time but it was good to get home. Here is Jack being super helpful with the luggage!

Trick or Treat!

I know it is almost thanksgiving and I really apologize for the belated Halloween post! But here are some pictures from our fun night! Jack was a firefighter and Josie was his Dalmatian sidekick.



Before we went trick or treating they just had to stomp out some puddles.




After getting some candy at our neighbors homes, we went to the Bleekers house to meet up with friends and eat some pizza. We took a bunch of pictures, but the reflectors on Jacks coat made a huge glare on all of them. Then we headed over to the church that Jack's school is at for a big County Fair themed party. It was a little crazy because their were so many kids their. They had all kinds of fun games, prizes, and lots of candy. Here is Jack milking a cow.



Josie has a word that she is in love with, "treats". I caught her even eating through the plastic of an M and M wrapper, she couldn't wait for me to open it.

Orange Day

For Halloween Jack's preschool class does a special Orange day party. They wear orange clothes and eat orange foods and basically talk about everything orange! I was able to go and help out with the party, it was so cute. Here is Jack spreading orange frosting on his pumpkin cookie, they were all so excited when they realized that they could actually eat the cookie when they were done.

Craft of the week

Both of my kids have been really into art projects lately. In the past I never seem to have the right materials on hand to do the fun crafts I see in kids magazines. So I decided to start planning for a craft of the week. So far the kids really like it, we try to keep it simple and fun, and not necessarily about the finished product! Here are a couple of the things we have done this month.

The Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday, Jack's preschool class had a field trip to the pumpkin patch. It was really fun and really cold. We went to the Farm in Snohomish, what a cute place. They had a barn maze for kids that ended by going down a big slide into a pile of hay.
Then they had all kinds of animals, inculding some baby kittens and puppies the kids could hold.

Then we all loaded into big wagons and a tractor pulled us to the pumpkin patch. This was Jack and Josie's favorite part, it was an especially bumpy ride. They each got to pick a little pumpkin.




Here is Jack with his class and all of their pumpkins. At the end they all got to sit down and have ice cream bars. At this point, all of the childrens lips were blue, so we packed up our pumpkins, and headed home.

One of those days!

Today just felt like one of those days. We were all a little grumpy that the weather was yucky and it was too cold to go outside and play. Everyone started getting a little crazy, Tyler had to work late, and I was about to pull my hair out. But then the silliness started to kick in and we ended up having a really fun afternoon. We completely destroyed the house in the process, but on those days you just need to let go and bend the rules a little to get through it.

First we made a mess in the kitchen (we managed to make cookies too).




Then we painted and got paint all over the dinning room.




Then Jack informed me that him and Josie needed to spend some time in the potty, and I leave them alone for a while.



Then we had our big finale and tore up the living room so that we could build a giant fort.

Soccer practice

This fall we signed Jack up for a community soccer class. He loves it, it is so cute to see all these three year old kids running around with their little shin guards on! We go every Saturday morning, today it was really cold. I guess their is no denying that it fall is here. It's really beautiful though. I love how the leaves turn such vibrant colors.

Baby showers

A few weeks ago I had the honor of helping throw a baby shower for my dear friend Keisha. She is expecting her 2nd baby, little Ketziah very soon. It had been a while since I had thrown a baby shower and as I was preparing I remembered how much fun it is to put all these little foods and decorations together. I have been in kind of a rut with cooking lately and I am feeling much more inspired to be creative now, thanks Keisha!

For some reason I have just loved throwing baby showers, I think I have done or at least helped with at lease 12 showers in the last 5 years. I started to look back at the different pictures I had, here is a progression.

Beginning with my first shower in 2003 for my friend Michelle, I pulled an all nighter for this one. It doesn't really look like it but the ABC block cake took forever.




This was a double shower in 2006, for my friends Heidi and Rachael both having baby girls around the same time.




The last is the one for Keisha a few weeks ago. I had the honor of throwing her first shower for baby Malia too, but I couldn't find any of those pictures.

OK, I admit that none of these come close to anything that a caterer would do. In the beginning I was really trying so hard to make things just look like Martha Stewart had made them. But the more I tried, the more would go wrong. Over the years I feel like God has really worked on my heart with regards to hospitality and entertaining. I have realized that it is more about loving people and enjoying fellowship, not about having the perfect color scheme or some fancy cake on display. Now I think I am learning the process of how to use the details and creativity, but not have it be about what I have done, but what Christ has done through me to love others. I am still learning, the more I focus on allowing my identity in Christ, the less I feel like my identity is in pleasing people through a nice home or perfect food.

Visit from Grandma Shirley

It just so happened that Tyler and his dad were out of the state in the same week. My mother in law Shirley was on her own too, so she came down to hang out with us for a few days. We had a lot of fun and went all over the place. Here we are at the Ballard Locks. The kids got to see a lot of big salmon at the fish ladder.

Then as we were going back, Jack was so excited to see a tug boat and a huge NOAA ship. Jack was very curious about the soccer ball on top.

Preschool!

Well he did it, Jack has started preschool!! It has been a pretty exciting new thing in our household these days. Jack is doing pretty well, we have had a couple good days, and a couple of not as good days. I think the structure will take a little time to get used to. He loves his teacher, teacher Pasi has been teaching this class for 11 years and still gets so excited about each child that comes into her class. Here he is on his first day with his backpack on.


When we came in, he went right to work at one of the tables. He looked so grown up, he didn't even say goodbye! I think I was more nervous then he was.