The Kim House Reunion!

When I moved to Washington to go to graduate school, I lived in a house with 3 other women. One was my dear friend Kim who had been my roommate all 4 years at BYU. The other two were Kim and Kimber who I didn't know yet. Our house quickly became dubbed the "Kim House". Even when Kimber moved out and Rachel moved in, the name kind of stuck. Now that Kim N. moved back to Washington and Kim F. was able to fly in from Utah, these dear friends of mine were able to get together for the first time in over a year. The last time was at Rachel's wedding and she was a little occupied at the time ; )
After we picked up Rachel in Lacey, we got pedicures.

From April 2012

We stayed at the coast in a darling beach house(walking distance to the beach). The weather didn't cooperate for us, but we didn't care. Being together and chatting and laughing, shopping at little beachtown shops and relaxing was a huge treat for us!
We stayed at the Daydream cottage.

From April 2012

Kim, Rachel, Kim and I

From April 2012

We made several trips to the beach to look at shells, the view, look for seals, etc. These are my kind of girls who love to explore even when the weather isn't perfect. No complaints here! :)

From April 2012

From April 2012

We loved this view at the top of the stairs.

From April 2012

And it's even gorgeous looking back.

From April 2012

Fun in the sand!

From April 2012

From April 2012

Kim F. taught us a new game and I loved it!

From April 2012

And of course we played lots of Nertz and laughed until it hurt. I woke up Sunday morning with a stomach bug--must have been something I ate, but at least it went away by that afternoon and it didn't put a damper on the overall fun we had. I love these girls! Thanks again for a great weekend. We have so many fun memories as roomies and throughout our friendship.

While the Mom is Away...

the boys will play...and work on the car! I have the best husband. He truly amazes me. He loves spending time with the boys and he didn't mind in the least when two girls weekends happened to be scheduled kind of close together. He decided it would be a great weekend to work with the boys and replace the shocks on the 4runner which needed it badly. So, although the weekend didn't go smoothly (the boys wandered off with the tools sometimes and Ryan forgot that he was potty trained), he still had fun. They played baseball, soccer and football along with finishing the car repair.
Tony, the lover of all things mechanical, recorded his project.

From April 2012

From April 2012

You can see the new, red shocks poking out in this last picture.

From April 2012

A Funny Photo and Some Ramblings

From April 2012

Here's He-Man doing his homework. I guess we will have to come up with a real sword because so far it's only been a bristle block sword or this plunger for the VitaMix. Max who normally never wants to take his shirt off, unless he's swimming, go figure, now wants to run around with no shirt. He even asked if he could take his pants off. No Max, you don't need to look that much like He-Man.

In random news, the word of the week is tired. Tony's so tired because he's been working so much: Day and night and weekends. We appreciate him and miss him. I'm so tired because I'm growing this baby. The kids, well, they're never tired and that's why I'm tired! :)

Ryan's doing well in swimming lessons. He's still warming up to it though. He doesn't just enjoy being in the water like the rest of us do. Going underwater is slightly traumatic but he does have fun. There's this little floating fish toy that he loves that we named, "Bloop Bloop". We throw the fish and he swims to it. That's when he has the most fun.

This week was "W" week at Max's preschool and we took snack today. We did gummy worms in dirt (pudding and smashed chocolate cookies) and Washington apples.

And...the countdown has begun. 7ish more weeks until baby's here. 7 more weeks until Tony's school break. 15ish weeks until Tony's school program is complete!

By the Power of Grayskull...

Max has recently become enthralled with HeMan. I remember playing HeMan with my brother David when we were younger. Here is Max acting out the part.

From April 2012

From April 2012

Priesthood Picture

I wanted to save this idea so I can do it later when my boys are old enough. I made some framed, Lines of Authority for the boys in primary who are turning 12.

From April 2012

Here are our beliefs on the priesthood.

Video Catch Up

So I have some videos on you tube now and on the blog. I was playing catch up. Most of the videos are from Max's Christmas program. I've included links here if any grandparents want to go back and see the program and a few other videos through the year.
------Trike a Thon
------Seattle Aquarium
------Bellingham Flight Museum
------ Max's Christmas present
------Christmas program

New Toy!

Ryan went poop on the potty three times and so he got this reward. He's keeping it up so far.

From April 2012

Feeing Zoo-y

We had such a beautiful Saturday that we decided to spend it at the Seattle zoo! Max dressed as an explorer and carried him camoflauge backpack.

From April 2012

The boys are rolling down a slight hill and having so much fun. I wanted to join them but this baby bump wouldn't have appreciated it.

From April 2012

The brown bear exhibit was my favorite this time because of how close we got to get.

From April 2012

The bears were wrestling in the water.

From April 2012

This Sea Eagle nest was right there. And the Sea Eagle was watching us from not too far away.

From April 2012

From April 2012

Max's favorite part of the zoo was the huge play area and there was a little spot where he could play the bongo drums.

From April 2012

They climbed on every rock and everything they possibly could.

From April 2012

Ryan said his favorite part of the zoo was elephants taking a drink and the giraffes. Sadly I didn't take my camera out at those times. Sorry Ry. After the zoo we went home and said goodbye to Grandma Kate. Ryan looked up at her with his baby blues and asked, "Can I keep you?". And hormones or not, that brought a few tears to my eyes. My boys love spending time with their grandparents and talk about them all the time.

Time to Relax

It's been a good week but it's still great to have a night just to relax with some great girlfriends. I love these pictures because we were chatting, laughing and sipping margaritas. Half of us are pregnant so it looks bad but none of us drink--preggo or not. Grandma Kate watched the boys so I could go out. Here's what they were busy doing right before I left.

From April 2012

Shelbi and Cachet being a great hostess once again.

From April 2012

Cachet, Jenna, Kim and Tiff

From April 2012

Tiff, Deanna, Melissa and me.

From April 2012

Cheers!

Eagerly Anticipating!

We are lucky that Grandma Kate has a job that brings her to Bellevue to work sometimes (in fact we hope the Bellevue Department never *quite* catches up). She gets to stay with us this week. The boys are used to having Grandparents who stay with us but having one gone during the day for work isn't the norm. When I told Max Grandma would be home any minute he decided to set up an observation post. How cute is this!

From April 2012

And he didn't have to wait too long. And to top off the evening of Grandma time, she told them a story!

From April 2012

Girl's Weekend!

I am lucky in so many ways. One of them is that I have a husband who supports me getting some "me" time! He doesn't mind taking on full-time daddy responsibility even when he's super tired. I love that about him. I also have such great friends-truly wonderful girls that I get to hang out with and unwind with. A few of us traveled to a cute Bavarian village called Leavenworth, WA. I hadn't been there in years but it takes me back to my mission because it reminds me of being in Switzerland. I didn't get a good shot of the town so here is one from the web.

From April 2012

We went shopping in antique malls.

From April 2012

Gotta try on the funky hats and read all the funny t-shirts.

From April 2012

There are all kinds of shops including a Christmas store, cheese store, tons of boutiques, a nutcracker store, gift stores, you name it. We had amazing weather but just in time for the picture, we had a gust of wind blow our hair all crazy. Check out those mountains though.

From April 2012

From April 2012

Chillin' at the time share.

From April 2012

From April 2012

From April 2012

From April 2012

My favorite quote of the weekend: "I was talking about ducks and peacocks!" The view of the golf course from our window with a river running alongside.

From April 2012

And there were three beautiful babes along for the ride, just the right amount to make me super baby hungry.

From April 2012

And I got to come home all refreshed and to my favorite guys in the world and open tulips!

From April 2012

And Max asked when his next daddy weekend was! Awwww! Although the boys didn't take any pictures :( they let me know that they took a picnic to the local airport and watched airplanes take off and land, Max and daddy modified the 4-runner while Ryan napped and they made Ryan's day by taking him through the carwash.

My Washington Weedville

Today I mowed my moss and weeded. It's a gorgeous day! In fact we'll be outside again after the boys finish their snacks. Max was helping me weed and he said, "We're ruining Weedville! But we're not ruining Flowerland!". Cute! I truly appreciate living in Washington. It's got so much beauty. I do appreciate this Jeff Foxworthy humor though...
------If you've worn shorts, sandals and a parka at the same time, you live in Washington.
------If you know all 4 seasons: almost rainy, rainy, still rainy, and road construction, you live in Western Washington.
------If you feel guilty throwing aluminum cans or paper in the trash, you live in Washington.
------If you know more than 10 ways to order coffee (and you don't even drink coffee), you live in Washington.
------If you know more people who own boats than air conditioners, you live in Washington.
------If you know the difference between Chinook, Coho and Sockeye salmon, you live in Washington.
------If you know how to pronounce Sequim, Puyallup, Abiqua, Issaquah, Oregon, Umpqua, Yakima and Willamette, you live in Washington.
------If you can tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese and Thai food, you live in Washington.
------If you think people who use umbrellas are either wimps or tourists, you live in Washington.
------If you buy new sunglasses every year, because you cannot find the old ones after such a long time, you live in Washington.
The last two really make me chuckle and they are so me!

Joy School--Creating and Building

Today we talked about how our imaginations can help us create things. First we created individual pizzas for lunch.

From April 2012

Then we learned about origami and created origami jumping frogs. Then we had a jumping contest.

From April 2012

Then we used toothpicks and gumdrops as our medium to create.

From April 2012

Here's Max's building in process.

From April 2012

And C's palace in progress.

From April 2012

And J made lots of maracas.

From April 2012

And Ryan didn't eat all the gumdrops. ; )

From April 2012

I tried to teach them kickball outside but rain blew us inside so they created with legos.

From April 2012

And since it was a rainy day, Max worked on creating a masterpiece while Ryan napped. This was his giant house with lots of rooms. He showed me all the different rooms. It was fun to see him being so creative and into his project.

From April 2012