Friends

The kids were missing their friends since moving away and since school ended. Kayla and Ethan Giles used to live around the corner from us, but then we moved and soon after they moved too. They live like 15 minutes away now, but we still do playdates. I had Wilson, Reagan and Anna come play for a day. We went to a park to play then home to play some more. 

Reagan and Lindsey have the same dress (funny because I believe Reagan's was a hand me down and Lindsey's used to be Kate's). They like wearing them on the same day to match. Cute. Reagan is a year older, but these two love each other and it's cute to watch. 

I had to start duct taping Chelsea's diaper because she was pulling them off all the time. She even pulled them off after pooping and then would get poop on the floor and it was just gross. I only had to do this for a week before she stopped. 

We got a trampoline and the kids were excited so it was fun to see their reaction once we got it all set up. Side note: now that we have had it for a while now we are disappointed in how little they use it! We thought they would use it more, but Kate claims it's because it's dirty. The big trees that hover over our house and backyard make a mess on it so it is annoying, but still! 

On a Sunday afternoon we went for a walk at Bothell's Landing. We saw bunnies and thought it was cute until we saw more and more and realized there were a ton that lived in the weeds along the walk way. 

Kate made me a bouquet of flowers along our walk and I was quite impressed. The fanciest bouquet of flowers and weeds I've ever gotten!

I went back to work 2 days a week starting in the middle of June after school was out. Dee Ann came and watched the kids for a couple days the first week I worked because the babysitter I had set up was still in school for a week longer than my kids. I am going through the same temp agency that I went through before when Kyle was unemployed. I have consistently been working 2 days a week and it's been good. I was super nervous when I first started since it's been 3 1/2 years, but it was fine. I was nervous with my first injection and cleaning, but like Kyle says it's like riding a bike and it all comes back to me. So true. I have been working at a couple different offices a lot since they request me and that's been good because they are close. I'm working to help pay off the porch expense and I'm glad I can do something to help out. I'm so grateful for my education and training. I have liked getting back into my profession and plan on working consistently a couple days a week when the kids get older, but it's nice that I can be home with them now. 

I took Kate and Grace to see Maleficent because Melanie gave Kate movie tickets for her birthday (great idea Melanie!) and these girls were so excited. It was fun to take them. Grace is our next door neighbor and the same age as Kate. Her and Kate have been inseparable this summer. And a bonus is Grace is a Mormon too! How awesome is that. The first thing Kate wants to do in the morning is to go play with Grace. It's actually been a blessing because Kate was nervous about moving and not having any friends in the neighborhood so we couldn't have set it up any better. 

Happy Father's Day!

I had to get a picture of Kyle getting the girl's shoes on on Father's Day...what a good Dad. :)

This was the best picture, even with Preston's goofy face. Oh well!

Happy Father's Day Kyle! We are lucky to have you as a Dad and husband. The kids love it when he plays tickle monster with them. Kate likes her daddy daughter dates (which we should do more of), Preston likes it when he plays legos with him, Lindsey likes it when he reads to her and Chelsea likes it when he cuddles her. They all like it when he takes them on bike rides or motorcycle rides. We love you Kyle! 

Kate the Ballerina

Kate has enjoyed Ballet this year. She went to a different ballet studio, Reflections Dance Studio, and she liked it. It was also really close to our new house. Towards the end she was wanting to be done, but I kept pushing her because after all that hard work all year long she needs to be in the recital! She did a great job and we were proud of her. She has graceful movements and loves to dance all the time and always has. The dance studio is Christian based, which is nice because the costumes aren't inappropriate, but we were tired of all the cheesy Christian songs they played at the recital. We were so glad when they played "Happy" for the last dance and that was the most exciting one! There are good songs out there they could have used that would have been way better for the dances. 

Our fan club...Dee Ann, my Mom and Marci. We were so glad they could all come and support Kate.

A cute pic I snapped of Kate walking to her dress rehearsal the week before the actual recital. Why are tutus so cute?!

My friend Kati took these last two pictures and I'm glad she did because I didn't take any of the actual performance because I didn't know you could. :) This is Kate and Alyssa and usually Alyssa goes to this dance studio, but changed a few months ago so she wasn't in the same recital. Alyssa's younger sister Ashlynn was in the recital so they came. Not sure if Kate will continue with ballet. I see her more doing lyrical dance where it's more interpretive. She likes to free style dance. She also wants to do other sports like basketball and soccer so we might take a dance break for a bit. We'll see...

Preston's Field Trip and The Last Day of School

I got to go with Preston on his Kindergarten Field Trip to the Mukilteo Beach a few days before school was out. I sat with Preston and his friend Wilson Giles on the bus. They were excited to ride on a bus. My friend, Jenn Mize, watched Lindsey and Chelsea so I could go which was nice of her.

I had Wilson, Joshua and Preston in my group

We found lots of things, but here they are touching a tiny star fish on a rock 

This is their teacher, Ms Hooper, and she's telling them about the stuff they are finding.

We saw crabs and they would squirt water up in the air so the kids liked that.

Snack break after playing at the beach and on the playground.

The whole class together. This year they had a student teacher, Miss Kukina (I think) that joined their class. Ms Hooper was great with Preston. She was sensitive to his needs, but pushed him academically once she realized how smart he is. She told me he surprised her. She didn't realized he knew so much. :) By the end of the year he was reading in the 2nd grade level and doing much better with his handwriting. We were so proud of him. She was also firm with him and I think that was good for him so he learns to follow rules and knows about consequences. He liked her and was always happy to go to school. He was sad when he didn't have school!

Funny Face!

Preston on the last day of school. I teared up after telling Ms Hooper goodbye because it would be the last time we saw her since we had moved and would be going to a new school in the fall. I really liked their elementary school, Odyssey Elementary, and so did the kids. I'm nervous for a new school. The principal, Ms Boze, was amazing. She interacted with the students like none other. She knew most of their names and that was impressive. She came up to me at a school function towards the end of school once she heard we were moving and told me she was going to miss our family. How thoughtful of her to tell me that. I value principals because mine in High School was amazing, Mr. Cordell, so I really appreciate a good principal who reaches out to the kids. They also pushed Accelerated Reading program and I liked that along with teaching cursive (which I hear a lot of schools don't teach) and they had a math program the kids did at home. Good memories.

Kate on the last day of school. She was sad to say bye to friends and her teacher, Miss Johnson, but she was excited for summer break. 

I wanted a picture of the school and the lineup they do after school everyday just for memories. 

I took them to Menchies for an after school/ beginning of summer celebration treat. They were excited. Preston even likes it (he doesn't eat desserts much). I'd rather have a blizzard, but whatever. 

6-9-14: Happy 2nd Birthday Chelsea!!!

I made a Minnie Mouse cake for her using fondant. Chelsea will say "mouse" when she sees Minnie or Mickey and so we went with that. She's not super attached to anything right now and this looked cute on Pinterest. haha. 

Here she is surrounded by her siblings who are ready to help her rip that paper off and anxious to see what she gets. 

A broom!

A vacuum! What kind of presents are these? Actually, we were at Rick and Sunni's house (Kyle's aunt and uncle who live in Mattawa and where my kids love visiting whenever we are at my parents house) and Sunni had a mini toy dyson vacuum and Chelsea loved it. So I knew I had to get her one because what else do you get a 3rd girl and a 4th kid?!

The mess in the kitchen after dinner. I made chicken parmigiana and Cesar salad. 

The mess of the fondant making. I had to post these two messy pictures to remind me of what life was like on busy birthday days. 

Oh Chelsea! Happy 2nd Birthday! You are a character. You like to play with everything you're not supposed to like my makeup and fingernail polish. You climb onto the counters all the time to get things and you like to follow the big kids around. You are energetic and don't sit down much. You don't sit through a cartoon and hardly play with toys. But you do love to play outside, play in dirt, play at the beach, give hugs (after hitting or pushing someone which happens more than we like), ride motorcycles or four wheelers, swing, eat cookie dough, drink milk, eat at the bar with the big kids, copy what we say and play with babies and strollers. Your dark eyebrows, eyelashes and eyes are adorable and we love your smile. You make us laugh and make us go crazy all at the same time. We love you!

My Mom came for Kate's ballet recital and gave Chelsea her birthday gift. Chelsea had opened it and was separating the plates, cups and silverware by color. It was funny because I've never seen her do that before. My Mom and Dad gave her a white table with two little chairs and then play dishes with an apron my Mom made.

My Mom was putting it on and then...

Chelsea started getting mad and running away. She did not want it on. It was pretty funny to watch. 

Lipstick Stains, Flowers and Parks

Chelsea got into my makeup again and took my bright pink lip stain and smeared into the carpet on the stairs. I was not happy. I now store my makeup in my closet up on a high shelf. Annoying that I can't keep it under the sink in the bathroom like I have for years. Sigh. It did mostly come out. A pink hue to the carpet there, but I'm glad most of it came out. 

There's a common area in our neighborhood that is a big grassy area. We were playing there when Lindsey brought me a flower and I took this picture. I love it because it shows how she uses her hand to move her bangs out of her face and it shows her play ring she wore all day that day and she's smiling. She's a sweet girl, but can be a tease and be naughty pretty fast too. Her speech is getting better, but she's still tricky to understand. Some of her "L's" she pronounces with "Y" sound like "yegs" for "legs". It's funny and I'm hoping it'll correct over time. She has another year before kindergarten, she's almost 4 years old. I love her brown eyes and blonde hair. She likes to be held and doesn't really take naps anymore. She loves dolls and barbies and playing dress up. Oh and following Kate around when Kate's friends are over, which bugs Kate. ;) It reminds me of when I followed Jeni around when her friend Linda was over. Jeni was bugged too. See like mother like daughter!

We have been checking out all the parks around us. There are lots so it's fun to go try them out. We found this one in a neighborhood and had fun playing tag as a family. The kids were being goofy hanging on this bike rack and it totally shows their personalities. It cracks me up that Chelsea is hanging upside down because we call her Curious George sometimes so here she is hanging like a monkey. haha!

The Porch...Ugh

Our porch...this water damage issue turned out to be a bigger deal. We knew there was water damage when we moved in, but the contractor we had that looked at didn't think it would be that bad since it was a newer house. Well, it turned out to be worse than they ever thought it would be. After the first day of demolition I went outside to look and I said "oh this makes me sick to my stomach" and the guy, Mark, said "I would be too." Great. It was bad. Mark said when he first broke into the porch column tons of carpenter ants fell out. He said it was crazy. There were millions of them. Gross. They took 3 days to do the demolition and then we had to decide what kind of roof we wanted. We were just going to do the deck again, but then our contractor thought we could do a different porch, so our contractor had a friend come up with some drawings so we knew what the other roof options would look like. We were nervous to commit to something when we weren't sure we would like the curb appeal. We also had to get HOA approval so we chose the gabled roof and sent the HOA the drawings for approval. They accepted it and then we had to wait for the construction guys to have time to come back and get started. It took them about 7 or so days to do the porch. Then they had to come back a couple times to fix/finish some things. I was VERY glad to have my house back and no strangers in and out of my house to use the bathroom or work on the master bedroom area. I just wanted it to be done. We are happy with the result (other than the dark color of paint on the porch is a tad darker, but the other trim does need to be repainted which that's overwhelming to think about so I'll pretend it doesn't bug me.) We like the gabled roof better than the deck so that's a good change. We are glad we went with that because the design is a better fit for our wet climate. 

I had to get a picture of this craziness. Our friend, Chris Nelson, was cleaning our roof and gutters while the Frontier guy was hooking up the internet or tv- one of them. It was constant coordinating and people in and out for the first several weeks of moving. Sears had to come back to replace a broken fridge, but then they came to replace it and the replacement had a dent so they left then had to come back again another day. Then the dish tv people came, but couldn't hook up a dish b/c of the trees in the back yard. Ugh. Dumb trees. So now we have frontier tv and it's awful, but it's cheaper than comcast. Hopefully, we can get the trees down in the backyard someday. It was really crazy! I was seriously so glad to have my house to myself and not have to worry about people coming between 8-12 or 1-5. haha!

During the demo. I tried taking pictures often. It was a mess of black wood. Black wood isn't good. 

The master bedroom mess. They replaced the moldy sheetrock and sub floor in the corner where it was gone.

This is when the demo was complete. They had a little bit more to take out, but had to wait until they started reframing b/c it was structural pieces. I can't believe how much they ended up removing. It sat like this for well over a week or so until they could return to start building it back up. 

Starting the reframing process. Already looks clean and new!

There was a giant hole in the wall near the window so they patched that as well as patching two small holes in the master bathroom. We think they were exploratory holes where they were trying to find out where the water damage was coming from. I wonder how much the govt really knew about this water damage issue. When you buy a HUD home you don't get to ask for anything to be fixed so that's a bum deal when you come across something big like this. I just wonder if they knew something big was going on. 

It's coming together nicely!

All done! They finished mid June and I was so glad! It looks nice. We are glad to have this behind us. 

A picture I posted on facebook and instagram with the before/during/after pictures. Now back to work for me to pay for this work!