Bachelor/Bachelorette

There's a group of girls in my new ward and surrounding wards that get together to watch the Bachelor and Bachelorette shows at different girl's houses. It's fun to hang out and critique the show and give our opinions. Just silly stuff really. haha. But there is an Italian restaurant in Kirkland where these two past Bachelor/Bachelorette come and go around table to table answering questions. There are big screen TV's where you can watch the show. The food was pretty tasty and it was a fun experience. 

Here we are with Jason Mesnick, he was a Bachelor a while ago and lives in the Seattle area. His wife, Molly was home with a sick kid. I was sad because she is a radio host on a station I listen to and I wanted to meet her.

Here is Chris and he was chosen by Desiree when she was the Bachelorette. She was gone to California the night we were there. They were so patient with us as we asked our "very important" questions. It was a fun girl's night out.

Hiking and Basketball

One nice Saturday, we went to St. Edwards State Park in Kenmore to play and go on a little hike. We have been here before and have been wanting to bring the kids back. They have this huge play area like a castle and then hiking trails that lead down to Lake Washington. There is an old Catholic seminary building there that is really pretty. I think they mainly hold receptions or weddings there now. 

Kyle and the kids found this huge tree with a hideout. They had fun exploring. It was pretty chilly though. We were glad we had a hike to keep us warm. There were some crazy girls (from a different Stake) that were getting in the water! Brrrr! 

Kate was reading in the sun and it brought back memories of when I would gather lots of blankets and hover over a heater vent to have a cozy place to play/read. I love laying in the sun like this. 

Our view for not much longer...the land behind our house sold to a developer. There will eventually be about 28 homes back there. They like to cram them in tight over here. Ugh. The fence of our backyards is right off our deck so it's super close. We have two side yards (it's a wonky triangular lot) and so we will have neighbors like 10 feet away from our fence. Sad day. But with that comes the possibility that our two giant trees will come down in the backyard. I'm excited for that. Then we can actually fix the back yard and not have it look like a forest with inches of pine needles and pine cones. Yuck. 

Kate finished another season of basketball. We did it through Mill Creek Recreation this year. She had fun. She's brave to go on a team when she doesn't even know anyone. She makes friends pretty easy so that's a good thing. She tries hard in her games and is a good hustler. She got the "best listener" award for listening to her coaches at practices and games. They had a little party after the last game at the Boston's restaurant in the Mill Creek town center. Good job Kate!

Valentine's Day and Other Activities

Kyle took Kate to a daddy daughter dance held at the local high school. They went with Justin and Alyssa Owens. Kate was excited that I let her put some lip gloss and blush on to get dolled up. They had fun games and activities there for the kids. 

Our faucet sink broke. There was water all over the cabinet underneath the sink. Once we chose a faucet and it got here (thanks Amazon) then Kyle quickly installed it. For the few days I didn't have a kitchen faucet I realized how many times I wash or rinse my hands. 

Our winter has been really mild. We've had some nice warm days that we took advantage of. The kids like going to parks and so do I because it gets them out of the house and it's fun to visit different parks. 

For Valentine's Day a friend in our ward offered to watch people's kids for a the night for a small fee. We jumped at the chance and went out to dinner to a new steak restaurant, The Keg. It didn't look too fancy from the outside, but lots of people said it was really good. Well, it was delicious. The salads were delish and the steak was really good. We need to go back. 

For our February Relief Society activity we did a chocolate tasting along with speed friendship dating. The lady that did the chocolate tasting has done it before in different wards she's been in. It was a popular activity. We had a great turnout and we discovered there is more to chocolate than Hershey's chocolate. haha. Some of it was disgusting and some of it was pretty good. The friendship speed dating was fun. The ladies has a couple minutes to answer questions that I had printed off and put in the middle of the table. After the time was up they moved seats and went to the next person. It was fun watching their interactions, their hand gestures and hearing their laughter. 

Randomness

Lindsey and Chelsea playing with Preston. Cute. We have 11:00am Church this year and I'm loving it. I like taking my time in the morning and getting home in time for Chelsea to get a nap. It's a little tricky because it's during lunch, but I just bring snacks for the kids to tie them over until we get home.

Preston lost another tooth before we left for Church. He looks like a cute jack-o-lantern. Such a funny stage. It makes me laugh seeing his smile. He doesn't hardly flinch when I pull out his teeth. When he falls down though and gets hurt he shrieks and screams and is in pain forever (low pain threshold) so it's interesting to me that getting his teeth pulled out don't phase him. However, Kate is tough, but is more scared getting her teeth pulled out. Ironic.

I spy Lindsey. It was pretty empty when we were there that morning which was awesome. I took Chelsea and Lindsey to the Children's museum last week. Preston said he was going to stay home from school so he could go. Uh, no you're not buddy! haha. Last year they redid the water room and they did a good job with the details. I love all the pipes and faucet looking lever things along the ceiling. So cute. 

I always line up the guards when giving haircuts. I want to make sure I grab the right one! 

My parents came over to see Marci then came up to spend the night with us and go to Kate's basketball game on Saturday before heading home. Marci joined us for the game and for dinner. We had fun hanging out, shopping at Costco Business and Home Goods, the guys went to a movie and then we went out to eat at Blazing Onion after Kate's game. It was fun to have them come. I needed their visit. It had been since Christmas when we saw them last. The kids were excited to have them around. My Mom always tries to help out when she comes like making all our beds while we are getting ready in the morning. So nice. 

My Mom brought some old piano books and this one is a classic. Family B doesn't know these songs because they were too young, but Marci, Jeni and I were in this skit/play based on the Safety Kids. My mom played the Telephone Song so Marci and I were singing to the part we knew (the part where you repeat your phone number) and Kyle was looking at us like we were crazy. hahaha! Marci and I thought it was funny that it's called "Safety Kids" yet all these kids are yelling out their telephone numbers. That wouldn't happen nowadays! How safe is that?!

Seahawk Super Bowl

We went to a pre Super Bowl party with some friends at the Watson's house. It was a fun night. We played some games against other couples and had a yummy dinner. Each couple was to bring a game to play so I made a football field out of construction paper and we played paper football using trivia questions. The next day the Seahawks played the Patriots in Super Bowl 49 and unfortunately, the Seahawks didn't win in the last 20 seconds like they should have. It was devastating. So much to me that I lost sleep that night. Kind of silly, but it happened. I kept rethinking of that last play. Ugh. It makes me sad to think how hard they worked to get to that point and to have it in their reach then lose it. The next morning, I listened to talk radio on the way to the gym and that helped me a little. Listening to coach Pete Carroll explain the reasoning behind passing vs running the ball was somewhat helpful too. It still is heartbreaking they didn't win, but hopefully next year they will be successful too.

Bikes

Lindsey loves to play dress up and this time she matched her doll. So cute when they match!

Lindsey takes speech for articulation once a week through the school district. Here she is coloring her speech "homework". She takes it very seriously and when the older kids pull out their homework she hurries and gets hers. She loves going to speech and her SLP is great with her. I can't believe I just registered her for Kindegarten! 

Preston had a bike and hardly rode it so we got rid of it. Lately, he was riding Lindsey's (it's too small for him) and was taking an interest in riding a bike again. So we looked on Craigslist and found this one for $25! Score! I hope he rides this one more than he did with his old one. He has a gross motor skill delay so things like this are more challenging for him. Good thing he's persistent and keeps trying. He does get tired quickly though. When we go on family bike rides, Kyle gets to pull him and Chelsea in the trailer. I know Kyle would be ecstatic if Preston learned to ride his own bike. :)

Chelsea will pedal down the hill on her little bike and then it tips over from going to fast. She's a wild one and tries to keep up with older siblings.

Lindsey likes riding her bike and likes her cowgirl boots. Kate was off riding her electric scooter.

I was running errands one day and it was sunny and beautiful so I had to take a picture. I love all the mountains and snow capped mountains in the distance. You have to look past the traffic and roads and signs...

I purposely went to Target in Canada to get different kinds of chips you can't buy in the U.S. Well, what do I see at Winco 10 minutes away from my house? Yes, dill pickle chips. No way! We didn't like them enough to buy them again, but funny I didn't know you could buy them here.