Tuesday, May 26, 2009

And it begins...

It has been a week (or two rather) of firsts in our house!! The biggest news being Troy started to crawl...finally. He's been scooting around for quite a few weeks now, but he took the plunge and started crawling the "correct" way. He's still pretty hesitant and content to just sit in one spot and play, which is fine by us!! But he does get curious once in a while and ventures to new places. He has already shut his fingers in drawers several times. Time to get more child locks! Life will never be the same. Bring it on! :)

Brooklyn is beyond thrilled that Troy can now get into all of her toys and things. :)Troy makes this cute face and says, "Oooh," when he sees or hears something new. Goof ball
Another first for our little household, was our first official over-night guest. Erik's best friend Troy (Troy's name-sake!) came into town for a couple days. We had a blast stuffing our faces at Red Mill Burger's & Denny's (Yumm! haha). The boys hit a Mariners v. Red Sox game, while I enjoyed putting the kids to bed early and falling asleep on the couch at 7:30. I have no idea what makes me so dang tired...oh ya, maybe it's the almost 2 year old and 9 month old?! And we of course hit up Pike's Market for some yummy sampling. Can't come to Seattle without going to the market!
They have an interesting "friend-ship." Ha haAnd yet another milestone, Brooklyn has officially graduated into Disney movies and put aside her possessiveness with Barney (THANK HEAVENS!!!). So we now watch "The Little Mermaid" a couple times a day. Don't judge me. She likes it! And I enjoy having "Mermaid" songs in my head MUCH better than Barney songs. Oh happy day!!

The next "first" is a little disturbing. So, we have this big window in the front of our house. Well, it just so happened our good friend Curtis was in town for the day, and telling us about his Grandmother's house with the huge front window where birds would fly into it all the time. He asked, "Have you had any birds fly into your window?" to which we replied, "Why no Curtis, we haven't. Only big honey bees and flies." Well, I kid you not, the next day, our first bird flew into our window. And no, I didn't just clean the window. The little bird crashed into the window, bounced off, and landed in the branches of our rodendrum tree. He was fine. Two days later, I hear a CRASH against the window and look outside and see a fairly large bird laying on it's back, panting. The poor little bird hobbled under a little bush for protection and proceeded to breathe heavily. I thought, "Should I call the vet or something?! What the heck should I do with this poor bird!!" It was obviously suffering. But being the germ-a-phobe that I am, I wasn't about to touch the thing. So I just continued to check on it every few minutes. I thought maybe it would fly away eventually, but when I checked on him after about 30 minutes, he had hobbled under the bush for more protection, but this time he wasn't moving. The poor little bird died. I felt terrible. So now, 5 days later, it's still sitting there. Erik doesn't want to touch it, nor do I. Uncle Mike, will you come dispose of our bird please? We know you don't mind touching dead birds! Ha
Troy has found a new favorite toy...the sippy cup. He thinks it's the greatest thing ever, and don't you DARE even try to pry it from his fingers. He will SCREAM bloody murder. We find it very interesting how easily he has adapted to it since Brooklyn had a hard time with a sippy at first. She was just so used to a squishly bottle nipple I guess. But it's fun to watch him drink it. And even more fun watching his little big sister try and take it from him. What ever did we do for entertainment before we had kids?!
Like the hair? Ya, Erik thought this would make a good impression on our new ward. Nice. Brooklyn was SO excited to get woken up from her peaceful slumber to go to church.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

It's little, it's old, it's cute, and it's OURS!!!...

Or, at least it will be in 30 years! Yup, that's right, Erik and I finally took the plunge and bought our first house here in the Seattle area. We really enjoy it up here and decided it was time to plant our roots. The market just happened to be perfect for our small budget. We found a cute little "fixer-upper" in the Renton Highlands, just a few miles from our apartment. We even have a view of Lake Washington and downtown Seattle! OK, so the view will probably disappear once all the trees fill in, but still! Anyway, we're pretty proud and excited to be home-owners. Someday I'll get all the boxes unpacked and the pictures put up on the wall, etc., and then maybe I'll post some pictures. Here's one of the outside at least. We even got our first visitors the day we moved! My sister Heather and her family came into town for the day for Don's (my bro-in-law) nephew's wedding. Brooklyn had a blast following Carmen around, or should I say BOSSING Carmen around! Oh, and did I mention that Carmen is 11? Yup, she's a little sweetie to let a little "almost" 2 year old tell her what to do! Anyway, fun times seeing them. Thanks again for coming guys!Lots of heavy lifting! Show those guns boys!The sustanance. Brookyn and Troy really didn't seem to mind the chaos, they embraced it. Our first family photo in front of our house. Yes, we know we look hot after a day of moving.Can you see the lake? The first mow. Erik is so thrilled I'm taking pictures! Heather, Carmen, Brooklyn, Don, and Troy. How's that elephant taste Troy?Cousin Carmen...how precious is this?! Brooklyn was so sad when she left.Cousin Shawn and Troy.Me, Brooklyn, Carmen, Troy, and Don.Shawn and Brian. Just proof Brian was there too. :)The next big occasion was my 29Th birthday. So for all of you who forgot, next year is my big
3-0. Oh yes, I'm excited! I will be expecting lots of chocolate, flowers, MONEY, gift-cards, condolences, you get the idea. So mark your calendars for May 4Th 2010. This year was a great birthday. My two favorite girls surprised me with breakfast. Then the kiddos and I met Erik for a little birthday lunch at one of my favorite lunch places, Panera Bread. Erik brought home Chipotle (another favorite!) for dinner, along with a HUGE double chocolate cake, and strawberries. We had cake and ice-cream with the Rigtrups and Bakers. It was our first "get-together" in our "new" house! Fun! And there weren't even any casualties, so it was a success. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. Ahh well, there's always next year!

Blowing out my candle on the yummy coffee cake!Today for a little break from unpacking and yard-work, we took advantage of the beautiful sunshine and headed down to Coulon beach. Brooklyn and Troy had a fun little joint adventure in a swing (I'm sure all the parents were wondering what the heck we were doing). But the kids loved it! Tandem swinging is the way to go, you only have to push one swing! Oh, and we were taking a walk on the dock and passing the boats "moored" there and Brooklyn spotted a ski boat with some kids in it, proceeded to say "my boat" and try to climb in. She really thought it was hers. It's destiny. Time to get a boat I guess. Whatever Brooklyn wants, she gets!! :)
Double swingin'!They loved it!Check out that hair! Weeee!So there's our week in a nut-shell. We have our first overnight guest this weekend ("Uncle" Troy). I hope he doesn't mind sleeping in the midst of boxes. But we're very excited to have him! Erik is like a giddy little boy before the first Yankee's game of the season. What? Not every little boy gets giddy before the Yankee's play? Hmmm, thought that was normal. :) More to come on all that later, I'm sure. It's always a party when Troy is around!

Just too cute not to post. He's such a sweet baby.
Umm Troy, are you stuck?

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

American Gladiators

http://www.nbc.com/app2/americangladiators/view.php?imgURL=51383818r.jpg

http://www.nbc.com/app2/americangladiators/view.php?imgURL=67994302r.jpg