The Holmans

First Day of Preschool

2011-09-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

where does the time go? i can hardly believe that my baby boy is 4 and in preschool! he has been waiting for this day for months, and was so excited to finally get to go to school. he put on his backpack and let me take some pictures before he decided that he didn't want to take it since there was nothing in it. duh mom.

this is camdin, blake's BFF......another reason blake was so excited to start school. here they are right before going in.

we went in, got to check out his cubby, and get his name tag.

this is his spot, right across from Camdin (we'll see how long that lasts :) and right behind his other good friend Ella. they started painting right away, and he hardly even looked up to say goodbye to me. i started getting a little teary eyed, so it was a perfect time to leave!

blake, camdin, and ella right after school. they all had a great time and loved every minute of it. they learned about turtles and got to play outside (according to blake). i am so proud of my big boy and so happy that he loves school. i am also so grateful that he has such great friends to learn and grow with!

BLAKE TURNED 4

2011-06-20T00:01:00.001-07:00

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

BEST.DADS.EVER.

2011-06-19T16:16:00.001-07:00

Adam turns 2

2011-04-03T22:30:00.001-07:00

adam's year in review..... not in sequential order, i'm too lazy!

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exodus to the promised land

2011-03-09T20:15:00.000-08:00

aka... our flight home from London.

our day started about 6am (for jonathan and i anyways), we finished all the last minute packing and were ready for the car to pick us up at 9. a friend of mine made the boys these backpacks for them to carry their toys in (don't worry, i saved room in my bag because i knew it wouldn't last that long)

here are the boys saying 'bye' and blowing kisses to our London flat

since being in London we had only ridden in a car about 3 times, so the boys were pretty excited to be sitting in a car!

7 large suitcases and 3 carry-ons... not bad for 6 months right!? all of our suitcases were over weight (imagine that) but thanks to jonathan's connections at the airport we didn't pay a dime (or pence).

the boys were SO excited to be going on an airplane, seeing pa, grandma, and t, and going to our red house that they were complete angels.... yes i wrote that correctly, they were amazing travelers, exceeded all my wildest expectations. here they are playing with some toys before we boarded the plane for a 10 1/2 hour flight!

here we all are finally on the airplane, it was 1pm, which happens to be adam's naptime.... he fell asleep before we even took off and slept for a couple hours!

they were SO good on the plane, i was SO proud of them... they slept, ate snacks, colored, and watched movies the entire time (blake did enjoy going potty on the plane a little too much.... a few trips to the bathroom without even going tinkles! and i have to say that i got pretty good at changing diapers in that TINY room!) we didn't have any major meltdowns, no ear pressure problems, time went by fairly quickly.... like i said, beyond my expectations!

adam and i watching a movie while blake slept....

no pictures in between flights, no time, we barely made our connection... we were the last ones on the plane. by the time we landed in dallas it was almost midnight London time, everything went smoothly we just had a short layover....luckily no bags were lost, no kids were lost, the drug sniffing dog didn't find anything, and the customs people didn't ask us any questions.

as soon as we got settled on the plane blake pretty much passed out and looked like this the entire flight: (what a champ!)

on the other hand this crazy boy was awake until about an hour before we landed!

the 4 hour flight from dallas to seattle seemed like a puddle jump.... we could hardly wait to get off the plane, we practically ran to baggage claim so we could see everyone. i think we all cried a little when we saw each other again, it was so nice to be home! (i know my sister and mom took some pictures... i'll have to get them and add them later)

we grabbed all our bags, which happened to be the first ones out probably because they were the last ones on the plane... but none were lost (that was definitely a miracle)! pa brought his truck per request from blake... he had been talking for weeks about riding with pa in his truck, which actually worked out great because we wouldn't have been able to fit us and all the luggage in the van!

i can't even tell you how good it felt to walk in our front door... when blake saw our red house he had the BIGGEST smile on his face and was SO excited! my parents were amazing and set up all our beds, filled our fridge and cupboards, and had fresh baked cookies waiting!

we were truly blessed to have the opportunity to live in London, we had the most amazing time, and were a little sad to see our time come to an end.... we made lifelong friends and memories!

WE ARE SO HAPPY TO BE HOME!!

2011-01-31T13:55:00.000-08:00

this weekend we rented a car and headed west.....

first stop: STONEHENGE

i'm glad we went, it was pretty cool to see.... a little weird because it's in the middle of NOWHERE, nothing around but grass and a few sheep, but the view was amazing!

jonathan has a cousin that lives near Bath and we were lucky enough to stay with them for a few days. we had a great time with them, they were so great to let us invade their house and show us around.... not to mention the amazing food they cooked for us!!

our next stop of the weekend: BATH

Pulteney Bridge

Bath Abbey

Roman Baths

us at the Roman Baths

Roman Baths

for all you Jane Austen fans.....

The Circus

Adam was able to squeeze in a little nap during all of our sight seeing

The Royal Crescent

after sightseeing in Bath, Denise and Joe took us to a little park near their house for the boys to get out some energy..... the nice thing about parks in the winter is that we get them all to ourselves!

they had these great little pedal tractors that the boys loved

the next day Denise and Joe took us to the CUTEST little village i have ever seen.... apparently they have filmed a few movies here (The Wolfman to name one)!

our last stop: Castle Combe

St. Andrews church- it has a working medieval clock inside

Manor House Hotel- super fancy

at least we're all looking at the camera.... that's the best i can do!

giant chess board next to the hotel

Castle Combe- so picturesque

we had such an amazing weekend, Denise and Joe live in such a beautiful area and we had so much fun spending time with them and seeing the countryside!

ps. jonathan did much better with the car this time! :)

recent activities

2011-01-25T09:21:00.001-08:00

cousin Rachel came to visit.... we went to the Hard Rock Cafe (the original)

hard rock

toured the tower of london

toured westminster abbey (thanks to bryn for watching the kids all day so we could go!)

big ben by night

engine room of tower bridge (we also went across the top)

st. pauls

view from the top of st. pauls (we climbed A LOT of stairs)

took a walk along the south bank on a sunny january day

LES MISERABLES!!

us at Les Mis (we also saw Dirty Dancing, it wasn't great, but worth it because i LOVE the movie!)

trafalgar square at night.... we went to the national gallery and national portrait gallery, both were pretty amazing

the palace at night

PARIS

2011-01-20T14:30:00.000-08:00

while my cousin rachel was here visiting we got to take a short 2 day trip to Paris!! we flew out early in the morning and came home late the next evening, so we could maximize our time. we were lucky to make our flight however.... we had to take the train to the airport and we missed the one we wanted by literally seconds, so we had to wait 20 min for the next one. i didn't think it would be a big deal since we didn't have any luggage to check and we had printed our boarding passes. WRONG! the line through security was FOREVER long, when we finally got through the board said 'final boarding call' for our flight which was a 15 min walk to the gate. so i RAN, and we made it, barely.

the first thing we did after we checked into our TINY hotel room (i really didn't care, it was cheap, and for one night.... it was clean and that's all that mattered!) was go on a river cruise down the Seine to get acquainted with the city.

here is our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, when we first got there it was so foggy we could only see about half of it.

after the river cruise our first stop was the musee d'orsey. beautiful museum, it was an old train station, so the inside was amazing!

after the orsay, we headed to the Louvre, this picture doesn't even do it justice, this is only part of one side of the 'U' shaped museum.... it was crazy big, i had no idea! we could have easily spent ALL our time here and not even seen a fraction of it.

anyone seen the da vinci code????

it seemed so weird to me that you were allowed to take pictures in this museum, so i didn't take many.... but here SHE is....

by the time we were done museum hopping, it was dark, and so beautiful!

the Eiffel Tower.... it is SO much prettier at night! :)

it was a lot bigger than i expected, and once we got to the second level, it was a lot higher than i expected.... (we would've gone to the top, but it was closed because of wind)

rach and i

the arc de triumph

do we look tired yet?? we were.... and we were so busy sight seeing that we hadn't eaten a thing ALL day! so we walked down Champs Elysees and grabbed some bread from a bakery (heaven) and headed back to the hotel.

the next morning we had a wonderful breakfast of crepes and croissants.... and ran into St. Michaels fountain

Notre Dame.... besides the Eiffel Tower this was probably my favorite!

the inside was amazingly beautiful!

this is a view of it from the other side

next we took a walk down Ru De Rivoli (and did some souvenir shopping) towards Concorde Square which is where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were guillotined!

also in Concorde Square was the Paris ferris wheel (no where near as cool as the london eye, sorry)

we found this bridge totally by accident.... it has thousands of locks all over it, symbolizing peoples love for one another and commitment to each other..... they all have initials and names on them, very cool. i wish i would've known, i could have added mine!

one of the last things we saw before we headed to the airport was the Opera (as in the building, we didn't actually go to an opera :)

we had another eventful experience getting home.... we took the wrong train towards the airport and had to get off and switch trains twice until we finally got on the right one, fortunately we had learned from previous mistakes and left in PLENTY of time..... only to have our flight home delayed by 2 hours. which isn't really a long time, but the trains back to central London do NOT run 24 hours a day! i think there was only one train coming after the one we got on to get back home.... again, we barely made it, but we made it!

we had an amazing trip, Paris was wonderful, and i had tons of fun with my cousin! thanks rach for coming to visit!!

3rd times the charm?

2011-01-10T13:33:00.000-08:00

i have tried twice now to go see Les Miserables, and twice i have NOT seen it! the first time kaitlyn and i went to get tickets and they were sold out.... well, we could have either sat on opposite sides of the theater and not seen the top of the stage, or sit together and only see half the stage, so we didn't go. to avoid that problem my cousin and i booked tickets in advance and when we showed up today the show had been CANCELLED because of a power failure!! what the heck! we re-booked for tomorrow night.... my fingers are crossed, but i'm not getting my hopes up!

Christmas in Rome

2011-01-06T01:16:00.000-08:00

this year we got to spend christmas in ROME!! jonathan was able to get a 4 day weekend, so we left on the evening of the 23rd, and returned on the 27th! we had the most amazing time!

it didn't start out so amazing however.... i will spare you all the details and emotions and just tell you that when i took the picture below it was nearly 11pm, we didn't have our luggage, jonathan wasn't with us, and these two were about 5 min from meltdown.

to keep a long story short, we went out the wrong exit and ended up on the wrong side of security without our bags, jonathan went to go find them (it took FOREVER)... they lost our stroller, and both kids fell asleep on me while i was standing up (holding adam and blake leaning on me trying not to fall off the cart).

we then took a cab to our hotel because the trains weren't running anymore---it was nearly 1:30 by this time. luckily we had the most amazing hotel room, and i was able to forget all my problems! :)

DAY 1 Christmas Eve-

we got a hop on/hop off bus tour for the 3 days we were there to use as our transportation. so the first day we just stayed on the whole time and saw the sights from the bus.

Santa Maria Maggiore

Palantine Hill- one of the most ancient parts of the city

national monument of Victor Emmanuel II- the first kind of a unified Italy (we walked through it a couple days later)

we saw a lot more that day, but it was raining, and we went back to lots of places.... so the pictures are below! for our christmas eve dinner we had pizza and pasta- SO yummy!

Day 2 Christmas Day-

we went to St. Peter's Square in Vatican City to hear the Pope give his Christmas message (in several languages!) it was an amazing sight, st. peters is beautiful, there were tons and tons of people, and the sun even peaked out!

the boys in front of St. Peters

Pope Benedict XVI (this is actually the second time we've seen him, he made a visit to London earlier this year!)

this was a common occurrence on the bus, i was determined to see Rome no matter how wet we got, the umbrella actually worked really well!

of course snacks were a must to keep the boys happy (all 3 of them)

here we are at the Spanish Steps

the Trevi Fountain- seriously amazing and beautiful!

our first Gelato.... in the rain.... at the Trevi Fountain

Christmas dinner was more pizza!

Day 3-

the sun finally came out and it was a gorgeous day!

THE COLOSSEUM!!!!

arch of constantine

my little gladiators

so so so happy!

more pizza... what can i say- 'when in rome!'

the Pantheon... again, amazing!

a little ticked that half of it had scaffolding, but still very cool!

more gelato... this kind was my favorite, it was mint

drinking fountain, we were having lots of fun with this.....

we had such a great time, Rome is such an amazing city. i took over 300 pictures, so it was REALLY hard to narrow it down (if you want to see more some of them are on Facebook), but we saw TONS more things... these were just a few of the highlights.

christmas party

2010-12-29T07:13:00.000-08:00

this year we had the opportunity to go to a children's Christmas party at the home of the US ambassador to the UK, Louis Susman and his wife! let me clarify 'home'- they live in the Winfield House, which is the second largest private garden in central London, next to Buckingham Palace! (google it, it's pretty amazing, and has a very interesting history....)
anyways, we had a fantastic evening, the house was decorated beautifully, with a couple of Christmas trees, and other decorations. there was a ton of food, and those guys who stand around with trays of drinks, super fancy. the ambassador and his wife greeted each of us personally, they were very nice and gave the boys high fives!

the boys in front of one of the trees, they were too busy looking at the ornaments to look at the camera... oh well.

this is blake standing in line to sit on santa's lap, he was SO excited, it was adorable!

blake could hardly contain his excitement, adam was more interested in the tree, but at least he didn't cry.

another beautiful tree

ambassador susman read 'twas the night before Christmas' to all the children

jonathan and blake

me and adam

after the story we all sang Christmas carols.... and the boys danced! (yes, blake has his boots on, there was 3 inches of snow outside!)

our family in front of the tree... all looking at the camera.... it's a Christmas miracle! :)

christmas cards....

2010-12-22T23:50:00.000-08:00

.... are so not happening this year. SORRY! even at home, with all my resources available, i still struggle every year to get them out. which makes sending them from here pretty much impossible for me. i did get as far as making one on snapfish.com, but they never got ordered, and it costs almost $1 to send each one, (not that you're all not worth it), it's just another excuse! Here's the picture I was going to use at least....

we are grateful for each of you in our lives!

Happy Christmas from the Holmans!

London- Round 4

2010-12-20T04:30:00.000-08:00

my baby sister came to visit us in November... it is her 4th time to London! with us living here, how could she NOT come, right!? i heard a rumor that they were thinking of giving her dual citizenship, or maybe hiring her to be a tour guide. :)

anyways, she got in around 2 in the afternoon, the boys were SO excited to see her, they showed her around the house, all their toys, their beds, etc, etc, she hardly had time to sit down. she was worried if she sat down she would fall asleep, so we decided to go do something 'london-y' and try to keep her up for a few hours.

the first thing i did was have her take a picture of all 4 of us- since most of our pictures are of 3 of us at a time :)

we went to see big ben, parliament, and Westminster abbey

another family picture

she stayed for a little over a week, and we had a TON of fun. it was nice for me to have her here to go shopping with, see the sights, and just hang out with. almost every night after jonathan got home from work, her and i would go out and play. she also watched the boys one night so jonathan and i could go on our first date in about 3 months!

we did lots of shopping, and walking

we went to see Wicked, it was amazing, phenomenal, fantastic, best show ever!

we all went to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park... giving auntie some lovin'

she was here for thanksgiving, which we had at our friends house, we had a lot of fun, and great food!

and of course PLENTY of play time! marilyn is so great with the boys, she loves them so much, and it shows! they completely adore her too, she is always so much fun to play with!

some other things that we did, that i don't have pictures for were:

-a visit to Highgate, where she lived when she was going to school here, complete with dinner at her favorite pub.

-changing of the guards at Buckingham palace, and a glimpse of the queen as she was leaving the palace!

-Portobello market

- Jack the Ripper walking tour

-shopping at Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Street, Regents Street, PRIMARK

-Harrods

-lots and lots and lots of walking

i feel so grateful to have such an amazing sister, I'm so glad that we're so close, we had so much fun together! it was hard to watch her leave!

thanks for coming to visit 't,' blake and adam were in heaven (they miss you tons), we love you lots!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY!!

PACKAGES

2010-12-18T00:38:00.000-08:00

have i ever mentioned that my boys have the best grandparents in the world!? since we've been here we've received a package from them almost every other week! they have everything from dryer sheets, and mapleine (for syrup, since it cost almost $9 for a TINY glass jar of it!) to crafts, fruit roll-ups, mac & cheese, crystal light (because the water isn't that great here) and holiday decorations (the list could go on....). but it really wouldn't matter what is IN the package, just getting to open it and see what pa and grandma sent is SO exciting! :) my sister and her boyfriend sent one too, filled with toys for the boys! we are so spoiled!

of course they always include some licorice for me, since it's my favorite and i can't find it anywhere here!

fruit snacks and decorations

glow sticks for halloween

sock puppets!!

the coolest finger paint ever... it's clear until you put it on the special paper, then the color shows up... NO MESS!!

tons of stickers... including these Noah's Arc ones, great for a little FHE

airplane fans

since we couldn't bring very many toys for the boys, auntie marilyn sent some over, they were SO excited to have new things to play with!

in this last package were 3 books for the boys that my parents recorded themselves reading! they open them up and get to hear pa and grandma read them stories.... they absolutely LOVE them, and listen to them ALL the time. blake likes to talk back to 'grandma & pa' when they're reading, like when grandma says, "it's time to turn the page" blake says, "ok grandma, i will." or when pa says, "we're going to read you Frosty the Snowman, how about that?" blake says, "oh yeah, that would be great."

thank you pa and grandma, we love you!!!

likely story

2010-12-09T11:05:00.000-08:00

the reason that i haven't been blogging is because we've been too busy playing with THESE GUYS!

and last week we were having too much fun with this girl:

lots of updates coming soon.....

christmas lights & lord mayor's show

2010-11-17T05:24:00.000-08:00

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

every year in London the switching on of Christmas lights in the West End marks the beginning of the Christmas season, various streets turn on their lights along with performers, carolers, and celebrities. between last week and this week it seems like there is a street lighting every night! last week we were able to go to the Regents Street lighting, and it was amazing! there were TONS of people, it was freezing cold, and Hamleys had fake snow blowing off their roof- it really felt like Christmas!

not only were there lights over head, but also many of the stores along Regents and Oxford (two major shopping streets) had lights on their buildings and beautiful window displays.

we had a lot of fun walking around looking at all the lights, hearing Christmas music, and just being together!

LORD MAYOR'S SHOW

on saturday the boys and i went with another family (who we totally adore!) to see the Lord Mayor's parade & fireworks. every year the newly elected Mayor makes his way from the Mansion House to the Royal Courts of Justice to pledge allegiance to the Crown... this tradition has been going on for nearly 800 years!! the parade was awesome, we all loved it! we were planning on going to see the fireworks, but got stuck in traffic on the bus and missed it! so instead we met up with jonathan (which was no small feat--trying to find him on a street with a million people and a wife who is sometimes directionally challenged, made it a little difficult), then we went out for pizza with our friends. it was the best day ever... i could not have done it without the help of Bryn, Nate, and their boys! Thanks guys, we had a blast!!

Lord Mayor Michael Bear

the best morning

2010-11-04T08:18:00.000-07:00

we went for a walk this morning and this is what we saw

with the leaves changing and the sun shining the park was the perfect place to be

i had so much fun with these two boys

we ran

we jumped

we played red light/green light

we climbed up and down the big hill

we kicked the soccer ball

we played catch with the soccer ball

we played with sticks

we popped bubbles

we sang songs

we spun until we fell down

we raced

we ate crackers

we laughed- a lot

i am so grateful that i get to be a mom to these two amazing little boys

days like these remind me why i have the best job in the world!

Toy Story Halloween

2010-11-01T08:34:00.000-07:00

Halloween isn't a very big deal in London, so there weren't quite as many festivities this year as usual, but the church did put on a Halloween party and trick or treat for the kids! It was a fantastic party, the boys had a great time.... I wish I would've taken more pictures!

Here's WOODY:

and MR. POTATO HEAD:

unfortunately this picture was not taken AFTER the party, but before... on the bus (they were way too hopped up on sugar on the way home to sleep!)

Toy Story fanatics!

they had some cute crafts for the kids, cookie decorating, cake walk, games, gunny sack races, doughnuts on a string, etc, etc....

and the best part... a JUMPY CASTLE!

this was the hit of the party for my kids!

if there is a ball anywhere in the room... adam will find it, he did pretty good throwing it into the net

the trick or treating part was done in the classrooms (since there aren't many cars, and no parking lot.... there was no trunk or treat)... a bunch of doors were decorated and kids could go knock on them and trick or treat! I was too busy taking the boys around to take pictures, but they had fun!

Primrose Hill & London Zoo

2010-10-26T02:43:00.000-07:00

PRIMROSE HILL

on sunday afternoon we decided to take a walk to Primrose Hill, the actual hill and surrounding area is just north of Regent's Park (which we live on the south side of). it was a beautiful walk, the leaves are starting to change, but the grass is still so green. from the top of the hill you get a clear view of central london all the way to the London Eye & Thames River... as well as the sunset.

here is a view from the top (sorry, the quality isn't the best)

the boys walking up the hill (blake for the second time, the first time we ran up together, part of which he was on my back!)

me and my guys

(don't worry, we got his hair cut the next day! :)

ahhh.... the sunset

LONDON ZOO

jonathan had monday off and it was SUNNY outside so we decided to go to the zoo. so did everyone else in London. apparently it's a school holiday week, so there were tons of people there. once we got in it was fine, but we stood in line for a good 45 min. it was worth it though, the boys had a great time, and it was a beautiful day! (unfortunately i forgot to charge my camera before we left, so i only got a few pictures before it died)

the zoo is also on the north end of Regent's Park, so we walked...

i love these cut-out things, but this one is SO fitting! the monkeys were adam's favorite, he loved watching them swing, jump, run, and chase eachother around. and he would growl at them if they looked his way :)

blake's favorite were the zebras and giraffes

i love these boys!

of course we had to take a ride on the safari jeep!

and this is where my camera died... we saw tons of other animals, and had a great time together!

Brighton

2010-10-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

For our first trip out of London we decided to go to Brighton, a little city on the south coast of England. We spent 2 days and 2 nights walking around the city, visiting Drusillas Zoo and Park, driving through the countryside, and relaxing in the hotel. It was a fantastic weekend. Here is a little bit (or a lot a bit) about our adventure.

It was beautiful:
(i did not take these pictures, because my camera is not capable, BUT it did look EXACTLY like this)

The pier extends out 524 meters (that's a little over 1700 feet for us Americans!) over the water, and is full of shops, restaurants, arcades, and has a huge carnival at the end.

We rode the train into Brighton on Thursday evening and spent the night in a hotel along the waterfront. The next morning we planned to rent a car and take the kids to Drusillas Park (a zoo, playground, Thomas the Train park, and much, much more...).

This is where the real fun begins:

here is Jonathan... with the steering wheel on the right, driving on the left.......in a manual none the less (because he was too cheap to spring for the automatic)! with the odds stacked against him, we somehow made it out of the parking lot and on the road. 40 minutes and 2 or 3 car stalls later (one of which was in the middle of a round about.) we finally made it to Drusillas Park:

we walked through the zoo part first. it was an incredible zoo, very interactive and educational, perfect for kids... in fact we saw a couple school groups going through as well. the boys had a great time looking at all the different animals, and touching and playing with everything along the way.

couldn't pass up this little gem.... (what an appropriate look on Adam's face... "my dad is such a dork.")

.... that's more like it

after the zoo part, we ventured into the gigantic park area... this was hands down the most amazingly fun park I've ever seen. endless slides, jungle gyms, swings, zip lines, trampolines, mazes, the list could go on, seriously, it was incredible.

this wasn't even half of the park... SO FUN!

i had to throw this one in there, i thought it was cute that blake wanted to catch daddy when he came out of the slide

Now we come to what originally attracted us to this park... Thomas the Train

i was a bit disappointed in the lack of actual 'Thomas' stuff to do (their website was quite misleading), but the boys were not... which is ALL that matters! They got to ride around the park in Thomas' coaches, see some other Thomas characters, and of course there was a huge gift shop, but that was about it.

they loved it!

After we left the park we decided to go for a drive and let Adam take a nap. We didn't realize that we ALL miss having a car... they both fell right asleep and we enjoyed the drive. We started driving toward a little town that a taxi cab driver had told Jonathan about just to see some of the countryside, and it was gorgeous, like really gorgeous... green rolling hills, leaves changing on the trees, old beautiful houses (with the occasional CASTLE in the middle of nowhere). As we got further into the towns the roads got more and more narrow, and were lined with walls of shrubs cut to the exact width of the road. People were driving SO fast toward us and riding our bumper from behind. I was sitting on the wrong side of the car and it seemed that we were going to crash at any moment. Between Jonathan's staring out the window at the country side and veering into either the wall of shrubs or oncoming traffic i thought i might either throw up or have a heart attack. 2 hours later after my body was trying to recover from continuous surges of adrenaline i was spent... so much for a relaxing drive through the country!

AS WRITTEN BY JONATHAN:

Lesson Learned: After having a nice three hour drive through small towns and the country side my shoulders and neck were quite sore. I recommend braking the bank and springing for the automatic. Having a GPS is essential in a foreign country, unfortunately after a couple of wrong turns and a few recalculations by the GPS you may end up on a single lane farming road. GPSs may know every road there is, but just because a farmer names his dirt road that doesn't make it a legitimate road. Then just when you are miles into the brush and there is no place to turn around you just have to forge ahead. The only problem is when you see an oncoming car and think CRAP. A lesser man couldn't have done it.

All in all we had a great weekend!

worth every penny

2010-10-11T02:18:00.000-07:00

we bought this amazing little 'buggy board' last week, and it has changed my life! ok, that's a bit dramatic, but it has improved my life considerably. it has wheels and attaches to the back of our stroller for Blake to stand on while i push. i know that sounds silly, but we have been struggling a little bit going places that are very far away because Blake gets tired of having to walk so far, and i can't carry him and push (i can hardly carry him anyways), and he's just getting too big to ride on Jonathan's shoulders. so every outing was getting pretty frustrating and stressful. then we found this lovely little thing and it has made all the difference in the world! (and came in very handy on Sunday when the bus wasn't running it's normal route, and i had to walk about a mile from the last stop to our flat.... in church clothes and shoes no less) so the kicker was that this thing cost 40 pounds, which is roughly $60 (gasp). i would normally never consider paying so much for something like that, but in this case, i probably would've paid double!

they both love it, and usually take turns riding on it (or fight over it, whatever you want to call it).

18 months.... already!?

2010-10-05T06:06:00.000-07:00

this boy melts my heart, and has us ALL wrapped around his little finger!

i can't believe how fast he's grown, he is such a smart, independent, fun, sweet boy.

i don't have any pictures to show how he's grown in the last 18 months... my computer with all our pictures on it is at home, but if you'd like to see some click HERE.

i don't have his height/weight etc... we're going to skip his 18 mo check up since we're not home.
but i can tell you he has grown :)

he LOVES to take showers

he KNOWS he's cute, and plays it to his advantage

he frequently gets sick of my camera, but will still say 'cheese' whether he's looking at the camera or not

he is SO funny, and LOVES to laugh

he is very good at sharing and loves doing whatever big brother is doing

he also just got his hair cut-- it was more traumatic for me than him, it makes him look so grown up, but i draw the line when people start asking me if he's a girl or boy!

adam is such a joy to have in our family, he loves to talk, play, run, jump, and be crazy! he is so smart, and amazes me everyday. we love him so much. happy 1/2 birthday adam!

mark my words....

2010-09-30T08:25:00.001-07:00

I WILL NEVER COMPLAIN ABOUT DOING LAUNDRY AGAIN!

let me explain....

this lovely contraption is my washer AND dryer:

-it is TINY- i can fit about half the amount of clothes that i would put in the SMALLEST load in my washer at home (which is equivilant to about 4 articals of jonathan's clothes OR 2-3 days worth of kids clothes)

-there is no where to put fabric softener, and they don't have dryer sheets in ANY store i've been in... because apparently everyone in London thinks these things are a good idea.

-it NEVER, i repeat, NEVER, gets your clothes all the way dry.... so i usually end up doing an EXTRA dry cycle after it's done

still, most of our clothes end up on this:

-and if you don't get the clothes out right away, they are so wrinkled that you can't even iron them, they must be re-washed if you want to wear them without looking homeless.

-i have never ironed so much in my life, which i don't really mind, i'm just not used to it-- at home, for me, ironing was putting my clothes back in the dryer for a few min until all the wrinkles were gone.

-OH YEAH, worst of all.....ONE load takes well over 3 HOURS!!

ON THE OTHER HAND....

here are a few things that i WILL complain about when i get home, because i have NOT had to do them here, not once....

-take out the garbage

-clean the bathrooms

-mop the floors

-wash towels

-change sheets

-wash sheets

-dust

-clean the oven/stove

did i mention that we have a maid who comes twice a week??

(don't be too impressed, most people around here have a maid that comes daily, along with a nanny, and someone that does all their grocery shopping-- but, i'm not complaining!!)

The London Eye

2010-09-29T00:27:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, when my mom was here, we went on the London Eye... another 'must do' if you're ever in London! We were able to go right around sundown, it was beautiful and the view was amazing!

this is obviously not on the Eye, but we saw it on our way, and really, who can resist these cardboard cutouts!

this one cracks me up!

here it is-
it is 443 ft tall
on a clear day you can see 25 miles from the top
one revolution takes 30 min (you get on and off while it's moving)
it took 7 years to build
(and yes... i had to do the conversions from meters and km so we can all understand!)

the boys sat down just long enough to take a picture... then they were glued to the glass staring down

i made sure to have my mom take lots of pictures of me and jonathan and our family while she was here!

like i said, glued to the windows

views from the top!

they turned around for a few seconds to humor us while we took pictures

there was a really sweet american couple that took a group shot for us

everyone in our pod kept laughing every time we took pictures because blake and adam would automatically start yelling "cheese" (they've been trained well). there was also another couple in the pod right below us that blake and adam were waving and blowing kisses too, they loved it.... it was adorable! we had so much fun!

who would've thought....

2010-09-25T05:02:00.000-07:00

....that putting a silly face on a vacuum cleaner.....

.....would make kids want to do their chores!

i had to BRIBE him to put the thing away! :)

Lifesaver

2010-09-23T03:12:00.001-07:00

We just dropped my mom off at the airport after being here for about 2 weeks.

I don't even know how to express how grateful I am for all that she's done for us, and how much help she has been. She flew over with me to help with the boys, and she did SO much while she was here to help us feel settled and find our way around. I could NOT have done it without her! The plane ride alone would've been a disaster. She pretty much did all the shopping (stores here are less than kid friendly, I will NEVER attempt to take them with me grocery shopping)... she helped wrangle the kids while we tried to find our way around the city, she cleaned, she watched kids so Jonathan and I could have some time together, she was AMAZING. It was hard to see her go, not just for all that she's done but because I'll miss her and the boys will miss her.

I love you mom, a million thank you's for everything! Come back and see us soon!!

Key Ceremony- Tower of London

2010-09-22T06:39:00.000-07:00

"The Ceremony of the Keys is the traditional locking up of the Tower of London and has taken place on each and every night, without fail, for at least 700 years. The importance of securing this fortress for the night is still very relevant because, although the Monarch no longer resides at this royal palace, the Crown Jewels and many other valuables do."

Jonathan and I were fortunate enough to be able to attend this ceremony last night as special guests. Apparently it is incredibly hard to get tickets (numerous people have told us this), you have to send a request in writing months in advance, and you have even less of a chance of getting in if you're FROM here! But, because of Jonathan's connection to the Embassy, we were able to go last night.

We had a great time.... the evening started with a guided tour by one of the Yeomen Warders (or Beefeaters) giving us a history of the tower (or towers), showing us all the places where people were executed, where the various Monarchs lived and what they did, etc. It was fascinating to listen to, and very exciting! We went into the church where Ann Boleyn, along with many others, were buried (with their heads under their arms)!

Then before the actual ceremony our group was invited to The Club (the private bar where all the Yeomen Warders, and other guards drink) to chat and have a drink.... we spent the whole time talking with a couple Beefeaters who were hilarious (they only teased us a little for drinking diet coke!).

The actual ceremony was really short, and you couldn't really see that well, but it was neat to be there and know that it's been going on for hundreds of years!

After the ceremony we went back to The Club where they had a raffle, Jonathan won some cuff links. Then we headed home. We had a great evening, I felt honored to get the opportunity to be a part of something so historical and important.

(i would've taken pictures, but it was dark, and you couldn't take any pictures in the church or of the actual ceremony. we plan to go back during the day for one of the regular tours to see the crown jewels and walk around a little more.)

London Bus Tour

2010-09-20T09:11:00.000-07:00

If you ever go to London, I highly recommend taking a bus tour. It was excellent! They have tons of buses running so you can get off any time to look at things, then just get back on the next bus that comes. It was a great way to see EVERYTHING, then later you can just go back to the things you want to spend more time at. We all had a great time, the boys especially loved sitting on the top of the open air double decker bus. Here are a few of the things we saw.....

we started the day in Trafalgar Square, which was named for the large statue of Admiral Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar.

the famous lions.... which we found out they used dogs as models.... so besides the face they actually look more like dogs. apparently they began by using a dead lion as their model, but it decomposed to quickly so they finished up using a dog... idiots!

enjoying the ride!

you don't see a smile that big very often!

sooooo happy to be with daddy again

my mom, she took most of the pictures since i was busy wrestling kids, and making sure they didn't jump off the bus :)

Parliament

Big Ben (which is just the name of the huge 13 ton bell inside, not the rest of the clock or the tower itself)

St. Paul's Cathedral

one of the oldest wooden structures from the time of Shakespeare

The Supreme Court of England and Wales... opened by Queen Victoria in 1882!

Westminster Abbey

The Marble Arch (which used to be the main entrance at Buckingham Palace, but was moved when they extended the palace.... although some tour guides will tell you they moved it because the Queen's Carriage didn't fit through it!)

The Victoria Memorial- Queen Victoria, the longest reigning monarch in British history, the longest reigning female monarch in the world. She is very fascinating... I've been reading a lot about her, she was incredible!

us in front of Buckingham Palace

tired legs

tired boy...

We had a great day, and saw so much. London is so rich with history, it's amazing how OLD things are, you just don't see that in the States. So, to my sister, whom I endlessly make fun of for choosing HISTORY as a college major... I now see why you did. (now, i'm not saying it was the smartest decision of your life, but I understand it now :)

Park Hopping

2010-09-15T14:00:00.000-07:00

Since the first day we got here we've been going to park after park.....London has some of the coolest parks we have ever been to....and they are EVERYWHERE! We have been having so much fun exploring them.

Here are some of the ones we've been to (and since blogger is so awesome at uploading pictures, they are in reverse order, starting with our most recent trip....today)

Hyde Park- The Princess Diana Memorial Park
Hyde Park itself is HUGE, and this particular play area is the largest we've seen.... there was so much for the kids to do. Several different areas, with tons of different toys.

a pirate ship in the sand

walking the plank....

steering the boat

of course little brother HAS to do everything big brother does

this is a water area that is on during the summer.... it rained today so it wasn't on

this swing was in high demand, we had to stand around for a while to get on

it was definitely worth it, the boys loved it

steps leading from the treasure chest and lookout to the tee pee village

adam loves going down slides

another play area that was like a giant tree house

we will for sure be going back to this park, it even had a fence all the way around, and only people with children were allowed in.... there was someone at the gate checking!

St. James Park

we found this play area by accident, we were on our way to Buckingham Palace, just walking through the parks, and found this cute little area.

The boys loved the teeter totter... especially when mom and dad were on it

these little snail looking things didn't do anything, but the boys thought they were riding horses!

there were also lots of swing, slides, and some other toys, but we didn't take many pictures.

Paddington Street Park

i'm not sure if that's the official name of the park, but it's on Paddington street... so there ya go. i LOVE this park, but more importantly so do the boys. this one is only a couple blocks from our flat and it is perfect! it's all fenced in (as most play areas are around here), it's covered by trees, there's a little gazebo that you can go under if it starts raining, the toilets are really close, and there is SO much to do! i met a girl that was there with her son and she was telling me that it was one of the best parks around, we are so lucky to live so close to it!

this is only about a third of the park... isn't it cute

adam has become quite efficient at climbing

and as i said before, he loves slides

awesome tire swing! blake stayed on this thing forever, i even got on with him.... and could have stayed there all day (we were laying down, it was great)

more fun toys

all blake wanted to do on this one was push me around on it (it's harder to stay on than it looks!)

very fun teeter totter

yay for swings!

this will be our place... we will go here often, i just know it!

Regent's Park

this is another park very close to us, it has 3 or 4 different play areas.... one of these days we'll actually make it to one! we went here the first day we got here, we were a little jet lagged.... so we didn't last too long. plus the boys were so distracted by the water and all the geese and pigeons that we didn't move very fast... we still had a great time!

they're getting pretty good at saying cheese (now if i could just get them to look at the camera while saying it i'll have trained them well.... they did pretty good here)

at first blake did NOT like the birds.... he still doesn't sometimes, but he's getting used to them, i think he was throwing a leaf at them here....

adam on the other hand LOVES to chase the pigeons around, and i must admit it is pretty hilarious!

we're loving exploring all the parks around here, and walking everywhere.... there's something about being outside, it just makes me happy! we'll see what i'm saying come winter though....

observations

2010-09-11T02:00:00.000-07:00

just some things i'm learning....

people here are in a hurry (walking and driving)
pedestrians do NOT have the right of way... drivers will let you know in case you forget
stairs are narrow, steep, and half the size around a corner (and easy to fall down)
light switches to the bathroom are outside of the door
down is on, up is off on light switches
not only do they drive on the left, they also walk on the left
groceries are purchased daily... too much to carry at one time
as far as what to wear... anything goes. seriously anything.
EVERYONE wears a scarf, men too (even straight ones)
even if it's a cloudless sunny sky, bring an umbrella (speaking from experience)

i'm sure there will be more!

we made it

2010-09-09T06:34:00.000-07:00

6 suitcases
3 carry ons
2 adults
2 kids
1 stroller
loaded in the car on our way to the airport....
got to the airport loaded all the luggage on one of those little carts and made our way to the ticket counter, luckily there was no line, and i just have to say that i have NEVER dealt with a nicer person at the ticket counter in my life. this woman was amazing, not only did she give my dad a pass to go through security with us, she didn't charge us for ANY of our bags, i was SHOCKED! it was going to cost us $150!

it was a good thing she let my dad come back because this was by far the hardest part of the trip (yes, including the 9 hour flight). going through security is stressful enough when you're alone, add on 3 giant carry ons, 2 kids (that did NOT want to stand in line), and a stroller (which is apparently only for looks because nobody would sit in it).... and i was sweating before we even went through the metal detectors.

we finally made it to the gate, ate some lunch and said some sad good-byes to pa. the first flight was to Vancouver, less that 40 min. the boys loved it and did great. then we had a 3 hour layover in Vancouver. i thought it would be challenging keeping the kids entertained but it wasn't... we walked and ran along the moving sidewalks for over an hour, they had a giant fish tank that we watched for a long time, they even had a little kids toy area which was great!

this is when we met the 2nd nicest ticket agent ever.... our seats were not originally next to each other, in fact we were almost at opposite ends of the plan (which defeats the whole purpose of my mom flying over with me). the ticket agent told us the flight was full and it would be really hard to try and seat us together, but she would try, she'd let us know about an hour before the flight, when she got back from her break. when she got back she came and found us and had our boarding passes all printed and ready for us... sitting together. what a huge relief!

we boarded the plane around 8pm, which is when adam usually goes to bed, he started crying for milk and his blankie as soon as we sat down. i had wanted to wait until we took off so the sucking on his cup would help his ears... but he couldn't wait. much to my surprise he fell asleep right away.... and stayed asleep... until 2 hours before we landed!! blake stayed awake for a couple hours and watched a movie, then when they finally turned off the lights he fell asleep too.... and stayed asleep... until we landed! i could not have asked for a better flight, even though i didn't sleep AT ALL, it went amazingly smooth! i only had to change adam one time, blake didn't have to go at all on the plane, non of us had problems with our ears on take off or landing, no crying, no whining....considerably better than most days at home! :)

when we landed in London at the end of the ramp there was a cart just sitting there, someone had left it...... we wouldn't have made it through customs without it! also because we had kids, one customs agent put us right in the front of the line (the gigantic 2 hour line!). we got through customs, got our bags, loaded them on our cart (which proved to be quite challenging this time around-one less pair of hands, tired, excited, stressed, wanting to see daddy, having to go potty, etc.)

then we saw him...

blake's face lit up like you wouldn't believe, adam practically jumped out of the stroller (he would have if he wasn't strapped in) and it was all i could do not to just drop everything on the ground and go running for him myself!

over all the trip went really well! i don't want to have to do it again for a long time, but i was pleasantly surprised by how well it went!

i could not, however, have done it without my mom (and dad through security in seattle!)... she helped so much and i am so grateful that she came with me!

now on to exploring London....

parenting top ten

2010-08-24T07:45:00.000-07:00

Reasons You Fell in Love With Your Baby (and Out of Love With Your Old Boyfriend)

1. His endless babbling

2. He loved snuggling in your bed- but always wanted to go back to his own crib after

3. His way of spending hours roaming around the house naked, his poochy belly hanging out

4. The wet, sloppy kisses

5. He was content to lie quietly and gaze at his navel as you did all the housework

6. His birthday gift to you was simply a wilted flower

7. His idea of dancing was to bend his legs and bob up and down with a goofy, self-congratulatory grin

8. His smell

9. You could always count on him burping right after he finished a meal

10. The fact that he'll never, ever love anyone as much as he loves his mommy

what we've been up to.....

2010-08-21T16:54:00.000-07:00

WARNING: this is a really long post, with lots of pictures, i'll try to keep the words to a minimum!

Jonathan left almost exactly 4 weeks ago... so, we've been trying to keep ourselves VERY busy, so far it's been a success.

Here's a little bit of what we've been up to...

Tacoma Rainiers game

playing in the elephant pool... and the sprinkler

playing on cars and tractors

lots of bubble baths

a little after bath exercise

Auburn splash park with friends

crashing on the floor after a long day

crazy hair naps

Thurston county fair and curly fries

Mariners Game

more elephant pool

Vancouver temple to do the work for Jonathan's grandma Holman

jogging in the stroller, most of which end up just like this

2 trips to Lynden to visit Grandma Susan, aunts/uncles, and COUSINS

free haircuts

a couple long trips in the car

endless trips to the park

boys being crazy

train ride and trip to Seattle center with friends

fountain at Seattle center (showing their muscles)

rides at Seattle center

Northwest WA fair

6 hours of rides with these crazy fun kids!

the two little boys did SO good..... little fair goers of the future

more crashing on the floor

Not Pictured:

swimming

movies

library

sidewalk chalk

bubbles

toys/trains

wrestling

pa/grandma/gg

pt.townsend

coloring

scrapbooking

slurpee's

....just to name a few.

Thanks to everyone for keeping us so busy, time is flying by, only 2 more weeks until we get to see daddy!!

(i've still got to weeks to fill up, so let's go play.... call me!) :)

Day Out With Thomas

2010-07-19T08:02:00.000-07:00

AKA... the best day of Blake's life!
Thomas the train came to the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie... and since Blake is obsessed with him, we knew we couldn't miss it! The entire grounds were devoted to "Thomas," there was SO much to do!

here is the life size Thomas that pulled us

they had trains set up everywhere...they even let the kids be the "conductor" and control the trains

here we are standing in line, ready to board the train.... Blake was SO excited he didn't know what to do with himself. He was jumping all over the place, laughing, crying, pretty much freaking out, I think he just had no idea how to control his emotions, it was pretty hilarious!

we finally made it onto Thomas' coaches... Adam made sure to say 'hi' and 'bye' to all the cars that went by

not the best group shot, but proof that we were all there together!

we then stood in line to get to take pictures in front of Thomas, which was a good 30 min wait, but they had some other small trains that we were able to ride while Daddy waited in line!

there was a huge tent with dozens of these tracks set up, along with some mega blocks, coloring stations, puppet shows, Thomas movies, sing alongs, tattoos, food, and a GIANT gift shop!

we got the boys a train whistle, which they love... Blake can only blow into it once before he starts smiling so big he can't do it anymore :)

they also had a little 'treasure' hunt, where you could go to different stations and get your paper stamped, once you got them all they gave the kids a prize... it was a little Thomas view finder camera. Blake took 'pictures' of everything on the way back to the car, we got to see Thomas go by one more time and he was telling everyone in the coaches to 'say cheese!'

minutes after we got into the car... this was the scene

the boys were so good all day, we had such a fun day together as a family!

4th of July tradition

2010-07-13T07:19:00.000-07:00

Long before I was married, my family used to go to the Tacoma Rainiers Fireworks Extravaganza every year for the 4th of July... now that I have my own family we started making it our tradition too! The last couple years we've gone with some friends and have a blast! Nothing better than a baseball game and fireworks! This year the weather was perfect, sunny, but not too hot, the Rainiers won, it was a great game... and the fireworks were amazing!

the boys love to go to games... they have so much fun

getting ready to watch the fireworks

waiting patiently.... adam lasted about 3 min into the show before he fell asleep

loving every minute!

i love this man!

Happy 4th of July!

Blake turnes 3

2010-07-01T07:38:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLAKE!

here's blake on the morning of his birthday showing us how old he is!

for his birthday we invited a few friends to come play at Chuck E Cheese... he talked about it everyday the week before his birthday... and is still talking about it now! (pa came to play too... and helped me out a TON, he was a lifesaver! thanks dad!)

opening presents and eating cupcakes (i know, i went all out on the cake :)

here's everyone that came to help celebrate!

the moms (such beautiful ladies!) and my cute boys!

olivia and ella... such pretty girls. gunner and jaime...what a handsome dude.

the conks... we always have so much fun with them!

stephanie also brought her girls aubry and katie... but i didn't get any good pictures of them, sorry... they were having way too much fun to say cheese for me!

thank you to everyone that came, we had so much fun... Blake LOVED it, and had a great birthday!

ROUND 2

blake got a huge semi truck from auntie aj... he LOVES it

we had another birthday party with just family... it was also my sisters boyfriend, Tommy's birthday, so we had a joint party. here is blake opening presents... one of which were Pop It's... those things you throw on the ground on the 4th of July, both kids had a blast playing with those!

he also got a giant Thomas play tent, which he loves but takes up so much room (thanks for that Marilyn!) :)

both baseball lovers, so this was the obvious choice!

jonathan unfortunately had to work during both of blakes parties, but i still got a picture of the birthday boy with is daddy!

Happy Birthday Blake, we are so blessed to have you as a part of our family. You are so sweet, smart and funny... we LOVE you so much!

CALLING ALL GIRLFRIENDS!!

2010-06-01T08:11:00.000-07:00

I am in need of some SERIOUS help girls! My closet is stuck in collage and I can't get it out! It's time for an intervention... I need help going through my closet and letting go of some of those 'i've had that since high school' things. Then I need someone (this will actually probably take a few of you) to take me shopping and tell me what is cute.... because seriously I have NO idea anymore... i.e. are tappered jeans, capris, shorts, and pants REALLY in (I may refuse, I look like a complete idiot in them). ANYWAYS, if it were up to me I'd wear workout pants, tshirts, and sweatshirts all the time... BUT... NEWSFLASH, I AM NOT IN COLLEGE ANYMORE! (we won't talk about how long ago it was either). Since you all dress so cute and fun...... help a sister out!

WHO'S IN!?

(this all may have stemmed from my shopping trip yesterday where everything affordable I found was UGLY, and anything cute was EXPENSIVE! needless to say I came home empty handed and a little depressed...)

so proud...

2010-05-19T20:24:00.000-07:00

...of this boy!

he is officially potty training! yay!
and he is a pro!

we started yesterday...
-he has had no accidents
-he gets up and goes to the potty all by himself
-i rarely have to remind him
-he's gone both #1 and #2 with no problems (he sits down, so there's no mess! :)
-he's gone potty in public restrooms (he told us he had to go!)
-last night (his first night) he woke up dry

i have no delusions that we won't have some accidents in the future or that we don't have any more work ahead of us... but he's doing it, and doing really well! so, for as well as he's doing, it was worth the wait!

haircuts x3

2010-05-14T07:36:00.001-07:00

yesterday in the beautiful sunshine, i sat all my boys down on the deck and tortured them with haircuts! they all did surprisingly well... blake didn't even cry this time!! this is major progress people, the last few times it has taken at least 2 sometimes 3 people to hold him down just to buzz it off. yesterday he sat on his dads lap, didn't cry, and sat perfectly still while i was able to trim around his ears and neck! adam did really good too... he was a little squirmy, but didn't cry! now, if adam's hair wasn't starting to get in his eyes i probably wouldn't have cut it, i think he looks so cute with long blond shaggy hair, but it is summer, and the poor kid doesn't need hair in his eyes!

adam before:

adam after: (i was amazed at how soft and fine his hair is, and how LONG it actually got)

blake before: (ok, he did cry a little before we started, but he calmed down)

blake after:

no before/after pictures of jonathan, because let's face it, seeing a grown man get his hair cut is neither exciting or cute. but of course i think he looks handsome! :)

it's official

2010-05-06T09:01:00.000-07:00

jonathan has been selected by his work to take a temporary assignment in LONDON for 6 months!

we will be there from the end of July to the end of January!

100th post

2010-05-03T16:32:00.001-07:00

i can't believe i've had this blog for almost 2 years and i'm just now getting to 100 posts! well, at least it's a good one....

this saturday i ran my first half-marathon!

i was excited, but nervous... and so happy that i had a bunch of friends that did the half marathon too! we had a great time and everyone did amazing, i was so proud of everyone! i wasn't too happy about the rainy weather, but very grateful that i decided to bring my hat, so it really wasn't an issue. i ended up beating the goal that i set for myself and really enjoyed the run! i still have a lot to learn about racing because the last couple miles about killed me, and i have been so sore the last couple days i could hardly walk! all in all it was a great time and i'm excited for the next one!

my mom brought the boys to cheer me on at the end... i almost cried when i saw them at the end, but still had about a 1/4 of a mile left, so i had to suck it up! :) they also brought me flowers...so sweet!

that face should say it all....

i think it took me about 5 min to get up after squatting down like that!

here are my stats:

time: 1:46:16 (8:07 min mile)

5th in my age group

22nd female overall

83rd finisher

*thank you to my parents for watching the boys the night before, and for bringing them to the race, it meant so much to me to have you there! i love you!

best friends....

2010-04-24T08:19:00.000-07:00

lately at least... these two have been having so much fun playing together. blake is getting better at sharing, and he loves to make adam laugh! adam likes to follow blake around and do whatever he is doing.

they did this for a good half hour the other day...

then blake decided he wanted in.... adam wasn't so sure

i guess he decided it was ok!

thank you laundry basket!

Safeco via Link Light Rail

2010-04-14T09:58:00.000-07:00

yesterday we went to our first Mariner game of the season! oh how i LOVE this time of year! i'm sure anyone who has been to a game at either Safeco or Qwest knows that parking can be a bit of a challenge, not to mention more expensive than the game sometimes... so we decided to take the light rail from the airport, since jonathan parks there for free, to the stadium! did i mention that blake is obsessed with trains right now!

he was loving every minute of it... the entire walk from the car to the train he kept repeating, in his loudest voice, 'we're going to the train, the train, the train, the train.... '

i think adam was just excited because blake was so excited, but he loved it too!

a must have for our family at the games is licorice... black and red! our seats this year are on the 3rd base side, we have a great view!

it was a little chilly, but we had a great time, the kids did amazingly well (they must know how much their momma loves to go!) and the M's won 3-0!

party time!

2010-04-08T08:32:00.001-07:00

on saturday we had a few people over to help celebrate adams first birthday! we had a great time, ate lots of food, opened some presents, and watched adam shove his face full of cake... usual 1st birthday stuff!

he got some great toys... and some LOUD toys (thanks to the conks :) that he LOVES!

some that his daddy just HAD to try out... 'come on dad, my turn'

'oh, this is fun'

'uh, maybe not'

'ok, i like it !' thanks auntie marilyn and tommy for hours of fun!

birthday cupcakes from costco (we're all still on a bit of a sugar high!)

unlike blake, who was very careful about eating his cake, adam totally went for it!

this kid did not disappoint for the camera!

but looks like its pretty well contained....

.... maybe not!

Happy Birthday Adam! We LOVE you!

on a side note, he had his 12 month check up...

dr said hes growing beautifully and was impressed with how well he's walking...

his stats....

22lbs (25-50%)

30in (25-50%)

head is 47 1/4cm (75%) smart boy right! :)

Happy Easter

2010-04-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

blake putting stickers on the eggs that we colored

we both had lots of fun decorating eggs

the Easter bunny came to our house on thursday, so that jonathan could be there because he was supposed to have the day off..... he ended up working, but we had already hid all the eggs, so we did it anyways! blake woke up and instead of coming downstairs as usual he saw the eggs and started in on the candy! by the time i got upstairs (probably 2 min later!) he was already eating a sucker and had a couple eggs opened searching for more. so we got adam up and opened baskets and searched for eggs! it was a little difficult convincing them that they had to eat breakfast BEFORE they could eat candy! We had a fun morning!

adam inspecting his loot

blake was pretty excited about the 'bunny rabbit' coming to his house

i dont think adam really knew what was happening, but he's always got a smile on his face!

blake got James the train... and hasn't let it out of his sight since

hope everyone had a great Easter!

Adam is One!

2010-04-02T07:42:00.001-07:00

My baby boy turns ONE tomorrow! Happy birthday Adam, we love you!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

2010-03-26T15:15:00.000-07:00

don't you just want to kiss those cheeks!

surgery and st. patty's day

2010-03-18T10:06:00.001-07:00

Surgery

Monday Blake went in for surgery to have his tonsils & adenoids removed, and tubes put in his ears. We were told to be at the hospital at 9am, so that meant to eating or drinking ALL morning.... grumpy face says it all....

he was actually excited to go to have surgery, because he knew he'd get popsicles afterwards!

he did not however, like the little gown they made him wear

but then we found some cartoons to watch while we waited

and waited.... he didn't actually go into the room until 11:15. i took him back to be put under, which wasn't the most pleasant thing i've ever done. but he did great, and was such a trooper. i never once felt afraid or worried, like i thought i would... i felt very at peace the whole time, so thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts, i know that it helped! i didn't take any pictures of after surgery, he was pretty out of it, and i wasn't really thinking about the camera at all. but after a few popsicles and a short nap we were on our way home (gown and all, he would NOT take it off :o). since then he's been doing really well, the first night home he was running around playing... which caught up with him the next day, so we've just been taking it easy, eating lots of popsicles and drinking lots of clear liquids! he'll be back to 100% in no time!

St.Patricks Day
i have to admit that i pretty much forgot about st. patricks day, so no green pancakes for breakfast or anything, but i did remember that i bought the boys matching shirts a while back... and this is my attempt at getting them to take a nice cute sweet picture together... yeah right...

blake kept standing in front of adam, so adam would try and pull him down

and they both wanted at the camera, so they wouldn't stand still

and blake... just bugging his brother as usual... pretty soon adam is going to start fighting back, and he is not going to like it!

so i got a couple solo shots at least

HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY!

ps. adam is walking now!

crusin'

2010-03-02T08:08:00.000-08:00

happy birthday to me! for my birthday this year i got to go on a cruise! it wasn't actually FOR my birthday, but ended up being during my birthday!! a couple of my friends and i were lucky enough to get some well deserved rest and relaxation. our amazing husbands took the kids and sent us on our way! we took a 5 day baja mexico cruise, and had so much fun! we visited Catalina Island, Ensanada Mexico, ate some great food, slept, read, and layed out in the sun (among other things). what more could these mommy's ask for!?

the second day on the cruise was my ##th birthday, so my room was decorated and at dinner they gave me the most amazing chocolate cake and sang happy birthday to me! so fun!

the second day was also Catalina Island, which was beautiful, we walked around town and layed on the beach!

here is ashley and i on fancy dinner night!

jenn and i... i'm sure she was trying to get me to eat sushi... nice try! we all had a great time just hanging out and chatting, laughing at the karaoke singers and comedian, and did i mention we ate LOTS of great food! :o)

here is mariah and i, this was the day in Ensanada... she got pretty good at bartering with the locals, and got some GREAT deals!

we took a bus ride to some shops and 'the blowhole' which really just looked like waves crashing on the rocks... whatever, it was pretty!

after we got off the boat we had quite a bit of time before our flights, so we rented a car and explored hollywood a little bit! look... i'm famous! :o)

i have to thank my amazing husband who took time off work to be with the kids, and help watch some other kids! i love you so much!

the worlds worst blogger...

2010-02-26T07:14:00.001-08:00

i have not been a good blogger lately, ok... i haven't BEEN a blogger lately, and it's not for lack of material, or time really, i've just been lazy. i get a little behind and feel overwhelmed because i want to do things in order, and don't want to leave anything out (because lets face it, i don't keep a journal... this is the closest thing i've got), so then i just don't do it at all (good solution huh). anyways, lame excuse! who cares if my posts are out of order, right...

on that note...

my little man has to have surgery next month. blake has the biggest tonsils on the planet (literally what the doctor said), and has significant hearing loss (that explains a lot). the large tonsils and adenoids are effecting his sleep, he wakes up frequently during the night, and is tired a lot during the day. because of the swollen adenoids fluid builds up behind his ear drums causing the hearing loss. so on march 15, he's having those golf ball size tonsils taken out as well as the adenoids and having tubes put in his ears! i am SO happy about this because i know it will help him SO much, but i am SO nervous, he's my baby.... so keep us in your prayers!

mariners fan fest

2010-02-09T07:57:00.000-08:00

blake and i had a mommy/son day a couple weeks ago and went to Mariners fan fest with some friends of ours. anyone who knows us knows that we are HUGE baseball fans, we love going to games... last year we made it to more than 10 games! so we were VERY excited to be able to go on the field, run the bases, go in the dugout and tour the clubhouse!

blake and i on the field getting ready to run the bases....

i think i'll be getting that face for MANY years to come ('mom, quit taking pictures!')

3rd base!

this is blake's girlfriend Ella.... kissing in the dugout (how many guys can say they've done that!)

my favorite player of ALL TIME....this was SO exciting for me, i felt like a little kid!

we also saw some players, mostly from a distance, but it was still totally amazing.... we saw Jay Buhner, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Chone Figgins, and Casey Kotchman. we had so much fun, we can't wait for the season to start... only 9 days until spring training!!

sweet moments

2010-01-31T16:56:00.001-08:00

my sweet boys.... most of the time.... ok, some of the time :)

guess who's 9 months old!?

2010-01-25T07:53:00.000-08:00

i can hardly believe that adam is 9 months old already! (i know i say that every time, but it's true)

here were some of his stats at his dr. appointment:

Weight: 20lbs - 50%

Height: 28in - 50%

Head: 46cm - 50%

he did great with the doctor, he didn't cry once! even after his shots and finger prick, he was still smiling! he charmed the doctor and his entire staff, he was such a good boy! my doctor always does a great job of making ME feel like i'm doing a great job.... he said adam was perfect, growing wonderfully, and developing great.

badly needed haircut!

2010-01-10T19:21:00.001-08:00

blake has been needing a haircut, BADLY, for months! but if you've ever tried to cut a 2 1/2 year olds hair, you would know why i was less than enthusiastic about doing it. so i didn't.

his uncle wynden did! and yes we bribed him, and no it didn't work, so he screamed through the entire thing.... but at least now you can see his ears! :o)

(i'm pretty sure i'm going to have to pay wynden to get him to do it again though!)

ps. don't mind the ketchup on his face, the kid would eat it with a spoon!

Christmas Day

2010-01-04T09:55:00.000-08:00

we had a wonderful Christmas this year, for the first time since Jonathan started working for Customs, he got Christmas Day off!! my parents and sister spent the morning at our house opening presents and having breakfast! the boys both had a GREAT time....we all did!

before the mess.....

pa helping blake open his stocking

adam was pretty excited about the cars he got in his stocking

blake really got the hang of opening presents... and wanted to help everyone else open theirs

they got matching jammies from grandma that they got to open Christmas eve

jonathan & my dad

my mom & marilyn

these toys were a hit! (among MANY others)

adam loves to stand, so this toy was PERFECT!

Christmas evening we went up to Bellingham and had Christmas dinner with Jonathan's family, it was a perfect day!

2009-12-22T07:51:00.000-08:00

how did i get so lucky?!

christmas rush and jingle bell run

2009-12-16T09:27:00.000-08:00

me, stephanie, and ashley before the Christmas Rush 5k

and after... it was SOOOO cold! (but we all beat our previous 5k times!)

Kaitlyn and I at the Jingle Bell run, we try to do this every year (one year we even brought blake and blaine in strollers and dressed them up as santa and mrs. clause, see pic below)... but this is the first year we dressed up, and compared to other people this was NOTHING!

Jingle Bell Run 2007 (Blaine & Blake)

before the race....don't you love our dorky headbands!

during the race...

yep, i ran with my camera.... there are SO many people it's hard to really RUN, it's mostly to dress up, have fun, and donate to a great cause (at least that's why WE do it)!

and after... in all our red faced glory!

ps. the matching shirts were $5 at Target... that's why we ALL have the same one!

new top ten

2009-11-23T18:08:00.001-08:00

(again... from my parenting magazine)

top ten things not to feel guilty about....

1. having the impulse, after discovering your kid has used your $20 lipstick to draw a giant plum-colored pig on your dining room wall, to call up Brad and Angelina and ask them if they'd like to take in one more

2. returning the fancy but useless baby gift to the department store and spending the credit on shoes for yourself

3. suspecting that those stars who got their prebaby bodies back in two weeks are on drugs

4. feeling secretly glad when you catch your neighbor's 'perfect' child in a nuclear meltdown

5. introducing your sister's kid - little miss organic only- to her very first twinkie

6. setting up playdates just with kids whose mothers you like

7. calling your jiggly belly your 'mummy tummy' ten years after childbirth

8. noticing the hot dad at dropoff (hey, you're just lookin'!)

9. insisting on grown-up music in the car

10. knowing, really knowing, with every fiber of your being, that your kid is the cutest one in his class picture

Top Ten

2009-11-11T10:52:00.000-08:00

(i found this in my Parenting magazine and thought i should share...)

Top Ten Ways Your Life Is Not Like a Reality Show:

1. your morning weigh-ins are mercifully private

2. no hope of trading up to a millionaire, housecleaning husband who lives to give foot rubs in wacky wife-swap episode

3. you drive a ford, shop at target, and drink diet coke all the live-long day, but no one gives you a dime for product placement

4. you endure hours of grueling photo shoots- but they're all at Sears and come out in wallet size with a faux-nature background

5. the only Extreme Home Makeover you're getting is courtesy of a 2-year-old with markers

6. you'd like to see Top Chef make three different dishes (one kid food, one vegan for your tween, and one that actually tastes good for you) every single night

7. you really did marry your big fat obnoxious fiance (and what's worse, no one paid you!)

8. you never get voted off- even if you beg

9. you're surrounded by 'real' housewives-but like you, they haven't shaved their legs in days

10. you know What Not to Wear, but nothing else fits since you had kids

family pictures

2009-11-07T12:43:00.001-08:00

about a month ago... or more, we went with some friends of ours to Dash Point State Park and took some family pictures of eachother, some of them turned out pretty cute. enjoy.

trunk or treat

2009-11-03T08:56:00.001-08:00

2 trunk or treats + lots of candy= one hyper lightning mcqueen

and one happy bat!

the great pumpkin

2009-10-28T09:25:00.000-07:00

PUMPKIN CARVING AT THE HOLMANS
(as interpreted by blake)

"what the heck are my parents doing?"

"if dad can do it, so can i"

"ummm... this is disgusting"

"YES!... i LOVE to color"

"i'll let dad do the hard part and try to figure out what i drew"

"i guess mom wants to join the fun too"

"adam is too little to carve pumpkins, only big boys like me get to"

"isn't my pumpkin AWESOME!?"

"this is mom's.... it's ok, i guess... but she cheated and used a stencil!"

("we got to go to pa and grandma's house and carve some more pumpkins... mom and grandma did all the work though, while us guys just sat around and watched, man are they suckers!")

"my mom did the mariner moose... my FAVORITE!"

"and grandma did this one... i still can't figure out what crabs have to do with halloween..."

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM THE HOLMANS!

six months old!

2009-10-21T10:39:00.001-07:00

yep that's right, adam is 6 months old (well, actually 6 1/2, but we just went to the dr. today)!

a little bit about adam:
weight: 16lbs (10-25%)
height: 26.5in (>25%)
head: 44.75cm (50-75%)

*the doc was very impressed with how well he's sitting up
*he said he wouldn't be surprised if he was an early walker.... skipping crawling all together (because he HATES HATES HATES to be on his tummy)
*he is a total mama's boy
*he's going to give blake a run for his money when he starts walking, he's already a toy stealer!
*he has the cutest laugh and giggle
*he's a major flirt
*he's my little surfer dude with bright blue eyes and blonde hair
*he has a very sweet and fun personality, it is so exciting to see it come out more and more as he interacts with us and his brother.

DAY 1

DAY 30

DAY 60

DAY 90

DAY 120

DAY 150

DAY 180

HAPPY HALF BIRTHDAY ADAM!

2009-10-15T08:36:00.000-07:00

blake went swimming today in the bathtub because some dummy left the water running while she checked her email, blog, facebook, etc.... nice huh?! mom of the year for sure!

until next year.....

2009-10-10T08:57:00.000-07:00

we went to our last mariner game of the season a couple weeks ago.... we had a great time, but it was a little sad too. not only is it the end of baseball until april (at least for the mariners), but probably Griffey's last season. anyone that knows me and my family, we are HUGE Griffey fans and have been since he started playing in 1989! it was so exciting to have him back in seattle this year and get to see him play one more year... he was an amazing player. he also happened to hit his last home run of the season (probably his career) the night we were there!! we made it to over 10 games this year, and blake is already asking to go back.... he is just like his mommy! ;o)

did i mention that it was one of the coldest nights we've had so far... and the wind was blowing like crazy! poor kid, his hands were freezing... but he didn't care!

my dad and mom surprised us with the tickets and we all went together... good thing, i finally got a picture of us all together!

checking out the trains one last time... blake loves the trains!

what a cute picture huh!? i know he's only 6 months, but adam loves going too!

his last home run!! LOVE this guy!

blake sat with grandma and grandpa most the time... they had the blanket!

adam was all bundled up (keeping daddy warm too), most of the game all you could see were his little eyes and nose poking out of the blanket.

we're already looking forward to next season!!

the puyallup x3

2009-10-08T13:19:00.000-07:00

i know the fair was almost a month ago now... oops, but we've been so busy i've had no time to share all of our fun adventures! so i'm going to try and catch up! wish me luck!

i've gone to the puyallup fair every year since i can remember, and i was not about to break that streak this year! however, i did not plan to go 3 times.....

DAY 1

my friend mariah and i wanted to take our boys to the fair, but neither of our husbands wanted to go... so we decided to go together! our boys have a lot of fun playing together, and the fair was no exception, we all had a great time! (of course i took 2 pictures and realized my memory card was full... so thanks mariah for taking pictures!)

we even went to see 'the brain' in 3D... but after a few minutes blake was crying and begging me to take him home.... it was pretty loud, and i think a little startling to have things coming out of the screen at him!

then it was on to the rides, which they both LOVED, here they are in the helicopter

we of course spent a lot of time looking at the animals, they also had a little 'petting zoo' which was pretty fun for the kids!

i also got a caricature (basically a cartoon profile, in case you didn't know) of the boys ... my parents had them done for my sister and i every year, so i wanted to continue the tradition with my boys... blake already has 3 of them! and believe it or not, the SAME guy that did ours as a kid is still there doing them!

of course we ended the day with a delicious elephant ear! (which is probably my favorite part!)

DAY 2

trevor and kaitlyn came to visit us and had free passes to the fair.... how do you say no to that! the best part of this day (besides the great company, and yet another elephant ear) was the mutton busting! it's basically bull riding for 6 year olds! it was hilarious... these kids get all padded up with helmets and everything.... they're put on the back of a sheep and hold on for dear life! the kid that holds on the longest gets the gold buckle! i can totally see some of my nieces and nephews doing this!

DAY 3

my parents were headed to the fair one day and had to stop by our house on the way... and somehow we ended up there yet again! :o) this day was spent mostly taking blake on rides, looking at some of the 4h stuff (love you mom), and just wandering around.

this was the first ride.... the picture doesn't do it justice, blake hated it. i really don't blame him, that thing was whipping us around like rag dolls, it really wasn't fun at all, i was worried he wouldn't go on anything else after this....

....but we found this one that was much more tame, he went on it a couple times

and the horses a couple times (pa and blake)

and one of his favorites... the TRAIN! (grandma and blake)

thanks pa and grandma for a really fun day!

ps. good thing the fair is only once a year, otherwise i would weigh 500 lbs from those dang elephant ears!

carrots.... not so much

2009-09-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

this is odd to me because blake liked EVERYTHING i ever fed him, even that disgusting bottled meat! what did your babies hate?!

oops

2009-09-18T19:54:00.000-07:00

its been kind of a long time since i blogged... i'll get on that... soon.... i promise!

baseball.beach.fair.cousins.zoo

2009-08-30T20:45:00.000-07:00

it's been a busy month for us.... jonathan has been working a lot so we've been trying to get out and have some fun so we don't miss him too much! as the title says we've gone to a couple baseball games, the beach, the fair, visited with cousins, and gone to the zoo. makes me tired just thinking about it! but we've had a blast!

BASEBALL
by far our favorite summer activity.... i think we're up to 10 games so far this season, 6 mariner games and 4 rainier games!

pa and adam. blake and auntie marilyn.

typical scene at the game.

BEACH

i can't believe we didn't spend ALL summer here!? we went the other week with some friends and had a great time, blake loved the sand and water and of course his friend ella!

just chillin

adam LOVES being outside

blake and his friend ella

FAIR
we hit up the lynden fair with cousins blaine and isla! the fair holds a special place in my heart because it was where jonathan took me on our first date :o) so we try to go every year... plus my sister in laws are crazy fair people, so i get sucked in! (i secretly love it)

blaine and blake

blaine showing blake the ropes (i think that was her 2nd or 3rd trip that week)

the reptile tent was a HIT, they both loved the turtles!

COUSINS

my cousins melissa and steph and her two kids raelee and finnley (i hope i spelled that right!) came to visit last week. they live in oregon so we don't get to see them as much, but the kids had a great time together.

two cuties... fin is 9 months, adam is 5

raelee and blake watching lion king together

blake taking her for a ride in his tractor

ZOO
last week my dad came up to visit and took us all to the woodland park zoo! what an awesome zoo... too bad we only saw like 1/8th of it! a couple reasons: the zoo is huge, i forgot my stroller, and we didn't know it closed at 6... we got there at 4:30! we'll definitely have to go back, but we loved what we did see!

my handsome boy!

pa and his boys

blake and mufasa (the lion from lion king... all lions are mufasa)

my poor dad had to wrangle blake most of the time, so he ended up like this, easier than chasing a 2 year old around i guess!

adam LOVES this.... (apparently i did too as a baby, like mommy like son!)

i wonder what september will bring!?

cars... the real ones

2009-08-13T14:34:00.000-07:00

blake's major decision of the day.... if only life were so simple huh!?

funny story:

well, it's sort of a story, maybe more of a mommy brag.... so bare with me. anyone who knows blake knows that he LOVES cars, and i'm not talking the movie here (although he does love that too), i'm talking the real thing. he loves steering wheels, doors, locks, lights, windshield wipers, turn signals, you name it. the impressive part about this is that he can pick out the make and model of cars as well... no he doesn't know the REAL names of them yet, but he can spot them regardless of color. for example, my mom just bought a new toyota sienna, which blake lovingly calls 'grandmas new car' (although it sounds more like 'damas new tar'), and no matter where we are if he sees a toyota sienna (any color) he says 'grandmas new car.' he's been doing this for a while, and his skills are improving, not only does he spot EVERY chevy aveo (daddy's car), dodge neon (aunties car), and buick century (grandmas old car) to name a few. now after seeing a car only once or twice and associating it with a person, he'll spot it everytime, no matter the color or location, and tell me who's car it is. anyways, i just thought that was pretty impressive for a two year old, and definitely makes for an interesting ride in the car!

we love camping

2009-08-03T19:15:00.000-07:00

believe it or not, this was our very first camping trip as a family... actually as a married couple! needless to say, it's about time we went! jonathan's sister and mom were up visiting this past week, so the whole family decided to go camping at deception pass. lucky for us we went on the day it was 100+ degrees in western washington, but where we were it was a cool 75! it was a beautiful place back in the trees right by the ocean, it couldn't have been more perfect.

the first day we spent hanging around the camp, going for walks down to the beach, and just hanging out.

blake LOVED playing with his cousins, here he is holding hands with karlee and hallie

and i loved that all the girls wanted to hold adam! here he is with cousin mishael

blake was perfectly content sitting on the ground letting the waves hit him and throwing rocks in the water

we went for a hike around the water, here are some of the cousins.... believe it or not this isn't even half!

blake was able to spend lots of time with grandpa bob and had a TON of fun with him

grandma susan getting adam to smile and giggle

the night we left we decided to watch the sunset before we hit the road, it was beautiful! (on a side note, when we left there it was 68 degrees, by the time we got back to seattle at 10:30 pm, it was still 93 degrees!)

this is blake wondering where the sun went!

so, camping was a success and we can't wait to go again! we just need a bigger tent next time!

blue eyed boys

2009-07-24T10:13:00.000-07:00

boys and their toys

2009-07-17T15:50:00.000-07:00

AN ODE TO 'PA'

the obsession started when he was only a few weeks old.....

Blake ALWAYS wants to go for rides on pa's tractor (two of his most favorite things!)

and would CRY when he had to get off

it didn't matter if they were even mowing the lawn, he was perfectly content to just SIT on it

pa has been teaching him how to drive and turn

but as blake gets older (and bigger) it's getting harder for BOTH of them to sit on the tractor

so pa thought it was time for him to have his own!

this was blake's birthday present this year!

he couldn't be happier, he LOVES it

and now they can mow the lawn together!

my 3 month old

2009-07-07T13:19:00.000-07:00

where does the time go!? i can't believe it's already been 3 months! i'm sure those of you with more than one child will agree that the second time around sure goes by a lot faster (jayme, you'll have to tell me what it's like the 3rd, 4th, and 5th time! must seem like the blink of an eye! :o)

here are some stats:

weight is 12.4 lbs - 25-50th %

height is 23 1/2 in - 50th %

head is 40 cm- 25th %

the doctor says he's perfect.... (i'm sure he tells all his patients that though!)

some of you may be shocked to know that blake's stats at this age were almost identical! hard to believe when you look at him now!

adam is a HUGE smiler, he loves attention, and looks like he's about to burst into a huge laugh every time he smiles. we've gotten a few giggles out of him, and i have to say it's about the cutest thing ever! we love him SO much, and are so blessed to have him as part of our family!

thanks mommy

2009-07-04T08:22:00.000-07:00

so yesterday i wasn't feeling very good... actually i was feeling really sick, i was up all night with nausea (don't even joke about being pregnant, i'm not, and it wouldn't be funny!) and had a horrible headache and sore throat. on top of that blake has been pretty sick for the last couple days, making him extra fun! jonathan was unable to stay home and help out, but my mom happened to have the day off, so i called her and i'm pretty sure she made it to my house in record time! not only did she come help me with the boys, she cleaned my kitchen, did a bunch of laundry, all the while telling me to just go lay down on the couch... she would take care of it. thanks to her i was able to get some rest and both blake and i are feeling much better! i guess no matter how old you get, your mom never stops being your mommy!
mom, thank you so much for everything, you are the best! I LOVE YOU!

my little man is 2

2009-06-21T20:57:00.000-07:00

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

elephants... and the rest of the zoo

2009-06-17T18:25:00.000-07:00

last week we took blake and adam to the zoo. it was a beautiful day, perfect for tromping around the zoo.... apparently everyone in pierce and king county had the same idea! it was totally packed with kids on their 'end of the year' field trips, despite the crowds we still had a great time! blake's absolute favorite was the elephants... we probably went back 3 times to see them. i don't blame him though they are pretty cool animals. we listened to a little speech about them, and maybe i missed this day in 5th grade, but i didn't know that elephants live in a totally matriarchal society, with one dominant female? they tolerate males only if they are the babies of another female in the heard, but by the time they're about 13 they kick them out! sounds about right to me!

this is the 'leader' of the heard... large and in charge!

the monkeys were pretty fun to watch....

the walrus was OK....

....but it was back to the elephants, definitely the favorite!

a rare sighting... us together for a picture? what?

i think adam is learning this 'hurry up and take the picture' look a little too early!

got food?

2009-06-15T22:04:00.000-07:00

...ummm, now i do, thanks to a few of my friends who showed up a few minutes ago with a couple bags of groceries! if only i had known that putting up a picture of my empty fridge would get me some free groceries, i would've done it a long time ago! :o) thanks jenn, steph, karen and heather, you guys are hilarious!

ps. i totally ate one of those apples after they left!

can you tell....

2009-06-12T21:45:00.000-07:00

...that i HATE grocery shopping!?

we have more condiments in our fridge than actual food, no joke!

a week in the life....

2009-06-08T14:48:00.000-07:00

*we had a very busy, very fun week last week! it seemed like we were out and about with something to do every single day! we tried to take advantage of the beautiful weather.... i think we were successful! monday through wednesday i packed up the kids every morning at 9:30 to go walking with an awesome group of girls from my ward, the boys both loved getting out and being pushed around in a stroller, and i LOVED getting some exercise and getting to know everyone.... they are all lots of fun! i think blake made some new friends too... i'm pretty sure he has a crush on 'ella bella' (that's what he calls her!) Here's blake getting ready to go (no pictures of me though... no one needs to see me pre-shower and all sweaty!)

*we also hit the park a number of times, blake's favorite is the swings! adam also enjoyed a little nap in the shade!

*wednesday night and thursday day we spent at my parents house (they have AC, and it was HOT that day). ironically we spent most of the day OUTSIDE. we blew up blake's kiddy pool, and i'm not sure who had more fun, him or jonathan!

*friday we went to the mariner's game... no pictures of that either, it was SOOO crowded we could hardly move, but still fun as always! blake is really starting to love going to the 'ball game' and is such a good boy while we're there (mommy couldn't be happier!).

*saturday the boys and i took a last minute trip to oregon for my cousin's graduation party, we left early and didn't get home until 11pm.... needless to say we crashed!

big boy bed

2009-05-29T12:54:00.001-07:00

we've finally moved blake into a big boy bed!! i honestly was dreading this transition because he was having such a hard time going down for naps and bedtime in his crib, and he couldn't climb out of that, so i thought there was no way he would stay in a bed that he could easily climb out of! i guess i need to give my little guy a little more credit, because from the moment we set it up he has loved going in and sleeping on his 'big boy bed.' he doesn't climb out of it, even in the morning, he waits for us to come open his door and get him before he gets out! i'm sure it helps that he LOVES his new CARS sheets and blanket too (by the way he is now obsessed with that movie!). Thanks to grandpa and grandma who bought him his new bed and sheets.... he loves it!

first game of the season

2009-05-22T13:55:00.000-07:00

Wednesday we went to our first Mariner game of the season... Adam's first game ever! We had a great time. Our seats were in right field right behind ichiro, only a few rows up (also prime real estate for griffey home runs!) The boys were both really good, Adam slept most of the time, I only had to feed him once, but they have a nice little nursing station right behind home plate (FYI). There weren't a ton of people around us so we were able to spread out and let Blake roam around a little bit, he loved it! By the way, they won (1-0), griffey had 2 of their 3 hits, plus the only RBI, that's why we love him! :o) (ok, I love him)

my sister bought adam and blake matching griffey t-shirts, so jonathan & i got one too... so the next game we'll all be sporting our griffey shirts!

adam looks a little concerned in this picture... but he LOVES being outside, almost as much as blake!

we love baseball! go m's!