Just perfect

How often to you get a picture like this?!  Oh my, I love these two little people so much...

Mommy and Nyah time

Now that Gabe goes to kindergarten every morning, we have Mommy and Nyah  time during Ian's nap.  It's fun to have more one on one time with my little sweetheart.  More than anything in the world, I want to have a close, happy relationship with my daughter. (Well with all of my kids of course!)  So anyway, this is our time to get started! :)  She is still a little spitfire and most of the morning is spent with her yelling "MOMMY LOOK!  I JUMP!!" while she jumps from the coffee table to the couch.... or her yelling "I FROG!!" while she leap frogs across the floor... or her yelling "MOMMY, CATCH! BALL!" while she stands poised to chuck a ball at me.  You get the theme here, right?  A lot of yelling and physical exertion!  But we do have quieter moments when we read together (she loves to look at books) or cook/bake together (she is a great help dumping ingredients and licking pretty much everything she can get her hands on!).  Overall we have a wonderful time together. 

One day she found a water gun and was absolutely engrossed!  I banished her outside, for obvious reasons, and she happily spent an hour shooting water and filling it back up repeatedly.  She was so cute I went out and took some snapshots.  It was hard to decide which to post so I'm posting too many. Oh well.

Of course poor Denali got squirted. She is way too tempting of a target!

Last days of summer....

We did our best to squeeze every last drop out of summer here!  Our last few "hot" days (in the 80's) were spent at the beach, soaking up as much vitamin D as we could. Good bye summer... until next year!

Had to add this hilarious picture of Ian!!!

the beach and other adventures...

 We had big plans to take everyone to the beach for low tide but instead when we got there, the tide was higher than I had ever seen it! Oh well, it was still fun.  Aren't the babies adorable? And that picture of Matt and Wesley is so cute. See that little dot in the water to the left? That is Gabe floating on some driftwood. (It looks like he is way out there but he's not - and it's pretty shallow.)

Later we also went on a hike. It was beautiful as usual but more fun than ever since we got to share it with family!

Keep a hold of that stick boys! That is all that's keeping that boulder from crushing all of us!!

date night!

One evening we went out on the town and really lived it up... well as much as you can with 2 cute babies in tow! ;)  We did have a fabulous dinner then went to show Matt and Amy our best view of Seattle from a park in Queen Anne.  Need I say again how much fun I had with my big brother and my sweet sis in law?  This night was pretty fun but the best night was when we put the kids to bed, went out on the patio, lit all the candles, tiki torches, and outdoor fireplace, and just talked til late.  Man, I miss those times of just being with family.

Northwest Trek

We spent the next day trying out something new... Northwest Trek. It was fun! It's like a huge zoo/animal preserve where most of the animals roam freely. We took a tram through and saw enormous antelope, elk, moose, mountain goats, mountain sheep, and bison. Pretty cool!  We also saw smaller enclosures of bear and wild cats and a myriad of other animals that live in the Northwest.

That's a huge bear between Amy and I in the background!

Matt and Amy for a visit!!

It was so fun having my big brother here for a visit!  I just love being with Matt and Amy and it was wonderful having all that one on one time with their cute family.  Gabe and Nyah had a great time with Wes and Logan.. and it was fun to see the little guys, Ian and Gage, together too!

Look at these two butter-balls! I can't stop smiling every time I look at this picture.

  Our first day we spent down on the waterfront enjoying the sunshine, water, and some Pike's Place clam chowder.  We swung by the aquarium too and let the kids touch anenomes and starfish and watch the sea otters get fed shrimp. It was a fun day!

First day of school

Look at our handsome kindergartener!!  Today is Gabe's first day of school and our whole family has been so excited!  Eric gave him a Father's blessing this morning and then he was off!  It felt really weird but really cool walking him into school this morning.  It's been a looooooong time since I walked the halls of elementary school but it felt just the same.  I love that smell of sharpened pencils and the organized chaos of it all. :)  I am so excited for our little man. This year is going to be a big adventure for him!

bye bye baby teeth!

 

Gabe lost his first tooth!  A few weeks ago I was shocked to notice two teeth sprouting up behind his bottom front baby teeth.  For some reason I just thought he was way too little... kids didn't lose teeth until they were bigger. Well, not Gabe. After all, he got his first tooth at 2 months old!  So now he has lost both of his bottom front teeth - one he literally lost.  It just disappeared one day! But luckily the tooth fairy is an understanding sort and still left him some money. :)

This is what happens when I take too many pictures: