Inevitable Future

We gave them some good genes in general, but they are ocularly doomed.

Notes about my day

• Woke up to a poopy baby five minutes before my alarm went off (well, for the second time)
• Jared had to run for the bus, but made it with his backlog of overdue library books in tow
• Got Rosie a stack of construction paper for her morning doodles
• Breakfast of leftover hummus, pita chips and a smoothie
• Rosie made me be the frame for her fort and then we used chairs for mutually enjoyed fun
• Cut Jared's scarf out of fleece, including tassels (shh, don't tell)
• Made a few phone calls while Norah napped and Rosie played in the water did dishes.
• Sweep the floor because I haven't in many, many days. And since we have an offer on the house, I am making up for all the exhausting cleaning during the sales period by avoiding it as much as I can.
• Shower after Norah wakes up from her nap because I like to live dangerously.
• Told Rosie to put on "day-time clothes" for the 40th time. Decided to wait until she is hungry for lunch and make it a prerequisite.
• We had a very late lunch.
• Jared came home during lunch (yep, that late)
• Intermittent roughhousing and chores.
• A lovely friend dropped by for a chat!
•  Tried to make bubbles and squeak using leftovers. I failed, but it still tasted like good leftovers!
• Long, long bath for all my dirty children.
• A small argument about cleaning up their laundry and books off the floor
• A small argument about what to listen to before they go to sleep.
• Rosie tells me she is sick and needs to stay up to feel better. I politely refute.
• Dishes and laundry await

Fin

Rosie is 3!!!!

Rosie is just so wonderful and extraordinary.

We were so lucky to be able to celebrate her with friends!

Norah's giggles!

This is just golden to me!

Saturday morning singing

Waiting during a showing

  Sometimes when we have a showing, we go out for lunch!

 Yum!

Dance to the music

 Chopstick walrus!

Happy baby, despite be late on a nap!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

We are moving!
After various events this summer and a great opportunity becoming available, Ken and I decided to move our troop out to Washington! It is hard to leave the home and community I anticipated us to be for a long time and uproot.
Fortunately, the impedending move and (hopefully) home sale gave us motivation to do some house projects. Which I love!

I've hated this red since we moved in, but Ken loved it so it just stuck for a while.

It was just too dark for a room with one small window.

Lucky for me, I have some awesome friends who came over and painted with me while Ken was gone on a business trip.

This is what I found under the stove. GROSS, GROSS, GROSS. I guess I should've cleaned there MUCH earlier.

Rosie liked playing in the fridge's cave, while I was finishing touch ups!

Here is the after! It didn't turn out to be the color I thought it would (The paint sample looked much more beige than this). But since we are moving, it didn't bother me. It is neutral and fresh and bright!

In the midst of all of this, I finally bought a piano. (My parents gave me money for this for my birthday!)

This is the kids bathroom. Before we knew we were moving it was not a priority because it was the kids bathroom and bright is fine there. But we are making everything as neutral and attractive as possible.

It was when I was painting this that Jared told me, "Mom, you know that yellow is my favorite color! I will never trust you again!"
Yikes.
We are planning on painting something yellow when we move.

After

New paint (same color as the kitchen) and new shelves and towel hooks

If you didn't notice from the pictures above, we had a lot of brass in the house. And we changed it all out.

With the lone exception of the chandelier in the foyer. Because it is huge and high and expensive.

I did most of the handles, bathroom hardware and hinges. Ken did the light fixtures.

Even though our realtor wanted us to, we had no plans to paint this room.
That is until the touch up paint we needed was dried out in the can!

This picture doesn't show the color very well, but it is lovely. I plan on using it again!

And you can see Ken's work on the chandelier.

This is our big wonderful bedroom. I don't think we'll find this in a house ever again!

The walls were never painted before we did. Just that contractor's beige.

It was a ton of work to paint this room. Especially since Ken insisted on taping everything! And we had to sand down the texture on those diagonal walls.

The sister missionaries in our ward came and helped me paint for a couple of hours one day. And that was maybe a third of the painting that needed to be done.

The biggest change in my life now is keeping this place clean. All. The. Time.
I sort of hate the pressure and the constant stress I've been feeling about it for weeks now. But I hope it will be over soon!

Halloween with Snow

 Our kids decided on superhero costumes this year!

 Wonder Woman!

 Kid Flash and Spider Man 

(or Spider Woman or Spider Girl or Spider Rosie- this issue is a hot debate in our home)

Guess who is sick of pictures?

 And it was snowing, so I took the kids out while Ken stayed home with Norah.

Warming up with soup for dinner.

And lots of candy afterwards!

Bundle of Joy

 We've had three months getting to know this little one so far and, by most accounts, she is one pleasant little lady!

She doesn't have too many skills yet, but she is a charmer.

She watches everything

She loves (almost) every ounce of the attention from her siblings.

She really smiles so readily

In this one she was laughing!

The kids fight over who gets to hold her evening bottle. It is so sweet to see her in their arms.

Early fall camping

After a couple failed attempts, we finally made a backyard camp out happen!

It included s'mores, of course.

(Shout out to the Moody's for letting us borrow their fire pit!)

Good night!

Ken stayed out with these two, while I took care of Norah indoors.

And they made it through the night!

A Big Dill

I made a batch of refrigerator pickles this year! And I feel excessively proud of myself. I can crack these open soon and enjoy my labors!

In all seriousness, dill pickles are in my top three comfort foods.

Jared and His Food

My Jared loves black olives! Which, in my opinion, is super weird!

(Never give up!)

Jared offered to make lunch for his sister and himself. This qualified in his mind as "pretty healthy." An apple, as many marshmallows as you are years old, and two grapes with icing and chocolate chips on top.

Norah's Baby Blessing

On September 7th, Norah was blessed in our church.

She didn't cry one little bit. She just looked up at Ken the whole time. (She absolutely loves his voice!)
My parents and little brother were able to drive down for the occasion. It was a wonderful day to remember God's goodness and celebrate our new little girl.