long weekend

So another long weekend has come and gone :( As I sit here and type this and think about going to work tomorrow I am not very happy that it is all over.... We had a good weekend. On Friday night we had dinner at the committee chair of Anacortes YD ( Dave and Sharon's) and they happen to have a full size pool in their backyard which was heated to 89 degrees. The kids, Joel and Dave spent a good portion of the early evening in it and had a great time.



Saturday Joel started moving stuff to the storage unit and I started packing.. yippee and then in the evening we had our friends James and Jaimee over for dinner.

Sunday we were over at Joel's parents for dinner in the evening and today we got up early and took the kids to the beach and walked the loop out at Washington park. The loop walk is pretty uphill for a good portion so we take the stroller and Jeiven tries to walk/run part of it and then he gets pushed for the rest of it. When he was getting in today him and Malea banged into each other somehow and it was just so sweet to watch her nurture him. She was like "buddy are you ok?" and then she proceeded to put her arm around him and rub his back. For all the times that they try to kill each other it is nice to see that they do care for each other when it counts.

When we got home from our walk Joel cleaned the gutters( one of the contingencies of our house closing) and I packed some more.. Then we headed over to James and Jaimee's for a BBQ. They make the most incredible shrimp that you have ever had.. as I sit here and type I am craving them.. ohh they are so good. The kids love it at their house as they have a dog and the kids just go crazy for him.

Well that is it in a nutshell :) We are planning on moving this next weekend so life will be busy but things are great

Birthday boy and other stuff

So my little baby turned 5 on Monday. Man did that go fast! My parents promised Jeiven that they would come for this 5th birthday ( and he didn't forget that promise) so even with their very busy schedules, they made the trip to his party on Saturday. We had it at this very cool place called the Children's Museum in Mount Vernon which is about a 30 minute drive from us here in a Anacortes. It has all sorts of educational stuff for kids as well as an indoor sandbox, thomas the train set, art station., and an actual big rig truck. Jeiven was in heaven. There were 13 kids at the party so it was busy but he loved it. He keeps talking about it over and over again and he is a very thankful kid so he says" thanks mom for my party.. it was SO fun".

Nascar was the car of choice this year so I caked again... It was fun :) Here are some pictures from the party

In other news... we found a place to live! YAY. Our friends the Gentry's parents have a beach house that is unoccupied currently so they are going to let us rent it until the house is ready. It is furnished too so we can put our stuff in storage and not have to move it in and out twice. The place is great. It is right on the beach with an outdoor fireplace and crabpots and everything so we will have a good time this summer with the kids as Joel is on his sabbatical. It has three bedrooms so the kids will have their own space..which is much needed! We are suppose to be out of our current place on the 15th of June so we have a few more weeks to pack.

Nothing new on the house project yet. Getting a little frustrated but I just have to let it go.. it will happen when it happens :) Here are a few more pictures of the kids with my parents and some of Malea.

Permits :)

So those of you that know me pretty well know that I am pretty obsessive about things. Like when I am waiting for something.. like an email let's say, I will check my inbox 100 times an hour. Well let's just say I have been a little anal about checking on our permits :) Our county has a handy little website where you can check the status of your permits. They check off the required things as they do them and then they say "approved" or waiting for review". Well.. let's just say that I have been just a tad bit obsessed with the website and check it a few too many times a day. Well last night before we went to bed.. it changed. We now have PERMITS!!!!! Our full building permit has been approved which I think means that we can start building here as soon as the builder is ready. We met with them on Monday and picked out lots of fun stuff so after the long wait it is finally starting to feel real!

Our house in very close to closing. We have an anticipated closing date of June 1st-June 15th depending on their financing. We are not sure where we are going to go yet, but we have a couple of options on the table.

It was a gorgeous day in Washington today so Joel and I took the kids for a walk on the loop and then let them play on the beach . They just love being outdoors!!

Daughter.....

I should start this by saying that I LOVE my daughter. She is a hoot. She has the most hilarious personality and she is so kind and gentle ( when she chooses to be). With that being said.. she has been SO difficult lately. Our pediatrician labeled her as "Strong willed" when he saw her a few weeks ago and he pretty much has it right. Examples: I took her to the grocery store the other day and she wanted to walk.. well I have only so much time in my day to spend at the store... ( she would take forever looking at all the stuff and removing it from the shelves). So we compromise. I park as far away from the door as possible so she can walk to the store and then she gets in the coolest carts ever ( they are shaped like cars for kids.. I am sure almost everyone has seen these). Ok so last week it just wasn't going to happen. We get out of the car and she says like always" I want to walk". So she walks to the door and when I go to put her in the cart she freaks out, throws herself down on the ground and screams bloody hell for a long time.... Oh the joys.

Well it gets better. As I said she has been moved to the big girl bed and it isn't going so well. Last night was terrible. It was 10:30 and she was still awake. She climbed up into Jeiven's bed and was tickling him trying to wake him up... She doesn't really care if you spank her or whatever. She just keeps getting out.

Today Jeiven had a play date with his friend from preschool. I brought along her pack-n-play to put her down for a nap. Didn't work. She got out and was playing with toys and eating kitty litter. She didn't sleep at all and so by 6:00 she was a nightmare. I had company for dinner which of course makes it so enjoyable when you have a cranky 2 year old. Her other new thing is playing in the potty. She won't sit on it but she will play in it. It used to be fine because she couldn't open the doors or the lids but now it's all fair game.

Ok I am done venting :)

Crazy life

So for those of you that actually check this thing on a regular basis.. (thanks Carmen), please forgive me for being so terrible and not adding anything for so long. I have been waiting for my mother-in-law to send me pictures from Joel's birthday( as I forgot the camera.. something about chasing two kids out the door)and I felt so bad about not posting on here about his birthday ( sorry honey) that I have just been putting it off now for too long.. so It was Joel's 32nd birthday on April 24th, and I don't have any pictures for you so you are going to have just imagine that we had a good time. We had dinner over at the Pemberton's and that was about it this year. Over the last 9 years Joel and I have made it a tradition to "go-away" for birthdays, anniversaries and so forth but somehow in the last few years it just hasn't happened. It's sad really.... :( We will do it again, I am determined..

so on to other things. Jeiven had registration for Kindergarten last Friday and that was interesting. The made him take all of these tests and such and he was of course brilliant at the cognitive stuff, reading readiness, ( he is already reading) and fine motor skills, but he didn't fair so well at the gross motor skills. I come to find out that he can't skip or hop on one foot! In all of my working with him to be smart, I forgot to teach him to be a boy! shame on me :) Most of you know that Joel is blessed with being able to take a mini working sabbatical this summer so you can only imagine what we will be working on this summer :)These two pictures were taken on round-up day.. we had a good day just me and him.


Malea is as crazy as ever. We decided it was time to move her to a "big girl bed". Bad idea. She ends up not falling asleep until 10:00 at night because she will not stay in her bed. It's not suppose to be funny but when you see your daughter with a book two inches from her face trying to read in the dark.. it's pretty hilarious. It makes evenings not so fun for Joel and I, but she will get through it.. and we will too.

One more thing to this never ending post... We have an offer on the house! YIPEEE I will make a visit to the title company tomorrow to do the official purchase agreement form, but we are going to need to find a new place to live here in the next little while as our house won't be ready for a long while. Our adventures never end but they couldn't get more exciting ;)