We went to see Santa today!!!! Lot's of happiness, whining and a couple tears. Henry was so excited and quickly let Santa know what he wanted. Reese came in happily and said hello to Santa but the second she was put on his knee she lost it. Three quick clicks and she was off the knee and automatically stopped crying. She even said "goodbye" and "see you later" to Santa with a huge smile. The picture below shows the way life has been in our family lately. Henry is growing up and Reese is almost 2 :)
We have been enjoying all of our holiday fun. Henry is in super Christmas mode this year and I love it! Here are some pictures from the playground after the pictures.
Here are my little supers, yes Reese demanded to be just like her brother. You will also notice she has her shoes on the wrong feet. This is a side effect from her crazy independence and now being able to put her shoes on without any help.
This picture sums up here day. She did not nap and was absolutely full of it all day!!
Henry headed off to school and had a great party with his friends. He adores his new school and all of his friends so he could not wait to see what everyone was going to be! After school he had a friend over and they ran wild. Here they are during a quieter painting moment, it did not last long.
My parents are in town and they surprised Henry by dressing up as Batman and Robin which pretty much made his year! He quickly put on his batsuit and they played super hero until it was time to trick or treat.
Our new neighborhood is so spread out so Henry pedaled his loot on his little tractor. He loved every second of the night and is at his happiest when trick or treating!!!
Reese had a long day and by trick or treat time she refused to wear a costume and instead rode in the stroller and watched happily as her brother ran from door to door. I have a feeling by next year she will be running around like her brother.
Today Henry started preschool at his new school. Lot's of excitement in our house this morning!!! He wanted to wear this, his octo man outfit :)
After a discussion on appropriate school attire we decide on this. You can tell by the look on his face he was not super impressed!
We have a trail right behind our house and we are able to walk to school in 3 minutes. After a huge rain last night we awoke to a beautiful day that felt very fallish :) Here is my big guy happily on his way.
Hoping for a great year of school for my sweet little guy. He walked in without even saying goodbye to me. He walked right up to his teacher and said "Hello, my name is Henry and I brought my toy doggie for sharing". This was my cue to leave.
So I am so excited to have him go and grow, Henry is excited to play and make friends. Only one person was not thrilled today and decided to hold vigil at the front window for the return of her favorite and only playmate Henry. I am thinking it is time to put Reese in a class so she can find her own posse :)
I am writing this the night before Henry turns 4 but I guess by the time anyone reads it he will be 4!
After 3 months we are back! It has been a wonderful 3 months filled with adjusting to our new home, vacations, tons of visitors, lots of yard work, growing kids, happy kids and fighting kids:)! As another wonderful and busy summer ends and fall approaches I hope to jump back into the blog and keep everyone updated on the comings and goings of our family once again.
No better time to start than to wish my big guy Henry a Happy Birthday! I can't believe he is 4 tomorrow. He is amazing. He is taller than most 5 year olds and more emotional than most teenage girls! He is the funniest person I know and is consumed by superheros. He runs and jumps everywhere. He is a great and very tolerant big brother. He loves to cuddle and tells us he loves us 100 times each day. He loves to dance and every song is his favorite song. He goes to time out each day and screams the whole walk to the step :)
I could describe him for hours but I think you get the point. He makes me so happy and I love being his Mom. Here are the cupcakes and cookies I made for his big day:
No big party tomorrow. Instead we are going to the space needle and having brunch. We also plan to just let him do whatever he wants all day. He is excited to be in charge for the day!! Tonight after he falls asleep I am going to fill his room with balloons :)
Here are some more pictures:
the two crazy kids
this is what we do every afternoon
spider man
batman
Okay so I will be back with party photos and also a catchup of summer photos. Time to blow up balloons :)
We did it! We now officially live in Woodinville and are loving it. My parents arrived the night before our move and it was wonderful to have the extra hands and help with the moving and kids.
Our moving day was a bit of a comedy of errors. The moving truck arrived at 9am and proceeded to get stuck in our neighbors driveway. After many attempts to move the truck they had to call a tow truck which quickly freed the moving truck and let us begin our move.
About an hour into the move we got a call from our doggie daycare woman telling us she was rushing Wilson to the vet because he did not seem okay. Bill met her there and after a huge vet bill and lots of worry Wilson had emergency surgery to unflip his stomach. We were quite lucky because sometimes when a dog flips their stomach they die within hours. We are just so happy that Wilson is doing great and forever thankful to Constance at day care for quickly realizing Wilson was not okay.
The vet called me while I was driving (to tell me Wilson made it through surgery just great) in between the old house and new house and I answered while driving just in time for a cop to pull me over right in front of the old house, quite a show for the old neighbors!! He was actually really nice and could tell I needed a break so he wrote me a warning and wished me luck. Henry was the only one who thought it was cool :)
So an eventful day which actually ended up putting a more relaxed feeling to the move because we were just rolling with the punches and realizing how lucky we were to be moving to such a great house and neighborhood.
The house is great and the neighbors have been by with flowers and cobblers and welcoming hellos. The yard is a bit bigger than we realized and we are trying to prepare ourselves to get on the yard work train! The trade off is that the kids are in heaven. They run outside all day and love the extra space the house has. Henry's parting words to the old house were "I don't ever want to come back here again" so I guess it is a good thing we moved.
My parents went above and beyond to make this move and new house perfect for us. My mom cleaned, babysat, pulled weeds and organized in a way that saved me many hours of stress. My dad never stopped either and power washed, built a fence and stripped the deck so we could stain it among many other things. We are forever grateful and owe them some relaxation on their next trip out!!!
Here are 2 pictures
View from kitchen window. The neighbors horses run all around their yard and it is so fun to watch!
Our family room almost finished and comfy. The dogs are loving the new set up!
This video here sums up how we all feel after all of the moving and organizing. One minute Reese was eating lunch and the next minute...
Today was a first for me. I got to go to Henry's school all by myself for a special Mother's Day tea. It was so sweet. All of the children dressed up and all of the Moms wore dresses. We all sat in circle time together and the kids sang songs for us. They made us presents and wrote us letters. It was probably the sweetest thing I had ever participated in. Here are some pictures of the sweetness!
Ready to go!
Two peas in a pod.
Big boy at school. Lost his tie at recess and was so excited when we found it!
he made me a vase and a special note.
After we picked Reese up from hanging with Dad at Microsoft. Had to get a picture of my loves.
Lots of fun things to catch up on. We are still moving and we get into our new place May 18th! We are all so excited and counting the days and moving boxes until we go. We are almost all packed and have been busy every weekend trying to be ready for the big day. My parents are coming to help take care of the kids while we move which will be amazing!
I am training for my first half marathon and it has been keeping me very busy. I have 2 months left before the big race and feeling better about it every day. My sister and I are running it together and are very excited to run across the golden gate bridge!
The kids are awesome. Henry is at a very funny age right now. He is almost exclusively dressing himself and he tends to make very interesting choices. It takes all I have to not make him change, like last night when he wore a bike helmet and plastic rope thing around his neck to go out to dinner. He is pretty proud of himself when he does it and it is pretty funny. Here are a few of the outfits. I have many more pictures for future blackmail but need to upload them.
Henry's outfit
notice the two different slippers, how punk
He also has an imaginary friend named JJ who spends quite a bit of time with our family. We had a little problem yesterday when Henry noticed that Bill ate JJ but he spit him out and we were all fine. :) I think it is obvious that Henry has a lot of imagination (or as he calls it imagimation).
That brings us to Reese the new house troublemaker. She is into everything and finds it quite hilarious to climb up onto everything. Her favorite it to stand on top of the kitchen table and scream loud shrills of joy. She is a feisty and happy little bug. She thoroughly enjoys finding her brother and screaming into his face which makes him fall apart. He is like her favorite cause and effect toy. She is a love and is always taking care of her baby doll, petting the dogs and jumping up and down when Bill walks in the door. She loves bananas and is constantly asking for one in the kitchen. She is always talking/jabbering and just like Henry can never manage to sit still.
enjoying a sunny day
he rides in circles on the driveway for hours
We jumped in puddles the other night. They both had a blast. They do make quite the pair and once they get going laughing they are hard to stop. They have their differences daily but it is so obvious that they love one another. Below is a video of Reese demonstrating her strength and one of how they love each other in a loud crazy way!
experienced puddle jumper
first time puddle jumper
park
We also had a new edition to our extended family and he is adorable! Auntie Anna had a little boy named Charlie and he is so cute. I hear little or shall I say big sister Lucy is doing a great job! We can't wait to meet him!
Until next time...
We had a great weekend with great weather. We spent most of it outside and it was great. Henry practiced riding his big bike and he is getting pretty good. We also went to Justin and Laura's for dinner and had the best chicken ever!
Here is Henry riding the big kid bike!
Here is Henry just talking. He is always talking these days and asking lots of "why" and "then what would happen" questions. It is quite sweet.
We have had the best Easter yet as a family. Yesterday we did an egg hunt at the grocery store and it was so fun. Our good friend Tina was dressed up as the Easter Bunny and gave Henry lots of love. Reese did not like the Easter bunny and cried.
Here is Henry and the Bunny
This morning we awoke to a loud gasp coming from Henry's room when he found his spider man Easter basket. We then heard the footsteps up to our door as he entered an announced Easter had come! In true Henry fashion he ate all of his candy and then waited for his sister to wake up so he could give her her basket.
Easter candy hysteria!
Here are 2 videos of Easter. The first is Henry and his basket and the second is Henry and Reese. Both are a bit long but sweet.
We have started packing and are getting excited to make our move. We get our hopefully future house inspected on Tuesday :)
So a lot has happened since we last talked :) We made a quick decision to finally sell our house. Less than a month later it is a reality. We listed our house last Thursday and by Friday night 10 people had seen it and we had a full price offer as well as a back up offer. We are still in a little shock and not quite celebrating yet because we still have an inspection to get through. We are hopeful about the inspection because we have basically put all of our money into fixing this house but you never know.
Now we are searching for a new place in Woodinville, which is about 20 minutes from where we are now. We love it and are pretty close to finding a spot but it is quite a process!
Anyhow we have been so busy and the kids have been troopers! We basically spent 2 whole days with the dogs in the car while people viewed our house and they did fantastic. Here are some pictures. Also Henry got a new big bike with training wheels and is doing a great job. I will get a video this weekend and post. Reese is into everything and walking like a drunken sailor. She also loves to climb and seems to share her brother's no fear attitude.
Here is the birthday girl in her official birthday shirt and tutu! She looked so funny and cute at the same time. She loved the fluffy tutu and it really made the little party. We had cupcakes and lots of fun. It was a very simple and low key kind of day which was really nice!
We have always called Reese our little bun bun (bunny) so my Mom and I made these bunny cupcakes at the last minute and I love how they turned out!
This is her first cake video. It has a surprise ending (let's just say she wasn't as into the cupcakes as I thought she would be)
I can’t believe how quickly Reese’s first year has gone!It has been a wonderful year and we have all grown a lot and learned a lot.Henry has learned how to be a big brother which has been so nice to watch.He loves his sister and even though he gets upset with her from time to time he also has many tender moments with her each day.
Bill and I have learned a lot about life with two kids.Aside from the extra chaos an extra body can create we have definitely found our stride as a family now that we have 2 little ones. We are incredibly lucky to have these two little ones!
Reese is an incredible little person.She is loving and very goofy.She rarely is without a smile.She has a fiery side as well that reassures us that she will never be pushed around.She understands so much and is quite the communicator!She is “talking” to us so much with her own language, just like her brother did, head bobbing and all.She loves to learn and is captivated when we talk about animal sounds. She also is officially a walker ( I promise to get a good video and post soon)
She is just the sweetest!
Today we will play, eat bunny cupcakes and have fun.We have decided to just have a little party at home since my parents are here visiting and we are all sick.It is actually the perfect way to celebrate such a perfect little girl!
I will take lots of pictures of the birthday girl and share them tomorrow!
Life is back in session! We are all healthy and back to school and all of our other activities which is just wonderful!
Henry is growing up right before our eyes. I swear each day he is more patient and talkative and really becoming a kid. He still has his toddlerish moments but for the most part I can see the light at the end of the toddler tunnel and it feels great. He really is so sweet and is always reminding us how much he loves us which really makes so much of the craziness fade away for a moment. His imagination is off the charts and he is constantly pretending to be someone or something else. It is super common for him to walk into the room and say "Hi Katie my name is Fireman Mike how are you today? Are you hurt or on fire?" It makes me laugh every time and it is so fun to see him slowly begin to play in a new way without me for the most part.
Here is one of his characters who wears all of the hats at once!
Playing at Januik while we relax!
Reese has begun to take more and more steps in a row. I think our new record is 7 or 8. She is super wobbly but really catching on and I fear her crawling days will be behind her as she enters her second year :( She is one funny girl and also super animated and easily frustrated. Oh she is so loud and just screams when she does not get what she wants or if we leave the park. She also has been hugging and kissing us and it is so sweet. She is constantly saying her cycle of words Mama, Dada, Brudda, Uh Oh, Hello. She also loves to wave and blow kisses which is pretty funny.
Here she is in a leotard and her new shoes...pretty hilarious if you ask me!
Here she is taking steps. She is crying because she did not get to play with my phone and the camera. See hoe quickly she changes her tune when she starts to walk. Also love how Henry throws his dog into the mix and it doesn't even phase her :)
Here is a little video of the two of them. They love each other 90% of the time and the other 10% involves a lot of crying and even a little biting from Reese! This video shows their friendship perfectly!
