Pine Trees

Growing up in a house that backs up to the woods I have always loved the idea of having a bunch of trees in our backyard. It was another perk of our current house! However, I have never lived near so many Evergreens and I've learned a couple things about trees around here in WA.

A couple facts about pine trees:
-They can easily grow 100-200 feet.
-They have shallow root systems that are very susceptible to wind throw.
-Even a small gust of wind can cause them to shed needles and branches.

A couple facts about me:
-I have pine trees in my yard that are REALLY tall.
-I know someone who was crushed by a falling pine tree.
-I have a secret fear of our pine trees crushing our house.

Well, the good news is we had one of the biggest wind/ice storms in recent history and our trees survived! I've seen tons of fallen trees as aftermath of this winter but our trees and house are still standing! The branches on the trees though...thats a different story. Our backyard was LITTERED with so many branches you couldn't see the grass at all by the end of the storms.

So we spent a Saturday cleaning up and the girls were our big helpers! Julie made for a great branch smasher, with Daddy's help! Lizzie helped us load the wheel barrow.

We filled the whole truck bed with branches and this is no small truck bed, mind you. If you are thinking right now, since when do we own a truck? Let me tell you...

We don't own it. We are babysitting it. A couple friends of ours in the military were accepted into the special forces and had to move suddenly for training. So, they asked us if we would babysit their truck for the next year or two until they are done with training and can move back. Its been such a blessing to have this big ugly brown truck around. We've had to use it for a lot of random tasks.

Happy Valentine's Day!

This blue ruffle cupcake is much like our Valentine's Day this year: exciting, unique, fun, creative, and different. This may not be your typical pink and red frosted cupcake with heart sprinkles but I think I enjoyed the day as much as Lizzie enjoyed this blue heap of frosting.

Warning: this is not my typical post. This one leans heavy into a "for my own memory's sake/ journal keeping category."

Valentine's Day very well may be a silly holiday pushed upon us by manufacturers and companies like Hallmark, hoping to sell us their products and goods at double the price as we scramble to "prove" to those around us that we love them. I get that. There have been many years where we celebrated V-day on the following weekend or barely at all due to life's busy schedule, a low budget, or just not bothering. Dave and I never feel like we "have" to celebrate any holiday especially when it falls on a weekday. One thing I love about our relationship is that it is very honest and open. We have vowed to not be "hint makers" with each other ( a person who says one thing but really wants something else). So each year before any given holiday we state our honest opinion on how we want to celebrate it. Some years we say "lets not get gifts." And we mean it. We don't.

This year we said, "Lets do small gifts this year." And we did. We tried to use creativity and thought over large sums of money. (not that I don't enjoy large sums of money too) :)

I made Dave a little book of 52 reasons I love him. It was made from a deck of cards and each card had a different reminder of why I love him. It was hard to limit all the reasons to 52! He also got some new exercise pants (our newest past time is exercising these days) and a bag of his favorite peanut butter M&Ms.

Well, my gifts were pretty insignificant compared to what he had planned for me. It started out with a delivery on Fri with a bouquet of roses and the sweetest note:

The girls got a couple more early Valentines in the mail from Grandma, Grandpa, Great Grandma. Lizzie even got her first Valentine from a boy. (Just her good buddy Joshy though :) ) I can say that Lizzie truly treasured each and every one. She insisted on taking them to bed with her that night. The girls had a great time spending their money from Great Grandma at the dollar store!
We started the actual day of by exchanging gifts and heading to the Y. We then, undid all our hard work by eating pizza for lunch and picking up See's chocolates. We came home to some fun Valentines left by Linda and my neighbor down the street. The girls were VERY excited by the balloons and all the candy. I could use one word to sum up the girls V-day experience: Candy. They loved it.

I'll be honest and say that Dave and I usually focus on just each other and the kids for Valentine's Day but this year we decided to expand our circle and spread the love to more people. My favorite part of the day was taking dinner to one of our next door neighbors who has been stressed and busy taking care of her sick Mom, amidst her own family's needs. While I am blessed to belong to a church where we do these types of things for each other a lot, I don't believe this family has this type of support during hard times. They were very surprised and so grateful it touched my heart. I would normally feel averse to posting this on the blog for fear of coming across as boasting, however I feel the benefits of remembering this years moments and feelings too great to be forgotten. I learned some things this holiday that I don't want to forget. May our family always remember the best way to celebrate love, especially on Valentine's Day: Loving one Another.

Call it karma. Call it blessings. Call it what you may. I can tell you though that serving others will always bless you even more than the person receiving the service. As I made dinner/dessert for the neighbors, Dave spontaneously decided that he would prepare a fancy meal for our family. We feasted on delicious chicken parmesan with extra mushrooms (our favorite). The kids ate MORE V-day treats. Then we headed out to run a couple more Valentines to people. The girls' fav stop being Grammy and Papa. The most interesting stop being our new neighbors.
*Funny story: We brought some valentine treats to a different, new set of neighbors that had just moved in and it almost seemed they were suspicious of our overly welcoming greeting. They gave a piece of the treats to each of our girls before trying it themselves and I swear it was to make sure it wasn't poisoned or something. hahaha.
We got home pretty late and put the girls to bed.

Then Dave surprised me, yet again, with a fancy fondue feast! He perfectly recreated my favorite melting pot dessert complete with oreo covered marshmallows for dipping in the cookies and cream, chocolate deliciousness.

It was a GREAT Valentine's Day. And one I won't soon forget.

Sister-Sister

The sister-sister interaction around our house has been pretty cute these days. Julie wants to follow and copy everything Lizzie does, and Lizzie is ok with that. (Most of the time.)

If you're wondering why the girls' hair looks crazy you will see why soon. Why do I even bother?

Its so funny to watch these two play. Lizzie grabs a book, climbs on the couch, and pretends to sit there and read. Julie does the same. When I come in the room to check on them Lizzie says, "Mom, we're best friends and we're reading!" I"ll hand it to Lizzie- she knows how to please her mom when she wants to.

Nothing like a little light reading on a Sunday morning...

Theres not a pair of girls more amusing then my two. They make me laugh, make me crazy, melt my heart, and make me smile all wrapped up into one! This morning, they mostly made me laugh. Julie was very amusing as she discovered she could turn her body sideways into a perfect "U" shape.

Lizzie cracks me up the way she leads the sister-sister interactions. She climbs in the princess tent/tunnel, coaxes Julie in with her, then bosses directs some pretend activity like a tea party.

Ahhhh, nothing like rubbing your head on the carpet and through tunnels to maintain the well groomed appearance mom worked so hard on.

Little Man Baby Shower

Erin will be welcoming her new little man into the world here in a couple weeks! So what better way to help her prepare then hostessing a "Little Man" baby shower? We had mustaches, neck ties, and little bow ties all over the place!

Mary was out of town so she headed up the last minute stuff like food prep/planning and Kim and I took care of the rest! With Kim living so close now and there being so many snow days this month we found ourselves doing lots of baby shower prep!

If only I had a cricut or a silhouette we wouldn't have had to hand cut all those toothpick toppers.. next Christmas?? (Thats a big hint for you my hubby)

All the guests "wet their whiskers" since each cup had a mustache glued on too!

What's a manly party without a couple cigars?


The pregnant guest of honor herself. She looks so cute and ready to pop, huh?

The spread- Can't have a bow tie theme without bow tie pasta salad!

So many mustaches..even on each of the dum dums!

None of the decorations went to waste. Diaper cake, diaper bow ties on the piano and strung elsewhere, and of course the little onesies with tiny bow ties and ties will be used eventually!


This was a fun sewing project and this more than anything made me wish I had a little boy!

No one was let into the party until they were wearing a bow tie and had made a stop at the "photo booth".

Erin's sister totally surprised her and flew in for the event. From Alaska!! Her little baby sure looks cute with a mustache!

Her sister headed up the games and the main game was pretty hilarious. It was a game involving candy bars, jokes, and matching pregnancy related phrases.

I love those dum dums. The suckers... not my friends..hehe. I'm not saying I don't love my friends. Confused yet? Me too.

All the framed photos got lil staches too. I can't bring myself to update that photo of Julie- its too precious.

We had a good turn out considering all the last minute cancellations- 17 people total. Although, looking at all the presents Erin got you would have thought there were 100+ people in attendance. She got some good stuff!

My Sunbeam

Lizzie is in Primary now! She has graduated from the little kid nursery and been moved up to the big kid Primary where her Mom spends her Sundays teaching the children! Its been very exciting to see her in there sitting in her chair and participating so well.

She must have gotten my lucky raffle genes because on her first day in Primary, the singing leader was playing a game where she draws names from a jar and whoever's name is pulled gets to throw a bean bag into a bowl to choose some fun way to sing the next song like "while marching" or "humming". So her first day in and the first name pulled was none other than Lizzie. She was beyond ecstatic and has been loving Primary since. I may be in the Primary Pres. but I promise it wasn't rigged! :)

She has an excellent teacher and gets very excited to see Mrs. P every week! She's soaking it all up and tells me about how she learns about Jesus each week. Very precious!

18 months old

Julie is 18 months old now and these pictures were taken on her very first day in nursery! It is official now- she is old enough to join the little kids Sunday school class which means she doesn't have to tag along with us to our Sunday meetings- which she so loves to disrupt! Surprisingly, she did great on her first day and didn't miss us at all. Thats credit to how good the teachers are to her there.

Julie is a little chatter box when you get her going. She can be shy around people at times and you may think the only word she says is "Mama" but when she is at home and comfortable she talks up a storm and can repeat just about any word back at you.




In the picture she's starting to pat her tummy. She loves this little song that goes, "pat your tummy, pat, pat your tummy!" and she will often lift up her shirt, pat her tummy and do a little dance while chanting, "tummy!"

Julie is such a little sweetie these days. She is always smiley and happy and loves to be held and cuddled. If I even just start to sing her the "Julie" song she will melt in my arms and rub her eyes. I guess she's been conditioned since I sing it to her before bed every night.
Although she's not quite as innocent as she would have you believe. One moment she's smiling and clinging to my leg and the next she's dancing on top of the table and sneaking into the cupboards!
She is very motor oriented and a huge climber! She loves to climb on anything and everything. We have started with some potty training because she kept insisting! How can you deny a kid who says "potty?" Then sits on the potty with her diaper on, and does her business? I dont foresee her trained within the week but we are off to a good start and she understands what's going on.

Record Snow!

This picture was taken BEFORE the giant snow storm. This was our first snow day so we rushed out and built a snowman- our fam favorite snow activity! I was planning on making banana bread that day but sacrificed the idea for the snowman's mouth! We had a carrot for a good classic nose and made some eyes with Ritz crackers, blueberries, and frosting. Lizzie was thrilled.

Last night we had record snow within such a short time period. The Chicagoan in me always laughs at how everyone here gets so worked up about a couple snowflakes, but the Seattlite I've become totally gets excited too! There is much truth to the tale about there being NO snow plows and no salt on the roads. When it snows at all you are pretty much stuck at home.

So Dave's office closed for the day and we have been enjoying a true snow day. We drove a couple blocks to take the kids sledding (where we almost got stuck for good...like I said, NO plows or salt). Then we came home and enjoyed some hot cocoa!



The kitty hat is Lizzie's but Julie has fallen in love and screams to wear it whenever she sees it so Lizzie gave the ok for Julie to wear it!

Our front yard has been a great place to play and even the road is relatively safe considering we live on a court within a court.
It amused me that even when we walked to the main(ish) roads they were full of people sledding instead of cars. lol!