Catchin up...post #1

...So here we are 2 weeks later...

Aunt Susie was here for a week after we moved and helped us get all kinds of stuff done and kept the house and Me from falling apart. :D It was like a little vacation before our actual vacation. :) The day I spent cleaning our rental house she took care of the kids at our new house.

Baking cookies was at the top of our priority list. ;)

Thank you to our beloved A. Susie!

We got to have yummy treats while she was here...

and tea parties...

and toasty fires!

Remember I mentioned the heat went out...

We had some cold and dreary weather immediately after (of course) so we spent a day and a half clipping up all of our yard debris and burning it in our fireplace to try and up the temp of the house. It made a great roaring fire...

Aunt Susie would put a pile o sticks on...

light 'em off...

and a short time later they would ignite into great leaping flames!!! (NOT KIDDING)

I was oblivious to this for the first while as I was out in the yard clipping branches as fast as I could. I found cause for a wee bit of concern when I saw a few flames licking out the top of the chimney and heat waves radiating outward from it...

A short time later Sus came out and mentioned that these sticks were burning really great after the initial 10 min of waiting for them to actually ignite...THEN... FWOOOMP!!!

And 5 min after they ignited it was time to add some more. :D

Hey, at least we got rid of the 2 giant piles of sticks in our yard...

even if it took us a day or two of running back and forth. :)

Kate was facinated by the fire and enjoyed helping (or hindering). ;)

It made for cozy evenings anyway.

These 2 pics remind me that my little girly is always watching and learning from whoever she looks up to ...

...and then teaching it to her little bro.

We so enjoyed having Aunt Susie with us for the week...

And we were glad that we got to go back home with her when she left.

HOORAY FOR GRAMMAS HOUSE!!

The only day I got my camera out was the day we went to feed the ducks. The other days were filled with running here and there, shopping, seeing Uncle AJ's new house, visiting cousins and such.

So here's "feeding the ducks".

Down to the river we go, hi ho!

These mallard drakes are so pretty when the sun shines on them.

A few mixed breeds in there.

Watching the drakes harrass the lone female that joined them.

And then this big old goose arrived on the scene...

"Here Kate, here's some bread to feed the goose..."

"Or...eat it, if stale bread sounds so irrisistably good." :)

"...and then you can feed the extra to the goose"

...AND REPEAT

Hooray for hills to run and jump down to make our pigtails fly!!

...and then we climb back up so we can do it all over again. :D

Time to head back to the car.

Miss Kate had to stop and pick a daisy for A. Susie...

and another for Gramma Jo.

Back at the car we found our little man awakened from his nap and peering around.

Back at Gramma Jo's house the kids were happy to play with balls...

and airplanes..

...and babies.

Apparently the baby needed a bit of discipline. :)

Then a little comforting time...

and then all was well again. ;)

Kate loves for A. Susie to plays her songs on the piano.

Thanks for the fun times!

Hopefully I can get another post out tonight after the kids are in bed.

We've moved!!

We have a new house!

(this is the backyard view)

And we have a yard...finally!!! :)

And we also have a neighborhood park just over the fence...and relatives that live just on the other side of the park who can come and play. (every day if Kate had it her way) :)

When the sky looks like this who can resist going for a walk in the park. :)

Now we have windows to look out...and this little man is content to sit and look out the window for very long periods of time. Mommy loves it! :)

He especially likes it when there's something exciting to watch...

...like Daddy mowing the lawn.

(I'm afraid this may be something he'll never outgrow...don't most guys like to watch someone else mowing their lawn)

BUT...

Before we moved into our new house I spent a few weeks cleaning, scrubbing, papering drawers, and moving carloads of stuff over ahead of time, and then we had a few days of help from Boppa and Gramma Jo getting some things fixed up and such. And THEN we had a fun moving party with family here to help for a few days after that...and then we had aunt Susie here for a week, and then we traveled home with her and spent a week in the Portland/Vancouver area... But we'll get to that another time. First some pics from pre and during the moving time.

Several days a week for 2 weeks pre move I would take the kids over to the "New house" as soon as I could get a carload of stuff packed and we'd spend the afternoon there. The kids did amazingly well entertaining themselves and of course when they went down for their naps I was really able to make progress on whatever I was doing that day.

Our Little Man often spent time sitting in the sunshine on the deck...and lovin' it. :D

Sometimes Vi and Lala would walk over and spend some time with us to make things a little more exciting. :)

The croquet mallets were usually the toys of choice and its a wonder they didn't knock each other (or anyone else) out with them the way they used them on occasion. They enjoyed throwing the balls too, which are not your usual lightweight and kid friendly balls.

DANGER ZONE...Play at your own risk. :D

Meanwhile, Elliott was often quite a helper.

I figured he was safer with me than with them, and he loved the paint rollers.

He was pretty happy to sit and watch me work too.

Papering drawers was a little too tedious of a task for him. :D

But mopping floors was his kinda thing.

By the time Gramma Jo arrived Kate was happy to leave the work to Elliott and head to the park, as she'd been being a "big helper" and taking care of herself and little brother a bit too much for a 2 yr olds liking.

Of course once Daddy and Boppa got started on all the projects they had going on she found that pretty facinating.

She appointed herself the official inspector and overseer of all projects.

Elliott helped out with the overseeing when even more help arrived and things got really busy.

Thanks Michael. You did a great job on the lawn. Now if you could just come visit every weekend we'd be set. ;)

And Thank you to Nate and Dana too for being such willing help for us.

Kate, still busy overseeing...

...and getting a little distracted.

She's never had any neighbors to spy on before. :D

Elliott as co-inspector (is there even such a thing?) giving his approval of a job well done. :D

To none other than Uncle Dave, who got our bushes and trees back in shape for us! :)

(he's the guy at the tippy top of the tree)

A big thank you to Uncle Dave for the two big piles of tree trimmings. (They came in real handy for keeping a roaring fire after our heat went out on us while Aunt Susie was here...but thats for the next post.)

Thank you, thank you. :) So much appreciated!

Then we got to have Boppa's birthday while we had so much friends and family here to help celebrate. The girls got to help blow out the candles much to their joy. The rest of us were happy just to eat it.

And of course we had some fun times to relax and enjoy each others company.

Kate got some long overdue (whatwith mommy being so busy and all) and much needed attention from the cousins and she loved it!

...And a little time for haircuts for a few of the guys from Susie, the most preferred haircutter. :)

(Dana appears to be taking lessons but is really there for consultation and moral support.)

NEXT...

Well, this is long enough allready so we'll be done for now and next time we'll cover Aunt Susie's week with us in the few brief pictures that I took while she was here. (we were awfully busy so there are very few) Then we'll get on to the fun pics of our week long visit to THE GRANDPARENTS. (that being both sets of them)

Til next time...BYE-BYE.