Leftovers from June 2016

5k around Green Lake with the ward. Steph and I pushed Adele in the stroller.

Adele and Liam love each other, even though he's Jude's age.

We found a little hike/nature walk in the University District. This is our weeny version of adventuring in nature with the kids. (Note the flip-flops.)

My baby friend Sloan at church.

We enjoyed the sunshine. Adele would take walks with Teague and Matt to the gas station down the street for cold drinks, during construction breaks. (Note Teague lunching in the background.)

Below, you can see some progress on the house. We replaced the top two windows, added thick trim, chose paint colors, and finally built a fence in the front yard.

 

Adele likes playing with the hose and Mom's make up, and stealing my sun-bathing set up.

Matt got his tonsils out, and recovery was much easier than expected. Of a similar magnitude, Adele had her first dentist appointment.

This is from Jude's T-ball practice. Adele found a drainage grate, so here she is checking it out, just laying in the middle of the road, stopping traffic. I like to think she was looking for other Ninja Turtles. Josh usually spent Jude's practices finishing his homework.

Nothing like leftover pie in place of birthday cake.

Matt's birthday above. Matt's handsomeness below.

May 2016

I'm sitting here cracking my knuckles and REALLY gearing up for some good quality catch up....but I'm just not sure I'm going to do 2016 justice. It was a heck of a year, and now that I am at ten months behind on documenting, I know some important details will be lost, and I'm sorry. Here I go anyway!

Matt got this crazy idea to make his own pastrami, which involves a brine in the fridge for two weeks, and a small fortune in spices. It was absolutely delicious, and we'll do it again. P.S. Seeing Adele's sippy cup in the background makes me realize how long ago this was.

We happened to get our butts in gear and do a little bit of landscaping on Mother's Day. Matt pulled out some enormous spruce trees on either side of the front yard and I brought home lots of flowers and shrubbery. It was a beautiful sunshiney day with my hands in the dirt, and I finally had something to make me smile upon coming home to my old ugly house, and I remember this feeling like the best Mother's Day ever!

More inside renovations. Everything is taped so we could spray the trim a glossy white, but in retrospect, with all the taping work and all the splatter of a sprayer, I would rather just paint it by hand next time.

Uncle Teague was our construction guru, and at times, our kid entertainer. You can obviously see why they're drawn to him here.

 Steph took Adele with her on a long weekend to Redding, and she got to spend some quality time with cousin Elsie, who was also visiting Grandma.

Matt took the boys to their first Mariners game.

There was lots of batting practice with wiffle balls in the backyard. Both boys are very good batters, and have a lots of room to improve in the catching and throwing categories.

Here is a look at our back porch, after moving that window over a few inches. It still looks this bad, ten months later. Sorry neighbors, we'll get there!

We got warm enough weather for the beach! Aunt Stephanie and some friends met us there.

"I'm swimming! I'm swimming!"

I got the KonMari fever and purged a bunch of clothes. Something about living in a construction zone makes you want to throw EVERYTHING away.

Adele loves when she's big enough to fit into Jude's old super-cool clothes, like this Turtle jacket.

She is also a major cheese-lover.

Our view from the park is pretty awesome. Our cousin Nicholi was here visiting, and this was a good place for all the Seattle cousins to congregate. These kids are crazy about each other.

Adele started experimenting with big girl underwear. She wasn't actually potty-trained until the fall, but she showed interest early.

Jude got slurpees with his friend James after preschool once and it made his entire month!

Matt went to his five year MBA reunion in Chicago and saw our dear old Smith friends. I wish I could have gone with him.

Adele started to display even more of an affinity for dancing and gymnastics. She watches shows in positions like this a lot.

My calendar is her favorite thing to scribble on. Not very convenient for me.

Josh started cub scouts a little early because I am one of the wolf den leaders. This was a hike we took to the secret beach, about half a mile from the church.

Matt took this picture. I don't think he realizes that ice cream on the kitchen floor is a common ritual between my children and me.

Sometimes we make cakes and decorate them with candy because it's too rainy to play outside.

We also paint when it rains, and we've ruined enough clothes to know that the best way to paint is naked.

We visited the Williams family when they were in town, and got to meet Natalie's precious baby.

Adele has the sweetest face when she sits still to watch a show. I take too many pictures of her this way.

She is the willing subject of most of my photography practice.

Lastly, my favorite picture of the month. Instagram caption: "We all do it."

April Sunshine

In April, we started to get some nice warmer days, so I took these two to the beach while Josh was stuck in school.

Baby girl did not like to walk on the shells and rocks. I'd put her down in the sand and she'd act paralyzed.

She is a sunburn waiting to happen.

Every time we go to Golden Gardens, they think they get these huge popsicles from the snack bar. They're mostly right.

Here's Jude and his preschool buddy Zeke getting some sun at the playground. Jude takes his shirt off whenever he's hot, wherever he is.

I find a lot of selfies like this on Matt's camera.

Matt traveled to California for work and got to stop in for dinner with the Bischoffs.

We had baseball every Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday for a couple months. Sports are so time-consuming!

We found a restaurant we love called Palisade in a beautiful setting.

Went to a birthday party for cousin Maeve.

This is how some baby tattoo artists stay happy in the car during errands.

Not sure exactly what's happening here, but when Teague is in charge, you don't ask questions.

My friend Courtney put together the cutest Star Wars party for Zeke, and Jude was invited.

Flowers started popping up everywhere in Seattle. We passed these on the way to the gas station for slurpees one day.

Sometimes I throw toys onto the sidewalk to force my kids outside on a nice day. It really freaks out the bus drivers that pass by every five minutes. Kids scare them.

Little Jude fell off the bleachers during T-ball practice and broke his arm. It was just a buckle fracture so he wore a brace for six weeks, but that didn't stop him from being awesome and enjoying the extra attention. 

Here are the secret pictures I took on baseball picture day because I'm too cheap and picky to pay for the outrageous packages.

We fit in a Menchie's date with Aunt Stephanie. I feel like the only time I take pictures is on sunny days. It's not always like that here, as I'm sure you've heard. But I like to remember it this way.

Ah. This must be a not sunny day. I think I took this one to show Matt how Adele has to be laying directly ON me any time I try to take a rest. No personal space allowed. I love it and I hate it.

I brought Steph to a Pentatonix concert! I was so incredibly excited for this concert for many months, and then Matt had to leave town for work, so he couldn't go with me. In a nutshell, my hopes were too high. The venue and crowd were a little underwhelming and annoying, respectively. Lots of body odor from nervous teenagers and old ladies. I probably heard more screaming than singing. No great seats. Folding chairs. But the music was awesome. I especially loved Kevin's cello-beat-boxing number, and their version of Justin Bieber's "Love Yourself".

Oh, and Kirstie totally waved at me at the end. NBD.

We went to a fancy fundraiser gala for Josh's school at Axis in Pioneer Square. I'll take any excuse to wear this dress. Julia got it for prom last year, and because it fits all of us sisters so magically, we call it the Traveling Dress, and it is sent wherever sparkle is needed.

The gala was a big art show and auction. Each class helped to make a work of art and parents bid on them. (Bid for hundreds and thousands of dollars, I might add. Yeah, we were out of our league.) This was Josh's second grade class. The kids each did some paint marbling, and the room mom turned their designs into birds. One class did a gum wall, and there were lots of Seattle skylines made of interesting materials. I've seen art like this in a lot of cafes here. 

People also bid on activities (like camping in a teacher's backyard), services (like a free photo session from Mimi Snow Photography), getaways (like a weekend at someone's cabin), and anything else they could get parents to donate. We left empty-handed even before dessert. But it was fun for a while and we did our part by buying expensive tickets and donating stuff. There was a photo booth, and because I don't have many pictures of the two of us, here are five:

We finally got to the end of April! Only five more months to catch up on....