Taking It In

Miss Natalie loves to be out in the yard.  I love when she'll sit in the chair for awhile and take things in as opposed to crawling around eating dirt and rocks.

I love how she crosses her feet!

Here she is clapping for Ryan who made another great hit across the street!

Baseball Boy

We've been up to our eye balls in baseball (T-ball) this month.  Ryan has games 2 days a week.  He loves every minute of it.  He's learning ALL the fundamentals of baseball, not just hitting the ball which is his favorite thing to do.  The area he struggles the most in is paying attention.  He's very interested in what everyone else is doing and forgets to pay attention when in the outfield. 

In general, he really does well.  He listens to his coach and follows directions really well.  Of course, he gravitates toward the "class clowns" who get a bit wild on the bench.  It's been fun to watch him pull away from these situations and cheer on his teammates instead.

We've been working on getting grounders and catching.  And he can still hit the ball like a champ!

In charge of First Base.

  

He did not like being the catcher.  All the gear was way too much for him, and so distracting!  At least he gave it a try.

Kendall has made some friends, too, but tends to do whatever she wants and can be handful at times.  It depends on the field we are at.  I always dread the field by these stairs because she wants to go up and down them.  They lead to the parking lot so it's not really an option, plus they are concrete and she could be seriously injured if she fell.  A struggle usually ensues so we end up in the car.  Lose/Lose for everyone.

Kendall and Foxy.

Officially A Boehm!

Natalie had her first taste of salmon the other night and loved it!  She's officially a Boehm!  One of the pre-reqs is that you must love salmon.

This Little Piggy

Ninjas In The House

The things Ryan and Kendall come up with these days is hilarious.  Their imaginations are AWESOME!

Here they a playing some crazy ninja game:

So Big!

Morning Glory

We had an amazing walk around Green Lake this morning.  The sun was shining, the birds were singing, the flowers were in full bloom.  It couldn't have been more perfect.

We even spotted a family of turtles on a log.  Ryan, our turtle lover, especially loved this.  We watched them for quite a while.  It was really fun to see one climb up on the log.  It took him a few tries!

Kendall wanted to walk most of 3+ miles.  While we admired her endurance, we didn't have all day.  She trotted behind and took it all in stopping to smell the flowers along the way, literally.

And spinning her dress any chance she could get...and singing songs...and petting dogs...and basically anything that did not involve walking!

House Hunters

As many of you know, we've been looking for a new house.  We put an offer in on this house a couple weeks ago.  Our offer was accepted, and we had the inspection yesterday.  We have a few minor things to follow up with from that, and then we wait.  This is a short-sale, also known as a LONG-sale in the real estate business.

For those of you not familiar with short sales, it means that if the sale goes through we are getting an awesome deal on a great house.  The owners are in over their heads and need to get out from their mortgage.  They owe more than the house is worth.  The banks aren't going to get all of their money, so basically need to decide if they are getting enough.

From what our Realtor tells us, our paperwork will now sit in a pile until someone at the bank gets to it.  Worst case scenario is that it will take 5-6 months, best case is 2 months.  We're praying the timing works out so we would be able to move in before Ryan starts Kindergarten in the fall.


The house is 3 miles out of downtown Issaquah, which is where David works.  Issaquah is 15 miles east of Seattle.  It is also right off of I-90, which makes it a straight shot into my office in Downtown Seattle.  My commute will increase, but not by too much and David's will decrease tenfold.  With a great school district as well, it seemed like the logical place to land. 


David let himself get a little bit excited when he was at the inspection yesterday.  I am still not getting my hopes up, although I do catch myself decorating the house in my head.  We'll keep you posted!

Ten Months

At 10 months, I have 2 words for Natalie - quick and busy.  She is into everything and moves from thing to thing to thing constantly.  And she is so fast.  I'm amazed at what she gets into the moment I turn my back.  I know the other two were just her, but how quickly I forget things like this.  She puts everything in her mouth, which the other two didn't do as much.  Any little speck of paper or food is in her mouth instantly.  She is definitely keeping my housekeeping skills honed.

Her sleep habits stink.  She's very restless most nights.  On a good night she's up once to eat then falls right back to sleep.  This has probably happened a handful of times this past month.  She's usually up twice before I even go to bed because she has to burp.  And most nights, one of us ends up sleeping on the couch with her.  It's probably time to make her cry-it-out, but we're too exhausted to even think about that right now.

She's been eating 3 square meals of solids now.  We're also introducing table foods.  Her favorite is bread, but will try anything.

Overall, she's pretty easy to read.  If she's fussing she has a dirty diaper, is hungry or tired.  And if it's not one of those three, she just wants to be held.  She is pretty content to play on the floor with toys and explore her surroundings.

She is always full of smiles and LOVES her Daddy.  It's so fun to watch her chase him around the house like a little puppy dog.  So cute!

Her tricks include clapping, waving and flushing the toilet.  She loves to flush the toilet which is so annoying and such a waste of water.  If the bathroom door is left open that's where she can be found.  She's starting to babble a bit more, but really isn't too vocal yet.  Two habits we could do away with are biting and pinching.  The biting has become quite regular and it hurts like crazy.  Our natural reaction is to yelp, which scares Natalie who then collapses in a puddle of tears.  Such drama!  It's so hard to get a 10 month old to understand that biting is NOT ok!  Her pinchers work quite well, too.  When she gets a grip on you it's hard to get her to release.  Ouch!  Basically, she's a pill.

And she's out....that's enough sitting still for this photo shoot.

Blue Baby

Natalie got her hands on one of Ryan's markers.  Of course, it was a non-washable one.

Thirty - Five

Yesterday was my birthday.  I'm officially 35!  That numbers sounds old to me, but I certainly don't feel like I should be 35.  Sometimes I feel like I am still in my 20's, but my 3 children are quick to remind me I am not!  I'm sure I'll be saying the same thing when I'm 50.

In any case, the day was pretty uneventful, but good.  Ryan and Kendall are off on "vacation" so Natalie and I spent the morning together.  I was a little sad that Ryan and Kendall weren't here to celebrate the day, but mostly happy to have a little breathing room to get some things done that have been hanging over my head for a LONG time.  Having a moment or two to just sit down without being needed was quite amazing, actually.

Since it was MY day, I got to do whatever I wanted and my choice was to shovel dirt!  I know it sounds super lame, but I had to maximize our kid-free time.  David really wanted to take me out to dinner but I say NO.  It's very rare we actually have time to work on projects, and working in the yard is very therapeutic to me.  I can't tell you how nice it was to be able to work out in the yard until dark.  No bedtime routines to worry about.  Natalie was so content in her exersaucer watching us shovel dirt and mow the yard.  We actually feel like we accomplished something. 

We capped the evening off with Thai food and wine.  Delicious!  And since it was MY birthday, David got to deal with Natalie in the night!  Ahhh, I love birthdays!  Although, my body isn't quite sure how to function with 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep, or is my age catching up with me?

Spring Break

Today marks the first day of Spring Break at our house!

Ryan and Kendall have gone on vacation, and they couldn't have been more excited.  Off to Grandpa Bill and Grandma Karen's they went.  They will be there until Friday.  Ryan talked non-stop about it for days.

On the way to the park on Sunday he said, "Kendall, not the next day but the next day WE get to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Isn't that cool?  How many times have you been there?"  Kendall chattered something back.  Ryan, "8, yep you've been there 8 times".

Last night Kendall couldn't get it out of her head that they weren't going until today.  She cried and cried when we told her she had to wait until today.  And the first thing she said this morning was, "I go to Grandma and Grandpa's?".  I'm pretty sure they drove David crazy until they made it out the door.

We know they will have so much fun, and we will enjoy our peace and quiet while missing them terribly - especially Miss Natalie.  She will be lost without them.

Team Spirit

A few weeks ago (or maybe more...the weeks are blending together these days!) the Minnesota Gophers played the Washington Huskies in the NIT Basketball Tournament.  This is the first time, that we can recall, MY Gophers playing DAVID's Huskies.  It was the ultimate Boehm match-up.  Well actually, the Ultimate Match-up with be the Gophers playing the Huskies in the Rose Bowl, but as I Minnesota fan I have given up all hope of this every happening in my lifetime.  In any case,  Ryan, to my disappointment, was adamant about wearing his Purple.  He convinced the girls to follow suit.

As soon as the Gophers pulled into the lead, I changed the girls into their Minnesota gear.  Ryan couldn't handle it.  He didn't NOT want to cheer for the Huskies but he couldn't resist the pressure.  He was so torn.  The Gophers were ahead most of the game which helped get him to cheer for them.  He has to cheer for the team that is ahead...ALWAYS.  He is the ULTIMATE band wagon jumper.  

The Gophers ended up winning the game in overtime.  The kids greeted David the next morning in full on Gopher gear that they went to bed in.  This is one loss he will never live down.

M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A, Minnesota, Minnesota, YAAAYY Gophers!

This Looks Like Brains

While eating dinner the other night Ryan announced that his pile of rice looked like brains.  I love that his brain works this way.

Kendall In Action

Kendall is growing up so fast.  We've really started to notice a change in her over the past couple weeks.  Her vocabulary is taking off, she's dressing herself, putting on her own shoes and becoming so independent.  She comes up with her own ideas now instead of always following Ryan's lead.

It's so awesome watching a child's imagination take off.  Here she is setting up a little house for her and her babies and anything else she can find.

She was adamant about feeding Natalie the other night so I let her.  Her facial expressions are priceless.  I'm pretty sure this is what I must look like when I feed Natalie!

And here she is playing drums and singing along.  I LOVE how she's using her potty as her seat.  I have no idea what prompted her to do this but it definitely made me smile.  Ryan's behavior at the end of the video did not.

Happy Hoppy Easter

We had a lovely Easter day.  The sun was shining, church was good for our souls, the Easter bunny left fun treats, we had an awesome egg hunt in the yard and Grandma Karen and Grandpa Bill brought a bouncy house!

It was a fun filled day to say the least.  The kids had a blast hopping the day away!

No, Ryan did not wear jeans to church but he did change the instant he walked in the door.

Grandma Karen and Kendall on the hunt.

This girl loves to be outside.

Our sweet little bunny.