Six Months In

This is how the house usually looks; one big mess!

Can you believe it's been 6 months since we moved to Issaquah?

I can't.  It seems like 2 years, actually.

The kids didn't miss a beat.  They love their new house, and all the extra room to run and play.  Especially outside.  They love the neighbor girls, Ava (2 1/2) and Ellie (7 months), and all the neighbors for that matter.  And most days I can't get them to leave the house, which is really annoying when I have errands to run.  They find so many things to do.

David is thrilled to be where we are at, and while I am too, I definitely miss our old house at times.  I miss being closer to the beach, but mostly I miss my morning runs with my friend Amy.  I loved those morning runs.  And I loved taking the kids to Carkeek Park or Matthews Beach or just walking to the playground down the street.  I do love our new digs, though.

The move really took a lot out of me, and I feel like I'm just beginning to climb out of the deep hole I've been in for a few months.  Trying to make this house our own has consumed me.  I'm trying to take more time to relax, and forget about my To Do list, but it's hard.  The ideas continue to flood my brain!

A friend posted the following on Facebook the other day and it really made me think:  "If you feel like what you do is never enough, don't do more - because that won't be enough either."  I love this.  It's exactly how I've been feeling for the past 6 months:  I can never get enough done.

There is still so much I want to do to the house, but here is what we have accomplished in the past 6 months:
1.  Painted the laundry room
2.  Painted the art room
3.  Painted the family room
4.  Painted the kitchen
5.  Painted the guest room
6.  Painted the living room
7.  Painted Ryan's bedroom
8.  Painted the Girl's bedroom
9.  Painted the upstairs hallway / stairway
10.  Painted the foyer
11.  Painted the downstairs 1/2 bath
(that's a lot of paint!)
12.  Created a photo wall up the stairs
13.  Painted 2 bedside tables for guestroom
14.  Weeded the 4 gardens (they need to be weeded again!)
15.  Decorated Ryan's room with a turtle theme
16.  Decorated the Girls room with pink and rainbow colors
17.  Rearranged our bedroom 2 times
18.  Rearranged the family room 10 times (it was probably more like 15, but that sounds so crazy!)
19.  Rearranged the living room 6 times, and it doesn't even have furniture in it.
20.  Decorated the guest room
21.  Made amazing progress on our garage organization
22.  Finished painting the trim in the downstairs hall, foyer and 1/2 bath.
23.  Almost completed painting the banister.  So far, my least favorite painting job.
24.  Organized my closet 3 times.
25.  Set up the art room (which is always a work in progress)

All this plus a job in top of trying to raise 3 kids.  I guess I should cut myself some slack, or just get back to my To Do list.

One Child

Karen and Bill took Ryan and Kendall for a few days, which left us with one child.  What bliss!  Of course, we missed Ryan and Kendall like crazy, but what a nice break it was to have only one mouth to feed, one child to keep track of, one car seat to buckle, and one cranky kid to put down for bed.  Albeit, it was our little monkey we were left with, but still such a nice break.

As I strolled through Target with my one child in tow, I wondered if the Moms with the 3 kids were thinking, "Boy, she doesn't know how easy she's got it"!  It made me smile when I saw those Moms, because I absolutely did know how easy I had it!

Root Beef Float Frenzy

Just recently Ryan started becoming curious about soda.  The kids have never liked the bubbly stuff, nor do we regularly keep soda in our house.   So when Ryan started asking to try a sip when I had my occasional Dr. Pepper, I  couldn't refuse.  I didn't think he'd like it, and was excited he was willing to try new things, something he typically throws a fit about.  So he tried it, and he has started to realize how delicious it actually is!  This led David and I to the wonderful idea of root beer floats.  I can't think of a more perfect summer treat!

One hot Monday after a game of baseball, and time at the park we decided to have a family root beer float party. 

The kids were super excited to try this fun treat!  Ryan and Natalie loved them, but Kendall wasn't too thrilled with the "spicy" flavor.  She eventually changed her mind once the ice cream got mixed in!  Ice cream makes everything better, right?! 

Not so sure about this stuff.

Cool Nat

Oh, this girl is always making us laugh.  She's always up to something silly.

Faker

Kendall was sooo tired at dinner the other night and I seriously thought she fell asleep. 

Turns out she was being a complete faker about the entire thing.  As soon as I snapped this picture she burst out laughing.  What a little stinker!

Fresh Corn

Ryan loves corn on the cob, and would eat it every night for dinner if I let him.  He's always willing to help with the preparation, too.  There is just something about fresh corn! 

I knew Kendall would gobble it up, too, but I was curious to see how the Natalie would do with it, since she was too young to have it on the cob last year (which is kind of hard to believe). 

Loved it!

 Funny faces from Natalie:

Ryan had an extremely loose, like hanging on by a thread, loose tooth that he wouldn't let us pull out and found out how difficult it was to eat corn off the cob.  He pouted about it for awhile, then let me take it off the cob for him.  I'm pretty sure it didn't taste nearly as good. 

CHOMP!

CWB Redo

There was so much whining about not having time to ride the trolley when we were down at Lake Union Park for the CWB Festival over the 4th, that I had to take the kids back.  David was working all day, so it was a good adventure for the 4 of us.  The kids LOVED riding the trolley and exploring the park again.  Despite the goose poo, and Natalie's extreme sense of adventure on this day (taking off in all directions at all times), we had a wonderful time.

Setting his ship a sail.

Peek A Natalie

I LOVE all her expressions!

The Center for Wooden Boats Festival

Over the 4th of July weekend we attended the Center For Wooden Boats Festival at the south end of Lake Union in Seattle.  It's one of my most favorite places in the city.  My Rotary Club meets at the Center every Friday morning.  It's the best location of any Rotary meeting in the world, I would have to argue.

The kids love visiting this area, too, mostly because we can hop on the trolley from there.  And they love to ride the trolley.

This visit, however, was all about boats.  We hopped on The Admiral for a free sail around Lake Union.  It was so cool.  We ended up on the sailboat with a family visiting from Connecticut.  They actually had 3 kids exactly 10 years older than our kids.  It was fun to see what life will be like in 10 years!  We got to see the houseboats, the sea planes, paddle boarders, kayaks, the city, the Space Needle, and Gas Works Park.  All the things that make Seattle what it is. 

After our sailing adventure we made our own wooden sailboats and were able to sail them in the pond.  We also wondered around checking out all the amazing wooden boats on display.  Such a fun day!

Mean old Daddy.

Gas Works Park

The planes were literally landing right next to us.

Natalie and her 10 year twin. 

Taking time out for a smoothie break.

Muddy Buddies

These three love playing with water and dirt.  The mess makes me cuckoo day after day, but they have so much fun and are so creative I can't tell them no.

Sprinkler Love, Sprinkler Hate

Ryan loves running through a sprinkler.  Kendall warms up to the idea after she sees how much fun Ryan is having.  Natalie will not even get close to it.  So funny how different they all are. 

Natalie's little model pose.

Natalie only got close when the water was turned off and she could stomp in the puddles.

First Issaquah Fourth

We had a pretty mellow Fourth this year.  We stayed in Issaquah.  It was our first Fourth in Issaquah so we decided to head downtown to see what the Down Home 4th was about.  There was a small parade with festivities afterward.  Nothing too crazy and wild, but perfect for our trio who were rather somber all day.  I think they are fighting colds or something.

They all enjoyed taking in all the parade excitement, and really started to get into towards the end.  They didn't even flinch when the first round of candy was thrown at their feet.  They all just sat and stared at it!  By then end, they were racing and diving for it.  It was fun to see our "small" town in action.

We stopped to pick up fireworks, which ended up to be a laughable adventure for me.  David had to work, so I had to be the one to light them.  I would say that it is not really my specialty which I proved that to be correct on my first attempt lighting a sparkler.  I almost burned my finger off!  Then, two of our crackler things were duds.  Ryan was not amused and the girls were screaming from the house!  Needless to say, David and Ryan will have blast another night - no pun intended!

Not sure what to think of it all.

So somber.  

Natalie covering her ears!  Ha.

Sammy the Salmon!  

They finally made it to their feet.

The highlight of Kendall's day was finding this pinwheel.

The one sparkler I got going properly!

The crazy audience.

All in all it was a good day.  It would have been better had David been able to stay home with us all day...and if we were at the cabin or the beach.  It was fun to celebrate our freedom and teach the kids about why we actually do celebrate on July 4th.