The Jolley family

End of Summer

2011-11-04T22:07:00.000-07:00

We didn't go home after Black Butte. Well, we had to send Darren home, but the rest of us went to Eugene to keep the party going! I insisted on doing one of my favorite things: feeding the ducks! Even though there was a new sign at the park saying it's against the rules, we sorta pretended we didn't see it. I knew Erica would love it.I didn't realize how much Justin would love it! He was so brave, letting them eat the bread right out of his hand, much to his Aunt Jenni's distress.Then the boys did a little fishing with Grandpa.My miniature golfers. Justin got a hole in one!The reason we just HAD to go back to Grandma's house was to see Melanie and the fam! Wow, those kids have grown. It was SO great to see them and get to know them again. And I loved meeting my new nephew, Joshy! He's a sweetie.the girlsthe boysWhen it was time to go home, we took the party home with us to Seattle! Aunt Jenni was kind enough to accompany us home and it was SO great to have her on the drive home. She played with the kids and even babysat while Darren and I went on a date. We did a lot of playing too. We visited the troll under the bridge.The obligatory nose-picking picture.We had a little picnic on the temple grounds.The boys came home from the Mackley's Knight Camp in this adorable getup! Very picture-worthy.I really wanted to take Erica to the zoo and Justin couldn't even remember his last visit, so Jenni provided the perfect excuse to get out there. See the leopard?This is Erica looking at the elephant. She especially loved watching the meerkats. She cried when I finally pulled her away!
Then Michael showed up for the weekend and we showed him the city.
Thanks for such a fun visit, Michael and Jenni!Fun at the space needle fountain with friends.Erica's first ever summer watermelon!And my favorite way to finish the summer is at Safeco field! This was Erica's first game and she got soooo tired by the end, but refused to give into sleep.

Black Butte Ranch

2011-10-01T21:01:00.000-07:00

Thank you, Marc and Connie for taking us to this beautiful place! In the mountains of Central Oregon near Sisters and Bend, is this fabulous resort. The pictures speak for themselves, but there is so much to do and the cabin we stayed in was so luxurious. It was a mini reunion of Jolleys and Erica was glad to be reunited with her grandparents.
And we were very excited to meet this new little Jolley. We love you, Cameron!Carly loved him too.
Every night Grandpa put the boys to bed in their bunkhouse. They slept in a room full of built-in bunkbeds and felt like big boys sleeping in their own room. It was adorable to see them all gathered around Grandpa's storybook. And we were exhausted from all the fun stuff we did during the day!Kellen taught Joseph how to play chess and they stayed focused on this for about an hour everyday, smart boys! They also played quite a bit of Scrabble with Grandma and Jenni.We had our choice of three different pools and we spent time in each one. On this day, we got kicked out of the big pool for adult swim, but had a blast with the noodles in the wading pool.Erica LOVES the water.There was lots of bike riding.Grandma had an awesome craft for the boys to do everyday, like decorating these cute visors.A fun canoe trip.Good times at the park.Tennis player boys.
If you get up early enough, like these cute girls in their jammies, you can watch the deer come and eat breakfast out of their special trough.A front row seat right from the deck.Pigtail twins. Erica was a bit sassy with her cousin. She yelled at Carly everytime Carly came near her toys, her food or her bath. If she could have said the word "mine" it would have been said.Ice cream on a scorching hot day. Erica was quite the little beggar and Grandpa's a softie.We had the best "Anniversary Party" on our last night there. Carol threw it for us parents with the help of our kids. It was so fun! We played the newlywed game and Darren and I killed at it. The wivesThe husbandsThe adorable helpers.What a great trip! Let's do it again!

Utah Trip 2011, Part Two

2011-09-11T21:41:00.000-07:00

Finally! The rest of our Utah trip in pictures. The first day we were there, the kids beat the heat in the kiddie pool in Grandma and Grandpa's awesome new backyard.Erica was happy to see family.Elle is so sweet with Erica. She shared all her toys and showed Erica how to play with dolls.On Independence Day we enjoyed a BBQ with the extended Anderson family and then did fireworks back at home. The kids had a blast with Grandma and her glowsticks! (Her brilliant alternative to sparklers.)Taylor and Jonathan put on the fireworks show for our little culdesac of fire.Joseph still just doesn't dig fireworks. It's the same every year. remember this, and this But he still managed to enjoy the show.The rest of us enjoying the show.Swimming at Grandma Mangum's house!Happy birthday, Grandma!We even made it down to Beaver to see Grandma Williams.As usual, more beautiful pictures my Dad took! We love you, Grandma and Grandpa!

Utah Trip 2011, Part One (LAGOON!)

2011-09-03T22:06:00.000-07:00

Oh, it's been so fun to look through pictures of our trip in July to Utah. We did so many fun things. One of my favorites was our trip all together to Lagoon! We started with burgers at Inn N Out. Yum.I had warned the boys that I was going to force them to go on a couple of rides even if they didn't want to. (I found my love for roller coasters by being coerced onto the Colossus by my mother when I was young and wanted to provide the same opportunity.) The first ride we chose was one of those opportunities. It was the one where you sit in a car and go around on a circular track really fast. Here's the before picture:And the after picture. Justin recovered well, Joseph was still not happy.He was much happier playing the carnival games. He and Justin and Darren even won stuffed animals.Then it was time for snacks and dogpiles on GrandpaAnd a nap for Erica.I got to ditch my kids to ride the big rollercoasters with my sibs. The new coaster "Wicked" is super fun!The train is always a crowd pleaser.And my Dad took so many great pictures of the kids riding the cars!Cute cousinsErica finished out the night on the merry go round with Taylor.

She crawls, she walks!

2011-08-27T22:44:00.000-07:00

I'm horribly behind and am still determined to catch up. We've just had way too much fun this summer. Who has time to blog? But while I haven't been blogging, Erica has been growing and learning like crazy. At 10 months, her crawl alternates between one knee and one foot and I think it's amazing the way she stands herself up all on her own.

All about Erica

2011-07-20T23:12:00.000-07:00

Here's my 9 month old Erica.

She loves to play with ballsand clap for herself.Swinging is her favorite activity on earthand she loves stuffed animals! She hugs them and pats them on the back. It's adorable.This is the funny way she reaches for things she wants. She smashes her cheek into her shoulder.She wants to be on her feet at all times now. Sitting is for babies!Love this girl!

Birthday boys

2011-06-15T21:43:00.000-07:00

I'm finally bringing you pictures of my new 7 and 4 year old boys. Here's my 7 year old in his Lost Boy costume.He got a big haul!Pokemon is all the rage at our house these days. You like my Pikachu cake? Several times Joseph has sadly expressed his sincere longing that Pokemon were real so he could become a great Pokemon trainer.Joseph and his teacher, Mr. Keller with his birthday crown. His classmates all draw him a picture and write him a message on his birthday that his teacher binds into a book for him. So cute. For Joseph's birthday we spent some time in the arcade at the Family Fun Center. An older couple gave us a bunch of tickets and we came home with all kinds of crappy prizes.Love you, Joseph. I can't see any trace of my little boy Joseph anymore. You're becoming such a great boy and I'm so happy to be your mom.Here's my cute 4 year old.Justin had a little party with some friends. Look at all his cute girlfriends!Yes, it was a Pokemon party and we broke a Pikachu pinata.I kept up the Pokemon cakes with a Piplup cake.It was very cute to see Joseph be so excited to give Justin the present he had picked out and watch him open it.The following thank you hug. So sweet.Cool stuff!I love this boy. I wish I could just freeze him at this moment. He's sweet and funny and easy to be around.

Justin feeds Erica

2011-06-06T21:43:00.000-07:00

This is the traditional big brother feeds the baby clip for you. I just love it.

Joseph's school play

2011-06-03T23:08:00.000-07:00

Here is Joseph's stage debut. The school play was adorable. It was a musical revue full of Broadway songs. Joseph's number was Peter Pan's "I Won't Grow Up."I wish I could convince Joseph to believe that the concept of this song is something he should embrace at his age. He is determined to be 7 going on 30.

My boys are big dreamers

2011-05-23T23:31:00.000-07:00

A funny conversation this morning:
Joseph: You know what I'm going to be when I grow up, Mom?
Me: What's that?
Joseph: I'm going to be the new leader in wireless networking.
Me: Good for you.
Justin: And I'm going to be a Wonkerer when I grow up!

Joseph wants to make wireless routers and Justin wants to be an eater of Willy Wonka's candy. No word yet on this little girl.

Happy Easter (almost a month ago)

2011-05-16T23:30:00.000-07:00

I must post in chronological in order! Here are some horribly overdue pictures from our fun Easter weekend. We spent Saturday with our good friend Cierra and dyed eggs.The resultsWe enjoyed some time at the park
where Erica loved the swing!I failed to get a picture of the kids in their church clothes, but church was great. Darren gave a wonderful talk and I got to sing in a musical number. Then we had a fun afternoon with a yummy dinner with friends, an egg hunt and chocolate cheesecake. Here's everybody with their loot. Kind of a funny picture because the flowers behind Erica look like they're growing out of her head and I think Darren thought he was out of the picture. Sorry, honey.

Portland Weekend

2011-04-26T23:33:00.000-07:00

Darren's cousin got married in Portland in early April and we had a great time partying with lots of family we don't get to see often enough. Of course, the trip started off with a dip in the hotel pool. We invited Kellen and Caleb to join us. Look at this bathing beauty!First time in the pool with Daddy.Swimming boys! Joseph and KellenJustin and CalebAll the boys together at the wedding. It was an adventure to keep the kids occupied with all the waiting that goes along with a wedding. But they made it through! We had time for quite the photo shoot.Grandma and Erica.Maygan and Matthew. Congrats to the bride and groom!Uncle Val, Uncle Dean (father of the bride), Bruce and Carol.

Erica, 5 months

2011-04-13T22:31:00.000-07:00

Look at these beautiful pictures my Dad took while we were in Utah!

Anderson/Jolley Reunion (Tour of Erica)

2011-04-06T23:35:00.000-07:00

Wow, we had a fun and family-filled trip to Utah! It was actually a recruiting trip that I was invited to, so Darren and Erica and I flew to Utah while Grandma and Grandpa Jolley were kind enough to take Joseph and Justin to their house to play. We started by driving to Portland and meeting up with Carol and Bruce. Then Erica and I flew out of Portland. Erica was happy to see her grandparents again. And the boys were so excited to have sleepovers at Grandma's house!This was Erica's first airplane ride and she was kind of naughty. She did quite a lot of fussing, both times making me stand up in the aisle and bounce her to sleep after screaming her head off. I was glad to not have the boys with me during all of that!Erica missed her Grandma and Grandpa Anderson! Darren is such a sweet Bishop. Everytime he's at BYU on business, he takes the youth from our ward who are now at BYU out to lunch. We enjoyed each other's company and some yummy food.Erica met her Great Grandparents! Great Grandma MangumGreat Grandpa MangumGreat Grandma AndersonJordan, Melissa and TaylorErica got some good girl time with her cousins. They are so sweet with her. AlexisElleHere's all the Jensens.Along with all the Anderson love, lots of Jolleys ended up in town to meet Erica. Here's Michael, Jenni and Megan.The Rogers came from Las Vegas to play.Carly and EricaJason, Megan and Kevin came all the way from Missouri for Spring Break and our vacations were lucky enough to match up!My parents were so awesome to host a huge dinner, accommodating all the Andersons and Jolleys on Sunday afternoon. It was wonderful.I just can't thank all of our family enough for hanging out with us, taking care of us, feeding us, traveling to visit us, watching our boys. We love you all so much!

Kiddos update

2011-03-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

Joseph
calls Erica his "cute berry" and loves to see her smile wide at him when he gets home from school.

His credit card obsession has officially ended. It has been replaced by an obsession with technology, specifically everything surrounding the Wii. Joseph reads the owners manual religiously. A little while ago, the Wii wasn't turning on and we couldn't figure it out. Joseph shouts, "I know what to do! It's in the troubleshooting section of the manual!" We followed the steps, problem solved.

When he and Justin aren't playing the Wii, they're re-enacting the games. They have their own version of Super Mario Bros where they jump around the house passing levels. Joseph filled an empty tissue box with items like the question mark boxes in the video game. They pull out of the box a mushroom for bigness, a flower for fire power, or a star for invincibility. It's adorable.

Justin
likes to use the silverware holder from the dishwasher as a car garage.

He used to be too shy or scared or something to say a prayer on his own, but suddenly he fights to be the one to say the prayer. And his prayers are both hilarious and heartfelt. Lately he's blessed Santa, thanked Heavenly Father for his new favorite TV show, and asked for help to not get lost at swimming lessons. We got separated last week for a few minutes and he's been really concerned about it ever since. Poor thing.

He also really loves books. I love to hear him when we get home from the library as he pulls each book out of the bag saying, "I love this book!" or "This one is so awesome!" It's been the perfect thing for us to do during so many baby feedings.

Erica
at 5 months has started eating baby food! She is sitting up with help and loves playing with her toys. She hates being on her tummy and immediately rolls to her back. Her favorite song is "Twinkle twinkle little star." I kid you not, she stops fussing when she hears it. It's the best to see it happen when Justin sings it to her. I've been singing it to her when I lay her down and she's been going to sleep on her own.

She just got to hang with a lot of family during a quick trip to Utah. I'll post soon.

One more for you: Bedtime stories courtesy of Joseph

Erica Giggles

2011-03-04T22:43:00.000-08:00

I have to admit I'm a little jealous that Justin is the best at making Erica laugh. But I shouldn't be surprised. He's the silliest one in our house. And it makes it easy for me to capture on camera. Enjoy! (Sorry it's in pieces.)

Our Month of Love

2011-02-23T22:04:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to say how much I love my man. For V-day he sent me these roses and then took me out to dinner and jean shopping. What a catch! Darren really does so much for me even after doing so much at work, so much at church, and giving so much to our three little rugrats. He just keeps getting better and I'm more in love with him every day.Here's Joseph showing the love for his little sis by changing her diaper. I love watching him do this all by himself. Justin also loves all over Erica. He just gets in her face and gets a little carried away. I go back and forth between feeling sorry for Erica for the loudness of her brothers and feeling like she's lucky to be so well entertained. She does cry when they leave her alone so she must prefer their boisterousness.Erica's new trick is grabbing at toys (or Mommy's watch).
Just a few of my fave 4 month old pics:Loves bathtime! She always flashes a huge smile when she gets into that warm water and Justin caught the tail end of it. But here's a big one! This girl's hair is out of control.Every Sunday when I get to put Erica in one of her gorgeous dresses I just want to do a huge photo shoot. But she doesn't always comply. My boys are pretty handsome too. Love these kids.

January's over already?

2011-02-02T17:22:00.000-08:00

It was a great January! I think I'm gonna like 2011. Typically I despise January. The holiday partying is over, Darren gets busy with work again, and the weather is just blah. But look what we've been up to. First, we kept the partying going with the big Duck game which, as you know, didn't exactly go as we hoped. But boy did we throw a good party for the Young Men. Cool Bishop, right? This picture was taken after the game ended, hence Darren's thumbs down. He was a good loser, though.Darren did get busy with a project and worked his way through a weekend so we left him to go to a party! (Sorry, honey) Happy birthday to Caleb and Kellen! We had a great time in Portland with these cuties. Marc and Connie just treated us to non-stop fun.Not to mention hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Jolley again. Erica missed them.January had a lot of blah weather, but we had some fun stuff too. We had the perfect snow day. It snowed all night and school was delayed 2 hours so we could play in it! It was great packing snow and it melted the same day. Just the way I like my Seattle snow.Then we've had some gorgeous, clear days to get outside in. One Saturday we spent outside at Lincoln Park.Another day we walked to the park for a picnic.And this baby just keeps getting cuter. Hope you had a good January too!

Guess who's 4 months old?

2011-01-18T12:15:00.000-08:00

We are so in love with this little girl.

At 4 months, she:

-has crazy hair and a gorgeous smile
-is starting to giggle and it's the best sound ever
-sucks on her left fist
-sleeps 6-8 hours at night (I'm a lucky mommy!)
-loves bathtime and playing pat-a-cake

These are a few of the beautiful photos my oh-so-talented friend Lisette took when Erica was 7 weeks old. Look how much she's grown!

Her family loves her!

I have been trying so hard to capture her talking but she's so camera shy!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2011-01-07T23:03:00.000-08:00

Our family really enjoyed our Christmas season at home this year! We tried to get out on the town and find the fun things to do in Seattle since we didn't do any traveling. Here's the boys at the Garden d'Lights in Bellevue.We visited some animals at Swanson's Nursery. Here's Curley the camel.The boys and Dasher the reindeer.In pajamas by the tree on Christmas Eve!Santa made it to our house! Joseph didn't wake us until after 8:00 and we had to wake Justin. He stumbled out of bed before he was even awake when he heard the word "presents." Here he is as Buzz Lightyear.Santa also brought a Wii and needless to say, the boys have been loving it.After Christmas, we drove to Eugene to hang out with Darren's family. Here are those cute boy cousins in their new Oregon Duck gear. (Go ducks!) We can never get enough of these boys.Our little Jolley girl. Carol and I had fun doing a naked baby Christmas photo shoot.An exciting thing happened while we were there. I won our game of Scrabble! Check out the score card. I really thought this might not ever happen. Which is why I need to relish it now. It might not ever happen again. But it felt good!Erica says Happy New Year! We rang in the New Year with my cousin Melinda and her family. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures. But we had a great time playing games and drinking Martinelli's.I am so thankful this time of year for friends and family who we care for so much. We loved spending time with so many of you and missed those we didn't get to spend time with. Most of all, I am so very grateful for our Heavenly Father's gift of His Son and for His love that I am able to feel in my life.

From Halloween to Thanksgiving

2010-12-10T22:42:00.001-08:00

Here is my attempt to play catch up. We've been too busy having fun to blog. Not to mention my computer crashing and dying. Luckily, my fabulous brother in law was able to save the 6 months worth of pictures I hadn't backed up, otherwise you wouldn't be seeing any of these. So here we go: Halloween was a blast with Iron Man, Spiderman and our little pink piggy. ALL of my family came out to Seattle for Thanksgiving and Erica's blessing. We had so much fun all together!Erica met her aunts, uncles and cousins and she loved them immediately.Joseph and Alexis helped set the table for Thanksgiving dinner. Check out our homemade placemats and place cards. My parents rented a house in the area that was big enough for the whole family to congregate at and it worked out so well. Our Thanksgiving dinner was soooo yummy. My mom put it together on the road and it tasted just like home. I had fun cooking with her.Justin and Elle enjoying a show.We had some fun around town.Then it was blessing time. Here is the girl of the day.Marc and Connie came up for the day and so did Bruce and Carol. It was so fun to have everyone together for such a special occasion. Her daddy gave her a beautiful blessing surrounded by family.Here's the whole crew.Grandma and Grandpa JolleyProud parents.Our new family of five.A huge thank you to everyone who traveled, especially in such scary weather to be with us. It meant so much to have you here! Erica thanks you too.

Baby Update

2010-10-31T21:44:00.000-07:00

Here's a little timeline in pictures of the first month of Erica's life. This first picture is pretty much what Erica and I did the first few days. We're pooped. Her first bath. (She didn't like it very much.)She's worn out after her bath.Proud brothers. They love on her every chance they get. These boys have been so wonderful through this whole transition and love being her big brothers.I can't say enough about these great moms of mine.They've made this transition so much easier on our family and helped me so much!2 weeks old.3 weeks old.My little baby is 1 month old!

More Erica...

2010-10-06T21:06:00.001-07:00

Enjoy my Dad's amazing photography! I just couldn't put it next to my snapshots. When we called my parents on Sunday morning to tell them the baby was on the way, they decided to hop in the car and drive 13 hours from Utah. Then my Dad turned around and went home the next day because he had to get back to work! My mom stayed a whole week and completely pampered me. Thanks so much for coming; we love you both so much!

Erica Ruth Jolley arrives

2010-09-29T17:43:00.000-07:00

This little baby girl sure surprised us by arriving a full 2 weeks early! But we're so happy she's here. Here's the stats:

Erica Ruth Jolley
born Sunday, September 26, 2010
11:53 AM
7 lbs, 1 oz
20 inches long

Work/Visit Weekend

2010-09-22T20:47:00.000-07:00

We're so lucky! We had this guy at our house for 4 whole days doing free labor on our house! Darren's parents have been making the rounds visiting their kids all over the country this summer after his retirement and we couldn't wait for our turn because we were told to have a list of home improvement things he could help us with. And, of course, that was an easy task for us, since we started painting back in March and still haven't finished. Boy did we keep him busy! This is Bruce cutting our baseboards:This is he and Darren building a guard rail for the bunkbeds we inherited. Darren had just finished up his busy season and took a couple of days off to help too. It was so wonderful!Joseph wanted to get in on the fun too. Daddy helped him use the drill on some wood scraps.Now I have beautiful baseboards, new light switches and electrical outlets, new vent covers, a new porch light, a shelf above the tv, guard rails for the bunkbed and a bathroom door that doesn't stick anymore. I am a happy camper! I'm just mad I didn't take good before and after pictures. Carol, who is NOT retired even decided to drive up herself when her work week was done. I loved having her here to entertain the boys and help with my decorating. It wasn't all work, though. We also did some bowling, played Scrabble and had yummy pizza at Zeek's. Bruce even liked his pizza even though they didn't serve beef and onion (gross).We can't begin to express how much we love you two and all you do for us. We feel so loved and spoiled. Thanks a MILLION for coming! I honestly believe I couldn't have hand-picked better in-laws.

First Day of School

2010-09-22T20:31:00.001-07:00

Here's my cute little 1st grader on a rainy first day of school. Can't believe it. He was very ready and excited to go back. He's loving his teacher and his new classmates. It's been a pretty smooth and easy transition so far. Except it's been hard to find time to do homework when you get home from school at 4:00. We're still working on a good after-school routine.I thought it would feel like I had so much free time with Joseph at school all day. Instead, Justin wants me to be his playmate. And the lack of Joseph's male presence might be affecting Justin. This is what happens when Joseph is at school and Mommy is putting on her makeup.

Summer Wrap Up

2010-09-03T18:57:00.000-07:00

Summer is really coming to a close. School starts this week! Sigh. We've been busy squeezing every last drop of fun out of it. Here are some of our adventures and milestones. The video is of our Water Wipeout Obstacle Course that Darren created. The boys had so much fun with it. Later on, Darren introduced chucking water balloons at the boys when they went by which was met with a little opposition. But the boys liked throwing them at their mom and dad when we joined in the fun!
This boy learned how to tie his shoes and has been driving his mother nuts with filling out every application for a credit card that he can get his hands on. I let him fill one out online last week and walked away a moment and when I came back, he'd submitted it! Darren got a call from American Express asking for him and we got a letter declining him. Whoopsie! Right now he's saving to put $20 on a Visa reloadable card. This big boy is potty trained! Hooray! And he enjoys summer corn on the cob just like mommy. He gives me flashbacks of Joseph at 3 years old. He talks a mile a minute and pretends all day he is somebody else. He is a worker or a doctor or a doggie or a kittie. And if I call him Justin, he'll correct me and then ask me to fix my mistake: "Remember Mom, I'm Scott the worker. Say it again without the Justin."Both boys took swim lessons for a week at the YMCA and really loved it. Justin felt like such a big boy in the pool with his own teacher just like his big brother. Joseph really responded to his teacher and finally went under water a few times for him. His teacher had him swimming the length of the pool with just his little floatie belt on. It was great. It looks like he's straining his neck to keep his head as far out of the water as possible while he swims.Dog pile on Grandpa! The boys and I left Darren for a few days to travel to Oregon and visit Grandma and Grandpa Jolley. My sister-in-law, Emily was there with her kiddos too. We had a great time. We went swimming, played at a gymnastics gym and had a birthday BBQ for Carol's birthday.The boys had a great time playing with their cousins, who are getting so big!
I made it back home in time to be completely spoiled at a baby shower thrown by my friends Athina and Lisette. It was beautiful and yummy and I got so many cute baby clothes! I love these women.The party throwers and me. I am feeling great, just feeling nice and huge. Poor Justin is just the right height to get bumped by my belly if I'm walking by him in a tight space. Justin has also noticed the shrinking of my lap when we read together. One night while we were reading, he said "Mom, your baby just kicked me in the back!" But I can tell he's going to love his little sister. He gives her hugs and kisses a lot. Last night he told me he would kiss all her owies when she comes out.And finally, we couldn't let the summer go by without seeing the Mariners play! Unfortunately, I've taught the boys that cotton candy is a must. Yum.My boys having a blast at Safeco Field!

Camping Trip to the Olympic Peninsula

2010-08-07T15:56:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful state we live in! That is what I kept thinking on our camping trip. I'm so glad we got to get out and see the Peninsula together as a family this summer. I'm starting to feel like an official camper now. This is our third annual camping trip and this time we stayed for 4 days and nights. And we didn't even do everything on my list. But now we know what we want to do next year! Here are some of the highlights. How fun is it to take a ferry ride to your campground?We stayed at Fairholme Campground near Lake Crescent and the lake is gorgeous. There were a few mosquitoes at twilight, but the boys were troopers. It seemed like every night at dinner, the conversation went like this:
Joseph: Mom, there's a mosquito on your forehead.
Mom: Justin, there's one on your arm.
Dad: Joseph, now there's one on your forehead.Joseph will tell you that his favorite part of the trip was catching a fish on the lake with his Dad. While Justin had a nap, they rented a canoe and went fishing on the lake. Joseph reeled in a big one all on his own. Too bad there's not a picture to show!Check out this whopper of a tree!Our hike to Marymere Falls was short and very kid-friendly. Also very pregnant woman-friendly.On the bridge during our hike.Our first dutch oven experience was a huge success. Darren and I were so proud, we took a picture of our peach cobbler! Doesn't it look yummy? Mmm, I want more just looking at it.Joseph in the Hoh Rainforest. What a gorgeous place to hike!We loved Rialto Beach. It was the boys' first time at the ocean. They loved chasing the waves. And they hiked a long way so I could see the "Hole in the Wall."How do you like Joseph's photography? Not bad, eh? You can see the hole in the wall of rock to the left of me. There were so many great rocks to climb on and tide pools to explore. The boys had fun poking the sea anemones and watching them close up. Darren kept pointing out everytime we were near Forks that it was overcast and foggy. Ooooohh, so creepy! Unfortunately I was too embarrassed to take any touristy pictures of myself in Forks. The Twilight paraphernalia there is out of control. I felt bad for the poor residents. But I still loved seeing it, I'm not gonna lie.Getting ready for hot dog and marshmallow roasting night. Oh how I love these boys.Until next year...

Retirement party on the railroad!

2010-07-07T13:38:00.000-07:00

I'm still playing catch up on my blog. I couldn't let this fun trip slip through the cracks! Darren's Dad just retired in June after working for the railroad for 48 years. Can you believe that?! It's incredible to me. Anyway, to celebrate, Darren's Mom put together this wonderful train trip and we had quite the party with as much family as could make it to Hood River, Oregon. Carol gave all the kids engineer caps, and the rest of the fam got bandanas, so we were styling! Check out these future engineers:Then we took a beautiful train ride up to a little town in the mountains and had a nice picnic before heading back down. The boys thought the train ride was so exciting and hung out with Grandpa most of the time. What a cool grandpa for a little boy; one who knows everything there is to know about trains!Here are some pics I stole from Carol (thanks!) of our picnicking. She also brought a pinata that was the highlight of the kids' lunch.It was so great to see so much family and have time to chat with them on the train. We love you all. A huge congrats to Bruce and thank you Carol for the great day! We love you and we hope to see more of you at our house now.

Justin is 3!

2010-07-07T13:35:00.001-07:00

It was a fire truck birthday in Utah for Justin! It was so fun to celebrate with so much family. The only bad part was that Darren was home in Seattle working a deadline. We missed him. But the rest of us had a great big party. We had pizza for dinner, had cake and ice cream and opened presents. I wish I could say I made this beautiful cake, but instead I have to thank my mom for ordering it for Justin. He was thrilled with it.
Mommy and the birthday boy.Thanks, Dad, for putting this fire truck together for me.Wow. 3 years old. Love you, buddy!

Utah, Part 2

2010-07-07T12:48:00.000-07:00

Here's a little more in pictures of the fun things we did while we were in Utah, post-wedding. Grandma has a great backyard for fun in the sun! We put the sprinkler under the trampoline, had a slide going into a kiddie pool and put up a slip and slide and it was fun for all. And I do mean all. This is Alexis on the slip and slide right before Darren's turn popped a hole in it. Oops.Thanks to my parents, my sisters and I enjoyed a lovely overnight vacation sans kids in Park City. Thanks for letting us enjoy your time share with you, Michelle! We hit the outlet malls, ate yummy food and watched chick flicks all night. It was great.Then the kids joined us and we practically lived in our swimsuits and hopped from the pool to the hot tubs all day. The kids were in heaven and didn't want to leave. We also enjoyed swimming at Grandma and Grandpa Mangum's pool. Michelle's ingenious idea to get my boys these floatie rings made them right at home in the pool.Joseph and Alexis with their great grandparents.Storytime with Grandpa. My dad took my boys to a movie and to McDonald's while my mom and I shopped one morning and he had to rescue Justin at the top of the tubes at the playplace! Justin still talks about how his brave Grandpa came to his rescue.We had too much fun at the Strawberry Days fair in Pleasant Grove. The kids loved the rides!

Joseph was brave enough to get on the ferris wheel, but came off looking white as a sheet. We plopped him right down on a bench next to the garbage can until his color came back. Poor kid. The kids got tattoos on our way out of the park and they were very proud of them. Transformers for Joseph, Hello Kitty for Alexis and Batman for Justin.Grandma and Grandpa, you spoil us too much. Thanks for the great time!

Taylor and Melissa's Wedding

2010-06-30T14:30:00.000-07:00

We had such a great time in Utah! And my brother's wedding was the highlight of the trip. I'm so glad the Timpanogos temple was closed the weekend they wanted to get married because it was so incredible to be at the Salt Lake temple and feel the spirit on temple square with my boys. I had never been inside the Salt Lake temple and it was magnificent! The sealing was especially neat because it was performed by the bride's Guatamalan grandfather in spanish! The spirit was so strong even though I wasn't understanding much of it. My boys enjoyed their first trip to temple square.The beautiful bride and her handsome husband fresh out of the temple!Melissa's parents and my parents.The reception was beautiful and so much fun. It was held outside in perfect weather. Justin had a great time with his cousin Elle messing with the decor.My other sibs.Joseph and Alexis were best buddies all night, so happy to be reunited.Joseph is like his mama. He loves to cut a rug. When he found out there was going to be dancing, he immediately responded, "I'm going to dance with Alexis." Alexis was happy to oblige and Joseph escorted her to the dance floor like a real gentleman. Elle chose a good dance partner as well.Here's our family photo of the night.And a candid one with grandma and grandpa.Taylor and Melissa: we love you! Congrats and thanks for the great day and the great party!

It's a Girl!

2010-05-30T00:37:00.000-07:00

If you haven't already heard, we're having a baby girl in October! Pretty exciting! It's still sinking in. I had a moment in Old Navy today, looking at the tiny little ruffly pink things there that will now be allowed in my home. It's gonna be fun!

Can't wait to meet her.

All about Joseph

2010-05-29T19:58:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday, Joseph! Well, my baby boy is six. We had a whole lot of birthday celebration around here. On his birthday, we spent the day with good friends at a farm. Check out these cuties.I think Joseph is lecturing on some aspect of nature that he knows everything about.Then we went home for some present opening and cake eating. Classic faces of pure joy at his presents. Gotta love it. Then on the weekend we enjoyed a way-too-quick visit from the Portland Jolley's. Hooray for Kellen and Caleb! These boys can never get enough of each other. We brought them along to cheer Joseph on at his T-ball game. Go Ice Wizards!It's a base hit! Because they're all base hits! In T-ball, everyone advances one base and the last batter gets to hit a grand slam. It's pretty adorable. His favorite position to play: 1st base. They get to see the most action.Then came the big bowling party. We had birthday kids on their own lane, a few little kids on one side and a few adults on the other. It was a good time! Love you, Joseph!

The Big Apple

2010-05-18T17:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Ernst & Young and my wonderful mother-in-law who stayed with our boys, Darren and I went on the most fun and relaxing vacation to New York City! Well, it was relaxing for me. I didn't have to go to the conference Darren went to. I just got to play play play! But before the conference, we played together and saw all the sites. The Statue of Liberty,Ground Zero, which is now a new monument building under construction,and Times Square. We just so happened to be there the very night of the car bomb that didn't go off. Thank goodness it didn't go off! We were on the sidelines kinda early while nobody knew what was going on. It wasn't until we made it back to our hotel and turned on the tv that we understood the gravity of the situation. We walked Central Park and went to the top of the Empire State Building too. What a beautiful city! It was so great to be a tourist with my husband and spend so much time together. When Darren had to go to his conference outside of the city, I rode the train in and enjoyed the MOMA and the Guggenheim art museums and shopped like crazy. After being a tourist for two days, it was fun to try and feel like a New Yorker, navigating Grand Central Station, riding the subway and hailing taxi cabs. What a rush. A huge thank you to Grandma Jolley who made it possible for us to go and took such good care of my kids they didn't even miss me!

Lots of New Things at our House

2010-04-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

This is what it looks like in front of my house right now! Joseph and I planted these tulips in September and we had so much fun watching them bloom. I didn't realize the the azaleas would bloom the same time. So colorful! Here's a taste of what our family room make-over is starting to look like. Here's our new furniture and tv and you can see the new paint on the wall and new rug on the floor. Now I get to have fun filling the shelves. I think I'll put some photos, planters/vases, and wicker baskets on them. Then I plan to get a matching ledge shelf to go over the tv. What do you think?We enjoyed a visit from my cousin Terri and her family. We rode the new Water Taxi across the bay where we rode the carousel and ate ice cream. Yum.Here's what our spring walks around the block look like now. It seems like just yesterday our walks looked like this. It's kind of freaking me out that they're getting so big. Joseph is apprehensive about taking off his training wheels, but I think I've got him convinced to try it out after he turns six next month. Justin rides this three-wheeled scooter like a pro.Joseph drives me crazy with his incessant need to make projects and create "formulas." Just about everyday on the ride home from school he tells me he's got the best idea ever. I think it's inspired by one of our favorite shows, Phineas and Ferb, who make an elaborate creation everyday. He's made tvs and laptops out of cardboard, bluetooth headsets out of paper, and lately he makes things for me to use around the house. This afternoon he made me some wood floor cleaner. This picture is Joseph creating some sort of gel to use in my hair. His ingredients include hand soap, toothpaste and lotion.And this is his can of paint. I love that he's being creative and inventive but it's getting tricky that he wants to save all his projects and keep them in permanent places of honor. When I slowly throw them away, he always realizes it and lectures me about it.And I finally got Justin to the dentist for the first time. He's been begging since he watched Joseph go. I thought maybe he'd back down when we got there, but he just jumped in the chair and let them do the whole cleaning routine! He was so proud of his new toothbrush and play dough he picked out of the prize basket. My baby is turning into a big boy right before my eyes whether I like it or not.

Spring Break to Easter

2010-04-08T20:27:00.000-07:00

Here's my little Easter Bunny.Joseph's Spring Break from school was the week before Easter and we decided to use it just play play playing. We went to a great little egg hunt at the community center and bounced at a bouncy house place. Joseph took his new kite out for a spin.We had a blast at the Pacific Science Center.And we visited the Museum of Flight.We got to meet up with some old friends that we never get to see.And of course, we dyed Easter Eggs.Whew! What a great week. But of course, this means I'm exhausted and no walls got painted again and no housework got done either. I'm paying for that this week. But it was worth the fun!

I thought it was so relaxing (We loved having Darren all to ourselves all weekend!) and so spiritual to have Easter on General Conference weekend. I was truly inspired with a resolve to do better by the messages of our Prophet and Apostles. I know they are men of God called to direct us this day. Because of conference, all weekend my thoughts were turned to Christ and all He has done for me. I'm so grateful for the knowledge that He lives and continues to help and strengthen me each day as long as I come unto Him.

The tooth fairy has found our house

2010-03-18T21:58:00.000-07:00

See the missing spot in his mouth? Joseph has had his first wiggly tooth for weeks and last Monday while I was making dinner, he just came right over and held it up with a "Mom, look!" I was so glad he wasn't freaked out about the whole thing. He was actually quite proud of himself for yanking it out. And I might have been more excited about the tooth fairy coming than he was. What a fun job that is!It just so happened that Joseph had a dentist appointment the next day so he got to show off his missing tooth to the dentist as well. And she pointed out that the tooth next to it was also pretty wiggly. Well Joseph got right to work on that and on Sunday, he could practically twist it in a circle. I couldn't figure out why he wouldn't just yank it out. But the next day when I picked him up at school, he was proudly holding up a plastic tooth strung on a necklace. I had forgotten that he had told me before that when you lose a tooth at school, the nurse gives you a tooth holder necklace to keep it in. So Joseph was waiting to yank it until he was at school so he could get the necklace. Isn't that funny? Here he is holding up his necklace and his loot for his second tooth.So it's been a whole lot of tooth excitement around here lately. Justin has got some real bad big brother jealousy going on. He constantly shows me his loose teeth and keeps asking if he can go back to the dentist. And he has insisted I take pictures of his mouth just like I've been taking of Joseph. Too cute.

My excuses for not posting...

2010-03-05T15:19:00.000-08:00

Here's what I've been spending my every free moment on for the last little while.
I've never painted before and I've been surprised at what a HUGE job it is! I think the fact that I'm doing it around two little boys probably makes it seem more huge than it should be. Although I loved the yellow walls when we moved in (yellow is my favorite color), now it's time for a change and to make it mine! Ever since we bought the house last July, that color yellow has been screaming at me. The three bedrooms are each a crazy color too (bright coral, dark purple and turquoise), so I've really wanted to neutralize and tone the whole place down a bit. I'll post the finished pictures if--I mean when--I get finished.

So after a week of hard work on the walls it was time for a getaway. We had to leave Darren at home, but the boys and I drove down to Eugene for a visit with Grandma and Grandpa Jolley.

We even saw some Mangums down there. My Uncle Tom and Aunt Kaye are Mission Presidents there in Eugene and we had a great little visit. They played with my boys and fed us a delicious lunch and it was so great to catch up with them. They are doing great work!

My sister-in-law, Emily, was also in town from Vegas for a friend's wedding with her two little cuties so we took advantage of the opportunity to see them.
See? I told you they were cute. I admit, this little girl was my main motivation to make the drive and she was worth it.

So then my brother-in-law, Marc, made it a bigger family reunion by coming down from Portland on Saturday with his family. Woo hoo! Joseph refuses to go to Oregon without seeing Kellen! We had the obligatory jump on the Mitchell's trampoline.And we ate at Papa's Pizza where my boys thoroughly enjoyed the ball pit.
Here's the whole boy crew together:And Grandma and Grandpa too!What a great little trip. We love you all!

Now it's back to my walls. Wish me luck.

Tidbits

2010-01-30T11:50:00.000-08:00

Here's what's been going down so far in 2010:

Darren...
just took the last of the four CPA exams today. Here's hoping he passed and he's done forever! It could be a couple of months before we find out. He saved the longest and hardest test for last, but I'm willing to bet he did well. Anyway, that means he spent this last week at home studying for the test and that's been great. It is fabulous to see him at breakfast, lunch and dinner. He continues to be busy as all get out between work and church and family, but he does an amazing job at meeting all his obligations and making me and the boys feel loved and important. We are feeling the blessings from his calling even 4 months into it.

Jill...
just had a blast from the past at a very fun 80s party with some girlfriends from the ward. You like our outfits and hairdos? I am so grateful to have such wonderful women to share my life with here in Seattle! I am also recommitting to working on building up our food storage with a new support group a friend in the ward is starting up. I'm excited about that. And I'm thoroughly enjoying the mommy book club I belong to. It's been going strong for 15 months now and I feel like I have certainly expanded my horizons with the books we've read and discussed together. But of course, most of my time is spent on these cute boys I want to tell you about.

Joseph...
is an amazing bumper bowler! We've been twice over the last month and he's won both times with a 93 and a 111, beating both me and Darren. He loves words and they're always distracting him. Right now he's very interested in nutrition facts and ingredient labels on foods. But I end up having to remind him to eat at mealtimes, because he's just reading everything in sight. He won't eat anything that he feels is too high in sugar content and claims that if he eats too much sugar, it gives him a headache.

After Christmas, I arranged with Joseph's school to have him eat lunch and have recess with his classmates so I pick him up at 12:40 instead of 12:00. It's been working great. He's getting that extra time to eat and socialize with his buddies and run his wiggles out before I pick him up. He just loves school and I couldn't be happier about that. We're halfway through Kindergarten now and it has been an extremely positive experience.

Justin...
always brightens my day. I mean, look at that face! He has many obsessions right now, including Fireman Sam, Thomas the Tank Engine and playing hide and seek. He comes to me and tells me he's going to hide in Joseph's closet and then tells me to count. It works out great, since he likes hiding the best, I usually get a lot done while I'm counting. :)

He demands my attention when Joseph is at school or otherwise occupied. When Joseph is home, they are (usually) great playmates. When I finish a phone conversation, he says, "You done on the phone mommy? Great!" When I'm trying to read a book, he comes over and shuts it and says, "The end, mommy." Lately when I'm talking to someone and he gets tired of waiting, he's started saying so politely, "Mommy, stop talking." The other thing I always here him say is, "One minute, mommy, I be right back." This one he's learned from me. And unfortunately, it looks as though I've also taught him that one minute doesn't always mean one minute and that I often don't come right back. Serves me right.

Family Pictures

2010-01-16T11:25:00.000-08:00

Check out these great pictures we had taken while we were in Utah! My mom was nice enough to let us sneak in a family photo during the shoot. Do you like the one in color or black and white better?
This is my favorite picture of them all. Everyone looks so cute and happy.Here's the whole fam. We're good looking, huh?

Christmas 2009 & New Year 2010

2010-01-04T20:29:00.001-08:00

Wow. It's really over? We had such a great time this holiday season, it just flew by way too fast! We spent a week over Christmas in Utah with my family. It has been over a year since I've been to Utah and it was so wonderful to be there! The boys were enthralled by the snow. Daddy helped them make a snowman.
Joseph and Justin performed with their cousins in the Anderson family Christmas program. It was so great to catch up with so much extended family who I haven't seen in years.
The kiddos at Pirate Island Pizza.
Here they all are on Christmas Eve sampling Santa's cookies and milk before bed. We had a giant sleepover at my mom's house on Christmas Eve with all of my siblings and their families. It made Christmas morning so very fun!
Santa made it and we all got to enjoying our new gifts. Here's Joseph enjoying his gifts from Grandma Jolley: a new solar system book and a Snuggie like Daddy's. Guess what else is like Daddy?
Justin had a Thomas the Tank Engine Christmas!
I loved getting to know my niece Elle, who was a newborn last time I saw her. Now she's walking! Look at that gorgeous face.
Happy Birthday to my sis Jordan! Poor thing was born the day after Christmas and we made sure to go out and celebrate.
Here's the whole gang.Snuggles with Grandma and Grandpa! We love you so much!
And congrats to my bro Taylor who just got engaged. His fiance, Melissa, is wonderful. Now I get to go back to Utah in June! Hooray!
We made it home to spend the week before the New Year just chilling together as a fam and playing with friends. Here's our last meal of 2009. This year has been a big one full of love, blessings, new challenges and growth. Thanks to all our friends and family who made our year and our Christmas so very special.

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-12-09T19:04:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, it's Christmastime now and I'm way behind. But I had to document how wonderful our Thanksgiving was! We spent Thanksgiving in Oregon with Darren's family and had such a great time. Check out the kids table full of cute boys!Here's the Jolley clan that was in attendance. Love you guys! The food was soooo good and I ate soooo much pie!The next day, Grandma and Grandpa took us to a great little gym and the boys had a blast. Here's Caleb and Justin hanging around.They played in the foam pit forever. Justin called it the pool and kept pulling me back and back and back to it. So funny. And yes, I saw New Moon, and my dear sweet husband took me to it. Isn't he a good sport? There was much that I loved about it, but overall it didn't live up to my high expectations. I fell deeply in love with Jacob in the book, but Jacob just didn't do it for me in the movie! Too many bad lines and the acting just wasn't up to snuff. Sorry Taylor Lautner.What a beautiful break from real life this holiday was for me. I'm was so thankful to spend a relaxing weekend away and be so well taken care of. It doesn't get better than this: Thanksgiving dinner cooked for you, came close to beating Darren in Scrabble, boys play hard with their cousins, free babysitting to go on a date with my hubby, and talking and laughing with great family. Life is good and I am definitely thankful!

My Little Sunbeam

2009-11-10T21:05:00.000-08:00

This is Justin's favorite song. It must be sung before every nap and bedtime. Usually twice. Here is his performance.

Halloween Fun

2009-11-06T17:10:00.000-08:00

A great Halloween was had this year! This is us at the ward Halloween party. Darren and I threw together our costumes literally an hour before. Too bad the picture doesn't show Darren's knee high golf socks or my cowgirl boots. They really made the outfits. There were cute carnival games, good food and trick or treating.Spiderman and Batman teamed up to save Seattle from evil villains. Here they are before their trick or treating in our neighborhood. Can you tell Justin isn't quite up to it? Poor baby was still recovering from the flu.Spooky Dinner is back! We haven't had Spooky Dinner at our house in several years. It was so fun to share it with friends. We ate buzzard brains, zombie saliva and my favorite, kitty cat eyeballs.Look at our cute kids!

Welcome, Fall!

2009-10-28T19:39:00.000-07:00

I always pout during the time of year when fall takes summer away. I don't like the gray skies and rain replacing the blue skies and sun or the socks and shoes replacing my flip flops. But when the trees start changing colors and Halloween is on its way, I can't help but give in and love it. Not to mention all the great things that come with fall. Like football! This is the time of year when we cheer hard for the Oregon Ducks and the Tigard Tigers. Darren's bro, Marc is a high school football coach and we love to make a weekend visit out of rooting for his team in Portland. Darren's parents came up for the game and we came down. The bad part was, we got stuck in nasty traffic and nasty weather and didn't even make it to the game on Friday night. But we made up for it with a Saturday full of fun at the pumpkin patch. Here's our hay ride on the tractor,the perfect pumpkins,the adorable farm animalsand the corn maze.Joseph and Justin loved raking and jumping in leaf piles in the yard last weekend. It was very cute to watch Joseph teach Justin how to really mess up the pile. Justin was an attentive student.And finally, the jack-o-lantern debut on the front porch! Joseph was really into it this year, designing and cleaning out his own pumpkin. (His is in the middle.)I am so thankful for family, football, pumpkin patches, leaf jumping and jack-o-lanterns to help me embrace the fall.

What the kiddos have been up to...

2009-10-14T16:07:00.000-07:00

Update time. We're finally feeling settled into our new school schedule and Joseph is still really enjoying Kindergarten. He always wants to go and he loves his teacher. I'm so happy about that. His favorite thing to do at school is P.E. He's learned to skip and jump rope and he loves to exercise. If you ask him what he wants to be when he grows up, he'll tell you he wants to be a guy that makes exercise videos. He wants to do an exercise video everyday, either one of mine or one for kids from the library.

This is also a common sight at our house. Joseph's favorite books to read are the kids non-fiction books. His favorite subjects are the body and how it works and the solar system. A new book makes him really excited, but then he reads his favorites over and over again until he can practically quote them. Smarty pants.His reading inspired this body of artwork on our wall. If you ask Joseph about Pluto, he'll tell you he's sad it's not a planet anymore. He's hip to the whole debate. My favorite piece is his interpretation of earth. It's the multi-colored planet towards the bottom.He's also been loving soccer again this year. I'll post some pictures soon.

Check out Justin's new skills! I just love his tongue in this picture.
See him in action and listen for his cute "twysicoh" for "tricycle."
Justin cracks me up everyday. He picks up hilarious things from his brother like, "What the heck?" and "Sweet!" He often tells me something and follows it with, "That be awesome, Mom?" But my favorite is his fascination with the word "cool." He thinks everything he does is "cool." Our conversations often go like this:

Justin: Look, Mom!
Me: That's so silly, Justin.
Justin: It's not silly, it's cool.

After catching on, I think I'm doing him a favor by telling him he's cool, only to hear him respond like this:

Justin: Look, Mom!
Me: That's cool, Justin.
Justin: It's not cool, it's way cool.

Apparently Mom is just always wrong.

Our After-Busy-Season Retreat

2009-10-06T11:36:00.000-07:00

It's so good to get away after busy season is over! We made a camping trip work on the last good weather weekend of the year. It was perfect. Just a couple of days and nights, but it was so fun to just get away and hang out in the mountains together. The boys are in heaven out there (my husband included). Here they are setting up the tent.
The boys enjoying the fire.
Family canoe ride on the lake.
And this is what our evenings looked like: Darren fly fishing, Joseph practicing casting with his pole, Justin throwing rocks and me reading a book.Can't wait for next year!

The Bathroom: Remodeled

2009-09-30T19:23:00.000-07:00

BEFORE (crappy floor, ugly old window, and cracking, mildewing shower tile
DURING (really gross water damage)
AFTER! Still work to be done, you can see, but what an improvement!

"Bishop Jolley" is no longer just my Father-in-law's name

2009-09-23T19:00:00.001-07:00

On Sunday my husband was sustained as the Bishop of our ward. Isn't that crazy!? Aren't we too young to be doing this? Although, I do feel like I've aged 3 years in the past 3 months. Too many grown up things happening: Getting a mortgage, sending a kid to school and becoming the Bishop's wife. I still think of myself as a young mother fresh out of college, but I'm really not so fresh anymore!

I am humbled, overwhelmed and excited to support my husband in this calling. I know he'll do an incredible job. We love the people in our ward; they have truly been our Seattle family. We felt their support on Sunday and it meant so much. What a beautiful church we belong to where we get to serve and help one another.

We also enjoyed a quick 24 hour visit with Grandma and Grandpa Jolley who came to share the day with us. It was so wonderful to have them here. Thank you so much for your love and support!

Joseph's First Day of Kindergarten

2009-09-16T19:42:00.000-07:00

We had something exciting happen the week before school started. My first choice school that we didn't get into called and offered us a spot! We took it right in time for orientation and Kindergarten assessments. The bad part was that Joseph was NOT happy about the switch. We'd already visited the original school and learned his teacher's name and he was not very happy with me. Even the fact that he was in his best friend's class wasn't helping. After a couple of playground visits, a couple of visits to his new classroom and meeting his new teacher, he was finally converted and excited about the new school. Phew! Right in time for school to start.

There were lots of reasons for wanting to be at this school. It has great, tenured teachers, great student test scores and great parent involvement. But my #1 reason was that I could opt to go half day at this school. Of course, the principal and the teacher were less than excited about this decision. There isn't a half day class, I just come pick him up at lunch time. So the teacher has to mess with her schedule and the principal doesn't get my $200 a month. Yep, that's how much it costs to send your child full day. But going half day has been working great and Joseph is loving it!

I had spent quite a bit of time crying about sending him to Kindergarten the week before, so I did surprisingly great when the actual day came. Joseph did great too, he just waved good-bye to us and went on his big boy way. It's going to be a great year.

8 Years

2009-09-03T10:32:00.000-07:00

Our anniversary was weeks ago now but I just wanted to give a little shout out to my main man. Love you, babe. You are everything I want and need and I'm so glad you're mine.

I'm always missing him this time of year. He's working his little butt off doing tax returns and passing the CPA exam, so I can't blame him. Kinda reminds me of our engagement we spent apart. Eight years ago I was more excited for the day he would finish his job in Vegas and get back to me than the day we were getting married. Now I look forward to his 9/15 deadline more than our anniversary. We'll just have to celebrate it this month instead. We did give each other a gift, though! It's a remodeled bathroom and I'll show you pictures soon.

Wedding Trip!

2009-08-26T15:51:00.000-07:00

We made the trip to Oregon to see Darren's sister, Jenni get married and it was such a great weekend filled with fun and family! Darren's siblings live all over the country, so the wedding brought family together we hadn't seen in a couple of years.

The trip started out with picking up my way cute niece and nephew, Megan and Kevin, at the airport, who flew in from Missouri. They got to hang out with us and play with my kids on the trip, which was great for me! We spent Friday night in Portland with my cousin Melinda and her family since Jenni and Michael were getting married at 9 AM in the Portland temple the next morning. It was great to catch up with them and see their new place. Thanks for taking care of us, Melinda!Here are our cute kids together at the breakfast table early on Saturday morning.Then we made it to the temple nice and early in Darren style and had time for a family photo shoot while we were waiting for everyone to show up.Here's the beautiful bride and groom as they're coming out of the temple. Don't they look so happy? I love how Michael is looking at her like "Yeah, she's mine for eternity now and I'm really happy about it!"Here's all the nieces and nephews that were at the wedding. We were missing a few, darn it. The wedding was so beautiful. I'm mad at myself for not taking more pictures at the reception because it was gorgeous. I was just too busy having a great time chatting, eating, dancing and cutting and serving the wedding cake with my SIL, Connie. We were horrible at it, and were giggling about it the whole time!Joseph and Kellen, best cousin friends.I also got to meet my newest niece, Carly. Isn't she precious? I was loving on her every chance I got.Look at all these cute kids!Megan, Kevin and me and the kids stayed a couple of extra days after the wedding to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa. We decided to spend Monday at the Oregon coast in Florence. Unfortunately, my kids didn't last long at the water. They didn't even make it to the water. The wind was blowing so hard that the sand stung your legs. Needless to say, Joseph and Justin were not happy about that. They're so short that it kept getting in their eyes too. We tried to play in the sand for a few minutes, but the boys were just miserable and bawling. It was pretty funny, actually. I wish I had a picture of it. So we settled for some souvenir shopping and ice cream eating.On Tuesday, we drove Megan and Kevin to the airport and tears were shed when we had to say good-bye. Justin called them his "friends" all weekend and was sad to see them go. Joseph told me at the airport, "I'll miss them when they're gone." We're so glad you could come and spend time with us, guys. And congrats to the newlyweds! We love you so much and loved spending your big day with you.

The Pacific Science Center

2009-08-22T22:49:00.000-07:00

I was just mentioning that I've lived in Seattle for 4 years now, and I confess, I haven't visited the Pacific Science Center since the first week we lived here! My oldest was just a baby. So we had much to experience here. My boys loved it. I must get a membership now because this place is so huge, you just can't get close to doing it all in one visit. There is so much to see and do and something for all ages. And the best part is, you're learning while your playing.

We hit the IMAX theater first and saw "Animalopolis" which was adorable. Both my kids thought it was funny and it completely held their interest. It's a series of funny nature clips of animals that are narrated in clever rhymes. Then on our way to the Butterfly House, Joseph couldn't resist the water cannon, what little boy can? The butterflies were my favorite part. So many different and beautiful ones just fluttering all around you! I really wanted one to land on me, but my boys wouldn't let me stand still enough for long enough, darn it. They kind of freak you out about how fragile they are and to watch your step, so my cautious little Joseph was uncomfortable in there and didn't want to stay near as long as I wanted to. Or maybe butterflies just aren't as cool to boys as they are to girls, I don't know. Anyway, enjoy my butterfly pictures and I'll stop blabbing about them.Joseph is obsessed with the solar system right now, so he was so excited to see this part of the science center. Look at the look of wonder on his face. I love it!Really cool dinosaurs!I didn't get any good pictures of the great play area they have for babies and toddlers, but my 2 year old didn't want to leave after going in there! And it was huge. He didn't even get to see all of it, he was having so much fun and they had to kick us out of there at closing time. It was a great afternoon!

Experience Music Project & Science Fiction Museum

2009-08-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my friend, Shannon, my kids and I got to visit a couple of great museums in Seattle for free and tell you about them. Shannon has an amazing review and giveaway blog called "The Mommy Files" that you can visit here. I was so excited to visit the EMP/SFM because although I've lived in Seattle for four years now, I didn't think there was much for my kids to enjoy at these museums (both museums are housed in the same building). But I was proved wrong! First we went to the Experience Music Project side of the museum and no, my boys didn't care to look at all of the paraphernalia of Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, or Pearl Jam, but they LOVED the Music Lab. That's where they could get their hands on the instruments and play with them. Listening stations,keyboards,the mixing board and of course, the drums.Then we were on to the Science Fiction Museum where they don't let you take any pictures of the cool things they have there. Joseph was excited to name the Star Wars characters we saw, including a life size R2D2. And I found my own excitement in explaining to Joseph who the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and E.T. are. They have life-size models of them too. But the best part of the museum, I thought, was the Jim Henson exhibition currently on display. Justin thought it was hilarious to pretend to be Bert at the puppet theater. It was great that they had that place for kids to play and touch the puppets because you can't touch any of the others on display. Check out the video to see how you can be in the Muppet's Band. I have a whole new appreciation for puppeteers. Those puppets are heavy! The exhibition was done very well. I studied art history in college and took a class I loved about museum curatorship so I'm a nerd about noticing the presentation like that. What I thought was really great was that they covered several whole walls from floor to ceiling in fuzzy muppet material in really bright colors. Here's my boys in front of the green fuzzy wall at the end of our fun morning. You can tell Justin is really worn out when he has to hold his thumb in this mouth like that!

Good times with Grandma

2009-08-09T22:51:00.001-07:00

We had a few fun days with my Mom last week. Too few if you ask me. She spoils us and we have missed her! We played at the park...went swimming...went to the Pacific Science Center...saw some beautiful butterflies at the butterfly house...and played hard at home too! Thanks so much for coming, Mom! Now we can last until Christmas. It's as if Joseph and Justin understand that they have to pack as much Grandma as possible into her visits. They both demand her attention at her every waking moment. It was adorably sad to hear Justin's little voice plead "Gammah, I go with you?" when we dropped her off at the airport. Grandmas are the best.

Guess what!

2009-07-29T23:01:00.000-07:00

Darren and I are now the proud owners of this home......yellow grass and all. The greatest part is, we don't even have to move because we already live there! Yep, we purchased the house we've been renting for 3 years. It was meant to be, really. We'd been toying with the idea of buying a house and casually looking around the area. We knew we wanted to stay in West Seattle and stay in the ward we love. Then in May, our landlady called to tell us she was getting married, moving out of state, and putting the house up for sale in June. Now we really started looking hard, got ourselves an agent and saw a lot of houses. I thought I'd fall in love with one for sure. But instead, we just kept comparing them to where we were and realizing we wanted our house! And we got it!

I am so happy to think that we don't have to move for quite a long time, and that we can really start to make this home the way we like it now. We already love it, despite its quirks, its age and its junkiness, now we can slowly make it ours. Where to start? The bathroom is getting ripped out ASAP! Actually, the tub, toilet and sink are staying, but it's gonna be fun to change the shower, the floor and the paint. I can't wait to show you the before and after pics.

Here is my little Batman showing off our silly sold sign. Since the house was never listed with a sign out front, this was our agent's idea when I told her I was sad I wouldn't have a picture of a sign for my blog! (It's stapled to the tree out front.)

Playing Catch Up

2009-07-20T22:54:00.000-07:00

We've been busy! Here's a few of the adventures we've been on lately:

The Pirates landing on Alki Beach for Sea Fair in Seattle. We've been meaning to do this for a long time now. A bunch of guys dressed as pirates jump off this boat and run around on the beach. Actually, we didn't get to find out what they do once they get to the beach. Their boat was way late and then couldn't get close enough to the shore and we were taking off as they were wading to shore. But hey, now we've done it!And check out how cool some of the other boats out there in the Sound were!A day out with Thomas the Train! Check him out! Of course, they were charging for pictures with Thomas, so we took one outside the fence as we were leaving. Lame.We went with my friend Anna and her two cute boys. It was a fun little train ride and the boys loved it.

Then Darren and Joseph took off on a Father and Son campout and had a blast with all these cute boys from our ward. And I had a fun little chick flick night with Justin and a few girlfriends.
Fun stuff! Summer is officially half way over and we're making the most of it!

Independence Day

2009-07-07T22:26:00.000-07:00

We had a very fun and relaxing holiday with a ward breakfast, a family BBQ and our own little firework show in our backyard. If you know my Joseph, you know he is very sensitive to loud sounds and he spent the last Fourth of July with his hands over his ears. This year he was so excited about doing fireworks and he told me over and over again that he wasn't afraid of fireworks anymore. We picked out the obligatory pop-its and sparklers and also a couple of non-screaming fountains and one where a parachuting army guy is launched into the sky. The pop-its were a HUGE hit with both the boys, and then we started on the fountains. Justin was in a trance as he watched the fountains. They both just loved it and I was so happy to see that it seemed Joseph was going to be OK. Then the army guy firework made a huge booming sound that made everybody jump and Joseph lost it:He was consoled after a good hard cry but was now determined NOT to do any sparklers. So being the mean mom I am, I coerced him into standing next to me while I held the sparklers. But you can see how much fun he's having.So what is Justin doing during this time? Totally showing up Joseph with the sparklers and having the time of his life! Darren couldn't get them lit fast enough for him.My little pyromaniac! As soon as it burned out, he'd say, "One more, ok, Daddy?"And then, SUCCESS! Joseph decided he would hold a sparkler after all and loved it, for about 20 seconds. He handed it off to me pretty quick. But check out the happy face! And how far he's holding it from his body.I am so very grateful for this beautiful country where I can do fireworks in my backyard if I want. I am proud to be an American!

Family Fun for Father's Day

2009-06-23T21:54:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun Father's Day weekend! My adorable nephew, Kellen came from Portland to visit for two days and two nights. Joseph was so excited to have 2 sleepovers! These boys are best buds despite their geographic distance. It was so fun to listen to them get reacquainted and play together. There was a lot of wrestling, monster hunting and bike riding going on. We met his parents halfway in Centralia to make the switch both times. Grandma Jolley even came with them on one of the trips. What a treat! It worked out so great, we'll definitely be making this a new summertime tradition!We played at the beach and rode the water taxi across the bay just for fun. The other great thing about this weekend is that my cousin, Melinda was also up from Portland with her family and we picnicked at the beach together on Friday. It was so great to see her and her three kids. I haven't seen her for five years because they've lived out east since just recently. It'll be great to have them living so much closer now!Justin also fell in love with Kellen on his trip. He tried his hardest to keep up with the big boys on all their adventures. And they were so good to include him in their playing. I took this picture because Justin was snuggling up to Kellen and saying, "I wuv you Kewen!" So cute! And a very happy late Father's Day to the wonderful father of my children! My goodness I love this man. We learned this weekend that Darren passed the first of the four CPA exams he is working on taking. Way to go, babe! Not only is he excruciatingly handsome, he's brilliant too!

2 big!

2009-06-14T21:41:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to Justin! 2 years old just seems like full blown toddlerhood and I hardly ever see a trace of my little baby anymore. Justin is becoming very outgoing and independent and wants to do everything on his own. He says, "by self, Mommy" all day long. When he gets frustrated because he's not getting what he wants, he plops himself down on the ground to pout and won't move. Can you say, "terrible twos?" He also loves to copy everything we say. The other night he opened the bathroom door where Joseph was taking his bath and said, "Shuhshuf, 3 minutes OK?" He was giving Joseph his countdown like he hears me say. Joseph thought it was hilarious and it turned into quite a giggle-fest.He loved opening his presents. And he loves birthday cake. Everytime someone mentions the word birthday, he asks for cake. Smart boy.My attempt at a cute and crafty cake turned out pretty good, I have to say. It was fun to make.Love you, Justin! And thanks to all our family for the calls and the presents! We love you!

From Spring to Summer

2009-05-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

I love this glorious time when spring turns into summer. Joseph has one more day of Preschool and we will miss it so much. I have been so happy with the school and his teacher and I just feel it was worth every penny. We learned which Elementary School Joseph will go to for Kindergarten in the fall, so I'm freaking out about that and so looking forward to relaxing this summer before that scary and nerve-racking transition. For the Mom, not for Joseph. He told me today that he wants to start Kindergarten right after Preschool is over. But I am already anxiety-ridden about starting my long-term relationship with the Public School system and giving up my baby to them. But I digress. We're talking about summer here! In pictures, here is our family's transition from spring to summer.Joseph loved flying his kite; the perfect spring activity.Yes, I'm going to bore you with all the pictures of my very first garden experience. These are my strawberries. When I took these pictures, I was all giddy about how everything was growing so well. But apparently, they've been growing a little too well and it turns out, I'm really just feeding the squirrels! See the strawberry that's just turning pink? After it ripened, I found it half-eaten in the soil. Same with the next one that ripened. So it's time to either move them to the greenhouse or Darren said he'd help me build a cage to go around them.And it'll probably start happening with my tomatoes here too once they pop out. Kind of a downer when you don't get to taste the fruits of your labor!My lettuce.So the last three things were grown from plant starts. But these are my cucumbers that grew from seeds.
And my carrots that finally popped up a little. I can see why people get into this. It's so satisfying to witness the magic of planting a seed and watching it grow. The squirrels won't dig up my carrots, right? I really have no idea what I'm doing. I just decided to put stuff in the dirt and see what happened. Enough garden talk. Look at my cute boys! The brothers having a good time in the tub after getting so dirty outside. And finally, what says summer better than a slip and slide?! My friend has one and invited us over (thanks, Shannon!) It was so fun to watch our boys enjoy it together in the summer heat we've had lately!JosephJustin

Happy Summer!

Happy Birthday, Joseph!

2009-05-21T22:23:00.000-07:00

This post is long overdue. I just can't believe he's 5! We celebrated this year with a little party for him and all of his friends. It was really fun, especially since the weather cooperated. We threw water balloons at targets and whacked a Spiderman pinata. And of course, cake and presents!The kids and their spoils.Even after the pinata broke open, the kids wanted to take turns whacking the head.Happy Birthday, Joseph. Love you, buddy! I just wish I could slow down your growing a little bit.

Welcome to Seattle, Elder Anderson!

2009-05-11T22:12:00.000-07:00

Elder Anderson made it home safe and sound and now he's back to being my good old brother Taylor. He and my sister, Jordan, drove out for a visit and we had a great time. This picture was taken right after he walked in the door. Don't you love the look on Justin's face? It's like he's thinking "Who is this guy and what's all the fuss about?"But as you can see, it didn't take long for them to fall in love! The theme of the visit seemed to be roadside oddities. We went to see the troll under the Aurora bridge. Jordan remembered it's on the movie "Ten Things I Hate About You." It's pretty fun to climb on him and yes, I am picking his nose.Gotta throw rocks in the water at the beach. Even if it's raining. We took the ferry to Vashon Island to check it out. The boys were excited about being on a boat.The bike-eating tree! How weird is this? This bike actually grew into the tree.Hanging out on the beach. Now I can officially say, welcome home, Taylor! We missed you, we're proud of the way you served and now we're so glad you're home. Thanks for making the trip and thanks to Jordan for coming with him! We love you both!

Welcome Home, Elder Anderson!

2009-04-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

Today is the day, people! My little bro is on his way home from the Dominican Republic as I type! I wish I was in Utah to watch him come off the plane. Instead, I'll settle for talking to him on the phone tonight. Then we'll get him to Seattle ASAP! I can't wait to introduce him to Justin and to see him get reacquainted with Joseph.

Our wonderfully long weekend

2009-04-21T22:35:00.000-07:00

Q. What's a girl to do after tax day when her husband is a tax accountant?
A. Get out of town for a long weekend!

Thanks for getting married, Stephanie! It was perfect timing for us and the perfect excuse to get down to Oregon and hang out with family and friends. We left on Thursday and stayed in a hotel outside of Portland just for fun. The boys enjoyed the pool:Then we went to this beautiful wedding at the Portland temple of the Jolley's long-time family friend and neighbor, Stephanie. It doesn't get much better than attending a sealing in the temple; it's such a powerful spiritual experience.The other great thing about this trip is that we got to hang out with a lot of family too! Darren's sisters came from Idaho and Nevada for the wedding. Here's my boys with their cute cousin, Easton. The boys loved walking around the ledge of the fountain, making their mothers very nervous.Check out game night at the Jolley house. These guys are serious Scrabble players and I was honored to play with and also lose really badly to them.Joseph is a Scrabble player in training.We visited the Saturday Market in downtown Eugene where you can see a lot of hippies, buy their art and a lot of yummy food, too. Isn't my sis-in-law, Emily, an adorable pregnant woman?We left for home on Sunday, but our extended weekend wasn't over yet. On Monday, my cousin, Terri and her family trekked out of the mountains where they live to spend the day in the city. And I'm so glad she called so we could hang out. We spent the afternoon at Alki Beach while our kids played hard.Konnor and Joseph were fast friends and were obviously way too busy to look up for the camera.Sigh. Now I'm refreshed and ready to dive back into normal life.

Happy Easter

2009-04-15T22:54:00.000-07:00

Another great Easter come and gone. Sticking with Seattle tradition, it was a very WET Easter weekend. We enjoyed a Primary egg hunt on Saturday where it did stay dry enough to hunt outdoors. Joseph opted out of the bunny whiskers and Justin opted out of the bunny ears.On Sunday, it was NOT dry enough for an outdoor hunt, so the Easter bunny had to hide eggs inside. It was fun to see Justin understand the concept of hunting for eggs. But after a few good finds, he headed right for the candy inside.Darren had the fun job of giving the Easter talk in Sacrament meeting and he did a great job, of course. I got to sing in the choir. Lucky for me, it turns out it's pretty hard to mess up a ham. I just threw one in the oven for Sunday dinner and it was tasty! We had a very relaxing, uplifting and fun weekend!

Spring Break

2009-03-31T22:12:00.000-07:00

This is our first Spring Break, since it's Joseph's first "school year" and we spent several days with the in-laws. We had such a great visit despite the yucky weather. Get ready for a lot of pictures!
We picked up Grandma at the train station where the boys loved to see the trains up close!Carol came with me to the exciting Twilight movie party while Darren played with the boys. Yay, girls night! We threw rocks in the sound and watched the ferry boats.We walked to the library in the rain.We brought lunch to Darren at work. Check out the view from his 35th floor!Then Grandpa made it to town and we went to the Family Fun Center where Justin LOVED the indoor playground and dragged me all over the place. He's ticked in the picture because I made him stop going down the big slide with me after about the twentieth time! Joseph was in heaven winning tickets on arcade games of his choice and choosing cheap prizes at the prize counter.On Sunday, Darren's Dad ordained him a High Priest and Darren was set apart as the 2nd Counselor in the Bishopbric. It was really neat. Thanks for coming up to hang out with us, Grandma and Grandpa! The boys haven't quit talking about you since you left.

Kidstuff

2009-03-24T19:36:00.000-07:00

Here's a random movie of my boys for you, followed by more random kid stories.

1. Justin got the first ear infection of his life in a big way. Full blown in both ears! The poor little guy was miserable for three days before I took him to the doctor. Thank goodness for Amoxicillin! It's been wonderful to have him feeling better and start acting like his cute little self again.

2. Justin hates getting his haircut. I've been feeling confident at fading up Joseph's hair and I really wanted to try it on Justin instead of just buzzing it off as fast as I can. But I knew he wouldn't hold still enough for me. Then I remembered a friend telling me when Joseph was a baby that she would strap her son in the high chair and wrap him in a sheet to bind his arms to cut his hair. And I remember thinking that sounded a little heartless at the time. Maybe baby #2 has made me a little more heartless, because it sounded like the perfect solution to me now. It worked great. He seemed to cry less, I didn't have to fight his arms and his hair didn't turn out too bad either!

3. Justin says so much now and it's great to be able to understand what he wants. Except for the fact that he yells at me quite often if I don't respond right away. My favorite thing he says is, "Yeah baby!" He'll use it whenever he's in the mood:
Me: Justin, do you need a new diaper?
Justin: Yeah baby!
Me: Justin, would you like a snack?
Justin: Yeah baby!

4. Joseph has really been pushing the boundaries lately and driving me crazy: talking back, defiantly disobeying, excessively using "potty words." A couple of Sundays ago, Darren was at his early morning meeting, I was trying to get the rest of us out the door on time and Joseph was REALLY pushing my buttons. I was getting angrier and angrier until I wasn't even sure I felt like going to church. As we finally got on our way, Joseph says, "Mom, it's hard to have two kids like us, isn't it?" I burst out laughing and answered, "Yes, Joseph. Very hard." I guess if he's capable of making me angry and then completely diffusing the anger with hilarity, he evens out. Maybe I'll keep him.

Joseph says good-bye to a good friend

2009-03-09T22:50:00.001-07:00

This is Joseph at 15 months with his "bear blankie" and "favorite one." He only sucks his thumb with his blankie while holding on to his favorite long tassle.

While we were at the dentist a couple of weeks ago, she mentioned to me that Joseph's thumb sucking would really start to mess up his teeth when he starts losing his baby teeth. Then later that day, he was sucking his thumb with his blankie in front of the TV, when he said, "Remember, Mom, when the dentist told me sucking my thumb would hurt my teeth? I don't need this." and he took his blankie to his room. Needless to say, I was impressed, but I didn't really think it would last. I washed his blankie that day and found it the laundry after my Dad had put him to bed. Never has he gone to bed without his blankie in his 4 years of life! Joseph hasn't spoken a word about it since.

Talk about the power of suggestion! It's inspiring to me, really, how he's quit cold turkey because his blankie was such a comfort item to him. He used to beg for it when he was upset. But he made a conscious decision and stuck to it. I think he gets that from his Dad. On the other hand, my Mom was teasing me that now begins the the time of his life when every other adult's opinion matters more to him than his parent's. That doesn't sound fun.

So good-bye old friend! I won't miss washing you, tripping over you and trying to locate you. But as proud as I am of my big boy, I will mourn the loss of this little boy era.

Movie Reviews

2009-03-09T22:25:00.000-07:00

Darren and I took a chance on a couple of movies we knew nothing about and they were both winners!This movie was very funny. If you've seen Ricky Gervais in anything before, you know what I'm talking about. He's hilarious. I also love Tea Leoni. It's fairly clean with a little language and it has a sweet little message. The plot's been done. It's actually just a comedy version of "Ghost" with Ricky playing Whoopie's role. But it was well worth the $3 and the hour and a half.I don't even remember seeing this movie advertised, I just came across it on Netflix. It was an adorable little romantic comedy done fairy tale style, a little like "Ever After" which I love. Penelope, played by Christina Ricci, has been cursed with a pig snout until she finds true love with a man of high society like herself. It's "Beauty and the Beast" but it doesn't take itself seriously and it's quite funny. So it's not too girly, because Darren liked it. And it was squeaky clean: no language, no sex. Reese Witherspoon produced it and she plays the friend role. How can you not like her? See it.

Swim Lessons with Grandma and Grandpa

2009-03-02T21:56:00.000-08:00

Last week we were lucky enough to have my parents visit for a couple of days so we packed in the fun. We went bowling, out to eat and to Joseph's first swim lesson.
The boys LOVED bowling!Can you see it's past Justin's bedtime?Meeting Darren downtown for lunch.Joseph's first lesson was great! He was very nervous and very hesitant to get in the pool. I walked him down to the pool and stayed by the side while he got in, looking terrified. I didn't dare leave him for fear he'd jump back out after me. Then to test the kids' ability levels, the first thing they did was ask everyone to dunk their heads. Joseph just stood there and shook his head. It was pretty funny. About this time, one of the coordinators came over and shooed me away to the bleachers, telling me he'd do better if I was out of sight now. She was right. Joseph was coaxed into kicking his feet behind him and laying on his back to kick. He'd look over at us once in awhile and smile with a thumbs up. This is going to be a very good thing!

It was so great to have my parents here. They make my life easier when they're here: doing my dishes, giving me a break from the kids, taking us out to eat. Joseph had a hard time saying goodbye so quick and Justin hasn't stopped talking about Grandma and Grandpa. Thanks so much, Mom and Dad!

Curious George and the Dentist

2009-02-20T22:47:00.000-08:00

We've been enjoying our Children's Museum membership once or twice a week lately because 1)our membership ends at the end of the month and 2)there is the most adorable Curious George exhibit on display there that my boys have been loving. It's getting tricky to take both my boys there these days because they often want to go in opposite directions. So Justin and I have been going on our own during Joseph's preschool so he can run the show. It's been so fun to spend that time with him and be able to give him my full attention. And it feels relaxing to only have one kid to keep track of!Joseph just keeps showing me how grown up he's getting! I haven't taken him to the dentist in a year and a half because the last time we were there, he was a wreck. He clung to my leg and buried his face and wouldn't sit in the chair. It was pretty pointless. So I didn't know what to expect when we went yesterday. I asked a friend to watch Justin and prepped Joseph as well as I could. He was determined to be brave and even sounded sincerely excited about it all day. When we drove up, I could see him getting uneasy about the whole thing, but he did so great! He was very quiet, but was a perfect patient. Except for the fact that he spit his flouride water all over the hygienist before she had the spit cup up to his mouth. It was hilarious. As we left he told me that the dentist was "the funnest thing ever!" What a turn around! We'll see how long that attitude lasts. I think he was mostly just proud of himself, as was I. The next test: swim lessons! He starts next week and he has a couple of friends in his class, so here's hoping I'm pleasantly surprised again!

Spring Fever (and other musings about my kids)

2009-02-06T22:51:00.000-08:00

We enjoyed the most beautiful weather this week! It was such a wonderful taste of spring. But of course, it was just a tease, today we're back to the rain and wind and I'm blogging about it now to remind myself that it wasn't just a dream. We had such a great time playing at the park and in the backyard for three days in a row. Joseph put his Christmas scooter to useand Justin found out he can make the big wheel go with his feet like a big boy now.
The kids were just as rejuvenated by the weather as I was. They were giddy with excitement at the park and because it's been months since they've been there, they were pleased to find that they could do more than the last time they were there. Joseph was brave enough to go down the fire pole all by himself for the first time and he couldn't get enough of it.Justin was just one of the kids, navigating the stairs and the slides like a pro and on a high from his newfound independence. He thought it was great that he could look down on me from up on the play structure. Where did my baby go?!I've never been so happy to see grass stains on Joseph's jeans and pick up pieces of wood chips off my rug! But my boys are also finding fun stuff to do inside. Here are their new favorite things to do. Joseph is getting ready for scouts by experimenting with knot tying. He uses his jumprope to tie up people, toys, furniture, etc. I'm glad he's moved on to furniture because a couple of weeks ago, I was getting tied up multiple times a day. Justin will line up his cars with intense focus for the longest time, just changing their configurations.Tonight we had the best time together playing with Legos. That sounds silly, I know. But the legos get pushed far under the bed and only get found every couple of months, so it's like they're new everytime they come out. We were sitting in Joseph's room after dinner and I was wondering how we were going to pass the hour before bedtime when I got them out. The three of us built tower after tower and they went to bed late because we were giggling and just enjoying each other so much. I would build the base, and then Justin would build the tower straight up while Joseph filled in around the tower and provided the imagination. We built a control tower for space ships, a temple, Daddy's building, and when we ran out of legos, we'd knock it down and start over. The boys were so cute working together and actually conversing. It's so fun to see them start to be able to communicate! Joseph would praise Justin or laugh at the excited noises he kept making. And Justin kept laughing and saying, "funny shuh shuh" (the adorable way he says "Joseph"). It was just one of those times when it feels so good to be a mom. I thought I should record it so I can go back and read it when I'm having one of the times it doesn't feel good to be a mom.

More fun in Utah!

2009-02-02T21:24:00.000-08:00

Yes, we are so spoiled. We (me and the boys, we left Darren home to work), took another trip to Utah just to hang out with family. And that's just what we did: hang out with each other and enjoy each other. I got a new camera and it's taken me awhile to figure out how to get my pictures off of it. But I finally did it. So here's my favorites.
Look at these cute kids! These girls are the reason I love to go to Utah often. They grow and change too fast.4 generations of Mangums.My Dad and Justin in that beautiful Utah snow.Playing Guitar Hero at my sister's house. So I know I'm way behind on this Wii thing. I'd never played Guitar Hero before this night, but it was so stinking fun! I wasn't very good on the guitar, and Joseph on drums kept yelling at me because I kept making us lose. It was so funny. Justin and Joseph LOVED the drums. But look at what a cute guitar rocker Joseph is too.Justin was mesmerized.We also had the opportunity to go to the Draper Temple open house and it was the most beautiful experience! My mom watched the two littlest grandkids while my sister, Michelle and I took our oldest kids to the temple. (Thanks, Mom!) It was so amazing to walk through that temple with Joseph and talk about the rooms and how special of a place it is. Joseph kept saying, "It's so beautiful!" My favorite part was the sealing room. To look in those mirrors with him, the place where my sealing began, and talk about being a forever family was something I'll never forget. It was a literal reminder that I need to be living worthy of the blessing of being with that little boy forever. I am so grateful for the blessing of temples on this earth today and for the opportunity to have felt the Spirit in the temple with my son.

Idol Worship

2009-01-20T22:40:00.000-08:00

I've identified a few cases of idol worship going on today, starting with myself:

I confess, I adore American Idol and I'm so glad it's back! It really is the best reality show on TV. I'm loving the new judge, Kara. Isn't she just fitting right in? After 8 years there's been some years that have flopped and some that I've loved. I'm not a fan of Fantasia or even David Cook. But how can you not love the show that gave us Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken and Carrie Underwood? (Yes, I love Clay Aiken!) Not to mention some of my lesser-known faves that have done well: Elliott Yamin, Josh Gracin and Jon Peter Lewis. Ok, so Jon Peter Lewis didn't really hit it big, but I think he's adorable.
So now that I've gotten that out of my system, let me tell you about a little more idol worship going on in my house. In this case, Joseph is the idol and Justin is the worshiper. These days they're either giggling like girls or fighting to the death. Which leaves me either smiling in complete motherly love, or pulling my hair out. Can I expect this to just continue no matter how old they get? Anyway, Justin copies EVERYTHING Joseph does. If Joseph gets a car from his room and starts racing around the rug, Justin follows. If Joseph says something that gets a laugh, Justin repeats it as best he can. If Joseph is laughing at the cartoon on TV, Justin starts laughing too. But my favorite incident has to do with Joseph's beloved blankie. If you didn't already know, Joseph has a fleece blanket with tied tassles that he's loved since he was a baby. He holds on to his favorite long tassle while he sucks his thumb. So the other day while Joseph was with his blankie on the couch watching TV, Justin took off for his room, came out with a fleece blanket with tassles of his own, got back on the couch and held onto a tassle while he sucked his thumb. It was hilarious. I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture.

And finally, I'm thinking about our historic inauguration day today. It seems as though celebrities and the media all have stars in their eyes for Obama and I'm annoyed. It's like the man can do no wrong and he hasn't even done anything yet. Although I didn't vote for Obama and I heartily disagree with him on a lot of points, I don't get a bad vibe from him. I get the feeling that he is truly invested in what's best for America, has good leadership qualities, and is a decent, God-fearing man. So of course as an American, I support him as my President and I hope that he really is able to bring about positive change for our country. But sheesh! The people who rule the airwaves sure made it known today that they're thrilled they got who they wanted in office! How many red-carpet parties and concerts were going on today? Celebrities were on every channel tonight, going crazy for their new main man. I get that they're expressing their patriotism, but it's just obnoxious how they can all get together with a bunch of televised parties to do it. It's like the celebrities have welcomed our new President and First Lady into their popular clique, and I'm very wary of who celebrities choose to put on their pedestals.

What to do on a rainy day?

2009-01-12T20:55:00.000-08:00

Living in Seattle comes with its share of rainy days, especially this time of year. And it's about this time of the winter after the holidays, that I long for spring. So I've been compiling a little list for myself of fun things to do on "rainy days" when I'm stuck inside the house looking for something to do with my boys other than sit in front of the TV. Some of the ideas are from magazines or friends and some of them are Joseph's creations or really simple things.

1. Bowling. You can use empty water bottles or 2 liter bottles. Set 'em up and knock 'em down.

2. Build a fort with chairs, couches and blankets. We like to read stories in ours or play Uno.

3. Make "spider webs." Joseph loves to tape yarn up across doorways and furniture to make spiderwebs.

4. Good old fashioned hide and seek.

5. Sock war. Also a Parent magazine idea. Grab a bunch of rolled up socks and throw them at each other from behind couches.

6. Dance Party! Very good for getting energy out when stuck in the house.

7. Bathtime in the middle of the day. Why not? And I don't know why I never thought of this, but someone told me they blow bubbles for their kids in the tub. I thought that was brilliant. I hate blowing bubbles in the house because they make the floor sticky, and outside they blow away too fast. The bathtub is the perfect place!

8. Inside picnic. Lay out a blanket in the living room and eat sandwiches. Joseph likes to pretend we're at the beach. :)

9. Play with flashlights in a dark room. Show off your shadow puppet skills.

10. Play dough. I've found that if I put on some kid music, Joseph plays longer as he sings along.

11. Why not go out in it? Joseph loves to hold his own umbrella and we count snails as we walk the block.

What do you like to do on a rainy day?

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2009-01-04T17:58:00.000-08:00

What a wonderful Christmas season we had! I never wanted it to end. We spent Christmas in Oregon with Darren's parents, two sisters and one brother. It was so fun to be with family and my boys loved playing with their cousins. We got out of Seattle right before the last bad snow storm that cancelled our church. Halelujah! It only rained in Eugene. We talked and played games, went out to eat and saw some movies. It was so relaxing and fun. Check out all these boy cousins:
Joseph was pumped about Santa! Justin was a little overwhelmed. But once all the toys were opened, he was in heaven.
New Year's Eve was fun too! My old roomie, Jessica and her husband Jason came over after the kids went to bed and we played cards, ate junk food and drank sparkling juice from our wine goblets.

We are so grateful for fabulous famiy and friends to share the holidays with and we wish you all a very happy and prosperous 2009!

Snow Day(s)

2008-12-21T18:02:00.000-08:00

It's so incredibly weird to have had so much snow here in Seattle! We've been hit with three storms in two weeks. Yuck. The first storm is fun. After that, I just want it to go away. And it's strange to feel that way because I adore snow in Utah and I missed the snow when I first moved to Seattle. I remember my first Christmas in Oregon I thought rain on Christmas day was the most depressing thing. This year I'm actually thrilled to have rain in Oregon instead of snow!

The difference is that in Seattle, the snow brings everything to a halt. There are no snowplows or de-icing machines to take care of the roads, and then there are hills galore all over the city that make getting around town downright dangerous. The buses can't run so my husband can't get to work and schools all close down too. Joseph didn't get to go to school all last week for his Christmas parties and if it wasn't vacation, he probably wouldn't be going this week either. Church was even cancelled yesterday. It's very fun to be snowed in for the first day or two. Then it's just completely obnoxious. Especially since I had some Christmas errands that needed taking care of that just couldn't get done. This was why I didn't go out in it. It's not my video, but it's from Seattle last week.

So this is what we DID do:

Made a snowman.
Joseph and I made cookies.
Darren shoveled our driveway with a shovel for an hour because we lack an actual snow shovel. That's my man!
Unfortunately, Justin didn't like the white stuff at all. He hated getting all bundled up, and then when he touched it, he was upset that it was cold and wet.
Enjoyed our tree and listened to Christmas music.
So what am I complaining about?! It was a fun day to have Darren working from home, and spending quality time with my very cute boys. That's what Christmas is about, not getting my errands run!

An Oregon Thanksgiving and my adorable preschooler

2008-12-10T22:13:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving was wonderfully relaxing and filled with family and good food in Oregon. The bummer thing for the boys was that there weren't any kids at Thanksgiving for them to play with! So I'm afraid Joseph thought the day was a little boring because all the adults wanted to do was eat, watch football and play grown-up games. He kept asking me to play with him. But the weather was beautiful while we were there and we did a little shopping, saw a movie, fed the ducks and walked to the park. Here are some of the pics:
Dessert time! You should hear Justin say pumpkin pie. He loves it like his mommy!Cute girls! Leann, Carol and KristyFun at Alton Baker park

Now I must gush about Joseph's Preschool Christmas Program! It was the cutest thing I've seen as a parent thus far. I was amazed at how well my shy little Joseph did singing his little heart out and saying his line with his partner. They sang Christmas songs with cute little actions, and in between the songs, they came up to the microphone in twos and said their memorized verse from Luke 2. Here's Joseph saying his "memory verse" for your viewing pleasure. Unfortunately, the baby screaming in the background just so happens to be Justin. I guess he wanted to be on the video too.

A few of the things I am thankful for...

2008-11-29T12:31:00.000-08:00

Thanks for taking these beautiful pictures, Dad!

I had quite a weekend!

2008-11-24T10:20:00.001-08:00

First this:And then this:So I went to the new movie theater at our mall on Saturday afternoon to see Twilight with about 10 girls from my ward. It was awesome. Then we went to the new food court to eat. We had all just gotten our food and sat down to gush about the movie when we heard a loud bang. Then came another loud bang and I looked over in the direction of the sound across the room to see a wave of people running toward me screaming! It was like I was in a movie and it was freaky. It registered sometime in this split second as someone yelled "gun!" that we needed to react. We all hit the deck and huddled under the table, putting chairs around us. I had never been to this new part of the mall and I realized I didn't even really know where an exit was. Lots of the people around us went out onto a balcony by us, but I felt safer where I was. I did not want to move. We were only under the table about a minute when the panic diffused and people started getting up, looking around, locating loved ones, etc. There wasn't any more commotion but nobody knew what was going on. Before we could decide what to do, a security guard came around asking everyone to evacuate. So everyone calmly filed down the escalator and out the door. Then, because we were parked on the top floor of the new parking structure, we sat in a line of cars waiting to get out for 2 1/2 hours. When we finally started moving, it took 1/2 hour to actually get out of the parking lot. Here's the news story if you're interested. The shooting was gang related; one kid was injured the other died, and the gunman got away! The news reports now say that they're closing in on the suspect. Anyway, it was scary stuff. We just kept thinking about how worse it could've been. We could've been separated from each other, we could've sat closer to the incident, we could've had our kids with us! Thank goodness we were all alright.

But after all that drama, I have to say that I loved Twilight! I think for the most part, the casting was great and it just made me fall in love with the book all over again after hating Breaking Dawn. Bella was a klutz and not too pretty, Edward was gorgeous and charming and James was sooo creepy! It helped that I read the book over a year ago because the stuff they had to leave out didn't bother me. It was that cheesy high school love that is so dramatic and awkward. I loved it and I thought they did a great job capturing the book. So there's my review.

Fun in Utah!

2008-11-07T10:32:00.000-08:00

As usual, we had a blast in Utah! We did so much fun stuff during our week there. We went for a business recruiting event, but spent a whole week hanging out. It was a much needed break from work and life after Darren finished his oh so "busy season." Check out these pics from the trip:
Isn't my new niece adorable? Her name is Elle and we got to attend her blessing while we were there! Thanks for waiting for us, Michelle and Jon.Joseph played played played with Elle's big sister AlexisWe visited the fire station where a friend of my sister's gave us the best tour ever! Joseph was in heaven! They used the hoseRode in the fire truckAnd tried on the real firefighter equipment!We also got to drive down to Southern Utah for the day to visit Darren's Grandma Williams. She'll be 91 this month and she's still sharp as a tack. She tells such fun stories. We had a great visit.We went to an awesome bouncy house place
And went to an adorable pumpkin patch farm with a mini corn mazeA petting zoo where Joseph fed the ponyAnd Justin loved the goats!It's been such an incredible blessing to go back to Utah so often for our little business trips. Thanks so much Mom, Dad, Jordan, Michelle, Jon and girls for showing us such a good time. We love you so much and we'll be missing you until our next trip out!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T08:45:00.000-07:00

Here's my little firefighter and police officer. I knew Justin wouldn't put up with a hat, so I guess he turned out looking a little more like a detective. You have to look closely for his handcuffs on his beltloop, but they're my favorite part.
We were lucky enough to celebrate Halloween in both Utah and Washington. Here's Joseph with his Grandparents and cousins, Alexis (Cinderella) and Elle (pig). My next post will be all about our good visit to Utah. We were there all last week and flew home on Halloween afternoon.

Joseph loved trick or treating this year! We went to some houses in our neighborhood and he just held out his bucket and said "Trick or Treat!" really loud everytime! It was adorable. Justin enjoyed it too. Our friend, Sierra the pirate, and her Dad joined us too.
Then we went to the bookstore where my friend Athina works to visit her, and then we were off to our ward's trunk or treat party. Justin was very scared of all the big kids with scary masks. Joseph didn't mind them and he loved giving out the candy as much as getting it. He loved giving candy from our trunk and also at our house when we got home. We had a blast.

Yum Yum

2008-10-23T11:29:00.000-07:00

I swear I've never seen our apple tree in the backyard produce red apples before! When I realized they were good, I just hated seeing them go to waste. So look what I did yesterday! I was very proud of my domestically challenged self.
I took these apples from this tree and I made this! And it was actually really good! I couldn't believe I had actually succeeded on my first try. (I've really never made a pie before.) My hubbie was pretty impressed too. The two of us devored half of it last night. Now I'm onto apple crisp and applesauce since I'm on a roll...

While I make dinner...

2008-10-13T16:30:00.000-07:00

...look what my kids are doing. Unless there's something on TV, they pretty much insist on being in the same room as me. Which is why there's usually something on the TV while I make dinner. But last night it was off, and I thought they came up with some pretty interesting things to do in the kitchen.

Joseph is transporting condiments from the fridge to the cupboard with "the jaws of life" (salad tongs).Justin is moving spaghetti noodles one by one from the package into my pasta container.

Soccer Games!

2008-09-30T08:25:00.000-07:00

Here's my little soccer star. I've taken forever to post because I kind of failed the first time around. Apparently for the first game, I missed the memo about the field being changed and Joseph missed the entire first half. Then I didn't take a lot of pictures because it was pouring rain. But Joseph didn't seem to mind the rain. When the game was over, he told me he wanted to play more. The second game went much more smoothly. We got the right park and the weather was gorgeous! Joseph is usually pretty content to run behind the pack, but he did get a few good chances at the ball. I did get a video of one of his drives with the ball and one of the coaches walked right through it really slowly. Too bad. So I'll wait to post a video that's worth your while. Here's the cute pics:
Joseph got to throw the ball in.Chanting from the sidelines: "Go green sharks! Go green sharks!" Other rough housing going on from the sidelines. (Joseph's the one getting the nougie.)

Just call me Soccer Mom

2008-09-19T15:08:00.001-07:00

I am loving this new stage of parenthood! With Joseph's new activities and Justin getting bigger and more independent, I'm getting to do all of these fun things for the first time. Like order from a school book order, bring snacks for halftime of the soccer game, and go to Parent Night at the Preschool. On Joseph's first day of school, I had to wake him up and I said, "Wake up, it's time to get ready for school." And I thought, how fun to say that for the first time! I wonder how many more times in my life I'll be saying that (or yelling it). It makes me imagine myself in the future juggling a lot more than one kid's activities, cheering them on in their sports, going on fieldtrips and videotaping their concerts and school programs. I just can't wait. I'm excited to be moving on from that "young motherhood" with all preschoolers at home, even though, I know I probably have many more years with preschoolers ahead of me. I've had a taste of what is to come, and I love it. This is my new favorite picture of the boys. I haven't gotten one of them both smiling in a long time.

Joseph has his first soccer game tomorrow and it's going to be so much fun to watch. At practice yesterday, it was so great to watch the coaches teach these 4 and 5 year olds how to play the game. Then they scrimmaged and really caught on! Joseph was so proud that he played goalie for awhile and blocked 2 goals.Check out the beautiful view of the city from the soccer field. I'll post some pictures of tomorrow's game soon.

Joseph's First Day of School

2008-09-10T10:28:00.000-07:00

Isn't he handsome? My little pre-schooler off to school for the first time ever. Joseph's my shy, sensitive momma's boy and I prepared myself for the worst on that first morning. Darren dropped him off with me and I was worried Joseph would insist on one of us staying the whole time and clinging to my leg, or maybe tears would fall and I would have to take him home to avoid disruption of the entire class. But instead, it couldn't have gone better. He hid his face when his teacher first spoke to him, and then after he found a toy he liked, he just snapped out of it. He started chatting up a storm with her and talking to his friend, George who is also in his class. When I picked him up, he talked my ear off the whole way home about what they did and how much he loved it. His words: "Mommy, I love love love school! You need to take me back on Friday, okay?" He did burst into tears the second day when I picked him up: "I don't want to go home yet!" This is going to be a very good thing.

7 years of wedded bliss with 2 cute boys to show for it

2008-08-29T08:28:00.000-07:00

This week was our 7th wedding anniversary and we usually don't get to celebrate it very well since it falls during Darren's busy season at work. But it just so happened this year that his firm's Mariners tickets came up for grabs on our anniversary and we got to go to the game. It's so much fun to watch from the 18th row! So our anniversary turned out very nice!
I am so in love with my husband. I am so happy every morning to wake up and know I chose him and even better, to know that he chose me!
But enough of that mushy stuff. On to the bragging about the kids! Here's a quick update:
Joseph is obsessed with firefighters and police officers lately. It's very cute. I'm thinking that's what Joseph and Justin will be for Halloween. Joseph fights fires and arrests bad guys all day long. I can't believe that he's starting preschool next week. It's three mornings a week and I'm kinda freaking out about losing my baby. It's pathetic, I know. He's also starting a soccer team with his buddies pictured below. He's very excited about that. So I'm anxious about our new changes. Not until we're empty nesters will we now not have kids in school with activities and schedules and obligations. I know it's just preschool, but we're definitely entering a new parenting era!Justin is just learning so much and into full toddlerhood. He's learning new words: ball, hi, bye, yummy, yucky, hot, and I can see his little brain processing the things I'm saying now. He'll bring me his shoes when I ask him, he'll show you his belly button when you ask him, and he can't hold still after I say the words "ice cream." He is also in love with cars and trucks. He drives them around the house all day. It's such a fun age, and yet, I've begun the nursery countdown because he pretty much makes church impossible. Just 3 1/2 months left!
I'm a happy girl to have these three cute boys in my life!

My weekend away in beautiful British Columbia

2008-08-12T15:30:00.000-07:00

I found out that I love Canada when I met these beautiful girls from Vancouver! Carrie and Elyse were my roommates at Ricks College 8 years ago and they are so much fun. I wish I had a scanner so I could show you a picture of all of us back in the day. Anyway, when I got Elyse's wedding invitation in the mail, I had to go! Darren was going to come with me (we were dating when I lived with these girls, so he knows and loves them too), but he had to stay for work. So instead I made it a weekend away for myself and had a blast catching up with Carrie. She let me tag along with her and stay overnight at her house. Silly me, I thought I would be able to talk to Elyse more, but not on her wedding day! Isn't she a beautiful bride? We had a good old time on the dance floor together at her reception, though. This was also my first trip to Canada, even though I only live 2 hours from the border. I actually didn't even see Vancouver (the girls live outside the city), but it was much like Seattle in climate and greenery. That's why all the small differences threw me. Like this speed limit sign that I saw right as I crossed the border. Then I heard someone talking about how it was 30 degrees yesterday. They kept reminding me where I was. So funny. But it was such a fun weekend away and a great little blast from the past!

Joseph's First Sleepover

2008-08-08T15:26:00.000-07:00

Joseph had his cousin, Kellen, over for a sleepover last weekend. How cute are they? Kellen lives in Portland, but was in town for his aunt's wedding. He and Joseph were so excited to see each other again so soon! They got right to work playing and chasing each other. They looked for "creatures" in the backyard with flashlights and then Darren put up our little tent in Joseph's room and they had a blast pretending they were camping again. The next day before the wedding, we went to Qwest field and watched the Seahawks scrimmage game. Very fun! And then there were tears shed when it was time for the cousins to part ways. We love you, Kellen! And here's the next generation of cousin buddies: Justin and Caleb. They were too cute to leave out.

It's official: I like camping!

2008-08-03T19:33:00.001-07:00

We're back from our Jolley family reunion camping in beautiful Umpqua National Forest in Southern Oregon! I was admittedly anxious about going camping because I've never done it before (unless you count Girls Camp in our A-Frame cabins). Although I had great experiences then, I was never really loved the actual roughing it. :) I was mostly just worried about taking two little boys who would be out of their routine. I imagined that no one would sleep and we'd all just be grouchy with meltdowns galore. So I was very excited that my first experience would be with the professional Jolley family. At least I'd have help if the kids were driving me crazy! Well, it turned out that I had nothing to worry about. The boys slept like angels at night, and they loved the great outdoors! And you know what? so did I!

5 of Darren's 7 siblings made it out along with his parents and it was so wonderful to spend time with everyone. Joseph and Justin had soooo many cousins there to play with! The Jolleys have been going to Horseshoe Bend campground for years and they know all the good things to cook and all the great hikes to take. Here are some of the many highlights:

Joseph's first fishing!

Joseph and Kellen, best buddies

Daddy and Joseph

The biggest pinecones you've ever seen!

One of the several beautiful waterfalls we hiked to!

My hottie fly fisherman husband

The boys loved playing in the tent.

The Jolley family tent

Darren's cute sisters, nephew Easton, and parents!

Gotta love Grandma and Grandpa! The ones who made this all come together.

A Day at the Beach

2008-07-19T16:58:00.000-07:00

What a great day I had at Alki beach with my little boys and our friends, Ann and Annabelle. We had a picnic and just played on the beach. You gotta love summer! Just had to share these great pics.