My excuses for not posting...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Halloween Fun

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!