Happy Birthday Charlie!

I'm a week late at posting this, but all the same, Charlie turned 1 on October 9th. We didn't really celebrate on his birthday. I had a small dinner party for him on Saturday evening. I don't get to cook for adults anymore so I went all out. We had a nice dinner and a nice little party for Charlie. I wish Derek had been here to celebrate with us. I took a bunch of pictures and a lot of video's to send to him.

On a slightly different subject, Charlie has officially taken his first steps. He did it two days before his birthday. He isn't all out walking yet. He crawls too fast and doesn't seem too interested in slowing down and learning to walk. I have no pictures of this feet yet. He does it at such random times and only once, I haven't been able to capture it.

He was talking to daddy on the phone the other day and you could have sworn he said "hi da", so cute.

I just looked at the photo's for the first time and I'm totally disappointed! Most of them turned out blurry. I don't know what happened. My flash must have been off or something. So I'm uploading the ones that looked decent. Sorry Charlie, I didn't mean to screw up your first birthday pictures! Leah only has nice one's because Cadence was here to take them.

The Dinner

The Cake

The eating of the cake. So prim and proper, he didn't even need a bath afterwards.

The Present, at least one of them.

Like I said, pictures are all blurry.

It's Here!

finally

I've been waiting for years for this and now it's here...

Weekend Happenings

We had a very busy weekend. Saturday, I put the kids in hourly care on Post for a couple of hours so I could help a friend of mine move. It was fun being kid free, even if I was moving. They invited us over to dinner that night in their new place as a reward for helping them get everything moved in. The kids had fun running around the new place. Though, I must say, the next house we get, if I have any control over the matter, I want it to be ONE level. I will accept a basement, but I want the bedrooms and main living spaces on one floor. I am so sick of stairs. I thought I'd always love having stairs. They are a pain. I hate going up and down them 50 times a day. I don't clean up as well as I could because I have to walk up the stairs to put something away. (yes, I can be a little lazy) The kids could have all and I mean ALL the toys in their bedrooms, because it would be easy for them to get there and play while I'm in the kitchen or living room doing my thing. They won't go upstairs and play yet with me downstairs. This want for one level was brought to the surface again through this move. They moved into a 3 bed, one level apartment. Such a great floor plan and it was so easy for the kids to play, and us adults to keep track of them. ahh...someday...

I enjoyed watching General Conference over the weekend. I always look forward to Conference weekend. It's so enjoyable to sit at home and listen to our church leaders instruct us, through the power of revelation and the Spirit, how to survive and live happily in these trying time of ours. I recorded all the sessions and watched them at my leisure. Leah even sat relatively still and quiet watching church on TV. I got the hint after she came over and turned off my sewing machine, that I needed to be more quiet and listen instead of working on all my projects. I love to work on stuff and listen to the messages at the same time. There were some amazing talks and I can't wait to read them again in a month when the new Ensign comes out.

One exciting thing that happened during conference...Leah and I were eating popcorn for our afternoon snack. Charlie was still down for his nap. I walked away to do something, and when I got back to Leah, she kept sticking her finger up her nose, over and over and kinda whimpering. I decided to see what she was whining about, normally I just ignore her when she acts like this. I lean her head back and look up her nose...to my horror, she had stuck a popcorn kernel up her nostril. My first thought was, "crap, now we have to go sit in the emergency room". I decided to try and get it out first. The wait at the emergency room is horrendous. I started walking upstairs for my tweezers and halfway up, I remembered I had a great pair of thin tweezers I use to thread my serger. I came back down, showed them to Leah and asked her to lay back. She was scared and kept jerking away from me. I calmly showed her what they were, that I was going to get the popcorn out of her nose then, I barely put the tweezers up her nose and moved them in a slow circle so she could feel that it wouldn't hurt her. After about a minute of finagling, I was able to grasp the stupid seed and pull it out. I almost took a picture and decided against it.
So we had a busy weekend, it could have been worse, but thanks to my serger...we were able to spend the evening at home enjoying a good dinner and a warm bath.

PIANO!!!

I'm so excited. By the end of next week, if all goes well, I will have a beautiful piano sitting in my already over crowded living room. My grandma decided a while ago that she was going to give me her piano. It's currently sitting in her living room in Idaho. I made arrangements a couple of months ago to have it moved here, we are closer to Idaho now than I think we ever will be and I want to get it before we are living on the East coast again. I hadn't heard from the movers in ages and I finally found time, when I actually was remembering, to call them up and see what was going on. Happy day! they surprised me with saying it's scheduled for next week! WooHoo! (you can't tell I'm excited or anything can you?) I can't wait to start refreshing my playing skills.

Fun Times!

My dad was able to come visit, twice, for a total of about 2 weeks. We had so much fun. We were able to go do all the touristy things around Washington, well at least as much as you can with 2 young children that need to nap. Here is a collage of our travels. We took a day and rode the ferry up to Seattle. We also took another trip out to Ocean Shores on the Pacific Coast. We stayed the night in this great little hotel right on the beach. I would go back out there in a second. What a great area. We ate dinner at a quaint little Irish pub, so good. Charlie crawled all over the beach and got soaking wet and sandy. He crawled right into the ocean and let the waves lap around him. Leah and I built our first ever sand castle. Not the best, but it was freezing that day on the beach. My dad went out early and found dozens of whole sand dollars on the beach. They were beautiful. It was a great time. I can't wait to do it again.

Look at these two!

Seriously if they were dressed nondescript, I don't think you could tell them apart. I, sadly to say, can't pull up Leah's baby face in my memories. I remember her actions and personality, but I can't remember her face. I just happened across some pictures while I was cleaning up the computer and I think I found out why...they look too much alike. I tried finding pictures of them in similar poses. Without too much looking, because it's passed my bed time, I found these and decided I needed to take another 5 min and post the pictures for all to marvel over.

Long Absent

Life as a parent is tough, life is even tougher when you find yourself doing the job alone. I find myself incredibly busy now, some of it out of my control, a good portion of my own doing. It's good to be busy, it makes the time fly by much faster and I really want that right now.

Leah and Charlie are both doing well. I know I have pictures somewhere I should post, but you may have to wait for that. I'll see if I still have time when I finish writing this up.

My Dad has come for a visit and we have been having a lot of fun. So far we have hit the Farmer's Market, the book store, checked out the tugboats and gone blackberry picking. Leah is an excellent blackberry picker. Better than most kids because she won't eat the blackberries she picks. Doesn't like the taste of them. We had Belgian waffles with blackberries for breakfast this morning. Yum, Yum. It's fun having another adult around because I can cook again. We have been feasting my my house the last few days. I made some decadent crab cakes the other night. Thank you Erica for sharing the recipe with me! They truly are magnificent. I've had crab cakes from a restaurant and these top any I've ever had. I will post the recipe for all of you to try. I didn't take a picture of them because we were too hungry to wait for the perfect shot. I'm sure I'll be making them again soon and I'll try to get an appetizing picture.

Let's see if I can find some pictures I haven't shared with you all....

These are from our first trip to Seattle.

We rode a ferry there and back.

Leah had a blast on the big boat.

Charlie on the way to our first Ferry ride.

Charlie and Daddy on the Ferry

Leah playing in the fountains at the Ferry Station

Leah and Daddy on the Ferry