Livin' on Lake Union!

I arrived today in Seattle...the grey skies greeted me. My sister and I are here spending some time with Dad before his July 7th transplant date.

He has moved to the city and is living across the street from Lake Union, just a few mintues from the hospital where he is receiving his treatment. Here is the view from his room at the Residence Inn. It's great to sit out on the balcony and watch the boats and people going by.

Kind of making me miss this place!

9 months old and other outdated news...

I missed my 9 month post so bear with me as I catch up. Miss K turned 9 months old on June 8th. Baby girl is getting so big and so independent. I posted the picture of her "walking" last week. She is also getting very interested in the stairs and climbed all the way to the top on Wednesday (Grammy was behind her the whole way). I guess it's time to get those baby gates back out again. Darn it! Miss Independent also doesn't really want to be fed anymore. She is becoming quite the self feeder. It makes mommy and daddy happy that they can stop buying over priced organic jar food. Woo hoo! She is still saying Ma Ma and Da Da. She is a tough little gal. Takes a lickin' from her big brother and just keeps on going. Sometimes she is startled by the unnecessary roughness, stops for a minute, let's out a small squeel and then just carries on. I love my girl!

I've been doing monthly photos of her in the same place since she was born. They get harder and harder to take as she just wants to take off, not sit still for her picture. SO...after 1 week of trying, this is the best we could do! The official 9 month photo:

Here are the 9 month stats:

Height: 28 1/4" (75 percentile)
Weight: 21lb 15oz (90 percentile)
Head: 17 1/4" (75 percentile)

She doesn't seem to be slowing down in size. Still my big girl. What, you mean every 9 month old is sporting 18-24 month clothes?

Since this blog is out of date and out of order, I'll just stick with it. We celebrated Father's Day last Sunday with breakfast with the family. Papa had a great idea to go to the restaurant at the Chandler airport. It was great, although we weren't the only one's who thought our toddler would enjoy watching the planes as they ate breakfast. Either way, great idea Papa! Here is Cole sitting in a plane that was for sale. I think it was $112,000. We asked Cole not to touch anything.

If you read our blog, you know I like to post pictures of the crazy outfits Cole wears and the crazy things that Cole does. Saturday morning was no exception. Seriously...so many things wrong with this. #1 - Where are your pants? #2 - Why are your underwear on backwards? #3 - We have sprinklers to do that job! I keep on in my quest to take a decent picture of my kids together. The latest attempt proves I'm no closer than I was the last time I tried. Boo. I love that Sis' head looks twice the size of Cole's here. Geesh...I think Cole needs to eat his Wheaties!

Bad Blogging

I have fallen behind in blogging lately. I keep forgetting to take pictures and am feeling guilty that Sis will look back on her first year of life and wonder where her photos and memories are. Poor second child, I can totally relate!

I have been in SoCal all week, heading home tonight. It's amazing the days I am at home and think, what I wouldn't give for just a little peace and quiet. Well, I've had 5 days of it and now I want my crazy family back. Life is just more fun with them around.

I've been meaning to post this picture because I just think it's too cute. Cole's teacher, Miss Emily (who we adore!!), is a big Cole fan. Something about our crazy Cole has stolen her heart. She knows how much he loves Elmo (seriously, STILL!) and she really, really, really has worked with Cole on his potty training. He had 1/2 of it down, if you know what I mean. So...she promised him when he got the 2nd 1/2 down she would buy him the biggest Elmo cookie she could find. Well, wouldn't you know...he finally did and looky what she got for him! Sis hit a big milestone this week, of course while I was away. Shawn sent me this picture on my cell phone on Tuesday -- she's cruising! Hopefully I will be in town when she takes her real first steps. Please excuse the messy living room! Today is a big day for my dad, too. He is moving up to Seattle to officially start the prep for his stem cell transplant. The actual transplant date is set for July 7th. Keep the prayers coming please!!

What you missed in May

It's been awhile (I can hear my husband singing that line as I type it)! I am somewhat in denial that June is here already. Then I saw the weather forecast...110 by early next week. Yep. June is here.

We celebrated both my birthday and Shawn's dad's (Papa) birthday last month. Papa wanted to go to Joe's Crab Shack for his big day...so we went! Cole had calamari for the first time and LOVED it. Here is Cole and his basket of fried food, laughing at Papa, who was sporting a bib for his crab feast.

The next day Shawn had a birthday party for me. A Hawaiian Luau right in our backyard. Here we are in our festive wear.

Sweet K with our old neighbor Sheryl.
I had to post a picture of the cupcakes my girlfriend Rachel made. Before being an event planner...she was a pastry chef. Lucky us! Check out the amazing cupcakes she made for the party. They were delish...thank you Rachel!This past weekend we had a visit from Aunite, Uncle Judd, Lukas and Autumn. This was the first time that all the cousins had been together. We were a little nervous, but it was a total success! Everyone played great and it was so great to all be together. It made us even more excited for a trip to Sunriver this summer.

We piled 3 of the 4 kids into the bath together the first night. We call this, "rub a dub dub, 3 cousins in a tub."
On Sunday the kids and I were baptized. It was special to share such an important event together. I opted for the private baptism for fear of what my children would do in front of the 200 person congregation. Turns out it was a good idea, Cole was talking loudly during the baptism about how he wanted to blow out all of the candles. As they were baptising him with the water he said, "all done?" We weren't able to get many pictures, but finally a family photo where we are all looking at the camera! I didn't say all looking good, just all looking at the camera.
I loved watching the boys play together. Cole is obsessed with Lukas and wanted to do everything he was doing. Here they are watching Nascar. So...off we go into summer. Good bye jeans...see you in November!