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9 months old and other outdated news...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Since this blog is out of date and out of order, I'll just stick with it.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!

They made me a momma!

I can't believe it's already mid-May. Seems like it was just Christmas and now we are making plans for Memorial Day weekend and celebrating Mother's Day. I feel like 2010 is flying by and considering the tough rest of the year ahead, that is kind of fine by me. Trying to enjoy the time as it comes, but ready to celebrate 2011 and a clean bill of health for my dad (who may get to go home from the hospital by this weekend!). Anyhoo...

It was a HOT weekend in the Valley of the Sun. On Saturday I took the kids to the park and learned a quick lesson. Just so we are all aware, the black rubber they use on the swings conducts a LOT of heat. Luckily mom always has a lightweight blanket in the stroller and was able to cover it for Cole. He had a ball at the park as always and as always, it was a challenge to get him to leave. Somehow telling him we had to go home for naps wasn't a big draw for him. Hmm...surprising?

Sis is still enjoying the park from the stroller. Thinking it's about time to let her out and enjoy some of the fun, no?
Weekends are usually centered around pool time these days. When do we go swimming? Where do we go swimming? What will we wear swimming? How much longer until we go swimming? These are all Cole questions. I got him new swim goggles and a new floaty ring last week, he was all ready to go swimming, but too bad it wasn't time. Sad little Coley.

Miss K turned 8 months old on Saturday. Trying to get the standard monthly picture, but a new mobile baby makes that kind of difficult. The 8 month shot is an "action" photo. BTW...she started fully crawling on Mother's Day. Funny, because when Cole was a baby he started crawling on Father's Day. Guess they know the perfect gifts to give us.

I put K to bed last night and about 3 minutes later I heard her crying. I looked on the video monitor and was shocked to see her standing up in her crib, holding onto the side looking like she was getting ready to jump the heck out of there. Within 30 minutes my baby girl's crib was transformed into a big girl version...no more cute bumper, no more cute crib skirt and the crib mattress is lowered all the way down. Sad -- growing up too fast!

I thought it would be fun to try and get a picture of the kids together on Mother's Day. Seriously, why is this so hard for me to accomplish? Been trying since K was a baby. Ugh. Best I could do...and somehow Dad ended up in the photo and it's out of focus. Oh well. That's why I pay Kacey to do fab photos for us once a year. ;)

Just had to throw this one in...looks like Cole is keeping watch over his pool. Don't ask about the owl in the background. I think it's supposed to scare birds away or something? Mostly it just scares me.

Like father, like son!

Cole is becoming such an independent little guy! He wants to help with everything and really wants to do things all on his own. He likes to announce, "I did it all by myself!"

In addition to independence, he also wants to be just like Daddy. Here he is on Saturday morning, shaving just like Daddy!

Between work and time with my dad I was away from the kids for 12 days. Wow -- never been gone that long! I am looking forward to a weekend together and to celebrating Mother's Day with family. It's really heating up down here...supposed to be almost 100 today. Ready or not, here comes summer.

For those following my dad: www.caringbridge.com/visit/billfromhold. We got great news yesterday! They have identified 200 matches for his stem cell transplant and they have been given the official go ahead by insurance to get going with all the preparations. Probably sometime in June he will start the transplant process. One step closer...keep the prayers going please!

A weekend with us!

As I was downloading photos off the camera I noticed that one could get a pretty good idea of how we spent our weekend in just a few pictures.

Friday night...Guitar Hero for 3. Well, 2 but Cole pretended to play. Future Rock Star in the making!

Saturday morning...after her nap Cole played dress up. Wanting to see what Sis would look like getting ready for Margaritaville.

Sunday morning...snoozing in the BOB after a morning jog with Mom.

Sunday afternoon...exhausted and sleeping in the pool chair, outside, after having too much fun in the pool at Grammy & Papas.

I am sure the kids will have this much fun with Daddy this coming weekend. It's my first trip away from Kenleigh. I am heading to Seattle on Saturday for business and to spend some time with my dad. For those of you following his progress, a nice article was written about him and Marcia in the Vancouver newspaper: http://www.columbian.com/news/2010/apr/18/still-working-as-a-team-fromholds-battle-cancers/