Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great memorial day weekend!


We were lucky enough to spend 2 nights at our friend's cabin and then had a little BBQ.

Somehow I did not get a single picture of the BBQ, but lots of pictures of us hiking.

We went on a 1-1/2 hour, 3/4 mile hike to deception falls The kids had a blast! we went down every little side trail (which may have increased it to a mile or maybe even a mile and a half) t









Matt let the kids drink out of the water where he felt it was safe to do so...



of course, Emerson wanted to follow suit...


While I stayed at the cabin while Emerson napped, most of the others (including Matt and the dog and kids) walked to the river near the cabin where the road had washed out from the bad flooding earlier this spring. The dog (and the kids) had a blast playing near, and falling in, the river.



a great weekend was had by all.
thank you to the knibbes for having us at your lovely "knabbin"

Matt's birthday, sunny day and soccer

Thursday was another gorgeous day!! It was so warm on the deck we got the kiddie pool out! We had our friends Holly, Brooke & baby Skylar came over and played in the kiddie pool.

Emerson was a bit cranky, not sure what her deal was, but I thought I better get a picture of it. She was super sensitive for some reason, but they still had fun and Holly and I enjoyed the heat!


On Friday before Matt's birthday we went out to birthday coffee (just Matt and I and our little tagalong). We got to try cake pops for the first time. Mine was tiramisu, Matt's was rocky road. They were pretty good, but I think I can do better. We'll see. I think I've been inspired enough to make them someday soon.



For Matt's birthday we went to dinner at Purple in Woodinville. One of our favorite restaurants. We usually don't take the kids, the last time they went was for my birthday dinner a couple of years ago. The kids think its pretty cool though because they have wine flights that you can order and for kids they have milk flights...with 4 wine glasses of different types of milk... caramel, plain, chocolate & strawberry. What a treat!! Papa joined us for the evening and Emerson helped open presents.



This morning Emerson was eating raspberries for breakfast and thought it was funny to stick them on the ends of her fingers. She also thought it was funny that she was eating a raspberry, but also has a raspberry on her tummy (her birthmark) so she decided to put her raspberry on her raspberry. She laughed and laughed about that one!



It doesn't seem like these videos are going to work, but I'm giving it a try. Here are some cute little videos of Emerson doing various things...

the past few days...

the weekend started out with Matt needing stitches. Yes, another injury!! This time it was chainsaw vs knee. the chainsaw won and Matt ended up with 15 stitches. :(

The weather was awesome and despite the injury Matt was able to seed our soon to be front lawn! Looking so forward to that!

When the weather is nice the boys are outside constantly!!
Their current pastimes are swinging, 2 man baseball and lacrosse catch.

They started this new thing where they swing with their eyes shut and 'race' to the top. when one of them yells "open" they open their eyes to see who is swinging higher. They laugh and laugh and laugh! I tried it and found that I cannot swing with my eyes shut! It makes me horribly dizzy! Maybe that's why they're laughing so hard!

And my "swing therapy" took two days! and now the issue is that she never wants to get off the swing!! Yesterday she was swinging for 1/2 an hour!! every 5 minutes I said "are you ready to get down?" and she grunted and indicated that she was not done and wanted to be pushed yet again!

Emerson in her silly sunglasses.

Hudson giving it his all trying to catch the lacrosse ball.

Emerson has recently taken an interest in the phone. She wants to talk to whoever is on the other end and if in the right mood, she'll "talk" for 5 minutes or more. It's so funny to watch her hold the phone and have a conversation (with no words of course)

Uh-oh! Is Emerson thinking she's clever enough to get out of her crib?! I hope not!! Hudson was 18 months when he started crawling out of his, Camden was in his crib until two and a half and never dreamt of crawling out. I'm hoping she doesn't figure it out (or fall out) any time soon!

Today we ran errands. We went to McLendons to buy paint for the boys bedroom and a few little annuals to plant in my one little pot. Then we went to the grocery store to buy strawberries for a strawberry cake I'm making for tonight. Lastly, to Target. Emerson is almost out of detangler so we had to buy more. It's hard to believe I'm buying hair products for a 1 year old, but without them we would not be able to get a brush through her hair!

I ate lunch by myself out on the deck and listened to the woodpecker peck, the hummingbird hum, the song birds song and the swallows swallow. I feel like I live in a bird sanctuary! It sounds so beautiful out there! I only wish I could recognize all of the bird songs. I want to know which song goes to which bird. I've got about 1/2 of them mastered, but still have a ways to go.

Here is a picture of the hummingbird I see daily. He always sits on the same branch.

After school Camden wanted to take Emerson out in the mud. I thought it was so sweet. He's such an awesome big brother!

After the mud excursion, we moved the furniture that has been on the front porch to the new deck. It looks great and its so nice to have some real furniture on the deck! Our friends came over just in time and we enjoyed it until it got too cold out there. Emerson may have enjoyed it more than anyone! We sat down and she immediately pointed her finger at me and said (with no real words) "you stay there, I'll be right back" and ran into the house. I wondered what she was getting and when she came running back, it was one of our throw blankets. So perfect!

the kids played on the deck for hours! what a nice evening!

and here is the strawberry cream cake I made for dessert. yum :)

the weekend, "swing therapy", and one man baseball

This weekend we had 2 soccer games... the Sharks (Hudson's team) and the Cheeto Puffs (Camden's team) Saturday was their first games of the season. Both started off the season with a loss, but both boys did an awesome job!! I was not able to attend Hudson's game this weekend so no pics of him, but here is one of Camden giving it his all.

I was blessed on mothers day with breakfast in bed (homemade cinnamon rolls, a mocha and eggs benedict.) we played a few games, lounged around the house, planted a few things in the garden, enjoyed the sun (when it peeked out from behind the clouds) and finished off the day by watching "Tangled". So thankful for my family!
Emerson's love for swings has diminished over the winter. Now she is completely afraid of swinging and doesn't enjoy it at all. She points to the swingset and I always say "swing?" and she shakes her head "no". Occasionally I throw her on the swing set to see what she'll do. Well, Today...we officially started "swing therapy". Every day that it is not raining, we are heading out to the swing set to swing for a moment or two. I'm not saying I'm going to force her to like swinging... but rather try to convince her that it really is fun... and remind her that she used to love it. So... my goal is to see her face change from frowns and crying to happy smiles... like last summer. I figured that seeing others having fun on the swings may help too. I'll keep you updated on our progress.


Once today's "swing therapy session" was over... she headed to the T-ball stand. She played the most awesome game of one man baseball I've ever seen! She got that ball up on the stand...
gave it a good whack...
ran as fast as she could to go get it...
ran it back to home plate...
and placed the ball again!
It looked like so much fun that Hudson decided to give it a try!
and that's what we did today.