Early snow

The weather is so funny.  Yesterday morning was not bad.  I didn't even need my jacket.  By the time I left work though, it was freezing and there was slush in the rain.  The news said we might get our first snow this weekend.

First thing this morning, I was on facebook on my phone and saw the news posting how it snowed places.  I ran to the window and found nothing.  Fifteen or so minutes later I saw someone from Puyallup post on a news story that it was snowing so I checked again.  I totally saw a snowflake.  I was so excited. Just one though.  Andy was kind of moving around so I whispered, "Are you up?" "Yes" "I just saw a snowflake, see?" I opened the window and BOOM!  All the snowflakes.  I was so excited I ran down and woke Sawyer up, who had apparently went downstairs in the middle of the night and took him outside.  He thought it was cool for a little bit before he said it was cold and he didn't like them on him.  Oh well.  Kellan woke up (or maybe I loudly went to check on him) and he liked it a lot more once he figured out what it was.  He threw snowballs at the car.

The coolest thing?  The news shared my picture today! :)

Thanksgiving '14

I didn't take a lot of pictures, but we went to my mom and dad's for thanksgiving and were joined by Erik & Destiny (and Piper), Grandma & Grandpa, and Andy's cousin Emily (she moved up from Utah a little over a year ago.)

We ate all the food.  Sawyer ate like none of the food despite putting little bits of everything on his plate, but he did ask for more "chicken" (turkey) and eggs.  I went to get him eggs and I asked how many more he wanted.  "Ummm, six please." I gave him two.

I hate sweet potatoes. Like hate them as much as I hate olives (which is a lot), but Emily brought a sweet potato casserole that tasted like pecan pie and not sweet potatoes at all and I ate a lot.  Andy also made pies- pumpkin (duh), banana cheesecake (yum- my favorite), and chocolate cream (so rich everyone could only eat part of a piece.)  My mom made all the "normal" food and it was GOOD.

Then we watched the Seahawks dominate the 49ers...nice.

That night we bought a washer and dryer online for Black Friday because our dryer broke a couple days ago (how convenient) but it's been burning our clothes for 6 years anyway and the washer has been held together with duct tape for half a year.  We saved $700 though :)

We both had to work Black Friday and I normally don't shop because, you know, chaos, but I remembered we needed pajamas for the kids Santa photos this weekend.  I stopped at Target and found all the clothes 40% off.  I had been eyeing so many things for awhile so of course I had to buy some clothes.  Then on the way out of the parking lot I saw Famous Footwear had buy one get one 1/2 off.  Normally they have that but it just applies to clearance so I had to take advantage.  My combat boots are so worn out so I bought the same pair but in black and some nude colored ones that are so cute with lace.  Andy got some running shoes and Sawyer got some every day Vans.  I also bought a couple pairs of chinos online for Sawyer in orange (his favorite) green and gray since his pants don't fit.  Andy went back later and got Sawyer some Octonauts and DVD's.

That night Doug came back.  Sawyer liked him until I read the story, then he yelled at him "Stop looking at me like that!" and hid under the blanket.  He came back up and told me he doesn't like him looking at him and ran into the closet.  "Can he see me in here?" I told him no and he is just a toy but I don't know if he believes me.

Saturday

Yesterday wasn't too bad.

We had been sick this week so I wanted to do something somewhat interesting.  We had to go to Bellevue because I had an appointment for laser hair removal.  I'll let you know how that goes in like a year lol.  They say your hair has several growth cycles so you don't even notice a difference until 4 treatments (my groupon had 6 treatments included) but so far, not bad.  I could barely feel it for most of it, and it lasted like less than a minute.  She said with how you need to space them out it can take like a year to complete them all.  If all it takes is a few minutes out of my year to not have to shave, definitely worth it.  I have high hopes because I'm the ideal candidate (pale skin, dark hair).  I guess it just zaps the roots and kills them, then it falls out and you wait for it to grow back and you do it again.  The best part of this is unlike wax, you have to shave before you go so you don't have to look like a hippie waiting for your next treatment ;)  It isn't even expensive if you do a groupon.

After that surprisingly easy trip, we went to get food. We decided to pop over to Seattle since it is different scenery.  We were going to go to Cheesecake factory but since I drive through Bellevue every day I wanted to see something different.  We decided to go to Seattle and drive around, which meant we got to go over the i-90 bridge which I love to do.  We drove through a few neighborhoods and when we were in Fremont I told Andy I wanted to see the troll since I realized the kids hadn't even seen it yet.  If you aren't familiar with the area, there is a big troll under the Fremont bridge that is one of Seattle's landmarks.  He's got a VW beetle under his hand and you can climb on him.

I told Andy to pick food so we ended up at Red Mill in Ballard.  We would have went to Paseo, but you know THEY CLOSED IT AND NOBODY REALLY KNOWS EXACTLY WHY YET! It is a little weird that a place that always has a line 40 minutes long would close, not to mention in was Yelp!'s number 2 restaurant in the entire country.  Apparently some former workers are trying to raise money on a kickstarter to open back up.  We ate tasty food and I had a good fish sandwich.  We were right across from the locks but we didn't bring good jackets so I didn't want to freeze just to go see boats.

Next we went to Molly Moons where I was hoping their seasonal flavors would be better but ended up giving Andy mine because I didn't know there would be coffee bean crumbs in it which I got sick of chewing and I ate his chocolate one.

We got home and cleaned the house which was awesome because the laundry has been backed up and we were able to get the living room and our room and Kellan's room cleaned up.  Sawyer's room has been a bit crazy because there is a lot of stuff in there that needs to be in storage but we can't move it til Davey leaves so I just leave it since there's no point cleaning it.  Especially since he never sleeps or plays in there anyway.

Brothers

I tried to get pictures for the Christmas card.  As usual, it didn't go smoothly but I did get a good picture for the card.  Here were some other ones I liked of them.  They are the sweetest brothers, I hope they love each other like this forever.

Playing pat-a-cake "Mark it with a B"

Kellan's hair is so bad but hilarious

Sawyer finally got a haircut

Ok this isn't of brothers but he looked so cute I had to share this one

Sawyer's first karate tournament

Sawyer's karate is though a company that has a few locations around the state, and today they put on a tournament for all their students.  When I first heard about it, I thought Sawyer might be a little young, but when I saw the events, I knew he could probably handle them.  They were to go up against kids their own age and skill level, and it said everyone gets a trophy.  We went out to Henry Foss High School and signed him up for all he was eligible for- luckily they were the first 5 events so we didn't have to be there the entire tournament.

Here were the events for the day:

The first thing they did was the parade of champions where all the kids went on to the floor in lines in front of their sensei.  It was funny because there were pretty short lines but Sawyer's was called and the lines were so long they needed 3 lines that reached the width of the gym!  Sawyer was so confused what to do and was walking around like John McCain in the town hall style debate (yeah, you know the one I'm talking about).  We finally got his attention from up in the stands and got him to the back of a line in time for the National Anthem.

That's him stepping out int the very back

 The first event was for fastest kick.  I walked him down to the check-in room when they called for ages 4-6 and went back to my seat.  Next came the cutest thing ever- they had the little ones walk in train-style.  They were so cute, I couldn't handle it.

They had 4 stations set up with special punching bags.  They are able to measure how strong the punch is.  They helped the little ones with what to do.

Here is sawyer on that second red bag

 I am not going to post pics of all of them, because they all look the same, but after their turns they send the kids to go sit down and the helpers put them in the order as they finish so you can see where your kids are placing.  The take the lines straight to the trophy table.  This first event, Sawyer took second place.  I was so proud and since I had seen the trophy table, and also seen Toddlers in Tiaras, I was worried he'd throw a fit if he didn't get one.  It turns out he didn't care because he was so proud of his trophy, but said "I want 2 medals" when he got back (medals are just for participation- you get trophies for 1st 2nd and 3rd.

The next event was fastest fist.  This was where they went to the special bags and a beep would go, and they would have to try to punch the bag as fast as they could.  It wasn't very good for the 4 year olds though, as you could see the assistants have to actually TELL the kids when to punch (making extra time) and sometimes you'd see them hit the bag afterwards because the punches just weren't very hard being so small.  He didn't place in that one.

here he is after fastest fist after his turn holding his results paper up while the other kids finish

 Next came strongest kick.  He did pretty well and I thought he would place since he had sat at 3rd, but unfortunately the last girl came and knocked him out.  He did get his "2 medals" though like he wanted, which was good.

After that was fastest kick- same thing as before: you hear the beep then kick as fast as you can.  He was like the second kid but he kept his first place spot the whole time!!! We were so excited and proud to see him win a category!  I told him "you won!" and he goes, "We all won!"

Here he is walking back to the trophy table, they were doing a circle with their train lol

Handing out the trophies

The big trophy

 The last one I was worried about the most.  They would be doing their "escapes" but it was for time and kind of complicated.  They had to run to each guy, do the escape, then run to the next.  They would be docked seconds if they do it improperly.  We practiced his escapes out in the commons and hoped he would figure out what to do since he's kind of a space cadet and can't focus lol. (He wandered off more than once throughout the day.)  It turns out we had nothing to worry about because he did it perfectly!  Unfortunately he wasn't the fastest at it, but he still won 3rd place which was really good because there were quite a few kids.  Some were faster but they didn't do them correctly so they were docked.

Here he is doing the escape one.  Funny story, we found out afterwards the lady at the start with the flag is my friend Natalie's sister, who I've met a few times but didn't realize it was her.



He ended up with all the trophy sizes, which was cool, as well as 2 medals.  I was actually hoping he would get all the sizes.  Unfortunately after winning he was pretty upset with the "small trophy" winning 3rd, but luckily it wasn't a huge fit and we told him how some kids got no trophies and I was most proud of him after that escape drill.

This happened once we got back to the car:

Overall, I was really pleased with the tournament.  The registration was only $5 plus $7 each event (it got cheaper the more you signed up for) so you're pretty much just paying for trophies.  It was really well organized and seemed to go pretty quickly.  They would get through each age group quickly and the only thing that took awhile would probably be the escape drills (which we were first age group anyway) and the forms/katas and sparring which he is too young for anyway.  The high school kids even sold snacks as a fundraiser at good prices.  We will definitely be taking him to more of these since they have two a year.  Plus, we got to add his medals to our medal holder and show off his trophies until he gets a shelf in his room.

The haps

Here is what we are all up to:

Kellan:  His hair is hilarious.  He still loves to dance and always stops what he is doing to dance if he hears the Hot Dog Dance, the into to the video game Battleblock Theater, or the Octonauts song.  He is saying more words on his own without us asking, but still not many.  These words are: uh-oh, all done, apple, bite, up, yay, oww, ball, look-it/look, ready set go, mine, book, cheese, daddy, and mommy (though half the time he calls me daddy too.)  He likes to make messes by pulling things out of their proper places (diaper bag, my craft shelf, laundry in baskets, DVD's, etc).  He loves apples so much he always moves the chairs over to the counter and climbs on it to get an apple out and eat it.  He talks like he is saying full sentences, but they aren't real words...I feel bad for not understanding him since he thinks he is talking.  He can jump really well now which is cute when he gets excited.  He loves daddy.  He has to have a water cup under his arm and a binky and blanket to go to sleep, and he just lays there and talks to himself until he falls asleep.  He likes to read and drive cars and play legos and take whatever toy Sawyer has (but Sawyer does the same to him.)  He won't sit still to watch TV yet which is fine unless I need him to sit still for a few minutes. He also has taken a recent liking to playing in toilets which is not good.

Sawyer:  Sawyer still prefers to be in only undies and often gets in trouble with Andy if he isn't wearing at least a shirt or shorts.  He tries to wear shorts out in the cold even.  He is saying some pretty adult words, and starts sentences with things like "You know" "Actually" and "Certainly" which is really cute when a 4 year old says them.  He still says British things like "cheeky" and "ring" (as in calling someone on the phone) thanks to Peppa Pig.  His favorite show is Octonauts and tries to watch it all day or play it on his leapster.  His second favorite show is Peppa. I should mention that Kellan loves when the pigs snort and does an adorable baby snort each time the intro comes on.  He asks all day to play video games, and he is actually really good at Battleblock Theater.  I bet he would be really good at Mario!  He is currently in karate (it is in between season of soccer but indoor is next and he doesn't like indoor so not sure what we're doing) and he has his first tournament tomorrow.  He has been pushing everyone's buttons lately by not doing things the first time, which gets him in the corner or sent to his room often (also for jumping on the furniture dangerously and kellan tries to copy).  He always wants his brother with him which I think is cute, and if he gets a treat from someone, he always asks for one for his brother.  He likes to sleep on our floor still but sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night and goes downstairs to watch TV, which he knows he isn't allowed.

Me: I am enjoying my new shorter schedule, getting home by 4:30 daily.  I also love being back in music.  I was in band grades 5-9 and I'm feeling like I'm in grade 5 again.  It is REALLY helpful learning guitar having been in band though since I get the ideas behind the scales and notes and know the terminology.  It's still pretty difficult trying to remember the scales to make chords and finding where the notes are on the strings...not to mention my fingers are short and uncoordinated so I'm still not very good yet.  I've even started listening to music at work on Pandora and busted out some of my old favorites from high school by putting Silverstein radio on.  That is half screamo so I wouldn't recommend that station unless you were into the emo/post-hardcore stuff back in the day ;)  Another station I love is Phillip Phillips radio on Pandora- but don't do that on spotify because instead of getting folk-rock you end up with a bunch of American Idol contestants.  I am also going to bed super early which is weird but I get up at 4:15 so I have to get SOME sleep and going to bed at midnight doesnt really allow for that.

Andy: Andy is working 4x10's but has been really busy with extra hours having to take on a lot of extra work in some people's absense.  He always makes the best food and it isn't out of boxes which is nice.  He spends free time writing and watching sports or playing with the kids.  We are talking about him starting a hobby soon since the rest of us are in things, he just hasn't decided on one yet.

Davey: I don't really know what Davey does because he is usually gone or in his room where I assume he is playing xbox or talking on the phone.  He shows up randomly and helps with the kids or dishes.

In general: the fall leaves have been so pretty for a few weeks now, I just love it.  The drive up and down 405 has actually been pleasant with the views.  There apparently has been some arctic air that made its way to the US which means it went from a pretty warm October to FREEZING the last few days.  It hasn't been wet though which is nice.  It was super windy earlier in the week and so many cities lost power from downed trees, but we were always in the clear thank goodness.  The wind was blowing all the crunchy leaves off the trees and it was really cool looking through as they were swirling around all day.

Free time

I just had to say that I now have FREE TIME!

When I first took my schedule of 4 10's, the other option was working from home every OTHER week.  They changed it to every week so I would still save the same gas.  I was getting so burnt out leaving at 5:30 and getting home close to 8:00pm having no time to do anything but dinner.  I changed it back to 8 hour shifts this week and it has been awesome!

I leave here at 4:45 which is before most of the traffic (except Sumner-Auburn because screw that spot) and get to work at 6.  Then, I leave there at 2:30 which is before most of the traffic (except again Auburn to Sumner and maybe a little Coal Creek Pkwy slow-down).  I got home this week between 4:00-4:30 and the 4:30 day was a day of bad accidents. So much room for activities!  I was able to run on the treadmill and practice guitar before the kids got home, it was AWESOME.

Besides all that, I am also not burnt out driving since it is only 1:15 one way and 1:30 home, which isn't too bad considering it was much worse before.

YAY!

Here is an unrelated picture of the kids at the park I took today when we went for a jog.  It is probably the last nice day for awhile so we figured we' take advantage.  People were giving me funny looks because I was all sweaty and laying on the ground taking pics of them :)

Halloween '14

On Thursday night we decided we should probably carve our pumpkins.  Sawyer drew his on, and I helped him cut along the lines.  Kellan had daddy help him draw, then daddy cut it out.  Andy and I did our own- he did a skull, and mine was some sort of killer slug.

Sawyer has been so excited to trick or treat.  The night finally arrived, and he put on his Michaelangelo.  We put Kel in Sawyer's old monster costume.  He wasn't to thrilled with the hat and only wore it about 1/4 of the time. Sawyer wore his mask on his head and ended up taking it off half way too.

This was our attempt at a picture with me in it

 Destiny and Erik brought Piper over, who we put in a hot dog, and they came out with us while Andy handed out glow sticks (it was his year to stay back).

The kids loved trick or treating.  Kellan would kind of say "trick or treat" and said his version of "thank you" more than Sawyer did.  Sawyer even met little friends along the way.  Our neighborhood was pretty packed as usual.  Some of the houses went all-out and had little haunted house things at their entries where people jumped out.  At least they usually held back since our kids were so small!

I went up to a house with Sawyer and caught him taking extra candy from the bowl.  I told him no and he whined/screamed and said "but I want more!" He fought me as I pulled it out of his hands.  I was so mad and embarrassed that it was time to go home, even though  half the neighborhood was left.  He didn't get any more candy at home either since he was acting so bad.  I don't know what got into him that night but I didn't like it!  I think he ended up with enough though.

Kellan ate a ton of candy but I can't say "no" when he comes up to me all cute and goes "peeeeeeaaa?"