First Day of Preschool

Technically, this is Nicky's second day, but it was his first day taking the school bus. Oh, how he loves the school bus! (Catie's a little jealous still.)

See, this was a smile for the school bus. I didn't ask him to smile for these pictures.

Catie, on the other hand, can't take a natural picture to save her life right now. :)

They both had a good day. Catie enjoyed going to church this morning while Nick was at preschool, and Nicky had a blast shopping by himself with Mommy while Catie was at her class. I think we're going to reap a lot of benefits from having them in separate preschools at different times. Remind me that I said that in January when I'm tired of this schedule. :)

Chatty Catie

Catie is hard to ignore. She talks all. day. long. Although she is talking more and more like a 4 year old, sometimes she just wants to talk even if she's not making any sense.

Any time a new song comes on when we're in the car she always asks, "What's this song about?" Usually we're listening to K-Love, so generally the song is about God. Then she'll ask, "Why is the song about Jesus?" and I say, "We sing about Jesus because he loves us and we love him." Like clockwork. There's no point in changing it up, because she'll manipulate the conversation until you end up saying the same thing anyway.

Yesterday, I popped in a Laurie Berkner band CD, and a song about dinosaurs came on. Catie asked, "What's this song about?"

"It's about dinosaurs," I answered.

"Why is it about dinosaurs? Because they love us?" she asked.

I muttered something about loving to sing about dinosaurs while trying not to laugh.

Things like this are happening everyday now. When did my baby girl turn into the preschooler who hijacks her gymnastics coach's attention for minutes at a time to tell her about the book that she borrowed from the library?

PS I love my son too. It's harder to describe the things that he does that make me laugh. He has a cold. :( Pray that he gets over it before preschool starts next week and that Catie and I don't come down with it!

Separate Rooms

After 3 years, 9 months, and 4 weeks of sleeping in the same room, often in the same bed, Catie and Nick have their own rooms. It made me a little sad last night, but they're both really happy. And, I had lots of fun designing their rooms. :)

Brad's mom picked up a bunch of quilts at super clearance prices soon after Brad and I were married. She let me choose any that I wanted, and, despite having no use for it, I fell in love with this one. It's hardly been used in the last 7 years, but I'm so glad that we're finally putting it to good use. I like that her bedroom isn't the typical pink and purple.
The four pictures on the side are close-up pictures of berries and flowers taken by a photographer in Alaska. The ones on either side of the dresser are Women's World magazine covers from 1940 that I found at an antique shop.

I bought the dresser at an antique/art boutique. It had been done up in the shabby chic style, but it was a little too shabby for my taste. I cleaned it up with a couple coats of bright white paint. I'm going to paint the bookcase to match. (I bought that from someone on craigslist a while ago.)

Originally, I made this bow holder with jungle animals to match their nursery, but it's had a face lift.

Catie loves her new room. The first time she laid in her bed, she looked up at the canopy and said, "I love this."

In Nick's room, I kept the animal theme, but I've made it a little more mature so that it can grow with him a little longer.

These prints were made by hand. They are actually greeting cards. We bought them from the artist at Pike's Place Market in Seattle.

I found this sign in a shop in Walla Walla.

Brad bought these Elephant prints in Sri Lanka. I sewed them together to make this wall hanging.

We found these old travel posters in a print shop also at Pike's Place Market.

Sorry I didn't make the bed better. :) You can just barely see that he has animals on his sheets. The pillows are hiding the headboard, but I have to tell you about my deal. I found a headboard and footboard at Goodwill. They didn't have the rails, so I asked for a discount. I got them for $16. Both ends were exactly the same, so when I got them home, I painted one white for Catie's room and one red for Nick's. Two headboards, $8 each. Pretty good, huh?

Plus, I got his dresser from someone on craigslist for $25. I'm picking up a nightstand from someone else tomorrow (also a craigslist find) which I plan to paint red. By the way, the red paint is leftover from painting the front door. :)

I've managed to redecorate both rooms for relatively little money, and I think they both look really good if I do say so myself. :)

Nick wasn't so sure about the big bed at first, and he took a few naps in a pack n play before we did the big switch, but once we put up the side rail he was happy. He loves to talk about the animals in his room.

Catie the ham

I forgot these pictures were on my camera.

One of Catie's incentives for potty training was a gymnastics leotard. I took these pictures to celebrate the first day that she got to wear her leotard because she was wearing big girl underwear.

Doesn't this look like one of those pictures were you photoshop the head onto someone else's picture?
I laughed at the first picture, so she said, "Let me see it." Then she climbed back on the stool and said, "Take my picture like this!"

She thought that was hilarious. "How about this?" she says.

This is a common Catie expression, but I think it's the first time I've gotten a picture of it.

Silly girl. She is so much fun.

Hello, Internet

I know, I know. It's been a really long time. There is too much; I will sum up. Bonus points if you recognize that quote.*

My parents came to visit for over a week, we went to Seattle, the kids had gymnastics lessons, we had playdates, we've done some work around the house (more on that maybe tomorrow), we've potty trained Catie (but not Nick...yet), I've taken on coordinating MOPS at our church....

Oh, and how can I forget the highlight of my summer? The two hours of my life I can never get back spent waiting in line at the DMV yesterday.

Really, although we've done a lot and the kids have done adorable things, I've been lazy about the blog. Sorry. I would promise it will get better, but I can't guarantee. :) See you soon with pictures of the kids new rooms!

*The Princess Bride, Inigo says it to Wesley after he wakes up from being mostly dead.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Brad gave me a call last week to let me know that our friends, Landry and Amy, were willing to watch the kids overnight so that we could have a little anniversary getaway. There was no way I was passing that up after the last couple weeks I've had with the kids. (Catie is in a very clingy phase and Brad took a fishing trip to Alaska last weekend.)

We decided to drive down to Walla Walla, and stay at a super swanky Bed and Breakfast called Vine & Roses. Seriously, you need to click that link and check it out. I'll wait....

We stayed in the Parisian suite, with a four poster king-size bed, see through fire place above the room-enough-for-two jacuzzi tub, and a two person shower with 5 body sprayers. I can't even attempt to describe the beauty that was the kitchen, but let me say that she had about 5 billion cookbooks in a built-in bookcase and I could have sat there all day looking at them. Seriously, you have to click on that link and take a look at the period French antiques. She has a buyer... in France.

Anyway, we got to the B&B around 6:30 pm on Sunday night, changed, and went to dinner at Whitehouse-Crawford. Yum. I'm still thinking about the fried Walla Walla sweet onions. They were light, tempura-style. So delicious. We also had a scrumptious Greek style salad, and they weren't stingy on the olives. I got twice as many, since I ate Brad's too. :) For our entrees, Brad had steak and I had beef stroganoff. He didn't even offer a bite of his steak, so I imagine it was as tender and delicious as the beef in my dish. We had the creme brulee and house-made salted caramel ice cream for dessert. The creme brulee was the only thing we were disappointed in. Brad's is better. The salted caramel ice cream, however, was fabulous. Two and a half hours after we entered, we left fat and very happy.

I'll skip to the morning. You're welcome.

The next morning we had a scrumptious breakfast and nice conversation with the owner, the cook, and the other guests (a couple from Seattle.) The peach scones were to die for. I just finished the ones that she sent home with us for breakfast this morning. Yummy.

When we got home, Nick was excited to see us, but Catie said, "Mommy, don't come back. I'm playing with Landry and Amy." I could have used another day, too, little one. :)

Summer Plans

Why is it that people get so busy during the summer? I don't understand this phenomenon at all, or at least I didn't until this summer. I've always been really frustrated when all the programs stop once school lets out for the summer. My Monday nights are still free for Bible study; why are we taking a break?

In the past, we've tried to buck the trend. Bible study leader taking a break for the summer? We'll take over for a while. One couple showed up. (Turns out they became some of our closest friends in Colorado.)

Playgroup breaking up? No way; I'll take over. Cancelled week after week.

This summer I decided to go with the flow. I'll have a casual get together once a week. No real agenda, just a group of ladies and their kids getting together to play and share prayer requests. Week one: a good response, 5 ladies. Week two: I had strep throat. Week three: cancelled because no one could come. Week four: One mom showed up, but she's going out of town for the rest of the month. Sigh. Do I stink or something? :)

I said at the beginning of this rant that I understand why people are so busy this summer, at least a little more. When did my life get so full of things that are supposed to be relaxing? My weekdays are full of playdates, gymnastics, and other things to keep the kids occupied. My weekends are full of keeping up with our house. Top that off with a few trips and a couple visitors and I'm ready to take a break from organized programs too.