Coco the bunny...

Oct 22, 2014

Scarlett's class has a stuffed bunny named Coco and every child gets a chance to take Coco home for a long weekend.  Coco was an honorary five day family member and literally went everywhere that we did.  I was so stressed about Coco getting left behind and being "that mom" that I spent the whole weekend asking more about the whereabouts of Coco than I was about my own children. Thankfully we made it to Wednesday with Coco and my sanity in tact and we were able to present Coco back to the class with many happy memories.





Pumpkin patch perfection...

Oct 17, 2014

About 2 miles (as the crow flies) and 10 minutes from our home is wide open farm land.  Rows and rows of pumpkins light up the landscape with their perfected fall orange.

We went to a local farm in Snohomish right on the river, but if we hadn't chosen that one, there were easily 20 more along the way.  There was fall food, farm grown pumpkins and decorative squash just snipped from the vine, hay mazes, an inflatable blob for jumping, slides, swings, and perfect fall weather. 

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School picture...

Oct 10, 2014

How are we already at the school picture stage?  And you have no idea how relieved I was when I saw that perfect smile, especially since our trial runs were a little less than desirable.




Visits keep us sane...

Oct 9, 2014

We are truly loving our life as Washingtonians, we have fully settled into our new home, new friendships and new seasons.  The leaves are changing and the sky is changing right along with it.  According to the locals, we have been blessed with a mild summer and very mild first few weeks of fall.  There has been very little rain, but when it does rain we have found the saying "if you don't like the weather, just wait 10 minutes" to be completely true. 

We have purchased season passes to the local children's museum, we have explored all the local beaches, we take a weekly trip to the city for story time, and Scarlett is embracing her new part time vocation as student as I continue to embrace mine as full time mom.  Things are running pretty smoothly, significantly because we have supplemented our looming loneliness with frequent visits from familiar faces. 

Our first weekend in Washington was spent unpacking boxes alongside my supportive parents.  The next weekend was spent in Orcas Island with our dear friends and Scarlett's Godparents.  Last weekend we had the pleasure of attending one of the final Angels games of the season with the two most dedicated Angels fans I know, Chris's dad and step mom.  And this weekend my mom is coming to get her fill of the grand kids. So, needless to say we have been beyond blessed by loving family and friends who indulge us in our longings for a little bit of home.  Friends and family who have supported our decision to move and shown nothing but love as we embark on this new adventure. Whether we receive a weekly phone call or a daily facetime, we know we are loved and hope that everyone at home knows how much we love them in return.  But when we start to notice that the facetime and phone calls just aren't enough we begin a count down to the next visit and realize just how much these familiar faces are keeping us sane. 

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Sharing a room...

Oct 7, 2014

I can not keep up with the emotional chaos that is the relationship between these two.  One second Dominic is pulling Scarlett's hair and Scarlett is stealing Dominic's toys and the next second Dominic is waking up in the middle of the night crying for "sissy" or screaming when we drop her off at school.

A little over a month ago we started noticing that Dominic was crying a little longer before falling asleep and we attributed it to his feeling left out.  About a week into the prolonged evenings of crying he woke up in the middle of the night yelling "sissy". Nothing would settle him so in an attempt to calm him down I offered to option of sleeping on the floor in sissy's room, half laughing as I offered, knowing he would never fall asleep.  Yet, to my surprise they have been sleeping together ever since.  Bed time for Dominic is significantly prolonged and mornings are always a little bit of a shock when we hear two sets of feet running down the hallway to our bedroom instead of one. They fall asleep a little later and wake a little earlier, but we are all adjusting.  Now we just have to convince them to actually use the bunk bed we bought.  Scarlett won't sleep on the top and Dominic won't sleep in a bed that Scarlett isn't in.

Sneaking in at night and watching them sleep head to toe I am reminded that as much as they fight during the day, they still need each other during the night, and it always makes me smile.