April Update

I know it has been awhile. Here are some recent pictures from our super busy lives. A yummy birthday cake from the kids, chocolate with fudge icing. Natalie had her first trip to the dentist, only 2 tiny cavities! Mark said she did awesome. A picture of our new cat (not sure why we got one). His name is Isosceles. He is huge and fat and drinks out of the toilet. The kids love him, there is cat hair everywhere, and Misty is not so lonely. The Easter Bunny brought the kids some treats too. Enjoy the pics!

So, I haven't taken any pics...

Ok, I promised everyone an update, but I sat down to do it and realized we haven't taken any pictures since Robby's school performance. I promise I will get pictures posted this weekend. I have to take some. We just have been so busy with work and school, not much has changed.

The only big change we recently had was we found Benelli a new home on Saturday. We were thinking about it for awhile. He has been eating so many rocks and seemed to limp all the time. We have a ton of stairs! A friend of Mark's came by to see about doing some work on the property and had his daughter with him. He happened to mention they were going to go to the pound to pick out a new friend. We pointed out our little guy, and they decided to take him home. He is out on a small ranch and was instantly buddies with their cat. I think he will be much happier there and won't be picked on as much. Misty had really been giving him a hard time lately. Anyway, Robby sobbed for about a half an hour a couple times that day. We sure do miss him, but it does seem to make things a little simpler with only one dog. Misty still hasn't quite figured out what to make of it. She has been super good and won't leave my side. I think she is wondering when she is getting the boot. She's not going anywhere!

January update...

Ok, so I have been bad up updating the family blog. Thanks for reminding me, John. We got a ton of snow in December. We actually ended up missing a couple days of work because we couldn't get there. We had to go and register the big orange Dodge so we could get around. Apparently, the amout of snow we got was very rare, so everyone was in freak out mode. Robby actually had 4 days of school that were cancelled! Christmas was white and great! Now, the snow has finally melted and were are able to go back to our regular schedules. I am currently a legal assistant with a law firm on Mercer Island. It is a super stressful job, but I work with some really nice people. Mark loves his job on the Island as well. Natalie is in daycare fulltime and is enjoying learning her alphabet and numbers along with her creative side in "preschool". Robby just had his 2nd Grade performance at school. It was called "Americans Moving West". It was a great little show and he did awesome. He even got to play the zylophone during one of the songs--see blurry pic. We included one clip of them singing "Don't fence Me In". Here are some pics of the past month and a half. Misty loves the pellet stove. Oh yeah, Nana, the kids love their snowman jammies! Enjoy!

Snow! Snow! Snow!

Unlike those of you in AK, we are enjoying our little blanket of white here. It is a huge contrast to the way things looked only two months ago. It started snowing last night around 8:45pm. The kiddos insisted in going out to play in it before the sun came up. What can I say? Us Californians don't see much winter white!

Update

So I have been informed that I really stink at updating my blog, so here's an update.

Hallaween was great! Robby was Indiana Jones and Natalie was Bumblebee the Transformer(not a power ranger). They got tons of candy and a huge rush of sugar!

We had a nice Thanksgiving here in Washington. Frank and Wendy towed Mark's Dodge up to us and arrived Thanksgiving night. We celebrated on Friday and had a nice spread of ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, and of course, my homemade rolls! They stayed until Monday and we really enjoyed their company! We also got all of our Christmas decor up that weekend. I love Christmas!

I started working full-time for a law office on Mercer Island. It kinda stinks being away from the kiddos, but extra money is nice. Plus I get to have lunch with my hubby everyday! Next week I think we will start commuting together as well. Atleast gas prices have come down quite a bit!
We had a nice little downpour with a touch of hail today. I can honestly say that it doesn't rain nearly as much as I thought that it would. I don't mind it though! It already looks so different from when I arrived here. All the leaves have already fallen off the trees and looks all wintery. If anyone is up in the northwest, feel free to stop by!

Pictures...Finally!

The pictures loaded in HTML, so I will just give you the run down. The cute yellow house is where we live and we have an awesome flame orange Japanese Maple in the front that I have a couple pictures of. There is a picture of the downstairs family room, kitchen and "reading area". Things are still a huge mess because there is not one single linen cabinet in the entire house. So I have things that don't have a home yet. Sorry I took so long getting these up, I still can't find my cable to connect my camera to the computer--so I hooked up the photo printer and used the card slot--because of the delay, I was able to get the picture of the gigantic slug in the back yard--or what there is of it. See my hand next to it? Gross. Anyway, the back is about 4 feet deep and then there is a huge retaining wall straight up that is ivy, ferns, trees and tons of blackberry bushes. There are in season right now, so the kids are loving it. The dogs are adjusting well too. They pretty much stay on the porch most of the day and then venture out and explore when they are bored. They have already brought me back a ton of trash they have found. Since I took these pictures--which was Sunday, the leaves have changed drastically and it is like living in an Autumn post card. I love it here! The normal high has been between 58-62 degrees F. In the past 12 days, it has only rained twice. I will post more later! I have also included an adorable photo of my new nephew, Evan Magnus Ketcher!