Quote of the Week

As we were driving home from swim team one night last week, Connor started telling me about how he'd taken too long writing in his journal that morning, so didn't get to play the math game with his class. I asked why it took him so long to work in his journal, and he said it was because he was supposed to write about someone special to him, and why that person was special. He said he had too many special people and too many reasons, and so he couldn't think of what to write. I asked him who he finally decided on, and he said, (in a very "DUH!" tone of voice) "YOU! Wanna know why? Because you helped me get born!" Then he quickly added, "Well, Daddy helped too. (pause) A LOT!" I had to fight to keep from laughing, and then had a moment of "panic" that Jared or Emily had shared the birds/bees info with Connor (despite being told NOT to!), but then Connor added, "Well, he did help! He married you so you could have me." TOO FUNNY, and TOO CUTE!

Seattle outing

We bought tickets for our family to see Trans-Siberian Orchesta at Key Arena this year. It was our first full-family concert, and the kids were REALLY excited to get to go. The concert wasn't until 3pm, but we headed up earlier in the day with plans to spend the morning at the Seattle Science Center.

While we were having lunch in Center House, we ended up at a table right next to the guy doing characatures of people, and we were very impressed with how much the drawings still resembled the actual person. We've seen plenty that look NOTHING like the person. The kids loved watching the guy draw while they were eating, so we decided to have drawings of the kids done as well. I don't really see Emily in hers, but I totally see the boys in theirs!



The drawings were bigger than my scanner screen so the signature at the bottom is cut off, and some of Em's hair




(love the missing front teeth!)


After paying for the drawings, we went straight over to Key Arena and found our seats, WAY up in the nosebleed section!


There were TONS of lazers, and pyrotechnics, etc during the show. Dan said it was the best visual effects for any concert he's ever attended (and he's attended A LOT).
This picture doesn't even come close to showing it off!


There were some parts that were a little too slow and "foreign" (not songs we knew) for our tastes, but for the most part, we LOVED the concert and had a great time. Connor must have said at least 20 times "THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!!!", while he rocked out to the music and the lights.

The concert lasted 2.5 hours (without an opening band!) and it was dark when we came out. The Space Needle looked really neat all lit up, with the light tree on top



We tried to take a self-shot family photo, which didn't work out very well... LOL

Two Front Teeth

Look who's missing his two front teeth!


He doesn't have a single lisp despite missing those two teeth! I remember the other two both having a bit of trouble from time to time when they were missing their front two teeth. I can't get enough of that toothless grin! There are several kids in his class missing their front teeth as well. I think it would be awfully cute to line them up and take a picture!!!

Check out Connor's rendition of "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"  *grin*

RIP Riley boy

13.5 years ago, Dan's family (at that point, Dan and I were still just dating) brought Riley into their family. He was the sweetest little fluff ball and I was actually the one that suggested the name Riley. He was obsessed with having a tennis ball (or 3-4 tennis balls) in his mouth at any given point in time, and if he couldn't find a tennis ball, he'd settle for a good-sized rock. He was buddies with several of the neighbors, and was always waiting to greet you when you came over to visit. Riley was about as good as they come.

He's been declining in health for the last couple of years, and rapidly declining the last couple of months. He had a wonderful spirit, but his body was just too weak to support it any longer, and it was finally his time to go. We took the kids to say their final goodbye's. Riley was so happy to see them and perked up for the first time in over 24 hours, trying to greet them. He ended up managing to get up, use the bathroom, eat and drink a bit, then he made his rounds to each one of us around the room before collapsing again. My MIL and BIL took him to the vet soon afterwards and had him put down so he'd no longer be suffering.

The kids were very sad, but had really enjoyed how happy he was to see them, so were smiling for his picture (no, he's not dead in this photo, but he'd exhausted himself trying to say "hello" to them)


There was laughter in telling funny Riley stories, and tears as we mourned his passing. We haven't been back to the house since he was put down, and it's going to be very weird not seeing Riley in the driveway, waiting to greet us. *cry*

Elvis Elf

Elvis Elf arrived with a bang (or rather a zipline!) the morning after Thanksgiving. The kids were excited to see him!


Emily Grace made a little Lego chair for him, which he happily sat in for the next day




He made a big mess making us a couple of snowflakes!


He sat up on the mantle (not pictured because I forgot!)

Then he sat in the kids's tree with his own little book of jokes and left out a few pages for the kids to see (they're dying to see what the rest of the jokes in his book are!)

Being Thankful

Jared brought home a book of things he was thankful for. This page made me smile


He's also thankful for the food he eats because otherwise he would die. And he's thankful for his community because it's a nice place to live. (and there were several other pages, but these are the ones that stood out to me)

I love this kind of stuff from the kids!!

Wounded Wing

Jared fell down at recess a few weeks ago and hurt his arm, but didn't say anything to anyone. After school, we went out for ice cream with his grandpa, and as we were leaving the restaurant, Jared said that his arm was bothering him. I rolled up his sleeve and discovered that his forearm near his elbow was pretty swollen, and while it didn't hurt to move his arm around, it was sensitive to the touch and he couldn't bear any weight with it. Off to Prompt Care we went to get it checked out! They ruled out a break and decided he'd probably strained the muscles and the tendon. They stuck him in a brace to keep his wrist still (which would keep the muscle and tendon relatively still, as well as discourage him from trying to use his arm too much). 3.5 days in the brace and another couple of days of taking it easy and he seemed good as new!


Jared wasn't very happy to have to miss swim team and and water polo... He even said he wished he'd never told me his arm was hurting because he really wanted to go! Gotta love a kid who's dedicated to his sport! LOL