Katie is 3!

Sunday was Katie’s birthday.  As soon as she woke up she was ready to celebrate.  She knew right where to sit and perched herself on the fireplace hearth for presents.

Jason wrapped up something for Katie several weeks ago – maybe even months ago – Katie has been anxiously waiting to open it all this time.  Even I didn’t know what Jason had wrapped up special for his little sister.

Turns out it was one of the Star Wars pens we’ve been collecting from boxes of Cheerios.  As you can see Katie was thrilled.

Justin and I went out on Saturday night and picked up a few small gifts at Fred Meyer before heading home.  All of our kids are candy fanatics so a box of Whoppers and a package of gummie Lifesavers were a huge hit and what kid doesn’t like bubbles?

Katie also opened up cards from her grandparents.  Katie thought the stickers in Grandma Kesler’s card were pretty neat.

Yum, Krispy Kremes for breakfast.

After church and dinner it was time for cake.  Everyone was just a little bit excited…

(perhaps you’ll notice Jason is missing another tooth on the bottom)    

Katie had the biggest smile on her face as we sang “Happy Birthday” to her.  So stinkin’ cute!

We ended up singing to her twice because Miss Carly couldn’t resist assisting Katie in blowing out her candles the first time around.

Oh, how I love this girl!  Happy Birthday Baby!

Spring Break

This past week was our spring break.   It needs to be mentioned that our house looked like this the Friday going into spring break (and has remained in various stages of disarray all week):

We’d finally selected a color to paint our family room, kitchen, and entryway, but it was necessary to paint all of our ceilings white first - which is no small undertaking.  Turns out we have a painter in the ward that said he could paint all the downstairs ceilings in six hours.  Since we’d be paying him by the hour we decided it would be worth having Justin take the day off so they could get it done faster and cheaper.  At the end of the day Justin had worked along side the painter for 12 hours and his daughter was here an additional 8 hours.  Um, I’d call that a gross underestimation of time, wouldn’t you?  Now normally I have no problem dealing with contractors and businessmen when it comes to getting what was intended and communicated without paying more than we agreed upon, but it becomes a little trickier with people you still have to see on a friendly basis afterward.  I’m sure I still came across as a bit harsh, but in the end we came to a price we could both be happy with and the ceilings were done.

We’d moved all of our kitchen chairs upstairs to the bonus room to get them out of the way.  The girls seized the opportunity and made a huge fort that afternoon.  

They ended up sleeping in it all week since we’d left their bedroom covered in plastic after painting their ceiling too.  We thought we’d leave everything covered up thinking we’d get to painting their bedroom walls during the week, but it turns out we still haven’t moved on to upstairs.

Last weekend was also General Conference for our church so instead of attending church on Sunday we have 4 two-hour sessions broadcast on the TV on Saturday and Sunday.   While Justin was down in Auburn attending the priesthood session of conference with his Auburn buddies on Saturday night he picked up a new mattress for Katie’s bed.  We plopped it right down in front of the TV – brilliant idea right?  

It was comfortable for the kids to lie on and listen to conference, provided a nice napping place for Justin and I in between sessions, but it also encouraged a fair amount of bouncing and wrestling too.

Last Sunday was a wonderful day.  In addition to watching conference, we ate great food, played a lengthy game of Monopoly, and enjoyed a whole day relaxing at home.  As we shared what we enjoyed about the day that night before bed we got laughing so hard about the days events that I was in tears.  My favorite moment of the day was right then.  Sitting around talking about how much fun we had together as a family.  Certainly not every day ends with everyone in such great spirits making days like that so special.

The rest of the week consisted with playing with neighborhood friends, baking yummy treats, playing games, reading lots of books, visiting Ben & Jerry’s on free cone day, doctors and dentist appointments, a late movie night with friends, an overnighter for Abigail with her cousin, sleeping in every morning, and more painting.  Simple and close to home, but that’s usually how we roll.   

One Lucky Guy

February 2nd

Lately

The weeks are flying by

This pregnancy is not

I realize that doesn’t make much sense, but that’s how it feels these days.

For our few faithful readers, I know I haven’t been updating the blog very regularly these last few months.  Life is busy and I haven’t taken very many pictures.  Among many other things on my before-baby-to-do-list, I’m still hoping to put together our 2010 album.  It’s been so fun to look back on the arrival of Katie and the added joy that brought to our family.  I’ve also realized how grateful I am that we have kept this blog updated making it so much easier to put together an album from events that happened over three years ago.  I would never remember those experiences otherwise.  So here’s an update so that sometime in the way distant future putting together a 2013 album won’t be too overwhelming.

This past week or so has been quite the ride

Jason completed his round of antibiotics for his ear infection and Katie’s is no longer waking up at night with a cough.  I however have developed some sort of allergy that has my left eye running, my left nostril congested and my ears in constant need of popping.  Add to that a ginormous belly to haul around all day and I’m feeling a bit unbalanced.

Spring arrived with an unexpected snowstorm on the very night I was looking forward to heading south to Auburn for book club.  Thankfully, I decided not to brave it because there ended up being so many accidents on the highway I would have traveled that it was closed down for several hours.

picture of our backyard taken on my phone

Missing book club also meant I missed my monthly Winco run to stock up on groceries.  Grumble, grumble.

We had two different families over for dinner this past week and cooked another meal for a family going through some health problems in addtion to having three extra kiddos over one morning for breakfast.   Without a fridge full of food I’m amazing how many we were able to feed throughout the week.   The miraculous feeding of the masses couldn’t last forever though so alas, Justin brought home Papa Murphy’s for dinner tonight.

We met one of the families at church last week and invited them to join us for dinner right afterward.  They are moving into our neighborhood this summer from Idaho and it was a great opportunity to get to know them better.  Super awesome family and we’re excited to have them move in.

The other family we had over lived on the same block as us 8+ years ago in Auburn and are relocating back to the Seattle area.  They have remained great friends of ours over the years and are thrilled that after spending last week house hunting they decided to build a home just around the corner from us.  Snoqualmie really is an amazing place to live and we’re so excited to call them neighbors once again.  Another incredible LDS family in the neighborhood – which by year end will bring our total (including us) to FOUR!

Last week was my last doctor-free week.  After next week I’ll be going twice a week for the remainder of the pregnancy.  I’m not super excited about coordinating places for my kids to go, but I’m grateful for having skilled doctors to make sure everything goes well.

This little guy is super active.  The kids love to feel him moving around (especially Jason and Carly) and we’re at the point now that they can see him moving from across the room.  Sometimes they’ll even be sitting next to me and feel him poking around.

Justin and I had a date night on Friday.  Abigail was happy to babysit knowing that we’d be bringing home Easter candy for the weekend (and if we’re out past 9pm she knows there’s a 90% chance we’ll be bringing home half-priced Krispy Kremes for breakfast). 

The weather the past several days has been incredible!  We spent most of Saturday outside enjoying the sunshine.  It’s amazing how energizing it is (ok, not so much physically energizing in my situation, but mentally it felt wonderful).  It’s like the neighborhood awakened from its winter hibernation and we got a taste of what we have to look forward to in the months to come.  Sure, we’ve got plenty of rain and clouds before summer truly arrives, but goodness, we live in a beautiful area!

Saturday we picked up 5 gallons of paint in three different colors – yes, folks – after two years the Fletchers are finally ready to paint some walls.  And just you wait – there are some major things happening in the next few months around here.

Oh, remember that awesome turquoise dresser I mentioned we purchased for the girls’ room?  The one I wasn’t going to share a picture of until the room was complete because it’s such a statement piece.  Well, Katie somehow tipped that massive thing on top of her last Wednesday and completely messed up the drawers.  Katie is fine; the dresser is not.  I’m still waiting to hear back from the company to see if they can make it functional again.    Get this it happened on day 32 of a 30-day-no-questions-asked return policy. 

Easter was simple, relaxing and wonderful.  On Saturday morning we joined several families at a nearby park for an Easter egg hunt.  

 

I love the lazy mornings that come with 1pm church.  The kids woke up to find Easter eggs all over the downstairs and could hardly wait to fill their baskets.

 

Checking out their loot

Each of the kids got a cute little marshmallow animal.  Jason’s frog happens to be backwards and Carly is being goofy

Today I took Katie, Jason and his buddy to the Pacific Science Center.  A friend from church joined us with two of her daughters.  Admission was free to the first 200 people.  We got a little later start than planned so when we pulled up to the entrance at 9:20 I was worried we wouldn’t get in.  Turns out it didn’t open until 10am so we had plenty of time to wait outside in the chilling morning air before being allowed entrance.  We only had a few hours before the boys needed to get to afternoon kindergarten, but we had enough time to watch a 3D IMAX movie about reef life, visit the butterfly house, and check out a few other exhibits.

navigating a space capsule