Sunshine in Seattle

We have enjoyed beautiful weekend weather this month.   I love that it finally feels (and looks) like spring around here.  I follow a few discount blogs and found out that in celebration of the Space Needle’s 50th anniversary admission to the top of the Space Needle would only be $1 last Saturday – the same admission rate when it opened half a century ago.  We can’t pass up a deal like that, especially considering regular admission is nearly $20 now days.  We got there around 9:30am and only had to wait in line about 15 minutes to get tickets.  

Admission also included a free group shot:

It was a beautiful clear day with awesome views of the Seattle skyline and beyond.

A gal saw me taking the above picture and offered to get one of all of us.  Not too bad except you can’t see anything beside us.

We spent some time walking around all the booths and events around Seattle Center afterward – we tried our luck spinning the wheel at a few radio stations – Justin and I scoring chips and a candy bar.  Justin and the girls walked down to the International Fountain where Justin attempted to soak his eldest.  Turns out she’s getting a bit too big to be bullied by her Dad and stood her ground.

As we were walking back to the van we noticed the line for tickets was crazy long – possibly even a hour+ wait.  So glad we got there early. 

I’d also read that Seward Park in Seattle was celebrating their 4^th birthday on Saturday with free cupcakes.  Since we were in the area we decided to swing by.

The kids had fun decorating (and eating) their cupcakes

The park itself was beautiful – right on the lake with a view of Mt. Rainer in the distance.  The trees were in full bloom – so pretty!

The kids had lots of fun playing at the playground.  Katie loved the swing and giggled and squealed with excitement nearly the whole time.

The girls spent most of the time at the zipline/pulley thingy.

I love discovering new places and spending time with my family.  And of course we love saving money!  We had a great day!

Four weeks and counting…

For anyone wondering how Jason is getting along…

Katie is TWO!

We had another birthday around here – last Saturday my baby turned TWO!

I hate to admit this but we totally bombed her birthday. I feel badly that we didn’t do anything special for her (besides a birthday cake). Of course I told her “Happy Birthday” a bazillion times and loved on her all day, but that was about the extent of it.

Justin and the (big) girls went hiking that morning (Jason still has his cast and was bummed he couldn’t go). When they got home it was naptime for Katie while the rest of us did house work. When she woke up we all headed to Costco and Fred Meyer – Katie went nuts when she saw all the Easter candy on clearance at the front of the store so I let her pick out the candy corns to take home – Happy Birthday, Katie! (Do you sense my sarcasm?)

Thankfully, she’s only two and had no clue that Birthdays should be a little more special than that.

Katie had her two year checkup today and wanted absolutely nothing to do with the nurse or doctor. She was all smiles with them as long as they didn’t try to touch her. Thankfully we didn’t have to get any shots to further traumatize her. Here are her stats:

Height: 36.5 inches (95^th percentile)

Weight: 29 pounds, 2.9 ounces (75^th percentile)

Here’s a little about Katie at age 2:

She loves books and spends lots of time looking at books throughout the day. We also read two books everyday before nap and bedtime.

Doesn’t like to wear pajamas with feeties and if we put socks on her they will always be pulled off by morning.

Katie enjoys scattering card games all over the floor, watching shows, being outside, playing with her sisters and brother, jumping on the bed, and coloring.

If there is a pen or pencil to find, Katie will find it. Recently she spotted a pen in a waitress’s apron and Katie tried to take it on the sly.

She also likes to play with our phones when we’re not looking.

Katie wants to do all the things that her older siblings can including sitting at the bar with them.

Love that cheesy smile

Though her real smile is just as cute

Trying to be big isn’t always easy though (or safe). She’s fallen off the barstools a few times – check out the goose egg she had last month.

Turning two meant that Katie got to finally turn around in the car and be forward facing. Our other kids made the switch at 1 year, but now they recommend kids remain facing backward til age 2.

Katie stayed in her infant car seat/carrier for the entire TWO years. The first time I turned her around and put her in a regular car seat she swung her legs the whole ride – nothing like being bunched up for two years to make you appreciate having a little leg room.

Katie is learning to talk more and we all get a kick out of hearing her cute little voice create words. Our favorite is when she says “taco”. She’s starting to put a few two word phrases together and will attempt to say any word we ask her too.

Katie had become quite attached to her binkie. We’re not ready to pull the plug during the night or napping, but over the last few weeks we have kept the binkies in the crib.

Katie LOVES to shower and wants to get in with anyone she can. She’ll spend most of the time squeeging the glass door and walls.

Don’t let her adorableness fool you… during the past month or so this girl has developed a stubborn, opinionated side. And if she’s not happy with the way things are going she’s not afraid to let you know. Since her words are few, we’ve been hearing quite a bit of yelling these days.

Katie also has a really silly side. She makes us laugh every day. What a blessing it is to have such a sweet and (mostly) happy little girl. We can’t get enough of her big, beautiful smile.

Carly’s Baptism

Last weekend was special for our family and not just because we celebrated Easter. Carly was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Saturday afternoon. Our ward typically schedules baptisms on the first Saturday of each month at 11am, but we pushed it back to 1pm so we’d have plenty of time in the morning for the kids to participate in an Easter egg hunt.

Justin and Carly in white before the baptism

There was going to be another girl in our ward baptized that same day, but since it was spring break they opted to have her baptized in Utah while visiting family. So we were on our own. Most families would love to have complete control over the program, but with it being spring break, Easter weekend, and most of our extended family living out of state, it wasn’t my ideal. Thankfully, Justin’s sister was willing to give a short talk about baptism and Carly’s primary teacher from last year helped us out as well – both did a great job. Abigail has been working on a piano arrangement for several weeks that she played beautifully while Carly and Justin put on dry clothes after the baptismal ordinance. The girls’ piano teacher was going to play the rest of the music, but ended up going out of town so Abigail did it all – prelude, musical number, opening/closing song… We love having musically talented kids.

After the baptism and confirmation we came back to our house for refreshments.

Carly was beautiful in her new white dress.

Carly was so excited to make this step and be baptized a member of the Church and receive the Holy Ghost. She has also been looking forward to this day because she knew she’d be receiving her own set of scriptures from my Mom. Since Grandma is serving a mission in Hong Kong she couldn’t be here – oh, how we missed her! However, she mailed us Carly’s special gift nearly a year ago for this very day. Carly immediately started reading and marking the scriptures she has memorized. Carly also was excited to receive a scripture bag made by Grandma Fletcher. And like most girls she loved receiving and wearing a bracelet and necklace given to her by other family members.

On Sunday I curled Carly’s hair – a rare treat – with the hopes we could get some pictures before church. Unfortunately it was a windy morning, but I still think she looks beautiful.

Congratulations Miss Carly – we are so proud of you!

Spring Break 2012

Wow, what a week! As you’ll see we ventured far from how we’d typically spend a week out of school and crammed in many fun outings. We were so excited to have my brother Ray drive up from Utah with his two kids to spend a few days with us. We certainly wouldn’t have had as much fun without them.

In our 11 years in the northwest this was our first time visiting the Fremont Troll who lurks under an overpass downtown.

It was also our first time seeing the famous gum wall near Pikes Place Market.

We each added a little something to its character - especially exciting for my kids since they aren’t usually allowed to chew gum.

We walked around the Olympic Sculpture Park downtown, eating munchies on several of the pieces of art, and enjoying the beautiful spring day.

Another first for us was roaming around Discovery Park. I heard there was lighthouse there, but unfortunately it remains under renovation – due to be completed in 2010... so it may take a little longer. It started to rain so I took Jason back to the van to keep his cast dry while the rest of the kids collected rocks and shells on the beach.

When I told Ray that the Boeing Museum of Flight is free on the first Thursday night of each month he decided it was a must see – for him I think it may have been a “must see” even if it wasn’t free. My Dad had a passion for aircraft and was a volunteer tour guide at Hill Air Force Base Museum for several years before he passed away. Turns out Ray shares that same interest. It was fun for me to hear Ray tell us all sorts of information about the various airplanes. I’m sure we both thought a lot about our Dad that night.

The highlights of the evening were walking through a Concorde passenger plane and a retired Air Force One.

Justin was able to take a day off and “Ride the Ducks” through Seattle with us. We went on this tour NINE years ago when some friends were visiting (Chrystie, I think another visit is long overdue). It’s a fun, informative tour on an amphibious WWII vehicle that tours Seattle by land AND by sea.

Gasworks Park

The house from Sleepless in Seattle

What the Duck looks like in the water

Friday night was free admission to the Children’s Museum. After having to wait a little while to get in, the kids enjoyed exploring the different stations.

Abigail aiming for the air target

The kids spent most of their time playing with the scarf shooter

Our eventful week was followed by a very special Easter weekend for our family…

Test Results

We’ve had quite an eventful week – Spring Break, Visitors, Carly’s Baptism, Easter… much to write about and many pictures to sort through and share, but before that I felt like I needed to give an update.

Last Monday we had our follow-up appointment with the perinatalogist to go over the tests performed after we delivered our baby. It’s routine for them to perform genetic testing following an intrauterine demise; however, typically they only include an autopsy over 20 weeks gestation. We delivered just days shy of the 20 week mark; however, when Swedish offered to cover the expense of an autopsy we decided to proceed.

We didn’t expect to receive any clear answers as to WHY we lost our baby, but I hoped to hear there wasn’t anything we could have done to save our little one and that there wasn’t anything we needed to be concerned about medically.

As I mentioned before our baby looked tiny, but in perfect form. The test results verified that everything was in place, healthy, and free from any genetic abnormalities. Perfect. The one area they found concerning was that the umbilical cord was hypercoiled – the doctor described the likelihood of this occurrence similar to your chances of being hit by lightning. Even if this is detected during a pregnancy there isn’t anything that can be done. There was one surprising finding in the report that we feel we should share – our baby was a girl.

Now before you wonder how in the world that could be mistaken, let me try to explain. The ultrasound which found there wasn’t a heartbeat was short and looking for gender was not a priority. After the ultrasound we asked about the gender and the ultrasound tech said she thought it was a boy, but wasn’t 100%. After we had delivered our baby we asked the nurse who took the baby across the room and she told us it was a girl. We spent precious time holding our baby all the while thinking she was girl and never thinking to look for ourselves. We said our goodbyes and handed her to our nurse to prepare the body and take footprints. When the nurse returned she told us that she thought the baby was a boy, brought the baby back in and we too were convinced. Does it matter – absolutely not. It is a bit of a mental adjustment, but the loss and sorrow is the same. However, obviously we can no longer call her baby Josh. When Justin and I were in Hawaii there was a little girl playing at the pool named Melia. Justin and I both loved the name, added it to our list, and while we held her in the hospital it was a name we discussed calling her.

It’s hard to believe it’s already been TEN weeks since we delivered our precious baby girl. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that I think about our loss every hour of everyday. It can be as simple as seeing the date of June on a can of beans, walking by a pregnant woman or hearing a baby cry, even just thinking about this upcoming summer and how different it was supposed to be. Every day I fight the battle between having faith in God’s plan and feeling cheated, jealous, and lost. Has it gotten easier? Yes, I think it has, but I’d still wish to be massively pregnant and incredibly uncomfortable than to go through this life without her.

Our First Broken Bone

Last Monday evening Jason fell while riding his bike and broke his leg. No bruises, scrapes, or bleeding – just a broken leg. Justin was outside with him, but didn’t see what had happened. He recently advanced to using a larger bike and we think he was riding down the hill in front of our house and turned too quickly to turn into the driveway. I was in the office when I heard him crying and went outside to make sure he was okay. He didn’t want to walk at all so I picked him up and carried him inside. As we were walking inside he said, “a show will make me better.” I set him on the couch and gave him his request and put on a show. But it didn’t make him better and he didn’t stop crying. At one point he was crying so hard I told him that I’d turn off the show if he didn’t stop. (Of course I feel terrible saying that now) Jason is typically a pretty tough kid. He doesn’t cry when he gets shots and if he does get hurt he gets over it pretty quickly. His leg looked fine, no swelling, nothing out of place, but he was clearly in pain and every time we even touched his right leg he would cry harder. We decided to be safe and have Justin take him to the closest Urgent Care 20 minutes away. After x-rays it was confirmed that Jason’s tibia bone was fractured and he would need a cast. Fortunately, the fracture was not his in growth plate and surgery wouldn’t be necessary. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the cast that night. They put a splint on his leg from his toes to his upper thigh and told us to call an orthopedic in the morning. Jason woke up several times during the night. He was so uncomfortable and completely helpless. We put the baby monitor in his room so we’d hear him if he woke up and needed anything. Needless to say he did a lot of this the next day.

Thankfully, we were able to get an appointment at Children’s in Bellevue Tuesday afternoon and they put on his huge cast – again, from his toes to his upper thigh.

Jason requested his cast be blue

AND green!

(He’s looking through the pictures on Justin’s phone to keep him distracted)

We were given a boot for Jason to use once he felt comfortable enough to put weight on his foot, but he preferred to be carried around. Jason is a big kid and his cast his heavy and awkward so we hoped he could figure out how to be more independent quickly. Thankfully, these last few days he’s gotten more comfortable and today he even managed to wobble upstairs to get a game he wanted to play. Justin made chocolate chip cookies this afternoon and Jason surprised us all by sneaking into the kitchen to snag himself a few chocolate chips.

He’s also in good spirits. He took it hard at first. At swim lessons last Monday we found out he had passed his level and so we enrolled him in the next session to start after spring break. He missed the last day of swim lessons on Wednesday and we obviously had to cancel taking more. He’ll hopefully get his cast off at the end of the month – after nearly 5 weeks. Jason is a very independent kid and plays really well on his own so to lose his mobility is tough (for both of us). I really limit the amount of TV, computer, and gaming my kids are exposed to so finding alternatives to “plugging him in” takes much more effort on my part. Grandma Fletcher visited on Wednesday afternoon and brought Jason a UNO Cars 2 game which we’ve all played countless times since. We’ve also read lots of books and assembled several puzzles.

Jason thought it was pretty special that his friends from preschool made him a card and sugar cookies in the shapes of dinosaurs and the letter x since he missed preschool on Thursday (that was theme and the letter of the week). He was also thrilled to receive some stickers and a card from his buddy Mitchell in Auburn.

This week is spring break and the girls will be home to help keep Jason entertained and comfortable. We’re hopeful that by Wednesday when two of his cousins arrive he’ll have figured out how to get around well enough to enjoy the short time we have with them.

Visitors and More!

Last week was busy! But 90% good, fun busy so I’ll take it. These next few weeks won’t let up so I figure I better do a little catching up while I have a free afternoon today.

We had company!! Can you believe it? We’re lucky if we get visitors even once a year so can you imagine how excited we are that we will have more visitors next week? My sister, Brenda spent two days with us last week before going to stay with a friend of hers in the area. (We’re hoping that having a friend nearby will entice her to visit Seattle more often.) Click {here} if you want to read about her last visit. I thought it was funny that I concluded that post with, we “hope it doesn’t take another six years to get them up here again.” It didn’t take six years, but it was close. Unfortunately, her kids had school so they weren’t able to join her, but we take what we can get.

Justin had a big presentation on Wednesday with his VP so he wasn’t able to help out with the kids during the day. (Turns out his meeting was even more important than we thought. Just days afterward T-Mobile announced they will be making job cuts in the next few months – thankfully, his meeting went really well and he made himself sound super important). Anyhow, Brenda said she was happy to just hang out in our normal, everyday world so that’s exactly what we did.

She read countless books…

Played many, many games…

and successfully put together a huge puzzle with the kids.

Carly was thrilled to have someone in the house who could do cool stuff with her hair.

Jason and Katie were obsessed with Aunt Brenda’s iPad and iPhone

(I promise Brenda is in there somewhere)

Brenda and I went into Seattle on Tuesday night to see Mamma Mia. The show was great for a girl’s night out and we discovered a yummy Chinese restaurant where I ate my entire meal with chopsticks – a first for me.

Our two days went by way to fast and we were sad to see her leave. As Brenda and I were backing out of the garage we saw Jason watching us from his bedroom window. Turns out the poor guy was crying he was so sad to see his awesome game-playing, book-reading, puzzle-making aunt leaving so soon.

Justin and I were able to squeeze in two dates last week. Thursday night we took our chances and headed to a Kelly Clarkson concert in hopes that we could score a great deal on some tickets. We found a gal that had won two tickets on the radio and was willing to sell them to us at half the cost!

Opening for Kelly was Matt Nathanson, if you’re like me and had no idea who that is, listen to this song and it should sound familiar:

Before the concert a friend was giving me a hard time about being a rocker because the only concerts I’ve been to in my entire adult life are {this} and {this}. I told her Kelly Clarkson is more pop than rock, but I’ve gotta take that back now. That girl has a powerful voice!

On Saturday night, Justin and I went out with some other couples in the ward to P.F. Changs followed by a movie (Hunger Games of course). The movie was great, though as usual, the books are better. It was a fun night out and we are both looking forward to seeing the second movie when it’s released next year.

We’re also {finally} seeing progress being made on making our home more homey. Maybe I’ll do a future post after we finish up some things around the house, but I can’t refrain from showing off our beautiful kitchen table that was delivered Friday.

I first saw this table in a picture a year ago, but it took me several months to realize that it was the best fit for what I had in mind (a round table that could easily fit more than 6 people, with a durable, forgiving top, and not formal looking). The company is based in Seattle but didn’t have any tables in stock in the size we needed – it’s SIX feet wide! So we waited SIX months for it to be made and shipped from Argentina. Keep in mind I had only seen it in pictures. Thankfully, it was worth the wait! I love it so much that I could be perfectly happy never getting chairs and just leaving it in the kitchen to look at.

A Love Story

I feel badly admitting this, but I have very little involvement in the girls’ homework. They know what they need to do and since I haven’t heard from their teachers otherwise, I trust that they get it done and do a good job. We don’t practice spelling words each week or help them solve math problems – up to this point homework is entirely their work. I’m grateful that they are responsible enough to get it done and that they are able to be successful independently.

Occasionally they will bring something home that requires parental involvement. Last month Carly’s teacher wanted to each of her students to find out what their parent’s “love story” was. I remember being in the family room, Carly sitting in the kitchen, while I quickly relayed how Justin and I became a couple. I gave it very little thought. A few days later, minutes before she needed to leave for school, Carly said she needed a picture of Justin and I dating. We quickly flipped through some old pictures found something suitable and she was on her way.

Last Tuesday evening Jason and I went to the school to get him registered to start Kindergarten next year (an entirely different post) and as we walked by the school office I caught sight of said picture along the main wall and my very own “love story” posted for the whole school, faculty, and parents to see.

It reads, “My mom and dad met after a church activity. They became good friends and had the same group of friends all summer long. Then when college started back up my mom and dad were in the same accounting class and they spent a lot of time studying together. After a few months my dad asked my mom out on a date and she said “Yes!” Shortly after, they started dating and 6 months later they got married in the Temple.”

Ah, isn’t that so romantic? Honestly, I don’t tell the story with any more sap than that either. In fact I’d usually add that when we were introduced I was so taken with his roommate that I don’t even remember meeting Justin that day. Then I usually point out that not only were we in the same accounting classes, but we were also assigned to the same study group, and in the same ward AND FHE group, simply put we couldn’t get away from each other even if we tried, so we got married.