8 years

In September we celebrated our 8 year anniversary!!! Our sweet neighbors volunteered to watch the kids for a few hours so we could go. We chose a Saturday morning and window shopped and walked around the Town Center. We ate at Bostons and it was DELICIOUS!!! The weather was perfect, sunny, even a little warm. It was the break we desperately needed! 

I love looking at old pictures to see how far we've come. This is when we first met in 1999, in fact, that is the exact apartment, couch and spot Mark was sitting when I very FIRST met him!! The only thing different is that he was wearing a hat...and maybe different clothes, maybe not?? I can't remember.

We spent A LOT of dates going out to eat at the many restaurants in town!!

After 5 years we got engaged:

 Then married in this beautiful temple:

 It was the greatest day, more perfect than I could have imagined or prepared for! I'm so happy that our family started on that day, in that sacred temple.

 We chugged through school:

 Had tons of fun times, vacations and dates:

And continue to make eating out at restaurants our go to date!!! Here is Mark's Sausage Tortellini:

And me taking a bite out of my yummy sandwich!

  Mark is a near perfect husband and I'm so thankful that he chose me to be with forever!! It still amazes me that he chose me. Forever. And Ever. That makes me smile! I love you babe!! Thanks for ALWAYS making me LAUGH!!!!!

More finished projects

Mark finished the stairs, it looks GREAT and after 8 years I'm still impressed with what he is capable of doing! And the fact that he does it so accurately, kind of love that perfectionist trait he has, reminds me of me...that must be why! Kidding!!

 He also layed sod down, we finally have some grass!! Which actually bummed the kids out I think. They loved the dirt!! We still have some along the fence that we left unfinished. It KILLED us to not be able to finish the project completely...but we are learning that we have to do what we have time to do and not wear ourselves out too much. We try to keep a good balance between work and play. And we had a FUN summer, so that just means we missed out on finishing the back yard, but we're ok with that.

We love that our backyard is so quiet and beautiful with the green belt as our view!

While we're on the subject...

It took us a few weeks of slowly training Annie, but we finally got her sleeping through the night again without getting a bottle! At least until the next time she gets sick:) The twins have been getting up super early, between 5-6 am and I refuse to let them come out and play that early. Besides, they seem to truly enjoy having that time together to play. They are adorable to listen to! They rarely fight and just talk and play with each other. They destroy their room, but still, it's so cute. Here is the party that Annie can't wait to be a part of every morning!

 More grumpy had to wake you up from your nap time kids! But at least they are cuddling with me:

 Annie wanted in on it! I am so thankful to be a mommy to these 3 adorable kids!!!

Elizabeth in September

Same whacky sleep schedule for this little girl too! Although she can go without a nap more easily than Mark and often does. She still LOVES to dance!! Here she is showing us her ballerina spin:

 And being a great sister by teaching Annie how to do it too!

 The rare time she napped and had to be woken up from it....not so happy!!

Mark in September

Our nap times are so whacky right now!!! We seem to be caught in lose lose situation. They fight them, we give up, then they are tired between 3-4 and either crash somewhere or are super grumpy. If they do nap, it's usually for 2-3 hours and then they don't go to bed until 9-10 pm....but if I wake them up early from their nap and only let them sleep 60-90 minutes, then they are grumpy because I woke them up!! It has really messed with our afternoon outings and play dates. But, hopefully it's a phase we need to just get through?! Open to advice here people!

Anyways, one day Mark fell asleep leaning on the couch:

I woke Mark up from a nap one day with the camera in his face:

By some miracle he was happy!! Good thing I had the camera with me to record that smile!! Usually he says " No Mommy, I still sleeping"!

It's no surprise to those that know him that Mark is a little bit....particular. Here is the proof, can you notice anything in this picture that may have been part of Mark's particularity?

 They are all broken!! Even if some are just missing a corner. He refuses to eat the broken ones! But loves Cinnamon Life Cereal:)

Going to the beach, the beach, the beach

We finally made it to Mukilteo Beach and the kids were SO excited to play!!! It was the PERFECT night and an amazing family experience. The sky was blue, the sun was setting, we walked to Ivars for some fish and chips, had an ice cream cone, watched the ferries come and go, and checked out lots of birds, dogs and people!! We didn't really play with the beach ball, but Elizabeth insisted we bring it with us! We also didn't find many shells, well I should say 'whole' shells, we found a lot of broken ones! 

 Throwing rocks

 And to top the trip off, we saw a train go by as we were getting in the car!!!

Getting our feet wet, the water was FREEZING!!

You got in that chair how??!!

Here is a glimpse into the life of a then 15 month old girl.

She LOVES dolls!!!! Is it sad that we take our kids to Costco and let them look and play with the toys, then leave and never buy them any? Same with books, although we occasionally buy a book. We have so many toys at home, we don't need new ones. Although, this last time we went I saw a few things that I felt they MUST have, but we were able to restrain ourselves and leave empty handed!! I know myself better than to say I will buy them for Christmas! As many of you know, she loves to play, twirl, pull her hair when she gets sleepy. Well, now she loves doing it on dolls hair (and my hair... and occasionally the twins hair)!!! It's SO CUTE! 

 Without even knowing it, she's picking out her Christmas gifts!

 She is also VERY outgoing and LOVES going to story time! Look at her in the midst of all the kids, at the front, doing the bean bag song!

 September was the month that she discovered her love of cereal!!

 And whipped cream from a can!!!

 She also LOVES books!! And will beg anyone to read to her, isn't this sooooooo cute?!!

One day I turned around to see that Annie was sitting in a big chair. I wondered how in the world she got up there! So she showed me:

Tent time

I picked up a tent at a garage sale down the street in the spring time and we finally got it out and played with it! I set it up myself, which is why it isn't up properly....but it's up!! And the kids didn't care. They had a blast playing in it and now that we have moved it inside they still have a great time!

The girls had a very fun time playing peek a boo, Elizabeth had Annie laughing REALLY hard!!

Sunny September

Here we are, behind ONCE again on the blog!!! Mark says it's because my free time is now taken up with my obsession with Pinterest. And he may be right. Sorry everyone!! I'm addicted, buuutttttt, at least I use what I find, so it's not a complete waste of time or anything!

This past September was SUNNY and beautiful!!! We wanted to spend a lot of time outside, even if the kids were starting to get a little bored out there. We also had tons of last minute outdoor projects to finish up, I'll blog more about that later. We tried out a new park that was not at all toddler friendly but they had swings and if you take a little walk there is a huge lake with TONS of ducks and geese!! 

We got some more use out of our sandbox...I was relaxing in the chair, enjoying the kids playing nicely and quietly:)

We also played this fun game:

Check out this chick climbing and swinging!

Hahaha!!!!

Here is Mark looking oh so cool in his hat, Annie is waiting for him to drop it....

 Then puts it right up on her head!!

 Poser!

 Part of the beauty of where we live is that there is a hot air balloon company close by. So during the summer and fall we see TONS of them and the kids LOVE IT!! This day we were driving home and saw some that were just taking off:

 We spent a lot of time outside being bored, which led to Annie discovering her SHADOW!!!! It was hilarious! She spent a good 10 or 15 minutes walking around, hiding in the shadow of the garage and then popping out again to see if her shadow was still there!! So, so, so funny and one of the many reasons I love getting to stay home with my kids!

 Here she is pointing at it:

 Elizabeth must have been getting bored on our walk because she started tickling and teasing Mark!

 Our neighbors left on vacation and the kids missed them so much! By the 3rd day they went over to investigate and find out why they weren't coming out to say hi!!

 We made bird feeders one day with bagels, peanut butter and sunflower seeds. The birds didn't find or eat them....but we had a good time and the kids were very excited to show Daddy when he got home.