February Cell Phone Summary...

Let the record be clear that for some bizarre reason, Chris takes all the kids to Costco almost every SATURDAY! Who goes to Costco on Saturday?! Crazy people with no children who must work during every other open business hour the store offers...and my husband and four children. On one such trip, the girls got to playing in this house and came home with one of their own! It is meant for the outdoors but they assembled it in our bonus room...yep! It's pretty fun, I have to admit. I got a text from Chris saying how much fun the girls were having and how cute they were with it and how it was only $$$. Hahahaha. How could I refuse!?

Leo in the cart. 

That face!

At piano lessons, Betsey wrote all these names on the board! I was impressed! She's in an independent learning program for Preschool. It's called life, and she is excelling!

So much fun to be had at piano while the older two have their private lesson.

I love these two. They look the most like each other. 

Alice copying Betsey who fell asleep in the back of Chris' truck. 

These gates kept Penny on one side of the house...for minutes...until she realized she fits through the slats! What?

I love this daddy-Alice cuddle!

Betsey likes to do my hair and I like it too. Win-win! She likes to take pictures of her creations.

Not bad!

A hopeless book I picked up at Goodwill that talked about like five hundred things you need to do before you bring your puppy home and a crud ton of things to do in the first seconds, minutes, hours and days. Too bad she was four months old when I got the book. She's pretty much a lost cause.

We had some really stormy wind for a few days and one morning we woke up to this!

Penny really is a great fit personality-wise for our family. We just need to get through the training part.

My Bets Bets with her bunches of patterns and colors and mismatched-ness. I love it.

Alice also does my hair...this is a pretty bun!

More buns.

My adoreable cousin, Sydney left on her mission! I didn't get a bunch of pics but I did get this one of some of my peeps sitting around chatting at the Biddle home. They have the coolest homemade home ever. Ever. EVER.

One weekend, Chris's brother, Mike, flew into town to go to a concert with Chris (Presidents of the United States of America). Mike joined us up at the Biddle's before we had to take him to the airport and say "goodbye". Chris is holding our sweet nephew, Davis.

In January, Alice joined a Lego League team because she is really natural at building things and seeing how they go together. She loves puzzles, Lincoln Logs, blocks and now Legos. It is her favorite activity right now, as they are in a level where they build small machines and some of the machines have remotes and can be controlled using the computer. The curriculum is really scientific and it is cool all the stuff she comes away with after they meet.

We got a new waffle maker in one of the storage units. It's a fancy, Villaware brand and it makes perfect, thin, heart waffles. Mmmmmmm.

So one Sunday, I was running late and needed to get to church so the kids could at least get seated. So I woke Leo, knowing he needed a new diaper and grabbed one to change him at church and by the time I got there, just on the drive over his diaper reached maximum saturation and this is what I found when I pulled him out of the car. Luckily, Chris was available to help me and he held him the rest of church, pants-free.

Betsey gave a talk in Primary. She didn't want me to help her or write it out so we just practiced a bunch of times, I'd feed her a prompt and she'd say her own answer. So once we got up there, I'd say the prompt, like, "What can we do to show Heavenly Father we love him?" and Betsey was nervous and could only repeat after me. It was totally predictable and not a big deal at all, so I wound up feeding her like four sentences and she did a great job. So cute. So excited to sit up front! Look at those socks. Gosh I love her! (Leisha, she had her pack pack from you full of her treasures...see it on the floor?)

Once upon a time, the chickens started laying again...and there were a dozen eggs in the coop when we finally checked!

We got the throw ups. It was actually just Betsey but it was not fun.

Ruby in front of our Christmas card door...I didn't take them down until March! Anyway, I couldn't belive that she was invited to the YW program, New Beginnings because she will be 12 this year and will leave primary and enter the YW program for 12-18 year olds at church. Sigh. She is getting so big!

Pierce Family Visit: My pics and Matt's pics

We were so lucky this summer that all the Pierce family came to us! Doug and Heather were before the others, but the rest came the end of June and we enjoyed some good time together. I can't possibly organize all the images in this post, and I figure in ten or twenty or fifty years people won't care what happened on Saturday and what happened on Tuesday. So... Pam and Matt and fam came into town first (well really Mattie came a few days before them, but those pics come later). They were coming anyway for Emily and Ben's wedding (the Emily that lived with us the past year, who is Matt's sister's daughter). Pam was her photographer and I would have been her trusty assistant if I weren't fussing with a grumpy baby. Exhibit A: The kids can't keep a pacifier in his mouth to save him. It's awful. I tried using band aids, I figured they are meant for skin. Right? Didn't work. He slobbered them right off. Ugh.

This is a cell phone pic of Pam's pretty pose. Her images of the same shot are STUNNING.

Pam getting the shot from the right angle.

Leo approving Pam's angle. No. Leo in the shade (ITWASSOHOT) fussing instead of sleeping.

I took a few pics, these aren't great...unedited. Pam's are awesome, but I just wanted one in here of the wedding because we do love Emily so!

I was able to be of use at the actual ceremony because Chris was there to help with Leo. I was up on the stage getting a different angle than Pam. Up close and personal. It was special. Also really fascinating because it was so different from my religious paradigms. Very animated and emotional. Still, I think it was exactly what Ben and Emily wanted and that's what matters!

We spent the whole day on Saturday at Owen Beach in Tacoma. It was a gorgeous, perfect day and we had a nice time. The kids had a great time digging in the sand and wading a little in the frigid water. Adults visited on the beach. Mike had a friend from high school (Matt Shouse) meet him there with his wife and two kids, and I visited with them for awhile. We also had Emily's dad and brothers there (Matt's sister's husband and children) and Matt's brother and his wife and two kids. We all enjoyed the extended company and at one point, Emily's brothers recognized Matt Shouse and realized he was their counselor at school! They have gone through a lot and he has been there for them at some crucial moments, even driving them home the day their mother passed away. Anyway, so everyone was cross connected and it was kind of neat. 

Becks and Bets. Loving their sticks.

Casey (Matt's brother's daughter), Mattie and Josh (Matt's sister's son). 

Bets and Ruby in the back of Chris' truck.

After the beach we met at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Tacoma to celebrate Pam's birthday. She turned the big one...40, which I haven't hit yet, but I'm not far from and I have to say...she's no older than when she was thirty and in my opinion, 40 is the new 20. I'm not being funny, I might feel different in four years, but for now, 40 seems plenty young.

Sam and Perry flew in just in time to meet us at the restaurant and there were a ton of us all together at dinner, both sides of Pam's family. Pretty fun!

The closest two adults in this shot are Matt's brother Gary and his wife, Teresa.

We decided since the weather was very, very hot...we needed another water day. I always prefer one of the many, amazing fresh water lakes to any beaches on the sound, so we hit up Lake Wilderness in Maple Valley for the whole day. It was perfect! Leo took a good nap...

Betsey sitting on Chris with my snoozing babe.

Aunt Sage playing with Leo. I love Sage and babies. Kids in general. She's just a child lover.

We had some pretty good shade going!

At night, the kids slept in the tent trailer in the driveway. We had room for them in the house but how much more fun for them all to camp in the driveway! :) Mike read Hardy Boys to them at night. My kids loved it!

Mattie was kind enough to sleep with Betsey...not always a very rewarding experience. Betsey loved it. She had Zoe on the other side...I'm sure she was kicking someone at all times.

Pam and Matt took Betsey to the Point Defiance Zoo one day, which was so nice!  

Mattie had flown into town a few  days early to attend horse camp with Ruby and Alice. She didn't have a great time as it turns out, but we were happy to enjoy her in the evenings. Pam and I were busy with the wedding photos and so we didn't get to attend the final horse show so Matt went and took video and pics for us. 

Mattie and Ruby were sharing a horse all week and they were on the same "team" for the final horse show.

Alice rode Blacky and had fun with Kiley Benner showing what she learned.

Mattie and Ruby rode Pepper.

Alice riding around the barrels on Blacky.

Mattie and Ruby with their horse again. I believe they got first place in the little performance.

We so enjoy being together with the whole Pierce side. It always makes us crave more time with everyone, though I doubt we'll ever all live in the same place. Pam and Matt go where the sun goes, I think since Sage has managed to get two of her siblings to move to Colorado, she and Mike are pretty well set there and we will be in Washington forever more.