Have you Missed Me?

So yeah....It's been a while. A little over two months-while.

All I can say, is that we were enjoying our Summer.

School starts again tomorrow(I think we must be the last people in the country that still aren't in school), and with it a return to routine, and likely more blog posts (the Grandparents are threatening to riot if I don't put up more pictures).

I'm not going to play catch-up. I'll fill you in on a few highlights, but trying to catch up on here tends to stress me out, so.....Not happening.

Go Ahead. Thank me!

Anyway, for the 1 or 2 of you left who still check our little corner of the internet, this is what has happened this summer.

• The Bugster turned 7. Complete with a trip to Red Robin with his friends and lots of Lego Harry Potter (and lots of other Legos too. I don't know why they even bother making other toys for kids this age.)
• The Husband and I had our 9th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by seeing Harry Potter (a few days early-it was awesome of course) and he bought me flowers. The sad thing is...I had to think for a minute about what we did. Hopefully 10 will prove to be less lackluster than 9.
• The Tano grandparents visited. We loved it.
• Cousin Andy also visited. We loved it. (Trying really hard to get him to move here)
• We completed a big chunk of our summer fun list. Didn't get everything, but then again I wasn't planning to.
• Bug started fall soccer. The husband is coaching. I'm playing team mom. It should be fun! Beef's soccer starts this weekend.
  
• We've spent lots of time just enjoying being a family. We've played, and relaxed and had adventures, visited with friends and just overall had a great time.

The kids are starting at a new school tomorrow (new for Bug, Kindergarten for Beef) and they both told me tonight they are excited for the morning. That is a really good sign. I've decided to take it easy this fall, I've cut back on my piano students so that I can spend more time being a Mom. I want to be in the kids' classrooms more, and have more quality time with them after school. I'll be doing pre-school music classes 1 morning a week, and that will make-up the income for what I dropped in piano students. Overall feeling good about things.

Now, I'm off to bed, so that I can get up early and get ready before the kiddos are up.

Family Pictures

We found a break in our crappy weather a few weeks ago, and took advantage of it by going out to update our family pictures (we needed some that weren't in front of the Christmas Tree). I'll give you fair warning, this post is picture heavy!

Thanks to Alexis Merritt (alexismerrittphotography.com) for the pictures.

Mission

Some of you might remember this post, where I mentioned that my parents were going to be serving a mission in Indonesia. Well, (obviously I'm behind on my blogging - but) they finally made it to Indonesia last week. Just in time for an earthquake, tsunami, and volcano eruption.

They earthquake and tsunami happened right before they got there, and the volcano actually erupted while they were in the air, on their way there.

Because of their calling as the humanitarian coordinators for the area, they have obviously been very busy since their arrival a week ago, but we got to talk to them on Monday (skype is so cool) and they are really happy and doing great. It is so amazing to hear about their experiences there.

Which brings me to their blog. I don't know how many of you out there will be interested (I know some of you will be, though) but my Mom has set up a blog where they will be posting about their mission experiences, pictures, etc. I will also be adding the e-mails that they send to us, and things that we get from during calls and whatnot. You can check it out here:

http://melvinandmuriel.blogspot.com/

Ooops!

Has it really been 18 days since I've posted. Ooops. Sorry! Things have been crazy here. We've been super busy, so rather than try to catch up on everything, I'll fill you in on the highlights and move forward from there.

First day of Preschool- He was nervous on the first day, but has done fantastic since then.

No pictures of the Bugg's first day. He wouldn't let me. But now (2 weeks in) he's doing great. We had tears for the first few days (these early mornings have been a little bit hard on him). He doesn't have any friends from last year in his class, but he has started to make some new ones, and he says he gets to see his friends at recess, so all is good.

First day of Soccer

The boys started Soccer the Saturday after school started (on the 11th), they are both playing this year because there is no way that Beefy would have let us go another year without signing him up. They play in different leagues, because Buggy's league doesn't have a U5 team, so we've had a bit of a problem with overlapping schedules. But, they are having a great time and it's good for them (added bonus).

The Tooth

Tooth #3 finally came out this week. It's been wiggly since before school let out in June and has just been holding on for a couple of weeks now. He showed it to me at breakfast on Monday, but wouldn't let me pull it. We talked about what to do if he lost it at school, and I sent him on his way. Sure enough he came home holding his little tooth case, grinning from ear to ear. he was so happy that he got to loose his tooth at school, and go to the nurses office. It was the first day since school started that he come home with some of his lunch left (apparently loosing a tooth while eating a sandwich tends to cut into your lunch time, and heaven forbid you miss recess).

And finally, just cause she's so silly:

The Smile

This is the baby's newest trick. Whenever you say "smile", this is the face she makes. Stretched back cheeks and bottom teeth sticking out. It is hilarious - the picture so doesn't do it justice. So I guess you'll just have to come over to see it for yourself.

Anyway, that's a little of what's been going on in our neck of the woods lately. Until next time...

Blackberries

So this is, literally, just outside my back door.

Aren't we lucky? That entire hillside is completely covered in wild blackberry bushes. They grow like a weed here, they are everywhere. It's fabulous. Free blackberries, and they taste awesome. Can't you tell:

He picked a ton, and ate way more than ended up in the bowl. Gotta love the purple stained fingers.

Anyway, Sunday was stake conference for us, and since we are used to 1:00 church, we weren't quite sure what to do with the day when we were home by 12:30. So, we walked outside and picked blackberries with Grandma and Grandpa.

Showing off their purple faces.

The kids had a great time, and we got enough to make (and can-I'm totally getting into this canning thing) a batch of Blackberry syrup. (My kitchen smelled amazing.).
MMMMM. I think we are going to be eating a lot more pancakes. The best part...There are so many berries that I will still be able to do jam, and they will be on 'till almost the end of September. Now, if only we had Raspberries that were the same way.

I love where I live.

Deception Pass

They speak for themselves. Mostly.

Hiking (actually more like a sort of steep nature walk) down to the beach.

Looking up at the bridge, from the beach.

View from the beach.

They're "fishing" (for pokemon)

I finally gave up after 6 attempts at getting a good picture. This is the best we got.

Showing off his fishing pole.

Trying to get a picture from the bridge. Didn't work out so hot. I think we were all a little nervous to be up that high.

This picture could be titled "Mom, trying not to have a coranary". Don't let him fool you though. That bridge is up really, really high. He stood there long enough for the picture, then - he was ready to leave. And we were on the edge - pretty close to solid ground. I don't think I could have bribed him to go to the middle if I tried.

So, I have to say - This place is absolutely stunning - beautiful. The day couldn't have been more perfect either. Not to hot, but sunny. It made the fog (that is, I guess, nearly constant there) stand out even more prominently. Amazing. I am almost ashamed to admit that we have lived here for 4 years, and never been to deception pass.

We came home across Whidby Island, and rode the ferry home. The boys loved it. Once we got back to Mukilteo we stopped at the lighthouse for Grandma (she loves lighthouses) and finished off the day with dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Awesome day.

Riding the Ferry.

From the top of the lighthouse.

Grandparents Weekend

Catch up. Yes, I know. The story of my life. In my defense though, not much has been happening. We know our days of freedom are coming to an end, so we are squandering them-doing very little, and just enjoying being together. If you are interested, a snippet of our goings-on can be found at my picture-a-day blog, linked on the sidebar.

And now onto the rest of the post.

My parents came this weekend-one last chance to see the Grandkids before they leave the country for 18 months. We had a great time, mostly just visiting, but we did make a great trip to deception pass (separate post), and picked blackberries for syrup (also separate post-sorry, it's how my OCD brain works best.) My mom also consented to allow me the use of her serger while she is gone (still trying to figure it out- way, way, more confusing than my sewing machine), and brought a bunch of canning stuff, and a project that I will be working on for Baby Sister's Christmas (Stay tuned). Overall - really good weekend. Thanks for visiting Gramma Gramma, and Grampa Grampa.

The boys, with Grandpa.

Eight

Eight years ago today I was here:

With this guy:

 For this:

We were both a little younger, and thinner.  In the years since that day we've been through a lot.  Some good, some not so good, some downright sucky.  But, we've always been together.

Sometimes he drives me crazy, but I couldn't imagine ever loving someone more.

He knows what I need to hear, even when I don't want to hear it.
He knows how to make me feel better when I feel like crying.
He knows how to make me smile, and even more important - he knows how to make me laugh.
He's goofy, and crazy, and aggravating, wonderful all rolled into one.

I know eternity would be a lonely place without him.

I love you Babe!