five + two

Nicole was gone for her birthday, so we had a little birthday celebration out before she left.  Happy birthday my dear!

She has pretty good form already, in my opinion (which isn't worth much as I've never stepped a foot in ballet shoes). Nonetheless,I have hopes of getting her in a class soon. I bought her some shoes at a second hand store and she was in ballerina mode all day.

Very curious to see this girl in a couple years. She already has so much zest and zeal, I think she's going to keep us on our toes!

Nate and I had a monumental 4 days away at Whistler for my good friend Susan's wedding and it was wonderful.  We also celebrated out 8th anniversary while we were up there and ate a lot of food.  I think I gained 8 pounds- literally.  Here's Susan and Nik's rehearsal dinner.  Nik is Greek so we got to go to a great Greek restaurant where in true Greek style, the food just kept coming and coming.







My folks were at the wedding too so we got to spend some nice, kid free time with them.


Susan got us all some super awesome hot pink glasses, pretty nice huh?  Had some goodtimes hanging out with my long time friends Rebecca and Maya.
Here are some pics from the rehearsal.

I feel so behind in blogland these days.  July is a crazy month with lots of events: birthdays, our anniversary, and a couple weddings. It's all been lots of fun and helping the summer to cruise on by. Anyway, we had a great celebration on Lucy's actual birthday just with the family, so I thought I'd post a few pictures from that as well.





Lucy woke up to waffles with berries and whipped cream, bacon and hot chocolate, along with this sweet little birthday outfit and a few other little treats.

Her major request was that we go bowling.  We didn't know quite how to swing it with all the kiddos, but it was pretty successful.  The 3 babes just chilled (for the most part) in the strollers while we did a speed round of bowling.  I won by 4, 146 to 142.  I think Wii has helped my bowling game.













We also let Lucy pick out a kite at a local toy store and then want to a park to fly it and have a picnic.  It was a wonderful day.

Happy 6 Lucy!  We had a fabulous birthday party out at Nate's sister's farm that ended up being way bigger than I had originally intended, but it was great!  Lots of activities and good times.  Lucy was glowing and as the truck ride was happening she shouted, "this is the best birthday ever!"  Can't believe I have a 6 year old going into the 1st grade.  Love you Lu!



















Check out my beautiful cake artistry.  Not quite as good as my sisters.  Clearly it doesn't run in the family.

Lucy, loving ever second!

Ada lovin on her lovable bunny that she loves oh so much

This was the first meal we enjoyed on the deck.  Looking at it makes me want to eat it all over again.  Lime Chicken Baked Burritos with Sweet potato fries. Yes Please!

Uncle Scott and Lu.

Ada enjoying Maz and Papa

Will in the backyard chillin' in his car with his freshly bought walkie talkie.  Lucy and Will entertained themselves all night with these gadgets (and the occasional trucker talk coming through).

My friend Sooze is getting married in 2 weeks!  I cannot wait!  We had a night out in the heart of Seattle at the top of the Westin to anticipate this amazing wedding.  Oh my it was fun.  This was my first overnight break from the kiddos and I took advantage of every second!



First when we got there we went to the pool and hot tub and looked out over Seattle on the most glorious sunny day.  Then we retired to the room and enjoyed scrumptious thai food- yum yum!

We then got all fancified and went out a bit.  Half the fun was getting fancified.

Here we are...

The next morning we woke up (I woke up early and walked around Seattle a bit, got a latte and went shopping at H &M, so nice).  We then cooked waffles and shared Sooze stories.  It was a wonderful weekend to celebrate Sooze and I quite enjoyed my little kid break.

Ada is turning into Miss mom.  She plops herself between the babies and starts to read.  She takes her baby (or bunny) and feeds it, puts it to bed, rocks it.  She'll be able to babysit the twins in a couple years I'm pretty sure.


Family movie night with popcorn, hot chocolate in sippy cups and every blanket and pillow from the house.

The twinsies are starting to sit up.  Kind of.

One of Henry's favorite activities is being spit at.  Gets a laugh everytime.

Reading Narnia with the kids.  I decided to put Will and Lucy to work.  They did it gladly.

So, as of late we have been a wee bit crazy.  We had croup go through 3 kids, a staph infection with 1 and colds have hit us all.  We are actually finally on the mend, but it's been a ride for sure.  I guess the good news through it all is that I'm getting kind of used to waking up in the middle of the night (:  Actually the last several nights have hopefully started a new strand of not waking up in the middle of the night.  Since the sickness has left I've been enjoying longer nights of uninterrupted sleep.  Wahoo!

Summer has officially started which I have to say I have been a little hesitant about.  All 5, all the time!  So far it's been good actually.  I've really enjoyed the extra time I've had with Lucy to read and hang out.  She's really a light in this house.  I'm sorting through what July is going to look like and then Nate gets August off which will be wonderful.  Looking forward to many family reads, movie nights and outdoor adventures.  For the last couple weeks I've been pretty overwhelmed, but I've been handling life better now that I have some energy back and am really enjoying my children and our life.  This is a roller coaster ride.  It really is.