pumping

I am done pumping. as of a few minutes ago. done.

after I dropped to 2x day it was clear that my body was done with this game. There was no going back so I gave up and after a week dropped to 1x day for a week, then 1x every other day, and today I'm done.

While I had hoped to make it longer, I have plenty of other ways to spend my time. Like tonight i'm going camping. sibling bonding camping. me, Ev, Darren, Alyssa, and Aron (Alyssa's bro). It's going to be awesome, and awesome that I don't care that there won't be electrical outlets for me to plug my pump into. :) That is a pretty darn thick silver lining.

birthday party!!

A fair number of people haven't RSVPed to the kiddos' bday party. This is fine, i've just taken a guess at who's coming and already ordered the food (there will be a "light lunch" btw - think half sandwiches). But then today, a coworker of mine told me that she just got her invitation in yesterday's mail! I mailed them in June and she said she noticed that the postmark said June too. So I don't know what's up with that, but it made me think, oh, what if people haven't gotten their invitations for some reason? My cousin's just came back undeliverable last week too. So honestly, if you read this blog and haven't been invited... consider yourself invited. Perhaps your invitation has been hanging out with my coworker's and cousin's invitations in some forgotten corner of the post office. :/

House things are going well. We had our inspection, only found a few small things, and the seller said they'd fix everything we asked for. Our loan's coming along too, so it looks like we'll be "house-owners" soon. crazy. crazy. crazy.

even crazier: evan and alyssa will be married in 9 days!!!!!!!!!!!

some big news...

All of you who also read my cousin's blog are holding your breath right now, eh? well our news isn't as big in a life-changing way, and yet, physically, it's the biggest news we've ever had.

what did you do this weekend? make any major purchases? we did.

check out the cool mural in this room

we toured the house saturday morning, made the offer saturday evening, and it was accepted on sunday! no counteroffers which was nice, but so fast! it's in redmond, right near redmond high school, in a development called Abbey Road. we still have the standard contingencies (inspection, financing etc), but if all goes well, we'll close August 26. we have been lightly "looking" since January, but we weren't in a rush to move so this is still a surprise that it all worked out so well so fast. I do really like the house, and yet we have loved loved loved the place we're in now, and we'll be sad to sell it. crazy that we're trading our proximity / walkability to the grocery store, trail, and all that goes with being "downtown" (for redmond) for more square feet, a backyard, and a happy little community. I guess we really do have kids now.

Lil' chomper

A fun video of Annemarie feeding Ethan!  This was in the car on our way back from Redmond, OR.

the zoo

I wrote this awhile ago, but apparently i never posted it. I must have been interrupted, imagine that. I don't think I was done, but some pics are better than none so... here ya go!


the other day (by which I mean, a couple weeks ago, but I'm just now getting around to blogging about it) we went to the zoo with our friends brianne and danielle (and the kiddos, them too). here are a couple pics from that outing.

4th of july

Our fourth of July was pretty great. We had a BBQ lunch at Blake's parents' house where we were also joined by Blake's grandma and aunt, and then we headed over to Brianne and Danielle's for a BBQ dinner (where we were also joined by Jackie and Dave). We brought pack and plays to both locations and the kiddos napped and went to bed decently, there was excellent food, and we even ended the night w/ a new game. no firecrackers for us this year (except those we saw driving home) but that's okay with us. We're more focused on sleep this year. anyways, here are a few pics!

 ethan showing off his cute outfit that I bought him that morning...

grandma betty, aunt janet, kaylee

ethan and aunt janet

feeding ethan some watermelon (kaylee was still asleep)

well look who woke up. okay, you can have some watermelon too...

yum yum yum...

danielle was having a temper-tantrum. okay, really she was telling us stories of her trip white water rafting with junior and high school kids from our church that she just returned from.

 a glimpse of the future... (no no no, I am not saying that jackie's pregnant).

pretty typical. hanging out on the grass, my kids eating dave's shoes, danielle taking pictures... actually, it's only because danielle takes so many great pics for me that I got to relax and put my camera away for a bit, so there aren't as many pics of this gathering... but here are two cute ones of danielle and kaylee in the hammock:

happy fourth of july!

invitations sent

The invitations to the kiddos' bday party were supposed to arrive before we went to CA (more on that later when I get pics from my mom's camera) but they didn't. Fortunately they were there when we got back, so I went to the post office, bought some post-card stamps, and sent them out!

If you didn't get one, let me know. If you care about my kiddos enough to read this blog (and I know you / you're not an internet weirdo), we'd love to have you join us.

In other news, Kaylee is also working on tooth #4 (next to the other one on the top).