March Photo Bomb

Apparently I only used my nice camera to take about 4 photos in March. The rest were on my phone. So, here’s some of what we were up to…

My little baking buddy. It’s really one of his favorite things to do with me. It’s gotten harder now that Isla wants to be involved so I try and do it with just Rowan when she takes a nap.   Watching construction. They sat like this for almost an hour. There’s about 9 new fancy houses being built right behind our place. It’s been fun for the kids to see it from the ground, up!  Feeling very grown up shelling peanuts at Five Guys. Giggling in the laundry basket Park time! We’ve had so much cold weather, but the minute it’s not freezing or pouring, I get these kids outside as much as possible. For EVERYONE’S sanity around here. :) Her “scared” face! Love sticks and using his imagination Coffee date with my bestie Early morning Target trip. Rowan thinks he’s playing this video game but it’s really just showing an ad. :) Little Astronaut during the week they learned about space and planets at school. Rowan is LOVING school, and that makes me so happy. Popsicles! Beautiful sunny park day! Wearing a hat from cousin Kaitlin in NZ. So excited about the Spring flowers that grew outside our door.  Playing together more and more!  Out to lunch after church. We tried Fatburger for the first time. If the name didn’t deter me, the food & service sure did. Oh well! The kids loved getting to have a chocolate milkshake.   Trail walk

  These kids have my heart. I am so lucky to be their Mama!!! We met my dad at the park. We don’t see him often so it was nice to have a little visit. Matching scarfs. I know it’s over the top…and I LOVE it! :) Another gorgeous Spring Day!

Seahawks, Valentine’s Day, and More!

Okay so I know I've said this before, but I have REALLY been neglecting this thing. The further away I get from updating, the more I think that maybe I should just stop posting. Honestly though, it’s a really great way for me to look back, almost like a journal. I’m so glad I kept it up during both pregnancies, etc.. SO… here’s my attempt to bring things up to speed. :)Some photos are from my phone (which you might have seen if you follow me on instagram) and some are from our “fancy” camera. :) Enjoy!

  It was SUCH a fun football season. I never really grew up around football, and either did Russ being from NZ. We ended up watching the games at my parent’s house and couldn’t help but get caught up in all of the excitement. Rowan especially! Everywhere we go he points out anything Seahawks related, and he pretty much begged us for a Seahawks tee shirt. Well, he wanted a jersey, but we told him we weren’t spending the $ on one for now. :) We got Isla’s little jersey/onesie as a hand-me-down which was great. There was just so much buzz in Seattle and it was amazing to be Super Bowl champs. Can’t wait for next season!

Our church got pretty into it too and even had face painting. It was Rowan’s first time having his face painted and he thought it was very cool.  

Beast Mode!    Snuggles at Mor-Mor’s. Up late! :) My cute mom making yummy treats to go alongside the game. Champagne toast to celebrate!Random phone photos:

Hanging out with my girl while Ro is at school Matching hair with her doll Puzzles with Mor Mor Bird watching  Climbing at a church play area. So fun!  Making Norwegian Svele heart waffles at Mor Mor’s Shopping at Whole FoodsHanging out on the new area rug

My new “nerd” glasses. Russ loves them! I do too, but they take some getting used to. My mom doesn’t understand why i’d want to wear these, lol!

Valentine’s Day:

Russ and I chose to have our Valentines' Day date at Chace’s Pancake Corral in Bellevue for breakfast. We love breakfast, and just casual dates where we can drink coffee and talk kid-free. It was perfect for us. It’s also been 5 years since we got engaged! Can’t believe how fast it’s gone. This is what happens when I try and get him to take a serious picture. I was so annoyed! haha Also why I love him though.Valentine’s Day was SO fun for Rowan this year. He had a party in his classroom. I ordered these cute little crayons shaped like lego bricks/lego mini figures and put them in a bag with these little cards that say “You make my life colorful.” He was SO proud to bring them to school. They decorated bags with stickers and crayons and passed out their cards. When he got home he wanted to spend a long time showing me each one. I remember LOVING that as a kid. One of my favorite school days. We even picked out this shirt for him to wear for his class party. “ Love at first slice.” This kid is Seriously into the ninja turtles.

          

Rowan let Isla have one of his lollipops. her first one!     Trying to sneak a taste. :)

Rowan’s first time skiing!

I feel like Russ’ entire life has been building up to this moment. Haha, not exactly, but i know he’s always dreamt of taking our kids up to the mountains to snowboard. That’s WHY Russ came to the U.S…he was 18 and a snowboard instructor. We will definitely encourage our kids to try snowboarding but according to him, they are not developmentally ready for it until about 6 or 7. So, until then we’ll start them on skis!

It’s been awhile since I’ve been to Snoqualmie Pass and it was SOO beautiful up there last weekend. Sunny, tons of snow, and full of great energy since it was the day before the superbowl. It was fun to see a lot of people with jerseys over their snow gear. (Go Hawks!!)

We got to the mountain and just let the kids play for awhile. No joke, I swear they ate snow for 30 minutes straights. It was the quietest I’ve ever seen my kids. It was hilarious! Then we went to rent Rowan some skis. He caught on super fast and really enjoyed it. Must be that Norwegian blood! :) He even went up the magic carpet a few times and down the hill.

The biggest challenge of the day was definitely keeping Isla happy. She loved the snow (eating it!) but then when Rowan went skiing, she REALLY wanted to go too. She kept crying and pointing. They didn’t have skis small enough or we would have seriously rented her some too.

I had bought them a little penguin sled the day before at Target but it seemed like everywhere was a “ no sledding” zone. We finally just found a small area by a parking lot (with no cars) to play around for a few minutes. We tried telling Rowan we’d do it next time but the tears started coming and we didn’t have the heart to tell him no.

Can’t wait to go again sometime soon! It’s pretty great living 40 minutes from all of this!

   

For those of you not on FB, here’s a link so you can see Rowan in action! : https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100303237157493&l=8279002336688396923 

This picture of Russ and Isla makes me laugh because I totally think it looks like one of those people magazine “They’re Just Like Us” photos. :)         

Rowan Starts Preschool!

Man, I have seriously been slacking now that I have Instagram. I always figure no one really reads this anyway, until one of you randomly says something (which has happened a few times lately!) :)

Rowan has an end-of-September birthday which means he’ll be one of the oldest to start Kindy ( just like his mama). Because of that he will already have 2 years of preschool if he starts next Fall. I just felt like that was enough… until last week. My friend Irene was telling me that they were starting to tour preschools and I had a panic attack. I remembered hearing you had to start early, but it seems to crazy to have to register for preschool in January, for the following school year. I decided to start doing some research, calling around, and book some tours. The first preschool we went to is just down the street and I immediately LOVED it. The director is fabulous and was so sweet with Rowan. I just figured she’d give me some general info and let us peek into the hallway of a class or two. Instead Rowan was invited into one class to make a snowman craft, and then invited into another class for the entire circle time. He pretty much ran up to the front, and joined in, singing louder than anyone else in the room (tone deaf like daddy, haha!) He was all smiles and didn’t want to leave. The director looked at me, and told me that they had just had a student move and that there was room in the 2 day/ week program. One spot left. I thanked and and basically disregarded her offer. Once we left and Rowan kept talking about it, and I told Russ about it, we decided to seriously consider it. I had another tour the next day and it pretty much solidified my choice. The lady at the other school was cold, and didn’t seem to care for a second about connecting with Rowan. She kept saying “ Don’t touch!” to him. We left and when I got home I immediately contacted the first school. We started on Tuesday and Rowan really loves it. All of the other moms have been super sweet and welcoming and I’m really happy we decided to go ahead and do it. I know Rowan needs to have a life outside of me (sniff sniff). He is so social and I want that for him too. It’s really nice to have a couple of hours with Isla each week too. I was worried about him starting so late because I just wanted him to have the full experience, starting out in the Fall with all the other kids. I know he’ll have that next year though. :) He doesn’t notice one bit, and the other kids definitely don’t. Here are a couple of pics of him ready to go on his first day.

     

He walked right in and excitedly proclaimed, “ Look at all my friends, Mom!” It was so cute. He told me afterwards that he missed me and Isla even though he had fun. :) He also said that he only learned a little, not a lot, haha! Can’t wait to see him unfold this new chapter!