;I haven't written a blog post since August 2022. It's been a crazy year and a half. I want to try to get back to doing these semi-regularly. But I wanted to do a 2023 in review post. It's very daunting. I don't remember everything that happened obviously, so I guess I'll just caption as many of these MANY photos as I can.
I found a hairstylist and got my hair done so that I felt pretty for the first time in a long time. I also got new glasses in January.
Jules was VERY into Pokemon for a good 6 months. She still likes them, but not as much. She has loved dinosaurs since before we moved here and she still enjoys playing with them, especially with cousin Eve who has developed a sudden love of dinosaurs.
Harrison is so blonde. When i let it get long, it goes a little crazy. haha
I've done a lot of beachcombing since we moved here. It's a great dopamine hit to find treasure after treasure as you're walking along.
I started taking photos of my finds. I even started a pinterest account just for them. But I don't have the time to dedicate to posting regularly and I get lost in the algorithm.
A love of PJ Masks has been discovered. This mask is from a game and Harrison loves running around in it.
My family occasionally humors me and goes to the beach with me. They never want to be there as long as I do. :D This was taken at Owen's Beach. It's quite a rocky beach near the Point Defiance Zoo. It wasn't a great beach for beachcoming because all the shells would be dashed to pieces before making it to shore and the rocks weren't anything special. We did have a contest to see who could find the best rock in all the colors of the rainbow. And Mira found a giant driftwood staff that is now hanging in her bedroom as the base of an art piece.
His toes are so adorable. This is in the kitchen of our house here in Washington.
Nana wanted pictures of all the kids for the calendar Megan makes her every year.
Cecily bought herself a lizard right after Christmas 2022. She is named Waffle and she is a leopard gecko. She does a good job of taking care of her.
It's quite obvious at times that Harrison is growing up with four older sisters. I think it'll be good for him. He still LOVES cars, balls, taking stuff apart and figuring out how it works, growling at people, throwing things, and other more traditionally masculine stuff. So wearing fingernail polish and pushing babies around will serve to make him a more well-rounded individual.
This was at the Puyallup DI. One of the draws of living here was that I didn't have to give up shopping at DI. It's interesting to see the differences in what is donated here verses the DIs I frequented in Utah. It's impossible to find good kids shoes here. Except Converse All Stars. People donate a lot of those.
I'm not sure why Eve was with us that day, but I will say having Eve nearby has been a huge blessing. They all play together multiple times a week.
"The Mountain" as they call it here (Mt. Rainier) can definitely be beautiful when it isn't January. Nothing is beautiful here in January. It's just dark. And rainy. And DARK. Bleh. Can you tell I'm writing this in January?
More awesome Harrison hair.
And beachcombed rock art. The rocks here are freaking amazing.
For Valentines Day, we made some valentine art and wrote our info on it and made some sugar cookies and took them around to our neighbors. Not many of them answered the door. And we still don't know any of them very well. I suppose we could be better about reaching out. But every single one we met was either a single man living alone or a retired couple with family nearby. Later in the year--May or June maybe?--we met a family around the corner who are Ukrainian refugees. A mom, dad, two daughters, one grandfather and two grandmothers all living together. The grandparents are struggling to learn English. But the grandfather and I text each other in our own languages and then plug them into google translate and we do alright.
The kids watch a lot more TV here than they did in Utah. It's hard to explain. There wasn't much to do nearby in Saratoga Springs. But there isn't much to do here that's less than 45 minutes away, except go to a park. Granted, the parks are never too hot to go to, even in July and August with no trees. So there's that.
This kid has never been a good sleeper. I'm lucky to get one night a week where he doesn't wake up at least once and want me to stay with him until he falls asleep again. He doesn't usually take official naps anymore. We had to take them away probably in May because if he napped he wouldn't go to sleep until 10 or 11pm. But he still takes unofficial naps occasionally.
Steve with Jules and cousin Kate. There wasn't enough seating in our living room.
Jules loves putting makeup on. This was a request for me to give her rainbow eyeshadow. She's so gorgeous.
Bathtime! He adored the Octonauts for a long time (he's holding a Gup--a vehicle from the show). It was one of his first words. He watched all the episodes so many times that he got bored with them and moved on. But it was cute to hear him shout, "Octonauts Away!" Which happened to be his name for Captain Barnacles. Kwazi was "Nahzy," too.
Like sister like brother.
This is how Harrison wanted to fall asleep up until very recently. I absolutely loved cuddling with him to fall asleep. None of the my other children let me do that.
Our spring break was in April and we decided to fly to Utah to see friends and family for the week long break. Steve didn't think to take the time off beforehand, so he was only able to get 1 1/2 days off. The flights to Las Vegas were way cheaper than flights to Salt Lake, so we flew in and rented a van and drove up to St. George. Our flight ended up being delayed which meant I was driving at 2am after a long day of lugging kids and luggage around. Luckily I found a good audiobook and was able to stay awake no problem. I'm sure it also helped that I am regularly up past midnight.
We stayed with Nick and Wilda for 2 days, then me and the kids drove up to Utah county and stayed with my brother for 3 nights (I think) and then we drove back down to St. George for another day and a half. We loved seeing everyone. There are also no pictures from this trip. The one below is a random picture taken at our house here in WA.
I made a bow for my hair so I was wearing something green for St. Patricks Day.
There was a sunny day in March that it was supposed to be decently warm with good low tides, so Harrison and I went to the beach together while Jules played with Eve. This is Alki beach. There are thousands of tiny shards of sea glass on this beach because there used to be a city dumpground nearby.
Mira had a party for her birthday at the end of March. It was Phineas and Ferb themed. She's still a little obsessed with them and will be again soon, I'm sure, because new episodes are coming out in a few months after like 7 years of not being on the air. She's watched all the episodes and all the cast and writer interviews and memorized all the songs and was Isabella for Halloween. She's moved on to Sonic the Hedgehog for the moment though. She turned 12 and is now in the Young Women program at church instead of Primary. Cecily is sad that she won't be able to move up for a couple years still.
Okay, this is out of order. A few photos down starts the rest of our photos from our trip to Hawaii. I'll tell you more down there. But this photo documents that both Em and Cousin Laef picked the same shirt as a souvenir without knowing it.
In June, Mira and I went on a one night campout with the young women from church. It wasn't a huge group that went, but we had a lot of fun. The girls swam in the lake, we had a gourmet camp stove dinner, roasted marshmallows and a ton of other interesting things, and then went on a hike the next day. One of the men in the ward volunteered to make all the food for the campout. He is a big camper and loves doing the food apparently. And it was amazing. Like stir-fried veggies, seasoned diced potatoes, some sort of asian meat plus rotisserie chicken. Then for dessert, he had pie filling wrapped in pie crust that you could stick on a roasting stick and have your own personal pie. We also roasted several kinds of candy, plus the marshmallows.
I can't remember what the hike was called, but it was a lookout point that you could see three different volcanos from. Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Rainier, I believe. If you zoom in, you should be able to see them in the photos.
This vintage Fisher Price garage was a thrifted find that Harrison loves.
At the beginning of summer break--which, by the way, starts SO LATE here; I think it was June 12th this year?--I had great intentions of keeping a schedule with lots of brain-healthy activities. We started the first week by going on a family walk every day. It was great. Until I couldn't keep the schedule going because I'm terrible at them. But this photo is from one of our walks. Outdoors and sunshine is so good for the soul.
Okay, so here are our Hawaii photos. We went to Maui and it was one of the best family trips we've taken ever and definitely the best since Harrison was born. It was sponsored by Nick and Wilda for their 50th wedding anniversary. They purchased the accomodations and the plane tickets so it wouldn't be a burden for any of us to go. It was really generous of them and we are so grateful we were able to go.
Maui is gorgeous. So many amazing sights, the best snorkeling 50 feet from our airbnb, amazing weather, amazing sunsets, amazing beachcombing. I think I wouldn't mind living there. **happy sigh**
These are three unique pancake syrups we bought while there to try out. Our favorite was actually the liliko even though we'd never heard of it before.
We also bought these unique pancake mixes. The strawberry guava was surprisingly good and the chocolate macadamia nut was surprisingly disappointing. It wasn't very chocolatey.
Random photo of Emilia and Poofy/Mystery not in Hawaii.
We were surprised to find that chickens were wild animals that roamed the streets of Maui. A lot of them were really pretty roosters.
One one beachcombing excursion, I found a sea cucumber and a hermit crab. The sea cucumber ejected water as Steve took it and Jules still laughs about the sea cucumber peeing.
We went to a luau with the whole extended family. It was good, but quite long for a 2yo past their bedtime.
We "hiked" Twin Falls one day with the Coombs. It was more of a slightly uphill walk with some rock scrambling to get down to the bottom of the falls. A lot of my kids didn't wear swimwear and ended up jumping from the top of the shorter waterfalls anyway. I was proud of them for doing something scary. And was not brave like them. I hate being wet and I hate heights. I was happy to watch and take pictures.
Apparently Twin Falls is on private land and it's surrounded by farmland. The owners make money off the parking and they have a farm stand that you can have farm-fresh treats at while you're there. We had banana bread, pineapple popsicles, sugar cane smoothies.
This is a panorama at the bottom of the higher falls. You should open it so you can see the extent of the gorgeousness.
It doesn't look very high unless you're at the top of it. Kind of like the high dive.
The cousins tried twice to dig a hole big enough to stand in. Both times, the tide came in and ruined it. But they had fun doing it.
Steve's favorite thing was the snorkeling. We got these awesome masks that had the snorkel attached and it covered your whole face, so you didn't have to worry about getting water in your mouth. They didn't really fog up, and one even had a fan to blow on the goggle part to keep it from fogging. They made snorkeling a breeze.
We went to the aquarium with the Coombs' one of the days. There are so many exotic creatures there! My favorite was the garden eels. They make a hole in the sand and sort of anchor themselves in the hole, letting their head and top half move in the waves. So they look like some sort of weird thick sea grass.
These were taken at Dash Point beach. This is probably the rest of the family's favorite beach. It's the sandiest of the beaches and the water is quite shallow for a long ways. We've seen large birds of prey, sea lions, orcas, and dead jellyfish there. We find a ton of sand dollars and oysters there, too.
Before the end of the school year, I was notified that Em was going to be getting an award at the awards ceremony. So the two of us went. She was actually nominated for 5 different awards, but only won 1 of them. But the nominations came as a complete surprise to her and I was really proud that so many of her teachers recognized her amazing kindness and smarts.
These caterpillars came out in droves in June. Jules was in heaven. She asked to go get a new caterpillar a few times a week. We tried taking care of them so they would cocoon and we could watch it emerge, but it never worked. I don't know if the info we got on what to feed it was off, or if it was something about how we were keeping it (in a bug cage), but none of the ones we brought home lived. I also looked up what they would look like as butterflies and I was excited to see them once they came out of their cocoons, but we never saw a single one despite there being thousands and thousands of these caterpillars a few block from our house. It's an unsolved mystery.
Some of my favorite rocks are the ones that get all their edges worn off. They feel very zen when you see them together like this.
Mira was in the 6th grade choir with a couple of her friends. They sang a few songs at the end of the school year.
We rescued a beta fish one day while we were at petsmart looking for cat food. He was looking pretty sad and so Petsmart gave him to us for free. Jules immediately named him Crystal. I figured anything we did would improve his living conditions. But then I started reading up on it, and they're apparently just as particular as any other freshwater fish. Though that hasn't been my experience in the past. I've had betas that lived in bowls with no water circulation and weekly complete water clean-outs and they lived for 3 years or more.
Now they say you should "cycle" your water before getting one (meaning, put fish food in the water so that it will decompose and create nitrogen that then gets filtered and circulated back to good water and that will create good bacteria in the water--it has to go through that cycle a few times before the water ph balances out). You're only supposed to empty 1/3 of the water each week so that it doesn't stress the fish out. Betas are tropical fish so you're supposed to have a heater in the tank. And they should have at least 3 gallons of water. Oy. So I bought a tank at DI for 7 bucks and we attempted to cycle the water. He lived. And he's doing fine without a heater. Though I had to train him to eat fish food. No wonder he wasn't thriving at the fish store. *eye roll*
Jules went over to Eve's house one day and found a butterfly on the grass. It wouldn't fly away, so we think it was injured. It would walk around on Jules' hand and she adored it. She would hold it for hours. It only lived about 2.5 days. I was surprised that she wasn't more upset when it died. I think I had been warning her that it was sick and wouldn't last long. Maybe that helped. We memorialized it between two pieces of packing tape and she hauled that around with her for at least 3 weeks. I think Harrison got to it after that and it go smushed.
The wildflowers here in Washington are amazing. This is a bouquet that I made just from flowers I picked within a mile of my house. I learned later that when the developers started our development the year before, they seeded wildflowers on the slopes. The Oriental (red) poppies aren't native here, but the California (yellow/orange) ones are.
A quick art project that was relaxing and fun.
Cecily had her birthday party in May. It was snoopy themed. Only two girls came, so I was glad Mira was willing to be a friend that day. Cecily had a really rough year at the elementary school. Her class was disobedient and roudy, which made it hard for her to concentrate and enjoy her classroom experience. And the kids were incredibly mean. No one befriended her for over half the school year. And then when she did find some friends, they would play foursquare together. But then other kids joined in. And they would break the rules or do something Cecily thought was unfair and she would lose her temper with them. They told her they didn't like her and she wasn't fun to be around to her face. They would take the ball from her and tell her she couldn't play with them. She took it SO well, but I could see how unhappy she was. A week before school started in the fall, we made the decision to pay for her to go to a hybrid homeschool school with Nicole's two middle kids. They attend school 3 days a week for 4 hours and two days a week, they do their own homeschool work. They provide the lesson plans though, so I don't have to do much except make sure she's staying on schedule. She is SO MUCH happier this year and I'm so glad we made that change. I wish people would be better so we didn't have to, but I feel blessed that we could afford to do that for her.
Another crazy hair picture. 😍
More wildflowers. The raspberry colored ones on the bottom left are a variety of clover I'd never heard of before. It's called Red Crimson Clover and I love it. It's so pretty.
She's so funny. These were selfies.
I like to crochet things for my kids. And since Mira is a big fan of Phineas and Ferb, I made her a ducky momo for Easter.
In September, our Relief Society activity was going to pick blueberries at a local blueberry farm. There were SO MANY tiny cute frogs. I picked like 4 lbs of blueberries that night and we made a ton of stuff with them: a blueberry crumble, blueberry protein shakes, and I can't remember what else.
These are morels. They are an edible mushroom that is quite good tasting, though the texture is different than your average white mushroom from the grocery store. They tend to grow in disturbed ground around here, so these babies showed up in our yard. Steve was mowing them down before I found out they existed and made him stop.
This is from our second trip to Utah at the beginning of August. We wanted to see our Staley relatives and that was when they could make the trip from Colorado. We shared an airbnb so we could get the most time together. Steve can still get passes to Thanksgiving Point through Adobe, so we got one both times we were in Utah. We played a lot of games and ate a lot of food. Steve had to work a couple of days, that ended up turning in to almost all the days we were there.
I'm not sure I could handle a butterfly on my face. Mira was unbothered.
We got to see Cassie while we were there. My kids all love her so much.
And Jules and Vance ended up bonding over Pokemon.
We drove down to St. George for a couple days, too, and Grandma and Grandpa took us to Zion National Park.
I didn't realize until later that all I could see of Jules in this picture was her hand. Haha. Grandma Frohlich genes coming through.
Steve and I also went to Midsummer Night's Dream at the Utah Shakespeare Festival to celebrate our 17th anniversary. Somehow those pictures ended up like 6 photos down for some reason.
And these are from the school year. Can I say that blogger is kinda dumb? I have no idea why these are in this order. Both Mira and Cecily got quite a few awards during the school year. From what they told me about how their schoolmates acted, I'm not surprised that their teachers thought they were the awesomest. I mean, their teachers in Utah thought they were the awesomest, too, so they must have stood out by miles here in WA.
Harrison has been a destructive little bugger since he could locomote. This is a picture of an entire roll of toilet paper unrolled and shoved in the toilet. This happened multiple times before he learned to not do that.
This is the entire bathroom flooded, though it's hard to see.
He also flushed half of his Octonauts figurines down this same toilet. It's hard for daddy to play Octonauts with only vehicles, so we ended up buying him new ones. He also flushed Steve's entire wad of keys down the toilet in the master bathroom. Remember, at that point, our house was less than 3 months old. It clogged the toilet. So Steve plunged. It was still clogged. Steve plunged some more. It was still clogged. And finally, we're told Steve compressed the wax ring enough with all his plunging and it made the drain leak and drip water through the floor into our kitchen. We had to get the warranty people out and get the insurance involved. Then we brought in the plumbers and the restoration people. It was not a cheap fix. Plus we had to spend almost $200 getting car and house keys replaced.
At one point, he learned how to open the door going into the garage. Then, since he adores cars and pushing buttons, he worked until he could open the car door on both of our vehicles. He would go in and push all the buttons he could find, turning on lights and wipers, etc. And we'd come out to a drained car battery. We tried locking that garage door, but if anyone went out to get something or go somewhere and forgot to lock it, he would find out and do it again. We probably jumped both vehicles 15 or 20 times and had to replace the battery in the Mazda because of it.
When we were in the process of selling our house in Utah, we had the carpets cleaned professionally just before our first open house. The next day, the kids and I painted something on the kitchen table with acrylic craft paint. While we weren't looking, Harrison came by and decided that dark blue paint seemed like a yummy beverage and downed probably half the bottle. He immediately threw up and the doctors office told us to just watch him. The problem is, he projectile vomited ONTO THE NEWLY CLEANED CARPET. Dark blue paint mixed with stomach fluids does not come out of carpet if you ever wondered. He was fine for a couple hours before it was bed time, so we put him down for bed. Only to wake up to find he'd vomited more dark blue paint out the side of his crib sometime during the night. More ruined carpet and bedding. *sigh*
When Cecily first got Waffle (the lizard), Harrison was fascinated and wanted to play with her. He figured out that if he pulled all the books off the shelf that Waffle's cage sat on, he would have enough height to take the cover off and reach in and grab Waffle. That poor lizard. She'd only been in our house for a week or so. The store said to not handle her for one to two weeks so she could get acclimated and not be frightened. She survived the trauma though and is still thriving today. We ended up having to put her cage up higher so Harrison couldn't reach it though.
After we got Crystal (the fish), we set that tank up in Jules' room because she was so jealous that Cecily got a pet and she didn't. We made a rock arch from sea rocks and marine glue and added fake plants and plastic dinosaurs to dress it up. About 2 days after everything was all set up and looking pretty, Harrison decided to be helpful and feed the fish. He ripped all the decorations out and pulled them apart, I'm guessing so he could see the fish better, then dumped most of the fish food into the tank. It was such a mess. And I felt so defeated. I'd just gotten the tank "cycled" and the decorations completed and he destroyed it while I was taking a shower. He never dumped food in again because we hid it, but he did rip the decorations out a few more times before we moved the tank to a high shelf in the living room.
During the middle of summer, I found this great rug at DI. It was 9x13 wool. It didn't have any gross stains on it, but the edges were yellowed, so I put it out on our covered porch under the little seating area, so it would be soft on our feet. We don't have a sprinkler system here, so we have sprinklers attached to our hoses that we leave on a timer. Well, Harrison decided to mess with the sprinkler one day while he was outside and it ended up watering our new wool rug. Which then weighed like 300 lbs and never dried making it smell terrible. Needless to say, we had to get rid of it because my $15 thrifted rug would have cost at least $300 to get cleaned professionally.
Two times he ripped the doors to our newly purchased side cabinets right off the hinges. We had to glue them back in with wood glue.
One day while we were all cleaning bathrooms, he found the bottle of Ajax and used it like fairy dust in every room of our upstairs.
He discovered early on that he could take the vents out of the floor at our new house and he found it was a great place to hide hundreds of toys.
He is such a determined kid. If he wants something, he does NOT take no for an answer. Often, he'll wait until I leave, find a way to get to whatever I told him no about--whether it's learning to stack the flour bins so he can climb the pantry shelves or get a chair to reach the thing at the back of the counter or in the upper cabinets or asking a sister to get it for him--and get it open. He's found he can open packages with his teeth, I've found him with sharp knives, I've found him pounding things with heavy objects or trying to operate scissors (which, btw, he calls wizzers--so cute!) or jumping on boxes. He's figured out that screw drivers open things with screws and where we keep those in the garage.
He is also my cuddliest kid and is so so sweet. But man, he can get into mischief.
Life is never dull with him around. That's for sure.
Cute picture of the kitty sitting on my workspace.
I found this hawk dead in the road on one of our summer family walks. What a gorgeous creature.
This photo makes me laugh so hard. Harrison often falls asleep when I drive anywhere in the afternoon. But he's really bad at keeping his head up and he cries from a sore neck when he wakes up. I found a bunch of resistance bands at the thrift store and thought I would try putting one around his head so it couldn't fall forward. But it made him make this face the whole time. Hahahaha. I had to take it off.
That photo was taken on the way to Dash Point beach. We met a friend from church and her kids there.
Here are the rest of the photos from our trip to Utah. It was hot there. Like upper 90s. Nana had an activity planned to let the kids try out making huge bubbles. They all enjoyed it a lot. But we ended up all sitting in the shade cuz we couldn't handle the heat.
My phone does this dumb thing where I'll take two pictures (or more) in a row, and the phone will randomly decided to only keep one. I didn't realize until later that it had done that for this photo. And of course it picked the one with his eyes closed.
We went to a little restaurant before going to the play. It was a crepes and sandwich shop. We both had a sandwich and a dessert crepe. They even had gluten free! I was so excited. It was one of the tastiest meals I've had in a long time. That raspberry cheesecake crepe was to die for. And the sandwich was tasty too.
Midsummer Night's Dream was SO GOOD. I've never laughed so hard at a play in my life. They really gave each character a life of their own. And the guy who turns into a donkey rocked that role. It was amazing.
We went to the Barbie movie with Camber, Cassie, Chandee, Andy, and Crysta.
Steve and I went on a date one night in September. There was a park north of Seattle that was supposed to give great views of the city. And they weren't lying. It was a gorgeous view. There wasn't much else to do besides take pictures though, so we ended up walking to an ice cream shop nearby. Delicious, fresh ice cream. We want to go back with the kids when it's warmer again.
We were invited by church friends go one day to the "chutes and ladders" in Tacoma. There were about 6 moms with kids that went, so there were about 20 kids. Chutes and ladders is a set of steps up to a bridge that goes over a narrow part of the sound. Next to each set of steps is a slide, so you can go down about 10 flights of stairs on a slide. With all the kids, there were races to see who could go up and down fastest, who could go down fastest, a remote control car that tried to go down the slides, lots of snacks, some crying over being scared, and a lot of cheering and laughing.
This photo is at the very top.
After everyone got bored at chutes and ladders, we walked/drove to a nearby boardwalk/shopping area and had ice cream and rented two of these pedal cars. We all pitched in and the kids took turns going on them. The littles fit in the front and you could have six other people in the back. There had to be someone with a drivers license in charge of steering, so the one dad that came volunteered to be a driver and the kids had the most fun with him. He made them do silly things like jump out and run around a bush, or hop up and down three times on part of the sidewalk art, or drive around in a circle six times in a row and see who would get dizzy. I wish I was that creative with my fun.
Some of the families ended up buying fish and chips instead of ice cream. I'd bought the ice cream before I knew about the fish and chips. And it was like $25 for a 4 piece basket. I was really jealous. I LOVE fish and chips. So on the way home, I bought $20 worth of cod and made made like 20 pieces of fish and chips. It was incredible. So much work, but totally worth it in the end. We'd just gotten an airfryer, too, so they were even good left over.
We had a long weekend at some point before school started. Probably Labor Day, now that I think of it. And we decided on the Monday to drive up to a local lighthouse and beach. There was beachcombing, and gorgeous flowers, and miles of driftwood that people had made beach houses/teepees out of for the kids to play in. We took a ferry, too, and meant to get some crepes. But the ferry came faster than we thought. So we went home and made crepes for dinner. It was a great day.
Two weeks after regular school started, Jules started preschool. It's been so good for her. It's improved her confidence a ton. And she's learning her letters and their sounds. She's learning to make friends and play with lots of different kinds of people. The teacher has them outside for at least half the time, no matter the weather, as well, so she's learned to not be afraid of wind or rain or cold, which was a huge problem for her earlier this year.
This was a hike we took another weekend. Old growth forest with lots of different kids of mushrooms, fun bugs, and a waterfall at the end. It's always so nice to find family outings that everyone can enjoy. Of course, Em was reluctant and wanted to go back to the car early, but we had an hour or so with everyone together being happy.
This is a coral mushroom. It's debatable whether it's edible.
This is called chicken of the woods. I ate it. It tastes like chicken and has the same texture as chicken.
We had Nick and Wilda come visit us and stay for a few days during the middle of October. Mira gave up her room and slept in Harrison's room with him. I thought their parallel sleeping positions were funny.
We took them up to Port Townsend and rented an airbnb one night. We went window shopping and bought a few souvenirs in Poulsbo on the way up. We ate small batch chocolates that were some of the best I've ever had, drank hot chocolate, and ate pastries from the local bakery purchased by Grandpa for everyone. The next day we went to the forest art museum--an outdoor, in the forest, hike with art pieces done by various artists space throughout.
We also had to go beachcombing for a little while, obviously. Mira had to steal my sweater because it ended up being colder than she expected and she didn't bring a coat. Em did the same thing. Silly kids.
For Halloween, Jules chose to be Elsa. She was very happy with her Elsa boots, new dress, and face paint. Harrison wanted to wear the dinosaur costume Jules wore last year. Mira, like I said, was Isabella, Cecily was Bluey from the cartoon by the same name. Em dressed up and went out with her friends, but I can't remember what as. If you haven't' watched any Bluey, you totally should. It's the cutest TV show. I might even watch it without my kids.
My parents came to visit over Halloween (yes, both sets of grandparents came within a week of each other), and it was so lovely to see them and have help with lots of things. Cecily wants to do a fun Halloween dinner every year, but I'm always so overwhelmed by getting costumes done and getting people to activities and such that it never happens. But Nana made it happen. We had ghost fruit kabobs, a pumpkin shaped pizza, bone shaped breadsticks, and monster soda cans. Cecily was in heaven. And my kids actually had a good meal before overdosing on sugar. Harrison did so great. He walked about 4 blocks going to every house with us. He and Jules were both tired by the end, but I have so much fun going out with them. I will be sad when they get too old to go with me like Mira and Em.
I don't remember why they earned donuts one day, but they did. And boy did they get donuts. Do you see the size of those things?
I built a sofa table over a couple of weeks in November. It was really intimidating to me, but I searched all over Facebook marketplace for one I liked in my budget and I couldn't find one. I certainly couldn't afford a new one. So I found some plans, modified them, and built this. If you look closely, you'll see all the many and various flaws. But from far away, it looks like I wanted it to.
I was out working on the table one day and heard Harrison screaming. I didn't think much of it because he has perfected the art of screaming when things aren't going his way. Which is often. Because he's the littlest. But then Jules came out and says, "Harrison hurt himself." So I hurry inside to find this. He'd apparently been running from Jules and tripped and faceplanted into the hard part of the couch. Three months later and there is still a scar there. Can you imagine having a scar on your face from something you did at the age of two? I hope it goes away eventually.
We had a quiet Thanksgiving with James and Alison. They moved out here in July and spent about a month living with us before finding their own apartment. The Nelsons went on an exotic vacation over Thanksgiving break, so we weren't able to have them around. The food was yummy and everyone enjoyed playing games and video games the rest of the day.
Also the first week of December the ward had the annual Christmas breakfast complete with a Santa room.
The second week of December, I found a bunch of evergreen branches along the side of the road and decided to make them into centerpieces for the sisters I'm assigned to minister to and our Ukrainian neighbors and Nicole. I made 4. Two are pictured below. I'm proud of how they turned out. It was a cold night in the garage making them. :D
One of the most gorgeous sunrises I've seen since living here.
The third week of December, Jules had her 5th birthday party. She wanted it Wooly Bear Caterpillar themed. We made a cupcake caterpillar and invited 6 friends over. Only 4 were able to make it, but they had a blast. Cecily helped me plan and organize it. She really loves special occasions.
Harrison had his first foray into cutting his own hair in December. I cut his hair shorter to try to cover it, but you can still see where he cut it toward the back of the top of his head. I'd have had to buzz cut it to get rid of that line.
This was Christmas Eve
We didn't get to painting our yearly ornaments until after Christmas this year. But everyone was excited to do it. In age order from left to right, top to bottom.
They found my stash of glow sticks and had a dance party one night during Christmas break.
I had to go get my eye prescription updated and these two goobers came with.
Cutest cat ever.
This is the first photo of the new year. We haven't had an ounce of snow yet, so Jules' preschool teacher got out her fake snow maker the day I was parent helper. It was joyful playing in it.
There you go. A year in the life of the Wattses in one blog post. If you made it this far, you are a champion. <3
