Fun and Friends

We've only been here for 3 weeks now, but it is just amazing how many friends and cousins we have seen already. It has been so fun to see so many people we care about in such a short time. And we have plans to have more visitors soon, which we are very excited about. Of course we don't have pictures of most of the visits, but we did manage to snag a few of our fun little day trip up to Seattle on Memorial Day. We played with Oliver and Kristin who are living in Harbor Steps, just like we did last summer. Oh the memories!

What is a day in Seattle without going to Pike's Place Market and eating at our favorite little place on the waterfront - Steamers? 

It was so cute to watch Katelyn and Clara trying to look between the wood planks to the ocean water below. 

Katelyn had no quams about sprawling out to get a good view!

The kids have also been enjoying our fenced in back yard. We got a little pool for them to splash in yesterday and since it was 70 degrees outside we decided to initiate it. This is definitely not Arizona! The water was a bit on the chilly side, but they had a ball playing in the sunshine!

Warming up

They also like digging in the dirt we have around the yard and in the planter. Enjoy it while you can kids! Someday we will plant something pretty in there, and then it will be off limits! (And hopefully that fence will be all stained and beautiful after this weekend.)

Finally, this is probably the best no-braces picture that I'm going to get, so here it is!

House pictures

Okay, here are a few pictures of our new house! If I went around and took pictures of most of the rooms, you would find them to be on the empty side and without anything on the walls. But here are a few pictures anyway.....

The street view

Our landscaping

The front porch with our not-so-classy camp chairs (just imagine a nice rocking bench or something!)

Welcome Home!

One of our first purchases

My fabulous kitchen

Kitchen with Pike's Place flowers on the table

Doesn't Max (the TV) look so much more at home here?

Here's the huge master bedroom.....looks kind of empty!

And the master bathroom

That's all for now! We'll post more pictures as we get furniture and put our house together more. But we just love being here!

Happy Birthday Katelyn!

This is the second year in a row that we have celebrated Katelyn's birthday 2 weeks after we have moved to Seattle. That means that both celebrations have been a little bit lacking in the birthday decor and the party organization departments. That hasn't stopped us from having a party though!

(Lindsey has scrapes and scratches on her face and arms from about 5 different accidents/mishaps in the last 3 days. Bike crash, sliver, slips, falls and fingers getting squished at the back door. Poor girl!)

 Katelyn enjoyed trying to blow out her own candles and trying to open her presents all by herself. She is definitely entering her third year with a desire to be independent.

 And she quickly caught on to the opening presents routine. She started saying, "More Daddy, more Daddy!" after she got one open. We enjoyed a delicous pound cake with strawberries that Lindsey helped me make this afternoon. 

Katelyn has grown up so quickly! It is hard to believe that she was born in Kansas and two months later we moved to Utah for Justin's MBA. It's so crazy to think that we are through that now and have moved yet again. So much has happened in her short life. 

What a beautiful baby she was.....

And what a beautiful little girl she is becoming! We love our Katelyn!!

We initiated my new cake stand, which is really the neatest kitchen thing because it converts into a platter with a bowl in the middle and also into a punch bowl. All with what you see here. Amazing!!  

We've been to church here 3 weeks now and we gave talks this morning about reverence. It was a challenging topic, but we did our best with it. I already have a calling here. I'm going to be the Wolf Den leader (whatever that means!). I'm telling you, not having brothers growing up means that I am clueless about scouting stuff. But I guess this is my big chance to learn all about it! I'm excited to get to know the boys in the ward and maybe if I'm still there in two years I'll get to work with Brandon on his cub scouting. Fun, fun! We'll see how long Justin goes without a calling! This ward is very friendly and welcoming, so we have enjoyed our time here so far. Lots of kids.....36 in the nursery, 80+ in the primary. Lots of kids for Brandon, Lindsey and Katelyn to get to know. If there was one thing I wish I was better at, it would be remembering names!

Justin's first week at Amazon was a good and busy one. Lots to learn! But riding the train has been a great way for him to commute so far. He says that they asked him to come back next week, so that is a good sign. 

So life is busy here as we continue to organize and unpack, but we're doing very well. It is much more fun to move into our first house than it ever was to move into a rental. The process is exciting!

Our Move to Seattle

We were so fortunate to have my Dad and two sisters Cindy and Erin come along for our move up to Seattle. They helped with the driving, the kids and hauling stuff once we got there. It was so wonderful to have the help! I'm going to really miss living by family! 

Once we got to the "green side" of Washington the scenery changed. It is so green here! We just have to look at the bright side of so much rain. We're going to have to get used to it.

We took two days to get up here and closed on the house the same day we moved in (Friday, May 8th). Good thing it all worked out for us! We got some help from our new ward here in Auburn with moving the boxes and furniture in and we worked hard to accomplish as much as we could before our crew flew home Sunday. Justin and Dad were able to hang a bunch of blinds and after a few hours installed the garage door opener. The funny thing was that just about every time I walked by or went to go talk with them I heard the phrase, "Don't tell Jennifer!" Hmmmmm. Well, I guess I shouldn't be worried. They did a great job in the end!

Here are a few pictures of progress. 

Lots of boxes

And me trying to protect our almost white carpet with the wool blankets we got with the moving truck before we moved everything in the house. We've never been a no-shoes-on-the-carpet family, but with this carpet we are now!

We finally have most of our furniture in the right places now and still have boxes but are in a "liveable" state. Blinds are up in the most important places, grout is sealed, and we are in the middle of staining our fence. The to-do list is long, but it is fun to be making a home of our own! It'll take a while for us to furnish and decorate this big house, but it's so exciting because it has so many possibilities. 

We got the kids out to a nearby park Friday night after a long week of hard work. They sure enjoy the sunny days when we can play outside!

More pictures will be forthcoming as we put the house together. But besides my family who helped us get moved in, we have already had three visits from friends in the area. We would love to see any of you! We have room for visitors, so let us know if you're in town!

Moving, Maners and Tulips

It was so fun to see the Maners for graduation. We were so happy that they were able to come up. Besides the festivities of graduation we were also able to do some other fun things. We went to the new Draper temple together and had Cafe Rio afterwards. 

We took a tour of the Church's Printing Division which was really neat 

And then we saw some great things at BYU including the Student Athletic Building. The highlight of that was probably getting to tour some of the facilities for the BYU football team. We are so glad that we got to spend so much time with family!

As all of you probably know, moving is really crazy. And it is always a time when I sit back in awe of how much junk we have. It isn't until you have to go through all of it and put it in boxes that you really appreciate the sheer volume of stuff you have managed to fit in your apartment! Well, we packed it all up and got rid of a few things, which is always good. In the midst of packing we managed to get the kids out for one more fun outing before our big move. We took them to the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point, and then bowling and icecream at BYU that night. It was a fun day! Those flowers are just so beautiful and springy!

And what better way to end the tour of tulips than by rolling down this huge hill?

In this midst of all our packing, I went in to get my braces off the day before we left. Thankfully the orthodontist thought they were ready to come off, so it all worked out! I picked up my retainers the day we left, so not a moment too soon! I still don't have a good picture of my new smile, but I'll get one up here some time soon.

We were so thankful to have so much help from so many in packing, loading and cleaning. Thank you, thank you to all of you! 

2 years in 5 minutes

Here is the video I made for Justin's graduation. Enjoy!