Sardines

    Well, we have all of our stuff now. We have put as much as we can in our little 2-bedroom apartment and crammed the rest into the garage. I am gradually unpacking boxes and repacking anything that isn't something that will be needed everyday. I plan on needing to hunt things down from time to time as the need for something packed away arises. I am still missing some things so I will have to go through the boxes in the garage I thought could just be stored. We were able to fit both our black couches and white furniture in here. The white couch and the black couch and loveseat are tightly fit into the front room. The white chairs are in our room. They all took a beating in the move. Luckily we wrapped the white ones or they would have been much worse. The black ones definately wouldn't sell for what they could have before we moved. Fortunately most of the damage is in the back so you can't see it went it's set against a wall. 
   I have found that with only one car that is with Ben all day and only the bank within walking distance, for a 5 and 3 year old, that I am spending much less money. We do our shopping on Saturday only so there are much fewer impulse buys.
   I have been running still a few days a week and find it a nice way to de-stress in the evenings when Ben gets home and can watch the little hooligans that are our children. (You can keep up with my running on my running blog, but you will need to be invited, so just leave your email in a comment here if you would like to read it.)   My mom used to always say that she just didn't understand women that couldn't wait to be away from their children; she always wanted us around and there were seven of us. I think now that she has had my kids under the same roof with her for nearly a month, she understands the need to have at least an hour without them.  Don't get me wrong, I love my little boogers and do miss them immensly when I am apart from them. But they have so much energy and just can't seem to release it all no matter what they do. Thankfully, they still require naps everyday to keep them from getting grumpy during the second half of the day and they sleep for ten hours every night. They are almost always very happy and loud and very inquisitive. They have to know everything that is going on with everybody. And now they are stuck in our tiny apartment with few chances to go outside because of all of the rain we get here in the Seattle area. When they do get to go out, we have only a small common area for a yard and you can never be sure how long you will have because even when it is sunny out, it could rain at anytime. This only intensifies the effect of their energy.
I told Josi this morning that it was the first day of summer today. She was very excited and asked, "does that mean it's not going to rain all the day?"  I didn't want to crush her spirit, so I told her that it probably wouldn't rain as much. Well, I best get back to unpacking somemore.

Out and About

We didn't bring much with us to our new place and the kids and I were getting a little bit of cabin fever the first day. We decided to go out and explore the neighborhood. Our place is right at the front of the neighborhood, so we headed deeper in. The street we live on has "no outlet" and at the end we discovered this park. It has a couple of baseball fields and a lot of open area with a gravel path running through it.

The kids chased a squirrel up a tree.

It sloped up a few feet to a big black plastic covered barrier running along one edge of the parkwith a narrower paved trail right next to it. Standing on the gravel trail it looked like it was just a big wooded gully that is so common in the northwest. So, we mainly stuck to the gravel path. After a few minutes of walking, chasing squirrels and picking up rocks and sticks we noticed a space in the barrier above us, so we decided to check it out. We found a staircase and pathway leading down to the river which had been running along the barrier the whole time!

 At the end of the path was this little beach.

It is not sandy, it's just mud, but the kids still had a great time drawing in the mud with sticks.

(Note to Nana: whenever we get a chance to go to the beach, Josi wants to take watermelon. She tells me everytime she thinks about watermelon or the beach)

Here is a shot of the staircase when we headed back up. It was so fun, like a secret little path. You feel like you are in the middle of the wilderness until you get back to the top of the stairs. I decided the path along the river would be perfect for running and a few days later I went running and discovered that there are several of these little beaches along the river. Looks like it would be a good place for tubing.

On the walk home the kids dragged sticks and hands along the fences.

Wear Your Seatbelt

Thought this was an awesome video.

Awww Factor

I love living in the country. Growing up my siblings and I were lucky enough to experience lots of baby animals over the years. Being here with my parents my kids have been able to experience a little of that. At Easter, my dad bought 4 little chicks to increase his egg laying brood and allow Josi and Hyrum the opportunity for a little responsibility in taking care of them.

The kids have been enamoured by the cute little fluff balls, which have since turned into smaller versions of a full grown hen.

Early Wednesday morning some new babies joined the crew here at the Baird household. Their beagle, Aero, gave birth to 6 little butterballs. Two little girls have the black, white and brown coloring; one little girl has what they call "lemon" coloring. The other three are little boys and two of them are nearly white. They may get a little darker as they grow, but for now they look almost albino.

Here it comes.....

 "Awwwww"

Josi and Hyrum were so excited when they woke up and found them in Alysha's room (for some privacy, since Lou isn't currently using it). Josi ran upstairs to wake me, bubbling over with excitement that the puppies had finally come. She has been asking everyday for the last 2 weeks when the puppies would be coming. She has already stated that she is stealing the black ones to keep as her own.

Now, because the parents names are Beau and Aero (say it out loud) we are looking for good archery related names. We will be taking votes.  So far we have Archer, Fletcher (puts the feathers at the end of an arrow), Quiver (the case for arrows), and Artemis (goddess of hunting), Aphetoros (god of archery) or Apollo for a nickname, Bolt, Quarrel (another name for a bolt) Bodkin, Bowyer (one who makes bows), Daikyu (Japanese long-bow), Hankyu (Japanese short-bow), Gungdo (Korean archery), Nock (which to me just sounds too much like what happened to Aero to result in the puppies), Riser (handle of bow), Stave (wood a bow can be make from), Bracer (protective strap for archers forearm). Keep in mind, these names may not stick once a puppy is purchased, but at least they will have good names for 8 weeks or so. Artemis and Apollo are pretty much definites. So cast your vote in a comment!

Heard today

Josi: Mommy, I know everything about dogs. They don't wear shoes and they don't wear clothes.
Me: That's right.
Hyrum: I'm wearing clothes!

Seen and Heard today

My 3 year old walking to his room with his underwear around his ankles to change them. Then Grandpa asking, did you pee or poop in your underwear. The 3 year old searching through his underwear then saying, "I think I drop it ".

Running Blog

So Kris gave me the idea to keep a separate blog for my running. I love it. I will make it private though, so anyone that wants to be kept informed on my running just comment on this post with the email address you want it send to and I will send you an invite. I will also get rid of past posts about running on this blog, but they are all on the other one now.
(I accidentally deleted the first post, so I had to re-post this one :)

Worth 1000

She is going to kill me when she grows up, but this is one of the privileges of being a parent!

She was in the middle of changing into her jammies when nature called. I snuck up on her and was able to get this picture. This is definitely one of those that is worth 1000 words. She can't read them, but she loves to look at them because Papi does it. He actually had left these next to the loo.

Ireland in a Minute

Jayme is way better at blogging and sharing everything. I'm horrible with details and just assume sum it all up. So here is Ireland from my perspective . . .