FEBRUARY's PHOTO A DAY CHALLENGE

I'm doing this. 

(Just in case you didn't catch my drift...)

Starting tomorrow!

   

Just a bit of eye candy!

I don't post about my sweet guy enough...

Sometimes I'm a little snap happy and I just like to take pictures of my kids doing their daily things because let's face it-- they're pretty adorable! I just don't ever want to forget how tiny and sweet they were at this age. I know this time is shortlived and soon they're going to want to play in dirt and make my house a mess and I'll probably be too busy chasing them around with a hose than taking pictures but I vow to try!

   

Ryan is pretty much the best baby ever. He just laughs and smiles all day long and only cries when he wants to be fed or put in his bed. I love love love our cuddle hour --8-9ish pm each night after Tristan goes to bed, we just cuddle and stare at each other and laugh. it's pretty much perfect.

Cabin Fever

You probably heard.

Seattle got snow.

So, as you can imagine-- we all ran for cover and holed up in our homes immediately. Or at least I did. Husband seems to think that the Jeep is Superman and has been running errands and going to work as though there isn't a 6 inch layer of ice out there.

Dutiful Hubby getting the car ready so we could go to church
(This was an hour after the first snowfall)

Mehhh.

It's been FOUR days that we've been holed up inside with no storytime, no Kidz Bounce, no Target, no playgroup...NADA. NOTHING. We went outside the day it first snowed and there was like an inch or two and Tristan just waddled around and then I was freezing so we came back in and we haven't left.

This is what we've done:

• Watched Mickey Mouse on repeat until I couldn't take anymore Hot Dog dancing

• Tristan and I picked out his 2nd Bday party outfit. (I spent hours on Zappos.com and said Tristan! I'm getting you this, you like? And he laughed which means yes ;]) Are you curious what I picked? 

and these kicks:

Eric likes the blue/I like green. TBD.

• We watched Lion King on Sing-A-Long Mode..and we sung (and danced) along.

• We played some of my favorite old school music videos online (taking advantage of being some of the few in the area with power) 

• Got lots of tummy time play with RyRy-- he's getting so good at rolling both ways!
• Built the ultimate leaning tower of Mega Blocks.

For those who have never been in Seattle during a snowstorm, you might think we're dramaqueens...until you're in a snowstorm in Seattle. And then you'll be stuck at home (or on the side of the road if you really are that ignorant) gazing out the window at 3 or 4 inches of snow when BAM! Your power goes out. Then you're suddenly freaking out about how you're going to make dinner, take a warm shower, straighten your hair, watch your episodes of Greys Anatomy, charge your cell phone, check your facebook-- oh yeah and stay warm for the night since it is snowing outside afterall!

We were EXTREMELY fortunate to not lose power this year- it literally went out ALL around us but we did not get hit. Back in 2006 when we lost power right before Christmas for about a week, it was extremely hard to function! I remember my friends and I driving around all day trying to find places to charge our phones and stay warm until we realized we were almost out of gas and no gas stations were open. We ended up finding one 20 miles away and BARELY made it. We took showers at the Bellevue Club and stayed out driving as late as we could until we finally succumbed to cuddling up on the floor in front of the fireplace at a friends house. I can only imagine what kind of nightmare it must have been for those with small children. I have never been more thankful for power!

The ice was so heavy on the trees the branches were touching the ground--
these branches are usually higher than the fence!!

Our trusty jeep that got Eric to and from work everyday

The fresh snow on about 2 inches of ice that was covering 4 inches of snow.

Can't wait for all the snow to melt! I really am getting old... never thought I'd wish for the snow to go away.

Adios... Renton!

What could be a better way to kick off a New Year and new changes than... a new house!!

Oh, and a new city!

After a year and a half at our very first rental home (as a family I should say), we are saying good bye to Renton, which is not so sad at all but we are sad to leave our ward. No matter how many moves we make or how many wards we end up in, we will never forget the Tiffany Park ward! How could we? Amazing people.

What city are we moving to, you ask? Covington!

While we have had made some amazing memories and some of the most life changing things have happened for us in Renton, I could not be more excited to leave this city. In honor of our little home in Fairwood, we're going to take a little trip down memory lane...

In this home we celebrated Tristan's 1st Christmas:

The Missionaries came a knockin' on our door:

Tristan took his first steps:

and then a few months later we threw Tristan a Cookie Monster themed party for his 1st birthday!

The following day we found out that baby # 2 was a BOY!

(This is me texting everyone I know that it was a boy...I was so sure it was a girl...

ps. Look how excited T is that he's going to be a big brother!)

Mr & Mrs Thompson celebrated our first wedding anniversary!

(That's Tristan under the towel... we love him so much we took him on our date)

and then a few short days later...

We welcomed Ryan Joseph to the family!

We will miss the memories we created in this house and we are sad to leave our friends but we could not be more excited to begin a new chapter in our lives. 

We will be signing a 2 year contract at this house and hope to create plenty more memories in the next 2 years. We also hope that this will be our last rental home! Knock on wood :)

Seriously.

Don't jinx us.

Can't wait to post pics of the new house! We move February 1! :)

Kidz Bounce

Okay, so a lot of my fellow LDS Mama friends have been asking what Kidz Bounce is and I keep explaining it and I'm sure some people probably think I'm crazy to take my kid to a bouncy house every single week.

Here's the basics:
It's an old warehouse that has two separate rooms full of bouncy houses/ bouncy slides. It's for ages 2-10, and kids under 2 are FREEE (with sibling). So that means we pay 7/a week but you can buy a punch pass and save like 5 dolla, but I don't. Which I should. With that said, next time I go, I'm going to do that.

The reason it is awesome? Well they mainly do events and birthday parties and that's pretty sweet and all, but the best part is that Tues, Wed, & Thurs they have Drop-In's where anyone can come and bounce (this is where the $7dolla/ages 2-10 come in). If you've ever met a toddler, you know that bouncing is a pretty awesome thing to do, and it's a sure fire way to get that nap in once you leave.

For me, it's a nice way to get some one on one time with Tristan and get together with some of my Mama friends. On days that none of my friends are available to meet us there then Daddy will come with.

This past week, we really wanted to be able to start attending the playgroup that some of the Mama's in our ward put on so we switched our usual day from Thurs to Wed. Thurs are SO SO Busy so it was super nice that there were still kids to play with but not nearly as many! Tristan is kind of a loner anyways so he doesn't really care if there are kids there anyways, but he was super excited that we got the slide all to ourselves. Tristan just recently learned how to climb the ladder by himself and it takes him quite awhile so it was awesome that we weren't clogging the line :)

T's first bike!

Like I said earlier, we are very determined to achieve our goals this year! So we kicked this year off right and started checking things off our To Do Lists and takings steps towards achieving our goals.

First on the list, buy Tristan his first tricycle: CHECK!

How many Lightning McQueens does one kid need?

Tristan, in a nutshell.

RyRy supporting his big bro 

Always so difficult about things on his head...