all about us.

oh, come on. are you even surprised? ;)

our new location.  :)  it's about 5 minutes from adam's work, and 1 minute from the school.  adam has been commuting about 2 hours round trip every day, and it gets wearing on all of us, not to mention the cost of gas!!  So, as much as we'd love to stay in gig harbor, moving to poulsbo is a better option for us.  we'll be getting in to the house around the beginning of august. 

street view... can't wait to see those trees in the fall!

oh, and a recent family pic.

mmmm....

 the iced coffee idea was a good one :)  and how cool is ths hard plastic/dishwasher safe iced coffee cup!?

ah, summer

summer weather has officially been here since, well, the beginning of summer!  :)  temps are consistantly in the upper 70's and mid to high 80's, and it's been so lovely.  the air conditioner has been on quite a bit since our upstairs can easily get up to 90 degrees, and 100 if the sun it hot enough.  i went outside this morning to enjoy my coffee, and was met with a blanket of warm air.  i think i'll be making iced coffee from now on! :)

 as i sat outside, i was treated with views of newly formed butterflies (wondering if any of them are the caterpillers we saw in our backyard), dragonflies floating about (how cool are dragonflies??), and i even watched a woodpecker, with it's bright red head, fly from tree to tree trying to find something worthy to peck at. then there are the robins and bluebirds, everpresent, flying and twittering about.  There is so much activity to be found if you just sit back and observe.  i love that.

 my babies found their way outside--- isn't that always the way?  wherever you are, they end up there too :)

he kept lifting his shoe to hide behind when i tried to take a photo, the stinker.

all by myself

i'm watching reruns, sipping wine, and blog-surfing.  adam's working huge overtime this weekend.  poor thing. a 16+ hour day on a saturday is no fun.  he keeps sending me photos of the progress they are making.... i think i'm glad i am here and not there ;)

"camping" in the backyard

 

sweet

My first L-series lens has arrived.  Oh, it's beautiful.  So, so beautiful.  Adam decided i was in serious need of some better equipment, not to mention the fact that it's been 2 years since i have added anything to my collection.  He sold his beloved cymbals -- he doesn't have his drum set anymore, but he was going to keep the cymbals until his next set.  In the end, i guess he decided i needed the lens more.  It was all his idea and everything.  Isn't that amazing?  He's my #1 fan, and i couldn't be more grateful. 

breakfast conversation

So, ashlyn made their breakfast this morning--waffles torn into sticks with syrup on the side for dipping.  i came out of my room just as the syrup finished warming in the microwave.  surprisingly enough, there was absolutely no mess whatsoever (not even a drop of spilled syrup), and the plates looked as if i had made them.  i was impressed.  So, ashlyn calls ben for breakfast, and as he walked in, i told him that ashlyn made everything.  From that point on, over the next 5 minutes, the conversation was as follows (i seriously stood there writing it all down, b/c it cracked me up)

Ben:  "oh!  Well done, ashlyn!"

Ashlyn: "thank you."     "Mmmmm.... this is delightful."

Ben: "Ashlyn, this was so nice of you to make these. (*sigh*) i love you."

Ashlyn: "i love you too"

Ben: "you always make the best food"

(a couple minutes go by and they are finishing)

Ben: "MMMM, delicious! i love you."

(he gets up from the table)

"Ashlyn, my tummy said, "Wow!!"

Ashlyn: "because it loved-ed the food?"

Ben: "yep!"

:)  lol

scott

my brother in law, scott, has been up here visiting for the past week. after he saw ben's birthday pics, he wanted me to take some of him playing his guitar. 

ben snuck in this one.  he put his hand on scott's leg and just tapped it to the music.  i love how scott smiles at him.  Scott seriously adores our kids. 

and then, ashlyn biffed it on the concrete.  her knees were in pretty bad shape :(  good ole' scotty took pics. lol.

love these. 

5 years ago, my boy was born. my heart was never the same.

(color issues have been fixed.  yay!)

 I don't think i can possibly sit down and find the right words for what i feel.  Find the right words to describe this amazing, hilarious, happy, joyful, and loving, little boy.  i don't think anyone knows him the way i do.  face it, i'm with him every waking hour!  i hear all of his one-liners... the one-liners that have the ability to stop me in my tracks and crack up.  i stare at him and wonder how he comes up with this stuff!  He's the little boy that is SO excited and truly thankful for everything you give him.  That boy will thank you with all the thanks in his little heart.  you feel his appreciation.  And he won't stop at that.  he'll thank you about 3 more times during the course of the day.  i'm not just talkin' toys.... i'm talking even things like new toothpaste!  He's the kid who will be in front of someone in line, and will just look at them for a minute and he will just HAVE to know what their name is.  he has to tell them his.  he wants to talk about what is exciting to him at the moment, and he wants to know all about what that person can say in the two minutes they have together.  And his victims?? they have amusement written all over their faces.  They laugh, smile, and just talk and joke with him.  The other sunday we walked in to church, and his comment was, "i hope there are people here that i don't know! so i can meet them!"  That is him. to the core.  it stretches me to get past my shyness on a different level, i tell ya!  But man, i would not have him any other way.

That kid, stole my heart.  I am so darn lucky and blessed to have him. 

This morning, i had the usual balloons all over the living room floor to greet him when he woke up.  He has moved them all into his bedroom :)  i just made birthday pancakes for him, and today will be pretty chill until we go up to Chuck E Cheese tonight at his request.  He opened my parents' gift to him yesterday over the video phone, and he got a ton of new "Cars" cars, some clothes, some beginning to read books, magnets, a puzzle, CD case, and some CDs.  no photos of that, since i was holding the video camera for my parents to see better.

 

  

i really didn't aske them to do this in these next two, but i loved the way it looked! 

wow

  words cannot describe how FAST this school year went.  When ashlyn started back in August, and my routine of 5 years was interrupted by having to get up in the morning at a specific time, get dressed and drive my daughter to school.... i admit--after a week of that, i thought, "this is going to be a looong year.  a long 18 years, at that!"  But no.  this year sped by like nothing i can explain.  Ashlyn has blossomed beyond even my mama imagination. She has become so confident in a lot of ways.  She was at the top of her class in everything.  Her teacher said to me, " ashlyn is the perfect child.  i told my husband the other day that if i had to pick what a perfect child would be, it would be ashlyn."   what do you say to that?  every teacher i talk to says that she is so well rounded.  she is such a good classmate and friend, she's inquisitive, she's a good listener, she excels in art, she learns fast, she can be independent, she helps, etc, etc.  i am just so proud of her beyond words. 

 Ben and i went down to the school about 45 minutes before it was out... just to hang out and take some photos.  When she saw me (they were walking from one playground to another), she RAN and yelled, "MOMMY!!!  MY MOMMY IS HERE! THIS IS MY MOMMY!!!"  :)  nothing like feeling welcome :)  She would introduce us to anyone she could.  She showed me all the things she could do, and she helped Ben and showed him around.  It was just way too cute. 

 And so ends Kindergarten.  She's been saying all day, "Mommy, i'm a FIRST grader now!"  so excited :)

2.5 months till Ben's turn.  Let's not think about that though.

:)

title. ;)

i know my mom and dad are dying for some recents of the kids.  i really haven't been taking a ton of pics lately, but we played around yesterday while dinner cooked.  so, here are a few snapshots of them :)  2.5 more days of school... once summer vacation is here, i'm sure that camera will be out a little bit more!

i was going for a photo of his profile, but at the last moment, he turned to me and said, "are you taking a picture of my cheek??"

making silly faces b/c there is a camera pointed at him.

he wasn't the only one.  i think this was her version of having "attitude". ;)

her new favorite thing is to "build her muscles" by hoisting herself up and holding the pose for awhile.

she got her camera out and took some pics.  she obviously found one she enjoyed. lol

 

and some random outside ones from yesterday as well. 

the first roses are starting to bloom.  i had forgotten how many rose bushes there are back there.  they were just stumps from thier Fall trimming, and now they are huge and blooming.  crazy how fast it happens.

blackberries starting to form.

the light was so pretty!  you can't see it here, but on the bottom right leaf, there is a spider crawling on the opposite side, highlighted by the sun.  if i zoom into 100%  i can see it perfectly. it kind of made me feel itchy and paranoid while i was out there. lol.

playing with my aperture.  i absolutely love shooting wide open (i did on all of these). 

and this:  i'm venturing out from only drinking white wine, and diving into red... it's a slow process for me.  but i'm working my way up the ladder.  I'm really liking pinot noir.  A glass after the kids go down and adam and i are watching netflix or hanging out is always a treat.

early father's day gift

ack!  i know!  i know i haven't blogged in awhile.  life is busy, and i've really taken no photos to speak of. it happens sometimes :)

 anyway, i recently saw the coolest photo arrangement on a blog i frequent, that included a TTV treatment to the photos. i immediately got it in my head to do a similar thing for adam's father's day gift.  tara did 9 20x20's, but i had too many photos that i liked, so i made it into 12 9x9's.  i printed them at 10x10 and trimmed off the extra.  Ikea had "clips" 9x9 frames in packs of 2, so it worked out nicely.  i just got them put together and up on our bedroom wall. I LOVE it!  sorry about the nasty glare... you get the idea, i hope!

 

3 hour tour

 on sunday, we had reservations to rent a boat down at the harbor.  the day looked kind of dreary, so we just hoped that it wouldn't rain on us. but just as we started heading down to the harbor, the clouds broke apart and the sun began to shine.  we had blue skies for the rest of the day!  we were out on the water for 3 hours, and had so much fun.  it's so relaxing and beautiful!  we even saw a little seal pop it's head out of the water at one point.  i didn't have my camera in my hand, unfortunately :(

again, forgive the oversharpened, junky quality.  i'm really disappointed with typepad's new system.

 

dear person who is selling this house, we do not have 4.8 million dollars, but if you would let us just have it, we promise to take really good care of it and love it as much as you have.  thank you.

(man, this house is amazing.  we've always admired it, and when i saw it was up for sale, i found the listing and looked at the virtual tour.  um.... yeah.  way custom. way cool. i feel sad for the sellers!)

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on monday, we had a BBQ at our house with old and new friends.  A couple that Jesse and Bethany knew from their small group in SD moved up to Silverdale recently (about 30 min from here), so they came down to hang out.  They are currently raising money to be missionaries in Spain, so we are bummed that they aren't going to be around very long.  We also had Ryan, Amanda, and their kids come down.  It was so much fun to have everyone over.  Adam grilled up some chicken and corn on the cob, and after the feast, we set off a bunch of fireworks that Jesse had Ryan pick up on their way over.  the kids loved it, although i guess it was kind of loud for ben, b/c he had his hands up to his ears most of the time. lol.  Some neighbors heard us, and decided to pop in the backyard to hang out for a bit and watch. 

              

friends, food and seattle... without kids. aahhhhhh.... :)

   yesterday was such an awesome day.  Some friends of ours, jesse and bethany have come to visit us for the weekend.  yesterday was supposed to be overcast and rainy, but God smiled down on us, and we had gorgeous, sunny, 80 degree weather instead.  we got a babysitter for the day, and the 4 of us drove up to bainbridge island and had lunch at a great little waterside restaurant called Doc's Marina Grill.  that was heaven. i want to live there now. lol.  anyway, after lunch, we got on the ferry and went over to seattle.  we drove up to Redmond to visit the Mac n Jack's brewery (adam's favorite beer.... it's only served in restaurants here in washington, and a few places in oregon and idaho. they don't bottle it).   After we finished there, we went back down to seattle to show jesse and bethany the marketplace.  we went into the Original starbucks to get some iced coffees (by that point we were boiling hot. had to cool down), and we sat down and "people-watched".  it was quite interesting at times, let me tell ya!  (side note: bethany even thought she saw a google car drive by with a camera on top.  their newest feature on google maps is called "street view".  it's darn cool... i can look up our old rental house in san diego that we had before we moved to WA, and it's on street view.  you can zoom in to where it looks like you are walking down the driveway.  it's pretty wild.  SO.  seattle doesn't have it yet, and we think the google car was driving by to get footage at pike's.  how cool would it be to see us sitting and drinking our starbucks on street view when it comes out for seattle!?? )

anyway, we stopped in at rocky mountain chocolate factory and got some chocolate covered strawberries, b/c they do them so amazingly, that i can't help myself.  adam and jesse stopped in at McCormick and Scmicks to have some oysters on the half shell and some clams.  bethany and i just watched..*shudder*

 we had a fun time.  and, in proper erin form, when i am having fun, my camera rarely comes out. i'm always mad at myself the next day. that's ok.

 today, we have a boat rental set up for 2:00.  SOOOO excited.

um, not sure what is up with typepad making these pics look super weird, over-sharpened and funky? gross. but it'll have to do.

 

grandparent eye-candy

whew!!  i have a lot of photos to blog.  We've had glorious weather here, so we've been outside as much as possible!!  i would have paired these photos down a bit, but i figured my parents haven't seen their babies in 6 months, and still have 2 months to go... so... why not post a lot? ;)

this is thursday after school

 

i can't imagine how big those trees must look to them.

playing with daddy's racquets

more flowers have bloomed

love the light

that night, adam BBQ'd.  we made homemade burgers with cheddar, gouda, avocado, and then other little things separate to our tastes.  i had tomato, he had cajun seasonings or something like that.  we also grilled corn (not seen, as i ate it before my burger was ready! hehe). YUM. our favorite.  i topped it off with lemonade.

so, as we were putting the kids to bed, i saw this on ashlyn's window.  i thought it was so funny.  who knows what the storyline was there!

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yesterday, my friend angela and i went down to the beach.  ashlyn was in school, which is why you will only see ben here!  it was a beautiful day, and it was a cool location b/c you could see the mtn range and Mt. rainer in full view to our right.  i didn't really get a photo of it, though.  it was super warm, and it was nice for a slight marine layer to come over us... gave us a break from the beating sun, but it still stayed really nice.  ben had such a blast.  he threw rocks in the water, he watched the little waves roll in and out, he went in and out of the maze of logs that have washed up on the shore, and he even joined in with some college guys in a game of frisbee :)  they were so nice to him.  they would talk to him, let him retrieve their frisbee, and one guy even got down to his level and showed him how to throw. ben still threw it backward. lol.  i didn't get a picture of that.  i think my camera was away at that point.

i thought this was cool.  a sailboat, a ferry, and a fishing boat.  these waters get a lot of traffic in nice weather!

i love him. puff-ball hair and all. :)

i met angela when i was in 3rd grade, when her family still lived in san diego.  Her sister and i were friends, and i remember walking angela to her classroom when she was a 1st grader. That's almost ashlyn's age! Her family moved to washington when i was in the 7th grade.  they are why i know gig harbor.  i used to come visit every summer i could, and i fell more in love with it the older i got.  It's such a strange thing to have ties to the past when you live so far from everyone you know and love.  Her family is my second family.

                                                                             mama,  please stop taking my picture!!

 

look at the lines in the photo.... i love how the water and tree line match up perfectly.

by far, this was the coolest washed up branch.

i took some pics of angela's baby girl... she was so cute in her little dress!

beach beauty

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what to do when you want to cool off? run in sprinklers, of course!

i'm a sucker for sun-kissed faces!

Popsicles in the shade :)

hmmm.  48 photos in this blog.  not too shabby. lol.

a couple quotes

today was SUCH a nice day.  will post pics as soon as i go thru them.  anyway, Ben says this to me as we sat outside, " ahhh.. the sun is shining, the bees are buzzing, the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing, the frogs are ribbiting... what a beautiful spring day!"  He's so BOY, but when he says stuff like that, i die of love.

ashlyn: "caeden drew this for me.  he likes me. a lot of people are starting to like me." 

that was this morning.  tonight, i asked her who liked her, and she named them off (4).  i asked how she knew they liked her, and she clamed up, saying she was embarrassed.  i told her this was the fun stuff we can talk about, and she said, "this is not so very fun!" and she laughed a bit, throwing the covers over her head.  *sigh*.

independence is breaking through

  6 years old must be the helpful/independent age.  i woke up to find that ashlyn had already fed herself and ben breakfast, she had dressed, cleaned her room, and by the time i stumbled into the kitchen to make coffee, she was brushing her teeth (while ben read to her). i think i like this ;)

 

after she was done brushing, they decided to read the book together... each of them reading every other page.  it was so darn cute.

starting the day

This morning, ashlyn took it upon herself to make me breakfast in bed, along with breakfast for everyone else.  i was woken up this morning to a bowl of yogurt, granola, and a drizzle of honey (my fav breakfast lately) set on my nightstand.   The fact that i didn't have to make anyone breakfast was just such a nice break... i think this is the first time i have ever felt pampered by a child on mother's day, since they've been a bit too young in the past.  She even tried to make me coffee, the sweet thing.  i ended up just showing her step by step how i do it.  if i would have let her continue her own way, i would have had yesterday's grounds floating in today's cup. lol.  i was just blown away by the thoughtfulness of her actions, and she was just beyond proud of herself.... i could tell she felt very grown up.

After breakfast, she presented me with the goodies she made at school.  a book all about mommy and a little potted flower.  it's only 7:30am, so i'd say this day is off to a good start.

happy mother's day to all you mom's out there... especially my own!!  call you later, mom :)

tooth fairy fun

So, ashlyn dropped her tooth down the sink while trying to wash it off yesterday morning (oops... the tooth fairy was super busy the night before, and didn't quite remember to leave money).  She was SOOO upset, and adam told her he'd try to get it out after work. Well, we ended up going on a date to the Mariner's game kind of last minute, and adam didn't have time to fish it out.  instead, the tooth fairy wrote a note to tell ashlyn that she found the tooth in the sink, and stuck the note in the tooth pillow with the $1.   This morning, ashlyn came in to tell me that the tooth fairy left her a note, and that she wrote the tooth fairy back (how sweet is that?).  this is the note.  (i love how she wrote money....muny with a smilie face in the "u")