konichi-what?!?!

Watching this kid eat his gyoza you would never know he spent a quarter of his life in Japan.

Serious lack of chopstick skills but I admire his effort!

Ah what the heck. Thats what fingers are for anyway.

Future Missionaries

Getting ready for church...and missions

These boys make their mama proud.

Let it snow * Let it snow * Let it snow

I'll be honest, one of the deciding factors for me when we were trying to decide whether we should move to Washington was the fact that there's "no snow." Being an Arizona girl I worship the sun and HATE the snow. Looks like I was lied to.

But there's one little man that is not disappointed.

Parker camped out in the warm garage while Caleb went snow crazy

Those rosey cheeks and the hot chocolate that followed made this snow fall totally worth it.

Besties

Kiel's gone....alot.

HUGE thank you to these amazing ladies who make my life so much more enjoyable!

Mimy and Jen at our caramel apple halloween party.

Sadly missing is Carmine...basically the Grishams are awesome.

You girls are fun, BEAUTIFUL, talented, and I love that I can always call one of you to pass the time with! Thanks ;)

An organized office space surprise.

No, I'm not pregnant. Don't even think like that.

My poor husband is up at 5:30 and studies until 11 or 12 or 5:30 the next morning (like last night...) We love to have him home as much as possible, even if he is in the spare room studying.

But the spare room was more of a junk room and craft room... hardly the place for a highly intellectual thinker to think. So I thought I'd surprise my Love with something more functional for his needs.

Yikes...right??

A little trip to Ikea and a lot of creative upcycling and organizing later and

WHALAH! an office for kiel to call his own.

{Don't mind the very unorganized pile of backpacks under the desk...Eeeek!}

A little clearance fabric + ugly chair + a sewing machine =

A BRAND NEW-ISH CHAIR!

That conveniently match the curtains...

Kiel is a HUGE Dave Mathews Band fan...hence the theme of the room. On the left wall there is a big DMB poster too...The frames came with the house :)

So for the price of a little fabric, a few boxes from ikea and a white board for 6 bucks, Kiel got a functional space to help him reach his highest goals.

You can do it Love!

Bad habits

Take a good look at this little guy...

looks harmless right?? Maybe even innocent??

Wait for it...

There he goes again! Sticking his tongue out at anything and everything...totally unprovoked I might add. I have caught him sticking his tongue at me approximately 73 hours in the past three days.

Do you think he is sorry for his naughtiness?? I submit he is not. The evidence? A smile that goes straight to his eyes.

What a naughty little boy.

My Goodness!

I just LOVE these 2 little boys! I can always count on their smiles to brighten my day.

So sweet

innocent

and eager to please.

I'm one lucky mama to be mama to these 2

BEST BUDS

Recent Going Ons

What have we been up to you ask?? Now that the 3 boys are sleeping soundly I shall tell you. Mostly with pictures.

James, my practically 4th brother, flew down for a visit and while he was here

we took a ferry over to Victoria Canada.

And visited the Buchart Gardens...the most beautiful place in the world

Kiel and James spent a day sailing around Orcas Island

And walked Pike Place Market in Seattle while stuffing our faces with donuts the size of our faces

And went to a Mariners baseball game

while, again, stuffing our faces with nachos.

Caleb started swim lessons yesterday. I snagged these two pictures when he was just kicking...not kicking and screaming

Isn't my little Parker Love looking so grown up??

We inherited a grill with our house and I have been putting it to use grilling up anything and everything I can find! These tex-mex stuffed peppers were MIGHTY FINE.

The past few days have been dedicated to getting Kiel ready to start law school. Orientation starts next week and school starts the 27th. He's just a little excited.

In addition to all this evidence of fun, some of my favorite people- my family - came up for a visit and a family wedding. Although things didn't turn out exactly as planned, we had alotta fun! Like always!

And there has been something else exciting and taking up a lot of my time lately...but I don't have pictures yet so I will blog about it soon!

Although we miss our Monday, Friday, and Saturday game nights with Joseph and Mindy and Sunday dinners with Kiel's family and seeing our friends here and there, we are absolutely loving it here and are excited to start this new era of our lives. Kiel is going to do great in law school and I am enjoying every moment with my boys. Life is good!