Finding the Silver Linings...

Okay. So, yes, we have made it to Washington and are settling in. But it has been a long time in coming.:) So, going back to the beginning of our move, back to when we left Ithaca for Seattle.


The flight to Seattle was long but, thankfully, uneventful. The day after we flew in, we had a housing tour with a rental agent that Microsoft had set up for us. After three hours of looking at about 8 different rental properties, we actually found a house that we loved, and put in an application. We were the only applicants at the time, and we had another house we kind of liked as a back up. We were eager to start our 19 hour road trip to California and so we immediately set off that same afternoon.


After we arrived in CA, things seemed to be progressing nicely on the house. That is, until the owners of the house got involved. To make a long story short, after a week of waiting they told us they had chosen another applicant. From what our rental agent said, she had the impression that this was the first time the owners had rented the house, and I think they were just a little nervous about the whole thing. And, the more we thought about our 2nd housing choice, the more we didn't want to live there. So, we were disappointed, especially since this would mean we would have to head right back to Seattle after Christmas so that we could find a place to live. This meant we would have to cancel our trip to visit Dave's parents in Utah.

So a few days after Christmas, we packed up the car and all our belongings, yet again, and started the trek to WA. A few days later, on New Years Eve, we went and toured some more houses. Many of the houses we saw were nice, but they seemed to lack one thing or another that was on our wish list. Thankfully, when we finally got in to see a house in Sammamish, we liked it, and felt it was perfect for us. So the Silver Lining of being turned down on our first rental application and having to cancel our Utah trip, is that this house has everything on our wish list and is about 10 minutes closer to Dave's work. Things went quickly after that, and two days after seeing the place, we signed the lease.:) Whew. I was so glad to have that taken care of.


The day after signing the lease, I went to register the twins in Kindergarten, and found out the Kindergarten of the school in our community was full and so the twins would have to attend another school. The Silver Lining there is that the twins got to be in the same class and they would be able to ride the bus. In Ithaca, I loved only having just one teacher to work with and such. And if they had gone to the school closest to us, I would have to drive them in because we live within a mile of it. But since they were going to another school, the bus picks them up and drops them off right at our door step. A definite bonus.:)


One last interesting start to our time here, is that our car got broken into and our GPS was stolen. Somehow, they shattered the driver side window. What could be the silver lining in that? Well, the window of our car has not been able to roll down for a few years, which is a pain to pay toll booths, go through drive through's, etc. Since the burglar smashed that window in, the insurance company had to replace the window, and they couldn't fix the window without fixing the problem of rolling it up and down. So now our window is fixed completely, and the insurance company paid for it.


So, after a few disappointments, and a few breakdowns on my part:), we are settling in. We are so thankful things have worked out well, and that Dave has started work with a great company. One thing I have learned from these experiences, although bad things that happen don't always have silver linings, sometimes they are there if you look for them. I realize many people have MUCH bigger problems then these, and that these things are quite trivial, but I think I needed this lesson to look for the good, and not always dwell on the bad, which is what I have a tendency to do. Hopefully, I can remember.:)

Christmas 2010- California

We finally have Internet hooked up!:) Yipee! So, continuing on with this past Christmas... A few days before Christmas, we went to Downtown Disney, right outside Disneyland. Their World of Disney store is incredible. Huge. And it has so many cool Disney toys.

This was outside a different store, but Scott, of course, had to stop for a picture. He is doing his best pirate "Aarrgg!"

Then we went in Scott's favorite store, Lego, and found Darth Vader!:)

Dylan liked the Lego Woody.

Happy Boys

Dylan got a cool little Mickey Mouse light up toy.

This is the other reason (other then the World of Disney store) for coming to Downtown Disney. When we went to Disneyland last Christmas, we discovered Downtown Disney had a Biegnet place. We had these when Dave, my mom and I went to New Orleans when I was pregnant with the twins and they are sooo good. They are airy, square-shaped donuts COVERED in powdered sugar. YUM!

On Christmas Eve, we all met at my sister Nicole's house for dinner. And we also exchanged the kids presents. Here is me holding Nicole's youngest, Megan. She is such a cutie.

On Christmas Morning, the kids got up around 7 (yeah for not being too early!) and were ready to see what Santa had brought them. The day before, Dave and the kids had tracked online where Santa currently was each hour, and right before bed we even called the Santa location line, and talked to a real live person about when Santa would get to our house. Way cool!

Here is Dylan opening his new electric toothbrush Santa brought each of the kids. He knows we need good dental hygiene!:)

Scott was so excited to get some Star Wars things! Christmas wouldn't have been complete without it.

Later that day, we headed over to my brother Chris' house for dinner. My Grandma Davis and cousin Kaitlin joined us. Kaitlin was sweet to take a turn coloring with Madeline. She has three younger sister's so I am sure she has done this before.:)

This picture made me laugh. In my Dad and brother's defense, this was after they helped cook and clean up all the dishes.:)

I was sooo glad Sarah, my brother's wife, had a gingerbread house for the kids to decorate. Scott and Madeline had wanted to do one this year, and in the craziness of moving and stuff, I had forgot to get one. Thanks for letting us decorate yours Chris and Sarah!:)

The day after Christmas, we headed over closer to the beach where Dave's brother and his family live. They have a boy just the same age as Scott and Madeline. We hadn't seen their family since moving out to go to Grad school, so we were glad we could come by for a visit. The kids loved playing with their kids, and dog, after they realized how nice he was. I love this picture. The kids all got in the dog's cage, and then when he wanted to get in, there was no more room.:) Sorry, doggy!

We had a great Christmas, but we were sad we had to cut our Utah trip out so we could head back to WA to find a place to live. Hopefully we will get to UT sometime soon though.:) Next up, is our move and settling in here.

Trying to catch up...

So yes, it is now past New Year's, but before I can post anything of our recent adventures in Washington (and trust me, we have had a few, including a car break in...), the obssesvice compulsive part of me needs to post in order. So, on to Thanksgiving.:)


After debating running off to New York City to see the Thanksgiving Day Parade for our last Thanksgiving on the east coast (but after seeing we would need to be waiting in line at 6am with three kids, nowhere near bathrooms, in freezing weather, we decided it would probably not work out the way we would want...), we decided to combine Thanksgiving dinner with our good friends the Hamilton's. And I am so glad we did. We had so much fun. Plus Amy's (or should I say Aaron's) turkey looked SOOO much better then ours (they wrapped their's in BACON!), so I quickly put my sad excuse for a turkey (in my defense, I had only bought a turkey breast I cooked in the crock pot since I thought it would just be for our family), in the fridge, and we quickly consumed theirs.:) Yum-o! And, yes the kids are acting like "Turkey's" for the above picture.:)

After our calorie gorging, what's better then going to a movie?! Well, that's what we did. We took all the kids to see Tangled together. It was such a cute movie. We are already eagerly awaiting it on video.

A few days after Thanksgiving, we had our first real snow. The kids were so excited to be able to play out in the snow before moving to Seattle (little did we know, we would get it here too...for another post).

First off, they had to just roll around in it.

Then Dylan had to try out the slide. The kids loved it! It was super slippery and when they came to the bottom and fell off, it was into a pile of snow.:)

Mommy helped them build some snowmen, but with all the leaves still under the snow, they turned out like Snow/Leaf men. Fun, nonetheless.

And of course, we had to go to the Charles Dicken's Festival for the last time, since it was so much fun last year.

Here are the kids driving the horses!:) Thanks for getting up with all of them Ryan!

Picture with Father Christmas.

A few days after that, the moving began. Sad to see everything being boxed up, but SOOO HAPPY to have professional movers do it all for us this time. A big thanks to Microsoft!:)

Luckily, we were still in town to attend our ward Christmas party. Here is Dylan with his good little friend Lucy. They ran around holding hands for a good part of the evening.:) Arn't they cute?

Here is a picture with my friends Amy and Emily. Amy and their family moved the same time we did. And can you believe Emily is like, what, 5 months pregnant in this picture or something (can't remember exactly)? Seriously tiny. When I am this far along, I look like I should be delivering in the next month or so.

Picture with my friends Roo and Amy. Words can't describe how much I miss all our friends there.

After flying out of Ithaca, we flew to WA for a day, then drove down to CA (more of this later). A few hours after getting to CA, we headed over to a neighborhood by my parents house where everyone living there goes all out with their decorations. They draw quite a crowd during the holidays. I particularly liked this poster in front of one house.:)

And my mom and I liked these cute gingerbread decorations the best.

The next day, Dave and I took off WITHOUT KIDS (thanks mom and dad) for San Diego for a couple days to celebrate our 11 yr wedding anniversary and Dave finishing Grad school. It was great. No pictures though. We went out to dinner, saw two movies (one great one , Unstoppable, and one not so great one,okay, just bad one, The Tourist). We also ventured out to Target (since we had no kids) the Saturday before Christmas to buy the majority of our Chritmas gifts. Since we were flying for the holidays, we had bought zero gifts up to that point. And it was soooo much easier to do this without the kids.

After coming back from San Diego, we did another crazy thing (actually we did alot of crazy things like this that week), and met some of my cousins at the mall for lunch. Yes, we went to the mall the Monday before Christmas after all the schools had got out for the winter break.:) And this above picture of Dylan demonstates how worn down our kids were from all our moving, flying accross country, 2 day drive to CA, etc. After putting him in the stroller for about 30 seconds, he had fallen asleep. This is not typical of Dylan.:)

Well, that's all I have energy to post tonight. Next up, Christmas and then details of our begining in WA.:)

Talent Show

So, yes, I am way, way behind in posting, but I just had to share this quick event. This past weekend, Dave and I went to San Diego for a couple days and left the kids with my parents. Wonderful, I know.:) One of the days my parents had the kids was on Sunday, so they took them to church with them. In one of the classes at church, called Primary, they were doing a little talent show for the other kids and teachers in the class. My mom happens to play the piano in Primary, so she was there too.

Well, at the start, they asked for voluteers to come up and share their talent. And guess who quickly put their hands up to go up, Scott and Madeline of course! Imagine my mom's panic wondering what talent they might come up with to perform. Well, when it was their turn, Madeline decided she wanted to balence on one foot and jiggle her body around. Scott, our comedian, told some jokes. He had gone out with my parents the night before, and the cup he drank from had some jokes on it that he remembered. For your benefit I will tell them to you:

What goes on bread and flies in the air....
A "Jelly"copter!

What runs but never walks....
Water!

The best part was, Madeline had had the same cup so she yelled out the answers for him.:) Everyone got quite a laugh.:)

Bitter Sweet

I should be busy cleaning and organizing our apartment right now, getting ready for the movers to come next week, but I don't really want to. We are excited for our new adventure in Seattle, but I am still a little in denial that I have to leave here. It is hard to believe that this day is almost here.

When we moved here in August 2008, 2 1/2 yrs seemed like it was so far off, and now I look back and can't believe how fast time has flown by. We arrived here with two 3 1/2 yrs olds who had never been to any kind of school, and one 5 month old. We are leaving with two 6 yr old Kindergarteners and a 2 1/2 yr old. Most of Dylan's life has been spent here in New York.

There are so many things about this place I will miss. Grocery shopping will never be the same without Wegman's, and most specifically, their W kids play area. I will miss all the seasons, especially my favorite, Autumn. I have loved the outdoor things here, the waterfalls, and many parks, and the gorges. Our whole family has enjoyed going up to Rochester and the Strong Museum of Play as often as we can. I still have never seen a play muesuem on the same scale as that one. I will miss our ward family we have here, the kids school and their wonderful Kindergarten teacher, and, most importantly, our friends.

Where do I start, talking about the friends we will miss dearly when we leave? I think I have been trying to convince everyone here that they need to move to Seattle with us.:) We have been so blessed to live by so many incredible people here. I have made so many great and wonderful friends. There have been many times in the past 2 1/2 yrs when I have thought, these are some of the best years of my life. I will always look back on our time here with such fond memories. I know that we will make new friends when we get to Seattle, but part of me knows it will never be the same. Here, with so many of us far way from our other family and friends, your friends here literally become your family. They are the ones you laugh and cry with, and share your fears and insecurities with. They are the ones you call for help when needed. I will miss going to book groups, RS activities, Girls Night Out's, playgroups, and all the other impromptu get togethers we had while here.:) There have been many people I have gotten to know well, and others I didn't get to know as well as I would like. But I can say, everyone has touched my life in some way, and has made me a better person because of it.

So of everything I will miss about leaving here in less then two weeks, my friends and the people here are at the top of the list. For those who are still living here, for however long it may be, enjoy it while you can! And please remember to come visit us on the west coast, seriously.

Odds and Ends

Well, I have been slacking off in my blogging. Our time here is far too quickly coming to a close. And it is bittersweet, for sure. But more of that for another post....

On Halloween this year, Madeline finally lost her first tooth! I tried to get a good picture of her smiling so you could see it, but since the tooth behind it is already growing in, it is kind of hard to see. The tooth right next to it is loose too, so that one may be soon to follow. Scott still has all teeth intact, but two loose.


And the weekend of Halloween, I mentioned our good friends, the Johnson's, came to stay with us for a visit back to Ithaca. It was so much fun having them here! We got all 10 of us in our apartment for about 3 days. Luckily, we love their family and had a blast the entire time they were here.

The kids all played so well together, and the adults even got to play a game of Cities and Knights (Settlers) together after the kids got to bed. We are going to miss them loads when we move across the country from them too.

One other new event in our life, Scott and Madeline got their first report cards and I had my first parent teacher conference for them. They are doing great in school, and I am so sad to take them away from their friends and teachers. We have had such a good experience with the school here. Yet one more thing we will miss.:)

And one more thing that is noteworthy, Dave and I celebrated our 11 year wedding anniversary yesterday. To celebrate, we went out to see Harry Potter on Friday night, and then, last night, out to a restaurant Dave has wanted to try for the last two years. We have AWESOME friends who watched our kids for us while we went out. It is hard to believe we have been married 11 years already. I am so thankful for the 11 wonderful years we have had together and for the beautiful family we have. Dave really is my best friend and is the best father and husband I could ask for.:)

Halloween at the Harker's

We had a great time this Halloween! A few days before the big event, our good friends, The Johnson's, came and stayed with us for the weekend (pictures of that coming soon...). And the Friday before Halloween we all headed to a party thrown by some friends from our church, The Cobb's. It was a Cobb-web party. Cute, huh? It was incredible!



They really went all out with the decorations, games, and food. It was a costume party, and it was kind of required to dress up, so even Dave and I got into it this year.:)

For one of the games, the kids had to stick their faces in whipped cream and fish out gummy worms. Dylan tried it out first, with no success. Then Scott tried it, with no success either. Finally Madeline did get one out, but then quit before finding the other two. I guess they only like getting all messy when it isn't allowed and encouraged...:)

The next night, Halloween Eve, was our church's family Halloween party. Here are the kids before that. Buzz Lightyear, a Cowgirl (I convinced her of that one by telling her she could bring her horse pillow pet around everywhere), and, of course, Anakin Skywalker (does that boy talk or think of anything else?).

And yes, here is a picture with the parents. I am a rodeo girl (Madeline is holding my stick horse prop, which, incidentally, she was begging to use instead of her pillow pet. But I thought it would look a little too silly if I carried around her pillow pet rather then the horse on the stick...). And Dave is a Rocker, complete with toy guitar, studded wrist band, and long crazy hair.
After this night, he did inform me he never wants long hair since it was getting in the way and into his food all night. Whew. What a relief he gave up on that dream:) We hope everyone had a great Halloween this year too!:)