Saturday, September 13, 2014

Moving Over ...

After a summer's worth of not blogging as much as I'd like, and then often referring people to KLC's blog to see the latest pics of our family, KLC and I have decided to merge our two blogs into one.  Plus, after more than four years in Seattle, two additional kids, a host of pets, a new family home, and more, I am no longer "welcoming future shock."  I feel like I've lived through it and I can gratefully say that this is my new normal.

So please join both KLC and I as we try our best to document our latest adventures on our family blog: http://hootnhowl.blogspot.com

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

End of the School Year

As we careen toward the end of the school year, I can't seem to find enough time to write on the blog.  That said, the kids are changing on seemingly a day-to-day basis, so I'm going to give it my best shot to document at least some of the happenings around here.


Iver has now had his second haircut.  It went totally smoothly (because I let him hold my iPhone during it.)




The girls relaxing on the floor with a little Eric Carle and Elmo.



Thankfully we've got great family friends who can help us entertain (nearly) the whole clan from time to time.



Here's our baby girl as she rapidly approaches being 6 months old ...

Saturday, April 12, 2014

April Update

This past few weeks have seen a lot going on: Stella is fast approaching the 4-month-old mark, Iver is starting to add words left and right, and the twins are reading chapter books in a day or two and started their baseball season.  Next week is spring break and, while we're not going anywhere, we're going to try for as many day and half-day trips as we can.  I'll try to write up what we do if and when we manage to get all of us out of the house.

In the meantime, here are a few random pics from the past couple of weeks in the order of youngest to oldest kids.




Monday, March 24, 2014

Working it in Overalls

There are very few (if any?) adults that can pull off wearing overalls.  Put them on a toddler, however, and you have all sorts of cuteness.  This is proven by our now 18-month-old Iver sporting a pair in these videos:

http://youtu.be/rPu-hDkD6Ow
http://youtu.be/A0lenQqNlPE

Over on her blog, KLC has a photo update of Stella's growth in comparison to her favorite stuffy and a few pics of the whole brood: http://hootnhowl.blogspot.com/2014/03/our-three-month-old.html


Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Moving

Moving is hard.  I've done it many times in my adult life, from dorms to apartments to condos.  Moving with four kids from one house to another, however, takes things to a whole new level.

If it's any indication of how much time and energy it has taken for us to pack up everything in the old house, get it into the new house, and then actually unpack most things, let's just say that our actual move date was about 2.5 weeks ago.  I've been meaning to write about this very special experience, except that every time I have a free moment I feel compelled to open a box or move something to a new location.

The good news is that we made it through.  We have accepted an offer on the old house and should -- knock on wood -- be closing on that in mid-April.  At that point, we can officially exhale and be done with the two mortgage/house/major renovation stress of our lives.  I'm sure we'll be doing projects on this new house for years to come, but at least there will only be one to worry about!

The clan, as you can tell from the pictures, is having no problem getting settled in.  (Don't ask why I seem to only take pictures when everyone is in pajamas -- it just has worked out that way recently for some reason …)





Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Iver's First Hair Cut

Looking back at photos from the fall, it's amazing how much Iver's hair has grown in a few months.  I mean, the picture we have from our pumpkin patch shows him sporting a naturally short style.

Fast forward to this winter and his hair has started to get a little unruly.  We made a less-than-successful attempt to trim his bangs, which left him with something close to the look a Canadian hockey player from the 80s might aspire to (this is not a compliment).

All of this led to the conclusion that the boy did indeed need his first (professional) haircut.  While I was sad to see his super cute curls in the back go, he now looks like he belongs to this decade.  As this sequence of photos attest, he started out curious about and patient with the whole process.  He was totally fine until the very end of the cut when the hairdresser tried to take his picture.

I wanted to end this post by showing he's happy with his new look while zooming around the tot gym at the community center -- even if his parents still miss his baby curls ...




Thursday, February 6, 2014

The Last Six Weeks

It's almost shameful that I haven't posted anything on this blog in so long because there has been so much going on.  Actually, that's exactly why I haven't been able to manage to write anything.  I feel like we get up in the morning and it's go, go, go until we are able to get to bed at 8pm (yes, you read that right.)

Let's do some updating.  With this many kids, it's helpful to have some order so we'll go with youngest to oldest.  Stella is now just over 6 weeks old and doing remarkably well.  We took her in for her check up this week and she's 11lbs and 3oz.  Yes, the girl is growing.  She's also starting to smile, which is super cute, and just becoming more aware and responsive every day it seems.

Her big brother Iver is now officially bipedal.  He figured out the whole walking thing seemingly all at once a few Saturday mornings ago.  He stood up for over a minute and then walked across the room.  As is, all the way across the room.  You can see a snippet of Iver in action -- with the twins cheering him on -- at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9Ql4Pcd9yU

The twins are doing really well at their elementary school and have started drama on Mondays after school for an hour.  They are also taking tennis lessons indoors and have been skiing the last four Sundays.  Somehow, they still seem to have boundless energy, which makes us both jealous and exhausted just thinking about it.

In case you missed it, we also won a Super Bowl here in Seattle!  It was actually a lot of fun because people got really into the Seahawks without the jaded it's-been-forever-since-we-won attitude that some Red Sox fans used to hold.  See evidence of our team spirit on KLC's blog: http://www.hootnhowl.blogspot.com/2014/02/go-seahawks.html

And, finally, we have a deadline in sight for actually moving out of this house and into our new one.  Barring some sort of set back (knock on wood), the movers will be coming on February 28th.  This means that the house will be totally finished somehow and we manage to get everything packed.  Oh yeah, and I have to fly to DC for less than a 24-hour stay the weekend before.  No problem!  I hope to write more regularly on the blog, but after reading this last paragraph, maybe I should just plan for the next entry to happen in March!