Hello, Friday!

YIKES! It's been an entire week since I last posted? Crazy! It was a busy and fast week and now I find myself trying to remember what was so busy about it!

Monday I spent most of the day trying to figure out how to make cake pops. My sister and her friend Traci made the cutest--and yummiest ones--for Easter so I decided I wanted to try them. It's a time consuming thing! I decided to make them so I could have some for moms group at our house on Tuesday morning and also for my dads birthday party on Tuesday night. They turned out a little on the pathetic looking side but they were still yummy. That's all that matters, right?!

On Tuesday there were 8 babies at our house for moms group. It was so much fun! The babies all did so good and it's always so fun catching up with all of the mamas! Such a great group of girls, I feel so lucky to be a part of this great group. Tuesday night was my dads 60th birthday party at mailto:Pie@trio. It was fun. But I'll be the first to admit, I don't like the sound of my dad being 60. And I'm sure he feels the same way. :)

Wednesday I met my friend Carly for coffee and then since my dad, Joe and bro-in-law were all gone for dinner, us girls decided to drive to Vancouver for dinner. I love spontaneous adventures!

Joe was off yesterday but it was another busy day. He had appointments, I had appointments and Liam had his SIX MONTH check-up! Drumrolll.....he's a whopping 17lbs 12oz! Or as the doctor said, a "chunk." But only 50% for weight so he's not that chunky! Give the guy a break, doc. :) We've started introducing baby food...veggies and for the first time yesterday, pears. He loves all of them. Green beans, peas, carrots.... Feeding real food is fun but definitely a change from breastfeeding. It's so much slower, such a HUGE mess...and I have stains I'm constantly trying to get out of his clothes now. Not to mention the poop changes. Ick! I miss the old poo. Feeding him real food makes the times that I breastfeed even more special. I really realize now how much I need to savor it and enjoy it...it's going to be over so fast.

Today was an exciting day. Joe met with a counselor at WSUV this morning at 9. He's going back to school, people. His employer will pay 100% tuition if he gets above a C in his classes so he's going to take advantage and go for it. Liam and I went with him this morning. It's funny, even just walking on campus made me miss the feeling of going to school. I'm sure it would change when I actually had to go to class and try to remember how to study again though!

Well, that's the week. I guess it hasn't been that busy, just feel like I wasn't home much. I think this is the first time I've actually sat down at the computer all week. I'm too lazy to blog from my phone!

Tomorrow we're going to the Woodland Tulip Festival with friends and on Sunday the in-laws are coming to visit. Oh, and it's supposed to be 72 on Sunday. Glorious!

Happy weekend!

Sweet little Liam

Jenn posted a few pictures from Liam's 6 month photo shoot on Facebook. Here is my favorite so far. Makes my heart melt!

Yesterday my sister and I went on a Vancouver run for Trader Joe's and Whole Foods necessities. We took Liam and Sophie and I now wonder, even more so than before, HOW in the world do you have more than one baby?! Oh. My. Gosh. We were both worn out out by the time we got home. I can't imagine doing that trip solo and having two kids with me! Sophie and Liam both did so good though...we are so lucky to have such laid back babies!

Joe is off today for Good Friday. It's a paid holiday where he works, how cool is that?! Looking forward to the weekend. Rumor has it it's supposed to be almost 70 tomorrow! I'm also excited to watch Sophie hunt for eggs on Sunday. The Easter Bunny didn't bring Liam anything but he dropped something off at our house for Sophie. Poor, deprived Liam! The only year we can get away with it!

Happy Easter weekend, everyone!

Perfect Tuesday

Stole this picture off of a Yelp review for Ken's!

Yesterday was the best day! The SUN was shining when I woke up, Liam and I walked the lake with Carly and Gavin (they let us walk the entire thing!) and when I got home Joe and I went to Vancouver. For dinner we met everyone at Ken's Artisan Pizza in Portland. It was sooo good! They have the best pizza! Joe and I got there first, they don't open until 5 but there was already a line of people waiting to be seated at 4:45. I've said this before, but it's a 'must try' when you're in Portland! After dinner we stopped at Ice Cream Renaissance in Vancouver. Another must try. And another 'must try' that I've mentioned before. :) Nothing like a big scoop of homemade ice cream. It was a beautiful evening and it felt so good to be out and about. It felt like the kick-off to summer and I loved it! Little Liam was a trooper, even though we were out past his bedtime.

Joe is off today and I have a big list of things I want to do. Better go get started and get #1 knocked off the list: bath time for Liam. My favorite morning activity!

Happy Wednesday!

P.S. A big HAPPY 6 MONTHS to our sweet baby boy. Since I already sound like a broken record, I'll say it again....can't believe how fast it's gone. Liam, you are the most amazing thing that has ever happened to us. Watching you grow and change so much everyday is a miracle. You have the best personality and I fall in love with you more and more everyday. I love you, I love you, I LOVE YOU! "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be..."

Our date with Sophie

Joe and I got to babysit Sophie on Saturday night. We had so much fun with her! It worked out perfectly, too. Baby "Emee" (that's what she calls him) went to bed at 6:45 so Sophie had Auntie and Aunt Joe (not a typo, she calls him Aunt now) to herself all night.

First we painted....

then we made Rice Krispy treats....
then it was snuggle time with Aunt Joe to watch Barney

and after eating a ton of Rice Krispy treats she decided to have a dance party at 10pm!

Couldn't have asked for a better Saturday night. Love spending time with her!

An amazing tribute

Yesterday was Bruce's celebration of life. It was an amazing tribute, you should have seen all of the people that showed up for it. They think there were around 700 people in attendance. Every inch of the hotel had people. After the main ceremony, everyone went outside and his dad released doves. They flew around the civic center twice and then took off to their house. It was so touching and such an emotional day. The hardest part was when my cousin Brian got up to talk. It was heartbreaking, it hurts so bad knowing how hard this is on him---and everyone else that was there. I wish I would've known Bruce more. I got to know him the most when I worked for my uncle. He would stop by in the mornings after working graveyard to visit. He always had us laughing and was a great early-morning distraction! He has touched many people and this world has lost a great person. He did not deserve what happened to him! I couldn't shut my mind off last night and was up until about 1:30am. At around midnight I decided to check tdn.com and saw that Dana's house got broken in to while everyone was at Bruce's memorial. So outraging. How could someone do that? It made me sick, especially after seeing her family yesterday and seeing first hand just how much they're hurting.

Text me!

Today is day 6 in our current cell phone billing cycle and I've already sent/received 387 texts! I knew I texted a lot but WOW. Good thing for unlimited texts!

Check out my shoes!

These itty bitty Nike's were the first pair of shoes that Liam ever got. One of my drivers at Clary's gave them to us. We were so excited when we got them. They are so adorable! Before Liam was born they looked so tiny but after he was born they suddenly looked huge compared to his tiny little feet! I thought they wouldn't fit until he was walking but Joe checked and they fit now. And this mama doesn't like it! We had to get a picture before we took them off. Something really funny about having bulky shoes with major tread when our sweet little baby is hardly still even rolling yet! :) If only they could grow with his feet and he could wear them when his feet are actually hitting the pavement!

Tuesday dinner yumminess

Yesterday I decided to use everything that I had on hand for dinner. I'm really good at buying things, using a little bit for a recipe, not using the rest and having to throw it away. Not last night! I ended up using 1/4 bottle of BBQ sauce that was about ready to expire, potatoes that needed to be used and 1/2 bag of cabbage/carrot mix I bought for our dinner on Monday. End result = delicious! I made this BBQ chicken in the crock pot. It was "fantastic" according to Joe. And he tells it how it is, so if you're looking for a good recipe, try! I added quite a bit of Tapatio to spice it up though. I had a half used bag of carrots and cabbage so I made coleslaw. Well, my version of coleslaw. A TINY bit of mayo, a TINY bit of sugar and a lot of fresh lime juice. Joe, who isn't a coleslaw fan, liked that too. Dinner success! The potatoes were roasted with big cloves of garlic and rosemary and we also had corn. CORN season is among us! I was so excited to see it in the store. Summer is just around the corner! Hope everyone is having a great week!

A funny story despite the news yesterday

Yesterday was a tough day. So much emotion, so much sadness, so much shock. I still can't believe it happened. I kept waking up last night thinking it wasn't real. If only it wasn't. I just can't stop thinking about it. How Bruce had no idea his life would end that night. The news stories and the latest TDN article really got to me. My sister and I were both hoping they didn't know it was happening, that hopefully they had been sleeping, but according to the article they were held at gunpoint. Makes me sick to even think about it. Late yesterday afternoon I made Joe go to the Grocery Outlet with me. I needed to get out of the house and we needed a few things so I figured it would be a fun place to go. Am I the only one who thinks grocery stores are fun? Especially ones like this? There are so many hidden treasures! Joe calls it the 'used food store' since so many of the things are discounted so much. Whatever, used or not used, everything I've purchased there has been good! They even have a small organic section. Anyways, as soon as we walked in a little girl spotted me and followed me around the entire time. She immediately ran up to me and barked. "Woof woof! Woof woof!" I laughed out loud and said hi to her. She said, "Hi! Woof woof!" She ran back to her mom and about every 3 minutes she'd run back to me. The second time she ran up I would ask her questions and she'd just bark answers. If only I spoke dog! I asked her where her leash was, since she was a dog, and that made her talk. "I don't need a leash, I lead my mommy around the store." Ok... She started talking more and asking me questions. What my name was, etc. Then she asked me if I'd be her friend. I said sure and she ran back to her mom and said she had made a friend. She then ran back to me and grabbed my hand. At this point, as cute as I thought it was at first, I was starting to get annoyed. I couldn't concentrate on what we needed, she was jumping up and down, talking, barking, etc. Finally I told her I had to go and we tried to lose her, not easy to do in this store. She left us alone for a little bit but we ended up checking out next to her. She ran over to me and said, "It was so nice meeting you, thank you for being my friend! I hope to see you again soon." Hahahaha. We walked out to our car and low and behold, they were parked right next to us. She popped her head out of the window and said, "Woof, woof! Hi friend! Bye friend!" She was 5 years old. Kids are so funny. I don't know if I would be able to allow Liam to run around the store clinging on to random people and barking though!

I am at a loss of words today. I had a dream last night that Joe and I were in Alaska with the entire Kamp family halibut fishing (probably after seeing Aili's fishing pictures), then I wake up and have a text from my mom at 6:30 saying, "Call me when you get this" and a text from Kristin saying, "What happened to Bruce?" I knew whatever my mom needed to tell me couldn't be good. Bruce was murdered last night. You can read the breaking news story here. So, so devastating. Much love to the Kamp family during this horrible time....

Wordless Wednesday....

Really?!

Did anyone else read this?

Local News Why straight-A's may not get you into UW this year Seattle Times Newspaper My high school English teacher posted this article on Facebook yesterday. Pretty sad that they have to accept out-of-state students with lower grades and test scores just to get money. Glad I got my degree when I did...seems like a degree is becoming harder and harder to attain.

Weekend recap

My mom, dad, aunt and uncle went to the beach for the weekend so we decided to join them. It wasn't very nice weather wise but we still had a great weekend. Joe got to fly his new crazy kite, we played crummy rummy until 12:30am (I WON!!) and Joe and I had some pretty competitive games of ping pong. He ended up winning the championship of all championship champion games though. Oh well, I'll get him next time. Liam is going to grow up loving going to grandma and grandpa's beach house and I think it's so cool. He's going to have so many fun times, we all are! The video below is of Joe flying his kite. It was SO windy, I'm not sure how he was able to hold on to it! It's such a cool kite, Joe said I was doing my roller coaster scream. It was a rush watching it. I thought for sure Joe was going to fly away with it! It sounded like it had a motor it was so loud!