Osterbrunch....aka Easter Brunch

Stefan helping Luke find....umm...most of the eggs?

Die besten Ostern ist auf die Vatheuer Haus! Which means, The best Easter is held at the Vatheuer house! My husband’s cousin’s husband (would that make him a 3^rd cousin???) is German, so I had to make a go at it since they were the gracious host for Easter. They have the most incredible property for gatherings. Their house is surrounded by trees and the whole place has this magical Never Never Land feeling. The kids have so much fun walking down steep hills (super, glad there’s a doctor in the family), stomping in the creeks (change of clothes), tromping around the wooded 5 acres (have you seen my son?) and have even found a bear skull (oh my!). It’s FABULOUS!

This is our 2^nd Easter at their Haus (I know that word is right!) and I have to say I hope this tradition sticks forever! Not only because their home is beautiful (and I secretly hope they'll offer to trade houses ;-), but because I think it is so important to have family traditions. I grew up in Washington with my mom's family in California and my dad's family in Illinois. I don't know if I would make it past my fingers to my toes to count how many times I spent a holiday with extended family. It makes me very sad to have my family strewn all over the country and I am so thankful to have Shaun's family local. I know Spencer and Isla are going to enjoy having cousins, Aunties, Uncles, great Aunties and the whole bit to grow up with. 

Here are some (not so great) pictures from the day. I'm noticing my photography habit has slowed down quite a bit since having two kiddos under 3 seems to occupy my time and mind every second. I forgot how much I use to love to photograph all of our family events. I was always SURE to get a group photo. As I look through old photos I realize my photo taking slowed way down after Shaun’s mom passed away. It’s sad I have missed these group shots and I know if Ann was still with us she would be the driving force alongside me. In honor of her I vow to make my best effort in getting the "Group Shot" and hopefully many more photos. I added a pic of her and Daniel that was taken right around Easter the last year she was with us in 2005, I like to think she is still with us in spirit.

Candy and Bill, and adorable Josie

Spencer on the prowl for some eggs

Jeannie, Ruby and Josie

Stefan and Luke with ALL the eggs! Haha, we forgot to put a limit on them ;-]

Uncle Jim and baby Isla

Daniel and Ann...April 26th 2005. We miss you Ann, everyday, and especially now.

Bath buddies

Bath time is one of the highlights of our day, especially when we have a friend over to play with in the tub! Here is a pic of Spencer (2 years old) and Trace (1 year old), the son of my longtime BFF Tamara Eberl. Tamara and I have been buds since the 1st grade......which is...ummm.... about 24 years? Did I do that math right? These days I have a hard time remembering how old I am! HA!

Anyhoo, I just can't believe we went from pen-pals to bath buddies. What a fantastic ride it's been, Tamara. I am thankful each day that we have stayed in each others lives and can now enjoy watching our families grow together. :-)

PS Notice Spencer has a black eye and some other random bruises, and so does Trace! They are SURELY going to be the best of friends!!!

Daily Brights

Hello blog readers! I have moved my blog..... please visit www.dailybrights.blogspot.com

My old blog won't become a dead link for a while, as I know there are people out there (like old me) that blog once in a blue moon.

Terrible Two's Tulip Trip Tuesday...

 Well, it was actually Wednesday, but Tuesday sounded more magical ;-]. The Tulips were beautiful, as always, but not as impressive as in years past. I heard the late rains caused the short fall? The mud, of course, was in full force! Here's our trip in a nutshell: 2 hour drive up, 5 minutes out of the car and Spencer is in a mud puddle, 15 minutes later in the car, and we are headed home, for a long miserable two hour ride home. Poor Spencer, he is just having a rough time...er, rough year?! I'm hoping this will pass, or at least improve as I just want my boy to be happy and enjoy the world. Maybe next year we'll get to enjoy the tulips, lunch at La Conner with friends and some incredibly large tires to play in :-)

We're stuck.

Just past the sign that reads "Do Not Pass This Point"....of course my son must be able to read, so he runs as fast as he can.

How deep is this going to get?

Wait for it......I'm gonna jump!!

It's a blog blog world...

I had no idea how much of a blogger world it was! In my glory days of pre-kid I blogged for fun, almost everyday. Probably because I was really good at "working hard at hardly working"...and sat in front of a computer all day...lol. I just started google reader and realized so many of my friends are lame and don't update their blog....oh yeah, I am one of "those" lame-o's. I promise to not be lame anymore and blog...even if it's about nothing!

Anyhoo, My dear friend, let's just call her Hollywood ;-), has introduced me to the most amazing blog world and ....wait for it....pinterest!!! This website is the best find of the year for me thus far! If you haven't seen it be sure to check it out! Thanks Hollywood!

http://pinterest.com/

Bigger is Greener, or not?

As I tip toe from Spencer's room to our room, where Isla is sleeping in the bassinet, and the wood floors squeak (which echo’s through the baby monitors around the house), I think about the ultimate question.....is a bigger house better? Or just thinking the grass is greener on the other side? Our house is 1000 square feet- YIKES! I bet you didn't know they made houses that small in King County- wha wha. :-/
We have 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, 1 car garage, and a good sized yard for city living. Since Isla was on the way we moved Spencer into his big boy bedroom (my old office/craft room), girl-ized his old room for our new baby girl, magically fit our desk into our bedroom (it looks just like the bedroom in our first apartment together), squeezed some of my craft stuff into an armoire in the living room, and stuffed the rest into the attic. We are literally busting at the seams! I feel incredibly unorganized because everything in our house is so packed nothing feels like it has a permanent space.

With the market DOWN (really DOWN), and interest rates still low, of course, like everyone else, we are looking at houses. Especially since I'm a realtor, I am searching the MLS multiple times a day. Along with my searches, I ask myself, daily, if the grasser would REALLY be greener on the other side....or in other words, would a big house REALLY solve my feeling that I spend the days with a crazy toddler in a padded cell. The logistics to it all tell me that A) we live in Washington, where it rains 9 months out of the year, so B) indoor spaces on a grander scale have to improve the day to day activities....right? Am I wrong? I always feel like the best play dates and parties happen at the friends who have the really big house. Wouldn't everyday be that great?

Hello world

Hello world! It's been a while and I truly have the best excuse ever- I had a baby! And then he became a Toddler! And then I became pregnant WITH a toddler! And then I became EXTREMELY pregnant WITH a toddler! And finally I had a BABY again! And that brings us to the present. I have a baby who's a toddler and a new little itty bitty baby. Both, of which, rock my world!

Spencer is in his truly amazing two's! He's very....ummm...passionate. He liked Isla, at first, about 20%....I think we are up to about 40%. It's a challenge, but Shaun and I are working through the "Par for the course" issues....jealousy, rage, anger, all the wonderful things nobody warns you about. Little things help me get through each day, cadburry mini eggs (by the handful when Spencer is not looking), a bottle----er, glass of wine, and this quote I saw on one of my FWENDS page "They never said it would be easy, they only said it would be worth it". At the end of the day (and who am I kidding, the begginning, middle and end), my little dictator is WORTH IT! Even though right now he is pushing my limits. :-)


Isla is a dream.

Really, when I woke up this morning at 4am to feed her for the first time since I put her to bed at ten o'clock the night before, I thought to myself I must be dreaming. Did I really not feed her before then? What the heck? I know it's silly to place blame on success, and you should just embrace it, but I really think I owe my sweet slumber to the nap nanny. When Isla came into this world she had a terrible habit of spitting up, and then some. I had to get up every few hours to burp her and then she would want to nurse. Since I got the magical foam she has been sleeping for hours!!! Woot! Woot!

That's all I can say for now.....my boy is stirring which means it's time for me to get back to work.

It's so nice to see you all again, it's been too long! ;-)

Bad Blogger.....

As my 1st post in MONTHS, I will announce myself as a bad blogger. I have a 2010 update that I have been working on, but it's not ready, so stay tuned! Until then, here are some pics of the girl's room that my family has been bugging me about (and since they live in Florida, California and Illinois, they want details, details, details! Which means pics of EVERYTHING). :-)

TTYL
XOXO

PS I am not some crazy shopper.....about 95% of all the clothes you see where hand-me-downs from my life saver (and money saver) Jeannie!!! We are pretty much set for the 1st 6 months of baby girls (name tbd) life. :-)

Office no more....

Since our house is only 3 bedrooms, this calls for some...let's say...prioritizing? Ugh. I hate to give it up, but I just can't see how a babies room, or kids room can be shared with an office. Right now my office contains the following: big cluttered unorganized desk, HUGE bookshelf full of craft

-----let me just interrupt....my hubby just brought me a pint of lemon sorbet :-) He is the sweetest hubby ever, but I will add that I bought the sorbet myself last night and when I went to get it tonight he had already finished it. Why is it men always seems to finish the things you wanted most off before you even think about it? Men. Love them. Love him for going to the store at 9:30 just for me ;-)

Anyhoo......HUGE bookshelf full of crafty making things, another bookshelf full of cookbooks, a twin bed decked out in Star Wars bedding (Spencer's future bed/current guest bed), Shaun's closet (full) and a whole lot of other random things that should probably go to Goodwill.


What am I going to do with all this stuff? Shaun says get rid of it, you don't use it anyway. Well, when I have time, again some day, I will need that stuff and I don't want to have to go buy everything again. Poop. He made the mistake of saying, "I use my tool bench in the garage 10 times more than you use your craft stuff", and I said then make room for me in the garage. haha.....sure. I guess it's all going into boxes? Which is fine, I think I will be able to survive, and if I miraculously get more time and energy and inspiration to get crafty again I can get it all out of the attic.


My biggest dilemma is what to do with the desk...which I cannot live without since I primarily work at home. I have an office at my brokerage, but I can't really go there in my pj's ;-). So, my only idea thus far is to convert my beloved armoire in the living room into a little desk/office area. The problem is it has a board down the middle, and I'm not sure I want to butcher my armoire. :( I guess we can work around it? Below are some pics. Not sure how it's going to work out.....I may need to hire a carpenter. hmmmmmmmmmmm...............babies you are always putting me through hoops! But I love you anyway.

Girl! Girl! Girl!

So, I keep thinking girl. I have been more sick this time around and people keep telling me, and if I were one of those people I would be saying the same thing, that it's a girl. I would like to believe them, and myself, as I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to shop in the girl section of....well....just about anything! I just get lost on Etsy. I've even started to plan the nursery. Thankfully what I think I have decided on, thus far, could go either way....sort of. I think this time around I would really like to do wainscotting, or some kind of chair rail. I didn't do it last time, even though well before I was ever pregnant I always felt like that was a given, something you just did for a babies room...any babies room, be it boy or girl. I just didn't do it. I don't know why, it would probably look super cute in Spencer's room even now.

If you followed my blog the last time I was prego you will remember I changed my mind at least 3 times in the design of Spencer's room. I actually started with a high ambition of making everything........I would say that was my "crazy stage". That lasted until January when I wasn't getting anything done and then one magical evening Shaun and I were registering in Pottery Barn Kids (RIP Bellevue PBK, soooooo sad you're gone) and the most fabulous nursery set was on SUPER SALE!! And I mean SUPER DUPER SALE! It was almost 70% off, or more! I thought about how much the rest of the fabric that I needed was going to cost and decided buying this set would save me a bunch of money, and a WHOLE lot of time......because, again....if you know me at all I am a TERRIBLE perfectionist and have a real problem with re-doing and re-doing and re-doing, just about everything.

Anyhoo....I must be in that crazy stage again, or I have gotten the "crib set", "matching this", "matchy that", it's part of the "set" OUT of my system. I think I'm over the "set". I love how Sarah (of Sarah's House on HGTV, if you don't watch YOU MUST!) mixes old with new. So, I am on my way to being crafty again..........it's been a while, I'm really excited, I just wish I KNEW it was a girl. Below are some pics of a nursery that am in love with already. I would definitely do the blue/grey wall with wainscotting or a char rail. I'm not sure about the crib, but I do love the orange/yellow accents................of course, only if it's a girl. ;-)

This nursery was in a contest on http://www.thebump.com/