Hello, neglected blog!

So, it's been a bit since my last post and I thought I'd give in update on our little family. Our floors, baseboards, and bathrooms are now fixed! David finished up our master bathroom, so it would be ready just in time for Christmas.

Our master bathroom.

Here is a photo of our kitchen/dining area with Sunny Girl, of course. The water damage was all the way up to the french doors and the floors were all replaced in here and in our living room, hallway, and master bedroom.

 

On Christmas Eve, the contractor had his painters finish up painting the baseboards and bathroom. Everything was back to normal within just a few hours that day. Luckily, our little family was able to spend our Christmas together in our first home. 

 We found our Christmas tree the weekend before Christmas at a local, little Christmas tree farm, which we really loved. The owner shared a bit of Silvana history with us. I'm sure we'll go back again next year.

An elf came to visit us on December 1st and went back to the North Pole on Christmas Day. Sienna named him Eddie Spice and she made him a little blanket, too. The first day he brought the little ones each a book and a movie about elves. They had fun trying to find where Eddie was hiding and doing silly things each morning!

The day after Christmas we went to "The Lights of Christmas" in Warm Beach. It was our first time going. Our neighbors gave us free tickets to go. The little ones had a good time, although Forest was freezing when we got home!

We also went on a ferry ride to Clinton from Mukilteo a few days later. We would love to live over on Whidbey Island someday! David would just hop on the ferry to go to work each morning. 

 

Sienna lost another tooth over Winter break! Bringing the total up to 4 so far.

David finished putting up our new doors. Now, they just need to be painted with new trim around most of them. 

Which brings us up to our most recent road trip. We decided to go for a little Sunday drive and ended up at Snoqualmie Falls. The falls were quite beautiful and very wet!

David liked this sign and rule #1.   

This was a mural in town.

A few years ago, we watched all of the Twin Peaks episodes on Netflix. This was the cafe where Shelly worked. The detective liked to get cherry pie and a damn fine cup of coffee there.  

And, that about sums up what our little family has been up to lately.

Blog Hiatus

Just checking in to let you know that we're okay over here at the little townhouse.

Our laptop was slowly dying and Sienna helped finish the job by knocking it off of our coffee table a few times. So, we are now operating on my old desktop, which is pretty slllloooowww.

We'll try to be back soon with a few new blogs. I'm not sure if I will be able to upload photos yet to this computer due to the slowness and timing out.

But, a few things I'd like to share once I figure all of this out ... our little Christmas-y townhouse, cutting down our Christmas tree in the forest, decorating our Christmas tree with the animal theme (once again), the upstairs of the little townhouse, and I'm sure that there will be much more once I upload the photos from my camera.

So, be sure to check back again very soon!

30 Things ...

Hiking Kendall's Catwalk while returning from a backpacking trip on the Pacific Crest Trail. 2006

Lately, I've see quite a few blogs with a list of things the writer would like to do before their next birthday. So, over the weeks leading up to my 30th birthday I began making a list of my own. I tried to think of things I would really like to either improve on in my daily life or things that would help me grow.

Here's my little list of the 30 things I would like to accomplish before I turn 31 ::

1. Start training to run races again.
2. Read more. Pick 12 books and finish a book a month.
3. Start a Book Journal to keep track of the books I've read.
4. Take more pictures! Take a few each day.
5. Try new trails. Go hiking two times a month.
6. See more of Washington.
7. Run a half marathon for each season.
8. Get outdoors more often. Take a Nature Walk each day.
9. Celebrate the seasons.
10. Try making bread more often. Make a loaf a week.
11. Bring back the Friday night pizza tradition in the little house.
12. Stop eating sugar!
13. Teach Sienna her ABC's.
14. Make time to read before bedtime.
15. Start my scrapbook for Sienna.
16. Plan a read aloud to center our days around.
17. Start up Butterfly Wednesdays again, in honor of butterflies, of course.
18. Kiss my husband more.
19. Join a professional group to stay up to date with teaching.
20. Learn to sew. Make things on my list.
21. Meditate each day.
22. Establish better rhythms and stick to them.
23. Help plan next year's garden.
24. Learn to budget better.
25. Simplify.
26. Remember to bring the reusable bags into stores with me.
27. Take on more creative endeavors.
28. Go on family road trips every Sunday.
29. Put my worrying to rest.
30. Learn to knit!

Maybe you'll get a chance to see some of these things in action on the blog over the next year.

On Giving Thanks

I'm feeling a little blog guilt today for neglecting my "Giving Thanks" posts. Isn't it funny that I feel so much more busy now than when I was actually working full-time? It's just a different kind of busy, I guess. Anyway, please forgive me for my negligence and do know that I quietly reflect and give thanks each and every day.

The pictures in today's post were taken last Thanksgiving, Sienna's first Thanksgiving. This year we will be going over to my mom's house in Edmonds.

How are you planning to spend your Thanksgiving?

Sienna helping Mama in the Ergo.

Her hair was so light back then.

I love how our dresses kind of match!

One Fish, Two Fish

Sorry for taking a little blog break!

Life is returning to normal ... after a few days of waiting for medical test results and going to see a few different doctors. The pumpkin patch is postponed until next weekend.

We don't have any new pictures of Sienna today.
Just a little story from the visit to the doctor's office yesterday...
As we were waiting for Mama's appointment, Sienna & Mama were having fun talking about the fish in the saltwater fish tank. Sienna has a few fish books at home and was eagerly identifying every fish in the tank. The little fish was a "baby." All of the others were simply "fish." The water is called "ow." You get the picture. Well, she was so excited to be telling Mama & Daddy about the fish tank that she kept repeating "baby," "baby," "baby" ... the man sitting near us was a grump and got up and left, clearly irritated by Sienna's enthusiasm. I continued on, prompting her to tell me more about what she saw and smiled sweetly at the man.

We had a great time waiting and it makes us happy that Sienna is an enthusiastic little girl.
Here are a few pictures of Daddy's fish from Saturday morning ::

Purple Power

I've officially decided to begin a blog! I will try to keep it updated every few days or so ... with information on housekeeping, mothering, organic gardening, and my life in the moment. Sit down with a cup of coffee and enjoy!
Here is Sienna, in her *very* purple high chair painted by Nana Sandy (my mom). The high chair was bought unfinished in Grass Valley, California on our last trip down south and brought up to Washington. It started out dark grape and was "toned down" to this shade of purple complete with green and pink accents. We love it! In the background you can see, Sienna's kitchen and blocks. More to come on these later! Hope you had a lovely Labor Day weekend and tomorrow back-to-school for many of the Washingtonians ...