Ice Cream Cones: Then & Now

I love these two photos of Sienna eating ice cream cones :: 

Sienna (2 years) Gosh, I miss the little house. It was so cute! 

Sienna (5 years) She still loves ice cream! And now, Forest gets to share the purple high chair and big sis's ice cream.

Farewell to the Little House

As our family begins a new adventure, we will always remember in our hearts the almost year and a half that we lived in the little house. There are many special memories that we will never forget.

The little house

Some of the things that we will remember fondly are the coziness, our garden, and the privacy of living on three acres.

A cozy Christmas in the little house.
The garden that Daddy grew at the little house.

Sienna walking Sassy down the very long driveway to the little house.

Another thing that will always be etched in our hearts is how much Sienna grew up in the little house. When we moved in, she had just turned one year old.

Sienna's first sink bubble bath at the little house.
July 2009
And now, our family is discovering many new luxuries in the little townhouse.

Sienna's favorite so far ... a big girl bubble bath. (In the little house, she couldn't have a big girl bubble bath, because the claw foot bathtub was cracked inside.)

Sienna's first big girl bubble bath in the little townhouse.
October 2010

Her ducks are all lined up and ready to watch her take a bath.

Join us next week for a tour of the little townhouse ...

A Cozy Sunday

On Sunday, we decided that our little family would stay home, rest, and do things together around the little townhouse. Daddy was still feeling pretty icky and Sienna also was starting to get Daddy's cold.

One of the most important things that was on our little townhouse list was to carve some of our homegrown at-the-little-house pumpkins. We picked three of our pumpkins to carve and while Sienna rested, Mama made pizza dough, and Daddy made plans for the pumpkins.

When Sienna awoke from her rest, we all went into our kitchen to help Daddy carve the pumpkins.

Daddy hard at work with the first pumpkin.

Sienna eating her raisins and watching Daddy carve the pumpkins.
(Chai Guy waiting for a little treat to fall down!)

Mama's favorite pumpkin of the homegrown bunch.

A funny face and a spooky tree in the night.

An owl for Sienna.

Our three pumpkins together ... we can't wait for All Hallows' Eve!

After the pumpkin carving celebrations, we ate some yummy pumpkin seeds and Mama finished making our cheese pizza . We can't wait to start having Friday night homemade pizzas in our little townhouse!

Pumpkin seeds ... they needed to be put back in the oven for a little bit longer.

The pizza dough rising in the oven. We have to hide the dough from Chai Guy!

Yummy! Mama's homemade cheese pizza.

And ... our little black table set. Just waiting for our pizza to bake!

Stop by tomorrow for our adieu to the little house ...

Busy Bees

We've been quite the busy bees around here at the little house. We are down to 2 days before actual move-in day (Friday) to the little townhouse. With lots of packing, cleaning, visits from special people (Grandma Casey and Elizabeth), and a touch of the sickies ... we are now just awaiting the "big" day.

I'm planning one more post before we go ... a farewell post to the little house and then you probably won't hear from us for a bit, as we get settled in and wait for internet connection.

And here's a little glimpse of the mess we are living in and what a good helper the little one's been ::

The messy dining room.

Our messy bedroom.

Mama's little helper.

See you in a few days!

Celebrating Autumn

The past few days we've been celebrating the arrival of Autumn around the little house.

Today, we went to downtown Mount Vernon for a little Fall Festival. We took lots of photos of the festivities, shop displays, and Sienna. Sienna had a good time walking around with Mama, Daddy, Grandpa Paul, and Grandma Diane.

Grandma Diane bought Sienna a chocolate chip cookie at one of the stands.

Mama liked sampling chocolate from this stand.
All of the chocolate is made locally in Mount Vernon!

A pony ride for the kids.

Sienna liked this huge pumpkin jumpy house.

Mama's favorite store downtown, Homeward Bound.

Daddy showing Sienna how to milk a cow.

Sienna milking a cow!

Chickens that were part of a class on raising chickens in your backyard.
Do you see the egg?

Sienna liked the chickens.
We will have our own happy chickens and eggs ... one day.

Mama really loved this window display at Gretchen's.

When we went home, Mama and Daddy decided it was a perfect windy day for flying a kite. Sienna loved flying her Owl kite all by herself! She is such a big girl.

Sienna flying her kite.

Sienna's kite and a beautiful blue sky.

Happy (late) Autumn equinox!

Moving On

This morning our little family received some happy news ...

Flowers Daddy picked for Mama from our garden.

... we will be moving into a little townhouse sometime around the middle of October. Although this means leaving behind the little house and moving forward, we will take with us many cozy memories from this small space. There are a number of reasons that we decided to move on, but the most important reasons are a larger space for our little family and money.

Many of our readers know that we've struggled a bit financially since last Winter and we truly thank our families for all of the support that they've given us. With this move, we hope to get back on track, so that we can keep our future dreams of one day owning our little house and not spiraling into further debt.

Sienna's flower in her little kitchen.

We are looking forward to sharing this new space with you in October.

Instead of calling this home "the little house" in the big woods our new home will be called "the little townhouse" on the prairie, named after our neighborhood Kent's Prairie. An upcoming blog will share a little historical information Mama gathered about Kent's Prairie.

And lastly, Sienna would like to share a few pictures of the sunflower that Daddy picked for her from our garden. She is so proud to have her own sunflower in her own vase, just like Mama.

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.

Summer Days Part II

Summer days are all about ...

... watching our sunflowers bloom.
(This is one of our strange 5 headed ones!)

... eating chocolate ice cream cones.

... long, relaxing naps.

... and summer projects!
We have a few we've been working on that we'll be showing off sometime next week.

P.S. Please ignore the dates on the photos! For some reason that function isn't working correctly. All of these photos were taken yesterday.

Summer Days

We've been enjoying warmer summer days around the little house with gardening, a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo, an early morning at The Mercantile, and lots of deer watching.

Here's a little glimpse of what we've been up to...

Daddy's Garden

Woodland Park Zoo

Deer Watching

A Fairy Tale Day

On Saturday, we celebrated Sienna's 2nd birthday fairy tale style.
Mama made her a fairy skirt to wear for her special day and Nana bought fairy wings.

Here's a little photo journal of her very special day ::

Sienna watching Auntie Jenn blow bubbles outside with one of the many bubble makers Jenn bought for Sienna.

The little fairy up close!

A fairy working in the kitchen.

One of Sienna's favorite gifts from Great Aunt Sharon and Great Uncle Rick, a sparkly flashlight ball.

The cupcakes Mama made for Sienna's special day.

Sienna loving her birthday cupcake.

The grand finale, our first bonfire at the little house. Yes, it is still daylight, because the sun sets so late in Washington.

A view of the little house from our cozy spot.

Daddy roasting a marshmallow for some s'mores.

Mama and Sienna enjoying the warm bonfire.

Two visitors decided to join our celebration. Mama was able to snap this photo of one of our visiting friends.