The Frerichs family

Bobble head cowboy

2011-03-05T19:16:00.000-08:00

Dear family and friends, who still stop by this little blog of ours despite my lack of posts in the last three months, I do have more pictures and videos to share. But that is for another day. For now enjoy this video of Caleb discovering his inner cowboy. Also his inner bobble head. We love him. :)

The First Snow

2010-11-22T19:18:00.000-08:00

This past Friday night we had our first snowfall of the season. I love it when it snows at night because it's such a treat to wake up and see that the world outside has been transformed into a winter wonderland. Saturday morning the girls were so excited that the snow had finally arrived and were eager to get bundled up and get outside to play.

We only got about 3 inchs of snow but it was enough to build a snow man or two and make snow angles (Ella's favorite).

Caleb, who truly is the happiest when he's outside, LOVED the snow. I tried to get a picture of the kids together first thing when we got outside, but the moment I set him down he was off!

And like I said, he loved it. He seriously rallied around the yard...he laughed, he crawled in circles, he crawled from one end of the yard to the other. He did slip and do a face plant a couple of times, but just shook it off and kept on going. Unfortunately I don't have proper snow shoes for him and his gloves kept falling off, so after 20 minutes of crawling through the snow his ankles and hands turned bright red and I had to break up the party to take him inside to get warmed up. I sure hope this kid learns how to walk soon because it will make being outdoors SO much easier!

The one missing element which kept this first snowfall from being truly perfect was Chris. He was out of the town for the weekend so there was no Daddy to take the girls to the sledding hill. Kalai, especially, was bummed. The girls took a sled across the street to the park and tried to sled down the mounds by some of the big trees, but were disapointed to learn that mounds just aren't the same as hills.

Fortunately I think this is just the first of many snowfalls this year, and I know that these three snow bunnies will make the most out of each and every one of them.

The Big 1

2010-11-07T20:51:00.001-08:00

On Thursday, during his snack of jam on bread, I said to Caleb:

"Hey, Mr. Serious...did you know that today you turn 1?"

"Who me?" he asked.

"Yeah, you! You're the birthday boy...what do you want to do to celebrate?"

"ummmmm......"

"Let's have a party-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

"Good idea!"

So later that day, after Caleb put on his special birthday onesie made for him by Ella...

and Daddy got home from work and we ate a yummy dinner of black beans (one of Caleb's favorite foods) and rice...

the birthday party began! We sang Happy Birthday to a very excited little boy (sorry for the video being dark)...

and Caleb tried his first cupcake, which he liked alot...mostly he just licked the frosting off.

And then, with a little help, he opened his presents...

and his big sisters helped him break them in...

before we scooped him up for a bath and a later-than-normal bedtime. A pretty simple party all in all...but just perfect for our simple boy.

Happy Birthday, Caleb...you have made our family complete and bring so much joy to our days.

We love you so much!

xoxo Dad, Mom, Kalai and Ella.

Trick or treat

2010-10-31T21:26:00.000-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We just wrapped up a fun-filled Halloween with three very special guests, Grandma and Grandpa Frerichs and their little dog Berkeley. We are so thankful they made the trip up to join us for a day of visiting, trick or treating and candy eating. Having them here was a treat in itself!

This year talk of Halloween costume began in September. I'm pretty sure that's what most kids in 4th grade talk about because Kalai talked about it just about every night at dinner. After running through the go-to costume ideas of fairies, ice princesses and such, she decided to be a chef which suits her so perfectly because over this past year she has shown a growing interest in cooking. So with a borrowed chef hat from grandpa, a super cool felt mustache and some flour on the face she was set. This was by far my most favorite costume she's chosen and she was super excited to wear it.

Ella went as princess this year, which honestly surprised me because she's such a tomboy in most other areas of her life. She's the girl who is always running with the boys and climbs on everything and will, 9 times out of 10, chose to play with a fire truck over a baby doll. But there is a side of her that loves to be pretty and sparkly like a princess. Recently someone asked her what she was going to be for Halloween. She said a princess. They asked what princess she was going as: Cinderella, Belle, Snow white? Her response: "No I'm going to be a princess. Princess Ella." (I do hope she knows this princess thing is just for Halloween.)

As for Caleb, I got in my mind a while ago to make him a garden gnome. Personally I think garden gnomes are pretty darling and with cheeks like his I thought he could pull it off. And fortunately he didn't mind the beard at all and kept in on all night.

Just look at our little gnome...Oh, so cute!

What a fun night! Now it's time to plan for this little gnome's first birthday...

back to school

2010-09-24T13:35:00.000-07:00

The kids and I were home together all summer long. (And by the end of it there was a definite emphasis on long - for all of us I think.)

With Caleb needing a morning and afternoon nap, feedings and diaper changes, we stayed close to home this summer. I know this was a frustration to the girls who are always ready for an adventure, or at least an outing that lasts longer than an hour. (This conflict of needs and desires is undoubtably my biggest challenge in raising three kids so spread apart in age.) Yes, things felt a little monotonous at times and the house felt a little small and there seemed to always be something we were missing out on. But our baby was happy and well rested, and we did manage some great family outings and we spent a lot of time at the park across the street playing with the neighborhood kids. I personally tried to savor our fairly simple summer days of being at home together as I'm sure we'll never have another summer like this again.

And, really, before we knew it, September was upon us and it was time to get ready for school to start. This year the girls decided to get matching shirts for the first day of school. I love the one they chose. It suits both of them I think.

Kalai's first day of school was a rainy one, but it sure didn't dampen her spirits. The girl was SO ready for the 4th grade. She got the teacher she wanted and has a handful of her favorite friends in class. She gets to join the choir this year and has a classroom upstairs so she gets to line up on the opposite side of the playground now. All big steps for this soon-to-be 10 year old.

(Seriously, 10?! I can't believe it...) When she got home she told me how excited she was to be back at school and in the 4th grade because "being home with you is kind of boring." I took that comment in stride because, really, being home with me and a baby is kind of boring.

So with the oldest away at school, I was left with these two munchkins :) For a week anyway...

Like last year, Ella had to wait a week before her school started. She will tell you herself it was the longest week of her life. After asking me when her first day of school was for the millionth time on the first day Kalai was at school, we made a paper chain that hung in the kitchen to mark the days until preschool started. Every morning she went strait to her chain to remove a link. It seemed to help her get through the wait. When her first day FINALLY came, she then had to wait until noon, when her class started. It was seriously torture! (Note to self: Ella is a get up and go kind of girl. Avoid late starts at all cost.)

When we got to pre-K (Ella is always quick to correct that she's not in preschool anymore, but pre-K!) she was reunited with her best buddy, Ripley, from last year. These girls are two peas in a pod and are thrilled to be in class together again this year!

And so with the two big sisters back in school, it's just me and the boy. And on some days, his nap will line up with Ella's school time and I'll have a few quite moments to myself...which, after a summer of having three kids at home with me, is always a welcome treat.

Look who's crawling

2010-09-17T16:58:00.001-07:00

Caleb has been scooting around for about a month now.

By way of scooting he'd eventually get to a different part of the room, or to the thing he shouldn't put in his mouth, or stuck under a table. But I never saw him get anywhere on purpose. He would just end up in a new spot because he was scooting.

But that all change this morning...

The kids and I were all in the kitchen. Kalai was getting her homework in order to take to school. I had put Caleb on the floor infront of the fridge to play with the magnets while I went to help Ella with the puzzle she was doing. As I was looking for a puzzle piece, Ella started to yell, "Look! Caleb is crawling! He's doing it!" The girls and I were surprised and thrilled to see our little man crawling, with great determination, from the fridge to the garbage can. After calling Chris to share the big news, (and moving Caleb away from the garbage can) we grabbed the camera to record Caleb's first moments of crawling. It's not your standard hands and knees crawl, but it works and has been getting him from here and there all day.

Oh boy...here we go!

Where in the world is our fancy auntie?

2010-08-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

Tonight, somewhere in Europe (Germany I believe), Chris' youngest sister, Elisabeth (aka Lil) is having the time of her life as she celebrates her 21st birthday. (Seriously, can you think of a cooler place to turn 21?)

Tonight, in our cozy kitchen in Bellingham, Chris, the kids and I were getting a little creative as we attempted to write a poem for our beloved sister/aunt, affectionately titled "Fancy Auntie".
(A little side note to our poem: Ella has just recently learned how to make words that rhyme. At meals or snacks we'll often play the rhyme game where Kalai or I will pick a word and she'll, very quickly, say back the first rhyming word that comes to her mind - mind you they aren't always real words.)

Our poem writing process went something like this:

MALIA: Let's start by making a list of the things that make Lil awesome.

KALAI: Lil's cute

ELLA: Lil's dute.

K: She likes pink.

E: She likes sink.

K: Lil's fancy.

M: Yes, she always looks nice.

E: Yes, she always looks pice.

K: She's really smart.

CHRIS: And she has a big heart.

E: And she has a big dart.

K: And Lil is really a speedy typer (she pretends she texting on a phone).

M: You mean texter.

E: You mean mexter, pexter, lexter...

(and then she says - more to herself then to us)

...Wow, I'm so good at rhyming!

:) Needless to say, we didn't get too far on our poem, despite the mad rhyming skills of our 4 year old. Instead we decided to sing, Lil, our own rendition of "Happy Birthday" complete with silly faces, chubby baby cheeks and a special apprearance by a gremlin.

Happy Birthday, Lil! We love you so very much and hope you had an absolutely amazing birthday.

Something to talk about

2010-05-14T20:00:00.000-07:00

I think it's so interesting how many of our personal characteristics are there from birth.

I remember as a baby Kalai babbled all the time, especially right before bed. And now she'll still chat your ear off, especially at bedtime. Ella cried very loudly as a baby and now she still has only two volumes: loud or off (aka asleep).

Caleb on the other hand has been really quite. Infact all of us, at one time or another, have commented on how quiet he is. On occasion he'll get in a mood where he'll get the giggles or scream in delight, but for the most part he observes and enjoys the world around him quietly. That is until two days ago when he realized he actually has quite a bit to talk about and has been making noise ever since.

So listen up, folks, because Caleb has something he wants to say:

Slimey and gross

2010-05-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

Have any of you been suffering from the cold that never ends? Between the five of us this cold has been in our home for over a month. Mr. Caleb was the last to come down with the cold and had a pretty hard couple of days last week. This video captures a happy moment in an otherwise very fussy day. I love how kids find joy in the simpliest of things...like blowing bubbles in a water cup and getting totally slimey and gross in the process.

camp out

2010-04-25T20:35:00.000-07:00

It's 8:37 and the house is completely quiet. To be honest it's eerie and I can't quite believe that I'm going to be in bed by 9:00 tonight. How can this be, you ask? Well, tonight marks the first camp out of the season for Chris and the girls - in the backyard. A warm up for the more adventurous campouts they will have this summer. For now, Caleb and I remain exempt from this activity for several reasons: 1) because we only have a two person tent 2) I'm not quite ready to do a night time feeding in a tent 3) It gives me a much needed quite, early to bed night. Thank you, Chris...you're the best :)

The Sunny Spot

2010-04-16T14:56:00.000-07:00

After lunch my energy level will often drop and at least an hour of "quiet time" is needed to make it through the rest of the day. Today Caleb, Ella and I spent our quiet time in the sunny spot of our livingroom.

It all began with Ella asking me to help her sing "we wish you a Merry Christmas", which I did. Then she remembered she had a christmas cd with that song on it. She asked to play it on the cd player in the living room, but I persuaded her to play it on her walk man instead. Thankfully she thought that was a great idea and curled up in our little patch of sun with her head phones on and listened to her Christmas cd, quietly.

Caleb and I soon joined her on the floor. Caleb had a great time trying to grab the head phones off of Ella's head and playing with this stuffed rabbit.

I so enjoyed the warmth and beautiful light of the afternoon sun streaming through our window. And the company of my two babes. It was just what I needed.

Getting to know Caleb

2010-03-04T14:46:00.000-08:00

It's a pretty magical thing to get to watch our baby's personality unfold day by day. To learn what makes him smile and what makes him jump, what entertains him and what frustrates him. I'm savoring all of his firsts: first laugh, first time reaching for a toy, first time in his swing, first trip to the beach. And I'm so excited to see that he is beginning to notice that we are here. He coos and squeals to get my attention, he laughs at his sisters, and he kicks his legs with excitement when he sees Chris. I just love watching Caleb become Caleb.

Today Caleb is a healthy and chubby 4 month old. Over the months we've tried on several different nicknames for our boy and the one the has stuck, for this period of his life anyway, is "Chubbers". There aren't many things I love more than chubby baby cheeks and thighs!

I've been amazed at how much he has grown this past month, not only in size but in his strength and coordination. Caleb has never been a real big fan of tummy time. At the beginning of last month he'd either cry with frustration or, as you can see in the picture above, he'd just lay there.

But with the encouragement of his big sisters who, despite his obvious adversion to being on his stomach, believe that anytime is a good time for tummy time, he got stronger and has actually learned to enjoy it....for a minute or two :)

The other thing he discovered he could do a couple of weeks ago is grip things. If you hold a ring infront of him he will reach out and grab it and then examine it as he opens and closes his hands. So cute!

But the most exciting change has been his growing awareness and affection for us. He gets so excited when he sees his daddy and especially likes to feel his beard....

and his sisters make him SO happy.

Caleb really is such a sweet boy. For the most part he's calm and quiet, content to sit on his own and watch the world around him. Just under his quiet demeanor is an easy smile and he vary rarely will pass up an opportunity to flirt. He's caught on to the flow of our family pretty quickly and seems to be pretty content having his big sisters fuss over him...unless he's eating or ready for sleep. Then he'll gladly give up all of the baby talk, song singing, and entertaining sounds and movement to be in a quiet room with me.

One big mystery that remains with this little one is what color eyes he will have. They are still that baby gray color. There seems to be some brown emerging, but we also swear we see a hint of green. It could be wishful thinking. Regardless, we are all rooting for green.

Our new norm...

2010-01-17T16:36:00.000-08:00

Sadly, this is the only picture we have of our new family of five, and actually Caleb is the lump in Chris' jacket, so I don't know if it really counts. Sitting everyone down and getting a real family photo is something I would love to do, but between feedings, homework, keeping up with laundry, finding ways to exert Ella's pent up energy, and occasionally having some quality time with my husband, that is a task that goes undone. So, Grandma, please be patient with me. I promise I'll get you that family picture before Caleb turns one :)

So, how is life with three kids you ask? Cozy and/or cramped (depending on the day), joyful and exhausting, highly entertaining, kind of crazy and pretty messy...and we absolutely love it!

After having Ella I learned that when God gives you a baby, he gives you the person you need at that moment in your life. In the end, Ella, in all her intensity and long hours of crying, taught me how to be a better mom and brought Chris and I together as parents, a unified front to our strong-willed child. And once again, God has proved himself faithful (not that I ever doubt Him) and gave us just what our family needed - a calm and sweet baby boy. While three is a new kind of challenge, I'm happy to report that our life has not been flipped upside down by the arrival of Caleb. At 10 weeks old, Caleb is very good natured and as fallen into a steady routine of waking up between 7 and 8am, going down for his naps in his crib without too much of a fuss and retiring for the night promptly at 7 pm. Unfortunately his night time schedule is not as predictable, sometimes waking up twice to eat and other nights sleeping uninterupted until 5 am. So I am a little sleep deprived, though some of that is my fault as I really don't go to bed as early as I should. The peace and quiet of having all three kids in bed and enjoying some time with Chris is just too tempting.

It's still hard for us to tell who Caleb looks like. Most people say he looks like Chris. What do you think?

Both of the girls have been great about stepping onto their new roles of big and biggest sister. Kalai, the seasoned veteran, is of course a huge help, always eager to change a daiper (as long as it's not poopy), calm Caleb on car rides, and keep an eye on things while I take a shower or take a phone call.

She's also embraced some new responsibilities. After a week of trying to get three kids bundled up and out the door to get Kalai to school, we decided it might be time for her to make the three block trek on her own. For me, this was a huge exercise in letting go and, for her, an exciting step of independence.

Big sister, Ella, has also taken on new responsibilities, like getting herself dressed. She has a standard uniform that she goes by: pants under a skirt and long-sleve shirt under a t-shirt (always her yellow Hawaii shirt if it's on the shelf). The first time she came out in this outfit I had to laugh. You just have to love that pre-school style.

And Ella is a huge help with her baby brother too. In the early days of Caleb, when I'd sneak in a shower she'd confidently tell me "If Caleb cries, I'll take care of it", meaning: If Caleb cries, I'll put the pacifier back in his mouth. One day I came out of the bathroom and found Ella (as pictured above) laying upside down by Caleb's bouncing chair, with her finger in his pacifier so he couldn't spit it out. Now that's a good big sister.

And as Caleb has gotten older, Ella is a constant source of entertainment. He loves to lay and listen to her move around him - running, jumping, driving cars, singing songs, knocking down blocks - he loves it all.

And this is how our days go... a new norm of not-so-restful-nights, new responsibilities, looking the other way when chores go undone, and enjoying the many blessings and adventures of being a family of five.

I absolutely love it.

A little Christmas joy

2009-12-25T23:03:00.000-08:00

What do you get when you mix the excitement of Christmas with a whole lot of sugar?

Wishing you all a very, merry Christmas!

xoxo

Malia, Chris, Kalai, Ella and Caleb

The first days...

2009-11-07T19:12:00.000-08:00

I had forgotten how completely exhausting the first days of life are. In some ways it seems so cruel, how much healing and adjusting my body is experiencing, all while getting only a couple hours of sleep at a time. But both Chris and I agree, the blessing of having Caleb here far exceeds the hardships of these first days.

It truly is amazing to see our family of five together. The girls absolutely adore their little brother. They are eager to help, eager to look at all his little parts and smother him with love. What I appreciate the most is how incredibly patient the girls have been with Chris and I as we figure out how to navigate our daily life with new born in tow.

Caleb changes so much every day. His face gets fuller, his head less pointy and his eyes open up more.

We've all enjoyed taking inventory of his little parts. He has amazing long fingers and toes and when his was born his finger nails were so long we joked that they looked like talons. He has the sweetest pouty lips and likes to tuck his hands up under his chin when he sleeps.

Chris' mom came and stayed with us the first day Caleb was home. It was such a blessing to have her here and to have her help with the girls. She's such a wonderful grandma, always so loving and attentive to the kids. After dinner, she and Ella played hair dresser while we all brainstormed middle names for Caleb.

We've had the name Caleb chosen from very early on in the pregnancy, but for whatever reason, we had a very hard time settling on a middle name. Chris and I really wanted it to be the right name, a name that would grow with him and be meaningful in some way.

After making our list and consulting other members of the family, we finally chose a middle name for our little guy...

...Caleb Alexander Frerichs.

Caleb and Chris have the same intials, C.A.F. My hope is that Chris will be a man who Caleb looks up to, and strives to be like. My hope is that they will share many passions and adventures together and that their shared monogram becomes symbolic of a deep bond between father and son....

Already I see a bond there.

Kalai and Ella are staying with my parents this weekend and Chris and I are savoring every moment of this one-on-one time with Caleb. What a gift Caleb is to us. It's hard to believe he's only been here for four days, because I can't really remember what it was like before he got here.

Thanks for checking in on us. I can't tell you how loved we feel right now. :)

He's here!

2009-11-04T20:23:00.000-08:00

What a day!

Caleb arrived at 2:34 a.m. after an intense, but efficient labor. He's a good sized baby boy at 8lbs. and 1oz. and 21 1/2 inches long. He's a good nurser and a great cuddler. Having a cold wipe on his bottom is the only thing he's really cried about today.

Of course we are all in love. Chris' mom is here, which is such a treat. We have been taking pictures through out the day, but we'r all ready for bedtime, so I will post those tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone for your love and excitement over our newest family member. I think he's pretty special :)

Still waiting...

2009-11-02T20:57:00.000-08:00

Caleb's due date, October 31st, has come and gone and we are all as anxious as ever. This past week we have busied ourselves with various things, a lot of walks, fun family outings, sewing projects and some much needed yard work. And now we are really going nuts because there is nothing left to do!

Last Wednesday our dear friend, Auntie Nikki, made a special trip up from Oregon to stay with us over the weekend, with the hope she would be here when Caleb was born. Nikki has been such a special person in my life since high school and has also been a special person in the life of my children from day one. She was the first person to come visit us in the hospital after Kalai was born and she was actually there with us at Ella's birth. She is the best Auntie two little girls could ever ask for, and she takes the job very seriously. I am so very thankful for her!

Halloween was a very full day. Nikki and I started it with a walk down to the farmer's market. Then she took the girls to a movie and Chris and I took another walk. At that point in the afternoon I had started to have contractions every five minutes or so lasting nearly a minute. We called our midwife to give her a heads up and started getting the kids ready for trick-or-treating. We were joined by two of our favorite friends, Willa and Roza. Willa and Ella were fairies and ironically (honestly we didn't plan it) Kalai was an angle and Roza was a little devil. Too cute!

Our neighborhood goes crazy at Halloween. We get hundreds of trick-or-treaters and some people go all out on the decorating. This house was one of the best. Spooky!

By the time we got the kids home and in bed my contractions started to subside. By 11:00 they had dropped to every 10-15 minutes, and I figured I should just go to bed. In the end we got a trick in stead of our treat on Halloween. As Ella has so wisely concluded, "all boys are tricksters." Apparently Caleb is no exception.

November 1st was a beautiful day and we took the kids for a bike ride around Lake Padden.

Chris, Nik and I were close behind to pick them off the ground, give them a little push up the hills, and to give them a lot of verbal encouragement to keep going. Ella just learned how to ride a two wheeler last month so she was a little timid when it came to the hills. But they both made it around the lake with a minimal amount of crying and screaming.

Unfortunately, Caleb decided Nov. 1st wasn't his birthday either. This morning we had an appointment with our midwife who said that I'm 3 centimeters dialated. Yeah! I have had a few contractions sprinkled throughout the day, but nothing to get excited over. I'm staying optimistic though, it's only 10:00 and there is still the night ahead of us. Nikki leaves tomorrow, and it is my hope that she'll get to meet Caleb in person before she leaves.

And needless to say Chris and I are SO ready to meet our little man...we actually think we'll sleep better once he's here! :)

It's so hard to be patient.

Waiting...

2009-10-28T20:17:00.001-07:00

Dear Caleb,

When will you arrive? We are all so anxious to meet you, to see your sweet face and hold you in our arms. Family and friends have been calling, your grandmas and grandpas are on high alert and so much has already been done to celebrate your upcoming birth. You have no idea how much love awaits you...

I thought for sure you were coming last night. My body was achy, you are positioned so low and I had finally packed our bag. At bedtime we told your sisters that if I went into labor, we'd wake them up in the middle of the night to take them to a friend's house. But the night proved to be uneventful and when you sisters woke up this morning they were disapointed to find your bassinet empty. Ella cried and said, "It's taking forever for Caleb to get here! I wanted him to get here today." Kalai put her mouth to my tummy, as she does every day, and asked "Caleb, when are you coming!?" Your sisters are so ready for you...

Your dad calls me every morning from work to see if I have anything to report. He's been working so hard to get our home ready for you, his son. He painted the walls and put in new floors in the bedrooms. He's sealed every crack he could find in our drafty, old house to make it as warm as possible. He talks about how excited he is to share his love of the outdoors and building and exploring with you. It was my prayer, before we even knew that you were coming, that God would bless us with a son. I know he'll be such a good daddy to you. And I know that you will grow him in ways that will be amazing...

In these last weeks of having you inside my belly, I've tried to savor every movement you make, every hiccup that comes and the incredible intimacy that only a momma and her baby can share. I have wondered what you will look like, what your temperment will be like, how you will change our family. And I have thanked God again and again for you, a wonderful blessing, a new adventure, a new chapter in our life...

For months now I have busied myself organizing your things, making our home more cozy and comfortable and planning the best I can for your arrival. But now I'm ready. I'm ready to stop being busy preparing and start the journey of knowing you. I'm ready to see you, hold you and watch you grow. I'm ready to share you with your Dad and sisters and all of our loved ones. And quite honestly, while it has been an honor to carry you for these past 9 months, I'm ready to have my body back...

Son, I'm ready when you are :)

All my love,

Mom

Ella's first day of preschool

2009-09-17T08:17:00.000-07:00

I can't begin to tell you how EXCITED Ella was to start preschool this week. She has been patiently waiting for this moment for months now. Ella began talking about going to school not long after she turned 3. And when we found out we were pregnant her desire to go to school grew even more because "all big sisters go to school."

This past spring I decided to take Ella to check out the preschool at the church just down the road from our house. The night before our visit I told her it was very important that she went right to sleep because we were going to visit preschool the next day. We didn't hear a peep from her that night. The next morning I got out of the shower and heard Ella running around the house yelling my name. At that point in time, it normally took a lot of coercing to get Ella out of her pjs in the morning, but when I step out of the bathroom I found her running around completely naked yelling "Mom! We need to hurry! Help me get dressed so we can go to school!" We both enjoyed our visit to Little Epistles preschool and decided that it would be the perfect place for her the following fall. Ella of course thought she'd get to return the next day. You can imagine her disapointment whe I told her she'd have to wait 4 more months until fall time and school started again.

So Ella has been patiently waiting for the leaves to start to fall from the trees. Needless to say, on Tuesday morning she was the happiest 3 year old on the block because her first day of preschool had finally arrived!

With her new back pack and luch box all ready to go, we set out on our convenient 1-block walk to school. Daddy even swung by just as we were leaving to give Ella a big hug before school. (She really liked that.) I told Ella I would miss her and that I would be so lonely without her at home with me. She gave me a sympathetic look and said, "Don't worry mommy, you have Caleb. And I'll come home. I promise."

When we arrived Ella got right to work at one of the stations set up by the teachers. In between colors she checked out the classroom and all of the kids that were arriving. The preschool is so bright and happy, a perfect place for kids to play and learn. And her teachers are so kind and friendly. Her class is small, only 9 kids, and Ella is one of two girls. She didn't seem to be too concerned about most of her classmates being boys. They are more her speed anyway.

They start every day with circle time. Ella sat on the "E" because that's her letter. Ethan was a little upset that Ella got to the "E" first. Hopefully she will be good about sharing her letter. The teacher sang a song about a bee to help the kids introduce themselves. Ella was the first to yell out, "my name is E-L-L-A." "And what does that spell?" her teacher asked. "Ella!" I'm happy to see Ella seems to have no problem speaking up and participating in class.

I don't think Ella could have been any happier sitting on the rug, singing songs with her teacher. She let me go without a second glance, eager to play with her new friends at her new school. She attends preschool twice week, which means every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon I find myself in a very quiet house with some extra time on my hands. I'm definitely appreciating it knowing that in about 6 weeks I'll have Caleb to keep me company.

I just can't believe that my baby has started preschool! The time goes by so fast...

First day of 3rd grade

2009-09-08T21:09:00.001-07:00

Can you believe how big Kalai is?! This summer a definite change occured in our little girl. Not only has she grown taller, but she also started caring about her clothes and changing her earrings every day. She's become much more chatty and has started talking back. She'd do anything to have a sleep over - at her friend's house - and would watch silly Disney channel pre-teen drama all day if you let her. I wasn't really prepared for this change, but here we are on the first day of 3rd grade, and Kalai just seems so much more grown up to me.

We all had a great morning. It started bright and early at 5:15. Chris and I have decided to wake up early during the week so we can have some much needed conversation, a cup of coffee and some bible study time together before we start our day. While it was very challenging to get out of bed, it was so worth it. The girls were up by 7:20 and easily fell right into their new morning routine. Kalai and I walked and Ella rode her scoot bike the three blocks to school.

Kalai was excited to be returning to Columbia Elementary. Since kindergarten she's started every grade at a new school, so it was nice for her, and the rest of us, to be returning to a familiar place, faces and friends. Kalai's new teacher is Ms. Smith, who I have heard really great things about, and Kalai has a few of her favorite class mates from last year in her class again.

On the flip side of an excited first day of 3rd grade, it was a lonely ride home for Ella. Ella will be starting preschool this year but not until next Tuesday so she's having to be very patient. She and Kalai had a lot of fun being home together this summer that it was hard for Ella to be without her sissy today. I made plans for a trip to the library and assured her that we'd have a lot of fun together....

...but she gave me the "I miss sissy face" and rode on quietly. We ended up having a fine day and 3:30 rolled around before we knew it. Because Kalai didn't have any homework we played at the school for a while before heading home for dinner. And amazingly, the kids were in bed by 7:30, just as scheduled :) I'd say it was a very successful first day of school...and now this tired momma is ready for bed. Hopefully tomorrow will go as smoothly as today did.

The last day of summer

2009-09-07T20:21:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back from my spring/summer hiatus. I guess I got a little distracted by all of the beautiful weather we have had here in the Northwest. We had such a great summer filled with many fun memories... all of which I will do my best to share as I slowly go through the mess of pictures I have dumped on to my computer. I honestly can't believe that summer is over and the kids will be heading back to school tomorrow.

But it is true, fall is here. Last friday the wind started to blow, the dark clouds moved in...

...and when we woke up on Saturday the leaves had fallen from the trees, covering our yard and side walk.

The sudden change of season inspired our girls and and the neighbor boys to get to work raking and sweeping all of the leaves into piles. It didn't take long for these little entrepenuers to see the earning potential of their yard cleaning services. They decided their business plan was to save the earth by creating and selling compost created from the leaves they collected. They plan on giving all of the profit to the poor and to the pound. As of today they have made $9.00 from the neighbors. Kalai of course is the boss and is in charge of collecting and keeping the money (you can see the money bag in her hands above.) The kids have been so excited by their business venture that they get right to work when the neighbor boys show up at our doorstep at 9 am and work all day. And today they asked me to make them business cards.

It will be fun to see how far they go with this idea. Of course tomorrow school starts which will significantly cut into their work week, but think of all the leaves that will accumulate by the weekend. It's so inspiring to see them work hard and be so eager to be generous with what they have earned.

Welcome Spring!

2009-03-31T15:45:00.000-07:00

This year, for the first time that I can remember, winter got to me. I really don't mind the rainy, gray days, keeping busy indoors or the slower pace that comes with less daylight hours. What got to me this year was the cold. I don't know if it's because we live in an old house, or because I'm getting older or because of global warming, whatever the reason is, I feel like I have been SO cold for months now, and I am SO tired of it!

I imagine many of you share my excitement of the daffodils blooming, eating dinner when the sun is still shining and the occasional, hopefully increasing, sunny days that reach the 50s. I welcome spring with open arms. :)

But I didn't want to let winter slip away without sharing some of our memories...

Two weeks after Kalai's birthday we celebrated my 30th birthday. Although this year was a milestone birthday of sorts, after the whirlwind of the holidays and girls birthdays, I was all partied out. Looking through my picture files I realized that I didn't even take any pictures that day. (Bummer) My only birthday wish this year was that I didn't have to wash dishes, which Chris honored by taking me out to my favorite Thai restaurant. Unfortunately my birthday wish didn't include having someone else do the dishes for me, so while I didn't do dishes on my birthday, all those dishes were waiting for me the next day. From now on I will be better at covering my all my bases when making birthday wishes involving housekeeping.

Kalai participated in her first science fair at school. She and Chris did her project on making recycled paper. She had a lot of fun making the paper and got really good feedback from the other students and the visiting scientists.

Tucked in between the days too cold to play outside, we had a few exceptionally beautiful days that found us riding our bikes to the train beach...

to hunt for crabs under rocks, look for treasures along the shore and enjoying the beauty of Bellingham Bay.

January also brought a very special visit from Auntie Nikki. Nikki and her husband, Andrew recently relocated to Oregon, so we don't get to see her as nearly as often as we'd like. But when we get her all to ourselves we love it!

I couldn't ask for a better friend or a better auntie for my girls.

Winter brought a number of snowfalls this year, the last of which was very unexpected.

Ella was thrilled to have one more opportunity to make snow angles.

The girls are growing bigger, smarter and more beautiful every day.

Ella is no longer a toddler, but a bright, energetic preschooler ready for any adventure. Our mornings are filled with trips to the library, play dates with new friends we've made in the neighborhood, and lots of imaginary play. She's talks A LOT and when she's not talking she's singing VERY loudly, usually the ABCs. She finally let's me put her hair in braids and claims yellow and pink as her favorite colors. She's on the verge of dropping her afternoon nap, a change that I'm not ready for, but seems necessary for an easier and earlier bedtime. Most days she can make it through, but on occasion I find her crashed out mid afternoon.

Kalai is loving 2nd grade and her new school. Of course she's had no problem making new friends and manages to arrange at least one after school play date each week. She's still taking Spanish twice a week and just learned a funny song about a cow named Lola, which she sings with a lot of enthusiasm. This year we began the journey of orthodontics with Kalai, getting her set up with a retainer to expand her upper jaw. She's proved to be a very responsible with the task of NOT losing the retainer. So far so good. Kalai is growing like a weed! The top of her head has passed my chin and she is slowly but surely catching up with me. I'm not sure how I'm going to feel when we wear the same size clothes.

We are all loving our new home and are especially eager to fix up our yard and get our garden growing. This past weekend Chris laid some sod and filled our raised beds with soil.

The girls will play happily in the back yard all day long, digging in the dirt and pretending that they're digging for buried treasure. Below is a video the girls asked me to record. They get a kick out of seeing themselves in action.

Chris has worked so hard at cleaning out our yard and getting everything ready for the warm weather to come. Chris has a real passion and talent for gardening and landscaping. I am so thankful for him:) We have visions of BBQs with family and friends, games of badminton, the girls running through the sprinkler, afternoons of digging in the dirt and many meals coming straight from our garden. I am so excited to spend the spring and summer in our back yard!

We've already had our first BBQ of the year...the best hamburger I've had in a long time. Yum!

I'm sorry for the long hiatus in my posting. I think I fell into a little winter hibernation there. But with the sun and warmer weather just around the corner, there will be many more pictures and stories to share. Happy spring everyone!

Kalai is 8...finally!

2009-01-19T19:48:00.000-08:00

Kalai has been ready to turn 8 for about 11 months now. Infact I think she started planning for her 8th birthday the day after her 7th birthday. And when she plans, she goes big. There was talk of having a slumber party with a dozen of her closest friends. A pool party to which she wanted to invite "just one boy. Please, mom? Pleeeeease?." She thought it would be fun to go bowling and even considered having a party in the park despite the fact it's the dead of winter. Unfortunately for our big dreamer she has a mom who likes to keep it simple, at least this year.

So on her birthday we had a simple family birthday party.

We decorated cupcakes.

Chris and I made grilled cheese sandwhiches and tomato soup for dinner, Kalai's favorite.

And then Kalai made a wish...

And blew out her 8 candles.

Kalai was blessed with many birthday gifts this year and many phone calls from family and close friends wishing her a happy birthday.

Of course a birthday isn't complete with out a party with friends. Using the money her grandma Nancy gave her for a party, Kalai decided to take three of her closest friends to the movies. She chose to see "Bedtime Stories" and made some fancy invitations to give to her friends.

(A little side note: As Kalai was making her invitations, Ella raided the sticker box and covered herself, and her Dad, with stickers. She's always up to something...)

Avery, Emma, Symmone and Kalai had a great time at the movies. Kalai treated them to popcorn and a soda and they got to sit in nearly the front row.

According to Kalai it was a perfect 8th birthday!

The pony in action

2009-01-17T22:17:00.000-08:00

This one's for Grandma and Grandpa...

When Ella turned 3...

2009-01-17T21:43:00.000-08:00

she wore her pajamas all day.

She helped me make her birthday cake.

She had a yellow birthday party. (yellow is her favorite color)

Her plate, cup and fork were yellow.

Kalai and I planned her a dinner of her favorite yellow foods: scrambled eggs, waffles, bananas and apples.

We sang her happy birthday...

and she blew out all three of her yellow candles.

She had a yellow birthday cake with yellow gummy bears and sprinkles.

And she got a pony from Grandma and Grandpa. Yee Haw!

The next morning she argued with me for 10 minutes about NOT being three...

"Do you like being three?" I asked.

"I'm not three, I'm two," she replied.

"No, you're three now. Remember we had your party last night."

"No, I'm not three, I'm two."

I had to give a piece of her birthday cake for breakfast before she declared, "I'm three now!"

Oh, three will be an adventure.

A White Christmas

2009-01-17T20:40:00.001-08:00

For the first time that I can ever remember, we had a white Christmas in Bellingham. It was pretty magical to wake up and see snow on Christmas Day.

This year Chris and I really thought about how to make Christmas morning meaningful and centered on Jesus, not the presents under the tree. So we took morning slow, savoring the Christmas traditions of our family...

First, we made a big breakfast together that included cinnamon rolls, a sweet treat that Chris grew up having on Christmas day.

Then we dressed Brice up as Santa Claus. I know the outfit is silly and he doesn't really enjoy it that much, but it makes us feel jolly. "Stay, Santa...Good boy, Santa"

Then we read the Christmas story...

and spent some time talking about the birth of our Savior and what, for our family, is the true meaning of Christmas.

And then we opened our gifts. The girls got all kinds of wonderful gifts this year, including an mp3 player and some pretty accessories.

And for Christmas Brice got...ignored. Oh, poor Brice. Everyone's more interested in opening presents than playing ball.

The best part of Christmas day was the afternoon arrival of my younger brother, Nate, who stayed with us for three days. Nate lives south of Seattle, so we don't get to see him that often or for large blocks of time. Infact, three days was the most time I'd spent with my brother in over five years.

We had a great time with Uncle Nate. He played with the girls and their new Christmas toys and they spent a lot of time on the couch cuddling. It was such a gift to have him here all to ourselves. Nate stayed until the weekend, when my mom, stepdad, and brothers came up from Port Townsend. We had a great time with my family here. I think at that point I was so exhausted from two weeks of Christmas festivities that I forgot to take pictures of their visit. Oops.

As much as I love the Christmas season, I'm always thankful when it's over. There's just enough time to take a deep breath and a few days off before the birthday festivities begin.

A Frerichs Family Christmas

2009-01-12T22:05:00.000-08:00

The weekend before Christmas we braved the snow covered roads and winter storm warnings to join the Frerichs family for an early Christmas celebration in Enumclaw. I'm sure many holiday travelers chose to stay home because of the nasty weather, but we were a family on a mission! You see Aunt Catherine, Uncle George and Uncle John were all home from the east coast and that only happens once or twice a year, so if we missed this christmas it might be another year before we got to see them. And when you have kids that grow as fast as ours are growing, every Christmas counts.

So after dropping Brice off with his best dogfriend, Lola, for the weekend, we headed over the mountains and through the snow to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Thanks to the efforts of the Department of Transportation to clear and salt the roads and our trusty Subaru Outback, we arrived in Enumclaw safe and sound.

The first and possibly best gift the girls recieved that weekend was Uncle John's Berenstain Bear book collection from when he was growing up. I cannot tell you how much our girls LOVE this book series! Every week when we go to the library Ella looks for Berenstain Bear books to check out. Now she has every book at home on her shelf!

Ella wasted no time digging into the pile of books. First Aunt Catherine sat and read with the girls and then Grandma took a turn. I think just about every book was read that weekend.

The afternoon that we arrived, the family attended the Nutcracker put on by a dance company in Enumclaw. I'd never seen the Nutcracker before and really enjoyed it. Kalai was enthralled with the dancing and especially loved the part when the nutcracker turned into a prince. I wish I had taken a picture of her face when the prince appeared. I think she may have been blushing. :)

After dinner came the moment that Kalai had been waiting for: OPENING PRESENTS!

At the top of her Kalai's Christmas list was an an American Girl doll that looks just like her. As you can see she was pretty excited when she opened Grandma and Grandpa's gift.

Ella was pretty excited to open her gifts, too. So much so that she started dishing out thank yous and big hugs even when she wasn't the one opening presents. It was pretty cute!

It snowed the whole first day that we were in Enumclaw. When we woke up the next morning the storm had passed and we found ourselves in a winter wonderland. The scene outside absolutley beautiful!

We spent the morning playing some Uno and enjoying each others company before it was time to head back home. As always we had a lovely visit with Chris' family.

And as we were driving down Chris' parent's drive way Mt. Rainier peaked out from behind the clouds to say good-bye. What a treat. :)

Snowdays

2009-01-12T20:58:00.000-08:00

The week before Christmas we were hit with a snow storm that brought Kalai's winter break two days early. We made the most of our snowdays:

We worked on Christmas gifts.

Chris built the girls a sled out of wood he salvaged at work. We were all eager to head to the closest sledding hill and try it out.

Chris named the sled the Cadilac because it was so heavy and solid that it was a smooth ride all the way down the hill. It was so much fun!

Here you can see the Cadilac in action

And on the way home Kalai and Ella stopped to make a few snow angels.

TGFS (Thank God for Snowdays)

Happy Birthday, Jesus...

2008-12-25T18:52:00.001-08:00

"Love came down at Christmas,
love all, love divine.
Love came down at Christmas,
and I know that love is mine.
Love was in a manger,
in a cattle stall,
and while the angels hovered,
Love was born to be the king of all."

Merry Christmas!

Dinner conversations

2008-12-17T18:43:00.001-08:00

With these two silly girls in the house, you can imagine how amusing our dinner conversations can be.

Tonight Ella spent half of the meal talking in a gremlin voice...

And Kalai showed off the spanish speaking skills. For the last couple of months she's been in an after school spanish program. Her spanish name is Panchita. She loves it and often sings songs using the spanish words she remembers, which of course makes absolutely no sense, but it makes her happy.

Really who needs cable with we have these two around to keep us entertained?

Jeremy and Danielle

2008-12-15T20:23:00.000-08:00

On Thanksgiving weekend we had some very special visitors from Portland, OR...Jeremy and his lovely wife, Danielle.

Jeremy and I have been friends since my college days and he was a pretty prominent figure in Kalai's early years of life. Around the time that Chris and I got married Jeremy moved back to his home town of Portland and, as often happens when friends move away, we lost touch. This past summer I did a little Googling to see if I could track down my long, lost friend. I was very pleased to find him still in Portland, happy, in love and working hard. We were thrilled that Jeremy and Danielle decided to come and visit us over the long weekend. We filled their three day visit with all kinds of fun:

We took a walk in the rain to the Farmer's market...

We ate good food...

Spent quality time at home catching up and visiting....

Kalai and her friend Emma played dress up with Jeremy and Danielle's sweet pooch, Tilly.

We love Tilly!

We played many games of Uno Attacks...

And watched the dogs play. Brice was so good with Tilly. He showed off his big teeth but didn't hurt her at all.....

Actually I think Tilly did more biting than Brice did.

We stopped by Rocket Donuts before church. One of our family's favorite places to go...

And then we took a walk at Whatcom Falls Park...

And did some playing before we had to say good-bye.

We had such a great time with Jeremy and Danielle! We are so thankful they made the trip up to Bellingham. I'm hoping that this spring I'll be sharing pictures from our road trip to Portland. :)

Fun with the Greshams

2008-12-15T19:50:00.000-08:00

One of Ella's favorite things to do is play with the Gresham twins. Lowa and Whittaker are three, love to play pretend and are full of energy. Really who could ask for better playmates? During our last playdate at the Gresham's, the kids pulled the cushions of the couch and practiced their jumping techniques. These kids have some style! And they has SO much fun, which is pretty obvious from the expression on their face. Kristin and I had just a much fun watching them.

Of course Lowa and Whitt's little brother, Abraham, had to get in on the action. But for his own safety we moved him out of the jumping zone.

He wasn't too happy about that. Why do the big kids get to have all the fun?

Christmas tree hunt

2008-12-15T16:59:00.001-08:00

Every year, on the first weekend of December, we go to Small's Christmas tree farm to get our christmas tree. Last year it was a winter wonderland when we went hunting for our tree. This time the sky was blue and it was warm enough to wear just a sweatshirt.

This is the fifth year that we've gone on a Christmas tree hunt. The first time we went Kalai was three. We walked every inch of the christmas tree farm before chosing a noble that was way too wide for our livingroom. Live and learn I guess :) While we were on our tree hunt that first year Kalai came upon this little, red tree and was SO excited. She insisted that we bring it home, but settled with us taking a picture of her with it instead. So this year Kalai picked another red tree and we took her picture. Looks like her tree gets bigger as she gets bigger.

Finding the perfect tree took us a little bit longer this year than it has in years past. This was the lucky tree that got to come home with us.

As is tradition, Chris does that hard work of cutting down and hauling the tree to the car. (Don't feel sorry for him though because he actually enjoys sawing things.) And it wouldn't be a proper Christmas tree hunt without wrapping it up with a bag of popcorn, a cup of hot cider and a candy cane.

Our new home has high ceilings so we were able to get a taller tree this year. It looks so pretty decorated. Decorating the tree is one of my favorite parts of preparing for Christmas.

I hope you are all having fun preparing for the holidays.

Breath taking sunsets

2008-12-15T16:54:00.001-08:00

The beautiful days of fall have been ending with amazingly beautiful sunsets. Last week Ella and I were playing in the park with some friends and I had to run home and get my camera to capture the amazing colors in the sky. It took my breath away...

Lake Whatcom

2008-12-06T23:48:00.000-08:00

We have had an absolutely beautiful fall here in Bellingham! I keep expecting the rain to set in, but we keep getting beautiful sunny days. Of course we try to make the most of every day of sunshine around here. Several weekends ago we took a family walk along Lake Whatcom. I got some lovely shots of my family and the beautiful area we are so blessed to live in and I thought I would share.

Lella Bella Update

2008-11-16T23:29:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I did a post dedicated to Ella in which I shared the story about her waking me up at 5:30 in the morning to tell me she ate her money. Well out of curiosity I laid out a penny, nickle, dime and quarter and asked her which one she ate. Of course she chose the quarter. After four days of monitoring what came out of her, Chris and I decided to have her x-rayed to make sure the coin wasn't stuck in her intestines or something like that. A mouth to groin x-ray showed...NOTHING. Either I'm not a very good poop inspector and the coin got flushed away, or there was never anything in there to begin with. Because I was very thorough in my inspections (I'll spare you the details) my theory is that, given that this occured in the early hours of the morning, Ella dreamt that she ate the money. She insists she really ate it though, so I guess this is a mystery that will remain unsolved.

Also, Ella has changed her name from Lella to Hella. Yes, I'd say many days that name is appropriate.

I've been tagged...

2008-11-16T15:16:00.001-08:00

This is fun! My friend Kristin has tagged me. I'm supposed to chose the fourth photo out of the fourth file of my computer and tell you about it.

This is a picture of Kalai right before her 6th birthday. She's so cute! It's taken at the baby shower of my friend Amanda for her son Simon. I co-hosted the vespa-themed shower with Mary. We painted baby onesies, played games, and had a taco feed (mmmm, a shared favorite meal between Amanda and me.)

Let's see who else wants to play along. I tag:

Cam and Mary

(though I just realized since you share the same computer your picture might end up being the same.)

Double Sleepover...

2008-11-16T12:59:00.000-08:00

And what, do you ask, is a double sleep over? I'll let Kalai and Avery explain:

Last weekend most of the kids in Bellingham had a 4 day weekend because of Veteran's Day. Kalai and Avery saw this as a perfect opportunity to have their first ever double sleepover. Avery is Kalai's "bestest best friend" from Bellingham Christian School. I know that Avery is one of the reasons why Kalai really misses BCS. Fortunately Avery's family attends our church and we make it a point to have dinner with her family regularly so the girls still get best friend time.

I love watching these two girls together because they are so much alike and have a lot of fun. They both are both outgoing, silly, rather dramatic, and, much to the dismay of us parents, totally boy crazy. I really hope these girls will stay close through the years to come. We really enjoy Avery and her family.

The girls had a great time at our house, the second night of their double sleepover. They played with their little pet shops, ate pizza and made friendship braclettes.

After dinner I couldn't resist getting out my camera to capture the range of emotions these two girls can so beautifully portray. I think we have a couple of actresses on our hands.

"Okay, girls, show me:"

"Scary..."

"Happy..."

"Sad..."

"Surprised..."

"Dizzy..."

"Stinky..."

"I love my Best Friend."

Don't they just make you smile? :)

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T20:23:00.000-07:00

I wanted to take a minute and post pictures from tonight's trick-or-treat adventure.

The girls has a great time. Ella was a cowgirl and Kalai was Cleopatra. We were joined by three other friends from the neighborhood and their parents. It was a fun posse to travel with.

There were quite a few houses in the neighborhood that were decked out in lights, spiderwebs and all the works. It was very cool. The sidewalks were filled with families and at one point there were so many kids trick-or-treating it was hard to keep track of our own. By the end of the night Kalai's pumpkin was completely full and Ella was having a hard time carrying hers.

Of course when we got home we dumped out all of the candy and let the girls dig in.

What's that I see? Ella has two suckers in her mouth?

But of course.... it is Halloween. :)

Fall beauty

2008-10-27T18:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took a walk with Kalai and Ella and we came upon this amazingly gorgeous tree. It was so red it glowed. It was beautiful!

Hope you're finding the time to enjoy the beauty of the season.

Lella Bella

2008-10-26T20:07:00.000-07:00

Today I have been feeling the need to stop and reflect on my youngest child...my monster, which I have so affectionately come to call her over the last several months. From the moment Ella came out she has been a fighter, a yeller, a ball of energy...I believe stong-willed is the politically correct term. And from the moment she entered my life she has been pushing me and molding me in ways that are usually very annoying and uncomfortable, but I know make me a better mother. For that I thank her.

Actually, during this season of terribles, (terrible twos, terrible tantrums, terrible manners, terrible...) I think I need to stop more often and thank Ella, and God, for her spirit, for her strength, for her sense of humor, and for all of the adorable, endearing things she does everyday that I will remember much longer than the headaches of raising a toddler. So I thought I would share some of the funny Ella moments we've experienced in the past couple of months.

This evening the girls and I carved two of our nine pumpkins which were given to us by our most generous green-thumbed grandparents. Kalai has been dying to get her hands slimey with pumpkin guts! Ella on the other hand didn't really know what she was getting herself into and after timidly dipping her spoon in her pumpkin and getting a seed on ther hand, she decided she had better things to do and handed the responsibility over to me. So while Kalai and I carved away, Ella entertained us with a little tune on her Casio. This video captures her silliness perfectly. Throughout our day she often sings a little dee-dah-doo-dah song, does a little dance, makes funny faces. It's pretty entertaining. Also notice she's wearing mismatched shoes. Usually they're on the wrong feet, which is a battle I gave up on long ago.

Yes, life is never dull with Ella around. This morning I woke up at 5:30 in the morning to Ella saying " Mom, I swallowed my money" "What? somethings wrong with your tummy?" (I thought she was going to throw up) "NO!" (now she's talking 5 times louder because apparently she thinks turning up the volume helps me understand her better) "There's money in my tummy. I ate my money." Ella is going through the phase where she puts everything, especially small things in her mouth. Chris and I have caught her a handful of times putting money in her mouth and told her that if she swallowed it she'd have to go to the doctor and get a shot, so that was her main worry when she came to me this morning "I don't want a shot" she said. After a call to the doctor I was assured that it would probably come out on it's own in the next couple of days. So now we're on poop patrol to see exactly how large of a coin she swallowed. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to that hunt.

Ella has one standard funny/scary face. (shown above)

Ella favorite method of travel is hopping. Going to the car, in the grocery store, going up stairs, Ella hops...and usually on one foot.

Her favorite game of pretend right now is to switch roles with me. She'll say, "You be the baby, I'll be the mommy. Baby, what do you want for dinner?" And she'll procede to ask me this same question over and over again until I have ran out of dinner ideas.

Ella is officially potty trained now. Hooray! The other morning she was coming out of the bathroom struggling to pull up her panties. She was so frustrated yelled, "stupid panties, stop having bad manners."

Ella LOVES to read books and probably 50% of the tantrums I experience with her are after I tell her it's not time to read or that it's time to stop reading. Fortunately for us, Kalai's a skilled reader now so she reads to Ella quite a bit. Every Thursday Ella and I go to story time at the library. Ella loves it! They always end the story time with the Hokey Pokey, so on Thursdays Ella always asks "Mom, are we going to do the Hokey Pokey today?" :) I love that.

From meeting other kids at the park, church and other places around town I have learned that our Ella is one of at least 20 other little girls named Ella under the age of 4. I kid you not. Everywhere we go we meet another Ella, and it drives me crazy. I had no idea it was such a popular name. I had never met an Ella in my life when we picked out her name and now it's everywhere. Fortunately she's brought some resolve to this unfortunate situation. She calls herself, Lella. So we've all starting calling her Lella too. It's a good fit.

I have to say that this blog has been a good exercise of gratitude for me. The past couple of days have been very challenging...so much so that I went to bed last night not liking Ella very much and feeling pretty inadequate as a parent. But taking this time to share some of the things that make my Lella so special and dear to my heart makes all of the hard work of raising this little girl worth it. And like I said before, she really has made me such a better mom in the process.

Thank you, Lella Bella.

Happy Birthday, Grandma...

2008-09-16T17:42:00.001-07:00

Today is a very special day...today we celebreate Grandma Sarah's birthday! Unfortunately there are many miles between her and us and we don't get to celebrate her birthday the proper way with a cake and ice cream, streamers and party hats, hugs and kisses.

So, instead the girls and I took some time this afternoon to pick Grandma a beautiful flower bouquet from our garden,

we made her a special birthday sign (that's Kalai's fancy handwriting and Ella's fancy border),

and posed for a number of pictures until we got the perfect one for Grandma's birthday...

We hope you had a great birthday, Grandma Sarah! We love you SO MUCH!

Brice's adventure

2008-09-08T17:32:00.000-07:00

Right before our moving adventure began we took a family hike to Race Horse Falls. The hike was the perfect length for little legs with lots of fallen trees to climb over and make the trek interesting. When you reach the end of the trail there is a small beach and a short incline that takes you up to the falls. Kalai and Ella were pretty excited to reach the top and see the waterfall, as you can tell from the picture. Brice was even more excited though, racing ahead of us to see what he could see. As we were headed back to the beach and Chris was telling the girls to be careful around the edge of the cliff created by the rushing water below. As we all peaked over the edge to see what how far down the water was we were surprised to see Brice at the bottom, pacing on a rock beside the rapids. "How on earth did he get down there?" we wondered. Chris climbed back up the trail to see if there was a path that led down below, but instead discovered that Brice had fallen and there was no way to reach him. About this time Brice also realized that he was stuck and started to bark and wimper. I've never heard a dog cry before, but it was pretty obvious that Brice was very stressed about his situation and wanted Chris to come help him out. Chris decided to explore the area and see if there was any way for him to reach Brice. While he was gone, the girls started to get kind of antsy so I tried to distract them by making a video, which they always love, Kalai especially. Kalai was born with a dramatic flare and anytime the camera is on her she turns on the charm. This video is so precious and made Chris and I laugh as Kalai showcases her range of emotions. And Ella's pretty cute in it too.

Chris wasn't able to reach Brice but could see him from across the river and called to him trying to get him to jump. Brice just cried. Eventually Chris gave up and came back to our side of the river. A few minutes later Brice came swimming down the river, finally jumping after he saw Chris walk away from him. A very happy ending to a pretty stressful situation.

After our adventure at the falls we decided to stop along the Nooksack river on our way home and enjoy the sun and play in the water.

Ah, the lazy days of summer.

Home, sweet Home

2008-09-03T17:50:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have already heard about the big change our family experienced this past month. For those of you who haven't, I'll start from the beginning...

About a year and a half ago we bought a condo, our attempt to get into the real estate market "game". I'll be honest and say that I was never thrilled about the move into the condo, but at the time both Chris and I felt like it was a necessary sacrifice that would hopefully allow us to purchase a home of our own some day. Well this summer, with no yard of our own to play in, no dirt to dig in, tight living quarters, annoying new neighbors, and no where to store our outside toys, it became very apparent that this condo did not allow us to have the kind of lifestyle that we want for our family. We felt stuck and faced with the dilema of what to do first: rent out our condo or find a new place to live. So we did nothing but complain, dream of living somewhere else and pray that God would provide a way out of our predicament.

Well the first Wednesday of August the girls and I picked up our friends, Adina and Abeba, for a playdate and decided to head to Elizabeth park. Elizabeth park is the oldest park in Bellingham and is surrounded by big, old trees that provide lots of shade on hot days and it has always been one of my favorite parks in town. As we were leaving the park that afternoon I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a for rent sign on this cute, white craftsman house on the edge of the park. I drove by once and got this overwhelming feeling that I should at least stop and talk to the guy outside painting the porch. So I drove around the block and got some information from the owner. The hitch was the the house would be ready to rent on the 15th and Chris and I weren't sure if we should make that commitment before we had our condo rented. So we just figured it wouldn't work.

But then a couple of days later, on Friday, our neighbor down stairs wrote us a note asking us to move our bikes from under the stairwell, which we completely understood because that space is right outside her front door. For me that was the last straw. At that moment I knew that our family did not belong in that condo and I got on the phone and made an appointment to see the little white house across from Elizabeth park. Needless to say it was perfect. In a little over a week we moved out of the condo and into the house on Walnut St. We spent the following week getting our condo ready to rent and were able to find solid renters who signed a year lease with us beginning Sept. 1st. Yes, it all worked out perfectly.

The other morning Chris said it's hard to believe that all of this has happened in just a few weeks. This new house has been such an unexpected blessing. Our friends, Tom and Kristin, came over soon after we moved in and said "this is a total Frerichs house." I couldn't agree more. This little house is everything I have been praying for. The back yard is amazing! The woman who lived here before was a gardener and during the 8+ years that she lived her made this back yard a bumble bee paradise. There were flowers everywhere. The weekend we moved in my mom came up and helped us dig up a lot of the flowers to open up one side of the yard. The other side, which is shown in the pictures above, has six raised flower beds that will be perfect for a vegetable garden next summer.

We can see the colors of the sunset from the back of our house. After not having a yard it's hard to not spend all of our time outside digging in the dirt. Chris enjoys unwinding after work by working in the yard with girls. Brice is so happy to have a yard of his own and has spent many afternoons napping on the back porch.

From our table in the kitchen we watch a posse of bird fly between our bird feeder and the bushes in our back yard. Sometimes all the action is a little distracting for Ella who has to stand up every couple of minutes to see the birds that Kalai spies.

And Peggy-o seem to feel right at home here. She enjoys sitting on the ledges around the covered porch in the front of the house and I often catch her playfully rolling around on the side walk. We're hoping this can be her retirement home as she's getting up there in age. Both Chris and I hope that this will be the last move for a while...especially any move that involves the piano.

On to other news...

This past Tuesday Kalai started 2nd grade. The neighborhood we moved into has a great public elementary school. So, after much thought, we've decided to send Kalai to Columbia Elementary, just three blocks down the road from our house. Kalai was disappointed to not return to Bellingham Christian School, but Chris and I know that it will be so good for her to have neighborhood friends and for our family to embrace this great community we live in.

After posing for some first day of school shots, we walked to school and were happily surprised to see a number of familiar faces. A handful of girls we know from soccer and dance are in Kalai's class, which definitely made her feel more at ease on her first day. I know it made me feel better.

Kalai said she had a great first day of 2nd grade. She said she really likes her teacher, Mrs. St. Claire. And she's super excited that she'll get to play chess in her classroom this year. Last year Chris taught her how to play and she was in chess club at BCS which she really enjoyed.

After getting Kalai settled in her class, Ella and I made the 5 minute trek back home. I still have a bit of unpacking and a lot of organizing to do. It's always a challenge to get our stuff to fit into a new space. I'll post pictures of the inside of our house once we're settled.

Here's our house on Walnut St. You can see the big trees on the edge of park on the left. Kalai and Ella have a lot of fun riding their bikes up and down the sidewalk. Our neighbors are so nice and there are families with little kids everywhere. We are so excited to be a part of this neighborhood!

Looking back on all that has happened in the last month it just amazes me what great things God can do if you're willing to let go of your fears and take a step of faith.

sunset walk...

2008-07-24T14:43:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we took a walk to a field near our condo so that Brice and Ella could run off some energy at the end of the day. It was right as the sun was starting to set and the light was beautiful. I got some really great images that evening and thought I would share them. Enjoy...

(Ella always puts her shoes on the wrong feet...but insists that it's right.)

a boating adventure...

2008-07-23T19:59:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Chris and Ella met Grandpa Luther and Auntie Lil in Anacortes for a day of boating and crabbing. ( I, unfortunately, had to work and Kalai is out of town visiting her Grandma Nancyy). Chris said they had a lot of fun, the weather was beautiful and they had no problem filling their limit of crab. Ella told me that she liked how the boat went "bumpty-bump, bumpty-bump, bumpty-bump..."

Ella loved driving the boat :)

They stopped at Lopez island to do some beach combing. Chris found me two agates for my collection.

This is Ella's little nook for napping.

Though I didn't get to participate in the boating and crabbing portion of the day, I did get to eat lots of yummy crab. Chris and Ella brought home 10 crabs...so many we had to enlist the help of our friends, Ryan, Jessica and Brad to help us eat it that evening.

Mmmmm...it was good!

Summer days...

2008-07-23T15:20:00.001-07:00

Today I've been going through the hundreds of photos downloaded to our computer with the hope I can get them burned onto CD before our computer crashes from being overloaded with files. (Okay, it's not quite that bad, but there are months worth of pictures that haven't been dealt with.) As tedious as this job is, going through and organizing this large amount of photos, it's been fun to revisit some of our summer adventures. I can hardly believe that summer is half way over. School shopping, crisp mornings and the colors of autumn are just around the corner. But before I get a head of myself thinking about the upcoming fall, here are some of the highlights of the our summer.

Summer was a little slow making it's appearance this year, as you can see by the hats and fleeces we wore on our family "exploration hike" in early June.

Our condo is backed by a wetland preserve and acres of land in the process of being developed into a cult-a-sac neighborhood and a soon-to-be city park (we can't wait for that). Chris likes to take us out to explore these areas that are being cleared out.

Kalai calls this particular spot "wood chip land" because of the huge mounds of wood pieces scattered throughout the clearing. Everyone took a turn climbing up the wood hill to check out the view, including Peggy-o.

Here's Brice waiting for us to come down and play with him.

These little exploration hikes offer a nice break from the parking lots and close quarters of condo life. Honestly, they keep us sane.

Early summer also brought the arrival of baby geese who live in the wet land surrounding our condo complex. I caught this herd of geese grazing on the back hill behind our home in the early morning. It's such an amusing sight to see 2 dozen baby geese walking around the condo grounds.

The rhody plant my mom gave us when we moved into the condo last year bloomed for the first time. It was so pretty.

The second weekend of June we took the ferry boat over to Port Townsed to watch my little brother, Andrew, graduate from high school.

I'm so proud of Andrew! He's grown into such a cool person and he worked so hard to make it through his senior year. I'll tell you graduating high school isn't as simple as it used to be.
(Andrew's in the front row, in blue, furtherest to the left)

That weekend was also Father's Day. We spent Sunday at our favorite beach on Marrowstone Island with our family beach combing, BBQing and playing in the water.

Back at home, Kalai's papa got a new puppy. She brought him home to show him off. He's so furry and cute and absolutely loves Kalai. He wimpered whenever she wasn't holding him.

Of course we've had many a BBQ this summer with our favorite friends Ryan, Jessica and Lola. We had a good laugh watching Kalai and Ella eat limes. Love those sour faces!

And Brice and Lola always have lots of fun playing ball together.

For the 4th of July Chris and the girls went down to Enumclaw to spend a weekend with his parents (Sadly, I had to work). The girls had a great time, of course, getting their face painted, riding ponies and carnival rides at the Enumclaw 4th of July parade. They also got some much needed quality time with Grandpa and Grandpa Frerichs.

We've also made sure to relax, read and enjoy some quiet time together at home.

Peggy-o has mastered the art of sun bathing. That's about all she's done since the sun's come out. Well, I guess she's also been doing her part to keep the rabbit and rodent population down, but I'll spare you those gory details and just share these cute and cuddly pictures.

Kalai learned how to ride a two-wheeler! Hooray!

Ella does her best to keep up, but Kalai's pretty speedy on her new bike.

We found a dragon fly on our stairs. Very cool.

Brice has played ball every chance he gets. Are you really surprised?

We planted some pretty flowers on our patio.

And of course, we've been playing with our friends Adina and Abeba.

It's been a really good summer so far. Like I said, it's going by so quickly...but I guess that's how it goes when you're having fun.

Hope you're enjoying your summer too!

This one's for Lil

2008-05-22T12:33:00.001-07:00

A couple of summers ago Chris' youngest sister, Elisabeth, took a trip to Germany and came back with this adorable hat for Ella. I just recently came across it and put it on Ella. It didn't stay on her head for very long, Ella isn't really a hat girl, but I did get some cute pictures

So this ones for Aunty Lil... I hope it brightens your day :)

Catching up....

2008-05-21T13:45:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday, while reminissing about his youth, Chris' Grandpa Arvid gave us this tid bit of wisdom...the older you get the faster time flies by.

I have definitely felt that , especially in the last several years when 6 months will pass in a blink of an eye. And it's hard to even notice this time slipping away until you come upon something that reminds you that you haven't been paying attention. An example of that would be this blog, which, as you can see, I haven't posted on since January. And it's not because I have given up on blogging, infact I have a new found fascination and appreciation for blogs. Actually I do find the time to check out other people's blogs, just not to tend to my own.

And just recently it struck me what a shame it is that I don't pause more often to reflect and share the many precious moments and memories my family, friends and surroundings bring to my life. Because the reality is that time does fly, kids grow, memories fade, life changes and if you don't stop to take notice of the blessings of each day, they often go unappreciated...or even worse unnoticed.

So this post is a bit of a catch up, to share some of the highlights and happenings of the last several or so months. Please forgive the slacker in me for not being better at this blogging thing :) Being a committed blogger requires some, oh what's that word? Oh, yes, discipline (something that has always been a little elusive to me.) But I hope to get better at it because the truth is, writing about my family and sharing my life in this blog is good for my soul.....

Kalai and Ella really have grown closer this past year. Ella's much more interested in playing with Kalai and being a part of whatever her big sister is doing. And Kalai tries to be patient with Ella allowing her to tag along more often. They make each other laugh, play pretend and have a lot of fun just rolling around and wrestling...honestly most of the time they can't keep their hands off of each other. I also love seeing how much more sensitive they are to one another. When Ella cries, Kalai scoops her up in her arms and talks to her like a baby, giving her kisses and promises that it will be okay. When Kalai cries, Ella runs to the bathroom, brings her a square of toilet paper, rubs her back and asks "what's wrong, Sissy?" with a very concerned look on her face. It just melts my heart to see these two girls love each other so much.

This year we spent Easter at home, which was bitter sweet. Usually we'll make the trip down to Enumclaw to spent the holiday with Chris' family which is always special as it's filled with tradition and includes extended family. But this year we decided to keep it simple and stay home, attend out home church's Easter service, and spend the day with our good friends Ryan and Jessica and Eric, Stacey, Adina and Abeba. We definitely missed the Frerichs' family, but enjoyed being home and not having to travel on the holiday.

At the end of March we all got a surprise up here in the northwest when the sky opened up and dumped snow...a lot of snow. Of course the girls bundled up and went to work making a snowman. Peggy-o, however, steared clear of the winter wonderland, watching the snowfall from her favorite spot.

Kalai is doing great. Last quarter she was given a special character award at school for her "friendliness". Who knew a pink piece of paper could make a little girl so happy. Her teacher said that Kalai is always smiling, always kind and is a good friend to all of the students in her class. It seems that Kalai does have many friends in her class because she's been invited to just about every birthday party...which gets kind of expensive for the parents of the friendliest girl in the 1st grade. But we are so proud of her :)

Like many other 7 year old girls, Kalai is a complex creature. One minute she will be happy-go-lucky, full of joy, ready for the next adventure. And then the next minute she's close to tears, affraid of failing, unwilling to talk or listen to reason. Honestly Chris and I fear the teenage years when hormones and independence get thrown into the mix. I've been surprised to see how much Kalai reminds me of myself as she gets older. Often when she gets upset I totally understand why, because it would upset me too.

As Kalai reaches the end of first grade she has learned so much. She's a great reader now, a wiz at math, she memorized 26 different bible verses, knows many bible stories better than me and can tell you the birthday of each of her classmates. It's also been amazing to see how much she has grown. She's catching up to me in height, turned into a bean pole and has lost 6 teeth. But on a deeper level, she's a compassionate friend, a tremendous helper, a kind person and has a heart for Jesus...which couldn't make me happier.

A fun milestone that Kalai recently experienced was getting her ears pierced, a big deal in the world of a 7 year old girl. On a Sunday afternoon about 4 weeks ago our family trekked to mall and visited out local Claire's boutique. Sitting in the chair waiting for the girl to prepare the piercing gun Kalai was overcome with anxiety and started crying quite dramatically. After five minutes or so she calmed down and prepared for the piercing which two girls did in unison, one on each side. On the count of three it was done and Kalai didn't even flinch. As is often the case, she makes it much scarier in her head then it really is. I told you my Kalai is a complex creature.

But we love her just the way she is.

And then there is Miss Ella, the whirlwind that keeps our world in constant motion. At two and a half Ella is terrible, adorable, crazy, sweet, wreckless, curious, impulsive and bright. I've said it before and I'll say it again...she keeps me on my toes. She too has grown so much over this last year. Her vocabulary has blossomed and she talks in full sentences and paragraphs that you often can't completely understand, but you know she knows what she's talking about. She can be very demanding, I believe the term is "strong-willed", but Chris and I both recongnize that if we can find the right activity to channel her energy into she'll do great things. For right now Ella loves to swing at the park, explore the outdoors, run, jump, climb, kick, tackle, and really anything that involves moving.

Ella also loves spending time with her best friend Abeba. They really are too cute of a pair to not include on this posting. For about 9 months now Ella and Abeba have spent at least two days a week together, and it has been so fun to see them grow into little people and best friends. They are always so excited to see each other and talk about each other when they are a part, usually about how one hit or bit the other, but it's still endearing.

When Ella plays at Abeba's house she loves to try on all of Abeba and Adina's shoes. Ironically, Ella is awful about sharing her shoes. Infact she will yell, cry and rip her shoes off Abeba's feet if she catches her. No, Ella's not a good sharer, especially whe it comes to her footwear. When Ella and Abeba are at our house they will often stand and look out Ella's bedroom window at the garbage truck or other cars, people and animals passsing by and talk about the things that two year olds talk about.

We also have a lot of fun when Abeba's big sister Adina comes over. These four girls, Kalai, Adina, Ella and Abeba have a lot fun hanging out together.

So that's what we've been up to since January...growing, learning, crying, laughing, playing, exploring, enjoying our family and friends ...you know all the good stuff. :)

Beach walk

2008-01-21T00:52:00.000-08:00

There are two things I really miss about our old house on Patton street. The first is the beach, "our beach", just a half a mile walk down the road. It's the beach where Chris and I went on our first date, the beach we visited many time before we even lived in the Birchwood neighborhood to go beach-combing, the beach that was the perfect destination for a family afternoon walk. Sadly we've only visited it a couple of time since we moved nearly a year ago.

The second thing I miss are our old neighbors, the Warner family. When Chris, Kalai and I moved into the house on Patton Street it was right after Chris and I were married. Kalai was three and we really didn't know any one our age with kids. Needless to say we felt a little lonely. Every night we would pray for God to bring Kalai a friend with parents that we could relate to and hang out with. About 6 months later a new family moved in next door. You can imagine how excited we were when we met little Zoe over the fence, who was only two at the time, very articulate and very eager to show us her big, multicolored umbrella. A couple days after they moved in we dropped by to say hello and after seeing the big unpacking job they still had before them, including all of their kitchen items, we invited the Warners to have dinner with us. Talking to them that night we realized how much we had in common, including our ages, hobbies and the church we attended. Nathan, Amanda, Zoe and Morgan were truly an answer to our prayers. Over the next couple of years we enjoyed many BBQs, nights by the fire pit, and afternoon play dates. Zoe, her big sister Morgan and Kalai quickly became best friends.

I'm embarressed to say that since we moved from the Patton Street house Kalai, Zoe and Morgan have only played a few times. Thankfully the girls love and loyalty to one another never fades, and they always pick up right where they left off. Last Sunday Chris and I decided to go back to our old neighborhood and take a walk to "our beach" and we invited Zoe and Morgan to join us. It was an absolutely beautiful winter afternoon, and the girls were so sweet together that I couldn't resist sharing the special moments I caught on my camera.

Kalai's 7th birthday bash...

2008-01-20T23:02:00.001-08:00

Well, I have some blog catching up to do. January has been a busy month for us and I have lots of pictures and memories to share! So I figured I'd start at the beginning...

After much anticipation (Kalai has been planning her 7th birthday pretty much since the day after her 6th birthday party) we celebrated Kalai turning 7 with much success. I always find it a challenge to put on a winter birthday party because the weather isn't nice enough to take the kids to the park and currently our home isn't quite large enough to host a large birthday gathering. So we decided to keep it simple. Kalai invited her three best buddies from school, a good opportunity for Chris and I get to know some of the kids she talks about all of the time. I'm happy to say that they were three very lovely young ladies, very polite, kind and appropriately silly.

We had them over for a birthday lunch. Thanks to Grandma Nancy our table was decked out in my little pony everything, which Kalai loved. We had planned on making pb & j, but apparently 1st graders don't like this the classic lunch staple anymore and chris and I ended up taking orders...grilled cheese, cheese and mustard sandwhich, ham sandwhich, plain potato chips, carrots, celery, and many refills on the ranch dressing.

Kalai requested cupcakes and a candle shaped like the number 7. We forgot the candle though, so Chris improvised by using last years 6 candle plus and single candle to equal 7. I so appreciate Chris problem solving skills :-)

After stuffing them full of food and sweets, I bravely ventured out with the four girls to the movie theatre to see "Enchanted", the latest Disney movie about a princess, a prince and true love. Very appropriate for our girly girl. It was a darling movie, and the girls had a great time. I'm happy to say that Kalai's birthday party/movie adventure was a success! And now she's already planning her 8th birthday...a sleep over! Now that will be an adventure...

Oh, but the celebrating was not over. When we got home from the movies we had a birthday dinner planned with some our best grown up friends.

Nikki has been my best friend since high school and is the best Auntie any little girl could hope for. Nikki was the first one to visit Kalai in the hospital after she was born, she was there to hear Kalai's first belly laugh, Kalai had her first sleep over with her auntie Nikki, and just this summer Kalai was Nikki and Andrew's flower girl. Needless to say these two have a very special bond. Nikki also brought along her family, her wonderful husband Andrew and their adorably huge great dane, Bailey, who Brice happily spent all night wrestling with.

We were also blessed to have Phil, who has been my dear friend since pre-school, join us for our yummy spagetti birthday dinner. Phil has an adventurous spirit that takes him to far of places during much of the year, so we're always thankful for his visits, especially when they coinside with such a special occasion.

As is usual, I took a lot of pictures of Kalai's special day. Toward the end of the evening as we were all hanging out digesting our dinner, Ella took the camera from me, probably because she was tired of having it in her face, and took some pictures of her own.

Of course she wasn't to happy when we took the camera away.

That night we tucked in a very exhausted but very happy big 7 year old. Both Chris and I are just blown away by how much she has grown this last year. She truly is such a beautiful, sweet and precious little girl!

Thank you, God, for blessing us with Kalai.

A Merry Christmas, Happy Birthdays and Happy New Year

2007-12-31T16:28:00.000-08:00

You may have been able to tell from my last post that we were filled with the Christmas spirit early this year. We had our Christmas tree up by the 2nd of December, my art table was filled with wonderful christmas fabrics, ribbons, stamps, and other creative goodies and my head was filled with gift ideas and holiday projects to be made during the weeks before the 25th. Yes, this was going to be the best Christmas yet! And then, the unthinkable happened, we all caught the flu. Needless to say, it was awful. And before I knew it, Christmas was only a week away, my house was a disaster, my art table was still piled with unused supplies and the holiday cheer I had at the beginning of the month was replaced with fatigue, runny noses, and a lingering cough. Ugh!

In some ways our weeks of illness was a blessing as it helped both Chris and me to simplify our Christmas priorities. It's so easy to get caught up in the busyness of the season, the lists of things to buy, make, and bake, cards to send, etc. And I am definitely guilty of getting swept up in all of that activity, neglecting what Christmas is really about for our family, the birth of our Savior, Jesus, and the gift of love and hope that He is to our world. That is what Christmas is about. The fact that we are able to give and recieved gifts and spend time with those we love is a blessing from God.

And God certainly did bless us this Christmas with many opportunities to enjoy our family. Our first big event, which we look forward to every Christmas, was Kalai's ballet recital. Her dance studio, Dancing for Joy, puts on its recitals at the Mount Baker Theatre which is a beautiful old theatre here in town. It's a pretty big deal. Kalai was so excited!

This is her third Christmas performing on the "big stage". In Kalai's first recital she was a sheep in the manger, last year she was a tap dancing snow man and I can't even express how beautiful, grown up, and graceful Kalai looked this year doing her ballet performance to a song about the star of Bethleham. She's growing up so fast!

Our family did a lot of traveling this Christmas. We opened presents as a family on Christmas Eve morning because Kalai went with her Poppa to spend Christmas day with him and his family down in Tacoma. The girls had a great time. Fortunately, Chris was able to call Santa and arrange for him to bring gifts a night early. Kalai was super impressed that her Daddy knew Santa's phone number and she begged for him to give it to her too. Chris didn't share that top secret info though.

Santa brought Ella a kitchen, which you can see she's thrilled about. Kalai got a robot puppy that grows and sings, which is just what she asked Santa for.

Kalai left in the afternoon of Christmas Eve for her Grandma Moody's. The rest of us began packing for our Christmas day journey down to Auburn to see Chris' family. This year the whole Frerichs' family was home for the holidays, minus Kalai (she was very missed). This is actually a very special occurance now that all but one of the cousins are grown up, off to college and/or married. We had a wonderful time seeing everyone.

On Christmas evening we said goodbye to the Frerichs' clan and headed south to my brother Nate's house in Lacey. The following day we were joined by my mom, step dad, and brothers Adam and Andrew for a late Christmas celebration. My parent's gave Brice this very festive Santa costume. (I promise I don't dress my dog on a regular basis.) Again, like at Halloween, he was a good sport. He didn't try to pull it off, but just laid down with a big huff and let us have our laugh. He's so cute!

December 26th is also my youngest brother Adam's birthday. So after opening Christmas presents we had birthday cake (Yummy!), and Adam got to open birthday presents. He got a full size keyboard and dazzled us with his self-taught piano skills. I have to say that I am so impressed by Adam's musical ability!

We returned home on the 27th for a day of rest and then headed back down to Enumclaw for a fun filled weekend with Chris' family. Chris' sister Catherine, her husband George, his brother John and youngest sister Elisabeth were all home for Christmas so it was an opportunity not to be missed.

That evening Chris parents took us all out to an amazing dinner at an amazing restaurant in Seattle. The restaurant is at the top of the tallest builing in Seattle so the view is just breathtaking. From the dining room where we ate we could see the lights of Seattle down below. We ate a seven course meal that was unlike anything we'd ever had, very elegant and fun. Each course was served with a hand picked wine that complemented it and the owner of the winery just happened to be dining at the restaurant that evening so he and his wife came and talked to us about each bottle of wine we sampled. We had such a wonderful time!

Unfortunately illness struck again while we were visiting Chris' family. The night before we got there, Grandpa Arvid had been taken to the hospital after having a night of being very sick. On Saturday morning Catherine came down with the same flu-like symptoms, then John, Elisabeth and then Kalai. While it was a bummer to have half of our family sick, it was nice to have everyone home. It gave the girls a lot of time to crawl on grandpa and play with their christmas presents.

Ella got a life preserver from Grandpa Luther. As soon as she opened it she insisted on stripping down and trying it on. Then she refused to take it off. When we went out later that day she wore it as a coat. I'm sure a few people at the grocery store were wondering why our little girl was sporting a life preserver. Hey, it made her happy and actually padded a few falls.

Kalai got some pretty new clothes and her Aunties, Catherine and Elisabeth, gave her a make over which she loved.

We ended our visit with another birthday party. This one was for miss Ella who turned two. Yeah! She had a blast opening more presents. She's gotten pretty good at it after all of her Christmas presents. She got all kinds of goodies which she put in her stoller and pushed around the house.

Ella was so excited to sing Happy Birthday and did her best to blow out her candles. Fortunately her Sissy was there by her side to give her a hand, or should I say a blow.

Auntie Elisabeth made Ella a very special birthday treat called a "dirt pot", a mixture of crushed oreos, vanilla pudding with gummy worms poking out. Ella loved it.

Grandma Sarah loved celebrating Ella's second birthday with her, especially with her whole family at home. It was a very special weekend from beginning to end.

So we arrived home last night, very exhausted but so thankful for the time we got to spend with our families.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We send our love and best wishes to you for the New Year.

O, Christmas tree...

2007-12-02T19:35:00.000-08:00

So today was the day...the day we went hunting for the perfect Christmas tree! For three years now we've gone to find our perfect tree at Small's tree farm, a picturesque spot just outside of Bellingham where your tree cutting is rewarded with a seat by a toasty wood stove, a cup of hot apple cider, a candy cane and a bag of popcorn. Tree hunting doesn't get any better than this in our opinion. Plus everyone there is so friendly...I might even call them jolly. :-)

Saturday we got our first snow of the season. As many of you know, Kalai is die hard when it comes to snow. Ella doesn't seem to enjoy it as much...it's COLD! Here is Kalai with her weapon of choice, the snow ball. Somehow I managed to evade all her snowballs today. Tomorrow I might not be so lucky...

The snow made a perfect setting for our tree hunt. The Christmas trees looked even more beautiful with their layer of snow on. It was cold and snowing, so we had to be very efficent in our hunting. To our credit, our time and tree selection has improved drastically from our first tree hunt four years ago. We spent three hours walking every inch of the tree farm, only to choose a tree that was the perfect height but very, very wide. Today I think we found our tree in about 15 minutes. And our tree is perfect...

And here it is, our lovely Grand Fir, being cut by our Super Daddy...and loaded up and ready to go home.

We wasted no time getting our decorations on the tree, Kalai made sure of that. Yes, it's official the Christmas season is here!

Merry Christmas!

More Fall Fun with Ryan and Jessica...

2007-11-26T23:20:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago our friends Ryan and Jessica, whom we spent Halloween with, invited us over to make applesauce, the perfect activity for a windy fall day. I had never made applesauce and was surprised by how easy it is. And it was so delicious!

We always enjoy spending time with Ryan and Jessica, so much so that we usually make a day of it. On this fall day we made applesauce in the afternoon,

and then, as is tradition, played games into the evening until it was time to make dinner. On this day Uno Attacks was the game of choice. Kalai joined in the Uno fun...

while Ella stayed busy eating her sour apple tootsie pop. Wow, that's sour!

And then Ella worked on her photography skills.

Kalai loves coming to Ryan and Jessica's because 1) Ryan has a huge TV and Jessica owns just about every Disney movie made 2) she always gets to watch a Disney movie on Ryan's big TV and 3) We always have dessert at Uncle Ryan's house. :-) No, it doesn't take a whole lot to win the affection of a 6 year old.

Ryan and Jessica have a dog named Lola who is Brice's best buddy. They have too much fun frolicking, chasing ball and barking together. They even beg together.

And you can always count on Uncle Ryan for a little bit of silliness.

Yes, it was another fun day with Ryan and Jessica!

Happy birthday, Abeba!

2007-11-20T21:01:00.001-08:00

Today Ella's favorite friend turned two. To celebrate this exciting milestone, Abeba's mom kindly invited the girls to Build-a-Bear with Abeba and her big sister Adina. For those of you who aren't familiar with Build-a-Bear, it's a super fun store where the kids get to go and pick a stuff animal and then stuff it themselves. Kalai has had the Build-a-Bear experience twice before, but for the rest of the girls it was their first time. It was, needless to say, a fun and exhausting (f0r us moms) adventure.

Abeba, the birthday girl, stood out from the crowd in her lovely pink tutu. We made her a crown but she didn't want to wear it...maybe that would have been too much pink :-).

First, Abeba opened our gift...

and then the girls posed for a pre Build-a-Bear photo.

Getting to know Abeba and Adina has been such a blessing for our family. As you can see the girls are a perfect match. Kalai and Adina, the big sisters leading the way to Build-a-Bear, have a lot of fun together and Ella and Abeba have really bonded from their regular playdates. It's been so fun to watch Ella and Abeba's friendship grow.

Here we are at Build-a-Bear. Yay!

Now comes the hard part, chosing the animal that you want to stuff and take home. Ella chose a puppy, Adina and Kalai chose matching teddy bears...

and Abeba had a harder time deciding. She had to do some stretching and rolling around on the floor before she could come to a decision. She finally chose a teddy bear with curly hair. (Oh, she makes me laugh!)

Next is the station where they fill the animal with fluff. Before they closed up the animal, the girls got to chose a heart, make a wish and put it in their stuffed animal.

Kalai and Ella both LOVE their new stuffed friend.

Here are the big sisters with their matching bears. Look at those smiles! Both of these girls are professionals when it comes to posing for the camera.

But when you get the four of them together, it's a little harder to capture syncronized smiles. Everyone say "ice cream!"

Abeba and Ella found the teddy bear car seats...they both love those buckles.

And last but not least, the bears and puppy got their own special box carrier for the trip home.

What a fun we had a Build-a-Bear! Thank you, Stacey and Eric...

And Happy Birthday, Abeba. We love you!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

2007-10-31T21:53:00.000-07:00

We got the girls to bed a little late tonight after a great evening of trick-or- treating. I couldn't wait to post the pictures because the kids were just too cute. And I know you all, especially the grandmas, are anxious to see the girls all dressed up....

Here they are...our two beautiful butterflies and our bumble bee.

Brice's costume was a little last minute. My stepmom sent me an email asking me what Brice was going to be. (she dressed her dog up as a cowboy :-D ) I hadn't thought about dressing up the dog, but then Chris and I thought he'd make a cute bee. So I hit up the dollar store and pulled together this costume. Brice was such a good sport. He definitely wasn't crazy about wearing a tshirt and antennas but he humored me.

Our good friends Ryan and Jessica invited us over for a chili feast which we gladly accepted. Ryan went all out decorating this year. He enclosed his porch with black plastic and filled it with spider webs, orange lights, a skeleton head with and sinister laugh and machine that rolled fog down the steps. Very cool! Here the girls are trying to decide if they dare enter this spooky place.

Kalai was SO excited for Halloween. She and Ella have wanted to wear their wings every day since we got them about a week ago. Originally Kalai had wanted to be a fairy princess, but I convinced her that being a butterfly was cool enough and that it's not necessary for your Halloween costume to always include a royal title. For a six year old girl who has been a princess 3 out of the last 4 Halloweens, I don't know how convincing I was. But with a little face paint, which she applied herself, she seemed pretty happy with her costume. Originally Ella was going to be a ladybug, I already had the costume, but when she saw Kalai's butterfly wings she needed a pair too.

This was our first stop, Ella's first trick-or-treating experience. She followed Kalai's lead...

And it didn't take her very long to catch on to the concept of trick-or-treating. She got pretty good at spotting the houses with the jack-o-lanterns.

This is Ryan's house from the road. I love it!

Both of the kids must have ate a pound of candy today. Ella couldn't stop looking at her loot. I'm sure that's going to be the first thing she asks for when she gets up in the morning....

But that is what Halloween's all about! :-)

Ella finds a rainbow

2007-10-21T23:14:00.001-07:00

A few days ago we had the most awesome double rainbow that stretched from one end of the horizon to the other. It was so beautiful! Ella was so excited...she stood by her window pointing at it saying "A-bow, A-bow" until it faded away.

The Omak adventure...

2007-10-21T22:47:00.001-07:00

In one of my last posts I mentioned that Chris was on a mini road trip with our best friend Megan. Well here are some cool pictures he took on his journey. They were successful in getting her horses to their new home in Omak. Tonight he's over at Megan's helping her pack the rest of her stuff in her U-Haul. She leaves tomorrow. We'll miss you Megan!

This is Brice and his brother Rosco...do you see any resemblence?

stopping to stretch their legs and take a picture of the crew...Brice was afraid of the horses, so he wouldn't sit next to Chris for the picture.

Brice would love to be a farm dog

Had to throw in one with Chris' cool handle bar mustache

home again, home again....

those beautiful Frerichs girls...

2007-10-21T22:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture that I absolutely LOVE of Ella, Kalai and their Aunty Elisabeth..

Chris' mom, dad and sister made a special trip up to visit us a couple weeks ago. We're always so happy to have them here. The one thing Bellingham lacks are grandparents. If we could get at least one set to relocate to Bham, life would be perfect. :-) Hmmm...maybe that's what we'll ask Santa for this Christmas.

A girls day...

2007-10-07T23:45:00.000-07:00

The girls were up early this morning, which is the norm now that we're on our school schedule. I must admit this is torture for me as I was not designed as an early bird, but a night owl. As much as I love my girls, I have a hard time smiling at 6:30 in the morning. Fortunately this morning they seem to understand my pain and turn their attention to Chris who was already up getting ready for a mini road trip with our best friend Megan who needed his help moving her horses to Eastern WA. Chris left around 9:00 am to return sometime tomorrow, which left us girls with a whole day to ourselves. The sky was gray and the wind was blowing but it wasn't raining, which meant a trip to the park was in order. So we bundled up and headed to one of our favorite spots. During our drive there Ella must have said "Momma, play? Momma, play?" a dozen times. And every time I had to answer "Yes, we're going to the park to play" for her to be satisfied. Once at the park, Ella headed straight for the swings, Kalai headed for the monkey bars. Then they ran around chasing each other screaming at the top of their lungs. The wind at the park was strong, but seemed to add another level of excitement to their play. After playing for a while we took a walk into the wind. We all held hands - me, Kalai and then Ella. "Look, Mom" Kalai observed from the middle, "small, medium and big. We make a pattern!" We picked up yellow and green leaves that were shaped like hearts. Kalai talked my ear off about nothing in particular, but it was just nice to listen to her be so joyful and goofy. On the way back Ella let me carry her and she put her head on my shoulder. We saw a couple flying a kite and we were all mesmorized by how it danced in the wind. The rest of our day was much more low key - we came home ate soup for lunch, took a nap, played in their tent, folded laundry together, watched a family movie - but it really was a nice day together. And as I was closing the door to their room tonight, after a very cooperative bedtime routine, I couldn't help but be overcome with gratitude for these two little girls that God has blessed me with, who remind me to enjoy every moment, to let all your worries go with the wind, and just let the joy and love flow. Oh, I love them SO much!

Here are some pictures of the girls and what they've been up to this past month. Enjoy!

Kalai lost her second front tooth just a few days after losing her first front tooth. After she lost her first front tooth the second one moved over and was hanging by a corner at the center of her mouth. It was pretty ugly! But she refused to let us pull it out. Finally Chris was able to distract her with a wrestling match and put his fist up to her mouth, gave it a little push and it popped out. Now Kalai tells everyone that her mom pulled out one tooth and her dad punched out the other. Chris keeps telling her to not use the word "punched" but that's her story and she's sticking to it.

Kalai's loving school. Of course, she's making a lot of new friends. On Friday she told me she has a new "bestest friend" but she couldn't remember her name. One day a couple of weeks ago, Kalai got into the car after school as happy as could be. She said "Mom, guess who was the helper today? ME! And Kassidy was my friend, and I got a star on my math test, and I made a goal playing soccer. Today was a special day..." I thought that was pretty sweet.

So what does Ella do while Kalai's at school? Well on Wednesday's her friend Abeba comes over to play for the morning. Ella and Abeba are only a month a part so they're a pretty good match. As you can see they have a lot of fun together.

She also enjoys raiding kalai's dance bag and wearing her slippers and skirt around. (Shhh, don't tell Sissy.) Ella's pretty used to the camera seeing as both Chris and I are a little fanatical about taking pictures. She has a real love/hate relationship with the camera. She'll either put on her stone face and ignore the camera or she'll turn on the charm. This is her "CHEESE!" face.

Can you hear me now...

2007-09-15T21:38:00.000-07:00

Another great Kalai and Ella moment. They're waiting for me by the car...or maybe their calling a cab because I'm taking so long. :-)

Bad hair day

2007-09-07T19:40:00.001-07:00

This picture just makes me laugh! Ella had just gotten up from her nap and Kalai's hair often looks like this after a day of playing dress up and pop star. What a pair!

Kalai's first week of school

2007-09-06T21:41:00.000-07:00

For the last couple of days Kalai has been working on pulling out her front tooth. She even let Chris try to pull it out with pliers. Finally tonight, after 45 minutes of wiggling and pulling and several dramatic outbursts of frustration and fear, we got it! As is tradition, Kalai put her tooth in an envelope on which she drew a picture and wrote a note to the tooth fairy that said "my mom pulled my tooth out." She so excited to show her teacher and all of her friends her new gap. She even noticed that she "talks funny" now.

Kalai's first day of first grade was on Tuesday. The morning was gray and rainy, a perfect fall day in Bellingham. I loaded Kalai, Ella and Brice into the car at 8:30 and we headed to our first day at BCS. Kalai was so excited. She even told me that I could just drop her off in front of the school, I didn't need to walk her in...already so independent. Of course Ella and I walked Kalai to her classroom and helped her get settled. Ella was fascinated by all of the kids in the hall and couldn't resist sitting at Kalai's desk. When I picked Kalai up from school that afternoon the first thing she told me about was the "mean girl" who was her friend, but then broke up with her because she wanted to play with a different girl. However, as of yesterday Kalai and the "mean girl" are best buddies and they have fun talking about boys during recess. I keep asking Kalai to learn her friends' names, but apparently that doesn't really matter when you're 6. I also keep asking her to not be boy crazy, but I'm beginning to think that it's a lost cause too. I'm happy to report that Kalai loves her new school and loves being in 1st grade. She's growing up so fast!

Kalai all ready for school

"Are you going to miss me while I'm at school, Ella?"

Kalai outside her first grade classroom. Mrs. Dahl is her teacher.

Organizing her school supplies, while Ella watches the kids come into the classroom

Ella trying out her sissy desk. She can't wait to be a big kid too.

absence makes the heart grow fonder...

2007-08-30T14:39:00.000-07:00

I must admit that I was very anxious for Goose to come home from Grandma's house. Although she seemed to handle being away from home for 10 day, it was too long for me to have her away from home. And it was pretty evident that Ella missed her Sissy too. She gave her big hugs and lots of kisses. Too cute!

I'm always amazed by how well the girls play together when they've been apart. On ordinary days play time often involves alot of screaming and resistence to sharing. Before Kalai left for her grandma's , she got some play make up from her aunt Catherine for being the flowergirl in her wedding. Kalai, who's biggest ambition right now is to be a teenager, was thrilled. The first thing she asked to play with when she got home was her make up. Of course Ella was right at her side. And much to my delight, they played perfectly together. Sissy painted Ella's nails, applied her lipstick and then posed for a picture showing off the beautiful make up job she did on herself.

Because Grandma lives about a 3 hour journey away from us, she stayed the night. She and the girls enjoyed doing bedtime together, reading lots of books and saying prayers.

As always Grandma spoiled us rotten, because, as she says herself, that's what she does best. Here's Ella modeling one of the adorable outfits Grandma picked out for her. Don't you love the pigtails?

how outdoorsy people survive in a condo...

2007-08-28T19:57:00.000-07:00

So when we bought our condo we knew that there would be some sacrifice, but it seemed worth it to have a home that was really ours. And to be honest, as an outdoorsy family with a dog, the only thing that makes me question whether or not this was a wise decision is that we don't have a yard. Fortunately for us, Chris is an explorer and has taken it upon his self to find us a little piece of outside where we can escape from the parking lots and shared walls of condo living.

Last week he took Ella, Brice and me on a walk through the woods that back our condo (Kalai was still at Grandma's). Brice, our dog, was in heaven darting around trees, through brush, over logs. He probably has been affected the most by our move to the condo. Ella loves everything about being outdoors, except for slugs and worms. For some reason they gross her out. It's pretty funny to see "Ella the fearless" freeze in her tracks, whine, clench her fists and shake at the sight of a slug. Unfortunately for her they were everywhere.

Our walk lead us to a clearing in the woods where hung out for a bit. Brice found a big stick that made him happily wag his tail,

we picked and ate black berries that were perfectly ripe

and enjoyed the sun coming through the branches of the alder trees.

On the walk home Ella collected treasures, acorns and a leaf. What a nice escape from condo life.

Getting reaquainted...

2007-08-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

Hello! Welcome to our blog. I believe the last time I sent out an email updating you all on the happenings of our family it was around Kalai's first day of Kindergarten. Yikes! My appologies for allowing a year to slip by without sending out more picture of our beautiful girls or emails updating you on the events of our life. My hope is that this family blog will be an easier way for me to share with all of you the memories, milestones and lots and lots of pictures of our wonderful little family.

Needless to say, over this last year we have all grown and a lot has changed. So I thought in this first entery I would provide a the most current pictures and little bit about what's going on for each one of us... so we can get reaquainted.

Kalai, (a.k.a Sissy, Sis, Goose - as in "silly goose") is 6 and getting ready for the first grade.
Currently she is visiting her grandma Moody making the most of the end of her summer by playing with her cousins, visiting the zoo, riding horses, shopping for school clothes and hunting for the perfect new back pack. She's been working really hard on improving her reading. She has finished "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Suess, and is now working on "the Cat in the Hat." When she's not at home drawing, writing in her journal, playing dress up or watching a movie, she's usually playing with her new friend Lesley. I've tried hard not be jealous of Lesley, as Kalai's much more interested in hanging out with her than me. I guess that's part of her growing up. (sigh) Lesley and Kalai like to choreograph dances, and I have to say that the girls have talent. Kalai also likes to ride her bike and is getting much better at balancing since her dad moved her training wheels last month. Kalai had the responsibility of being the flower girl in three weddings this summer. Of course she approached it as a professional and did a super job. Kalai's most exciting news is that she's going be going to a new school this year. We have been blessed with the opportunity to send Kalai to a private school called, Bellingham Christian school, and are SO excited. It's a smaller school with one classroom per grade. Kalai will have around 23 kids in her class and we're hoping she will make some good friends and get the individual attention and encouragement she needs. Chris and I are also really looking forward to joining the community of christian parents and making some new friends.

Ella, (a.k.a. Ella Bella, monkey, Baby, munchkin, worm - as in wiggle worm) is almost 20 months. Ella is officially a toddler now, despite the fact that she get's called baby sometimes. Ella is a mover and is much more interested in climbing, running, jumping, throwing, or exploring than sitting and playing with a toy. She loves to be outside and let's you know she's ready to go out by dropping your shoes at your feet. She talks all the time, mostly jibberish, but every once in a while she'll say something clear as day like "where's daddy?" She has a growing list of vocabulary words including, mom, dad, sis, brice, apple, bubble, please, thank you... Ella is currently obsessed with brushing her teeth. Whenever it's really quite and Ella's not around I find her in the bathroom with the door shut sitting on the floor with her toothbrush and a tube of paste. And this usually occurs several times a day. Her favorite outing is to the park where she heads straigt for the swing. She also likes to help me load the washer and dryer, feed the dog and cat, help her dad take his shoes off when he gets home and bring me a bowl when she wants a snack. I feel so blessed to get to have this time at home with her because she changes so much every day.

Together Kalai and Ella are so much fun. They love to wrestle, chase each other around, read books, sing, dance, laugh, draw, take bike rides. I imagine their play time will only improve as Ella get better at playing make believe and following direction. And for those of you wondering if we're going to have another, for some reason a lot of people have been asking me that lately, the answer is "no, not at this time."

Chris is coming up on his 3 year anniversary of working for A-1 Builder's. Unfortunately he's so good at his job that he's a bit bored. Our evening conversations often turn to what Chris' next career adventure will be, so stay tuned. He's still doing architectural photography on the side and is trying to take more pictures for himself too. He celebrated his 28th birthday last month by taking a 13 mile solo hiking trip up by Mount Baker. The view wasn't what he had hoped it would be due to a fog bank that rolled in for the weekend, but getting out in the woods was a good way to start a new year of life and he did get some nice shots. Chris continues to amaze me by how hard he works to provide for our family and grow as a husband and father. He's just wonderful!

I, Malia, am still working at home full time and loving it. Recently, I have started working on Saturdays at the art store I worked at before Ella was born. It's actually a nice break from my mom duties. I get a day to hang out with adults, make art and be surrounded by creativity... oh, and make alittle extra money. On my own I've taken a couple of art journalling classes which I really enjoy. I'll take the third class in the series this fall. I think the hardest part about being a stay at home mom is the isolation and then being consciencious about not loosing touch with the outside world. Working once a week, taking art classes and even keeping in touch with this blog have been good ways for me to keep my sanity.

Last March Chris and I took a big step and bought our first home, a three bedroom condo on the North East side of Bellingham, which will be growing a lot with plans to build a big city park and a new elementary school. So we're hoping this condo will be a successful baby step toward owning our own house in the not-to-distant future. It's a big change that requires some sacrifice, we're back to apartment style living, no yard of our own (we live on the second floor) and it's doesn't have the neigborhood feel we loved about our last house. But it's OURS and we painted all the walls with color and it's actually really peaceful. Our living room faces a greenbelt which gives us a lot of privacy and a nice view. This is the the sunset from our balcony. Not bad...

And of course we can't forget our furry family members...

Brice has surprised us by growing to be a large dog at 60lbs. He is seriously the sweetest, most obedient dog I've ever known. He's lucky enough to go to work with Chris everyday where he gets lots of love, treats and rides in Chris' truck. He actually lives a pretty charmed life for a dog. His interests include running after his ball, running with his ball in his mouth and that moment of anticipation before the ball is thrown.

Peggy-o seems to have adjusted to condo life quite well. Though we don't know many of our neighbors yet, they all know our cat and they all stop to pet her. Peggy-o has always had the talent of charming our neighbors. Some of her favorite activities are sleeping in the sun, sleeping on Kalai's bed, sleeping on the laundry and eating.

And that is what we're up to. Hope you enjoyed the update. I will continue to post pictures of the girls and let you all know how the first day of school goes.

Love to you all!

xoxo