More Dancing, Neighborhood Fun, and the Evergreen State Fair

Back by popular demand, here is another video of Kayla dancing. While visiting our octogenarian friends, they showed us a toy bear they had recently received from a friend that, when you pushed the button on its paw, sang a Christmas song. It's a little early for Christmas, but Kayla didn't mind at all. (There was some construction going on outside so you hear a bit of banging in the video.)


On any given day with decent weather most of the neighborhood kids are out on their bikes. If any kids are outside Kayla wants to be outside too, right in the middle of the action. Here, one of the kids has let Kayla borrow a skateboard.


Here is Kayla with our next door neighbor's tricycle and helmet (on backwards of course). She has a tricycle and helmet of her own, but your own stuff is never as fun as someone else's stuff. When she rides this tricycle, her legs can't quite reach the pedals so she goes Flintstones style. I wish I had a video of that!

At the beginning of September we had the Evergreen State Fair. A lady at church is the Superintendent of Sewing, which means she is in charge of all the quilts and other sewn projects that people bring in to be judged at the fair. She announced that she was hiring for a few days of part time work if anyone was interested. Amanda signed up and worked three days taking in entries and clerking for one of the judges. While taking in other entries Amanda thought that perhaps she ought to enter the Christmas stockings she had made. Not only did she win a blue ribbon, but also won "Best in Class" for holiday items.Here is Amanda at the fair pointing to her stockings and her HUGE ribbon. Maybe next year she'll enter a goat. Unfortunately our camera battery died right after we took this picture, so we sadly did not get any shots of Kayla petting the baby pigs.
Here is an up-close picture of the stockings and ribbons that we took after we got home and recharged the camera battery. The stocking for Kayla is not quite finished yet, but will be done before Christmas this year.

First Pigtails

Kayla's hair has been a little slow coming in. Even now it is longer in the back and shorter on top, which makes it really hard to do anything with it. Finally it's long enough that I decided to attempt some pigtails. The pigtails didn't last 20 minutes into sacrament meeting, but I think they turned out well for a first attempt.

Our New House and a Visit from Grandma and Grandpa

We moved in about a month ago but I haven't posted anything about our new house!

The house was a "short sale" and for those of you who don't know, the process of buying a short sale is anything but short. The house was a great deal. It's not a "fixer-upper" but it does need a little TLC, all cosmetic stuff. One thing it needed right away was a new paint job and we've been working hard the last few weeks prepping the house for paint. You can see in the picture a few paint samples on the wall. Official before and after pictures coming soon.

We moved into a great neighborhood with wonderful neighbors who are always out playing and willing to share a messy fudgesicle.Right next door we have a family with two little boys, 4 and 5 years old. Whenever Kayla hears them playing outside she asks to play too by pointing and saying "boys? boys?" They ride around on tricycles or play on the playground that is just around the corner. Her worst time of day is when she has to stop playing and come inside.

Right after we moved, Steve and Debbie flew in to help us begin to settle in the new house. They helped us prep for painting and pruned back the jungle of overgrown backyard. In between all the hard work we did have some time for a little fun and sightseeing.
Upon Steve's request we went to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. As we rode up the elevator from the parking garage a local lady told us that the museum isn't worth the $12 admission because all the best stuff was on display on a foot bridge next to the museum and in the gift shop. So we saved ourselves some cash and enjoyed the hundreds of amazing pieces on display for free! There was a water sculpture that Kayla and Grandpa had a great time playing in and getting all wet.
Our first month in the new house has been quite an adventure. We've learned all kinds of new things about home maintenance and become regular customers at Lowes. We just have to take it one project at a time. We will keep you updated with before and after pictures as we go.

Setting the Table, Feeding Ducks and Dancing Up A Storm

We recently caught Kayla in a dancing mood and thought we would share it with you.


This Spring a family of ducklings hatched and we've been watching them grow up on our little pond. When we go outside she will usually point at the pond and say "duck." If you bring bread the ducks will come right up to the fence so Kayla gets an up-close look at our little feathered friends.


Kayla set the dinner table in this picture all by herself. What parents wouldn't be proud.

Kayla trying on Daddy's sunglasses. Almost right.

4th of July

On the 4th of July we celebrated by watching the Bothell parade with a few other families.
Below is a picture of Kayla sitting miserably in the heat. The umbrella helped a little. This experience made me remember all the reasons I hate parades.Kayla did enjoy her first piece of parade candy, a blue jolly rancher. It turned her mouth a very patriotic shade of blue.After naps we had a big BBQ with about 5 families. As it got dark we set off fireworks in the street. Most types of fireworks are legal here and we had some pretty spectacular ones. As the ash fell I worried about neighbors roofs and trees. But luckily nothing caught fire. Kayla did not like the loud noises that the fireworks made, but she found it bearable if we covered her ears.

When we got home we were surprised by the consistent snap, crackle, pop of fireworks going off in the neighborhoods around us. Literally, you can hear 3 or 4 fireworks going off every second. This went on for at least 3 hours. Luckily the sound was muffled by the trees that surround us so we could get to sleep that night. We took this video around 10pm to record the sound we were hearing. The low rumbling you hear in the video is NOT feedback from the video camera, but actual fireworks popping.


The next morning when we drove to church there was a slight haze in the sky.