Our House

"...is a very very very fine house,

with two [kids] in the yard,

life used to be so hard,

now everything is easier 'cause of you."

~Crosby, Stills and Nash

My dad used to sing this song all the time, especially after he and my mom bought their first house. After a while he didn't even have to sing it--he could just say the first verse of the chorus--and we'd know he was quoting the song. So, naturally, it's the first thing that comes to mind when I think of our own first house :)

I don't think it's really sunken in yet, we've been a little stressed out these past few weeks, and then there's the fiasco-to-come when we start to move.

*Breathe in, breathe out*

Repeat to selves: We. Are. Homeowners!!

Our house is just a few blocks down the road from where we live now--a good 2 minutes away!--so we're still in Everett, even though we're so far south that we could trip and land in Lynnwood. We take the exact same route to get to work and our friends and family take the exact same route to get to our house. Best of all, it's in a nice little development where the kids can go trick-or-treating and the entrance faces a dead-end street :)

A few phone camera snapshots to document this new milestone...

Of course we took pictures of the keys as soon as we got them! Tore the envelope open and took a picture of them sitting in Aislin's car seat :)

Aislin was my model for the next few pictures :) Des was asleep and Tim was still on the road, so it was just me and her taking pics for Grandma, Grandpa and Tito AJ!

Great story about that fridge: it was agreed upon that the fridge would be bought and installed for us as long as it was under $1,000...but we went with something around $1,300 agreeing to pay the difference afterwards. Our real estate agent (who's also a friend of ours in our ward) took care of the difference up front so we thought we'd owe him that amount, but when we went to pay him back...he said he had planned on getting us a house-warming present anyway so, if it was okay with us, the balance would just be his gift to us.

Holy hefty house-warming present, Batman!

The view from Aislin's bedroom window :)

Enough said ;)

A Kite-Flying Kind of Day

We visited my family in Kent one day, where a shed- and garage-full of treasures abound...including an old plastic kite! My brother and I were disappointments to our dad when it came to learning this skill, but Aislin turned out to be a natural! It must've skipped a generation...

Not the best picture in the world, but just to provide some perspective on how awesome she is at flying a kite :)

Look at that concentration...

:)

Grandpa and Des

Heeheehee

Grandpa and Aislin working together...and Des playing happily to the side with Grandpa's phone!

How cute is this kid?!

Hi!

As you can see, she felt comfortable enough to sit while flying the kite...

...and now she's laying down ;)

After having seen these awesome pictures, just ask yourself this question: Can Chuck Norris fly a kite while laying down?

Answer: Perhaps, but he wouldn't look as cute!

Happy 1st Birthday, Sweet Boy :)

(On the day of his birthday!)

Des turned a year old on May 31st... I can't believe he's officially a year old. He started walking a few weeks before then, was completely weaned from "booby juice" (as Tim and Aislin liked to call it) a few weeks after, and had his first real dose of sugar the day before.

Since May 30th was a holiday that Tim got to observe, we celebrated Des's birthday on that day by going to Dairy Queen and letting him try three different desserts: the free ice cream cone he was given, Tim's Brownie Batter Blizzard and my Oreo Brownie Earthquake. Sounds delicious, right? Well, Tim and I thought so!

Yeesh, he was quite the dessert critic! And this is a kid who's not typically shy around food. At his 12-month checkup he weighed 25 lbs...he'll eat just about anything (although he has an aversion for foods with tomato sauce) and usually twice as much as his nearly-3-year-old sister. The one day he got to pig out on chocolate ice cream, brownies and whipped cream galore...he took one lick/spoonful of each and said, "Quit shoving this stuff in my face, Dad, I've had ENOUGH!!" So the rest of us just ate in front of him :)

We also went to a couple of parks that day but our poor little guy passed out before we even got to the second one :)

This kid is a pretty thick and solid little boy, but he's absolutely...squishy :) He smiles all the time (except when he's staring at people he's not used to being around), loves to play and giggle, and loves being chased! If I brush his cheek or nose with my nose, he'll lean his face into mine and then rest his head on my shoulder...and sometimes he'll give me kisses. And when we pick him up from Grandma and Grandpa's after a three-day separation (i.e. vacation), he'll limit his walking adventures so that I'm always in sight and he can walk back into my arms :)

We love our little boy and are thankful to have such a sweet and affectionate child. He makes even dull days pleasant, and no matter how many times we've seen him smile this past year, we never get tired of it!

Des

I've realized two things as of recently: #1) I haven't blogged about Desmond since he was born and #2) Des has a ton of video clips that have gone unseen because I never blog! So, before I riddle this post with video clips, here's an update on our little boy:
He had his 9-month check up earlier this week and he's now 23 lbs and 28 inches! He has 8 teeth, is getting better at walking while holding onto furniture or a wall, and loves to crawl down the hallway and into his sister's room when she's supposed to be in bed. He has a special connection with his grandma, and he has my deepest appreciation for being able to sit quietly in a shopping cart for almost an hour :)


This was one of the first videos we got of him giggling/grunting (yep, he's a grunter). You can hear Aislin in the background, too, who clearly didn't know Daddy was just tickling her brother hehe!


Grunt grunt!


Okay, this is kind of mean hehe...but it's so FUNNY!! He loves being bounced and leaning back as far as he can while being carried...but he does not like being thrown in the air!


This one's just cute!


Okay, this one's kinda mean, too :P


Last but not least--my favorite Des video :)