CPL company party

so, it was that time again. time to get our get up on, get grandma and grandpa to babysit, head out in the… minivan, and pretend we do this every day! yes, it’s a life of glamour and excitement. parties every night… okay, not so much. how about once a year.

every january, dave’s company throws a big bash at some fun venue. this year, it was at the hard rock café in seattle. I was pretty excited, having never been to one before. on the agenda that night: complimentary drinks, ‘heavy’ appetizers, and karaoke.

as usual, some ‘dress the part’.

this is dave’s boss.

this is dave’s boss singing karaoke with a former employee.

there was much *ahem* singing, dancing, performing… we did not participate in that embarrassment, but it was definitely fun to watch.

see, aren’t we pretty?

3rd round of snow

we had been following the forecast very carefully because everyone’s favorite 4 letter word was being thrown around a lot. SNOW. originally, there were predictions of something insane like 5-8 inches by mid-week, so everyone was very excited. unfortunately, as mid-week grew closer, the prediction was more like, an inch or two in the evening, followed by warming up and raining shortly after midnight. the kids were afraid they were going to completely miss it.

but they were determined! they (especially layla) decided to employ all the ‘make it snow’ tricks in the book. she wore her jammies (and socks and underwear) inside-out to bed that night; she put a spoon under her pillow AND micah’s; and of course, flushed an ice cube down the toilet.

well, it worked! around 7 or so, it started snowing. fin, sprinkly snow, that quickly became REAL snow. it piled up quickly, and by the time shane went to bed, there were a couple of inches on the ground. I laid in bed w/ him for awhile, with the blinds open, just watching the snow fall. so many nights, I spent with MY mom doing the same thing when I was his age. you mid-westerners might think I’m insane, but snow is VERY exciting here!

by the time I went to bed, we were sitting on about 4 inches, and no rain yet. BUT, by the time we got up in the morning, it was raining. that didn’t stop our school district from cancelling school, and shane was out the door (in the rain) before the sun was up. his favorite thing to do in the snow lately, is to ride his bike.

this was VERY packable snow, but when I suggested he make an awesome snowman, he looked at me like I was insane, because there was no way he could even hope to lift any of it. it was SO heavy.

after shane came in, soaked, layla bundled up and went out. she built herself a ‘christmas tree’.sadly, by late morning, the snow was too sloppy to play in, and that was the end of our snow day. but at least they got out a little bit!

still waiting for round 4!

weekend w/ friends

some friends of ours are starting a church plant about an hour and a half south of us. their first ever meeting was on the evening of the 8th, so we decided to make it a weekend and head down for a visit, to attend the service, and offer some support.

we LOVE hanging out with them, and never fail to have a good time. our kids and their kids have a ton of fun together… even shane who has no one anywhere near his age to play with, but still manages to include their house among his favorite places to go!

there was much wrestling and general horsing around, as usual. luka decided to throw some salt in the mix.

micah spent a good share of the weekend doing this… slightly oblivious.

they got themselves some front row seats for the seahawks game. no, this is not during the famous lynch run… they were much more excited than this… okay, maybe not, but the rest of us were. I think we watched like 5 times in a row.

sunday morning cartoon watching. how is it that 5 year olds have camera radar? everyone was totally zoning and it was so cute… as soon as I grabbed the camera, those two turned into posers.

lucy with her rockin’ underbite.

dave. being dave.

cole. being cole.

so much fun. thanks for letting us crash, guys!

2011 week 1 in pictures

okay, so I started doing these, actually, half way through the year, but I liked it so much I want to do a weekly post (backdated) for the first half. unfortunately, some of the collage pics that I used in the book are missing from my computer, because I never exported them back into my personal picture files and we’re on our 3rd computer since then, so even if they weren’t deleted, I have no idea where to look. anyway, there will be some pictures missing…

saturday: dave’s birthday. started on saturday because it was the 1st, and I wasn’t going to kill a whole week of the book, so I stuck this in on the front page.

sunday: laurie and I and several MOMS club friends went to see the sing-a-long sound of music. so fun! hilarious. this was the costume contest.

monday: dave and his dad went for a tour at the red hook brewery.

tuesday: RIP snowman.

wednesday: sophie + crusty casserole dish = happiness on all fronts!

thursday: indoor soccer for shane followed by dinner at mcD’s.

friday: missing collage pic of us opening presents w/ my parents. late christmas.

saturday: shane dressed up toby in micah’s giants jersey. hilarious. cat hated it.

there is also a big 8x10 collage of extras that I included, but is missing.

another round of christmas

so we finally got around to doing christmas presents with my parents. even though we were with them on the 25th, we were visiting family and all that, so we decided to put the present part off until later.

I love this.

bathroom remodel!!!

I know you’ve all been waiting to see this! yes, our bathroom is done! what once was old, nasty, falling apart, and downright embarrassing, is no longer!

in november, our landlords hired a contractor to come in and do some work. they just wanted him to do the major stuff: replacing the vanity, countertop, tiling the tub surround, doing the hardware and plumbing stuff in that, and putting in new baseboards. well, he did, but he didn’t do a very good job. they were also intending to come in and finish up with paint, new light fixtures, etc. well, they don’t move very fast. when dave’s parents were here, they asked if we wanted them to help us finish it. we very much did, and with the landlords’ approval, we made some trip to home depot and started making things look good!

laurie picked out some tile for a backsplash that would match the random granite the contractor put in AND the tile in the shower. Amazing!we also picked out a new (non-ugly, non-broken) light fixture, and painted the walls and baseboards a lovely “oyster” color.

**edited to add: gary also replaced the motor in the exhaust fan so it 1) works! and 2) no longer sounds like a 747 is about to land in the shower with you! (how could I forget that!)

now it is new, beautiful, and I LOVE IT!!!

the only problem is that now my shower curtain and towels don’t match…

oh well.