Cribs

Kenzie offers a tour of her new, yet already messy, room. I swear ... she has not been watching MTV.



P.S., I found my old video camera today in an unpacked box. Everyone is fair game while I play catch-up for having no videos since May!

Rocks need mowing too

I've had some requests for pictures of the backyard, so I thought I'd show Cindy in action on her new toy. Look what happens when I panned down.

Candy regrets...not really

Mason has become quite the Sneak lately. Whenever it's quiet you can pretty much count on him being into something. Usually it has to do with candy or water.

This afternoon I found him in the bathroom flushing liquid soap down the toilet. In a later incident he started screaming because he had a different source of soap worked into a lather on his head, dripping into his eyes. Last week he carved a plastic fish out of some novelty soap and "accidentally" flushed "Nemo" down the (new) toilet. I heard: [plop], [splash], [flush], "UH OH!"

And, then there's this "candy incident" where his level of remorse is transparent...

Yet another "sister dress" day

Okay, just one more post about wardrobes fashioned by Kenzie. Today's selection for Mason: shorts covered by frog coat and boots. For Kenzie: pink leotard with black skirt. Although, according to her, it's a "ballet-tard."

New porch

By the way, Kenzie dressed herself and her brother today. He was "shark boy" with a shark tee-shirt and matching shorts, not too bad. For herself she picked out her Easter dress from 2005 that is now a little short, red floppies, pink ski coat, and blue baseball cap (that went over the purple headband). Look closely and you'll see Chirpie peeking out of the coat.

Clearing out

Our West Seattle house is sold and closes on Tuesday! We got most all our remaining stuff out today and said "goodbye." (For about the fourth time.) Anyway, it was a photo op.

Prayer for Kay

Sandy's mom, Kay, has been battling cancer. A couple of years ago Kay gave Kenzie a porcelain doll that she has brought with her from Japan many, many years ago. We finally felt that Kenzie is old enough to appreciate it so it is now in her room. So, between our conversations and the new doll, Kay has been on Kenzie's mind.

At dinner last night, Kenzie offered up a very sober, sincere prayer that went something like this, "Dear God, please take care of Kay. Please take her cancer away and take her to heaven so she won't be in pain anymore. Amen."

Grammy put Kenzie to bed tonight and told me that Kenzie prayed with all her heart tonight for Kay, even raising her hands in a pleading motion. Kenzie's ability to express and understand the gravity of the situation is apparent, and it's clearly weighing on her mind.

Mason prays

After Kenzie's heart-felt prayer at dinner time, Mason was upset that he didn't get a turn to pray. He bowed his head, closed his eyes, and said, "Dear God. Thank you for Mason. Amen."

Flowers, butterflies and possoms [by Kenzie]

There was this flower garden and there's these swinging flowers that you never want to get into. They're taller than your eyes. They're like as tall as the ceiling so you can never see because they're as tall as the light. Well, they're flowers that swing. They're real flowers but they are so tall that the flowers are on top, and there are so many leaves that's what you can never ever see. And they're so thick that you can never ever see because, I don't know why, the leaves are just so thick. They're not like thin flowers, they're like thick flowers. And they have blossoms all over them. And you'll never want to get into the blossoms because they'll never let you through.

And there are wild butterflies. They do the same thing. They're wild because they have so many wings you can't even see them. They will just come all over your face and they won't let you through. Same as the possums. They do the same thing. So you better watch out for them too.

The butterflies have small heads. They don't have any nose, so that's why they're so thinny. And they have some decorations on their belly. And you don't know why they have swirlies on their wings. They're pretty weird.

The possums have weird fingers. They're just like sticks. And they're the color of sticks. And they only have 3 toes, and they have ten fingers. They're pretty weird too.

The flowers have faces. And they say, "get out of my yard." And they have weird tongues. And the butterflies are yelling too. And the possums are yelling at you, "get out of our yard," he keeps saying if you get in. "GET OUT of our yard." And they have no nose either. Actually they do in between their eyes. That's so weird, I would say. And they have spiked hair.

Now do you want to put this on the blog?

The end.

Growing up

We got Mason's hair cut again...he looks so much bigger these days! Where's my baby??

Still neighbors

Definitely the hardest thing about leaving our West Seattle house is leaving our neighbors. Today our "old" neighbors visited our "new" place, making it feel even more like home.

Back in the land of the living

We're back!! We now are fully connected at home. Alas, life is restored.

Tonight we went over to the West Seattle house to allow Grammy to say goodbye to the view. It was rather uneventful, and frankly unemotional, for us. We've moved on. I was worried about MacKenzie, particularly because she didn't want to get out of the car and go in the house. I was afraid she was sentimental about her mural. When I asked her later why she didn't want to go in she said, "awh, I didn't really want to put my shoes on to get out of the car." End of conversation.

Here are some of the things we've been up to the last couple of weeks.

Enjoying the view from the roof...before we said goodbye


Working...Cindy, Kina & Bob put a ton of work into the old house to get it ready to sell.

And, oh yeah, and we moved.


Playing with Kianna who, with her dad Dave, was brave enough to stay with us through the move


Enjoying the new yard with family


Making full use of the new driveway...and the older cousins!


Learning about new parks and local attractions

New Narrows Bridge

Grammy took Kenzie for the weekend (which is becoming a habit that Kenzie is enjoying very much). They walked the new Tacoma Narrow's Bridge, shown here with Aunt Mary and her brother David.

Unplugged

Before the harassing emails start...I know I've been negligent on my posting duties. I don't have Internet access (gasp). We were supposed to get connected today, but due to a set of not-so-interesting circumstances, it's been delayed...forever, it seems. No Internet, no phone, no tv. What will we ever do? Luckily it's 96 degrees out today, so we don't want to be inside anyway.

We're getting settled into the new house. Kenzie and Mason seem to have made a seamless transition. I'm still settling into the idea of living in the 'burbs versus the city, but it gets easier when I watch them just roam free in the big back yard.

We had houseguests for the first week and during the move. My friend David and his daughter Kiana were brave enough to come last Monday (the day before the move) and stay for a week. It was a hectic time, but Kenzie made a dear friend with the soon-to-be 10 year old.

Back to the land of the disconnected I go...

No pictures please

Never mind that I'm not quite sure where the camera is, this should not be photographed. This place is a blend of chaos and mayhem.

Almost every room is partially packed, boxes everywhere, paint supplies in several corners, bags of who-knows-what strewn throughout, ready to be stepped on. The yard is ready to show, except for the piles of charity and dump material in the driveway and back porch. So, the kids can't do much except for get under foot and in the way. Even Jordan feels put out, not quite comfortable just laying in her bed waiting for us to move like we ask her. Zeke was howling at the back door yesterday in a voice that made me dart upstairs thinking he was pinned under the refrigerator.

We close on the new place this Tuesday. It can't come soon enough. For the last couple of weeks we've been in transition. Kenzie and Mason have slept at home only about 3 of those nights, spending the time with June and Bob and my folks. I don't know what we would have done without them. I am so grateful. Also, my friend Kina has spent the last 2 weeks with us with plans to return tomorrow. She has helped us get all the projects done that we need to do to list this house. Well, they're not all done, but they're in progress. I didn't realize what a big project moving is - there's no way we could have done this by ourselves.

Kids are still sleeping this AM, then they're going to go back to Grammy & Grampy's. Grampy returns tomorrow from his Alaskan fishing trip. The kids are excited to see him, and I'm excited that they can!!