Our House

I know I haven't been the best blogger, but I hope to do a little bit better in the upcoming months. I hope to update my entire blog very soon. Once we get moved (again), and settled, I hope to post a little more often than I have these last few months. Anyway,...our house is coming along..., and we are very excited. I have a few pictures to show the progress that his been made in the last month.





I have to admit we have done a ridiculous amount of "drive-bys". I think the construction workers probably recognize our car. It has been fun to see the continued progress on our new home. We hope to be in by mid August.

I am so sorry, please forgive me!!!!

Ok, so I can't make up my mind. I know I keep messing around with my blog. I know I keep changing it, but I am sorry,... I just can't help myself. I may have lost a few readers along the way, but what can I do. Shutterfly is great, (especially for my mom), because she can order any pictures whenever she wants and being that she is in Ohio, and I am in Utah that is a great option for her. Otherwise I am not really fond of the site, and I have just missed using this blog. So I am back, and can I promise I won't change my mind again? Well, no......., but I will try REALLY hard not to.

yep, we are moving again!

Well, for those of you who don't already know, yes, we are moving back to Utah. We have enjoyed are stay in Washington, but while we have lived here we have realized two things:

1.) We really miss living by family. We miss their friendship and support tremendously.
2.) We are city people. I need big city amenities! I need Chilis, IKEA, amusement parks, the zoo, basically an array of eating/retail establishments. I guess we needs lots of
amusement in our lives. We need options! Pasco, doesn't offer a lot of options. No,
we aren't exactly moving to a "big" city in Utah, but at least we are within an
acceptable driving distance from the places we do miss and want to visit often.

At the time Marty was looking for a job, the "right" job just wasn't available in Utah. Luckily, the job he has been looking for came up about a month ago. He interviewed, and they offered him the job within a week. We don't have an exact time of departure yet, but it will be no later than mid-May, and possibly as early as April.

I love Seattle!

We just took a very quick trip to Seattle. We had never been there before and it is only a 3 1/2 hour drive from where we live now, so we decided to just take off. It was amazing. Seattle really is a beautiful city. I can see why so many people love it there. There is so much to do and see and everyone is so active there. I have never seen so many people out running, biking, hiking, sailing, etc. We tried to do and see what we could, but you can only do so much with a 6 month old and a 5 year old with autism.

Marty and I are really into food. We plan a lot of our trips around where we would like to eat. I usually look up the best places on citysearch.com and we try to squeeze those places into our vacation plans. Unfortunately this time we kind of had some bad luck with some places being closed when we wanted to go, or we just couldn't find them. We really did find a gem, however, with the Salmon Bay Cafe. If anyone ever goes to Seattle, I would highly recommend this place for breakfast. The omelets were absolutely amazing, and they could easily be split between two people. The pictures really don't do the omelet justice. I didn't take a picture of mine, but it was stuffed with avocadoes, big thick pieces of bacon, cheese, and sour cream. It was a great little diner, and it should be on "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" on the Food Network (if you watch this show, you know what I am talking about).

After our breakfast, we ended up somewhere around the University District. This was such a neat part of town. I would have liked to spend a lot more time there. There were a lot of neat trendy little stores and so many different places to eat.

We then went to a park called Golden Gate park. It was pretty cold by the time we got over there. It wasn't the nicest day, but Vanessa thought it was really neat. She enjoyed looking for crabs and shells and Evan just enjoyed looking at the water (of course he really just wanted to jump in it.)

After that we went to another park by the University of Washington that had a great view of downtown Seattle. We just hung out there long enough to get some pictures. By the time we left, Ben was not feeling very happy anymore.

While we were there, I was also able to meet up with one of my friends from high school who now lives in the area. It was fun seeing her again and her family. We had a good time. Her little boy(who is almost 2), really took a liking to Vanessa. He insisted on holding her hand, while we walked through a mall. It was really cute.

On our last day, we finally made it downtown to check out Pike Place Market. What an amazing place! There were all kinds of fresh fruit and seafood stands. In fact, there were all kinds of food and non-food stands. I could have shopped there for hours, but instead had to walk quickly through the isles, admiring from afar. There were also all kinds of neat little places to grab a bite to eat. We enjoyed some fresh made donuts (that were really really good and a big hit with Vanessa and Evan) and some pastries at a Russian bakery. If you ever go to Seattle, you have to check this place out.

In the end, we were definitely ready to get home. Traveling with the kids, can be a bit trying at times, but we have to get out some time. We didn't really do anything very "flashy", but it was fun just being able to visit a part of the country we have never seen before.

Check out our pictures, if you want to see a few of the places we visited.

Making my blog private

I have thought about this for some time and have decided that I am going to make my blog private by the end of January. I will continue to use this blog to keep friends and family up-to-date with my family. I will use another blog, (not private), to talk about my feelings on various topics like autism. Please let me know if you would like me to add you to my list of people who are allowed to view "Keeping In Touch". Please send me your email address to amm276@gmail.com. I think that is all I need to add you to my list. My other blog will be "findingpeacewithautism.blogspot.com".

Our first Christmas on our own

We hope all that read our blog, had a nice, safe, happy Christmas. We definitely did, even though, we found ourselves spending Christmas on our own for the first time. It was different. We found ourselves trying to blend traditions from both sides of the family, as well as trying to create a few of our own. Some worked, some need a little tweaking.

We tried to do our own Nativity scene with the kids, but Evan was not about to have a towel tied to his head with a tie. However, Vanessa really enjoyed being Mary and Ben was a very sweet baby Jesus. I am glad we at least attempted it.

We read "The Night Before Christmas" and then followed that with about ten Christmas Carols.

My favorite part was spending a little one-one-one time with Vanessa just before putting her to bed. Vanessa and I spent some time together on a hammock swing we have sitting in our front window. It was snowing outside, so it was really beautiful. We just sat and talked about Santa and his reindeer and how they manage to make it around the world in one night. It really is neat how kids believe in all these magical things. I felt like a kid again just talking to her.

It's a mini-me!

I love to run. I really do, but finding the time gets more difficult with each additional kid. Unfortunately, I am not one of those pregnant women who just gets a baby bump in the front and nothing anywhere else. Running motivates me to eat better. If I can't run, I eat poorly. I tried to run while I was pregnant, but my back just can't handle it. (My abdominal muscles are next on my list.) When I can't run, I get depressed and anxious, and then I eat. What a vicious cycle!

I am doing my best to get back into it again. It's difficult during the winter months. I can't run outside until it is warm enough to take Ben out in the stroller, so I have to rely on my treadmill. That is my problem right now. One of the things I love most about running is BEING OUTSIDE! Don't get me wrong... I am lucky I even have a treadmill, and it has always been there for me, but it's just not the same. Staring at the wall, is not near as beautiful as staring at the mountains (or the sagebrush :) ). So I found this cool mini-me gadget from nikeplus.com. I am really not trying to show off, or anything(well, maybe just a little ;) )... I am just trying to find some motivation. It is a great way to keep track of runs, set goals, compete in challenges and all sorts of things. I can't wait to get started. I am finally pumped about running this winter!

New haircut (for those who care)

OK, so I feel a little dumb posting a picture of myself, especially one that I took by myself (it is a little more up close than I am comfortable with). I wanted to show my family in Ohio my "new" hair. Since turning 30 yesterday, however, I also have come to realize that I really don't have a lot of pictures of myself; mostly because I am usually the one taking the pictures. I am not always jumping to get in front of the camera either. I guess it would be nice if someday my kids could look back and see what I looked like in my "younger" years.