4th of July

We spent the 4th of July parading through the streets of Klahanie (the neighborhood where my parents live) and later bbq-ing with friends:
Kids parade in Klahanie





BBQ at the Sturms house:

We've Moved!

We moved into our home in Sammamish almost a month ago and are loving it. We are mere minutes from lots of family, we have great neighbors and the kids have lots of room to roam.
It's been a whirlwind of a month between moving, traveling, getting paperwork/etc in order, and getting our Renton house prepared for tenants (who move in this week) but we are so happy to be here, especially with baby due to arrive in less than 2 months.
We finally got the internet connected at the new house so I can upload some pictures.

The actual "moving day" was a breeze for the kids and I. We got to hang out with Libby and the cousins while the guys did the heavy lifting.



Uncle Jackson and the kiddos

More pics of the house

The chaos threshold is rising...

I was laughing to myself as we drove home from Remlinger Farms today about how the amount of chaos in my life on a given day continues to rise, but thankfully God is allowing my sanity level/threshold for chaos to rise accordingly (on most days).
5 years ago, a flat tire or missed bus would've thrown my day off completely.
Since having kids, I've learned, or rather been taught, that I have to roll with the punches a bit more. This is probably a good thing since we're about to throw one more little body into the mix!
Today, despite getting my car completely stuck in the mud at the u-pick strawberry fields and needing to get towed out, we still had a good time and even came home with 3# of strawberries (plus the 3# in our bellies).

The latest moving news: As of today, we have a tenant for our Renton home! Lease has been signed by the tenants (a couple with a baby on the way) and we just need to sign some more paperwork to make it official. We're planning to move into our new house this weekend, so the final days of packing are upon us (this is indeed adding to the chaos level just a bit, but we are very excited!)

Pictures from Jane's Second Bday Party

We had a great time celebrating Jane yesterday with family and a few friends and their babies. Highlights for the birthday girl included a trip to the pool, lots of girly birthday gifts (dolls, doll accessories, purse, sunglasses, shoes, clothes), cupcakes and lots of people surrounding her with love. Thanks to everyone who celebrated our precious girl with us!

Gretchen's Bridal Shower at the Queen Mary Tea Room

We're Moving!

We bought a house last Friday and can't wait to get into it. The new house puts us very close to both sets of grandparents and will give us more room to grow, with the latest Simon baby being set to arrive in about 3 months.
The house is in Sammamish, which is about 20-30 minutes from where we are right now in Renton. It has a great yard, and is situated on a cul-de-sac in a safe neighborhood. One extra bonus to the house is that it's located across the street from miles of running trails. I'm itching to get back into a running routine after the baby arrives, it's been way too long.
Because of the nature of the house sale (long story-let me know if you want to hear it and we can talk :), we're not exactly sure when we'll be able to move in, but hopefully it will be sometime very soon. For now, we're busy packing and getting our current home ready to rent out to the right family.
We feel so thankful to be able to do this and are amazed at how God orchestrated everything. We are excited to begin this new adventure!

Dinosaurs

Will is pretty into dinosaurs lately (as is Jane, not to be out-done by her brother), which meant that today's trip to the Pacific Science Center was a HUGE hit. Will's favorite game was trying to figure out if a dinosaur was a meat-eater or plant-eater based on their teeth and claws.
As a bonus, there was also a neat bug exhibit and even a great toddler play-area complete with a tide pool containing starfish, anemones, hermit crabs, etc. Most of the toddler section is enclosed which is great for me, being the mother of an independent little woman who loves to wander off and do her own thing. This is new for me, as Will has never strayed far from his Mama's side.
We'll be going back to the Science Center very very soon to see the dinos again and also to check out the exhibits that we didn't have time to see. Roar.