Yard Work

The very first time we looked at our house I knew we'd have to do some work in the back yard. There was nothing in it! Ok, I lied, there was 1 ugly and scraggly rose bush. Soon to be NO ugly rose bush. But in the east corner of the yard there was this small hill, at the base of the small hill you could already see a natural break where the slope was just too steep and was sloughing off anyway. I decided that was the perfect spot to add a cute little retaining wall and plant a garden behind it.

So yesterday, that's what we worked on.

Here's my little landscaping apprentice. He had a great time digging in the dirt and "working as a team"

We still have work to do, I need to even out the sides and along the front where the "grass" (moss and weeds) meet the dirt.

Not too sure what all we'll plant but I do know Keegan has put in an order for strawberries. Josh wants tomatoes, jalapenos, and green peppers. Which makes me think I'll be canning more than blackberries next year.

Oh Christmas Tree

I could not wait to put up our Christmas Tree. Seriously! I wanted to put it up months ago just because it's been FOUR years since we've seen it. Josh thought I was nuts for wanting to put it up in August so I waited.

Finally, the day after Thanksgiving Keegan and I put it up. He was so excited to think we owned a tree bigger than 18 inches.

Once I got the tree up Scarlett was happy to just lay by it.

Keegan likes it a lot too.

Now my next project is a tree skirt. We've never had one and I'm on a mission to sew a cute one a.s.a.p.

SNOW!!!

Woke up this morning to find it SNOWING!

We've heard it sometimes happens here, not every year and it doesn't stay but it happened.

So this isn't the snow but the puppy that was mad I didn't take her out front with me.

Snow on our roof

The trees across the street.

So by no means is it the biggest snow storm our family has seen but it's definitely something I didn't expect to wake up to this morning.

New Addition!!

After looking for what seemed life FOREVER we found what we were looking for!

Meet our newest addition

Scarlett

She's 5 months old and full of energy.

I tried to get some pics of her when we first got home and a lot of them turned out like this.

Then I was able to get this one that was "okay" but she looks like she has a lazy eye.

Then she started to relax once I gave her her bone to chew on.

All stretched out.

Not sure what Koda thinks. He was very good with her when we got home and even tried to play a bit but now, for him, it's back to his normal schedule of early to bed. He'll get some extra attention so he doesn't feel like he's being replaced and I'm sure he'll be fine.

Halloween 2011

We were so excited that we had our own neighborhood to Trick-or-Treat through this year. Keegans friend Draco and his family joined us.

Here is our little Ninja. He wanted to be the same thing as last year with very specific instructions that he needed a new sword.

I sewed him a bag for his candy.

He made a haul and this was just through our little neighborhood. We were only out for about 90 min.

On to the pumpkins!!

It's our thing, we do it every year. My dad always carved pumpkins with my sister and I when we lived at home and we kept up the tradition. Wish you were here Dad to carve with us, you always had the best designs.

Here are 2 of Josh's, they go together well, don't you think?

Wile e Coyote

Road Runner-Meep meep!!

And Pink Panter

I did a Welcome "sign"

A regular Jack-o-lantern

And a skull

I liked this one because it was EASY and fast

And here's Keegan's pumpkin. He did most of the cutting by himself, including the hair on the top. He still however, hates to clean out the pumpkin

Funny Little Man

Funny story, last night I slept in the spare room so that I wouldn't keep Josh awake with my stupid cough. This morning Keegan gets up and sees that I'm not in my bed. He heads downstairs and sees that I'm not there. I keep quiet telling myself that I will get up as soon as he yells for me. But instead of yelling for me I hear him turn on the TV, get a yogurt out of the fridge and get a spoon. A while later I hear him coming up the stairs and talking to himself saying "I guess I'll get dressed now, I hope I can find my dinosaur shirt" He goes in his room and I hear him looking for the outfit he wants and getting dressed. As he is looking for his shoes I ask him what he's doing and he yells "Where are you?? I thought I was alone!" Now I wish I would have stayed quiet, makes me wonder what he had planned next, bike ride perhaps?

Later I asked him if he was scared and where he thought I was. He said he thought I'd gone to the store and he wasn't scared because he knew I had to come home to put the groceries away.

The Viehwegs Come to Visit

"Pa" and grandma Viehweg came to visit!

We did as many things as we could pack into the weekend

We went to the Grays Harbor Lighthouse

Tallest lighthouse in Washington 3rd tallest on the West coast.

Josh, Tari and I walked to the top and got to see the fancy Fresnel Lens

Here's a pic from the bottom looking up.

After the lighthouse we went to the beach, this wavy log is the only pic I took. I got too involved (as did Josh and everyone else) with picking up sand dollars. You know when you go to the beach you hope to find one or two that aren't broken? Well it seems Washington is the mecca for perfect sand dollars. We came home with more than 60 UNBROKEN sand dollars. I think I'm going to make some (not all 60) ornaments for my Christmas tree!

One day we stayed in town and went to Tumwater Falls, this is the water fall that they used to grind wheat and for the "famous" Olympia Beer.

On Sunday we headed up to Seattle too see the sights and find some good clam chowder. We did both!

Keegan and Pa posed in the sculpture near the Space Needle

Space Needle

And of course we went to Pikes Place Market.

Which is where we found the 2nd best chowder I've ever had. YUM!

What a fun weekend!

Biggest Fish of Josh's Life

Josh caught his biggest fish to date.

26.5 inches long and weight after being gutted was 7.5 lbs

Salmon Fishing

We live in Washington, so what better way to spend your weekend than Salmon fishing?

( Ok truthfully, I read a book most of the time)

Josh and his 1st ever wild salmon

a fat 22 inch Pink Salmon

If you look closely you can see his rod bending.

These were from a previous day of fishing but they were just too cute not to include them.

Happy to just be outside splashing in the water.

Practicing, I'm not sure Keegan would be able to keep his fishing rod in his hand if a fish grabbed his hook, because of this he's just fishing with his bubble, no hook. Not to mention I don't think his rod could handle a salmon

but he loves to practice his casting.

Camping at the beach

My mom and aunt Maryette came to town and we all headed over to the beach and went camping. The campsite was actually about 1/4 mile away from the ocean and you couldn't actually see it but you sure could hear it.

We got there Friday around 2:00 and it was completely foggy.

This pic is actually at about 4:00 in the afternoon but the sun was hiding behind a ton of fog.

Josh and Keegan found a little jellyfish

Keegan and the dogs had fun at low tide running in the little waves.

One of the best parts of camping....smores!

There was a cute store in town that was called.....wait for it......Sharkeys

Saturday they were having a kite festival. This one was my favorite.

Here's the same sand dune as the day before but on a clear day. It was at about the same time too.

Keegan in a tree. The campsite had a great tree for climbing, not too high but good enough that Keegan was having a blast.

Then Sunday morning we got up, packed up and headed home to Olympia where it is WAY too hot.

Kindergarten!!!

Can you believe it???

My baby is in Kindergarten!

He was so so excited, he wanted to leave the house at 7:20, and school doesn't start till 8:20.

Freezing his tush on the porch

Needed a jacket

Walking to school, we are so excited.

All lined up ready to walk in

I managed to hold it together, wonder if Friday will go as smoothly for me.