Weekend Visit to Spokane & Sandpoint

We had a really great weekend visiting friends and family on the "other side" of the mountains. Last Thursday we drove over to Spokane and spent the night at Tim & Megan's. Friday we had a nice relaxed morning with Auntie Megan and then stopped by the Spokane XO office to visit my co-workers there. From there we went to John & Carmen's to meet Mr. Luke (and visit the rest of the family). He is a darling baby and so quiet compared to our two wiggle worms!

Friday evening we had a delightful dinner and visit with Doug, Debbie, Connor, Nathan and Debbie's cousin Brenda. It was so fun to catch up with them again - it had been far too long since we spent any time together.

Friday and Saturday nights we spent with Grandma Rosie near Sandpoint and Saturday for lunch we went to Sandra, Alberto & Gene's place for a WONDERFUL REAL ITALIAN lunch. For those of you who don't know...Sandra was raised here but lived in Italy for many years. She and her husband Alberto moved to the US 6 or 7 years ago to be near her mother Gene. The babies got cooed over in Italian and renamed! That's right - some American sounds/names are too hard for Alberto so Elijah was given the Italian pronunciation (El - ee - ah) which we both quite like and Peytine Melody-Ann was called Anna (ahh-na).

Sunday we had lunch at Stan's new place in Couer d'Alene - he has it fixed up really nice even though he's only been there for 3 weeks and let me tell you the steak he fixed was FABULOUS!

I should just say right up front that I didn't do a great job as a photojournalist of our weekend...I got a few pictures but not nearly enough. So here are the pictures I have and hopefully will get a few more from Uncle Tim & Auntie Megan since they took several while we were at their place.

Here is Mr. Luke ... looking so adorable sitting on Mommy's lap.


Caelyn holding Peytine:


Carlee holding Elijah:


Thing 1 & Thing 2 at Doug & Debbie's place:


Grandma Rosie has her arms full:


Sandra & Alberto with El-ee-ah and Anna:


Elijah looked so cute in both of these that I just couldn't resist putting them both in:



Oh - and to make things a little more interesting, we brought a new kitty over for Grandma Rosie. Her name is Sweat Pea and she is settling in quite nicely!:


And for those of you who wonder how I work with two babies at home:

(Actually, I have to confess, the real answer to how I do it is our neighbor Kay! I'll try to snag a picture of her and the babies soon.)

Here is one final picture - not from the weekend but I just found it on my cell phone and thought it needed to be posted. This is Uncle Todd holding Peytine at Aunt Velma's.

Nana & Bobpa visit etc

Jean's parents Bob & Shirley (aka Bobpa and Nana) visited Sunday through Tuesday. Here are a few photos of their time with us.







Glen & Hazel came for dinner:


Aunt Velma with Elijah:


Aunt Velma with Peytine:


This weekend we are off to meet our new nephew Luke and introduce Elijah & Peytine to lots of other family members: Uncle John & Auntie Carmen, cousins Caelyn, Carlee and Luke; Auntie Megan and Uncle Tim, Grandma Rosie and Uncle Stan. We also hope to see Auntie Lisa and cousins Johanna, Tati and Rogerio.

More Pictures & Garage Sale update

Adoption Fundraiser Garage Sale Update:

Several have asked how the big Garage sale went so we wanted to let you know that it went really well. We sold probably 70% of what we had and the rest was donated to Goodwill. We had a few items that we kept after the sale to sell on Craigslist and between those and the garage sale day we made right about $600. Thanks again so much to those who donated to the cause: Garry & Nancy, Tim & Megan, DeAnna & Bob, Jen & Adrian, James & Tamara and special thanks to neighbors Tamara and Kay for helping with pricing and to Kay who helped ALL DAY on Saturday. We appreciate all of you.

In other news...from my previous post you know that we have a new nephew - Luke Andrew. Here are a couple of pictures of Luke and his big sisters Caelyn & Carlee. We are looking forward to meeting Luke and seeing the rest of the family in a couple of weeks.




We've been busy with the camera around here too...such great subjects! Here are a few pictures of Peytine and Elijah from the last week.

In their new outfits on Sunday:


arm in arm in their crib:

Happy at Bedtime:

Holding hands:

With cousin Leah who came to visit over the weekend:

Leah and Elijah napping:

Turn that frown:

Upside down:

Elijah & Peytine

Here are a few pictures of the babies from this week. They are such good babies - rarely fuss and very smiley and happy most of the time.

Peytine on the left and Elijah on the right:




Peytine Cutie Pie:


Happy Boy:


Watson the crib guard:


Melanie & Alexia come for a visit:



In other news...they both slept through their first wednesday night bible study...it was so fabulous!!