FINALLY - an update

Hello!

Oops - I didn't quite make my promise last week but better late than never right?? And now you will just have to endure a REALLY long post with LOTS of pictures!

The twins are doing great! They really are the cutest babies in the world but then again, I might be slightly biased.

So - here are some pics of the goings on around here...

Kind of embarrasing to be posting Halloween photos in December but here they are...we had two little pumpkins - Thanks to Darin's cousin Sherri for taking the photos!:





Mommy & Elijah:


Peytine:


Here are more pictures from the photo session with Sherri - I LOVE this series and have named it "The Secret"...these are now printed and hanging on the wall in our living room:






The Pumpkins also attended our niece Leah's 18th birthday party on Halloween (actual birthday was the day before). We had dinner at Ivar's on the Seattle waterfront. Here are some pics from that:

Peytine with the birthday girl:


Logan and Elijah:


Tough guy Tyler and Elijah:


Tyson and Elijah:


Darin got the door installed in our bedroom. It replaced a window and makes a HUGE difference in the whole room. It is a "full light" door so we have a nice view of the back yard and what will be a deck sometime in the spring. Here is Darin caulking in the trim with Elijah in the ergo carrier:



After all of their hard work the boys had to take a nap (actually I have to confess it was not the same day but it makes a good story doesn't it?!)


We also attended Leah's final cross country meet of her high school career - she got her season best time!! Congratulations Leah.



The next big adventure was spending the entire week of Thanksgiving in Spokane/N Idaho. Bobpa ended up in the hospital for 3 days to get his dialysis started - he'll be on dialysis 3 day's/week for 4 hours each from hear on out. The good news is that he is feeling SO much better after two weeks of the treatments that he is raring to "get out and do things". Here are the kiddos visiting him in the hospital. They made quite an impression with the staff and other hospital visitors...at one point we had at least 10 people gathered around their stroller in the hospital lobby. We spent several nights at Uncle Tim & Auntie Megan's. Somehow all of the pictures that got taken must be on their camera and not mine...we had an absolutely wonderful time with them.

Bobpa & Elijah:



Bobpa & Peytine:



We also spent a FABULOUS evening at Lisa's place playing with all the kids. You can see photos of that fun time here


Next we went up to Grandma Rosie's for the actual Thanksgiving - the food was great, the company excellent and the babies were completely spoiled by everyone!

Here are 3 cooks in the kitchen:



Uncle Tim & Elijah reading a story:



The table with all of the yummy food!!



From Rosalyn's we went to my Aunt Karen & Uncle Bill's in Spokane where 31 members of my family had spent the day. We spend Thursday evening and all day Friday with the group. It was such a great time with so many members of my extended family. Friday we had an entire day of Norwegian food while kids (and some adults) came in and out of the house to warm up in between 4-wheeler rides.

This is Peytine & Elijah with their cousin Luke (John & Carmen's youngest):



Here are all of the "little" kids...we kind of have two separate groupings of the cousins children. One of teens to twenty somethings and one of babies to 10 or so.



Here is a picture of Kim and her girls (Emily & Katie):



Here is Peytine with the "girl" cousins:




No Thanksgiving family gathering would be complete without singing a few Christmas Carols around the piano:



Saturday morning before heading back over the mountains to the homestead, we spent some time with our friends Scott & Kelly and their amazingly cool family. They have 14 kids. Scott & Kelly have adopted the 12 youngest and they have two adult daughters from Scott's first marriage. Unimaginably, the level of chaos in their house with 12 kids all under the age of 14 is pretty on par with our house on any given morning with just two. I really have no idea how they do it but the kids are happy, well adjusted and BEAUTIFUL.

Here is a photo of our two with their 12 (Left to right: Carter, William, Kiki, Zella (holding Peytine), Emma (holding Elijah who you can't really see), Malachi, Bektu, Adacia, Wyatt, Ginny, Selena, Koby



Here is Scott with Kiki (holding Peytine) on the right, Bektu on the far left and Adacia on the near left.



And here is my wonderful friend Kelly with her youngest boy William (Kelly and I used to work together at the Nextlink Spokane office and have stayed in touch ever since)



If you want to read more about the adventures with their family you can check out their blog here.

Other happenings....

During our week in Spokane we had some family photos taken with Lori Brown at Mystique Photography. We have worked with Laurie previously and took advantage of being in town to have her do a photo shoot with the twins. These are their 6 month photos and 10 year anniversary photos for Darin and I. We are having a dickens of a time choosing which photos to order. So - if you have some extra time and want to take a look check out the photos here and post a note to tell us which ones are your favorite.

Finally - last Sunday my siblings and I had the great pleasure of hosting a 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration for my parents. So many of their old friends and many of our family members made it to the reception (in Snohomish). It was a really lovely time for all of us. What a wonderful gift to have them both still with us (in spite of all Dad's health problems) and to have their example of learning to love each other beyond human annoyances and failings. I didn't have time to take a lot of pictures during the reception but would love to have some from those of you who attended took. Thanks to each of you who were able to make it from near and far and to those of you who were there in spirit.

Here is Mom and Dad starting out the food line - don't they look great?!:




Mom & Dad and all the kids (from left to right - Stan, John, Dad, Mom, Jeff, Jean, Scott):




Luke & Elijah in their matching outfits:




Laurie N, Mom & Julie Y - Mom worked with these two lovely ladies at the Marysville School district many moons ago. I was a candle lighter in Laurie and Dave's wedding when I was 11. I think it was my first long dress I ever had and I LOVED IT. If I remember correctly it was light yellow eyelet material.





Oh - and one more picture - I snapped this of the babies this evening sitting in their little booster seats on the bed in my office. Aren't they just the sweetest little cuties ever??!!