Warm days in our backyard

Cambria's paint hair

I think that it may take several baths over the next few days to get all the paint out of her hair.

Paint Party

Today, many of the staff from MVPC came over to our home for a paint party. In the span of 5 hours, they painted our dining room, living room, entry way, hallway and Cambria's room with two coats of paint. We are beyond grateful for their incredible gift of time and hard work to us. Our house feels so much warmer now.

Pre-move living room

Pre-move dining room

Living room - post paint (a light Beige -- very Pottery Barn). Tonight, I worked on painting the window sills white. I will eventually paint the banister white, and we will slowly be working on painting all doors and woodwork white, as well.

Dining room - post paint (a light Beige)

Cambria's room post-paint (a medium lavender) and curtains.

Cambria's room before paint and curtains

First week of work

Jeff has completed his first full week of work at Maple Valley Presbyterian Church, and it has been a very positive experience for him. The people at Maple Valley Pres are tremendous and our excitement grows as we anticipate our future with them.

My mom left today. It was a sad event...she and I kept our sunglasses on so we didn't have to see any tears in the other's eyes, but the girls boo-hooed when Grandma got out of the car at SeaTac. I'm not sure if Cambria cried more about Grandma leaving or the fact that she couldn't go with her on the plane. She informed me that she "did not like being left behind. " I told her that I didn't like being left behind either, which is why she needed to stay here with me. I'm fairly certain that she did not appreciate my comment.

The house is coming together. We've unpacked a ton of boxes but still more are looming. My mom was a HUGE help in the unpacking. She cracked the whip until I finished the kitchen. :-) It was such a chore since there was quite a bit of cleaning and contact paper to put down. Fortunately, it is now in working order. The girls' bedrooms are coming together, as is the playroom downstairs. We've taken a few trips to Ikea and the bookshelves there have been very helpful in organizing all the toys -- boy, do we own a lot of toys.

We had a couple of warm days here this week. It almost reached 90 the other day, which was nice for Jeff to take the girls swimming in one of the town lakes, but not nice since we don't have A/C. To top it off, on the 90 degree day, we lost power for 2 hours so we couldn't even use fans. Thankfully, the hot weather is not a common occurrence. Overall, I find the August weather very pleasant -- high 70s to low 80s (though, sometimes its high 60s) and we've had quite a bit of sun.

Well, Jeff just got home from a meeting so I'll sign off for the evening. Blessings!

A Day at Mt. Rainier

This past Saturday was a beautiful day and Mt. Rainier was out in all it's glory. At the last moment, we decided to drive up to Sunrise Overlook -- the highest point up Mt. Rainier -- and thoroughly enjoyed the view and fresh air. Hopefully, this will temp our friends and family to visit, especially in the summers.

The girls love trying to spot Mt. Rainier while we drive around town. Avery's favorite game with Cambria is claiming that the mountain is out "Avery's side." This game can go on for quite some time -- go figure.

Jeff & I at Sunrise Lookout.

Avery had a great time playing in the dirt.

This picture looks like they are standing in front of a fake background, however, it is very REAL.

Beautiful wildflowers (they kind of look like bluebonnets)

She'd look like a real daredevil if it weren't for the passy in her mouth.

Mt. Rainier from Sunrise Lookout.

More pictures from our day in Seattle

Avery and Mommy walking up the pier.

Watching the draw bridge go up.

The girls and Jeff sitting at the end of Fisherman's Pier.

We've arrived!

We've arrived in Maple Valley, WA and took a day off from unpacking to visit Seattle. It was a fun time as a family. I'll write more details very soon, I promise.