More Papa

Ever since Sophia was born we have struggled with what Sophia (and now Kaitlyn too) should call Ernie’s grandparents. For whatever reason, after Ernie’s grandma passed away, More Papa has stuck as the name Sophia uses for Ernie’s grandpa. (Ernie calls his grandpa “Papa” and called his great-grandpa “More Papa”. Since Sophia calls Ernie’s dad “Papa” it only made sense that Ernie’s grandpa would be “More Papa”. Are you following me here?)

Since Ernie’s grandma passed away, Ernie’s grandpa has been coming over nearly every night for dinner. We really enjoy having him over and spending time with him. I think he enjoys spending time with our girls. He gets a little twinkle in his eye when he talks and plays with them.

He and Kaitlyn have really bonded lately, as you can see in the picture. The best part is that after snuggling with More Papa, Kaitlyn usually smells of his cologne for a little while. On days when More Papa does not come over for dinner, Sophia misses him. She also wants him to move into the house, and often asks why he isn’t sleeping here. I love watching our girls with More Papa, seeing the bonds that are being created.

BLACK FRIDAY!!!!!

Let me start by explaining that I never was much of a Black Friday shopper…until Ernie and I got married. I’m not sure why it changed then, it just did. I get more serious every year, and this year was no exception. The first year I enjoyed Black Friday, I went to the mall around 10am. It wasn’t too busy, I think because I was in between the crazies who were there when stores opened and the people who were still recovering from turkey hangover. My how things have changed!

Now I’m one of the “crazies.” This year, Patty and I left the house at 3:45 AM(!) to pick up her sister and head to Olympia to get some deals. We wanted to be at ToysRUs at 4:30am so that we could gather our purchases and check out right at 5am when the sale prices took effect. Then we headed straight to Target. After a quick coffee stop, we were on to Macys at 6am. We stayed at the mall for a little bit before heading to Lacey to shop at Kohls, Michaels, and finally Costco. We were home by 1pm, and we had made a sizeable dent in our Christmas shopping lists.

I got some great deals, most of which I cannot publish on my blog. One thing that I bought for us was a down comforter with two pillows at Macys for $40! How great is that? I was also able to score a pots and pans set at Macys for $30 (regularly $100) for a family my office is adopting for Christmas.

So Thankful

Honestly, it is easy to come up with things that are going wrong in my life. There are lots of things that I wish were different. But as most of you know, that’s not where I like to spend my thoughts.

Instead, I prefer to look on the bright side. Find the silver lining. Look at the glass as half-full. So, following is a list of things I am grateful for. I must explain that this list is by no means exhaustive, but just a few things that float to the top.

I am grateful for an amazing husband, two beautiful and healthy daughters, thoughtful and helpful in-laws, a job I love, a dependable car, a laptop from which I can write blog posts while watching TV in the living room, friends from near and far who are there for me when I most need it, and Tillamook Mudslide Ice Cream.

Thank You Veterans!

I want to take a moment to thank all of the men and women who are serving or have served our country. I do not take for granted the sacrifices you and your families have made to provide freedoms for me and the rest of my fellow Americans.

I was lucky enough to celebrate Veterans Day this year with Ernie’s grandpa. He served in the Army during the Korean War. He decided to take Applebee’s up on their offer of a free meal for veterans, and we joined him along with Ernie’s parents. It was amazing to see how many veterans were there, and the sincere appreciation everyone showed them.

Playoffs, Here I Come!

So as terrible as I am at Fantasy Football, I actually made it to the playoffs! Ernie is in disbelief since he's convinced I am the only team owner in the history of fantasy football who doesn't know who's on their team. Of course I hold no hope of making past the first round, but stranger things have happened.

Better Late than Never?

So I'm obviously a month behind in blogging, but I figured it's better late than never. Please enjoy the three posts below that detail our Halloween adventures.

Can you believe that the only reason I haven't blogged in so long is simply because I was too lazy to load pictures from the camera to the computer? But that problem has now been remedied, so hopefully I'll be able to catch up soon. As always, though, no promises!

Halloween 2009

For Halloween weekend, we headed north to Ferndale to visit some friends. We spent the weekend with our friends the Jacobys, who have two boys the same ages as our girls. We were also lucky enough to visit with some other friends while we were in town. Friday night we had dinner with the Williams family and Sophia had a great time playing with her friends Mia and Aidan (Sophia and Aidan were born four days apart). Saturday morning the Wiebusches hosted us for breakfast – yummy pancakes, sausage, and hash browns. It was so wonderful to catch up with everyone!

And then it was time for Halloween! And doesn't Kaitlyn just look psyched?

Sophia dressed up as a poodle again this year. Her poodle costume from last year still fit, and I couldn’t justify buying another costume if she already had one that fit. Plus, she asked to be a dog this year anyway, so it was an easy sell (though she would have preferred the Dalmatian costume from Old Navy).

Kaitlyn wore her “Baby’s First Halloween” outfit, which turns out is the same outfit her friend Logan had. They looked so cute together! When it was time to go outside, we put Katy in her bundle up outfit that looks like a pink bear. So she kinda had a costume. But she wasn’t trick-or-treating anyway, so it really didn’t matter.

And I just couldn't resist posting this picture of Ernie with Kaitlyn "trick-or-treating" in the front pack. Aren't they cute?


The Jacobys live in a very nice development that has nice sidewalks, is well-lit, and has little car traffic. It is a great place for trick-or-treating. And let me tell you, cute little kids clean up when it comes to Halloween candy. Their buckets were full quickly – just about the time they ran out of steam. It was perfect timing. Sophia and Nolan had a great time and got quite a haul. (And at the rate we’re going, Sophia’s candy stash might just last until Christmas!)

Let the Carving Begin!

Once we had our pumpkins, it was time to carve them. Sophia and Ernie had practice the night before. They attended Dad’s Night at Sophia’s preschool, where the dads help the kids carve the pumpkins that they picked at the patch on their field trip. Sophia chose to carve her school pumpkin into a cat face with whiskers. So when it came time to carve our family pumpkins, she insisted on more cat faces. Ernie and I didn’t have any better ideas, so we decided to make a pumpkin cat family.


We ran into a few problems with pumpkin carving this year. The first was that when Ernie cut the top off of the large pumpkin, the hole ended up not being quite big enough, and it was impossible to gut it. Ernie ended up cutting another hole in the bottom so that the guts could be removed. Then, when attempting to gut the pumpkin, Ernie discovered that he is allergic to pumpkin guts and broke out into a rash. But, stud that he is, he persevered and gutted both pumpkins. Sophia helped with the pumpkin guts, and even Katy got in on the action. Then I stepped in and carved the faces. We ended up with three pumpkin cats – large, medium, and small.

Pumpkin Patch 2009

We have an annual tradition of choosing a pumpkin straight from the pumpkin patch. This year was no exception. We had a tip from a local friend to go to the patch on Goodrich Road in Centralia. We found out that the owners of the farm are good friends with Ernie’s grandparents, so we were glad we had chosen it.

Our first order of business was to find a good pumpkin. We scoured the patch and found one that was just the right size, was nice and round, and had a good stem. Here is Sophia with our find:


We also found a small pumpkin for Katy. We immediately purchased them and took them back to the car – we didn’t want anyone else to find them and buy them first! Then we went back to the patch and enjoyed what it had to offer.

First, a few photo ops:

Here is Sophia with the "ladybug"


Here is Kaitlyn on her pumpkin perch (not the pumpkin we bought for her, just a random one in the patch)


Then Sophia rode the barrel pull ride, and we just enjoyed the sunshine. It was a wonderful day!