The stairs twist around with several landings. They are great for kids because it’s hard to fall down all of them at once and they’re carpeted. Ila has learned to crawl up and down them and actually seems to really enjoy climbing up and down.
If you look at my previous post, you’ll see where the livingroom is located within the house. The screen on the TV is showing a live video feed of the playroom and the red on the couch is Nicole—she was asleep on the couch when I took the pictures.
The fireplace is a gas fireplace controlled by a light-switch on the wall. The kids thought that was really neat and have learned that they are not allowed to turn on the fireplace.
There is no division between the livingroom and kitchen. You can also see part of our new table. We got a counter height table with 8 chairs. It has a leaf in the middle so we can adjust it’s size.
Here’s the kitchen on the other side of the room
I have really loved the upgrade in kitchen. I have much more cupboard space than our Knoxville home, and I have a pantry again—which I sorely missed in our last home. 
I like having the island. I use it as my baking island and I have placed all my baking things in it’s drawers. I seem to have been backing with much greater frequency.
It’s the perfect place for baking projects with the kids because they can pull a chair right up to the end and there is a plug on the side of the island so I can plug my mixer in.
The other thing that is nice about our kitchen/livingroom is that there is a fully fenced backyard with lots of windows facing it so that I can send the kids out to play and keep an eye on them while I cook dinner or clean the kitchen. Here is a picture that I took before we moved everything in. 
Next Post = upstairs
I think I’ll split this up over a few posts so that I can be more detailed (especially for those family members that may not get the chance to come visit)
This is the view when you step in the front door:
And if you walked straight and turned around, this is what it looks like from the opposite side:
My kids wake up early. I am not always as eager to start my day. In fact, I think there should be a rule against getting up before 8 AM on a holiday. Isaac had two days off for President’s Day. On the second day, Ila had woken up at her usual time which is around 4 am and I had brought her downstairs to the couch where I could nurse her and fall asleep. We were both still resting on the couch at around 6:30 AM when Isaac and Nicole came down. Isaac had a book and was reading it aloud at the table and Nicole was not yelling to be fed, so I was content to lay on the couch and cuddle my baby a little longer.
The next thing I knew, there was a bright blue flash and Nicole running down the hall crying. I immediately jumped up and made sure she was ok. I could find no injuries and she calmed down and acted like herself.
Once she was settled, I checked out the damage. This is basically what I saw (I cleaned the plug plate before taking the picture):
I felt terrible and beat myself up much of the day for being so lazy. I don’t know if she actually got shocked or just dropped the bracelet onto the plug and ran down the hall crying out of fear. All I know is that the plug and bracelet were partially melted, the socket was charred, and the breaker was tripped.
I said a prayer of thanks that she was ok and that there was no serious injury. I threw out all of the little silver bracelets in the house, and for the rest of the day I found myself hugging her and recognizing how grateful I was to have her happy and healthy and in my family.
(This picture is of Nicole “feeding†cereal to her Plush Curious George toy)
I know I’ve posted a lot about Ila lately, but I couldn’t resist posting this adorable series of pictures.
I didn’t actually see what happened, but I heard a sound like one of our little plastic stools falling and I turned around to see Ila laying on the floor. She hadn’t been on anything and couldn’t have been hurt badly. Ila looked like she was about to cry (you know that silent inhale that comes before the scream look). I picked her up and her body suddenly went completely limp. I started calling her name and trying to wake her. It was probably only 30 seconds that she lost consciousness, but it was terrifying. As soon as she became conscious she seemed confused and tired and her breathing was strange (short irregular breaths).
This was the second time that this has happened. The first time was maybe a few weeks ago. I was in the kitchen and she was on her knees holding onto my leg and her hand slipped and she fell forward and bumped her head. She had that same deep inhale before a scream look and a loss of consciousness and sleepiness afterwards.
When I explained what happened to Zach, he did some research and sent me a link about Breath-holding Spells. The description in his link was exactly what I experienced, and as I read I saw that there was a link between Breath-holding Spells and iron deficiency. Just before we left Tennessee, our pediatrician tested Ila’s blood and reported that she had an iron deficiency and prescribed an iron supplement. Unfortunately, I have been bad at remembering to give her the prescribed daily dose. I gave her a dose and committed in my head to make remembering a priority. I also think it’s time I set up an appointment with a pediatrician.
I inherited these little pictures from my Grandma O’Bryant. They’re of Kathleen O’Bryant who I was named after. Kathleen was my grandmother’s first child and she drowned in a pool when she was just two.
Whenever I look at these pictures I think of my sweet grandmother and her heartache. I love my grandmother and It makes me happy to think of her. I’ve always felt close to my grandmother and my name has been an important part of that bond I have with her. The pictures have been lying on my desk since I unpacked them and I can’t figure out what I should do with them. I received them when we lived in Tennessee and I never figured out what I wanted to do with them there either.
I really like our new ward, they’re very friendly and nice. People have gone out of their way to introduce themselves and be kind. Over the years, Zach and I have spent most of our time in needy wards where we were really needed and it’s a different feeling to move into a well-established, stable ward. I don’t feel like we’re really needed here. I feel guilty and selfish for moving here. It troubles me. It’s like we’ve moved into a ward where we can take a vacation from having a lot of responsibilities. It makes us feel a little out of place. The one thing they say they need is more kids. So maybe our children are the ones who are needed here? It reinforces the feelings of doubt that I still have about if we made the right choice to move here. I try not to dwell on those feelings because we’re in too deep to go back now. Is there a lesson to be learned in this? Why did we end up here?
As a person who grew up in the Midwest and then spent 13 years in Utah, living in places that stay relatively warm and have almost no snow is a new experience for me. It’s been around 50 degrees most of the time since I’ve been in Seattle, but we did have a snow storm the other day.
Isaac enjoyed riding his scooter down the hill in the snow and throwing snowballs on the way home from school the day before.
I didn’t get many pictures of Charlotte, because she spent most of the time inside the house changing her snow gear (different hats, gloves, ect).
Nicole, as you can see was well bundled up with two coats and her beach hat. She also insisted on bringing her backpack outside. She also spent much time in the garage saying “I need something to ride.â€
Ila was not content to watch from her stroller, she wanted to be in the snow, but she didn’t enjoy the snow for very long.
Charlotte likes bananas. The first time I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she thought for a moment and then said “a box of bananas.†She brought up that gift suggestion a few more times before her birthday, so I wrapped up a box of bananas. She was actually quite excited when she opened them and for the 
following week, every time we ate a banana she’d say “we’re eating a birthday present.â€
A few weeks ago as we drove home from church, we asked the children what they learned about in church. Isaac said they learned about Joseph Smith. I asked them a few questions about what they learned and Charlotte piped up and said “I drew a banana on his shirt.†When we got home, I took a look at the picture she had colored and sure enough there was a picture of Joseph Smith kneeling in the sacred grove with a banana on his shirt.
A few days later she decided she wanted to draw a snowman. She said “I’ll need a piece of paper and some crayons. I need a white one, and a black one, and an orange one (for the carrot nose), and a yellow one–in case I want to draw a banana.â€
Also, Ila finally tried bananas and she likes them. She asks for them by name, but she will only eat full sized bananas. If I slice or break them into little pieces, she will not eat them. She likes them best if I give them to her with the peel on and she will only eat a half a banana at the most, by that time the banana piece is too small and I can’t get her to eat any more of it, even if I give it to her at her next meal.
Here are some little things that I’ve done recently that have made a big difference to me:
Cookie Cutters: I had something like this:
I had been storing it in it’s original cylindrical container. My problem was that it was often hard to find the exact cookie cutter I wanted. Here’s what I did:
I sorted them by type/holiday (they were color coded so it was super easy to do) then I put each set into a separate OneZip bag. I have used them several times since and have been pleased at how much easier it is to get out exactly what I need.
Crayons: My problem has been that I have a two year old who thinks part of coloring is dumping the crayons all over the table and floor. I have tried giving her a few crayons at once, however, I find that if I just reach my hand in and grab a small handful, she ends up with a very limited color palate with several similar colors and not a very good range. It was a tedious task to search through the bucket for a proper palate of crayons. Here is what I did:
I sorted out several groups of basic colors with a full, but simple color palate and put them in a OneZip bag. It’s amazing how much easier this simple task has made my life.
Also, I recommend doing this if you have one of those kids who likes to peal the papers off the crayons thus making a large mess of little bits of crayon paper:
I had a chance recently to organize someone else’s laundry room. I know it’s strange, but there’s something I really enjoy about organizing—I think it’s the problem solving. Anyway, I know a few of my friends appreciate organization tips when I post them, so if you’re not one of those people, feel free to just skip this post.
Here are the two things that made the biggest difference:
1.) Before:
You may not be able to tell from the picture, but this laundry room has a long, tall counter. The things in the back were virtually unreachable and there is a lot of wasted space in the height of the counter. My goal was to make this space 100% useable (meaning that you can easily reach everything under the counter and none of the space is wasted).
After:
I wish I had a picture from the other angle, but the solution was relatively simple. I measured the space and we purchased two long deep containers. They fit perfectly all the way to the back and easily slide forward in order to reach the items in the back.
2.) Before:
It’s hard to tell from the picture, but this room was hard to navigate because there were two internal doors and a door on each side of the room and the doors conflicted with each other so that you couldn’t open most of the doors completely and they were always bumping into each other.
After:
We removed the internal doors and it was amazing how much that simple change opened up the room and made it more useable. The space felt much larger with the doors removed.
Zach has made some good arguments in favor of switching our online photo storage from Flickr to Picasa. I have not uploaded any pictures to Flickr since he has made this recommendation and now I’m woefully behind. I thought I’d share some recent shots here with commentary as I mentally prepare for the switchover.
Nicole loves her Hello Kitty backpack. It was a gift from her grandma Bunny (who had intended it for Charlotte, until she saw that Charlotte already had a Hello Kitty backpack).
Nicole received it the morning that we flew to Seattle and used it as her carry-on. She looked hilarious with it at the airport. She insisted on pushing it in front of her and would not allow anyone to help her with it or show her the proper way of pulling it behind her. 
Charlotte and Nicole have insisted on carrying a backpack to the bus stop each morning. Usually the backpacks are empty. One day, I noticed that Nicole had packed hers with a monkey and a water bottle. 
The other morning, I tried to hurry the girls out the door because we were running a little late, but as soon as we started walking Nicole stopped and yelled “oh, no! My Backpack!†I decided it was quicker to get the backpack than to try to drag her kicking and screaming to the bus stop.
Now, every time we leave the house, Nicole insists on taking her backpack with her. She was not happy with her Dad when he would not let her take it to church this week, or last week.
Oh, and she did eventually let me show her the proper way to pull it behind her .
With the move and all, I haven’t had a chance to sit down and play with the boy as much as I’d like. Remember how I mentioned his favorite part of the Smithsonian was when they had these Snap Circuits kits for him to play with? Well, I got him a set for Christmas, and we’ve been working together on them. Here are a couple of videos.
We had a great Valentine’s day. I actually went to bed early on Sunday night, but woke up at about 3:00 AM with an ache in my back. I went downstairs and noticed a friend request on my phone so I hoped on facebook and found out that my sister’s water had broken during the night and she was in labor! I did get a little more sleep after that.
I have pinpointed 11 houses in my neighborhood to make an extra effort to friendship.
Step 1: Cookies with a short intro and contact info
I haven’t figured out a step 2 yet, maybe inviting some of them to dinner, one family at a time.
So I’ve taken a few fun videos recently, but neglected to share them, so here they are:
This video of Ila saying the word dancing and dancing was taken before the first step videos that I posted yesterday:
This is a fun one of Nicole falling asleep at the table:
At the end where it looks like she bumps her head and wakes up, she actually stayed asleep and I carried her over to the couch where she had a proper nap.
Here’s some of Charlotte’s dancing (and some singing):
Here is one of Nicole spelling her name:
This one features Ila spelling her name:
Here’s the longer version so you can see it in context:
Ok, I think I got that out of my system. I promise that next post will not be full of videos!
Ila took her first steps just before bedtime tonight and luckily my camera was nearby! Here is some video:
