a little bit.

back to the pumpkin patch we went!

her kindergarten class went and she had a great time riding the school bus for the very first time!! 

and being there with her friends made things extra cool, of course. 

she had to see the kittens again!

although this time, those poor kittens were being manhandled left and right and didn't want to sit still on very many laps. 

rowan of course had to try though! :) 

our anniversary dinner date on the water. 

Fog

last month, in november, we had some really heavy fog that was lingering around for a few days. 

so i thought i would take advantage and bring rowan down to the sunnyside beach in steilacoom.

you couldn't even see anderson island or the ferry!

D. O. G. S.

rascal and skeeter love to snuggle. 

ha - rascal's tongue actually sticks out like that most of the time. i think it's too big for his tiny mouth.

sometimes these dogs can be so sweet.. 

other times not.

taken through the window with my iphone camera. 

what is wrong with this crazy rabid dog? 

doesn't he know how to use a napkin? 

Pumpkin patch

we did our annual trip to the pumpkin patch in mid-october! 

we had such a great time! 

we usually like to head south to portland and meet up with family there, but this year it didn't work out.

so we found a great local farm, Schilter Farms, where they had this crazy big corn maze. 

we were in it for an hour and never found our way to the end. 

we ended up heading back to the entrance and leaving that way!

this girl is obsessed with kittens. 

all this girl would need for Christmas would be a cat and she would be the happiest girl alive!

in the eyes of a child. 

 she captured this great photo too!

she couldn't help herself. she just had to take a selfie.

this was the aftermath of being physically stuck in the mud. 

Foster license

10.24.13

we got our

 foster license today! 

Our first referral

October 17th. 

the moment we got our first referral... 

wow! what an exhilarating feeling!!

bubba was in the other room and had said: did you see we got a referral? 

i of course did not believe him. he's always telling stories or saying something just to get a rise out of me. 

so i of course say: no we didn't. {right, because i always know these things before he does}

him: yeah. we did. 

so i ran to my phone where i could instantly check my email and there it was!! 

all 30 pages of that referral. 

oh man... and let me tell you. i was SO thrilled and elated that we had finally gotten our first referral! (after waiting over 2 weeks since our completed homestudy) 

so after reading through some, and skimming most, everything looked good. there were some issues, but nothing that we couldn't handle. there was just one problem.... 

they were TWINS!!! 

while everything else looked really good, we talked about it some and just decided that we couldn't do twins. 

but boy were we so happy to have that first referral under our belt. we now know what to expect with future referrals!

Soccer season is over.

Well I sure do have a lot of updating to do! Thankfully, life has been busy and fulfilling and I haven't made much time for blogging these past 2 months. 

Now, I'm on a break from school and enjoying the holidays. 

These events and pictures are now "old", but I still want to document them on here and remember these memories for later. 

So here we go!

rowan's last soccer! she's always posing. silly girl. 

Coach Sammy!

her best friend at their pizza party! 

she was so excited to get her trophy and medal!

my october.... so far.

whew... 

a lot of blogging going on tonight. 

life has been amazingly busy! 

here's what i've been up to this past week or two. 

finally got around to making one of these! 

so excited that my very first one turned out way better than i thought. 

a few more of these and i can make a great wall collage for rowan's room. 

a ladies day of shopping and dinner out. 

much needed. much loved.

why is she SO cute? 

who needs diamonds? 

my furbabies. 

Go ducks!

football game. 

ducks vs. huskies. 

who won... 

well i'll let you guess... :)

ok seriously. 

this girl has learned from her "joking" father who pretends to be "gangsta"

and she has now really turned into this little thug girl. 

what's up.... all the time. 

i love her. 

but i'm a bit worried. ha!

WON THE DAY!

finally. a coffee table .

so we got our couch 7 years ago. 

and with it the hubs insisted on buying this huge ottoman. 

i protested it in the store. 

and i still protest it. 7 years later, i still hate the ottoman. 

i was so tired of using a nasty fabric ottoman like a coffee table... it was so gross. 

and then i got this. 

finally. 

a nice beautiful coffee table! 

that my very handy hubby built me. 

hip hip hooray! hip hip hooray!

he built it. he stained it. he sanded it. 

he did it all. and i love it!

rascal photo bombing. 

please ignore the stains our old couch. 

that now looks worse with this gorgeous coffee table next to it. 

i told bubs that we still had another 3 years left on this couch, but now... 

he may convince me to get a new couch a bit earlier than that. 

so... any advice on where to get a cute semi-colored couch that is still comfortable to sit on and not too spendy. 

i'm sure there are some gorgeous ones on etsy.. but probably cost thousands to ship to me. 

in the meantime.. i will soak in the beauty of my table. 

Apple Cider.

off to the local apple squeeze!

we've been a few times before, but never actually made the cider. 

and this year we did. 

we had such a great time!

can i please day... another reason why i love fall? 

apples. and cider. 

cider floats. apple cider donuts. 

such a big helper, i tell ya. 

ha. 

i also tried this. it was easier than i thought. 

until the apples get stuck. and then you turn it backwards and they start spraying juice all over your face. 

ha. ha. ha. 

we had a super great time!

Last meeting & Seattle.

September 25th meeting Cathy for child referral information

so after we got our home study approved we had to make one more appointment up in seattle. 

just ONE more official one until we are in the waiting period. the period where we can start getting referrals 

so we got it scheduled and on september 25th we headed up to seattle and had our last meeting. 

we ended up in a small room with one lady. 

it is her job to know everyone who is there and getting child referrals. 

she is the child referral lady. 

she knows all the people at the agency. 

she is the dictionary for all the children. 

she is our link to our future child. 

the meeting was full of information. what to expect in a child referral. what to look for. what's important. and what we want. 

are we willing to accept a child the same day or within 24 hours? 

YES! sign us up. we are ready to go.

let's do this!

thankfully, it worked out beautifully for my mom to watch rowan in seattle while we went to this meeting. 

it couldn't have gone any better!

we are so thankful to have such supportive family! 

and after the meeting we all went out for some fun in seattle! 

pikes place market!

the great wheel. 

don't let this picture fool you. 

i was terrified the first two go arounds. 

that thing goes up HIGH. 

but it was a blast and was so great to go and experience it. 

on our way back we stopped for dinner on the water in tacoma for some chowda! :) 

unfortunately, we didn't make it to soccer practice.

but this day was way better.