Twice the celebration!

Seafood at Joe FortesRiding bikes at Stanley Park

Stanley Park

Shortly after we moved here, I was called to work in Young Womens again- in fact, it was the exact same calling I left behind in Texas. Well, when they asked Dan if he would support me serving in YW's he of course said yes. They didn't mention that there was an activity planned on Valentine's Day morning, a youth temple trip on Valentine's Day evening, and a hike scheduled for 2 days later on our anniversary. Not a huge deal, and they were all wonderful (except the hike, which ended up getting postponed) and I'm glad I was able to be there. But I didn't know he had something planned for the weekend before that. Luckily, he's a flexible guy and he changed plans around and spoiled me!! Thursday morning when I woke up he told me he wasn't going to work and that I had 2 hours to get ready and pack a bag. I thought we were maybe spending a night in Seattle, but as we were driving down the freeway and the Space Needle came and went, I figured out that wasn't the plan. We ended up going to Vancouver, B.C., staying in a cute little boutique hotel right downtown, did a little bit of shopping on Robson Street, had incredible seafood, and rented bikes to ride around the seawall at Stanley Park. It was the perfect 2 days, and as much as I love being a mom and being with my kids, spending a couple days just Dan and I was wonderful. Sometimes we joke about how our anniversary and valentine's day just kind of blend into one holiday, but now I think it's just twice as much fun!

Another trip to "the beach"

Jacey and Aunt Courtney

Awhile ago, Dan and I were talking to Jacey about how much closer we live to the ocean now. When Dan told her that we lived 20 minutes from the ocean, she of course wanted to go. I'm sure after recent travels to Mexico, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica what she saw was not really what she had in mind. But we still had lots of fun exploring Pt. Defiance, and she especially liked going on "a hike in the woods" (climbing a hill with lots of trees on it). We'll have to go back this summer when there's not so many logs washed up on the beach and the weather's prettier. Or maybe we'll just have to drive a little further and go to the coast where we can play in real sand instead of the sound.

Trip to Rexburg

When Dan and I got married, it was looking like by the time he was done with school all of his siblings would probably be in the area. A lot changes in 8 years, and we're back now but everyone else has left! Luckily they're not too far, and a few weeks ago we were able to pile us, Courtney and Taylee, and Dan's dad into the car to take a trip to Rexburg to visit Dan's sisters. It was so fun to see them, see all their new houses, and especially fun to see all the kids playing together. Jacey had been looking forward to this trip for quite a while, and we had too. We were even more grateful for such a fun reason to go- we were able to be their for our newest niece, Brynlee's, blessing, as well as see Holland for the first time, who was born back in October. Jacey and Broden loved seeing the babies, playing with their cousins and playing in the snow. Dan loved being able to be silly with the boys and playing with all the cool boy stuff that we just don't have yet. I loved seeing my sister-in-laws and holding the new babies. Broden especially loved holding Brynlee and touching all of her little fingers and toes. It was a mega-meltdown when it was time to give her back to her mom. It was a wonderful weekend, and although I'm not looking forward to that drive anytime soon, I do look forward to going again!

Celebrating our favorite little man!

I can't believe our little guy is 2 years old! I am so grateful to be his mom, and we feel really lucky to have him in our family. He has been such an easy child, and if I could be guaranteed they would all be like him, who knows how many children we'd have! :) I remember the day he was born like it was yesterday, yet I have a hard time remembering what life was like without him. It's so fun to see him and Jacey be such good friends, even with the age/gender difference. We feel so blessed. I feel like he has started jabbering overnight, and he is so fun (and entertaining) to carry on conversations with. Other current Broden favorites include:

*When he wakes up (bright and early!) and wakes me up with his ever-so-cheerful "Good morning, Mommy! I'ant breakfast! Cer-al? I'ant to wake Jacey up!" At which point I jump out of bed and say, "No!!" I love Jacey's company, but she is just not wired to be a cheerful morning person like Broden, no matter how early she goes to bed. If she gets to sleep until 8:30, it's a great day for everyone!

*His prayers. One of the perks with him trying to repeat anything we say is that it makes him a very willing participant in prayers, and doing anything like us brings him more pride than his little 2-year-old body can handle. The smile he gives us after receiving compliments for saying a prayer is priceless!

*The simple things that bring him so much joy. One of his favorite toys right now is the real remote control that my brother sent him for his birthday. Such a smart gift... why didn't I think of that? Every time he sees it he squeals and says, "Ooh! My 'mote!" ...and everyone else loves that when he presses the buttons it doesn't do anything to whatever they're watching.

*Most of all, we are so enjoying watching him learn and grown and seeing the satisfaction that he feels in becomeing more of a "big boy". I love that even with as hard as he's trying to grow up, and the joy it brings him to do the same things as the older kids, that when he inevitably hurts himself trying to keep up, I'm the first person he runs to to kiss his owies. I guess I can let him grow up.....as long as I can still count on those little precious moments when he can still be my baby! We love you Broden!

The Bounce House & Party Day

Broden's birthday kind of stumped me this year. I wasn't really sure what to do. We don't really know a ton of people here yet, and I didn't want to come across as fishing for birthday presents by just invited anyone who had a child remotely close to Broden's age to a party. We had a little party with family one day, but I still wanted to do something a little more exciting for him. After a lot of searching online the night before his birthday, I found this place exactly like Pump It Up in Dallas that had drop-in play hours on Friday, which just happened to be the day his birthday fell on this year. So Dan and I took our kids along with Courtney and Taylee (we even got Grandpa to join us!) and we decided to check it out. It was a hit, and it made me feel better that we did something on the actual day.

Party day was fun. Our kids love any excuse to have both their grandparents together, and Broden loved his presents. My parents got him a stuffed puppy that's bigger than him (a big hit with all the kids!), Grandma and Grandpa Sillito and Aunt Courtney got him a train set with various accessories, and Dan and I got him a little basketball hoop. He was thrilled with them all, and even got excited about the clothes he opened!

Our friend, the peacock

Who needs a trip to the zoo when you can look out the window and see this? For the past few years (or maybe longer, I don't know), Dan's parents have had a random peacock wandering around their neighborhood. We usually see him a couple times a week, but a couple of weeks ago he was coming by every day at lunch time. I was coming home from playgroup one day and he was in the middle of the driveway. I parked on the side of the road and everyone came out to look at him. Either he was feeling threatened or he was trying to show off for us, because he put up all of his feathers. This is the best free entertainment that I've ever found for my kids, and we don't even have to leave the house. We love it when the peacock comes!

Guess who's coming to dinner?

Our new ward has a fun tradition of "Guess who's coming to dinner?" Once a month, they pass a sign up around for who wants to participate, then the activities committee puts them into groups. Last month we got assigned to host, and it just ended up being a guy that Dan grew up with and his family. We had fun getting to know him and his family, and Jacey was thrilled that they had a little girl close to her age. After dinner while the adults played games, the kids went down to the basement where the girls dressed up in princess and ballet clothes. We were happy with how well they were playing down there, and then we heard the girls giggling their way up the stairs, prodding Broden along. Sure enough, the girls got to him and made him very "pretty". I think he thought it was fun at the time, until he saw everyone laughing- then he wanted to take it off. I guess this is our payback for not stepping in when little boys would come over to play with Jacey and the activity of choice would be dress up, right?

Scripture fun

This kids have loved that since moving up here we have scriptures and prayers on our bed instead of sitting on the couch every night before we go to sleep. Their favorite part is burying themselves in pillows and listening to us read. Hey- I won't complain. This is the most reverent they have ever been, AND they think it's cool. It doesn't get much better than that!

Cupcake Party

Jacey got a cupcake party set for Christmas. It's darling, and she was very excited to host her very first cupcake party. The guest list was: Jacey, me, Broden, Grandma Sillito, Aunt Courtney, and Taylee. She worked very hard making invitations, and insisted on writing the words all by herself. She worked on them while Grandma and Aunt Courtney took Taylee to the hospital for the afternoon, and I made the mistake of telling her they were almost home. Well, "almost" actually meant about 30 minutes, and Jacey stood by the kitchen window watching for them the whole time. "Party day" was fun. She got out a nice tablecloth, set the table with her fun cupcake dishes, and put flowers on the table. She had decorated the cupcakes all by herself, which guaranteed that there was 3x as much frosting as there should have been on every one. The kids loved it, and Jacey just told me the other day that she thinks it's time for another "cupcake party"!

Cute little Taylee

If there is anything that has made our transition to Washington easier, it would definately be having Dan's little sister Courtney and her family here. I haven't even had a chance to feel lonely, because it's like having a friend here with me all day, and I love it! Our kids love having Taylee here to play with, and Broden and Taylee have become the best of friends (aside from the occasional outburst of perfectly normal 2-year-old behavior!). Dan and I have also said it feels like we're having friends over every night to play games or watch our favorite shows with. We just wish the circumstances for their being here were different. A couple of days before graduation, we received the scary phone call from Dan's mom that Taylee had cancer. You feel so helpless being away from family during times like this, and it made us anxious to get home. We appreciate those of you who offered prayers in Taylee's behalf without even knowing her, and thought you might be wondering what ever happened. So, here's the update:

Taylee is an incredible little girl. She had a large Wilm's tumor that covered one of her kidneys. They brought her from Idaho to Children's hospital in Seattle. Shortly before Christmas she had surgery at Children's to remove the kidney and the tumor. The surgery was successful, and the tumor was contained and intact, which we were very grateful for. Taylee continues to amaze us. She recovered much more quickly than they expected her to, which meant we were able to have her home with us for Christmas. The next step is 6 months of chemotherapy. They have started the chemo here in Washington, and will most likely finish it in Idaho, after they work out some of the details that go along with it. Taylee is doing good, and I haven't even noticed many of the side effects that they predicted she would experience. She is a lucky little girl, and has great parents. I was able to go to the hospital with Court and Taylee a couple weeks ago for chemo. As surprised as I was at how good Taylee did, I was even more impressed with Courtney. She has such a positive attitude, and has so much faith. I have no doubt that Courtney's attitude is a huge part of how well Taylee's doing. We've learned so much from their little family's example, and are grateful that we've had this time to be with them. I know they are anxious to get home to Idaho, and I don't blame them one bit. They have a strong support system there with lots of family and good friends, as well as a beautiful home, and I know they are missed. I know it will be good for them to get back to a normal routine. But we have loved, loved, loved having them here and for now we will just enjoy them while we have them!

Merry Christmas... a little late!

Christmas was pretty exciting this year, especially for Jacey. We were excited to see ALL of our family, but we hadn't seen Brad and Lacey's family for a couple years, so she was especially excited to see her cousing Ryker. Jacey and Ryker are only a couple years apart, and even though they don't see each other very often, they sure do love each other! We had fun making a gingerbread house, playing, and especially spending time together on Christmas Eve. Jacey and Ryker quickly claimed the roles of Mary and Joseph, and did a great job acting it out. Towards the end Taylee thought it looked like fun and joined the story. Jacey's prized gift at Grandma and Grandpa Sillitos house was her Madame Alexander doll, whom she affectionately named "Lacey Mae Sillito" after Ryker's mom, and of course- Jacey!

On Christmas Day, we drove down to Toledo to spend the day with my family. My brother Chris and his family came up from California the next day, and we enjoyed spending time with my other brother, Stephen as well. It's been a long time since our family has been together at the same time, and we sure did enjoy it. Our kids got spoiled once again, and it took Broden all day to open his presents because he insisted on playing with each one in between. It was such a treat to our kids to be able to play with Kayleigh and Colby, and they were so good to whisk Jacey and Broden away and play with them the whole time! In fact, they kept them so busy I just realized I didn't get nearly enough pictures of them! It was the most relaxing couple days Dan and I have had in a long time! We're grateful for how good they are with our kids, and wish that they were closer so we could employ them as our official babysitters.

Goodbye Texas, Hello Washington!

We didn't prolong our goodbyes at all, and the kids and I hopped on an early, early morning flight Sunday morning, the day after graduation. It was so hard to get on that plane- I love Texas! But I love our family too, so that helps! I already did my sappy post before we moved, so I'll keep it simple and make a list of the top 5 things I'll miss:

1. Friends- and all the fun that we had! Playdates, preschool, barbecues, potluck get-togethers, parties, and the social life that comes being surrounded by so many other young families!

2. Food- Embarassingly enough, before I consolidated food into one category, it made up much of my list! Dallas has great restaraunts, and we discovered many inexpensive ones that we loved finding reasons to go to. Babes, Spring Creek Barbecue, and Blue Bell Ice Cream are just a couple that come to mind!

3. Southern Hospitality- Call me old-fashioned, but I loved how respectful kids especially were in Texas. I am finally to the point where I kind of got used to being called "ma'am" and having teenage boys hold the door open for me when walking into stores. People are so friendly and a little more relaxed than other big cities we've been to.

4. Shopping- Enough said. Like the food category, Dallas's shopping is just hard to compete with.

5. Weather- Yep, it's true. A Washington native like me actually grew to enjoy 100+ degree temps in the summer. Now, I did not enjoy the A/C bills that came with those days, but there's nothing better than packing a huge bag full of water toys and snacks, and spending the whole day down at the pool.

Now, so I don't sound partial to Texas over Washington- here's my top 5 of why I'm excited to be here:

1. Family- It is nice that visiting grandparents isn't such a production anymore. Even though we don't have any cousins that live really close, we're close enough that it's at least driving distance, and maybe now our kids can play together a little more rather than just talking on the phone.

2. Beauty- OK, so I love Texas, but I am the first to admit it doesn't compare to the northwest in this category. Overall, it's been kind of gray and drizzly here since we moved, but it I remember correctly, spring and summer are beautiful! (That was supposed to be sarcastic. I have spent most of my life here, and I know it gets beautiful. I just have to remind myself of that on the rainy days!)

3. Friends- Even though we haven't spent time with a lot of people, we have more friends here than we initially remembered. Dan grew up in the area we're living in, and it's been fun to reconnect with some of them and their spouses, and to see their kids, some of which are the same ages as ours.

4. Work! Although we're still waiting on the state for the whole license thing, it's fun to see Dan get up and go to work every day. It will be even better when he can do everything he wants to. Dan has a lot of good connections with coaches and athletic directors in the area, and we're excited to see where that takes him.

5. Establishing roots- Ever since we've been married, we've known that wherever we were living was temporary. We always knew that in 2-3 years we would be picking up and starting over somewhere else. It's fun to think that we will be here long-term, and we won't have to say as many goodbyes as we have in the past!

SNOW!!

We were greeted at the airport with a special treat- SNOW in Washington! We usually only get a couple of snow days every year. They are usually after Christmas and it melts really fast. The

day we got home was just the beginning though. We got home on Dec.14th and it kept snowing and snowing until after Christmas. Then when it finally stopped snowing, it didn't warm enough to melt it for awhile. My parents measured it at their house, and in the deepest spot of untouched snow it was 22 inches! That's a long shot from the 2-3 inches we usually get. Broden was a bit unsure at first, and would take 2 steps out before he said "I'm cold!" in a squeaky little voice. He grew to love it though. Jacey thought it was great, and even though our kids were obviously ill-prepared in the clothing department for snow we still had fun building snowmen and playing in the snow fort that their cousins Kayleigh and Colby built at Grandma and Grandpa Johnston's house. We had lots of fun, but just with the storms would have waited until Dan made it home with our car so he didn't have to get stranded on the other side of the mountains!

The newest Dr. Sillito is here!!!

They looked so cute! Too bad I couldn't get a better pose!

We're so proud of our daddy!

Dan and his proud papa


Dallas and Dan...and of course Jacey had to sneak in the picture! Dan and Dallas hit it off from the beginning of Tri 1, and we were thrilled when he married Abi so we had another fun couple to hang out with! Many of our favorite Texas memories involve the Makins in one way or the other!

Us and the Hirschis. Eliza was a great running partner before we moved, Brent and Dan grew up 10 minutes away from each other (but never knew each other), Jacey obviously loved their kids, and Broden loved having a little guy closer to his age. How do you replace friends like this? :)

Even as I post this a month later, looking at these pictures is kind of surreal. It's hard to believe it's actually over. Dan and I have been students our whole married life and I never hesitate to say how much I have loved it. Aside from looking forward to an income, I haven't been in any hurry whatsoever to leave that phase of our lives behind. We made great friends, we learned a lot, and life was relatively simple. Dan, on the other hand, has been working his tail off for almost 8 years, and I know he was looking forward to the end! We couldn't be more proud of him! He has performed an amazing juggling act for the past few years- many times spending 12 hours a day at school not to mention studying, seminars, serving at church, playing with us, and making sure the kids and I always knew that school was his 3rd priority behind us and the Lord. I know he was blessed for it. I know our family was blessed for it. He was such an example to me. Many times he went to bed on Sunday night before a 7:00 a.m. test on Monday morning that he hadn't had a chance to study for. Not because of a lack of preparation, but because there simply weren't enough hours in the day. He would do as much as he could during the week and on Saturday, but he refused to study on Sunday. He amazed me over and over again how he would always do well on those tests, and I know the Lord was blessing him for his commitment.

Graduation day was wonderful. It was such a happy time! The best moment of the day was watching my father-in-law be able to present Dan with his diploma. I was so proud. It felt like a very significant moment, knowing that Dan and his dad would soon be practicing together. I became so excited the more I thought about all the people Dan will be able to help through the knowledge that he has worked so hard to gain. Way to go Dr. Sillito!

Bethlehem Revisited- again!

We had so much fun going down to Waxahachie for Bethlehem Revistited last year with the Hirschis and Makins that we thought it would be a fun thing to do while our parents were visiting for graduation. I won't go into all the details, but I'll just say it was wonderful as usual. If you look into my archives from last Christmas you'll find a much more detailed explanation. Once again, I would highly recommend it to anyone in the Dallas area. We missed being there with friends, but our kids loved it. We were grateful once again for the opportunity to focus on the Savior a little more during the holiday season.

Oh- and any activity that ends with a car ride like this makes for a perfect evening!

Graduation Banquet

A couple days before graduation, we went to Dan's graduation banquet at the Renassiance Hotel in downtown Dallas. After a lot of drama within the class whether they would have one or not (a few disagreements whether it was a good use of class dues), I was very grateful for an excuse to dress up and enjoy a nice evening with friends before the craziness of graduation day on Saturday.