with my cell, during December

I tend to take quite a bit of out-and-about pictures with my cell phone 

and then I forget to download them all. 

So I suddenly have like, 80+ pictures on my phone. 

No joke. 

Tonight it shocked me when it said "downloading 1 of 103 photos. Yikes! 

this was taken the morning I first left for California. 

We woke up to what looked like a very light snow and very bright sun. 

the snow melting was turning into water on our window. 

I like the way this picture captured the drops. 

I do miss all the beautiful leaves on the trees. Looking forward to spring! 

Okay, its kind of a sad picture and I know its a major throw-back. 

Makes me super emotional every time I see it, but I wanted to post it. 

This is our house in California. Still hasn't sold.
Please pray if you would - it was supposed to close on 1/31

and we just found out today, the Bank never did approve the sale.
Seems they've forgotten about
us or something :(  

I took this picture for Ethan. He wanted to see the old house. 

He said he was sad when he saw it. He wishes it looked taken care of. 

I do too. I hate seeing it just sitting there. I loved this house. 

It wasn't my 'dream' house at all... but it was ours. And it was our first home. 

Lots of fun memories flood through my head. 

The top ones would be Rachel learning how to walk, 

Ethan and Rachel being potty trained. 

And of course, Kara came home from the hospital here. 

But there are difficult, sad memories here too. 

Thankfully nothing too terrible. Just typical stresses of life. 

Jason went through several jobs in this home. Each one brought less money in. 

But each one was a fresh reminder that the Lord provides. All the time.

Different life, different time. Felt very weird to see.

****Back in Washington****

these two are 6 months apart in age {Emma just turned 5} and are very good buddies. 

Ethan is a huge football fan. Not sure if I've mentioned that here. 

He loves to watch every game he can. Doesn't matter who's playing. 

And he officially knows more about the game than I do. 

And I know football. 

One night he called my Dad without us knowing, to ask him if he was watching the game. 

We all of the sudden heard him talking to someone 

"Ethan, who are you talking to?!" 

"Oh, I called Papa. The 49'ers are playing and you said its HIS team, 

so I wanted to make sure he was watching it." 

He then gave my Dad play-by-plays of the game. 

So a few weeks later, this sweatshirt came in the mail. 

My Dad told him to wear it around Seattle with pride :) 

About a week after he got this sweat shirt, the 49'ers played Seattle's team, the Seahawks. 

Ethan was so torn. "Who do I root for?! I live by Seattle, but Papa loves the Niners!" 

So he decided he would wear the sweat shirt, but root for the Seahawks. 

I thought it was a fine compromise. 

here the two sillies are at Costco. Rachel was sad that I first only took 

a picture of Ethan. "will you send one to Papa with me in it?" 

Kara shows off her silly bands that she got from her cousins, Madison & Kyle! 

my 2nd visit to California, I drove back to Washington with my sister. 

Here we are driving through Oregon. 

my Nephew Sam climbed the rock wall at our mall.

He was so brave! Ethan still talks about being worried he'd fall and die. 

last week my friend Anna {from CA} went out for the day with 

Rachel and me. We ended the day with frozen yogurt and Rachel got 

the most colorful ice cream I've ever seen.