Super Cute!!!

Look at this super cute picture of Sissy and Clarabelle that Mom just sent us! So cute! Can't wait to go home and see the fam in MN in June, YAY! And Clarabelle will have a new little sister in just a few weeks, so we'll get to meet her, too :) Claire looks so much like Ashley did as a toddler, but she also looks a lot like Blake, which is kind of funny that she can look so much like both of them at the same time--she gets her cuteness from her favorite Auntie though, he he (here is where Ashley would say "oh, you must mean Auntie Chelsea" :P ). Love those pigtails and pearls!!!

Chels and I had a pretty good weekend. On Saturday morning, I helped cousins Claire & Sean move. The family was there, and Chels was there in spirit (you know, not being able to lift anything isn't conducive to moving...). Chels got to see their cute new house today, love it! They moved out of an apartment into a cute little house that's closer to us, too :)

Then on Saturday night we went out for drinks with some friends we haven't seen in quite awhile. We had a fun time! It was nice for us to spend some time with our friends and get out of the house and get Chelsea's mind off her pain for a while. We met with our friends Danny & Alex, Erin, and Karen, here are some fun pics of us:

Here we are at Danny & Alex's wedding a few years ago, they are so cute! Danny, Erin, Karen, and I all worked at Crate together back in the day and went to school together at UW.

This is a hilarious picture of Erin, Karen, and me, from sometime after college? Ha ha, look at those poses. Good times!

Sunday was a pretty lazy day, especially for Kitten! Look at that little lazy-bones:

"Helping" with the laundry

Stretching on my lap after her hard day of napping

Keeping her mom cozy on the sofa

Look at that arm hanging over the side, so funny!

We had a pretty good weekend :) Chelsea is getting another spinal injection this week, so we're hoping that will help even more and get her closer to being pain-free. We'll keep you posted!

It's a Beautiful, Sunny Day in Seattle!

Spring is here! We had a beautiful, sunny day today in Seattle, a great summer preview, woo-hoo! Had lunch outside today, walked home in my t-shirt, ahhhh today was a good day :) The only thing I regret is not wearing contacts today so I could wear some sunglasses... And even more that my darling wife was at home sick today and not able to enjoy the nice weather, boo! Chels kept busy though. She's making something precious for our new little niece Delilah (I can't tell what it is or it would ruin the surprise!) who is due on April 11th. We get to meet her in June when we go home to visit my side of the family, YAY! I talked to Mama on the phone yesterday and Clarabelle was singing me a little song--it's so cute to hear her say her new little sister's name. Her new thing is to say "no way!" and it's so cute in her tiny little voice! :) Love it!

We had fun last weekend with the family. Aunt Cathy & Uncle Sandy's 30th wedding anniversary is this week and they had a party last Sunday afternoon to celebrate. We got to see a bunch of family friends and catch up which was nice. We also got to look at their wedding album and see all the fun pictures, everyone was so young! Cute baby Steph was there with her precious chubby cheeks, ha ha :) Couldn't believe how much cousin Joe looks like Uncle John, it looked like Joe in the album! Claire said she is excited to look back at our wedding album in 30 years...that will be interesting and funny, I'm sure.

We've got a pretty busy week this week, lots of fun things scheduled with friends which will be nice, and Chels is hanging in there so we're doing alright :) Bye!

Spring is Almost Here!

I am always happy when daylight savings comes around in the spring--losing an hour of sleep isn't that big of deal anymore now that I have weekends off, and I love when the daylight hours are longer. In Seattle during the winter months, you wake up and it's dark, and when you leave work at 5, it's already dark. Talk about living in a cave! So when it finally starts to stay light out for a few hours after you get home, you feel like you actually have half the day off and some time for yourself to do whatever you want to do. YAY!

It's been a few weeks since the last post. Here's what we've been up to: Chels' brother Andrew came for a visit the weekend after my birthday. He's interviewing at grad schools and had an interview up here at UW. It was fun to see him and it would be super fun if he & his girlfriend Rachel moved up to Seattle! :) But we'll see, I think he has other favorite schools in mind... Chelsea's parents were visiting last weekend and they got a chance to see some of the Seattle neighborhoods Chels and I like and are looking at homes in. We even went to a few open houses on Sunday. It was nice to be able to walk through the houses with them, instead of Barry & Cindy having to rely on our photography skills to get a good sense of the places we've seen. Aunt Cathy & Uncle Sandy had us all over for family dinner on Saturday night--we had a lot of fun and a nice visit with her parents.

As far as Chelsea's back issues, she's still having back pain as well as sciatic nerve pain in her legs. She had a spinal injection last Monday that has helped relieve her back pain temporarily, but she is still having leg pain and corresponding difficulty getting around. Chelsea was brave and tried acupuncture a few weeks ago and has had a few appointments a week since then, but so far hasn't noticed a huge positive impact from that treatment. We'll see... She hasn't had to use the walker over the past week, so that's good! Thanks for everyone's support, we appreciate it!

Last night we made a delicious dinner: mahi-mahi fish tacos! The recipe is from "Cooking Light" and you can find it here: http://bit.ly/g9Lnq8. Delicious! We substituted tilapia for mahi-mahi because the grocery store we were at didn't have tilapia, but I'm sure either would be great! Today we are going to play with two sweet cats Chelsea is sitting for, Jake & Zane, and then go to an open house. And make Cindy's tortilla soup for dinner tonight, yum!

Goodbye to my sweet Uncle Rodney, who passed this week after a courageous battle with Lou Gehrig's disease. We love you and you will be missed!