sunday in seattle

My little sister, Sharon, who is pretty much one of the greatest people I know, is up in our neck of the woods for Christmas. My bro-in-law’s family lives on nearby Whidbey Island, so for the last few years, coming up to the Pacific Northwest has been a two-for for the Cook family. We got [...]

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hey santa

3 years, 3 Santas. And each one with wonderful memories.
"Starbucks Santa" We missed the chance to head to the mall when Abby was a 4-month-old, so when the Starbucks in our neighborhood hosted Santa and Mrs. Clause, we jumped on it. It turned out that Josh was working that night, and I was still adapting [...]

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a race against…

…mold.
Two nights, we came home from looking at neighborhood Christmas lights to the site of water gushing out of our garage. Josh opened the garage door to find water, literally spraying over the entire area. The cold weather had caused a pipe to burst, and which boxes took the brunt of the explosion? The ones [...]

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day-to-day random pics

Here are some pictures that can’t go un-shown…
Zachary on his hot date. (OK, it was a playdate with precious Nev, and it was only hot cause the fireplace was blaring cause its been SO STINKIN COLD here.)

Abby’s a sucker for big, stuffed teddy bears.

A rare sharing moment for Abby. I’m pretty sure she was taking [...]

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thanksgiving at the kelly home

Since we have been up here, we have spent each Thanksgiving at the home, and table, of Al and Barb. They have generously extended themselves over and over, and have lent us their family for a day when one can tend to long for their own. Sadly, I am still craving the yummy goodness that [...]

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leaving home to go home

While life has been especially busy lately, I think I have been subconsciously avoiding posting about our big news . . . we’re moving back to Camarillo, CA! Josh blogged about it yesterday, thinking full-well that I had already mentioned it to our readers. Well, I haven’t, so I’ve gotten a number of "what the’s?!?!" [...]

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pathetic papa

Pathetic, huh?
Yeah, I know.  So, right now I’m sitting at a Starbucks in Camarillo, CA scouring Craigslist for possible locations for us to live, and all I can think about is Erin and the kids back in Washington.
I can’t believe that we will be moving back here in less than one month.  That last sentence [...]

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just because…

We are blessed to have a number of incredibly generous and thoughtful people in our life. You know, the kind that remembers special dates, sends notes of encouragement, and randomly gives items that they think we might have a need for. Truly, we are so blessed.
Last week, a friend gave me a gift. She [...]

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just ducky

The Smiths were visiting on our last family day, and treated the Williams family to a longstanding, Seattle tourist tradition . . . a ride on The Duck! This tour brings you to some of the major attractions of the city, and then paddles its way into Lake Union. Josh and I did the tour [...]

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pajama party

We had some Hoosiers come over to our house to enjoy the Colts game the other night. It was a wonderful evening. The game was great, the Smith family made an incredible meal, and the Culvers came with Hazel, a friend from Abby’s childhood . Abby and Hazel were born a week apart [...]

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