A birthday for Ruby

4 years ago, we were lucky enough to welcome Ruby Jeanne into our family. She has grown into a very independent, artistic, and smart little girl. A few months ago I let her pick a movie out on Netflix to watch. She chose a documentary on giant colossal squid! From then on, she has been in love with squid and always wants to hear stories of colossal squid being captured. So it was only appropriate to have a squid party!
        We made a squid piñata, and Jeremy even piped a squid on her cake! It was pretty impressive considering he had never done it before :-) And since it was my 26th birthday the same day as the party, we included little bits of things for the adults like a big pitcher of Jeremy's refreshing take on a whiskey ginger, mini roasted vegetable galettes, mini fruit galettes, and a giant cookie made by my mom, which brought back a lot old memories!
         Sunday my sister in-law gave me the gift of watching the kids ALL DAY, while Jeremy and I went out. We ate a delicious lunch at The Sexton and I also went and got a tattoo for my gift from Jeremy. Overall it was an amazing weekend with family and friends and I look forward to celebrating another birthday with my Ruby!

The day of her official birthday...getting ready to open the present from mommy and daddy!

She got a scooter and purple helmet!

Like the big pile of trees we cut down recently in the yard, pretty huh? (j/k)

two arrows, a ruby at the end for Ruby, and the other in the shape of a shepherds staff for Sheppy.

pause button

It is amazing to see how fast Ruby and Shepherd have grown in these past 6 months. Shepherd has experienced his first haircut, which he still talks about and is constantly rubbing his head saying "hair cut, cut." I think he misses his long hair (so do I!) Ruby has become quite the artist these days. I always find her at the table drawing just about everything, although her favorite thing to draw are princesses, obviously! The other day we experimented with making plant prints. I let her go in the backyard on her own to gather different plants and flowers. She put them between two pieces of paper and hammered away. She also tried to do it with rocks, and for some reason they didn't transfer so well on the paper :-) She did however make some holes from hammering them so much!

I wish there was a pause button for certain days in their childhood...seeing them grow up sure is bittersweet.

 

 

The never ending demo...

As we enter into spring, we are preparing to replace all of our windows! We scored 16 matching windows at The ReStore in Ballard for $20 each. I am eager to see the drastic change it is going to make to our house, inside and out. The inside of the house is on a bit of a standstill though. As the clear days become a bit more consistent, we've been doing a lot of demo in the yard. Our backyard is now without a pond, a bridge, and 4 trees. We have also accumulated piles of brick and granite rock from digging up the pond. Did I mention the pond is GONE?!!! I am very excited to see a huge dirt pit instead of a dirty, overgrown, dangerous pond. Our plan is level out the ground and build a wood platform where the pond used to be. But for now the only word in our remodeling vocabulary is demolition.
      To satisfy my desire to fix up the inside of the house, I've been rearranging, organizing, and sewing some things for the house. Since we don't have a basement or garage to store things, I've managed to use every bit of space until we can get proper storage built in the house. The other night, Jeremy and I were discussing our kitchen remodel ideas, which included knocking out walls, rearranging the cabinets, new flooring, etc. Ruby decided to chime in and tell us, "I like the house just the way it is mom. You don't need to change anything!" It is nice to hear a child's perspective on the topic. I love that she is comfortable here, and it feels like home to her. We are so thankful to have this house that provides our family with shelter and comfort and we are blessed that God gave us a creative outlook on life and we can use our house to express who we are and what we love to do.

 

 

 

 

 

Clarence Cook on the rise

For the last couple months Jeremy has been working on a custom built stereo cabinet for a client. Today was the anticipated drop-off day. Before we left, there were some much needed pictures to be taken, a constant echo of warnings to the kids about NOT whacking the piece with a toy, and there were nerves up to our necks (mainly Jeremy's) as we approached their house. Thankfully, they absolutely loved it and all was well. I am proud of what he has accomplished and I am eagerly anticipating what is next for his future furniture building.
     (more to come about Clarence Cook)...Oh and he even made them a stool (seen in last picture) as a thank you gift for letting him build this for them. How awesome is that!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

bits of progress

  A whole lot of side work has been going on in the Hanson household lately. Side work for other people, that is. Jeremy has been very busy making furniture for clients on the side, so we mostly have been doing little jobs here and there on the house. We've got all new water lines (yeah!), drained both ponds out, demoed the small pond, cut two backyard trees down, and discovered a brick patio underneath a layer of grass. That has been my project this past weekend. I got to tell you, it has been very satisfying to unveil something that has been hidden. All I need to do now is fill in the empty sections where the small pond used to be.

    I am so grateful for such a large backyard where our kids can explore, discovering new bugs, get covered in mud and see where their imagination takes them. Ruby has been going through Jeremy's scrap wood piles to create things like fishing poles, a bridge, slides, and much more. Now if it could just be sunny everyday, I could get things done a lot quicker!



the two spots where the pond was

Ruby's bridge

this whole patio was once covered with grass

a small section of everything we have been digging up and cutting down

the beach

 

      

Anytime the sun is out in Seattle the streets get crowded, parks are swarming with kids, and we can't help but join the mess because we don't get many days like it in the winter. A week or two ago we ventured to Carkeek park. Ruby was very hesitant to cross the bridge to the beach, but she made it in one piece (I had to carry her). They threw countless rocks in the water, dug plenty of holes, and even made sand angels. As you can see by the pictures it wasn't exactly warm at the beach, but who notices the temperature when you're having fun, right? brrrrrr!