Fence at Grandpa's House

Brian just finished the fence at Grandpa's house. Now the kids can play without escaping! Good job Brian! You are soooo talented.
Great-Grandpa Jim and Camden take a moment to pose for me. A couple of studs!

Happy 80th Birthday Grandma Nancy

Grandma Nancy, you ROCK! Gotta love family photos!

Singing the Birthday Song...

Hide and Seek with Auntie Marian & Julia!!














Grandkids & great-grandkids! It was hard to get the little kids to sit still for anything! They kept running around all night long.













Dinner with the kids is always a challenge!
Then - CAKE! Make a WISH Grandma! Love You! Everyone was there to celebrate. Even Aunt Jan from Virginia. I made a slide show and dad gave a speech and read a poem with Ed, Jan and Eileen. Then, we took so many family pictures, it might make your head spin. Taylor ate sunscreen, licked the rain off of the deck chairs with cousin Kylie, played hide-and-seek, piano, stole all of the fruit off of the table and watched Dora.Cam watched the slide show with all of us and pointed to himself in every photo.

It rained REALLY hard so we were like a bunch of sardines in my parent's house. It was still a lot of fun - hectic at times, but fun.

Getting Comfortable

As many of you may know, we moved into Brian's Grandpa's duplex back in May. We love University Place. Very peaceful. We have a few deer and a rabbit family that we see every morning. It was by far the best decision for our family. We are now officially landlords for our house in the North End. Shane was able to find us the perfect renters - a good friend's parents. Totally a God thing! Perfect timing.

On the home-front...Brian just finished building us a 5 ft. wooden fence and it looks so nice. The kids needed a safe place to play. There is still a lot of clean up and landscaping to do, but we'll get there. Grandpa's property is on a holly orchard with over 60 holly trees. (BTW - You can contact us during Christmas if you want some holly). It's like living at the park! Someday I hope to have the opportunity to entertain friends and family here. For now, as we settle in, I have to be patient! It's a work in progress. Don't get offended if I hesitate to invite you over this year.

On the job-front...Brian is still a volunteer firefighter for Brown's Point. He keeps passing all of his tests so we'll see what happens! We are open to God's plan. When one door opens, another door may begin to close. We adapt to the revolving doors in life.

All I know is that right now, we're here. Brian stays home with the kids, I am working at UPPC (which is a one minute commute), we are happy, blessed and surrounded by family. My mom watches the kids on Wednesdays (Thanks Mom!) For fun, we go upstairs to see Grandpa Jim and Grandpa Brent all the time. It's interesting to share a duplex with all of the Archer men! I am enjoying myself. We have 4 generations living under one roof. That is record breaking! Taylor and I are the only girls. Brian keeps up the house/yard and that is more than Great-Grandpa Jim could ask for right now. He is so glad we are living with him. So am I. Just the fact that we now have 4 bedrooms is a miracle in itself! Praise God! I don't miss living in 700 sf.

Until next time...

Nancy

Birthday's and Bloopers

So ...here it goes. My second attempt to start a blog. Why not start in the Summer...when there is so much going on! Last time I failed at my blog attempt. Now - thanks to my friend Sarah, I will try it again. She says it's necessary. So I guess I'll give you all something to gossip about - just kidding! No really! I have a great story from motherland. Last week was my mother-in-law's 50th birthday. A fabulous dinner with new cousin Grace and the rest of the family. Candles, cake, kids, smashed strawberries and too much whipped cream, beautiful photos of shiny faced babies... You know how it is. A great day all the way around. So I pile the kids in the car to drive the home (which is two blocks away) we cart everything to the door, get settled, brush teeth, wash faces...then...out of nowhere...Taylor comes rushing into the bathroom covered in DOG POO! Yes, of all things - head to toe covered in doggie unmentionables. Camden had the same problem. On their shoes, in their hair, all over the carpet and on the toys. Since Cam likes to dance on tables - poopie footprints were on the table too. I have to admit I lost my self control. Normally, I am a very calm person. Not that night. I lost everything that was calm about me and flew off the handle. Somehow, I managed to get poo on my own shoes as well. We had just given one of our dogs away that morning and I was sure the other remaining dog (JACK) was upset at her departure. He was probably confused at the whereabouts of his best friend, Ally. So what did I do? I threw the kids in the bath, threw the dog outside, threw-up (just kidding about that part) then I cleaned up. When Brian walked in the door, I gave him what might have been the worst look I have ever given him. But I am telling you, I am never this mad. I am normally so put together! What was I thinking! Luckily, most of it got on the accent rug - which was a gift from my in-laws. So that got tossed in the washing machine along with all the toys and books. I tell you, having dogs and kids together is quite interesting. Dogs are kids themselves - with attitudes all their own. Jack thinks he is human and he jumps on the table to finish what the kids leave behind (which is one thing I don't mind, due to the fact that I might eat the scraps and gain weight if he didn't get to them first.) He is a couch potatoe, a daddy's boy, a man's man, and a hairy beast. We've had him about 8 years and they have been very adventurous years to say the least. Now that we're down to one dog again (Ally went to live with my mom's friend Colleen) you would think life would get a lot more peaceful. Sigh...my mom-in-law (Gina) has a quote on her wall that says: "Is a dull moment too much to ask for?" - Something like that. That's life! It's a fabulously crazy, never-know-what-to-expect, learn-something-new-everyday kind of life. I love every minute of it...right down to the not-so-fun lessons learned! Life lesson of the day? Never trust a dog.

Phew...or should I say P.U.

Until next time...
- Nancy

Happy Halloween

I can't wait to see Taylor in her Minnie Mouse costume and Camden in his Winnie the Pooh costume. Although, since we bought his costume last month, his arms and legs are already sticking way out and it looks like we are trying to squeeze a toddler into a newborn outfit. It's very silly. I will post pictures soon.

A Day at the Beach

Yesterday we had so much fun! We took our family to Anderson Island by boat. My parents own a Larson and our family has property on Anderson. The water was beautiful and the kids enjoyed the boat ride. Camden had a huge smile on his face. Taylor loved throwing rocks and swimming in the Puget Sound. The seaweed didn't bother her at all. We even managed to get Cam to sit in the water with her! I am a little sun-burned today and wishing I was still sitting on the beach. It was one of those moments where you wish it would last forever.