in the days before christmas

all through grandma's house,

more cookies were baking,

Emma even helped out.

Carols were sung,
treats delivered with care
in the hopes that more aunts and uncles soon would be there.

the children got nestled, all ready for bed
for we had already dressed up, with the silly hats on our heads
but after being animals & angels and all dress up in our caps
it was hard to settle down from dancing for our long winter's nap

but an hour after bedtime the doorbell rang with a clatter

we stopped setting up dollhouses to see what was the matter

But what to our wondering eyes should appear,
But St. Nick & his wife, all dressed in their gear.

The camera was enchanted, lively & quick
and even caught on film the cookie-eating St. Nick.
Then the stage was all set for the magical show,
all we missed Christmas morning was a covering of snow.
but that didn't matter as children discovered their loot
they were full of joy & surprise from head to foot

the bundle of toys finally all came upwrapped
we even all jumped in the pile, uncle Steven is on his back.

But just when the presents we thought reached the end
we went to the other grandparents' to do it again.


Their eyes--how they twinkled, their dimples how merry!
girls in matching outfits are as cute as a cherry.

And now as the holidays have flown out of sight,
I wish you all a happy new year and to all a good-night.

christmas festivities

This being that fun fabulous time of year, we've tried to take full advantage of all the fun the season has to offer.
We've enjoyed some traditions for the 3rd or 4th time and we also did a lot of new things this year and loved it all.

Michael and I took Riley to the Nutcracker ballet and she LOVED it. We met up with the Wilsons and sat in the nosebleed seats, but it was lots of fun.

That night we had our annual trip to see the Garden D'Lights with my family and my sister's in-laws. We had quite a crew.
The lights were fabulous, my pictures sub-par (I had the wrong lens on the camera).

I love this tradition.
In our 3 years in Seattle we have never ridden the Monorail - how is that? Michael nor I in all of our trips to Seattle since childhood had ever done this. We were all pretty excited, even waiting for the train.
the only picture actually on the train -- Riley was happy to be there.
So we rode the Monorail downtown to see the themed Gingerbread houses in the Sheraton. We've been meaning to see them each Christmas, but finally made it this year and weren't disappointed, except with the line you have to wait in for 30 minutes. It was worth it. This was our favorite, the theme this year was "a Reel Christmas."
Can you believe this is made from materials 100% edible? And the detail was amazing. It was obviously based on the movie, A Christmas Story, so there is even the character with his tongue stuck to the flagpole and you can even look in the window of one of the houses and see the leg lamp inside. I was impressed.

We did Snowflake Lane in Bellevue, with live drummers in unison and all sorts of winter christmas characters dancing to carols admist fake falling snow. Too bad it was raining (the camera didn't make it out), but we love doing it every year. Free, fun, festive.

The most anticpated event this year was the Santa Train, another first. The girls asked every day for about 20 days - are we going on the Santa train today? You get to ride an old-fashioned train to 'Santa's village', take pics, eat hot chocolate and cookies, explore other old trains. They definitely enjoyed the train ride the best. Emma was of course scared of Santa, but oh well. Riley's an old pro.

Another first, was the Christmas ship festival with some friends and that was fun, despite a little rain, thus no pictures. But there were at least 20 boats and the lead boat has a live choir put on a show over loud speakers. It was awesome, better than expected.

And finally, Christmas cookies with grandpa. Such a wonderful traditionEmma even helped a little!
we made a lovely mess
and lots of yummy cookies, "with 3 layer sprinkles" according to Riley.

The girls are at such a fun age to enjoy all the festivities. Between their fits, they've been good as gold and singing christmas carols. I love hearing Emma breaking out in Jingle Bells, she won't do it for an audience but hopefully I can video tape it soon. Riley wakes up each morning this month and moves along all the advent calendars & checks in with the nativity "it has to look just right for Santa to come."

Merry Christmas!!

It's official

we make girls in this family.

I haven't really officially announced this pregnancy yet over the world wide web until now, but if you've seen me lately, it is a little hard to miss.
Today was the ultrasound appointment and we got to see another darling girl growing. We can't wait for her to join our family. Just wanted to share the news.

In May, we will be the proud parents of 3 little girls, what fun! We make beautiful girls, apparently.

"At least we're pretty sure it's a girl," or at least that what the ultrasound tech said. There was no showing of any other anatomy between her legs. She wasn't cooperating and moving as much as they needed to see everything, so they might want to take another peek again later.

Halloween past

I know Halloween is was a long time ago, but I couldn't pass up sharing these cute pictures.

We spent Halloween in Bend, Oregon with lots of Mike's family. There was a lot of his cousins that my girls adore and they had a blast. They got to trick-or-treat in a real neighbor with a big group of kids and really got into it. Riley ran off with the big kids and Emma tried and then Grandpa carried her most of the night, but she went to every door and scored lots of candy. She was such a darling doggie. Riley had a blast being Jesse from Toy Story. She had these great red boots. It was fun to make her costume (thanks for the help Ron and Karen). Thanks to all the extended family for a fabulous get together. We loved catching up with you all.

Emma turned TWO!

We were soo lucky to have both sets of grandparents join us for the weekend to celebrate Emma's big day. We started out Emma's birthday celebrations at the Pacific Science Center

& even played at the Center Fountain. We had blast playing with everything!!

After a nice nap and dinner, she had plenty of presents

she had a blast dressing up as we worked through all the fun gifts!

candles

and cake

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Emma has gotten so big and grown up. She is just a little chatter box and has a large vocabulary for a 2 year old. She loves to dress up and dance (obviously). She has given up the pacifier completely and loves to play with big sister, Riley. She is very independent and adventuresome and we just love her to pieces!

baby boy

I'm an aunt!! My sister had a baby boy last month and he is darling.

Kind of a big deal. This is the first boy for two generations on my side of the family. I can't wait to watch him grow.

My girls are estatic to have a cousin!! Baby Isaac!!
Good job, Monica and Nate!!

Fall Fun

September and October have been loads of fun. Mike was off of school most of September so we had some time to travel. We went to home to visit our families.

Riley worked on this

She almost has it mastered without training wheels but will only do it on the grass.My parents finished their beautiful home, which won most of the prizes in the builder's tour of homes.

with this fun play house out back. (my girls are in heaven!)

There was plenty dancing

and dressing up (these are aunt Morgan's old dance costumes)

My friend Gretchen joined us for a weekend and we went to the fair. Gotta love the corn on the cob!

the girls loved the rides! I can't believe Emma was old enough for a few of them!

I didn't get any pictures of the mutton-bustin' that we watched but it was the highlight of the day. Too bad Riley didn't want to do it. How cool would that have been?!


Then Riley had her first day of preschool. This year she goes 5 days/week.
She even gets to ride a little bus to school. So cute & convenient!!

Then we did one of my favorite fall outings: the pumpkin patch! prime picture taking opportunities (I'm saving the better ones for my Christmas card).

Our lovely pumpkins!

We went to Remlinger farms for the first time and it was awesome. We could've spent all day there. Riley's favorite was the hay-jump.

Emma LOVED the pony rides!!

Finally our prize-winning carved pumpkin.

Had a hard time finding a great pattern this year. Still looking for one to carve pumpkin #2.
Hope you are enjoying autumn as much as we are!