Growin' up

Last night and I am counting down the hours until she gets home from her extended stay and Grandma and Grandpa's house! This is the longest I've been away from her and I can't stand it, I miss her so much. It does make me feel a bit better that each time I have talked to her she is cheerful and has an excitement about her voice that reassures me that she is having a great time with her Grandma, Grandpa and cousins. It even snowed there yesterday, about 3 inches and she has had the best time enjoying that. So, I only have about 16 hours left to go and I don't think I'll be letting her out of my site for awhile, weather she likes it or not :-)

Christmas recap....

First off I just have to say this was by far the best Christmas I've had in a long time, and I'm sad to see it come and go so fast! It was such a special time for the kids and I loved all the time we got to spend together as a family!

Christmas eve the kids and I visited Casey's grandma and took her a little Christmas angel! She's getting pretty old and is pretty sick, but her eyes had a little sparkle in them while she visited with the kids. When Casey got home we went for a early dinner at one of our favorite local places, the Powerhouse. The food was yummy and we had almost the whole place to ourselves (good because the kids tend to be a bit loud these days). Then we drove around and looked at lights, came home opened up a few select gifts and tucked the kids into bed in their new Christmas jammies. After they were in bed I heard Norah telling Nolan to be quite and go to sleep or Santa won't come! SO CUTE!

To say that Christmas day flew by is an understatement, I got home from work around 7:30 and everyone was still asleep, but only for a couple more minutes. I quickly put cinnamon rolls in the oven to bake and got Casey up. My sister then joined us and the kids were now stirring! We enjoyed each other and our gifts! Casey and I had mimosa's and we all enjoyed gooey, warm cinnamon rolls. The kids and I napped and then we headed to my Dad's for dinner. It was fabulous as always and we had a lot of fun watching the kids play and open more gifts.

After a good nights sleep we drove down to Casey's parents to spend some time with them. We arrived to a tree full of presents for the kids and Christmas cookies waiting on the table. We had a yummy dinner and relaxing night. Sunday was spent relaxing and enjoying the company. We headed back Sunday night minus one member of the family. Norah stayed with Casey's parents and cousins, and isn't due home until Thursday. I can admit their were a few tears shed when driving away from the house, and they weren't Norah's they were mine. She's never stayed anywhere by herself for that long. I hope it goes well, but I already miss her and won't be sad if she want's to come home early.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

We hope that everyone enjoyed their Christmas just as much as we did! The anticipation has been building for weeks and today it was finally here. The kids loved every minute of it from waking up and seeing what Santa brought them, to having yummy cookies before bedtime at Papa's house. We are so blessed to have been able to spend this wonderful holiday with our closest family, and there's more, tomorrow we head down to Casey's parents for more Christmas fun!
Merry Christmas everyone!

That's Tasty!

This is how Noley helps me bake cookies for Christmas!

Tree time!

Norah was the 1st to put up an ornament on the tree this year!

She decorated her little heart out.

While Nolan did this....

and this!

Here's the finished product!

And, one of my most favorite ornaments!
*****
We went and cut down our perfect Christmas tree on Saturday morning, but didn't have time to decorate it until yesterday afternoon! It was a very busy, fun weekend. Casey and I got the lights on it while the kids were napping and when they woke up the decorating was on! Norah had the most fun of all of us, she would have done the whole tree by herself if she could have reached. So while her and I decorated, and Casey took pictures, Nolan played in the boxes, ate lots of cheeto puffs and tried to undecorate our tree several times ;-) Once we finished our big tree Norah headed to her and Nolan's room to decorate their small one, what a fun afternoon we had!

The NUTCRACKER

The Nutcracker

Norah with the Nutcracker after the ballet

Norah with her bestie Alissa

Me and my girl!

Yesterday Me and my friend Holly took our the girls to see the Pacific Northwest Ballet's Nutcracker, at Macaw Hall in Seattle. It was so much fun to watch the excitement and anticipation on the girls' faces. The girls did great during the entire performance and it was a great experience for them. Norah says her favorite part was when the Nutcracker and Mouse king fight, and she must have asked me 20 times if the mouse king was real. She might like to dress up and put on momma's makeup, but she's definitely not a girly girl! I think this is going to be a new tradition for me and Norah during the Holidays.

Turkey Day!

Thanksgiving family photo!

We had a fun, low key Thanksgiving at my Dad's house this year! I worked the night before, got home in the morning, finished some food preparations then headed to bed for a "nap". Once the kids and I were up we made our way to my Dad's and had a fabulous Turkey dinner complete with all the fixens and much more. We had enough food to feed twice the people that were there, but there were lots of left overs and none went to waste. We also had more pie than we could ever have eaten in one sitting, but I made sure to sample at least 3 of them! After dinner we played a friendly game of poker, which I won....beginners luck they called it! It was a fun night with my wonderful family that I am so thankful for!
On Friday morning we went down to Casey's parents to have Thanksgiving with them. So on Saturday night we got to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner #2! It was also very good, with good dessert to follow. Sunday Casey's mom and I took the kids shopping, and got pictures with Santa! His mom also got me a massage witch I enjoyed while she looked after the little people, THANKS Jamie. The boys took advantage of us not being around by perusing several different sporting good stores, Casey came home with a new little fishing rod just for backpacking. We had leftovers for dinner then headed for home.

I am so thankful for my family and all the fun memories we are creating for the kids! I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my holiday!!!!

Rain, rain go away......

...but until it does, here's what we've been up to when it's not nice enough to go outside!

* Hot bubble baths

* Baking, Norah is quite the little chef!

* Playing at the indoor play area in the mall

* Lots of coloring and creating, Nolan's even taken a liking to crayons(and not just eating them)!

* Play dates with friends, for the kids and Mommy & Daddy too :-)

* Movie time, what could be better than a snack, juice and a movie after a nice long nap!

30 - 1

Yep, that's how old I turned yesterday!
I had this yummy strawberry swirl cheesecake to help me celebrate.

Happy birthday song and blowing out the candles, the kids loved this but didn't understand why when they pulled the candles out to lick them there was no icing?

Big hugs for Momma on her birthday :)

Norah with my brother and dad. My sister and Casey also helped me celebrate but they didn't manage to get in any of the pictures.

*****
And I'll leave you with this.
Casey said after searching he found the perfect card for me, and this is so him!
Thanks babe, I'm glad I still "got it" !

Halloween Fun !

Here are our pumpkins
Norah designed her and Nolan's(2 on the Left) & I carved them

Superman !

My little heros

Norah helped Nolan at all the houses,
and he followed her like a little puppy dog ;-)

Nolan and his friend Carson takin a little break

Norah and Alissa enjoying some of their Halloween treats!

Costumes at the Patch

Last Saturday we attended a birthday/costume party at the pumpkin patch! It was a great time and we got to try out the kids' costumes, which I absolutely love and am so happy with. The day was perfect with sunny skies, no rain and very little mud. The kids had a yummy brunch, birthday cake, animal sightings, corn mazes, sawdust piles and pumpkin picking. Nolan also had a few minor injuries including a finger nibbling from a piggie, and a bonk in the face from one heavy duty hula hoop. Poor kid had a rough day, prior to these 2 incidents he fell off the bleachers at soccer not five minutes before having to get his head extracted from those same bleachers. He was such a sport and only really cried when his head was wedged in those dang bleachers! Hopefully he'll be accident free for a while, fingers crossed. Norah was the perfect little wonder woman and got to go to her first slumber party that day. She had a blast, with the exception of waking up with a low grade fever that only lasted about 24 hours and was not accompanied by any other symptoms, YAY! We are looking forward to carving pumpkins tomorrow night and going trick-or-treating on Halloween :-)

BUSY

We have been incredibly busy these last couple of weeks, but it's been a good busy! So let's see.... where to start, how about with Norah. She started her first team sport, she's playing soccer! And in turn, I am now a soccer mom ;-) It is absolutely fun and so cute seeing a bunch of little 4 yr. olds chasing around that ball. The kids both have also started swimming again, and it's been a challenge with Nolan to say the least. Norah goes to lessons without me, but I am in the pool with Nolan and he isn't so much into participation, listening to the instructor(or me) or following along these days! All he wants to do is do what he wants, which usually isn't what everyone else is doing! So I will try to be patient, but it's going to be a long swim session with him. He has also started climbing! He climbs out of the crib, on his changing table, on the coffee table, couches....you name it he climbs it! It's been interesting.

Casey and I have both been keeping busy with work! He has been working in Kent now since about June and the commute is not fun. It adds a couple extra hours to his day and with the weather getting worse and it being darker out it's just gonna get worse. He is keeping his options open at work and may look into a job closer to home or pursue the possibility of firefighting(something he's thought of doing on & off over the years). I am going to be adding one extra 12 hour night shift every 2 weeks to my schedule so I can bring in a little more money, it is almost Christmastime ;-) At work I am also going through training to learn how to insert central lines(PICC's) into our tiny babies and am very excited I will get the opportunity to do this! We also went to my 10 yr high school reunion and annual work Halloween party last weekend! I can't believe it's been 10 yrs since HS, it was fun to see old friends and catch up. And, my work Halloween party was the best yet, I already can't wait for next year.

We are headed to the pumpkin patch this weekend so be on the lookout for pictures of that too!

About to dive into his crib!

Uh-oh, oh no(as he says) ~ caught

Even though she's not really into climbing she had to be like Nolan

And wrestling,

they can't get enough of it!

Our latest adventure !

We spent the past weekend at a little cabin just off of Lake Cushman. We went over Saturday morning with my friend Jenny, her boyfriend Matt and her son Dylan, Matt's sister and her little girl also joined us for part of the weekend. We stayed in a little cabin that ended up being kind of cumbersome when you add 5 adults and 4 children, but thankfully the weather was beautiful and we were able to play outside a lot.

Saturday we payed at the nearby park with a great play area for the kids, we went to she beach where the kids played in the mud. We had a yummy dinner and campfire with smores! Sunday we took the kids on a hike. It was Nolan's first time, it was a short hike about a mile of which he got carried about 2/3 of the way. He wanted to walk but the short hike would have ended up taking 2 hours because he was fascinated by all the plants, stumps and leaves! We also let the kids play a little in the lake, it was really warm out by afternoon. We had another yummy dinner then headed for home.

Playing at the playground

After a dip in the lake

"painting" the rocks with mud :-)

Best buddies

Nolan, Norah and Dylan

(click to enlarge)

On our anniversary we......

....were going to do this (hike to High Rock Lookout), but
there were at least 10 cars at the trail head.

So instead we hiked through this,

and this,

and this,

to get to this (Cora Lake, Gifford Pinchot Nat'l Forest)

For our Anniversary we decided to go on a day hike, so we packed up the kids and took them over to my dad's place (thanks dad)! Then we headed up towards Mt. Rainier where we planed on hiking to High Rock Lookout (one of our favorite day hikes). It was TOO crowded though, probably 20 plus people up on the top of the rock didn't sound like fun! So we turned around and drove just a few miles down the road and decided to hike into Cora Lake. The hike was beautiful and we only ran into a few people on the trail. Once we got there we explored the woods around the lake, had a snack and decided to head back(I had to work that night so we didn't have tons of time). Just for fun we did some trail running and ran most of the way back to the car. We stopped at a little cafe in Ashford, got yummy lattes and scones and headed to pick up the kids. It was a such a nice way to spend our 6th wedding anniversary!