A toddler Christmas

We had so much fun with Christmas this year, because our twins are finally able to "get" the concept of Santa. We loved telling the stories about Santa and the reindeer, and how they would get presents in the morning, etc. They were very into it, and even loved reciting all of the names of the reindeer. We left cookies out for Santa to eat overnight, and of course, had the fun of showing that only crumbs were left in the morning!

The fun is about to begin here...

Hailey gets new princess shoes with shiny silver stars on them...

Oh, and another pair of princess shoes.... these are bright silver

Drew gets his first set of golf clubs!

Daddy gets a fun new game we just learned about from our friends, the Durrs. (Very fun, if you like word games!)

Hails gets yet another kitty cat stuffed animal! This one is from our dear neighbor, Nana Sue.

Greta isn't quite sure what to make of it all, but she is having fun with all of the sparkling bows and ribbons...

A new princess dress! Complete with "angel wings," as Hailey calls them...

Isn't this the most perfect picture? One of my favorites. Our sweet little princess... golfing! this totally sums up her adventuresome, yet girly personality!!!

We have had beautiful weather, and so we enjoyed a long walk on Xmas. Greg's mom Judy is with us for the week as well, and we are loving both her company and her help!

Nana Sue joined us for the walk ... she is just like part of our family!

New Cousin Raleigh

Our kids have a new cousin... Raleigh Dollarhide! She is the new daughter of Julie and Taylor (Julie is Greg's sister). We are lucky enough to have them visiting us from Denver for the Xmas week. We have had a delightful time, and our kids have enjoyed getting to know little Raleigh! Here is a pic of Greta with her new buddy Raleigh. (Greta at 5 mos, Raleigh at 2 mos.)



Here is a pic of Greg, Taylor, Julie, and Baby Raleigh under the blankie.



On a walk on Xmas day... Yes, the sun does shine in Seattle in December! Here is the view of the Seattle skyline from our neighborhood playground area...

Off to Christmas Eve church...

We love our church; we go to First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue, and it is wonderful. We have developed fantastic friendships there in the last four years, and we really enjoy the pastor. Here we are on Christmas Eve, about to head off to the service. The kids were wonderful and the Christmas Eve service was beautiful... the choir, singing, and candles were delightful. Merry Christmas, all!

First time ice skating..

Hailey is so darn adventurous. There is nothing that she will not try. In fact, she jumps wholeheartedly into things she has never tried before. So, we had a great time taking her ice skating today. She put on these toddler ice skates that strapped to the bottom of her boots, and then we pushed her around the frozen pond for 15 minutes. She loved it! She kept saying "more!!!" And now she wants to do it every day this week while we are at Whistler.

Drew, on the other hand, is NOT very daring. We took a short walk on a frozen lake yesterday, and he cried the whole time! He did not like the ice, and he was certainly not interested in trying on ice skates today!

Here are two quick videos to document the beginning of Hailey's professional ice skating career..

5 months old...

Little Greta is 5 months old today! I cannot believe it! She is now rolling over from front-to-back, as well as back-to-front. She is also scooting across the floor when we lay her down. It won't be long before she is crawling.

Here is a quick video of her, as we are in Whistler this week...

Giggles from Greta

Here are two videos I snapped today showing sweet lil Greta's giggles. She is such a happy baby!!

A Puppet Theatre!!

My dad Kirby and my stepmom Katie have been in town from Minnesota for the last several days. We always celebrate Christmas with them in early December, and we had a great time this year, like usual. The highlight of the weekend is, of course, opening all of the gifts! The twins kept saying "open presents" every few hours for several days. Well, the wait was worth it, because their best gift from Grandpa and Mimi Kate was a new Puppet Theatre! Check out how beautiful these puppets are! All day today the kids played with it, and even went to bed tonight saying "more puppet show!! after Mommy and Daddy (and Nanny) had performed all day.

For any of you who are planning to visit us over Xmas, be prepared with your own Puppet Show script, because you will be drafted into a performance. (I promise!!)

p.s. this set is from Restoration Hardware for anyone looking for an xmas gift idea! The puppets are absolutely beautiful, and the theater has a black curtain. Very cute!

For the love of CARS

If you know Andrew at all, then you will know of his undying love for CARS. He is addicted to them, and plays with them all of the time. They appear in every nook and cranny in our house, and he can tell you who gave him each one, and what make and model it is. Below is a picture of his "car area" right by the window in our sunroom. He can literally stand here for hours playing with the cars. He drives them, lines them up, spins them up-side-down, crashes them, and does pretty much anything else with them.

Also, over the last 6 months, he has developed an amazing skill related to cars: he can name ANY kind of car he sees on the street. He has literally memorized every brand logo and emblem that shows on a car. He walks down the road and yells out "Audi car, Ford car, Chevy truck, Acura car, Beemer car, Toyota car, Volvo car" for every one he sees. It is amazing!! He is always asking "what kind is it?" if he sees a new car he doesn't know. Yesterday he learned Land Rover and Infiniti, so now he has those figured out.

The twins turn 2.5 years old tomorrow, so I think this is a pretty amazing skill for a boy this young! Come see it for yourself!

Early holiday festivities

Around here, we are full into holiday celebrations. Last week we went to visit the REINDEER and go to a holiday lighting celebration. We thought it would be fun, since they had a small train the kids could ride, and there were going to be real, live reindeer there.

Well, it was way OVERRATED! There were only 2 reindeer (Dasher and Dancer)... um, what about all of the others? And they were so sorry looking, with only little stubs of antlers! Sorry, kids! Oh, and we rode the train, which included riding in a cloud of exhaust smoke. And well, the kids were just plain tired that day, so they cried riding the train. Oh, well!

Here I am with my dear friend Sally and her son, Luke. They, too, fell prey to the great marketing, and decided to come along. We were all there for a grand total of 30 minutes!

Notice the big tears in Andrew's eyes!

Isn't this the sorriest looking reindeer you have ever seen?

On a lighter note, we did go buy our Xmas tree the day before Thanksgiving. Would you believe we were the first ones to buy a tree at Home Depot? We picked the best one, and it cost us a mere $19.97! Gotta love living in the Evergreen State!

Greta helps with the lights...

A Gingerbread house...

The kids are at a delightful age where "activities" are so fun for them. This is one of my favorite things to do with them, and I try to find a special activity to do almost every day (which is hard!). Anyway, a few days ago, we made a gingerbread house - it was great! Greg did the hard work, and the rest of us got to put the candy on. Hailey, who is our candy freak, was sneaking little bites all day long. And Daddy, who has a soft spot in his heart for Hailey's big brown eyes, was sneaking her candy off the house even after it was built!

Nana and Charlie visit!

My mom (Nana) and my stepdad Charlie were in town all of last week for Thanksgiving. It was a wonderful week, despite a wee bit of rain! They spoiled the kids rotten, and played lots of activities with them.

Charlie was especially good at making animals out of play-doh! I think he is a child himself still?

We love you, Nana and Grandpa Charlie!

Conversations heard 'round here...

A few recent conversations heard 'round here:

Mommy: Andrew, what do you want for breakfast?
Drew: Cupcakes!
Mommy: Um, well, we probably should have something else. What else do you want for breakfast?
Drew: Dinner!

Mommy: Hailey, do you want to go on a special trip to get ice cream with mommy?
Hailey: Yes. Naked.

Mommy: Do you want to go and see the reindeer tomorrow? Do you know that the reindeer all pull Santa's sleigh? Then they fly in the sky, and stop at our house. Then Santa comes down the chimney to bring presents to all of us. Reindeer are a big part of Christmas.
Hailey: Sounds good.

Today Hailey was looking through our Picture Bible, looking for all of the stories she knows, and she said, ".... I see Noah's Ark..... where is Itsy Bitsty Spider?" Ha!

Also, the kids don't usually say the letter "S" when it starts a word. (It is the last sound that is developed in their vocabularly.) So, Greg and I often laugh because certain words sound so funny. Here are a few:
- "Twinkle, twinkle little tar"
- Around Halloween, we saw lots of houses with 'Pider Webs in the window.
- tonight, Drew said to Hailey "No 'creaming, Hailey"

Our kids make us laugh all of the time.

To Minnesota with Greta...

This last week I went to Minnesota with Greta to visit my family there. I have such a wonderful family, and it makes me sad that I am raising my kids 1000 miles away from them, so it is a big priority for me to visit and see them as much as I can! I wanted my extended family to meet Greta before she grows up too much!

My mom and stepdad Charlie spoiled us rotten, and we loved it. Mom threw a luncheon for her friends, so that they could all meet the new grandbaby. It was lovely, and fun for everyone.

Greta was a champ on both of the flights - charming the stewardesses, and luckily, not crying at all. She is such an easy delightful baby, and I am so grateful everyone got to meet her. As for me, I enjoyed my time in MN because I only had ONE baby to worry about! I got in some good running time in the sunshine, had some long enjoyable meals, and did a shopping trip to the Mall of America (where there is no sales tax!).

On my dad's side, we had a big dinner one night with the aunt/uncle/cousins/stepsiblings. It was a wonderful evening, and Greta was passed around all evening. She did great! Also, dad and I had a special 1:1 lunch one day, which was a treat!

My stepbrother Matt and his wife Robyn had fun holding Greta. Greta fell right asleep in Robyn's lap!

And while Greta and I were away, Greg's mom Judy came to town to visit! Yea - Greg loved the extra help around here. She even brought the yummy gingerbread recipe and made cookies with the twins. Here they are learning how to use the cookie cutter...

After Greta got home... she was so happy to see BroBro, Sister, and Dada...