Christmas in the Northwest

We were so blessed and excited to be able to spend Christmas (and the week leading up to it) out in Seattle with my family. Countless pictures were taken, so I've done my best to narrow it down here.

Our first morning there (this may have been midday...we were a bit sleepy), Will enjoyed playing with Grandma and Uncle Josh under the enormous Christmas tree. I woke up that morning with what seemed like double pink eye and strep throat, but turned out to be a crazy virus. It slowed our pace, in a good way, and it was nice to be able to rest when I needed to.

Uncle Josh is so amazing with our kids - they all had so much fun with him.

One of the major incentives for making this trip was being able to meet our precious nephew, Baby S. He's adorable.

We enjoyed many slow PJ mornings.

Andrew

Happy Will

Relaxed Mom

One of many meals with the cousins - a small portion of the huge tree in the background (sadly, we never took a pic of the whole tree).

Will hangin with his newest cousin.
b

A must stop at one of our favorite coffee shops - Victors.

We met up with Bryant and Ann - dear YCF friends from DC, now living in CA, who were visiting family in Seattle.

They were roasting their own coffee.

That night we went downtown, had dinner in Westlake Center, and rode the monorail to the Space Needle.

Will loves his Uncle.

Andrew and Caden were beyond excited. A major highlight was having the chance to blow the train whistle before it took off.

There's no one like Grandma Kathy :).

At the base of the Space Needle.

Riding the carousel back at Westlake.

A quick family shot.

On Thursday we headed up North to see Great Grandma Dot.

We then stopped at this little country cafe in my parent's tiny hometown for lunch.

We were very surprised (and excited) to see Santa walk in. He apparently LOVES bacon.

Enjoying milkshakes with Grandma Kathy.

We loved meeting up with my cousin Steve, and two of his boys. On the table you can see remnants of my meal. I ordered an omelet with a side of two pancakes, completing forgetting that one of their pancakes in the size of the large oval plate. Wow.

Next we ventured North a little further to visit with my cousin Barb, and her family. She has elves every Christmas who throw presents out her bedroom door. Here, Andrew is waiting excitedly for the elves to throw the next present.

This year the elves threw out makings for these fun treats. Sugar cones, frosting, and marshmallows/candy/cereal for decorating. Such a fun, easy Christmas activity.

Andrew with his creation.

Their beautiful view.

Cousin Haylie playing with Will.

The next morning (Christmas Eve day) my dear friend Tiffany came over with her two boys. Will had fun playing with Baby O.

These three had a blast.

Christmas Eve Uncle Chris and Aunt Julie Anne had us over to their place for a delicious turkey dinner. Uncle Chris made a birthday cake for Jesus :).

The pre-present excitement.

Will, sporting his new ride.

Caden wearing his cousin's work goggles - awesome.

Grandma and Grandpa with their six grandsons.

Christmas morning, Stocking time.

Christmas morning.......

they took may prisoners.

Will with Grandpa Jack

Later that day, dear friends joined us for dinner. Will liked Sandy (who doesn't).

At the end of the day, my three sons.

Wow, Will is orange :)....much more so in pictures.

Dinner with the cousins one last time.

Reading Tickle Monster before bed with Grandma Kathy.

Meeting up with one of my oldest, dearest friends for drinks/dessert.

An extremely delicious breakfast at Salish lodge with my husband - a sweet Christmas present from Chris and Julie Anne. We savoured every moment.

The lodge overlooks Snoqualmie falls.

All in all, a wonderfully fun, relaxing trip. We are so grateful!

Mid-December

We had a busy few weeks leading up to our departure for Seattle on December 17th - in addition to our normal nuttiness, there were many fun Christmas parties, making and delivering goodies and gifts to neighbors, teachers, and friends, and preparing to be away for over a week. I forgot to pack our cord for downloading pictures - so here's a brief catch up.

Dave sported a mustache for a few days at the beginning of the month. It was a nice look ;).

Pink eye hit about a week before we left. We all had the pleasure of experiencing various extremes of it.

The weather was suddenly cooold, so the moon bounce became our "got to" for burning late afternoon energy. This was Will's first experience. The boys had fun getting it ready for him.

The YCF Christmas party the night before we left. We had about an inch of snowfall that afternoon, which made for a perfectly cozy night. Several sweet folks were nice to help clean up so we could be ready for our 6:30am airport departure the next morning.

We love these people :).

a little bit of precious

Will's Birthday Party

We had a fun little family birthday party for Will on Sunday. I tried a new chilli recipe (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beef-and-Bean-Chili-107079m - made it up on Saturday, put it in the crockpot Sunday AM with some beer to keep it moist), cornbread, veggies, pitta chips/hummus, fruit, hot apple cider, and chicken nuggets for the kids.

Bright, happy cupcakes, for our bright, happy boy. In honor of his first official word ("dog"), we made cupcake toppers.

Cuddle time with Grandma Dee Dee - he loves to chew on tags.

Mmmmm, chicken nuggets.

Playing with dear Monie.

He was all about his balloons.

Oooh, what's that?

Andrew was happy to help blow.

All five of us.

Looking excited.

And then not so much.

His siblings and cousins made up for his disinterest.

Finally.

The ladies - myself, Monie, Dee Dee, and Aunt Ginnie

Emmy and Kaleigh put on a show for Will - they were quite good (Kaleigh had some serious dance moves too).

He loved it.

The presents and banner all somehow matched. Andrew asked me if I put the banner in a "W" for Will - well, look at that.

Present time.

The scene - I am pulling wrapping paper out of Will's mouth. The downside to him now finally feeding himself is that he places lots of interesting things in his mouth (leaves, paper, old bandaids - yum).

Cute face - and yes, he does like sweet potatoes and squash ;). His doctor assured me that this is actually really good for him.

So proud to be standing.

Playing with Grandpa Jerry.

End of a long fun day. Happy Brthday Will.

Will turns ONE!

It's hard to believe our baby is ONE. We had a sweet little party for him yesterday (pics of that to come soon), but I wanted to document a bit of what he's up to these days (and mom, give you a few pics of the birthday boy). He continues to be super happy, and super laid back...in fact so laid back that he's making us work ;). The physical therapy seems to be really helping. No official crawling yet, but he's scootin backwards, and rocking back and forth on all fours. He's also getting more solid on his feet, but is still working on getting from standing to sitting and vice versa. We had his 12 month appointment today, and found out that he's actually lost 10 ounces since his 9 month check-up. I was quite concerned, but left the doctors office with a good game plan for getting more calories in him over the next month (dinner tonight include oatmeal mixed with half and half, a bit of ice cream, along with his veggies and a few bites of beef spaghetti). His sensitivity to food textures seems to be getting in the way of him eating enough, so we'll be stepping up the OT game as well.

He has started talking more lately - "da" for dog, and dada are his first official words. He has 5 or 6 teeth (still can't tell if that last one has cut through yet). He has no problem getting dirty, but doesn't always loved getting cleaned up (see below).

Will, we love you so much - we're the luckiest family in the world to have you in it.

Yogurt in the hair was a good look.

Yup, I'm a mess.

Love that sweet face.

Advent begins

The weather is finally COLD, and it truly feels like we're entering advent season. Decorating the tree, eating by the candlelight of advent candles, enjoying, or at least attempting advent readings (we're loving Lambert's Jesse Tree), Christmas shopping (I did brave black Friday, but have truly embraced the glory of online shopping this year), the anticipation of Christmas travel. It's a sweet time of year. Here are a few pics of the tree decorating:

Finding just the right spot.

Caden was SO excited.

Andrew was all business - glad he was willing to stop long enough to take this picture.

Love that look on his face (not so much the look on mine).

Will took most of it in from the floor...happily.

I stuck the camera around the corner to capture this sweet moment. Wish I could have recorded their voices too, but by the time I got to the video camera, they were long gone.

And lastly, we loved having some special Choi time with Nathan and Abby on Friday night. We did a pizza/movie night, and I was impressed with how much Abby enjoyed getting in on the big kid fun (she ate 3 pieces of pizza!).