Holiday pics

Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season! We had a lovely Christmas with our family, despite the fact that we still haven't received some of the packages we were expecting.

Christmas day.

My mom, dad and brother, in the kitchen.

And I finally got a couple of pictures of Spring smiling today!!

She's a very chatty little girl. She coos much more than I remember Reed cooing. I love our little mother-daughter talks!!

Port Orchard Ski Report

12-1/2" base with 3" new.

Ug, is this ever going to end?

Merry Christmas Eve!

** update ***

Measured our outdoor table, and it was over 14". Cammy and I figure we've probably gotten close to 20" this storm.

Snow... all done... bye bye

(gerry here again) That's how we've been feeling. It's been never ending, at least it looks like there will be no more until wedensday. But weds supposed to bring another snow and rain mix, which is what it was supposed to be tonight. Tt's looking like it will be until next weekend before we get any serious melting.

Here's picture from this morning. You can barely see the snow pile Reed and I made on thursday, and our giant ferm in our front yard is nearly burried.

We managed to get out yesterday evening to go to a friends solstice party, the subaru barely made it up the hill to their house... and coming back down was quite the adventure. We were like one of those bad snowboards who skid down the hill sideways in order to keep their speed low and in control. Not exactly fun.

Solstice Storm '08

(Gerry here)
Happy first day of winter! We are finally past the days of increasing darkness, and today, the days start getting longer again. The sun is reborn, and the light will now begin the long process of overtaking the darkness.

I actually had to go buy a snow shovel yesterday. The subaru has been having lots of fun finding donuts in the snow. The stores were crazy busy yesterday, and after a chaotic trip to costco, we tried to go to the grocery store and gave up. I went back after the snow started to fall in the late afternoon, and it was a bit less crazy. The snow shovel works ok, but once I got to the ice below, I busted out the weed dragon propane torch :)... it made quick work of it. Is there anything a weed dragon can't do?




Reed has been enjoying the snow... he wants to go out to play, then we get outside and he doesn't want to walk in it or touch it. But he loves watching mommy or daddy play in it.

And a big congratulations to three new Momma's. Congratulations to Emily, Cara, and Katherine on their new babies. Ms. Jeanette, you're next! Any day now!

sNOw

I was excited to take Reed out in the snow this year. I figured he'd be old enough now to actually enjoy it a bit, but I was wrong. Here's how it went...

Me: "Reed do you want to go play in the snow?

Reed: "No"

Me: "Are you sure?"

Reed: "No, no, no, no, noooo!"

After much convincing, we get outside...

Me: "Do you want to walk in the snow?"

Reed: "No"

Me: "Do you want to touch in the snow?"

Reed: "No"

Me: "Look, mommy eats the snow, do you want to eat the snow?"

Reed: "No"

Okay, I'm seeing that the snow is not a hit. I figure I'll cut my losses and we'll go inside and make some hot cocoa. So Reed helps me make the hot cocoa, and he seems pretty excited about it until...

Me: "Reed, do you want to drink your cocoa?"

Reed: "No, no, no, no, noooooo!"

LOL! Maybe next year all this stuff will be more enjoyable! He did eventually drink some of the cocoa and once he tried it, he seemed to enjoy it. :-)

We also got a Christmas tree this weekend. We didn't even get poor Spring out of the car because it was just too cold. Usually we like to hike around and find the best tree, but this year, we scouted our tree from the car.

Reed helped decorate the tree. That dense patch of ornaments is his contribution. So far, our ornament death toll is four. One broken in storage, one broken by me, and two broken by Reed. I'm thinking that's not too bad for our first todler Christmas!

And can I say how much I love digital cameras? Spring was smiling and cooing at me and I took 26 pictures trying to catch a smile (of course she stopped smiling once I got the camera). That's an entire roll of film! Here's the best of the batch.

Roly poly

Sure, Spring is a bit chunkier than Reed (who was super skinny), but the roly poly in the title does not refer to her weight, but to the fact that she rolled over for the first time on Sunday! Not just once, oh no. She wanted to show us that she really knew what she was doing so 4 times in a row, she rolled from her front to her back! She's only 7 weeks old!! I knew it was a bit early, but I looked it up in a baby book and they don't expect babies to roll over till they're 6 months old (though I suspect most babies may do this sooner). Sheesh, I guess children with older siblings really do hit their milestones quicker!

As luck would have it, Spring had just had a bath (her first bath where she didn't cry which I was thinking was a pretty big milestone in and of itself) and I had told Gerry to get the camera so we could take pictures of her cute naked bum. When I put her on the floor for pictures, she rolled over, so we actually have pictures of her rolling over for the first time! How cool is that!?

It started with a look of fierce determination.

Then she got onto her side.

Then on her back. It might be a little hard to tell the way I cropped the pictures, but I really try to keep my children's future modesty in mind when posting for all the world to see so you'll just have to believe me. It was hard to resist helping her, but she did it all on her own!!

And what has Reed been up to? He's cutting three teeth right now, two molars and I think he's finally getting his last eye tooth. He's doing amazingly well considering he must be pretty uncomfortable. Yesterday we had some fun carrying our babies in our wraps. Reed knows that when Spring cries, I put her in a wrap and walk around with her. Often when Spring gets fussy, Reed will say "baby wrap" and "mommy, walk around". Reed wanted to put wear teddy in one of the wraps, then insisted that we both walk around!

Santa!

Saturday our neighborhood fire station held a Santa breakfast so we took the Reed and Spring. We missed it last year, but we'd gone when Reed was just a baby and enjoyed it then, so we had been looking forward to going this year. Reed ate a big pancake, then it was time to sit on Santa's lap. We let Santa hold Spring first, figuring that Reed might not stay in Santa's lap long. Sure enough, this was all we got of Reed with Santa.

So this year, mommy got to have her picture with Santa too!! :-)

Perhaps the best part about Santa breakfast at the fire station is that they pull out a fire truck and an ambulance for the kids to look at and sit in. Fun for kids and adults alike! It was a little funny to me to think that the ambulance we were looking at could have been one of the two that responded to my mom's call when I had Spring!