Happy Holidays 2009

Happy Holidays!

A few pictures from our celebrations in Leavenworth, Washington.

Santa pictures from a few weeks ago are at the end.Eating Swedish coffee bread by the tree on Christmas morning

while we wait for the others to wake up.
Santa brought Adeline a doll house!

Addie hanging in a camp chair during the present opening.

McKinley's present from Santa: Hot Wheels Big Rigs Recycle Action Pack

Loving his new snowshoes from Papa and Nana.

"Mom, I can snow shoe all by myself! I know I can!"

...and he could! and he loved it!

One of the coolest things we did was to go out at night snowshoeing around Jim and Care's property. We all wore headlights and tromped through the woods. After the first loop, most people were done. McKinley wanted to go again, and he wanted to be the leader.

We loved it!

Stockings hung with carabiners on the rock fireplace.

The fireplace is actually outside on the deck and

the woodstove will eventually go where the doll house is sitting.

Kids table! McKinley, Josephine, Adeline and Norah.

Family picture on the real sleigh ride we took on Christmas eve!

Addie wasn't so sure. We put mittens on her that had no thumbs and she just kept holding up her hands and staring at them, like "where are my thumbs?"

The horses were Belgian Draft Horses named Sis and Hank.

Mac made good friends with them afterwards. They were beautiful!

Cascade Mountains around Leavenworth as viewed from the sleigh.

Josephine all bundled up.

In the "way back" of the mini van!

The sleding hill at Jim and Care's.

Lovingly tended with shovels and water by Jim and John.

Getting ready to go sledding!

Accepting a candy cane, but no way was he sitting on his lap!

WHY in the world does any kid sit on this guys lap?

Sorry, Addie. Just wanted a Santa picture.

Maybe next year?

How do we fill our days?

Our days begin early, but it gives us lots of time for play.

So, how do we fill our days, besides the endless laundry and dishes? Here's a sample:We play outside. Mac's on top of a pile of bark chips from some tree branches we had cut down from our big trees in the backyard.
We drink.
Addie loves her Dora straw cup, but also loves to drink out of anything Mac and I are using.

We have tea parties using every cup in the house and every snack from the snack cabinet.

This was one of my favorite activities last week. Mac started it with a vase, a wine glass and a picture from the hutch. Then he came and asked for a tablecloth. I asked why and he told me "Mom, I'm setting the table for a beautiful dinner!" I asked who was invited, his answer: "you and Addie!" I asked if I could bring anything, he said "A salad would be wonderful!" I love that kid and I love "almost four". What a fun age, even if he does push my buttons regularly...

(See the baby in the carrier at the bottom? We also play babies on a regular basis.)

We eat. Seriously. We eat about every hour. On this morning, Addie just stood at this table eating while Mac kept serving up the treats. Hilarious!

We act goofy and want someone to take pictures.

We play in the leaves. I get these two outside as often as possible. Addie has started bringing me her coat and shoes and this morning I swear she said "go!" as she handed them to me. She cried so hard when Curt and Mac went outside without her, that we needed to immediately follow.

We help with projects. Mac loves projects, especially when they involve tools.

Here they are putting the new stickers on Curt's car.

We color with friends. Our buddy Garen brought over Crayola Color Surge Tinkerbell pictures. We love to color anyway, but then to use these seriously amazing markers that turn a solid piece of paper neon colors and FAIRIES to boot! Magic. Pure gimic, but magic none-the-less. I went and bought a pack to take on the plane with us when we fly to North Carolina next week. Now if only we can keep Addie from eating the markers.

We do tricks while sucking on a lollypop.

Mac. He likes tricks.

We celebrate birthdays!~ Happy 68th Papa!

And yes, that's a homemade apple pie and it was yummy.

We also bake a lot, but I'll save that for another post.

Happy third week of November!

We officially have a paper chain for Mac to tear one off every morning and read the number and that's how many days we have until North Carolina. I'm not sure who's more excited - me or Mac. I can't wait to snuggle my new baby niece Nora!

Happy Halloween!picking pumpkins
our little animals...

our princess

Addie in her Halloween skirt

(Lucy and cousin Nora have matching ones, Mac has pants with matching pockets)

dragon and butterfly

cutie pies...

We'll let you know the status on the candy fairy. Mac isn't convinced he wants her to come to our house this year. He wanted to know where she takes the candy. Curt and I both had to think fast... and came up with that she takes the candy to the boys and girls who are in the hospital and can't go trick or treating. Sounds reasonable, right? He wanted to know when she was coming and if he could eat some candy before she came. Smart kid.

random cute pictures

Random pictures from the last month... in no particular order.Mac playing with Polly Pockets at Norah and Josie's, wearing one of the girls jammies. Next time we visit, I'm not packing anything for him as he only wants to wear their clothes anyway!
addie loves climbing into things, so mac followed. now if only they could fold the clothes too!

our sweet girl

making an "L" collage for Lucy (shhh... don't tell Lucy!)

bathtime! now that addie has stopped splashing the whole time, they can take baths together again.

these crooked straws are so much fun.

they worked and worked until they each had an end

(and I only needed to do a little monitoring to make sure nobody lost an eye!)

I love this look.

she's wearing pants made from the sleeves of an old, and well-loved shirt of mine. They were the test pants for making pants from a sweater. Both pairs turned out quite cute!

more straw play

Soccer!

Mac loves his little soccer class "with Coach Dennis" at the Sherwood Indoor Fieldhouse.

Addie's hair is getting longer and curlier!

Our little princess, twirling.

Note the darling blue and red Car Movie underwear peaking out from beneath the dress.

Bathtime at Norah and Josie's.

I love that Addie is spitting water out of her mouth in this picture.

playing dinosaurs in the bathtub with the baby doll potty.

adorable picture of Josephine.

amazing... all four in the tub! and they actually played in their for quite a while!

Welcome Fall

We are welcoming Fall to Oregon. The days are crisp and bright, and the mornings are downright cold (even by Curt's standards!) Mac still wants to wear shorts, so we are letting him learn his own clothing needs. Addie got some hand-me-down clothes from Norah and Josie, including this awesome green handknit hat. These are pics from last night as we enjoyed the last bit of sunshine in our yard. It was the first time we had to pull out the hats and gloves, and even Mac wanted them!

Addie's walking!

Happy Fall.