Yes, we are still alive

You have probably all been hearing about our big floods up here. For incredible pictures check out the Bellingham Herald website. Luckily, we live on a big hill so we are far from most of the damage, but we are still affected because school has been cancelled the last 2 days. I think even the kids are tired of snow/flood days!

Meet Olivia, the pink monkey

Emma went to Build-A-Bear Workshop and got herself a cute new monkey named Olivia. She's been Emma's constant companion ever since. Meanwhile, every time I go to BABW and see all the money they rake in on bear stuff I say to myself..."Gee, I wish I would have thought of this!"

Look Grandma, you're on the internet!

On New Year's Day we went and visited my Grandma in Bellevue - she's in her 90's and looking so good! She loves seeing the kids, and they love hearing her talk about all the pictures on her wall. Yes, she's got pictures of every kid, grandkid, great-grandkid, and I yes she's even got some great-great-grandkids - and she knows them all by name and exactly how many of each she has. (I should have written it down because the numbers are most impressive. Yes, we have a large family!)

I'm dreaming of a...White Christmas

Actually, I'm not even dreaming of it anymore. It is a reality here at our house. In fact, we got another 3" of snow overnight - wow! I've always wanted a white Christmas and, well, here it is. But even more exciting than the snow was just the great day we had. We stayed home all day while the kids played with their presents, and the grandmas came over in the afternoon to celebrate with us.

Wow, how did Santa get all that down our chimney?!

This year, Nolan played Santa and passed out the gifts.
(Looks like he was hiding just one more present to sneak
under the tree!)

Emma got a Barbie doll...and a Barbie jet to go with it.

Bailey got a remote control helicopter; but it ended up not

working so we'll have to go exchange it. Bummer.

Henry got something too: a stuffed penguin to gnaw on!

Yep, Nolan got that guitar he'd been wanting!

Emma could hardly wait to play with her new "Ponyville."

As soon as we were done opening presents, Bailey sat

down for a drum solo on the new Rock Band game.

Nolan is such a good brother - he actually put Emma's

Barbie jet together for her. Awwwwww.

While the kids played, Jeff and I made breakfast. We had a yummy

ham & egg casserole, Jeff's famous "cheesy browns", and of course...

...freshly baked cinnamon rolls!

A Snowy Christmas Eve

This is probably going to come as a huge shock, but it's SNOWING again! We got about another 6-8" of the white stuff at our house today. The weird thing is it was raining just down the hill from us, but snowing at our house. Amazing what a different a couple hundred feet make! This afternoon we went to church (which is where the pics below were taken) and then grabbed Grandma JoAn and headed out for our special Christmas Eve tradition: Mexican food at Cinco de Mayo!

When we got home we let the kids open one present: a new "Rock Band" game for the Wii. If you're not familiar with the game, it's kind of like karaoke on steroids. We've been having a lot of fun with it!

Day 10: It's Snowing AGAIN

That's right. It started snowing again a few hours ago. For those who are keeping track, that means we've now had snow on the ground for 10 days. We may get another 3-6" tonight. The absolutely excellent news is that the City of Bellingham finally plowed our hill tonight. So, unfortunately I won't be able to take that previously mentioned picture of our car sliding downhill sideways. (Maybe tomorrow!)

Meanwhile I'm thinking of starting a wintertime anxiety support group for People Who Live on Steep Hills!

This picture was actually taken last week. It's snowed at least another foot since then!

Snowed in: Day 9

I can hardly believe I'm saying this, but we actually got more snow last night! It's definitely looking like we're having a white Christmas this year - how exciting! As beautiful as the snow is, though, there is a LOT of it and Bellingham simply isn't prepared for such an accumulation. The steep hill we live on is now almost impossible to climb, even in 4WD. The good news is the kids are still enjoying it!

Here are some pics - Henry and Emma playing in the back yard, the view from our deck early this morning, and Nolan after finding an icicle "ray gun". Sorry, but I didn't get a chance to take a picture earlier of our Ford Explorer sliding sideways down our hill! Maybe tomorrow...

Pink Marshmallow

Today I had to finally admit to myself that the snow was not going to melt enough for me to drive to the post office to get my Christmas cards mailed. So Emma and I hopped on the WTA (city bus), risked life and limb crossing icy streets and endless snowdrifts, and headed off to the P.O. While we were downtown a kindly old gentleman remarked, "Why, that child looks like a big pink marshmallow!" Hmmm...she kinda does!

Winter Wonderland (or, how do you get 3 kids and a crazy dog to pose for a snow picture?)

Today is officially our 8th day in a row with snow on the ground, including several more inches we received last night! This is big news in Bellingham, where usually we are lucky to get one snowstorm in a year and the snow only sticks around for a couple of days. So, on my way out the door for work this morning, I gave Jeff one goal for the morning: to please get a good snow picture of the kids. He also decided to include our dog, Henry (and his new doggy reindeer antlers), in the shot. Quote from an exhausted Jeff: "Do you know how much work it is to get three kids into snow gear, antlers onto the dog, and get everyone to be looking at the camera at the same time?" He did a good job, didn't he?! (Oh, and he also had a fire in the fireplace and lunch ready when I got home!)

Another letter to Santa

Emma wrote another letter to Santa today, and I managed to snap a picture of it before she sealed the envelope. This one is more detailed than her first letter - evidently she figured out she wasn't getting what she asked for in that one!

Snow day

No school today...it looks like Christmas break will start early. The boys spent most of the day up on the hill sledding. Mom and Emma spent most of the day inside the warm house drinking hot chocolate!

Meet Abby, the $24 (less 15%) puppy

Last weekend we took the kids to downtown Seattle for some Christmas shopping, including a visit to the FAO Schwarz department at Macy's, where Emma found the cutest little puppy with "June" (Emma's birth month) embroidered on its sweater. Of course, being FAO, they wanted like $12 for this tiny little puppy (luckily they also accepted the Macy's coupon I had conveniently stashed in my purse). So we bought her the puppy and I spent the rest of the day being nervous about her losing it somewhere on the streets of Seattle, saying typical Mom-like things such as "Emma, if you lose that puppy we aren't going to buy you another one." Finally, I couldn't take the fretting anymore so I put the puppy in my coat pocket for safe keeping. 100 yards later, the puppy was gone! It had fallen out of my pocket, and evidently some (hopefully) lucky child found it. So off we trotted back to Macy's, for another $12 mini-puppy (luckily, I also had another coupon) and a towel for me to wipe the egg off my face!

Emma named the puppy "Abby" and wanted me to post a picture of her with it; plus a picture of her laying on her bed which she made all by herself today! She is so proud when she does "grown-up" things like that.

Emma's letter to Santa

Um...I'm pretty sure she's NOT gonna find one of these in her stocking this year!

A visit to Canlis

Here's our official "Christmas picture" for 2008, taken at Canlis Restaurant in Seattle. Bailey, our oldest, is on the right (green tie); Nolan is in the center; and Emma is pretty in pink (and pigtails). Papa John and Granny Penny have hosted a lovely dinner at Canlis for the past few years, and we really enjoy it. The kids do too. Thanks Papa & Granny!

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a nice, quiet Thanksgiving at home this year. It was just the five of us plus Grandma Jan (or, as the kids call her, Grandma Bus). Of course, we didn't let the lack of a big crowd stop us from cooking a huge dinner! Jeff smoked a turkey, we had lots of yummy side dishes, and of course we enjoyed hors d'oeuvres throughout the day. And what Thanksgiving would be complete without the Costco Pumpkin Pie? It was a great, relaxing, low-stress day - just the way Thanksgiving should be!

Oops, Emma stepped on the Pumpkin Pie!

The boys enjoy watching football together.

Nolan has a beautiful smile.

Emma made our Thanksgiving centerpiece.

Jeff works on the stuffing. Or is that the green bean casserole?
Or the gravy? Or the mashed potatoes?

Let the snacking begin!

Caught canoodling

We have a pretty funny cat. She pretends to hate the dog, but when she doesn't think anybody's looking she snuggles up to him. I happened to catch the two of them out on the deck and had my camera close by. Awww...could it be...love?

Emmy's new hat

Grandma brought Emma a new hat - isn't it cute?!

Happy Halloween

That's Emma on the right, in her "kitty" costume. Well, it's

really a leopard but she calls it a kitty.

Nolan was a vampire this year. I did his make-up.

Do you think I might have a future career in Hollywood?

Happy Anniversary to us

Jeff and I celebrated our 9th anniversary today with a day off from work and a trip to downtown Seattle. We had lunch with Dad & Penny at our favorite sandwich spot, Salumi (um, if you haven't been there, and you love a good sandwich, put it on your list for your next trip to Seattle), then we wandered around downtown for a bit - stopping for sweet treats at the Dahlia Bakery and Top Pot Doughnuts (yes, it was a sugar overload - but hey, how often do you celebrate a 9th anniversary?). On the way home we went to the Oyster Bar on Chuckanut Drive for an amazing dinner - we had never eaten there before. It was romantic and fun, and the service and food were top notch. We also decided that for our 10th anniversary next year we're going on a Caribbean cruise! We can hardly wait and it's a year away!

Here we are on our last cruise in 2006. We love to get all

gussied up for formal night! Doesn't Jeff look handsome in his tux?

Rocket Man

We recently discovered a fun new family hobby - shooting off model rockets! Bailey received his first rocket, an Estes Amazon, for his birthday in September and built it in his bedroom. Then we took it down to a park not far from our house and launched it. (This was before we learned it's actually illegal to shoot off rockets from a city park in Bellingham...oops!) Subsequent launches have been held at an undisclosed private location not far from our house.