My heart is full.

Our niece, Natalie made this in Sunday-school today (sniff, sniff).  

Snow adventures 2012.

The NW had about 5 days of snow & ice storms this week.  Here are some random pictures of how we spent our time enjoying it.   

 Walking "L's dog" with our sweetie neighb, "aunt Kathy"...

Trying to squeeze-in one more walk around the block before bed, just the littles & I.  

& we thought ours was a little WT...

Night time playing in the backyard. 

Freedom!  We threw chains on our car & headed down the hill to have a play date with the cousins.  

I love this rosy pic of my little Axey.  (I'm pretty sure this is how every 1.5 yo looked after playing in the snow for 20 minutes; tired of falling down without being able to get up & getting snow down his neck & up his sleeves... he was done.) 

Our final night of sledding before rain moved in the next day...

Snowman.

We made such a great snowman this year.    

J & Lai almost done...

Ta da!  We then headed on inside to nap...   

...and woke up to this!   

We made some repairs before 5 more inches of snow fell... There is still a small pile of him left in our yard.  

And the ballet phase continues...

Laila continues to "wow" audiences all over our humble little city... And, we were very excited to find out that she snagged the last spot in a new ballet class.  We were even more excited to find out that one of her friends is in the same class!

Long live our Blue Swan...

Zoo day.

We met up with a friend of mine for a loooooooong over-due play date.  Kelly & I worked together for many years, we've since both quit to be SAHM's.  It was so special to get to meet her kids.  Her eldest, was such a joy to hang out with & I'm in love with her twins. (I'm pretty sure I'm in love with all twins...) but hers are especially sweet.  :)

It was a great outing & we'll definitely have to do it again soon!  Thanks Kelly for such a great morning!

This isn't this however, it's pretty amazing that the king (& queen) of the jungle are about 3 feet away from my little girl... 

Sunset with my girl.

How lucky are we to live so close to this!?!  

Frog & Toad.

J & I are trying to be more intentional about spending one on one time with the kids.  Jason took Laila on her first real date to the Seattle Children's Theater.  They loved it.    

Clothes diet.

So, today marks exactly 2 months since I've last bought a clothing item for myself.  I began my clothes diet on November 4th, 2011.  It will end at midnight on November 3rd, 2012.

I don't really have an official definition of a "clothing diet" however, for me it means: not buying any clothing for myself.  This includes, socks, underwear, shoes, scarfs, jewelry, hand bags, or anything I can wear.  I will however allow myself a new pair of running shoes when mine wear out.  Gifts are also allowed.  (I stressed this to Jason - wink!).  

I won't go into the details now of why I decided to give this a whirl, however - I'm feeling really good about it.  2 months down, 10 to go!

Breakfast brilliance.

Bored with the same-old breakfast stand-bys?  Try this super easy savory oatmeal!

Oatmeal  (For one serving, I used 1/2 c oats with 1 c water.)
While oats are cooking, whip up an 'over easy egg'.
After oatmeal is fully cooked, mix with as much chopped fresh spinach as you'd like.
Pour oatmeal/spinach combo into your dish.
Place a few slices of cheese over the oatmeal, I use Tillamook (of course) medium cheddar but, swiss or mozzarella would probably be yummy too.
Then place your cooked egg on top.  Wa-la!

I feel so great after eating this healthy meal & it stays with me for hours.  Let me know what you think!

Well hello, Mr. January!

Look who I found as Mr. January in J's 2012 work calendar....  Way to go, babe!

He's the handsome one, on the left... :)