Christmas came early for me this year.

Bring it!

Our weekend.

We celebrated our 8 year anniversary Saturday.  My aunt & uncle offered us their condo in Alpental for the long weekend.  Sadly, we could only use it for one night.  But that 24 hours was the best 24 hours I've had in a looooong time.  It was so good for my soul to get up in the mountains, snowshoe with my family & swim in a really hot outdoor pool as the snow dumped down on us.  It was magical.  We slept in bunk beds, baked some cookie dough, explored the area & watched the snow fall & fall & fall & fall.

I took L on her first snowshoe hike.  She loved it & did so great.  No complaining, no whining, she just walked with me & stopped occasionally for a quick snow-angel.  My heart was full.

The next day we threw Axel in a backpack & put snowshoes on the 3 of us.  We did a longer hike.  Lai did okay for almost half of it & then joined her brother in the other pack.  The whining began.  But, we kept the course.  (I would rather be in the mountains with whiney kids than at home with whiney kids any day.)  Needless to say, by the end of our excursion Ax was walking with us, Lai stayed on daddy's back & I found myself saying; "we are going to finish our hike & we are going to like it!" Ultimately, I know we were all really glad we powered through.

Thank you Aunt Sue & family for the use of your condo.  I cannot tell you how many times we've heard, "when can we go back to our special home?".

Our prayers are with the families of the 4 that lost their lives in avalanches this weekend.  

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.  

Terrible(y fun) two's.

Happy half birthday to our girl!  Laila is officially 2 1/2!  We celebrated with a walk around the block in the snow & lunch with grandma & grandpa.

Lai is officially potty trained & has only had a few accidents in the last month.  

She loves entertaining her brother. 

She loves tumbling class & practicing any chance she gets at home. 

She still takes a solid 2-3 hour nap everyday.

She loves talking on the phone with her grandparents.

She loves reading to "baby Greta" & her brother.

And, she loves being outside.

Her vocabulary still includes the following goofy phrases:

"rubber band" = band aid

"match stick" = chap stick

"Ingrin" = Ingrid
"muse-git" = music
"wee-woo" = fire engine
"Jeanie" = Gina

We love our little Laila Ingrid & can't believe that tomorrow she'll be closer to
her 3rd birthday than her 2nd.  

SmartKids in SmartWool.

Then & (s)now.

December 2008 & November 2010

...baby it's cold outside...

We had the first big snow of the year!!!  It's cold, white, quiet, fresh & SO beautiful!  I realize it's my duty as a parent to get my son out in this white stuff to celebrate the first snowfall of his life but, it just didn't happen today... His older sister on the other hand, had a ball!

 It's official.  I have the most affectionate touchy feely 2 year old ever.  Yes, she's kissing and hugging the little "drive slow, watch for children" man... 

 At 10pm it's still coming down hard.  (Thank you Jesus!!!)