Birthday lunch

Celebrating Lindsay's 38th at PFChangs!  

Annual Coin Grab with Papa

Dad saves his change all year in the treasure chest.
Then the kids get to reach one hand in and keep whatever they can grab!

Lap baby

 

Charity loves walking up to people who are sitting down and plopping herself onto their lap :)

Karaoke on Christmas night

Anthony @Zolas

Only for my bff Maria would I hit up a bar downtown on a Sunday evening to hear her bro's concert... :)

Sledding down Rae!

SNOW much fun!

(see what I did there?)

I'm crazy about Charity's poofy snow suit. She's like a pink marshmallow.  And she loved every second of being outside in the blizzard! She zoomed down the giant hill with a big smile! (on my lap of course)

Snow!

It came down for a solid 12 hours today heavy! 

And I was reminded how poorly our van does in the snow.... argh...  

But it sur

e was pretty to look at and play in!  We built 3 giant snowmen. 

By WE - I mean Brian. He was SERIOUS about it - like right up there with his full time job.

 It was his mission to build epic snowmen. 

I had to remind him to let the kids help :)

As if I haven't posted enough hot tub pics...

This was Charity's first dip!

 We turned the temp down a little for her, so it was more like a huge bath.

She LOOOOVED it!

 Her favorite Christmas activity for sure :)

Lindsay&Savana

Arent they beautiful?!

I love having them here.

Pedis!

Mere's Christmas gift to Linds and I! 

My toes are so grateful.

No Elsa costumes here....

I asked Courtney what her favorite gift from Christmas was...and she said it's her Superhero costume!

Just one Christmas scene...more to come!

I got a little too excited ... and Charity really liked her pumpkin muffin...and I like how mom was captured here giving her VERY PARTICULAR instructions on how to wear my new teal Echo scarf :)
Getting the baby to sleep now, then off to run with mah sistaz!! In my new compression socks and fancy workout outfit, woohoo! Celebratin' materialism... :)

Christmas Eve bike ride

Not cold enough to snow...but just warm enough for a little ride!

Christmas Eve in the tub

Note to self: STAY HOME ON CHRISTMAS EVE EVE!!

It's a mad house at Fred Meyer!!! argh.

Seriously we've been waiting here in line to checkout for like 25 minutes and we're still a few people back.  And those old ladies are trying to cut in front of me. 

And I've resorted to letting the kids eat all the grapes I'm supposed to be buying because it's keeping them somewhat manageable. 

Please, please... next year... I'll be better prepared and NOT SHOP on these last few days!

Ran out of cards AND time!

I promised myself I wouldn't procrastinate sending out cards this year... I wanted to get them out early... But here we are on the very last day possible addressing and sending out cards. I've got Brianna very busy writing Merry Christmas over and over again!

Aunt Sammy

We spent Sunday evening at MerryGlen (just the girls and I - the boys did their Home Teaching routes). Poor Sammy has pneumonia. A little extra scary for someone who already isn't in great health. I hope she enjoyed seeing us....it's hard to tell sometimes :) Though she definitely gives me a look of recognition whenever i first arrive.  
I don't think Charity has a picture with Samantha, so we tried! Best i could do!

Snugglebugs

awwww....

I don't even know what she was sad about...I just saw them and thought it was so sweet how he was trying to comfort her :)

BluBerry Froyo

MOJO!!

My friend since age 8 is in town!!! I finally got to meet her husband! (who was insistent that he already met me - though he hadn't - because he has heard so much about me from Maria over the years). I lovedlovedloved spending time with them!!

Biz trips

Brian sent me this good morning photo from his hotel gym.
In Yakima I think.
Maybe Richland.
 Not sure... I cant keep track.
And I cant keep the house together when he does these multi-night outta towners!!
 Ugh. It's haaard.
So many kids, so many dishes, so much laundry... I'm drowning!
 Glad he'll be home in a few hours.
Then I pass the minis off to him and I can get to work putting this place back in order.

 

Savvy-baby

Lindsay texts me pics of baby Savana a few times/wk.

I wish it were a few times/DAY.

 I adore this baby!!

Can't wait til they arrive next week for Christmas.

In this one she's wearing the same Christmas dress Charity wore last year ☺ 

Did you know....

...that you can make a bubble in your swimsuit when you fill it from the waterfall!

VBS - Christmas style

A local Lutheran church put on a great "Christmas for Kids" Saturday activity! 

I wonder if we were the only non-members there? ☺ 

The kids loved it! Crafts, games, songs, with a cute concert at the end!

I go {book} clubbing

I was a bit surprised when my friend Kim Wells invited me to join her Book Club. I haven't ever thought of myself as the book-club type. But here I am, book clubbin' it....
I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would! Super great ladies, awesome convo, great brunch.
Looking forward to next month!

(we read Mitch Albom's The Time Keeper...and all agreed Dor's punishment was waaaay too harsh and Sarah's character wasn't believable and we all need to live in the moment more!)

Christmas Cards!

I think this is the final product! I reallyreallyreally do NOT like having to write Happy Holidays on it, instead of MERRY CHRISTMAS...but we have to give these out to Brian's business accounts (100 of them, along w/ gifts) and the company is paying for it... so we gotta make it PC. Blah.

But I WILL be writing MERRY CHRISTMAS on the back of all the ones I send to our friends & fam :)   Want one? Send me your address and we'll put one in the mail for ya! Or if you're related to us... you have no choice. You WILL receive one. :)

I love Zaycon

So random - my favorite bulk-food co-op gave out free cases of amazing chicken broth!! I got 48 containers of it! These guys are great. I think I'll order salmon from them too.
I loved getting my neighbors together last month and picking up 240 lbs of natural hormone free chicken breasts to split up. $1.89/lb, cant beat that!
And the parking lot pickup is actually kinda fun :)

  If anyone wants to do an order in the future, please use me as your referral!

Sassy sisters

 

The photographer sent me a preview...

If only we could see Charity's face a little more, this one would be perfect!! I love the kids' action running. So REAL for them :)

I love Charity's face here! I'm excited to see what the photo looks like in full color. 

I have a love/hate with family pictures, for the obvious and usual reason: it's hard to get everyone ready and a little stressful to make sure they're all happy at the same time and for a solid 30 minutes or so.
Bribing usually has to be employed, which I don't like doing.
But to get a decent final product, it's worth it!
The twins get the gold star award - they were happy the whole time.
 It was Brianna who got a little sassy.
 But hopefully when we get the full CD this weekend,there will at least be a few usable ones!
Choosing to have the photoshoot at home was a great idea. I think it makes it so much easier.And it feels more REAL.  I'm totally not into all those pictures posing in front of some old barn or random fence or bridge. They're cute for sure... but so CONTRIVED. I wanted something more natural, less posed. But still cute, of course - I wouldn't want pictures TOO real.... like me in my sweat pants, kids in whatever random clothes they choose, house a mess, etc :) Now THAT would be real, but we want to at least pretend for a day that we've got it all together better than that. :)
The walking path pic above is right in our backyard park. Love that place. The reading pics are in our front room, and of course here we are are on our front porch!
Now I gotta attempt to make a decent Christmas card out of these and whatever else comes on that full disc....

Pony friend!

Attempting to clear out my always-overflowed-inbox (someday.... someday...), I found this gem that Meredith had text-emailed to me and I forgot to post!

Over the summer, Brianna was invited to a friend's birthday party. This little girl is an excellent friend to have, because not only is she a sweet person... her grandparents have THE BEST backyard EVER! Think waterfalls, huge playground, lounge, gorgeous garden, farm animals, mini golf, and PONIES! 

Brianna had a magical day. And the twins got to go along too! 

More from Seattle!

Group shot! Hanging out at Dave's after church on Sunday. We're just missing Meg & kids, Becky's kids, Sammy and Mere. OH, and Dave. Cuz he was still at church! Life of a Bishopric member! I love Dave's home. So cozy.
Brian made the interesting observation that Smith post-baby-blessing get-togethers look a LOT different than others.....
Lunch consisted of a delicious soup. And that was it! No trays of treats sitting around everywhere being mindlessly eaten.

Cousins 10 months apart. It makes a big difference in size
NOW, but in a few years.... they'll be BFFs. I'm so glad
Charity has cousins close to her age on both sides!
 

ISN'T SHE JUST GORGEOUS?!! I love little Savana!!
I'm so glad her Baby Blessing day gave us all the excuse
to head over to Seattle for the weekend!

The cousins! Believe it or not, this picture is still missing TEN of my parent's grandchildren! Lots of fun little ones here.

Saturday night - we volunteered to treat the group to dinner.
Going OUT to a restaurant made zero sense with all these kids, so we found a better quality pizza place and ordered FIVE larges and 4 big salads.
It all got gobbled up pretty fast!
After this, the kids hit the pool, the guys went out to a movie, and the girls stayed up playing games :)  [with one exception - my Brian watched our kids so I could play - love that man!]

It's so GREEN here...

 

I love the thick foliage in seattle.
Seeing dark green leaves like this reminds me of my early childhood growing up here! Playing in the big backyard woods behind our home in Redmond... lots of thick shiny foliage like this.  Outside of Seattle (though maybe in Hawaii) I haven't seen anything like it! 

At the hotel

I'm glad the twins don't mind sharing a tiny pull out bed together!
They were SO exhausted though.... they could've slept anywhere.
It was a full day for them, starting early w/ breakfast at the hotel w/ Papa, then swimming for 3 HOURS, then off to the Seattle Center for Cougar's Christmas concert (where we met up w/ them), then playing around downtown, back to the hotel for dinner+crazy cousin play time.... these 4 yr olds were zonked!

Quiddler at Dave's!

Quiddler = super fun family car game. Mom's favorite. I prefer Bananagrams, but this is fun too.

Mug Shots!

 

Their Papa found these tees at Pike Place Market and couldn't resist :)

 

 

Nonny coached them into their poker faces....kinda disturbing!

Car napping

We got to drive to Seattle with JUST Charity and Brianna!
It was so weird just having two!
I definitely felt like we were missing people.
Two of them, to be exact.
But it was also very nice being able to drive Brian's car (better gas mileage), and having more time to play with these girls. 
The twin apparently didn't miss me at all - they loved making the journey over a couple days earlier with Nonny and Papa and Lily!
I'm so grateful all my children are GREAT car travelers. They sleep, snack, and play well on roadtrips, for the most part.

Cucumber.

  

 

We sure know how to live it up when it comes to roadtrip snacks...

I might go really wild and bust out the celery sticks and apple slices next! 

Stylin'

Brianna volunteered to get Charity dressed.

This was the result.  

At THE Davenport

 Took this selfie on our way out of the fancy-schmaniest date we've been to in a loooooong time!

 

Brian took me to the Washington Health Care Association's annual Awards night dinner.  Huge business opportunity for him, as many of the Directors of the health care facilities he targets were there.  Lots of schmoozing to do.  And that's the main reason he wanted to bring me along.... to help with the schmoozing.   Which was utterly boring to me, but I put on a happy face and did my best to converse with these people and help him look good. 

For the disgusting price of $50/plate, it would've been nice to have better quality food, but I suppose they put most of that money towards the open bar, which obviously didn't benefit us.

Oh well. Nice to have an elegant evening out.

And nice that at least our babysitters weren't expensive! :)  

On to a new holiday!

 

 

  Had to snap a quick pic of the Thanksgiving art wall before we took it down. 

This is how she scores points with Nonny

 

 

Tight hugs!

We're trying....

THIS is what rounding up everyone for Family Prayer looks like... on a *good* night!