Christmas 2011

I really am trying to catch up! Here's what some of our Christmas activities were:

The girls and I went to a gingerbread house party. I haven't decorated a gingerbread house before and I had to ask what I was supposed to bring. At the party I realized I should have bought the kit at Costco because the house comes assembled. Next year. I was too overwhelmed by the kids and the food and the visiting with people at the party, so I opted not to put my house together at the party. I put it together later and Kaylin had a great time decorating it.

Kaylin and her gingerbread house. I'm not sure if this is first thing in the morning or if it was later in the day and I hadn't combed her hair or made her change out of her pajamas. I'm assuming the latter.

Kaylin's preschool had a sign-up for ringing the salvation army bell at a grocery store down the street from our house. I thought it was a great service opportunity for us and the girls had a fun time. Lauren had to be on a leash so that she didn't run into the store or into the parking lot.

Teacher Steffeny, Kaylin, and our pet Lauren.
Please notice that I somehow convinced Kaylin to wear pants since it was so cold out. I was surprised that we even owned pants that fit her. Someone gave her this pair for her birthday last year. She wore the pants for maybe an hour total. I think the total time spent in pants for 2011 was 2 hours. This girl will still ONLY wear dresses.

No Christmas season would be complete without attempted pictures with Santa.

We go to the Santa House in downtown Renton. It's not all that pretty, but it's free and this year we got the "good" Santa. I was surprised and happy that both girls sat with Santa. It took Lauren awhile. She watched Kaylin and finally decided that it was okay. Santa was really nice and was even able to get them both to smile. This is the first time Kaylin has ever willingly sat with Santa. Last year we didn't even try because she was so against it, we just let her stand outside the Santa House. One more thing... I was crazy and made Kaylin's dress.

We spent Christmas with my parents. My sister and her family and my brother and his wife were also there. The kids had so much fun together!

Here are Lauren and Miles (2 weeks apart in age) playing Just Dance on the Wii:

Kaylin and Macey (1 month apart in age) had lots of fun helping Nana make treats:

I wasn't in a picture taking mood over Christmas (weird?), but my mom and sister both took a lot. I was planning on them sending me their pictures, but they haven't (hint... hint...).

And that, my friends, concludes my posts for 2011.

Yes, I am still here.

Wow. It's been nearly three months since I last posted. I am going to try to do a few catch up posts, but first I will list what we've been up to.

*I made way too many homemade, time-consuming Christmas presents. I haven't taken pictures of them, so we'll see what gets posted.
*I finished refinishing a corner cabinet for the downstairs bathroom.
*I decided to make Kaylin's Christmas dress, because I can't go the easy route and BUY the dress.
*We celebrated Eric's dad's 60th birthday over Thanksgiving weekend with lots of family in town.
*Lauren turned 2!
*Eric worked lots of long days.
*Kaylin lost her 2nd tooth.
*Kaylin got to spend a week in Bellingham before Christmas. Lauren and I went to Bellingham before Christmas too, but we went home for two nights in the middle of the week and Kaylin got to stay.
*We had a great Christmas in Bellingham, my sister and her family were here from Utah and my brother and his wife were here from Spokane.
*I was called as our ward's Primary (kids 18 mo-11 yrs) President (on Christmas day), and therefore Eric was released as our ward's Young Men's President.
*Eric took the week after Christmas off. It was wonderful!
*We celebrated our 8th anniversary!
*I have spent MANY HOURS on Primary since I didn't have counselors until this past Sunday (and one is on vacation for another week and a half) and a lot has to be done at the beginning of the year. Since I had such short notice before the new year began, all those hours got jammed into a couple of weeks. Thankfully, Eric had the week after Christmas off.
*Kaylin turned 5!
*I went overboard on Kaylin's birthday party. She wanted a Tangled party and thanks to google, Pinterest, and my Silhouette I have way too many ideas and have braided way too much yellow yarn. The party is tomorrow.
*When I haven't been working on a project or church, I've been attempting to keep my kids happy and fed and my house clean. Once I finally sit down for the night I just want to veg on the couch and watch some TV while surfing craft blogs and Pinterest. Yes... other people's blogs and Pinterest apparently come before updating my own blog. Probably because I don't really have to think :-).

And because every post must have a picture, here's one my awesome friend Megan took of us back in November:

Kaylin's party with her grandparents

One last birthday post.

My parents and both sets of grandparents came down for a party. We didn't see them at Christmas, so Lauren got presents too. And Kaylin got Christmas and birthday presents. It was a great day for Kaylin.

Here is Lauren with one of her presents from my grandparents.

Lauren was obsessed with trying to pick up this box.

Inside the box were princess dress-ups. Below Kaylin is dressed as Belle. Lauren wanted in on the action too.

More Little Mermaid cupcakes.

We were so happy to have my parents and grandparents down. Kaylin had a great 2 weeks of birthday celebrations. She is already asking how long it is until she turns 5. She's not happy that EVERYONE else has to have a birthday before she gets her next one.

Christmas Lights

This weekend we went to Coulon on Lake Washington to see the Clam Lights.

Lauren and Eric with the clams.

Last night we went to the Bellevue Botanical Garden's Garden d'Lights. We were super lucky that it stopped raining before we got there and it didn't rain while we were there.

This one shows the crazy amount of lights they had.

A nice man took our picture. Please ignore my cone head.

Boating on Lake Washington and Lake Union

My parents brought their boat down at the end of August. It wasn't warm enough to get in the water, but we had a great time driving down Lake Washington, through the cut to Lake Union, and then back.

Seahawks' Practice Facility. Lucky guys.

I-90 bridge

Dad and Husky Stadium, notice the shirt
More lucky football players

The Montlake Cut between Lake Washington and Lake Union
The bridge was going up for that sailboat.

We docked the boat at this Ivar's on Lake Union. Yum! I love their fish and chips!

Our view at lunch, you can see the Space Needle in the background.

Eric and Lauren on Lake Union

We love Seattle!

Kaylin modeling my dad's boating glasses--I think they are from Taco Ball forever ago. Do you see the visors over the lenses? Awesome.

We were on the water for hours and had such a fun time. It was a lot of fun to see the cities from the water, eat yummy food, and hang out with my parents.

Cousins' pool

Eric's brother's family bought a 3-foot pool at the beginning of the summer. A few Saturdays ago we were really hot, so we invited ourselves over.

Ryanne and Kaylin

My cute family

I love her smile.

Lauren's first boat ride

Eric went on a high adventure bike trip to San Juan Island with the young men from church earlier this month. Instead of hanging out by ourselves all week, we headed up to Bellingham to hang out with my family. We took the boat out on Lake Whatcom one of the nights.

Yea! I love the boat!

Lauren and Kaylin posing. Don't worry, the boat wasn't moving.

Lauren wasn't a fan of the wind.

Lauren and her awesome wakeboarding grandpa.

Trip to Bham

My sister and her kids were in Bellingham for a week, so we of course had to join them for a few days. My brother and his wife are at my parents' house for the summer. Needless to say, it was a packed house. We had a great time.

We were able to be there for my dad's birthday. Here he is with his 4 grandkids. Yup, this is the best picture I got of all of them :-).


We went to Whatcom Falls Park. My cousin, Lorinda, was also in town with her two girls. Lucky us! All of the girls loved the waterfall.


My mom is currently in to hula hooping. So when we get together now we all have to hula hoop in the backyard.


Lauren and Miles! Miles is about 2.5 weeks older than Lauren.


We went to the children's museum in Burlington.

We are so glad that Kelsey, Macey, and Miles could come visit!

Another reason why my dad is the best

I pretty much have the best dad ever. Picture this... it's 3:00 am and you wake up to a knock at your bedroom door. Your *almost* 30 year old daughter comes in and tells you that she didn't quite make it to the toilet and threw up in the bathroom sink. The sink of course didn't drain. She didn't want to wake you up, but she didn't know what to do. And leaving vomit in the bathroom sink overnight was not a good option. Especially since 4 other people were using the bathroom she decided to defile.

Hey... in my defense... At least I made it to the bathroom! I was sleeping upstairs and this bathroom was downstairs. I didn't use one of the upstairs bathrooms because one is in my parents' bedroom and the other was being occupied by a sleeping 6 month old. You don't wake sleeping babies, even for that.

Back to the story. Without complaint, almost happily, you get out of bed and clean up the nastiness. Then you go back to bed, probably have a hard time going back to sleep, and get up at 5:00 am for an 11 hour work day.

Oh yeah. One more thing. Did I mention that it's your birthday?

Happy birthday, Dad! You are the best. I love you!

Also, a big thank you to my mom and sister for taking care of my girls, disinfecting every possible surface in the house, and buying me Gatorade.

***And NO, I am not pregnant, so don't ask. :-)***

My girls

We were in Bellingham for Mother's Day. Before church I wanted to get a picture of me with my girls.

Here we have Kaylin's glare. But she's looking at the camera and Lauren is kind of smiling. That makes it the best shot we got.

I thought this was a funny one of Kaylin.

Easter Festivities

We went to Eric's parents' house for Easter dinner.

Look! I do exist!

Kaylin and Ryanne at dinner. Ryanne wore the... uh.... head wrap for half the night.

Kaylin really got into the jelly bean hunt.

Kaylin and Ryanne showing off their loot.

I made these cupcakes for dessert. Toppers from here.

Lauren was worn out.

My grandparents were in Kent visiting my grandma's sister. After dinner we visited them. Lauren had a "wardrobe malfunction" so she didn't get to show off her pretty Easter dress.

Lauren and Gigi.

Lauren and Papa.