Make a greeting card

Nativity play

This year the Christmas church party had the kids do a short Nativity play.  Riley of course volunteered to be an angel.  Her part was to just stand there and look cute.  Her friend Allie thought it would be better to take control of the mic and sing instead.  Pretty cute.

Traditions & Two year olds

A couple days after our anniversary is my birthday, seriously the celebrations never end around here.  I turned, dare I say it, I won't so here's a picture instead.   I can't believe that number, I certainly don't feel that old.

Anyway, we decided to go get our Christmas tree this past weekend.  Every year for 8 years we've gone to Mitchell's Tree Farm just down the street from our house.  So we attempted to get the girls bundled up.  Ella threw a major fit because she did not want to take off her short sleeve dress and put pants and a jacket on.  It took both of us to hold her down and dress her.  She was still screaming as we strapped her into the car.  We got to the farm and told her she had to wear her jacket to get out of the car. She refused and stomped off into the woods alone.  I sent Jarom after her and here he is bringing her back.

 Still screaming and kicking! We tried walking down the lane to the trees but Ella planted herself in the middle of the road and refused to walk or be carried.  Plan B.  "Let's just go get a pre-cut tree fast at another market."  Left, drove to the other place and Ella refused to leave the car.  Which left just me and Riley walking around looking for a tree.  Couldn't find anything we liked.  Plan C.  Drove back to Mitchell's Tree Farm.  Ella stopped crying but still refused to put on her jacket.  So we walked around the farm for 30 minutes as I watched her hands turn purple.  It didn't seem to phase her too much but I could see her start to shiver.  Luckily we found our tree at the last minute.  And here's some pictures to prove that even a crazy dress wearing 2 yr. old can't break our Christmas tradition!

Riley attempting to help

The trouble maker

The End

November to remember

 It's been awhile since I've posted but I have a good excuse!  Power outage, husband in Canada, birthdays galore, Thanksgiving, Anniversary, burnt lips/nose, etc...

November has always been busy here but this one was with some extra craziness.  Jarom left for Toronto for a week for business, during which time we had a power outage, not long, but still I was sitting alone in the dark...not cool.  Then a winter storm passed through and we got a couple inches of snow, but what really devastated the area were the winds which knocked down tons of trees in Gig Harbor.  Undoubtedly we had a power outage again, although this time it last for 3 days!!! So every night I kept thinking to myself this will all be over with they have to get our power on tonight.  Next morning it was Ella's birthday and it was 57 degrees in the house!  Poor Ella had layers of clothes on while opening her presents, we were all so cold by that evening that we didn't even have a cupcake or candles for her. She also ended up burning her nose and top lip on our gas fireplace glass.  She didn't cry but said "Ow, mommy, ow!"   By the next morning it was now 48 degrees and I think that's when I lost my mind.  Luckily we have good friends who brought over their generator and some heaters.  When it got up to 55 I thought it was a heat wave!  We have learned our lesson and will be getting a generator this year for sure.  

    Onto happier times, we had Thanksgiving with our friends down the street and saw the movie, Tangled.  The girls loved it, Ella sat through the whole thing with the 3D glasses on!  Then it was our anniversary, we didn't do anything special because we have an overnight trip to Seattle planned in a couple weeks! 

So needless to say, I'm glad November is over, but now it's time to tackle December ;)

Toronto

Princess of course

New nightgown, she wore this for 3 days... seriously all day

Riley was "helping" Ella unwrap everything

Talent

Riley started her first team sport a couple weeks ago....SOCCER!  I am officially a soccer mom.  The first game was quite entertaining to say the least.  Riley's friend Allie is also on the team and it was funny to watch them just stand there watching the ball as the coach came up to them and told them to run after it.  By the second half of the game they were running up and down the field trying to get a foot on the ball.  Last week Riley played goalie and did a great job stopping a couple shots, she seemed to proud picking up the ball, throwing it back in play and the promptly running back to her position.  So cute!

Ella's talent lies in the spotlight as seen from the last couple posts.  This is just a little video of her singing like she always does running around the house ;)

Riley's 5th Birthday

Unbelievably Riley is now 5 years old!  I can't believe how fast these five years have gone by.  She was just my little brown eyed baby and always will be.  We threw a dance party with her friend Allie (who is 4 days younger) and invited all of their friends to a dance studio.  They had an instructor doing ballet and free dance with them.  Ella loved every minute of it, you would've thought it was her party.  She was the only 2 year old in a group of 4-6 yr old girls and followed all the directions of the teacher.  They broke for about 30 minutes for cake and presents and then went right back out there to dance some more.  Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Halloween & Future Beauty Queen?

Tonight was our church's Halloween party...which means tons of food, cake walks, games, costume contest, pie eating, etc....  During the costume contest everyone passed by on stage.  Riley took Ella's hand and showed her what to do by taking her the first time around.  Little did we know that Ella thought this was the perfect opportunity to practice her pageant queen wave.  She walked across the stage, down the stairs, and to the other side to repeat 4 more times all by herself!!  I finally got this video of her walking across for the 3rd time.  She was too funny!  I think she found her calling in life and it most likely will take place center stage.

Riley's casual strut across stage

Colorado-The Sun, the Sun!!

This past week we flew down to Colorado for my cousin's wedding.  This would also be the first time my parents have seen Jarom's parents in 8 years!  The wedding was at Red Rocks, which is just beautiful, I can't believe I'd never seen a concert there when we lived there.  The girls were bouncing off the chapel's walls, so I had to contain them with the Iphone through the whole ceremony.  The reception wasn't much better since it was past their bedtime and they hadn't eaten dinner yet.  We went to a pumpkin patch on a nice hot sunny day (it was 80!).  The girls loved picking out the perfect pumpkin, especially Riley.  Ella just sat back on a pumpkin and sang to herself.  The last day we drove out to Morrison to visit my friend Kate (go MIAMI!)  She has two cute kiddos herself and wants us to move back ASAP!  I don't blame her, what could you not like about CO.  It sure did make me miss it.  So thank you Colorado for our yearly dose of Vitamin D.  See you again soon.

Boy stuff

So the day we found out we were having a boy, I had some sweet friends send me my first boy items.
Sarah delivered a bouquet of boy balloons and a bear, made me cry!  Then a girl from Jarom's work bought us our first little Guess outfit and a picture frame.  This is definitely going to be fun buying something other than pink and tutus!

Baby BOY!

The day I had been waiting for has finally come and my instincts were actually right this time.  I just somehow felt different about this pregnancy and hoping there was a reason.  The ultrasound tech announced right away that "it's a boy" and I just couldn't believe it.  So many things just started going through my mind, decorating the nursery with sports themes, buying all new clothes, and how the girls were just going to adore their baby brother.  I knew that Heavenly Father had a plan and this little miracle seems to complete us.  I tear up just thinking of him.  The tech said that our little boy has long legs, (just like the girls did) and a big head (uh oh).  He's also been measuring 4 days ahead of schedule.  This could be the athlete Jarom always wanted ;)   We are so excited and can't wait to meet him soon.

It's a BOY picture

First day

I know I haven't posted anything in exactly one month, but I seriously couldn't think of anything to post.  I've been so wrapped up in waiting to find out the sex of our baby (not till next week).  So here's Riley's first day of her last year of preschool.  I can't believe she's been in preschool for 3 long years! She seems very ready for kindergarten.  A lot of her friends are already there so it leaves her with just one other girl in her class this year.  One day last week she had a meltdown because her friend was out sick.  When I picked her up later that afternoon she was back to normal and said "I guess I have to play with those boys now."  

Ella wanted a picture too

I put Ella's hair in a ponytail for the first time, she looked so much older!

Parents in Seattle

This week my parents came to visit and we had sunny beautiful weather all week for a change.  We went to Tillicum Village on Blake Island, lots of yummy salmon and amazing views of the city and mountains.  The next day we were of to Chateau St. Michelle, a local winery just east of Seattle.  The girls entertained themselves by collecting acorns while we sat on the lawn enjoying the day.  We also went to the Point Defiance Zoo and saw the cute baby tiger cubs.  Saturday we took the Sounders train from Tacoma to Seattle and saw a Mariners game.   Luckily they have a playground in the stadium, but near the end the girls got into the chanting of "I chi RO!!"  Unfortunately they lost.  I think everyone had a great time, it's always hard to say goodbye until next time.

Our little starfish

Camel ride with Nana

Parasailing over the needle

Sounders train

Tillicum village

Winery