Takin' it back.
All the way to Christmas '08 ;-)

Patrick was stuck in California due to the nasty weather we were having up here, so we were lucky to have Nanny and Papou come stay with us and celebrate.

Christmas Eve
Lan eating dinner (with unpictured Papou).

Moon crashed out with Alice. Even Lan couldn't wake her. This made for a late night; hard for Santa to do his business.

Cookies and Milk out for Santa

Santa came, leaving a Tree!!! (thanks neighbor Vera!)
And some great presents for Moon and Lan.
Lots of work to do very quietly. Santa was thankful for Papou's help.

The kids were up around 7:00.
Stockings!

And Pink Cakes!!!
All Moon wanted for Christmas was pink cake. We were lucky for an "elf" named Joi (sorry friend if you are an elf-hater!!!)

Moon had a great morning playing dress up. The new props were perfect.

Including a Singing in the Rain umbrella

And a Gabriella from HSM dress up kit. Auntie Joe knows her girl!

Oh the fashion!
Moon also did some listening to books read by cousin Kate, Nanny and Papou. We started the very cool idea this year and are so happy that we did. Not only does it encourage reading, it's helping the kids stay closer to the family.

After the morning fun, Nan and Papou left and we went to pick up Papa at the airport.
I took a picture on the way to try to capture the iceburgs and lakes on the road.
Nasty, nasty drive.

It took so long to go the few miles to the airport and our own JT fell asleep.
Cute stuff.

Merry Late Christmas to all of you!

Moon's Pink Birthday!

Snack land, with oranges and Tings and Veggie Sticks Potato Chip Things.
Oh, and Pink Cupcakes.

The living room. This really doesn't capture the PINK that was going on. The ceiling was draped in pink and Kathryn made these great decorations.

The pink drawing wall. Davina, Echo's mama, drew these pretty birds and the sun above outlines of the kids. Very sweet.
Here is the line up from early in the party. Owie, Emma, and the birthday girl in her fancy Nanny dress. Don't you love all of the participation in the pink clothing?!?
Papa did some serious entertaining.

And got his workout.

There was the cake.

Presents.

Small moments of near meltdown.

And PLENTY of sweet moments.

Definitely a hit. Will we do pink again? I really hope not.
However, I am saving all of this tulle (81 feet, to be exact) for some special little girls who may request such a party later... ;-)

Happy New Year, Dear Ones!

As I slowly upload...

Christmas Eve
Our kind neighbor Vera brought over the stuff to make a gingerbread house with Moon.
We used a bamboo skewer to keep the house upright, but Moon thought they were decorative and added a few more.
You can see that the gingerbread family suffered something very terrible inside their house.
More when I put pics from the good camera onto the computer!

On day 100, we decided to carry on with our holiday plans.

Papa went to California and the kids and I headed to Washington.
Patrick missed his flight into Cali and I think we should have taken it as a sign that we didn't have an easy road ahead of us this holiday season.

On the road...

A stop in Chehalis to see Papa Mike and clean off a layer of filth from my windshield.

We had a stop in Tacoma to meet up with Sarah and Emma for lunch and a run through Freighthouse Square. The girls were classic in their disasters, including Moon refusing to wear one of her shoes because her foot was hot. So we had to end that fun and hit the road ;)

We checked in to the hotel and spent some time with these people.
And the next day with this guy

And this lady (and the unpictured Papou)

And this lady, who Moon crafted up a storm with.

This guy was around, but pretty cranky. He did check out the spinning machine though.
The snow was so heavy that Patrick wasn't able to fly home on Sunday and we certainly weren't able to drive home. So our adventure continued!

We spent a fair amount of time trying to find these places to keep Mama happy and managing.

Papou's sister let all of us crash at her place. Moon was happy to have Nanny's Alice dog around.
Thanks Bill and Elaine!

On a serious note, we really did have such a great time in Tacoma. It was so nice to spend some real time with our family and a bit of time with friends. Getting snowed in has its advantages. I wish I had taken more pictures of things other than the snow!

But here we are, on the way home. Thanks Nan, for coming back with us!

Merry Christmas!

The Snow Chronicles

Day 1, a dusting. Something to be excited about.

Day 2, special under gear in place.

enough snow to be interesting

Moon's first (and only) snow angel

A bit of OCD behavior

Note the snow level of the car

Most of our involvement with the snow was really like this:

More terribly exciting pictures of snow to follow in later posts. Aren't you excited?

What we were doing before it got really cold.

Walking to Starbucks. We did go on Wednesday, but it wasn't good.
Here are a couple pictures from happier times.

Moon is always a picture of fashion while Lan always looks just like a baby whose Mama dresses him funny.

PINK. Pink has been going on for a long while now, but this picture really personifies Moon and her pinkness.

A close up of the slippers

Plenty of trips to the Swap Shop. We just really love this place. It's a membership based community playspace where toys are brought in by members and can be traded out at anytime. There is also a room for swapping clothing and other stuff. There are so many other wonderful things about the Swapper, I could go on forever.
Lan loves that he can really play with the big kids here. It is so safe and fun for both kids.

Lan cruising on the bike

An impromptu musical jam. Good times!

Finally, Lan in the kitchen.
He has taken over Moon's spot at the cupboard and oven. I will have to post some pictures of Moon in the same spots. So cute.

In other missed exciting news...

A little Henny Penny came flying into my house after being scared half to death by NANNY'S Wild Dog ;-)
She quickly went from table to the top of the shelf. Poor Henny. I think she has recovered now.

Wildly behind...

Just a few snippets from a couple weeks ago.

Moon was having a rough day and we were struggling to pass the time. She suggested a music jam. We put (bag over my head) the High School Musical 3 soundtrack on and had a great time.
Sorry the pictures are dark; I didn't bother to edit them.

We also took many trips to the park
Here is Moon giving Lanny a ride down the slide with little pal Kai-Mana. Still can't believe he is only 6 days older than Lan!

Cute guy watching the show go by.

Big sister enjoying the pavement at the park.