Snow Day

The night of the Super Bowl it started to snow but we didn't think much of it. Well, jokes on us, we woke up to about 13 inches of snow!!! Because we live in such a hilly area with very few (if any) snow plows, everything pretty much got cancelled. Ethan's whole team stayed home, stores didn't open, the school shut down, etc. It was actually a lot of fun. No one really had snow gear, but we made do. Madison hated the snow pants that we found for her and refused to even move which is a shame because she was genuinely excited about all the "no" outside.  Kelsey only had rain boots and size two snow pants, so we saran wrapped the top of her boots closed from her knees to her ankles to keep her dry. It didn't protect from the cold, but it was better than nothing and was pretty smart if you ask me. Ethan even took Kelsey sledding, but we don't have a sled so they took a baby mattress that we had in the garage. It was hilarious to see them walking away holding that thing. I'm sure it didn't work every well but they came home smiling.

All the neighbor kids played outside together for days. This "snow castle" was a result of one of their outings. 

Don't be fooled. I had to carry Madison to that spot and she didn't move an inch.























See...

Kelsey and Daniel played outside for hours. He wanted tot teach her the art of snowman rolling. It was the cutest thing to listen too.
"Push!" he would say
"I'm trying but I am very little" she would say. It was so cute























The rain quickly came back and by Thursday it was gone, but those two days were great.
It rained ALLLLLLLLLLLL day Wednesday and Thursday. We got a pretty cool thunder storm out of it though which is unusual.

January

In the spirit of avoiding complete negativity about January, I thought I would just recap with our best pictures. Thats pretty typical, but hopefully it will shake me of the "dark cloud" feeling and remind me of Hawaii and sunshine and all the good we have going for us. Things are rolling and we are figuring out a routine, but the dark skies have been harder than we had prepared for. Alas, the sun doe shines occasionally, it hasn't rained in literally 4 days, and we have lots of friends who care for us and look after us. Life is good. Really good. I just need reminders sometimes.  I shouldn't, but I do.

 It snowed, but it looked pretty

 Madison is ALWAYS teasing people. ALWAYS!! I love this picture because it perfectly shows the dynamic of these two. Not related to this picture, but one of Madison's favorite games right now is to bring us a  picture of Princess Jasmine and say "O dis?' We then say Jasmine and she quickly goes "Noooo," and bursts out laughing. She does this until we call her a princess instead of Jasmine. Its hilarious. She loves to tease people

 Madison, is a HUGE cheeser. She adds this breathy inhale to her laugh for effect and always milks the attention. I love it. and you know what, I think she does it not just for the attention she gets, but because she likes making people laugh. Its fun to watch

 We got Madison a bubble machine thinking she would love it. She does not.

Beautiful January morning

 I was taught how important a written thank you note is and what it can do to people and although I am not perfect, I hope to pass this on to my girls. Most thank you notes just get thrown away and I'm okay with that. Its the action. So many people have helped us in so many ways and because of that life is now simple and happy. We are so grateful and I hope that we always remember to acknowledge that we have been given much. We were writing notes and I asked Kelsey who she was writing to and she replied that she was writing Santa a thank you note. Um... yeah. My heart melted. She is an incredibly good person.

 She has been growing out of naps lately, but every now and then she just crashes and its so cute

 

When we got back from Hawaii, we got in late Saturday night so the girls were surprised on Sunday morning. It was a fun morning. 

 Always one for the flare. Kelsey si awesome

 I asked her to smile

 The art of dress up is being passed down with no hiccups

That is called the sun. We probably can count on one hand the number of days we saw it in January. I know thats normal. We are just still used to it.

 I hurt my neck AGAIN! I am so mad. This time I literally took a step and hear a pop. I'm not even 30!! This time it only lasted about 3 days of bad and then only a week of stiff so thats good.

 I find myself getting lazier and lazier in the morning. Those diapers are really close to changing themself

 We found a bounce house and every time she went down she would scream "SPLASH MOUNTAIN!"  I am so proud

 Screen time and "dede" Does life get better?

"Hep me. Up" She loves watching me get ready in the mornings

 Madison got super sick and was up all night. I have no recollection of this moment. We were both OUT!
Also, every time Madison sees people sleeping she goes "shhh. seep. Mama. Bebe."

Ethan and I went to the Amazon holiday party at Century Link field. It was basically a huge club but it was entertaining. They had DNCE come (lame but it happened), food EVERYWHERE, games, crafts, dancing, drinking, and so much more. this party hosted 60,000 people so you can imagine just how loud and crazy it was.  It was super entertaining to watch happen. Some people are nuts

For a part of the party we went out on the field. We tried to kick a field goal, but the line was 2 hours long so we had to pass. 

I'm finding my hair gets curlier and curlier the more it rains. I love it because that means I don't have to do it as much

Christmas and New Years

xsWe decided to stay home for Christmas this year. It was a difficult choice becasue we love being surrounded by family, but we also really enjoy waking up Christmas morning in our own homes. It was a long decision, but ultimately, we decided to stay. The pass kept closing too which was scary to think about anyway, so that kind of helped our decision process.

Even though, together we made the decision to stay home, that definitely changed Ethan's time off. If we were to leave, he would have gotten more time off than if we were to stay. that is a huge fat duh, but I was being a real baby about it. On the night of the 22nd, I was having a hard time. It wasn't that I didn't want to be home, its just that I wanted the week to feel different and it wasn't. Anyway, Ethan being the Mary in our George/Mary relationship took matters into his own hands even though he has having a crazy frustrating week at work. He gathered us around the table and we all glued pompoms to green and red paper (amazingly more fun than it sounds). Then we started doing these mazes while listening to Muppet's. I don't know how it happened, but suddenly I walked into the room and Ethan was sitting on the floor shirtless while the girls giggled and put stickers all over his back. It sounds incredible ridiculous, but he really is such an optimistic person. He can lighten any mood and has brought more laughter into our home than anyone else. I am so grateful for his willingness to do anything and try anything and be anything for the sake of happiness.

I love mail the week of Christmas. Even though we purchased most of the packages, it still feels like getting gifts.

On the 23rd it snowed the same wet sticky snow that it normally does, but Ethan still made the most out of it. As soon as Ethan got home from work, he grabbed a cookie sheet and made us all follow him to the park (some of us whined the whole way) and pushed the girls around on a cookie sheet. I actually lost a cookie sheet that day, but it was worth the laughter.

That night, we gathered as many "family-less" people as we could and did a little nativity with the kids. It was an absolute bust, but it was a fun excuse to get together.  

For Christmas Eve afternoon, we were invited to the Nielson's house for a white Elephant gift exchange and Hors d'oeuvre.

After the party it was time for our fancy dinner, skyping with my parents, our Christmas fireside and making treats for Santa. Kelsey acted exactly like we wanted her too. She was so excited that she literally couldn't control her self. It was so much fun.

Kelsey couldn't go to bed fast enough and Madison had no idea what the big deal was. We let her stay up and watch Emmo and she was in Christmas heaven. Plus.. I mean seriously... look how cute she is!

Ethan kept talking about getting Christmas jammies. I just assumed that he meant for the girls, so I was shocked when we went to Target and he headed for the mens section only to return with these!!! I got a matching set, naturally. We were quiet the Christmas Spirit team.

Christmas morning. What do you even say. The girls woke up early, couldn't get down the stairs fast enough and were completely overwhelmed by everything. It was so exciting and fun. We stopped opening gifts around 9 to eat and get ready for church, and then resumed after some serious naps. Church was really nice. It was really fun to wish people a Merry Christmas and mean THAT DAY, but we also heard some amazing musical numbers including In the Bleak Mid Winter by the Jasinski family. Incredibly peaceful.

There was lots of happiness and sharing that accompanied the fighting and screaming.

 

Christmas breakfast: berries and cream

You know. Its funny. As a kid, you get so excited to get gifts and then somewhere in life you get so excited to give gifts. And then you get to the point where you don't even want to give gifts becasue you know that the person will just return it so you start shopping for yourself. Ethan and I have welcomed this new stage with open arms. We returned probably 80% of what we gave each other with zero hurt feelings. I think this coat was the only thing Ethan kept that I gave him and he picked it out: size and all. Ha! the true spirit of Christmas right there.

Santa always knows...

Christmas we spent visiting with family, putting together puzzles, playing outside (it was really freezing but sunny) and just enjoying having dad around. Normally I love keeping the Christmas stuff up until New Years but this year I was ready for it to come down. On Monday we spent the whole day getting it all down and it felt awesome. I love finding places for the new toys and having a fresh start. I don't know why I felt the need earlier this season, but I embraced it.

Ethan had to quickly go back to work because we were still building up for Hawaii, but it actually was okay. The week before New Years was really sunny and we stayed busy because Aunt Kay was coming into town.  She got here on Friday and stayed until Monday. A much needed visitor.

We took Aunt Kay to Snoqualmie Falls and showed her what the color green looks like. I think she enjoyed it

go big or go home. She is using three straws

I love New Years. I always have, but this year I just felt zero need or want to party. We had finger food and went to a chocolate store and played Farkle like a million times, but by 7:30 the girls were in bed and we had no plans. Kay offered to babysit, but we didn't even feel up for a date. Instead, Kay and Ethan decided to go to Rogue one and I did a puzzle while watching Poldark. It was one of the best New Years I can remember.  Because of the movie (and my obsession to complete puzzles) we ended up staying up until midnight, but after our ice cream it was bed time!

We awoke the next day to TONS of snow. Like church cancelling amount. Since we have 1 pm church, we didn't get cancelled, but all the other wards did. Don't know how I feel about that :) I will admit that it was beautiful. I'm glad it didn't snow tons, but it really is so pretty to wake up to freshly fallen snow.

Kay left Monday and then we were officially in Hawaii mode. It was so nice to have Kay here. So easy to have her here. She really is such a joy in our lives. The girls remembered her completely which was so fun and it felt as though we hadn't even left. We love Aunt Kay and miss her terribly.