Merry Christmas everyone

This makes me smile. The whole family, right there on the mantel. I cherish it.

We told the Christmas story via flannel board last night for family home evening, and then watched the Nativity movie. It's amazing how powerful the Spirit can be in our homes as we testify of Jesus Christ. May His Spirit bring you joy, peace, and love in this happiest of all seasons.

:) Margaret

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Yeah, knowing me, I won't get around to blogging this weekend. So, here's your merry Christmas early! :)

Adam is still very much into detailed drawings... methinks we will have an architect in the family.

I just wanted to note the difference-- these pictures were taken about a week apart, around her birthday... but above, she looks 3. Below, she looks 2. Amazing what ponytails will do. :D

Cute either way.

And here is little Rebecca-- she's very close to walking. Maybe for Christmas.

Have a wonderful Christmas-- I hope it's restful!

pumpkins for all!

Here are Steve's and my pumpkins, respectively. The kids had us do bats and moons on mini pumpkins and they fell apart after a day, so I didn't get pics.




And Rebecca likes to attack the stuffed pumpkin!

costume pictures!

I finished their costumes last month, but was waiting until the leaves started changing to take pictures. Unfortunately, it is darn near impossible to take a picture of a baby who can't wait to crawl out of the shot, so I settled for pictures by our front door. Enjoy the insects!

Two butterflies and one caterpillar.

Yeeeaah, who ever thought up the phrase "cheese" for photos?!

Small and fuzzy!

*sigggh* Adam. Who knows why he does the things he does? Cute, though.

My fave. Two gigglers and one deftly exiting the photo frame.


And, just fyi, my husband and I will be completing the family ensemble as trees.

country village and stocker farms

In our beloved October tradition, we've been heading out to fun fall activities each weekend. So far, we've gone to the Country Village and Stocker Farms. Both very fun.

Train rides! Whee!

Most of a family photo. With corn. :)

A corn box, instead of a sand box. Pure genius! I've been wondering if we could manage one...

easter, birthdays, and a little down time

Soo... we're having a rather busy few weeks.

First, Steve had a birthday. It wasn't a big deal, really, just involving turning 30!!!

Oh yes, I made him have all the candles. :D

But I digress. He got a Kinect for his birthday and it's fabulous! Adam will demonstrate a driving game:

See how there's no controller? This thing is amazing.

Then, it was Easter. The Bunny did his usual thing of bringing small outdoor toys and new books, plus hiding candy-filled eggs in obvious places so a 2- and 4-year-old could find them. The Bunny courteously comes to our house on Saturday so Sunday is not wrecked with sugar-filled insanity. :)

Here they are, both playing with the baby's new blocks. Baby toys, apparently, are always more fun.

Next, we have some guests coming this weekend as we are blessing Rebecca, and then next week is our 7th wedding anniversary.
And after all that, you may not hear from us for a while.
:) kidding.

In other, less-important news, we got a second bouncy chair so we could have one on each floor. It's rather cushy and Rebecca likes it. It also plays harp music, which I really appreciate.


I also enjoy having a baby with enough hair to put a barrette in.


We also took a little trip to the Mukilteo Lighthouse beach so the kids could throw rocks in the ocean. It amuses them to no end, and resulted in Steve's brilliant new house rule of "We only throw rocks at the beach."


(Our house has these decorative rocks they liked to throw... anyway.) That's what we've been up to.

Merry Christmas!

Yay! Merry Christmas!

We've had a wonderful day and our kids have been thoroughly spoiled by Santa, grandparents, and aunts and uncles. Thank you everyone, and your card will be in the mail Monday. :D

New toys!

First look at what Santa brought (this was the first year that Adam understood what Santa is and got excited in advance).

Yes, he got his chainsaw!

I hope every one of you got to spend lots of time with your family and friends, and that you were able to truly feel the spirit of the season. I'm grateful for this time of year to remember our Savior's birth and the miracle of His coming and the great Gift He gave to each of us. I hope we can remember to be like Him all the year long.

Love,

Margaret

the extra-long catch-up post

So, yeeeah. Turns out blogging just falls to the bottom of the to-do list when you're moving. BUT.... we are all moved in, and almost every room is unpacked! And I have to say, we are in love with our new house! We want to post pictures but not to brag, so I think we'll just post a few as we get our rooms in order, curtains up, etc. So more good stuff to come in 2011! :)

As for the rest of November and December, here's some things we've been up to:

This is how we crash after moving and not getting naptime (this was around 4:30pm).

Thanksgiving in our new house-- yippee!
I love how there's room for our table with both leaves in!

Playing at the Pacific Science Center.

Going to see the Bellevue Botanical Gardens lights.

First picture with Santa-- they got pretty scared!

Adam's letter to Santa, showing Santa (middle) bringing Adam (right) a chainsaw (left).

It was wonderful to have some family up for Thanksgiving, we loved playing with everyone and managed to have some good times despite the crazy SNOW and the fact that we were moving!

pumpkin fun

So, two Saturdays ago we did actually go to the zoo; it was rainy, but we still had a great time! A lot of the animals were inside next to their glass viewing areas, and there weren't many people there. We took our time enjoying elephants, jaguars, tigers, otters, and more! The kids got to play in Zoomazium, which is an indoor zoo-experience playground for kids. SO FUN! If you're ever at Woodland Park Zoo, you must go!
The kids actually enjoyed the carousel rides most; to this day Adam will remember it in his prayers. We took several pictures, but we only had Steve's phone and it just couldn't handle the distance, lights, and twirling...
We did, however, get decent pictures of what we did last Friday... pumpkin carving!
Our friend came over and this is what we all came up with. (Adam and Nicole "helped" with the scooping out, then they went to bed.)

Steve's

Mine

Y's

Halloween Costumes

This year I decided to take a break from costume-making, and though part of me regrets it, most of me is SO DARN RELIEVED that costumes are already finished and ready for Halloween.

To celebrate, I decided to do some photo ops in a nearby park. Nicole is very hard to wrangle; she would run waaaay off and Steve would have to chase her (example: in the second picture, you can see a teeny Nicole followed by her Daddy). Adam, on the other hand, loves having his picture taken and was more than willing to pose for me. Here they are, our little Pumpkin and Butterfly:




Happy Haunting!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the fabulous mothers I know; may your kids get you chocolate instead of colds. :)



Actually, Steve tried his very best to help us all feel better and let me get some rest. So even though it wasn't an ideal day, he got me flowers and made the best of it. Thanks, bunny.

Happy Easter!

Easter was a lot of fun at our house-- it was General Conference weekend, so we got to stay home and watch, and our kids got to play with their Easter stuff.

The Easter Bunny had a great time hiding baskets...

and eggs....

and pictures of the Savior for the kids' rooms.

Nicole didn't hunt any eggs past the first one-- once she discovered they held candy, she grabbed on tight until we pried the melted chocolate out of her hand.

Adam, on the other hand, LOVED finding "Eeeeaaas-ter eggs" and had a blast, especially when he, too, discovered that they held candy and not "medicine," as he originally thought (like we've ever had medicine the size of Reese's mini eggs... that would be one hard pill to swallow!)

Both of them enjoyed their toys, chocolate bunnies, and especially the bubbles that the Bunny brought.

And those of you who know my nickname for Steve probably get why this is one of my favorite mornings... "Happy Easter, Bunny!" :D

ready for bunny time

Since General Conference is on Easter this year, I had the kids wear their new clothes last Sunday. (Thanks, Lisa, for Adam's cute set!)



Apparently Adam does not smile in the morning. And if you're wondering why I didn't use any of the adorable, girly barrettes I have that would have matched this dress, may I direct your attention to this post.