Christmas

This is the scene after Santa made his visit this year. We are one step closer to a chimney for Santa. We now have a heater with a fireplace light show. This was our first Christmas in our own home. My parents came to Seattle to share the holiday with us. The more the merrier!



Here are the sweeties anxiously waiting to go downstairs on Christmas morning to check out the spread.



Seth's initial reaction to his new bike was utter confusion because he hadn't asked for one. He warmed up to the idea, but within 20 seconds ran to his stocking with intense joy because he saw it had a mango in it. The mango got the biggest reaction of the morning. We should have just saved ourselves some money and gotten the kid a cornucopia for Christmas.



Ada was observant enough to notice I had broken our butter dish recently and insisted Aaron help her get me one for Christmas. They couldn't wait for me to open it.



This tutu was a huge hit.



She loves taking photos. With her own camera now, she and Aaron can share a hobby.



These posters were a big surprise and he loves them. This is Pablo Sandoval, "the Panda",



and Buster Posey.



Maybe Ada will like playing baseball more if she has her own ball and glove. Or maybe she'll just want to twirl around in a tutu all day.



After getting this gift, she immediately went to work, along with Aaron and my dad, documenting Christmas morning.



Seth loves the jacket he got from Grandma and Grandpa.



Ada got Candyland. I'm endeared toward the board I grew up with. The new board unfortunately turned Princess Frostine into a Bratz-doll-looking-hooker.



Seth loves science. He's a little disappointed that he can't fit anything his heart desires under the lens of this microscope. The kids got lice last week and he really wanted to observe Ada's head under this.



Seth got her this nightgown to try to persuade her to quit wearing the ratty old Rapunzel costume she's been wearing as a nightgown almost every night for the past year.



A volcano kit.



Her most treasured gift came from Grandma and Grandpa. We were pretty amused when she lined up all her princesses that afternoon and took portraits of them with her new camera.



A metal bat was the gift he was most hoping for. No matter the shape of the box he was about to open all morning, he'd say "maybe this is my bat!" Aaron, of course, made sure this gift was the grand finale.



Exhausted from the big morning.



Seth loves his twister game. He has to ask what's right and left on every turn still.

the joy of a christmas tutu

Merry Cookie Time

The last couple years this has become one of our new traditions, and the kids love it.


This year (as opposed to last year) the kids tried a little harder to be more meticulous with their design. All you have to do to get Seth serious about something is to make it a competition. For example, I asked the kids last week if they wanted to go for a drive to see all the Christmas trees around town. Seth was like, "eh, I just want to watch this football game." When I said, "we're going to have a competition to see who can find the best-decorated house," he was all in. A week later he's still trying to get me to commit on who won. (It was me, I was driving and had the best view--huge advantage over those little shrimps in the back seat).

Anyway, to drum up enthusiasm in this activity, the "winner" was the one with the best cookie. He and Ada were trying their best to be the most elaborate and artistic. He is still bugging me to declare him the winner. He did great, but Ada was really impressive for such a tiny little sweet.

Silly kids.

I swear this is not the blood of a slain gingerbread man. Just red frosting. (The red in her eye, on the other hand, is related to her recent eye surgery, and will dissipate in time).


The best part:

No drops in my eyes today.

Ada recently had her second surgery on her eyes for strabismus. As many surgeries as Lindsay and I have seen and taken part in, it's just so different and so sad to see your little one go through it. She was pretty brave in pre-op.

And enjoyed Finding Nemo while the OR was being prepared.

 

A week later she is doing a lot better. The first few days were rough, as she was in some pain and would not open her eyes. She was basically a blind kid for a few days. Her eyes are healing now and hopefully will be straightened out in the next few weeks. The hardest part as far as she was concerned was the steroid/antibiotic drops we had to put in her eyes for a week afterwards. She HATED that. 

The other morning she came into our bedroom while we were still asleep and woke us up saying, "No drops in my eyes today, okay? Deal, no drops." I think she was trying to catch us in a promise before we were awake enough to realize what we were doing. Funny that it was the first thing on her mind in the early hours of the morning. 

Anyway, thanks everybody for the concern and well wishes.

christmas time is here. happiness and cheer.

First time decorating our very own home for Christmas!

 

Vacation!

For the week of Thanksgiving, Aaron had his first vacation since January. It was so nice to have some time off. We made a road trip down to Ashland, OR to spend the holiday with my brothers.

Adventure hiking on Doug's property:

Silly.



Seth REALLY enjoyed spending time with his cousin Johnny.

And riding the motorcycle with his cousin Haedon.

Ada drank Martinelli's like it was crack. It might have had the same effect on her if it had been crack. (It turns her into a crazy person--she's a fiend for sugary drinks).

On our way home we stopped in Portland to visit our dear friends Jason and Olivia.



We went with them to a Christmas Tree farm where we had hot chocolate, Seth found the perfect tree, we cut it down, and brought it back to their house.



Once back in Seattle, we went the more convenient route and got a tree from Home Depot less than a mile from our house. Making memories at the Home Depot! At least we got to have a great outing with Jason and Olivia in Portland, and maybe the kids will one day misremember us cutting down OUR tree.
 

reunited

 My cousin Jenn and I are not just cousins, we're BFF cousins. The only thing that can make that relationship more satisfying, is having matching families of kids the same age and gender who are also BFFs. We got to reunite at Thanksgiving time in Oregon, and it was awesome.





The hugging, the squealing, the satisfaction of having those conversations you can only have with that person, refreshed all of us.




This is missing one thing--where's a picture of me and Jenn? Maybe if we'd done some squealing somebody would have snapped a photo of us too. Actually, maybe if we were as cute as these little sweeties we'd get some camera time.