X-mas

X-mas descended upon us this year with great anticipation that Santa and Rudolf would take the bait we left out for them. Madelyn really got into things this year, I told her that I hear noise on the roof when she woke up at 6:15am on Christmas morning and she yelled Reindeer. She was overjoyed to see all the presents hanging around under the tree and to see her stocking stuffed with gifts.

Family photo, Madelyn takes these with the camera remote, it's the only way we can get her to sit still long enough for a photo shoot.

Happy times with Zoe.

Quilt from Meme for Makena

Eating her way into a present

LOL - "Some assembly required(2hr 15min)"

The kitchen set from Santa was a huge hit.

The wrapping paper was flying fast and furious.

Ruldolf and Santa polished off the treats.

Holidays

Its a bit late, but just thought I'd post some recent holiday photos and a short post. Maddy is very much getting into the Christmas Season this year, with her favorites being Rudolph and Frosty the Snowman. Rudolph and Frosty have been spotted in many places and the songs are sung multiple times daily...and she never tires of them. Unlike Mom & Dad. :)

The girls are very cute together lately. Madelyn has a way of playing with Makena and can make her laugh like no one else. I've madly been trying to capture this on film or video, but as soon as I pick up a camera - they both stop and stare. Ughh.

The girls opening presents at a friend's party

Tigger & Pooh Book - an instant hit!

Wyatt, almost back to his normal self...still in "recuperating mode" so says the lazy cat who sleeps just about all the time!

Garden D'Lights at Bellevue Botanical Garden

Dinner at The Ranch in Bothell....mmm Grilled Cheese & Fries

Makena enjoying some Meme time over lunch one day

Rudolf

We've had a rough week to start off December. It started with Makena getting 4 shots last week and the multiple day fallout from that has included lots of fussiness, more missed naps than we can count and to top it off she managed to catch a cold and has decided to start waking up at 4:30am, Groan. We love her dearly but she's has most defiantly cracked us this last week. I get so tired that I put myself to sleep during Madelyn's 1:30 nap and Karin goes down for a evening nap at 5:30pm after Makena goes to bed.

Somehow in the mist of all of this we cut down a tree planted it in our living room, it has lights up but we ran out of energy for the ornaments. Madelyn is way in love with Christmas this year. She loves Rudolf most of all, she might be disappointed to learn that Santa delivers the presents.

Lunch at Swanson's nursery last Tuesday.

Frosty the Snowman hat :)

Swanson's has a Camel, miniature donkey and two Reindeer to gawk at. The Camel is above Karin's head. He gets fed Marshmallows for a treat.

The Girls


Looking for Rudolf's red nose.

Turkey Day

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to everyone. Hope you all enjoyed your Turkey Day fixings. We hosted this year and somehow Karin managed to pull off Thanksgiving. Melissa, Jesse and new baby Lilliana stopped by as well. Dad was out sick with the flu so he got most of the leftovers.

Melissa, Jesse and Lillianna
What we appear to be most thankfully for is that Makena has stopped moaning, she seemed to moan for 90% of the time for the better part of the last three weeks and definitely pushed us over the edge. The two girls are interacting more, when Makena is in her exer-saucer Madelyn will show her how all the toys work much to her younger sisters delight.

"I do that all by myself"

Life has been a bit chaotic for the last few weeks. Well who are we kidding, the last few months. But what I really mean is we are in a new phase with Makena and its just a bit tougher. Hard to point to a reason why, it just is. So Michael started this post a week ago and I'm just now finishing it up. I found a photo taken back in October of the two girls (the one above) that I love. Its pretty damn hard to get them to pose together, let alone capture these sweet moments.

Cereal's good. What else ya got?

Makena loves to check out her sister. Maddy will get down on her level and stick her face right up to her and say, "Hi BK", this makes BK break out into huge grins. She still brings Makena toys if she thinks she does not have enough, most of the time that means 8-10, rather than the 2-3 that Dad gives her. And Madelyn is finally starting to call her "Makena" but we still hear "BK" occasionally. Makena's hair is still sticking straight up. Sleep continues to be a roller coaster. Some days are good, some are not so good. Probably more sleep training work ahead for us, fun. We have started on rice cereal with her as well. It took her a few days to get onto the eating bit, but she seems to like it.

Maddy eating Dad's Pesto Pizza. Hard to believe, but here is proof.

Madelyn favorite phrase this month is, "I do that all by myself", the little woman just wants to be able to do everything, and as long as it does not involve kitchen knives, paint or large power tools, we will let her have a go at it. The second favorite phrase is "Watt Dis?" (What This) And its asked over and over and over. Curious George is her favorite character right now, she just loves that little monkey to no end. She really got into Halloween this year so the holidays should be more fun with her this year. I love how little things still excite her, we showed up at the Doc the other day for H1N1 and seasonal flu shots, she squealed with delight over the fish tank in the lobby, grabbing my hand and dragging me over to the tank several times to make sure I saw the fish also.

Look they are both looking at the camera and smiling. Another small miracle.

Amelie and Makena laughing, while Maddy is passing out more toys.

Halloween Pictures II

Cow at Country Village

Toddler Class

Feeling Better

Rough week but we have put our first 2 child sickness behind us. Makena is up to all sorts of new tricks on a daily basis now. She rolls over, as well as crawls on her back by arching it up and down she can make it 3-4 feet. Big smiles are always easy to coax out of her. She will grab anything within her reach and if it's interesting enough, into the mouth it goes.

She's also discovered her feet :)

Tigger

Still needing practice dressing

This shot is not a one-off thing. Maddy grabs her dolly, finds a nursing pillow and just like Mom does to Makena, feeds her baby. The funny part about this is she sticks the doll on her belly-button (she has an outie). She continues to do somersaults in toddler class while the whold class has circle/song time. Sad day today, we ate the last of the season's raspberries from the neighbors berry patch.

Uggg Sick

Makena's first cold is 3 days old and she's a complete mess, not eating or sleeping well. The rest of us have avoided it so far but's it's making for some exciting tense times around the house. One sick kid was manageable last year, but a active 2 year old and sick kid are tough to manage.

Makena and Madelyn are starting to interact with each other, Maddy can get Makena to giggle and kick her legs. She'll also do a sympathy cry, the other night Makena woke up crying after we put the girls to bed and Maddy decided that if Makena had something to cry about she should chip in and cry about it also.

Madelyn continues to be Madelyn, I took her to toddler class on Friday and while everybody circled up and sat on laps for song time she decided to entertain everybody with not one but five somersaults in the middle of the circle. Sit on a lap? Why do that when there are all these great toys hanging around and I can show off? She still in love with all things Curious George, in addition to watching his show she has a few of his books that we continue to read over and over and over again, if Dad reads another one he is going to $hit a banana. Mom bought her a Dora the Explorer flashlight and she enjoys locking herself in the pantry or bathroom so she can check things out with it, "Oh my Gosh", is heard several times when she gets a hold of something this exciting. Words and sentences are tumbling out of her mouth at a furious rate, she talks in her crib to herself for about an hour every night.

On to other good news, Karin signed us up for Pictures for a Purpose again this year. proceeds from the photo shoot go to fight child trafficking, how can you beat that? Our photographer, Kara Hicks, coaxed a few great pictures in of the girls in between the tears. It was a pretty stressful shoot, though only 20 minutes. We'll have to try the whole family next year. Yes once we pay for the CD the watermark will be removed.

Not a Happy Camper