12/28/11

This is what I did with the rock salt from our advent wreath…
I dyed it with food coloring and placed in a pan for Simon to play with. This kid loves sensory play so this was a huge hit with him.

The invitation

after playing with it for awhile he went and got some matchbox cars to add to it. He said what he made in the photo was a birthday cake.

changing up the blog made me realize how little I blogged in 2011 and how I blogged almost no client stuff. So Now I am going to remedy that. I’m going back though 2011 and I am going to post all the stuff I missed only I am going to post it out of date order, I will leave it that way for a month or so and then resort it in order. So for the time being I am just going to leave this little note up to signify that the post are mixed up and out of order.

Normally Myles takes the week between Christmas and New Year off for some family time but this year he was working on a big deadline so we decided to just take New Year’s weekend and get out of town. We went up to Leavenworth WA and had a blast enjoying the outdoors and the pool!

Our awesome friends the Citros loaned us their chariot ski trailer. This totally solved the problem of Simon being too heavy to carry but too young to really ski and keep up.  Of course now we want a chariot but it will need to be a double becuase already Talia is getting pretty heavy!

My shoulders were pretty sore after 2 days of carrying her like this.

beautiful lake Wenatchee

The kids roughhousing with their dad. I loved this becuase  I have a lot of memories of roughhousing with my dad in the pool.

the pool was super steamy and hot (nice warm water too) this made my camera lenses fog up really bad (hence the hazy quality of the photos) and also Talia’s glasses.

Sometime between Christmas and New Year Talia went from being a “cruiser” who occasionally took steps to a full blown toddler. Here she is doing her super cute waddle.

And sledding… I think the adults might have had more fun than the kids.

I can’t believe how fast this month has gone. I could just stay awake staring at her.

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We spent Thanksgiving with Myles’s family this year. Grandma and Grandpa Brown have been visiting and we along with Myles’s Aunt, Uncle and Cousins had dinner at his Grandparents house. We had a very relaxing day – me especially since I didn’t have to do anything. Myles made our contribution to the meal – sweet potatoes. Instead of using the traditional marshmallows on top he made it with caramelized apples and it was amazing. I think it may become a new family standard. Afterwords we played games, visited, and sang songs. All around it was a great day!

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and a surprise kiss from big brother. I am so incredibly thankful for these kiddos.
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I think we will be seeing a lot more of this floor!

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This is not an original idea, I copied it from my friend Brooke but it’s a good one so it’s worth sharing.  This is just a simple way to help us focus on the many blessing in our lives. All you do is cut out a tree trunk from brown construction paper , stick it to a window, and then leaves out of colored tissue paper.  We keep the leaves in a small basket on our table and when we sit down for dinner we take turns saying and writing on the leaves things for which we are thankful.  It took a few days for Simon to get the hang of it and understand what “Thankful” really means but he’s got it now. And what I love about it is that it’s not limited to dinner anymore. Any time Simon sits at the table he asks me “Mommy, what are you thankful for?” It’s a good reminder of how truly blessed we are. Thanks Brooke for the great idea.

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Well I got my snow. Not much by Alaska standards but it’s enough to shut the entire city of Seattle down. Don’t worry I only took her outside for about 60 seconds to take this photo and she was dressed in 3 layers.

And Tonight Simon read Talia a bedtime story.  Here he is “reading” Goodnight Gorilla, if you are not familiar with the book it’s mostly pictures. It’s a very cute book and Simon has memorized it. He really is so sweet to her, he calls her sweetie and kisses her head constantly.