First time for everything!

I thought it would be a few more years before Oli would be showing Brett the ropes at anything.  But the time has come...the first time for both of them to 'board through the trees. 

Oli looks very comfortable, don't you wonder if Brett looked that comfortable?

We try to keep things balanced on our blog...the good times and the bad times.  I distrinctly recall my sister thinking I was way too honest when I posted about Julia's burn on our blog.  Why not?  It is our life.  Brett wanted to share not only how proud he is of Oli's snowboarding but the very next day, this was the email we rec'd from his teacher.

Gifts

Do you have that person in your life that you cannot wait to get a gift from?  Well, that is Natalie.  I know that each time she will give a gift that is creative, one of a kind and so incredibly thoughtful.  She didn't disappoint for Little Miss J. 
And this time, she even got her mom involved who was visiting from Hawaii. 

The finished product!

A baby doll with a hand made dress that matches a hand made dress for Julia.  A handmade purse and quilt for 'baby' and the necessary accessories.  Julia LOVES it!

The very next morning after her party, I successfully got her in the dress (she has refused to wear dresses for over a month now).  And she kept saying all day, "same dress as my baby".

She feeds, changes and carries "Baby" everywhere.  It is simply adorable. 

Here we go off to daycare.  She is going to be a great big sister!

Julia's Party - more photos

Natalie has a talent in photography, as many of you know. And sometimes we are the lucky recipients of her talent and Julia's party was one of them.  Once she got there, I relinquished trying to get any pictures which was a nice relief. 

Thanks Natalie for capturing our little girls special day.

Love this...she needed just a few moments of rest and it just happened to be during her 'blow out' moment and Oli's arm was right there to offer her a place to rest. 

Oh, that is how you do it?

Dane, her boyfriend at daycare and Julia enjoying a little kiss.

Oli's Basketball Season

Oli's Kirkland Boys and Girls Club Basketball season is half over and he is really enjoying it!  Practice once a week and games each Saturday.  They unofficially keep score and seems like they have won more than they have lost (interesting how competitive us parents all get to understand who won/lost).

Here are a smattering of photos from the past month's of games.

Pulling funny faces with an opposing team.

Look at that footwork.

Posing for the camera...first game in his official basketball shoes.

Huddle up!

I imagine that we will have pictures very similar to this a decade from now...the confidence in his stride, the grown up look on his face.

Proud to be...

...an American, where at least I know I'm free.  This is the song Brett heard as he received his AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP yesterday.  Weeks of studying, digging up all sorts of documentation, and a few trips to Renton for appointments and voila, he is now a citizen. 

Someone at work suggested he deserved a fancy dinner out...instead he got a cheesy celebration at home. 

Homemade brownies decorated by the kids.  Oli chose the wording, including "Bingo, you win".  Not sure how it fits but he was excited about it.

Oli chose a drink for Daddy and it just happened to be a good ol' American beer.

Oli also suggested that we have a picnic in the entryway (something we did to make it fun a couple of weeks ago when we didn't have a kitchen).  Not exactly the fancy dinner that some might have thought was deserved but Brett said, "the picnic was even better". 

Making brownies...

Eating brownie batter...

Busy Weekend, Great Weekend!

(Guest Post from Brett!)

What a great weekend we had, full of nothing in particular but so many fun things!  We had the opportunity to spend time with some great friends which is always a plus - John & Molly on friday evening, then Nick & Marissa on Saturday -   Always a plus.  

Saturday morning our downstairs bathroom looked like this, the famous red monkeys.  Bye bye monkeys!

By saturday afternoon this is all we had left.  Unfortunately we're now in a holding pattern for our disappearing contractor to do some of the electrical work.  Sure he'll be back again soon.

We were woken up on Saturday by the chirping (well more screatching) sound of an eagle in our tree.  He was clearly calling for his buddy to join him as for a while there were two of them sitting up there.  We missed the once in a lifetime shot of getting both of them on the branch together, however were super pleased to have this one from our yard. 

Sunday was another R&R type day, filled with snowboarding in the morning & superbowl in the afternoon.   Snowboarding doesn't get much better than this, sunshine empty slopes (they must have all been waiting at the bottom) and Oli really having fun and nailing it now.  Great times!

World's Greatest Bubble Bath

The best laid plans...as part of the redecorating of our home, we decided to have the kitchen and family room cabinets painted white.  Plans to have it done while Julia and I were out of town but due to the snow, that didn't happen.  We were ready for it though, so we packed up our kitchen 2 weeks ago and while we thought that was bad, it wasn't anything compared to having the painters begin and completely barricade us from our kitchen, our appliances and our food, our family room and our laundry room.  Like camping but worse.  At least when you are camping you have a heating device and a can opener. 

They will finish up tomorrow and this hassle will soon be a distant memory as we know we will love the outcome. 

So...the bubble bath. What do you do when you have two children who you've constantly told, "no you cannot go in there, no, we cannot find your toys, nope, you cannot watch tv"....you make bath time REALLY fun!

Starts with just a few bubbles and then we turned on the jacuzzi jets...in a matter of seconds, the kids were squealing as the bubbles grew and grew!

When the bubbles started overflowing out of the tub and covering Julia's face, we called it quits. 

"Oh boy...that was a LOT of bubbles"

Here is the finished kitchen cabinets...we LOVE it!  It was so worth the disruption in our lives!!!

Happy Birthday to Me

My birthday (while a couple of weeks ago) hasn't been forgotten.  Highlights below....

Brett is a sponsor of the Revel Rad Racing youth cycling team and their annual dinner spaghetti buffet was on the night of my birthday.  Here I am with 100+ strangers eating a spaghetti dinner in Kent, WA (of all places).

Not sure when I had a plate of spaghetti...never been one of my favorite meals.  However, if I am eating burgers now, who am I to complain?

An honor to have 100+ people sing me Happy Birthday...a gesture to Brett for his sponsorhip and dedication (shown by bringing his wife on her birthday to the annual spaghetti feed).  It was great to see what Brett's help has done to allow so many kids to enjoy the sport of cycling!

Brett more than made up for it by taking the kids away and allowing me 3 glorious hours to myself to sew at home (that is when I made the bibs for Karen's new baby).  Here is a picture he sent to me while he was out with the kids running errands. 

My birthday celebrations continued with a Birthday Brunch the following weekend.  Natalie hosted a ladies only brunch (no kids!) and it was perfect.  I loved the time with the girls, I loved the way she spoiled me with creativity and kindness.  I cannot outdo her blog post for this event so check here: http://www.gossettgirl.com/2012/01/birthday-brunch.html

Party favors included the most adorable sewing kits to share my love of sewing with my friends. 

Natalie, Marisa, myself, Kirsten, Ashlie and Julie - thanks for celerbating my birthday with me!  And braving the winter driving to and from.

We enjoyed our girl talk too much until one of the husbands called and said, "I think you should head home, it hasn't stopped snowing for 2 hours".  In hindsight, wished we had gotten that call a bit sooner.

My birthday cake of donut holes!

Natalie continues to show how thoughtful she is...flat shoes to go along with my new wardrobe that only includes flat shoes.  Thanks!!