We Made It!

Merry Christmas everyone!



We made it to North Dakota with only a few glitches. Compared to most people at SeaTac, I guess I can't complain. Our flight on Monday was delayed by 2.5 hours, part because of the crew was an hour late and then we waited another hour for the catering only to have a 3 hour flight with just water. So we missed our connection in Minneapolis to Grand Forks.



Matt talked to the gate agent in Minneapolis and she was able to get us a hotel room at the Embassy Suites for the night. So we arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's on Tuesday afternoon. We had a wonderful Christmas morning with family and have been keeping busy playing in the snow, playing Mexican Train dominoes, and just relaxing. I'll probably have to post pictures when we return soon.

More snow

These are the trees outside our backyard. Matt thinks that we have recieved 12-18 inches of snow so far. We have a ton of snow!!! Hopefully we can make our flight to North Dakota tomorrow.

Baby E-ten

I've had so many pictures of John Paul, I thought I would post a few of Ethan--or E-ten as JP calls him.

Snow Day--Day 2

John Paul had another fun day in the snow. At one time, I looked outside and he was using "Lightening McQueen" as a snow plow.

Another time, I looked outside and he was just laying there. See video below

Snow Day

And the snow kept falling, and falling, and falling....in fact it is still snowing. I hope that Matt gets home from work ok.

After Ethan went down for a good morning nap, we got all bundled up to play in the snow. Man, that is a lot of gear to put on! Any tips for keeping the mittens on without getting snow under them?

John Paul in his cute snow suit! I didn't look quite so cute with my sweats tucked in my lace-up snowboots! Good thing no one was trying to take my picture!


We were in a lesson of "Never eat yellow snow."


The only thing that would get hime to come inside was the promise of marshmallows and hot chocolate. In fact, I had to take the bag of marshmallows outside to coerce him! Very yummy! Or "nummy" as JP puts it!

Snow Day videos

John Paul has a few words in this video.

Here is a translation key:
marshmallow --> some m sounding word
snow --> sounds a little like no
chocolate --> chaw-koo
yummy --> mummy

Mommy and her boys!

John Paul is really into covering up and getting under blankets. It might just be that our house is cold, but I like to think that he just likes to snuggle!

Christmas Cookies

After the photo shoot, we had a fun-filled day making many varieties of Christmas cookies. The guys played Wii and also helped with quality control.
Below are the buried cherry cookies.

And these are the spritz. In addition, we made raspberry thumbprints and Andi had made Mounds balls and Chocolate covered Cherries! Very yummy!!

Family picture time!

When we were at Matt and Andi's house on Saturday, we "borrowed" their Christmas tree for a family picture. Here are 5 of our attempts and I know I already deleted the really bad ones! Any tips for getting both of the babies and the husband to look in the same direction and smile??? I think the third one is my favorite.

Christmas Party

Friday night was Matt's Christmas party for the USS Nebraska. I hired our babysitter, Carly and her sister, Amanda, to watch John Paul, Ethan, Sydney, and Saul at Matt and Andi's house. They live on base so I thought it would be easier to leave Ethan, and we would be about 5 minutes away, if things didn't go very well. He did great! I need to not be so high strung about some things!

Here are a couple pictures of Matt and me. Which picture do you like better? I couldn't decide, so you get to see both. I like how Andi is giving us bunny ears in the first one (REAL grown up!! Haa!)

Andi and I were pretty much the best dancers there, expect for this one lady in red--she wasn't necessarily better, just danced to more songs. By herself.

However, Matt (my husband) won a prize in a dance competition--doing the Chicken Dance. Yes, no typo. He did this creative variation of the Chicken Dance and won an IPod Touch. (Mom, it is a REALLY COOL MP3 player that can connect to the internet, show movies, store pictures and music, and a lot of other things.)

Here are some of the crazy kids that Matt works with.

Jason--We had to take 8 pictures of Jason. He was very cooperative! And I kept suggesting to move the red napkin, but no one was really listening to me. Humph!
Matt (Andi's husband) wore his "formal baseball cap" with his shirt and tie and actually pulled it off!

Here is Erik and Kristina. Erik really shouldn't lean over when taking pictures.

And Luke...need I say more?

Andi and I both were cheerleaders in high school. No, not really, but look at the way she is clapping. She definitely could have been a cheerleader.

December Mom's Group

So our little group has grown! Not really added new families, just more babies/children! It was my turn to host so I thought " great! We'll do a craft project...finger-painting!" So I reserved the free community room at the Belfair Library for tables and tons of space, and gathered the paint and paper and ribbon and stickers. Only to have all of the little kids be grossed out by having paint on their hands. A few did great! We'll try it again when they are older.
The best part was lunch at McDonalds in Belfair. They have a wonderful playland that all of our kids could enjoy, by themselves!! So the Mom's actually got to talk and catch up while the little tots ran around and having a good ole time! So the picture above is of (across the back) Tyler (2), Moses (4), Lincoln (21 mos), Maisey (2), John Paul (22 mos). (front) Reese (22 mos), Austin (6 mos), Matthew (23 mos), Ethan (5 mos), Charlie (3) holding Abbey (7 mos.) Whew! And Heather (Reese's Mommy) is expecting and Anya has two more that were in school. Quite the crowd and I just love hanging out with these mom's and all of their babies!!!

Kristina and Gabriel's Wedding

My sister, Kristina, was married a month ago today! Happy One Month Anniversary! I think it is the "post-pictures-on-the-blog" anniversary. I don't have any pictures of John Paul dancing, but he LOVED the wedding dance! It was such a beautiful, fun day! Many memories!

Such a cute couple!

The five bridesmaids--my sister, Beth, is on the left and I am the pale one in the middle, and apparently the shortest!

Are we related or what?!?! And yes, I am 6 years older and about 6 inches shorter.

Just in Time for Christmas

Climbing into things is really John Paul's favorite thing to do if you

can't tell! This box isn't very big either, but he is ready to be sent to Grandma's house either way. What a surprise Grandma will have to have this box arrive on her porch. (And the surprise of the UPS man trying to carry it! Geesh!)

Afloat in our Boat

John Paul and Saul thought this storage bin would make a good boat! That and the smiles are just too funny!

As Requested...

Here are some pictures of the boys when they were each 5 months old. The order is Ethan, JP, Ethan, JP--if you couldn't tell!! One big difference is that Ethan is at least a pound or two lighter than John Paul.

Northwest Trek Wildlife Park

On Saturday, we went to the Northwest Trek Wildlife Park near Mt. Rainier. It was a lot of fun to see the animals, mostly in native habitats. We went on a tram tour and saw a moose, herd of bison, mountain goats, swans, geese, elk, and many others.
On the walking tour, we saw this Northern wolf. He doesn't look so fierce here.

Check out this Grizzly!!

John Paul and the bald eagle. This was the second time he saw it, and just wasn't as interested as the first time.

It was a fun trip and I would definitely recommend it if you are in the area.

5 Months Old!

Our sweet baby, Ethan, is 5 months old today! I was telling my mom that these 5 months have passed much more quickly than John Paul's first 5. She hit it right on the money when she said, "Well, you just can't spend all of your time watching and recording everything that Ethan does because you have John Paul." So true, but the few moments that I do remember, I just love! He is such a good natured little guy and we are so blessed to have him in our lives.

Here is a short clip of his giggles. The fancy camera work is courtesy of John Paul. He thought he needed to wear the camera strap on his wrist while I was filming.