Happy Birthday To ME!

My birthday was one of the snow days.  It would have been amazing to just be home together with nothing to do, except that we were on our 3rd day of that.  It was getting less fun.  The weather was supposed to break and I was supposed to be able to teach the BodyPump launch as planned that night.  Then at about 3 in the afternoon my boss finally said that we should just cancel class.  So we got some new snow gear for the girls and headed out sledding on a tube we bought long ago in Hawaii.  Ben just hung out in the stroller.  Sarah did a bunch of tubing and Libby did a bunch of complaining.  When we got home (the tube popped) I bought of couple of snow tubes on Amazon.  Next time, we are ready.
Derek spent a bunch of time testing out his snow driving abilities (which are superb) during the day to buy me some awesome Keen shoes and red roses.  Then we tried to go out to dinner.  We tried 3 restaurants, and everything was closed.  So, I ate my birthday dinner at McDonalds.  Kind of a bust of a birthday.  Oh well.  Thank goodness the snow is gone now!

More Snow Fun

We also built a fire in our outside fireplace and invited the Fillmores over for a hot dog and marshmallow roast.   We didn't really roast many marshmallows due to an unfortunate sugar fast that is going on, (not ours :) but it was a great time with great company!

Libby and Reid getting set for some sledding speed.  I never got a picture of Sarah and Gideon, but they did some good sledding as well.  

Ben just chilled (literally) in his seat while we did some sledding.  He eventually got grumpy so I tried taking him down on a sled.  I almost dumped him on his face--he was a pretty good sport about the whole thing, I must say!

Snow Day Fun

You may have heard that we had a bit of snow here in Seattle last week.  I should have had plenty of time to blog, since everything for 3 days was cancelled, but I did spend some time playing in the snow and playing inside with the family since we couldn't do anything else.
We did a little photo shoot :)

Happy New Year (Again)

I can officially say that now because the New Year Gala that I put on for my ward was last night.  Whew.  It was a big undertaking but it turned out so well!  I don't have pictures to share yet, but the decor was lovely, the food was yummy, the flash mob was really a mob with a lot of people, and the rest of the dancing was great!  I couldn't be more pleased.  People came even though there was snow on the ground (which usually keeps Seattlites at home.)  I really felt inspired to do this to help bring our ward together, and I think it worked!

The theme was Music and Memories.  We had a waltz lesson followed by appetizers and dinner. (Each of the tables had a "table hostess" who provided the table decor and setting.  They looked so unique and cool.) Then we had a fun program with several musical numbers from various decades.  After the musical numbers we played a great game of Name that Tune and Decade--the Walker family did a great job with picking the songs and fun prizes.  Then the flash mob took the room by storm (it actually wasn't a surprise since we posted the choreography on youtube so people could start learning it at home) but it was so fun.  We danced off and on for about an hour.  (That was about all I expected--it takes a lot of conditioning or alcohol to get people to dance longer than that :)
My favorite part of the evening was my sparkly sequin dress (from Marshalls) and sparkly tinsel hair.  We had a photographer come.  I am going to try and get some pictures to post ASAP.
Anyway, I am glad it is over, but I am SO glad that we did it!

Big Man Ben

Ben reached a major milestone this week, he sat up in a shopping cart! What a big boy. I am so glad, because now I don't need to lug the infant seat around everywhere I go. I actually got the girls new carseats this week so I can use Libby's as a rear facing seat for Ben. I am not ready to give up the infant seat entirely yet though because he does take good naps in it sometimes when we are out and he needs a nap (like today at church).
He also had his 6 month check up on the 2nd (yes, he was almost 7 months by the time I got it done, I thought I had scheduled it and I hadn't. My doctor has a very busy schedule so we had to wait a couple of weeks.) Anyway, it was such a crazy week that I can't find his stats sheet from the Dr. But he weighed 16 lbs. 4 oz. She was happy with the weight gain and that is all that counts, right?

Happy New Year!

Fondue has become a New Year's Eve tradition starting with my years at USU. This year we fondued (is that a verb?) with Derek before he left for his shift at the Seattle Center. Libby hated the cheese (in fact she even told me this morning NEVER to give her ANY of that cheese again.) But everyone else LOVED it. I took the leftover chocolate and the kids to the Walker's house (some friends from church) and we had a great New Year party. We played Just Dance on the Wii. I have never been a video game fan (except for Tetris), but this changed my vision of what video games can do. It was SO fun! Everyone was dancing. Even the men! Maybe someday...One huge success was that both Sarah and Libby got used to their dog (it helped that it was a silent, small fluffy white dog). Hooray!
We got home about 9:15 and I put the kids to bed. I did some journaling and was asleep before 10:30. My kind of New Year's Eve!

A Very Merry Christmas!

We had an amazing Christmas this year!  We were all healthy, Derek had the day off, and we got to be with Derek's family, and with my family via google+.
Some highlights include the Family Fun Run put on by the Fillmore Family.  I was quite proud of my time.  We had a fun time at Maren's on Christmas Eve.  We played the bells and did a nativity with Libby as Mary and Clark as Joseph.  Christmas morning was fun watching the girls open gifts.  My favorite was when they saw the Barbies in their stockings.  They instantly rushed to their bedroom to "introduce Barbie to her boyfriend Ken."  They weren't as excited about the kitchen and table and chairs as I had hoped, but they have used them quite a bit already.  Libby was really stoked about the pistachios in her stocking.  It's the little things, right?
Then we had an hour meeting at church where Derek sang with the choir.  We ended up sitting in the front row which was a huge mistake.  Libby kept trying to dance to the music with all that space in front of her.  But the spirit was really strong with the amazing music.
Then we headed to the Norton home for Christmas brunch.  It was a super windy day and they ended up losing power.  But, because my father-in-law is such an emergency preparedness guru, it wasn't a problem.  We still had sausages and waffles cooked amazingly well on indoor emergency cookstoves.
We came home tired and did a little relaxing to finish off the evening.  We were all pretty exhausted.  Why are holidays so tiring?
 

Clark pushing Libby in the Family Fun Run put on by our friends the Fillmores on Christmas Eve Day.  He did a .5 K fun walk with Libby in the stroller.  Sarah mostly played at the start/end point.

Ben did his first 5K. I pushed the stroller and we finished in 31 minutes.  Not bad, right?

Maren was my running partner for the first 1/2 .  Due to injury she had to walk a spell, so Ben and I continued on without her, but she finished soon after we did.

One of the girls favorite gifts--a giant bear from Uncle Davey.  They immediately  named it Bruce after one of their favorite books, Big Bad Bruce.  Sometimes now it is also called Roxanne (after the witch in the book.)

I was pretty excited that Santa brought them a fun little table.  Now they have somewhere to eat when we have guests.  

With Auntie Maren on Christmas Day.

Ben at Wrestling Practice

I teach yoga to the wrestlers once a week for 1/2 hour. The kids come with and hang out with Derek and Uncle Clark in the weight room and the other wrestling room. Ben got his first mat time. He looks right at home, don't you think?

Libbyisms

Libby has been having a bit of a potty training regression. It really is all about being too busy to go potty. The other day I saw her doing a serious potty dance. I said "Libby, go potty!" She said, "I don't need to go." I said, "Yes you do! You are doing a potty dance!" Her response, "This isn't a potty dance!" (she always says this). I said, "What is it then?" I love her reply, "It's ZUMBA!"

Sarahisms

A friend at church captured this picture of Sarah at the ward Christmas party. Amazing! I love it.
She is so hilarious. This week we were listening to a bodypump song in the car called Love Changes Everything. Apparently there is something about breaking someone's heart because all of a sudden she said, "Mom, it isn't nice to break someone's heart!"
They got a little kitchen for Christmas that has a telephone. Libby wanted Sarah to put the phone down and do something else. Derek overheard her respond, "but I am just texting!"