Christmas Vacation!

First day of vacation! I slept in till 8:30--awesome. This is what one (previously clean) bedroom looked like by 9:30am...not so awesome.

I always forget what a crazy mess they can make when they put their heads (and busy hands) together.
I love the week before Christmas--I get all the heavy duty stuff done beforehand and then I jam pack the week with fun stuff. Date night tonight (our fave restaraunt and a movie...in the theater!), coffee dates, lunch dates, stocking stuffer shopping, baking, martini making, Lifetime Christmas movie watching...I love it! Hope your pre-Christmas week treats you good!

Ho Ho Ho

Two hours of wrapping this morning, only making a dent in the gift pile.

Worth it? She thinks so!

A Christmas surprise

I know I've mentioned that we love a good parade but I've never actually driven to an even smaller small town just to see one...till Saturday night. And it was worth it!

Tons of lights, bonfire, and awesome fireworks (almost as good as the fourth of July!)
And then dinner with my family:

Jemma's playing with the big girls now. Happy day.

Jack's first ever play!

That's what he kept calling it...exclamation point included. Ed had a huge work deal that week, ending with a late dinner in Spokane the night before the play that I had to be at too. So we drove home bright and early the next morning to see Jack's acting debut.

Could they be any cuter?

Brothers!

These two love love each other.

Growing up is hard to do

Henry's my late bloomer. At 14 months he still only had two teeth. Two more just popped through and he's got all four bulging on top. And then when I was getting ready to snap some Christmas card pics, he fell and punctured his cheek on the coffee table. And to top it off, he's learning the meaning of the word NO...real fast. Poor bud. But he's still awfully darn cute and my favorite part of the day is after everyone is down for a nap and he sits by me on the couch and (always) holds my hand.

Ed was in the midst of some serious travel when I came out one day to find this from my sweet Ava:

The Nutcracker!

Last weekend was our annual trip to Spokane for the Nutcracker. Just after we left town, Ava and I were wishing we'd brought Jemma along too...next year! We squeezed in a little shopping and lunch and then we stopped at the Casebolt girls' hotel room to get pretty before heading downtown for the show.

Nutcracker gift...one of my favorite parts of the day--this year was snowflake jewelry and a new purse, which got left in the car but we hurried all the way back in our heels to get it and made it to our seats just in time.

At the Fox theater. New venue (fantastic), new ballet company (not so fantastic).

My mom and the girls!

As usual we ended the day at the Olive Garden with my aunts and cousins and all their little girlies too. Tradition!

20 questions

(Have seen this around, finally tried it...too funny)
1. What is something Mommy always says to you?
Jack: I love you!
Ava: You're an awesome big sister.

2. What makes Mommy happy?
Jack: When I cuddle you.
Ava: Pizza.

3. What makes Mommy sad?
Jack: Whe I go somewhere without you.
Ava: When daddy's out of town.

4. How does Mommy make you laugh?
Jack: When you holler "woot woot"
Ava: When you burp.

5. What was Mommy like as a child?
Jack: Fun!
Ava: Naughty?

6.How old is Mommy?
Both: 33

7. How tall is Mommy?
Jack: 10 inches
Ava: 5 foot 3

8. What is Mommy's favorite thing to do?
Jack: cuddle me!
Ava: cuddle me.

9. What does Mommy do when you're not around?
Jack: Play games with Jemma?
Ava: Take care of Henry.

10. If Mommy becomes famous, what will it be for?
Jack: sewing?
Ava: The best mom of the year!

11. What is Mommy really good at?
Jack: Making us dinner and tucking us in.
Ava: Being a mom.

12. What is Mommy not very good at?
Jack: I can't think of anything! (awww)
Ava: Knitting.

13. What does Mommy do for her job?
Jack: Isn't being a mom your job??
Ava: Being a parent.

14. What is Mommy's favorite food?
Both: Pizza!!

15. What makes you proud of Mommy?
Jack: You love us.
Ava: When you sewed my skirt.

16. What do you and Mommy do together?
Jack: Snuggle up and sometimes you let me watch friends with you.
Ava: We go shopping!

17. How are you and Mommy the same?
Jack: We like to cuddle each other.
Ava: We both have blond hair.

18. How are you and Mommy different?
Jack: This is silly! You're a girl and I'm a boy!
Ava: You have soft skin.

19. How do you know Mommy loves you?
Jack: You take care of me!
Ava: You say it all the time.

20. Where is Mommy's favorite place to go?
Jack: The Nutcracker and Chinese?
Ava: The gym. And shopping.

Christmas (is coming!)

Pretend these are at the end of the last post! Blogger...grr.

Let me zoom in on that monkey in her brother's pjs:
A three year old at Christmas...lucky, lucky me!

Tree Day!

The clock's ticking so we had to squeeze tree day into an already full weekend this year. I was catering a retreat so I was cooking dinner Friday then serving, cleaning, and cooking breakfast till late that night, then doing it again in the morning for lunch. Ava loves to work with me but I rarely take her so she was pumped to help this weekend. She helped do all the unloading, loading, and arranging and she was fantastic! After setting up lunch, we ran out to the tree farm to meet Ed and the other kids. It was chilly but pretty and we even got a few snowflakes! And we got a (very rare) family shot for the Christmas card (woo hoo!)

Ava and I jetted back to clean up the lunch and haul everything home while Ed dropped Jack at a birthday party. Then we spent the afternoon cleaning and hanging lights:
(Jack's still in shorts! And Ed's got the smoker puffing away on a huge steelhead.)
Then the kids had a tree party with leftover party food (their fave!) and we sent them off to bed while we decorated the tree and had some Chinese food for ourselves. Then we snuck them back out to see the tree and have a treat.

Old, BIG news

Okay, I just mentioned our inspection in the last post and realized I haven't mentioned that our house sold. A month ago. I'm clearly in denial as we have no where to go. Seriously. The house we really wanted sold a week before ours and since this is a particularly dry time of year (there has been maybe three new listings in the last month), the pickings are slim. Which is why I called Ed last week and said, "what were we thinking selling this house??" Funny enough, just after signing that deal, we got a follow up offer so we're definitely out of here. The good news is that we got the exact kind of buyers we wanted--a cute little family that loves this place (and wanted some of the furniture too). We've even talked to them about moving into their place when they move in here (how's that for ironic?) until spring when the houses come on the market but now we might just be moving into the rental across the street. How's that work anyway? Do you load the truck, drive across the street and unload or just carry it all over? I don't even want to know. I just want to find the perfect little house for our family and move in and stay. Till I die. We're moving January 15th...so here's hoping we find the perfect nook by then!

Jack

Yesterday we had a guy rummaging around down in our crawl space as part of our inspection. Jack was super pleased to find that it was Daniel, one of the guys from Sam's wedding. And since they are obviously old friends, he headed down in the crawl space to assist.
Then they headed outside where Jack stuck close by and only ran in to grab a hat "like Daniel's" which he's been wearing ever since.

Happy December!

Okay, I somehow missed the end of November! Seriously, I don't know how that happened cause I still have a bunch of thankful posts in my head but I'll get to them soon. For now, we are having one awfully sunny December. It's just lovely. Here are my monkeys soaking it up.

This is not a joke.

Seriously. Etsy just sent me an email with my opportunity to buy this...a wearable planter.

"Why should your plants stay at home? They help clean the air you breathe, are beautiful, and create a wonderful conversation starter. Carry a sprout, a succulent, or a flower you found on your morning walk. Originally, the purpose of this planter was to prove that something beautiful worth passing down to your children could be made out of plastic.I created the design for the Wearable Planter using modeling software. It is then 3D printed and finished by hand. Each one of these is individually made upon order, and may take up to 3 weeks to prepare to ship. Comes with directions on how to add plants and recommendations on which work best. Sorry, but no plants are included with this item."

The good news is that this could be yours for a mere $45. The bad news is that a beauty like this wouldn't be ready in time for Christmas. Bummer, huh?