Life is good

Snow days. Life is good!

The Great Move of 2011

Ah, the joys of moving. David found a gorgeous home for us, but the owner's left in such a hurry they didn't clean their way out. So we arrive with a 5 month old crawler who puts everything in her mouth, to a dirty 4,000 sq ft house, only hours before the movers arrive. Thanks in large part to my mom, we managed to vacuum, mop, clean out cupboards and move all the crap they left before our things arrived. We spent the next few days moving furniture to steam clean the carpets and unpacking boxes. By the end of the weekend we were done. I hope this is the last time we have to move twice in one year. The upside of all of this work, Annabelle is thrilled with her new playroom and the home is gorgeous. Phew!

A huge thank you to my parents for all of their help, without them we would STILL be cleaning and unpacking.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

I have to admit that I wasn't as excited for baby's 1st Christmas as I should have been. Honestly I didn't expect her to be that into it. And I figured it'd be a baby proofing nightmare trying to keep her from eating the wrapping paper and choking on the ribbon. But I was wrong! Christmas was magical, and 10x better sharing it with little Annabelle.

I loved taking her to Christmas Eve mass with my parents, and dressing her in her little matching pajamas. This has been a tradition since I was little, where my entire family opens matching pajamas on Christmas Eve and wears them to unwrap gifts on Christmas morning. My mom sewed Annabelle a little smock dress to match our pj bottoms, and little Eli and Nolan, Annabelle's cousins, were wearing little homemade matching pajamas all the way out in WI. Annabelle was thrilled with her presents, from the bow, to the paper, to the box, to the toys and books, oh my! She was spoiled rotten by her grandparents, great grandma, aunts and uncles, and cousins. Selfishly, I was thrilled by the gifts too. I was beginning to feel like when I handed Annabelle a toy at home, she'd look at me as if to say "that's a baby toy, mom." She was in need of some more challenging toys. Bring on the stackers, the blocks, singing bears, the car, the toys to chase after. 

There was one catch though, our 6 month old, now an expert crawler, wanted to be IN everything. It took all of us to keep her from splashing in Barkley's water bowl, eating the ornaments off the tree, tasting the newspaper, climbing on the baskets and gifts, and putting EVERYTHING she could find in her mouth. Thank goodness for lots of hands!

Monster truck!

Raspberries are our favorite noise... and so flattering! :)

Thanksgiving and baby's first crawl!

Thanksgiving was a blur of great food, time with family and friends, and baby's firsts. Barkley was thrilled to find snow on the ground in Wenatchee, and Annabelle got to share "baby's first cereal" with her grandparents. Annabelle, Barkley and I spent a week in Wenatchee while David went home to Lake Oswego, met the movers, and packed up our belongings. It seemed better for Annabelle to play and have some "normalcy" at her grandparents house, rather than expose her to the chaos of moving, but we missed daddy.

The big news this week was Annabelle moved from scooting on the ground, to a full crawl! This created all sorts of new baby proofing obstacles, but we had such fun watching her move. A 5 month old crawler... this baby is going to be trouble.

Thanksgiving Day

Oregon coast vacation Sept '11

In September my brother's family and parents came out to Lake Oswego for a few days, and we spent a long weekend on the Oregon coast. We had a wonderful time walking to morning coffee, going to the Portland zoo, and playing in the sand. Annabelle even had her first dip in the pool with cousin Eli. While everyone was visiting, we got to celebrate my nephew Eli's second birthday, which was such a treat. It was such fun to watch a two year old run around, read stories, and interact with us. It is truly amazing how fast they grow up!