Busy, Busy Times

November is a very busy month for us. We have three birthdays and Thanksgiving to celebrate. This year we had an actual birth which took lots of our energy, but we also celebrated Clare and Molly's birthdays with lots of festivities and food. Below are the photos and memories from those events.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. We were at home and my mom was here to cook and visit...a gift to all of us. We had a great meal and a relaxing day. When I was a kid Thanksgiving was my favorite holiday and I think it still is. It seems so uncluttered...just family and food, my two favorite things. That was what we had this year.

December, of course, is a whirlwind, too, with all of the Christmas preparations. Ours has been good. I am most thankful for the visits from my dad and sister who helped ease our transition into being a family of 5. I am also thankful for our health. We have yet to be sick this fall and with a newborn that is such a blessing.

This Christmas we will be at home just the 5 of us. It will be different, especially for Tad and I who have spent years packing our car and watching the pass report to find the best travel days and then touring Spokane for food and presents. I am sure it will be a good different and the girls are so excited to have Santa come to their house.

To ease our snow withdrawal, we are planning a visit to Spokane to celebrate the new year and introduce Gretchen to Eastern Washington. I am sure she will love it there....who wouldn't :).

We hope your holidays are peaceful and merry. See you in 2010.

Clare is 5!

Clare's birthday was a 4 day affair. It began with cookies for her classmates at school on Thursday and ended with a Little Gym party with her friends on Sunday. In between we had a couple of family dinners with cake and ice cream. Nana, Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Korey were all here to help celebrate (and to meet Gretchen). Clare's gift from us was a big girl bike. Tad did all the fatherly things...he assembled the bike and then went out the next day in the rain several times to walk with Clare as she rode around the block.

I can't really believe she is five...next year she will go to real kindergarten...it really does go so fast.

Molly turns 2!

Molly had a great birthday....we went to a party at the bowling alley for our friend Connor's 7th birthday, so we saw all of our friends and then came home to have cake and ice cream and presents. Clare helped Molly with the finer points of being the birthday girl and they blew out the candles several times. They would blow them out and have Tad light them again and again. It was very fun.

Gretchen Marie has arrived!

On Tuesday, November 10th Gretchen Marie arrived at 8:25 PM. She weighed 10 lbs 9 oz and measured 22 inches long.....a chubby happy baby. We are all so happy she is finally here. We spent a few days in the hospital and are now settling in at home. Her nana is here to help and we are all enjoying getting to know her. Of course, we are sleep deprived, but know that is part of the settling in process. Hopefully it will get better soon. Her sisters love to hold and cuddle her. Here are few photos of her first days.

Halloween

For this Halloween we headed over to the MacDougalls for pizza and trick-or-treating. They live in the perfect trick-or-treat neighborhood, so it was great. There were about 18 kids and 14ish adults, so it was a full house and very busy, but we all had a great time. Even at 39 weeks pregnant I had fun visiting and enjoyed trick-or-treating with the girls. Clare has gotten really good at it and Molly got the hang of it after just a few houses. She called her candy bag her trick-or-treat purse, which I think is just adorable.

Molly went against type and went as an angel and Clare was Silvermist (the fairy from Tinkerbell). The pictures are from my friend Megan...way cuter than anything we took. Clare is is the photo with Owen and Lauren VanDerPuy and Connor MacDougall. It is so fun to have such good friends.

Fall Fun

We have had beautiful fall. We enjoyed a trip to the Puyallup Fair and ate all our favorite foods. Last weekend we headed to the Pumpkin patch and had a great time in the mud. Fall is definitely one of my favorite times.

First Day of School

Here are the girls on the first day of school this year. Molly is in the 2's class with Ms. Jennifer and Clare is in "Junior Kindergarten." They are both doing well. Molly is working on important skills like taking turns, not hittting and playing with Play Dough....she can count to 7 or 8 with help! Clare is working on early reading phonic sounds, counting to 100 (she can get to 40ish without help) and of course taking turns and not hitting :) We are very thankful to have the girls at Rainier Christian.

End of Summer

This summer flew by.... Tad redid our guest room as a new bedroom for Molly. She is being ousted from the nursery when the new baby arrives. Her new room is so cute, a beach theme. Molly loves playing in there. She hasn't started sleeping in her big girl bed just yet, we are planning to wait until the last possible minute since she still doesn't climb out of her crib. We also spent lots of time in the backyard....here is a favorite photo of the girls eating smores.

Summer Update

Besides our trip to Disneyland we have been having some fun around home. Clare is still going to Little Gym and loving it. Papa Steve came to visit and we spent the day at the Science Center. Molly loved the water and we all loved watching the people and the fountain at Seattle Center. The girls have played outside lots and lots and we have enjoyed just being at home on the couch, too. Here are some of the photos. (As you can see Molly isn't much for looking at the camera, but we have learned to just go with it.)

I have gone back to work, but Tad is still home and hard at work on a new bedroom for Molly. It is coming along nicely. I will try to get some pictures up soon. We still have lots of fun plans for the summer including a Mariner's game for Tad and Clare (Clare's first one!), an evening out with friends for Tad and I (our first one in a looooong time), a visit from the Brooks family, a trip to Yakima, and other adventures. Should be fun....Summer is such a different pace. We all love it....of course routine is nice, too, so we have worked to keep on track and not have tired monsters for children:)

Clare with the Princesses

I was reluctant to go to Disneyland with a 4 year old, but I have become a convert and I think all 4 year olds should get to go. Clare loved meeting all the characters, especially the princesses. We had lots of chances to meet Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). We also got to meet Ariel and Mulan.....at the Princess Breakfast of course. It really was fun to watch her talk to them and get so excited to meet them. Certainly the next time we go she will have outgrown it, so I am so glad we went.

Disneyland Trip!

Summer has begun and we headed off for a week in Disneyland with Nana. We all had a great time. The weather was perfect and the girls loved everything they saw....the food, the rides, the people, the shopping, the music, the pin trading, the characters (Molly liked to point them out from afar:), the fireworks and the light parade. It was great way to celebrate the 4th of July and Tad's birthday. Here are a few photos. After we get a bit more settled we'll add more so stay tuned.

Spring Program at Preschool

The girls had their annual spring program and parent picnic Friday at school. After a week of drenching rain, Friday was sunny and hot....perfect to sit outside and eat lunch at preschool! The girls both did a great job in the program. Clare's class sang the Ladybug song and had paper ladybugs to use as they sang. (You can see her holding it over her face as she sings about the ladybug landing on her nose) Molly class sang the Lord's Army and she was adorable, but mostly looked at the other kids and the teachers. The pictures didn't turn out that great because of the gym lighting and my 5th row seats, but you certainly get the idea. I am glad I was able to be there in person to see it.

Fishing at Bill's Fishin' Hole

Our friend Owen had his 6th birthday party at Bill's Fishin' Hole in Orting. The whole family went and it was so fun. The weather was perfect....sunny and not too hot. Tad helped the girls fish. They caught 6 trout from the pond. Clare wanted to help right up until the fish was actually caught and Tad needed help. Clare wanted to look at and touch the fish only after Tad had reeled it in, got it in the net and on the ground, pulled out the hook and put it in the bucket. Molly, of course, was gung ho the whole time. I had to keep moving to keep her out of the water with two feet on the ground. Megan (Owen's mom) made fabulous individual Star Wars cakes for all the guests. Clare and Lauren sure enjoyed eating theirs. Certainly this was a great way to experience fishing.

Molly is an outside girl

Molly loves to be outside. Whenever we are home and anywhere near the kitchen or the slider, Molly asks to go outside. She often brings Tad his shoes and says, "Outside Daddy"....her way of asking him to take her outside. Last Saturday Tad was pulling some weeds and Molly was right there with him...helping I am sure. I can't believe how big she is getting.

Easter recap - final edition

On Easter morning we had an egg hunt and brunch at Nana's house with G-pa and the Brooks family. As you can see I dressed my girls in matching dresses....and I thought they looked so cute. We had a fun time looking for eggs....once Molly figured out there were treats inside the eggs she mostly wanted to eat not hunt, but we found all the eggs the Easter bunny left us.