Family time at the Lake

Fun cousin video from Christmas:

We headed up to the lake after Christmas and we were there until today. It was nice to be "grounded" for a few days. The weather hasn't improved much up there, snow everyday and a bit of wind. We were a little nervous when it started to rain and the snow got really heavy...the roof was creaking when there were big gusts of wind. I guess it is a good reminder to shovel off the roof before it becomes 3 feet deep. We measured it at 33 inches, but our good friend measured the snowfall everyday and it was over 50 inches total.

Liha, Wade and Maggie came up on Sat. and stayed through Monday and the kids had so much fun! The adults had fun too playing board games and visiting. It has been awhile sinced I laughed so much :o). Monday we took a trip to Jungle Playland and let the kids run around a bit. We met my friend, Megan and her kiddos. Reggie and Ainsley had fun with them and enjoyed some cupcakes because it was Lachlan's 7th birthday.....crazy how fast it goes. Weren't we in high school just a few years ago???

This morning we met Grandma Peggy at Andrew's Playroom in Arlington. They had a really good time. They were the only one's there, so they didn't have to worry about sharing! Later today, Ryan and I took all 3 kids to the gym. That wasn't quite as fun. Maggie and Ainsley were holding hands, Ainsley crying for mom and Maggie crying for Tina. They paged me, but I couldn't understand what they were saying (time to get a new sound system) :o(. It didn't help that it was close to dinner time and Ainsley had a big poop in her diaper. Which reminds me, we had a major breakthrough 2 days ago when she went poop on the potty!!! Way to go Ainsley!

Ainsley isn't quite sure about the snow. She goes out, but not for very long (probably doesn't help that she has a nasty cold). Reggie has been sledding every day! He absolutely loves it. We are very surprised by this because he is so cautious and careful. He flies down the hills and looks for higher ones and we've actually had to say, "that probably isn't a good idea." Maybe he is going to be a little more daring than we initally thought??? Time will tell....here's some video of the bobsled run we made (don't have any video of him flying down the huge mounds of snow grandpa has created with the backhoe-he is quite the snow climber too!).

Winter wonderland!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!

We made it....barely! Travels were very smooth and thankfully uneventful. We got in late Friday night and missed the Thursday storm and Sat. storm that cancelled many flights. As we got off the freeway in Arlington, Ryan turned to me and said, "guess the temperature". It was 5 degrees and then dropped to 1. We were both wondering if the car thermometer would go negative, and sure enough, about 3 mintues later it was -1! We arrived at the lake and there was almost 2 feet of snow. Since then, it has snowed at least 2 more feet. It has compacted, but the snow next to the path to the top of the driveway is waist high. I can't ever remember having so much snow for so long. Reggie, Ainsley and Ryan went sledding Sat. morning and that evening we all went out and jumped around in the snow, but then the snow got too high and impossible to walk through.

We've powered through the hazardous driving conditions to visit Kellen, Cathy & Michael and Jane, Mark, Lilli and Amelia in Kirkland.

While we were there, Ryan made his way over to our house in Kirkland to remove the A/C unit. (There was a piece of plexy glass seperating the 10 degree weather from the inside of the house!!).

We stayed with Liha and Wade for a couple nights in Everett and enjoyed playing in the snow and with Maggie. While we were in town, we visited Santa-he was kinda grumpy, but other than that the kids did great.

Not able to run outside, so thank goodness for boxing on the WII:

Last night, we spent Christmas Eve with Ryan's family in Sedro-Woolley. It seems like we've been here for a few weeks, instead of only 6 days!

The snow is starting to melt, making driving very slippery and slow. Today we are back at Liha and Wade's for the extended family function. It will be great to see everyone :o). We should get a little rest after today! The kids have been enjoying all of the presents from Santa and family. It's been a Wall-E Christmas to say the least (Not sure how we're going to get all of these things in our luggage).

I didn't have time to post pictures from Reggie's birthday party at Pump It Up or his school Christmas program before we left, so here they are:

Playing at home-learning about static:

Singing Jingle Bells at his school program:

Conversations with baby dolls

Ainsley has had many conversations with her babies, putting them in time-out, feeding them, taking them in the car. I have to share a funny conversation she had the other day, it went something like this, "Oh, baby you have a tummy ache, so sorry." Then she bounced her up and down, patted her on the back and said, "Good baby, you farted, you feel better now." Too funny! You'd never know we have had a few gas issues in our house and a mild stomach bug. Sometimes I feel like I'm talking to a wall, especially with Reggie. I like to think he is really focused, rather than just ignoring me over and over. I guess when you hear them talk to each other and their toys, you get a better idea of how much they really hear. Kinda scary actually. Today we were listening to our Christian radio station and as the song was playing, Reggie said, "that guy is not singing very nice things." The song was saying, "Give me your eyes to see," and he thought he was literally asking for someone's eyes, when he was really talking about seeing others through Jesus' eyes. We had a nice conversation about Jesus and people, but it was a good reminder that they hear so much more than we think they do.

Last weekend, we decided to check out the Livermore Christmas parade. We went there a few hours before it started because they brought in some snow for the kids to play in. We ran into a couple of Reggie's school friends and they had a great time playing in the "snow". Ainsley had no interest, but they had dancers from local schools performing and she watched them for about 45 minutes. We decided to go to teriyaki for dinner, which I normally wouldn't mention, but no one knows what teriyaki is here. There are only 2 teriyaki places in all of Livermore and we had already tried one, so Ryan wanted to go to the other one. It was absolutely terrible and I guess that is why no one knows what it is. Can't wait to eat at Nasai when we go home :o). After our horrible meal, we went to the parade. Lots of people lined the streets and it was pretty chilly. We had our big jackets on and huddled together under blankets (are we wimpy or what!). I was so excited when I found hand warmers in my pocket....probably a safe bet that we were the only ones who had those. The parade was lots of fun, very small town. Lot's of motorcycles, cars, firetrucks, high school bands, christmas floats, etc.

Fun with our new camera-we love it!:

Happy 5th Birthday Reggie!!!

Wow!!! Big day for the big man :o). Reggie woke up and did a small scavenger hunt that Ryan put together. It was a big hit...amazing what a paper airplane, pictures of Optimus Prime, and a brownie can do. I wish we had known he would play with pictures of toys, we could have saved so much money and spared our house so much clutter!

Reggie had a wonderful day visiting with Grandma's, Aunt Liha and getting some e-mail pictures from his buddy Kellen. Of course he enjoyed opening his presents too! We were able to use the webcam, so he could open his presents live. Technology is great!!! Aunt Liha and Uncle Wade got Reggie a super zoom Eye Clops and it wasn't working very well, so I asked Ryan to test it....I just looked up and he was magnifying his butt. Why???

We had a nice dinner at Red Robin and Reggie enjoyed his free meal. He wasn't so sure about the singing, but enjoyed the ice cream sundae that came after. When we got home, he watched his new movie, Wall-E and I think that was a hit. He was making robot noises as he was laying in his bed, trying to fall asleep. He is too funny!

Look how tall he is getting!

Things that make Reggie who he is:

His gentle soul

His love and protectiveness for his sister

His LOUD voice when he gets excited

His giggle

His love of imaginative play-he has an amazing ability to talk like characters (recently it has been Tigger) and even talk with foreign accents

His obsession with super hero's

His cautiousness and smart instinct

His crash when he is hungry and his huge appetite-watch out!

His love of take-out, chase, hide and seek

He must have hugs and kisses before we leave

We hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving. Ours was very mellow and we enjoyed having 4 days of family time! Ryan and I slept in almost everyday-Reggie and Ainsley have been playing every morning :o). They went to the beach the other day and got on their swimsuits and goggles and were swimming in the living room:

I had my first and last adventure doing the early morning shopping at Walmart-what a nightmare. Not something I would recommend unless you get up early to wait in line; I ended up getting nothing and was up at 4:30 :o(. It worked out because I was getting caught up in the commercialism of Christmas and I had a little time to rethink and realized my children don't really need anything, so we are scaling back. Tomorrow, Ryan and Reggie are presenting at his school and showing his classmates his shoe box full of toys for a little boy in a foreign country. Both kids are participating in Operation Christmas Child which gives sends presents all over the world. Hopefully, they will learn what a blessing it is to give :o).