Cheerios....

This morning, Caroline gave Nicholas some cheerios for breakfast. She was trying to be helpful and pull the bag out of the box and put the box in the recycling. A great idea if all the cheerios were gone, but they weren't. So, she put the box in the recycling and put the bag full of cheerios back in the pantry. Nicholas found the bag this afternoon and managed to grab the wrong end of the bag when he wanted to get some cheerios. The whole bag went EVERYWHERE!!! It was quite funny though to watch the two of them try to eat the cheerios off the floor... and they literally did.....

Santa Visit

Since Caroline was born, some of her other friends and us have gone up to the Seattle Nordstrom's to visit Santa and get pictures of the kids taken. This year we went in the evening with the Laybourn's and the Gore's and the dad's got to come too. We thought it would be great to get up there, get pics taken and then go have a nice dinner.... didn't quite happen that way. The Santa line was REALLY slow. It took us about 90 minutes just for the pics. The kids were total troopers... 8 in all. But not many of them enjoyed sitting on Santa's lap. Oh the torture we put our kids through just for that photo op! But the memories are worth it. Here are a few pictures from our outing...

Taylor, Caroline and Mattie sitting in the middle of Pacific Place...


Nicholas and Brady looking out the window at the horse-drawn carriages...


Waiting and waiting... Joe, Nicholas, Caroline, Brady, Becky and Mattie.....

Happy 3rd Birthday Caroline!!!!

Hard to believe that our little girl is 3!! Where has all the time gone? She had a fun few days of birthday fun. She got to take cupcakes to school on Thursday for all her friends. On Friday we had a party at our house with all her other little friends. And then on Sat. ( her actual birthday), Nana and Papa, Courtney and Chad, and Jamie and Mike all came over for brunch and more birthday fun.






Her "theme" this year was rubber duckies. We had gone to a party for another friend and he had a blue cupcake with a rubber ducky candle on it and ever since then, that is all Caroline has wanted. So. I did what I could... and even Uncle Mike found a present that went along with the theme.









She was spoiled rotten with all the wonderful gifts from everyone.



Even Nicholas had a present to open although Caroline did it for him :)



Thank you to everyone that shared in Caroline's birthday and who are such a big part of her life! We love you all!!!!!

We have SNOW!!

It very rarely snows around here and when it does it's a pretty big deal (although the most annoying thing is being on the road when it snows... NO ONE knows how to drive in the stuff around here!) Anyway, we had to bundle up and go outside for a few minutes and play in the snow!

A Late Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family. We hope that you all had a wonderful weekend with your families and loved ones. Thank you for taking the time to enjoy our little ones with us as they grow up! :)

Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving. We had a great time at my parents house. Joe's mom came up from Texas. Courtney and her new fiance came down from Seattle. Chad is a GREAT guy and he and Courtney are already in full swing making wedding plans ... yippee!! Joe's brother Mike and his girlfriend Jamie joined us for dessert. We all ate WAY too much. :) But man, are left-overs good and they went really quick!

Nicholas is such a cuddle bug. He woke up from his nap and enjoyed snuggling up with his Aunt Courtney. Caroline had fun trying to torture him as best she could ... :)



Caroline loved her pumpkin pie. She and grandma enjoyed pecan pie the next morning for breakfast.

Practice makes perfect

We'll see if this post works... Caroline has been up WAY past her bedtime, but she is happily singing away. She is having a small program at preschool in a couple weeks and her class gets to sing two songs. They have been practicing at school, but Caroline always sings too quietly for anyone to hear... so, I couldn't resist letting her sing for me :) ... (blogger sucks sometimes and wouldn't let me post the video... :( I'll see if I can't figure it out later!)

Grandma and Oranges

Grandma came on Sunday for a visit! Yeah! She is here visiting from Texas until after Thanksgiving. The kids are loving having her here and so are Joe and I.





It is also the time of year for little clementine oranges and Caroline is in HEAVEN! She would eat ten oranges at once if I let her. We bought a box at Trader Joe's yesterday and before I could get the box open she had already torn into it and was on her second orange :)





And of course, just a little token picture of Nicholas. Can't leave him out...

A little laugh...

Last night I went to check on Nicholas and Caroline as I always do before I go to bed. I walked into Nicholas' room and (side note.. he will get out of his bed durning a nap, but has never fallen asleep anywhere but in his bed. Oh, another side note.. last night after a bath, I couldn't find Nicholas' pj's.... they were in the wash. So, I grabbed an old pair of Caroline's and thought to myself "no big deal, he's in them for 14 hours, no one will ever know he wore girls pj's) So, back to checking on Nicholas.... he's not in his bed, and then I see these yellow, flower, pj's sticking out from under his bed... I have NO clue how he got down there or why he would even think to crawl under his bed, but that's where he fell asleep!!!

A visit with Aunt Katie

Aunt Katie was in town this weekend for a quick visit. Way too short! We probably won't see her until next year... :(

Taylor's 3rd Birthday

It's birthday time again... Caroline and three of her friends all have birthday's within 5 weeks of each other. Add in Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas and it's a very busy end of the year.

Yesterday was the first party. Taylor turned 3 and had a good group of kids at his party. They played and played and then got to have pizza and cupcakes. Caroline chose a blue cupcake and had a little too much fun eating the frosting. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she said "blue cupcakes!"

We had a great time... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAYLOR!

A small first for Nicholas

Yesterday I switched Nicholas' crib into a toddler bed. It was his first night in it and he did fine. We did it in the afternoon and Nicholas had a blast just rolling around and playing with his football while I rearranged his room. He hasn't quite figured out how to use a pillow and prefers not to have it in his bed. Last night I went in to check on him and he was sleeping with his ball.. silly boy. We'll see how long it takes him to figure out how to climb out!




Just a couple more pics of Nicholas....

Baking with Nana

Caroline got to do what she love's the most... work in the kitchen. Nana bought some cookie dough and Caroline made pumpkin cookies, even though it was after halloween. She had fun playing with the leftover dough and making a mess with the flour. After the cookies cooled she decorated a couple with candy corns.

Caroline's First Haircut

We finally gave into Caroline's wild mane and had it cut. We went to a little place that has special chairs for kids, and Caroline chose the Mercedes. Yes, she has good taste. She was very unsure of what the gal was going to do to her hair, but after Daddy showed up she started to get a little more comfortable. We didn't have too much cut off, just enough off the top to show off the curls.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

We had such a fun night (although very cold) trick or treating in Gig Harbor. We braved downtown and the craziness of kids and cars everywhere. It didn't last long, Caroline was done with the crowd and ready to go to Nana and Papa's. Nicholas was a trooper and walked almost the whole way, pushing his way through if needed.

After downtown we went to Nana and Papa's. Papa took a few pictures of the kids which Caroline refused to smile for. We said good-bye and stopped at a couple of their neighbors on our way to the Gore's. Nicholas found his candy in the car and at one point had a lolly pop in one hand and was eating the wrapper off of a tootsie roll he had in the other hand.

We had pizza for dinner at the Gore's with the Conan's and then hit the neighborhood. The kids were so cute going from house to house and Nicholas did his best to keep up. But, no matter what, he was NOT going to let go of that pumpkin. At one point he got a little tired and took a little rest in Joe's arms, but still was not giving up the pumpkin. Taylor's Grammy and Grandpa came over and some how Caroline convinced Grammy to hold her lolly pop for her and give her a lick when ever she needed one... tricky little girl!