making cookies

Chloe loves to bake- especially cookies!

Here's what happens when I tell Chloe that we have to put the cookie dough in the oven and cook it before we eat any more of it.

Here's what happens about 30 minutes after Chloe eats cookie dough.

planting

We're planting some shrubs and grasses in our front yard. We removed a tree about 2 years ago and last winter we leveled out the yard and put some rocks in for a planting bed. Sam and Chloe are really interested and helped put in the plants and the water bead things.

biking in the park

We take the bikes to the park because our street is really hilly. I'm sure someday they'll use that to their advantage and my horror. The boys were really excited this day. Chloe was upset that she didn't have a "helmer" to wear on her head.

names on the board

Jackson had been talking a lot about his teacher, Ms. Fitch. He would "talk to her" at our house, saying, "Ms. Fitch, I'm going to write your name on the board." Or, "Ms. Fitch, you're going to go off the earth!" He never really told me why he would say these things. Then one night, I went into his room to cover him up after he fell asleep and I came across this. Jackson had written Ms. Fitch's and Chloe's names on his board and given both of them a lot of check marks. Jackson has always had a love/hate relationship with Chloe and now I guess Ms. Fitch has been added. I found out later that Ms. Fitch had taken a sticker away from Jackson one day because he was playing with it during a time when he shouldn't. Gee- he can really hold a grudge!

swimming lessons

We started taking swimming lessons in January. Lucky for us, there was a pool that had classes for both the boys' age and for Chloe's age at the same time slot. Chloe absolutely loves swimming lessons. She gets to hang with me the entire time- since Jeff has an aversion to the water. We do fun things, play with pool toys, sing songs and jump into the air. The boys' class is a little different. They get to cling by the edge of the pool while the instructor shows them what to do and then they take turns swimming out in the open with the instructor. I think there's 4 kids to their instructor. Her name is Gwen. But then the boys get out of the pool and they stand there absolutely freezing, all hunched over, waiting for Jeff to bring them their towels. There have been a few days when the boys try to fake being sick or tired to get out of going to the cold swimming class. I guess we need to be overachiever parents for this one- they need to learn how to swim!

Leavenworth for New Year Day

We took an overnight trip to Leavenworth,WA to visit Michelle. The Cascade mountains got a ton of snow this year; record setting amounts apparently. Here we are in the courtyard of our hotel on some snow mounds. The boys were really excited. Chloe didn't quite know what to think. She hadn't been in snow since she was 1-1/2 and she barely walked then. The boys loved it. Unfortunately, they only have rain boots, so their feet get cold quickly. Even with their "wolf" socks (as Sam calls wool socks) they still get cold feet.

Ballerina Chloe

Chloe got a tutu from aunt Traci and uncle Peter this year for Christmas. She loves it! I thought it went super well with her red polka dot tights and her green sparkly princess shoes. A ballerina has to keep up her strength, so she's taking a break and feeding herself and Gummi, her new baby, some cheerios or as the kids call it, Bee cereal (there's a bee on the box of honey nut cheerios).

Family time at Christmas

Peter, Traci & Hudson at our house during Christmas















Grandpa Oh No (Bob) and Jackson, stuffing his face. Bob became a one-liner, when he kept saying, "Oh No!" to the boys during one visit to WI. Then Sam started calling him Grandpa Oh No.















Grandpa Oh No, Jackson and mom reading Jackson's Seattle book. I'm sure that Jackson was reading it to them. He loves to point out where everyone's work is located.















Jackson, Sam and Hudson in the lobby of our hotel in Leavenworth.















Peter and Hudson at our house

So this was our first Christmas spent in Seattle. We've decided to make our annual trip in the summer, when it's not ice cold outside. Anyway, lucky for us, my mom and Bob decided to come out for a couple of weeks. They arrived on the last day of school for the boys and left the day they had to go back to school. It was perfect. Traci and Peter were in town as well. And we even all made an overnight trip to Leavenworth to see Michelle.

Musical Christmas

I did most of my christmas shopping online this year and in the late hours of the night, down in our office in the basement I had visions of a musical Christmas. The kids would form a little parade route through our house with their instruments and it would be so cute. Where did that vision come from?! But the musical toys were ordered and voila! There was never a parade, but there was a lot of noise.

















Sam is playing the Bratz piano. This was purchased with Chloe in mind. She used to watch her video called, "Oy Baby" and this girl would play a piano. She would always turn to me and ask, "Mommy, where's my piano?", as if we had been keeping it in the closet all this time. Well, now here's her piano.




















Here's Jackson with the guitar.




















Here's Chloe with the strap on parade style drum. Perhaps this is where the vision came from. Or maybe it was reading a review on this toy, where one grandmother recalled her grandson performing a parade with this toy. When's that going to happen at my house?

Chloe's fashion Christmas

Chloe inspecting all the presents under the tree. Those blue striped socks belong to Jackson, and he is also inspecting the presents, identifying everone's name.






























Grandma & Grandpa Kaufman sent Chloe the cutest bright green glitter shoes; Chloe loved them (and so did I!) She also got these cute clip on earrings. She felt so sophisticated.

Winter Concert

The boys' school had a winter concert in December, the day before winter break. Grandma and Grandpa Maz had just arrived earlier that morning. So Sam and Jackson were super excited, as they could see us in the back of the gym. They're both in the front row, sitting down. Jackson is to the left, wearing dark pants and a white tshirt and Sam is more toward the middle, wearing orange pants (his favorite) and a brown tshirt. All the kids have snowflake hats on and they sang a song called "Dance like snowflakes". They also sang felis navidad (am I even spelling that correctly?) I was impressed.