Scenes from our Thanksgiving

Sweetness

A little grumpy

Lots of silliness.

Happy and ready to eat!

and my very first homemade pumpkin pie. 

other memorable moments:

cider chilling in a snowbank

watching Christmas Vacation

cuddling on the couch

KC and his "nerves"

Lainey and Beau asking to go see Christmas

feeling grateful for these and all of the blessings in our life.

The emergency haircut

I finally got to get Lainey's hair cut. The weather shut down most everything but I found a salon in the village that was open this morning.  We bundled up and walked down.  Beau is definitely not fond of the cold weather and started protesting the second he saw his snow pants and boots.  I put socks on his hands because he pulls his mittens off and then his hands are freezing.

Lainey before

during

and after.

Laineybug, you are beautiful no matter if you have long or short hair. But I'm asking you, please, pretty please, do not cut your hair anymore! Especially since, just after you got your hair cut today, you told Daddy, "That was super fun!"

Love you always, always, always,  Mommy

Storm 2010

Last night our backyard looked like this.  I haven't seen wind and snow like this in a long time, never in Seattle actually.  I dreamt the shingles came off the roof it was blowing so hard.

The view this morning.  Very cold and sunny.  As you can see, Cooper tried to go up the stairs this morning, gave up and peed by the back door. What a wuss!

Schools have been closed for two days and I just read they will be closed tomorrow as well. That's one nice Thanksgiving break!  From our local news station:

The area's frigid temperatures are rivaling the great cold snap over Thanksgiving weekend in 1985. Highs today have been in the mid 20s and lows tonight are dropping to eye-popping levels.

Seattle's preliminary high was 25 degrees and the 49-degree swing between that and the record 74 degrees we had on Nov. 3 has smashed the record for largest range of high temperatures in the month of November -- and the second closest that I found was 39 degree spread in 1955 (21 low, 60 high).

But 25 will seem toasty compared to where we're heading tonight as clear skies, fairly light winds and snow on the ground is the hat trick of ingredients needed for record low temperatures. Lows will drop into the mid teens in Seattle (record low: 16 set in 1985. Forecasted low: 15) but we're looking at single digits for usual cold spots like Olympia, North Bend, Arlington and Shelton. So road ice will continue to be of high concerns and take great care in that any melted snow from the sun today will freeze very hard tonight.

For their snowman they had to use M&M's for eyes and I'm not sure what was used for the nose.  The kids just came in from outside and I learned that a bird or something got one of the eyes and either Lainey or Beau ate the other. Beau bullied the snowman by taking its hat and poking at it and now it's looking pretty sad.

First Snow and an unintentional haircut

Lainey got a hold of some scissors last night and gave herself some layers.  I know it was bound to happen at some point but it makes me sad nonetheless.  Not because she cut her hair but because I know in order to fix it, she's going to have short hair and that will make her look older.  One more reminder she's not a baby anymore but a little girl.  This photo is from this morning.  It's not a great shot but she doesn't really pose for photos so it's the best I could do. 

The bigger news is that we woke up to snow on the ground this morning!  Lainey looked outside and said, "It's snowing! It's snowing on my house! It's snowing on my slide! It's snowing on the steps!" etc etc and I stress-ETC!  Then she went to front window and said, "Oh my goodness! It's snowing over here too!"  So after breakfast, we headed out to play.  I am so glad I bought them snowpants and mittens last week! 

We might not get a ton of snow, but we sure know how to make the best of it!

Daddy taught them how to throw snowballs. Lovely.

Wild Wednesday

Last night one of the kids, (guess which one?) decided to throw all the pillows off the couch and dive off.  I apologize for the blurry photos. For one, it was night-time and I had to crank up my ISO, and more importantly, these two were flying off the couch.  I kinda like the blur though. It signifies to me how fast they are growing up. 

Ready Set GO!

Cowabunga dudes!

Amazingly enough, nobody, not even Daddy, got hurt.  Lainey even started doing a spin move off the couch. You go girl!

50 Free Holiday Cards from Shutterfly

I saw this on another blog and thought it was worth passing on. This is my year "off" from making our Christmas cards so I'm excited about this deal!

http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/

Missing Baby

Has anyone seen my baby girl? This young lady keeps telling me she's my Laineybug but I'm having a hard time believing her.

Photos by Lainey

I downloaded the photos from Lainey's little camera today. I really wish I knew what she was thinking when she took some of them.  So I took it upon myself to come up with what I think she's thinking.

This is my little brother Beau. He loves his binky.  Don't tell him I told you this but Mommy has plans on it getting rid of it by Thanksgiving. 

These are some of the flowers in the backyard that Beau and I are not allowed to touch.  We're really good listeners. We didn't touch them all summer. We just stomped on 

them and Beau ate a couple.

My tricycle. I pretty much rock this thing all over the patio. Beau is not allowed to ride it so you tell me if he does, ok? Say "Ok, Lainey."

This is my aunt Nan. She's pretty much the coolest aunt ever.  We have so much fun together it oughta be illegal.

My feet. More importantly, my crocs. I looooove my crocs.  Mommy says she's not going to buy me any real shoes for summer since I'll only wear my crocs.  

My brother Beau. He is ALWAYS climbing up onto the counter and he knows he's not allowed up there.

I busted him on the counter by the sink. He's one crazy kid! But, I figure, as long as he's not touching any of MY stuff, it's all good!

My mommy. I love her but she sure likes to take pictures of me. Oh wait, I took this on of her didn't I?! 

Mommy and Beau reading a book.  She always says there aren't any pictures with her in them.  Apparently she didn't mean from this angle. Oh well....

My Daddy. He's pretty cool. I love it when he puts me to bed.  I can keep him reading forever! And sometimes, when he's in charge of giving us lunch, I get away without eating anything green!  I told you, he's AWESOME!

Ahhhh... my favorite movie, Benji. Mommy hates it and tried to throw it away but I found it and told her it was my favorite.  Hmmmm, I haven't seen it for a couple of days. I wonder where she put it this time?

My dog Coop. He got that bandana when he got his haircut in October. I so love taking him to get his haircut. They have turtles, fish, birds, mice, rats and these really big rats Mommy says are guinea pigs. I'm not sure I believe her though because they don't look anything like pigs. 

That's it for now.  There's a few more I'd love to post but you've suffered my weird sense of humor long enough. For now anyway. If you read this blog, you must not mind me too much.

Superpowers

Two seconds after I thought to myself, "this is going ok, I can handle these two by myself just fine," they lost their minds and I lost control for the rest of the night.  I didn't even say it out loud! How did they know what I was thinking?  It's 7:47pm and they are both in bed. Not asleep but in bed at least.  One more day/night.  I can do this.

Thank goodness Daddy isn't going to be gone more than another day.  I'd have to call in reinforcements. Or the National Guard or Red Cross since the house looks like a tornado hit it. 

Work Trip

This guy leaves tomorrow for three days.  He was home for a week after being gone almost a week.  Either the kids can sense that he'll be leaving or he's clearly the favorite parent.  It could go either way honestly.  They have been glued to him all weekend and will surely miss him while he's gone.  Have a safe trip Daddy and the Great Ronny Donny says, "Remember who loves you! US!"

Dinner and a show

If you haven't heard, Toy Story 3 came out on video today.  I preordered it on Amazon awhile back and it was delivered last night, a full day before it was available in stores! Robert took Lainey to see it in the theater and to mark this momentous occasion, we let the kids eat their dinner while watching the movie.  Beau did pretty well but didn't sit for much of the movie once his food was gone. Lainey I had to spoon feed because she was so preoccupied with the show.  

Lainey has been asking me all morning if she can watch it again. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this means she's over the Benji phase.