Love the snow!

After a long day of skiing... you just gotta go sliding!  This is an area where the plow pushes some of the extra snow, the perfect place for sliding and you are safe from the boarder and skiers!  The reason you don't see Tay is that she had lost the privilege of boarding this particular day... she spent the day in the lodge with mom!

Christmas in Portland

This is Bryant's big buddy at school, we happen to know her from church as well.  She helped Byant to build his graham cracker house at his winter party.

Christmas at Nana and Papa's house was fun as we also got to see Aunt Sheri and her kids who we hadn't seen in a long time!  Sydney performed for everyone her Christmas songs she had been working on this month.

While the others were making breakfast, Katrina and Sydney were busy making cookies, by the end it was a bit of dough and a ton of broken peppermint bits that would hardly stick together that they called cookies.  They did taste good though!  We had a good time with family and the kids loved having Christmas early at Nana and Papa's house!

Wierd!

This totally freaks me out!  The dentist said not to worry, just to wiggle the baby teeth in front and he'd check him out in five months when we go back in for our cleanings!  The only thing is, is they aren't loose at all!

Snowflake Lane

For Family night we went to Bellevue to Snowflake Lane.  It was so fun and festive!  Fake snow fell from the sky, real life toy drummers drummed, snow fairies and polar bears danced with us, nutcrackers danced on stilts to the music and handed out lollies to everyone, it made for a great holiday memory!  We went with some friends and afterwards had some yummy hot cocoa to warm us up!

Little Chef

Bryant received this chef apron and hat from Nana and he loves to wear it while baking!  We baked a bit last week so Daddy could take some goodies to work before they all took the last two weeks of the year off!  This is our tree!  This was such a great investment, especially after our fiasco with all the caterpillar worms that decided our house was warm enough to come out of hibernation in our tree three years ago!  This one is perfect every year!

Reptile Man

This is the Reptile Man who has his own zoo in Monroe, Wa.  He came to our Ptsa meeting and it was our largest turnout so far!  He as great!  He would walk around in front of the kids and dangle the reptiles over their heads!  Yikes!  I was cringing for them!

Right after this snake above, the Reptile Man was wrestling a snake in one of his containers and let me tell you, it was the most dangerous snake out there: a black Mamba!  All of a sudden two black spring snakes flew out into the crowd of kids!  One hit Bryant and one hit Sydney, who were a not even next to each other!  I think the whole room screamed, I know I did!  This is Bryant's face afterward, he isn't too sure of this guy now.

Bryant stuck it out for one more snake, but as soon as he was dangled over his head, this is the look I got!  Please, please, please let me come sit with you Mama!!!?  Pretty soon his friend next to him followed suit and came and sat with us and her grandmother!

This snake was funny!  He kept winding his tail around the girl in the pink's bottom!  She kept discreetly trying to move it from her bum and finally said out loud, "he keeps touching my butt!"

Water Obsessed!

What more can I say... Bryant has become obsessed with soap and water!  He emptied an almost full soap bottle and some lotion too!

Touring Seatte...

During Thanksgiving break we decided to go do and see something free!  We have been here now three years and still had not seen the Freemont Bridge Troll.  Dragging the children who did not quit understand what it was, but in the end thought it was pretty darn cool!  Here they are checking out he beetle making sure it really is REAL. 

After the Troll we headed to the Ballard Locks.  You do have to pay to park so it wasn't totally free.  But it was way cool, we even saw a jet boat go through the lock, and it doesn't take very long at all.  They also have a fish ladder that you can view the Salmon from the viewing room.  Above in the photo, Sydney is always so good to pose for me, but they are standing right next to the part of the lock you drive your boat into, the door will open and then you continue in and it closes and then fills up with water to raise it up to the level of the lake just beyond.  The kids really had fun watching the boat go through!

Thanksgiving Break

While Grandpa and Grandma were at home getting the turkey ready and in the oven, the rest of us headed to the highschool for the Turkey Bowl.  Todd and Taylor played flag football, Sydney and Bryant played in the snow with friends.

Besides Grandpa and Grandma Jensen, my brother Ben and his girlfriend Lindsay came over for the day and to eat turkey with us.  I have to say my favorite dishes at Thanksgiving are cranberry sauce, made a great one from scratch this year that is a keeper and stuffing!  I could care less about the turkey actually, but eat a tiny bit with lots of cranberry sauce and it's all good!  The one thing I do not like about cooking a turkey is the smell afterwards, like the left over drippings, grease whatever that is, it smells horrible.  Good thing I don't have clean up!  That's Todd's job!  He also ironed my napkins for me, what a great guy he is!  Next year we've invited my family... we'll see who shows up!  I think I need a larger house!



First snowfall!

This photo was taken at 7:15am this morning.   Taylor and her friend decided to jump on the trampoline in the snow!  There was barely a dusting, but it did continue to snow the rest of the day!

These photos were taken about 4pm today and they have had so much fun!  Sydney is at a friend's house playing in the snow as well I'm sure!  Love it!



Halloween II 2010

Nana made Sydney's masquerade ball gown and it was beautiful!  She was gorgeous, and she knew it too!  Silly girl.  Iron Man thought he was pretty cool too!  Here she is in the Halloween parade at the church party.

For some reason, Bryant and Sydney were interested in shapes this year for their jack o lanterns!

Halloween I 2010

Friday, October 29th I took Bryant up to Microsoft to trick or treat!  They set up the Commons (a food area) for Halloween with decorations everywhere!  Bryant is posing and ready to shoot! They had a Harry Potter train outside and of course Bryant saw it and then we waited in line.  Iron Man decided to take on a Jedi and the fight was on, sound effects and all!

After a quick stop and McD's we barely made it in time for Sydney's class Harvest Party.  The traced leaves onto a black cardstock, then cut it out, shaved carvings off of crayons, melted them in between wax paper and made a really cool fall window decoration.  They also made caramel and dipped apples into it.  Then it was time for snacks and a movie.  Because it was Sydney's actual birthday, we brought in glow stick necklaces for the whole class.  It was better than more junk food and way cooler!  The lights were off for the movie and it was perfect!  More of Birthday and Halloween celebrations to come!

It's good to be eleven

My tiny miracle baby is Eleven years old!  Her birthday is two days before Halloween and so every year I try to keep it separate.  Her birthday party is a birthday party and not a Halloween party...  She got roller blades, books and pet shops from us, money from Jensen grandparents, books from Ryan grandparents and new curtains and bedding from Leppert grandparents.  Sydney is such a sweetheart.  So sincere, helpful, petite, thoughtful, artistic, musically talented in piano and singing, hates being a middle child, very aware of other's needs and such a hugger!

This year she chose to go Ice Skating at Castle Ice and invited some friends from church and school, oh and her BFF who moved away last year.  I'm pretty sure they all had a blast, even Muna who had never skated before in her life!  She was off the wall by the time we left, two hours later!  Her friends know Sydney well, she received an endless supply of art supplies and a couple of gift cards.  Target, here we come!  All in all, I  think she had a pretty good eleventh birthday!

It is soccer season...

Bryant always has a huge smile on his face, even in the rain like today!  The other team is no where to be seen.  I think we tied at 3 all.  Bryant has finally kind of figured out this game and was a bit more aggressive at following the ball.  He has a great coach and we have met so many nice people and their boys!

The heater vent

All of the my kids do this...tuck a blanket around themselves and lay on top of a heating vent, hogging all the heat!

Character Day

Last week on Thursday the kindergarten classes had a Character Day, where the kids were able to come to school dressed as their favorite character.  Bryant wanted to wear his Iron Man Halloween costume, but I talked him out of it as he would have wanted to wear his mask.  So he wore the Koala bear costume of Taylor's when she was five!  He was so cute!  My photos are backwards, so this is of him coming out after school.

This is Bryant's friend who was dresses as a Transformer but, the funny thing was, is that he thought he was bee!  No joking!  

 They toured through the other kinder classes and then through the office to showcase their characters!

This is Bryant's class.  Some had costumes, but the teacher handed out puppets or masks if they had forgotten to bring one, so everyone was happy!