Snow Days!

 It all started on Sunday.  Snow was falling, and fast.  In less than an hour, the ground was covered and the kids couldn't wait to go out in it.  We aren't really prepared for this type of weather, however, and Natalie was soon complaining about not having waterproof gloves.  (Neither of the girls had proper footwear either.) Jon found some of his gloves and offered them as her only other option for her 99-cent mittens.  She was thrilled.

She's either showing off her massive hands or simply raising her hands in pure delight.  Not sure which.

 The big girls rolled quite the snowball while Natalie showed Emma her super-size mitts.

The snow stuck around for Monday's holiday and the kids frolicked outside for hours.  Considering the potentially record-breaking forecast, Jon decided to invest in some snow boots and waterproof gloves of the appropriate size.  They've been well used.

Tuesday morning brought more snow which caused a two-hour delay to the start of school.  But now that they were properly outfitted, the kids were excited to walk to school with the flurries falling around them.

 This morning brought MUCH more snow and a school cancellation.  It's been about as fun as Christmas day!  All-day winter fun with friends--and NO school--is about as good as it gets.  I'm amazed at how long they can last out in the elements.

The snow changed to freezing rain which has coated every branch of every bush and tree.  It's unbelievably pretty.

While Jon and I spent the day in our pajamas, the fun parents down the street helped the kids build an awesome snow fort complete with a snow recliner.  That same fun mom also fed my kids lunch and gave the girls hand-warmers for their gloves.  What good neighbors they are!

 Though my pictures don't show him, Caleb has had an equal amount of joy from this unusually snowy winter weather.  He was especially excited about a day off of school.  And he gets one more tomorrow as they've already cancelled again.

Snow days are a special treat when you live in the Pacific Northwest.  And since there's no place to go, let it snow!  Well, until tomorrow when I need it to clear out in time for Erin and family to fly safely into town and for me to make it to the airport and back.

Gymnastics Doesn't Stink

Our theme of the new year thus far could be summed up with one word: gymnastics. Sure, it hasn't been the only thing, but it's been our Monday-Wednesday-Friday-Saturday-and-some-days-in-between thing.

Last weekend was Natalie's first meet of the spring competitive season.

She's actually got pretty good skills, even if she doesn't yet have the body awareness to keep those toes pointed.

Evidently most 6 and 7 year olds don't get that pointed-toe thing because out of 17 girls her age, Natalie placed 2nd!  Her first medal.  It was a big moment.

 We rode the ferry home, which was a fun treat after a long day of competition.

Yesterday was another meet day, and another big moment for our other gymnast.  It was Alyssa's first meet as an optional gymnast.

These are a couple of shots of warm-up:

 Lys did great!  She did fall on beam, which is typically her strongest event, so that was a big bummer.  Were it not for that fall, she would've won the meet.  Instead she placed third, a mere .05 behind 2nd place and only .25 behind first.

She did an awesome bar routine that earned her a 2nd place finish on that event.

The video of her bar routine is a bit hard to see, so we'll share this footage of her floor routine instead.  She does have a little fluke stumble at the very beginning on one of her dance moves, and there's still some fine tuning to do, but I think it's a fabulous start to level 7.  Congrats, Lys!

We got a short break in the middle of the day and then had to return for my team and Natalie to compete.  Her scores weren't as high this week, but she still came away with another second place finish.  Our team, by the way, finished first in both meets! :)

Most of us think this is all pretty darn exciting.  But there is one among us that doesn't share the sentiment.  Can you guess who made this hangman game in church today?

Gymnastics definitely doesn't stink!  We get one Saturday off before we're back to competition.  We--well, most of us--are excited to see what this season has in store.

Happy New Year

I had two resolutions for the new year: begin an immediate sugar detox and write more.  I'm one for two.  I haven't missed the sugar as much I'd thought I would but as for the writing, well, that's why I'm making this very effort, even if it is two weeks late.

We had a great New Year's celebration.  It's tradition to celebrate with our friends, the Evans, but this year we did something a little different.

We started with dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory.  They have great gluten-free options and since Caleb can't seem to consume enough spaghetti noodles these days, we decided it would be the perfect dinner spot.

The girls posed with their American Girl dolls.

The boys have poses of their own but I can't make any sense of it.  Is that a boy thing?  I don't know.

We went to the movies next and saw "We Bought a Zoo."  I really did like it, but I don't think I'd classify it as a kid movie, which is what we thought we were going to see.

The night ended in Seattle, at our friend's office building.  There was a game room for the kids and a balcony with a perfect view of the Space Needle fireworks.  We always watch the fireworks on TV but seeing them live was SO much more fun!

All the boats on Lake Union looked so pretty and it was fun to hear them blaring their horns to welcome the new year.

We stayed until 1:00 a.m. but I'm sure the kids could've partied longer.  It was fortunate for us that our Sunday meetings didn't start until 1:00 p.m. so we could recover from all that late-night fun.

Welcome, 2012!

We Had Ourselves a Merry Little Christmas

The girls and I started our Christmas week with a little pampering. I told them I had a surprise for them but that they first had to earn it by doing all sorts of chores.  By day's end, I had a clean house and they had beautifully painted nails.  We were all happy.

The rest of the week passed in a flurry of Christmas cookies, holiday parties and merry-making.  Before we knew it, Grandma and Grandpa had arrived to celebrate Christmas with us.

We bundled up and headed to Bellevue to experience Snowflake Lane.  It's a festive kind of fun as long as you don't mind sharing the sidewalks with the big-city mass of humanity that converges near malls at the this time of year.

Then we went to the botanical gardens to see the prettiest light display.

These grapes were my favorite.

We made a Christmas Eve trip to the movies where we enjoyed Arthur Christmas.  Cute story.  Yummy popcorn.

Our traditional Christmas Eve dinner was altered this year to be gluten-free.  But steak on a stick, potato skins, cocktail smokies and spinach dip had everyone feeling satisfied.  We even had two different kinds of So-Good Cookies--some with gluten and some without.  We had gluten-free gingersnaps, too.

The traditional first gifts of Christmas were opened--pajamas, of course--and we were ready to begin our read and sing nativity celebration.

I'm choosing the omit the pictures that document Caleb's Asperger moments.  They may have threatened to spoil our Christmas Eve, but the Christmas spirit was still felt so we'll just focus on that.

Natalie decided she wanted to conduct the songs.

It's just not Christmas Eve without angel chimes.

I loved that Christmas came on a Sunday this year!  Since we're sleepers at our house, I knew we wouldn't be able to get our gifts opened before our 11:00 meeting started.  We decided we'd let the kids enjoy their Santa gifts and stockings before church and leave the rest of the gifts for after.  We also had our big breakfast on Christmas Eve so that we wouldn't have to rush that either.

On Christmas morning, I heard Jon say, "The kids are up.  I can hear them."  It seemed so dark and I was so deep asleep that all I could mutter was, "You've got to be kidding me!"  Our kids never get up early so I couldn't believe that they'd be up already.  But then I rolled over and looked at the clock.  It was 8:30.  So I decided that they had every right to be up.

Our church service was wonderful.  It just seemed so perfect to go to church on Christmas.

The kids were sure excited to go home and having waited to open our gifts just helped build the anticipation all the more.  We posed for a family photo before changing back into our Christmas jammies.

Natalie couldn't have been more thrilled about her American Girl doll.

Most of Alyssa's gifts were actually for the doll she got back in November for her birthday.

Caleb got more football helmets.  Evidently when you're that big of a fan you can't have too many.

He also got a foosball table.

We stayed in our pajamas for our traditional Christmas ham dinner.  Caleb ate candy all night long.
What a wonderfully Merry Christmas!