Santa

We headed downtown to Nordstrom to continue our tradition with Santa.  Again, we lucked out and were able to get into the John W. Nordstrom room (because we had a newborn).  Andy was excited to see Santa and was a champ.  He happily sat on Santa's lap and described his wish for a space station (Lego) in great detail.  Katie...well, she was horrified.  She screamed when she first saw Santa as we walked into the room.  She was covering her mouth as she did the silent and then not so silent sobs.  Once she received her candy cane and was a good distance away from him in Daddy's arms, she yelled, "I love you Santa!"  She must have wanted to make sure she still remained on the "nice" list this year.  Pretty funny, that girl.  Lots of drama and sass these days.  Abi - just burrowed into Santa's cozy arms and grabbed at his beard.  Then, she pooped into Santa's hand.  He looked at me and said, "I think she just made a contribution."  I looked at Santa's hand - nothing soaked through - so I told him to continue taking pictures.  Sorry Santa, no time for a diaper change : )

After pictures we headed to the Carousel.  This time, Andy wasn't so sure, but Katie was all about it.  Andy had more fun yelling at his sister as she rounded the loop and Katie was in heaven riding a "pony pony" with her daddy.  She waved and smiled each time she saw us.  Then she walked with daddy to his car while we headed back to our car.  Katie saw the waterfront and ferris-wheel at night with all the lights and thought it was pretty special to be the only one with daddy. 

Although it was a little crazy to get all three kids dressed and out of the house (a small miracle for me these days), once we made it downtown, we had some happy kiddos and mama. 

Santa a little concerned about Abi's "contribution" - and Kyle almost ended up in our Santa picture this year : )

Talking through his wish list

Santa clarifying

 

Our Reindeer Family

Our evening project the other night was to create our reindeer family...out of cookies.  The kids loved it - mostly because they inhaled the icing, cookies, and chocolate chips.  It was fun to see their creations - even Kyle's!  They enjoyed it so much, Andy and Katie decided to make two Andys and two Katies in the family.  Probably wasn't the smartest project to do right before bed as they were on a serious sugar high.

 

Andy's creation (#1)

Kyle's creation

Katie was more focused on eating the chocolate chips

Our reindeer family (Kyle, me, Andy, Katie, Abi and Henry on the bottom)

And the sugar starts to hit...

Reindeer family #2 (Kyle, me, Andy #2, Andy #1, Katie #1, Katie #2 and Abi - with Henry at the bottom)

Meanwhile, Abi is out for the count, dreaming of the day she can eat sugar cookies : )

 

Oh Christmas Tree

We continued the tradition of heading to Christmas Creek (aka Candy Cane Lane) to chop down our Christmas tree.  Ka and Bapa stayed home with Abi so we could take "just" Andy and Katie.  It's amazing how only weeks after having a 3rd, taking "only" two kids seems like such a big relief.  I guess it's all relative.

Auntie Car, Uncle Allen and baby Charlotte joined us - which was a treat.  We were pretty efficient in finding our tree (Andy was in charge of picking ours out - with a little help from mom).  We saw Santa...which was a fail.  I got separate from Katie in the crowd shortly before our turn to see Santa - she was a mess, I felt awful, and she is NOT a fan of Santa.  But we captured some memorable moments.

We went to Red Robin for a yummy lunch after our tree adventure and enjoyed a day with our dear friends!

 

They loved running through all the trees

Helping Daddy

Katie observing

Helping Uncle Al

The Johnsons

A cute picture while we were trying to calm Katie down...

But we only could get her in if we got in the picture too

And sweet Charlotte was all smiles

 

Gingerbread House

Thanks to Trader Joe's we were able to get into the holiday spirit and make a gingerbread house.  We had fun and the kids loved the afternoon "project."  Finally a project involving mom!

 



Gamma

That same night, we also were lucky to get a visit from Gamma.  Thank you for loving our kids, Gamma!

 

 

Official Whidbey Girl

My dad stopped by the house with a very special gift.  Abi officially is a Whidbey girl - she made the family paddle.  Thanks Dad - glad to make it official : )

 

 

Up on Whidbey

 

Caught ya being good...

Thanks to Betsy and Pinterest, we recreated this idea.  Andy loved being part of the project of making the jar (of course, Lightening McQueen themed), and he has really gotten into the idea.  He loves getting caught being good and gets excited when he gets to add a cotton ball.  The prize after a full jar is a trip as a family to get ice cream.  Sounds good to me!!  Katie doesn't quite get it and doesn't have as many opportunities to get caught being good these days.  Hopefully she'll catch on...that sassy girl!

 

 

Our family portrait...

As mentioned, Andy isn't much into drawing.  Well, lately, he has been excited to draw our family.  Here's the latest family portrait.  I love it!  He always is asking "when am I going to as big as daddy?"  Here he is VERY tall and pointed out that he has two sets of eyes.  So funny to see the perspective from a 4 year old. 

 

 

Thanksgiving

We packed up and headed up to Whidbey for Thanksgiving.  We picked up my parents at the airport and headed up.  Bets and Mol prepped and cooked everything, which was so great.  We were able to arrive and eat : )  It was HUGE to be able to not even think about much at all except for packing up the kids and heading up.  Dinner was really yummy and it was fun to continue a tradition that we used to have growing up.  I didn't take any pictures of Thanksgiving or the day after (devastating Apple Cup loss), but I did pull out the camera on Saturday.  It was a beautiful day and a great day for a beach walk.  We also had the kids make Christmas trees from cones.  They were meant for decoration, but the kids decided to eat them instead.  The Lentz family already headed home, so I only got a few pictures from my phone with them.  It was a fun weekend and great to have some new scenery after hibernating for two weeks!

Katie busy reading on our way up

Decorating

 

Beach time!