I didn't get to sending out those Christmas cards so...

MERRY

CHRISTMAS!!

to all my friends and family! We hope that you have a wonderful Christmas day and hope Santa brings everything you wish for! We love you guys!

Happy Holidays!

I know it's been awhile since I've posted on here, and even longer since I've done an actual update. Honestly, where has the time gone?!?!? I can't believe that it's been almost a month since Applecup (my last posting), it seems like only a week. But now that I'm thinking back, we have been pretty busy around here.

The Sunday after Applecup, Peter, the girls and I went to see a display of a bunch of professionally decorated Christmas Trees. That was a lot of fun. Some of them were gorgeous.... and some not so much.

This one was cool... I think it was my favorite!


If you can't tell, it had an electric train running through the middle of it...


And then there was these atrocious things....


This last one was cool, just because of what it represented.


And then the weekend after that, (or was it two weekends after that??? Anyway, Kathy was invited to go to a cookie exchange, so I baked and baked and baked a bunch of cookies. Kathy couldn't help because she had to work that Saturday, and was actually thinking that she wouldn't be able to go to the exchange at all because she couldn't bake any cookies. So I surprised her and baked ten and a half dozen cookies (three different kinds) and two different types of cookie bars. She was ectatic when she got home and found all the cookies. So she and Natalie got to go to the exchange, the next day, which of course, I had to work through, but it was worth it to see her face light up! That same weekend, Peter got the opportunity to go to a Seahawks game with Jess. He left us girls at home and went and had a boys day out. We didn't go, well, because I had to work.

This past weekend we FINALLY were able to get our Christmas Tree up! YAY! I love decorating for Christmas! I told Peter that when we have our own place again, I'm hiring someone to go buy Christmas decorations and show me how to decorate the inside of our house. I love the look of the nice Christmas decorations, I just don't know how to put it together so it would look nice.

Alexis was, and still is, terrified of the Christmas Tree. She'll look at it from a distance and say pretty, but you will not see her walking by it... which is kind of funny, because she has to walk by it to get to her chair so she can eat, which usually isn't a problem. This was as close as she'd let me put her to put her ornament on.


And here is Natalie putting on her ornament.


And here they are... my two favorite ornaments on the tree.


Here it is, the tree all decorated. Yes it is a fake tree... which kind of bummed me out, but since it's not my house, I couldn't argue too much. In my opinion, real trees are the way to go! The lights are on, but you can't really tell in the picture.


Last but not least I'll end the post of pictures with this last picture... you can't tell me she isn't adorable!

And that is all for tonight. We had a snow fall this past weekend as well, and there are pictures to go with that. But that would make this post way too long, so keep an eye out above for a slide show of those! Hope all is well with everyone and you are having a fun, safe, holiday season! Which reminds me, I have to get the Christmas cards out.... I'm bad and haven't gotten them ready yet.... oops!

CELEBRATION!!!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAY we won Apple Cup! It was a great game! We fought hard into double overtime and ended up pulling it off!! It just proves that I've been right all season, we may be sucking this year, but at least we're better than the Huskies!!!! And now forgive me as I break out into the fight song...

Fight fight fight for Washington State!
Win the victory.
We're going to win this game,
for crimson and gray!
Best in the West,
we know you'll all do your best......

It's been a proud, exciting 10 minutes!

So the past 10 minutes have been a bit crazy, but exciting! First Alexis came up to me saying "poo poo" and then she turned around and went into the bathroom. She has been liking sitting on her potty lately, which we have been encouraging. So I went in and took off her diaper, expecting this to be like all the others where she just sits there for a minute or two and then is "done". But this time she actually went pee in the potty! YAY Alexis! Mommy is so proud!!! Of course while I'm in the middle of trying to catch her to put her diaper back on (she likes to run now after sitting on the potty and make Mommy or Daddy catch her...) the phone rings. So Peter answers it and of course it's for me, so I hand the diaper off to him and he continues to wrestle up Alexis and get her diaper back on. Anyway the phone caller turns out to be a lady saying that Natalie has finally been accepted into the preschool program we've been trying to get her in and she starts school on MONDAY!!!! YAY!!! She/we is/are super excited! She'll get to ride the bus and everything! I don't know which Natalie is more excited about: going to school, riding a bus, or getting a backpack this weekend. Haha.

Halloween and more

Happy Halloween a little late. Hope you all had a great, spooky, day!

We had a lot of fun all week! My sister, Auntie Kathi, came up to visit Monday and left on Wednesday. With her came the tutu she made for Natalie. Auntie Kathi was a ballerina too, and they dressed up together and danced and had a ton of fun being ballerinas together! As much as I tried, I could NOT find Natalie a leotard, so she ended up wearing a pink shirt and pink shorts underneath. It was still extremely cute! We originally got Alexis a bee costume. I thought it would be really stinking cute since we call her Squeaky-Bee. But when we brought it home and tried it on her, it was way too small for her. Which bummed me out. So we took it back and exchanged it for a lion costume. Which was so super cute, that my bummness about the bee immediately disappeared! On Halloween, I was able to get the girls ready in their costumes. I let Natalie wear a little bit of make-up, basic eye shadow and a little blush. And then I drew a nose and some whiskers on Alexis with an eye liner. They both looked great! Unfortunately I had to work Friday night at the health club, so I was unable to go trick-or-treating with the girls. But Peter and Grandma went and they, apparently, had a ton of fun! (See slideshow above for pictures)

Yesterday, we went down and visited the Winkey's. We all had a ton of fun. The girls played with Eli (Christel, can you send me the couple pictures you got?), Peter watched Jess play a new video game (which surprisingly, he hasn't said he wants yet) and Christel and I played a bunch of games of Gin. Can't do much better than that! We totally did not want to leave last night. We actually stayed an hour or so longer than we originally planned, which always seems to be the case when we visit them!

GO COUUS!!!!

As you can see, she really gets into it sometimes. Today she was screaming it at the top of her lungs! I don't think we'll have to worry about her wanting to become a Husky. Haha!

It's a Proud Day!

So today I filled in for a couple hours for someone at the health club, so Peter dropped me off and went and did his errands (well, our errands) that needed to be done, and then picked me up after he was done. When he picked me up, he was telling me about how when he was at one of the stores, the checkout lady said "Go Huskies!" when they were done. Peter then replied "No, GO COUGS!!!" I was giggling a little bit, when in the back seat Alexis starts saying "Go Couug! Go Couug!" over and over again while waving her arms in the air! Like I already stated, it was a proud moment!

Awesomeness... Part 3

Finally, here is the post for the last day of our trip down to Vancouver. This time, I didn't have the patience to go through and post all the pictures through Blogger, so I'm uploading them to photobucket and will then post them here. It won't look as neat but it is faster and so much easier!

Anyway, to officially start "Awesomeness... Part 3"

On Monday, my birthday, Mom, Kathi, Peter, the girls, and I all went to the Oregon Zoo. It has been a LONG time since I've been to the zoo, any zoo. I had a lot of fun!


Here is Natalie and Alexis (who is in the stroller that Peter is picking up) to look at some of the animals.


Here is what they were looking at. Doesn't it look like they are deep in conversation? (I promise not to post too many pictures of the animals we saw. I'm sure that's not what you're interested in anyways)


Here's Mom/Gramma. Doesn't she look great?!?!?


Alexis didn't know what to think of the zoo and all the strange animals and people at first. It took her awhile to warm up to the idea of looking at them.




So this isn't supposed to look like a posed picture. Natalie was playing with the elephant tusks so nicely, and it looked totally cute, but she had stopped before I could get a picture. So I asked her to go back and play with them again, this is the best I could get :|


Peter and Alexis going on a safari.




Auntie Kathi and Natalie


Haha, we had a hard time convincing Natalie to touch the skull. But when she finally did, both Peter and I roared at her and made her jump so high. We're so mean. But she loved it too and then was more willing to touch it again after that.


This is when Alexis started to really get into looking at the animals. Here' we're looking at the giraffes... I think...






One of the few pics of me... I was mostly behind a camera.


Here's another animal picture. Isn't he adorable?!?! He was struggling on figuring out how to step up onto the next level, so Mom came over to help. I could have just stayed there and watched all day! I love the elephants!


Alexis is pointing at some baby pigs (obviously not the kind of pigs you'd find at a farm...)


Doesn't she look so sad? Apparently she lost her companion about a month ago (well, now about a month and a half ago) and she's a bit lonely. It was a bit heartbreaking just seeing her sit there like that. :(


We have our own little bear! So viscious!


I think Alexis was roaring like Natalie was, so we have two viscious bears in the family!


And otters...



Remember earlier, how I said I could have sat and watched the elephants all day? Well, I'm glad I didn't! Otherwise I would have missed a very beautiful show the sea lions were kind enough to put on for us. I swear it looked like they were dancing!







OK I think that's the last of the animal pictures... but no promises!




It's hard to tell because of the lighting and shadows, but we're standing in front of a stuffed black bear, which Natalie was terrified of... of course I didn't realize it and nobody who was taking pictures told me.


Well, that was our visit to the Oregon Zoo. Yes I know there are a lot of pics, but believe me, there could have been more! Haha I kinda went picture crazy that weekend! But I did have a lot of fun!

Awesomness... part 2

OK I did say I was going to go into a more in depth update about my weekend. So here goes.... this is going to be a picture heavy so beware...

We arrived in Vancouver, early afternoon on Saturday and just hung out at Mom's house! It was good to hang out and catch up on how Mom is doing.




Alexis LOVES this hat! She would be wearing it whenever we were at the house. The first thing she'd do was go find that hat and put it on.





Except when she would make Mommy wear it. Don't I look pimp? Hehe






On Saturday we got to go kayaking. Neither Peter nor I had ever been kayaking before, and, of course, neither has Natalie, so we were all excited to go!




While every one else was getting ready, Natalie got to float around and pretend she was kayaking by herself.






Isn't she doing GREAT?!?! Hehe, she was having so much fun!







Of course, once everyone else was ready to go, Gramma went with her.







Peter is excited!








Peter is getting his "How to Paddle a Kayak" lesson.







There he is, all alone in his kayak! What a big boy, I'm so proud of him!!! Hehehe






There they goooooooooooooooo!








Since someone had to stay ashore with Alexis, and there were only three boats, Kathi, Alexis and I hung around and played on the beach while they went out.




For some reason, Alexis started out the day being a bit cranky and attached to Mom.

Me and my beautiful sister! (And yes, Alexis is still attached to my legs, and yes, I'm ignoring her for a moment or two.)


After awhile, she felt comfortable enough to venture off of my legs and check out some rocks!

Until Kathi tried to get a picture with her...







...and then we were back to this. :(

But then they found the water and Kathi had the ingenious idea to throw rocks into the water!




Alexis thought this was a great idea as well and cheered right up! And she warmed right up to Kathi within seconds!





After awhile, we got this! Kisses!!!!! Which of course, made Kathi giddy!


In the background you can see Gramma and Natalie coming back! I love this picture though, it has 4 of the most important girls in my life in it, but totally done unintentionally!







Natalie enjoyed wearing that life jacket. For some reason she thought I'd just let her run out and go swimming by herself with it on... she was mistaken. :)







After awhile, the pants got too wet, and had to come off. Which, of course, didn't bother Alexis at all! She loves running around in just a diaper!







Finally the boys came back too.








But Alexis wanted to go fro a ride too. But we figured that would be a little to risky for the time being.







And then it was my turn!!! YAYAYAYAYAY!!!!







I can't tell tell you how much fun kayaking is! I was a little surprised on how much I enjoyed it! It is so very relaxing!





So I've debated back and forth with myself on whether to include this picture or not... It's a great picture...... except for the stupid expression on my face! So I may look like a retard, but at least its a great picture of me looking like a retard!... right???

It's difficult getting out of a kayak... especially for first timer big butts like me! ;)






And for the last picture of our kayaking experience, I thought I'd share this picture. This is a family who brought their little dog with them. Before this picture, the dog was swimming in the lake just fine, and having a blast I might add. But, for some strange reason, they decided to pull it out of the water. "To do what?" you might ask. To put a life vest on it! Of all the silly things I've ever seen, I think this may rank up there in the top 5! And, I might add this as well, the poor little pooch was able to escape them a couple times to go swimming without the vest, but they were determined that it needed the stupid life vest and eventually they won. I think the dog struggled more with it on than without.....

And I think I'm going to leave this post at that! There will be a part 3 to this saga though. I have another whole day to post about. But with the pictures taking so long to attach to the post, it's taken me hours (stretched out over a couple days, of course) already to get this one prepared. Maybe later today I'll start the next one! Something for you to look forward to!