Christmas recap...

After celebrating Christmas morning at our house, we headed out through the snow, over to Grammy and Grandpa's house, to continue the fun for the afternoon and dinner.

And we almost made it all the way to their place...except for the last big hill. Our van wanted nothing to do with going up any further, so the girls and Mark hiked up, while Julie was very lucky and got a ride from Grandpa's truck, that was equipped with chains. Here is Mark walking up the driveway with the girls. A new, adventurous way to get to there!
Karina discovering the real bobcat tracks right by Grammy's front door. A little scary, but exciting to see.
Jadyn learning how to snowboard for the first time down the driveway and loving it! She is ready for the big hills now.
Karina snowboarding her own way down the driveway!
We had lots of fun gifts given. Jadyn's favorite was definitely her new pink and white roller skates! Karina loves her new best friend, affectionately named "Peanut", the super soft, huge elephant! She doesn't want to go anywhere without him.
Here's the whole gang: Grandpa, Grammy, Nick, Stephany, Caelan, Julie, Karina, Mark, and Jadyn

How you get those ornaments up on top of the tree...

Our little decorators

More snow fun

It looks like we'll top off with about a foot of snow. We've had a great time playing in it. Yesterday, Uncle Nick and cousin Caelan came over and spent the morning playing together with our girls. We had snowballs fights, reinforced our snow forts, and did lots of sledding.


It's 34 degrees right now and a mix of rain and snow, so maybe we're at the end of our fun...

And the snow keeps coming...

Here are yet a few more pictures of us and snow. Can you tell that it is just about all that we have been doing this week? It actually got up to 35 degrees today though, so there may be an end in sight after Christmas sometime. We'll see...

Snow Days

Yesterday, we went to Robinswood Park in Bellevue and had a great time playing in the snow with Grammy and Grandpa. We found icicles, played on the playground, went on the swings, and of course played and played in the snow. Grandpa even brought his old fashioned sled, which was so much fun! We eventually became frozen ourselves and had to head home, but what a great time!

Dad Sledding

More snow pictures...

These are from the other night. We found a great sledding hill right by our house. We can't wait to see if we get more snow again tomorrow!

Brrrrr!

This was what our indoor/outdoor thermometer read when we were eating breakfast this morning just before 8 a.m.! I think that 14.7 degrees is a bit too cold for us to go play outside!

We are going to warm up by making yet another batch of yummy cookies to take advantage of Jadyn's school being cancelled for the 2nd day in a row. Come on over!

Oh, how we love snow!

Our favorite sight to wake up to!

We have about an inch and a half and are expected to get more today and tonight!

The official date...

We are scheduled to go in on January 29th to have our newest little one. All is well and healthy so far. Just a few too many contractions, but they make good medicine to stop those. We have just 7 weeks to go! I am sure it will go faster than we are ready for, but we are all very excited and counting down the days.

We did get a chance to get another ultra sound picture, though. (I guess there is one good thing about having contractions early.) If you look closely at this profile shot, you can see our little one sucking on his/her hand.

Student of the Trimester

We were invited to Jadyn's school yesterday for an awards ceremony. Jadyn, and a few other kids from each grade were honored and called up front by the principal to receive their Student of the Trimester award.

Great job, Jadyn! We're so proud of you!

The world according to Jadyn

As we pulled down our street tonight towards home:

"Look Mommy - lights, lights, lights...! (then she heaves a big sigh...) and then there's our house"

It was subtle, but I guess it's time to put up the Christmas lights.

The world according to Karina

"Daddy, do you know I'm a little sister to Jadyn and a big sister to Mommy's tummy?"

It's a little known fact...

A little conversation from the dinner table last night:

Jadyn: We need to drink lots of milk or we won't have the little white things.

Julie (her curiosity peaked): What little white things?

Jadyn: The little white things on our fingernails. Remember, you told me.

Julie (perplexed and trying to jog her memory): What do you mean?

Jadyn: If we don't drink lots of milk, our fingernails won't have the little white circles at the top!

Julie: How does the milk make our fingernails white?

Jadyn: When you drink milk, it goes into your fingernails and turns the top white. Those are the little white things.

Julie (laughing): You're right. Drinking lots of milk does make our fingernails strong, but I don't think the milk makes the tops white.

Working again

Great news. Mark has been able to go back to work after missing a month due to his back injury. He's still going to Physical Therapy twice a week for a few more weeks, but his back feels great and he's glad to be back (no pun intended). Thanks for all the prayers and support!

Finally...

Just want to let you know that we finally have more updated pictures on our Family Photos link. Go check it out...

Student of the Week

Jadyn was honored by her teacher last week when she was chosen as "Student of the Week." Teacher's pick one student for showing a positive attitude, good behavior, and good work. The winner receives an award certificate as well as having their name announced over the intercom by the principal during the daily announcements. She was very surprised and excited!

Way to go, Jadyn! We're very proud of you!

Grand Prix Time!

This weekend was Grand Prix weekend at our church. For any who don't know what that is, kids use a pine block of wood to create a car of their own design, put wheels on it, and race it with other kids on a long track.

Jadyn and Karina were both very exacted to make their cars. We wanted to make sure they were the ones picking out their designs, so we allowed them to choose what they wanted and then tried our best to help them make it happen.

Jadyn has been very excited about the "Pledge of Allegiance" at school, so she wanted to make a flag car, and she wanted it to be a truck like our friend Steve has. Karina wanted a "Lightning McQueen" race car, but - like any girl would - she wanted it to be pink and have rainbows on it.




We worked hard. I (Mark) worked with the kids to come up with the shape of the cars, we cut them together, sanded them down, chiseled Karina's car to make it rounded like Lightning, and primed them to be ready to paint. Julie then stepped in and spent time painting with each girl - both of whom were very particular about their paint jobs. The final product turned out great and the girls were very proud.

On race day, when their numbers were called, they girls got to go up and set them in place on the racetrack and then go wait by the finish line. Karina even told me at one point, "Daddy. Don't come with me. I can do it by myself." I felt so rejected and yet so proud at the same time (kidding).


Both did great - Karina even won one of her races! Jadyn came in second once, and third lots of times. But her proudest moment came at the end when they handed out trophies. The fastest racers won trophies, the best designs, and then there was a special trophy for the "Director's Choice" of cars - the organizer of the race chooses one car as best design of his choice - and he picked Jadyn's car. She was so excited - she ran up and received her trophy in front of the whole crowd! At the end, the girls even got to pose by a real race car!

But the best part of all was having fun working on the cars and seeing them race. We're already talking about next year...!