December Fun

We got to spend an evening with Bruce (from Greg's program) and his wife Shirley...Joel got to help make orange bread!
Both the kids had so much fun at their house, and Greg and I did, too! These penguins came in their stockings from Bruce and Shirley (above).

My aunt Jennifer and Uncle Steve and 5 of their 8 kids were in Caldwell visiting some other family, so we got to spend the day with them there (it's about 45 minutes from here). They are from France, so this was Greg's first time meeting them, and it was so fun to be together. Our camera is on the fritz, so I only got this one sweet picture with Rose and Maren playing the piano, but there was a lot of action with that many kids around! Hopefully we will get to see them again in Tacoma before they head back to France in the spring.

Cute Quotes

Joel is so inquisitive and curious these days...he asks questions all the time, and wants to know everything about what's going on around him. Here are a few really cute seasonal ones:

At a restaurant, he looked up at the ceiling where there were ball ornaments hanging and said, "what are those wrecking balls doing up there?"

At the hospital, he saw pin-ups of Santa Claus and asked, "is that Noah?"

Two days after Christmas, Joel looks at the tablecloth I put on the table for our Christmas brunch and asks, "Mom, why do we have this blanket on the table?"

It is so fun (and sometimes tiring!) to see how his mind works and to experience new things and concepts with him every day!

O Christmas Tree

Someday maybe we will be able to go out to a tree farm and cut our own tree...but for now, Home Depot will do the job!

This is the one!

Once we got the tree home, we had to decorate in stages because it was a busy week and we were not all home at once. I put the lights on and then Joel got to put on the ball ornaments (notice the concentration of them in the middle of the tree!).

Maren got to help, too! Daddy let her hang his surf board ornament!

The tree has been a big hit in our house! They think it's more of a toy than something to look at, so the ornaments have been moved all around since we first hung them. Oh, well...a little variety is good, right?! :)

Snow!

Croup

Maren came down with croup on Saturday night (we didn't know that's what it was at the time) and by Sunday morning it was so bad we took her to the ER. They treated her there for a while and then admitted her because it wasn't getting much better. She ended up having to stay the night and all the next day before we were able to bring her home. She is doing much better now...finally got her appetite back on Wednesday, and was happy and playful today. I think she is still a bit tired from the whole ordeal, but the doc said today that her breathing sounds great and she should be fine now. Also, our friends and our church have been SO helpful; bringing us meals, praying for us, and taking Joel out to play. THANK YOU!!

I wish I had had my camera earlier in the day (I took this picture just before she was discharged) because she was all hooked up to wires and even had an IV. She looked so pathetic and sad, and got pretty tired of being confined to the crib or our arms, and not being able to walk or even crawl very well (the IV was in her foot!). But overall she did really well and we are so thankful to have her home and healthy!

Joel comforting Maren on Tuesday morning as they watch cartoons.

Misc November...

Here are a few random pictures from November...

We took a short weekend trip to Portland at the beginning of November. I didn't take very many pictures, but we had fun visiting with family and friends there. We won't be seeing any family for the holidays, so it was nice to see people briefly this weekend.

This is the box that Maren's chair came it...it was more exciting than the chair for the few days that it held up under rigorous play! :) This is Joel with his friends Ella and Anders.
Joel decided that it would be fun to go down the stairs head first at Carolyn & Amit's house...

Soon Carolyn, Starlyn and Greg joined in...Amit, Laurie and I decided it was much more fun to watch and not upset our Thanksgiving dinners!

New Chair

Maren got this new chair for her birthday...it is fun for sitting in, climbing on, and jumping over (Joel!). Thanks Mimi and Grandma & Grandpa Nealon!

When Maren sat in the chair up on the hearth like this we said it looked like she was sitting on her throne...
A few minutes later Joel got up there and said he was sitting on his "stone!" :)

IN

Maren loves to get into anything she can fit in...the smaller the better! Here are a couple of her favorite little places to be in.

Happy Birthday Maren!

I can't believe it has been a year since Maren joined our family! She went from being a little scrawny thing, to this beautiful, fun and energetic little girl. She took her first steps (by herself) a couple of weeks ago and has mastered her first word - "HI!" She called me Mama once, and calls dogs Da! She loves to dance and jump and climb on whatever she can. She eats almost everything (food or not!) with her 7 little teeth and can motion to me when she is all done eating. Maren is truly a joy to us, and we wish all of our friends and family could see her more often.

Birthday balloon
We went to the park in the afternoon so that Maren could ride the swing...she wasn't so sure about the leaves, but I managed to get this one where she wasn't crying!
A couple of little presents...

Mini cupcakes for birthday dessert. We did have candles and singing, but it was caught on video, not still pictures.

All done!

Glasses...

Halloween

I am not a big fan of Halloween, but our church was having a Harvest Carnival on Halloween night, so we decided it would be fun to go to that. It was!

Our little giraffe...we knew this costume would be perfect for Joel - he has always loved giraffes!

Sweet butterfly - delicate and pretty, just like our little Maren.

Here's Joel trying to whack the pinata...he was not so sure about the blind fold, and didn't even stay around for the candy! Despite having face painting, trunk-or-treating, a box maze and a pumpkin toss, Joel spent the majority of his time jumping in the blow-up castle (we got video of this, but no pics).

Maren got her first taste of pure sugar, in the form of a sucker...thanks daddy! :)

A visit to Olympia

Maren and I went to Olympia to visit my sister and her family in October. My mom also came up from Portland to see us and help with the kids while Christina and I went to a scrapbook workshop most of the day Saturday. It was so fun to see her new house and spend time with her sweet kids, and of course the highlight was the scrap day! I didn't get very many pictures but here are a couple that turned out pretty cute! Christina and her four kids...I had made scarves for the girls and brought the silly mask for William. The girls - especially Emma and Aliya LOVED the scarves and wore and played with them all weekend!
Christina and I at our scrap day - 8 hours of fun scrapping, talking, laughing and drinking coffee!
Maren LOVES dogs! She says Da whenever she sees one and waves her arms up and down. This is Maren with Fetch, the Ankeney family dog...he was very patient with her patting him and following him all around!

I didn't get a good one of my mom, but she was there the whole time and it was SO nice to see her and have her see Maren! We also had a big family reunion with all of my Moms sisters and brother and their kids and my grandparents. This included my aunt and uncle and their 8 kids who live in France and are back on furlough. None of my pictures turned out well, so you'll have to take my word for it that it was lots of fun!