When Santa brings a sled for Christmas...

sometimes the parents have to go find the snow. We met up with the Barkers (who also got sleds from Santa) and headed up the road to the mountain. We found snow pretty quick - and it was so beautiful up there.


After james' first ride down he was screaming "again mama, again."


Brooke didn't do a lot of sledding...

but Cory did.

It is moments like these (of pure joy) when I realize I have a lot of my mother in me.

Does it run in the family?

This week Ian had his first roller skating experience. It sounded fun in theory...

but ended up looking mostly like this (I mean, he actually did still have fun, I think).

He asked me later - "Mom, why am I not good at roller skating?" I showed him pictures of his Grandma Clay roller skating and told him maybe when he is 10 he, too, will skate like this:




An action shot for his grandma - the professional.

Merry Christmas and thank you.

I have to admit - even though Christmas at the Clays is perfect, having Christmas at home this year was really stress-free and relaxing (no traveling with children - no worrying about what ridiculously huge presents Nicki will buy my kids that I will have to ship home).

I did A LOT of gift sewing - but my favorites by far were the double sided capes I made for the boys. Ian's other side is Superman and James' is Batman. I was so excited for them to open them.

Thank you to all of my family who bought and shipped tons of presents to us. We are spoiled.
The Nesbitts.

The Eisenmans.

Grandma and Grandpa Clay.

The Smiglianis.

The David and Kristine Clays and the Breadys (seriously I couldn't take a picture of everything).

We love being close to the Leonards - thanks for all the spoiling too!

Christmas Eve

Curt had work off and we were done with all our present stuff so we spent the day in Seattle with Grandma and Grandpa Leonard.

First we saw the gingerbread house display at the Sheraton. This year's theme was Christmas movies.

This one had some pretty amazing jelly bean art.

Then we headed over to the Seattle Center to see the model train/winter village, the ice skating and for several rides on the carousel.



Lastly we went to Amy and Eric's house for their traditional mexican Christmas Eve dinner. It was 7 courses, amazingly delicious and included sweet potato chipotle soup, tamales, steak fajitas, chicken enchiladas, black beans and rice, and flan and tres leches cake.

It was one of the most fun Christmas eves I have had - just busy enough to make hanging around the house all day on Christmas perfect.

yearly check-ups

Somehow ian never got his check-up around his birthday (oh yeah they didn't have any openings and then flu season started and I was too paranoid of taking them into a waiting room full of H1N1) so I took them in together this week. Here is what we learned:
- both my kids love to run around the doctors office in their underwear.
- Ian likes to tell the doctor interesting facts like, "I burned my finger on the iron" (like 6 months ago), and "my brother has more presents than me under the Christmas tree". He seriously talked Dr. Shoos ear off.
- they are both 25-50% for both height and weight. They are both healthy. and neither of them needed any shots - which made it our best check-up ever.

I can't believe how much more time I have since swearing off all my Christmas crafting - kind of...

My stable boy

Last night was Ian's preschool Christmas Pageant. He played a stable boy and was so darling. He also screamed all the songs and kind of overdid the hand motions - I had no idea we had such a performer on our hands.

Ian and Josie were both stable kids.

All together for the singing part. He is on the left.

This is Ian reciting the memory verse they did for the program last night.

Santa Ho Ho Ho

James is 2 (yesterday)

He loved being sung to - he had the biggest smile and kept clapping. And last night going to bed he kept saying "blow out candles, me."


Daddy and Grandpa putting together his awesome new bike from Aunt Ashley, Uncle Hank and Parker.

But nothing could beat his favorite present of the night - his shopping cart from the Barkers.

Things I love about Jamesy at 2:
1. He tells me "song" every night before I leave his room so I will sing him Hush Little Baby (he won't accept anything else).
2. He is a dumper and a stasher - lately he likes to dump his lego box and fill it with cars - and then dump that and fill it with something else (this is why he is so excited about the shopping cart).
3. He is very particular already about his clothes, shoes, socks, food, toys, etc. way more particular than Ian is even now.
4. He asks Ian for a hug and kiss every night before they go to bed. And he is sad when Ian goes to preschool without him. It is so sweet how much they love each other.
5. He plays, with toys, all day long - and without my help. I like that a lot.

My date with Ian

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I decided that I should take my four year old boy to see the Nutcracker - he tolerated it pretty well - I thought it was completely magical.

Some of the MANY comments Ian made during the show:
When is it time for the snack break?
I don't really like this kind of dancing?
Did you know Comet is the biggest Reindeer?
Can I take my socks off?
Can we just leave? (he didn't actually say this until the very last dance).

I wonder if I will be able to talk him into it again next year.

I just checked on James and he is sleeping with his bunny over his eyes.

I seriously love this time of year. Kids make it 100 times more fun.

We have a tree

Grandma was here for almost two weeks - we were so sad to say goodbye yesterday! I learn a lot about being a mom every time I am with her - thanks for being so great mom.

A week with the Breadys

There is nothing I like better than hanging out with my sisters. I am so glad that Cami and Mike drove up for the holiday.
Here we are waiting to go in to the Seattle Children's Theatre to see Peter Pan.


Cami told me last night that spending a week with my kids actually cured her of any baby cravings she might have been having. Hmn - your welcome.

Little boy cuteness

There are always so many more pictures when my mom is around.

Thanksgiving

We spent all morning cooking.

All afternoon sleeping.

And all evening partying with all of the other Leonards.
James was in love with Rachel and would not leave her alone - literally ran after her screaming her name if she tried to sneak away.

Lisa and Bill were here from Austin. We love it when they come to visit.


The Leonards and the Beards.

The Leonards and the Clays AND the Breadys.

I'm thankful for family most of all.