Thank you!

Thank you to all of our generous family near and far for all the wonderful Christmas presents we received! We appreciate everything so much and hope to see you all sometime soon!

Clapping & "Mama"

Braden started clapping on Christmas Eve! Madeleine & I have been clapping for him a lot and he's finally gotten it down! He received a Tonka Bulldozer for Christmas and was very excited about it...so much that he started clapping when it moved or made sounds! So cute to watch!

He is also saying "mama" along with gaga, googoo, ect. I can't tell yet if he is actually calling me mama or just saying it. I'll pretend that he knows I'm mama :)

He does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING on que so I have no idea when I'll get a video of him doing either.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family!

We had a fun filled Christmas this year in Seattle with Angela's family. Christmas Eve was spent over at Steve & Kathy's house and Christmas Day at her brother Steve's house. Lots of family came over to celebrate. As usual, we had many presents to open and lots of yummy food to eat. Santa even made a special stop on Christmas Eve to deliver a few special gifts to everyone! Madeleine played with Kathryn all day and Braden played and slept. He is on the move and so quick so we hardly got any pictures of him. Unlike Madeleine at his age, he could care less about presents or even wrapping paper. He just crawled around all day but wouldn't sit still to tear open any paper or anything!

The day goes by so quick, so we started early and let the kids open up a present early in the day. Madeleine was very excited that Braden gave her a Snow White doll & horse!

Santa stopped by! Did he bring Madeleine the one and only thing she asked for???

We were so happy that Kim & Zach and their darling little boy joined us on Christmas eve!

Santa brought Madeleine the very toy she asked for, a "fuzzy dora doll"!!!

A very happy girl!

Braden crawling around :)

Madeleine got some dress-up clothes and even Grandpa tried them on!

Santa ate chocolate chip walnut cookies and the reindeer got carrots! Jeff's favorite cookies are chocolate chip walnut too ;-)

Holiday Carousel & Santa's Cookies!

We're a busy bunch over here preparing for the holidays! Today our holiday playdate with friends didn't work out so we called Jeff to see if he could meet up instead and he was free! It turned out to be a really fun day. We drove downtown to pick him up and headed to the holiday carousel. Everyone was out and about doing their shopping, Christmas lights were everywhere and different groups playing Christmas music made it very festive. I was nervous about it being crowded downtown but everyone must have been feeling the holiday spirit because people were SO NICE! People kept opening the door for me as I pushed Braden in the stroller and I heard a lot of people wishing us a Merry Christmas. It was a nice change of pace from other days when people are rushing around and so rude. I suspect our unusually dry, sunny winter may have something to do with it!

When we arrived home, Madeleine & I made cookies for Santa. Jeff thought that Santa would enjoy chocolate chip walnut cookies so that is what we made ;-) Madeleine helped make the cookies and enjoyed eating the dough the most!

Garden d'Lights 2011

I absolutely love the event at the Bellevue Botanical Garden puts on each winter, Garden d'Lights. It is amazing what they do...so magical! From their website: The enormously popular festival features over ½ million lights which transform the Bellevue Botanical Garden into a blossoming winter wonderland.

We've gone almost every year and love it each time! This year we met Matt, Mindee & Audrey there and had so much fun seeing it all with them! The girls ran around singing "Walking in a Winter Wonderland"...but those were the only words they knew - LOL! Enjoy the pictures!

Pulling Up!

Braden has started to pull himself into a standing position! So fun to watch! If something is really interesting, he'll pull himself up to see what all is going on. Apparently Madeleine's singing was very exciting!
Love the expression on his face in this one!

Bath Time for Braden!

Braden is loving bath time these days! He just started letting him sit in the bath without a baby seat. He loves to splash and play with the bath toys. It's still a bit nerve racking because he gets so excited and starts to throw himself back...but of course we are always there to catch him!

Here is my cutie patootie getting all clean!

Cookie Making at Grandma's!

My mom & I had this past weekend planned out for the two of us to get together and make some crafts but it didn't quite work out so instead we decided to make Christmas cookies and I brought Madeleine with me...I was gone last weekend for a girls night away so I didn't want to leave Jeff two weekends in a row with both kids :-)

We had lots of fun and made three different cookies - Sugar cookies, Raspberry Twists and Chocolate Caramel Cookies. Yum! Then I came home and made peppermint bark. Jeff is taking all with him to work this week for his party!

We didn't finish on Saturday night so we woke up on Sunday and finished making the cookies. Madeleine loved frosting all of the sugar cookies!

Ms Bedhead taking her frosting job very seriously!

Snowflake Lane!

We made a last minute trip into Bellevue for Snowflake Lane last night! Both kids took a long nap yesterday at the same time (glorious!) so we decided it would be a good night to stay out a little later. We went to Starbucks to grab a warm treat and saw the Best family there! So fun to run into them and enjoy Snowflake Lane with their family!

Holiday Dance Recital

Madeleine had her Holiday dance recital tonight. Sadly, I wasn't able to go because Braden needed to go down for the night but Jeff and my parents were there to watch. They put on a show at a local nursing home in Issauquah. Shelly & Cindy put together some really cute dances for the girls! From all the pictures and video Jeff took, it looked really fun! Dance is ending this month because both teachers are having a baby in a few months...we are sad to not be able to go anymore but are so happy for both of them. It has been a WONDERFUL experience! Thanks Shelly & Cindy!

Decorating, Playdates, Braden Talking...

December is here and it is time to start getting ready for the holidays! We got our tree at Costco this year instead of a tree farm because we were feeling a bit short on time. The tree is very beautiful but it's just not the same as picking it out at a tree farm. From here on out, we will always get our tree at a tree farm.

We had a blast getting out all the decorations and placing them on the tree. My favorite part is seeing what ornaments I bought on sale last year the day after Christmas for this year's tree - so fun! Because Braden is on the move, we put our tree in our front office so we could close the door or put a gate up so he can't get to it. It is placed in front of the window so it looks very pretty from the outside!

I bought Braden an airplane ornament last year and now he is here...his first Christmas!
Madeleine absolutely loved decorating the tree for about 20 minutes and then it was off to better stuff like playing with daddy! That's okay, I am very particular about where the ornaments go :-)

After we decorated the tree, we made some Christmas cookies. We made candy cane kiss cookies, yum! This is such a great recipe to do with a preschooler.

Our tree all lit up!

We had a playdate with friends who have the same age kids - Madeleine & Hayden and Braden & Harlow...both sets of kids just a few months or weeks apart!

Braden is getting to be such a big boy! He is doing a lot of baby talk and saying sounds like ga, go and ma! I'll try to get a video of him making those sounds soon. Below are some pics of him eating and talking...he is eating brocolli, cheese, avocado, beans, toast, pasta, and fruit cut-up as well as baby food & his bottles.

Braden's 9-Month

We had Braden's 9-month appointment today. What a big boy we have! Braden weighs almost 25 lbs - 24lbs & 14oz (95%), he is 2'6.25" (96%) and his head is in the 91%. He is a happy, growing boy and thankfully sleeping through the night again ever since we got home from Dallas!

Swings!

We came home to chilly but beautiful weather so instead of hitting the gym, we gone for a run every morning since being home. We always stop at a park and today Madeleine suggested that Braden try out the swings while there. He seemed to like it!