Moment of the Month

Gabby has a best friend, named Landon (pictured above).  They get along quite well.  It turns out they get along too well.  After the program was over at our church Christmas party, these two found themselves in the company of older children.  We are not quite sure what happened first - the kiss or the encouragement - but Landon and Gabby kissed many times on the lips, to the joy of the onlookers.  When we got home, I had a little chat with my 3-year-old flirt and told her that she shouldn't kiss Landon anymore.  Without hesitation, she responded in a matter-of-fact tone, "But Mom - I like it."  Oh dear.

Fun with Mémé

Gabby and Claire think that "grandparent" and "best friend" are synonymous, so the best part about Christmas was having Mémé in town.  Together, we went to the Bellevue Botanical Garden (seen above) for the Garden d'Lights festival, which features over half a million lights and never fails to impress.

We went to Seattle Center, where the girls enjoyed watching trains move around a miniature village.

And we spent a day at the Seattle Children's Museum.  This time, the girls lasted longer than the adults.

We also spent some time with the extended family, including Great-Grandma Allred and Great-Aunt Sandra's family.  Luckily, Great-Grandma (who suffers from Alzheimer's) kept swearing to a minimum and didn't try to kill anyone with her cane this time around.

Christmas Day

On Christmas Day, the girls woke up at their normal 7AM time, to find that Santa had visited.  Since we had church at 9AM, they only opened their stockings.  They didn't complain about not opening presents, but that could have had something to do with the fact that Santa left them their favorite cereals so they went straight to eating.

After a wonderful church service, we returned home.  Mémé came into town for Christmas week, too, which was a special treat.

Before opening gifts, we role-played the events leading up to the Savior's birth.  Gabby was Mary.  Claire quickly quit the life as a shepherd and decided to be an angel.

At last - the gifts!  Complete with video calls with grandparents.

It was a great Christmas, but the girls already miss Mémé.

December

Claire's new smile. 

December was filled with Christmas activities and a lot of fun with family and friends:

Gabby had a Fête de Noël party at her school.  The parents were able to observe the morning routine and then the celebration began, complete with crêpes and madeleines.  Even Claire joined in (who thinks she is already a student anyway).

Our church party was phenomenal!  So much work went into it and the girls had a great time.

Well, except for the Santa part.  For that, both girls turned squirmy and refused to sit on his lap.  (But no nose pickings this time around....)

We went to 5 gift exchange parties this year.  One of them was an ornament exchange.  Jason's family has a Christmas tradition (which we are continuing for our girls) where every year, they add a new ornament with a photo for each child.  When we got married, his parents passed Jason's photo ornaments on to us for our tree.  I love them (mostly for teasing him)!  So for the exchange, I scanned Jason's 1985 photo and stuck it on an ornament without him knowing.  Not only was it a hit at that party, but it showed up at the next white elephant exchange!

 We bought a real Christmas tree and decorated it.  I thought we were going to have to put a gate around the tree for Claire, but luckily, she pretty much ignored the ornaments.  What the girls did not ignore were the tree lights.  They would not last half a second in the room without shouting at me to turn the lights back on.

The girls frequently dressed up as Mary and a shepherd with anything they could find. 

We all enjoyed extra time with friends and family.

We went to Snowflake Lane, where the girls had a great time watching the costumed drummers and watching the "snow" fall.  But Gabby's favorite part was hanging out at her friend, Frida's, place afterward.

I had a goal this year to bake for the many friends and neighbors who are so good to us all year round.  I found some star Christmas tree cookie-cutters at Crate and Barrel and started baking.  A whole day later, this is how far I got.  1 tree completed.  So much for my ambitions.  Maybe next year, friends....

Gabby learned "Jingle Bells," or rather, "Tinkerbells" this year.  This is the quick 10-second video that uploaded easily (before she successfully learned all the lyrics).

Santa's Pick

Photo courtesy of The Wiscombes

We happen to be friends with jolly ol' Saint Nick, so to start off the holiday season, we went to his local vacation home so the kids could meet him and see his outdoor lights.  Well, I am not sure which is worse - Gabby screaming the whole time (remember this photo?) or her sticking her finger up her nose.  My children never fail to amaze me.

Thanksgiving

This year, we went to Utah for Thanksgiving.  Spending Thanksgiving with family always makes you realize just how much you have to be thankful for.

Claire learned to ride a horse, knew who to be friends with for a constant supply of food (in this case, prego Katie), and savored every moment of attention she got from people like Nonni.

Gabby went straight to work on Thanksgiving dinner.  When she wasn't slaving away in the kitchen, she was either putting puzzels together or reading books.  After Thanksgiving dinner was over, Gabby was the one to turn on the Christmas lights outside with a remote control.  (Well, actually Uncle Randy secretly flipped the light switch inside while she pushed a button on the TV remote outside, but she found it very empowering.)

At one point, Jason was lifting Claire in the air.  Claire made it look like so much fun, that Uncle PJ had to give it a try.  I have to say - Claire looks a little more graceful.

Then, off to Mémé's house for a quick visit!

There, Claire rode her first vehicle.  By her expression, I guess it wasn't quite as fast as she had hoped.  Claire and cousin Zoey also fed Addie, the dog, some treats.  Gabby went straight for the games and books again.

Of all my amazing blessings, I am most thankful for these two miracles in my life:  (Oh, and Jason, but he's not quite as photogenic.)

Two Peas in a Pod Baby Shower

My neighbor and friend, Lisanne, is going to be having twin boys soon, so Katie and I threw a shower for her.  We went with a "two peas in a pod" theme and had a fun time planning the details.

The menu included: chocolate fondue (with apples, pears, pretzels, Nilla Wafers & grapes), edamame, spinach artichoke dip with rolls, veggies & dip, Hawaiian chocolates, cheese bread balls, meatballs and water with limes.  If you haven't noticed yet, the theme was anything green, white, or brown and ideally round.

Plus, Katie made these pea-in-the-pod cupcakes.  Aren't they darling?!

Double the fun was had by all.

Katie & I with Lisanne (center), soon-to-be-mom of twins.

Happy Birthday to Us

Jason's birthday was on November 9th, so about a dozen of us went to "High 5 Pie," a trendy little place in Seattle with yummy pies.  (Jason doesn't like many sweets, but he will never turn down pie and ice cream.)  Following the dinner pies, I got Marionberry and Jason got Cranberry Walnut, which were both absolutely delicious.

(Photos courtesy of high5pie.com)

The next day, we had our first opportunity to celebrate my birthday (which happend to be two months earlier).  Jason & I went to Sky City - the rotating restaurant at the top of the Space Needle - for brunch.  (Jason loves pies and I love brunch!)  Despite not having the kids with us, we still didn't manage to get very much real conversation in because the food was so amazing, we couldn't stop talking about it.

It was fun to constantly have the scenery changing around us.  The pictures make it look gray outside, but it was actually a decent morning.

Moment of the Month

I am going to start a monthly post to mention a funny snapshot into our lives that has happened that month.  There are certainly no shortage of amusing quotes and events during my days as a full-time mom.  The hard part is just remembering them and recording them.  So, the first one will be simple, just to get me going:

We have a doorstop to our front door that sticks out of the ground in the corner.  The girls are drawn to it. The other day, Gabby was standing on the doorstop and she and Claire were kind of shoving each other to be on it.  When I realized what was going on, I said (the phrase that we all vowed we would never say when we were adults), "Gabby, how many times have I asked you not to stand on that?"  She almost immediately answered, "5."  Then she counted on her fingers, "1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5.  Five times."  I was speechless.  I can't say that I really expected an answer from that question.

Weddings (AKA Vacation Time for Mom)

Two of my close friends both got married recently and since traveling with the kids is difficult and costly, we decided it would be best for me to go alone.  Me on my own in San Diego & Maui?  The sacrifices I make for my friends....  ;)

Angela was my roommate both at BYU and when I first lived in NYC.  She married Trace in the San Diego Temple.  She looked amazing and it was fun to meet up with other friends there, too, like Marta.

After the wedding luncheon, I was able to catch up with another old roommate living in San Diego, Cori.  After all of these years we had plenty to chat about and didn't leave until the restaurant was closing at midnight.

 Two weeks later, I was off to Hawaii for Randi's wedding.  Randi and I were best friends in junior high and high school.  We began the festivities with a bachelorette dinner at Burgers in Paradise.

My hotel room became dressing room headquarters for all the girls before the wedding.  One of the great things about a destination wedding is that I felt like I was able to spend so much time with the bride and groom the entire time I was there.  From barbecues at the park to laying out on the beach to spending hours in the middle of the night trying to figure out how to get the jeep rental's top back on - we actually made more memories instead of just passing on a quick "congratulations" before they were off on their honeymoon.  (We basically joined them on their honeymoon....)  It was a lot of fun!

The ceremony was a traditional Hawaiian ceremony.  Beautifully located on the beach as the sun went down.

Before I left town, I had to do a helicopter ride, even if I was by myself.  It was AMAZING!  The ride included Maui and Molokai Island.  Absolutely breathtaking.

The scary thing is that there was a crash two days later on the same flight I took - it killed 5 people.  So sad.

I returned home and got to work on the Primary Presentation that I was in charge of at church a few days later.  Such a fun, but crazy few weeks.