Happy New Year's Eve!

In celebration of the last day of the year, our morning started off with a dance party in the living room. And as fun as it was Ryan was right on when he said, 'This is definitely an activity we do before opening the blinds!'. Yes, we aren't going on 'So You Think You Can Dance' anytime soon. The good news is that we know we can't dance yet we just have a blast because Kaitlyn LOVES doing it!

Wishing you a lovely New Year full of joy and wonder!

Thanks to Nicole for capturing this great picture.

The McMansion

OK, I totally dropped the ball on pictures at Christmas this year. My sister took a TON so I need to get some of those to share. Nonetheless, here are a few I captured of KP's McMansion.

The Hap, Hap, Happiest Christmas

As you can tell from the blog title our Christmas season was kicked off with a viewing of Christmas Vacation. It isn’t Christmas around here without some of those classic lines being thrown around, most of which are way too inappropriate to post on here. Nonetheless, the movie is super-duper funny and a great way to get in the holiday mood.


As for the festivities, Christmas Eve was spent with the Pedersons. We headed over to Jason and Christie’s in the afternoon. Of course the kids were excited to get to the presents so we did that and then had dinner. Soon after, we headed home and I got to enjoy some really lovely family time with Ryan and Kaitlyn. More gift opening and then the fun of helping Kaitlyn figure out all her new goodies.


The next morning was Christmas. And oh boy was it a blast! Kaitlyn woke up to find an over-the-top but absolutely fantastic doll house waiting for her from Santa. It’s hilarious, she can’t even reach the top floor it’s that big! She’ll be loving this house for years to come (or at least she better be – lol!). On a side note, we have it on good authority that it took Santa and Mrs. Claus approx 3 ½ hours to put that McMansion together on Christmas Eve…but no worries, a few beers can make dollhouse construction seem more pleasant. Oh, and I hear that qualifying for the mortgage on this baby was really difficult. So glad Santa pulled it off!


The Krauses and Mosers joined us mid-morning on Christmas and the rest of the day was spent lounging, eating, laughing and just enjoying ourselves and each other. And of course, some stories from our younger years were recalled. It makes me wonder what stories Kaitlyn and Emily will be telling years from now that will have them laughing so hard that they’ll be crying.


It’s amazing to see the difference in Kaitlyn from last year to this year. She’s grown so much physically, emotionally, and intellectually. It was such a joy to see her this year and all the excitement she had around holiday lights, Santa, and Christmas trees. Also, she’s definitely got the ‘opening presents’ thing down…next year we’ll have to continue to work on the whole spirit of Christmas concept.


Wishing you all peace and joy during this season!

Soooo Sweet!

Jen took this picture a couple of months ago. I just came across it again and couldn't resist sharing our sweet little princess.

More of the Fun Captured

Thanks, Jen for this great photo from Leavenworth!

Holy Lederhosen, That Was Fun!!!

This weekend we packed up the family truckster (aka suburban rental) and headed to Leavenworth with the Mosers for the lighting festival. It was fun, fun, fun!! With the softly falling snow during our sleigh ride (which was beautiful), watching the village light up, eating yummy food, and sledding we couldn't have asked for more.

I do have to say though, I'm not sure how the heck people do it in really cold climates. Getting a toddler bundled up is not the easiest/quickest/or most fun thing to do. And the diaper changes...argh! Such a pain. For a weekend no biggie, but thank goodness this isn't an every day dealo.

One of my favorite moments: Jen and I sledding together, hitting the snow hill and getting some air. Ahhh, it was like being back in the Beachcrest days of sledding down the beach hill. Fantastic!

The hotel we stayed at provided a little kit to decorate your own tree. KP was all over that!


Waiting for the lights to come on with Auntie Jen


Hanging out with Daddy as the snow falls


The Moser Family

The girls doing some shopping with us, hanging out in one of the dressing rooms

The ultimate in fun...the sled!

Auntie Jen is the Best!

Dear Auntie Jen,
You seriously rock! Thanks so much for my snowmen pajamas and my Curious George ornament. They are both absolutely perfect!

Cutie-pie hanging out in her holiday pj's from Auntie Jen

It's tradition...opening the annual ornament from Auntie Jen

Her George ornament got the privelage of being the first one on the tree

Just hanging...

Santa Visit

For the first time we braved the weekend trip to see Santa. Over the past two years we've done a weekday trip early in December and always walked right up. Well, this year a weekday wasn't going to work so off we went this morning getting there right as Santa was arriving. We thought we'd beat the crowds. Well, although the line wasn't awful we still ended up with an hour wait. I think we'll go back to the weekday visit for next year. Regardless, Kaitlyn had a great visit with Santa and she got her very first candy cane. Of course, she loved it!!! Then she not only looked really sweet, but smelled sweet, too!

Dear Santa...

Dear Santa,

I've been really, really good this year. Thus, can I get my own iPhone? I'm a little tired of sharing Mommy and Daddy's.

If you come through for me, I'll set you up with extra cookies and milk.

Luv, Kaitlyn

Santa Pub Crawls are the Best!

Although extremely quick, our mom/daughter weekend to San Francisco was fantastic! Thus, wanted to share some pics from all our fun.

Here's the Macys Store in Union Square all dec'd out. My Mom counted 60-some (68?) wreaths in these windows. In front of the store is our cable car that we had such a blast on! Love all it's festive lights!


Mom on the holiday lights cable car. This was pre-santa hats and crazy Christmas caroling. Little did we know what we were in for. Once the hats got passed out and the caroling book we decided to go all in. Nothing quite like touring the streets and holiday lights of San Francisco in our cheesy hats while belting out carols that EVERYONE was singing. We got lots of laughs from those on the street seeing this cable car go by. One thing that made this especially festive...the drunk santas! Yep, earlier in the day there was a santa pub crawl so by evening as we were touring the streets we encountered lots of 'happy' santas and inappropriately dressed elves who hooted and hollered with us! So stinkin' hilarious!



Tree at the Fairmont Hotel. Their lobby was absolutely gorgeous!



This is a real gingerbread house. Stats:
*22 feet high by 12 1/2 feet wide and 10 1/2 feet deep
*5500 pieces of gingerbread
*850 pounds of royal icing
*425 pounds of candy
*8 gallons of chocolate

It took 160 hours to construct the framework and 375 hours creating the gingerbread house.



Thanks, Mom! I can't wait until Kaitlyn can join us for memorable times like this one!

Flying High

Today started out quite early. Unfortunately, Kaitlyn was having a hard time sleeping this morning. Finally at 5 am she says, "Mommy, I'm a hungry girl. I want breakfast!" With such a cute face, how can one say no. Plus, I was flying out this morning (more on that later) so it was actually nice to get to spend some time with her this morning.

So during breakfast we had two conversations...
1. I was explaining to Kaitlyn that this was going to be a special Daddy and Kaitlyn weekend. That they were going to go to Little Gym and probably watch Apple Cup. She looks at me and says, "Mommy, where are you going?" I said, "Grammy Jill and I are headed out shopping and I'll be gone overnight, but I'll be back tomorrow." She looks me right in the eyes and replies, "Mommy, I'll miss you!" Ahhhhhhh...

2. So I'm flying high on this last statement only to be brought crashing down. Not even 5 minutes later she says, "I want a special treat," She says this as she's looking at her Christmas calendar so I know she wants to open today's goody. I say, "Kaitlyn, I'm having breakfast with you at 5 am, that's a special treat." Again, she looks right at me and says, "That's not a special treat." Wow, there goes the 'I'll miss you glow'. LOL!

Anyways, as mentioned my Mom and I are off for an overnight to San Francisco. In fact, I'm writing this blog from the plane (gotta love inflight internet service!). It'll be really tough but we plan on shopping, taking in the Christmas lights/sights, and eating yummy food! It's hard but someone has got to do it.

A BIG thank you to Ryan for making this possible and hanging with the peanut this weekend! Much love!

Odds and Ends...Including Two Thumbs Up

So today's post is going to be a lot of random, unrelated items that I've been meaning to post for a while. Here goes:

Two-thumbs up: Yes, this is Kaitlyn's new way of signaling all is well. It goes like this, "Kaitlyn, how's your dinner?' She grins and gives us the two thumbs up. 'Kaitlyn, did you have fun today?' Again the two thumbs go flying. It's actually pretty hilarious! We have yet to figure out the different criteria between one thumb up and two.

Big girl bed, take 1: Kaitlyn's mattress was delivered on Monday. It was classic to see the delivery guy's face when KP looks at him and says, 'Thank you for delivering my big girl bed!" He had this look like 'did that just really come out of that little person? Am I being punked?'

So far she's taken a couple naps in the bed and those have gone well. The first overnight, however, sets the stage for quite a bit of improvement. She somehow rolled off the bed, rolled about another foot or so to where she was hugging her closet door. We walked into her room to check on her and couldn't find her at first. Anyways, not only was she snuggling the closet door, she'd pee'd out of her diaper, her jammies were soaked as was the floor. My immediate thought was thank goodness she'd rolled off because we don't have a waterproof mattress pad on the bed yet! It arrives tomorrow from Overstock (yes, I'm back to my internet shopping addiction). Big girl bed, take 2 will happen once the pad is securely covering the bed.

Master hide-and-go seeker: Kaitlyn's big thing these days is to hide from us. And she's gotten extremely good at it. She picks great places, doesn't move an inch, and the ole, 'what sound does a lion make' does not work anymore. The other day it took me a good 5-10 minutes to find her. I told my sister that story and she totally laughed at me. Well, she watched KP on Tuesday and experienced it herself. It was now my turn to laugh at her!

Heard in the halls: Kaitlyn is talking in complete sentences now. It's hilarious to hear this little two-year old talking like that. Anyways, a few cute things:

*Nana got Kaitlyn a Curious George tank top. She got the smallest size but it's still pretty big on Kaitlyn. Anyways, Kaitlyn immediately put it on and Jeannine told me she said, 'It fits quite nicely, Nana!'

*The other day she wanted cheese and crackers. So I got her our usual ones. She says, 'No, mommy I want the one with the container and the stick!' I knew instantly what she was talking about but we'd never given her those before. Evidently, she's getting the handi-snacks from school and is a HUGE fan.

*She's also seems to think she's quite the little negotiator. Everything is, 'One more time.' She says this while motioning with her pointer finger and a big ole smile.

*She pulled out the word 'usually' on us the other day. 'Mommy usually sits there.'

It's a blast hanging out with our little peanut. Every day there's tons of reason to laugh and be happy!

So Worth It!

After all the snow/ice last week and then the extended weekend, we got some great quality time with Kaitlyn. That being said, I won't lie...I was actually looking forward to heading back to work and being productive in a grown-up environment. And I know that Kaitlyn was looking forward to hanging out with a new face as she'd grown tired of all our tricks and fun.

Enter the Sunday evening phone call. Karen is ill and not able to make it Monday. Hmmm...what to do? Ryan take PTO or me? We decided it'd be me. And as bummed as I was to use a PTO day, four little words made it all worthwhile. Kaitlyn looked up today at me with a big smile and said, "Mommy, I'm so happy!" I melted into a puddle and I'm extremely thankful that I had the opportunity to spend the day with her.

Our Little Snow Bunny

Bye-bye Crib, It's Been Fun!

Although the snow-fun continues and I have more pictures to post from today, I'm too tired to go downstairs to get the camera and upload the pictures. Thus, tonight's post is a fun one that doesn't require me to get out of my comfy, warm bed. It's a preview for Kaitlyn's upcoming room makeover.

As much as Kaitlyn loves her crib and as much as we love having her contained, it's definitely time to move onto the next thing. It's amazing for me to watch her sleeping and see how she takes up the whole crib now. I can still remember putting her in it for the first time at 6 weeks and how tiny she looked in this monstrous crib! Crazy how fast time goes by!!

Anyways, check it out. Here's the new bed we've ordered for her. And it should be arriving in 3-5 weeks. In the meantime, I think we'll go get her the full sized mattress this weekend and put it on the floor so she can start getting use to it. Fun stuff!!!

Embracing the Cold

Winter obviously decided to make an early arrival this year. And along with it, I decided to change my outlook. I've always been irritated by the inconvenience that snow, ice, and cold weather brings. However, today as the snow fell all around, I sat in my office watching it and found myself a bit mesmerized. And a lot distracted from the work I should have been taking care of. Anyways, I made the decision that instead of getting all riled up about it, I'd simply embrace it and the lovely picture it creates.

OK, I admit it. Part of this change of heart could be the excitement and thrill I had hearing Kaitlyn playing outside in it with Karen. The squeals of delight are really fantastic.

Looking down our street covered with fluffy white stuff

Kaitlyn building her first snowman...I know, I know...don't judge me! The weather caught us a bit off guard. Although we have snow pants (not sure why she's not wearing them though) and a winter jacket we'd yet to get mittens and snow boots. Ryan saved the day by bringing home the cutest pair of mittens and hat to match along with another set of snow gloves. Now we just need snow boots, but rain boots will work for now.

Yes, again stop judging me. That is indeed her sand shovel. We don't have any winter tools/accessories yet! On a side note, I must give creativity points to Kaitlyn and Karen. The snowman had pom-pom balls for eyes, a paint brush for a nose, and pipe cleaner for the smile.

Hello Sunshine and Warm Temps, I've Missed You!

No, Washington is not having unseasonably warm temps. In fact, these last few days have been absolutely icky. We found out from our neighbors that our power had been out for an entire night on Monday. Luckily we were off visiting Jeannine and Harlow, basking in the sunshine and mid 70 degree temps and thinking nothing of wind, rain, and power outages.

We've seemed to make our fall trip to AZ an annual thing now. We've gone every October or November since Kaitlyn was born. The best part of this trip (well, other than Four Peaks - Mmmm!) is that our reservations ended up being a room just for Ryan and me while Kaitlyn stayed in Nana's room. Poor Papa got kicked to the couch (sorry, Harlow!). Four days of relaxation and fun is just what we needed and it's exactly what we got. Unfortunately, I relaxed a bit too much though and didn't get hardly any pictures - bummer!

A part of my weekend relaxation involved a big, fat book. No surprise, for all of you know how much I love to read and truly treasure any opportunity when I get to read something for fun (versus work or parenting). Anyways, I really got into this book. It was so interesting and hooked my attention instantly. I was dying to get to the end and so hopeful for what the ending would bring. And then soooo ticked off once I got there. It ended horribly and I felt like I'd just wasted my time reading the 477 pages. Boo!

On a happier note, it has become a bit of a breeze to travel with Kaitlyn. OK, maybe not a breeze but she is a really great traveler. No fuss, no muss and she knows just when we need her to show some patience. She is amazing and did amazing.

Thanks, Jeannine and Harlow for the great weekend!

Next trip up, Palm Springs! Definitely looking forward to that one!

Oh, how I use to love falling back

I can remember how excited I use to get come fall and that very special weekend where we'd gain an extra hour. In my early twenties, it was an extra hour of drinking. Mid twenties turned to an extra hour of 'me time' (relaxation, reading, etc). Late twenties/early thirties meant a much loved extra hour of sleep. Well, with a little one the 'fall back' is no longer much fun. Kaitlyn could really care less what the clock says. Thus, she's been waking up at 4:30 am. Argh! The great news though...today she slept until 7 am. Heavenly!!!

Amusingly, it seems as though her clock has adjusted just in time for us to head Nana and Papa's this weekend which means we lose the hour again. Feels like someone is playing a joke on me. But I don't care. We are headed to sunshine and temps in the 70s. Yipee! And when she wakes up at odd times, I'll just send her into Nana and Papa's room. LOL!

Video Treats!

More Halloween fun. Here's Kaitlyn doing the candy slide.

The sugar is definitely kicking in!

More Treats Than Tricks - Whew!

Happy Halloween! We'd been working all week on Kaitlyn's 'trick or treat.' There was one unfortunate instance while we were practicing that I slipped and finished the sentence with, 'smell my feet, give me something good to eat!' KP instantly picked up on that and kept repeating it to me...and wanting me to smell her feet. So glad that it did not come out tonight while we made our way around the Moser's neighborhood. In fact, when the real test came and the pressure was on, she did great!

Although KP has had many, many ice cream taste tests, this week was her first entrance into candy and suckers. Um, yeah, she liked them! Who can blame her? The yummy goodness of a peanut butter cup or savoring a sweet dum-dum is a pretty nice thing. However, all in moderation. Thankfully Kaitlyn only had a couple whereas it's quite a different story for me. Let me just say, I'm ready to eat healthy again for a while.

Thanks to the Mosers for hosting yet another fantastic gathering.

Prefunking at the Mosers

Time to head out and see what this whole 'trick or treat' thing is about

Back at the Mosers, one kitty just hanging out with another

Waiting to answer the door for trick or treaters became the highlight of the night for the girls

Hmm...classic hand in the cookie jar dealo

Curious Kaitlyn

I'm missing the little peanut like crazy! So I think a post about her is in order.

Well, as many of you know she's a BIG fan of Curious George. Perhaps it's because she has that curious bond going on with him. The daily conversations we have include:

*'What that mama?' for everything!
*'Where Kaitlyn going?' when we are getting her shoes on or getting in the car
*'What that one all about?' when watching a movie or listening to a music CD (yep, she wants to know what the song is all about that she's about to hear)
*'What mama laughing at?' This one we have to be careful with these days. If she thinks we're laughing at her, she gets embarrassed and really upset.
*'What comes next?' when we're running errands.

It's so amusing to carry on conversation with this little person, who surprises me daily on what she knows! One of my favorites lately is when Ryan and I will do or say something that she doesn't like...she'll say, 'No do that!' Any of you who know Ryan know that simply motivates him to keep doing it. And then she'll get VERY insistent that he not do it! Funny...well, to a point. :)

The Highlights and Lowlights of My Travels

So if you read my previous post, you know I'm in Orlando. I took the red eye flight out Saturday night and discovered a few things about myself that aren't so pleasant.

1. Although being the parent of a little one makes me much more sympathetic to parents traveling with kids, evidently my patience runs thin after 15 minutes of my seat being kicked. There's zero left after 20 minutes. Did I mention this was a red eye flight? Here's how it played out, "Argh, that little girl (probably age 6) is kicking my seat...oh well, Kaitlyn has done that before...hmm, she's still kicking my seat. But I have a little one so I understand...Still kicking...Isn't her mom going to make her stop?...really, still? Isn't this little stinker (not quite the word I thought though) tired? Shouldn't she be sleeping....Really, how long is this going to go on, this is ridiculous!
I'm sure I'll be paying for those thoughts when we take our next airline trip with Kaitlyn in a few weeks.

2. The gentleman next to me didn't find a need to sleep on the flight either. He chose to read and play solitaire the whole way there. Leaving his light to shine right on me. I was really annoyed and yet it's this guy's right to do this, of course. I shouldn't expect the world to cater to me and my needs. However, he was a talker and that's where I draw the line! Argh, I had to pretend to sleep to avoid the chit-chat. Shouldn't there be a law against that on a red eye? He also took his shoes off and proceeded to walk around the plane without them, including the bathroom. That's just wrong! Maybe I'm not as accommodating to quirky people as I thought I was.

3. Upon arriving, I had the pleasure (read: torture) of taking the Magical Express to my hotel. Now arriving so early meant I was the only one on this HUGE motor coach. I was told 10,000 people would be coming in later that day but for me, I got a personal ride. I was quite amused because Disney is placing a HUGE focus on being 'green' these days, yet they transported me in a gas-guzzling, pollution-creating bus to the hotel...just little ole me! Back to the torture part, the driver being the typical Disney employee felt it was his duty to do the whole song and dance and hype me up for my Disney experience. I did actually feel bad when I told him I wouldn't be doing anything Disney-related other than staying at the Disney property for a work conference. Nonetheless, he didn't let that stop him. He forged right ahead thinking he could convince me that I needed to Disney it up! It was painful! And I got irritated with this poor guy who is obviously so in love with his job and Disney. I'm blaming it on lack of sleep from the first two items above. Had it not been for that, I would've forged right into the drivers dream of a wonderfully, magic vacation (ok, probably not!)

I Heart Technology

This week finds me in Orlando for a work conference. It's a great conference and I'm really lucky that my organization sees the value in sending me every year. I started attending five years ago and always walk away with fantastic ideas.

BUT now with Kaitlyn, it's a bit harder to get away, both logistically and emotionally. It definitely helps knowing she's in great hands while I'm away, but even better these days is our ability to Skype! Tonight I had dinner with Kaitlyn and Ryan - what a treat!! Video conference is the next best thing to being there, although I sure wish they could find a way for me to reach out and give her a squeeze! Amazing that it's free and so stinkin' easy.

While I'm away, I'll update with some pictures that I've been wanting to post. In September, we met up with Grammy Jill at the zoo and had the very pleasant surprise that Papa Dirt decided to come along, too. We had a great time - see the proof below.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Papa Dirt

Papa Dirt came through yet again, with two fantastic pumpkins for Kaitlyn.

Thank you so much Papa Dirt for growing these special pumpkins for me. They are perfect!
Love, Kaitlyn

Papa Dirt's pumpkin is the one on the right side of KP next to the sticks





The perfect, Kaitlyn-sized pumpkin!

Halloween Crafts

Kaitlyn has been having a blast over the last couple weeks doing all kinds of crafts. She's become quite the expert with the scissors and now loves cutting things up. Well the latest Halloween craft that she did with Karen had me laughing so hard I was crying. Kaitlyn picked out our Halloween costumes. What do you think?