My handsome boy.

Pike Street with Aunt Carolyn!

2 Pretty Girls!
Looking at the ferries!

Aunt Carolyn came to visit this week, and we had tons of fun with her! We went all over Seattle, shopped Belle Square, IKEA and downtown, went to the zoo, the market and the lake! Sheesh! Although the weather went back to being rainy, we thoroughly enjoyed having her, and miss her already!

Happy Birthday Bray!!! (28!!!)

Today is Bray's 28th birthday! We celebrated last night, as Bray has a dress rehearsal to go to tonight. He wanted chicken fettucine alfredo, so I found a simple recipe and it turned out pretty well! Then we had chocolate birthday cake, complete with some kiddos singing Happy Birthday and helping Daddy blow out the candle, and he opened his big present! We got him an iPod dock! We have been using our laptop to listen to music for over a year now, and it is soo nice to have music throughout the apartment! So, Happy Birthday Bray! Love you!Chocolate cake with mocha filling and creamy chocolate frosting!

I'll post a video of Bray and the kiddos dancing to the music later-but for now there you go!

Just for fun.

After I posted the picture of Bray as a kid, his Aunt Beth uploaded a whole bunch of kid pics on facebook (thanks, Aunt Beth!) so I just had to put up these 2-they are so cute! I love looking at kid pics of people:), but it's even more fun when it's your husband!

The boys: Matt, Remy, Bray (far R) Jordan and baby Caleb. (we'll have to get one of Charity on here)

Valentine's Day!!

For those of you I couldn't give cookies to (i.e. most of all my friends and fam!) here they are-virtually!:)
Happy After-Valentine's Day, everyone! I was planning on posting last night, but after the day ended, Hobbes came down with the stomach flu!:( Despite that, though, we had a wonderful day, and I must say-for me, it was the best one yet!
We began the day with heart-shaped pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream (my favorite!) and then each kiddo had a present to open. Hobbes got a bubble blower gun, and Madeline got a really cute little stuffed horse. They both wanted to test out the bubble blower, so Bray shot bubbles at them in the tub (see below). The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so after Bray got back from rehearsals, we all went for a walk by the lake. Bray had left me a note saying that he wanted to make me a late dinner after the kiddos were in bed, so I got the royal treatment! His menu: filet mignon with a peppercorn sauce, golden mashed potatoes and fresh asparagus that he blanched (I don't think I have even blanched anything before!) and then sauteed with a sauce of balsamic vinegar, fresh garlic and grated parmesan! It was seriously the best steak I have ever had, and I was very impressed-what a great husband I have!
So, miss and love to yall, and hope your day was as great as ours!Sleepy heads eating their valentines breakfast.
Opening their presents!Bubble bath time!Cheese-face of the year award still goes to Madeline!
My wonderful valentine!
I love love love living here!
Kiddos, calling to the ducks!
Beautiful sunset on the lake.
My little dude, taking a break.
My other valentine present Bray surprised me with: my real rings need fixing (gold added, prongs, etc) so until the economy gets better or we finish young artist programs, we are using temporary rings. This one is much nicer than the one I got at Claire's several months ago-and I love it! This way, I get to try several styles of rings, so now I know what I really want when we get the real one fixed/upgraded!
My amazing valentines dinner, courtesy of Chef Bray.
And if it wasn't already perfect enough, he even brought me home white tulips (tulips are my absolute favorite flower!) so cheers to Bray-you made this one of my favorite days ever!

Decorating with cars

I just thought it was sweet how they were working/playing so nicely together...it's not always that way!;)

Reading-Singing-or something!

This is how Madeline 'reads' anything with pictures or words! These were their Valentine's cards my mom sent, and Madeline decided she needed to read them to us! Crazy kid!

Mini-date.:)

Since we'll probably live in cities most of our lives, and thus do not have easily accessible babysitters, we have started a new tradition: the mini-date.
Bray came home after the kids were in bed a few nights ago, and I surprised him with this fun food-and yes, most of it is kid food (tuna sandwiches, bananas, pickles) but hey, the classics are the best! Not to mention, kid food is what I excel at these days. Perhaps later in life it will be grilled paninis with brie and wine. But for now, this is what we do! Snack food, movie, a fire, and there you go-a mini-date!
Oh, and the stuff in the wine glasses is Coke. I had to spruce it up a little bit.

Dress-ups!

Hobbes likes to wear Bray's hats a lot-I thought he looked so cute in this one!

Today we got to have Lily and Jonathan Grauke over to play! We first went to the park near our house, and then came back for lunch. Madeline's dress-ups consist of 2 tutus and a pair of shoes...but that didn't seem to deter them from getting all dolled-up! It's fun to see Madeline taking more interest in what older girls are playing-she and Lily had a great time!
Both the boys started to get zoned after lunch-Hobbes was so tired he didn't even put the Indian headdress on right!
My little ballerina! Her new favorite movie is 'Angelina Ballerina,' and she likes to 'dance' while watching it!
The gals.
Daddy, helping Miss Diva put on her shoes.:)

Our Traveler.

Sooo...this is how Hobbes wanted to sleep after we got back from our trip to Moscow-do you think he's traveled just a bit too much in his short life? I mean, 4 moves (not counting summertime) plus multiple cross-country trips, is a lot for a 3-year old...but I'm sure there will be many more! We love our adventures, and from the looks of it, so does he!

Few more Moscow pics...

All dressed up at the Logos fundraiser.:)
A night out with the girls!
Pretty Mom with a pretty girl!

Ama, showing off the newest granddaughter!
Such a sweet face!
We even got to sneak in a few minutes for Uncle Bray to meet and hold Amara! (He was in Moscow less than 24hours!)

Riding on the Monorail!

To continue Hobbes' official 'potty-trained-celebration,' we went downtown after church today to ride the monorail. (for those of you who don't know what the monorail is, it is a self-sufficient public transit system that was built for the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle). It was cheap (kids rode free!) and tons of fun for the kiddos. They got to see the city, and Hobbes got the promised train ride! Alright, alright, we enjoyed it too-fun views of the Space Needle and Science Museum!

The Pacific Science Center's Science Fiction museum...mainly taken for Uncle Matt.
Looking through the roof at the Space Needle.

The other monorail.
The conductor was kind enough to take our picture-but of course both kids were looking out the window!
Hobbes, fully engaged in the train ride! Way to go, buddy!!

"I'm a Real Boy!"

Hello, everyone! We are back safely from Moscow, and glad to report that everything went very well! Amara is a cutie, and the Logos fundraiser was a huge success! However, this post is about Hobbes-and the huge success he had last week!
I typically don't post about potty-training (even though we have 2 toddlers in our house!) but I thought that this was a big enough landmark to be post-worthy. I began potty-training Hobbes at about 18 mos, thinking I could do the 24-hour process. Like so many things in parenting, I was very wrong and very naive. The speed and success of potty-training often depends on the kid, and in our case (as I found out soon after) Hobbes has chronic constipation. I'll spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say, potty training (or at least part of it) has been an ongoing battle since the 18-month mark. It has been a learning and sanctifying process for all involved, and something that has been in my prayers daily! Hobbes was put on a laxative at about 20 months, and has to have it regularly. This has helped a lot, but he still wasn't willing to take the 'big-boy' steps to be done with potty training-that is until last week. We have told him since his 3rd birthday (back in July) that if he would (sorry!) poopoo in the potty, we would take him on a train ride. Although tempting, it has not come to fruition until I was at my mom's house. Hobbes finally faced his fears and won-and has been successful ever since! My Dad helped us celebrate by getting out his train set from childhood (seeing as there are no trains to ride in Moscow) and Uncle Seth set it up for him.
I cannot begin to express our thankfulness and excitement at moving onto the big boy phases of life! So, here is our big boy, enjoying Ampa's train!

Little Baker

The kiddos were being really good the other night, so I told them we could make cookies. By the time I got everything out, however, Hobbes was busy playing airplanes with Ampa. So Madeline was my big helper-she dumped the flour, 'stirred' the dough, and even snuck some bites off the spoon-don't tell Ama! The cookies were yummy, and she had a fun time 'makin' it,' as she says.