Cold Weather Cocoa...

Today was pretty chilly, so Hobbes and I decided to warm up with some hot cocoa-in grown-up cups and with whipped cream on top! Yum!

Madeline and Shopping.....

So this weekend Bray and I had the opportunity to go see Madame Butterfly up in Coeur d'alene. My oldest sister, Carolyn, lives in Spokane, so we left Hobbes with the grandparents for the night, and headed up to do some Christmas shopping beforehand. It was a lovely, if not nippy, day and we got to see Aunt Carolyn's new house! She babysat for us while we went to the show...Madeline had a grand time, shopping and hanging with her aunt. Here are some pics of the girl-in all her glory!She is soo anxious to be on the move-she stands, scooches, arches and bounces at every opportunity!
Goofy face-and new dress from 'Ama!
Laughing at her Daddy.
At Baby Gap with Mom-what more could a girl want?
...well, perhaps a new purse?
Crossing the Skywalk with Daddy

I love this picture!

There are some pics that will always be favorites..and this one is definitely one of mine!

More on cars...

Now that Hobbes is in a big-boy bed, he can get out of it whenever he wants to. Thus, we have had to spank him for getting out of bed....but there have been a few times where neither of us could spank him right away because it was too funny.
So here are a few of our 'Hobbes-stories' that we wanted to share:
The 2nd night he was in a big boy bed, Bray and I were up late doing work, and all of a sudden we heard a scratching sound coming from Hobbes' room. We waited for a minute, till we heard it again, and then decided to check it out. When we opened the door, a little pajama-clad figure came sprinting out, found his big balloon in the living room, and began kicking it and saying loudly, "woohoo, nice, woohoo!" The weird part was, was he did not seem to be really 'looking' at anything...it was almost like he was 'sleep-playing.' So, after deciding our child was not demon-possessed, we put him back to bed.The other story happened a few days ago, when Hobbes was supposed to take a nap. He tries to get up more often during naptime, so typically that is when the spankings happen. Bray was home between classes, and had put him down. He already had a car, but we soon heard clanging of metal and the sound of lots of toys being dumped out. Bray went to check it out, and as he opened the door, he saw a flash of little feet run and jump on the bed, and pretend to be asleep. However, the noise had come from Hobbes dumping out his Entire bucket of cars on his bed. Bray was laughing so hard, that we left him there, and he really did fall asleep-next to his treasure of cars.

New Beds!

We have finally made the transition...Hobbes is officially in a big boy bed, and Madeline is in the crib.
My dad is pretty handy with carpentry/making things, and he was the one that made the cradle(originally for Hobbes). So, as Hobbes' Christmas present this year, I asked my dad if he would make him a bed. My dad had this great idea to use an old door(they had painted 4 doors white and hung flowers on them for Kathryn's wedding), and cut it in half to make the headboard and the foot board. It turned out super-cute, and Hobbes loves it! It has room on the end for him to drive his cars on...so that's probably his favorite part! Thanks, Ampa!I'll get a better shot of the headboard/footboard when Hobbes is awake...
Madeline's new bumper from Pottery Barn kids- yay for pink in the room!
A closeup of the bumper:)

Roll Tide!

In case you're wondering who arranged this picture...it was the man obsessed with a football team that has an elephant as it's mascot....but I have to admit-it turned out pretty cute!
Sooo...ROLL TIDE!

Hobbes and CARS!

As most of you know, Hobbes LOVES cars! Lately, he has been gathering as many cars as he can hold, and moving them from 'driving ' spot to driving spot. This morning, I came in and he had lined them up in symmetrical rows, and was taking 1 out of the pack to drive it on the end of his bed...he seems to like things in a straight line! Soo, I tried to capture his enthusiasm on video-here's the result:

Fun with Family...

Sooo...not only was this past weekend my parents' party, it was also the weekend of the local county fair and the church picnic. Thus, we were running to and fro to different events, making it even more crazy than normal, but still extremely enjoyable.
On Saturday, we all trucked out to the fair, with a cranky 2 year old in tow. (He had been up till 11 the night before at the party, and who knows how many cookies he managed to swipe). We started off by looking at the model trains, which were quite impressive, and held Hobbes' attention for some time. Then I had the brilliant idea of showing Hobbes the animals....seeing as he loves reading his barn books. Everything was going fine, Hobbes was in the stroller looking at the cows, pigs and sheep, until one sheep stuck his head threw the fence, about 3 inches away from Hobbes' face, opened his mouth and said "BAAAAAAAAA!" Well, in return, Hobbes sat for a second, opened his mouth and said, "AAHHHHHHHH!!!!" So, we decided to eat food and listen to Leslie Wilson's band instead.
On Saturday evening, we all went to Nectar, a newer restaurant in town, and ate delicious food, drank wine and enjoyed chatting and laughing together. It was a wonderful weekend, and we wish Seth and Nambi (Hobbes' version of Naphtali) lived closer! Miss you guys!
Listening to the band, eating elephant ears and cotton candy...

Before the mad sheep incidentKathryn and Uncle Mikes
Saying goodbye at Bucer's...
Aunt Kathryn, 'Aunt' Laura and the kids at the insanely huge church picnic
Beautiful Aunt Naphtali with Madeline...in her new clothes from Aunt Naphtali(who still works at Baby Gap-yay for family connections!)
All bundled with Mom at the picnic-first chilly day! Fall is here!


At the restaurant-we had such a great time!On our way to dinner-child-free- for the first time since Bray's been back...he tickled me right as the picture was taken....



Hobbes, sitting on a light outside Starbucks-what a weird kid!

Playing on Hobbes' new bed right after bathtime!

Surprise, Grandma and Grandpa!

So this past weekend, we held a surprise 30th wedding anniversary party for my parents. My little sister came up with the idea several months ago, and so we all have been conniving together(is that the right terminology?) as to how to go about keeping a secret while inviting sooo many people! Seth and Naphtali decided early on that they would fly in, and my Aunt Jill and cousin Peter said they would travel down as well. We invited most of Moscow, as it seems that practically everyone is connected to them...my mom was born and raised here! The party was held at the Church's(Kathryn's in-laws) and the premise for getting my parents there was dessert with them and some other friends.
When my parents came to their door, however, they were greeted by not a few friends, but over 60 people! I never got the official headcount, but the Church's house is quite large, and it was packed!!! Seth and Naphtali were standing right in the front of the pack, and my parents' expressions(when they realized what was going on) were priceless...I of course, left my camera in the kitchen for the opportune moment, and instead was holding a glass of champagne. Ahh,irony. It was really sweet to see how many people have been touched by my parents, and how much they care about them in return. The official group gift was a 'second' honeymoon to Victoria, Canada-which they will leave for this weekend. The only difference will be, is that this time they can do the things they couldn't afford 30 years ago! I am reallly excited for them, especially as I have never been out of the country!:)
Needless to say, the party was a smash, and you can see pics of it in my next post. I love you, Mom and Pop!

The party....

The whole family together, for the first time since Madeline and Mike came into the family!My wonderful cousin Peter and I...
Cute little Seth and Naphtali-they're so much fun-wish they lived here!
Bray and Hobbes....they had both had WAYYY too much sugar-can you tell?
Seth and Mom-I think having them here was just as good of a present as the trip.:)
Our happy fam-looking at someone else's camera-Kodak moment? I don't think so.
Aunt Jill and Madeline-waving hello, I guess...it was past her bedtime,but she had to stay up for the "surprise!" part.
Poached pears-fall has officially begun!
The 3 sisters before the chaos began...


The beautiful table-I was in charge of food, so we did a fall theme-seeing as that is my mom's favorite season-however, it seems to have brought fall to Moscow, it's now chilly!

For Gege from Hobbes

My boys in their ball-caps... Bray was sad that Hobbes was only putting on my hats, so I found him a "Cars" ball cap at Walmart. He was excited to wear his hat with Daddy, so I had to take this picture-do you see any resemblance to one another? I do!

Hobbes wanted to talk to the camera a few weeks ago, but the only thing was, it was while he was eating breakfast...so the result is, we get him being cute with a mouthful of food! Hope you don't mind-but this is mainly for Gege...Hobbes misses you!

Tidbits

I just wanted to give a peek as to what Madeline and Hobbes are looking and sounding like...I finally got the video upload working on my computer, so this is especially for Gege and Bop-we love you and miss you tons!

Sharing...

Since Madeline has started playing with/holding toys, we have been telling Hobbes to share, and to not take them from her. So far, he usually grabs her toy anyway, and immediately puts it back on her lap, looks up at us and says "Share," with a knowing nod of the head- as if he has it all figured out. Obviously, this isn't quite the way we want him to share, so usually we have to work on him a little, that is, until today.
This morning, I was holding Madeline on my lap, waiting for Bray to get back from school so I could take him to work. Hobbes was, like normal, driving 2 cars on the windowsill. All of a sudden he comes over to us, takes his black truck, and puts it in Madeline's hand, saying,"Share...see my car, 'aline? Drive it? see my car?" She grabbed it, and held it while he drove his other car near her, as if they were both 'driving' their cars. I expected him to grab it back at any minute, but he just went over to the coffee table and continued driving a single car (something that nevvver happens), happy to have shared his passion for the day. It was a shining moment for Bray and me.:)

S

Firsts for Madeline!

1st: time they smiled at the same time...and Hobbes pushed Madeline in her walker with his mower


1st: time sitting in my walker!


1st: time Mommy painted my toenails...and Daddy rolled his eyes about it:)


1st: time eating rice cereal!!!