A new travel mug...

Our most favorite stainless travel mug bit the dust last week (it started leaking out the bottom, which really defeats its purpose). It was a sad day, but then Sean realized that REI sold a really cool one. He ordered one and brought it home last night. It's really cool.

This is its claim, according to the REI website: "Double-wall, stainless-steel construction keeps drinks warm throughout the day".



Seriously people.... they're not joking. I made a piping hot cup of our favorite tea at about 6:45 pm last night. I put it into the new mug to test it out. I tried to take a sip about 20 minutes later and scalded my lip and tongue. Wow! Just as hot 20 minutes later! I tried again about 30 minutes later and it was still TOO hot to drink! This cup is amazing!


I did, however, get really annoyed when at 10:00 pm it was still way too hot to drink. And I'm not exaggerating. I think Sean (who was upstairs) heard me shout when I burned my mouth again.... for the 4th time.


I'm not normally a hot tea drinker, but for some reason, this winter it has tasted really good. My burnt mouth and tongue are leading me right back to iced. I wonder if our new fantastic mug will keep my iced tea nice and icy too???

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.... is it Valentine's Day yet?

I'm so behind.

I don't even have any good excuses!

So... here's evidence of our fantastic Holiday Season.... picture style.

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Merry Christmas Morning Ian!


Ian... waiting patiently to get Reagan up on Christmas morning!


Merry Christmas Morning Reagan!!


We read the Christmas story in Reagan's bed before we headed downstairs...


We set up the new bowling set in our "alley". It was the first thing the kids saw when they headed into the family room. Reagan got a strike on her first try!!


Ian got the hang of opening gifts quickly...


Here is Sean trying to look manly while sitting in a princess chair, wearing pink beads and a tiara.


Attempting a Christmas picture. It didn't happen. (notice the slightly annoyed look on my face)


We did get a cute one of the kids though...


Ian and Grandpa... Chillin' in their Christmas pajamas.


Story time with GG


Thank you Grandma!!!


Cute girl...


Asher and Ian reading about Dinosaurs

More snow...

Have I mentioned how much I love the snow? (I should explain.... I love it when it isn't in my own front yard for 5 months--- in other words, I love to visit it.)
Here are some favorite pictures from our snowy weekend trip to Spokane....


I love this section of Snoqualmie Pass.... it is so pretty with a fresh dusting of snow.




Here's our happy girl in the snow.... she even managed her first snow angel!



Ian's gloves were on loan to Reagan so his time outside was fairly short lived. He did, however, manage a face first dive into the snow and also completed his first snow angel. It was an eventful few minutes for the little man.

Brotherly Love

We're in Spokane right now celebrating Christmas with Sean's family. Today we were blessed with a beautiful snowfall. A beautiful, peaceful snowfall that quickly turned into a brotherly snowball fight.

Daddy is hoping for a golfer....

Stuck!

Ian's new favorite word right now is "stuck". He says it for almost every situation possible. In the case of the photo above...... he REALLY meant it!

What you can't see is that he was walking in this position, pushing the bar stool in front of him. He almost made a full circle around the island before I decided to intervene. Thankfully, he was willing to stop for a brief moment in order to pose for me.

Silly, silly boy.

I love him so much...

Merry Christmas 2007

Precious memories....

This is the best spontaneous $3 we've spent in a long time!

Aren't they cute?!

When Mom's away....

.... the kids make a HUGE mess.

Okay, so I wasn't "away". Just in the kitchen-- which is only steps away from the play room.

The kids were playing so nicely in there... I heard the beautiful sounds of laughter and kindness.

So, I decided to peek in on them.

This is what I found. Niiiice.

Thoughts

Here we go.... Thursday's random thoughts, bullet style.

• What's with random vomiting? Ian decided to throw up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. Clearly there was a reason, but not one that I am privy to right now. He is totally fine now. Praise God for that!
• How about random money? Did you know that if you travelled overseas in the past 10 years, and used a credit card, that Visa/MasterCard charged you an "illegal" fee? I got a "class action court settlement" form yesterday (didn't know I took anyone to court!) and will be getting a refund of $25. Who knew?!
• How about completely random power outages? At about 1:00 today, our power went out! I know it's not weather related because it is sunny today. I'm thankful for my laptop that was not plugged in when it happened. :) Obviously if you're reading this, the power has been restored. Wonder if I'll ever know why?
• I do NOT recommend taking 4 children 3 years and under, all dressed up in their Christmas outfits, to a photo studio. Okay wait.... to a photo studio who decides to train a oh-so-very young man during our session. Seriously there were 3 employees in the studio and not one of them took charge. We all wanted to push them (gently) out of the way and take the pictures ourselves. Can you really expect 4 kids that young to sit still, hold a pose, look right in to the camera, and give their best smile? AT THE SAME TIME? I don't think so. The best part was when the new kid quietly said "okay kids, say fuzzy pickles!". No one even heard him (I happened to because I was standing behind him making a complete fool of myself trying to get them to look up). Okaaaaaay.... enough of that bullet.
• I love my daughter's developing imagination.... this morning, I walked into her room and she sat up and said "Once upon a time, there was a dinosaur at Grandma's house, Mom!" These days, most of her stories start with "Once upon a time...."
• We went to Z00 Lights the other night.... in the rain. It was actually really fun! And there were hardly any people there! It is, however, hard to explain to a 3 year old that we are going to the zoo, but we won't be seeing any animals. Reagan had a hard time with that.
• Is there any hope we'll have a white Christmas in Western Washington???? A girl can dream, right?