Tired of snow yet?

beauty in the snow, originally uploaded by pics of us.

I am. Up to about 11 or so inches now.

I took a few photos, this is my favorite.
Her lashes are so amazing.

The other night august said to me " Mama, hug me until Christmas" while we were hugging/snuggling. It was so sweet. I told him I would love to but I might get hungry or have to go potty at some point. He giggled.

MORE snow?

Wow, we are really getting hit this year. The kids missed 3 days of school last week plus one late arrival. We have about 4 inches from the last storm.. This may be small for some, but here that is a lot. Enough to make Seattle drivers not so happy. See we have many many hills here. It makes getting around difficult at times.
The kids are loving it. I'm liking it, but wish someone would plow a direct rout to my gym so I can work off all these Holiday cookies.
The snow IS putting a cramp on my running. Oh well, one cant control the weather.
So now they are saying we are supposed to get another snow storm plus a wind storm. Losing power really diminishes the neatness of this storm.

snow snow snow

Brr brr brr.
Yep is is snowing here. Well actually not anymore. We got about 2 inches, which isn't a lot but enough for the kids to play in it a bit.


We also decorated the tree today. We walked to Walgreens in the snow for new lights, and picked white ones this year. I kind of wanted white and blue, but then I worried how it would look on the tree.

During our decorating I tried to get the kids to make Cheerio decorating strand things. Veda did the longest one, while August ended up dumping his in his hot chocolate and eating it..sounded interesting for sure!

The beginning of our tree decorating..not sure why the tree looks tilted :)

Hard to blog..

Cousins playing some tunes

with all that goes on during these last two months. The Holidays are here for most of us. Cooking, cleaning, shopping and of course stressing. For me, it is a time to decides where to go when and who to see. I have my Dads house, my Moms house, My second Dads house...then there is Sebastian's side of the family.. It all get very busy.
We got the kids picture with Santa and a whim. It is pretty cute. I would scan it if I could..my scanner isn't working well. August insisted on wearing his ( Sebastian's) work shop goggles. Luckily he wore them on his head and not over his eyes. It makes for a funny picture thought. Aren't those the best ? The photo memories where one kid is wacky or something happens so that it ends up being memorable, and you have the silly photo to prove it!

I hate to write it but I have mentally and at least for now physically singed up for a 10K in January. It is only 6.2 miles which I have done once before( not a 10K race, but on my own 6 miles). The hard part is I hate the cold. I really can only stand it for a short time and then I must get warm . So running in 38 degree weather isn't fun. I want to do it though. Plus with all this holiday eating and drinking, I hope it will keep me from feeling disgusting come the new year.
So today I did 3.5 miles which was a good run. Unfortunately when you run at 4pm it starts to get dark. It does worry me a bit, but the last part and darkest part of my run is on a busy street so it is lit and there are plenty of cars and people out. Tonight on my run, someone thought it would be cool to honk at me. Now I may have known this person, but who knows. What I do know is it made me jump about 3 feet. So a note for anyone who sees someone they know running..please don't honk. It freaks us out :)

Here it is...

The new do, or is it doo?
I'm really amazed how big his cheeks look. Super cute and I can't help but kiss them every moment.

Hair today....

I am sad to say, my long hair boy, cut his own hair today. I went in to the garage to get a few things, I returned to find August on the stairs with "safety" scissors cutting his own hair. He had cut a huge chunk out of the side, about middle of the ear length..
I'm so sad, I had to fix it, which was pretty funny. I will post pictures of his "new" hair tomorrow probably, as I have some hair grieving to do!

cookies and basketball

Yesterday I made these cookies for the family. I must admit I was a bit disappointed. The dough was not sweet enough for me. I had heard such great reviews about this cookie, that I may try again with a different recipe. At least August and Veda liked them..
Speaking of Veda, I pretty much broke her heart yesterday. She has been planning on joining the basketball team at the YMCA for weeks now. Every time she is in the gym at school she gets out a basketball to practice..then telling everyone she will be on a team. Well I go to sign her up and the class was already full. I felt so bad. I should have signed her up earlier, but I procrastinate like that. Unfortunately I learned the hard way that procrastination does not pay off. So I had to break the news to her and her little face just fell. She looked very sad. I asked her if she was disappointed and she said yes.
So to make a sucky story better, I looked up and found a rhythm gymnastic class for her to start in January. I think she is going to like it.

School Photos

So This is my second year doing school photos for my little one's preschool. It is not something I usually do. Posed, with a back drop etc.. I must admit it was pretty painless and easy this time around. I really got some great shots of the kids. I think part of it was I knew what to expect, plus I did things a little better this year. I had a different color background. This was thanks to asking my sister what she liked most about her girls school pictures in the past. Then there was the fact that all the kids knew me. Last year they didn't really know me very well, so it was difficult for them to relax around me. Of course a few had it in their mind that they really didn't want to smile, others had poses in mind. I even got warned by one mom that her daughter had been practicing poses the day before. I was glad she wasn't surprised to see her daughter in that pose for her school pictures.
Veda was also one who insisted on a post. It pretty cute. Rosa even admitted that "it wasn't fair" that Veda and the other kids got to pose since they aren't aloud to at their school.
August's shot isn't very good. Mostly due to the fact that he had a slightly swollen and red eye. It went away the next day but it really shows in his picture. That and the fact he was having a "interesting"hair day that day.

TEA

I love tea. I'm on a tea kick. Mostly I drink decaf tea because I am sensitive to caffeine. I have this huge bowl of tea in my pantry. I also love some of the healing properties that some tea has. Traditional Medicinals is one of my favorite brands out there. They have a herbal tea fro many ailments. The ones I have tried taste really good too!

My loves

Things I love!

1. One of my favorite breakfasts is Chai tea with soy milk, and cookies. YUMMERS
2. I LOVE the smell of Augusts neck. Its sweet and warm, just like a little guy's neck should be!
3. Tubes of new toothpaste. It is clean and for some reason it seems like it works better then a tube that is scrunched and all twisted up.
4. Hot baths with a good book and tall glass of ice water. I like the baths so hot it makes me thirsty..
5. Listening to Rosa read. She reads so well, I am so proud of her and how far she has come.
   

YOU BETTER...

Pumpkins, snuggles and fondue

We had a great time carving pumpkins the other night. Rosa was really in to it this year. During our pumpkin carving I put together some chocolate fondue. It was so good. August managed to get chocolate EVERYWHERE!

We dipped strawberries, bananas, cookies and marshmallows!

Carving is serious business!

Almost good enough to eat!

photo from Naiad Etsy website

I'm sure most people who read blogs know about Etsy. It is a community of people who hand make all sorts of things to sell. I came across this YUMMY soap that looks good enough to eat!
She also makes bath salts, sugar scrubs and lip balms! Check her out here!

lazy blogging

Little Sam

You know your a lazy blogger when you only upload pictures..some not super recent! ha ha.

Bath time with August

Hubby

Halloween candy project.

August and my Other Dad looking at planes.

blogging

Yes, I'm blogging today.
I still have yet to post Veda's birthday blog. BAD mom. My friend Kathryn took photos of her birthday, it was so nice not to have to deal with that. ..but that is another post.


August now has 4 costumes to choose from for Halloween. Anytime of the day you can find him in one of them. He has Batman, Spiderman, Pirate, and a fire fighter. The pirate one also fits Veda, who is really in to wearing it as well. ( as you can see) Some costumes are new, others are pajamas that have new life..with his new love for all things superhero!
He asked me the other day if Superheros pee standing up or sitting. ha ha
Rosa has her new tooth coming in already. So much for my hope of a toothless smile!


Veda had her 5 year old checkup. 4 shots and a blood draw. She was NOT a happy camper. To make it worse I had to take August with us. He actually did fine until the blood draw since by then, Veda was crying pretty hard. He asked in the car.." why do they take your blood Deyga"(his version of Veda these days)
I told him they need to make sure she is healthy on the inside. Then he asked.. "Will they give it back?"

Tooth!

Hurray! At the ripe old of 7 years and 7 months, Rosa lost her first tooth! She is so excited. It has been loose for a LONG time too. Now of course she has about 3 more loose ones. Maybe she will loose them all soon. What a funny picture that could be!
Her tooth was so tiny when it came out. Reminded me that it was the same tooth that came in when she was 5 months old..back them it looked huge!
She woke the next day at 6 am to see what the Tooth Fairy left her..$5 Way more than the $0.50 I would get. I guess it HAS been 26 years since I lost my first tooth, so maybe the price has gone up a bit.

Another year..

Opening gifts at my family birthday party last weekend


On the eve of my 32 birthday I will look back and think how lucky I am. I have great friends, a wonderful family and so far so good on the health front too!
I also decided that I'm going to stop freaking out about being in my 30's. Turning 30 itself was not hard. It felt monumental. Like a right of passage... But then 31 was when it hit me that I was not just 30, but IN my 30's. Now another year later, I'm just happy.
I feel pretty good about myself and where I am right now. I am also excited about learning and exploring new things to come. I feel like I am still young and have so much more life! Cause I do.
Watching my kids growing and seeing their personalities emerge is really wonderful. All the while our relationships change a bit with each year.
I'm lucky to have a car obsessed, basketball junkie of a husband..oh wait... He is also kind, generous, caring, and loves me to pieces. Also a shout out to my momma. I know 32 years ago a crazy silly baby came in to her life, and she always let me be me.

August and worms

I was outside gardening today and I had a little pal with me, August.
He found the worms in the garden amazing. Watching them wriggle in his hands and try to get away. He was very gentle with them.

After he was done with that he went on a skateboarding adventure ( in our driveway). He told me he needed a ramp to do all the good tricks. SO cute. Maybe me and Sebastian will build him one next summer?

Fly through the air!

This morning the kids had a flying lesson. One that they have had before. Sebastian basically launches them through the air towards are nice soft king size bed. They had SO much fun!
August turned his blanket into a cape. It was perfect. There was so much laughter in that room this morning.
Rosa kept twisting in the air so I couldn't catch her in a flying pose. She is SO long she didn't stay airborne long.




I think August was the straightest flier..then again he is the smallest and has the most room.He must have flown about 12 times. He loved it. He was pretending to be a superhero of course!

Veda Jo, kept telling Sebastian not to go too high, then every time she would laugh and want to do it again and again.

Last night we went to the Fireman's Retirement Ball. They give out a few verbal awards and say goodbye and honor the guys who are retiring. Sebastian and I got to dress up and go out alone. It was fun. We ate and talked, and hung out. Good times all around.

Children's museum

Today we ventured out to Everett to go to their Children's museum. I had Rosa along with me because her school was still at camp and she had stayed home yesterday because of throwing up.
They all had a blast. The place is really fun. It is not as big as the Seattle one, but you get to park really close and it isn't half as crowded. Here are some highlights from my CAMERA phone.

This was this dark/light room. It works with your shadow and a projector and lights. So this first one is all the kids.. Left to right August, Veda, and Rosa.


The light room doing a different light thingy.. That is me on the right and a blur of the rest of the kids on the left.


Same room, all kids each little square.
August and Veda on the tractor in the farm exhibit
Doctor August at your service..the best Vet in town!

Then on the roof there is this big playground. It has two huge climbers, music making instruments, and a area to dig up dinosaur fossils.



I have no clue why this keeps uploading sideways, it was saved right side up..


So afterwords I took the kids to Burger King. They now have a mac and cheese and apples kids meal. They were so happy to go. We don't go to fast food often because most stuff there is meaty unless your getting dessert. Anyway they got their toys and were very pleased.
After that we went to visit Sebastian at the fire station!