Christmas Morning 2009

Mr. Mom Christmas

I think I may have caught a few photos on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, but for the most part... I was sick, sick, sick! Matt took the Mr. Mom role and made sure we didn't miss Christmas. As I lay in bed, Matt cooked the entire Christmas dinner- all by himself! ... the roast, the potatoes casserole, the fruit salad, the rolls, and the broccoli! With a little guidance from his wifey he pulled it all off, and I am so thankful for his dedication to his family!

I am still feeling really sick, but I had my infusion today, and will hopefully be back on my feet- and back to the blog soon.

Christmas Card 2009

Merry Christmas 2009

Santa Train

We recently were invited to join Mia Mae and the Fix kids on the Santa Train! The train left from North Bend and went to the town of Snoqualmie (about 2 miles). When we arrived we got to meet Santa- Charlotte was super excited until the moment it was her turn to sit on Santa's lap. It was quite the adventure, but this is one fun group to hang out with- so a good time was had by all.

Warming our Toes!

When I am cold and too tired to take a nice hot bath, I often put my feet in the sink to warm up.  Recently, I took the time to pull out this foot bath that I got for Christmas last year, and Charlotte was SOOOOOO excited.  She pulled up this stool and jumped right in!

This week we hit record breaking cold temperatures- 16 degrees- so our toes have certainly been cold!  No precipitation, so no snow, but let me tell ya... it is cold!

The Stocking

Christmas Carousel

We visited downtown Seattle after Thanksgiving to enjoy the window shopping, holiday cheer, and lights. Charlotte of course loved the Christmas Carousel! She wasn’t so sure at first- this was her first time on a carousel- but of course by the end, didn’t want it to end.

“Bye Bye Horse!”

Raking Leaves

By Christmas time, usually we have had enough wind storms that all the leaves are long gone… but this year- although it is cold… there are still leaves left. Charlotte and Christian insisted on going outside to play at the Hoovers. We adults were so cold that we watched them from just inside the back door!

Lovin' Laundry?

She is such a busy girl these days… I figured… I might as well make the most of that “I wanna do it” spirit! Charlotte loves helping with the laundry. The only problem is that once everything is folded, she immediately tried to dump it all back into the dirty laundry bin!

Thanksgiving 2009

The Holidays are here!  We kicked off Thanksgiving day with the Macy's Parade!  Charlotte loved it!  After a while I got started cooking in the kitchen, and Charlotte would run in to tell me what was going on in the parade... "Momma!!!  It's Chari BOWN (Charlie Brown)!!" ... or.. "MOMMA!!  It's Mickey, It's Mickey!  YEAH!"  Sooo cute!

For dinner, we had a pretty quiet evening at our home with Charlotte's Auntie Lindsay, her boyfriend Andy, Uncle Sean, Grandpa Coury and six dogs... ok maybe "quiet" wasn't the right word.  My dad (Grandpa Coury) brought his two dogs and 3 puppies (from a recent litter) over to play.

 I was feeling quite maternal this week, which was good, because I did almost all the cooking myself!  Everything turned out great... including the turkey which I brined over night! 

Yeah, Thanksgiving Dinner is almost ready!

I perfected my mash potatoes last week, and they were a hit at Thanksgiving dinner!  Yum!

Charlotte made the brine...

Charlotte was really excited that I let her help me make the Turkey Brine this morning. I let her add all the ingredients and stir for a while before I turned the heat on! She thought she was really "Kochin" (thats what is it sounds like when she says cookin'). Sometimes she really sounds like she is speaking German or something!!!

Happy Birthday Matt

We Love you!  Happy Birthday!

Charlotte tried on Grandma Juju's reading glasses...

She thought that was hilarious!

Shhh...

So I put Charlotte on our bed to watch a movie. I hear Charlotte cheer, "Yeah" which is my cue that it is over. I enter the room and she has removed her pants and pull-up... just has her shirt on.


Me (momma): "Charlotte, did you take your panties off?!"

Charlotte: "Noooo... Shhhhhh...."
...like if I didn't say it out loud it wouldn't be true???!

Oh Boy!

Who Done it...

The Scene:  I follow Charlotte into her room to find that she has torn her pillow apart and small clumps of pillow stuffing were ALL OVER her floor.

Charlotte: "Oh NO GUYS! What happened here?"

Me (Momma): "Yes, Charlotte... what did happen here?"

Charlotte:  "I don't know!"  With a cute little shrug and hands in the air.

Spaghetti with the Sheltons

Just for fun, we met up with Erin, Wayne, and Christian tonight for dinner at the Spaghetti Factory!  Thanks for calling us guys!  It is always fun to hang out!

While Mommy is away...

Last Friday, I ventured out and went to our church's Womens' Retreat. I really admire the speaker who is a member at our church, has crohns disease, and gets remicaid infusins from Dr. Pete just like me. She is an amazing lady and spoke about learning to go to Christ in our pain. She also talked about going to CHrist during our times of joy as well... but I was really struck by a story she told about a group of people who wanted to put God on trial. The story goes on to tell about how hard these peoples' lives were and that they want God to try to live through being distriminated against, living through tremendous pain, being tortured, etc... to realize at the end that Christ did these very things for us already! Go to Christ in your pain and find Peace that cannot be found anywhere else. While mommy was away at this retreat, daddy ventured to Seattle with Charlotte to visit uncle Sean. Then they took Charlotte to the childrens' museum and Red Robin for lunch. What a fun day!!!

A Beau-tee-ful November Day

We spent November 1st at Aunt Kris & Uncle Brett's House on Fox Island for Grandpa Kelsey's birthday. It was a beautiful fall day and they had a whole bag of golf balls to hit in to the water! I am sure the guys were pleased to see the ladies get the golf bug!

Bee Happy Halloween

(Mia & Charlotte)

Halloween this year was a busy day! Our evening turned out to bee a lot of fun! After chili dinner at Diana's (Lindsay's sister) we went to the Proctor area and met up at the Fix's house to join up with Mia and all the kids to do some door to door trick or treating. We quickly discovered that a block away at Mason Middle School was a fun Halloween party with games and candy! This was actually a lot of fun for Charlotte! Thanks to everyone who made our night a great Halloween! (Uncle Sean, Baby Bee, & Momma)

Charlotte got a little yellow star painted on her face and she kept saying, "Winkle winkle wittle star- its butiful!" SO CUTE!

(Lindsay & Garrett Camandona & the boys)

The gorilla was a little scarry for Charlotte, so we had to walk like 10 feet apart while his gorilla head was on!

Ducks in Seattle!

Well, the Oregon Ducks played UW Huskies in Seattle this year, and so with Papa & Nana's new motorhome we tailgated for the first time at Husky stadium. This was Charlotte's and Grandma Juju's very first football game! Brad is a husky fan, but we all had a good time together (the Ducks won the game ;) ). Charlotte had a great time. She really got into the cheering- except she got a little confused whent he majority of the crowd would cheer for the huskies and we wouldn't! She also talked about Donald Duck the whole time. From where we were sitting he was just tiny, but she seemed to be able to spot him at all times! SO during the fourth quarter we went down to the Oregon section (where the band was sitting) and called the Duck mascot over to say hello. As the Duck came running over, she apparently was SHOCKED that Donald was so big, because as he got close she began screaming- like Donald was going to eat her! The crowd around us kind of laughed and ahhh'd. We did finally get her to clam down and give him a high five- then the crowd cheered for her! It was all so funny!

Another little interesting tidbit about tailgating at Husky stadium. You have to wait for the people in front of you to leave before you can leave... and after the game, the people surrounding us, pulled all their stuff back out and started making dinner.... dude it was crazy! Thanks Papa and Nana for taking us to the game, and dealing with those crazy huskies!!!!