Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas to family and friends! We have had a wonderful Christmas season.

This was Kayla's first year sitting on Santa's lap. Santa came to a church party which is where this picture was taken. Kayla is such a social little girl that we thought she would do just fine with Santa. However, she burst in to tears as soon as she got on his lap. I think it was a combo of seeing other kids cry and being rushed onto his lap by the people trying to keep the line moving.
This is the first time we have had a house to put Christmas lights on! Seth researched and got us a good deal on lights, then custom fit them to our house. We were very happy with the result.
We went to "Snowflake Lane" in Bellevue, which sounded like a fun festive activity. But it ended up being a high school drum line dressed in toy soldier costumes tapping to recorded Christmas music while they blew fake snow on us. We managed to have fun, but we probably will skip this one next year. The decorations and lights were nice.
On Christmas Eve we went to a get together with a few other families where we ate good food, made Christmas puppets and decorated ginger bread men. We then came home and read the Christmas story while acting it out with our Fisher Price nativity.

Christmas morning dawned bright and frosty.
We must have been good this year because Santa (and Grandma) brought presents. (This fabulous Christmas tree was left in the garage by the previous home owners. I've never been much of a fake tree person, but this beautiful, low maintenance, $0 tree really won me over!)
Kayla enjoyed opening presents.
The big hits of the day were the apple in her stocking...
...the hair bows from Grandma and Aunt Allison...
...and especially the Cinderella umbrella from Grandma.
In the evening we had a traditional Christmas dinner which included roast chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, yam pie casserole, steamed broccoli and whole wheat rolls. Of all the things on the menu I had only made green bean casserole and broccoli before. Everything else was a first time experiment. Luckily everything turned out well and edible thanks to great tips and recipes from both sides of the family. I am actually very proud of this meal. I am excited for leftovers!
We finished the night with some homemade ice cream made with the ice cream maker Grandma gave us.

It has been a wonderful Christmas season! We are so grateful for the gift of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and his season that we remember Him. We are thankful for this season where we remember to enjoy friends and family and the warmth of those relationships. I am looking forward to this next week, sipping hot cocoa and enjoying the Christmas lights for a few more days.

It's a ...

BOY!!!

The doctor said that everything looks really healthy. What she actually said during the ultrasound was, "I love normal anatomy." As a parent that is a good thing to hear. Our baby boy is due mid April. We are so excited and so blessed. The pregnancy is going really well; Amanda is feeling great. We hope everything continues to progress normal and healthy.

In this picture, the baby is upside down with his profile in the center of the bottom half. His body is on the upper left hand side and his leg is in the upper right hand side.Now on to the important stuff, like picking a name and that perfect shade of blue for the nursery walls.

Kayla's 2nd Birthday!!!

A friend of mine has a small bouncy-house that fits in her living room. She says it is a great way for the kids to burn off energy during the winter when the weather is yucky. She invited us over one day for a play date and the kids had a great time.
She agreed to let us borrow the bouncy-house for Kayla's birthday party and it was a huge hit. Afterward we had brownie cupcakes and opened presents.


A great dress-up outfit from Grandma!Thanks to Kayla's wonderful friends who shared this special day with her. And thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for fun presents, we wish you could have been here. Happy Birthday Kayla!!!

Happy Halloween: First Year Trick-or-Treating

Kayla was finally old enough this year to enjoy Halloween. Here is a video of Kayla helping Mommy sing a fun Halloween song.

This was Kayla's first year really trick-or-treating, so Mommy and Daddy were very excited. Kayla's costume was inspired by our recent trip to Hawaii. She was not very happy about wearing it. We tried to explain to her that we were going to knock on people's doors and that they would give her candy, but they would only give her candy if she was wearing a costume. Finally through tears we headed out the door. It didn't take long for Kayla to get into it and pretty soon she was very happy marching up doorsteps and holding open her bag.
We had so many trick-or-treaters at our house that we ran out of candy! We gave some of Kayla's candy away, but made sure to keep all the good stuff. In the days after Halloween Kayla would ask for "orange candy" (orange is her favorite color). So I would find orange Skittles or gobstoppers and give them to her.

We had a great time carving our pumpkins.

Daddy's pumpkin:Mommy's Pumpkin:Kayla's Pumpkin (she had a little help from Daddy):

Hawaii

Grandma and Grandpa are currently spending a year in Hawaii doing work with BYU Hawaii. When Kayla heard, she insisted that we go visit. Just as the weather was turning cold and rainy here in Seattle, we hopped a plane to enjoy the tropical humidity of Oahu's north shore.

Grandpa welcomed us at the airport with a traditional lei greeting. Grandma actually made the Hawaiian shirt Seth is wearing in the picture below.That first afternoon Kayla enjoyed picking flowers and collecting golf balls in the condo's back yard.During the week we visited Pearl Harbor......the Waikiki Aquarium......and enjoyed the beautiful Hawaiian landscape.Mostly we enjoyed spending time with Grandma and Grandpa.Kayla learned to hula dance from a pro.


One of the big highlights of the week was visiting the Polynesian Cultural Center. It has 8 villages each representing different Polynesian Islands with cultural shows and activities.

We learned how to start fire in Samoa......throw spears in Tonga......hula dance in Tahiti...
...get tatoos in Fiji......watch a haka dance (Kayla's favorite)...

...fish off a pier with coconut bread as bait...
...watch a canoe pageant......pose with a Fijian dancer......and have dinner at a real luau.It was all followed up by an amazing night show with dances from each island.

Because we were there in October, we also got to ride the Haunted Lagoon canoe ride. Grandpa took Kayla to home to bed so she missed out on that one, but it was very fun. The scariest part is that as you are riding along suddenly a ghoul (one of the people working there) will just pop out of the water right next to you! Very scary.

We had a wonderful time and are so grateful to Grandma and Grandpa for hosting us. Most of all, Kayla got to know her Poppy and Tootsie a little better.