Instant Smile

If you haven't yet seen this video, check it out. I don't know how it cannot make you smile... I'll even go so far as to say you'll love it.

Dancing Matt 2008

:)

Just an oddball assortment of pictures, some go back as far as Brett's birthday in November. The kids are doing great. Nora has really become pals w/ John, and they generally crack each other up. When she can tell I'm getting frustrated w/ John's complaining, she says, "It's ok mom, that's just how he talks!" and also has nominated herself as their collective spokesperson... when I'm making smoothies she asks me to do the blending out on the back porch "because we're kind of scared of that noise." John is sitting up now, rolling around and getting annoyed that he isn't more mobile. It can get frustrating (for all of us!) but will be the motivation he needs to start figuring out how to crawl. He's eating everything -- except that delightful meat paste they make for babies. I gave him some the other night and in what may have been a terrible coincidence, timing-wise, he later threw it up all over me... twice. I'm getting the heebie-jeebies just thinking about that again! In any event, we just decided to hold off on meat in case that was the problem. Enjoy the pictures, we'll try (as always) to post more frequently so I don't have to put 4 months worth of pictures up in one shot. Enjoy the extra hour of daylight!

making Brett's birthday cake: "look mom, they put this little handle here just for kids!"

Happy Birthday, Dad!

shoes out, waiting for Elves

Nora's first treat from the Elves (they come to the house the month b/f Christmas to help Nora get ready for Christmas, then hitch a ride back to the North Pole w/ Santa when he comes to our house Christmas Eve. Good day = elf treat, bad day = no treat)

Nora playing "baby Moses:" the doll is Moses in the basket, and she's the princess who finds him hidden in the tall grass (I was assigned the part of narrator/ Moses' birth mom/ audience).

Christmas

Couch potato

trying on Christmas gifts, decided to take a break for some pants-free dancing w/ leopard cat

birthday girl

"I'm a helper!" (John looks thrilled)

still no teeth

John's been practicing w/ the water bottle, Nora's been helping

the corner sniff

drool fangs

matching hats - it's the whip

art!

Nora has been starting to write her name, with a lot of emphasis on drawing "o" over and over. Today I showed her how to make her "O" into a little guy, who later became Grandpa Chris. She drew the rest of the guys herself for the first time... I labeled as much as I could remember so you could follow along!

Will be back soon w/ photos (not in-a-month-soon, like hopefully-tonight-soon).

Just a quickie... sorry we're so off in posting anything new, but I promised I'd at least get some new pictures up (though I know this barely fulfills the request... I'll get back SOON!). The kids are doing great, I just uploaded 150+ pics so I'll sort out some more good ones and post again soon. Thanks for your patience, blogfans!
:)
Sarah

Nora teaching Leopard Cat to dance

John... I'm not even sure what he's doing!

Overdue Christmas Greetings

So, we never did get around to sending out our Christmas card this year. Then we were going to scramble right after Christmas and package it as a New Year's card... if we had managed to pull that together, this is what it would have looked like:

Even though we didn't send our cards out, we were thinking of all of our friends and family, particularly those of you we weren't able to visit this year. We really do hope you had a nice Christmas (or Hanukkah, as the case may be!) and that 2009 is shaping up to be stellar.

Will try to post again soon w/ more pictures and updates. Take care, and stay warm! [if you're warm already, keep it to yourself... we don't want to hear about it. Seriously, it was -13°F here so I'm in no mood to hear about fabulous sun and sand! ;) ]

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

This is my first attempt at blogging on the "information superhighway" and I'm hoping this works. As most everyone reading this knows, Nora is turning the big 03 this Sunday. In honor of this milestone, I've whipped up a little video that some of you may enjoy.

- BRETT

Bedtime