Our Budding Leibovitz

Hannah got a new toddler-friendly digital camera for Christmas. Daddy got it out yesterday, and fun was had by all (but mostly by Hannah). She took approximately 372 pictures. That was just the first day. I had to download them all because she filled up the memory. The camera also records video, and you can add fun sounds and graphics to the pictures. Below is some of her handiwork (with the first picture taken by daddy).

Christmas Eve

8 Months Old

My two babies, both taken at 8 months. Any resemblance?

So Much Snow.....

So much time! This stuff isn't going anywhere! Hannah had fun playing with Daddy in the snow. She really liked the sled, although she tells me once they crashed in a ditch and had to crawl out. Any truth to this daddy???

And here she is after she decided she just could not walk another step!

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When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Start Drinking!

Sadly, Our wine "fridge", the temperature of which should never drop below 46 degrees, decided to go postal on us and somehow got down to a frigid 23 degrees. Which is exactly what temperature is needed to freeze wine! And did you know, when wine freezes it pushes all the corks out (if you're lucky the bottles won't explode)? So as you can see from the pictures, we have suffered a loss of near epic proportions (ah, really we're over it but doesn't "epic proportions" just sound better?).


Some of this wine had plans to be saved for quite a few more years. With that now impossible, we are going to be learning how wine tastes after it's been frozen.

So far, not too bad.

You'll shoot your eye out!

The votes are in (all 20 of them!) and the almost majority has chosen the 1983 classic "A Christmas Story" as your favorite holiday flick. Now, this doesn't have anything to do with the fact that it's on 24/7 every Christmas Eve?

And let's not ignore our second place finisher, "Christmas Vacation". Oh, Clark would be proud.

Cold December Weekend

Our weekend started with a holiday party at Semiahmoo. Fun was had by all.

By Saturday the snow was arriving and the cat knew just the place to lounge.

On Sunday we woke up with a winter landscape. Hannah and Baxter enjoyed their time outside.

And when playtime is over, nothing beats a warm cup of milk and a nice warm fire.

Keeping Up with The Joneses

Now that we live in an actual neighborhood, we have noticed that lots of people decorate for the holidays. We were taken aback during the month of October to be surrounded on all sides by homes with Halloween lights, sounds, and decor. Our home had 3 jack-o-lanterns on the porch, which quickly became 2 after one was squashed on the road Halloween night. Probably because we didn't have our Halloween lights on! So, we knew we had to go the extra mile for Christmas. Here is the Christmas light master and his eager helper working away.


And after 3 days, several trips to Lowes, here are the results on the front side of our home:

Shortly after our lighting ceremony we were startled when all the lights went out! Apparently our electrical system has "rules" about how much you can plug into the outlets at any one time. But with some clever thinking, I am happy to report that all of our lights are shining bright with no circuit breaks. Now, about that power bill......

Enjoy!

A Visit to Santa, 2008

What a difference a year makes. Here is our 2007 visit to Santa Photo:


And here is our 2008 photo:

Hannah was ready this time. She was pumped, couldn't stop talking about it all the way to the mall. Brought stuff to show santa, the works. As soon as we got into the mall and she could see his area though she immediately started in with the "I'M SCARED"!! And tried to get away. Fortunately there were people ahead of us in line, so she was able to watch and warm up that way. Eli was not so sure about it. He cried the first time we tried. But Santa was recovering from a bad cold and tried to cough up a lung, so we had to take a break and get back on his lap. Then Eli just stared...but he looks like he's saying "get me out of here now!". As we were leaving Hannah goes "I guess I do like Santa after all!".

Put on a Santa Face....

Here is Hannah after I asked her to put on her "I'm going to see Santa" face.

She's ready. Right? Stay tuned for the outcome of Visit to Santa 2008.

A Few of Our Favorite Things....

I love the holidays. The decorations, the music, the gatherings of family and friends. The excitement in the eyes of children. And not to be forgotten, all the yummy treats that are designed specifically to make you forget all about your healthy eating plans. Here is one such temptation in our household:

Trader Joes + Chocolate + Peppermint = One Yummy Cookie. Or two. Maybe three.

November 30th

We are slowly getting the Christmas decorations up. Here is Hannah working on her decorating skills and helping mom with the tree.

Later in the day Hannah and Eli decided to take a ride in a favorite toy - an empty box. Hannah could do this all day. Eli was ready to get out after this picture. I'm guessing in a few more months he'll be ready for endless backbreaking (for the parents) box rides around the house.

Hannah's Decorating Tip #23

When decorating a tree, as Hannah is helping Grandpa Norm do in the below photo, always cluster all your ornaments together. That way it is easy to see them all on display without having to circumnavigate the tree.

Hannah's finished product:

Happy Thanksgiving!

I asked Hannah what she was going to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and here was her list:

For Tutu
For my family
For my cousins
For Elliot

I'm sure she would have gone on and on, but a bowl of cereal distracted her.

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend.

Watch What You Say.....

I was giving Eli a bath this afternoon and Hannah was helping me. After I rinsed off his hair (and he did the "I don't like water on my face" dance in his tub), Hannah lovingly patted his hair and goes "It's all right Eli, it sucks, doesn't it?". And I go "Hannah, did you just say "it sucks?". Her response to me was "well, it sucks getting your hair washed in the bath". Hmmmmmm. She has never used this word before....I must use it far more often than I intend. We'll work on it.

Happy Birthday, Mommy

I got a delicious ice cream cake for my birthday. Chocolate cake with fudge icing, peppermint ice cream, and a little whip cream on top. Almost as good as grandma's!

Not the best quality picture, but here I am with my kids on my birthday. Eli was about maxed out on all the fun and was ready to throw his "get me to bed!" tantrum.

On Saturday Grammy watched the kids for the evening while Mickey and I went down to Seattle for dinner at the Wild Ginger and then 3'd row seats to see the comedy of Kathy Griffin at the Paramount. We started watching her show, My Life on the D List, last season and we both really enjoy it. Hilarious show, and a much needed date night. Thanks, honey!

Beautiful November Weekend

We had a beautiful November weekend in our neck of the woods.

What a perfect time to:

Clean up the leaves.

Mow the Lawn.

Pick up the toys.

Get Hannah's baby Diego all ready for Halloween.

And just look too darn cute. Hope you all had a great weekend as well!

Goodbye, Sudden Valley

We have officially closed on our house and thus it is time to say goodbye to Sudden Valley.

Mickey and I bought this house together, our first home, shortly before our wedding. It didn't take long before we added a cat, then a dog, another cat, and eventually two children (and we already had Macy too). With the growth of our family our wonderful house started to feel a little cramped. And Sudden Valley started to feel just a little too remote.

We wanted a fence. Plants the deer would not eat. A driveway and roads that could be navigated in the snow. Street lights. Trick or Treating on Halloween. More of a "neighborhood" feel. A mailbox within walking distance. A less confusing address. A closer proximity to town. Most importantly, we wanted more space.

We are loving our new home. But I have to admit I feel a twinge of sadness every time I think about the one we have left, and now no longer call our own.

Playing around with video...

Here is Hannah, singing a song she learned from watching Madagascar 2 over the weekend.

Just Sitting Around

Since our coffee maker is on the fritz, daddy found the perfect place to stash a baby. But don't worry, mom was close by just in case he decided to lose his newly found balance.

Macy

My step-daugter Macy is visiting us this weekend from San Diego. We haven't seen her since July. From the looks of this picture, Eli is pretty fascinated by his sister. Macy lived with us full-time last year, so we have been missing her lots and are thrilled she is able to be here with us this weekend (but it's going by too fast!). Macy has pretty much adjusted to her new school and continues her A grades. We also just found out she was picked to be the editor of the school newspaper!

Welcome To Our Blog!

Welcome to the Mighty M Family Blog! Here you will find a more in-depth version of our old baby-photo blog, including pictures, stories, and video about our family and what is important to us. Enjoy!