Blay-gel

For those of you that don't know the meaning of the word, a "blagel" is a table that has a button on it that makes the table go down.

Not to be confused with bagel which is something Lucas had for a snack yesterday. He had the bagel on the blagel. However, the button was not pushed.

Thanks to Lucas for clarifying the difference in the two words.

Christmas Morning!

Both of the kids got up at 6:45am which is not like them. It's usually around 8am. They came in our bed and snuggled. Grandma spent the night. Lucas saw all the presents and said, "I so excited!" It was fun to have the kids at an age that they really enjoy the season.

My brother and family couldn't make it to our house in the evening due to snow and sickness but we had a great time with Grandma. Lucas and Ted went and played in the snow. It's snowing again right now as I write this, it just doesn't stop.

We had a lovely meal (mostly because of my mom) and we enjoyed the Advent Candles. It was a really nice day.

Annual Christmas Card

Merry Christmas to all!

Moving on up....

Nora is graduating to a big girl bed. She wanted to sleep in the lower bunk tonight. Although it's sad to think this might be the last baby crib in the house (actually let me re-write that, it is the last baby crib in our house) it will be nice to have more room in their bedroom without that crib. It has survived 4 kids (2 of them are not ours-get that straight).

Now, onto potty training! It would be wonderful to have no diapers by 2009 (ok at least early 2009).

Hakuna Matada

The things our kids say.

One of Lucas' favorite songs right now is Hakuna Matada from The Lion King. However, he seems to not quite have the right words. What he sings is:

It's a problem free
Colostomy.

No kidding. I didn't teach him. Let's be clear on that.

Brother and Sister

Lucas was telling Nora a story while they were sitting together in this chair. Nora loves this chair and rarely lets anyone sit in it while she's there. Lucas loves hugging Nora while she resists most of the time, it's quite cute.

Halloween with the Fabs

We went down to Vancouver, WA to Trick-or-Treat with our favorites Fabs. Lucas and Lucas were Batman, Rayna was Supergirl and Nora was Robin. We had a perfect night of weather, a great neighborhood and wonderful friends that showed us their new hometown.

We had a great time!

Coffee Girl

Nora and Lucas both love coffee. I think Ted started them on it!

Happy Birthday Paula!

Lucas is singing Happy Birthday to his God-sister Paula, who he dearly loves. It's a little dark so I hope you can enjoy it!

Family at the Pumpkin Farm

We went to The Farm today to enjoy the good weather and get some pumpkins. Lucas loved playing in the hay. Nora was a little tired and whiney. But there was a moment we could get a rare family picture. Now they are running around the house naked after their bath - a regular saturday evening ritual.

A good family day!

House Ghosts

Kinda like House Guests...ha ha! I made little little craft and the kids just loved the lights!

We have a 4 year old!

It's nuts that we have a 4 year old. The first picture is his birthday morning (yesterday) and his birthday gift of Mack from Cars. Then he got to celebrate in preschool as well at church in the evening.
Today he got a haircut, the second picture. He looks pretty good!

Lucas in Iguana

Lucas started Awana this last week that he actually calls Iguana. Awana is a church based program that teaches kids about the bible is fun ways. This is his first memory verse and he's very proud that he memorized it so quickly.

The 2nd video just makes Ted and I laugh because Lucas is really serious about dancing and then he biffs it. Lucas calls our area rug in our front room the stage and loves to sing and dance for us. Last night when the kids and I spent the night at mom's (since she had surgery and Ted was away at a school overnighter) Lucas was great at taking anything we gave him and making up a song about it and dancing at the same time. He loved us applauding him and the he would take a bow.

We are expecting a new generation of Donnie and Marie out of our 2. Nora loves to imitate Lucas dancing and she tries to sing in her non-verbal way. We will get a video of them together soon. Maybe they can get on Dancing with the Stars!

The things Lucas will say...

Lucas leaned over to Ted tonight and whispered "Sometime you should fall in love with mommy." Ted informed him that he already had!

Also, at Grandma's yesterday, I was making lunch and he kept saying, "I'm starving to death." Drama runs in our blood.

A hike at Hamlin Park

There's little spots in Seattle that we can take a hike that is kid friendly. This one worked out great since there was a playground at the end of our little adventure. The one picture where Lucas' hand looks like a claw is where he's doing his Kung Fu moves.

Very into Kung Fu since seeing Kung Fu Panda.

The things Lucas will say...

Last night we went to Olive Garden for their Never Ending Pasta Bowl (we missed you Fabs). Lucas got chicken fingers and broccoli, we were hoping he would eat the broccoli.
Well, when we asked him to eat his broccoli he stated "I'm too young for broccoli". Of course we laughed but proceeded to ask him again and he just said "I'm too young". Guess how much broccoli he ate.

A Day at the Fair

Lucas loved the rides as you can see. We did also see the animals for Nora. And have some REALLY greasy food. It was very fun and I think will become a family tradition.

I hear the pitter patter of little.....

raindrops outside my window (ha! you thought I might say a baby is coming). It's pouring here in Seattle. Lucas is asleep in our bed right behind me, good thing he's a heavy sleeper. Which means he will be wide awake tonight night until 10pm. I hear the Kitty Kitty lady calling her cats in from the rain. Literally, she can call "Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty" really fast so it sounds like she's rolling her R's with her tongue, a fasinating gift. Nora is asleep too which means she will be up in 10 minutes. So it seems like Fall is here. Lucas was asking for snow already this morning. The older I get the more I dislike the winter and lack of sun or maybe it's the influence of my husband. But I'm sad that our short summer is over. Maybe I will be surprised and get a sunny warm September. That would be nice since Lucas' birthday is coming up.

Well, enough of my blabbering, although I do see some blogs out there that should be novels.

Here are some new pictures:

This is a dress our neighbor Jing made for Nora for her birthday. She's quite proud of it and loves to wear it.

Lucas hanging out with his neighborhood buddy, Noah - Jing's son.

Seattle's Children's Museum 8/16

Mom and Lucas

Today Lucas took a nap which always mean in our household that Lucas will be up late, usually goes to sleep between 10 and 11pm. It makes for a long evening. Anyway, we sat up in Lucas' "tree house" (more of a play structure) and told stores to each other. Ted went and got a rare photo of Lucas and me. It's usually me that gets the pictures of Ted and the kids.

I've got to get back to blogging...

A couple of pictures to keep you up to date on the cuteness of our kids.

First, Lucas, Nora, Grandma and I went blueberry picking last friday and

got 31 lbs of blueberries. I've made some jam and a blueberry crisp and froze the rest.

The other pictures is of Nora who discovered this hat at mom's house. Mom (Grandma) knits hats. Anyway, she put it on today (a warm day) and wore it home and just look very cute. It will be interesting to see what she does tomorrow when it's even hotter.

Lucas misses preschool and can't wait to go back. He's really looking forward to his birthday and has a list of all his friends he wants to invite, all the presents he wants and all the things he wants to do.

Nora is getting into jewelry more and more. Mom has found a lot of fun jewelry at her house and let's Nora rummage through it. She getting more proficient at taking care of her babies.

This last picture is on that my friend Michelle took of the kids at the park. We spent the morning with her on sunday and she took some great pictures of the kids.

Girly Girl

Nora is such a girl. She loves all that is shiny and sparkly. And her dolls, loves her dolls. I never thought I would have a girly girl since I was a tomboy but she's very cute with it all. My sister started brushing Nora's hair yesterday and Nora probably could have fallen asleep with her doing that, she loved it. This is our bike carrier. Lucas loves it and Nora as you can tell doesn't enjoy it that much.

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Dad remembered.....

Dad's memorial was today. I think it went well and mom felt loved. Attached is the video that I made for the service.

My brother Chris wrote and read a beautiful history of my dad.

It was good but we still miss Dad!

Family Day

Friday is usually our family day since I work on saturdays and Ted works on Sundays. Lucas is really into us "being a family" in other words, all being together. We decided to drive up to Wallace Falls (outside of Gold Bar) to do a little hike. Well, Lucas loves to throw rocks into rivers, lakes, basically any body of water. His feet got dunked into the river early on in the hike. So I gave him my 2nd pair of socks and then wraped his feet in plastic and then into the wet shoes. Pretty clever if I do say so myself. He didn't complained and he hiked a little longer. Our hike didn't even hit a mile and then we went back. It was a beautiful hike but we've decided to go to St Ed's or Discover Park from now on. Keep it close until they can go longer distances.

Our Garden

We dared to start a garden this year. Summer had a late start this year so I'm not quite sure how well it will do. I've enjoyed it. The day Dad died we had a dragonfly buzzing around in the garden. Dad loved dragonflies the last few years. It was a nice quiet reminder of Dad on a sad day.

Our garden has tomatoes, corn, squash, onions, lettuce and some herbs. Pray we have a big harvest!

Some Pictures....

Thought I hadn't put many pictures of Nora so here's one from yesterday. She's getting a lot happier since she can walk.

Ted and Lucas camped out in the backyard last night while Grandma spent the night with us after her knee surgery. Grandma and mom tried to get Nora to go to sleep while reading to her in Lucas' room. A 3 generation of girls.

Friend Luc

Lucas has a special friend named Lucas too. He calls him "Friend Luc" and Friend Luc calls Lucas "Trigg". They are moving in August and so we are trying to have a lot of fun with them before they leave. We all went to the fountain at the center and had ice cream on the 4th of July. Friend Luc's sister Rayna is in the shots too. She calls Nora "Nuna". Lucas loves Friend Luc. They went to preschool together and basically only wants to do things with Friend Luc so it will be interesting how life will be like after they're gone. Their whole family is very dear to us and we will miss them a lot.