Grandparents

If I were to design my world, I would live within a 10 minute drive of family so that we could hang out often and the kids would have the opportunity to learn from their grandparents.  Alas, we don't live in my self-designed world and so we have to make the most of the times we do have together.  This Christmas break we had some great times together just hanging out being family.

Like reading together...

And learning how to paint together...

And doing crafts together...

And learning how to sew together...

And eating grilled cheese together...

And just hanging out together...

 

Christmas lights

Since Grammie and Grandpa came to town early, we were able to do quite a few Christmas-y things with them and one thing I wanted to do was see some Christmas lights.  I really wanted to go to the zoo lights, but it was raining the night we planned to go so we went to plan B and went to the drive through lights at Spanaway Park.  We came to these lights last year so I knew they were good and I also knew to go early as the line can be quite long to get in.

My favorite shot of the night - a self in the car.  We came prepared with snacks, drinks and even the dog!  Can you see him on the back seat?  I think he enjoyed the lights. :)

Grammie's favorite was the giant teddy bear.

The rest of us liked teh pirate ship

Somehow they don't look nearly as impressive in photos...

Oh well, we had fun!

The First Christmas Present

Stevie and I decided to surprise the kids this Christmas and buy a new TV for the basement.  The idea was that we could set it up as a place for them to use with friends, to play video games and to have family movie nights.  With this in mind, we bought them a new pair of PJs, a snuggly blanket each and snacks!

My dad and Stevie worked hard all week to mount the TV, get the cable installed and rearrange the furniture.  We decided to debut the present on Saturday (movie night for us).  We still need to buy a unit to house all the remotes and stuff, but here is how it looks now.

We had the kids come downstairs and boy, were they surprised!

Trying out the new TV.

Emmy, all ready for movie night!

Tucked in and ready for the show to begin.  The TV has 3D capacity, so they are wearing the 3D glasses.

Holiday Concert

Grammie and Grandpa arrived yesterday just in time for Emmy and London's school holiday concert and since Stevie is now off with his broken wing, he got to attend too.

It's a large turn out for these events!

Emmy and London were both on the stage at the same time.  London is on the top row, far right. Emmy is front, right.

 

 

Ugly Sweater

Cannon's youth group was hosting an "Ugliest Christmas Sweater" contest this Sunday and since we don't actually have any ugly Christmas sweaters, I had to come up with something else.  The idea came to me to hang Christmas stuffed animals all over a green sweater he has.  When I mentioned this to him, he got to work collaborating with Emmy and London (a rare phenomenon) to create this masterpiece...

I couldn't help but laugh and laugh when I saw him confidently walking into the church with the animals just swinging around him!  And, yes, he won the contest.

Random Happenings

This post is just a random mix of photos I've snapped of happenings in our lives.  Things that make me laugh, smile or be a proud momma.

Can you spot the cat?  This was the scene when I went to wake Cannon last weekend for swim practice.  Obi had tucked himself under the covers and looked quite comfy.

That's Cannon in the blue cap coming in first in his heat for the 100 freestyle at his first swim meet.

Cat, it's what's for dinner.

 I found Obi this way on Emmy's bed.  That cat gets the royal treatment from the kids.

Emmy, eyeballing the cupcakes at a friend's birthday party.  I love Matthew's (a boy in her class) photo bomb.

 My new hair do.

A funny sign - it's for a septic company.

Like mother, like daughter...
This was my rabbit fur coat and fake fur hat from when I was a kid.  We ended up using them for Emmy's Halloween wolf costume.

Uwajimaya with Kelly

Last Christmas I was able to sneak away for a day to meet my friend Kelly at Pikes Market in Seattle and this year we were able to meet up again for the afternoon.  This year we decided to meet at Uwajimaya, the big Asian grocery store in Seattle.  You might think this would only take a half hour or so, but nooo.  We emerged 2 1/2 hours later from the store with lots of goodies in tow and lots of reminiscing and laughter.

Some of our favorite finds:

Orion beer from Okinawa!



 

 

Anyone thirsty for a can of white asparagus juice?  I like my veggies, but not like this!

 

How about a single sized serving of sake in glass with Bambi on it!  Are they trying to appeal to kids???

We finished with a bowl of udon and tempura.