Catch Up

Wow! What a whirlwind of a holiday! We had 4 Christmas'! One the weekend before Christmas with Eric's Aunt and her two sons! They came up from Portland, OR and we had a MOST wonderful time. Though I was unable to join in the drinking festivities, I had a blast watching all else being funny and enjoyed their sillyness'. We opened gifts, had a wonderful dinner and the best was spending time talking and enjoying our complany.

Our next Christmas was at our house Christmas Eve day. Just the '4' or us; Eric, Isabelle and Me (I count as two ;) We had a wonderful, quiet afternoon, sitting under the tree opening our family gifts. Eric got more fun for his toys and he got me some more pieces to build my photography! Isabelle got a new desk for all her creativity! Then that night, we went to his parents for Christmas Eve dinner, which of course was more great food and company and spoiling of all the little girls. She now has almost every musical instrument that daddy has, and then one... guess we need to get daddy an electronic violin now too. ;) ha ha ha

Christmas morning was number 3 -- and of course Santa had come for a special visit. Isabelle got a new Pink Kitchen set with some food items. She plays with it every day... mainly cooking the pizza for daddy.

Christmas Day afternoon, we packed up and headed to my parents house, where my grandmother is staying for her visit and had more Christmas there. There was more great food and complany there too... along with fun games!

It is so sad that I didn't even get a full two weeks off... (Eric got more then me this year - Yeah for him!) .... and it is almost over. Just 3 more days and back to the grind. I am happy that my New Years' Eve is a quiet one at home, with the kid going to bed at 9 and watching the ball fall with fireworks on TV. Tomorrow we are off again to my parents to start the year with more good food and games.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!! May this year bring you all the happiness you desire, and all your dreams come true! May you get closer to the ones you love and reconnect with those that you havent seen for a while. May you travel near and far, and to destinations unknown. May you have wonderful adventures and persue new things.

Love you all!

Pictures to come....when I get me act together to upload them. PS... so far baby boy Morceau is doing wonderfully! Can't wait for the baby shower in less then 2 weeks. I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going and how I am actually looking prego and not fat this go round. :)

Merry Christmas

From our Family....

To yours!

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas Season,
Filled with family and friends
Love, Happiness and Good Will

Gymnastics Season

'Tis the season for high flying tumbling and artistry movements! Yes, HS Girls' Gymnastics has begun! This year, we were able to have cuts, limit the team to 20 girls, and we ended up with 16... a perfect size team. We had our first meet this past Wed and our girls did great. Even with a wrestling mat floor, they came in 2nd place. Just imagine what will happen when we have a spring floor!!! Of course the down side is that we only have 1 of our 6 season meets on a spring floor, the rest are on mats.

The best part of that night was that I was able to present the girls with their new leos (leotards). They were so excited and ran to change out of their old ones. It was a great night and we are looking forward to many more ahead.

HO HO HO

MERRY early CHRISTMAS...

Our Santa pics came back so fast! Enjoy.

PS... the beard was real... Isabelle tested :)

Baby Brianna

I guess we are going to have to stop calling her Baby Brianna, now that she is one year old. Time flies!!!

Big sisiter, Sophia was helping put the frosting on the birthday cupcakes!

One Year Portrait

Opening presents with mommy and sisiter's help

Yummy cake... "now that's good stuff!!"

Sweet Cousins

HAPPY 1st BIRTTHDAY LITTLE GIRL!!

Christmas and Food Crafts

Wreath making

Painting a snowman

(word to the wise... read all the label and directions before buying... even though this craft was in the toddler section, it is a 6+ craft that needs a hot glue gun to put the pieces on... it is not foam stickers like the others). So instead, I let her paint the snowman and then during her nap, I glued the pieces together. She prefered her painting job over the glued on side.

Christmas tree time.

So beautiful.

Making Pizza with Daddy

Stirring the pancake mix for YUMMY sour dough pancakes

Isabelle helping daddy make sour dough bread.... more like

"let's play throw flour and make a mess!"

It is SOO much fun being two!

PS....

Thought I would mention one of the many things that we are most thankful for this season..... besides health, happiness, and love... we are most thankful for our growing family... to our soon to be newest addition, a son, due in March!

'Tis the Season

I love the holidays! Not just because it is a time of really good food, family and presents, but more for the sense of happiness, kindness and calm in society and of course all the pretty lights and decorations!

We spent Thanksgiving at my parents in GH and on our way in, the little town was full of normalcy... people walking their dogs, babies or themselves down the quaint roads, other people window shopping the stores... and surprising no one at the market doing last minute shopping, (only 4 cars including mine in the store parking lot). We had a lovely, quiet Thanksgiving with Isabelle running a muck, great food and all. We stayed a few days there, Isabelle having her own room with big girl bed and she did so GREAT!

The drive out of GH was so wonderful. Sometime on 'Black Friday' people got out their decorations and filled their homes and store fronts with beautiful holiday cheer. The street lights were decorated with wreaths and lights, stores were bright with greenery, lights, and glistening snowmen. People were out walking again, but now stopping and chatting with strangers they came across on the sidewalk, instead of silently walking past eachother. One lady was trying to put up some greenery around the edge of her store front and it fell, a nice man ran across the street to help her out, so she didn't have to get down the ladder and back up again.

It made me smile that people are so nice, why not be so nice all year long, one may wonder. When we see smiles on faces around us, it makes us smile too... we just need to remember to pass that along and smile to others... sometimes we have to be the first ones to smile, to start the kindness.

To all family and friends reading this, wishing you all the happiness you desire in this holiday season and more after in the year to come!

Isabelle'isms

The saying of the week(s)... "No way!"

The Big Bed!

Yesterday, Isabelle and I did a tiny bit of rearranging in her room, what I could do under my circumstances of being prego... so no lifting of anything... but I did unload books and toys from shelves, moved them into other corners and such. We made a space for the twin bed. Today, the 'big girl bed' (twin size - no wasting of money on a toddler bed) arrived at 1:15 (yeah for sleep country!! they showed in the beginning of their 1-3pm window). They brought it all in, set it up and placed it in the space waiting. Then Eric put together the safety guard rails and on went the lavender sheets and case on the pillow and bed was ready!

Isabelle was ready for her nap too, she was so EXCITED to climb in and get on her pillow and under the pillows. So we said night night and night night she went! She slept for 3 hours and the best of all... NO BA!!! (AKA pacifier). We have been talking to her for a few weeks now that the 'ba' is going to go to the 'ba' fairy when the big bed got here. She didn't even ask for it. :)

Here's hoping that tonight will be just as successful.

The one thing that we learned in all this... Don't move / rearrange too much in one day. We wanted to move in a bookshelf that is currently in the guest room (soon to be another nursery), so we emptied it and then went to move the rocking chair in Isabelle's room so to put the shelves behind it. Turns out that that was WAY TOO much for her. She went beyond the pouting, she went straight into crying and freaking out. Daddy put the rocking chair back and she was fine again, through many tears. That may have to wait till next weekend.

Because of that, there will be no pictures until her room gets more rearranged and uncluttered from all the piles I made. And we will take out the crib too... but for now, we are leaving it in there, just in case big bed has a bad night. (at least for a week).

I'll keep you posted on all the fun and possible turmoil... all the possibilities that can happen when there are no longer four rails to keep a kid in bed... hmmmmm.

Breaking News

Well, not really breaking news... however there is news that many of you haven't heard. There is a new Morceau that will soon be brought into the world... or I should say a little Leprechaun. We have yet to find out what it will be, but we will soon. Isabelle is going to be a big sister!

Even more breaking news... we bought Isabelle a twin, big girl bed and it should be getting delivered on Saturday.

Pictures of all will come soon.

Pirate Shoot

Pirate Booty

Where else should skulls go, but in a pink princess wheelbarrow!

Yes, we let Isablle chase Daddy with a sword for these shots.

She loved it. And she eventually got him.

Trick or Truck

This year we decided that Isabelle would have a great time and actually enjoy and understand trick or treating... and sure enough... she DID!! This adorable little Pirate of ours had a blast.

We took her to the MV community center where, instead of house to house, we went truck to truck. There were all sorts of trrucks there, from fire and police trucks, to recycle trucks, to bulldozers and other cats, to dump trucks... you name it. Not only did the kids get candy from the drivers of the trucks, but many of the drives let the kids up in the trucks to 'drive' and move the gears. It was a fun time!


She was a bit/lot apprehensive with the dump truck! It took some guiding her to trick or treat with its driver, since his partner was raising and lowering the dumper part. (I don't remember the name of it).

Gears!!

Big-Rig

Arrrrrrrrrgh!!!!!

After Trick or Trucking, we were off to dinner and then to a near by neighborhood wehre we did some actual door to door trick or treating. She loved it too! She really got in to the hang of ringing the door bells and saying Happy Halloween when they opened the door and Trick or Treat when they gave her candy. Only one house scared / mezmerized her with a singing Franenstien head. Then she didn't want leave the house, she liked the song and started dancing with it. :) Another funny moment was as we were walking to the 'next' house, these plder girls were behind us and Isabelle grabbed my hand and said "Run Mommy, faster faster. Go first!" And she started running and pulling me toward the next house, to get there before the girls. It was so funny, Eric and I were cracking up... as we got to that house before those girls.

A great Evening!

Pumpkin Patch

For the second year in a row, Isabelle and I headed to the pumpkin patch, though this year Daddy was able to make it too, since we went on a Sunday. :) And though the forecast called for a bucket of rain, the morning was so nice, COLD, but nice, we bundled up and headed out. (Yeah, the rain didn't start till we were half way home - and in buckets too).

We all had a blast!! We started in the Kid's Korral with riding a stick horse, milking a wooden cow, playing with a water pump and so much more. Then, up a hill we went to see the farm animals, and then to the corn box which was followed by a hay bale maze (for the little kids). It was so cold that we needed to warm up our hand, so we got some hot chocolate and a little rest before we headed to the tractor ride. Isabelle was SO excited, but then didn't want to go without one of us. In climbed Eric, more like he squeezed himself into the little bucket that was pulled by the tractor. Then off for a hay ride which went around the pumpkin patch and dropped us off in front of the corn maze. This was my first corn maze ever and it was so fun. I will say one thing though... it took so long to get through it, and it was daylight, I will never do one at night! Of course, we did let our sweet two year lead the way at the beginning... till she got tired and needed to be carried... till Daddy got tired and it turned into a piggy back ride. But we made it out! Then off to the actual pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkin. Since we only got one, we let Isabelle choose (with a little guidance).

It was a FABULOUS morning!!

... Until next year...

Thank you Thomasson Family Farm for another year of great memories!