So it’s been chilly around here lately…another cold snap but thankfully with no snow so far. I don’t mind the dusting of snow, but I remember back to last year and that was ridiculous and enough snow to last a few years for me. I like where we live, if I want snow, I just drive to it!
Our cat, Billie Jean, is a mostly outside cat at this point and she wasn’t liking the change in weather. We stopped back at the house for something, and Dee ran inside while the boys and I waited in the car. Billie Jean jumped on the warm car hood and walked around the windshield, trying to figure out how to get inside with us. I finally rolled down the passenger window and she came right in. Imagine Dee’s surprise when she got back in the van and found Billie Jean sitting on the dashboard!

Mama Dee and Carlos test out the “if you stick your tongue on a frozen sculpture, will it stick?” theory.

The elevator from the parking garage to shopping

What are they all looking at? Why, the Space Needle of course!

Levi, Luca and Cousin Owen at the Ol Spaghetty Factory

Mama Dee helping Carlos look for our house across the water

Todd and Luca discuss just how high up they are

We got invited to celebrate Hanukkah with our friend, Amy (one of the boys preschool teachers) this year. Since my brother was in town we didn’t get to stay long but Levi, Carlos and I stopped in for a latke and it gave the boys a chance to play a little. The latkes were soooo tasty and the boys had a blast with the other kids. We were honored to get an invite and spend a little time with Amy and Viki!

Four knuckleheads that had a great time playing together! Todd, Monica and Luca, you are missed!

Last weekend we took a trip down to Ocean Shores to celebrate Christmas with Dee’s side of the family. Melissa, Bill and the kids joined us for the weekend and we had some friend’s parents who rented us their beach house. Not many pictures from the trip, it wasn’t that kind of trip…just relaxing and hanging out. We played some dice, watched some movies had good food and conversations. It was a treat just to get away for a weekend.
Linda and Scott have made themselves quite the farm at their house. They have chickens, turkeys, goats and are looking into getting a cow and maybe more. It was fun to see their baby goat, although I couldn’t believe they let it run through the house and jump on the couch. There’s a reason I don’t live on a farm, my OCD would be out of control!

We tend to make a lot of treats and gifts at Christmas, as I’m sure most of you do as well. This year we made Ginger Bath Soak (thank you Martha Stewart). It was easy to do, the boys helped measure and mix and we put them in a cellophane bag with a ribbon and it made a great gift. The boys wanted to try some in their bath, of course, and it smelled wonderful.
Here’s the recipe is you are so inclined to make it:
Martha Stewart Living Ginger Bath Soak:

2 c. baking soda

1 c. epson salts

2 T ground ginger

We also borrowed a friends sewing machine, thank you Erika, and made fleece rice bags. It’s a bad name, but basically it’s a sleeve of fleece that you fill with rice and a scent (we chose lavender) and you sew shut. Then you can heat it in the microwave for about a minute and it becomes a great smelling, moist heat that you can use like a heating pad. Our boys each have one that we heat up for them each night that immediately warms up their beds and makes them super cozy. We have had a couple of the boys come loose at the seam and I’ve had to do some hand stitching repairs, but they are not so gentle with them. I worry that ones we made as gifts might do the same, fingers crossed they hold together.
In the baking dept, we made some peppermint bark, peanut brittle and buckeyes (peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate). Always good to get the kids in the kitchen to help and they a good at it, too! Our favorite project was the kids and I surprising Dee by baking the Gingerbread Cake with Lemon Sauce that her mom used to make and her childhood favorite.

Thanks to Nana and Papa, we have a new toy! Still working out some of the details of working it, but it’s an HD Flip video camera (which = super cool family movies for the blog). I can’t wait to get out and start filming.

I got this amazing sign from Dee for Christmas and it pretty much sums us up! Welcome to the chaos. Carlos has taken to scowling in most pictures and since this was the 23rd picture (and the best if you can imagine that) he was just done.
Can’t wait to hang this sign up so it’s the first thing you see as you enter our home.
All in all we had a wonderful Christmas, the boys were more excited then ever before and did really well with all the festivities.
More pictures to come, my computer ate them and all from Halloween on. So it’s de-Christmasing the house today, starting in on the to-do list and putting together the 10 sets of Legos that the boys got. Glad it was a Lego year, they LOVE them, but it’s work for Mama K for sure. Plus the frustration of them all being broken apart within a week’s time always gets to me.
Hope you had a very Merry Christmas!

Hope it’s wonderful for you all!

This last week was a whirlwind of fun and great times, with no time to blog. My brother and his family came to visit! They stayed at my folks house so most of the time we were hanging out there. We started the week with a trip to Seattle. The boys weren’t sure about skipping school to play (we rarely miss school for anything!) but the Space Needle was spectacular. It was clear, crisp and sunny. We were tourists all the way…rode the monorail, saw the sights, did a little shopping, rode the carousel and then met up with the Burr family for dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. More pictures to follow…but this week we were just enjoying our time together with Todd, Monica and Luca.
My parents were the perfect hosts, and we ate like kings..it’s been awhile since we had appetizers! Monica spoiled us with some authentic mole and huevos rancheros, too. YUM!
We’re actually just beginning to recover from the week away from home. I wouldn’t change a thing, though. We basically came home to sleep, eat breakfast, switch over laundry and get kids out the door to school…then back again to my folks house. Sunday night, as we pulled into our driveway Trey pretty much summed it up by saying “well, we’re back at the hotel again!”
Sad to see Todd, Monica and Luca leave after such a pefect visit. Looking forward to the next one!