Christmastime in Washington

We are excited to go spend time with family in Utah for Christmas, but we have had the best time celebrating the season here! The rain has been a little obnoxious, but Dal has had a pretty laid back schedule so it has been nice to spend time with him and our friends here during this Christmas season. 

I'll start with the not good stuff. We did have a great month, 4 not good things happened. #1- I did a really dumb thing and accidentally (Seriously have never done this before) left my garage door open and someone stole my car straight out of the garage. (I leave my keys in my car. I don't do it anymore). I felt like crap for wasting us so much money, but I like to think that Dallin and I are kind of good at saying, "it's just money" and moving on. Dallin was really nice to me about it and things like that make me appreciate what I have more. After the initial shock I had this moment at home when both of my babies were being cute and I started to cry and decided that (even though they had my car), there was no way that the car thief had it better than me that day. I am blessed. Cheesy cheesy. this story has a happy ending though and the police found it abandoned 2 days later with almost everything (besides my expensive pink diaper bag, a couple of christmas presents & my wallet) in it. We were beyond relieved. #2- Mae was sick for 8 days straight and barfed/pooped on every square inch of our house. Sometime in the middle of it she seemed better so we took her to Dal's work Christmas party and she barfed all over their house too. #3-Dal found out he is for sure doing flight surgery for the next 2 years. We knew this was most likely happening and we are not necessarily bummed about it... just more uncertainty and that is always kinda scary. #4- While babysitting Tiffany's girls Brynnlyn burnt her hand really bad on our fireplace (the fire had been off for over 40 min!) and I am pretty sure I shed more tears than she did. I felt way bad.

sick Mae

Our car back!

Oh, and I made Mae stop nursing since I am going to be away from her for 2 nights in Jan and we were both real sad about it.

 We are starting to feel really established here. We have made some awesome friends and looooove our ward. Life is good.

The best Sunday nap!

Calvin and his cute friend Quinnley

Always climbing

Dyed my own hair (with Tara) and really like it!

At a christmas boutique with Tara and Corryn 

Hanging out at Tiffany's new house while she paints 

I am docta Mitchell 

We accidentally missed the toddler story time we got to every week so we instead went to the baby one. Cal looked bored but mae LOVED it.

Ikea run with Tara

Babysitting little Cozy girl

My parents sent this to the kids for Christmas and I love watching them eat around it!

Frosting Christmas cookies with Matt & Tara

He was sooo, so excited to meet Santa and it was kind of magical 

When I told him he couldn't watch a show, he put dal's shirt and shoes on and, "I'm daddy. want to watch a show, babe?" and I died laughing.

You can't tell from this picture but these 4 play soo cute together. We love Tristan and Claire.

Going to target hungry is a bad idea

Frosting cookie pizzas with Benson during the BYU/Utah game

Love my girl

Calvin had the best time at Benson's birthday party

We drove all the way to Bellvue to go to 'Snowflake Lane'. Singing, dancing, fake snow, characters everywhere, and so many Christmas lights. We loved it!! Especially Cal.

One day when Mae was sick, I took Cal to the Olympia Christmas parade. It was fun to have one on one time with him. They had a tree lighting and gingerbread house competition going on also. I really love Olympia!

Our ward Christmas party was the best! So much stuff going on. Our ward rocks.

We got a babysitter for our ward's elders chorum christmas party/gift exchange. It was such a fun night!

The Smith's have been our closest friends here and we are so sad that they are moving :(

I just really like my kids.

Snowy weekend in Leavenworth

We had a much needed (after getting our car stolen from our garage... story for another day) awesome weekend at the coziest cabin in Leavenworth with fun friends (the Smiths + Dohrmans). We have been able to make good friends quickly in Washington, which has made the transition here pretty great. It snowed the whole time we were there and I love snow!!! It did make our night on the town pretty freezing for the kids, but probably worth it for how cozy it made it seem inside our cute cabin.

We arrived on late Friday (because we were figuring out a million things having to do with getting our car stolen). When we woke up it was straight for the hot tub! I was surprised at how brave Calvin was... he kept wanting to get out and faceplate into the snow and then get back in. Mae always loves hot tubs! After lunch we headed to downtown leavenworth. The coolest little city!!!! It was the first night that the lit up the huge christmas tree, so it was really crowded (and freezing) when we first got there. But after the big lighting ceremony (which was really cool) the crowds died down a little and we had a lot of fun! We especially had fun after we got the call from the police station saying that they found our car! Seriously, the city and the cutest shops and awesome architecture. I did not get a picture that even close to does it justice but it was pretty magical all lit up for Christmas. After we drove back to the cabin and put the kids to bed we had a little gift exchange, played games, and got in the hot tub sans kids. We drove home Sunday afternoon... I was happy to drive back during the day because a lot of it is through a state forrest and it was beautiful! Especially with the snow. 

Seriously a great weekend!

Thanksgiving adventure in Portland

We went back and forth on what to do for Thanksgiving this year. Basically... Mae kind of hates when I cook and I decided I would rather be having fun with my family that day than trying to keep them out of the kitchen all day. Plus, we still hadn't been to Portland!

We started off driving to Multnomah Falls. It was sooo pretty! It was a great choice. We hiked up for a little bit and enjoyed the view. After that we went to downtown Portland. We drove around for a little bit since both kids were sleeping, which was fine by me because it is a way cool city. I loved it. Most of the good treat places/restaurants were closed for Thanksgiving, but we found a cute little place that didn't have a wait and served a great Thanksgiving meal. Afterwards we walked around for a little bit and explored Powell's Book Store (soo cool!). Not a traditional Thanksgiving, but it was a great day with our little family. 

 

 

 The Saturday after Thanksgiving we had a 'friendsgiving' with the Smith's and the Dohrman's. It was delicious! We are lucky to have made great friends here.