pre-Christmas stuff

Christmas Boats

Here's some pics of when we went to see the Christmas boats at Janet's house. The kids all had a lot of fun.

Christmas portraits

On Dec 17th, the whole family went to Tacoma to get the kids' portraits taken at The Picture People, and to visit Trader Joe's. Jamie's haircut was screwed-up, Abby had a black-eye, and neither were in a very good mood by the time we got there, but we did it anyways and got a few good ones.

All ready to go...

The only decent one of both them together...

Trimming the tree

For pictures of when we went to get the tree, go to Sydney's webpage (in our fave sites list). After a week of only having lights on our tree, we finally decorated it. Each of our ornaments is wrapped up to keep it from breaking and Jamie had such a fun time unwrapping each one. He'd hold it up after he opened it and say "look at dis!"

Abby tries to chew on the lights...

Look at dis!

Showing off her new walking skills...

Here's me putting on ornaments...


Abby did a good job of taking them back off...

movies, and more movies!

If these aren't working for you, check back later, it's usually Google having technical difficulties!

Abby loves her little green rocking chair, but now I often find her *standing* and rocking, holding onto the back!


Abby is walking much better now. Here's a video from about a month ago, don't know why she was having such a hard time with her balance on this occasion!


Abby doing one of her favorite activities - dvd snatching!


Jamie tries to sing "twinkle, twinkle little star" but Abby interrupts by turning on the t.v.


Jamie sings "walla-walla bing-bang" for us.

Abby Jane

I tried this outfit on Abby that aunt Sara had made for Jamie. Unfortunately, Abby did not like it at all (sorry Sara, we think it's cute). I'm sure she was quite hot wearing it in our house.


Abby thought that if she arched her back far enough, she slither out of it.


She is much happier playing in the DVD drawer. At first I thought that this should be a "no-no", but then I figured it's not really doing any harm and it gives her a chance to explore (and keeps her entertained).


So much fun to make a mess!


Going in for more...

the way Anna sees it

I'm usually not very "deep" in my postings, but a challenge on a scrapbooking forum that I visit was to journal about this year in review. So I thought I'd share it:

This year was consumed by our temporary move to San Diego, Ca. The beginning part of the year was spent getting ready for the move. In April, we dedicated Abby at our church and there was a going-away party. Then it was time for the big drive. The kids did not cry, except for the last 10 minutes (of course). We had car troubles, but in San Francisco, Chad fixed it well enough to get us to San Diego. The next six months consisted of trips to the beach, pool, park, zoo, and many other fun outings. I went home with the kids in June for 2 weeks to visit family and attend our annual family reunion camping trip. I enjoyed seeing my family, but did not enjoy having to stay with my parents, as we had a house-sitter in our home. I gladly returned to San Diego and my husband at the end of the two weeks. Much of our friends and family came to visit and stay with us during the summer. Between July and August we had 5 different sets of visitors. This was fun but sometimes exhausting. In September, I was ready to go home but still had 2 months left. Our house was now vacant but we learned that it had been broken-into. Thankfully, most of our stuff was with us in California. I turned 30 with hardly a bang. Chad's parents babysat while we stayed in the city, hoping to go out on the town, but Chad came down with a cold and we ended up staying in. The next day, it rained for the first time since the day we arrived in San Diego. I made plans to come home in the middle of October and my mom flew in to help me with the kids on the plane. I came home to whole lot of cleaning and organizing. I was home without Chad for 3 weeks, which was so hard. I can't even imagine being a military wife. The car broke down on Chad's drive home, which delayed his arrival by another 2 days, and has cost us so far $3700 to fix. Now that we are all settled into our house again, it is as if San Diego never happened. I remember that day we said good-bye to everyone and headed south and it is so weird to think that it is now over. I am so glad to have my house back and to be close to my family once again, yet sometimes I am saddened that we cannot just drive to the warm, sunny beach within 10 minutes, or head out to the park, because there, everyday was a nice day. It is December now and I'm having fun doing some Christmas baking, because last year I didn't do much with a 1 month old baby. I look forward to 2008 with both joy and dread, as I know my sister is planning on moving very far away.

the way Jamie sees it 11/25-12/13

Some more updates on Jamie:
1. Jamie is doing very well in the potty training department. He can most always pee in the toilet as long as you remind him to go. I'm still waiting for the day when he goes by himself, although today he told me he had to go potty while we were in town. We're not quite there with #2. Sometimes he goes if he happens to need to right when you tell him to go potty. Other times he will wait until nap or bedtime when he has a diaper or pull-up on. But, it's getting better so I don't think it will be too long and we usually only go through 1 diaper and 1 pull-up each day, so it's a lot less money.
2. Just about the time when I think he's been such a good boy, he seems to become so rebellious and contrary. We're in this stage where he will say "no" to EVERY question whether he really means it or not. Then if it is something he wants, he'll quickly change his mind and then what am I to do? A few times I've been stern about keeping with his original answer. The problem is that oftentimes I ask him a question that's more rhetorical than anything like "do you want some milk?", because I already know he wants milk. So then I started to just do whatever it is, like just walk over with his milk but then he'll often go "no milk!", so I'll start to walk away and he'll go "want milk!". Enough to drive you crazy I tell you! We've been working on this, but it's hard to know in what direction to go.
Anyhow, I recently ordered a book called "Your 3 year old" because Jenn had loaned me her 2 year-old version (which I still have Jenn). The 2 year old one really helped me to just understand the 2 year-old mindset. It's not an instruction book on how to parent or how to discipline, it just about the psychology of a 2 (or 3) year old to help you understand where they're coming from better. For example, we found out that 2 year-olds hate change, which is probably why Jamie acted out more when we first moved to San Diego. I still have yet to read the 3 year-old one, so I should probably get it out because I am just not understanding my almost-3-year much at all these days.

11/25 (Jamie had just fallen off his chair and hit the wall and I was holding him on my lap)
me: "where did you get hurt?"
Jamie (bawling):" right dare!" (pointing to the wall)

12/3: "be you tay uptairs and cook stead." (maybe you stay upstairs and cook instead), after telling him I was going downstairs to exercise.
"cook right dare", pointing in the kitchen.

12/11
[me] "Go find some pants so you can come with me to the store."
[Jamie]"No, how-bout juss wear legs?"

12/11: "'top eating mom!", I was just finishing the leftover fruit from breakfast!

12/12: "I'm wuv chuggar (I love sugar)", as he's licking it off the counter and helping me make cookies.

12/13: Jamie is peeling a satsuma for him and Abby to share.
[Abby] "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" (translated: give me some now!)
[Jamie] "Abby, I'm have to peel it"