Tubing Adventure

On Saturday we met up with my family at Kirk's Lodge on Mt. Spokane to take the kids snow tubing. It was a gorgeous day although FREEZING and the kids (and Kevin and Mark) had a blast sliding down the hill.

Jam-Packed Holiday

Life is a bit more back to normal this today after several days of holiday celebrations last week! We started the celebrating by having some of my college girlfriends, spouses and children over on Wednesday evening for a little Christmas cheer. It was fun catching up with some of the "out of towners" (Sally and family were in town from Illinois, Christy and family were visiting from Denver and Amanda and her fiance were in town from Seattle. It was also entertaining to get our kids together....Dylan was the oldest of the group that night, but the funny thing is they were ALL boys! Which made for an interesting time trying to snap a picture of the 5 of them!

Cooper, Andrew, Dylan, Braxton & Brennan

Julie +baby bump & Braxton, Me & Dylan, Sally & Cooper, Brianne & Brennan, Christy & Andrew, Camille & baby bump =)

On Christmas Eve we regrouped from the previous night's festivities and got ready to host my family for our Christmas Eve dinner. After attending the Children's Mass at church in the afternoon we were joined by my parents, and my brother Mark and sisters' families. A delicious Asian/Filipino meal was enjoyed by all and the kids got to open 1 present each-- which can get a little crazy with 6 boys!

The boys eating dinner....we fed them first so we could enjoy our meal!

Christmas morning we spent time just the three of us opening gifts and discovering all that Santa brought Dylan. He was beyond excited this year! My favorite line from the day was when he discovered his Batman Cave that Santa brought him under the tree he exclaimed "Yes! I've been wanting and waiting for this my WHOLE life!" We visited my sister's house and had breakfast at my parents' before venturing down to Colfax to celebrate with Kevin's family where Dylan was spoiled even further by his grandma and grandpa Lee. He's a lucky kid for sure!

Christmas Cheer

Dylan had his first holiday program at school last Thursday and did fantastic! I was so nervous that he would lose his nerve and either refuse to get up on the stage or freeze once he was up there....but to my surprise he stood front and center and sang his little heart out. The PreK-3(year-olds) class sang "Children Go Where I Sent Thee" a song I had never heard before but was so cute in their tiny little voices. We were fortunate enough to have front row seats thanks to Dylan's teacher who had bought the front row at the school auction last year which made it easy to snap pictures and get a great video of the performance (however we used our dvd camera so I'm not technically savvy enough to upload it).
I'm so happy we've made the choice to send him to the Catholic school this year. He's learned so much about the true meaning of Christmas and the reasons for the many traditions associated with Christmas. Last week when opening Christmas cards I showed him the picture on the front of one and he exclaimed "Mommy it's Bethlehem! See there's the star the shepherds saw and the stable where Jesus was born!" So precious!


Now we're happily enjoying our Winter Vacation which includes Kevin who took the whole week off of work to hang out with us. This is our first year that we haven't had to travel over the pass to come to Spokane/Colfax so we are enjoying our time at home and spending some family time together-- as soon as Kevin finishes his "to do list".

Brrrr

We woke up to our first "real" snowfall of the year today-- about 5 inches total. Dylan and I were thrilled to see it but my excitement soon faded when I realized I would need to shovel our big driveway before taking Dylan to school. I got enough done to get my car out and returned to finish it when our nice neighbor came over with his snowblower to finish the job. He is my new favorite person! Needless to say I think I'll have Kevin getting up early for work so that I can have some help out there next time. Dylan had a fun afternoon playing with the next door neighbors in the yard and I was happy sipping some hot chocolate while baking cookies and watching from the kitchen. Snow definitely makes me appreciate my warm cozy house.

Grandma Pays Up

As mentioned in the previous post Kevin's mom had bribed Dylan to sit on Santa's lap this year by promising to take him to Chuck E. Cheese when he did....on Sunday she made good on her side of the bargain. Dylan of course wanted to bring along his favorite playmates to join him so cousins Evan and Dominic got to go too. I'm told they had lots of fun! Kevin and I used the time alone to make a trip to Costco and get a little more Christmas shopping done-- I have no desire to go to Chuck E. Cheese!
Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the fun day!

Santa Pictures

Dylan with Santa 2006 (9 months)

Dylan and Santa 2009 (3 1/2 years)

Originally we had planned to have Dylan's picture taken with Santa each Christmas....we started out great and had a successful trip his first year (he was 9 months old) but for the past two Christmas seasons we completely struck out on this goal.....our kid would not go near Santa let alone sit on his lap and take a picture. This year we started the campaign for a Santa picture early and resorted to some good old-fashioned bribery thanks to Grandma Lee who told Dylan if he sits on Santa's lap she'll take him to Chuck E. Cheese. Sunday was the big day- after church and brunch we headed downtown to Riverpark Square to see Santa and after a 2 minute wait in line (gotta LOVE Spokane for not being so crazy busy everywhere like Seattle) Dylan was up for his turn. Although he seemed a little unsure at first Santa actually made him giggle and we got a great picture. Success!

Baby Update

Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment to check up on our little peanut. The last appointment was a month ago when we had an early ultrasound done at 7 weeks at which time we were able to see the heartbeat and tiny little being growing inside me. At the appointment neither the nurse or the OB was able to locate baby's heartbeat which was a bit concerning considering that I am nearly 12 weeks along now and the fact that I've had some pretty uncomfortable cramping the past couple of weeks (but thankfully no spotting)....so it was decided that I should go ahead and have another ultrasound just to be sure. Kevin was able to leave work and join me for the appointment since I was feeling more than a little uneasy and nervous. Luckily the ultrasound tech found a healthy heartbeat right away and also the culprit of why the doctor and nurse couldn't locate it with the doppler device-- apparently my uterus tips pretty far back towards my backbone which makes it difficult to find a heartbeat early on in the pregnancy. Phew! To make a long story short Baby Lee looks just perfect and has grown A LOT since it's last pictures. He or She was busy jumping around in there and moving it's arms and legs and reassured us that everything is going along fine. By the way, I'm almost entirely convinced it is another boy....it already looks rambunctious!
On another note I am finally feeling somewhat better and getting some relief from the nausea I have been experiencing. I've been able to wean myself off the medication that I was taking and although I typically still start my day with a quick vomiting session I am able to rally past it and keep food down without the medicine. Now if I could just get some energy back to keep up with my busy 3 year old I'd be ecstatic!

Giving Thanks

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration this year with Kevin's immediate family. On Wednesday Robyn and Mike, Erick and Amy and Mom and Dad came up to start the holiday. Dylan was so excited to have them all at their house-- so many people to play with! It was great having everyone under one roof for a couple of days that included lots of eating, games, laughter and fun. It's been a long time since we've had some quality time all together so we were especially thankful that everyone was able to join us this year and also happy to have our new home to host them all in.

Kevin, Mike, Erick, Sid

Jen, Robyn, Amy, Darlene

Dylan

Sitting down to the feast.

Playing "majong" Playing with Amy

Boxing Uncle Mike on the wii

Just Imagine

One of my very favorite things about the age that Dylan is right now is his ever developing imagination. There's something so amazing about a child's ability to come up with ideas for play and entertainment...sadly we lose this as we get older. One of Dylan's funniest imagination creations is his imaginary friend "Darnit". In the late summer Dylan told me he met Darnit while climbing a tree and that he is his naughty cousin. A lot of times when there is a mess in his playroom and it's time to clean up he'll claim that "Darnit made that mess and he wouldn't clean it up!" How convenient is that?
Here are some pics of some of Dylan's creative play. I can't wait to see what he'll think of next!

Roasting a marshmallow in front of the gas fireplace. After this picture he proceeded to find a shishkabob skewer to hold the mini marshmallow on so it was more like camping.

These are Dylan and Dom's "cabins" they made out of wardrobe boxes. Those two boxes have been one of his favorite toys since we moved in....perfect for tunnels, space ships, restaurants, etc.

Good News!

The people who know me well, are well aware of the fact that I am pretty terrible at keeping secrets...especially when it's something as exciting as HAVING ANOTHER BABY!! Yes, that's right, Dylan is FINALLY going to be a big brother in June 2010! We are pretty much over the moon happy right now, and with an early ultrasound a couple of weeks ago showing the little "peanut" and it's tiny little heartbeat I feel more and more secure in the fact that this is actually happening. Not to mention the fact that I have been so terribly sick this time around. It got so bad a little over a week ago that I had to get on anti-nausea medication so that I could keep something down, but thanks to the miracle drug I'm happily feeling much better. Other than that I've had the typcial first trimester symptoms-- low energy, extreme hunger and the desire for all that is unhealthy, and big boobs. =) I'm not complaining though because this is definitely something we've been hoping and praying for for some time now.
I'm currently a little over 9 weeks along so we've got a long haul to go. We told Dylan the good news a couple of weeks ago after the ultrasound and he has shown nothing but enthusiasm. I have no doubt that he will be a fantastic big brother and a good helper to mommy. He's already been taking care of me when I've been sick. Such a sweet boy! I'm so glad that he is going to have a sibling and can't wait to meet him or her in 6 1/2 months!

Birthday Celebrations

This past week I celebrated my 31st birthday. It's a bit crazy to think I'm officially in my thirties, but I love birthdays and really don't care! I enjoyed all my birthday celebrations including dinner out with Kevin and Dylan, a family dinner and cake that my sister made at her home, a birthday lunch out with my parents, a visit from Kevin's sister and her husband, and an evening out with friends at the Shogun restaurant on Saturday night. Needless to say my pants are a bit tighter as I write this today. I also got some wonderful gifts including a new flat screen for our bedroom (LOVE IT!) and my very sweet parents gave me their piano which is special for so many reasons- I'm already practicing all of my holiday music selections and teaching Dylan the words to some Christmas carols.
So another year down and a great time to remind myself how very lucky I am for all my blessings! Cheers!

The crew at my birthday dinner at Shogun.

Brianne, Camille, Kalie and Jen

Saki bombs anyone?

Pretty sure Kevin was wishing he had drank more saki.

Halloween 2009

Considering that Dylan has been asking "Is it Halloween yet?" for the past 2 months I had a pretty good feeling that he would be enjoying all of the Halloween celebrations. It was quite the process for Dylan to decide what he was going to dress up as this year. I guess my days of picking out cute little costumes are over and we have forged ahead to cartoon characters and super heroes. After much deliberation which included making an organized list with daddy, Dylan finally opted to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (I laugh because these were popular when I was younger) He was Leonardo to be exact and was perfectly happy with his choice.
We started off celebrating with his Preschool friends on Friday morning. I volunteered along with several other moms to stay and help with the festivities which included a costume parade through the rest of the classrooms...only the preschoolers get to do this so the older kids (K-8) loved seeing the little ones. Back in his classroom there were Halloween crafts, candy sorting activities and the kids got to make their own little pizzas.
On Saturday Kevin's parents drove up for the afternoon/evening and we had our nephew Dominic over to trick or treat with Dylan and some of our neighborhood friends. We also discovered that our new neighborhood is a mecca for trick-or-treaters. I was scared we were going to run out of candy and we had bought A LOT!

Homecoming '09

Last weekend we headed south to the Palouse to celebrate WSU Homecoming in Pullman. The drive down on Saturday morning was picture perfect- In fact I wish I had made Kevin pull over to take one, but you'll have to take my word for it. I know that anyone who has lived in Pullman can attest to how awesome a crisp fall day is there.
Because it was so cold though, Dylan opted to spend the day at Grandma and Grandpa Lee's in Colfax where he spent the day being spoiled silly and more importantly learning to use some nerf weaponry. He certainly loves his time there!


Kevin and I had a blast hanging out with our friends the McCarry's and Galloways....notice I'm not mentioning the actual game. It certainly was not the highlight of the trip and we left after half-time to spare ourselves the pain. A few hours smooshed in the Coug was all we needed to forget it!

Falling into Fall

It's been a busy couple of weeks around here....hence the lack of blog updates (and pictures).
We did manage to witness the Cougs win in Pullman a couple of weeks ago-- Dylan's first time at Martin Stadium! I'd say he's a good luck charm! He had a good time at the game but still wouldn't go near Butch. He says he'll talk to him when he's older.


On the 21st I ended up starting a long-term substitute position for a first grade class at the school where I completed my student teaching 8 years ago. I am actually their second long-term sub as the first one didn't last long. Needless to say I have been BUSY! This group is definitely a little more than I bargained for, but I take solace in the fact that I'll only have a couple of weeks before I am done. I have defnitely gotten out of the habit of working full-time! It's also been an adjustment for Dylan who has started the Educare (extended day) program at his school. It's really breaking us in for his school years as I have to pack him a lunch each day.....a peanut butter and honey sandwich on white bread without crust is now a staple. I'm happy to say that he has done great- he seems to be thriving in the school enviroment and has made some new friends. He does appreciate the special days with Grammy when she is able to pick him up after pre-school.

We are looking forward to a month full of weekends at home and enjoying these beautiful fall days! I just love this time of year!!

Our Drinking Team....

...definitely has a Football Problem. I'm pretty sure most Cougs know what I'm talking about, especially if they witnessed the game in Seattle last weekend. Despite our lack of football talent, we definitely know how to have a good time and enjoyed the day anyway! It's always so fun to see so many Cougs walking around Seattle and spending time with old friends is always the best part of Cougar Football games! Here's to what looks like a very LONG season!

While we enjoyed our weekend with friends in Seattle, Dylan was spoiled by his Grandma and Grandpa Lee in Colfax. They were nice enough to come pick him up on Friday afternoon and his weekend with them included a Colfax High School football game on Friday night, two trips to the Whitman County Fair on Saturday and I'm sure A LOT of candy and special treats.
On a side note, this year Grandma entered several of Dylan's "projects" into the fair and he won 8 blue ribbons and a "Best in Show" award for his lego creation!
He certainly loves his time with Grandma and Grandpa!!

Giant tractors are always a hit with boys.

Hanging out with Kevin's cousin Rachel.

Posing next to his prize winning legos (please note the candy)