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Hooray - Lily has moved into her "big girl" room! The transition was surprisingly easy and now that she is in her new space, the nursery is empty and waiting for a special little boy or girl to move on in :)

This January is flying by! We're now taking swim lessons every weekend (indoor, of course) and it's been great seeing Lily take to the water. Of course she is splashing more than swimming, but at 2 it's all about having a good time. Of course her favorite is sitting in the hot tub...all 12 toddlers and their parents pile in to warm up at the lesson. She loves it and I sit and pray that all the swim diapers do their job!

Happy belated holidays! We got lots of snow, hosted a bunch of relatives and loved every minute of it. We're super excited to see what 2009 brings and wish everyone a very happy New Year!!!

It's holiday party time!! On Saturday the three of us went to tumbling class (Lily LOVES to hang from rings and jump on the trampoline) and then after lunch and naptime we went to a holiday craft party at Julie's friend Christa's house. Christa and her mom had a tradition of making fun tree ornament crafts when she was growing up and now that she has a 3-year-old it's her turn to keep the tradition going. Lily had a blast making little wreathes with bells, being chased by the older kids, and blowing bubbles on the deck.

On the way home we took a detour around our neighborhood to see all the houses that are now lit up. Our neighborhood gets written up in the Seattle Times every year and with good reason - we were FLOORED by how people go all-out. Lily kept saying "wooooooow!" and "I like it! I like it!". The next clear night we'll take her around in her red wagon with some cocoa so she can enjoy close up. So glad we moved here :)

Is it possible Thanksgiving has already come and gone and Christmas is around the corner??? We hope everyone had a fun, happy and filling Turkey day. This year we hosted at our house, which meant a house full of friends and family, way too much food, happy dogs getting "accidentally" dropped scraps and a huge pile of dishes. Chris pulled a super-husband move and had the whole mess cleaned up and cinamon rolls baked before anyone had woken up the next morning - how lucky are we?!

This weekend we also got our tree, which Lily helped decorate for the first time. Wasn't so much decorating as removing items, running around with them and tossing them back on before removing another, running around with it...you get the idea. Needless to say all the lower ornaments are tossable.

So sad it's Monday! Lily was extra spoiled this weekend having her Auntie Jenn and Uncle Jay in town. They brought their 4 month old Chihuahua puppy Ophelia with them and Lily was THRILLED to have a tiny pup to chase around the house. Jenn came up to be on Julie's Winter Pineapple Classic team on Sunday. The Pineapple Classic is an annual fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society - a 5k obstacle course involving pineapples, mud and a certain amount of embarrassment. Julie and Jenn were joined by Aunties Katie and Mary while Lily and the 4 husbands cheered from the sidelines. A few bruises, but a great time.

Happy Halloween!!! It was quite the night for our little family. We offered to host a block party for the other families with little ones and happily they all accepted. Wow do we have a lot of little ones! I didn't realize until they were all over that there are 10 children aged 3 and under just on our block alone! 3 babies...3 toddlers...2 2-year-olds...and 2 3-year-olds. The kids all get along great and the parents are all fun, interesting people. Of course the highlight for me was Chris in his Man In The Yellow Hat costume. Seriously the most ridiculous outfit EVER...loose in some places, tight in others, made of unbreathable nylon and styrofoam...I laughed everytime I saw him. But how great a dad is he to wear it for his Curious George obssessed little girl??

Wow - our family had a big weekend! Friday is was the Pumpkin Prowl at the Woodland Park Zoo with our friend Mardel and her family. Mardel's daughter Leah was adopted 2 months before we adopted Lily and it has been neat seeing the girls grow up together and become pals. The people at the zoo went all out - it looked amazing!

Saturday we went to tumbling class in the morning and a playdate in the afternoon (Lily's friend Lila - they are crazy about each other!). This morning we went out to Remlinger Farms for the annual fall harvest. Lily looooved riding the train, feeding the sheep and picking out another pumpkin. She was definitely not into the bounce-house or the huge slide - something to look forward to next year!

We love making holidays fun and magical for Lily and can't wait to share the fun with another little one :)

Hello and thanks for checking out our journal! We'll try to post often to give you a sense of what life is like in our family.

This past weekend was GREAT. Auntie Lisa was up from Santa Monica for Lily's Halloween-themed 2nd birthday. We had seven 2-year-olds running around the house and we're happy to say they all played and shared well - quite impressive at this age! The highlight was cookie decorating: the kids had a blast covering ghost, pumpkin and bat cookies with sprinkles, coconut flakes, chocolate chips and candy corns. It was pretty messy, but our dog Paco happily volunteered to clean what had dropped on the floor when the kids were all done.