Game Night

Just a cute picture of my hottie husband and my adorable sister the other night playing Dominoes. We love the games baby! We are sort of board game enthusiasts. We are slightly competitive too, (okay so maybe it's mostly me) as many of you have seen. If any of you like to play games-we need to have game nights-I'll kick your fanny! (and if I don't, I'll probably go home pouting!)

Bekah Age 3

This is just a fun little page I did for Bekah's stats at the wonderful age of 3. It makes me happy, it's simple, it's cute and I love that picture of Bekah-even though she has candy in her hand, spills on her shirt and her tummy is sticking out-it is just so her ya know? Love it!

Journaling Reads-
Weight: 29 pounds
Height: 36.5 inches
Favorite Color: Purple
Favorite Food: Waffles
Favorite Movie: Beauty & the Beast
Favorite TV Show: Blues Clues
Best Friend: Aunt Babba
Favorite Place to go on a rainy day: OMSI
Favorite Place to go on a sunny day: The Beach
Favorite Place to go every day: Grandma Julies
Favorite Song: Monkeys Swinging in the Tree
Favorite Candy: Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
Favorite Phrase: "Are you kidding me?"

A Beary Happy Valentines Day

We had a great Valentines Day and I hope you all did too! Chad and I celebrated on Tuesday night so that we could share the actual holiday with the kids. Chad and I went to Jake's Craw fish-It is a super yummy seafood restaurant that has been here in Portland for 110 years-it's one of the top ten seafood restaurants in the nation. So you can imagine how yummy it was! We shared a crab cake appetizer with a ginger jalapeno sauce, mmmmm, I ordered a crab tortellini with a Gorgonzola cream sauce and Chad ordered salmon grilled on a cedar plank then we shared a slice of Jake's famous truffle cake. Heavenly! We shared gifts and had a really romantic evening together. Chad's theory on Valentines Day is that it is a girls holiday, a chance to spoil the girls in his life. So on Wednesday Bekah got a darling little necklace from him that says 'Daddy's Little Girl' on a heart with a little diamond. (Chad sent a matching one to Ryeleigh too). Bekah thinks she is so big! She gave Topher a good talking too about how special the necklace is and how he is not to touch it, it was very funny. Then we had to take her to the doctor for her 3 year check up, no fun, but she is healthy, except the doctor said she had a small heart murmur. I know it sounds bad, but the doctor said it is completely normal for a child of her age, and will grow out of it. I tell you what though, I about died when she first mentioned it! Then after the horrible immunization experience we went to the mall to Build A Bear and let Bekah go wild! She loved it! She picked out and stuffed a little puppy that she named Cassie,(I really don't know where she got that name, it was like she had it picked out for years, the way she just told us matter of fact that was her name). That dog has not left her side since, so I think the purchase was well worth it! Christopher did not get spoiled as he is not a girl , but he got a few extra squeezes and Chad and I both gave him probably a little more chocolate than was necessary! For dinner we made a big fancy dinner at our house and invited my brother and sister over. It was a great holiday, and I don't care how commercial everyone thinks it is- a holiday to remind us to completely focus on the people we love, another chance to dress up and eat at a fancy restaurant, another day to get spoiled by my husband, another day to get cute little handmade cards from my 3 year old, another day to eat yummy chocolates and see all the hearts, flowers and love in the world around us-I say thank you Hallmark!

Super Bowl Party

A little late on the posting I know-but we did go to a great Super Bowl party on Sunday! We went to our friends Bill & Dianna's and had lots of fun. Okay-so we had lots of food! The women for the most part stayed out of the football room and talked among themselves watching the kids play. Hayden, Bekah's little friend was there and they had a ball playing together. After the game was over the girls had Bill flipping them over and over. We all left a little earlier than usual-I think it was due to the amount of food we consumed-we were all very ready for bed by the time we left! Thanks you guys for the party, and good job Colts! (the colts did win right? the colts did play right? Just kidding, kind of...)

I'm a Piranha, I'm from the Amazon!

I know you all know what movie that is from! If not, shame! OMSI has a new exhibit on the Amazon and it is pretty neat. They have live pirahna's and a small sting ray on display, there is a life size anaconda replica that you can try to pick up-it's heavy, there is dress-up things and a dance stage where you can dance like the Amazonians, and much more. It was really fun, the kids really enjoyed it. Topher, (who is 11 months old today-did time fly, or is it just me?), his favorite part was the dancing, he was groovin! Bekah loved that too, but mostly she just couldn't wait to get upstairs and play in the sandbox! So after not too long of playing in the Amazon we went upstairs to the Science Playground. I know I have mentioned this before-but I love it! It's only for little kids and so there are no big kids being crazy. There is a ton to do too-we still haven't seen it all. Bekah spent the majority of the time in the sand box and Topher spent the majority of the time in the infant area with the balls. It was a fun afternoon, and we ended the day by going to Newport Bay restaraunt. We hadn't been there before, so we thought we would give it a try, we're glad we did. It was really yummy-the seafood was Oregon seafood and fresh, and the service was really great. Of course Christopher might have helped that-he flirted shamelessly with our waitress and every other woman who worked there, so our table got lots of attention from the staff. I'm not sure that they loved him so much after we left though-he left a mess any pig would be proud of!

Potty party at Chuck E Cheese

We had our little Potty Party for Bekah on Friday night. She thought she was quite the little super star. We did the whole Chuck E Cheese experience-even eating the pizza! Bekah loves pizza, and usually I would seriously advise against eating their pizza, but it wasn't bad at all last night!

We watched some of the show, which in my book was pretty pathetic-I swear they were more animated when I was a kid. They barely blinked their eyes and moved their hands-no wonder Christopher was terrified of them! It was his first time at the giant mouse's house, and he found the whole thing a little overwhelming. He liked some of the rides as long as Barney or any of the other huge characters were not on them. The only ride with a character on it that he would sit on was the Bob the Builder tractor. Christopher had quite the conversation with Bob about, I believe the size of Bob's nose, that is where all of Topher's energy was going during the conversation. Apparentley Bob wasn't budging about 'plastic' surgery, because Topher got bored about half way through the ride and decided to get off the tractor, luckily Grandma was there to catch him, or this would be quite the different story. Christopher did enjoy the games that he could hit the flashing buttons and bang a hammer, but for the most part I think he was just overwhelmed at the whole thing and ended up crashing hard.

Bekah on the other hand loved it! Every thing about it! She especially loved the spider stomp and the toddler play ground. She loved all the attention and that the whole night was about her and that she got to do whatever she wanted there with no limits. It was her perfect night. I think her favorite thing was posing for the camera-my favorite one is the one where she stood in front of the teletubby ride and showed me the sign for scared-that about sums up the teletubbies for us all cutie!

As for us big people, Chad, Grandma, Aunt Babba & I, we had our share of fun too.

My favorite part of going to places like this as I am sure you can guess is taking pictures and watching the kids have fun. That is not Chad's favorite part. Don't get me wrong, he will play with the kids and pose for the occasional picture, but he gets a hold of a cup of tokens and good luck getting him away from the games. He is worse than the kids-although he does win a lot of tickets for them. If there was a ski ball league, I think he'd join it. It's not just those games though-all of the arcade type games that you can pretend you are driving a fast car, snowmobile or helicopter-he's first in line, knocking over small children to get on them. We girls had fun too though, we played on that Dance Dance Revolution for way too long. It's hard! You have to try it, you will get quite the workout, and who doesn't like to jump up and down and act like a complete moron in front of a huge crowd of people? I know it is one of my favorite activities. Well it was a fun little party, and with nearly 400 tickets won, Bekah was able to get about 75 cents worth of really silly stuff! A real success in her book-now we can say we did the Chuck E Cheese thing this year right? Isn't that the limit???

One Small Step

Big news here! On the 17th Topher took his first steps on his own! He has been cruising at lightening speed around the furniture for some time now, but he decided it's time to venture out on his own. He won't take more than a couple steps at a time before he sits down and takes off at mock 90 crawling-probably just because he is faster at crawling. I know it will only be a few more days before I am chasing him through stores and parking lots. He's a mischief maker that's for sure! He is constantly into things and leaving huge messes in his wake. No electrical outlet, cupboard or drawer has been left undiscovered or unexplored! Boys are definitely different than girls!

Turning 3, means going pee...in the potty!

Yes folks it's true! Our little Bekah is potty trained! Good as can be! All it took was her turning three! It's exciting news here, now we just have to give her that potty party we promised her at Chuck E Cheese's! (We had to go and open our big mouth's didn't we?) Good job, big girl! We are so proud of you!

Bye and Bow Wow

We had to give up our faithful friend Bauer this Monday much to our disappointment. It was just not working out. He needed way more attention and room than we could give him. He is a big baby who wants to be played with 24-7 and we just had too much going on. We gave him to a really great couple with no kids and lots of time and room to spare for him. They changed his name to Banjo! We hope he has a long and happy life with them-Bow wow good friend bow wow.

Then we also said goodbye to Trae today! He left to bootcamp for the next 8 weeks. Trae, our prayers are with you for a safe return, and that time will pass by very quickly for your lonely wife here at home. Thanks for being who you are, and for your willingness to serve our country. We all appreciate you!

Dashing through the Snow

Tuesday, Jan. 16th

Wow! It actually snowed enough here to go sledding on Tuesday! It snowed about 3 inches in places. You Utahn's will laugh at this-the schools, banks and many businesses were closed for at least one if not the last 3 days because of "the extreme weather". People seriously shut themselves in! We were not among them. We were out playing in a park near our house throwing snowballs, sledding down a hill (no mountain by any means, but a hill nonetheless), and enjoying all the white! The roads were slippery for sure, as Chad proved by sliding into a curb and denting the wheel of our van, but it was not by any means anything like we got in Utah! Nothing was on TV for the entire day the first day except 'snow coverage'. It was humorous to us to see all the big commotion. But I'll tell you what-the kids, (and by kids, I mean us big kids, and Bekah too) had a blast!!! Bring on the snow baby!