Santa Pics

So, as I mentioned below, Natalie is not a Santa fan this year. I figured it wouldn't happen and was so bummed out at the thought of missing one year because I want to have a Santa picture for every year of my children's lives. We were at the Factoria mall one day with no intention of getting a Santa pic. I didn't even know they had a Santa. Well, we walked by and there was no line so I figured, what the hey. I will see what happens. We walked to the side of the display to see Santa and talk to him. He was great. He was waving and talking and pointing things out. She wasn't having it. She was giving me the death grip and was crying. I would tell her to say hi, or wave and she wouldn't do it. She just cried. We then walked up to him and he tried to give her a high 5 and she wouldn't do it. So....we left. After we went to Target, we walked by him again and thought, maybe she will warm up to him now. Nope. She started crying when she say him, so we went home. The next day we swung by the mall again, and walked by Santa. He saw her and waved, remembering who she was and to my surprise she waved and said "hi Santa!" so I stopped and talked to him and she talked back.....score! She even gave him a high 5. I told her she would get candy if she sat on his lap. As if I was asking too much she said "NO!" so I asked her to stand by him and set her down and she clung to my shoulders. So the smart lady who worked there grabbed a bench and put it in between us and told Natalie to sit down and mommy would be right behind her and then the lady mouthed to me to hide. So I did. I asked her when I could pick up the picture and she said it was printing right then. The picture turned out great! She smiled big and everything. I wished she was dressed up for the Santa picture, but hey, I will take this! If you look close you can see my shoulder and knee behind the bench. I am including her 2 other Santa photos. Can you believe how much they grow in a year!? Last years' was my favorite. Sadly enough. Why is it the poor pathetic screaming kid Santa pics are the best? My poor baby was screaming, crying and trying to reach out for her mommy to protect her from this big scary man in red and I am standing there going "smile hunny!". Child abuse....but, mission accomplished! I got the picture! ;)

SNOW!!!!!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE snow days!!! I am like a little kid again when it snows. And today, wow.....look how much snow we have....in BELLEVUE!! I love it! It is that white, powdery, fluffy, AWESOME snow! Not that icy, dirty, gross snow. I haven't seen this much snow here since we got a foot in 89. I love this. We aren't supposed to get above freezing for a week so this should last a long time and it's supposed to snow Mon-Wed, but you know how those reports change. They predicted this HUGE snow storm yesterday and all the school districts cancelled school, for nothing in Seattle, Kirkland and Bellevue. It missed us, but this today was not predicted. It's still snowing. It started at 5am and it is 4pm now and still going. I hope we have a white Christmas. How cool would that be? I don't think we have ever had a white Christmas since I have been born, and if so, I don't remember it.

Leavenworth!

We got back on Monday from our annual Leavenworth trip. We got to stay in the same two cabins we stayed in last year. We were bummed because up until a day before we got there, there was no snow yet in the mountains. None, zip, zilch. And the day we went there, it started dumping. We had about a foot there. I couldn't image going to the mountains, in the winter, with no snow. We had such a great time and Natalie was a doll. We got to go into town to shop twice. Natalie talked to Santa too! She is scared to death of him. She wouldn't sit on his lap for a picture this year. We ended up getting a picture but...well, I will save that for another post, with the picture. Anyway, there was a santa walking around in Leavenworth. We went to talk and she wasn't having it. She saw he was handing out candy canes, but since she wouldn't talk to him and just cried, she didn't get a candy cane. After we left him she asked for a candy cane and said "Look, Natalie's not crying" so we went back to him and it probably was hard as heck for her, but she talked to him and shook his hand and got her candy cane, which she ate all of in seconds. It was cold as snot there too!! In the teens. We we surprised to come home to the same temperature AND as we left we turned off the heat because you don't leave the heat on when you're gone, right? WRONG! We came home to a STONE cold house. It took literally a good 24 hours just to get to 64 degrees. We were miserable! Not fun! We went for a walk every day we were there with everyone. The cabins are on River Road which is across the street from the Wenatchee River. It was a neat walk down the road watching the river and seeing all the cabins. I love cabins. They are so charming and just have such a cozy feel. Anyway...here are pics from our trip.

Here is one of the cabins. This is not the one we stayed in. I took a picture of the one we stayed in but it didn't turn out and I meant to take another one, but forgot.

Here is Natalie playing outside with her cousin Mak

Dan was playing outside with Natalie and Aidan. We scared the crap out of Aidan. Didn't mean to scare him that bad. When I cam eout and was walking down the street, Dan said "who's that?" and I growled and Dan, just joking started running and Aidan started screaming. Poor guy.

Deer in the headlights....having too much fun!

Natalie and I playing in the snow

All bundled and ready to go outside

Natalie and Mak going to town

Natalie and Mak about to sled down the hill. This was moments after I fell like a dork right on my arse.

Of course that girl walks right in front of my camera.....

Mak, Jena pulling Natalie and Dan in town

She loved being pulled in the sled

This is on one of our walks down the road

Looks like she's going real fast....

She took her gloves off and got them wet so she wore Dan's. It looks funny to see her wearing those big gloves

Here is Abby in the sled on our walk

Here's the group, minus me because I am taking the picture. Beth, Barb, Abby, Aidan, Dan, Natalie, Jay, Shayna, Wes and Barak

One happy family. Notice Dan is flipping off the camera. Little turd....

I love this picture. So cute! Dan, Natalie and Shayna

Jay, Barb, Aidan and Abby

Beth, Wes, Shayna and Barak

Another one of us.

Look closely.....she is sticking out her tongue trying to catch snowflakes...

She loved to lay in the sled

Wes, Shayna and Barak

Khiara and Andy's th Birthday Party!

Today Natalie and I went to Khiara and Andy's 5th Birthday party. Khiara and Andy are Natalie's buddies. Khiara is Shaya's, Natalie's nanny, daughter and Andy is Shaya's nephew who Shaya watches during the week too. We had a lot of fun! They played games and ate cupcakes. Some of the cupcakes had red frosting on them and the kids who had those looked like clowns because they got red all over their face. Everytime Natalie took a bite, she would wipe her mouth with her hand, but it was just smearing it all over her face. Too funny. They had lots of fun and ran around and wore themselves out. I am sitting in the bathroom right now as I type this, watching Natalie taking a bath and she is already telling me she is ready to go to bed. Happy birthday Khiara and Andy! Thank you for the fun party!!

Isn't she cute? This is Natalie's other buddy. Shaya's other daughter Sydney.

Having too much fun with the balloons

Learning how to play the game

Playing the game with her team. The "red" team....

Singing Happy Birthday to Kiki and Andy

Khiara's red frosting face

See....she looks like a clown!

Yummy!

Alli's red frosting face...

Running around playing

Playing with Sydney

Christmas Cookies and other pictures...

I found these great cookies at Safeway the other day. They are pre-frosted cookies with a design on it. And then they give you 9 different color food coloring pens to color the pictures. It was lots of fun!

She wanted to eat it so bad, but I made her pose for a picture with them first.

Here's the finished product.

Her mouth got stained green from the cookies


I was decorating the house yesterday and Natalie was playing in her room. I almost died laughing when she came out to show me what she had done. She put Mr. Potato head's glasses and hat on and even put his ear in her ear. Such a goofball! I love this kid!

I always knew Natalie was going to be a fort kid. You know...kids who always make forts out of any place they can find? I used to do that all the time when I was little. Natalie always flips boxes over and hid under them and she has this shoe shelf in her room and she can contort her way into the shelf and has us put a blanket over it. Well, today, she discovered under the table is a pretty cool place to hang out. She convinced Dan to go under there with her too. Here is a picture of them hanging out.