My Amazing Mom!

I just have to brag about my mom for a minute. I can't say enough about how wonderful I think she is. She is smart, talented, a wonderful mom and grandma. She is also super-crafty in all things. Something I aspire to but never seem to get the hang of. This Christmas she went crazy making gifts for everyone and we LOVE all of the things she made. I just had to show off a few of them. These matching aprons she made for the girls and me have made me so happy. I've never felt so cute while cooking and the girls are really motivated now to help out in the kitchen, which is good and bad :)

Here are the darling cupcake outfits she made for the girls. They love them and would wear them every day if I would let them. Thanks Grandma, we love it all!

Related?

I have been looking at pictures of the girls when they were babies and I'm thinking our kids are all related, whadya think?

Davis 4 months

Emma 2 months

Emma 2 months

Abby 2 months

Abby 2 months

I can't believe they were ever this little!

It goes on and on!

Yesterday . . . 

Justin was telling the girls all about Helen Keller (you know, he's really into eyes these days). So he gets done explaining all it and Abby says:

"I wish Jesus would have been there to, like, put some mud on her eyes or something."

Riding in the car to the zoo on Saturday:

"Mom, don't you just love those days when you're with your whole family, the sun is shining and everything just feels fresh and new and happy?" I sure do!

A few more Abby quotes!

I'm sorry, she just cracks me up. These are my favorite from today. 

 - "Mom thanks so much for the popsicle, you are the best mommy ever. I mean, where did you even get these, they're not even in season."

- (conversation with Justin after getting his hair cut) 

Justin to Lanie: "The problem isn't the hair cut, it's the receding hairline."

Abby: "I don't want your hair to fall out."

Justin: "Well, it is. It's all coming out."

Abby: "Well, pray then!"

If only it were that easy . . . 

 

Nice Try!

On Saturday morning we were all sitting around the table, eating our pancakes and divvying (how in the world do you spell that word anyway?) up our Saturday morning chores. Abby gets her all-too-sweet look on her face, cocks her head and says, "I have an idea Mommy. How about for our chores Emma and I will play so so sweetly and quietly in our room and won't disturb you and Daddy at all while you clean." Nice Try Abby, it was very tempting!

There's Something about Davis!

I know, I know, I have been posting kid photos in excess lately. I can't help it. I'm pretty into this little guy and I just can't keep myself from sharing him. Hopefully soon we will have a really exciting adventure to blog about. Hopefully it will not involve one of our cars and fire. Anyway, here are some photos of the little big man at almost 4 months. 

Christmas Fun!

I knew that eventually I would get around to posting a few Christmas pictures. I can't believe how few we took this year. We decided to finally break out the video camera again so we do have quite a bit of Christmas video. Davis, on the other hand, is greatly under-represented. He was "snug in his bed" through most of the Christmas festivities. He did show his face long enough to get his Christmas Eve pajamas though. Justin's family always did Christmas Eve PJs and my family always does a Christmas Eve ornament. So we have continued each of those traditions and the girls were so happy to get their PJs and ornament this year. Since they love bugs so much, we got Abby a grasshopper and Emma a frog for their ornament, they were thrilled. Another tradition we want to carry on is the Christmas Eve seafood extravaganza that the Wilkinsons always have. Since  we didn't go to Utah this year for Christmas, we did our own Christmas Eve feast with all of our favorite foods: king crab legs, shrimp, artichokes and oysters (even the girls tried their first oyster this year). We made sure to decorate the sugar cookies for Santa (he LOVES sugar cookies and we always have to leave out a lot for him. )

Look at this fat happy baby! He loves Christmas!

The girls showing off their pj's and ornaments.

Getting in a little 'Twas the night before Christmas before they head off to bed.

Mmmmm!

The all-important sugar cookies.

The Great Portland Storm

We had a crazy storm up here in Portland over the Christmas holiday. Everything literally shut down for weeks. Schools were closed for a week, church was canceled for 2 weeks, the roads were insane and I literally didn't even leave the house for 2 weeks except to play in the snow and to venture to the grocery store one night only to realize that I couldn't push the cart through the parking lot. So what did we do for 2 weeks in the house. . . 

We at ate a lot of this (these were supposed to be friends/neighbors gifts that were rendered undeliverable due to the weather, so eventually disappeared (not quite sure how that happened:)

We got crafty!

We hauled away bits of the ginormous tree that literally uprooted from our front yard on Christmas Eve and fell across the street.

We marveled at the inch-thick ice that developed overnight on top of the already 6 inches of snow.

And we played and played and played in the snow and we got our "white Christmas" even though we weren't in Utah this year. It was perfect!

Farewell Old Friend!

For those of you who have been with us through the drama of the Jeep over the past 8 years of our marriage, you will really appreciate this. For those of you who haven't, it's still a good story. We have loved our Jeep. It has seen us through many camping, biking, and family road trips. It's taken us to the top of Mt. Logan and across the country to San Francisco and Portland. It's weathered the winter storms over the Sierra Nevadas. It even survived the Portland Arctic Blast of '08 and narrowly escaped the tree that fell in our front yard only a few short weeks ago. The Jeep has also been towed at least 4 times since we moved to Portland a year and a half ago. It's been in mechanic shops all over the west coast. It has squeaked and screamed and smoked it's way through life. But it has ever remained faithful until the fateful day of January 9, 2009 when it went out in a blaze of glory. 

Justin drove it to work on Friday morning. All was well. I met him Friday night for a work party and when we left the party that evening, we were met with this. (see below) Between the time Justin left the Jeep at 7:00 a.m. and returned at 8:30 p.m. an electrical fire had all but consumed the interior of the Jeep. Ah, how fitting. The best part is that Justin looked at me later that night and said those all too common words, "I think we can fix it!" Not this time. It is on it's way to the U-Pull it junkyard where it will finally be laid to rest, never to be fixed again . Goodbye old friend, you will be missed . . . sort of.

Davis at 10 weeks!

Our little guy is growing up so fast! He is such a chubby happy baby, we are all pretty happy just staring at him all day. The girls are completely obsessed with him and I get in trouble with them if I let him cry for even a minute. He's going to be so spoiled but we are having a lot of fun doing it! 

Secrets!

So, we are pretty into surprises in our house. This comes from Justin. I love surprises but I can never wait for them and I was always a "peeker" growing up. The girls love to be surprised and for the past 2 years have not asked for anything for Christmas. They say they will love whatever Santa wants to bring them. I love that about them. They do always love whatever Santa brings them. This year though has brought a new challenge. When we asked Emma what she wanted for Christmas she told us that she wants us to be surprised and that's why she is only telling Santa what she wants. Hmmmm . . . 

A few recent favorites . . .

I don't know if I've formally introduced Ellie the Elephant and Lily the Lamb on this blog yet. They are our other 2 children. The girls have had them since they were born. They fix "owies", help induce slumber, and love to be dressed up. 

The girls at the Sauvie Island pumpkin patch. Have I mentioned before how much I love Halloween and pumpkin patches. I know it's almost Christmas but I'm a few months behind in my life these days. I also love Christmas but more of that to come in a few months :)

Justin and Emma at Mt. St. Helens. 

Abby pulling around the cousins. 

Poor Davis, he doesn't have a chance in this house of girls. I just noticed that he's even wearing a gown to top it all off. What a sport. (This one is mostly for you Mikey.)

What I am NOT missing right now . . .

I am thankful for a lot of things this holiday season and not looking like this anymore is one of them. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind being pregnant that much, I actually even enjoy it a little. But I just got done scrubbing the tub and I didn't have to lie sideways on the edge of the tub to get to the hard to reach spots, I didn't get bleach all over my belly and I wasn't even out of breath when I got done. Like I said, much to be grateful for. And, Davis is so much cuter "out" than "in". 

Quote of the Day!

The other day the girls were watching a Christmas movie and I brought them each a bowl of popcorn. They asked if they could have some water too. I was leaving the room to get it and Abby said:

"Mom, you're pretty much like our servant, huh?"

Glad someone noticed.

Soccer Pics!

So I am playing catch up with all of our pictures. There has been so much going on and I haven't posted about any of it! I just realized that I never even put the girls "first day of school pictures on here". Tragedy :) Anyway, I will try to get caught up slowly but surely. Here are some of Abby's soccer pictures. She is a cute little soccer player for sure. She's excited for next year when she won't have to play with the ball-hog boys anymore! 

Our Halloween Bugs!

We had such a great Halloween with our little "bugs"! Davis didn't even know he had left the house, let alone trick or treated for a few hours. He was asleep when we put him in his caterpillar costume and was still asleep when we got home and took him out of it. At least we have the pictures he can see one day!

Here's the fam out for some candy gettin'!

The kiddos!

Ahhh, what a life!

The Butterfly Costume!

These are the girls "harvest skirts" that I made them.

Thank Goodness for Family!

Okay, it's been a little while since I posted. Between figuring out 3 kids and having major computer drama, it's been a little tough to get on here. But I needed to give a little tribute to our amazing family. My mom was the BIGGEST help the first two weeks of Davis' life. She not only took over all of the cooking and cleaning and getting my girls to school and doing homework with Abby and any other thing that needed to be done, she also made the totally amazing baby bedding for Davis. (see below). Have you ever seen anything cuter? I am so in love with it. And of course, the picture doesn't even do it justice. Thanks Mom!

Then my Dad came and met my mom here for a week. He was a huge help getting the girls to and from school and showing them funny things on the computer. He also brought the biggest banana squash I have ever seen, we are still eating it and it is SO good! (see behind my mom in the above picture).

After my parents left we were lucky enought to have Justin's family out here for a week. Justin took a few days off work and we had so much fun with them. When I wasn't feeling up for fun, they took the girls for the day and I just got to rest with my little one. I will have pictures of that soon (right Mikey?).

Thank you, thank you to all of our family and friends that have helped out with the girls and with meals and gifts and everything. We are so so blessed and we love you all so much!