Razzle

Razzle arrived from the North Pole on December 1st to help us get ready for Christmas.  She brought a gift for Charli and Claire and has been quite a silly little elf since she arrived.  Here are a few of her shenanigans.

tea party with some friends

building a snowy log cabin with Claire's licoln logs

decorating our house with snowflakes

she makes messes sometimes...

covered our tree in candy canes!

enjoyed popcorn, candy and a movie

read all of our christmas books

got a little bit thirsty

thirsty again...

Family Pictures

My talented brother, Brooks, whom I have raved about in the past, outdid himself again taking our family pictures in hopes of getting a good Christmas card photo.  Here are a few of my favs...

Claire

Claire has been the talk of so many conversations lately.  She has been sick for 3 weeks with a stomach virus that she just cannot kick.  I cannot tell you how many blowouts and awful diapers we have changed.  It will definitely be a memorable time of her life for me.  Despite her continued illness she is exploding with new abilities. Just in the last two weeks she has learned to crawl on her knees, pull up to her feet, and even started to take a few steps cruising around her favorite piece of furniture, the ottoman.  Not only has she developed her physical skills, she has cut 4 new teeth and is now wearing an 18 month size in most clothes.  Her list of words and signs is growing daily.

Words she says:
Ball (sounds like BAWWW) (her fav word and toy)
Mama
Dada or Da-deeeee
Sissy
Kitty-Cat (ti-ta)
Cup (pup)
Duck (her lovie)
Pop (my dad)
Yummy
Apple
Stick
Woof
Ut-Oh
Diaper


Signs:
Thank you
Please
More
Help
Eat
All Done
Get Out
- the motions to Itsy Bitsy Spider
- the motions to Happy and You Know it
Folds her hands when we pray

She's a busy girl, loves people, waves at everyone she knows and doesn't know and daily brings joy to our lives.  She's more stubborn than her big sister and takes a harder spank than Charli ever has to get through to her. (Charli wilts at the thought of our displeasure or impending punishment.) Claire defies our instruction already!  Boy, are they different!  Claire also takes falls, bumps, and bruises much better than Charli... maybe her pain tolerance is higher? Claire sleeps less than her sister but is generally happy with the amount of sleep she gets.  The best thing of all, is though they are so different, they love each other dearly and generally play well together.  The squeals of delight from their reuniting each morning or after naps is one of the highlights of my every day.

Stationery card

Navy Flourish Party Invitation

Check out our modern shower invitations by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

A Few Firsts

I really enjoyed voting this past week.  It was my first presidential election to vote in not by absentee.  (only my 3rd to be eligible for)  In college in California I voted by mail in the 2004 Bush vs. Kerry Election and 4 years ago we were in Turkey for the 2008 McCain vs. Obama election and again voted by absentee.  Not only did I vote in person this year, I decided that since our poll was only a couple miles from our house, I'd try to jog there and back.  I made it there, voted in record time, and jogged back home.  It ended up being the longest distance I've ever run: 5 miles.  I was proud of my two big accomplishments.

Now I am also imagining where will we be in 2016?!  (from California to Turkey to Mississippi to ....?)

Happy Halloween!

We had a great evening welcoming home my dad from Buenos Aires, Argentina and doing Halloween-ish stuff with Charli and Claire. Charli had a little trouble deciding what princess to be and today finalized her Rapunzel decision. Claire got to be a purple fairy but I joked all day that she was going to be the brown fairy because of the number of blowout diapers in the last few days. (Teething isn't fun for any of us!) We took the girls trick-or-treating in mom and dad's neighborhood. Claire made it to one house then went back to help Pop hand out his tradition of tracts and candy. Charli did great and said "trick-or-treating!" at every house. Adorable. Her love of candy outweighed her fear of strangers. She even fell down a couple times but got back up and pushed through the pain. Mom, the ever-faithful republican, persuaded many a kid to vote for Mitt ;)

I taught Charli me and Lee's tradition of dumping out your goods when you get home and she promptly began "organizing" it. Love her so.

It was such a fun time with our first real trick-or-treater.

Girdwood, Alaska

Amazing hike at The Hotel Alyeska. We were hoping to hike The North Face Trail but there was too much snow. The best part of this hike was an incredible icy waterfall. After the 5 mile hike we got in the hot tub (indoors of course) and then got cleaned up for dinner. We ate at the Double Musky Inn and I had Salmon, yummy :)