garden ballet

Anna had her first creative movement and Ballet performance. She is the one standing by the black curtain at the beginning. It takes a moment to get started. She did a good job for only being 3 years old I think.

Comicon

For a date night Eric and I went with HEather and Evan to Seattle Comicon festivities. We didn't really take too many pictures but here are a few.

My favorite, chubby princess leia.

Masterchief was the only videogame represented because of the Halo comic. pretty cool.

Boba Fet

Tron

Awesome gut.... we went to the Buffy the Vampire slayer sing along and dawned fangs for the program. All in all agood time was had.

Snow caves

Erics duty as the Scout Master led him into the mountains a few weeks ago to vuild snow caves for the night. THey hiked in with snow shoes and spent the night helping the boys learn how to work hard.

sleeping in the snow cave which was pretty warm for the leaders who built thiers right. Can't say the same for the boys though.

Erics buddy bondy and Eric built this cave so you could stand up in it.

Fresh mountain air.....

thoughtful conversations

(while sitting on the potty)
Anna: Mom, I wish I had a boys bum.
Julie: really? Why is that?
Anna: Because girls have to sit down and boys don't.
Julie: What a wise observation Anna
Anna: (completely serious) Mom, can we go to the store today and buy me a boy bum?
Julie: Well, would you like a big one or a little one?
Anna: A big one, ( on second thought) actually I want a little one like Liams.
Julie: Okay.
Anna: ( with hugging) oh thank you Mom!

Happy St. Patricks Day

Liam came down the stairs this morning all ready for school. He had dressed himself like a leprochan. A few nights ago we found a note in his room written to a leprochan asking if he could trade Liam's nickel for a gold coin. He even made squares for the coins to be placed in. The leprochan obliged and he found a real gold coin the next morning. He took it to school and said everyone was talking about it. Apparently the other kids tried it and did not receive gold coins. oops!

Generation pics

While my Mum was in town I took the opportunity to take some generation pictures of Anna and said Mum. I feel so lucky to have them and had a blast watching them work together to get the shots.

please notice the gap between both of their big and second toes. so cute.

Grandma White Visits

My Mom came to visit her Grandkids and check up on her daughter last week. The kids had fun baking with Grandma and teaching her how to play Kinect sports. Anna insisted on sleeping with Grandma and she snuck out on tip toe quietly each morning so as not to wake her. Liam spent lot's of time sharing his ocean books with Grandma.

We got some fresh air at Lively property which is about 5 minutes from our house. Their is a cool pioneer museum which made my mom laugh because they had "antiques" from when she was a little girl. Then we went for a little hike and watched the kids junp straight into a mud bog where we lost anna's boot. It was so fun seeing how comfortable the kids were with my Mom and watching them being friends. Thanks for coming up Mom.

Ski bums

Eric checked off his dream of taking his son skiing this past weekend. Liam enjoyed ski school in the morning and skiied with his Dad in the afternoon

I can't believe how old he looks. I can't have a kid who is skiing! Wasn't I just cruising the bunny slope with giant white sunglasses and a paint splashed sweater with cousin Sarah?

Liam showing off his new skills

you can't go skiing with out eating a gigantic chocolate chip cookie and hot chocolate by a firepit. In the end, Liam mastered the bunny slope braved the ski lift which ended in a classic fall and halting of the ski lift with Liam very upset. He worked his way down the though and came home feeling accomplished and pretty cool.

Annabean

I took these shots of Anna for the black and white section of my photography class. I left them in color for you all. Anna is so full of personality and playfulness and I just thought these really captured her silliness and loveliness.

Off to the skating rink where Liam undoubtedly wanted his party this year. Anna is getting the skating thing down and spent most of her time with the other girls invited to the party.

Liam was determined to skate from the moment his foor slipped into his skates. We've been hitting the rink a few times a month and is pretty proud of himself.

After skating we gathered for Pizza and rootbeer.

The party goers

Liam was sweet and read all the homemade cards before opening the gift.

Afterwards the Mann's and G and G Elton gathered at our home for soup and dessert. Liam opened Legos from the Mann's (which he was waiting for someone to give him all night BTW) and an awesome book from the Grandparents.

This is just a video that embodies Liam in the past year for me. He has several character personalities that he has invented and loves to act out their antics. He is not happy at all when he fails as you can see in his face when he falls off the pogo stick. But...he always jumps right back in and gives it a determined try again and again. He has a bit of a temper and can lose his cool about his endeavors but he has incredible self control and can calm himself down and become incredibly sweet. He is incredibly protective of his sister and his Mother and runs like lightening to hug his Dad when he gets home from work. He has a huge and forgiving heart and we love him so much. Happy Birthday Liam!

New Years Eve

On New Years Eve Eric and I just wanted to be with our little family. We got a kinect for Christmas, so we had a fun dinner and played video games together. At 8:30 we bundled up and went outside to light some fireworks. Some of our neighbors decided it was a good time to light up the sky with much larger fireworks than we had, so the kids got a fun show. We ran around on the icei in the road and screamed at the top of our lungs. After the kids were ticked in, Eric and I made some treats and watched movies together. It was so perfect. A good start to the New Year.