A VERY Merry Christmas

I hope that everyone had a fantastic Christmas season! One that was filled with many happy memories that will last a lifetime. I know that I will hold onto and cherish some of the moments from our Christmas this year.  Our holiday was simply wonderful. I am really glad how it all came together. Colin and Meli are both at an age where it just brings so much...magic. Meli was starting to catch on to the idea of Santa, the Christmas trees, lights and of course - presents. The only thing that made this one a little less happy, was not being able to see my Virginia family. It has been seven years celebrating with Will's family and I had come to cherish the traditions that we had created with our little family and his. It is hard having two people together who are from different parts of the country. I was so excited to have the opportunity to celebrate with my family (it had been way too long) and to see them interact with the kids, but it still felt like a big part was missing. Love you Liz, Michael and the rest of the in-laws.

We started the week by heading down to my hometown to enjoy the holiday festivities with my mom's side of the family. Here is a picture of Meli acting sad (have I mentioned that we have two very dramatic kids) with Uncle Greggie. The truck she is holding was a gift for her daddy but she took hold of it and still has not given it back to him!

 

 

 

My mom came up to stay with us for Christmas Eve. It was so nice to have her around and to share our family traditions with her. My mom and I spent the day cooking and doing final wrapping needs. We also watched a few of our favorite Christmas movies: Charlie Brown's Christmas and of course A Christmas Story. I watched my favorites, White Christmas and It's a Wonderful Life the week before. I also had the chance to go see the play, It's a Wonderful Life with my dad and Michele. It was cute.

 

For dinner, we had the traditional ham and fixings. I made sure we had my mother-in-law's corn pudding and sweet potato casserole to bring a little of Virginia to us.



My little buddy

Christmas Eve dinner

After dinner the kids were allowed to open two gifts: this year's ornament and their Christmas pajamas. Colin's ornament had theatrical mask and Peter Pan written on it, to represent his first ballet he went to. Meli got a Minnie Mouse ornament since she is obsessed! I personally think that I did a wonderful job with the pajamas this year (I love pajamas). Meli got a set of the cutest penguin ones (see one of them below) and then the cutest reindeer set. Colin got teenage mutant turtle set that included a robe and then a set of Batman ones.

 

Then we set out the cookies, milk and carrots (for the reindeer), plus a note for Santa. 

My babies!

Bill sent the kids a Lionel train. Colin was so stoked when he came down the stairs and the train was turned on. That was one of the perfect moments. Colin got to open his stocking before we woke up Meli and Grammie. The kids were so overwhelmed with all the gifts. With all of the grandparents, aunts/uncles and us they made out very well. We emphasized this year with Colin how it is not about the gifts but it is also about giving and doing good deeds. Colin wanted to go through his toys and clothes and donate to those less fortunate. He also helped me pick out some gifts for boys his age and a couple girls Meli's age. I was very proud of him for understanding the importance of giving and not wanting to keep all of the toys. That is a hard thing to grasp at his age.

Colin's Captain America mask

Meli was very excited with her kitchen

Colin got some gear to take on our hiking trips this next spring. Mission: Explore Oregon

Meli slept in her new big girl bed!! No issues so far...



Christmas morning was great. We ate cinnamon rolls and opened presents. This took a lot longer than usual. Years prior Colin would just plow through the gifts, but this year he wanted to put each one together then move on to the next. Then Meli just wanted to play with her kitchen. Towards the end, I was opening Meli's gifts for her then showing her what she got. She was already in need of a nap.

My brothers came up for Christmas appetizers. The kids adore their uncles. Uncle Greggie got Colin a Darth Vader mask that changes his voice. He also got a Darth Vader that is taller than Meli. That one has scared me a couple times at night when I check on Colin.

 

We spent Christmas evening at my dad and Michele's. Christmas dinner was delicious! Michele did a great job... It was so nice to see my uncle and cousin.  It has been too long since I have had a Christmas here. The house was so full of people. Reminded me of Christmas at my Grandma's as a kid.

There also two new babies in the family: Miles and Abel. Meli was very jealous whenever I would hold one of the boys. Ever since then, she has been wanting to pretend to be a baby. She has Will or I rock her and she pretends to sleep.

 

This really has been such a wonderful time. Will had a few surprises up his sleeve (like BIG surprises) that I did not expect at all! So much has changed in the past year. I think we made the right  (difficult but right) choice and I think we are at a good place. I am so blessed  to be surrounded by so much love.

 

Hopefully next year we can work it out to see both sides of the family.

 

 

~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

The B Family

An Old Fashion Christmas Tree

We had a significant snow storm here. It snowed last Thursday night and it has not gone anywhere. We got 6 inches I believe. I am used to the roads getting plowed so quickly in DC that this is crazy to me that snow is still on the roads...but I guess there is not usually a need for it here. It has been beautiful though. Colin has been having so much fun playing in it each day, but I think he is ready to go back to school. He has been off since last Friday. Crazy. I am sure they have used all of their snow days up for the school year.

So the weekend after the snow came, we went up to the mountains to get us a tree!  Will had never cut his own tree and I have very fond memories of doing it when I was a kid. It was beautiful! We got to be the first driver on several paths, which was neat.

The tree we got looks a little different then what we usually have. Not as full. At first, when we got it in the house we were both like, "oh no", but our oversized Charlie Brown tree has really grown on us. We can see so many of the ornaments and I really love it! It is good to change things up every once in a while.

It was a great experience...one I think Colin will remember when he is older. As I sit and write this, I am looking at our beautiful decorated tree...it may not be a really full tree, but it has personality! A little quirky, which fits this family!

Meli loves snow

Colin somehow avoided the camera

cutting the tree

exploring

beautiful day

 

~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

The B Family

A beautiful morning walk

We took the kids on a walk early this morning in the snow. It was 9 degrees but warmed up fairly quickly. Here are a few pictures...

I wish I would had brought my camera...oh well. The river next to our house had parts that froze over. Growing up in Oregon, we had to make trips to play in the snow...so this was just crazy to me. Living in a valley if we got snow it was not a lot and melted away pretty fast. This snow is do powdery. I love it!

Snow Day

 
 
It has been snowing all day today. The kids had so much fun playing outside. Here are some pictures from our day. I hope it clears up a little so we can go cut down our tree tomorrow. I am so excited to take the kids and Will to get a tree the old fashion way!  We did that as kids and I have very fond memories of it. Will has never done it, so it should be a good experience for everyone. This will be the first year that the kids have had a real tree...so exciting!!

~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

The B Family

Playground Fun

We made it to the park to play just in time...it started raining as we left. I love seeing their adorable smiles. They had me going down the slide. I do not remember jungle gyms being so small :) ha ha.

We got the house decorated. I love Christmas! We had a surprise this year...Will got a box from a friend of all of his Christmas stuff from Germany. He has not seen them for 7 years. It was fun going through all of his ornaments. I love hearing ornament stories. I think of them as memory keepers. We always buy the kids one each year that represents something about the year. 

Like this guy! I love the little smokers from Germany. We have several.

New Traditions

Thanksgiving is a time for reflecting on all that we have to be thankful for, spending quality time with loved-ones, and creating new traditions while enjoying old ones. I hope everyone had a wonderful day celebrating with family and friends. We had such a nice day at our house yesterday. My mom and younger brother were able to come up. The kids and I made pilgrim hats and Native American feathers. I even convinced Will and Uncle Greggie to put the pilgrim hats on. So cute but I promised not to post any of the pictures.

I bought an apron for all of us to color. On the back we wrote the year and what Colin and Meli were thankful for. I plan to do this every year. Colin said he was thankful for his "whole family and toys". Meli just kept saying "Piglet". 

 I have so much fun dressing Meli. Poor girl. Even though I think she likes it...most of the time. Colin and Meli loved the crafts we did. We also made turkeys with the kids handprints. They turned out so cute. I say this so often, but I do love this age! Meli has her feathers on and her Thanksgiving necklace she made.

Sweet baby girl

 

Colin helped cook this year. He made his own dish of cranberry sauce with mandarin oranges and pecans. We got the recipe from Grandma Liz. It turned out delicious. Colin allowed the pecans but vetoed the walnuts. Since he was the chef, we went with it.

My cute little chef

It was so hard to get her to look at Will. I think Grammie is holding marshmallows behind his head.

I look so tired :(

Will and I took an old tradition from his childhood (drinking coffee after Thanksgiving dinner in a porcelain teacup - not that Will did that as a kid) and made it our own. 

 

What a beautiful and nice day.  I feel so blessed to have the sweetest, most loving husband, amazing friends, the two best moms a girl could ask for, the kindest brother and the cutest, sweetest kids!!! I am surrounded by so much love. The kids are so lucky to have a wonderful set of grandmas, grandpas, uncles and aunts.

 

 

~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

The B Family

Monster Bash

This is from my birthday dinner

Colin turned 6 this week!! I cannot believe that he is getting so big! We had such a fun week. He requested that for his birthday he have blueberry pancakes for breakfast, a happy meal for dinner, a turkey cupcake (that he picked out at the store) and a smoothie from Dutch Bros. We had a little party with just us, where he got to open his gifts from Meli, Will and I.

We had his kid birthday party today. It was so fun, but I am so tired! We have another family one tomorrow. Busy last two weeks... Colin chose to have a monster party (I am pretty sure that Halloween had influenced his decision)...so we went with that, but trying to make it not so "Halloweeny". It was a blast! Sweet kids and great parents! Colin loved it.

 I made monster cupcakes and we played some monster games. The games were the mummy wrap (they had to wrap the mummy with a roll of party streamer), pin the eye on the monster, the monster throw, and clothes pin in a jar (an oldie but goodie). We did not get to all of them because the kids were having so much fun running around.

The monster cupcakes

Monster Colin

Meli the monster

What a fun age!

 ~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

The B Family

A Night at the Symphony



Bad picture of me, but it is really hard to get Will to take one..so got to use it!

My surprise from Will was tickets to a symphony!! I have been wanting to go for years, so this was perfect. I loved it!! We got to get all dressed up. I rarely get to see Will in a suit and he looks so good in one. The symphony orchestra was very good. The guest violinist was amazing! Will is so talented musically, that I love seeing him in his element. It was a perfect night. Love you honey! You make me so happy!

Now to finish off the birthday celebrations...dinner with dad and Michele tomorrow and then a joint party for me and Colin with my mom and aunt on Sunday. Such a busy month. Once we are done with mine we have Colin's next week...Cannot believe he will be six!!

  

I love getting dressed up! I have not had a reason to wear this dress for a while...

Best Birthday week EVER!!!

My husband is always very good at picking out gifts and planning special events to celebrate things like birthdays...but this year he has out-done himself!! I am so spoiled!!! The main thing I wanted to do for my thirty-f...I mean twenty-seven birthday was to have new experiences.  I have been focused on that the past year...enjoying life and ignoring fear. Sounded like a good way to start a new chapter. We started this new mind-set off by moving back across country facing a lot of unknowns. Slapping fear in the face!

Back to my birthday week. To start it off, Will made sure I got one of my favorite treats: a chocolate Blizzard with nerds. Sadly, DQ stopped having nerds as an option years ago (I actually stopped going there because of it - I was very sad) but I finally went back after six years when pregnancy cravings made me really, really need a deluxe burger. That was strange in itself since I do not like hamburgers and was a vegetarian at the time. Anyways, Will  went to DQ and got me their chocolate ice cream, then bought a box of nerds!! My own blizzard! It was so delicious!

We spent Monday and part of Tuesday at the coast. On Veteran's Day we saw a vet memorial by the port. It was very pretty and represented all of those that have served from that town going way back. Then we had drinks at a lounge overlooking the ocean.  It was a bit cloudy, so we could not see the sunset but still a gorgeous view. For dinner, we went to old town and enjoyed a delicious meal. Being a Monday night there was not a whole bunch of people out, but you could definitely tell it is a retirement town. I actually enjoyed the quiet ambiance.


For breakfast, we got my favorite cranberry orange muffins and some Dutch Bros coffee, then headed to the beach. I know that bringing food on the beach is not overly smart... but was totally worth it to see Will's reaction to the flock of seagulls that was stocking us. He was scared! There were so many of them and they were not shy coming up to us. They were squawking and flying above us. I for sure thought they were going to swap Will's muffin at one point. It was nerve-racking but I was laughing so hard and really enjoying it. Poor Will. After that we shopped around and then headed home. I did not want to spend my actual birthday away from the kids. So, when we got home, Colin and Will made me dinner and dessert. It was such a perfect day. My gifts were sweet too. Colin got me a traveling coffee mug (Wonder Woman) since my other one broke. Will got me some very nice perfume and a book of art history focusing on Ancient Greece. This book is supposed to be one of the best out there. I am very excited to start reading it. I am a dork, I know.

Yesterday, I finally did something I have wanted to for years...I got my first tattoo!! It is the smaller one of the two that I want. I psyched myself out so much beforehand, but it was not that bad at all. Will got another one this summer and so now it was my turn. His is amazing! He got a Celtic flower design (not too flowery at all) with two Native American hummingbirds (representing Meli and Colin) - it is combing the two major heritages for the kids. It turned out so good.

After all of this my week of celebrating is still not done! Today, I get my big surprise from Will. All I know is I have to wear my fanciest dress...More to come...

~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

The B Family

Goodbye, Kathleen

On November 1st, a dear loved one left this world. Kathleen, great-grandma to Colin and Meli. I was planning to go visit her in Arizona soon, but her last moments came very quickly. We thought she had at least a few more months. I really wish I could have seen her one last time. It had been way too long...my dad's wedding 6 years ago. After I had moved to D.C., she moved back to Arizona, which is where she spent a good portion of her younger adult life. She loved it there. So that was a good place to spend her last few years.  She had a crazy, wild life...which made her a good choice to ask for advice or to get an encouraging word. I love her dearly and will miss her always...

She chose not to have a funeral, but I am mourning our loss in my own way...one I think an earthy soul like Kathy would appreciate. I plan on wearing my tree of life earrings and necklace from her passing until her birthday December 15th. I thought that was an appropriate symbol to celebrate a life.

Love you, Kathleen.