oct to dec 08

View Project at Shutterfly

Hunter turns 3!

Hunter's birthday almost turned out to be a fiasco. Of course, it being only 4 days after Christmas doesn't help! We had decided to have his party in Santa Fe at Quiggy's (think Chuck E. Cheese), but didn't do the reservation thing because we only invited 2 other little boys and their parents. Here's why I mention this: We went on a Monday (the Lab still being closed for Christmas and all adult parties not having to go to work), figuring it wouldn't be so crowded. After an hour in the car with 3 excited kids (and me holding a very tall and very heavy cake, by the way), we pull up to the place to find that it's closed. Apparently it's always closed on Monday, which we wouldn't know, since we rarely go to Santa Fe. What to do???!! The kids, especially Hunter, were set on pizza and games, so nothing else would do. Luckily, after some calls and (more) driving we found a (very expensive) place where you pay admission, and the kids can climb and slide and run around; you can also order (very expensive and VERY BAD) pizza. So the kids were happy. Actually, Mom and Dad were happy, too, since it could have turned out much worse! I can only imagine the hysterics if there were no pizza and games!!! All in all, we ended up having a pretty good time. But we will plan better in the future! Lesson learned.

As always, more pics at shutterfly.
















I wasn't too thrilled with how the cake turned out, but decided in the end that it came out pretty darn good since I only had a couple of days to work on it!



















































This water table was a huge hit with Hunter and Audra. It has flowing water and movable pieces to redirect it and make the balls end up in different places. They just liked getting wet!

Christmas 2008

Ok, here it is almost 3 months since my last post, not to mention Christmas...and I'm finally updating. Yeah, I'm a little behind. Gimme a break, though. If I haven't been sick, I've been catching up from being sick. Anyway, here are some pics from Christmas (more at shutterfly of course), which we spent quietly at home, as we were exhausted from being out of town for 2 weeks (yes, our London trip, which I have yet to blog...I'll get to it eventually. I hope.)

Decorating Christmas Cookies

Cookies and Milk for Santa

Cookies??! I want some!!! Gimme! (Seriously, she pitched a fit!)

Christmas Morning

Picture Update

I just added 3 new albums to my Shutterfly share site - Halloween, basketball, and some general fall and winter pics. How's that for keeping up with things? Check it out.

I do plan on blogging about our London trip in some detail, but I've been so busy catching up and getting ready for Christmas. That is next on my list, though, so check back soon. Although, I'm pretty certain it won't happen before Christmas...And I'll have to post Christmas pictures too. It never ends!!

Snow Day

We had about a foot of snow yesterday! It snowed all day Monday, most of the night and a good part of yesterday. What a great day it was. They closed the Lab, so Kip got to stay home, and we played in the snow all afternoon. Kip and the boys (meaning mostly Kip) built a huge snowman, and some neighbors came over to play for a while, too. Audra didn't think much of it; she stayed on the porch mostly, and cried when I took her out in the yard. But she did look adorable in her snow clothes!

Family Portraits

Look for even more at my shutterfly site!

Big Girl

Audra is such a big girl these days. I don't know how it happened, but I turned around one day and she was no longer a baby. She's gonna be a talker like the boys. Already is - she walks around babbling all day long, even though we have no idea what she's saying (the fact that she is saying something is actually quite obvious). Here are some of the words that Mommy, at least, can understand.

Shzs (shoes)

Jss (juice)

Ha (hair)

Ha (hat) (yes they are the same, but I can generally distinguish which is which)

bup (up)

Buh (book)

Bah (bear)

Ba (blankie) (again, pretty much the same)

I'm actually looking forward to her being able to talk more, because right now her most effective way to communicate is to cry. Um, yeah. We listen to a lot of crying these days.

Here she is on one of the boys' trikes. She has a little scooter that is just the right size for her, but she refuses to use it. In fact, she screams if we try to put her on it. She'd rather climb up on one that is too big and sit there.

And she is such a climber! She's up on everything! We have built in desks and bookcases in our playroom. I continually find her up on the desks, crying because she can't get down. And where is she 5 seconds after I get her down? Right back up there. This is her other favorite, the kid size table in our kitchen.