We drove down to Portland Thursday night, excited to spend some time with family, with lots of fun plans....Here we are arriving at the Children's museum on Friday around noon....

The girls were so excited that the featured exhibit was Clifford!! They even trimmed this bush out front to look like him!
Aunt Molly lives right by the Portland zoo and Children's museum

We only made it about 10 feet inside the door, when Clara started throwing up :( We cleaned her up the best we could and got the girls back out to the car. Within a half hour, Hannah took her turn throwing up, and we decided it was probably best to head back to Seattle to try to save everyone else from catching it! They continued to throw up every half hour the rest of the trip home and into the night. Joe and I ended up getting it too, so it was a pretty miserable night! Only Eliza seemed to escape it, and crawled around the next day wondering why we were all lying on the couch, chair, and floor!

24 hours after leaving Seattle, here we were back home and very sick! What a disappointing weekend :(

So glad everyone is feeling better now!!!

Rudolph cookies

The assembly line..

Hannah would unwrap one, then eat two!

Eliza woke up from her nap just in time to taste the end of the white chocolate!

Cute cooks!

Finished product-yum, yum!!

Our living room set up like "Christmas morning"

Hannah in her Aladdin costume, which she calls her "street rat" (from the movie!)
Clara and Hannah were playing up on the couch and Eliza was standing next to the couch watching. She looked up at me, pointed to the couch and said "Up!" She was so excited to get up on the couch and play with her sisters. She is really trying to keep up with them now and loves to be included.

Tackling Hannah!

She knows how to get down by herself now!

So proud of her new trick:)

Another new trick!

Hugs from Hannah

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

We braved the freezing temperatures last night, with hot cocoa in hand, to walk through the beautiful lights at the Bellevue Botanical Garden.

This cute little squirrel, a bunny with a carrot, a big crocodile, a spider in a web, and a swan floating on a lake of blue lights were some of the girls' favorites!
Hannah found some "flowers" in her favorite color, blue!

Amazing!!!

Snuggling to keep warm!

Then we headed to Red Robin at Bellevue Square for some dinner (and to warm up!) before Snowflake Lane

The girls were happy to stand at the window and look at the lights and decorations outside....

There were live drummers, a dancing polar bear, and snow falling from the tops of the buildings

Watching for the snow to fall...

What a fun evening!

11 Months!!

I'm about a week late on this post, but we have been busy traveling and kicking off the holidays, and keeping up with our 11 month old!! This month's big milestones have been CLIMBING...

Every time we turn around, Eliza has climbed up on something!

Starting some pretending...she copied me feeding the baby in the highchair and picked up this brush and started combing her own hair last night! She helps with undressing by pulling her shirt over her head, loves to put things in/out of purses and containers, and has begun her first tantrums by throwing her head back and screaming or throwing herself down on the floor...hmmm....

Lots of "cuddles" for anything soft....pillows, blankets, stuffed animals....they all get a big, slobbery hug and kiss from Eliza!

Her "So Big" game where she throws her arms up in the air and then crashes down to the floor over and over and over.... :)

discovering Christmas ornaments

And adding all kinds of animal sounds "ba" "moo" "woo, woo" (for dog), but her favorite is still an enthusiastic point in a particular direction with a loud "go"!!

She is usually trying to get us to take her to the bathroom for a bath, or to the pantry for some chocolate....which is usually then followed by a bath!

Oh Christmas Tree

We stopped in Portland on our way back from Bend, and got to tag along with Uncle Danny, Aunt Heathyr, and the Portland cousins to get our Christmas tree!

The adults searched for the perfect trees, while the kids played chase among all the trees....I'm glad we didn't lose anyone!
Eliza discovering the ornaments.





After pulling a couple of ornaments off the tree, Eliza has pretty much left it alone....Clara and Hannah, on the other hand, take ornaments off daily to play in their dollhouses, and take over the stable!! I was surprised to find Peter Pan hanging where the angel used to be, and Scooby Doo somehow climbed the stairs into the loft!!

Goofy girls who stayed up until almost 11pm decorating the tree!

Clara and Hannah hung most of the ornaments themselves. I think Clara was enjoying having someone old enough to help her out this year!

Daddy modeling the tree skirt :)

More goofiness

All I want for Christmas...

We were able to squeeze in our visit with Santa while we were in Bend....

Clara has visited this same Santa all 5 years!
Cousin Chloe in a deep conversation with Santa

No line to wait in, as we were the only ones there! They had a full room set up with fun Christmas scenes this year....

Hannah marched right up to Santa and said, "Santa, guess what-I want a big princess castle for Christmas (she starts most sentences with "guess what") and Clara wants "something puppies"....Santa was sure to clarify, "something stuffed animal puppy" !!