during this season...

we have been...

caroling with friends at two retirement homes

enjoying hot cocoa while watching christmas shows

hanging ornaments

snuggling

holding christmas bears with friends while reading stories

and generally smiling through it all

snowy cabin

we enjoyed a weekend away at a cabin in the woods in cle elum a few weekends ago. i hardly took any photos...but the weekend was lovely. amazing food, snowy walks, sledding, christmas music and movies, games, good company...everything was just right.

3 months

sonja drew is 3 months old today. here are a few things she is doing:

cooing, laughing & smiling constantly

starting to push her chest off the ground

a new found obsession with sucking on her hands

starting to grab for toys

completely in awe of her big sister

spends lots of time in the moby wrap or ergo and loves it

is losing all of her thick baby hair

generally sweet & mellow

we are so in love.

thanksgiving

for thanksgiving this year we flew to spokane, just like last year. last year traveling was a breeze and was clearly the better option.

however, this year was sooo different. never underestimate traveling with two kids with 1 of them being an infant. yikes. the snow in spokane didn't help, so we ended up getting stuck in sea-tac for a few extra hours then i somehow ended up flying standby ALONE with riley and sonja. riley was so so anxious to get out of the airport and onto the plane, that i decided, "oh well, how bad can it be, it's only a 45 minute flight". well, we did survive, but there was about 5 minutes of pure stress for me. walking onto the plane with sonja in the carrier, carrying two bags and holding riley's hand all the while having EVERY SINGLE PERSON on the plane watch me because they were all seated. and then having riley chant the whole way that she wants to put down her tray and is being otherwise difficult. taking off my coat, putting the things away, asking someone to switch seats so riley can sit next to me, buckle up, nurse...you get the picture. meanwhile i'm sweating profusely and just praying that riley doesn't start screaming. riley was so so close to a full-on meltdown (it was clearly naptime at this point) i somehow managed to distract her enough to hold it together. we got there ok and tyler flew in a few hours later.

it really put a damper to our thanksgiving morning...but we were greeted in spokane that afternoon by lots of snow and tyler's mom, brother and nephew. we spent the next few days basically lounging and seeing a few family members/friends. we returned saturday night and by that point riley had already come down with her nasty bug. i'm blaming the airport for that one!

riley & bjorn drinking hot cocoa while watching charlie brown's thanksgiving

the chef and her turkey!

the kids table

post thanksgiving dinner sledding

i think we may have a red-head on our hands

riding in the back of jon's truck to drive down hill to find more sledding

we got to spend the afternoon with our dear and long time friends troy & jenny. tyler grew up in spokane with the two of them. they just had their 2nd son so are home from their work overseas. we were so blessed to see them and spend time with them. no group shot though...

sweet sonja drew

snow

our first snow in bellingham, almost two weeks ago

our week

let me tell you friends, to be very honest, this past week has been awful. tyler has been out of town since monday and riley has been the sickest she has ever been in her 3 years of life. double ear infection, pink eye in both eyes, cough, fever and runny nose. caring for her by myself, being completely housebound (well i did sneak away for a few hours thanks to some lovely babysitters) and unable to socialize while still caring for my sweet baby (and desperately trying to keep her from the illness) has truly put me to the test. mothering is not for the weak, let me tell you. but all you mothers know that. we have managed to survive and i will admit that the tv has been my helper. she usually only gets to watch 1 show/week but this week it's been a free for all. bless on-demand tv!

we completed two different craft projects, both courtesy of martha stewart. the first one, a baby sock advent calendar and the second one, a greeting card wreath. my house is not yet decorated for christmas, since we were gone for thanksgiving, so it was fun to start putting a few things up. riley enjoyed helping me too...they both were extremely easy and kid-friendly.

tyler returns late tomorrow night and then we take off for a much needed 3 day getaway to a snowy cabin in the mountains with some friends. i already informed tyler that i'm not washing a single dish all weekend :) here's to a great weekend!