Late White Christmas

We had a late White Christmas this year. Out of NOWHERE we had snow, and lots of it. It was not forecasted and nobody was prepared for it (typical Portland!!). It started at about 2pm, I didn't notice it at first but Greg called from work and asked if it was snowing at home. I looked outside and I could see some tiny flurries floating around. Soon enough it was snowing pretty hard. I got on the news website and saw that 2-4 inches was predicted and called Greg back at work to tell him. He left within 20 minutes to come home and it was a good thing he did, the highway was a MESS after he got home. By 5pm the roads were a mess; no snow plows out because it wasn't predicted, and gridlock traffic. The snowplows couldn't get through all the stuck cars and the stuck cars couldn't move because there was too much snow!!! It took some people 6 hours to get home in a normally 20 minute drive. Most people ended up abandoning their cars on the highway and walking or taking a bus home. It was CRAZY!!!! I was so glad Greg came home early Phew!! The best part of him being home and not stuck in a car was building the snowman!!! I stayed inside because I was still getting over a cold-thanks Brookyln for coughing all over me when you were sick, it was so thoughtful. Seriously, she could not cough into her own hand, or elbow, it HAD to be right on me, on my shirt or in my face. To be fair she did have croup and it was awful, but she got better quickly, but we all got what she had. I ended up with an ear infection, I don't think I've had one of those since I was a baby! Thanks to antibiotics I was better within 12 hours. Now I know why babies scream when they have ear infections, they HURT!!! Ahhh, I got off on a tangent, oops!!! Snow, that's where I was.....

Boston enjoyed his first snow. He was still getting over his share of the cold, so he went out for a few minutes to take pictures, but I think he liked it. Of course I think he'll like it more when he's older and can play in it.

Brooklyn LOVED building the snowman with Greg. She was TOTALLY into it. She would have stayed out in the snow all night long if we let her. I don't think she expected anything to be better than building a snowman with her Daddy, until she got to come inside and drink hot chocolate with her Daddy. I'm not sure if we'll get snow again this winter, which will be just fine with me, once a winter is PLENTY!!! Don't get me wrong, I like snow, but I don't like to live in snow, there's a BIG difference!!!

Christmas!!!!!!!!

Brooklyn was SUPER excited for Christmas this year, we had Christmas Eve at Grandma & Grandpa Koberlein's house. We ate lots of good food and made and decorated sugar cookies. We decorated the gingerbread house and Brooklyn probably ate as much candy as she put on the house! Once we were stuffed full of great food and treats we came home and Brooklyn dictated a letter to Santa, set out some cookies for Santa, carrots for the reindeer, and some milk. She was so excited when she went to bed. This is the first year she has been able to get really into Christmas and it was so fun to see that twinkle in her eye about her excitement. I can't wait for Boston to be this excited too!


Christmas morning was wonderful. We had Christmas at our house for the first time in about 5 years. We'd always been traveling or at Grandma & Grandpa Koberlein's house. We woke up, got ready to open presents and then went downstairs. Here are the kids in front of the tree before the presents got torn apart.

Brooklyn was so happy that Santa listened to her wishes for a Tinkerbell. Santa did even better ad got her a Tinkerbell dress and a Tinkerbell movie and a Tinkerbell coloring book!!!!! Now she can be Tinkerbell all by herself, wings and all! Boston got some boys toys, because we have a SERIOUS lack of those in our house and Santa just couldn't let a respectable boy play with girls toys!!! Instead of candy Santa brought Boston some "real food" and he tried applesauce for the first time and LOVED it. Some highlights of the presents were: Brooklyn got "running shoes", a necklace from Daddy, clothes from Mommy, a beautiful handmade sweater from Grandma Sorensen, a Barbie princess dress from G&G Koberlein.

Boston: Books, toys, "running" shoes.-Brooklyn calls anything with laces "running shoes"

Greg: Heart rate monitor watch, running shirts(Hood To Coast here you come!), ornament from Boston, Foo Fighter's CD, See's Candy from Brookyln (of course to share)

Heidi: $ for a carpet cleaner (AND I LOVE IT!!!), books, gift cards for clothes, family history from my Mom & Dad, a promise to build shelves in the garage from Greg.

It was a wonderful Christmas and we sure feel blessed.

My Growing Boy!!

Boston is growing so much these days. Here is a quick picture of his first time having rice cereal. Despite what this picture shows, he liked it. I've actually switched to oatmeal though cause he is pretty gassy and it seemed like the rice made him even more gassy, we'll see if that works. He is getting close to sitting on his own, ever since we started him in his excersaucer he is sitting better and wants to do it more on his own. He can't do it alone yet but he is getting closer. He is also grabbing things and bringing them to his mouth a lot and he is licker, he licks EVERYTHING. I don't remember Brooklyn being so obsessed with her mouth, but maybe that's because she ALWAYS had a binky in her mouth!

So Boston had his 4 month check up last week. Here are his stats(brace yourself):

Weight: 18 lbs 15 oz. (Brooklyn was only 16 lbs. 14 oz) -Greater than 95%

Height: 27 1/4 in. (Brooklyn was 26 3/4 in.)-greater than 95%

Head: 44 cm (Brooklyn was 42.5cm)-90%

I'm afraid we have another monster on our hands! With Brooklyn I was able to put her in skirts when her pants were too short, but I'm sure Boston would require therapy later in life if I put him in a skirt. I'll just have to get creative, or maybe the man-pri's (capri's for men) will come back into fashion, or maybe not.....

Thanksgiving Fun

Well I don't have pictures of the delicious turkey dinner but I have a few of fun times with cousins. Brooklyn LOVED having her cousins here, but especially Savanah. She loved having someone to play with that loved princesses as much as she does. Brooklyn was always Snow White & Savanah was always Ariel, and yes Brooklyn is wearing a super hero cape as a princess cloak. She makes me laugh! She has such a great imagination.

These girls spent HOURS being princesses. I don't think Brooklyn took her princess dress off the entire time we were at Grandma & Grandpa Koberlein's house. We basically lived there for a few days. We went home only to sleep and even then we took cousins home with us. Brooklyn went through some serious withdrawls when they all left. She was so bummed, and she still talks about Savanah.

Brooklyn's other most favorite thing at grandma's house is Tea Parties. She loves to play pretend tea party but she gets to do the real thing at Grandma's house. It was nice to have extra guests at the table this time! We had a great thanksgiving this year. Our anniversary fell on Thanksgiving this year. Yep, we've been married SEVEN years!!! Sometimes it feels like we've been married forever because life just seems to move along so fast and I can't imagine not being married or having kids, but then other times it seems like we've just got married. I couldn't imagine how different life would have been if my roomates didn't intentionally ditch me at the dollar movies so I was forced to get a ride home with the man of my dreams. He put his arm around me in the car and the rest is history! (and NO! I didn't ask them to leave me, they did that all on their own, despite what Greg thinks, I did NOT plan it!!) It's been a WONDERFUL seven years and am looking forward to seven thousand more! Love you babe!

Picking out the Christmas Tree

We went to our traditional Sleigh Bells Christmas Tree farm. It's a beautiful farm with LOTS of trees to choose from. There is a big hill to climb to find the best trees on the back side of the mountain (cause most people just go to the front side of the mountain). Grandpa Koberlein helped Brooklyn up the hill, or I think Brooklyn dragged Grandpa Koberlein up the hill!!!! She was so excited to pick out our three this year! This was Boston's first year picking out the tree. He did really well, he loves being outside walking around.

Brooklyn had to look at every tree on the mountain and especially liked the little ones. She would have loved to take all of the trees home but we had to decide on just one. It took some "discussion" about which tree was best and we finally chose on one. I think the hunt for the tree is just as much fun as finding the right one.

Here we are with our tree before we cut it down. Notice the "butcher knife" in Greg's hands. Thanks you Christmas tree for sacrificing your life for our perfect Christmas.

Here's the whole gang picking out the tree, minus Grandma Koberlein because she was taking the picture.

Greg did the honors of cutting it down, with careful observation from Brooklyn as you can see. She wanted to know the play by play of everything he was doing. She was such a great helper too.

Greg carried the wonderful tree to the drop off place, so they could shake it, and bind it up so we could tie it to the top of the car to take home.

While we were waiting for the tree to be done they have a wonderful Christmas store with TONS of ornaments and free hot chocolate and of course a wonderful Santa to visit. Santa was such a character this year and was very jolly. Brooklyn really liked talking to him and told him she wanted a Tinkerbell for Christmas. We'll see if Santa keeps his promise. Boston cried the entire time we were in line and about 2 minutes before it was our turn he fell asleep. Great timing for a picture I guess. I was stressed that we would have the classic screaming child with Santa picture, but it all worked out.

Cousins and the ER

Well we had an adventure today. Why is it that ER visits and accidents happens more often when cousins are around? I'm sure it's the same way in other families right? Well we had a scissors "incident" tonight. Brooklyn and cousin Savanah were playing with scissors and Brooklyn ended up getting cut in between her thumb and index finger, on that skin that pulls tight when you flex your hand. We ended up going to the ER cause it was pretty deep and I was concerned that she couldn't keep her hand still until it healed. I've heard horror stories of waiting in the ER for hours, but this was not one of those stories. We waited maybe 5 minutes and they brought her back. She got to choose between blue or black stitches and she chose blue. She had everyone wrapped around her finger (or hurt thumb!). She told the registration ladies, "I have to tell you something, I have red blood" (putting at lot of emphasis on the blooooood). She also had the nurse Thom and Dr. Don melted pretty good. Brooklyn certainly does not lack any personality in a crisis situation! It was not a piece of cake, but she did get a piece of cake at grandma's house after we were done. It took only about 1 hour in and out, but it was emptionally exhausting. All in all, our first ER experience was not as tragic as I had expected it to be. I'm not saying it was enjoyable or that I want to do it again, don't get me wrong. I'll try and get a picture soon. For now I'm tired and want to go to bed.

WE'RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND!!!!!!

SO...I won a trip to Disneyland over the radio!!!!! Can you believe it? This never happens to me!!! I heard about it on the radio 2 days ago and had Greg look it up on the computer and you had to set up an account with the radio as a "freeloader" and Greg wouldn't do it, so amongst eye rolls from Greg, I created an account and then entered the contest. You could enter 1 time per day and I only got 2 entries in. You were supposed to listen to the radio at 7:20, 11:20 or 4:20 to hear your name called and then call in before 10 minutes, 51 seconds (105.1 the Buzz get it!) Well I TOTALLY FORGOT about it, but at about 11:40 the DJ Sheryl called me and asked if I was listening to 105.1 cause the first contestant didn't call back in time, and they would be announcing the next winner in a few minutes, so I should listen......I thought, "Ummmm, OK I'll turn the radio on right now" I said I was definitely listening and then hung up, a few minutes later they called my name and I called back. I told her I was a TOTAL DIS-NERD and she laughed and said, "What is that?-I've never heard it before" I told her that basically I love Disneyland more than anything, I know all about it cause I Google it all the time AND I know all the secret stuff about it, she just laughed and then told me someone from the radio would call me later to give me the info. I wanted to cry on the phone I was so excited. Greg and I were talking about going to Disneyland in January but were trying to figure out how to make it affordable. Well, I found a way right?? Plane tickets, 4 nights at the Disneyland Resort and 3 days at the park is all paid for! I still can't believe this happened to me. I can't wait until we find out all the details, I have to fill out some paperwork and then Disney will send me the info on how to book. Anyone want to join us for a trip to the Big-D soon???? Is this really happening?

It's Genetic

So apparently spilling your milk is a genetic trait. I used to spill my milk EVERY night for like a year straight. Brooklyn is on the same path I'm afraid. I remember trying so hard to be careful and not spill my milk that I would just end up spilling it cause I was so nervous. Hopefully she grows out of it sooner than a year, and thanks Mom for cleaning up my milk every time. Love you!

Halloween 2009

We had another great Halloween this year. I LOVE Halloween. I have such great memories of it as a kid and I LOVE to try and create great memories for my kids. I also LOVE cute Halloween costumes. Carving pumpkins is always fun, we carved ours at Grandma and Grandpa Koberlein's house so Greg could watch the Blazer's game. Between half-time and time-outs we were able to get them done! I think they turned out great!

Brooklyn ADORES the pumpkins. Every time we leave and come back to the house she has to remind me that we have pumpkins and they are hers. Brooklyn also LOVES Boston. She loves to show him off and tell EVERYONE that she has a baby brother Boston.


Brooklyn was Dorothy and Boston was the Cowardly Lion. I think he looks pretty brave. We had great weather for Oregon. It didn't rain and it was pretty warm (a Halloween miracle!!) We met up with the neighborhood friends (of course at half time of the the Oregon vs USC game-GO DUCKS!) Brooklyn had a BLAST and Boston fell asleep the first few minutes, I guess he'll learn about the trick or treating next year! I think his first year went pretty well though.

Doesn't Boston make a great Lion? He looked to cute!
Here's Brooklyn heading out for Trick or Treating. Thanks Tanya for all your help with the costume. I NEVER would have finished it in time.

I FINALLY DID IT!!!!

Ok so creating a blog has been on my "To Do" list since January. It's almost January again so I figured I'd better get cracking!!! I'm still in the "early development" phase and learning how this works so we'll get down to the nitty gritty later, for now I'm just glad I have started!!!