Happy Birthday Brennan!!

On Friday morning we celebrated our wonderful friend Brennan's birthday!! It was held at the Edgewood Fire Station and I swear....I've never seen so many excited kids in my life!! Not only was it fun for the kids...but it was fun for the adults too!! We got a tour of the fire station and the kids got to sit in a fire truck and in an ambulance!! Seriously...this was so cool and to top it off we all went to McDonald's for lunch afterwards. I don't think it gets any better than that for Gabs and Dante!! Happy birthday Brennan!!! We had a great time!!

All kids at attention to the man in the mask. They were so fascinated!!!

Good friends....Gavin, Gabby and Rylee

On with the firemen hats!!

The fire truck we got to see!!

Gabs in the driver seat!! Love it!!

Now Dante's turn!! Soooooo cute!!!

Learning about the Ambulance

Checking out the fire hoses. Those things are HEAVY!!!

Gabby and her good friend Rylee

Group shot!!!

Santa's Package

Santa sent Gabby and Dante packages from the North Pole!! In it they got a letter from Santa, a baby picture of Rudolph and, I'm happy to report, a "Nice List" certificate!! Santa hopes they stay on the nice list!! So far so good...:) They were so excited to get there packages from Santa in the mail!! Way too cute!!

Snowshoe U-cut Tree Farm - Cutting down our Christmas tree!

On "black Friday" when everyone is out shopping for toys we always go and cut down our Christmas tree!! The kids had a blast and we had a BEAUTIFUL sunny day!!!

The traditional yearly pic!!

Yeah Santa!!!!

On our way!!! It was quite a walk to the Fraser Firs!!

That's our tree!!!

Gabs and Dante having a good ol' time!!

Bob doing the cutting of the tree...

Now Dante's turn to help cut the tree...

and now it's Gabby's turn!!!

Great teamwork!! I'd hire them to cut my tree anytime!!!

Writing letters to Santa

Gabs mailing her letter

Dante mailing his letter

Bob cutting down Gabby and Dante's tree!! They picked out a GREAT one!!

Gabby wanted to tag her tree all by herself

Gabby's first school field trip

Gabby and her preschool class had there first field trip on Weds to the Sumner library for storytime! They got to go in early before the library even opened!! It was so awesome! Gabby and Dante had a great time!!

Gabs doesn't look happy here but she really did love it!!

The Elf On The Shelf

So my friend Christy (I owe you girl!!) introduced me to the Elf on a Shelf Christmas tradition and let me tell you....if you have kids and you haven't got this yet GO GET IT!!!! Works like a charm! It's this little Elf that you adopt and his purpose is to watch your kids all day long and he reports everything back to Santa every night so he knows if you been "naughty" or "nice". So, the Elf "flies" to the North Pole every night, reports all the good/bad things to Santa, then comes back to watch over them the next day. The best part about this is (and this is Gabby's FAVORITE part) the Elf shows up at a different spot in the house every morning so EVERY morning the FIRST thing Gabby wants to do is find her Elf!! It's PRICELESS!!! She named him "Frenchy" (Fancy Nancy's dogs name...of course) and she talks to him all the time!! It is sooooooooooo cute!! (VIDEO OF THIS WILL BE COMING....STAY TUNED!!) She insists that he moves too....his foot, his hand, his head. She is obsessed thinking about where he will be the next day and she asks a MILLION questions about him. So where is his mommy?? Can I touch him??? Does he have a puppy?? Is he going to the North Pole during my nap?? Hilarious!!! The whole story of how she found the Elf was hysterical too but that is something I'll have to tell everyone in person.

It seriously brings me to tears to see the JOY and EXCITEMENT Christmas time and Santa brings to Gabby now. Dante is a little too young to understand the concept yet but I'm having the time of my life filling Gabby's heart with hope, love, eagerness and imagination. Being a mom is the BEST thing in the world. I'm truly blessed.

Here are some pics of Frenchy. He was on the TV speaker today. Now I have to go figure out where to put him tomorrow...:)

Hugs and kisses to all!!

Disney on Ice

This Saturday we went to Disney on Ice with our great friends Angela, Dan and Ellie McDonald and Jodi, Steve, Jossi and Saywer Williams. What a wonderful time we all had and Gabby still tells me (and everyone!) how much fun she had and that she wants to go see another one. I'll have to take her up on that!!

Me and my girl

Bob and his baby boy

Group photo (minus Angela b/c she is taking the picture!)

Gabby and her good friend Ellie (whose face is priceless in this pic!)

Seattle Children's Museum

Last weekend we took the kiddo's to the Children's museum in Seattle. They had a BLAST!! Needless to say when we left they both were asleep in about a minute....:)

Here are the loves of my life playing in the museum....

On our way in!!

Dante just being Dante...:)

Practicing good habits

Gabs carefully picking out her groceries

Look at that fish!!!

Checking out!!!

Dante practicing his tool skills

Now everyone is in on it!!!

Taco time!!!

Dante helping everyone pay for there food

Gabby playing in the water

Cheeeeeeeze Dante!!!

Love this pic....Gab's with her "pet" raccoon. She's my animal lover!!!