Santa comes early

We had two holiday parties this past weekend and Julia loved seeing Santa! She is in Christmas spirit overload but it is so fun! To see the smiles and the magic, man I love this time of year!!!!!

The Yoders Holiday Party, Santa made an appearance

Loves Santa

Reese is oblivious to it all

The Carlsen Holiday party, Jim and Julia singing carols

Part of the Carlsen Clan, singing carols (Grammie would be so proud to see us all together, I miss you so much Grammie!!!)

Julia opening her present from Santa, a Barbie!!!!

Picture with Opa, I mean Santa

Reese loves her Daddy!

Longer video but worth watching. My cousins little boy, Blake, is quite the dancer. He was dancing even more at the very end after my sister, Kim, taught him even more moves (the sprinkler....)...although my camera was already packed away in the car, bummer, it was quite the scene.

Boobies

When asked what those two dots were on the gingerbread man Julia said, "boobies"!! I guess it is a gingerbread woman. Craft time turned X-rated really fast :-).

Dog Parade

Julia said that she had to get Lucy dressed for the dog parade. Not sure what parade that is, but too cute to not take pictures!

Our tolerant dog....

Big hugs!

Big kisses!

Had to throw one of Reese in here

Julia wanted her picture taken too.

Crawling!

Reese started crawling about 1 1/2 weeks ago (first official day was 11/24). She is so proud of her new trick and LOVES getting to toys she could not get to before, especially those in Julia's room :-). I thought Julia would be mad and stop Reese from playing with all her toys but she has done so well! She shares (most of the time) with Reese and is also so proud of her little sister crawling. Hopefully this lasts.

Swimming Lessons

Julia has been taking swimming lessons for about 2 months now. This is the first official lesson she has taken. The other classes were just more getting her familiar with the water, but now she is learning all the basics. So for Julia, she is coming a long way since just this summer she wouldn't put her head under the water or swim without a life jacket. Don't get me wrong, she LOVES the water and always has, but just never knew how to swim. So now we are being a bit more proactive and getting her swimming so next summer she will be able to keep up with her cousins in the pool :-).

Yes, she is in an outside pool in November! And yes, it is more of an over sized hot tub, but she is learning to swim none the less!

Julia and her buddy, Logan

Blowing bubbles

Head under water

The best part of this video is the end. For those of you that know Julia well know that she is ALWAYS hungry. Everywhere I go I bring a big bag of food with me as she eats all day long. The girl seriously has a hallow leg, no joke.

Jakob is #1!!!

My nephew, Jakob, and his team won first place for their division in the football playoffs a few weeks ago (yes I am behind always). Way to go Jakob and the Eastlake Wolverines!!!!

A real nail-biter of a game

Cheering section, Bruce and Danny

Ellie, Julia, Brady and Cameron

Nana and Reese

The winning team!

Just Pictures

Just some recent photos of the girls......

Grub time

Little Rocker, yes she dressed herself

Julia and her friend Matthew

Always willing to help me bake...and lick the spoon

Had to show me how messy she got

Sports Sampler

Julia has been taking a sports sampler class every Monday for the past nine weeks. They did 3 weeks of soccer, 3 weeks of baseball and 3 weeks of basketball. While I did get a lot of videos this one was the shortest to post. All of the other videos were about 5 minutes long waiting for Julia to score a point, hit a home run, etc. She loved the class but on the last day she said she didn't want to go and instead wants to take up ballet. Not sure how my above and beyond energetic girl will do in ballet, but I think that we will give it a try. Santa may give her some ballet lessons this year!

She shoots, she scores!

Stanley Visit

Jim's sister, Erin, and her family drove up from northern California to visit and celebrate Dave's birthday. This is the first time we met their youngest, Solana, who is 4 days younger than Reese. Julia and Reese had a great time visiting with their cousins down in Olympia.

Reese hanging out showing how she is almost crawling

Trinidad and Reese

Trinidad making Solana laugh

Arundhati and Julia dressed up

Grandma and Grandpa with all their grandkids (honestly, this is the best picture I got, those kids never stood still!)

Halloween Part V

Is Halloween over yet? 5 posts just for Halloween! It is a fun day. Julia said to me yesterday..."Mommy, next year I want to be a soldier for Halloween, and I won't change my mind this time". She was a fairy for a few Halloween parties but then she got the bride dress that Grandma Stanley made for her and she fell in love and switched outfits :-). How adorable is my little bride?

a look into our future.....

pre trick-or-treating party with our neighbors.

finally it is time!!!!

one house set up a photo booth of sorts, pretty cool!

the next morning, all the loot

Halloween Part III

I volunteered to make cookies to decorate for Julia's party at preschool. Julia and I made the batter before Reese got up but we had to let the dough chill and I wasn't sure how to occupy two kids while I rolled out the dough, cut them and cooked them. Good thing Julia is always there to help! Too bad the cookies didn't turn out quite as well :-(

making the cookies

favorite part, licking the spoon

Julia occupying Reese by feeding her cheese and puffs, they did this for 1/2 hour! I truly lucked out

Reese is so happy to have big sister paying attention to her

Cookies before the oven, witch hats

After baking, no longer look like witch hats, oops!

Halloween Part IV

There was a dad's pumpkin night at Julia's preschool on Friday (10/30). Julia was so excited all week to go somewhere special with dad. Jim even did me a favor and took a few pictures; which is a first! Way to go Jim....

excited to meet Dorothy

Fishing

Having so much fun hanging out with Dad

I take it this was to be a bowl of "guts"

Halloween Part I and II

Part I
Our neighborhood puts on a Pumpkin Patch Party at Remlinger Farms each year....the good part, you get in for a lot cheaper than normal.....the bad part, the day is predetermined. We opted to go this year but unfortunately it was the rainiest day of the fall thus far! So I literally only have two pictures from that day. It rained when we got our pumpkin and ate (no big deal as it was covered) and then it stopped raining while we did rides for an hour or two but I was convinced it was going to downpour again so I left my camera in the car :-(. Oh well, lesson learned.

And I wonder where Julia gets it from.....

Part II
We had our annual PEPS (moms group) party this morning. Not many kids where there due to illness and such but we tried to round up the few that made it for some pictures.

Julia is the fairy on the end, Reese was out of her costume at this point

Ballerina, Tinkerbell and a Fairy, how cute are they?!

Reese (lovebug outfit....or at least that is what we are calling it. Julia picked it out) and her two pirate buddies

Got one with the hat!!!!