Spider baby

London is moving!

Look out world... London has started scooting on her buns across the floor to get into things! It's about time she got her lazy buns in motion!

Good morning

Serious bed head. Dont look at me.

Holiday Staycation

We decided to treat the family to a holiday staycation this year... what a FABULOUS idea that turned out to be! We stayed, sight-unseen at The Hyatt at Olive 8 and it was perfect. Actually, the hotel accommodations turned out WAY better than we'd expected and we hope to stay again.

After checking into our hotel, we packed up the kiddos and walked to the Fairmont to view the Teddy Bear Suite. Jaydan was unsure when we arrived...

Though he was happy to view the trees in the lobby.

Even London enjoyed herself in the saline pool. The spa/pool locker rooms were sweet - if we hadn't had the kiddos we could have really enjoyed the saunas and steam rooms.

The Teddy Bears eventually won Jaydan over and he was happy to hang out.

And happy to take a picture with his baby sister.

Seriously though, would highly recommend this hotel. It was really great to get away from home and stay somewhere new and exciting. We enjoyed clam chowder with fish and chips for dinner at Pacific Place and then delicious room service breakfast in the morning before heading out in the rain to meander through the crowded streets and shops. It really was a fun family event.

Thankful

It's the time of the year to reflect on your life and have a sense of gratitude for all you've been given. We are truly grateful for all our blessings. Our eternal family means everything.

Halloween 2010

Yes, I know I'm REALLY late. We had a fun Halloween with 2 this year - the night began by celebrating Grandma Cindy's birthday with a Spiderman cake. Super for Jaydan's love of superheroes. We made our way to the church Trunk or Treat where Jaydan proceeded to enjoy some homemade chili, games and the candy, of course.

Jaydan enjoying his first real trick or treat experience... all smiles.

Jaydan aka Spiderman holding baby London the dalmation.

at least we got Spiderman to smile for this one.


Spiderman!

Spiderman shoots his web... at everyone and everything... all the time.

Halloween was a success. Jaydan ended up with more than enough candy - he's still going through it and it's nearly Christmas. Looking forward to more spooky fun next year!

Shutterfly for the Holidays

This will be my shameless plug for the season: Bloggers, you can get 50 FREE Holiday Cards from Shutterfly! Check out this awesome deal - totally worth a few minutes of your time and a little space on your blog. Everyone loves FREE right?

I must say that I really do, honestly, love Shutterfly. I have used it for gifts since we had Jaydan early 2008 - particularly the calendars because it's such a great way to photo-journal our year and share it with family. I keep every one after the year has passed so that we can preserve a hard copy of each "year in review" for future viewing - important in our house since everything tends to remain in soft copy, hidden on our computer. I also use Shutterfly for our Chirstmas cards every year to greet our friends and family, wishing them the best for the holiday season and the year to come. It's nice to share an update with a photo of our family with both those that we see often and those we don't see enough. With mainly electronic correspondence these days, it's nice to get something other than a bill via snail mail.

This year I'm LOVING Shutterfly's Story Cards - a quick and easy way to share the highlights of the year plus favorite photos. I'm thinking this will be much more fun than a traditional Christmas letter enclosure. The one that I'm eyeing is called Love 2010 and allows you to bullet point some of the best moments of the year - for us it would include London's birth in June, Jaydan starting preschool and our 6th wedding anniversary. If I really get lazy, Shutterfly will even address and send my cards to my contacts so I don't have to do the legwork - SO awesome for a busy mom. Shutterfly also gets your gifts shipped to you QUICKLY so if you run into a last minute gift need, this is a great personalized way to fulfill.

Enjoy the freebie!!

First day of school!

Jaydan had his first day of preschool on Wednesday. He had lots of fun and I think that he will enjoy it. Keeping our fingers crossed for an excellent year!

Impromptu Sun Cove... the last of summer

We were able to take a quick and impromptu visit to Sun Cove in September. It was great to be able to get away for one more weekend for some sun - it was a beautiful 75* and sunny for us all weekend.

Jaydan got to play on the different play structures, swim in the pool, pick plums & enjoy the toys and kid-friendly things at Cider Works. The tire-horse swing was so cute that Grandma took us into Wenatchee to buy one. He will now be able to enjoy the swing year-round at Grandma and Papa Obermaier's house. He's excited.

Jaydan also slept in a "big boy" bed for the 2 nights of our visit. He was in Papa Dan's bed & was happy to tell about it upon our return. Now that we're home, we're transitioning him to his own "big boy" bed by removing the crib from his room so that London can start to use it. We'll see how that goes.

It was a good weekend and a GREAT way to say our farewells to the sunshine. Both of our football teams - Eastlake and UW - won their games so that was nice icing on the cake.

Seaside 2010

Seaside 2010 was a SUPER FUN trip. We certainly enjoyed our stay again this year - both Jaydan and London seemed to as well. We were a tad worried about travelling London as she was only 2 months old, but she was a trooper and just hung out with everyone.

Night 1 we all went out for dinner... dessert was donuts that were displayed in the nearby case. Jaydan, having not had a donut before, saw them and said "mmmm... I want a chocolate bagel!!" Love it. We lovingly refer to chocolate donuts as chocolate bagels in our house now.

We enjoyed time on the beach - Jaydan made "roads" with the rakes and shovels.

He loved to hang out with the big boys.


We had to hit up the carousel and he seemed happy about that (classic smile and all)

Jaydan LOVED swimming in the pool. He became very daring & was jumping in like a crazy kid.

All in all, it was fantastic. The weather wasn't too bad either, only sprinkling for short bouts on one of the days. We look forward to another trip next year!!