Merry Christmas!!

So here is the Christmas post!  Our first Christmas in the Pacific Northwest!

It was lots of fun with our real tree and our new house!

 

Here we see one of the major differences between the boys.  Grandpa Kyle asked for a bathrobe and Carter wanted a new Neff hat.  (Grandpa K also asked for slippers, too, and he was so excited to have both)

A super awkward and forced hug by Steve and I after they opened gifts they got for each other....

 

Modeling the new clothes from great grandma and great grandpa... they always pick the best colors for the boys!

 

 

Reading their new books.....

 

 

 

These stupid socks!  They had to have Nike Elite socks so we put them in their stockings.  Any other parents out there that has had to buy these things knows my financial irriatition with it!!

 

 

It was a great Christmas in the PNW... We had a really fun day celebrating and eating!  It was a quiet day with just the four of us and we had a nice day together.

 









This week is December 15th

This is the crazy Cat Lady post.

Both of the boys had been asking about a kitten.  Well I love animals and I can't resist that!  Frankie (the cat) and Josie (the dog) are great pets and I didn't think it would be any big deal to get another baby kitty.  They are super easy!

Unless you rescue TWO of them....

I justified this insane move by saying now each boy would have his own cat.  Frankly, I am just weak.  They were the last 2 left from their litter of 5.  They were 8 weeks old and had been together alone the last 2 weeks and I couldn't bear to break them up.  What would happen to the other one?  What if they didn't get adopted, too?

Ugh, weakling!! 

Steve said he knew all along that we would end up with both of them.  In fact, I recall him laughing out loud when I said we were only getting one of them. 

The boys were THRILLED and Carter named his Mabel.  She is the little gray one. 

Kyle's is the big black male and his name is Lucky.  He eats a LOT and his nickname is "fat cakes". 

For Christmas I ended up with a crazy Cat Lady coffee mug.  Everyone thought that was just HILARIOUS. 

It was pretty funny and I did deserve it.  I like it, too!

-- Jenny and the Cats --

This week is December 8th

So I decided to go to my company Christmas party!!   It was a huge sacrifice to go down to Fort Lauderdale, Florida in December, but I made it work.  HA!

It was a very quick trip... I flew down Friday morning and flew back Sunday afternoon, but it was worth it!!  I got to see my friend, Jen, and we spent the weekend together and it was so fun!

I had to throw this in here and show you guys.... this is made from plastic water bottles!

It was warm and sunny and just plain awesome and it was very hard to come back to Seattle.  Jen upgraded our room and this was our view...

 *SIGH*   Hanging out at the pool and getting massages was really overrated.... Rain and coffee is where it's at!!

I hope you all have a good week!

Jenny and the Jets

This week is November 24th

We cut  down a Christmas tree!

Okay but not this one... Kyle picked this out when we got there and we had to explain the concept of the ceiling.

It does not feel like a Pacific Northwest Christmas unless you go out into the wilderness and cut down your own tree!

They even gave us the small, dull saw!  Steve was not happy when he saw that.  I mean, honestly, I say "we" but everyone knows it was Steve doing the work while we drank free apple cider.

This was a big deal for us....  a pre-lit, fake tree saved our marriage about 12 years ago.  You can't have a type A and then me both with ideas on how the lights should go.  I say, spin the sucker around, throw the lights on, and let's get some cocoa!  Steve.... not so much.  Each strand must be wound around the branches carefully and out of site.... you get the picture. 

We were so excited to start this new tradition, but we were more excited about putting a tree on top the truck!

It made it home in one piece and we are still married after putting the lights on!

Take care everyone!

- Jenny and her fearless woodsmen -

This week is November 11th

We made it through the holidays and now I am back to my blog!

This week my friend, Michelle, and her son, Mike, came to visit us!  They are from North Carolina so they got to experience some classic Northwestern weather!   It was rainy.  Imagine that!



As you all know, no visit is complete without a tour of the Chateau St. Michelle Winery!  We went through 4 tastings so Steve had to bring us home.   HA HA!

The grounds are gorgeous and we had to get a picture of Michelle by her namesake!



We did something very new and cool... we visited the EMP museum!  That is the Experience Music Project created by Paul Allen. 



There are all kinds of things to see, from his huge Nirvana and Rolling Stones collections to the sci-fi and horror exhibits that he has. It was super cool.


This is the Anubis mask from the movie Stargate and the fishman from The Creature from the Black Lagoon!


NIRRRRRRRRR-VANA!


The EMP is right next to the Space Needle so they got to take that in as well!



We went to the waterfront and saw the market and had dinner by the Sound.  We also hit the first Starbucks from 1971!!

It was so fun and we had a great visit!  It went by so fast, we couldn't believe it.

It's Halloween this week!!

Our first Halloween in Washington!  Believe it or not, we had a 2-hour window where it didn't rain and we got our trick or treating in, completely dry!

The boys were invited to trick or treat with friends in a nearby neighborhood.  Carter went with Spencer, and he was the killer ghost from the movie "Scream".

*SIGH*   I remember when he was cute things.  Now he is all about the scary.

Kyle went with his friend Cole, and they were ketchup and mustard!  HA HA!!  It was hilarious!

I am sorry this one is so small... but you get the idea!

The boys also carved their own pumpkins this year and they were very proud of their work, and so were we!

We are moving on to November next!!  We miss you!

This week is October 21st

So Steve and I hosted our first ever Halloween party!!  It had been suggested that we might host a party and we got a great response!  In fact, after we suggested it, it was requested that make sure we made good on it!

It was so fun!  Our theme was "A Massacre at the Oscars".  We had all kinds of great costumes come through the door!  There were both movie and TV personalities, as well as a director, some vampires a photographer from TMZ and Michael Jackson!!

DJ Jazzy Steve put together 8 hours of music so we could dance the night away.  It was an adults only party so we were able to dress up, drink, dance and there weren't any kids there to make fun of it!  It was awesome!!

We got together with our friends next door and come up with some ideas to do together.  Keri and I were Bat Girl and then Robin Girl (or Robinette?  not sure what her real name was) while Steve was Goose and Patrick was Maverick.  Steve, keeping with the Halloween theme, was "dead" Goose and he was bloody and covered in seaweed.

We had a wonderful time and we were so happy that we had so many great friends to celebrate with!

This was our best costume winner, Austin Powers!  (aka, our friend, Luke)

I hope you had as much fun as we did this year!!  This has now been deemed an annual tradition.  I say next year's theme should be "Vampire Night Club"!

Jenny and the Jets