Birthdays in Florida

Having your birthday is alot of fun...so while were in Florida we decided that every day would be a different person's birthday. On Caleb's birthday we made some supper yummy bourbon shrimp crepes. And for dessert we had chocolate crepes with chocolate sauce, strawberries, and whipped cream. yum

Here's our professional crepe maker!

And our shrimp maker

One of the best parts of this recipe is that right after you add the bourbon, you light it on fire. It's pretty hard to capture flame on camera, but it's pretty cool in person.

For my birthday, they made coconut curry chicken with coconut rice and green beans. Not only was the meal really tasty, but I didn't have to cook or clean because it was my birthday. :-D






Note: Don't worry, we also celebrated Titus and Elizabeth's birthday, but we went out to eat on those nights.

Our Florida Vacation

Last week we headed down to Florida with Titus, Elizabeth, Joe and Judah. We had a great time. And even though the weather was only in the low 70's/upper 60's, it was still about 60 degrees warmer than in Boston (or Spokane). It's so nice to be able to go outside without gloves, hats, and coats.

During our typically day, we would do something with the kiddos in the morning (the park, beach, etc...), nap in the afternoon (or at least I would; Caleb would work), and in the evenings after all the small people were asleep we would stay up into the wee hours in the morning playing games and going swimming in our pool. Here are some (actually alot) of pictures from our trip.

Here are some pic's of our place. Everything was super nice, but it was definitely used more for entertainment than for living (ex. there were tons of wine/drink glasses, but only a few pots and pans)

This is facing the other way in the house.

One of the favorite toys for the kiddos were the brooms. They spent hours "sweeping."

They also really enjoyed "cleaning" the pool. Don't worry, they were always closely supervised.

Here are some pictures from the beach.

Titus and Els brought a kite. Here's Joe flying it.

Hannah and I exploring the beach.

Joe had alot of fun at the beach and we got tons of really cute pictures of him (he is very photogenic). Here's one of the many

Caleb and Hannah surprised by a wave

Titus and Judah playing in the water

Hannah and Joe enjoying the sand

Tito & Els swimming. The water was surprisingly warm and pleasent.

Hannah making sure she doesn't get sunburnt. What a Fry!

Here are some pic's from the playground.

Hannah and Judah swinging.

I like this one of Judah. It's hard to get pictures of him smiling.

This is one of Hannah's favorite activities.

Another of Hannah's favorite activities...I don't think I say the same for Judah. :-D

Here's our gaming set up. It was so nice to be able to play games outside at night.

Here we are inside playing Agricola, Tito & Els's new game. This was definitely the most played game.

Here's Caleb enjoying his whipped cream, with some pumpkin bread.

Here's a picture of our fancy Jamacian Shack, complete with whipped cream, chocolate shaves, and strawberries. We cut no corners here.

We also swam some at night, after all the kiddos were in bed. Here I am in my new swimsuit.

Here we go

So on our new camera we can do timer shots where it take multiple pictures at a time. Here are three in the series.

Well, if you made it this far, congrats! We took tons more of good pictures and it was hard to decide which ones to publish.

Anyhow, we had a great time. I'm thinking/hoping that this whole "co-vacationing to a warm place in the winter" should become a tradition...now that we've done it for the past two years...

The Potty

Tonight Hannah went potty for the first time!! It was very exciting. I'm not really sure what triggered it, but Hannah went into the bathroom and pointed to her little seat, so I moved it on to the toilet. She ended up sitting on the toilet for about 20 minutes. I'm not sure if it was an "avoid bedtime" strategy, or if she just wanted more toilet paper. Either way, she did a really good job; she peed twice and pooed several times (pooping also might have been source of the extended potty time). She was really cute and I almost took a picture of her to put on the blog, but I restrained myself, knowing that you all probably don't want to see a naked baby on the pot. Anyhow, I"m excited to get up with her tomorrow morning and see if she'll do it again.

Back from Florida

Caleb, Hannah and I just returned from a wonderful vacation in Florida. We met Titus, Elizabeth, Joe, and Judah down there and had a blast. However, most of our pictures are on our new camera, which we don't have set up to this computer yet, so I will post those later with comments. For now, I will post some more fun pictures from our Seattle trip.

Here's Hannah feeding Caleb. For some reason she really enjoys feeding adults.

Here's Hannah helping Nanna cook. And by helping I mean taste testing every vegetable my mom was cutting for the salad...and in some cases testing twice, just to make sure they were tasty.

Here's Hannah wearing Aunt Liz's sunglasses. They were a great distraction while we were waiting for our food to come.

Also while I was in SEattle we had a bachelorette party for Melissa. We basically hung out and played alot of games. We had a great time, as always. Unfortunately this was the only picture I took.

It's a five hour drive from Seattle to La Grande, so we are always trying to think up ways to keep Hannah distracted. ON the way down we stopped by the McDonalds place half way in between (and had a great time!). But on the way home we went straight through. Here's Hannah enjoying her phone.

Here she is reading.

And her we are playing peek-a-boo. :-D

We also drove down to Olympia to visit Swannee & Brent & family. We had a great time catching up with them. Here's Hannah enjoying a rocking horse they have. (don't bother turning your volume up, the visual is the main purpose)

New Years Eve

New Years Eve was alot fun this year; my best friend Melissa & her beau Ryan planned their wedding reception for that evening. (You'll remember that I hosted a bridal shower for her when I was back in Seattle in November). Here are some pic's of the event.

Here's a pic of Melissa, Ryan, myself, and Caleb. I know it's taboo to post a picture on your blog where you look aweful..but everyone else looks nice. I'm hoping that this picture will inspire Melissa to send me a copy of this one that the photographer took. (hint, hint...)

Also, you will notice the clock in the back ground. We celebrating newyears on Midwest time (aka at 10pm instead of midnight). This was a continuation of a tradition fromMelissa's parents annual new years party from when we were really young. It worked out really well. Great idea Mel!!

These are a bunch of my highschool friends (plus dates). It was great to catch up with everyone. (Sorry about the hand on the right side of the photo...it's the photographer's. So hopefully Melissa also has a better version of this photo)

Here's Melissa and Dave (her dad) dancing.

Here's me and Mel.

Melissa & Ryan had hats and noise makers on every table...and balloons that fell from the ceiling at "midnight." (another tradition)

Here's a good looking couple!! Don't worry, I have sparkling cider. :-D

Here's a picture of the cousin contingent at the wedding. Hugo, Rebekka, Ben, Caleb, me, Kim. I would like you all to note how much cooler all the females look! :-D

All in all, the wedding was tons of fun. Props to Melissa and Ryan for planning such a fun wedding! It was definately a highlight of my Christmas break (and thus deserving of it's own post).

Back from Christmas Vacation

Hello Readers,

Sorry it has been so long since my last post, but I have been having way too much fun in Seattle to sit down and write a post...so here I go.

Hannah and I arrived in Seattle a couple days before Caleb, so we got to spend some extra time with Kim and Ben. Luckily for us, it snowed the second day we were there so Kim and Ben stayed home from work and we all played. We walked to Starbucks (of course) and had some tasty warm beverages and sat by the fire.

As you can see, it was snowing pretty hard, with pretty big flakes. This doesn't happen very often in Seattle!

This is what Hannah looked like when we got there. I think the snow baffled her.

Here's Hannah and Kim at Starbucks playing.

Then we watched some kids sled at the park. Kim decided to join in.



Caleb arrived that evening, making it out just before the big snow storm in Boston and just after they were able to clear most everything up in Seattle. Praise the Lord!!

Then next day we left for La Grande. But first we stopped to hang out with Ben & Hannah and Family in Wapato (near Yakima). We had a great time catching up with them and meeting their 9 month old son, Samuel. This was a great place to stop logistically because Hannah napped most of the car ride to Wapato, and then the next day napped most of the drive to La Grande.

In La Grande we mainly hung out with Caleb's fam. Hannah also had some fun getting re-aquainted with her 2 cousins Joe & Judah. It appears as if I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked. Here's a cute one of Titus, Judah & Joe.




And here's one of Hannah and Great-Grandpa Pratt sleeping. Grandpa Pratt graciously watched Hannah while some of us went out caroling.



We arrived back in Seattle on Christmas Eve, and so much delight, we had a white Christmas. WE spent Christmas day hanging out with my parents and Kim & Ben. Mom & Dad found some old school sleds and we went sledding at the park. It was great fun. All in all, we had a wonderful Christmas time and are truly blessed to have such a wonderful family.