Isabel's first school award!

Isabel got an award on Friday for Positive Action, in the theme of of "Responsibility." We're not sure how.... but she did. She got to go to an assembly that was in the afternoon (so after school for her) and got a certificate and everything.
Here's Rebecca (and her matching kitty) waiting patiently...


And here is Isabel finally getting her award!


And this is in the hall, in front of the snowman that Isabel made :)

Becca needed to get in on the action

Is it Halloween already?

The other day the kids decided to get into the dress up bin (still waiting on them to clean it back up) and got into their Halloween costumes. They had a blast running all over the house dressed as dogs, cats, caterpillars, and bees. It was too funny to watch them to worry about making them stop. Once they had chosen their favorite costume, I took their picture :) Isabel is a fantastic caterpillar, Becca is a ballerina bunny (pink bunny costume PLUS a pink tutu) and Josh loves to wear Scooby Doo.

The next morning the party continued. Only this time it was only Becca and Joshy, Isabel was gone to school. They played princess, and Joshy played right along! Here he is without his dress, but he couldn't leave behind the sparkly purse and pink heels!

One sleepy puppy....

Why we live on a hill....

and not in a valley!

This happens EVERY year! Every spring when the snow starts to melt and the massive torrents of rain hit, the valleys all flood. And still people choose to live there! It's like living in a trailer park in Kansas, the tornado is going to have a target on your house.

So why do people choose to live in a flood plain in Washington when we have thousands of hills that won't flood? I don't get it. It's not like this is a new thing, it happens every year, but we always have to act surprised when it does and feel bad for the people who chose not to move after LAST YEAR'S flood.

Makes for some pretty cool pictures though, I took the kids on a drive around Snohomish "Lake" (usually it's a river) and it took us about 6 miles to reach the end of it. And that was just heading south. I have no idea how far north of the river the flood extended. These were taken about 24 hours after the river crested, it got almost to record heights this year! Maybe some of those effected will be ready to sell their property and move to higher ground. It seems it gets worse each year.... go live on a hill!

An extra Christmas Surprise :)

After we finished opening presents and were busily trying to uncover the floor again, a friend of my parents walked past the house with a horse! The girls were of course very interested in the horse, particularly Isabel who has decided that is her favorite animal as of late. He graciously let each of the kids get on the horse and pose for a picture. They were thrilled at their horse ride :)

Did you notice Rebecca is all dressed up in her princess gear? I don't think she took off any of it for the rest of the day. she's wearing a red fur stole (backwards), big sparkly earrings, and a matching ring. Doesn't she pose so nicely as a little princess??

Josh on the other hand was not so excited. The horse was just a HUGE hairy creature to him, and he was sure he shouldn't be on it.

Because it will bug Grandma :)

Joshy has the curliest blonde hair ever, and we let it grow out for a couple months through Christmas just because we knew both Grandma's would like it. But we prefer it short because it lays down flat and never looks messy. When his curls have grown out, it gets really fuzzy every time he sleeps or gets out the brush (he loves to brush his hair when I'm doing the girls' hair). He gets a little baby afro. So as soon as we managed to get home from our holiday travelling, we got out those clippers!

Here he is before the haircut...

So we're posting the after picture just because Grandma won't like it. She gives Josh a dirty look anytime he cuts his own hair really short, and then when he cuts Baby Josh's hair too.... wow, he gets the stink eye for a while :)

So Joshy has short hair again, and our little boy looks like a BOY again :) Sorry Grandma!

Walkin in a Winter Wonderland

We've been having snow on and off since Saturday! Big deal for here, since we're all hills. So Isabel hasn't had school all week, and right now it's still snowing, and doesn't look like it will melt any time soon. Josh is driving back and forth from work with chains on (whoa!) so everything takes longer to do. We're avoiding driving at all. But all the snow makes for some fun play time. Here are some pics of our fun snow sculpting:
We built a fort, which is now even more sturdy thanks to another 3" of snow on top of it

And we built some snowmen (a whole lot bigger and better than Beckett's, lol)


We actually had a different pair of snowmen, but some rowdy teenagers decided to tackle them. Made us really mad, but we just built a new pair instead. I want to see them take these ones down without getting hurt, these ones are now ICE! It warmed up to about 35 degrees and then refroze, so all our creations are here for a while, even after the snow melts.

Merry Christmas Fun

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