Christmas festivities

We made our rounds for Christmas again this year and celebrated with most of our family. AB enjoyed all of her gifts and had even more fun with the boxes the gifts came in! Isn't that always the case?

AB looking like a thug in pink, sitting on a Nordstrom's shoe box, with the other part of the box over her new Mariner's hat, with a reindeer coming out of her pocket... I think she's telling us not to mess with her

Gramma Kay decked out in holiday ribbon - so festive!

AB in her "Belle"-bottoms (I know, bad joke, hehe) that she got from Grandma Lori... what a cutie!

A day with grandpa

The week before Christmas, G'pa came to visit for the day. Annabelle had a delightful time reading books and playing with him. We also packed in her 12 month check-up (a few months late... ooops!) and putting my spare tire on my car because it had a flat - booo. Trev joined us for dinner when he got off work and we finished the night with a challenging game of Trivial Pursuit 90's Edition (did I mention that I won? Ha!). Thanks for a wonderful visit G'pa... can't wait to see you again soon!

Vrooom, vrooom!

Mrs. Potato Head

Art and Diana came over yesterday to give Annabelle some Christmas gifts before they went out of town. One of them was Mrs. Potato Head and I daresay, it is her favorite new toy - especially the green glasses. Just look at her excitement when she opened it!

This is where she wears the green glasses on herself. Neck glasses. Maybe she's afraid of poking her eye.

But we don't mind putting them where they belong and she actually will put up with them for longer than I would have guessed.

Wrapping with a one year old... oh boy

Diana and I had a wrapping party yesterday and Belle wanted to be in on all the action. I brought out multiple toys and books for her to play with, but she was much more interested in snatching gifts we were just about to wrap, sitting on wrapping paper, pulling ribbon of its spool and even climbing or sitting on the gifts themselves. We were able to wrap everything, but we had to learn to be very strategic in order to get it done!

I think Belle particularly enjoyed the sound the paper made when
she walked or sat on it.

She snatched this gift and then attempted to climb and sit on it. I say attempted because she fell off of it at least three times. Hehe.

Lamby

Annabelle and her Lamby

Christmas Treats

Last week we made Christmas cookies with Danyale, Hans and Merry. Danyale had a great recipe for ginger cookies... they were delicious! We also made and decorated sugar cookies. Hans and Merry especially enjoyed using the cookie cutters and frosting the cookies. We had a little extra time and decided to make some chocolate truffles too. I'm surprised we still have a few cookies left! They are all so scrumptious!

Our friend Roe came to visit us this past weekend. We had such a great time hanging out and Trev was able to spend most of Saturday afternoon gallivanting around Bellingham with Roe. One of their stops was at a local grocery store where you could build a gingerbread house for free. So of course they did! This was their creation. Good job guys!

A treat of another kind - a new Christmas music CD! Each year Trev and I purchase a new CD filled with Christmas songs. This year Trev found this one by Sufjan Stevens. We absolutely love it! It has some traditional Christmas hymns with a new style and some that sounds as traditional as ever. There are also some songs we'd never heard before. You should check it out on iTunes the next time you have a chance. If you buy it at a store it comes with stickers and a sing-a-long booklet with chords. Fun!

Finding a tree... and the first SNOW!

Meet Dinky, our Christmas tree.

Proud(?) owner of our smallest Christmas tree ever

Here is a picture taken right outside of our condo. The white "de Wilde's" sign is for a nursery. We decided to support our local (literally right next door) nursery and buy our Christmas tree from them. We have a pretty small living room and needed to buy a smaller tree than normal. Let me share a little of our dialogue:

Trev: We're getting a big tree.

Kristen: We don't have room for a big tree. What about this one?

Trev: No, it's too small. What about this one?

Trev: No, it's too sparse. (Answering his own question)

Trev: I'm not getting a tree that's shorter than me. What about this one? (Holding up another tall and wide tree)

Trev: No, it's too big. (Answering his own question, again)

Trev: (Holding up Dinky) This one? But it's so small.

Kristen: It's a cute tree.

Trev: Cute? A cute tree? Ughhhh.

Trev: (measuring the tree with his trusty tape measurer) Okay, let's get it. Merry Christmas.

And this is how we ended up with Dinky. Which, by the way, is the perfect size for our "cozy" living room. Although we look forward to future years when we can get a nice big manly Christmas tree.

We had our first snowfall here yesterday. It was beautiful! It was a perfect day to get our tree and decorate for Christmas. We listened to Christmas songs for most of the day.

Winter wonderland view from our living room window

Our table decorated for dinner guests last night... Trev told both guys they could come over as long as they didn't make fun of our tree. Haha!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent Thanksgiving with the Mauss family down in Bellevue. We ate a deliciously scrumptious feast, went on a few walks, hung out with the family, worked out, and Trev and I even went to dinner and a movie while the grandparents watched Annabelle. It was a relaxing weekend (aside from the working out) and we had a wonderful time with our family. We have so much to be thankful for and we thank God for the many blessings he has given us.

Trev and his mom toasting... this is Trev's special goblet. He absolutely loves drinking out of something so big.

J, Wink and I

Trev and his buddy Roe catching up after not seeing each other for over a year. We were excited to see he and his wife Melissa again! Welcome back friends!

Family pic... Wink just barely beat the camera's timer!

Taking a stroll

AB and Opa checking out the Christmas lights with Grammy Jane, while Trev and I were on our date

Harvest Goodness

Today I received my first harvest bin from our local organic delivery service, Dandelion. They will be delivering a bin of fresh fruits and veggies every other week directly to my doorstep. All of the produce is locally grown and all of it is organic. They also include recipes for every item in the bin, and if you know me at all, you probably know that I need recipes. :) I am so excited to make meals with all my new produce!! Tonight I will be making an arugula salad with roasted pear and walnuts. Yum.

Here is a video of Annabelle walking. She's been taking steps and standing for quite a while now, but only in the last few weeks has she really taking on walking full-time. This is her making her way down our long hallway. She
usually gets more excited the closer she is to her destination. She'll start walking faster and faster until she can crash into you... like in this video. Ha!

Living like kings and queens

We had the enjoyment of spending last week in Cabo with my mom and bonus dad. We spent our time swimming, eating, swimming some more, eating some more, relaxing, reading, sunbathing, meeting new people, swimming some more and sleeping. It was a wonderful week! We felt like kings and queens. The toughest decision we had to make each day was deciding which pool we should swim at. Tough life, eh? The place where we stayed is a pretty big property and you catch "jitneys" (golf carts) to ride around from place to place. Belle loved riding on the jitney, although she was a little skeptical during the first ride. Every time she would hear one drive by, she would open her eyes really big and say, "Oooooooooo!" The bonus of going last week was that my bonus mom was also staying in Cabo with some of her girlfriends. We got to meet up with her twice and enjoy some quality time together. All in all. it was a great trip! Thanks to Mommeee and Johneee for bringing us along!

Belle loved playing on our deck! This is her at sunset peering through the bars.

The three maussketeers on the beach

AB enjoying the sunset on dada's shoulders

Room with a view

And here is Belle at the Sea-Tac airport... hungry, tired and cold. She had just struggled (and I really mean it when I say struggled) through the 4-hour plane ride and was ready to go to bed. She fell asleep in the car less than 5 minutes after leaving the airport.

Clothing Swap

A couple of weeks ago I took part in a clothing swap with a bunch of friends. It was so much fun! We all went through our closets and found clothes that we didn't want anymore but were still in great condition. We got together on a Friday night with treats and drinks and spread the clothes throughout the house. We then had a free-for-all trying on and choosing new items to take home. We all ended up with some fun "new" clothes! We still had a ton of clothes leftover, which we gathered up and donated to a Women's shelter here in Bellingham. It was a great way to get rid of clothes, get a few new items and help out women in need. I would encourage you to do it too!

Our little lioness

Tonight we went to a harvest party for the youth group at our church. We had this great hand-me-down lion costume and we decided to dress Belle in it. Here are some shots of our little lioness...

Love the tail!

She looks like a pretty vicious lion, doesn't she?

Farm pictures

A visit with good friends

Today, Annabelle and I visited our good friends Danyale, Hans, Merry and Peter. We walked around the farm, made cinnamon rolls, had a delicious lunch and enjoyed one another's company.

Danyale and Hans

Merry, Belle and Blacky the kitten

Sweet Merry

AB climbing the stairs... if there are stairs around this is where she will spend most of her time. She likes climbing!

Thanks for a wonderful time, Danyale!

I love dogs!

Before we moved back to Washington, AB had a fear of dogs. If we were around any dogs, she would try and climb as high up into our arms as she could and constantly be looking around to keep an eye an where the dog would be at every moment.

We stayed with our good friends Art & Diana when we first got to WA. They have a wonderful, patient, calm and loving dog named Eva (pictured above) that Belle learned to love. She went from sitting in my lap and reaching out towards Eva, to sitting by herself next to Eva and trying to pet her, to seeking out Eva to pet and hit and make sounds at, and eventually she even let Eva lick her face!

No more fear of dogs! Eva is now one of Annabelle's dearest companions.