Writing, Chopsticks and 8 years of Love

Jude can write his name! Well, kind of...with a little help from the "dotted line" theory of letter writing. He is very, VERY proud of himself and we're working with him to add more letters to his repertoire! You can see, he is even writing "I love you" in his own style!! It is amazing to me to see him grow and learn each and every day.

And Happy 8th Anniversary to us - what a great 8 years! We went out to one of those Japanese restaurants that cooks the meal right in front of you (thank you, Grandma and Grandpa John!!). Jude had a great time and, after thinking chopsticks are ninja swords, actually was able to navigate food into his mouth using them!! Everyone at our table, including us, were very impressed with his skills.

Our chef was quite impressive, making flames, volcanoes and tossing eggs all over the place, Jude was extremely entertained! Plus we had Legos to keep him busy once the "show" was over, so the dinner was very pleasant for all 3 of us! We'll definitely have to make that a family tradition. And maybe we'll sneak away on an actual date this weekend to have some adult dinner and celebration :)

Grandma Grandma Grandma!

We sure had a fun weekend this past weekend when Grandma came to visit for 4 days! It was really fun and a perfect balance of hanging out and running around. Jude showed Grandma all about playing Lego Star Wars on the Wii as well as the old-fashioned Legos (which he L-O-V-E-S!!). They played at the Children's Museum, Charlie Safari's (this indoor bouncy house, playground place), the library and the park!

Jude is a big helper these days, and loves to do "chores" so he can save money for a new Lego Yoda mini-figure. He helps put away clean clothes, rake up leaves, and clean the bathtub. We give him some change and he puts it in his bank for when he has enough money for his Yoda. He's so responsible! Here is a picture of him "cutting" vegetables for a salad, with Grandma's help!

Here' s a random cute picture I found on the camera, post-bathtime and in his robe. He looks like such a big boy in this picture!

We had a ninja playdate with Brolin who loves Ninjago Legos as much as Jude does. They put on Jude's ninja Halloween costume - Brolin has the shirt, Jude has the pants, and they had a great time pretending they were the characters from Ninjago. I could barely get a picture of them still, they were moving around so fast!!

Finally, here's a quick shot of Jude's Valentine's day lunch. I love making him these little fun lunches for Jude depending on the holiday and this one has been one of the easiest. He won't be at preschool on the 14th, so he gets his lunch a day early! The hard-boiled eggs didn't turn out like the picture (do they ever?) but the idea still comes across.
Happy Valentines Day everyone! We love you all very much!! oxoxoxox

The Storm of the Century

That's what they are calling it, anyway. It sure was fun for the first few days, but being without power for 5 days really was a pain in the you-know-what. 15 inches of snow, an ice storm and then an 80-mile-an-hour windstorm? Really? Here's some pictures:

The front yard before it really got bad. By the time the snow stopped falling, Jude was not interested at all in being outside in it. It was so deep, it kept getting in his boots and his pants and it just was not very fun.

This is a picture of the ice that covered everything - maybe you can see that every single branch is covered with 1/4 inch of ice. And see those cottonwood trees bending in the background? Yeah, most of them are gone now. Most of them became falling spears of branches as the ice and then wind broke them one-by-one. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

Man, these wires were low and totally covered in ice. Thankfully, it is our phone line and not our power line, but the really low one in the back is our neighbors power line. We watched, fearfully, as these wires stretched and stretched until they were just 5 feet above the ground. It was a bit tense to say the least.

Ironically, the two things I was hoping would fall down weathered the storm just fine. Our old diseased Dogwood tree in the back that needs to come down somehow managed to stay upright when by all intent, it totally should have fallen down since it's rotten on the inside. AND, that gross old, rotten, broken covering for the back porch that needs to come down really could have done us a favor and fallen down by itself. But, nooooo, it had to make it through, too.

Anyway, we got power back Tuesday morning, only to lose it again Tuesday night. But, it came back Wednesday afternoon and hasn't gone off since!! What a whirlwind of insanity and we are thankful and grateful to be back home and into our routine. And, it helps to keep it all in perspective and remember that as stressful as it was for us, we really are very lucky to have what we have and to have each other. But, let's hope that WAS the storm of the century and we never have to go through it again!! Geez!!

Snow Storm Update

Well, here we sit in the second hotel in a week, but this time it's not for vacation! The snow storm we talked about in our last post turned out to be a WHOPPER of a storm, hitting us with over 10 inches of snow in one night! On top of what had already fallen, we had about 14 inches of snow in our backyard. It was so much that Jude didn't even want to play in it because he couldn't walk! He kept saying "The snow makes me fall down, I want to go inside." We did make a cool snow fort and had a great snowball fight with William when he came home one day (an ambush!!)
The snow came on Tuesday night, then on Wednesday we were hammered with an ice storm - about 1/4 inch of ice was covering everything. We could hear the trees in our neighborhood cracking and watched many branches falling from high up. We lost 2 trees (one hazelnut) and maybe our beloved willow tree, too.
At 8am on Thursday morning, our power went off. It was cold outside, still with freezing rain and it was a little unnerving. It's Friday evening now, and the power is still off at the house, they say it might not come on until Monday or so. So, we jumped ship, got a hotel room and 2 miles away and here we are. Warm, toasty, comfy and happy. We made the decision to leave when we couldn't keep the temperature above 60 degrees in the house during the day and Jude was freezing. Thanks to Granny who helped us out with the expense on short notice!!
We'll post pictures of the snow when we get home and get all powered up. Until then, know we're tucked away safe and sound at the Holiday Inn and we have a pool! It's like another weekend vacation just a few miles from home!
Stay warm everyone!

Winter Beach Getaway

This past weekend, we ran away to Ocean Shores to show Jude the Pacific Ocean. It was a really fun trip, even though William spent the weekend in bed in our room, sick with the same cold that both Jude and I passed along to him. Despite that, we still had a fun 3-day adventure at a beach-front hotel with a pool and hot tub! While it dumped snow at home in Olympia, we had blue skies and sun, even if it was pretty cold. We had some flurries there, too, so we didn't miss out on all the snow!

Jude on the dunes, heading to the ocean

Reading in bed - he loved the "military" style sheet-tucking. Poor kid, his Mom does NOT make the bed like that :)

A teasing of snow!

Sick Daddy - remote in hand. There were so many more channels on the hotel TV than at home!

Me and Jude in the dunes - a self portrait

Sunset. He was such a trooper - it was windy and FREEZING! He eventually lost it, though, saying "I'm an icicle, Mommy - I want to go home NOW!!"

Snow at the beach!! It doesn't happen very often, so we enjoyed it!!

Little cutie at the ocean.

Merry Christmas!

What a wonderful time of the year! Jude is loving Christmas this year (as opposed to last year when he was terrified of "that guy that wants to come in our house") and we had a fantastic time. He is such a lucky little boy, most of these presents under the tree were for him!

Jude loved sitting on Santa's lap. He told Santa he wanted Ninjago Legos and a bow and arrow. Santa obliged Jude with his Legos, but thought that maybe Jude might have to wait a few more years before adding a bow and arrow to his repertoire of swords and light sabers.

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family! We love you and miss all of you that we don't get to see!!

Hi all, this is Granny. I am delighted to be able to spend about 18 days with good old "Judo Jude" and what a great time we are having. He's learned so much since I saw him last July - can climb into his own car seat, likes helping Mom put away the clean clothes, goes potty by himself (usually - still working on that), dresses himself (if you are not in a hurry).

The Christmas tree is up with twinkling lights and lots of very tempting presents underneath. This concept of having to wait to open them until Sunday is sometimes frustrating to poor Jude so tonight he gets to open a Solstice present.

I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a safe and healthy new year.