Snowflake Lane with Grandma & Grandpa

The weekend before Christmas, Grandma & Grandpa Stevens came up for a visit and some Christmas shopping. We ended up at Bellevue Square Mall and decided to check out the Snowflake Lane Holiday show along with just about every other family on the Eastside. All the wait and crowd was all worth it when the music began and Clara's face lit up with excitement. She loves singing Christmas songs and a few of her favorites were included in the show. He favorites are Jingle Bells, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Little Dummer Boy.

Enjoying the lights, music and eventually SNOW with Papa Mark!

Check out those wide eyes!

Clara with her Grandpa & Grandma Stevens

Christmas Baking with Mommy

Clara helped Mommy out with a little of the Christmas baking. We didn't get to a lot of baking this year but managed to get a few batches of Krumkake and Kringla. We even tried dipping a few Kringla in dark chocolate and Clara loved getting to lick the chocolate off the spoon!

Neighborhood Christmas Festival

Seattle Children's Hospital Toy Drive

Last week I hosted the December meeting for my Hope on the Hill, Seattle Children's Hospital fundraising guild. This month our guild's project was a holiday toy drive for the patients at the hospital and I have been responsible for collecting and delivering the toys. Clara woke up one morning to a large pile of donated toys in the dining room and was a bit confused but absolutely delighted! It did not take long before she was picking out some of her favorites...

...stealing them...

...and making a run for it!

Below is a photo of most of the toys we collected for the drive. A big THANKS to everyone who helped make this a success!

Reindeer Festival

Cougar Mountain Zoo in Issaquah puts on a fun Reindeer Festival each year highlighting their interesting reindeer exhibit. Did you know that all of Santa's reindeer live at the zoo, the whole crew - Dasher, Blitzen, Rudolph and even Olive as in "all of the other reindeer"? We received quite and education about reindeer and can't believe how much their antlers have grown since our last visit at the beginning of November. They grow 3/8" a day!

We attended this event on a COLD morning last Saturday with the Issaquah Mom's group. We made sure to dress her in several layers but didn't remember gloves and scarves for ourselves.


And where Santa's reindeer hang out, Santa's bound to be close by. In the photo above Clara's face lit up when she watched Santa emerge from his hut in the reindeer area and walk toward us. We have been reading a lot of books and talking about him a lot at home. She knows he says "ho,ho,ho" and when asked about Santa, Clara will say, "Santa brings toys...and CANDY!" After her fearful response to him last year, we were not sure what to expect this year.

Luckily we made it to Santa's house just at the right time to watch one family get their photo with him and for Clara to have a little conversation with him. At first she was not willing to even go near him. She preferred to squawk at him from across the room but tensed up quite a bit when Kevin asked if she would sit on his lap. Once he offered her the chocolate and a giraffe to hold she was a little more comfortable but the best we could do was get a family show with Clara on Kevin's lap. After we left she went back to jabbering on about Santa. Our favorite line being, "Santa is a nice boy."

Sitting in Santa's sleigh with Mommy

Listening to a Christmas story with Daddy

Checking out the deer with Lachlan and Kyler

We warmed up for a while in the craft area while Clara wrote a nice letter to Santa Claus. She was pretty proud of her work and liked the idea of putting it in the mailbox.

Watching the animals together. This trip Clara seemed to like the wallabies and alpacas best and was not scared by the cranes. She liked the adult tigers but was really upset when the baby tigers were playing rough with one another and burst into tears.

Clara and Daddy having fun in the sleigh of toys!

Decorating for Christmas!!

This year we wanted to get decorated for the holidays a little early (for us, some people in the neighborhood had things up right after Halloween) so we would be in the spirit for a few small events we were holding here at the house. The Sunday after Thanksgiving Kevin hung all the Christmas lights and I worked on hanging garlands and weeding through the piles of holiday decor that we have already amassed. When Clara woke up from her nap the house was in disarray with a collection of new things to explore - her kind of heaven!

She LOVED getting to help us with the Christmas tree and so far only one ornament casualty at Clara's hand and it wasn't even on the tree yet. We have a Scout-sized tree in the family room that just has lights on it and plan to let her decorate it a little later.

Playdate

Some cute photos of Clara and her best buddy, Mr. Davis.

Great Wolf Lodge II - Holiday Celebration

When we were leaving the Great Wolf Lodge, they were having a holiday celebration which included a visit from Santa Claus. We got out of the water just in time to watch him arrive.

Instead of bringing the reindeer and his sleigh, this time Santa decided to sky dive in with some of his elves. While it was a lot of fun to see, it was quite an adjustment going from the humid, 83 degree swimming area to the frigid winter weather outside to watch Santa make his jump. Luckily Grandma & Grandpa's SUV was parked near the landing area so Clara & Mommy waited in the car until Santa's plane was in sight.

After his successful landing, we all headed back into the lodge for some holiday songs, tree lighting and a display of indoor snow. Clara waved at Santa but made it clear she did not want to get too close. It had already been a long weekend and we were not going to push. She was simply delighted with the "mooosic" and snow.

P.S. Notice Clara's purple coat and jersey (on under her pink jacket) and my t-shirt. Kev had his UW shirt on earlier and later for the game, too! It was Apple Cup day and we made it home just in time to watch the second half of a great game! Woof!

Great Wolf Lodge

Laughing in our room!

Dancing with excitement about going swimming!

The day after Thanksgiving, Kevin's side of the family traveled to Grand Mound to go to the new Great Wolf Lodge where there are indoor water slides along with many other activities for kids. Most of us had a blast. While Clara was limited in the activities that she could participate in because of her age, she loved it all! She played in the kiddie pool for two days and would have kept on playing if we had stayed longer. With all of the family there, including Grandma Jan & Grandpa Mark who joined us for an afternoon, there was always someone to hang out in the little kid area with Clara so that we could hit the fun water slides!

Clara playing in the fountain with Daddy

We were a little worried about how she would take to the life vest, but once she realized that wearing it meant she could have some fun in the water, she was great about it!

Daddy & Clara going down the one slide that Scout LOVED!

Thanksgiving in Quincy

We have so very much to be thankful for this year! We really enjoyed celebrating the holiday with our wonderful family. The last big family holiday in Kevin's childhood home in Quincy. We really enjoyed one another and feasted on a wonderful spread of Thanksgiving treats. This year I was extra-thankful for all of our sweet nieces and nephews (yes, that means you too, Jason & Zack) for all of their help with Clara. They had her off playing so that Mommy & Daddy could have some nice adult conversations, yet are all so responsible and caring. It was a dream to relax and know that they were looking out for their little cousin.

Daddy & Clara, who was digging into her Thanksgiving Dinner

And then there was PUMPKIN PIE and PEACH COBBLER. Grandma Carol is always spoiling us with her tasty desserts!

Check out the adorable edible turkey centerpieces that Amy's family made. Such a fun idea!

Bathing Bunny

Silly Soapy Hairdo!

Bath photos are just so much fun. Clara loves bath time, just like her mommy, and for that reason we take a lot of baths in the big tub together. When she takes a bath all by herself we it often turns into a great photo opportunity because she is such a happy kid in the water... and because we were gifted several different adorable towels.

Singing a song that ends with a SPLASH!!

6th Annual Friendsgiving

We are thankful for our great friends!

We have a fun tradition with our friends of celebrating Thanksgiving together a week or two before the holiday. Someone hosts and cooks the turkey while others contribute side dishes and desserts. We see it as a great way to have a nice dinner without a lot of work and as an opportunity to stretch our stomachs for Thanksgiving day with our families. Since we have had Clara, it has become easier to host events at our house so that we can socialize once we put her down so this is our second year hosting in a row. This has allowed Kevin to experiment with his turkey preparations and everyone else to try out some new recipes. This year he brined the bird and it was delicious and moist.

Clara enjoys the meal too!

"Big Girl" Momentum

It could just be the candy rewards that she gets for "performing" in the restroom, but Miss Scout has really taken off in the past week with her potty training. We had previously agreed that after the holidays we'd start working with her more, but she now has started to tell us when she has to go. So I guess she is leading us in this process!! We have success several times a day! She really seems to enjoy being a "Big Girl" and Mommy & Daddy are in awe of how amazing our not so little baby is!

Bye Bye Binkie!!

We have hit another exciting milestone in the Michael household... Miss Scout is finally "binkie-free". Clara really only took the pacifier in her crib or in the car to get her to fall asleep past the age of 6 months, but it was a comfort item that she was used to since birth. Thus it remained a key part of our bedtime routine. After milk and having her teeth brushed we'd give her the pacifier and her blanket and she'd typically go right to sleep as long things followed her normal night pattern. Because our system worked so well and she would cry for it if we didn't give her a pacifier, we were reluctant to work towards giving it up. We all have those parental clutches, right!?!

Last Sunday we explained to Clara that we were going to give all of the binkies to the babies who still needed them. We celebrated that she was a big girl and didn't need them any more. She liked this idea until she had lied in her bed for about twenty minutes and was not asleep. Then the fussing began. We went in and she immediately said, "Binkies are for babies." It was quite clear that she was contemplating not having one for bedtime. After hearing her talk to herself in her crib then cry out a few times, it took about an hour and a half for her to go to sleep that night. Now she has not touched a pacifier for either nap or bedtime in a whole week!

I was pretty sure our method was going to work after just a few days, but I did not want to celebrate too soon. We have noticed that she is waking up earlier in the morning and makes a few peeps a night when she wakes up, but all in all giving up the pacifier has gone a lot easier than we expected.

Bye Bye Binkie!

We still have to have conversations at bed and nap time about babies, binkies and big girls, but we are so proud of Clara this week for being a champ and making what could have been a rough transition so smoothly.