And a baby makes four

Coming at the end of August!

Job

After three years of having a weekend husband, I am so happy to announce that I am going to have a real husband!! I could not be more excited. Most of you know that Chris' job has required him to be on the road Monday through Friday and this has been increasingly difficult as Britta gets older. Starting in April he will be working from home. PURE JOY!! It will be an adjustment for sure, but one I couldn't be happier to make.

Cabin

The week following Christmas we spent four nights up in Leavenworth, WA in a cabin we rented. We spent the week stuffing ourselves (I gained one pound for every day spent there) and riding snowmobiles. Britta loved the snow and probably ate a gallon's worth of the stuff. She was so cute in her snow clothes and such a trooper about talking them on and off ten times a day --more of a trooper than I was, that's for sure.

B and I were big fans of the hot tub. It is the perfect place to eat snow.

I just love watching this girl with her cousins. They have so much fun together. 

Christmas

We spent Christmas in Washington this year and as much as I missed my family, it was nice to stay home and relax. Chris had two glorious weeks off of work and it took me a full week to remember how on Earth I function without him. Then I looked at the dismal state of my house and the fact that I had taken a nap every afternoon that he had been gone and realized "hmmm...I guess we don't really function without him...tevs, let's take another nap, Britta."

Since we were going to be home for Christmas, being the young and naive girl that I am, I volunteered to host Christmas Eve dinner at our house. I couldn't understand why everyone jumped so quickly at the proposition. We had a feast and great fun reenacting the nativity, opening gifts, and playing games. And after the children went to bed, I let out a huge sigh of relief and gave silent props to my mom for doing this every year.

 How festive are these two?

 The adult table--stolen from the church with a dollar store tablecloth. We're classy people.

 We converted the basement into a playroom to try and entice the children downstairs. That lasted 2.5 minutes.

 Some angels and a baby Jesus. Baby Jesus is clearly the one with the doo rag. That's our interpretation anyways.

 Angel or devil? Hmm....

 Nifty gifties.

Christmas morning was wonderful.  We slept in until nine. Leisurely opened gifts and ate breakfast and spoiled Britta like any good parents of only one child should do. She was in a perpetual state of wonderment. Santa really came through with this stroller and baby doll, whom she promptly named Patty. I have no idea where she got that, but we like to call her "fatty Patty" -- Britta is not a fan of this nickname.

Birthday Girl

Twenty six never looked so good--I know you were all thinking it, so I 'll just go ahead and say it. The Dominican Republic was really my birthday present so it was a pretty low-key celebration this year. We had a nice family dinner of fish tacos (I could eat those every day) and a birthday cake that was really cheesecake. My husband knows me so well. Cake...pssh.

Chris did come through and get me some awesome new cookware as well. You know you're getting old when pots and pans are a desired birthday gift. Here's to 26!

Dress up

There is little in this world my child moves more than to dress up in Mom's clothes. They say imitation is the sincerest from of flattery, right? Her necessary accessories include: scarves, socks, and underwear around her neck. Everybody's doing it. 

She also loves to wear my shirts. She fashioned herself a robe out of one of my sweaters just yesterday--on the cutting edge of fashion, this one.

This was a particularly intriguing outfit from last week that included three pairs of underwear around her neck (all clean, thank goodness), a belt also around her neck, some socks pulled all the way up, and of course some red heels. This was all her, I was doing dishes when she clickety clacked her way out to show me.