Celebrating the Holidays

Bellevue Botanical Garden Lights

On Friday December 23rd we decided to get into the Christmas spirit and see the lights and festivities that Bellevue has to offer. We started out at Bellevue Botanical Gardens. They put on a great display of lights. It really was a spectacular presentation... I was impressed!

Then we headed into downtown Bellevue to check out "Snowflake Lane." Every Decemeber the street right outside of Bellevue Square(the largest shopping mall around) turns into a what they call Snowflake Lane. Each night they have a little celebration at 7 pm. The street is decorated at each lampost with a huge drum. They have snowflake light displays lighting the street. At the start of the show they have a singer at each of the drums passing out candy canes and then they all get on their drums at start to sing when the music comes on... they are all playing some sort of tamborine. After a few minutes of the dancing carolers... the little drummer boy music comes on... out come the drummers through the crowded streets.... they each stop at their respective HUGE drum and get ontop and wait for the other drummers to get to their spot. The fake snow begins to fall from the top of the mall. This is one HUGE production. Ellie LOVEd it! She was dancing away ontop of her daddy's shoulders. It was a big hit at our house and we will definetly go again next year.

The Windstorm 2006

We woke up at 12:30 am on Friday morning to the creaking and crashing noises of branches falling in our backyard. We look outside and the trees were swaying at a pretty scary angle. We decided to venture outside to see the what was to be just the beginning of the damage caused by the storm. While we were outside the power went out. Little did we know it wouldn't be restore for FOUR days! We scrambled around looking for flashlights and batteries, etc. We didn't sleep at all that night. I was too worried about the crashing noises I was hearing outside. The winds got up to about 75 miles per hour. At about 1:30 am we heard a one loud creaking noise and a thud was felt throughout the house. We knew that couldn't be a good sign but felt it safer to stay inside at this point and not venture out.

Once the sun came up we went outside to survey the damage. All of our neighbors starting to come outside at the same time and we all took a walk around the neighboorhood to see how everyone was doing. Two houses down a big tree came down and blocked off the road. Two houses down in the other direction one of their trees went into their master bedroom. Luckily no one was hurt.

The house next to this one had two trees hit it. And the house next to it had a tree go right through their bathroom. It was an incredibly strong storm.

It was interesting to see the sense of community as a result of the storm. All of the neighbors really got together to see what we could do for eachother. Unfortunatly a cold front came through the day after the storm and brought the temperature into the thirties so we were all pretty cold while waiting for the power to be restored. Brandon, Ellie and I eventually went to stay with Brandon's parents in University Place. They didn't have power either but they had hot showers because they have a gas water heater and they also had a nice wood burning stove that warmed up their house. When we came back home on Monday to check on the house we had a nice surprise. The power had been restored at 5 am! We were SO happy. We were very lucky as most of our friends didn't recieve power until just Thursday! It really made us appreciate our nice warm house!

Ellie's First Encounter with Santa!

We went to Brandon's parents ward Christmas party. Ellie was up three hours past her bedtime by the time that Santa came but it was well worth the wait. She was a little confused by this strange looking man and especially by all the people that were looking at her as she

sat on his lap. Even though we couldn't get a smile out of her we thought

she did pretty well :) Ellie being spoiled by Grandma with cake. Yummeee.

That is her expression as she is saying her usual peeeezzzz(please).

Seattle Supersonics vs. Utah Jazz

Ellie spent the night at Grandma & Grandpa's last weekend while Brandon and I enjoyed a fun date night. We started out the date at Red Mill burgers in Seattle....ummm yummy. It was literally the best burger I have ever had. So then we headed to Key Arena and watched the Super Sonics play the Utah Jazz...it was a good game but the Sonics lost 109-118.

After the game we enjoyed the lights at the Seattle Center with a view of the Space Needle.

Snowy Seattle

It is officially the Holiday Season!

We recieved our first snow fall of the season and we are excited! Ellie was mesmerized by the snowflakes and it kept her pretty entrained for the afternoon which we were grateful for. We decorated the tree last night and she was so excited when she woke up this morning and the Christmas tree was all lit up with decorations on it! By this afternoon most the decorations had already been taken off the tree because Ellie wanted to play with them... oh well.

We are excited for the holidays!

Happy Halloween!

Our little pumpkin.
Ellie had a great Halloween. She loved the easy trick-or-treating at Brandon's work Halloween party. What she really loved was the balloons at the party. Had she had the opportunity she would of traded in all her candy for one of those. It was a little difficult as the way they designated who was participating was by a balloon in front of the office. She had a hard time understanding that the ballons weren't free for the taking.

We did a little trick-or-treating around the neighborhood as well. She loved seeing all the neighbors and especially their dogs!

Happy Halloween!

Trip to Idaho & Utah

We are back! We have been in Idaho & Utah for the last couple of weeks. My parents were able to come back from Guatemala for General Conference. My dad spoke in the Sunday afternoon session so the whole family was able to be together and support him. He did a great job and we are all so proud of him. It was so fun to be together with the family.

Upon arriving to SLC Christie and I took the three little ones on up to Idaho

to be with Jeanette and her family.

Jeanette had her fifth baby on September 1st so we went up to be there for the baby blessing.

On Saturday we all went to Denton's football game to cheer him on.

Go Denton!Ellie and her cousin Lydia.On Saturday afternoon we went painting in Jeanette's backyard which consists of 16 beautiful acres. I even joined in on the fun. It was a blast... even though I did get a welt on my arm and still have a nice bruise to remind myself of the event.

Mom & Alex enjoying the fire during the paintball game.

On Sunday we were able to see Evie's (Jeanette's fifth baby) blessing.

Grandma & Ellie on the tramp.

Ellie LOVED jumping on the tramp and would squeal with delight whenever we jumped!

The Pink Room

The morning after Ellie's first night in her new PINK room.

Hmmmmm...

I think she likes it!

Church

Ellie loves going to church. She loves running around in the big building and meeting new people. Meanwhile for Brandon and I church has become a bit of a stressful experience. The first Sunday in our new ward in Washington Ellie and a new little friend she met decided that they wanted to help the lady at the front play the piano.... we weren't quite fast enough and sure enough they helped play! Anyway, we are counting down the months until Ellie goes into the nursery so we can actually listen again!

More fun with cozy coupe...

More fun with the cozy coupe.

Ellie hasn't quite figured out how to drive it.

She loves the horn and playing with the steering wheel.

She loves to push it. She knows how to drive it backwards....

We are just still trying to learn how to drive it forward! We'll keep you posted.

Backyard Fun

Ellie has her first backyard.... and she loves it!
Her favorite thing to do is pull the moss
(which we have LOTS of because we live in Washington!)
off the rocks.
Here is some dirt!
Ellie has learned how to

RUN!

We are trying to keep up with her!

The Cozy Coupe

Ellie went to a friends house last week and they had a little cozy coupe. She loved it! She didn't want to get out of it. Ever since I have been looking for a cozy coupe for Ellie. Well we got one yesterday and we put it out in the backyard. She hadn't seen it yet. I was trying to feed her breakfast in her highchair and she kept on reaching for the slider doors and grunting to get out of her highchair. I had no idea what she wanted or what she was trying to do. I looked outside..... the cozy coupe was within eyesight.. she had found it already and couldn 't wait to play with it!

Woodland Park ZOO

Today Ellie and I went to the Woodland Park Zoo with Kacey & Jack Karren. Jack is a about 5 months older than Ellie and they love playing together. Ellie's favorite thing at the zoo was the goats.... yes I realize we could have just gone to a petting zoo to the see a goat but that is what she wanted.

The highlight was to see the 6 maybe 7 foot tall bear that was playing in the water right in front of us. Ellie was very confused as I was trying to convince her that the creature she was seeing was a bear. You see... her favorite stuffed animals are her bears.... she has about 6 of them in different shapes and sizes. Her absolute favorite are two small pink ones. We call them both simply by the name Bear. So when I was calling this HUGE 7 foot creature Bear.... she was very confused.

It was a perfect day in Seattle for a trip to the zoo and we had a great time.