Kate's First Christmas--a music video

Warning, this music video is 2.5 min long--but she's pretty cute. It was a busy day full of excitement and a million things to put in her mouth. She even missed her morning nap because of all the fun--she couldn't stop long enough to sleep. Be sure you have your sound turned on when you watch. It's set to Kate's favorite Christmas song which is appropriate when you consider what she got for Christmas. Whenever the song was on, she would dance. (The dancing in the video is real!)

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas! Even though we were snowed in and sick we had a great day. We missed seeing all of our family and thought about them a lot during the day. We so rarely have time to spend an entire day relaxing and playing together as a family. It was wonderful and I can't think of anything that would have made me happier. Allie and Luke were excited and blessed to receive many wonderful gifts. Thank you! Kate was busy, busy, busy. (See video to follow!) Here's a few shots from the day.

No Church!

This was the scene last Sunday as we headed out to church. Cancelled! Yesterday Church was cancelled again. I am beginning to think we will never leave home again. This actually looks pretty good. Now when I step outside our front door the snow goes halfway to my knee. The pool was mostly frozen over too. So weird for Oregon.

Kate Sledding

Kate even got in on the action. I'm not sure if she liked it much, but she might have liked it when we took Luke down. That was fun!

Allie sledding

Allie took to sledding like a pro. I think she would have stayed out until she was an ice cube the shape of a girl. She helped edit the video and pick the music.

Luke sledding

Luke had a hard time not hitting the wall in the parking lot. He loved it and kept saying, "How do you steer this thing? (I don't think you can steer a cookie sheet.) His final take though was that snow would be a lot more fun if it weren't so cold. I think I would have to agree.

Snow in Oregon!

Last Sunday as we went out the door to leave for church, we heard a squeal of delight from the kids and saw…snow!!! We tried to leave but quickly realized that if we left we might never be able to get back so we parked the van and went back in. Church was cancelled anyway so it was good that we stayed home. We enjoyed comfy clothes, naps, games, and sipping hot chocolate while the kids played outside. It was a nice, rare treat to be home together all day! School was even cancelled for Michael on Monday and Allie’s school was cancelled for the entire week. A week later, we are still pretty much stuck at home with the weather, but enjoying our time together. We don’t get that very often and it couldn’t make for a better Christmas.

Cute Kate

I've been bad about updating the blog so now that we've been snowed and iced in for so long I have some time. Here are some cute shots of Kate that I took around Halloween that I wanted to post.

Elder Wirthlin

I just found out that Elder Wirthlin, an apostle passed away last night. He is one of our favorite speakers and has touched our lives with his words many times. He spoke at the Elementary Ed. portion of my BYU graduation. Just last night before I went to bed I was listening to a talk that he gave in October. It's a really funny talk, but contains such great advice and counsel that I know I will refer to it a lot. Here is a link to it and even if you are not a member of my church, I think that you will find it worth your time to read.

http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-947-9,00.html

Riding the tram

Michael's parents were up for Thanksgiving and on Saturday we went to ride the tram in Portland. The kids loved it, but I was a little nervous being up so high. We had a great view of the city.
I also took Kate in for her 9 month check up last week. She is 27 1/2 inches long (50%) and 15lbs11oz (6%) My new goal is to get her weight up so we can turn her car seat around when she's 1!

Electric Kate

I'm feeling bad that I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I could do this quickly. I guess the fact that Kate is now officially mobile has cut down on my ability to get things done. In the matter of a few short, frenzied weeks she has gone from an army crawl, to crawling, to pulling up and walking alongside things. She is into everything and eats EVERYTHING she finds in her path (my poor ficus needs to be relocated). It may be worse than a puppy. It has certainly made life more interesting. Anyway, I've always used the electrical outlet plugs recommended for babyproofing. It's never been a need--I don't think Allie or Luke ever noticed them. I just installed them because that's what everything said you needed to do to be a good parent. Well, now I know why. The other day, after Kate was tired of playing with my cell phone (which I have no idea how she got ahold of), she made a beeline to the electrical outlet. I have no clue why--there is nothing else on the wall that would attract her attention. At this point she tried to reach up to play with it, but couldn't quite reach. Thank goodness!

Kate abandons the cell phone for a more "stimulating" diversion.


Attempting the innocent look

Now she knows she's cute--her favorite face when I say "no".


Probably thinking, "If I close my eyes, she'll go away and let me finish playing"

Allie's Piano Recital--Purple Mountains

Allie had another piano recital last weekend. This time she performed a piece called "Purple Mountains" that she wrote all by herself. Her teacher Maria was the one who suggested that she play it for the recital and Allie was thrilled. I think it's pretty good--especially for a 7 yr old! She messed up once--she always does at the recital. I think she gets distracted thinking about all the people watching her. I have to comment on her outfit too. All of the teenage "cool" kids wear regular clothes to the recitals. So she had to too. You probably can't see from the video, but she is wearing her red, glitter Dorothy shoes from Halloween. Very cool! I'm posting the sheet music as well if you want to try to play her song! It's actually kind of fun to play! Luke sings it all the time, I think he's heard it so much is just get stuck in his head. By the way, I know the video is horrible--I was holding Kate and whenever Allie plays that song she dances. I was trying to hang on to her and keep her quiet and forgot about keeping the camera steady!

Halloween

It's only 11:00, but the dishes are finally done, the kids are in bed and I'm tired and going to bed. But, I wanted to at least get a few pics of the kids in their Halloween costumes posted. More will come later. We had a great Halloween. We realized that this was the first year Michael got to trick-or-treating with us since going back to school. A real treat! Good night!
PS Thanks Mom for making the costumes--they were a hit!

Decorating Cookies

So one of the coolest things about living in an apartment is that there is always a gang of kids running around to play with. We love having the kids knock on the door and ask Allie and Luke to come out and play. So for Halloween I decided to round up the gang and decorate some Halloween Sugar Cookies. It was a sugar fest and very....energetic...but lots of fun.



Oh yeah, and completely unrelated but still fun--the kids were overjoyed the other morning to come out to ducks in the pool. Kind of gross--but oh well--the pool's closed until summer so someone might as well enjoy it.

Dear Tooth Fairy,

Allie wrote this last night to the tooth fairy--I thought it was very diplomatic and appreciate that she stood up for me. I would hate to have the wrath of the tooth fairy on my shoulders. No worries though--we received a note that the tooth fairy was able to locate the tooth in the garbage can outside. Whew!

I was asked to write the note--some people were having a hard time viewing the picture. Here it is with Allie's spelling:
Dear Tooth Farie,
Today I lost my tooth. I put it in a little dixie cup and put it on the kitchen table. Then on axident, my mom put it in the trash. (please don't blame her) We are SO sorry we can't give the tooth to you. Please understand.
Love,
Allie Melanson
PS I believe in faries

I love the Zoo in the Fall

Fall is my favorite time of year at the zoo. There aren't as many people there, the leaves are beautiful and the crisp, cool air seems to make the animals more active. Allie didn't have school on Friday so it was the perfect opportunity to go. It was an absolutely beautiful day with a perfectly blue sky. Kate even enjoyed it too. She was intent on watching some of the animals--the elephants were her favorite. Our pass is actually to another zoo ( a good deal my friend told me about) and so when we go it says on our ticket that we are guests. The man at the gate asked Luke which zoo he was from. Luke was confused and said, "I'm not from the zoo, I'm a kid!" Somedays I feel like I live in the zoo!

We could watch the sea lions underwater for hours


Kate looking for Prince Charming

Our zoo has a famous new member. Baby Samudra was born in late August. Isn't he cute?

She's cute too!

Allie checking to see if she measures up.

Getting a stamp at the end of your zoo trip is a tradition and we can never leave without a stamp!

Need a smile?

Okay, since this is our family journal I should be posting something about our family, but Luke and I found this today and I had to share. It just makes me smile and makes me forget about everything I'm stressed about. Luke had to watch it 4 times in a row he liked it so much. It only works with the sounds on though. Hope you enjoy!

http://abc.go.com/primetime/afv/index?pn=player&itemId=364210

Kate and the apple

This video is for Grandpa Melanson. We discovered this week that Kate loves apples. I don't usually give them to her whole with the skin on, but we were having apples for snack and as soon as she saw them, she made it clear she wanted one. (Or in other words, screamed until I gave it to her!) It all started last week when Allie and Luke were eating apples and I held them for them while they were cleaning something up. I was holding Kate and she got into Allie's (which was good--Luke's had a whole bunch of dirt on it for some reason) When we got into the car to leave, I took it from Kate and she screamed the whole way to the grocery store for it. When I got her out of the car at the grocery store she looked all around for the apple and ate it the whole time at the store. When we got into the car to leave, the screaming started again until we got home. She was serious! I was surprised that she could remember that long what she was upset about. So now when we have apples, Kate has to have one too. Anyway, I just took the video for fun. I love the look on her face when Luke is around and how she watches her apple so seriously.

Surfer Allie

The long awaited surfer pics of Allie are finally out. She had no fear! She would still be in the water today if we hadn't made her get out.

Just learning with cool Uncle Neil in the back pushing her into the waves



How do you think this ended?

Pure joy!

Surfer Luke

Neil had Luke out in the water too although his mother made him wear how life jacket. So not cool! Since he went head over heel in the wave a few time (and over and over and over) I think it was a good idea. Luke was tough and even endured a bloody nose when his mother pushed him into a wave a little too late. After that, he only wanted Uncle Neil or Grandpa to help him.





On a side note, Luke recently saw Michael studying for Boards and asked him why he studying so much. After his explanation, Michael told Luke that if he became a dentist someday he would have to study a lot too. As if he didn't want to hurt Michael's feelings, Luke said, "Dad, I don't think I'm going to be a dentist. I'm going to be a surfer instead."