Caroline's first posting & pictures...

I took these pictures with my very own Barbie camera. Santa Claus gave this camera to me. And I LOVE my camera!



I love to sew pillows and stuffed animals. Mommy and Daddy gave me this pretty Christmas present.


Margaret, I know, got this present. It's about weaving. I think she loves it.
Love, Caroline (typed by Mommy).

How did he know?

We went over to our friends the Barrettes last night for a Santa Party--along with a couple dozen other people! It was a very festive occasion, highlighted by a guest appearance from the Jolly One himself. And he even brought along a bag of gifts for all the good little girls and boys. Caroline seemed thrilled with singing "Island Princess" Barbie, and Margaret is quite happy with her new "Pet Shop" diary with an electronic password that she can set and reset, and reset, and reset, and reset... Although it's a crazy, hectic time as parents, the girls seem to be having a wonderful holiday season, which makes it all worthwhile. Only 8 more days 'till Christmas... :-)

Santa Pix

Here's a snapshot I took while the girls were getting their picture taken with Santa on Saturday. We went as a family to the Tacoma Mall and did a little shopping after the pictures before coming back to Olympia to take in our annual viewing of The Nutcracker. This year, due to my lack of planning, we ended up way up in the back row of the first balcony (that's what ya' get for buying the tickets the day before...). It's a little different perspective being up so high, but the girls still seemed to enjoy it for the most part--at least for about the first 3/4 of it. We were lucky enough to talk Karena and Chloe into joining us at the last minute, so that made it special for the girls to be with their buddy Chloe.

Christmas pagent

Last Thursday was the school Christmas pagent. Margaret was a cute bunny rabbit in the stable of "Unfriendly Beasts" performed by the 1st and 2nd graders, and Caroline was the Star who led the wise men to the baby Jesus in the Kindergartner's play.

Budding authors

I'm not sure you can read these latest stories from the girls, but I thought I'd try to post a copy of the "original" works. Margaret wrote hers first in longhand and then painstakingly typed every letter herself on the computer. Once she had finished, she colored the illustration to go along with it. Not to be outdone, Caroline asked if she could type a story too. So we opened a blank document, left the room, and this is what she produced...

Christmas in Seattle

We celebrated our first Christmas of the year this weekend, with my Dad's side of the family. Fourteen of us squeezed into his & Lourdes' little 1 BR condo on the Seattle waterfront for a very cozy Christmas celebration. Greg, Rose, Molly & Andrew, and my Grandma Dorothy were all there, as well as some special guests of Dad & Lourdes'. They had invited their newly "adopted" family from Mongolia, including a wonderful 10-year old girl, Namuna, who has been here in the U.S. for just 4 months. The girls played very well together, bonding over beads and barbie dolls. Namuna's parents have been here for closer to 5 years, and we enjoyed talking with them about the differences in holiday traditions.

And the walls came tumbling down...

Jeff has gone wild and cut down the wall between the living room and stairwell.  It's all part of the master remodeling plan, but it's a little weird to see it happening for real.  We're in the process of reviewing bids for the kitchen phase, and will be starting the next major work after the new year.

Christmas tree hunting ain't what it used to be...

We made the annual trek to Hunter's this weekend to pick out our Christmas tree.  Funny how different it is than when I was a kid.  Basically Margaret & Caroline checked out the petting zoo animals (including the mountain goats that climb high up a ramp to a tree fort) and slid down the twisty slide while Jeff and I picked one of the pre-cut trees.  Then we rode the tractor/wagon around through all the live trees--with no intention of getting out and cutting our own...  Oh well.  We found a beautiful tree, the kids had fun, and it was a great family bonding experience.

Super Spies

Jeff and Margaret have started a super sleuth game, where they secretly follow Caroline and me to the grocery store and "spy" on us while we're shopping.  They've done it twice now (as far as we know...)--once we discovered them in the parking lot hiding behind some cars, and last weekend we spotted them just as Caroline was finishing her cookie from the bakery.  Here's a couple of their spy photos.

Margaret's Irish Dance debut

Saturday was Margaret's first performance with her Irish dance group from school.  The kids have been practicing one afternoon a week since October.  Most of them are new to Irish dance this year, so this was the first time they'd tried to put it all together on stage.  It was quite entertaining to watch them "help" (i.e., point, nudge, push, shove) each other to remember which way to turn/go.  It was actually impressive how difficult the steps and motions are they have to memorize, and how fast the music all keeps going! 

They performed at a charity event to a faithful audience of mainly family and friends.  The lighting wasn't very good, so the pictures all turned out pretty dark.  And they were moving so fast that my little camera didn't do a very good job capturing good action shots.  Margaret seemed to enjoy herself, but it remains to be seen if this is going to catch on for her.  She says she still loves ballet the best...

Thanksgiving!

We were thankful for the time we got to spend this Thanksgiving with both families--first the Doyles at Grammy & Grampy Doyle's where we got to play with Jameson. He's getting to be so much fun! And of course the girls loved sleeping over with Grammy & Grampy! Then Friday we made our way up to Greg & Rose's house where the girls did their usual tickle torture on Andrew and worked on puzzles with Molly & Addie. We enjoyed yummy leftovers and then a nice walk down the trail to the beach. All in all, a very enjoyable & relaxing holiday.

School news...

Here's Margaret "leading" her teacher Mrs. Q (on the left) and the 3rd Grade teacher into the all-school assembly on Monday, where sister Caroline had a starring role in the kindergartner's presentation about Thanksgiving. Margaret claims she got to lead them because she was SO excited to go to the assembly and because Mrs. Q. and Mrs. Needham needed help to keep from talking (or was it that SHE needed help to keep from talking???)

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This is Caroline, just as poised as she can be, leading the entire school in the pledge of allegiance. She also started the list of what kindergartners are thankful for, and then led the class in their song. She did such a great job!


The kindergartners celebrated Thanksgiving today with the Indians (Caroline's class) joining the pilgrims (the other kindergarten class) for a harvest feast consisting of vegetable soup, cornbread & butter, and popcorn, all homemade by the kids. As you can see, they were all dressed in their formal attire, and there were official greatings exchanged between the Indians & Pilgrims before the feast. Then Caroline read the peace treaty afterward, which all the kids signed in a show of friendship toward each other. It was VERY cute--I hope the kids enjoyed it as much as all the parents and grandparents did!

Trick or Treating

I've gotten a little behind with the postings... Here are a few Halloween shots--the girls went trick or treating with a group of friends from Caroline's kindergarten class.

Halloween Bash!

Well, we survived the much-anticipated (feared?) Halloween party. On Sunday evening we hosted a party with 4 other families, each with 2 kids about Margaret & Caroline's ages. We were VERY lucky the weather was so nice, so the kids could play outside for part of the time. They all had a wild & crazy time playing games and being VERY loud!

Check out these pictures of the parade, the apple bobbing, the "mummy wrap" and the post-wrap monster mash madness.

Big Hair!

Hugs Hugs & More Hugs!

There've been lots of hugs to go around these days. Here are a few shots of the girls with some of their favorite people. Baby Caleb, Melissa's baby, is becoming like a little brother to them.

The girls have no end of fun with cousin Andrew whenever we get to see Greg's family--torturing him with tickles and hugs. This weekend we celebrated Grandma Gail's birthday with a nice lunch at Anthony's and a "party" at our house--which consisted mainly of Margaret and Caroline running WILD around the living room trying to entertain everyone with their endless antics.

Another full weekend

We had a pretty relaxed weekend (by our standards). First thing Saturday morning we got to see what the tooth fairy brought for Margaret (check out the holes in that smile!) She lost another upper tooth Friday night on the way to the corn maze. That makes three out at once, although one is part way in.

We enjoyed a visit from Jeff's folks later on Saturday, then we went to a dinner party at a friend's house Saturday night.


Sunday we tried to work out in the yard, cleaning up the garden boxes, raking leaves, and planting bulbs, etc... but we got rained out after a bit (darn...). The girls played baseball in the driveway in their Cowgirl and Butterfly outfits (notice Caroline's homemade wings and antennae!). Quite a funny site. They also helped rake some leaves and plant some bulbs.

Later in the afternoon, Caroline helped me chop some onions for spaghetti sauce--she insisted on wearing her swim goggles to protect her eyes from the onion juice... Jeff made a lot of progress on the research and planning for our kitchen remodel. We're slowly but surely getting the plans in order, although most likely we'll wait until after the holiday season to start the work.

Pumpkin Patch & Corn Maze

Jeff and the girls ventured out to the local corn maze and pumpkin patch on Friday night. Besides being cold and dark, and getting lost in the maze for about a hour and a half, they had a great time!