Video Blogging

Let's see if this works, I couldn't get the video from Nolan's concert to upload correctly but maybe these will since they are off my iphone.


Nolan doing his goofy dance.

Miles watching a video of himself on the iPad. This is how we entertain ourselves when he keeps us up until midnight.

Miles twirling around while listening to the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies on the Christmas Music Channel.

iPhone Offload: Too Much Good Stuff Edition

Nolan told me he had gotten dressed, apparently he didn't realize they were Miles' pjs.

Monkey toes!

Family football game.

I finally taught Nolan how to pop bubble wrap and now he is officially obsessed. Whenever a delivery comes in he asks if it has bubble wrap inside. It almost always doesn't...where has all the bubble wrap gone?

The boys are starting a bike gang. Don't they look tough?

I have a lot of photos like this on my phone. Miles cut 3 out of 4 of his molars this month and spends most evening yelling at my while I beg him to sleep. Only 1 more to go! 

Of course by morning he is all smiles and giggles.

I squeezed him into the sock monkey costume. Not a happy camper.

Nolan wearing his shark costume to school. I love how you can still see a bit of baby fat on his cheeks here.

Shark attack family!

Beautiful long lashes.

This was a facebook favorite! Nolan got into my bronzer and painted on a mustache. What wasn't discussed was his sweet inside out popped collar polo. He's going to be a fashion icon, I just know it!

Nolan's school had a field trip to the local fire station and Miles and I tagged along. I love that amongst all of his friends he chose to cuddle with Miles.

Pat and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary with a downtown Seattle date night. We had room service and saw okkerville river at the showbox....it was lovely!

Another bright eyed and bushy tailed morning for Miles.

Playing with the x-tra large light bright at the children's museum. I need one of these at our house!

Also at the museum: seats you can strap your kids to so you can go to the bathroom! Why isn't this everywhere?! This should be a mandatory thing, what congress person do I need to call to make that happen?

Miles loving the ferry boat climbing toy.

Ok I didn't take this with my iphone but it was saved to it so that counts? This is Nolan's class picture, so cute!

Nolan has figured out that on those mornings that I don't get up quite as quickly as he likes that if he goes and wakes up Miles I will get up much faster. I think Miles and I were thinking the same thing this day: "why am I awake right now?" (note that he is wearing the pjs that Nolan wore in the first pic above, they're sharing clothes already!)

Another late night thanks to molars.

Miles' decorating the Christmas tree with his most treasured item.

Nolan's letter to Santa. Santa actually wrote back this year!

I took this picture as I ran toward him. It's only 1.5 feet off the ground but still not a fun fall.

Meeting the big guy.

5 dozen Gingerballs hand rolled and given out this Christmas. This is my favorite batch though, so festive!

The night before it snowed, Nolan and I met up with some friends to check out the Bellevue Garden D'Lights. Nolan wanted to touch them all.

The next morning: SNOW!

Note the stranded bus at the top of the hill, it had its chains on and everything. We still drove to school that day....take that city bus! :)

We started having family movie nights every Friday night and so far it's a huge hit for everyone. Pat and I get some quiet time with the kids after a long week, the kids get to watch a movie and Miles gets to eat popcorn.

Nolan really wanted this hat, but it was a little too much, even for me! 

Xmas eve cookies for Santa. Nolan wanted his to be a gingerbread man after reading Gingerbread Pirates. I think he was a little disappointed that Santa didn't turn this one into a pirate toy like he does in the book. Maybe next year?

Brothers

*** I originally typed this up back in November but just realized I never hit publish. It's just too sweet to pass up.

We went to pick up a rug today and it was so big that it went from the front of the car all the way to the back door, dividing the car in half. The boys were very upset that they couldn't see each other over the rug, Mils was screaming his displeasure with this set up.

Suddenly it was quiet and when I looked back I saw that Nolan had stretched across the top of the rug so that Miles could reach up and hold his hand. It was the sweetest thing ever! I was driving on the freeway and so I could only manage to get this quick picture on my phone.

Christmas

Christmas just zoomed right by this year, didn't it? I felt like the lead up took forever but the actual day lasted 5 minutes. Oh well, it was a festive season full of friends, family and food...all my favorites! 

So Christmas Eve was pretty mellow. The boys got on their matching pjs and we drove around to look at Christmas lights and sing Christmas Carols. The boys went right to bed when we got home and slept a little later than we expected...8:00 isn't too bad considering how excited he was for Santa to come. 

The next morning when we got downstairs Nolan surprised me though by not rushing to his gifts but instead insisted that we open the gift he made for us at school. He has been so funny about it because he was told to keep it a secret until Christmas and I could tell he was having a hard time. He would sneak out little details every few days and beg me to open it early. But we managed to be surprised!

Nolan has hit the age of Superhero fandom. He hasn't narrowed it down to his #! favorite so we got him a superman costume, a captain america shield and transformer underwear. He was pretty pleased with all his options.

Miles has recently discovered Yo Gabba Gabba and it is the only thing that holds his attention for 10 minutes. He's especially enamored with Muno the Cyclops alien? So this talking plush version of him was a favorite. H kept throwing it at Nolan or Pat to get them to squeeze it. He has now figured out how to do it on his own though.

Nolan and his rocket launcher. Luckily our ceilings are just high enough to let it go inside but it will mostly be an outside thing.

Miles' other favorite of the day was his stocking stuffers! I stuffed it with organic toddler snacks, something he loved the one time I bribed him with them at Target.

A little while later The Clingmans came over for a little Christmas Surprise Lunch. Pat's mom has recently been mobile after a double hip and knee surgery! Since she hadn't seen the house yet she was brought over and surprised with 3 of her 7 kids and all their family. It was such a fun surprise for us and  a great way to get everyone together.

Cousins Sam and Luke, Uncle Monkey and the rear end of Clancy.

Uncle Balls (an honorary Clingman) came over at just the right time to take a family picture and surprise Nolan with his Christmas present. Seahawks tickets for this Sunday's game. Pat gets to go too as his chaperon....lucky guys!

After that we drove down to Tacoma for dinner at Aunt Carolyn's.

Santa Dutchy

Distributing the presents

Miles chewing on something...shocking!

More chewing, this time with a bow.

And some more chewing. I'm trying to ween him off his binky and it keeps getting replaced with other objects.

I couldn't get a pic of the boys together in their pjs on xmas eve so this is my stand in for this year. 

All the babies on the couch, recreating last years fiasco. 

Here is last year's version. I can't tell if they are getting better or wigglier?

Here are a few outtakes.

The color was off and I couldn't edit it out. So when in doubt...make it black and white!

This is my favorite. Clementine is sucking on Dutchy's hand, Nolan looks like he is levitating and the babies look confused.

The busy day ended peacefully though as we loaded up the car and Miles tore candy canes off the tree. :)