Snow!

What a treat it was that it snowed over a weekend! We were all home, although Pat was still recovering form the flu, but we made the most of it!

Nolan ate snow...shocker!

Ruby decided she did like snow after all! When I took her out in it on Saturday night she was acting quite diva-ish, not wanting to step in it. When she saw the kids running around in it though she was all over it. 

I'm pretty excited that I actually got some pics of her since my camera still doesn't seem to want to focus on her. The snow was a perfect reflector though.

There was a whole lot of sledding going on too.

Nolan was showing Miles how you can run and slide on the snow.

It was a big hit! So cute, runny nose and all!

Trying to sneak one more bite of snow before it turned to slush.

I hope we get a few more snow days as that was too much fun!

Seahawks

I don't know if you've heard, but the Seahawks won the Super Bowl last week! 

I'll admit, I haven't been a lifelong Seahawks fan, despite living in Washington my entire life. I lived with women who preferred to garden and stop at garage sales on Sundays, football wasn't even on my radar. When Pat and I met I was actually working at Seahawks stadium (as a barista) but still didn't think much of the game. It wasn't until we were officially dating that I started to really become a fan.

When we were living together I would read, do homework, paint my nails while casually watching the game. I could've gone to another room but I preferred to watch it with Pat. A few seasons later I really started to get into it. I couldn't help myself, Pat's loyalty and enthusiasm was contagious. 

The year we got married they went to the Super Bowl and lost, Pat was heart broken. But he didn't waiver, even when they were terrible he was cheering them on every Sunday. I found myself watching more and more of the game each week. I even went to a few live games after that. So I guess what I'm trying to say is I married into being a Seahawks fan.

As excited as I am for our home team to finally be on top, I'm mostly excited for Pat who FINALLY gets to see his team be victorious. I found myself watching him watch the game as his team didn't just win, but destroyed the other team. I've never seen him so happy, not even the flu was keeping him from jumping around the room, yelling and high five-ing Nolan and I. It was awesome. 

A few days later we took the boys to the parade. We knew it would be crowded, cold and crazy but I also knew Pat HAD to go, WITH his sons. "This might be their only chance!" this from a man who has waited his entire life, I had to make it happen. So we bundled up the kids, packed a ton of snacks and headed out. 

It was freezing (28 degrees) but no rain! This is what we saw when we got up to the parade route, 2 hours before the parade was supposed to start. Later we found out that although they were originally expecting 250,000-500,000 people, 750,000-1,000,000 actually showed up! 

Our outdoor view

It was already 30+ people deep!

Our indoor view

After waiting 2+ hours both the kids were pretty upset. Miles hates to be bundled up, cold and around a bunch of noise so this was not his scene at all. Nolan was antsy and anxious too. I was worried that we weren't going to make it through the day with 2 grumpy kids, but we lucked out when we discovered a little indoor area where you could watch the parade from the second floor of City Hall. It seemed to be where all the families were taking refuge since there were tons of kids wandering around. PErfect distractions for my 2 grumps.

Everyone was much happier here. Miles was able to shed a few layers, walk around and flirt with strangers, all his favorite things.

Nolan had a lovely little viewing spot to people watch the people below, and the helicopters flying above.

Finally the parade started, I guess the team got stuck in traffic because they were almost an hour late!

It wasn't the best view but we were able to make out our favorite players. Here is Coach Pete Carroll waving the 12th man flag.

12th man fly by.

I'm going to ignore that he was chewing on shelf in a public building because he was content for the first time that day.

Nolan was looking for one person in particular, daddy's boyfriend Russell Wilson. We call him that because Pat was a fan of him before he was even drafted. He seriously almost cried when it was announced that the Seahawks had picked him up. I remember we were in the car and pat told me that this is they guy who is going to take us to the Super Bowl...seriously! My man's a football genius, I think he missed his calling for real!
When Russell drove by Nolan went on and on telling everyone around him that Russell Wilson won the Super Bowl and was the best football player in the world. It was adorable how proud he was...I wonder where he got that? :)

A proud Seahawk family

Snow Cabin

We took a mini vacation over to Rosyln to have a snow filled weekend of fun. Unfortunately, there was very little snow and what was there was old and frozen solid. That didn't stop us from having fun though! With 6 kids, 3 dogs and 4 adults we were bound to find some trouble.

On a hike with the kids we found a little patch of snow, it was like we struck gold!

Nolan found this big chunk of ice he was calling a snowball and proudly carried it for the remainder of our hike.

I realized he was licking the giant ice cube at one point and tried to get him to put it down. He wasn't having any of that! This from the boy who won't eat melted cheese, but is happy to eat a dirty old ice cube!

Even though there was no snow, temps didn't go higher than 30 degrees so we found these interesting ice formations all over the ground. I wish I knew what they were called or how they were formed so I could sound really smart.

Ruby came with us, we adopted her earlier that week and figured we might as well get her used to the chaos right away!

Since we didn't have the snowy vacation of our dreams we drove until we found some. This is just 15 minutes down the road from our cabin! Oh well, we had a great time and the kids had a blast too. Next year I think we will aim for a February Snow Vacation.

Ruby

We adopted a dog! Well almost a month ago now but still pretty exciting. After months of searching shelters we ended up adopting a lab/Australian Shepard mix puppy. She's completely black which means my camera cannot figure out how to take a picture of her so be prepared for 13-16 years of pictures with a blurry black shadow in them. We got her when she was 6 weeks old and just a tiny little nugget.

The boys fell in love with her right away. She likes to wrestle just like them but we seem to have entered puppy chewing phase and the chewing is targeted at the kids. they are her favorite chew toy. I've been assured that it is non aggressive and she will grow out of it so for now we try to distract her with actual chew toys and keep the band aids handy.

I've learned that 18 month old human babies and 2 month old puppies are actually quite similar. They both like to chew on everything, are equally entertained by watching the clothes move around in the dryer and share a love/hate relationship with the car and vacuums. And much like Miles, Ruby is not potty trained so my day is full of wiping bums and piddle off the floor.

She's already doubled in size, a concept that seems to confuse her as she regularly tries to shove herself through the baby gate (and get stuck) where just 2 weeks ago she could squeeze through easily.

My side of the family got to meet her when they were over for Nolan's bday and she was a big hit with this little girl.

It's been an interesting experience so far but we love our little mouthy girl. Hopefully she will be a great companion for our boys for a very very long time.

Turning 5.

Nolan turned 5 last month, I'm still in disbelief! We were feeling a little partied out after a very festive holiday season so decided to keep things low key. The crown is from his celebration at school, I videotaped the ceremony and will upload that soon too!

As for his "parties" he selected to have just a few friends over for a slumber party, his first one EVER! He wanted it to be spiderman theme despite the fact that he has never read or seen any spiderman related show or book. Interesting!

The following weekend the family came over for another party.

This time I bought the spiderman ice cream cake. It was a huge hit!

My sister is the worst photobomber ever! I obviously need to teach her a few of my tricks.

 Nolan really loved turning 5 this year and is quite proud that he gets to use a whole hand worth of fingers to show how old he is. Maybe by next year I will have the energy to throw a whole to do again, for now low key is perfect.