St Patricks Day

May the luck of the Irish be with you today!

The crazy leprechauns must have pinched Elle this morning as she woke us all up at 4am...  We played until it was time to go to work.

Cheese!  Or should it be cinnamon toast! 

Can you tell we have been up since 4...

Valentines Day

Colby and I stopped off at the local butcher shop on the way home to grab a steak and lobster!  Elle and Colby were watching the lobster broil very carefully.

Almost done!

I have been on a big fruit kick so Colby brought home a great bowl of fresh fruit.  Don't you just love the heart watermelon!

Perfection!

We actually split the lobster and steak so this is mine all ready cut up steak as I was sharing with Elle as well.  Hope you all had a wonderful Valentines day!

Oh! Chocolate

Valentines '10 I gave Colby a gift certificate for a chocolate class at Oh! Chocolate in Bellevue as I thought it would be a fun date night.  Well, 1 year later and 1 day before the certificate expired we finally made it to  class :)  I must say it was well worth it!  The founder's great-grandsons taught the class and were highly entertaining!  Here is a look at our plates when we arrived:



This was just a tasting plate so we could learn about chocolate and discuss the different characteristics tasted with each one.  Plus we were given sipping chocolate when we arrived. 

Before we got knee deep in chocolaty goodness!

Whoops my bad!  I was dirty before we even began tempering the chocolate!

We were given dark and milk chocolate in HUGE cups to learn to temper.  We didn't get any more pictures beyond this as I think I had chocolate up to my elbows by the time we were done!  We given endless supplies of pretzels, chips, strawberries, blackberries, oreos, graham crackers, and biscotti.  Colby was one of only two men in the class but he held his own quite well!  I would highly recommend this class for a fun date.  Plus you get to take a ton of chocolate home!!

Happy Valentines Day!

Cheese!...No, It's Greek Yogurt

Christmas Day

We headed east of the mountains before Santa came into town and Elle woke up at Grami and Poppi's house with her cousins. 

Comparing her pillow pet with cousin Sophie

Wow, look at the cool stuff that Santa brought.

Mommy helping put together some new toys

All of the cousins in action

Here Poppi, check this out

Marcus got an awesome rocking horse that all the cousin's got a chance on.  the best part was when he tried riding it home in the back of the truck. 

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we gathered with Wendy, Donny, Erik, Great Grandma S, Grandma, and Grandpa.



Elle helping Grandpa open his gift.  She was great at taking presents to their correct owners and then following up to make sure all wrapping was properly taken care of.

Chilling with Momma during a break in the action

Daddy got a hat but Elle was the one to show it off.

Elle got a book from Great Grandma

I know these words mean something...

Elle's favorite gift was the rockin' cow.  She took to it right away.  Such a cowgirl.

Elle also got a dancing Mickey.  She wasn't too sure off the bat but now she can't get enough dancing.  She plays with it every day when we get home.

So glad we could have Great Grandma S for all the fun.

Kim got a cool piece to hold all our wine corks.  Now we will have the goal of filling it.  Too fun!

Showing off on the cow

We followed up presents with an awesome dinner.  Thanks Aunt Wendy and Uncle Donny

Lana even came along and joined the party.  Thanks for coming!

Christmas 1.0

This was our first christmas about a week before the actual day.  Thank you Randy and Shelley for hosting.

Colby with little Gavin

The amazing table decorations

Hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa after dinner.

Gigi gave Elle and Noah both a Tonka truck.  Thay loved them!

Nothing like a little bumper car action with the new toys.

Grandma made this awesome robe for Elle.  So cute!

Gigi checking out her brag book from Sarah and Josh.  It was a wonderful gathering and we were so happy to see everyone.

Cousins

Our best attempt at getting a picture of the cousins at Christmas

The Big Guy

We postponed for quite a while because Mommy and Daddy don't like to get anywhere near the mall but finally last week Elle got her chance to sit down with Santa Claus.  Elle and Mommy picked Daddy up at work and tried to beat the crowd into Bellevue.



Elle was in a really good mood to start even though she got her Flu shot booster just hours before.

This Santa has his reindeer flying above the crowds

Look!  There's Rudolf!!!

This was our view while we waited in line.  Unfortunately, by the time we worked our way through Santa's workshop, Elle's mood had changed somewhat.  We will be posting that picture in the next few days once we have it scanned into the computer.