I haven't had time to blog because...

...we bought a house!  Finally after 7 looooong months of looking, we found the perfect house for us.  It's in a darling neighborhood in Bothell (not where I thought we'd end up but I'm loving it), it has much more room for us and a YARD!  A real, live, leaves-to-rake, grass-to-mow, room-to-run YARD!  I'm not sure who loves the yard more, Savage or Jack.

Needless to say, the process of buying the house, packing, moving, fixing things in the new house and getting the townhouse ready for renters (oh, and the stress of finding renters) has kept us rather busy.  Oh, and add a curious little toddler to the mix - he's adorable but not so helpful with house projects quite yet.

I'm feeling much more settled, but there are still a million little things swimming around in my head at night (What kind of towel rack should I buy?  What color will we paint that wall?  Can we get a gas line into the kitchen?  I wonder when story time is at the library?).  Paul thinks I need to try yoga...maybe he's right :)

I will try to update again soon with pictures of the house (first I need to take some).  For now I'm off to change more outlets - so far I've done it without electrocuting myself!

Sledding

Sled - $10

Discover Pass - $35

Snow Park fee - $20

Gas - $60

About an hour and a half and 6 runs down the hill - priceless!

Pure joy

I love this kid!  I love his energy, his spirit, his curiosity, his kind heart and his absolute pure joy.

One more celebration

Grandpa Dave came over the day after Christmas for one more holiday celebration.  We saw the whole Morio clan later that night but apparently I didn't get any pictures :(

Helping Grandpa open his present

Again, the box is the BEST part!

Christmas 2012

What a difference a year makes!  Last Christmas our little man was small enough to fit in his stocking.  This year Jack had so much fun unwrapping presents and playing with his gifts, it was wonderful.  Waiting downstairs for him on Christmas morning was a kitchen from Santa, how exciting!  I kinda wish Santa would have delivered it assembled, since Mom and Dad Elf were up till almost 2am putting it together (no, I don't want to talk about it) but it was totally worth it to see Jack's excited little face.

Our tradition on Christmas day is to go to a park but unfortunately Mother Nature was not in the best of moods, so we stayed warm and dry inside, opening gifts and playing with the new toys.

Our attempt at a family photo

Just like we've been told, he loved the box more than the toy :)

 After naptime we headed over to Dana's house to celebrate and have dinner with the Edler side of the family (all 6 of us).

It was a fabulous Christmas day and I feel blessed to have such a wonderful family!

Christmas recap

We always have quite a busy Christmas season and this year was no exception.  Between family celebrations, traditions Paul and I have started together, and now traditions with Jack, we keep a pretty packed December calendar.  Here's a recap of our pre-Christmas celebrations:

Of course we had to visit Santa's reindeer

Then we took a trip over the river and through the woods with my mom and Norm to have Christmas in Yakima with my brother and his family.

It's always quite entertaining to get all three kids to sit still (and smile at the same time if we're lucky).  God bless Cohen for smiling the entire time, even while Emmery's finger is up his nose.

Jack wasn't a fan of pumpkin pie, but absolutely LOVED feeding it to Ya Ya!

Next on the agenda was a tradition that Paul and I started while we were dating.  Each year we pick a different park (or beach) to watch the Christmas Ships and this year we bundled up and headed over to the Kirkland waterfront.  Afterwards we went out to an Irish pub for dinner and our non-meat-eating-kid ate almost a whole plate of chicken fingers!  He surprises us ever day :)

In addition to these events we also celebrated with our PEPS friends, went to Gymboree (Daddy came too, hooray!), put together and delivered a food basket to the YMCA, drove to some beautiful Christmas lights, made cookies, and spent quality time together just the three of us.  What a magical Christmas season!

14 months old

When Jack was born we called him our "little man" and now he's really beginning to look like it!  Here is an update of our 14 month old little man:

• He's wearing size 18-24 month clothes and a size 5 1/2 shoe
• He's talking and says "garga" (garbage), dadda, "eeeeease" (please), cheese, YaYa, car and can make animal noises for a lion, tiger, elephant, cat, cow, fish and turkey.
• I stopped using sign language with him months ago but he recently started using the signs for "more", "all done" and "milk" - apparently he was paying attention when I was trying to teach him and just wasn't ready to use them yet :)
• Jack is kind of obsessed with garbage and the garbage truck.  When he finds garbage on the ground he immediately wants to throw it away (I'm definitely not going to stand in the way of this new skill), points out every garbage can we pass, saying "garga" and stands glued to the sliding glass door watching the garbage truck when it comes down the ally.  
• His newest "tricks" include stomping his feet, covering his mouth when he coughs, and splashing in puddles (daddy taught him that one).  He can also point to his belly, ears, tongue, teeth, head, and feet. 
• He has become a slightly more picky eater than he used to be but still eats well and likes bananas, oranges, graham crackers, pasta, bell peppers, hummus, eggs, yogurt, cheese, frozen peas and carrots (yes, he prefers them frozen) and is always willing to try whatever we (especially Paul) is eating.
• He sleeps like a champ, taking 1 nap a day with bedtime at 6:00pm, sleeping through the night and usually waking up around 7:00am.
• Most importantly he's happy, healthy and a constant source of joy and entertainment!