Sunday, December 19, 2010

Christmas cookies

A few nights ago we decorated Christmas sugar cookies.
A close-up of Kiera's cookie. I obviously wasn't monitoring the sprinkles very well.




Some of the finished cookies


Jeff's indifferent gingerbread man.


My favorite picture from the night!

3 thoughts from friends

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Birthday-weekend Extravaganza!

*** I know this is old, but wanted to remember the details....***
I turned 30 this year.

It actually wasn't that bad. I had a harder time with 29.

Jeff planed a weekend-extravaganza for me. My parents came up and stayed with the girls while we were gone. Thanks very much Mom and Dad!

.We left home around 4:30 and went to an early dinner at my favorite restaurant: The Rhinelander. The fondue is amazing, the chicken schnitzel is great, and the atmosphere is so fun. I highly recommend it.

Then we went to our hotel and got checked in.

We stayed at the Hotel Monaco in downtown PDX. It was really nice. The gal checking us in looked up our reservation and then told us that we had been randomly selected to receive an upgrade...to the Penthouse Suite! I'm still not convinced that Jeff didn't plan the whole "upgrade" thing, but it was a REALLY nice room. And huge. My sisters have lived in smaller apartments.


Then we walked over to Pioneer Place to see the movie RED. It stands for "Retired, Extremely Dangerous." We loved this movie and highly recommend it - so funny! John Malkovich was hilarious.


Jeff had scheduled full-body massages for us at Dosha, so after a yummy breakfast in our hotel room, we headed downstairs (I loved that the spa is in the hotel).


After a very relaxing hour we headed back to our hotel room, got our stuff together and checked out. Jeff then took me shopping - he made me try stuff on and buy some new clothes. This by itself is amazing. Jeff HATES shopping. I did find a new skirt (for 90% off, too!) that I love.


After shopping we went to lunch at Marie Callendar's - another of my fav restaurants. Chicken pot pie is soooo yummy!


We finally headed home around 2pm and were greeted by Jeff's parents, as well as the girls and my parents. We watched the Duck game and had pizza and ice cream cake.


This was by far the best birthday weekend ever. I was totally spoiled and got to spend almost 24 hours of uninterrupted time with Jeff.


Thank you Jeff for the fabulous time. I'll let you ride this wave for awhile!

5 thoughts from friends

Kiera's Family party

***I realized that I never finished this post - so now it is 2 months late. Oh well!***
We had a family party for Kiera the weekend before her actual birthday. Grammy & Grandpa Swanson, Grandma & Papa Jones, Tami, Dan, Evan & Siena were all here.
Checking out her new jewelry box from Grammy and Grandpa. She was so excited to have her own!


A pink scooter!

I thought it might take her a while to get used to riding it - that she might be nervous....she was an instant pro!

3-year-old Kiera:
31 lbs
*
40 inches tall
*
size 7 1/2 shoes
*
size 4T clothes
*
Favorite shows: Max & Ruby, Bolt, Dora, Diego, Team Umizoomi
*
Favorite foods: chocolate milk, popcorn, any type of breakfast food (oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, etc.)
*
Favorite color: purple
*
She can count to 25 (NEVER says 15 though)
*
She knows her ABC's
*
She can spell her first name
*
She is TERRIFIED of gloves; she'll wear her own gloves, but if anyone else has gloves on she has a complete panic attack. Visiting the dentist and Santa are not good experiences. Luckily our dentist is super nice and takes his gloves off just for her.
*
She throws some impressive tantrums. She still won't sit in time-out, so we have to put her in her room with "the locker" when she's being naughty. ("The locker" is one of those door-knob covers so kids can't open doors. Hers is on the inside of her room. Yeah. We lock her in.)
*
She loves primary and is excited to be a Sunbeam in a few weeks.
*
She loves to sing. She knows lots of songs.
*
She calls football "baseball".
*
She loves to color.
*
She loves to play with her cousins - Siena, Evan, Cooper and Hannah (baby Owen "doesn't do anything mama, he's too little for me")
*
She is a pro and terrorizing Janae. She knows EXACTLY how to push Janae's buttons.
*
She's very shy until she gets to know someone - it takes her awhile to warm up to new people/situations.
*
I've learned that if I just make her do something new (like jumping into the foam pit at gymnastics), she realizes it's fun and gets excited to do it on her own. (I just picked her up and dropped her into the pit. What a good mother I am. She absolutely loves it now though!)
*
We love her so much. She is a terrorist at times (Jeff calls her Al-Kiera and has this whole vision of Kiera making a video of her demands; the Dora blanket hanging as a backdrop and Janae tied up in front of it.) but she also has a sweet, loving side. We are blessed to have her in our family.
*
We love you Peeka!

0 thoughts from friends

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Snow!

At least on my blog anyway....

2 thoughts from friends

Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)