Merry Christmas

t last Christmas is here! We had a wonderful family Christmas morning. Our first time being home since the kids have been born. Everyone enjoyed themselves and we didn't even lose anyone under the mountain of wrapping paper that was strewn all over the family room. Maybe Zoey, but no one was really looking for him. Out of all the fun, fantastic toys Ezra received, his favorite was a little soft football he got as a stocking stuffer. Paisley's favorite changes from hour to hour. Thank you all so much for the wonderful gifts. Paisley is using her new camera from Grandma Pam and Grandpa Dave to photograph her Strawberry Shortcake doll from Auntie Dawn as we speak. I am sure each of her gifts will get their own special tribute. Maybe I'll make a "Paisley's photos" blog post in the future. Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday!

Last Day of School

ast day of school for 2009. Today was a big holiday party in Paisley's classroom and they got to make "gingerbread" houses. Paisley called hers the "eye" house because she made her candy look like eyes to scare her best friend Meghan.

Tomorrow Matt starts 2 weeks vacation. It will be nice to have him home. We need to plan a lot of activities to keep us all busy!

A visit with Santa

hristmas is coming and we thought a visit to the mall Santa was in order. Although, our kids know that Santa isn't real they still think it is fun. Ezra liked it until he had to sit on Santa's lap. He cried for a few seconds then endured through the picture. He wasn't crying, but I am certain he was counting the seconds he could hop off in his head.

Storybook Land

esterday we went to Albany for Paisley's school field trip to Storybook Land. Other than the fact that it was 12 degrees out, it was a really fun trip. The kids loved all of the set ups and meeting Mr. and Mrs Claus. We were all very bundled up with multiple layers. Ezra wouldn't let me put a hat or gloves on him, but he did have 2 pair of pants and 3 tops.

Christmas Tree Decorating

e FINALLY decorated our Christmas tree today. We decided to go ahead and do a full size tree despite Ezra's obsession with throwing anything and everything. We bought all new all plastic ornaments so no major damage could be done. Be traditional ornaments can hopefully reemerge next year. We even have a makeshift tree topper since our regular one didn't match the new ornaments at all. I kind of like him on the tree better than mantle anyway.

Paisley had a blast. Ezra was a little young yet, but loved throwing the ornaments. We decided to keep the tree how Paisley decorated for the most part with minor changes. She LOVES it and just sits and stares it. She is so excited!

Love seeing old friends

esterday I got to take the train up to Portland and spend the whole day with Myra. We had so much fun. It didn't seem like it had been 6 years since we had seen each other. We had a difficult time finding restaurants and it was pretty cold, but a blast nonetheless. We visited Powell Books, The Saturday Market, and ate pizza in a renovated haunted elevator shaft! I hope we get together sooner than 6 years. Yes, we did have a stranger ask if we were sisters. Somethings don't ever change even 20 years later.

Paisley's 5th Birthday Party

Today we had Paisley's party. We always have to have it early or late since her actual birthday falls during Thanksgiving week. This year she chose to celebrate at the Riverfront Carousel with a Hello Kitty party. It was a great morning with her friends and no rain. The girls all loved riding the carousel over and over and over again. Pink was the color of the moment and the pink balloons were in popular demand. We were lucky that some of the girls settled for purple ones, but the green went untouched. Ezra ended up with 3 balloons since he didn't care. I guess being the only boy at a party full of girls has its advantages.

Fall Day

We have had rainy day after rainy day here so when the sun came out this morning the kids and I jumped in the van to head to the walking bridge. Unfortunately, the walking bridge is closed from today until may!!! We decided the park would have to do, even if we could not play on the playground. Paisley LOVED riding her princess bike around and Ezra just got to run. We stopped at the carousel and took a quick spin before getting back to the business of walking. We topped the morning off with chocolate, no-joe frostees. A great time was had by all.

Sick?

Ezra woke this morning running a fever and not having an appetite. By lunch time you couldn't tell he was not feeling well. He was jumping on the bed and chasing Paisley around the house screaming.
Paisley had her first eye doctor appointment today and did very well even though between the two of us we were there for over 2 hours! No glasses needed. YIPPEEE!
Ezra has decided he LOVES his rain boots and has decided they make good house shoes. He is modeling them here in this picture. They just happen to match his ensemble perfectly.

These days the kids are obsessed with looking at catalogs. It keeps them entertained, but the "I wants" have been a bit much.

Halloween

Halloween was pretty quiet here. We were able to trick-or-treat in the morning at the Salem Saturday market and not have to go out at night. Paisley and Ezra joined their first costume contest, and both were all right even thought they did not win. I may be biased, but I thought they were the cutest. Okay, maybe the little lion won deservedly. Everyone survived only mildly effected by the sugar.

Paisley the Poet

When Paisley heard that I had started a blog for the family she wanted me to write something so people would know her, and then proceeded to rattle off this poem:
"Paisley likes princesses. She is very pretty and her room is a little messy, but she'll clean it up soon."

It's been awhile

As you can tell I have not been a very faithful blogger. I am going to attempt it again. Ezra just turned 2 yesterday and has started going to daycare two mornings a week. Paisley is going to pre-school three mornings a week. Love my 6 hours of quiet time a week. I have nothing terribly exciting to blog about at this moment so I am just typing to try to get myself going.

Here are the kids costumes for this Halloween. We like to get more than one wear out of ours. they make for fun pictures at the pumpkin patch.

Snow

Salem had more snow than it has had in the last 30 years. As pretty as it was we were ready for it to be gone after a day or two. After being holed up in the house for a week with a sick husband and 2 sick kids for a week, I was going a bit CRAZY!!!

Ezra love to look at the snow, but not play in it so much. This picture shows his favorite way to enjoy it. He liked watching people play outside while he was inside nice and toasty. You can tell he was comfy all the way down to his bare toes!