A Visit to the Seattle Aquarium

I have jokingly dubbed January, February and most of March of 2013 the "lost months" because I was so very sick at the beginning of my pregnancy.  So we really didn't do much.  But at the beginning of January (before the sickness really hit) we headed up to visit the Seattle Aquarium.  Ethan has always loved aquariums and fish tanks and we figured it would be a good indoor activity for the rainy, cold winter days.

Checking out the starfish at the entrance

 Carter exploring what this glass is all about and the fish behind it, too!

 The touch tanks were a huge hit (which actually surprised me when it came to Carter)!

 At the underwater dome watching the fish

We stopped to take a picture on the sea otter bench...I thought this was fun...

This one was from a little over two years ago when we were here visiting my parents on vacation

 This one was from this trip...funny that I'm wearing the same coat!  Comparisons like this make me recognize the blessings of our growing family!

Ethan really has a thing for Orcas right now, so he had fun watching the videos, looking at the Orca skeletons and posing on this Orca replica at the Orca exhibit.

 Checking out the blowfish at the North Pacific exhibit

 We had to stop by the touch tank for round 2 of exploring!

 My littlest jellyfish!

 Carter liked these jellyfish images being projected onto the floor and had fun exploring his shadow.

 My big jellyfish!

It was a fun day and I'm glad the boys enjoyed the trip so much!

New Year, New Chapter

Thankfully, by the time New Year's rolled around we were all fully recovered from the awful illness we had been dealing with.  We were feeling so well that we decided to take a road trip to visit Tristan's brother, Kelsey and his wife, Nicole for New Year's Eve.  We had a great time laughing, eating, playing games and just enjoying seeing them while they were here on their break from school.  We made a somewhat early night out of it because we didn't want to be on the road after midnight with all the crazies, but we made it home in time for Tristan and I to ring in the New Year together on the couch while watching the fireworks (on t.v.)...It's the simple things!

A few weeks into January we found out that we would be beginning a new chapter of our lives in 2013:

as a family of FIVE!

We are very excited to welcome a new little one to our family.  The first 6 weeks of my pregnancy went really well, with no sickness or anything.  But then it completely changed.  This was by FAR my hardest, sickest first trimester out of all my kids so far.  Looking back, I still don't know how I got through 2 weeks of being home alone with the boys with as sick as I was.  But around 14 weeks I bounced back and have been feeling really great.

Looks like we will be having more to blog about in 2013 for sure!

Christmas 2012

Christmas was very simple for us this year, since we still had boys that were vomiting straight up until Christmas Eve.  After a week or more of being sick we were all worn out, so we slept in and got a late start.  Notice they aren't wearing their cute Christmas pajamas...yeah, that should tell you something about the night before.  Poor boys.

They woke up with a lot of enthusiasm despite an interrupted night's sleep and were excited to see the balloons and the gifts waiting for them.

 Carter found one of the leftover carrots from Santa's reindeer...and a "just in case" bowl we had laying around.

 Trying out his new fork on the carrot

 After stockings we took a break for breakfast and found them in Carter's room reading books.  These kids love books.

 Time to dig in to some gifts!

 A favorite for the boys were their flashlights.  They immediately started "exploring" the house with them.

 Ethan is all business!

Honestly, we didn't do much else that day.  We had made plans to go to my parent's for dinner but Tristan was the only one with much of an appetite.  So we called it an early night and just enjoyed being together as a family.  Sometimes it's good when you are forced to scale back and remember what Christmas is really about.

Random November and December Pictures

Just when I think I've finished 2012 I find more pictures!  Some of the actual timeline is fuzzy for me so  sorry in advance!

Our elf, Penguin (named by Ethan), continued to cause mischief leading up to Christmas.  Here's one of Ethan finding him tangled in the christmas lights one morning.

 Just a cute little face...

 followed by a silly one!

 I'm pretty sure this is November, but we had some fun practicing one-to-one correspondence one day.  It was supposed to be with M & M's, but Ethan was just as happy with raisins!

 So was Carter!

 I can't remember if it was November or December, but we got snow!  It was just a dusting and never stuck around past lunchtime, but it was enough to get bundled up and head out for some playtime.

 This was Carter's first experience with snow other than when he was a little baby, so it was fun to watch him.

 Ethan making a snow angel

 Carter putting the sandbox toys to good use in the off-season

 And then....about 2 weeks before Christmas we caught a horrible stomach bug.  Carter got it first, then Ethan, then me.  Tristan was the only one who was spared (thankfully) so he was nursing 3 sick people all night one night.  I felt so bad for him.  This was our life for the last couple of weeks of 2012.  Pitiful, I know.

Family Pictures--November 2012

In November we managed to squeeze in a quick family photo session with our friend, Christie Marlatt.  She is new to photography and I had seen several of her shoots with some other friends of ours and saw her natural gift for it.  So we decided to ask her if she wanted to "practice" some more on our little family.  She agreed and did a wonderful job--as good as I would have expected from anyone.   It was chilly and the boys were rather shy and not all that smiley, but she captured some priceless memories for our family.  I was so appreciative that she was able to do it on short notice so we could have some new family pictures for our Christmas cards.  Thank you, Christie, for the wonderful memories!!!