A Turning Point

Today we went outside to play in the rain for a while. Because that's what you do in Northwest Washington.

The twins went over to the playhouse and wandered around for a bit. Then they started playing peek-a-boo with each other, which is really fun to watch. I watched and laughed and watched and then Liz smacked Jane in the face. Half of their playtimes end this way, with Liz smacking Jane in the face. The other half ends with Jane screaming and throwing herself down on her face and crying into the floor.

Anyway, THIS time, after Jane got her five finger face treatment, she gave Liz a look that said "Oh, so that's how it is, punk?" and walked away.

This is the first time I can remember them not initiating a slap party with each other.

I really really really hope this stays around for a while.

Jane

Jane picked out her own clothes last week.

Once more, for cuteness.

The Mega Christmas Post

Heeeeeeeeey. It's still January. That means I'm not too late to blog about Christmas, right? I guess I am pushing it though. So I'll just blob it all into one great big post. That's how the professional bloggers do it, right? Wait until the last minute and then just slap a bunch of pictures up?

Sometime before or after Christmas we went for a little walk with my folks and the kids.

Jane and Daddy. She wanted to by carried pretty much the whole way.

But Lizzie walked with Grandma for the whole half mile loop!

We went to Johnson's tree farm to cut down the tree.

After we got out tree we got to go on a real, honest sleigh ride with jingle bells and everything. It was amazing! That's Shayna and Cheryl up front with the driver, they are our favorite baby watchers.

Atticus writing his letter to Santa

This white cardboard castle was one of the kids favorite gifts. They piled all the spare pillows and crayons in there and pretty happily destroyed it for two weeks.

Jane hanging out in her new kingdom

The traditional Butchart Christmas Morning Picture on the Stairs.

Sweet Lizzie girl

Atticus with his 6th garbage truck.

Jane in the pink, Lizzie in the red.

Mom on Christmas morning with her new mittens.

Lizzie looking like she wants to shank me at Gigi and Grumpy's Christmas sing along. I'm not sure why, everyone had a great time there. I love that skirt. I saw one like it on Pinterest and I had to make a copycat.

I also have to throw a picture of this sheep up. I made a few of the Christmas gifts this year, and this sheep was, hands down, my favorite.

LOOK AT THAT TAIL. It's a normal stuffed toy that Velcros on to a platform to become a pull toy.

A Bag of Body Parts

We were listening to the news and we heard "bag of body parts found near *garbled* Canal Bridge" and of course we assumed it was the Hood Canal Bridge, right where we live. So I googled it and found out the bag of body parts was actually found found near the Ship Canal Bridge, which is right in downtown Seattle, and I immediately felt better because that where you expect to find a bag of body parts, right? And then I thought, dude, I expect to find a bag of body parts?

Thanksgiving at First Beach

We spent Thanksgiving at First Beach in La Push with Nana, Pa, Gigi, Grumpy, Aunt Lorraine, Bob and Paul this year. It was pretty great!! The meal was great, and so was the beach!

We had good weather on Thursday and Friday, but the surf was ridiculous.

(Friday, with the good weather, but not the ridiculous ocean)

The tide was really far in, all the way up to the driftwood logs, and sometimes when the waves crashed you could feel it reverberating all along the logs. And the FOAM! I have never seen so much sea foam in my life. Or so much of any other foam for that matter.

(Foam. And this is the day after.)


(FOAAAAAM.)





We blew bubbles for a while, and they would stick to the sand until the girls popped them.

The kids were pretty good, despite not getting much sleep because everyone was in the same room. After the first night we decided to put the girls to bed at a normal time, but keep Atticus up so he could go to bed at the same time as us, thus minimizing disturbances. Turns out he gets funnier the later you keep him up. Saturday night he was running around Nana and Pa's hotel room talking about dragons, tigers, owls and chickens. He would run over and open the door and talk about whatever was going on out there, and then come back and tell us again. This video really doesn't do justice to the stories he was coming up with, but it's still pretty good.



And as a bonus, here are some videos of Atticus chasing chickens and of a bear smiling at the Wild Game Farm.

Halloween!

We were so busy trick or treating, playing with Gigi and Grumpy, and having a bath in the dark with glowsticks tonight that we forgot to take more than one picture, and it's a pretty poor one at that.

So how did we spend our Halloween? It's pretty much summed up in that opening line.
Gigi and Grumpy came and played with us and talked with us, and that is always fun! When Daddy came home we immediately went trick or treating. It was so fun to go out, although Atticus still says "Candy Treat!" rather than "Trick or Treat!" When we got home half an hour past bedtime we couldn't just let the fun stop, so we got out some glowsticks and filled up the bathtub. We turned out the light in the bathroom and let the kids have some fun. Now everyone is in bed, and I don't think I'll last much longer. In case you can't tell, we reused our costumes from last year: Atticus the Sea Otter, Eliza the Lobster, and Jane the Shark.

Happy Halloween!!

Pumpkinception

This year, my pumpkin was inspired by the work done by Peter O. Trevor's pumpkin was inspired by how hungry he was.

Happy Halloween! We'll post pictures of our sea creatures soon!