12/31/2009-1/1/2010 New years EVE

12/31/2009
We went shopping at Cabela's. I needed some hiking boots. The kids were great in the store! It was a fun afternoon and we soon lost track of the time. . . until the store stated they were closing and we realized that we were supposed to be at Sean and Carol Y's and we weren't there, and we hadn't made our part of the food for the party. So we did a quick stop at the grocery store and then had a fun evening to welcome the New Year and to celebrate Sean's birthday.

While mom tries on shoes, Mircea and Casper eat raisins.

Cheese

Dakota and Mircea are playing with their hamster rodent thing.

I wish I had gotten a longer video--but the video is a short clip of Mircea and Dakota. They formed a band. Dakota was the lead guitar and Mircea was the lead singer. It was quite cute! They play great together!

Casper was their groupie!

Mircea enjoyed playing dress-up with their dress-up clothes

I bought a gingerbread man cookie kit, for all the kids to decorate a cookie.

Mircea and her cookie

Sean's birthday cake--it was delicious.
He was also kind enough to let Mircea blow out his candle!
Happy Birthday, Sean!

12/29/2009 Bryan and Porsche go snowshoeing without snow

Tuesday
We found a baby sitter for our kids, and had the plan to go snowshoeing again. Unfortunately, there was no snow (well, little snow) where we wanted to go. However, as it was a nice day, we decided that we would hike instead of snowshoe. So, while it was a bummer that we couldn't use our equipment, it was a fun day. The trail itself was covered in many places with fallen trees, etc, so that made life a bit exciting trying to climb across.

The start of the trail.
Bryan just bought the sled, and created his own harness to make it into a pulk.
He decided to pull all our stuff, just in case we ran into snow.

Pulling the pulk without any snow

This fallen tree we could climb under.
I wasn't such a fan of those we had to crawl over, as it was slippery.

Lunch time

A pretty waterfall close to where we ate

Crossing a "bridge" finally seeing some snow
I had already bailed, as I couldn't get across some blown down trees.
(The pulk stayed with me.)

The end of the trail.

Bryan at the lake

12/25/2009 Christmas Day Sledding

Friday Christmas Day.

Bryan and Mircea head out to go sledding. Wish Casper and I could have gone with them! However, once they got to the sledding area, Mircea didn't really want to sled, so they went hiking instead.

Ready for sledding

PB&J the perfect sandwich after all that work!

12/24/2009 Christmas Eve at Grandma's (and Grandpa's)

Thursday
Today we celebrated "Christmas" at Grandma and Grandpa's house.
This was the group: Grandma, Grandpa, Lucille, Allan, Beaner, Steve, Ginny, Samantha, Alex, Troy, Beth, Joe, Danny, and us. The plans included dinner and "fishing" for some small presents.

First we went to McDonald's for a little playtime

Nice hair Mircea

Time for presents. Papa has his camera ready.

The crew in front of the fishing curtain:

Mircea, Casper, Bryan, Samantha, Joe, Troy, Danny, Steve, (and Alex)

Beaner and Allan are in charge of attaching the presents

Casper fishing with his Dad

Fishing for presents

Us moms got to take pictures

Mircea "catches" a Snow White Polly Pocket
In case you can't tell, she really likes it!

Check out their loot

Art time: they made sticker pictures--courtesy of Aunt Beth

Casper climbs on Papa as they watch the "bigger" kids do their art

Cea's finished product

A parade around the house

The paraders

Such a sweet little girl!

Allan kept trying to hold Casper, and then Casper would cry.
Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera, the final time, when Casper finally didn't have any issue with Allan holding him. Sorry Allan, maybe I will get a picture next time!

Grandma sat at the kids table during dinner.
She regaled them with stories of when she was a little girl.
There was a lot of laughing and eating.

Lucille and Casper had fun playing together. He liked it when she would chase him around!

Casper goes on a treasure hunt for his last present--a pair of pj's.

Cea finds her present of pj's too.

Time to go home! Good night and Merry Christmas everyone!

12/19/2009 Snowshoeing with Candy and Steve

Saturday
We have snowshoes, and then we found out, so do Candy and Steve. Therefore, we all decided we should go snowshoeing together. It was a fun day out on the mountain (Rainier). Pretty much our goal was just to let Candy and Steve get used to their snowshoes, and how they work. It was a lot more crowded today then the first time Bryan and I went snowshoeing here. We had a good time chatting, and walking along. We also had a great lunch of summer sausage, bagels, cheddar cheese, and some fruit. We shall have to do this again!

Bryan digging (as usual)

Steven throwing snowballs

Candy and Porsche (taking a break from chatting to pose for a picture)

Candy getting ready to take the group photo, which involved clicking the button, and then frantically trying to get over to the group amidst hysterical laughter. The following is the resulting group photo!. . . However, as I am still waiting for a copy from Candy, so I will post the picture when I get it. . .

12/19/2009 Mircea's NEW Hairdo

Saturday
Mircea tells me how she wants her hair, so I have her explain it on video as well. (The Karena she mentions is her cousin.)
I think it is a cute hairdo, and will be a regular around our house.

A Braid and a Pony

12/18/2009 Cea does a "flip"

Friday evening
Cea was practicing trying to do a flip on the couch. Of course the flip she did right before this video was way more like a real flip--but I was too slow with the camera. I personally liked how hard she would breathe while she was jumping, and then she would do a somersault.

12/17/2009 - 12/18/2009 Special Meeting Worker

Thursday night - Friday morning

We had the privilege of having Kelvin spend a night at our home. He is one of our ministers from New Mexico. It was great to meet him and introduce him to Sauerkraut pizza! The kids just adored him. We were very happy that he could stay with us.
It was quite funny, when Ross dropped him off at our house, Mircea was right there to greet them. She then was quite confused that only Kelvin was staying. She said, "But there is supposed to be two of them!"
Mircea loves the workers and worries about them too. She likes it when they stay with us, because they play with her, and because she knows for sure then they have a bed and food.
We were glad that Kelvin could spend time with us, and we enjoyed our study and visiting with him.

Casper, Kelvin, and Mircea

Mircea talking with Kelvin

Mircea having another Bible study after Kelvin leaves

12/17/2009 A birthday for Mircea's Friend

Thursday
Laura, a friend of Mircea, from Music class, had her 3rd birthday. Mircea was invited to her party. It was held at Pump It Up in Tacoma. A place that has lots of inflatable slides, bounce blowup/rooms and cute obstacle courses. They also provide a party room and the cake. It was a lot of fun! Mircea could do everything on her own, and she was amazing. Casper couldn't do everything on his own, so I would help him out. He had a lot of fun too! He would just try to copy Mircea.

Mircea listening to the directions before we go into the room

Porsche and Casper at the top of a ladder, getting ready to slide.

Bouncing in a bounce house

Mircea and Casper climbing up a "ladder" to go down a slide

Casper at the top of a slide

Part of one of the rooms

They even had a little car for Casper to drive

Cea sliding down

Cea going through an obstacle course

A picture of most of the kids at the party

2 of Mircea's friends, Nicole and Laura (The birthday girl)

Sara--Laura's mother. She did a great job planning the party!

Mircea loves the blow toys!

Blake and Mircea eating cake

Laura opening her presents. This is the Elefun game that we gave her.

Happy Birthday Laura! Thank you for inviting us to your party. We had fun!