Laughter is Contagious

I just had the most wonderful evening with Hazel. I know she's not even one, but she brings me so much joy and delight...we both laughed so hard tonight. She would squeal with delight, which would make me giggle, which would make her laugh, which would make me laugh. I haven't laughed that hard in awhile. It was so refreshing!

Here's how the evening played out. We both ate a bowl of pasta with basil and olive oil, (mine also had tomatoes and Parmesan cheese). It's fun that we can eat the same things now; she's just getting so big. Then I was done and ate a piece of dark chocolate, and Hazel signed "more". So I fed her half of jar of PeachBananaOatmeal. Then she signed "more", so I fed her some sweet potatoes. I can't believe how much she packed in!

After dinner we played on the floor of the living room while Rick Steves told us of London in the back ground on the TV. Then I got out her walking toy and the laughter ensued! She's never walked so fast with it. She went from living room to dining room and back and forth for like a half hour. She was ecstatic! So happy, so proud, so giggly. We laughed and laughed, (the tickling helped). These next pictures were taken consecutively as she walked right past me. They're blurry cause she was moving so fast and I was just using my camera phone.


Then I put her in her new jammies...I love the stripes! They're a little bit long, but her old ones are too short. This picture is blurry too, cause this kid wouldn't stop wiggling tonight! She had so much crazy giggly squirmy energy!

Then I fed her and put her down at 8pm...she was out by 8:05! The two or us had such a great evening!

Hazel is truly a delight and gift from God! She's such a blessing to Dan and I and we thank God for her daily!

Annual Movie Night Christmas Party

Last night we had our 3rd Annual Movie Night Christmas Party! We had a great time, good food, and a fun white elephant gift exchange. Here's the evening in picture form:

Camera Phone Photos

Here are some random pictures I took with my phone of Hazel this month... My phone can really capture her huge cheeks, and big eyes.

December first, Starbucks date with Dad

Eating Cashew Chicken and Rice (minus the Cashews)

Car ride...so cold outside

Lunch time

Coming home from Portland, in desperate need of a bath. CRAZY HAIR

Family Time

I knew this month I'd either blog a lot, or hardly at all. So many blog worthy things, so little time! Family Christmas has begun! Brian and Kellie are in town now, and we all headed down to Peter and Sarah's in Portland last week. My mom and her husband came us as well. We celebrate Christmas with mom, and 6 birthdays...meaning we ate A LOT! It was so fun to have all 8 nieces and nephews together. And we got to meet Eden, our newest niece.

Bundled up from the cold

We went to the Children's Museum with Pete and Sarah one afternoon. Hazel was actually big enough to play around this time. It was fun to watch her explore.

These three girls are all one year apart. Lexie turns 2 today, Hazel is 1 in about 3 weeks, and Eden was just born 4 weeks ago. It will be fun to watch them all grow up together.

This is what the "big" kids did in the evenings. They'd eat dinner crazy fast, and head upstairs to Pete and Sarah's room to play Super Mario Brother's Wii!


This is from Ethan's Birthday on the 7th at the Jensen's before we went down to Portland.

And this is the Whole Gang...2 Grandparents, 6 Parents, and 8 kiddos!

Gift From God

We had Hazel's baby dedication last night at Church. The verse we chose for Hazel and will continue to pray over her is Colossians 1:9-10 "And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing the knowledge of God."


She is such a blessing to Dan and I. She'll be 11 months old on Saturday and we are so thankful that God allowed us to be her parents. I don't know if it was the dedication or the fact that she's almost a year, but I've been thinking a lot about this past year with her. She is such a delight and gift from God. We love and cherish her so much. Thank you God for entrusting us with such a precious gift.

Thanksgiving Weekend

This is the weekend that keeps on giving! Thanksgiving day was delightful and delicious. Then on Friday we had Beau, Bridget and Finn, Erin and Marta over for Brunch. Eggs Benny, Mimosas, coffee, tea, fruit, muffins, and cinnamon rolls! Feast number two! Brunch is my favorite. The food is so good, and we always end up sitting at the table for hours talking! I LOVE IT! Sadly I have no pictures from this wonderful morning, but later that evening, we spontaneously decided to hop in the car and head to Seattle for the tree and Macy's star lighting. It took us 11 minutes to get to Seattle, and it took us 50 minutes to park. We drove up and down the Pacific Place garage three times. Hazel loved the Fireworks...it was so cute to watch her.


This brings us to today, which has been one of the most productive days ever!!! I can't believe all that we've gotten done. Dan got us coffee this morning, and I made eggs and english muffins for breakfast. Then we got ready for the day and headed to Home Depot for a Christmas tree. We had a gift card, that we thought only had some change left on it, but to our surprise it paid for our tree and we still have some on it for later! We also hit up the Trader Joe's for much needed groceries! (Hazel's finally big enough to ride in the grocery cart, and she LOVES it)!


Then we came home for Hazel's nap, and decorated the house with Christmas delight!


After that we headed to Target to buy Christmas and Birthday presents for our nieces and nephews. We ended up finding Christmas gifts for 10 out of 13 nieces and nephews and Birthday presents for all 5. Our house if full of TOYS!!!


Then we came back home, had dinner of stuffed peppers, cleaned the house and baked a cake for Hazel's baby dedication tomorrow. While I was doing the dishes, Hazel decided to climb right on into the dishwasher. I took some quick pictures with my phone, before taking her out.


All in all we've had a great extended weekend, and still have one more day left! Life is good...God is good!