Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. We had a wonderful week and especially enjoyed having Nana and Grandaddy around to share the holidays. Here are a few pictures from Christmas and the days following. Enjoy!

Christmas eve.

Look at all those presents...

A little help from Mama.

Christmas morning fun!

Laney with her Grandaddy. Happy Girl!

Don't peek Will! (bringing out the new motorcycle)

More gifts...

How Mike spent Christmas day - Transforming the Transformers. Its full time work (I don't think he minded).

Our best gift this year-Laney Beth!

Laney and Nana after dinner.

William riding his motorcycle and carrying his tools. He loves to dance to the Handy Manny songs.

William in Laney's tub...with his clothes on. Can't take your eyes off this one for a second!


Almost sitting...any day now.

Sunday morning and ready for church.

Santa Claus is Comin' To Town

Ian and Will singing. The bucket and crown is all them. They wear them ALL the time. Hope you enjoy this as much as I do when it is coming from the backseat of the car! William is usually a bit more into it, but his favorite is the "hey" in Jingle Bells. Too fun. One more thing to love about Christmas time.

As I'm writing this blog, Laney Beth is seconds away from rolling from back to stomach for the first time. She is really trying! Watch out - three mobile kids!!!!

Merry Christmas!

Bellevue Botanical Garden D'Lights

Last week we met up with some friends from MOMS club and headed out to Bellevue for the Garden D'Lights. It was SO cold, but the lights were awesome and free (always a nice touch). Ian had fun looking for the hidden animals in the light sculptures and Will had fun throwing his mittens on the ground. Good times...Here's some pics from our evening.

Annual Christmas Tree Cutting and Decorating

We went back to our favorite tree farm to find our tree. It was a good trip and much less muddy than last year which was good since we had three people to coordinate. The plan was for Will to ride on my back while I carried Laney and Ian walked, but Will did NOT like that plan so we ended up pushing him in an umbrella stroller. It was a very bumpy ride, but he seemed to enjoy it. Ian helped Mike cut down the tree and helped us choose which one (although Mike spotted it right away and we ended up with the first tree we saw). The boys weren't interested in Santa, but they did enjoy cutting the tree and their hot chocolate.

Mike and Ian sawing her down.

This is the only way I get into the pictures - I have to take them myself! Just to prove I was there too...

Ian being silly and enjoying his drink.

William wearing Mike's hat and LOVING his hot chocolate. He wouldn't look at me so this was the best I could do. When he finally did look up he had chocolate from chin to toes.

Before...

Ian putting up the all important "star" (snowman star in this case). He was great at decorating the tree and stuck with it the whole time.

The finished product. Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday

Well, we are very much missing our family as the Thanksgiving weekend comes to a close. It was the first time these Whites were on our own and it was a little strange to have just four of us (Laney slept through dinner) around the table. We did enjoy our day though and I even managed to pull off Thanksgiving dinner minus the turkey. Ian really liked the Macy's parade and was very excited by the Sesame Street float: "Mama, Papa, its Elmo and Sesame Street! and THEY'RE REAL!!!!" I think that this was a comparison to balloons, but not sure. :) :)

Ian has quickly moved on to Christmas celebrating and our house is showing the signs of the season (both through my decorations and Ian's constant decorating that includes taping paper on any empty surface he can find). I have pictures of Thanksgiving and the day after to post today and I'll follow soon with our Christmas tree cutting and decorating. It has been a very busy, tiring and festive week.

We are thinking of all our friends and family and hope that you are all enjoying the season!

The boys waiting for dinner. Ian did great. Will ate a dinner roll. He was very appreciative of my hours in the kitchen.

Laney all dressed and ready for Black Friday in her first (of many) Christmas outfits. Loving this girl stuff! :)

The boys riding the carousel with Mike. They loved it and I think this is becoming a tradition.

Westlake Center Christmas tree. Downtown Seattle is great at Christmas time. Perhaps some year we'll even see Santa downtown, but we didn't think our kids were quite old enough for the 2 hour wait!!! Plus, Ian said that he would really rather write him a letter instead of talking to him in person. Typical.

I will be posting soon with Christmas lists for our family. Stay tuned...

3 months old!

Below are some pictures of Miss Laney Beth. She is GROWING!. She's already 13 pounds and pretty much out of all the 0-3 mos clothes. We're not complaining though. We are well aware of what a blessing it is to have healthy children!

That said, it has been a long week in the White household. First Ian came down with a nasty cold, then two days later it really got William. His temp hit 105.2 and we had a couple of long days. Just as I thought we had seen the last, Laney started coughing and we made a trip the ER because of croup. Everyone is on the mend now. Hopefully we will return to life as usual (whatever that is) this week.

That is our news. We're getting excited for all the upcoming holidays although it is bittersweet to be far away from family during such a great time of year.

Enjoy the pictures!

Halloween Fun

Below are some pictures of our trick-or-treating adventure. We went over to Ian's friend, Christopher's, house and had dinner with Christopher's family. The boys had a blast running around in their costumes and after dinner we did about 15 minutes of trick-or-treating. We might have lasted longer, but it began raining and the kids were happy enough to head home for some candy. We had a fabulous night. If only the Phillies had won...

Enjoy the pictures!

Will the Monkey-NOT a fan of the hood!

Laney-O-Lantern

Ian and Christopher trying to be patient...wanting to go out!

Trick-or-Treat!

Cozy pumpkin. She slept through trick-or-treating.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Happy Halloween!

If you are like us, I'm sure that you and your kids have lots of Halloween events coming up this week. Ian has a "Dad and Me" pumpkin carving at school on Thursday. Then on Friday we're all going to Mike's office for a Halloween party. To top it off, we're going trick-or-treating with Ian's new friend Christopher! We'll have a busy few days. Hope everyone has a great week!

Ian's Bouncy 4th Birthday

We celebrated Ian's birthday with his preschool class at Kidz Bounce. It is a giant warehouse full of inflatable bouncy houses and the kids absolutely loved it. It was a great arrangement and we really got a chance to chat with all the parents while the kids enjoyed themselves. Well, actually I talked to the parents-Mike was having way too much fun jumping with Ian and Will. Ian is making great friends and I think he enjoyed being the birthday boy. Bouncy heaven...

Ian absolutely LOVES this place!

Typical William. No matter what is going on, he's trying to go somewhere he's not supposed to. While the kids were jumping, he was trying to get into the party room and during the party, he was trying to get out! He did have some fun jumping too though. He was really trying to keep up with the big kids.

Cake time! A room full of 3 and 4 year olds. They were remarkably good!

William at the table with the big kids. I don't think he even knows he's smaller than the rest. He just joins right in.

Ian and his new friend Christopher on the birthday throne. They are really enjoying themselves!

It was a great party! Happy Birthday Ian!