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Follow the leader is the best game ever… even if it is freezing outside and LiliBee can’t walk more than a few steps before falling down. (LiliBee has trouble with shoes.)

Taking pictures of the tv is fascinating… and if you have a digital camera, you should take at least 15 pictures of Diego. (Diego is ©Viacom, I think.)

The stupid “popcorn” ceiling in my bedroom looks like clouds. The clouds look like moose. These moose are apparently eating children. But aren’t scary at all.

I still haven’t figured out how to convert videos for uploading directly, but the YouTube thing isn’t so bad…

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P52bAk953jA[/youtube]

In which I find out that we’re a family of doggies while LiliBee just does her own thing.

I hope everyone was able to stay dry this week. We had quite a bit of water hanging around at the end of the driveway, but nothing too bad. I’m always happy that we live on a hill when the flooding starts.

We’re still in our post-holiday lull around here. I’m kind of enjoying not having much going on, but I’ll be glad when the toddler gym classes start up again… CareBear needs an outlet for her excess energy!

LiliBee is finally getting the teeth she’s been working on for the last month or so. They’re coming in on the top, which means that she’ll have 6 upper teeth and only 2 lower teeth… that seems unbalanced to me (not to mention uncomfortable) so I’m hoping that the bottom teeth aren’t far behind.

We took a walk around the neighborhood the other day to check out the puddles and wildlife. CareBear made friends with a kitty down the road and learned how to pedal the “bike” that the neighbors loaned us (though she can’t quite get enough force behind it yet since there isn’t much traction to the wheels). She came up with all kinds of adventures that we were on, which was a lot of fun.

My New Year’s resolution is going well enough that Chris decided to do a Project 365 himself… he’s going to (theoretically) take a picture of himself every day this year, along with whoever happens to be around at the time. It should be fun to see how much he changes over the year (check it out). He’s even blogging!

A fun day today… we had guests! Some very good friends stopped by for a belated Christmas gift exchange and much fun ensued. The kids all had a good time playing together and CareBear played hostess by swiping graham crackers off of the counter for everyone. 

We set up the CareBear’s new toddler bed and I made a canopy for it! I found these instructions and adapted them a bit as there’s no need to be quite so fussy for a toddler’s bed. My version is much simpler and there’s no sewing involved. Anyway, CareBear got to pick out the colors that went into it and I think it came out pretty nice!

CareBear thinks it’s fun and LiliBee pretended to sleep.

One of the new Christmas presents was some nifty battery-powered gears for on the refrigerator. CareBear opened the package all by herself and told me that she was going to make a special machine! I love that she knew that was what gears were used for.

My whole family was fascinated.

Even Lucy came over to check it out!

We did some productive shopping and Chris got several things accomplished… so why do I fee like I lost the whole day?

I need a nap.

We had a cranky morning around here. Ok, I was cranky… but I’d be less cranky if the children would let me sleep more than a few hours at night. And stop coloring on the couch. And weren’t so cranky themselves… and… and… 

The upshot is that I decided we all needed some fresh air so we headed out into the neighborhood for a walk. 

CareBear is learning how to peddle and steer.

And, sometimes, she wishes I’d just put the camera down and push her big wheel.

LiliBee wasn’t sure about riding in the backpack at first. (And, to be fair, I didn’t exactly know what I was doing… Chris usually uses the big backpack while I stick to my quick, easy and much-loved Ergo carrier!)

But she seemed to enjoy it once she got used to it.

Another soggy day… not so much rainy, but the ground was soggy enough to keep us inside. The girls and I took a little drive downtown to check out how high the water was in the river. It was pretty impressive to see! 

Since no one wanted to take a nap this afternoon (LiliBee napped in the car), CareBear decided we should have a cake party. We don’t have any cake, so I gave them graham crackers with cream cheese on top to decorate.

The girls had a lot of fun and they actually turned out kind of cute. Not too bad for a toddler “baking” activity, anyway.

LiliBee and I thought they were quite tasty, but CareBear preferred to just eat the sprinkles and “frosting” and feed the rest to the puppies.

Our snow is officially gone (except for the pile out by the driveway created by shoveling). It’s been raining all day today and the news says there will be record flooding in the valley. Doesn’t sound good for the other areas of the state, either. I’m glad that we live on a hill!

Because of the weather, we spent the day inside. 

Radio looked bored. Or thoughtful. It’s hard to tell with him.

CareBear danced in her padded swimsuit. It’s apparently pool party weather.

Meanwhile, the “puddle” at the end of our driveway convinced me that it was a good decision to stay in!

CareBear decided to take a few more pictures while I was getting LiliBee settled down for her afternoon nap. I always wondered what happened when I wasn’t in the room!

Extreme close-up!

The Dinosaurs use my computer?

Funny face.

 

Happy New Year!

It’s 2009. That’s crazy. I have no idea where 2008 went.

We had a very quiet New Year. The kids slept while Chris and I watched the fireworks at the Space Needle on TV. We’re such party animals. Lucy had a rough night with the fireworks going off around midnight (actually, they lasted over an hour and a half around here) and again on New Year’s day. They just scare the “big dog” right out of her.

This whole week was pretty mellow, making for a nice change from the hustle and bustle of the holidays. Chris worked so much at the beginning of the week that he had enough hours to take a long weekend. We didn’t even have to do any classes or shopping or errands!

CareBear was thrilled to wake up to more snow on Friday. She got all bundled up and headed out with Chris and the puppies to explore the backyard. It’s so much more interesting out there when there’s snow on the ground! She wanted to find some bugs to catch, but I convinced her that they’d all be sleeping during the winter. 

LiliBee learned to jump this week. She watched CareBear jump around their couch cushion playground and decided that it was time for her to try. It’s scary to watch, but she actually gets some air under her feet now instead of just flopping from cushion to cushion. LiliBee gets really mad when CareBear does something that she’s not big enough to do yet. They’re going to be partners in crime before too long.

I made a resolution this year to get my photos under control… you may have noticed that I take a lot of pictures. My goal is to figure out how to use the computer software to tag and organize the pictures so I can find them more easily. Also, I need to be more critical and delete the pictures that are out of focus or otherwise unfortunate. They’re just all so cute! In what seems counter-intuitive, I’ve also decided to participate in something called “project 365”. The idea behind it is that you take (and post) a picture a day. By the end of the year, you have a visual snapshot of your year. Watch for that to start up soon on our website (www.dragonbard.com).

The kids are having a tea party in their room right now… for which they apparently had to be naked. It’s going to be a fun evening!