Chatterbox

Sloane is "talking"...and by "talking" I mean making tons of crazy noises trying to imitate her parents in the hopes that words might be formed. She loves to have "conversations"...here's a glimpse into our evenings these days.

I never thought it could be so fun to have no idea what someone is saying.  Love this girl.

Sneak peak

We had a Morell family photo session during our trip to Montana in August and the photos are fantastic. More to come, but here is a taste...

Twins

I always think it's funny when people can't tell John and Adam apart. I admit that I couldn't distinguish the two in college, but now I sometimes forget they are twins. On this day though, it was sort of freaking me out.

Chef de Cuisine 2010

After John took home the big prize at the first annual Poort family Chef de Cuisine (chili)...


...we were looking forward to this year's challenge of baked pasta. I dusted the flower off of my favorite Martha Stewart mac & cheese recipe and we headed to the eastside in hopes of repeating last year's success with this delicious dish.


Alas, it was Joia's amazing, and aptly named, "the world's best fontina mac & cheese (with ham)" that got my vote and took home this year's title. All of the dishes were spectacular and we were happy to share the runner up prize with Adam & Melissa's rigatoni. Next time I'm going to follow my instincts and, no matter what, find a way to include some sort of salty pork product into my dish. Bring it on "small bites"!

It was a fun and high caloric day topped off with some delicious cheesecake to celebrate Ben and Joia's birthdays.

The big winner


What cute cousins...and check out Sloane's big pimpin' track suit.




Hanging out with dad


Snuggling with Aunt Amy


Snoozing with mom


Love, love Jonah's Star Wars shirt.

Back to the Grind

I'm officially back to work. It's so many good and so many not so good emotions all at the same time. It's fun to see colleagues I like and have missed, and nice to be back in a routine that is so familiar. It's so incredibly hard to think about being away from Sloane. I know how lucky I am to have had an amazing 14 weeks at home with her. We were also lucky to find a really wonderful daycare so dropping her off today wasn't as traumatic as I worried it would be. The two test days we did there last week helped me get all of my tears out in advance.

This is is the smile I got as we were heading out the door this morning. Are you kidding me?


Sloane has won over everyone at her daycare. She is the youngest of a pretty small group of kids and I got a full report from a couple of the older kids when I picked her up today. According to those kiddos she doesn't cry at all, she smiles a lot, and she especially likes it when they make funny faces at her :)

3 months

I'm not sure they make 3 month olds any cuter than our little buttercup. Sloane is still eating like crazy and, thus, growing like crazy. She smiles. A lot. She giggles. A lot. She loves to have "conversations". She likes to stare at her hands then try to cram them both in her mouth. The slobbering has arrived. She's getting those scrumptious chubby rolls. And, though it doesn't seem possible, her cheeks keep getting bigger (and more kissable). She wants to stand up all the time and her legs are really strong. She moves like crazy. I'd say she has some dancing in her future. Let's just hope her moves are better than her parents. Luckily, she is also a great snuggler.

We love every stinkin inch of her.

1 day old


1 month


2 months


3 months



2 months


3 months

Husky vs. Husker Weekend

The Morell family was divided this weekend when Nebraska came to Seattle to take on our dawgs. My aunt Micki, uncle Joe, and cousins Allison & Ted joined the other 20,000+ Nebraska fans who made the journey to the emerald city.

We headed down to the stadium at 8 am to start the tailgating



Sloane finally got to meet Jon and Judy Manchester


The stadium had some major red patches and the four huskies in our party were smack dab in the middle of one.


Sloane celebrated the Husky touchdowns and wished there would have been more


A quick lunch break


This gal was such a trooper! It was a big day and we all crashed as soon as we hit the couch that night. Poor girl couldn't even stay awake through her burping.


On Sunday we headed over to my parents to watch the Hawks and hang out together.
Allison and Sloane


Uncle JJ and Sloane worked on their superman moves


Max decided he wanted in the action


Cousins


Nikka, May, Max, and Allison


Micki and the girl


Sloane snoozed with Bobba


Captain Awesome and the Milian


Mayson's potty training continues to go well and she and Bobba even treated the group to their "potty dance"


Uncle JJ is silly


Mayson loves Captain Awesome and his scratchy beard

Getting down and dirty in the kitchen

The remodel continued with another day of demo last week to tear out all of the drywall and remove the nasty old insulation.

It was a dirty, dirty job.



But progress was made


And we knew just how to end the day.



We also picked up the new sink



With relatives in town, Husky football, and soaking up the end of my maternity leave we haven't made much progress the last few days. I'm sure that will change this week. Right, John?

Say it ain't so

Do I really only have one week of maternity leave left? How can these last 13 weeks have flown by so quickly? We'll do one trial run day at her daycare this week and the rest of the time will be spent soaking up every fun filled minute with this beautiful gal.

The Dirty 30 for Miss Nicki

We helped Nicki ring in her 30th bday with a very fun evening on Saturday. Brian planned such a fun day for his gal. Nicki hit a few of her former haunts, picking up friends at each stop and we ended with a fabulous dinner in Eastlake. In true diva style Sloane rocked not one but four outfits that evening...she arrived in her Husky gear, quickly changed into her pink party dress, donned the jammies later in the evening, and then had to resort to the emergency outfit after a blowout on Nicole's lap. Every party has a pooper, that's why we invited Sloane. Sorry auntie Cole!

The birthday girl


Sloane got some QT with Nicole


Andrea rolled a mean pizza


Brian and Sloane


Sisters


After a very fun and very late night, we were all excited to sleep in on Sunday