Happy Monday

There's nothing cuter...

...than a baby in elf ears.


Poor Coop wasn't quite as thrilled with the setup, but she was a good sport. I LOVE the interaction between these two lately. Sloane always reaches out to touch her whenever Coop comes within reach. Coop loves the attention and we are just working on stopping her from licking to say hello back.


And a huge shout out to John who is never too cool for my kooky ideas. He just smiles as I proudly present the Christmas headbands I found at Fred Meyer and explain my plans for a family photo. You are the best, Juan.

Happy Birthday Mayson!

We celebrated Mayson's 3rd birthday this weekend at her Curious George themed party. Everything was so cute...from the invitations (bananas), to the decorations, to the photo station...Nikka put together a fantastic party. Happy Birthday May May - we love you!

I only managed to get a couple of photos of the birthday girl. Talk about a whirling dervish - that girl was constantly on the move.




Mimi & Sloane


Bobba was ready to party


Uncle JJ & Sloane

Gobble Gobble

We are chalk full of thankfulness in this family. It's been a big year. And what better way to celebrate that than with a day of family & food. Lots of family and lots of food. We started Thanksgiving with the Poort lunch. Don't let "lunch" fool you...it's a full, delicious Thanksgiving feast. We had to sneak out of trivia early to head over to my folks for another amazing Thanksgiving spread. Uncle JJ was in town and we were joined by Jon, Judy and Kay Manchester. After a very fun day, we waddled home and finally succumbed to the tryptophan.

Papa Leo and Sloane


Auntie Amy & miss S




Max thinks Uncle JJ is pretty funny


Sweet Mayson


Jon & Judy have been part of our Thanksgiving festivities for ~15 years


Nikka made these DARLING little candy turkeys. Seriously, how cute are these?


Mimi, Kay (in from Nebraska), Bobba, and Judy


Max & Sloane are totally diggin' each other. Hey cous!

Winter Wonderland

We are LOVING the Seattle snow! After a brief trip into work yesterday, I picked the girl up from daycare early so we wouldn't get stuck in the afternoon storm and we snuggled in for the night. How wonderful to get a text at 9:15 last night from work announcing that we'd be closed today. Oh how I love working for a school! John decided to stay home today and work on our kitchen so we all got to sleep in, snuggle in bed with our smiley gal for a bit this morning, and then bundle everyone up for a walk to the (very busy) local coffee shop. Sloane wasn't quite sure what was going on with all the white stuff and spent our whole walk wide eyed, checking everything out. Cooper, on the other hand, knew exactly what was in store and couldn't have been a happier pup.







Sloane's taking a long afternoon nap, John headed out to Home Depot for some supplies, Coop is exhausted from her very exciting morning and won't likely move from her bed for the rest of the afternoon, and I'm trying to decide if I should tackle a project around the house or snuggle up for a bit with my book. Yes indeed, I love snow days.

Happy Tuesday!

What happens when you let dad dress the girl?

She comes out looking like Axl Rose. There is a guitar with wings on the onesie underneath to really round out the outfit.

Loco Sloane

This is our crazy girl's new trick.  It 's pretty dang funny, just make sure you are outside of the firing range.

Family Photos

We met Erin down at Magnuson recently for some fall family photos. I was not really sure we were going to get any good shots...Cooper was a total pain in the ass, I was recovering from the plague, and despite Erin's very best efforts (she was practically doing cartwheels) Sloane wanted to look everywhere BUT at the camera. I was so happy to see that she was able to get some really beautiful photos. Thanks Coffey!





































This is what it was like most of the time.

Weekend Update

It was another fun and busy weekend in our house. We started off the festivities by bundling Sloane in her new winter suit and heading down to the Husky game on Thursday night. Once again she was a total champ, charming everyone sitting around us and managing to sleep through most of the exciting game (and the fight a couple of rows in front of us).


On Friday night John and I enjoyed an indulgent dinner at the Herbfarm. The theme was "Uber Tuber" aka potato and each amazing course was better than the last. We sat at a fun communal table with 7 other people and spent 5+ hours eating incredible food and drinking really good wine. Since Mimi & Bobba live just a couple of minutes away from the restaurant they watched Sloane, provided taxi services for the evening, and let us crash with them for the night. Thank you!


Saturday afternoon we hit the zoo with Nicki and Brian for the annual turkey toss. We watched the tigers tear into the raw meat that was tossed into their pen and witnessed the komodo dragon down a giant turkey leg in one gulp. My favorite animals were, hands down, the meerkats...they are even cuter than advertised. Though Sloane slept through most of this trip, we are looking forward to the many zoo visits that are sure to be part of our future.



Saturday night I hit the town with the girls on Capitol Hill. Delicious dinner at La Spiga followed by drinks at Unicorn (awesome bar) and Barca. It was a fantastic night of laughter, stories, sassiness, and shots. I reunited with one of my first loves - raspberry stoli and soda with a lime – only to awake Sunday morning remembering why we don't dance anymore. Ah, to be 22 again.

Five months

Our little gal is growing up fast and the last 5 months have been over the top fun and exciting. We think 5 crazy months is worth celebrating!



Sloane has begun to eat (well, attempt to eat) solids. She's still breastfeeding, but we will probably switch to formula in the next month or two. She is very observant and loves to sit and take in everything that's happening in a room. She's very expressive with her eyebrows. She's starting to get more hair in. Her eyes are getting more green every day. She has one glorious, sweet dimple. She's quick to smile at the people she knows. She sometimes makes strangers work for their first smile, but once she's warmed up you can't get her to stop. She has the most adorable laugh. She coos, she screeches, and sometimes makes this weird warbling sound. She grabs everything...toys, blankets, her mom's hair, anything she can get her hands on, then puts whatever she's grabbed directly into her mouth. And she has a super strong grip. She is a strong baby and loves to stand up any chance she gets. She can sit up on her own for quite a while before she reaches for something and topples over. She and her mama love to read Llama Llama Red Pajama. She and dad are making their way through the library to find "their" book. She loves to dance. Her favorite songs are How Much is that Doggy in the Window, Rockin' Robin, and What's New Pussycat. She's an active baby, but also loves to snuggle. She loves baths. She gives super slobbery kisses. She's pretty darn perfect. Oh, Sloane, how we love you!

5 months:


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5 months:


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