Check these out

Mount Rainier at Sunrise

Mount Rainier during the day

Mount Rainier at Sunset


Nate took some awesome pictures of Mount Rainier a few weeks ago. I've never seen it so beautiful. One of the best views is from the base, I love the one with the plane tail. This view is a benefit of living here, on clear days anyway.

Be sure to scroll down, I've tried to catch up on some posts from the last month.

New Year's in Leavenworth

Making a snow angel


We spent New Year's in a cute little german town in the mountains with our friends Brandon and Emily. It was fun hanging out and getting to do some winter activities. Nate and Alyssa went sledding a couple times, we went on a sleigh ride, walked around the town in the snow, ate lots of good food, played games, watched movies, all that fun stuff. It was a great mini vaca with some great friends!

The Rockettes

We went to see the Rockettes while my family was visiting. It was a really good show. Alyssa was really excited to see it because we had seen some commercials about it. She was really sick that day even though the pics don't seem to show it. We probably should have kept her home but she still liked it. It's nice to be able to do things like this now that Alyssa is older, I guess we should take advantage of it before we have another little one :) ( Note to self...That coat is sooo unflattering)

Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year. We were very thankful that Nate was home for a week and a half over Christmas. My family was here too, so we had a full house. Unfortunately Alyssa was sick the whole time my family was here but she was a trooper and still enjoyed most of the festivities. This was a fun year with Alyssa because she was able to understand so much. It was neat to see her grasp the Christmas story as we did advent activities, read about baby Jesus and learned Christmas songs. So even though she got way too many presents, I hope she got the message that Christmas is about Jesus and not just about the presents!

IT'S A......

We are very excited to have a little boy in our family! I got the cake idea from a tv show and we thought it would be a good way to find out together if Nate missed the ultrasound. He was actually here for it, but we still decided to do the cake. It was a pretty fun way to reveal the news. Alyssa wanted a sister and commented many times that she didn't want a boy baby, but she seems pretty happy now and was obviously more interested in the cake at the time. I'm a little nervous about having a boy. I don't know anything about boys having two sisters and a daughter. But it will be different and fun. We will have trucks and trains instead of all pink and princess. As many people have said, we will hang on and get ready for some wild, fun times ahead!

3 Years Old!!

Alyssa had a big party for her number 3. She invited a few friends and had them and their parents over to our house. It was pretty crowded and pretty crazy, but I think everyone had a good time, I know Alyssa did. We did a crown making craft to start out with and the little girls actually wore them! And they were cute. We did a few games- pin the nose on the clown, bean bag toss and the pinata. Then we did the cake and presents. Alyssa was very excited about her princess cake ( if you couldn't tell she had a princess theme:) and blowing out the candles. At the end we had a bouncy house set up in the garage for the kiddos, graciously provided by my friend Tamara. It was a pretty successful party. It was fun to see Alyssa so excited. She was so excited in fact that she had a very hard time going to bed that night, but it was worth it:) Happy Birthday Alyssa!!

Big Girl Bed

This is definitely a "real life" video. But I thought it captured a little bit of the array of her personality- Very grateful and sweet, wild, very concerned about her clothing and a little sassy- Sorry about the stripping :)

Alyssa finally got her big girl bed about a month ago. We kept putting it off because it never seemed like a good time, and I was afraid she wouldn't sleep as good anymore and get out of her bed all the time. She has done great! We told her that she has to stay in her bed and she's been staying in bed! Sometimes she calls for us a few times before she falls asleep, but nothing different than when she was in the crib. She's pretty excited to be a big girl and says that the baby can "borrow" her baby bed. Another little milestone, I can't believe she is almost 3!!