Happy Holidays Part 2

Mackenzie has been filling our home with the sounds of Christmas, singing every holiday song she knows, and making up new ones (last night at bedtime she sang "this little poodle" to me).  This year's edition of Kenzie's Christmas pageant was especially joyful, as she actually sang!  In years past she has been content to just stand peacefully while the rest of her class mates sang the songs.  But she has steadily been gaining confidence, and this year she sang and gestured all of the songs.  Steph predictably teared up throughout the performance!

Pretty angel ready for her big performance!

Sleep in heavenly peace!

... and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 I took Friday off so that we could take the kids to see the Nutcracker for the first time!  Steph came up with a brilliant idea to take the kids to lunch at the Space Needle before hand.  It was a perfect day for their first trip up to the top (the weatherman had called for all day rain, so of course there wasn't a cloud in the sky).  They had a nice lunch of space noodles, enjoyed the views, and had a very fun time watching the ballet.  Jackson was pleased that there were plenty of sword fights, and of course Kenzie enjoyed the dancing.

On top of the world!

Nutcracker!

With Mom in front of the fountain at Seattle Center

The rest of our Christmas vacation has been devoted to family time and fun holiday activities and crafts.  The kids made cookies with their mom, and decoration Santas with Dad.  Today we are making a rice crispy holiday choo choo train and decorating a little wooden Christmas tree.

Cookie time!

Holiday crafts...

Waiting in line to see the boss.  Jackson wants a Wii and a yellow and gray Anakin Skywalker lego ship.  Kenzie wants a Belle dress.  Both want silly bands.  I want an orange.  The kids and I got into a huge "discussion" as to whether or not Santa could procure an orange.  In the end we decided to agree to disagree.  But the kids were at least kind enough to relay my wish to Santa.

Jackson and Smokey have been having a special holiday break together. Here, Jackson scratches Smokey's belly.

Holidays 2010 (Part 1)

We are having fun family times this holiday season.  We were lucky enough to have all the grandparents, Uncle Matt, and Great Grandma Doreen join us for Thanksgiving this year!  Steph and Marsha labored in the kitchen while the rest of us drank champagne and watched football.  They cooked an excellent bird and the usual trimmings, and we all added an extra layer to keep us warm through the winter.

Big Bird

 A break in the action...

 Thanksgiving dinner with the whole family!

We kicked off the holiday season in style, having finished our shopping early, and decorating the tree the week after thanksgiving.  The kids are now fully engaged tree decorators.  They also are getting used to the annual tradition of "giving dad his space" while I fight the christmas tree in an attempt to get the tree upright, stable, and straight.  It took just 1.5 hours this year and only fell once!!

With the tree up and the house decorated beautifully by Steph and kids, we hosted the annual holiday dinner and gift exchange with our college friends, a fun tradition that we've held every year since graduation.  It's crazy to see the collection of kids & babies continue to grow.  The adults are close to getting out numbered!

Lastly, we enjoyed the F5 holiday party.  This year unfortunately we spent more time on boats going to and from the party than at the party itself.  However, it was a good excuse to dress up in fancy clothes and spend a night celebrating in Seattle.  We also had fun playing "big fat rats" (kids card game) in our hotel after the party!

More to come soon...

Kenzie's new dollhouse!

Our little girl is lucky to have such an awesome Aunt and Uncle!  Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Craig surprised Mackenzie with a gorgeous, hand crafted doll house that is out of this world!!  The craftsmanship and interior design in this doll house rivals anything we have ever lived in.  In fact, I think it should be more appropriately referred to as Kenzie's new Doll Home!

She has been quite busy playing with it, situating her tiny dolls throughout the home.  Jackson has also been enjoying it, although we don't need to put that out there for public consumption, as he would be upset about the hit to his rep!

Thanks so much Cheryl and Craig!!!

Family room, with hand stained hardwood floors and custom crafted fireplace mantel (and tiny Werner family portrait)

Mid century era kitchen

Nursery

Master bedroom with Juliet balcony

Entryway with ornate floor design

Bird's eye 

Shake roof and brick chimney

Street view.  Covered porch for drinking ice tea and listening to the ball game on the radio

 Wired for electricity... real functioning lights!

It even comes with its own view of the lake from the backyard!

Tinkerbelle and Captain Hook

The whole family had a swell time this Halloween.   We joined our next door neighbors, who were all dressed up as ranch-hands of one form or another (cowboy, cowgirl, cowgirl princess, farmer's wife, and suburban dad with a fedora hat mean to be something of a cowboy hat.)

Steph and I dressed up as ourselves, accompanied by Tink and Hook.

Mackenzie likes Halloween.  Jackson loves it, talks about it constantly, counts the days down, sings about it, generally obsesses about it.  So she had a fun time, he had an epic time.  They got a pretty solid haul of loot, and we were lucky enough that the one dry window amidst a week of rain fell right during trick or treat prime time.  In general, it was a perfect evening, with only two "Halloween Problems":  I got pixie dust all over my jacket from carrying a little fairy home from trick or treating, and later that same fairy cried because her cheeks were tired from chewing skittles.

 Happy Tinkerbelle with her light up wings and pixie dust!

The dread Captain Hook!

The full squad of trick or treaters ready to get some loot!

Enjoying the spoils from their adventure...

too many skittles = tired cheeks = crying fairy :(

Dad weekend again

After a long week away from home, it's good to be back with the kids, where I am solo dad for another weekend while Steph and my sister are in Spokane.  Once again, I sit here blogging on a Saturday night.  Last time I did this, I followed it up by looking at pictures of Mackenzie in chronological reverse order, ending with pictures from her birth.   I won't be repeating that one tonight... I was a mess by the time I finished!

While there's a lot of refereeing, and it's light on adult conversation, I love the time the kids and I share with no distractions.  The rainy weather has kept us inside all weekend, which is fine, as we have turned it into a crafts weekend.  Both of them are dealing with colds, but they don't complain.  The only real issue is they constantly ask for cough drops and sometimes it's hard to distinguish between the desire for cough relief and the desire for candy.  I think I'm doing okay though.

We're doing a lot of halloween projects, interspersed with reading a lot of halloween books.  This is in addition to a school project I did with Jackson, where we decorated a posterboard doll to look like his halloween costume.  Of course Kenzie loved it, so I repeated the project for her a couple nights later.

Captain Hook, with his school project...

I think we, I mean Jackson, has a good chance at an A!

Tinkerbell...

Today Kenzie decided she wanted "to make a picture for my brother".  Of course, it was a pumpkin.  Jackson was then inspired to create his own halloween artwork.

We all miss Steph, especially me, as I haven't seen her for a week.  But we get her back tomorrow!

One last random pic... I happened upon Jackson reading Pinkalicious.  He is really getting into reading recently!