Unmotivated

Ever since returning to real life, I have been completely unmotivated to cook, clean, blog or pretty much do anything productive (if blogging counts as productive). Can I blame this on pregnancy? Ok. Thanks.

In light of my current mood, I am doing a massive picture blog for the last few weeks of December. I could break it down into smaller, creative and interesting blogs, but that is just not going to happen. Feel free to read each and every detail, skim through the pictures or "mark as read" immediately. Enjoy!!

To get us excited about our trip to Seattle for Christmas, Troy's dad sent us a snowboarding DVD. Troy got the best Christmas present when Erica kept asking to watch the DVD and pretended to snowboard. Of course, this could not be done without her permanent purple sidekick.


Erica and I tried to get the house clean before we left town. She enjoyed the mopping part. I think we did more dirtying than cleaning, however.

Erica finally caught on to what presents are. She was very excited to open one with Pooh Bear wrapping paper. Nice choice, Alice. We still have the book on her bed to read at night. She loved it.


We spent just over a week in Seattle and we're spoiled with so much family time. Erica had so many great cousins, aunts, uncles and her grandparents to entertain her. I don't think I've ever gone so long without her needing to be by my side. Should I be happy about this? You will notice in all of these pictures that she is rarely without some kind of princess dress on. It was an absolutely necessity to always be dressed up as a princess/barbie of some kind.

Even the dog, Ringo/Bingo helped to entertain. Yes, that big, white fluff in the background really is a dog.


Troy spent the first part of his vacation like this. He was working desperately to get his iphone/ipod game in the itunes store before Christmas. He barely made it.

Erica learned how to play "Hungry, Hungry, Hippos", but we are realizing that she is not the competitive type. She had more fun putting her marbles back in the center of the game so she could try to catch them again. She didn't care/understand about getting the most marbles. It was just cute to watch her play with her cousins.

Since it was so much colder in Washington, we let Erica open one of her presents early. A pair of mittens. We told her they were from a snowman. She insisted on hugging and profusely thanking the stuffed snowman sitting next to her on the couch. She really liked the mittens.

One night we all went to see the Christmas lights at the Botanical Gardens. They were beautiful. I was expecting to see just a bunch of lights in the trees. Instead, they created plants and animals out of Christmas lights. It was amazing!!!

We also spent 2 nights up at White Pass before Christmas. We stayed in this huge cabin, with a kitchen and big open room on the main floor and a ton of bunk beds on the second floor. Troy got to go snowboarding, I got to hang out in the warm cabin and eat and Erica got to dress up like a princess and play with cousins. I think we were all very happy.

Erica was scared to sled down a hill by herself and I wasn't about to hop on the sled with her and my big belly. So, we resorted to pulling the kids around the parking lot in a sled. They seemed just fine with that.

One of their favorite games to play was Super Barbie. This consisted of dressing up in princess dresses and knocking down the enemy with light sabers. It was a huge success.

She was also very excited about finally being allowed to jump on the bed.

We returned back to Seattle on Christmas Eve. We spent Christmas morning opening gifts at Troy's parent's home. Erica was thrilled to get so many great gifts. In fact, we haven't even opened the presents we bought her yet because she has so many other new and fun things to play with.

Here she is thanking Oma and Opa for her purple fairy Barbie. This doll has already entertained her for hours. I don't think I ever even owned a Barbie growing up. This was by my choice. We are so different, but I find her girly ways very cute.


Aunt Sonja made the girls these beautiful tutus and tiaras. Erica was, of course, very excited to get them.

Troy's mom is making me this beautiful quilt. I LOVE the colors in it.


We spent the last few days at Troy's brother's house. He has three kids who took great care of Erica. Since Troy got to spend time snowboarding, he sent me on a night out with his brother's wife. We went to this amazing crepe restaurant and stuffed ourselves. It was wonderful. We didn't come back until the kids were asleep.