A Few Pictures

It's hard to take a clear picture when you have a squirmy baby in your arms, but this is the view down the coastline at the time when the double rainbow was out over the water. I won't include my pictures of that because they really didn't turn out good.

Here's the inside of our condo. Far down the hallway is the front entrance. There's a bedroom and bath on the left behind the kitchen, another bedroom to the right with it's own bathroom, and our room was on the left by the fireplace. Three bedrooms, three baths - that's pretty spoiled! I don't know why I didn't get a picture facing the other way. Guess I'll have to go back.

When we first arrived, this was the view that greeted us. What a lovely sunset. I love the way the colors turned out in the above picture, but I am happier with the composition of the one below. So of course, I must include both.

After a long 8 hour car ride we got back home last night safe and sound. Both kids were very anxious to get out of their car seats, but they did a fantastic job of traveling. I thought Kaylee would be excited to see her house again, but she cried out "NO - different house!" I asked if she meant the "Ocean house" and yes, that's what she was hoping for. Oh, it broke my heart! This morning when she got up - she ran back into her room, grabbed her coat and her backpack, and said "Ocean house!". All day I've had to explain that we aren't going back to the ocean house anytime soon. By far it was our favorite place of all the timeshare locations we've been to. We're definitely going back - just not today!

Depoe Bay

We are currently at our time share down in Depoe Bay, OR. It's spectacular! We have a spacious 3 bedroom unit that is very well laid out. All three bedrooms are separated from each other. It makes it nice for when you have crying babies! We are here with our friends Jason and Darlene and their three kids.

The master room has french doors, a king size bed, a closet the size of a small room, a jet tub, and sliding doors that walk out onto a patio. Outside the window is the most wonderful view of the ocean.

There is about twenty feet of lawn, then a fence, then a rocky cliff down about 30-40 feet to the crashing waves. I'll have some pictures to post when we get home.

I love sitting here listening to the surf, watching the waves rise, curl and crash. It's amazing to me how something so strong and fast could looks so slow and graceful from up here.

Right now it's snowing. Large fluffy flakes. Everyone left to go to the aquarium in town. Hudson and I are staying home because I became sick quite suddenly this morning. For now, the pain in my stomach is lessened and I can relax here watching the water and the snow while Hudson is contentedly playing on the floor.

Out this window I have watched the setting sun lighting up some billowy clouds out at sea, a nearly full moon lighting up the dark waters below, and this morning a double rainbow graced the misty air above the turbulent waters. Maybe that was God's way of assuring me after I lay awake thinking about tsunamis last night! (yeah, I'm a bit paranoid) I sat and watched with amazement how quickly the ocean changes. The subtle hues that change the mood of the whole scene. Green and dark blue in a quiet moment.... orange with the rising sun peeking out of a cloud... then in a blink, flat cold grey as the clouds envelope the sun. Just as quickly, that cold grey becomes lively blue when the afternoon sun comes out, enhancing the contrast of the white waves - bright, beautiful and inviting.

I also watched the sea gulls get all flustered and scatter off in every direction. I wondered what was going on. Then I was thrilled by two bald eagles soaring past the window.

Sometimes it's a blessing to be stuck in bed. Especially with a view like this!


**UPDATE**
Jeff and Kaylee just came back. The roads are already pretty snowy and slippery. He didn't think it was worth risking anything else happening - with all the car trouble we've had lately. I'm glad he decided to come back. We may just get snowed in down here!

**ANOTHER UPDATE**
Jason & Darlene came back too. I guess the roads were pretty slick. In a matter of hours however, the sun came out, the snow melted away and we had a beautiful afternoon. What crazy weather!

Prayer Off

A couple times now Kaylee has done something which I find quite amusing and I have to write it down so I don't forget.

When I put her down for a nap we always say prayers and then I sing her a song. After the prayer she checks to make sure that my hands are not still folded. If they are, she reaches over and moves my hands apart saying "prayer off". I guess folded hands are only for praying.

I try to finish out the song without laughing, but it's kind of hard to do.

It reminds me of being a little girl in church, listening to the pastor preaching. I thought, "Hey, this is good! God should hear this." So I folded my hands together thinking that now God could hear what was being said...as if it was some kind of microphone or something. How cute was I?

I love the way Kaylee will often answer a yes/no question with "Yep". It's more like: "yyyyep"

The last couple of days she's been saying "Sure do" to almost any question asked of her. "Do you want to take a bath" - "sure do!" "Would you like some juice?" "Sure do"

I don't know where she got that from, but it's fun.

Hudson really surprised me today. He was sitting on my lap as I was looking up something on the computer. Suddenly he turns around, looks up at my face and gives me a huge smile. Oh, it just melted my heart. I don't know why it was so surprising. I guess it's just such a "big kid" thing to do. You don't expect your little baby to turn around and smile at you like that.

Well I'm almost done with the pants I decided to knit for Hudson and I can already tell without trying them on that they are way too small. Jeff says they'd make some good shorts. I think the lady who made the pattern lives in Australia - they must have little hobbit children down there or something. :)

Drawings

Today my little artist put on some gloves (like Mommy does when she's handling raw chicken or veggies). This has nothing to do with the rest of the post, I just thought it was really cute!

See those cute jammies? I bought them a LONG time ago and she never wanted to wear them... until today. I'm glad they still fit, but she won't be wearing them long. Well, we discovered that she could use Mommy's legs as a slide when she's wearing these. Boy, am I worn out. That girl could slide till the cows come home...and then some! Now I think they're her favorite jammies. I can just see her using them to slide out of bed in the morning, and then climbing back up to do it again.

Here are some of Kaylee's drawings today. The first has something to do with rain. I'm not sure who or what is in the middle, but that would be rain all around. I particularly like the little splash of color on the bottom left. She mostly wanted to stick with blue today, but in a moment of inspiration, she had to break out with some other colors.

Next is something that was going on outside at the time. She could hear kids playing, so maybe that is what this is.

This last one she told me is a picture of her Maka doing something. She didn't actually specify which Maka (grandma) however. So I'll let them duke it out:

Likely they'll be arguing over which Maka it isn't. :)

Cookies

Kaylee got a bake set for Christmas and I thought it was about time we tried it out. (Plus, I wanted cookies!) So one day I made up a batch of sugar cookie dough to see how it would go.

I decided to put the sprinkles into little paper cups so that Kaylee could just push the shapes into them rather than trying to get her to sprinkle them. It was definitely the way to go - a lot less messy!

Here's some left over dough - Kaylee wants to push her face into it and make an imprint. My camera was just not quick enough to capture her with her face down. She never actually did it - she was just pretending. When we were in MN for Christmas, she watched her older cousins put their faces into playdough and we had a good laugh about it.

Mmmm - the first batch is done! (overdone!) These three pictures were taken in succession. I didn't notice that Kaylee had tried this cookie...

...and then set it back down. Now I ask her which one is for Mommy.

"This one", she says!

Thanks a lot!

Kaylee-isms

Kaylee is a pretty good talker. Everyday she surprises me with a thoughtful phrase or question. But she still has a few words that aren't pronounced correctly, so it took some time to figure out what they were. I just want to record them so that someday I can look back and remember...

Maka - means "Grandma"

Bapa - "Grandpa"

Myce - (like mice except with a "my" sound at the beginning) means "me" or "mine"

Sark - (no, not the Alias character) means "look"

Fire - "pacifier"

Swing, slide, park - "playground"

and of course, pancakes is still "can-cakes" - I hope she never grows out of that one!

She is also very expressive with her hands. She uses a lot of arm and hand gestures when talking. I can't begin to describe how adorable it is when she's emphasising a point with her cute little voice, nodding of her head, and waving of her arms (usually palms up or else pointing somewhere). As one of her favorite saying goes, "isso funny!"

It won't be long and I'll be writing about Hudson's words. He seems like he just wants to talk so badly. He makes all sorts of sounds moving his lips and tongue around, and that look on his face - like he has something very important to say. It kind of makes me wonder if there's something he knows that I don't!