See You Next Year!

It's been a wonderful 2006 for us, God has blessed us in unbelievable ways this year! With the new house, healthy family, finishing school, and so much more, we are very thankful that God has given us another year together.

Tonight we are heading to the Red Hot Bash at Mars Hill: Ballard with our friends John and Colleen. Caley's hanging out at home with Grandma and Grandpa Bales, and Great Grandma Evelyn.


See you in 2007!

What is your emergency?

On Tuesday I called 911 for the first time. The emergency? In a moment of "mommy brain" I locked Caley and my keys in my car while it was running. Thankfully she was not in distress and safely locked in her car seat. I don't think she was even suspicious there was an emergency. So I called 911 and an officer broke into my car for me. Very exciting! Now you can learn from my mistake, if you lock your keys in your car, make sure your kid's in the car too because then you can get it unlocked for free by the cops!

O Christmas Tree

This weekend we also went to the Children's Ministry Christmas party. Caley won in the kid category for most outrageous Christmas outfit. She wore a puffy paint Santa sweatshirt, and Rudolph antlers and a flashing nose. Bill and I wore equally weird Christmas sweaters.

We got our Christmas tree today and decorated it. It's always fun to remember how we got all the ornaments. Caley put a few ornaments on this year, she especially liked the Sesame Street ones from my Grandma Ev. My favorite ornament is my Baby's First Christmas one, it's a buggy with a baby and it says "1981." Grandma also gave us some retro tree lights, you can see them in the pictures, the huge bright ones. I'm sure they're a fire hazard, they get warm and some wire is exposed, but I just love them! It really adds a nostalgic look to our tree. Some people have a themed-tree, ours is just eclectic and random. I think it's the perfect kind of tree, one with lots of history. Enjoy these pictures!

Toddler Mischief

What happens when your toddler finds the Vaseline during naptime?? Hmmm, just so happens I have personal experience with this. It happened today! Caley was crying at her door so I went to check on her, and noticed she was covered in something. At first I thought it was vomit, but it didn't smell. Instead it was all greasy. Apparently she'd found the jar of Vaseline, opened it, and started smearing herself with it. Maybe she needed some chapstick? Oh well, this will be a funny story to tell her (and her boyfriend(s) ), and at least this time it wasn't poop.

Check out our new pics

I just uploaded a bunch of pictures on our Shutterfly site. Enjoy!

Turkey Days & Snow Days

It snowed on Sunday and we got to play outside. Caley was a little freaked out by the white stuff all around and she spent most of the time in the playhouse while we made a snowman.

































We had Thanksgiving a little early with Addie's parents, brother and Grandma Harriet and Grandpa Floyd. It was a fantastic spread with lots of leftovers!














We spent Thanksgiving Day at the Gerlach's in Lynden. The whole family was there, 25 people including the kids. Caley got to sit at the kids table with her cousins and tried stealing turkey off Autumn's plate while Ethan and Teija laughed at each other.



























We brought cider and soda, yummy! Pass me some more yams!




















We are thankful for our families and for the blessings God has given us this past year! Thank you Jesus!

Ode to the Peugeot

We've been driving my parent's 1984 Peugeot 604 Turbo Diesel for the past few weeks because the Jeep is having problems. This car was my first and driving it around has been like traveling through time back to high school. Except I'm not driving my friends to soccer practice, I'm ferrying Caley around town. This car is pretty nice, considering it's age. However, there isn't a handle on the stick shift (just duct tape, which works well), the left passenger door doesn't open, it smokes up the entire block when it starts in the morning, and oh, the odometer says it has 511,000 miles on it. Bill and I were talking about getting a new car and he said he wants something with like 15K miles on it, because once a car gets past 150 or so, it starts to go downhill. I was a little confused and said, "But the Peugeot has 511K on it and it's running fine!" No, he said, that's just a glitch on the odometer. Shows you how much I know about cars...

It's been fun driving the Peugeot though! Let me know if you ever need a ride.

Capers

Caley's new favorite snack isn't a normal one for toddlers, she's recently become obsessed with capers, yes, those little vinegar-y pea-like garnishes in gourmet food. She calls them "peas" and always gets them out of the fridge and says, "Peas please". Actually it sounds more like "Peas peas" because her articulation is still developing. Capers are described as, "Capers are the unopened green flower buds of the Capparis spinosa (Capparidaceae - caper family - closely related to the cabbage family), a wild and cultivated bush that is grown mainly in Mediterranean countries (southern France, Italy, and Algeria) and also in California...The taste is slightly astringent and pungent, and they can lend piquancy to many sauces and condiments; they can also be used as a garnish for meat and vegetable dishes."

Funny how our daughter sometimes refuses "normal" snacks like peanut butter, but adores the gourmet dish. :)

Addie's getting old...

My birthday was on Monday this week and I'm starting to feel old. I think it's less about the age I am, and more about how old Caley is. I'm the "mom" this year, not a college student or a new mom, I'm "the mom." I had a good birthday though, very relaxing and special. My husband is pretty nice too. God has blessed me immensely this past year, with the new house, Caley staying healthy, finishing school, and providing for us when we thought things might get scary. Yes, God is good. I'm thankful that he's given me 25 years and hope he gives me many more!

Where's the Ball?

Last night I played a new game with Caley in which I hide a ball around the house and she finds it. Of course I hid it in really easy places and she basically was watching me hide it and then she "found" it. After hiding the ball I said, "where's the ball?" and she imitated me! It was the first time I'd heard her say a full sentence and we were pretty excited. Actually it was more like "Where tha ball?" and she put her hands out like asking a question. She also was hiding her eyes while I was hiding the ball and getting the hang of it. It's fun that we can play together now.

We also went to the pumpkin patch today with Caley's playgroup. It was so fun! Caley chose her own pumpkin. Enjoy these pics!

Update and Caley on a swing

Bill stayed home on Wednesday and got some more work done on the house. We also played outside with Caley and got some pictures of her on the swing. She loves the swing set and is really confident sitting by herself. I think learning to swing herself will take a little more practice. :)
We really like living in Mukilteo. Last night we went for a walk and found a pickle ball court really close to our house! Bill was so excited. We love how Mukilteo is a small town on the water with gorgeous views but that it's still close to the city. It reminds me of Astoria a lot because of the fog horns and beautiful sunsets. As I write this the fog is rolling around in the yard and it's very mysterious. God has blessed us immensly these past few months!

Caley's Bedtime Social Story

My name is Caley.

These are my toys.

I'm a big girl, so I sleep in a big girl bed!

Sometimes Ernie and Grover lay with me.

After reading my book, singing a song and talking to Jesus,

I get my binky,

my blankie,

Kiss Mommy,

And I sleep in my bed.

When I wake up at night, I go back to sleep by myself.

In the morning I get to see Mommy and Daddy!

I’m a big girl!

Welcome Ruby!

Bill's sister Rachel and her husband Jason had their second child yesterday morning. Her name is Ruby Lillian. She was 7lbs, 6 ozs and is so cute! Now Caley has 10 Gerlach cousins! Geez it's going to be fun when all these kids get older, we're going to need to rent a community center/hall just to have Thanksgiving dinner!

Music Time

Lately Caley has really liked singing songs, especially before bed. She has been requesting "If You're Happy and You Know It," "Jesus Loves Me" and "The Wheels on the Bus." She even does the hand motions! We have a playgroup on Friday mornings with some kids her age and she loves to sing with everyone. It's amazing how much she picks up. I think because I'm used to working with older students who do less than Caley I forget what a typically developing kid can do.

Tonight was momentous because she finally fell asleep in her bed by herself without multiple "reminders" from Mommy and Daddy. She cried for about 20 minutes (with varying intensity), but eventually put herself back in her bed and zonked out. Before I left the room we read some books, sang a few songs, and prayed, and after about 3 minutes the crying marathon began. I felt like such a horrible mother listening to her, but I know it's for the best.

Also today she spent about 5 hours with Uncle JR while Jennie and I went garage sailing (our favorite pasttime) and Bill worked on the remodel. They had a fun time watching Veggie Tales, reading books, drawing with the MagnaDoodle and opening/closing the microwave. It was nice practice for when he's a Daddy. Thanks JR!

Caley loves her daddy

Bringing Down the House

We broke ground this weekend on the remodeling of our family room. We knocked out the wall between the "den" and "formal dining room" titled rooms and have a lot of work ahead of us. Bill's friend Floyd is helping us...thanks Floyd!! I scraped all the ugly flower wallpaper off the dining room walls, which wasn't an easy job. A vent needs to get moved and drywall needs to repair the broken hole in the ceiling. Also, we had to say good bye to the lovely plaid carpet. We'll miss you o ugly eyesore. May you have plaid fields in which to run and see other parts of the world. We posted the carpet on craigslist and within an hour, it was gone. But there are some crazy craigslisters! It's just carpet! Get over it! We should have most of the project done in about a month, but it will take longer to make it aesthetically pleasing.

Before shots:




in progress:

Caley's Jobs

Caley's getting really good at pulling her weight around here. I (Addie) try to give her jobs around the house and usually she does it, sometimes after a lot of pointing and asking. She helps me put away the Tupperware from the dishwasher, and she hands me silverware. She also is learning where her dirty laundry goes and likes to help me pull the clean, dry laundry out of the dryer. She also really likes to pick up trash from the ground, "yuckys," and put them in the garbage (also "yucky"). Personally, I think she's a little genius, but I'm a little biased. Somehow she's learned lots of character names, like Ernie, Elmo, Bob and Larry, but I don't remember teaching her those explicitly. It wasn't until I noticed she liked Elmo and Ernie that we started watching Sesame Street DVDs and Veggie Tales. Maybe she learned that stuff at church from her friends.

Ironically, she hurt herself this week on the one thing we have to keep her safe: the gate. We got a gate for her bedroom so she can sleep in her big girl bed and not run out of the room and fall down the stairs. She ran into it, I think, because now she has a huge gash in her face. It's like a commercial for how much attention I pay to her... :) No, it's not that bad, but it looks bad.