Introducing Baby Button

Baby #3, due to arrive in early April, has been lovingly dubbed Baby Button by big sis Hannah, who explained to us that "the baby lives under Mommy's belly button!"  Michael loves to pat my tummy and give the baby kisses.  Hannah can't wait to have a new baby in the house (I'm guessing she doesn't remember when we brought Michael home - the wriggling, screaming bundle of joy that is a newborn can NOT be what she has in mind!!)  :)  Hannah has been pretty insistent that Baby Button is a girl ("I just NEED a baby sister - another brother?  another Michael?  No - I NEED a sister!!") , so today we brought both kids along to see pictures of the baby and find out if Hannah would get her wish.  Hannah's comment about the baby on the ultrasound monitor - "it looks like a whale!"  Hmmm. . . . . .   Nope, pretty sure that's not what's in there!!  But to our joy, it IS a baby girl!  And so, our first picture of Meghan Grace:

Let it snow!!!

This past weekend we got an early Christmas present here in WA - SNOW!!  It started falling on Friday, and we woke up on Saturday morning to a winter wonderland  :)  Hero was ecstatic to be able to chase snowballs around the yard, Hannah couldn't wait to get her snow gear on and try her hand at making snow angels, Daddy got right to work shoveling the driveway. . . . but Mommy needed to do some fast talking to get Michael interested in going out in the cold, wet stuff that had taken over the backyard!!  He liked watching it fall (called it bubbles and giggled a lot), and once he got over the shock of how chilly it was outside he "warmed up" to the idea of playing with some snowballs, but he was eager to get inside and drink some hot cocoa!!  Hannah, on the other hand, took her mug to go  :)  She spent much of the weekend outside playing in the snow, and was very sad when the windchill took a major dive (it was -7 on Tuesday!!) and Mommy said we were all staying in!  If we are all lucky, we'll get some more fluffy white snow for Christmas, preferably without the below zero temperatures!!  :)

Picture Time

We took the kids to the park to meet up with photographer Kerri Holleman for some fall pictures of the kids.  Last year, Michael couldn't stop smiling for the camera, while Hannah literally had Kerri chasing her in circles to get a decent shot.  This year, Hannah was ready to strike a pose, but Michael gave us his oh-so-serious look no matter what we tried. 

Forts are fun!

Daddy helped Hannah and Michael turn our living room into a fort, and the kids quickly made themselves comfortable in it  :)

 All that construction (and clean-up after) left Hannah and Daddy in need of a nap!!

Princess Ballerina

Hannah doesn't like to wear pants - she prefers skirts, dresses, tutus, and the like.  So I wasn't surprised this morning when she refused to put on her pants and chose to run around the house in her underwear.  Then she found her fairy wand, and it all spiraled from there. . . . . . This is how she had herself made up when Daddy came home from work, and this is how she insisted on walking around the block with him  :)