Sweet Baby Radu

You can tell our mama really misses her BABIES, now she found another baby she fell in love with too. Isn't he just the perfect baby? He is Radu, our (2nd) cousin from Romania.
But we know mama loves us and will love us with the same love even if we are not babies any more. We are our parents' most precious treasure, we know that.

Nutcracker / Spargatorul de Nuci

We have big kids now, we can take them to places like this and not be sorry we did it. We enjoyed Nutcracker and also we enjoyed to see more of our kids personalities.

Emily was very quiet most of the time, taking it all in, whispering when she had something to say. Most of the times Daddy couldn't understand what she was saying.

Jonathan was more open, he had many things to say, but not to the point of being annoying or bothering. He just 'noticed' all things and made them known. Before starting he started to notice the letters on the rows of the seats, and say things like "H is for hand" (with another occasion he got excited he found number 34 on the seat). Then he would just enjoy everything and keep saying "O, look at that!"/ "I like it!"/ "A boat!"/ "A fish!"...etc. Then he started to move his body on the chair and say "I am dancing". Well, the ballet was a kind of dance and since he's never seen a ballet before.... Anyway, he kept me entertained and I was glad to see what HE sees and notices. It was all so sweet. Oh, and when he got a candy cane, he was glad that "J is for Jonathan and for jet" and than kept saying that the candy is yummy. Emily didn't like it at all, maybe she takes after her mother who doesn't like mint.

Now as I am reading what I wrote, it doesn't sound too special, but for me/us that heard them, was super funny and cute, seing those little people that seemd to understand everything.

Funny Kids!!!

What are you eating there Kylie? ...wonders Jonathan

Ok, you can have some too!

Here is our sweetheart with her new hat and dolly from auntie Joyce.

We had a nice evening in Bellevue with our friends Brent and Dayla, watching the Snowflake Lane. We didn't think it would be so hard to find a place to eat at 5.30 pm, without having to wait about 45 minutes... Eventually we found the Chipotle Mexican restaurant that had room for us too :-)

We went to the aquariun again. The kids loved it but Emily liked the most the octopus. Maybe because she dressed in a octopus costume and since then that was the only thing she wanted ("I want to be an octupus!"she would say over and over again). We actually saw how they fed the octopus. It was nice to see it, but ...poor crab... nobody was thinking of him too...

Here is the cutest jelly fish we saw. BTW, mama loves jelly fish!

Here are more pictures from the Snowflake Lane and from the aquarium:

http://picasaweb.google.com/IvonaLong/SnowflakeLaneBellevueAndAquarium#

Jonathan Turns 2

Jonathan turned 2 and it also was Dave's birthday, so we had him here for supper and a cake.

Here big sister is getting ready for her brother's birthday party.

BIG help!!!

Oops, don't think now that this is what we made :-). Mama is not so specialized yet.

We had a wonderful wonderful wonderful time with the family. Thank you all for coming. We really enjoyed every moment of it. Auntie Jennie, I think you don't mind if we claim you as the kids' grandma, since they don't have any grandma close. You would make the perfect grandma.

Jonathan was too excited to eat, he was interested in his present from auntie, oops, grandma Jennie, that kept him busy all the time instead of eating :-)

Here is the present from Daddy and Mommy, a train set. If we didn't know so far what it means to have a toy that means everything for the kids (no interest in other toys, food or sleep), we were going to find out soon. These trains keeps them busy for HOURS or whole days and it doesn't matter if it's about the boy or the girl :-) they both are in love with it. And by the way, Emily got her own train, the Thomas "Emily", from Phil & Mary. Thank you!

Anna helps them to open other presents. So much fun! Thank you all, including those who weren't here but sent a present. We really appreciate it.

Here -the kids next morning, first thing even before breakfast. What can be more fun than the trains?

When they were eventually willing to come have breakfast, of course they brought their trains too.

Our 4th Anniversary

We have our 4th anniversary today and Jonathan's 2nd birthday. We'll have Jonathan's b-day party on X-mas with the family :-) (2 in 1 again, ha)
We had a super nice date on Saturday evening, while Melisa and her family babysat our kids. We ate out at Bonefish Grill and then we went to a nice more private place where we enjoyed ourselves. This last part remains secret... ;-)
Thank you Melisa, Kent and Tiana for your kind offer and also for Jonathan's super cute outfit.

Mark Turned 3 too.

This is Mark's 3rd B-day party. It was fun and LOTS of kids. There is a link where you can see all the pictures and also some pictures from Jonathan's first bus ride.
CLICK HERE

Starting their shopping, but they have to hurry and do it before their babies start fussing. Hmm, so many toys, so hard to decide...

This is how it happens sometimes in the morning. After they have their breakfast, mama is finishing hers. But ...they come again with big opened mouths, after they thought they were done. But mama can't complain too much that she can't eat 'in peace', as that is how she did when she was little and didn't let her mother eat...

Our big little sewtheart poses for her birthday pictures. It wasn't how mama wanted to be, but not too bad after all.

She loves her Ladybug room and she always wants to sleep with her ladybug and the ladybug book. Sometimes she falls asleep hugging the book.

The kids took turns to sit on Dave's lap, but sometimes they got there together.

We played with these cards and it was Emily's idea to group them. I was amazed how she grouped them so perfectly, what belongs to the sky and what belongs to the water.

Here was Jonathan after I looked for him in the whole house.

2 in 1

We had Thanksgiving and Emily's birthday party at the same time, with our cousins from Portland. We had a very nice time, there were 17 people, including the 5 children under 3 years old. Actually we celebrated Adrian's birthday too!

This is my first turky :-), first time to cook a Thanksgiving dinner. It wasn't as bad as I thought. And my cousins helped too, bringing some delicious side dishes.

To see more pictures from the party, click HERE

Misc

Emily loves her new doll house and play with Dora and other dolls, having them go in and out the house, and do their chores there.

Having a relaxing time

Emily has another room mate, her dolly Amy who now has a bed and they both sleep in the same room and they both have a little stuffed animal to sleep with. Emily is very excited to make Amy's bed every morning while I make her bed.

Trying to enjoy every little sunshine we have, here they are having a snack on the deck. The sun wasn't so bright as their faces show :-)

Emily learns words and to make sentences :-). These are her first sentences she made by herself.