The Purple Swan

I've been preparing Noella for her eventual ballerina days. She still needs lots of work, but I see some potential here...

Point those toes!

Just can't quite master the pique` movement here.

Stand up straight!

Arms up high!

She can only break for meals and nap. :)

Just Like Mom

Pushing a jogging stroller, just like Mom. Yes, that's me in the Chariot

She's gotta work for her lunch!

Just Like Dad

She's "working on her bike",  just like Dad

She lined each one of those kitchen utensils up by herself. Of course, each piece serves a very important bicycling maintenance purpose. Adam told me that kept walking up to the table with a teaspoon in hand, obtaining an imaginary substance and putting it in the measuring cups. So, perhaps she was trying to combine the two acts of bicycle maintenance and baking. We'll never know. 

Ganks Mom. Ganks for Teaching Me.....

*note: "ganks" = "thanks"

This is what Noella said to me Sunday morning after she had her morning constitutional and I was helping her get cleaned up in the bathroom.

She's been a big kid - staying dry during the day for over two weeks now. Even seeking out port-o-potties just for the challenge (Have you ever taken a two year old into a port-o-potty? Gross. I try so hard to not look into those things, and now I'm forced to every time. You might wonder why we come across so many during our free time. I really don't have an answer to that.).

Our little girl is growing up. "Ganks" Noella for being such a sweet and special girl. Oh, and "ganks" for not pooping in your diaper anymore.

Grateful For.....

Unexpectedly warm and sunny Saturdays in February (even though it looks cloudy in this picture, and they're walking in snow).

Hikes around Catherine Creek.

Two peas in a pod.

Footbridges (yikes!)

Good friends to share the time with.

Shoulder rides.

"Fankful" for the Waves and the Sand

Those were Noella's "prayers" the night after we got back from the coast. I love this place. Can't wait until the next time we go back....

Realizing that I was far away not attending to her.

Hey Mom!

We all love the beach, but Zeb just might love it most of all...

He's just so noble...

Our little, crazy, fun and happy family.

Modeling her new swimwear from the Carter's outlet store...

It's hard to believe that one day before, she was digging in this instead:

It's Electric!

I'll spare you all the gory details, but we were out of power for a good portion of a whole week (okay maybe like 80 hours total). It really killed my whole snow buzz that I had going right before the storm.

All in all, we survived and tried to see the good in it (as best as we could).

One day, we ventured to the Portland Children's Museum to beat the power outage blues. It's funny how there was almost a foot of snow and ice with rainy, cold drizzle in the Gorge, and it was 45 degrees and sunshine in Portland. We were walking around in our T-shirts!

You may be able to tell from these phone pictures that we were without hot water for a long time prior to this trip :)

Her lid was in full action by the end of this saga!

The Waterworks room was most definitely her fav

By the looks of the lad to N's right, she must have just let out a nasty one

At this point, I really didn't care about anything. Notice the bags under the eyes.

She's a mon-sah (monster)

Or just a cat who was spooked

It was the last day of the lego exhibition

Ahhh.... electricity

When our power came on at 11:30 AM on sunday, we did laundry, washed dishes, ran garbage disposals, blared lights, heat, music, took long hot showers, used computers, printers.....etc..... like never before. Thank you electricity. We appreciate you.