It is SNOWING again. I doubt it will cold enough to make it matter, but my porch is kind of slushy!

It is so windy! We are just going from one extreme to the next. Crazy!

Tree Replacement

Today we took our tree down. We usually wait until after New Years, but I just couldn't. I have had my piano for almost a year now and it has been in the spare bedroom because we just didn't have room for it in the living room. When I rearranged the furniture for our huge tree I started thinking about what I would do after Christmas. Was I going to move things around again since it was going to leave a huge empty wall or keep things like they were and all of the sudden it hit me. My piano would fit there and look fabulous. So I measured things out and sure enough it would fit. So I anxiously awaited the tree to come down. Britt and I had a struggle to move the piano and finally ended up turning it on it's end like the movers did. It was so scary and not as smooth as they did it(we didn't have the piano mover thing)! We folded blankets up and slid it along until it was in the hall and then put it back on its wheels. We did put a little cut in the carpet about an inch long. I glued the carpet back down, but gee we just might have to replace it now. Which of course would break my heart since I love it so much, not. The piano looks so great and I am playing it so much more now that it is out here, my piano teacher will be happy about that.

Melting

The snow is melting. It is bittersweet. I loved how it covers everything up and cleans the world up. Except now all that white snow is brown and ugly on the roads. I loved how it forced my to slow down and relax a bit more. Maybe we will get more this winter. All this melting has all streams and storm drains on flood watch though. Hope everyone got some great deals yesterday, I still haven't hit Fred Meyer and Target for the super discount Christmas stuff, I think I will grab my sister and go do that today.

Our Merry Christmas Evening and Day

Christmas Eve: Bergman family party. We had our party at Amy and Greg's house this year and we had taco soup. It was good, the kids thought it was too spicy so we feed them cookies for dinner!!! Hey it is Christmas eve and the sugar plums dancing will be so much sweeter when they are filled up with sweets. We had a good time visiting and the kids all got to have a part in the Christmas story. Shirley, Britt's mom, has gotten very wise over the years and bought the cutest stuffed doll nativity set and let each kid hold one doll and then stand up when the story was at their part. It worked out really well with so many kids. We then exchanged gifts and did our adult gift game. There were 5 men and we put their presents in the middle and they circled around them while we all sang Here Comes Santa Claus. Then they had to grab a gift, well that turned into gifts being kicked (Britt) and a wrestling match. It is to funny because the gifts are all simple things, except little did they know Grandpa Harold's pocket watch was one of them. They thought maybe they will make it a tradition to pass it to the next brother every Christmas, but who knows. It was nice. After that we stopped at the Koeller's because we had some special packages that were being kept at our house that had to be delivered ;). Alexis went right to bed because we told her that she had to go to sleep so Santa would come and bring her presents....I never thought it would work on a 2 year old but it does!

Christmas Morning starting at 8am! Yea we got to sleep in, probably the last year for that! Our wonderfully white Christmas was great. It snowed all day, not much accumulation though. Alexis went right to opening the presents so I didn't get a picture of her, we did video the whole thing. She had a hand in every present that we unwrapped. Barely even noticed what was under the paper before reaching for the next one, even when the next when was for someone else. She had so much fun and her long patience in not opening a single present before Christmas paid off because Britt and I let her help us open ours too. We hung out at home for a bit and then went to my parents house and had a yummy dinner and opened more presents. We then went over to the Koeller's and had pie and visited until our movie. The adults went and saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at 10pm. It was a 3 hours movie and held our attention very well and kept us awake. Good show, and we came back to a house full of blissfully sleeping children! When we got home Britt started playing his new game on the Wii and I went to bed. Ok well I did plug my new GPS in to start charging. My parents spoiled us all this year and to top it off my mom bought a Circut, she bought it knowing that both Steph and I want one and so now all we have to do is buy the cartridges. It really benefits all of us and I am so pleased with how generous everyone has been even with a down economy. Alexis will even tell you she got spoiled. Thank you everyone we love you and hope that you all had wonderful Christmas's too!

So these are the only pictures I took!

They are after the gifts were unwrapped!

Merry Christmas

Sleep Study

We are home. Last night was Alexis's sleep study at Children's Hospital at Overlake Hospital. We went to Whole Foods Market and got some goodies and then went to the Hospital. A side note here: Bellevue what is up with not plowing your roads? Alexis was so good and let the tech put all the electrodes on her she had two on each leg, two on her chin, one by each eye, one on her forehead and then seven in her hair. She also had two heart rate monitors on her chest and a belly belt and chest belt. Then she had a monitor under her nose and then a tube under her nose to measure oxygen. Each electrode had paste to stick it to her skin and then tape over it and glue for the oxygen thing and tape over that. I will try to scan the picture they took over her and put it on here because I forgot my camera. She was so cute about it. We bribed her with fruit snacks and cheese to keep her laying down once they were all hooked up. It took her awhile to fall asleep and I had to keep reminding her that if she wanted a toy she needed to go to bed. Then she woke up at 3am and I had to remind her that the toy was on the line so she went back to sleep. I don't know how she slept with all that stuff on her face and head, but surprisingly the pulse monitor on her toe bugged her the most. When she woke up they took all the stuff off her and she got to pick out a toy. She could have had all kinds of stuffed animals and yet she choose the smallest penguin that had a squeaker tummy. She was a wreck though with all that glue and paste. I gave her a bath and I may have to wash her up again once we see if her hair is greasy when it is dry. The guy said she was so cute and did better then most 4 years that come in. We won't know what the results are for a month unless they are serious. It will be a 900-1200 page report, One page for every 30 seconds that she slept. Crazy!

A snowed in Sunday

I think that we have had our fill of snow!!!! It just keeps coming and coming, along with some freezing rain. We have to chip 1/4 of ice off our porch in the morning and I am going to take a picture first thing when I get up. On our side porch we have 8 inches, but that is the North side of the house and the snow goes from South to North so I am sure we have close to a foot. Church was cancelled for us so we settled in and started a 1000 piece puzzle. In the 9 years Britt and I have been married he has never expressed an interest in them. So last night at the party we got a puzzle. It is done except one piece, sad we can't find it. I can't wait to see how much snow we get tonight.

Alexis is getting very excited for Christmas. She just noticed the presents under the tree and keeps bringing me one, of course it isn't for her. She still hasn't opened them yet. She got a Finding Nemo inflatable bed today from Jon and Steph and loves it. It is set up in our living room and will make a great bed for her when Lim and Erin are here in February, which I am so excited for! Ok off to bed still not feeling top notch and I am watching Amy's kids in the morning.

Wow

I tried really hard to take a nap, but Alexis wanted to sit with me and watch Garfield. So about 2:30 it started to snow and it has been snowing ever since. We braved the weather and went to the company Christmas party. We got some great prizes and yummy food. We decided to skip the dancing and get home. We were there for 3 hours and it snowed 4 or 5 inches. We love our car right now. It handles so great in this weather, we hardly knew the roads were bad...all the other cars sliding and skidding reminded us! We made it home and Alexis had fallen asleep at 9:30 so we walked across the street and put her right in bed. THANK YOU SO MUCH JENN for watching Alexis 2 nights in a row. We owe you, so when you need to go somewhere just call. Like this week when you need to go shopping just leave her with me and go have fun fighting crowds. I got a $300 Cole Haan purse. We got other things but that was the cool thing. Well I am going to bed, I doubt there is church tomorrow, but we will see.

A Beautiful Sight!

Her first look at the snow from last night! I thought we should go out and play in it before it went away! It isn't going away anytime soon and we are supposed to get more.

Eating the snowman!!!

Sledding down our driveway.

We decided the driveway might be a bit much for Ashlee so this is into our ditch, it was perfect. I really am so surprised at all the snow. I was sweeping it off my porch so that it doesn't get crazy icy and I was taking an inch off about every 30 minutes. It is cold though 23 degrees and it is supposed to get colder. I love this stuff, except the icy roads and then the closed roads. I have heard the rumor that 410 is closed. For those who don't live here that is a big deal since it is the only major road up here for thousands of people. Britt and Keven Pine took off at 3 to go to Yelm and are still not back yet and probably won't be for at least another hour, if the roads aren't closed. Tomorrow will be another fun day of snow play and then Saturday night it is supposed to start again. There is a small chance that the snow could still be here on that all important holiday that is coming up....I won't say which one so that I don't jinx it! I should go take a picture of what things look like after all day snowing, but it is cold and I am going to curl up with some cider and read since Alexis is already in dreamland! Happy snow filled dreams.

Christmas Card 2008

This year has gone by so quickly. Alexis is very excited for Christmas and the snow we have right now. She is such a amazing little girl and is always making us laugh. We have been very busy this year going to Mexico, camping, Great Wolf Lodge and just spending time with friends and family.

Britt has been experimenting with the mountaineer side of living in Western Washington and is getting closer and closer to hiking Mount Rainier. He would have already climbed if he had the proper gear. So that is his goal right now to gather the gear and get up on top of the world. He has had fun teaching the Sunbeams with me this last year and looks forward to a new class of Sunbeams. This class will be different because we haven't taught them since being moved out of nursery, it should be fun! He is going in for surgery next week and hopefully everything will get us one step closer to a baby.

I have been reading like crazy to Alexis and on my own. I have been painting, tiling and trying to keep the house organized. My piano lessons are going well and things are going much better now that I have my own piano and that we moved the piano into the living room. My garden didn't do so well, but I take comfort in a lot of other people's having the same problems. I have been having so much fun with Alexis and being her mom.

Alexis amazes us all the time. She is talking so much and it is super cute. She has so much energy and can run very fast. We love to cuddle on the couch, talk, laugh and just be silly. She loves to play hide and seek and loves to follow around the big kids. She surprised us by wanting to potty train right about her 2nd birthday, I secretly think it was because she wanted a bigger toy and clothes budget! She has outgrown her biting stage and now plays wonderfully with her friends...a bit bossy still though. She is so animated at everythings she does and uses her hands to talk, it is so girly! Alexis loves rockband so we got her an electric drum and toy guitar so she can rock and roll with daddy. It is the funniest thing ever, to see her shake her bum and get down! She is such a dancer and is finally getting old enough to go to lessons, which we will be putting her in when the next session starts. She twirls, and taps her toes and shakes her hips and gets her self so dizzy she falls.

We are just trying to ride out this economy crisis, not very well though since our Semi-truck engine just died. So we are now dropping $1800 on a new one and Britt has been off work for 2 weeks and will be for another week too. It is painful, but necessary. We hope this year will bring us a bunch of first. We are hoping for a new baby, dance recitals, learning how to ride a bike with training wheels, and a few more. Have a great new year and

Snowman

That is what Alexis calls the snow. She is just loving it and even tried to go out in her underwear. She came right back in the second her toes touched the snow! I got her dressed and sent her out with daddy. I am sure she is having fun. The roads are icy and it is 28 degrees right now. We probably could have made it to church but we decided that we would stay home and not risk someone hitting us. Our church parking lot is always a skating rink, it is in the shade and so will probably remain icy for awhile. It is exciting though to wake up to snow!

Snow Flakes

It is snowing here. I love to watch it snow....now if only a crazy guitar wasn't screaming in my ear it would be magical! This may throw a kink in our plans for tomorrow though. See it rained all day long....poured actually. So since the temps are dropping that just means ice here and living on top of this hill can make getting down treacherous. So if it is gonna get this cold it might as well dump the snow on! I asked Alexis today if she wanted it to snow(thinking she wouldn't know what it is) and she said yes. I then asked her where does snow come from and she pointed out the window at the sky! I love it!

Addicted

Alexis loves swim suits. She would wear them to play in the snow if I let her(provided we had snowotherwise she would play in the rain!)she will go the whole day wearing them, changing them of course every few hours. To curb this I moved them into my room in my dresser, she figured it out and would get them out the same, so I moved them to the closet. She hasn't figured it out but I am sure she would climb something to try and get them. I thought I had won until today. She put on my swim suit and was running around in it. the score is Alexis 3, Mom 2 oh well I guess it could be worse. Oh it is worse when she colors with blue marker all over herself, she even got her back. Funny little girl.

Decked the Halls

We did it! We are officially ready for Christmas! I got the decorations, minus the nativity can't find it, and did the house up really cute. Alexis cracked me up while I was decorating. Everything I pulled out she would say "Wow Mommy." She also kept asking me "What you doing Mommy?" haha she is so cute. We went and bought our tree with the Koeller's...I really love having them as friends. It is the biggest tree we have ever had and the best smelling. My whole living room smells like pine! We had 2 strands of lights that covered our fake tree no problem but not this tree, we bought an extra set tonight and still need one more! I put lights on the outside of the house, only ones that I could reach, and when we got home from getting the tree we turned them on. Alexis was amazed at them and told us it was so pretty. She is just so smart and wonderful. After getting back from the store she was very upset because the lights on the tree were broke, then I plugged them in and she said it was pretty. We may be having the lights on a lot this year for her! Alexis loved decorating the tree and hopefully will love leaving the ornaments on it! Britt is excited because the tree is so big it is going to be hard to put stuff under it and so it is going to look very full. I am realizing something this year, it always bothered me that my parents didn't get that much for Christmas. I now know why it was that way, I just want to see her open gifts and be excited and happy and that is really enough and it was probably the same for my parents! Seriously I want to wrap her gifts up and let her open them everyday until Christmas just to see her get excited. Of course I won't! I think this is the most excited for Christmas I have been since I was a child! Alexis loves taking pictures now so if they look like a child took them well she did. She also has to see every picture I take off her now, good thing I have a quick camera or all of my pictures would be of her running at me!

Unicorn

For Alexis 1st birthday we got her a rocking unicorn. It is really cute except for when she rocks it really hard she tips over....causing her to really not use it much in the last year. Now she has found it to be a fun riding toy; as in she pushes her self along like it is a tricycle. It is really funny, around and around the house she goes even though she has a real tricycle in her room! It is also really funny to hear her talking to her toys, it isn't gibberish anymore! I love this girl so much, it is so fun to be her mom.

p.s. I don't have a pic of the unicorn right now!

New Toys

A new washer and dryer for me! We went out Saturday to get a new dryer, ours is antique and liked to burn fleece. We ended up buying front loaders! This is really good news for me since i wash clothes everyday. I hate dirty laundry sitting around so I wash frequently. They are energy star appliances so will hopefully save us on our power and water bills. I think the dryer will for sure.

Background on our dryer is this: It was in the house when we bought it along with a washer that died a few years ago. We decided since they both worked that we would use them until they died. We were watching tv one night and That 70's Show was on and we saw our dryer as a prop. We think it is older then we are...but one tough machine. I am almost sad to take it to the recyclers, but it will just burn someone else's clothes.

We put our washer on Craig's list yesterday and have 2 offers already and one from someone we know. We probably could get more for it but we are not notorious for cheating ourselves! I will post pictures as soon as we get the dryer in a week.