Playing in a...box (of course)

Kisses kisses
Happy baby

Playing in the box and being silly

Comfy!

Brody's Condo

Enjoying Mater Tales sans pants
STOP IT!

We have begun potty bootcamp (that meant that we didn't leave the house for 3 days and Brody didn't take a nap) recently and have met a fair amount of success. We have had a few accidents but mostly dry undies and clean pants. We wouldn't let Brody on the furniture because we were scared he would pee on them (remember, he didn't have on any pants or underwear) so we built him a condo and set up a movie in there. He was happy as a clam! So worth the looooooooong weekend indoors because 1 1/2 weeks later, we have a mostly potty trained boy!

Happy Birthday Brody!

Playing with his new Birthday toy

Hugging it...

I can't believe that Brody is already 3! I was ready to plan a huge party, but all Brody wanted was his friends that live next door to come over and play and eat cupcakes. As you can see he LOVED his new Star Wars AT AT. I have no idea where the obsession originated but he loves Star Wars and spaceships now. He played with his "special robot machine" all weekend!

Too Much Vacation!

He was DONE!

Alison 7 months old

Sitting up...then falling down

...and again

Give me the camera!!!

So happy (look at the Michelin Man arms)

Upon our return from vacation, Ali promptly got sick. Not just a little sick, but super sick. She got a really high fever and had it for 5 days! The doctor diagnosed her with Roseola and when we returned for a follow up today, she told us that she has a double ear infection. She is very pathetic. I have to say for being sick for 5 days, she has been the most pleasant patient ever! These pictures are from when her fever dipped to 102 (from 104) and as you can see, she is kind of happy! Other than the sickness, we had her checkup and she is doing well. She weighs 21 lbs exactly which is in the 97th percentile and almost 28 inches which is also in the 95th percentile. Definately a big girl!

Mt. Hood

Preparing Dinner
Nana!!

Auntie Kate and Alison

The boys playing pool

Shanley and Beth

Bethy-Poo

Lovin' the snow

Shoveling is Brody's favorite pastime...We will remind him of this 8 years from now!

Drinking a can of soda with my feet. I used to do this all the time when I was younger and my cousin Beth made me do it again. I almost couldn't walk after this!

Sleeping on Beth

Bring on the food MOM!!!!

Skiing

Mom waiting to go!
Finally, we got up the lift, it felt like someone was shooting BB's at our face!

Ready for the first run

View from the lodge (this was a good visibility...it got worse!)

Enjoying a lovely beer...well deserved!

We had great goals of skiing Timberline the 2nd day of our trip, however, Mother Nature begged to differ. Mt. Hood had a huge snow storm and made it nearly impossible to travel the pass to get there, so we compromised and went to Ski Bowl. It took us 1 hr to drive 12 miles there. The conditions were horrible. It was snowing so hard that at times, you couldn't even see two lifts in front of you! We had a great time regardless. Thank goodness we decided to leave the kids at the house this day...it was pretty tretcherous.

Tubing

The tubing racing hill

Nana and Ali in the lodge

The first day at Mt. Hood was, well...rainy. It was very strange for the ski areas to get rain that high up on the mountain but we persevered and trekked to Skibowl for tubing with the WHOLE family. As wet as it was, we still had a blast. We tubed down the hill for about 2 hours and believe me, that was plenty. We actually had to dump water out of Brody's boots before we got back into the truck. I am so glad we went, just wished that it was very snowy, not rainy!

Bath time for Ali

This girl loves a bath!

Mountain House

Brody's Nook

Making Dinner

Danny and Rana in the pool room

The Bianca loft

Living room

From the balcony

Brody and Daddy playing pool (notice the green in the background...it was only there the first day)

We just loved the Mt. Hood rental house all 17 of us shared. It was so nice to have snow come down as far as we were (1500 ft.). We had such a wonderful time hanging out with the family here!

Hanging in the Airport

Enjoying the view with all of his cars

This is Brody and Ali in the terminal at Chicago O'Hare Airport. We had a 2 hr layover which served as a great break to change them and eat. Thank goodness we beat the big snowstorm!