Back to the swing of things

This is how Daddy looks when he's watching a boring football game.
Miss Alyson is raiding the kitchen for good time.

I can move now, Mommy!

Now that the Holidays are over and everyone's back to where they came from, things are starting to get back to normal in the Campbell household. Normal in a way that is normal to us which probably is way too crazy for the rest of the world!

Noah's been crawling for about a couple of weeks now and he's so proud of his new skill. He's so confident, he is already trying to pull up to standing. He does get frustrated though because he still cannot push up with his legs. In the meantime, he's been power-training his legs with his jumper with fierce force.

Aly's into everything! She started to open kitchen coverts, which Sean didn't do for quite some time and she's pulled out quite a few things out. She was working on pulling out my ceramic baker sets and we almost lost the set. We have to block off the kitchen area again. We feel like we had just taken it down recently.

Sean's been a fighter, literally, and has been fighting Mike and I, with his own emotions and of course with Miss Alyson. Sean and Alyson are similar in some ways and when they fight, it's not pretty. We are continuing to potty train him and all we can say is that we are being patient and calm about it. Every kid's different and that as long as we are providing the opportunity to learn, we are not going to worry about it. After all, who likes the pressure and being compared to others?

Baby #4, it's a GIRL!

Mommy is on the way to Japan! In her wildest imagination (at the Museum of Flight)

Rare moment of Noah and Alyson sitting still together.

We found out on Dec 29th that we are going to have another girl. By now we were pro at identifying the strange black and white images on the screen and were able to tell before the technician told us what the gender is.

I was hoping for a girl, so very pleased that we will have another little princess. Now, I have an excuse to buy more girl stuff. Yeah!!

Happy New Year!!

Where did the time go!? It's already 2009!

Happy New Year and hope everyone had a nice and cozy Christmas!

Our Christmas was what you would expect from a household with three little kids with ups and downs from overstimulations with new toys. Sean hit the jackpot because apparently, we got him a lot of presents. Noah and Alyson were very content to play with the new toys and were busy checking the boxes and wrapping paper out, too (also eating them). We had a really nice Christmas and we were pretty happy to spend the day at home.

We still had lots of snow when my Mom came from Japan on the 26th. From then on in just a several days, it melted significantly and by the time my Dad came on Jan 1, it was all gone.

We catered special boxes containing traditional Japanese New Year's cuisine called osechi from I Love Sushi. It was all so delicious and my parents, Mike and I enjoyed it a lot! Yumm!

We did lots of stuff like going to the Bellevue Botanical Garden to see the wonderful light display in the garden. We also went to the Museum of Flight in Renton and saw lots of new and classic airplanes. Sean was so excited (as well as my Dad) and was so busy looking around.

It was so nice to see my parents and for them to spend lots of time with the grand kids. Next time I will see them is when we have the baby#4 out. Lots of changes in our lives and it's all so exciting. I think this year is going to be extra special now that we will have the last (hopefully) member of the family join us officially to complete the young Campbell clan.

Noah the Hermit Crab

Noah was having fun being under that push walker like a hermit crab. He was under there for a long time...

White Out

The storm last night wasn't bad at all. We still have power and content that we can stay warm inside. However, it's still snowing outside! Our neighborhood looks like a suburb of Lake Tahoe with tall evergreen trees covered in snow. It's absolutely gorgeous! I don't see too many cars driving out the window but for those that are out there, I see them sliding around. The snow is pretty deep and no snow truck has come by yet, so the road is pretty much like a ski slope, covered with fluffy fresh snow. Too bad we don't have any snow shoes for Sean.

Snow Snow and More Snow!

We are snowed in! The Pacific Northwest had the biggest snow storm of the season and this is certainly the heaviest snow fall we have seen around here. We got about six inches of snow and it is still snowing out there. Everything is white and it is very pretty, but not very livable. Poor Mike has been sent out everyday on his little CRV to stock up on food, daipers, and some emergency items. The weather is supposed to turn stormy tonight and we are hoping our neighborhood power stays intact.

On top of that, Sean seems to be sick. He threw up this morning when he woke up and he is not as energetic. The babies are fine, though. They eat and sleep very well. Aly has been pulling up and cruising all over the house. Noah is starting to take an interesting in crawling finally and he is practising most of the waking hour. Our nanny, Amy, is vacationing in Las Vegas however they are also having a rare snow storm. Poor Amy. I guess she could not get away.

The coming week should be interesting with all this snow we had. We live on a slopy neighborhood, so just to get out of the hood will be a little challenging. Mike was sent to Fred Meyer this afternoon and it took him about three hours to do all the driving and shopping. He said the stores were packed and he had to wait in line just to get a shopping cart!

It's been too cold (high around 25 degrees) and we cannot wait for the warmer rain weather to come back! I guess I shouldn't have complained about the rain... I will not complain anymore so rain, please come back!!

Setting up the Christmas Tree

The tradition in the Campbell's house hold is to setup the Christmas tree after Thanksgiving. This year, we put it in the entry way so that Alyson won't try to tear it down. Sean remembered the tree from last year and was very excited to have it out again. He helped hang the ornaments but mostly on one spot at his eye level. When he was napping, I hang more ornaments and re-distributed the ones Sean hang to balance things out.

We took pictures of the kids in front of the tree yesterday, but it didn't go so well. The twins were terrified and Sean was in a funny mood. The babies cried and Sean was screaming... You can just imagine how it was! But they did look adorable in a dress-up outfit. All these bad pictures we took have more character than perfect looking smiley pictures, I suppose!