A Bright Christmas

Since this is most likely our last Christmas in Seattle, we stayed right here at home this year. It wasn't a white Christmas, but was the next best, sunny and bright. Christmas was unique this year not only because we stayed at home. We shared it with the Hammill's: Adam's Grandparents, dad, and brothers. This was a dream-come-true Christmas for Adam. It made me happy because he was so happy to be here. It felt complete, even though we really missed having our other family with us... Bonnie, Leo, Grandma Jean, my mom, dad, etc. The best part about this Christmas was seeing the joy in Atticus. He may not fully understand Christmas and Santa, but he definitely knew it was a special day. For the record, he cared more for his actual presents than he did the toy boxes!

Check this off as being his "scared of Santa" stage. Atticus wasn't happy when I stepped out of the sleigh. He had just had his second H1N1 shot before the pic was taken.

Atticus is a super big fan of Thomas the Train, so I found this ride-on Thomas for $40.00 at Toys R' Us, I knew exactly what Santa was bringing him this year! He loves it and knew exactly how to ride on it.

We both have the "just woke up" look.

He is a smart boy at 18 months and got the hang of ripping the paper to get to the toy. He looks like he's wearing festive Ugg boots with leggings.

We loved having Sara with us this Christmas. Santa even brought her a little something straight from our home state-Bumpits! Now she can sport box hair whenever she's home sick!

Atticus disappeared for a while as we were opening our presents. I found him in the Kitchen eating the Costco chocolate cake from the night before. How could you ever get mad at this face?!

After opening presents at home, we drove to Bremerton to the Hammill's. Santa had also made a stop for Atticus over there. He knew exactly what to do with the bows.

He got Sid and Super WHY from his favorite PBS TV shows.

All four Hammill men together again.

Adam made a gourmet meal for us on Christmas Eve. The menu was Fettucine Alfredo with fresh spinach pasta, herbs, and clams from the market.

Atticus usually hates wearing hats and rips them off within seconds of them being on. He sure liked this Cookskin hat from his grandpa.

Atticus provided the evening entertainment while we waited for his dad to finish the meal.

Atticus & Great Grandma Marjorie Hammill

To me, Christmas just isn't complete without homemade, sugar cookie cutouts with butter cream frosting.

18 Month Christmas Pictures

I broke down and took Atticus to Kiddie Kandids this year to get his Christmas pictures taken. He also turned 18 months, so for me this warranted the splurge on getting nice pictures. We have professional photographer friends (Brandi & Doug) who have taken the BEST pictures of Atticus before and who were willing to take them for us again. I just couldn't bring myself to ask them to take on the extra work again involved in taking pictures this busy month. I thought they turned out very well, pictures I will forever cherish.

Adam's Birthday Surprise

Adam's birthday was this past Tuesday November 17th. Luckily, this was already a scheduled day off for him so I had the day all planned out in advance without his knowing. When he woke up on his birthday, he was surprised to know I had taken the day off and made childcare arrangements (thanks Sara!) to spend a very eventful day together. It started out with an ultrasound to find out the sex of our next baby (did I fail to mention before we are expecting #2!?). Going into it and all along, Adam was confident and determined "it" was a girl. He said he had a "feeling". He really wanted a little girl. I on the other hand, was truly ready and expecting another boy, and very happy with the idea. No matter what we had previously thought, the results were shocking to us both. We're having a GIRL!!!

This little tike is all set to become her "daddy's girl" now since this was such an amazing birthday gift for Adam, followed by lunch at Chipotle and an afternoon movie of course. We saw Pirate Radio, which was the perfect birthday movie for my diehard music fan.

Disney: Ear Infection or Flu Virus?

I am so glad to be done with October! We had terrible luck on our trip to Orlando. The very night before our morning flight, Atticus struck a high fever of 103. The after hours nurse advised us to try to get in to our doctor before our flight to rule out an ear infection even though she was convinced it was a flu virus. We couldn't get in to the doctor the next morning with enough time to catch our flight, so we took our chances and got on the flight with a lot of Tylenol and Motrin. This was the worst flight of my life as Atticus clung to me as pitiful as a sick puppy most of the flight. His fever continued to go up when the medicine wore off. We were helpless to Atticus the first night as he screamed through most of it in some kind of pain. First thing the next day we took him to the Orlando Urgent Care. The doctor examined him and was sure he had an ear infection (which would have been his third). She prescribed amoxicillin (?) and sent us on our way. To make a long story short, the medicine didn't really help him. His fever continued going up and down. We had six full days to spend in Orlando. Of the six we only ended up with two and a half days at the Disney parks. The others were spent at the timeshare and in Urgent Care. It was kind of a bummer. :(

This picture taken on the way home from Orlando said it for all of us!

This one's for Sara taken in Japan at Epcot.

Pooh's corner was our fave.

Atticus LOVED meeting Pooh and says "Pooh" every time he sees this picture.

Me, Adam, Bonnie, and Jeremiah

Fall Madness

The month of October was pure madness! Every weekend it felt like something was planned around Halloween festivities and our one-week Orlando vacation (more to come). Unfortunately, all the hype of Halloween was short-lived when it finally became October 31st. We endured a lot with Atticus in October, so when Halloween finally came our patience was short. We quickly learned that Atticus hates dressing up as we forced his lion costume and make-up on 30 minutes before Trunk or Treat. The next day, we drove an hour to Bremerton to spend Halloween with Great Grandpa & Grandma Hammill. They had a Halloween party at the VFW, which Atticus wouldn't happily keep his costume on during. Then, a chinese food restaurant for dinner which goes down for Atticus's worst behaved at a restaurant. He was overly tired from not having his regular nap that day, so we knew trick or treating with him would be out of the question. Fortunately, we seemed to capture some sweet moments of him over our long weekend...

Happy as a clown with chocolate and his lion costume taken off, but now dressed as a girl with his fitted Old Navy Halloween shirt that I later realized later was meant for a girl (Yes Tiff, I saw Brooklyn wearing hers on your blog! LoL)

Not bad keeping his make-up in tact...

Nice picture with our neighbor and friend Camilla.

It grew on him...

Finished product.

Kids truly are wired to be "helpers".

Just leanin' on my pumpkin

Pumpkin Patch ride.

Since I turned one... (Mega Post)

Atticus has had a very eventful summer since he turned one in June. The most important event being his auntie Sara moving in with us! It has been so much fun. She's been very diligently nannying for a family nearby that pays decently, but is very hard work. Meeting people her age has been difficult here, especially since we aren't the socialites we once were. :) We try our best though. We took her to not only her first Mariner's game, but first baseball game ever. I think she had fun.

The last weekend of June we went camping at Ensign Ranch with the Erickson's, Wheeler's, and Ferree's. Sara decided to sit out on this one. It was sort of a reunion since only half of us remain in the ward. Atticus thoroughly enjoyed this experience, minus the first night we slept in the cabin. He cried hysterically for almost two hours. We felt so bad for the Ferree's who were sharing a cabin with us. We finally got him back to sleep in a car ride.

On the way home, we decided to stop at Snoqualmie Falls with the Ferree's. They were beautiful, a close second to Niagra Falls. Atticus thought the waterfall was pretty cool too.

Adam had the opportunity to attend a two week Culinary Institute in Norfolk, Virginia with the top cooks in the Coast Guard. This was a huge honor and big deal for him to be asked. His parents also live in Norfolk, so we decided to make a family vacation of it! Bonnie and Leo hadn't seen Atticus since Christmas, so it was already a long overdue visit.

We were very lucky to be able to spend the fourth of July in DC. See the Washington Monument behind us? Unfortunately, the lucky spot we thought we found was actually kind of crappy because the fireworks were behind the monument. We still got to see the idea of them!

This was Mount Vernon, home to our first president George Washington. Guess what? He's my ancestor. See any resemblance? I am related to him through his madre Martha Ball.

This is a very bad picture of Atticus. LoL

It was also my birthday the week we were in Virginia. Adam was very sweet and romantic making me these yummy chocolate dipped strawberries when he got home from work.

This was Atticus's gift to me. He's learning from the best (his dad and grandpa)... before you know it, his gift to me will be some electronic that is really for him.

Adam partaking.

Again, Costco chocolate cake!

What would a trip to Virginia be without going to the beach!? This is always my favorite part of the deal. This time we went 3-4 times. For some reason this seems excessive to Adam and his parents. I would have gone everyday if could have! I was starting to get used to having a beach bum lifestyle.

We got to visit the Norfolk zoo in Virginia. Atticus took in all of the animals around him. It was really hot and humid that day, we were all troopers.

I can't believe he's big enough to sit on this!

Atticus and I came home from Virginia early. What a trip that was! I have never been so uncomfortable in my whole life (next to birth). Our flight was full and we were both crammed into a window seat, Atticus on my lap next to two grouchy old men. The plane ride was 4 hours and Atticus pooped during the first hour. There was no way of getting out of our seat to change him, so we both just sat with it, gross! He did sleep for 2 hours, which was sweet at first. I never knew how much he likes to spread out.

As I mentioned before, Atticus loves basketball! It's so cute to see how excited he gets over the hoop and the ball.

Most recently, we went to Wild Waves on one of Seattle's hottest days of the year. Sara and Liz came too. We had a fun time there amongst the crowds. We even took our own food which we had to eat in the parking lot. :( Adam, Sara, and Atticus pooped out midway and Liz and I stayed in the heat and played.