Best Christmas Since Jesus, Part 2

Like everyone else in the Portland area, we've been pretty much snowed in for over a week. This storm is unbelievable! Thankfully, we were still able to get Jaciane here on Sunday, just before several airlines shut down at PDX. Whew. That was a close one. Since then we've been just chillin' at home...and hoping to maybe make it out for some fun excursions before Millenne heads home next Sunday. Below are the more recent photos from our fun as a fam.


Brett's first haircut - a dual adventure because we actually had to pick up Julie, our wonderful hairstylist, and bring her to work in order to get the snips for both Daddy and son. :)

Jaciane arrives!! All the siblings together at last...in front of the Christmas tree, no less!


Jaciane enjoys her new Hello Kitty bed. Will she ever want to leave? :)


Of course, we had to play in the snow the night Jaciane arrived. Our snowman looked mighty tasty!


Snuggling up with big sister. So cute!

Best Christmas Since Jesus, Part 1

Here begins the first of what I'm sure will be many posts of our wonderful Christmas as a big, happy family. That's right - Millenne has arrived!...And Jaciane will come next Sunday. We've had so much fun already!

First, Mill got to fly through Dallas on Friday, so she spent an hour with Grandma and Grandpa Boehme. Yeah!

Then she arrived in Portland and we spent the afternoon reuniting as a family. Mill met her lil' bro, Brett, and they are already best buds. Brett loves to make funny faces at his big sis and see if she will copy him.

Brother and sister finally meet!

Mill reminisces over the scrapbook we made of all the Brazil trips, 1997-2008

Just being silly

More silliness!

On Friday night, we whisked Millenne off to enjoy an early Christmas present - the Michael W. Smith Christmas concert at Rolling Hills. Dad and Mill had SO much fun! Mom and Brett got to enjoy Teacher Patty's Christmas Pageant across the street at Athey...what a perfect evening.

Smitty and Melinda Dolittle

Dad and Mill meet Melinda!

Millenne hoards all the sugar cookies

Yummm, cheesecake batter!

On Saturday, we hung out more as a family, baked Christmas goodies, and did some shopping. Thank goodness for that - we can't even think of leaving the house now because...

On Sunday, it SNOWED! And SNOWED, and SNOWED...and is still SNOWING with no sign of stopping. Wow! It wasn't Brett's first snow, but it was the first snow he could really enjoy. It was Mill's first snow-falling experience, and we had SOOOOO much fun outside playing in it! Sorry for the overload of photos, but I just couldn't resist.

Millenne rides a deer

First closeup encounter with the white stuff

Mill's first snowman! Complete with eyes made from chocolate truffles...very gourmet

Look how BIG he is, standing up in his snowsuit!

And now, for the video...:)

athelete in the making

None of us can quite get over how much Brett has taken to sports. At just 11 months old, he is amazing us with his mad skillz. Can you believe Brett has already learned to play catch?! If you don't believe me, just watch the video below. Apparrently I (Mo) never took to playing with balls as a baby. Now all the neglected balls that I never played with are finally getting lots of use, because my son just loves 'em. He throws, chases, catches, dribbles....you get the picture. Now we'll just have to see which ball sport becomes Brett's forte. I'm thinkin' football. But he has a pretty sweet soccer dribble, too, and he made a basket the other day when he threw a ball into a container.



Can we say, ALL BOY?!

thankful

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Here are some shots from Brett's first turkey day...taken at Grandma and Grandpas' house.

Eyeing his very first turkey, mmm!

Compliments to Grandma, the Master Chef :)

Ready to eat!

I took this one with the camera timer...heehee, you can just barely see Brett through the candles. Oh, and he's all ready to eat - fork in mouth already. Ha!

cousin cuteness!

I saw this photo today and just had to swipe it for the blog. These are Brett's cousins, Alex (8 -center), Andrew (6 - left), and Annalise (5 - right). How cute are they?! Alex is such a studmuffin. He's about to be 9 in a couple weeks...I can't believe how fast he's growing up!

Brett has never met his cousins yet because they live way down in Texas...but hopefully soon!

Where's the fire?

Okay, I'm finally posting the much-anticipated pics from last Friday, when Brett became a fireman for a day (and night) for Halloween! It seems to take oh-so-much longer for me to post these days...I have just a faint memory of the blissful days when I'd blog while holding a sleeping newborn on my lap. Now I'm lucky if I can just check email before Brett is devouring the mouse, typing volumes of jibberish, or disconnecting the modem...you get the picture!

Anyway, I digress. Here are some of our fave shots from last Friday. :)

Note the intricate handmade little logos all over - even a dog tag for the dalmatian...and do you see the "water" spouting from the fire hose? This was such a fun little project!! Bonus point if you can figure out what that hose is made from. Hint: it's recycled.


"What's that, dispatch? A kitty up a tree? Roger that, I'll be there in a jiffy!"

Debbie got so many cute shots of the kiddos at the Athey harvest festival.

Fire Chief Brett and his fan club

Brett's big buddy Jaden came to the Athey Harvest Festival as a fireman too!


You can't tell from the photo, but the light atop Brett's stroller is flashing and he is shrieking with joy. Now I know what to pull out when he's grumpers. :)

Ahh, all in a day's work. Note the suspenders...they actually held up his way-too-big red rain boots. I thought this was a pretty ingenious idea, and daddy liked it because he wore these same ones when he was a little dude! :)

I must say, Brett was such a trooper on Halloween. He put up with me dressing and undressing him in his costume, eating dinner in the car on the way to the harvest festival, not to mention all the craziness when we got there...and he even stayed up for a little jaunt around the block for some trick-or-treating! What a sweetie. I'm so proud of our little guy.

Side note: We carved a pumpkin to look like Brett this year...complete with three teeth. Now he has four, and the pumpkin is starting to rot. I wonder how many teeth will be on his pumpkin next year?!

absolutely adorable autumn

This week we attempted a little amateur photo shoot outside in the gorgeous fall foliage. Brett totally "fell" for the all the crunchy, colorful leaves. We took over 150 shots...it was so hard to narrow it down to just a few faves! Hope you enjoy these...we sure did :)

Wheee! I'm outside!


Uh, oh...Mama's gonna get me


Silly shot with Daddy...and a cute one too


'splorin'


just giddy


Ta-ta for now!!

The Lord is so Good!

In times like these, it's so wonderful to see evidence of an awesome God who cares about every little detail in our lives.




Millenne, our elder goddaughter, just wrote us tonight with the wonderful news that she too will be coming to see us this Christmas! We haven't seen our precious Millenne for over three years. She's got the tickets and will be here to lavish adoration on her little bro for three weeks!





We can't believe it's less than two months away already. And then before you know it, we'll have a five-person household when Jaciane arrives! Thank you Lord! We can't wait to see our sweet girls.




gorgeous girl :)

Weekend with Family

What a fun weekend we've had! On Friday morning, our little family (sans cats) ventured north to visit the Boehme family just outside of Seattle. In addition, Monique's aunt Brenda (from North Dakota) was in town receiving an award from the American Cancer Society...so we got to enjoy hanging with extended family on both sides!

Uncle Bob and Aunt Mary Boehme were gracious to put us up in their home...they pretty much let us take over the whole upstairs! It was wonderful. On Friday afternoon, we were able to visit Uncle Dave and Aunt Shirley in a nearby hospice facility.

Brett with Great-Aunt Shirley

Even though Uncle Dave is battling very advanced lung cancer, he was able to talk to and wave at little Brett. That was so special. Then on Saturday, Mary hosted a fun open house to introduce the extended family to the newest little Boehme.

Aunts Shirley, Mary (our hostess with the mostest), and Joni...and cousin Debbie

Cousin JD, Daddy & Brett, Cousin JR, Uncles Don and Bob

On Sunday morning, we took Brett on a ferry across Puget sound - his very first boat ride! He had so much fun, and was wigglin' and gigglin' the whole time.

Ferry fun!

Finally, we met Brenda and Brent for lunch before heading home.

Aunt Brenda and Uncle Brent (who really found my ticklish spots)

What a fun, busy weekend! Brett was such a trooper the whole time. It definitely encourages us to take more little family trips in the future!

First trip to a candy store!

First encounter with a real live horsey!