Party for Baby Moser

We are getting so excited for Ben and Kelly's baby to arrive!  Less than a month away...

 On February 26, we threw a shower for Kelly and the little baby girl that will be joining our family soon. Kelly had MANY helpers and was so patient with them...

 We had so many people come--aunts and cousins, grandmas and neighbors--and Kelly went home with a load of baby stuff!

 Aunt Diane made me a birthday scarf--and with the leftover yarn she made Gracie a matching scarf!

Josh was grateful to have his cousin Conner as a buddy at the shower...I didn't tell him that there would be few boys at the party...

Ellie's Birthday Week!

We celebrate birthdays for a whole week in this household.

This was my week to be spoiled.  Jeff was the biggest spoiler--giving me a present each day of the week leading up to my birthday on the 27th.  Gifts ranging from an old Elizabethtown movie poster to a new purse...I was REALLY spoiled.  On Friday after work we headed to the farm to see my family.

 Brownies was the requested dessert this year...and I had lots of assistance with opening gifts.

I had to snap this matchey-matchey picture of  Mom and Dad, all decked out for the WSU game...which we won't talk about the outcome of...

We threw a baby shower for Kelly on Sunday, and after, we ran back to Spokane to celebrate with the Lochheads.  More spoiling here...a birdbath, dinner gift certificate, dead mouse from Harvey...ha!

 And then on my actual birthday, we got to see Heidi and Kai for lunch and then Jeff surprised me with dinner with the whole Van Sickle family at Fat Daddy's that night!  The kids and I also celebrated with a special snack after naps:  kiwi fruit!  They'd never had it before...  De...

 ...stinkin'...

...licious!  I also received all kinds of notes, cards, phone calls and texts!  Thanks for all the love, everyone!  What a great birthday week to remind me how much I am loved--and blessed.

More Josh-isms...

Two of Josh's favorite pastimes:  stealing Dad's hat and pretending to be "Da-da!" and ripping Toy Story stickers out of his sticker book. Quite often he rips them in half:  "Uh, oh!" he says as he brings them to me to "fix."  We are finding curled up Buzzes and Lotsos without "stick" all around our house.

Where's Waldo?

We had a hard time finding our children on the night they decided to fairly evenly distribute their blocks around the ENTIRE living room.  Thanks for the blocks, Daniel!  :)

Oden's Weekend of Arrival

We won't soon forget "the weekend we waited for Oden."  :)  We heard that Annie was close to having him on Friday and we "quick!" put a plan together to be there to meet him.  Gracie and Josh were thrilled to get to go to the farm for the weekend--so when Jeff got home at noon, we loaded everyone up and met G'ma Joan in Colfax.  She was quite the trooper--she and Papa had just gotten back from a week in AZ visiting friends!  But, no problem, they were delighted to spoil their grandkids for a whole weekend without Mom and Dad around...  (Pictures to come--they ended up having a GRAND time--Abby's basketball game, playing at the Morrow's house, visiting G'ma Trudy and Papa LeRoy, and feeding kitties and getting to see Aristocats for the first time!)

Here we are, the White-Tag Crew.  Oden decided that he'd take his own sweet time in arriving.  So, we snuggled into Drew and Annie's hospital room off-and-on, throughout the weekend.  Scott and Colleen drove over as well, and Martha and Slick and Twinkles helped keep vigil.  Highlights of the waiting time included catching glimpses of Arrested Development Season Two(?), keeping track of nurses on duty, seeing what treats Colleen and Linda brought, and watching Annie's "mountain range" of contractions on the monitor.

So with Annie and Drew waiting patiently at the hospital for their son to arrive, we felt that it was our duty to go experience Portland for them.  :)  They directed us to Por Que No?--a Mexican restaurant that will live in infamy forever in our lives.  I am quite serious.  The best guacamole and margaritas reside here.  We should've gone TWICE.  But we DID go to Powell's twice...and we got to spend the better part of Saturday with my cousin, Megan, who is working on her Masters in Architecture at the University of Oregon in Portland.  She has a great apartment that we got to see...we ate at Henry's...and she showed us the finer places in Portland that she frequents...  So fun to spend time with you, Megan!!!

So on Monday, just when we were trying to prepare ourselves that we might have to go home without meeting our little niece or nephew, Oden decided to make his grand entrance!  At 12:28, while putting a puzzle together in the waiting room, we got a text from Drew giving us our first glimpses of little Oden Thomas.  We were thrilled at how big he was--5 lbs, 11oz!--and couldn't believe the strawberry blond hair that he was sporting!  He is a little champ--arriving so early, yet breathing on his own, and within a day he was regulating his own temperature.  We're pretty sure he's gifted from the very start!

After we got to see Oden in the ICU and give Annie a high-five, (did Jeff give Drew a "good-game" butt slap?  I forget.  He should have if he didn't...) we high-tailed it to the farm to pick up our sweet rug rats.  It was late, so Jeff took Tuesday off of work and we spent the night at the farm.

Gracie and Josh are very excited to meet Cousin Oden...but we're going to wait until he's a little bit bigger to be certain he can hold his own in this hurricane of love.  :)

We love you, Drew, Annie, and Oden!  Thanks for letting us be part of your special weekend.  This boy is precious!  Well worth the wait.

Welcome, Baby Oden!

Oden Thomas Lochhead

Born February 20, 2012

5 lbs. 11 oz.

21 inches

(And look at that strawberry-blonde hair!)

Gracie and Josh have a new baby cousin!  To all of our delight, and as an answer to prayer, Oden was born on Monday, healthy at 34 weeks!

Here's Annie with her two chocolate milkshakes after FOUR DAYS of labor--to say that she did an amazing job would most definitely be understating it!  And Drew, showing off little Oden in the ICU.  This little one is a miracle baby!  We are so excited!  

Welcome to the world, Oden Thomas!  You are precious and loved from the very start!  (Gracie prayed tonight that you would grow brave and smart and that you'd learn how to play with your teether).

Happy Valentine's Day!

Grilled cheese hearts.  Valentine's from family and preschool friends.  Fresh layer of snow on the ground during nap time.  Happy Valentine's Day!

The Games We Play...

The Buz and Woody plate

and the Toy Story utensils.

From Josh's standpoint,

these are the ONLY items

worthwhile in the dishwasher.

His job: 

Whenever he's near the dishwasher, he must open it

and rescue the plate and utensils

before they are locked in the dishwasher forever.

My role:

Who cares about loading the sharp knives last,

just make sure the beloved plate and utensils

stay up on the cupboard until the very last, 

"Quick! Start the dishwasher!" moment.

But more times than not, I forget,

or think he's safely away from the machine,

and load them.

On Road Runner legs, he scrambles in and dives for the bottom rack.

I sigh...and make a mental note to search the house for the rescued items

before I start the dishwasher for the night.

Oh, the games we play.

A Boy and His Horse

One morning last week, Grace and I went into Josh's room to get him up and were completely surprised to see that Josh had company in his crib:  his stick horse!

We aren't exactly sure how he hoisted this guy in with him--but the night before I'd leaned the horse up between the crib and the changing table.  Josh found a way!

And, BOY, was he proud of himself!  :)

Fine Motor Skills Workshop...AKA "Coloring"

Josh thinks he's ambidextrous.  He's quite decisive when choosing what to color:  It has to be Toy Story and it has to be IN the coloring book.  No page tear-outs, thank you very much.

Gracie loves to color...when they're playing preschool and she's the teacher.  Otherwise, fine motor skill activities aren't her preference.  :)  She's working on writing her name, and her teacher mother is trying not to push her too hard--these things will just click someday, right?

Notice the torn-out page that Josh is not having anything to do with...

Gracie loves her pencil box from Grandma Colleen--and these cool colored pencils that you twist to sharpen!  This girl still has those kissable cheeks!  Don't worry, we make sure she has a plethora of kisses planted on them each day!

Patricia and the Girls

Here are some of our newest friends!  Steve and Patricia have two girls about our kids' ages:  Emma and Ashlan.  In fact, we'd seen each other at church and story times at the library for the last couple of years, but when Emma and Gracie started going to preschool together, Patricia and I started hanging out (with Ashlan and Josh) during preschool.  We've had many a park/mall/store playdate this year!  We took Patricia and the girls to The Little Garden Cafe for Patricia's birthday last week.  The sun was shining and I couldn't resist getting a couple pics...

Birthday Buddies

We have several people in our families who have birthdays close to each other.  G'ma Dorothy and Kevin share a birthday week:  January 26 and Feb 1.  Here are the official party pics!

 Grandma got sweaters and chocolate and books and a grandchild "brag book" for her purse...

...Kevin may or may not have been the SECOND recipient of a classic gift given originally by Drew Lochhead.  Regifting ROCKS.  (Okay, he also got some Carhartts, a shirt, and other decent and appropriate gifts).

Other highlights of the evening:
-The cousins are old enough (and loud enough!) to play downstairs together!  Janie, Gracie, Anthony, and Josh were thrilled to watch Lion King together.  When we went downstairs, we found children crawling on the ground, pretending to be Simba, Nala, or hyenas.  Such fun times!
-Albertsons makes DELECTABLE cakes!  Who knew?
-I especially enjoyed the evening, knowing that this was a Sunday evening, and I didn't have to go to work the next day!  Yes, it's half way through the year and I've switched from M-W work days to Th-F!  M-W's at home are dreamy!