New Fish

So turned out Bubbles was not the healthiest of fish.  One day he started to develop white spots which was diagnosed by a quick google search as Ich (Ick).  We got him meds but he never did recover.  Matthew was torn between being sad that Bubbles was dying and elated that he might get NEW FISH.  

The day after we foundBubbles laying on the rocks we went back to the fish store for NEW FISH!

This is the pink one (they glow under the blue light).

This is the green one and in the back there you can see the orange one.  I have no other pictures of the orange one because it died a few days later.  As did the next two orange ones I bought.  We have not tried another orange one but... the green one, the pink one and Rocks seem to be doing very well.

  Unfortunately, this has all left a terrible scar on Alex.  When we read color books and we get to orange he says "Orange Fish...Dead" over and over again. Sigh

Happy Valentines Daaaaaay

Last Day of Hanukkah

I found the celebration of Hanukkah supremely beautiful.  And I plan to do it again.

GO HAWKS!!!!

January 2015 and the Seahawks have made it back to the Superbowl.

 Holy Moly are we ever excited.  It was Blue Friday every day.

 Crazy town.

We got together at Daddy's because he has a bigger TV and he boys were already there.  

We won't discuss how the day ended besides to say we were devastated.

Randoms

 Thor

 The joy of swinging.

 Fighterfighter

 Done.

 Mini crew member of deadliest catch.

Matthew's school project to celebrate 100 days of school as it was the night it was finished.  It was a serious family collaboration. Daddy gathered most of the objects, I would put ten small blobs of glue then run back to the tub to check on Alex while Matthew glued on the objects. 

You might notice that some of the objects used to mark the days were skittles.  When we picked it up off the table to put in the car the next morning the green skittle from the top right corner was missing.  Hmmm I wonder who did that, Alex???

Bubbles

Right after getting back to school in January Matthew amassed enough navigator slips (superb job awards from school) to get his fish.  He had to save up 10 of them and it took him about 3 months.

 Off to the fish store we went and we finally found Bubbles the Beta.

 There he is in his new tank with filter and light and rocks and decorations and food and his companion sucker fish Rocks.  

Isn't he lovely.

Alex helps out in the kitchen

cutest video You'll probably ever see

You're Welcome

Hand Foot Mouth again

A couple more shots of the ouchy sores this stupid thing produced.

Christmas Day

Yay! its 7am and its Christmas morning!!

 I don't think Nana has had her coffee yet.

 Cool toothless hat.

 emptying the stocking

 Instructions on how to assemble the scooter

success!!

 Alex's turn

 He loved riding his scooter.  Stopping so Mummy can take a picture, not so much.

 Much happier with Coffee.

 The best magnetic tow truck ever.  Thanks Auntie Colleen and family.

 The gorgeous tree skirt Mum made me.  Can't wait to get it our again next year.

Crayola color dropz make bath time fun again.

Seriously, these things are fabulous.  They don't stain your kid or your tub or your towels and the kids LOVE them.  After we used up the ones from Christmas, I bought two more tubs of them.

Christmas Eve

Because Aaron had the boys from Christmas afternoon through the weekend, we decided to have our big dinner on Christmas Eve.

  

Daddy volunteered to sit at the table with a

Alex.

They ended up having a lot of fun.

 The boys got to wear the new jammies that Auntie Colleen had sent.

fox power foot

 Auntie Kathy joined us! 

Sugar Cookies

This year everyone got involved with the making of sugar cookies.

It was so fun.

 My sweetness.

 Messy but good.

If you notice this year the cookies were fancier than usual because with Papa's first cookie (the christmas tree on the bottom left) he shamed us into upping our sugar cookie decorating game.  We brought out paintbrushes and toothpicks out to get the best effects possible.

Hand Foot Mouth and Christmas Lights

 About two days after Nana and Papa's arrival, Alex started to run a fever.  That evening I noticed a little spot on his lower lip.  The next morning I notices a couple more.  SO we headed to the doctor, me expecting chicken pox, and we came home with a diagnosis of Hand Foot Mouth Disease.  A common, highly contagious early childhood virus that presents with very painful and itchy sores that show up around the mouth (including inside and down the throat) and on the hands and feet.  Poor kiddo was in a lot of pain and couldn't eat anything.  We went through a lot of tylenol and Ibuprofen that week.  Luckily none of the adults got it (usually presents as a cold) and Matthew only had one day of fever with no sores.

Since we couldn't really take Alex anywhere we went to see the Christmas lights at the Bellevue Botanical Garden.

 Wall of water and lights

 He was a trooper if a little dazed by the pain killers.

 They were sitting on a stone toad.