Oh Christmas where did you go?

Well, Christmas has come and gone. It has been a weird year. It seems like a lot of things went "wrong" this year. Weather, Family illness, Economy... It is interesting to me the expectations that we have for the Christmas season. It is like I have a mental checklist of the Christmas activities that we must do in order for Christmas to be a success. Find a Christmas tree : Check. Decorate tree and house : Check. Go to several family gatherings and eat WAY to much : Check... And the list goes on. Well, this year my checklist went something like this. Christmas Tree: Check. Decorate Tree: Check. Get snowed in and trapped in your home for 7 days: Check....

For the first time I can remember Eric, the Kids and I stayed home for Christmas Eve and Christmas... At first I was kind of Bah Humbug about the whole thing. I was thinking "What are we going to do here stuck in this house, still?" I felt sad that maybe the kids would be disappointed in Christmas, like they had somehow been gypped. But in the end we ended up having one of the best Christmases ever!! Here are some photos of our fun :)


Tree hunting (Reyna did not want her photo taken, can you tell??)
Mama I have the map.We found it!!!My little man helping out!!

Julia had an altercation with the snowman.She won.Decorating the tree.

Making "Gingerbread" Houses (with Graham crackers)



Uh Oh our house fell downReyna's masterpiece
'kay kids eat your sugar and go to bed...... (not the best plan I think)

Eric won the "best design" award... His house was most resistant to destruction.After our decorating fun we all sat together around the Christmas tree and Noah read us the Christmas story from his bible. It was really sweet to listen to him read :) He is growing up so fast!
Some photos of Christmas morning.
Julia was not impressed with the idea for a photo of three "monkeys" in a row.The kids opening gifts. Julia was much more interested in sitting on the gifts then opening them.
I guess she won her fight with the barbie house too.
Reyna playing barbie house.. We have officially entered the "Barbie age"Molly was entertained watching all of the activities...

Well I still have a ton more to post, but I am running out of time for now, so I will post Christmas part 2 soon. Really, I will.

Reflecting on the Snow

First off I know I am a total blog slacker. I will do my best to remedy this. Life is so busy that it seems that time flies by and then somebody will say to me "you know you haven't blogged since September". Oops.
That leads me to the title of my blog..... I love the snow. It is beautiful and fresh and such a rarity here that it is truly a treat when it comes our way. I am also finding that while we are "stuck" surviving Arctic Blast 2008 (or whatever silly name has been thrown out there) we are having a rare opportunity to just slow down and really enjoy time as a family. It strikes me as kind of tragic that it takes 9+ inches of snow for us to really have some good family time. I love that the kids are at an age where they can be involved in all sorts of activities and that I can watch them grow and learn, but I am beginning to feel that we are really missing out on some of those quiet times. This is day 6 of being totally cooped up in our house. It has been a tough week. I have been fussy. All three kids had the stomach flu ( Julia first then Noah and Reyna at the same time, awesome), I had to go to Les Schwab to buy a new car battery for the van the DAY after our first "snowstorm" (never a good idea, half of Battleground was there getting snow tires cause they saw a snowflake). That was after standing outside with my car in the middle of the road, three screaming/frozen kids and a dead battery waiting for Michael to come save me cause Eric was convinced that we really didn't need a car battery after the 5 or so times that the car HAD died on me. Did I mention that it was only about 20 degrees outside??But I am not bitter....
During this time I have learned so much about my kids. It has been really fun to discover how funny and innovative my kids are (Not that I didn't know this already, it's just a different perspective I guess). I tell you I have not been bored. I just spent the last 20 minutes or so listening to Julia's Knock-Knock joke. Knock- knock. Who's there. You. You who? Knock Knock..... and we could probably go in circles for hours. Noah and Reyna are so cute playing all sorts of make believe games that have the appropriate amount of swords/badguys and babies/princesses to keep them both happy. I am secretly hoping that the snow sticks around awhile longer, it is totally worth the "inconveniences" of slippery winter weather to watch these precious little people uninterrupted. Here are a few picks of our snowy fun :)

All bundled up.

Julia was a little bit unhappy that she tipped over in the snow.
Throwing snowballs at daddy
This was before things got really exciting around here...I bought Julia a new coat. It may be a bit big.

This is our dog Molly. She is a miniature Daschund and has a super funny personality. Here are some photos of her this morning after the freezing rain made the snow hard. She was inching around so carefully...

Notice that if she were to fall through there would be more snow then dog. Fortunately, the only times she fell in she was close to the edge and no rescue effort was necessary.


I am going to do my level best to be a better blogger from now on. I hope everyone has a beautiful Christmas!!!

What a total slacker.....

So it has come to my attention that I am a total blog slacker... It seems that I have not bothered to post a blog since March. This is not good. So in the interest of catching up a bit I will skate trough the last few months and then be a good blogger from now on. The last 6 months have been Crazy! First in April miss Julia turned 1! She is such a good girl and a joy to be around :) My sister made her cake and my oh my it was the BEST carrot cake I have ever had. Hands down. Here is a photo of Miss Julia on her big day.



Brand new :)
In June we celebrated miss Reyna's 4th birthday at a local park. We had a great time! Aunt Andrea made the cake once again and this time we had a watermelon theme. It was a really great time!


AND Reyna got her first big girl bike!!



The summer really has been super chaotic. All in all we moved, moved my mother halfway across the country, went to church family camp, went to the beach for a week with the "Stark" side of the family (where we were surprised by Aunt Amanda ALL the way from Korea!) , Spent a total of 3 weekends in Bremerton on my Grandparents sailboat and Noah just started the first grade. It really has been CRAZY! I will post some photos of all those activities soon but for now I will be content that the blog has been resurrected :)

And were "Marching" on... (get it??)

Well the last few weeks have been pretty good. With the exception of one pretty nasty cold we are all doing well and enjoying the nice weather. The garden is not yet in the ground GRRRRR, but weather may not be too terrible this weekend. Either way we need to get to plowing... Lets see, Reyna has her ballet recital coming up in just 10 short days. Yesterday she was able to practice in her Cinderella "costoon" (Reyna speak for costume). She is really looking forward to it! Noah had TKD (Tae Kwon Do) last night and came home as a purple stripe belt!! Yay Noah! He is really doing well and I think has found his sports "niche" for now anyway. I would love to see him go all the way with it. Just think... Black belt Noah... Awesome. Julia is getting bigger by the day and is finding new and exciting ways to entertain herself and us all the time. She can now say a few words, wave at you and clap. She loves to say dada and gets all happy when Eric comes home from work. Her waving is good stuff. She flaps her arms and is so pleased with herself.

Last weekend on Saturday we were able to visit Uncle Ben and Aunt Ne ( Renee) in Silverton. As always we had a peaceful and relaxing time. I miss them so much, it seems like we just don't make it out there like we used to. (that could have something to do with having 3 small kids) Its funny, every time we go down there it gets Eric and I pining for the country life. We have a running joke that we are gonna live in the country and make "goat soap" and that is how we will live.... I think that we should have like a Yurt complex with little hallways attaching the different yurts so that we can not all live in one room... Eric thinks that I am nuts.. Maybe I am, haha.

That's about all for now... Here are a few recent pictures to enjoy. There will be more to come :)

Fun in the wagon
Scooter Tricks
A goofy face :)
Playing Dora house
A big cheesy grin!

And I am on a roll.....

Life is pretty calm here at the Stiffler house. We are just keeping busy with all of the kids activities. Noah tested for his orange belt in TKD and was successful. Reyna is busy preparing for her first dance recital and Julia is growing and changing everyday. We began the year with a few "bumps" the biggest of which was "mama's" broken knee. Sometime in the middle of December I injured my knee, and after three weeks of wondering why it still hurt and thinking I was a wimp. I went in for and MRI which revealed a minor fracture of the Medial Tibial Plateau ( basically the top of the shin bone) and a torn ACL ligament. This landed me on crutches with a crazy knee brace. An ideal situation for a mother of three. After a few weeks of relying on family and friends for help it healed enough for me to be a regular human again. Thanks to everyone to helped out, especially my mother who "braved " the dangers of staying at our house for a week to help take care of the kids. Other then the various illnesses that come with being a kindergartner, we have settled into a "normal"routine. We are looking forward to planting our garden in the next couple of weeks. I can't wait!

In other news Eric and I have been outfitting our "Garage Gym" (it is now pretty much complete) and are working out together almost every day. We are even getting the kids involved and it is so much fun! The kids really love it. Noah actually gets pretty upset when it is a "rest" day. A friend of mine turned us on to a fitness program called Crossfit and we just love it. Some days it is pretty brutal, but I love the feeling of accomplishment that you get from finishing a crazy workout. Anyway, if you are interested in such things, check it out! www.crossfit.com
It is great stuff!!!

Well that is all for now. Our next big event will be Julia bug's 1st Birthday!!!!! I can't believe it! Here are a few random photos of the kiddos!

A funny face
Noodles Jr.
"Fighting Stance"
Loving being sister