All Smiles (almost all day!)

Snowshoe adventure #2 was a 180 degrees different from Snowshoe adventure #1. Nice day, warm boots, hot cocoa in Dad's new thermos...

Is it nap time yet?

My new balaclava is the best invention EVER. I stayed warm all day, except when Dad whitewashed me on a sled run. Whoops.

Traveling in style. Mush, Daddy.

paint

Elsa's first attempt at using MS Paint. The last tool she used was the eraser. : )

Merry Christmas memories!

Here are Aunt Holly and I talking to Uncle Adam on Christmas morning. Technology is pretty cool, but everyone felt pretty sad that this was the only way to have Uncle Adam in the living room with us. (He missed a gorgeous view of the mountains, too.)

I gave Mom and Dad a hand print for Christmas. Just demonstrating for Mom that my hand has grown a little bit since I made the print, since I am 4 now...

Dad's a good sport.
Getting ready to play Santa at round 3 of Christmas fun. Phwew. Time to wind down.

Christmas blessings to all our readers! We hope you had a chance sometime during the holidays to be quiet in the knowledge that Jesus came so that we could have LIFE in the fullest.

4th birthday

I had a gingerbread house decorating birthday party. After making the houses, the icing, and assembling the houses (thanks to help from Holly and Grandma R.), Mom can't imagine that we will be doing this again next year! But the kids had lots of fun, and they left one step closer to either diabetes or childhood obesity. :)

Evan and I loved my birthday cake. Notice that Evan eats his ice cream with his hands. He does that with his oatmeal, too! Like my new robe?

Opening gifts... what more needs to be said? I perfected "Yea, just what I wanted!!! What is it?" (That's a direct quote, and without coaching from Mom and Dad!)

Evan introduced me to the concept of singing into a microphone. Here we are belting out Jingle Bells while Mom plays the guitar for us.

This is quite possibly the first all-smiling-and-looking-at-the-camera picture that we have of the Roberts girls and kids! Even the baby in Holly's tummy is smiling and wishing me a happy birthday, we think!

Events

Aunt Holly and Evan came to visit on Thanksgiving weekend. Evan's a pretty busy little guy and we had a lot of fun when I was willing to share my things.
I met Santa today. He was very friendly. Believe it or not, after this solemn encounter, when Mom asked "So what did you think of talking to Santa?" I said, "Oh, I loved it!" Observers would have been pretty surprised about that comment given that I wouldn't step any closer than the picture shows and I all but forgot how to speak, smile, or use my manners.

Mom's turn: So we haven't been playing the Santa game very well. I usually outright tell Elsa that Santa is just a fun game we play at Christmas time. After seeing him in the flesh today, she tried to convince me that he must be real. ("See! There he is!") As we were leaving Elsa said, "Do you think that was really Santa?" I said,"What do you think?" She said, "I think so. What do you think?" I said, "Why do you want to know what I think?" She said, "What are you going to answer?" I said, "What do you think?" She said, "No." I said, "You're right. I mean, how could Santa be here in [Eugene, OR] when he also need to be in Dupont and Coupeville and other places where kids are?" She said, "He travels." :)

Brrrr. Why do my parents like this sport?

Walking up the hill was cold...

Standing at the top of the hill was cold...

Equally cold was losing my snowshoes (shoes attached) under the sled. (Yeah, that's Mom LAUGHING about it.) This was sort of the clincher for me. "Mom, can't I wait in the car? Can one of you come with me?" Mom and Dad did not make a believer out of me on our first family snowshoe trip sans backpack.

bbq and giggles

I built a barbecue in the kitchen this evening. Then I went to bed and left the mess for Mom and Dad to clean up.

This video is a bit long, but Elsa gives the best giggles at the end. The most fun was watching it again with her and hearing the exact same giggles as she laughed at herself - surround sound!

Play Time

Welcome to the land of tiny toys, Daddy. (Enlarge this to see the miniature shovels and sand pail.)

Halloween

I went trick-or-treating with my neighbors Owen and Cecilia. The first time Owen and I trick-or-treated together he was wearing the spider costume and we were both much shorter!

Grandma loaded me up with extra candy and Snickers bars for my parents.

This mouth candy was certainly a treasure.

I got my face painted at Mom's school carnival Friday night. After a few swipes most of the kitty was still there! I was a bit disturbed watching Mom's kids yell "dunk her, dunk her," as they threw balls at a handle on the dunk tank... but I got over it and gave my arm a try at dunking Mom. (My third throw was close, but I didn't knock her in!) Sorry, no pictures of that event.

...and not even all that cold!

Ahhh, weekends.

What a gorgeous day to live near the beach! Amazing that we were alone at this beach for a couple of hours on such a beautiful weekend day. It was low tide, too, so we saw lots of tide pool life.

Throwing the kelp stronghold back out to sea. Maybe it will grab on to something as an anchor!

Sheltering in a "cave" to stay out of the wind. It was toasty warm in this one.

We found this giraffe in the woods on the walk back. Afterward we looked for a sheep, but never found one.

Who's missing from this picture? The weekend after the great beach day, Mom and Dad took off alone (to Seattle) for the FIRST time while Elsa stayed with Grandma and Grandpa overnight. Mom says she's going to make a weekend getaway a weekly event. Sounds good to me because I got to eat donuts, carve a pumpkin, go to Fort Casey...

Still Sunny

Fun in the lawnmower box!

Why...won't...this...thing...go?

Zoo!

We went to the zoo to celebrate Evan's 2nd birthday. This time, we remembered my shoes AND the camera all in one trip. Success! (And we had a bunch of fun, too. Abby and I are a great pair because she's a leader and I'm a follower. Evan is still more interested in the animals than the socializing, bless him.)

First Day of Preschool!

Swimming with the Ducks

So I'm trying not to be an overprotective mother and develop an OCD about germs in my child, right? But check out the murky water. Is it any wonder Elsa had a body full of bug bites the next day?

Trying to get a decent family picture...

Popularity of the name Elsa

Recently Elsa ran in front of an older woman's shopping cart. I called out in a serious tone: "Elsa, get over here" or something like that. The woman looked a bit startled and said she was concerned for a moment because that was her name. Although I didn't ask her what year she was born, here are some stats on the popularity of Elsa's name over time.

According to the Social Security Administration, Elsa gained the most popularity in 1895, at 215th most popular (stats after 1880 only). It then declined in popularity and almost fell off the list of top 1000 names in 1998 when it hit 998th most popular.

In 2005, Elsa was the 761st most popuar name. In 2008 after Elsa met many adults of child-bearing age, the name has surged to 724th most popular. : )


For some perspective, Joseph has never fallen below 16th. Katy, however, has not made the list since 2004, and in that year was 989th most popular. Emma and Jacob are both sitting at #1 as of 2008.

http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/

Fun with Friends

Our good friend Carrie hula hooped with me today. Thanks for visiting, Carrie!

Owen and I had fun with umbrellas when he came over to play the other day. It has not rained here for weeks, but boy were we ready!