Gingerbread Bake-Off

We finally made it to the gingerbread bake-off! For the past few years Christ Kitchen has put on a bake-off and for the past few years we've missed it. They have some of the local bakeries make their own gingerbread "houses" for a competition and then for $7 you can get your own kit that includes a house that's already put together, a bag of candy, and a bag of frosting. I was very impressed with the competition houses, my favorite was the Polar Express inspired house/town. I am not gifted in the area of decorating cookies, so I was very impressed what these people could do. Charlie was also pretty impressed with them, but was quickly disappointed by decorating his own. Mainly because he wanted to eat the candy and definitely did not think it should get put on the house. But we made it through and I'm so glad that we did.

 This is a small bit of the Polar Express town

 This was our second favorite.

 Pip just wanted to walk around and trip everyone up

 Trying his best to hoard the candies for himself

 and crying when he didn't get his way.

The proud boy. Haha.

Family Photos

 We took these photos early in November when it was still absurdly warm. It was just us and a tripod and I think we did pretty good for ourselves. Charlie smiled like a normal kid sometimes and Pip was semi interested (sometimes). So here are my favorites.

 Walking, walking, walking

 I love to see their interactions together. Pip really does love her brother. Charlie mostly just tolerates his sister, but sometimes he likes to play with her. And those times are pretty sweet.

 Her face here was just too good not to share

Thanksgiving '15

 Time for some Thanksgiving photos! We had a very chill one this year, mainly because only two out of the four of us had power(!) but it actually turned out to be one of my favorites. We simply packed up and headed to Grammy Julie's house and hung out there all day with family. We didn't stress about making lefse, just mixed up some green bean casserole and watched the parade. We didn't actually get many photos, but here are the few that we did snap.

 Ads, ads, ads :)

 This girl is seriously the happiest.

 Sweet baby Nora

These girls are the most adorable when they're together. They steal and share each other's food the entire time they're next to each other. It's adorable.

First Snow

 Sorry for the absence yet again. We've had a pretty crazy month. I'm sure most of you have heard about the windstorm that happened in November, but in case you didn't it was crazy. Like 72 mph winds and knocked down trees and power lines all over Spokane. Houses were smashed, cars were smashed. It was amazing the damage that was done. One of the effects of the storm was that power got knocked out for a majority of Spokane. Linemen were working like crazy for almost two weeks trying to get power back for everyone. It took eight days before we got power back at our house! Isn't that crazy? Thankfully we got a generator pretty quick and were able to stay at our house (temperatures got down to 19 and below!). It didn't power the whole house, but we did have heat, refrigerator, TV, some lights, and a hot plate (not all running at the same time). One of my favorite things to see was how our community opened up their homes and kitchens to everyone who didn't have power. We were able to do laundry, shower, play, and eat food with friends while we waited for our power to be restored. It was pretty awesome.
We did end up getting our power back on Thanksgiving, which seemed pretty fitting. But then on Sunday a tree in our neighbors back yard fell over onto our power pole! It was already leaning pretty good and was scheduled to be cut down that Tuesday(!). Thankfully they were able to fix the power and it came back on later that night, but it just seemed so crazy to have it happen right after our power came back on. The tree is still laying on our tree house and we're curious to see if it damaged it at all. Andy thinks it should be fine, but we'll see!
We also had our first snow! It did happen when the power was out (you can see our generator hooked up) and Charlie loved it. He especially loved to eat it. He doesn't enjoy gloves though, even when they do fit him correctly (like they're his size and everything). They usually last all of two minutes before he is trying to swing them off at full force.
In other updates, Charlie is fully potty trained (even at night) and Pip has been up and walking like a pro for the last month. Andy has officially passed all his tests for the fire department and only has a few more shifts before his year probation is complete and he can relax at work (while they're not on a call that is). The Hatching Hen has been plugging away and we've done a few giveaways which has been so much fun! We love teaming up with other mamas!

 For the record, Pip does enjoy the snow. We just left her inside this time.

Cousin's got a new pup!

My brother's family got a puppy! She is a labradoodle, but heavy on the doodle. Her name is Luna Lovegood Hodge and she is adorable. She does great with the kids and the kids are learning to be good with her. Our kiddos were a bit more hesitant, but they have done surprisingly well. Unless they're tired. Then it doesn't go so well. But we're working on it! I don't think a dog is in our near future (if ever) but it is fun to be able to have access to one so close.

Arden is adorable.

Charlie's throwing form is on point.

Great Grands Weekend

 Holy cow! What a couple of weeks. We started potty training Charlie this past weekend, Andy just worked a 48 hour shift, and it's gotten very cold. We had both sets of grandparents (from Andy's side) stay with us on consecutive weekends right before all the crazy happened. We didn't take any photos except these two, I'm always angry with myself for not taking enough photos. It has been so much fun to host guests! The kids LOVE having somebody stay with us, and Charlie will always give you the tour of your room. It's his favorite.
I'm hoping to post some more updates on how potty training and how everything else is going, but in the meantime, here is Pip and her Great Grandpa Bob.