Cookies Galore

I am having more posts without pictures because while in the moment I forget to take pictures. Saturday Mimi and my mom came over to bake cookies (and entertain Lilah). Mandi frosted sugar cookies (that's her usual job) while my mom and I baked and stirred and mixed. It was fun, and super messy, and still not done. I have some in the refrigerator now that I have to finish tomorrow. Lance even suggested that we have enough and I didn't need to do more...which is quite weird coming from a guy who really, really loves cookies. I think that means I have a lot. But, the best are to come tomorrow (chocolate decadence peppermint patty cookies....MMMMMMMMMMMM). The best part about Christmas and this season are traditions, so the Buslach girl baking will continue for years to come.

Snowflake Lane?

Lance's parents came to join us for some time with Lilah today, and we decided on the Dirty Bird (aka: Red Robin) and a visit to Snowflake Lane in downtown Bellevue. We haven't been for 2 years and thought it would be great for Lilah to experience the drummers, the music, all the people, the lights, and snow! However, we spent our visit to Snowflake Lane in Red Robin. Fortunately we got a window seat so she could still clap, giggle and stare at the drummer outside of the window, but after a 45 minute wait, we couldn't eat fast enough. We still had a great time visiting with "papa" and "ma" and Lilah did so great (although didn't eat much, but was so good coloring, talking, laughing and just watching people). Our pictures were after the crowd was completely gone and the show was totally over. Oh well - next year for sure. It was great to have a fun dinner and time with family.

Meet Little Samson Muchlinski

Lilah and I visited the Muchlinskis last Friday to see little Samson and bring over a few boy clothes (since they didn't find out until he was born if he was a girl or boy). I got to hold him probably for the longest time I've held a teeny baby since Lilah was that size! He is precious, wonderful, and so very sweet. He seems like a great baby - eating like a champ, sleeping pretty well, and his cry is very tame compared to what our princesses cry sounded like at that age. :) I think Mike loves being a daddy again and being a father just fits him. Lilah spent a few minutes to hug and kiss Samson, but she mainly just wanted to play with Mike (hence the photo with a plastic drill and safety goggles). She absolutely adores him....not a day goes by that she doesn't ask about Mike and Jiji. Julie looks and seems fantastic. I think motherhood suits her quite well. She is so upbeat, positive, and looks beautiful. Congrats to our very dear, dear friends. You are so very blessed to have that little bundle, and HE is so blessed to have the two of you as parents!

Horrible Blogger

For some reason, I can't figure it out. UGH! I've tried about 10 times, and it continues to show an error no matter what I do.

So, I will fool the system and put her website here and you will have to do a little cut and paste action to see the goods.

http://www.littlesproutcreations.com/Little_Sprout_Creations.html

Amazing PEPS Mama Award Goes To...

Jen of course. I can't even begin to explain all the planning, decorating, food preparation, and just plain cute things that go into all of our PEPS gatherings. She is always the hostess with the mostess, has cute labels for our treats, plans the parties/events, makes the invitations, and then comes up with a craft or gift bag for us to take home. AND, to top it all off, she's the one of all of us (thus far) with two kids. It's pretty spectacular (and I never use that word, only saving it for very spectacular people).
So, after all that, she won this prestigious award after once again hosting a PEPS holiday party for all the kids. We had delicious snacks (italian sodas, sugar & cinnamon covered almonds, coconut covered cupcakes). She had planned for all the mom's to exchange three small gifts (we each brought three and distributed them) and each child brought one to exchange. So much fun! I got a lot of sweet treats, and Lilah got some new sockies and a farm animal plate. The kids all made ornaments where they stamped their hand print on a piece of paper, and Jen drew on a nose and mouth, and added pipe cleaner for the antlers. Awesome.
I am hoping this works as I've never done this before, but I'm going to (hopefully) link Jen's website on here so you see all the wonderful things she does! This year her husband took our family pictures AND Jen made our Christmas cards.

What a Difference a Year Makes...

Lilah one year ago in front of our tree...


Lilah this Christmas...

Tons and Tons and TONS of Words!

I cannot believe every day how much Lilah is saying. Now, I don't think we have a genius on our hands, that's not what I am saying. I just thought I would share how very amazing it is that she is saying so many words and names and stringing words together (like "buh-bye dada" and "buh-bye di di").
Lilah right now is so interested in other people and particularly babies. I walked in to get her up this morning and started singing my "good morning" song to her. Immediately she starts saying, "Didi? Mimi? Dada?" Nope... granny's at her house, Mimi's at work and so is daddy. It's just me. You know, you're mama? Everything she says thank you, it's actually, "Thank you dada", no matter who she's thanking.
We're really working on Samson's name, but unfortunately she associates every baby with either Rory or Hank. Every single baby is Rory or Hank (my friend Jen from my PEPS group's baby girl, and Hank is my friend Kjell's sweet boy). So very sorry Samson. I have a feeling you will be Rory or Hank for quite a while.

Samson Robert!!!!!

Mike and Julie's sweet baby boy was born yesterday. This is a boring post because it has no pictures (yet), but I promise some by Wednesday when I bring dinner over there. He is so precious and perfect. I love him already! We are practicing Samson with Lilah, although so far it sounds like "da". Not so much sweet girl, but we're trying!!
Congrats to our wonderful friends and what a miracle and true blessing little Samson is. Welcome little guy!

Friend's Holiday Get Together

In the past we have done a "Friend's Thanksgiving", but this year decided to wait until December and instead do a Mexican Christmas (well, not really, but we all love Mexican food, so that was our theme). The boys played finger football (or something) downstairs and watched the kiddies (or something) as us girls sat upstairs and chatted. It was so fun to get together and see all the kids interact and play. Pretty much right now they want whatever the other one is playing with, and Lilah and Sadie are super interested in baby Hank. Such a great time of the year to get all of our families together and also to be thankful for old friends (not in age ladies....I mean that we have all been friends for about 14 years....I suppose that means we're old too seeing we met in college). :)
Love you all and thanks for such a fun afternoon together!

De-li-cious

Yummy!! Jen made these little treat bags for us all to take home after Liz's shower. Peppermint hot chocolate with candy cane marshmallows. Mmmmm...almost too cute to eat, but not quite.

Please Contact My Assistant

I am busy working on my laptop, got a deadline coming up. Thanks!

A Day with "Day"

Lilah can't say Grace, so she calls her buddy Grace, "Day". She really, really likes her. All the way home she kept saying, "Bye Day, bye Day..." over and over and over. Jackie and I met with the girls at the Kids Quest Museum and they had so much fun. I think both of them enjoy the water area the best, because what could be better than splashing, throwing balls in, and drinking (I know, gross) water that millions of germy kids have had their paws in. :)
Although they don't totally play together, it's still so fun to do things like this with the kids now. And I love hearing Lilah talk all about her "friends" when we're heading home.

The Rivalry

This year we made Apple Cup plans pretty late. We had talked to Mike and Julie and thought about doing it just the four of us, but didn't know if Julie would be having baby M by then or not. So I sent out a late email asking people if they had plans, fully expecting everyone to be a lot cooler than me and to have made plans already. Well, we ended up having about 12 people over (and I think 4 kids) in our small living room with now a huge Christmas tree smack in the middle. :)
We ended up having tons of snacks (even though I said "no snacks provided or required") and topped it all off with a healthy dose of Pizza Bank.
While my husband, Mike, Erik and Kevin were in there watching the game intently, I mainly stood at the table and ate and talked to all the ladies. I think I care even less now if the Huskies win, other than I know Lance is such a sore winner and would be so obnoxious if they won.
While most were watching the game we caught my little cleaner in the corner of the kitchen "scrubbing" the floor. And she kept going back to clean it, probably because she didn't realize that she was just spreading all the crumbs around in that area. She'll learn eventually. I wonder where she got this obsession from? So strange.
Our evening ended with a Husky win and uncle Mike (aka: "Mah") and Lilah eating cupcakes with purple frosting on the floor. It was funny, and thankfully all the purple frosting came out of her clothes. ;)

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

I don't know how we've gotten so fortunate for many years now when we go and get our tree. It has been sunny (but chilly) every year for at least I think 4 years now. We had another beautiful day on Saturday to get our tree.
The family and the King girls came over for some carbo-loading breakfast (everything was very tastey, we just had tons and tons of carbs). It was fun for all the kids to play and for many of us to be together. After breakfast and a little playing, we rushed out the door to our neighborhood tree farm. It's great because we get to cut down our own tree, but it's 5 minutes away. This makes it even more wonderful, especially this Saturday being Apple Cup Saturday (see the above post for more info).
Lilah loved the trees and the people. Kaden and Natalie came with Erik and Candace and Kaden would inform us how many "holes" each tree had, and of course you look for the one with the least amount! We walked around and Lance again went off to the far side to find the BEST tree. And truly our tree is pretty perfect!
On our way out I got Lilah a candy cane which she loves. However, her white shirt and clean hair were not so big of fans (talk about a sticky girl!!).
We pretty much did a mad dash that afternoon: fed Lilah, put her down for a nap, cleaned up from breakfast, put the tree up and decorated it with wrapped presents underneith (all before our guests arrived later for Apple Cup and before Lilah woke up). Ahhhhhh! Poor Lance - he's married to an organizational freak. I couldn't even imagine having a half decorated tree in our living room when everyone was over for Apple Cup.
After all of that we got some "first shots" of when Lilah saw the tree. It was not as expected because really, she thought it was alright, but nothing too special. She glanced at the sparkly lit tree then at the tv and said, "me, me, mama". I will translate, "more Elmo". She says "me" and does the sign for "more" all the time. It doesn't necessarily mean "more" because she may not have had this certain something earlier. It simply means "I want ________". So, clearly Elmo is much more important than a silly tree.