I Promise I Won't Post About Craft Night Everytime...

Craft Night was at Tess' (remember? creator of Eggpress) house last night. Her house was straight out of a magazine spread. So pretty to look at! A lot of mid-century modern Danish beauties around. I tried not to snoop and gawk. Also a new member of craft night joined us last night...Sally of Shim and Sons. It was fun to meet her after stalking her blog! It was really funny that Lupine brought a project to work on inspired by Sally!

Preschool Already?

Rhett is very ready for preschool.

Rhett got in to Mt. Tabor Preschool. Yay! It is a little bit of a drive (about 15min), but the school is great. Our first choice so far is probably Lee Owen Stone, but Mt. Tabor was great! Ummm...these have been the only two we have looked at, so chances are we will like the next two just as much.

A Couple of Pictures Before the Camera Died

For my birthday, I requested Dalo's Kitchen! We had a great dinner with Rhett's best buds, our good friends, and family. Unfortunitely my camera died before the dinner came...so, here are a couple from the evening.

We had lots of fun playing with newspaper. Who knew there were so many fun things we could do with it. First a telescope...

then a trumpet.
Elliot is watching the big boys.

Thanks to all of you who came and made my birthday special!

Thanks Again Nina!

I got another surprise in the mail a couple of days ago. Nina sent Rhett an "I'm This Many" shirt. We love it! Thanks, Nina!

Here is a view of the back.
Rhett enjoyed showing everyone at the post office his "number 3" shirt today! We sent things out to be state certified! We are getting close to that waiting list!

30-and Proud of it!

I got an early birthday surprise yesterday! Our immigration approval came in the mail! I guess all of those positive thoughts sent to Homeland Security really paid off! I think this is a wonderful start of a great 30th year.

Sunny Weekend in Portland

When the weather is nice in Portland (about 48 degrees at the park) we all go out to play. We visited with many neighbors this weekend that we haven't seen for months! Us Portlanders tend to hibernate during the winter.

We went to Washington Park to play, hike, and lunch.
We had another craft night last week. There were 10 moms. One knitting hostess, one very pregnant knitter, two pattern cutters, one creator of Eggpress (!), another knitter, one quilting square counter, a rug hooker, a neighborhood society latecomer, and me the letter cutter. It was so much fun! I can't wait for the next craft night!

We Love Each Other Everyday

We love a good Hallmark holiday! This year we made Valentine's cookies to share!

Rhett was in charge of the sprinkles again.
For a Valentine's gift for each other we finally ordered our 2007 photo book from Snapfish. I put this book together all of last year. It is filled with my favorite family pictures and favorite times of 2007. It turned out really great. I don't think I would 100% recommend Snapfish though...the pictures are a little bit blurry. But we still love it! I have decided to do this for every year instead of printing up all of the pictures. I'm no scrap booker, so I love this idea.
Here is one of my favorite pages out of the book.
Last night Rhett presented me with this lovely "Valentime." I love the huge spiral that covers the whole page.

Our Action Packed Day

What did Rhett and I do today without a car?

fingerprints (Rhett loves this after watching us)
glue and glitter
glue fabric scraps while I sewed for a bit...Elmer glue doesn't work too well
made popsicles
watched his Mickey Mouse video...twice (don't ask!)
played with his Marble Run
played pirates and pretended to sleep on the "pirate ship" (our bed)
then played music on our pirate stage...me on the trumpet and Rhett on the guitar
read stories
played Elefun
painted
played with marbles again
played in the sink with water and his toys
took a nap on the "pirate ship" 3 times shorter than usual!
went outside to see if maybe we could walk to Extracto...too wet and rainy (made tea instead)
watched some youtube music videos



Our favorite video of the day. Drums and trumpet with a singing worm...pretty fun.

How, you may ask, can you do all of those things in one day? Well, Rhett spent about an average of 7 minutes on each of these activities (excluding the videos). And all of these things need to be with me...I love playing with him, but how much can one mom take? "I need you mom!" I put a call in to the neighbor girl to baby-sit this afternoon, but I haven't heard from her yet! I'm able to write this post while he is watching youtube by minimizing the screens. Yes! It is only 3:30 and I hope Dan comes home soon, so we can go to Dalo's Kitchen (our favorite Ethiopian food). I need to get out of the house!

We had our fingerprint appointment this week. I emailed the office to find out how long it may take...60-90 days? Are they serious?

One Last Picture of the Birthday Boy!

After dinner last night we too Rhett to Pix Patisserie for birthday dessert. Rhett really wanted ice cream and I'm pretty sure he will be talking about the sparkler in his ice cream for years to come! Dan and I got the dessert called The Queen of Sheba...this just happens to be our favorite thing on the menu! Delicious, melty chocolate, and almond...yum!

I also wanted to share...Ralph has a new friend from Ethiopia!
This baby doll has been adopted by a wonderful family...The Soucys. They are waiting for their referral for a little boy

"Today is February 4th...Your Birthday!"

This is a post in honor of Rhett!!!!!! He is 3 today and I can't believe how time flies! Here is Rhett almost 2 months before his birthday. Yes, I grew even bigger...

Here is our big boy before I met him! The nurses were nice enough to take some pictures. Without telling the whole birth story, I'll just say...the meds didn't work, so they put me to sleep and because I was asleep Dan couldn't be there either. We waited to find out the sex of the baby, so when Dan met Rhett, before me, he told the nurse not to tell him the sex until I woke up. We both had a hunch he would be a boy though...

We couldn't believe how big he was!
Because Rhett was basically born a 2 month old he could hold his head up in the hospital. Here is my favorite baby picture of him when he was really 2 months old.
Here is a picture of our first family adventure. We took Rhett to the east coast when he was 6 months old. We visited New York, Maine, Boston, and Washington D.C. We drove a ton and took Rhett around all hours of the night. We learned that the subway wasn't very stroller friendly, but we figured it out. He was amazing! Here he is in Times Square. I think about how easygoing Rhett is on trips while we start thinking about our next huge family adventure. I have no worries that Rhett will do great in Ethiopia!
Now here is our big boy "helping" me make the cupcakes. He was in charge of the sprinkles!
Without sounding totally cliché...it goes by so fast!

It Was a Party at Mississippi Pizza!

We invited family and a couple friends to join us at Mississippi Pizza for a little birthday celebration for Rhett. It was fun, a little crazy, a little hot, and Mama was a little claustrophobic, but Rhett had fun and that is all that matters! We love Professor Banjo. He is a teacher and plays kids music around town. He is also coming out with a cd this Spring. He is a great performer and soooooooo patient with all the kiddos.

Here are the cupcakes Rhett and I made for the party. They looked a lot cuter than they tasted!

Here is Rhett dancing along to Professor Banjo.

Here is a picture of the party! No, we don't have 500 friends, but it felt like that was how many people were there! Good thing we came really early to stake out our territory. Notice the banner?

Rhett had so much fun playing and dancing with his best friends Jacque and Elliot! We can't wait for "baby" Elliot and Miles to dance with Rhett!

We got lots of grins from this guy! Elliot is not shy of the camera!

Rhett is testing out Professor Banjo's spoons.

Maybe it was a sugar low from the cupcakes, or the really hot room, but I think it was just a case of the "birthday boy" that got Rhett all tuckered out. You parents know what I mean. It is hard work to be the birthday boy.
Thank you Professor Banjo for a great third birthday party!!!!