Duncans Descend!

My sister Julie, her husband Dave, and their little girl Natalie flew from Rochester, New York to visit for Christmas. We had such a fun time with them, here's a few pictures:

We went out to lunch with Grandma and Grandpa Kane at the very cute and cozy Issaquah Cafe. Hannah had chocolate chip pancakes for lunch and thought it was the best meal EVER.

The next day, we went downtown and ate dinner at Westlake Center.

After dinner, we rode the Westlake Holiday Carousel. The girls LOVE doing this every year, and it was even more fun with more family.




Dave and Julie held Natalie on her pony so she could experience her first holiday carousel.

Westlake Center with the tree all lit up.

After the carousel, we walked to the Sheraton hotel to see the Gingerbread "house" display. These amazing confection creations are put together by local architecture firms. I'd wanted to see this for a few years, so it was fun to finally get there.

Circus peanuts are one of those things: you either love them or hate them. Dave LOVES them.

While we waited for Ryan and Dave to get the car, Natalie crawled around on the Sheraton's shiny lobby floor. Hannah and Emma decided to follow her around.

More Duncan adventures to come!

Emma's 3rd Birthday Party

Kudos to those of you who kept your blogs up to date during December. I barely checked my email, let alone updated the blog. So, here's what we did during December, starting with...

Emma's Birthday!

Per Emma's request, I made a Dora cake. It was an adventure. I'll leave it at that. Emma loved her cake which made it all worthwhile.

Here she's blowing out her candles. (Thanks to my Mom for taking some of these shots.)

Opening gifts from faraway family was very exciting. Especially when they put Star Wars stickers on their cards. The girls love Star Wars. Yes, this is Ryan's influence.

By the time her guests were leaving, Emma had collapsed in a tired heap on the floor. Birthdays are so tiring!

A few days later, on her actual birthday, we gave Emma our presents and, much to her delight...

she got a flute! Still don't know why she wanted one so much, but she loves it. (Thank you Dollartree!)

Blowing out birthday candles is too fun to do only once. We sang again and enjoyed ice cream.

Happy birthday Emma! Our "baby" no longer. (Oh, man - there's no crying in blogging!)

Chicken Dancing

Grandma Carlson captured this Chicken Dance on her camera. If you look carefully, you can see the yellow chicken on the floor. He's providing the music the girls are dancing to.

We've Been Elfed

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1172216341

Thanks Staci and Greg!

Let it Snow

We don't get a lot of snow in almost sea level Seattle, so when we get even a dusting we make big deal of it. Yesterday we got our dusting, so the girls had a snowball fight and built a snowman.



Emma's holding a snowball, probably one that Ryan threw at her that bounced off her heavily-padded body and she picked up to throw back at him. Hannah is holding an "iceberg." This is a boot print that compacted into ice. Hannah called them icebergs.

Snow is SOOO EXCITING!!!

Hard at work constructing a snowman.

Here's our Frosty. He lasted a few hours and then fell over. We told the girls he was sleeping. Our snow's gone now, but it sure was pretty and fun while it lasted!

A Self-Directed Learner

On Friday, Hannah was honored as a Student of the Month. Her teacher nominated her as a Self-Directed Learner.

Emma and I were able to come eat lunch with Hannah and watch her get her certificate from her principal, Mr. Terry. Emma was so excited she couldn't eat a bite of lunch. We all got to sit at a special table in the lunchroom with fun decorations. Hannah got her picture up on the screen in the lunchroom (sorry for the poor picture).

She got to wear a special badge with a purple ribbon attached.

Emma was sad to say bye to Hannah when lunch was over and it was time for recess. Emma tried to chase after Hannah to go play, but I redirected her in the direction of the parking lot. Once we were in the car driving home, Emma was able to calm down enough to eat her lunch.

Hannah was very proud of her award. The other night, when I was putting her to bed, I told her how proud I was of her. "You're such a smart girl, a good big sister, and so kind," I told her. She nodded her head and said, "And self-directed?"

While Mom & Dad Are Away...

Hannah and Emma stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Carlson while Ryan and I went to Utah. Here's some highlights from their visit:

Auntie Ann took them to see "Mr. Popper's Penguins" at the Children's Theater near Ann's school. The girls loved the play and are now enamored with all things penguin. They still walk around and "talk" like penguins. I didn't know penguins talked.

Grandma Carlson took the girls to visit Brother Call's farm. They were amazed at ALL the pumpkins and varieties of squash. Brother Call sent them home with a trunk load of squash.

The girls always love to color.

Grandma's backyard is inhabited by a number of well-fed squirrels. The girls threw peanuts out on the back porch, then watched at the window as the squirrels collected and burried their peanuts.

Dental Drudgery? Not for these girls.

Who says visiting the dentist isn't fun? Ok, I do, but only when I'm the one sitting in the chair. My girls seem to love their dental appointments. I think we have flouridated water and tooth paste to thank for that. NO CAVATIES! I always take pictures when the girls are getting their teeth cleaned because I think it's so cute. They're quite brave and cooperative with the hygenists and the dentist. Emma wasn't always so fond of their dentist. The first time she saw him, knowing he was coming to visit her teeth after Hannah's, she leaned in to me and said, "I don't like him." Thankfully, they have a very gentle and kind dentist who knows that Sleeping Beauty is also known as Aurora. This knowledge made him instantly acceptable in Emma's eyes. Here's pictures from last week's visit.





Safety sunglasses in place, Emma's ready to "ride" the chair up and back. Six months ago, she refused to be reclined in the seat. The seat went back, but Emma stayed rigidly upright. They also tried to raise the chair up, but she about jumped off, so they let that go too. This visit she was very brave. No chair or mouth instrument issues. She even allowed them to take X-rays. When they told me they were going to attempt this, I laughed and wished them good luck. But Emma watched Hannah have "mouth pictures" taken and decided that was OK for her too. She looked a little nervous in the X-ray room all by herself with the heavy cover on and the camera wedged under her jaw, but she did it. Whew!




Here's brave big sister Hannah, in the seat next to Emma for her cleaning. Thank goodness for big sisters who experience things first so little sisters can watch and want to follow their example.


Emma "kissing" the suction tube thingy to get the rinse water out of her mouth. She liked that thing so much the hygenist had to ask her to "open" over and over. She just didn't want to let go.


Hannah, during cleaning.


I just had to snap this picture of Emma. She's so small in the seat! And you should know that this is a pediatric dentist's office so the chairs are small to begin with! Her feet don't even come to the chair's knee bend area.

After the dentist's final inspection, the girls got their new toothbrushes, "good patient" princess stickers, and a small toy for good behavior. No wonder they love the dentist - look at all the great loot they get!

Provo: Food, Football, Fun

Ryan and I visited Provo this weekend and had a wonderful time. The girls stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Carlson and also had a wonderful time. We'll see if we can get some pictures of their weekend on here in a future post. In the meantime, here's some highlights from our Utah getaway.

I'll start this posting with a confession: Before this trip, Ryan and I had never eaten at Cafe Rio. Yes, that's right. Shocking, I know. Honestly, we're not sure if Cafe Rio existed when we were at BYU. Furthermore, when we were in college, we were financially strapped and rarely ate out. If we did eat out, we went to Los Hermanos wearing our "free drink" T-shirts. We loved Los Hermanos and, most of all, our free Brisa de Mora Negras. So it was only under intense peer pressure that we stopped in at Cafe Rio in Provo. We waited in a line that went out the restaurant's door and asked the guy in front of us what we should order. He said he'd been to Cafe Rio "over 100 times" and gave us some good suggestions. In the end, we were very impressed with our dinners (Ryan: steak enchilada, Laura: Pork Barbacoa Salad). The food was super flavorful and SO fresh.

The next night, we went to our old favorite: Los Hermanos. Both of us packed our old Los Hermanos "free drink" T-shirts in our suitcases, but not wanting to look like old school fools, we called Los Hermanos before we donned our shirts. Ryan's phone conversation with the girl at Los Hermanos went like this:

Ryan: Hi, do you still honor the "free drink" Los Hermanos T-shirts?
(Pause)
Girl: Do you mean the "eternal coupon?" [I can't even type it without laughing.]
Ryan: Uh, yes, I guess so.
Girl: Yes we do!

Ryan and I laughed for a good while after that. Only in Provo would it be called "the eternal coupon." So, we went to Los Hermanos and enjoyed our free Brisas and dinner. It was only after finishing and seriously contemplating our dinners that we reluctantly decided that .... we liked Cafe Rio better. I feel bad saying it, like I'm letting down an old, faithful friend. But, we couldn't deny that Cafe Rio was much more flavorful and fresh. Nevertheless, when we want a free drink, we know where we'll be going... eternally.

We did do more than eat, I promise. Below, we're at the BYU football game. It was so beautiful and HOT! We had to go back to our hotel at halftime to change into cooler clothes.

Here's a shout out to my sister Julie, former BYU band member and horn player. Horns Rule!


After the game, we went to Brick Oven. Does Cosmo the Cougar always go to Brick Oven after football games? We seemed to be the only people surprised to see him. In our college days we weren't post game Brick Oven regulars. We probably went home after games and ate Hamburger Helper. We took advantage of our Cosmo celebrity sighting and took this picture.

We spent a lot of our time walking around campus. We visited the new JFSB for the first time. It replaced the SFLC building from our college days. I won't say what everyone REALLY called that building. Those of you who were there already know. It would be hard to call the new JFSB any gross name. It was so beautiful, well planned, and spacious. We also walked through the buildings we once worked in. My JSB was exactly the same as far as I could tell. Ryan's Testing Center was mostly the same with some technological updates. We like the huge flat screen that told which tests were being offered, what late fees were being charged, and what the average testing time was for each test. "Yes, I love technology." We tried three times to visit the new Hinckley Visitor's Center. Unfortunately, we kept getting there after hours. Regardless, we were very impressed with the exterior alone.

We walked through Helaman Halls and my old dorm. We took the following picture standing in front of my dorm window. What a great view I had! The mountains, the Y , the Cannon Center, the grassy meadow (NCMO Meadow? After dark it was anyway.) And now, the Hinckley Building is in view too. I was interested to discover a new Cannon Center being built behind the old one. That probably explains why the old Cannon Center hasn't changed at all since I was a freshman.

We spent a little bit of time in Salt Lake visiting Temple Square. We saw the newly refurbished Tabernacle and listened to the "acoustical demonstration" there. I'd never heard this done before and was most impressed by the pin drop from the podium. We heard it perfectly from our seats in the far back. Back at our car, we discovered someone had left a pass along card under our windshield wiper. This was amusing, but made even better because this well-intentioned person had stamped "I Love You" across the picture of Christ on the card.

Overall, we had a great weekend. We love BYU and love any time we get to spend there.