Madison Belle

Here's the newest addition to the family! My sister Amy welcomed this beautiful little girl to the world on Feb.9th. Her name is Madison Belle. Amy had a very rough delivery and was induced 3 weeks early due to high blood pressure. Madison took her sweet time to make her appearance, they started a pitocin drip on Friday afternoon & she wasn't born until Sunday morning! She was admitted to the NICU all week and Amy was finally able to take her home on Friday the 14th.

She has been diagnosed as having Cytomegalovirus which at this point appears benign, but they will be meeting with a Specialist at Doernbecher's next week to find out for sure. She appears very healthy and is a pretty happy little girl!

Kaden is so excited to have a little girl cousin, he talks about her all the time!

She looks so much like her Daddy in this picture.

Her arrival took much longer than we had anticipated so we ended up spending an unexpected night up in Vancouver waiting by the phone. Here is Kaden in mommy-improvised jammies!

Seattle with Santa

CATCHING UP

(What we were up to in December)

Kaden & I spent another fun weekend up in Seattle. This time it was for my little cousin Erica's 6th birthday party. The party was a breakfast with Santa at the Marriott. Santa even brought his reindeer for the kids to check out. Very cool!

Erica, the birthday girl (with the pink crown) & her friend Lola getting their balloon animals.

A balloon elf hat!

My aunt Anita, Erica & her friend Ethan. Kaden thinks that Ethan is his coolest friend!

My cousins Anna & Alexis & another friend.
We braved the snowy weather & made it out to Redmond Lights that evening. It is a really fun walk along the river with music & goodies along the way. It ends up at Redmond Center, a fancy outdoor shopping area, all the resturants offer samples out in the courtyard areas, so yummy! Although the weather cooperated that evening it had been snowing all day & alot of the booths & musicians pulled out. We really missed the live nativity with a complete petting zoo this year.


As it warmed up we started to shed some of our layers.
Face painting at Starbucks.




Playing with the Red Robin mascot.

We always have so much fun up there!

So much Snow!

Right after Christmas we went sledding up on Santiam Pass.

Kaden & Brad

Brad told him to just roll down the embankment to keep him from sinking into the snow everytime he tried to walk where it was really deep.

I guess it doesn't taste so great.

The girls made a cool snow cave.
Roar! Snow cave monster!
Even snow monsters need to rest.
Funny Erica.

WInter Pineapple Classic, Seattle

MORE CATCHING UP

Everytime we get Kaden together with my cousins things like this happen! The girls love to treat him like a lifesize doll to dress up, and he loves it! He reminds me of a little cartoon character, but I can't figure out who...any ideas?

Kaden with Alexis.

Kaden with Anna.

Butterfly Geisha princess, how pretty!

He has stunned himself.

The reason we were in Seattle was to participate in the Seattle Winter Pineapple Classic. It's a 5k run done in Amazing Race style where there are unknown obstacles along the way. Brad teamed up with my aunt Anita. My aunt Mary teamed up with my cousin Chelsea.

Anita being silly.

Brad pre-race.
They also were required (as a team) to carry a pineapple the entire route.
Mid-race. (Guess Seattle is still full of "hair-band"guys!)
Rock wall obstacle.


Mary & Chelsea pre-race.
Mary & Chelsea mid-race.
Chelsea rolling under the army crawl obstacle.
They all did great! Brad & Anita took 3rd out of 75 among the 2-person coed teams, & Mary & Chelsea took 2nd out of 55 among the 2-person female teams!

http://www.komotv.com/home/video/10997571.html?video=pop&t=a

Here's a video link to the news story on it, you can catch a quick glimpse of Chelsea & a great shot of Mary coming out of the swinging punching bag obstacle.

July Road Trip- Glacier National Park, Montana - Continental Divide

Here we are on the road to our family reunion in Havre, Montana. We drove through Glacier National Park with my Aunt Anita and cousins.

Left to Right: Anna, Alexis, Brad, Heather, Kaden, Erica (Missing: Anita)

Continental Divide : Point at which water falling on one side goes to one ocean and water falling on the other side goes to another ocean.



Top of the "Going to the Sun Road"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier_National_Park_%28U.S.%29