The day after the big dentist appointment, I headed to the airport and hopped a flight to Seattle! :) I left around 5 pm Friday night, so I didn't arrive in Seattle until almost 3 am East Coast time.

Kathy was there and picked me up, and then Saturday morning we got up and headed to Portland, Oregon for the night. Neither of us had been before so we were excited to experience a new city. Our main goal was to hit up some of the breweries in the area!

We checked into our hotel, and the girl working the desk hooked us up with free valet parking, which was a $31 savings. That was so nice of her! We headed out to explore and get some lunch, and start our beer sampling.

We went to Deschutes for lunch and got our first flight of Portland beer. Then we headed to a few more places and found ourselves in bed by 10 pm. :)

Sunday we got up, enjoyed a buffet breakfast and headed out to see a couple of the big tourist spots. First was the HUGE bookstore, Powell's. They had a huge selection of both new and used books and I got several for Addison and Fischer. We love books around here!

Next we headed to Voodoo Doughnuts, where we waited in line for about 30 minutes to get our doughnuts. We got 4 and decided to eat them later that night.  They were delicious! :)

We then headed back to Seattle to visit my friend, Mary Anne and her family! I was so excited - we were best friends in high school, roommates in college, so we go way back. We don't get to see each other much so it was fun to just hang out and visit with her kids and meet her new baby!

We got to have a girls night and enjoy some yummy Mexican food, and then headed home and chatted before going to bed. Monday morning we got to go to breakfast and then Kathy and I headed to the airport. I left Seattle around 11 and arrived home around 1 am. It was a tiring weekend but so worth it and very fun.

Scott and the kids had a lot of fun of their own back home, and I'm very thankful that it's not an issue for him for me to take a weekend for myself every now and then! He requested that we go to the Rogue Brewery, so we were sure to do that, and I brought him back a glass from there. :)

On Thursday, January 24 we took the kids to their dentist appointment! Scott was able to go with us but I think it would have been just fine with just me. The kids did great!

Before going, Addison and Fischer discussed it and decided that Addison would go back first! They stuck to their plan, so she and I went back first. Their dentist's office has a sign up that says parents should wait in the waiting room, but we politely ignore that sign. :)

Addison was a little nervous about the "big girl toothbrush" (the brush that spins) but we were able to coax her through the whole thing. And she LOVED getting water out of the straw and then sucking it out with the other straw, so there was a lot of that going on. After the brushing, the hygienist flossed her teeth and then used the tool that looks like a hook (we now call it the Captain Hook tool) to count her teeth and she was also able to quickly scrape out a little something that was stuck in her teeth. She did have a little gagging episode when the hygienist was working in the back of her mouth, but luckily there was no throw up like last time.

After that she was done until the Dentist came in! So I went and got Fischer and Scott. Addison was supportive of Fischer and said "You'll be fine, Buddy" as he sat down in the chair. He made himself comfortable right away by putting his hands behind his head and crossing his legs. It was so funny.

He handled the "big boy toothbrush" much better and it was over very quickly. His teeth were also flossed and counted, and then we waited on the Dentist to come in. The kids were very into the movie that was playing so they were fine with the waiting.

She looked at their teeth, counted them again, asked a couple of questions and that was it.  On the way out they got a quick paste on their teeth before heading to the toy machine with their special tokens. Addison got a ring and Fischer got a stick-on mustache! :)

Overall it was a success and I was happy that everything looked great. They go back in 6 months and they might attempt x-rays that time. That could be interesting!!

Recently, when we were in the car, I looked back to see this...

It was during nap time so we thought Fischer was asleep. About a minute later he started chattering away - those glasses are a good cover up. :)

Uncle Chris and Aunt Jamie sent robes to Addison and Fischer for Christmas. I almost bought them robes so I'm glad I didn't!

Addison was wearing hers without any clothes on under it the other night (she thinks that wearing it over pajamas is silly). Scott and I had a good time pretending she was a boxer - we have to amuse ourselves sometimes. :)

We kept calling her Raquel Balboa and telling her to make her "mean" face. She looks very mean, I know!

I can't believe January is more than half over - and I just can't seem to keep up on here! Today is January 22, which means Addison and Fischer will be FOUR a month from today. Crazy!!!

So far in January, we've been staying pretty busy. 

We have had some awesome weather this month (I like the cold but the warmer weather is great for spending a lot of time outside with energetic little ones). 

We even got to take the boat out a couple of weekends ago! Lucy got to go too, and we all had a great time cruising around and enjoying some snacks.

We've also had a good amount of rain. While stuck inside, we decided to melt some old crayons since Addison got a brand new box for Christmas. I thought peeling them would be a good activity for the kids but it turns out they weren't able to do it very well so I spent quite a bit of time peeling crayons.

Addison also drew us a whale.. I think it's pretty good!

One day, when it finally stopped raining, Scott had the kids outside doing some work - earning their keep. :) Scott is working on a BBQ pit so the kids have been helping him along the way.

We've also made two trips to Gma and Gpa Suttle's lake condo. They weren't there when we went a couple of weeks ago, but they were there this past weekend. Both times we grilled out and the kids had a good time running around the grassy area out back.

So that's our January so far! 

We had a lot of fun at our New Years Eve dinner last year, so we decided to do it again this year! We met up with some of our friends that also have kids at a Japanese steakhouse.

Dinner was great, as usual! Unfortunately, Fischer wasn't feeling so great (he was on the tail end of the cold that both kids had) so he didn't enjoy his food as much as he usually does.

Afterwards, we went out into the parking lot and the kids did some sparklers and had fun with their noisemakers.

It was impossible to get a good group shot, but that's what happens when you put 4 3 year olds together!

We came home, waited on the nice people to come pick up Katie, the kids played many rounds of Pop the Pig, and then they went to bed.  Scott and I stayed up until midnight and we recorded the ball dropping and recreated it the next morning for the kids. :) We also recorded the Taylor Swift performance because they both love her!

2012 was a good year and we are looking forward to our adventures in 2013! :)

 We had a great time visiting with Scott's sister's family.

Addison and Fischer had the best time playing with their cousins, and it was so nice that they actually got to stay for a few days so the kids really had a chance to hang out and play together.

We did something everyday, so we definitely stayed busy.

They arrived on Thursday, December 27. We hung out at home that night. Bedtime was a little interesting that night because Addison and Fischer were so excited but also overly tired. Fischer kept coming out of his room and refusing to go to sleep even though he was beyond tired.

Eventually, Griffin ended up laying in bed with him and he finally fell asleep. We found out the next morning that Fischer woke up and had to potty, so Griffin helped him and helped him into a pair of underwear rather than another pull up. Then, apparently, Fischer pottied again and got his sheets all wet, so Griffin tucked him back into bed (on the dry side) after changing him into dry pajamas. All of this happened and we had no idea, even though we had our monitor on! We were sure to thank Griffin for allowing us to get some extra sleep that night. :)

Friday morning we all headed to Monkey Joe's. The kids had a great time and ran off A LOT of energy. They also played some video games and won tons of tickets - Griffin even won 500 tickets on one of the games. Needless to say, they came home with all sorts of little "treasures" from the prize counter.

After MJ's we went to one of our favorite spots for lunch, Miyo's. Afterwards we headed home and just hung out and played that afternoon.

Saturday we went to a local puppet theater and saw their production of Hansel and Gretel. It was cool, and the perfect length at 45 minutes. After that we drove around USC's campus and got out and walked around the Horseshoe a little bit. Then we went and enjoyed lunch at Whole Foods.

Sunday we headed out to the zoo. It was a chilly day to be there but the animals were pretty active since it wasn't too hot. We were there for about 4 hours, which is the longest we've stayed in a long time. It was great! Griffin, Ashlyn and Cohen had a front row seat for the gorilla feeding!

While we were at home the kids stayed very busy... they played outside together with their new soccer balls from Aunt Julie and Uncle Brian (who is a college soccer coach). They rode bikes,  had a dance party, played games, read books and much, much more. Cohen and Fischer even put together a little sock puppet show for us. So cute. :)

We had a great visit and are hoping to do that again soon!