The Last of 2014

Our 2014 ended wonderfully. Here are a few photos from December:

I laid Teddy down for a nap one day then went to run errands with Nayeli. Ben sent me this picture 15 minutes later with the caption, "He woke up, so we went hiking!" I couldn't help but smile. He'll jump at any chance to take the kids outside. He's awesome.

One Saturday in the month my friend Dennine invited me to go to a glass-fusing class with her in Portland. We were the least artsy-fartsy people there, but we had a great time. We made a platter (left), small bowl (bottom right), 6 necklace pendants (middle top), and I made a Christmas ornament (top right). It was the first thing organized activity I've done on my own in a long time and it was really liberating. I loved it.

Before being put into the kiln

The class was all morning, so Ben took the kids to the Tualatin River bird refuge. They all had a great time, even though they didn't see a ton of birds.

Nayeli has had an obsession with binoculars ever since Ben showed her some. She even has her own play set that she takes on "adventures".

Bird refuge buddies

Teddy's first time sitting in the front of the cart. Nayeli was thrilled, he was... maybe not so thrilled :)

When we set up the Christmas tree, we put it up on a end table so that I wouldn't have Teddy eating all the needles. That didn't stop him one day from finding a low strand of Christmas lights.

 

He was so proud of himself

 

This is about the moment I dropped the camera and intervened

Nayeli and Teddy are finally starting to play together. Sometimes it goes okay, but Teddy is still very little and Nayeli has the patience of a two-year-old. You can see how that might get interesting. Then there are moments like this, when they laugh together as they play. It melts my heart.

As for New Year's, we have learned since we got married that we are not really party people. We like to go to bed at 10pm instead of hitting up a late night get-together.

New Year's Eve

This picture is a perfect representation of a typical night at our home. We clean up dinner, and then play with the kids in the living room. In this case it was airplane in pajama pants. One of my favorites :)