The "catch up" post

So where have the mahoney's been the last three months, you might be wondering... or maybe not because you all gave up checking here for new posts a long time ago! I'll admit it, I have been wooed by Facebook. I swore I'd never sign up, thinking to myself, I barely have enough time to keep up with the friends that live in the same city, let alone people I haven't seen in fifteen years! I took the liberty to mock Patrick when he joined, and dragged my feet for a few more months. Finally, I drank the Kool-aid and signed up. I'm hooked. I find it so much easier to update than the blog, and I feel like when I write, I'm actually talking to people instead of just posting and wondering if anybody reads.

I've decided, though, that I should still continue to write on the blog. If you are hoping for lots of photos, please join/find me on facebook, as that's where I'll be putting most of the pictures. As for writing about what's going on in our lives, I'll try to do that primarily here—it imports into facebook anyway :) And I'm hoping that it will become a little more consistent, since getting the photos uploaded was the primary reason I procrastinated putting anything up.

Sorry for the long explanation! I'll try to keep the re-cap brief.

So far, we have had a really wonderful fall and winter. Patrick had nearly three weeks off at Christmas and we had about a foot of snow. We finally broke down and bought snow pants, thick gloves, boots, and a sled for the kids, which has always seemed like silly things to have in Seattle since it usually snows about two inches a year, but I'm so glad that we did.

Alden and Patrick spent nearly an hour everyday sledding down a little hill near our house. Tula went a few times too, and she thought it was great until she flipped out of the sled on her last run and landed with her face in the snow. After a quick recovery, she was ready to play some more. We were all throwing snow and Patrick threw a large and well-packed snowball at me. Naturally, I darted out of the trajectory not realize that little Tula was standing behind me. She took it right in the face. That was the end of playing in snow for Tula! Finally after 6 straight days of sledding Alden said, "I'm tired of being cold, let's sled again next year." And that was the end of playing in the snow for Alden.

Patrick used some of the time he had off to take each of us out on a date, well in Alden's case, they called it a Daddy "Day." They went to a fun indoor race track where they have a kid's course with battery powered cars. Alden was the only kid there and Patrick payed for two 6-minute races for him. He went around the track for about four minutes, stopped in the middle of the course, and got out. He'd had enough and was ready to go. I suppose it's not as fun when there is nobody to race against. Thankfully, the owners were kind enough to refund the second race. After that it was on to the candy store. Alden came home with a huge bag of goodies and even a few treats for Tula and me.

Tula's date was to the zoomazium at Woodland Park Zoo, which is one of her favorite places. After that, they went for burgers and fries—another favorite—and to the toy store where Tula picked out a big bouncy ball. Our little girl loves action!! Now that she is [finally] walking, she spends most of her day dancing, chasing balls, running from Alden, and climbing things. It was a perfect day for her.

For my date with my wonderful husband, we went to dinner and to U-Village to go shopping. I love that Patrick likes to shop, too. I picked out a few things at Anthropologie and H&M, then we headed to Saltoro's on Greenwood—a little unassuming neighborhood place that has really great food and a nice atmosphere. We love their Truffle Fries, which are really thin, crispy fries, coated in truffle oil and parmesan cheese... mmmm.

After a great "staycation" we are back into the swing of things. Alden is back in preschool two days a week, and Patrick has been working like crazy. His department has been doing a lot of filming lately, so I'll try to put up some links to the stuff they've created.

Tula is growing so fast. She just had her 18-month check-up today and is in the 90% for height. I'm not sure where she's getting that from. Maybe she's just trying to catch up with Alden so she can defend herself a little better :) She had two shots and she didn't cry at all! She's a tough little girl.

I've been spending most of my time just trying to keep things running smoothly. It's amazing how much laundry and dishes four people can generate. I'm the planner, organizer, cleaner, book-reader, snuggler, nose-wiper, errand-runner, and cook. All of which keep me pretty busy.