good times

Some Christmas photos. We had a wonderful couple of days. We are blessed and thankful for the abundance in our lives.

Xmas Eve at Deanna's

Yes, Dalia took this photo of my mom and dad

Xmas morning and day. Thom and Steph were there, too and we got some fun photos
of them on Dalia's new camera, but don't have them downloaded. We're lucky they were with us.

after dinner Xmas cookies

Peace and Joy to You

Merry Christmas and best wishes for a peaceful and healthy year ahead. Thanks for keeping up with Dalia's blog and our life. For those of you who are a regular part of it, thanks for making life so great. For those of you far away, know you are always in our hearts.

love, Juli, Mark and Dalia

It's just a couple of days until Christmas. I thought I'd post just to give an update. Dalia got horribly sick last week. Fever, throwing up, the whole thing. It was so sad and hard for all of us. She was a trooper and did her best getting through the tough times. Mom and Dad were troopers getting through the 350 episodes of Calliou we had to watch.

Well, somewhere in there she started to get better and her imagination just took off. She's really starting to pretend a lot and make stuff up. One night, just before dinner, she dragged her chairs over the the coffee table and set up one of her toys. She insisted it was her computer and we couldn't touch it because she had to do work on it. "Only Dalia can touch this," she'd say, similar to when she says, "only Mommy can touch the hot (water faucet)."

She also made the most of some bubble wrap that came with some gifts (she hasn't touched a single one under the tree). After popping all the bubbles, she lay down on Daddy's heating pad (his leg and back are really hurting right now) and wrapped herself up.

And after all that, we managed to make it back to the zoo to see the zoo lights with Gigi. It was blasted cold, ugh, but it was so fun. But, we couldn't stay for the zoo train, which set the ball rolling for a tantrum that lasted the whole walk to the car and all the way home in traffic. She was tired from being so active after so many days sick, cold and frustrated that we couldn't ride the train. I survived feeling like I was letting her down and realize that we have many years ahead to ride the train when it's not so freezing our hands and legs were burning.




We're looking forward to the holidays ahead, mellow, as usual these days, with family and some friends. I think I'm really getting the spirit of giving now that I have a child. It's still like unwrapping a gift every day being with Dalia, even on those challenging days, you know the one's that are like realizing there's tape on each side of the box inside the wrapping paper and getting cardboard paper cuts trying to get them opened without getting up to get the scissors? Usually, though, it's the best gift ever. Here's to an awesome year ahead!

Deck the halls

Okay, well, we don't have any halls in this house, but we did find a rad tree for just $5!!!! Plus, we got to get totally muddy and freezing cold finding it and having it cut down for us. I love Oregon for this. Dalia was thrilled to run away from us and commune with the cows and dogs on the other side of the property fence. Poor Mark. I think he's going to have a heart attack with her independence sometimes. I'm no help, either. I just let her run away and say, casually, "hey, Dalia, come back, where ya goin?" I guess I spend enough time with her to know she won't go far. But, I am the Queen of social loafing when Mark is around. (social loafing is a real psychological term, btw)

So, we got this awesome tree after dropping off Jim at Jim and Sarah's. (An aside: while at lunch with them, Dalia lifted her cup of milk and said, "Cheers, Everybody!" It brought tears to our eyes the rest of the day.)

The tree, btw, was covered in lady bugs, which have the rare effect of freaking out Dalia AND Mark when they get to close to them in the car. heee heee heee.

Dalia loved helping decorate the tree. It's been about a week now and she is thoroughly enjoying unhanging and hanging ornaments again and again. Each morning she wakes up and asks us to "turn on my mismas yights and tree."

We've already spent the past two days baking and are really enjoying the holidays already. We're waiting around to see if there is really going to be an Arctic Blast 2009. We'll see by morning. It's been FFFAAARRREEEZZZING here. So beautiful and sunny, but too cold to go outside.

Anyway, tis the season and all that. I'm so glad Dalia is big enough to really enjoy it all this year. And thanks to Calliou, she's well aware of who Santa is already. I'll leave you with this lovely holiday image. My favorite this year so far.

This is a 40 year old musical angel. It's been my favorite piece of Christmas my whole life. My parents gave it to me a couple of years ago. Sadly, Dalia accidentally broke the head off. She was HORRIFIED. I was not. I quite like Mark's display of this little bit of family history. I'm not sure I want to glue her head back on yet. Ironically, the first ornament I ever got is also a little angel type wooden thingy that Dalia found the other day and quickly and quite by accident decapitated. You should have seen her face, poor girl.

Visit with Uncle Jimmy

As I write this, Dalia is helping Uncle Jimmy and Daddy make pumpkin pancakes. Yum! She's turning into quite the master at cracking eggs. She often doesn't eat the end product, but likes the batter (good think for vegi-free range eggs). We have had such a great visit with Jim. The sky has been crystal clear, but damn cold. FAREEZING! But we have had so much fun. We went to the zoo in the afternoon and stayed until it got dark so we could see the zoo lights. Gigi/Pops, we have to do this like next week! The afternoon, btw, is a great time to see the animals really active. We can't believe what kind of action we got from the lions and cheetahs. It's exhilarating to be so close to those animals. We also saw Samudra, the baby elephant, nursing from his mommy and eating grass.



what trip outside would be complete without Dalia laying down on the ground to look up at the sky?

Oh, and here she is reading "this map."






Yesterday we attempted Larch Mountain. We didn't even consider that it would be closed due to snow. Duh! So we headed to the Sandy river where we lasted about two minutes. The wind whipping down the river must have made it 20 degrees. But so beautiful!







We've also had fires two nights in a row. Jim has just loved polluting our air and we're so glad he was here to motivate us to start the holiday season right. Would have loved to see Ali, of course.


Today we are off to Dundee to drop Jim off at some friend's house and then get a tree on our way home.

Tis the season.

Morning with Amelia

We love this little lady so much! And her Mama and little brother, too. Really, my photography is going to pot these days, these photos are terrible, but it's too fun to hang out with these folks without documenting the silly stuff we get to watch the girls do together.

Out on the town

It was a beautiful weekend after such a rainy and cold Turkey Day. Mark and I decided to take Dalia downtown to see the tree in Pioneer Square and walk around. We never ever go downtown. It was so fun to just be down there with her. We had hoped to stop into Pete's to get a coffee, but due to the odd Ecoli outbreak in the Westside water, they weren't serving espresso or drip coffee!!! So, we walked to the waterfront to look at the river and then hit the Eastside to visit Dean the fish. Oh, and Thom and Steph. Dalia calls Noun "Thom's house" or where "Dean and the cupcakes are."