"Squeak!"

Our little ballerina made her Nutcracker debut this year as an adorable mouse.  It seems like just yesterday that she was attending the nutcracker, full of questions and awe (see the post from 2008
The Nutcracker ) This past weekend she squeaked and danced in two performances at the Mt Baker Theater.

 Celebrating @ Pure Bliss

In other December activities; Ella's kindergarten class went on a field trip to the local ice skating rink.  I had to wake Bini early from his nap, but I couldn't miss seeing Ella on skates for the very first time.  Love this girls gusto for trying new activities.

 Lots of baking for this princess, and lots of asking for chocolate and cookies from the little man. (And he asks so sweetly! "'cuse me mama, please chocolate" and  "tank you mama, tank you, welcome")

 And December 23rd consisted of waking @ 8:30, (LOVE my kids!) making hats out of napkins before breakfast.

 Long bath and then cuddling in warm blankets

 coloring together then more cookie baking while Bini napped.

  again, why do we bother with toys? Here's some good, classic, box fun.

 reading together (then a playdate)

  more box fun.

 and delivering cookies to the neighbors

Kenya

Greg spent the first 3 weeks of November in Kenya serving at Tenwek Hospital. Although he did take pictures @ the hospital, they are mostly medical and just not pretty. Above are a few of the photos he took durning his last two days in the country when he was able to go on Safari.

Why?

Sometime I wonder why we bother with toys, all the kids want are blankets and couch cushions!

Rockin' the good health

Ella ready for a daddy-daughter date

9 months since chemo ended and this girl is a superstar of health! This week we went to Children's for them to check her out and gratefully we were told that there is no evidence of disease, she looks great.  Of course they didn't tell us that until 2 hours after they'd taken 3 extra x-rays and left us wondering what they'd seen.  The other scare we had related to her health happened in September I brought her to her regular dr's to catch up on immunizations and mentioned that she'd been complaining of right leg pain.  After the dr checked Ella's leg she spoke to me in that too calm voice and told me it wasn't Ella's leg, it was her hip and that they would get an x-ray and I should probably also talk to her oncologist.  I spent about 2 hrs with my stomach in knots thinking we could be right back in this again but this time in her bone? We waited for the x-ray results and thankfully it showed nothing abnormal.  Two days later Ella couldn't put any pressure on her right leg so I talked with the oncologist.  I was to keep an eye on her and if it didn't go away or got worse in a week they'd do an MRI.  Praise God it completely resolved in a few days.  Tis' our life for the next 4yrs 3 months,  going along just fine and then some odd symptom makes us wonder if we're back "in a ding" (Ella's phrase for going through something unpleasant-like chemo)
Otherwise Ella has been doing great.  She's only had one runny nose this fall, which is amazing testament to her strong immune system!

Fall in Bellingham

This fall Greg and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary, which unfortunately also is the anniversary of day we found out Ella had cancer. Many events this fall had me reflecting on where we were a year ago, in what felt like a parallel universe, how a grocery clerks question of "how are you" would leave me dumbfounded as I'd hear myself mumble "fine" and think "I am so not fine, my 4 year old has cancer, but I'm not bad because I am acutely aware of how much worse it could be!" One of toughest days for me last fall was my birthday. I remember Ella singing and dancing and I was on the verge of tears wondering if she'd be around to celebrate another birthday.  Praise God she is here! She is vibrant! To quote Piper "Life is hard AND God is good!"

Ella loves to read and to cook, here she is reading a cook book for dog biscuits, her specialty.

Durning the fall in the PNW we take advantage of every sunny day by getting outside, knowing it may be the last day of sun we'll see for a very long time!  Then once those gray, rainy days do arrive we welcome them,  glad for the excuse to stay in, cuddle up and read books.

It's so fun as Bini gets older to see him and Ella play together.

Ella, her pumpkin, and our friends Erin and Johannes (who welcomed a little pumpkin of their own this month,  Welcome to the world little Evy!)

we've got to get this kid a trombone!

I need to comment on Bini's outfit for a moment, because just seeing it makes me smile.  You can't tell from the pictures but Bini's pants are green and red plaid and his shirt is obviously blue plaid.  Greg got him dressed in the morning and when I first saw him I commented on outfit.  Greg's response "What? These are my favorite pants and this is my favorite shirt so how could they not go together?"  How could I fight with such logic?

Bini loves chickens!

Lost in the cornmaze

Bini will lead the way

 Halloween 2010

We went trick or treating Sat. and Sun nights in different areas of town where throngs of kids gather and shopkeepers give out candy.  It's fun seeing so many children in costumes and running into friends.  One of my favorite moments was when Bini saw a boy dressed as Tigger and began running across the village green yelling "Tigger, Tigger!" the two ended up playing together.

Just for fun, our kids like to pretend they're dogs.