2012 begins

I should say that 2012 has begun! It’s nearly mid-January, and I have so many words in my mind… it’s been a wild ride just to break through to this new year, and I’m looking forward to things to come. In the meantime, I’ll cheat and give you some joyous highlights from the holiday season.

The day after Thanksgiving, the Kaisers ventured to Bellevue Square Mall in order to take pictures with Santa. Thanks to Susie, we’ve done this for as long as I’ve been associated with the Kaisers. This year was especially sweet, because both Hazel and Eli are at an age where they can interact with Santa. As we waited in line, the Kaisers enjoyed each others’ company. (Please forgive the repeat of some pictures, but they’re just too great not to share.)

A glimpse of Santa's workshop

Heralding Hazel and all her candy cane assessories

Eli wonders what all the fuss is all about... he'll find out soon enough

OK, I said “sweet” but maybe I should have said “hilarious.” For the second year in a row, we set the two cousins by Santa, and for the second year in a row they HATED the entire experience. Hazel definitely leads the charge on loathing Santa. See how Hazel’s disdain for Santa has grown from one year to the next? Side-by-side here are 2010 versus 2011.

Her loathing only increases with time.

Fast forward to actual Christmas when we opened presents with Eli on the morning of Christmas Eve. Eli was a little hesitant about ripping off the wrapping paper, but I think he liked the end result.

Mom! Check out my new toy!

Eli and his dad figure out the "microwave" features

And his favorite present by far was his new microwave. He found multiple uses for it… drum set, weights for strength training, and the actual microwave features. (Anything food-related makes this kid happy.)

We reseted up after opening a few more presents, and made our with to Keith and Susie’s house for more Christmas Eve fun. The plan was to celebrate Brian’s birthday, enjoy a light buffet, open more presents and head to church. We made it through all but the last activity.

Now that I look back on it, there’s no wonder Eli put his head down at 6:30 that night completely ready for bed. After starting his day with waffles and presents, and ending with Kaiser family Christmas chaos, I should have seen an early bedtime coming. But I didn’t.

Let the box races BEGIN!

Wheee!!!

We spent Christmas Day with my folks, Eli’s Gung Gung and PoPo as well as his Uncle Josh. It was small, intimate, and lovely. The best part was that we still had some time in the latter evening just for us.

Our New Year’s holiday, errr,  pre-New Year’s since it was the day before NYE, was spent in Lake Joy with Mike, Shannon, and Alison Swift, and Shannon’s folks, Neil and Mary Lou. SO relaxing, and we absolutely adore the Swifts. Going to Lake Joy has always been a bit of a time warp, and this visit was no different. We had a great dinner on Friday night, enjoyed a NYE brunch on Saturday morning, and a lovely crisp walk around the lake. We ended our visit by heading to Woodinville for some wine tasting. Eli and Ali especially had fun, getting all the adults in the room to adore them.

And finally, as a parting note, a picture of “Outlaw,” Eli’s little brother. Outlaw grows, as my belly grows, and I hope he’ll be as sweet and wonderful as his brother!

"Outlaw"

A full November

We’re busy bees here in Kaiser-land, and I just wanted to point to Hazel’s blog. It’s got some great pics of our recent ski adventure with the kiddos. I’ll post our own pics from November soon! In the meantime, enjoy!
(The look on Eli’s face as he looks up to Hazel is PRICELESS.)

The stair master and other P-town activities

Cousin Hazel lives in a three-story town home. That means there are a LOT of stairs. On a recent visit, Eli became a stair master. You’ll see what I mean…

Eli loves spending time in Portland with his cousin, his aunt, and his uncle. Hazel gets a little jealous sometimes, because we all know that she’s a pink princess and therefore deserving of all the attention. I think she might have gotten upset after her mom pushed Eli on the swing instead of her. Eli didn’t seem to notice or care… he was having too much fun!

Why is the pain and suffering of toddlers so funny sometimes?

If the first video hasn’t already convinced you, Eli’s becoming quite the mover and the shaker. He crawls and walks ALL around. I mean ALL AROUND. The playground bark makes it pretty easy to track him…

Hazel then, Eli now – comparing the cousins

This morning, my picture feed popped up an awesome fall photo of Hazel back in 2009. She was walking, albeit unsteadily, and the fall colors were absolutely gorgeous. It made me smile, because Eli’s at a very similar stage right now.

I thought you might enjoy this as much as I did. As a point of comparison, here’s Eli and Nathan, walking to school:

Soon, we’ll post some video from the past two glorious fall weekends: During first couple of days of October, Eli and Nathan spent some time with the Barkers in Portland. The next weekend, we Kaisers took a field trip up to Whistler. Pictures and video of both weekends are precious. Here’s a preview:

Eli at the Whistler playground.

Eli’s arrival – from Hazel’s perspective

Eli’s cousin Hazel has some perspective on Eli’s arrival. She was around the day before Aunt Marissa went into labor and showed her aunts and uncles how to play in the playground, she splashed in the water with Aunt Marissa at Greenlake the day that Marissa went into labor, and she decorated Aunt Marissa and Uncle Nate’s new walkway with sidewalk chalk.

When Eli finally arrived, Hazel wasn’t too sure about this competition for the Kaiser family’s attention. Check out her perspective on Eli’s birth here. By the way, CUTE ALERT!!!

Hazel eyes Uncle Nate and Eli

Hazel, her tater tots, and Uncle Nate

After our Mt. Hood Ski day (which happened to be our last day of the season… glad it was EPIC!), we stopped at the lodge to have a bite. Hazel had a few more bites than the rest of us.

And after she ate, we all had fun watching Hazel imitate Uncle Nate.

If you want to see more of Hazel imitating Uncle Nate, check out her blog >> (It’s too cute!)