Most favorite thing

Christmas in our household was very fun!  Jay and I were excited for Wren to react to Christmas and Santa, the whole experience.  On Christmas Eve, following a tradition that Jay enjoyed when he was young, we told Wren that we heard Santa was in the area and had already been to the houses of some of her friends.  Wren happily picked out two cookies and the plate to put them on and carried them over to the coffee table to join a freshly poured glass of milk.  A few minutes later we heard footsteps on the roof - SANTA!  I excitedly said that Santa was at the house and we should go to the back room because we can't see Santa when he comes in.  Then things fell apart.  Rather than shock and joy we had a scared little girl on our hands.  She just wasn't ready for a real visit from Santa!  Santa continued by coming down the....pellet stove... and ho-ho-ho-ing and ringing his jingle bells.  None of this to Wren's delight as she clung to me, terrified.  From my perspective it was something out of a David Sedaris story.  After Santa called out his Christmas wishes to the house, he was gone, just like that.  It took a few minutes to convince Wren we should leave the bedroom and when we did we found 2 wrapped presents by the empty plate and glass.  Wren refused to even touch them, no matter how many times we told her she could open her special Santa gifts. Her reply - I want to go night-night.  Oh, hopefully next year is different. 

In retrospect we should have expected something like this after our Breakfast with Santa outing ended with Wren refusing to even look at the poor guy, but at least she managed to tell him her wish list first - a baby and books. 

On Christmas morning, after Wren slept in for what seemed like forever (as I sat on the couch waiting to get to witness present opening mayhem), she was a new girl and all ready for the day.  The first box she opened was from Santa and it was a new baby doll!  Wren absolutely loves baby dolls - at play dates and daycare she heads straight for the babies and usually has one tucked under her arm in every picture we get from daycare.  So Santa really got this one right!  Wren also got books and clothes, baby accessories, flashcards, ornaments, a grow your own flowers kit, and much more!  She really had a bountiful Christmas!  But it really has been that baby doll, who we have to call Big Baby to differentiate her/him (Wren decides on a daily basis what gender Big Baby is) from Water Baby, Tiny Baby and Soft Baby, that has received the most attention since Christmas.  Below are some photos of how well Wren has been taking care of her Big Baby. 

Tucking Big Baby into her homemade bed, which was later destroyed by Wren. Cardboard just isn't made for big kids to lay on!

 

Wren personally laid out little places for everyone to lay down.  From left: Wren, lamby, little bunny, tiny baby, Abigail and Big Baby. 



Wren gets Big Baby in the high chair and buckled in all by herself before bringing over a huge feast!

Christmas is coming!

Santa's beard received its last cotton ball today, signifying that today was Christmas Eve and Santa is on his way! We are so excited for Christmas with Wren this year and she is excited for Santa to stop by! 

Merry Christmas to all! 

Wren has a secret!

 

Baby Well will be joining our family some time around mid-June!  We are very excited!  Wren says she will help take care of the baby by holding it, taking it to the store for milk and raisins, and changing diapers.  She's going to be an amazing big sister!

 

Here's Wren showing off our latest ultrasound picture. 

Annual Tree Trek

This past weekend we braved snowy/icy roads (seriously, this winter storm has been no joke!) to chop down our family Christmas tree, our third annual adventure of the sort.  We got this big guy home and decorated the same night.  More holiday stories to come!

To the beach!

In mid-October I attended a conference in Newport and we decided to have a beach weekend after that.  So Jay and Wren met me at the coast and we traveled south to Yachats. I had never been to Yachats before - a cute little town.  We stayed in a....quaint...motel that was walking distance to pretty much everything Yachats had to offer.  We happened to arrive during the Mushroom Festival weekend and the farmer's market and local restaurants were all participating.  We had no agenda for the weekend which is so nice!  We had great timing on the weather as well - sunny skies at the Oregon Coast - what luck!! 

On Saturday morning we visited a local bakery, Bread and Roses, and met two gentleman who were biking down the coast, taking their time, with the only plan to be in San Diego before Christmas.  Jay enjoyed talked specifics with them over pastries....and a cookie!  We visited the playground and the market and went down to the beach.  Wren loved playing in the sand and drawing pictures.  She did not want to the touch the water!  We saw a lot of sea anemones in the tide pools and watched a few daring surfers.  We tried out a second bakery, the Green Salmon - for lunch and yum!  They had good coffee and a very sweet and delicious maple covered croissant.  Jay and Wren shared the turkey sausage sandwich, but Wren hogged all the sausage!  For another meal we tried the Luna Sea Fish House.  Jay and Wren approved of the fish tacos!  I opted for a seafood-free burrito and it was pretty good. 

We drove south a short ways to Cape Perpetua in the afternoon and took a short little hike.  The views of the ocean were amazing! 

We liked the Green Salmon so much that we stopped back in before we left and hit up the playground one more time.  We circled our walking path of Yachats again before loading up to go home.  We left at the perfect time because the fog rolled in on Sunday morning, but once we headed inland the skies were bright once again! 

Pre-trip ponytail - a rare sighting on Wren

Daddy got a ponytail, too!

Not sure who this Mat person is.....

Cape Perpetua.  We never take couple pictures anymore!

A snake!  Can you see it?

All sand drawings courtesy of Wren H. Well

Ears make great handles!

Me and my gal!

Tiny hands in tiny sands

It's Fall!

Fall is here!  That means it's getting cold and the leaves are falling!  Oy, so many leaves.  We have taken many loads of leaves out to the street for pick up and the two big Sweet Gum trees in our front yard are still dropping them!  Wren has had a lot of fun playing in leaf piles in our yard and her buddy Geneva has even gotten in on the action. 

Wren was visited by her Opa and Oma (Larry and Dorothy) earlier this fall as well and they brought a pumpkin with!  Which was great since we missed our pumpkin picking opportunity at the pumpkin patch. Dorothy brought the pumpkin and carving tools and Wren helped pull out the gooey seeds and color the pumpkin.  We enjoyed the roasted seeds shortly after and the little jack-o'-lantern sat on our doorstep until very recently!  

Where's Wren?

Reading with Opa - the way to win Wren over is to read to her. Gets her every time!

Reading with Oma

Pumpkin carving!!!!

Pumpkin Patch! (a bit overdue...)

Back a while ago, you know, before Halloween, we took a trip with our friends Anne and Geneva to Airlie Hills Farm in Monmouth.  The girls had a great time, especially in the Hay Maze.  When we arrived at a dead end the girls would jump and dance.  Jay went back 3 or 4 times and had us time him. He made it through in an amazing time....too bad I waited so long to write this and forgot!  We went on a tractor ride and had a lot of trips down the slides.  We finished our visit with a big bag of caramel corn and some cider.  We will definitely go back next year and try everything again. They typically have a 5 acre corn maze but a crazy rain and wind storm earlier this fall destroyed all of the work that had already been done.  So we will look forward to next time!

Being cute with a river otter statue downtown

Moms and babes

Filtering wheat berries through her hands. But it looks like she's begging for food!

Tractor ride!

Dead end dance!!!

She was pooped and had to take a break in the middle of the maze

 

Funny enough, we didn't even take a pumpkin home with us!