Baby, It's Cold Outside

No, really. It’s cold.

Even with my hat, scarf, gloves and jacket, I felt the chill on Whidbey Island. But Bridgette wasn’t fazed a bit. Bundled up in her puffy pink jacket (which her Dad insisted on getting her for the trip - size 3 so it will last a year or two), knit cap and mittens, she toddled straight out toward that icy ocean!

The scenery was truly gorgeous – big fall leaves (the likes of which I have to buy at Pottery Barn to make my Thanksgiving table look good), tall tall trees (a far cry from our familiar cacti), fetching wildlife (chipmunks and deer are much cuter than scorpions), and above it all the tip of volcanic Mt. Baker that could be seen through the clouds.

Travelin' Tot

We were worried about how Bridgette would travel on our 3 hour flight to Seattle, then 2 hour drive to Whidbey Island. But other than being a wiggle wort, she was a doll.

At the check-in counter, she helpfully pushed the luggage around. And at the boarding gate, she stood by the windows and watched the luggage carts scurry from plane to plane.

Once on board the aircraft, we started out by strapping Bridgette into her seat. Nathan and Stephanie graciously loaned us their FAA approved toddler harness that fits over/around the airplane seat. But after a while, I gambled and freed Bridgette from the constraint.

She sat on her arm rest, stood on her seat, played pick-a-boo with the passenger behind her, and in general never quit squirming. But over all she remained in her designated area and never cried a whit!

Two Turkeys

My Mom was fairly gleeful when we figured out that our plane to Seattle didn’t leave until 3:30 on Thanksgiving day (which by the way is a fabulous time to travel – nary a line at the airport). She quickly went about making arrangements to move her Thanksgiving meal up to noon, so that we could eat with her before going. This meant we ultimately got TWO turkey dinners (not to mention the scrumptious leftovers) during our Thanksgiving holiday.



When we got to the first dinner in Arizona, Bridgette mostly played outside with her cousin Lorin in the 80 plus degree weather. We encouraged this due to the confinement of traveling and the Washington cold to come.

Lorin looked particularly adorable in the outfit we gave her for her birthday. What can be cuter than a sweater shawl? I swear there is a picture somewhere of me in one when I was a blond toddler too. If I can find it in my Mom's big box of pictures past, I will scan it in and add it later to this post.

After eat turkey, Kevin and I also went outside. We tried to take a quick family pic under the grapefruit and olive trees because we haven’t yet found a photo sufficient for our Christmas card. I'm worried that the photos we took are too sunny for a winter holiday card, but what can you do when you live in a desert?

Gingerbread Construction

The housing market might be down, but that didn't slow construction at our home this year.


My friend Linnlee joined me in planning and perfecting our edible structures. We chose a week early in November to be sure to get them done before busy holiday schedules interfered. Even so, I was rushing to the store last minute to get plenty of candy for optimal decorating.




This year, please note that I used Oreos instead of Nutter Butters just to switch things up. And I added a string of tic tac lights! I am particularly fond of my injured client gingerman. You'll note that the sign on the house says, "Tobler Law". But the green taffy tree was a failure. Who knew that the taffy would melt and become a patch of grass instead?





Linnlee got even more creative with a Chex roof top. She landscaped with a Rock Candy walkway and pretzel fencing.



Kevin kept Bridgette occupied most of the day. But after her afternoon nap, she hung out with us for a bit. She loved the whir of the Kitchen Aid, whipping the icing. We told her to just "look, look," at the houses, and she responded by saying no, "touch, touch." Though surprisingly now, whenever she gets near my gingerbread house sitting atop the kitchen counter she repeats the warning to "look" only and obediently does so.



Bridgette also loved the candy. The morning after, she woke up and went straight to the pantry declaring, "I wan candy!" She got ahold of a bin of it, and accidentally on purpose spilled the contents all over the floor. While her Dad and I were picking it up, she made off with a blue Dum Dum sucker that turned her tongue blue too just in time for church!

Peace, Love, and...Animal Sounds

What's so funny 'bout peace, love, and...animal sounds!

Tonight Bridgette put on her new peace-nick, hippy pajamas and then proceeded to put on a wonderful exhibition of animal sounds. She's really taken off recently in this area. To be fair, she was a bit distracted by the camera, so it wasn't her best showing. To keep her remotely focused, we had to turn the viewer on the video camera so that she could see herself -- you'll notice that about half way through, she points to the camera and says "Bridgette." This also explains why she's not well framed. Yet through it all, she does perhaps her best cow to date as well as an excellent monkey. The owl is her best and cutest one. We'll be sure to post again if we can manage to capture it.

You Tube Video

Cutest Witch in the West

There was so much Halloween Hoopla going on this week, I could hardly catch my breath.

Preparation for Halloween began quite some time ago. Acting upon my sister-in-law Stephanie's advise, I trolled the Etsy website for a perfect costume for Bridgette. I ended up going traditonal with a witch get-up that involved a bright tutu and a small hat adorned with ribbons, mesh and flowers. When it arrived at our house, I determined that I could create another hat like that for me, and Bridgette and I could be twinners - though she gets all the adorable points.

We ignored Kevin's costume for some time, but finally settled on a simple shirt stating, "I'M WITH THE WITCHES." For it, I have to profusely thank my friend Linnlee, who pitched in and made it for Kevin when I utterly ran out of time.



We had 4 parties to attend! For which I was very glad, as I wanted to get maximum exposure of Bridgette's costume.

1. We went to our Church's Halloween Carnival. It was outdoors, on horse property, and Bridgette got most excited about the horses. She also kept uttering excited, "Oh Oh's" at the ghosts hanging in the tree. With a sucker in her mouth, she danced around the Witch Hat Ring Toss and Pumpkin Bowling, heedless of the other costumed participants.

2. Bridgette, her cousin Lorin, and some of her second cousins came trick-or-treating to our law office. The staff - who all dressed in orange and black for the ocassion - oohed and awed over the cute kids. Eating pizza together and sharing candy from our ceramic pumpkin was much more fun than filing legal pleadings. By the end of lunch though, my little witch was pretty tuckered out.

3. Friday night, we traipsed down the street, and joined in a neigborhood pumpkin carving event. The folks from our street ate chili, conversed, and carved up their pumpkins with gusto. Bridgette enjoyed eating the pumpkin seeds. No, they were not roasted. But they were small enough to put in her mouth, so in they went.

4. Finally, on Halloween, we attended the Fall Carnival at my parent's church. The best part of this gig was seeing my parents dressed up! I swear cannot recall another Halloween where they actually got into costume. But since they were in charge of this event, they had to set a good example. Bridgette liked the cake walk and cookie decorating. We didn't think she was ready for the spook alley or coordinated enough for the donuts on a string. But good fun and food was had by all.

Our Halloween came to a close, passing out candy from lawn chairs on our front porch. It was such a pleasant evening, and we really enjoyed talking to the kids and their adult escorts. Our neighborhood was so busy, we had to make a run to the grocery store for a second batch of candy.

Hope all the rest of you had a spooktacular holiday!!!