ice skating!

fall, thanksgiving, snow, oh my!

I've sat down to update this a few times, and just haven't gotten there.  We've been insanely busy this fall, but thankfully we're coming in on some time off.  All three of us has this weekend, which has been nice and relaxing (ish), and over the next few weeks we'll finish up the quarter for school, and I'm out the 17th for winter break from work.  We had a massive snowstorm last week, resulting in a lot of bad roads for both of us, but Rhia looooves the snow, as seen below.

She's doing great, growing like a weed.  She's grown about three inches since we moved into this house at the end of June!  She loves school and her friends, and is always amazing her teacher with her brainyness.  She's getting really into those hidden picture pages in Highlights, which is actually fun for all of us.  She's doing better with potty training, and is turning out to be a pretty good conversationalist (and she rarely stops talking).  She's getting super independent, and refuses to let us help her with most things, which is both cool (that she's such her own person) and frustrating (it takes us forever to do anything).

The order of the pictures is a little backwards, but you get the idea.  

Playing in the snow

Learning how to make a snow angel

success!

Getting good use out of my halloween costume...the hat lives with her dress-up clothes, it's a favorite

cheesy camera face

dancing with piggy

being silly with mama

watching football on thanksgiving

                                                 all geared up for thanksgiving dinner

long time, no post

...we've been busy.  Insanely so.  But I thought I should do a quick update, since it's been a couple of months.

We're all doing really well.  Rhia is doing amazingly well.  She's finally tall enough to open doors....(one of the perks of having a tenth-percentile-for-height child is that they can't reach things), so she comes in and snuggles with us in the mornings, now.  I think it's sweet, Al says it's not so much when it's every morning...usually they're both still asleep when I leave in the morning during the week.

She's loving school, and doing really well.  Her teacher says that she's incredibly well-behaved, loves the other kids, and is very smart.  She's apparently very empathetic--when other kids go to time-out she'll go sit with them to keep them company.  Her language skills are amazing-using all sorts of complex linguistic stuff, we can actually hold real conversations, now.  Sort of.  She's putting together 48 piece puzzles independently, which is impressive yet terrifying.  She can "read" a few of her books (memorization, but still cool).  She's got a really big heart, and it's so amazing to watch her turn into her own person.  She's getting super independent, hates us helping her with most things.  We're changing fewer and fewer diapers, so we're getting there with potty training.  She loves the farmer's market on saturdays, the new frozen yogurt place in town, and can use chopsticks to eat sushi.  She's getting super into pretend stuff, and loves her baby dolls and pretending to be Dora.

Al is currently teaching a course at Central and finishing up stuff at UW, so he's crazy busy all of the time.  I'm busy teaching and working on my Master's, so, again, crazy busy.  But we're all doing well, loving Ellensburg, and getting by.

Loves dancing

Fishing while we were in Montana

Again, fishing.  She's a fan.

Making a silly face at dinner

Batgirl?  I have no idea.

A completed puzzle.  Solo.

Naptime with puppy.

Einstein!

Cheese-face.

Tricycle!

Here's what Rhia learned to do last night!  Pretty spiffy!

The thermometer says 98*, I think it's summertime

Rhia was really excited about her house...

I don't even really know where to begin, as it's been a good long time since I updated this, and so much has changed.  I think the biggest event of the summer is that we bought a house in Ellensburg and moved back, so we've been incredibly busy doing whatever projects we can come up with (because we can!) and adjusting to being back in a small town.  Thus far we're doing really well.  Al is teaching Summer Quarter at Central, and I'm enjoying summer vacation and hanging out with Rhia.  I'll be teaching 6th grade come this fall, which is approaching much more quickly than I expected it to.

Rhia is just doing amazingly well.  The move was a big adjustment, but she loves having a big yard to play in (that's not full of slugs and moss), and we go for walks every night to visit the horses down the road.  She's transitioned into a big-girl bed without much fuss, and we're working on the whole potty training thing.  She is sassy and disturbingly smart.  Her coolest new trick is "reading" us one of her books.  She has the whole book memorized, and will go through the whole thing with anyone who will let her.  She'll be starting at a new daycare this fall, a few days a week in the preschool room, because the two-year-old room was a bit too slow-paced for her when we checked it out.  We're pretty proud of our smarty pants.  She's started to ask us questions about things, like "what was that?" and she loves to help cook and measure out things--especially for pancakes.  We're pretty sure she's a lefty, like her mama, it seems to be the hand her crayons live in.  She's started to get really into pretend play, which is pretty cute.  She's pushing a lot of boundaries and testing us quite a bit, which is not as cute.  yay for the terrible twos.

                                               It's hot in Ellensburg...we eat a lot of popsicles. 

                                                                  Pretty, but devious.

                                                        Picking wildflowers in the mountains.

                                                                    Our little family.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!