Happy New Year!!!

With a brand new year in front of us, all shiny and clean and ready for filling in with all the good stuff, I wanted to begin fresh with a brand new photo blog. I tried to do a photo blog when Chlöe was a baby, and I just couldn't keep up. We have so much great stuff going on this year, with a new house, a rental unit under construction, and just the full life of our family. There is so much good stuff, I just want to be sure to document it, and enjoy the magnificent journey!

To start off, I know it's a brand new year, but I can't help sharing a few of our holiday pictures from the past few weeks. Then moving forward, my goal is to update weekly (or hopefully more often) with images from our lives as we explore and enjoy the world together and work towards our dreams and goals. I hope everyone has a magical new year, and can find ways to focus on enjoying and cultivating all of the wonders that are all around us.

Chlöe and her cousins, Makenzie and Delaney, visiting Santa

Chlöe visited Santa again here in Portland.

We bought a house in October this year. We got just a little snow in December. I love our house. It's really perfect for our family and gives us lots of room to grow into as well. We're working on building a rental in the yard, and have room to host guests as well, so please don't be shy if you are coming through Portland and would like to visit.

We had one ER visit this year, for a 106.4 degree fever.

Chlöe enjoyed the ER and as per usual, charmed the socks off everyone there. Thankfully everything was fine and we were well on our way, thanks to the wonderful doctors, nurses and other staff at Randall Children's Hospital in Portland.

We enjoyed Holiday Tea at the Heathman this year. Chlöe enjoyed Chamomile tea. This grandmother was visiting from the Netherlands and only spoke Dutch. She fell in love with Chlöe and had to have her picture taken with her. It was hilarious.

Chlöe has been taking Ballet and Tap this year, and we had fun at her Dance school's holiday party. Chlöe's class did a great job with their dance, and it was fun to watch all the students perform.

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* The Nutcracker *

Chlöe enjoyed the Nutcracker so much last year at 2 years old. I knew she would love it again this year, but also expected that she would understand the story a little more and might enjoy it. We read the books (we have several) most nights during November and December, and by the time it was our turn to go to the show, Chlöe could tell me the story, and liked to even pretend to be the various characters. She was very excited to attend and we had a great time taking her there and seeing it through her eyes. It was really quite magical.