New Blog Site

This is our new blog location. We finally got rid of the "threeyearsinprinceton" site and have moved to "leefamilyfive". Enjoy!

Shortest day

Yesterday was the shortest day of the year and seeing as we are pretty far north, we have some very short days. Our days are even shorter than Jeff's parents. Today, the days begin to get progressively longer, though it's a long road to June. I thought I would give those who don't live in Seattle a taste of how short the days are:
Today's sunrise: 7:54 a.m.
Today's sunset: 4:21 p.m.

That's basically 8 1/2 hours of sun (aka clouds) and 15 1/2 hours of darkness.

So much snow!

It has been an insane week of weather in Maple Valley. We've had snow almost every day this past week, temps below freezing and the kids had 1 day of school. This weekend we had 4 inches of snow on Saturday night, crazy winds and now it's snowing again with the possibility of 6 more inches. Is this the mild NW winter?

Cambria in the snow earlier this week.

Mommy & Carys (her first time in the snow)

Jeff and Carys

The whole Lee family.

The girls went sledding with Jeff at the Lake Wilderness Golf Course. It was incredibly icy on the hill since people have been sledding there all week. It's fantastic sledding for older kids, but not so great for young ones like ours. Avery was very upset by the time they left (as you can see by her expression)...Cambria loved it.

Not impressed with sledding.

Cambria sledding

A sitting up video

Carys is 6 1/2 months old and sitting up fairly well. She loves to attack her toys. She's quite the wild woman. She also thinks she's hot stuff since she can participate in family activities more while sitting up.

A few more sitting up pictures

Nutcracker

This December I took Cambria and Avery to see The Nutcracker. It was put on by a local ballet company, mostly made up of kids from Cambria's dance school. A week after The Nutcracker performance, the dance school hosted a Nutcracker Tea. Cambria attended the tea where they taught the kids some new dances, read The Nutcracker story, met some ballerinas and had tea and cookies. Below Cambria is posing with "Clara" and "Ballerina Doll".

Cambria has already requested to try out for The Nutcracker next year.

A photo shoot

I recently found this Little Einstein photo shoot on my camera. It was funny and yet a little disturbing. All these pictures are Cambria's own ideas and expertise.

All the Little Einsteins in Rocket.

June.

Now Annie and June.

Leo, Annie and June.

Quincy, Leo, Annie and June.

All four Little Einsteins with Rocket.

Field Trip to Fire Station

Cambria's kindergarten class recently took a field trip to the Maple Valley fire station. Since Grandma was visiting then I was able to leave the younger kids with her and be a chaperone. It was fun to meet some other parents and get to know the kids in her class more. Plus, I hadn't been to a fire station in years, so it was interesting to see one again. I also enjoyed the walk from her elementary school to the station since she wanted to hold my hand the entire way. :-)

Learning about "Hector the Smoke Detector" from a fire woman.

On the A car (aka Ambulence).

Checking out the engine.

Climbing down from an engine.

With some classmates. I forgot to remind Cambria to wear her class shirt.

Grandma's visit

Recently my mom came for a week visit. We had a lot of fun with her, especially since we won't be seeing her during Christmas.

The girls posing with Grandma. I'm not sure why Avery is posing with her hand under her chin. She did it every time I took a picture. :-)

Cambria making pancakes with Grandma. We are making small steps in Cambria trying new foods. She likes pancakes, but is not as fond of waffles. She will also eat shredded mexican cheese -- a huge step. On Friday night we went to Applebees and she ate a kids' chicken fingers meal since we didn't bring her any food. Some of you may think we sound insane, but you've probably never had a picky eater. :-)

Carys hanging out with Grandma.

Carys sitting up with Grandma.

Cookies

We've decorated a lot of cookies this month. Here are some pictures from playgroup and our Home Group Bible study.

The girls decorating cookies at playgroup.

Cutting out cookies to take to playgroup.

Cambria cutting out cookies.

Decorating cookies at Home Group.

I have a feeling that Avery is about to lick this knife.

The older girls really got into the decorating.

More decorating while Cindy looks on.

Solid Foods

Carys is 6 months old! I don't know where the time is going. She is changing on a weekly basis. We started solid foods the first week of December. She wasn't too keen on it at first, but now she expects her food in the AM and PM. She also loves Zweiback toast. Below is a picture of her attacking the toast. :-)

I love sweet potatoes.

Everyone had an opportunity to feed Carys, including Grandma (who visited the second week of December)

Avery's first time feeding Carys.

Maple Valley Christmas Night

Back to blogging....it's been a while. Earlier this month I took the girls to the Maple Valley Christmas night at Lake Wilderness. The arboretum was decorated with lights and it was cold. Jeff stayed at home with Carys...this was the first time in a LONG time that I went out alone with the two older girls.

Avery refused to smile.

The train was decorated with fun lights.

Avery found Chilly Willy among the Arboretum lights.

Pumpkin scones

Cambria and Avery LOVE Starbucks' pumpkin scones. A few weeks ago I found the recipe online and decided to make them on Thanksgiving morning. The girls had a blast making these and they tasted just like the ones in Starbucks. Cambria said that we had our own Starbucks in our house.

Mixing up the scones.

The bakers (pre-shower).

Icing the scones.

Lize

My dear friend Lize came to visit this weekend. It was her first time to visit us in Maple Valley, and we really enjoyed having her here. We've been friends for 16 years and I never want to take that for granted. Our friendship has grown immensely over the last year and I'm so grateful.

While she was visiting I wanted to get a nice picture of the two of us, plus have Lize take a good picture of our family for our Christmas card. Neither happened due to Jeff's interaction with some chicken on Sunday (a LONG story). :-)

Thanks for making the trip out, Leez.

Princess Carys

Cambria and Avery called me into the room to see Princess Carys. She had no idea that the crown was on her head.

All three girls...

Some funny pics of the girls.

Avery's funny faces

The other day Avery was practicing different faces in the mirror. She then came to me with arms folded and said, "I'm mad at Cambria." She wasn't really mad, but it cracked me up to see her trying to pretend that she was.

Happy face.

Mad face. :-)