February...the rest of it.

This little blog has been quite the neglected space lately. It's due to two things really: lack of motivation on my part and lack of much to share. For the last few weeks of February, we were pretty much stuck at home, sick.

Clara came down with a cold she couldn't shake and it eventually turned into an ear infection. Caleb caught the same bug and ended up on Nebulizer treatments because of wheezing. And I had a lovely sinus infection that went untreated for far too long. We are all doing well now, thankfully. It it has just felt like a really looooonnnng month.

I remember February feeling about the same last year. Cold. Mostly grey. Lots of cancelled plans. Days spent in pajamas. Mama going stir crazy. Clara going stir crazy. Too much television.

I'm just happy to say it's behind us.

Here are a few pictures of the month. Oh yes, and one great thing happened in February. I got an iphone. So a few of these pictures were taken on my lovely new device. Here we go. The latter part of February at the Hook home, in pictures...

Jono's awesome side walk chalk creation.

A little sibling tummy time.

More snow. Finch Arboretum.

Lots of time spent reading with daddy.

Mr. Bugs, our love.

Too much TV.

Getting stronger!

To the doctor = two sick kiddos. Thank you, Grammy!

A few sunny days. A first family of four walk!

Some serious sisterly love.

That's about it folks. February, see you later. March, welcome. I love you.

Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day from our house to yours. This is pretty much the extent of our celebration...

Owl valentines (I bet you can tell which part Clara did independently).

An attempt at a cute "We love you picture" for the yearly family postcard.

Caleb was not game.

And some ridiculously good (and rich) double chocolate mousse torte from the blog that has recently become my obsession.

Forget the date nights out (remember last year?), our new tradition is a nice family dinner & a fancy dessert once the kids are in bed. Much more our style.

Ski Weekend

We survived our first road trip with two kids. Barely. Well, I'm mostly joking. We had a wonderful time at Red Mountain this weekend with our good friends the Randalls and Harts. We just had a few mishaps along the way.

Mishap #1: Even though we went to the exact spot last year, we both forgot to glance at a map to review. What might have been a twenty second google search cost us a good 2+ hours. Not only did we take the wrong border crossing into Canada, but we ended up driving on the craziest mountain pass to right our error. At night. In dense fog. And a snow storm. I can't even tell you how many "Family of four lost in the Canadian Rockies" news headlines were running through my head. Thankfully, we made it there in one piece. Never mind that my husband went in on his day off for three hours so we could leave early on Friday. Thankfully, both kids were champions in the car. We will never make that mistake again. Ever.

Mishap #2: While skiing in the afternoon, Amy and I took a wrong turn and ended up on the back side of the mountain instead of busting it back to nurse Caleb on time. I was one stressed mama, let me tell you. This one ended just fine. My two month chubbo did not die. And was actually sleeping when we arrived 45 minutes late. I think skiing while nursing is just slightly less fun than skiing while not nursing.

Mishap #3: While hot tubing after a long day of skiing for all, we started to notice some pretty large little flakes of something floating in the water. We ignored it for a long time before finally getting out. When Clara and I went to the bathroom for our shower, we found the source of the somethings: Major poopy blow-out. Yep. Awesome. Awesome for us because that little bit of poop came with a $100 price tag for the cleaning fee (let's just say it will be coming out of the Clara birthday and Christmas fund for a few years, at least). And awesome for the seven other individuals who got the pleasure of sitting in it too.

Despite the few mishaps, here were some of the non-mishaps, or the haps, if you will.

Hap #1: Skiing for all! We had no idea we'd be sending Clara down the slopes during this trip but we just couldn't resist the $6/hour rental fee with a free lift ticket for kids under 6! Jono perfected his backward skiing skills from years gone by (when he worked as an instructor at Arapahoe Basin during PT school). Clara just couldn't get enough. Who wouldn't want to learn to ski with a giant person in front of you, catching you each time you get a bit out of control?!

Hap #2: Evenings with friends after the kids went down for the night - early since they were so exhausted. Relaxing. And so refreshing.

Hap #3: Hot tubing before nasty events occurred. Ironically, I was thinking just how much I love hot tubing while sitting in the mess. Maybe it's because you have to avoid them while pregnant so it had been a long time for me. Or maybe my love for it had to do with the way it felt on my sore muscles after skiing. Whatever the reason, I'm a big fan of hot tubs (for very much potty trained individuals, that is).

Hap #4: Shared meals. I love menu planning for trips. And food preparation seems so much more fun and rewarding when you're cooking for a crowd. In someone else's kitchen.

Hap #5: The feeling of getting away from it all. And being in another country. Despite growing up so close to Canada, I didn't make it across the border until my senior year of high school. Caleb made it over at 9 weeks. Not too bad.

As you can see, the haps outnumbered the mishaps. So we'll count that as a victorious weekend :).

Two Months

Caleb had his two month check-up today. His stats confirm the transition I just made into the 3-6 month/Carters 6M clothing. I don't know why this time around I felt even sadder putting all the teeny tiny clothes away. Maybe it's because some of the outfits he didn't even wear. Ugh. Here's to hoping we'll stay in the 6M size longer than we did the 3M!

Length: 24 1/4 inches = 95%

Weight: 13 lbs. 5.5 oz = 75%

Head: 16 1/8 cm = 95%

We are loving this little man. He's an absolute delight. He is a championship eater (obviously). He's a great night time sleeper. And he's so smiley and full of "coo"s. As far as daytime sleep is concerned, he's slightly less than great (okay, way less than great). But we're getting there. His sweet demeanor makes up for it, we think. It's hard to remember what life was like before Mr. Caleb George joined the family. What a blessing he has been to us!

Hall of Fame

This past weekend we made a quick trip to the west side for a great reason. We celebrated Jonathan's dad's induction into the Washington State Football Coaches Hall of Fame. It was a great trip - even if it was quick. We were there for just over 24 hours. We managed to fit in a little bit of shopping at Ikea, a great breakfast at this restaurant (one of our favorite breakfast spots), and even a little down-time at our hotel in addition to the reason for our trip: the awards banquet Saturday night.

The whole Hook clan (minus the two year old girls) were there to honor John. Jonathan even got to introduce his dad at the banquet, which was really special since he played for him too.

The weekend marked our first trip with Caleb (and without Clara!). Let me tell you - except for the stopping to nurse part, traveling with a seven week old is SO much easier than with a two year old! The first family road trip with both of them is on the horizon. It may not be quite as enjoyable. We will see!

Here are some banquet pictures. It was a lovely event. We were all so proud!

Little Man

Here are just two pictures of our little guy from this past week. The cheeks are growing. And the smiles are coming more and more frequently. We think he's a keeper. :)

Oz Day

Yesterday was Australia Day. If you've followed our blog at all, you probably know we celebrate this day every year. Mostly it's an excuse to get together as family. To eat meat pies. And to remember the months we spent in Australia. Each year it seems further and further away. In fact, if it weren't for the hundreds of pictures that we have (and the first posts on this fine blog) to prove it, I might not believe it actually happened. I think having two kids might be just part of the reason ;).

We had a great time together eating our pie, potatoes, salad and lamingtons. This year Jono made a great little Australia quiz. I think his dad won, which is not entirely surprising since he's pretty much a walking encyclopedia.We watched the good ol' video of our time there and mostly just relaxed. Happy Australia Day!