Decluttering

The year 2010 is going to be a great year for actually accomplishing our goals. One of our family goals this year is to clean up the clutter. Not that we live in a disaster zone, but we do have a few drawers and closets that need help. So today being day number two of 2010, we are off to a great start. I cleaned the hall closet today and Kelly worked on the closet under the stairs. We both made great progress! Here is a picture of the closet that I worked on. I even made space for all the games that had been in random places all over the house. Yeah for us. --emily

Christmas Morning

Here is a picture of my boys just after everyone woke up Christmas morning. As you can see, Jacob and Andrew's cute matching Christmas jammies didn't make it through the night. They got their jammies wet, so we had to change into something new and warm. We will try again next year. Everyone is so tired because Jake woke up about an hour early at 6:30. He went and woke up Drew so he could join in the excitement. So they are still a little dazed. After this we all went downstairs to see what Santa brought and open all the fun gifts. It was a fun year to see their enthusiasm for exchanging gifts. --emily

Also Christmas Morning

The next few pictures are my favorites! Andrew kept sneaking chocolate. We normally don't have a lot of candy hanging around, so Andrew kept sneaking off to grab some stocking candy and then would hide and eat it. He was so funny! So I had him pose and show me what he was doing. He thought it was funny that I was taking pictures of him sneaking candy. The last picture is my favorite. Look at him savoring that chocolate. --emily

Christmas Eve

One of our Christmas traditions is to open one gift on Christmas eve. This gift contains new jammies. Now that I am a mother, I see why this tradition must be. It is because by December, our children have scraggly jammies. So that everyone looks nice in our family morning Christmas pictures, a new pair of jammies is purchased. This is also a great excuse to have a new pair of jammies. Here are my boys being so silly posing for a Christmas eve picture. We had a great evening filled with fun tradition and lots of family time. --emily

Snowflake Lane

Tonight we put the kids on our backs and ventured out into the crowds. In downtown Bellevue the city puts on what they call "Snowflake Lane". They have high school kids drumming Christmas songs. While some are drumming, others are on stilts or handing out candy. The performers are all in costume like old-fashioned drummers. It is quite the show. Then when the show is almost over, fake snow falls from the roof tops. The snow is almost bubble like but a lot of fun for the kids. It is worth the crowd surfing for the memories. --emily

2009 Christmas Card

Reindeer

The only way I can get Jacob to pose for a picture is to allow him to make a silly face. So here we are! Today at pre-school Jacob learned about the letter H so their teacher helped them make this fun reindeer Hat it is so cute I had to share it with all of you. --emily

Let it snow . . .

Today we had our first snow of the season. We took a family evening walk to try out our new snow boots. This isn't a great picture; I blame it on my dying camera. Jacob and Andrew ate so much snow I thought we might never get home. We stopped every two seconds to scoop up a new handful of snow. Andrew kept eating grass and leaves among his snow. It was so gross! I tried to convince them that this was gross, but Jacob just said, "Oh mom it is so yummy". Does that make me a bad mom for letting my kids eat dirty snow? Maybe, but that is okay! Bring on the snow! I am ready for a white Christmas. --emily

Let the season begin . . .

The day after Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year. It is the beginning of the Christmas season in our home. Today we went to see Santa and have the kids' pictures taken with him. We have gone to the same place the Friday after Thanksgiving for the past five years. This year Andrew was not about to let go of dad. He had the death grip on Kelly and was not letting go for any reason or anyone. So Kelly decided that he would sit with Drew while he talked to Santa. Since he would be in the picture, Kelly suggested that I sit in the picture also. I did not come prepared to be in a family Santa picture. I would have done something to my hair instead of the standard pony tail, but whatever. It is all part of our family story that we write with our daily events.

Here is the 2009 Santa picture:

It was still early in the day by the time we where through with our "family portrait." The weather was still nice outside. Nice in the Northwest means not raining. So we decided to go and get our Christmas tree. We usually get it the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but with the weather being so unpredictable out here, we decided to take advantage of the good weather. We went to our local U-cut Christmas tree farm. It is a nice family owned place. We have gone there for the past few years and enjoy the trees they have to offer.

I love this picture of Andrew. It reminds me of my dad. Silly I know, but I have a memory of the family going up into the the hills in California to cut our own tree. In that picture in my memory my dad has on a down jacket almost the same color as Andrew's, though my dad's was stained with car oil.
Earlier in the day we stopped in a local store to pick up a few things. Jacob had to have this Santa hat so I said, "I will buy you this hat if you promise to wear it." He wore it all day. I even had to take it off him after he fell asleep. He wanted to wear it all night. I am so blessed with cute kids!

I tried to get a picture of everyone in front of the tree we picked as a family. This is the best picture from the batch. Andrew had melted, Kelly was being silly, and Jacob wouldn't hold still.

What a great day! Tomorrow we will decorate and bring the tree in. Yeah. . . --emily