Christmas Bro. Stash Competition 2011

Christmas Morning

Jacob is trying to figure out what Santa has put in his stocking. His mind is saying, "Looks like slime. But what is it?" Only the best boy stocking stuffer ever. Farting putty! When you squish it back into the jar it squeaks like someone has gas. I thought it was funny! Jacob would watch for my reaction as he squished it back into the plastic jar. "Am I going to get in trouble?" :)

The boys are putting together their Santa / Stocking gifts. They each got a Squinky gum ball machine thing. Totally cool! They are so in to Squinkies. They play with them with their Legos, board games and in so many other ways. I love their imaginations when they play with them.

We got the boys an Xbox with Kinect. We thought they'd love it. Sometimes they have a lot of fun with it, but other times they have trouble focussing enough to stand in front of the sensor. The technology is pretty amazing.

Something hand made! I like to have at least one hand-made gift. This year I made Batman and Superman aprons. So they can look like super heros when they are helping in the kitchen, eating messy food, or working on crafts. Thanks to my friend Jennie for letting me use her pattern. I think they turned out so darn cute.

There are way too many presents under that tree, but there were some practical gifts under there too. What a Wonderful Christmas! Thank you friends and family for making this the best Christmas season ever. So much thoughtfulness and love shared by all of you! Love you all --emily

2011 Christmas Card

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve morning we ventured out downtown. We parked in Kelly's office building so that Jacob & Andrew could see dad's new office digs. Andrew loved to play with dad's office phone. He thinks it is so cool that "work phones" have a head set. Kelly was explaining to Drew the reason his phone has the head piece is so that dad can type while he is on the phone. Explained like that; Kelly sounds like a catalogue dispatch person, but he isn't.

We then rode the underground bus a few blocks to the mall so we could take the monorail to the Space Needle. The weather was awesome! We only needed sweaters. That is a big deal here in the rainy Northwest.

While up in the Space Needle we had a crystal-clear sky. Jacob & Andrew loved exploring the city from a birds eye view. They enjoyed pointing out dad's office, and this cute little park with very large tomatoes.

I love this picture of Jacob, he looks like a director in a major motion picture.

See the blue Washington sky? That doesn't happen every day!

Still at the Space Needle they had cookie decorating for the kids. The kids were given a cookie, a packet of frosting, and a variety of colored sprinkles.

They decorated, enjoyed and ate their space ship shaped cookies.

We then wished Santa good luck. Earlier in the month we asked for our wants. So we thought good luck was appropriate. He was in a darling "space ship" for the Space Needle. It was so darn cute. All his decor and the elves were so modern and futuristic.

We then drove home among crazy Seahawks football fans, and enjoyed a yummy dinner with our neighbor friends. It was the perfect ending to a wild day. After we were home for the evening. We put on our matching Grinch jammies and tucked our sugar filled, adrenaline flowing, children in bed for the night. I hope they stay in be 'till at least their regular hour of 7:30. Eeee!

I'm so excited for Christmas morning!

As I was looking through this post before publishing it. I realized that my jammies pants look so different. But there is a matching Grinch cuff on the bottom of my legs. I ran out of fabric so I had to make something that coordinated for mommy. I had waited to long and the fabric was all sold out. I like how it turned out even though. --emily

Candy Canes

Today after school the boys made Reindeer candy canes for the Christmas tree. They turned out super cute. Jake & Drew were so creative and crazy funny while doing this project. This was the first time I let Jacob use the hot glue gun mostly by himself. He didn't even burn himself. I was impressed because I always get a finger or two. --emily

Gingerbread House Decorating

The boys worked together to decorate this fun gingerbread house. It was hard work keeping them on task and not eating all the candy. --emily

Christmas Tree 2011

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is to cut down our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. We had great weather, it was a perfect day for tree hunting.

Jacob loved that he could stand under this tree. He is so cute.
We found a couple of great trees, and Jacob found some large shiny rocks. So random I know!Here we are in front of our tree right before we cut it down. With Mount Si in the background.
Jacob and Andrew helped by pushing on the tree as Kelly sawed it down. Then Jacob used the saw to clean up the stump. He had fun using the saw.

Andrew helped Kelly carry the tree back to the car. Kelly carried the trunk and Andrew carried the top. What a great helper.

Jacob enjoyed jumping in the mud left over from a weeks worth of rain. Nice air buddy! --emily

Andrew's Surgery

Andrew had surgery to remove his adenoids this week. adenoids: "A mound of tissue in the back of the nose that can become enlarged by infections and lead to narrowing of the airway." We had a week to prepped Andrew as best we could without freaking him out. Jacob picked out this stuffed owl for Andrew to take with him. The owl is Andrew's power animal.

The day of the surgery, Andrew was noticeably apprehensive.

All the medical staff was very helpful and so kid friendly. After Andrew was dressed in his surgery clothes, they brought in his oxygen mask and let him decorate it. They had a tackle box filled with stickers and yummy smelling chap sticks. Andrew picked out some stickers to decorate the outside of his mask. His stickers of choice were Sponge Bob and smiley stickers. He then picked out a chap stick flavor to line the inside of his mask with a pleasant smell. Andrew chose banana flavor, it was sweet and sugary smelling.

With that, he was ready for surgery. I carried him to the operating room as we walked with the surgeon and nurses. We pretended he was going back to a space port. The operating room did look like a space station. Andrew was really worried, but he was a good sport.

The surgery was successful. Andrew was really agitated when it was all over and couldn't wait to get the sensor off his finger and the IV out of his hand. He was grumpy for a couple of hours after the surgery. Jacob said, "He's really grumpy without his adenoids. When are they going to put them back?"

After a little rest, Andrew was back to his old sweet self. He was running around and playing with Jacob. We are thankful for our cute boys. --Kelly

Snow day

With all the cold weather we've been having lately, we knew there must be snow in the mountains. So Saturday morning we drove up to the pass that is only about 20 minutes from our house to play in the snow. Andrew was having a great time laying in the snow and eating giant mouthfuls. No hands needed.

The snow was amazing! It was about four feet of powder. We had fun sledding and throwing snowballs. The snow was almost too soft to form into a ball, but we had a fun time throwing it anyway.

Jacob is totally a snow dude. He kept asking when we could go snow boarding. I think this might be the year to start hitting the slopes as a family. Yeah . . .

We brought the tripod so that we could get a family photo. After working out the hiccups of the tripod that kept sinking into the snow and the camera remote that wouldn't register because we were on a decline and the fact that it is super cropped because my left arm is way up in the air to line up with the camera sensor, I think it isn't too terrible of a family picture. I love my little family!

Everyone stayed warm and happy for the most part. It was a great Saturday adventure. I can't wait to do it again. --emily & kelly

Halloween Party

Jacob's Kindergarten Halloween Party. Some fun photos taken by the class photographer. Andrew was super sick so I didn't make the party, but it sure looks like they had a fun time. --emily

Halloween

The boys wanted to be M&Ms this year, so I made their costumes. They were so cute dressed up as M&M candies. We started trick-or-treating early. Kelly took an early bus home, we had a quick dinner and headed out. Andrew was feeling sick so he only made it a few houses before he asked, "Can we go home now?" Poor little Andrew wasn't even up for a good candy hunt. So Kelly and Andrew went home to hand out the treats! Andrew wanted to hold the candy bowl while Kelly put candy in the bags of the kids who came to the door.

Jacob and I kept on the hunt. We enjoyed a hayride, and more door knocking with friends

The boys checking out out their loot! It was quite the haul. --emily