Christmas Morning

My favorite picture from our family faux Christmas. So much expression in this exchange of brothers. We had a very Merry Christmas.

Christmas Time

Our Christmas decor is beautiful. I love Christmas time. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas.

TV Stand

Our new tv stand I love it. We did an altered version of Ana White's Apothecary Cabinet. I like a taller stand so we added height and than reduced the width to fit our wall. 'We' is used because we design together.. but the building is all Ryan.

The insides.. currently the drawer has the diapers and wipes in it but hopefully it will be empty in a few months.. :) We need to add lower shelves but so far it has been nice to have the TV downstairs. No more sneaking up to Mom and Dad's room to watch whatever, whenever.

We turn the power off if we aren't using the tv-trying to reduce our vampire power usage. Ryan made this door to open alone so that Carter could turn the power on and off without opening the entire cabinet.

Thanksgiving Break

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ryan took a whole week off work. Thursday he laid the wood floor in the laundry room. Friday we had our Thanksgiving dinner (Tommy had to work all day Thursday). It was delicious. We managed to get a lot of work done and a lot of fun while Ryan was free to enjoy the days with us.

We went to Palouse Falls trip number 3 for us but we wanted Tommy to see it. I blogged about it once before. It was so nice to have warm weather! We got lucky to have lots of sunny days while Ryan had vacation time.

We did not manage to get a great family picture. We did try to duplicate the one we took last year with our dog and kids.. Carter was in trouble for running off when we asked him to come.

and here is a picture to prove that Tommy did come. This is the part right above the falls so if the wind blows too hard.. it would be really bad for Tommy...

We also went fishing-if you can call it that. It was what Carter chose to do with his dad and he was excited to do so. Even if it only lasted 5 mins. :) It was a great week. I am excited for Christmas time when we get Dad for a week again!

Sunshine and Snow

These were from the week of Halloween, one of the last warm days. Carter has whiskers from wearing his costume to preschool. I drew a race track down the sidewalk and on the road. and Carter found a 'Piston Cup' that's what that piece of bark is. This was also before Ryan shaved Landon's hair. It was lovely to enjoy the sun and take some pictures of my cute little boys. I love them so much.

Sleeping is a little bit of a problem at our house lately. Since the boys share a room now naptime and bedtime seems to be a not very funny joke. But look I can get Carter to sleep! It's super hard but I can do hard things.. sometimes. Landon loves to play with hair - mine, others, whatever he can get. We have been trying to nip this habit in the but and I finally got a picture of Landon 'doing my hair'. Sometimes it makes me feel close to him and happy and I am almost sad to end it, but other times it drives me crazy-mostly when he makes my hair frizz and pulls too hard. Two year-olds are big boys so it's time to stop!

Saturday we had the second dusting of snow this season and the boys went out to play in it. Meanwhile we decided Ryan needs a heated shop don't you think? Here he is cutting the base off our new tv stand-in the kitchen of all places. It's almost finished we just need knobs.

Halloween

Before Preschool-Mouse.

Our jumbo pumpkin this is our third year to plant pumpkins and our first harvest!
It grew mid-air with a two by four stuck in it thus the hole in the front.

We grew a spider. We also got a creepy spider in the mail from grandpa and grandma that drops and crawls back up when it hears a loud noise. Carter loved it Landon hated it. (I used it to keep him away from my painting project).

Carter, Tommy, Ryan, Liz and Landon

Last year we painted pumpkins this year I forgot to get new orange paint so we just did ghosts and I love them.

Ryan and I were invited to a treky party.. haha. We are not treky's nor are our friends that is why it's so funny.. or embarressing.. :) I was Ro and he was Geordi. It was such a fun evening.

Before we went trick or treating.

Dreams

Carter has been having nightmares more often. Sometimes he comes into our bed and I just let him sleep with us for a bit or until morning. He wakes up so early I usually am just hoping he will go back to sleep. But the last few nights he has been having a reoccurring nightmare in which he wakes up screaming and crying out for me. I told Ryan two nights ago it was his turn. In the morning I asked him what his dream was about and he said "Ice cream was dripping down my face and getting in my mouth." I'm not sure what's scary about ice cream. Last night was my turn. Carter woke up twice the first time I told him he was fine and to go back to sleep. The next time I was getting a little fed up with my interrupted sleep and had no desire to crawl in his bed again. I told him he likes ice cream just go ahead and eat it and remember that you arn't alone Landon is in here. I guess we need to have a lesson about how you are never alone. (my favorite Mormon Ad)

Mt Rainier

Today we headed over to Mount Rainier National Park. It was a beautiful day. We went to the Grove of the Patriarchs and Silver Falls. The trees are huge and the hike was lovely. The boys had a lot of fun throwing rocks in the river. I even skipped a rock 4 times; I think that might be a record for me. I believe that Carter has my rock throwing skills and Landon has Ryan's much better throwing skills. The bridge over to the island were the grove is located is a bouncy thing. Made me feel car sick, made Landon laugh, and Carter run for assistance.

Do you see the twin Douglas Firs and and the Big Cedar?

Check out Ryan in the hallow of a tree root.

Oh what a beautiful day!

Preschool Fun

Preschool field trip to the Pumpkin Patch.

We had fun with our preschool group. The weather was perfect we were blessed with a pause in the rain and a fun group of kids.

Floors

We finally ripped up our gross carpet. I am happy to say we now have no carpet in the dining room- no table either.. but our house will be back together soon. We are still not finished but great progress has been made. I feel like I should redecorate.. err I mean decorate.. I love it. My husband is such a hard working man- his dad sure taught him well.

Sunday Morning

Grandma got these shots of my handsome boys. The one with me was the attempt of a family shot sans dad.. it was the best we could do.

Bike Ride

Carter got the hang of his bike. We have gone over to the park a few times now. It sure is fun to see him grow up! With Grandma here we took a little ride together to the park.

Singing Time

My souvenir

When I was out visiting my sister I managed to get a burn on the top of my feet. So we went out hunting wild Aloe Vera. We didn't succeed at finding any but we got some starts of two other plants. A hen and chicks and the one that flowers pink. I love having a memory of my sister sitting by my kitchen sink.

Introducing

"Messy Eater Noodle Landon Turkey"

Carter was calling Landon that and laughing and laughing. Landon also has a clean right hand, left handed maybe??

Painting

I got the paints out for Carter yesterday. Usually it's just scribbling but this time I decided that we were going to have something to paint. So his first painting was of a motorcycle he choose green and red since we didn't have black paint. We had a toy motorcycle up for inspiration and than I built a tower and we both painted that. I think we will do it again soon.

Visiting

Well when we got to my house we didn't do much and even took fewer pictures. It was fun to have my family here. We found this lake I'm pretty sure it was part of the the Columbia river but the sign said 'lake' it was soo cold. I think Ryan is going to be the cool uncle. We set up cans and used the pellet gun to shot them. He got some dry ice to play with.. I can't remember what else but I think my brothers enjoyed their stay at our place. I gave my mom a pedicure and had some great one on one time with each member of my family I couldn't ask for more.

Water

When Landon sees water he gets a little frantic. It doesn't sound as loud in the video but in the car it was pretty loud. This was when my dad was driving through Northen California on the way to my house.

Day3

Here we are at the beach in Santa Monica on day 3. The drive to the beach was insane, bumper to bumper traffic. The girls went to a few boutiques and planned to meet Dad and the boys and our children at the beach. It was much harder than it should have been but it was fun.

Day 2

On day two we hung out at the house and dad helped Melissa work on here 'backyard'. We set up the pool and played as a big family. It was really nice. It was also Jeffrey's 16th Birthday. So Andew made vegan pound cake and we sang. We are so happy that we have such a great uncle/brother in our family!

After the party.. and all the babies were sleeping the ladies sneaked out to a sushi place.. I might be smiling but it was gross. blah.. I do not like sushi now I know. I told Melissa that when she comes again I will take her out for gross food too. :) I liked the pot stickers we ordered, the rest not so much. But it was fun. I love my sister so much I feel like hanging out with her stretches me to be a better person. I feel so lucky to have the family I have.

On to LA

My parents were going to Utah and than CA and than to my house. Since we were in Island park for the roommate reunion I just meet them up in SLC to join them. The driving bit was a little rough but worth it! We had so much fun.

The first whole day at my sister's house was taken with shopping for vegans and going for a walk, doing some yard work and than we went to Travel Town train museum.

We also stopped by the old LA zoo. It is now just an open park with old tiny cages. It was fun to walk around with my brothers and dad and my kids and nephews. Mom and Melissa found a shady spot to stop and chat. There was also a playground the kids really enjoyed.

We also tried to go on a run with Andrew everyday. (he is doing cross country!!) he is much faster than us so he ended up getting lost a few times.. it was fun trying to find him. He didn't really need finding cause he didn't stay lost forever. My sister ran with us too but she took the picture so she's not in it.. sad.