Our First Christmas at Home

We had our very first Christmas at home. We missed family immensely, but Santa Claus still found us.

Josh and Brad made a haul! Brad got a toy car garage and some choo choo train stuff, and Josh got the kitchen he wanted.

In the video are a few fun moments from Christmas morning. Josh cracked me up when he opened the food for his kitchen. Listen for his first "Oh man!". So cute! He was sooo excited to get that food!

More Christmas Pictures

Josh cookin' in his kitchen. He loves to cook and has been using his workbench to do it. Now he has the proper set up.


Troy surprised me with some great clothes he shopped for all by himself. (He did an excellent job I might add). I also got a big huge griddle so I can cook more than two french toast at a time. Yeah!


Troy wanted some good steak knives and a big huge flashlight. He also got himself and the kids "Dance Dance Revolution" (you can see the mats in the other pictures). He loves any music with a dance beat and so does Dallon. Dallon is really good at this game. It will be fun to have two dance mats so we can do it together. I like this video game because you don't sit down to play it (hehe).


Josh and Brad with his toy garage. You can't beat Fisher Price toys! This has been a hit not only Brad, but for Josh too. It has a car wash, gas station, car repair shop, car elevator, car ramp and a big hill. Fun! I had a Fisher Price garage when I was little. Fond memories.


Brad wanted this picture taken of him. Funny kid.


When I ask Josh what his favorite thing is that Santa Claus brought him, he always says, "My kitchen."


Probably Brad's favorite toy...his Choo Choo Bridge. He's just now getting into choo choo trains like Josh did at his age. This was a good investment that Troy started with Dallon. I love good toys! It's hard to break these choo choo tracks, and you can make a different choo choo track every time you play!

Snow, Snow, and More Snow!

For Christmas we received so much snow! The weatherman said it's the most snow Seattle has received since 1861! "Yes," he said, "that was an 18 and not a 19!"
Josh and I tried building a snowman...but if you know Seattle snow, it doesn't pack very well. We tried everything, even squirting the snow with a squirt bottle to try and make it stick together. Josh said, "Daddy do it." So sure enough, Daddy was able to do it. He also tried starting the snowman from a snowball, but the snowball never got bigger than in the picture. Instead, he piled up a huge mound of snow and carved the snowman out of the mound. What a great idea! I had so much fun watching them figure out how to get that snowman built together. They worked so hard. Josh couldn't have been more proud! Good job Josh and Dad!
In addition to the whole week of snow we received before Christmas, it snowed all of Christmas Eve and all of Christmas Day. With the huge trees around here, I felt like I was snowed in at some lodge. It was so beautiful! A very unusual site up here. We were glad we were home for the holidays to see it.

Handel's Messiah

I grew up listening to Handel's Messiah at Christmas time. My mom used to play it starting on Thanksgiving day in the morning while she cooked. I have grown to absolutely love it over the years!
The last 3 or 4 years I have been able to play my violin in a Messiah sing-a-long that our stake puts on with two other adjoining stakes. This year's performance was this past Sunday. It was absolutely spectacular! The soloists they found for the solo parts were incredible. We have some amazing talent in our stakes up here. One of our soloists sings with the Seattle Opera, so you can imagine how good he is. Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas for me without the inspired music of Handel's Messiah. Enjoy!

Lucky, Lucky Boys

We just had a visit from Grama Nell. The boys are lucky, lucky, lucky to have such a wonderful Grandma! When Grama Nell comes, it's play time the whole week. She spends from the time they wake in the morning until the time they go to sleep at night playing with them. They really miss her when she leaves. This visit she worked with Josh at his workbench a lot. One of their projects was building a fort. Very cool! Grama Nell knew how to build very cool forts! Hmmm...(she must have gotten lots of experience from raising three boys of her own). We also had a Christmas party with her since we wouldn't be going home for Christmas this year. Oh, and yes, we had a very yummy Thanksgiving dinner with her. Thanks for the visit Grama Nell! You are awesome! We love you!

Nursery for Bradley!

We've started calling Brad "Bradley". Josh started calling him that and it has stuck. Anyway, so Bradley had his very first day in Nursery. I thought he would go into Nursery very easily because of his mild disposition and because Josh would be in there with him. Well, he did. He's a happy camper in Nursery. Here are some pictures of him before the other kids got there.





He immediately knew what to do! I think he will fit right in! Nursery toys are yummy!





He built a "big tower", his favorite thing.




The nursery leaders said that Josh was so sweet to Bradley and would say things like, "Bradley, come sit by me!" Good to hear since I expected, or should I say, feared, a little less brotherly love and a little more sibling rivalry.

Happy Halloween!

Every year when Halloween is done, I wish I would've dressed up. Well, I'm two for two! I dressed up last year and I dressed up this year. Yea for Tammy! I guess having kids has made me more fun! I talked to my sister-in-law a few days before Halloween and she mentioned a really cute idea for Halloween costumes she had seen in the "Family Fun" magazine. Thanks Seila! So I looked it up online and got out my sewing machine. Funny thing, I had almost all the stuff I needed to make our costumes in my house. Bonus!! We were S'mores!



Josh was the campfire.





Brad was the marshmallow. What a perfect little guy to be the marshmallow.





Dad was the graham cracker and mom was the chocolate bar!





We roasted Brad over the campfire.




We had a blast! Look how happy Josh was being a campfire.



We went trick-or-treating to all of Josh's Nursery Leader's homes. Three in all. Then we went to the house of some people on our street who spend all month building a spook alley leading up to their door. We've never gone to their house before, and wow was it good! They really have fun on Halloween! Josh's favorite part of Halloween is to answer our own door and give out candy to the trick-or-treaters, so we came home quickly to do this.

We also brewed some Witch's Brew. I remember when I was little and my oldest brother, Big Mont, did this. I can still picture the fog moving across the floor. I wanted to do this with Josh. He loved it, and it was a big hit with both Josh and Brad. Josh spent the rest of the night stirring the brew. He showed everyone who came to the door his brew. We hopefully made some good memories for him.






Josh tending the brew. What's he putting in there?








Are those eyeballs I see?





When it was all done, it tasted frighteningly yummy!






Our scary house and Dad's prize winning pumpkin. (He beat out Josh and Brad for 1st place)!







Look at that face. Pretty darn good, huh?

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

Punkins' and Pumpkins

Pumpkin Patch!!!

I love fall more and more each year. It's especially fun with my lil' punkins around. I love showing them the world. This fall it hasn't rained as much as usual, so the leaves are still fluffy. We took a trip to the pumpkin patch and all of us had a great time! Here are some pictures from the PUMPKIN PATCH!

Josh was excited to choose a pumpkin.

Brad was excited too.

He took his 'job' very seriously and headed off.

He started moving pumpkins.

He moved lots and lots of pumpkins. I think he really liked his 'assignment.'

Josh found one he liked, but would that be 'the one?'

Brad moved a BIG pumpkin!

I think Josh found his!

Yep!

Very nice!

Brad finally found one he fell in love with! I think it's a keeper!


Dad chose a huge one! Fun day! Now we just have to carve 'em!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Today is my dad's birthday. He is 76!

Happy Birthday Dad!

From,
All of us

First one!

this is our first blog post...not much to say other than, wow!