Christmas happenings

We had quite the experience (read frustration) putting up our tree this year. Our pre-lit Christmas tree was spotty at best and so one by one I clipped off all the lights. It took more than 4 hours. After a trip to Fred Meyers we had a string of lights and we were up and running. The boys helped hang the ornaments too. Every night Nathaniel was in charge of turning the lights off before bed. He took his job seriously. We continued spent the afternoon creating graham cracker houses with my friend's daughter Jourdan. We made it to Zoo Lights. It was super crowded since it wasn't raining and not too cold. We parked in the overflow lot and walked a good mile to the zoo. They didn't have the train this year but lots more lights to look at. The boys had fun with their cousins. We had a tough time managing the crowd on the way out and got split up. We were thankful once we found each other. We spent time with Ken's family: We spent time with my family (even if some of them were skyped in from Peru): The boys enjoyed opening presents. And much more went on, including me picking up a contract job for a few days at the end of the year. We were busy.

Anybody still out there?

I'm sooo sorry I haven't posted anything lately. I guess we've been that busy :( I'll try to catch you up quickly.

Turkey Day

A little slow to post... ooops! We had a fun Thanksgiving Day with Uncle Stevie and Aunt Betsy. They invited us to join her family in Idaho and the boys were excited about another road trip. The drive itself went pretty smooth even though we didn't have OMA keeping the boys busy. I ran around the night before we left and tried to gather a few toys that would keep their interest on the way out. We thought that we would hit a McD's on the way up to run off a little energy, but apparently there is no McD's from Kennewick to Pullman. Can you believe it? 3 hour drive with NO golden arches! Shocking! Aunt Betsy's sister hosted the feast and made a fantastic meal. My only complaint was feeling like a munchkin around all those 6ft tall people. The kids had fun playing together... 5 kids under 6 years old provides lots of chaos! Believe it or not, I actually took an after turkey snoozer while Ken watched football with the guys. We stayed in a hotel and took advantage of the swimming pool each day. Nate got to show off his swimming skills to Daddy who was very impressed.

Making breakfast

My little guy is growing up! He is now responsible for making his own breakfast (waffles, bagel, or cinnamon toast). He loves making breakfast for the whole family :-) And we always make breakfast a little more interesting by finding something to drink.

Swim lessons

Swim lessons is mostly what we've been up to. Every other day. But we are excited about the progress they are making. Logan is much more comfortable and can get his face wet (finally!). Nathaniel can swim the width of the pool alternating between the crawl stroke and rolling onto his back with "wings and kicks" when he gets tired.

Building projects

The first Saturday of every month we like to drop by the local hardware store and bam-bam-bam the hammer (as Logan calls it). The boys made an exciting pilgrim boat and even got to paint it!