Oops, We Did it Again.

We picked out Christmas trees that are way too big for our house. In our defense, it is really hard to find good-looking small trees out in the forest. All of the ones that are full and nicely shaped are at least 20 feet tall. And we forgot to bring a tape measure with us like we've been saying we would all year long. Oh, well. We still had a really fun day and ended up with two beautiful trees.

This was Jackson's first experience with snow this year. Really, it was his first true experience with snow at all, because we didn't have very much snow last year and he had trouble walking around in it and wasn't a big fan.

Boy, was this year different! As soon as we set him down on the ground, he was off and running. He absolutely loved it and was pretty annoyed with me when I made him stand still for a few seconds to take a family picture.


Emmett was very snuggly and warm. Phil's aunt bought Jackson this snowsuit for Christmas one year, but he was too big for it by the time we lived in cold weather. It fits Emmett perfectly, though, so I'm sure he'll get a lot of use out of it this winter.


We picked out our trees pretty soon after we got there and it was a good thing, too, because it started to get dark right after Phil hauled in the second tree.


Here's a short video of Phil being a good sport. He had to haul that tree pretty far... thanks to my pickiness. I walked quite a ways into the woods before I found one to my liking. :)




After dark we all huddled around the campfire and drank some cocoa. My friend Rocky makes the best cocoa in the world. I look forward to it every year. It is amazing how drastic the temperature drop is when the sun goes down. About an hour after dark Jackson walked up to me, held out his gloved hand and said, "Hand!" in a very sad voice. His hands were really cold. So we walked over to the minivan to warm up for a minute and he took one look at the van and said, "Home!" and started to cry a little. Needless to say, we left right after that! :)


Cocoa mouth...


Just in case you're curious, here are the trees in our house before...


...and after some pruning and trimming...


They take up a ton of space in our rooms, but it's only for one month once a year, right?

I realized the other day that I never posted about Thanksgiving. In addition to all of our numerous blessings of family, friends, health, happiness, etc. that we are truly thankful for, we are very blessed to have some great friends out here. So many of us wanted to get together for the holiday that we had to rent out a dining hall on base to accommodate everyone. There were about 55 people there total. We had so much yummy food... it was a great time.


Someone pulled out a karaoke machine after dinner and the little girls immediately flocked to it.


This is my friend, Lana, with Jackson. She is such an amazing person... beautiful, outgoing, fun, thoughtful (she would truly give you the shirt off her back, even if it was freezing outside!), and great with kids. Jackson just loves her, and it is so wonderful to have a friend who loves your kid right back. She's funny, too... on Thanksgiving she said to me as Jackson walked by, "Ohhhh, I just want to marry him." :)


And, as if this post wasn't long enough, here are some random pictures that Phil took of the boys the other day. First, the just-having-woken-up blank stare...


Playing together after breakfast...


Being silly...


I thought Emmett looked so grown up in this picture. It almost made me cry!


And then this picture made me laugh. I bought this hat last year before E was born. It's 6-12 months and is obviously a little too small for Mr. Tubbo. :)


Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are enjoying the Christmas season so far!

Over the Mountain and Through the Woods...

...to TJ Maxx, Sears, Target, Costco, and Starbucks we go. Phil and I loaded up the kiddos and went to Medford today to do a little shopping. Yes, I know it's a Tuesday and no, Phil wasn't playing hooky from work. I asked if he would take a few days off this week to spend some time with us, since we've been pretty busy since he got back from Boise. That's one of the best things about his job here... he can take leave almost whenever he wants. It's wonderful.

We had a really nice family day today. The mountain pass was not too snowy or icy and fairly easy to get through, J and E slept well there and back, so Phil and I were able to spend some time just chatting with each other, and both boys were really good in the stores. We never had to wear Emmett in the carrier even once. He was happy to just sit in the cart. Of course, I took some pictures of that...


This is probably the last year we can put Jackson in the cart with his Christmas present. We were pretty sure he'd forget about it as soon as we got back in the car. He did.


Costco has extra-big carts with space for two kiddos in the front. Perfect!


Before we left, Jackson was walking around the house with his trapper hat on backwards. Of course, we took some pictures of that, too...


We asked him to smile for this picture and he closed his eyes instead.


This is one video that I know we will treasure forever. It is one of my favorites for sure.

Football PJ's and Fudd

It's been quite chilly here this weekend... and windy, too. The boys and I went to a craft fair on Friday and the wind almost took my car door off of the hinges when I opened it. It was so crazy strong that the back hatch door of the minivan wouldn't even open when I pushed the button. I had to actually get out and open it manually! Snow has been in the forecast almost every day, but hasn't made a strong showing yet, unfortunately. Jackson just got a new snowsuit in the mail the other day and I'm anxious to see him in it!

Emmett had a really good day today. He actually took a 1-1/2 hour nap in the morning and about a 2-1/2 hour one in the afternoon! It was glorious!! Oh, how I wish he would do that every day.

I had stopped giving Emmett solid foods for a week or so because he had started fighting me about it and his pediatrician said that meant that he probably wasn't fully ready and not to force it. Well, he's definitely ready now. He lunges for the spoon now and wolfs down whatever I offer him. I've even started giving him Cheerios and he gums them pretty well. Tonight I fed him some peas and rice cereal for dinner and then put a pile of Cheerios next to my plate to let him munch on while I finished my meal. He would work on the one Cheerio in his mouth, swallow it, and then lean over and stare at the pile until I put another in his mouth. He's so funny!

He was in a good mood when he woke from his morning nap (because he actually slept for the right amount of time!), so I took some photos...


And here's Jackson in the same pj's at the same age after one of his morning naps. These pj's have about had it, though. The zipper is broken and they're stained on the inside from diaper ink. I may keep them just in case our third baby is a boy so I can put him in them at seven months just for this picture. :)


We went to gather eggs again this morning. Jackson looked so cute channeling Elmer Fudd...


He hates to leave that place. I had to almost drag him out of there today!

Here are two videos of J counting and making animal sounds. They're very similar and will probably only appeal to grandparents (and maybe aunts). :)