O Christmas Trees

We had a fun time at our squadron's Christmas tree cutting party this year.  We were a little late getting there (thanks to Reid's nap and getting a little lost because Phil and I both thought the other one knew where we were going), so it was kind of a quick trip, but it was fun to see everyone and we got two really nice trees.  It was pretty cold that day up in the mountains (about 20 degrees, I think), but the sun was out and it was a really pretty day.  I was kind of surprised at the amount of snow... we haven't had snow since November and I didn't think there would be much up there at all.  There was a lot more snow than I thought, but it was really hard and crunchy.  Here are some pics from when we first showed up.  There was a nice fire going and hot cocoa and treats!

Reid was all snuggly in his bear hat and front pack.  :)

Here's J trying to make and throw a snowball...

Heading off into the woods to find our trees...

J's hat is a little big and kept falling over his eyes!

The boys loved walking on the crunchy snow, but it was slow-going because every so often they would fall through and stumble.

So here's Dad trying to get them to walk in the tire tracks, which were hard-packed and much easier to walk in....

Guess who obeyed right away and who wanted to be a rebel?  Ha-ha!

We walked quite a ways up several hills looking for good trees.  I found one fairly early on but kept on trucking a little bit more.  Then I got tired from punching my feet through the crunchy snow (Reid was still in the front pack), so I stayed back by the tree I wanted and let Phil go on ahead to find another one. When he found it he yelled for me to come look at it, but I just didn't have the energy.  I just yelled back at him, "I trust your judgement!  Just cut the darn thing!"  :)  Here he is hauling our trees back down the hill...

Then we all trudged back to the campsite and hung out and chatted with everyone for a while.  Here are some of the squadron ladies that were there...

This is my friend Andrea who just had a baby girl a few weeks ago.  With all of our sicknesses and busy days I hadn't even seen her baby yet!  And I really couldn't see her very well that day because she was all bundled up in the cold.  But I have since been able to snuggle her and she is such a cutie!

And here are our trees at home all decked out in lights.  First is the one Phil picked.  It is a perfect shape and the needles are almost like rosemary.  Really cool.  Good choice, Phil!

And here is the one I picked.  Of course it is huge and way too big for our room.  We cut about two feet off of the bottom.  I really love how sparse and tall and skinny it is.

I still haven't put any ornaments on the trees, and to tell you the truth I think I'm going to be a big Scrooge this year and not decorate the trees.  With Christmas next weekend it just doesn't seem worth the effort!  I can't believe I just said that!  I think I burned myself out too early with the decorating this year.  I kind of want to pack it all away already.  What is wrong with me??  The trees look beautiful with just lights, though, and the boys don't miss the ornaments so I think it's all good.   :)

Cute, Cute, Cute!

Jackson's school picture this year... 4 years old.  Love this boy!

Reid in his Christmas pajamas in front of our tree... getting so big!

Squinting for the flash again!

And this video of Emmett... I love it so much!  About halfway through the song he sees Jackson coming down the hall and goes into singing hyperspeed, either because he didn't want to miss the fun that Jackson was bringing or because he knew J might try to take over the camera.  And he was climbing up in my lap at the end to try to see himself on the camera screen.  He doesn't quite understand yet about taking the video first and then watching it.  :)  But he likes seeing himself on the camera so much that it's fairly easy to get him to perform for it.

We got two beautiful Christmas trees this year.  My favorite since we've lived in OR.  I'll share pics soon.

Happy Birthday, Phil!

Yesterday was Phil's birthday, and let me say... I am SO happy and thankful that he was born this day (well, yesterday), 35 years ago...

 

I wanted to share some of his baby pictures because (1) they're really cute,  and (B) as much as I love my UPS man, there can be no doubt based on these pictures that my boys are Phil's spawn! (Ha-ha... I do a fair amount of online shopping and we like to make jokes about the UPS man).  :)

I think he looks like Emmett in the picture above.  And how cute is that big smile below?

 

And, oh my gosh, is he not the spitting image of Reid here?  We almost died when this picture came up on our screen-saver the other day!  That's Phil's brother, Ed, next to him... they are 13 months apart!

I can totally see Emmett in this one, too...

I know everyone always says this, but Phil really is such an amazing father and husband.  And since it's his birthday I feel like I can brag about him for a little bit.  Don't get me wrong... we are not perfect or anything.  We definitely have our disagreements now and again, but he is just so patient with me and kind and loving to me (in his own way... he's not very touchy-feely, lovey-dovey, schmoopy-poopy but after 10 years of marriage I am starting to understand his love languages).  :)   I know I am not the easiest woman to live with and I am so thankful to him for being so good to me even though I can be a real pain!  And as a father... I could not have even imagined how wonderful he would be.  He spends every minute he can with our boys and just treasures them and loves them so much.  I want to cry just thinking about it.  The boys just absolutely adore their dad and I am so very thankful that they have such a wonderful role model and a father that will always love, support, encourage, and accept them no matter what.  So thank you, Phil, for being such a wonderful you!  We love you so much!

Phil loves carrot cake and pretty much every year I make him a cake from Ina Garten's carrot cake cupcake recipe.  I don't know what happened, but this year it was a complete disaster.  The cakes basically exploded in the oven and made a huge mess and the entire house smelled like burnt carrot cake for the whole day.  I had planned on taking cupcakes to his work and making a cake for home that night, but I barely salvaged the cake.  There was no way I was taking those embarrassing cupcakes to his work!  There are some crazy good Martha Stewart wives in our squadron.  Anyway, here's what the pans looked like after I scraped the cakes out...

And here's the sad cake after scraping it out of the pan... huge crater in the middle.  I thought I had high-altitude baking kind of figured out, but I guess not.

Luckily it looked a little better after being frosted and it tasted good, so I guess that's what counts.  And the boys still loved singing to Daddy.

We got the boys ready for bed and then went out by ourselves for a little bite and some Christmas shopping. Here's Phil and his twin right before Reid's bath....

We love you, Phil!!

November in a Nutshell

As I was uploading pictures for this post I was wondering where on earth November went.  Seriously!  I don't even know what we did the whole month, but now it's gone!  I do know that we have all been passing around colds to each other since about the beginning of October.  It seems like J gets sick, then R, then E, then Phil and I.  Every time.  It is so frustrating!  Phil is fighting his second cold right now and I am praying that that is the last of it for a while.  Usually we are very healthy... I don't know what is up this year.  Anyway, here are some things that have been going on in our lives lately.  Not too many great pics because it's hard to take pictures when you're feeling and looking poopy and/or wiping noses and holding sick babies all day!

I realized the other day that I never posted any other pictures of J playing soccer.  Most of his games were either during naptime or right at bedtime, so Phil usually took J to his games while I stayed home to let E and R sleep.  And Phil was not really keen on taking the camera with him and taking pictures during the games.  ;)  Soccer was quite the emotional roller coaster this year.  J got sick right after that first practice that I wrote about, and then did not want to play at ALL at his second practice or first game.  So we started thinking that this whole season was just a wash and that we would just take him to the games and practices when we could to let him get used to the whole thing.  Well, Phil took him to a game right after Halloween when he was feeling all better and he started running and playing right away and even scored a goal!  After that Phil said J would usually run around and chase after the ball a little but not always focus and play like he was supposed to.  But he seemed to really enjoy it once he was feeling better so we'll probably try it again next year.  Anyway, on to pictures...

We have a family of deer living behind our house.  It seems like there might be a daddy, mommy, and baby or two.  So cute.

We were (thankfully) well enough one gorgeous Saturday to attend a birthday party for one of our friends.  We went on a fun hayride around the neighborhood...

... and were so proud of J when he actually allowed himself to be blindfolded and took a few swings at the pinata!  He would never do this before (the blindfolded part, at least) and had to watch for several minutes before deciding he wanted to try.  But he did it!

Oh, Reid... he totally melts our hearts.  He is still just the sweetest baby ever.  Except for right after he wakes up.  He is like Mr. Hyde before he gets his mommy milk and Dr. Jekyll afterwards.  It's like flipping a switch.  :) He just looked so cute hanging out on the floor right before baths the other evening that I had to snap some pics.  He's so chunky here!

He was squinting his eyes to avoid the flash... so funny!

 

Look at that soaked shirt...  his spitting up is getting better, but he has been drooling like crazy!  Like I said, this was taken right before we stripped him down for a bath.  

 

He has started babbling and making "Da-da" and "Ma-ma" sounds.  "Da-da" happens more than "Ma-ma."  Standard.  :)  And he is cruising around everywhere!  He's getting really fast at crawling and cruising.  He's been standing and cruising with only one hand holding on and we are wondering how soon he'll start walking.  Seems like he's ready!

 

My mom and dad sent J and E some Thanksgiving stickers and they had so much fun sticking them all over their clothes. :)

I asked J to smile and he did this... preschool gang sign?  :)

The boys all love these bar stools.  I think they feel like they're their own personal forts or something.
 

 

Doesn't Reid look so grown-up here?  I cannot believe he is almost a one-year-old!

Here's J showing off the turkey and pumpkin he made at school.  I took pictures of them so I wouldn't feel so bad getting rid of them.  Is that bad?  We don't have the biggest house and I don't know where to keep all of this stuff!

We spent a quiet Thanksgiving at home with just our family this year.  It was different, but nice, too.  The boys were a little under the weather that day, but a few days later they started to feel a little better and played outside together for about an hour without any issues!  It was a really nice day and they loved jumping on the trampoline and pushing each other in this car.

Yes, Emmett has his shoes off.  He loves to be barefoot and sometimes it's just easier not to fight it!

Reid was eating lunch while all of this was going on outside...

Here's E picking up leaves and pretending they are gas for the car. He put them in the hood part in the front and I asked J what they were doing and he said, "We need to get more gas for the car!"  Look at how "green" and earth-friendly my boys are...  pretending their car runs on leaves!  Blech!  :)

E wanted me to take his picture here with his brown bear slippers on.  And look at that cute shirt that I found at Old Navy!  Phil's jet is nicknamed the "mighty eagle" so I thought it was perfect.  Even if the jet on the front is an F-16 instead of an F-15 like it should be.  Still cute.  I was even able to get one for all three boys so they can match!  You know I love that.

At school before Thanksgiving they asked J for his recipe to cook a turkey and these are the responses he gave.  I thought it was funny that he included "go to somebody's house and wait for people."  We obviously go to other people's houses to eat a lot!  He's been doing this funny thing lately where he sticks his lower jaw out when he smiles.  It cracks us up!

Okay, the other day the boys were all playing on the floor separately but nicely while I was folding laundry and I thought I'd take a picture.  So I get up to get the camera and all heck breaks loose!  Here's E doing his standard, "NO, Reid!" pose with his arm and fingers outstretched.  He hates when Reid touches his things.  Ugh.

And then right after this picture was taken E tried to push Reid away from his trains and ended up knocking R backwards into the bucket.  R was fine and since I saw the whole thing go down I was able to discipline E accordingly, but this sibling rivalry is SO frustrating!  I really hope it gets a little better as E gets older and a little more patient.

And did you know that Gordon and Henry were present at the birth of Jesus?  I don't know if it was J or E who put those there, but it cracked me up!

I decorated for Christmas right before Thanksgiving this year and it is so nice to have it all done at the beginning of December.  I did a lot of different things this year and used different colors (blue, green, gold, silver, and a little pink) and it was a lot of work.  And it always takes a lot longer than it should because I try to do most things during naps or after bedtime or when Phil is home.  Halfway through a project like this I always think, "Ugh... this is so much work!  Why do I do this to myself??"  But I love it and am (usually) always happy when I'm done so I try to push through.  :)  We are going to cut down a Christmas tree this weekend and hopefully I can get it together and get some good pics of that.  I am really going to try to be better about taking pictures this new year!