Surprise Story Time Guest

The Chelan Public Library has story time 2x a week. We usually make it to at least one of the sessions, and Tristan is typically pretty hyper. He'll sit down on his story square for about half of a book, and then he's up and moving. Today at story time there was a special guest. I'm not sure if it was because there was a strange man with a big, white beard, or if it was because there were 5x as many kids there, or maybe because he'd just woken up from his nap, but Tristan was very sober the whole time! He curled up with Ashlyn to listen to the stories.

He participated in the songs.

And was perfectly content to sit on Santa's knee.

(Tristan and I sledded down to the library, that's why he's in his snow pants.)

A special treat!

Sweet Baby Boys

Tristan likes to give Wade rides on his bike.

He always says "Me hugga Wade"

Kisses

Last night Kevin and Julianne hosted a couple's holiday party. Eric babysat his niece and nephews while Shawn, DeAnne, Jason, and I went to the party. When we got back, Eric had both of our boys sleeping on his chest.

Tristan has just moved into a new developmental stage of play. He likes to feed his stuffed monkey, put it to bed, make it go potty, dress it up, talk to it, etc. The monkey even prayed with us tonight! Tristan kept on bringing clothes for me to dress the monkey in. He's all set for the snow outside with his snow boots, jacket, hat, and mittens. Tristan even let monkey use his binky!!

Tristan wanted his monkey to say cheese while he took a couple of pictures of it. This was one of the few pictures that Tristan took that actually turned out.

Cody Walks

Some of you may know Cody Vaughan, aka Dirty Doug. He is treking across the country and decided to raise some money for "Doctors without Borders" while he's at it. He started in the Pacific Ocean, literally, and has gone close to 700 miles so far. He is pushing a stroller which holds his belongings. He has been able to walk to some meetings, even! He is currently in New Mexico. If you want to follow his journey, his sister, Clover, is updating a blog with what is happening to him. http://www.codywalks.blogspot.com/ You can also view his fundraising page. http://www.firstgiving.com/charitywalk

Special Meeting

We had the privilege of our Special Meeting yesterday. We were a little late because we helped some of the friends with vehicle problems, but we made it and were fed. We were so lucky to have Carolyn there!

I just wanted to share a couple of the thoughts that I really appreciated.

*We need to keep our hands clean and our heart pure. God is working a work, and we need to keep our dirty hands out of it.

*If we truly love something with all of our heart, we are not ashamed of it.

*If a piece is missing from a puzzle, it does not reflect the true image of the picture on the box. If we are holding back a piece of our life from God, our life is not a true reflection of Christ.

*We practice full immersion baptism, because we want it to affect every part of our life.

First Snow!!!

First, a couple of random pictures. Tristan has gotten into lining everything up. Here he lines up his cars. He was playing so nicely by himself, and of course when I snuck up to take a picture, it snapped him out of his nice playing. Then he just wanted me to hold him.

The boys like to go for rides in the laundry basket. In the background is Jason's friend, Chris, from high school. He came and stayed with us for 4 days. He is in the Navy and just got his wings. It was fun to hear his fighter pilot stories, well what he was allowed to share anyway, as some of it is classified.

It snowed most of Friday and Saturday, so we had fun playing in our first snow of the season!! We hooked up the sled to the back of the van and drove through our neighorhood.


It was lots of fun!!!

Tristan loved making snowballs and throwing them!

My little snowmen!

Baby's second snow. (It snowed the middle of March last year when he was a couple of weeks old.)

2 Reasons Why We Rarely Have Spaghetti....Even Though We Really Like It

Messy Wade

Messy Tristan....and this picture was taken after we'd already washed him up once.

I am starting to learn though.....I make sure that we don't have spaghetti on Wed. night before meeting (I did that once! What was I thinking???) and I also take off their shirts.

Wade was left to sit in the high chair while I washed up Tristan. He didn't like it, and he started crying. When he cries he rubs his eyes. When he rubs his eyes with spaghetti all over him, he gets spaghetti all over his face and hair and even into his eyes. Spaghetti in his eyes makes him cry more. Crying more makes him rub his eyes more. Rubbing his eyes more....well I think you get the picture. And of course, rather than wisking him out of the high chair and washing him up right away, I stop to take a picture!


I love blogging! When you have messes or things don't go quite as you would like, there is always a silver lining. I can always say to myself, this will make a great post! This is what blogs are made for! :)

Waders

He likes to play under his high chair, because sometimes he can find a little surprise snack that he dropped earlier!

He likes to play with cars, and today he really wanted to jump right in. I thought it was cute that his outfit fits right in.

Caleb's Birthday

Caleb turned 3 on Saturday. DeAnne made a beautiful Curious George cake.

Opening presents.

Tristan showing me the monkey.

The kids had to try out his new 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed game.

Elf Yourself 3

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Elf Yourself 2

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Elf Yourself

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Holiday Plans

Well, it's finally official. We bought our plane tickets today. We are going to South Carolina over the holidays. Cammy and Garrett both live there, and mom and dad are going to drive down and meet us, too. It should be a great 1.5 weeks! Hopefully the weather is warm! We haven't flown with two lap babies before, so hopefully the plane ride will be ok. We do have one quick stop, so I hope the boys aren't bothered by take offs and landings! Now that we have to pay for checked bags, I'm worried about how to pack to make sure that we have what we need. I'm assuming that if we brought car seats, we'd have to pay to check them. We are going to try to borrow some from Cammy's friends in SC so we don't have to drag them along. Any tips for me?

Thanksgiving

Ashlyn made the boys pilgrim hats. Tristan kept on calling his an airplane.

For Thanksgiving this year, the whole family went over to the Buckingham's in Thompson Falls, MT. Tristan is talking into a dental floss "phone."

Everyone helped get ready for the big feast.

One of the two tables.


Tristan and Ashlyn play follow the leader.



And then they play horsey.



Out for a walk in beautiful MT.

The Buckinghams vs the Sandersons

Uncle Burt putting Wade to sleep.

We rode on Mandy's horse, Whisper.

Wade's turn.

Tristan giving Whisper a kiss.

Olive king

Wade being put to sleep by Mandy's grandma, Anne.

Everyone was coming home with beautiful 4-point bucks. The garage was full of them! Robbie got a 4-pt, Burt got a 4-pt, their cousin got one, Burt got a doe, Johnny got a 2-pt mule deer, Mandy got this one, and Mandy's dad got one that looks like a twin to this one. They were all hanging in the garage.

The whole crew after Sunday morning meeting.

I will attempt at labeling this picture from left to right:

Brian, Johnny, Mandy holding Wade, Rob, Me holding Tristan, Jason, Leah and Ashlyn, Julie, Carolyn, Uncle Burt, Mom, Auntie Jay, Dad, Cody, Eric, Shawn holding Caleb, and DeAnne