ice cream cone trees

Last night we made ice cream cone trees. Mason even took a second to decorate his in between bites. :)

Matt gave Andrew a couple Whoppers and Andrew basically thought it was a dumb idea. Here he is explaining to him that it's too heavy for this project. :) He ate one and gave one to Mason (because he's such a good brother).

The finished tree.

Andrew really likes doing crafty things, but unless it's coloring or painting, it has to be a pretty fast project. I've been looking online for projects for 4 year olds and quick and easy seems to be the trend. I guess he's normal.

baby, it's cold outside. sort of.

Andrew was singing at dinner and I finally realized what he was singing. :)

Maybe it's cold outside. Maybe it's cold. Or maybe it's warm...

He has just recently started really signing and paying attention to songs. It's fun.

well played, Macy's

Andrew spotted these cute little Christmas Smurfs and really, really wanted one. Matt loved the Smurfs when he was little, and even though I wasn't allowed to watch them, they're still a fun childhood memory for some reason. So, it was basically impossible to say no. Then, to make it worse, Mason picked one up and gave it a big hug. So basically we had to then buy two. The boys were so happy and they love them and we made a lot of people smile. It's the best $30 we've spent in a long time.

dear Santa

I love Macy's Santa mail stations. And it's even cooler that they donate a dollar to the Make-A-Wish foundation for every stamped letter sent to Santa.

Andrew made sure to make an "A" so he'd know it was from him. And when Matt asked him if he wanted him to write down what he wanted, Andrew told him he already did. :) All we could get out of him is that he wants 'something awesome' and the red Lego hero set.

transition

The last couple times we've gone out for dinner, Mason has ended up sitting in a regular chair. Tonight as we were getting settled at our table, Andrew told me that Mason should sit by him. So there you have it - it looks like Mason is done with highchairs. And it also seems like he might be done needing adult help. He's got it.

After dinner we headed out to Candy Cane Lane to look at the lights. This was our first year and we were not impressed. We've seen better lights and didn't have to drive into Seattle for it...

Since we were in the neighborhood-ish, we decided to go to Kerry Park. It's always fun to see the beautiful homes in that area, so overall it was still worth the drive.

8 days 'til Christmas!

Some items on our Christmas countdown chain have nothing to do with Christmas (like last night's living room camp-out)... Andrew had fun and actually went to sleep in the tent. I was fully prepared to end up in our own beds, but we made it through the night. Sadly, we have never gone camping with the boys. We tried to camp in our backyard last summer but it didn't quite work out. We're really hoping to get out this year. If nothing else, we're camping in our back yard for sure this year!

concert time!

Tonight was Andrew's Christmas concert. He took his spot in the back and stayed there the whole time. He sang some, but we couldn't hear him and at times couldn't even really see him. That's okay though - it was still the cutest thing ever.

Here's Andrew hanging out with his friends, Ashton and Koen, before the show.

Mason snuck his way into the show. :0) His class isn't part of this but I grabbed him so he could watch Andrew and have dinner with us. The kids were all just dancing around so he joined in. Then when they did Jingle Bells, they passed out bells to all the little kids and Mason snuck one of those too!

After their concert we had a potluck dinner. Andrew asked me to bring something yummy so I made crock pot mac & cheese. It turns out that noodles + 4 cups of cheddar = yummy!

snowflake lane

I've decided that Snowflake Lane is my favorite holiday tradition! And I'm pretty sure it's just as exciting for the grown ups as it is for the kids. :) An added bonus - it was by far the best snowfall ever thanks to the fact that it wasn't raining!!

carols

Tonight's activity was to Skype a couple Christmas carols for our family. Andrew has been practicing for his Christmas program and loves to sing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, so I was hoping he'd do it tonight and he did!! He even did it for all three of our lucky carol recipients, I couldn't believe it.

To get ready, we got dressed up in the sweaters from grandma Cindy. She got them after Christmas last year and when I saw size 2T and 6, I was nervous. Apparently I didn't need to be... I can't believe they fit. :(

I wasn't sure how tonight would go, so just to be sure, I recorded Andrew singing in the car. :)

gingerbread man

This year we decided to decorate a gingerbread man (instead of a house, like last year) to keep it fun and simple. This was definitely the right choice. Andrew had a good time and it took just the right amount of time. I also bought some gingerbread men cookies to eat while we decorated. If you're in the market - Trader Joe's little cookies are delicious!

Santa! I know him!

Thanks to my awesome photographer friend, and the best. Santa. ever. we got some wonderful pictures with Santa this year. I love them!

Christmas in Seattle

We went to Seattle today. It was originally going to be a busy day and then we added an additional five hours to it in order to be at Nordstrom for the awesome flash mob!! We ended up being in Seattle from 11 - 7. There were a few meltdowns, but we made it, and that's what counts...

I realize this picture doesn't seem awesome, but it is! Once the mob of singers started singing, we realized we were surrounded by them. The three people behind us in this picture were part of it! It was so cool! (thanks Brooke!)

Next we went to look at all the gingerbread houses. I took a bunch of pictures but not many turned out. So, no evidence that Brooke and the Miller family were there too.

Next on the list - the carousel.

Then, because we got there earlier than we planned, we decided to go watch Tangled. We couldn't have planned the timing better if we had tried! We all enjoyed the movie and Mason finally got to take his nap.

Then we headed straight to dinner. This was a stressful decision because we were cutting it very close to the start of the snowfall. We finished just in time and got to enjoy 4 songs worth of snow inside Pacific Place.

Here are two videos of the the flash mob. The first is a short clip to show how cool it was! The second is a longer version in case you didn't get enough with round one.

visiting Santa

Today we got to visit Santa. It was awesome because it was a fundraiser for a friend of mine who happens to be a fantastic photographer. The down side... she has to edit the pictures, so I don't get them until the 20th!! She told me they turned out great though, so that'll have to do for now.