2010 in review

January.

We welcomed 2010 in with my parents. We came up with a great way to celebrate the holidays with our families and make sure we're not spending the whole time in the car. I think this will be the plan for many years to come!

February.

Andrew fell in love with trains! He played with trains, carried trains everywhere we went, watched trains on TV... We decided to go to Seattle and play around for a bit to give him the chance to ride the monorail since he loved trains to much.

March.

We finally found a church we love and were excited to be able to have our boys dedicated. Our pastor and his wife had their youngest son dedicated at the same service and ended up standing by us. There were around 15 families up on stage, so it's just kind of fun that we ended up by them.

April.

Matt took Andrew fishing for the first time and Andrew caught a fish!

May.

Andrew fell in love with pirates for a while. I decided it was the perfect excuse to have friends over for a little pirate party. :)

June.

Mason turned one!

Andrew went to his first movie - Toy Story 3.

July.

July was a busy month for us. We were lucky enough to go on two vacations - one with the Dyk/Miller family to Lake Entiat and one with Michael & Leslie's family to Mason Lake.

We also got the report back from Mason's evaluation at UW stating he's doing great and that his hypothyroidism isn't causing any concerns!

August.

We spent the day at Alki with a group of our bff's. This was one of the highlights of the summer for sure.

September.

Andrew moved into the pre-K class! Mason also moved out of the baby room. Both boys loved the change.

We also celebrated our 10th anniversary.

October.

Andrew went on his first field trip and I got to go along. His class went to Remlinger Farm.

November.

Andrew turned four!

December.

We went to Seattle to do some fun Christmas stuff and 'lucked out' to be at Nordstrom for a flash mob! We got a great spot - we were surrounded by singers! It was amazing.

Looking forward to 2011.

unexpected snow day

It was kind of fun to wake up to a crazy snow day this morning. We have 2 - 3 inches and it's still snowing off and on. I don't love the snow but I do think it's pretty. If it goes away tonight like it's expected to, it'll be the perfect snow day...

I can't help it, I think they're cute

I took 286 pictures in three days. I realize that's a lot of pictures, but I can't help it. My camera is small enough to have with me everywhere I go. And everywhere I go, I find my boys to be really, really cute.

This was my attempt to get a family picture before we headed out to grandma & grandpa's house. Andrew didn't want to be in at first but then changed his mind and tried to get in before the timer. So close!

There is a store in Ellensburg that sells mismatched socks and gloves. This year all the ladies got a pair of these fun socks in our stockings - this is my attempt to get a picture of us being rad.

This is Mason trying to get my attention while I was trying to get a picture of our socks...

These next two pictures crack me up. I asked Andrew if he wanted to be in a picture with me and Mason and he actually said yes. So he moved over and put his arms around us, but when I took the picture he ducked out and pushed us together.

Andrew's superhero hand... Of course Mason has one too because he loves to copy Andrew.

I love this.

Superhero brothers in John Deere hats.

We went to lunch at a restaurant that gives out the biggest balloons ever. When we got back home Andrew let them go for Jesus' birthday (all his idea). He even sang a quick version of Happy Birthday as they went up. :0)

Mason loves accessories. It's crazy, but he really does. I can't wear a hat without having one ready for him. "Socks" was one of his first words, followed by "shoes". How could he resist these bad boys?

building a barn...

The day after Christmas, Matt and his dad got to work on their new barn.

And the perfect sign to go over the new barn door: my barn my rules. :o)

white Christmas

It didn't snow on Christmas but there was plenty of snow to play in!

Going for a ride on the snowmobile was the highlight of the day, by far, for Andrew.

from Christmas sweaters to pj's...

Next stop: grandma & grandpa's house to be spoiled with gifts, delicious food and lots of love...

We had another wonderful Christmas with the Dyks and the Millers. As usual, the boys started the day all dressed up, got a bit more casual (fairly quickly), and ended in pj's. I guess that's how you know it was a good day! :)

it's Christmas

Andrew walked into our room at 6:30 and whispered "it's Christmas......it's Christmas!"

(this was the best I could get of the boys in their Christmas pj's - it's a little much to ask them to pose with all that good stuff waiting to be opened...)

We had a wonderful Christmas morning. Both boys were having fun opening a gift and playing with it for a minute before moving on to the next one. Once they were all opened we had breakfast and headed to grandma & grandpa's house.

I'm too excited to sleep

Andrew fell asleep a little later than usual tonight. Partly because he asked to watch both Frosty the Snowman shows and partly because he's very excited! It's hard to say who is more excited though - we can't wait for the morning!

After the boys were asleep we packed up all the presents for Christmas with the Dyk family (tomorrow, after we open gifts at home) and moved in all the gifts for the boys. Matt had the great idea to wrap all the presents for Andrew in one type of paper and Mason's in another. The only problem is it makes it obvious that the present ratio isn't exactly even... That's okay though, Mason will be slower and will be so excited about his basketball and new broom he probably won't make it through the rest...

I hope your home is filled with the excitement of Christmas and that you take a moment to remember the reason we celebrate. To quote my friend Joe: happy birthday, Jesus. (I'm pretty sure he meant it sincerely!) :) Good night!

Mary changed her profile picture

I love this!

24 days of fun stuff

We had a lot of fun counting down to Christmas this year. It's not so easy to think of things for a 1 1/2 year old to do, so most of the events were more for Andrew. However, it turns out that if Andrew is doing it - Mason loves it! In fact, there were times when Mason had more fun than Andrew, even though he didn't really know what was going on. :)

We're all very excited for tomorrow morning. Christmas is going to be awesome this year!

Our 2010 Christmas countdown:

24 days 'til Christmas: candy canes!
23: decorate
22: Christmas movie night
21: watch Santa arrive in town
20: Angel tree
19: s'mores
18: paper snowflakes
17: Botanical Gardens
16: get our tree
15: visit Santa
14: fun Seattle stuff
13: gingerbread man
12: carols
11: Snowflake Lane
10: caramel apples
9: get Mason's gift
8: living room camp-out
7: Candy Cane Lane
6: letter to Santa
5: ice cream cone trees
4: wrap presents
3: felt gingerbread boy
2: decorate cookies
Christmas Eve: open 'brother' gifts

our Christmas Eve tradition

Christmas morning is going to rock!

seriously?!

We had to switch up a couple events today because we were one egg short of being able to make cookies. Sound familiar? The last time I tried to bake, my mixer tipped over and broke my pie crust then I realized I only had one stick of butter instead of two for my cookies. I double checked we had everything we needed for these cookies a week or so ago and we had plenty of eggs and butter. But then I made a big breakfast on Sunday and used all but 2 eggs. We were still good. For some reason I got up early today so I decided to make Matt an egg sandwich. We were still good because the recipe only calls for one egg, but then I got the great idea to make myself an egg sandwich for lunch. Seriously? I probably haven't done that since the summer. Why today? And why didn't I remember I needed an egg?!!

Anyway, Andrew chose switching up the days and wrapped presents rather than going to the store to buy eggs.

This is just a funny picture I caught. I'd hate for you to read my sad story and not have something fun to look at in return...