The Countdown to Christmas!

This year I decided to do an activities-based advent with Ethan. We made a simple paper chain and inside each link was an activity. Each day we undid one link and read what our activity was. I meant to get a picture of the chain but I never did. It was a lot of fun, but a bit ambitious! I will admit, there were a lot of Christmas movie nights and a few days it just didn't work out (especially when Tristan was gone). I didn't get a picture of every activity, but here is a sampling of our countdown fun!

The first night they opened their Christmas p.j.'s and we went to have dinner with my parents. Here they are, sporting their Christmas jammies!

Love the reindeer on the tooshie!

One day we went to see Allisha, Dylan, Skyler, Caitlynn and her dad, Brian, to bake sugar cookies. Here the kids were learning how to cut out cookies.

Time for some frosting and sprinkles!
The finished product
All worn out from a day of baking!
The boys had so much fun pushing each other around in this laundry basket after their little quiet time. Talk about a second wind!
Another day Tristan, Ethan and I baked and decorated these snowman cupcakes.
One night we built a gingerbread house. I love how Ethan's lip is sticking out like he knows how yummy this is going to be!
And, yes, he was using his "digger" to help us build the house! That kids loves construction vehicles! And there are no finished product pictures because we never got it finished...oh well, maybe next year!

One morning we headed out the The Barn nursery to see Santa. If you bring your own camera you can take a free picture with Santa. I spent some time talking to Ethan about getting his picture taken with Santa and he seemed so excited. But then we got there and he was SUPER shy and wouldn't go near Santa without me! Carter didn't mind being held at all!

I finally got him to look at the camera. He liked Santa a whole lot more at the end when he got his candy cane and toothbrush!

One night our activity was a Christmas Family Home Evening with the Marlatt's. They planned a fun lesson that involved the nativity and had yummy home made Almond Roca and hot chocolate. Allisha and I ended up with the fun job of snuggling the little ones on the couch!

Tristan and Ethan with the completed nativity

One of our bigger activities was going to Zoo Lights at Point Defiance Zoo with our good friends, the Marlatt's. We went together 2 years ago when our older boys were just little so it's funny to see some of the same pictures now that both of our families have doubled in size! We were so grateful that even though it was cold, it wasn't as cold as we thought it would be!

Getting ready to head in to see the lights!

Ethan thought all the lights were great, but he loved playing at the "habitat" exhibit. Here he and Skyler are hanging out in the nest together.
One of my favorite displays with the bridges and Mt. Ranier
This is the best picture I could get of these two buddies!
Carter did great and slept for a large portion of the evening. This was right at the end of the night and you can tell he wasn't all that happy about life!
It was fun to go and spend time with friends as we counted down the days to Christmas. It was a lot of work, but I think I would like to do the chain again next year. I love the traditions we use to celebrate the holiday season's arrival!

The First Snow of the Season

In November we got our first taste of snow for the year! The trees were so pretty with their light dusting of white!

Carter was still too new to take out in the cold, but Tristan took Ethan out and I watched from Ethan's bedroom window. Tristan taught Ethan about smelling the snow:
Since we didn't have a sled, Tristan got creative and took Ethan sledding down the small slopes in our parking lot on a garbage bag! Ethan had a blast!
They built Ethan's first-ever snowman. He talked about it for days afterward!
And, of course, we had to get out the beach toys to play with! Can you tell we just moved back from the South?

Ethan and Tristan both had a great time. The only downside was that it went away quickly and Ethan asked every day for at least a week for me to "get the snow" and to "play in the snow". I had a hard time getting him to understand that I wasn't in control of it! I was glad that he got a chance to enjoy it and got to get outside and burn off some of that 2-year-old-boy-energy!

November Pics

Carter turned 2 months old in November! We took some pics, of course!

Such a happy little man (most of the time)!
Since Tristan was going to be gone for Thanksgiving, we did an early Thanksgiving dinner with his family before he left. Here are the boys after dinner and baths and Grandma Bernard's.
Kisses for baby brother
Tristan took Ethan by to see my parents one day and Ethan had to play with the dump truck. One thing is for sure...he is ALL boy!
We also put up our tree before Thanksgiving since Tristan wasn't going to be back until the middle of December. We took our picture for our Christmas card then, too. So if you didn't get one this year, this is what it looked like. Sorry for those of you we missed. I just got too far behind and didn't update my addresses and well, had a 2 month old and a 2 year old that took up a lot of time. I hope to do better next year!
Although we waited to decorate the tree until Tristan got back, we decided to teach Ethan about putting ornaments on it that night.
Ethan trying it on his own
It's amazing how fast November flew by! We love the holiday season in our family and enjoy it even more now that we have children to share traditions with. We hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving and holiday season, too!

Carter's Blessing

With Tristan's work schedule we ended up blessing Carter the weekend of Ward Conference, so things were kind of crazy. The Stake President was there and ended up asking if we minded if he joined in, as well as our Bishop, so there was a rather large group. The blessing was beautiful and it was a wonderful day.

President Price, Rich Marlatt, Brother Meinke, Tristan & Carter, President Moss, Brother Brown (Bishop Mitchell couldn't make it for a pic)

Kelly came and was such a huge help with Ethan and Carter...we even ended up matching without planning it!
Tristan's family: Tennille, Desiree, Annette, Ethan, Tristan, Me & Carter
My family
Grandma & Grandpa Walker
We were so glad that Rich and Allisha could come as well (apparently Allisha got the pink memo, too!)
Grandma Bernard

Our sweet little man on his blessing day

All worn out!
It was a busy, great day. We are so blessed to have another sweet boy in our family!

October Pics

So I'm really far behind on this blog! I guess we've been busy!

We went to visit my parents and while we were there did a little photo shoot with my parents. They didn't know it, but the pics were actually for their Christmas presents. We made them each a photo mug; my dad got a travel mug since he drives so much for work and my mom got a regular one. They turned out great and, apparently, my parents' mugs are adored by many. Here is just one of the pictures we got that day.

Daddy and Carter
Look at that sweet little face!
Carter's 1 month shot that I never posted!
Barely a month old and already flashing us some cute grins! We love this little man!

Pre-Halloween Festivities

So I now realize that my posts are going to be a little bit out of order...oh, well. We didn't have internet for a while so I got a little behind in my blogging so at this point it's just trying to catch up! We did a lot of our Halloween celebrating early since Tristan was going to be at work for Halloween.

We decided to take the boys out to Lattin's to do the whole pumpkin patch experience. Ethan was super excited about the wheelbarrows at the pumpkin patch and couldn't wait to help Tristan push it!

Searching for the perfect pumpkin
Found one! And he finally realized that he could RIDE in the wheelbarrow, too!
Before we went to pick out our pumpkin, we enjoyed all the other great things about Lattin's...namely the apple fritters! While we were enjoying them (and some hot chocolate for me) Ethan played on this little carousel.
Me and my boys by the fruit stand
We also took some time to visit all the animals there. There were chickens and chicks, ducks and ducklings, rabbits, cows, turkeys and goats. This is one of my favorite pictures because as my friend, Becky, pointed out, Ethan's and the goat's expressions are they same!
They also had a tractor ride that would take you out to the pumpkin patch, but we didn't want to wait for it. Ethan was just as happy to stand by it! That kid loves a tractor!
Waiting to get the scoop on the tractor rides
The fire department also brought a fire truck and you could climb on and in it. Ethan was in heaven!

Tristan and Ethan on the fire truck
We came home with a pumpkin for Ethan and a tiny one for Carter. He was none too happy about having to have his picture taken with it!
We also celebrated Aunt Desiree's birthday leading up to Halloween. Ethan's favorite part of the night was playing in Grandma's candy bucket (practicing for the actual day, of course!).
A few days later we got the paint out and let Ethan have at it!
Hard at work
The finished product. Something about it reminds me of Wilson from the movie Castaway!
One of the final things we did was another tradition of ours. Tristan I watch either a Pirates of the Caribbean or Harry Potter movie. This year it was the Deathly Hallows part I and building a spooky Halloween mansion. Here is our finished product:
We had lots of fun celebrating early with Tristan and getting the boys ready for Halloween!