big house on the westside

As promised, the video tour:

last but not least

My little kindergartner. My goofball. My firstborn. My boy. And he is so boy. He loves sports, loves outside, loves to run and play rough. Loves messes and thinks smelly is cool. This last Sunday Chad asked if he wanted to watch football and he exclaimed "I love Sunday football!!" And he hoots and hollers for our team too, I just love it.
We're getting to that cheesy grin stage...

And the silly faces...

that's a bit better...

But this one really melts my heart :)

little herbivore

If your kids watch dinosaur train you've probably had a conservation about herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores. Usually at dinner. I'm not ashamed to say that I learn things on PBS kids! Tristan tried being an herbivore. It didn't work out so well.

tres amigos

...and that's when poor Tristan fell face down in the grass.

portraits

I love this girl

Even when she is not lovely. Even when she throws herself to the floor in a tantrum. Even when kicks and screams. Even when I have to bodily carry her to the car. Even when she does not listen until the umpteenth time. Even when she is completely and utterly irrational. Even then, I love her, and I would not give up being her mama, not for the whole world. Because deep down she is sweet, and kind to others, she has a loving and helpful disposition, and she really adores me, which means that even when I am not lovely and I get angry, she is quick to forgive me. And that is really lovely :)

wild blueberries

Tristan loves these frozen wild blueberries from Trader Joes. I love them too because he'll eat straight from the freezer and they're small enough that I don't have to worry about him choking on them. They do make quite a mess though...




Abby thought it would be fun to get her picture with Tristan, until she realized that he was going to try and grab her with his purple fingers!

misc

My cuties:
Tristan rides in Jon's basket:



Sweet boy:

I seriously thought spiders were taking over Bremerton for awhile. It is now safe to go back outside.

Abby's turns 4!

I can't believe my little princess is 4 years old! She got so much attention this year for her birthday. The weekend before, we went to Silver City and used her certificate for a free birthday sundae (to which she made us sing happy birthday). Then the day before her birthday she got a package in the mail with a cool real cupcake maker! So next day, on her birthday, we made some mini cupcakes in the morning and then took them to her painting party down the street at the painting studio (which reminds me that I need to go pick the stuff up!). She had 7 friends (if you include her brother) and they all had a great time (and we didn't break anything - yay!). That day she got another package in the mail - this time a Melissa&Doug cupcake set and a kids cookbook with yummy treats, including some cupcakes (do you see a pattern?). We then took a break from her birthday festivities to celebrate Halloween, then on Monday we had a family birthday dinner for her with grandmas and aunts&uncles and second cousins, or something like that. Earlier that day she also had her birthday celebration at preschool. So with all that celebrating she started to ask me "mom, am I still 4?" I said "yes, how old do you want to be?" and she said "5 now". Well, if she was really counting each party, I'd say it would be more like 7!

Making the mini-cupcakes

The painting party

Birthday dinner

We gave Tristan a mini-cupcake...at first he just kinda looked at it until he figured out it was sweet...then he devoured it...