Deck the halls

I'll be recapping the holidays in the next few posts. Up first is holiday decorating! As I'm writing this I realized that I never got pictures of the wonderful painting mom did of Thomas and Friends on our windows. But thankfully it's still there (I'm leaving it up for Tristan's Thomas the Train birthday party), so I'll be sure to get a picture before cleaning it off.

This is the advent calendar I made for the kids this year, starting at day 8 *the day we got our tree.

Tristan wanted me to take a picture of "doh-queen"

I made a banner by cutting triangles, sewing up two sides, punching a border at top and tying it together, filled with treats and the christmas story (and strung together with some twine).

We had a fun time decorating the tree together.

Boeing flight museum

Last Thursday we went to the Boeing flight museum after Chad got off work. The flight museum is free on the first thursday of each month in the evening. We figured out that Tristan calls airplanes "flews" (or maybe just "foos") so when we walked in and there were airplanes everywhere he was "see flew mama!" over and over again. The kids had a lot of fun and Abby and Tristan made their own "flews" with the legos they had out for kids to play with (a whole kiddy-pool full of legos). After getting their souvenir pennies (it's the one souvenir we always say yes too, since after all it is only 51-cents each kid!), we headed to the U-district to Agua Verde which ended up being closed, so we went to Chipotle instead (love their chips and guac!). A great family evening!

(Excuse the dark, blurry camera photos)

Christmas tree 2012

Off we went to Enebo tree farm again this year.  I thought I'd get some really great pictures this year with my new professional camera...but a professional camera with a dead battery most definitely makes me an amateur, or an idiot.  So instead I get to share with you my lovely camera pictures!

Jamie helps cut down the tree.

This was also the year I got to drive into our carport with the tree still on the roof....OOPS!

Jamie's class performance

Last month in November, Jamie's class put on a small skit for the Kindergarten class (Abby's class).  Their skit was based on a book (The Mushroom in the Rain, or something similar).  Jamie's was the mushroom, which didn't have any lines, so he was also the narrator. I came to watch and since Chad was working in Abby's class, he got to see it too.

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was pretty low-key this year. Chad was working in Everett all week, so we didn't want to come back home just for the day and have Chad need to come back to Everett to work on Friday. So we hung out at the hotel all day and then went out to eat at the Crossroads Bar&Grill which we found open in Bellevue. In the morning, I went to the local QFC and got some Top Pot doughnuts and also a few fun things for us to have for lunch while watching football, or scrapbooking, or shopping on the ipad, or whatever it is we were doing. Then we all went swimming together (even me) and afterwards gave the kids naps. At that time we headed out to the restaurant, it was only 6 by the time we got there but they were closing at 7 and I think we were one of the last customers. The kids got the turkey dinner and the parents got prime rib. They tried to send us away without dessert but I protested (it was included in the price of dinner) and we were instead sent away with 5 boxes of dessert to go! On the way back to the hotel we rented Brave and then watched it as a family all together on the king bed. I think it was actually one of the nicest thanksgivings I've ever had!

Tristan gets fearless and starts jumping across the hot tub even when Chad doesn't have his arms out to catch him.  We let him sink just for a second to remind him that he CANNOT swim!

Mr. Grumpy-Pants

That's more like it!

Tristan tries to butter his own roll - he eventually just smooshes it on with his fingers.

...and then licks the knife.