Christmas!

This was the first Christmas that the boys (well at least Jake) have been able to understand a bit of what Christmas is all about. Since they both know what a birthday means (cake, ice cream, and presents!) they were able to make the connection that Christmas is Jesus' birthday and because God gave us the best gift of all, Jesus, we give presents on Christmas to celebrate His birthday. What an exciting time! Here are some pictures of our Christmas season. Hope you enjoy!

Gramps, Bugga, and our family kicked off the holiday fun by heading downtown to hear the drumcore. What a fun experience! The boys were enamored with the "toy soldiers" playing drums and enjoyed the fake snow.

We also hit up the Botanical Gardens to see all the Christmas lights. It was tough to get a good picture of this in the dark. Below is our family at the gardens.

What is Christmas without a little snow?

Ben and Jake picked out our tree this year. The Ikea special!

And they helped decorate too!

Ben was tough to get a normal facial expression out of. I wish I could put all the pictures of him on the blog. It was one funny face after another!

Here it is! The completed tree. Nothing too special but I figure there will be plenty of years to come where we can fancy it up a bit.

Christmas morning Bugga and Gramps came over for Coffee Cake, eggs, and stockings.

Our big pile of presents...despite the fact that we tried not to have too many. Mike and I didn't have to get the boys anything and still look at the big pile!

The boys got "wifebeaters" in their stockings like dad wears. Aren't they cute in their new undershirts!? They had a great time opening presents. We opened all day long because they enjoyed playing with each toy before moving to the next present to open. That's the way it should be!

Here is mom helping put together a new toy.

What Christmas dinner would be complete without a handful of olives?

And after all was said and done, the boys and mom relaxed on the couch and watched a movie. Life couldn't be better then this!

Happy Halloween!

For us, Halloween started with a trip to the Pumpkin Patch. Jake and Ben took a little while to warm up to the baby calves, but once they did they thought it was great to pet them.

Here they are, scouting out the pumpkins.

Bingo, Jake found the one he wanted!

And Ben too, but he couldn't figure out how to lift it.

Jake carried his pumpkin all the way to the wagon, grunting and groaning the whole way. Funny thing is...he often tells me his backpack is too heavy for him when he doesn't want to carry it. Now I know better! Ben and Nancy watched in awe.

After a hard day of pumpkin searching we checked out the scarecrows.

A few days later. The boys couldn't wait for dad to get home from work to make faces in the pumpkins.

I was so surprised, Jake and Ben just got right into it! They pulled out the slimy insides and seeds with a little help from dad. Isn't being the picture taker a great job? My hands didn't havev to get messy at all!

Notice most of the rest of the pics we took are dad and Jake. Ben wasn't overly enthralled with the process. It was not entertanining enough. But Jake was fascinated.

The finished products! Dad's is on the right and Mom's is on the left.

Now to try on costumes. Thanks to a friend who loaned us these great suits.

This is the only smile we got from Ben while wearing the suit. In fact, the actual night of Halloween when we were getting ready to go to the church Harvest Party I asked Ben if he was ready to put on the dog suit and he just started to cry. Needless to say, it wasn't worth the battle so I put him in a Halloween t-shirt instead and he coycotted being a dog.

Jake on the other hand loved it and wanted to try it on too.

Here is Ben's new custome. Here we are at the party where every time we got to the front of the line the boys would cry and back out. It was a bit overwhelming. Ben finally found a corner to sulk in. Poor kid!

When we got home and picked up the mail we found packages from Grandma and Grandpa Parsons. What a treat!

Both boys got homemade PJ's, a card, and stickers.

Jake is saying "thanks Grandma Joan".

And off to bed they go wearing their new PJ's. What a fun week!

What Does Mike Do?

I get asked this question all the time so I thought I would take a moment to brag about one aspect of his work. Here are some pics of the house his company built in one of their master-planned communities in Richland, WA. It is a beautiful property overlooking the river. The house won many awards in the Tri-Cities parade of homes, including Best Overall and the People's Choice award. Development isn't the only thing his company does, but it is a big part of it.

Our First Family Vacation

Over labor day week we went to Coeur d'Alene with my sister and her family. It was a crazy time with 4 kids under 3yrs of age. It was definately a learning experience...how to vacation with kids. We had a good time but came home exhausted! With all these pics you would think we captured everything but we actually forgot our camera so we were at the mercy of my sister to take shots for us. Since we didn't hang out together every day we missed many great pics. How sad!

Uncle RJ and cousin Maddy, Mike and Ben watching the boats. Below are some pics of the favorite activity of the kids...beach time!

Maddy, Jake and Ben checking out the view from our deck.

One day we took a bike ride along the lake. Here we are stopped for lunch.

Apparently the ride was exhausting for Ben! He fell asleep and slumped over on Jake's chest. Jake was such a good big brother. I asked him if he could let Ben sleep there and Jake said yes and rested his chin on Ben's head. After awhile though, Jake started asking me to take Ben.

A family paddle boat ride.

Morning cartoons. Maddy is a sight in the morning isn't she?

Mike was pretty popular when he introduced the kids to pop rocks. Jake would just put them in his mouth and hold it open while they popped. Ben shoveled them in!

Waiting for the St Marie's parade to start.

Harvesting candy at the parade. It was quite the frenzy once the kids caught on that candy would be thrown from pretty much every float, truck, or motorbike that went by. And with their cute smiles and waves, wouldn't you throw them candy?

Jake going down the big slide at the St Maries playground.

On the way out of town we stopped to see Mike's childhood friend. He has fond memories of raising his gold prize pig on her farm. She was a strict "old" woman back then...Mike learned many a life lesson on her farm.

Mike touring St Maries and reliving his elementary years around town.