Monthly Archives: February 2016

January 2016

Here’s a bit of what we’ve been up to since Christmas:

We celebrated Nicole & Andrew’s January birthdays together while they were still at our house after Christmas.
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On the last day of 2015 we took the boys to The Summit at Snoqualmie for their first skiing adventure on the bunny hill. We all had a really fun time.
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Getting the nursery ready!
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January means the start of basketball season. That’s Avery 2nd from the right.
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The boys dressed up to go see Star Wars, The Force Awakens, at the theatre.
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The boys at the breakfast bar
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Silas with his buddy, Ethan
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Doting on Ethan’s baby sister, Clare. They were both oohing and aahing over her – so cute!
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Not the greatest picture, but if you look closely, you can see that Kieron is leading Silas on a jump rope/leash. Silas was more than happy to be the “fire dog” while Kieron ordered him around.
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On a bike ride during a break in the rain
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At the end of the month Avery tried a parkour class. I have never seen him take to an activity like this – he was glowing! We decided to sign him up starting in February. The owner of the gym was a finalist on the first season of American Ninja Warrior. Avery enjoys practicing and learning from him and the other instructors.

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That’s Avery right in the middle in the blue shirt using the rope to climb the wall
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At 20 weeks pregnant, we decided it was time for a bump shot.
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Here’s our little leftie practicing his penmanship. We’re impressed with his fine motor skills and attention to detail.
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Avery and Liam turned the Beyblade Stadium into a worm and beetle sanctuary
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I love sweet moments like this. There was considerable bickering between these cuties earlier in the day, which made this spontaneous moment all the more enjoyable to watch unfold.
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Craigslist score: a shed for Jonathan. Bonus: the guy threw in enough tools to sell them and completely offset the price of the shed!
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We spent a Saturday in Seattle. We ate at Red Mill Burgers, visited the Olympic Sculpture Park, and stopped by the “Up House“, the inspiration for the movie, Up. Here’s a cool article about the owner, Edith Macefield.
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Christmas 2015

The boys were so excited when Christmas morning came, but really missed their cousins. However, the pass opened early in the morning, so they were on their way. We started the morning off with cinnamon rolls and coffee and got straight to opening presents.

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Our Wild Thing
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Look what was in Daddy’s stocking. Santa really does know what’s going on!
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The Avery’s arrived in the early afternoon. Time to visit and open more presents!
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Caught these two under the mistletoe (as usual) 😉
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Time for the dice game
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Yorkshire pudding puffs, anyone?
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Our Christmas Feast
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The kids table
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The kids couldn’t wait to play Mario Kart together
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We didn’t forget to get some cute pictures of the gang before the day was over!
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Christmas Eve

After much preparation and anticipation, Christmas Eve finally arrived. We received disappointing news in the morning that the pass would be closed all day, which meant The Avery’s of Pullman wouldn’t be with us for Christmas Eve. To lift the boys spirits, we let them each open a present in the morning.

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Candy cane pedi!
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Then it was time to prepare hors d’oeuvres for the evening
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Mmmmm, ham dip!
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Then Jonathan had a good idea…
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Our little sausage ball. He can eat his weight in these!
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Recognize this guy?
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Me and the boys with Santa. It’s such a shame Jonathan missed him. 😉
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Kieron with one of his favorite gifts, the card shuffler!
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Forgot to snap a picture before the cookies were eaten…
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December

We returned from Hawaii on December 11th this year. This left exactly two weeks to get ready for Christmas. Here is (a little bit) of what we were up to during that busy time.

Cookie baking. LOTS of cookie baking. With 5 kids in the house over the holidays, we needed a lot of cookies on hand. The boys are becoming good little helpers.

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We watched a lot of Christmas specials. Here’s Kieron watching “Home Alone” for the first time. I was so excited to share this movie with the boys, and they all loved it. They were in stitches! They still love to throw around the quote “Keep the change, you filthy animal!”

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Eating carrots “Rudolph style”.
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Waiting for one of the gifts from their advent calendar.
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Grammy & Papa watched the boys for a night so we could spend a night in Seattle.
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Selfie at the Sorrento Hotel
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More cookie baking with Grammy
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Avery practicing Christmas songs on the piano. I believe Kieron was singing along here. Avery liked the accompaniment, but it distracted him from playing, hence the headphones.
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Decorating the nursery! These old pointe shoes are coming in handy as decorations.
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Grammy & Papa took Silas to Build-a-Bear to choose his Christmas present. He named his pooch “Marshall” and got him Olaf (from Frozen)  PJ’s.
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Picking out Marshall’s heart
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And putting it in before he got all sewn up
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Then it was time to give Marshall a bath
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And ring the bell certifying that he was born!
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We got some snow the week before Christmas. Just enough to have some fun!
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We took Kieron to get his vision tested, and it turns out the poor kid could barely see! Here he is getting fitted for the frames he selected. He put on his new glasses for the first time in January, and the look on his face was priceless!

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We decorated a gingerbread house.
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And sent letters to Santa. I forgot to snap a photo of Avery’s before it went in the mailbox, but here is Kieron’s.
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Opening an early gift from Auntie Ashleigh and Mark
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The day before Christmas Eve the boys all had dentist appointments. I made sure to schedule next year’s for after Christmas.
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Visiting Santa

Shortly after returning from Hawaii, we took the boys to visit Santa and his reindeer at the nearby Reindeer Festival. We went on a weekend this year, so Jonathan and I spent much of the time divided while one of us kept our place in line and the other toured around with the boys. After working our way up to see Santa (not too long of a line, maybe 15 minutes, but it was outside in the cold), we were 2nd in line when it was time for his lunch break! Boy were we disappointed! Apparently he has to eat too! Fortunately, it was a pretty brief break, and since we were so close to his cabin, I was able to hold our spot inside and warm up a little while Jonathan and the boys visited some of the other zoo animals. It would have been nice if the elves had cut the line short earlier and let us know his break was coming up. Oh well, we will remember that next year! Fortunately, the boys were very well behaved and when Santa came back they brought their manners and A game. Silas was even happy to sit on his lap. We snapped this adorable photo of them together.

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If I had the time I would create a composite of the following two photos, but since I don’t, here they both are. I love Kieron’s hair and tan. He looks like a little 70’s beach boy!
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The tigers were the most playful we’ve ever seen them on this particular morning.
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Feeding the reindeer.
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