January Randomness

I wish I was posting the pictures from Christmas morning, but for maybe the first time ever, John and I both totally spaced it on bringing the camera with us.  My mother-in-law was so kind to be our stand in photographer for the weekend and did get some great shots of the boys, and let us use their camera for the hour we got at Diamond Lake of playing in the snow, BUT, we also failed to download them onto our computer and haven't made much of an effort to get them yet.  Hopefully sometime this year I will get those up here.

For now, enjoy the random few pictures I found on our camera:

I REALLY have enjoyed doing preschool with Jackson and his buddy Brayden... it's a lot of fun and Jackson is just soaking it all up.  It has reminded me just how well I work with this age and how much I really enjoy it... I am still hoping to have a bigger preschool out of our home one day.  Anyways, for December we decided to forgo "The Letter of the Week" curriculum we've been doing and just focus on Christmas.  I found some great craft ideas from pinterest and here are just a few that we did:

 Reindeer using the boy's handprints and thumb prints

 Christmas Lights using their thumb prints... even Baron was able to do this one mostly on his own after I drew the cord on the paper for them and they absolutely LOVED doing the paint!

Making their own frosting Christmas tress using upside down sugar ice cream cones!

The scar without stitches

It snowed!! It didn't ever really stick at our place, which was highly disappointing, but we at least got to watch it fall and go out and catch some snow flakes on our tongues

and just like that it turned back into rain...boo

 The boys put their coats on backwards and thought they were hilarious... I'm so grateful for their humor and creativity.  It never seems to end and I love it.  It keeps me going.

This picture is a little blurry, darn it, but if you look close, there is something different about jackson...

He lost a tooth! Well, he had to get his front one pulled out by the dentist because it was dead in the roots and getting a small infection from hitting it a while back, BUT, his big tooth is not far behind anyways and he was pretty excited to get a visit from the tooth fairy and loves to show everyone his missing tooth!

Sometimes we just get so tired of the rainy weather and weren't feeling up to any trips to OMSI or the Children's Museum.  So we busted out some TP instead.  The boys were thrilled I would let them waste a whole roll and make them mummy's.

And that's about it for our January... it was not too exciting of a month.  In fact, being full of lots of rain, another unexpected ER trip, a nasty Flu bug for half of us and some colds, and a stressful month in apartment managing, I am happy to see it go.  Here's to hoping February is a better month.  I have high hopes. 

Baron had a birthday!!

I know, I know, I am about a month behind now, darn it.  Let's just say I've been totally out of it and am trying to get it together.  Back on Dec. 9th, Baron did indeed have a birthday and he turned 3!! Which is crazy... he's my baby (at least for now), and I DO NOT want him to grow up so fast, but unfortunately he is doing just that.  Sigh.  Anyways, we had a fun few days surrounding his birthday!  The night before, we decided to brave the crowds and go to the Portland Zoo lights for the first time ever, and it was SO worth it! I would highly recommend it for a fun Christmas family activity when you've got younger ones that love Christmas lights.  And if you go before the 15th it is buy one get one free! Plus, 3 and under is free, so we just had to pay for one adult and Jackson since Baron wasn't turning 3 until the next day :).  The boys really loved all the lights- and there are so many and tons of cute animals and whole trees decorated, etc.  The train was super cute and fun too and we lucked out with it not being too crowded that night!  Our only complaint for the whole night was how stinking cold it happened to be that night....but we tried our best to dress super warm and finished off the night with some warm carmel apple spice cider :).

On Friday, the big day, we sang to Baron, let him open presents, bought Cars 2 for him to watch and then that afternoon headed over with our best buds, The Jensen's to Pump It Up.  I am so glad we went... the boys (and cute Miss Lucy) had a BLAST.  They had so much fun jumping around and racing down the slides and through the obstacle course. They were practically falling asleep at dinner afterwards!  Baron really wanted to go to Red Robin so he could get balloons and have them sing to him. Even though he gets so shy with the attention, he kept asking if they were going to sing and he would get the "ear ballons" and he loved it! It was pretty cute.  After that we came home, ate some cake and ice cream and watched a fun family movie (in which I'm pretty sure I fell asleep so I have no idea if it was a good one).  It was a great day though and we are so blessed to have Little Bear in our lives!


It's pretty much impossible to get good pictures at an indoor play place where they are constantly in motion, but here's what we did get from the day:

 The birthday boy on the "fast slide"

Jackson, aka Superman

Bear is definitely our little tumbler... if you know him, you know is always jumping and tumbling around and standing on his head and doing summer salts.... this place was like his dream come true.  Perfect for his special day!

 I love this one... I know it's a totally blurry action shot, but you can still see the pure joy exuding from their faces.... seriously, they all had bright red faces by the end from all the giggles and running around playing.  I'm so glad we had a great groupon for it and went!

Not a great picture, but shows the cool little obstacle course they had... they loved having us "time them" to see how fast they were.

Getting sung to at Red Robin

Here's some fun facts about Baron at 3 years old:

*Loves randomly standing on his head, ALL the time

*Eats grape tomatoes like they're candy and has been known to ask for them first thing in the morning and been caught lying on the kitchen floor eating them like they're chocolate.  (though I promise I've never eaten chocolate while lying on the kitchen floor)

*Loves being tickled and has the cutest little giggle ever

*Hates wearing socks... just try to get him to put and keep them on

*Is now in Sunbeams and has done great so far and loves it! (I can't believe I have 2 kids in primary!!)

*Is obsessed with being Darth Vader

*LOVES gum and is found quite often rummaging through my purse to steal all my gum

*Is such a daddy's boy and will chose daddy over mommy about 80% of the time (though I do occasionally sneak in some cuddle time and hugs and kisses)

*Does not like to cuddle very much though and is very big on doing everything himself- he likes his space too

*Can apparently play the bugle very well- better than the older kids! He found my dad's old one when we were in CA and him and Uncle Josh would play it throughout the house everyday.  We think it's his  cute chunky checks that make him so good at it... he can store lots of air in them :)

*Is smart and talks so well! He is always continuing to amaze me the things he comes up with and says with his sweet little voice.

*His bff, besides being his big brother Jackson, is still his puppy dog.  He plays with him every single day, always sleeps with him, talks for him, has puppy help him do his chores and even sometimes blames puppy dog for the reason he did something he wasn't suppose to.  Puppy dog is everywhere... sometimes I have to put him on time out.

*Loves Jackson- they love to play tackle football together, have intense light saber fights, climb up into the top bunk and hide and play and giggle together and always miss each other if the other is not around.  I absolutely love that these 2 are so close and have so much fun together every day.  Such a great feeling for a mom.

*He still has a great sense of humor and is always keeping us laughing. The only bummer is that he sometimes has a hard time giving us a "normal" smile for pictures

 We get a good one every now and then though :)

We are so grateful to have Little Bear in our lives.  He is so much fun, is hilarious and has brought us lots of joy in our family.  Happy (Belated) 3rd Birthday Bear!!