Christmas Recap

Our tree this year.  It was a good one.  But we had it a very long time and it was the driest tree I've ever seen by January 1.  Needles for days...

Crazy how fast the Christmas season comes and goes.  Now we're already into the middle of January! We had lots of fun Christmas memories this year that I want to capture through photos in this post. And some not so fun memories like the flu bug visiting our house two days before Christmas.  I will spare you the gory details of that.  Luckily everyone was healthy and happy by Christmas Eve night.

Here is our Christmas 2015 through photos:

Annual photo in front of the poinsettia tree at Molbaks.  You can see the boys were thrilled.

The teachers took this photo of Cameron at school and I just love it.  One of my all time favorites of Cam so far.

Date day of Christmas shopping and seeing the Star Wars themed gingerbread houses at the Sheraton Hotel

Our hands down favorite activity this Christmas--the Santa Train.  Doesn't it just scream Polar Express?

Visiting Santa at the train station after riding the train

Christmas cookie making at Nana and Pops'!  Cameron kept sneaking pieces of dough as you can see here.

Decorating with Pops

Celebrating Christmas Eve at Nana and Pops'

One of Nate's favorite gifts this year

Cameron's favorite gift was a stuffed Olaf

Merry Christmas Ryan and Carly!

Cameron building blocks while wearing his huge backpack

Of course we had to put out cookies for Santa at Nana and Pops' house too

Putting together the Fisher Price nativity set

Christmas morning in matching PJ's!  And Santa visited!

Reading about Jesus' birth in the children's bible

Stockings!!

Christmas craziness at Gramma and Grampa's

I think the gift opening finally tuckered him out

It was a blessed and wonderful holiday.  So much abundance of gifts, lovely family time, yummy food, and reflecting on the true meaning of the celebration.  Hope you and your family had a wonderful season as well.  Only 340 some days until we get to do it again!  

A special guest for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was extra special this year because we had a unique guest.  Well, actually he's a return visitor, but it's been awhile.  Just like for Thanksgiving 2013, Brown Bear came to visit again! Brown Bear is the mascot for the Toddler 1 classroom at the boys' school.  Every year he gets to visit each child's family for a week and participate in various activities.  He is quite the traveler and connoisseur of children's activities.

This year to start off the Thanksgiving holiday we decided to institute a new tradition for the 4 of us--the Issaquah Turkey Trot 5K.  James ran the 5K and I did the walk with the boys in the stroller.  It was a gorgeous sunny morning although it was insanely cold.  I think the thermometer said 30 degrees when we started out.  The boys were troopers despite how cold it was.  And it felt great to be active before stuffing ourselves the rest of the day.  Brown Bear was lazy though and decided to sleep in so he missed the Turkey Trot.  After the race we huddled under warm blankets to thaw out and watch the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade--another favorite holiday tradition.

Then it was on to Gramma and Grampa's for the Thanksgiving meal.  We were lucky to have Uncle Jerry and Aunt Joyce and Aunt Jill and Uncle Mike and his mom join us for the feast.  Cameron got to enjoy his first official Thanksgiving meal (since he can now eat solids) and he even shared a few bites with Brown Bear.  It was a delicious meal and a great time with family.  

The incredible chefs!

Such a cute couple :)

Excited to pig out!

Yum!

So much to be thankful for

So glad we captured this great family pic.  It's a miracle that everyone is looking and smiling!

 After the meal and a few hours relaxing watching football, we went on to Nana and Pops' house for dessert.  Unfortunately I didn't capture many photos there.  But we had a fantastic french silk pie and enjoyed wonderful conversation and playing with toys.

The second Thanksgiving was over, we were unintentionally full blown into Christmas.  Despite the freezing cold temps that weekend the weather was so beautiful and sunny so we thought we would take advantage.  On Friday we got our tree from our favorite Keith and Scott Tree Farm in North Bend and decorated the house.  Again Brown Bear was being a wimp with the cold so he stayed home.

Saturday was our annual trek downtown for shopping deals and fun holiday activities including the merry go round and the gingerbread houses at the Sheraton.  Brown Bear loved riding the merry go round!

And then we ended the weekend with a visit to Santa!  The past couple of years we have found that it works well to go see Santa late in the afternoon on the Sunday after Thanksgiving because there are no lines!  No kid meltdowns this year, but Cameron was very confused of who the big man in red was and why we were taking pictures with him.  But he went along for the ride.  Then we enjoyed a yummy pizza dinner with the grandparents.

Such a fun and memorable weekend.  Christmas is officially in full swing.  Thanks for visiting Brown Bear!  We miss you already!

Halloween...Avengers style

Halloween was fun this year!  Especially with Nathan because as he's getting older he's definitely getting more into the holiday.  He was all about helping me decorate the house inside this year with Halloween decorations that we had and also borrowed from Nana and Pops.  He even set up decorations in his room complete with a web and plastic spiders and pumpkin lights above his window.  He wasn't even really that scared except our neighbors next door put up a bunch of scary things like zombies, a werewolf, skeleton, etc. on their front porch and that scares him.  We haven't delved into the major decorating on our front porch yet other than pumpkins and fall mums, but I have a feeling we'll begin that craziness next year.

We had a lot of fun carving pumpkins this year and did more than we've done in years.  Actually I shouldn't take any credit--I simply cleaned out the pumpkins.  James did the incredible carving.  And most of it was drawn free hand!  He's amazing!

The costume theme in our house this year was Avengers.  Nathan was Captain America and Cameron was Hulk.  I have to say their costumes were pretty cute.  My brother and Carly even got in on the action dressing as Thor and Black Widow.  My favorite part was Thor's wig.

 
Unfortunately it was the worst weather for trick or treating--windy, rainy and cold.  Despite that our crew pressed on.  Cam trick-or-treated at a couple houses for his first time--mostly went around to see our neighbors. Nate went with James and met up with some friends at the top of the Ridge where the trick or treating is insane.  People drive in from all areas just to trick or treat up there.  He had an awesome time and came home with quite the loot.  He barely even noticed that the weather was terrible.  My mom and I had the rough job of staying in our cozy house and passing out candy.

It was a fun holiday because so much of our family came over to join in the fun.  And Nate got to trick or treat with some of his friends from preschool for the first time which was great.  And of course there's already talk of what costumes will be next year.  Star Wars?  Fireman?  We shall see....

Another 0-12 Months Recap

I've been reflecting a lot lately on how fast our boys are growing up.  Nathan can do so many things independently now--putting on clothes, putting on shoes, brushing his teeth (to an extent), reaching up to get things, going potty, etc.  And already Cameron is getting close to forming words and I can tell that he understands much of what I'm saying to him. He's also walking all over the place and getting more coordinated every day.  Last night James and I luxuriously sat at the dinner table having a glass of wine while watching our two boys entertain each other and run around the living room playing.  I'm happy to be in this space and I'm noticing that things are getting easier as they get older.  But I also feel myself getting sad becasue they won't be little for very long.  So I just want to pause time and really really soak all this in.  Sometimes we're so busy that soaking in doesn't happen very well.

So in honor of "soaking in", I'm posting Cameron's growth through his first year. The newborn time is so wonderful, intense and fleeting.  Just wanted to make sure to reflect and honor Cameron's newborn time before we fully move into toddlerhood...

Growth in the crib

And growth in the chair

My favorite  :)

*Sigh* *Tear*