{Winter Catch-Up} Cousin Fun

Kenley and Claire came over for a quick lunch and a quick sleep over in December.

During one of the meals, they started telling 3 & 4 year old jokes.

The funniest (and most repeated) joke in our house right now is: "What did the snowman eat for {whichever meal we're eating}?
Answer: {Whatever they think of. Usually, the snowman eats picture frames or candles.}
The joke is always followed by ridiculous amounts of laughter.

Kenley was being SO dramatic in her joke-telling that day. I was laughing so hard!

"Ok, SO. Listen. I'm going to tell you guys a joke."  (Everyone laughs hysterically)

"NO! I haven't told you my joke yet. Don't laugh yet!"  (More hysterical laughter from everyone.)

"NO GUYS. You have to listen to my joke!"  (Hysterical laughter.)

"But I haven't even said my joke yet."  (More laughter.)

So frustrating.....

We love our Kenley-Girl!

{Winter Catch-Up} Christmas Tree & Decorating

The morning we get our Christmas tree, we always stop for coffee and doughnuts at one of our favorite bakeries in Snohomish. This year, Daddy OK'd cupcakes for breakfast. Everyone walking by our table at the Bakery commented on the cupcakes. It was hilarious... and messy.

We were short on time, so we went to a new tree farm closer to our house. The boys had fun looking at the reindeer, pulling wagons around, and looking for trees, but we left empty-handed. 

Later in the week we just went to a road-side tree stand and picked up a great tree for pretty inexpensive. I know this is random, but I think it was the best smelling tree we've ever gotten! 

The boys really enjoyed decorating the tree. It definitely wasn't an even distribution of ornaments, but I really don't care!

Nate's turn to put the star on top.

This was the best picture I got of post-decorating. Don't they look excited.  ;-)

Last year I got Christmas lights on the house for the first time ever. This year, John did even more lights and it looked even better! I LOVE THEM.

It was a beautiful evening for the first round of lights...

It took a few days to finish the lights. Watching John climb on the roof as I was driving home was quite a surprise!

This is the only picture I have of the lights finished. Oops!

At some point in December, the boys opened their Christmas PJ's.

Nate was having a really whiny night. I should have known better and just put him to bed.

I really wanted to get the perfect "PJ's next to the Christmas tree" picture, but that definitely didn't happen. Instead, I got a collection of blurry pictures of grumpy kids... and a lot of funny memories to go with them!

{Winter Catch-Up} Thanksgiving 2013

This year we spent Thanksgiving with the Carruthers. Auntie Becca flew up from Cali, Sheri and Eric put together a delicious meal, and we got to wine and dine with some great people. 

Busy kitchen.

Took some long-overdue family pictures.

I was too busy to take pictures of dinner, but the desserts were ah-mazing.

Nater

Jim-Beau

As usual, competitions began shortly after dinner. I'm pretty sure this was the saltine-cracker-eating challenge.  :-/

Mr. John enjoyed snuggles from a very sleepy Bethy!

What do you want to do when you grow up?

James:

"Weld....."

Nate:

"Go outside with Hugo's chuck-it, and with him, and run him." 

Bethy - 10 Months

Baby girl turned 10 months on January 1st.

She is learning and growing so quickly. She waves bye-bye, gives hugs and kisses, and walks around pushing her walker all day long.

One of my favorite things is her excitement to see people. She's never shy at church or in the stores - always giving people big smiles and waves. When John comes home, she races as fast as she can to see Da-Da and after every sleep, she goes nuts when she sees her brothers. Of course, I'm still her favorite.  ;-)

John and I will look at Bethy all the time and laugh, "She's such a kid." She loves playing with her brothers in the playroom and destroying their train tracks and airplane set ups. Bethy got her first girl toys at Christmas time so every time she finds them, she laughs and smiles.

She has been going through a growth-spurt recently and been growing out of all the clothes in her closet. She's a great eater and we're starting to teach her "please" instead of the 'more' scream.

We love our sweet Beps!

"This is SPIDER-MAN! And Spider-Man is a HERO! Because Spider-Man obeys JESUS!"

Happy Snow Day!

But Mom, I don't need to wear a coat because I like the cold air. Because the cold air is frrresh. Because it goes in my mouth and it makes me feel so frrresh. And I like to feel so frrresh in my tummy. 

"You know what, Mom? Sometimes your heart breaks."
What?
"Sometimes your heart breaks..... Like, when you lift something really heavy and it goes down and squishes you and your heart breaks."

Twins?

I've always thought Bethy reminded me of her cousin Kenley as a baby. I was cruising down memory lane on Keri's blog and I couldn't get past this crazy picture of Kenley. I don't know, is it just me?