Christmas

Christmas pictures

Christmas Eve - hanging stockings

Cute boys

Max has taken to wearing a cap. He origionally tried it forwards, but ran into the wall so he switched to a backwards cap.

Ben

Ben is out of school for 3 weeks now. Monday we made a ginger bread house (or at least a graham cracker, cardboard and hotglue gun version). Ben enjoyed making it. Mostly he liked the huge bowls of frosting and candy which he had complete access to. Today Ben dropped a large wooden cutting board on his big toe. OUCH! That has slowed Ben down ... a little. Mostly he will be wearing sandals for a while until it heals up. Ben is getting excited for Christmas. His Christmas list he wrote at school includes roller skates, a skate board, a snowboard, and a reindeer (he said he wants to feed it lunch....). Ben continues to do great reading. It is very fun to listen to his progress. Ben has taken to writing love notes to our family. He has a very loving and affectionate side. Ben will start playing basketball at the NAZ church in January and keeps telling me he needs to be eating healthy food for his basketball. It is always fun to watch Ben do sports. He normally plays the whole court. He is kind of a one man team. His current favorite sport is soccer and due to the rain the past few days, he has taken to playing soccer with a small ball against the wall in the kitchen....and to think we have 3 boys.... Anyway, we love our sweet Ben and are grateful for him.

Sawyer

Here is our sweet Sawyer. He has taken to pointing and talking lately. He has very specific ideas he is trying to communicate. If Sawyer wants something he is very clear on the matter and you get the message. He is very aware of where Max is and goes looking for him if he's not in the same room. The other day he tried to help Max get out of the tub. He can be very sweet to Max. Sometimes he gives Max toys he knows he likes. And I have even witnessed him trading out toys on occasion (... I want what you have, so why don't you take this ...) But mostly he is the aggressor and just takes what he wants. Max has taken to doing a full lunging (and unfortunately biting) tackle on Sawyer on occassion to protect his toys. Once the shock of the tackle wears off, Sawyer does not seem to be discouraged from getting what he wants. Sawyer is full of excitement and energy and has a smile that will melt your heart.

Max

Ben helped me get these pictures of Max today. Ben is great at getting the boys to laugh. Anyway, Jason and I love these photos. They are so like Max. His hair is getting long and may be cut soon. But we still love it....so it stays. Max is doing great walking. He still is unsure of himself, but he does it. He holds his arms way up high when he walks. It is very cute. He is starting to thin out (a little) due to more movement. We will be sad to see his squishiness go. We often call him Mr. Squish. Today Max has a very sweet sounding husky voice. He has a little cold. Max is pure joy.

The past week....

Last Saturday we decorated the Christmas tree. Sawyer "helped" me put the ribbon on while Max finished his nap. Ben did a great job helping me put the ornaments on after the babies went to bed. Unfortunately, I was in such a hurry to get it done, I did not get a picture. Ben used the step stool and stood in one place to decorate. Most of his ornaments we "grouped" together. We had fun decorating. As you see in the pictures, the tree is surrounded by a large gate that we inherited from a friend. This has been VERY helpful. Max and (especially) Sawyer have been circling the tree all week. Sawyer has made off with a few glass ornaments and he goes running. Luckily, we have caught him every time and we think we now have everything moved out of reach. We often hear the whole tree go jingling which means Sawyer has a hold of a branch and is shaking the tree. We have a fake tree so we just go in and bend them all contorted so he can't reach them.

Note the green broom. Sawyer has been hauling this around. He loves it. He hasn't yet used it to swat at the tree, but it's not Christmas yet..... Sawyer has also taken to eating with a plate. For several weeks now he has been quite adamant that he have a utensil when he eats (no matter what it is) and now often he wants a plate too. He seems to have stopped throwing them.

The last picture is of Max. This little chair is in a corner behind kind of hidden in our Family Room. Max often goes and climbs into the chair. Last week I heard him talking and went to look and he was sitting in the chair reading a book. By the time I got back with the camera, he was on his way out. It was very cute. Max is really starting to do good walking. He is a cute walker. I have a great video clip I took on my camera and have been unable to get it on the blog. I will keep trying.

Ben continues to do great. He has a busy schedule of school and play dates. He is a wonderful big brother and often makes the little boys laugh. Ben is in a discovery stage in regards to reading. I often hear him sounding out words he sees on signs when we are in the car. It must be nice to finally be able to read all of the words around you.

Ben's 6th Birthday-Star Wars

Yesterday was Ben's Birthday. It's hard to believe he's already 6 years old. I was remembering the day, back in Texas, when I went into long and very painful labor with him. It was very worth it. Anyway, Ben chose Star Wars for the theme. We made light sabers out of pool sticks and the boys beat eachother. That was really all the entertainment needed. We had games all centerd around Jedi training (mastering the force, using the light saber, shooting into a galaxy, an obstacle course and then the final battle was defeating the evil foe Darth Vader. This was Jason dressed up in a very home made costume. The boys attacked him viciously (evidently the training was excellent). I finally had to dive in and help get him off the floor. The boys had a great time. It was a lot of fun. Patty, of course, helped me to pull off a great party. She had lots of fun games and decor. Natalie and Kaylee Marsh came and played with Max and Sawyer in their room so they would not be trampled. The last picture is of Sawyer after the party (and just out of the bath) on clean up crew helping to vacuum. He wanted to take the vaccuum part to bed. So here is to another great birthday party. This one is going in the box and you will see it again in 5 years for the little boys.

The end of our trip

I had to include these photos. We were quite travel weary when we got back to the Burbank airport. Ben ended up riding in the stroller with Sawyer. And you can see the mountain of luggage we hauled around with us. It was a great trip. We are glad we were able to go. It is always wonderful to see family, friends and our beautiful Unites States of America.

Editor's note

I am a novice at the blogging and therefore, I posted our trip back East backwards. The first stop on our trip is under Massachusetts with the Birds. And then you go up from there. Also,there is much room for improvement in my editing so please ignore and enjoy what's there. Thanks for taking the time to read. Happy Thanksgiving. Steph

Halloween 2007

We had a great Halloween. We went to a church party in an orchard and did trunk or treating there. Very fun. Ben was a Jedi night. His costume was very cute and he loved being a Jedi. His identy fluctuated between Luke Skywalker and Obi One Kanobin (sp?). The little boys were the Tortoise and the Hare. I will let you guess who was what. They were so cute. Unfortunately, I had a camera/computer malfunction and so I lost my Halloween pictures. As soon as we have time to recreate Halloween, I will post the photos.

Our las stop - Nebraska

We were very happy to arrive at Grandma Dana and Grandpa Danny's house in Nebraska. We stayed there for the rest of our trip and it was very relaxing. We went to a wonderful children's museum in Omaha. They had a room full of ball pit balls and all different types of contraptions and machines to manipulate them. Ben could have spent the entire day there. They also had an exhibit on how things are made from the Mr. Rogers series. There was a play grocery store which the little boys loved.
Elmwood, the town of 600 people were my mom and Danny live, has a wonderful park that all the boys loved. We made a few trips down there. The weather was really nice while we were there so it was fun to be outside. The park has a ton of different structures. I think there is one for every child in town :-)
Another fun trip was the Lewis and Clark museum on the ?River in Nebraska City. It is very interactive and fun. It was also beautiful and we took a hike through the woods there. It went on and on. We thought we might be on the real Lewis and Clark trail;-) Finally we came out to a beautiful view of the river.
Other highlights of our trip were: of course for Ben, shooting the bee bee (sp?) gun. (Ben talks about it all the time and looks forward to it. He has become quite good), a birthday party for all the boys (thanks Mom and Danny), eating out (which is always an adventure with the little boys and normally involves a rather large tip to cover the clean up crew), Danny's caramel corn, ribs and pancakes (he's quite the cook), carving pumpkins for Halloween, and shopping with Mom (which is much shorter and faster now due to the boys). We had a great time. Thank you.

October 2007 Massachusetts with the Birds

In October we went on an "adventurous" trip which included us visiting 5 states and many more airports. It was a great trip. On Wed. the 10th we flew to Massachusetts to visit our good friends the Birds. These are the boys that Ben considers to be his brothers. Our flight arrived at 1 am Thurs. and Jean, being a wonderful friend, was there to meet us. Unfortunately, NONE of our luggage arrived (including car seats and pack and plays) this made for a long and crazy night. Our luggage caught up with us the next day. On Thursday, we drove to No. Massachusetts to see what we could of the leaves changing colors (we were a little early for the full color change) We stopped at the Yankee Candle Factory and Ben had fun making candles with Austin and Logan. We ended the day at Wolfies., a local restaurant with wonderful food. Other highlights were: Jason got to visit the recycling plant that Adam works at, Ben played a fun game of football on the front lawn with the neighborhood boys, the little boys perfected the art of climbing stairs and loved the attention of all the boys, Jason wrestled again with the big boys (Kyle and Cod) while I paced and said,"you'd better stop you're going to get hurt" etc., Jean and I got a little shopping in and a lunch stop at the only Mexican restaurant out there. We had a great time with the Birds and were very sad to leave on Friday when we headed to New Jersey to see Jason's sister's family, the Howards. (p.s. Many thanks to Kyle for giving up his room.)

Back in New Jersey

Back in New Jersey, we headed out to a beautiful park by Jeff and Shannon's. In the Winter the pond freezes over they ice skate there. The boys had a fun time play with sticks and soccer. After we went out for an authentic Italian meal at Forte. We wanted a New Jersey experience and we were not disappointed. The food was really good and we saw some of the local Italian culture (including velour warm up suits and a parking lot full of Cadillacs - which apparantly only tourists like us and the Mafia drive ;-) It was a really fun stay. Ben and Preston had a great time. They have become great playmates. Many thanks to Shannon and Jeff for such great hospitality (and Guitar Hero!).

Pennsylvania

On Sunday, we packed up and headed to Pennsylvania for a quick trip to see our good friends J.B. and Susi Jones. We met them when we lived in Davis, Ca. It had been a few years since we had seen them and we were very excited. Pennsylvania is a beautiful state and it was a wonderful drive. We spent Sunday just catching up. They just had their fifth child and J.B. is in the process of finalized his thesis for his Phd., which is very exciting. It was wonderful to be with our old friends and Ben enjoyed making new friends. Seth and Ben are similar in age and had a great time. Monday morning we packed up to head back to New Jersey for one last nigt with the Howards before heading to Nebraska. On our way out we decided to head further east because we wanted to see some of the Amish people and their buggies. We came upon the quaint town of Mifflinburg which is aka Buggy Town. They have a buggy museum there. The town was so early American feeling we really enjoyed. We saw several Mennonite ladies out and at the grocery store. We alson came upon the "Buggy Only" parking at the grocery. The man who owns one of the buggies shown was very nice. He let Ben pet and feed the horse. His family has green houses and grow and sell mums. A second buggy came along which was a version of the buggy pick up. We really enjoyed our bried trip to Pennsylvania and hope to be able to return. Next time we want to go further east and see some of the Amish settlements. It is fascinating to see such a blend of the old world and new.

A Day in New York City

We left the Birds Friday afternoon intending to arrive at the Shannon and Jeff's, the Howards, by 7 p.m. We followed the Hertz Neverlost dirctions and did not look at a map. The trip ended up taking us over 7 hours. The GPS took us thru New York City to get to New Jersey. We did not figure this out until we were stuck in stopped traffic in the Bronx. We finally had to stop at McDonalds for a diaper break and to replenish our bottled water supply. The hold up was the Washington bridge. We were very happy when we finally made it to New Jersey! The next day we went back to the city to see the sites. Our first stop was the Statten Island ferry so we could get a view of the Statue of Liberty and the City. The boys loved the boat ride. Other highlights: Battery Park was having a Culturefest and we also saw the Eternal Flame monument to honor those who died on 9/11 at the world trade center, we saw ----- Pub where George Washington said farawell to his troops after the Revolutionary War (there is a museum there we hope to return and see), we went to a great street full of restaurants called Stone St. for dinner, Jeff took us on a wild ride through Time Square (Jason did a great job following in our car, even cutting off a New York City taxi driver), and we went to the Magnolia Bakery in the Village which is famous for their cupcakes (this included Shannon and I carrying bags of cupcake, drinks, me holding Sawyer and us herding the boys while answering the cell phone and walking several blocks in New York City back to the car where Jason, Jeff and Max were waiting in our questionable parked cars. A passerby even commented on our multi-tasking). It was a very fun day and the little boys were troopers. They were appeased with many bottles and crackers, which they love. After we got back to the Howard's and got the kids to bed we induldged in the very addicting Guitar Hero.

Max picking flowers

In to EVERYTHING!

Sawyer is into everything. The bathroom cabinets have been his latest target. I finally dragged a chair and a foot stool into the bathroom to barricade the cabinet doors. Normally Max is there to help. The toilet paper used to have paper wrappers. They unwrapped all of them and now Sawyer likes to get them out and stack them. To say the least, they are not happy about the additional furniture in the bathroom and spend some time fussing at it. (I might add it is very inconvenient to use the sink.)

In the Garden

In the Garden

The other night the little boys were in there high chairs eating dinner and they could see Ben running around the yard playing ball. They fussed to go out. The weather has been cooler lately so we could actually go in the back yard. The boys want to go as far and as fast as they can...often in opposite directions. They have each eaten their first handfuls of dirt. Sawyer wants to run and play ball really bad. He discovered the orange tree which seems to be covered in green balls. Max likes to pick (aka destroy) flowers. Ben is the entertainment constantly running, kicking and hitting balls. I wear out chasing the little boys before anyone else wants to go in.

We want to go outside.

Tulare County Fair

Jason took the boys to the Tulare County Fair Saturday for thier anual pilgrimage. They had a great time.