Easy As 1,2,3

Step 1: Give your toddler a really cool camera of his own for Christmas because you are tired of fighting with about using yours.

Step 2: Watch toddler fall in love with cool camera while he takes pictures of anything and everything and allow toddler to take camera to bed with him Christmas night.

Step 3: Laugh when you finally realize that the pictures your husband uploaded from the cool camera are from the vantage point of a toddler laying in his bed, lights off and obviously not sleeping.

Dog Wonders

Roo is wondering what the boys did that made them have, "to kennel up." Who am I to argue if Ollie and Trevor want to crawl in and take a nap?

Christmas Morning Chaos

One Gift Christmas Eve

Noah opened his remote controlled helicopter...
Trevor opened his new Leapster game...
Oliver opened his new Lego train named Salty...

Christmas Eve So Far

My sister's new house is done and they are moved in, well maybe not "moved" in but definitely living there. Anyway, since this is their first Christmas in their new place we decided to head North and join them. I don't think Noah has realized that this means no or only one present tonight and just a few in the morning (we left the bulk at home). We usually open presents Christmas Eve and stockings Christmas morning. We did bring up all of his stocking stuffers and stocking though. We drove up yesterday, thankfully traffic wasn't horrible. A little bit heavy here and there but nothing too yucky. My sister, mom and I actually hit Target last night and it was crazy but we survived. Shana and I headed back down there today for a last minute gift and they were getting the store ready for Valentines Day!!! This morning we all headed down to a paved trail and took a walk here are a few pictures...
After it got dark tonight we stood out on the deck and tossed reindeer food out over the edge.

Sprinkle on the lawn at night

The moon will make it sparkle bright

As Santa's reindeer fly and roam

This will guide them to your home.

More Christmas Eve and Christmas blogs to come so check back soon...

Zoo Lights With Elephants

I mentioned the elephants in my previous post but they didn't make it into the picture so here is another showing them in the background.

What's In Your CD Player

With the exception of Christmas music, what are you listening to these days? In no particular order here are a list of the artists that I've been listening to lately.

Matt Vrba
Matt Hopper & The Roman Candles
John Butler Trio
Keegan Smith
Brett Dennen
Travis
Rogue Wave
Band of Horses
Mouse and the Billionaire
Bedouin Soundclash

Zoo Lights

Our annual trip to the Oregon Zoo Lights happened last night. Because it was the first night that it hadn't rained in a while it was packed! We had a great time getting all bundled up and becoming a few fish in the sea of people. The train ride is always the favorite of the boys but my favorite is the huge display that they do on the lawn, you can see a picture below of the water, elephants, alligators, etc. Noah's friend Jackson came along with us. We finished off the night by devouring warm elephant ears with a TON of cinnamon and sugar - yum!

Watch Your Fingers

For the most part, Oliver is really good about not getting his fingers pinched in cupboards, doors, etc. However, he just learned a very valuable lesson...where the sliding door meets the other stationary half (in the middle) is another place to get your fingers caught. His nails are on the way to being black and the pads got pinched and popped open a little. A couple of pictures for his boo-boo page in the scrapbook! As a silly sidenote, he is wearing his Sponge Dog No Pants sweatshirt and he is, indeed, wearing no pants. It's much easier to potty train this way and he's actually doing really well.

The Gold Belt

The video really says it all. We are very proud of Noah and I think he was darn proud of himself for working as hard as he did to earn his next belt.

Happy Birthday x 7

So all morning long I've been doing things in sevens, seven good mornings, seven birthday kisses, seven birthday hugs, seven small pieces of cereal in his bowl, etc. Noah is acting irritated but the cute little smile that he can't hide seems to indicate that he's enjoying the attention. I can't believe that he is seven already and he can't believe that he IS ONLY seven. We had his party last Saturday but tonight, on his birthday, he will be awarded his next belt level in karate. We are very proud of him and he has worked very hard to earn it. After the belt ceremony then Noah and I are headed to downtown Vancouver to see a movie together.

Then....


And now....

Eyu219

We were at Chris and Amy's the other day and Oliver was drawing on Ian's white board. I asked Oliver how to spell his name and he said, "E,y,u,2,1,9!" Must be toddler code for something!

Holiday Express Train

I am going to try something new. We went on the Holiday Express Train yesterday and we all had a lot of fun. We took a ton of pictures and blogger has a new feature, with flickr.com, that allows me to put a slide show together and run it in one of the side columns on our blog. I will upload the photos and allow the slide show to run until January 2008.

We had so much fun on the train! Noah loves trains, always has and even though the trip is only 40 minutes long, the boys loved it. The train was decorated in lights, garland, ornaments and overall holiday cheer. This was Oliver's first train ride. He was so excited when he saw the big train and must have said, "choo-choo!" a couple dozen times before we even got on board. He really didn't like the idea of sitting still however, and used the chairs and aisle way as his own personal jungle gym. He did stop long enough to say hi to Santa and get a candy cane but that was about it. Noah sat quietly the whole time looking out the window and enjoying the ride.

Getting Clean

Oliver has decided that taking a shower is a very cool and very big boy thing to do. We have an extra shower head holder that is low, apparently just right for toddlers, that we used when we had dogs and had to give them baths. The down side to Oliver showering is that conserving water is not an option. He will stand in the shower and wash himself over and over until all of the hot water is gone and he's done playing. He does capture the water by plugging the drain so I guess he's not totally ready to give up his bath.

Noah's 7th Birthday Party!

He got to open his new Sony PSP this morning. We found a great deal on a used one with games and movies.
My mom bought a karate cookie cutter then made these cute cookies for the party instead of cake.
Mr. K getting the party started and letting them know about the rules.

The horse stance prayer pose.
Teaching the kids about their safety zone and how to protect it.
Showing them the ropes.
There's always time for gifts!

Noah had a great party and enjoyed the active afternoon with his friends! I loved that most of work was left up to Mr. K. That man earned his money this afternoon. Happy Birthday(4 days early) Noah Wayne! We love you.