Christmas Tree and Decorating

This was our first year getting a real Christmas tree. We decided to go to a local Christmas tree farm where you could cut down your own tree. Here is a picture of what kind of trees we had to choose from. . .

Here is the one we got. . .(the kids choose it)

The tree is shorter then me. . .if that is imaginable! It is kind of sad looking but I think that is what we liked about it. The kids liked it because it was their size!

Here is what it looked like all decorated. . .the kids did all of it, except the lights. . .

We also made our first gingerbread house. It was a kit so it should have been easier to do. . .however, I seem to feel a need to do everything the hard way. It's together now and the kids loved decorating it, so I guess it all worked out.

Thanksgiving

We went to Utah for Thanksgiving. I remembered to bring my camera for the trip but I forgot to take it out to take any pictures, until the last day when we did some "formal" pictures of the family and the grandkids. . .well here is a shot I got of all Brent and Anna's cousins on the Wahlquist side.



It was a really fun visit and the kids had a blast playing with so many cousins.

Halloween

This Halloween we went to a pumpkin patch and picked out pumpkins. On Halloween we carved those pumpkins. This was a first for my kids. They mostly wanted to watch me do everything. . .they were grossed out by the "pumpkin guts", they did want to carve it, but I wouldn't let them. . .though they did tell me how they wanted the faces to look.

Later in the day they got in their costums and we went over to a friends house to go trick or treating together. Anna was a witch with a kitty cat on the front, so according to Anna she was a Kitty Witch. Brent was Luke Skywalker. . .more specifically the "black Luke" from Return of the Jedi (that is Brent's favorite).

I love this picture of Brent because he is "being" Luke.

Here is Anna casting a spell. . .so cute!

My camera wasn't working so well with these next pictures, they are very grainy, but this was the group of friend we went out with. . .Adelaide was Cinderella, Haven was a Mermaid, Brent was Luke, Mal was a storm trooper (Brent and Mal are the best of friends), Cole was Yoda and Anna was a Kitty Witch. It was a ton of fun to go out all together. These kids get along so well and they are such good friends, it made Trick or Treating a blast!

Chore Chart

Maybe 6 months to a year ago my friend Cami posted on her blog a picture of some chore charts she had made. I was really impressed and inspired by that. . .at the time all we had was a piece of paper with the kids chores listed on it posted on the wall. Well I started thinking of all these things I could do and it started to become VERY complicated and ornate. . .so I told Andrew what I was thinking and this is what he came up with. . .

It was made with a magnet board, paint and stickers. Their chores are listed on the left and everyday they complete them they get to move a small round magnet down. Once they get all their magnets down they get to move their spaceship of butterfly to the next reward. I think it looks really cool and captures the personality and interests of our kids. They are super excited to do their chores now and it is almost like a game. I am glad I am married to a very creative man that can simplify my life!

Pumpkin Patch

We went to a pumpkin patch today. It had a hay bale maze for the kids, farm anaimals, pumkins, and a farmers market. It was a lot of fun!

Silly Kids

I have two VERY silly kids. . .they are always making me laugh. . .

Toby

Brent and Anna were having some fun with Toby one day and it was just so cute. . .you can see how much they love him!:) Toby is our dog/puppy, he is just over 1 year and huge but very much a puppy at heart.

Bucket Head

We had a bucket in the car from our last beach trip so Anna decided to wear it as a hat as we were driving around on Saturday.

This is Anna's classic silly face. She makes me laugh all the time!

First Day of School

Today was Brent's first day of Kindergarten. He had his Spiderman backpack from G-ma Wahlquist and his matching Spiderman lunch bag from G-ma Harris, he was set! He was SOOOOOOOOOO excited. He said he liked his teacher and he was most excited about the bus, recess and lunch.

Toby seems to not want Brent to go without him:)

Anna also started a new daycare today. We decided to move her to a center closer to where I work.

She got a new Hello Kitty lunch bag and as you can see she was very excited about it and going to her new school.

It was a very stressful day for me, making sure everyone had what they needed and worrying the whole day whether or not the kids would do ok with everything being new and being separated from each other. But it seems that the day was successful and the kids had a lot of fun. . .though they were very excited to see each other again at the end of the day!

Heat Wave

This week Seattle had a record breaking heat wave, and since no one has AC in their homes it was quite hot. . .Andrew was out backpacking with the scouts for High Adventure so it was just the kids and me and we were able to do a lot to escape the heat or at least have fun with it. We went to parks and museums and ate out at restaurants every night. This weekend the Blue Angles came up to Seattle for Seafair and did an hour air show. We were able to go to a park with our friends the Mills and the Harwards right on Lake Washington and play in the water and watch the air show. It was a really fun afternoon!

This was one of the only semi good pictures I got of the Blue Angles.

Brent was trying to make a sand castle. . .I think he only managed a sand mound.

Anna couldn't get enough of the water! She would have loved to stay there all day!

Brent didn't want anything to do with the water. . .though I can't blame him, it was kind of dirty, gross water with dead fish everywhere!

Anna kept trying to go as deep as she could, sometimes that meant that the water was to her chin and when a wave would come it would go over her head. The woman is fearless!

The kids were a little tired at the end of the day and never made it to their beds.

Brent's Star Wars Birthday Party

So this weekend I am throwing Brent and Anna "friend" Birthday Parties. Brent's was last night and was a Star Wars sleep over. As a party favor I made some light sabers for the boys. . .I was pretty happy with how they turned out so here is a picture.

Brent's friends Malachi, Brenner and Jaz where all able to come and celebrate with us. Below are some pictures highlighting the fun we had. . .

We had pizza, fruit drinks and cupcakes with a table cloth you could color on.

Jaz got Brent this cool foam bullet gun. . .a very popular gift at the party!

Malachi got him an Anakin Star Wars figure. .. one of Brent's favorite Star Wars characters! You can also see both of them sporting their Star Wars T-shirts. . .too cute!

Brenner got Brent Transformers, which is becoming a new favorite for Brent and it was exactly what he had been asking for, and a pouch for school with some supplies.

They had some fun pretend fighting with their light sabers. . .Anna especially!

They got to jump on the air mattress while Andrew tried to shoot them with the foam bullet gun! :)
Then we finished off the night with a little Star Wars Legos on X-Box. Overall it was a really fun evening, even though Brenner was the only one to make it through the night without going home, it was a fun party and sleep over. . . though I am glad it is over! ;)

Anna's 3rd Birthday

Anna's Birthday was July 15th. She turned 3! We had a little family party for her that day and here are some of the pictures of that and some of the things she got.

This is Anna with her favorite birthday present. . .I don't think she has put this down since she got it. This Tinkerbelle comes with little green shoes that can be put on and taken off. Anna likes to take the shoes off but can't quite get them back on herself, so she has been asking me to put them back on for her. Well last night I thought the kids were both in bed asleep. Andrew and I went to bed and were both asleep, when Anna comes into our room at 3am asking me to put Tinkerbelles shoes back on. I was half asleep, so I put them back on, she went back to her room and I checked the clock before falling back asleep. It didn't hit me till I woke up the next morning that it was a little odd that Tinkerbelle would need her shoes put back on at 3am. . .I am now wondering how long Anna stayed up last night playing with her.

This is Anna with all her presents and birthday flowers. If you couldn't tell she is a big fan of anything pink. She is truly a girlly girl.

This is one of the outfits she got from G-ma Wahlquist that she just had to wear the next day. She is also sporting one of her classic Anna looks! She is such a character and is always either so much fun or VERY exasperating!

Harris Family Reunion in Montana

Last weekend we went to the Harris Family Reunion in Great Falls Montana. It was my first time in Montana, so it was really fun that one of the things we did was a sites of Great Falls scavenger hunt. We were given a list of places to find and take a picture of it. Here are some of the pictures of the places we got to see.

This is a picture of one of the damned falls.

This is the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center. It cost money to go in so we just got to see the outside of the building and the lovely sign.

So, you can't see it in the picture but there were windmills in the background that we were suppose to get a picture of. . .we just thought the kids with their pinwheels made for a better, up close picture.

Overall it was a really fun trip. . .long drive. . .but fun. We got to see and catch up with family, the kids did really well and even Toby was good the whole time. Can't ask for much better than that!

Brent's 5th Birthday

July 9th was Brent's birthday and we had a little family party. G-ma Wahlquist got him the presents seen in the picture. . .if you couldn't guess he LOVES Star Wars.

Andrew and I got him the bike. He loves the horn. . .we VERY quickly regretted adding that feature!

Overall it was a really fun day, and Brent had a lot of fun. I can't believe my little boy is getting so big.

4th of July Parade

Brent and Anna's daycare had a 4th of July Parade today. The kids got to make their hats and vest/signs. They marched around the daycare parking lot to patriotic type music. It was super cute!