decorating the tree

Advent - Week 1

Candle: Gospel
Scripture: John 1:1-14
Nativity: Donkey & Cow
Songs we sang: O Come All Ye Faithul, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, O Little Town of Bethlehem

it's beginning to look a lot like...

Thankful for our weekend away

This past weekend we headed to Port Angeles for a pre-Thanksgiving feast with Mark's family. Besides massive amounts of food, the weekend involved:

playing Wii:

wagon rides:

walks:

togetherness:

being held in safe arms:

play:

deer watching:

adventure:

rest:

Gus Goes Green

For Gus' birthday party we decided to "go green" as much as possible. It actually worked quite well. We used real plates instead of paper, I made the cake topper & cup cake decorations out of felt (and kept them for future use), instead of streamers I made fabric party flags which will go in Gus' room, the party favors were monster buttons and a "make-your-own-monster" felt kit, packaged in paper bags for easy recycling. All in all, I think we at least cut down on typical party waste and got some cute decorations on top of it! Not bad.

Celebrating Gus

Our little Gus turned 1 this month...hard to believe! We celebrated over the weekend with a small party of family and friends. Gus had a blast. What a joy this little guy is. Take a look at the pictures below & you'll see what I mean. The kid just oozes happiness!




I put this last picture in despite its lack of open-mouthed joy because I think it's really cute!

Mark Celebrates 30 by Acting 17

Okay, that's not really true, but I do find it funny that his 30th birthday party was a video game party. But I have to say, it was SO much fun. We had around 30 people here playing Rock Band and it was hilarious. I was impressed that pretty much everyone gave it a go. I even rocked some guitar and vocals. Such a good party game. I realized I took maybe 4 photos, none of which show Mark. Oops. I did get a shot of the pacman cake I made, which was a big hit. A great night, truly. It's hard to believe Mark and I met when we were 18 and now here we are starting our 30s with our two amazing boys. We are so blessed.

Easter!

I was so unprepared for Easter this year. It just came so early that I was totally caught off guard. Saturday evening I raced to Target to get a couple things for the boys' baskets which were very uninspired this year, although Max got his "arm clock" (See post below) They seemed happy, so I guess that's what matters. I didn't even get them outfits. In fact, Sunday morning I suddenly thought 'hmm...I'd better see if I have anything for the boys to wear.' Luckily I was able to piece together a couple really cute ensembles. We went to morning service and then headed out to my parents' for an egg hunt (indoors) and family dinner. I think the kids had a good time. Goal for next year: plan ahead!