SNOW, SNOW and MORE SNOW!!!!

Our first major snowfall of the year, or should I say the end of the year. The kids woke up to a fresh blanket of snow and could not wait to get outside to start playing. What do you do when you have this much snow (about 4") with another 6-10" forecasted for the day?



You build an igloo of course!



Scott, Taylor, Brett & Adam all went over to our good friends and neighbors The Wilson's and spent the ENTIRE day building the igloo. It turned out awesome and they all worked so hard.








Here is a picture of the finished product. It looks very authentic with the glow, almost like someone is really living in it.



Once the igloo was complete my boys began begging me to let them have a sleep over in the igloo. Of course my first response was "are you CRAZY?!?!" After much convincing that the igloo would not collapse and that the boys needed to have this kind of experience I gave in. We bundled them up and I left for my nice, soft, warm bed.



When Brett called the next morning I was anxious to hear how their night went, to see if they made it through the night outside. Brett then told me that he woke up about 3am and felt that something was not quite right and thought he could hear the igloo dripping. He felt like he needed to get Adam and Brandon out of the igloo and into the house. (Nathan went into the house a earlier because the snow was dripping on him) Brett said that within minutes of getting them into the house the whole igloo collapsed. Luckily no one was hurt and in the end it turned out to be a good learning experience for Brett. He felt good that he could take care of his brother and friend and that he not only listened to the still small voice that woke him up but he acted on it as well.

The Hunt is On!!!

Every year our favorite part of Christmas is hunting down the perfect Christmas tree.  In years past we have hunted in sun, snow and rain.  It doesn't really matter what the weather is, we're just out to cut down our tree.  This is a family tradition that we have done since Taylor was 2 years old.  This year we went to a new tree farm and as soon as we got out of the car snowflakes began falling.  It was fun walking through the tree farm with the snow coming down.  We finally found our perfect tree and realized that Christmas was just a few short weeks away.





Once we finally find our tree Scott in years past has cut our tree down. Now that the boys are getting a little older, they love to take a turn at trying to use the saw. Scott usually has to give a little muscle power towards the end. But all in all, they do pretty good. I think Adam's favorite part is yelling........TIMBER!!!


Then off to the truck we go. It's always fun to drag the tree down the hill. One of our favorite memories was Scott's dad dragging the tree down the hill one year. He had the trunk and Brett was about 3 or 4 years old and he was holding the top of the tree. Scott's dad was walking a little fast for Brett's little legs and Brett fell but would not let go of his tree so he was literally being dragged down the hill while still holding on to the tree and yelling for Papa to stop. We were all laughing so hard that we couldn't get the words out to say anything.

All I want for Christmas is MY 2 front teeth!!!

I sent Adam off to school on Thursday just like any other day.  However, just as I was coming back from lunch I got the dreaded phone call from the school nurse.  My first thought was, Adam seemed just fine this morning.  The nurse proceeded to tell me that Adam took a pretty bad fall at recess and although they had the bleeding under control, she wasn't comfortable with how his teeth and upper gums were looking.  I thanked her and hung up and called my mom and asked her if she could get Adam from school and bring him to me.  I was just walking into court so I didn't have a lot of time.  I called Scott and told him what had happened and to be prepared in case he needed to take Adam to the dentist.  When she brought him to me I was completely shocked to see his lip about 3x the normal size and then I looked in his mouth and this is what I saw.

If you have a weak stomach you may not want to scroll down any further.

Adam spent about 3 hours at the dentist. He numbed him up pretty good and Adam hardly budged when the dentist was in his mouth, pulled the teeth, irrigated the gums and scraped the asphalt off his jaw bone under the front teeth and added a few stitches to be on the safe side.  The poor thing, the next day his upper lip was about 10x the size it normally is.  As the morning went on, the swelling went down and he was acting like nothing ever happened.  I on the other hand was still shaking from the trauma that I went through watching his teeth be pulled, stitches and all the blood.




The next day we kept Adam home from school. He was feeling pretty good and really didn't have any serious complaints. I was fully expecting a lot of whining and crying when he woke up. He was pretty excited to have tooth fairy come so when he reached under his pillow in the morning and pulled out a $10 bill he couldn't have been more excited for his accident the day before. He had a pretty good time showing his new smile and his new found treasure.

Seattle Seahawks vs. New England Patriots

Brett has found a new love.....Football.  He loves to watch the game, play the game and track the stats of the players and teams in the game.  His all time favorite team is the New England Patriots and he loves to watch their wide receiver; Randy Moss.  Scott was able to acquire 2 tickets to last weeks game and took Brett to his first ever NFL game at Qwest field.  Brett's reaction to the tickets is one we will never forget.  My dad calls Brett the "old sheep dog".  He never gets riled up and is content to go along with whatever is dealt his way.  I told Scott not to expect a big reaction from Brett as he typically just shrugs his shoulders and says, "cool".  However when he saw the tickets he just stared in disbelief and then became very emotional.  When we gave Brett the tickets on Thursday he was battling a pretty nasty virus and was on his 2nd day home from school.  We asked him if he thought he would be well in time for the game and he just shook his head yes.  Scott and Brett caught the 9:30 ferry over to Seattle and walked up to Qwest field and went to "Touchdown City" in the Qwest event center.  They have all sorts of booths set up where you can run an obstacle course, throw footballs at a target and kick field goals.  Then they went into the field and watched the Patriots come out for their warm up.  The Seahawks played a great game and even though they lost, Brett had the time of his life.

Adam's 6th B-day

We celebrated Adam's 6th birthday this year at the Bowling Alley.  He went to his good friends party a month prior to his b-day and decided he no longer wanted his party at Chuck E. Cheese, but at the bowling alley.  After I asked my dear friend Alyson to make Adam's invites and we were addressing them he decided to change his mind and would now like to have it at Chuck E. Cheese again.  When I explained that wasn't an option, he proceeded to tell me that he wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese because "that's where a kid can be a STAR".  After I explained that the bowling alley would also make him feel like a star he conceded and we had his party there with 10 of his BEST FRIENDS and had a great time.

In honor of Adam's 6th birthday I thought I would copy one of my favorite blogs and list 6 things I love about Adam.

1.  He has been the greatest joy to our family since the day he was born.  He always knows even to this day that he is the center of attention and can get pretty much anything he wants just by asking ( or throwing a fit, which ever gets him what he wants)

2.  His ability to love.  He shows such love to all of us and receives the same in return.

3.  His willingness to learn.  He is in Kindergarten this year and is excited to come home and share what he has learned, whether is it reading, math or new songs from music time.

4.  His excitement.  If you've ever watched Adam play Wii or watch an exciting program on TV you know what I mean.  He does this funny little dance in which he jumps, screams and his thoroughly excited.

5.  His prayers.  He has the sweetest prayers I've ever heard for a 6 year old.  The other day he prayed for all the men and women serving in the military and prayed that they would be home in 5 weeks.

6.  His ability to teach me continued patience, tolerance and LOVE.  He always shows such unconditional love that it reminds me that I need to practice the same.  Every day I wake up and know that I want to be a better mom to my 3 wonderful children.

Happy Birthday Adam!  My wish for you is that always know how very much you are loved.  We look forward to another year with you and all the possibilities that it brings.

Halloween 2008

This Halloween had a lot of firsts for our family.  Taylor went to her first boy/girl party where she won the Most "Boo-tiful" award.  She dressed as a butterfly and had a great time.  Brett decided he did not want to go out trick-or-treating, instead he had 3 friends come over for the night.  Try having 4 pre-teen boys down stairs playing tackle football on their knees.  Talk about boy odor.....WHEW!!!! And Adam and I went trick-or-treating by ourselves while Scott stayed home with the other boys.  We all had a great night and Adam was quite impressed with the bag of candy he came home with.  2 weeks later and I don't think Adam has eaten more than 3 pieces of candy.  I wish I could say the same.

Brett's a B.R.A.T.

Brett joined B.R.A.T.S for the 2007-2008 school year at Breidablik Elementary.  BRATS is the acronym for Breidablik Rising Athletic Talented Students.  Brett's Uncle Jake, Uncle Matt and sister were previous BRATS and Brett could not wait to join the family tradition.  Taylor rode the unicycle the year before and after Brett tried it for a couple of weeks decided it just wasn't for him.  He found that he was a master at ball walking.  With his best BRAT buddy, Nathan and Brett created their very own routine of tossing rings back and forth while ball walking.  Mr. Webb their instructor said it was the best routine he's seen in awhile.  At the end of their routine they even grab each other's arms and rotate around one another staying on their ball the whole time.

They were certainly fun to watch!

Watch out MLB.....Adam is in training for the 2021 draft!

This was Adam's first year of T-Ball and he absolutely loved it.  He of course loved being the catcher.  He could barely walk out to the plate let alone find the ball to place back on the tee.  It was a great experience for him and he is already talking about playing next year.

3 little pumpkins

Taylor, Brett and Adam had a great time creating their own pumpkins this year.  Adam decided he was going to do the infamous "puking" pumpkin.  After they were done they decided they would pose as their pumpkins for the picture.  The only problem with Adam's is that the crows kept coming to eat the "puke".  We had to put his pumpkin in the garage during the day to save it from the birds.

Adam's first day of school

Adam woke up the first day of school with an enthusiasm like I've never seen.  He is going to all day kindergarten with Mrs. Davalos and could hardly wait to ride the bus for the first time ever. We started the day by taking Taylor and Brett to school.  It was Brett's first day of Middle School and the excitement was the same with all 3 kids.  We then came home and had breakfast together and put Adam on the bus and then raced to our cars and got to the school before his bus and then we were able to watch Adam get in his class line and walk into school with all his new Breidablik friends.