Happy New Year Mt. Rainier Style

We went to the end of the neighboring peninsula today to get a good look at the mountains on a clear day. We got a great view of Mt. Rainier and also of the Olympic Mountains. At the end of the peninsula where we were you could look east and see Mt. Rainier and turn around to see the Olympic Mountains. It was beautiful. Looking forward to many more amazing views in 2011!

Happy New Year!

Owen's First Haircut!

Owen got his first haircut tonight. His hair was getting quite long around his ears... he had about 3 inches of growth below the top of his ears. He was very good... I used to give Colin a sucker when I cut his hair and I tried the same trick with Owen. It worked well, he was too fascinated with the sucker to care what I was doing with his hair! I cannot believe how "grown up" he looks now! He honestly looks 6 months older to me just because of the haircut! Here are some Before and After shots so you can see my clean up job around his ears. Colin also got a haircut... which you can see he was less than keen on posing for my picture. Am I imagining it or is he giving me an attitude already? He's only 4...

Merry Christmas!

We all had a fun Christmas this year. Santa made a stop at the house and left plenty of presents for the boys to open. Owen doesn't quite get it yet, but he certainly had fun playing with the toys. He was also up to his usual tricks of trying to remove all the ornaments he can reach off of the Christmas tree. Colin left cookies and milk stout for Santa and it must have been a big hit. Owen is a big fan of the shopping cart he got to push around and even likes to ride inside of it. Colin loves his new crane and his chain saw from Santa.

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

A Few Random Shots

I thought I'd share a few random shots... I finally got a few pictures that show off Owen's first and only teeth so far. He is almost 14 months now and still only has his bottom 2 front teeth. He is cute in that he already wants to brush them when Colin brushes his teeth. I also thought I'd include a picture of Owen at the beach... his favorite activity is lying face first in the gravel on the beach and eating all the rocks he can find. Most of them are quite small, so I'm sure he's taking in more fiber because of it! You can also see Colin's new "rock pit" - which is really just a gravel area we have under one of our decks. It's GREAT for his diggers and he and Owen have a blast playing out there.

Lastly, who couldn't love these pictures of Owen in his "bear suit"? We suited him up for a walk the other day and it was just too adorable not to post.

Colin is excited about Santa's visit... so check back soon for a posting about Christmas!

A Video of the Performance!

This is my first attempt at adding a video to the blog. It's a very short video using our camera from Colin's Christmas show today!

Christmas Show at Colin's Preschool

Colin's preschool put on a Christmas show today for all the families. It was a great time and we all enjoyed seeing the kids do such a great job. Colin was a choir singer, which means he was supposed to sing along to the songs during the show. He did sing some, but mostly he just stood there looking bored. At one point he even sat down to rest because he was tired. You can see him in the back right side of the bleachers wearing the plaid blue shirt and tan pants. He did an awesome job and we're very proud of him.

Of course, the show was followed by refreshments... which meant our boys stuffed their mouths with cookies.

A Gingerbread House

Colin and Daddy made a Gingerbread House again this year. (It came from a kit) Here you can see Colin showing off his masterpiece and Owen gazing longingly at the sugar he would like to eat and thinking about the mess he would like to make eating it.

The Christmas Tree!

Today we went to get our Christmas Tree at the farm up the road. In Washington, they have christmas tree farms all over the place, the one we went to was only 2 miles from our house! The weather was great (sunny!) and the boys had a good time. Owen chased the dog and Colin ate almost all the cookies (the remaining cookies got fed to the dog).

We got the tree put up in the house and all decorated today. Colin helped by putting his ornaments on the tree that he'd made in preschool. The tree we picked is a Noble Fir. I'd never heard of them until we moved here, but they are a wonderful variety of tree and I enjoyed decorating it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful first Thanksgiving in Washington. The weather was absolutely awful this past week with what we hear was a freak storm. (I'm not convinced, the scenery here is gorgeous but the weather has left a lot to be desired) We had about 5 inches of snow here in Olympia and it basically snowed us in. They don't have plows and don't salt the roads here, so that's taken some getting used to. With our road and driveway being big hills, it means we can't get out until the roads clear themselves. Benj used the bike trailer to bike into town to get our food for Thanksgiving day. I think we need to plan ahead when they call for snow...

Here are some shots from the weekend. Owen sporting his overalls, Colin taking pictures of his own feet and Colin decorating some sugar cookies.

We are very thankful for each other, our families, our friends and our health. We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Old Man Winter Has Followed Us

We've had several inches of snow today in Olympia. It's not made me or Benj very happy. It seems the snow has followed us; Columbus is having nice weather, we are having an early winter. We thought we'd paid our dues by having 29 out of the last 30 days with rain. Tonight it's supposed to be 19 degrees. We didn't used to have this kind of weather until January in Columbus. I'm not sure about this new climate in the Pacific Northwest...

We suited the boys up for some fun in the snow before lunch... I honestly never thought we'd need the snow gear again! Aside from Owen not having boots, we were definitely geared up. Colin had fun making snowballs and a snowman with help from Daddy. Owen wasn't a big fan of the snow, and as you can see, cried the whole time we pulled the sled. He fell asleep for his nap right after lunch, the snow must have tuckered him out. :)

The Latest

Here are some recent pictures of things going on in our lives. First, Benj got Boathouse Brewery all set up here in Olympia. The boys wore their matching "brewing shirts" for the first brew in the new location. It was a fun day for all, although it was raining (as always) and quite chilly. You can also see Owen showing off his "SOOO Big" gesture. He will put his hands above his head like this when you ask him "How BIG is Owen?" It's super cute. His sitter from Ohio taught him this trick and we get a kick out of it every time.

Colin and I were out back one day and came across a slug on our steps. I had to take a picture of these slugs I see all the time out here but never have my camera handy. They are absolutely HUGE. This one wasn't as big as I've seen, but he was still a good 6 inches long! I also had to show a picture of the new device I bought for our shoes... It's called the Thermanator. The racks are heated and when you hang your shoes they dry much faster. We'd always used newspaper, but that just doesn't cut it when it rains ALL the time. This seems to be doing the job wonderfully.

Chasing Rainbows

Last Sunday, Colin and I were sitting in the chair in our living room together. All of the sudden he exclaimed "Look Mommy, there is a huge rainbow!" I turned and looked to find this massive rainbow stretching across the sky. It was amazing. We both just watched it for a long time. What was even more amazing was the end of the rainbow was right on the water outside our house! Colin was quick to point out that there must not be a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow or else we'd see it. Very perceptive. If you look closely in the second picture, you can see the rainbow touching the water.

Since we get an insane amount of rain here, there are a remarkable number of rainbows. Just last Sunday I saw 3 or 4 throughout the day. Of course, the sun is a necessary element, and we don't see that very often these days! But when we do it's a joy, even the rainbows can't help but shine.