Old McDonald

Kyle and Troy singing "Old McDonald"

Enjoy!

Snow Day # 2

We woke up today to a phone call from Troy's school district saying that school was closed! Yeah! Time to sleep in....NOT!
Kyle has no concept of sleeping in. Oh well.
We had such a fun day. Kyle finally decided to wear a winter coat (size 4T) and mittens!
We went sledding with our neighbor buddies Caleb and Ethan. We built a snowman and we went on a walk with the Radio Flyer Wagon. Kyle even decided to "mow" the snow.


Kyle mowing the snow


Our snowman



Going for a walk in the wagon.




sledding




Cute boys sledding.

What a fun day! There is nothing better than playing in the snow, drinking hot cocoa, making cookies, and watching movies!
I hope we have another snow day tomorrow!

Snow Day

Kyle LOVED playing in the snow yesterday!
He was in Digging Heaven!
Of course, he refused to wear gloves/mittens...so his hands were freezing and bright red!
Oh well....he will learn.
I put him in the back of Daddy's truck and he dug out all the snow. I could not get him out of there! He would have played outside all day if I let him.....but I made him come in for hot cocoa and lunch (I know, I am so mean)
He enjoyed playing with his diggers and loaders on the deck (even after it got dark)
We did not make a snowman.....maybe we will try that today???


Kyle digging.


Playing on the deck at night.



more digging.




clearing off Daddy's truck





He's a digging machine!

Farmer Brown's Christmas Tree Farm

Making Traditions is an important part of Christmas for us.
For the past 3 years we have headed to Farmer Brown's Christmas Tree Farm to pick out the perfect Christmas Tree.
So we load up the Dodge Dakota with our hot cocoa in hand and head to Arlington. My sister, Sarah, always comes with us.
This year, Kyle loved walking through the many rows of trees. He found big ones and small ones! His favorite part was helping Daddy carry the tree back to the truck. So cute! What a big boy! And such a good helper!
(For some reason, I am not good at placing the photos in the order that I want them to go in)
sorry for that....
so...we are some photos from this year and some from past 2 years too!
(random order)


Kyle-December 2007 (age 15 months)


Annual shot with Auntie Sarah (2007)



1st Trip to Farmer Brown's Tree Farm
(December 2006)
12 weeks old



Our cute little family (2006)





Auntie Sarah and Kyle (2006)


December 2008:


Peek-a-boo



Helping Daddy carry the tree.
It's heavy!



Cute Boy!




I want to carry it Daddy!

Hmmm....how is Daddy sawing it? I want to try!

(maybe next year, kid)

You can't find me! :)

Here's a good one, mom. It's my size.

Look, I am taller than the tree!

Daddy and Kyle smile for the camera

Auntie Sarah and Kyle (2008)

Happy Tree Hunting!

Santa Pictures

Tonight was the night. We decided to take Kyle to see Santa for his yearly photo session.
I was prepared for the worst.
Getting him dressed was not easy. He wiggled, freaked out, and said "Different shirt MaMa!"
But...I did not give in. He was going to wear the red checked shirt with the gray and red striped sweater on top, cute jeans, and red socks! That is what I bought for him to wear for the photos. If he had his way...he would be wearing sweat pants with a bright yellow elephant t-shirt or digger jammies.
I won this one.
so....we sang Christmas Songs all the way to the mall.
I told him he could tell Santa that he wanted a digger for Christmas.
I told him he could eat a candy cane when he was finished.
I told him that he did not need to cry because he was a big boy.
I still expected tears, arched back, sliding off Santa's lap and running towards mommy.
but...I was surprised.
This is what we got!
Who is this kid?????????
Not my Kyle!!!!!


It only took 6 tries before we got a good one. The first few he was being shy and had his fingers in his mouth. Then he would not smile. But...I played peek-a-boo with him from behind the counter and that did the trick! Mommy knows how to get him to smile :)
Despite the High Waters....it is a cute photo.
I was pleased and proud.
He enjoyed every last lick of the sticky pepperminty candy cane.
The photos are already loaded on Facebook and Costco is printing copies for all the relatives right this very moment.
Mission Complete.
Now....if only I can get him to eat his vegetables!!!!!

Christmas Time Is Here...

Check out my new blog colors.
Festive, huh???

I finally got Kyle to put on his Christmas PJs. They are pretty cute.
He would rather wear his "Digger Jammies"



I am so excited for the Holiday Season! We are getting our Christmas Tree on Saturday (photos to come). I am slowly getting all of the Christmas Decorations up around my house. There is shopping to do, presents to wrap, cookies to bake, parties to attend, cards to send out.....
'Tis the Season!

Thanksgiving Feast

I still consider myself new to the "blog world"
For some reason I cannot get my photos to load in the order that I want them to appear on my blog....so excuse the randomness of the photo placement.....

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We spent the weekend in Bellingham with Troy's family.
There were 8 of us...a pretty small crowd. Poor Kyle has no cousins to play with but he seems to be OK with that. He LOVES to play with his MiMi and PaPa and their dogs, Charlie and Maggie. It is fun to watch Kyle interact with Auntie "TT" and Uncle Nando too!
The food was DELICIOUS!


My 1 glass of Riesling! Yummy!


Kyle enjoying his soy chocolate pudding.




Kyle praying for the meal. Cuteness!





The turkey.

My favorite: Mashed Potatoes with Roasted Garlic and Smoked Gouda Cheese

with Gravy, of course!

MiMi cooking!

More wine.

PaPa carving the bird.

The Family Photo.

Turkey. Stuffed.

Flowers and Candles. MiMi is cute and festive with her decorations.

The table.

The Apple Pie. Tara did a beautiful job! It was great!

She also made a pumpkin cheesecake with Ginger Snap Cookies for the crust! AMAZING!!!


What a wonderful FEAST!

Now...I am off to the YMCA to work out so I don't gain 10 pounds!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thankful!

It is the little things in life that I am thankful for this year:
Warm cups of coffee with French Vanilla Coffee Mate Creamer, cozy PJs, crisp morning air, sunlight beaming through the trees in my backyard. These are things I am thankful for this morning as I type.

My sister sent me some photos. Isn't this one cute???!!!???

My grandma, Doris, is 91 years old. She is a kick in the pants! I love her dearly!
The older I get, the more I realize how thankful I am for my family and friends.


Kyle is thankful for his blankies and stuffed animals! :)
You should see the routine of tucking him (and all of his animals) into bed each night.
It is quite a process!

I am a blessed woman! I have two boys in my life that mean the world to me: Troy and Kyle.
I am thankful for them!

Undefeated

Troy is a teacher at Everett High School. He also coaches boys and girls tennis.
The boys just finised their season UNDEFEATED!
Way to go boys!!!!

Early on in the season Coach Schwenke told his boys that if they went undefeated he would shave his head into a mohawk!

so...here it is!!

What a cool guy! His boys LOVED it! He had to shave it in front of the entire school at an assembly.

At least they shaved his head on Halloween. :)

I think it looked pretty good.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!
We dressed up for Young Life Club on Monday. I was worried that Kyle would not want to put his costume on. I was right. It took a wrestling match to get him into the costume. But...as soon as he was in it and had the boots and hat to make the outfit complete...he LOVED it. What a cute little fire fighter we have! I will add more photos after the big night of trick-or-treating but I could not wait to post these photos.

Our little fire fighter!


Too young to drive a fire engine....I will ride my scooter :)




This is the best pose with the pumpkins on the porch that I could get out of a wiggly toddler!

Happy Halloween!

Best Buddies

Kyle and Ethan are BEST BUDDIES!
Ethan is 9 months older than Kyle and he lives across the street.
Kyle does not have any siblings or cousins yet so Ethan is the closest thing he has to that.
They LOVE playing together.
We took a trip to "The Farm" in Snohomish last weekend. They boys had a great time. They loved riding on the hayride, looking at the animals, jumping in the hay, digging in the dirt, and picking out pumpkins together. It is so fun to have a best buddy right across the street!

Kyle hugging Ethan on the hayride.




Looking at the tractor. Wow! It is BIG!



When they had this photo taken people commented on how nice they were to eachother sitting on the pumpkin. Some people thought they were brothers. (If they were brothers they would probably be pushing eachother off the pumpkin).



Holding hands in the field.

So sweet! Best of Friends!!