The last Christmas Post

The day after we returned home from Oregon, we were off to Nathan's parents' house for Christmas with them. I was itching to head over not just because there was Christmas to be celebrated, but also because "my" almost-here-baby was there waiting for me and rumor had it he or she was wiggly! Poor Auntie Kimmie because I think I spent half the afternoon with my hands on her belly, but...I got to feel "my" baby move...and I'm telling you, I just about cried when I felt it. (Mommyhood has turned me into a crier. Ask anyone...). I cannot wait to meet that little peanut (only a month-ish left!)! Anyway, along with Doug and Kathleen, and Auntie Kimmie and Uncle Dana,  GGma and Aunt Karen were also there, so we spent a nice, relaxing morning enjoying and just hanging out with everyone! Such fun!

Coming in to see the tree

We've had big talk from both boys about joining T-ball this year, so they were super excited when they opened up baseball bats!

So this shirt has a story. A while ago the Oregon Ducks beat out Uncle Dana's Washington Huskies for the 10th year in a row (a Duckade of wins) and so Nathan sent Dana a surprise "rub it in" Ducks t-shirt in the mail. Well upon opening it up, Nathan received a text from Uncle Dana that said something along the lines of "Sugar loves her new bed!" with a picture of their dog Sugar laying on the shirt. Fast forward to Christmas when the Stanford Cardinals had beaten the Ducks, and it was Nathan's turn to open a "rub it in" shirt.

The boys also asked for Camo gear for Christmas. Now when you ask for Camo gear from a  Grandpa who loves to hunt, you don't just get a piece of camo-gear, you get head-to-toe camo gear....camo boxers included! 

One of my favorites from that morning....

...Uncle Dana teaching the boys how to play checkers!

Another favorite? This selfie I found on my camera after leaving it all alone on the counter! Love these two!

Since Christmas, and thanks to the spring-like weather we have been having, the boys have spent endless amounts of time out in the backyard honing their baseball skills...

..and getting pointers from Daddy.

Drew's number one gift on his Christmas list for Santa this year was (of all things!) a science kit he had seen over the summer. Well Santa, of course, did not disappoint and so we spent much of the month of January also experimenting. 

Volcano building 101

The Second Oregon Trip: The Finale

The last day of our trip in Oregon, was of course, Christmas day itself. What a fun three weeks we had leading up to it! There isn't much explaining to do for these pictures. Christmas morning was mellow and sweet....and as always, was over way too quickly! Like almost any other year, we spent the entire day in our jammies, lounging around, playing with new things, and in general just soaking up the time hanging out together with no obligations!

Our Elf "Broc" made a surprise appearance at my parents house and joined their elf "Lemony" in her mischief in the weeks before Christmas

Christmas Eve after church, the closest to a good shot we could get this year. :)

I had to add this one because for Christmas Eve service, Emmie wore a dress that my mom had saved from when my sisters and I were little and we wore it!

Drew made headbands for Auntie Christi and Elsie 

Christmas morning! (In Oregon, Santa is apparently a Ducks fan....)

Elsie spent pretty much all of her first Christmas snoozing away, whether it was in a chair...

...or snuggled up in someone's arms! 

My mom with the photo she has been begging us to have professionally taken, printed and "gifted" to her for Christmas for a few years now.

Auntie Christi and Auntie Kell

Elsie

Emmikins

I think I've mentioned this in previous years, but we rotate between sisters who we give a gift to each year. This year, Jenn and Burke had Kell and Jenn painted her two of these amazing watercolors.

For the past three years, I have made and given a quilt to each of my sisters when we've had them for Christmas and my mom has not-so-patiently been waiting for her turn. When I got the phone call that Christi was in labor, I had the fabric for her quilt cut, but nothing else pulled together at all. Thus, this quilt became the "three day quilt". I spent every waking moment that my kids were asleep or occupied finishing this up, but the fun part in all of that mad rush, was that because our trip was in some ways, short notice, I don't think my mom was expecting a quilt at all. When we got to Oregon, my sisters helped me shove it into a teeny tiny box, so that she wouldn't expect anything by its appearance on Christmas morning and this was her first reaction when she saw what it was.

Well, I think that finally wraps up the Oregon posts! I do have one more Christmas post from the fun morning we spent with Nathan's family when we returned home, but more on that later...

The Second Oregon Trip: Christmas Part V

When my sisters and I were younger, we used to read The Night Tree by Eve Bunting every year around Christmas and decorate our own night tree. The book is about a family that drives just outside of their town's city limits to find the same tree in the woods that they have decorated every year at Christmastime. They decorate it with all sorts of goodies for the birds and animals to eat and leave it as their Christmas gift to the forrest. Since my sisters and I are all grown up, it's been a while since we last decorated a night tree. This year though, since our boys were in town and there is the perfect "night tree" in my parent's front yard (and really, just because we plain old wanted to), we revived the tradition! We all collected pinecones around my parent's property for a few days beforehand, Jenn and I had the *joyous* job of stringing oodles of popcorn, and then on the evening we were going to decorate the tree, we finished up the pinecones by rolling them in peanut butter and birdseed and hanging them on strings for the tree. 

My sister Kell keeps her drum set (yep, a drum set. She's that awesome!) in the garage, so while the big boys got their pinecones ready, Tanner rocked out with Auntie Jenn. Much more entertaining than pinecones!

Happy Emmikins hung out with Uncle Nathan inside while we got things ready outside where it was, in traditional Oregon fashion....

...pouring rain!

We bundled up though and decorated anyway!

Drew

Coll getting a boost from Daddy

Tan Tan and Lala

When we had finished hanging all the pinecones, the boys spread the extra birdseed on the ground...

...and set out apples and carrots for the deer and squirrels.

Elsie came out to decorate, all bundled up, for just a tiny bit.

Emmie did too!

We had a bonfire going and of course, when Drew finished up with the tree, it was time to sword fight the flames. Short lived. Very short lived.

I didn't grab any pictures, but the next morning, it had stopped raining and the tree was absolutely filled with happy birds and squirrels. The decorations lasted a few days and since you can see our night tree from my parent's kitchen window, it was fun to watch all the little critters pop in and out of the tree over three or four days after we had decorated.