Christmas

For Christmas this year we met my family in Klamath Falls, Oregon for a few days.  They were kind enough to do the majority of the driving since Klamath Falls is only 3 - 4 hours from us.  We stayed at the Running Y Ranch and it was alot of fun.

First, though, we had to get there, which became an adventure in itself.  The freeway closed over the pass because of white out conditions and wrecks.  We thought of waiting it out, but ended up coming back home and unloading all of our stuff to try again the next morning.  Good thing too, because the freeway didn't open back up until late that night.  The next day was snowy and chains were required.  We ended up buying some, but never used them and will be getting our $90 back when they let us return them in April.  The drive was pretty snowy, but beautiful.  It reminded me how much I like the crisp, clean mountain air with snow in the winter.  I was so glad we had a white Christmas.

We filled our time with lots of swimming,

 Asher prefers alot of buoyancy,

 and sledding,

this picture of Asher laughing the whole way down the hill cracks me up.

games with Grandpa

Batman and Spiderman (lady bug is missing) hats the boys love.

the view from our room

The boys love their Aunt Kellie

We went ice skating, which was fun, cold, and alot of work.  At first, it seemed a career of hockey was not in the boys future, but there was definite improvement by the end.

Christmas Eve presents - toy story pajamas.  Kason has Woody pajamas, Asher - Buzz Lightyear and Emry is Jessie.  They. love. them.  It is hard to get Asher dressed during the day, but easy to get him in his pj's for bed.  I love this picture.

Christmas morning was exciting.  Emry still needed encouragement to understand opening presents, but she had two willing helpers.

Kason drawing as soon as he opened his sketch pad and pencil.

We had alot of fun.  Then we headed back home, made Kellie miss her flight, drove her to the airport the next morning, and got back into getting ready for the job market (more details on that soon).  

A few random bits to remember:

-Kellie said, something smells like pickles.  Asher replies, "you smell like a pig".  After we tried to remind him of manners, he says, "I'm just being REAL".

I asked Kason what he wants to be when he grows up, without hesitation he replies, "a leaf blower man!"  Good to know his goal.

Now we are back to normal:

We did go roller skating.  I thought it might be easier than ice skating,..nope.  This was the best it got:

 Most of the time was spent like this 

But, Isaac (who likes to show off his hockey skills while ice skating/roller skating...and I'll admit, it's impressive), Emry, and I had fun.

Eventually, this won out:

Random Thoughts

One year ago, this is where we were. 

So happy to be together today

Asher took the hip hop class.  He loved it.

Attitude face

It snowed here! Less than an inch, and gone by afternoon, but still a great Christmas surprise   Kason saw the snow in the morning and Asher screamed, "It's Christmas!!"

A friend told me he was talking to Kason, asking him what he had asked Santa for.  Kason named three things and said "this OR this OR this"  When asked why he didn't want all 3 things Kason replied, "Oh no, I'd be happy with just one."  Sometimes I feel like Kason is a wise and mature old man in a 5 year old body. 

I don't know why this is blurry, but you get the gist of it!  Emry is in total panic mode.

ONE

Miss Emry turned the big 1 yesterday.

Crazy.

She had plenty of help opening her presents, which was good because she just sat there and looked at it

I. Love. this. picture.  It's her first girl toy, her first doll, and she loves it.  My parents gave it to her.  Now she doesn't have to play with cars, spiderman, army guys...

The doll has the eyes that open and close and Emry pretty much just sits there and pokes at the eyes for long periods of time.  

We also had applesauce cupcakes (which were a bust, it's great as cake, not as cupcakes) with pink and purple cream cheese frosting.  She was very cautious about the cupcake and just looked at it until we gave her a few tastes.

Then she loved it

We are so glad to have such good friends here

Some things about our one year old:

She is and always has been a happy and easy going girl.  Maybe our easiest baby?

I have to put these pictures up because when I think of Emry as a baby one of the main things I'll always think of is this position.  It is her safe place.  I lift her up and she goes right to here.  She sucks her left thumb and puts her other arm around my neck and plays with my hair.  If you don't have hair she'll scratch your neck.  If other people's hair isn't available she sucks her thumb and twirls her own hair around her finger.

She's not walking on her own yet, but can cruise around with this walker and around the furniture.  She got so excited about doing this at first that she would practically hyperventilate while she was going.

She'll usually crawl around with something in her mouth, very safe, I know.

She has perfect hazel-ish eyes and lips.

She waves and says hi

She whispers what's that (it sounds like was at)

She has been our best sleeper (probably because of the thumb sucking :/ )

She is a momma's girl and has had some stranger anxiety compared to the boys, who had none.

She loves her crackers

Easy going

smiley

She has 4 teeth

We love our whippy!

Just Life

Asher's favorite past time lately:  wrapping Emry up in blankets

 My sisters gave us a tent and we finally broke it out.  We moved the couch to squeeze the tent in our tiny living room.  The boys were so excited.  We watched Arthur Christmas and then we all ended up sleeping in the tent.

Supposed to be going to sleep

My Gerber baby

Kason took a karate class and loved it.  

 I couldn't resist putting this picture on...I love it

  All the kids have ended up getting this shot taken at around 10ish months - Isaac holding them just out of the bath in a white towel

 Emry -11 months

Kason - 10 months

Asher - 11 months

The Oregon rain is here.  We had so much rain the other day that the streams all flooded onto the streets, I went on a run and was in ankle deep water.

Emry ready to head out in her rain jacket

Isaac finished his "applecations"!!!  It was quite the ordeal, much more difficult than I had anticipated.  With teaching a new class, getting these individualized applications out, and finishing his job market paper it was eat, sleep and drink school.  This was Isaac's spot when he was home.  He'd hook up the double monitors and work.  Kason called them "applecations".

He was also on 2 local news stations for a previous paper!  Here's the link:

http://www.kval.com/news/local/Does-Duck-football-have-an-affect-on-getting-good-grades--179731071.html?tab=video&c=y

Happy girl!  She's cruising around the furniture now

Thanksgiving was just a great day.  We did a "Thankful Tree" this year, which was really fun for all of us.  That morning I ran the "Turkey Trot", which was really fun and I'd like to do one every year.  I was really happy with how it went and beat my goal time by 3 minutes and was 193rd out of 852.

We had a yummy dinner at home with just us, and then met up with good friends for pie.  

It was a great day!