Holiday Update

These last couple of weeks have been so busy and so fun. Here are a few of the highlights:

On Tuesday, December 16th Jon had to be at a meeting until 7:00pm in Bellevue, so Matthew, Seth, and I decided to spend the evening with Grandmother Ruthie. As a bonus, we also got to spend time with Bracan, Rachel, Lucy, and Alice. We went out to eat and were favored to hear a local school jazz band. Lucy and Matthew enjoyed the tunes and took the opportunity to put on their dancing shoes for a while.
Wednesday night and all day Thursday we got more snow, so on Friday we headed to Edmonds to test out Grandma and Grandpa's driveway for sledding. It was fun to see Matthew enjoy sledding down the same hill that I enjoyed sledding down for so many years. I even went down the hill for old time sake. Matthew also enjoyed more play time with Lucy.
Saturday night we were hit with more snow, making about 6.5 inches in our backyard.
It was plenty of snow to make another snowman, this time in our own protected backyard.

The boys in their Christmas jammies.

This year we spent our first Christmas since the Christmas right before Matthew was born in our own home(I couldn't travel with a December 25th due date). Matthew woke up bright and early at around 5:00 and we held him off until 5:30 when we allowed the present opening to begin.

Here's a close up of Matthew's stocking; I started it before last Christmas and finished it at about 9:00 pm this Christmas Eve.
We were lucky enough to have two Christmases this year. Due to inclement weather, the Christmas packages from Grammy and Grampy were delayed. So, we had a second Christmas on the 26th when the packages arrived.

Now we are left contemplating how to organize the playroom to accommodate all the new toys, games, and books. Time for another toy rotation!

Santa Pictures and Our Little Elf

A couple of weeks ago Grandmother Ruthie and I took the boys to Bellevue Square to have Santa pictures taken. I choose the Santa at Bellevue Square after previewing him online. I had to make sure that Santa was dressed appropriately, not like this:
It was a fun outing. Matthew loved telling Santa everything that he wanted and Seth was happy to just sit there and drool (Had we a better digital copy of the picture you might notice the drool hanging off his lip. Who uses film these days? I'll tell you . . . the Santa at Bellevue Square. Sorry the scan is kind of losey). After the picture we played at the new Kid's Cove play area. It is by far the best and biggest mall playground that I've ever seen. Matthew had a blast and Seth loved watching all the kiddies go wild. Behold the Santa picture:

Matthew has been begging to dress Seth in a pair of Santa slippers and hat that used to be his. Actually, I don't think that Matthew ever wore them because he didn't show up before or on his Christmas due date. But I digress. So, Seth got all decked out for the ward Christmas party. He looked awfully cute and very festive.

More Snow

For the grandparents viewing pleasure (and because I'm proud of 'Matthew's' snowman) . . .

Snow!

We got snow last night in Seattle. We had quiet a bit of snow accumulate on the fence, but only about an inch accumulated on the grass, and our driveway didn't have anything stick to it. Even though it wasn't very much snow, our church was cancelled because they didn't want people driving on the snow.

Matthew wanted to go out and play in the snow. Since playing in the snow seemed appropriate, we decided to let him open one of his birthday presents a few weeks early.
He looked pretty good with his hat, coat, mittens, and boots--though he still wanted to wear his pajama bottoms.

We never thought that Matthew's excavator and dump truck would be anything by dirt/sand toys, but Matthew thought they would be very useful as a snow plow and snow remover.
Seth is still too little to play in such cold weather, so he got to look on from the comfort of the house.

Santa Train

Last week we were able to go on the Santa Train that starts in North Bend (up in the mountains near Seattle). Julie bought tickets back in October, because they sell out this train every year. Needless to say, Matthew was very excited in the days leading up to our train ride and in the moments when we were waiting for the train to arrive at the station.

It was pretty cold up in the mountains, but we were well prepared for the cold. Matthew got to wear his mittens and snow hat for the first time this year. Seth also got to wear his bunting and he was very warm.

The train was supposed to be an older train that has been refurbished. We didn't realize just how old it really was. This is the best picture we have of the train, so you can't see it very well. The seats had big springs under them, there was an actual boiler in the car that is supposed to be used to heat the train, and the stairways were so narrow and steep that you probably couldn't get them to pass any kind of modern regulation.

The train ride was only 15-20 minutes down to the station at Snoqualmie. At the Snoqualmie station they had a train museum that included a bunch of old train cars that aren't in use any more. One of the cars was an old military kitchen car in which people were making cookies and warming hot chocloate. The treats were actually pretty tasty, and Matthew was singing parts of the hot chocolate song from The Polar Express. Matthew also liked looking at all of the old cars, including this caboose.

The other big draw at the Snoqualmie station was seeing Santa Clause. We spent most of our time in Snoquamie waiting in line for Santa. Unfortunately, Seth had fallen asleep in line and was out cold. So, only Matthew saw Santa.


After seeing Santa Matthew, the exit goes through the gift shop (of course). Matthew chose one of the engines from the Thomas series that fits his train set at home. After that, we got back on the train to North Bend. It was a pretty day overall.

O Christmas Tree and 4 Month Check-up

Yesterday for Family Night we started putting up the Christmas tree. Of course, we had to run to the store to get lights because some of our strands were broken; so we didn't finish decorating until this morning. Matthew was very proud of the finished product. Next task on his list: Filling the Christmas tin he's holding in the pictures with candy.

Seth had his four month check-up today. It was a pretty traumatic experience. He's came down with a cold, so he's been pretty miserable. To add to the misery, his appointment time directly coincided with a meal and nap time. He made it through even though the doctor gave up on checking his eyes (He couldn't keep them open while screaming). Here are his stats:

Height: 26 inches (80%)
Weight: 13 pounds, 9 ounces (25%)
Head circumference: 40.4 centimeters (20%)

Here's a few pictures of my little running buddy:
He loves to lick his jacket.

Dinosarumpus

One of Matthew's favorite books recently is a book called "Dinosarumpus." It's a long poem about dinosaurs dancing and making noise. The poem is really long, but Matthew has such a great memory that he almost has the whole thing down. He told the story to everyone in San Jose at Thanksgiving, and he gave the encore performance tonight at the Goodwin family dinner. We had to capture it on video to share with everyone. We missed the very beginning of his performance, but you get the picture.

Here are the real words to the poem so you can follow his craziness:

There's a quake and a quiver and a rumbling around.
It makes you shiver. It's a thundery sound.

Shake, shake, shudder near the sludgy old swamp.
The dinosaurs are coming. Get ready to romp.

Donk! Donk! Donk! Here's Triceratops
jumping up and down doing dinosaur hops.
He wears three horns on his big, bony head,
and blunders along with a Bomp! Bomp! tread.

Shake, shake, shudder near the sludgy old swamp.
The dinosaurs are coming. Get ready to romp.

Watch out for Deinosuchus with her snip-snap grin,
as she perches on her tail and twists in a spin.

Apatosaurus stops for a slushy, mushy snack.
His tail starts swinging with a Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

Shake, shake, shudder near the sludgy old swamp.
The dinosaurs are coming. Get ready to romp.

Pteranodon dives with a swift, sharp swoop.
He shrieks out an Eeeeek! as he swirls in a loop.

Stegosaurus stomps along with lots of her playmates.
Clatter! Clatter! Clatter! go their bony back plates.

Shake, shake, shudder near the sludgy old swamp.
The dinosaurs are coming. Get ready to romp.

Styracosaurus shakes his collar and his spikes.
Rattle! Rattle! Rattle! is the noise that he likes.

A pack of Deinonychuses go running by fast
with a Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! so they won't be the last.

Shake, shake, shudder near the sludgy old swamp.
The dinosaurs are coming. Get ready to romp.

Donk! Bomp! Snip-Snap! Twist! Thwack! Eeeeek!
Clatter! Rattle! Zoom! Zoom! Come and take a peek.

Shake, shake, shudder near the sludgy old swamp.
Everybody's doing the dinosaur romp.

Roar! Roar! Roar! What's making that sound?
The dinosaurs stop and there's silence around.
Roar! Roar! Roar! Now we're shivering with fright.
What can make a sound like that in the night?

Tyrannosaurus crashes in, gnashing his jaws.
Wallop on the ground go his big back claws.
He's huge and he's heavy, but all he wants to do...
is join in the romp, so why don't you?

Shake, shake, shudder near the sludgy old swamp.
Everybody's doing the dinosaur romp.

Get romping with T-Rex and Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!
Wave your arms madly, make your feet go Bomp!

The dinosaurs won't scratch us, or bite us, or thump us.
The just want to holler up a...dinosaurumpus!

Shake, shake, shudder near the sludgy old swamp.
Everybody's doing the dinosaur romp.

A dinosaurumpus gives a sizzle and a zing!
It makes you want to shout, jump, jiggle, and sing.

Shake, shake, shudder near the sludgy old swamp.
Everybody's doing the dinosaur romp.

But soon all the rompers grow sleepy and slow.
The rumpus calms down and the sound drops low.
The rompers drift together and tumble in a heap...
till finally the dinosaurs are all fast asleep.

And now the only noise in the deep of the night is...
dinosaur-snoring till the next day's light.

Speed Racer

One of Matthew's favorite things to do at Grammy's house is to drive the electric, kid-size Jeep that they bought for the grandkids. Matthew especially loves that it is red (his favorite color). These are some of the many pictures we got of him driving.


The last time we were out in San Jose, Matthew had a tough time controlling the car. Stepping on the pedal and steering the wheel at the same time was tough to master. He had a lot more success this time, although he still has some driving skills to master--we're not handing over the car keys any time soon.

Thanksgiving

We just got back from San Jose for Thanksgiving. Julie and the boys flew down last Saturday and spent a whole week there. Jon worked the first part of the week and came down Wednesday afternoon. The week seemed to fly by so fast; it's hard to believe that we are already back in Seattle.

This week was our first chance to meet cousin Lilly. She is just 11 days old than Seth, so they are just about the same ago. Julie found some "Baby's 1st Thanksgiving" outfits for them to wear. They were cute as twins. While we were taking pictures, Seth kept trying to grab Lilly's hand.



Matthew had a blast with Heidi and Grammy. He loves playing with them, goofing off, and showing off for them. Heidi even slept on the couch so that Matthew could use her bed. He felt like such a big boy getting to sleep in her bedroom all by himself. Matthew and Grammy made a gingerbread train together. We didn't get very many pictures of Matthew playing, but we did get some of him with their train before he ate it.



We had all of the family there, except for David, Kim and Molly. Jon tried to get Matthew to make a video for Molly, but it didn't turn out the greatest.

Even though the video didn't turn out the greatest, we hope David, Kim and Molly know that we're sad that our schedules are off this year (we were in SJ for Thanksgiving and they will be there for Christmas). Hopefully we can work something out to get them together.

We hope everyone you all had a good Thanksgiving and were able to enjoy time with friends and family.

Matthew and Madeline

I've been meaning to blog for a while now, but I've borrowed the Twilight series from my friend Kimberlee and every free minute has been spent reading. I need to finish it so I can get on with my life. Hopefully I'll eventually write the post that I've been thinking about. But, in the meantime, I thought I'd share this little story with you about Matthew and his "girlfriend" Madeline. I didn't hear it first hand so I don't feel qualified to write about it but you can read the story here.

Look at Me and My Crafty Self

After Halloween was over I was quick to remove the Halloween decorations from the front door. I didn't want to be looking at them in December, like last year. Our Halloween decorations were so plentiful (thanks to Jon's mom), that our door was looking so bare after I took them down. In the past we left our pumpkins out past Halloween and eventually made them into pumpkin bread or pumpkin pie, but since Jon and I are dieting, that didn't seem like a good option. (I do realize that you can make things out of pumpkin that aren't bad for you, but those options don't seem worth the effort.) So I decided to decorate our pumpkins as turkeys for Thanksgiving. I wanted to do some sort of decoration that Matthew could participate in and that we could do for family night, so I decided that we would write something that we were thankful for on each of the feathers. We made the feathers out of foamie sheets, adhered them to popsicle sticks, and stick them into the pumpkin. I thought that they turned out pretty cute. To top it off, while we were picking up the craft supplies for the turkeys we found this adorable wreath for 70% off. Apparently, when they put the Halloween stuff on sale they also put the Thanksgiving stuff on sale too. Hooray!

Halloween Festivities

We celebrated Halloween in several ways these last couple of weeks. We decorated cookies, went trunk-or-treating, and went to the animal farm. Last Thursday Matthew's preschool class had a little Halloween party and costume parade. On Halloween we made a trip to the Seattle Childrens Museum where Matthew went on another parade (okay, he actually didn't end up parading, but we attempted) and decorated another cookie. After a nap, we headed up to my parents where Matthew and Grandpa carved a pumpkin and we trick-or-treated around the neighborhood. The boys and I then headed home to stop by some of our own neighbors' houses. I'm thankful that Halloween is done . . . on to THANKSGIVING!