Christmas 2009 come and gone.

Well another year has come and gone. I can't believe how fast time went by.  We had a great Christmas and I believe everyone is happy with what they got.  The boys got a good variety of stuff, from games, to craft stuff, to toys.  Unfortunately I didn't do a very good job at taking many pictures and what I got didn't capture the best moments and good times had by all.  But here you go anyway. We spent Christmas Eve with Justin's family this year, were we went to a church nativity program and then had dinner.  It was quite a good program.  Then we did our traditional stay at home on  Christmas day and baked a turkey.  Then we just relaxed and played with all of our games and toys.  It was a break well needed.  The boys are getting so big and it was fun to watch them get excited for Santa to come.  Unfortunately that meant up at 6:30 am, but they were in pretty good spirits the rest of the day.  Zayne enjoyed the paper and tried to get at anything and everything he could.  He is now crawling normal and walking with help.  He is now 9 months old and growing fast.

New pics of the family

Here is our family photo that was taken just before Halloween by a friend of ours.  Obviously I was pleased enough with the photos that there are quite a few here taken by her.  Also, check out the photos to the right.  I have a new picture of Justin and the boys and the boys and I.  I love the way they turned out.  This family shot was actually one of the last ones taken of our family and amazingly enough we still have some fairly happy boys.  Not our best faces, but they work.

The second picture is actually one of my most favorites, but Justin liked the first one more.  So we used it as our main family photo that everyone got. 

Yep, I finally got a picture of just Justin and I.  Unfortuantely I was wearing a sweat shirt which isn't very flattering, but it still turned out well. 

This was a really cute one of Zayne that we loved.  Such a cute look on his face as his parents check him out as he checks out the camera.  Can you tell he loves attention?

Another fun one of the whole family checking Zayne out as he attacks his brothers hair.  He loves to pull hair and scratch faces.  He thinks it's really funny even when it hurts us.   He is learning to be a tease fast.

 

Here is Quentin's school photo.  It turned out so great.  I was so pleased to have him come home with a photo of a true smile.  He is known for doing his fake cheesers.  What a cute boy.  He is truly loving first grade and excelling well.  We are so proud of him.  Quentin was so determined to have spiky hair this day, so I am so glad they stayed.  But it's funny he never asks for them any more.

 

This was a great one of Cyrus.  He is still so photogenic.  We finally got him potty trained as well.  It was quite the process since he is so care free.  Unfortunately we still have accidents, but we are definitely there now.  Cyrus is so fun to have around and loves his one on one with mom.  He is learning and growing so fast. 

Last but not least is Zayne.  He is now army crawling and doing everything he can to get to his brothers stuff.  He loves to attack their block towers, steel their toys, and get a hold of anything that his brothers have.  He has been so much fun to watch.  He wants so much to run with his brothers and I fear he will be doing this sooner then later. 

Halloween 2009

For Halloween we did our traditional carving of pumpkins, but as you can see, the boys only wanted to color them this year. We were able to plant pumpkins in our garden this year and were blessed with plenty to pick from. The boys had fun. As you can also see, they really got into their designs.

This is what Zayne did during the carving process and he was all smiles for the attention. However, he had no idea that the camera was on him, or he wouldn't have been smiling. Daddy is taking the pictures while Mommy is acting like she is going to get him. What great smiles.

The boys were great troopers for Halloween. We had a much busier day then we wanted, especially since the boys woke up with runny noses and coughs. But we made it. We visited both sets of grandparents and then ended up out trick or treating for an hour and a half. Longer then planned, but we got to see those who wanted to see us. Needless to say, we were all ready for bed that night and looked forward to the extra hour of sleep in the morning. Not that the kids know what that means. But we tried.

For Halloween Cyrus chose to be the Bumblebee Transformer. He has never seen the movie and has no idea what a transformer really is. But he really liked the costume and it was yellow. That was all that mattered to him.

Here is the Quentin designed/mommy pieced together costume. Quentin was playing his game SPORE and designed this creature (alien with lots of arms). He printed it out and told me that is what he wanted to be for Halloween. It took work and creativity, but he wore it and enjoyed it. I'm just glad the costume survived the whole holiday.

Front view of the costume. The arms had to be reattached a few times, but other then that, all went well.

Here is Zayne as a frog. He wasn't sure what was going on and didn't really want to be bundled up like this. But he was a great trooper.

October fun!

So I was getting pics of Zayne on his belly, one of my favorite positions for pics, and I caught him trying to get on his knees in the crawling position. See below. I can't believe my baby is that old yet. He also loves solids and is making time away easier if it is meal time.

This weekend we laid sod under our swing set. Finally! I was getting tired of the mud and dirt being brought in after play. Justin did a great job. Thanks love, you are awesome. It looks great and the rain after wards worked out great.

Before. Of course with Quentin's poses.

After most of the way.

Cyrus loves to push Zayne in the laundry basket and thankfully Zayne loves the ride. I couldn't get Zayne laughing like he was. He seems to shy away when the camera comes out.

August and September

Summer has come and gone and here we are already a month later into the school year. I swear time is moving faster and faster with each passing day. My first born Quentin started first grade this year and is loving it. It has been quite the experience having him gone so much, but it has also allowed more one on one with Cyrus and Zayne. And I know that they have been enjoying it. Quentin chose to be himself and do a silly pose for his first day. In fact I forgot to snap a picture before he left for school, so this is actually after his first day and he is still happy. Always a good sign. This is also the reason for the succor in the mouth.
In August, right before school started, we took advantage of the $2 Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point with the cousins. Here are the boys down in front of the water falls in the gardens. We also attended the Dinosaur Museum, but I didn't have any decent pics from there. Zayne is in the stroller if you didn't guess it. We also went to the Hogle Zoo a couple of weeks ago and they all seemed to enjoy it. It was a hot day though so I was glad to have purchased and recieved my double sit and stand stroller. What a great purchase, even when my kids normally walk every where. It was definitely worth having for those tired times.
I can't believe my baby is 6 months tomorrow. Which means that he gets to start trying solid foods. Here are his first attempts. As you can see, he wasn't a big fan or not quite sure what to think. He is doing better now since we have started adding in the fruits and veggies. Hopefully it will keep up and he won't be so dependent on me. With that in mind, he has also gotten his first tooth and is starting to have his second one break through.

Oregon-Washington Trip

As you can see, we finally made it to see Ivan and Terri and their families. Here are a few of the many pictures that Nicole, Ivan's wife, and we took. Nicole did a great job of getting some pictures of the whole family for us. Thank you so much, Nicole. This picture of Justin and I are up at the light house in Newport Oregon. As you can see behind us, it wasn't very clear that day. Although it didn't seem to clear up much at all the whole time we were there.

This is the family at the docks. Some people had just caught some crabs that were wandering around the docks that the boys got to see. Then just below us and to the right were some platforms with at least 30 Sea Lions that were sun bathing and barking. It was pretty cool. The boys enjoyed seeing these animals and were asking to see some more when we were trying to leave.

Here is the family again at the light house. We had a lot of fun.

Here is the family at the Oregon Aquarium. Good old Quentin decided that he didn't need to smile. So he had a great face in this one. We got to see many different types of animals. But I think the boys favorite was being in the tanks where the sharks and sting rays swam all around us. They also liked seeing the many different types of colored fish and star fish. We also happened to be there when they were feeding the sea lions. Pretty fun.

Here are the boys at the beach. Their favorite thing to do, was to throw sticks in the Ocean and wait for the tides to return it to them. They did this over and over again. It is like having their own pet, minus the mess. We didn't get to build sand castles because it was so wet and cold, but we will do it again another time. Maybe next time will be in Florida at their warmer beaches.

The boys getting dirty in the sand. They had a blast.

Quentin, Jessi, Mitchell, and Cyrus at the Lighthouse. They had a lot of fun running around and playing together.

Here we are sitting on a piece of petrified wood at the Gingko Petrified Forest in Vantage Washington, where Terri and her family live. Ryan, Terri's husband, is a park ranger for this park. Their son Konner is in between the boys. They had a lot of fun.

The boys got to do one of their most favorite things to do. Throw rocks in the river. Terri and family live just off of the Columbia River. So we got to be near enough to the water to throw rocks. They had a blast and did their best to sneak in the water and get wet when their parents weren't watching. Quentin had no idea I was taking this picture. What a poser.

Here is Zayne just chilling with his daddy while everyone else threw rocks in the river. What a cute little boy. I love that hat on him.

Above is the view out the front door of Terri's the first night we stayed in Vantage Washington. Justin had to run out with the camera when he saw it.
Below is a view of Agate Beach in Newport Oregon. This was the view from our hotel. We had our own entrance to this beach from the hotel.

We had a lot of fun on our vacation and wished we had had a little bit more time to spend at the beach and other places. But it was a great visit and we appreciate Ivan and Terri's families for being such gracious hosts. You guys are awesome. We hope to come see you again.

Attack of the hornets

So I was out mowing the lawn and had something attack my back. Thinking it was just a bee or wasp, I just continued on. Well, Sunday we were walking through our yard and found this hanging in the tree. We weren't sure what it was or what kind of bugs these were, so Justin took pictures and did some research. Come to find out, we have a bald faced hornets nest in our pear tree. It was by this tree where I got attacked. Now I'm concerned to send my kids out to play, but hopefully we will be able to take care of this soon. I had to share this picture with you cause I thought their hive is interesting. Supposedly it is made from bark and saliva. What weird looking bugs.

4th of July

Okay, so I decided to post some fun pics of the boys first. I don't know about you, but my favorite pics are always the fun ones not the posing ones. So here you go, I hope you enjoy.










For the 4th of July we hung out as a family doing some small fireworks and blasting off the boys rockets. We also went swimming in the pool and had a BBQ. They had a lot of fun running around and playing at the home. Of course I'm sure the boys would have had fun with cousins as well, but we didn't get together with them until the following day. It was a nice day to just be together.