False Alarm and Matthew is 3!

The other day I got this little hand made card from my son(James).  He is getting pretty good at his letters for a kid who is not even 5.  It is scary how much he knows.  I think that some day he will teach me a thing or two about life and maybe he will figure out the secret of what women want.  I don't expect it, but one can always hope that some day a man will find the secret.

It appears that he has my sense of vocabulary.

A couple of weeks ago we had a chance to go to the museum and see some real culture.  Lego creations were on display and the boys had a great time seeing some life size  or even bigger than life creations.  Lego's are the toys that are timeless and they received a lot of them for Christmas so they thought going to see some "cool creations" was a pretty fun afternoon.

Of course after we got home James wanted to make some creations of his own.  He make this "jet ski rocket".  He entered it into the Lego Creations magazine, but they have not emailed back yet so this may be the only time the world will get to see this creation.

The boys got invited to a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese's and had a blast.  They spent all afternoon playing games and running around earning tickets only to earn a cesta type toy that likely was worth about $0.50.  They had a ton of fun and did not act too much like psychos so it was fun for us as well.

Matthew wanted to "play" this game which was not as fun as you may have thought, but he liked it all the same.

Last Friday we headed to the hospital in the morning since Brenda was having contractions that were about 5 minutes apart.  I sprung into action and the game was on.

Here is Brenda breezing though a contraction.

Proof that they were contractions, but after about 4 hours at the hospital, we were saddened to find that it was really just false contractions and were discharged.  They wait continues.

Last Sunday it was Matthews birthday and when the boys came up in the morning and say the sign and the tablecloth on the table, it was fun to listen to them talk back and forth about it being Matthews birthday.  Matthew is still so young that anything you do on his birthday is good enough and he really enjoys it.

Curious George pancakes were the order of the morning and I thought they turned out pretty good for not having done anything like this before.

Here he is giving a thumbs up.

The weather was so nice it was time to get the bike out for a ride around the yard.  Matthew is getting pretty good and I think that he will be riding by himself by the end of 2016, but I wont pressure him of course.

James was back to his old antics and Matthew and I decided we should chase him on the mower.  We chased him and he was going at a pretty good clip over the plywood covering the horseshoe pit and the bike slid right out from under him.  He did pretty good and did not cry, but he decided he should "take a break" at that point in time.

Matthew had fun putting the frosting on his birthday cupcakes.

Sunday night we went over to a friends house for some games, but Matthew kind of thought it was a party all for him.  We will continue to let him think that as it was super cute and made life a lot easier for us.

Brenda continues to grow bigger and bigger.

They boys do not know what the future is going to hold for them or mom, but we all know who holds the future.  They don't seem to care if it is going to be a girl or a boy and just want to be able to hold the baby.

Christmas 2016

To kick off the Christmas season we once again had a chance to go and hang out with the elderly at the local retirement home.  We did this last year a life group and had a lot of fun so we decided to do it again.  The elderly people love the kids and the kids love to hang out with them so it works out great.  I am sure one day soon James and Matthew will not think it is a lot of fun, but for now we have two boys that are sweet.

Here are two of the kids doing a recital or sorts.  The older people ate it up.

James and Matthew wake up and get out of bed every morning at about 7:05.  This is the time that we have set on the "OK to awake" alarm clock.  The clock glows a gentle green when it is ok to get out of bed and is dim enough where it will not wake them up if they are still sleeping...pure genius in my book.  After they get up it is time to snuggle on the couch and watch Wild Krats.

For Christmas, my parents brought over the old Lego electric train I remember having when I was in middle school.  Matthew and James loved it, and I rather enjoyed playing with it again.

We had a white Christmas here in Spokane and got about 2 inches every day for a week before Christmas.  It was a great snow and I think it was perfect for sledding.  We headed over to the gold course and hit the hill with the grandparents.

Nothing like a little jump to make you smile and have a good time.  Matthew and James loved it.

The snow was really coming down and it was so nice to hang out when the weather is like that.  The temperatures did not seem that cold and we had fun.

Here is some of the fam right before we headed to Christmas Eve services at church.

Matthew and James are real buddies and although Matthew regularly gets the short end of the brother stick by getting pushed and head locked, they really do enjoy each other.

James and I spent a few days making bird houses for the grandparents and made the roofs out of license plates.

The liscence plate for my parents was a old plate from the car (1973 Plymouth satellite) we drove when we moved from California to Illinois when I was 10.  They thought it was pretty cool.

Here is James explaining everything about this present to Matthew.

My mom sewed a couple of "utility belts" for the boy to have a put tools in when they are working.  They also supplied tools.  They kids thought they were great and I realize it will be only precious few years that this type of gilf will be appreciated by them, but they loved them.

Nothing like getting a car reader for you father in law so you can then go out and use it on your vehicle.  It was a great gift and will continue to help in getting that dumb light off on the dash.

Mass quantities of Legos and it only cast about $35.  That was a smoking deal.

Couple of cheezers.

Tearing into the next gift and trying to figure out what it is by the picture.

This is what you get when you ask for a smile.

James and Matthew got a Xylophone and have been trying to learn to play a couple of tunes.  I am not to bad at it either, but the real star is mom.

 

Christmas morning is stocking time in our family

They could not get up there fast enough.

James and Matthew and really interested in Nutcrackers for some unknown reason.  Grandma had a couple laying around so each of them got one...I even got one and it was a nice one.

Matthew practicing

 

My brother got a layover in Spokane over new years eve so we had a chance to hang out and catchup.  I think the last time we had seen him was almost two years ago so it was about time.

The boys liked wearing the pilots hat, but really liked the gifts he brought and the wresting.  I also enjoyed the Rum from Nicaragua (where he was a couple days before).

Even though it was only 5 degrees we went out sledding.  This run by my brother ended in pain and the run by me also ended in pain.  Good thing the kids were not riding when we decided to go over the bumps.

Here is Joel right before a run down with both of the boys.  I think the tube got popped on this run was well.  Rubber is only so elastic when it is that cold.

Finally it is yours truly.  I am rarely in picture, for good reason, but this time Brenda had the camera and she was clicking away.

 

Windy Spokane and time to ourselves in Seattle

James and Matthew are growing so fast and sometimes you forget that I do not get too see them separately since they are always together.  I thought it was time to go for a hike the other day and since Matthew really cannot hike as much as I wanted I went with James.  We headed up too Mica Peak and hiked about a mile and a half up the hill before he wanted to call it quits.  The plethora of candy I brought along probably helped, but whatever it takes.

Spokane is generally a pretty calm place to live, but three weeks ago we got a huge windstorm and had 70+mph wind all over the area.   At one point in time 180,000 people were without power which is the most ever for this area.  We did not have any snow or rain, so it was really a freak storm.

We lost about 5 packs of shingles off of the roof and lost power for two days.  On day two, we woke  up to the inside temp of 50 degrees, which did not make for a very fun morning.  We did not have it as bad as some.  Those people in town were without power for over six  days.  My wife would have been long gone if we were without power for that long.

Thanksgiving saw Brenda's parents visiting us for a few days and a  bunch of friends over for a big feast.  I am not sure why I did not get more pics, but I did manage to snap this one of one of the huge apples Jim and Sandra brought over.

Two weeks ago I was invited to our company Christmas party in Seattle, since my office is very small and is not going to have one I, of course, took them up on the invitation and brought Brenda along to show her off.  Jim and Sandra were nice enough to take the kids for two nights so Brenda and I could visit the big city and have some time to ourselves.

On the way home from Seatte we did stay and Jim and Sandra's for one night and got to go see the lighted implement parade in Sunnyside.

A combine headed down the drive.

Here is the first place tractor.

Now Christmas time is upon us and it was time to get the tree.

Normally we head out to the woods to cut the Christmas tree, but this year, I had another idea.  We have a blue spruce that was planted way to close to the house, so I was going to cut it down anyway.  What better time to get it out of the ground than now?  Above, Matthew is pulling the trigger on the chain saw and assisting me is cutting it down.

This tree is much fuller and way better than the trees we normally get so we are very glad the tree was put to good use and not just cut down and tossed away.

This is the perfect age for Christmas.  Thee boys are very excited for Christmas and can be found just staring at the tree, wrapping up and random toy left on the ground and then "opening the present", or laying awake and talking to each other trying to guess what they are going to get for Christmas.  Anything is a good gift for them and it takes very little to make them happy.  It is going to be a great Christmas season and I am ready.