Christmas Highlights!!

Well, Christmas is over, whew, we survived. But what a great time it all was!! Some highlights from our Christmas season include: Taking the boys to Zoolights at Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, watching the boys open more presents than they'll ever realize they have (I think the grandparents were a bit excited this year), having Lindsey and the boys come eat lunch with me in the office on Christmas Eve because I had to work (they entertained the office for a good 45 minutes), taking the boys to downtown Seattle to ride the carousel and get snowed on in Pacific Place Mall, and having Christmas dinner with the Granges (Lindsey's sister) in Seattle.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!!

The Christmas season has been so much fun with the boys! Easton is all about "Chrimmas" songs, the "Chrimmas" tree, and especially "Chrimmas" stars. He has become quite the character over the past few months. Luke is all about the tree mostly, but he just loves being around his brother also. It's neat to watch Luke play when Easton isn't around. He tries so hard to play just like his brother does.

We're Thankful for Turkeys like Easton and Luke

We had our "Being Thankful" family home evening with the boys tonight. Lindsey told us a story about the importance of being thankful for the blessings we have. She tied-in the story of the 10 Lepers that the Savior healed and only one returned to say 'thank you.' For our activity we helped the boys make this awesome Winco Foods turkey, they had a blast!!! We stuffed the turkey with pages from an old phone book. The boys thought it was pretty awesome to tear and crumple page after page. They both helped color the turkey's head and feathers. I think they are ready for Thanksgiving!

The picture with the water is our version of "A River Runs Through It." The ditch in our backyard goes from empty to four feet deep over night when it rains. We thought it was a very telling picture of just how wet the Great Northwest can be.

"Lucas, say Mommy."

I think this kid very well may be the funniest picture and on camera baby ever!!

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween was such a blast with the boys this year!! Tuesday night, Oct. 30, was our Ward Halloween Party. Easton wasn't so much into the games inside with 300 kids running around all crazy-like, but he was all about the trunk or treat part out in the parking lot. He caught on pretty quickly that you get candy for saying trick-or-treat. Now we are a few days after Halloween, and he is still asking for his candy by saying 'Trick or Treat.' Luke has a good time regardless of what we are doing, as long as he is free to roam. He likes the chaos and does all he can to jump into the middle of all of it. Halloween Night was less exciting. We took the boys around our complex, and then to some members in the ward.

Gramma and Grampa Pingel's Visit

Gramma and Grampa Pingel visited this last weekend, and we a great time. Besides being there to wake up with the kids in the morning, I also got to take a day off. It was so great!! Friday, we drove around to Bremerton to take the Ferry across the Puget Sound to Seattle, so the first time Karen and Jerry got to see and enter Seattle was from the water. Driving through Bremerton is always cool because you drive by a Navy Shipyard and see all the old aircraft carriers and ships. They had a great time on the Ferry ride, awing over the beauty of the Seattle area. We went to Pike Place Market first, and they got to see them throw the fish and put on the show at the Fish Market. From there we went to the Westlake Center Mall and took the Monorail over to the Seattle Center to see Key Arena and the Space Needle. Saturday morning, Lindsey entertained us all with her interpretive dances to Pat Benetar songs on Jerry's iPod (Yep, Jerry has Pat Benetar on his iPod). Once we got out of the house we went up to the UW campus and then over to the Temple in Bellevue. It was fun to show Gramma and Grampa the floating bridges across Lake Washington, and the boys always have a great time driving through tunnels under Mercer Island on the way to Bellevue.

Easton the Comedian

Easton is baffling us with his verbal knowledge these days and is starting to say and do the darndest things. One day I was pretty much fed up with him and put him in his room for him to simmer down, when I noticed that it got really quiet. I went to check on him to see if he fell asleep or something, but instead he had the laundry basket on like a back pack and Elmo underwear on his head. When I asked what he was doing, he exclaimed "Big boy Easton, Elmo hat!" He can't pull them on and off, but he can get them on his head?! At the Mall that same evening, I accidently stepped on the back of his shoe, causing it to come off. He said "Mommy, careful shoe!" Now today, Sunday, Luke was crying because he wanted his sippy cup and Easton yelled at him "Shut your mouth!" (Oops, I wonder where he got that from!) We've got to be more careful with what we say around this kid, because he is bound to repeat it somewhere, hopefully not in front of people we know!

Luke is "One"derful

Luke turned one on Sunday the 14th. He had plenty of presents to open from all of his grandparents, uncles, aunts, friends, and of course mommy and daddy. We just had a small party for him that evening when our friends, the Watsons, and my sister Erin and her family came over for cake and ice cream. He loved the cake!! He had a great time, even though he had no idea what was going on. Easton had a blast too, but couldn't figure out why Luke was opening all of "his" presents.

Fun New Things

We took the boys to the temple today and Easton loved walking around the pretty grounds. It was really cold outside so Luke looks like he is about to freeze over. Easton kept thinking the men in the people statues (like the ones at temple square in SLC) were Jesus. But he also thought Obi Wan Kanobi in Star Wars 3 was Jesus too. (I guess there are some similarities in the dress robes and the beard). Anyways, we also took some video of the boys this week of their new talents. Easton has mastered the ABC song (even though he leaves out a few in the video), knows the individual sounds of the letters, and can also count to 14. Luke likes the word ga, grunts alot, has 9 going on 10 teeth, and has started to walk! We though it would be at least another month before he figured it out because he hasn't shown any interest. But last Sunday he took a step or two, and now he is trying to zoom around the house faster than his feet can go, which ends up in a lot of falls.

Wo is me!

No picture this time. Easton had the chicken pox, Scott's bike got stolen, blah, blah, blah! What else is going to happen? This stuff happens in threes ya know. That's the bad news, but we are still doing okay. Scott is gonna try jogging to work tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes. Keep on keepin' on!!

3rd Child!!

He's not ours, I swear! I just started babysitting this week for my cousin. His name is Hayden and he is 3 1/2 months old. He is a really good baby and only fusses when he is tired or hungry, so its great. The hard part is trying to keep my two crazy ones off him. I am really tired, but things are going well. Easton has recently decided to try and give up taking naps (he does this every once and a while, so we'll see if it sticks this time) so we've gotten creative to keep him busy all day long. I dyed macaroni the other day and he had a ton of fun making this cute sign for Scott. We also got him a Cars color/sticker book and one of those paint with water books of Winnie the Pooh. He loves the alone time he gets with me, but he crashes at about 6pm (this also has to do with the fact that he wakes up at 5:15am). Luke is a little jealous of the new addition, so I try to give him tons of love and kisses too. We tried doing just one nap today with him, so we'll see how that goes too. My boys are growing up so fast! Thats why we like Hayden around...he reminds us how fun little babies are, but he keeps us from needing to have another one of our own anytime soon.

Dash Point State Park

On this lovely Labor Day weekend, we decided to explore more of our beautiful city, Federal Way. We went down to Dash Point State Park which is right by our church to actually see the beach front. It was beautiful! Luke screamed and cried because the waves were crashing in and he was terrified! Easton didn't know what to think of the sand and was walking lightly on it as if it were broken glass. All in all, we had a great time! It really was pretty though and we enjoyed the fresh sea air.

Bloggers!

Well, our family and friends seemed to have joined this band wagon way before we did, so now we are copying everyone cooler than us! Happy to be aboard! The pictures are of Luke in the pool at our apartment complex, Easton and Luke playing with cars together on the window ledge in our apartment, Lindsey and the boys with downtown Seattle behind them, Easton and Luke representin' with daddies' hats on, and Lindsey and Scott at the Provo Temple after Brett (Scott's little brother) got married.