Christmas Cookies

This is my new favorite treat for the season. They're called Oreo Truffles. So yummy and so easy to make.

I thought it would be fun to make Cut Out Christmas cookies with the boys this year. Now I remember why it's been so long since I've made them. It is A LOT of work! My kitchen was covered in food coloring, sprinkles and frosting, but now we have some yummy treats!

Who's kid is this?

Here's a recent conversation with Levi:

Mommy: What would you like for lunch?
Levi: Apples (he LOVES apples)
Mommy: OK, well how about some apples with a sandwich?
Levi: OK
Mommy: Would you like some chocolate milk with your lunch?
Levi: OK, but just a very small amount. I'm trying to be healthy.

Here's another:

One day Levi was looking through some of my old scrapbooks that included some pregnancy pictures.

Levi: Mommy, Did it hurt when you swallowed me?
Mommy: WHAT?!!! Honey, I didn't swallow you, why did you think I did?
Levi: Well, how ELSE do you think I got inside that tummy and made it so big?

Mom's Day Out (Preschool) Christmas Program

Here are the boys singing "Where is Santa?" Each year at the little preschool the kids go to, they do a mini Christmas program. The kids get up on stage and sing a few songs, usually with bells or hand motions. Last year, Levi would have no part in it. He sat on his teacher's lap the whole performance. This year, as you can see, he was totally fine! It was way too cute!

PS. Levi is in the back row, red sweater, green hat, just right of center. Landon is right in front of him blue shirt, red hat, hands together in front.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

So, here's the finished product! It's not the best tree we've ever had, but pretty good for $10! I like my trees sparse (Aaron likes short, fat trees), but this is even a bit too sparse for me! Oh well, it has character, right?

Christmas Tree Hunting

In keeping with tradition, we went up to Greenwater, got our permit and were off to cut down our tree. We did not expect to see any snow this year, but as you can see, we were pleasantly surprised!


Landon loved the snow and was constantly falling behind as he stopped to pick it up to throw it at someone. Levi blasted Mommy not more than one second after getting out of the car!

I love this picture, I think the background looks like a painting.

Here is the final selection. As you can see, it's a bit tall (they always seem to GROW once you get them home!), but with some trimming I think it will do just fine. Now, time to decorate!!!

I've been bitten...

OK, so a few of you already know this, but I am completely obsessed by the Twilight series books by Stephenie Meyer. It all started a couple of weeks ago when I was at my cousin Cammie's house. I was headed home and she asked me if I could drop a package off at the post office for her. She said it was some books that a book club sent her, but she hadn't signed up for them so she wanted to return them. So when I tried to take them to the post office, they wouldn't return them without paying for postage because they had been opened. So I doubted Cammie wanted to PAY to return some books she never ordered, so I just took the box home with me. So Cammie called the company and they just said to keep the books for free. Well Cammie didn't want the books, and I had the books, so I opened it up and low and behold, it was the Twilight series. I had heard of them before and knew they were about vampires. That was enough to turn me off so I put them on the shelf in case I got really bored someday. So fast forward a few days and another friend (who will remain nameless, as I think she is ashamed of her obsession) called to tell me about these totally addicting books she was reading and how I HAD to read them. Of course, the Twilight books. So when I told her I actually had them sitting on my shelf, she was ADAMANT that I read them and would not take no for an answer. It was all downhill from there. From about 2 chapters in on the first book, I was hooked. They are way better than your typical "sci-fi" vampire books. They're vampire ROMANCE books!(Aaron says, what does THAT mean???) They're fairly innocent and quite suspenseful! Anyhow, it's pretty crazy. I get into bed and read until I can't keep my eyes open. Then I wake up thinking about the main characters. When I hear songs on the radio, I relate them to the characters in the book. And, I'll even admit, I bought the t-shirt. It's pretty sad. I have a sickness. I'm half way through the third book and have one more to go after that. Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to do with myself when I'm finished with the series. Maybe get some sleep???

Date night! (AGAIN!!!)

Aaron and I were so excited when we heard that one of our "Desert Island Disc" favorite artists was coming to town. We bought tickets IMMEDIATELY!!! After dropping off the kiddos at Grandma and Grandpa's, we had dinner at Romano's Macaroni Grill in Northgate. Then it was off to the concert. There was a mix up with when the doors were supposed to open (tickets said 8pm, artists thought it was 9pm), so we ended up standing in line outside for a good half hour and it was FREEZING. But once inside, we got pretty good seats and enjoyed the show. He is such a talented performer. (www.martinsexton.com in case you wanna check him out.) It was the perfect date night!

Trick or Treat!

Here's the boys giving me their best scary faces. I hope you're not so frightened that you have to leave our blog. They really had fun helping carve the pumpkins this year.


Last night we carved our pumpkins. I decided to buy the little carving kits with the tools and the patterns this year. I was amazed at how much easier they are then they look! I was pretty impressed with how they turned out.


This year Landon is going to be a pirate and Levi is going to be a cowboy. The boys had their halloween party at preschool today and got to do some trick-or-treating there as well.

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins

We decided to try out a different patch this year since we've been alternating between the same couple for a few years now. I still don't know if it really paid off, but it was pretty memorable. First, it took longer to get there than expected, including a few wrong turns. Then upon arrival, it was much smaller than the website made it appear. And of course it started to rain.

Levi chose this pumpkin all by himself.

Landon had some help choosing this since he was pretty much cold, wet and miserable. He warmed up though once we got some hot cocoa.

The most memorable part was this mini ferris wheel. The ride operator INSISTED that even the adults ride... and so we did. Since nobody else was in line we got an extra long ride and got extra wet. I think next year we might play it safe and go to the old patch!

Date Night

Last night Aaron and I enjoyed a date night in downtown Seattle. We found a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Bruno's (it was Italian) and had yummy calzones for dinner. Then we walked over to the Showbox and saw Gavin DeGraw. He was amazing! He is such a natural performer. It was really fun because he played songs from his old album and the new one. We had just purchased the new album before we left on our end of summer road trip, so by the time we came home we pretty much had it memorized! We got a pretty good place to stand (since we stood in line for half an hour) and really enjoyed the show. (Well, with the exception of the drunk lady next to us who insisted on doing a funky chicken type dance during ever fast song! Oh well, it made it all the more memorable!) The only real bummer is that I grabbed the camera on our way out the door, but forgot the battery sitting in the charger, so we have no pictures!