I remember as a kid setting up the Christmas tree. It was always looked forward to. My dad would string the lights then he would put a hook on the ornaments and hand them to each of us to go hang on the tree. I remember being so proud when we were done and I loved just sitting a looking at the lights and reading by the tree and playing by the tree. Ryan (my brother) and I had these little critters inside a small box that we made at one point and we used to play with them. I think his was a chick and mine was a beaver. I still have it and I love the memories that come when I pull it out each Christmas. We also had smurf ornaments that we would play with and a few years ago my parents cleaned out their Christmas stuff and gave these to me. My kids love to play with them too. I love the season of Christmas! The memories it invokes of past times and the new memories I get to make with my own little family are priceless.

Notice all the ornaments clumped together. I love it. After the kids went to bed I rearranged everything and the bottom of our tree this year had nothing on it because the little monster in the above picture is the master of disaster and pulled everything off the tree he could get his little mitts on. After he bit into a glass orb and I had to fish bits of glass out of his mouth I decided all ornaments had to be adjusted for baby proofing. Well, duh...I forget all this stuff.

Science

Any ideas as to what Dalin and Braden are doing?

What about now? For parent teacher conferences I told Dalin that if he did very well in school and his teacher said that he did his best then he could choose a book from the book fair. The first book he saw was this one. I tried to persuade him otherwise....I'm not really into this kind of stuff and I was sure it would be over his head. But he has his own mind and he wanted this one...period. He would not be dissuaded. So we took it home and read it over, and over and over and over. It has about a million little flaps and lifts and a huge pop-up volcano. We read each and every flap, some of which I was sure were going to be way too complex for him, but after reading and looking at it so many times he knows a lot about volcanoes. Braden got in on the action and now his favorite thing in the whole world is volcanoes. Since we live next to Mt. Hood every time we drive down T.V. Highway we have to keep our eyes peeled for the volcano. It's a sad day when the clouds cover it up. They absolutely love it. They talk about lava and magma and everything else from ash to craters. Do you know the difference between lava and magma? They do. It's amazing. Braden's favorite thing to watch now is volcanoes erupting on YouTube or National Geographic specials on volcanoes. Yes, my 3 year old will sit through and hour and a half episode of National Geographic. And all because of this book. So the two pictures above....what are they doing? Building up and exploding volcanoes.

So Dan and I decided to take a little drive over to Mt. Hood for a closer look with the boys and let me tell you, they were so excited. Here is a picture of our first glimpse of the volcano. It's hard to see in the picture because the sun was behind it, but it's all I could come up with. At this higher altitude it was a lot colder. We just about froze to death taking this picture. At about 2,000 feet we ran into snow and below you'll see our beautiful Mt. Hood. Apparently there are about 5 ski slopes around the mountain and as we drove past there was a huge sledding hill, where they provide these giant inner tubes and a tow rope to pull you to the top, much like Wolf Mountain, for those of you who know what I'm talking about. There are hiking trails, camping, picnic sites, and more so this summer we'll have to check out some of those options. I know you can take a guided hike to the summit of this beast, but that would be way too much for little boys.

Multnomah Falls

Over Thanksgiving weekend Dan actually had a couple days off. We felt normal for a minute. Rather than just sit around the house we decided we needed to get out and do something all together. So I researched and found Multnomah Falls. It was about 65 degrees in Portland, but higher up, here in the gorge, it was much cooler, so I'm glad I thought to bring coats. All but Dan's, because of course he didn't think he would need one, and he froze his butt off (I can hear Braden in my head saying "mom you can't say butt, it's not a nice word"). It had been raining hard for two days solid so everything was still very wet and muddy and the waterfalls were coming down hard. It's amazing the amount of power behind water. By the time we left we were drenched, not because of rain but because of the falls.

Dalin and Braden loved this rock because it was bigger than Braden. Here's a good shot of the two falls and my adorable family. Braden couldn't take his eyes off the waterfall. Anyone who knows him at all knows that he loves waterfalls.

This is a picture of me and Braden standing on the bridge from the above picture. Braden thought I was going to drop him down the waterfall. Just look at his face. He said very frantically "mom put me down, I don't want to go down the waterfall".

The boys and Dan on the bridge. You could actually hike a short jaunt up to the top of the falls, but we were cold and wet and didn't think the boys would make it so just hiked to the bridge.

Braden also wanted a picture of this little waterfall off the side of the trail. He said "aawww...mom it's a cute waterfall." Also notice the giant leaf coming out of his pocket. We carted that thing all the way home.

It was a very fun short day trip and it reminds us of what a beautiful place Oregon is.

Dan's Birthday

Dan just had a birthday on Nov. 23. He was at school all day, because he had a big test but had the evening off, which was nice. Plus he didn't have to study again until Monday because of the Thanksgiving holiday so it felt like we were a normal family again for a brief moment. We didn't do anything fancy for his birthday, just ate an oreo cookie cake and some ice cream. He had a couple of presents but nothing big this year. That's what happens when you're in med-school. So happy birthday to Dan!

Portland Children's Museum

My parents came for a visit around Thanksgiving and while searching for something fun to do we found the Portland Children's Museum. And what a find it was! What a great place. The kids had sooo much fun and this place has it all. We rode the train (MAX) which if any of you know my kids then you know how much they love trains. So this was part of the fun of it, or we probably would've just drove. However, we got a buck off each person's admission for taking public transit and we didn't have to pay the parking fee so it actually ended up saving us some cash. Not to mention the train drops you off right outside the doors to the museum and the zoo.

So here is little Landon on the train, all bundled up because it was pouring rain.

They had a travel room with an ambulance and bus and a train table. They loved driving the ambulance. It had a million little buttons in the front that turned on the sirens and flashing lights. It was very realistic. Then there was this room with a combined grocery store and restaurant. They've gone all out in this place. The food was completely realistic, made of rubber but weighted and textured like real food. You can see a slice of cantaloupe to the right of Braden in this picture and the grill with fake flames coming out of it. They LOVED it. From where I was sitting behind the camera was the bar where about 5 different kids were serving me and my mom our food.

Here Braden is checking out his groceries. The scanner beeped every time they put a food over it and it has a credit card scanner with plastic cards attached for them to swipe. Notice the full loaf of very realistic bread he is buying from his little pint sized shopping cart.

Dalin, working as a checker. All the kids would line up and he would check them out and put their food in little bags. It was great to see all the kids playing out this real life scenario and working so great together when they didn't even know each other. This was my favorite room because I would've loved something like this as a kid.

Then they had a veterinarians office. The tools that Dalin is grabbing are real, just like you would see in the doctor's office. You know, the ones that the kids always want to play with at the doctor but you never let them near them. Braden and these two little girls are cats and Dalin is the doctor.

Here he is checking out her heart.

These are the cages where all the life size stuffed animals are kept. The kids loved these.

Braden giving this poor dog his shots.

Landon even got in on the fun. This is a little flower garden. You could pick each of the flowers and then put them back in the ground. Landon got a kick out of these and he sat there for quite a while playing with the flowers.

This room was the highlight for the boys because they are all three little water dogs. Here Dalin has moved all the pipes around and now his little friend is pumping water in.

They discovered this river that you could manipulate to make rapids and channels and then send your boat or rubber ducky down.

Braden loved watching his duck go down over and over again.

Can you see the pure joy in this boys face?!!!

No one loves playing in water more than Braden.

Dalin really liked figuring out how all the different contraptions worked. He's always curious about the way things work.

They even have a little toddler room that Landon had fun in. This is a little "river" with a minuscule amount of water in, just enough for them to get their finger tips wet. Landon loved it because he could get wet and stand there all by himself.

Here he is looking at the fish. There is a big fish tank in the wall of the toddler room. What kid doesn't like to watch fish? Every time I'm in a Walmart we have to look at the fish.

And of course, mirrors. Landon, like so many other babies loves to play with himself in a good mirror. There people have thought of everything.

Bunk Beds

I have a great mother-in-law and thanks to her the boys got much needed bunk beds. Braden was getting too big for the toddler bed and there's no way two full size twin beds would've fit in their room. So while Anne and Ron were visiting she got on the Walmart website with me and we found a bunk bed for really cheap and had it shipped to the store. The down side....Dan was busy with school so that left me to get the beds and set them up. So off I went to Walmart (a good 20-25 minute drive from my house) and picked up the bed with 3 very helpful children tagging along. Luckily the guy who worked there was extremely helpful and lugged the box on a cart out to my car and then helped me put the back seat down so the box would fit (it was huge). I know that guy will never read my blog, but I will give him Kuddos anyways. I couldn't have done it without his help. That night Dan pulled it out of the van and put in on the garage floor. Two days later I came to the realization that this bed was not going to be put together any time soon by my very busy hubby and Dalin and Braden were getting more and more anxious by the day to have their new bed. So I got ambitious and thought "I can do this, it can't be that hard". On the reviews page of the website people said it was very easy to put together and multiple people said it took them less than two hours. This bolstered my confidence so I began hauling the bed piece by piece into the boys room. It was too heavy for me to carry all at once. About half way through I was irritated beyond reason and started taking out my woes on the kids. They got smart and left the room. Two hours later, after two more hours of profanity, I was sure I was going to go to hell over this easy to put together bunk bed. I finally put the kids to bed -- in my bed since theirs was still indisposed and got back to work. The final stage....I was almost done and in the clear. But then I realized I had put the whole blankety blank thing together backwards and the last few pieces were not going to fit that way. It was at that moment Dan decided to come home. He came in the room and said "this looks great" and then I'm sure he saw the look of death on my face (for a picture of this face check out my sisters blog and look at the picture of Makayla with the death look) So he slinked off into the kitchen to scrounge up some food. I took the whole flippin' thing apart and turned all the parts the right way and finally finished around midnight. I moved the kids into their new beds and fell into my own bed exhausted. I HATE putting things together. I'm not a builder and I don't intend on ever doing that again. But the beds turned out great and the kids LOVE them.

9 Months!

Well, I just can't believe my little baby is nine months old. He is growing so fast. He's accomplished a lot in the last month and is much faster at doing many things that my other two were rather slow at. He is a fast little bugger and can now crawl like a speed demon if he wants to. He is so silly and will laugh at just about anything. Multiple times when I'm out and about he has been mistaken for a girl. I kept thinking to myself "come on people, he's not dressed even remotely like a girl, there's no hair bows, or pink, and there's not a dainty bone in his body." Well, today while I was waiting in line at Fred Meyer the man behind him started making small talk and the conversation turned to the fact that I have 3 very rowdy little boys and this man has 14 very rowdy grand kids, all of which are boys. Then he looked at Landon and said "you know he's a beautiful baby" I joked and said, "yea, well, he's often mistaken for a girl." He laughed and said "no really he's gorgeous. His blue eyes just sparkle and he's just beautiful. You should look into having him model." I laughed again and we parted ways. Maybe that's why Landon is mistaken for a girl at least 3 times a week. He's so beautiful. Hahahaha. He loves to practice walking, holding onto anyone's two fingers, and gets very upset if he crawls over to you and you don't oblige him. He basically rules the roost here in our house. He is a darling and we love him. Although the other day Dalin said "mom, I wish Landon was a girl". I laughed and then he said we needed to have a girl so I wouldn't be the only one. I hate to disappoint, but that's not going to happen. My lot in life is boys, boys, boys, and I love it. Just like Grandma Doris I guess.

Landon loves to eat. He likes anything and everything I throw at him. He's never not liked something or refused to eat.

The window in his bedroom goes right down to the floor and so the curtain hangs down to the floor as well and he's discovered it. Every time he's in there he'll crawl right over to it and pull it over his head. He thinks it's funny to look through it at you because it's see through. Dalin and Braden are good at making messes. The other day they opened my window seat and pulled out everything I had stored in there (mostly just blankets) and used it as their ship.... Not to be outdone, at the exact same time, Landon was in his own room pulling out all the clothes I had in a box on his floor. And it begins.....mess, mess, mess. I can't keep up with the 3 of them. Look how proud he is!

Landon loves to play with his brothers and always wants to be included. His brothers are always good sports and let him be in on the action. Here he is playing trains with Dalin.

Dalin walking the relentless Landon around the house. It's good to have big brothers.

Braden also plays great with his little brother. And the have a great time while Dalin is at school.

Lately Landon has been waking up from his naps in a very good mood and I hear him just talking away at himself. The other day he was laughing at himself and when I went in to check on him I found the reason he was laughing. He thought it was hilarious to stick his feet out the bars of the crib. What a silly kid.

He has also started pulling himself up on EVERYTHING. He loves this window in our living room. Again, look how proud he is. It's almost like he's saying "I'm so clever"

Pulling up to the dishwasher. Oh so helpful.

Pulling himself up in his crib.

Pulling himself up anywhere he can find.