Toothless and starting Ice Hockey-not in that order!

Noah finally lost the last front tooth that has been tangling there since Christmas Day. He couldn't even take a bite of anything without it moving around. It was awful. He finally lost it when we told him to go out and play on the trampoline with his brother. Ten minutes later he came in and it was out. Gotta love boys








On a separate note, Noah got to start playing Hockey for the first time on Sunday. Putting the gear on is always very time consuming and hilarious. We had to buy Noah his first cup. I think we could have used a plastic drink cup from home, but we went and bought one at the store and did it the right way. Once we got him dressed, it was hilarious to watch him. His uncle Josh helps coach some of the kids and Noah just loves that part of it. He said he had a great time.











He is smiling there even though you can't tell.


















I think after the picture he told me that he couldn't move.












I had to coax him out on the ice for the first couple minutes, and then he loved it. He wanted to wait for Jonah to come out of the locker room, but he was taking too long. There goes our little baby who looks like he has been taking steroids. he goes every Sunday and can't wait until next week.

New Year's Eve adventure

We headed over to Spokane on December 31st to spend the weekend with my brother, Mike and sister-in-law, Andrea, and their family. My parents also came and my sister and brother-in-law. We had a great weekend of snow and sledding. This was a picture of the boys on the way over in Ellensburg, WA. First potty stop of the trip. They thought the snow was cool. We haven't had the pleasure of seeing any snow so far this season in Bremerton.





The kids got to make a toast to 2009 with sparkling apple cider before they went off to bed at 9:30 p.m.











Mike and Andrea had a puzzle up in the living room, which Rebecca and Andrea enjoyed working on.











It was fun to all hang out around the table and talk. We did have time for feeding the kids first and then having an adult dinner later on. It was great to be there.










Deep, after dinner discussions.













Tom and Stacy feeling a little tired from the drive over that day.












Sophia always is the life of the party. She had a great time ordering her cousins around. They all deserved it.











Jonah had been running through the house and he stepped on one of Rebecca's knitting needles, so we had a little issue. Jonah thought the needle went through his foot. Once we told him that the needle only left a red mark, the crying stopped and the chaos resumed.









This was the children's dinner. They had a great time and we were so glad we waited to have ours a little later.










Since Grandma, Grandpa, Stacy, and Tom were staying at a hotel, the kids got to take advantage of the pool as well which is always a great way for the kids to let off some steam.

We promise, we only let them stay in for 1-2 minutes because of their young age.

Don't mess with Astrid. She can be one scary girl if you cross her.

On Saturday, we headed up to Silver Mountain in Idaho and rode the gondola's up to the top of the mountain. Dana and Hannah went skiing and the rest of us went inner tubing. We had a blast. The gondola ride was 20 minutes and it was enclosed so it was a great way to start and end the day. So here is the chaos of trying to get everyone dressed at the car. Kids are losing gloves, have the wrong boots on and are getting knocked over by other oblivious kids. It was organized chaos.

Everyone took a hand and we were on our way.

The gondolas fit up to 6 people, I think. It was a fun ride.

The kids couldn't wait to get up the mountain.

Noah wanted me to take a picture of this for him. It was the local "watering hole" at the base of the mountain.

For those of you who forgot, Rebecca stayed back at the house with her foot up all day long lounging about. Actually, she had the whole dinner prepared when we walked in the door later that night with brownies to boot. Thanks honey.

Stacy, Tom, Isabelle, Nolan, and Sophia

Mike, Andrea, Dana, Hannah, and Astrid.

We all had lunch up there before we went out in the snow. At this point, we were all dry and warm.

It was beautiful up there and it was snowing hard all day long. The kids loved it.

Uncle Tom spent a lot of time fixing the kids' gloves, hats, boots, etc.

You would have thought they were lounging at the beach the way the rolled around in the snow.

I thought this was a great picture of Jacob catching snow flakes. The hill for inner tubing was cool because they had four slopes and a "flying carpet" to come back to the top. It was like a moving carpet that you stepped on and rode up the hill. When I was a kid, we had to sit down on our tube and have the rope tow us up the mountain. It always ruined our gloves.

Noah got a little wind burn from being out so long.

I don't think Jonah was mad, I think he was going for the cool snow boarder look.

We had a great day and had to wait in line to go back down the mountain. It was beautiful and not too cold.

Uncle Mike always looks funny in a snow hat.

There was one VIP gondola and we let Andrea, my dad, and Astrid go in front of us before we knew it was the nice one. They were loving it. It had 4 bucket seats and a stereo. They rode in style down the mountain. We were all jealous.

The 1 1/2 hour drive on the way home proved to be too much for Noah. I don't think I have seen him fall asleep in the car since he was two years old.

Jacob played his DS and listened to music. It was a great day. We came home on Sunday and had great driving weather. We were tired, but had a great time with family bringing in the new year. Happy 2010.

Catching up on December pictures

Boy, I thought that having time off being home with Rebecca after surgery would allow me a little more time to post some pictures, but that wasn't the case. Rebecca went in on December 18th for foot surgery so the Holidays were spent on the couch with her foot up on pillows and multiple bags of ice. It also meant we had to be ready for Christmas a week ahead of time. Some how we did it.






I took a picture of Rebecca before she went into surgery. She even makes the gowns look good. She wouldn't let me post the other pictures that I took when she was asleep or in recovery. Those will be posted later. As you can see in the picture, her gown is hooked up to an air blowing machine that pumps in hot or cold air so that you are comfortable while you wait to go in under the knife. I thought that was cool.





A day or two after surgery and she was knitting away. Who knows how everything actually turned out since she was on some nice medication on board. On the phone, ipod in hand, and making Christmas gifts. It was a very interesting Christmas.








I was able to take Family medical Leave from work and was home until Jan 11th. This allowed me time to teach the kids this year a tradition that goes back to my childhood. Scotch eggs. All the men in my family would make Scotch eggs the night before Christmas and we would have them Christmas morning. This year, the kids were ready to gets their hands dirty and we wrapped all the hard boiled eggs and they were ready for cooking Christmas morning.





We did have to go over the ground rules of not putting their fingers in their mouths once they had their hands in the sausage.











The finished products before baking. They are the best.












You have to flatten the sausage out in your hand and put the egg in the middle and then wrap it around. It is hard with little hands, so Noah struggled a bit, but he did great.











Christmas Eve we also had Sarah, Josh, Thomas, Charlotte, Mark, and Sue over for dinner. It is customary to open one gift, although this fact is highly debated every year. Rebecca was on the couch with her foot up and so she was the one to decide that the kids could open their pajama gifts from Mark and Sue. Also, Sarah and Josh gave their gift to the kids Christmas Eve since they were going to be at his house Christmas Day.

Jonah, Noah, and Thomas hanging out before dinner. Thomas loves hangin with the boys and they love having him around.

I think Josh is showing the signs of having a new baby. Catch sleep when you can get it.

We somehow were able to move the table to accommodate everyone on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

Little Charlotte getting her meal in before we opened gifts Christmas Eve.

Dinner on Christmas Eve, and the answer is No, I didn't cook the Christmas dinner. Mark and Sue cooked it and brought it over, which I will be forever grateful.

The big gift of the evening from Sarah and Josh was Lego rock band for our whole family. The kids went crazy and had a great time playing it that night. They got two guitars and the drums.

Noah has gravitated towards the drums, Jacob the guitar, and Jonah, the microphone. He stands on the table and belts out these songs that are hilarious.

Jonah also didn't do half bad on the guitar. Funny to watch them.

The whole family got into the act. It was a great gift and the kids loved getting it Christmas Eve.
Definitely loud, but fun.

Sarah and Thomas opening gifts.

Christmas morning, the kids are opening their blankets that Reba made them prior to surgery. The week, before, she spent lots of time sewing these flannel blankets for the kids. In the background, you can see that Jacob has one with a map of the United States on it. They love them. Now no more fighting over blankets in the morning while they are on the couch.

Charlotte doing what she does best, sleep. Aunt Reba bought her a Barrett for the massive amounts of hair she has.

The kids all got Snuggies this year, which they all wanted. They are hilarious to see on them. Don't worry, you won't see out family wearing them to a football game or on a picnic outing like you see in the commercials.

Jacob got a Lego Star Wars ship and went right to work building it. It was pretty cool.

Here is the finished product. He was so proud to have gotten this for Christmas.

Later on in the day, My parents, Stacy, Tom, and their kids came over and we did Christmas with them and had dinner. It is always fun to see the cousins together. Noah and Nolan got and received the same gift this year.

Snow inter tubes!

Jonah and Isabelle chillin Christmas Day

The crazy two-some got matching jackets this year from grandma.

Grandma with her two monkeys!

Jonah got an electric guitar from grandma and he loves it. Now he can be in the band he always wanted to be in with his friend, Sam.

Uncle Tom trying out the Lego rock band with all the cousins.

Even my sister tried her hand at the guitar. She loves it when I get shots of her like this.

At the end of Christmas Day, all of the adults were so tired.

Aunt Hannah playing 3-D cnadyland with Noah and Jonah. I think Noah made papa be the princess character in the game.

We had a great Christmas with all of our family. It always goes by so fast. I will try to put up some pictures of when we went over to Spokane on New Year's Eve and went sledding. Have a Happy New Year!