Parade of Ships and Spaghetti Factory–December 12

As many of you know, The Old Spaghetti Factory is a favorite restaurant in our family.  We have started the tradition of going to watch the Parade of Ships on the Willamette River every Christmas, and then eating dinner at the Spaghetti Factory.  The ships go by right on the river by the Spaghetti Factory.  This year, our good friends the Lovelands wanted to join us.  It made for bit of craziness at the dinner table with our seven children age nine and under, but it was fun to have some company and the kids kept each other entertained while we were eating.  We timed it perfect, and the ships came by after we ate and just as we were leaving the restaurant.  They were fun to see as always!

 

A group shot of our family, and one of the Lovelands

 

A couple shots of the kids (minus the two babies – James and Isaac)

 

Can you see the full moon in the background of the picture on the left?  It was just coming up as we watched the ships go by.  It was beautiful!

A Charlie Brown Christmas–December 10

Landon and Davis LOVE the Charlie Brown shows.  For another of our advent activities, we opened new DVDs of the Charlie Brown holidays specials, and we had a movie night to watch the two Christmas specials. 

 

Landon and Davis also love the Charlie Brown song.  We bought it for them on the itouch, and they want to listen to it all the time.  They put it on repeat play and dance to it over and over – sometimes for close to an hour!  Even though the song gets stuck in your head, it’s fun to see them having fun together.  Here are a couple of videos of them dancing to it.

 

Decorating Gingerbread Houses–December 5

One of the first activities in our advent calendar this year was to decorate gingerbread houses.  We got the five mini houses in the village like we did last year, and Landon and Davis had a lot of fun decorating them.

       

Little James

James is quite the troublemaker these days.  Tonight, we found two tennis balls, two other balls, and a wad of toilet paper in the toilet when we were getting ready to have baths.  A few days ago, I hadn’t quite finished cleaning up from breakfast, and when I came back to the kitchen, this is what I found.

It’s hard to get too mad when he is so cute!

O Christmas Tree! - November 26 & 27

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we cut down our tree.  I think this is the earliest we have ever gone to cut down our tree since we are normally out of town for Thanksgiving.  We thought it would be fun to bring Shane’s parents along.  After looking at several different trees, and going back and forth between a few, we finally found the perfect one – a nice noble fir that was just the right height and the right amount of thickness.

     

Davis wanted to get this little tree.  It is pretty cute!

With our tree cut and ready to go!

Sunday evening, we decorated our Christmas tree while listening to some Jim Reeves Christmas music.  The boys had a lot of fun decorating the tree with their Santa hats on. We just needed one for James! 

           

Landon and Davis both wanted to put the star on the top, so Kelly held Davis up and Shane held Landon up, and they both held the star to put it on together.  Our Christmas tree is being redecorated constantly, but we love it!

Zoolights– November 25

The day after Thanksgiving, Shane and I did some early morning Christmas shopping, then Christie and I went out some more.  The crowds didn’t seem to bad since most of the stores had opened the night before, and we had fun shopping together.

That night, we went to see the zoolights.  It was fun to take Kent and Christie there with us, and the light displays were great as always!

 

In front of the entrance, and James all bundled up in his stroller

 

Davis was really excited when he saw the eagle, and he wanted to get his picture with him.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, we were excited to have Shane’s parents come out to spend their first Thanksgiving at our house.  They flew in the day before Thanksgiving, and we had lots of fun activities while they were here.
This was my first Thanksgiving at our home.  I was glad Shane’s parents (especially Christie) were here to help get it all ready, and that I had my mom’s handy Thanksgiving shopping list, recipes, and timeline. 
While making the food, the boys made some Thanksgiving hats that my mom had sent them.  They had fun putting them together, and trying them on later.
   
Our Thanksgiving feast was delicious.  We had all of the yummy fixings plus too many delicious pies to choose from.  We had lots of leftovers too, so it was great because I hardly had to cook the rest of the weekend!
 

Landon coloring a Turkey, and Kent and Christie helping get the punch on the table

 

Kelly playing with Davis and James, and a shot of me working in the kitchen

 

Our Thanksgiving table, and a couple of the place settings.  Landon wrote our names on the place cards and helped me make the oreo turkeys (which did not stay together very well!)

 
It was a wonderful Thanksgiving day, and it made me even thankful for my mom and Shane’s mom and all the work they have put into the many Thanksgivings we have spent at their houses!

A picture of Landon in front of our Thankful board.  

We decided to organize our thankful items by letter since Davis is always talking about what letter things start with.