Holiday Fun in Seattle

We decided to take a trip to Seattle with some of the friends Ethan plays with. What a group we had! It was a touristy day of holiday fun in downtown. We visited the model train village at the Seattle Center, took a ride on the monorail to Westlake Center, had a ride on the carousel, visited the gingerbread houses at the Sheraton, and just had fun running around downtown with all the holiday décor. A long day cruising all over with a group of babies and 3-year-olds, but we all had a blast!

Checking out the model train village with friends Jack and Jayden.

Getting wiggles out with Jack.

Our troop getting ready to ride the monorail.

Riding the monorail with Jayden.

Now to the carousel. Ethan's starting to look tired! While riding the carousel they were filming a local TV show called Seattle Magazine. The host of the show was riding just in front of Ethan and his friend Jayden. The two got their first minutes of fame in background on the show that aired the following evening.

At the Sheraton after viewing the gingerbread houses.

Wandering Seattle streets is much more fun when holding hands with Jayden!

Just being silly with Jayden and Carsen.

Wow! The Space Needle is so tall.

Oh Christmas Twig

So, our wilderness Christmas tree lasted no longer than a week. It’s bad enough to have a Charlie Brown looking tree, but when that tree looses most of its pine needles it’s a sad site! As you can see from the pics below, after stringing the lights the branches were almost needle free.

I don’t know what was wrong with this tree. We went and cut a tree last year and it was great and lasted through the New Year. This year’s sad tree lost most of the pine needles they day Jairo strung the lights, which was only a few days after cutting the tree. Then we finished with the decorations and there really wasn’t much green left to the tree. I was set on making this sad looking twig last through Christmas, regardless of the fire hazard, because of the work of cutting, transporting, trimming and decorating the tree. However, I started getting horrible sinus migraines and after a couple days of the headaches not letting up and our poor dog sneezing and itching her ears like crazy (apparently the dog and I have the same allergy) I decided the tree had to go.

Ethan, Mr. Positive, thought our sad looking tree was great and didn’t like the idea of getting rid of it. So, to avoid too much drama, like all great parents, we waited for Ethan to go to bed to dispose of the tree.

Jairo put one of Ethan’s handmade tree decorations in place of our old twig. I figured Jairo was the lucky one because he wouldn’t have to deal with a sad toddler in the morning because he would be on his way to work when Ethan made the sad discovery.

I heard Ethan come out of his room in the morning and head down stairs. I figured I’d just stay in bed and see what happened. “MOM. MOOOOOMMM!” He comes running up stairs. “Mom. Mom. The tree. Dad watered the tree too much and it shrunk! Come see. Come see.” I tried not to laugh. I got out of bed to realize that Jairo surprised me as well. Jairo got up early and pulled our old artificial tree out of the garage and put it up so Ethan could have a tree. Way to go Dad!

Ethan was initially disappointed that the new tree was smaller. I reminded him how our old tree was dying and wouldn’t make it to Christmas so Santa brought us a new tree. He liked that idea and has been happy with the tree since.

Nurse Mamas

This year we had quite a prolific group of nurses on the floor where I work. We had 6 babies born; 4 boys and 2 girls. While this may seem quite normal in Utah, this is a bit unusual to have so many new babies within one work group here in Washington.

We decided to get together at our hospital's annual Festival of Trees to have a group picture with the babies and Santa. We had a fun time and luckily 5 out of the 6 babies were able to make it. All of the babies were perfect little angels.

Ethan traveled along for his first visit with Santa this season. He wasn’t shy about sharing his wish list with Santa. I had to hurry him along so others could get a minute with Mr. Clause.

Ava on the other hand seems to have a bit of fear for the Clause couple. Get me outta here is written all over her face!

Snowy Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving Day we decided to head into the woods to cut a tree for Christmas. My brother Roman came to visit from Utah, but since our group was still relatively small and we were going to have a big Thanksgiving dinner with the Rubalcava family the Saturday following, we decided to spend the day playing rather than cooking and eating.

We headed over to Mt. Pilchuck on the snowy Thanksgiving Day. Luckily the weather had warmed up so, although it was snowing, it was warmer than it had been for the past few days. We really had slim pickings when it came to finding a tree. We later learned that we had not reached the elevation required for tree cutting anyway. Maybe we would have found a better selection had we gone higher. Either way, we had fun hiking in the snow, throwing snowballs and doing a little sledding.

Little Ava was quite a trooper too. We just bundled her up and she cruised around in the baby carrier. Although, in the picture below she has this look like, "Really, you dragged me along on this little adventure dressed like a purple bear!" Could she have more cheeks!

Once we got the tree into our house we realized how large it really was. In the forest next to the giant trees it seemed quite small. We obviously had some tree trimming to do … and it was a bit of a Charlie Brown tree.

The Saturday following Thanksgiving we met up with the Rubalcava side of the family at my cousin’s home. More than enough delicious food as usual! Ava had plenty of willing hands to hold her, giving mom a nice break.

Ava with Aunt Stephanie.

Ava with cousin Alexis.

Ava with cousin Dawna.

Blessing Ava

Ava was blessed the first Sunday in November. She was beautiful and patient as usual. Her blessing dress was the same I wore when I was blessed and was made by my aunt Alice. It was a beautiful day and we thank Heavenly Father for blessing our home with her.

Wild hair even on her blessing day.

A proud brother.

With grandma and grandpa Rubalcava.

Raking

Ethan is actually very diligent at raking. When I mentioned that we were going to rake leaves he kept asking me about it until we finally got outside to do the job. He even came up with the idea of getting his stool so he could help put the leaves in the trash. It would be nice if this worker attitude continued through his teenage years.

The work of raking.

The joy of jumping in the leaves.

The dedication of finishing the job. Way to go little man!

Our Knight and Skeleton

Ethan wanted to be a dragon or monster for Halloween, but mom was not on the ball in making, buying, or putting together a costume in a timely manner. When I finally got on the ball he got what was left during a visit to Costco … luckily I could talk him into the knight because, how cool, the knight gets to slay the dragons. He thought that was great, but what really sold him on the costume was the sword. Ava was easy … no picky 3 year old brain to deal with at the moment. She was almost a little green dragon to compliment Ethan (how cute), but then all I could picture was him pummeling the poor innocent dragon with his sword.

This year Ethan was brave enough to go to the doors himself. He did have a scare at a more spooky house, but was able to pull it together and keep going.

What's really scary about Ava's costume is her hair!

Jairo got creative with our pumpkins again this year. Only he has the patience to do this.

Fall at The Farm

One of our favorite fall traditions is a visit to The Farm. This year we made it there twice and Ethan could not have been happier about that. There is so much for the kids to enjoy. Ethan had a blast with all the animals and activities. Ava joined us both days but was strapped to me so we missed getting pictures of her.

Here Ethan is loving the animals a bit too much. Lucky for us all the animals are so patient.

Corn to eat and corn to play in. The Farm has the most delicious fresh roasted corn on the cob and the corn kernel pit is the best place to play.

Playing on one of many tractors with his friend Natalie.

A few fun action pictures.

One happy little boy after a day at The Farm.