Santa Pictures

Every year, we visit the Alderwood Mall Santa. We've made it a tradition. He is such a nice Santa. We like to get Santa picture early, usually before Thanksgiving. This year, we went to get Santa pictures done, but I chose a bad time since Ethan was a asleep when we got there. He woke up, but was really grumpy and never really woke all the way until after we got pictures taken. Jonathan was all over it though. We were the only ones in line so Jonathan got to spend a lot of time telling Santa that he wanted Carla Veloso from Cars 2 for Christmas. When it came time to take pictures, Ethan would not cooperate and though he didn't cry, Bob later looked at the pictures and said Ethan looked like he was going to kill Santa. I bought the big package, so this will be the picture that everyone got although we did go back for a second try and we did get a better picture. After the photo session, we went to the Disney Store and Ethan of course starting saying "Santa" and wanted to go see Santa. We told him he lost his chance because there was a line when we left. The second time we visited Santa there was still no smile from Ethan, but at least he didn't look like he was going to kill Santa. I only bought one copy of this picture, but I did buy the digital photo. The boys got coloring books from Santa each time.

2nd Try Picture 1

The Official Picture This Christmas

Session 1 Picture

2nd Try Picture 3

-Dina

Ben's First Birthday

We all gathered for Ben's first birthday at his house. Ben's real birthday fell on Thanksgiving Day this year so we had to celebrate his birthday early. He really enjoyed his birthday cake. He also toddled around the room trying to get grandpa and others to give him cake. It was pretty funny.

Birthday cake tastes yummy!

Opening presents with daddy



Ben and Auntie

On a side note, Andy and Erin have pictures of Bob near the bottom of their refridgerator because Ben likes to walk over to the pictures and say "Bob" while pointing at Bob. It's so cute. When we first arrived at his party, someone asked Ben (while pointing at Bob), "Who's that Ben?" At first, he just stood there and someone told him "That's Bob" and Ben said no and ran away. Later on, he warmed up to the idea and started saying "Bob" and pointing at Bob. When someone asked him where Bob was, he'd point at Bob.

Happy FIRST Birthday Baby Ben!!!

-Dina

Thanksgiving Program #2

Turkeys

Hello Mr. Turkey how are you? Gobble Gobble. He loves that song.

More Dancing

Clap Clap

Family Picture. So Sweet!

Yummy!

 To Round Out the Costume...

Jonathan had his second Thanksgiving program at his school. This year's program was much more successful than the last one where Jonathan cried through half of it. What a difference a year makes! The whole 4/5s class were dressed as Turkeys with their beaks, tails, and feathers. They were so cute. His whole class paraded in and stood on the stage for pictures. Then after all the classes had their turn, the classes paraded around again, stood in a big circle and sang songs. Jonathan was so cute. Then we all got to share a meal together. This year it was turkey pot pie, fruit salad, and a small pie for dessert. We sat with Anderson and his family.


-Dina

Anaerobic

Ethan is now off oxygen. The oximiter was delivered two weeks ago and Ethan slept with it on for one night. The next day, it was picked up and we were advised in the next few following days that the data indicated that Ethan (who still had a touch of a cold at the time) never had his oxygen saturation levels drop below 90.

Ostensibly, when he is 100% healthy, this will improve even more - but even on it's own - 90% is pretty good.

He is still on schedule for a sleep study in December where they will know for sure that the last surgery (removal of tonsils and adenoids) had it's full desired effect. But the results so far are very encouraging!

- bob

Halloween Fun

This year's Halloween was a lot of fun filled with pumpkins, parties, costumes, and candy. Grandma bought the boys some pumpkins starters from Moorlands and we planted them back in the spring. We got some good pumpkins. The main ones were a round one and one that is peanut shaped. We carved the round one and the boys painted their pumpkins from the pumpkin patch from Jonathan's class field trip. Each boy got a medium sized round pumpkin and a smaller round pumpkin, similar to the small gourd pumpkins we get every year.

This was our first year carving a real pumpkin. I bought a carving kit and patterns. We covered the kitchen floor with plastic and the boys got to paint their own pumpkins while mommy and daddy carved the big pumpkin. When I harvested the pumpkin, I noticed that the slugs started to get it so that spot became the nose of our Jack-O-Lantern. Once it was carved, the boys helped scrape out the seeds. It was a great sensory activity and of course Ethan was all over that, although Jonathan liked doing it too.

Getting ready to decorate pumpkins

Pumpkins we grew in our garden

Daddy carving the pumpkin

Jonathan painting his pumpkins

Ethan painting his pumpkins

Great sharing between brothers!

Continuing the fun painting pictures. Brushes are spoons with papertowels taped to the end. They did the job.

Mommy taking a turn carving the pumpkin. The pumpkin kit carving knife worked well, but seemed very delicate.

Jonathan and Mommy

Jonathan's little pumpkin has a face

The other side

Ethan's pumpkin

Jonathan's other pumpkin has a face

The boys helping to clean out the pumpkin guts

Getting down and dirty. He usually doesn't like to get his hands dirty.

The finished product









Picture of the boys finished mess. They even painted their cars from the Children's Hospital playroom.



The Suda Halloween party was at Auntie Georgia's party room at her condo complex. Just about everyone was there. As always, there were some great and imaginative costumes. I was a geisha, Bob was Bruce Lee, Jonathan chose to be Curious George and Ethan wanted to be Thomas. I took Jonathan to Party City and he personally picked Curious George. Of course when I went to get one, they were out. I found the last one at the Crossroads store and it was even on sale. The fit was a little snug, but it was the only one so we made due. Ethan said he wanted to be Thomas, which was nice because that is what Jonathan was last year so we just let Ethan wear that costume. It was a little big, but it worked out.

Denny and Marcia from the Christmas Story

Family picture

The siblings

Ethan and Uncle Ryan having a conversation while eating dinner

Auntie Julie, Auntie Georgia, and Kay

Andy, Erin, and Ben. Andy is a "cereal" killer :)

The boys reading a story with Grandma

Ryan, Tayla, and AJ

Ethan and Ben. Ben was touching Ethan and Ethan just sat there and took it. He didn't get upset.

Silly Cousins!

Jonathan and Uncle Andy having a converstion. I wonder what they were talking about.



All the cousins at the party. This was the best picture of the bunch!

We also attended a church harvest party that included food and trick or treating door to door downstairs. The boys had fun and this was their first chance to practice actually knocking and saying "trick or treat". Ethan was able to say it too and did a pretty good job. I had to make sure they were only taking one thing and putting it in their baskets.

Eating dinner and cupcakes. Ethan was very happy to eat his cupcake. So cute!

Lining up for the costume contest

Lightning McQueen even showed up. That is a handmade car with real lights. So creative. Ethan is saying, "Look. Lightning Mommy!"

LeAnne's M&M candy holder. The boys really liked it.

On Halloween, we met Grandpa, Ryan, Tayla, and AJ at Bellevue Square Mall to trick or treat store to store. We made the mistake of starting by the Disney Store and it was a zoo. I was worried that Dad, Ry and Tay were a little overwhelmed by the amount of people. There was a complete traffic jam at the Disney Store and all the way down the aisle. There were so many people and as usual, a lot of chaos. Parents and kids pushing and no organization. I will never understand those parents who let their kids cut in the front of the line. Irritating to say the least! Last year, we just got in a line at a store or walked in an orderly line from store to store. Once we got away from the Disney Store, the orderly lines started and we just got in the flow of the crowd. The kids got pretty good candy for a mall as well as some silly bandz and a lego key chain.

AJ and Jonathan hand in hand

Ethan getting help from Grandpa

Good bye hugs from AJ

Good bye hugs for Ethan with the paparazzi capturing the moment

I noticed that people were looking at Ethan and smiling. Thomas has never been so cute!

When we got home, the boys had fun dumping out their candy buckets and got to pick out a treat. We have to go through all candy now and take out all the peanut products. Fortunately, my boys are not big candy eaters. They prefer cookies. We always have left over Halloween candy that gets tossed. That's fine with me. Despite the chaos, we will continue trick or treating at the mall until the boys ask to go trick or treating in neighborhoods. Right now, they don't care how they get, they just want to get it. We will avoid freezing outside and getting wet for as many year as we can.

 

Overall, it was a great Halloween filled with firsts. Such a fun weekend. I love being a mom getting to share all these experiences that I loved as a kid with my own kids! I love seeing them smile and having fun.

 

 

-Dina