Birthday, Thanksgiving and Snow -- Oh My!

Isaac celebrated his fifth birthday on Nov. 17. At his request, we enjoyed cupcakes -- his topped with candles and candle-holders (Lifesavers). The big thing for him these days is Thomas the Tank Engine, and he got a moving Thomas with track and a Thomas game, as well as some cool new trucks, which are always a big hit at our house.
We got together for Thanksgiving lunch and a full afternoon and evening of games with the extended DeWaard clan. Much to Wade and my delight Lijah napped through most of the afternoon and the boys entertained themselves with legos for several hours, so we were actually able to enoy playing games without getting up every five minutes. On Friday and Saturday we put up the Christmas decorations and cut ourselves a Christmas tree. We let the boys pick out the tree (so we couldn't blame each other for picking out a lopsided one!), and they did a stellar job. We finished hanging the outside lights just as snow started to fall on Saturday.
Now to all you North Dakotans and Minnesotans reading this, a foot of snow might not be a big deal, but this is HUGE for us! We don't get snow, much less a full foot falling in less than 20 hours. We all bundled up, threw some snowballs and did a little sledding. Since we're all stuck inside (everything closes for snow here) we enjoyed an afternoon movie and snow ice cream -- num num.

Fall Fun

Once again a month has passed without an update, and I don't have a good excuse this time!
Our family headed down to Portland last weekend to visit Derric and Amanda. We spent an afternoon at a pumpkin farm where we got to ride on a boat and a train, roam a pumpkin patch and run through a hay maze. Luke also rode a pony (he was the only one brave enough). The rest of the time we spent hanging out and Derric and Amanda's house, where the boys spent hours engrossed in a Costco-sized bucket of Tinkertoys (okay, so the adults also spent a lot of time playing with the Tinkertoys).
My mom and I took the boys to Stoney Ridge Farm mid-October where they got to feed turkeys, go on a hay ride, enjoy a corn maze and see the world's only pumpkin tree. Levi had a hard time keeping his hands off the tree -- he really wanted to pick one!

Last year we planted a Northern Red Oak in our backyard and started a tradition -- family oak tree picture day. We snapped the second annual photo a couple weeks ago. The tree was quite eye-catching with its brilliant red leaves, but several windy days this week left it completely bare. Fall is here with a bit of a fury this week.

This is what happens when everyone at the same time says "Hold me Daddy!"

Time for an Update

I realize it's been over a month since the last update and stuff has been happening in our lives... but our hard drive crashed a few weeks ago and we lost a month's worth of recent pics and I'm not very motivated to update this when I don't have photos to add! But here are a few new ones so...
We took our last camping trip of the summer on Labor Day weekend (lost all those pics). We went with several friends of ours to a river-side camp that distant relatives of ours created at the back of their farm, so it was very nice and private - just our group. The river was very low and very slow so the boys got lots of splash time and even donned life jackets and went tubing.
Dad and Mom Howard visited about two weeks ago -- yes, they drove out just for the weekend!
So of course the boys had a wonderful weekend of attention and candy and Lucky Charms (Papa comes prepared). We all headed out to a corn maze in Lynden and spent a bit of time getting lost there. That's where the pic of Dad, Mom and the boys was taken.
Luke found a nice cozy "house" under this leaning sunflower and hid out there for awhile one day this week.

Fun Stuff happening in our house!!!

Some fun stuff has been happening in our house lately. Elijah has been soooo close to walking for so long, and he's finally beginning to get it! We've been trying bait to get him to walk for a couple weeks to a month, and it's been only half working, but yesterday he took 10 steps on his own accord! Tonight he was walking all over the place in 5-10 step intervals, with some crawling mixed in of course, but yeah, he's finally about there!

A few nights ago, I(Wade) was putting Isaac down to bed for the night, and as is our custom, was reading him a short book. That particular night Isaac chose a book that contains a few short Bible stories. When we got to the one about Jesus' birth, Isaac immediately piped in "Why was there not enough room in the house for them to make a baby?" Flabberghasted, I said "ah, um...because there were too many people there." I guess that was true no matter how you took the question.

Fair Time and Winchester Lookout

On August 14 Wade and I took the boys (minus Elijah) to the Northwest Washington Fair in Lynden. They enjoyed seeing lots of animals, climbing on tractors, going on rides, eating Hawaiian Shave Ice (yes, it is different than a typical sno-cone and vastly superior!), going on rides, only eating half of their $3 hotdogs, and going on rides. Did I mention they really enjoyed going on rides? Isaac and Levi loved them all, but at least two rides made Lukey cry, so he repeated an Indiana Jones type obstacle course several times while Isaac and Vi went on the scary rides.
This past weekend Wade and I did another hike, this one only 9 miles round trip. We hiked to the Winchester Fire Lookout on Friday, spent the night in the lookout, and headed back Saturday. The building is an abandoned fire lookout that a local outdoors club maintains for public use. It has a bed and a cot, a campstove and propane, a few dishes, books, some non-perishable food in a mouse-proof box, and duct tape, just in case.There is also a flag that visitors can hoist to let people below know someone is at the top. The toilet is a box with a hole in the top about 30 feet from the cabin -- no walls, no roof, really great view for a potty! The views are incredible -- ridge upon ridge of mountains as far as you can see in all directions. That's Mount Baker you can see in the photos of the flag and Wade and I, and our home sweet home for a night.